#but that is secondary to seeing their dynamics

[kiwriteswords]

My "Unpopular" Aaron Hotchner Opinions*

*My opinions, solely! I am not trying to discredit anyone else's headcanons, thoughts, etc.! These are just my thoughts, which I was encouraged to share despite being really terrified to share some of them because they go against the grain.

Also, some of these are NSFW!

Aaron Hotchner would not date someone who was in their twenties. As much as my twenty-something-year-old self would love that, I don't see him realistically picking a partner with such a significant age gap.

Reasonings:

Hotch is a profoundly introspective and careful man. He would hesitate if he felt the age gap could lead to judgment or imbalance in the relationship. He would also be hyper-aware of the psychology behind older men gravitating toward younger partners.

He would worry about differing life stages (e.g., career ambitions, desire for children), causing long-term complications.

Aaron Hotchner would not date a member of the BAU.

Reasonings:

As the leader of the BAU, Hotch holds himself to high ethical standards. He’d worry about how a romantic relationship with a subordinate could appear, not only to his team but also to higher-ups in the FBI. He would not want to waver the team's or his superior's trust.

Hotch has a need to keep work and personal separate as much as possible; these blurred lines don't seem like something I could see Hotch crossing.

Aaron Hotchner would not be as dominant in the bedroom as one would think. However, he would lean more into this if his partner was into it, but not outwardly for himself, as I often read.

Resonings:

While Hotch is a natural leader, he does not seek power for power's sake--it's always about responsibility and protection. A lot of his natural leadership qualities come as a trauma response, and I believe he might let that down entirely in an intimate setting.

Hotch’s romantic and sexual relationships would likely be an outlet for him to shed his professional stoicism and connect authentically. He wouldn’t want to bring elements of authority or control into that space, as it would conflict with his desire to be vulnerable.

Aaron Hotchner would not want to be called "Daddy" in the bedroom; again, he may lean into this if his partner was for it, but I do not see him outwardly wanting this.

Reasonings:

As a leader, Hotch is very aware of power dynamics and strives to ensure equality and fairness in all relationships. He would probably be uncomfortable with any dynamic that places him in a position of authority or dominance, particularly one that invokes paternal connotations.

The show strongly implies that Hotch’s relationship with his father was strained and possibly abusive. He has mentioned that his father was strict and may have instilled a fear-driven form of respect rather than genuine love. Given this background, it’s unlikely Hotch would want to emulate any dynamic reminiscent of a “father figure” in a non-familial, intimate context. It might even be triggering for him.

Aaron Hotchner would likely not be the fantastic father we all write about if it were not for Haley's death and Jess's support.

Reasonings:

Hotch’s transformation into a great father was largely a result of Haley’s death, forcing him to reprioritize and step into a role he might not have fully embraced otherwise. While he always loved Jack, the tragic loss gave him no choice but to confront his shortcomings and dedicate himself to being there for his son. If Haley had lived, Hotch’s role as a father would likely have remained secondary to his career, with much of the emotional and practical parenting responsibilities falling to Haley.

The Jess of it all also comes down to writing, for the writers to plausibly continue having Hotch be this great leader and agent while also stepping up to the plate as a father. He realistically could not do it both.

On this note, I hate how villainized Haley is in the fandom. Haley wasn’t a villain—she was a woman who made a difficult but necessary decision for her and Jack’s well-being. Her divorce from Hotch doesn’t diminish her love for him or her sacrifices as a partner and mother. It highlights the complexities of relationships and how even two people who care deeply for one another can struggle to make it work under extreme circumstances. Blaming Haley oversimplifies their story and ignores her humanity.

Aaron Hotchner and Beth lacked chemistry, and it felt very OOC for Hotch to be so unaffected by their parting ways; this is more a flaw in the writing versus the character(s) or fandom.

Reasonings:

Beth was introduced abruptly and with minimal background, leaving her character feeling one-dimensional. The audience didn’t have enough time to understand her motivations or personality, making it difficult to invest in her relationship with Hotch. She felt more like a plot device to show Hotch moving forward post-Haley than a fully realized partner for him. This, again, falls on the fact that Bellamy Young had moved onto Scandal, and they were forced to end things with that plot, so who knows where it actually would have ended up. 

Their dynamic felt almost too casual, which was jarring considering Hotch’s usual intensity in his relationships, especially after Haley’s death. Also, I think Hotch might be suspect of the idea of someone kind of watching him in the park for so long? But I do feel like the writers had no other way for Hotch to realistically meet someone.

Beth’s role could have been an opportunity to explore how Hotch balances dating with being a single father and leading the BAU. Instead, their relationship was surface-level and didn’t push Hotch toward any real emotional growth. The writers didn’t use Beth to challenge Hotch’s guarded nature or explore how he might rebuild trust and intimacy after Haley’s death. Too much was going on during this season and the following, but they opened the door for this and did nothing. 

When Beth and Hotch part ways, Hotch appears surprisingly unaffected, which feels out of character. Given his emotional depth and the weight he places on personal relationships, fans expected more from him—if not heartbreak, at least some introspection or acknowledgment of the loss. This lack of reaction felt less like a natural response for Hotch and more like the writers were rushing to close a subplot they didn’t know how to continue.

I have more, but figured I would ease into this!

[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.

[fungh0u1]

eeveryone says they love emo bitches until they meet one

[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?

[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.

[irregularbillcipher]

do love how many of us bill cipher flatland truthers heard "when bill destroyed his home dimension, he killed everyone he'd ever known" and all simultaneously decided "well except kryptos. he knew kryptos. he kept kryptos :)"

[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

[longagoitwastuesday]

Both Nobara and the blonde witch (Momo?) make good points about the role of women in this Jujutsu society. Momo points out that power is not enough for them, that that which is good enough for men isn't for women, that they are held to higher standards, and for them scars aren't badges of honour as they are for men, but make them undesirable and damaged goods.

And then there's Nobara, pointing out those are sexist standards one doesn't have to adhere to, that it's on them for playing by the rules and having those exigences in mind. That she likes clothes and looking pretty, but for herself, she doesn't expect it from others or respect more someone who does as well if they don't want to, like she likes Maki but dislikes Mai. And she too is right! It's true that adhering to those exigences perpetuates the standards! But what she says doesn't negate what Momo says, which is the fact that, yeah, okay, it sucks, but that's how it is and not playing by the rules just makes everything harder. And harder still for someone like Mai (or Maki) to whom perfection isn't just the goal, but the very starting point being people from one of the main clans. So she can understand and defend Mai's position and approach to the problem, as Nobara understands and defends Maki's.

This all gains layers of complexity and juiciness considering Momo and Mai are Utahime's students and Todo's classmates. I am sure the manga won't go there, but wow is it intriguing how Utahime's situation may have influenced their views. What a pity the manga won't go there

[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