#and i do tend to see my favorite characters as similar to me (and i might headcanon their gender)

[kazumirambles]

THIS.

UNPOPULAR OPINION: Comparing Vil Schoenheit to Trans Characters in Anime, Manga and Games — Forceful pushing of headcanons and why Vil is a better character in canon as a cisgender (gay) male

DISCLAIMER: this essay is aimed at those who find it entirely acceptable to shove their headcanons down others’ throats with the threat of crying wolf (i.e., “if you dislike this hc you’re transphobic”, etc.) should they not comply. For those who simply headcanon Vil as trans and acknowledge that canon and other headcanons can exist with (and without) their approval, this essay is not aimed at you and you are perfectly valid.

Notes: Title may be slightly misleading as there’s really only one comparison, and being a cis character does not necessarily make one “better”. However, given Vil’s character, the mun views that Vil has a far bigger impact in terms of plot, hence the title.

Many of us like to suggest headcanons for our favourite characters, some to make the character even more interesting, others simply to relate to the character further. While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with fun headcanons here and there, the forceful insistence of fans in recent years that their headcanons are absolute to maximise their own comfort has become a glaring issue across many fandoms. In particular, the subject of LGBT+ headcanons has been especially touchy, as minorities use the discrimination against them to their own benefit and, ironically, suppress the opinions of others. One such headcanon is that Vil Schoenheit of Twisted Wonderland is transfemme, or even a trans woman, as he uses the pronoun “atashi” (typically used by women and girls), and is perceived to be traditionally feminine. However, such a headcanon not only fundamentally ignores the very basis of Vil’s character — breaking gender stereotypes as a cisgender white male — but can even be taken as sexist. To prove this controversial statement, a comparison with other notable transgender characters, either confirmed by canon or heavily speculated on by fans, in other anime, games and manga is needed.

First and foremost, the idea that Vil is transfemme or even a trans woman is shallow and unfounded. While Vil indeed uses the pronoun “atashi” in referring to himself, a pronoun typically used by women and girls in Japan, “watashi”, the pronoun that “atashi” is (presumably) deprived from, is a gender-neutral pronoun used by both genders, though for men, both “watashi” and “atashi” are usually used in a casual context by stereotypical feminine gay men or drag queens. Throughout the story, there was absolutely no indication that Vil has issues with his own gender. In fact, it seems to be the very opposite, he is incredibly comfortable and confident in his own masculinity, which is why he has no problem doing things that are traditionally seen as feminine:

“Next, lotion. As guys (lit. with us being high school boys, アタシたち男子高校生), our skin tends to be oilier so applying too much only makes things worse.” (Main Story Chapter 5, translated by j-mee on Twitter)

“There’s no such thing as “men only” or “women only”, whether it’s clothes or dance.” (服にもダンスにも「男専用」「女専用」なんかない。) (Main Story Chapter 5, rough translation by patchy)

Epel provides as a foil character in this case, having stated his dislike for his cute and “girly” appearance multiple times, as well as wanting to be in Savanaclaw due to the athletic nature of the dorm rather than Pomefiore:

“I really... I really wanted to get into the wild and brave Savanaclaw instead!!” (Ceremonial Robes story, chapter 1, translated by twstarchives)

Epel clearly thinks that Pomefiore is too feminine for him, and only puts emphasis on his unwanted cuteness. While Vil being transfemme or a trans woman would certainly be progressive for Japan considering its conservative nature, Vil being a fellow cisgender boy is certainly far more powerful in delivering this response to Epel. They’re both white and cisgender, yet while Epel only sees his adorable baby face as a weakness, Vil sees his own beauty as his strength and capitalises on it. It is precisely why he is so careful to maintain his appearance through dieting and impeccable makeup:

“I've not once neglected my health. And no one on my Magicamera account, which mind you has over five million followers, has said anything about it.” (Vil’s Lab Coat SR, Part 1, translated by kibadreams)

Having grown up in the entertainment industry and showing no sign that he wishes to retire from it, Vil’s “otherwordly” beauty is one of his greatest assets, and as such, he complies with the industry and all its standards, and is unashamed to do something like dancing if it can potentially further his career. Vil is no Azul, but he is still a businessman in the sense that he knows how to advertise, promote and market himself to the masses. To insist that Vil is transfemme or a trans woman erases the meaning to his actions, and instead reduces him to a shallow figurehead based on how traditionally feminine he acts (use of pronouns, way of speaking, behaviour typically seen as “feminine”, etc.) instead of focusing on his relationship with gender presentation and his rejection of traditional gendered labels as a whole.

Arashi Narukami from Ensemble Stars, while not officially confirmed to be trans, provides a good comparison, though many often compare them on a surface level to try and force Arashi’s character onto Vil’s or vice versa. Aside from their shared use of pronouns, professionalism and both having careers in the entertainment industry, the two characters cannot be any more different. Unlike Vil, Arashi has stated her views on her relationship to gender identity multiple times, albeit they are rather inconsistent due to the different writers of Ensemble Stars having varied interpretations of her character. She repeatedly calls herself a “maiden”, a “girl” and a “big sister”, and insists on others using the “-chan” suffix for her rather than “-kun” (the only exception seeming to be fellow unitmate Izumi). She has also stated her internal conflict with her gender, which one can interpret as Arashi wanting to transition but unable to do so due to her career in the modelling and idol industry, as well as the unwelcoming attitude held by Japan in regards to the LGBT+ community:

“I’m honestly envious… No matter how much I want it, and no matter how hard I try… I could never become the beautiful woman I dream to be.” (Gacha story “Beasts — Centre of the World” part 7, translated by euni2319 on Dreamwidth)

Due to the ambiguous nature of the “okama” label, a derogatory one used for both drag queens/crossdressers and trans women alike, it is not clear whether Arashi truly is a trans woman unless canon states otherwise. However, there is certainly enough evidence in the story to argue such a case, especially with the English localisation of Ensemble Stars using she/her pronouns for Arashi. In contrast, Vil’s behaviour is more in-line with an “onee” type character, or a stereotypical feminine gay man, which is surprising considering that the Twisted Wonderland fandom, in all their hope for LGBT+ characters, fails to pick up on. As stated above, “atashi” is a pronoun often used by drag queens/crossdressers and stereotypical femme gay men, the latter of which Vil seems to fall into the category of due to the homoromantic subtext of his relationship/friendship with Rook Hunt. Many of their interactions can be perceived as romantic, even more so due to the stance that both Disney and Japan have on homosexuality, mainly either with unvoiced distaste or being acceptable as a fetish/strange interest due to the forbidden nature of homosexuality in Japan:

“Nevertheless, Rook's eyes are more accurate than any scale. Even more than a mirror, perhaps.” (Vil’s Lab Coat SR, Part 2, translated by kibadreams)

While Vil and Rook’s relationship does have homosexual undertones, on Rook’s part more so than Vil’s, Vil at the very least relies on Rook and trusts him greatly. The above quote is just the tip of the iceberg.

Vil’s character can be seen as a twist on the stereotypical “onee”, one that is written and taken seriously as a direct comparison to how the character type has been commonly used for comic relief or otherwise unimportant side characters in past works (Garfiel from FMA, Magne from MHA, though a trans example of the stereotype, and Otokosuki from DBZ). The implication that Vil is gay by partially conforming to behaviour expected of feminine gay men yet being a serious and hard-working perfectionist (i.e., having a personality not centred around comic relief) is arguably a big step in Japanese anime, games and manga.

Sexism and even ageism in the Twisted Wonderland fandom is unfortunately nothing new, towards all genders. Non-female creators and yumes struggle to garner an audience without yumejoshis, particularly unusually possessive ones, feeling threatened by their very presence. Adult fans are criticised simply for playing the game despite that their in-game payments are what make the game profitable enough for younger fans, most of which do not earn income and thus cannot fund in-game transactions, to continue enjoying Twisted Wonderland. Yana herself has become the scapegoat for Disney Japan, being blamed for any issues regarding the game’s storyline despite that not only are the Disney Japan executives the ones giving the final approval, Yana has been working while ill due to the gruelling and even abusive nature of the anime, game and manga industry in Japan, where artists, animators and other staff members are overworked to produce the smallest bits of content. Fans, especially those often discriminated against in their own countries, have developed an unfortunate habit of using their statuses as minorities to avoid criticism and responsibility for their own actions, going as far as to deflect criticism of their irresponsible behaviour onto the critics and paint them as the aggressors. Anyone who does not view Twisted Wonderland in the same view of unrealistic progressiveness more commonly expected of Western cartoons is shunned and their actions deemed discriminatory. The fandom has evolved into a space where the prey become the predators, the hunted become the hunters, and the oppressed become the oppressors, all in the name of establishing equality and equity.

Ultimately, we are all fans of Twisted Wonderland trying to enjoy the game in our own ways. Our comforts are unique and distinctly different from one another, and no one’s comforts should be prioritised above that of others simply because one is in the minority. While the fact that people have become more and more comfortable taking pride in their own identities is certainly something to be celebrated, we should not be taking this as an opportunity to alienate those we so much as remotely dislike just because they belong to a certain race, gender or age group, particularly twisting oppression against vulnerable minorities to do so. Frankly speaking, none of us have the right to force our own interpretations of canon onto others, minority or not, and doing this simply reinforces one’s narrow mind and self-absorption.

[relicsongmel]

Iris, Miles, and their mutual "secret"

The Ace Attorney fandom is no stranger to discussions of homoerotic subtext in the game's script—pretty much everyone who's spent more than five seconds here will be able to tell you that. Screenshots of lines that imply romantic tension between same-gender characters are all over the place, to the point that many fans are drawn to the series purely by its reputation as "the gay lawyer game." Some scenes are more well-known than others, but one I find brought up fairly regularly is this conversation between Miles and Iris:

This is optional dialogue that can be triggered by presenting incorrect evidence on Iris' Psyche-Lock during the Investigation portion of Bridge to the Turnabout. The argument here is that the "secret" Iris is referring to is the same as her own: that being, a romantic interest in Phoenix Wright. Which is definitely hilarious when you consider that Iris has known Miles for less than a day and she's already reading him for filth (granted, she could have been clued in by the similarly infamous "indispensable friend" line, and she's also exceptionally good at reading people despite Miles thinking otherwise). As a Narumitsu shipper myself I am not immune to enjoying that interpretation; however, I feel like there's a lot of nuance in this scene that isn't often addressed by the fandom at large. Which is unfortunate because watering it down to just Iris calling out Miles for being the gayass he is (to be fair. she's not wrong) does a MASSIVE disservice to both of their characters, and I'll explain why.

My bone to pick with the usual analysis of this scene is mostly centered around the larger conversation to be had regarding the treatment of female characters in fandom spaces. All too often they tend to play second fiddle to the male characters, and a similar principle holds true for ships with their canonical male love interests: mostly ignored in favor of the the more popular M/M ship(s). At best these women are sidelined, at worse they are flattened into wingmen for the boys (as is frequently the case with many AA girls and Narumitsu, Iris included), and at the absolute worst they are demonized for their perceived "competition" with whatever gay ship is most popular and therefore the Only Valid One for the male characters involved (as exemplified by some very "passionate" fans that I generally try to avoid interacting with). Whenever this scene gets brought up, the focus is almost always exclusively on Miles and what the interaction says about his relationship with Phoenix; Iris is only relevant insofar as she's the one initiating Miles' Homosexual Moment™—you could replace her with almost any other character and there'd be a similar level of neglect for their role in the interaction. Only very rarely will you see attention given to what Iris' question about Miles' secret means when she is the one asking it, and what it can tell us about her relationship with Miles/what she thinks of him, and vice versa (absolutely wild how even Miles himself is often flanderized despite being the fandom's golden child). It's all too characteristic of the systemic misogyny that has plagued fandom since its inception, which is deeply frustrating to me as someone who adores Iris as much as I do (if that wasn't obvious by now). So that said, let's dive deeper into what I think the missing link is here: namely, the Iris-Miles dynamic as it pertains to their relation to Phoenix.

Iris and Miles is one of my favorite relationships to explore in the whole series—but as I've described above, unfortunately a lot of people get it wrong in my opinion. Discussion about the two is frequently centered around Narumitsu Love Drama—which is a conversation worth having, don't get me wrong—but the elements at play there aren't always represented the way I envision them, which again, is frustrating. Take the idea of potential jealousy, for instance: it's pretty standard love triangle fare that can be (and often is) quickly turned into demonization when it's used in a shipping context, character assassination be damned (re: Narumitsu fanfic authors that project their personal dislike of Feenris onto Miles via his jealousy of Iris and/or how they tend to portray Iris unfavorably). However, it's not inherently a bad thing to explore: personally, I do believe that there is mutual jealousy between the two of them. Miles might not have the full context of Iris' history when this conversation takes place, but he's emotionally intelligent enough to pick up on what Iris means to Phoenix, and vice versa. And him being a jealous hoe about it isn't out of the question when you consider that he's a bit of a loner by nature and doesn't have many close friends or outlets for socialization outside of his job. The crucial element that's sometimes missed, though, is that Miles not only lacks the self-awareness to realize he's a jealous hoe...he's also a self-sabotaging jealous hoe.

And the same can be said for Iris, who is similarly introverted and doesn't often leave her home at Hazakura Temple.

The whole reason Miles is peering into Iris' heart in the first place can be found in this exchange, after he breaks her Psyche-Lock:

Miles uses the Magatama in order to gain the answers he needs to bring the truth to light and get Iris acquitted, and he does so for the express purpose of reuniting her with Phoenix so they can find closure—in fact, he reiterates this to her multiple times. He obviously recognizes how Phoenix is suffering from what happened between them (I'd argue he sympathizes with Iris' plight as well) and has resolved to do what he can to help him heal, but there's no reason for him to be so insistent that she rectify things with Phoenix when it does nothing but harm his own chances with him. Unless, of course...that's the whole point.

To convince Iris to reveal her secret so he doesn't have to face his own, because he thinks himself undeserving.

And Iris, noticing this because she empathizes with that feeling of unworthiness, calls him out on it in an almost uncharacteristically forward manner when she asks him what he's hiding.

Takes one to know one, indeed.

Iris highly respects Miles for taking on her defense despite the risk to his job as a prosecutor. She's willing to trust him after hearing he's a friend of Phoenix, hearing him out and letting him reason with her. She still keeps her cards close to her chest in some regards, but she's more honest with him than she's been with anyone else in her life apart from her sister. She sees his commitment to the truth and how it starkly contrasts with how she's lived her life to this point, and thinks that this is the type of partner Phoenix deserves—not someone like her, who only knows how to survive using lies and deception. She sees so much strength in him but still recognizes the insecurity lurking beneath his tenacity, which is why when he falters in his logic, she takes a leap of faith and gives him one last chance to examine his reasons for pushing the burden of his unspoken affections onto her, as if to say: "Look in the mirror. Is this really for me? Or is it for you? Do you really seek the truth for its own sake, or do you merely hope to find one truth so you might run from another?"

Her question to Miles is a gamble—a coin flip of self-sacrifice. If she loses and he presses on, she has to face the secret within her heart she's been suppressing for five years. But if she wins and he gives in to the truth in his, she has to live the rest of her life watching it unfold and knowing she threw away her chance to finally stop living in fear of her own love.

Either way, there's no escaping heartache for her anymore.

Miles and Iris both want what's best for Phoenix and prioritize their vision of his feelings over their own. However, they are also both deeply emotionally repressed people who find difficulty in being direct with their feelings, and are predisposed to self-sabotage due to childhood trauma. These tendencies may manifest in different ways for both of them, but the fact remains that such people would likely not compete for a person's affection in the traditional sense, which is exactly what we see with how Iris and Miles deflect their feelings for Phoenix. These selfless, lovestruck idiots toss that man around like a game of hot-potato because their mutual self-hatred for the ways they've harmed him has rendered them terrified of the reality of what he means to them, and desperate to find a way out of admitting to it. It's the most compelling explanation I can think of for why the usually unassuming Iris makes such a bold judgment about what Miles might be keeping locked away, and why Miles goes to such lengths to make sure she talks to Phoenix and tells him the truth—his agreement to defend her was conditional on that exact promise. They go through this whole song-and-dance of playing wingman to ignore their own feelings while still trying to bring Phoenix the happiness they think he deserves—and then they wonder why seeing Phoenix give the other one attention burns them up inside.

Because they’re dumb. And I love them.

TL;DR the Iris Psyche-Lock scene in BttT is so much more than just "haha Miles gay" and I wish people talked about it more. Also Iris and Miles are way more similar than they appear at first glance and if I think about it for too long it makes me physically ill thank you for coming to my TED talk

[frankingsteinery]

for some reason people seem to think that mary somehow stumbled into writing a commentary on marriage/incest accidentally, and that the themes of frankenstein are all about her trauma due to her experiences as a victim of the patriarchy, as a woman and a mother surrounded by men - as if she wasnt the child of radical liberals who publicly renounced marriage, as if she herself as well as percy shelley had similar politics on marriage, as if she would not go on to write a novel where the central theme is explicitly that of father/daughter incest years later…

the most obvious and frequent critique of victor i see is of his attempt to create life - the creature - without female presence. it’s taught in schools, wrote about by academics, talked about in fandom spaces - mary shelley was a feminist who wrote about feminism by making victor a misogynist. he’s misogynistic because he invented a method of procreation without involving women purely out of male entitlement and masculine arrogance and superiority, and shelley demonstrates the consequences of subverting women in the creation process/and by extension the patriarchy because this method fails terribly - his son in a monster, and victor is punished for his arrogance via the murder of his entire family; thus there is no place for procreation without the presence of women, right?

while this interpretation – though far from my favorite – is not without merit, i see it thrown around as The interpretation, which i feel does a great disservice to the other themes surrounding victor, the creature, the relationship between mother and child, parenthood, marriage, etc.

this argument also, ironically, tends to undermine the agency and power of frankenstein’s female characters, because it often relies on interpreting them as being solely passive, demure archetypes to establish their distinction from the 3 male narrators, who in contrast are performing violent and/or reprehensible actions while all the woman stay home (i.e., shelley paradoxically critiques the patriarchy by making all her female characters the reductive stereotypes that were enforced during her time period, so the flaws of our male narrators arise due to this social inequality).

in doing so it completely strips elizabeth (and caroline and justine to a lesser extent) of the power of the actions that she DID take — standing up in front of a corrupt court, speaking against the injustice of the system and attempting to fight against its verdict, lamenting the state of female social status that prevented her from visiting victor at ingolstadt, subverting traditional gender roles by offering victor an out to their arranged marriage as opposed to the other way around, taking part in determining ernest’s career and education in direct opposition to alphonse, etc. it also comes off as a very “i could fix him,” vibe, that is, it suggests if women were given equal social standing to men then elizabeth would have been able to rein victor in so to speak and prevent the events of the book from happening. which is a demeaning expectation/obligation in of itself and only reinforces the reductive passive, motherly archetypes that these same people are speaking against

it is also not very well supported: most of the argument rests on ignoring female character’s actual characterization and focusing one specific quote, often taken out of context (“a new species would bless me as its creator and source…no father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as i should deserve theirs”) which “proves” victor’s sense of male superiority, and on victors treatment/perception of elizabeth, primarily from a line of thinking he had at five years old, where he objectified her by thinking of her (or rather — being told so by caroline) as a gift to him. again, the morality of victor’s character is being determined by thoughts he had at five years old.

obviously this is not at all to say i think their relationship was a healthy one - i dont think victor and elizabeth’s marriage was ever intended to be perceived as good, but more importantly, writing their relationship this way was a deliberate critique of marriage culture.

[holymolyineedtherapy]

My Headcanons with 100yq

Let me start by saying I love fairy tail. It was my first shounen anime that I sought out on my own. (One piece, Naruto, and Bleach just came on when I was little and watching toonami). It is, to this day, one of my favorite shows of all time with Lucy Heartfilia being one of my favorite characters of all time.

So, on to the headcanons.

Lucy and Natsu have an undefined relationship. They call each other their partner and let people take it how they will because they don't even know. Their relationship is so much more than being in love or working together. They would die for the other and pull the other back from the brink of insanity. How can you label that? They have a blind trust in the other and that's all that matters.

Wendy has received some lasting effects from being trapped for 7 years and that's why it appears she hasn't grown much despite being the age for multiple growth spurts to have hit. Her body being in hibernation for so long has left her stunted almost. She's the only one who is was a young child when it happened and is the only one who looks relatively the same after all that time.

It also doesn't help now that she has the power of Irene in her body now as well. That much power isn't helping her at all either. Most of her energy goes to keeping her power in check, not allowing her to grow much.

Erza has almost somewhat dedicated Lucy to be her "right-hand man" while she leads the group. Yeah, it's technically Team Natsu, but Erza and Lucy are the ones who do a majority of the work that isn't fighting. Erza is in charge of the group as a whole, ensuring that everyone is safe, healthy, and on track. Lucy is in charge of the map, finances, and helping with other information.

Natsu and Gray are the weather regulators. If they go somewhere that's too hot, Gray takes over. If they go somewhere too cold, Natsu takes over. That's their main job aside from getting food when they aren't nearby any towns.

I personally believe that they all have some sort of chronic pain or lingering injuries from their fights in the past.

Erza tends to hurt just about all over, but mainly gets head aches due to her eye strain and all the concussions she's sustained.

Natsu doesn't usually hurt too badly, but his scars always bother him whether they're itchy, throbbing, or something. His problem usually lies with his heart. Having died multiple times tends to fuck it up.

Gray has a similar issue with his scar. He also tends to feel very tight in his muscles due to how cold his natural body temp is after learning devil slayer magic so it takes him awhile to get out of bed in the morning. (He loved when the town was underwater because he could easily climb out of bed with no problem)

Wendy usually deals with sore muscles and an odd tingling in her hands and feet. They concluded that it's nerve damage from the Face she and Carla took care of.

Lucy gets random hot flashes from rewriting the book. She also still has scars from it, but they're super faint. You really only see them when she's standing in the sunlight. She also just has really bad knees and ankles but absolutely refuses to wear any shoe without a heel.

Gray and Natsu get under stimulated a lot when they're just travelling, so they make it a point to spar whenever they have a moment. It usually ends with them both getting scolded for going a bit too far.

Lucy still has her little quirk of wanting to collect more keys so anytime they travel somewhere, her first thing to do is find a magic shop and see if they have any. Most of the time she can't. A lot of shop masters tend to say that after the Grand Magic Games, celestial wizards started sprouting up out of nowhere, eager to learn more.

I want to believe that Wendy told Erza about Irene. Wendy felt a lot of guilt keeping it from her so after about a week that they first set out, she told Erza. Erza was more worried about what it meant for Wendy than anything cause wtf my mom that died is living in my basically little sister. It took Wendy a while to explain that it wasn't actually Irene, just her power.

Gray tends to space out whenever they're resting. No one really knows where his mind goes most of the time, but occasionally, he'll get the smallest smile and they'll know it's Juvia he's thinking about.

And for just a bit of Nalu angst, Natsu had a hard time looking at Lucy for a while. He knows Lucy takes a lot of pride in her looks so now that she has scars all over her body, he blames himself for them. She told him multiple times that they don't bother her and she takes a lot of pride in them herself. The scars are proof that she saved Natsu and that's all that matters for her. They slowly started to fade so now, he struggles to watch her stand in the sun. Lucy knows this and tends to make him look at her so he knows it's okay.

[maxdibert]

Why do you think Sirius gave up on his family? Do you think he thought they would forgive him for becoming friends with a blood traitor so he just did what he wanted but as the war progressed he realized he has to actually make a choice? Like he took it as a rebellion and angst at the beginning and only later realized how real the pressure was? Did he not love them enough? What was the deal there? (I know you are a Snape account but I love your takes on other characters as well that's why I'm asking for your opinion on this. Btw I read your fic and I love the way you write Snape's internal dilemas)

Well, you can ask me about any character—I don’t exclusively talk about Severus hahaha and i love to rant about things so... Also, Sirius? Can’t stand him. But I like him as a character because I find him so cynical and hypocritical that he’s absolutely fascinating. I’ve always had this love-hate relationship with rich kids from ultra-conservative families who play at being progressives and think they’re these righteous justice warriors but, at the end of the day, are still just privileged kids with privileged prejudices and privileged habits. And I mean that sincerely—no irony intended. I’ve met plenty of people like that in my life, and I think Sirius is a very realistic representation of the cognitive dissonance that people like this tend to have.

That said, here’s something I’ve always thought. Obviously, this is a personal headcanon based on my own experiences with people who fit his profile, but I think it holds water. Usually, people like this—those who grow up in oppressive environments and eventually become atheist anti-religion types, join the communist party to scandalize their ultra-right-wing parents, or turn into crypto bros after ditching the vegan hippie commune their parents raised them in—do this stuff in late adolescence, almost as adults. But Sirius? He starts rebelling really early, as a kid. By the time he’s 11, he already feels the need to rebel against his family.

It happens the moment he meets James, when James establishes that Slytherin is the worst. Sirius comments—offhandedly, without any resentment or anger—that his whole family’s been in Slytherin. He doesn’t seem like he’s at war with them yet, but you can tell he kind of likes the idea of not being in Slytherin just to piss them off. Add to that the fact that he hints in OotP that his dad was a pushover and calls Regulus an idiot—like he was just a fool—but he doesn’t seem truly resentful toward either of them. Sure, they didn’t have a great relationship, but when he talks about them, it’s more with antipathy than hatred. All of this leads me to the same conclusion: mommy issues.

Sirius had major mommy issues—or at least, that’s how I see it. Rich boys with daddy issues rebel by trying to become powerful men, detached from the arena where their fathers succeeded, but determined to surpass them. Rich boys with mommy issues? They turn into psychos. Seriously, that’s just how it works—I don’t make the rules. I think Sirius always clashed hard with Walburga because (and this is my favorite part, because this isn’t just a headcanon; I’m absolutely convinced of this from the little we see of their interactions—or of him with the portrait—in the books) they had the same shitty personality.

Walburga was a dominant, explosive woman with an imposing, even despotic, character. It’s very reminiscent of Bellatrix and, by extension, very much like Sirius. I think Regulus and Orion had similar personalities—the same kind Narcissa shows: arrogant, smug, classist, but restrained and composed. Egocentric, but calm. Walburga, Sirius, and Bellatrix are the other side of that aristocratic coin: the type who believe they’re entitled to everything and everyone, the kind who bulldoze over everything in their path. They’re wild and uncontrollable personalities, especially if someone tries to rein them in.

In my mind, Sirius took after his mom, and Walburga couldn’t stand having someone so much like her constantly challenging her authority. Sirius, meanwhile, couldn’t stand her trying to control him. So at age 11, his rebellion was probably just a tantrum aimed at his mom, a way to piss her off as much as possible. From there—and thanks to James’s influence, as well as the credit Sirius gave James because, spoiler-not-spoiler, James was also a rich pureblood wizard like him—he started adopting James’s worldview. Not because it was rooted in firm beliefs or clear reasoning, but because James had a family that wasn’t insane, so he was probably right. And if parroting James’s ideas at home gave his mom a few gray hairs, all the better.

It snowballed and escalated until the relationship was unsalvageable. James offered him a place to stay if he wanted to leave, and Sirius moved out. But the start of it all? A tantrum aimed at mommy. Sirius has some massive mommy issues he just can’t handle. And the funniest part? He’ll do anything to avoid being like her. He’ll go to any length to do the exact opposite of what she would do. But in the end, because they share the same awful personality, he behaves in the same violent, despotic, narcissistic way she did—just with different victims: Kreacher or Severus, for example.

It’s a brilliant little Oedipal case study.

[whateverisbeautiful]

♥️ Ranking Richonne

#1: For The Future (S9E03) 🏆🥳🎉

This is the one. 🥹 The number 1. 🏆 My favorite Richonne scene. 😍 And it's quite fitting on TOWL eve to discuss Rick and Michonne's final irl dialogue from TWD. How lovely that Richonne's 'last' day together was this beautiful. 😭

Richonne's relationship illustrates what I've always felt true love should be like. What the characters of Rick and Michonne have is a radiant, vivid, and undeniable soulmate love. It's earned and organic, it's devoted and deep-rooted, it's heartfelt, it's fiery, it's passionately palpable, it's everything. And genuinely, this impeccable scene has it all.

So I adore this moment to infinity and beyond, especially because in this scene, we truly get to see Rick and Michonne revel in Richonne...

What's clear from my Top 5 is I tend to really appreciate scenes where Rick and Michonne talk about Rick and Michonne, and this scene is one of the best examples of that.

Throughout all these posts I’ve expressed the sides of Rick and Michonne's relationship that I adore - when they're doting on each other, desiring each other, leading together, parenting together, relaxed and domestic, fighting the fight, being playful and flirty, being reassuring, being hopeful, happy, honest, human, wise, vulnerable, encouraging, and enchanted by the other. And pretty much all of this was captured in this scene right here.

So while I have no notes for this scene, my extra self still has a lot to gush over and praise. I mean naturally, cuz this is my goated Richonne moment. 🙌🏾😌

I just marvel at how special this ship is for only continuing to top themselves with golden scenes to the point that Richonne's last moving dialogue irl is my all-time favorite moment between them.

And if Richonne just had to be taken from me for 6 years, then this was an excellent scene to hold onto as I patiently waited for their return. (which is tomorrow, can you believe it!? 🤗) And it's also an excellent moment for Rick and Michonne to hold onto as their paths part for years and they fight with everything in them to get back to each other. 👌🏽

The chemistry and connection between Rick and Michonne have always been so profound to me, and they’ve been operating like one for a long long time. And in this scene, you just see every single reason why they are meant for each other and how they're ready to take their oneness to new levels. 🙌🏽🎉

Also in this episode, it feels like this is the one time when Rick, Michonne, Judith, Carl, and RJ are all in some way involved as we officially know Michonne will be pregnant after this. 😭

Ok, so first we gotta talk about the great Grimes Family 2.0 sequence just before because it's attached to this #1 moment for me. The episode starts with Rick waking up in his bed with Michonne asleep, and I love any time we get to see their everyday life side.

I adore the way Rick immediately places his attention on Michonne when she sleepily tosses to the other side. And then seeing that she may be feeling a bit restless, he gently gives her a calming kiss on the shoulder. Such a sweet silent act of love for his wife. 🥰

And I love seeing that Rick wakes up with this instant affection for her, just as Michonne does in the next ep when she wakes up and adoringly kisses him while he sleeps. 🥹

Also, this moment makes me a bit sad cuz it’s the last time Rick and Michonne will wake up together like this for years. 😢 But thank goodness they will hopefully soon have mornings together like this again. 🙌🏾

And then, after showing love to his wife, Rick hears Judith cough and goes to gently check on her as she also is sleeping in a similar position as Michonne. Seeing Rick in this house with his wife and daughter, you just know these are the two he’d do absolutely anything for. Including fighting every day for years to get back to them. 🥲

And then they gotta get my waterworks going when Rick walks down the steps and touches Carl’s handprint. Oh how I wish Carl was asleep in another room for Rick to check on. 😭 But the fact that even tho Carl is gone, Rick still finds meaningful ways to feel connected to him is beautiful and makes it feel like he really managed to have a genuine heartfelt moment with his wife, daughter, and son this morning. The truest family man. 🥰

Then Rick takes a walk in the lush community and it’s just nice seeing him get to really take in how much life is growing around them with all the plants and food sprouting up. This is so reflective of what he and Michonne have impressively built together, and Rick deserves this satisfying peaceful moment so much.

If Richonne had managed to carve out even a semi-decent life a year and a half after the pain of losing their son and fighting a war it would have been commendable. But for them to have healed to the point where they were living a genuinely happy robust life together, speaks to the revitalizing power of their love.

Everything is fruitful and growing in their community, and I love that just like that ripe red tomato Rick finds, Rick is also ready to be fruitful and multiply. Amen. ��

And as if the sequence wasn’t already precious enough, Rick places the red tomato at Carl’s gravesite, and he has this quiet moment with his son which just hits my heart. It's like Rick's letting Carl know he's making his dream real just like he promised. 😭

I love that Rick is so devoted to keeping Carl’s memory and wishes alive, including Carl’s desire for Rick to build a bountiful future - specifically one where “Michonne is happy.”

I’ve always found Rick’s teary smile at Carl’s grave interesting because it makes me curious what they're implying he’s thinking. I personally feel like part of it is Rick thinking about the fact that he’s ready to grow their family and knowing Carl would want that for them too. 

So now onto my all-time favorite Richonne scene. 🙌🏽🥳

I truly love that they give Rick and Michonne this at-home, comfortable, living their everyday life moment in bed for their final irl conversation. 😍😭

Where my #2 scene from the season 5 finale was one I really appreciated for depicting Richonne's strength amid tough times, my #1 scene here is one I appreciate so much for depicting Richonne's strength during a time of overall calm. This moment wonderfully and angelically shows how Rick and Michonne's love soars when they finally get to live the peaceful life they fought so hard for.

So I of course love all the scenes where Richonne shower each other in love during high-stakes moments of adversity. But this rewarding scene is so special to me for being a moment of Richonne getting to shower each other in love during a rare time of normalcy after everything they’ve been through. 

So Michonne is up in bed and working on the charter like the Get Things Done Grimes she is. And Rick returns to their room and the moment is just so calm and casual as they ask each other how they slept, and Michonne admits her mind won’t shut off. As we know from their canon ep, they’re very good at helping the other just turn their mind off for a bit and so Rick is def about to help her with that. 😋

I love seeing Rick take his boots off and get right back into bed cuz I know that man already had his mind made up to take today off and just be with his girls. I think about how refreshed Rick was in s9 even though so many of his OG friends were all spread out. And a big reason why he can still seem so content is because as long as he has Michonne and his daughter every day then he has everything.

Then Rick is so encouraging when he tells Michonne she’ll have the charter figured out by supper. Like the charter is a big deal to figure out, but he knows his goddess of a wife can handle it, and I love that he always has so much belief in her. 

When Michonne smiles and says, "yeah, no," Rick is rightfully in full Michonne-stan mode as he tells her it’s good she's leading this place. I love how Rick knows and is grateful that Michonne is so capable of not just helping him lead but being a leader in her own right.

And I like that Michonne says, "with you" because it just shows how much she truly values their partnership and still only wants to lead if it’s with him. The “Me and you” way. 😊

It’s really sweet the way Rick says, "Nah, I’ve been at the bridge, here it’s you." He’s going to make sure Michonne gets credit where credit is due. And again, his reverence for her has always been so lovely to watch throughout this scene and this series. (Rick Grimes is a 'Michonner,' y'all 😋💕)

Also, it's great seeing that Rick is so comfy as he rests on the bed while letting Michonne know she’s the one whose been keeping this place safe and figuring out how to improve it. After roughing it in prison cells, the woods, and mattress-less rooms during the saviors' reign, it's great to see him get to just make himself comfortable in a warm bed with the love of his life.

And Michonne is all multi-tasking by listening to him, writing notes down, and setting a plan to take their daughter to the doctor. Like truly, Rick,...

But he already knows that. 😊

Then I love seeing this parents moment of them talking about Judith’s cough and taking her to the doctor. Rick assures that he checked on her and it’s probably just a cough but Mama Michonne still wants to be sure so she says she's going to take her to Siddiq just in case. And Rick is immediately on board saying he’ll join them. I love this dad, y’all. 🥰

Like this is what’s important to Rick always, so even as a leader with so much on his plate, being around for his family is always the priority, even for just an unassuming doctor's visit. 

And I also love this exchange cuz It’s so clear that Rick and Michonne are equally Judith's parents and obviously have a lot of care for her that they want to take precautions even if it’s a small cough. I'll also just never get over that we went from Michonne saying, "You could've just taken the formula" to now her and Rick talking about Judith as the daughter they're raising together. 🤗

Then my uncontrollable smiling has returned when Rick tells Michonne that they’ll have to promise Judith a Family Fun Day to get her to go to the doctor. 🥰 I love that they’ve coined this term, indicating Family Fun Days are something they do often. They really are such a beautiful caring family, and their eventual family reunion that I've been trying to speak into existence since 2018 is going to be HEAVENLY. 😇

The fact that the word "fun" can even be a part of their lives now is refreshing. And I also love how much this family fun day is something Rick genuinely wants not just for Judith but for him and for Michonne too. Here for it.

Michonne smiles when he says this and then has a realization moment as she asks, "Aren’t you headed back right away?" And Rick says, "I can take the day" and then says “We can.” That man ain’t tell a lie. Rick and Michonne deserve a day off, and I like how this is the beginning of Rick helping Michonne know that it’s okay to take a break in this scene. 😏 And once again, Rick demonstrates that when he's with Michonne...the world can wait. 😌

Rick says the last report was good and “Maggie will be there soon thanks to you.” Which again I love that every chance Rick gets he’s giving Michonne her props.

There's also something a bit sad about this because Rick is so convinced that the others can hold it down for a bit but that ends up not being the case and results in their family fun day getting cut short indefinitely.

I really feel like because Rick values Michonne’s influence and insights so highly in his own life, that’s why he felt so confident that Maggie would have become on board after a visit with Michonne - because he would have had Michonne visited him. He thinks everyone should get in formation when Michonne speaks just like he does, and Rick, sincerely...

Always intuitive, Michonne knows that Maggie is still angry and Daryl too so she tells Rick this and he nods and then he asks, "Well you want me to go?" And I was like now Slick Rick knows the answer to that is no lol.

Michonne places her hand on his and says she wants it to work. And by reaching for his hand it shows that ultimately she of course wants him to stay with her, she just knows how much they’re needed by the others. #SelflessQueen

Also, there's just something so moving to me about the way she looks at him in this moment. Like of course Michonne is known for her only-envision-winning mentality, but here there is also a part of her that needs some reassurance that everything they're trying to do and build really can work despite all the underlying division within the communities and tf.

Needing some reassurance, her husband so sweetly gives her just that when Rick says "It will" in the most comforting tone. And I like how he positions himself to sit up and really look in her eyes as he lets her know that even if everyone isn’t all in yet they will be, “just like we did.”

I love that Rick and Michonne are always a “we”. They’re a package deal cuz they’re one. And that line just felt like a bigger statement to their own journey. How they truly went all in with each other. 

And again the way Michonne looks at him is just heartwarming as she expresses agreement. Her love for him and belief is so visible and sincere. The way they can both always resonantly reach and reassure each other when they speak is perfection.

I love that she then says okay and touches his face, and I also was like sis, you know if you touch him like that this scene is gonna escalate lol. 😋

Then we get to one of my many favorite parts of my favorite scene when Rick looks at Michonne with such genuine abundant love in his eyes and tells her, "Thank you." 🥹

The way Rick always tells her thank you since season 3. 😭 I love the way he adores, praises, and reveres Michonne. Like, for Rick, it is always doting over Michonne hours. 

Michonne asks, "For what?" which just reminded me of when Rick asks her "For what?" when Michonne said she never thanked him in the s3 finale.

And then the way Rick takes a breath and smiles at Michonne on this bed after she asks this - it literally makes me want to shed a tear. It’s just a beyond beautiful wordless moment that really feels like Michonne taking his breath away as he’s overcome with love for her. And that might sound dramatic but hey...

Rick has been in awe of her since literally day one at that fence, and to see seasons later, after getting to know her in the deepest sense, he still has that awe of Michonne but amplified. It's great. And Rick just looks so unabashedly mesmerized by her in this moment which is heartwarming.

Like when she asks 'for what?,' you can tell Rick is just marveling about how incredible she is and how the list of reasons to thank her is miles long.

And this is not really Rick and Michonne's newlywed stage anymore, y'all. This is their married for a while, been through hell and back together after losing our son stage, and Rick still looks at Michonne like she hung the moon and the stars. 😭

And then Rick takes the scene to new heights of heartwarming when he says exactly what he's thanking her for, stating “For everything you’ve done. For everything you’re doing. For you.” Absolutely perfect. 😍😭😍😭

And it's so fitting cuz Michonne really has done so much of value, past, present, and for the future. But the best of the best is Rick saying “for you” because he’s not just grateful for what she does but who she is. And she is someone exceptional. 

I adore that in their final one-on-one irl scene Rick is outright thanking Michone for existing and for the lovely gift that she is and has always been in his life. Honestly, Rick's romantic heart needs to be studied because the things he says to and about Michonne are just everything and more. 🥹

Another thing that makes this scene and ep so special is Rick and Michonne don’t know this is their last day together. So for them, this is just another day. And I love it for showing how all this beautiful love and adoration they’re letting out is not because they’re trying to make their final day count - this is just how they are with each other on the regular.

And I love that we get to see Michonne’s reaction to receiving this genuine love and appreciation from her husband as he gives her her flowers. Michonne deserves every bit of this love. 🙌🏾💐

I am so excited that Michonne will get to have this type of love back in her life when she finally reunites with the man who adores her. 🤗 I firmly believe Rick’s awe of Michonne will only be heightened when he gets to learn how resilient she’s been in his absence for herself, their children, and their community. She’s had to be so strong for so many, and I love that she’ll finally be back in the arms of the one whom she can be most soft and taken care of with.

And the same goes for Rick. After being a man desperately looking and longing for his family while so alone for years - I am elated that he’ll be back with the woman who most makes him feel loved, sane, seen, and home. 

When Rick and Michonne see each other again you know this is about to be a direct quote from both their minds...

Also, something that’s so sweet about the love story crafted for Rick and Michonne is that adoring each other comes so effortlessly to them. They don’t have to constantly remind or force themselves to be attentive and expressive to each other, it’s the most natural thing in the world for them to love this person in front of them out loud.

So yes it’s an active daily choice to love, but I appreciate that it also feels so aligned with how Rick and Michonne want to naturally operate - head over heels in the most grown, grounded, yet grand way. 🥰

Then, after saying something so authentic, accurate, and beautiful by thanking her for pretty much everything, the two share a sweet kiss. And their every kiss is so special to me. Like it’s always passionate no matter what. And just the way he looks at her after 😭 heart-melting. They're irresistible to each other and always have been. 😍

I especially love that Michonne then leans in and kisses him again as her own thank you for his kind words. Those magnets within them mean we’re always gonna see more than one kiss. 😋

And then she slides her hand down his neck and chest and once again I was like - now sis, you know things are about to escalate if you do that. 🤭

And sure enough…😋

Rick starts closing the books and moving them away as he invitingly says, "Why don’t you take a break?" 😏 I love it. It’s cute that Michonne is instantly tickled by this too. She knows what’s up. And she knows she’s down. ijs. 😋

But first she asks, "You want me to stop working?" and she knows good and well the answer is yes - but I love that Rick has always been a little extra when it comes to Michonne so he doesn’t only say yes. Instead, he takes the pencil out of her hand and flicks it away as he says, "yeah" in a way that will never fail to have me smiling and kicking my feet cuz like...

And Michonne was undeniably amused already, but she got especially tickled when he tossed the pencil. That man always has her smitten. 😊

I adore seeing this playful side of them and this reminder that Rick and Michonne are husband and wife and also best friends who could always make each other laugh. 

Even more, I love how Rick fully believes Michonne can do any and everything…but he also knows she shouldn’t have to, especially not all the time. Which is why I appreciate his consistent thing of wanting to give them a chance to have a break and time to themselves.

It's sweet too how, without even fully seeing his face, you can still see from Rick's profile that he has this genuine proud smile upon seeing he made his wife laugh. Her joy is truly one of his favorite things. 🥹

Rick smiling at her here reminds me of how happy he was to have made Michonne smile when he came home with mints to give her in their canon ep seasons ago. #TheirLoveNeverFades

I adore that from season 3 saying "Good, cuz I see things" to this moment in season 9, Richonne stayed flirty with each other, both when strangers and when married. 🥰

And then Michonne teases as she asks Rick, "You want me to stop creating the foundations of a new civilization?"...The questions are just foreplay at this point because they both know what's about to happen rn lol. She and Rick both know that what he wants is in the first three words of her question. 😋

I love the way Michonne talks to him and looks at him and the way Rick can’t help but touch her and study her while she speaks, knowing this is the woman he is so ready to have another child with.

Somehow in this moment, Rick seems to be intently listening to her while also distracted by her all at the same dang time. 🤭

So Michonne is all cutely smiling at him while waiting for his answer... and then Rick gives an unforgettable answer.

(also the way even Rick and Michonne's movement is in sync in this scene is just 👩🏽‍🍳💋. they're magnets fr)

Rick looks right at Michonne and then says, “I can think of another way to build for the future” and it’s just ahhhhhh. The best. 😭 What a great way to reveal that Rick wants to have a baby with Michonne.

The scene organically transitions from like playful causal morning vibes to a huge serious declaration of love and development for their family and I'm too here for it. 😍

Rick wanting this baby is a huge deal, especially just a year and a half after losing Carl. And him being at this stage has everything to do with his belief in Michonne and him together and knowing he's with the love of his life who has in so many ways healed him with her one-of-a-kind presence.

He's seen the way he and Michonne work so well together in any role - parents, partners, lovers, leaders - and Rick has always known that the two of them can do anything, from reordering the world to raising a growing family.

So then Rick passionately kisses her after he says this - but like this is a giant statement and Michonne knows what he’s implying is a big deal, so she has this curious look at him. And then I absolutely adore this next moment of them transitioning to a more intimate position.

The way Rick is ready for her to do this little maneuver always felt like a nice little suggestion that they’ve done this often. And it’s just so sensual and romantic. 😍 But I also love this shift for showing how Michonne goes right out of work mode and wants to be so fully present and focused on him as she confirms that Rick is really saying what she thinks he’s saying. Their consistent ability to be present with each other deserves another shoutout cuz it's gold. 👏🏽👏🏽

Also, the way Rick just stays with his eyes glued to her as he holds her and the way Michonne tenderly holds his face in her hands. They knew they were gonna have little Richonner hearts everywhere doing front flips with this movement alone. And I ain't mad at it. 😋

Michonne looks right in Rick's eyes as she says a hopeful, "Yeah?" Then Rick says such a certain, "Yeah" that lets you know having a kid with Michonne isn’t some out-of-nowhere idea that just hit him but something he’s thought about and is sure about. Rick is always sure when it comes to him and her. 👌🏽

And you just know Rick loves their future baby already too, especially because the baby will be part of the woman he's madly in love with.

Michonne smiles and softly says, "okay" and then I love the way Rick eagerly pulls her in closer to him. 😊🧲

Then the last line of the scene is Michonne so sweetly repeating Rick's words back, as they so often do throughout their relationship, as she says, "For The Future." 🥹 

Perfect. x1000.

What a fitting final line and final scene to conclude Richonne's last private exchange like this. Especially for two reasons.

One; thinking about the long-term future used to not be a luxury they had at the start of the apocalypse so it shows how far they've come. Two; Rick and Michonne were two people who, even before they met each other, fought to believe in the future even when others around them (and at times their own past partners) didn't. But in finding each other, Rick and Michonne found the one who could fight to live like them, believe in the future like them, and hold onto hope like them - And now here they are in love and getting to feel so hopeful about their future together. 😭

It’s great that such a major decision like having another kid is one Rick and Michonne were both so quickly on the same page about. They both are ready for this. Both want their splendid love to take form in a new life being brought into the world. 🥹

And again it’s such a testament to their powerful relationship and the way they were able to help build each other back up after losing Carl to the point that they could be healed enough to want another kid. I'll never get over it.

Then I adore this shot of Rick looking up at Michonne with the two bathed in light. It feels so reflective of how highly Rick's always viewed her and how Michonne's been the light in his life. She's his future. And he's hers. 🥰

The scene concludes with Rick and Michonne sharing their last irl passionate kiss as things finally escalate, and they savor each other as they do best. And this whole scene and final moment is just so beautiful it makes my heart hurt. Richonne is stunning and their love is a work of art. 🙌🏾

'Epic love story' really is the best way to describe Richonne, and I love love love that Rick and Michonne always enjoy reveling in Richonne. We have that in common. 😋

I just so appreciate that before he left the show, it was made crystal clear that what Rick wanted for his future was to bring life into this world with Michonne, the ultimate and unequivocal love of his life. 👏🏽 And he’s going to learn that even apart, that dream was still achieved. The Get Things Done Grimes got it done. The baby Rick loved before he even was made, lives. Oh I CANNOT wait for Rick to learn about and meet RJ!!! 🥳😭

Knowing Rick and Michonne's individual journeys, it genuinely moves me that two people who went through so much and lost so much but continued to fight for the people they love got personally rewarded with this gorgeous and deep love that’s just for them. And they didn’t shy away from the love that was there, rather they valiantly and completely embraced it and it’s truly what they deserve. They both deserve to be loved this wholly.

I know this is my undeniable #1 scene because each time I watch it, it warms my whole soul and I get fully enwrapped in it - just mesmerized and overjoyed from start to finish. Watching this #1 scene, during every single part I'm just like...

And Rick and Michonne Grimes bathed in bright sunlight and sharing a passionate kiss while acknowledging they want their future and their love to now take shape in the form of a child is just such a fitting final private exchange between them on TWD and so very special. They're a shining light to each other, to the franchise, and to me, y'all. ☀️

When I say Richonne is everything it’s not just a phrase. They literally have everything going for them and are everything to each other. And every scene from my 30th to this #1 moment masterfully illustrates their resplendent love.

This season 9 scene feels like a love letter to Richonne and it's my all-time favorite for capturing everything I adore about Rick and Michonne’s relationship all in one. Tens across the board. 

I look at this whole scene and whenever I see it I just think - This is Richonne. For me, this scene is their definition. ♥️👌🏽

Richonne is truly love incarnate, and this beautiful top-tier moment captured that flawlessly. 👑🤍😌

[weebsinstash]

I was cleaning my room and I developed a hyper specific thirst for "your red string of fate soulmate uses The String to basically track you down and invite themselves into your apartment and start going through all your things"

I've just, been having my mind run amok with different ideas for Hazbin characters 💀 Vox wants to go through all your tech and your video games, Velvette and Valentino poke through your closet and your skincare, Alastor... he's just fucking judgy about almost everything lmao

They go to open a specific drawer without asking and you're all but BLOCKING THAT SHIT WITH YOUR BODY because Oh My God They Absolutelt Cannot Find Out That That's Your Sex Toy Drawer. And they find out anyways. Just. mortifying. That's too personal man I would die 💀 like I'm sorry can you imagine something just real uh large rolls out and like you've got VALENTINO just looming at you like "giiiiiiiiiiiiiirl---" cause like. Ok guess that solves the question of if you can fit him djggnjffkffjfjf

But it could also be cute! They see so many things around your room that they do enjoy!! Alastor sees that despite being modern, you listen to music that's from all genres including big bands and old jazz and, even your tastes in more modern music tend to be things similar from your childhood. Vox sees that you have like, figurines and anime merch and games he plays too! Velvette sees that you might dress in a way she considers uh ugly maybe just because you're broke as fuck and have been paying for all of your bills but maybe just maybe you like to draw and she can't help but notice the clothing in your drawings are nice and stylish. Valentino.... I dunno man he's kind of a jerk but I think he'd think it's cute when you get happy and excitedly show him things and maybe he even, idk,the yandereness turns him into a semi decent person and he's actually listening to everything you say even if he doesn't understand it because you're just so cute

Also regarding these guys going through your room I feel like it depends on what kind of story you're going for but if they're not being bullying and sadistic they're probably being nosey and infantilizing so like. You would think it would be horrible for Valentino to find your sex toys or lingerie right? Right! But he'll also notice a LACK of those things so there's no winning!!!! He'll tease you for keeping a vibrator wand in your bedside table and if he DOESNT find any fake dicks he'll tease you about being pent up and ask if "Daddy needs to take you to his favorite toy shop" or something 💀💀💀💀

I'm just saying like. Any which way, it's a scenario for a yandere to come into your life and react with either "oh cool, look how much we have in common! This is just further proof we belong together :)" OR "oh wow, you're not what I expected at all, but I love you so don't worry, I promise I'm not gonna abandon you and I'll just put in the work to change you until you better suit my own personal tastes but trust me you being a brat and resisting is also extremely adorable and I love that too :)"

[allllium]

Hi!) send my love and little idea for a fic

May I request a little story about Remus x fem!reader? Other characters are welcomed :) characters age is up to you

The reader is calm person, ready to help, even get into a fight against bullies. But she also has a death glare and doesn’t peak words to smooth the situation. She doesn’t have a lot of friends, but definitely she is friends with Lily and the Marauders like to hang out with her (helps them with studies or work, helps James with Lily, lots of sarcastic jokes).

I think Remus can see through her facade. And he finally decided to ask her out for a date, maybe he even said something like “I like you”. And the reader reply with “Ok” and storms out to process with her feelings towards Rem. Then we can see collective panic 😱😂 The next day she finds Remus and gives him his favorite chocolate and self-made scarf with the words “I think I like you too” ❤️

Hope it’s all make sense to you 😅 sometimes I have similar situation when I can’t define my feelings and need time to analyze them… 🥲

I Think I Like You Too...

a/n ~ Omg reader in this is so relatable 😭 Honestly wasn't sure how you wanted me to write them so I did what I thought worked best for this situation. Not quite sure how happy I am with this so I might add to it/change some of it in the future but for now I hope you like it <3

~ Just fluff, James and Sirius being children

WC ~ 1,859

Sometimes you don't understand why you're friends with the marauders. You love them so much but you're so different sometimes you don't understand. You're very calm and collected. Most times you don't show emotion at all, coming off as if you don't care. That's not the case though and luckily the boys know that. Even if they're the only ones.

Besides them and Lily, no one talks to you, and you don't talk to them. There's no real reason for this, only that people say you have a “death glare,” which apparently, makes you seem unapproachable.

Because of them being your only friends, (and not great at their studies) you spend a lot of time helping the boys, mainly James and Sirius, with their homework and preparing them for exams. During times where you're helping the boys in the library you notice the way people look at you guys. Sometimes their gaze is slanted towards the boys, either lusting after them or annoyed by some dumb prank they pulled.

However, there are times when people stare at you. They try to be less obvious, but you can see the way they silently judge you. Wondering why the boys hang out with you and debating whether or not you're as bitchy as you tend to seem.

You don't let any of this get to you, people will judge you for anything you do, and you know they simply don't understand. Honestly you find it funny how obsessed people are with a look on your face.

Especially when it's not one you make on purpose.

“I don't understand.” James tells you, for what feels like the hundredth time in twenty minutes.

“Of course you don't, you've been making faces at Sirius the whole time I was explaining.” You swear sometimes they're just children in growing-up bodies. Between the pranks, silly faces, and running around the halls playing hide and seek, but instead of each other seeking, it's whichever teacher they last put a spell on, it can be very hard to keep up with. Probably why people were so unexpected to see you all together.

“No I wasn't.”

“James, I saw you.”

“Wasn't me,” he defends. You let out a deep sigh at his childish antics, before focusing on the paper in front of him. You look down at the perfect moment, just in time to see Remus's small grin at banter between you and James.

“James, pay attention or I'll turn you into a rat,” you try to threaten, seeing Peter's frown at your words. “Sorry Pete, rats are adorable. You know how James feels about them though,” you shrug, remembering the way he screamed when Peter first transformed into his animagus form. He's not scared of Peter when he knows it's him but any other rat freaks him out.

“Fair.” Is all he says, as he leans back down to whatever he's doing on the floor.

You return your focus back to James, “Okay, are you going to pay attention this time?”

“Yes I am, apparently Lily only likes smart guys.”

“I have literally been telling you that for-” you're quickly cut off.

“No but that was just a plot for you to make me do my homework.”

“No it wasn't, I was trying to help you with Lily because-”

“No, I'm pretty sure you're lying.”

“But you confirmed it why would I be lying about it-”

“Well I don't know, why are you?”

“James Fleamont Potter I swear if you cut me off one more fucking time.” You hear the giggles of everyone else around you.

“What? What are you gonna do?”

“Call Lily.”

“No wait, I'm sorry.” He immediately changes his tone and turns back to his parchment.

Rolling your eyes, you look at Sirius,“Sirius, how far are you?”

“Well unlike prongs, I'm almost finished.” He tells you proudly.

“Can I see it?” He looks between you and the paper for a moment and then shakes his head.

“Not yet. It's a surprise.” You take a deep breath as he continues making faces to James.

Deciding you're done being a young mom to two boys older than you. You excuse yourself from the table and move to sit by the only boy not constantly giving you a headache.

“Hey, Rem.” You greet him softly.

“Good try.” He smirks at you, referencing the boys in front of you. You're glad they're having fun, but they're giving you gray hairs at this point.

“I'm two seconds away from calling Euphemia to deal with them.”

“That's a great plan, at least you'll get cookies out of it.” You nod your head in agreement, taking a second to admire your friend. Which is totally normal in a friendship, probably. You know you feel different about Remus than the others but you're not one hundred percent sure why.

“Ugh why can't you tutor them?” You don't even remember why you agreed to tutor them in the first place.

“Because I did it first and you lost the bet.” Now you remember, you and Remus had a stupid bet on who would tutor them. You and he had a competition, whoever got the lower grade on an exam would be the tutor. You lost. By one point.

“Not fair, I want a rematch.”

“How is that not fair? I won perfectly fair.” You know he did but you don't want to accept it.

“Uh because I don't wanna do it anymore.”

“C'mon they're not that bad.”

“Says you! Yesterday they were playing rock, paper, scissors and when Sirius lost, he pushed over James in his chair. Then James got up and claimed all the knowledge was knocked out of his head and he couldn't possibly finish the paper.” Remus is clearly trying not to laugh at your frustration. “Don't laugh, it's not funny.”

“I'm not laughing. But you have to admit they're very amusing.”

“I admit nothing. Seriously, why do they go to such lengths to avoid homework.” Remus immediately moves his face out of your view. “What do you know, Wolfboy?”

“Is the nickname really necessary?”

“Yes it is, explain,” you don't give him any room for argument.

“Fine. They usually do their homework just fine, slow but fine.”

“Then why do they cause such problems for me?” You ask him in despair.

“They like fucking with you.”

“Are you kidding me Lupin?” You raise your eyebrows at him and demand a response.

“No, they think you're funny.” He breaks out in a full blown laugh at your annoyed reaction.

“I'm glad you think this is funny, Moony, because you won't be laughing when you're all rats.”

“As if you could even turn me into a rat. I dare you to try.”

“Y'know what I will.” You give him a bright smile as he grabs your wrist to keep you from grabbing your wand.

“Not right now.”

“You're not scared are you Lupin?” You swear your heart skips a beat at his grin.

“Can you just pick one name and stick with it?”

“Okay I pick Wolfboy.”

“No you don't, pick something else.”

“No. Bye Wolfboy.” You hear his frustrated groan from behind you while you leave the library.

“Ah!” You jump as you turn the corner and run into Remus. “Oh. Hi Wolfboy.”

“I thought I told you to pick something else to call me.”

“No, I don't remember that.” He looks at you in disbelief. “I'm getting breakfast now.”

“No you are not.” He begins to pull you in the other direction.

“Um Wolfboy, I need food.”

“Not right now.” What the fuck.

“What is so important I must miss breakfast?” He pulls you into an empty classroom and shuts the door. “You know you can't kill me right? People will know.

“That's not…what?”

“Nevermind, continue.”

“Okay great. I don't know how to say this but after yesterday it just felt so clear that I need you to know.” You give a gentle nod for him to continue.

“Y/n, I hope this doesn't ruin anything between us but I need you to know that I like you.” He waits a minute for you to respond, when you don't, he keeps going. “As more than a friend, like romantically. I have a crush on you.”

“Oh um okay.” You shrug and start to walk out of the room. “See you at breakfast.”

Remus is stuck standing in place as he tries to comprehend what just happened. He was expecting a rejection, a clear rejection. Or of course, there's the small part of him waiting for you to admit you feel the same way he does. But no. None of them. He has no idea how you're feeling. Who just says “okay” to that and walks out.

After a minute he decides to follow you to the great hall, pretending nothing just happened. He doesn't know whether to be sad about a rejection or be happy it wasn't actually a rejection?

James and Sirius are questioning his mixed expression the second he sits down, but Remus is focused solely on you. Who isn't in the great hall. He looks over all the people at least three times looking for you. Ultimately, he can't help but be a little relieved he doesn't have to face you right now. What would he even say after that?

Remus doesn't see you for the rest of the day. Instead he spends the day worrying whether or not he's scared you away.

“Oh Remus you're here! Come here!” You grab his hand and pull him into an empty room, similarly to the way he did to you yesterday.

“Um okay? Are you alright?” He asks quickly, as if sensing your nervousness.

“Yes I'm fine I just need to say something to you.”

“What is that?” He asks, pointing to the things you're holding in your free hand.

“Oh yeah this stuff is for you.” You hand him a box of his favorite chocolates and a scarf you spent the night making for him. “I made this for you because I didn't know how to say what I want to. I didn't mean to act like that yesterday, I just needed some time to think about how I felt.”

“And what do you want to say?”

“Yeah it's on the scarf actually.” You take notice of how your fingers are fidgeting, and your legs are bouncing in place.

“Did you make this? This is nice.”

“Last night, yeah.” You feel a little out of breath as you stand in front of him.

“In one night? That's impressive and insane.”

“I'm well aware. I didn't sleep last night.” He grins you a big grin, both at your words and the words he finally finds on the end of his scarf.

“You need sleep, angel.” He says, cutting off at the end as he finishes reading your sewed words. ‘I think I like you too ♡’ is embedded into the red fabric. “You think?”

“Is that acceptable for you Wolfboy?” You step closer to him, waiting for his answer.

“Yeah more than.” You can't stop your bright smile as he leans down to place his lips on yours.

[shadowsofdread]

inspired by the poll about theron shan's romantic chemistry with each of the origin classes, i wanna pose a somewhat similar question because i love thinking about it. it's a big thing in the swtor fandom that people tend to write relationships between their mains of each of the origin stories, and certain trends/combinations tend to be common - namely, sith warrior & jedi knight, jedi knight & jedi consular, sith warrior & sith inquisitor, etc.

so an open question i'm putting forward for anyone to reply to is what are your favorite pairings of classes - platonically, romantically, secret third thing, antagonistically, etc. you don't have to name an "underrated" one, but my question is based more on the chemistry between the classes, like, in general as opposed to specific iterations of that class. i.e., by all means use your OCs as an example of why you like that pairing, but like. i am talking more broadly about archetypes than specific characters. does this make sense. anyway, some of mine:

sith warrior & jedi knight

you knew this one was coming. i think the SW and JK are positioned pretty well to act as foils to one another, and there's something very interesting about how the transitions between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of each campaign mirror each other, with the finales of their respective campaigns leaving them on opposite sides of a current or future antagonist - with the SW ending up on that same side as the JK by ziost. i've interpreted this as a shared sense of personal responsibility - through their actions, one way or another, they make the most sense for being the emperor's number one enemy, which may lead to a sort of alliance between the two characters, depending how you spin it. or, hey, maybe your sith warrior is actually loyal to the emperor even still, at least until they are ultimately betrayed by valkorion. in which case, lifelong, bitter enemies. where maybe they should've had a common cause, maybe the pieces should've been there all along for them to fight together, but against all sanity and reason, the SW chooses again and again to stand by vitiate/valkorion.

sith warrior & imperial agent

next to SW&JK, this is the dynamic i keep coming back to over and over again - there's a reason why taizi's met most of @tiredassmage's agents. it's also the one i have the hardest time explaining why i like so much. there's the appeal of like ... hypercompetent pairing with vastly different skills but very good at those skills. it's kind of like a variation on what scratches my brain about SW & quinn in that there's a lot of toying around you can do with sith/imperial power dynamics - made even more interesting depending on the type of agent you're playing, and regardless an agent who has had their literal brain fucked with by the dark council, i.e. the castellan restraints.

sith warrior & jedi consular

listen. have i actually gotten to use this one much in the "playing blorbo barbies with my friends" sphere? not exactly. it's a very new one that i'm still rotating, and i don't know how to explain what it is i like about it but i really, really want to see more of it. i think it could be delicious, brent. please let your warriors and your consulars talk to each other more. one thing i will put forward is i think SW & JC scratches a similar itch to SW & JK to me, but in, like, a slightly different font? i dunno, man. i just wanna see it more.

honorable mentions:

jedi consular OR jedi knight & trooper: it's like jedi / clone trooper but without the ethical issues and cognitive dissonance! /lh

sith inquisitor & jedi consular: could be taken so many different ways, i just don't think enough about SI to do much with it

imperial agent & jedi knight: only really seen a few iterations - two of them being my own - but like. something in here's really fucking good.

[batbeato]

A 'skill' I've ended up honing is a sense of the various art styles of the Umineko manga artists. Generally when I see a panel I can tell what episode it's from based on either context, it being an often-posted panel, or even just... how it's drawn.

Episode 1, 3, and 8 are drawn by Natsumi Kei! Natsumi Kei doesn't draw Battler with his vest. She has a specific way of drawing eyes (for example, drawing Beato's with no/little shading) and Battler's hair is super spiky. She draws Beatrice's dress as entirely black besides the pattern, with some white parts for shading/lighting - a trait which most of the Umineko artists share She also has a tendency towards some fanservice angles/poses (such as that oft-memed panel that shows off Eva's ass while she's raging at her misogynistic brother/family).

She likes to do these 'close-up' shots to show off detailed expressions.

She also draws Beato's eyes with blonde eyelashes! So pretty... A lot of the Umineko manga artists draw Beatrice with blond eyelashes, which always seem so delicate when they do the detailed close ups.

The EP2 mangaka, Jiro Suzuki, contrasts Natsumi Kei a lot. They use heavier shading at times, and their anatomy is also different - I often get the impression that their Beato is more broad-shouldered, while their Battler is more skinny. Like a twig.

From this panel, you can really get the impression of 'glowing' in a way that you can't get from Natsumi Kei's work.

In general, their style has a lot more detail for things like face and hair. Just like Natsumi Kei, they draw Beato with blonde eyelashes, though they interpret Battler's hair differently.

Battler's clothes feel very flowy, which adds to the sense of him being very skinny. Just like Natsumi Kei, Battler is drawn without his vest. I feel as though there's a sharpness to the joints.

EP4 is drawn by Soichiro! A return to spikier Battler hair. I feel like they tend towards narrower, sharper eyes.

Soichiro has a certain way of paneling... It relies a lot on very similar-looking boxes. They're generally all the same shape, and often the same size. Some examples:

As you may have noticed, Battler is still bereft of his vest. It's probably a choice all of these mangakas made in order to simplify his design.

...I would also like to submit for your consideration the travesty that is the paneling in this page. It's... a bit confusing to follow. This is a tendency in their style - sometimes the emphasis, paneling, etc. isn't quite right. They're a great artist, but I get the feeling that they weren't quite accustomed to this medium at the time of drawing.

EP5 is drawn by Akitaka.

Akitaka is one of my favorite Umineko manga artists by the sheer virtue of the fact that Akitaka restores Battler's vest to its proper place: on his body. Battler's hair is still spiky, but it's a different, sometime toned-down interpretation. The way they shade his hair feels really unique to me - a mix of the usual screentones with some black sections (depending on the angle and level of detail). In general I feel like Akitaka works a lot with screentones to add a lot of shading to their panels.

Rather than using pure black for Beatrice' dress, it's a mix of black and screentones. Part of this is for lighting, but it also allows Akitaka to show a lot more details for the dress, which the artists who use primarily black for the dress can't do.

Akitaka also has some really detailed expressions. They manage to bring a lot of character to even the 'dead' Beato.

EP6 is drawn by Hinase Momoyama. Battler's vest, the most important character in Umineko, triumphantly remains. However, Battler's hair is less spiky and more slicked-down. Like Akitaka, there are often black sections of it, but these are more often at the front, rather than the back, of the head.

Beatrice's dress varies from "mostly black" to "mostly screentones" in EP6. Elder Beatrice, however, has these very detailed and eye-catching ruffles to her skirt. She is also drawn with sharper eyes and expressions than Chick Beatrice, who is wide-eyed and has very flowy princess sleeves on her dress.

Battler comes off as super cute when he's angry, rather than something more menacing or serious, as he does in Natsumi Kei's art. For comparison: (EP6, then EP8)

This is probably a result of how Natsumi Kei draws 'sharper', while Momoyama uses rounder shapes.

EP7 is drawn by Eita Mizuno, who is a saint for managing to draw beautifully for all NINE volumes. NINE. A saint.

They draw Beatrice's dress primarily with screentones, and have very bright, wide eyes.

They use a lot of texture with their screentones, which gives their art a unique feel amongst the artists for the manga.

I'd also like to have a special shout out to this page. The way the art style shifts in the final panel to reflect Lion's shock and horror is an incredible use of the medium. This artist really seems to like these horizontal spreads, but they use the space well.

More masculine characters like Will have narrower eyes, though the pupils/light isn't that different. While characters with light hair like Lion have no screentones for their hair, Will receives a healthy mix: primarily black, with some screentone highlights. Of course, light-haired characters will have screentoned hair depending on the lighting, but in bright lighting, Lion has entirely white hair.

...Also, Battler has once more lost his vest. At least his hair is spiky again...?

That covers all the main mangaka, but there's also the mangaka for the side manga, Tsubasa: Fumi Ito. Their art is really cute and suits the often-comedic stories well. The small highlights they put in hair feels characteristic of their style. They often draw characters with wide, round, bright eyes.

Battler's hair spikiness is toned down (so fluffy...) and his vest returns for the final time. A true blessing.

This is just a super brief overview of it all - there's a lot of characters whose varying depictions I didn't mention, I didn't really talk about how they do backgrounds, and plenty of other things. But Umineko has a lot of talented artists who worked on it, and many of them still sometimes post fanart (or new official art) for the series!

I feel like we should appreciate the amazing range of artists who have done their best to interpret Umineko's story. They all did a great job!

[arcaneconfessions]

I think Arcane fandom (especially shippers) would be a lot more peaceful/happier if we all used and remembered the block button!!

See someone hating on your favorite character and you don't like it? Simply block the person! See someone posting about a ship you don't like? Omg look at that block button! Someone making you uncomfortable with their opinion or you just don't like them? Blockiiinnngg!!!

Take me for example. I absolutely hate Jayvik, and most of the shippers. For my own comfort (and to get it off my dashboard), I simply block any shippers I see. To some it may seem outrageous, blocking every Jayvik shipper I see. But when you compare this to the shipping discourse where people are arguing, harassing, and ultimately being rude to one another over a ship, is it really that bad?

Because do I like Jayvik? Hell no! Does that mean I'm going to go harass the shippers, say shit and start arguments on their posts and their inbox? An even bigger hell no!!!!!

It's disheartening to see what the people in this fandom have come to. People would complain about how League of Legends has an awful community, and Arcane has managed to evade that. But now, some people I'm this fandom are just as bad, or even worse than the Leaguers.

Some people act like blocking is an awful thing to do, but when I first joined Tumblr a while ago, I was taught that Tumblr blocking etiquette could literally be you could block someone for not liking their opinion in a comment section. Besides, we are strangers online, it shouldn't matter if someone from an opposing side of an argument blocks you. Frankly I'd be happy if Jayvik shippers started blocking me, and I didn't have to see their stuff!

I notice with a select few Jayvik shipper that they tend to harass people in the comments of anti-jayvik posts. First of all, interacting with it may cause more of similar stuff to show on your FYP!! Second of all, it's okay for people to not like your ship! I've seen long arguments and hurtful words thrown at people in this fandom over ships and whatnot. Obviously, it isn't just Jayvik shippers (or even all jayvik shippers), every aspect of this fandom has something like this. This is just where I stand and what I personally have seen.

A solution to it all? The block button once more! I'm begging this fandom to simply block people when you don't like their opinion rather than saying stuff purposely meant to harm and hurt. Obviously, discussion is fine. But when I see people wishing harm and even death upon others because of a set of animated pixels? And when people take joy in harassing others over their opinions, is fandom really for you? A thing that's supposed to be a community based upon mutual liking of a piece of media?

We can cultivate what shows up in our dashboard and what doesn't. "Block and move on" should be a saying we all adopt as a community.

.

[lol-jackles]

Hello,

It’s nice to see you more active on here at the moment.

I was thinking about how you tend to say that the bi-bros who lean towards Sam are more in line with the GA.

But, I watch lots of reactors watch SPN for the first time, and they often lean towards Dean (I’d say 3/5), and I’ve heard a similar ratio say that they think Jensen is a noticeably better actor than Jared.

So, my questions are, are they letting fan expectations colour their reactions (hellers and Dean girls are very fast to pounce on new reactors), are they already Destiel curious from seeing edits in tumblr (I know of at least one who fits this), or do they acquaint “they make me feel emotional therefore they are the best actor”?

For me personally, on my first watch, Dean killed me with his love for family and Sammy and I empathized more with him usually, at least until Season 4/5 where he started pissing me off regularly. But, when I rewatch, I love episodes like Mystery Spot and Born Under a Bad Sign, or Souless Sam episodes because Jared is just so good when he gets something interesting to do. I find the Dean crying stuff less compelling on rewatches because it’s not as interesting to me (with a few expectations) after the first and second viewing. And acting at mirrors scenes gets old for me in particular very quickly.

In short, I think both are good, with different strengths, but I wonder why so many new viewers that I come across see Jensen as being stronger and Dean as being better. Do the just fail to see past the narrative bias? Or they just like Sean because he’s more fun?

Anyway, I appreciate any thoughts you want to share on this. And I’m also wondering if there is stats anywhere in GA favoring Sam?

First, because Sam girls commit “geek social fallacies” by also liking Dean because they love that Dean revolves around their Sammy. But Dean/Jensen stans don’t return the favor because they hate that Dean revolves around his Sammy so they hate on Sammy even though under their breath they’ve said if Jensen had been playing Sammy all along they wouldn’t change any of the writing.  That’s why there appears to be a Dean bias in the SPN fandom because Sam fans also likes Dean.  

It’s not a coincidence that Sam girls are the fandom’s official representative (all the meta fans on the show are Sam fans).   The show is mostly Sam-centric, if the bitter Sam girls won’t believe me then believe Jensen’s interviews when he said that SPN is Sam-centric and called season 10 a "rare Dean-centric storyline". (X)

Second, Dean is supposed to be a scene stealer, that's what support-protagonist do.  Often our favorite characters are not the protagonist but these scene stealers characters, they are usually cool or very funny. But it becomes a problem when producers try to capitalize on the character’s popularity, like creating a spin-off.   Like spices, which can not take the place of the main course, scene stealers often fail as leads because their “special-ness” evaporates when they have to carry the show. It's why WB canceled Supernatural when Jared told them he was leaving, because they knew a Dean-led Supernatural wouldn't work.

So while I'm watching an episode, I am more drawn to Dean because he’s more fun or interesting to watch. However the next day I remember the episode through Sam’s actions and interactions. Some of my readers tell me that they were surprised that they seem to “forget” Dean when they recall specific storylines, I said that’s supposed to happen with the support-protagonist.  We don't remember much of what John Watson did in the classic Sherlock Holmes or what was Nick Carraway's deal in The Great Gatsby.

It's the protagonist who mobilizes the story and stands out in readers’ or audiences’ minds.  Dean needs interaction with Sam in order for the audience to even remember him because he's part of the protagonist’s story. It’s why I keep saying Supernatural is Sam’s story, it's his Hero’s Journey.   Dean is at his best when he’s focused on Sam (which is why season 10 sucked and season 5 was kind of weak).

Third, Jensen is a personality actor and people are generally more drawn to them. Jared is a character actor who is trapped in a leading man role. Jensen has been Jensen “Dean Winchester” Ackles for the majority of his TV and movie roles since 1998.  It’s why Jensen initially made a bigger splash with Dean in the early Supernatural seasons because he’s already been playing Dean for years since Days of Our Lives.  In 2005 when SPN premiered, Jensen had a 7 years head start playing Dean compared to Jared who was just starting to play Sam and had to create Sam from scratch.  By season 3, audiences began to notice Jared's versatile acting skills and he would soon be tasked with playing different characters because that's what character actors do.

[gavillain]

I was talking with @marciabrady the other night about ships and the aesthetics of our favorite couples, and it made me really want to do a break down of one of my obscure crossover OTPs:

Grimhilde/Cruella, a.k.a. EvilPuppies!

Because I feel like Grimhilde/Cruella, out of all my ships, looks the most like crack at first glance, but there is so much more to it than just sticking two random Disney Villains together.

So, first and foremost, I started shipping them because of Kingdom Keepers Book IV, Power Play:

Despite the fact that Frollo is on the cover of the book and was the heavily promoted new Overtaker before the release of the novel, the main villains of the novel are actually Grimhilde and Cruella. The premise is that after Maleficent and Chernabog were captured at the end of the previous book, the Disney Villains who are trying to take over the parks have had to take on new leadership to get Maleficent and Chernabog out of Imagineer-prison. Grimhilde is the next in the chain of command, so she's in charge and has Cruella De Vil as her companion who follows her everywhere. They are ALWAYS together in the book, and Cruella, naturally, has a very flirty and complimentary demeanor towards Grimhilde that the Queen naturally just adores. Their chemistry is great, and there is even one part where the main hero finds the two of them asleep together on an air mattress and a bundle of furs (it makes sense in context) and, well... yeah XD The novel really glued the two of them together in my head.

And that togetherness, as you can see above, blends over into the parks. Grimhilde and Cruella are the only two main Disney Villainesses who are out with some regularity as face characters in Disneyland. All of the villains in the Disney Parks have a familiarity with each other, and you can get similar gal pal dynamics with them and Maleficent (and Lady Tremaine) around Halloween time. However, because Grimhilde and Cruella are out together for so much of the year, they tend to carry the brunt of that sort of "evil besties" friendship, leading to cute photo op moments like this...

So Disney is already doing a lot of the leg work to make them come across as girlfriends and to give them chemistry and a ship dynamic. However, if that was all there was to it, I probably wouldn't love this ship as much as I do. I need that interesting and thought through layer of shipping, and thankfully, these two have it in spades.

So, despite being from different time periods and wildly different worlds, Grimhilde and Cruella are aristocrats through and through. Grimhilde is literally royalty, and Cruella an over-financed heiress to the remnants of England's aristocracy (and she's the head of a corporate fashion empire in the Glenn Close movies). The House of De Vil dates back to medieval times, and evidence of that extensive and wealthy history is littered all around Cruella's mansion.

Cruella is in essence, the remnants of an old world that no longer exists, one of royalty and station that Grimhilde herself was a part of, and though the times have changed, Cruella keeps that class and regality alive. In that way, I think it blends perfectly with her taking on a lover who is quite literally OF that time period, and it also helps tie Grimhilde in with the modern world, giving Grimhilde a sort of immortality and transcendence that I think she'd very much value with her desire to be eternally young and beautiful. And, along those same lines, they are both very strong examples of matriarchal authority and power with Cruella bemoaning the uselessness of men and the pitfalls of women losing themselves to marriage, whilst Grimhilde murdered her own husband in order to reign alone without a man over her. They fundamentally get the sort of twisted villainous feminism that they are peddling.

Next is the themes of beauty and glamor. These are two women who are fundamentally motivated by vanity - Cruella wants to design her original Dalmatian puppy coat and stun the art world with her ruthless originality whilst Grimhilde wants to kill her stepdaughter so that she can reign as the Fairest One of All. For them, beauty and aesthetics are absolute, and they share a willingness to buy their glamorous ambitions with the blood of the innocent. They would fundamentally GET each other in that regard. However, and this is important, they GET that same motivation for vanity, but they don't COMPETE with each other. Cruella is a pretty woman, but she's older and she's a chain smoker whose habits have caused her to become a bit emaciated. She's beautiful in her own way, but she's never going to rival Grimhilde as the Fairest One of All. Likewise, though Grimhilde has extravagant fashions and jewelry, she's not setting out to be at the forefront of clothing design and art. She would certainly WEAR outfits Cruella designed for her, but she wouldn't want to supplant Cruella either. They're going to make the world kneel before their beauty, but they're going to compliment each other rather than rival each other or have to set aside their vanities for each other.

Then one of the big important elements that makes this ship appeal to me so much is the motif of DUALITY. Cruella is noteworthy for her hair that is half-black and half-white. It's her signature style, she's well known for it, it ties in with the black and white dogs, and it ties in with how she has her likable and admirable public face but also her sinister and dark side that the rest of the world doesn't see. Grimhilde also has the duality motif. Hell, she has BLACK HAIR as the Queen and WHITE hair as the hag, and the whole black and white motif shows up in her potions ("Black of Night" and "To Whiten My Hair, a Scream of Fright"). Grimhilde literally has two faces and two forms. She is two villainesses in one, which is such a tasty match for the woman with infamously two-toned hair. And what I like about that too is that Cruella BLENDS with both the Queen and the Hag. With the queen, she has the aristocratic and blue blood regality and beauty that I mentioned before, but with the hag, she has the cackling maniacal bloodthirsty side that would have an absolute riot bringing death to innocents. It's so symbolic, and they're the only Disney villains who have that duality motif in that fashion.

And the fact that they have all of these interesting parallels and motifs while also being from two different worlds and two different time periods (medieval and modern) is a lot of fun purely from a crossover perspective but also as ANOTHER manifestation of their duality motif! And THAT is the type of tasty shipping fuel that I LIVE for!

So with Grimhilde and Cruella being of two different time periods, they also simultaneously coexist in one time period. Cruella in the original animated film may have been released in the 1960s, but her animator, Marc Davis, designed her to be a throwback to the old Hollywood glamor of the 1930s. Most specifically Tallulah Bankhead...

And Marlene Dietrich...

Cruella is pure Old Hollywood 1930s glamor trapped in a late 50s/early 60s modern domestic setting. And you know whose movie was made in the 1930s and has a very 1930s cultural aesthetic to it?

And Grimhilde herself is designed based on ANOTHER 1930s film villainess, She (Who Must Be Obeyed):

A movie that was famous for its Art Deco sets, and Art Deco is one of the main aesthetic motifs attributed to Cruella in the Glenn Close movies. So stylistically speaking, the two of them despite coming from different time periods and different worlds coexist in a way that is very old Hollywood. And with that combined link to the 30s, it helps the two of them to coexist peacefully and harmoniously in the same time period. They meet in this glamorous and mythologized liminal space. Heck, with Cruella's aesthetic links to the 1930s, I personally headcanon that she grew up absolutely obsessed with old Hollywood and making a concentrated effort to emulate that energy in her own style. Since Grimhilde is kind of an Old Hollywood character come to life, it's almost like Cruella can be a fangirl of something that she's admired for her whole life when she gets with Grimhilde, and you know Grimhilde is gonna LOVE that attention.

In addition, I personally like to be very cognizant about my ships with regards to what the individual character is going to look for in terms of a romantic partner and why the character that I've chosen for them suits that specific need. With Grimhilde, we know that she was married to Snow White's father and that she killed him, so we know that she didn't have any real love for that man, possibly any man. She rules over her kingdom alone and doesn't want anyone to rule beside her. In the Snow White comics and deleted scenes from the film, she showcases a sort of romantic rivalry for Prince Florian, but her affections for him are never about wanting an equal. She wants him because he is young and handsome and compliments her beauty and elevates her image in a way that helps give her more power through her beauty. So for Grimhilde, she needs a lover who can fill that niche - not someone to rival her or rule beside her, but someone who can be a perfect accessory to her beauty. Cruella being all about fashion and style is absolutely that person. She's very cognizant of appearances and what can accentuate or take away from beauty and aesthetics. That inherent utility to their relationship means that it would be something that Grimhilde would be open to indulging, and from there deeper feelings can develop under the right circumstances in a way that they wouldn't without having that utility first.

So that's Grimhilde's side of things. But what about Cruella? Well, we see Cruella's relation with love mostly revolving around this sort of one sided attraction that she has to Anita. And at first glance that seems contradictory to her getting with the queen, because Cruella is obviously going after a dainty and demure woman who she can kind of steamroll and collect as another fashion accessory. However, I think what makes this work so well is that it really showcases that Cruella has an attraction to traditional feminine beauty and women in general, and Grimhilde is of course is the fairest woman of all. The Glen Close movie adds an interesting dynamic to Cruella's attraction to Anita in that she enjoys the creative interaction that she has with Anita. Never really noticed Anita until the two of them started to collaborate creatively, and I feel like that's a big thing that Cruella needs and wants in a partner, someone who engages that creative side of her brain and understands her drive for aesthetics and beauty. And, as previously stated, who better to do that than the Queen of beauty herself? Grimhilde is a perfect model of unlimited dramatic creativity wrapped in a feminine and beautiful package that would set Cruella's heart ablaze.

Together the two of them fulfill that perfect niche for each other and foster a creative, beautiful, and bloodthirsty ruthless energy that would make them feel seen and supported. They effectively create their own little world of 1930s fantasy glamor when they come together, and that's just beautiful to me.

Those are the biggies, but some other really fun pieces of shipping fuel: *I love the aesthetic they have with them both being tall women with dramatic almost drag queen makeup and outfits that have tones of black, white, and red in their own signature styles. And Cruella has the flowing fur coat with the red liner and Grimhilde has the flowing cape with the red liner and so they can be very flouncy and twirly with their styles. *Grimhilde keeps a royal huntsman who can kill all of the animals for Cruella whenever she wants. *They both have similar structures to their stories - they start out on friendly or familial terms with the protagonists before they show their true colors, then they entrust men to kill the innocent creatures needed to enact their plan but those men fail them, forcing Grimhilde and Cruella to take matters into their own hands, and then the finales showcase them both transforming into frightening demented versions of themselves (old hag and crazy demon eyes Cruella during the car chase) madly pursuing their goals until they ultimate bring about their own defeats by the environment turning against them *Cruella has the green smoke of her cigarette which echoes the green and smoke of the Magic Mirror, and also Cruella's chain smoking being a sort of poison in and of itself links back nicely to Grimhilde's literal poisons. *OUAT gives Cruella magic powers and ties to the Author, and Grimhilde also has magic powers and is a literal storybook villain.

So, yes, at first glance, EvilPuppies may seem like just a crackship, but it's really not. There is SO much here in both their canon interactions and in their numerous parallels, and there are honestly probably even more that I'm forgetting. They are the crowning queens of femslash for me for good reason, and I adore them, darlings!

[tora-the-cat]

💚: What does everyone else get wrong about your favorite character(s)?

oh. oh we could be here for DAYS. okay. I'll do the first five characters that come to mind, and ONE thing for each character I'm thinking about lol

Sakura- because who else would I start with? I think the biggest pet-peeve I have with general characterization of her is she's just. too normal. Whether you're writing her as a lovesick teenager or a terrifying baby badass, so many people tend to overlook that she does NOT have typical responses to situations. She has moodswings. She's impulse. Her empathy is abysmally low. her capacity for self confidence should be studied. she's an annoying know-it-all. her priorities are FUCKED. The problem is that she THINKS she's the most normal person in any given room, and too many viewers have fallen for her act. she felt accountability for 5 seconds and proceeded to poison all of her friends to try and go kill sasuke without stopping to ask herself if that's even something she's emotionally capable of trying (it isn't).

Minato- honestly, my main complain about him is similar in principle- people ALSO write him as a Normal Cool Guy, because that's how he presents and thinks of himself. He's the Ideal Shinobi, almost perfect, almost a messiah, given how people- in and out of universe- talk about him. But the thing is...he is the Ideal Shinobi. And, by nature of that, there is something deeply wrong with him. He killed an entire army's worth of people in a day and is remembered as a peace-maker. Kishimoto thinks this is normal, so the narrative thinks Minato is a good guy, so he's remembered fondly in the story and most of the fandom. Kishimoto is wrong. Minato was suited for the life and glory of an S-Rank shinobi in the sort of way we only see otherwise presented in heartless nuke-nin for the rest of the show.

Sasuke- Everything that Sasuke has ever, ever done has been for love. He doesn't move a muscle without thinking about the people he loves. His heart doesn't beat unless it can do so for someone else. People miss this because of his obsession with revenge or whatever, but he was doing that out of love for his clan. for his family. for, even, his brother, who he somehow devestatingly loved even before he knew Itachi wasn't to blame. Itachi set his entire world on fire when he was seven and then put him in a torture hallucination replaying it for days, and Sasuke still loved him. After everything he heard Danzo did, he still gave that bastard the chance to plea his case before killing him. Sasuke doesn't have a single cruel bone in his body.

Hinata- Hinata is a fighter. She loves, and she watches, and she's never met a fight she won't pick given half a chance. She put herself between her father's wrath and her sister. She fought Neji because Naruto was cheering on the sidelines. She only managed to confess her love when she jumped in to an impossible fight against Pein for Naruto. I don't think she ever wins a fight in Naruto (which is bullshit), but that's never hindered her undying fighting spirit.

Obito- Obito's tricky cause his characterization is contradictory and murky by nature so it's hard to argue the details of it, but you will never get me on board with a canon interpretation of him that isn't literally chronically dissociated for his entire adult life. I don't think he knows his name. I don't think he's looked in a mirror in years. I don't think he can tell you the date. I don't think he's felt anything but conviction since he held Rin's body in his arms.

IM STOPPING THERE. I CAN DO THIS FOREVER BUT I'M STOPPING THERE.

[average-mako-enjoyer]

I need your Kaidan opinions for the fave character game. Pwease. 😻

From the character ask game.

Oh God, I will have to change my pants by the time I'm done.

Favorite thing about them

Everything??? He's such a complex dude, and all of his complexity is shown so subtly in a way that also reflects him as a character. I love it.

But most of all, his emotional maturity, his intelligence, his self-esteem, and honestly, how incredibly badass he is.

He doesn't use Shepard as a therapist, as a fixer for his problems, as a pillar of strength to lean on. Instead, he always comes into this relationship (platonic or romantic) as an equal, and it's so refreshing to see.

Every other squadmate needs something from Shepard, and with Kaidan it's the other way around. It's Shepard who needs Kaidan, a person who will remind them that what military propaganda usually pushes as "the hardest choices a soldier can make" are actually the laziest choices.

Kaidan knows that killing is easy. Destroying is easy. But showing restraint, showing compassion, trusting someone, doing the right thing, that's hard.

Also, Kaidan is literally the only squadmate who consistently tells Shepard that they can step aside, that they don't have to do everything alone, that they have their team for a reason, and oh god, thank you Kaidan, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Least favorite thing about them

My god, he's stubborn.

And yes, Shepard needs someone like that in their close circle, but oh Kaidan, my man, my dude, my wonderful human being, you have to learn to relax, to let things go sometimes.

I think the main thing about him is that he's actually so passionate, he feels deeply, and friendship and love are so important to him, but he has trust issues, and he has standards, and he's very intelligent, and all of that runs over this deep well of emotions that he carries around.

He wants to love with abandon, but he can't. He wants to do the right thing all the time, but it's impossible. He has to learn how to compromise, how to live in the gray area.

Honestly, there are so many parallels between his and you-know-who's ark, no wonder all his fans feel so strongly about Kaidan.

Favorite line

So, so many.

"I think we're gonna need a bigger boot, Commander."

"I could shoot someone if it would make you feel better."

"Mike Hazer? Hazer the Laser? Almost didn't recognize you. ... You owe me money."

"Looking back, I have a few regrets, but not many. That's pretty damn amazing, right? Messed up kid that I was, never would have dreamed of the life I've had."

"You'll never find out."

I love his sarcastic ass. And I love all the glimpses into that deep well that is his heart. He's so good.

brOTP

Joker! Oh my God, that first dialog between them is fucking amazing. I feel like Joker is one of Kaidan's main sources of gossip (something Kaidan is interested in both professionally and recreationally), and Joker finds Kaidan's dry wit incredibly funny. They get along just fine because they enjoy teasing each other for sport, but other people probably misinterpret this as dislike. Same with him and Ash.

Also, Tali! Two nerds just talking about tech, weapon mods, all that good stuff. And he's obviously very sweet and protective of her. I really have to read about those two.

If we're talking about ME2 squadmates, his choice would obviously be Samara. I think he would've been fascinated by her story, her abilities, her lifestyle and would've hung out with her a lot. They're just very similar people in my mind, and for Kaidan, it would have been an excellent insight into the extremes of the morality he tends to lean towards.

In ME3, he probably hangs out a lot with James and Steve because he likes Steve and he can tolerate James most of the time. XD I think Kaidan and Steve have a lot in common. There's this careful quietness about them. They're both observers, they're both cautious and reserved. And I think Kaidan can see that there's kindness at the core of Steve's soul, and that's important to him.

And finally, mShenko, because whether they end up as a couple or not, they're friends first and foremost. Their romance is purely friends to lovers. Not mentor/mentee+friends to lovers, but friends to lovers. They're open and honest with each other, they care about each other deeply, they know how to tease each other without hurting anyone's feelings. They're equals.

OTP

mShenko. Oh god, it's so good. The slow burn, the maturity of it, how they don't hide behind unnecessary labels and the promises that would probably never be fulfilled. They're just there for each other despite everything, despite their time running out, and it's perfect.

Bonus points for being so obviously horny for each other.

nOTP

Kaidan/Ashley. I just think they work a lot better as friends.

Random headcanon

Kaidan doesn't really like to talk about his childhood, not because it was bad, but because he had a "rich kid's childhood", and things that were common for him throughout his life are actually quite unique and only come when you have a lot of money.

How can you casually mention your annual vacation aboard your family yacht in the company of an Earthborn orphan, a turian from Palaven, and a quarian who spent most of her life on a starship?

Also, both mShep and Kaidan enjoy being knocked around a little from time to time. So they do sparring sessions together, and this shit is _intense_.

Unpopular opinion

He does casual hookups while on shore leave like any other normal Marine. He finds a girl or a guy, fucks nasty, blows off steam, and returns to his duties.

Song i associate with them

Garbage - Control

Favorite picture of them

This one.

Thank you for this ask! I always love to talk about my man Kaidan.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

ok so i’ve noticed you saying that, generally, fics tend not to preserve harry’s feats, strengths or talents from the books (apart from quidditch and expelliarmus, that is🥲) and they definitely don’t give him the time and space needed to grow into them — barely even acknowledging them as it is.

well, two things to say regarding this:

i think it says a lot about your talent and capabilities as a writer, if, in order to portray one of the characters as intelligent, strong, innovative, downright intimidating, you feel the need to downplay strengths and reduce the other character to the barest minimum. sure, tom/voldemort is an impressive and very complex character, who requires a lot of time and sweat in order to be adequately developed. he is a demanding presence, he catches the reader’s attention and then holds it while still being on page, but. that does not mean in any way that such a character cannot coexist with another, as equally impressive, presence — this being harry, obviously. there is absolutely no need to strip harry bare of his own merits and power, portray him as a skeleton of what he is actually supposed to be, in order to enhance voldemort. as seen in the books, there’s plenty of moments when harry outsmarted voldemort, or, at the very least, held up his own against him. he isn’t meek, or shy, or stupid. i hate that. i hate dumbing harry down so so much, because you do not need to do this just to show the greatness of lord voldemort. it’s already obvious from the books, which also show the cleverness and magical capabilities harry possesses. they are two sides of the same coin — literal parallels of what each of them could’ve turned into, given different choices and maybe different circumstances. they can bounce off each other so well, highlight the similarities and also the stark differences between them — what makes them tick, what makes them get along better than any other two characters, what makes them want to blast each other off the face of the earth. they are such an effervescent pair specifically because more often than not they can play on an even field — voldemort sees and treats harry as an equal and harry meets the requirements needed to hold that place.

anyway, rambling aside, there actually is a fanfic that seems pretty close to what i believe canon harry would turn into, given certain circumstances, and it definitely portrays all of his traits: cleverness, ambition, impulsiveness, manipulation, his dire need of mental privacy, but also emotional closeness (while being emotionally constipated himself). it’s called draw me after you on ao3, by ToAStranger. not sure whether you’ve already read it, but it’s so so worth it. at first i thought harry’s magical capabilities had been slightly exaggerated, but after really thinking about it, and then reading some of your posts about him, i realised that no, they really aren’t. OH AND!!! what you said about magic working differently for harry??? THIS FIC ACTUALLY TACKLES THIS IS SUCH AN AMAZING WAY IT LEFT ME SQUEALING!! indeed, it shows how much more intuitive magic is for harry. i think even voldemort acknowledges this at one point: how certain things simply shouldn’t work like that, but they just… do. and harry always explains his point of view. there’s more often than not a how provided, for the reader to really understand how different v and harry’s thought process is and how that impacts the way their magic works.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed reading my posts about my favorite boy, Harry!

I agree that I personally really dislike it when Harry's abilities and skills are downplayed. Like, he's up there as one of the most magically powerful characters in the books. Like, the only reason some fans don't see him this way is that Harry is the narrator — he has ridiculously low self-esteem and he isn't aware of his own abilities.

Now, I don't think everyone who writes Harry as meek is necessarily doing it to show Voldemort as more powerful. I think a lot of it comes down to a sort of fantasy that appeals to some people. Like, I'm sure some are the result of a writing problem, some are an honest misunderstanding of character, and some are the result of a conscious decision due to personal taste. I personally hate it when Harry is meek and weak because I like him to be capable. I like it when he has his talents and skills because I love competence. I tend to write as many characters as I can as competent because I like writing competent characters (heroes and villains alike. It's the same reason I don't like it when Voldemort is written as insane because of his Horcruxes. Because, I don't think he is insane, just obsessed). That's my taste in reading/writing, but everyone could write whatever they want.

As for the fic, I don't think I've read it, so I can't really say anything about it. I have a rule about not reading fic when I'm in the middle of writing fic (because then I stop writing), but I'll see if I can check it out at some point (I do love it when Harry's unique outlook on magic is acknowledged).