#and what that means for our perception of it like i LOVE THAT SHIT

[loremmaradeur]

This whole post is just ridiculous and not by your own personal view of both Astarion endings (which I personally couldn't care less, I do not agree with any of your takes and if that was me I would simply press "I'm not interested" button and walk away) but from how you have posted it.

First of all - I have never asked you about this. You could always post your opinion without reblogging mine, without interfering into mine and other people's fan-space of Ascended Astarion, but oh no, you just wouldn't calmly walk by AA-appreciation post, now would you? And why, ask yourself?

Second - I do not need your corrections. You implement my views and my perception is invalid and only whatever you have said is canon? Sorry to disappoint you, Baldur's Gate 3 is RPG game, meaning it's a roleplay, and countless devs have already long said before that every outcome is valid. It's not a novel written to tell a one-point story. It's

Third - you say your reblog implement no hate, but all you do with this action of reblogging and then trying to teach me otherwise about what I like and love is unacceptance of my views, my opinions, my perception and of many more people before and after me. It's even worse than if you would stop by and tell me to fuck off.

Fourth and the most triggering to me thing - I have never asked for your poor attempts to teach me about abuse and it's signs. It's fucking fictional world. Fictional world does not work with IRL standards of psychology, especially when we talk about non-human characters. Fictional world serves as means for escapism from the real world, it's a fantasy where everything is possible. And it is highly insensitive of you to write that shit to me, because I have been through several years of abuse IRL and it has been only one year since I had managed to escape and I still deal with PTSD. I work with it myself and those who is able to provide me professional help. I fucking know myself what is an abuse and what is not. And the way how you put your reblog has triggered me way stronger than Ascended Astarion has ever done at least once.

Stop interfering into AA fan-spaces with your attempts to teach us about anything, his story or whatever else. We had never asked for this, and your post only verifies that being a genuine fan of AA is fucking impossible with being open and public without that crap like yours to happen.

I will not go into your AA takes because for me personally they are totally invalid, everything you say is wrong, just like you had dismissed my own takes. My opinion still stands, my views aren't to debate and be changed and reviewed, and I myself and many other people enjoy Ascended Astarion further with what he truly is for us and how we see him. Your "but I strongly disagree and his story isn't-" means nothing to our love of him.

I wish I could wish you a good day, but only thing I'll ask politely this time is not responding to me, blocking me and preferably my art-blog as well and walk away. You aren't welcome.

Gained new thoughts in words on how I personally perceive two main Astarion endings:

By refusing him the Ascension you, as Player Character, show him that you fear him and his wishes, just like everyone else around and before you - almost none of the companions put their trust in him, seeing him as a threat almost all the time from the very beginning and to the end, telling him to keep his distance, being surprised he has feelings. You too do not trust him, you don't trust he will handle himself the *right* way. By making him remain as a vampire spawn you "eliminate the threat" by the cost of his freedom, his happiness, his very own fullfilled wish of gaining at least some sort of power. Everyone is happy that no one will have to deal with new vampire lord, you now don't have to fear anything about him, he has became "comfortable to handle" and his deep sorrow and pain flies away unnoticed right into the shadows where he has been banished again.

You show your trust in him when you help him ascend, despite everyone else's fears, despite everyone's opinions, where only couple of companions encourage Astarion to grab the power by its throat. You do not fear him - you simply don't need to. And if you happen to be his lover - you prove your trust by the highest cost of handling him your own life, and he will do everything to show his gratitude and appreciation to you, now as his consort and eternal partner. And you both couldn't care less if others start to spit poison and fire in your direction, even daring to suspect and accuse he has turned you against your will, like you had never had a choice or a free will to refuse. You had, but you simply chose another path of being together with him forever.

And true love never builds on fear and distrust.

[ghostdrinkssoup]

Severance S2 spoilers, but I think innie!Mark running back to Helly is deeper than just him realising he doesn’t have feelings for Gemma. As we know, outie!Mark gets severed because he doesn’t know how to cope with Gemma’s passing, meaning he’s someone who struggles to accept death (and by extension change). We see this characterisation extend to innie!Mark when Petey’s disappearance forces him to re-experience grief. Notably, innie!Mark’s gut reaction is to hide the group photo of Petey so he won't be reminded of him, similar to how outie!Mark hides Gemma’s things in his basement because it’s “easier pretending she never existed”. Innie!Mark later shreds the map on the back of that same group photo when Helly presses him to question Petey’s death, again, very similar to how outie!Mark tears up the picture of Gemma. Despite differing contexts, both versions of Mark try to prove they don’t ��give a shit” about someone they are very clearly mourning.

Innie!Mark isn’t just mourning his best friend, but also how things used to be. His attachment to Petey doubles as an attachment to the culture created by his coworkers, again, not so dissimilar to outie!Mark mourning his old life with Gemma. In both cases, he doesn’t want things to change. The idea that work culture is created “by the people” is established in the first episode, during a meeting between innie!Mark and Cobel:

Here, Cobel explicitly associates hell and heaven with the work environment, noting that hell is not reality but our perception of reality, influenced by our environment. Essentially, the people at work determine whether the workplace is worth being attached to. Although this philosophy isn’t universal (not everyone loves their coworkers), it aligns with innie!Mark’s values, as demonstrated in the shredding scene: 

Here, innie!Mark confirms that he isn’t loyal to Lumon, but to his colleagues. We also learn that in the face of uncertainty, he would rather lean on the support of his immediate community (his “family”) than become isolated, reframing the workplace as an intimate (and domestic) space. Considering that severance is meant to separate people’s work lives from their personal lives, this scene is particularly fascinating. Especially since Helly resists conflating the professional sphere with domesticity (“I could not, with a razor to my throat, be less interested in being your family”), viewing work as a prison that restricts her freedom (which, ironically, is likely the reality of Helena’s personal life). Interestingly, innie!Mark resents Helly’s constant disobedience until she tries to commit suicide. Again, when he’s confronted by death.

The show continuously reminds us that loss of intimate attachment, whether at work or home, is what both versions of Mark fear most. For example, innie!Mark is the only worker who hasn’t tried to quit. Helly repeatedly tries to quit in season one, even though she knows it’ll end her life; Irving is more than ready to quit after he learns Burt is married, and is ready to accept his death after outing Helena as a mole; Dylan also tries to quit when he’s separated from Gretchen and realises she won’t be coming back. Innie!Mark is the only severed worker (of the main cast) who can't accept death. Walking out that door terrifies him, and Lumon nurtures that fear. As Milchick says in season one, death isn’t something that happens at Lumon. The workers don’t even know what death looks like, as shown when MDR find the animal corpse in Woe’s Hollow:

Suddenly, the external world of the natural environment overwhelms the workplace, bringing death in its wake. Yet, the internal world of domesticity also brought loss in the form of Petey, Burt, and Irving’s “retirements”. Clearly, neither private nor public spaces are appropriate labels for the workplace, because the workplace is unnatural, monitored, and sealed off from reality. Lumon literally advertises this state of being, yet woe resulting from the loss or death of a loved one keeps threatening to invade this sequestered paradise. The personification of woe being a ghostly bride (AKA someone’s dead wife) also feels pretty pointed.

But let’s return to that point from earlier about work culture. As we have already established, innie!Mark is more than willing to work at Lumon if he becomes accustomed to the culture created by his colleagues. Helly contrasts him in this sense, as she is both independent and capable of rallying people to action without group support or approval (as we see during her speech to Choreography and Merriment). Innie!Mark, meanwhile, quelled his rebellious behaviour the moment he made friends with Petey. Under ordinary circumstances, innie!Mark is unlikely to be the kind of person to just up and leave his job because it’s exploitative. His decisions are not guided by morality, they’re guided by emotional attachment. We see this with outie!Mark in season one: his views on Lumon only begin to shift after he attends Petey’s funeral, and goes to his (Petey’s) daughter’s concert. Before this moment, outie!Mark is mostly apathetic about the inner workings of Lumon because severance is a convenient coping mechanism. It’s only when the peace is disturbed, and someone he’s grown to care for dies, that he changes gear. 

Innie!Mark behaves similarly when he demands to have his team back in the first episode of season two. It’s the most rebellious we’ve ever seen him. He doesn’t want his friends to disappear, and once they’re back, he doesn’t quit despite being given the option to leave. He wants to find Ms. Casey (who he knows is his outie’s wife), sure, but he’s also attached to Helly and his other colleagues. They’re his family, and he is very unlikely to abandon his family.

Outie!Mark is also very unlikely to abandon his family. The moment he learns Gemma is alive, he’s willing to risk everything (including his safety) to get her out. His stubbornness and loyalty are only rivalled by his innie’s, who is effectively himself. The problem isn’t that innie and outie Mark are different people; it’s that they’re the same person. If the roles were reversed, outie!Mark would never leave Lumon for Helly, not if it meant leaving Gemma behind. He would do the exact same thing innie!Mark does because neither version of him can accept loss, which is why he can’t leave. It’s not just Helly: it’s Dylan and all the other innies he would be abandoning. Not to mention that leaving would mean his certain death and Mark has never been able to deal with death, something Lumon promises to shield its workers from.

Why don’t people quit their jobs, even when they know it’s corrupt? Because people become complacent, conditioned, and attached to the status quo. Innie!Mark was always going to run back into the tender arms of hell. For a moment, it probably seemed a lot more like heaven to him.

This has been Mark’s consistent characterisation throughout the show. Do I view innie!Mark and outie!Mark as separate entities? Yes and no. I do think that innie!Mark is just as much a person as outie!Mark, and that they are different versions of the same person. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t the same person. If innie!Mark was different from his outie, he probably would’ve gone with Gemma. But outie!Mark has never learned how to accept grief, and innie!Mark is a version of himself that hasn’t evolved past this worldview either. What we see at the end of Cold Harbour, then, is a very literal representation of self-sabotage. Because the type of person who would’ve gone with Gemma wouldn’t have severed himself to avoid grief in the first place. For Orpheus not to turn around, he would've had to be someone else.

[chimckenns]

Angel is used to being the extrovert in the room. They’re always the one to initiate the conversation, to bring laughter, and to do all the talking.

Angel learned how to bring out the extrovert in themselves to survive, to make people like them. No one cares how they feel. They’re simply there to make others feel better. People always rely on them to feel the silence.

Eventually that became their identity.

That applied when they first met David too - they cracked all the jokes, initiated the conversation, and put on that bubbly mask.

It came naturally.

But along the way… it became tiring. For the first time, they felt like maybe, just maybe, they don’t have to try hard to be liked. Maybe David is different from everyone else. He’s not dating Angel just for what they could bring to the table.

Just maybe, they can show a bit of their real self to him.

David, being the perceptive man he is, catches on. He realises that Angel’s first instinct is to mask their own feelings behind lighthearted remarks. So he decided to try and gently coax Angel to say what they really felt.

“How was your day?”

“It was fine.”

“Hmm.”

“…what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well it’s the sound I make when my mate comes in the door after a long day, clearly exhausted, looking like they’re about to fall over, all while saying their day was fine. Fine means not fine at all, more often than not. Come here. Sit with me a minute. Let me hold you.”

…

“Hey. Was it a bad day, or just a long one? None of that “it was fine”, just talk to me.”

“…a bit of both.”

“Ok. We can deal with that. What do you need?”

That was the first time Angel really let go. They didn’t have the energy to make a joke and be the bubbly person. They were so tired. David knew. And somehow, he didn’t want more from them.

Somehow David always knew. And Angel realised it was okay to show themselves to him.

Although Angel is still hesitant when expressing their feelings sometimes, David is always there to help them through it. He accepts them.

Silence isn’t so uncomfortable anymore.

~~~

“What about you? I know how tough it can be to be part of this. But also on the outside of it, in a way. You live almost between two worlds. I can only imagine how hard that can be at times. Where are you at with all this? I know you’ve been saying you’re okay after the Summit, that it’s not bothering you, and if that’s the case, I’m glad, but I mean more of… all of this. How big all of this has gotten. How much of a mess this has all become. How are you doing?

Hey. You don’t have to apologize for that. I don’t want you to. I don’t ever want you to feel like you need to apologize for how you’re feeling. You’re allowed to feel tired. I do too. This shit is exhausting. And being honest about that doesn’t mean anything about you or us other than we’re people. With limits. Limits that keep getting pushed. [couch creak][kiss] I promise you this: I’m never gonna ask you not to feel something. I’m never going to ask you to be a superhero, to be unfazed by this shit, to be something or someone you’re not. All I can ever ask, all I will ever ask is that we be honest with each other. About our limits. About when we’re pushing those limits. You’re allowed to be tired. Just tell me when you are. So I can take on some of the weight too. It doesn’t matter if I’ve already got weight of my own. We’re a team. We’ve got each other. [kiss] I love you, Angel. [kiss]”

[ataraxetta]

Dick being an Entire Pillar Of Salt when Nightwing 1996 begins (about Bruce choosing JPV to be Batman when he was out of commission) adds a fun, extra unhinged flavor to his big fat Bruce issues that I live for in these early arcs. In 12/13 Bruce shows up (uninvited) because he I mean Alfred misses Dick and wants to make sure he's okay and to help with a case that started in Gotham and is what brought Dick to Bludhaven in the first place. Dick proceeds to have a lot of great big feelings.

Nightwing Vol 2 #13

Nightwing Vol 2 #14

Our boy's mental landscape is shards of funhouse mirror glass. Bruce doesn't trust him. He's letting Bruce down. Bruce is a controlling fuckhead here to humiliate him and say I told you so. He's never going to be good enough Bruce is right. Bruce is wrong damn it he's doing just fine out here! He is always going to be a sidekick. Gotham belongs to Bruce. Bludhaven isn't Gotham!

Bruce, who really is here to see Dick with no ulterior motive, has been super chill the whole time, has no idea Dick is shitting bricks of hurt and resentment and insecurity right next to him, and is naturally baffled and hurt when Dick -- whose turmoil has been entirely internal -- suddenly goes off on him. I am paraphrasing but it basically boils down to Dick, out of nowhere: 'I know you're here because you think I'm too incompetent and you just want to protect Gotham from the overflow when i fail to handle this bad situation but Bludhaven is mine and I've been doing just fine. PS Gotham (you, Bruce hears) isn't my home and never has been and I don't need it (you, Bruce hears).' Bruce says: 'I didn't know you felt that way about Gotham (me). I didn't mean to intrude. Fine. Later gator, I guess. Batman out.'

Beautiful work, boys. Messy as hell and no one is happy, 15/10 no notes.

Dick follows this up by diving headfirst into a guilt spiral while gazing sadly at his old Robin getup (I love this bit, because it's important that one of the main reasons Dick gave up Robin is because he knew he could never be seen as an equal since Robin had become synonymous with sidekick instead of partner).

Nightwing Vol 2 #14

He calls home, says everything he wants to say to Bruce to Alfred, and Bruce shows up as Matches at Dick's bar job the next day to Dick's great pleasure and relief. They wrap up the case together. They Do Not talk about it.

Anyway I don't know what the point of this post is except something something yearning and resentment for a person who is fundamental to your world, and false perceptions of what that person thinks of you, and longing for something that was there before but needing something that is different and fighting tooth and nail for equal footing every step of the way and never knowing if you've achieved it. What does respect matter if you don't believe it? What does respect from this particular pillar of your universe look like to you anyway? Do you even know? Missing someone who is right in front of you all the time, etc etc etc.

[fxckn-sxck-fr]

id lovee to hear ur rankings of the comic book men from appearing to be the most normal to something is obviously wrong w them (if that makes sense... like,,,, who is and isnt an obv red flag)

ur writing keeps me fed :3

𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐆𝐒…

!!! GN reader, manipulation, gaslighting, mentions of stalker-ish picture-taking, mentions of schizophrenia and anxiety, poor treatment of mental illness, mentions of violent behaviors, murderous Bucky Barnes, Tim Drake (he’s just a problem), mentions of suicidal tendencies, can be translated as platonic or romantic.

EAAAAATT!!!!! EEEEAAAAATTTT!!!!!!!!! EAT MY WRITING!!!! CONSUME IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember, this is from least to most, meaning we’ll talk about the seemingly well-adjusted folks first and gradually move up to the, “okay, what the fuck is wrong with him” peeps.

Wally West: The way he’s playing everyone like a fiddle is downright disrespectful. He’s filled to the brim with green flags, easily appearing as one of the safest guys on the planet. Even when you start to suspect something, you have to constantly second guess yourself, because come on… it’s Wally. What the fuck can he do wrong? Don’t even bother voicing any of your concerns. No one — and I mean no one — will believe you. Having problems with Wally West? The embodiment of a warm summer evening? Damn, that sounds like a you problem. Poor Wally, having to deal with a crazy weirdo.

Dick Grayson: He’s got an amazing personality and pretty privilege working for him. At this rate, the masses manipulate themselves. Only those who are extremely perceptive will pick up on the cold glint in his eyes, and even then, the mystique only adds to his charm. By the time you realize he’s been hiding a darker side, it’s too late. Everyone’s too captivated by how endearing Dick is to hear you out. Even those who know him personally — who know about his struggles and rough patches — think you’re full of shit. Dick’s an emotionally mature man, so why don’t you just talk it out with him?

Steve Rogers: This is a bit unfair, considering the leverage he’s granted as Captain America, but hey… work what you got. While it may seem obvious to you that he’s way too overbearing and protective, good luck trying to get other people on your side. Everyone else thinks it’s a part of his 40s charm. Social norms were just different back then; why can’t you be more appreciative of his old-fashioned care? Besides, you’re probably overreacting. Is it really that bad? Steve is the leader of the Avengers, so maybe you’re just taking his authoritative demeanor the wrong way.

Clark Kent: I’m gonna be so for real, any man from a fuckass state like Kansas is going to come with some personality quirks. People will probably give him the benefit of the doubt by default. Just a farm boy trying to navigate the big city and can’t even hurt a fly. Sure, he can be odd at times, but nothing makes him an inherently bad guy. This is the same man that helps old people cross the street, for god’s sake! He most definitely means well, it’s just a matter of setting boundaries with him. What’s the worst he can do?

Remy LeBeau: Despite what differing opinions may say about The Gambit, Remy seems like he’s got his head on his shoulders. His “red flags” are more on the blurry side. Do you count excessive flirting as a red flag? What about hiding behind charisma and a fake ego instead of going to therapy? Some people may say yes, others no. But in terms of glaring red flags, Remy’s relatively clean. We’ve all got our issues, no? Being a thief doesn’t make you a psycho. That being said, due to Remy’s shifty past, people may be more inclined to listen should you ever express that something’s wrong.

Peter Parker: Honestly… he’s a bit of a weirdo. Nothing obvious at first, but the longer you know him, the more behaviors you may pick up on that make you go, “oh… well… that’s weird”. Take his Polaroid obsession, for example. He’s got at least one photo in every jacket pocket, dozens in his wallet, and a fuck ton in his desk. Poor guy accidentally spilled them all over the ground once, which naturally sparked rumors. But Peter’s a sweetheart. Clingy, but still a sweetheart. Maybe he’s just a little messed up due to everything he’s lost in his life.

Bruce Wayne: Okay. Red flags in the playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne? Absolutely unheard of. He’s an absolute angel. According to all of the stan accounts out there, he could do nothing wrong. But red flags in the real Bruce Wayne? Where do we even begin. Distrusting as fuck, paranoid, argumentative, the occasional fit of violence, a known manipulator and liar… want me to keep going, because I can. It’s very hard to rank Bruce due to the ginormous contrast between general public opinion and those who actually know him, so he goes smack in the middle. Billionaire Bruce Wayne would never be a horrible person to you, but the real Bruce Wayne 100% would.

Jaime Reyes: Because of how mental illness is stigmatized, Jaime’s unfortunately labeled to be dangerous. But it’s not really his fault. That damn scarab has him muttering to himself like a crackhead, and naturally assumptions will be made. When actually given a chance, people will learn that Jaime’s a nice kid. He just probably struggles with schizophrenia or really bad anxiety. Yes, his paranoia can get bad, but again; mental illness. He’s never proven himself to a threat, despite what others may think. He just needs help (but there’s no way to combat the manipulation of Khaji Da. Jaime lost that battle the moment he became Blue Beetle).

Hal Jordan: Oh, yeah. He’s got red flags alright. But they’re mostly normal ones, like his ego and horrendous stubborn streak. Lots of guys out there are like that, and are they considered freaks? No. Well, not all of them. However, it is a bit concerning that he’s willing to throw hands at the drop of a hat. Bro’s one major freak out away from catching assault charges like they’re Pokémon. But if it’s any consolation, it should be noted that he hasn’t gotten into major legal trouble. On Earth. Yet. Some call him rough around the edges, others call him a severely troubled individual. Either way, he definitely needs to seek professional help.

Scott Summers: MAJOR red flags. He’s an overbearing control freak that really needs to work on his… well… his everything. Emotional intelligence, temper, daddy issues… yeah, no. He’s an amazing leader, but probably someone you should steer clear from otherwise. Most wouldn’t be surprised if you two were having issues. It’s not like he wears all of his problems on his sleeve; the iceberg goes much deeper than that. Though he sure as hell doesn’t present himself as a well-adjusted member of society. Proceed at your own risk. Don’t say you weren’t warned, because you probably were.

Bucky Barnes: This is the opposite of Captain America’s case. His reputation as the Winter Soldier kind of skews the perception of him to be a walking red flag. And you know, he really is. Bucky is extremely dangerous. Down to snap necks anytime, anywhere, no amount of charm or endearing quirks will make people feel fully safe around him. His history of violence did not stop post-brainwashing. And it’s not like he’s hiding it, either. There’s this crazed gleam in his eyes that just screams “fuck around and find out,” no matter what his mood is. Who in their right mind would involve themself with THE Winter Soldier?! Yeah, no shit you’re having issues with him. He is an issue.

Tim Drake: Bro is the epitome of “you’re scaring the hoes.” He could be walking down the street — face neutral, hands in his pockets — and total strangers will get the sense that something is deeply wrong with him. The aura around him exudes the reddest of flags. Yes, his face and intelligence are attractive, but even those who have fallen for his pretty boy swag can’t help but sigh dreamily and think, “he really needs to be institutionalized.” Disturbing humor. Creepy staring. Mood swings. Suicidal tendencies. Sadomasochism to the max. The list goes on and on and on. If Dead Dove: Do Not Eat was a person, it’d be him. What were you expecting? It’s Tim fucking Drake.

[langdon-apologist]

listen. many of you hate santos and i get it. she’s mean but like so is everyone else? langdon is mean as shit. robby is taking it out on everyone and snapping all the damn time.

like yes. she’s kinda mean but so is everyone else??? you cannot say “i love langdon and his personality” and “i hate santos for her personality” because they are the same person. santos is just a woman.

and i’ll be honest - i really didn’t like santos at first but then i did some reflection and while yes she’s mean and combative and hard to work with, so is langdon!!!

and sure langdon has his reasons - high on drugs, failing marriage, triggered by the child drowning, etc.

but so does santos - it’s her first day in a completely new, very stressful job with completely new people!!! she encounters a very triggering case on her first shift where a dad is molesting his kid!!! but more than that she’s young!!! she does not have the experience and self control to act “properly”.

she and langdon are the same person - they are both incredibly impulsive and cocky and self centered but the difference is that langdon has had the time to rein in those attributes while santos hasn’t. plus he gets more slack for it with robby bc he’s a bit of a misogynist.

and yes they are fictional characters but our interpretation of them greatly informs our understanding of real life and vice versa. for a lot of people this is a subconscious bias that they aren’t even aware they have. i too am a product of this society. but it is important to discuss these biases and how they effect our perception of media and real life.

what i’m saying is that while santos is annoying and bitchy so is langdon and you should look deeper into what makes you hate santos but love langdon.

[watermelonlicker]

seeing the “why is jonathan bailey gay wah wah” discourse again and the core issue will always be homophobia. you can joke “what did men do to deserve him” bcos everyone disparages men online and with a reason that’s more to do with patriarchal oppression than sexuality HOWEVER that is not what these straight women mean when they say that.

what i’m noticing with this current jonny phenomenon is that these women cannot allow their brains to accept the fact he’s 100% a cock lover bcos to them he does not register as flamboyant which means stereotypical.

with these kinds of complaints they are perpetuating the very factors that have allowed the industry to force gay actors to choose between their careers and their lives. WHICH IS HARMFUL. these women are not jonny fans and they should not be treated as such. with each word they are reducing everything he is trying to do to CHANGE the perception of gay men.

(as far as we know bcos nobody fucking knows this man personally) he doesn’t dress in drag, he doesn’t paint his nails, he doesn’t have a limp wrist, he works out, he’s “masculine” and so he can’t be gay. he has to be bisexual at least (which uhh way to throw the backhanded biphobia in there??) it’s also why people love saying he’s a top when we don’t know what he does in the bedroom nor is that our business.

to straight women, being gay means to be feminine and a lot of them know nothing about gay culture to understand that there are thousands of jonnies in the community. that ignorance is why a lot of them prefer non-canon gay ships to canon gay ones. straight women don’t see gay men as people. they see the fuel to their fantasies and those fantasies are always heteronormative. it’s why the bottom or the “weaker” gay man is the one they self insert with for the overall goal of achieving the masculine man/aka the top. gay men have spoken about their discomfort over this for years to deaf ears bcos someone wants to cry feminism when truthfully it’s misogyny (i know insane.) a lot of self hating women view womanhood as weak and femininity as undesirable which is the issue with girl boss feminism. it’s just “being like men” and jonny is a DESIRABLE MAN. bcos of that desirability they have to separate the gay from him or they’ll break.

his desirability goes against everything they assume gay men are and it’s rotting their brains. the only way they can fathom his cock throating is he MUST be lying (which would make him a sadistic asshole btw) like they’re literally HOPING that he’s a psychopathic liar bcos being a liar is better than being gay. do you understand how awful this shit is? it is homophobia and sprinkles of gender essentialism on top of it and i really need all of you doing this dragged to hell.

LEAVE JONNY ALONE.

GAY PEOPLE ARE NOT A MONOLITH.

[bronx-bomber87]

Good Evening amazing fandom :) This was very light Chenford wise. And I'm ok with that when the main SL is really solid like last week was. Now Nyla's stuff was good. That new serial killer made my skin crawl. Could go without FBI guys being involved but get why they are. Mainly a Bailey/Balian heavy ep. Which I knew we'd have at some point given the finale.

I mean that with zero offense to anyone who loves her character or this ship. You should have eps around your favs. It's an ensemble cast after all. How it should be. They are just not my cup of tea is all. So this impressions will be shorter than usual due to that. Looks like next week will more than make up for that. Let us dive into what we did get shall we?

7x05 Till Death

This was a really smart move on Lucy's part. Going to his high school counselor. No better place to get the truth on this kid than her. She’ll have good insight. Like Tim said last week, Lucy isn't satisfied with the answer she got. This is proof of that heh I love her for it. We all know our girl isn't one to quit. Tim's answer last week did little to assuage her worry. So here we are at Ridley's H.S.

This scene explains that outfit now too. I remember people thought her being a detective was the reason. When her tik-tok came out with it the buzz about that was unreal haha But sadly tis not the case. Not disappointed with her being a T.O. at all though. Just remember the excited theorizing about it. We had nothing to go off of. So we dined on the crumbs we got for months LOL

Lucy making Seth cough up all his BS is fantastic. That’s my girl. I absolutely loved that she didn’t let him get away with it, not even for a second. She not only forced him to admit he lied, but also made him reveal the real truth behind it. I wanted to sucker punch him as he spoke. So many lies. Holy shit. They just compound when you do that my man. His reasoning is crap like I expected it to be.

That he uses half truths to get out of trouble. That's not great reasoning to explain what you've done.... It's pretty awful reasoning tbh. Also the thing is he’s lied so much now I can’t even trust that's even true. Idk how Lucy can. It's written all over her face how over his bullshit she is. Said this before she's a ten but real bad at hiding her feelings.

She is wearing them all over her sleeve this entire scene. No way he didn't sense her annoyance. Or how very done she is with him and his excuses. I mean I don't blame her. How can she train this kid without ever trusting what comes out of his mouth? Literally could lie at any given moment. Really dug himself a hole. Lucy looks so frustrated and upset. I hate this. Doesn’t even know what she wants to do with him....

Oh my Timothy, that’s quite the description of what a relationship is my love. It's almost like he has first hand experience what a healthy relationship looks like... We all know that's what he had with Lucy till he destroyed it. *sigh* He’s just a grumpasaurus cause he’s post-Lucy. He lost his constant sunshine person that made him softer.

It was self inflicted as we all know. That doesn't meant it isn't still having lasting ramifications for him due to it. Also he had a bad experience with that whole thing. So the rant makes sense and is warranted. Luna even explains why Tim is that way. I do adore her. Always sunshine and light with her kindness towards Miles. Twas nice to see.

Lucy coming to find her person always makes me happy. Suspicions confirmed. So naturally she must go find hubby. I love his ‘Uh oh.’ When she closes the door. Lucy spewing all she has on Seth to him. Expecting him to to be just as outraged as she is. Disappointed when he isn’t more upset along with her. His logic is sound though. Even if they wanted to boot him it wouldn't be a easy sell with Grey.

A man who is SO stressed about the budget and their perception to the public atm. So I get what Tim is aiming at. Doesn't make it less crappy to deal with though. I have been there in my last job. Where morally I didn’t want to keep someone. But we were so understaffed they let them stay for just that reason. Even when I objected. I hated it sfm. Every fiber of my being loathed mentoring someone who didn't deserve to be there. So I empathize with Lucy so very much with this.

Tim ‘I bounce boots for breakfast.’ Bradford Lmao I’m dying. I mean no one calls out Tim like our girl. Hot damn. I do love her for it. But of course he’s turning this into a learning moment for her. Because it's Tim. Saying it’s on her to correct it. I mean he’s not wrong… But it’s agitating nonetheless. Since he hasn't lied officially it's a moral issue and not a legal one since its not work related.

Which beyond sucks. No two ways about it. Especially since Lucy has been a good teacher to him. He's taking advantage of that wholeheartedly. He wouldn't have made it past day one with Tim. But he sees Lucy's empathy and is exploiting it. *grumble* Her smile at the end with Tim isn't without a little flirty energy I will say. I will take my crumbs in a lighter episode for them.

Then immediately after Tim leaves the problem walks himself right in. I said this last ep, every time he opens his mouth I dislike him just a little bit more. He opens his mouth and I lose patience for him. I can't imagine being in Lucy's position with Seth. If the writers intention was to have me dislike this kid they're doing a masterful job. All I see is a little weasel not worthy of Lucy's time now.

I’m 100% with Lucy not trusting him. He’s gonna have to earn back her trust ten fold. If that's even possible. I would say he gets ten percent of it back and he has to earn the other ninety. That he's lucky he even gets ten. She crushes him when he uses the excuse it's stressful. Straight up OWNS his ass. We can see him panicking to get her back on his side. But that ship has sailed good sir. Not only has it but he is very aware of it.

Man when you have Lucy Chen giving up on you. It's bad my friend. Really all Lucy can do at this point is be a good leader to him. Only way to save herself when he flames out. It’s on Seth to ‘fly right’ as he put. Been there it sucks. Nothing worse than having your trust broken by someone you’re training. Because now everything is colored by that distrust. That empathy you once had has wained quite a bit if you have any left at all. Lucy did not get an easy first rookie. phew lord.

We come to the end of the episode and it's clear Lucy has sat on this the entire day. It is our girl after all. I do love that she keeps gravitating back to Tim. Makes my heart happy. Even though she is one to make the call she still needs him by her side. Friggin adore he doesn’t hesitate to go with her to Grey. I love it sfm. Goes from grumpy to supportive in a second when he realizes she needs him.

That she has a plan in action. That really she's come to him for support not advice this time. He doesn't blink before he's at her side. Not only that but not taking any shots at her decision. Wanting to give her all the confidence by backing it. (How very far we've come with that) Lucy is looking elated he’s coming with and supporting her.

I was thinking time to boot that little schmuck. I said couple eps ago I was kind of hoping he'd wash out. Then this happened. His "cancer" is back……He literally tipped his hand twice with her in this episode. Saying when he thinks he is in trouble he does half truths. That when he is panicked and stressed that's his go to. Then all of a sudden his cancer is back that same day. How very convenient of those lab results to show up right now.

Tim's face is everything LOL He is now over this dude himself. The look they share is top notch though. Silent communication at it's finest. How can she say no when he says his “cancer “ is back? And in front of Grey who has zero idea about her suspicions. This feels like a ploy to keep himself safe. He could feel Lucy turning on him.

Could sense the tide was turning against him in the worst way so he did this. I could be wrong but this feels pretty right. Lucy holds his fate in her hand. So what better way to stay afloat than to use cancer. She can't possibly fire him now can she? Ugh. This little shit being far more of a problem than ever expected. Holy cow. I honestly expected Miles to be more of the problem but here we are....Shall be interesting to see how the pans out.

Now let's talk about the most exciting thing that happened which was the promo after this ep LOL Other than the little Chenford we got this ep didn't do much for me. Other than anger me against Seth lol This was a just a fillery place holder to get to this one IMO. The description alone has me amped. "The Gala" It’s Valentine’s Day, and Lieutenant Grey gives Tim and Lucy an unromantic assignment, while John and Celina track down a missing girl. Later, the team sharpens up for a charity gala where multiple relationships come to a head." Hard to believe been a year since she got her necklace. I'm not crying you are.....

Now this promo had me wishing it was next week. The promo had me all jazzed this morning. Oh my lord. Genny is back! Also Tim looks soft as butter for her in that promo. Man is transparent af. Saying how good she looks in front of people? I did say continue being this way and he is following those instructions ha To say I am excited for next week is an understatement.

Thank you to all you glorious readers. You make all the effort I put into these worth it on the days where I'm tired af and assembling these. The likes, lovely comments and reblogs make my heart happy. So never can thank you all enough for the love. Shall see you next week in 7x06 :)

~~~

Side notes-Non Chenford

Bailey sending notes to the hitman in secret. Yeah that’s not good for your marriage.....

Nice Texas has an a lovely lady at his side. Not so great she just showed up ha

PTSD for Nyla poor woman. Possible bad needle? Yikes…The stress that would give me my god.

Bailey got Jason killed holy hell....She pretty much just committed murder. She is an accessory to murder now. So that's fun for her. lol Also little anti climatic he just got offed after hunting her for months. I was more shocked he killed the girl than Jason tbh. But oh well. Least it's over early in the season.

[disheveledapathy]

so a little peak behing the curtain for my world building in my post canon au for stp is that i may think toooooo much abt what the characters are and shit. like what species they are post construct cuz like in the construct theyre the idea that the two gods live thru - two gods who believe they are mortal but have no real context for what the outside world is like

like the world narator came from is not really gone into detail (cuz its obvsly not what the games abt duh) beyond that nara is bird like and based LQ on himself AND the world outside is a colorful chaos compared to simple black and white and muted tones of the construct

(while the game is in mostly black and white, red and yellow do apear to create some contrast, also i dont remember the line specifically but nara mentions the colors of things which makes me thing the construct isnt completely black and white like how in isat colors dont exist anymore - but to maintain the constrast i think the construct is prolly lest vibrant.)

we dont really know what kinds of "people" nara mentions existing (or if nara is even i bird man himself but i digress) - just that there are bird people (us) and human like people (the princess)

but judging by the vibe of the game and since nara nor the voices react any which way abt the princess being mote human like same with the princess not reacting to the player being a bird man - sooo bird people must then obvs exist.

(u could argue that neither react cuz what else could they know besides each other, and also in writing thatd prolly just be too much to add - but i posit that if the princess knows nothing abt u (as both her lines at the starting cabin and patd imply that she didnt know anything besides the cabin) that her looking down at her hands and clothes then looking at us would cause some sort of discomfort. as much as she is shaped by our perception, in the constructs form of her shes still a person. anyway)

all this is to say that post construct, each princess has to fall into something that fits in the world that they now eist in as individual creatures. for the(most) voices this is easy - avians are already implied to exist, and us as audience know of other examples in fiction (dnd, etc) - but the princesses are all so unique. so the point where they devolve from human shape entirely. or arent as corporeal like spectre and nightmare. like what would the creature beast is be called, what makes spectre and nightmare different creatures even if they both turn into wraiths, what the fuck is razor, and so on

also for the sake of my own sanity im not doing each princess chapter as their own princess. 1) thats so MANY CHARACTERS AAA and 2) for the exclusive chpter 3s theyre kinda just a continuation for the chapter 2 princess. like witch and thorn feel like the same person to me just one is later in their story ykno? same with like damsel and hea, nightmare and moc, beast and den. theyre all just an escalation where as combo routes (fury, wild, grey, etc) are more lateral movements on the themes of the first route. so in my au when deciding what, say, the beast is and what shes like post construct i look at her route and dens route and kinda pick and choose what i like from those routes

like, i love dens design, i love the six limbs the wings the horns the big expressive eyes - but i love beasts personality hair and "clothing". in the den idk if id say shes on level mentally to be a person (i mean she is in construct but post construct idk if could make her be that way cuz of her themes) where as beast 1) talks and 2) has goals beyond killing and eatting, if she wanted to just eat u getting bit in half wouldve been fine. she wants out and shes intelligent enough to know she needs u. but she also speaks in an interesting way, in metaphors and grand yet simple sentences. between her clever mind of trying to trick the cabin and her catlike nature i think a sphinx is prolly what ill end up calling her species in my au. unless anyone has other mythological cat women out there lol

now for hunted lemme explain. for all the voices they are avian except hunted for 1 reason, his route has the most becoming one with, taking on atributes of, consuming of the princess then any of them. and it goes the other way too. in beast, she describes taking his corpse and draping it over her to try and fool the cabin into thinking shes him. if she swallows u it can take u to the wild where the player and her believe they are one entity, in den with stubborn u can eat her back and become like her just as she becomes like u. in each route with hunted u can become more like her, and her like you. so it would stand to reason that whatever hunted is, its shaped (at least) more like her post construct than it is like the others. so id dome research on mythological wolves (and also incidently was watching princess monaoke recently) and learned that along with two crow/raven companions (huginn and muninn) odin also had two wolves one named freki. orginally i was gonna have hunted just be a griffon and be done w it but i felt bored with that idea and was like:

"what if in the stp world they had a similar creature to griffons instead?" and so I decided to name that species Frekninn and instead of eagle and lion, theyre raven and wolf. hunted is gonna few other animal traits like a stoats tail and a gait like a rabbit but u get the idea

both sphinxes and Frekninns are intelligent nomadic creatures but where frekninns prefer obvs to live in packs or groups of people, sphinxes are solitary. not necessarily aggressive to other beings, but ure more likely to meet a sphinx for a night ont he road and for them to move on without u then u are to have them follow you. both creatures partner for life tho (tho frekninns may have multiple life partners with in their social group). sphinxes and frekninns rarely get along, so hunted and beast are defo outliers. both creatures are massive, hunted sitting is like eye level with hero who i hc as beeing 5'11-6'1" (his first design has become like my scale ruler lol)

frekninns rarely walk on their hind legs because it can hurt after long periods of time. their wings are lower than avians, beging right above the hips. their faces have two mouthes 1st) below a beak for talking 2nd) ontop of the beak and under a wolf like snout for eating and intimidation. they also have two sets of eyes, the main pair are similar to humans and when theyre open amke the wolf muzzle and dark fur and ears look like theyre only wearing a mask. the second open when hunting or fighting and are more like a wolfs.

sphinxes have six limbs, the front most limbs are more delicate abd bird like where as the 4 others are of a lions. their small flightless wings sprout from their hips and are covered in featherlike fur. sphinxes dont wear much clothing, mostly wraps to carry trinkets and gloves of some kind to protect their more delicate hands when walking. manez are rare, and im undecided if its like w lions where the "males" have it, especially since i plan on having beast and hunted be an it/its sphinxes are collectors and story tellers - in universe this is where their supposed penchant for riddles comes from - tho beast herself isnt much for telling stories. she does like shiny and interesting objects. while nomadic, they are long lived and so may seem to "settle" in a region especially if it has v interesting things or stories. beast herself has less interest in places and more interest in people. especially her voice and the voices he meets up with. tho she keeps herself out of sight of them for a reason she herself hasnt figured out and makes long journeys away fro. hunted to watch other people. ill go more in depth later

i always worry i go too in detail abt these things, especially w stp where A LOT of stuff is up to interpretation abt the world naras from. like whatever razor is i have just as much if not more detail on abominations and where they came from that id didnt go into and dont know how id include any of it if i do write it. same with spectre, nightmare, mages like prisoner and damsel.

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids, 

I have always admired people who have their one thing. People who care deeply about one highly specific cause, people who have deep knowledge about their one niche interest, people who are really into one particular movie… 

I just think it’s neat! It’s really interesting to hear people talk about their one thing. There’s also so much comfort in the fact that people can find so much happiness and meaning and purpose in something seemingly random! 

Last but not least, it’s also often the people with their one thing who (pardon my language) get shit done. Someone who puts their whole heart into doing their one small thing passionately likely does much more good for the world than someone who tries to constantly give their attention to every single problem everywhere all the time simultaneously. The first one can keep their energy and love for the cause high, the latter probably just ends up burning themselves out. 

… and yet, with all this genuine admiration for people like that: I often judge myself for being a person like that. 

If you wonder what my one thing is, well, you’re looking at it! It’s writing about mental health and wellbeing in the lgbt+ community. I write this blog. I write books with main characters who are lgbt+ and mentally ill or neurodivergent. I do a lot of research on that topic to base my writing on ,and also just for fun. Even with the music or movies or books I enjoy, I seek out that topic or at least I’ll analyze it with that lens… So, according to my very own thoughts I stated above, I should feel like the coolest guy ever! 

But I don’t. I feel embarrassed when people ask about my interests or hobbies. I feel guilty for it not being something you can „turn into a career“. I feel like I’m boring for writing 3 books about the same topic. I feel like I’m stupid for not having multiple passions. I feel like I need to prove my masculinity by having more „male interests“... long story short, I’m being a big old bully to myself about it. 

You may be a „my one thing“ person as well or maybe you’re someone with many different interests, or maybe you are someone who has one thing but the thing changes every few weeks. No matter where you stand, we probably have this in common: we can be really mean towards ourselves over things we wouldn’t judge others for. This may be so common because it’s pretty easy to have a distorted perception of ourselves (after all, we notice every single little thing we think or do or say, while in others we see the bigger picture) or because so many grow up internalizing negative messages about ourselves(but not about others). 

We set impossibly high standards for ourselves that we would never impose on our loved ones - but we should also be our own loved one. After all, you’ll be the person you spend the most time with during your life. Much better for your closest companion to be a friend than a foe. 

So, in this spirit, I’ll try to lead by example: I have my one thing, and that’s super cool of me!! What’s cool about you? 

With all my love, 

Your Tumblr Dad 

[nightwingsgypsyrep]

Every time I make a post about Romani (specifically growing up travelling with the circus) Dick Grayson, I am always so scared someone’s gonna take offence to something I say, or disagree (which is fine - everyone’s experiences are different and I am not American), or be racist or some shit. So far this has not been the case and everyone’s been so lovely, but I do feel the need to clarify for the sake of transparency:

I am from the UK - aka not American.

As with every culture, there are often differences - things like public perception, how the community operates, how we view ourselves etc. for example, anti GRT discrimination is rife in the UK, and as such, things which might be common for us (eg growing up fighting) might be different abroad. The other thing is how the GRT community is defined: this is a whole argument with no satisfactory argument given how easily each group overlaps and how a lot of us trace our families back.

The Romani that I speak is (unsurprisingly, since I am British) Angloromani. Speaking to other Romani-speakers in Europe, we have found that there are some differences. However, whenever I make a Romani Dick Grayson post, I am doing my best to make sure that I am using the most universally accepted form of the language, but I can’t guarantee other Romani speakers/people on this site won’t translate things differently. And that’s ok! Romani is a purely spoken language and has many forms. Two things can be correct at once, and I’m the first to admit that I am not a one-woman book of all knowledge - I can only give the information that I know and grew up with!

Just to really drive that point home: there are gypsies all over the world, none of us have the same experiences! Please be respectful of everyone’s experiences/interpretations! Just because they’re different, doesn’t mean either is wrong!

Also, because of the nature of the Romani language in the 21st century, I would not say that I am fluent. I know a comfortable amount which I grew up using as a first language (alongside English) in the home, but my grandparents definitely know more! To be honest, we mostly use Romani when we don’t want to be overheard (read: gossiping) or in emergency situations, and that usage is reflected in my vocab.

If you are looking for a Romani vocab book, there are a lot of resources online. From my experience, Dawson’s 2002 book is the most accurate! (Yes I go looking for vocab books in my own language. I am a linguistics nerd, ok?)

At least in my experience, it’s a big thing with gypsies ‘not to educate the gorjas/gadjas (non gypsies)’ particularly with regards to language. This is for the sake of preserving the Romani language as something only for the Romani-speaking GRT community, as opposed to being a bandwagon for people to jump on. It is a cultural thing, and though I’m happy to see people use it in their writing, I am going to be selective with what/how much I share, if only for a) cultural preservation, b) safety reasons - there is a reason gypsies developed a language separate from that of the country in which they reside: sometimes we need to have conversations in private, and I’m not going to let my big mouth cause problems there.

I call myself a gypsy. I am aware that this is a slur abroad, but it is not treated as such in the UK. A lot of us use it as a general term for easiness’ sake. In other words, gypsy genealogy is bloody complicated and it’s not worth explaining over the internet (also I don’t fancy being doxxed).

If you have any questions, I am always happy to answer to the best of my ability, but I thought it worth explaining now before the ‘my Romani friend said it’s actually X’ comments start rolling in😂

Anyway, peace and love xox

[vivid-bad-brainrot]

Fav vbs ship?

I would say polysquad but that's too easy so I guess if I had to rank vbs ships itd look like this ^^

And I'll give explanations cause I feel like yapping

🥇Touan!!! ☕️🎧

TOUAN. My love for this pairing goes so deep I am the sole admin for @timelytouan over or Twitter. I'm. A little insane. Bro their dynamic is everything to me its not even funny. I think they have a really wholesome relationship /p and /r and i think its really sweet for an to be such a big proponent of touya getting new experiences and especially watching their relationship grow as the game progresses and seeing the two of them develop an understandingof eachother!!! I've written about 40k words of touan fanfic in total....my little eebies AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON TOUAN PARALLELS. I could do a separate post yammering about that since An and Touya truly are two sides of the same coin

• "we're teammates, so when you're happy, i wanna be happy with you. And when you're sad i wanna console you,or maybe even cry with you!"

• "hehe, you really have changed a lot, touya. Before, i could never tell what you were thinking at all!"

"if we're saying that, isn't it more impressive that you've learnt to understand me?"

🥈Anhane🎧🐹

Anhane is so.....anhane....*wipes tear* I finished writing a 15k words long anhane fic last night so my passion for these two is very strong. I think Anhane is a ship that is prone to misconception especially in the way some people characterize An—how some people just see her as Kohane obsessed and water down her character just to that (the way i see it is that Kohane is a BUFFER to everything that makes An who she is!!! Again. Another rant for another time) While Anhane's dynamic isn't the first of its kind, it really goes deep!! The mutual importance to eachother is so precious to me.... Kohane who was given the chance to grow into her best self and An who gets to gets to share her love of music and Vivid Street. With An's crippling abandonment issues ESPECIALLY regarding kohane, anhane is a ship that is SO fun to play around with wherein it gives you the best fluff and angst....anhane so good

🥉. Akikoha 🥞🐹

Akikoha is one of those ships where I will randomly get hit by the most severe brainrot of my life for a few days and then be fine but have to live under constant threat of gettjng killed by akikoha cuteness... akikoha is just so cute man!!! Disecting them down to a deeper level, I really love how they complement eachother in their world views and how they approach things!! They both admire eachother so much!!! With Akito and Kohane, they seem really different from wachother but all they want to do is prove themselves!!! I also love to see akito hyping kohane up!!! Good stuff!!!

• "Look, there's always gonna be haters. Don't let it get to you. If it bothers you so much what people say about us, shut them up with an awesome performance. Like that other time. Keep your chin high and show them how awesome you are. Anyway, An's really late. Let's go inside. Besides, this way our sensitive member won't have to listen to some guys badmouthing us while they wait for the gig"

"Um... Was Akito being considerate towards me just now?" (LMAOOO 😭😭😭😭)

4. Akian 🥞🎧

Whether you like them romantically or not can we just talk about how banger their dynamic is???? Their constant bickering makes them so fun!! An and Akito have known eachother since middle school and probably met some time after RAD WEEKEND when Akito would sing on the street and catch wind of An. I think this plays in to not only their deep friendship but also their rivalry!! The two of them indirectly helped eachother through their loneliness 🥺🥺 An found comfort in Akitos voice simply being there!! Then we obviously have akitos deep understanding of an (although generally he's just very perceptive of the people around him!! Don't forget!!!) We see in sis bfby and kiuan where akito is able to see RIGHT THROUGH an and call her out on her shit! That familiarity means so much to the both of them and I think their dynamic is SO sweet what the hell man!!! Guys akian is so peak EVERY VBS PAIRING IS SO PEAK

5. Toukoha ☕️🐹

EVERYTIME SOMEONE CALLS TOUKOHA BORING AN ANGEL LOSES ITS WINGS 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 NO ONE GETS THEM 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 NO ONE DESERVES TOUKOHA 😭😭😭😭 anyways toukoha get shoved aside alot as the quiet ones of vbs when. Guys. Thes mfs are YAPPERS. Touya and Kohane's autism sync up like Bluetooth. If you want to be enlightened on toukoha I EMPLORE you to go read take the best shot....do it for them.... I wish they had more in game content there's not even alot of them in card stories which is sad because that's usually where u can find the most content for vbs pairings outside of ahn/akty 💔💔💔 I think their dynamic in vbs main story is really interesting....... if you think toukoha is lame YOU are lame 🫵🫵🫵

5. Akitoya

Guys I LOVE akitoya very much they are SOULMATES but I put them down here because I think about them the least (i am biased towards women. Off topic but shoutout to girltouya) and don't trust myself to write an analysis of them 😭😭😭 but I really do love them they are very cute

I know people (at least from my experience in vbs communities) get really defensive over ships so remember that I ADORE all of these ships and brainrot all of them

[amaltheas-garden]

What's your take on Dany being a misunderstood villain in the books? How much likely is it that she won't be the Mad Queen and will not get dark dany?

To answer your second question, dark Dany is almost a guarantee for the books. One of the most unique aspects of Dany's characters is that she is a woman fulfilling the role of an almost exclusively male archetype: the corrupted hero turned villain. She begins the story as an underdog we want to root for, she comes from a great noble bloodline and her family has been terribly wronged (from her pov), and she decides to use the power she does gain to do good. Her character arc could end right there and she'd go down as one of the best written heroes in the fantasy genre. However, her story does continue, and we see her grow increasingly frustrated by her own lack of abilities in enacting the change she wishes to see. We watch Dany make compromise after compromise until she's had enough and decides to embrace her fire and blood side if it means gaining enough power to exert control over her society and mold it how she sees fit. Even if her intentions began noble, the endless pursuit of greater and greater power, represented by the growing size and danger of her dragons, will be what corrupts her. It's impossible to think that grrm, the guy who's favorite thing to write about is the corrupting nature of violence and the negative impact the exertion of unrestrained power has on the perpetrator, would write a series about how thee most powerful character was actually justified in her pursuit because... she wants to do good? My interpretation of Dany's "fatal flaw" has always been a need to control her surroundings, stemming from the horrific abuse she endured as a child and later wife, and why I think she does have genuine compassion for the enslaved people of Essos; what could be a worse fate than not controlling your own life? And this is where her love of fire and dragons comes from. Dany describes fire as a cleansing force that makes her feel powerful and new, and the dragons are manifestations of her desire for ultimate freedom. While her dragons are quite small and Dany is still coming into her power as queen, we see more restraint in how she fights her battles, how she negotiates, and how she governs, all while wishing her goals of widespread societal change could happen right then. Now that her dragons have grown large and powerful and restless, we will likely see a Dany with far fewer qualms about using them to get what she wants. And after this goes well for her, her restraint will begin to dwindle. After all, if she can use dragon power to instantaneously get what she wants and change things for the better, why should she approach conflicts any other way? But as we've seen with Cersei, fire is a wild, uncontrollable substance that spells destruction wherever it touches. Dany's enemies have all been one note cartoon villains in how evil they are, and every time one gets taken down, it only bolsters our (and Dany's) belief in her righteousness. I think this is very intentional on grrm's part, as part of his whole gimmick and why people like his writing is his incredible ability to add a level of nuance and even empathy to the most minor and despicable characters. I see no reason why that quality should be so utterly lacking in the characters of Essos if not for the fact that grrm very much wants us to cheer Dany on as she crushes her enemies, only to pull the carpet out from under us when suddenly she is face to face with Westerosi characters we know very well, and would prefer not to see die by dragonfire. Season 8 might have been shit, but Tyrion's speech was on point. In short, Dany's desire to exert control via an uncontrollable power will be her downfall.

As for the first question, by "misunderstood villain" I'm assuming we're talking audience perception, in which case... yes and no. I think Dany is a perfectly understandable misunderstood villain because grrm makes a point to show every step of her character's evolution in the transition from frightened girl to possible savior, and finally a tragic villain. Some readers reject the "villain" characterization altogether, and there's really no way to validate one interpretation over the other until TWoW comes out (lol). I will say, I do think most hero-Dany analyses have tunnel vision when it comes to her and an unwillingness to see the writing on the walls, for what a lot of us see as a very slow, well thought out, and GRADUAL corruption arc.

[punkpandapatrixk]

🪷Sacred Lotus Within You ♦︎ Timeless Pick A Card

‘If you only do what you can do, you will never be more than what you are now.’

‘I don’t wanna be more! I like who I am.’

‘You don’t even know who you are.’

‘What do you— Of course I do; I’m the Dragon Warrior!’

‘And what exactly does that mean—Dragon Warrior?’

—  Po and Shifu’s conversation from Kung Fu Panda 3

SONG: Pure Imagination by Gene Wilder

MOVIE: Kung Fu Panda 3 (2016)

[PAC Masterlist] [Part 1] [Part 2]

[Patreon] [Paid Readings]

A hard Life is not always a divine punishment of sort⛈More often than not, the Universe’s most advanced Souls choose to be born—as Humans—into much sorrow and a perceived sense of limitation just for the joy of experiencing a personal breakthrough out of a cycle of—both—good and bad Karma🍄

Seen from a Soul’s perspective, all events in this mortal world are just drama. drama. drama~🎭It’s so exciting to co-Create massive stories with other Souls in this theatre of the Universe🎪This Play in itself, a spiritual evolution of sort for all beings of Love and Light🩰

This world is at best the dream of a Butterfly🦋Have fun; and have faith that in time all things bloom magnificently like a Sacred Lotus emerging from the mud🪷Ultimately, all of us, we bring with us only memories of our lifetimes when we are done playing our roles in this Grand Experiment of a Cosmic Drama💫

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – Peace Maker

VIBE: Master Shifu asking Po to teach him inner peace

seeds of beauty in you – 10 of Pentacles Rx

Encoded in your DNA is the very gift of healing itself. You were born into this world of stupid carrying seeds of peace-making. Yup, you were the kid who was always able to tell when a grownup was lying. Like, OMG, so disrespectful…they think I can’t see through such obvious lies? In fact, too many things were obvious to you because you are gifted with a keen ability of observation. We’re talking superhuman-level observation, baby~

With that, the world around you was often terribly dull. You’re definitely the type that wants to travel and see the world for yourself. Wanting to see what other people of different nations and races, customs and cultures, even religions, have to share about what this Life is all about~ You had A LOT of questions!

Alas… You soon realised that most people’s perceptions, priorities, and overall ways of life are low-quality at best. Your interactions with people, your observations of them, gave you almost nothing but disdain. People…are not intelligent enough. But more disturbing still…people are not noble enough in their pursuits of a good Life.

In your eye, most of the time, people don’t have enough integrity, character, or personality🤷🏻‍♀️

blooming in spite of muddy water – 7 of Pentacles Rx

If you’re often distressed by the state of Humanity, it is because you possess this divine ability to pierce through bullshit and reveal the true essence of all things. You’re a deep diver. You truly are a scholar. You’re the type that seeks to bridge between differences and clashes, so that people find a common ground upon which they could build a harmonious society. You most likely have a significant placement in the 7th House or blessed with a strong Libra/Venus aenergy~⚖️

Essentially, you’ve come into this world with an almost specific purpose of bridging differences between generations. All because your Oversoul was sick of watching Humans being fools amongst themselves. So you plunged into this world of illusions in the hopes of elevating people’s spiritual intelligence. Your unique gift of observation is piercing and high-vibrational and the reason it can bridge generations is that the wisdom you will develop as a person is both universal and timeless💎

You are an Ascended Master, you know. Like Po returning to the mortal world after defeating Kai. Like Gandalf the Grey returning as Gandalf the White after defeating the Balrog. All because you’ve got shit to do in this world of stupid—your wisdom is gravely needed! I’m not teaching you to be conceited or anything, but by means of technicality, you’re not here to learn anymore; you’re here to…teach🤣

tulips of happiness – Knight of Cups

No matter your age or their age, you’re here to teach the infantile Humans about inner peace and true, everlasting, sustainable, manageable, actually reasonable sense of Harmony🌷You do that by setting an example; by first bridging confusions and calming down chaos within yourself; then you talk about the walk to anybody interested enough to listen to you🌾

In this lifetime, as an Ascended Master playing Human, there’s probably a lot of heartache you’ve needed to learn to forgive. If you’re in your early or mid-20s when reading this, you’re most likely just beginning to learn it. You don’t have to act perfectly though. Healing and forgiveness are not about being or doing perfect. It’s perfectly OK, too, not to forgive—certain cruelties in this world are simply beyond absolution, ya know?🤬

What does truly matter is that you forgive yourself. Just yourself. You can forgive the situation. You can forgive the fact you fucked your way into this or that mess. Where applicable, you can give thanks to the experience and then move on to the next thing. Be glad about the fact that you’re still alive after all of the fuckery, and that you’ve enough self-awareness, and how that self-awareness has grown you as a person. It is such a beautiful thing to have grown up in the mental and spiritual~🦉

ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN🔻💜

the script you chose – Silver Alchemist (Ramon Llull)

path of self-transcendence – Priestess of Healing

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 2 – Pink Radiance

VIBE: Master Oogway sending universe mail to Li Shan

seeds of beauty in you – III The Empress Rx

Oooh~ You’re pretty~ That much I can tell🙊You probably are blessed with some significant Aries, Aquarius, or any Cardinal aenergy in your birth chart; could also have Venus/Moon in the 1st or 11th House~ And do you know why you’re bestowed with an outer appearance that’s easily considered attractive in this realm? Because you’re meant to have an audience🎙

You’re meant to be heard; to have a platform and be some sort of a leader. And since being pretty in this world brings a lot of privileges, your Soul chose to be born with this specific setting in your birth chart wHoA~ A pretty face gets attention more effortlessly and that’s just how it is with this world~🙈

So, you see that there’s meaning in having some forms of privilege whether it’s your face or your family/economic background, or even heritage or some special lineage thing going on in your Life🎰And yet, it seems you could’ve been blind to all this ‘upper hand’ and not see much value in your existence.

None of this has felt all that special…well, because you were born with it. It’s not special; it’s normal to you; and you definitely want to feel special…not really grasping others would kill to have what you were born with…🐞

blooming in spite of muddy water – XVI The Tower

In spite of all of the privileges that seem obvious and enviable to others, you yourself have not felt all that blessed most of your Life. There is this thing that people don’t understand about you: EXPECTAFUCKINTION. Expectation could kill, depending on situation, and depending on where you are in Life. In many ways, you haven’t really ever felt FREE in your beingness. You don’t really know how FREE truly would feel like. You can imagine it, but you don’t really know if that’s even real🤷🏻‍♀️

Whether it’s status, prestige, or simply beauty, sometimes you’ve felt victimised by the very things other people wish they had. They literally don’t know how suffocating it is to be wearing your crown~ You often feel like you don’t have autonomy over your own Life. In some instances, you may even have experienced your autonomy getting violated. And it’s so heartbreaking.

At some point in Life, you will suddenly and gradually lose access to all of these beauties and privileges, maybe even some of your talents, babe. All these things that came ever so naturally to you, once you’ve lost ‘em, you will die in spirit, and be reborn with a renewed sense of appreciation for the fact you have always, ALWAYS, been extraordinary👿

tulips of happiness – King of Swords

Whether you are a girl or a boy or straight or gay or whatever, you are an ally of the world’s Divine Feminine aenergy. Do not worry about losing your glory; it will aaalll come back stronger and sparklier once you’ve graduated the University of Hell a.k.a Saturn Return🪐

It is part of your Soul’s Blueprint to experience losing privileges, perhaps money, talents, friends, freedom, hair, weight, and everything else, momentarily. This period of your Life—whether it’s your first or second Saturn Return—can be likened to a pregnant woman who’s now restricted from drinking, eating, doing, or even being near certain things. She’s not so free, but for all the right reasons; she’s protecting her foetus.

This Saturn Return period of your Life where you’re experiencing losing yourself is like a pregnancy where you’re gestating a newer, stronger, clearer, more confident version of yourself. The restrictions put around you are meant to suffocate you further, enough for you to want a breakthrough. All so you can become a pure Pink Radiance of a miracle this miserable world needs, for that is your purpose for being born🌷

Shine on, Pink Diamond~

ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN🔻💗

the script you chose – Green Historian (Herodotus)

path of self-transcendence – Priestess of Prosperity

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – Magic Worker

VIBE: Po teaching the tribe to be THEMSELVES

seeds of beauty in you – 9 of Cups Rx

Within you are seeds of a luxurious lifestyle that you ought to nurture slowly throughout the course of your Life. You may have come from a background of lack just to make this whole scenario more exciting (to us as Souls contrasts are exceedingly attractive when thinking of a spiritual breakthrough). With that, you could’ve grown up with lots of daydreaming about feeling fulfilled—emotionally fulfilled.

Though you may have daydreamed about luxurious environments and things and situations, at the core of everything, all you yearn for is a feeling of safety; stability; of having just enough…of being enough, in fact…all because you weren’t emotionally nurtured as a child. You were the kid who were neglected by everybody, both the adults and your peers.

You felt unseen most of your Life. But even those who acted like they saw you, somehow the view was inaccurate. You felt this way because you didn’t understand yourself either. Children learn about themselves through the feedback of their environment; so the ones who were mostly neglected…how could such children even begin to learn to comprehend their identity?

Because you didn’t really understand yourself, it was difficult to manifest properly. In your psyche, there are way too many threads of wishes that are tangled up, causing you to manifest clashing Realities…and then disappoint you…

blooming in spite of muddy water – XXI The World

The reason for this difficulty is that you needed to learn and discover for yourself the true Essence of being alive. You are essentially God’s messenger to help Humans overcome their addiction to material possessions. Omaigosh if you know how TikTok shopping culture is making people poorer and more miserable in the emotional, I’m sure this will ring a bell in your Soul Memory.

People who grew up poor are the main target of evil marketing because they crave that feeling of ‘having’. Sometimes, it’s a feeling of having things—trendy things; some other times, it’s a feeling of having friends—cool friends; and some tragical times, of having someone to love—which usually only translates to ONS or casual hookups without any real emotional connection.

Anyway, back to talking about material possessions though, there’s this:

‘Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body.’ – George Carlin

This, is a concept, a Reality, you’ve needed to learn and fully comprehend, and then unravel by means of your personal spiritual transformation. That way you can be an example and a guide to others. Reminiscent of Uncle George himself, you’re somebody who holds an Elder Archetype aenergy about you. You’re ‘worldly’ in the sense that you’re based, well-thinking, and most of all, you can embrace perspectives that are UNIQUE. You’re able to hold a knowledge that encompasses the whole of the Universe itself.

tulips of happiness – 4 of Pentacles

In a sense, know that you are a born leader. Though I sense, you may be more interested in being a thought leader🧠You don’t seem that interested in leading an envoy or a movement of any sort hahaha You’re a loner; you like being in your own company. After all, people are stupid and it’s exhausting to have to interact with them. And that’s all fine~

In the future, when everything’s said and done, you’ll meet your Soul Tribe—people who are just as weird, misunderstood, deep, sombre (probably), wholesome, complex, and loyal such as yourself🫀Your Spirit Guides are really saying: it’s perfectly fine for you not to extend too much compassion for those who aren’t worth your while; hoping you’d calm down some clashing ideas about your personality.

It sounds cruel? No, really; not everybody is worth paying attention to or share affection with. If you do that you’re only going to be sucked dry of Life Force. It’s a similar principal with money spending. Just because you see a lot of items being displayed with attractive, persuasive DISCOUNT signs, doesn’t mean you have to give your attention, or money least of all, to ALL of that. Got it?🤪

‘Even if something is on discount, if you don’t need it, it’s too expensive.’ – Love Marie Escudero’s husband, Govt. Chiz

ESSENCE OF BEING HUMAN🔻🧡

the script you chose – Green Physician (Paracelsus)

path of self-transcendence – Priestess of Intuition

Access full reading + cards on Patreon🌸

☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

[PAC Masterlist] [Part 1] [Part 2]

[Patreon] [Paid Readings]

[finitevoid]

would love to hear your reasoning on transfem sora !!! bc instinctually i feel it, but im not 100% sure why myself

The people want the transfem sora meta and thus they will get it

the simplest and most obvious reasoning is the one I’m gonna get out of the way first, and honestly it’s enough to justify this headcanon forever and ever by itself: when sora’s Others aren’t ven, they’re girls. every single time.

Im not saying that roxas isn’t sora’s nobody or that he’s more ven’s than sora’s or something (because that’s not true), but I am saying that roxas looks like ven and clearly takes some of his personality cues from ven. and roxas is a boy. vanitas is ven’s darkness, and vanitas is a boy.

xion is sora’s memories, and xion is a girl. and namine is “kairi’s heart and sora’s body” and she’s a girl. (NAMINE IS TRANS—). canonically this is because of their tangential associations with kairi (sora’s memories taking the form of his most important person whatever etc) but… they’re still sora’s. most times sora is reborn, he’s reborn as a girl

sora’s Others that are ven

and sora’s Others that aren’t

Smarter people than me have pointed this out before now but. The threads are there

Moving onto some actual analysis though, I think that sora speaks to the transfeminine experience because he doesn’t actually really ask for any of this shit

it’s not like I can point to a specific moment where sora expresses dislike or even a lack of personal association with masculinity because— masculinity is the default, right? why would sora dislike being masculine?

buuuuuut… he kinda does? If I parrot the gendered framework for my kairi analysis— i.e. that keyblade wielding is a masculine ideal of strength, then… while sora technically achieves that ideal, it’s 1) not taken seriously by other characters (he’s even mocked by the narrative for how “bad” of a keyblade wielder he is!) and 2) was something thrust upon him, something that he adapted to, not something he asked for or wanted.

sora struggles against his own dislike of his position pretty textually; he spends all of kh1 resenting the keyblade before he’s forced to truly claim and embrace it, by the time ddd happens he’s so exhausted of it all that he walks dead on into a trap, and he spends all of kh3 getting mockingly negged by everyone he’s supposed to be friends with

and I reaaaally wanna emphasize that last one; how sora’s seen by other characters. something that happens to a lot of trans people I think is that… because our internal perceptions of ourselves, whether we’re aware of them or not, actually really effect what we absorb socially and how we move and act, even subconsciously… like, this is why it’s common for trans girls irl to come off a certain way, or to be treated with pretty textbook sexism prior to even coming out, and the way that other characters treat sora reminds me so viscerally of this phenomena. It’s vivid.

sora’s mocked but he’s not allowed to say anything about it; they mean it as a joke but he’s not comfortable expressing how insecure it really makes him feel. They’re pointing out that he’s failing at something— failing to be strong— failing to be a boy? and if he says that makes him uncomfortable then that will… reveal something? Reveal what? Sora isn’t sure, but he knows he shouldn’t reveal it.

plus… no shade to riku or anything, but the way he treats sora in kh1 SCREAMS of “I think you’re beneath me.” his reaction to sora having the keyblade is such palpable disgust at the thought of someone Lesser than him having acces what he thinks is respectable; what he thinks Should Be His. like… lol?

sora’s just kind of… checking off boxes, right? He’s doing what he’s told, absolutely scrambling against himself to accommodate Everyone, All The Time, like with the kind of fervor that speaks to someone who doesn’t believe he will have friends at all if he doesn’t Serve them in some capacity.

sora also gets along better with girls [shrugs]. He and kairi yknow, gestures vaguely at belle and ariel, i don’t know that you’d know this Nessie but sora spends the entire tangled world beating out flynn rider for rapunzel’s attention lol, etc

on a more allegorical level too… rage form… feeling like there’s Something Wrong inside of you… something that you’re ashamed of, that betrays your Wrongness, that you don’t want to come out lest others judge you… idk…

like with my kairi meta, none of this only applies to a transfeminine reading, but all of it does apply to a transfeminine reading. masculinity is sora’s prison that keeps him exhausted and insecure. I just think that femininity could be her escape

on an only tangentially related note, I actually don’t agree with most other tgirl sora truthers that she’d be butch. I think sora would be superrrrrr fem like she’d spend the first multiple years of her transition dressing in as many girly styles as she can possibly think of before she settles back on cargo pants and [NEW!!] spaghetti strap tank tops with cute designs. I love you sora!!!!!

[forestmossling]

this is… this is everything to me. this is one of the best things i’ve ever read in my entire life.

i know i usually talk about characterization and plot and shit like that in my posts but fuck that. not because any of those factors are in any way lacking in this fic, but because it honestly doesn’t matter half as much as pure emotional devastation of a very personal kind this brought me.

because i saw myself in this. i saw my every fear, every struggle, all the ugliest emotions i’ve ever felt about myself, all the times i thought about little me and absolutely fucking hated them for everything they were and all their parts that survived and made up who i am today. but this fic also healed this part of me, at least a little bit. reminded me of all the reasons i felt this way and how much i sometimes want to stop feeling that way. how much, however rarely, i sometimes want to hold my younger self and feed them our comfort food instead of shooting them in a dark alley. it reminded me that i was, in fact, just a child, and it was fucking unfair but i dealt with shit the best i could and if i feel like such a better person right now than i was then, it’s only because that kid, that teenager, that fledgling young adult really wanted to become what i am today and took the first horrifying steps to make it happen.

and well there was definitely sobbing and ugly crying and shaky breathing and blank staring at my ceiling contemplating my entire perception of my identity going on after i read this. and not only in the immediate aftermath but also like a couple of hours afterwards my mind just randomly wandered back to what i read and made me tear up a little bit. like. whatever. “for all you bitches asking why i kin jason todd” indeed. this felt like a gentle beautiful hug and also like a punch to the gut and i will be forever grateful for finding this fic. i want to print the entire thing and put in on my wall, for the times when i forget all the important things it reminds me about.

and this fic is also everything i love about fanfiction. the entire essence of what it means to me. the raw intimacy of seeing someone’s pain reflected in the story and finally feeling seen, because it’s your pain too. because you’re not alone in this and this person you know absolutely nothing about is holding your hand as you walk the same path they once did and showing you the way, or at least figuring it out alongside you.

i mean sure, whump and angst are cool, but have you ever sobbed like a little pathetic bitch because a character you see the most of yourself in is finally learning to be kind to themselves?

@doingthewritethings thank you so so much for writing this. this means more than any words can ever express. i don’t even want to rate this, because no number will ever be enough to reflect just how important this is to me. absolutely recommend, because whoever you are and whatever you went through, you might need to read this as much as i did.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/55157617

(if the link isn’t linking it’s i’d tell them (put me back in it) by doingthewritethings on ao3)