#and she respects him more than anyone

[lilislegacy]

leo: wow, this plan is genius! you guys really thought out everything

annabeth, smiling and nudging clarisse: what can we say? the “wisest daughter of athena” and “mightiest daughter of ares” are quite the team

clarisse: damn right!

frank: uh, i know this plan requires as much secrecy as possible, but we should tell percy what’s going on. it doesn’t feel right that the 20 people in this tent are in on it and he’s in the dark

annabeth, nodding: yes, we absolutely should. can someone go find him? i really want his feedback on-

clarisse: no! no way. look, don’t take any of this personally, annabeth, but we all know percy isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. and we need only the most intelligent people on this. plus, he’s reckless and irresponsible and the idiot has no idea how to stick to a plan.

annabeth, coldly: well you’re an immature, belligerent hothead who bullies other people because of your own glaring inadequacies and raging insecurities. in fact, you pose a significant risk to the success of this plan because i can never be certain of whether you’ll be able to rein in your excessive aggression and futile attempts to win the approval of your father, who, in case you’ve forgotten, was beaten in combat by percy when percy was twelve

clarisse, jaw dropped and flushing with embarrassment:

annabeth: feel free to take any of this personally

[mxtxfanatic]

Fandom Gripe #23: I know that fandom is in some deep denial about its treatment of female characters that are canonically involved with fan favorite m/m ships, but do y’all realize that when you disappear female characters from the narrative wholesale to push the idea that your canonically straight fav was “secretly gay all along!” you’re making several bad implications? That 1) bi men don’t exist, 2) bi men do exist, but those who have genuinely loved a woman before cannot genuinely love a man after that (therefore bi men don’t exist in practice), 3) women cannot inspire genuine love and devotion in men, therefore any relationship with a woman is “lesser” than the one they later have a man (see previous parenthesis), or 4) to acknowledge the existence of a lovable woman who isn’t a terrible person, where if a relationship previously existed, it did not end because of “incompatibility,” is enough to destabilize the present relationship between two queer men?

Because why is the tgcf fandom allergic to acknowledging that He Xuan had a whole ass fiancée that he loved? Why does no one ever seem to remember that the kidnappings and murders of He Xuan’s sister and fiancée were the final straws that sent him on his rampage, and he still keeps a shrine to them in the present-day of the story? Why is her entire existence and significance to He Xuan as a man, character, and to his character arc disappeared in favor of pushing Shi Qingxuan—the brother of the man responsible for his fiancée’s death—into that same role, as if to say that her impact on He Xuan is significant... just not when it's from her? Why does He Xuan’s life in fandom essentially begin not just after her death but because of it?

[king-spite]

so it seems the poppy war has become my absolute favorite series so ofc i'm losing my mind comparing every scene with my other favorite series (red queen) and making an unfathomable amount of headcanons

[makotonaegiunderstander]

something I’ve been thinking abt is how many people think Makoto is immune to despair. I don’t think he is. I think becoming the ultimate Hope was BECAUSE he felt despair. He wouldn’t have fully reached that point without Junko. Makoto becoming such a beacon was his last attempt to avoid completely falling and it wasn’t because he didn’t feel despair, it was because he was too damn stubborn to allow everything to go to waste and he refused to sacrifice his beliefs for someone else’s. His inner monologue tells me he DID experience the same new low the other suvivors did in the final trial, but at the point where he had the choice to give up and die, he looked at the others and he looked at Junko and he couldn’t allow it to happen, not out of self preservation, but because the idea that Junko would have control over their lives made him FURIOUS. and that utter refusal to die kicked in, wether luck or otherwise, and he made the concious effort for one last push while something in him was breaking. He had to be broken in order for the Ultimate Hope to come through so aggressively, bc it could only exist in the face of the Ultimate Despair. He snapped the same way she did, but in the other direction. In what could have been his final moments he chose to embody everything Junko wasn’t, and every single optimistic and luck fueled ideal in him suddenly charged forward and pushed him. It was a combination of the final straw and a choice. Makoto isn’t immune to feeling despair, he’s just too stubborn to fall into it of his own volition. I think that’s why I like that scene in DR3 so much. People were SO SHOCKED Makoto actually fell for the tape, that he actually became despair for a moment. I saw people getting mad or disappointed, saying it was pathetic and Makoto seemed to fall from some sort of pedestal for them. Honestly part of me wonders if that sort of mentality, which clearly people had in universe, affected Makoto a bit. Like he started to see himself as less of a person, subconsciously. Prompting him to take more risks, less self preservation, act way more bold. It seems he has to be reminded a lot not to put himself in danger by his friends, to not do something too reckless. All over the place I would see in regards to that scene either this frivolous ‘oh this was just angst drama with no meaning behind it’ or ‘he can do better than that. he’s so weak’ or ‘come on, there’s no way he’d fall into despair, he’s the Ultimate Hope!’ This kind of mentality, which was kind of ironic considering Ryota was there the entire time saying the same thing and treating Makoto the same way. Like Makoto was superhuman. Like Makoto didn’t feel despair the same way ‘normal people’ did. In a way that was also how Munakata saw Makoto. Makoto stopped being a PERSON to the world when he became Ultimate Hope, he became a concept, a belief system, much the same way Junko ascended beyond herself. But the difference is that treating Makoto that way is the opposite of the reason Makoto became such a representative for hope. He wasn’t doing something no one else could. He was doing something everyone had the chance to, he just… was a little more optimistic, a little more stubborn, a little more ‘gung-ho’ about things. He just took the lead where no one else did, where no one else knew they even COULD in the face of Junko’s unstoppable force. She had overcome the biggest threats and obstacles in the world, what could one person do? And the answer Makoto found was, anything. Everything. It doesn’t all rest on Makoto, he’s just the one that was inspired to try to do what seemed like the impossible. But as evidenced by the change in his friends after that trial, it’s clearly not something only Makoto is capable of. The others pulled out of despair thanks to Makoto, but it was their choice to do so.

“But… this world is so huge, and we’re so small. What can we do…? No, we can probably do anything. Yeah! We can do anything!”

[fiapple]

i'm getting towards the end of the skypeia arc, & i'd like to say just how much i adore the way the female strawhats have been treated.

just... every aspect of how the way their characters have been previously contextualized influences the story-line is treated with a masterful amount of consideration. we're given so many layers to both of them that enrich not only their characters specifically, but the arc, and the one piece world as a whole. without nami & robin having their specific skills, and their specific values, without those being built upon, the story would have come to a halt.

you could not have skypeia without nami & robin being who they are as individuals. not just because they never would've gotten there without nami, but also because the way these women think is itself foundational to the machinations of the arc as a whole.

to be totally upfront, if you think any other strawhats were more central to the skypeia arc than nami & robin were you are full-on fucking lying to yourself.

[villain-in-love]

Behold! The elves and the ship chart!

Imagine falling in love with a crazy woman that barged into your dungeon and continuously tried to kill you. Press F for Thistle. As well as for Kiera, for that matter, since she also didn’t expect for things to turn out like this.

This relationship is such a mess that nobody (even the pair themselves) can figure out what the hell is going on between them anymore.

Clarifications are, as always, under the cut:

♤ The age gap goes in several directions at once. Technically, Thistle is at least 700+ years older than Kiera, since he was a dungeon lord for a thousand years, while Kiera is only 302 years old. On the other hand, he’s younger in terms of physical and perhaps mental maturity. In my narrative, Thistle stopped aging when he was an equivalent of a human 17-19 years old. In the same way Kiera would be somewhere around 21-23 years old if she was human. (In any case, both are equally emotionally stunted and immature...)

♤ They’ll be together forever because Thistle is the living embodiment of “Bold of you to assume that death will get you out of this relationship”. Also after all the shit they went through (including what they personally put each other through), they became so attached to each other that they will kill you if you try to separate them.

♤ Though they don’t dress up much while in the dungeon, both are naturally pretty, but their deeply unpleasant personalities ruin everything. Therefore not a 100% cute couple.

♤ They were not thrilled about being in love. They more or less calmed down about it by now (mostly Thistle) and took on a new approach, but at first it was nightmarish.

Thistle also used to be especially infuriated by that fact because, like, he’s got a dungeon to run! The Golden Country to protect! He needs to find his brother! Meanwhile Kiera is literally the number one hazard. He already had to think about her a lot lately because of how troublesome she is, but now he completely lost the ability to get her out of his head. He’s so busy, he already knows what he wants, and he simply has no time nor need for this nonsense. The worst part is that Kiera started to slowly replace thoughts about Delgal in his mind, and Thistle is truly horrified by that.

Kiera took it all with a bit calmer “Damn, I need to hurry up in killing him”. She hates experiencing those kinds of feelings, she hates that she wants to be closer to someone again, she doesn’t want to get stuck with him in this dungeon for eternity, how can she possibly fail- She had one job, goddamnit. It’s her own fault for wasting time because of her own curiosity. Giving up because of falling in love with a target is pathetic and nothing like her. Especially when those feelings endanger her freedom.

♤ I don’t think Thistle would eat dry noodles even in the modern AU, but nutritional value is almost the only thing that concerns him about food. Would probably eat something incredibly bland or barely cooked and wouldn’t care as long as it keeps him functioning.

Kiera's relationship with food is a long and complicated story... In any case, she is rather picky and her eating habits are all over the place, but she genuinely finds healthier food options tastier most of the time.

♤ Just because Thistle rarely brings up Kiera and the fact that they’re in a… “relationship” (if you would call it that) doesn’t mean that he doesn’t spend a frustratingly large part of his day thinking about her. He’s just the type to obsess quietly.

And in any case, who is he going to tell about her? Soulless bodies of his family sitting in his dining room? His monsters? Villagers of the Golden Kingdom who are all terrified of him?

At least Kiera mingles with other adventurers from time to time.

♤ What draws them to each other is not only being able to understand each other due to their similarities, but also the fact that both of them are really fucking lonely. That’s the glue here. That’s why they latched onto each other so hard and so quickly. (Kiera might claim that she’s okay with being alone, but she’s still human)

♤ Regarding "What stands in the way". Basically, the problem is that they stubbornly cling onto their old priorities because it’s the only thing they have ever known. Thistle is nothing if he doesn’t serve the Golden Kingdom. Kiera is nothing if not a war machine. I guess they both see themselves as tools that are only allowed to have one purpose.

On another note, at this point Kiera tries to kill Thistle not only “for sport” and because she hates giving up, but also because she’s terrified of attachment. Thistle doesn’t make things easier for her, since he tends to get too attached, as well as controlling, and his idea of expressing love includes putting Kiera in the safe terrarium that he controls, so he could take care of her fo-re-ver.

So what we have is a “control freak vs free spirit” kind of problem. This does get resolved by the end of the manga and they come to a "compromise". Not willingly by themselves, though, but because of the circumstances.

♤ Regarding Thistle and “haven't experienced any genuine human connection in centuries” – yes, he had Delgal, but I think that that after everything Thistle has done, their relationship most likely became way more emotionally distant in the last few centuries, at least on Delgal’s part.

[ablednt]

Granted I have the overall geographical and cultural knowledge of a 4th grader but from what I can tell the nuclear family model really does seem to be a white colonial invention

Different cultures have different approaches but I mainly hear about either large family units where multiple generations support each other and raise their children and grandchildren together or an "it takes a village" approach where children are raised somewhat communally

And I can't really speak on it much or claim that these families were free of abuse or that children aren't often an oppressed group basically everywhere I know of but the way ownership of your children is so engrained into white society is so bizarre

Like once you notice it you can't unnotice it even the most loving well meaning parents don't know what to do about it because everyone is so isolated from their own families and their own communities so you wind up with 1-2 parents who have full legal ownership of their child and are raised in a culture where you don't have personhood until you're 18 and all attempts at self actualization before them are seen as clueless rebellion. Like our culture is so divorced from the concept that a parent is someone who is helping mentor and care for their child so they can thrive as a fellow human being and it's actually so alarming

And ik this problem isn't unique to white and colonized people but it's honestly really soothing to hear about how other cultures approach and view parenting and community as a whole and to internalize it doesn't have to be this way

[wereh0gz]

Begging for ppl to understand sonamy isn't canon

[vigorouslycoy]

i love saying young man and young lady and ma'am when i'm scolding people. it's like bruh but way cuntier

[xmen-blue]

i feel like i am just as confused as cyclops about why rogue is beefing with him

[darcymercurialisunofficial]

what's your beef with kane? don't you like getting shoved against walls?

If he was, say, an female warrior, and not a brutish war machine, perhaps —

I joke. My tastes lean towards the more….strategic than hands on types of women in power.

Anyways, what isn’t my beef with Kane? What isn’t anyone’s beef with Kane? He has a first grade reading level. He has the emotional intelligence and control of a three year old. He’s blatantly xenophobic to our allies because no one has taught him how to use a map. He’s lucky his father likes him so much - I’m sorry, likes having a *loyal attack dog* so much.

[bitegore]

ngl i think i kind of was a genius for being like 'yeah this character is a scary killyou cannibal scary killer who scary kills you' and then realizing that the way my worldbuilding works out is that there's a nonzero chance that if you leave literally any body parts over they can just come back, depending on what they believe in their heart of hearts can kill them. Of course she'd start eating her kills. She probably tried normal stuff first and then realized it didn't work and she had to try harder if she wanted to actually keep them dead.

[arolesbianism]

Doodle I did of my girl Juliet earlier

[makotonaegiunderstander]

do you ever go do autism crazy for something you can feel it in ur chest. like it’s hard to breathe almost it’s making you gasp for breath and jump around physically. got an adrenaline rush thinking abt Kirigiri.

[llycaons]

I just recommended a fic I do like but I remember the jc writing being kind of annoying in the sense that the author was like 'haha wwx is SO irresponsible, jc is the sensible one and besties with wq and they both think wwx is annoying!' which is is so fucking annoying and disrespectful of wwx because when has that EVER happened in canon like wwx will ocassionally have fun or goof off but not when it's something serious! he demonstrates very sound judgement when it comes to things that actually matter (which jyl said!!! she knew!!!!) and jc being frustrated that wwx is doing something he doesn't understand usually means that he's being left in the dark, not that he has better judgement or is more sensible than wwx

the CR arrival? yeah he wandered off to get jyl a present but did it really matter. yeah he tried to sneak alcohol in but he went back alone and retrieved the entry passes himself, snd jc also indulged in the alcohol and porn parties so its not like he can judge. the time he snuck off to join lwj on his quest? yeah he didn't tell anyone but he knew what lwj was doing and he knew he needed help and that it was important. spending all his time drinking post-ss? he wasn't being stupid, he was coping with trauma and suddenly not having a purpose anymore. he KNEW what jc wanted from him but he wasn't able to give it. and the fucking wens? people act like jc was 'just doing the smart thing' when it came to the wens but wwx KNEW what he was doing was dangerous and couldn't end well, he was simply making a MORAL decision rather than a political one

the sole example was wwx mocking jl without knowing about his mom which was a serious error on his part and when one of his genuine flaws of EMOTIONAL carelessness comes through, but to his credit he immediately corrected his behavior afterwards. and it really was bad luck THAT was the kid who trapped him. and it's not like jc has any leg to stand on when criticizing his emotional sensitivity to others

and postcanon he's trying to hunt down a cursed sword/solve a mystery like he does do silly things occasionally but he's got like. a purpose and all which he does stick tonwhen he needs to. but also there isn't anything wrong with him just enjoying his life in either of his two lifetimes. like damn jc....why do you hate fun...etc.

like jc doesn't necessarily always make bad decisions, but he is very often working with incomplete information (often bc wwx is intentionally misleading him!) and he never pauses to consider he may not be the best person to make these decisions, but people take his contempt for others and his confidence fully at face value when they really shouldn't. in canon his attitude of 'ugh I'm the only serious one who cares about doing things right and wwx is just a disaster who slacks off all the time' is demonstrably untrue as was proven time and again within the text as a brilliant, compassionate, driven, well-informed, pragmatic, canny, circumspect, untruthful, protective, and morally driven wwx emerges distinct from the careless, out-of-control disaster idiot slacker that jc often treats him as. and like. that fucking matters

edit: of course there's ALSO the theme of jc wanting wwx to sit down and shut up and stop making trouble while wwx is a deeply morally driven anti-authoritarian character who can and does defy jc and other leadership he's supposedly meant to defer to when he feels he has a moral comittment he must honor. the narrative recognizes that wwx's decisions aren't always right, and he does make mistakes, but those mistakes were not 'trying to do the right thing even though jc said it was stupid and pointless' (i.e. offering to help lwj during the indoctrination camp, saving jzx's life in the cave, defecting to pay their joint debt to the wens) and the fact that people genuinely think they are is like. did you understand the story bud. like jc being mad that wwx saved lwj and jzx and thus apparently brought down the wrath of the wens onto LP makes sense to HIM but saving two heirs was the correct political and moral decision and from an objective standpoint they both KNEW the wens were coming for them. if anything jc's judgement is the one that's usually impaired because it's so often clouded by his uncontrollable and tempestuous emotional state. wwx walking his single-plank bridge is an intentional decision he makes with full knowledge of the risk, and it's one that's ultimately proven to be righteous despite the regrets it brings him and the losses he incurs

[monstermp3]

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