#extended meta ramble

[the-elusive-soleil]

State of the Union: Curufin

So I have Thoughts about Curufin and his unnamed wife and their relationship in general

Most of which stem from my general assumption that Curufin wasn't dark and twisted from the beginning in Valinor--he just sees the world in a very particular way, and that perspective on the world ends up lending itself rather well to developing a dark side later on, but it didn't have to

(I tend to headcanon Curufin as having a highly analytical way of looking at the world; he's very, very good at figuring out all the little moving parts of something, at identifying root causes, at understanding what and how and why. For material things and devices and such, yes absolutely, but also eventually people and what makes them tick. And sometimes he can get a bit in his head about it and see people more as additional moving parts of the universe than as messy, feeling individuals, but in Aman he's got a handle on it and it's not causing problems)

Anyway

A lot of the headcanons I saw early on were of him and his wife having a falling out clear back in Aman (a la Feanor and Nerdanel) and her electing to stay behind either before Alqualonde or immediately after

And there's nothing wrong with those, they just don't...sit right with me

If we're running with the assumption that Curufin wasn't a horrible person from the word go, then let him have a healthy and happy marriage

Related to that, I also tend to question the assumption (perhaps based on the thought that Celebrimbor Had To Get The Niceness From Somewhere) that Curufin's wife was all sweetness and light and an overall sharp contrast to his own personality

It just seems more likely and more interesting to me that he would fall for someone who sees the world similarly to how he does, that that would be something they bond over and that she sees as a feature, not a bug

I don't necessarily want her to also be a smith/inventor/maker, because then we're veering dangerously close to just having Curufin but female

So someone with a different craft/profession, but who approaches it the same way that he does his making of things

For your consideration, a scenario:

Curufinwe doesn't usually go hunting with Tyelko, but he is good at it when he wants to be (strong pattern recognition makes for a good tracker) and so he happens to be out with him the day Tyelko falls and breaks a bone

It's nothing life-threatening, but it is serious enough that they need to seek out a healer

(Perfect paradise or no, I refuse to believe that there wasn't any call for Amanyar healers; you know the Noldor picked up plenty of injuries in pursuit of their crafts, to say nothing of the Teleri's boating accidents)

And usually the healers they've dealt with before have tended towards nurturing and coddling and sternly admonishing whichever of them is injured to take better care of themselves next time, but not this one

[guess I'm gonna need a name let's go with] Cestanolwe

just calmly sets the bone and gets it splinted/cast/whatever, and she sets Tyelko up with painkillers, and she's not brusque but she is. businesslike. She doesn't fuss or carry on or insist on pity that Tyelko doesn't want--although she does have quite a few questions on just how he broke the bone in the first place

She and Curufinwe get to talking, and it turns out she's really into studying the way bodies work and all the different weird things they do and ways they can go wrong. Helping people is great, but she's in this for the scholarship and the discovery

When she's done with Tyelko, her parting care instructions are less like a normal healer's chiding and more like a craftsman's advice on this or that material's capabilities. Somehow this is actually more effective

Curufinwe is kind of in love with her right then and there

The funniest possible version of this is where he doesn't quite realize right away, but just keeps on coming up with excuses to see her again. His brothers haven't seen this much of him since he came of age and got unrestricted workshop time. When they run out of injuries, he shows up at the clinic with a severe burn

(Which was not on purpose, but also could probably have been avoided if he hadn't been distracted with why am I like this, what is going on and then an abrupt realization)

And Ceste had probably figured out what was going on around the third or fourth time he dragged a brother to see her, but now they're on the same page, and they really do get on like a house afire

They're a fun pair, because they are both so analytical and logical, and yet they are willing to mutually jump into the bonkers irrationality that is being in love, for each other

Eventually they get married, and come up with little Tyelpe. My dad!Curufin headcanons should be in their own post, but suffice to say: both of them love their son dearly and think he is amazing, and Tyelpe does not grow up in a cold and stifling household

Then the Oath happens

Ceste is very clear that she is not going to be left behind while her husband and son and assorted in-laws go off to war on another continent

I am not actually sure to what degree she might participate in the Alqualonde kinslaying. If she does participate, she would probably be better than average at the mechanics of killing (considering everyone involved has zero practical experience), but it would also significantly mess with her head because she is a person who fixes things, not someone who breaks them

She still sticks with it and continues to Middle-earth (although she doesn't do combat again)

And I think she makes it as far as the Dagor Bragollach before death finally catches her

And Beleriand had not been doing either of them any favors, but after she's gone, Curufin just sort of. stops trying to be anything but the worst version of himself, because what is the point

[ms-all-sunday]

What are your thoughts on the metaphorical utilization of masks used by different characters throughout water 7?

so ive never actually thought about this before outside of the acknowledgement that it's a factor. the most obvious being robin wearing a mask in almost all her more ghosty scenes in water 7, and then taking it off and the entire thing escalates further though with more honesty.

the three main characters of water 7 (robin, usopp, and franky) all wear notable masks. robin when she's going to murder the mayor, franky when we have a perception of him when he's putting up a front, and usopp when he becomes sniperking.

i think the most interesting use of the masks is the less obvious immediately one, when franky and usopp are wearing masks. franky is wearing a mask of weird toxic hyper masculinity the kind that you'd see from a gangster in a movie. we learn later that this is a front he puts up to protect the franky familys reputation, (which is a parallel to robin putting on a mask to save the strawhats) but the way he changes his personality to create a more confident version of himself that shows no weakness parallels usopps use of the same mask with sniperking. you could also argue that usopp is at least under the perception that hes saving the strawhats from having to care about him when putting on the sniper king mask, (i actually think he directly states this? its been a year since i saw the beginning of enies lobby and itll be a 4-5 month journey before i get to it on my rewatch please pray for me) and that robin is becoming more confident when she puts on the mask as well. (although as ive said before robin is a wonderful intuitive competent woman whos never actually used any of her skills for anything good. /loving). i think with robin and usopp theres more of an inherent lie in their confidence when they put on the mask because robin, while she presents herself as confident is very much not. (although i think shes a lot like luffy in this aspect where i think she is genuinely confident but is insecure about things that are very deeply meaningful to her and that drives them more than you would think because they seem confident everywhere else) and usopp is usopp. franky is confident but where his confidence lies is way different. its less that hes lying about being confident but more lying about the type of confidence he has. franky is the type of guy whos confident in bawling and hugging you so tightly you feel like youre going to explode. he doesnt have confidence like gang bege. franky wouldnt tell you to kill a guy

I really fucking love sniper king. i think in general sniper king is the best use of usopps character, because it highlights that lying is a good thing when it comes to him and his personality. sniper king allowed usopp to be there for his friends when he had to lie to himself to keep holding onto their relationship. lying in a lot if senses symbolizes usopps inherent want to hope for better things for himself that he thinks won't happen and i relate to that. a fucking lot. when usopp lies i think it speaks to an inherent hope and openmindedness for whatever hes lying about to be true. all of this is what usopps use of the sniper king mask represents, along with his want to be a hero type guy. (oh to be an antihero in an anime that wants actively to be the type of guy the protagonist is)

there is a gender aspect to it. like i think the reason usopp and franky wear the same mask is because of both of their relationships towards their masculinity and to further the idea that franky is everything usopp wishes he was in a lot of ways. i was like "why do people read usopp as transgender" a bit ago but then i realized it was a stupid question because. like usopp as a character is inherently tied to masculinity in a very trans way. i read fanfiction about this recently so I think I'm a scholar on it but zoro is very transguy in the sense he is masculine inherently but still feels a disconnect between him and masculinity despite that. very post transition transguy. whereas you look at usopp and you see like a pre transition transguy who feels like he has to inherently grow into masculinity and a lot of that is tied to for him a better stage in his mental health. (and im glad he eventually gets that post ts).

anyways back to the masks on the other hand i think theyre a lot like the lines in scott pilgrim. like the weirdo lines ramona gets when she's insecure about her relationship with scott due to past experiences. yes the 3 people who put them on really do change their behavior when they put them on but it's because of the same thing (past experiences influencing them to the point where they arent changing their behaviour in the present)

ALL of them being influenced by trauma

and usopp is the only one who can spin this as a positive utilization of the mask as opposed to franky and robin because of what we talked about previously (usopps lies are his hopes)

and i think usopp gets his "in his own head so much because of past experiences hes refusing to see the truth in the present" pre getting his sniperking mask. but because of how usopp works as a character, he wasnt in a mask there because to him because of his neuroses he sees that as the truth of who he is. i also think the "in his own head so much because of past experiences hes refusing to see the truth in the present" still applies to him as sniper king but ends up meaning something differently. because as sniper king he is not acknowledging the reality of his need to take accountability for the shit he started but instead reverting back to lies hes previously told for the sake of reverting temporarily to normalcy with his friends. (which is a positive in the sense nico robin is going to die but negative in terms of interpersonal accountability)

this is all to say its really good that you cant see usopp/franky/robin when they put on the mask. they are emotionally unavailable to the people around them like they're not even considering other people as a factor which continues the idea of the masks as something that turns kind people alien and shuts them off from whats happening around them. thank you for watching my thoughts develop in real time, anon.

[dreamersscape]

Does it feel like life is permanently set to extreme hard mode and I still feel super crappy greater than 90% of the time? Yup. But! Emboldened by our relative success with last year's tomatoes, we have given it another go and have added a little pepper plant friend for them. :)

(It may look like the peppers aren't doing as well as the tomatoes, but it cannot be overstated just how bananas this plant's growth chart has been; it's determined to escape the confines of its basket-cage; it has to be constantly rotated so it doesn't completely lose the battle with gravity; I only took this picture the other day and it already looks SO outdated. Can't stop, WON'T STOP.)

[ukelele-boy]

I was rereading some of my posts from 2021 and was reminded of how much meta I used to write so imma share my crazy headcanon/ theory which i thought up as plot for a revolution fic:

RR verse is on the "Olympus will fall" timeline and Zeus' actions are speeding it up.

In the recent decade there has been several great prophecies back to back. And people have remarked how weird it is that there have been so many. What if the reason is because of Zeus?

Remember, in greek mythology there is a major theme of how Your Fate Cannot Be Defied. And Zeus, king of Olympus, has a major Fate: being overthrown. However he managed to "defy" it by eating Metis.

My idea is that he has been forcefully clawing out a future where he is still king of Olympus. By doing this, he is literally changing the flow of fate. And obviously fate wants to correct itself, so the harder he fights it, the more counterforce he triggers. All prophecies meant to lead to his overthrowing are suddenly sped up. Olympus begins to lose power. Zeus is aware of this. He is also aware how people are becoming suspicious. And he needs a scapegoat. And who better than the god of prophecy who is also a threat to the throne?

Apollo mentions that Zeus blamed him for his oracle revealing a prophecy "too early" and therefore causing it to happen early. However, everyone knows it's not possible to actually cause a prophecy to happen early...so why would Zeus even have this weird line of thought? everyone probably dismissed it as Zeus being irrational, but there a juicier theory this ties into:

Apollo being the one to overthrow Zeus.

The idea of "fall of the sun, the final verse". What if this is the final prophecy that is meant to happen before Zeus is overthrown? And what if the fall this speaks of is actually when Apollo fell close to chaos? When he pulled himself together there?

What if he reformed different from his original godly form. He was literally almost gone, his body was disintegrating. Maybe he pulled himself together using the energies of chaos. Apollo himself isn't aware of this, due to a suspicious memory gap between him clawing up from the cliff and him waking up next to Artemis.

And this adds to another headcanon of mine, the fates choose Apollo to be the god of prophecy on purpose. At first glance, this is a horrible match. If they wanted a good servant, why would they choose someone so closely tied to his heart and so likely to fight fate? Someone who dares get them drunk just to extend a human's lifespan? UNLESS... they WANT him to eventually try and defy fate??

Imagine if fate was a compass and Zeus had forcefully wrenched the needle point at a bleak dark future where Olympus falls with him. And this river direction has been set so deeply in stone and run on for so long, it has worn a grove and become the mostly likely future.

you need someone willing to fight, someone to wrench the needle out. SOMEONE FAMILAR WITH FATE AND Prophecy. Someone who has the power to fight it and win. Someone who has the will. Perhaps a baby god who was willing to fight Python, and who would have likely died there. But if he successfully did take on the powers of prophecy, one day that same godling would fight Python again, would absorb the powers of chaos to recreate himself.

Perhaps not today and maybe not even for the next four thousand years

but one day that godling would stare down at that wretched compass hand and decide to yank the flow out of its place. And maybe, that godling means a chance for Olympus to have a different future.

Anyways that's my crazy theory i hope it wasn't too confusing. It also links up with my other story theme idea about fate, hope and apollo blah blah blah, which i rambled about in a different post.

Edit: just remembered my other crazy thought, what if ZEUS PURPOSEFULLY TRIED TO GET RID OF APOLLO NOT ONLY CAUSE HE IS A THREAT TO THE THRONE BUT ALSO BECAUSE AS THE GOD OF PROPHECY HE IS MOST LIKELY TO REALIZE SOMETHING IS WRONG AND THAT ZEUS IS MESSING WITH FATE?!???? Basically pulling a imma say you're the murderer before u realise im the murderer. (i cant remember the actual saying Lmaoo)

[dallasgallant]

Same sunset | Robert Frost and class

I was familiar with Robert Frost before reading the outsiders, and I’ve known one or two of his poems. Recently I was thinking about the Soc’s with a friend and comparing them to the Greasers when I made a metaphor and thought of this poem. Thought I’d formally break it down in a post.

Fire and Ice

I’ve talked about this a bit before in old metas such as [This] one and a few others, one I may have deleted to my dismay. [Here] [Here]

On the surface, much like the stereotypes for the groups one would assume Greasers to be Fire and Soc’s to be Ice. And that’s not entirely wrong. Greasers are fiery and reactionary — quick to a fight and constantly womping on each other let alone other people. Soc’s are much more reserved and uptight, cold, impersonal and calculated when it comes to their grudges and daily lives.

However, just beneath the surface… Greasers rely on their ability to ‘stay cool’ to take a second and completely neutralize themselves and appear tuff. Soc’s have a fire within them, burning and cruel and far more personal than they have any real right to be—

The poem is about the end of days, and one could argue… the hot and cold behavior and their fighting brings the end too. When their warfare explodes — first there is fire. Quick, reactionary bursts of emotion and violence that hardens into the ice of a war council based rumble. It turns cool but that cool is just as dangerous. The solidification of hate brings ruin. Brings death. Brings the end.

Following death it all stops. In this case it’s not the apocalypse but a stunned ceasefire of sorts, following both the rumble and the death on both sides. Now of course these emotions and hatred’s still smolder and fester, thus is human nature. There’s the chance for destruction again to rise from the coals of war or the icy stares.

I may be stretching a bit by connecting the poem, I just think it’s neat that it connects with metaphors I’d been rambling about for a while. Sorry this is mostly extended reading but it connects back to points I’ve already made and explored.

[dilfsonic]

PLEASE tell me more about Sonmetadow! Anything at all- headcanons, meta, just rambling about them, anything!!

Sorry this is so late!! But I wanted to answer this for a while.

> Metal gradually develops complicated feelings the longer he’s allowed close proximity with his organic copy. As an AI he learns constantly, but given he’s only ever around Eggman his emotionally intelligence can only go so far. The more he watches, learns from, and mimics Sonic, the more his emotional intelligence grows. And the more he ‘feels’ what Sonic feels (this headcanon is derived from a mix of the OVA movie from the 90s and modern iterations).

> In my au, Metal naturally forms feelings for Shadow because SONIC has feelings for Shadow first. Metal inadvertently mimics these emotions and they develop the longer Sonic’s emotions influence him. In turn he becomes influenced by Shadow’s feelings…it’s a never ending feedback loop, feeding into one another.

> Metal may mimic their emotions to begin with, but as he becomes more advanced, he comes to grasp his own uniquely complicated feelings. He hated Sonic, but it was a hate he was programmed with. When hardwiring meets fallible emotion— which comes out on top? That’s the question. He now can no longer tell if he wants to be his organic copy or if he wants to be WITH him. Sonic has a unique ability to the touch the core of those he empathizes with, and I think if he got past Metal’s hardwiring/if that was ever compromised, Metal has the potential to be the most touched by him.

> He’s still learning, he never ‘finishes’ developing and therefore his feelings are ever evolving, the more self aware he becomes and can begin to pinpoint and predict his own feelings. Sonic is his primary guide in this, while Shadow (who is peak example of holding onto very complicated emotions) kind of learns alongside with him.

> Metal and Shadow bond a lot over things that have been brought up in canon. Shadow has a unique and interesting facet of his character in which he’s shown to consistently show a great empathy and understanding of robots and androids. Metal Sonic, Omega, Emerl, etc… Particularly with Metal, who has a similar dilemma as Omega, in which he’s a tool for the Doctor, like Shadow was. Whereas canonically Omega defected on his own, Shadow is trying to convince Metal to do it. He won’t hesitate to fight Metal, but he would prefer not to, and he’s set aside their necessary opposition to work with Metal in the past, who was even willing to take the chaos emerald from his own body to give Shadow a chance to warp back home. That’s pretty awesome.

> An interesting observation to me is that Shadow and Sonic are both often in opposition from a moral standpoint, they actually both share a goal with Metal. Both of them extend their hands in offering to him, and encourage him to make his own decisions independent of Eggman. And it’s not that Sonic and Shadow even want Metal to be a hero necessarily— even if Metal were to remain an adversary, they just want Metal to come to that decision on his own. Shadow and Sonic both have a strong sense of freedom in their own ways, and encourage others to exercise their own freedom even if it means that person continuing on their own opposing path.

> In a what-if scenario, seeing Sonic and Shadow combine their efforts to free Metal is really fascinating to me. Metal is like Shadow in the sense where it begs the question, can he really learn to love? Is he capable of that particular emotion? Can he grasp what romantic interest really means? He understands as best he can, and is still learning all the while… Yes, while Sonic and Shadow certainly hold a candle for one another by this point in the story, their ‘love’ is considerably complicated. They’re still rivals, after all. Rivals with benefits, I suppose! Except the longer they’re ‘stuck’ together (affectionate) the more they fall into a comfortable push and pull.

They become sort of inadvertently committed (though Sonic continues to see other lovers he’s kept up over the years, Knuckles and Jet), and it probably stems from the fact that Sonic is canonically one of the only (if not the only) people to touch his heart. They are both still guarded in their own ways, and would probably require many lifetimes over and over to fully learn and know the other, and it’s something they enjoy exploring.

The difference is, Shadow has endless time to learn about Metal, but only one lifetime to learn about Sonic. It’s sort of bittersweet, the way Sonic continues to live on through Metal after he’s gone in lots of little ways, but Metal is still his own unique personhood, and Shadow knows better than to think he could use him as a replacement.

Anyway, sorry for this wall of text!! I have a Lot of opinions and feelings on these guys. They’re my OT3 LOL. Please feel free to ask more questions whether it’s regarding my au or just sonmetadow as a concept in general because I have a never ending fountain of thoughts and scenarios on them.

[williamrikers]

Some Personal Favorite BL Moments of 2023

this is inspired by @lurkingshan's post, thank you for that 😊

Best Show

be my favorite, hands down. this show hooked me right from the very beginning, and each week it kept outdoing itself. the kindest, most compassionate storytelling mixed with some absolutely amazing character journeys and a strong message at its heart, bmf will stay with me forever (and not only because i managed to snatch one of the utterly gorgeous box sets for my collection). 12/10 puffball music boxes

Best Scene

alan and wen pre- and post-breakup at the start of episode 5 of moonlight chicken. i've rewatched these nine minutes more times than i can count. both first and mix do some incredible acting here, and it's such an utter joy to watch. 5/5 crying firsts sliding down a wall

The Scene That Came For My Life The Most

look, i've talked about only friends episode 6 [4/4] before. you all already know that i desire mew carnally for what he did with that audio tape. i have also rewatched this scene an embarrassing amount of times. 96/69 illicit sex tapes

Most Rewatchable Show and Best Main Couple

this one goes to a boss and a babe. i have already rewatched this show twice this year, and i love it more on every single rewatch. i regularly lose my mind about how much i love this silly little show and start waxing poetic about how much this love story means to me, how much i adore gun and cher's weirdness, their communication, their commitment, their gentleness, their mutual respect, the way they help each other and heal each other, the way they make each other feel safe and loved, which my friends from the bl besties server can attest to. maybe one day, i'll put all of my ramblings into a coherent format, but for now please trust that this show is absolutely wonderful and extremely special to me. 1000/10 gaymer friends sleepovers

Best Premise (That Was Utterly Ruined By The Show)

i've got to say dangerous romance, although step by step comes in at a close second. after the second episode of dr, i was out here writing hundreds of words worth of meta, and then... well, then the show became what it unfortunately is, now. i still want to see the show that i was promised (a thriller about two poor brothers who get into hot water because of money issues and end up having to turn to crime to survive, all while the younger brother slowly falls in love with the biggest bully at school, and over the course of the show the bully needs to learn to become a better person and help sailom overcome the trust issues he should have had from growing up constantly threatened and sometimes physically abused by members of the mafia.) -20/10 stupid fucking windmills for ruining something that could have been amazing

Best Side Couple

tiwpor, you will always be famous to me. my school president itself might just have given us crumbs, but i licked those tiny crumbs right off the floor with delight, and when our skyy 2 made it canon, i lost my entire mind. i could not have asked for more. 2/2 couples t-shirts

Best Date

yang and phumjai on their practice date in episode 4 of love in translation was probably the sweetest thing that happened on any bl in 2023. in the later episodes, they had many more beautiful moments together as well as some incredibly amazing physical intimacy (plus, in the extended iqiyi cut, one hell of a foreplay scene), but their sweet date before they had even confessed their feelings has stayed with me. 11/10 slices of pandan

Best Beach Scene(s)

never let me go wins this one. no other show was as devoted to showing off their beautiful beach locations as nlmg this year. watching this show made me yearn for the sea. 1/1 tattoo of your boyfriend's name

Best Rooftop Scene

despite the stiff competition in the form of bmf and cherry magic thailand, last twilight has this one in the bag. the pain, the pining, the heartbreak, the complicated feelings, the desperate kiss... they even lampshaded this trope in the dialogue. stellar scene. 12/10 sunflowers

Best Sensuality

we've had a lot of high heat bls this year, some of them still ongoing, and since billy infamously said "a lot and deeply", i feel like the next episode of the sign might just blow all of our minds. i'm not awarding a best sex scene here so i won't have to eat my words in a few days—however, i feel confident in saying that when it comes to raw sensuality, no one is going to beat ray and sand in only friends this year, no matter how hard the characters on pit babe, playboyy and the sign might be trying. truly, nobody embodies sensual attraction like first and khaotung do. 69/10 sausages that represent blowjobs

Best Minor Character That Stole The Show

gotta agree with the masses here and say nawin laws of attraction. what a guy. every day i miss him. ∞/10 unhinged ex boyfriends

Best Viewing Experience

this is not bl, but it might as well be: midnight museum still feels like a fever dream, i have no idea what the plot even was, i understood maybe 10% of what was happening at any given moment, and i've never had more fun watching anything. this truly is the show of all time. 5/3 roles played by gun atthaphan

Wildest GMMTV Moment

also not a bl, but the piploy pissing in the car scene as an act of revenge in wednesday club would go down in history, if, you know, people had actually watched this show. what can i even say. 3/3 gratuitous pissing scenes

Most Anticipated Show Of 2024

i just had to find a way to mention my golden blood in this post. i am yearning for this show with an intensity i cannot describe. i literally need to see joss bridal carrying gawin as much as possible, it is on the baseline of my hierarchy of needs. no matter whether this turns out to be trashy fun, high camp, an actually serious show, or all three, i win. gmmtv could not have given me anything better to look forward to next year 💖

[gothamgothic]

Just got back to Gotham from holidays! Sorry about the lack of posts, family kept me busy. Here are some of the highlights. —Hung out with a glowing green dog in Amity Park. His name is Cujo —Listened to my uncle ramble about sports for about six hours. I don't know anything about football... —Managed to coerce a family recipe from my grandma. —Had to keep my little cousins from trying to feed Fin cake. —Discovered that Fin doesn't LIKE cake. —Got on a video call with an extended family member (she is an aunt of some sort) that has a similar meta mutation as myself. She says there are traces of family members having odd abilities generations back too - so she's going to send me her genealogy research. —Took lots of photos with my baby cousin. She's adorable. —Gave a ride back to gotham to several of my classmates. They were all terrified of Fin, but after I showed them how to feed him, they kept trying to give him gummy worms.

[wonderful-magician]

DAROACH HEAD CANNON RAMBLING???

More likely than you would think my friends.

Ok so I worked on the drawing above for maybe 10 hours and I'm very proud of it! And I felt like this post would be a good transition into elaborating MY VERY LONG LIST OF HEAD CANNONS for this rat.... Since he has very little backstory canonically similarly to most Kirby characters who have like a sentence of backstory. And unlike Meta knight or King DDD who have a general concept or idea. We know nothing about the silly rodents!! Nothing!!

( NOTICE THIS IS ONLY FOR MY GIJINKA VERSION OF HIM!! )

So I'm here to basically write a whole damn book for these guys. But specifically daroach because... I'm biased. Lmao. SO I decided to give him something! The life of a poor child from 1920!! ....woohoo?

I believe I've said this before, and I don't think it's that crazy- but I enjoy playing with the fact these characters are for the most part from different planets and have different cultures and experiences because of this. And I love to write little things about it. And just like many others. We have no idea where daroach is even from in the first place.

I like to think the original species of squeaks/squeakers originated from the forgotten land. But at some point they all moved to different planets and locations. You can find them on different planets, and they have a unique culture to each other. The only thing they all share is the bells! Which I shared on my post all about the bells!!

Anyway I figured I would have two bulletin lists about the fun head cannons of mine! But put both of them here for simplicity. And I hope this is coherent and doesn't come off too ... Wow! Tragedy! Daroach is really a chill, happy guy despite some of the things that happened to him in my personal canon...

Despite the events I list here, Daroach actually has a very positive attitude and outlook on life! Despite how his homworld has shitty living conditions and child labor.

Daroach lived with his father until he was ten, when his father was drunk and shot by an officer for being openly against the current mayor.

Daroach never met his mother. But he worries about it little. He cared about it more when he was younger. He also has no known extended family.

Daroach had to live in the streets for a while because of this. Working as a newspaper boy.

He met Storo during this time. The two quickly became good friends. As Daroach was fast and Storo was ... Big. Even as the two were only 10-12 year olds.

The boys became familiar with a lot of the adults in town. Knowing the baker or the locals well. Storo liked to speak to a specific man named doc, quite often.

One harsh winter. Daroach gets sick. And Storo starts to feel under the weather as well. Storo, worried for their well being. Begs doc for help one morning. Doc, after seeing the full conditions of the two boys. Let's them stay with him.

While this was originally temporary, doc ended up enjoying their company. And the three live together like a family. But none of them want to call it a family.

Daroach starts working at a factory and so does Storo. Doc trying to revive his career as a scientist. ( and failing.. miserably. ) around this time doc also takes in spinni. Who's only 7.

Daroach starts to become a more intense thief. While he was always good at it, he did live on the streets for two years after all. But he gets... Very good at theft. For he learns how to float and teleport.

As they all get older. They form a early version of the squeak squad. But it's more like a group formed against the current situations and political climate. As a civil war is occuring in the country and the city is very divided.

Daroach gets himself into a lot of fights. But is both loved and hated by the press. For his hatred to the government but attractive looks by squeak standard.

After daroach is wounded in a fight. They get money, and leave on their newly made airship. Never to return to this planet. As it's just miserable there.

Ok that was a basic outline of his story on my end! Time for more basic head cannons that can be applied much easier !!

Daroach has been smoking since he was like 13. This was normal for his planet. But nowadays he mostly understands his mistakes. But he still smokes, even if he's polite about it and smokes outside it matters little. Meta knight likes to absolutely mock him for this...

Daroach hates being hatless for an extended period of time. It's just ...weird...

Daroach is the only squeak/squeaker to stand on his tiptoes constantly.

Won the triple star in a bet with a certain wizard who plays star stacker.

Used to have a alcohol problem, as his father originally did. But he did actually recover from this.

Dated meta knight for a couple months before they broke up with no explanation.

Nobody but them and galaxia know why.

At the age of 11 he developed a limp and still to this day he doesn't even understand how he got this mysterious limp.

Owns like three of the same outfit and does his laundry often. Pure comfort

Hates not being formal. You won't find this man in public wearing slides and a T-shirt. Must be a poet shirt. Or something alike that.

Totally not weird that he dated meta knights reflection. When he broke up with the real thing.

Okay this better post correctly 🙂

[nig0i]

7th loop villainess meta ramble

just finished the second book of 7th loop villainess... and it was surprisingly good??? and cohesive, which, coming from a light novel series with such an apparently big scope, i found impressive!!

in the first book arnold learnt that he can love and be loved!! and now he learns that he can do good and he's not literally a war machine!! which parallels michel's character arc about being born to do evil, just like how theodore's character arc on yearning to be worthy of love but mascarading it with hate does in the first book.

arnold made an alliance with prince kyle, and the politics of it mirror his internal conflict!! by extending an olive branch, he's demonstrated he can promote peace! and it's all thanks to rishe - but also to michel's gunpowder, and michel himself, not being inherently evil!

people don't need a purpose to exist in this world. something that exists to bring only unhappiness is an impossibility.

(and don't get me started on rishe's determination to keep the bonds made in previous loops!!

ch7)

beautiful quote, beautiful themes! i can't wait to see how the series progresses!

[tojisun]

Sun!, I would like to start by saying that I greatly admire your talent and ability to write. The way you are able to create stories, is simply fascinating. Every word you put on paper seems to have a unique intensity and depth. Your writing conveys such strong and immersive emotions that it feels like I can feel every feeling, every shiver, and every moment of tension. It's incredible how you capture these elements and convey them in such a vivid and impactful way.

One Of The Girls reminds me of the early stages of the reader's 'relationship' with toxic!biker!simon. Where the reader wants to be one of the girls and fully immerse themselves in Simon's life, even if it's just scraps of an unhealthy love (that never was).

Daylight, oh my God, it's the mid-stage, where the reader is not just with Simon because of his looks... But because she loves him, but at the same time she discovers how much he harms her, but she doesn't want to leave him, she can't, because she always goes back.

Elastic Heart is their final stage in the relationship... As you yourself said, sun, my sunshine. The reader will have a happy ending, but not with Simon. It's when she will realize that their "Relationship" was never so healthy.

So, sun!, look, my future husband, Leon Kennedy. Shhhh... Simon can't know-. But I've already moved on from toxic!biker!Simon-.

This is my husband, my current obsession, the muscles-.

oh my god mocha?? thank you so much for such kind words– im genuinely melting, giggling underneath my blanket and kicking my legs because of how thoughtful and kind this!! because of how thoughtful and kind you are!! im seriously speechless, unable to think past the giddiness rushing through me like, thank you again sweet luv <33

i am so so happy that u enjoy my works! that somehow, along my ramblings and run-ons, i was able to convey the emotions of a specific scene/fic :’> im glad that u get to enjoy interpreting it too!! (especially because biker!simon became such an endearing group project that i adore. i get so heart-achingly happy when i see ur guys’ asks n links n tags!!!)

time for the songs:

OH MY GOD??? ONE OF THE GIRLS BEING READER BEGGING SIMON FOR A SCRAP OF HIS AFFECTION – “we don’t gotta be in love / i don’t gotta be the one / i just wanna be one of the girls tonight” – OH I AM UNWELL!! and the way the song fully presents their ‘relationship’: how it’s a plea from the reader, how she tries finding love from him in something thats only physical and ephemeral, how he extends an inkling affection only to pull away and leave her with nothing. again.

(heaving so bad rn)

I DIDNT EXPECT DAYLIGHT TO BE PART OF THE TOXIC BIKER SERIES BUT I SEE IT SO CLEARLY!! “oh i love it and hate it at the same time” – the way she knows their arrangement is harmful to her, and the way she knows it’s laughable and pathetic how she’s always the one doing the running and waiting, but she can’t stop because when simon calls her, sometimes she thinks it’s love. AND the part that goes “hiding all of our sins from the daylight / … / you and i drink poison from the same vine” SHOWING THE WAY SIMON NEVER BRINGS HER TO HIS HOME. AND HOW SIMON, for all his tomfoolery and bitching, GRAVITATES TOWARDS HER. HOW HE COMES BACK TO HER TOO.

(im probably gonna gnaw my lip off at this point from how much im biting)

SIA AND ELASTIC HEART IS ALSO SMTHN I DIDNT EXPECT IN THE ROSTER AND YET IT MAKES SENSE HOLY SHIT. “you did not break me (but) i’m still fighting for peace” IS READER WHEN SHE MET PRICE HELLO? the way she was hesitant to trust him. hesitant to like him because she thought, ‘not again’. but then price shows her how it is to be loved. to be prioritized. to be cared for. and yeah she starts letting go of simon and starts forging a relationship with price and!!! SHE WILL BE HAPPY I PROMISE.

(i feel like a marionette. untethered and floaty because this whole.. meta? is so fucking good oh my god)

-

THATS LEON KENNEDY? UM. THE ARMS? THE CHEST?? THE HARNESS??? THE HAIR????

pause.

THE BIKE?????

somethings shifting in my brain hold on hold on hold on hol

[desultory-novice]

Hi hello that Yume Nikki Ado post scratched a special itch™️ in my brain so if you don't mind me, I'll ramble a bit.

So most likely no there won't be a specific explication of what's going with Ado as per usual, but I feel like there could be some themes going on there.

Considering she's the only human among whimsical creatures, she probably does feel alienated from everyone else. Maybe they could be vague interpretation of real people on her life, but practically stripping any sort of nuance from them to mostly be these silly creatures who she can just play with all day.

Probably has a possession/dark matter motif going around there for obvious reasons, but since you're making the crystal gun the equivalent to the knife and canonically it repels dark matter, there can be some interesting concept in there. Like possession is sort of the equivalent to whatever happened to her.

Now I've been thinking about the chars, personally I'd make Monoko Gooey cuz my gijinka is inspired of her but there's many other options.

Though the one I'm interested in is Uboa and Poniko. On all accords, Poniko is just a normal human like Madotsuki till you trigger Uboa who then sends you to the shadow realm™️, and I've been thinking who tf could it be, all I know is that the shadow realm™️ reminds me of Miracle Matter/Zero's stages.

I have so many brain worms but I don't wanna bother you about it lolol

PS: KyuuKyuu-kun could be Void, I just feel like they got that funky color scheme going on

'Ey! Welcome to the cookout! XD

I'm liking the concept you're building here extending the metaphor with her Weapon vs Dark Matter. It feels like she could be...sort of working through her fears and possession trauma with it?

(My other thought, at least for the "the Kirby series is all a delusion happening in Adeleine's head" story, was to give her a palette knife, but that triggered my own brain worms - for Ib! XD)

Seeing some of the landscapes take on Dark Matter traits reminds me of...ah, dang. There's no way I'm going to be able to find it again on my own but some savvy fans might remember this gorgeous (yet painful) series of pics a fan drew of various "bad endings" to several of the games game? (The Dream Fountain dried up, the Halberd crashing w/ Kirby in it, etc) and the DL3 one had all the Animal Friends turned into these Dark Matter monstrosities while Ado was huddled up against her sketchbook or something similar.

Basically, like that is what I'm picturing.

(Ooh, nice to hear! I'm quite fond of your Gooey, as well as your amazing insectoid Ribbon and Fairy Queen designs!)

If you were looking to "cast" an Ado Nikki, the easiest (and most predictable route) would be to align the girls + Masada-sensei with the 64 gang. Though you're right about Kyukyu-kun and Void. XD

My brain is torn on wanting to place Kirby and Dedede as the mono sisters, because of Kirby's Dream Land being in b/w on the Gameboy, but Meta Knight is more Monoe-like than Dedede...

As for Poniko + Uboa, Poniko would almost have to be the Fairy Queen. She looks similar, with the same hair and eye color and very similar in-game proportions, fulfilling that "Oh, she's a human like me" but then you hit the light switch and...

...And THERE's your Miracle Matter!

Edit: I seem to have gotten three copies of this ask. Probably just a glitch but thought I'd let you know in case you tried to send a follow-up and Tumblr bl0rped and made it the same post three times.

[animazi]

the pinned post

general stuff:

ani, she/her

feel free to ask me whatever (as long as it is not personal or weird), I'm more active on here than I should be

writing and whatnot:

general ao3 link, my username is animazi if that isn't working recent stuff/stuff I'm proud of: Providence, In Summer (Padme centric oneshot, character study focusing on her relationship with Palpatine) Girl and Ghost (my go at a Kleya handmaiden au oneshot with some past velkleya)please don't read my older stuff, read the peedy if you like but know I did it For The Bit and so it is entirely unedited and written in one or two sittings

tags:

everything is tagged with the main media it is from e.g. #star wars or #disco elysium (yes this is supposed to be JUST a star wars side blog, no that isn't really working out)

it will also get tagged if it is extended material like tv shows, books etc, e.g. #andor

it is also tagged by character and ship e.g. #padme amidala, #anidala when possible I like to tag with full name, if full name is not known to me I'll use rank e.g. #master sol

anything original from me, be that ramblings about my day or meta will be tagged as #original ani thought

[divinekangaroo]

furthering tommy-sexuality and intersection of ethnicity discussion with @deadendtracks from this post:

I do wish I could be more concise about this so sorry for the ramble - too much I think is still trying to sort it out through the process of writing it. These moments I really appreciate your concise, coherent meta posts! I also don't think I've properly answered the question, but contains more broader context around my thinking.

"This is a very interesting approach that I don't think I fully disagree with, but where I hesitate is that Tommy's the only character in his family or extended kin group who uses his body like this. / What do you make of the fact that Tommy is the only "subaltern" character we see who uses himself sexually the way we're more used to seeing a woman do?"

I think Polly and Ada do it too, though? And I also think Arthur does it particularly with Linda but it’s in a very differently articulated way, but this definite sense of the use of the body. (I *headcanon* Tommy also saw his father do it, too, paying off a debt to some English woman with authority this way, and one day some husband/brother etc cut up Dad as a consequence, but off I spiral -- this was born out of very micro hints of Arthur Shelby Snr as a wandering Casanova using sex as a (theoretically) no-personal-cost way for a man to slide out of situations or obligations, and Arthur Snr's association with prostitutes without any war-soldier-prostitution linkage to drive that connection.)

But, I also feel there’s a deliberate presentation of Tommy’s consideration of his ethnicity as different to how most of his family consider it (long different conversation), because of the alignment to his mother that none of the rest of the family have (another long different conversation). This assumes a reading of his mother as far more closely associated with his (rather silent/compressed) relationship with his ethnicity, too. Polly and Uncle Charlie's comments reinforce this reading in a few points. So this different relationship he has with his ethnicity also leads into a different intersection of that with his sexual activities.

When Tommy does use his body, I think it’s repeating behaviours he’s seen and understood as an available way for those with no power and limited influence to exert more influence, and those behaviours were drawn from watching the behaviours of primarily women of his family. And will mostly talk about Polly because that's what we do see on screen, extrapolating there was more of this sort of exchange going on around Tommy in his youth, too.

And while there’s an argument to be made that using sex/body is a behaviour available to any person with no power trying to exercise influence (many stories of women over time) without the subaltern/ethnic layer, it’s difficult for me to detach ethnicity from Tommy and Polly's on screen behaviours, because their ethnicity is a huge contextual-for-the-time part of what limits their power/influence in the first place. I think the show also includes significant hints of the Othering/exoticism associated with Tommy’s (and Polly’s) ethnicity in a way that shows it is connected to sexual behaviours/body trading – May talks about everyone laughing about when he’ll steal the silver, which is a Romani stereotype more than working class or racketeer; I think you mentioned once Tatiana does it too with the allusion to Tommy squatting in his own house. Polly has Campbell (the whole exchange is subaltern coded) and Abarama which is also ethnically *heavy* if not in the same way as with Campbell because Abarama is Romani too. And for Tommy: Campbell, Hughes and Mosley’s sexually charged ethnic slurs (or ethnically charged sexual attacks?) towards Tommy are a whole essay on their own.

For Polly, feeding into my thoughts around subaltern coding: stolen children and Polly’s sexual behaviours, including approaching Campbell. Stealing children from certain cultures/families is not just a poverty/class thing, taking children was a deliberate targeting of the Romani culture (amongst other cultures) to detach children from the culture and destroy/degrade culture, in a similar way (if not as governmentally sanctioned/policy-driven) as the Stolen Generation in Australia and other colonial government policies over indigenous (subaltern) cultures. So from that particular approach, I’ve then read every one of Polly’s actions to protect Michael (sleeping with/rape by Campbell, sleeping with Abarama, even her actions with Tommy in his clannishly coded position of masculine/head of family privilege) as coming from that place of the woman-subaltern, lower even in status than the male-subaltern. So Polly’s behaviours with Campbell and Abarama translate directly into my reading of the subaltern coding around her sexual behaviours, which then has a copy/mirroring in Tommy’s own sexual behaviours.

There’s also an interesting question I ask myself as I ponder why I've taken this reading. If Tommy were instead a Romani woman who engaged with her cultural/ethnic signifiers in the same way Tommy does*, and she used her body for sex with higher class English men to obtain influence where she cannot obtain or apply power, would the exotification / Othering / subaltern coding associated be a discussed layer? A Romani woman using sex as trade to gain influence? And I think, but of course it would, this is a tale as old as time...but because Tommy’s a man, there’s always that sort of mental hiccup first?

*which he does in fact do, it's not non-existent. But I think the complexity starts to come in with what and how exactly these cultural/ethnic signifiers are engaged with by Tommy / his partners, and how obvious it is or isn't, because the show doesn't always treat this as a direct or foregrounded thing. For example, to reframe that question, is Romani Tommy (male or female) exoticised/othered/[consciously acting as or unconsciously portrayed as] subaltern in sexual encounters for influence, if he and his partners *don’t in any way* acknowledge his ethnicity in any way? Probably not, BUT, his partners (and sexual aggressors) actually do acknowledge his ethnicity if with varying directness, and using uncomfortable stereotypes/terms. Tommy either forcefully silences his ethnicity in their encounters, or, he acknowledges his ethnicity but it’s in difficult and uncomfortable ways.

Tommy almost deliberately omits engaging on any ethnic line of dialogue with any of his partners raising it to his face. (I swear the only time he says Gypsy all 6 seasons is when he shouts at Lizzie in S6 in his panic.) Class dialogue, yes; ethnicity, no. And Tommy's silences say a lot. Vulnerability, shame, tool, sense of self, etc: the ethnicity is almost more sensitive and can't be talked about because it's something he can't change, whereas he (sort of can) with class via money and rank. He does *use* his ethnicity as a tool (his Romani connections/forces, the way gangs even being formed tend to occur on ethnic lines in the first place because general society even working class shuns that ethnicity, aspects of trying to find comfort like potentially his retreat to the road and Zelda after Greta died; seeking the first Barwell sister after Grace died; the protection motifs around Ruby; using the language in front of others to speak secretly but in plain sight) but it's almost more frequently a vulnerability and liability (the reason for his disadvantage, the weight of inevitability of suicide, seeing visions etc).

I also think on how he has this repeated motif of being almost physically incapable of talking about the things most close to, hurtful, risk of hurt to him, and it seems his ethnicity fits into this, too. He doesn't even talk directly to Polly about it except in his fit about his mother in S4, and even that's a sideways, indirect mention. He says something like 'going like Mum, speaking to the dead, scaring the kids' - but because we've seen Polly's behaviours we understand that 'going like Mum' means Polly leaning hard into her take on Romani mysticism and calling it her Gypsy blood/opening the door to Gypsy foretelling/seeing things etc; from this I make the link that Mum = Romani; Tommy's complicated relationship with his mother = Tommy's complicated relationship with his ethnicity. Every time Polly raises their Gypsy blood, he lets her speak but won't engage. Even Uncle Charlie's commentary around the mother's suicide, everything framed around that is Romani - the horse, the travelling, the Gypsy mythos. And again Tommy says nothing when he hears all that. It all feels like a wound he can't touch, ethnicity / mother. (He also never engages with Alfie on this line, despite multiple times Alfie opens that door.)

And so the deliberateness of his omission conversely makes his ethnicity feel quite dominant in his sense of self and identity for me, in the way this series frequently uses silences and omissions to show the shape of something there.

Where it gets to his sexual actions as [partially consciously subaltern] or [unconsciously subaltern but consciously portrayed as such by the show], I suppose the guts is that I feel like he carries his awareness of how other people view the Romani, and his discomfort with that awareness and the discomfort/hurt with that part of his self that he can never get away from and that has disadvantaged him, into his sexual encounters (except for Grace in S1) -- but that in parallel, his decision to proactively trigger sexual encounters as a way to win/exercise influence is also weighted by a sense of ‘this is what I need to do because this is a tool I have available’ and his internal definition of ‘I’ includes (amongst other things) ‘Romani’.

I also think, like: a Romani woman using sex with upper class men to gain influence, becomes a conversation about stereotyping, authorial and period specific contextual justifications, as well as character justifications; but given it's a Romani man doing it, I've been fascinated in fandom discussion it's almost automatically honed in on masculine vs feminine behaviours only. The Romani layer is silenced in so much fandom discussion -- as if the masculine v feminine becomes the sole question rather than as well as, why does a Romani man in particular in that position maybe think to behave that way/why did they choose to portray a Romani man in particular behaving that way. Like, could any of his thinking to behave that way (or, could the expectations and approaches of his sexual partners/aggressors) have anything to do with the rather abundant late 1800s/early 1900s literary and pseudoethnographic texts which exotify and hypersexualise his ethnicity? (watch out for that gypsy man stealing women, the tinker sleeping with your wife while you're at work, etc etc; then he looks at someone like May, and maybe Arthur and John only see a hunger for working class cock, but Tommy is maybe consciously just a little bit leaning into that exotic stereotype as well, horses and goldfish etc, because it might gain him advantage?) Or even authorial intent to really hammer home the subaltern nature of this character because look, even in sex as a man who is in theory has more privilege in bed, this character still can't be free of behaviours and manners which tie back to his ethnicity?

But I know and sorely feel how much harder it is to write and think effectively about ethnicity in a public forum, because it can be so much more hurtful and real and intersectional, than it is to consider slightly more abstract concepts, such as the masculine animus and feminine anima, and mother-parallels, that become more symbolic, character-only, and which can be contained and referenced within the source material alone, hence, IDEK, it's a safer dialogue, and so~?

[firendgold]

Pk now I want to hear tour rant about how Harrydore is bettter than Grindeldore. Bring it 🤣❤️

ohhh, this one's easy. I've been in this fandom on and off since 2006, and seen how Harry, Albus and Gellert were written pre- and post-'Dumbledore closet interview'. cracks knuckles

got to hit you with that readmore though. and it's going to be in two parts. I rambled again. ^^

🗲

//

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

//

(...'rambled' is perhaps an understatement.)

🗲

grindeldore vs harrydore

grindeldore

the tl;dr of the below is the following sentences, and then I'll get into it. My philosophy on gr*ndeld*re extends to all other ships in all other fandoms, especially HP: if it's not an AU and you have to excessively mischaracterize Character A to get them to 'fit' with Character B, then it's not a good ship, canon or not. Albus Dumbledore is quite often mischaracterized in order to 'fit' or 'keep' him with Gellert Grindelwald.

here's my problems with how gr*ndeld*re is most often portrayed:

Inconsistency within canon. JKR is partly mostly to blame for this (because she has contradicted her original 2007 statement in the present day with more interviews in the 2010s and with the Fantastic Beasts movies), but the first problem is: gr*ndeld*re was originally an unrequited ship. The original statement was that Albus was dazzled by Gellert's power, his presence, their similarities, their shared ideals... but That Woman wasn't explicit on whether Gellert ever returned his feelings. But based on her quotes where she says "falling in love can blind you to an extent" and that [Dumbledore] was "terribly, terribly let down" by the result of that whirlwind relationship, I think it's safe to assume that her original idea of Gellert cared far more for seeing his grander plans realized than for the needs and feelings of his 'equal'. And yet... in fandom, they are most often portrayed instead as star-crossed lovers torn apart by 'conflicting ideals'.

The second problem is that in the avalanche of fics and art that have come from The Reveal, the original lesson (/moral...?) behind the reveal of gr*ndeld*re, and how it shaped Albus as an adult, leader, and progressive, just... got lost. Completely lost. The whole point of it was to show that even Albus (supposed 'paragon of goodness' until book 7 showed the fandom that he is a regular human being) can make 'relatable' mistakes like... you know... being friends with a fascist. Being in love with a fascist, even. Thanks to said retcon interviews and the new movies (and even before that tbh) the fandom has since: overexaggerated Albus' new clay feet to the point of bashing him, idolized Grindelwald's red flag traits and ideals to the point where he has become the new "Tom Riddle was just misunderstood!" guy, and twisted that lesson/moral/whatever to mean that actually Albus and Gellert were tragically kept away from each other by an itsy bitsy little difference of opinion. A minor little fight. Casual death of your sick sister. Haven't we all been there?

The fandom diminishing the real reasons why Albus and Gellert eventually clashed, were destined to clash, is bad enough. What's worse is the opposite end. Some Dumbledore-bashing fans go the other way and paint present-day Dumbledore with the same brush as Grindelwald, even going so far as to say he still supports The Greater Good even though his entire character is literally built on being the opposite of the pro-magic, anti-Muggle philosophy. Albus has also been painted in some fics and even meta discussions as someone who 'regrets' his past not because his sister died and his brother is estranged from him, but just because his ex-boyfriend is in prison and he maybe kind of regrets not going full fascist with him. Like... bruh. NO. There are people who ship gr*ndeld*re just because they feel like Grindelwald, the worst dark wizard in the world, the reason why Voldemort is only a minor league little lord in comparison, is an appropriate "punishment" for the character they already dislike and thus misinterpret. (Side note: I'm not sure if I'm in a worse hell watching Albus' character get whitewashed for fascism or demonized so he can be a miserable lonely gay.)

Albus diminishes himself to meet Gellert's needs. An in-universe problem this time instead of a meta/RL one: Albus and Gellert were lovers, yes, but in order to be so, Albus had to actively start neglecting his siblings (since in Aberforth's words he was 'doing all right' taking care of them before Gellert showed up) and leaning more into anti-Muggle sentiment. He put all his energy into what for most of the magical world was a wild goose chase after some fairy-tale items. (Remember, most wixen don't give a shit about the Deathly Hallows, or think they're even real.) He became the person Gellert needed/desired most. Albus became a version of himself that he despised later in his life and after his death.

Relationships often include the members changing, and it's easy for even the most devoted partners to fall out of love if they change and are now too different from one another, or one person changes and the other... doesn't. After Ariana died, Albus chose to become a different person and champion the same people he and his family once despised. He chose to stay away from Gellert, whether he called it cowardice or principles or whatever else. And his choice put him in conflict with Gellert, who at sixteen refused to change course or rethink his ideals even when his choices led to the death of a magical person (the type of person he supposedly prizes above all others). His magical boyfriend's magical sister, even. And we see no sign that Gellert changed, repented, or considered Albus until decades later, at the very end of his life—far too late.

Healthy relationships require give-and-take, sacrificing for your partner in things big and small. For high-stakes relationships like Albus and Gellert's (queer in the 1800s, sweet Merlin), that is even more true. During that steamy summer of 1899, it was Albus who did all the sacrifcing/giving and Gellert who did all the taking. Gellert may have entertained the idea of bringing Ariana along on his quest with Albus (we don't know), but Aberforth was right to say that it would have been torture for her—and no alternate idea was brought up that would prioritize the wellbeing of Albus' siblings while he was away. And in the moment of required reciprocity when Albus was at his lowest, Gellert left him behind and went off to go rule the world. Not even the most diehard shipper can argue against the fact that when Ariana died, Grindelwald left.

This problem is even more personal/biased than the other ones. Albus and Gellert parted ways in 1899. They didn't see each other again until the duel in 1945 (because fuck Fantastic Beasts, the scripts don't even make fucking sense). Albus defeated Gellert, put him in prison, and then went on living for another fifty-two years. And That Woman expects me to believe that Albus never had a relationship with anyone before Gellert, and never even looked at another wizard afterward? In 52 years, he was one-and-done? He never once fell in love with other people, whether or not he fully trusted them/let them in? Be serious. Pull the other one. It's not realistic, and it doesn't speak to the kind of man Albus Dumbledore is. He may not have found a man to check the same boxes Gellert did, but he wouldn't arguably be looking for someone too similar to his old flame. He might not trust them unconditionally or be the Perfect Partner for them (bc whew traumaaa), but there would be other people for Albus in a realistic Magical Britain (even discounting time travel shenanigans). Before the reveal, the most popular people to ship Albus with were Minerva, Alastor, and Elphias Doge; these options are still arguably more valid. Albus Dumbledore loves love, he champions love, and he doesn't think he deserves it after his sins, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't go looking. It's mind-boggling to me that with all the well-deserved disavowing of JKR following her anti-trans hate (and her shameless pandering to the same people calling her a witch poisoning their children's minds decades ago), that some people still treat her words about Albus and Gellert's relationship and its effects on Albus in particular as gospel. I sure don't. (Especially because she said he became "asexual" after His One Gay Experience when like. That's not. What asexuality is??? And ace gay people exist???) Whether you count the FB movies or not, there are still decades of Albus' life that are a mystery, and I refuse to believe he closed his heart and caged his dick for all of them.

IMPORTANT END NOTE: These observations obviously do not apply to all gr*ndeld*re shippers. Some people genuinely do like both characters, characterize them correctly, and still want to see them together for reasons. I'm not going to judge them. I ship a frigging time travel age gap ship, how the fuck could I. And I'm also aware that a lot of fics/art are made to color in between the lines of what we don't know in the fandom, bringing Albus and Gellert together during the mystery years, or making one wizard better for the other to address all the ship baggage. I just can't join them because of how rarely that occurs (and, admittedly, how much I personally can't see it). You would not believe how many fics and discussions I've seen that lionize Grindelwald and treat Dumbledore like an accessory, or completely mischaracterize Albus' motivations, intentions, and actions, and then put him with "the other Big Bad". UGH.

Most of the time, I see gr*ndeld*re the ship hurting Albus the individual. It's very rare to find an iteration where Albus is not bearing the consequences of Gellert's choices, Gellert's actions, Gellert's mistakes and harm done. I think Albus deserves better than to be Gellert's accessory just because he loved him deeply long ago.

okay. whew. that was a lot.

a character limit prevents me from continuing here, so the second half of this versus will go elsewhere, sorry!

[anco-writes]

Fattytober Day 1: Something New

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58305134/

the premise of the prompt list I saw said to focus on ONE character. Over the course of the month. Steadily growing fatter. I've never done that before. I've always liked weight gain sequences, I love the idea of a character getting fatter over time, but it's not something I've ever really tried to produce myself. But well, here we are. The first episode's definitely a bit meta, and I talk about this very subject within. The main character, and the one who'll be getting fatter over the course of the month, is Ace! Beloved Ace, our system's resident femboy. there's definitely gonna be gender stuff down the line, but for now, I've rambled enough. This one isn't even a full 1k words, and I'm aiming for around 2 pages each, which should end up with, logically, 31k and 62 pages, which uh, is a lot! but not when you do it one day at a time i guess? we'll see. Maybe I'll write a novel in November while I'm at it :U Day 1: Something New

“So you’ve never done that sort of long form content before?” A blue avian sat in a comfortable office, opposite a slender fox. Their words clearly stirred up some level of agitation in their conversational partner. 

“Don’t call it content! But no, we’ve never really experimented with it. You know, rapid gains, quick feedback, Swelling out of your clothes, that sort of thing is where the money’s at. Having a character gain slowly over an extended course of time is something that’s better left to a time skip if you ask me. Besides, what would we even write about? There would need to be a narrative, I can’t imagine the mind numbing minutia of slowly fattening a character and just describing them a few pounds fatter each time. I mean really, more pronounced changes-” “I’m gonna cut you off there.” The bird sighed, shaking their head and tapping their taloned fingers against the clipboard they were working with. “I can understand your misgivings. Like you’ve said, we’ve never done long form Narrative Arcs-” They made air quotes and rolled their eyes as they said it. “But the whole point is to try something new, get out of your comfort zone. You know. It’s no different from saying “I could make a pollock” when you’ve never even touched a canvas before. You hate that sentiment, so why shy away from the challenge.

The silver furred fox glowered at the comparison, huffing as they shifted in their seat. “That’s not a fair comparison. I never said I could write that sort of stuff.”

“But you won’t know until you try.” Red was smirking as they trotted the phrase out.

“You know I’ve been seeing a lot of discourse about the ‘do it scared’ mantra-” As Ace tried to derail the subject, Red interrupted by withdrawing a small pistol and shooting the silver fox right in his chest. 

Silence hung in the room as Ace’s eyes trembled, startled by the loud BANG that rang out. First they looked down at their chest, no pain, but maybe that was just shock? They raised their paw and touched the spot that had been hit, but found no blood or anything. “What the, FUCK! Not funny, what the hell Red?” As Ace shot up from their seat, the blue bird just laughed it off.

“I know what you’d been thinking. ‘Long form weight gain stories where the character simply eats a lot of lives a sedentary life style is antithetical to my political views about how weight gain and excersize are political entities, blah blah blah. Nobody’s coming here for that! But I know your silly shield of ethics would prevent you from working this angle, so I came up with a fun solution that I know you’ll love.”

Ace immediately began to feel around under their hoodie, knowing a dart or something was surely sticking into them right now. “S-So what, you just shoot me with a weight gain gun and I get fat? That’s hardly a long form arc!” An electric sensation began to spread through Ace’s body, ears twitching and tail swishing in anticipation for the waves of euphoria that were likely to follow. 

“Oh you’d like that wouldn’t you? Familiar territory and all. Well, no such luck, foxy boy. You are right, I did shoot you with a weight gain dart. A long form, slowly acting, weight gain dart. It’ll run its course in a month. Exactly 31 days actually.”

The anticipation Ace had built up… well at first it felt like it vanished, but instead it lingered, in a most horrifying way. The adrenaline rush of oncoming expansion died down, but instead they focused on their body and found no immediate stimuli to react to. Ace wasn’t above admitting they liked to be fattened up, but it had always been a rather bombastic affair… And being caught was always the fun part, the moment you slip up and your predator has their way with you, despite your best efforts. 

Being shot point blank in the middle of a conversation did feel a bit like a cop out to the thrill seeking fox, but at the same time, they saw the framework of a mental battlefield laid out before them. “I bet you think you’re so clever for that one.”

“Hey, you could have come up with something else. Like a fresh splash of paint on a prospective imitation of a pollock, I quite literally fired the first shot to motivate you. You’re free to retaliate, use whatever of Cecil’s magic or your mask or any other silly trick up your sleeve, you could even try and beat me at my own game and fatten yourself up by an arbitrarily large amount, but that dart would still be in your system delivering slow burn narrative tension.

The point is, we’re trying something new here. I look forward to seeing 31 days of progress from you~ Session’s over, you’re free to do whatever, fight your fate, embrace it, concoct a multi stage epic trying to reverse the effects, maybe that one would be the best bet, you’ll probably end up pretty massive~ But that’s time, good luck~!” Red waved their feathery hands, beady red eyes flicking towards the door. “Don’t let it hit you on that big ‘ol ass on the way out!”

Ace, still standing from the little outburst earlier, slumped forward and began to leave. “Well… I do like some attention… SOME!” As they made their way out, they rubbed a wary paw over the seat of their pants… was it getting bigger already, or was he just imagining it?