#because this is not a hostile and i'm not looking to battle over interpretations of a character

[rosehippiefield]

For the ask game ✨

Frisk from undertale and/or Kai from yttd :33

Okay, Frisk first <3

How I feel about this character

I think that there are so many interpretations of Frisk it's difficut to figure out their true canon personality. But when I was new to Undertale I kinda considered the pacifist route the true route. So I'm used to seeing them as soft all forgiving child. And it brough me comfort thinking that one kid could change monsters' lives for better, to stop the hatred and be the first to show compassion. Kindness is a strenght, Frisk didn't let anyone kill them, being determined to see it through but also to befriend hostile monsters. Of course, it is only true in one outcome... Technically we are Frisk, we decide whether to be merciful or cruel. But for the sake of having opinion on Frisk as a separate character I am going to view them as strong but kind child even if they are perfectly capable of killing everyone there. Even if that part of them is just as canon as pacifist one.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I can't come up with anything, mainly because Frisk is still a child so shipping them with majority of characters feels wrong. And also I think that it simply doesn't make sense for them to be in romantic relationships with anyone out there at that point.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Hm... I definitely could see Frisk and Monsterkid as good friends, especially since they are of the similar ages. Same goes to Frisk and Asriel, I really want to save Asriel somehow. Maybe carry Flowey to the surface with them? I've seen such AUs and I love the idea of Flowey experiencing more feelings. (Now I'm going to remember the Asriel fight and tear up gosh it's so tragic). But it would make sense given how Asriel thought Frisk was Chara.

Also, it would be cool for Frisk and Chara to be frinds too! Both halfs of one piece, both having the most impact on the monsterkind, both being influenced by us... They have a lot of similarities and maybe in the parallel universe they can just be normal kids. I remember in Chocotale they all were "good" but I forgot the details.

My unpopular opinion about this character

Hmmm... Honestly I don't know which opinion counts as unpopular... There were many debates on their gender, but as far as I understand it's up to each player? Frisk is supposed to be our representation so it's logical that someone would feel closer to the protagonist with more similarities. At the end, it's not important: what is really important is whether we spare or kill, not whether we do it as a boy or a girl. I headcanoned Frisk as a girl but I'm comfortable enough with imagining them as a boy. They are still Frisk to me.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I really woud like for all souls to fall at the same time, so that we would see friendship of seven (or even eight with Chara) humans. Imagine working as a team! Frisk would probably be the leader and we could have battles with our fellow humans too, solving their problems little by little. Also I looove the battle with Photoshop Flowey and how all souls help us, but the optimistic part of me wishes there was a way to save them all or at least have more interactions. I know not everyone can be saved but I just wish they all could.

And now Kai Sito Sato

How I feel about this character

He's not among my most favorite characters but that's simply because all yttd characters are so good! I still like him very much and he was my first fave in this game. I tried to predict my heart and by looking at Kai I thought "yeah my type I'm going to love him". Not exactly what happened in the end but his mini episode is still by far my favorite and I love his calm nature. I mean yes, he has emotions and he's got a sense of humor but what I really liked about him is also his tranquility. The ytts event with him, Mishima and a shell made me obsess over him for a short period of time. I jus feel calm and comforted by his demeanor.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don't really ship him with anybody too. I don't ship many yttd characters in general, and I don't really feel like doing it with Kai. The only option in my opinion is Q-taro, but I don't know (plus I already ship Q-taro with Mai). Maybe I just need more interactions even if they have some in the sketches.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Kai and Q-taro are definitely this. They have mutual understanding of each other despite meeting each other in the middle of the death game (as we currently know, maybe they knew each other?). I don't see them as romantic couple, I don't even see them as friends but a secret third thing.

Also, Kai and Mai. Both cooks, albeit one is cheerful and the other stoic, I think they'd have interesting conversations. Or competitions because we know Kai is quite prideful about his skills.

My unpopular opinion about this character

Maybe I'm salty because I saw a lot of hate on my fave, but I feel like Kai is given a lot of slack for his actions. Not that I would want to see Kai hate and it's more of a funny thing but in comparison to Q-taro and Keiji nobody criticizes Kai for using Nao (I'm not even mentioning hitting Shin with frying pan because at that point many would cheer and Kai had reasons to suspect him with Midori scarf and Mishima vote). I could come up with explanaitions for his actions and I understand that he dies afterwards so we are not harsh on him but still... Not very cool... And he gets away with this. Though maybe it was discussed earlier in the fandom, it's always like "why nobody questions this guy?" "where have you been, we've talked about this for four months". So I rest my case. Wanna remind again that I don't want for people to hate him and it's like just funnier that he evades fandom's critisims stealthily.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I really wish he could be Sara's foster brother. He cares so much for her and if not for the stalking I could see her appreciating his presence. They could have such a healthy sibling relationship! He'd give her a lot of pieces of advice, while Sara would cause him to open up more. They are similar too: calm, even stoic figures that are surrounded by darkness. They both deserve better

[scaryspears]

Coming from a card-carrying Kitana stan who also thinks Jade is super dope:

You forgot the part where Kabal accuses Jade of torture and we have no reason not to believe him.

Seriously, you are the second person I've seen hold Jade accountable for anything. Kitana deserves every bit of condemnation she gets (and possibly more) for how cruel she can be, but Jade gets off easy because people only see the Super Chill Bestie and not someone with very low regard for Tarkatans and their lives.

Having said that, what /do/ you admire about Jade and Kitana? I'm not sure what would be more dope than "at least somewhat racist" and "despot in training" are crappy. (Personally, I think it's super badass that Kitana defeated Shao Kahn, gained a masculine title, and led armies into battle. And Jade, well, who wouldn't want Jade as their bestie? Other than a Tarkatan, obviously.)

This is a mouthful, I know, but it's been driving me nuts and I'd be remiss not to address the seamy side of my favorite dynamic duo.

P.S. God tier username. Britney Spears and the Spice Girls were my jam as a kid, and I'm glad to see someone else remembers them. My sister and I had the Scary Spice doll with the tongue piercing lol

Thank you for the compliments on my user name, I listened to them a lot growing up.

When writing the headcanons I had to try my best to not be distracted by the fact that I'm a Mileena stan, and even then I will hold Mileena accountable, so Kitana and Jade do not get a free pass.

There's many occasions where they've shown that they are pretty terrible, and even though they are cool characters, they are unlikable people. Golly, I'd even say that they are hypocrites. They call everyone else out for their ego when they themselves are egotistical. To be fair, it's not just them that have a holier than thou attitude, but quick reminder that Sonya beat them both one on two in MK9 and they both continued showing hostility towards Earthrealmers and a sense of underestimating others.

Kitana is more Outworld than she is Edenian regardless of blood, and if she grew up thinking her father to be Shao Kahn then how did she even know she was Edenian? How did Jade know?

Edenian supremacy is just wild because their realm got conquered and are living in servitude to Shao Kahn or any big bad that comes along. Jade's parents literally gave her away for their own skin.

I pictured the alliance Kitana had with the Tarkatans not going well because she clearly still holds some discriminating views against them. It doesn't help that the Tarkatans are only shown to be servants meaning they (Kitana and Jade) grew up with the mentality of looking down on them.

The only thing I admire about Jade and Kitana is that they are fun to play as and have nice wardrobes, but that's it. I'm supposed to be rooting for her, yet she has a poor attitude. Don't get me wrong, a lot of the good guys have flaws that I can't look over. It's hinted that Sonya abused Cassie by randomly attacking her and Jacqui with arm bars (what the...), and she also looks down on people who don't have similar interests as her (from what I've interpreted). She's also terrible at parenting. I also headcanon that Cassie joined the special forces in order to impress Sonya, not because she actually wanted to.

I could say a lot about the characters, not just Kitana and Jade. And don't get me started on Kotal Kahn, he is such a clown. He and Jade deserve each other, honestly.

[crystalelemental]

I've got one more for tonight, with another either tomorrow or this weekend. But this one had to go up because listen, I can't keep up this charade, I did not return to writing starting with Volo, it was Caitlin, it's always Caitlin. I may not have as much attachment to Kieran as I do Carmine, but listen. This one clicked. And on that note, Blueberry Academy is in Unova and I now have some Demands.

(I'm going to be spoiling stuff in the story below the cut)

Kieran! He's a pretty neat character! As mentioned, I like his sister better, but this should surprise no one who knows me. That said, his whole focus being around lacking strength and not taking losing well aligned pretty well to how I consider Caitlin's history to have gone. And since Blueberry is in Unova, and Caitlin's family is super wealthy and would likely contribute to the academy...the connection was made.

I just think she'd get it. Maybe not the same level of anger specifically, but the sense of not being strong enough and how that eats at you. Canon never actually specifies why Caitlin's emotions were running wild, but I like to interpret it as frustration intolerance when it came to defeat, or even being put on the back foot. I know the manga sets it up as her being too battle crazed, but listen to me. That's boring. It's Pokemon, they're literally all like that. You can't just have battling as your only character trait, in the series entirely made up of autistic trainers. They're all over-invested in battling.

I did want to focus on Kieran's internal sense of things, kinda building up that frustration and sense that people look down on him, and part of that was trying to emphasize his own refusal to really...engage with the people around him at this point? I tried emphasizing that by having her name not show up their entire battle. Viewed from his perspective, her name never even registers until she starts talking to him and empathizing; prior, it's all indirect. Not in a hostile, dehumanizing way, but in a way that suggests he doesn't really care who she is, he's fixated on what he wants out of things.

Meanwhile I like to think in Caitlin's mind, she's recognized that this is a boy who's struggling with himself and his need to improve, and is fearful of losing, and saw herself in him. Realizing that, she thinks about how she started to heal, and is like yeah, sure, I'll kick this kid's ass. Then we talk, and everything improves! Just like Cynthia would do.

Anyway, that's enough out of me. Just a little friendship establishing fic that I may or may not have a part 2 for once the second half of the DLC comes out. Fingers crossed for some shenanigans!

[kudosmyhero]

Daredevil (vol. 1) #99: The Mark of Hawkeye!

Read Date: February 22, 2023 Cover Date: May 1973 ● Writer: Steve Gerber ● Penciler: Sam Kweskin ● Inker: Syd Shores ● Colorist: Stan Goldberg ● Letterer: Artie Simek ● Editor: Roy Thomas ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● oo, crossover time! I'm excited! ● this is my first time reading Hawkeye in the comics and I am not impressed by him so far. I hope there's a reason for him acting like this--a reason other than 1970s male writer syndrome. ● at least Natasha is sticking up for herself… though sometimes her words don't align with her actions ● Natasha's hair isn't quite so big this issue. It looks better. The past several issues, I had "the bigger the hair, the closer to god!" in the back of my mind every time she came across the page ● Clint, STOP with the grabby-grabby ● oo, the shading of Black Widow's hair looks amazing in this panel:

● heh, I like how Daredevil finally subdues Hawkeye--by trapping him with his own bow ● he gets out of it pretty quickly though and fires an arrow at DD that wraps him up with some sort of rope ● Hawkeye is moping around San Francisco and bumps into a member of the "Hellbirds" biker gang ● he fights off the biker gang, then Daredevil shows up to try to talk to him. Hawkeye uses a sonic arrow, which of course totally incapacitates Daredevil because of his hypersenses ● the reader learns that the sonic arrow could actually kill DD, but its motor shuts off after a couple more seconds ● DD snaps Hawkeye's bow over his knee (he deserved it) ● DD and Hawkeye finally stop with their dick-swinging contest ● they go back to Natasha's house to find the Avengers waiting for them. The Avengers say they need help against Magneto ● Heh, Thor says it best (to Hawkeye): "…thine unprovoked hostility doth sorely try my patience!" That's how I've felt through this entire issue. And I was so excited for the crossover, too, dammit ● DD agrees to join the Avengers in battle this once; Hawkeye has stormed off to pout somewhere ● whines Do I wanna read Avengers #111 or just have one of the podcasts I listen to synopsize it for me? Yeah, I think I'll do that. ● 👏👏(saved from being a 1-clap by Black Panther, Natasha sticking up for herself, and DD emphasizing to Hawkeye that it is Natasha's decision)

Synopsis: Returning home from their battle against the Dark Messiah, Daredevil and Black Widow are greeted by Hawkeye, who had just recently quit the Avengers, and has shown up in San Francisco to rekindle his romance with the Black Widow.

This doesn't go over very well with Daredevil, who tries to get involved in the conversation, which further agitates Hawkeye. It finally gets to the point where the two end up fighting it out. The brawl ends when Daredevil pretends to be "blinded" by Hawkeye's phosphorous arrow, at which point Hawkeye calls off the fight and leaves the scene. Daredevil then goes off to track down Hawkeye so that the two of them can "talk it out." He finds the avenging archer just as he has defeated some bikers and swoops in to talk to him but Hawkeye interprets this as if Daredevil has come to continue their fight. The two heroes duke it out again, fighting to a standstill at which point they then decide to stop fighting and let Natasha decide who she wants to be with.

Returning to Black Widow's home, they soon find that they're going to have to wait for Natasha's answer as the Avengers, Thor, Vision and Black Panther have arrived to recruit Daredevil to help them save members of the Avengers and the X-Men from Magneto. Hawkeye thinking the Black Widow called them to get him to leave storms out of the house. While Daredevil listens to their proposal. He initially declines but the Black Panther informs Daredevil that he owes him one due to previously assisting Daredevil in his time of need.[1] Daredevil accepts and so he, the Avengers, and the Black Widow depart in a Quinjet back to New York.

This story continues in Avengers Vol 1 111.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Daredevil_Vol_1_99)

Fan Art: Daredevil found here

Accompanying Podcast: ● Josh and Jamie Do Daredevil - episode 14

[starry-bi-sky]

#i love this so much#but i have heavy thoughts#1. what happened to vlad. he poisoned a kid and is also half ghost what did they do with him. did he just kidnap danny and vlad just -#-forever wonders what happened to him?

!!! I kept that vague on purpose for interpretation! And frankly also because I haven't thought too deep on it yet-- but my idea was that, at least in the beginning, Vlad is actively still looking for Danny, and its too dangerous for Bruce to try and take him head on in custody battle because of the whole "halfa-overshadowing-he-can-just-mind-control-the-courts" thing! If nothing happens, Vlad goes back into billionaire isolation and Danny keeps his head down to avoid his attention. If something happens: prison. Probably.

do they never casually encounter each other? cause imagine this. listen. listen#older dick taking danny for lunch#just chilling#maybe in the middle of a pun match#>:)#introduce vlad#who has believed for some years that danny's core broke and he ceased to exist#and then sees him happy with a new family. laughing and (apparently) HEALTHY#and#hshshdhdhdhshsjhddjjs#DANIEL?!?!? little badger is that you?!?!? (while crying crocodile tears)#how does danny react to this

THIS! I am delighted to sink my teeth into this. Danny would freeze if he saw or heard Vlad, its a very different reaction than before Vlad poisoned him. And for, well, obvious reasons. Vlad's hurt him before, but that's to be expected from an archnemesis, and Danny would always beat him in the end.

This? This is different. Danny's suffered under Vlad's abusive hands, and suffered long after he escaped him, because of him. Danny's terrified of him, and Vlad poisoning him is one of the main reasons why. Hearing his voice, and seeing him approaching him, has Danny freezing in his seat.

(Of course his younger-big brother dick notices this, and gets immediately on guard. And then he sees who the guy is, and his body language rapidly turns tense and hostile.)

Dick starts standing up, ready to verbally assault Vlad Masters, and Danny grabs his hand and yanks him down. Tearing his eyes away for a moment to dig them into Dick; "No. No, no. Don't. Please don't." He whispers to him, and then immediately turns back to see Vlad.

Vlad tries to hug him, and Danny full body flinches away. Only to remember that Dick is right behind him, and like a good older-little brother, adjusts to try and shield him from Vlad. Vlad gets that hug, although Danny is as stiff as a statue, before he pulls away and starts "fretting" over him.

Grabbing his shoulders; touching his face; trying to hold his arms. Trying to drag him up and out of his seat to make it easier to pull him away. He's very Mother Gothel levels of manipulation and paternal concern. "Oh Daniel, you have no idea how worried sick I've been. You know you're far too fragile to run off like that, god it's been ages! I'm so relieved you're alright."

Danny is. trying not to hyperventilate. Dick is like, .5 seconds away from leaping over the table and socking Vlad Masters in the jaw right then and there. Vlad doesn't recognize Dick as famous Richard Grayson-Wayne because Dick threw on a simple anti-paparazzi disguise. (Hoodie, mask, hat). And when Vlad asks for his name, Dick lies out of his ass and gives him a fake name on the spot.

("You must be the gentleman taking care of my Daniel, I must have your name.") ("...I'm Alex.") ("Alex..?") ("Hart.") (Well, Alexander, I really must thank you again. I'll make sure you're properly compensated, I know my Daniel can be quite a handful.") (Vlad was fully intending on having "Alex" killed. Because he's a possessive, evil bastard of a man)

Danny does get away of course. But not without a little trouble at first. Dick tries to passively coax Vlad into giving Danny back with various excuses (going back to their "apartment" to get Danny's things, for one) but Vlad rebuffs each one. Until eventually Danny manages to get his bearings, and calm himself down long enough to shove Vlad off him and run away again.

Dick follows his lead, of course. But not before throwing his drink in Vlad's eyes, calling him a slew of insults, and then while Vlad is trying to get coffee out of his eyes, proceeds to toss him over the table.

They both get home safely, but the stress of it all leaves Danny sick the next day, and paranoid for the rest of the week.

#YYYYYYYYY#POR OTRO LADO#2. jason#jason who wants to find his mother#does he go to danny?#asks for advice but still dies?#never died and instead serves as a catalyst for finally having healthy communication on the family?#if he does die#can danny look for him on the realms?#is danny the reason jay revives?#is he there when he crawls his way out of the coffin#desperately digging from the other side?#does danny try to kill joker?

I really love the idea that Danny manages to save Jason. Canon divergence my beloved <3. Of course Jason still dying is very angsty -- and i've had thoughts about him getting angry on Danny's behalf too upon realizing Danny's predicament -- Bruce has two dead children and he hasn't even been able to help the first one. BUT

Danny managing to reach the warehouse with a few minutes to spare before the bomb goes off, and desperately trying to get the doors -- locked and chained -- off. For some reason or another, he doesn't have his lockpicks on him. He's yelling for Jason, trying to get a response.

(Danny calls all his little brothers various bird nicknames too. "Chickling", "chick", and "birdy" are his favorites. Fledgling and baby bird are a little more uncommon. If he's feeling playful or if his brothers are grumpy, he calls them "broodling".)

In the end, Danny decides to go "fuck it" and uses his intangibility to bypass the wall. He nearly goes into a rage when he sees Sheila standing there smoking a cigarette, and doing nothing to help his baby brother bleeding out on the floor.

He ignores her and gathers his brother instead, which seems to kick Sheila into gear and as Danny's beelining for the door she asks him "what about me?"

He tells her to fuck off, then mutters an apology to Jason because he knows that's his mom. Jason doesn't have much of a response. Jason is concussed.

Danny gets them out of the building just as it explodes, and since he's already using his intangibility, he goes one step "fuck IT" further, and shields them both. He regrets nothing. The both of them live, just heavily injured.

If jason dies, then Danny is not the reason Jason revives, but he is there when Jay drags himself out of the grave. He's there to sink his fingers into the gravedirt and dig him out in return. He's holding Jason for nearly an hour, the both of them crying, when he decides to call Bruce and let him know. Then while he's at it, lets Dick know.

Dick and Bruce are both there in ten.

(Danny can't look for Jason in the realms because imo, he has no access to it. And he couldn't even if he would, his body would automatically absorb the high concentration of ectoplasm in the realms, and that would be like giving a feast to a stray dog for the blood blossom in his veins.)

(Doesn't mean he hasn't considered it if it meant having a chance to see Jason again.)

Danny would try and kill the Joker, and just like Batman, would have to be stopped. Danny nearly kills himself in the process because of his intense grief state making his powers fritz out and his ecto-levels rocket off the charts + he'd willingly using his powers if it meant killing the fucker that murdered his baby brother. Danny very, very fucking nearly goes ghost.

I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt

“Woah. You look like shit."

Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.

The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.

"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."

And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.

The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.

If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.

"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.

"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.

"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.

The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.

He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."

There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.

"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."

Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"

"Daniel? Is that you?"

His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.

[sylvieons]

I need an explanation of why it's widely accepted that Loki never did anything wrong (and finding out that Odin lied to him =/= excuse for any of his actions).  Right off the bat in Thor 1 he was the reason the Frost Giants got into the vault (getting them killed).  He was a prince of Asgard, he had to know how the security system worked.  This was before he even found out he was lied to. He lied to Thor and was going to keep him in exile. He killed Laufey. He tried to destroy Jotunheim.

Why is none of this addressed?  It feels so inconsistent?  That line he uttered in the last episode about "all these people are going to die" as if his heart was bleeding for them when my man tried to blow up a planet.

I’m not touching his actions or personality in The Avengers since people are split on the mind control thing, but the things he did in Thor were very much just Loki.

This is not a post about whether he’s good or bad or OOC or deserving of redemption etc etc this is just me asking why Show Loki looks nothing like Thor Loki and maybe somebody has an actual answer for that and I’d love to know it!

AND ALL OF THIS IS ALSO TO SAY

that YES Loki could have done all of these things and ACT EXACTLY THE WAY HE IS IN THE SHOW

BUT

why is the narrative not addressing his darker side then?

It's the narrative I have a problem with, ultimately, because it feels like the writers just ignored all of that (which is really summed up in that “all these people are going to die” quote from him. By making him say that, you are portraying him as someone who has a soft heart. That’s the point of the line.  You can’t just ignore that the same character was shown to indiscriminately kill others in another movie.)

If the whole "Thanos mind-controlled Loki" thing is true, it has never been addressed  either.  Why is this not a sub-plot of Loki trying to come to terms with shit.  We went straight to “Loki is having a manic break but we’re not giving you any background”

[october-renaissance]

I'm surprised that there's such a strong consensus that Jiang Fengmian was totally irredeemable as a parent. Like, was he perfect? No. Did his behavior contribute to a lot of Jiang Cheng’s issues? Certainly. Was he the father JC needed? Probably not. But I would really contest the idea that he was a god-awful father who openly favored Wei Wuxian and didn’t love JC.

Disclaimer: these are all just my opinions. Obviously JFm can be interpreted as he popularly is, I'm just surprised it's so widely accepted as the One Truth.

When I watched the show, JFm struck me as generally reserved, gentle, forgiving, and passive. In his scenes with WWx and JC, both the narrative and his actor's choices indicate to me that he regards them with quiet pride and affection. I mean, when WWx and JC return to Lotus Pier after running off to do who-knows-what, he doesn’t scold them or even look angry. He’s not interested in punishing them, he only wants to know if they had a safe journey. And I do mean they – both WWx and JC – because he's addressing them both and pretty much does treat them the same way, as he does in most of the trio's scenes together. There are only two differences in his treatment of them throughout the show that I can see.

JFm is obviously portrayed as having a stronger connection with WWx. They have more in common ideologically and personality-wise, and WWx embodies their sect’s teachings in a way that JC simply does not. JC also inherited his mother’s personality, and Yu Ziyuan is someone JFm struggles to get along with, despite how much he clearly cares about her. JC clearly notices that he has a weaker connection with JFm than WWx and is naturally hurt, but it’s not necessarily anyone’s fault. Some people just vibe with certain types over others, and this is true even within family units. In all but one of his scenes, it's not like JFm is excluding JC or otherwise neglecting him.

JFm corrects or reprimands JC more often than WWx. A few times, he says things along the lines of “watch what you say” to JC, but not to WWx. The thing is, JFm’s not wrong for correcting JC in this way, especially since saying things in anger is an established pattern with him. As a future sect leader and just as a person, JC should learn to speak thoughtfully and tactfully. I’m also inclined to accept WWx’s argument that JFm is less strict with him because he’s not going to become sect leader (meaning he doesn’t need to be held to a higher standard) and because he’s not actually JFm’s kid. This is a great way to inspire feelings of inequality and insecurity in children, but I don’t think JFm has to be interpreted as malicious or negligent because of this behavior. He’s simply not perfect.

In addition to this, while these two problems are present in several of the scenes JFm has with WWx and JC, there are really only two scenes I can point to where JFm unambiguously messed up.

The dinner scene. JFm sits the Yunmeng trio down for dinner, YZy swoops in, makes everyone feel terrible about themselves, and accuses JFm of favoring Cangse-sanren over herself and therefore of favoring WWx over JC. JFm does… practically nothing. He doesn’t try very hard to stop or contradict her. This passivity allows YZy to hit everyone right in their sore spots.

The sickbed scene. WWx has just woken up after passing out in Lotus Pier. JFm praises WWx’s accomplishments and coldly ignores JC. JC scolds WWx for playing hero by... helping his allies in a battle that he didn't even start?? JFm tries to explain to his son why this is a no-good perspective to have, then, when told that JC didn’t mean it, tells him that he still can’t say whatever just because he’s angry. YZy comes in to pick a fight, JFm once again fails to do anything about it, and JC concludes that JFm hates him. If we take the scene as it is, this whole interaction was very uncool of JFm. He was cold to the point of hostility towards his son and should have done more to dispute the accusations YZy was throwing at him. But the thing is, it feels out of character for the JFm of earlier appearances to glare at and ignore JC just because WWx acknowledged his accomplishments. It kind of feels like the writers sacrificed character consistency to frame JFm as the bad guy in that scene. Besides that, JC was 100% in the wrong when he scolded WWx and he deserved to be corrected. Whether he meant what he said or was just venting anger, he was in the wrong.

It's easy to see how his parents' behavior fed JC's fears and insecurities, and I think people tend to take YZy’s claims of favoritism at face value at least in part because JFm doesn’t do much to correct her. It's taken as an indication that JFm doesn’t correct her because he can’t, because she’s right. I interpret it more like he's so incredulous or so sick of having the same arguments that he just waits for them to blow over. This clearly causes lots of problems, but it also doesn't make JFm an uncaring or irredeemable father.

In fact, I think it's frankly unlikely that he's uncaring towards JC or that their relationship is all bad. I think it's telling that, in their scenes together, JC is unusually gentle towards JFm and doesn't put up that prickly front like he usually does.

So yeah. I interpret JFm and JC’s relationship to be more along the lines of “bad communication worsened by difficult circumstances and clashing personalities” than “terrible father to unfavored son”.

[gunnerpalace]

Thanks for being kind to my wallet man. Anyways, I'm sorry if I offended you in anyway by saying "you Ichirukis". I just came by your blog and you seem to be a pretty knowledgeable dude and thus I asked you a question. Hostile little shit? Really? I'm being called a godamn hopeless imbecile here. Maybe you've just read my msg in a different tone as there is an absence of non-verbal communication here. I didn't say anything about you owing me shit man, you just interpreted that way.

And when you are referring to normal people, there tends to be cross cultural differences sometimes. So whatever you consider as being a normal person might not be the same for somebody else. In your terms I sound and act like a hostile IH so I’m not considered a normal person right? I wasn’t paying too much attention to the Bleach media from start to finish so I don’t know all the nitty gritty details such as sales and such. But yeah you’re right. If you don’t want explain you don’t have to.

Oh my god, an apology. Well, now I’ve seen everything.

Alright, look. I’m having a bit of an experience at the moment, perhaps most accurately summarized by Jules from Pulp Fiction going “The truth is…you’re the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men. But I’m trying, Ringo. I’m trying real hard to be the shepherd.” So I’m going to accept your apology, and take it for granted that you didn’t mean to come across nearly as condescendingly as you did. 

Given that, I too will apologize for my behavior. When I see aggression, I get aggressive. It’s just habit. Trigger-happy IFF. So, I’m sorry for insulting you with gratuitous ad hominem. Let me advise that you consider your tone more carefully in the future.

With that said, let me attempt to answer your original question sincerely in a compact fashion without writing a goddamn thesis, because I still don’t want to put in the time to do that. Bleach had exactly three things going for it:

The uniqueness of the IchiRuki relationship and their individual characters. Ichigo and Rukia are unique because they are somewhere between being deuteragonists and Rukia being a supporting protagonist. I would say that she is a “hidden deuteragonist,” in that her influence is constantly felt, even when she isn’t present. Ichigo is not a normal shounen protagonist, like Gintoki, Luffy, Naruto, Goku, or Kenshiro. He doesn’t have a vision or a goal, and he’s a terrible tsundere. Rukia, however, does. Rukia sets Ichigo on his way and enables him to do what he does, and she repeatedly keeps him in check when he flounders. She is what enables him to function. He is what enables her to influence things. They are two parts of a whole, and neither is operational or very effective without the other. This “split soul” phenomenon is unique to them, was a hallmark of the early manga, and echoed on throughout. Although its promise was by no means always lived up to, it was there, and it’s a major part of why IR is a thing.

Character design in general. I’ll give Kubo this: he’s usually good at fashion and drafting relatively memorable characters. (Even if he starts to recycle faces after awhile; it’s not like Dragon Ball/Z/GT/etc., One Piece, and so on don’t.) They tend to have unique designs, if not wholly unique or fleshed out personalities. He’s very good at creating the illusion of depth using them. Over the run of the series, pretty much everyone was able to find a character they liked, if not several.

Mystery. A lot of the shit that happens in Bleach is unexplained, or was kicked down the road for as long as possible before being explained. A lot of it was never explained, stuff like “What was Yoruichi’s bankai? / What was her zanpakutou? / Why can she turn into a cat?” “Who were the other two Great Noble Houses?” “What was the deal with the Soul King?” “How did Soul Society really get started?” “What was up with Komamura?” “What was up with Don Kanonji?” “What was up with Ururu and Jinta?” The list goes on and on. Mystery is alluring, as the writers of Lost quickly figured out.

You will notice what I didn’t mention: fighting, worldbuilding, and plot. So let’s go over those quickly.

Fighting: Bleach’s fights suck. Someone dramatically teleports behind someone else leading to a shocked expression. Someone slices someone else’s arm off. Whoever reveals how their powers work first loses. Everybody gets new, “hiddener, worser” powers. It wasn’t so bad through the Soul Society arc because it was still fresh, but the more power-creep set in, the worse it got. Bleach doesn’t use powers in interesting ways like One Piece or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. It doesn’t handle a constant ramping up of the stakes as well as Dragon Ball/etc. It doesn’t have the technical interest of Naruto. It’s extremely boring and repetitive. As a battle manga, it’s shit.

Worldbuilding: Bleach’s worldbuilding is a shadow puppet show. It’s literally Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: the illusion of depth and meaning which you only process as such because nothing calls it into question. This isn’t to say Kubo didn’t plan some things (I would say that the theological essence of Soul Society and its cycle of reincarnation makes more sense than most organized religions, since it answers a lot of basic questions like “Where do new souls come from?”) but there were many things he simply couldn’t be bothered with.

Plot: It’s rather apparent, and has been for a number of years, that Kubo reshuffled the plot on the way to the conclusion of the Soul Society arc. That said, the plot was still good up until then. The Arrancar arc was serviceable, Hueco Mundo was bad, and things went downhill from there. The reappearance of the Quincy in Thousand-Year Blood War was a massive retcon and plot hole that makes no real sense.

Now here’s the thing. The Mystery aspect of Bleach was bound up in the Plot and Worldbuilding. The more the latter two fell apart, the more the former became threadbare and could be clearly seen as an effort to string readers along. So much of Bleach’s “promise” turned out to be a polar bear on a tropical island.

The Character design also became wrapped up in Worldbuilding and Fighting, as characters often had no other means to advance, grow, or define themselves, and were relegated to bit parts other than to turn up every two years in some insignificant tussle. The continuing cast bloat only made this worse, as did the dramatically skewed nature of fan favorites.

What didn’t change was IchiRuki. I would argue it didn’t advance as it should have, and rather more objectively, every effort was made to push them into the background in favor of the other five elements, but they were at least consistent throughout, which is why so many people looked forward to their interactions, no matter how fleeting. It was solid all the way up until the final 5 or so chapters, once Kubo had clearly decided to implement his subversive “ending” (what with Tsukishima taking Rukia’s primary role, and so on).

Anybody who wasn’t around for that reason was holding onto vain hope about the Mystery, because of sunk cost fallacy, or were just trying to support their favorite characters or other ships. That’s the god’s honest truth. Bleach’s numbers started to tank after Soul Society and were abysmal by the time of Lost Substitute Shinigami. The sudden end of Bleach was Shueisha finally pulling the plug and disconnecting life support.

Now, you can say that nothing I’ve said here is proof, and that would be true, this is all summary. The proof is out there though (although I cannot be bothered to assemble it all for you), and I think any honest reader would admit the truth of my analysis even without it.

tl;dr IchiRuki is the only consistent positive of Bleach, which is otherwise a subpar fashion manga which never deserved to be counted among the big three on any other merits.

[a-very-sad-peach]

Actually, the novels are part of the canon, a simple google search proves that right.

Also, if we're gonna bring up that Shikamaru talking about his future wife, I can say the same for Naruto. A good chunk of the series is spent with Naruto crushing over Sakura. Both of these things can be chalked up to heteronormativity's influence on queer people- or you don't have to and just interpret it as them actually being straight. Either way, Shikamaru talking about his future wife is not really strong enough evidence to claim he's straight- bisexual people exist, after all.

The reason I said that there's more evidence of shikanaru than sns is because sasuke isn't even prominent in naruto's life for a good chunk of the series, seeing as he spends it with orochimaru with the occasional battle against naruto- up until the end of the series, of course. Therefore, naruto spends more of that time bonding with his other friends.

Shikamaru never "disliked" naruto, he was annoyed by him- an attitude projects onto LITERALLY every other person he interacts with, including Temari, the woman he ends up marrying. Shikamaru is also one of the first kids who treats him with kindness and not hostility, as shown in flashbacks in the show.

It also makes little sense to chalk every emotional moment between the two characters as platonic as if it cannot be interpreted as otherwise, seeing as I can do the same with SNS? Even the kiss at the beginning of the series can be chalked up to "a comedic gag" and nothing more. Naruto's obsession with getting Sasuke back can be chalked up to him simply not wanting to give up on his original goal since that goes against his principles. I could chalk all SNS moments up as purely platonic if I wanted to. This can be done with literally any MLM/F4F pairing lmfao. I don't see your point here. That's not to say that I do think it's purely platonic, just that it CAN be, and therefore isn't a very strong counterpoint.

And you seem to have forgotten to address the point where I said that shikamaru goes out of his way to comfort Naruto despite not ever being shown to do the same for HIS OWN TEAMMATES, two people he was also close friends with. The point isn't JUST that he comforted Naruto over Jiraiya's death, it's that he goes to lengths for Naruto, someone he deeply cares about, that he doesn't go to for literally any other character except for Asuma when he died for the sake of vengance.

If we're talking canonic parallels, then there's also the fact that it was canon from the beginning that Hinata and Naruto were going to end up together since Hinata was solely motivated by Naruto to be better (personally I don't ship NaruHina AT ALL, I'm just using them to make a point here). Both ShikaTema and NaruHina have one thing in common (at least from my perspective): they don't interact very much in comparison to ShikaNaru (I'm not counting Boruto interactions for obvious reasons: they're both married already at that point so ofc they interact more frequently with their partners in Boruto).

All I'm saying is that if you look close enough, the fact that people ship Shikanaru isn't as far-fetched as one might think.

Shikamaru is so straight why do sns think he wants to fuck Naruto? Like shipping is one thing but people really act like the manga is implying that.