#because all the characters have red flags because they’re human

[functionalasfuck]

What I think everyone needs to understand is that EVERYONE has red flags because not all red flags point to danger.

A red flag means a symptom that is being displayed could potentially be caused by something dangerous. BUT it could also be caused by something benign. It is a warning to keep an eye on things, not a death sentence.

But some of y’all acting like people should never raise a red flag in their life are entirely unrealistic.

HOWEVER, in media, a red flag is a Chekhov’s Gun. If you point out that there is a gun in a piece of media, and you don’t fire it, why the fuck did you put the gun there in the first place. So if I see a fictional character who is given a red flag, but then the narrative never fires it or even acknowledge it, why the fuck was it there.

… anyways this post got away from me.

[fangdokja]

🔞You like them crazy because deep down, you are too.

❤︎ Synopsis. Your favorite yandere is a walking red flag, and honestly, you’re just obsessed with the idea of being loved to the point of insanity. You want someone who’ll choke you with affection (literally), and hey, that says a lot about your choices… and your taste in men.

♡ Book. Forbidden Fruits: Intimate Obsessions, Unhinged Desires.

♡ Pairing. Yandere! Jujutsu Kaisen Males (Gojo, Sukuna, Geto, Naoya, Megumi, Yuji, Inumaki, Kenjaku, Shiu Kong) x Fem. Reader (separate)

♡ Headcanon. What Your Favorite Yandere Says About Your Interesting Kinks

♡ Word Count. 3,710

♡ TW. dom + top + older yandere, general non-con, possessiveness, psychological manipulation and conditioning, suggestive themes, fear play, emotional manipulation and abuse, hints at rough play and sex, psychological and emotional trauma, isolation, monitoring, lack of boundaries, non-con kissing and touching, forced relationship, BDSM, manipulation of circumstances, threats

♡ Note. Due to Tumblr policy, all characters are all of age. This post is meant to be a fun, exaggerated meme—don’t take it too seriously. It’s all in good humor and not a deep psychological analysis (but maybe a little bit).

♡ Gojo Satoru.

You have a god complex by association. You want someone who could obliterate the entire planet, but instead, he chooses to stalk your Instagram at 3 a.m. to overanalyze your cryptic "feeling lonely" post.

You’re into men who act like they’re God’s gift to humanity, and honestly? You believe them. You probably like bratty tops who think they’re in control but low-key need to be chained down before they destroy Tokyo because you wouldn’t let them kiss you.

You like men who are unbearable, but in a way that makes you want to lick their face instead of slap it. You saw him take his blindfold off once and immediately decided you’d risk everything for a man who can and will ruin your life with a smirk. Therapy? Never heard of it, because why would you need that when you’re obsessed with a 6'3" man-child whose idea of foreplay is showing off while making you think it’s all about you? Spoiler: it’s not. It’s about him, and you’re fine with it.

You like the idea of someone worshipping you, but also low-key want them to ruin you mentally, emotionally, and physically—preferably in that order.

But you’re still into being spoiled rotten—designer everything, sugar daddy vibes, and someone who’d probably keep you locked in a gilded cage. You pretend you have standards, but deep down, you’re just into being treated like you’re the rarest Pokémon in existence.

You don’t want a boyfriend—you want an all-seeing sugar daddy who gaslights you into thinking the world revolves around him (because in his mind, it does). You probably love the idea of being tied up in a metaphorical (or literal, no judgment) infinity of his obsession. Big on tease and denial, huh?

You’ve definitely thought about what his infinity could do in a make-out session and probably Googled "can Gojo turn infinity off during sex." (No, you’re not getting an answer to that.)

You're also into being teased until you're on the verge of tears, only for him to laugh and say, "Aw, you're so cute when you're frustrated," while continuing to absolutely destroy you. Bonus points if he calls you sweetheart in that condescending, sing-song voice while pinning you to the bed with one hand.

You're also into blindfolds… probably for the aesthetic, but we all know you’re fantasizing about what comes after he takes it off. You’re not scared of being kidnapped, you’re scared of never being spoiled again.

You’re also the type of person who screenshots memes and sends them 3 weeks later without context.

♡ Ryōmen Sukuna.

You're feral. You don’t want love—you want to be destroyed. You want a man who’ll treat you like garbage and somehow it’s hot. "I can fix him" but also, "I don’t want to fix him. Step on me, Daddy."

Your idea of romance is someone who could rip your heart out (literally) and then hold it hostage as you beg for his attention. You’re also too into biting. If he left a handprint bruise on your neck, you’d frame it. Low-key fantasize about getting kidnapped because you think you’d be “too bratty to kill,” and he’d find that cute.

You’re into primal domination, teeth marks, and being pinned against the wall while he laughs at your “attempt” to fight back.

You think it’s hot when men are morally bankrupt and would rather die than be called soft. You definitely believe in Stockholm Syndrome as a viable love language.

This man could call you maggot filth and you’d be texting your friends, “Sukuna said he cared about me today 🥰.” You secretly want him to slap you so hard you see the Cursed Realm.

The worse he treats you, the harder you simp. If he kills your whole family, you’d probably just be like, “They were annoying anyway, babe.”

You’re into primal play, possessiveness, and hearing “you’re mine” growled into your ear like it’s a death sentence (which, with Sukuna, it might be).

You definitely have unresolved trauma and thought “you know what would help? A walking red flag with abs.” You want someone so feral they’d burn down a village just because someone looked at you for 0.2 seconds. Also, you like men who are literally impossible to please because the idea of “earning his love” gets you off.

Your kinks? Pain. Not just physical—emotional, spiritual, metaphysical. You’re the type who thinks choking is romantic foreplay and that love should feel like a hostage situation.

You act like you hate red flags, but you’re planting them in your garden, watering them, and crying when they bloom. Therapy is not in your vocabulary.

You’re deeply into degradation and secretly believe you could “fix him.” Spoiler alert: you can’t, but you’ll die trying. You probably tweet things like “If a man doesn’t put me in his domain expansion, does he even love me?”

Bonus points if you’ve searched for Sukuna x Reader fics where he calls you pathetic but won’t let anyone else touch you.

We see you, masochist. We see you.

You also have daddy issues so big that Sukuna would probably laugh in your face while exploiting them. You’re a masochist in denial and definitely want him to choke you out with those extra hands.

You’ve 100% Googled "can I sell my soul for demon dick" and meant it. You're 100% into monsterfucking. Your search history also includes "tentacle bondage" and "can cursed energy be sexy?"

♡ Suguru Geto.

You have a superiority complex and an inferiority complex. You want someone who’ll emotionally devastate you while maintaining the vibe of a calm, manipulative cult leader. You think you’re classy, but we both know you’re just a slut for a man who says “we need to cleanse the world” like he’s ordering wine at a fancy restaurant.

You think cult leader chic is hot. Your dream date is being kidnapped and indoctrinated into a religious group. You’re into soft-spoken manipulation and think “he didn’t abandon me, he abandoned humanity.”

You want someone who sees you as the one good thing in a world full of “monkeys,” but also you secretly like the idea of being his religion.

You’ll excuse literal genocide because "he’s got a point."

You want someone who hates everyone else but you. Like, he would literally commit mass murder just so you can have a peaceful walk in the park. Into spiritual awakening, but make it horny. Imagine him whispering sacrilegious promises in your ear while surrounded by cursed spirits. That’s your vibe.

You’re the kind of person who’d get Stockholm Syndrome after two days and start quoting his manifesto back to him. He’d probably love-bomb you, use you for his master plan, and then leave you to pick up the pieces. And you’d thank him for it.

You’re into praise kink but only if it’s delivered in a soft yet condescending tone while you’re kneeling in front of him. You want someone who’ll call you his “favorite pet” while subtly threatening to end your bloodline if you step out of line.

Your other kinks? Corruption. You’re into “turning to the dark side” scenarios, and the idea of being brainwashed is weirdly hot to you. Maybe you need a therapist, but Geto would probably convince you therapists are a scam.

You probably daydream about scenarios where you “fix” him, but let’s be honest—you’d fold faster than a lawn chair if he so much as smirked at you. You want a man who looks like he listens to lo-fi while murdering people. You also have unresolved issues with wanting to “save” someone who’s already beyond saving.

You’re down bad for emotionally unavailable men who’ll manipulate you into thinking you’re special. Also, you think long hair = good in bed, and you’re not wrong.

Hair-pulling kink? Try him pulling yours while telling you you’re his only salvation.

Also, he probably tells you to call him master, and you’re into it.

Also, you’re a sucker for men who look like they haven’t slept in 10 years but can still bench press you emotionally.

♡ Naoya Zen'in.

You hate him. You absolutely despise him. And yet, why are you blushing when he calls you a stupid little slut?

You have daddy issues, but instead of unpacking them, you decided to make them worse by stanning this sexist menace. You hate him, but that’s the appeal.

Congratulations, you’re a walking meme of bad decisions, and your search history definitely includes “toxic alpha male x reader.” You don’t even want a healthy relationship—you want to be insulted creatively until you're crying, and then have him smirk while telling you how pretty you look when you break.

You tell people you hate misogyny but get weak in the knees when he says “stay in your place, woman.” You want someone who’ll treat you like garbage, then be jealous when other people try to respect you.

You think Naoya calling you a “stupid little girl” is the height of romance (because if you’re into him, you’re already used to disrespect).

100% into punishment kinks. The idea of Naoya spanking you until you cry and then calling you a “good little servant” lives rent-free in your head.

You have issues in general—daddy, mommy, and probably every other flavor. You like them toxic because boring men don’t deserve rights. You thrive in arguments, especially if you’re the one winning.

You have the worst taste in men, and you know it. You actively choose violence. You think hate sex fixes everything. Spoiler: it doesn’t. But you’ll still keep coming back for more.

You either have a degradation kink or you’re lying to yourself. You want someone to look you in the eyes and call you pathetic while simultaneously making you feel like the most desired person alive.

Into degradation? No, you’re into obliteration. You want to be called the most heinous names and still hear him say, “Good girl” after. If he spit in your mouth, you’d say “thank you” like it’s a five-star Yelp review.

You're the type to start arguments on purpose because makeup sex is your Olympic sport. You think misogyny is hot as long as it's directed at everyone but you (spoiler: Naoya’s a yandere, so he’ll worship you, but he’ll still be the absolute worst).

Brat taming. You want Naoya to slam you against a wall and hiss, "You're so mouthy for someone who's about to beg for mercy," and you’d call him an asshole just to see him lose it.

You also have a breeding kink, don’t lie.

You’re into enemies-to-lovers with 90% enemies and 10% begrudging affection.

You’re probably the most unhinged of them all. Like, “I hate him but also step on me” vibes. You’d start a fight with him for fun, only to let him win because he’s hotter when he’s smug. Also, your type in men is the human embodiment of the patriarchy, and that says a lot.

You also secretly love being called slurs in bed, and you’d let him ruin your life if it meant he’d pay attention to you. You tell people you don’t believe in second chances, yet you’d give him 47.

Naoya IS your red flag, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.

You’re also that person who gets mad when people insult your favorite character, even though your fave literally deserves it.

♡ Megumi Fushiguro.

You're into the quiet ones, but let’s be real, you know he’s one bad day away from snapping and going full “yandere shadow puppeteer” on you. You want someone who’s obsessively loyal, even to the point of chaining you to a radiator “for your safety.”

You’re that person who says, “I can fix him,” and you believe it. Spoiler: you can’t.

Soft yandere vibes are your weakness. You want him to apologize for locking you up and then immediately do it again. You cry during sex, and Megumi is your dream man because he’d hold you gently while fucking you senseless.

You’re basically the emotionally repressed type who cries over sad anime but denies having feelings. You low-key want to be fixed, but you also get off on being the problem.

Silent, brooding types who lose control just for you. You’d die if Megumi whispered, "I don’t care what happens to the world, as long as I have you," while dragging his nails down your skin.

You want a yandere who doesn’t look like one. You’re basically into emotionally constipated men who will quietly destroy anyone that looks at you wrong, but they’ll do it with zero fanfare.

Pretends he’s not obsessed, but you find out he’s been tracking your location via his Shikigami for weeks.

Slow burn? Try agonizingly torturous burn. You love the suffering.

Your kinks? Praise and ownership. You want a boyfriend who’ll carve your name into his soul and blush when you call him a good boy. You also cry during movies about dogs.

You fantasize about wholesome dates that spiral into him casually committing arson because someone looked at you the wrong way. You think being protected is sexy, but deep down, you know you’re the real danger.

You have main character syndrome, but you’re too awkward to admit it. You think you can “fix” people and are always attracted to brooding, emotionally unavailable boys. You’re the type to fall for someone because of their tragic backstory and spend hours analyzing their behavior like you’re trying to win a Nobel Prize.

People think you’re quiet and reserved, but deep down, you’re the freakiest person in the room.

Also, you want his demon dogs involved somehow, and we’re not unpacking that.

♡ Yuji Itadori.

You think sunshine boys are the ultimate bait-and-switch. You want someone sweet and wholesome on the surface but capable of going feral if someone threatens what’s his (spoiler: it’s you).

You’re into soft yanderes who make you think, “Wait, am I the villain here?” But then he kisses you with tears in his eyes and says, “I just don’t know what I’d do without you,” and you’re like, “Oh okay, my bad, ruin my life I guess.”

You’re delusional and think nice guys finish first. You believe you can fix him, even though there’s nothing broken except his moral compass after meeting Sukuna.

Your kinks? Consent (most stan a green flag king), but also low-key primal. You want someone who’s soft and sweet but will absolutely ruin you when pushed too far. Also, you’re probably into breathy whimpers.

You’re into soft yandere energy, like him cooking you dinner while thinking about how to “disappear” your coworker for complimenting your outfit. You also have a praise kink, but you want it to feel genuine. You’re high-key a romantic but still enjoy the thrill of danger.

You’re the type to fall for cinnamon rolls, but you secretly want them to have a feral, toxic side. You pretend to be wholesome but you’re just as depraved as the Sukuna stans—you just hide it better. Also, you’d probably call him “puppy” in bed, and he’d eat it up.

You probably fantasize about “accidentally” walking in on him shirtless after training.

You’re into strength kink. Yuji carrying you around like a sack of potatoes is your idea of foreplay.

If Yuji’s your fave, you’re into the gentle dom who’d snap someone’s neck for you aesthetic. He’d die for you, but he’d also kill for you. And you’re oddly okay with that.

Bonus points if you want to corrupt him because you think it’d be hot to see him snap.

You’re also the type to fall in love with someone because they smiled at you once in 2017.

♡ Toge Inumaki.

You want someone who won’t talk back. Literally. You think communication is overrated and fantasize about a partner who’ll just look at you with hungry eyes while whispering forbidden words into your ear.

You’re the quiet type who wants absolute filth whispered into your ear.

You want to be whispered sweet nothings like "sleep" and then wake up in his bed with a collar on. The duality of “onigiri” and “shut the fuck up” does things to you.

The idea of hearing nothing but the word “come” and losing your mind sends you feral.

You’re into restraint—both the literal and metaphorical kind. You’ve imagined him using cursed speech in the bedroom, and you know exactly how you’d want him to shut you up. You definitely think subtlety is sexier than overt passion.

You claim you like soft boys, but really, you’re just waiting for him to whisper something filthy in that raspy voice.

You’re into the duality of him being both your sweet protector and your most dangerous weakness.

You think “silent but deadly” is hot, but you also have a thing for guys who communicate through body language and emotional gestures. You probably have a Tumblr tag called “soft yanderes” that’s full of questionable content.

Your kinks? Teasing. You want to be pinned down, held firmly, and whispered sweet nothings in cursed speech that leave you trembling. Also, bondage. Don't not lie to yourself.

You think you’re subtle, but everyone knows you have a thing for quiet guys with devastatingly good bone structure. You’re also into the idea of being “the only one” who truly understands him. Let’s be real: you’d let him ruin your life with three words or less.

You’ve definitely thought about what those cursed speech commands could do in the bedroom, haven’t you? Don’t lie. “Stay.” “Kneel.” “Louder.” It’s a problem. You think you’re subtle, but the fact that you bookmarked that one smut fic about him proves otherwise.

You’ve also Googled "what does ‘salmon’ mean in bed" and debated buying a Toge cosplay for your next convention.

♡ Kenjaku.

You’re insane. Full stop.

You’re the type who’d fall for the villain just because they’re hot.

You tell yourself it’s because you “appreciate complex characters,” but it’s really because you have no self-preservation instincts. You’re also probably into weird shiz like non-human anatomy, but you’ll never admit it.

Let’s be honest: you’ve considered the implications of his ability to switch bodies. Your fantasies are wild, and you need a moment to collect yourself.

You want someone who’s both your daddy and mommy because Kenjaku’s body-hopping antics make that possible. Extreme levels of psychological manipulation and kinky body horror. A true deviant.

You’ve definitely read an NSFW fic about body possession and didn’t even flinch. You like the idea of someone who will tear your life apart but still call you their “greatest creation.”

You’re a mess. Like, emotionally and spiritually. You’ve been reading dark fanfics for so long that nothing fazes you anymore.

You don’t want love—you want chaos. You like characters who are 50% sexy and 50% terrifying. You probably think brain surgery is hot. You’re also into weird power dynamics where you’re both the victim and the accomplice.

You think mad scientist energy is hot, and you’d probably let him experiment on you just for the intimacy of it. You’re into power play and mind games, and the idea of someone controlling you physically and mentally is your ultimate kink. You’d sell your soul for five minutes of his attention, and he knows it. Your moral compass? Nonexistent. You just want to get tied up and brainwashed by a centuries-old freak.

You think it’s hot that he’d use your body as part of his experiments. You’d let him ruin your entire lineage for “science.”

You’re not even into happy endings; you just want to be obliterated.

♡ Shiu Kong.

If your favorite yandere is Shiu Kong, congratulations—you’re into men who could ruin your life with one smirk and a casual drag off their cigarette. You like your chaos with a suit and tie, and you’re absolutely weak for someone who looks like they’d call you “kid” while tying you to a chair in a dimly lit room. You’ve definitely fantasized about being the center of his cold, calculated obsession, probably while he’s adjusting his cufflinks and making morally questionable business deals.

You love the idea of a man who’s emotionally unavailable but physically possessive. Shiu wouldn’t say he loves you, but he’d definitely let you know you’re his. You probably have a thing for the cold, calculated type who’ll throw you a smirk that says, “You won’t survive me, but you’ll die happy.” Let’s be honest—you want someone who treats you like a business deal but kisses you like he’s closing the contract with teeth and tongue.

You’re into men who handle their business—and by business, we mean kidnapping, extortion, and murder with a side of snark. You probably tell yourself you’re into “stoic bad boys,” but let’s be real, you just want a man who can pin you against a wall and growl something like, “Don’t make me repeat myself, sweetheart.” Bonus points if it’s in a low, gravelly voice that makes your knees weak.

You’re the type to think a cigarette dangling from his lips while he manhandles you is peak romance. He’d pin you to a desk, adjust his suit jacket, and ask, “Do you really think anyone else could handle you like this?” in that calm, businesslike tone that makes you feral. You like being dominated by someone who looks like they just closed a multi-million-yen deal, and you want him to ruin you in the same suit he wore to work.

You want someone who exudes “don’t waste my time” energy but secretly has the patience to torment you until you’re begging (for mercy or more, who’s to say?). You saw him in that suit and immediately thought, “I wonder if he’d use that belt on me?” Spoiler: he would, but only after lighting a cigarette and telling you to be quiet.

You fantasize about someone who’ll say, “Don’t get attached,” while making you fall so hard you’re practically writing your own kidnapping ransom note.

You’re also into the grudging protector trope—he’ll act like he’s just “handling business,” but the second someone else looks at you wrong, you know he’s flipping tables and snarling something like, “They should’ve known better.” Bonus points if he dusts himself off afterward and says, “Clean yourself up, sweetheart. I’ve got plans for us.”

“I’ll only associate with you in hell” energy that screams hot and toxic.

♡ A/N. So, I enjoyed making the Genshin shiz post and decided to make a JJK version. Might do a HSR one next as well... maybe. Also... I kinda went overboard here, compared to the more organized Genshin one, but seriously I was laughing while writing this. Just funny shiz post. I would say this one's more explicit though haha (no explicit sex), I had way too much fun haha, especially Naoya's and Kenjaku's.

If you want to be added or removed from the tag list, just comment on the MASTERLIST of Forbidden Fruits (FF): Intimate Obsessions, Unhinged Desires. Thank you.

General TAG LIST of “Forbidden Fruits”: @uniquecutie-puffs , @ikevampharem , @tnsophiaonly , @mokingbrd78k , @cooldeermagazine , @mimitk , @xileonaaaa , @acacia-koi , @purple-obsidian , @waterfal-ling , @jjune-07 , @jsprien213 , @crimson-kisses , @tinandabin , @sashakittycloud

❤︎ Fang Dokja's Books.

♡ Book 1. A Heart Devoured (AHD): A Dark Yandere Anthology

♡ Book 2 [you are here]. Forbidden Fruits (FF): Intimate Obsessions, Unhinged Desires.

♡ Book 3. World Ablaze (WA) : For You, I'd Burn the World.

♡ Book 4. Whispers in the Dark (WITD): Subtle Devotion, Lingering Shadows.

♡ Book 5. Ink & Insight (I&I): From Dead Dove to Daydreams.

♡ Library MASTERPOST 1. The Librarian’s Ledger: A Map to The Library of Forbidden Texts.

♡ Notice #1. Not all stories are included in the masterpost due to Tumblr’s link limitations. However, most long-form stories can be found here. If you're searching for a specific yandere or theme, this guide will help you navigate The Library of Forbidden Texts. Proceed with caution

♡ Book 6. The Red Ledger (TRL): Stained in Lust, Written in Blood.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Pavlovitz at The Beautiful Mess:

Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her running mate in the coming presidential campaign.

The decision was met with effusive praise from both Blue voters, as well as a disparate group of politicians and commentators. Walz’ effortless warmth, his heart-on-sleeve demeanor, and his undeniable joy for life, which have been apparent for a long time in his home state—have suddenly become a national story. In a matter of hours, millions of people fell in love with the Governor, sharing videos of he and his daughter on thrill rides at the State Fair, and photos of him being joyfully embraced by a group of school children and cheerfully holding a tiny, sleeping piglet. And in the wake of the announcement and of his and Kamala' Harris’ electrifying appearance in Philadelphia at their first rally, the “Christian” MAGA Right rolled out a telling reply that they surely imagined was a real zinger: They created the hashtag #TamponTimmy. Really. That’s where they went. That’s all they got. Not only does this desperate response underscore the reality that Republican voters have nothing left but sophomoric name-calling in an effort to emulate their emotionally-stunted orange messiah in the absence of substantive critique, but it reveals how hateful toward women and how threatened by non-toxic masculinity they are.

MAGAs don’t see how much they expose themselves by using a female medical product as a slur, the way it reveals their complete contempt for women and their agendas toward them. They are so intimidated by a man this confident in who he is and so endowed with natural humility, that they have to attack these things as if they’re some sort of character flaws. Emotional maturity is a red flag for them.

[...] They are fully fed up with Trump and his surrogate’s contrived John Wayne dudebro American tough guy cosplay, and they are ready to embrace a better kind of manhood: one that doesn’t need to prove how tough it is, doesn’t have to be the center of attention, and most of all, is not concerned about showing its deep humanity because it revels in it. Tens of million of boys and young men of this nation have been irreparably harmed by the sexist dehumanization of Trump and the MAGA movement, which have been reinforced by Dark Ages theology, culture war politics, inherited/internalized misogyny, and good ol’ fashioned fragile masculinity. This nation is ready to embrace a masculinity embodied in Tim Walz and Doug Emhoff: one that does no harm, one that gladly defers to a strong, capable, talented woman, and one that makes all of us better.

John Pavlovitz nails it. The masculinity of Tim Walz is what’s needed for America, instead of the kind of masculinity the likes of Donald Trump, Andrew Tate, and Elon Musk push.

[awoogayanderes]

BSD MEN WITH THEIR TOXIC TRAITS

➪ characters : osamu dazai, chuuya nakahara, ryūnosuke akutagawa, fyodor dostoevsky, sigma, saigiku jouno

➪ other notes : i love writing silly angst with silly characters from my favorite silly anime / manga <3 non-edited

osamu dazai :

running away at any conflict with you

- whilst dazai has a lot of toxic traits and red flags, this issue is the biggest one by far

- running away is all dazai has left when it comes to arguing with you

- you’re someone he can’t lose, so instead he pushes everything under the rug, expecting it to go away

- you don’t dare mention his habit, but this fighting and forgetting habit has your hands tied together, not knowing what to do

- one minute you’re at each other’s throats, the next minute he’s gone, with uncomfortable silence choking you

- when you wake up, he’s hugging you tightly in the middle of his sleep as if your previous night’s encounter never existed

- he brings small bouquets of flowers to you when he comes back, wilting away once you get up and put them in a vase

- it’s almost a routine at this point, you fight, he leaves, you go to sleep angry, he comes back with flowers and lies next to you

- a relationship is staying with each other when things get difficult at times, but what happens when they leave you and come back into your arms with no other words said ?

chuuya nakahara :

over possessiveness and accusing of cheating

- this all roots from his previous betrayals where he thinks he’s found a family, only for it to be gone in a split second

- he’s a darling partner except that he can’t seem to trust you as much as he tries to

- ‘it’s just for precaution’ he says when he sends his men to be with you when you go out, it makes you feel weird having someone by you at all times

- if he ever gets the feeling that you’re being too friendly with a random waiter it always ends up with him accusing you of cheating on him

- you beg him to believe you when you say that you aren’t like the people he had in his life before, that you wouldn’t leave him

- he wants to trust you but when someone gets too close to you, it’s almost like a primal instinct to get you away from them

- he spoils you to no end but nothing materialistic compares to being alone without someone breathing down your neck

- it’s overwhelming not having time to yourself, always being surrounded by someone because they’re afraid to lose you

- you love him like a human so why does he love you like a trophy in fear of betrayal ?

ryūnosuke akutagawa :

lashing out at you for caring

- what else were you expecting when you started dating someone with so much trauma that he can only express with anger

- he doesn’t mean to lash out at you for no reason, he wants to make it work but instead of improving, his attitude continues to grow

- he doesn’t like you “nagging” at him to take better care of himself

- you know that there’s a big brick wall that stops you from reaching his heart but at what point is too much, too much

- when you nod at him after he screams at you, it almost angers him more because he thinks you aren’t listening even though you are, not wanting to argue back and cause more chaos

- there’s times where he makes up for his behavior, sometimes he picks a random flower from grass and gives it to you

- he doesn’t know why he gets so angry that you care for his wellbeing, isn’t that what couples normally do for each other

- it’s saddening seeing the own man you let into your life berate you for no reason

- it’s so hard to love someone who just seems to loathe you so much even with his small actions of caring

fyodor dostoyevsky :

seeing himself as your superior and seeing you as a pawn in his own game

- another man with a shitload of red flags and toxic traits, this one rising above them all

- he cares about you, he does ! but not in the way you’d like, he cares about you like how humans care about their pets

- sure he’d give you the world if he could, but he’d also give you up for his ideal world if it ever came down to that

- a relationship is a balance where each partner sees the other one as an equal, yeah not with fyodor it’s not

- you’ve proven your worth to him so many times for him to see you as the same as his level, instead it just makes you seem as a pawn under his control

- despite this, there are times where it almost seems that he cares about you like a person should, when you’re hanging onto his arm walking in a park humming quietly

- he indulges in your needs every so often, not before bringing you right back down to your place beneath him

- not even death would allow you to escape this cycle of rising and being kicked down

- why does he expect you to see him as the righteous hand of god when he sees you as a mere pawn ready to be sacrificed

sigma :

unintentionally guilt tripping you every time you get frustrated at him

- he’s been used so many times, his naivety is something he hates to the core, all he wants is someone to settle down with, a family

- he’s another sweetheart partner when you can push past the teary eyes and begging for you to not be mad at him and to not leave him

- his biggest fear is losing you, someone who doesn’t use him, he’d rather abandon his casino than end his relationship with you

- whilst he doesn’t realize, you notice his wording when he begs you to stay, often saying that he’s nothing without you, that he’d rather die than be without you

- maybe it’s heartwarming for the first few times but once it becomes a cycle you start to truly wonder if he’d actually go crazy without you or if it was all bluff

- even then, you can’t deny him when he guilts you into staying, he doesn’t know any better

- if you ever mention this to him, he’ll burst into tears, thinking you were breaking up with him, it takes hours trying to convince that you were here to stay

- it’s a repeating cycle he doesn’t notice and you can’t break for the sake of both of you

- love is a powerful thing, powerful enough to guilt you into staying with a man who loves you a bit too much

saigiku jouno :

putting his work above you at all costs

- he swore to protect those that need him, he’s not going to break that just for you

- you knew what you were getting into when you started dating the hunting dog, yet sadness can’t help but fill you when he misses important events with you

- after all you’ve been through with him, and not a single happy birthday text, not a single note for your anniversary, nothing

- he knows when you’re upset with him even if he can’t see your face, he can feel you rejecting his touch, and that’s when he reminds you of what he swore and what you agreed to

- it doesn’t help when he has his snarky attitude and almost mocking voice explaining to you why he can’t just walk out of a meeting

- despite this, he does love you, otherwise he wouldn’t waste his time on you, he loves that you still stick with him no matter what

- you really don’t ask for much, you understand his work and what he has to do, but he still thinks you make a big deal out of nothing

- as hypocritical as it sounds, he always expects you to be there for him even if he’s not

- you knew you were never going to be his first priority but it hurts so much more when he makes sure you know

[ducklingpia]

✧˖°. 𝐌𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 & 𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐛

✧˖°. The continuation from this post

✧ There are some thoughts that I would like to share regarding his character & some controversial topics about him in the main story

1. “MC sees him as a brother”

From what I have explained in his past timeline in previous post, MC clearly developed a crush on him growing up and she sometimes hints her own jealousy with him in some past memories. So up until the explosion I think MC does has feelings for him but didn’t wanna cross the line they have build and vice versa

After the explosion I think MC slowly started to accept the reality that he is gone. She went on to find the truth about herself. She made a new relationship & went on a mission with 4 other lis. Until she met him again in the current chapter. you can feel some tension in their interactions that clearly has a romance undertone in them. Another interesting thing here’s also when she met Zayne. He seems way more warm with her. He even flirted with her and asked her to go on a date with him next time they met. This really proves the development in her relationship with all of them. and with Caleb that she knew since day 1. The feeling is there.

I’m not gonna talk about the incest allegation because like, are we tired at this point? In Asian languages we use the same words to call our own family members to someone who’s close to us even though they’re not blood related. The fact that these people refused to learn about the Asian contexts when consuming Asian content is just plain ignorant.

2. His ‘yandere’ behavior in the main story

First thing first, as much as I want everyone to see the good side in him. We cannot deny that he’s written to fill out this trope. The developers clearly made him to be the character that is flawed and morally grey. There’s a market for this type of character and they knew that he would not be for everyone. So if you cannot vibe with his ‘Yandere’ tendencies at all no matter how much you tried then it’s completely ok. He’s not for you. it’s fine

I personally don’t really favor this kind of trope myself. but what makes Caleb work for me is- The reason behind it, how he developed all these tendencies in the story. It just make sense for me

Number 1 is his ‘over-protectiveness’ towards MC. I also felt the ick at first. But after experiencing his past I get it.

Imagine you being a child and the first memory you have is other people using you as an experimental subject. probably seen as a weapon of some sort alright? then, you probably never experience love and care from any adults ever. You also probably went through all the tortures and hell during the time in the lap. All of these make you lose your own identity and never develop the will to live as a normal human- and may I add, as a 9 years old child. Then one day when you got rescued from the lap. you met this cute kid that also got experimented on like you, maybe even worse. But because she doesn’t remember anything, She remains soft and so full of life - she holds your hand with all the love and tenderness you’ve never got from anyone in your life before. It's like nothing bad that happened in her life could really affect her pure heart. You see this kind of light and feel the need to protect it. - That’s how Caleb formed his own identity and the reason to live growing up, He never wanted her to turn empty inside like him.

Caleb grew up spoiling MC rotten like I said in his past timeline. For someone who’s already numb from any emotions. The only thing that keeps him feeling alive is taking care of you, doting on you, making sure you’re always safe and sound, making sure nothing bad could ever happen to you. YOU are the only thing that matters to him.

Number 2, His red flag behavior in the main story in which… kinda lead to the next point

3. “I don’t feel safe around him/ I don’t trust him”

yeah duh, we are not supposed to. I think that’s the direction Infold want the player to feel in this chapter

and I’m with everyone here, when I read the story I don’t feel safe at all. I think we kinda thought the same thing ‘Sylus come pick me up, I’d rather be in the N109 Zone right now’ lol. But when I take a step back and think about it I do have some thoughts

The reason why we as a player feel safer in the N109 Zone is because Sylus rules the area. You knew from the start that this man is REALLY powerful. EVERYBODY is afraid of him. nothing can really touch him. We also kinda have an idea that he’s not a human from the start.

Caleb is not like the other 3 lis (Xavier, Rafayel, Sylus) who are some kind of immortal or deity.Sure his evol is really powerful and he’s really strong but at the end of the day he’s just a man. And with all the shits he has been through he realizes that he’s not invincible. he doesn’t have a privilege to not make a choice. whether it’s an ethical choice or not. and he’s trying the best he could to make sure you are safe. even it ended up making us players hate him in the process.

I do also think that unlike the N109 zone, Even Caleb himself doesn’t really feel safe in skyhaven. He’s also an imposter, a pawn to be used by somebody way more powerful than him. and He knew that letting you out and about freely is highly risky. With all the incidents that happened in the chapter & MC involvement kinda pushed him into fight or flight mode.

When we feel really, really unsafe about something in our lives, especially related to something we cherish the most, what do most of us tend to fall onto? The need to control. We instinctively try to control situations and things to make us feel safe and predictable. Sometimes we try to control things that we will later regret about it. Caleb is in full survival mode here.

── .✦ In conclusion

With all that being said I still do not agree with what he did to MC in the main chapter. He made a mistake, He owes her an apology tbh. But seeing the full picture did help me understand him more + In the next few 5 star cards that happened after the main story he appears to be really guilty towards her. MC being MC she easily let it go and doesn’t demand an apology from him (which I think he would get on his knees for her if she asks, I mean are you kidding? He would do anything for her. the down bad is so strong here)

Their story is definitely not for everyone. there’re a lot of improvements to work on in the future. The first thing is how they both need to learn to untie the co-dependency they have had since childhood. MC needs to set a healthy boundary with him and be less reckless. Caleb needs to respect MC to take care of herself and trust her ability to handle things.

 When we look back In the latest muti-banner, the nightly rendezvous for other lis. all of them have their own development in the relationship.

Xavier finally confronting his possessiveness and MC addressing it to him

Zayne finally letting go of his ‘compose’ and ‘perfect’ facades and letting MC see his inner-child side more

Rafayel finally opening up about his fear & pain he had gone through to MC

Sylus… being Sylus lol (on his card it has to do with MC’s development more than him, so)

all of these took a pretty long time. So with Caleb I’m sure we will see some issue in their relationship being improved later.

(Even some might say. "Nope, he doesn't need fixing" with that I would say "Good for you" 😌🤌🏻)

[articulately-composed]

I just absorbed the entire Locked Tomb series in less than 3 weeks, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Have some scattered thoughts:

(Spoilers under the cut, but also the people who say the series is unspoilable are right)

There are a few moments in there that would make great musical numbers. Not saying it would be easy or possible to condense this series into a musical of watchable length, but Ianthe’s rise to lyctorhood? That definitely sings. Or a sequence of Harrow’s fanfic AU delusions sung by Abigail? Or an extended sequence of Jod’s backstory??? (What can I say, I love an extended sequence song)

Last night I had a little cry after reading the end of Nona, where she wants to die before she stops being able to love. It’s the same emotion as when you’ve had a really rough day and you’re on the train, and you see a baby with such zest for life, and you tear up a little because you wish you could have that zest for life, but this time it’s you watching the POV character you’ve been following for 500 pages anticipate losing that zest for life all at once

Everyone who said these books are unspoilable are 100% right. Even though I was actively scrolling through the tags the second I finished Gideon, the writing still managed to surprise me with how it approaches things (which feeds into my theory that spoilers can only ruin bad media. If the enjoyment of media comes from a surprise and not how it gets to that surprise, it’s probably doing it wrong). Also, I had heard the cow wall existed through stray tumblr posts ages ago. I had no idea that THAT was what the cow wall was.

I know Tamsyn Muir has said that everyone in this book is kiwi, but I am American, so I imagined everyone with an American accent. I saw a tiktok joking about Ianthe with a valley girl accent and how cursed that would be, but they’re right. The Tridentarii definitely have valley girl accents. Ianthe is a Vriska, which means she gets a Vriska accent.

it’s probably a red flag that the POV character I find most relatable is Harrow, but eh, what can I say, I too feel the urge to work myself to death to make up for the burden my existence has caused the world, and also wouldn’t be opposed to eating soup made of human bones.

I definitely have more thoughts, but these are the ones coming to mind on this train ride.

[ghostflowerdreams]

One thing that puzzled me was why the animals weren’t better protected. Just because the monsters were ignoring them didn’t mean they were actually safe. I wasn’t too surprised when the monsters eventually targeted them. I expected the monsters to kill them outright, but instead, they used the animals as bait to lure out the humans.

It makes sense—the monsters aren’t ready for their fun to end. By mostly sparing the animals, they’re extending their entertainment a bit longer, watching how the humans react and deal with their situation. But I imagine that won’t last long. The monsters will eventually get bored once they realize there’s no thrill in hunting weak, starving humans. If that happens, nothing is stopping them from wiping everything out and starting over with a fresh batch of prey.

It seems that Jim and Jade’s actions trigger a shift in town, almost like unlocking "level 2" of a video game, causing the season to change and up the difficulty in survival. Meanwhile, Boyd's actions also unlocked level 2 of the monsters. Knowing now there are worse things out in the forest and that there are consequences for killing one of them, especially antagonizing whatever force controls these monsters.

Then, there's Fatima’s pregnancy, which raises a red flag. She was told that the possibility of getting pregnant was zero. Many women with fertility issues are usually told by doctors that they can’t get pregnant, but in reality the possibilities are just really low and not impossible. Hasn't anyone caught on already that people heal oddly fast in this place? We know it doesn't actually 'cure' people; otherwise, Kenny's dad's dementia and Boyd's Parkinson's wouldn’t still exist. But Ethan's leg was impaled, and within a few days, he was walking around with the help of a stick.

Did Fatima somehow heal enough to get pregnant, or could the beings in control of the town be using her to spawn a new creature—perhaps to replace the one Boyd killed?

As for Tabitha, I don’t think people necessarily have to die to escape the town. There’s something about the lighthouse—often seen as a symbol of hope and not just a source of light—that could be tied to a possible way out. In literature, lighthouses represent guidance and the promise of safety, especially during dark or turbulent times, helping lost souls find their way back home.

Victor found his mother’s body by the faraway tree that led to the lighthouse, which feels significant. It’s possible that his little sister managed to catch up to their mother, and during that time, their mother helped her escape. But when she returned to get Victor, the monsters got to her.

They say that in storytelling, you should never assume a character is gone when their body isn’t shown, as they often return in surprising ways. Maybe his sister has been alive all this time, but is still trapped in that place, or perhaps she really did escape? It’s also possible she got turned into one of the monsters. There are still a lot of unknowns.

[prying-pandora666]

On Alucard and Maria

Are there actually fans advocating for Alucard to be written as Maria’s father figure in the new season of Nocturne? Like that would be a good thing and not infinitely creepier? I don’t think they’ve thought this through.

Alucard is the single most popular character in the franchise. He’s also probably the most shipped character. And yet he has only had one canon love interest in the decades since he’s existed. It’s Maria. And you’re telling me that you think that because he’s 300+ and she’s 17-18 when they started living together in the games, that it would be grooming. However, somehow him inserting himself into her life at age 16 when she’s just lost both her parents wouldn’t come off like grooming!?

Does this man look like he should be picking up random children!? He’s literally terrified of his own cursed blood. Maybe LISTEN TO HIM.

I’m convinced fandoms have forgotten what that word means. Grooming has specific features. It doesn’t just mean “older guy and younger girl.” A relationship with an age gap or an uneven power dynamic can be exploitative or abusive without being a case of grooming. Grooming specifically refers to the process of forming a relationship with a child with the intention of leveraging that relationship and trust to train and prepare (aka brainwash) your victim for the harmful activities the groomer wants to normalize. The relationship Alucard and Maria have in the games is in no way grooming. You know what would be grooming though?

Coming into a 16 year old’s life when she’s vulnerable, traumatized, and recently orphaned only to insinuate yourself as a new father figure. This is so highly inappropriate and a huge red flag. Consider what you’re actually asking for here. These characters do not exist in a a vacuum. They have a long history together as each other’s only canon love interests. You cannot fully extract them from the games, art, interviews, audio dramas, animations, and more where they’re depicted as a couple. There are decades of this precedent and you are asking Netflix to knowingly take the characters with an established romantic dynamic that the audience is already primed to see as romantic and instead portray their meeting as him trying to be her new daddy?

“Oh look! Alucard and his… daughter? Yikes.” This is an official advertisement btw.

THAT is grooming! Think about the optics of this! It would be abysmal! No it would NOT fix the problem of their age gap to make him act like a groomer and get in good with her as a dad. You just cannot completely extract them from the legacy of their relationship in the source materials. It will be incredibly creepy and textbook grooming if you get your way.

Is this really what you want to associate with an “adoptive father Alucard”? Because the art we create doesn’t exist in a vacuum. All the old content—official and fanmade—is still going to exist.

What is so objectionable about the original dynamic anyway? It’s a pretty fun subversion of the tired and problematic vampire trope of “vampire man stalks teen girl and coerces her into being his”. Instead in their original relationship, Maria is the one who pursues Alucard! It’s the young woman who takes initiative and is given the agency to go after what she wants. She courts and woos him. That’s part of the fun!

Yes, Alucard is 300+. He’s also a fictional creature that doesn’t actually exist IRL and stays eternally young. There are no actual people who will ever have his problem of staying 20 forever so it’s rather silly to say he can’t date any humans because of course he will have an age gap with any of them.

The only real problem I have seen people bring up is Maria’s age, but from what I can tell, the show’s already fixed this. Check it out.

In The Games

Rondo of Blood: Maria is 12. She and Alucard do not meet. Richter is a brother-figure and not romantic.

There is then a 5 year time skip.

Symphony of the Night: Maria is 17. She and Alucard meet to save Richter. At the end, Alucard says his goodbyes and intends to return to a life of solitude. Maria goes after him because she has developed feelings for him and doesn’t want him to suffer a life alone.

Maria is given agency to pursue what she wants and prove herself even against Alucard’s resistance and hesitance to let another person into his life.

They spend a year together before we get the audio drama.

Nocturne of Remembrance: Maria continues to try to get close to Alucard. They end up saving each other’s lives and in the end he finally confesses his romantic feelings for her. She is an adult and perfectly able to make her own choices. She chose him. He admits he returns her feelings.

How fandom can look at a story about a young woman subverting the trope and chasing the vampire to get what she wants—basically an anti-Bella Swan—and still find a way to disempower her just so they can pearl clutch? I couldn’t tell you.

So now let’s look at what the show did.

In The Show

Nocturne S1: Maria is 16. She’s been aged up from 12, probably to give her a more active and believable role. But this also means she’s within a normal age to start feeling attraction and expressing her wants. Within her society, she’s even considered of marriageable age. However we are spared the discomfort of our modern values clashing with her contemporaneous ones because Maria in this season isn’t interested in romance. She’s interested in revolution, equality, justice. They’ve portrayed her with so much love and strength. There is no indication they’d betray her by writing her as the child victim of a male suitor. In fact she only meets Alucard in the final few seconds of the season and the two do not even speak a single word to one another.

Now let’s remember the games had a five year time skip. The show only needs two years to get Maria to the adult age of 18, but assuming the follow through with the timeline and go for the full five?

Maria will be 21.

21.

Fan concept for adult Maria. Credit:@esp-art

Are you telling me a 21 year old woman is not old or mature enough to make her own decisions? How is this not a total infantilization of women? Do you think a 21 year old badass vampire hunter needs protection from the ace depressed dhampir boy who just wants to sleep and has in no way tried to pursue her until after she expressed consistent and persistent interest in him?

It is not “grooming” to meet someone when they were younger and then meet them again years later as an adult. That’s a thing that happens! In real life! Adults can still make decisions for themselves! It is only grooming if Alucard behaved in a way that would manipulate teen Maria and put her under his control and authority before she can consent. There is no indication that Alucard in the show is going to do this. And yet the fandom is basically demanding it by saying he should make her “his baby girl”?

And what of Maria’s feelings in all this? She just lost her mother and was betrayed by her father shortly after discovering he even existed. She has lived her whole life without a father. She is in no desperate need of a new one. And if she does need a family member, she already has one! Richter is 19 and is her trusted adoptive brother. Why wouldn’t she go to him over a total stranger she just met and who is half vampire - literally a predator creature that feeds on humans!?

Yeah, hi, Richter Belmont still exists. He and Maria consider each other family. Why would you want her relying on a strange man she just met as a “father figure” rather than her trusted and loving brother?

Have none of you even considered how Maria would feel if Alucard even tried to fill the paternal role? He’d have to force it on her through manipulation and coercion. No way she would want to view him that way. Especially considering she is 16 and likely to be as attracted to the sparkly 20 year old looking sculpted marble beauty as anyone else!

Don’t mind the beautiful eternally young man who looks made of pure porcelain and light. No teen girl has ever been attracted to this, right? No way it could be exploitative and creepy for him to present himself as her new daddy, giving himself authority and influence over her as his child to mold as he wishes, right? Oh yeah, this is MUCH better than Maria pursuing him of her own volition once she becomes an adult, right guys?

We are truly in the stupidest dark timeline.

Frankly, I don’t care if Netflix has them get together or not. They would work just fine as friends too. I just sure as hell hope they’ll ignore the fans clamoring for a creepy daddy/daughter dynamic. Dressing it up as “concern” won’t hide that for some it’s a fetish, and for others they’re just useful idiots who haven’t thought it through.

I implore you to think it through.

[puddleorganism]

Pondering a new rancher au (yes the giant fucking bird is Jimmy) - rambling/explanation under the cut

[Image IDs:

ID 1: a digital drawing of Jimmy/SolidarityGaming and TangoTek, in which Jimmy is a massive approximately 20 foot/6 meter tall bird-like creature. He’s standing idly (to show off his design) with a nervous smile on his face. He has a long neck and long legs that make him look like a dinosaur, but he is covered in light golden-brown feathers and has wings. His wings are huge, the primaries/tips sticking out behind his back. They’re modeled after a turkey vulture’s wings. He’s got a grey hooked beak that is mostly covered in feathers. He’s also got long tail feathers that look just short of skimming the ground. His legs are dark grey with huge talons. All over his legs, wing tips, and tail feathers is a dark grey ash. Tango’s sitting cross-legged on his back/shoulders, hunched over and looking at one of those map books you usually have in your car. (Note: the next image is of Tango, so to avoid redundancy I’m going to describe his appearance better there.) /End ID 1

ID 2: a digital drawing of TangoTek, a humanoid with fire for hair and a long, thin tail tipped in fire; like how a lion’s is tipped with fur. He’s standing idly (again, to show off his design) with his hands in his pockets. He’s got light tan skin with freckles on his nose and wrist. He’s got what look to be black scales on his ears - which are long and pointed - cheeks and nose that have glowing orange cracks in them like burning wood. He’s wearing a red handkerchief over his nose and mouth and has red-tinted goggled pushed up on his forehead. He’s wearing an off-white sweater, a worn leather jacket with red accents, grey cargo pants and black boots. He also has a pale gold and brown messenger bag slung over his left (the viewer’s right) shoulder and back behind his arm. He’s also got two scuffed, worn pins on his jacket; a small, round yellow one and a tiny polyamory flag. He’s also covered in ash - even more so than Jimmy - to the point where his boots, sweater, and handkerchief are stained with it, and are almost more grey than their original colors.

ID 3: simple digital sketches of the above characters. From left to right they are: Jimmy laying down with his head bowed, and Tango standing on his tiptoes to lean against Jimmy’s head. Both their eyes are closed and their foreheads are pressed together. The next is of Tango with his goggles on and looking confused at the map book, which is folded in half in his hands. Jimmy is leaning over his shoulder to look at the map as well. Two question marks float by Tango’s head. The last is of Jimmy standing upright, one of his talons held up near his chest. In his talons he’s holding Tango who seems surprised and is kind of doing that thing that cats do when you pick them up under the arms. This sketch is captioned with the word “hold”. There’s also a small bit of wing from a drawing that’s been cropped out in the corner. /End ID 3

/End IDs]

Ok rambling time!

So it’s set in a that was similar to the modern day, but after in a post-apocalyptic world (recent enough that they both would’ve known the world before). Not a zombie apocalypse or anything, though. There may be Foes but probably not.

I’m not exactly sure what the apocalypse that happened actually is yet, but it’s left the world an ash-covered wasteland with few ruins and even fewer survivors (survivors being organisms in general, not just humans). I want the landscape to be kind of surreal and bizarre, but I haven’t decided if that’s because of the apocalypse or not. Maybe it was just Like That lol.

Anyway, one thing you may want to know more about, is why the hell is Jimmy a giant bird? And the answer is: I like giant birds. In all seriousness though, he’s cursed! Don’t know why. He was a normal ass dude. Now he’s a bird.

Tango might also be cursed? Depends on how edgy I end up wanting this to be lol. He might be an undead wraith or something who knows.

[bellaveux]

cheating Natasha?

take my opinion with a grain of salt because you’re the writer at the end of the day and I’m not sure if you were actually asking for one or just venting… but I can’t imagine there’s many situations where cheating can be forgiven.

when I read a fanfic that involves cheating, especially ones that are one-shots, the two characters being together or agreeing to work on things but the end of the story feels similar to they found out their partner cheated but forgave them for it same day. (even with a time skip)

@ginnsbaker is a writer who’s made a story that I consider an exception and to me that’s because (in the story the reader is no saint but for now we’ll focus on Wanda cheating) we can see all of Wanda’s regret, pain, and the work she puts into improving herself being fleshed out over a long period of time that it made forgiving her make sense.

also I think the reader letting go of the cheating partner and not being immediately paired with another person to focus on healing themselves is sooooo underrated😭

but yeah that’s my rant hope you have a great day!

i love @ginnsbaker’s series so much i cried so many times 😭 i think it’s an amazing story and take on cheating, forgiveness, regret and reflection

and i completely agree !! i don’t think there are many situations where cheating is forgivable. a lot of the time, cheating happens when one partner disregards their partner’s feelings entirely or repeatedly makes selfish choices—which in most cases, i think are truly unforgivable because it shows a deeper lack of respect and trust. and in situations like those, forgiving can feel like giving up self respect and/or ignoring red flags.

the fic i’m writing is leaning more towards something a lot more complicated. i think there’s a different quality to it when two partners both have things that they’re struggling with, something that they both struggle to communicate so that it’s more of a human failure than a blatant pattern of disregard—when both partners get to a point where they are finally ready/willing to work through their problems, address them and the pain, and to take accountability.

that being said, forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting. i think that’s a bit of a problem with a lot of cheating fanfics out there when a character is sooooo eager to forget and is blinded by their love for that person rather than seeing the hard truth. i don’t really enjoy those types of fics and i will try my best to make sure the one i’m writing isn’t similar !

so thank u for the rant !!!! it’s a really big help :)

[yuikomorii]

i think i can forgive yui for anything even toxic simply because she suffered the most because of those guys and deserves to get her lick back. they put her through so much in earlier games, it's insane

// PARDON?? 😀😀

I understand that the Diaboys were bitchy at first and they all treated others as less (which is bad), but other than Laito, Kanato and Carla, nobody made Yui suffer that bad to the point of breaking her. Kou was pretty nasty too at first, but the rest weren’t that horrible route based for characters supposed to be monsters. At the very least, I can name some human LIs who were way worse than most Diaboys, yet nobody seems to hate on them for that. I understand that it must be tiring being pushed around and being treated as “prey”, yet we’re talking about vampires here. They are predators and don’t have the same set of morals as humans do, for this reason humans are a mere food source for them. They can’t live without blood, even if this means having to sacrifice humans to satisfy their hunger. We love cats despite the fact that they like torturing mice before killing them, and that’s because we understand that it’s just how the predator instinct works. The Diaboys might look humanized, but they are a whole difference existence and you shouldn’t hold them at human standards. It’s good that DL showed how vampires were truly supposed to act, instead of making them romantic and flirty from the start.

Even the whole Adam’s apple plan focuses on Eve, a human, making Adam, a vampire, learn about human feelings. One thing about the Diaboys is that they all had growth. If someone is shown regretting their behavior and is genuinely changing into a better person just for you, it’s very insensitive to remind them about what they did a long time ago. They are aware of their actions and they are aware they were in the wrong, therefore bringing up their past mistakes won’t make you a better person than them. A Diaboy could sacrifice everything for Yui and put his life on the verge each and every time she’s in danger, but some of you guys would still only see him as “bad”, which would be a huge insult to his character, given that it would erase all the development he went through.

I’m not going to count the bad endings here, but saying that you forgive all of Yui’s toxic actions is very toxic itself. She is an abuse apologist herself, who tried to convince Ayato that his mother secretly cared for him (despite knowing the full story), Subaru that Karlheinz loved him and the Mukamis that Karlheinz, after he committed a whole genocide, saved them to redeem himself. These are all very wrong. Karlheinz always used everyone for his plans, just like Cordelia used her children for her selfish desires. Neither of them were ever shown regretting their actions. This is just one example of Yui’s toxic actions and I’m not saying that she did them with ill will, but stupidity can make one problematic too. It gives off the same vibes as “but they’re your parents”, after hearing someone talk about how much their parents hurt them.

It’s not that hard to admit that all DL characters have red flags. Nobody in this franchise is meant to be a role model and it’s okay if you don’t like certain actions. I’m a Yui stan, but I get why several people from the otoge community don’t really like her. However, I’m surprised that they see her as really that bad. I mean, she still is mostly kind and sweet, therefore I don’t think her bitchy moments are more significant. Yet, I suppose this has more to do with how they perceive things.

[dennydreadful]

HI THANKS FOR ANSWERING MY UNHINGED ASK THIS WILL BE VERY LONG BUT I READ THE COMIC IN ONE SITTING. im now going back and forth between imagining what kind of deeply toxic pseudo-vigilante shenanigans bunny (and caleb by association) get into post epilogue and thinking up scenarios where before shit got really real they both get soooooo much good therapy and heal together and end up toxicly codependent and kinda bad for each other still but in a way that doesn’t involve murder. like one of those aita posts where the general consensus is the couple should stay together bc even tho they’re both just exacerbating each others Issues at least nobody else is getting hurt. also i think dave and juicybaby hook up at some point.

have you ever seen that post that’s like “media in which it’s so very obvious all the problems could’ve been avoided if this guy got some therapy and a consensual bdsm relationship but that is very much Not What Happens in the story”? bc i feel like that applies to caleb. rip caleb you would’ve loved being a more well adjusted girl’s puppy and being led around the mall on a leash until security kicked you out. maybe next time king.

none of this to say i didn’t enjoy the comic as presented immensely btw. despite my ramblings here i think the comic ended in the most satisfying (for the audience at least) way possible. we love to see a dogboy beg for his own demise <3 we love to see a pretty girl go from justified anger to righteous rage <3 we love when characters have a deeply unhealthily fucked up perception of love and care and mental stability <3

like imo psychological horror is at its best when you take relatively normal people facing relatively mundane horrors then letting the aftermath of those horrors warp them beyond repair. in a good psych horror (at least when it’s like ii is and based on deeply human characters dealing with stuff in the most unhelpful way they can) you should be able to understand why and how things turned out like they did. you can think of a million ways it could’ve turned out differently if only the characters had seen the end coming, but the end they met was inevitable bc they *can’t* see it coming. the red flags aren’t obvious bc they increase so gradually. the bones of the building were there from the very beginning, but how were the characters supposed to know whether it’d be a home or a slaughterhouse? there were no plans, just bricks to lay and a storm coming. and that’s exactly how i felt finishing ii.

anyways. a caleb shaker charm would be so awesome i would love to go darla from finding nemo on his ass. thanks for the incredible comic my brain chemistry is different now and i’m kissing u on both cheeks in thanks MWAH MWAH

Cut because this post ended up really long, but here's Dave and Juicy:

idyllic island is a big old vent comic in a lot of ways. i drew on a lot of my own emotions and experiences to make it. i was in a very dark place for a very long time. i could have very easily gone down an even worse path, and very easily have been taken advantage of in a very dangerous way. but "guy goes to therapy and learns how to stop climbing into a wood chipper" is not a terribly interesting story imo, even if it's obviously the better outcome in real life. much more interesting to read about characters hurtling headlong towards certain doom lol

that said i always enjoy a good tragedy that leaves me feeling like "it didn't need to be like this..." (even though I know it was always the only way it was ever going to be) and imagining a happy world where everything worked out as best it could, so it's really cool to hear about someone doing that something I made!

before you read the next part just know that i LOVE hearing people's headcanons so feel free to disregard anything/everything i say here. death of the author and all that lol

imo he would have needed to never meet bunny for him to actually heal, and for her to not charge ahead on her path of destruction. even if he had gone to therapy and straightened himself up, bunny is so toxic she would have found exactly the right way to break him again (and honestly she would enjoy the added challenge). and couple's therapy would be SO BAD for him because she'd learn how manipulate and gaslight him even harder.

honestly I can't see a future for bunny where she DOESNT commit murder. she's a scorpion. it's simply her nature. it's not her fault we live in a society. perhaps she could have become a doctor and euthanized her patients discretely. i think she'd enjoy forensic science as well, but that would literally make her girl Dexter lol. maybe she could work for a three letter agency.

but yeah I absolutely agree that caleb would have LOVED to be in a 24/7 lifestyle BDSM relationship with a girl that did not want to grind him down to dust and scatter him on the wind. being a kinky freak with a loving partner would have fixed him 100%

[fibula-rasa]

Watch More Movies Notebook: October ‘24

Collage of stills from my nine favorite new-to-me films of October '24

October's blog journal has a handful of technologically and creatively adventurous pre-code films and a selection of witches, demons, ghosts, and varied ghouls from six different countries!

Favorite New-to-me Films of the Month

(listed in order pictured above, L to R)

As always, if any other films catch your eye, but you need specific content/trigger warnings, feel free to ask and I’ll try to oblige!

READ on BELOW the JUMP!

Black and Tan (1929) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

When Duke and his band are in dire straits, Fredi, Duke’s girlfriend, manages to land them a job. The catch however, is that Fredi must dance in the act even though she has a heart condition.

Dudley Murphy directs Duke Ellington and Fredi Washington in this short-but-dazzling musical tragedy. Black and Tan’s been in my watchlist for ages, but I found extra motivation to finally see it because I’m still watching through the films discussed in Lovers of Cinema, which I read this summer. I’m not new to Murphy’s work, but as I watch more of it, I’m starting to appreciate how unsung he is as a filmmaker. Highly recommend this one!

——— ——— ———

Night of the Demon (1957)

[letterboxd | imdb]

An American parapsychology professor plans to attend a conference in England and discovers that one of his colleagues has died under mysterious circumstances. The professor takes up his colleague’s investigation of a local satanic witch cult—his skepticism blinding him to his imminent peril.

Completely unintentionally, I’ve avoided watching this movie for years because I had assumed I’d seen it already. Turns out I had it mixed up with Night of the Eagle (1962)—a movie that Night of the Demon shares more than a similar title with! Both are good though! Up tight academic psychology experts in England using the power of suggestion and hypnosis to face off with witches appears to be a pretty solid horror formula.

——— ——— ———

Wolf’s Hole / Vlčí Bouda (1987) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

A group of teenagers are accepted into an elite skiing camp on a remote mountain top run by three very odd characters. Red flags start piling up as the isolated kids gradually figure out that this ski camp is, in reality, a very sinister experiment.

A 1980s teen horror film directed by the great Věra Chytilová? How could it not be great? If you choose to check this one out, which I recommend, don’t read too much about it ahead of time—the way Chytilová unfolds the reveal is best left unspoiled. As a horror film fan, I loved how the kids being obnoxious is paired with the perspective that you’re still going to care about them and root for them to make it to safety. This is a much appreciated and humane opposition to many (obvi not all) American horror films where teens acting obnoxiously has become cinematic shorthand that they’re doomed to a violent end. It’s a tense, stressful movie with some bombastic choices within the limited setting. And, for those that need to know ahead of time: the dog does not die! Long live Pišta. CW for some depictions of prejudice toward a Romani character.

——— ——— ———

The Bat Whispers (1930) 

[letterboxd | imdb | hoopla (US)]

Infamous archcriminal, The Bat, has outwitted the cops once again and has shuffled off to the country. Coincidentally, out in the country, the local bank has just been robbed. The Bat is after the money, the cops are after the robbers, and caught in the middle is the wealthy society matron Cornelia Van Gorder and her long-suffering maid/companion Lizzie, who, hoping for a quiet respite from the city, have rented the bank manager’s house while he’s away.

Ambitious contrary evidence to the notion that early sound films fully broke from the rich, artistic visual grammar of silent cinema. I won’t go into that debate in too much detail here, as it’s a complex enough conversation to warrant an essay unto itself. But, in short, some filmmakers, theorists, and critics pointed out an overreliance on the structure and devices of drama in sound film that disrupted artistic development in film as its own distinct medium. That’s an oversimplification but the discourse around this—going all the way back to before sound film became the standard—is really fascinating, so please read up on it if the topic catches your interest. All that said, The Bat Whispers, shot on uncommon 60mm film, has extremely dynamic cinematography for a pre-code. Roland West and Co. do a great job of adapting a stage play to film thoroughly and thoughtfully so that it doesn’t feel stagey. The cast of characters are all delightful and Maude Eburne and Chester Morris deserve special credit.

I enjoy the later adaptation with Agnes Moorehead and Vincent Price, but I have to say The Bat Whispers is all-around the superior film. Wide recommendation for this one, even if you don’t have particular interest in pre-codes!

——— ——— ———

The Blob (1988) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

A small town in California is terrorized by a mysterious and deadly amorphous creature. 

Another film that had been on watchlist for ages, The Blob might now be on my shortlist for best horror films of the 80s. A smart remake that recontextualizes the premise for the social anxieties of 1980s America. The characters are primarily fleshed out by how they react in crisis and the film offers a humane and heartening depiction of members of a community coming together and putting aside their differences in the face of abject horrors. In some ways this feels like it would make a great double feature with Vlčí Bouda (discussed above). (The dog also doesn’t die in this film, FYI.) Also the special effects are absolutely horrifying, and might be a little stomach turning if you are sensitive—very different from the original!

——— ——— ———

Blood Reign: Curse of the Yoma / 妖魔 (1989) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Demons called Yoma are ravaging war-torn feudal Japan. A lone ninja is on a mission to kill his former best friend, who is ushering in a full-blown Yoma invasion. This is a two-part OVA adapting two stories from a manga of the same name.

The world of Yoma is so interesting and creepy and I’m planning on hunting down a collection of the manga. Don’t know that I’d necessarily recommend this one very widely, but, Yoma’s horror-fantasy worldbuilding is super cool. Maybe I’ll come back with more detail after I’ve read the manga!

——— ——— ———

The Vourdalak (2023) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

A Frenchman travelling as an emissary for the king is waylaid and gets stuck in the middle of a supernatural family drama while waiting for a horse.

As soon as I found out that the undead dad in this adaptation was a puppet I knew I had to watch it. It did not disappoint! Great evil puppet, great cinematography (shot on super 16mm), great characters, great editing. Not for the faint of heart though as the gore is gory and I imagine for some people the inter-family patriarchal struggle might be too stressful. Also the dog does die in this one. 

This is now the third film adaptation of Aleksei Tolstoi’s “The Family of the Vourdalak”—the first being the segment of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath (1963) and the second being The Night of the Devils (1972)—and I’ve really liked all of them. This source material is getting up there with “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a surefire hit with me!

——— ——— ———

St. Louis Blues (1929) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Bessie deserves better, but that Jimmy sure can dance…

Much like Black and Tan, Dudley Murphy translates Black American Music onto film. This time the short focuses on Bessie Smith and her no-good boyfriend Jimmy. Not as technically adventurous as Black and Tan, but Bessie is such an emotional force that it kinda makes up for it. All things considered, St. Louis Blues feels a lot like a music video, but so meaningful in the context of capturing Bessie Smith’s work on film.

——— ——— ———

The Phantom / Widziadło (1983) 

[letterboxd | imdb]

Piotr Strumieński is being haunted by his first wife, Angelika, who died tragically young. Angelika cursed Piotr to never find happiness with another woman and always to be haunted by her singing. His new wife is trying to cope, but takes a lover. When his eldest son comes to visit on his break from boarding school, stranger and stranger things start happening around the manor house.

I was really taken by how the haunting is depicted—especially in Widziadło’s editing and sound design. Even though I knew what the ending of the story was ahead of time, it still shocked me! The story almost felt suited for giallo at times, but it’s definitively Polish in its execution. Horror movies were not particularly common in Poland during their socialist period, but the ones that were made will punch you in the gut. 

As you may have surmised by this point, I watched a lot of horror this October, so I will be more than happy to try and advise on content/trigger warnings for any of these films. Widziadło in particular has a lot of potential triggers, so don’t hesitate to ask!

——— ——— ———

Honorable Mention: Body Parts (1991) & Devil Story (1986)

Two very different films that didn’t make the list for very different reasons. Body Parts is way campier than I ever expected (positive) but in the end the film just doesn’t quite come together into something entertaining or thought provoking. I do really appreciate that Jeff Fahey fully committed to this film tho. 

Now, we watched Devil Story after it was featured on Red Letter Media and somehow we still weren’t prepared for the chaos. It is not good by any reasonable metric. It’s also not campy—though clips and stills might give you that vibe. However, this film led my SO and I to go into full-blown Jungian dream analysis mode to suss out what the filmmaker likely intended for Devil Story and failed at. And that’s a good experience with a bad film, which can sometimes be as rewarding as watching a good film and for sure more rewarding than a well-executed movie with a bad or hollow spirit.

——— ——— ———

Monthly Round-up

It sure has been a month.

I’ve put work into the addendum to Cosplay the Classics: Salomé and the next installment of Lost, but Not Forgotten, and I’ve also got at least one noir cosplay I’d like to get out for Noirvember this year. So, I guess stay tuned for what I get done first!

I may not have gotten all that much writing/research finished in October, but I did complete a tutorial on the Salomé costume in case anyone else wanted to try their hand at it for Halloween season.

Unfiltered image of my Salomé cosplay from the tutorial post

I also did a 1910s/20s vintage inspired Halloween costume and photoset with explanations of my inspiration.

My vintage Halloween look

——— ——— ———

I was however very productive in making themed gif/still sets in October!

Footnote to Fact (1933)

(which I talked about in the last installment of WMM Notebook)

Mechanical Principles (1931)

La cartomancienne (1932)

(which I talked about in the last installment of WMM Notebook)

The Telltale Heart (1928)

The Web of the Spider / Nella stretta morsa del ragno (1971)

Tell-tale Hearts / Bicie Serca (1971)

The Bat Whispers (1930)

The Vampire Lovers (1970)

——— ——— ———

Until next time, take care of yourselves and take care of one another. Happy noirvember and happy viewing!

——— ——— ———

☕Appreciate my work? Buy me a coffee! ☕

[sepublic]

I will say though; I love the design for General Alex Miles from Federation Force. It perfectly blends the Federation Marine and Federation formal attire together perfectly;

Given one is from Prime and the other from the mainline games, Miles’ outfit basically marries the two depictions of the Federation from either series together. The gold is such a nice touch too… I’d love to see fanart of Miles in a non-chibi art style, and as a full-body portrait too; I don’t think we ever see Miles in person, just from the chest up?

They’re an interesting character to me; Neither their gender or even species is clarified, but the latter might be human because of the name and build. Miles’ name reminds me of Adam Malkovich… Alex Miles… They’re the Federation Force’s CO, their own Adam, just as the pilots themselves are akin to Samus in terms of gameplay and being unique Federation assets. Miles notably wants the Metroid egg on Talvania, saying it could bring “good” to the galaxy… Big red flag of course.

But it IS worth noting that the primary objective of the mission is to destroy all Metroids on Talvania by activating the self-destruct; The egg is optional and secondary. And when the Metroids are released from containment after the Federation Force activated the self-destruct countdown, Miles tells them to forget about the Metroid egg and just focus on getting out of there; You have to go against their orders by retrieving the egg anyway, and risking yourself to do so.

So Miles is interesting to me in that they might actually be well-intentioned? Or at least care for their troops. Given their introduction in Federation Force, which sets up Sylux’s plans in Beyond, it makes you wonder if Miles will appear there too. Are they corrupt? Do they care, in a “The path to hell is paved with good intentions” sort of way?

Will we see them replace or work alongside Dane in Beyond? They’re a General, which means they command ground troops and infantry; Dane commands the fleet. I speculate the planet we see at the start of Beyond, as well as the rainforest, are both the same world; Probably Cylosis, possibly across different points in time. Which means we won’t see much of space nor the Federation fleet; Which makes Miles more suited as a CO for Samus here, since all Federation allies will be situated on the ground.

Then again, Miles is seen commanding a fleet during the Doomseye battle in Federation Force, so maybe the titles are being loosely used and the developers don’t care for real world accuracy when it comes to military ranking and hierarchy; Tbh I’ve normally never cared either and am only researching it for the sake of reconciling the different depictions and uniforms of the Federation, as well as considering how characters such as Dane, Adam, and Miles interact.

I remember seeing someone suggest that Alex Miles is Sylux; This is why they suggested getting the Metroid egg, and how they were able to sneak in, operate the tech, etc. But this makes you wonder, if they hate the Federation, why value the Force’s lives? Why help them defeat the Space Pirates in the Bermuda system? I guess it all boils down as to the exact nature of Sylux’s hatred for the Federation, if it’s because they’re corrupt but they sympathize with troops they know personally as good people.

Granted Sylux’s intro in Hunters might indicate otherwise, but there could also be other context to that scene, or they don’t know those troops and can’t take the time to evaluate them. As for attacking the Space Pirates, maybe Sylux is strategically maneuvering both factions into destroying one another; It would explain why they’ve never worked with the Space Pirates before and even competed against Weavel in the Alimbic Cluster; They hate the pirates too!

Miles is probably meant to be male and the developers just never considered the gender-ambiguity of the name Alex. But it’d be fun if Miles was a woman, maybe even an alien because Chairman Keaton has a name like that despite also looking like that. And we could meld this with Female Sylux speculation if they’re the same character after all. They’re both mysteriously masked too, though for Miles I imagine it’s because the developers thought a human face would look too silly in the Chibi art style, hence why everyone wears helmets, and Samus never takes hers off. I guess ‘Sylux’ and ‘Alex’ have similar second syllables…

[bleue-flora]

https://www.tumblr.com/bleue-flora/756891956367556608/ngl-i-thought-the-anon-that-said-a-few-characters?source=share

Good points although I suspected it was about them because c!quackity had the urge to burn down kinoko kingdom because he felt left behind by his friends lead to him self sabotaging, also the whole controlling c!slimecicle thing ect,,, then for c!tommy ig attacking c!wilbur with a sword when c!wilbur said he was going to utah, hating c!ranboo for taking c!tubbo away, and the other self destructive based. Apparently directly after the 'the discs were worth more than you ever were' there was a lot of regret, which reminds me of going from saying something horrible then immediately regretting but I don't have bpd, I've only been told by a therapist that I have bpd traits so I cant say much either. Now that I think more about it, maybe they meant c!wilbur

To be fair, wanting to burn down Kinoko Kingdom after losing his fiancés is a fairly understandable urge (especially given the context of the dsmp vs the real world you wouldn’t go burn down someone’s house because they hurt you) and I’m not so sure controlling Slime is a very BPD thing to do, is it? Eh I’m not sure, given his history of manipulating others to his agenda I’d say Slime is only one of the victims, just the most impressionable. And given his other behavior I think we are perhaps dealing with another person with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). His disregard and non consideration to how other people may feel. To the point of blowing up Purpled’s spaceship and thinking he’d be fine with that. His lack of understanding of the consequences of his actions, like being utterly confused by doomsday, as if they didn’t poke the bear by attacking Technoblade. Perhaps because he’s older than Tommy is, he has a little more skill in blending in with society and has grown his manipulation skills to get what he wants…. I don’t know, certainly his enjoyment of torturing another human being for about 80 days is a bright red flag…

I mean both of those things happen at the point where Tommy is already getting more unstable, and him stabbing Wilbur for leaving makes perfect sense to me honestly. And Tommy is scared, so lashing out as someone who makes him feel safe is leaving would trigger a strong reaction. As for Tubbo, their friendship is very… messed up and I think while Tommy doesn’t seem to value Tubbo more than the discs, he still is more akin to a valuable thing to Tommy. A thing Tommy feels entitled to, and that belongs by his side following his every whim, and just like the discs he doesn’t appreciate Tubbo being stolen from him. But also jealously is a typical thing to happen so that isn’t the most deranged thing he had done to be fair.

I mean we all say things we regret later, especially in the heat of the moment with emotions high. But even though he seems to regret and want to take it back minutes later, his behavior has also backed up this statement. Again dragging Tubbo into war and war to get hurt, his hesitation to give up the discs for Tubbo’s life in both of the disc finales. If it was one isolated statement then sure, but it’s backed by his actions which reflect a similar sentiment.

I think we can have some traits that perhaps look like a lot of disorders or whatever, but that doesn’t mean we are, if that makes sense. I’ve had people say that about autism where they’re like - well I do that too so does that mean I’m autistic, everyone can’t be autistic just cause they do blank - but it’s not about one thing or two things or even things that look similar. It’s about a culmination if that makes sense, as well as the context and reasoning behind the behavior.

As for Wilbur I don’t think he has BPD but instead I actually think he’s a Narcissist, I mean reading the Millon Theory breakdown of Narcissism [here] it just seems to fit to me.

[turboacek-blog]

The Mina Ashido race convo

Never talked about My Hero so I’m a bit out my element tbh…

But basically from what I gathered Mina Ashido has been coded at least by fans as black/blasian (Black and Asian mix)

And in the recent preview of the next episode season 7 episode 18 or ep156 her pink skin is “fading” (overuse of her powers loses her general different appearance pink skin black eyes etc) and we see the more Asian/pale skin tone which “disproves” that she’s black

And some fans aren’t happy from what I’ve seen online

My quick thoughts

Mina isn’t black as I think they would of made it clear if she was supposed to be plus you would be surprised the crossover or things adapted by the Japanese from African Americans but there’s nothing wrong with people wanting her to be and it honestly is harmless in the grand scheme and I think saying she’s Blasian is the best compromise as it allows her to still be of a lighter skin tone but gives both sides their wants

My full(ish) thoughts below as I go into more details of how I reached my final thought

Fan Coding

Mina Ashido isn’t the first anime/cartoon character that has been fan coded to be a different race

Two of the most popular examples are Piccolo from Dragon Ball and Knuckles the Echidna from Sonic the Hedgehog as fans have coded them as black

Which gets reinforced when an actor like Idris Elba voices Knuckles in the movies

Anime and cartoons tend to leave the standard character as the “default” pale/less melanated human skin color but everyone else whether other humans to aliens to whatever that series has that can be different from standard human characters has more non-human colors like green skin, red skin, blue skin and in Mina’s case pink skin

So they’re sometimes not whatever the default race is whether White or Asian so fans usually of the other races like to project onto these characters different races (and various identities)

For a character like Knuckles, his quills can be seen as dreadlocks which codes to black hair even if in reality it just quills and can elude to different hairstyles as well

For Mina people took her curly hair as a similar thing to black curly hair and anything different chalked up to her being blasian and the Asian hair genes or how anime draws hair or other reasons

Amongst other things like her breakdancing, people take her being louder as a trait, etc etc

My thoughts…

There’s nothing wrong with projecting race on race ambiguous characters to me at least

People usually just like finding themselves in characters and when a cast either all one race or all non human characters people latch onto things they have in common

Plus it’s been evident that some characters that aren’t explicitly black or Hispanic or Asian or etc are implied or written to be that way and couldn’t be that due to a number of reasons

It’s similar with lgtbq+ where a lot of characters especially from older shows and movies are lgtbq coded but due to the time period they either have to force the girl to have boyfriend or they can be gay but can’t kiss another man and so on

A recent thing I saw (I don't fully buy it but first thing that came to mind) was Ryan and Kelsey from High School Musical franchise were coded to be gay and lesbian respectfully but due it being older Disney they didn’t do that and constantly gave them the opposite gender partners they even got paired with each other in the third movie

Diversity

There’s been a big push for diversity in all forms of media not just anime. And while I know people have issues with how diversity has been done in recent times. It is still a push a lot of people want, as having the default all-straight white cast or whatever raises some flags

So when you see essentially an all-Asian cast then there’s one character whose race is ambiguous because of the pink skin I can see people wanting her to at least be the token black girl in the show they like

Basically when a show or movie is all one race is it bad to want someone of a different race in the cast for diversity and representation?

Especially when that show/movie is enjoyed by people of all races and identities

For example an anime like Naruto the whole main cast is generally the same race

So when we see Cloud Village ninjas like Killer Bee and Ay they’re technically just super tanned or darker skinned Asian like the rest of the world but in a series with no diversity and when a lot of black people watch the anime I think it’s natural to assume that the anime/manga finally gave some representation. Not even including other factors like the hair and rapping and more

We already have that instance with Mirko as she's darker skinned than most characters but I think its confirmed she isn't black or mixed just tan (don't kill me if it isn't confirmed)

And I'm sure you can find some but you don't see the same convoy when the blonde blue/green eyes character is called white

Race swapping in general

You see this in fan art a lot which I think is mostly harmless

But in the world where we now have a black Ariel (little mermaid), black tinker bell, Indian Velma, etc

The conversation has been getting brought up more and more as more previously white characters are being turned into other races

Like is it weird and funny that basically all previous white redhead (ginger) characters are being turned into black characters

Yes

But is it also weird and funny to think that the redhead was their version of diversity back when a lot of these characters back then ‘Hey they’re not brunette or black-haired or even blonde’ and that every character was white (or Asian in anime) so diversity wasn’t truly a thing

Also yes

The race conversation is a lot heavier than I would like to cover in a Tumblr blog post about an anime character lol

But it’s about the idea that how crucial is the character being white and does it change if they were a different race?

Mina Ashido/Pinky character in particular

So if you do some research on the character Mina seems to be more inspired by Gyaru fashion style in Japan

You can read up on it yourself but yes it appears a lot of design elements for Mina are taken from that

And obviously, she has the alien design elements

So if we ignore her outfit and hair and other things like personality

Does break dancing enough to be black coded

Not really like mentioned earlier Japanese people and people around the world have adapted thing slime break dancing into the culture

A woman from Japan just won Gold in the Olympics for breakdancing

But do want to note break dancing did originate from African Americans as far as I can tell

What does it mean it mean to be black? And does race matter in this form of media?

Basically, this is for both sides the side that wants Mina to be black and the side that says why would they make her black and not leave her Japanese

The question I would just ask is does it change anything?

If Horikoshi (creator) announced tomorrow that Mina is black/blasian would it be a big deal?

It will obviously get the fans talking about it for a bit as it is one of those headcanons that would have gotten confirmed

But in the grand scheme it doesn't affect story or personality or anything in the vain, at most it just asks the question of Mina’s heritage

Race erasure

On the flip side of making her black, you are taking away her being Asian

(it's why Blasian I think is the perfect middle ground for this as even Blasian people aren't dark skin so even if she's super light skin she could still be mixed with black)

I think it is important to note that Mina does represent that category of Japanese/Asian girls and taking that away isn't great as it's understated how much people look towards characters as their windows to different things

Even though some might not like or accept it anime is still going to be primarily based on Japan and Japanese elements

So yes even though there are global similarities like going to school with the energetic girl, the emo boy, the kid with family issues etc this is still a school based in Japan (not even like a fictional Japan-like country they explicitly say Japan) a country with a 2% foreign population and .02% of the total being black

Mina Ashido being Japanese makes more statistical sense

And the one black character we have in Rock Lock does give us that .02%

Even if in the grand scheme changing one of the hundreds of Asian characters might not mean much

So tieing in the black coding, race swap & erasure, and diversity elements

Is Mina Ashido Black/Blasian?

I think she’s a character that like Piccolo and other characters will never be actually black as most anime characters are default Asian/Japanese unless stated otherwise

But in the sense that her race and race in my hero in general doesn’t truly affect anything then why can’t she be black to at least the fans

It’s not like they’re trying to say someone like Uraraka or Momo are black they’re just trying to claim the pink skin black eyed dancing extroverted girl with horns is black

Like if there was someone in class 1-a to was a different race it’s between her, Aoyama as white/European, and Hagakure as being invisible means she could have been anything

And if they were to adapt My Hero in almost any other media I don’t see a reason why Mina can’t be at least Blasian whether in drawing style or casting

Black appearing people have appeared in My Hero so it’s not like the author is not including them and Mina isn’t that highly important of a character that I think should even be having people fight back on this tbh

Not that she isn’t a good character she’s one of my faves of the class personally

As of class 1-A alone of the 20 students, she’s like maybe 10th important and that’s kinda pushing it

(To me you go Deku, Bakugo Shoto, Uraraka, Iida, Asui, Kirishima, and Tokoyami for an easy 8 above her but then Aoyama, Denki, Momo, Jiro, Mineta, and Shoji are all fighting for that 9-15 spot and maybe for totality I would put Aoyama over her but then it’s between her Denki and Momo)

And that’s not even including the teacher's upperclassmen, villains, and other heroes like All Might lol

So even if for some reason in the next episode they show Mina having less melanated skin than some fans want I don’t think it should stop the fans from coding her as black

Quick edit 9/16/24

Apparently part of the discourse isn’t that fans were just head canon-ing Mina as black but some people truly 100% thought she was black and was spreading that info as if it was true therefore it spreads and you have a whole sun group truly thinking Mina is black

And in that sense yeah please keep your headcanons as headcanons, there are inferences or filling in blanks for some character or story element and just making things up which the Mina thing mostly is

It also falls into the space of thinking you can do better than the original creator which isn’t great in most cases

So if that’s the main issue then yeah please don’t let your headcanons run too wild they’re fun but not true and you have to remind yourself it’s not canon