#but we can talk about how a lot of you have warped the canon into something that it’s not

[survivalove]

imagine being this mad because your favorite character isn’t the fan favorite lmao, Zuko was just objectively a better written and more interesting character than Aang. like, you realize this isn’t really about ships, it’s about the fact that no matter how much bs you project onto Aang, he’s still just not as compelling of a character (now go ahead and play the race card again hun I know you wanna even tho we both know what you’re about) ✌🏾

I can’t possibly know what you’re mad at since I haven’t posted anything in like a week?

but yeah if arcs about racist entitled losers sitting on colonial thrones in the end is what you find interesting and compelling, great for you! was saying race card like a karen, calling me hun or using a brown hand emoji while being conveniently anonymous supposed to intimidate me?

in fact, this fandom in general seems to be quite racist and imperialistic as well so I’m not too bothered by your tastes or what the likes of you have to say about any of my favorite characters. (also idk why you wrote this as if my favorite character is aang 😭 if you had stalked me better, you’d know who my 2 favorite characters are)

but since this is about aang, all the anonymous asks and bad fandom takes in the universe won’t change the fact that he is the main character, he is the one with the most impact on every other character’s development (especially that tired redemption trope) and he is the most recognizable and iconic character in the entire franchise and animation in general tbh 🤷🏿‍♀️

you can keep talking about shippers and projection or whatever it is you could possibly be referring to and neither the facts nor my opinions will be changing.

which is unfortunate for you, since my dislike of the fandom’s baby uwu colonizer seems to be haunting you.

[ask-the-rag-dolly]

okay unhinged essay about ragatha probably #1 idk i don't think this is all of my thoughts but here's what i could actually put down

i think the most surprising thing for me Personally is getting a lot of my interpretations of ragatha correct ? like . the thing that almost destroyed my motivation for this blog is the fear that my unhinged overanalyzation of her mannerisms in the pilot were Wrong - i actually thought about canceling everything when i was off from canon - but now ... yeah i'm not doing that

i guess it's just that we had so little of her in the first episode that i thought i was Manifesting her issues but Nope she really is this much of a Loser

first of all ! i suspected that she has low self-esteem but Goodness Gracious !! i didn't expect it to be Actually almost non-existent ?? like i thought i was Exaggerating for this blog but no , no person with a normal amount of self-esteem would Warp an incident so much in their head that they somehow believe something going wrong is Their Fault .

like she's so focused on pomni the entire episode because she Genuinely believes that the fiasco in the first day was her fault ( even though IT WASN'T , but she's really that used to quickly blaming herself ) and wants to make it up to her . but of course pomni is still adjusting and is Overwhelmed by everything ( which is understandable ) so she's not really in the mood for ragatha's bullshit

but with how ragatha reacts and what she subsequently tells kinger - she read those more as ' i do not like you ' than ' i am too fatigued to care about anything right now ' which is such a Large leap , but considering she was the one who Apologized to pomni for giving her a stressful first day ( which was COMPLETELY out of her control , ) it makes sense that she assumes that pomni has something against her - which was not helped by how none of ragatha's attempts of starting a friendship were reciprocated

i do understand why she would Think it's her fault - as pomni's a newcomer and More Stress is the last thing she needs , especially in her first day - but ' oh she doesn't like me ' is still Such a hasty conclusion that someone who already ... Doesn't Like Themself would jump to .

of course i can't not talk about the potential history between her and kinger . through their dialogue you can tell that ragatha's one of those people that took a batshit long time to truly adjust to the circus - which has a lot of interesting implications . with how she seems to understand the process of finding an exit in episode 1 , it explains a lot . my girl was so Not well when she entered the circus .

honestly it's just nice seeing that ragatha at least has Some support despite her being the one who holds everything together - it makes the ending impactful in my opinion ; they do really care for each other and will be saddened if one of them is gone .

also of course she asked if everyone's alright despite having a cleaver to the head ...

something that also has been nagging me for a long time is how much she always gets the short end of the stick . like , literally every time she's on screen , she Has To Get Harmed in some way . i would brush this off as slapstick when her official pin doesn't have her HAVING A KNIFE TO THE CHEST ???

Maybe it's just slapstick . maybe with her having parallels to kaufmo considering how he's said to be a goofy toxic positivity type guy like ragatha and is the one that has abstracted thus far is just a coincidence and doesn't speak levels to what might become inevitable as the series goes on ,

[glitter-stained]

thank you for all your jason posts! it's frustrating when some more titans-adjacent fans (especially hurts if you like mia and others too) like to warp any fans of him into being like serial killer fetishists, or act really misogynist and assume one only likes him for being "hawt guy", and then even warp some of his canon faults and shitty moments to be even worse than they are like saying he killed everyone at mia's school or wanted to SA her. at least charge him with the crimes he really did, people.

They claim he what

They said he wanted to do what to Mia

I'm genuinely upset about this

Also yeah that sexism towards jason fans thing is so real like yeah assuming we're so shallow calling us "fanon fans"/assuming with zero proof that we don't read comics (which you know is just repackaged "fake fan" comicsgate discourse) it's so fucking annoying like "jason fans have stolen traits from other characters and his personality is just fanon and they just like him because they think he's woman-coded because they actually hate women but what can you expect from stupid little girls who wouldn't know any better"

It's almost like because this character is popular amongst women there's this assumption of shallowness.

And also like, I do make a lot of post about how interesting he is and the catharsis he brings but I feel like in the end nothing I say matters when it can be waved aside with "you're just bending backwards to defend your favourite serial killer white boy you fangirl", nevermind 1) my actual gender and 2) that jason isn't even a serial killer. It's like, I feel like being a Jason fan I always have to prove I'm not shallow to others and have a right to my interest, which is a very usual, tiring experience and like, when in doubt people should assume depth and intelligence. Why do I have to defend my depth all the time? I shouldn't have to be defensive all the time I shouldn't have to perform the social equivalent of an IQ test to be allowed to engage in fandom.

There's a lot of sexism in fandom and yes, this can definitely happen to female characters, I've seen the way people talk about Stephanie Brown or Talia al Ghul and Jesus fucking Christ wth. And yes, at large, there's also a question of the impact of sexism on popularity at large, aka characters that would definitely be more popular if they were men. That absolutely does not mean that liking a male character somehow makes you a misogynist (and especially not with how talk of sexism in fandom doesn't often take into account gender stuff) and most importantly sexism in fandom is not limited to sexism towards characters. People are sexist as fuck towards female fans¹, notoriously real life human people. But I'm not fucking shallow. I know when I'm being called a fangirl even if it's dressed up in fandom speech. "Read a comic" how about you read all the meta I've written about all those comics I have read.

So anyway sorry that got a little out of hand I'm pretty upset about that one but I'm really glad you like my posts! I'm just tired because as much as I love literary analysis I just wish I didn't have to be on the defensive all the time. Maybe next time someone claims we're shallow we can join forces to print out all the good JT meta out there into one big book and beat them up with it- aside from that I'm all out of solutions.

Also just one last thing - "they just like jason todd because they think he's hot" this is comics. Literally everyone is hot. Who's your fav? Starfire? Oliver Queen? Kyle Rayner? Dinah Lance? Donna Troy? Raven? Cassandra Cain? Dick Grayson? Do you think your fav is ugly? (John Constantine fans this doesn't concern you). "They just like him because he's hawt" is short for "because I don't find anything interesting in him I'm going to assume shallowness and act sexist about it because I can't conceive that different people have different tastes and may enjoy different things than me without acting superior about it." But also it's ridiculous because again, this is comics. They're hot. 🤦

1. And towards female writers. Devin Grayson I haven't forgotten you. They should be so ashamed of what they did to you.

[mogamuncher]

“You're on a path in the woods. And at the end of that path, is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin, is a knight. You are here to slay him. If you don't, it will be the end of the world.”

Please accept my meager shitty art as we come back for part three of the "Moga fuses her hyperfixations together" saga! Aka: Slay the Knight AU!

Here's what I think Emilia and Subaru would look like, in true STP fashion I imagine both would never be referred to by name, instead being The Knight and The Frozen Bond (hah, get it?)

I made Emilia a little scary (and kinda Satella-esque), but that's mainly because from what we see in The Princess and The Dragon route, The Long Quiet is just actually fucking scary, so having Emilia be similarly intimidating would be fun.

Though I do think her personality would remain the same in this au, mainly because she's nice enough that she would naturally play mediator to the the voices, but malleable enough that she could just end up going with their whims when pushed enough.

Now for Subaru, I actually wanted to give him a definitive outfit that would kinda function like the Princess's dress, something that is a constant in every design but changed to fit the theme, the recognizable trait that showcases that no matter how fucked up these forms get they're still the same person

That's kinda why the little cape is there, it's supposed to be a significant design choice that can be warped with future forms

For the official lore, I like to think that it's still actually very similar:

The Frozen Bond, the manifestation/god of stasis, consistency, the chilling frozen in time allure of stagnation

While Subaru would be something like The Returning Cycle, the manifestation/god if constant change, perspective and identities splitting depending on choices, the constant cycle of time

Together they'd make the cycle of life and death, in a sense, and since Echidna in canon was trying to find a way to reach immortality, it is only fitting that she would split them apart and attempt to pit them against the other, as to goad Emilia into killing Subaru, this ending the concept of change, making it so that there is no means of which others can die.

But that's what I have for the moment, now, let's talk about some more ideas I have for the IF Barus

The Prisoner, my beloved

I rewatched someone playing her route and it dawned on me when The Shifting Mound described her as a vessel, but she's oddly a lot like Slothbaru

The idea of someone cautious to the point of stagnation, content to let the world pass her and remain in inaction, I mean, that's literally what Sloth is shown to be in the og series. That's also inherently what Slothbaru did when he took Rem's hand and ran away, leaving everyone else to die, but gaining a happy life for himself

Prisoner is like an Slothbaru that can't take Rem's hand, content to let the world pass him by for the sake of self preservation, but stuck in one place without the chance of running away, he can only wait and see because he's inherently passive, as he thinks he has no other choice

The Adversary, however, is the funniest one I think

Someone mentioned in the last post in the tags that Adversary is kinda Smolbaru coded, so I went back to read the arena fights in arc 7 and y'know what? They're correct, they're absolutely right, The Adversary is very much just Smolbaru

Which is funny, because The Adversary is supposed to be bigger and stronger than usual, though maybe it's either just that his personality is Smolbaru and his appearance is still intimidating, or we go all in and have Smolbaru just absolutely kick Emilia's ass with his bare hands in this one

Either way, I love it, also this is the route where Priscilla (Voice of the Proud) would show up, so having an Arc 7 Baru here would be a nice touch

Ok so I'm about to sound unhinged, but the Grey's

What if they were Natsumi.

Now, look, I have no evidence to back me up on this, I'm going off from pure vibes alone, but like what if

Honestly, it would be fun to have most of the Deadbarus be in some way or another Natsumi coded, though that would be fused with the Baru that lead to their routes in the first place (like Arc 1 Baru for the Burned Grey and Slothbaru for the Drowned Grey)

I mean, look at The Wraith and The Spectre

Imagine if the Spectre was more akin to Natsumi in her purest form, since the Spectre is actually surprisingly chill and nice about this whole thing, and then if you attempt to leave him there, you get the Wraith

A withered rotten version of Natsumi, falling apart at the seams and determined to hitch a ride and finally leave

In more confirmed Barus; Wrathbaru as The Witch and The Thorn, Greedbaru as Happily Ever After and Arc 1-2 Baru as The Damsel, The Nightmare would be Gluttonybaru and A Moment Of Clarity would still be Gluttonybaru but with more Louis/Rui elements

Again, I accept suggestions, and tell me if you want me to make more art for this AU, maybe I can draw more Barus and also the voices, who knows?

Edit: good news gang, I actually did in fact write this! The first chapter of this au is out here!

[maniacwatchestheworld]

We Need To Talk About Danny's Power Level.

I was hesitant to make this post, but the more I think about it and the more I see... We really HAVE to discuss this. Generally speaking, I really don't want to be seen as someone who is trying to ruin people's fun within this fandom. I want to inform, and while I have issues with some of the very prevalent ideas in this fandom, I don't want to tell people what they should or should not be making! I want people to follow what they find fun to create! But this power level thing...? I think that it has some rather concerning implications to it that need to be examined and discussed! This is an actual, decently serious problem, and after considering it for a time, it occurs to me that I may be one of the few people in this community that recognizes this issue as an actual issue and has the authority to speak on it...

You NEED to stop making Danny so incredibly overpowered in the DPxDC space.

Now please don't misunderstand me. I understand the value of a good fun power fantasy and making Danny more powerful than God can be fun and cathartic if you have a negative history with the Christian faith. But this insistence on the Ghost Zone being The Most Important Thing Ever and Danny being The Most Powerful Entity Within It is actually actively warping how people interpret and think about DC canon as well as certain characters within its canon to the point of unrecognizability as well as robbing characters of what makes them interesting, the point of their stories, and their agency within it. But most importantly of all, all of this is just... Generally, genuinely dismissive and shitty towards most religions, cultures, beliefs, and faiths that people practice, ESPECIALLY the faiths of POC and other minorities. And this is specifically an issue that DC does not have and that people within this space are making an issue by refusing to let the Ghost Zone and Danny have some limitations.

So that you understand where I'm coming from, please understand that I'm a person of color (I'm half Filipino) and that I'm Buddhist (a religion that I decided to convert to and embrace after a lot of thought and soul-searching, even if I'm not very good at practicing it). It also needs to be stated that in the DC universe, all religions and faiths are true and real at the same time, and they all have more or less equal footing as any other faith or religion or mythology explored in this multiverse. Christian heaven and hell are real. Reincarnation is canonical to the DCU. The Greek Pantheon is real and they are just as real and powerful as the Norse Pantheon. (By the by, just to let you know, yes, people in the real life modern day do actually actively worship both of these pantheons today.) Different alien planets have different faiths, and there is precedent for them being real as well. (Hey! Fun fact! Kryptonians are polytheistic!) It does seem that some form of animism is real within the DCU (within concepts of The Red and The Green)! And there is even representation for indigenous African faiths and beliefs within this shared universe! One of the genuinely wonderful things about the DC universe is that all of these faiths are real, they're all valid, and they are all more or less on equal footing to one another! If all the religions and afterlives and gods of each pantheon went to war with one another, it would genuinely be difficult to know who would win, or who would even stand a chance of coming out of this conflict alive!

In fact, a lot of characters and storylines within the DC universe are actually DEPENDENT on all of these faiths existing and being equally valid at the same time. Do you know where Billy Batson gets his powers from? The phrase "SHAZAM," if you didn't know, is actually an acronym for the names of the gods and heroes that he derives his powers from. (Solomon, Heracles, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.) And it's implied that each person with SHAZAM powers has different heroes and gods that they derive their power from! (Black Adam derives all of his powers from the Egyptian Pantheon. Mary Marvel derives all of her powers from female gods and heroic figures.) Many of Wonder Woman's stories involve her interacting with various different pantheons. Xanthe Zhou gets their powers from traditional Chinese folk ancestor-worshiping practices. Ragman is a Jewish character whose suit is a powerful Jewish artifact- a suit made out of the souls of sinners that was created to protect the Jewish community. Sun Wukong is an actual character in the DCU and he is JUST as overpowered and immortal ×500 as he should be! And there are like... At least 3 entirely different characters that either are iterations of, claim to be, or pull their powers/inspiration from Anansi! DC celebrates a lot of faiths and religions and are bringing in more beliefs and faiths into their universe all the time! TONS of characters derive their powers from their religions, faiths, and beliefs! And DC celebrates them all as being real and valid to all who practice them! ... And you want them all to be forced to be under the same umbrella and less important and powerful as Danny and the Ghost Zone...

Bringing up ideas of ghosts and afterlives are always going to be loaded subjects because they often inherently rub up against actual living people's practiced religions and beliefs. But a belief in ghosts and dimensions better suited for them is also a valid belief that real life people have. And there is precedent for these beliefs also being real within DC canon. But DC only manages to get away with crossing over as many faiths as it does by saying that they are all real, valid, and while you might see less of some pantheons and more of others, they all exist and are doing their own thing just like they do in real life, just off panel... Are you beginning to see what the problem is...?

In the DPxDC fandom's eagerness to incorporate Danny into the DC universe and to make him powerful enough to go toe to toe with the likes of Superman, it seems that most people immediately overcompensated and that no one has really thought to slow down, stop, and actually think about what they are implying. Because the most common headcanons that I have seen regarding the Ghost Zone and other afterlives and religions? It's that they are all parts of the Ghost Zone, but are all ultimately subordinate to it. And since Danny is the Most Powerful and Important Person in the Ghost Zone... This implies that all religions, faiths and beliefs are less important and are indeed subordinate to the Almighty Danny. That all deities and the people following them should just bow down to Danny's might. This is something that DC, in spite of all of its flaws, has managed to avoid. These religions are REAL religions! Actual faiths practiced by actual people! We are NOT talking about dead, irrelevant pantheons that no one alive worship anymore! We are talking about living, active faiths and religions, some of which colonizers have tried to eradicate from the world! Some of these faiths have been suppressed! Some of the people who practice these beliefs have faced genocide for them! And so saying that the Ghost Zone is bigger, better, and that Danny is more important than any single other faith and afterlife...? THAT'S A SHITTY THING TO DO! You are literally doing the shitty Christian missionary thing, but with a fictional afterlife that consists of fictional characters that you know are not actual religious beliefs! You're landing on the sandy polytheistic shores of the DCU and declaring that the Ghost Zone is actually vaster than every faith already in the DCU and that Danny is more powerful and has authority over your gods! That your beliefs and faith and religion should just take a backseat to the Danny power fantasy! That your real, lived religion is not more important nor should it be respected when Danny is in the room! Of course the Buddha should bow down to Danny! Of course the Jewish people should renounce their faith and worship Danny instead because he's better and more powerful than the Jewish God! Why should people pray to their ancestors when Danny ultimately gets to decide what happens to everyone's ancestors!? If they want good things to happen to their ancestors in the afterlife, they should pray to Danny instead! Not like any form of prayer works or matters in this universe anyway because Danny is Almighty! And he doesn't hear the prayers! By making all faiths subordinate to Danny within these stories, you are saying that anyone who practices these beliefs and faiths within these stories are not valid in their beliefs. The only belief that matters and is real in this universe is the Ghost Zone and whatever will appease Danny the most. And while the characters in these stories are not real, the religions, beliefs, and practices they engage in ARE. And so you are implying that real people's faiths and religions don't matter. You are just dismissing real faiths and beliefs as not something worth thinking about or respecting within your works! You are saying that this fictional American white teenage boy and his goopy green land is more important to you than just being respectful of real people's faiths, beliefs, and religions. That your power fantasy is more important than saying that a person is valid for holding on to their beliefs. That when it comes down to it, that you would rather people choose your Danny power fantasy over their religion being portrayed as important and valid. That is honestly insulting. And really alls that you've done is impose monotheism onto the DC universe. You're just enforcing monotheism on people with extra steps. But instead of it being the Christian God, you've put Danny in that position. THIS IS A SHITTY THING TO DO! THIS SHOULD NOT BE THE DEFAULT HEADCANON THAT PEOPLE HAVE IN THIS FANDOM! PLEASE STOP!

Please understand. I know that you didn't do this on purpose or mean to imply this intentionally. I know that you didn't realize that you were insulting and undermining actual faiths and religions by pushing these ideas on the fandom. If one or two people had these thoughts and headcanons and didn't think very much about what they are implying, this would not be a problem. But for this to be the default is VERY disconcerting! As a Buddhist, it does feel genuinely shitty and insulting to imply that Danny has authority over the Buddha and that he outranks and is more powerful than Sun Wukong. It's not fun to think that my beliefs matter to you less than continuing to play with your Danny power fantasy. That you don't think that the pursuit for enlightenment and inner peace is real or worthwhile. That you would find my pursuit of compassion over everything else to be silly, stupid, and laughable when stood next to Danny. I know that you don't mean it. I know that's not what you meant to imply. But it is what you imply by making every faith subordinate to the Ghost Zone. And as someone who has a faith that is so often seen as subordinate to others and just a silly little play fantasy that doesn't matter and isn't real, it's depressing and uncomfortable to see this community as a whole unknowingly echo these sentiments. People in real life don't think that my faith is valid. People don't believe me when I say that I'm Buddhist. And as someone who is Filipino on top of that, I can't help but to think about the utter tragedy of my ancestors being forced to convert to Christianity or die. To forget their beliefs, pretend they never mattered, and embrace Jesus. To be forced to believe that their indigenous beliefs didn't matter. And so many of those indigenous beliefs are now lost and forgotten to their living ancestors (including myself) for it because to the Christians, their belief in Jesus was ultimately more important to them than just letting the Filipino beliefs and religions peacefully exist as they were. It's uncomfortable to me that you would rather I just embrace this view of Danny and let him be more important than and be an authority over my religion. That I should just be comfortable in Danny being more important and better than every religion that people actually practice in real life. That I should just forget the insult to my and any other religion that you make by placing Danny as more important than, and to "just have fun." But I can't. And these ideas are everywhere in this fandom. Even in stories where it shouldn't matter or doesn't need to be present, it's there. This reminder that you don't take my faith seriously- these ideas that Danny is more important than my faith are ubiquitous to this community. An issue that wasn't present in either of the original source materials. Because they thought about it and so went out of their way to not imply it. But here, people are just not willing to make that courtesy for even a second.

But it doesn't have to be this way. You can do better! I know that you can do better. And it isn't even difficult to do! All that you need to do better is to simply... Just... Think about it. When you imply or say "all afterlives are part of the Ghost Zone" actually think about ALL afterlives! Christian and Atheist and Greek ones, yes. But also Asian and Native American and African and South American ones too! Is that kind of thought fair towards Native American faiths, Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Palestinians, Hellenists, Animists, and every other person and group that practices a faith? Or does this have majorly fucked up implications towards some or all of these people? If the answer is yes, you can proceed, but you need to be mindful of that fact and just think about it, even if only a little. Even if it's just a small acknowledgement that you don't know what you're talking about or that you are choosing to ignore some of the fucked up implications you're making here for the sake of the story in the tags. I just want you to take a moment and think through the implications of what you are making, and to make a choice on whether you should proceed or reconsider things. If you choose to proceed with the fucked up implications, that's fine. It means that you can do so with other mindsets in mind and can possibly use these ideas in interesting ways! At least you made a stance to possibly be shitty towards some people for the sake of your fun. At least you made the choice to say that some people's beliefs just don't matter to your story. This is a neutral statement. Some works of art are just not made for some kinds of people. And that's fine. But it is always better to knowingly acknowledge and make that choice than to pretend that it isn't there. And if you didn't realize that's what you were doing? If you reconsider and choose to turn back on this idea? At least you made that choice and didn't just passively follow the rest of the crowd to get here. Hopefully, thinking about it will make you more mindful about your art in the future and therefore make it better! The only thing to do about it is to acknowledge that you weren't thinking about the implications, but that you changed your mind, and move forwards with your life.

Now just to be entirely clear, I'm not telling you that I want you to feel guilty about being inconsiderate towards other faiths. That doesn't really do anyone any good. I won't get any satisfaction from you feeling guilty about it or internally punishing yourself for it. Just actually give what you might be implying more thought in terms of religion next time and do better. It's alright to make mistakes. We are all just human and we all make mistakes. Sometimes we don't even realize when we've made a mistake. Just strive to do better next time, be more willing to let go of these ideas that you're so attached to, allow yourself to see things from another perspective, and move on. Sometimes, it's better to just leave things alone. Sometimes you shouldn't meddle and try to rework ideas that were perfectly good on their own to begin with. Sometimes nothing that you personally can add will be a positive contribution. Sometimes the only thing that interfering will do is over-complicate things and rob the idea of what made it so interesting and powerful in the first place. But it's okay to leave it alone. It's going to be okay. I'm not angry. Just disappointed and a little frustrated. But it's better if you are able to just drop these things and move forwards with mindfulness in the future.

As an alternative, I think that it would generally be better for the Ghost Zone to just be its own thing separate from the other afterlives. Equal to other afterlives and not all-encompassing of them. It can be connected or related to other afterlives, but being greater than them as a whole is just a very uncomfortable and cruel implication. You don't need the Ghost Zone to be the most important thing in the multiverse. And Danny does not need to be the most powerful thing in existence. Please. It's okay to have power fantasies. But the invincible overpowered stronger than all Gods Danny should not be the overwhelming norm here to the detriment of everything else. It's only when you let go of Danny NEEDING to be the MOST important thing in the multiverse can you start to really dive into some of the more interesting sides of characters on their own terms and not on yours! Like... Did you know that there is one ghost character in DC called The Spectre and that he's the literal personification of the wrath of God? Did you know that Xanthe Zhou as a spirit envoy is actually half dead and half alive? Did you know that The Wizard Shazam is actually, secretly an aboriginal god? Did you know that in the DC universe that Judas Iscariot still walks the Earth to this day, doing vigilante work to atone for his betrayal of Jesus? Did you know that Ra's Al Ghul's mom has met and hung out with some of the demons that Sun Wukong fought against in Journey to the West? Hell, did you know that Damian is Buddhist!? Imagine that. Danny coming in and telling Damian that he's more important and more powerful than Damian's entire religion. That the Buddha is just a lackey of his and that he rules over all afterlives, including nirvana and cycles of reincarnation. I'm certain that Damian would take that very well and accept it wholeheartedly! Don't you agree with me?!!?!???!

I personally think that all of this is better and more interesting if characters, their religions, and ideas in general are able to interact with Danny's world on their own terms without being forced to fit within Danny's box! You don't need to try to force everything within DC's universe to fit inside Danny's. DC wouldn't ask for Danny's universe to conform to theirs! They would just add everything that Danny's universe has to offer on top of everything else they already have! And trying to fit the entire DC multiverse within the scope of Danny's universe... It's too small a box for too large of a universe! Sometimes you can just let things not be deeply connected. And sometimes things don't need a complicated explanation and it can literally just be magic. There's nothing wrong with trying to tie everything together in a neat and succinct way. But sometimes you need to pull your view out a little and look at what you're doing and genuinely ask yourself if what you're doing actually adds depth, or if it does more harm than good and makes everything worse, make less sense, and more complicated or not. It's okay to fall down the rabbit hole sometimes. I completely understand that happening and do it all the time! Just remember to be mindful about it!

Either way, if you're going to insist on desperately clinging onto these ideas of Danny being the Most Important and Powerful Thing in the Multiverse to the detriment of literally everything else, that's fine. But just be honest with what you're doing and why. This isn't a Ghost King Danny AU. Kingdoms don't have unequivocal power over other and all kingdoms. It's a God Emperor over all Gods Danny AU. Nothing wrong with that concept in of itself. Just tag it properly as something like "God King Danny" so that I don't have to deal with it and the implications you're making about my religion with it. That would be enough! I would be happy with that! Just make your choice. Think about what you're doing, why you're doing it and choose. If you choose to keep going, that's fine! All the more power to you! Have fun! But be honest about what you're making. I may not like it and think that it's an overdone, overplayed idea at this point, but you're free to do it! So go forwards and make what will bring you joy! But now that you've thought about it a little, hopefully you'll continue with a little more knowledge and foresight. And hopefully that will make your work even more interesting and better for it! And if you decide to change course, I'm glad that I was able to sway you and get you to see things from my perspective and come to my side on this. At the very least, hopefully this will help to vary up ideas within the fandom a bit and you won't just take ideas that are happening in this space entirely for granted and as givens! I have so many ideas on interesting ways that these intersections can go and characters that you can use, and ways to look at this community that offer so so SO many interesting story directions! I'm so happy that you've decided to come with me on this journey! You're going to make something great, I'm certain of it! So let's make something wonderful together! I believe in you! There's a lot of fun to be had! ^.^

[ronqueesha]

It's Warhammer facts time!

The food most commonly eaten by Imperial citizens is corn. Regular, average sweet corn that we eat IRL, in all its different forms. It's one of the few plants that survived the destruction of Terra's ecology, largely thanks to how it can grow almost anywhere. It's been a staple of offworld human colonies since humanity first colonized the stars tens of thousands of years ago.

Agri-worlds are planets that have had the majority of their landmass flattened into continent-sized agricultural fields. The Imperium uses these endless fields to ship food to all the hungry planets of the galaxy. Of course, this is the Imperium we're talking about. They do not practice sustainable farming on a planetary scale. Every single Agri-world is eventually doomed to have its soil collapse from over-production. Many inhospitable and barren planet that has some tiny shred of human population living on it were once agri-worlds that were farmed to death.

The meat that MOST people eat, if they're lucky, is grox meat. Groxes are large lizards that have been domesticated and bred on agri-worlds in countless number. Like corn, they can live just about anywhere, so are perfect to be shipped to any part of the galaxy.

Corpse Starch is a bit of a meme because it's not REALLY eaten by that many people in the galaxy. Only the truly desperate and downtrodden citizens in the worst hive cities have eaten it. And is often used as an emergency food ration for soldiers when zero other supplies are available. As its name implies, corpse starch is the ground-up remains of dead people, processed into tasteless sludge packed into tin cans. Its whole existence is a meme referencing Soylent Green. In fact, corpse starch is also known as "soylent veridian" in some parts of the galaxy, if the reference wasn't blatant enough.

Games Workshop's official stance is that Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar are completely separate universes with no real crossovers. This stance was a little different in the past, with lots of little cheeky references in old codexes and magazine articles. Such as the non-canon notion that the entire 40k galaxy is actually contained in a bottle on the shelf of a wizard's tower.

BUUUUUUT - ever since Doom Eternal came out, the stance seems to have followed a path similar to how the Doom franchise treats hell. There is only one warp, only one sea of souls that connects all life, and all life across multiverses. The four chaos gods are constant because they are the same four beings in the warp, although they are viewed by very different lenses depending on where an observer thinks of them. Their greatest daemons likewise can appear in any reality the gods wish them to be, though the daemons themselves are unaware of how they're being used as toys. That's why you can play as Skarbrand/Kairos/Kugath/Nkari in Total War Warhammer 3, and also have those daemons on the tabletop in a 40k game.

Likewise, there is a character with an identical name, design and backstory in both fantasy and 40k. Be'lakor was the first ever champion of chaos. From an ancient unknown land, he was the first to gain their favor, and was forever transformed into an immortal daemon prince with immense power. But the gods quickly realized they gave him too much power, and his ambition and evil proved a threat to their grand design. So Be'lakor has forever been cursed to be toyed with by the gods, his schemes for revenge and domination always thwarted. In Fantasy he was even forced to crown another person the everchosen, and watched that man literally destroy the world.

And if you like Richard Armitage's voice, he did the voice acting for Be'lakor in Total War Warhammer 3. Just saying.

[hulloitsdani]

What do u think Kiran is

How do u think the order sees kiran

*slowly sits up in my chair*

I think Kiran is a very normal person. This is someone you and I have met before. Be that from the other side of grocery store cashier, waiting in the same elevator, or walking by on a crosswalk. Kiran is a civilian from our world trying to roll with the punches of being warped somewhere completely alien. And you can see it in how they conduct themselves.

I always have a lot of fun writing Kiran’s dialogue because their casual modern speech almost feels like a dialect in comparison to the more formal fantasy tone everyone else speaks with. An “ain’t” will never exit Alfonse’s mouth, you know? And there’s a difference in “Do you have gold?” vs “You got gold?” To me, this gives Kiran an air of unfamiliarity to anyone they interact with. Let’s use Grima as an example, because it doesn’t sound like this grammatical change would make much of difference until Kiran has the audacity to hit Grima with a bro mid sentence. But that’s just how they talk. And as sweet and friendly as they are, there’s always moments like that to remind that no one has the cultural context to fully understand Kiran. Except for the audience, who can realize that Kiran let the customer service voice drop to talk to Grima like he’s an actual person.

And that’s just about how they talk! This view is only emphasized by every other thing about them! They’re a lovable goof, which is normal chill person behavior in the audience’s eyes but feels REALLY ODD to the characters of FE’s medieval fantasy war setting. There is this air of unknown about them that the more socially perceptive will pick up on and will try to come to a conclusion about. Example, I imagine Soren would interpret a lot of this as a dangerous and deeply annoying lack of intelligence from someone he has the displeasure of sharing a tactics table with. Or looping back to the Grima example, he would totally think Kiran has greedy ulterior motives behind that pleasant facade. It takes a lot of work for those types to realize that the discrepancy present isn’t really any of those things. But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Kiran doesn’t try to directly prove any of those assumptions wrong unless they have to.

Why? Well now it’s time for the implications! Oh how we love the implications.

Because the Summoner is a different story. No one has any fucking clue what that is.

I can tell you what Kiran has pieced together so far. Summoning people from across time and space is apparently not easy. It’s not some school of magical study that some mage could pull off with enough time and research. Trust, Eitri tried. It’s a lot of complex moving parts. For example, the contracts. The contracts Kiran automatically binds their summoned to don’t even compare to the ones Veronica used in book 1. They are far more intense and infinitely harder to break. The only way out of them is if Kiran wills it so. Not even death is an option, because Kiran can come in for the revive. If they had to guess, it’s an older, more completed version of the art. Something lost to time. But no matter the case, Kiran has the ability to take full control of whoever they manage to summon. From a lowly farmer to the divine. And their power only grows.

In a similar vein, if there was any character to canonically see the hud, I think it would be Kiran. It’s genuinely part of their power set. I have previously described Kiran as the party mage until Veronica shows up to be the actual mage, but it would be way more accurate to call them a mystic/seer. They see the map, everyone’s stats, and is doing a fast amount of math to give the combat forecast. Then, upon processing all this information their enemies couldn’t dream of having at their disposal, Kiran can telepathically communicate any change in plans to anyone under contract. Kiran is not inherently some great tactician the moment they touch ground in Askr; they simply can do things no one else can. They’re learning the actual tactics part on the fly. This makes them simultaneously the largest ace up the Order’s sleeve and potentially its biggest liability. If they fall, it could cause a whole system cascade. By that same token, some of the biggest threats the Order has faced are the ones who do their research and rightfully target Kiran.

Now. Thinking critically about all that. That’s downright terrifying. A ridiculous amount of power has been dropped callously into Kiran’s lap and they have to work extremely hard to be moral with it. It’s terrifyingly easy not to be. It would actively take less effort to ‘take the reins’ as it were. But in order to be able to sleep at night ever again, they go the extra mile to not invalidate the will of their summoned. To take over like that. To make a colony of worker bees out of people. Because oh dear god they just summoned a child and the fact that they could easily force them to fight and die for them, only to be revived and do it all over again, is HAUNTING. No. No the Order has an in house orphanage now. This kid is getting adopted and cared for god damnit or Kiran might just pop a blood vessel. And sure that child is going to be a child and there will never be a world where they get along with everyone else, but that’s just going to need be a problem they address when they get there and not an excuse to use Hubris; the power set. Now replace the word child with everyone they ever summoned and you have the wider philosophy they apply to the entire Order.

They’re hyper aware of the power imbalance. They hate it with every bone in their body. They work really hard to correct it in whatever way they can.

So Kiran might not jump on the opportunity to correct those who think lesser of them. It’s… oddly comforting to know someone is keeping a critical eye on them. Holding them accountable. Especially since so much of the order just thinks of them as this quirky yet well meaning host. And, really, what can they even do about that? They have gone over the contract with every hero they summon and despite that they still choose to stay. So, what, do they try to inspire more mistrust? The problem with that they would have to actually do acts that intentionally inspire mistrust. And even if that was successful they can’t just waste the extra man power because every other month there’s some new divine asshole who wants them all dead. And if they fail that means they have to start their life from square one and god they can’t do that again so—

Just breathe Kiran.

It’s fine. You’re fine. Just breathe.

You have work to do.

[batgun]

The fandom scene is crazy rn actually especially with the canon vs fanon wars I’ve seen popping up over the last few years. I kinda just want to get my thoughts out in a spot to help organise them.

TLDR; people that proclaim fanon info as fact despite not reading a comic are kinda of annoying but people that know canon and get on too much of a high horse can be equally as annoying. Both groups are yelling too loud and it’s making fan space not as fun.

I think it’s important to mention I am a comic reader, I have read a decent amount of comics, in recent years through the DC Universe Infinite app but before that through physical comics and online, so I know relatively well how characters canonically act and what a lot of them have been through. Not to say I’m an expert or that my personal interpretations are strictly right but I know a good chunk of information.

I have seen it a lot more within the DC universe fan spaces, I don’t know if that’s just because I frequent it more or if it has actually been affecting this fandom at a higher rate, but there’s definitely been a noticeable uptick in people complaining about both sides.

There’s a lot of people like me who know the canon and see many many people give incorrect information that is more based in fanon or headcanons than anything real in the comics. This can be kinda irritating when they are saying it loudly over people that know the comics or even when they flat out try to correct people that know better. Not only is it kind of rude but it’s frustrating to see. It probably comes from far bigger world issues we have right now but how this behaviour has spiralled in DC fandom is baffling.

Having said that, I don’t dislike fanon. I think it can be fun when you aren’t proclaiming it as hard truth or cutting into other people speaking about canon. Whether it be in memes, fanfiction, headcanons, or fanart, I don’t think it’s a huge affront to have characters ‘mischaracterised’ or be in a joke that’s emerged solely through fanon. It’s still just people having fun with a piece of media even if it’s in a slightly warped way. People have been doing similar things since the beginning of the fan creation, some have got more severe with it which is annoying but I like to think they aren’t the majority, and that the bulk is just people enjoying themselves.

On the flip-side I’ve also seen a lot of comic readers get what I would consider too up in arms over what are relatively minor transgressions. They will see a piece of media that perhaps leans more fanon than true and loud proclaim ‘this never happened’ ‘they wouldn’t say that’ or ‘you wouldn’t think this if you actually read the comic’ which I think is misguided and also quite rude. A lot of the people also participating in fanon have in fact read some of the comic and are just having fun with the loose idea of the characters or plots - I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Again it’s just people having fun, that’s what fandoms all about.

While I personal know a significant amount of the written canon I can sometimes get down with the fanon as long as they aren’t taking it too seriously. And with the canon in DC at least that is a very flexible thing. I’ve seen people talk about this before and I agree, there’s been so many runs and versions of characters over such a long period that there’s likely a version that might fit the so called ‘mischaracteration’, there’s also layers to interpretation, you might think differently about why a character did something in canon that would contradict someone else’s but neither opinion is necessarily wrong.

The way people view Batman/ Batfam or how they act/characterise the rest of the DC Universe in relation to the Batfam has become especially egregious lately. The back and forth of yelling or downplaying characters has become dizzying. And while it might be annoying when someone makes Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, and/or The Flash an extensions of Batman that doesn’t warrant a vile hate comment or a death threat.

Also, perhaps controversially, I don’t think you have to read the comic or watch the media to have fun with fan made things of the fandom and in some fandoms what fans make is actually more enjoyable than the real canon media. It would still be greatly preferable that people read or watched it but starting in a new fandom can be a taster or introduction to the media. I enjoyed the Resident Evil fandom for a couple of months before I had time to play through some of the games and while they were still fun and deeply enjoyable the fanon side of things was a little more fun for me personally. But this has to be taken with a grain of salt because again while the fanon side was fun they could still be a bit annoying with how serious they could take it and on occasion over shadowing the canon.

I think this issue has sprouted from the fact that people are becoming more rigid and less literate about and how things are interacted with in fandom spaces and media from both aspects, there’s far less acceptable wiggle room with how people are allowed to interact and make things. It feels more boxed in than it used to be and people seem to be getting angrier far more easily, which is upsetting to see. The overall fandom experience despite flourishing in it own way also feels more strict. There’s invisible rules that everyone and no one seems to be following, and breaking them gets people ruder than they should be.

I guess I just miss when people were kinder to each other and more willing to have fun online. I think as long as people aren’t doing extreme morally incomprehensible things or affecting people real lives unwarranted then it’s not worth being so scrutinising over.

Anyways I gotta get the bread I’m making out the oven. It’s been nice to jot some thoughts down. With that I leave you with my favourite screenshot I’ve taken from a comic…

Via Detective Comics (1937) #44

[koroart]

DimiClaude gets married and by some magical means or another, they have a child with both of their DNA and whatnot.

What kind of parents would DimiClaude be like with their child/children? I'm sure Dimitri would want to raise their kid(s) the same wat/similar to how Lambert raised him. Though I'm not necessarily sure if Claude would raise their kid(s) the same way his parents raised him. Like, when Claude says one of his punishments was being dragged around by a horse.

Oh, okay baby, we asking the real questions here, huh? Love it, love you <3

Under a read more cuz I've been ruminating this for a long time--

( hits both dmcl with trans-o-nator beam )

Now! Let's address something first and foremost! Mostly concerning Dimitri if we are talking about canon being applied here -- due to his trauma, there is a high possible chance that many of Dimitri's memories of his father probably would have been warped or even suppressed after what Lambert had become to him after the events of the Tragedy, which is a vengeful ghost ( in comparison to the real Lambert, who probably wouldn't want his son to live a life with vengeance as a means to keep going ) -- so Dimitri would not be able to even recall much of what kind of father Lambert was at some point during his own experience with parenthood.

Dimitri had lost his only good example of what a parent should be ( I would argue Rodrigue be counted as well but at the end of the day, he's not Dimitri's father, but I'm sure Dimitri would also draw on him for example all the same.)

Still! With what he could remember, Dimitri knew that he would have to approach parenthood with patience, understanding, and above all; love. Like his own father had to when he had to raise Dimitri alone for those first seven years of Dimitri's life. Even with what little we see of Lambert in canon, you can tell he was a good father -- he loved Dimitri very much and had so much faith in him. He also made sure to emphasize humility in his son, which is why Dimitri himself isn't your typical spoiled prince trope. Dimitri himself is a reflection of his father's love -- he's compassionate and kind and when allowed to, loving, because he had that example from Lambert. Dimitri was loved very much, so it's no surprise he ended up so vengeful and sorrowful because that love was ripped away from him.

In Claude's case -- while he is the only lord to have both parents alive and well -- from what he's said and what we can kinda see -- he's not as close to his parents as Dimitri was to Lambert.

Claude of course, does love his parents and his parents love him, Tiana loved him enough and had faith in him to let Claude go to Fodlan and make his own path in life -- and Claude seemed to be his father's favorite child among his many siblings -- his parents to me kinda felt like that, "tough love" kind of parents, if a bit emotionally neglectful ( given how distant Claude is, trust me, from one Leo to another with an emotionally neglectful parent whom I also love deeply at the same time-- you keep that shit IN )

So I definitely feel like Claude would not want to raise his child the way his parents did but he's going to struggle the most out of the two of them because he didn't learn how to be emotionally available when needed, just like how his parents probably were to him. He keeps a lot of shit in and it takes a lot of trust for Claude to be able to be so open and honest with people -- with a child that's hard to do, because a child learns from example and if he shows them that you have to earn that affection or being disciplined like he was is how a parent should love their child -- the kid is gonna end up presenting him and then they're both just gonna be at odds with each other as the kid grows up.

Which is why Dimitri is a good counterbalance for Claude -- he helps Claude be more emotionally open with their kid and Claude, in turn, helps Dimitri not become too over-bearing and let their child be independent.

Both of them together, learn to show their child love, warmth and understanding -- giving them a childhood that both of them didn't get to have. One who had that childhood innocence ripped from him with tragedy and the other living each day in survival mode. Because above all, their child's happiness is what is important.

[sirellas]

post canon ds9 fic i won't write for real, in bullet points:

story starts with jake sisko, pondering and writing. he got a commission from some federation news service to do a fluff piece on "the soul of the klingon people" now that the war is over and they have a new chancellor, essentially a "look federation people, klingons are still chill. maybe chiller, even. so everybody be cool" deal (i'm imagining they have to do an article like this for every group of aliens that were a major combatant in the war) but jake takes it seriously and refuses to phone it in.

first he goes to alexander, who's visiting the station while between KDF assignments or something idk. but he says look buddy i wanna know what's up with klingons, you get me? alexander does not get him and also would like to know what's up with klingons, so he says hell yeah human friend let's figure this out.

then it becomes a series of vignettes of these two kind of out of touch young people learning about the klingon spirit and also themselves as they seek out someone who can tell them the secrets of life and honor etc etc. jake has a warped sense of normal from growing up on ds9 and alexander has never felt right in solely klingon or human spaces, so they have some gaps in their knowledge to fill.

i'm thinking they start with worf and martok, who are busy on qo'nos building their credibility and new government. worf isn't great at talking about feelings and martok's being pulled in a lot of different directions, so they're not much help. hanging around on qo'nos is interesting, but ultimately not what jake and alexander are looking for either.

then they start thinking outside the box. order isn't important but they start hitting up all relevant klingons and klingon adjacent folk: darok, sirella, ezri, nikolai, kurn, maybe a duras sisters cameo for equal representation of shitty klingons.

last we saw of kurn of course he had lost his memory but since this is my fic i'm not writing i'm gonna say bashir's not as great at brain reconfiguration as he thinks he is and it didn't take fully. so he's a little confused but getting the hang of it. a lot of "which one of you is my nephew again? i can't tell humans apart" kind of deal even though alexander is 3/4 klingon. he tells them what he's re-learned about klingons since he's been rebuilding his own identity.

nikolai also was essentially exiled but it's fine. he's got a gaggle of kids now and alexander and jake have to do the fake forehead thing to blend in while they talk to him. nikolai's got a lot of insight into worf as a brother but not much on klingons as a whole. alexander brings him some pierogi helena made.

alexander: "wow my foster uncle's wife looks a lot like your stepmom, isn't that funny?" jake: "nah i don't see the resemblance"

maybe at this point nog joins them because he's having his own identity crisis as the only ferengi in starfleet so he decides to just hop on board for jake and alexander's identity crisis.

they go see jeremy aster too, the kid from tng who became worf's brother through a whole thing, and he's got a pretty interesting view of klingons and the klingon spirit from an outsider/insider perspective.

sirella and darok are probably the least helpful but i think sirella baby-ing alexander would be fun. they're both trying to deny it and deny how much they like the attention (sirella at having a new-ish nephew-ish and one who wasn't raised klingon so she can do all the classic klingon things with him fresh, and alexander at having a(nother) mother figure to love him). jake is studiously taking notes in the corner while sirella tries to teach him how to skin a fresh kill or something like that.

anyway this whole journey ends with them finding kahless 2 (the clone of kahless) whose only occupation is thinking about the klingon spirit. but his wisdom boils down to "everyone's different and everyone has to figure shit out on their own, but together we can strive to be greater than yesterday" etc etc and jake gets his article. alexander reaffirms his grasp on his cultural identity and also gets to see a lot of his family so he's reminded that he's loved, even if everyone is doing their own thing. and nog develops a huge crush on sirella. everybody's happy.

[enduringmoth]

thoughts on marvin's abuse, care's existence and paul's transness

taking a break from my usual bg3 posting to talk a little bit about my newer hyperfixation through the lens of queer allegory

necessary author's note: i am an afab transmasculine nonbinary person. obviously, while i do believe my transness does lend my opinion authenticity, at the same time, being trans myself does not mean i can't be transphobic -- so if any of the contents of this post set off alarm bells, please tell me.

trigger & content warnings: child abuse, kidnapping, torture, general petscop badness. obvious spoilers for petscop in its entirety, as well as references to the recent youtube deepdive by nexpo.

TL;DR -- perpetuating the idea that someone can force someone else to be a different gender than they are is harmful to trans people. however, all things involve considerable nuance. to pretend that marvin's actions could not have influenced paul's sense of self in the slightest discredits paul's lived experiences, and i believe a more trauma-informed dialogue about paul could be worth exploring as a community.

my preferred theory explaining petscop is that marvin tried to make care more like lina through abuse and "failed". after this, care would eventually end up in lina's home, and transition to paul.

(simply to make all of this less confusing, i'm going to call paul pretransition "care", though i will avoid pronouns. this is not me trying to invalidate paul, it's just so i don't have to keep saying "paul before he transitioned" or similar phrases.)

it is not a result of marvin's "failure" that care transitioned to paul. but i do believe there is a link between paul's perceptions of self and the trauma he endured pretransition -- and discussing these things gives us a deeper understanding of paul and his history.

obviously there is no "canon" answer to petscop. but im seeing this theory discussed a lot within the tags, and i personally agree with it -- i just feel some of those who are saying we cannot consider marvin's actions are not necessarily accurate, either.

what i am positing is that while marvin certainly did not make paul trans and i would never claim that he did, we understand that marvin's abuse of care -- his cruelty towards care, his warping of care's perception of appearance and self-worth -- is certainly a factor in how paul must see himself.

marvin's treatment of care was poor enough that paul struggles to recall that time of his life. he thinks they are different people -- and in a way, they certainly are (and i've seen DID theories for them which i also enjoy because of this) -- and has clearly repressed what it meant to be marvin's child.

marvin locked care in a basement for six months. that is no small amount of time, and it likely had no small amount of affect on paul. we can assume based on the implications of some school scenes that marvin was trying to convince care to be more like lina during this time. care escaped, and returned home -- though eventually, we know from belle's dialogue that paul would find his way to lina.

"do you remember the day you were born?"

paul's "birth" occurred after marvin's abuse, and though it was not a result of it, there is something almost poetic about following the thread of paul's life from care to his authentic self that plays as a foil to the heinous rebirthing practiced by marvin and rainer.

contrasted with what happened to belle (and seemingly others), paul chose (a form of) rebirth -- transition. marvin tried to make lina be reborn through care. instead, care resisted -- and he would eventually become paul, and that strikes me as so narratively compelling. it's not to spite marvin and please don't think i'm saying that, as care was naturally always paul -- it is simply self-discovery at its most raw and beautiful, and i love it.

the above is why i love petscop as a queer allegory. taking ownership of one's future and selfhood, even when others are trying to tell you who to be.

and that's why i think saying marvin made his afab child transition in rejection of martin's quest for lina -- or that marvin tried to make his amab child transition to care/lina, as nexpo posited -- is so wrong, and harmful.

yet, paul's trauma is real. it happened. and it's a part of him that should be able to be discussed for what it is.

as someone with extensive trauma history, i can tell you that my gender expression and personal identity are in some way connected to pieces of trauma, because those pieces are part of me. i am not trans because of my trauma, but my gender and my trauma are parts of me at the same time -- i am not each of my pieces, but a sum of my whole.

the point i'm trying to make here is that while i think nexpo genuinely missed the mark here with this whole "care never existed, marvin tried to make paul a girl" thing, i do think there needs to be room for a trauma-informed discussion around paul.

i hope that all made sense. if any of this is harmful/transphobic, please let me know. i genuinely love this game and i think it's so fascinating to discuss. /gen

[dhmis-autism]

what do you think duck’s stance on love is?

Long story short, I think his perspective on it is insanely warped.

Short story long, I think he really really wants to love the other two, but is so insanely clueless on how to. I think my good friend Bear worded it once as “I don't think he's capable of providing much but he is absolutely going to force the others to let him try.”

I think that’s very apt.

But okay! Let’s get into it!

First things first we need to establish about my favorite little guy in the universe is that love is something that’s very important to him. He is the only one of the three who mentions love outside of it’s allotted episode. Once in the interview,

And twice in his song in family (which trust me we will GET TO)

It’s something that he obviously thinks about and is obviously important to him. I think if you want to get real nitty gritty you can even pick apart his individual lines in the Family song and see through his first line I’ve highlighted here as a definite facade, because in the second highlighted line he goes right back into what we got established about him in the (debatably canon) interview which is that not only does he want to love, but he wants that love to be reciprocated. To love and be loved in turn. Pretty easy goal right? Most people have that.

It’s how he goes about attaining this goal that I think makes him totally balls to the wall nuts. And to talk about how he attains this goal we NEED to talk about:

His Relationship with the Other Main Guys Around.

Now, if you read and really listen to what I have to say about this guy, you will often hear me saying that he makes a lot of assumptions and especially in regards to feelings. I have touched on it previously in this post. And with all things I say, I don’t say this without reason + evidence.

I think he does this fun little horrible thing where he assumes that HOWEVER he feels about the other two is the way they feel about him. Unquestionably reciprocated. I think this because of two scenes in particular, the Best Friend Debate at his funeral and his insistence that they are a family in Family.

Now, let’s break down these two scenes and I’ll highlight the bits I think are the most important to my point.

BFD (Best Friend Debate) is a classic, everyone knows it by heart, but the point I want to focus on here is these few lines-

Here we see Duck make an assumption about the nature of his relationship with Red Guy, namely, that it’s much closer than it actually is. Duck feels that they’re best friends, so surely the other party MUST feel the same way. When RG pushes back against this assumption and doesn’t respond the way Duck would like, instead of backing down or trying to realize that maybe he was mistaken, Duck pushes it further.

It does not matter if Red Guy doesn’t think they’re best friends. Duck thinks they are and so that is the truth. In his crazy little head, at least. Anyways, pay attention to this next bit, because it’ll crop up again, RG pushes further, emphasizing that he DOES NOT feel the same way and instead of accepting it…

Duck digs his heels in further and starts coming up with reasons. Here being, well you have to be my best friend, I’m leaving you my things, I wouldn’t do that if we weren’t close!

It is a little bit pathetic. And it gets pathetic-er!

Onto the scene in Family. It runs pretty similarly! Duck makes an assumption about his relationship with the other two, in this episode, it’s that they are a family.

The other parties involved in this assumption reject it. His immediate response to ‘No we aren’t.’ is “Yes we are!”.

Then he begins his reasoning….

And it goes on.

For the rest of the episode.

Just near-constant trying to justify his assumption and give reasons why they ARE  a family and fit Lily and Todneys weird criteria (most notably trying desperately to emulate the Family Meeting) , no matter what the other two had to say. And he continues this weird bargaining (that is NOT working btw) until he is forcibly,physically removed from the other two.

That is the ONLY thing that gets him to stop. And even then all he does after is just sing his sad little song that just keeps emphasizing scenes of him with the other two, where the other two just fade away and he’s alone.

So! To establish what we know so far:

Duck wants to love and be loved in return.

Duck assumes the other two love him the same way he loves them.

When the other two object, or say they don’t, his immediate response is they they do, actually!

When that doesn’t work, he starts looking for evidence/justifications for why the other two are wrong.

WHICH IS A HORRIBLE CRAZY TWISTED VIEW ON LOVE. Like you cannot just ‘yuh huh’ someone into feeling the same way about you that you feel about them. You cannot just force these square pegs into these triangle holes!!

And all that’s not even GETTING into how weirdly obsessed he is with the other two, how I think that fuels his relationship with the house/their world and the weird complacency that plays into that.

The first point btw, I have touched on before! On these posts! ( https://dhmis-autism.tumblr.com/post/727102688807043072/my-headcannon-is-that-duck-has-been-in-a-state-of , https://dhmis-autism.tumblr.com/post/726233248232079360/i-feel-like-the-original-series-was-red-guy )

But for now!! That’s a rough intro to how fucked up I think this birds perspective is! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

[greenfiend]

cw blood/gore

hi! saw some beautiful fanart that reminded me of the manga The Promised Neverland (heavy rec to look it up, at least the promo pics -you might find that the outfits look kind of familiar). if you haven't read it, the story follows a group of kids who think they're orphans, but in reality are being raised as human cattle to feed the demonkind (and they are killed by a spear in the shape of a rose, like in the aforementioned fanart). Here's the thing, tho: only children younger than 12 and completely raised in that farm can be sacrifices bc the premium meat is their brains, which is why they're subjected to rigurous mental, academic and even physical training (in their innocent minds, to be the first choice for a couple looking for a kid to adopt.)

besides a few interesting parallels in the setup of this story to hawkins lab, it made me think of something that might be an additional clue to DID theory: El was so notoriously frail in 1983, she even looked malnourished. The kid characters in the TPN farms were well-fed not only to 'taste nice', but bc a growing brain needs LOTS of nutrients to function, even moreso when it's being stimulated above capacity. With El being the only kid left in the lab, shouldn't Brenner and the staff have taken much more care of her health -if anything bc they wanted her to be 'a powerful weapon'?? sure, it might be possible that whenever she was thrown in the dark room she wasn't given any food for indefinite periods of time, as well as (maybe) the amount of drugs terry consumed during the pregnancy playing a part but, as i mentioned above, that would've been counterproductive to the lab's goals.

tl;dr: it makes little sense that el was that tiny and almost sickly-looking if she was supposed to be a well-kept weapon.

the small built overall, imo, rather makes me think of someone who grew up in poverty, who might have been denied meals depending on who was warding him -someone who continually didn't get enough nutrients for a very young age, i think. wbu?

Ahhh your brain!

CW/TW: Disordered eating and fatphobia

(Disordered eating has been a common theme within the show that we don't talk about enough.)

That manga sounds like it definitely could be inspiration for ST!

Being raised as human cattle to feed the demons... wowww. Thinking about how "Byers" means to live by a cattle shed, and of course the shed that Will vanished in. Also, all the cattle references throughout the show.

(Of course this makes me think of Hopper and the Russians being fed to be "plump" and "full of nutrients and protein that a growing monster might need".)

But yes yes YES, you're absolutely right! El was STARVING when we first see her I mean...

Why wouldn't they feed her enough? You're right it doesn't make sense. They have the funds to do so, and she's supposed to be a powerful weapon, arguably the most powerful!

El is small built just like... the boy who was explicitly said to be small. SO MUCH SO that they had him played by Noah Schnapp who is 2 whole years younger (!!!) than the other boys. They even tried to hide his muscles in ST4 to make him look less buff (sorry guys, Buff Byers isn't a canon concept...)

The Byers are poor, and this also isn't talked about enough. Joyce has been struggling with her mental health/working a lot. Jonathan also works and is forced to take on the role of a parent. And... Lonnie is implied to have an alcohol and substance use disorder and is obviously a neglectful parent (to say the least...)

Growing up, I think it's highly likely that Will was not provided with adequate nutrient...

(Hopper cracks open a walnut as he says this... walnuts resemble brains...)

Anyway, here's some likely ED references...

Why are all these references present? I'm not quite sure yet, but I do think it could be related to Will's warped view on food/diets (or maybe Mike's? Or both?). However, I definitely do think that Will was not cared for properly at times nor provided with adequate nutrition growing up... and that's why El (his alter) was starving when she appeared at Benny's Diner.

His parents forgot to feed him.

[leonawriter]

It's Called "The Knowing I" For A Reason.

Okay so I went from Limbus to a cutscene playlist of Lobotomy Corporation to a long play (skipping most of the fighting) of Ruina, and back to Limbus again, and now I'm all caught up on everything, except... I'm going back to LobCorp to read through a non-video Let's Play, and boy oh boy this is gonna be interesting, because some of the things I'm seeing tie into the next post I'd been wanting to make.

That is- The Very Fact That "the Founder, A"/"Ayin from before the loops" and "the Manager you play as, X/A" are the same person, and that this is foreshadowed very, very early in the game.

This should be obvious, really, but apparently a lot of people like to think that they aren't the same person, for one reason or another. Maybe he's a clone who isn't really Ayin. Maybe he's someone you can self-insert yourself into. I haven't looked into all options people have come up with.

Unfortunately, none of those are really... plausible.

Let's start with the foreshadowing I mentioned.

Now, this comes right on Day 7, the last day of the very first week X has here at his "new job." Angela has been talking about how amazing the Founder of the company, A, is, and also how hard to understand he is. Right at the end she leaves off with this apparent non-sequitur of turning things on X when she's been talking about A up until now.

I mean, it could easily be said that she truly is just turning the question onto the person she's currently with. "I couldn't understand this person, but I wonder if I'll understand you?"

But knowing what we do, and the way that she and others refer to X later on, it's most likely that she has trouble sometimes separating the two, because... they're not different people.

Which actually reminds me.

"Manager X," in-game, has nothing to identify him as looking different from A/Ayin. Literally nothing. There is no canonical sheet of paper with an X written on it attached to his forehead. I bring this up because in 99% of fanarts I see of him, he has that piece of paper to denote "this is X! not A! not Ayin!" and yet... for him, there's nothing of the sort.

There's nothing to count as a visual reminder for Angela, either, aside from the knowledge that he has no memory, and is looking at her with that trusting (or distrustful) and clueless look on his face.

I say this because although I questioned what he'd look like at this point (whether it's any different or the same as how he looks on Day 50), the devs seemed to have answered that in an interview some time ago.

This answer points out that "A [stays young]" as he is "well contained within a time machine (TT2 Protocol) so he doesn't age with every loop."

So, effectively, he looks exactly the same.

Talking of the TT2 Protocol and other tech... those two things - the time machine looping things back to the starting point (much like how the Warp trains are able to reset everything in a train back to how it was when they first set off) and the regeneration bullets/ampules (which are K-Corp technology that we see in Limbus) also reset people back to their "default" state, which are known to be able to bring someone back from the brink of death.

Both of these put together neatly sidestep the issue of "but we're shown that Ayin/A died at some point during the loops! that means he has to be someone else-" wrong. As long as there was the ability to use either of these things, they could keep him alive. And they have both. And he has Angela to keep a close watch over him. And from what we see in Ruina, the Scenario of Light seemed to reset the moment it was deemed a "failure" anyway.

Anyway. With those very important things out of the way:

Yesod, stating "Manager, you are the head of this corporation. You are supposed to set an example for others, but that outfit would warrant at least 10 points in our department."

"Head of this corporation" could be Yesod referring to X as the "manager of this branch," or... it's another subtle nod to how those around X know that he's actually A, and he's the only one in the dark as yet.

To be noted, however, is how the original game has been retconned in the sense that in games set since then, it's made clear that no one sees the Manager, only hears from him over the tannoy. Scenes such as this where Yesod clearly states that this is an in-person meeting don't even make sense, considering how the Perception Filter they had to put in place (because Ayin's mind kept breaking) only works through screens, or at least has very clear limitations, and can (as happens in the game) malfunction.

I can clearly remember the reason why the Manager needs the Perception Filter is also said somewhere (possibly in those same interviews I read on my phone) because of the psychological stress of seeing everything as it is. Which. We see that there are people with full-body prosthetics in the City in Limbus; as early as Canto 2 in fact, and that person looked incredibly similar to the Sephirot.

My personal theories on A's memories returning are currently standing at - with a little help from Limbus characters theorising about memory loss - that Ayin had pre-programmed the amnesia. Specifically, that he'd put his memories into something, and coded this thing that they would only unlock at specific moments, such as a Sephirah about to have a meltdown, or a certain day, or something happening, rather than the random chance that everything could come back at once and overload him.

Ayin clearly knew a lot about psychology. He clearly knew his own psychology, in order to plan the entire script based on how he would (hopefully) react to things, and he knew the minds of his coworkers, since he knew how they'd react to everything, too.

Something to ensure that he didn't overload only makes sense, especially with how, when there are flashbacks, we see "A's" views on them talking to "us."

Which brings us neatly to... "the flashbacks, A, and the Keter all use "I... we..." to refer to themselves and the player as one person." In other words, basically just... they're mirrors of the person they're talking to. In Persona terms? Shadow selves. Of course they're going to use "we" and "our" to refer to themselves and the player Manager!

Abel even directly refers to the player facing the Keter as "facing [himself]."

Here, Abel is also stating "That old, strange letter, that had the same name for sender and recipient." Sure, one could argue that just because it has the same name, doesn't mean it's the same person who picks it up - to which we can come back to Angela stating earlier (from that perspective) how the Manager she is talking to seems to be a different person to the one who started it all, and perhaps the one who started it has died.

This... is not to be taken literally.

And also ties in with the fact that when the Keter are talking to the Manager, they ask questions that they themselves could not find the answer to, or found the wrong answers to. This includes the Ayin on Day 50, by the way, since he's still talking to himself with "we" and "us," not "me," by the way. That's not the player character Manager speaking.

All of which means that there's been character development going on through the loops that we're not fully aware of because we're only seeing the current (final) loop, with only the memories filtered through by A[yin] given to the Player Manager X/A to show us what has happened in the past.

Which neatly reminds me of something Angela states on Day 5, again:

In short: "A" had told her "many a time" that "Each successful experiment makes you a better person." As she puts it herself, "The greatness of this company was founded on multitudes of trials and hardships."

So, basically, that the person we're playing as, known at the start of the game as "X," who later realises that he is actually "A," must have done a whole lot of growing over the course of the loops.

It's easily theorised (and in some cases outright stated in the materials) that the reason many loops fail is because the Manager isn't able to keep up with managing the facility (just as the player might not be good at the game) or because abnormalities breached one way or another (hello, supplemental information on [CENSORED]!), or because... on a less pleasant note... either the perception filter broke and the Manager's mind broke with it for non-abnormality reasons, or in remembering, and dealing with the Sephirah meltdowns, the Manager quite simply cannot handle the level of guilt and regret that he is faced with, and gives up one way or another. It is canon that one of those ways is to commit suicide.

There sure is some dark irony to how people might want to call Ayin a monster and an awful, irredeemable person for the things that we're shown in the memories, but... just from that one memory, we can see that Ayin himself is well aware of this, and would quite readily agree with you, actually. It's only by him not going through with the desire to end his life - and by finding, along with Netzach, the "Fearlessness to Continue Living" - that the game can be completed.

I was going to say that it's "not relevant to the original point of the post, but actually... the fact that X/A feels the same regret and guilt that leads him to the same conclusions IS very relevant, and leads me to the next point.

Which is that the Sephirot would NOT be able to find a satisfactory ending to their meltdowns with anyone other than the one person who inflicted that trauma on them to begin with.

Imagine, for a moment, that you have been hurt by someone. That person seemed to not understand what they had done wrong, and never apologised for it.

Now, you are being faced by someone who is... different. You can hear it in their voice. You know that it isn't the same person, but they're trying to apologise on behalf of that person who did hurt you. In spite of you having no proof that the person who hurt you even sent the apology along, let alone means it.

Question: would you accept the apology?

Honestly, I personally would not.

I do not think that the Sephirot would either.

The Sephirot are very explicitly furious with Ayin for how he treated them all, and rightfully so.

Importantly, the Seiphirah who is melting down cannot see into A's head, any more than we can see into the minds of our friends or enemies. They can't see the flashbacks, or the memories that hit the amnesiac X/A. They only remember their own pain.

Personally, I also believe that even if it was someone else gaining Ayin's memories here, that would not be enough for the Sephirah. They would still see it as "Okay, but you're interpreting what you're seeing with your own bias. You're changing the terms. You are not the one who did this, understanding what he did wrong."

The only way for this to work is for X to slowly understand through management and memories that he IS A, that he is not just the Founder who Angela talks about but also the person who hurt the Sephirot in those memories, and to put everything together in order to speak to them in a way that will not just mollify them but ensure that they know that he's now capable of that understanding, and that he has changed, and that he wants to improve with them.

In fact, we see as much in Library of Ruina, when the Patron Librarians are able to mention their experiences with him.

This is just Netzach's; I'd love to include other references like this, but it'd require another watch through their scenes and a lot more time than I can dedicate to it as I'm writing this post.

But, basically, that's the gist right there - a nostalgic voice.

Even if the voice has changed, even if the tone is different and there are different emotions behind it, the person behind the voice is the same.

The Manager is X is A is Ayin. Perhaps the Keter are all different refractions of the same person, but they are of the same person. Perhaps they disagree on things - but who doesn't disagree with the version of themself that chose differently? Who was cringe in the past, or did something awful, or gave up at one point?

Who wouldn't disagree with a version of themself who decided, last night, to get roaring drunk and leave their present self with a godawful hangover?

Or, in this case, who'd be happy with their past self deciding what they were going to do from the start, and not giving them much leeway once they've got to the end, and they're changed as a person?

All in all, the game's core drive is to ask the question of how much a person can change, and how much it takes for someone who originally can't answer the Keter's questions to reach the end and fully be able to move forward.

If you put someone else into that role (because you don't like who they were, even if you like who they are now), the entire theme of the story falls apart.

[pluckyredhead]

ur post abt the green lantern’s political leanings was so interesting!! can you do one for the bat family? (but only if u wanna!!)

Honestly, I can't, because their politics are so incoherent.

Like, take Bruce. (And again, like with the Lanterns, I'm talking about canon here, not how I wish things were.) On the one hand, you would imagine he's pretty progressive, right? He's almost certainly a single issue voter and that single issue is gun control. He believes in rehabilitating criminals and in fact a lot of Wayne Enterprises hires are formerly incarcerated people. He is an active philanthropist who pours money into schools, orphanages, hospitals, public spaces, and the arts. These are all leftist values!

And yet the modern Batman is also a completely unrestrained violent anarchic-libertarian power fantasy. Bruce has invented his own law, which he enacts and enforces completely arbitrarily, however he feels like doing so. He obeys the laws he wants to obey and ignores the ones he doesn't care about, while insisting he is law-abiding. He tortures people literally constantly and considers it righteous. He uses the profits from his publicly traded company to become a one-man military industrial complex. (The emissions from the fucking Batmobile alone...!) He illegally surveils the entire city and sometimes the entire planet (Brother Eye, anyone?) because he has decided that his moral authority overrides literally anyone's right to privacy, anywhere. He allows his defeated foes to be locked up indefinitely regardless of their mental state in an institution that would make any qualified mental health professional run screaming in the opposite direction. He's sexist. All of these things sit on the right of the political spectrum, but imagine me pointing to the right like Charlie from It's Always Sunny pointing to his murder board.

And none of the Batfamily is any better. Some of them are honestly worse in certain aspects. Dick was a cop. Jason loves guns. Babs and Tim are even more in love with surveillance than Bruce is. Remember when Tim wanted to replace the police with, like, a Bat-army??? BECAUSE I DO.

It's not really "their fault," as much as anything can be a fictional character's fault. It's the result of being written by writers who are, for the most part, consciously trying to write the Bats as good Samaritans, but are also living in a world where we have had our brains warped by all of our blockbusters being funded by the US military, in a medium where badassery is prized above everything else, and so all this really problematic shit spills out onto the comics page without being questioned. It's also kind of a boiling frog situation: i.e. Batman has always had a cool car, so as he got tougher and tougher, of course that car would eventually become a tank, and no one stopped to go "Wait, what the fuck? What the fuck? How is this billionaire driving a tank around helping anyone???" I guess god bless Zack Snyder for inadvertently highlighting how fucking stupid and counterproductive a Batman taken to his worst extremes is.

To be clear, I don't think this is what most writers are trying to do with Batman (some of them are, but fuck those guys). But it's what happens when all you care about is rule of cool, and the more I think about it the more I'm like...shit, maybe Alan Moore was right and superheroes are just stupid.

Anyway in conclusion, comic book writers should consider the ramifications of what they're writing occasionally. But Bruce Wayne probably still votes blue, at least.

[juniperhillpatient]

I keep seeing people say Mari/Shauna would’ve been a much better replacement for Melissa/Shauna & I think it’s time to say my piece & say that just simply doesn’t make any sense & if you think it does then you just don’t understand what’s actually happening.

Okay wait let me try to be nicer about it. I actually REALLY enjoy the Mari & Shauna dynamic & push & pull of it. A lot. I can even agree that as of now there’s some lost potential with the dynamic. I say “as of now” because who knows? Something interesting even if it’s not romantic could still come of their complicated frienemyship. The fact that Jackie used Mari to make Shauna jealous but then Mari took Shauna’s side in the breakup is interesting. And like… this season started off with Shauna & Mari having some pretty serious & interesting back & forth push & pull power struggles amplified by Mari’s incident with soft core kidnapping by Coach Ben & the subsequent trial.

It’s not that Mari/Shauna isn’t interesting to me it’s just that for THIS storyline & the direction Shauna’s canon character arc is going, it would NOT make ANY sense.

Teen Melissa’s purpose this season is pretty clear. She is a mirror for Shauna & Jackie’s dynamic. She is there to let Shauna treat her the way Shauna believes Jackie treated HER.

We get to truly see how warped Shauna’s vision of her relationship with Jackie has become as she is absolutely HORRIBLE to Mel in ways Jackie never was to her. Jackie’s ghost (which is really just a manifestation of Shauna’s grief) demeans her & tells her that Jeff only wants her because Jackie made her into someone else. Shauna tells Melissa she’s nothing & shoots a gun at her. She’s amplifying the abuse she perceives herself to have faced whether she did or not. She’s taking out her rage on Melissa.

I’m not saying these plot points could’ve NEVER happened with Mari but…. Wait yes I am actually 😂

Mari would NEVER lay back & take Shaunas shit the way Teen Mel does. She would NOT make Shauna a sheath for her knife. And she would NOT years later later talk about Shauna scaring the shit out of her. Mari might write a tell all or star in a documentary but that bitch would NOT in a million years guilt mary the daughter of the woman she killed & fake her own death & live some fake ass delusional normal life that conveniently perfectly mirrors Shauna’s fake ass delusional normal life exactly. It just wouldn’t happen. These plotlines just do not work with her character. It wouldn’t make sense. It wouldn’t lead to the arc Shauna is getting. If Shauna & Mari had a thing it might be interesting but the seasons plot would be entirely different. Like it just wouldn’t involve the same plot beats we have now at all.

I do kind of agree that there is lost potential in a fucked up toxic lesbian dynamic between Shauna & Mari. But I ALSO love the direction they’ve gone. Shauna getting to be in a reversed funhouse mirror fucked up relationship where she gets to be the abuser the way she imagined Jackie was to her? Chefs kiss. Shauna encountering a woman whose life is just as much of a lie as hers & forcing that person to revert to the ways of the wilderness? Amazing.

Mari & Melissa are both interesting characters & they both have a fun & interesting dynamic with Shauna. I’m not against shipping Mari & Shauna but I do think it’s worth noting that if they got together the plot & everything about the show would be entirely different & (to me anyway!) this season HAS been really good. I really really like where they’re going with Melissa & I think it’s kind of misunderstanding both Mel AND Mari to pretend that they’re like… interchangeable when that is just simply not even close to true.

The beauty of Yellowjackets is that there are SO many interesting characters & dynamics at play. There’s always going to be interesting ships that couldn’t be made canon. That’s what fanfic is for & that’s what our imaginations are for. When it comes to analyzing canon I just DO not agree that Mari/Shauna is interchangeable with Melissa/Shauna & I truly can’t understand why anyone does.

There I’ve said my piece. There were too many posts implying that these ships could be like… traded in for each other & I got annoyed. Anyway I can’t fucking WAIT for the finale tomorrow ahhh!