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bluecrocss · 8 months ago

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Yes. You are racist. (Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one)

So approximately half a year since the premier of the Disney+ Percy Jackson show, and almost two years since the announcement of the Trio's casting, I would like to take this moment to look back at the insane, racist and anti-black backlash that was launched at Leah Sava Jeffries and a few other cast members from the PJO fandom.

I'm not concerned with the trolls who are openly racist, who resorted to racist slurs and outright threats, everyone agrees that they "took it too far". I want to talk about the rest of you, the "I'm not racist, but.." people, the "What's wrong with wanting book accuracy?" people. Just to let you know, for the unasked question... yes, yes you are.

I've noticed the Percy Jackson fandom has been lording some weird superiority complex over a certain *unnamed* fandom that has fallen out of grace due to their recently outed bigot of an author. But honestly, y'all are not much different. The amount of vitriol and anti-blackness I have seen from this fandom (beyond just bullying a 12 year old girl), y'all don't have a leg to stand on.

Below is a breakdown of the most common arguments I have seen used to justify y'alls absolutely insane bigotry. I am going to explain why none of these justify the amount of anger and vitriol y'all have sent towards Leah, Rick or any of the cast.

I am not here to argue, and this is not a democracy. I am giving you a chance for some self-reflection and to understand that this pattern of violence directed towards POC actors (mostly black women) has never been justified in the name of "book accuracy"/"comic book accuracy"/"ending forced diversity" or whatever other excuses y'all try to make up.

If you still try to justify or argue further for any of these points, I will just block you. I am not coddling you through your racism. If anyone has seen any other dumb arguments floating around that I might've missed, feel free to sound off in the comments.

She's not book accurate:

Neither is Percy, Luke, Grover, Dionysus, Poseidon, and just about every other named character.

Rick already made it clear that physical features were not the priority with casting, rather it was actors that embodied the role. So why are the biggest complaints about Annabeth and Zeus? 🤔

What? You're gonna say everyone else got backlash too? I see you trying to obscure the main issue by playing dumb 😉

See my friend, yes, there were one or two comments about how Percy's hair should be black or how Luke is supposed to be blonde, but as soon as Leah was cast, none of those actors got any significant backlash. In fact, Walker and Charlie literally have an army of fan girls at their beck and call, calling them the perfect Percy and Luke, despite neither being "Book accurate". But then again, have we not observed the pattern of White boy of the month vs WOC to hate for the year? (Yes, I know Charlie isn't white. Further adds to the irony, doesn't it).

Why include character descriptions if you won't stay true to them, you cry? Well, my dear sweet moron, see, books and TV are two different mediums. Because in literature, you can't *Literally* SEE the characters, the author has to add descriptions to paint a picture in your mind, in TV... that's not an issue. So unless the character's appearance is necessary to the plot (like Luke's scar, or Nico being Italian) the show runners can actually focus on more important things.. Like ACTING and PERSONALITY.

2. It's just not how I imagined her:

News flash, babe! ANNABETH ISN'T REAL. None of these character are. They are concepts that originated from the brain of Mr. Rick Riordan. It doesn't matter how YOU imagined her. There are millions of people who read these books that imagined her several different ways. When the creator of the character watched Leah's audition and said, 'Yes! She embodies the character I created!", your imagined version of Annabeth ceased to matter. And guess what? The books still exist... they have not been burned. Your version of Annabeth has not disappeared. Go read the books.

3. Zeus can't be black/Gods have to be Greek/*Insert Character* can't be black:

Y'all did not read the books, I swear. You have to be fake fans looking to troll atp.

The gods move based off the center of western civilization. They change their forms/environment to reflect the culture they are occupying (they did it with Rome, now they're doing it with America). The gods change forms all the time. How we see them is not their true form as a mortal would disintegrate if they were to see their true form.

America is a cultural melting pot (specifically NY where Mount Olympus is now based). If the god's choose forms that reflect the current society they inhabit, they could literally be any race (keep in mind NYC is only 33% white).

All of this is literally SPELLED OUT in the Lightning Thief.

Furthermore, if you're going to push the ethnically Greek thing... Poseidon is British with a British accent and Hermes is Latino. The only ethnically Greek actor is Dionysus (who still doesn't look book accurate). Y'all are sounding like some white supremacists because do you forget that race is a social construct?

Before the advent of the transatlantic slave trade, I can promise you that the Greeks and the Anglo-Saxons did NOT view themselves as the same people. Why are y'all not taking issue with Poseidon's actor then?

Also, Percy Jackson has canonically had a slew of explicitly black demigods since the second book (including Harriet Tubman, which I have mixed feelings about 😭), so I genuinely have no idea where some of y'all are going with this point.

4. She was our smart blonde representation:

Don't pmo. I swear to God!

White, blonde women have NEVER been excluded from Hollywood. Representation is not something you lacked. The dumb blonde stereotype was a simple branch off of a larger misogynistic "dumb woman" stereotype. It has not truly been relevant since the mid 2000s outside of childish jokes.

This iteration of Percy Jackson will probably not go beyond the first 5 books, based off pacing and the age of the actors. So here's a fun game: 5 bucks to the first person who can find me a quote in the first 5 Percy Jackson books, where Annabeth laments her insecurities about being blonde (hint: there aren't any).

Also, her blonde hair does not hold her back at Camp because she is head of the Athena Cabin who are highly respected (and guess what?), ARE ALL BLONDE!

Her insecurities about her hair color are two or three lines at most in the later books, not this fundamental, core part of her character y'all all of a sudden wanna pretend it was. And guess what, as a non-blonde black girl, I was able to read those scenes of Annabeth feeling undervalued because of her looks and relate to her even if she didn't look like me at the time.

Why all of a sudden can y'all not do that with a black Annabeth? By every metric black girls are undervalued for their intelligence in academia more than white girls are, regardless of hair color. So your little representation of a woman undervalued by her looks would still hold. Do y'all dehumanize black women so much, that you are incapable of empathizing with show!Annabeth's plight in the way I could with Book!Annabeth simply because she doesn't look exactly like you?

Your issue isn't that she isn't blonde, it's that she is NOT WHITE.

Furthermore, Becky Riordan had tweeted previously (before the show was even cast) that Annabeth never needed to be blonde (probably recalling the BS y'all put Alexandra Daddario through), so even if they cast a white Annabeth, the blonde hair was never a guarantee. the author and producers all agree that it was not a significant part of her character. It's been a non-issue since day one.

Also, stop acting like smart blondes are rare in media... If you don't go watch some Legally blonde, Iron Man (Pepper Potts), Zack and Cody (Maddie), Liv and Maddie, FMAB (Winry), Captain Marvel, She-Ra, Buffy, The boys (starlight) etc. etc., and go sit down somewhere 🙄🙄🙄 (those were literally all things I've watched recently, off the top of my head, btw 💀)

5. It's not about race, but...:

Yes it is. It was always bout race. No other actors got as much hate as Leah. Her grandmother and other family members on IG had to mute their comments because they were getting so many threats.

Alexandra Daddario had to come to her defense on Twitter. Rick had to put out an official statement on his website. This girl has endured years of psychological torment for simply having the best audition. No one else is book accurate, no one else is ethnically Greek (except Jason Mantzoukas). Walker literally has British and German ancestry.

Why was she being called racial slurs on reddit and in youtube comments?

I know what you're gonna say, "I actually had problems with the entire cast", "I actually had a bigger issue with Walker's hair color", blah blah blah. Then why aren't you in Walker's comment sections? Why are you only making your displeasure known on posts defending/advocating for Leah? Why is she always your first example of 'wrong casting"?

Well, she "looks the most different"... Look up the term "scapegoating".

"Oh, I don't agree with the harassment. I just don't like the casting." Guess what? She's already been cast. They are not going to uncast her. What do you get out of still complaining about it.

All the vitriol you're stirring about her when you complain about her on Social media, it is directing people to send her hate, even if you're not writing it directly. It's is not enough to "not agree" with the racism, it is your duty to actively prevent it. And btw, these are young gen z actors, they are active on social media. They see the edits of themselves (even comment on it) and they most likely see these little "harmless" complaints you're posting. Are your upset feelings really worth contributing to the racist dogpile on this poor girl?

6. Why couldn't they atleast give her blonde braids?:

Why should they? Y'all wanted blonde because of the "dumb blonde" trope... that doesn't apply to POC.

A blonde black girl is gonna be viewed the same as a non-blonde black girl (or at worst, someone might decide she's "ratchet" or some shit for wearing colored hair). What difference would it make?

Why shouldn't Walker dye his hair, then?

7. Annabeth has Gray eyes:

Less than 3% of the global population has "gray eyes". Even if they cast a white actor, they would've needed contacts. Her being black is not the reason Annabeth's eyes aren't gray. Simply put, it is a plot element they removed, like the whole "names have power" element, or Ares having flames for eyes, or Dionysus using his powers to grow strawberries at Camp.

That's how adaptations work. Unnecessary plot elements are cut to save time and budget. This has nothing to do with her casting. They probably also didn't want to make child actors wear contacts (not a new practice).

8. Even if Rick chose her, he was wrong/Disney is forcing him to be okay with it:

Where do I start? Rick created the character. He can't be wrong. Do y'all have no self-awareness? Death of the author has no place here, because y'all are hung up on an aspect of the character that is not relevant to her arc or development.

Y'all's justification for wanting a "book accurate" Annabeth is that she was such an inspirational and important character growing up, and yet your behavior is so in conflict with the character you claim means so much to you. You're narrow minded, dismissive of bigotry and injustice, and disrespectful to the wishes of the creator of your favorite character; everything that Annabeth would never be. Y'all were never genuine fans of the books. You're bigots that needed an outlet for your rage.

Keep in mind, Rick has said countless times that PercaBeth directly mirrors his relationship with his wife. Y'all think he would have allowed them to cast someone who doesn't live up to the woman who has been by his side for decades? The mother of his children?

Regarding Disney forcing him, show me one piece of direct evidence that proves Disney in anyway pressured Rick to cast her. Cuz if you can't, that's baseless speculation. And if you have to resort to baseless speculation, maybe try to examine why it's so important to you to hold on to this belief.

9. So, I'm racist because I hate "race swapping"?:

To start, there is a difference between "race swapping" and "color blind casting". Often times, when y'all complain about the former, you're actually mad about the latter.

It would be "race swapping" if Rick and the team decided ahead of time that they wanted a black Annabeth and ONLY allowed black actors to audition. But the actual reality was that they accepted auditions from everyone (there were white actors and non-black poc that also auditioned for the role) and chose the best person who embodied the role. They didn't "make Annabeth black" and they didn't "make Zeus black", they cast black actors for those roles.

Y'all think you're being slick with your wording. Dismissing that is implying that they did not earn their roles fair and square. Which is racist. It's the equivalent of going up to a black college student and telling them they only got in because of affirmative action. You're dismissing the achievements of a person solely because of their racial background.

For all you people complaining about "unfairness" and "forced diversity", I would think hiring based on merit would appeal to you 🤔

71% of theatrical Hollywood leads were white in 2024 in comparison to 29% POC and you still think "black washing" is a thing? You still get this angry over a black person fairly earning a role because you think in a time where Hollywood only knows to do remakes and adaptations, that the majority of lead roles still *have* to be reserved for white actors?

Once again, white people have never been excluded from Hollywood for being white. Representation has never been something you lacked nor is it something you can lose. Your anger comes from seeing a black face where you think they don't belong. Because you feel you are owed a disproportion of representation in Hollywood.

10. Woke agenda/DEI/Forced Diversity:

If you are unironically using any of these terms in a negative light, it's already too late for me to reason with you. Look up the term "dog whistle". If you are sharing the same terminology with Elon Musk and his fanboys, maybe reevaluate some things.

POC are objectively underrepresented and have been historically excluded through actual laws and policies in Hollywood. There is no such thing as "forced diversity", you have bought in to a right wing conspiracy theory.

"Woke" is a term that was intentionally appropriated from the black community. It originally meant being aware of injustice and systematic threats to the community and is now being weaponized by bigots. Good job.

Diversity and inclusion is a good thing.

11. But POC deserve to have their own stories told:

We do. And we have been fighting for it for over a century now, and we've made great strides, no thanks to y'all.

No thanks to y'all gaslighting us about how little representation we get or that representation matters at all. No thanks to y'all pushing the idea that POC can't sell globally and obscuring POC actors in international promos. No thanks to y'all continuing to whitewash even to this day (Bullet train, the beguiled, gods of Egypt, atla, every portrayal of Jesus ever, etc.). No thanks to y'all calling every piece of media that has more than one black lead and more than one queer couple "woke". No thanks to y'all throwing a fit every time a black person in a fantasy setting isn't a slave.

Fact of the matter is, y'all never cared about POC "getting their own stories", you're only parroting our own words back to us now as a politically correct way of saying, "leave white roles alone" lmao

Well fun fact, actors of color getting opportunities to play lead roles and allowing poc to "tell their own stories" are not mutually exclusive. If y'all cared that much, instead of bullying a 12 year old actress, you could actually support up and coming independent POC writers, directors, and studios 😱

12. Studios need to stop "setting up" actors of color:

Do me a favor and google the term DARVO.

Your racism is not the fault of the studios for giving a POC actor a role that they earned. It is not up to the rest of society to tiptoe around racists to avoid their vitriol. It is our responsibility to hold them accountable and protect minorities from unwarranted hate. At most, you can say it's the responsibility of the studios to provide adequate support to POC actors who face this backlash.

At the end of the day, Hollywood only allows very few spots for POC actors (especially WOC), while simultaneously pushing a new white boy every month to put in everything. Putting minorities in these roles that are usually closed to them, usually opens the door to more actors of color than before.

Brandy being cast as Cinderella did a lot to push her into the mainstream (yes, she was already extremely famous in the black community atp), Halle Berry being the first, black, bond girl literally shot her to icon status, and even going as far back to what Anna Mae Wong did for Asian American actresses with her "femme fatale" roles.

At the end of the day, even with the backlash, *some* rep does more good for POC actors than *no* rep. The solution to racist backlash isn't to take away those opportunities, but rather to not be racist??? 🙄

Also, for everyone that claims that "POC race-swapping" is just as bad as "white-washing", despite white washing having a longer history and objectively causing more harm, note how the backlash to white washing never lasts as long as the harassment that POC get.

Like, no one brings up Scarlett Johansson's ghost in the shell role anymore, but you can best believe Candace Patton is still fending off racist trolls. As much as people hated the atla movie, people moved on quick from Nicola Peltz playing Katara since she was just a kid that accepted the role (re: daddy bought her the role), but y'all would not have any of that consideration for Leah Sava Jeffries.

But I digress...

13. What if we made Tiana white? Wakanda white? Hazel white...:

Ah, my favorite inane point. I was so excited to get here :)

See, I could start out by pointing out how "White washing" and casting a POC actor as a traditionally white character are not equivalent.

I could point out the history of hollywood ACTIVELY excluding POC actors and POC stories. I could point out how grossly over represented white people are in hollywood. I could point out that POC characters are so few in comparison that whitewashing them causes actual harm, where white people have never lacked rep.

I could point out how, because poc characters and stories are so often tokenized that their racial/cultural background is often directly tied to their character's identity, in opposition to a lot of white characters, since hollywood treats white as the "Default".

See, I could make all those points, but the thing is, the people who make this argument already know all that. They are trying to waste time by drawing me into a pointless circular argument that will sum up to "fair is fair", while ignoring all the context and nuance I previously provided.

So you know what? Forget it. Let me play your game.

I am actually fine with a white Tiana. Would it make sense, for her and her family to experience Jim Crow era racism, in the south while white? No. But we can look past it. Disney was never known for historical accuracy anyway 🤷🏿‍♀️

However, in exchange, the live action frozen will have a black Elsa and Anna, live action Rapunzel will be black, live action Merida will be black, we're re-filming Cinderella and Beauty and the beast to cast a black belle and Cindy, snow white will need to be recast as black, and we also get aurora whenever the live action sleeping beauty is announced. But then y'all can keep Tiana, deal?

You want a white T'Challa? Fine! (I'm partial to Ryan gosling), in the meantime, we'll be recasting Iron man, Captain America (Steve version), Bruce banner, Thor, Loki, hawk eye, black widow, ant man, captain marvel, Bucky, Peter Parker etc. All the avengers and their side characters, then y'all can have Sam Wilson, war machine and the whole of Wakanda (will it make sense that a sole, hidden, African nation is randomly made up of white people? Who cares? We get the avengers!).

You want white Hazel? You got her! I hope you have no problem with us taking Percy, Nico, Will, Poseidon, Jason, calypso, Rachel, Tyson, Silena, the stoll brothers, Sally Jackson, Hades, Hepheastus, ares, etc. But y'all can have Hazel and Beckendorf.

If we're gonna do this, let's commit all the way. Fair is fair, after all.

14. Leah isn't as "pretty" as Book Annabeth/Movie Annabeth:

I wish I could say this wasn't a genuine point I had read, but when all else fails, they will always go for a woman's appearance.

Now first of all, as a rule, I will never hold black women to white beauty standards. Our hair will never be long and silky enough, our nose will never be narrow enough, our skin will never be fair enough and our eyes will never be light enough (Might I recommend Toni Morrison, when you get the chance?). But Leah is unfairly gorgeous idc what any of you say, and you're not gonna have me use my defense of Leah as an opportunity to bash Alexandra either because she is also beautiful. These two queens slayed to the best of their abilities within this toxic ass fandom.

I find it funny, however, that so many of you harped on the "blonde" issue because you thought it was important that Annabeth be seen beyond just her looks, but quickly devolve to bashing an actress's looks when it comes to why she's not right for this role 🤔

I would also like to sincerely apologize that the 13 year old girl they cast in the show, wasn't as sexually attractive to you as the 24 year old woman they cast in the movie and sexualized through like 25% of her screen time (I'm actually not sorry. You're very weird if this is an actual point for you).

15. I don't agree with sending hate to the actor, but she's just not right for the role:

Once again, what are you doing by complaining about her casting on no other basis than her race?

The creator of the character said she embodied the role. She has already been cast, and Disney would be in a legal/production hell to recast her atp. Just because you're not directly leaving comments on her social media doesn't mean you're not part of the hate mob.

No matter how you look at it, your issues with her casting come from a very entitled and narrow-minded place. When you join in on these dialogues you are bolstering a sentiment that pushes more people to harass this teenage girl. When you leave these "harmless" complaints, on show content, fan posts or posts defending her, she's liable to read them because the cast regularly interact with fans online.

What do you have to say that is so important that it trumps protecting a young girl from the long-staying trauma of racism, of being told she doesn't deserve something she worked for because of how she was born?

16. I can't even criticize the show without being called racist:

Get. Over. Yourself.

Y'all are not the victim. Have fans of the show gotten protective of Leah and the young cast? Yes.

With good reason. This fandom is unbearably toxic.

Racism outweighs your need for a "perfect adaptation", sorry.

If you explain yourself properly and keep your critiques fair (like, even I don't think this was a perfect season, and will be sharing my thoughts shortly), no one is gonna call you racist.

You're preempting with that because in all honesty, you're probably planning to use your "critiques" of the show to pivot to one of the many points that I just outlined, and you want to pre-empt the criticism.

If a black Annabeth is the end all be all for you, just don't watch the show, no one's holding a gun to your head. Geez.

17. I'm Black/POC and I don't agree...:

Hey, Candace Owens... No one gives a shit.

First of all, for all the "I'm POC and I don't agree" people, you don't speak for us. Anti-blackness is rampant in just about every culture globally. You being not-white doesn't somehow make you less prone to hating black people.

But for the "I'm black and I don't agree" leftovers (assuming you're not just a 👩🏼‍💻 behind a keyboard). Black people are not a monolith. You're not obligated to think a certain way because you're black.

But consider why you're putting yourself up as a barrier to protect this hate mob. It's one thing to just state why you don't like Leah's casting, but to start off your spiel with "I'm actually black" as a way to weaponize the very identity politics you're critiquing... very strange. Not to mention, what are you defending?

The black community is coming together to defend one of our own, a kid who has been receiving death threats since she was 12, and this is when you feel the need to back the opposition?

I mean whatever... sometimes the house slaves would snitch to the master. There will always be some of y'all in the woodwork. It is what it is.

But when the exact ideology you defend is turned against you, when a Baltimore elected official is being accused of getting his job through "DEI", when conservatives are claiming that they wouldn't "trust a black pilot", don't decide that's where you'll finally draw your line in the sand.

All that being said, This is my Annabeth:

May every tongue that rose against Leah Sava Jeffries Shrivel and die in 2025 🙏🏿 My girl will keep winning ❤️

(video by @/waleahhasmyheart on TikTok)

#percy jackson #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #percabeth #disney+#pjverse #pjo tv show #percy jackson fandom #rick riordan #riordanverse #leah sava jeffries #leah jeffries #walker scobell #camp half blood #pjo series #disney percy jackson #annabeth chase #mine

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fumifooms · 11 months ago

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The Nakamoto household - facts & theories masterpost

Table of contents:

the hierarchy & general situation

The parents

The Maizuru situation

The siblings

The other retainers

Izutsumi

Toshiro

Conclusion

I also made tldr summary charts here. This post is about collecting facts about the setting and characters, but it’s gonna be a lot of analysis on what it means through the lens of Toshiro as well, his relationship and place in everything etc etc. They have entangled drama the scale of Daltian Clan. Things are so interwoven it’s hard to keep topics neatly in their own section, because of this pictures may be relevant at several point of this but I mostly won’t be putting them in twice, you might have to do some scrolling up while reading if you want the visual proof to accompany statements. Unlike with Chilchuck’s family there’s less ambiguousness and more intricate details and implications so it’s less theorizing & headcanoning and more stringing together all the crumbs canon gave us. I also dig into some cultural parallels, especially since characters from Wa are the most culturally coded in the series. Also disclaimer that I’ll be calling Shuro Toshiro through this whole thing because that’s his actual name & Shuro isn’t even a nickname he’s shown to like, for accuracy’s sake. The servant girls have real names but are always called by their code names so I’ll call them as such, except for Izutsumi who was named Asebi which I won’t be using.

The general situation

To start off, what’s the situation in canon? All three kids of the head of the house, the three sons (Toshiro and his two younger brothers), are sent out on a vague mission to find something interesting for his father to pick the heir. Each son is thus on their own journey, out with their own group of retainers for an unsure length of time, during canon it’s been 2 years that Toshiro left the house for this mission, and they seemingly all drifted towards dungeons. It’s important to remember that this state of things is the exception and not the rule, and before this the sons lived at home and had different uses of their time, and the retainers had other jobs than care after them. See the next paragraph.

The household offers ninja services, no exaggeration or misuse of the term, mostly spyint but also "covert maneuvers" which could include anything including assassination of people high up. That’s the job of their servants/retainers at least, the heads themselves are more like managers probably, possibly samurais themselves though especially since as we see with the heirs (besides the samurai armor) they also got trained in fighting as their skills showcase. I need to dig into the history of samurais more before I can draw the parallel confidently though. The Nakamoto household is noble/wealthy, distinguished as the Adventurer’s Bible puts it, but it works for and puts its service at use for "their local lord". It buys servants, but also has families who have served it for generations like with Hien. The comic shows that there aren’t only women servants, it’s just the ones we see all happen to be because Toshiro’s retainers are only a small team of all of Nakamoto’s servants.

Above, in a page showcasing characters’ relationships with their party leader: 父親の部下を借りている状態なので、距離がある。Doubtlessly there must be a translation of this already somewhere but I’m lazy and impatient so I turned to machine translation instead, this translates into: "Since he is borrowing his father's subordinates, there is a distance between him and them". Calling the servants retainers is what most of the fandom does and it’s accurate so I’ll be calling them this.

Hien and Toshiro were childhood friends which means the servants do have some degree of contact not even just together but with the heirs too, or maybe just specifically Hien, since both their parents were ninjas for the Nakamotos she ended up getting raised there and they let her play with him as an exception? They did end up drifting away as adults as their relationship got more professional, so it’s possible. The servants eat and sleep in shared spaces, separate from the masters, though Maizuru has her own bedroom, if the room configuration at the in is to be believed + it’d make sense since she’s governess/head servant. I’m hesitant wether to say it’s implied that this group of 4 retainers was always a bit of a team or it wasn’t and got formed for Toshiro specifically. We know that Benichidori had little contact with Toshiro before they were sent out together for example, but we do see all three girls with Izutsumi in Inutade’s extra when they were younger, and them eating in the same japanese styled room etc. The inn they stay at on The Island is western styled though they do have futons rather than beds (there’s only one bed in their shared room and Hien has it because of her rank).

From Izutsumi’s Adventurer’s Bible profile: "Maizuru, who was also Shuro's governess, is the one thing Izutsumi fears. After Izutsumi was taken in by the Nakamoto family, Maizuru forced her through a harsh training regimen of speech, common sense, and fighting skills. Since Izutsumi refused to listen to her, Maizuru set a curse on her that would activate if Maizuru didn't touch her within a set time frame: "Ninja Art: Babysitter." "

Maizuru, called a governess, is the one training the girls, at least some of them, we know for a fact she was the one to train Izutsumi for example, and in general she’s the one in charge of the ninja girls we see. She was a ninja herself but retired from frontline missions, but has a central role managing the servants instead. Inutade for example is strong but not stealthy, and it’s said that it’s Maizuru’s job to choose how to train her and what role to give her in consequence. Her training includes manners but fighting as well, notably kunais and martial arts. Hien is shown to use bombs and Benichidori is implied to be good at disguises, Inutade uses a bold weapon like a club but it’s implied with "ogres and clubs just go together" and Maizuru not knowing where to put her to use that it’s uncommon for Nakamoto servants to use those. Their board game artworks also show their specialties neatly. When brought into the household, the servants are given new names and their whole lives become devotion to the house and their duties. The names might be intended to act as code names due to them being ninjas? It’s implied that they never use their non-code names anymore once they start serving the household. Maizuru’s training also contains language and "common sense"… Critical thinking? As well as implied etiquette. This isn’t surprising, as she was the one put in charge of raising not only Toshiro but his brothers as well.

Oh yes I want to mention that all the retainers’ "first deaths" are in the dungeon during canon, considering our main cast we’re used to death being permissible because dungeons make resurrections possible, but it’s relevant to remember that these people never died before. Never. These girls are professionals, ninjas with a sometimes very dangerous job. Messing up means death, permanently.

From what we see and with who we see, the hierarchy is:

Father (head of house, his word goes)

Mother (has status which puts her wishes above others’ and give her some control over the house, it’s unsure how much though, but hierarchy wise she’s very much above the rest but below the father)

Maizuru (governess, in charge of (at least some) servants and raising Toshiro. Two dots)

Hien (leader of their squad, trained servant from a family devoted to the Nakamotos. Two dots)

Benichidori (trained bought servant. Two dots)

Inutade and Izutsumi (bought servants. Power wise from their rank it’s unsure just how much the difference between Inutade (who has one dot), Izutsumi (who has none) and Benichidori (who has two) is, since Hien is team leader between the four servants at least that’s measurable. Inutade gets some janitor duties, and Izutsumi has a curse put on her so she doesn’t run away I suppose. Power wise it’s unsure, but socially/role wise Inutade and especially Asebi are treated worse.)

I didn’t add the sons because I’m talking more generally about the power structure and it’d depend on each sibling, like Toshiro’s wants and directives during canon trump Maizuru’s, but Maizuru is also his nanny and manages the girls so she has a lot of importance and sway even on the final decisions.

The parents

I am so pissed I forgot that we know Toshiro’s father’s name, Toshitsugu, from these panels showing the progression of the family tree. I am so pissed I’m adding this halfway into writing this whole thing, I am not gonna go back and replace every "the father" by his name atm.

The father is the part of this puzzle most important yet most shrouded in mystery, or rather a lack of details. What we do know paints a pretty full and vivid portrait: impulsive and cares mainly about his own entertainment. Maizuru calls him a fool, his sons are exasperated and go "This again?" when he summons them saying that they’re boring/dull, everyone knows he’s having an affair and he often has undignified demeanor, but what he says goes so yes Maizuru will take Izutsumi under her wing, yes the sons will be going out right away into the world to find you the 8th world wonder, yes whatever you want lord. He seems to have little care for how his action affects others, like crashing into Maizuru’s room at night and asking she take care of a catgirl, or sending out his sons suddenly with kicks to the butts. He does what he wants hen he wants and others have to comply.

Like we see with Izutsumi and Inutade, he tends to take a liking to slaves here and there and buy them on the spot, usually at entertainment places, like sumo wrestling matches for Inutade and a freakshow for Izutsumi. The Adventurer’s Bible states him acquiring Inutade as "By coincidence, Shuro's father came to see her first match; he liked her and bought her for the Nakamoto family." and Izutsumi as "She was on display as a "cat-girl" in a sideshow when Shuro's father took an interest in her and bought her." In Maizuru’s extra, he calls Izutsumi a "souvenir" he got for her, and he’s drunk so it could well be assumed that buying Izutsumi was a drunken whim, and that he mitht be alcoholic. You can’t really say that he picks them out because he sees potential in them to be a ninja or would be useful, since with Izutsumi she had no fighting training and Inutade doesn’t fit the skills they seek like stealth and she has trouble fitting in. You could assign noble goals to him like maybe wanting to help or relating to the misfits, but I think with what we see of him it’s more likely that he likes to pick up "oddities", like a catgirl at a freakshow or an ogre, especially since one of the only things we know of him is he wants his sons to bring back interesting trophies from their travels. Toshiro, about his father buying Inutade, says: "People in power desire ogre as servants, and ogres are chosen as opponents in tests of strengths or military exploits. My father bought her for similar reasons."

Also from this we can infer that he goes out to events often, like circus and sumo wrestling, again mostly for entertainment from what we see. I like to think it’s implied that he used to travell maybe still does, due to his own liking for it as a test and because he visits various places like the sideshow, plus his forearm scars in Toshiro’s extra… But him being a samurai in service of a lord could definitely explain that.

This all paints an interesting picture doesn’t it… The Nakamoto’s lifestyle is super encased in rules and social propriety, duty and hierarchy. Old noble man who’s been surrounded by propriety all his life and just wants some spark of interesting stuff happening amongst the humdrum of his lavish cushioned life at home, and is shitty to people around him in consequence and due to his privilege allowing him to. He’s despicable, but from his 3 appearances he becomes an interesting well-fleshed character, at least proportionally to the screentime he gets…

We also know that the affair with Maizuru is well known at least inside the household, so there’s no genuine secrecy around the topic. Makes sense that the wife would hate her guts.

Ahh yes the mother. Little is known about the mother, except that from Maizuru’s profile "Shuro’s mother can’t stand the sight of her, to the point where there are areas on the property Maizuru is forbidden to enter. Maizuru, however, is impressed by his wife’s strength of character." From this I glean that she does have enough power/respect in the house that she can make rules like where Maizuru is allowed to go. Also the implication that otherwise Mazuru would have access to EVERYWHERE in the house despite being only a (high-ranking) servant is a bit interesting. Wether the mother’s "strength of character" is overt and hot-headed or understated and cool-headed is unsure, but I imagine the latter more. I could see Maizuru’s angle in many ways, from being able to tolerate "that fool" aka the father both just in general and with knowing that he’s cheating on her, to knowing how hard it is to be respected as a woman and admiring her putting up with it all and still being able to have sway in the household. This is I think the only mention of the mother anywhere. Doesn’t seem like she is an important figure to Toshiro at all: in fact we hear about her on Maizuru’s profile, and seeing all of this we can see the importance of her in Maizuru’s backstory and life, moreso than Toshiro’s. I imagine she’s a bit of a recluse, which is part of why Maizuru not being allowed to roam the full house is important, because them running into each other at the house is high.

It’s unsure how much contact the parents have with their kids. What we know is that they left the principal tasks of raising the kids, or at least Toshiro, to servants. Toshiro’s profile says that he’s more attached to Maizuru than his parents, and that’s the phrasing. From the comic where their father summons the sons, it does seem like they’re more or less used to interacting, with the sons’ "This again?". So it’s not that they’ve only interacted with them few times enough to count on fingers, but how meaningful were those interactions? From Toshiro’s profile we know he has a complex where he thinks he’ll never get recognition from his father or be able to measure up to him… But is that more born out of secondhand gossip and expectations, or from direct interactions with him that made him feel that way? Likely a mix of both, especially since the father does seem to be very dismissive, uncaring and insulting with his sons. Oh, but it’s definitely notable that in the Hag monster tidbit (below in Maizuru’s section) six years old Toshiro runs to his father scared shitless for help against the shikigami, and his father casually helps him without batting an eye. Toshitsugu knows how to deal with Maizuru’s shikigamis, and he does so efficiently and without any sense of worry or urgency. Although the event traumatized Toshiro and he was very scared, it doesn’t seem like his father offered any comfort, beyond just helping getting rid of it and letting him cower behind him without comment. Toshitsugu gives hungover vibes in that one imo haha. It’s shown he was already training as a ninja, perhaps this event only reinforced Toshiro’s complex, seeing his father, the samurai the achieved man who has expectations for him, so unfazed and uncaring like that.

The Maizuru situation

Let’s establish a timeline first. It’s left vague how much time she’s served the Nakamoto family for, or how she came to be in their service. The central point is that "She was put in charge of raising their children at a young age". If straight from his birth, Maizuru started taking care of Toshiro when she was 15 years old. If from toddler age, then 16. It’s uncertain if when she stopped getting front-line espionage missions, but we know it’s late rather than early despite having kid raising duties. But well, since she’s also in charge of the ninjas she’s definitely has a multitasking role even now.

The dad prob has around 5-10 years more than Maizuru, I’d say. We only see half of his face and only a good few years in the past, around ~3 years ago probably with the shuro quest and a good 7 years with Izutsumi as a kid, but visually those are the vibes I’m getting. From Toshiro’s birth, it’s possible that the father was 15 when the baby was born too? But conception would have been closer to 14 years old then, and yeah I don’t think they marry and have kids that young. Toshiro is 26 years old in canon and is unmarried, and the heir hasn’t been officially picked, so marriage and kids don’t seem to be in the family’s priorities. Even if Maizuru do say that the father would love if Toshiro brought back a wife.

Now the elephant in the room: she has an on-and-off affair with the father and it has been si for many many years, at LEAST 7 years since that’s when we see that comic of him going into her chambers about Izutsumi, and in the comic above, Hien in that panel has an ambiguous age. Regardless it’s definitely implied that it’s a long, long-standing thing. Hien’s phrasing above makes it sound as if it’s not purely physical, as if feelings are involved, "he’s head over heels for his confidante", and who knows if this relationship is part of why Maizuru was chosen to be the governess, or even hired at all.

It’s in the feud with his father that we learn about maizuru’s affair and how after learning it he started shutting her out emotionally. It’s left vague when Toshiro learned about it, Hien made it sound as if everybody always more or less knew but I don’t think Toshiro started shutting her out when he was still pretty young. Regardless, the two are implied to be linked, his dislike of his father/complex and how he stopped getting along well with Maizuru/being emotionally open with her. Is it that he now feels as though Maizuru is actually on his father’s side and not his own, that after all if she had to choose she’d pick him over Toshiro too? Or is it that, because his father’s known to be a self-centered frivolous jerk, that knowing she lets it happen, "can’t seem to shake it", he respects her less? He has an irresponsible reputation and she does give off the vibe of needing to clean up his messes, so that wouldn’t be unplausible either.

On the flipside from her perspective, since he learned she was his dad’s mistress he emotionally shut her out, which can partly explain why she’s SO fussy with him and happy at the slightest hint of happiness or compliance, like when he listens to her and eats, or maybe even being happy that he lets her help him dress and keep tidy (imo this is supported by how they interact in the page showing him interacting with all his party members). She wants to regain that closeness they once had and for her baby chick to be alright as he’s slipping through her fingers. Man so sad to think about him rejecting her when he’s the only thing in her life. She’s raised him for 26 years, no wonder she’s so attached to him, the only thing in her life she feels true unconditional attachment for. Maizuru says that she thinks Toshiro’ll be a better head of the house than the father, too. The respect and care is somewhat onesided, given freely from her side but repressed from his end. When she cares for Toshiro is when her demeanor immediately and drastically softens. She gets easily carried away when it comes to him, rambling enthusiastically or smiling widely or tearing up. Her tendency to ramble or tell anecdotes about Toshiro is shown making Hien and Benichidori go "Here she goes again…" twice through canon.

With Izutsumi’s timeline we see Izutsumi was taken into the Nakamoto household at 10 yo, and since in the comic with Maizuru and the dad she’s shown as stinky and all I imagine she arrived there the same day, so Maizuru was in charge of her since she was first here. In fact if we assumed that it’s the same day as when he bought her at the circus show, then we could assume that buying her was a drunken whim like mentioned.

Since Izutsumi was taken in at 10 and she’s 17, this would mean that Maizuru is 34 years old here. She looks younger without makeup, but lower than that is mathematically impossible besides maybe 33 if Maizuru and Izutsumi’s birthdays line up just right.

Time for the second elephant in the room!!

Maizuru’s magic

Maizuru is the only person in the Nakamoto household, anyone from Wa really, who we see using magic, I doubt she’d be the only one who can use magic in the household but as the governess it wouldn’t be unplausible I suppose. From what we see, the magic is estimated by Marcille to be an "appropriation of gnomic magic" with an eastern script. For my analysis of written magic (though with only a brief glance over Maizuru’s magic), see this post.

If you scroll up and read the little section on Maizuru’s profile, Ninja art: babysitter: "One of the curses put on Izutsumi is Ninja Art: Babysitter, which manifests as a terrifying hag shikigami. Unless Maizuru touches the victim within a set time frame, this terrible curse makes a hag appear and chase them around with a carving knife. Maizuru originally created it in an attempt to keep Shuro from getting lost, but it ended up traumatizing him…"

From Izutsumi’s profile: "Maizuru, who was Shuro’s governess, is the one thing Izutsumi fears. […] Since Izutsumi refused to listen to her, Maizuru set a curse on her that would activate if Maizuru didn’t touch her within a set time frame: "Ninja Art: Babysitter." It was put on her when she was 12. Since Toshiro had it as a kid, presumably the curse can be lifted off rather easily, Marcille was confident on reverse engineering it as well. It’s unsaid what the time frame is, it’s kept vague everywhere and Izutsumi herself says "who knows" how long it is. Izutsumi ran away despite the very real risk of it killing her. Essentially, Maizuru can put people in a timebomb collar

… MAIZURU WHAT THE HELL

As we might have expected, Maizuru being given the task of rasing a child at 15 did not go perfectly. This, a babysitting technique??! This comic happens when Toshiro was 6 and so Maizuru was 21. Interesting to note that Toshiro didn’t even know it was Maizuru’s doing before this conversation during canon, and he doesn’t know how to bring it up or deal with it how it affected him. Maizuru seems surprisingly uncaring of Toshiro’s feelings on the matter here, oblivious to his conflict her and fondly recalling it all.

This curse is a shikigami. From her profile: "A shikigami user, Maizuru has a variety of shikigami that have been sealed in paper as her servants. Her favorite seems to be Gyuki, a bull ogre." Now don’t ask me when Gyuki appears, I do not remember it. But before we go into the cultural/historical basis for this practice, let’s take a second to recognize the parallel that Maizuru has servants she keeps sealed unless useful in the moment, even despite having enough "attachment" to have a favorite. She’s the governess in charge of the other servants, and she has shikigamis, which she has used on the heir and the runt at the bottom of the hierarchy alike.

Shikigami, in traditional japanese folklore, are conjured to exercise risky orders for their masters, such as spying, stealing and enemy tracking. Shikigami are said to be invisible most of the time, but they can be made visible by binding them into small, folded and artfully cut paper manikins.

Shikigamis are from onmyodo, onmyoji is a profession-legal title historically but it’s what you call a practitioner of onmyodo, and so I feel content in saying that Maizuru is an onmyoji, or based on it. Her outfit reminds me of a shinto priest. It’s interestingly closer to a shinto priest outfit than a miko/shrine maiden’s (in picture below, 2 instead of 5), and I feel like red being chosen for the inner sleeve is a very charged decision since the white & red color combo is the shinto clothes color combo. Especially white clothes with red inner sleeve. Shinto priests can be women nowadays but they’re rare, and onmyojis can be considered shinto priests though it’s a more complex than that. Image below as example, source. Now I don’t think Maizuru has the role or prestige of a priest at all- But the association with onmyodo and spirituality is definitely meant to be made I think. Onmyojis are usually clothed similarly to this.

The babysitter ninja art seems to be based off of the hannya yokai. "They were once human women who were consumed by jealousy and transformed into demonesses", twisted by anger and resentment. Interesting considering her being a mistress to a man whose wife hates her. Hannyas are associated with wisdom because of its name, but there is nothing positive about them. At its highest level of "demonic corruption" if I can call it that, their body tend to become serpentine, fun link to make with her name being from the snakeberry plant.

Other cultural ties or symbolism on Maizuru’s character could be found in the motif of cranes due to her sleeves, in the tales of the crane wife, origami cranes (called orizuru, from deformation of 鶴 "tsuru" aka "crane". All names are written in katakanas in Dungeon Meshi, but thus if we had had the kanjis it’s possible her name would have been written with the kanji for crane), tennyos, and japanese crane symbolism in general. I thought cranes might have been associated with motherhood, but seemingly not in japanese culture at least, I was thinking of storks haha.

Ok speaking of her name. Maizuru is the name of an existing japanese city (舞鶴), meaning "dancing crane". From @room-surprise’s work in progress research paper on Dungeon Meshi characters’ names: "Maizuru is her ninja code name, and comes from “maizurusou”, which is maianthemum dilatatum, the snakeberry plant/two-leaved Solomon's seal/false lily of the valley. Lily of the Valley is a plant associated with motherhood and virtue… So Maizuru being a false Lily of the Valley implies that she is a false, replacement mother, and also hints at the way that Toshiro became cold towards her when he realized she was his father’s mistress, and not a pure, virtuous mother-like figure that he thought she was. Also, lilies are toxic to cats, which makes sense since Maizuru and Izutsumi have an extremely bad relationship." For more details I’ll leave it up to Room when the paper is ready to be released. Edit: It’s out!! Click here! Incredible meta that goes into a ton of details not only about Maizuru.

So some big themes of her character are: (false) motherhood, spirituality/magic, control, cranes, woman’s jealousy.

The siblings

Alriight so besides Toshiro the eldest at 26 years old, there is Toshiyuki (Toshitsuge in one fantranslation) the middle son and Toshizane the youngest (Toshikage in one fantranslation). They were all said to be raised by Maizuru. "A strange level of distance" is interesting. Why strange? I feel like this implies they do interact regularly, and that they’re all rather civil wirh each other, but they still have little bond to speak of. That wouldn’t surprise me, especially since even inside the family etiquette and propriety and rules are enforced, the summoning by his father feels very formal and they all listen to him standing in silence despite having snappy inner thoughts. It’s unsure if they were largely raised together or apart, but since Maizuru was their (at least main) caretaker/governess it implies that they were imo. They were put in competition with each other for the title of heir to the house, though it’s unsure to what degree. It’s examplified by their family all having names that start with "Toshi" that the legacy is very important and thrust upon them, cogs in a machine almost. They all think the same thing when their father summons them and has a spiel, so they’re used to the same sort of treatment and they are indeed brothers for being on similar wavelengths haha.

Toshiyuki, as seen in the comic about his retainers, the poor soul sent into Darkest Dungeon, is brattish. Rude, selfish and rather lecherous, does not hesitate to be mean to his retainers and complain he wasn’t given women retainers. Visually he looks what, 14 years old top. I wonder if Maizuru stopped using her babysitter ninja art on the heirs after it traumatized Toshiro, and if so maybe that explains why Toshiyuki Knows No Fear In His Heart™️ and that’s why he can spout off stuff like that.

The retainers for the youngest brother, Toshizane, don’t seem to be as clad in ninja gear as the other two, seems like the priority is to take care of the very young young master there? Rather than truly go adventuring and dungeoneering, perhaps. Not that it’s ever said by anyone that their quest is to go into dungeons specifically, only to find something "interesting" to bring back, but both Toshiro and Toshiyuki are shown to have ended up drifting into dungeons. Toshizane looks young, I’d clock him 8 years old personally. He’s drawn looking rather innocent, especially the headshot doodle above and in the Toshitsuge complaining about his retainers comic. ALTHOUGH on the latter, interestingly as we see with Toshiro having a smug smirk in that same panel (or alternatively a smug indifferent/uncomfortable "i don’t care about this, even though you want it so much" look which at the very least is very exaggerated from how he emotes in reality), it’s Toshiyuki’s unreliable/exaggerated vision of his brothers and it doesn’t necessaeily reflect reality, though it’s still interesting to note that that’s the vision Toshiyuki has of his brothers/the impression Toshizane gives off. That can imply juicy dynamics for the brothers, for example if Toshiyuki feels as though he’s in competition with his brothers, feels superior to them, that instead of pushing the shitty family dynamic angst onto his father he puts the blame for it all onto Toshiro. Toshizane seems maybe too young to notice the tensions and seriousness around him, maybe more coddled… IS WHAT I WOULD SAY BUT in the comic where their father send them away he’s as well-behaved and serious as the others, so clearly he has a grasp on his role.

When talking about which retainers go with who, it’s said it was the father’s choice. I’d like to assume it wasn’t an airheaded/random choice. Maybe he knew that Toshiyuki would be weird about having women in his team of retainers? And wants to forge their character or protect them in the way they need. Though how Toshiro’s party only has women isn’t only pointed out and commented on by the comic with Toshitsuge but also in the main Dungeon Meshi story, both Marcille and Chilchuck going "his party is fully made up of women", one more loudly than the other haha. So it does feel like a somewhat pointed/purposeful decision, if not that the 4 girls were already a team like I mentioned.

The other retainers

Already made an analysis of Hien and Benichidori’s relationship (+ moment compilation) here. Honestly my juices are exhausted so quick rundown:

Hien’s parents both serve the Nakamotos, so she grew up with the family and was even a childhood friend of Toshiro. She assumed he and her might end up in a Maizuru-Toshitsugu situation ‘just because that’s how things are’/‘it’d be a natural development’ if we’re to believe Hien, ahh what growing up at the Nakamotos’ with those role models will make you believe is normal hah, and was surprised when it ended up not in that way at all. They grew more distant with time, in good part because of the professional nature of their roles in relation to each other (truly a reversal of the Maizuru-Toshitsugu situation). She’s the leader of their lil squad, under Maizuru, she’s very confident and she gets the perks, like getting the bedframe in the shared inn room. For all the details just read her page. She has two dots, showing her rank as a full fledged ninja. I made a more in depth more speculative reading of her in this post.

Benichidori was bought, by "the Nakamotos" so we don’t know who made the final decision. She’s perceptive and submissive, her specialty is implied to be disguise. She never had much contact with Toshiro before she became part of his party. She has facial dysmorphia where she fears the judgement of others if she doesn’t wear makeup and highly values beauty, in her extra her anxiety really shows and she ends up angrily snapping at Hien. Benichidori ends up taking a big liking to Hien and from there on they’re implied to be inseparable. She has two dots, showing her rank as a full fledged ninja.

Inutade is said to worship Toshitsugu because he "saved her" from her horrible life conditions, buying her personally from the sumo matches, she’s extremely grateful to the family and is happy to do any work they give her and is highly satisfied with her current living conditions. She seems to find Toshiro intimidating, though. She was separated from her parents from before she can remember and raised as a sumo wrestler in inhumane betting matches, where her front tooth broke. It seems she has very littke ambitions and dreams besides obeying orders day to day, but after Izutsumi fled away she was happy for her and mused that she’d love to go out and find her one day. They’re so besties Izutsumi gave her a dream of her own I’m sobbing… </3 She has one dot, showing she still has to be attributed her role and earn her stripes.

Their approval rating of their leader. The highest total score from all the parties.

Izutsumi

Sighh where to even begin. Her timeline was put in Maizuru’s section of this post but the rundown is "taken away from parents and turned into a beastkin" at 6 yo (the human half of her soul), "sent to a sideshow on the island of Wa" at 7 yo and bought by Toshitsugu at 10 yo when he took an interest in her when he visited the sideshow. Maizuru put the curse on Izutsumi at age 12, so from then on she always had to not stray much far from Maizuru or risk death, it’s unsure if Inutade’s extra is from before that time, before she was 12, so she could still attempt many many tries to run away. If that’s the case, then Maizuru’s curse was very much treated as a last resort, honestly beyond everything else I can see it being a pain that Maizuru would need to touch her every so often on Maizuru’s schedule as well. The alternative is that, not unlike Kabru who had no regrets dying in a dungeon rather than staying with Milsiril, she’d risk her life to get a taste of freedom. Besides, you know, being a slave and having a timebomb collar with Maizuru’s curse, her frustrations with her life with the Nakamotos is most concisely put in the comic just up above, Inutade’s extra.

She has no dot tattoo, meaning she’s at rock bottom of the hierarchy. It makes sense, since unlike Inutade she’s rebellious and needs threats to obey orders, and even then might try shifty business.

This last part where Izutsumi tries sleeping with Toshiro is most interesting to me. So she’s sought out contact with Toshiro before, she considers him "the stuck-up guy" but she doesn’t exactly hate him. I wonder if this comic is set in the inn on The Island or back at the Nakamoto household, because if that’s the latter it implies that she could get access to his room if she’s sneaky.

Oh oh also, this is fanon but since Toshiro’s weapon is one used usually on horseback, and with the steadfast and upright character of horses I associate Toshiro with horses a bit, though this is wild fanon. What’s interesting is that the plant Asebi was named after is a plant infamous for being toxic to horses. Hehe hehehe he wears a ponytail… Hm now that I think of it hairdos have importance for samurais, should look into that.

Toshiro

God. Ok. Everything was leading up to this guy. Need to split open his head like a geode and vibecheck his brain crystals. Let’s get some interesting details out of the way first.

His weapon is a tachi, not a katana. The wikipedia on tachis is more in depth if you want, but I consider the article I linked to be in deoth and digestible. Tachis are heavier and longer blades than katanas, and make for better horseback weapons than close combat. The way Toshiro uses one instead of a katakana shows that he’s extra strong… And does make sense, since most monsters won’t fight in as close quarters as human fighters. If katanas aren’t a thing in the world yet could make a difference, since tachis were invented first, and once the katana was invented and spread tachis became something more common in higher-ranking samurais. In the monster tidbit of the Hag, it’s shown that even at 6 years old Toshiro was training and learning ninja skills, his first instinct to the shikigami besides running being to fight.

Toshiro knew that Izutsumi wanted to leave, for sure. He may have been sympathetic, if his cryptic look back at her in the ‘Toshiro interacting with his party members’ page means anything. As seen below though, him being sympathetic doesn’t necessarily mean that much. Also, Toshiro had to have known about the curse on Izutsumi, where if Maizuru doesn’t touch her once in a while she’d die. "Asebi must have ran away, leave her" can be seen as subtle support for her to gain her freedom, but it could just as easily be seen as him leaving her behind to die. Because the outcome options are 1) she gets killed by Maizuru's curse, 2) she finds a way to break the spell, 3) she finds a way back to them.

He’s very conflict averse. Wether it be in relationships like with Laios or the status quo. Will not stand up for 99% things including himself. He obeys his father quietly despite his anger and dislike. This is the same guy who can't even get himself to speak up to correct the butchering of his name, the slippery slope that got him tangled in the Laios party seemingly without resistance. It’s very japanese etiquette from even nowadays, never saying a direct no to not be rude. ALSO THAT PANEL, has Toshiro beaten an ogre before?? Is that a brother of his?? Does seem in character for Toshiyuki the most, unless Toshiro was desperate to earn his father’s attention with feats. On the right I’d say the ones in the foreground are two of the brothers, maybe the third being the one to gesture to the ogre. It’s worth noting that inheritance laws during the Edo period often made the heir the son with "the most merit".

When with a goal that’s important to him he’s fine with even starving for it. Although what we see him be like that about in canon is Falin, aka self-admittedly in the post-canon proposal comic "the first person he has liked this much", which for him I feel is like admitting she’s one of the first things he has truly wanted for himself and fought for, soo… It’s more like an exceptional freaking out moment than something that would be recurring, most likely. How disheveled he got is a testament to how much he would forego propriety and rules for people of his status for the person he cares about most. Maizuru says the first personal request he’s (ever?) made was for them to help him rescue Falin.

Which ahh yes, his crush on Falin. I do think idealization plays into it, he doesn’t know Falin that well for sure, but it’s more complex than that too. Falin is pretty and can have an ethereal energy to her, she’s caring and gentle kinda motherly which Toshiro would find soothing I imagine, BUT MOST OF ALL. She’s weird!! She’s just weird enough to allow and be charmed by!! Shuro was fully shaped by his upbringing and environment of nobility, social etiquette and whatnot. Yeah she’s weird and quirky, but still quiet and sweet-mannered enough that he’s like "Yes, she wouldn’t bring shame on my family name". And why would he be charmed by her weirdness? Because all he’s ever known is rules!! Conformity, fitting in!! Unlike the others he knows, she is weird without being overbearing as well. "Woah she’s so different… She’s kind and soft and doesn’t care about fitting in… She is out of this world, she’s free, she shows me a world where tenderness and authenticity is possible…" She’s like his comfort character. MOREOVERRR I had totally forgotten about it, but Toshiro was shown watching a snail behind a bush and losing sight of everything else (like Maizuru calling him) as a kid in the Hag monster tidbit, the moment he fell in love with Falin it was when she looked enthralled at a caterpillar and he mentions how "most girls would have screamed or recoiled in disgust", and in the beach chibis page he’s crouching and collecting shells thinking about Falin… He likes bugs and crawly critters guys, he wishes he could be cottagecore too… It’s a genuine shared interest… . Someone pointed out that Toshiro & Falin’s relationship probaboy references this japanese folk tale, and I think that’s very interesting to note.

And Maizuru is like his mom but it’s a Thistle situation where they can’t just be a normal family and normal affectionate either- and when he learns about his father having a thing with her he feels weirded out. And like. Who knows how much he even got out of the mansion. He got homeschooled. He’s distant with his brothers. The family is in shambles

Shuro’s issue is that he was taught to be perfect and have the upmost respectable behavior, so if something annoys him he has to be righteous about it and that it’s the annoying thing’s fault or moral failing. Bro just let yourself be petty sometimes it’s healthier. With the feud with his father it’s explicitly stated that the pressure and expectations of the family name weigh on him a lot.

But then, that makes his beef with Laios so understandable doesn’t it. Not justified, but explained certainly.

Laios & Shuro and the whole mess coming to a head

I’ve made an analysis of the Laios-Shuro fight from Laios’ pov before, here. This is the Shuro pov analysis. Yes yes in The Fight, Shuro is dehydrated sleep-deprived and underate, he’s majorly off his rocker, BUT his frustration and the underlying issues are still things he felt on any day and it’s interesting to note.

Toshiro has been raised from his birth with the priority of propriety, nobility, etiquette, rules, conforming elegantly, appareances and reputation are everything. He’s modest, humble, quiet, stays in his lane and bottles all his feelings up. Wait who is this loud guy coming up to me being inconsiderate and loud af?? Does he not see me blinking in morse code that I’m not enjoying this and want him to leave?? Was he raised in a barn?? He’s overbearing and rude and way too friendly- He’s weird wtf! Not conforming to basic etiquette is illegal??! And people just… Let him do whateve he wants?? He lives well, no one stops him or kills him?? What the fuck, I’ve followed rules and etiquette thoroughly all my life, and it’s thankless work I get no recognition for, meanwhile he gets to be oblivious af and do whatever he wants without getting clapped?? Resentment, frustration, dislike, anger anger anger, jealousy.

Laios might even remind Toshuro of his dad in a way, because he SEEMS impulsive and like he does whatever he wants without a care to people around him, without thinking of how it might affect them. Doing things without thinking through the Implications. And interestingly this is a bit paralleled to to how Shuro is serious, strict, and big on the duties that come with having a leader role and the family dynamic it brings, like Laios’ own father, who Laios also dislikes… Dealing with his anger towards Laios, especially knowing that Laios doesn’t mean anything bad by it like Toshiro admits, is probably very healing to him. He stops repressing and thinks through his issues a bit, realizes what parts of his life he’s unhappy with and where all the negative feelings come from. I do think he bottles up his dislike for his father a bit, he has to at least for appearances. His beef with Laios is repackaged internalized anger for his father, but it’s ALSO repackaged frustration from his etiquette-bound lifestyle. He says it himself, when Laios is like "You never told Falin how you feel…? Alright, when I can I’ll tell her for you buddy!!", "that’s the part of you that I envy". Laios’ ability to just come out and say what he wants to, what he means. He wishes he could be free of all the rules more, that he had te courage to speak out, like with Inutade, or talking things out with Maizuru, or nit having to act like he’s not angry with his father. This narrative point of Toshiro envying Laios’ ability to say things freely and being frustrated by not being able to himself is ESPECIALLY examplified by their first interactions, the basis of their relationship: Laios enthusiastically befriending him, giving him a bad nickname and roping him into joining his party, with Toshiro never turning it all down despite wanting to, too hesitant to act possibly rude.

And now is time for the laishuro addendum… Because of personal experiences it’s a bit of a sensitive spot to me so while I see timelines in which I enjoy it I’m very picky… This is all further theorizing from me btw I’m not pushing my view here onto ppl as facts, but I think there’s more interesting bits and scenarios to bite into here. Laishuro has very cute and sweet potential. I personally don’t see the "Oh wait Laios is just girl Falin… 😳" angle because to me if anything that’d just make Shuro disillusioned with Falin lol, but like yes make Shuro learn that it’s ok to be weird with Laios 🥺 They DO have differences first of all, important ones, especially from Toshiro’s perspective. Laios is overwhelming, whereas Falin is soothing. Laios is loud and asks things of him where Falin is a calm, quiet presence. Laios pushes himself onto Toshiro, whereas Falin is content on just doing her own thing in her corner alone.

Hot take but the ultimate laishuro timeline is the one where he DOESN’T bring Laios back home, because he knows he’ll be seen as an oddity and clown by his father, and he doesn’t want Laios to be treated like the tapdancing monkey there to please and entertain his father the way he himself has always kind of been. Wouldn’t inflict that onto someone he loves. He can recognize when people are taken advantage of (mostly) like Inutade, and it doesn’t settle right with him. He might be especially sensitive to it in Inutade’s case because it’s about seeing his dad in a better light than he deserves, though. His father is his weak spot, THE weak spot.

It gets me so emotional thinking about it actually because seeing Laios played like a fiddle by his father, Laios so happy to find someone who’s enthusiastically listening to him ramble and engaging, would destroy Shuro emotionally I think. Like. On one hand being like "Oh of course my dad would find Laios fun, unlike me his boring son", super angry as coping mechanism for his intense sadness of not having positive parental attention, and then on the other he’d see Laios being treated as a clown and identify with it and that would remind him of how he gets treated similarly which he’s in denial about (more or less, but since he puts up with the family rules and follows along he hasn’t given up on getting recognition. He wants his father’s approval, and he couldn’t blame Laios for being happy with it despite how hurtful that attention truly is without Laios’ knowledge), which would be such an overwhelming conflicted mess of emotions and his worldview would shatter a bit because he has to repress it all even now, and he’d have a breakdown.

And similar deal but if he brought Falin home… Bc ok yes he idealizes her and doesn’t even know her all that well, but like I said imo what he sees in her is that "Woah she’s so different… She’s kind and soft and doesn’t care about fitting in… She is out of this world, she’s free, she shows me a world where tenderness and authenticity is possible…" So meanwhile with Laios he’d have mixed feelings on him getting treated like a clown and identify with it, bringing Falin home and having her be demeaned would be like having his perfect comfort character dunked on and he gets reminded that the world can’t have anything good actually. With both Toudens it’d make his resentment towards his father even worse, he might snap. I’m not the biggest on gendered analysis tbh but Kui evidently does like to do it to some degree, with the genderbending changing their life considerably and different fantasy cultures having different gender roles and all, but Shuro idealizing the Touden sister as something perfect he cannot attain while being jealous and frustrated at Laios for being something he cannot attain is like. So compelling actually. With Maizuru’s hannya of female rage weaponized there could be a theme of pushing the blame and responsibilities of things onto women too, the responsibility to raise and to manage and to dish out the work and to clean after mens’ reckless decisions. Anyways just a tangent.

Shuro on a bad family angst day is everything I love in a blorbo… He can be a lil shitty as a treat to make his healing arc more fulfilling. Toshiro snapping after he sees how they treat Laios/Falin and he gives up the family headship to LEAVE. Maizuru arc where she has to choose between loyalty to the clan and loyalty to Toshiro, will she stay with the boy she raised or go home… To me Maizuru is much less sympathetic than Shuro, but she is pretty tragic and her selfless love for Shuro is her one redeeming quality. Babygirl take no shit no more, but also better yourself and turn your life around please and thank you… She is so evidently taken advantage of but like. What else does she have? So she just takes care of and loves the boy she raised like her own kid and goes about her daily life in servitude and doesn’t think too much about it all.

Shuro is awful a nickname but also, I think Shiro would be a good nickname for Toshiro, because it gets rid of that ‘Toshi’ first part of his name that all the male members of his family share. It severes the link to his father and the tied pressure from his family.

Laishuro brotp turning slow burn romance would be so lovely. I think college au for laishuro would be peak actually… Shuro so is the repressed "I am so normal" guy who has a furry liberation identity crisis arc… I also quite like the potential he’d have with Namari, as both work-oriented misfit foreigners cast out of their homes, and she’s also bolder so it’d be good for him, and he could bring her stability… That’s a topic for another day tho. Even he and falin are sweet tbh, they could have traveled around together even if just as friends… Bc yeah she does value him as a friend at least somewhat, she says she’ll visit him~! Mostly I want Izutsumi-Toshiro brotp fancontent.

Conclusion

The household is very hierarchy oriented, and honestly the system doesn’t seem to make anyone happy, or at least not healthily so. Sighh feudalism.

Obviously their situation are very different, but still Toshiro and Izutsumi react to the same conflict in opposite ways: when a hierarchy and lifestyle of rules and duty is thrust upon them, Toshiro obeys and believes that it’s how things simply are, always having it been drilled into him since being a baby and being privileged enough to live ok with things as they are, meanwhile Izutsumi rages and eventually breaks free and never wants to submit herself to rules or hierarchy ever again, even if that perceived hierarchy is a mutually beneficial professional party dynamic or having a role inside a well-meaning team, like Laios’ party. WHICH IS WHY THEY SHOULD HANG OUT AND HAVE AN ARC TOGETHER. LET HER INFLUENCE HIM TO GET WILDER AND THINK OF HIMSELF MORE. FUCK INHERITING THE HEADSHIP. THE SIBLINGS NARRATIVE.

As always if I find more stuff to add i’ll edit it in. Rn I’m thinking that I’ll look into ninja & samurai feudal history and try to find specific terms that might fit their roles and situations more. I should reread try to cover Izutsumi’s end of the Toshiro-Izu dynamic as well.

I greatly recommend this paper for more excellent meta on all named Dunmeshi characters and their culture!

Ah yes yes, I forgot to talk about it but we don’t know what Toshiro’s retainers have been doing with their time on The Island, especially while he was dungeon diving with Laios and co. Although in the anime’s ed in this shot we see them "stealthily" follow him around, so presumably when he’s not in dungeons they’re tailing his moves.

Afterword here, it has summary charts about the power structure & relationships and complementary pages and artworks, couldn’t put them in here because SIGH 30 pictures per post limit.

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incorrectbatfam · 1 year ago

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Types of obnoxious batfam stans

Written by an obnoxious batfam stan

Not really a rant but something I've noticed over the years interacting in different spaces and I've decided to make your problem now.

Please note that I'm not saying there's any "right" way to be a fan because we all suck by virtue of being comic nerds, but there are certain kinds of batfamily fans that stick out to be in particular.

Anywho, here are 12 kinds of annoying batfam stans that you've probably run into and you better get a laugh out of it *points gun to your head*.

1) The Newbies Who Never Heard of Google

There's no shame in being new to something. It's a phase that we're all guaranteed to go through, whether we're 11 or 101. However, in this day and age, so many things can be easily googled that you don't need to shout every question you have into the VVorld VVide VVoid. If you need comic recs or a reading list, google it. If you wanna know a character's origin story, google it. If you need to know the color of Batman's underpants in a particular issue in 1965... well that's probably too specific for Google but Reddit will definitely have an answer.

2) The Middle School Authors

Before the 13-year-olds get up in my notes, I'm not saying everyone that age writes like this. Middle school is a state of mind. These fanfic writers usually stand out in a few ways.

They're oftentimes first-person POV or reader-insert. Give Y/N a break, she's tired.

The grammar is stunningly atrocious. I get if you're inexperienced or if you're writing in a second language, but we are in the prime era of autocorrect. If you need help, it's right there. Also, fuck c*nsoring b*d w*rds and fuck "unalive."

The characters do things that are out-of-character because the author is projecting their own personality. Bruce Wayne is a lot of things but he does not listen to the fucking Mountain Goats.

There's a lack of experience or research when it comes to certain topics. That's not how physics works. He can't walk that injury off. And that's definitely NOT how you do the horizontal hokey pokey.

3) The Neckbeards

Unfortunately, these basement-dwelling mouth-breathers tainted the image of what a comic fan is, though that's been changing recently. Still, we've all seen them. They gatekeep via pop quizzes, 'cause obviously you're not a real fan unless you know what page 10 of Batman #138 smells like. They give unsolicited commentary on people's cosplays, nitpicking the guys and being gross toward women. And heaven forbid the comics add a little diversity.

4) The Moviegoers

Nothing inherently wrong with getting into the fandom via the movies, nor is there anything wrong with sticking to that. I just feel like we're two different species of Galapagos finches, you know?

5) The Christopher Nolans

Separate from casual fans of the Nolan movies. I'm calling them the Christopher Nolans because these people have a tendency to reach for the grimdarkest thing possible. It's like they cannot fathom Batman having any other emotions besides punching and gargoyle brooding.

6) The Canon Purists

Wanna share a fun headcanon? NO, because Stephanie Brown never used cherry lip balm in the comics so therefore that must be the absolute truth. These people are a stickler for comic accuracy to the point where it's like... why bother interacting with the fandom in the first place? The worst part is when they're adamant on following a single continuity and refuse to consider anything else. This is comics we're talking about. Everything either has been or will be canon at some point.

7) The Fanon Worshippers

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have the people who base their entire perception of the characters on something either they pulled out of their ass or that their mutual with 16 followers came up with, despite evidence directly contradicting it. I love WFA, but I feel like that's partially responsible for further perpetuating certain popular myths. Also, these fans tend to focus solely on the batfam/their ships. It's one thing to have some people in the foreground vs. background, but put some respect to Bart Allen's name you goddamn cheesecakes.

8) The Golden Age Dads

These guys aren't really obnoxious. I actually find it kind of cute how they think Jason Todd is still dead.

9) The Chronically Online

I have a rule of thumb when it comes to discourse: if it's not something I'd hear about at a bar, it's not worth my mental energy. Some people haven't gotten the memo, though.

These are either the well-intentioned but misinformed teenagers or grown-ass adults beefing with children because they don't have a life. They have takes that are oversimplified, rage-inducing, TikTok algorithm attention-grabbers that no one cares about in real life.

Don't get me wrong, we've got a bunch of issues in comics and fandom that are worth discussing. However, there comes a point where you're splitting hairs and need to go the fuck outside. I'm not gonna link the post 'cause I don't wanna call them and their 7 notes out, but the other week I saw someone saying Stephcass was a racist ship because something something colonialism parallel. You gotta be Elastigirl to have that kind of reach.

10) The Corporate Simps

I love comics. I appreciate the writers and artists. However, you will find my carcass in a ditch before you catch me licking the boots of DC/Warner Bros. Basically, these fans, fewer as they are, can't seem to fathom that their favorite franchise can (and does) put out some steaming motherfucking garbage.

11) The Hot Cosplayers

Not actually annoyed, I'm just a little jealous. Stop being hotter than me, please and thank you.

12) The One With A Punchline For Everything

Wait–

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i-dont-know-i-just-like-dragons · 1 month ago

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Nothing to do with the latest page but I've been thinking about how weird of a guy tgs Henry is as a victorian.

First of all, he probably has reverse conservative uncle syndrome.

So what the hell does that mean? Have you ever been to a family gathering and there's this one uncle, cousin, what have you who has shit takes on Everything. He's an incel, he hates queer people, he's a racist weather he knows it or not. Every time he opens his mouth everyone in the room is seething for one reason or another.

Henry has the opposite of this. All of his views would be deeply unpopular for someone of his time. He lets women and poc into The Society and they're treated no differently based on these things. His reaction to Jasper and Miss Ito were mostly positive. (once you get past the internalized queerphobia that is- but that was well intentioned even if he was in the wrong.)

I'm imagining Henry in a stuffy room full of aristocrats and for some reason or other the women's movement comes up. Henry expresses a positive opinion on it before the opinions of anyone else can be expressed. The subject is dropped and everyone is quietly fuming that he thinks women deserve rights.

Or consider that he doesn't have the least bit of xenophobia that most other people rich or not possessed. Several lodgers are immigrants and that there is a statement in and of itself.

Then there's his taste in partners.

I know there's not a single tgs reader who thinks Robert is unattractive and that's not what I'm trying to say here. All I want to point out is how weird Henry's taste is for a person living in 1885.

Robert- while Very Attractive now would be very not the beauty standard for the time. He has freckles and is dark skinned and while I could imagine him getting past Robert's skin tone, most people would hate freckles. A trait which Henry is absolutely head over heels for.

Then there's Morcant and the weird thing about her isn't so much her physical appearance but her dynamic with Henry. I haven't read bleeding heart but at least what I can tell from the comic she seems to be the dominant one, and the same goes for Robert. Henry. In the Toxic Masculinity Golden Age. Actively seeks to be dominated by his partners. I guess Robert beat (or slapped) the toxic masculinity out of him in university. I don't know this is the most normal thing about him but still weird for someone in the 1880s.

Someone who knows more than me is now going to emerge from the shadows and kick my ass on historical accuracy, but at least from my research Henry is just a strange little dude for his time and I love him very very much :]

#the glass scientists #tgs jekyll

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xoxoskai · 9 months ago

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RKVERSE BRATVA HEADCANNONS

that no one really asked for, but everyone needs<3

Damien Orlov is Nikolai Sokolov's Godfather.

The one-slightly related to the mafia- kid that all the second-generation mafia kids are scared respect is Sebastian and Naomi's firstborn (I said what I said)

In the Morozov household, all arguments are solved through uno.

Ironically, the one with the best accuracy while firing a gun is the one with the least bloodlust in him, Gareth.

Annika is closest to Lidiya Morozova and the Orlov Princess.

Naomi and Sebastian are Gareth Carson's Godparents.

Adrian tries to homeschool his kids, but it backfires when neither of his kids let him work in peace as a sign of protest. He reluctantly lets them attend a private school with an army of bodyguards.

Kai Takeda becomes the next head of the Yakuza.

Vaughn is very good at playing video games to the point that he gets invited to play at events.

Maya and Gareth are the best at cheating while playing any kinds of board games and often defeat the rest (Killian loses because he's in a team with Nikolai who gets bored midway and tries to sabotage the game instead).

Damien is good at cooking while Kirill has a hidden talent for baking. Adrian finds the prospect of both of them wearing aprons funny until he is put on duty for washing the dishes. Wearing his daughter's purple, floral apron.

Jeremy becomes really good at lip-reading while he's trying to figure out what his parents are talking about over his head and as an adult, he's desperately trying to lose the habit around them.

The one who taught all the boys to drive a bike is Mio Orlov.

She also taught Sasha who nearly gives the Pakhan of the Bratva a heart attack when she figures out how to do wheelies with Rai cheering her on.

Kyle Hunter is exceptionally good at hide and seek and the kids could never find him whenever the Sokolovs were hosting sleepovers.

Annika has knocked endlessly and tirelessly on Adrian's office door till he let her in so she could demonstrate her pirouette the first time she had perfectly done it (Adrian had made Yan, Kolya and Boris give her a standing ovation).

Rai Sokolov is everyone's go-to Aunt for anything their own parents aren't letting them do. Asher and Reina won't send their sons to another continent for college? Enrolls her own son to go with them. The girls want to go to a concert? Sends an army of disguised bodyguards with them. One of the kids is drunk and needs to be picked up? She's already buckling into her car.

Adrian and Lia are Vaughn's Godparents.

Mia Sokolov starts giving plants as birthday presents and nearly makes Kirill and Damien bust a lung from laughter when she gives Adrian a cactus.

Karina Morozova has the reputation for giving the most bizarre gifts that the kids end up loving. Rents out an entire theater for Annika's birthday party. Buys all the game-machines in an arcade for Vaughn. Tells Maya they are going shopping for her birthday and flies her to Paris for it. Sees Jeremy reading bl when he's home from college one time and buys him an entire boxful of yaoi comics with a "I dog earmarked some of my favorites" note. She's extra that way and they all love it.

Damien, Adrian, Kyle and Kirill also have a group chat that Adrian has tried leaving multiple times. When Annika and Mia get boyfriends, Damien is laughing so hard at their predicament that Adrian reveals his daughter's secret relationship with the Pakhan's eldest son and then leaves the group. Again.

Lidiya Morozova becomes the first woman Pakhan after her uncle dares anyone to oppose her crowning with her getting backed up by four of the strongest Bratva families.

Vaughn and Kirill bond over making castles out of playing cards. They've spent lots of days, sitting cross-legged on the floor and stacking one card after another, using multiple decks. It's how he discovers his love for architecture.

Maya Sokolov is a natural at coding and hacking, but she finds it boring and even refuses Adrian's attempt to teach her to hone her skills.

Kyle is really good at magic tricks. Almost all the kids (minus natural cheaters, Maya and Gareth) fall for it even though some of them don't want to (Jeremy and Killian, they know it's a trick, but they can't prove it).

Naomi is not approving of Damien until she actually talks to him and realizes he's just a bakayaro.

Mia Sokolov is really good at escape rooms while Nikolai spends half the time going "That was a clue?"

Ilya Levitsky is only accepted into the family after he goes through extensive torture and lives on to say, "You can't keep me from her". He wins Kyle's respect with that.

Lia discovers that she's really good at drinking games when she's having a girl's night out with Sasha, Mio and Rai. She can throw darts with her eyes blindfolded.

The Volkovs have movie nights on Thursdays where the movies are decided based on a game of jenga. Annika swears she's not shaking the table (she is).

The Morozovs host the best sleepovers. We're talking Princess Diaries level of sleepovers with mattress surfing, vending and claw machines in the house and treasure hunts across the entire property.

The Orlovs are the best at throwing parties and love any occasion to do so. Cherry blossoms are blooming? Throw a party. His daughter got an A on her dictation? Throw a party. Someone bumped into Damien and he didn't kill them? Throw. A. Party.

The Carsons are the best at pretending they have no ties to the Bratva. You saw an army of bodyguards leaving their house? Must be the new interns Asher is hiring. Their oldest nephew has tattoos at the age of 11? But he loves drawings. Reina's twin is AWOL the whole time? She's just shy.

The Weavers are horrible at pretending they aren't related into some shady business.

The Sokolovs' house is synonymous with a common playground. Especially after Mia's kidnapping. If she's scared to go out and meet anyone else, ofcourse the rest of them are gonna come over at all times and spend time with her, it's only natural.

_______________

Don't even wanna promise a part two when I know I never commit but here's to hoping?

#deception trilogy #monster trilogy #throne duet #thorns duet #adrian volkov #lia volkov #sasha morozova #kirill morozov #damien orlov #rina kent

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lycannovastar · 6 months ago

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Actually DNI with me if you headcannon/believe Lukas is a cutesy twink or is an overly skinny guy

To be clear I’m not targeting anyone or pointing fingers, this has been an issue since the fandom practically started and I don’t really see anyone touch on it. I’m really tired of seeing the “uwu twink” stereotype for Lukas in the community and it’s unfortunate that it’s been around for so long.

Lukas uses a bow as his main weapon, I don’t know if any of yall have drawn back a bow but coming from someone who has: you need a lot of upper body strength. The tension of the bow bending is very strong when pulling back an arrow, and even HOLDING that draw is straining to the arms. Strong muscles in the back, arms, shoulders, and core are key to bending a bow back with ease.

Of course, the amount of strength depends on the amount of draw weight you have on your bow. Draw weight is the amount of force you need to draw back your string to the anchor position. “Why would you need draw weight” You ask? Draw weight affects the speed, accuracy, and overall power of the bow. Too much weight can make you tired or fatigued, too LITTLE weight could make your arrow strength dwindle

Now apply it to Lukas’ bow performance: especially seen in season 2, he is shown to not only draw it back on the regular, but have accurate, strong, and fast shots; able to pierce into the Prismarine Colossal in episode one of season two.

More examples of his strength come from episode 7 of season 1, where you have the choice to either save Lukas or Petra from being chipped. If you leave Petra to be chipped, she comes back at the end and puts up a pretty good fight with Jesse. This exact fight happens if you leave Lukas to be chipped, and doesn’t change in difficulty. Harper even says “your friend looks pretty tough” to both characters. Now if Lukas doesn’t know his full strength or willingly refuses to use it full power is up for debate, but either way he puts up just as good of a fight as Petra does in that episode.

Now I’m not saying to draw/hc him buff asf, but either way he still is a strong character and a lot of people in the community take it for granted or sweep it under the rug.

The mentality people also headcannon onto Lukas is absurd too, sure he’s not a stone cold bastard but he isn’t a do no harm cinnamon roll people like to call him as either.

“he was scared and froze up a lot in the witherstorm episodes!!” I think most of us would piss ourselves if a giant world eating monster was chasing us.

Sometimes it’s as if people make him out to be like nerd from the boyfriend’s comics with how stereotypical they make Lukas. No it’s not a problem to make him queer, what is a problem is feeding into the stereotype that borderline infantilizes a lot of men in the lgbt community just because they aren’t buff or overly masculine.

Lukas is not a knight in shining armor, but he’s not a scared, lost puppy either. He’s a man who enjoys literature and is a “do no harm but take no crap” kind of guy. His character has grown over the episodes and it’s really sad to see people misinterpret characters like him (looking at you radar infantilizers)

Again, not pointing fingers, this is a problem that’s been around for years and I’m getting real tired of seeing the jesskas ship like this

Thank you for reading

#mcsm #minecraft #minecraft story mode #mcsm jesse #jesse mcsm #mcsm lukas #jesskas #lukas mcsm #headcannons #fyp

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loudlittleecho · 6 months ago

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Frozen in Time: Too Late to Save Them

Part 6

Tim got an alert on Forever Ice in Wisconsin.

Seems there had been an accident. He quickly scanned the document. Mr. Anderson had given a statement, grateful that no one had been harmed, thankfully, and he also did not expect this to delay shipping. He mentions that his new facilities had better safety measures installed, and while he was sad to let the building go, it was time. . . a little further in the article mentioned how everyone who had worked at the facility had been given two lucrative options. Take a generous severance package, or transfer to another facility with housing and transportation cost support.

Tim frowned. He had gotten alerts about the other facilities two months ago. When he had scanned them they all seemed above board. Seems Anderson had found a way to recreate his ability. Tim had purchased one crafted from a newer facility, and had analyzed it beside the first. They were identical.

Tim had a hunch he didn’t like. Anderson was making friends with quite a few people.

He noticed a file he hadn’t added to the report, written in code.

He narrowed his eyes. This folder was open to anyone in the Justice League to add to if they so desired.

The only one who would add something in code was The Question.

—

The woman, Nora, had requested his team to clear one of the smaller offices of the warehouse they were occupying, and to find a bed for the boy– though by now the boy was back as a block of ice.

His crew had glanced at him for confirmation; he nodded for them to comply.

She had only given her first name, but Snart was able to put the pieces together. Nora Fries, wife of Mr. Freeze. He hadn’t kept up with Gotham news, but it looked that somehow Freeze had managed to bring his wife back.

Now how the kid connected to the two, he didn’t know.

Nora had told him the boy had felt feverish; she believed if a room was made colder than his own, his body wouldn’t need to form his own ice.

Snart worked on the logistics.

—

Sources (See interview 1c): noted complete flip in N.A.’s personality. Clone? Mind Control?

P.A. using ice BEFORE N.A. (See interview 1a). Need full interview with P.A.

B.A. No Meta gene, biological sibling of N.A. (See D.M.A. Federal Employee Background Check)

Forever Ice: hired employees previously working with CADMUS. Deeper connection?

Tim rubbed his eyes. He enjoyed cracking codes, but The Question had written his added documents in seventeen different ciphers. Two to three, Tim understood, but seventeen on an already secured folder? He admired the man, sure. But he also recognized this could be his future if he wasn’t careful.

It seemed The Question had taken on the case. That was good, because Tim already had enough on his plate. He started to close out the file when he paused.

He wanted to let his fellow detective know he was willing to help if needed. Tim smirked.

Wrote a coded note, and closed the file.

—

The room was set below freezing, using Nora’s cryokinesis and Snart’s devices to keep it at the right temperature.

It had taken a week, but they had finally found the correct temperature. Nora wasn’t quite sure why Cold was helping. But she didn’t complain.

When she removed ice from the boy, it didn’t replace itself.

Slowly and gently she placed him on the bed. It had frozen over, of course, but was better than the floor.

His chest slowly moved up and down; breathing.

Noticing the medical band from his wrist, she removed it.

Fenton, Daniel.

ADM: 09/16/–

DOB: 04/03/–

The band was frayed, so Nora couldn’t be positive about its accuracy on the current situation. But based on dates alone, Daniel Fenton was fourteen 27 years ago.

Author note:

Acronyms: N.A., P.A., B.A: Nathan, Paul, and Becks Anderson

D.M.A.: Department of Metahuman Affairs.

The D.M.A. is a real department in DC comics. Now, they don't have a 'Federal Employee Background Check', but honestly I wouldn't put it past the DC Universe to do so: Especially to not have a Queen Bee, Count Vertigo, etc situation happen in the states.

#Frozen in time #Option A: Frozen in Time #dpxdc #dcxdp #Danny phantom fanfiction #phanfic #Nora Fries #Mrs. Freeze #leonard snart #Captain Cold #tim drake wayne #red robin #Reference of The Question #Did I name Nathan the way I did so that his acronym was N.A? Yes. Yes I did. Because he’s Not Available right now.

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kaontic · 2 months ago

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*Long Post*

*Checks Decepticon emails* Oh, here we go. (¬_¬") 💻

*Reads* You forgot my builtday?! What kind of human slave are you if you can’t even remember this important date? (¬_¬)

*Types back* One that wanted to celebrate their mom’s 55th birthday? 🤨

Yeah. What a shame, right? That she’s gotta share the day she entered this universe with the likes of you. # ⸨◺_◿⸩ #

(Cool fact I guess but still, why? 😭)

Tho I guess I should thank you for remindin’ me, cuz here’s my late builtday present: i’m gonna expose ya once and for all. >:D *Sends*

*Closes* Aaaaaaaaaaaand, I got less than 24 hours left to live, so… :/

You know how everyone always argues about his OG alt mode, that I surprisingly got obsessed with (by reason of insanity bein’ a concept that allows for SO MUCH creativity in a franchise that encourages it via lore + toys), and wanna copy paste everywhere?

Reflector: Yeah. No scrap. Don't say anythi— 📷

Me: *Tosses into chute* Right. Ok— 👏

Million-shanix question: Why does Megatron, of all TF characters, in his alt mode have to literally put his fate into another’s servos/hands?

Well, that’s the thing.

He doesn’t. (•᷄- •᷅ ;)

It's the same case with Shockwave (who interestingly, I never see anyone criticize despite them both bein' laser guns, but whatever, this ain't about him tonight 🙂‍↔️).

Furthermore, if Megatron can fly in his robot mode, then flying/levitating as a gun shouldn't sound as implausible, right? (ᵕŏᴗŏ)

(I mean it sure does sound funny, but also terrifying, since he can freeze midair, aim with near-perfect accuracy and fire at will)

Oh yeah, and Soundwave's still capable of flight too as a microcassette recorder.

Megatron: Soundwave! WTH!? Come back!

(Ok, at least with him it's just funny. Maybe he can blast [insert appropriate music here] while he's at it)

So knowin' this, why does Megatron still pull this damn stunt, if he's quite capable of doin' it all on his own?

People also wonder why Starscream can't just "accidentally" drop Megs, and then stomp him out like a bug that's not as innocent.

Well, good fraggin’ luck Star, cuz as soon you let him go, he’s gonna go, and if you didn’t wanna let him go, and he wants to go?

He will go.

If you manage to grab hold of his stock, that’s detachable (and the same goes for his silencer), so he's just gonna end up whoopin’ your aft for that with his stock.

But fine, let's say that Megs is on the ground unconscious, and you somehow sneak up on him with heated thrusters via your afterburners.

Still not gonna work, my guy… I think.

(Like look at his face plate here, he knows there’s no point in tossin’ Megs under all those fallin' rocks 😂)

He's a metal cockroach (which is an insult to cockroaches, and for that I apologize), but then again, with the way he takes on damage inconsistently in G1, I don't even fraggin' know guys. (-_-)ゞ

(This bitch survived an explosion powerful enough to move Cybertron, yet panicked over “antimatter” energon)

(He also didn’t give a frag over the same concern in “War of the Dinobots”—)

Um...maybe cuz his alt mode is a denser state to be in, he's more durable and can withstand harder impacts?

My brain: Wait, so shouldn’t he be heavier after all or—?

My heart: Shuddup, it’s science fiction. Enjoy it. We don’t need to get lectured on physics.

Brain: But this is my way of enjoying it—

Heart: SHUSH!

I mean he transformed into his alt mode to save himself when he fell off a cliff in the Marvel comics…and still sustained brain damage. :/

Yeah, we ain't half-battlin' scrap with that info, Duke, and that's why we pick our battles. Wisely.

*Proceeds to list gun mode advantages in no particular order*

Ok, this? This is the creative/fun alt mode s**t I wanna see more of, Hasbro!

You wanna know the reasons/ways in which the alt mode Teletraan I bestowed upon him can be strategic/useful/just plain fun, dammit? (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ 📷❗️

He shouldn’t need to worry about wastin’ the valuable energy he’s savin’ for a fight with Op, since his Seekers can easily fly him to wherever they gotta go in their cockpits (along with the rest of the High Command who also have small alt modes excluding Star, what a coincidence)

Yeah, with the way he tires out during crucial moments in this war (with it bein’ an energy crisis, and oh, the human allies providin’ energy to the Autobots), if he just stayed in his alt mode as much as possible, and continued orderin' everyone around that way, “only the idiots would question” him, as he can put it

In short, the less he can do in order to conserve energy, the more of a chance he’ll have to win for once lol

That indeed means someone else with high-quality optical sensors, who’s committed to the cause, aimin’ and pullin’ the trigger for him

When you’re in a battle, and it’s chaotic as hell, what are your optics gonna draw to? The weapon? Or the enemy that’s holdin’ the weapon?

Oh, most Cybertronian laser weapons come in neutral colors?

Well scrap, good luck spottin’ him

I think it gets even worse when he mass shifts to scale with a human’s hand, as the smaller he gets, the harder it’ll become to locate/hit him as a target. Then you gotta worry about human civilians, and oh boy—

Apparently, all the energy that’s in his barrel ends up bein’ more concentrated, precise and deadly than in his scope (the fusion cannon), which is also detachable

Yeah, a barrel def ain’t fraggin’ detachable lmao

If Starscream starts actin’ up, once again, Megs can just go into a Seeker’s cockpit and conduct business in there

Nova Storm would be a damn good choice too, since if they can survive the chromosphere, it could mean that (in order to get to that layer) they can survive the much hotter corona of the Sun

We're talkin' millions of degrees Fahrenheit/over 200,000 degrees Celsius here, so maybe take advantage of that sometime 😑

Yeah, Star couldn’t any give less of a scrap about other Seekers (or anyone) the same way Megs couldn’t, but neither of ‘em wanna make it that obvious, ya know?

Eh, I guess his alt mode is a good way for him to sharpen his stealth skills

(Obviously it’s not his style, but it’s like swimmin’. Even if you aren’t a fan of pools/the ocean, you should still know how to swim if given the chance, just in case)

Like seein’ a camera, or a microcassette recorder (in the 80s) is normal, even neat, but if there’s one thing you never wanna see, it’s a gun. So humans conceal them

I think that’s a good enough motivator for Megs (who loves a challenge, don cha know?) to finally suck it up and start takin’ that s*** seriously

Cuz idk, if human militaries start armin’ themselves with Cybertronian tech (*sighs* as if nukes weren’t enough), he’s gonna need to know how to hide from humanity’s wrath, just sayin’

Can’t hide a tank as easily no matter how much ya camouflage ‘em (still love that alt mode tho, so triple changer Megs all the fraggin' way y'all)

Oh in that situation, every Decepticon with a large alt mode would be screwed, huh? 😂

He can try and lure a human without an amplified voice in order to… best case scenario have Reflector steal all their MLP merch

Or he can choose to indulge in the art of scarin' the absolute s**t outta people (can't easily sneak up on a human as a giant robot, can ya?)

If Megs is for whatever reason merely incapacitated during a battle, someone can flip him over the same way Prime did in "The Insecticon Syndrome" to transform him—and either hightail it outta there (once again, smaller target to hit), or use him, well, as a goddamn weapon

Trust me, he won't mind

This also works for when he gets drunk and passes out

Cuz gettin' severely injured instead, means that flippin' him over might be too risky, hence why Soundwave carried him in robot mode in the movie (if Megs can't move his limbs, that's a bad sign)

Enemies: So, the rumors are true: your leader really is smaller than a minicon. (Lol he must be weak—) *Continue makin’ a bunch of assumptions*

Skywarp: *Looks around* I give it 20 astroseconds. *Tosses Megs + teleports away*

Enemies: What—? *Get mercilessly demolished cuz they let their guard down/got distracted smh*

Skywarp: *Teleports back* Mmm, 20…3.

*Gets lightly hit in the arm* Ow—

Megatron: You count too fast.

/ Y'all, if Skywarp was a better fighter/gunslinger combined with his teleportation... he would cook fr

Nervous turned super confused new recruit: *Stops bowing* Wait, he’s the gun? The leader of the Decepticons?

Skywarp: *Holding Megs* Mm-hmm. Here, take him.

New recruit: *Stares* That’s Megatron?

Skywarp: Yep, in the metal. Take him. Just don’t shoot yet, got it?

New recruit: Yet? Is that allowed? Can he—? Are you sure, or is this some kind of trick?

Skywarp: Yep, yep and soon, yep—I-I mean no—I mean—

Just say “test” next time. *Stuffs him into their arms + adjusts* There.

New recruit: ( ´･_･`)

Skywarp: Feel different?

New recruit: *Looking down* I don’t understand.

Skywarp: See, that’s the best part: you don’t need to understand anything, just that if you do as he says, and you have good aim, you’ll stay in one piece. Isn’t that great? :D

He needs us just as much as we need him. Simple as that.

New recruit: *Thoughtful + in awe* Yeah… (人´∀`)

I-I’m sorry sir, this is just such a huge honor—

Megatron: Oh no, the honor's all yours.

New recruit: Really? (Oh right—) Sir?

Megatron: Why, of course. You should be commended for making such a wise decision.

Many do not, and for that our planet bears the brunt of their weakness.

New recruit: How many?

Megatron: Don’t worry, they will repent in time, for the fate of Cybertron is in your very servos.

Skywarp: *Ruining it* Well not just your servos, but the many servos of…um…“like-minded individuals”. :D

Megatron: Skywarp.

Skywarp: You’re gonna be fine.

I should go, I’ll just go, you know, with…things to do, and… Peace. *Teleports*

Megatron: We can get things done too, yes?

New recruit: Yessir.

Megatron: *Slips away from their hands + transforms* Good, we'll start now.

New recruit: *Gets led away* O_O

/ Aw, what a nice, smart and humble leader who just wants to save his home planet from all the stupid robots 🥺

Hey, when you get to know him, you’ll realize that he’s actually so down-to-earth, and he'll even literally give himself to you because he cares that much and doesn't want you to be so helpless

He fights and works so hard for everyone and our home, that it's only fair for us to do the same, right? How can he possibly be a bad guy?

Yeah, he can get angry and touchy sometimes, and make costly mistakes sometimes, but he's just stressed, everyone gets stressed

They just don't get it and refuse to even try, and everyone is suffering as a result :(

They're the problem, not us, and they keep getting in our way

Our way is the only way that matters. Their ways are scrap

They. Are. Scrap. And should be treated as such

They should suffer, just as much as they’ve made us suffer

And that, my friends, is how your spark/soul becomes his to handle 😄

(Frag yeah, peace through tyranny! ( •̀ ᴗ •́ )و)

10. Like this. ‘Nuff said

No seriously, ‘nuff said—this post’s long enough as it is. 😅

I know I’ll come up with more gun mode s***, but for now, I’m just gonna arm myself with an eraser and await the death stick.

PS: You know what? Tank mode's funnier.

#unhappy late builtday #ya magnificent silly bastard #*dumps confetti on him* 🥳//🪣#there *picks him up*#happy now?#*gets impaled in the abs by his detaching silencer*#ever the appreciative sadist megs... ☝️#*collapses*#megatron: that's for having no cake #reflector: i made cake :) 🎂#both: *proceed to feast on energon cake over the body*#maccadam #transformers #megatron #tf g1 #transformers g1 #transformers generation one #megatron gun mode #maccadams

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autism-connoisseur · 2 months ago

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and and like. last thing. but they could've pulled off making alice and jervis siblings if they had kept it platonic and committed to exploring family obsessions & co-dependency. think supernatural. but more unrequited? it could have been GOOD. an exploration of a somewhat underused dynamic AND it could've kept him off-putting or whatever without making him straight up incestuous.

i have yet to see how they make their dynamic ever though i am Not looking forward to it lol but idk. make them orphans, make jervis the oldest (or maybe twins?) and make him feel like he needs to be responsible for her from a young age. make him grow up too quickly and have him struggle with mental illness while keeping his sister safe. make the weight of his reality too heavy and cruel, have him escape into wonderland books to cope with how unfair his situation is.

not necessarily they need to be homeless, maybe in an orphanage, or going from foster family to foster family cause they don't want to burden themselves with two kids too grown or who aren't willing to be apart or with jervis' schizophrenia (it doesn't usually manifest until mid-20's but then again it doesn't usually completely consume the person the way it consumes jervis in every version, if you couple it with maladaptive daydreaming you're set and anyways this is gotham lol).

make him rely on his sister because she's the only thing he's ever known to stay, make his efforts to keep her innocent as much as possible and allow her to be a child the way he couldn't be turn into this perpetual conception of her as, well, childish innocence and wonder; make him feel like he needs her because his whole life has been about protecting and guiding her, make him feel like reality is dull and bleak without her because he's put every ounce of fun into the time he spends with her and everything else just reminds him of how hopeless and grey reality is. start the comparison to alice from the book and make him start to see himself as the mad hatter, and think it's alright as long as they're together cause a tea party can be just them two.

make her want her own life without him, make her acknowledge that yes, he took care of her, but she's old enough now, and he's just using her to feel good about himself, because he's constructed his identity around her needing him, and she doesn't need him anymore. have her run away, eventually, because he wouldn't understand. make this her going down the rabbit hole, in a way: bored and tired of her older sibling and his book she escapes somewhere new and exciting where she can be herself (the same way it happens in the book).

from then it can be the same: he follows her because he needs her, there's a hole in his life that she left, he needs that special companionship, she refuses to return because he was smothering her, he can't accept that, he hypnotizes someone else to replace her but it isn't her, etc. it would mean none of the other alices would have that romantic implication or whatever and he wouldn't pick them because he likes her like that, rather cause they inspire more of a need to protect in him? which is what he wants from her? someone to take care of, someone who wants him to take care of them and would do it in return?

and sure it deviates from the comics but a) so does making them RELATED and b) the whole rogues gallery is here and bruce hasn't even hit puberty. he's going up against the court of owls at the ripe age of 14 no one here cares about accuracy to comics. like it could have been done :/ and if they weren't willing to do it then WHY MAKE THEM RELATED IN THE FIRST PLACE???

#pau rambles #pau liveblogs gotham #jervis tetch #alice tetch #mad hatter #gotham

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dr-tonytonychopper · 11 months ago

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top 4 strongest benders of each element and top 4 most powerful nonbenders bc ur all WRONG

avatar not included bc THATS A GIVEN

fire

iroh: i think a lot of people just give strongest to azula or ozai bc of their feats and power but personally i think it’s iroh because he’s more level headed than azula and more carefree than ozai which i believe is what makes firebending

azula: she’s a beast but by the end of the series and in the comics she’s not the most mentally stable person y’know. we see it all the time in both shows aang got scared he lost the little firebending he has, zuko loses his way, mako is scared and can’t bend with one of his arms, as bad as it is if she doesn’t get better she’s gonna have to face the consequences.

ozai: most of ozai’s feats come from being calculated not his actual abilities and the only people i remember him fighting are actually 13 and 12 so…..

MAKO: WE SEE MAKO DO EVERYTHING IROH CAN DO IN SMALLER FEATS AND SUDDENLY HES THE WORST THERE EVER WAS. in all seriousness makos precision and quick reflexes make him a great bender. also in republic city hustle he’s already mastered lighting bending at 15 making him younger than both ozai and iroh who mastered it as adults and don’t bring up zuko

air

jinora: her connection to the spirits and mastering airbending at 11 makes her a great airbender

tenzin: molly whooped zaheer

zaheer: got molly whooped by a 50 year old bald man

kai or bumi: they’re fast learners idk

water

katara: katara becomes a master over the course of the year and shows great skill with not only with traditional bending but with healing and blood bending.

ming hua: she has no arms idk what to tell you idk how she does it

tonraq: MOLLY WHOOPED ZAHEER

eska and desna: they’re fast benders and have impeccable battle chemistry that no one can beat

earth(might ruffle some feathers)

toph: created her own bending style and becomes a master at the age of 12. has some intense battle chemistry with everyone from team avatar and has some impressive moments.

lin: was taught by and trained by toph and is an impressive metal bender. she doesn’t have as many impressive moments as everyone else and because of her age and already being a master we don’t really see her grow as a bender but more as a person

kuvira: an immovable object meets an unstoppable force. kuvira is a lot like lin in the sense as her growth is more focused on growing as a person and not on growing as a bender like everyone else her only downside is her lack of care. she sacrifices everything to take over republic city and is her greatest weakness.

bolin: this is what i think will make some people mad. bolin is an entirely self taught lavabender and just like mako his precision and accuracy makes him a great earth bender. Bolin and Mako’s fluid and untraditional styles of bending makes them great benders because everyone else we see are traditionally trained

nonbenders

ty lee

suki

mai

sokka and don’t even bring up asami

avatar

korra

kyoshi

aang

#legend of korra #korra #mako #bolin #asami sato #avatar the last airbender #aang #katara #sokka #toph beifong #zuko #azula #kyoshi #jinora #tenzin #lok kai #bumi #mai #ty lee #tonraq

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punkeropercyjackson · 2 months ago

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What's funny about Batcest defenders is they use the 'historical accuracy' excuse but Batcest hasn't actually had any longlasting,overt effect on Batlore or irl movements and thus is not a cultural aspect,neither to comics culture nor any other kinds of cultures.'Older gays thought of Robin and Batman as a gay metaphor in the early Batman comics days' is the one you'll hear the most but this was never a plot point in said runs and Bruce and Dick were established as having a mix between a brotherly bond and a father and son relathionship ever since Dick's debut issue and they were never written with anything but familial ties in mind and given no gay-coding that implied attraction to eachother specifically.Yes,Batman as a franchise frequently plays into camp but this was moreso in Bruce's gender presentation and mannerisms and interactions with his fellow male adult heroes and his villains like Clark and Harvey than anything to do with Dick.At the time these allegations were thrown,the awareness of children's rights and by extension what did and didn't count as child abuse was extremely low and inclined in favor of normalizing the latter due to the ageist dehumanization of kids and if you're going to include older gays' opinions on this,it's only fair you listen the younger gays of the time too lest you fall under the same ageist rethoric that got them abused-Or more specifically groomed,as what a romance within 'Batman and Robin' inherently is

It took literal decades for Batman and Robin to actually be written as a canon ship and the writer in question was ragingly racist at the time who very purposely employed romani heritage into the previously white Nightwing specifically to fetishize him further but has since apologized for this as well as her Batcest canonization,stating she was trying to cope with her own incestous csa trauma but went about it the wrong way.Tim/Cass was only canon pre-Cass adoption and discarded when the writers finalized they're decision to make Cass Bruce's adoptive daughter,Jason/Dick/Tim in any combo has zero canon depicitions despite there popularity,the closest thing to Damian Batcest is him brefriending a deaged Cass in the Harley Quinn 2019 comics but even then we're not truly given anything beyond friendship with them and Duke as an official Batkid has far more pagetime and grounding than any Batcest ship.And yet........So many Batcest shippers defend the erasure of the first ever black Robin,a legitamely revolutionary and major Bat-Addition and Batfact that is treated as such in-universe by the narrative(and by Jason 'I see a black boy and imma ride with and for him typa beat' Todd)and out of universe by black DC fans,as if the words of 'queer elders' they never met and were dangerously very possibly actual en masse pedophiles are more important to them that of black Batfans who exist with them,us and you today

If you were to bring up the Batfam to someone irl,their first thought would be 'Oh,it's Batman and his kids!!!',not to start talking about ships of them.In my experience,through cultural osmosis most people who don't read comics already know The Batkids are siblings and are puzzled,shocked and disgusted when they find out people ship them.Batman and Robin/Batgirl are not known as an 'otp' but as a dad and son/daughter duo almost universally even to non-superhero fans and it's pretty widely aknowledged in the case of Batgirl specifically they're a bad ship that ruins her character by reducing her down to a love interest for an older man according to those who've only watched animated adaptions and most of all by those who're heavily invested in Babs as a character i.e dedicated enough to read her comics.It's almost like.......Batcest is a defect,not a feature,and only comes along when bad writing strikes.........and is fueled by bigotry rather than queerness as seen by the racism in it's first insertion,the misogyny in the cishet versions and the antiblackness by the posers in the fandom..........and that trying to prove it as 'historically accurate' is something only done by chronically online predominantly white gooners with intersectionality issues who use gaslighting as their tactic...........Who woulda thunk incest wasn't actually an intentional element in a mantle created to be an escapist fantasy for children first and foremost,which is a legit kept historical part of it as seen by DC refusing to let anybody who's 18 or over hold it to the point of keeping Tim eternally 17........That's crazyyyyyy

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differentcoloredcontacts · 6 months ago

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Class b opinion on quirkless classmate? Like are some treating them like glass, some who think they shouldn’t be a hero, others who admire them or respect them, etc

Not proofread we die like men

Awase - he gives off the same energy as the kid that grew up really racist that mostly grown out of it but hasn't really nailed what is and isnt okay to say ya know? Hes cool with them but every now and then he will say something absolutely crazy about them being quirkless. White grandpa saying the nword randomly vibes but in a good way ykyk?

Sen - im sorry sen fans but hes a bit of an asshole. He would probably try to pick a fight by saying to their face how weak they are. Not necessarily because he has some vendetta against quirkless people but because he was just always told by everyone he looked up to that they were weaker. It would take some serious work to change his mind

Kamakiri - he will probably think theyre weak until they do something to prove themselves in some way like beat him or someone stronger in a fight or something like that. After they do that though he isn't letting anyone talk shit about them

Kuroiro - he writes some dramatic ass poetry about them being quirkless so he can try to 'better understand what theyre going through' he gives the poem to them so they can check its accuracy lmao

Kendo - at first she will feel a bit of a need to protect them but it dosent take long for her to realize that they are at UA for a reason and they dont need to be treated like some defenseless citizen

Kodai - shes a pretty neutral person about everything but even she was a bit surprised when she found out her classmate was quirkless. She didnt want to protect them since they were here for a reason but she cant help herself from feeling like theyre weaker.

Komori - at first shes a bit surprised that someone quirkless managed to get into the hero course but other than that she doesn't care. She treats them the same way she treats everyone else

Shiozaki - she definitely feels a need to protect them (at least for a little while) and it takes her quite a while to realize that they are just as capable as a hero as herself and the rest of her classmates despite not having a quirk

Shishida - hes probably a bit sad for them. Like he feels bad that they dont have a quirk like its a bad thing or something simply because he cant imagine life without having one ykyk? He thinks hes being nice when trying to help them or by trying to sympathize with them saying to stay strong or whatever when hes not helping in the slightest

Shoda - he treats them like someone that needs protection for a long while and it probably takes them beating his ass in training for him to change his mind.

Pony - she doesn't really care tbh. As long as theyre nice she likes them and treats them how she treats everyone else. They probably end up being good friends ngl

Tsubaraba - he tries to show off his quirk in a 'i can protect you' kind of way but it just comes off a bit ass-hole like. He dosent mean any harm but hes a bit stupid when it comes to certain things. He does definitely think his quirkless classmate is weaker but hes probably proven wrong quite quickly lmao.

Tetsutetsu - he dosent care that theyre quirkless. I mean this is a hero school that only the best can get into so if anything hes impressed asf and thinks its super manly

Tokage - shes a little skeptical at first but over time she gets more used to them and becomes pretty good friends with them. It does take a little bit though only because or internal prejudice against quirkless people because of how she was raised (we love fantasy racism here)

Manga - he honestly didnt know they were quirkless for a while. He just thought they didnt like to show off their quirk or it was something people couldn't really see. After he found out he made a mini comic about a quirkless hero because he found the idea of a quirkless hero cool :)

Honenuki - he is so nice i swear. He not only treats them the same way he treats everyone else but he makes sure he knows their abilities so he can accurately determine if they can do something on their own or if they need help. Ykyk

Bondo - he was definitely worried for them for a while (probably still is) but he dosent vocalize it or even act on it at all. He knows they are very capable and he feels a little guilty for thinking this way but at the end of the day they are still quirkless and theres a lot they couldn't do that quirk users probably could.

Monoma - he uses his quirkless classmate as leverage against class A. He will walk up and say shit like 'your class is so weak that my quirkless class mate could beat the shit out of anyone in your class.' And they will just be behind him, trying to get him to stfu

Reiko - she is the queen of not giving a fuck. As long as they can prove themselves then she dosent care about them being quirkless. Shes probably one of the only ones that treats them as she would anyone else straight out of the gate

Rin - hes probably a bit skeptical at first honestly but he quickly realizes that they are just as capable as anyone else despite being quirkless. Hes tries not to treat them differently since theyre quirkless but he finds it hard to not ask about it since hes curious about how they live as one of the only people without a quirk

Gif anime - frieren: beyond journeys end

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room-of-lies · 25 days ago

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safamapiley dump ples. for the soul

THANK YOU FOR ENABLING ME, YOU WILL REGRET IT!

what I'm about to ramble about is majorly based on me and my friends' interpretations, theories and headcanons of these characters and how I imagine they're hypothetical relationship would pan out under the conditions we're presented with in-game! To put it shortly—I don't rly care about canon accuracy or if any of the relationship potential would be somehow ruined by the new chapter coming out, I'm having fun :3

With that little disclaimer outta the way, HI.

Why do I see potential in safamapiley as a polycule?

Well let's start with the fact Maple is a character who's narrative largely revolves around love. The love program is the only thing keeping her from killing Hiyori who well. didn't exactly treat her Well.. Alongside this, Emiri is another character with an implied tragic love life! In ch 3 dialog it's revealed she previously had a fiancé who went mad (I could go on all day about my thoughts on this specific thing and how I imagine their relationship went down but that's a tangent for another day) so it's safe to say either through death or divorce, he is no longer in her life as now she is dedicated to asunaro. Where things differ slightly is with Michiru, while not directly related to something involving relationships, was implied to be easy to convince to join asunaro, essentially having nothing to lose and everything to gain. Implied to be lonely, easy to convince to join something as shady as asunaro.. with those outlooks on life, you have 3 lonely, fucked up women who could all make each other sooooo much worse <3

It's stated that Hiyori considers Emiri to be scary, this line of thinking kinda made me wonder what she might have done to give him this opinion but I like to think she just sorta. hates him honestly! and with this, Maple essentially being doomed to love someone who would never love her back would honestly make Emiri pity her, perhaps even resent Hiyori for his treatment of her since. as someone who was once in love and lost it, seeing someones heart toyed with in this way is rage inducing AND . This is a weaker point but in the sillier media like the anthology comics shes shown to act uncharacteristically sweet to someone like shin… who ppl often draw parallels to maple :3

This brings us to the even more tragic side of things, in particular: Michiru’s involvement in creating technology and her associations with the ais such as rio (and ai-ceiver) with this association, it’s not too far of a stretch to think perhaps she helped in part to create or maintain Maple! Therefore knowingly allowing something she considered living continue to suffer under an unrequited love she had no choice in feeling… and while Michiru can be cruel, we see in the memory machine game end she’ll gladly allow someone to sacrifice their sound mind for her—she IS remorseful! So. Queue her being a bystander, this beautiful killing machine deluded with something she can never have all for the sake of HER company’s game… all in the name of keeping hiyori alive. I love yuri that hurts what can I say <3

A similar sentiment could be drawn to Emiri, though her associations with technology are more focused on the puzzles, executions and death traps (if we consider the silly 4KOMA) and her association with the ais is less of a factor… the most we can see about her thoughts on whether the ais are alive would be how she commands the wrigglers around like they’re her henchmen or attack dogs ehehe…

All this is to say:

there is a genuine argument to be made that both michiru and emiri would be sympathetic to maple, maple might even be appreciated company in asunaro because she’s not a floormaster like them, not a researcher—something almost not associated with asunaros dealings, merely a cog unknowingly turning… on the flip side of this, I think Michiru and emiri would have a much more antagonistic dynamic if you take the fact they were brought into the company under much different circumstances.. that’s not to say they can’t be good company for one another. Emiri would initially see michiru as an easy target, only to possibly unearth her more twisted nature under her emotional guise… as well as Michiru recognising the desperation within Emiri as someone possibly Wanting To Forget Something Terrible That May Have Happened With her Fiancé <3 it’s normal to possibly want to experiment on another woman, only leaving her happy memories, no? I mean, she has nothing left to lose. Much like Michiru herself ^^ two sides of a horrible little coin!

As for scenarios involving all three I particularly enjoy:

Maple still in love program in pre-canon, not understanding the joy she feels when talking with the other two but still trying to get close to them (the guys of asunaro are sooo boring when it comes to what she’s interested in talking abt… at least the women will indulge her and not run off like hiyori). Michiru stewing in guilt every time she talks to maple, wanting to find some way around the love program, while trying to not have a nervous breakdown over emiris incessant teasing and Emiri resigning herself to her fate to never being able to truly get close to Maple, so she may as well enjoy their company (not without a little discomfort at Any mention of His name) as well as teasing Michiru as unlike maple, she Is able to understand her emotions as well as just loving to watch her squirm and possibly lift that miserable little mask of hers to show how truly deranged she is <3

A post canon scenario where Maple gets repaired, slowly having to heal while mourning love that was never within her control while Michiru and Emiri sort of feel conflicted as to how to approach being romantic with her considering how much hiyori effected her... also it takes a while to repair her body so she's monitor-bound for a good while. Emiri is more open to trying to give maple a better example of a relationship (out of spite almost. lmao) but considering she is the way she is.. her attempts are a bit clumsy and sometimes do more bad than good.. while Michiru is more focused on giving Maple the chance to explore outside the facility once her body is repaired, though she worries over her experiencing how harsh the outside world can be (ironic because she literally lived in the DEATH game facility but u get my point) and also emiri and michiru are butting heads over this the entire time while picking up the pieces of what remains of asunaro. this may or may not be the silly little post-game au I've been cooking in my brain for a while now. dw abt it

I feel bad for having gone on so long so I'll cut it here, apawlogies for yapping so much i'm not. normal <3 thank you again for allowing me to be insane for a bit :D

#as a little side note: I particularly like they're dynamic as a polycule but some of my friends are major fans of the more specific dynamics #specifically @datastate for safamaple and @logicroute for mapiley!! I also love these pairings dearly but if u want specifics ask them :3 #a lot of the headcanons here are stuff they've mentioned to me that have made me go fucking insane!#I'm not giving this another read over its too long if theres spelling or grammatical errors u can yell at me in asks <3 #safamapiley #maple #maple yttd #sue miley #tia safalin #michiru namida #emiri harai #meowdy!#ask #yttd #your turn to die

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newbatmanfan19 · 2 months ago

Text

Heyyyy so this is a draft of a draft of a chapter for a fic I’m writing. I did my best to make it work as a one-shot but some context for those who want it: It’s an AU focused on Helena Bertinelli. In this fic, she is the biological child of Bruce and Selina, but was given up for adoption by Selina, Bruce does not know about this kid (in Selina’s defense, she didn’t know where he was at the time.) Helena’s adopted father is not particularly fond of her so he sent her away to Saint Mary’s School for Troubled Girls, which turned out to be doing dealings with the Joker. Joker knows who Helena is (people talk in Gotham) so he kidnapped her and told her who her bio-parents were. She was eventually rescued by Batman and Robin!Jason and returned home… only to be sent to Healing Trails Academy six months later. Soooo Helena burns the place down and takes a little girl named Christina with her… hopefully you see my vision for this.

Christina is basically an OC but technically very loosely based on the Italian reporter featured in the Huntress comics. Helena is also basically an OC in terms of personality but I try to infuse as many canon elements as possible. That being said, I am going for accuracy in my portrayal of the rest of the characters (well, fanon accuracy for some, selective canon accuracy for others) I’d love some feedback/constructive criticism or even just general suggestions if anyones interested! This is my first batfam fic and I have spent almost two years getting to know these characters to prepare to write this but there are so many characters to learn :=[

CW: mentions of child abuse (I think that’s all)

…

Meeting Catwoman

Helena hadn’t meant to go following in her biological mothers footsteps quite so closely, but when the need arose, she wasn’t sure what else to do. If it had just been her, maybe she could get by on petty thievery and her wits, but it wasn’t just her. She had Christina to provide for and try to raise, even if Helena was only three years her senior. At only thirteen, it wasn’t like she could go out and get a job. No one Helena thought was worth working for would give one to her. She wasn’t particularly fond of having to resort to crime, but at least she was working for herself and not some skeezy crime lord.

It started simple, nabbing a wallet off an unsuspecting business man or snatching whatever was sticking out of a senile old lady’s grocery bags. Helena quickly found she had inherited her mothers talent for pick-pocketing, and she couldn’t deny the thrill it gave her to do so, as much as she wanted to hate every second of it.

Then, things escalated. She started breaking into some of the nicer houses in Gotham to grab jewels and trinkets, and from there…

Well, she started stepping on Catwoman’s claws.

It was fully intentional, Helena could admit that to herself. She wanted the Cat’s attention. As long as she kept up the jewel heists, it was only a matter of time before she ran into her mother. Helena just hadn’t anticipated it happening quite so quickly. She only just got her suit together, courtesy of Christina.

The moment she got her hands on the absolutely enormous diamond sitting on a nice, velvety pillow, she felt a presence behind her.

“Now, just what do you plan on doing with that after you steal it?”

Helena froze. Even with her back turned, she knew exactly who was speaking to her. After all the scheming she did just to get her mother in the same room as her, she hadn’t quite planned on what to do when she actually got face-to-face with the woman.

She recovered, grabbing the diamond and slipping it into one of the many hiding places Christina had sewn into Helena’s suit. She was certainly crafty with a sewing machine, that one. Then, Helena turned to face her mother, for the very first time in her whole life.

Catwoman was a sight to behold, Helena decided. She practically oozed confidence and charisma, even just standing there. Hands on her hips, staring expectantly at the young girl in front of her. Helena noted that her suit was remarkably similar to Selina’s, an intentional choice by Christina, no doubt. She was glad they were in the masks, Helena knew from her mild stalking of her parents that she was the spitting image of Selina, one look at her unmasked face and the Cat would know.

“Sell it?” Helena hadn’t intended for her response to come out as a question, but to be fair she never really planned on doing anything with it. She would have probably ended up returning it eventually.

The jewels she stole from houses were a dime a dozen. Expensive, but nothing precious, easily taken by the pawn shop owners who didn’t ask questions. Even if they did, she could come up with a story. But this diamond was sitting in a museum under several layers of (really, easily cracked) security for a reason. It was recognizable, she’d need to do dealings with some shady people in order to get rid of it, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to do that.

“Oh yeah? Who to?” Catwoman’s smirk grew even wider, if that was possible.

“None of your business.”

Catwoman sighed at that. She looked Helena up and down, crossing her arms in front of her as she eyed the girl, and for a moment Helena worried she was going to try to do something like fight her for it. She didn’t.

Instead, she held out her hand, palm facing up. “Come on, hand it over. What else are you going to do with it?”

Helena scoffed, like she actually thought she would give up that easily.

“Finders keepers. I got here first.”

“What are you anyway? Robin’s new arch nemesis or something?”

“You ask a lot of questions.” Helena complained rather flatly. “I’m nobody's nothing. I’m just… a stray.”

“I can see that. Kids with parents don’t go running around committing grand larceny.” She sounded smug, so smug. What did she have to be so smug about?

I have parents. One of them is standing right in front of me.

Helena swallowed her protests and leveled a glare at the Cat instead. Catwoman narrowed her eyes at her and if Helena wondered if she was sizing her up before, she was sure of it now.

“You got someplace to go, kid?”

Helena scoffed even louder that time. How ironic. The woman who gave her up for adoption was now trying to take her in off the streets. Not that she could accept the offer, one look at Helena’s unmasked face and Selina would know exactly who she was. Bruce may be oblivious, but she had the advantage of actually knowing Helena existed in the first place. And if she knew who Helena was, well, she already got rid of her once.

“Do I look like I don’t have a place to go?”

“Maybe. You’re resourceful, I’ll give you that. Took down the security system before I even got here.” Catwoman started circling Helena, this time she was examining the suit, as opposed to the girl herself. “That suit is something, but you should really get some kevlar if you want in on the business. I know a guy.” She stopped once she was back in front of Helena. “You’re what? Twelve?”

“I’m almost fifteen!”

Okay, her birthday was 11 months away, so maybe not almost, but still.

Selina was satisfied with that answer, satisfied she got some information out of Helena.

“So is that what I’m supposed to call you? Stray?” For the first time in their conversation, Selina dropped the smirk and seemed genuine, showing some respect for the little thief.

“If you would be so kind.” Helena responded, trying to muster up some of her mothers charisma in her smile.

The sound of glass breaking echoed into the hall they were standing in, followed by the voice of Robin chastising Batman.

Uh-oh.

Helena was not prepared to be seeing both of her parents that night. Nor was she prepared to be captured by one of them.

“Aaand that’s my cue. Sorry, gotta blast. As ‘mistah J’ likes to say, the Bat spoils all the fun!” Helena adopted Harley’s thick Brooklyn accent as she mocked the nickname. “But I’ll get back to you on that armor thing. In exchange–” Helena slipped the diamond out of its pocket and tossed it to Catwoman. “Thanks!”

Really, it was more of a survival tactic than a show of good faith, Batman was far less likely to follow Helena if she didn’t keep the jewel. She grappled up to a nearby vent and made her escape, she’d be back out on the street in less than a minute, and soon after that, she’d be far, far away from the scene. If Catwoman chose to inform Batman of Helena’s presence, she’d be long gone by the time she got done explaining. Though Helena thought she probably wouldn’t, she’d be too busy flirting.

Helena was happy, meeting her mother had gone about as well as she could have hoped for. Maybe Catwoman would be willing to take Stray under her wing, show her the ropes. It was the closest thing to a mother-daughter relationship Helena thought she could hope for. Fantasies of them working together on heists filled her mind as she made her way back to the abandoned theater she lived in with Christina.

Christina had proved herself as a valuable asset in more ways than one. She found the abandoned theater and suggested they live in it back when they first escaped from Healing Trails. Helena thought it was creepy, but seeing as they didn’t have any other prospects, she agreed. Christina loved it, and that’s what mattered. Plus it had the sewing machine she ended up using for Helena’s suit, so it was a win-win. Helena thanked God for the younger girls theater background. That and her unrelenting nosiness that helped greatly in digging up information on Helena’s parents.

When Helena got back to the theater, she found Christina in the green room asleep on the mattress Helena had bought with the spoils from her last break-in. After changing out of the suit and into pajamas, she tried to slip in beside her without waking her, but Christina always woke up. She still had nightmares about the academy almost every night, and she would wake up at the drop of a feather.

“How did it go?” A small, groggy voice asked.

“Good, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. Go back to sleep. I’m tired.” Helena yawned as she settled in next to her pseudo-sister.

“Can I see it?” Christina shimmied around so that she was facing Helena, the light coming in from the one tiny window in the room shined on her face, showing her little blue eyes and her freckles.

“I didn’t get the diamond.”

“I thought you said it went good.” Christina pouted slightly and Helena pushed a blonde hair out of her face.

“I met my mom.” She replied simply.

Christina lit up. “Really? Did she like you?”

“I think so, but that’s only because she doesn’t know who I am. Or maybe she just thought it was funny.” That time, it was Helena’s turn to pout.

“I don’t think that’s true, you know. There’s lots of reasons people give babies up for adoption. And if she’s really Catwoman, then maybe she gave you up to keep you safe.”

Helena wanted to believe Christina, she really did. But she was too young, her explanation sounding too… hopeful.

“Stellar job, that did.” She snorted. “If that's true, then all the more reason not to tell her who I am. If she gave me up to keep me safe, then she probably wouldn’t like what I’m doing right now very much.”

“You don’t even want to give her a chance? Maybe she misses you just as much as you miss her. Maybe she already knows who you are and that’s why she liked you!” Christina’s voice was practically pleading by that point. Helena understood, she was probably hoping that they’d both be taken in by Catwoman and be a proper family, complete with an actual parent.

“Maybe.” Helena conceded. “But I want to try to get to know her first. That way, if she doesn’t want me, then at least I got to spend time with her for a little while, yanno?”

“Yeah, I get it. But you really should try. You gotta give people a chance sometimes.” Christina yawned and turned back over onto her stomach. “Goodnight, Lena.”

“Sweet dreams.”

…

I hope you liked it ☺️ — I’ve been storyboarding for almost a year at this point (my timeline is air tight goddammit.) Also I did not come up with stray but I can’t find the OG post I saw about it!! If someone knows who originally came up with that idea please let me know so I can give creds!

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