#because as i said liam is the one who does it most often

[dadrielle]

I am going to treat this as being in good faith even though I know you have copy pasted this same response on multiple posts.

It's fair enough to see this post and roll your eyes about it. I am being a sarcastic lil bitch about implications that really aren't meant to be there! Liam absolutely didn't mean to do this as an "Orym doesn't trust them" or "Orym doesn't respect their boundaries" thing, and I know that. And I know no one in game is gonna read it that way, either. I didn't tag this Orym specifically because I was picking at a small thing irritably and I fully acknowledge that.

But! There are 3 things I want to say to this on a more serious note.

First, I think we must acknowledge that the implications of listening in on one's friends over listening in on one's enemies are quite different. People have different reactions to different applications of Observant because the social stakes and boundaries are situational. It means something much different to punch an enemy combatant in the face than it does to do the same to your best friend, you know? And Orym is not omnipotent; he does not just automatically know everything that happens, despite how we all joke that he can see god with his high perception. When he chooses to listen in should matter, as should the implications. That's actually my main issue with this whole thing, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Second, I would just like to say while I'm sure you believe it's true I and others critical of Orym don't talk about any of Orym's actual flaws, the fact of the matter is there are many fans who do most of our character discussion privately with our friends instead of tumblr or god, even worse, twitter. And my Orym feelings aren't identical to every other person who is critical of him. As I said in the initial tags for this, I don't think this was the worst thing in the world, it just bugged me! That was just an emotional response, and those often pass. There are lots of moments in stories where my initial reaction is a strong negative emotion, because I am feeling the feelings of the moment, but then I love the full picture it creates. Imogen and Laudna's "did we break up" phase is a great example of that, especially Laudna's ongoing insistence that she was a dead end. It hurt to watch! It made me sad! But it really enriched the narrative! My actual, continuing issues with this Orym moment have nothing to do with Imodna, or the meanings of this moment in particular. It's just another expression of something I've been grousing about among friends for ages. I actually WISH it was Orym being fucked up, that it was something that would come up again later, something he might get push back on. I wish the implication that he feels the need to monitor Imogen and Laudna, that he isn't thinking about how they might feel about it, was a flaw that would be explored with the other characters. Instead it was just kinda there and I imagine no one else will ever have a reaction to it one way or another.

And that leads to the final thing: my biggest issue with Orym listening in is that it DOESN'T matter. It feels like at some point, Liam stopped having Orym engage with other characters and the narrative as actively. It's started to feel very repetitive, and I am deeply frustrated with it. I know he is a reserved, PTSD-laden soldier who uses his hard line morality and sense of duty to hold himself together, who refuses to tell his friends how he feels because he doesn't want to be a burden. I know this! And I think it makes for an interesting character and I want to love Orym as much as I used to. But this is an interactive game, an ongoing narrative, and after a certain point, choosing to have your scenes be solo and keeping your character from changing any of their stances starts to feel like refusing to give other people room to react and challenge your character, and refusing to engage with how others' narratives have changed. What Imogen expressed about not running in this episode isn't a revelation. She has, at this point, been saying some variation of it for about half the campaign. And he has told her he is proud, before. It was nice, then! But listening in to their conversation here and feeling proud in isolation didn't add anything new to the narrative. It could have, if it was a conversation, if he had talked to Imogen directly. But instead it feels so empty to me. Disconnected. It even sort of re-framed the moment as if it was about Imogen Finally Choosing To Not Run, instead of being about Laudna trying to reaffirm a future that keeps slipping from their grasp, one she only just started to believe in again on the precipice of Imogen possibly sacrificing herself for the world. It makes it seem like Orym has barely moved on from the solstice, like he hasn't registered how Imogen's narrative has developed since then.

There are so many things I would love to see from Orym that require acknowledging that things have changed. I wanted him to talk to Dorian instead of chasing after Dorian's dad to say he should be proud of Dorian, especially since Dorian had already had his big cathartic conversation. I wanted him to ask why Dorian has come to hate the gods so much, to ask him why it wasn't just the Spider Queen he was mad at. I wanted him to talk to Fearne about the fact that people outside the party have treated her with the same anti-Ruidusborn suspicion as Imogen, particularly in light of their conversation about taking Imogen out pre-solstice. I wanted him to actually internalize that he was wrong about there being nothing beautiful in Exandria before the gods, and to talk to Ashton about it in a way that starts with him actively listening to Ashton instead of just repeating the same arguments, even if he came out the other side still disagreeing. I wanted him to realize that there hasn't been any danger of Imogen running and that the core of her struggle now is with the fact that she's being asked to sacrifice herself. I wanted him to talk to someone about his guilt over killing Zathuda. I wanted him to acknowledge the hardness he put on when he tossed the locket on Bor'dor's corpse and declared this was war and what that hardness did to him. I wanted him to work on his flaws and talk to people! But instead, he listened and reacted in isolation. The fact that his reaction to Fearne asking him if he was ok as late as episode 95 was just "then why ask? You know the answer" instead of opening up is narratively a problem for me. The few times he has opened up a little have been wonderful but he's still holding most of it to the chest. So many emotional Orym scenes are people talking to him about his emotions and him not responding. We're in too deep, man! "If not now, when?" doesn't just apply to kissing Dorian, you know? He is running out of time to open up.

So. Do I still think listening in on that moment was sucky of him, even beyond the hyperbole? Sure. I think generally purposefully eavesdropping on something like that is sucky. It's a small kind of sucky, though. A blip. Because this is a story, the big sucky thing is that it didn't mean anything for any other character and felt just narratively disconnected. And I find that so frustrating because there are so many potentially meaty, interesting things possible in Orym's story, and I desperately want that richer narrative for him and for Dorian and for all of them.

You might not agree and that's fine. To paraphrase Orym's own words, every one of us forms our own interpretations with the lenses or prisms we see life through. Of course I'm gonna get more het up when this ongoing, general Orym frustration touches on something Imogen or Laudna related - they're my favorites! Of course that influences how I see things. I know they aren't everyone's favorites, so something like this moment won't be a domino-kick on tangentially related, piling frustrations for everyone. But it is for me. I'm not really trying to convince anyone I'm right, here, just to explain why I feel this way about it.

Sure would be fucked up if Imogen and Laudna, until only recently, had every single one of their private moments observed against their will, and then their friend decided to observe possibly their last private moment against their will, huh? :)

[blackhholes]

Self-Injury in Teen Wolf

“A Hideous Torture on Himself”: Madness and Self-Mutilation in Victorian Literature by Sarah Chaney / Representing the Unrepresentable: Self-Harm as Affect by Laura Wilson / Damaging the Body Politic: Self-Mutilation as Spectacle by Alexandra Gray

Written for @teenwolf-meta‘s Meta May Monday theme: pain.

The idea of pain making you human was introduced into the show when Derek said "And that's what keeps you human- pain." to Scott in the season one episode The Tell. It's a concept which is repeatedly brought up throughout the show and might actually be one of the more consistent facets of werewolf lore seen within the show.

When lycanthropic characters are incapable of relying on their anchor to tether them to their human side, they can instead draw on their own pain, often self-inflicted, to avoid the consequences of shifting. Throughout the show the character shown to utilize this the most is Liam. He's often incapable of controlling his anger and as a result is incapable of keeping in touch with his humanity, meaning that he's pushed to the edge of self-injury more often than other characters.

Another instance where we see characters inflict injury on themselves, or others, is when they need to trigger their healing. As seen in the season four finale when Kira is unable to heal after being attacked by berserker-Scott, where she then has to cut up her hand with a shard of obsidian for the rest of her body to heal. This is interesting because it visualizes a clear disconnect between the body and the self, the self which needs to heal can only communicate this with the body through more pain and injury.

Lydia is also seen injuring herself in season two when she's being controlled by Peter. When she's awoken by her mother her sheets are covered in blood and it's then revealed that she punched her mirror with no recollection of it. This serves as a narrative red herring as it's revealed later in the same episode that the Kanima hates its own reflection, but on a personal level it also shows the viewer the disconnect Lydia is experiencing between herself and her mind.

[essektheylyss]

A funny thing that was said in the episode was, in his description of the house, Liam specifying that Caleb "teaches from time to time" at Soltryce Academy, which raises so many questions about both how academic appointments work here and also Caleb's financial situation.

For instance, is Caleb just a guest lecturer at Astrid's behest? What's happening with that now that she (and, from what it sounds like, most of the Assembly) is in the wind? Do they have adjunct positions? Does he piss off the administration often enough that his classes get cut every other semester? Does he travel so frequently that a full time position isn't feasible? In that case, how much is he tutoring? And what is he doing besides snooping on Ludinus's activities? (Also who is taking care of the garden while the house is empty?)

In that vein, what's his primary line of income? It's clearly stable enough to have maintained the same house for several years—does he own it outright? Is he cobbling enough together from his various teaching gigs plus whatever he's making from adventuring? Is he technically employed by the Cobalt Soul? Being a wizard is expensive even when you're camping in the woods most nights; it's probably a lot worse when you've got costs for house maintenance to worry about.

Personally I think the funniest option is the Cobalt Soul keeping him on retainer for very high profile investigations that are of interest to him (so, you know, primarily the Ludinus situation, but considering there's at least one other wizard on Beau and Caleb's kill list, probably anything involving high level mages). Specifically because it implies that the Empire has a strong stance against the concept of Non-Compete clauses.

[thearchercore]

the dynamic between charles and the other drivers fascinates me. We notice that despite Charles' personality and his social side, he is very selective with the drivers with whom he interacts and most of whom he ignores. The people he interacts with the most at the moment are Pierre, Max and Lewis. He got closer to Oscar this year (I think the anon is right, the fact that Oscar already has a connection with Arthur helped the interaction and we can see that Charles has taken Oscar under his wing a bit. He does it often with the young people, liam has already said that charles was one of the drivers who helped him the most with max). We know that Charles is close to Georges and Alex too. These are the drivers with whom he interacts the most, he is rather indifferent to the others. what i find fascinating is that max and charles act differently depending on the personality they seem to have. We might expect that it would be Max who would be the most indifferent to others when we can clearly see that he tries to interact with several other drivers, that we see him more often in groups than Charles. While Charles is very selective, he doesn't necessarily seek the presence of others, he really doesn't care 🤣. This is also in the fact that he ignores most of the drivers and teams who interact with him on the networks 🤣. I don't know if I'm expressing my thoughts well but I really have the impression that Charles is very disconnected from others, in the sense that he really doesn't care about what they do or say even when it's about him . For example, I think he is aware that some drivers are very mocking with him or when they talk about him, but I have the impression that the guy doesn't care about them so much that it doesn't matter to him, we have the impression that he prefers letting them think he's a little naive when it's just that he doesn't care. I don't know if I'm expressing what I want to say well, sorry 🤣🤣

i think this could be charles' personal trait, as you can see his inner circle of friends/work team is also very close.

charles is very picky about who he trusts so it could translate to his "colleagues". you have pierre, childhood friend and other french speaking driver on the grid (also, i still stand by what @valyrfia said that charles wouldn't be that close to pierre if he was a better driver with a better car and was an actual threat). lewis, who is his new teammate (so its a game of getting to know someone before you work together, but also establashing good public connection for pr purposes). george (and alex) who are his childhood karting friends. recently oscar, you know the prema arthur connection and i think he has similar mindset to charles so they're quite similar. and then, obviously, max. who seems a bit like an odd one out but i think they hold each other to such high standard that they became close just because of that - they have the same racing mindset and shared history and instead of beefing it out forever they ended up in each other's personal bubble.

with other drivers, charles barely interacts. (carlos has the teammate immunity but watch next year how charles drops him inevitably).

[utilitycaster]

In honor of that poll, which has apparently been answered by a bunch of loser rogue-fuckers, and was also written by someone who doesn't even have the update that gives you twelve poll options, please have a good ranking of sexiest D&D 5e classes, from me.

This only has the 13 officially published 5e classes so do not ask me about classes that are not that. Also, the existence of a handful of sexy or unsexy characters of that class does not a sexy or unsexy class overall make. I'm sure these two statements will not shut down all annoying people but by god I hope they shut down some.

Paladin. Self-explanatory: if you don't agree, you better explain yourself, unless you think they are outranked by...

Wizard. As Liam O'Brien said, what's sexier than wizards? And I said "paladins, but no one else." I'm also going to fuck up an Octavia Butler quote and say that her journal did not explicitly state that single-minded devotion is sexy but it is, and that's why wizards and paladins are, undisputably, the top two.

Warlock. Would be higher than wizards on the basis of sheer raw charisma but some warlock classes (archfey, hexblade) are extremely sexy and some are...pots in need of very unique lids, shall we say.

Bard. This is for competency and knowledge of mythology and musical instruments. If you're into some kind of memeriffic 20 CHA 7 INT Roll To Seduce bro shit, get the fuck out of here.

Ranger. Their combat abilities are not as great as they could be but this is also without a doubt the class that will invite you over and make a delicious foraged mushroom risotto and have lit candles they made themself. They are good with animals and can identify constellations. Entire package.

Barbarian and Fighter are tied. Do you prefer a flow state and passion or do you prefer dedication and persistence? Axe or sword? Raw power or precision? Equally valid; it's a matter of personal taste.

Cleric. One of the gods thinks they're special; it's hard not to be drawn in by that. Also, healing is the sexiest magical ability. Points off for the possibility of sanctimonious behavior.

Druid. This is just personal taste but I would find it weird if my partner was sometimes a giant scorpion, and I feel rangers are just the far sexier nature-loving option. People for whom druids are #1, I see you, I respect you, I disagree with you, but I do think you're valid.

Monk. Here's the problem. Yes flexible; everything else is kind of a solid "eh" for me. Honestly I think it's because D&D separates out dexterity and strength even though monks technically need both, and so the low-strength monk archetype really doesn't do it for me. It's not unsexy but it never wows me, and honestly in real life martial arts is usually more an aesthetic joy than a sexy one for me.

Sorcerer. Often physically attractive but I do not love a nepo baby, and absolutely the class least able to make you breakfast. Class most likely to attempt to make you breakfast and manage to fuck up scrambled eggs.

Artificer. Love the class but unfortunately I can only think of Belle's father in Beauty and the Beast (1991) when I think of what an artificer looks like. Wizards claimed the hot nerd spot; artificers never had a chance.

Rogue. Anyone can wear black leather. Anyone can twirl a butterfly knife and the ranger is going to be better at using it. You know what rogues are best at? Leaving through the window without waking you up. That's it. Bards have the same skills and then some and they're hotter by design. There are other classes with superior physical skills. Burst damage is already not actually that useful in 5e combat and even less so in the bedroom.

[kandyzee]

Fiona gallagher and pretty privilege

I think fiona is a great example of how being an attractive white woman can really help shape the way people interpret or misinterpret people's actions, and I've never seen someone talk in depth about it before.

I think one of the main things that stand out to me regarding the way fiona looks is how she is so often boxed into the character type of "sad girl victim." What I mean by that is that people view her as this young woman corrupted by sadness. She's cursed by her environment, and everything she does is okay because of that. Fionas story is undeniably sad, but she isn't always the victim, and despite everything she's gone through, she can mess up. I don't think shameless allows for these kinda characters cause their faults are always portrayed so strongly. Typically, u see teen girls grouped in together, like cassie and effy from skins, Tracy from thirteen. Even a younger character like Debbie isn't as frequently put into this box. Debbie has a devastating story, too. They both have scenes crying and breaking down. Vees heartbreaking storylines of believing she was infertile or having to help her brother her whole childhood are never touched on. People don't see Vee as a 'sad girl victim.' And too me this is because, put simply, fionas pale skin and big puppy dog eyes look better next to lana del rey lyrics then the others do. Fionas sadness and struggle is romanced into something desirable. We see fiona be 'desired' sexually/romanticly many times throughout the show. I think there's something to be said about the way people's admiration for fionas physical body leads them to admire her mental state, even if it's inherently negative at times.

I'm not saying fiona is undeserving of sympathy or in any way trying to downplay her struggles just because she's white and more conventionally attractive. However, I do think it's these traits that make people disregard her wrongdoings where they wouldn't with other characters.

Again, using v and Debbie as examples, their parenting is scrutinised to a much higher degree than fionas, even though fiona is the one who makes the most mistakes. People will in the same breath crisis Debbie for leaving franny with Frank and defend fiona for leaving coke out for liam to find. Realistically, people should be firm on the belief that Debbie's action here isn't as bad. Franny has a fun day out with her grandad, and Liam almost dies. From what I've seen tho a large number of people don't have this opinion. Why does fiona get more grace ? Because she's more conventionally attractive than Debbie!! (Not saying Debbie isn't attractive) Fiona with her slim body, full lips, sharp jaw line are much easier to forgive than Debbie's rounder face, red hair and freckles. V gets called a 'bad mother' most when she is going through postpartum depression. She has an extremely valid reason to be distant with her children. Still, when fiona acts unkindly towards Debbie when she's pregnant, it's fi who gets more leeway. Both v and fiona are extremely attractive, so why does fiona get away with more ?? Because people sympathise more with the white women. Fionas pretty privilege is only intensified by the fact she has white privilege also.

I might make a part two on this cause I think I have more to say, but this is it for now. I had never really thought about this before a couple of weeks ago, so my opinion isn't as defined and solid as it normally is. Can u tell ??

[theficpusher]

These High Walls (Fly With Me) by FallingLikeThis | G | 3907 Harry is a kidnapped young man trapped in a tower, all his beautiful hair cut off because of the last time he tried to escape. He’s stopped wishing to be on the ground because he knows it’s impossible. Now, his head is in the clouds. If you’re going to want something impossible, why not wish for the stars instead, right? And somewhere far away on a distant star, a fairy hears his wish. A Rapunzel/Peter Pan au.

If Only We Wish Hard Enough by lululawrence | nr | 5353 Before Harry let Louis know he was there, he gave himself a moment to just admire him. Truly take him in. Today, Louis was wearing one of his soft, simple green dresses that in many ways resembled the ones fairies often wore. Harry loved when Louis wore dresses. They showed off Louis’ waist and thighs more than any of his other outfits, and Harry loved that about them. “You know I can hear your wings fluttering so you aren’t fooling anyone,” Louis said before turning and looking over his shoulder. Or the five times fic where Louis is Peter Pan, Harry is his best friend Tinkerbelle, and it takes them awhile but they figure things out.

A Lost Hope, Found | nr | 9231 When Harry was 17 he realised that maybe fairy tales aren't always make believe. He came to this conclusion when abruptly woke in the middle of the night to find a boy standing on his window ledge, offering his hand. His mum had always told him to never talk to strangers let alone run away with one, but there was just something about the way the boy was hovering off the ground, his blue eyes dazzling that made Harry's heart flutter and his hand stretch out until he was pulled out of the window and too was flying. featuring Louis not in tights, Niall as a fairy that radiates happiness and Liam and Zayn as lost boys who really need to learn that brotherhood does not mean kissing each other every two minutes.

Flying Without Drowning by starscries | T | 12690 Louis has lost a lot of his Lost Boys, he and Zayn are the only one remaining. A new mermaid has showed up in Neverland and Louis is kind of curious about him, even though he won't admit it.

everything you do is magic [series] by jamesnaill | G | 12877 Harry has seen Niall do pretty much everything. He’s seen him heal trees, mend broken hearts and teary faces of the children who don’t get what they wanted for Christmas. He’s seen him give all kind of pretty colors to flowers and butterflies. He’s seen him dumping an entire bag of fairy dust on top of a tiny bird who was learning how to fly. Just as he’s seen him dumping the same amount of fairy dust on Louis’ head when he finds him snooping and messing around at night, then blowing as hard as he can to make him fly far far away. It’s all been pretty funny. Most times beautiful, even if at times confusing. Always mesmerizing and amazing. He’s never seen him quite like this. - Or, a Peter Pan AU where Harry is Peter Pan and Niall is Tinkerbell, whose health keeps getting worse as people say they don't believe in fairies.

An Awfully Big Adventure by JayseHasNoGrace | M | 27075 The old Captain Hook is tired. Harry comes along, near death, having become horribly lost and been abandoned by his crew. Hook helps him, but informs him that it is now his job to become the next Captain Hook. Oh yes — and he almost forgets to mention the persistent boy who is the ringleader of the Lost Boys. He explains the 'rules': that Harry (as the new Captain Hook) has to continue the everlasting feud with Peter Pan. Although there have been a long line of similar looking Hooks, Harry apparently doesn't look quite similar enough, and Pan notices. However, Peter Pan's identity might not be quite so straightforward either.

The Pirate and The Piper by jacaranda_bloom | E | 38396 Banished from Neverland by Captain Hook and the evil Siren Minerva, Louis is forced to live in the Other World. He makes a life for himself, resigned to the fact he’s never going to see his beloved home and Lost Boys again. Five years later he’s kidnapped and returned to Neverland, only to discover a far worse fate awaits him. But with an unlikely ally by his side, can he overcome those who seek his demise and restore freedom to his homeland? Or the one where Harry is Hook, Louis is Pan, and nothing is what it seems.

into that goodnight by devilinmybrain | E | 62801 Once upon a time, there was a boy. But not just any sort of boy. This was a clever boy, the cleverest of them all.

[side-vermin93]

Well.

Long rant below this line if you're just scrolling by.

I normally don't do this sort of thing, I don't post my unfiltered dogshit opinions on any kind of social media, I don't toll the bells when I don't get my way and cry 'Foul Play' unless I truly believe that something is going wrong.

No doubt, everyone has seen the... colourful reaction to TADC's release date being set in May of 2024 (This May) and the Murder Drones tag on Tumblr is exploding for good reason.

Now, before I say my piece, I would like to immediately debunk a common train of thought often used by detractors to devalue the points that others have made when it comes to this controversy:

"Glitch is saying that they are taking their time to make the episodes and the finale as best as it can be." And that we as a fandom are "Overreacting."

To begin with, I personally hope that yes, Glitch is doing everything in their power to make MD as good as it can physically be, I hope that they are giving the finale to the season the sendoff it deserves.

But would it KILL THEM to tell us something? Post teasers, memes, references to Murder Drones or even something as simple as "Hey! You liked TADC, how about you check out Murder Drones while you wait?"

Instead, Glitch has spent months of complete and total radio silence, completely forgot the existence of the anniversary of Murder Drones' pilot, and as they did this, they continued to post teasers of TADC, including a personally vexing post that basically amounted to engagement farming, literally "If this gets 100k likes, we will open the door"

Stuff like this DOES NOT help assuage the fears of fans who believe that Glitch has begun to ignore MD simply because it isn't as popular or as profitable as TADC has become, it smacks of blatant favouritism and foul play when the fans of Murder Drones get nothing, meanwhile TADC is getting WEEKLY teasers, which is only serving to inflame the controversy between TADC and MD fans.

The thing that infuriates me the most is that Murder Drones is in its final stretch for (HOPEFULLY) its first season finale, and yet we have recieved nothing aside from the initial trailers and the release date of "sometime in early 2024" and we are now coming up on the end of the second month of the year, meanwhile TADC gets a concrete release date in MAY, which does NOT excuse the constant teasers and content for TADC that was produced before this point.

As for the overreaction? I think its personally an acceptable response considering the current controversy, but the biggest problem is what Glitch has said today.

"We're also working hard on Murder Drones & will be releasing final episodes soon!"

This, reader, is a very vague statement made by Glitch in their announcement today, and... well, notice how they said "Final Episodes"

Now, this could be Twitter and its word limit screwing them over, but Glitch (and most corporations) is very deliberate with their wording, and this could be no different, do they mean the finale of season one? Or is Murder Drones as a SHOW coming to an end after episode 8? We don't know because Glitch is being vague about this.

Now, because we don't know, we are (reasonably considering how companies often tend to focus on what is most profitable as opposed to any concept of "loyalty") reacting in a negative way towards this wording and believing that MD might very well come to an end before Liam is able to fully finish his story or for us to enjoy the show he has been working on for a long time now.

If it is the end of Murder Drones, then of course people are going to blame TADC for "Killing Murder Drones." Corporations have no loyalties and no qualms about being underhanded, only an appetite for more funding and appeasing their investors, and the most juicy of cash-cows practically fell into their lap.

Now, perhaps we are WRONG, maybe Glitch really did screw up because Twitter loves its word limits, then in which case, shouldn't Glitch try and clarify that in another post as soon as possible? Say that MD isn't going anywhere and that they meant the season finale?

Ultimately, we are in a very turbulent time and tensions are the highest they have ever been, and the next two months will either cool down into something to laugh about later, or there will a shitstorm. No inbetweens.

If it is a false alarm, then I will be there laughing with y'all about how I was doomposting like an idiot, but if it isn't? then I will continue working on my projects in the fandom until I believe I am satisfied, and I will be there when the shitstorm drops.

God, I hope it's the former.

Also sorry if the tags for this are crap, but I don't have the energy left over to fix them.

[adoriels-tears-if]

I'm the anon from the plushy-familiar ask. See, while I was writing that ask I got to wonder about something I often end up asking many IF authors: names, and naming conventions.

While I do appreciate the fact you've given suggestions in game (there is nothing worse for me, someone who likes to name my MCs in a way that fits the world as much as possible, when a fantasy game does not include suggestions for names), I'm also someone greedy for knowledge. So, I came here to ask about names.

As I have noticed, most humans seem to have rather common names that could fit in our world. Names like Arthur, Tobias or Liam. That said, those names all have different etymological origins. Arthur is celtic (most likely, is not entirely certain), Tobias comes from Hebrew, and Liam is germanic (as is a short form of William). So, would it make sense to have names like Tom, John, Richard, Henry or Duncan for a human male? It so seems to me. Basically, names that could make sense in medieval England (although Liam feels very modern to me, yet is the name I chose for my MC simply because I like how it sounds, but I may change it later).

Yet elves seem to have especial fantasy names. While both Dwarfs (courtesy of Tally) and Orcs (courtesy of Corden, if I'm not mistaken) have real world names, just very unusual.

So, I was wondering. Given how MC is likely given a human name, both because our mother is choosing it and because we are supposed to blend in amongst humans, am I correct on my observations? Or do you have a more complex, or more free, way of seeing how to name human characters? Like, are human characters also able to have fantasy, or uncommon, names?

In any case, unless it's too much of a bother, could you give examples of names you've considered giving as a suggestion for MC? Or names you think would make sense for MC to have in world? You already gave some in game, so you don't have to do this. I'd just like to know your thought process behind it.

there's no real reason why I chose these names, I think I just chose them because I like them.

although Liam actually comes from a character in one of my fanfics that will never make it onto Tumblr. Tobias is for a video game I used to play on DS when I was little. and Arthur because I love King Arthur.

I also wanted to suggest ESCA for the character of the Eagle of the 9th Legion, played by Jamie Bell if I remember correctly. so now it's true that I tend to use English names, but I think that's because I write in English. When I write in French, I tend to use French names. it's not out of the question for there to be characters with more French or other first names as the story progresses. in general naming characters is a pain for me, I hate it and tend to use generators

it's true that when it comes to skiing the names of orcs and elves, I tend to be a little more exotic.

if the names of the dwarfs may seem a little banal, I do have a kind of reason - I don't know if you've noticed, but I only use names beginning with T. Tally, Tallion, Telio, Tazio, Troye. and there's a reason for this: the deity to whom the dwarves are attached is called Telemandir. As far as humans are concerned, I think any name can be used.

as long as they're fairly old names, I mean, I wouldn't want to have a Kevin in my world. 😆 as for the elves, I like to have sounds that are a little musical, so Lessica, for example, is pretty, I think.

as for the orcs, I think I found the name Corden in the game Banish. if I remember correctly, but I have the impression that there's a sort of pattern emerging since one of the other orcs I have in mind who comes from the cardan family is called Oren.

Another piece of information I can share with you, for example, is that the Princely Family ruling men, their first names all start with a K.

it's a tradition that's been going on for a little over 300 years. The men decided to give up their crown and their title of king and queen to take only that of prince, since Amandine was acting up.

Another small piece of information but MC has a human name chosen by Eliana but he or she also has an elven first name chosen by Ash.

[pastara-cell]

God this blog may just turn into a tmf blog for a bit- Sorry hermitblr/trafficblr peeps

Just listing some basic drew headcanons here because I feel like I see the same ones over and over again so I’d like to combat that 🤺🤺/lh ofc, I love all headcanons

>Drew is Bengali, His great grandparents came to the uk from Kolkata (Whether it be from partition stuff or not) And since then, his family blood has still been entirely from west bengal

>Drew isn’t necessarily religious, however, He enjoys Hindu religious holidays (Like Diwali and Holi) and Pujas and He especially loves the food. His parents (who are Hindu) are fine with him being non religious, But do wish for him to participate in events just to spend time with him, which he doesn’t mind at all

>Adding onto that, he doesn’t eat beef or pork. Not for religious reasons, but because he just wasn’t raised on them and doesn’t enjoy the taste or texture.

>His parents love him, but are absent quite a lot due to work and business meetings. The only times he’ll see them for more than a months on end is during the winter months, mainly because thats holiday season. Other than that, 2 weeks at home, 2 weeks on a business trip, repeat

>His parents try to show their affection to him via gifts and food, because its really all they can send over while they’re away. Because of this, drew developed Gift giving and cooking food for people love languages

>this man can COOK. I know I said its one of his love languages, so you’d assume so, but oh my LORD this man can cook. Its half the reason henry and liam come over so often! He best at more traditional bengali food (although he hates doing it), but he can make pretty much anything if you give him a heads up, the ingredients, and enough time to tinker around with the recipe!

>His hair is actually wavy/loose curls, but he hates having curly hair, so he either straightens it so it doesn’t poof up, or uses a bit of hairspray. The only people who really know his hair is curly is the jomies (including jake, lia, and zoey) because they’ve slept over at his house, and have probably seen him when his hair was wet and curly again.

>He’s 15 feet into a glass closet. My sexuality head-canons for him change a lot, but I’ve sort of settled on omni/ace for now. However, For the most part, I think if he were to come out, he’d just be queer. I dont think he’d care for labels too much

>Obvious attachment issues, slight separation anxiety, although, I can see it being more leaning towards henry and liam than jake for that. He might have had an obsession with jake, but I think it’d have hurt more if henry and liam left him, considering they had been there the longest.

>He loves zoey, even still. He really does. He’s terrible at showing it, but he does his best.

>Zoey, knowing his love language is gift giving, and he’s rich, befriended him in late middle school/early high school, and they started dating seconds year odd high school. Drew definitely was the one who confessed after being hyped up about it by henry and liam and jake. Zoey definitely wasn’t planning on dating him, but shrugged it off as being able to get him to do more stuff. She eventually did develop feelings for him, but she was too far into the mess she had created to stop, so she kept pushing

>He has such an rbf guys, like, he would be thinking about the happiest thing ever and his face would be just this 1000 yard stare

>He definitely drinks energy drinks guys, probably monsters but I can see him bringing an alani to school because he knows he’s gonna get called emo if he brings a monster to school

>He is called emo quite a bit at school, although he isn’t. It doesn’t bother him much anymore.

>He loves cats and really really wants one, but he’s severely allergic. Like, your throat closes and you die unless you get to the ER or have an epipen level allergic.

>He has Two bearded dragons (Each around 18 inches long, a boy and a girl) named Jevin and Pearl, his two favourite hermits

>he watches hermitcraft. Probably the life series and Empires and Outsiders and Life steal and all that stuff too, but He watches hermitcraft RELIGIOUSLY (He’s watched every episode that Jevin, Pearl, Grian, and Xisuma have put out, and he’s working on Mumbo’s pov right now)

>His favourite broadway musicals are Heathers and Six. Mean girls is up there too, but those are his favorites

>He didn’t cry during the titanic because it was sad, but because he watched it with zoey and she was crying, which made him cry

>i’m not gonna diagnose him with anything necessarily because i’m in no way qualified for that, but he definitely has mood swings and his opinions change a lot depending on who else he finds has them. He can go from hating something for years to immediately liking it if Liam says its good, or go from liking something to hating it if Hailey likes it.

>He listens to music, heck, one of his main designs are airpods- So, I think that he definitely listens to electronic stuff, scenecore type shit (Asteria, Barely human, Odetari, Clover!, and allat jazz) Not because its his favourite, but because Liam and henry both listen to it, so drew likes it.

>He really cares about his friends, but is really shit at showing it.

>He’s not good at communication, and is not often sure how to communicate what he wants or what he needs without sounding blunt or rude. He often rehearses how talks will go.

>This mf does not regret bullying that music club guys- I love him but i’m not even gonna attempt to justify him bullying them because I feel like it takes away from his character a lot

>He hates Hailey and Zander, Mainly because he finds them annoying and freaky.

>He’s only bullied luke because of his connection to zander and the music club, he doesn’t really mind luke as a person

>Milly Is his second cousin, they really only have their families meet up on holidays, so they never grew up close. Drew and Milly dont view eachother as family, so they dont care about bullying eachother/doing stuff to eachother’s friends. Drew and Milly do both occasionally pull the “I’m going to tell Thamma (grandma)!”, which does admittedly stop the other from doing whatever they were going to do.

>Drew has picked on pretty much all the club members, except for sean. Whether this be because Sean is taller than him, older than him, Or because they simply just have never really talked, drew mostly leaves him alone. He forgets sean is there most of the time

>Insecure as shit, do I even need to say it lol?

I have a lot more, but these are my main headcanons. Ofc, I fluctuate a lot with them, I’m like a multishipper but instead of shipping its with headcanons.

[dooplissss]

i saw your tags on that post, can you tell me about the homestuck quadrants? i was hugely into homestuck like 10 years ago but i’ve forgotten almost everything. i want to remember the ancient ways

* cracks knuckles >:) *

Matesprit ❤️ is easy, its just what humans see as romance and true love etc. One of the two reproductive quadrants, yadda yadda you get it.

Examples: - Morticia <3 Gomez - Ruby <3 Sapphire - Darcy <3 Elizabeth, with arguably some grey/black romance thru the story but thats what makes it so enduring

Moirails ♦️ is my personal favorite quadrant and is fairly straightforward, tho the canon definition is different from fanon. In fanon, its interpreted basically as best friends/queerplatonic, which, yeah, can and usually does happen with that proximity and thats why I love it, but in canon its more a power balance to prevent violence and death, typically with one figure reining back a more chaotic one. When applying to humans and other fandoms tho its better to lean toward the slightly fanon interpretation since Alternia's violent culture is so different from ours.

Examples: - Nepeta <> Equius - Aziraphale <> Crowley (obvi the situation is changing but lets leave this here) - Dean <> Castiel (obvi i'm team matesprit but canonically they belong here up til cas declares his love) - Joel <> Ellie (this is a strictly platonic quadrant dw) - Caleb <> Nott/Veth (I want to shake liam and sam so bad and explain that the relationship they were looking for was right here and they didnt have to awkwardly choose between romance and friendship)

Auspictice ♣️is the one everyone gets wrong and drives me the most insane. It's a tricky and very specific balancing dynamic thats hard to find, except maybe on the CW. Canonically, its a group of three people, two (left and right leaves) want to outright kill each other. This does not make them kismesis, I cannot stress that enough, kismesis don't want each other dead, but we'll get there in a sec. The third person is meant to prevent them from killing each other, being the mediator. Its rare for this dynamic to not be outright toxic, esp in human examples, but its a healthy option on Alternia to prevent unnecessary murder. I think this dynamic is meant to be temporary tho, even in that culture, as it weighs on the mediator a lot.

Examples: - Eridan <3< Sollux ^ Feferi, unfortunately unsuccessful showing how difficult and straining this relationship type is (also everyone who said eridan and sollux were kismesis owes me $5, I'll become a millionaire instantly) - Edward <3< Jacob ^ Bella - Pearl <3< Greg ^ Steven, a happy ending example of an auspictice (ignore the ptsd)

Kismesis ♠️is. man where do I begin. its so good. its such a fun dynamic, especially when you have a pairing that gets it just right. Kismesis is perfect enemies, arch-rivals that share a mutual respect and drive each other to improve themselves to better outwit their opponent. Its when a captain sees one of their ships on fire and smiles, knowing just who did it. Its tipping your opponents head up by the tip of a sword. Its the bad guy showing up at your doorstep because theres no one else they trust more than their greatest nemesis. Its the other reproductive quadrant because its just as deep and passionate as true love, and it can in fact switch between love and hate very easily and often.

Examples: - Quark <3< Odo (imo the BEST non-homestuck example) - Batman <3< Joker (friend hates when i say this but i'm right, esp with lego batman) - Xavier <3< Magneto - Light <3< L - God <3< Satan, why not lmao

I wish homestuck was seen as less cringe bc the quadrants are SOOO FUN to apply to ships and dynamics in other fandoms and contexts. At the same time, people get the quadrants wrong constantly, especially between kismesis and auspictice. And the quadrants aren't static, you don't have to lock a ship in just one forever! feelings change and very easily turn from black to red to black again, its all so complicated and fun to watch.

Hope all this makes sense lmao, thanks for the ask!

[sacchxrine05]

Had a thought while barely conscious in bed this morning and I feel the need to exorcise it.

(tw for discussions of eating disorders like ARFID and things of that ilk)

I think about Sherlock a lot (too much) and one of the things that’s kinda captured my attention recently is his eating habits. I’m going through a rough patch with eating myself, and usually when this happens I think of ACD Sherlock saying smthn along the lines of ‘I don’t eat while working on a case, digestion slows me down.’ (that might be a BBC Sherlock thing but I can’t quite remember lmao)

I imagine YNM Sherlock is similar or the same in this case, as we rarely see him eat (off the top of my head I think he ate a cherry at the bar during A Study in S in the anime and then both a sandwich with John on the roof and the floor sandwich Milverton tried to use to humiliate them with, although that was more to prove a point than to get any sustenance from it) and at least once John has reprimanded him for not eating enough. Sherlock is also quite messy and doesn’t often see the point in cleaning as, in his mind, it’s a waste of time and he might have this view when it comes to preparing a meal to eat.

I’m pulling a lot from my own experience here, but with eating disorders like ARFID it’s hard to find motivation to eat/prepare food, and I can imagine Sherlock often feels this way when he gets into a slump between cases or something like that. And although there’s nothing to really prove that he has an aversion to certain foods due to a sensitivity in taste/texture (I imagine his senses are quite heightened in order to make some of his deductions) he probably does stick to a select few foods both because he probably can’t afford many varieties of food and also because his idea of a meal is something quick that he doesn’t have to take time out of his day to prepare.

Miss Hudson has cooked for Sherlock and John on occasion, although I don’t think this is a very regular occurrence given their dynamic. However, she probably does make something for one or both of them if she thinks he hasn’t been eating enough recently.

Sherlock probably also gets quite hyper focused on cases when they come up (even more so when the Lord of Crime pops up) and so he doesn’t always notice when he’s hungry since it’s not something he’s really thinking about. Also, smoking cigarettes can reduce your appetite and with the way Sherlock smokes he’s definitely not realising how hungry he is until he’s on the brink of starvation. Also drugs…enough said there.

Idk, I just think it’s interesting and especially with how the fandom tends to put Liam as the one who doesn’t eat enough while Sherlock is the exasperated one trying get him to eat something goddamnit. Such a dynamic isn’t exactly wrong per-say, and I believe it says in the character profiles that Sherlock gained some weight post fall, most likely thanks to Billy poking and prodding him into eating and also working regularly and therefore have more of a desire to eat, especially after taking on missions with a lot of field work. He also probably wanted to set an example for Liam so that he eats more too. And he stopped smoking and doing drugs, so that probably improved things quite a lot too.

But like anything to do with mental health and disorders, things come and go in waves and it’s likely Sherlock would have moments where he ‘relapses’ and will go a long time without eating much or just feeling generally unmotivated to make food on top of nothing really appealing to him taste-wise y’know?

I think it’s also this dumb sort-of-headcannon of mine that makes me generally less keen on art/fics that portray Sherlock as being significantly larger/broader than Liam and I don’t mean the slight difference between their figures in the official art/manga/anime I mean like a noticeable difference you know?

Cus I mean…Sherly has muscle cus of his martial arts(?) training and maintaining that through his work, but he’s also a skinny coke addict who smokes too much and eats too little, there’s not going to be an insane difference between him and Liam like some ppl like to portray, y’know?

But anyway, people will always view characters differently and do what they want with them in their fanworks, it matters very little in the end lmao

If you made it this far thank you for listening to me ramble, I hope it wasn’t too nonsensical TuT

[buckybarnesss]

The thing I struggle the most with is how Derek is criticised very harshly for his mistakes, while a character like Theo is absolved of everything, because he *checks notes* can be shipped with Liam.

Theo is everything that people say they hate about Derek. He's manipulative, he kidnaps people, killed his sister, and is actually pushing Stiles out of Scott's life. The initial feelings of jealousy Stiles have for Derek in season 1 bear out here, in that Derek never wanted to push Stiles away, while Theo absolutely does.

Not that Theo isn't an interesting character. I like him, it's just that I recognise that, yes, he is a foil for Derek. Everything Scott thought Derek was, Theo is.

I've seen people say that Theo was brainwashed by the Dread Doctors to kill his sister, and you know, that doesn't actually absolve him of that. If we're playing that game, then Derek and Allison can do absolutely nothing wrong, because they're abused and manipulated throughout the series.

I actually am convinced that a lot of Derek haters never actually watched the show and are consumed by fanon interpretations of him. Like, Derek is described as being violent and abusive, with no thought put into how he approaches humans vs werewolves.

Aside from one instance (the steering wheel, and lbr, I don't think that hurt all that much), Derek is gentle with Stiles. He doesn't throw Stiles around, he pushed him against one door (contrast that with how Scott and Chris push Stiles around). With Scott, it's different. Scott is a werewolf. Scott can heal, and also Scott started their first fight and Derek responded.

That is the exact opposite of abusive. Justice for my boy, Derek Hale, unfairly hated because he tried to save peoples lives.

i feel like the type of fan that favors theo like this skews younger and they either watched the show in the later seasons once a lot of the original fandom had departed or they've only participated in fandom via fic.

these things are fine but it does seem to lead to continued mischaracterization and derek often seems to be the one who gets the brunt of it.

allison too is still raked over the coals for being gaslit by her entire family and than manipulated by gerard. i think people don't think chris and victoria's treatment of allison wasn't abusive and miss that her entire season 3 arc was her atonement for what she did at the end of season 2 and she died in the end. it wasn't a happy ending for her.

it also never fails to make me laugh when i see people shipping thiam but while saying sterek is problematic because of the age gap. it's like babe the call is coming from inside the house.

and i've said this before and i'll keep saying it season 5 theo raeken does a lot of loading bearing in season 5 due being a dark reflection of stiles and a narrative mirror to both derek and scott.

it was done very purposefully and flipped the script on scott. i didn't realize it was something of a controversial take until i posted about it lol. theo's entire function as character in season 5 is to be a mirror.

theo is scott's attempt at course correcting what happened with derek. which to me fandom seems to misunderstand and mischaracterize derek and scott's relationship and continues to pit them against each other over various slights.

theo also exposes scott's failings as a leader and his self-righteousness but so much of fandom seems to think that scott is some how flawless and doesn't receive punishment by the narrative. he was manipulated, his pack broke up, he was unable to save barely anyone and he died. theo was scott's punishment.

tl; dr fandom be wild.

[lucius-morningstar]

More fun facts of my Morningstar Family

This involves fun facts about Lucius, Esperanza, Liam and Eris.

Luicus: - He is secretly a fan of trashy romance novels. He knows they're shit and knows they're predictable. But he can't help it.. Unfortunately this secret did not stay secret for long Niffty found most of them in his room and to this day Angel still mocks him about it. - Yes he is also secretly into Hell-A-Novella. To be fair the whole hotel is secretly-not so secretly into it. He'll play it off like it's stupid but eventually he'll come back to watch it and bitch and argue with some of the other staff about plot holes, characters being stupid or the most shocking them coming back from the dead or having an evil twin. "Why are there always evil twins?!" - Ironically while Lucius is super uncomfortable at hearing about his sister (or AU sisters) sex lives, heck he doesn't even like to talk about his own in front of them. He doesn't care too much when it comes to his AU brothers and an even more funny/ironic twist in the other AU's he's in (Heavenly AU mostly) He's kind of the opposite, he makes crude jokes and tends to talk or brag about his own sex life.

Eris Fun Facts/Tidbits: - Despite having a somewhat bubbly personality like her mother and mostly in front of everyone. Her temper tends to get the better of her when she's alone fighting obvious anger and frustration towards others who've upset her or hurt her. She tends to keep it at bay most of the time because she fears what her true form might look like. Is she sure of what it looks like, no. But figures if she keeps most of her negative feelings at bay then she'll never have to know. - As stated her love interest is eventually going to be Molly but their relationship doesn't start off all that healthy as it's more of a one sided flirting that Eris doesn't ever take seriously because Molly flirts with just about everyone. So their friendship is a touch complicated. - She has a habit of trying to hide her horn more often then not but it's easier said then done. It's a singular horn that for a while she genuinely dislikes about herself. Of course as she gets older that changes, it just takes time.

Liam Fun Facts/Tidbits: - Liam was a last minute addition but i kinda liked the idea of their baby boy falling for one of children of the very exorcists that caused them the most trouble. He knows his mothers are less then thrilled about his choice in a partner not that anything has happened. - Most of his time is often spent with his grandpa, like Charlie he does enjoy hearing some of his old stories. His interest in heaven and the stories only grew when he met Harper. (I am still debating on Harper or Eden being his love interest.) ----

Esperanza Fun Facts/Tidbits: - As I've stated more often then not, Esperanza is the most chaotic out of my Morningstar next gen. Many joke that this is just the Morningstar Demon at play that Lucius let loose during her creation. Now she has no idea what that means and he's grateful for it. - Esperanza often goes by Rani because her name in her eyes is too long. The only ones who use her full name is her Abuela but she finds her a bit intimidating and doesn't really mind her calling her by her full name. However she knows when her parents us it, it's never for a good reason. - Her middle name is Serena and it was chosen because a friend of mine technically voted it as Esperanza's OG name and I felt bad that it didn't win the poll so I made it her middle name. - Esperanza often uses her wings and tail for well kind of useless reasons. She likes to climb with the little clawed hooked wings and tries to use it as a means to ambush family members. Her favorite victims are usually her cousins and Auntie Vaggs, she has tried doing it to her Abuela but some how she always knows when she's near by. She never seems to get angry about it or at least she thinks she does. She doesn't get mad like the others do. - She also likes to use her tail to hang upside down, us she does fold her wings around herself like a little odd cocoon. Why does she do this, she's not sure. She just likes it.

[personality-corner]

Shameless MBTI

I would add the full typings, but this hellsite won’t let me add links to the typings.

Frank Gallagher - ENFP

Frank is always coming up with bizarre ideas, such as opening a homeless shelter, or calling DCFS on his children, that he never intends to see through. There is rarely any set of logic associated towards it, and more often than not, he uses his emotions to inspire his ideas- and get what he wants.

Fiona Gallagher - ISFP

While she does care about her siblings, her personal values and the fact that she does love her siblings is why she takes care of them. She rarely does something because the group as a whole feels it’s necessary, but because she feels it’s necessary. She is also quite impulsive in the decisions she makes, which causes her and others to be hurt in the end.

Lip Gallagher - ESTP

Lip is very impulsive in many of decisions and tends to follow his own rules, for the most part. He constantly gets into arguments with Fiona over the logic she presents to him, and how it makes no sense. A lot of the times, he just refuses to follow her rules. He makes decisions that he feels is logical, which puts him at odds with several members of the family.

Ian Gallagher - ISTP

Ian, when he’s healthy, often acts as the voice of reason in a lot of situations, especially towards Fiona, Lip, Mickey etc. He is often the one who is able to see the world around him and yet, come to his own conclusions about how things logically make sense.

Debbie Gallagher - ESFJ

One thing that has remained consistent in Debbie’s character, throughout all eleven seasons, is her need for emotional connection with others. We see this with her relationship with Frank, in earlier seasons. Her relationship with her fears, and even her relationship with her own daughter. This, and her unhealthy connection with the past causes most of her issues in the final season.

Carl Gallagher - ESFP

For the first half of the series, Carl is stuck in an Se-Te loop, where he just does things for the sake of it. Does “experiments” with his environment, not really caring who or what he hurts in the process. However, as he grows as a character, we see his Fi a lot more, when he stops ignoring it. His moral compass, which was non existent the first few seasons, is now a huge part of his character.

Liam Gallagher - INTP

Liam is very intelligent, and interested in knowledge for the sake of better understanding the world around him. He is constantly questioning the logic of the world around him, and has the idealist need to see the good in everyone, including Frank. He constantly sees multiple ideas in a situation and is able to come to his own conclusions about things.

Mickey Milkovich - ENTJ

Mickey has a very clear view of what he wants and how to get it most of it, and relies on information he has gotten from his family to get it. That being said, he struggles with emotions and showing them to other people, the only person who has ever really seen his emotional side being Ian, and he is definitely one of the few people he defends willingly no matter what.

Veronica “V” Fisher - ESTJ

Veronica, as a Te user surrounded mainly by strong Fi users (Fiona and Kev), V is always the one who has to be the voice of reason and lay down the law. She has a strong sense of right and wrong, coming mainly from her inferior Fi, and often uses past experiences to point out the flaws in certain arguments.

Kevin “Kev” Ball - ESFP

Kev is very impulsive at times, not really thinking through decisions before he makes them, and his decisions tend to be spur of the moment, and based on his own decisions. He struggles to think through things he does, and usually doesn’t realize the flaws in some of his decisions until after he talks to V.

[calliecopper]

Ok this isn't gonna be structured at all but I'm thinking about season 9 of Shameless and specifically about Fiona's departure from the show; A majority of the fandom takes this as a positive moment for her character and as a victory for her, finally putting herself first after years of self sacrifice. But I'm just thinking to myself: is this not exactly what Monica did?

Monica continuously left the kids on their own due to her own mental struggles, often justifying it like she does in season 1 by blaming Frank, or in season 2 by saying that the kids are better off without her. She is held accountable by the fandom for this, rightfully so, because she had a responsibility to those children, and regardless of personal circumstances, she should have been there for them. In season 2, she even acknowledges this, stating that she wants to stay in the mental hospital so she can get better and be there for the kids. This seems to be a constant struggle for her character; wanting to be with her children but struggling with her mental health, drug addiction, and her personal relationship with Frank. All that being said, despite her character being sympathetic, her actions are condemned by fandom.

However, Fiona leaving in season 9 is not seen this way at all. Now, to be fair, most of the children were adults by this point, so she wasn't leaving a minor to take care of five other minors whilst dealing with an abusive alcoholic father. However, Liam was still very much a child, and legally under her guardianship, yet she still leaves him in the care of Lip and the other kids, despite then all having lives of their own as well.

Throughout the early seasons, specifically 1-3, it is brought up continuously how Fiona taking care of the kids is going to come at the sacrifice of her own life. In season 1, she has the opportunity to leave with Jimmy to pursue her own happiness, but she turns it down in order to stay and support the children. In season 2 she reluctantly puts her trust in Monica to assist in helping with the kids in order to pursue a higher position in her work at the club, but ultimately returns to the status quo when Monica suffers from an episode. In season 3 she gains guardianship of the kids, despite the judge telling her outright it will come at the cost of her own freedom, and she will be obligated to care for these children over herself. She KNOWS that she is giving something up in these moments. She KNOWS it is a sacrifice, and she still makes the decision to move forward with shouldering that burden.

This isn't a complaint of her character, I actually find this struggle of hers to be one of the reasons I find her so compelling. She is only 21 in season 1 and is the main provider for her siblings, who at this point would be lost without her. She is only 22 when she gains guardianship. It is valid to look at her situation and realize that she is sort of backed into a corner. How could she in good faith leave her siblings to fend for themselves? How could she pursue something for herself when all she's known since she was 9 is self-sacrifice and putting others first?

However, I think it's also valid to criticize her actions after she gains guardianship. Even as soon as season 4, her shortcomings of being a guardian make themselves more known. Because, before she gained guardianship, she had no obligation to look after these kids, and her attitude, as seen when discussing Karen's pregnancy with Lip, of "I'm not their mother" held weight, because she wasn't their mother. She had every right to put her own wellbeing above others in seasons 1-3 if she wanted to. However, in seasons 4-7 especially, you can see this start to deteriorate.

Her lack of concern for Ian being missing in season 4, despite him only being 17, as well as her carelessness with having coke in the house when there's a toddler wandering around unsupervised. Her stating to Sean in season 6 that she doesn't want to be the one to raise the kids anymore, or her willingness to not support Debbie in her pregnancy despite Debbie only being 14/15 and still legally being under Fiona's care. Her wishing to no longer be top of the emergency contact list in season 7, even for Debbie and Carl who were still minors and legally under her care, and suggesting to put Kev and V above her despite them having their own children.

Her being legally guardian of these children changes the standards for how she should care for them, and I think it's compelling to watch her crack under that unexpected pressure. However, I think it's valid to find her care of the kids after gaining guardianship less than ideal. Most of the fandom seems to disagree, though.

Then, come season 9, she leaves. After suffering an extreme downsprial and struggling with alcoholism, she decides it's best for her to leave. To be honest, this would be the happy ending to her character people make it out to be if it weren't for Liam. Because all the other children are adults, she has no legal obligation to look after them. (Unless Carl was also a minor, but I forgot, I think he was 18, but the ages are so wonky on this show I can't be sure.) However, Liam is legally still her responsibility. Still, she leaves him behind and asks Lip to look after the kids, despite him just having had a baby of his own and struggling with his own personal battle with alcoholism. Debbie also has her own child at this point so she can't properly care for Liam, Ian is in prison, and Carl is too young (and too Carl) to reasonably take on the role of caretaker here. And, of course, Frank is out of the question. So, really, it was similarly unfair of her to leave that responsibility on them, as it was for Monica to leave it on her. Less so, of course, but still unfair.

I just can't help but think that this is at least similar to the ways Monica would leave. Obviously, to a less severe degree, but Fiona still backed out on an obligation she had to a child legally under her care. Although Liam was in a far better position than any of the kids were when Monica left, Liam did still struggle with the loss, as seen in season 11 when he starts sleeping on the streets, unsure of who is supposed to look after him.

I love Fiona. She's in my top 5 favorite characters on Shameless, but I find a lot of the fandom puts her on a pedestal and refuses to acknowledge her shortcomings or the way that she perpetuates the cycle of addiction and poor parenting once she becomes guardian. Her leaving in season 9 didn't feel like a girlboss win moment despite the show portraying it as such, I found it to be more her continuing the cycle set by Monica, just as throughout the season she had been continuing the cycle set by Frank with her addiction problems.

I honestly find her character to become a lot more rich and interesting when you acknowledge her flaws instead of believing she's justified in all her actions or by removing her accountability and blaming her poor actions on the way she was raised. As she says in season 4;

"It's me, Lip. Not Frank, not Monica. Not nature, not nurture. It's all me. I'm 23. Can't be about how much they screwed us up anymore."

And as Lip tells her;

"You're not perfect, Fiona. None of us are."