#characterization thoughts

[rlinwriteslu]

While I believe that people should be allowed to write whatever they find interesting, it sometimes makes me a little sad that the common fanon portrayal of Legend as a generally grouchy person who hates adventuring and seems to hate Hylia in particular seems to be the predominant portrayal of him in the fandom.

I get that people aren't necessarily under an obligation to write him exactly as he appears in the comic, but I feel like the pure ubiquity with which his fanon self is portrayed has caused a lot of people to just think he's that way, leading to them deciding to write him that way because they think that's just the character he is. I feel that there is often a dearth of other interpretations of his character that you wouldn't necessarily see for some other characters.

There is certainly a certain appeal to the fanon version of Legend (though it's no longer my cup of tea, it certainly was at one point), and there's also appeal to the version of Legend that appears in the comic. People don't feel beholden to the canon, as is the nature of fanwork, but by that same logic people are under no obligation to stick with fanon either. If you have opinions on him (or any character, really) that doesn't really go with all the super common headcanons, please, just put them out there anyway. It's not like they're going to be any less canon than the fanon version of him.

It'll be much more interesting to have more interpretations of Legend out there than less, and it'll certainly be more interesting to have more varied interpretations of him than just the one. Just having one version of him gets tiring after a while.

[championdaigo]

free space to say anything you want about steven im so interested in your thoughts

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while now because I've been unsure about how I want to go about attacking it (you've given me such a gift, anon)

But I think I'll use this as an opportunity to publicly share a long line of characterization thoughts I discussed one day in the steven stone appreciation discord server (compiled below the cut, it's going to be kinda messy)

Personally i like to see Steven as someone who has everything to lose. He’s smart, rich, educated, handsome, a skilled battler, and a regional darling. This is going to be controversial but I think he had a loving family and a fulfilling (albeit very sheltered) upbringing. He seems like the kind of guy who could very easily get anything he wanted. But i also see him as someone who’s aware of that and puts in genuine effort to see reality outside of his bubble.

I see him as someone who never really experienced personal tragedy growing up, and as someone who a few members of the general public could get frustrated with for “privilege-blindness”. Like he’s someone who was basically placed on a high rung at birth but still needed to climb upwards. Most people love him (rightfully so) but others are more than ready to have a reason to throw rocks at him. I think I take this approach mainly because I'm really fascinated by IRL celebrity culture from an outsider's perspective

But, in his core, he's a good guy with healthy morals who has much to learn about the world around him.

and now for some shitpost headcanons

beldum was a devon corp invention originally intended to be a smart can opener. it accidentally gained sentience and became the president's young son's best friend

steven's mother isn't dead or even absent. she just happened to be visiting kalos during the events of the hoenn games and had the shock of her life finding out about the weather crisis through buzznav's emergency alerts (steven had twenty-seven missed calls from mom during this time)

steven's perception of money is very much the "it's one banana what could it cost 10 dollars" meme. this is both a positive and a negative

steven has a relatively sharp sense of style except when it comes to casual wear (that summer outfit is divorcecore)

[frownyalfred]

omegaverse batfamily is great and I've read so many of those platonic fics, but imagine a universe where it's just omega!Bruce wandering around screaming "NO!" every time a random pup pops up and tries to follow him home. he doesn't want to nest with them. he has 0 maternal instincts. he growls when they come near him. that doesn't seem to matter, they still want to nest with him. lonely pups see this energy from far away and say oh yeah, that's who I want to live with. that omega over there who knocked out all of that guy's teeth with one hit. he looks strong.

[curlytsunamiart]

a confrontation between miquella and messmer in the shadow keep throne room

[awaxagoras]

giggling and kicking my feet at stalker phainon being somewhat canon (˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶)

currently thinking abt phainon who is obsesseddddd w you ♡ [ fwb ? exes ? awkward situationship ? guy you don’t even know ? something else ? I can’t decide lol it’s up to u ] he has ur notifications on and watches ur story / likes ur posts literally seconds after u post them . doesn’t feel embarrassed abt it . likes every one of them regardless of what the post is abt — surely you’ll notice how he’s obviously flirting w you ! [ you don’t . it’s just a like button , phainon . . . ]

he’s kinda crazy . analyzing all of ur posts trying to decipher any sort of hidden meaning behind them . that song you just posted . . is it about him ? are u trying to tell him something ?[ it has nothing to do w him . it’s just a song ] he’s got the lyrics pulled up , just in case . even if there’s nothing behind it , at least he knows what music you like ! definitely brings it up casually [ it’s not really that casual . you weren’t even talking about music just now ] to impress you . you like the same bands ? no way ! you must be soulmates or something haha ( ˆ𐃷ˆ) [ you know it’s a joke , but why is he watching ur reaction so seriously ? ]

he knows wayyy too much about you . he tries to play it cool but every now and then he’ll make a comment abt something that you swear you’ve never told him [ that reference he just made was a coincidence , right ? you don’t remember telling him abt that . actually , you’re pretty sure you only mentioned it on your private account . . ] should you ask him abt it , he’ll just laugh and shrug it off . of course he knows that , silly ! you really don’t remember talking ? well . . . phainon is such a nice guy . yeah , he’s probably right . you probably did tell him at some point ┐(´～｀ˇ)┌ you’re overthinking it [ you aren’t ]

ultimate reply guy . finds a way to say something to all of ur posts , even if it makes him look a bit desperate . tries sooo hard to keep the conversation going . just one conversation with him shows clearly shows anyone that he has a natural way with words but when it comes to you , he feels as though he’s forgotten how to speak entirely ! you make him nervous ! (•́︿•̀) and this is just online ! you have no idea how hard his heart beats against his chest when you speak in person . sometimes , he thinks staying composed in front of you requires the same level of resolve as being a chyrsos heir

ehehehe if this is an exes au or if you’re simply on bad terms with him , [ t-that’s not true ! you’re just . . respecting each others space right now . that’s very normal for couples . . ! which you certainly are ! stop saying you don’t know him ] this doesn’t really do anything to stop him . go ahead , block him . at this point , he could probably make a burner account with his eyes closed (ᵕ—ᴗ—) it’s not very nice of you to block your boyfriend [ he isn’t your boyfriend ] but it’s okay , he understands . he could never truly be mad at you . if you want him to watch your stories and spam your notifications with likes from a blank account for now , that’s alright . he won’t take it personally [ he should . it is quite personal ]

you can try to call him out . you can tell him to stop bothering you and to just leave you alone . smiling at his phone even while you curse him out . you unblocked his first number just to text him ! he still has a chance ! (´｡• ◡ •｡`) ♡

[risingsunfish]

FOMOtiis

Bluesky

[dirk-menace]

Your yurifully yuri feeds me im like wofjeofjwpajshcbefbe veeyr time i see your art i post it to a server im in and force everybody to look

However, if you wanna draw someone else for a change, maybe Dan?

LOOK OUTSIDE REQS 2

gonna do yuri first due to the popular demand!!! im jus too goood ig

yum

[goatisbetheres]

mom… come pick me up i’m scared… elliotte friedman’s writing sid to the avs fic at work again…

You could see from his quotes postgame, about they didn’t have their number one dman and their best forward and we still lost so I don’t know what we do here, it will be revenge on the mind of MacKinnon and the Avalanche all summer long. It is a powerful motivation. And you know who I feel the worst for?

(The Bednar impersonator???)

No. (Sam Girard?) No. (Okay. Who?)

Sidney Crosby. Because you know why? Because we found out Sunday he’s gonna play for Canada at the  World Championships and so is MacKinnon. And you don’t think MacKinnon’s gonna be all over Crosby about, Hey, the NHL needs you in the playoffs. Pittsburgh just made a coaching change because Kyle Dubas and Mike Sullivan disagreed on the path from here. Sullivan wants to win sooner. Dubas sees more of a rebuild.

You don’t think MacKinnon’s gonna be all over Crosby saying, you want to miss more years in the playoffs? Why don’t you come to Colorado, play with me, and we rule the league from the Western Conference?

And when he isn’t gonna be saying it he’s just going to be staring at Crosby, burning holes in his head, and Crosby’s gonna know, he’s just looking at me, thinking we should be in Colorado together.

It’s gonna be like this the whole summer, first at the World Championships, and then, when they get back to Nova Scotia. Long summer for MacKinnon to work Crosby.

(Those hill sprints now, it’s gonna be Nathan that’s gonna be dragging Sid by the ankle.) And I’m not even saying it as a joke. MacKinnon’s going to think about this all summer. All summer it’s gonna be on his mind.

[necrotic-nephilim]

as much as I love the common "Tim worships/stalks Jason" trope in TimJay fanfiction because it's Good and making Tim a weird little freak is Fun, I think the underutilized dynamic is where Jason is the one weirdly obsessed with Tim and makes it Tim's problem.

Like, the moment Jason is confronted with the information that a third Robin exists, the first thing he does is cover his wall with pictures of Tim so he can just obsess and torture himself over it. That is the behavior of a man who is Unwell over Tim's existence and I love it.

red hood: lost days #4

And as much as a shitshow as The Titans Tower Incident™ is characterization-wise (though I think it has far more merit in depicting Jason's character than people give it credit for but I digress-) there's something very fun about the fact that even after kicking his ass, Jason respects Tim and is impressed by him.

teen titans (2003) #29

And on top of that, Jason can't seem to stop trying to ask Jason to Tim to work with him in some capacity.

robin (1993) #177

batman: battle for the cowl #2

While Battle for the Cowl is an exceptionally bad comic, especially for its characterization of Jason and the "be my Robin" bit is taken deeply out of context, I do think it's interesting how obsessed Jason is with believing that Tim is extremely competent, only held back by being "brainwashed by Bruce". (hence him leaving Tim for dead later on in the comic.) Jason seeing a darker side of Tim and wanting to bring that out of Tim, wanting to see what Tim could be if he let go of his loyalty to Bruce is so fun to me, tbh.

And in Robin #177, Jason seems genuinely upset Tim doesn't want to work with him. Jason sees such a raw potential in Tim and is obsessed with it, constantly wanting Tim to work for him and see Tim be the type of person Jason is. And despite Tim rejecting him, Jason doesn't shoot to kill Tim. I just cannot get over the fanfic potential of Jason obsessing over Tim, tracking him and seeing what he's capable of and what he could be capable of. Wanting to make Tim see things the way he does. To Tim it's corruption, to Jason it's freedom. Tim trying to 'save' Jason is fun and all, but Jason trying to corrupt Tim? That's even more fun to me. Watching that power struggle between them, Tim unable to get Jason off his heels as Jason gets more and more possessive and bold with each attempt.

And when Jason sees Tim successfully get Gotham back under control after a gang war, he's impressed. He praises Tim, even. And then Tim just. Breaks him out of prison.

robin (1993) #182

The way they're constantly trying to see something in the other that isn't there, hoping the other will come around? That is the most fucked up hate/love dynamic ever. Jason keeps coming back to Tim, keeps trying to find ways to get Tim onto his side. They're always chasing each other. And I think Jason would be the one to confess love first, the one to do anything to make Tim his. And when you consider after all of this, Tim has his Red Robin arc and is at his lowest, getting the closest he ever gets to considering murder? I think it'd be so fun to see Jason take advantage of that and worm his way back into Tim's life and finally push Tim over the edge.

[lusanchromchinnn]

Viago De Riva your Undiagnosed But Extremely Obvious OCD is fascinating and so so revealing of your character and motivations ohh my gosh. Like of course your obsession is poisons and being poisoned! I refuse to believe that growing up adjacent to the royal court wasn’t the driving force behind this because literally where else would someone hear so many stories of people succumbing to assassination by poison. I bet nobles were dropping like flies to the crows every day. I bet he saw his father’s food taster (we know he visited during Viago’s youth) and realised how truly possible it was to die from a bite of food. Bonus points if he actually witnessed a food taster keel over in front of him. Paranoia through the fucking roof as he researches poisons for years on end before he’s ever presented with the option of joining the crows. Maybe he only drank out of clear glasses he could hold up to the light. Maybe he insisted on preparing all of his own meals rather than let servants near his food, much to the chagrin of his mother. AND OH GOD HIS MOTHER.

We know she was an alcoholic, and that Viago hated her drinking, it scared him as a small child. But what if his mind won’t let him watch her sip a glass of wine without the image of it being her last. She could be a target as a mistress of the king, just as he is as a royal bastard. Perhaps he becomes the one who uncorks her bottles and pours her glass after glass, because he’d rather her drunk over dead. Of course, there’s the very real possibility she succumbs to alcohol poisoning, which is so ironic and so fucking sad. He pours her final glass and becomes what he fears most.

It’s a no-brainer that he joined the crows later on. Not only does it give him access to the poisons and antidotes he’s craved for years, but it gives him a sense of control. He’s making himself less of a target than his half-siblings (and it’s more socially acceptable for a crow to wear gloves constantly lmao). He’s so skinny because he refuses to eat unless he’s 100% positive his food is safe, checking and double checking even if he prepares it himself. He knows, logically, that his fears are unfounded, that he (or someone he trusts completely like Teia) made this dish, or poured this drink. But he needs to be sure, or his brain won’t stop screaming that he’s going to die! Right now! God forbid he’s proven right too, like with the adder in the wardrobe that he survived because of his doses of antivenom. I just knowww his compulsions got so much worse for a while after that, it was so cathartic and miserable for him. I understand this freak and his freak ways. What a guy, thank you Courtney Woods.

[zykamiliah]

i think one of the most satisfying turns the bkdk/dkbk fandom experience has taken for me is that, when you read fanworks from 2021 or earlier you get the tsundere kacchan who'd never admit to feeling any kind of love related feeling to deku. and then i look at how canon went down and can't help the mad cackling because man we had no idea. we thought katsuki was gonna be like "as if i like you shitty deku go die *in denial*" for eternity. and hori really say: nuh uh. this boy COMMITS. this boy is gonna be SO OBSESSED and DEVOTED and he's gonna OWN IT. he's gonna be all "i'm gonna die thinking about him, i'm the one who steps up when that nerd can't take care of it, i'm bakugo kacchan, i actually want to spend my life at his side as heroes and i'll dedicate 8 years to making sure that happens". he's gonna be all determined and straightforward and *extending his hand* "come, deku! (let's chase each other for the rest of our lives!) (i'll keep your dream alive!)"

like. we had no fucking idea man añkdsjalkjlñksjalkjahlsdk

[rlinwriteslu]

Something I've been curious about the way the potential presence of Wind and Mask in the War Across Eras has been treated is that in fics that have Wind as part of the war, he's usually depicted as going through it after the LU adventure, while if Mask is depicted as encountering the Chain and as being part of the war, it is usually that he went through the war before meeting the Chain, with all the implied consequences for both their characters and their relationships with Warriors included.

My vague impression is that it's one of those things that one person did one day and did it well enough that everyone who wanted to use the idea decided to have it that way until it became fairly entrenched in the fandom. Beyond bandwagon effects, are there other reasons why it's done in this specific way?

[breadandlottery]

One man. Three personas. Each one a foil to the protagonist in a different way.

[boar-sjn]

somewhere, beneath the fog, you know someone is waiting for you. (you have to keep going.)

so take a breath. rest for a bit. but you must continue.

[enviedear]

JASON TODD has become quite good at pushing people away, keeping his distance so he doesn't get hurt again. it’s second nature by now—detach, deflect, disappear. but with you, it’s like every wall he’s ever built starts crumbling the moment you look at him. he’ll find himself staring at his phone, rereading texts from you, overanalyzing the little things. did you mean something more when you told him “i miss you”? or are you just being nice?

and when you’re around, he’s hyper-aware of every detail—the way you laugh, the sound of your voice, how your hand sometimes brushes his arm like it’s no big deal, but it is to him. and that’s the problem. he’s spent years telling himself he doesn’t need anyone, that caring only leads to pain, but now he can’t stop. it’s like you’ve found a way under his skin, and no matter how hard he tries to fight it, thoughts of you lingers in the back of his mind.

what scares him the most is the realization that he’d do anything to keep you safe. anything. he’d put himself at risk, make enemies, burn bridges—hell, he’d burn the whole hellscape that is gotham city down if it meant protecting you. that’s not the kind of person he wants to be again, the one willing to sacrifice everything for someone else. but every time he tries to pull away, to put distance between you, it backfires. because the thought of losing you feels worse than anything else. and he’s not ready to face what that means, not yet.

🖇️ masterlist | askbox | recent works

[wanologic]

Danny wakes up. It feels different now that he’s older. Now that he’s both more and less than he was. He starts mornings out floaty, his edges indistinct, bleeding into his surroundings. He’s hyper-aware of the tentative strings connecting him to life, the blood pumping sluggishly through his veins, the breath expanding the lungs within his chest. 

He yawns. A stretch.

His brain feels like an old computer booting up, each process coming online in a slow, methodical order. Neurons firing, electric pulses traveling up and down the webbed network of sinew tangled through his skeleton. He feels the pressure of atmosphere on his skin, the floor under his feet.

It’s weird. Not uncomfortable, just strange. It’s been years, but it’s never been easy to come to terms with the new awareness of his physicality, the control he could exert over its expression and shape. What once was instinctual, settled, now flows through his fingers like water, rising and falling with the rhythm of his chest. He would say that he’s just tired, that he’s never been a morning person, but the simmer of dawn and the infinite thrumming energy beneath his skin beg to differ.

He makes his way to the bathroom. He might have walked, but probably not, he can’t be sure. It doesn’t matter. There are only friends here. He’s safe. Home.

The routine of the morning is grounding. Always the same. Jazz says it should help. That it can all become instinctual again, through enough repetition. Danny isn’t so sure.

He takes his time putting together his outfit, picking accessories and being mindful of the way it all fits against him. His body might be a projection, something just to the left of real, but clothes are normal, socks, rings, a watch. He can feel normal like this. 

Another stretch. 

He wants to scream.

He makes his way down to the shared living space. He’s grateful that he’s not crammed into a tiny apartment with strangers, that he’s allowed both the time and space to be what he is. Sam’s parents may not be the most accommodating, but this is worth every glare and snide, underhanded comment he’s had to put up with for the better part of the past decade.

He knows what comes next, but his stomach rolls in his gut. He should have something solid, go through the remaining motions of self-care, even if it’s a bowl of cereal and a piece of fruit. 

He grimaces and grabs a less-than-pleasant nutritional shake from the fridge. They’re supposed to be back up, an addition-to rather than in-replacement-of, but it’s early and he can’t bring himself to care. He finds himself on the roof, with the chilled bite of the morning and the chalky pseudo-chocolate flavor of his breakfast on his tongue.

He longs to shed this husk, to leave the weight of his flesh behind and see what the sunrise looks like from ten thousand feet. But it’s a Tuesday and he has an 8am. He wants equally to be the college student he is, to sit with his peers and bring numbers to their algorithmic conclusions—to describe the world around him in a way that makes sense, in a way that’s objectively true. One day he might even be able to describe what happened to him in a neat little equation. 

He breathes in and out, feeling heavy in his body. This is nice too, he supposes. He shuts his eyes and feels the brunt of the morning sun peek over the neighboring apartment complex. When he hears his friends shuffling about in their own morning fugue states, he sinks back inside. 

Tucker just about jumps out of his skin when he turns around, eyes half closed, to see Danny dressed and ready, silent, and much too close behind him.

Laughter peels through the house as Danny is chased through the halls and somehow he feels human.