#but going strictly by show canon at this point is a little more fun

[angstflavoured]

A little fiddauthor analysis...

Making this post mostly just to get all of my thoughts out about it regarding how I think it is inherently very toxic on both ends, despite people treating it as more wholesome near the beginning when they were both younger… and the fact that I think it’s very incredibly one-sided. I’m strictly going to be talking about CANON events, not headcanons or speculations or AU’s. If you wanna draw Fiddleford and Ford being cute and hugging and dating, I don’t care, I like a lot of the content for them myself. It isn’t canon to the show and doesn’t affect or harm anybody. That’s what a fandom is and I’m not trying to police anyone, I just think a lot of people misinterpret their relationship and thought it would be fun to talk about it because I find their dynamic really interesting. I’m going to be using a lot of direct quotes and scenes from Ford’s journal, TBOB, and the show, so buckle in baby ! This was supposed to be a quicker and smaller one while I work on my Billford essay, but I had a lot more to say than I thought…

First off, it’s interesting to see how Ford thinks their interaction after so long is going to go. In Journal 3 he says he has “no choice” but to call Fiddleford up to work on the portal because Ford just doesn’t have the smarts to do what he wants to do himself, and he thinks he’s going to have to literally beg Fiddleford to join him. But as we see in the journal and in the show, it hardly takes ANY convincing at all for Fiddleford to drop everything he was doing and leave his wife and kid for months on end to work on a project he knows nothing about. All the info he has he got over a short phone call. It seems like Ford, at this point being so close with Bill and thinking he’s the only one who cares about him, just assumed that most people he used to talk with don’t think about him anymore. He’s had Bill whispering in his ear that he’s the only one who understands him, so it makes sense he doesn’t think Fiddleford will want to do this with him. But from what it looks like, Fiddleford either has been waiting every second for Ford specifically to get back to him, or just has been waiting for any excuse to get the hell away from his family which is… yeesh. Either way, not very healthy regarding his wife and kid. He doesn’t seem to really care all that much about either of them, but more on that later.

Obviously Ford cares about Fiddleford, as soon as he comes down to live with him, Ford hasn’t been so happy in a good while. He missed human connection, despite how good things were going with Bill. Having another person there to talk with was nice. Despite Fiddleford having strange quirks that did irk Ford, he found them endearing and genuinely felt better in his company.

But I think the biggest thing here a lot of people overlook is that Ford only ever refers to Fiddleford as his college buddy in the show, and in the journals as “my assistant.” I’ve seen so many people have Ford call him his partner, but he actually only calls him this like once in the show i think. It’s always my assistant, my research, my theory. Which is funny because Ford didn’t come up with any of this stuff with the portal on his own. Bill was the one that gave him the blueprints. Fiddleford even questions Ford at one point, asking if he had help coming up with them because of how complex they are, and Ford decidedly DOESN’T mention Bill and instead tells him “with hard work, anything is possible.” (Btw he does refer to Bill as his partner multiple times… just sayin.)

The way he talks to and about Fiddleford, Ford is always talking down. He does think that Fiddleford is smart and does think he has a brilliant mind, but he still thinks that he’s below him.

Because Ford has Bill.

And oh my lord, do I not see anyone talk about this. Soooo many comics always depict Fiddleford knowing about Bill existence, but I think the biggest roadblock with their ship and a huge point of contention is that Fiddleford never canonically knows about Ford’s relationship with Bill until after he’s already lost his mind when he’s old. He doesn’t even KNOW that he exists until he’s half sucked through the portal. People ignore this, but it’s so important to their dynamic. Ford doesn’t think that Fiddleford could handle it, and he doesn’t think he necessarily deserves to know. Because Bill is Fords thing. Their relationship is special. Ford is special.

Ford claims he doesn’t tell Fiddleford about Bill because he would throw him in a looney bin, despite their research being so whimsical and ridiculous already. They’re literally building a portal to a different dimension, Fiddleford would’ve believed him. And the way Ford talks about it, you can tell it’s less about Fiddleford thinking he’s crazy and more about something else.

Could F ever truly appreciate the complex fates that brought me and my Muse together?

He doesn’t think Fiddleford could APPRECIATE it. The language he uses, you can tell that Ford knows that Fiddleford would see right through Bill’s facade. And Ford doesn’t want that because he wants to be friends with Bill and he wants to be special, and he’d rather hide Bill and stay in denial than tell his dearest friend, just so he can feel special a little longer.

This is why I think as much as Fiddleford’s romantic feelings for Ford were there, it never ended up going anywhere. Ford would always choose Bill over him. When Fiddleford got him the axolotl pet, Ford quickly threw it out and lied about it to Fiddleford just because Bill told him to. And there’s multiple cases of interactions like this, where Bill will talk down about Fiddleford and Ford will just be like damn… yeah. Here’s a journal excerpt from TBOB around Christmas time. For context, Ford got into a huge fight with a monster and tried to contact Bill to help him, but he didn’t come. And then Bill randomly shows up later when Ford’s at home decorating.

I was almost roasted by Krampus, and where was he? Off inspiring some other scientist? Posing for some tapestry? Were we even partners? He threw the accusation back in my face. “Hey, I’m not the one skipping portal work to carouse with a third-wheel hillbilly with second thoughts about our project!” I started to argue--but he had a point. F has seemed less and less committed to work lately.

Which is INSANE !!! when we see that only a fucking page ago, Fiddleford was explaining how he got in a fight with his wife because he didn’t get her a present for Christmas. After spending multiple weeks and making multiple prototypes for a pair of 6 fingered gloves for Ford.

And if we hop back to Journal 3, there’s a particular interaction with them which is crazy to me. While hiking up a mountain to go to Crash Site Omega, they get into a fight with the Gremloblin, which fucking swoops up Fiddleford into the sky. In Ford’s attempt to get him down, they both end up falling down through the roof of a barn, where Fiddleford gets stuck full of quills and breaks his arm.

Despite our fortune, I have become worried about my assistant. I was able to treat his physical wounds, but I fear there are mental wounds not as easily remedied. For the past several nights, he has been unable to sleep, apparently still haunted by the Gremloblin’s gaze. More alarming is his Cubic’s Cube. It has sat scrambled, unfixed, on his desk for days. I myself have survived many monster attacks without trauma, but perhaps F is more sensitive than I realized…

OH. MY. GOD. The way that Ford talks so condescendingly is enough to make any person's blood boil. It’s the same way when Fiddleford gets sucked through the portal, and when Fiddleford gets pulled back, Ford’s first words out of his mouth are “WHAT DID YOU SEE!”

As much as he cared for Fiddleford… he has no regard at all for Fiddlefords VERY VALID feelings about events that would traumatize literally anyone. But he just pats Fiddlefords back and tells him to get used to it because this is just part of the job and he shouldn’t be whining so much. He does nothing to properly comfort him and scoffs it off like “apparently he’s ‘TRAMATIZED’ or something. I’ve been through so much worse and never had a problem, I don’t get what his issue is.” And then ford is SURPRISED AND APPALLED when Fiddleford creates the memory gun.

Which oohhhhh lord, the memory gun. jesus christ. Such a big example of the distrust between them on both sides. Fiddleford literally canonically lied about destroying the gun and then erased Fords memory about it so that he could erase his own memories in secret without him knowing. And also probably fords sometimes! Not completely canon, but like…. Fiddleford did it once, I wouldn’t put it past the guy. And then when they go to the carnival, Fiddleford hands out his fucking card to Ivan (the leader of the society of the blind eye, who was a teen/early 20s at the time) so that he can erase memories for him that he didn’t like.

Biggest thing we can take away from everything regarding Fiddleford’s character, is that he always takes the easy way out. He ran away from his family he obviously didn’t really care for as much as he should’ve because that was easier than talking it out or divorcing. He pushed it aside for later. Bro was literally looking for a fucken Brokeback Mountain situation, but Ford wasn’t giving anything back to him. So instead Fiddleford constantly made a fool of himself doing things for Ford and tripping over himself to show his gratitude when all the while Ford was entirely focused on Bill. and then he just goes around and starts erasing memories, because it’s easier than having to actually deal with things. Which is why I don’t foresee a reality in which Fiddauthor makes sense, in the way they actually end up doing anything together. Because Fiddleford’s too much of a coward to admit his feelings first, and Ford obviously has his sights on someone else.

And here’s the BIGGEST damning thing, like oh my god.

In Journal 3, Ford goes to a fortune teller (which don’t get me fucking started on how judgy he is to her and how much he talks down about her, DESPITE HER BEING LEGIT AND ACTUALLY WARNING HIM). Long story short, she gives Ford a spiel about how someone close to him is deceiving him. She then gives him a mood ring and says “when this is blue, you may pull through. When this is black, you can’t turn back.”

And LO AND BEHOLD!! OH MY FUCKING GOD, when they’re at the carnival and Fiddleford is talking to Ivan and whispering--

Ford. Looks down. To check if the ring is black.

I took one last look down at my hand and was strangely relieved to find that the palm reader’s ring was still blue. I shoved it in my pocket, collected F, and tried to put the whole experience out of my mind.

FORD LITERALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THE IDEA OF FIDDLEFORD BETRAYING HIM BEFORE BILL. IN FACT, HE LITERALLY NEVER MENTIONS THINKING IT WAS BILL ONCE.

He talks about how they got into a fight at dinner the night before the portal test because Fiddleford was having second thoughts about it being dangerous, and Ford told him to be there or he would get left behind. He’d do it without him.

And when Fiddleford gets pulled through the portal and quits the project, Ford says gooooddd fucking riddance, I never even needed you bro.

F, you weak-willed hayseed! Go back to your doting family and a life of fear and compromise! I weep now not for our failed partnership, but for the golden opportunity thrown away. To think I considered him a friend! I know my true friend. It is my Muse.

One of the few times he ever refers to it as partnership btw. Literally only when they break everything off.

And Ford only starts fighting with Bill about everything after it starts directly hurting him. It literally just seems like Ford is less upset about Bill’s plan being evil, and more upset at the fact that he lied to Ford LMAOOOOO he didn’t like the fact that he was disposable and lesser to Bill, despite Ford treating Fiddleford the exact same way.

At the end of all of this… it may seem like I’m really fighting against this ship, but not in the slightest. I LOVEEEE them so much, but in a way where it would be really toxic and not actually end up with anything happening.

Such a biggg theme when it comes to Ford’s character specifically is yearning. He yearns for success and attention and love and acceptance, but he’s constantly never giving other people those things. Which ends in him not receiving any in return. That is obviously until he gets back from dimension hopping and works on being a better person. When he starts towards healing, that’s when he starts receiving what he always wanted.

There’s so much tension between Ford and Fiddleford it's like disgusting, they were so incredibly gay… but, I hate to say it, it was very one-sided. They did have some fun times together and Ford enjoyed his company for quite a bit, but it was nothing like how Fiddleford felt for him. Fiddleford was always thinking about how Ford was feeling and what he was doing, and Ford never really did that for Fiddleford unless he was prompted to. But he was alwayasyayayss thinking about how Bill felt. And he always chose Bill in the end.

I just see so much of all of this get swept under the rug and never addressed, when it's kind of sad because it’s all so interesting and really adds a lot to both of their characters. They were both so morally gray back in their day, and honestly even more so now that they’re older, and its kinda sad to see that all go ignored. I JUST LOVE TOXIC GAYS SM AND THEY WERE SO TOXIC AND I’D LOVE TO SEE PEOPLE EXPLORE THAT MORE. Hopefully maybe this will prompt some people to think about it like this…….. It’s all so very tragic and their relationship was doomed from the start and i loveeeee shit like that. only misery to be had...

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ok so like i get where ppl are coming from with the “the crew loves izzy” takes but also like. ok. i think that take involves a certain amount of reading very deeply into the text to a degree that is almost reading against the text at some points. it’s like when ppl pour all this energy into an underdeveloped and unportant side character—none of those layers ppl add to the character are strictly contradicted by the text, but it clearly wasn’t what the writer intended for anyone to really focus on. and yeah, death of the author, just bc the writers didn’t intend for ppl to think abt something that hard or care about it that much doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to do whatever the fuck we want. but bc i love analyzing the shit out of this show i do want to talk about WHY i think the textual support for this headcanon isn’t rlly there.

first of all. when archie is like “why are we trying so hard to save this guy, he’s kinda a dick” and jim’s like “yeah but he’s our dick.” rather than elaborate on what makes izzy special to them they’re like “it used to be that the crew all had each other’s backs no matter what and things were better back then” while reminiscing fondly about 1. olu and 2. that shot from season 1 where the whole crew is hanging out except for izzy who’s sulking in the background hating everyone. if this was supposed to be an “izzy’s a dick but we love him anyway” moment i would expect jim to talk about. yknow. izzy. instead to me ot comes across more like an “izzy’s a dick but crew is crew, we stick up for each other even if we don’t particularly like each other bc it’s us against the world” which isn’t as impactful from an izzy stanning perspective but i think makes for, like, an interesting allegory abt the queer community. we all gotta defend the rights of ppl in our community even if those specific ppl are dicks and we don’t get along with them.

second of all. after they save izzy’s life and get caught by ed they all leave the room and then a few minutes later a gun goes off. maybe someone saw ed leave the room before the shot was fired, but either way they think either ed just killed izzy or izzy just killed himself. and then they DO NOTHING ABOUT THIS. nobody checks on the body. they put all this effort into saving izzy’s life and then when their efforts are foiled they do not seem that bummed out about it. the next scene with any crew member in it is frenchie talking to ed on deck, and ed is like “go take the day off” and frenchie is like “oh nice!” and he’s like, confused and a little concerned about ed suddenly steering the ship rlly erratically, but he also seems pretty excited about getting some time off (after so many raids in a row i would be too lol). and THEN!!! in the next scene where we get the whole crew, they’re crowded in the hallway that leads out to the deck and the conversation they have isn’t “oh my god i can’t believe ed killed izzy after we cut off izzy’s leg” it’s “maybe ed’s better now? maybe killing izzy was all it took? he seems pretty cheerful for the first time in ages, maybe ed’s okay?” like literally they think ed just killed izzy and they are more worried about ed’s emotional state than they are grieving a beloved shipmate

then in 2.04 the crew B plot is so blatantly “the crew struggles to trust each other again but after seeing izzy be incredibly sad and pathetic they remember that a good crew has each other’s backs no matter what and so they extend izzy some unearned kindness and make him a new leg” that i’m amazed that other interpretations even exist. like literally they’re all drawn away from screaming at each other with weapons drawn by izzy making some dramatic announcement and then falling and then drunkenly crawling away and refusing their help rambling “youre born alone you die alone” over and over again or whatever melodramatic bullshit he said. like he’s muttering abt being miserable and alone and there’s a WHOLE ROOM OF PEOPLE!!! standing RIGHT THERE!!!! like “oh hey man do you need help standing up? no? no ur just gonna crawl away? um. ok.” and then they all go “well at least we’re not as fucked up as that guy. maybe we should do something nice for him?” like they are literally almost explicitly motivated by pity, not fondness. which yeah, it’s probably fucked up the way they use izzy’s new disability to sort of emphasize how pathetic he’s being, but i think the intention there is not that izzy’s pathetic bc he’s disabled, he’s pathetic bc he’s refusing to accept help. like the crew doesn’t go “yikes 😬 at least we don’t have his issues” abt izzy falling down when his makeshift prosthetic breaks, they go “yikes 😬” when he bats away their hands and goes on a weird mumbling tirade. definitely not the most sensitive way to depict izzy in this mental state, but that’s a different post probably. for the sake of THIS post tho: the takeaway i got from this scene is that the crew is remembering how to be there for each other again. it’s easier for them to let go of their paranoia and stop being so defensive and distrustful when izzy is there as an example of what happens when you’re TOO defensive and distrustful. “the crew makes a leg for izzy bc they care about him on a personal level” did not seem to be the focus of that story arc. to me.

in 2.05 we get our first ever instance of a character expressing appreciation for something izzy said or did or some trait he expressed (except for stede that time in 1.06 when izzy backed stede up on wanting to do a fuckery, which he only did specifically bc he wanted stede to fucking die and ed was taking too long), and it’s lucius saying he loves the shark izzy whittled. but during the entire episode leading up to that scene izzy is either in syede’s storyline where he’s not engaging with the crew or he’s getting snarked at by lucius, and not in a fun teasing way. like during that whole bit where izzy steals his cigarettes and calls him “twatty” lucius just looks so fucking annoyed and then uncomfortable. and then at the end of the episode izzy is sort of offering him advice and lucius is just sarcastically like “that sounds healthy.” and within this storyline, the point of these scenes isn’t rlly abt the developing and deepening relationship btwn izzy and lucius, it’s abt lucius individually coping w his trauma. izzy in this episode kinda exists in a weird place in the narrative, where he plays a supporting role in two different characters’ (lucius’s and stede’s) storylines without getting a central arc for himself. and both of those two storylines are only really about lucius and stede respectively, izzy is just there as this a static character who imparts wise advice. which is a very weird role for him to take, imo, but on top of that it doesn’t rlly contribute any sense of like, actual bonding btwn izzy and the other two.

and in 2.06 they just enjoy the show izzy puts on. they like listening to him sing. it’s all very cute! but also. i would not say that it shows the crew really cares about izzy?? i was in pit orchestra in high school and all the lead theater kids were always fucking assholes but they were also rlly good singers and it was fun to listen to them. i would mouth along to the words being sung by bitches who seemed to be trying to be sharpay evans irl for some bizarre fucking reason. like, cartoonishly mean girls. so like, the crew listening and dancing to izzy’s song doesn’t rlly sell “the crew loves izzy” to me. if anything, i would say that actually a stronger indicator of the crew loving izzy would be wee john sharing his makeup, and it’s a shame that we don’t get to see this happen. i mean that genuinely, i think that would’ve been a great moment to rlly strengthen izzy’s arc and it just. doesn’t exist on screen. and this isn’t like the finale where we know for a fact that they had to force a 40-minute episode into 30 minutes, Calypso’s Birthday has a runtime WELL under 30 minutes. it would’ve been SO easy to add another like 45 seconds of izzy and wee john getting ready together, but the only moment they show us is izzy walking in and discovering drag for the first time. it feels like the focus of this scene is less about a moment of connection between two characters and more about izzy individually having a gender breakthrough—and that carries on with the rest of the performance, too. bc it’s a performance, it’s everyone looking at izzy, it’s izzy a half step away from the crew as he puts on a show. the narrative framing of all this puts the focus entirely on izzy as a solo act, not on izzy as part of the crew. they like his performance, but we aren’t rlly shown evidence of the crew liking him as a person.

and that’s kinda it for izzy and the crew! up until he’s actively dying in ed’s arms and they’re all in the background silently weeping, at least (and btw, speaking from experience but uhhhh it’s pretty normal to cry when u watch someone die even if u have literally no connection to the person dying). even when they’re helping him back to the ship, ed is the one who notices he’s injured, nobody notices until he’s already giving izzy support. and i fully believe roach flips off izzy’s grave marker with fondness, but that’s also like. the only little personal moment any of them aside from ed has during the funeral. they do all laugh at his pinocchio joke earlier in the ep but idk if that one line can carry the entire weight of “the crew loves izzy” on its own. apparently there’s some shots during the zheng v stede fight where izzy can be seen in the background close to jim and archie??? but like, you can’t tell me a background shot of izzy standing near some crew members is strong textual support for the crew loving him. and i don’t think i need to argue abt any scenes in s1 bc literally every single crew member who was on that boat, ivan and fang included, was about to fucking drown him in the fucking ocean.

there is one single scene that gives actual strong evidence that anyone other than ed likes or cares about izzy. it’s the part at the end of impossible birds when fang is crying after ed shot izzy. so maybe fang specifically loves izzy, even tho izzy used to pull fang’s beard a lot and fang didn’t like it bc it hurt. idk.

here’s the thing tho. in 2.01 the writers use dialogue very effectively to tell us about the kraken era. the crew doesn’t say much, but what the do say tells us a lot: we know that archie thinks the kraken era is all normal pirating stuff, jim felt like the wedding raid (which seems like their only raid on a civilian ship and not a military one) was a step too far, frenchie is Not Okay but he’s doing a fantastic job repressing everything, izzy looks tired but the specific thing echoing in his head right before he starts crying in front of the crew is ed telling him “if you can’t do the job, someone else will.”

and we know fang, who’s known ed for decades, has never seen ed like this. and the specific thing he mentions as something he’s never seen from ed before is not batting an eye when ivan died. meaning that even before meeting stede, fang would’ve expected ed to have some sort of reaction to ivan dying.

and the thing about ivan is that we know next to nothing about him. he has very little dialogue in season one. we don’t even know how long he’s been working with ed—long enough to have at least heard about fang having to put his dog down bc “the love of a pet makes a man weak” when fang joined ed’s ship years ago, even if ivan wasn’t actually there yet at the time—but we do know that watching ed tell ghost stories was apparently the most open and available he’d ever seen ed get. so it doesn’t sound like ivan and ed were especially close. ivan was almost certainly less close to ed than izzy was.

if fang expected to see ed have some sort of reaction to the death of an ordinary crew member (who mightve been working for ed for decades, might’ve been working for him for months, we really can’t say) who wasn’t even that close to ed, seeing ed casually and unflinchingly inflict a life-threatening gunshot to his first mate must’ve been fucking earth-shattering. and interpretation is also supported by what fang actually says while he’s crying at the end of 2.01—it’s not “i can’t stop crying, izzy’s hurt” or “i can’t stop crying, izzy’s going to die.” its “i can’t stop crying, ed shot izzy.” more than the imminent demise of a crew member, fang is shaking and sobbing and traumatized because he can’t believe ed would do that.

and if that feels like a reach, just remember what happens after the leg is cut off, after the crew most likely believes ed shot izzy again, this time 100% fatally: the whole crew is crowded in the hallway, and fang asks “do we think he’s… better?”

fang is not sad about izzy. or if he is, it’s dwarfed by how much more sad fang is about ed.

in conclusion: have fun with ur headcanons i am not the boss of you but also there is less canonical textual evidence of the crew loving izzy than some of y’all seem to think k byeeeee

[star-centric]

I'm glad to hear you liked the older Nakahara prompt I sent! Hope you don't mind if I send another, I really like this idea as well. I was thinking of the aftermath of Chuuya learning about his siblings' amnesia and thought what if: Dazai got attached to Chuuya's sibling during the time they were together the same way he started to care for Oda and Ango in the future, basically genuinely seeing them as an older sibling. So now, he's constantly bickering back and forth with Chuuya (not that it's any different from Canon) like brothers and arguing over who's the favorite little brother. I say this because Chuuya's sibling would probably start to see him as a younger brother again, but in a sort of "I already have one baby brother, what's one more?" Type of way. They don't remember that he's their actual brother and think he's mistaken them for his actual sibling. They still think Dazai is their brother. I mean this in a funny way. They complain to Kouyou all the time about their "Little brothers who are constantly fighting"

CHARACTERS: Chuuya Nakahara and Older Sibling!Reader

NOTE: I guess this would count as a “sequel” (?) to this post, but that part doesn’t need to be read to understand this!

CW: strictly platonic/familial relationship, fluff, a teeny tiny bit of angst if you squint but it’s barely noticeable, mild language

“What am I going to do Kouyou?”

“I don’t think there is anything you could do.”

You sighed, already tempted to let your head fall on the table. You felt annoyed, confused, and more importantly- tired. Even when they weren’t around, you could still hear their arguments in your head.

You knew that Dazai and Chuuya had…friction between them. It wasn’t weird that they argue- you just didn’t think it would happen so much. It was tolerable at first, but now it’s getting to the point that you’re wondering what you did to deserve this. They may be two of the deadliest assets to the Port Mafia, but they’re still kids- and your little brothers.

“I mean, their fights don’t even make sense half of the time!” You whined. “I know that they’re teens and it’s bound to happen, but every single day? Don’t I deserve a break from this madness too?”

All Kouyou could do is chuckle and sip on her tea. You wish you could be relaxed like she was, even if she was being entertained by your pain at the moment.

“Of course you do- but I don’t think there’s any way for them to get along willingly outside of missions.”

“They can’t even get along during missions.” Which was true. The mission would be complete and you would come back with what was needed, but Dazai and Chuuya would still bump heads. Sometimes you wondered if your targets were grateful that they would be unconscious if it meant not having to listen to literal teens argue about whatever- you were a little jealous.

“They don’t realize how similar they are to each other- same with their goals revolving around you.”

“Which would be what?”

Kouyou was about to answer when you both heard a smash. Then yelling that was indiscernible at first until-

“See? That’s why I’m the favorite brother!”

“Like hell you are- you’re not even their brother!”

“That’s not what they think.”

You groaned while Kouyou watched on Dazai and Chuuya walked in, glaring at one another.

“Seems like that’s my cue to leave.”

“Wait Kouyou please-“

“I’ll stop by another time when you won’t be so…preoccupied. Have fun!” And with that, she walked off, heels clicking down the hall even with the growing yelling nearing your ears.

Dazai and Chuuya were already at each others throat, ready to hurl out more insults when you finally had enough.

You placed a hand on top of their hands, instantly silencing them.

If you didn’t care for them, you would probably both have them on the floor writhing in pain, showing the same mercy that you showed your enemies- which was none.

But you really did care for them- both of them.

“Hey, didn’t I say you two need to start being nicer to each other?”

“You can’t expect me to be nice to that dog-“

“And you can’t expect me to be nice to that bastard!”

You sighed- don’t know why you expected a different outcome.

“You’re both my favorites- so can you please stop now?”

You ruffled their locks, hearing them grumble under their breaths. You rolled your eyes- they can be so dramatic.

“You’re both my brothers, and nothing is going to change that.”

Chuuya snuck away from your touch, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. You’ve both come a long way from your initial meeting, and while there were some rockiness in the beginning, your relationship had gotten significantly better.

You really did see Chuuya as a brother.

But every time you said that, he would always look so…sad. So defeated, so bitter.

“I’m going to report to the boss.”

He sucked his teeth and walked away, not giving you a chance to stop him.

You thought you messed up any chance of a bond at first, but he gravitated towards you like nothing- so what was the issue? Even with Dazai trying to grab your attention, you couldn’t shake off your worriness.

You would try to get him to tell you what’s wrong, but he would just play it off like it’s nothing. The way his eyes looked just now told you a different story.

It bothered you that you couldn’t decipher what was eating at him. Your head would throb in frustration the harder you tried to dived into it. It was like an itch that you couldn’t scratch, the one thing that would linger on your mind each day.

It was like you were forgetting something.

[shunnedmorlock]

Hi! What are your opinions on each of the greens ?

Have a good day/night!

Otto: I think he gets a bad rap, not in absolute terms but relatively to the people like Viserys and Daemon. If you hate Otto for pushing Alicent to marry Viserys, you should hate Viserys much, much more. Otto is "merely" complicit in what happened. There was no one Vissy could've said no to more effectively than Otto. It just goes to a double standard you see a lot with these farcical black-green debates where people change their opinions on whether it's ok to judge people by in-universe standards depending on what "team" they're a part of. He has a habit of telling unfortunate truths that get him in trouble, but most of the things he says are just, like, objectively true, but people don't want to hear it. Daemon is actually a danger to the realm and his brother, Rhaenyra does actually have to give the scions of great houses a hearing, Daemon did actually groom Rhaenyra to claim the throne, Alicent's children do pose an inherent threat to Rhaenyra by their mere existence.

From a Doylist perspective, like many other things, I think episode 9 really butchered Otto's character. All of a sudden the guy who has been working hand in hand with his daughter for the past few episodes didn't tell her about the plot to seat her son on the throne??? And now the guy who got fired by Aegon for being too slow and measured in his war planning is pushing to kill Rhaenyra immediately? And he wants to send the Kingsguard to do clandestine assassin work? And he's reluctant to ban child fighting pits for like no reason? I'm sorry, you don't have to be a feminist to not like that!

Alicent: I have talked about her at length. Nixonian Queen. I kneel. The war will make her worse, and I enjoy it. One of the characters I think on-balance the show improved.

Criston: Not a good guy by any means, but dismissing him as just a resentful incel is just boring. It's very clear he was, at best, conflicted about his tryst with Rhaenyra to begin with - he liked her, they had a lot of chemistry, but he does genuinely believe in his vows. The marriage thing is obviously silly and naive, but from his perspective it's him trying to do right by her (and also preserve himself and his soul), which puts him a step above many other Westerosi men who canonically often feel no obligations to the women they sleep with outside of marriage or the children created. There is a real difference in values between him and Rhaenyra that goes beyond him hating women, even if his values aren't strictly speaking good. I'm sorry, but the fact that a Westerosi man is as sexually repressed as an average Westerosi woman is genuinely a point in his favor! I sincerely hope he and Alicent make each other worse. Substantially improved by the show.

Aegon: This is going to be controversial, but baffling/over-the-top/ill-thought-out decisions like Dyana and the child fighting pits aside, I much prefer this version of Aegon to F&B. I don't care that he's kind of pathetic, that's fun, that's drama, that gives room for character development and growth into the king he ends up becoming. It's clear the writers do want Aegon to be kind of sympathetic, but it seems they didn't consider what stuff like Dyana would do to that, which to me indicates they meant the focus of that scene to be Alicent and her behavior, not Aegon. Which is stupid. One of the worse victims of inconsistent characterization, switching between vaguely sympathetic drunken frat bro to outright sex criminal every episode, or even in the same episode.

Helaena: I like what they've done with her. It's more interesting for her to be a doomed neurodivergent prophetess than just a little dumb, even though she hasn't done a ton so far. Similarly, in an RP I was a part of, Jaehaera was depicted as not simple, just autistic and it was much more interesting.

Aemond: BORING! Don't care about this guy, sorry. Maybe I'll like him more when he is pathetically down-bad for Alys Rivers, but right now he's just like budget Daemon to me, who I also find boring. He was more interesting as a bullied teen.

Larys: He's a tough guy to adapt because his motivations are kind of nonsensical behind a vague idea of getting back at Rhaenyra (?) for dishonoring his brother (??) by putting his children in line for the throne (???). The foot thing is kind of gross and I do wish they'd have given him an actual motivation but whatever. The actor's good and I do like him and Alicent on balance. Improved by the adaptation.

Tyland: We love our little bureaucrat don't we folks? Hope he gets more screen time later on.

Jasper Wylde: FUCK YOU SHOWRUNNERS WHY IS THE GUY WHO HAS HAD ONE LINE THIS ENTIRE SEASON PART OF THE COUP BUT NOT ALICENT FUCKING HIGHTOWER??????

[triangle-strategy-notes]

Triangle Strategy Timeline

Ta-da! I finally have a relatively complete timeline for the Triangle Strategy canon events (albeit a really speculative one). It’s stored on Google Drive as a sheet:

Triangle Strategy Timeline

The fun thing about using Google Sheets is that I could make it completely adjustable, meaning you can plug in different amounts of days for different events and it'll calculate the whole thing automatically. I purposefully made it this way because Triangle Strategy's timeline is really pretty flexible and a lot of it is up to interpretation.

I feel like I might've mentioned this before on a previous post, but one weird thing about the timeline (and the reason why I wanted to do those polls the other day and get a reality check) is that there's really nothing to say that the events of the story took more than about one month. That's 1 (one) ONE month. As a lot of people agreed on the polls, it definitely feel like the war takes a lot longer than that, but there just aren't a ton of explicit references to the amount of time passing that would prove it took place over a longer amount of time. In fact, there are a lot of places where it kind of feels like the game implies otherwise, that things are happening over the course of hours/days vs weeks/months.

One of the worst examples of this is this sequence from Chapter 4 where everything from Dragan finding the salt to Maxwell's death on Whiteholm Bridge seems to be implied to take place in less than 24 hours.

In order:

We see Dragan find the salt

It immediately cuts to House Wolffort talking about Frederica's wedding dress and say they are leaving at once to make the request

Frederica arrives in the Rosellan village and they start taking her measurements

There's a "Meanwhile..." title card and then a scene that shows Roland leaving Whiteholm to head toward the Wolffort demesne

Dragan sends a letter to Gustadolph about the salt

Gustadolph receives his note

As Frederica finishes up her measurements (implying that all the stuff in between has happened in the same day!!!), Roland meets up with Serenoa and co. and takes them to the mines

they get to the mines, everything goes down and Dragan is killed

they hear about the invasion in Whiteholm

they run down to Whiteholm and get there that!! same!!! night!!! during the invasion

You can make arguments that some of the scenes were flashback-ish and/or weren't meant to be strictly chronological (which is what I did lol), but the game does seem to at least imply that Gustadolph found out about the salt and then managed to mobilize his entire army and get down to Whiteholm in the span of like. a few hours

There are other factors that make the timeline weird as well, which I talk about more in the timeline itself. But mostly I just wanted to say: this timeline is sort of goofy to begin with and at some point it really became more of a "you can use this as a tool to plot out your fanfic's timeline" than it is a "this is a strict canon timeline" lol. There's so little to go off of that you can really just assume whatever you want and then go with it :)

And as always, feel free to point out if there's anything you see that's inaccurate. There's so much going on in Triangle Strategy and I almost definitely missed things/got things wrong in different places. Comments are enabled on the sheets, so if you want to leave a note that way, definitely go ahead!

[aida-sparks]

Buddie Season 7 Hype and "Brothers" Rumor

I know some of us may have seen the "brother" rumors floating around, hinting that an upcoming Buck and Eddie scene this season might officially cast their relationship as strictly platonic.

Some fans just want to live in the buddie moment and be happy after the stills and 7x04 synopsis dropped. I get it. It's fun being on the buddie train. But some are worried now that they've gotten their hopes up. I get that too. So I just wanted to talk about it here on my little buddie blog. If you're unbothered by it, definitely scroll past this post.

Firstly, we don't know yet if they will actually call each other brothers or not. It's just rumors at this point, from what I can tell. And if even if they do, we don't know the full context of it or either character's reaction to it. Secondly, just the way the show has stirred up the buddie hype this season makes me want to believe the "brother" dialogue that may or may not even happen would NOT be meant to shut down buddie canon hope once and for all.

While I don't think we're getting a clear and true, full out buddie-feelings-realization in these next couple episodes, it would be very cruel if the show instead went in the extreme opposite direction and defined their relationship as "like brothers" at the end of this particular storyline that has fans so hyped up, if their intention in doing so is meant to cement their relationship in the general audience's eyes as brotherly only. Let's be real: the show has ramped up the marketing attention on Buck and Eddie this season like never before. From pre-releasing a ton of Buck-and-Eddie-centric stills to the decision of pairing Ryan and Oliver together so damn much for promotions … all actions not seen on this level in any previous seasons.

To me, that demonstrates the show's intentions to build hope for buddie rather than dash it.

Especially because we know the show KNOWS their audience. I think the show knows how to market to the buddie fandom, even when they're marketing differently to the rest of the general audience and other potential viewers. They are acutely aware that the buddie fans tend to be dialed in, always seeing the episode stills the instant they're released, waiting on pins and needles for the next synopsis to drop, theorizing, reading each article, devouring every interview, examining bts details, etc. They tend to be highly engaged fans.

The showrunners and powers-that-be know how this promotional content is perceived and are aware of the fandom's dedication, and so have fed into the fervor with strategically released content for calculated engagement. And now we have the carefully worded synopsis for 7x04, where we've been told Eddie will form a close bond with someone else, and Buck will be envious over it. It's obvious how buddie fans will perceive this. So for them to pivot so sharply and end up defining Buck and Eddie's relationship as nothing more than brotherly after such a known buildup would not only be a massive letdown but might also be perceived as an uncaring bait-and-switch tactic. And I really don't they would do that to their fans.

They wouldn't hype us up to the top of a cliff knowing they're only going to throw us off it, right?

I don't want to get into if it would be queer baiting or not; the situation isn't black and white, and I don't think it's blatant enough to be considered anything like that. It's more about the emotional investment the fans have made, based on the carefully crafted cues the show has provided them with. The ethical route, if the showrunner's intention this season was always to solidify buddie as a brotherly bond with no romantic potential, would have been to firmly manage expectations from the start rather than amplifying them to the point of no return going into this network change and new season. To sum up here, the buildup we've been given around Buck and Eddie lately leads me to hope we're moving in an optimistic direction that will eventually culminate in the chance for a buddie romance at some point in the series. At the very least, I hope it means we're not going to have our hopes crushed entirely and see Buck and Eddie be officially friend-zoned. (Even though we can certainly still ship them to eternity and beyond regardless, it means so much if them going canon remain a possibility.)

To officially redefine Buck and Eddie's pairing in strictly platonic terms now, after all these seasons, would not only be a disservice to an incredibly invested fanbase but also a hell of a missed opportunity to go on and explore a rich relationship in a more dynamic way, especially as buddie has captivated viewers for so long in a slow-burn sense already.

[leadandblood]

Crozcest rewatch part 4 🙈

Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 here

They'll soon be on ao3, but I want to do that all at once and format them all prettily and add links and such. I'll keep posting the new ones on here, but they'll be on AO3 as well. Just with a slight delay.

Mandatory warnings in case there might be somebody new...

Below are my interpretations of canon scenes along with screencaps from the show. All the things below are speculation. No, these characters are not related whatsoever in the show. I made this AU up bc it's fun. Don't go into the soup store if you hate soup. Don't read this post if you hate blorbo incest.

Overall

Watching 'Punished as a boy' now.

I made some gifs for this one to make it more fun ^^ God knows it's fucking long... (almost 2k words) Anyway. Enjoy. ...If you can.

This is where we start to get the juicy anti-Edward attitude on screen and I'm so here for iiiittttttt!!!! Tommy has to confont some things and so does Francis (but he'll avoid it, obviously).

The Pissing

I know it only happens at the end, I just thought it'd be funny to call this segment that. Anyway-

I straight up believe Tom thought Francis was like yanking it or something. You just KNOW it's happened before. I know it, anyway. Not just on the ship, it happened at home, too.

The way he awkwardly looks around like he's trying to figure out wtf Crozier is doing. The whiskey glass is nowhere near him, so what's he doing?? More importantly, can Tom help?

"Sorry to interrupt... sir..." I LOVE that he sounds like he can't decide whether to add the sir or not, but says it at last second anyway. He soooo wants to say "daddy" btw. so badly wants to say it. The only thing keeping him from doing it is a lashing. (They're both strictly prohibited from ever calling him father/papa/anything similar while on the expedition. There will be exceptions, though)

Face before "Lt. Little" mention and after "Lt. Little" mention. "SHIT I forgot I also have a worse son. And responsibilities. FUCK."

Am I losing my marbles or does he look kind of fond for a second there? BTW he straight up looks like a frog here (said with utter love and respect)

Anyway, Tommy - ever the good boy he is - starts cleaning up, maybe, possibly, to help fix Francis's mood? I reckon he tends to be in a better mood when things are in order.

Tom's also trying very hard not to stare, probably. Francis stop spreading your legs like a whore, you're distracting him from work. He'd so love to just kneel between them and [redacted]. He's holding on by sheer willpower.

Francis asking if he knows the headlines, because he knows how observant he is and how much he pays attention to everything. It's frustrating, because Francis CAN do better at parenting, he just doesn't. Doesn't see the point anymore since they're both adults and "don't need support". Except for punishment, he's still willing to punish them.

Thomas I swear to god.

I think if Francis saw that he'd give him a good talking to. And the "me, sir? :3c" do i have to say anything...... well yeah i actually do- He can be such a little shit. It's just Crozier's luck that he chooses to be a sweet little angel in front of him most of the time.

I can't help but imagine what younger drunk Thomas must've been like... Full of sass and bite, probably. I need to write that one day.

"Job son, you hear everything." biting screaming throwing up. "FINE dad, you got me, here goes-"

I do love the way he says lieutenant Little, it's got such a nice sound to it. Again, very funny that Francis sort of sighs at the name Little. I think he regrets chosing it, lol. But! Edward's got a point! And these two both agree! For once! (and for now)

The pissing my god the pissing what do i even say about it. Tom's voice seems to quiver a bit, which is amazing. My man, that's your fucking father, stop being horny.

"have you ever thought of becoming a newsman?" what a thing to ask your son who is like 25 by this point and for whom you chose the career of a sailor. But better late than never, I guess. A job opportunity for when they come back home, teehee.

Anyway, I have to move on, or I won't watch anything else. I can't stay on this scene the entire post, it's already way too long.

Ship attack

Tommy finally realising this could happen to any of them...

This is the point when he starts being nicer to Edward. From this point on, he's truly finally realising, that any of them could die at any moment. The ship isn't safe anymore. Edward isn't safe. Francis isn't safe. He himself isn't safe. Like, he knew it in theory before, but it really hit him here.

It's hammered in by "it's come onto the ship, Edward" because they all realise that nowhere is safe now. Francis has this "oh fuck" moment too, that's why he goes to Edward to maybe comfort him or maybe to even comfort himself.

Btw they're so related it's disgusting.

"Please don't go, I'm scared for you" you see, Tommy, daddy has this thing called plot armor, so-

Francis and his youngest son- no, just kidding. But he's so very paternal with Evans, it's adorable. More than his own sons... which is a bit sad. "No ship's boys. Evans..." He's got it in him! Somewhere! It's there! Just to dig it out and use it.

To make this scene and the ones after worse - He's remembering his own boys when they were scared. Tommy clinging to his leg, yelling "papa!" over and over until Francis picked him up. Ned sobbing into his coat because he took too long to come home one night... (i'm fine btw << a liar)

Unfortunately, this is the worst time for him to choose to be comforting and mother-hen-y (not a word, probably, but you get my point).

After Evans dies :((

I like how Edward (I think it's him anyway) is welcoming everyone back.

He's probably waiting in agony for Francis to appear. I also think Crozier told him specifically to stay on the ship, so he wouldn't be in as much danger. He still has most of his common sense and the Edward hate isn't so bad yet either.

I want to say something intelligent about this scene, but I can't, other than Thomas missing should mean something.

Maybe these three having the most (?) hope until the end and lasting so long without any signs of scurvy, while Thomas wastes away pretty quickly after walkout... Just a fun thing to think about. (not)

"perhaps you should curb that for now" you KNOW Lydia used to tell him that exact same thing.

Anyway this scene makes me rabid even in canon. He did it for Sophy bc he wants to be with herrr. What if I bite you, sir. In the Au with the added context of wanting the boys to have a mother figure. *bursts into flame*

I think Francis might be a little obsessed with this idea of finding a mother to his boys, more so than finding a partner to himself. Like he's been doing it for years and it's turned into this unachieved goal he persues only because he's used to it. (dgmw though, he does very much love Sophia) Anyway.

Edward's. So. Fucking. Cute. "Yes, father 😔"

He's pretty much only looking at Francis in this scene, except for a one time glance at Irving after he asked a question. It's making me run in circles. (kind of funny, actually, EVERBODY is looking at Francis. James is there too, you guys-)

Flashback

He loves her so much I'm-

Thomas would be so jealous if he saw them btw. On the other hand, Edward would cheer them on. I think he'd actually give Francis some subliminal messaging, whispering to him while he's sleeping like "you want to marry Sophia so bad" because Sophia's been nice to Edward and he's dying to have someone who might actually like him in the house. *starts sobbing*

BING BONG, DADDY'S HERE

Deploy the guard dog!

That's right Tommy, show 'em.

"EVERYONE ON THEIR KNEES RIGHT NOW!!" hahaha, do you think he screamed at the boys like that when they were fighting, lmao- *bursts into flame*

Yes he did, he very much did and his voice used to be a bit stronger, too. I bet Edward flinched when he heard him yell. I don't think Tom would've heard over the people below deck, but he'd flinch too if he did.

All it took to call Edward over was one vague head movement that I didn't notice until my fourth rewatch, so I think it's safe to say they're both used to this and that Edward is a good boy, actually-

Interrogation

I can't stop laughing, they're literally two parents whose kids misbehaved at school-

I know I made the Fitzjames = wine mom joke like 5 times already but aaah! look at them 😭

btw....

I could make a whole post of just them doing things synchronously. This episode is so rich with it...

Francis is very amused.

He doesn't believe a single fucking word Hickey is saying. He has kids. They have lied to him. He knows what it looks like when a kid's lying (Hickey's not a kid, but you know. close enough)

Angry Ned! You do NOT talk to his dad with that tone of voice. (I'm so normal about his teefs, btw, I promise)

So fun and lovely that Edward can also go protecc mode, just in different situations from Thomas. He's so angry oh my goooood, giggling kicking my feet. "You disrespect my dad? Die." He's literally shaking with it.

Breathe, my guy. And stop being so tense, you're not the one getting punished (for once)

Francis is so nonchalant about announcing the punishment, he's done it so many times before... He definitely enjoys it to at least some extent, too. Like, maybe doesn't hugely revel in it, but it does give him a little kick. A little boost to the ego.

*WHAM*

Edward flinched so hard at that table slam. And that's canon, it's not my fault the camera isn't on him, it's canon because I said so-

The lashing

Hey boys, what's wrong? :) Is your dad doing something very questionable? :))) Something deplorable? :))))))

I already did the "Thomas won't look at the lashing if it got him a million pounds" spiel somewhere, but yeah, he's absolutely remembering his own lashing.

He's already tense after seeing Hartnell and Manson, but I think this one's even worse, bc of how humiliating it is. He is NOT having a good time (also flinches! bonus points)

I think in this whole scene, Francis is thinking "I'm gonna be the strict father figure these boys need" and kind of overdoes it and forgets his humanity for a bit, woopsie!

Not like he was any good at controlling it before. He was shit at it, really, especially with Nedward. Oftentimes the punishments would be over the top unreasonable. He still punishes them, btw. Well into adulthood. They're horribly codependant and severely broken <3

Wallowing in self-hate all by yourself, handsome?

Very telling, btw, that Ned didn't want to come talk to Francis himself and sent Irving instead. He's scared of him. So very scared of him. And I think Thomas is, too, when he's in this state, although he doesn't want to admit it to himself. I'll get to it in ep 5, but yeah, he hates when Francis is drunk.

Conclusion

WHAT AN EPISODE. This took DAYS to compile, wow. Francis begins to antagonize Edward in this ep much more, even though his concerns are valid.

My theory of Edward taking/inheriting mannerisms and other behaviours from his father is being supported sooo well, it's basically writing itself.

The boys have been confronted by a side to Crozier they haven't seen in a long time (mostly because they're so well behaved and he doesn't have to punish them very often) They're very unsettled by it, too. Also scared. It's delicious.

If this was ep 4 i can't even hope for what ep 5 and 6 will hold *melts into a puddle of heart shaped marshmallows*

[astro-b-o-y-d]

What sort of concepts or ideas have you had that you've either replaced or had to abandon? Things like characters, plots that didn't make sense in the long run, fun facts that won't be relevant in the final? It's always interesting to see what sort of stuff was in the prototype versions of stories!

GOOD QUESTION.

I think so far, I haven't had to really ABANDON any of my ideas so much as simply tweak them a little to the left when it comes to fitting them within the story. Like the eventual Big Bad of the story might turn a little different in the final product than what I initially planned with him (I also bounced back and forth on WHO I wanted him to be in terms of how he fits into the plot), but the overall concept will still be the same as what I'd originally wanted.

I do have a few fun little tidbits I can share, though~! Going into this story, I wasn't actually sure if I was going to make Bill both physically AND mentally a child. I was still bouncing between 'maybe he's just STUCK in the body of a teenager but not actually one' and 'no, wait, he's actually been stuck at this age for a trillion years'. I did briefly consider keeping him an adult, before I was like 'Hmm, well, the Pines family having beef with some kid would be way funnier.' and went with that.

There's another good one; I'd initially put Bill at 13-14 years old mentally. Obviously the little joke in TBOB inspired me to bump it down to twelve, which I feel is the opposite of a problem. It works so much better AND it's far more amusing to me. PLUS HEY, dubiously-canon evidence to point to when it comes to that plan!

ALSO ALSO a super big change!!! Mina was not a thing during the earliest stages of the fic being planned!!! I'm serious, I only made her about a year or so ago, whereas I'd been planning out the fic for about two-and-a-half years at this point. She helped me expand on my story plans a LOT, especially in terms of my plans for her and Bill's home dimension.

Speaking of which, you would think the recent TBOB stuff would've crushed a lot of plans regarding that. Realistically, it was less than you'd think. Sure, I'll end up tweaking Scalene and Euclid's personalities away from what I'd initially planned for them.

But even THEN, my overall plans for the Second Dimension/Euclydia were so flimsy and malleable because by the time it was important to think about, TBOB had been announced. I knew by that point I had a potential ticking clock when it came to new canon information about Bill's dimension, so while I did have SOME plans, I tried to keep them from being too set-in-stone.

Some I will still have to ditch, unfortunately. I did have some concepts regarding Bill and Mina being a twin pair of equilateral triangles and how that was something rare and interesting to their dimension, causing their parents to both treat them as trophies to show off while also berating them if they step too far out of line. That'll have to be scrapped; with Bill's mutation, it just feels redundant to include. Maybe it'll still be a neat thing for them, but overall it won't be super important to the plot.

Not to mention the concept of shapes being male and lines being female as a whole I've clearly had to toss out, which is really only a shame in the sense that you can't immediately look at a female shape OC like Mina and know right off the bat she's trans. But that's not a HUGE issue; Mina is trans in the sense that she is both a female triangle and a female human girl. As I've said in the past, she's never wanted to be seen as a LINE. So lines not being strictly female in Euclydia isn't a huge deal.

I think finally, I can bring up Scalene and Euclid, and how we have crumbs of information about them. As I said before, I've had to scrap some of my initial ideas for their personalities, as flimsy and wavering as those initial plans had been. I'd had this idea of them using the intrigue of their rare twin equilateral triangles to help get them further in life, thus the pressure for them to stay in line. I don't think I'm going to make them that cruel in canon, or even that well off.

I'm still working out the details in terms of how I want to characterize them, but the most important goal for me is to make them...well, for lack of a better term, human. They will be very flawed individuals, ones who cared for their kids and each other, but still did a lot of things to both traumatize said kids (whether it's deliberately or even not deliberately), and cause their originally-strong relationship to waiver. Their tale will be a tragic one for both themselves and their kids, and I'm very excited to get there.

Wow, this got long. Clearly I had a lot to talk about and I don't even think that's EVERYTHING, just the stuff off the top of my head I can recall! We'll see if the list gets bigger as time goes on!

[ratcandy]

[in regards to the dialogue immersion post or whatever] ok but i'd love to listen to you ramble actually. i love when people pay attention to characterization in dialogue. like its the number one thing i pay attention to when im reading stuff. i wish people would take that in consideration more when writing fanfics especially because when its ignored it throws everything off. ye

Incredibly dangerous ask because honest to god when it comes to writing/reading this is the one thing I'm stupidly obnoxious about!!

Massive ramble below where I am being a little hater. No effort made to put this in any semblance of order I just starting going Off

Character voice is so so so important when making a believable character and yes especially in fanfic I feel this is largely ignored. I mean, I get it, people's interpretations on characters will vary, and in the cases of alternate universes you can make up whatever you want in how a character would or wouldn't act. BUT if you're trying to emulate canon in any way, getting a character's voice/mannerisms right is SO. SO crucial to that process.

What words do they use? How do they move when they talk? How does their tone shift? How do they react to certain situations? How would they react to other characters in those situations? Would they be the type to stammer or freeze up under stress? How do they insult others? DO they insult others? Is this guy gonna say "fuck" or is he gonna say "how unfortunate"?? Literally So SO SOOO Much that can be taken into consideration here and I don't know why more people DON'T. Like that's the FUN part!!! You're putting that beast into a situation, don't you want to know how that beast would act??

And in both fanfic and in original works keeping that characterization consistent is a whole other debacle. And beyond THAT, figuring out the right time to break that consistency for the purposes of showing character emotion or urgency.

Because yes, a character might speak eloquently and keep their cool 90% of the time, but in a high-pressure situation or when very vulnerable, that eloquence could totally falter. Or it might not! Maybe that character deals well under pressure or doesn't let their emotions get the better of them! But that's all stuff that needs to be understood before writing a character!!!!

Otherwise you can take a poised, calm character and suddenly have them explode with no rhyme or reason to that explosion and have it feel totally out of place. Especially if that change is never hinted at prior, brought back up, or happens again.

but back to fanfic Honestly this is a huge reason why I can be so picky with fanfiction that I read. I don't need it to adhere strictly to canon - if I want a word-by-word retelling of the plot I can just go back to the source material - but if the dialogue feels off I will get turned off so fast and back out in an Instant

Like if it's blatant character breaking (he would NOT fucking say that), that's one thing. But where I get obnoxious is in the case of. Well. He would say that, but not phrased that way. Not in that vocab

Ok bear with me here, but where I've been the worst about this has been Zote characterization. YES, SORRY, THE GUY, WHATEVER. But that may very well be because I spent 1 straight year studying his dialogue and trying my damnedest to replicate it to the point where now I can just Talk Like That when he chooses to repossess me. But my point is this asshole talks in such a particular, specific-ass way, and no one seems to understand that bUT ME!!!!!

For an example of my obnoxiousness I once saw a thing where they had Zote say something like "I'll kill you" and out loud I launched into an entire rant about how he would NOT say it like that. He just wouldn't. This Man Doesn't Say Kill. He is bombastic and dramatic and would never simplify a threat down to a measly 3 words and it would most CERTAINLY NOT. BE THE WORD KILL!!!! This man will CUT YOU DOWN. This man will HAVE YOU SLAIN. You will FALL TO LIFE-ENDER'S MIGHTY BLADE, and you will be GRATEFUL in the event he CHOOSES TO DEEM YOU WORTHY OF MERCY.

He would Not say I'll Kill You. No. Never. That is not his dialogue. That is not how he speaks. I, however, Will kill you/j

anyway what was I saying. Yes. Character voice is so important. Setting also matters of course, like that post was getting at (whenever I see modern slang inserted into a world that most certainly would not have it I crumple up into a little ball and die) but it's like. A setting's influence on a character's voice and mannerisms are inherently linked. Like. Obviously one of these will have to do with the other, that is inescapable

With my Zote example it would be very silly of me to have him in a modern setting talking the way he does unless he was doing it ironically. His manner of speaking is just a more dramatic, dialed-up version of the way bugs of Hallownest already speak. And that's just the Setting. If I were to transfer him to any form of modern au where characters talk like people talk now, I. Simply wouldn't actually because this is a big reason why I don't have fun with modern AUs SHDGKLJHSG, those kinda need you to alter how characters talk to make it believable and then I will just already be taken out of it from the get-go

Just like it'd feel really jarring to have Hallownest bugs talk in modern slang . it goes Both Ways

as for curse words which were touched on in that other post, I think that boils down to personal preference. In games like CoTL or even HK, obviously there's not a bunch of Fucks and Shits and Bitches because then the rating would need to be upped. And also it just really clashes with the world (personally) But in fanfic (or in original works of historical fiction), I feel like there's more fair leniency on that, because curse words such as Fuck have been around for a Very, Very Long Time. An argument could be made for the validity of using those words in that setting, if u want to.

But Me Personally. I do not like making characters from pre-established media where there is no fuck-word suddenly use the fuck-word. Or shit or bitch or anything like that. As a person who swears like a sailor every day. Like the extent you'll get out of me is Damn or Bastard. Because otherwise it Clashes. In Mine Brain.

Also like I said in the tags of my rb it is way more fun to come up with unique insults and expletives than to just fall back on Character A calling Character B a motherfucker . Personally. In My opinion. Though a well-placed and tonally appropriate Fuck You is very very awesome in some instances. Yea.

Ok that's it. I'm done. I wrote too much. I think I got out the majority of my thoughts. Though I am not going back over this and I wrote it all in one passionate sitting so if I worded anything poorly. Well. Kill me for it

[steviesays]

January Fic Recs

I'm back :')

Application of Virtual Systems by inalienable_wright

Fandom: Community

Jeff losing his mind, post-canon, what else is new - I really love post-canon Community fics that center Jeff and Annie and this one is off to a great start!! Its inspired by another one of my favorite Jeff/Annie fics, Everybody Knows, in which they both focus on Jeff trying to cope with being alone for the first time in 6 years and the fact that there was still so much left unfinished between him and Annie at the end of the series. I'm terrified the upcoming movie is going to absolutely obliterate all my headcanons so I need to read as many of these types of fics as possible before that happens :)

Every dog has its day by Pikkulef

Fandom: FMAB

This was a fun little fluff story about Roy and Hayate clashing over their love for Hawkeye Sidenote: please also read everything else by this author including but not limited to Everyone learns faster on fire

Starve the Ego, Feed the Soul by @onthearrow

Fandom: FMAB

Can't even tell you guys how excited I've been for every update of this fic !!! It's post-canon Royai and I'm so sad its going to be ending soon, but have enjoyed the ride so thoroughly

But Satisfaction Brought It Back by Starship_Phoenix

Fandom: FMAB

Second cute animal fic for January interesting ... Roy bonds with a cat against his will its a fun little read

Old Friends by foolishfalls

Fandom: FMAB

I love a little Ed and Riza bonding fic and this one was really great! I really like exploring the parallels between their characters and this story was a lighthearted delve into that dynamic. Extra points for the ending :)

When Thou Shalt Come To Judge the World By Fire by BewareTheGemini

Fandom: FMAB

When I say I love this fic ... so much ... angst, young Royai, their guilt about the war, the tragic romance, like this one has really just been hitting all of the correct buttons and I love it !!!!!!!

The Strictly Professional Series by NothingSoDivine

Fandom: FMAB

Royai smut - these two are so strange and I love them

low stakes by zauberer_sirin

Fandom: FMAB

I actually first read this story a while ago but come back to it every now and then when I want to smile :) Royai bed sharing, my loves

artificial destiny by RoryMarx (AuroraKant)

Fandom: FMAB

Depressing Royai soulmates fic (with a twist !!!!) we absolutely love to see it

The Literary Romanticism in B-Roll by slomyroll

Fandom: Community

This series is kind of a retelling of the show through the lens of Jeff and Annie's shifting relationships throughout it and I've loved it !!!!

cover (but come undone) by tsaritsaa

Fandom: FMAB

Some light post-canon Royai angst ugh we love the resolution of communication issues they cARE ABOUT EACH OTHER !!!!

I actually read a lot more than I thought I did this month haha I'm glad to get back into giving monthly rec lists because I do want to be more active/involved in fandom outside of just liking the occasional post :') a lot of these authors I just linked back to their AO3 page because I didn't know what their blog was, so if you know them, please let them know I loved their fic!! And as always, please feel free to send me your fic recs, I'm always reading and always looking for something new!

[vacantgodling]

I'm so sorry if you've talked about this part in Cage already (just lmk and I'll go find the post if there's one). But I think about Hanzo's intro in your fic almost daily. The cake. Cole's disbelief and confusion. The hostile banter between the two of them. Just how well you write characters and how easy it is to get invested in the stories you tell in general.

Uhhhh...oh, right. What inspired that whole scene? Was it something from the game itself? A reference? Just something awesome you imagined that would be sure to leave an impression?

--@ceph-the-ghost-writer

CAGE ASK CAGE ASK!!!!

i’m hype i never thought i would see this day 🥹 firstly, thank you for your super kind words it really means the world to me that you would even give cage a read without being as hyper invested in ovw as i am LOL. that being said i’ve come to realize that i reeeeally love writing thinly veiled hostility (thanks amon & hya) and how the SMALLEST shred of internal willpower is the only thing keeping people from lashing out. TENSION it’s so deliciously fun to write—

BUT to answer your question it’s actually a little bit of column a, a little bit of column b. so, many many moons ago, blizz released a christmas comic kind of showcasing what many of the og characters do during christmas and there is a panel with hanzo looking at a christmas cake in japan.

christmas cake is a Thing in japan, it’s literally a special cake solely for christmas time and that (along with eating fried chicken from KFC, seriously people order christmas dinner months in advance from it) is kinda how the western idea of christmas got integrated into japanese society lol. now, it’s very possible that hanzo is only getting the cake because it’s christmas however, as a fan base people kind of ran with the idea that hanzo likes sweets. they could’ve just as easily had him going to get fried chicken which is Also apart of japanese christmas tradition, and up until that point lore for hanzo was So Goddamn Sparse that seeing him get cake was actually very… interesting, yknow? so, at least for me this tiny panel evolved into the idea that hanzo has a big sweet tooth because it says a lot about how he craves being cared for (sugar is sweet, so, he wants to be treated sweetly) and to be allowed to indulge (because as the eldest, growing up he was raised more strictly — which is canon fact he and genji have a lot of voice lines about it, and i imagine sneaking off to have sugar or sweet treats of some kind every once and awhile was the only real rebellion he was able to have) and i guess in some ways i want to illustrate a juxtaposition with his character Immediately to the audience.

like let’s say this was a novel on its own and you have no context to overwatch: you spend the first chapter with cole and genji yelling at each other about hanzo is or isn’t a monster, how he “killed” genji or injured him so badly that most of his entire body is made up of cybernetics and despite it all genji wants to forgive him. by showing hanzo upfront doing something absurd (sitting on a plane wing and eating CAKE of all things) it communicates to you that there is something… off about him, at least when it comes to cole’s knowledge and interpretation of him (since we’re in his pov).

it’s a nod to people who like overwatch and love hanzo liking sweets bc we are constantly starving for hanzo content so that sweets-loving fact is highly regarded.

but also, subconsciously i feel like it harks back to the idea of what truly “evil” person likes sweets? there’s an association with sweets of innocence, of yknow obviously sweetness, but i find that most people find sweets (subconsciously) to be disarming. what does it say when a dangerous killer like hanzo who you’re “supposed” to dislike, likes sweets? it throws you off and that’s one of the many things that throws cole off!

one of the things about the whole “oh the curtains are just blue” discourse is always the idea of what if they’re just blue and sure that could be true, but there’s usually a subconscious reasoning why writers describe things the way they do even if they don’t “mean” to impart that idea into something. very easily i could’ve had hanzo eating cake just as a nod to the comic panel but i like to think a lot of the times i’m quite Aware of why i’m describing things as they are: hanzo eating cake shows that he craves affection and understanding, but him sitting high off the ground and putting physical distance between himself and the rest of overwatch is literally showing how he puts a barrier between himself and what he craves. in a lot of the first chapters you’ll notice that i tend to put hanzo up high, and as the story progressing he starts staying closer and closer to the ground. YES this is a nod to his canon-in game-wall climb ability but it’s also a showcase of him literally closing the physical and mental distance between himself and the members of overwatch. allowing them closer and closer and trying to distance himself less.

sorry this is a whole rant and a half LMAO but i think very muchly about the mechanics of what i’m writing and why i’m showing certain things so thank you again for letting me impart some of my process on you lol :’)

[zonerobotnik]

There are some ships I've seen art of that I would like to know your thoughts about.

Hugo x Nuru

Hugo x Rapunzel

Varian x Kiera

Stalyan x Caine

Rapunzel x Nuru

Hector x Zhan Tiri

Quirin x Ariana

Gothel x Cyrus

My personal opinions? Ooookaaaay. HugoxNuru - Kind of cute, but I hc that Hugo is strictly gay, not bi. He more sees her as a little sister once they grow past the "annoying princess/stubborn ex-thief" stage. HugoxRapunzel - Same with Nuru, I hc him to be gay, not bi. I know some people hc him as pansexual, but I personally think he's only into guys. Anyways, I could see him tolerating Rapunzel's happy-go-lucky nature as a friend, but he would need to excuse himself to take a break from it after a while. VarianxKiera - Again, sibling relationship, not romantic. Kiera never showed the same interest in him that Catalina did beyond messing with his inventions and teasing him along with Lance. StalyanxCaine - Okay, this I am listening to. Especially fun if you go with my hc that Eugene briefly dated Lady Caine, so they can share stories about how much of a selfish lover he was and show each other how selfless THEY can be in bed. RapunzelxNuru - Okay, uhm...first of all, Nuru is TWELVE when Rapunzel is eighteen. That's a literal preteen, that is Dipper and Mabel age, that is Yong age. Would you ship Varian and Yong? No. That's gonna be a big age-up for Nuru, or Rapunzel is really looking at robbing cradles, as if fourteen-year-old Varian isn't young enough. Secondly, with how sheltered she is, to the point of not even coming to the Contest of the Crowns, I doubt Rapunzel and Nuru would ever meet before Rapunzel is already married to Eugene. I think they could be pretty good friends, though. She seems to get along better with younger princesses than ones her own age, if the comics are any indication with Princess Narcissa compared to the Contest of the Crowns. HectorxZhanTiri - As if Gothel isn't bad enough? What's with all these old ladies going for Hector? What would Zhan Tiri even get out of messing with Hector? I don't ship it, she wouldn't bother with him.

QuirinxArianna - ...Why? He barely acknowledges her existence in canon and has more history with Frederic. The only reason I can see him going for her is as a middle-finger to Fred, but we got adult Varian to do that and she doesn't deserve that anyway.

GothelxCyrus - Donella will burn that cradle-robbing witch to the GROUND if she lays a HAND on her little brother! Yes, I hc that they are brother and sister and he was with them for the Trials before as support and works with his sister after they, uh, went their separate ways from Ulla at the Eternal Library.

But, these are just my personal opinions, based on my headcanons and lore, and you don't have to share them or agree.

[azure-galaxies-gallery]

Muse: Yuelong!

Yuelong is a Vidyadhara more than past his prime - in fact, he's been putting off his rebirth for long enough to begin showing signs of mortal aging, a strange sight among the ever-young immortals of the Xianzhou. I do write him with canon ties to the High Cloud Quintet, but if you have one of them as a muse and just want to see them interact with him without the weight of past knowledge, just let me know! I'd also have fun with that. I like this very sad tired old dragon man quite a bit. I also usually write him as parental to Bailu! I very much like this one, but, y'know. If you want to just be a Bailu encountering Yuelong,,, feel free. Fair warning he might still try to adopt you. In fairness if children are left unattended for long enough around him he does sort of adopt them. his kid now. Yuelong is a reincarnation of the High Elder of the Xianzhou Cangcheng, and thus has a pretty high power level and... Well a lot of backstory regarding the Cangcheng that I usually have to make up as I go (plaguemark... specialties... anything about day to day life beyond having a specific type of plum blossom...).

Below the cut is a drawing I've done of Yuelong you can use for reference, as well as an additional cat cake form because I like making cat-cakes for my dear OCs. and here is a link to Yuelong's full OC form. Um. There is A Lot. I've dropped his not-so-brief backstory below the cut if that's all you want to see because I go a little insane over OC forms. but if what you want is all the nitty gritty and the meta stuff i made up by mashing kits together until it felt right, check out the link! and hey. psst. do you want a curated playlist of yuelong vibes?? do you just want some emo music?? here, i offer to you. the four hour oc playlist i made for yuelong because i'm so normal about him,,,

Yuelong is the reincarnation of the Cangcheng’s Vidyadharan High Elder. Left adrift and without a ship or plaguemark, Longfei accompanied several of the Cangcheng survivors to the Luofu. He reincarnated into Longmei, then reincarnated again, Yuelong stepping from the waters. He was raised by the Preceptors, kept isolated for much of his younger years. He was expected to mimic Longmei, his predecessor - to be calm, elegant, and serene at all times. A gentle rain, instead of the fierce storm trapped inside him. He learned to not express his emotions, to keep everything hidden - to be soft-spoken and ever-gentle, to only ever work and pretend and not live. He learned to bite back his first instinct, to push down anything negative. He learned to bottle everything up until he could slip away, swim to the furthest point of Scalegorge Waterscape, and release a storm that no one else could push through, to scream and cry into the winds until everything felt manageable again. Perhaps that would’ve been his entire life - a mask, a title, forgetting what he wanted in favor of what others asked of him, of screaming into storms what no one else could hear - had Jingliu not reached out and inquired about a healer with the ability to defend himself, so Dan Feng could focus wholly on the battlefield. Yuelong, dreaming of the stars and freedom and seeing the Beauty of the world, answered the call, stepping into the role of the High Cloud Quintet’s healer with grace. He remained aloof, at first, adhering strictly to his Preceptor’s teachings, until the craftsman and the pilot took him aside. Yuelong slowly began to open up - though he remained reserved and aloof in public settings, he began to slip away from his Preceptors more often than not - either accompanying other Quintet members, or disappearing into Yingxing’s forge. For the first time in his life, Yuelong had a taste of normalcy, and he held it tight to his chest. But of course… Nothing lasts forever. Despite his best efforts, Yuelong could not save Baiheng (she was dead by the time he landed at her side, he knew it, but - if he had been faster, if he’d been stronger, if he’d just tried a little harder-). But death was a part of life - he knew this. Baiheng had died how she’d lived - living, loving, protecting. There was Beauty in that, wasn’t there? It hurt, of course it did, but… Yuelong could accept it. He had to. A healer cannot save every patient - only try their best.

He tried to express this to his friends, only for Dan Feng to lash out against him. Yuelong told himself they only needed time. He was wrong. The storm that raged in Scalegorge Waterscape as the beast (his friend, that thing had been made from his friend, from Baiheng, who had reached out to him with such earnest kindness-) was something only Dan Feng could’ve made. Yuelong, with a heavy heart, stepped into the storm. Drew it into himself with every step, clearing the way. He fought Dan Feng (he didn’t want to, it hurt, that was his friend, someone who understood what he’d been through in a way no one else could-), a war of attrition enough to bring the other High Elder down. Dan Feng holds nothing back, but Yuelong had not wanted to hurt his friend. The wound across his cheek and neck, a final parting gift from someone he’d called a friend, stung as he wept into the storm around him. Baiheng was dead. Jingliu had taken Yingxing somewhere. They both disappeared. Of six, two remained. He thought, once more, of the dream he’d had, of running to live among the stars, of following the Beauty. He feels the bandages on his cheek again. Perhaps it is time to retire such a childish dream (would the Beauty even look at him, like this? He’d captured his friend, practically sentenced him to death. How could that be beautiful…?) for good. He stays. He picks up the pieces, he slips his Preceptors to spend time with Jing Yuan, he picks up Dan Feng’s duties. He argues, alongside Jing Yuan, for the release of Dan Feng’s new incarnation. When Bailu hatches, Yuelong takes her in immediately (he remembers how the Preceptors had treated him. Not again. Never again, not if he could help it). Dan Heng is banished, and that hurts too, but better that than life in prison (oh, but how Yuelong wishes he could’ve stayed). Life goes on. He stays at Jing Yuan’s side, continues his work healing, trains Bailu. He pulls himself together, learns to live with the scars. Smiles more, in Jing Yuan’s company. Threatens Preceptors who dare approach Bailu with poor intentions. Threatens more who try to tell him to be more civil (he has lost enough, being what they wanted. Never again). Laughed, when Jing Yuan took in a child - assisted him, as well. Friends help each other, after all. Ignores the way the cold creeps into his bones. Stares at the silver in his hair and sees Yingxing, and tries not to cry. Sometimes, still, he slips out into the Scalegorge Waterscape, lets it storm so he can cry and grieve in peace (sometimes, sometimes, he brings Jing Yuan with him). But life goes on, and so must he.

[gamerguy265]

I honestly didn’t expect you to reblog this again with a response lol. Starting off this response with a thank you! I know it was a long post so I’m happy you took the time to read it. That makes me happy :D

I also COMPLETELY get where you’re coming from when you said that you wouldn’t implement something like this in canon due to their insistence of hard, non-mallable rules up to this point. I wouldn’t either! At least not post-Season 5 where they’ve had EIGHT YEARS to further develop or enhance it. It’s too little, too late at that point!

But I also feel that it is also valid to feel that if you’re going to add an idea to your writing that goes on to shift the very fundamental understanding of how something works, you need to commit to the changes it brings or don’t include the change at all. Canon does not even bother trying to hide the fact they are not going through the doors they decide to open on a whim for a one-off power up.

It honestly just feels like you and I are watching canon swinging open door after door of new ways of how the Miraculous operate left and right all while having to listen to it say “no, it works like this” again and again and never walking through those doors they open. It’s a silly analogy, isn’t it? The point of a doorway is to walk through it.

If you aren’t ever planning on walking through it, you don’t have to open the door!

Me asking this question was really just a check to myself and asking “Am I completely off base with this notion of how they could make the powers work and properly balance them” since I'm writing a "what if" story where the kids recieve their Miraculous a day prior to the Stoneheart attack and not during it and going through canon akuma attacks from then on. It's in the same type of adaptation style as with what Scarlet Lady and zoe-oneesama had done. So when you said "yeah, I would read a fic about it but only if you worked it from the ground up and built around the prospect"...

Buddy, you clocked me in one go LOL. THAT'S WHAT I AM DOING.

It's a little embarrasing to admit that this story idea actually has been laying dormant in me since the end of Season 3 and I dropped it, but with Scarlet Lady having finished and listening to Zoe's little voice memo at the end of it, I took a metaphorical step back to really realize "Shit. She worked on this project for FIVE YEARS." That level of commitment is incredible! I want to make a project like that too, and I actually have one laying right there collecting dust!

I just have to keep moving one step at a time like she did. It may take some time, but it is something I really want to do! So in the rare instance that she is actually reading this, thank you Zoe. Your work has inspired me to pick up the pen again!

You also mentioned how you were a hard magic purist and have a dedicated Bible and when I heard that I was like "Oh... oh they get me. They get me fr." (Miraculous Bible writer here too lol)

Canon opened the doors for a lot of opportunities with how their Miraculous can function and I really want to go into more detail with those possibilites about what I have written up, but I know this isn't the place to do it. I have my own blog for a reason, lol. I know there's probably at least one person going "what the hell is bro yapping about" whenever this is going to pop up.

I don't think Miraculous really is the type of show to benefit from a strictly hard magic system writing-wise and should allow individuality and showcase the importance of each of the heroes individually, but I also feel that it needs a core set of rules, limitations, boundaries, and concepts they pull from that apply to all of the Miraculous regardless of circumstance. Canon has a bad habit of really changing their mind on what the rules are whenever it feels like it suits them. There are a lot of Miraculous that act like "exceptions" to the rules lol.

This was a fun thought exercise and thank you for taking the time to read it and respond to it! I know it was a bit long, but I really enjoyed this little back and forth we had and I enjoyed hearing a different side of the argument of "how can we fix it".

I'll probably be making a post about my own thoughts on how the Miraculous function in canon soon so I would really like it if you could check it out when the time comes! I really appreciated your feedback! Thank you for indulging me a bit and my blog that has been dormant since like 2019 LOL.

On the matter of the Miraculous as not just a magic tool but a jewel where “a magic being fuses with you and you become one”, what is your take on the powers the Miraculous give and how it plays into the whole abstract concept idea the kwamis personify? I’m a bit curious.

I know this may seem like an odd question, but really looking into the idea of “a human being is chosen by a mystic secret society because THEY in particular are the one who best embodies and upholds this concept at the forefront of their lives” as the basis of your magic system, it becomes apparent that Miraculous has a really barebones and literal approach to the idea.

One concept, one power (if you ignore the main heroine and villain lol) and it’s the most literal expression of the idea possible. Well, it is until it isn’t. I’m looking at you, ROOSTER. Dragon, you’re on thin ice because you’re technically able to spin the idea of your power being a play on the phrase “perfect storm” but I know that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

I understand why they chose to do it the way they did for their target audience (aka children). But I also find that using ABSTRACT concepts in the most literal and straight forward way possible is also a MASSIVE wasted opportunity from both a lore perspective and a storytelling one.

What about more symbolic or metaphorical means of showing those concepts and how they can play and be used in our everyday, mundane lives? What about using those concepts to help showcase their “moral lesson of the week” and letting it act as the lesson kids takes away from the episode because the show was made for kids?

Like for example, Marinette sees two friends get into an argument and are no longer on speaking terms. After hearing both of their stories however, she comes to learn that the argument stemmed from good but mishandled and misunderstood intention. From her desire to help those friends make up and reveal that good intention, she can use the power of Creation to create a magic bond between the two friends and connect their hearts to help them communicate more honestly and freely. Despite being a superpower, it acts as a lesson to show the need for mediation skills and promotes honest communication in friendships.

Another could be Adrien finding someone that is plagued with doubt and fear over wanting to do something they truly want to do but are too afraid to go through with it. Paralyzed by this fear, they choose to turn away from something they truly want to do and make themselves miserable due to it. Chat Noir then could use the power of Destruction to quash that fear holding them back and empower them, but also act as a lesson in the importance of encouraging others and the need for strong support networks in your life.

I absolutely love the idea of using those abstract concepts the kwamis embody to help guide the choices the Miraculous holders make and not only be used to showcase and promote growth in themselves but in others and the world itself. I think by leaning heavily into this idea, it could tremendously expand on the importance and gravity of the power of the kwami, the bond a Miraculous holder shares with their kwami, and just what wielding that Miraculous entails.

I know you’ve talked about how you feel as if the Black Cat should have the ability to purify and not the Ladybug because purification is the act of destroying or removing taint or corruption, so this ask is very much built off of this idea and I want to know how far you would willingly push this idea of what it means to wield the power of Creation, Destruction, Illusion, Transmission, and so forth.

Sorry for kinda the long ask, but I wanted to try and explain my question in the most easy to understand way possible lol.

I think I get what you're asking and it's an interesting idea. The first show I thought of after reading this was Winx club because that franchise does a lot of things with abstract concepts like belief and harmony leading to magic powers, but the concept is far from unique to Winx. A lot of magical girl shows lean into more abstract ways of granting magical powers because magical girl shows tend to lean hard on the whole Power of Friendship thing and friendship is an abstract concept, so it makes sense to pair it with other abstract things.

I personally wouldn't go this abstract route for Miraculous simply because it's such a massive deviation from canon and - when I'm coming up with ideas on here or writing fanfic - I do try to be as canon loyal as I can so that my stuff feels like an adaptation of canon and not a whole new show. Adaptation is an art, not a science, so there are no hard rules here, but my general approach is to try to make a bunch of little tweaks instead of big, massive shifts like you proposed. Those tweaks add up to massive shifts, but it's more of a gradual over time thing than a glaring, right from the start change. Or, at least, that's what I hope I'm doing!

That doesn't make your idea bad! Far from it. It would be a way to fix the wonky lore around the Kwamis because you are absolutely right to say that the powers they grant are often far too rigid for how abstract some of the associated concepts are. Perfection being a play on a perfect storm is one of the worst offenders in my book because sure it's fun and all, but when you try to match it with the very clear powers granted from concepts like Destruction it's feels weird and off. It's almost as if the writers are mixing a soft magic system with a hard magic system.

In case you don't know those terms, here's a real quick primer:

Soft magic systems are systems where the magic isn't clearly defined. They work best in stories where the specifics of how and why the magic works don't matter. Think Cinderella, where it doesn't really matter why the fairy godmother can do what she does because the magic is just an excuse to get Cinderella to the ball.

Hard magic systems are systems where the magic is clearly defined and basically works like a science. These types of systems work best in stories where the main characters are actively wielding magic and the way they wield that magic matters because it's how the writers establish narrative stakes. This is what Miraculous is theoretically doing with things like its five minute timers and single use powers. The problem is that the writers often ignore their established rules for the sake of plot and that's a terrible way to tell a story. It leads to all kinds of nonsense like the aforementioned mismatch between the kwamis and their associated Forces.

The way that I'd fix the Kwami issue is to just change what Force each Kwami is tied to. Abstract concepts are out, hard concepts are in and really always were because Creation and Destruction may have a broad range, but they work as hard concepts. I'd then do some relatively minor tweaks to the powers that each kwami grants in order to make everything align. (My peacock and dragon are arguably pretty different from canon, but generally speaking, my tweaks are more along the lines of the purification example you brought up in your ask).

But that's all about trying to fix canon and canon is a broken mess, so I don't blame you if you say, "Nah, I'd rather explore this fun idea I had to drastically overhaul the magic system and the way akuma fights work." And yes, this magic system change would also require making some pretty big changes to how fights work since akumas aren't well suited to the idea in their current form. You'd want to move away from the breaking the item path that canon favors and make it so that every akuma fight ended in a person rejecting their akuma. Which canon does do, but it's weird and I don't like it. When we first saw it, it was a big deal special event, but since then they've cheapened it by having way too many people be able to do it, so having it be the standard path instead of this overused deviation would be a good way to fix that. It would also allow for an easier lesson of the day if that's your kind of thing.

There's one other thing this could fix: the character bloat. You may have actually brought up one of the only ways to make a team of 18 heroes work. If we have each hero be chosen for their unique tie to an abstract force, then you can get some really niche problems that only they can solve. I'm not sure how well the abstract forces chosen by canon work for that idea, but the general concept is the core of plenty of successful properties.

I already mentioned Winx, but the 2010 version of My Little Pony also played with this idea by having each of the six main heroes be tied to an abstract concept (generosity, honesty, laughter, kindness, loyalty, magic). If you did something like that where the core team had broadly applicable powers while the side heroes had really niche ones, then I think the temp heroes could have actually been something great! Right now, most of their powers are too broadly applicable to the point where it's weird that they're not called on more and it would be nice to see that fixed. (Luka should be at every fight and you cannot change my mind on this. It's ridiculous that Marinette somehow magically knows which fights will have them fail and is able to always call him in at the right time, but that's a rant for another day.)

In summary, I like this idea and would watch a show with it/read a fic with it, but I think it's too deviant from canon to fall into the "fix-it" category. Feel free to (kindly) chime in if you disagree!

[hacash]

last man standing

summary: June 1947. After a particularly bad day, Meyer realises he’s the last one left.

-

It occurs to him, sitting out on the balcony in the sticky-sweet miasma of Miami heat, that there’s no-one left he can talk to about this.

Oh, he has friends – it’s funny how many people want to be pals with the little man when he, more or less, owns Cuba - and associates, and a wife, God bless her, asleep in the next room. Still, Meyer thinks as he pours himself yet another scotch, it’s not the same.

It’s not…the people who were there, they no longer…look, it’s one thing to know people now when you’ve made it, but the people who knew you then, still running in the Lower East Side, still reaching for it all…well, it’s just not the same, is it?

One by one, the old faces seem to melt away, and now… Well. People like them don’t plan on growing older, and if you don’t plan for something it never happens.

Fucking Benny. Never the world’s greatest planner.

Another scotch. Shit. He finds himself remembering, as if he were an old man already – alter kocher, comes Benny’s voice, and he nearly vomits over his shoes -  that afternoon down at Atlantic City, when the world spread out before him like some sort of fucking dream and everything was theirs for the taking. The big man, he thinks sourly to himself, your first time around the table like some kind of damn equal instead of waiting at the door for A.R. and Charlie to finish their yammering, and you thought nothing could possibly go wrong.

Look how well that little escapade went. In the long term, barely worth the trouble. Damn, they’d all been kids back then. Taking on Chicago, Atlantic City, New York, it’s all ours, gentlemen, the old way of doing things has passed – how long ago was that? Years; fucking years ago.

I thought I was invincible, and all my friends with me. I thought no-one could make me do anything I didn’t want to do ever again. Some fucking joke that turned out to be, huh? Look at where he is now. And there he was still…knees to the ground, gasping little immigrant kid, doing precisely what he didn’t want to do.

They were meant to be invincible. Look at them now. Jimmy Darmody, abandoned in an unmarked grave. Al had been barely recognisable as the man that ruled Chicago by the time they buried him, thanks to all that cocaine and his whores. Richard Harrow, the quiet one – Meyer remembers flicking through an ancient newspaper and finding out they’d found him beneath the boardwalk riddled with bullets. As for Mickey Doyle…well, he’d always said one day that man’s lip would get him in trouble, and Charlie proved him right.

(Benny wanted to come with them to Atlantic City back in ’21. Charlie had nearly had a fit at the idea. Jesus Christ, Benny had snapped, I won’t embarrass you in front of your new fancy friends; as far as dangerous goes, I’d like to meet the guy who can get the drop on me. At the time Meyer had thought it was funny.)

And Charlie? In fucking Palermo, of all places. What fucking use is he in Palermo? He doesn’t even like Italy, had been Meyer’s first thought when the news came, as if the elevated minds of the US government concerned themselves with where a criminal would like to be deported. He’s a New Yorker, not an Italian. He came from Sicily anyway, it’s a completely different land mass, you’re not even sending him to the right place. As if Charlie would have cared, all that shit was for the Mustache Petes who actually thought which village your grandfather was born in determined who you were as a man. But at the time it seemed important that they gave a damn where they were sending him. Recognised just who they were dealing with – not just shipping a parcel back to where it came from, whoops, wrong address, just toss it back to the post office with the rest of the scrap and let those dagos sort out the mess for us….

He’s drunk, Meyer realises – not just drunk, but wretchedly, miserably fucked, the sort of drunk he hasn’t been since Charlie’s deportation, or since they dug up A.R. in that alley outside Park Central. Sweat creasing over his skin, head reeling; maybe he was in better shape to deal with grief as a younger man. Maybe tragedy has a sense of timing, like some punk kid in an alley; wait until a man is nice and relaxed and stupid and thinks life’s going his way, then bam – over the head with a blackjack, and suddenly the world’s not the place you thought it was.

He’s in Florida. Charlie’s in Italy. And Benny…

And there’s no-one left who knows them as they were. That’s the thought that tears him apart from the inside. He’s spent so long crawling out from that tenement basement flat, dragging himself from the Lower East Side step by step, and now the thought of no-one knowing him as he was – as they were, hungry young men always searching for the future – nearly breaks him open.

Atlantic City. 1921. A memory flickers clumsily in him. The graceless twin impulses of grief and alcohol drive him to grasp for the telephone, cradle it as if it were a life preserver.

The operator says it’s an Illinois number. Funny that. Then again, Meyer wouldn’t have expected him to stay in New Jersey.

“Yeah?”

“Mr Thompson? Eli. It’s Meyer, Meyer Lansky. From New York.”

A clunk, the sound of someone shaking off the remnants of sleep. “For fuck’s – ” There’s a muffled burst of expletives on the other end of the line. “What the hell do you want?”

He finds himself spluttering, sniggering like a schoolboy in on the joke, because the bottle of scotch currently pickling him from the inside out finds it very funny indeed: ringing up some poor bastard – must be pushing sixty, sixty-five – in the middle of the night to unburden his soul like some Catholic kid with their, what-you-call-it, confessionals crap. Well, fuck you, he thinks cheerfully, you and your fucking brother, everything you did. You always wanted to survive above all else, well congratulations, you did it, which means you’re the one who has to listen now.

“My apologies. The late hour, of course,” he forces out, trying to inject whatever clipped good manners he used to rely on back in the day – anything to stop richer men, bigger men, from shooting him in the head. It was always a shield, but right now it isn’t working; his voice is shaking and Jesus, why does it feel like he’s dragging every word up from his guts? “I hope I didn’t disturb.”

“You’ve got no reason to call me. I’ve had nothing to do with the business since my brother…Fuck. My wife’s going to wake any minute. Why’m I even explaining to you?”

Good point. Why exactly is he on the phone to someone he hasn’t spoken to in over twenty years: save that it’s the middle of the night and his oldest friend is dead and he doesn’t know what time it is in Italy, and all he knows that if he doesn’t speak to someone who knew him as he was back in the old days, even as an enemy, he’ll go mad.

“I’m hanging up now.”

“I’m sorry, Eli,” he says hastily, tripping over the scotch. “For disturbing you, your wife, and all that. You’ll come down to Miami, my expense, isn’t that how you Thompsons used to do things? I just…” - his tongue’s running away from him and God, he’s so tired, when was the last time he slept? five days ago maybe, when he finally gave the okay to…to what happened – “Felt like talking to someone …and I just had some news. About an old friend.”

There’s a grunt from the other line. “I’ll bite. Who?”

“Benny. Your brother kidnapped him once, back in the day.”

A snort. “Bugsy. Little shit, I remember him. Nucky told me he was the screwiest little wiseass he ever came across. What about him?”

“He died today.”

Silence. Meyer hasn’t given the hows or the wherefores; still, maybe there’s something in their line of work that enables you to sense it, that dead doesn’t just mean the tragedy of a car crash or a sour bout of pneumonia. Sheriff of Atlantic City: probably Eli visited no end of widows to tell them that someone was dead, in that particular way. “My condolences,” he says finally. “But you fellas all sign off on that sorta thing these days, don’t you? Do it polite, civilised. So who gave the okay for Siegel to go?”

“I did.”

I did. Me. I thought I could hold them off for long enough, I got careless – kidding myself that as long as I asked, they’d listen. You thought you were a big shot, didn’t you? Benny could do whatever he wanted – spend other men’s money, fuck around in the desert, none of it would matter if you were protecting him. How many times did you tell him that? How many times did you lie?

‘Fuck’s sake, Ben. You’re a grown man now, you need to take some responsibility for what you’re doing out there.’

‘Christ, hocking me with this again? You’re worse than my mother, Meyer.’

‘I’ve been taking care of you for long enough. I’ll sort it, alright, but get it together.’

Big joke. Thinking you can do it all, and you can’t even protect your oldest friend. What does that say about you, Little Man?

Eli hasn’t spoken, he realises, for a good while now. Just breathing on the end of the line, like a death rattle.

“Jesus Christ.”

A half-laugh, contemptuous. “I don’t know him personally. Maybe you could put in a good word.”

“Huh. Well.”

“You’re right though,” the words come gushing out of him, the way they always do when Meyer’s frightened, or angry, or drunk, or all three, “we do keep things civilised. So when Benny started getting in over his head, borrowing big money and looking as if he wasn’t going to pay it back, well, we thought – I,” he gives a bitter laugh, “thought it could be kept from getting out of hand. So I talked, and I talked. And they listened,” another laugh, “for a while, at least. But the project – the hotel – he was putting together, it…well. Didn’t look as if it was going to pan out. You remember what the business was like, back in your day.” For a moment his voice turns sour. “Everything has to pan out right. And Benny. Jesus. There was no reigning him in one way or another. And everyone else was gunning for it, and I – ” Fuck. “I couldn’t see another way out. So.”

“Sounds like you did the best you could.”

“If I did the best I could Ben Siegel would still be alive,” Meyer spits, a hot line of anger running through his voice.

“Why aren’t you talking to your partner about this? The Italian one, the asshole?”

Good point. He has the number after all, there’s no excuse. Charlie ought to hear it from a friend. But that would involve telling Charlie what he’s done. Admitting that at the end of the day, he had no choice.

A sigh. “Alright then. Why call me?”

“Because you’re the only one left. I wanted to talk to someone… who remembers what we were. The work we did back then, with Jimmy and the others…” God, he doesn’t know where he’s going with this. Maybe he just wants to be reminded, even for a second, that there was a time when they was young and fierce and had it all still to come. “And you’re the only one who knows what this feels like.”

(Sitting there in Darmody’s ballroom suite, or near enough, in a new suite he’d had made that week and feeling like a fucking king – watching Jimmy hem and haw and feeling nothing but pitying contempt for this little schmuck who’d gotten in way too deep with no way of backing out. Eli’s voice, rough and cynical even then. Jesus Christ, just kill him.)

There’s a chill on the other end of the line. “You ought to watch what you’re saying.”

“I’m not judging you. I’d have killed your brother myself, given the chance.”

“Is there a point to this, Lansky?”

“The point is…” he feels himself sway, or rather slip, down below the depths of what is sensible or real, down into the mire; there are waters closing over his head with the truth that his oldest friend in the world is dead because he gave the all-clear for the trigger to be pulled, “when you’re the one whose back is against the wall and you can’t see a way out, and you say those words – and it’s your friend – how do you come back from that?”

“Think you already know the answer to that.”

He does. Doesn’t want to though. That would mean accepting the fact that matters have changed irrevocably, that outside forces have changed him against his will, and he’s powerless to stop it. He doesn’t like being powerless.

“Twenty minutes afterwards my associates took control of the hotel. One of them called me to say the Sidecars were the best he’d ever tasted.” Fuck, he wants to be sick.

“Get some sleep, Meyer. Then call your friend.” Eli’s voice is almost gentle, as if it were one of his kids calling up over a skinned knee or an ugly date. “Oh, and Meyer?”

“Yeah?”

“If I ever see you near my family again, I’ll gut you myself.”

The line goes dead. Well, Meyer thinks as he replaces the receiver, that’s fair enough. He doesn’t respect Eli for a hell of a lot, but he supposes he’ll credit him with that much: he knows how to be a father.

Sipping Sidecars in the Flamingo while Ben Siegel bled to death. And twenty minutes after you gave the order, he remembers, you were drinking at the Regent, because Moe Sedway invited you and you didn’t want him to see how rattled you were. How’s that for class, Little Man?

Would Benny have known? If they gave him time to think before that last bullet snuffed him out, surely he would have realised. Benny might have been reckless, but he wasn’t stupid. For him to be killed, the right people had to give the order.

Fuck. Fuck it all.

And he has no choice. Again, he knows precisely what he has to do. It’s out of his hands. Again.

Clumsily he fumbles for the telephone. Mutters his name when it’s finally picked up.

“Meyer? Jesus, what time is it over there?”

“Charlie.” He draws in a breath, closes his eyes. “We need to talk.”

[astrolavas]

please PLEASE do go on about how autistic Hunter is. As a probably-neurotypical person I love to learn more about neurodiversity from people firsthand rather than textbooks it's so cool, plus media diversity rep is something so important, I did a whole project about it actually

OKAY, BET

he's just...... soooo autistic-coded, like there's NO way he's neurotypical lmao (there are of course some things that he does that can also come from his PTSD or his upbringing/growing up conditions rather than autism (or just both! since they might overlap) but there's just.. SO much stuff that's strictly autistic that like........ it's canon. canon to me.)

like, how dramatic he is at times? the entire hexside scene???

the moment where he comes up to that one random kid like "CLASSMATE. ignore the fact that we'd never met, how would you say abt [gets straight to the point where he tells him to join a coven and leave his friends and family forever in an overconfident cheerful manner]" LIKE THAT'S SOOO XKSJKSK the manner in which he said it, the way he just came up to that random person outta the blue, how he got straight to the point, like COME ON

and THIS????

"teens are probably into the same things as me! like authority. and rules!" BRO........

also how expressive his face is (especially how expressive it is for some emotions and schooled/subtle for certain others)

oftentimes his choice of words and the specific intonation in which he says stuff???? 💀 "stop acting foolish" "it will take more than that to thwart my mission" "that's sacrilege" okay grandpa let's get you to bed nxsjksk BUT LIKE. NO, EVEN THE INTONATION he uses in very casual sentences, it's very...... yeah

how much he likes to share fun facts and talk abt stuff he knows abt and is interested in (wild magic, titan's veins/eclipse lake, mindscapes...)? and how he sometimes stops himself mid-sentence before he says too much? that could definitely be interpreted as info-dumping and special interests

how much he loves research in general? i just KNOW he loves knowing stuff and reading up on stuff and memorizing cool fun facts (him immediately reading all the grimwalker books he could find after finding out that's what he is- like obviously he did that, obviously he wanted to know what he is. but also just..... it's so, so very huntercore)

taking things literally.. wanting clearer/more direct instructions on stuff......

“i don’t feel sick” 💀

him just turning around and walking away with no word right away after willow introduced the rest of the team

him not realizing emerald entrails rly didn't want to join the emperor's coven and not realizing he did sth wrong until later, when he noticed willow was upset

THE FREAKING. DELETED SCENE FROM CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON in which he automaticaly moved to climb the vines onto amity's balcony along with luz and didn't get why luz could possibly wanna be alone with amity before willow and gus stopped him. willow and gus saying "you'll understand when you're older" and then him arguing with flapjack how he IS older, JUST. LMAO....

the whole description of him as this...... “prodigy” and everything related to that (not necessarily a positive thing, considering how he was treated and described as by many adults)? the little intricacies of it.... hm

him being kinda bad at lying and making up stuff

and even his stance sometimes???? boy

and not just THIS one, but. many many different poses in which he stands sometimes. very hmmm hm

how direct he is?

also this is a headcanon/interpretation but him constantly wearing gloves? and him saying "why are you touching it [the selkidomus] with your hands? gross"? sensory issues. so real.

also the sounds he makes and his squeaks???? how he sometimes fidgets with his hands/thumbs?

and MORE, like there are also many many moments that can be interpreted as other autistic traits or behaviours, just. ALL OF IT.

the crew did say that they've written neurodivergence into the show and into who these characters are intentionally, even if they might not be aware of some terms or labels at times, so like... i’m 100% certain hunter’s purposely written to be neurodivergent. and i’m gonna be very surprised if not specifically autistic (+ ptsd ofc)

he just... is.

anyway...