#cause it was essentially like if you get better at writing and believe you can do it you won't have anxiety no more.

[bredforloyalty]

apropos prezzy on writing anxiety. all the advice was hitting like, waow if i think about fanfic this could be useful

[chaotic-history]

I will die on this hill

[bakugoushotwife]

in my opinion, gojo’s storyline has been handled so so poorly i can’t help but think it’s intentional. it is not bad writing to kill a character—even a beloved character. i know most people will dismiss my criticisms because gojo is so beloved to me and so many others. i’ve said before that i don’t mind if he died. does it hurt? of course, and i would still cry and be sad about it. but there is a beautiful way to do it. with respect and honor for his legacy—for what he has done for your manga, the characters in it, and audiences worldwide. but no…gege chose the path of horror and disrespect. at certain points i’d say to myself, well. this is a dark manga. but essentially gojo is the only character that receives this treatment. since the beginning—since suguru left him, he’s been wondering if he mattered because he was a person, or if he only mattered because he was powerful and useable. we certainly fucking answered that question. he is a weapon and nobody ever cared about him at all!!!

and we knew he was being used—he knew he was being used, but he is selfless. so he did it for his kids. for megumi and yuuji and yuuta—he wanted them to be safe. in these flashbacks it’s exceedingly clear that he knew he would die. again—that’s not my issue. gojo dying to sukuna makes plenty of sense and it would hurt to leave it there. but to give us an afterlife scene where he’s presented a choice—north and south—that concept lead nowhere, that’s truly fucked up. to leave all the subtle clues and hints for no reason but to keep people reading and theorizing his return is fucked up. to continue to use his imagery to promote your manga when you know he’s not even honored in your manga is fucked up. we don’t get a funeral or a grave for him. no one’s spoken about him in chapters despite him fighting for hours against sukuna and damaging him so much that yuuji could win, nothing. yuuta wearing him like a costume and no one is horrified about it. i thought his students WERE different. they weren’t jujutsu society yet. that’s why gojo was their teacher—shaping them into better human beings. how am i supposed to trust in their future when it seems they’re just as cold and heartless as everyone before them? no one has honored gojo in any way since the moment he died. and they’ve forgotten about him. he spent his entire life fighting and no one can even say thank you. gege intentionally used gojo to promote the end of his manga because he knows that gojo fans make up at least half of his fanbase so had we stopped reading when he died, he would have lost a lot of traction. he baited us intentionally, cruelly, and something that transcends storytelling. i’ve truly never seen a mangaka have this sort of vitriol for one of their characters and the people that love him.

we spent the entire last chapter talking about some random fucking mission when we have several unanswered questions and concerns. i thought gege said he wanted this ending to be shocking and something you didn’t see in shonen? tying everything up neatly where no one has any trauma or grief for what they’ve experienced, everyone comes back to life except the one character you hate specifically and choso, defying your own power structures and having everyone laughing into the sunset is exactly how shonen ends so what in the fuck is he talking about??

let me disclaim, this is not megumi hate at all. i love him very much and i am so happy he’s back with the group but like. he shouldn’t be able to even walk. he tanked unlimited void for over 6 minutes whenever that length caused irreversible damage to sukuna himself. not to mention the countless black flashes. so what the fuck? he doesn’t mention gojo at all?? the first time he laughs in this manga is after he reads a note written by his dead fucking caretaker about his dead fucking father? like i don’t believe. random open ended kenjaku/suguru mention just to piss me off, an absolutely no mention of gojos sacrifice or how they’ll miss him. i’m sick to my stomach. gege defiled his memory both in the story and outside of it. wow.

P.S. SUKUNA CARED MORE ABOUT GOJO THAN ANYONE ELSE (SUGURU IS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS I MEAN HIS STUDENTS AND SOCIETY)

[letters-to-rosie]

random Ekko thoughts

so I'm trying to get a little fic writing in, and I was thinking of some timebomb takes I've seen recently. I realized that a lot of opinions people have on their relationship and how it's depicted center around Jinx, and I was wondering what care people give towards writing Ekko, so here are some things I like to include when writing him:

perfectionist. Ekko, at least in League canon, goes back and forth over and over to craft a perfect moment. I think he'd be observant, detail-oriented, probably a little neurotic, definitely the type to replay an awkward interaction over and over in his head in the shower or before falling asleep

emotionally guarded. first, I gotta say I don't think Ekko would want to be this way. but he's been through so much he finds it useful to have walls up. it's not like all the toughness is a defense mechanism—he fights for what he believes in and is clearly very brave (who else makes hoverboards ffs). he does miss, though, the times and people that allowed him to be more vulnerable, and he treasures it when he has it. his childhood ended way too soon

chronic overthinker. this goes back to the perfectionism, but I think he'd constantly be questioning everything. he's good on his feet, but he likes to have a plan, and he'd tends to think about those for a long time

charismatic as hell. this one I think is proven by the show, lol. Ekko seems very personable, likes to haggle (at least as a kid), and is liked enough to lead a resistance movement. I think he'd make good speeches and be good at convincing people. this would, of course, cause drama with Jinx, because he'd be like "all these people believe in me and my former best friend doesn't," ow

drama. I like to give him a pretty dramatic inner monologue, lol. I also like to think he's self-aware enough to realize he's being dramatic in the moment and to then continue the drama anyway

enjoyer of thrills. hoverboard. need I say more?

childish and playful side. didn't get to have a full childhood and cherishes getting to let that side out. cue fluff

fidgeter. it preceded the tinkering

player of mind games. this is mostly based on how he treats Caitlyn and Vi after kidnapping them, putting them through what essentially amounts to tests (for, imo, understandable reasons). he also goads Jinx into a game he knows he'll be able to win. I think he'd apply this thinking to other scenarios, be they big or small

too-big sense of responsibility. would feed into the drama for sure. he feels the weight of his community on his shoulders, and because he wants things to go well, and because they're counting on him, he takes on a lot that he maybe should not

self-righteous. he strikes me as filled with righteous anger. he's right, most of the time. on the occasion he isn't, this causes problems

proud. wouldn't be a real issue in most situations, but it's there

irreverent. he flips off cops as a kid. we love him for this

smart. this is obvious, but sometimes can be forgotten in the fandom. I'd see Ekko as book-smart and having street-smarts (or at least a lot more than Jayce, but that's a low bar). I think his verbal skills would also be a bit more polished than some of the other science-inclined characters (cough cough Jinx). I think it's also notable that among the others (Jayce, Viktor, Heimerdinger, Jinx), Ekko is the main science character who has no access to proper schooling at any point. sure, he has his job with Benzo, but it's unclear how much that would have taught him. Silco probably got at least books for Jinx, and the others had real teachers. there's an element of resourcefulness in Ekko's smarts which is laudable, imo

very dorky. we love a man with range. I feel like he would be able to operate on multiple levels, one in which he's this cool charismatic leader and another when you get to know him better, who makes science puns and has a lot of insecurities, which naturally leave him replaying awkward conversations in the shower. layers!

idealistic. you have to give people what they need to live

heart of gold. one thing that always strikes me is that Ekko is really the only member of the main cast concerned enough with the plight of the average person in Zaun to make it his whole business. he's tending to the crisis in a way that is simultaneously very grounded and (again) idealistic, where substance use recovery is very much needed in the setting but he's also (perhaps in contrast to Vander) throwing himself into battles that are unsustainable because he believes in his cause, even if the persecution is so bad he has to hide over it

disaster bi (this one is for me)

Ekko's a really layered and interesting character. I wanted to bring up some things I think about when writing him because of posts I've seen recently about him being reduced to "Jinx's boyfriend" (due to anti-black racism, of course) and posts just kinda about timebomb in general? I think because it's been canon that Ekko has a crush of Jinx for so long, it's easy to take that for granted and not give much thought to his side of the ship. we also spend a lot more time in Jinx's head than his in the show, even though the brief moment we do spend in his head introduces a whole new art style and the best song on the soundtrack (fight me)

obviously, I'm a shameless Ekko and Firelights stan. he's my favorite character in Arcane and one of my favorites in anything ever, so it was fun to flesh out my headcanons, things I think are extrapolatable from canon, and just some of the traits that go into writing him. if people have others (or just traits and things they think are interesting) I'd love to hear them! I love my brilliant and contradictory boy!

[kindaasrikal]

Kai headcanons because I’m tired and cant think of anything else:

Kai both does and doesn’t have a concept of monetary value. Like imagine they go grocery shopping and they need to buy essentials like ingredients, veggies, hygiene stuff to stock up on. Like usually whenever the other ninja went with their families they were able to buy some extras like candy or toys, maybe some more clothes despite having many just cause they like it or smth. With Kai? This guy slaps it out of their hands and says it’s not worth the waste when they’re only here for essentials. Wu gave them money for that only, so they best budget and make sure they can buy everything they need and maybe some extras of those things or else. None of them realise how confused Wu is when a proud Kai returns believing he saved up money by being smart and responsible, when Wu actually gave them extras to use there as like an implied thing. But when it comes to things of value, this guys has no idea what to do, take for example with Ronin. He had no idea how much the thing could cost but knew they had to pay it or else. But he’s also horrible at negotiating because he can’t properly understand the worth of what they’re negotiating the deal on and can’t see when it might be worse or better.

Kai was a shockingly quiet kid. Like yes he was still ‘aggressive’ and rude, but like never spoke on his own. Nya was always the talker between the two, but even she doesn’t talk as much as often. So usually Kai would silently accept a lot of things as a child until he grew older and got a bit of an attitude so despite being often silent that one quiet kid in the back who does everything right will and probably has cussed you out if you step out of line.

Nya actually cut Kai’s hair when they were younger because she was bored and Kai fell for her trap and ended up thinking it wad a great idea since his hair had gotten too long. She messed it up however since, you know, she was like max 6, and Kai’s hair came out nothing like the picture they had of their dads. Kai almost cried at how it didn’t turn out like how he wanted when Nya giggled and said his hair looks like a “Really cool fireee!”. No, Nya does not remember that she’s the reason Kai keeps his hair like that.

Kai loves fish, he likes dragging Nya outside to summon some and makes her stay with him until he’s bored. Nya likes eating fish.

Kai likes jumping into his rlly bulky and tall mechs and then posing like a school girl or a cute model in them. Jay once managed to convince him to Jojo pose and they distracted an enemy because of it. Cole and Lloyd cussed them out, except Cole couldn’t stop laughing and Lloyd’s hair kept blowing in the wind dramatically every time he changed his position so it looked like he posing. He made them run up and down the monastery mountain steps five times each way. Cole too.

You know those really cute candle holders? So like Kai convinced Pixal to make him a fire proof bear suit, wore it outside in the dark, in the middle of the training ground, with everyone asleep. He lit himself on fire and he looked like a glowing monster bear with teeth and blood (shadows and ketchup, he was hungry). He thought it looked cute and cool. Zane screaming, malfunctioning, and then screeching “THY BEAST MUST BE SLAIN!” And shooting ice at him was not a part of the plan (Zane watched Macbeth the movie before sleeping). Both refuse to apologise to each other but after a day of ignoring one another Jay watches as Kai clings to a Zane full koala like when he’s doing chores.

Cole tries to teach Kai how to draw. Kai, for the life of him, cannot. Even stickmen look wonky and wrong.

Kai, surprisingly enough, has amazing handwriting. Everyone gets him to write stuff like letters for them because either theres is worse then a kid in nursery, or they wanna impress someone.

Kai really likes having something around his arms, like bandages, gloves, cloth, anything. For special events, he lets Cole tie silk ribbons around his arms like bandages.

Kai wishes he had soft hands. Everyone loves the feeling of his rough hands though. It comforts them.

Kai also loves cracking his knuckles. He loves doing it around Wu, who hates the noise and smacks Kai with his staff, who cackles and does it again.

At bad times in his life, Kai sits and lights a fire when the moon is at its highest point, out in the dark where it’s cold.

Kai loves stealing Jay’s action figures by accident. Jay was annoyed at first until he saw Nya giving Skylor an unintentional wide eyed look whilst holding a doll after Skylor said “oh, yeah i forget i had this old thing, don’t really like it tbh” disinterestedly. Jay put together whats what when Skylor blinked and said Nya could have it with a grin, who legit giggled. Nya. Giggling. Jay puts his action figures on a shelf and never touches them, giving an impression to someone who isn’t a collector (who couldn’t afford to be one) that they aren’t that important. Jay begins buying more action figures and other stuff he usually wouldn’t but knows Kai or Nya would love and leave it somewhere like it’s always been there. Says something under is breath just loud enough for a peeping ear to hear about how he might throw it away, and the next day its gone. Sometimes, he outright hands it to them saying he doesn’t like it but doesn’t wanna waste it. The other ninja, plus Pixal and Wu, pick up whats going on and do the same. Later in the years (after the re-design and sog) Kai and Nya long picked up on whats going on, they still love it regardless because it makes them feel less guilty (no no guys they definitely didn’t break down sobbing after Jay gave them a water themed colouring book for adults and Kai a mimic of Mitsuri Kanroji’s sword from demon slayer (a fake), definitely not.)

(Lowkey just realised this is very similar to a Morro fanfic of ao3, No i did not realise it when i wrote it but i do now, its where Morro likes collecting seemingly useless stuff left in places no one would leave smth special at. It’s because Morro was a homeless orphan, so he takes useless things in to give them importance. Love that head canon and fanfic it’s on ao3 guys omg. Imagine resurrected Morro doing that and Kai and Nya just realising in horror that THEY do that too. They get it, and dammit Morro is more similar to them than they would’ve liked.)

Kai totally likes wearing those happy birthday head bands even when it’s not his birthday and acts like he isn’t. If someone says happy birthday to him, he looks at them all judgy like and says “Its not my birthday? What gave you that impression?”

Kai actually easily gets sick, and hates it. The others have to time his down so he’ll actually get rest and not just push through it regardless. It takes summoning the duo of Wu AND Maya to get him to stop.

When the og four ninja met for the first time and right after they stopped Garmadon and got back to their realm, they still hadn’t actually gotten to know each other so Kai used to run away from them like the secret introvert he was groomed into being and it took Nya tackling him to get him to finally play those “super cringy bonding games”

Kai was subjected to Lloyd’s glowing green eyes staring at him constantly with no words exchanged. When the silence got too much and Lloyd just kept staring Kai asks what his problem is. Lloyd says “oh nothing, muchacho” and Kai realises Lloyd is still petty over what happened in the first episode.

Yeah thats all i got i think I’m sick shdgfv

[tossawary]

I can't remember if I've posted about this before, but the logistical nightmare of their situation twigs / squicks me out every time that I try to watch "Star Trek: Voyager". They have apparently lost the ENTIRE medical crew of their ship or something??? So all they have is the Hologram Doctor! The only in-universe nod to this at first is to apparently train Tom Paris in first aid as a backup???

And there's this one early episode where something goes wrong with the hologram projector, causing the Hologram Doctor to slowly physically shrink, which limits his ability to do anything. And the rest of the crew and the writing treats this as very funny and not at all urgent. And, to be fair, it IS kind of funny. He gets pretty tiny! It's funny!

But also, HOLY SHIT, your medical bay is essentially nonfunctional now, what the hell is the matter with you people??? Early "Voyager" has the crew going eagerly full-steam ahead into incredibly dangerous situations with a medical bay that has a single point of failure and no real backups, unable to contact Starfleet or reliably resupply ANYWHERE if anything goes horribly wrong. Which seems so irresponsible that it stresses me out a little, which I don't think was intentional on the part of the writers! It's a pet peeve in fiction for me that activates all my ungenerous nitpicky feelings.

And yes, of course, I understand that they want to write "Exciting Space Adventure Show!!!" and not "People Behave Extremely Cautiously: The Series". I get that.

But if I'm meant to believe that these people are space exploration professionals, I would expect... I don't know... the entire crew to be forced to undergo first aid training under the Hologram Doctor ASAP on their off-shifts due to the state of emergency??? (He would hate that. It would be so funny.) If I was on this ship and I understood that my only options for medical care in case of injury or illness were 1) a hologram whose software and hardware could be easily irreparably broken and 2) Tom Fucking Paris, then I would be stressed! That doesn't seem like good preparation for worst-case scenarios when trapped in an entirely different quadrant of the galaxy!

Like, I think someone should have been reassigned immediately FULL-TIME to undergo training as a nurse and field medic. And even if you're going to rely entirely on the Hologram Doctor, there should probably be at least one not-a-hologram person in the medical bay at all times, so they can either 1) fix the hardware or software if anything goes wrong, or 2) physically run for help in case the hardware or software breaks. Apply Murphy's Law to your procedures!

I know that the show quickly puts Kes part-time in the medical bay as well, but I think it would have seemed more responsible and could have been funny if Janeway had immediately reassigned a few ensigns to the Hologram Doctor. She could have given him some ducklings to train up!

Hologram Doctor: "Fine. It seems I have no choice but to go along with the captain's demand that I step outside my programming and... teach. What previous medical training do you have?"

Duckling #1: "I got good marks in the first aid courses at the Academy? I'm an engineer, though..."

Hologram Doctor: "Dear god. And you?"

Duckling #2: "Xenobiologist."

Hologram Doctor: "Well, that's better-"

Duckling #2: "I study plants."

Hologram Doctor: "..."

Duckling #2: "Sorry."

Hologram Doctor: "And you? I suppose you're a communications specialist or something similar, with my luck-"

Duckling #3: "I was a terrorist."

Hologram Doctor: "..."

Duckling #3: "According to Starfleet, anyway. I like 'freedom fighter'."

Hologram Doctor: "Oh. You're one of the... newcomers to the ship. Did you gain a lot of medical experience in... terrorism?"

Duckling #3: "Well, before that, I was a nurse. So, yes."

Hologram Doctor: "...I see."

Hologram Doctor: (flatly, sarcastically) "Wonderful. Just... wonderful."

You could have had some really entertaining (and potentially heartwarming) scenarios by adding in some medical interns! You'd only need one of them in the room on-shift at any given time most times (to save on actors), you could switch out ducklings with the easy excuse that one had quit or been reassigned (if actors leave or whatever), and other junior medical personnel could have given Kes some young friends. You could also have some angsty scenario where the assigned human gets injured and the broken Hologram Doctor can't help for some reason.

I think that the Hologram Doctor is a fun character and he's better when he has other people to play against, rather than being left to lonely devices in an empty medical bay.

It would also help my suspension of disbelief for it not to look like the captain doesn't really care about one of the most crucial departments of the ship, when they're stranded like this. (Tom Paris??? YOUR BACKUP PLAN IS JUST TOM PARIS??? You're going to fly into some potentially dangerous nebula in the hopes of getting stuff for coffee, when your medical bay has a single point of failure before then resting entirely on part-time field medic Tom Paris???) I feel like I'm blowing this out of proportion sometimes, all ST shows tend to have bad logistical arrangements and unsafe operating procedures, but... a fully functional medical bay seems like something that should be one of your foremost concerns after 1) life support systems, 2) food and water, 3) the engines, and so on. It seems important to have it working well before going anywhere!

This small detail twigs me EVERY time I try to watch "Voyager" and the show tries to get me to laugh at no one paying any attention to the Hologram Doctor's requests for attention and alternative arrangements. It is kind of funny! But it's funny in a "oh shit, that situation could really blow up in everyone's face" kind of way. In-universe, as one of the crew I think it would be funny in a "I have to laugh because otherwise I will cry" kind of way.

[antisocialsharky]

Hello! I just wanted to say that I've been using some of your posts talking about ASPD to help me better understand it to write an OC I'm writing. I have a question though, do you mind talking about more symptoms of ASPD that I should keep in mind when writing her?

Hi! Very glad to hear that my posts have been helpful and its cool that you are aiming for good representation!

When it comes to how ASPD symptoms should be written and which ones should make it into literature, theres different opinions, so this is gonna go a bit beyond your question I guess? Just to get a roundabout view.

1. Recovery Position

• First thing to rly keep in mind is that the intensity of the symptoms, the way they present and the way the character would deal with them, absolutely depends on where they are in recovery.

• It also depends on what you understand as recovery, be that the reducing of overall symptoms so they are less often present, the act of reducing the harm that is done by your symptoms (ex: trough redirection, or actively learning prosocial behavior) or just learning to find a way to live in society the way you are. No ones view on recovery or the way they go about it (or if they decide not to) is in any way better or superior, but it is an aspect that does change how many symptoms you show in which way, so its important to think about when writing a character.

2. Covert/Overt Symptom Presentation

• Another thing to think about, depending on what fits into your story, is the question as to whether your character is very obviously antisocial, or whether they go about it in a more covert secret way. Can they control which symptoms they show when? Or are they lost to their impulses and emotions? Do they come from a background where hiding their symptoms was essential, or were they able/forced to present obviously?

• Theres also a more mixed presentation where some symptoms are more obvious and others are not, depending on stuff like what meets your needs best, how much control you have and whether or not you've done any active work on the symptoms yet, etc.

• Then you can also think about the personal opinion of your character on symptom presentation. Do they believe that they should get to just be themselves? Are they of the opinion that people just have to deal with their symptoms and accept them that way? Or do they think that they have to hide some symptoms in order to fit into society better? Have they potentially adopted some prosocial ways of thinking and model their presentation after that? Depending on what it is, it will obviously look different.

3. The Causes of their ASPD

• Depending on the type of trauma they went trough that made them develop ASPD, presentation will differ. Its highly individual of course, but theres some themes, like people who come from violent households often being violent themselves, people who were neglected struggling with the social aspects like empathy & remorse, people who were lied to/manipulated/berated all the time adopting similar manners, people who had to commit crimes and/or witnessed those often continuing to do so because its normal to them, etc.

• The other aspect is genetics, where certain tendencies can be given from parent to child or grandparent to grandchild, such as impulsive tendencies, the type of temper someone has, access (or denied access) to certain parts of the brain that are responsible for prosocial emotions, etc. Those genetics mix with the trauma and sometimes push the presentation in certain directions, so its a thing to keep in mind.

• Some CD/ASPD symptoms can also develop/be made worse trough bullying, intense experiences in childhood/teens, hanging around with people who engage in/normalize certain behaviors, etc. (ex: kids with delinquient tendencies who hang around other kids with those, may be more likely to develop that as a continous behavior). So its also worth thinking about who your character was around while they grew up, who influenced them how and what was normalized to them.

4. The Current DSM-V ASPD Criteria

• When it comes to the core symptoms of ASPD, theres 3 out of 7 DSM criteria points your character should meet. It doesn't matter which ones, but it has to be at least three! Your character should also be older than 18, have shown conduct disorder symptoms before they turned 15 and have their ASPD symptoms even in absence of other comorbidities, substances and/or episodes (Criterion B-D which I am not quoting, but thats it summed up)

• The 7 criteria points recognized in the DSM-V are (and I quote):

A. A pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of rights of others, occuring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are ground for arrest.

2. Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases or conning others for personal profit or pleasure.

3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead.

4. Irritability or aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults.

5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others.

6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations.

7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated or stolen from another.

• Everything after "as indicated by" is an example of a possible presentation. The DSM-V acknowledges that there are other possible ways in which symptoms can show up.

5. The Alternative ASPD Model in the DSM-V

• This is not used to officially diagnose people with ASPD, but is one idea, as to how personality disorder classification could work in the future. It looks at the symptoms as dimensions, under which possible experiences could fall and mentions quite a few things the current criteria doesn't, so I'll quote it below as well:

A. Moderate or greater impairment in personality functioning, manifested by characteristic difficulties in two or more of the following areas:

1. Identity: Egocentrism, self esteem derived from personal gain, power or pleasure.

2. Self direction: Goal setting based on personal gratification, absence of prosocial internal standards, associated with failure to conform to lawful or culturally normative ethical behavior.

3. Empathy: Lack of concern for feelings, needs or suffering of others, lack of remorse after hurting or mistreating another.

4. Intimacy: Incapacity for mutually intimate relationships, as exploitation is primary means of relating to others, including by deceit and coercion, use of dominance or intimidation to control others.

B. Six or more of the following seven pathological personality traits:

1. Manipulativeness (an aspect of antagonism): Frequent use of subterfuge to influence or control others, use of seduction, charm, glibness, or ingratiation to achieve ones ends.

2. Callousness (an aspect of antagonism): Lack of concern for feelings or problems of others, lack of guilt or remorse about negative or harmful effects of ones actions on others, aggression, sadism.

3. Deceitfulness (an aspect of antagonism): Dishonesty and fraudulence, misrepresentation of self, embellishment or fabrication when relating events.

4. Hostility (an aspect of antagonism): Persistent or frequent angry feelings, anger or irritability in response to minor slights and insults, mean, nasty or vengeful behavior.

5. Risk taking (an aspect of disinhibition): Engagement in dangerous, risky and potentially self damaging activities, unnecessarily and without regard for consequences, boredom proneness and thoughtless initiation of activities to counter boredom, lack of concern for ones limitations and denial of the reality of personal danger.

6. Impulsivity (an aspect of disinhibition): Acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli, acting on a momentary basis without a plan or consideration of outcomes, difficulty establishing and following plans.

7. Irresponsibility (an aspect of disinhibition): Disregard for - and failure to honor - financial and other obligations or commitments, lack of respect for - and lack of follow trough on - agreements and promises.

Note: The individual is at least 18 years of age.

6. Other Common Experiences

• Theres a few experiences that quite a few people with ASPD report, that have not explicitly made it into the criteria. Sometimes these are examples for certain symptoms and/or are implied, sometimes these have been studied but haven't been written as a requirement for diagnosis and sometimes these are not supported by science/still debated by science.

• Apathy, a total lack of emotion, overall muted emotions or having trouble to access certain emotions, is something some people with ASPD talk about a lot. There is no scientific consensus yet, as to whether this is an ASPD symptom. Some theories suggest it falls under PTSD (absence of positive emotions & tendency to experience negative ones and/or having dissociated away from the emotions and/or having put up a sort of non permanent barrier as a form of protection), depression (common comorbidity, anhedonia & apathy can both be part of it), other PDs (schizoid, borderline episodes, etc.) or something else entirely. While its not sure whether its caused by ASPD, or not, a lot of people with it seem to report differences in their capability to feel a full range of intense emotions.

• The criteria talks about aggressiveness and physical fights, which is not the only way in which this symptom seems to commonly present. Harming animals, homicidal ideation, dealing with aggressive thoughts & urges without actually acting on them, verbal aggression, taking out aggression on self or property, etc. are also often reported.

• The current criteria doesn't mention it at all and the alternative talks about a complete inability to form bonds, but community consensus seems to be, that while forming emotional bonds is harder & happens more rarely, it is still possible. The intensity differs (some describe the bond as a logical construct, some only do platonic bonds, some only do romantic bonds, some describe deep obsessiveness, etc.) as does the number of people they find themselves bonded with. Theres also a significant amount of people in the community that describe a phenamenon similar to BPDs FP (aka a bond to a person that is defined by the symptoms of the personality disorder).

• There is some debate on whether or not an absence of prosocial inner standards makes it impossible or more difficult to define personal morals and understand how morality works. Some people with ASPD say they have no difficulties, some report that they struggle with the understanding part, some say they struggle with upholding those norms and others struggle with both. It seems like ASPD could make it more difficult to understand and/or respect the way societies morals work for some, which makes room for conflict.

• Personality Disorders are what we call egosyntonic, which usually means that they are in alignment with what we as people think is the correct way to feel, think and act. This doesn't mean that its inherently impossible to change the way you think/feel/act and that recovery is impossible, but it may make it more difficult to break out of the patterns (if that is what one wants). Some people show little problems in this area, some need a lot of outer assistance and others either can't or don't want to change.

7. Other Things To Keep In Mind

• You should probably think about whether your character fits the psychopathy subtype & if yes which definition of it you want to use (theres different theories)

• ASPD can influence every aspect of your life, so it may interfere with things in such a roundabout way that you wouldn't even think about it at first (ex: Disregard for safety of self => Disregard for your own health => You get ill carelessly => You dont take ur meds responsibly, or put off a doctors visit for months/years => You end up with longterm damage => You don't treat it responsibly => You get more ill => Death. Which happens to ppl without ASPD too, but can indeed be a presentation of that symptom.). Additionally comorbdities interact & interfere with ASPD symptoms and may alter/add onto presentation!

• You could also always add the ASPD stigma into the mix and how your character responds to it/how it influences them. Does it make them not wanna recover? Does it make them wanna recover even more to prove everyone wrong? Are they trying to get into therapy but no therapist wants them? Is it on a court record and causing problems that way? Do they lose relationships/friendships? Does it change the way they see themselves or others? etc.

• The key with ASPD characters is not to just make them into good people or portray them as angels and also not to always make them into the cruel villain. The key is to show that they are an individual, a human being, a single example for what this disorder can present as. If you can somehow portray that the presentation of ASPD in your character is just how this specific character is and is not how the disorder inherently presents itself, you nailed it! Cus u'll have ASPDers who want to just stay the way they are and who are exactly what you'd imagine a cruel villain to be like, you have ASPDers who you couldn't ever distinguish from a prosocial person, cus they learned to blend in and you've got ASPDers who decide that they wanna do a 180 and behave in the most prosocial way possible and then you have everything in between and beyond. So as long as your character would meet criteria, as long as you're not spreading misinfo and as long as its clear that its just one example of a possible presentation, you're good in my opinion (but this is indeed just my opinion and others may disagree).

Note: If you need examples for the specific symptoms, you can ofc send another ask, this is more of a general overview of what exists, cus going into detail on each would make this post wayyy too long.

[mpreg-is-always-possible]

Better

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x gn!reader

Tags: Angst, divorce, losing a child, graveyard, reference to child neglect, reference to canon typical violence, grief

Notes: so I’m very new to this fandom and haven’t actually read the comics yet but I’ve been reading a lot of fanfics and couldn’t get this out of my head. Also I tried to keep reader gender neutral but I did write and edit this in the middle of the night on my phone so please let me know if a rouge pronoun that isn’t ’you’ made its way in. Thanks for reading and please enjoy!

Word count: 1.9k

Summary: Falling in love with Bruce had been foolish. Marrying him was an act of down right insanity. You knew it would end one way or another but you had deluded yourself into believing your husband’s crusade couldn’t come at the expense of Jason’s life. Gotham needs Batman and Batman needs Robin. But why did Robin need to be the boys you had come to see as sons?

Or a one shot of the events leading up to your and Bruce’s divorce after Jason Todd’s death

Officially, you and Bruce had divorced only six months ago. Truly though, your relationship had ended nearly three years ago when Bruce came home without Jason. His Robin went off to do the one thing Batman wouldn’t, and the next thing you know your son is in the ground.

The grief was all consuming. You fell to your knees when Bruce told you. Alfred said the scream you let out would haunt him for the rest of his life but the memory of it was lost to you. Those early days after Jason’s death are blurry still. The only tangible feeling being the heavy hole Jason left behind in your chest.

You’re not sure where Bruce went after that. He grew so distant the only time you saw him was to discuss funeral arrangements. After the funeral you don’t really see your husband for the next month. When asked, Alfred informed you Bruce was staying in the cave believing you needed space. Alfred had clearly disapproved of that but Bruce was right. She did need space from him, from Batman.

It’s not a point of pride that you grew to hate him in the early months after. Thoughts of revealing his extra curricular activity plagued you. As much as Gotham needs Batman, Bruce needs Batman too. He needs to protect his city and build towards a future where his parents' deaths wouldn’t ever be repeated. But how could that future exist when Batman won’t even kill Joker? How could it exist without Jason?

The idea is tempting but you never act on it. Revealing Batman’s identity wouldn’t only endanger you but Alfred and Dick as well. You couldn’t stand losing them too. Dick decided to come back to Gotham for a while after the funeral, just to be there for you and Bruce. Bruce tried to send him back to Bludhaven but you had put your foot down. “We just buried one son and now you want to push another way,” you had yelled at him, his face as stony as ever. He acquiesced.

Dick and Alfred tried to get the two of you to talk to each other. Dick would often try to essentially parent trap you and Bruce in various rooms around the manor, inviting both to watch a movie or asking for help with something but not tell you that he’d asked you both. By the second week Alfred refused to bring Bruce’s food down to the cave, forcing him to eat with you. By the end of the month the two just threw out the cot in the cave and Bruce took a bed in a guest room. Their efforts made it seem like Bruce was imposing his absence on you, and maybe he was but there was no comfort to be found in his company, not anymore.

Their antics went on for another month after that until you sat them down and told them to stop. They had for a few days. When Alfred “mistakenly” served Bruce’s food upstairs one night, you cornered him afterwards to tell him you were considering leaving Bruce. “I cannot fault you but he’s the closest I have to a son and I’m afraid another upset would cause him to spiral more. It’s too much to ask but can you please stay until the grief isn’t so raw.”

That’s when you noticed Bruce had bruises and cuts in places he was normally careful to keep clear of thug’s fists and knives. Dick told you he was fighting so much harder; The criminals had started to whisper fears of the bat starting to kill soon. You didn’t think he would go that far, and Dick agreed but he could tell his father wasn’t far off.

So your marriage continued. You woke up alone, went about your day, had dinner with Bruce before he left for patrol, then went to bed. Galas and various other functions for Wayne Enterprises or Bruce's charity events were the only time you two truly acted like there wasn’t this vast distance between you. Most of the time it made your skin crawl to act like things were fine, but occasionally you could pretend - Jason wasn’t dead, he was just trying to find where the servers smoked to join them. Then someone would offer condolences and the facade would break.

It was around this time when you began to visit Jason’s grave. It had been too painful to see it before. The words ‘Jason Todd: Beloved son and brother’ etched in stone had followed you into nightmares for months. But you needed to get out of the house and Jason had spent too long without a visit from you. At first, they were short somewhat sporadic outings - tiptoeing in about once every other week to leave flowers, often leaving them next to a bouquet or two some else had already gifted. After a while, you warmed up to a quick hello and some highlights from the week before, then had graduated to speaking at the tombstone for hours about life after him every week. It was cathartic and maybe a little sad but those one sided conversations became the one place you could talk about the complexity of your family’s situation without having to sugar coat it or be reminded of how staying was helpful to Batman.

For two years this went on and Batman’s anger didn’t cool. Bruce still came home with black eyes, bleeding knuckles, and the occasional gunshot. The hate in your belly for him had dulled considerably to the point where you had begun to patch his wounds up again out of respect for the love you once had. You might be angry with him but you didn’t want him to get himself killed.

When the neighbor boy, Tim Drake, had knocked on your door, you couldn’t have guessed that he came to express his worry for Batman, for Bruce. You and Alfred listened as he waxed poetic about how Gotham needs Batman but Batman needs Robin. The hole in your chest that had since grown less noticeable ached because he was right and it made you want to spit. As Alfred excused himself to get the Robin uniform for the boy, you grasped his thin shoulders and looked into his face, colored in righteous determination.

“The last Robin was murdered, Tim.”

“I know Jason died, but -“

“Bruce will try to push you away. Don’t let him.”

Watching Tim run out the door in the red and green suit made your stomach turn. It wasn’t what you wanted but you had never had a say in that side of your husband's life. The two of you thought more with your heart than with your head when you decided to get married, but you weren’t so love drunk to think that the marriage wasn’t nearly guaranteed to fail. You even expected it to end because of his crusade. You just wished it didn’t come at the expense of your son.

It was foolish to think this new Robin wouldn't worm his way into your heart just as the two before did and maybe it was selfish but you couldn’t do it again. There was no way Bruce could just stop, but you didn’t need to stand by his side while he did it. It was a miracle that only Jason had died.

Despite your efforts to keep Tim at arms length, he was a sweet kid and it was impossible to ignore him. Plus you knew his parents weren’t paying nearly enough attention to him so he needed someone looking out for Tim and not just Robin.

Bruce had been better at keeping the boy out. He let Dick do most of Tim’s training and really only spoke to him about vigilante things. But the armor slowly but surely cracked. It didn’t escape you or Alfred when Bruce began to request foods that you knew Tim liked or when he had Alfred set up a guest room that was meant for Tim to use when needed. A year in and Bruce had long stopped coming home from patrol with careless injuries.

You knew it was coming. You anticipated everyday that Bruce would come home from patrol and tell you Tim had accepted the mantle. When it actually happened though, it still sent ice through your veins.

“Tim’s passed every test Dick and I have given him. I offered him Robin and he said yes.”

“I knew he would.”

“I don’t want him to be.”

“I know.” A moment passed and then you said “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

“I know.”

The divorce was quick. Neither of you wanted anything from the other. Bruce offered alimony but you refused. You kept your job after getting married but you never touched your salary, leaving you with a nice nest egg to start your new life with. Alfred and Dick were sad but they understood. They knew you sacrificed a lot to stay with Bruce even before Jason died, but after you gave more than you had.

Tim didn't really know what your marriage looked like before but he took on its demise all the same. Your heart broke when Bruce told you Tim had tried to give Robin back in an attempt to make Bruce reconcile with you.

“Tim, if I had it my way none of you would be going out every night fighting thugs and criminal masterminds but you were right; Gotham needs Batman and Batman needs Robin. Unfortunately, it’s become too much for me but Bruce won’t stop. He can’t but he needs someone like you there to make him remember himself.”

Tim just nodded his head and went back to the manor.

Dick and Tim visited you at your small apartment in Gotham as often as they could. Though between Dicks commute from Bludhaven, Tim still being in school, and both of their budding vigilante careers, they didn’t have much time to visit. Occasionally, they’d stop by during patrol for a rest or some first aid. Mainly you kept in touch with phone calls and texts.

You never really saw Alfred anymore, unless it was when he opened the door for Tim after dropping him off at him from school or some outing. He does call occasionally, just to say hi and chat. It’s nice, not feeling completely cut off from your old life.

It was surprising how unchanged your relationship with Bruce was after you left. It probably shouldn’t have been - your marriage was one in name alone and had been for awhile. Still, realizing your conversations only revolved around if Dick or Tim needed anything made it clear just how true it was that divorced life with him wasn’t far off from your married one. He never did make an effort to really speak with you after things went to hell but then again neither did you.

When you finally signed the divorce papers, it felt like you could breathe for the first time in years. No more sticking around because you were afraid leaving would push him over the edge. But the hole in your chest still plagued you, and it most certainly would forever. The divorce wasn’t what was best. What would have been best would be Jason being alive and Batman not needing to put your kids in danger constantly. But Jason was and Batman did. So the divorce is better.

[mcytblrconfessions]

Hi, little hater here from earlier. At no point when writing that out did I think it was misogynistic, but like. Yeah it might have been a little bit. Idk if I would care enough to yap about it if it had been just another guy being added. Maybe I am holding her to higher expectations then I would for a male creator.

I was hoping for other female creators to get in, and maybe since she was the final person announced in the 6 we expected I'm salty cause she 'took' the hypothetical slot that other creators I was hoping for for lifesteal. And that's stupid, and looking back I know that that's stupid. And that's not on Kab, that's on Lifesteal for adding 6 guys and 1 girl, and that's on me for bitching about it in a public place.

I've been watching her for a while now, and I really do want her to succeed. I think some of my hesitancy for her in Lifesteal is the sort of lack of commitment to real storybeats that we saw in the final stretch of s5, and Kab deserves to be in better stories. She's at the top of the artform of mcrp, and so far Lifesteal has not been. I want Lifesteal to do better, and maybe Kab can bring some of that to the server, but like unless they can reach that level idk if its the right place for her. I just don't want to see her on a server that refused to meet the energy level she brings to things.

Idk man. I'm not that pressed about it, just between seasons is the time to yap cause theres no streams to watch to focus on instead, by july 7th I'll be hyped to see her there. I'm sorry about that prior ask. I will be paying Kaboodle the unfair hater tax in the form of a gifted twitch sub tonight.

first off, thank you for the apology.

i dont have any real bias for lifesteal or kaboodle. i started watching lifesteal this week and im not familiar with kaboodle at all. and the reason ive stayed away from pvp focused mcrp is because it's so heavily male dominated especially lifesteal, ive been making jokes that there's a secret no girls allowed rule since ive heard abt it.

this fandom has a long history of not treating women well and when a woman is a fan-favorite she's really only allowed to be 1 of 3 things, a fighter, a girl-boss, or ur soggy poor wet little meow meow. its just not fair to creators to be essentialized and treated as support for their male peers. made to fit into men's stories instead of getting recognized and respected for their own. and smps themselves have horrible ratios, my favorite is hermitcraft but 5(4?) out of 27 is less then 20 percent! that's terrible! there's so many wonderful women ccs out there yet so little space is made for them. 2(3? idk squiddo's gender) out of 31 is the ratio for lifesteal 6. i dont need to point out how bad that is.

so to get an ask with "I just don't think that the vibes are going to be right with her there" put me really on edge. it's putting the fault on her, and it's ignoring that there was a group of lifestealers who already agreed that she was a good fit because she's on the smp! she's on the team! the difference between "the vibes arent going to be right with her there" and "they can't reach her level" is huge. but you know lifesteal better then me. if you say they cant match her energy i believe you! but if it's true, her and lifesteal dont work out because she did put her all in and they didnt that is still completely different from the thesis of your original ask

ive turned off the reblogs of the other post but i hope moving forward we can be more critical and careful with how we treat our women creators. there's already so little space for them in creator spaces let's not push them out of community spaces too.

[broke-art]

No one asked but I wanted to write this head cannon just cause I was bored.

Abused reader character reactions

Wukong:

As a friend, he probably would try not to worry about your odd tendencies. But all it would take is for him to get suspicious. When he does get suspicious he would investigate. Once the full situation was discovered he'd have NONE OF IT.

Thankfully he's more mature than in jttw (where he'd likely just kill them) so he'd help you find other arrangements for you.

As a S/O:

Wukong would spend a lot more time with you. And your little tendencies (flinches, bulky clothing, etc) he would pay much more attention to. But it is essentially the same as a friend except he'd likely catch on far sooner

Overall emotion; protective concern

Macaque:

As his friend you could expect him to know something was off from the beginning. He'd likely try to help you out inconspicuously. Things like pointing out affordable apartments or mentioning that Sandy is a really good person to talk to. Depending on the severity he may handle it in more.....violent ways.

As a S/o you can better believe subtly is not happening. He would investigate if you refused to talk and then he would absolutely address it with you. Then depending on what you wanted him to do about it, he would handle the situation.

Overall emotion; Anger/ protective

M.k:

As a friend one has to remember M.k is a bit dense. He would flat out not notice unless he witnessed the abuse or someone clued him in. In the former case emotions would be high and M.k would give them a SINGLE warning and would not get physical unless that warning was ignored. In the latter scenerio he would try to address it with you and come up with a plan to get you away safely.

As a S/o M.k would likely have a pretty similar reaction to the friend scenerio.

Overall emotion; concern / anger

Red son;

As a friend he would try his best to mind his own business, but the boy isn't oblivious. If he saw multiple bruises or witnessed you flinch a time too many he would address it. How he would address it would differ depending on the situation.

As a S/o Red Son would address it as soon as he was sure there was something wrong. He'd likely feign annoyance to cover his concern, but it would be there nonetheless. His approach to solving the problem would likely be a bit more violent.

Let me know with a comment if you're curious about how other characters would react to abusive situations

[mdhwrites]

You've said before how you feel about Luz abandoning the Isles when they needed her because she refused to try and fix it. I think it's said that she genuinely believed she would only make things worse so she thought she needed to take herself out of the way? Are my memories faulty?

Okay so I'm going to start with a scenario to make my point clear because you're not wrong... But you also are.

Let's say you're assigned two partners for a science project. You decide the best way to split the work up evenly is to have one person do the research, one person to write up the conclusions and one person to do a lot of math for the calculations you'll need. You each state your strengths with one saying writing, one saying research and the last saying, "I like math."

However, a week passes and you are struggling to finish any it because you've gotten none of those calculations for it back. When you push, the person goes, "Well sure, I like math but I suck at it. As such, my calculations would have been wrong. That would have caused you all problems so I decided the thing that made the most sense would be not to do anything at all." The project still needs to be done though and the majority of the work has been done for them. As such, now you and the second person have to work your ass off to do what your third member cannot while they contribute nothing but they promise they feel really bad about it and they're okay taking a C if this ends up making the project fail, even though their actions would have gotten them an F on their own.

Luz likes to make decisions. She essentially never consults ANYONE on what she should do and half the time someone tells her, "Don't do X," she goes ahead and does it. This also constantly gets other people in trouble and gets her in trouble because she is really bad at making decisions. And yes, with helping Belos free the Collector, she admits that she made a terrible mistake and that she makes a lot of mistakes. Her literal statement on this is that she'll finally listen to her mom and learn from her mistakes by staying in the Human Realm. Permanently.

Do you potentially notice a problem here though? Yeah, my thoughts have NEVER stopped at "Luz left a planet to die because she wanted to stay home." No. I always do mention that she claims part of her reasoning is because she makes stupid, rash decisions on her own that hurt others but then she goes ahead and makes a stupid, albeit with implied a LOT of thought, decision ON HER OWN that will hurt people.

Do you know a great way to avoid making a mistake? Asking someone else if it's the right choice to make. Or hey, just decide you don't need to lead anymore. If your decisions are the problem then let someone else make the decisions. But... Then Luz doesn't get to do the fun thing she likes to do. She actually has to listen to other people and maybe do things that aren't her number one option because her first choice would get people hurt. That isn't what Luz wants. Luz doesn't want to actually grow or learn or get scolded for her mistakes. Otherwise, she wouldn't CONSTANTLY LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING.

So instead... Why not just let them suffer the consequences while she stays home and lives in peace, her problems in a far off fantasy realm that she never has to think about again? People always like to say she's giving up so much but what is she actually giving up? The fantasy world? You mean the one that's currently ravaged by a child god and has a populace that she assumes will hate her? Yeah, that's hardly something to give up. The chance at friends? Too bad Thanks to Them shows people who are very interested in being her friend and also Yesterday's Lie showed there are people like Luz who would probably be willing to be her friend. What is Luz sacrificing by deciding to just sit at home with her loving mom and live a normal life?

So why grow? Why learn? Why try to do better? When you can do nothing. That's what Luz wants to do. She wants to just stay home and do nothing, even as that means condemning an entire world, bare minimum at least a continent, which includes her found family and friends, to death. Her claims of trying to do better are nothing but excuses so she can have a clear conscious as she allows thousands upon thousands to be enslaved and tortured.

So yes, she SAYS that she is doing this because she doesn't want to make things worse. The problem is that there are plenty of ways for her to still have even attempted to help without having to make the decisions she's afraid to make worse but those options would require more work and require her not to be the star. And none of this, even if this is the most expanded version of this point, is missing from those past blogs because they also talk about how she claims to have a problem making decisions and yet still makes this choice entirely on her own.

Because she isn't learning. She's just deciding that some broken puppets are a small price to pay to keep getting to do whatever she wants. It is an excuse, end of story. See you next tale.

======+++++======

Sorry for so many blogs about this. It's admittedly to me a very important point because it's the moment Lumity dies. It's the moment that Luz's character can never recover. It's the moment when the TOH fandom became genuinely horrifying when it comes to mental health as THANK GOD no one has tried to refute this with "She has depression" because yes, that will get you blocked if you try to tell me that. I am disabled by depression and I understand lives still matter. I understand I'm not supposed to lie, CONSTANTLY. I understand basic ass morality, unlike Luz. And in this moment, there's no turning back for her, let alone after For the Future when she doubles down on how selfish her desires are.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[wonderwall-dreaming]

Is it surprising that a dead character will remain dead? No.

Is it disappointing? Yes.

It's been two years since Stranger Things 4 Vol. 2 dropped and Eddie Munson's death is still a sore spot for me.

The problem I had with his death two years ago and still have with it now is that it was extremely predictable and avoidable. The thing is, Eddie's death didn't impact the story for all the characters. It just impacted Dustin.

The Duffers spoke about needing a doomed character for Season 4, and they did have that with Max, but since she's a main character, she has plot armor. They do this every season. They're too afraid to actually do something that will impact the story and all the characters, so they play it safe, bring someone new in that the audience will love, and then kill them.

Now, don't take that as me saying I wish Max died because I don't, I'm just pointing out how they had their doomed character, but the rules didn't apply because she's part of the main cast of characters and those are untouchable. I love Max, I hated seeing her suffer in Season 4, but it is true, she was cursed, a fate that none of the other three characters who were cursed could escape.

My issues with Eddie's death being predictable and avoidable and my issue with the Duffer Brothers' writing aside, here's the real problem. The message his death sent is harmful.

Before someone comes at me about how Stranger Things is fictional, and it's not real, I know, but the thing is, fiction makes people feel very real things. If it can provide them comfort, it can also cause them heartbreak. Storytelling is powerful. The emotions it makes people feel are very real. It doesn't necessarily matter if it's fiction, if it hurts you, it hurts you.

All of that being said, let's get back to my problem with the message his death sends.

The narrative that characters who are suffering, whether that be because of their current circumstances or trauma in their past, dying and finally being at peace is harmful.

Why can't characters who have only known pain get the chance to heal in life? Peace through death is not the only option.

The message is always tied to a character who dies in a self-sacrificial way, essentially killing themselves, and the writers going "Sure that's sad, but look at how bad their life was! They're at peace now." That transcends fiction and for some hits a little too close to home.

Do I think we'll see Eddie in Season 5? Yeah, I do, most likely as some nightmare that will terrorize Dustin, and it's unfortunate because I don't believe it had to be this way.

I think with different writers, Eddie Munson could've had a very different story that would have had its sad moments but wouldn't have ended the way that it did, and overall would have sent a better message to those who relate to him.

I am begging writers to abandon this narrative, especially in stories that are fantasy-based and don't abide by normal "rules" I promise you no one wants to see that really loveable character with trauma essentially commit suicide and then be told it's a good thing because they were suffering.

The Twitter post from the top of my post.

[subway-boss-jericho]

Queuing posts for most of my AUs! Check out this Masterpost! (Disclaimer! - Please don't comment about their iconic knife bangs! I left them off this reference to keep their faces fully visible.)

Ingo and Ingo and Emmet Hop The Multiverse

-Premise- On a day that would have otherwise been entirely unremarkable, Ingo and Emmet- Long standing Unova Subway Bosses -stumble across a very strange missing link. It would seem that, somewhere in the history books, there is a man named Ingo who looks just like him, yet they have no Sinnohan family lineage or any other sort of family ties that would lead them to believe this isn't some impossibly insane coincidence. Unable to let this strange thread go, the two of them decide to take investigation into their own hands.

With the assistance of some higher powers as curious and whimsical as they are, if not more, they travel back into Hisuian history and find... Ingo. A man just like him- A man who seems to have been Emmet's brother... But it doesn't seem quite right! Their benefactors can confirm that they don't have any temporal disturbances lined up for them, which can only mean... He is not Emmet's twin. Or rather, not this Emmet's twin.

Determined to return him exactly where he belongs and reunite this brother who fell so far from home, the three of them set off across the multiverse- Helping every other set of alternate twins they encounter along the way!

-Noteworthy Points- This AU is open for crossovers! The wacky adventures of Emmet, his brother Ingo, and his other brother who is Also Ingo. They've adopted him. It's essentially an open ended fix-it fic for me (or us!) to invent silly, emotional, or extremely unlikely scenarios for multiverse shenanigans :D

The two Ingos differentiate from each other with their clothing, and they also go by different names. Warden Ingo goes simply by Warden, and I haven't decided what Subway Boss Ingo goes by, but I think it's likely he often just gets called "Brother" because that is what Emmet defaults to calling him when differentiating between the two.

Speaking of their clothing! Their outfits are custom made! (Elesa hooked them up, they returned home to make plans and get to know Warden better!) This is primarily so they can distinguish each other from alternate selves, but also so that they don't accidentally lose each other in the shuffle. Warden's coat is still his original coat, just now outfitted/dyed to match the other two. His arm band is completely untouched, though. (Arm band symbolism, as you can see, is my fucking BRAND)

The logos on the twins' hats and on Warden's pin/tunic are a design I made :D

Lastly! They have MANY gadgets and doodads! Their benefactor tech'd them out for their adventures with lots of safety equipment and other items needed for cross-dimensional travel, and presumably they also watch their antics closely and with great amusement. I haven't decided exactly who is helping them, but so far we're leaving it ambiguously open to one or more legendary pokemon. (Dialga and Palkia are high up there but I have yet to decide.)

They are going to cause so many hijinks.

-Links- Currently none! I will update this post with links to comics/art/writing if/when I post any!

[leenodeeno]

The Fall of the JJK Empire, as written by a Gojo lover

so one of my friends said i should post this here, and, at their persistence, i have finally made a sideblog to share with the world. here's my dissertation on why the jjk ending was bad. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

The JJK manga has literally changed the anime and manga scene forever. It's revolutionary. It offers consumers the chance to open their minds to concepts and ideas that are hard to portray successfully in art. There are so many different ways to analyze it and explore the human condition in the different aspects of this story. It's a shame that the way the story played out has caused so much anger and disappointment that will probably lead a mass of people to avoid the story entirely.

Gojo's the reason a good portion of the cast are still alive at the end and their executions were postponed, so the whole giving a multiple chapters long backstory (a whole story arc) on the man just to kill him with no closure is a disservice not only to the story, but also to the fanbase. Gojo deserves closure. And I'm not saying that just because of the fact that I adore Gojo, but more in the fact that, as a major character, he pushes the story forward and makes people think and feel things about not only the JJK universe itself, but about real life and how things work in reality. Gojo was a progressive radical. He believed that change starts with educating the youth. He believed that in order to see the change you want to see, you need to be the one to step up and take the actions needed to set the change in motion. He didn't care about being there to see this change, but that doesn't matter. He just wanted the change to happen so his children (yes, the students were his children) could live in a better world.

His letter to Megumi was disrespectful, but lackluster at best if you're trying to be nice about it. Gojo was his father figure. He was the one that stepped up and raised him to be who he is today. The letter basically just being “by the way I killed your dad LMAO” is insane. Yes, it kind of fits what their relationship was like, but there was also so much love between them that the audience got to see glimpses of throughout the story. That love should have shined through in the final letter to Megumi. The way it played out, Megumi was abandoned by two fathers in his life, gaining no closure for either one.

There were so many points in the story that could and should have been expanded upon, but, instead, we're left with barely fleshed out characters that are supposed to be so important, but we barely have anything left to have faith in them. Megumi's character was brutally massacred by Gege. Megumi had so much potential to be a powerful sorcerer, especially one that made a huge difference in Yuuji's life. And he did, to a point. Megumi ended up with very little character growth, to include his growth as a sorcerer. His whole schtick being his sister gave him nothing other than a failed dream to follow. A sister that has no impact on the story other than being the vessel for Sukuna's lover and dying in the span of about two chapters. His abilities did not grow as much as his hype in the story paved the path for — even leading to his domain never being completed. The audience is also left with many questions regarding his technique that are never answered. Can he gain new shikigami to replace the ones lost? Who knows. If he can't, does that end up with him essentially being useless as a sorcerer since his whole technique revolves around those shikigami? Another question never answered.

I am very happy with Sukuna's ending; I am not happy at all with Gojo's ending. What was the purpose of us having to skip past the time period of Gojo being unsealed and training for the final fight? Training scenes are key to character and story growth in shonen. Key scenes that the audience did not get, in part because of poor writing and in part because of the pressure from Jump to finish the series in order to give the spot to a different serial. There was so much potential for closing off the loose ends during the final training arc, and the story was done a disservice by skipping that whole period of time.

I will forever be thankful for this manga and its invitation for me to analyze the human condition in ways I never thought I'd be able to. You don't even have to enjoy Gojo's character, but the amount of hate I've seen that completely disregards his growth is crazy. I'll be honest, I didn't even really like Gojo when I first joined the fandom, but, over time, Gojo's story and experiences grew on me, and I now have so much love for him. It's baffling how people can not even acknowledge his strengths as a character and the lessons his story can teach to the world.

Gojo's impact on the real world alone knows no bounds, and that impact, which is also stated several times in the story, is completely disregarded by the characters that he should have been most important to. He did not even receive a sentence of the other characters grieving his loss. I would have been okay with even just a panel of incense burning for Gojo, or even just a quick acknowledgement of his death and the effect on the world of the story. It all basically panned out to the characters saying, “Wow, he sacrificed himself for all of us. That's pretty shitty.” Like give us anything.

Yes. I'm upset about Gojo's death and the ending as a whole. But not in the delusional “Gojo's the best, he never should've died blah blah blah” way that a lot of the shallow fans of the story are saying why they're upset.  I think it's very poetic, and it's a tragic story. There are things to be learned from this. This is art, and it's meant to make people feel things.

I do disagree with the people that say Gojo didn't accept his death. It's very clear in his fight and his final conversation with Yuuji that he accepted it. No, he didn't want to die, but he did accept it in the end as something that needed to happen in order to see the change he's been pushing for since he was sixteen years old.

If this ending pushed by Gege and Jump is supposed to be seen as Jujutsu society being completely fixed, then the whole narrative of Gojo's beliefs and his reasons for not killing the higher ups (that just ended up being killed offscreen by the man in the end anyway) because he didn't want to be like them is completely pointless.

And if the whole point was to play Sukuna and Gojo as two sides of the same coin, it was executed very poorly. The audience got to see Sukuna's closure and his choice to seek nirvana in the end. It's very vague whether Gojo decided to seek nirvana or to spin the wheel again and try to go for a better life than he had. Essentially saying “We had the same struggle, and we're going to play that out,” but then the conclusion for both of them isn't clearly shown?

Why should fans have to accept the offscreen death of their favorite character just to spare the author's feelings about being critiqued for his clearly rushed, piss-poor ending? Killing essential characters offscreen is lazy, and it causes people to subconsciously think that they aren't dead because they didn't actually see them die. It's basic human behavior. Not to include the fact that Gege used similar tactics with Nobara, and she ended up being alive in the end. He played into the fact that it was up in the air whether Gojo was alive or not, and it was not executed in a way that made the audience understand the choice. It was done in a way that was on the verge of being cruel because Gege himself has shared his own disdain for Gojo.

Gege hated how much Gojo was loved, and it caused poor writing and a feeling that he was killed just as a way to say fuck you to everyone that loved Gojo. Yeah, he has said many times that he hates Gojo, but Gojo is part of the reason the popularity skyrocketed (and that's probably what added to his hatred for the character). Maybe the plan was for Gojo to die all along, and that's okay, but the way it played out was cruel. Either way it could have happened, Gege's choices led to a major character death that is universally hated, and his fan base and the anime/manga community as a whole will remember it if and when he puts out future works. His legacy as one of the greatest mangakas has been tainted because of this death and the way the story was clearly rushed and filled with plot holes at the end. However, I will say I absolutely cannot get behind the people that are threatening Gege because that's just vile behavior.

Gojo is designed to be attractive and play into that character role, but there's so much more that the shallower Gojo fans just didn't or couldn't grasp, and I think that also plays a big part in the range of reactions going on in response to his death. “Gojo the type to hit and quit.” Yes, but would you care to analyze why he does that? There is depth to his character that the fans that don't care to look deeper don't see. They are the reason a lot of JJK fans are disregarded.

But, I also had to come to terms with the fact that for a lot of people in this fandom, they're very young, and this is one of the first major events they've had to interact with in regards to the ending and everything else. A lot of us have already experienced situations like this many times because we've been around long enough to experience the emotions and actions that go along with loving a major piece of pop culture as it's currently being released. A lot of these young fans are experiencing it for the first time, so I think everything needs to be taken with a grain of salt with what people are saying about the ending. And yes, the current generation of people joining fandom spaces are not mature enough for it, but that's a whole other thing that I don't want to get into right now. The parasocial relationship thing is going to always happen in fandom, but it's going to happen a lot with JJK because, again, a lot of these younger fans it's their first time experiencing a fandom like this.

There are always going to be takes and theories that are shallow, but I'm here for the ones that start with those, but then they continue to analyze and explore why they're thinking that way. I think that's why I'm partially excited that JJK has ended so that these younger fans can either dive deeper and explore the themes and ideologies and morals given to them, or they can decide they don't want to or they just can't. But, I'm excited to see what this piece of art (yes, this manga was art) can do to help develop people in their abilities to explore and discover new ideas and grow as people. This manga has so much potential to make change, and I'm hoping it does that even a little bit.

I just think that, yes, as people that have grown and learned and have more experiences inside and outside of fandom, we have to allow for these younger fans to have this experience. We have to allow them the chance to grow. We can gripe on and on about how they're annoying and everything else, but I'm sure we (at least myself) were once in their shoes. They need to be given that time and space to grow. Not all of them will, but that's okay too. I don't think it's conducive to constantly shoot people down (depending on the idea or whatever it is, obviously) and expect people to want to grow, if all they're being met with is constant negativity and beratement. There has to be that opportunity for growth.

In the end, the conclusion of the story was poorly written — caused by the author's growing resentment of the story he created, insurmountable timelines pushed by money hungry companies, and a fanbase where a majority of the members weren’t quite mature enough to embrace the story as it should have been.

[ontoilogical]

on dame aylin (as the elusive other)

I haven't looked into a lot of what people are writing and meta commenting about Dame Aylin and Isobel Thorm, but in my personal quest to make the space in my head more entertaining, Isobel and Shadowheart have developed a tentative baseline voice I can recognize and imagine in situations. Dame Aylin, however, has not. Not yet. I want to slosh an idea or two around as to why that may be the case.

In the game, Dame Aylin is presented from many angles, depending on the character and their relationship with her, but a lot of the time her role is very othering. The othering doesn't come from the game writers' options of her – they wrote a wonderful, rich and layered character, gave her a three-arc questline that unfurls for the player like the most enticingly wrapped present, full of curiosities and surprises, and placed her so that you cannot avoid this gift even if you wanted to. And that's all without mentioning how her relationship with Isobel is the romance of the game, exceptional by any Faerûnian standards.

The othering, instead, comes from inside the story. The writers wrote a story where the main conflict for Dame Aylin is how much she is othered within the world she inhabits.

For Lorroakan and the adventurers that took on the bounty, she is a literal item, relic with a property, resource to harness for the problem they're trying to solve. For Ketheric, she is the unknown, the people that are unlike you, not a part of your group or tribe, infiltrating your territory, threatening your way of life and abducting your daughters. For the Sharrans, she was an obstacle, a test to pass or fail, a rite of passage. And although more implied than really explored, or just mentioned on the tail end of her story participation, to the mortals of the land she is a function – a vengeance paladin, a goddesses aspect, the will of Selûne, applied. Her status of exceptionality is even commented on by Isobel towards the end, when she says "She's singular among us all". Unlike anyone else.

I find my fun in discerning the many layers of a character's personhood, observing each one, naming them and seeing how they inform the character's actions, feelings, lowest and highest points, essence, that which we recognize as familiar, real, sympathetic. Dame Aylin is very rewarding in that regard, at the very least, to me.

...but even I may have fallen into the trap of latently believing Dame Aylin what she says about Dame Aylin. Because, as others before me have remarked, Dame Aylin also relegates Dame Aylin to a certain, narrow function. Her parting words for the player character essentially promise she will be another sword on the battlefield for their cause. And my rogue Dragonborn Tav is there like, staring in disbelief and deciding between the "can you fucking drop the formalities and tell me something silly about yourself, like whether you're, idk, physically capable of farting or burping or something", "do you think you can take Shadowheart with you I feel she likes you better", "do you ship CaitVi / are you excited for season 2 of Arcane" and "I want you to stay I'm not yet done with tanning my body under the Moonmaiden's glow" dialogue options.

To be clear, I do not believe her, but some strange, subconscious part of me may not allow me to disrespect Dame Aylin – when I open that sad notepad on my mobile phone – by being "she does this, but actually, it's a distraction from what's really going on deep inside her Aasimar soul", something that only Isobel gets to see, touch and feel. Isobel always understands, despite Aylin's deflections, even towards her (maybe, I haven't decided whether she does this or not). Isobel is patient and understanding about it, because that is her nature, but she'd be lying if she said it wasn't a little frustrating and trying at times. "Let me carry and care for you at least occasionally, my beloved. I witness your pain and it aches my heart when you try to shield me from it."

Hm.

I would also add that Aylin's charismatic presentation, language particularities and everything else make it potentially easy to set them as character points to check off, after which one may fall into a false sense of "there, I just wrote canon-accurate Dame Aylin". I mean, maybe you did, maybe I would, but... what about that Dame Aylin POV character exploration fic that doesn't feel like you're slapping "stoic character" tropes on her or keeping to the surface, but rather exploring what is distinctly and uniquely hers, beyond how strange she is against everyone else around her. I'm not saying anyone is doing this, but that this is how I feel whenever I try to write or imagine something that isn't a remix of the scenes and dialogues available in the game.

[theravenzvolute]

you guys better fucking like this p03 humanization sketch it took like 3 times to get this to work.

OK !!! so my main idea going into this was "oh! ive never seen a p03 humanization that takes advantage of his lack of legs!" and i just. took that and ran with it

DESIGN NOTES BELOW(some discuss how he couldve lost his limbs and though theyre not in detail, if the idea of losing a limb is uncomfortable, read with caution!)

p03, or poe in this case, mainly uses a wheelchair. its just a lot more comfortable for him and hed rather sit than stand so he can consistently focus on what hes working on. his alternative is a sports prosthetic which he heavily struggles with, not knowing how to walk and the prosthetic isnt necessarily made for how he uses it.

he only uses the prosthetics when he feels theres a situation where he might want to have more stature or mobility(scrybe meetings, though they dont really care if he cant walk, or going to other scrybes domains, especially leshys with its rough terrain that would absolutely ruin his wheelchair if he wheeled himself through it.)

he is in fact wearing boxers. hes often sitting at a table, or desk, or something where only his waist up is seen, which is why he normally doesnt bother putting on shorts or pants.

two of his fingers and one of his arms(the crank arm in canon) are missing as well, he uses a prosthetic more regularly for those as theyre more essential to him. though he does mostly use his technology for writing as its extremely difficult for him and hes slowly losing that muscle memory.

his color palette is relatively the same except his skin is an olive shade. His eyes are dark grey and his hair is black with grey streaks, three notable as they represent the little thingy things on the top left of his head what the fuck are those

my perception of p03 is very uncaring towards his health and safety, causing a multitude of factory accidents that led to his lack of limbs. he believes that he can just..fix himself back up, something thats proving to be his downfall as he recognizes how frustrating actually lacking his mobility skills is. he also has low pain tolerance. yay!

TRANSGENDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!