#but that is secondary to seeing their dynamics

[neoduelverse]

One thing I find interesting about Pantheon season 2 is the difference between Holstrom and Caspian. Now there are a lot of differences between them, but I’m talking about the the big one. The one that made it so that Caspian could cure the flaw, but Holstrom couldn’t. I’m talking about how each of them feel love. 

Now, throughout the entire second season it’s all, but explicitly stated that Holstrom couldn’t understand love and that’s why he could’ve never fixed the flaw.

It’s a good way to highlight how the two genetically identical men differ, why one is our secondary protagonist while the other is the main antagonist. It also shows the audience Caspians understanding of love though his growing relationship with Maddie throughout the season.

But some viewers may be confused by this difference. After all doesn’t Holstrom have a love interest in Renee?

In fact don’t they spent a large amount of time collaborating on Holstrom’s plan, with her essentially being his arm in the physical world? Does their love not count just because they’re evil?

Well no. At least that’s not the reason their “love” doesn’t count. But to explain why we need to talk about how the show conceives of love.

In Pantheon love isn’t just about people liking each a lot. Not even to the point of where they’re willing to do a lot for their partners. Love is when people push each other along with supporting them.

Real love, to Pantheon, is challenging each other to be better and making each other better. It’s give each other perspective that they couldn’t have on their own. Love is something active between the people sharing it, it can’t be mindless adoration.

We see this healthier love with several of the couples throughout the show. David and Ellen start with several fundamental disagreements over the UI situation, to the point where it drives them apart at first. But when they reconcile you can tell how much they love each other even if they never officially get back together. Then you have Olivia and Farhad, who the show spends an entire episode displaying how they challenge and complete each other.

And of course, we have Maddie and Caspian.

You could make a whole separate post about how their viewpoints change and clash throughout the series while strengthening their relationship. But suffice it to say that the show views their love as the truest it could be.

And taking all this into consideration it should be obvious by now why the show considers Stephen and Renee’s relationship not to be an example of love. Renee doesn’t contribute intellectually to any part of it, she is ok simply fauning over the eccentric genius. While Stephen is content with basically being a relationship with a yes woman who goes along with everything he says and does.

And the most insidious part of their relationship in my opinion also relates to why Renne was chosen to play the part of Caspian’s mother.

We see in the interviews with Holstrom about his past that he never really cared intellectually about anything his mother said. He saw her as someone to care for, and thus receive care in return. Some may call this unconditional love, but Pantheon considers it an unhealthy love.

And as you probably noticed, the way Holstrom described his relationship with his mother sounded awfully similar to his relationship with a certain someone.

Which makes their already messed up dynamic even creepier. Especially when you consider how they wanted to shape Caspian.

TLDR: Holstrom couldn’t cure the flaw not because he couldn’t convince of love, but because his very conception of love was itself flawed.

[lorelune]

o4o: extended author's note

🎀 masterlist 🎀

WOW!! i genuinely... genuinely cannot believe i finished this piece 😭 like truly. around a year ago, i was cooking up the idea for an a/b/o collab and to think... almost a year later i have finished my piece :3c

o4o was originally just supposed to be a one shot featuring beloved omega jing yuan and his heat, but the idea expanded into much more fleshed out world, reader and dynamic. i truly never intended to go explicit with the mommy kink but you Know. sometimes things simply occur and you gotta go with the flow!!

omegaverse is so interesting to me in so many ways... the social workings of secondary gender, biology, and the relationships characters can have based on secondary gender too. i've had this very clear vision of scent gland anatomy in my minds eye for literally two years and it felt sooo nice to get it down in part iii for folks to like see. the vision. in o4o there is also this element of queerness that like... cannot exist in the real world! which is very fun and fascinating to me as an author to explore. both reader and jing yuan are omegas and the dynamic they with one and other is inherently informed by their secondary gender, but they express that secondary gender in very different, complimentary ways.

when i was cooking up o4o, i wanted to try and lean away from the reading of a/b/o which boils down to "alpha = stereotypical man" and "omega = stereotypical woman". femininity and masculinity are socially-informed concepts, and thereby change by concept and time, and i really wanted to (and attempted to) keep some amount of like... liminality to their expression. though jing yuan is perceived an alpha by the xianzhou alliance at large (because he is large, strong, and has a commanding presence), this is like... mostly coincidence and fabrication on his part. he cannot help that he is large (a great deal of which is soft omega pudge anyways!! and a slow metabolism adds to it), he's strong due to his lifetime of hard training, and his 'presence' is something he's like... constructed and honed because it is convenient and serves him well.

reader is more genuinely stereotypically in their world (at least what we see of them!!). they're a bit of a weakling, a lot of a crybaby, and very easy to coddle!! more like an omega kit than a grown one to be so real (see why jing yuan takes a liking to you LOL). but there's like embers of reader that distinctly aren't this stereotypical omega. they traveled to the Luofu alone, and settled without a pack or family unit. in part iii, we get a peak into reader's family, and you get a glimpse of reader's family, which is very non-traditional as well. they want to claim bite jing yuan. there's like!! in general lots of playing with perceptions in this piece. it's been very fun. playing with the expected bounds and outside of as well!!!

i DO have a sequel planned, a fun little spanking fic from reader's pov that truly i have been dying to write hehe. getting to do a deep dive on kink like o4o is very fun and like... rewarding. playing the long game on a kink to set up the Brain reasons why the characters involve enjoy it is like... long and hard. but very!!! gratifying. i'm excited to revisit these two, as both crybaby reader and milfy jy have altered my brain chemistry in unknoweable ways <3

finishing this piece would truly. TRULY. not have been possible without the cheering and support of multiple beta readers over each part. my pal honey helped out on parts i and ii and sadly doesn't have a tumblr anymore, but their jy thirsting and thoughts were VITAL!! @harmonydove was such huge help combing through part iii for clarity and cielo (@aimfor-theheart) did a much-needed final read through despite not going to hsr. and. AND!! truly truly TRULY this fic could not survived, lived and thrived with the continued, in-dms support of beloved mermie (@ofmermaidstories). she read this fic as i wrote and listened to my many questions and anxieties as this piece grew and grew. forever grateful. to all of these lovely folks!!!

thank YOU reader. for immersing yourself in this story and its world, and enjoying. truly there is nothing more that i desire as i writer. enjoy this piece this holiday season and be well 💗 🎀 💦

— lore 🩷

[ebenelephant]

Ooh good question. I'm very much into the worldbuilding/mechanics aspects of the omegaverse, and I basically agree with you? I think that as with the real world, rights would be progressing, but I picture them progressing at a slower rate due to the aspect of physical difference. So homophobia and a negative response to relationships outside of the norms of presentation would probably be closely linked, but not quite synonymous – I could definitely see someone being offended that a couple is homosexual and not that they're both omegas, or vice versa.

I imagine a response similar to that stereotypical ancient Greek school of thought – the shame falls on the one viewed as feminised. Say a beta or omega man was with an alpha woman; this is the expected dynamic within their presentation, but still there would be a level of degradation for a man who is seen as being dominated by a woman. As presentation-wise, an alpha is stereotypically dominant and an omega is stereotypically submissive, we come back to the same point as before – female alphas and male omegas can't win, because the traditional expectations of their gender always clashes with the expectations of their secondary sex.

I think that a male alpha might would be better off in a relationship with a male omega than with another male alpha. In one instance, they're just a pair of homosexuals breaking the norms of relationship dynamics; in the other, they are at least conforming to one role. The omega would bear the brunt of the abuse for being perceived as submissive – the one associated with femininity – but the alpha, less so. Likewise, I think the alpha would be better off with this omega than with a beta, because the beta is just a guy, but an omega... well that's basically just girl 2.0. A male beta, likewise, wouldn't be respected for being with a male omega, but at least he's not getting "bitched" by an alpha. Homophobia would still be prevalent, and it's only in a few specific instances that one might be marginally less affected by it – alpha privilege.

It's a little bit harder to paint out my thoughts regarding sapphic relationships. Two omegas would receive just normal homophobia I think? I can't picture many people caring? Like, they can't 'really' have sex, no one's getting pregnant, they're similarly low status. It's just a bit ew, and a bit sexy, and a bit weird; omega/beta relationships would get a similar treatment. They should be with men – real men, not omega men. But if you're with an alpha woman? Just admit you want a man. Come on. Admit it. You want dicked down. You're just trying things out. You're not really a lesbian. And as for the alpha woman... well, a hole is a hole for an alpha I imagine. It's somehow better and worse than if she'd been having sex with a beta man. Two alpha women together? On the one hand, they're queer women. On the other, there are two penises involved. But also, technically, no men are being emasculated? People just Don't Talk About It. It makes them uncomfortable.

But of course, these are only the relationships we would consider 'traditionally' queer. Relationships with say, a female alpha and male beta (or anything similar) would almost certainly be viewed as queer in some sense. Similar rules can be applied to them, though. The more emasculating to a man or unfeminine for a woman, the less socially acceptable such a relationship might be – with alphas by default being perceived as masculine and omegas as feminine. Instead of 'gay son or thot daughter', the question would be 'gay son or [insert demeaning term for omega guy with alpha girl] son'. But then, that also brings up interesting questions: in this hypothetical dynamic, would vaginal sex with the woman as the penetrative partner be more or less accepted?

Much to consider.

Also, I hadn't considered it until you mentioned it, but your point about the bathrooms makes so much sense! I'm having a really great time with this conversation :)

Happy Wincest Wednesday! This week, I come to you all with a humble request: non-traditional omegaverse wincest. Aka: anything that isn't alpha/omega. Do you think about it? Do you have headcanons? How does that impact their dynamic, the way they were raised, the way john treated them, the way other people look at them now, whether everyone still knows damn well that they're together or if they couldn't possibly suspect because they aren't alpha and omega?

(I will also count female alpha/male omega as non traditional because it's my ask and i make the rules)

If you don't like omegaverse, you can just ignore this. But I still sent it because i didn't want you to feel left out this week.

Catch me taking 2.5 weeks to respond. Thank you so much for including me! This is my first Wincest Wednesday ask and it sparks such joy, I've been ruminating on an answer for like 3 days.

Okay so general premise: alpha!Sam and beta!Dean. Alphas are generally expected to be bigger (taller, better at putting on muscle mass), and are regarded as more sexual and aggressive beings than their counterparts. It's almost taboo for alphas and omegas to date within their alignments, but there are also all sorts of stigmas regarding the ways they date and are in general. E.g., an alpha woman is simultaneously unfeminine and also less of an alpha than a man would be. Misogyny, homophobia, and whatever you call the omegaverse version of sexism all tangle together, and there are particular notions of sexual dynamics and acceptability. Dean wants to absolutely dominate his baby brother; society has many issues with this.

More on Sam and Dean's neuroses and other worldbuilding notes below!

In my mind, Sam, John, Mary, and Jess are all alphas. Dean, predictably, has a complex about this. Your dad, your god, is more man than you'll ever be. Your tiny baby brother is the one people respect. You know, logically, that Mary was murdered, but there's a small part of you that resents her; of course an alpha mom wasn't there for you. Even your brother's college girlfriend who looks kinda like you is a better dude. So there's Dean: John's son-wife; Sam's brother-husband-mother. I don't buy into that 'Dean was changing diapers at 4 years old' thing, but he was parentified, half required to fulfil the role that should've been his mom's, and with the dynamics at play here, that fucks him up more than anyone anticipated – certainly more than his dad ever intended. For his part, he raised them equally where he could, but they were not a family who talked about things. So Dean's so ready to be John's loyal follower forever, but Sammy wants to boss him around? Sammy? What, just because he's got a bigger dick? What right does he have?

So Dean just constantly emasculates him.

Sam has never cared – why would he worry about Dean's misinformed notion of what an alpha is? Besides, he'd never say it to anybody else, but even before The Horrors he would sometimes wish he wasn't one. Maybe then he wouldn't be angry at dad all the time. Maybe he wouldn't have these awful thoughts about Dean during his rut, when he just wanted to soothe the pain. Maybe no one would've given a shit about him and Jess. That was one thing John had sympathised with late season 1. People can be cruel.

Dean has thoughts about Jess. For his part, he's a giver, not a taker – he wonders if Sam's picky? – but it's weird enough for an alpha to take anything but an omega, let alone take is from a beta. He loves his little brother, but sometimes he wants to remind him who's boss. And it's not Sammy, with his is comforting scent and protective personality. He's barely even a fucking alpha in the first place.

worldbuilding notes:

just like angels and demons don't have to eat or breathe, they don't need to exude pheromones or any particular scent. it's a strange, almost uncomfortable absence.

heats/ruts aren't inherently a lack of inhibitions, though the sex drive is higher, but much like periods they have a variety of symptoms that vary in intensity. sam looks like someone who should have cramps. it's important to me.

fairly standard sexual implications: alphas expected to be larger, stronger, more aggressive; omegas expected to be smaller, weaker, more nurturing. fantasy bioessentialism! knotting is a thing, as are scent glands and pheromones on all presentations. people have their secondary sexual organ in addition to their primary sex organs if these things do not align, ie a cis female alpha and cis male omega both have a penis & a vagina

it's impossible to distinguish a child's secondary sex at birth without genetic testing (which most don't do), which causes most problems for the aforementioned alpha girls and omega boys, because i'm sorry, but babies are indistinguishable. so are a lot of young kids. pheromones don't usually differ enough to tell until puberty, at which point parents discover whether their son is an alpha or a beta, or, in very rare cases, and when the pheromones present before the body starts to develop significantly, whether their child is a male or female

seriously can't emphasise how fucked the sexism in this world is. yeah we didn't even know you were a girl until you were like 8 and we still sort of doubted it until you were 12 but now we know and you're never going to fulfil our expectations. you never had a fucking chance. i feel like there is probably a special slur for alpha girls and omega boys - indistinguishable for years, disappointing on all fronts.

being intersex becomes way more complicated when there's a second sex to contend with

you better believe the forms of transphobia and transmisogyny in this world are WILD. i genuinely think more omegaverse fics should explore that.

mating bites over the scent gland are a thing, but they're going out of style – look at divorce rates and tell me how many people would be comfortable permanently scarring themselves.

[ceratedfish24]

All I want for the new Life Series is for Scott to team up with someone other than Impulse from BITES. We’ve done Impulse, and now I’d like to see him with someone new. However, if it’s going to be Etho or Bdubs, it cannot be Etho AND Bdubs. I love seeing them play together, but I like them even more when they’re conflicted between fighting each other and helping each other.

I think Scott + Bdubs is great because I think Bdubs is a little scared of Scott and I think they should get to know each other better. They just don’t seem to come into contact all that often, and I’d love to get a glimpse into their dynamic.

Scott + Tango is great because they don’t talk on camera often, but I know they have a lot of respect and love for each other. I love seeing them interact in the Life Series and MCC.

Don’t even get me started on Scott + Skizz. Skizz is so lovingly bad at the game (but he’s getting better!!) and Scott is so good at this game. There’s great balance there. Also, Scott and Skizz absolutely adore each other, and I love love love seeing them together.

Scott + Etho would be really interesting to me. I know Etho is fond of Scott. He’s also weirdly observant about Scott, I’ve noticed. Like, he doesn’t talk to Scott a lot, but he does seem to know a whole lot about Scott and he’s very confident about how much he knows about Scott? He just seems to pick up on a lot of little things about Scott’s demeanor that other people don’t notice, including people who hang out with Scott regularly, like he knows how much of a threat Scott is. I really think he knows that Scott’s a really strong player. It’s so interesting. He’s also just so responsive to ideas Scott’s involved in, like MCC and Scott’s escape rooms (Etho in the void room😭my boy) even though they’re not usually types of content that he experiments with. I don’t know. Etho just seems so subtly attached to Scott in a way I’ve never seen before, and I love their friendship.

I would actually be down to see Scott + Impulse again, just cause Secret Life really had teams dividing and conquering more so than working together, so we didn’t actually see much of Scott and Impulse working together. I’d love to see them work together more, but I get to see that in MCC, escape rooms, and hide and seek videos too. I’d be happier if I got to see Scott with a different member of BITES for this new Life Series.

BONUS: Scott + Grian would also be a really cool pairing. It might be a little overpowered with how good those two are at the game, but I love their dynamic. PeskyPoppies isn’t a huge ship for me, but I do love seeing them make games for each other. I love seeing Grian in Scott’s escape rooms and making little observational comments. (“You got this from me!” “Oh, of course it’s your color.”) I love that they play together. I love that Grian used to think that Scott just wanted his clout because Scott was “too happy all of the time, and no one is that happy”. Their friendship is so giddy and playful. I just love love love that they make these short little games for each other. I think that’s love. I do that for my friends. I love it.

[tumblweeds-omegaverse]

worldbuilding thing I've been wondering about:

how do you handle gender identity, gender expression, and/or gender stereotypes, within your omegaverse writings?

this goes for ocs and for fanfics!

if alphas are physically male in the way we'd consider a human to be physically male, that's a statement on their sex, yeah? not their gender.

you can have the body parts implied there and still be a gender that is not "man". so how's that work for omegaverse? especially if alphas can be male or female.

how do you describe gender within your omegaverse? is it based more around dynamic / secondary? (alpha/beta/omega) or around sex? (male/female/others if they apply)

do people get gendered expectations assigned to them based on their sex, on their dynamic, on the combination of both?

(ex: is there a difference between the gender roles given to a female omega versus a male omega? are the stereotypes for a male beta like or unlike those of a male omega?)

could there be such a difference between female alphas, female betas, and female omegas, that only some female people are considered women, while others are labeled with some other term due to their dynamic? or are all female people considered to be women? (assuming they're all cisgender...but if you've got trans headcanons I wanna hear those too!)

I'm curious about this because it's reasonable to say something like "our image of what is masculine appearance / behavior is shaped by our society and time period," right? (since male doesn't have to equal man or masculine, but there's often some connection)

but that structure wouldn't be built from the same stuff in omegaverse. since behaviors and such could be associated with different groups.

so...if a male alpha is seen as a feminine presenting person, what does that mean in your verse?

are masculine and feminine less about what exists in your verse and more about the limitations of our own language?

is it something else altogether?

[fungh0u1]

eeveryone says they love emo bitches until they meet one

[teecupangel]

Hey beastie, im sorry if you’re too swamped with requests but i had this remembrance of a fic from way back when. I think it was a oneshot but essentially it was Desmond returning back in time after touching the eye but it was to an alternate timeline/universe where it’s ABO but his biology is still standard with no second gender. Just curious on ur take and how you can spin this with his ancestors-thank you!

(I’m still swamped by requests/asks/reblogs but I’m slowly making a dent on it. As long as you guys don’t mind that there’s like… a month-ish delay for your asks/reblogs to be answered then feel free to keep sending me asks or reblogging/commenting on my posts with your idea and additions :))

I have not read that kind of A/B/O story but let’s see how we can make… Desmond suffer (affectionately).

So let’s set up some backstory first: Desmond’s world does not have the biological markers of A/B/O. This can either mean (1) Desmond didn’t time travel, he was kicked into an alternate universe where this world has A/B/O so Desmond has no idea about it or (2) by the 21st century, A/B/O markings have already been ‘wiped out’ by the passage of time and the ‘evolution’ of mankind (that may or may not be part of the Isus’ calculations) so Desmond has ideas about it but doesn’t necessarily understand it.

Backstory (1) would give us a way to explain to the readers how A/B/O works in this world using Desmond’s lack of knowledge as our basis as well as give Desmond a lot of scenes of just being confused or forgetting about it. Backstory (2) would give Desmond a bit of a break as he’d have an idea of what the hell is happening all around him.

Regardless of whichever backstory we use, we will of course make Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton ‘alphas’ in this one.

Alright, let’s see how we can screw Desmond up with each of them XD (warning… this also talks about their sex life… a bit)

AltDes:

So, first of all, Altaïr and Malik are alphas and Kadar is either a beta or an omega. Abbas is also an alpha (although it would be funny to make him a beta) and Al Mualim is also an alpha. The main idea is, the further Desmond goes back in time, the more alphas and omega there are.

Desmond would confuse Altaïr a lot because he doesn’t feel the urge to be aggressive around Desmond for not bowing down to him that he would get when he’s around other alphas but Desmond isn’t submissive like an omega or deferring to him like a beta. Desmond treats him like an equal without acting like he needs to show he’s better than Altaïr which has always been his problem with other Alphas (even Al Mualim make Altaïr’s alpha instincts want to show dominance).

However, Desmond also smells… really, really nice. Altaïr can’t describe it and the only explanation he can give is that Desmond smells like ‘home’.

Desmond, on the other hand, has no idea what the hell Altaïr is talking about concerning scenting and such because Desmond doesn’t smell anything funny. Even when he tries to smell Altaïr (which both confuses and also arouses Altaïr), all he can smell is the oil he used for his hidden blade, the smell of his robes and Altaïr’s own scent which just… smells fine? Like… it’s okay?

Altaïr falls for Desmond because of Desmond’s dismissal to the hierarchy that has long ruled over their second gender and finds himself attracted to Desmond’s personality. He falls in love because Desmond is his equal and there is no need for either of them to even try to take the other down to be the one on top.

Although, this is one where Altaïr usually tops, mainly because Desmond knew he prefers it. Desmond is also the only person Altaïr is willing to bottom for.

EziDes:

Ezio would actually assume Desmond is a beta that is using a scent blocker for a while.

He would only realize that Desmond isn’t a beta because of Desmond does his own thing and just raises an eyebrow whenever Ezio tries to use his ‘alpha voice’ to get Desmond to try and cooperate with him.

Ezio would be the one who would have the hardest time with his feelings for Desmond because he was raised with the idea that alphas must mate with omegas (something that this world’s church advocates for and the Auditores were raised with those ideas) and he wants the kind of alpha-omega marriage his parents had (if you want more drama, ‘enter Lorenzo’ to make Ezio question just how 'perfect' his parents' marriage was XD).

After Ezio learns that Desmond is the one Minerva is talking about, he gets this idea that Desmond has no secondary gender because he’s a divine being. This gets more complicated when they learn that Isus don’t have secondary genders as well (and that the Isus made humans with secondary genders to make it easier to control them but they only made betas and omegas, the first alpha was Eve who ‘transformed’ when she became a hybrid). It's after Ezio learned of Desmond's connection to the 'Isus' (sorta) that Ezio realizes why Desmond smells like 'hope' to him.

Ezio finally gets his head out of the sand after Desmond confesses to him that he loves him and Ezio realizes that he doesn’t want an alpha-omega marriage anymore. All he wants is a future with Desmond by his side.

These two are the ones that tend to switch a lot. Even as an alpha, Ezio is game with anything as long as it’s fun and pleasurable. He’s more of a power bottom though because he can’t help it.

ConDes:

Ratonhnhaké:ton actually thought that Desmond not having a secondary gender is a quirk that happens with the colonizers. It’s only when he sees that the other colonizers think Desmond is weird that he realizes that Desmond is an ‘anomaly’.

He doesn’t care about it though because Desmond has been a loyal friend since they met and, sure, he knows Desmond isn’t saying everything but he trusts him.

Ratonhnhaké:ton is actually the most relaxed with Desmond because he doesn’t feel the urge to dominate that is common with alphas. It’s just… peaceful. And that's what Desmond smells like to him: 'peace'.

This is more of the side of friend to lovers kind of deal with both of them not realizing that they’re falling in love with one another until they’re in too deep.

Ratonhnhaké:ton would also be the one to have the least amount of angst about Desmond’s lack of a secondary gender as he believes in the actions people make, not of what they’re supposed to be.

Desmond honestly forgets about the whole secondary gender thing the most in this one because Ratonhnhaké:ton doesn’t try to flaunt it or anything. He thinks a lot of alphas are just dicks, forgetting that it’s encoded in their genes to want to be the dominant one even in normal conversations. The way some of the alphas do try to do it? Yeah, that’s just them being dicks, has nothing to do with being an alpha.

Haytham thinks that their relationship is strange though and might even think it’s because of how Ratonhnhaké:ton was raised (although both Ratonhnhaké:ton and Desmond aren’t sure if Haytham is insulting Ratonhnhaké:ton’s village or Achilles?) but he tries to be polite to Desmond when he and Ratonhnhaké:ton are working together.

Desmond gets into Haytham’s nerves a lot, mainly because Desmond is doing it on purpose because he knows Ratonhnhaké:ton’s feelings for Haytham (and that childhood desire to have a father) stops him from saying what Haytham needs to hear.

The Homestead doesn’t care about how strange Desmond and Ratonhnhaké:ton’s relationship is as all they care about is that the two are happy (plus the two of them helped everyone one way or another so they know they’re good people)

Ratonhnhaké:ton has never thought about bottoming before but he wants to try it for Desmond. It just takes a bit of a time for him to ready his ‘heart’ though.

Sorta dark addition:

So there’s this thing called ‘bitching’ which is mainly used to make an alpha into an omega and it’s usually in the realms of noncon or really questionable dubcon. I’m just thinking if it’s possible to make Desmond who has no secondary gender into an omega by ‘bitching’ him? Probably not because his body doesn’t have any marks of a secondary gender (unless…) so maybe the help of a POE would be needed as well (like the Shroud that we know deal with the physical body). Of course, this is a slippery slope that can either make this idea quite dark (and, ngl, it would work well with a dark!Altaïr who wants to have a family with Desmond) or this has to have Desmond’s full consent first and the main idea isn’t that Desmond wants to be an omega to preserve the hierarchy or order of things or whatever but because they want to have a child of their own. Of course, the bitching doesn’t have to happen to Desmond in this route… XD

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[thresholdbb]

Justice for Joe!

[getyinyusedtoit]

the inside of my brain 24/7/365

[cepheusgalaxy]

Look, I'm not usually one to be like "they should have gone with the romance", but thinking about Wish again, gosh they should have gone with the romance

[madeinjapan-thailand-blbambeyond]

MADE IN THAILAND

POON MITPAKDEE

NATARIT WORAKORNLERTSITH

[Nickname: MARC]

with:

THANABOON KIATNIRAN

[Nickname: AOU]

[clamorybus]

i know "kids showing respect" usually means "shutting up and doing what their told", but my niece genuinely has no respect for her mother. its kinda fucked up to see, but it's my sister in law's fault; she just has no backbone, and has set no boundaries for that child

[gristlegrinder]

I scrolled a bit through your blog - have fun trying out gw2!! halloween’s a really fun time to start playing.

i haven’t played ffxiv so I can’t comment on zenos as a character or the narrative reasons people find him polarizing, but:

the character i’m talking about (his name’s palawa joko) doesn’t show up until a little over halfway through all the story we have so far, and sticks around for the equivalent of about half an expansion, and then he’s a special guest for halloween. joko is kind of a lot, just as a person, and we all have fun with it, but he’s not actually on-screen very much. so if you end up not liking him, it won’t affect the large majority of the story campaign.

halloween is THE guild wars 2 holiday. come with me, we’re going to run around in circles in a decrepit, hallowed nightmare dimension, killing plastic spiders and glow-in-the-dark skeletons and candy corn elementals. the looming ghosts of a deposed pumpkin-headed king and the lich who wanted to fuck you so bad before your daughter ate him for breakfast are going to make gay passive-aggressive digs at each other every other minute like you’re not even there. sometimes steve is there too

[hopeheartfilia]

i know ill actually like an abo fic when it has to start with So heres the current political state of my setting in secondary genders and also some details on how exactly my version of abo biology works and some context on how science is moving with it and social opinions on the matter

like ooooooh yesss give me the deeets, how does having secondary genders affect this societtttyyy

[sidsinning]

Apothecary Diaries is pog as fuck bc serious political issues and dynamics from a woman's POV are rarely depicted in ANY form of media

It's always a man's world where women's issues surround him. Even if we get a female perspective once in awhile- it all comes back to how it facilitates his game in the end. She's a footnote in the overarching scheme of things. Misogyny exists. Back to the real plot.

Apothecary Diaries is strictly from a female perspective and how each class of woman has to act, what limits they have, what rights they have and don't have between each class, etc. These women have to behave a certain way under a patriarchy, which you would think makes it a man's story, but it never is. The women are THE focus of this show, their struggles are THE plot. The focus is about how the patriarch effects them.

Take the concubines for example. The show dives into how bearing a child affects their rank, how traumatizing it is to lose that child, the consequences of that, etc. We have barely seen the emperor who sired all these kids because this is not about him.

Jinshi's personal plot is secondary to Mao Mao's journey- he is mostly there to provide new cases for Mao Mao to solve and to learn more about the shortcomings of his class when taking care of citizens like Mao Mao.

Jinshi is not a bad person, but by virtue of his position in the higher classes, he cannot understand how harsh life as a poor WOMAN is specifically- he can only catch glimpses of it from what Mao Mao tells him and feel outrage but powerless in his wealth and luxury

Mao Mao is a fortunate commoner woman for what privileges someone in her class should and shouldn't have. She happened to be adopted by a knowledgeable man. She is allowed to read, write, learn, and has enough skill to be a poison tester and have a job EXTREMELY out of her class limit as an apothecary, also a job not traditionally meant for women

Mao Mao is not a "noT lIkE oThER gIrLs" protagonist, she is FOR THE GIRLIES. She only wants to help the women around her, and women are whom she has the closest relationships to. She sees a woman being harassed and can't let it stand. She sees a frail, traumatized woman dying from the recklessness of those who should be caring for her and spends day and night nursing her back to health, while also punishing the people who were so careless with her needs.

My girl has STUDIED UP on THE BODY to TEACH these upper class ladies on how to really HEAT things up in the BEDROOM

Sex depicted in Apothecary Diaries is both something women are not shamed to be enjoying, while at the same time being acknowledged as an unfortunately huge economic necessity to market themselves.

Like shit is just so real in this series???

Listen, I can go on and on about how GOATED the series and especially Mao Mao is but you get the picture