#at least I've seen this concern start to be raised in a few analysis of the test in the last couple years

[carriesthewind]

Bonus round: on top of all of its other (MANY) problems, I propose that no study going forward should be allowed to use the "Reading the Mind in the Eyes" test in any study that includes autistic people unless it bothers to control for "has trouble looking people in the eyes (and thus finds the test painful and/or testing a skill that they rarely practice)." Like, using that goddam test without that control should trigger an automatic review not only of your study, but your entire body of research.

[hiscyarika]

hey! so i've been seeing a bunch of discourse regarding Omera and how she tried to remove Din's helmet without asking him, but i haven't seen anyone show the same degree of hate towards Cara as they do Omera for basically doing the same thing. i'm curious, what are your thoughts on all this? love your blog/writing! 💙✨

Me: *has not been present on Tumblr for like a week because of school*

First of all, thank you for your kind words, anon! I’m so glad that you enjoy my content and I appreciate your support! 💙

And without further ado, let me just give my two cents on the subject 😌

Let’s go ahead and start with Omera, since she’s the one that everyone seems to be so concerned about. I think that Omera is a fantastic character! She’s protected and raised her daughter on her own for some length of time. She takes charge when Din and Cara try to tell the villagers that they have no choice but to leave, and she’s absolutely badass for being the only one in the village with the skill to shoot the way she does. Awesome character, and very well developed despite only appearing for one episode. I would absolutely be open to her appearing in Season 2 as someone that Din and the child go to when they’ve hit a rough patch. 

That being said, I didn’t appreciate the scene with trying to take the helmet off. Was Din seriously considering staying? Yes. Did he react much differently than when anyone else tried the same thing? Yes. And those two points have a lot of merit in this argument and I’m glad that people have brought it up. However, Omera did know that Din had not shown his face since he was a child. He says that to her very explicitly. And then he spends weeks on Sorgan never appearing to anyone in anything less than full armor and the helmet. He doesn’t eat or drink around people. To me, it’s very clear that there is a significance to his mannerisms even if Omera doesn’t know the specifics about the Creed and why Din behaves this way. My thing about this isn’t so much that she tries to remove the helmet, it’s more that she does it in front of the entire village. This whole interaction would have been much easier to swallow if it had just been the two of them in one of the little houses. 

I think the bottom line here is that it’s okay for people to have disdain for this interaction between Din and Omera. I personally have not interacted with anyone whose opinion seems to be founded in the idea that she’s a potential love interest which “may threaten our own fantasies about Din” so to speak. I also have not interacted with anyone whose opinion seems to be founded in the fact that she is a character of color (which, Din is a character of color as well, so I personally wouldn’t understand this argument even if I had come in contact with it). That isn’t to say that there aren’t people with these viewpoints, but I think that it’s really important not to assume that most people who dislike Omera or this interaction do it for such egregious reasons.

As for Cara, I also mostly enjoy her as a character! She’s got a lot of spunk. She’s a badass. And Gina Carano being able to just manhandle someone like she does in Chapter 8? Phenomenal. But she has her flaws too, flaws that I don’t think I picked up on until my second or third viewing of the series. But given the way that I write Kir’manir, and especially the way that I handle Cara in that series, I’ve had to really look at the way she interacts with all the other characters in the show, and there are actually more things that bother me about Cara than there are things about Omera (which makes sense because Cara has far more screen time than Omera, but still). 

One thing that really irks me about Cara is the way that she so flippantly responds to Din telling her the repercussions of taking off the helmet at the end of Chapter 4. When she says “That’s it?” she clearly has no regard for the high importance that the Creed has in Din’s life. And you could argue that’s because she doesn’t understand it. But just like with Omera, Cara has been around Din for weeks now, and I would hope that by then she would at least recognize the significance of adhering to the Creed, even if the consequences for breaking it are not fatal. 

I also have a really hard time with the way that she treats Kuiil. Kuiil makes it very clear that the work that he did for the Empire was against his will, and that he had to work for a very long time to be free from his servitude. And yet she is still very hostile and refuses to recognize that he’s not an enemy. Again, you could argue that she’s got a lot of trauma from what she went through as a shock trooper, and I don’t want to invalidate that at all. But I think it would have been much better for her to recognize that Kuiil never posed a threat to her. He wasn’t a soldier, as far as I’m aware, and therefore he wasn’t someone that had any direct impact on Cara or any of the other shock troopers. 

To wrap up Cara’s analysis, I have to address her attempt to take Din’s helmet off as well. And I want to be clear when I say that I actually have even less respect for Cara doing this than Omera. When Omera tried to take it off, at least to her it seemed like it was something that Din was considering going through with. With Cara, even though she was trying to save his life, she knew full well that keeping to his Creed was more important than anything else. He gave up a happy life on Sorgan with Omera and the child just to keep to his Creed. He was going to leave the child there if the other bounty hunter had not shown up. Cara probably has a much better idea of what it means for Din to be a Mandalorian than Omera ever did. And the sad thing is that if Din had been too weak to stop her in any way, she probably would have gone through with revealing him without a second thought. 

Both of these female characters have flaws, and I think it’s important not only to discuss them, but to realize that other people might not feel the same way as you do about the way that these characters behave. I think we as a fandom have forgotten how to disagree without having so much aggression behind our interactions with each other, and as someone who’s been here pretty much since the beginning of The Mandalorian’s fandom, it’s really disheartening to see this so often on my dashboard. It’s the reason that I have contemplated leaving more than once in the past few months. We need to remember that not everyone is going to agree with us on certain things, and that’s okay. As long as no one is being harmed, then it’s not worth having these arguments over all the time. If you like Omera and you want to see her as Din’s love interest in Season 2? That’s fine, but you shouldn’t expect everyone to see things that way. If you think that Cara is a bad character and you want to voice your opinion about it? Great. Do that. But also please remember that this is a TV show. These are fictional characters, and in the end you do not gain anything from shaming people for their opinions on certain characters. The end. 

[moralhymn]

honestly im curious after seeing it on your blog what is sort of the foundation of ignis/ardyn or the dynamic? I've never seen the ship before!

hi there hello you’ve opened up a WHOLE CAN OF WORMS HERE BECAUSE I LOVE THIS SHIP SO DAMN MUCH–

honestly i– i don’t remember how i started shipping it. for.. context, i will say that when i first dipped my toe into the 15 fandom, i actually started as a gladio rper. he was my favorite, with the combination of the anger issues and obvious intelligence that he had ( and lbr gladio does have some serious anger issues; he’s not a bad guy for it though! it just makes him more interesting to me as a character because how many times is something like that shown having consequences? you see it with gladio and how he grows and matures. i love it! ) and my twin from another mother was like “why aren’t you writing ardyn?” 

me and my unsuspecting ass: “i don’t know i guess i’m trying to veer away from villains here.”

she just laughed at me. a lot. because she knew. she knew what was coming. so i, in my dumb naivety, forge ahead in the game and then i met ardyn and it was all downhill from there. especially after altissia. so i kinda… acquired ardyn as a muse and boy i didn’t know what i was getting in for. i really, truly didn’t. he’s come to mean so much to me as a character because he’s so beautifully complex. i have a serious love for seeing dark side characters, especially if they started on the good side of things, and between his flamboyant mannerisms, his speech patterns ( WHICH I ABSOLUTELY LOATHE TRYING TO IMITATE IN RP BECAUSE I NEVER FEEL LIKE I GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO THEM ), and his choice of archaic wording, he was practically gift-wrapped for me.

and his parallels to both jesus and lucifer are both seriously big draws for me too.

so, anyways, about the ship! 

honestly, i couldn’t begin to tell you where it came from for me or where i started looking into it. it just sorta… happened! i think it also happened in large part because i am honestly dissatisfied with ignis’s popular ships of gladnis and ignoct, seeing him together with ardyn just drew me in. i mean, i can appreciate those two ships and more power to anyone who ships them! if it makes you happy, then go for it! but a lot of gladnis is written in ways that set my teeth on edge ( and i must reference one fic where gladio was calling ignis baby. i am fairly certain that ignis would stab you with a fork if you tried that. ) and as for ignoct… it’s probably the fact that it’s a gross misinterpretation of the warrior-retainer archetype relationship that they share, not to mention how maternal ignis is towards noctis. i can see and understand the basis for both ships but they lack a certain luster for me.

but boy, for some reason, ignis and ardyn just have this fascinating interaction with one another. i could go into over analysis here on every scene they share together but i won’t, lmfao. but there’s something interesting about the fact that ignis gets especially bitchy when talking to or about ardyn, to me. i mean, ignis can be pretty bitchy in general ( and before anyone tries to say he’s not, he really is. his dialogue in the japanese is legit him trying to sound like a tough guy and he just gets so bristly when talking about ardyn. ) but there’s like an uptick in it where ardyn’s concerned. now, some people might go “but wait doesn’t that mean he doesn’t like him?” and, yeah, i can see that. but when you ship a rarepair, you reach for what you can get and are satisfied with things. also, everyone interprets things differently! ignis seems… acutely interested in some way in ardyn but there’s also other subtle hints of their interactions, at least to me.

two of the biggest factors are sagefire and ignis being able to tell noctis who ardyn really is once he’s free of the crystal, including his history.

now, exactly where could ignis have learned this stuff? the answer is, of course, ardyn. ardyn, whose new dlc literally calls him the sage. ardyn, who would probably answer ignis’s demands because heaven knows gladio and prompto don’t go near him.

also the fact that prompto asks ignis if ardyn’s not his type and ignis doesn’t bother saying that, no, ardyn is not my type, kinda… raised my eyebrows more than a little. ( also, ignis not really contributing to talks about that kind of stuff? hm. interesting. )

so i honestly believe that ignis has met with ardyn, more than once, to learn both sagefire and ardyn’s history. i mean, the only person who could have reliably told ignis about it was him. sagefire is another thing that i’m working out in my head but, you know, ignis is definitely a man who’ll pursue knowledge in all its forms and ardyn, being ardyn, being this two thousand year old being who can show him so many different things, would probably lure him in like a moth to a flame. and given how i view ardyn, i know that he’d respect ignis for his own person. not as noctis’s caretaker. not as a man who was being groomed to be a general. not as part of the flock. but his own individual with his own wants and desires. and i think that’d suck ignis right on in, to be honest. now, i’m not saying that the bros don’t recognize ignis as his own person, far from it - but the way that they handle things just kinda shows that, as tight as they are, there’s misunderstandings between them. 

i just see ignis and ardyn having this super dazzling chemistry and interesting influence on one another as well. like, ardyn might sleep around, but if he finds someone who can stand as his equal, the way i see ignis being able to, then you’ve got his interest securely on you and that can be a powerful, frightening thing, to be honest. after all, it’d make one wonder what it is about them that would bring in the attention of a man who’s seen so much and done so many things in his life, right? but ardyn would see ignis for his intelligence, his skill, probably even finding his sharp tongue and wit charming too. and there’s the fact that he never seems to take any action against ignis either. i mean, even in altissia, he doesn’t really fight ignis; he just kinda makes a few cursory gestures but overall? ignis beat the snot out of him and ardyn just seemed to take it. i mean, yeah, there was probably the whole “oh you can’t really do anything to hurt me” deal, but this is ardyn we’re talking about here. ardyn, who messes with the other three something awful, after all.

but ignis? he literally stops him with a raised hand at the stronghold. he’s impressed by him putting on the ring ( and rather surprised ). he probably taught him the sagefire technique. and i will never shake the idea that it was ignis who got ardyn to talk about himself, his past, his relation to the lucis caelum bloodline, and so much more. 

i just honestly find their dynamic so fascinating to look at and to explore. i think that out of all four of the bros, ignis would be the one ardyn would go for anyways. prompto, he already knows how to handle. gladio? well, ardyn’s just going to irritate him. noctis? he hates the poor kid. but ignis? ignis would definitely make ardyn’s head turn so fast that it’s a wonder it doesn’t fly off his neck. so, yeah, i just think that out of all the people ignis could hook up with, ardyn would probably just lure him in so fast and so hard that it’s amazing to me. 

so i guess the foundation is, in the end, this whole… ( vague hand gestures. ) this whole deal of thinking that they’d just have this super magnetic interest in one another. i mean, yeah, even after altissia? yeah, even after altissia. it just? i don’t know. i think that in some ways ignis would lure ardyn in as well for how he’s both selfish and selfless at the same damn time. ardyn would crave that level of devotion for himself, since it was something he lost before he was cast out of history. to see it in ignis? oh, it’s just like icing on the cake. how can he resist that? he wouldn’t be able to.

i just have a lot of reasons and viewpoints for this ship and oh my god i rambled i will shut up now.

[peachymess]

I don't know about this, but I've noticed that Fanon Eremin is usually portrayed as Eren gushing about Armin's greatness. I love that so much and it's amazing. But, I just really want to see Armin gush about Eren in future fanworks in the Eremin Fandom. I mean, isn't Eremin about equality? (Also what are your opinions on this?)

Hello, anon! I really can’t answer for other people than myself, but I’ll tell you what I believe, since you are asking for my opinion. 

If I go by my own stance on this, and apply that logic to the (majority of) the rest of the eremin fandom, I think there’s a really easy explanation for this - however, like I said, this is not the “answer”, just my theory on the matter: the same way that people have favorite and secondary ships, they also have favorite and secondary headcanons for their ships. This is the case for eremin as well; the most popular eremin headcanon/dynamic, is that of dom!Eren/sub!Armin. And I call them that not in the seme/uke way, but rather in the personality dynamic sense. On the surface, you see, it’s not incorrect to say that Eren is the more self-assured of the two, while Armin appears to be insecure and in need of positive affirmations from outside sources. Of course, we can analyze the depth of their characters separately - as well was their bond - for ages (because we all know there’s more to them than this), but this is a generally accepted surface-value for these two and eremin. It’s not wrong, and it’s perfectly fine to enjoy this dynamic (although it’s enriching to explore them more, hence why you’d appreciate a shift in the default). However, it has raised concern that this is the sole perspective being represented; if you saw them portrayed at dom!Eren/Sub!Armin for the first time today, you wouldn’t react - but as soon as you notice a pattern, you might. - And you’re not alone in doing so! I’ve heard this complaint many, many times in the last year or so! And I definitely second the notion that different takes on eremin would be refreshing - however, I do not share the idea that an overrepresentation of D!E/S!A* is a sign of people not appreciating Eren or neglecting him in their minds. What I believe is instead the cause behind this symptom, is that people can only “art” so much; I’m using my self as example here: I produce perhaps seven pieces of art in a year. And ever piece costs me a lot of effort, time and stress. Not to mention I’m doing it for free. I think most fandoms’ artists consists mainly of young artists, insecure artists and other artists making fanart in their spare time for free. What I mean by bringing this up, is that for the majority of fandom artists, the situation is this: for every one piece they produce, there are at least five piece ideas they wish they could make but can’t (for one reason or another). In other words, only the tip of the ice berg ever gets made what art is concerned. And when people know that their quota is limited, they have to pick and choose which very, very few of the ideas they have, they’ll get to make. Bringing it back to me: when I know I can only make five pieces in a year, I want to spend those slots on my favorite dynamic (D!E/S!A). Not because I don’t like S!E/D!A, or that eremin is the only ship I want to draw for (oh, all the ships I want to draw for but never get the time to, sigh), but simply because it’s my favorite dynamic of my most OTP’d ship. There’s a reason there’s a lot more talk about wanting S!E/D!A art, than actual art of it; we all agree that it’s toptier (I’ve never ever seen anyone say they have anything against this dynamic, in fact), but many of us are not at a stage where art is easy to produce, and therefor we’re still working on our #1 dynamic for our #1 ship from our #1 series. While the fandom may be oversaturated with it, our individual art is not (I don’t feel like five pieces of D!E/S!A is an overbalance, for instance). Now, some admirable artists take it upon themselves to work on pieces that there is a demand for instead of what they’d perhaps personally prefer, but for most of us, I think there’s the idea that “I will definitely draw for that ship/dynamic/series/etc - I just have to get better/more practice/make this one idea first”. And that is perfectly ok! Nobody owes anyone any particular kind of art unless you’ve agreed to take payment for said art! And I actually think that while wanting more S!E/D!A is important, spreading the idea that the lack thereof is a symptom of lack of appreciation for Eren is toxic. It can make people feel awful for preferring it the other way around, or feel demotivating or anyone working on the “problematic dynamic”. 

My opinion of this is thus, simply put: I wholeheartedly agree that Eren is worth fawning over, and eremin is beautiful for its balanced dynamic, but I have a problem with the spreading consensus that the imbalance in representation means Eren is mistreated or not cared about. Because for most of us, I don’t believe that’s true at all. Because I doubt I’m the only one who’s sitting on a bunch of ideas they’ll never fulfill. And because I know it’s possible to care deeply about other things than just the #1 thing that you end up blogging about. 

That being said, I’d love to encourage people to explore the S!E/D!A dynamic more. Due to it being so unexplored (compared to the opposite), there’s a good chance any one of you could be the “first” what ideas is concerned. Make a list of popular AUs: more of them are untouched in connection to S!E/D!A than to D!E/S!A - in all departments (art/fic/other). So who knows, if you jump the chance, maybe you’ll even start a trend! And for anyone worried that the imbalance is a sign of uncaring fans: I’d like to encourage a more relaxed state of mind where you can entertain the possibility that what you see, is just face-value (like eremin), meaning there’s more to every blogger than what posts/art makes it onto their blog; there’s love for characters that aren’t mentioned as often, there are more hobbies than anime analysis, and there’s appreciation for more things than one.*In this case, D/S refers broadly to how much emotional support the character needs, with dominance meaning independency what others’ feedback is concerned, and submission meaning a dependancy on external support to remain assured.