#and we can't say “well it's not that bad in comparison” because obviously there has to be SOME moral norms

[velvetvexations]

We know Kipperlilly hated the Bad Kids but how are we defining 'hate'? This is a longshot but what if she wasn't actually planning on targeting them personally for death etc. until that first meeting in the cafeteria? Because she approached them with serene grace then and for awhile after despite BLeeM's amazing acting it making it visibly clear she was struggling to not respond negatively to the bullying. Sure, she arranged for Frosty Fair to be held at the Thistlespring's, but we now know that wasn't about Gorgug at all and he may not have been personally in danger from what they were attempting. Maybe she even expected Kristen would be grateful for reuniting Cassandra with Ankarna.

Of course, I don't think Cassandra wanted to be reunited with Ankarna, Ankarna is obviously evil and all of this is evil, but what if the Rat Grinders have been hoodwinked this whole time, or at least up until a recent point of no return? Yolanda and the Loams could have died purely from Ankarna filling them with too much rage, it's possible the RGs had no intentional part in making that happen.

So like, what if Kipperlilly obsessively hated the Bad Kids, yes, but was on at least some level aware it was irrational? Because she'd gone all these years without blowing-up or striking out at them at all, maybe she knew to some extent that her hatred was disproportionate if only in regards to what they personally did wrong, right up until she finally had a face-to-face conversation with them and one of them literally entered the election just to keep her from winning?

The only crease to this is that for as much as Brennan has been desperately trying to signal to the IHs that Kipperlilly isn't Solace Hitler, and partly because of that, it's unlikely Euegnia is intended to be wrong when she speculates that Mazey only isn't dead for practical reasons and describes Kipperlilly finding her as holding her grave hostage.

[5ummit]

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

[butchvamp]

i already said it but it does really frustrate me how little agency Taash has and the more i think about it the more insidious it gets. again their entire story revolves around Rook making choices for them, and they're also consistently talked down to by other characters, even if those characters are depicted as being friendly or nice. Isabela treats them like a child despite Taash being a very accomplished dragon hunter with the lords (which we see, repeatedly, when fighting the blighted dragons! Taash is not a child), and of course there's their mother (at least this is intentional) and both her and Isabela go behind Taash's back to throw them in with Rook, without asking for their input. Isabela just assumes without even trying to discuss it with Taash separate from their mother, despite seemingly being aware of the two's strained relationship... and from there Isabela continues to make unnecessary comments to Taash whenever you visit the hall of valor with them.

even Flynn, the nonbinary grey warden you meet in the wetlands, condescends to them about the Qun when discussing their gender, and Taash isn't allowed to disagree with them (apparently they give Flynn a Look but ultimately don't press the issue) and Flynn is depicted as being helpful in this discussion. Rook lectures them about gender and their own culture; their entire narrative revolves around Other People telling them what to do and how to feel-- it's obviously meant to be Bad when Taash's mother does it, because she (the Qun) is oppressive, but otherwise the game seems to be fine when it's Rook or literally anyone else doing it, because we're the enlightened Good Guys, and Taash is just helpless and confused and so oppressed. of course, i don't think it's bad for Rook to discuss these things with Taash or give them gentle suggestions, and i don't even hate the potential gender discussion you can have with a trans Rook; and for the record, their mother does treat them poorly. but we can't ignore the way Taash's repeated infantilization culminates in the player being the one to choose their culture for them in the end, because..?

well, the game clearly doesn't think Taash is capable of doing it themselves. at one point Taash links the ropes they wear for the Qun to the ones the antaam used to tie down a dragon and "blight" them. even if i'm feeling gracious and say that Weekes really meant that womanhood & their mother's expectations are restricting, they actively chose to use the ropes of the Qun to make this comparison, and so are also implying here that their mother teaching them the Qun has tied them down and "blighted" them-- that the Qun has "infected" their thinking and is as bad as the blight (this is also implied in the previous discussion with Flynn). this is.... really racist. it takes Rook and their, again, "enlightened" (white) ideas about gender to get through to Taash, nevermind that the Qun has its own ideas around gender that just get shouted down or completely ignored. the racism here results in the narrative contradicting itself, considering one of the first things Taash says is "you don't get to tell me who i am" but... Rook does, in the end, because intentional or not the game is clearly convinced that a person like Taash needs someone from outside of their and their mother's culture (aka free of "blight") to come tell them what's best for them.... 🤔 hm! and while it's true you can choose for them to align with the qunari in the end, that doesn't mitigate all of the heinous and racist writing that leads up to that choice (and that the choice itself is racist. and you have to make it twice!)

of course we can say that Rook makes choices for all of the companions, this is true, but it's obvious that none of the other companions' choices are in the same ballpark, we aren't directly deciding something about their identity, and none of them lack agency to the same extent as Taash. we can even argue that they need Rook to explain gender to them, no one else ever has-- well, sure. the thing with Taash is that some parts of their story, when removed from context, are perfectly fine. i'm not criticizing the way Taash talks or acts or "does gender," all of which are things some people may connect to for various reasons (all of our experiences are different) but unfortunately we cannot discuss any of this without addressing the racism that is so thoroughly baked into every aspect of their character.

i criticized Taash for being "childlike" previously and that really wasn't the right phrasing-- i don't think that Taash themselves is childlike, it has nothing to do with them-- it's the way the narrative treats them, the way other characters talk down to them, how it takes away their autonomy & forces us to go along with it, and ultimately educate them and "save" them, and i think it's worth interrogating why Taash, of all the companions, is specifically depicted this way (it's racism).

[flavescentskies]

Ya know.

What IF Vox and Valentino don't "fight all the time"?

The evidence we have from the show does suggest Valentino is "hot-headed" but there's no implication of him being mad AT Vox; it's always one "w**re" or another. On the contrary, Vox is shown to be an effectively placatory presence for Valentino �� "waiting for a flat-faced prince to calm him down".

Where tf do people get the idea that they fight, when it's actually Valentino being the "pissbaby" he is, throwing temper tantrums because he's too proud to just dial up Vox and ask him to hear him yap? Yes, I understand the pre-canon interpretations but people should really flush those down a drain now that the canon is out. And if they still can't get over it, they should use "AU" in the tag. Mischaracterization kills characters, and makes viewers question their own interpretation just because previous fans cannot get over their obstinate hyperfixations.

The part where Valentino was throwing the drink at Vox and then flung his phone against the wall were probably the most that he did — and these pale in comparison to what he did to Angel. Valentino knows he can't treat Vox any less than another Overlord. Alternatively, Vox doesn't hesitate to physically drag down Valentino and raise his voice at him...TWICE. What's your reasoning that Vox doesn't have the upper hand in their relationship?

Most importantly, we must pay attention to the reasons for their lashing out. It's a climatic moment: Angel has found a place to which neither Val or Vox's powers extend, and Alastor is back — and they're both associated with the princess of all of Hell, Charlie Morningstar ! Valentino and Vox aren't fighting, at least not with EACH OTHER. They are mad because their authority is soon to be questioned and they don't like it.

So what do they do? Valentino does the unhealthy equivalent of opening up to your s/o; he's telling Vox why he's mad while emphasizing it with his actions cuz he's still a bad guy, obviously. Vox maintains his calm for the "image" of the Vees, but is upset that Valentino didn't inform him sooner and then proceeds to do what he just prevented Val from doing — ruining their image.

Apart from this, Vox and Val have proven themselves to be straight up comfortable and decent around each other. Vox treats Valentino like a gentleman and is supportive of his suggestions — for example, when he agrees to Val's advice that they should "get someone inside" Alastor, in itself a wildly stupid idea. On the other hand, Valentino listens to Vox and seems to genuinely want to spent more time with him without appearing too desperate.

Edit: Additionally, Valentino says "Oh, you know me too well" to Vox right after he allows Val to shoot down their lowest paid earners, which, together with Vox's sly grin, directly shows just how intimately they understand each other. And if mutual understanding isn't crucial in a typical healthy relationship, consider me resigned.

What I noticed here is people assume they're being fake to manipulate each other. While that is a probability, it's worth considering that Vox flashed a fake-er smile to the news audience than he did at Val: his promises to them were also hollow, while to Val they were more concrete.

Hence, we see them sing along and dance harmoniously in the finale. This is what the show's trying to achieve.

[mania-sama]

A Look into Mental Health: Jujutsu Kaisen Analysis

"Being a child is not a sin." (Nanami Kento, Jujutsu Kaisen)

With the release of Chapter 251, I've seen many horrible takes from dudebros saying that Megumi has "sold" the team. This makes me unreasonably angry because of course it does, so obviously my next plan of action is to take all of my hour-long rants about the mental health of JJK characters and put it here, where said dudebros will never see my (correct) analysis in their entire life. Oh well.

One thing Gege is really, really good at is creating believable, undeniably human, and complex characters. Every character has a different set of motivations, beliefs, ideals, and especially mental states. The constant theme of Jujutsu Kiasen has been "Strength vs Weakness". While the clearest interpretation can be seen through the physical attributes of the characters (Gojo being the strongest sorcerer of his time due to his abilities, and Miwa being one of the weakest, again, due to her abilities), it is also directly applied to the mental strength of characters. No two characters are able to withstand the same trauma and come out the exact same, just as no two real people can process the same trauma. Not only is it a result of nature, as people are genetically different and therefore process information differently, but a product of nurture - in other words, character motivation and environment.

This is where we come to the current state of the manga, Chapter 251. The fated Yuuji vs Megumi debate. I keep seeing people wildly misunderstanding these two, and why it's so important that Megumi isn't standing up to fight, why he isn't able to handle his trauma, when Yuuji can.

Gege writes phenomenal characters. And I want to express just how well done they are, making Jujutsu Kaisen actually kind of deserve its popularity, because some people only care about power scaling. I'm going to touch on Megumi last, because understanding all of the other characters' makes his visible struggle that much more impactful.

1. Geto Suguru

I want to start this mental health analysis with Geto. He is the best representation of depression I've ever seen in Shonen. It doesn't take a hundred chapters to showcase a character's downfall. It doesn't take a hundred significant events to cause a character to break down. Gege shows the best, realistic mental breakdown using only a handful of chapters, and still makes it slow and painful.

Depression can start because of a big event, but it doesn't take more for it to worsen. Untreated, depression runs a vicious course that eats a person through slowly but effectively. It isn't one screaming session, hands clutched over the head and cursing God and the world. It's everything piled onto each other. It's coming to the end of that pile and realizing that nothing will ever change.

This is Geto Suguru's story. He has a big event: the fight with Toji and the failure to save Riko. But his mental health journey was fated to decline, even without the fight and failure. The root issue of his depression came from his ability: Cursed Spirit Manipulation. As long as he kept devouring the embodiment of every vile, human emotion, the more he would lose himself to that vileness. He wasn't changing anything; he couldn't help but continue to swim in negativity because that's all he could do.

Gege wasn't making a commentary on Geto's ability. He was talking about people, as they are, and how staying in a bad situation will not always make you stronger. It can, and most likely will, make you worse. A direct comparison to the sixteen-year-old Geto would be a sixteen-year-old at school, surrounded by people who bully and pick on them with harsh words. The kid will eventually consume all of that bullying, all of that negativity, into their being, because there is simply nowhere else to go. School is mandatory; they can't just leave. They eventually feel isolated, with all that vileness piled on. Even if they have friends, those people could never understand what it's like to put up with humiliation and cruelty day after day.

It's not rational to push away a support system, but who said human beings are always rational? People make mistakes. They don't make the right decisions. Geto didn't. He saw someone offer him a chance at change, a possible light at the top of his pile and twisted it to match his overwhelming negativity. He left and swore to destroy the world that made him the way he is, just as that bullied child may turn away from school and society in whatever form that may take.

I want to touch on the physical aspects of Geto's depression, too. I noted this in a previous analysis I did on him (his character is just that amazing, what can I say?), but Gege knew that the mind can't be affected alone. Geto was drawn with deep eyebags, a nod to an inability to sleep or needing to sleep all the time. Depression makes you tired all the time. Everything becomes difficult. He sits with his back hunched, resting his weight on his knees, like sitting upright is too hard. When someone speaks to him, he blinks and takes a second too long to look over or respond, like speaking takes too much energy. To me, it even looked like he was becoming thinner. It's extremely difficult to maintain a schedule of exercise and mealtimes when your mind is fighting an active war against itself.

Again, a beautiful representation of depression. Geto means a lot to me in this aspect.

2. Gojo Satoru

In comparison to Geto, Gojo's horrible mental health is a lot subtler. Depression isn't the correct term, but you don't have to be depressed to be sad. Sadness is his stagnant state; he has moments of bliss, goals to work towards, a reason to keep going, to continue living, to continue chasing the sun over the horizon, but he does return to the same place he is always at when the lights turn off and he's painfully reminded of this one fact: he is isolated.

All of Gojo's problems start and end with isolation. From the moment he was born, everyone knew he was different. He knew he was different. Through glimpses of his childhood and honestly reading between the lines, it's obvious he never played with kids his age. People don't just develop a superiority complex with their only drive to be better than literally everyone else for no other reason than to get better. It comes from somewhere, and in Gojo's case, it's from his young childhood. It seriously messed him up; even now, he can't shake the lesson that "Strength is the only way to success and happiness".

This is what made Geto so important. Geto was somebody who could share the burden of being the strongest. Geto was someone his age who understood him in a way Shoko could not, though they both were able to see Gojo beyond his capabilities as a Jujutsu sorcerer. Gojo then had somebody to base his moral principles on. Because he couldn't connect with anybody else, he had no basis other than strength. Geto taught him why it was important for the strong to protect the weak.

Then everything went wrong. Gojo became isolated again in his strength and lost the only person who could plausibly stand with him. "Are you the strongest because you're Gojo Satoru, or are you Gojo Satoru because you're the strongest?" Gojo was young, then, and fresh-faced into his newfound godhood. He didn't kill Geto in that moment because he wanted to deny the claim that he is nothing without his strength, that he isn't as shallow as he was raised to be.

But he knew better. He grew older, he killed his best friend, and he realized that he was nothing without his strength. He never got over Geto. In order to cope with the guilt of being unable to save him when he left, he adopted a whole kid, thinking that if he wasn't strong enough to save Geto, maybe he could save Megumi. But there it is all over again - he never broke from the cycle of strength defining his worth. Saving Megumi would define his strength, right? It would prove Geto wrong, right? He raised Megumi under the same logic (that the only way to save his sister is to be strong), only ridding the boy of the crushing isolation.

In this way, Gojo isn't mentally weak. He didn't abandon society and everyone who loved him, instead choosing to hone the trauma of his isolated childhood into a weapon and teach the next generation to be better than himself. He isn't depressed, but he isn't happy. You can't be happy if you're alone all of the time. He hoped Megumi could be someone to stand by him, but in the end, he failed to save Megumi. His strength couldn't save him, just as it couldn't save Geto.

He isn't mentally strong. He isn't weak, either. He is horribly, painfully average. He's not weak enough to be saved, but not strong enough to save others. His childhood plagues him, but not to the point where it prevents him from living. He killed Geto but was unable to bury the body. Gojo is everything he never wanted to be.

As it turns out, strength can't buy you happiness. Gojo may have understood that, but he couldn't abandon it, even to the bitter end. Just as a human struggles to shed their conditioning. Not everyone can break the cycle, but we are always trying our best to work with what we've been dealt.

3. Okkotsu Yuuta

I'm putting Yuuta in between Gojo & Geto and Itadori & Megumi because he is, in a way, a bridge between the two. Geto and Gojo have lived their lives; their stories are complete and ended in tragedy. Itadori and Megumi's are not. They are still actively struggling and fighting their physical and mental battles; their stories have yet to be completed.

Yuuta's story isn't technically completed (ignoring everything that happened in the recent chapter with him for the sake of MY mental health), he is still a success story. He is the average protagonist who started from the bottom and ended up at the top. Only he, as Gege has done time and time again, has a slightly stronger focus on mental health than most other Shonen. He is success where Gojo & Geto failed, and the success that Itadori & Megumi are narratively striving for.

At the beginning, Yuuta was depressed and suicidal. He was bullied at school and involuntarily hurting others. Instead of becoming resentful of the world, he pushed all of the vileness inward. His guilt caused him to try to take his life, presumably multiple times, but Rika stopped him before he could succeed. His life was effectively out of his hands; he felt powerless with all of the bodies stacking around him, and he couldn't atone for "his" actions.

His mental health, as it was, was in shambles. Gojo then offered him a way forward. Yuuta's mental health did not improve overnight. It was when he made friends at Jujutsu High, and developed a support system, that he was able to relieve his anxiety and realize that life is not so bad after all. That all of this pain and suffering and loss - it will pass.

The most important thing to acknowledge when it comes to Yuuta is the sheer fact that he was not alone, nor did he allow himself to be alone. Unlike Gojo, who still had Shoko and Nanami after Geto left but refused to connect with them, Yuuta allowed himself to get close to those around him. They didn't know the suffering he'd undergone for so many years. They didn't know what it was like to be him, but that was okay. He knew that they had empathy, that even though they could never experience his life, they could still be there for him now when he falls.

When given the opportunity to surrender, Yuuta stands in the face of one Geto Suguru and swears to protect his friends and fight with Rika. He's so far removed from the boy who tried to kill himself at the beginning of the manga, and that's because he let himself be changed. He did not succumb. He had friends, he knew. People that would miss him if he left, and people whom he would regret leaving.

This stays consistent with his character. He doesn't let himself become isolated in his strength or his experiences. He's much stronger than everyone else in the room, he's a special grade and he knows that, but he still treats everyone like they are equals. Like they are his friends, like they are people who could share this burden of existence with him. This is something that Gojo couldn't accomplish, which lends to the fact that Gojo had a very off-hand teaching method when it came to mentoring Yuuta. Instead of influencing him under this idea of strength conquers all, he let Yuuta develop far away from the ideals of the Japanese Jujutsu Society.

And, in the end, the fact of him being physically strong - a special-grade sorcerer from the get-go - never helped him in his mental health. In fact, it made him miserable until he learned to get a handle on Rika. His winning or losing that fight with Geto wasn't the point of his character, it was reckoning with the fact that he is okay now. That he can embrace the ugly part of him with dignity instead of guilt.

4. Itadori Yuuji

Itadori's entire character is that he has an unbreakable spirit. As the only one who can bear the soul of Sukuna, he started off like Yuuta, only on the opposite end of the mental health spectrum. When we first see him, he's happy, spending his afternoons with the Occult Club and watching movies.

... What happened?

Like Geto, everything piled on very slowly. So slow that I'm not even sure he felt the true effects of everything he experienced up until the fall of Shibuya. It starts with the death of grandfather, whose parting words "Just save as many people as you can" haunt him even now during the final fight with Sukuna. He was never given time to properly grieve his grandfather, just as he never had time to grieve the brother curses, Junpei, Nanami, Nobara, Gojo, Higurama. At the end of it all, when the fighting is over, I have to wonder what will become of the boy that realizes he's lost most of the people he loved.

The one time he did try to process it, when he realized that he couldn't control Sukuna, was when he broke down in Shibuya. Sukuna leveled an entire city. For the boy who never wanted to kill another human being for fear of devaluing life, the weight of his weakness killing thousands was crushing. Then Nanami died. Nobara died (still hanging onto that unknown status but I digress). Both are right in front of him, and powerless to prevent Mahito from disintegrating their bodies. So, obviously, Itadori broke down. The boy with the unshakeable spirit, the only person who could contain the King of Curses, has his psyche completely shattered.

He laid on the ground, and he wouldn't have gotten back up if there wasn't somebody to help him, to be there with him. Todo pulled him back together, stitched back up the broken into somebody who has allies and people to fight for. Itadori has the success that Yuuta had, only Itadori did not come out of it with better mental health.

After the breakdown, his unshakeable spirit was nothing more than the will to keep fighting. He cares little for himself, and he tries to distance himself from people to prevent them from dying from his cursed hands. He is jumping, quickly, down the same rabbit hole that Geto fell down. One big event, and they realize just how tall the pile already is, and that it will never stop growing. Unlike Geto, however, he continues to get overbearing support from those around him. Against his will. He can't push them away, for they refuse to leave his side. Yuuta, Choso, Megumi, even Higurama. They won't let him fall. This makes him better off than someone alone, in a sense. He can withstand his trauma when others may not.

Even so, even so, there is only so much support, the lack of self-isolation, can do when the traumas keep actively repeating. When he says that he will gladly die to defeat Sukuna, it is not said with the same tone that another Shonen protagonist would say it. Take Naruto for example. If he were to go into a battle to protect, say, Sasuke, he would scream, "I'll die to protect him." We understand that his willpower is stronger than his self-preservation, but we don't get the idea that he actively wants to die. He'll die if he has to. Now, Itadori says the same thing, but about saving Megumi. He says, "I'll gladly die." There is something different. His willpower is leaps and bounds stronger than his self-preservation, but that's not only it. There is an undercurrent of severe suicidal ideation prevalent in Itadori's tone. It's not that he will die to win, it's that a part of him wants for this to be his final fight. For it all to be over. To save Megumi, then atone for the sin of being too weak to save Shibuya, or being unable to stop the Culling Games, or letting Megumi get hurt when all he wanted was to keep him safe.

I'd call it more along the lines of passive suicidal ideation. He doesn't plan to kill himself, but what would it mean for him to go into dangerous situations without protection? What would it mean for him to succumb to his wounds after he wakes Megumi's soul and kills Sukuna? To not even try to seek medical attention? He's guilty. He believes everything that happened in Shibuya and after is his fault. When faced with the executioner's sword, he was ready to die for his sins, if not for the goal of ending the Games. There is a fine line between willing to die for those you love versus wanting to die for those you love.

Right now, Itadori is fighting to save one person, like his grandfather said. He is not fighting to survive. And that's what people fail to understand about Itadori when they compare him to the other members of the cast. These power-scaling dudebros don't understand that their favorite OP main character has fallen apart at the seams, that his unshakeable spirit to save people doesn't include himself.

5. Fushiguro Megumi

Here we finally come to the question: Why can Itadori take it when Megumi can't? There is a very similar quote that you probably think of whenever you hear this question asked. It's from The Outsiders: "Dally is tougher than I am. Why can I take it when Dally can't?" The answer to this question that Ponyboy gives is the same we can attribute to Megumi. "And then I knew. Johnny was the only thing Dally loved. And now Johnny was gone."

The entire reason Megumi became a Jujutsu sorcerer was to protect his sister. When he was five years old and probably too young to understand most of the words Gojo said, he accepted the offer of training to become a sorcerer in exchange for Tsumiki's happiness. Every day, he fought to protect her. He only had one goal in entering the Culling Games: to prevent Tsumiki from having to participate.

It's easy to attribute Megumi's constant attempts at summoning Mahoraga to a lack of will to live - suicidal ideation, the same that Itadori now experiences. On one hand, I do understand that he has a fundamental lack of care for his own life, but on the other, I don't think that he intends to throw it all away every single time. He just didn't know any better. Ignorance can lead to death as easily as intentionally seeking it out. That's why he changes his habit after Gojo gives him a lesson in risking death versus dying to win; Megumi still has someone to live for, after all.

Megumi's mental health was already rocky from the start. Not that it was in shambles like Yuuta, but he wasn't fully stable. Like a lot of teenagers, he's moody, somewhat reclusive, and only really likes one or two people maximum. Teenagers aren't known for their sunshine mental health anyway.

Megumi was given time to grieve Itadori after he first died. This trauma of losing him in front of his eyes stuck with him, but he was allowed a grace period of two months to grieve with Nobara. He experienced Shibuya, too, but he still had that one important person to protect. His mental health was alright at this point, all things considered. As long as his sister was alive, he would be fine.

Sukuna knew this. So Sukuna killed Tsumiki using only the Ten Shadows Teqchnique. The one person Megumi spent his whole life dedicated to, was killed by his own cursed technique, his own failure to suppress Sukuna.

In the void of his soul, Megumi was alone. Truly, utterly alone. The only person nearby was Sukuna, the murderer of his sister, the murderer of thousands upon thousands of people. He drowned in the ceremonial bath of crushed curses to hold his soul down in the depths of despair, literally drenched in all of the vileness the world has to offer. Sukuna killed Gojo using Mahoraga's adaption ability, and before that, Megumi was forced to take several of Gojo's mind-altering domain expansions.

Already, he had given up. He gave up when his sister died, but the rest ground a pointed spur into his neck. When Itadori shakes his soul, Megumi is repeating, "That's enough." He was at the end of his rope a long time ago. What more is there to keep living for? He doesn't want to live with the blood of his sister, the blood of the man who practically raised him, and the blood of countless others drenching his hands.

Sukuna killed all of these people, not Megumi. But then, Sukuna killed of those people in Shibuya, not Itadori. Why can Itadori take it? Why can he keep fighting when Megumi lays broken on the ground? Itadori wasn't alone. And Megumi has never been known for his unshakeable spirit. That is the one thing that Itadori can hold over everybody else, the one trait that everyone admires. He was born to shoulder the burden of the world. Megumi wasn't. Megumi wants to die. He is not passively suicidal, for he has no goals left to complete, a plan to die within the body no longer inhabited alone. He is suicidal. He would drive a stake through his heart if it meant relieving his pain. He doesn't want to do it anymore. He's had enough.

And Itadori was in this position once, too? Perhaps not as directly, but he was there. Here is the moment that the protagonist gives the motivating speech to will someone to keep fighting, that life is worth living. I realized today that this is not something Itadori has done yet. He hasn't had a grand speech that's not been about his own willpower. He's never encouraged someone else to keep living in the way that you would expect from the main character. This is his moment, I suppose. He needs to be the person for Megumi that Todo was for him. He has to show Megumi that he isn't alone.

He needs to save Megumi when, all those years ago, Gojo couldn't save Geto.

I don't think some of this fanbase understands how horrible Gege has to be at writing if he just. Let Megumi get up to fight in Chapter 251. All this time, he has shown how Megumi has been defeated. He showed him crumbled on the ground, unmoving. It shouldn't be a surprise that all of the measures Sukuna took to ensnare Megumi's soul worked. Megumi is suicidal after the people he loves have all died because of his technique. God forbid a sixteen-year-old is unable to cope with his trauma alone.

Honorable Mentions:

There are a lot more characters in this story that represent/show mental illness that I didn't go into depth on but are worth mentioning. It was easier to only talk about the major characters since we spend so much time with them and I can fully flesh out everything that should/can be said about them. Anyway, here are a few more that are notably well-written in their mental struggles:

Yoshino Junpei. His story arc follows very similarly to Geto, except he is the bullied student I was making a reference to. Depressed, alone with a mother whose habits he can't stand, he turned to someone he thought could provide him a better life. Interestingly, he is a good representation of the type of children that tend to be groomed. That's surely what happened to him. Mahito used him, then discarded him for his own gains.

Ieiri Shoko. Her main struggle can be seen through her smoking habits. She's been through a lot, lost so many people, and has to keep healing sorcerers only for them to die. Eventually, she was able to come to terms with this. She kicked her smoking habit at the same time she kicked the vicious mental cycle of caring too much about the patient on her table. It's no wonder she picked up a cigarette, for the first time in a while, when Geto led the phantom parade.

Zenin Maki. She works as a very good contrast to Megumi. They both lost their sisters, the people they loved the most, but she turned all of her grief to killing the Zenin clan and gaining Heavenly Restriction. But this, this is because she could do so. There is simply nothing Megumi can do as a soul trapped in his own body. Her grief made her stronger, while for most, it made them weaker.

Inumaki Toge. He isn't seen a lot, but his story is ultimately quite compelling. A boy who hurt many when he was young. He turned his guilt into kindness, a will to protect. He tends a garden to raise plants healthily, for God's sake. He's one of the examples that shows Yuuta that your past actions don't define you, but instead, what you choose to do going forward.

I am not proofreading any of this before I post it. Sorry if it is borderline unreadable with spelling / grammatical errors.

[usercelestial]

tbh i think a lot of the people saying "well both sides are wrong"/"bt stans are just as toxic" are just not exposed to other perspectives in this fandom. as a buddie fan who's been watching this show since s1, i can safely say that buddie fans have always been toxic. like as fact. to me, to say that bucktommy fans are just as harmful or just as annoying or just as bad as buddies consistently are is just. delusional. indicative of at worst a biased opinion and at best an uninformed one. buddie has been here since s2 and fans have ruthless ever since. bucktommy has been here for 3/4 of a season and for the most part, stay in their lane. i'm sure there are bucktommy fans who suck, like that's just being on the internet, but you have to be blind to ignore how insane buddie fans are and genuinely how much worse they are in comparison.

i don't want to generalize and i think constantly adding that disclaimer is annoying as hell bc obviously i'm not talking about everyone but because buddie has been here for so long and taken up so much mental space of very die-hard, passionate fans, you're going to see much more intensity on that side. after season 5, i had to step away from the fandom and the show because of how frustrating it got. it was annoying to see people swear up and down buddie will be canon by the end of s3-no wait s4-no wait s5-no wait- and ultimately it sucked my enjoyment out of a show i otherwise enjoyed because i got swept up in the Buddie Of It All and forget about why i watch the show to begin with. we've been left to stew in our theories and now we can't tell what canon and what's fanon anymore, and when the show reminds us, the disappointment and frustration kills our hopes.

i was also active in the dan and phil fandom and supernatural fandom, like ik why people think we're annoying and it's because we are. we make everything about the one thing we like, we comment on every post begging for it to become canon, we're violently disappointed when the show doesn't play into our fan theories because we've convinced ourselves buddie is going to happen by the end of the next episode or actually the end of this season or actually maybe the end of the next season. we've torn a part every female love interest, either making them boring or making them unlikeable in our fanon. all that to say is that when people call us annoying, they're telling the truth and when bucktommy fans say buddie fans are toxic, they're coming from a sincere place. i mean we can't even enjoy our own ship because we're so quick to get our hopes up and be let down about something as stupid it becoming canon. who cares if it becomes canon, just like it to like it.

and it makes sense why there's perceived "toxicity" on the bucktommy side. our energy is being matched; the obsession, the passion, the surge in fandom. if you don't like it or even just find it annoying, i suggest you guys look back on your own posts and comments and behaviors towards other people in the fandom and other characters and unbiasedly compare it to the Toxic Bucktommy Shippers you're claiming you hate. if bucktommy fans are obsessive, it's because we've set the stage for that. if bucktommy fans are getting aggro and defensive, it's because buddie fans have been on the opposition and don't know how to turn it off. we've gone from underdog to bully somewhere in the last 6 seasons.

[offtorivendell]

So,..I’ve read two different books that are elriel coded: NALINI SINGH’S Archangel’s Storm and Black Dagger Brotherhood, Lover Awakened. Books that if I’m not mistaken are one SJM’s favorites… Have you read it? It’s interesting that the both MMC are talented singers, scarred, killer and doesnt speak much. Jason, the angel who is a spymaster, shadow daddy and “hears secrets whispered in the winds” is so Azriel. Zsadist, the vampire with PTSD, similar personality as Jason. I saw a mixed of Jason and Zsadist in Azriel.

Their love interests are princess or aristocrat, very beautiful and well etiquette. Princess Mahiya, the angel (Jason’s mate), helped Jason with spying and she has puma eyes. She loves animal and can create a glowing ball of light. Bella, the vampire aristocrat that killed her kidnapper who is obsessed with her. I felt like I was reading Elriel in both books.

If SJM keeps the inspiration from Archangel’s Storm then it would make sense with the “fanged beast” on Elain’s part. I really think Elain may become a shape-shifter like faes from TOG and could create “a ball of light”, like Yrene or because of the starborn ability? (Oh btw, I was wondering if there’s a possibility that Yrene’s powers are connected to Starborn?)

Do you think Elain’s book will be more of beast themed? Something that is connected to Dusk Court… Anyway, what do you know of the first faes on Prythian? Are Starborn faes the oldest group that founded the Dusk Court, possibly migrating from the Erilea? It sounds like TOG faes are the first generation fae and they sort of evolved in Prythian and Lunathion? SJM made Lunathion connected to Prythian and Erilea. So, I’m wondering how Erilea is connected to Prythian? I know Aelin saw Rhys and Pregnant Feyre in KOA, but that’s it.

Ugh.. sorry for so many questions.. 🫣

Hi anon, and thanks for stopping by!

Disclaimer: the following is all theoretical; while I hope at least some of it will come true, we have to wait for SJM to let us know for sure.

Spoilers for the entire Maasverse, as well as parts of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series, are below.

I haven't read any Nalini Singh, though friends have recommended her to me a few times, so I really should fix that. I obviously cannot comment on any similarities - though I have heard similar rumours that SJM loves the books (but have never tried to corroborate them) - but @shitwillnotbegiven has posted a comparison of Elriel scenes with passages from 'Archangel's Storm' that is very compelling. I definitely recommend giving it a read. Of course we can't say for sure whether or not it was intentional, but yeah. There are similarities.

That being said, I have read the first five or so 'Black Dagger Brotherhood' books, and yeah. Read them for yourself of course, but there is a lot to notice. It was a couple of years ago now, so they're not fresh in my mind, but I remember being very 👀👀👀 at a lot of the similarities, especially between Zsadist, Bella and Phury with Azriel, Elain and Lucien. The lovely @silverdreamscapes has posted about many of the parallels existing between each trio, though imo it goes even further than shipping.

But first, I would like to state for the record that I do not think having an inner beast or monster makes someone bad or evil. I do think lightsingers could be a race of faeries that A) are related in some way to the shadowsingers - witches? - with whom we are all hunky dory (so no hate from me until proven otherwise), B) may in fact be facing persecution over some sort of un/intentional misunderstanding and/or rewritten history, and C) that the library actually acts as a sanctuary for these persecuted beings, in addition to any other battered women, who are both vilified and attacked for nothing but their species. Of course I could always be wrong, but I am expecting a twist that diverges from the "truth" about lightsingers that Cassian gave us in ACOSF.

But I digress. I've forgotten a lot, but I do remember that there was a character with teal eyes, who had been cursed by a goddess to carry a monster within him... if lightsingers have an inner beast* - and two of our teal-eyed priestesses have been lightsingers - you can see where I'm going (and for some fabulous rundowns on the lightsinger theory, please see posts by @silverlinedeyes and @merymoonbeam).

As I have said before, I suspect that shadowsingers and lightsingers could be more similar than we know. I wouldn't be surprised if they both have the ability to lure, and both have a beast form/some sort of inner monster or being. Because the teal-eyed character, Rhage, carries his beast in a sort of living tattoo... and whose shadows have been described as appearing like twins to the tattoos on his chest? You betcha. It's Azriel, our favourite shadowsinger.

A corner of Azriel’s mouth curled up, the shadows about him sliding over his neck like living tattoos, twins to the Illyrian ones marked beneath his leathers. Shadows different from anything my powers summoned, spoke to. Born in a lightless, airless prison meant to break him. Instead, he had learned its language. - ACOFAS, chapter 7

As for Elain's potential powers, I'm all aboard the shapeshifter train (please see @wingedblooms for some brilliant theories), and I cannot wait to see what sort of light she can wield (if any, of course, but I do think she has been tied to it in a lot of ways). Can she Sing light and dark (light) to See what she must? Or to travel someplace very far away? I also wouldn't be surprised if Elain and her light/s act as an executioner for whatever Valg-type being exists in Prythian, as Yrene did with Erawan in KOA. I suspect that the King of Hybern may have been possessed in some way, and that Elain's role in assassinating him could have purified him such that he could die, thus beginning her parallels with Yrene.

As for which Fae are the oldest, I personally suspect that the Starborn Fae did found the land that would have become the Dusk Court, and that some may have travelled to Erilea, but I haven't looked into it enough to have quotes at the ready so I'll tag in @wingedblooms and @silverlinedeyes - or anyone else who wants to join in - because they have had more thoughts on this than I have. It seems that the Starborn faeries are different to the shifter faeries from Erilea, and that both ended up in Midgard thanks to Rigelus and his machinations (but as to which is the original fae species, if any, it hasn't been explicitly stated).

Rigelus chuckled again. “We shall get to that in a moment.” He went on, “Danika realized that the shifters are Fae.” Bryce blinked. “What?” “Not your kind of Fae, of course—your breed dwelled in a lovely, verdant land, rich with magic. If it’s of any interest to you, your Starborn bloodline specifically hailed from a small isle a few miles from the mainland. And while the mainland had all manner of climes, the isle existed in beautiful, near-permanent twilight. But only a select few in the entirety of your world could shift from their humanoid forms to animal ones. The Midgard shifters were Fae from a different planet. All the Fae in that world shared their form with an animal. The mer descended from them, too. Perhaps they once shared a world with your breed of Fae, but they had been alone on their planet for long enough to develop their own gifts.” “They don’t have pointed ears.” “Oh, we bred that out of them. It was gone within a few generations.” An isle of near-permanent twilight, the home world of her breed of Fae … A land of Dusk. - HOSAB, chapter 73

A few of my friends and I - @psychologynerd, @elrieldreamer and @ladynightcourt3 - think/hope that IF we get a crossover of sorts in Elain's book it may be to Erilea, in the past. @psychologynerd has previously pointed out that a pretty faerie with raw magic (which Elain has as a Made faerie - here and here) once visited Mistward before being invited to meet Maeve in Doranelle, never to be heard from again. It's also possibly significant that Elain has been linked with owls - check out @wingedblooms Blodeuwedd and Suriel theories for starters - and Maeve had a healer trapped in owl form at her beck and call (thanks @ladynightcourt3 for your help with the quotes).

“But,” Luca chattered on, “no one here has any exciting or rare abilities. Like shape-shifting into whatever form they want, or controlling fire”—her stomach clenched at that—“or oracular sight. We did have a female wander in with raw magic two years ago—she could do anything she wanted, summon any element, and she was here a week before Maeve called her to Doranelle and we never heard from her again. A shame—she was so pretty, too. But it’s the same here as it is everywhere else: a few people with a pathetic trace of elemental powers that are really only fun for farmers.” - HOF, chapter 11

“It also explains why Aelin reported an owl at Maeve’s side when they first met,” Nesryn said, gesturing to Yrene, whose brows bunched. Then Yrene blurted, “The owl must be the Fae form of a healer. Some healer of hers that she keeps close—as a bodyguard. Has let everyone believe to be some pet …” - TOD, chapter 65

“Speak freely, Connall,” Maeve said, her faint smile remaining. The barn owl perched on the back of her throne watched with solemn, unblinking eyes. “Let your brother know these words are your own and not of my command.” - KOA, chapter 8

Some pet... as Hunt suggested he was for Bryce?

“I’m sorry,” Hunt interrupted, “but are you implying that I was made by you two assholes? As some sort of pet?” He pointed to Thanatos, then to Apollion. “Not a pet,” Apollion said darkly. “A weapon.” He nodded to Bryce. “For her, whenever she might come along.” - HOFAS, chapter 61

A weapon, just like Elain becoming "the knife in the dark" to assassinate - and potentially purify the Valg from - the King of Hybern?

I've theorised before that Elain might have plant/earth related powers - which ties in well with her reaction to the Hewn City in ACOSF, and what we learnt about Sathia/Flynn's reaction to being on Avallen in HOFAS - and many of us have long thought she may have some sort of healing magic (here and here). So was the pretty faerie Elain?

I would combust.

Anyway, I hope I answered everything, and I'm SO sorry for this response taking literal months. If you do see this, my bad.

[atopvisenyashill]

Hiiiii it’s @martelldragon I ask from my main

BUT, on the Saera/Jaehaerys thing, IM GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE because whenever this conversation about there being SA or at least some weirdness from Jaehaerys towards Saera, a lot of people will brush it off as “you’re being weird, trying to find something sinister where there isn’t anything” when the subtext is there!!! And I also think HOTD sort of replaced Any potential weirdness there was between Ali/Jae when she was reading to him by having her reading to Viserys -> him marrying her -> him maritally r*ping her in the show.

I feel like this sort of acknowledges that there was something not right about Jae and Saera’s relationship but the show sort of gave the Alicent angle years later when Jaehaerys was being taken care of her while dying and any potential creeping on her to her reading to and taking care of Viserys and him being the one to creep/on eventually marry her.

I also think Viserys calling her Aemma in one of the episodes was definitely at least a reference maybe to the old man she took care of in the book mistaking her for Saera.

Anyway seeing you acknowledge the Jaehaerys/Saera relationship instead of ignoring it and acting like everyone who sees something odd there is “reading too much into it” is just so refreshing and sorry if this doesn’t make sense I kind of started rambling lmao

Oh yeah I feel like I get at least one anon every few weeks since I posted it that is just like "you're reading too much into this" without any explanation and it's like...okay well I disagree lmao. I think especially the people who are like "you think Saera is a girlboss but she's actually a psycho" like...WHOMST is "you" in this situation because it's not me! I think Saera was an intelligent, bright young girl who lived a simultaneously spoiled and lonely youth. I think her worst inclinations were often "rewarded" in the very typical "child can't get attention so they settle for negative attention by acting out" type behavior, which made her behavior worse. I think she exhibits some rather disturbing sexual proclivities and children generally don't land on those types of behaviors on their own; they mimic the behavior, good or bad, that they see. Regardless of what happened, I think it's very clear that Saera is mimicking sexually abusive behavior because she has either witnessed or experienced first hand sexual abuse happening. Now who is the likeliest culprit for that hmmm...

I do think the Joffrey comparisons or even the Rhaenyra comparisons crack me up the most though. Like...oh so you think these three children who really obviously experienced/witnessed sexual abuse and proceeded to act out and enact that sexual violence on others are all very similar little psychopaths? Wow tell me more!

But re: the Alicent of it all. I would agree, i think they combine her relationships with Viserys and Jaehaerys in the show, as well as combining her character with Aemma's (and clearly taking inspiration from Dany and Sansa as characters as well). Viserys is not noted to be decaying to death in the books nor is he particularly old when he dies; in fact, it seems implied he's still fairly young looking and handsome when they marry. Which isn't to say that it's still not tacky at best for him to have an affair with a 17 year old and then marry her when she's 18; it's just like, the show takes away that very gray area that George likes to play with where a teenage girl will marry a handsome, fit 25-35 year old and is maybe not too freaked out by it only to realize there is an ocean of difference between her and that man. Which like, fine, I think they still do a good job of interogating that aspect of F&B and Westerosi culture by delving into with Daemyra ("a girl child you bounced on your knee" is CRAZYYYYY i fucking love that line so fucking much especially because we get that scene where Alys is crying over Daemon and Daemon is a bit playful with her - she for sure judges him for his relationship with Rhaenyra but she also can't help but be fond of him, and I think that really displays the sort of dynamic George is going for with this specific sort of sexual abuse. Not dissimilar imo from like, Sansa remarking on how Tyrion was kind to her and the sort of lasting fondness she has for both him and Sandor - they are doing real damage to those girls but at the same time, the love and fondness is there and it matters to that girl regardless!). I do miss the kind of loving-but-weird beginning to her relationship with Viserys though; aging her down and making Paddy look so old and fucked up makes sense when you're trying to drive home the point to a casual audience that is just. so incredibly monumentally slow on the uptake. But Also imo starting it off this way really cuts a lot of that complexity of how damaging The Institution Of Marriage Is, when Alicent becomes an unwilling victim instead of a hopeful bride.

HOWEVER. The fact that her relationship with him can be airlifted out of the late 100's/early 101 right to the late 110s and onto Viserys sure does speak to how creepy her relationship with Jaehaerys is in canon! Doesn't say anything good about the reasons why she is sent into that man's room to read to him! And if he's calling her not his wife's name, not even his sister's name, but Saera's...hmm is all I'll say!

[mysecretlittlelibrary]

A Little Goes A Long Way

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: not any real

Genre: fluff

Summary: You accidentally find out that Steve has a praise kink and take full advantage of it.

***

When you first joined the Avengers and moved into the compound you'd say you befriended most of the team pretty quickly, some you were closer to than others of course but still, you'd say they were mostly your friends. Now when it comes to the boys club consisting of two supersoldiers and a mechanically winged man, your friendships with them are surprisingly variable.

Sam, is the friendliest and therefore was the quickest for you to connect to. Bucky was one tough nut to crack but you'd say you've successfully done so. Which leaves Super soldier 2. Steve Rogers. He has this... commitment to professionalism. Not just with you, it's with pretty much everyone on the team besides Bucky which makes sense given their history, and Sam who could probably befriend a brick if he wanted to. It's not something that bothers you really, just something you've observed especially in comparison to your friendship with Sam and Bucky. He's nice and you get along as well as necessary.

You can't prove it yet, but you're sure Sam and Bucky, mostly Sam actually, are making moves to get him to open up around you. For example yesterday, kind of out of nowhere, Steve asked you if you knew how to cook because he was trying to learn and thought you'd be able to help. Why? Because Sam and Bucky 'rave about your cooking'. You've cooked for them like twice and you know Sam can throw down in the kitchen so why wouldn't he offer to help Steve? Instead, he sent him to you, and now you're helping Steve make breakfast.

"Breakfast feels like a very simplistic place to start." Steve says.

"It is simplistic. Consider it a litmus test. We're just gonna do pancakes and eggs and from that, I will figure out where to start with dinner meals and such." You say.

"What do you mean figure out where to start?"

"Well if you can't fry eggs I'm not gonna try and teach you beef wellington or pho in the next 24 hours."

"What's pho?"

"It's a Vietnamese soup, but do you get what I mean?"

"Yes! But I can fry eggs and make pancakes." Steve says with a nod.

"Then show me Stevie." You cross your arms.

"Okay, where's the pancake mix?" Steve looks around the counter.

"We don't have any. You're gonna have to do it from scratch." You smile.

"I've never done that before."

"That's okay. Here's a bowl. I'll walk you through it." You tell him. Flour, eggs, sugar, butter, milk, salt, and baking powder in appropriate proportions are mixed into the bowl with your instruction. You're not really a recipe user which, stresses Steve out just a bit, but you know what you're doing obviously and the batter turns out perfect. One at a time Steve cooks the pancakes, they're all pretty misshapen and a couple are a little burnt but overall they turn out alright. "Okay, time to scramble some eggs." You tell him grabbing another bowl. Steve cracks several eggs into the bowl with salt, pepper, and butter and pours the mixture into the frying pan.

"This I've done before."

"Good, don't burn them." You say with a pat on his arm before you start to clean up the island. A few minutes later, the eggs are done and everything is put away or in the sink to be washed.

"See? Eggs I can do."

"I gotta taste it first Rogers. I've learned not to assume that watching the process can prepare you for the final result." You say putting pancakes and eggs on a plate for yourself.

"I followed your instructions. How bad can it be?" He shrugs. You take a bite of the eggs first and they're as good as they should be.

"The eggs are good." You tell him.

"I smell breakfast!" Sam announces strutting in from the hallway with Bucky trailing behind him.

"Morning boys. Help yourself, there's enough to go around." You say.

"Morning y/n." Bucky says.

"Good morning Miss Thing." Sam winks. "Who made these pancakes they are mad wonky." Sam laughs as he grabs some.

"I did." Steve frowns.

"They might look a little funny but they taste good so I'd say you did a wonderful job Stevie." You say. You miss the way his cheeks tinge pink and the way Sam and Bucky exchange a look.

"Thanks." Steve mutters after clearing his throat. "So, you'll help teach me to cook better?" He asks.

"If you take instruction this well all the time, absolutely." You shrug. "You should eat, the spoils of your labor and all." You tell him and he's quick to make himself a plate.

And so, for weeks, you teach Steve to cook. He makes dinner almost every day to learn new things. Some days it's meals that he can do in under 20 minutes, others you pick more complicated recipes that take a couple of hours and he probably won't make them again unless he's asked to. He does better with some meals than others but he follows your directions. Honestly, better than you expected since he's so used to giving orders and not taking them. For Steve, it's about the reaction. He does like cooking with you definitely but the best part of your teaching is how you praise him every time he does something well. Apparently, your little cheers of 'good job Stevie' and 'you did so well' and whatnot are extremely good motivators.

It took even longer for you to pick up on his desire for compliments but once you did you had every intention of using it to your utmost advantage. Even outside of the kitchen, you start to slip in little approval comments where you see fit just to watch him blush and freeze up. Like tonight, during game night. The whole team is playing charades on two teams, you, Wanda, Vision, Peter, Clint, and Bucky on one while Tony, Natasha, Bruce, Thor, Steve, and Sam make up the other. The other team is up, with Bruce acting out something and everyone is shouting out answers. Eventually, Steve gets the answer, the first one he's gotten right.

"You got it! Well done Stevie!" You say leaning over the coffee table that separates you to ruffle his hair. It's an action that you've found usually results in a seemingly involuntary catlike nudging with his head.

"I'm calling a timeout!" Sam stands up. "You, come with me." Sam says to you.

"What? Why?" You ask but instead of answering Sam grabs your arm, forcing you off the floor and pulling you down the hall. "Hey! Sammy! Use your words!" You snatch your arm away from him.

"You are doing this on purpose!" He points at you with a glare.

"Doing what?" You blink at him.

"You know what I'm talking about." Sam's face scrunches up.

"It's easier to stay on the same page if you're direct." You tell him. Oh what an actor you are.

"You're distracting him!" 

"Distracting who?"

"Don't play dumb with me y/n."

"Don't mince words with me Sammy." You say with a smirk. This rapid-fire back and forth is pretty common for you and Sam so you know he's not seriously angry with you over a game of charades.

"Look I don't know what you did to Steve but he cannot focus with you around! You speak and he's redder than a tomato and ten seconds from giggling like an elementary schooler dealing with his first crush and you are taking advantage of that! Stop taking advantage of it he already sucks at charades."

"I didn't do anything." You shrug.

"I'm not buying it. You know I'm not buying it, right?"

"I'm not selling anything babe." You smile.

"I hate you."

"You don't. But we should get back to the game. Everyone's waiting on us." You turn and head back to join the rest of the team. And you'd better believe you spend the rest of the night taking full advantage of Steve's newly found little weakness.

~*~*~

"So what's the deal with you and Steve?" Natasha asks. You're hanging out in your room and she's tossing grapes into her mouth.

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that you talk to him like he's your pet. Are you into him or what?"

"I don't treat him like a pet!"

"I don't mean it in the literal sense y/n. But! Not a day goes by that you aren't going 'good job Stevie' or 'that's wonderful' or 'you did so well' or something like that. Why do you do that?"

"Because his reactions are adorable." You shrug.

"Okaaay but- do you like him? Like is there something there? Does he like you?"

"I have no idea if he likes me." You tell her.

"You have no idea? You haven't asked? He blushes whenever you walk into a room." Natasha scoffs.

"I think he just likes the praise."

"Let's test it!"

"Test it how?"

"Well, right now Steve and Bucky are probably in the training room. Let's go down there, and I'll find a way to throw a 'good boy' at him and see how he reacts."

"That one in particular might be a little difficult to throw out casually. Even I rarely do that one. You can probably get away with a good job or well done." You say.

"I'll see what I can do. Let's go." Nat gets up with her bowl of grapes in hand and the two of you head to the training gym to find Bucky and Steve sparring just like Natasha said they'd be.

"Geez don't you two ever take a break?" You scoff and they both stop to greet you.

"Oh hey, guys. What brings you by?" Bucky asks grabbing a towel.

"Steve catch." Natasha says throwing a grape his way. His head snaps out to catch the grape in his mouth with ease.

"Nice one Stevie. Good job." Natasha says.

"Why did you do that?" Steve asks with confusion on his face. No blush, no stuttering.

"Told ya." Natasha looks at you.

"Told ya what?" Bucky chuckles.

"Bucky your turn. Catch." Natasha tosses a grape at him. Bucky catches the grape in his hand and fixes you both with a look. "Why are you tossing fruit at us like dog treats?"

"Testing reflexes based off of a conversation we were having. Thank you for your contribution, now if you'll excuse us, we have others to test." Natasha grabs your hand and pulls you out of the training room. She waits until you're back in your room to say I told you so. "I told you so! Has less to do with the praise and more to do with you. So what're you gonna do about it?"

"We work together Nat." You say.

"So did Tony and Pepper before getting married."

"That was- kind of predatory of him actually."

"Bad example. Wanda and Vision." She offers.

"Vision's basically a sentient computer."

"My point is; working together shouldn't stop you from being happy. Do you like him?"

"Do you think he'll make a move?"

"Absolutely not. You'll have to play the first card. Do you like him?"

"Well, I'm not doing that." You shake your head.

"Why not?"

"Why bother? Things are fine, you don't mess with things that don't need messing with."

"Chicken." Natasha says.

"Worry about your own love life Romanoff." You roll your eyes.

Unfortunately for you, Natasha was not the only person interested in meddling in your affairs, and the other party happens to be much more hands-on than Natasha was. So much so that a couple of weeks after Natasha tried to push for you to make a move, you find yourself all but barricaded in your room with one super soldier.

The incessant knocking at your bedroom door had pulled you, reluctantly, from the book you were reading, thinking there was an emergency only to find Bucky holding Steve hostage behind a smiling Sam.

"I don't think I want to know what the hell is going on here but you did interrupt my reading so you'd better have a good reason." You'd crossed your arms, waiting for someone to speak.

"You two need to talk. I'm sick of watching you dance around it. We all are." Sam told you and Bucky shoved Steve into your room, forcing you out of the doorway for fear of being knocked over.

"Excuse you?!"

"We aren't letting you out until you talk it all out so everyone can stop watching this weird flirting game you've got going." With that, they pulled your door shut, and sure enough, you couldn't open it. You sat in silence with Steve for a few minutes, contemplating your options.

"I'm sorry." He eventually offers awkwardly.

"For what? You didn't lock us in here." You say.

"Not technically but it is my fault we're in this mess."

"How do you figure?" You tilt your head at him curiously.

"I get so- awkward around you. It's to the point where everyone can tell and I'm an adult there's no reason I shouldn't be able to behave normally around you."

"And what constitutes normal? Sam and I bicker, Tony and I throw insults back and forth- we're basically frenemies, Bucky likes to just sit in the same space together, Nat and I mostly gossip, Thor is always just about to crush me, I babysit for Clint, and Peter turns 15-minute stories into 90-minute retellings because his brain is in a million places at once at all times. Maybe your normal with me is blushing whenever I speak."

"You noticed." Steve grimaces.

"I didn't at first but uh- you are not exactly very subtle."

"Well- now what?" He asks.

"Now what indeed." You hum. "What is it, Stevie? Why do you feel so awkward around me? Is it because I do things like ruffle your hair or say good job? Are you just, affection starved?"

"No." He pouts.

"Don't just pout at me use your words." 

"I like you." He says.

"There was that so hard? What are you gonna do about it?" You ask.

"What?" He blinks at you.

"You like me. What are you going to do about that?"

"Depends." He frowns.

"On?" You ask.

"If you like me back."

"And if I do?"

"Then, I want to kiss you." Steve says, albeit a little hesitant.

"Kiss me."

"You like me?"

"Just kiss me." You say. Steve pulls you forward and kisses you. It's soft but there's something intense about it as you drape your arms over his shoulders. Eventually, he pulls away with a content sigh. "Well done Stevie."

"Stop doing that." He groans.

"Doing what?" You step back to look at him.

"Complimenting me like that. It drives me crazy."

"I know, that's why I do it." You say and Steve fixes you with a look as he plots his next move.

"I'm- going to take you to dinner tonight." He says.

"Okay." You nod. It's then that your door swings open and Sam waltzes in.

"See how much nicer it is to just talk about things." He sighs as if he's just stepped into the sun after several hours inside.

"I'll see you at seven." Steve says. "You two are... the absolute worst together. I can't believe you." He practically drags Sam out of the room and then down the hall with Bucky in tow and you chuckle at the trio who you can hear for several minutes down the hallway. Who would've thought things could get here from a couple of compliments in the kitchen. 

***

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

John

This fella is Fascinating. just trust me on this he deserves to be here

He tried so hard to do the right thing, he feels bad and says things would be better if he was never born. He thinks he should've just stayed acting like a monster and continued to act threatening.

(LONG PROPAGANDA INCOMING)

John. Milgram. Here's a short description of the fortunes and misfortunes of the guy. It gets worse before it gets better (probably).

While MILGRAM is a prison that judges a bunch of sympathetic killers, it doesn't consider him to be one – it didn't even exactly know he existed until too little too late, when it got its grabby hands on the brain of prisoner 009, who claimed to not know anything about any murder he'd have committed. Then, footage from his brain was extracted, as MILGRAM does, into a music video, and… that was MeMe. Ninth prisoner, Kayano Mikoto, was revealed to have DID, and what obviously who do you think actually Killed Someone?

Enter John. Well. Mikoto is half deeply unaware half subconsciously scared of his existence, so the MV painted him in a rather. Deeply disturbing way, bathing in bloody baths and all that (not a blood bath though! easy mistake). Adding to that him showing up in the first Voice Drama for five seconds to punch the "protagonist" and yell for a bit, and the result wasn't. Assuring. The fandom proceeded to treat him like a cardboard cutout and variously dunk on MILGRAM for having a cliché "evil" character w/ DID despite the overall well handling of complex characters.

Two years time skip: second season ending. We get to prisoner 009 again. The protagonist Finally gets to chat with John: and voila, he's admitting to the crime, he's apparently "killed a bunch of people because they annoyed him", which means, as he's saying, Mikoto has nothing to do with the crime at all! And he, as per the judging system, should be forgiven, right! Well, he's so full of shit. The music video immediately reveals how protective he feels of Mikoto (and well, he definitely doesn't rebuke That one), that the events of murder were somehow tied in to Mikoto's job at a black company, his continuous overworking and him being mentally on the brink of breaking; that any committed violence was For The Sake of Mikoto and that John feels deeply horrible for messing up his life in any way. By making himself into the image of a "monster" he's trying to make Mikoto look good in comparison and be forgiven and all. He also mentioned if Mikoto is voted innocent he's gonna try to go dormant since he's The Issue, right, and the audience/protagonist hates him, Right, and Mikoto Also Hates him, Right?

I'm underselling the sheer devotion of this guy tbh.

Yeah, the fandom results were kinda mixed on that one. Lots of people immediately started to love him dearly and kinda forgot any people were maimed or killed with baseball bats; lots also got sold on him "messing up Mikoto's life" and actually voted Mikoto innocent Specifically because of John's promise to eventually "disappear". There's more of the babygirlifying kind in the English side of the fandom that I've seen, to be fair. And that's around where we are!

Dazai Osamu

He did bad things in the Mafia. He's trying to get better. He abused people but he also saved other people. Fans portraying him as an unforgivable abuser are WRONG. He perpetuated an abused cycle on Akutagawa thinking he was right to do that, because of trauma, before he could leave. But he left. He's still treating Akutagawa wrong because he's trying to be a better person but doesn't realize that it will not erase what he did and that he can't just ignore the past. Fans portraying him as a pure angel who didn't know what he was doing because he was sad are WRONG TOO. He abused Akutagawa. He was traumatized but it doesn't give him the right to traumatize innocent people. He's trying to be a better person but he can't keep ignoring Akutagawa. He needs to apologize. And even that won't erase what he did. Dazai is a complex character in a complex situation. He left the abuse cycle and tries to be a good person but did unforgivable things while he was still in this cycle and refuses to aknowledge them. He's not a monster but he's not innocent either.

Dazai used to be a mafia executive until his best friend (a former assassin who remained in the mafia but refused to kill) died. As the friend was dying he told him "I know you don't care about whether you're a good or bad person, so if it doesn't matter to you, be on the side that saves people." Despite that, I've seen countless people insisting that Dazai is a good person/trying his best to be a good person when he really only changed sides by joining a detective agency, while still continuing to do the same things he did while in the mafia (including but not limited to: harassing his coworkers for fun, manipulating people, killing people instead of just trying to incapacitate them, and even torturing an innocent man in one of the side stories). That being said, he's not evil either. Even when he does cruel things, it's not for the sake of being cruel (even when he harasses his coworkers he still has limits), it's just a means to an end. I think most of the confusion comes from a scene where he's talking to a young girl, another former mafia member, who asks if he thinks people can change and he assures her they can, but what the anime left out was that he was thinking about his former assassin friend during that discussion, not himself. The entire series is themed around gray morality, to the point where it's even reflected in the main protagonist and antagonist's designs (mainly white with a bit of black, and mainly black with a bit of white), so I feel like insisting that he's a good person now completely misses the point of the story.

[afreakingdork]

Mmmm just read the new soft spot chapter and NOM

I love when characters who used to be villains, especially those who claim to not regret any of it, deal with the mental repercussions of what they did or went through. Looking back and feeling like the guilt is holding you there and there’s no way anyone can say that it wasn’t your fault or really much that could comfort someone in that situation. It’s stuck there and it hurts, especially when you realise that you do regret it for a reason or another.

It’s fascinating because it shows how someone actually feels and sees their wrongdoings, like one of my OCs just for example, she’s done terrible things, some she feels extremely guilty for and others that she feels were justified. She feels immense guilt and trauma from her time in the nexus but she excuses it to justify her wrongdoings. But take that away and she’s just left with an empty feeling.

His thoughts about his past staining his future child is perfect because it reflects his past as a child who ended up connected to the wrong people. He’s terrified that a little version of him could end up in that same situation even if it’s heavily unlikely, the trauma is still there in spades despite hiding it under what is basically an “it is what it is” attitude.

At least that’s how I interpreted it, I tend to write a lot of tragic villain characters. I just love the nuance of a character that has done horrible things but had an empathisable past. It’s why I love Jinx from Arcane so much.

Another scrumptious chapter and I will get around to reading the new fic when I’m not exhausting myself with trimming hedges :3

I read and saved this because I did not want this to disappear into the sea of requests I was doing!

Truly, said so well and poignantly! It was one of the reasons I wanted to play in the space of good and bad originally in Weak Spot and into the evolution of Soft Spot. In Weak Spot, you see a villain and if they're worthy of love. You watch on how events unfurl in a relationship and how that looks like with that kind of past. You see very real repercussions play out as his deepest fears and then what it looks like to finally shed that vulnerability and let yourself be with another person on both sides. It's hard enough as is, but then adding in the atrocities...

Then into Soft Spot and it's the next step. Not just in the stereotypical romance, but in what happens next for a ex-villain trying to live their lives. Some days are easier, some days are harder, but where we have a huge deviation now is that reader can consent. Reader is a whole grown ass person who can choose to be with Donnie, talk him down, decide for themselves what they want or can handle and...

A baby can't.

A baby can't do anything of those things. It can't choose anything; it's totally at the mercy of its parent and its why we're seeing these shifts in Donnie now. Obviously, there's far more to come, but it's all progressing on the same ideals. Not only is this all painfully new territory for Donnie, someone who is barely a few years into a life with love, but having a family (read as just reader and shelldon) so not only will the baby be new to life, Donnie is a toddler is comparison which is sort of the goal I had for Soft Spot. Where Weak Spot's goal was how does your occupation effect your worthiness of love, Soft Spot goes into what is new life like for someone who's never had it (be it a baby or a fully grown man).

I think you're spot in and no rush at all! Thanks for evening considering AENEM a go~

[loveislandthegame]

thoughts on todays volume !

leo is…well, at least he’s not dean 😭 i like his personality but he looks like a mix of dylan from season 4 & wesley stickler from ace attorney

i feel like FB is overexplaining why OG LI didn’t leave when MC got dumped. i get that they’re trying to make him look good (& get more money from players by milking these backstory gem scenes lol) but tacking on even more stuff is making the whole thing look nonsensical

FB! make this evil twink a love interest and MY LIFE IS YOURS ! (i guess they are aware of the slim shady comparison lmao)

but for real, i still don’t know if he’s gonna be an LI or not. i can't tell if he has any significant dialogue changes and i'm too lazy to start another playthrough. he doesn't have amnesia though, he remembers that ive been flirting with him (i forgot to screenshot his first piece of dialogue but he’s talking about the spin the bottle kiss)

there’s not much to say about mr. love island, except that FB seriously needs to retire that gross looking yellow massage oil overlay. at least adjust the hue a bit 😭

caleb sticking up for MC was very sweet 🥺❤️ obviously she can defend herself just fine, but he’s a real one for this. it’s making me feel bad that i haven’t spent any time with him in the villa (if only we could be a friendship couple, instead of the game forcing us to lead him on)

the spirit of season 1 MC possessed us for just a moment, i was gagged 😭 i ended up forgiving ava tho, i wish we could just be friends with the girls that aren't also LIs. i know i keep saying it but this one sided rivalry shit is so boring

the ex rated challenge was what i expected: LIs get decent reviews, MC gets the only 5 star rating. not to nitpick (in the sense that there's much bigger issues with FB's LGBT representation) but i don’t know why we couldn’t have chosen the gender of MC’s ex, especially since ash is already a gender neutral name (there could’ve easily been a dialogue option like “my ex…boyfriend/girlfriend/partner” before telling the story)

since MC won the challenge, she gets to go to the hideaway. i don't know why it's a secret or why none of these nosy af islanders tried to figure out what the prize was. anyways, i chose lisbeth ! it was so cute that they mentioned being happy to be there with eachother again

this damn box— whatever, i picked sexy dice

all those letters teasing movie night got me scared luv, i’m sure the main event is gonna be nyah in the shower with dean, but i’m bracing myself for MC and lisbeth caught doing bits all over the villa in 4K. i hate how wlw routes have to be sneaky/shady/hoe route-adjacent (it really sucks because i remember complimenting FB for the dialogue you get if you kept choosing her over the guys up until the first hideaway visit)

i'm still holding out hope for enemies to friends but sadly i won't be surprised if she does a full 180 in the next volume

next up is a three way date with hayden and caleb, unfortunately we can’t make them kiss challengers-style. i picked neutral answers whenever i could, but caleb won whatever compatibility thing we were doing because i liked his answers more lol

tristan’s rapping…i was gonna say “welcome back, rap crew” but tim, rohan, even jake would never come up with bars as horrible as those 😭 (can you tell i miss season 1)

lisbeth got jealous, so she took us on a hot tub date ❤️😭lately all of her scenes mention something among the lines of “i can’t wait until we’re finally able to couple up," when the hell is the recoupling ?! the last volume ? my heart can’t take it

hayden, caleb, tristan, and leo are on the chopping block. i have no idea why milo is safe & not the two dudes who’ve been here for one day and are still single, but alright.

it’d be hilarious if tristan got dumped again, but i’m guessing they’re gonna keep him around for drama (or he's a LI ?) . leo will probably stay to be ava’s partner, so my prediction will be that MC will have to choose between OG LI and casa LI

overall, there's 4 volumes left, why on earth are we dealing with a forced love triangle instead of spending time with our chosen LI ? at the very least i'd be more invested if it was between lisbeth and jesse, or even eisha if FB was too lazy to branch for a love triangle with different LI genders 😭 (even though they were able to do that back in season 3, with the iconic "i've got a beautiful girl and a handsome guy fighting for my attention. i'm living the bisexual dream") what a mess

i'm not looking forward to movie night, but i guess OG LI loyal girlies will probably be considered cheaters too, let's all be miserable together 🥀

[skaruresonic]

Even ignoring that, Oshima doesn't write the games, nor has been in the franchise for decades. His opinions have also definitely changed as well (from being annoyed by the Harmony Calendar art by other artists overly mascotting/cutifying Sonic, to blanket "they good" now cuz fondness of all 90s)

He's a good resource for dev of stuff in the initial games and inspiration for char designs, but is generally unaware of char writing besides basic traits

Though his view on Eggman being not evil evil might be cuz Sonic 1 dev Eggman being the main villain was an afterthought. And people pressure him to prioritize remembering Sonic 1/CD dev over others

But hey, took him 30 years to forget things. I can't say the same for certain writers...

And people pressure him to prioritize remembering Sonic 1/CD dev over others

Bruh I can barely remember my mindset when making OaS and it got published only a year ago. Demanding a dev recall their initial impressions of a character they helped create 30 years ago is insane.

...Anyway, I had to go find the original quote because unfortunately, people tend to misrepresent Ohshima's statements. Can't really take anyone else's word for it.

And, uh, yeah. Like the SonAmy tweet, there's quite a bit here that I have to disagree with.

First, we have the problem of thinking that villains who aim to destroy the world are automatically worse than Eggman, who "only" wants to conquer it.

Conquest under Eggman's rule would be absolutely horrible. In some instances, I wouldn't be sure if total annihilation wouldn't be a more preferable fate.

You could argue that Eggman conquering the world would end up destroying it anyway, thus rendering the comparison moot. But since that gives ground to the idea that instant destruction is worse than subjugation which results in destruction over time, I'm not going to lean too hard into it. Destruction is destruction.

The underlying assumption weakens even more when you consider the fact that not every non-Eggman villain wants to destroy the world in the first place.

Fueled by pain and rage, Chaos massacred the Knuckles clan. Regardless, it didn't destroy the entire clan, never mind the world.

Neo Metal wanted to build a robot kingdom. Not a far cry from his creator's aims.

Black Doom wanted to turn humanity into fuel and a food source. To which I must say, how is that qualitatively any different than Eggman turning animals into robot batteries?

---

Second, "Eggman protects the world" as part of his own self-interests when necessity demands. Yeah, obviously there's going to be nothing to rule if he allows the world to be destroyed and he doesn't want that. But he's not going out of his way to "protect" the world unless he has a personal stake in it and there's no other alternative. At which point, he can only be said to be pragmatic at best.

He's not doing it because he thinks he can outperform Mother Nature. I feel like Ohshima is taking Eggman's god complex too literally and thinking Eggman feels he can replace nature. Science is the means, not the objective:

He doesn't really want to replace anything; he wants to conquer and have all bend to his will, and he doesn't care if things fall into disrepair.

If he was interested in supplanting nature with his own version, why is everything falling apart in CD's Bad Futures? Where are the forests full of mechanized trees? Why are the waters polluted and not replaced with Mega Mack? This argument would imply that Eggman is also responsible for the beneficial technology seen in CD's Good Futures, and that's just backwards.

Just because he wants to slap his face on every available surface doesn't mean he has some pseudo-philosophical reason for doing so.

---

"Humans are enemies for animals."

Mr. Ohshima, I respect you, but no. Not every culture believes this. Mine doesn't. Humans have the potential to be harmful or helpful, but we are not inherently one or the other.

I think maybe what he meant to say here is that humanity's greed is the driving force behind environmental destruction, which would be a valid take in keeping with the series' overall message. Eggman does represent industry, humanity's potential for great scientific achievement and for great harm.

"Eggman wants to make the world beautiful with science and technology."

Source? No seriously, source?

This might be hair-splitting to the Nth degree, but the sense I get from this particular bit is that Eggman finds science inherently beautiful and seeks to enhance the world with it, rather than finding his own creations beautiful out of a sense of ego.

---

"He is not evil in Sonic Adventure" does not mean Ohshima is necessarily saying Eggman isn't evil in other games. And even then, it's a bit of a stretch to say he isn't evil in Adventure.

Not sure why Ohshima is bringing up SA1 as if it's particularly relevant... Although I'm vaguely reminded of a manual entry that describes Eggman as possessing no real sense of right or wrong, so he may be remembering that.

The problem with Mr. Ohshima's statements is that they are not corroborated by what the games show us. Every time Eggman has displayed remorse, it was part of a ruse - which would imply that he needs to know what contrition looks like in order to imitate it. He wouldn't brutally mock Emerl's mercy as a sign of weakness if he didn't understand it. He's not lacking in comprehension; he's actively rejecting the concept. There's a difference.

Also, this interpretation inadvertently paints Sonic in a darker light than intended given his callous disregard of Eggman, and I don't think Ohshima realizes it.

It's significant that Sonic has never looked at the camera and lamented: "Alas, poor Eggman, he knows not the error of his ways." In fact, it'd be pretty fucked-up if he thought Eggman was simply walking down a bad path, and still chose to leave him behind in explosions and ignored the guy's pleas for rescue/mercy.

The games make it clear that Eggman knows what he's doing and he just doesn't care. He calls himself "evil" in Sonic Battle. He absolutely is capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and it borders on discrediting his intelligence to imply otherwise.

Eggman has a 300 IQ and is capable of self-reflection, if we're buying the whole "muh humanizing moments" bullshit SA2 and Frontiers are selling us. It therefore strips him of his agency and infantilizes him to insist that he knows no better, even in this roundabout "oh, he's only misguided" kind of way.

Shadow was misguided in SA2. We can argue about whether he heel-face turned too quickly, but the point remains that he eventually came around.

Eggman's actions, on the other hand, have proven that even if he is misguided, he's too entrenched in his goals to consider turning the car around. So there's no real point in emphasizing the "misguided" part.

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't say "Eggman's finally becoming A Real Human Being(tm) through self-reflection" in one breath and "he just doesn't know right from wrong" in the next. Those two ideas are incompatible. Either Eggman knows that what he does is wrong or he doesn't. And considering how he was able to recognize his grandfather's greatness as a child, my bets are on the former.

[lover-of-mine]

I don't want to be petty, but I'm gonna be. Buck and Tommy will never be Buck and Eddie because, well... LFJ is not Ryan and Oliver. I can not imagine he and Oliver pulling off any stunts the way Ryan and Oliver do, and their chemistry in RL and on-screen just doesn't come close.

But I have no doubt that's exactly what they think because they want Tommy so bad to be in the inner circle. When in fact, if I actually shipped BT and being realistic I wouldn't want LFJ or Tommy anywhere with Ryan and Oliver or on screen with Buck and Eddie. The difference is just to stark.

To make it successful, you would actually need the relationship to exist in a vacuum where you can't compare all of it. I mean they had the opportunity to integrate him naturally during the medal ceremony and they chose not too.

And to be the pettiest. I'm not sure LFJ could even keep up with the stunts Ryan and Oliver do. Those 2 have been doing and prepping for this for years. We always know it's gonna be Ryan and Oliver. Captain America and Iron Man. It's not even a dig on the rest of the team, it's just their roles. Even when they had that scene where they were looking for the finger and the kid ran and Buck said not it. It was like everyone knew then it was going to be Eddie.

And no before I am accused of body shaming LFJ I am not. It's just a fact he's a decade older and has not had a consistent physical role that Ryan and Oliver have been playing since their 20s.

Okay, no, let's get this out of the way, Lou is only 3 years older than Ryan. I do agree that Ryan and Oliver have been keeping a level of strength up since they were in their 20s and it's easier to maintain than it is to gain that level of fitness but that's a weird comparison to make. I understand what you're trying to say, but it doesn't really prove a lot.

But about the rest, I actually saw someone try to argue that if season 7 was season 1, everyone would be shipping bt, and while I wanna argue that the best friends to lovers crowd would be eating Buck and Eddie up anyway, I do see why that argument could be made, but the thing is, if you need your ship to exist in a vacuum where you're erasing 5 seasons worth of development for it for gave a fighting chance, your ship doesn't have a fighting chance, plain and simple. The show had opportunities to incorporate him into the firefam more seamlessly, and they chose not to take it. He has connections outside from Buck but they chose to leave him firmly in the love interest category and for Buck and Eddie it has always been once you make the transition, you're not allowed to exist outside of them, even Taylor's beef with the LAPD was with Detective Ransone when they could've involved Athena. And the natural chemistry between Ryan and Oliver is not something you can manufacture. Acting skills can only take you so far and they keep saying they are not leaning into their chemistry, that's just how they work, imagining what they can achieve if they lean into can drive you a bit crazy. And we have been watching them together for years now. Pretty much anything is gonna fall short in comparison because they are just like that without trying. Even the bachelor party (one of the scenes we see the 3 interact without the bias of it being on Buck's pov) makes it pretty obvious that it does not compare. Obviously the show can choose not to go there, but it would be a fumble. A huge one.

[tumblezwei]

I'm gonna make a kind of pretentious rant rn bc I saw a post I didn't like so bear with me

So like, there's this post I saw. it starts out with "finally figured out exactly what it is about the 'stop complaining about the lack of women in shonen anime, if you want stories with strong and interesting female characters shojo is right there' argument that bothers me so much" and then it says this

I'll be honest, the biggest annoyance here is calling shoujo and shounen "genres." And to me that just shows that even though OP seems to get the actual intention behind the above statement, they still have some fundamental biases against shoujo that makes them think all it has to offer is "girl stuff."

Like, look at the comparisons they give. Princess Tutu and Madoka (which isn't even confirmed a shoujo) vs Naruto and MHA. Ask literally any shoujo fan for a rec that compares to Naruto and I can guarantee you neither of those above will be the first to cross their minds. Because surprise surprise! Shoujo does, in fact, contain as much deep, complex, and interesting stuff as shounen! And that even includes action! I can give you so many examples of a shoujo being mistaken for a shounen (cough Banana Fish cough) or a shounen mistaken for a shoujo (cough Horimiya cough) because demographics are not defined borders. You can't just say that of course someone who likes action/adventure won't like the Girl Stuff. It's a reductive view of what female-centered media can be in and of itself.

But like, I get it. As someone who also grew up with traditionally masculine interests, it can be annoying to hear people say that you should try the Girl things for Girls. But I'm gonna be real here, you just straight up aren't going to get good female representation in your traditionally masculine interests unless you also show support for the traditionally feminine. Which leads into this addition to that post:

Like that's the thing about this. It's all well and good to say that boys deserve good female characters. They absolutely do and we should continue to advocate for such, but that sentiment rings so hollow when those good female characters already exist and y'all just don't want to touch them. I get that you don't want good rep for some random series, you want it for Naruto, for One Piece, for Demon Slayer. But I am stressing so much that the reason shoujo fans are so insistent that you try these other series out is because that's how you show that you want it.

Because again, it's perfectly acceptable to clamor for good rep in the series you already love, but by consuming nothing but shows/manga made for men, by men, with majority male casts, you are telling them that that's what you want.

A caveat: I'm not pointing at you the reader or OP specifically and saying "it's YOUR 🫵 fault shounen has poorly written women because you haven't read Fruits Basket," because it's obviously more complicated than just pure numbers. But it's frustrating to see people plead for y'all to diversify your reading portfolio only to get met with the brick wall non-solution of "well boys deserve good female characters too you know!!"

Like yeah! They do! We never said they didn't! But all saying that has done is plop us right back to where we started. What am I supposed to do with that? What am I supposed to do with any of this? As great as it would be for MHA to suddenly start treating it's female characters better, we both know that isn't happening. You gave us a problem and we're trying to offer a solution. So why are we the bad guys here just because you have preconceived notions of what shoujo is like compared to shounen?

And to add another caveat, it's ok to not like shoujosei stories people recommend! You don't have to like Basara or Yona or OHSHC or any other that you may have tried and dropped. I don't want it to sound like I'm guilt tripping people into being ashamed for not enjoying stuff they don't enjoy, but 9 times out of 10 the people pushing back with that kind of attitude haven't even tried. How do you even know you won't like the series we recommend if you don't even care enough to know that they aren't all one genre?

And I guess that's it. Like, at the end of the day you can do whatever you want, I just wanted to put my frustrations out there. Which is why I screenshotted this instead of rbing OP. I'm sure they want a lengthy argument just as much as I do (not at all).

[a-student-out-of-time]

Regarding the people being suspicious of Eden thing, it brings to mind a quote from The Incredibles 2: "Politicians don't understand people who do good simply because it's right. It makes 'em nervous." Anon would argue a lot of people in fandoms today are the same: they can't stomach the idea that there are genuinely kind people in the world, because that "makes them feel bad" for not being the same. So, Eden can't GENUINELY be a nice person, because then "they look bad in comparison".

//All of this is actually very interesting because Teruko and Arei both have very similar logic in Chapter 2:

//They have a similar sort of view that kindness, friendship and optimism are naive at best and actively harmful at worst. They've bought into the lie that reality is unilaterally terrible and everyone is an asshole out to get to you, and the only way to survive is to be an asshole right back.

//And it's definitely not for nothing, especially when you look at who says these things:

//It's a perspective I've seen in a lot of people who've been beaten down and dealt with so much awful shit in their lives that kindness feels almost alien to them.

//I've seen a lot of real people make those same conclusions, and they often decide that someone being kind is either too stupid to realize what they think they know, or they have ulterior motives.

//And like I keep saying, Despair Time is telling us that this perspective is wrong.

//Teruko's trust issues have only isolated her more and more from the others, and left her with far less information to work with than she would've had if she cooperated. Ace's antagonism and constant fights lead to him nearly getting killed. Arei actually did patch things up with Eden, and how that turned out...well, we can't really say for sure yet.

//It perplexes me how people have mostly latched onto the darkness and misery, and assume that this is some nihilistic misanthropic edgefest simply because the protagonist is the one who has to learn how to trust others. Or that David exists.

//Eden, meanwhile, is the person in the cast who best represents kindness and optimism, and instead of it being a two-dimensional platitude, it's her personal decision to be kind even though she knows how dark the world can be.

//I say all this as someone who has dealt with depression and anxiety for well over a decade at this point: Eden is absolutely right. Bottling up your emotions, withdrawing from others, and only thinking about yourself is a recipe for extremely unhealthy behavior.

//And approaching this from a writing perspective, if this were the grimdark story so many seem to think it is, characters like Eden usually die in the beginning to firmly establish the tone. They don't get scenes like this.

//Now, obviously I have no idea where the story is going to go from here, but I highly doubt that putting so much emphasis on Eden here is meant to signify that this is somehow going to prove Teruko right. On the contrary, I'm still certain this chapter will prove Teruko's decision not to trust anyone is far more dangerous and unhealthy.

//Either people didn't actually pay attention to what was happening or being said in the game itself, or they think that, because a character is kind, that somehow means they're going to be evil.

//I honestly think Eden is the least likely to be the culprit in this chapter. You can quote me on that and throw it in my face if I turn out to be wrong, but I'm sticking to it from here on out.