#i just. have so much to say abt john's character

[ro-rogue]

the tragic thing about john doe is that he was doomed from the start.

he was likely born in a low- or mid-tier district: new bostin high's old king, zirian, was the only one john had trouble beating, before he figured out how to amplify abilities, and at the time he beat zirian, zirian was a 3.7. zirian, pre-john, was considered incredibly powerful, nigh unbeatable. in new bostin, someone who was barely an elite was considered incredibly powerful.

god-tiers are already incredibly rare. they're even more rare than high-tiers, and whenever remi, blyke, and isen visit a low-tier district as vigilantes, everyone regards them almost as royalty - unbelievably powerful, unreachable, divinity on earth. they are with dozens, and they’re terrified of a single, non-hostile girl. also, some of the background characters say: “what’s a high-tier doing in branish?” “yeah, they would never come to a place like this.” most low-tiers likely have never even seen a high-tier in the flesh, let alone a god-tier.

add to that that wellston is supposed to be the most powerful school in the province, at least, and before john, there were only two god-tiers in attendance: an 8.0 and a 6.3. and before arlo became king, rei was, and rei was a 5.8. the king of the strongest school in the province was a 5.8.

jane doe was raised in a god-tier family. she knows, presumably, what it means to be a god-tier, when everyone around you is weaker than you, and not by a little bit. but jane has been gone since john was a toddler - and the only person left to raise him was his father. his cripple father, who has lived his whole life being spat on, disregarded, considered less than.

and then you have john. john first discovered his ability in his last year of middle school. unordinary doesn't give us an exact timeframe, but it is mentioned that he first uses his ability towards the end of the school year. if we assume that the education system in unordinary is comparable to the us education system, then that makes john about fourteen years old. it is never mentioned when most kids discover their abilities, but sera mentioned that she got martial arts lessons for a few years when she was a young child, but stopped when her ability came in. assuming sera's development is normal and abilities usually come in at the same age regardless of level, that would place the average age well before ten. another thing: everyone around john seemed to assume he would never get an ability. they considered him a cripple. which either means that late-bloomers are so incredibly rare that it isn't even considered a possibility, or john was so far past the age of ability manifestation that no one thought it was possible.

of course, his dad was also a cripple, and since genetics are a thing in uno, it would make sense for people to assume john would be a cripple even before he passed the manifestation age. (and treat him accordingly)

john got expelled in his second year in high school. when, exactly, doesn't really matter. once again assuming that the uno education system works like the us education system, that would place john at 15-16 years old.

so you have this kid, sixteen years old, who's had his ability for about two years. he spent most of his life being considered the lowest of the low - spat on, disregarded, less than. his dad, his only parental figure, has had those exact same experiences, and the only thing he can tell his child is that that is just the way the world works. it's unfair, but that's life.

but then he gets an ability. and within two years, he is almost twice as strong as the second strongest kid around. none of the adults have ever met someone as strong as him. him, the former cripple, with the cripple father. former lowest of the low, now a god amongst men. the kids, though, his classmates, his peers, they don't really understand his power. how much stronger he is than them. to tell the truth, he doesn't either, not fully. he's never met someone as strong as he is, at sixteen. but his classmates, they just remember when they used to walk all over him. when they would beat him bloody and then complain about getting his disgusting cripple blood on their shoes. and now he dares to stand above them?

they don't like him. of course they don't. cripples aren't able to become gods. they can't comprehend that john did.

and john, obviously, lashes out at his former bullies. he finally has a chance to pay them back, for all the cuts, bruises, broken bones he'd received from them over the years. he's stronger than them, and it's his turn to make them hurt. he goes farther than they did - their abilities are useless against the might of his power - but he doesn't really care. (they never held back, so he doesn't either, and the damage he does is much, much worse. the adults are mad, and he doesn't get why. he's only doing what everyone else does.)

the adults have no idea how to handle him. he's out of control. but they've never seen an ability this powerful before, except on tv, or in stories. high-rankers are supposed to keep order. (but no one listens to john. why would they? he's just a cripple, the lowest of the low, who managed to cheat the system.) his dad, kind-hearted william doe the cripple, has no idea how to help him. he can't relate to his problems at all. (is there even a problem? who wouldn't want to be powerful? for william, for adrian, for claire, it'd be a dream come true. it used to be, for john.) there is no one around who even vaguely knows what it's like to be a god-tier, or even a high-tier, or even just a high-ranker in general, except for zirian, who's barely a high-ranker at all, and who hates john for dethroning him. there is no one who understands him.

so then you have john. sixteen years old. god-tier. angry at the world, and the world is angry at him. how was he ever supposed to win?

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[menlove]

potential times they fucked ⁉️

LISGSHSHS well MOSTLY I'm just like dead certain they fucked in paris. not just 1961 but in 1966. because of john himself. there's this whole post on his short story in skywriting by word of mouth but tldr

skywriting by word of mouth classically chronicles a lot of john's sexual exploits via fictional characters to represent himself & his partners

one of them takes place in paris. the guy is away working on a play & his lover sends him a telegram asking to meet in paris. they meet up at the george v hotel & they fuck to god only knows by the beach boys. there's references to gay culture & sex (ie her name is a play on a drug popular among gay men & john writes about the man basically fondling her "potatoes" lmfao). this isn't their first time in paris & the man is hesitant abt the relationship bc of his status

IN REAL LIFE: john wasn't working on a play but he was filming "how I won the war" in 1966 a few weeks after the beatles' last tour. for whatever random reason (😐) in the break between filming in germany and filming in spain, john & paul met up in paris for the weekend. where they stayed at the george v hotel. and god only knows is Vital here. why? it's paul's favorite song (& don't even get me fucking started on this. he broke down crying when he performed it with brian wilson & it also inspired here, there, and everywhere which is both his AND john's favorite song he's done. which he wrote while waiting for john to wake up. but whatever). they'd been to paris twice before, like the lovers in the story. once famously in 1961 when john took paul to paris for his 21st birthday and they shared a single bed lmfao. and then in 1964 where they stayed at the george v for the first time (& john wrote if I fell. haha! cool!)

as for the 61 trip.... it's already gay but I don't have AS much to say about it re being certain they fucked but there is audio of john singing to paul about paris ("my cheri my pau pau" 😐) & in it he mentions paul's dick (& calls it small lmfaoooo) and just overall is being Extremely Suggestive

honorable mentions of potential times they fucked with WAY less credibility are india ("what WERE we getting up to?" and john proceeding to fake blow a microphone while paul fucking blushes and giggles. okay. it's in get back). and thennnnn there's this which is EXTREMELY threadbare I'm doing everyone a disservice w this but john made a collage for elton john for his birthday that includes a naked man that Suspiciously Looks Like Paul

lmfao that familiar mullet. also:

so is that paul? probably not. but I just think it's funny and I'm going to pretend it is and that they fucked in nature at LEAST once in the 70s

[plaidos]

every day i hope and pray you post more abt june egbert and the evidence and whatnot bc its so interesting to me and youre so wellspoken on homestuck

fuuuuck i keep forgetting to do a write up on that. the whole comic is full of shit & i need to pull from a lot of different sources to say everything i have to say. imo a lot of the “evidence” people use is really shallow and surface level — don’t get me wrong, i think there’s meaning to be found in stuff like John comparing himself to Sailor Moon, or the “hehe that sounds like june” line to Vriska, but I’m personally more interested in how John’s inner monologue remarks things like,

or the fact that whilst we directly see John’s understanding of gay identity & relationships has evolved in the time between HS1 and the Epilogues (he almost correctly assumed Dave & Karkat were together years before they were, compare that to the “dave are you a homosexual now?” shit in lategame Homestuck) we still never get even a glimpse of John’s feeling on transness, despite the presence of trans & non-binary characters in the Epilogues John is almost pointedly barred from being allowed to consider transition as an option. we even get to hear how Jade feels about the concept of non-binary identity, we see pretty much every other main cast member directly interact with (& either implicitly accept or reject the identity of) the trans characters, except literally our main character who is the vessel for the narrative most frequently—

but i’ve said too much. i need to collect my thoughts more before i just waste it all here :p

[physical-manifestation-of-spite]

i literally cant envision a human john tbh everytime i try i just i blank or his face doesnt feel right, or just the proportions of his body dont fit him as a character. But if he did get a "human" body (at least human enough for people to not notice hes not on the street or something) i think hed have to be at least somewhat offputting, or unnatural in some way. I also feel this way abt kayne, but kayne is more of a plastic fake looking aura to me. While john feels mostly like someone piled on a bunch of meat sowed it together and gave a thumbs up and john was like "are you sure this is gonna fit" and like 2 miracles later boom corporeality.

In truth i believe in the idea that if john does get a corporeal form its gonna be Him, his own form, not fit into a human mold, different but similar to the king(cant change the past), but something that represents him truly and wholly.

I just think John deserves a body he can be comfortable in and I don't think having a "human one" would be that for him. But it is fun to think about human johns especially for like. modern aus and stuff like that<3

Oh I love this whole character analysis. I agree with it 100%. I love the idea of a character's journey and personality embodying their character design, so I'm completely on board with what you're saying. I feel the same way, which is why I tend not to think too much about a "human" John.

[verdemoun]

I'm still thinking. Hosea is a grandfather. A grandpa, if you will. There's Isaac, the boy he barely saw before timewarp, the boy he actually *watched* grow up. And Jack. Oh, Jack. (I am so normal about him.) The bright boy running around camp, turned into this. Just as emotionally fucked up as John and Arthur were at his age. And then there's timewarp kids, and then he figures out Jack had a younger sister. How does he handle THAT???

yes. y es i thought abt jack and hosea. because yes i fuckinf think jack would happily put up with hoseas bs. that is his grandpa and grandpa loves him.

oh fuck you you can't attack me in the feels like that and not expect an immediate reply covid has your brain cOOKING. sorry john + abigail jack is actually my son my baby my blorbo

If dad Hosea is intense, papa Hosea is willing to resort to the lowest honor tactics to protect his grandbabies. Like mama grizzly bear to the extreme: he might look the part of sweet old man but he will murder someone with his bare hands if they even LOOK at his grandbabies wrong.

He actually prefers being called Uncle Hosea because he loathes reminders of how old he is (even though growing old is something he is very, very grateful for). Isaac looked him dead in the eye when Hosea tried to correct him and said 'no I am calling you Pa and that's that'. He also calls Bessie Meemaw. Everyone else calls him Uncle Hosea but Isaac has that Morgan stubbornness.

Also Isaac is finally old enough for the 'yeah your dad was an outlaw and all those strange timewarp people are fellow gang members' and is immediately eyes sparkling. Knows outlaw bad but also how cool is that?? He will excitedly sit at Hosea's feet to hear stories about the old days and of course Hosea loves telling very true and not exaggerated tales of their adventures.

Between having no understanding of modern currency and economics and also the excitement of having a grandchild he gets to see whenever he wants because not running for lives anymore, Hosea is the worst when it comes to spoiling his grandbabies second only to Bessie.

Isaac, going from being raised by a 90% of the time solo parent to having such a massive family in the gang, loves all of them so much. Suddenly having grandparents for school events and those dumb family tree assignments. Isaac also inherited the theatrics genes. He's doing a video interview about Hosea's career and of course Hosea is just telling stories about scams and cons he ran but Isaac's in full old timey interviewer garb newsie cap on microphone and clipboard.

Isaac slamming the door at Arthur's fuck you I'm going to Pa's house when he's grounded. Arthur calling to say he's grounded do not spoil him send him home asap and Hosea merrily agreeing only to cut to Isaac getting cake and coffee while they play dominos. Hosea blindly agrees that Arthur is taking him getting suspended a second time far too seriously.

Old man bawling getting to hold baby Maeve. Sean trying to tell him to stop because he's going to wake her up but Hosea is the softest bastard when it comes to babies.

Emotionally ruined to find out Jack has a younger sister but also she was the first Marston to die and so young. He is always the first to offer to babysit and it was a very common occurrence to find her sitting on his lap drifting off as he reads to her. Practices her reading with her and plays tea parties with actual tea and does voices for different characters obsessed with playing with his smaller grandkids.

BUT HOSEA AND JACK. Hosea has been through the emotionally fucked teen outlaw gig so many times he is an expert. He knows when Jack needs space or to talk or company before Jack does.

As easy as it is to focus on that damage all that trauma and emotions and just darkness Jack carries with him, Hosea still sees their little prince.

The sheer emotion of knowing how much reading came to mean to Jack. The hurt but comfort of knowing that Jack, even if he didn't remember Hosea as clearly as Hosea remembers him, held onto something Hosea helped him with and gave him so tightly. How he read so much Abigail teased him despite how proud she was of the life he was going to have before everything turned to shit.

When Jack is still adjusting and understandably awkward and also mentally not coping, Hosea showed him their expansive private collection of books and saw the way Jack's eyes lit up. They both finally have someone to talk to books about.

Not only Jack lighting up a little like a candle being exposed to oxygen again but actually laughing as Hosea starts stacking books he recommends in his arms. Hosea being excited to talk about books without spoiling them also also just so excited to see that bright little boy is still in there.

Catching Jack curled up on what is usually his reading chair, book still in hand but fast asleep. Remembering the first times Arthur, and John, and Tilly and all those troubled young outlaws they picked up along the way felt comfortable enough to sleep around him, and knowing deep down Jack is going to be okay.

[angelsdean]

I don't get the part of fandom that highlights Dean's supposed codependancy with Sam: he lets him alone x years when Sam was at Stanford, he brings him back to Jess at the end of the Pilot, he is happy to roadtrip with and without Cas in s5 and comes back only because he worries Sam is going to accept to be Lucifer's vessel, etc, etc, etc.

(And there is also Demon!Dean who is like "Fuch responsabilities" lmao)

yea it's like. very clear textually that dean can and will give sam space to live whatever life he wants. even in 1x11 Scarecrow, sam wants to go to california to find john, dean wants to stay and solve the case, he lets sam go !! sam later calls him and dean updates him on the case the the research he's doing bc he doesn't have his nerd brother (putting himself down, self-deprecating as dean is abt his own intelligence even tho he's SO smart) and sam's like joking "oh is this you hinting you need my help" and dean's like, straight up, listen i'm not hinting anything, tells him how proud he is of sam, but i also doesn't beg him to come back, basically tells him to keep doing his own this and to "take care of yourself and call me when you find dad."

sam's often the one projecting or putting words in dean's mouth like "you can't stand being alone!!" at stuff like, not letting sam die ??? not letting your loved one die is being selfish and means you don't wanna be alone ??? in what world. most people will do whatever they can to save a loved one, esp when you're living in a literal horror fantasy show and not like, a basic family drama. and sam will say stuff like but also will do risky things to save dean. hell his plan to save dean from the mark put charlie directly in danger and lead to her death. so like sam is not one to talk abt being "selfish" to save each other. and simply wanting your brother alive is not a bad thing. nor does it mean you can't stand to have separate lives / be alone. though dean very much does not want to be alone, but. he has friends and family outside of sam. he has love interests and people he could build a life with. looking at the relationships on this show you see dean have so many closer bonds with other characters and then sam is notably lacking in comparison. rowena and eileen are the only two recurring characters (off the top of my head) that feel like sam characters. people that are there mainly due to their personal ties to sam. and yea they have lots of joint friends, like gath, jody, donna, etc but even then sometimes it feels like they're closer to dean. sam feels very lonely (and it breaks my heart really) and so a lot of the things he says abt dean and their co-dependency really feels like some projection of sam's own feelings.

anyways this got long and rambly but yea, dean tells us over and over again that he's good with letting sam do his own thing. that he's good with having space and separate lives. the main thing he wants really is just, sam alive. he wants his family and friends alive !!! because he loves them !!!

[charmikarma]

hallo it's me. (crookedgrifter) I'm back and I want your davejade / davejadekat thoughts. gimme

my thoughts huh ... i sure am a rambler so you're gonna get a whole essay on this

i guess in thinking abt davejadekat it always starts with jade. which is well enough because davekat has been talked to death at this point, hasn't it? i don't think i could tell you anything new or interesting about that dynamic at this point.

ANYWAY. jade. i kind of get into this in my polar express fic which ik you've read, but she is SO lonely. what the fuck are you supposed to do for ~10 years alone on an island with just a dog?? a dog who could take you somewhere else, somewhere with people, but he won't. and maybe jade knows why because of her dreams on prospit, but also maybe not! either way i think she puts a lot of faith in her dreams. it's kind of the only hope she has for the future.

i think she also has some hope in dave, this really cool dude she has this awkward internet middle school crush on. and dave is super cool to her too! i think it's implied he furry roleplays with her even?? cutest shit ever. i think this is the thing that has made me always love davejade ... they are just. so sweet to each other. dave clearly cares SO much about her.

the other thing about jade is... she's kinda fucked over repeatedly by the narrative, isn't she? she's the last beta kid introduced, so she has a lot less time to develop. the closest she really gets to developing is being really pissed off at karkat after her dreamself dies (i'll talk about this in a sec). her arc basically ends at cascade. her character arc ends in the dead middle of the comic, in a flash animation that contains exactly 0 character development. hussie says so himself in the author's notes. (don't even get me started on the author's notes jesus christ.) everything that happens on the boat is pretty much irrelevant, because it gets retconned out. instead she spends 3 years completely fucking alone, and we like... barely unpack this in canon.

so her life story up until this point is basically: raised by grandpa till ~3-5ish > living on her own till 13 > meeting dave briefly in the game > DAVE FUCKING DIES IN FRONT OF HER, WITH HER OWN BULLETS > she meets john briefly > JOHN AND DAVESPRITE FUCKING DIE > she spends 3 years alone with no solace except "yeah they had to die but you'll see them again in the new session" from alt!calliope and i guess a bunch of sprites and consorts and chess dudes. she says it herself: as nice as it is to have these folks around, they're not able to relate to her. they're not fellow thirteen year old kids. she may not be technically alone, but she is essentially alone, and she just 1. died twice in one day and 2. witnessed the deaths of several of her friends.

more on being fucked over by the narrative - jade actually has a kind of interesting dynamic with karkat in the middle of a5a2! what happens with this dynamic later on? fucking nothing!!!! like seriously i am so interested in this whole. self-hatred parallel that gets drawn between them and then how jade puts her foot down and is like you are fucking nuts. no more yelling at yourself. and it goes nowhere!! this dynamic exists for like, maybe 1% of the comic. it's really fucking sad honestly. even at the very end of homestuck, she has to be sidelined for being too powerful, thereby excluding her from all the endgame convos. like we cannot win with her

ok anyway, here's where i get into the stuff i think is really interesting. at the end of homestuck, alt!calliope tells jade that she's suffered enough, and that it's time for her to live her life how she wants to. we don't see how this plays out in homestuck proper, BUT...... the epilogues. sighs heavily.

i may be an epilogues lover but even i have to admit that jade's portrayal is.... a mess. i don't think it's wildly out of character, exactly, but it definitely toes the line... and it's definitely extremely fucking uncomfortable. it does, however, give me some insight into how i think about jade now, because while the minutiae don't really feel in character, i do think the broad strokes of what they were going for make sense.

jade took alt!calliope's words and said, fuck it. i will take charge! i won't wait anymore! i am going to have what i want. and she does get a lot of that! she gets to hang out with her friends, hang out with her brother, meet a ton of people, have a bunch of sex (presumably when she's older), and so on. but see... doing a lot of things doesn't really fill the emptiness she feels. she has so much love to give and not enough outlet for it. she needs all the love in the world and has nobody to give it to her. and she still has this big fat ten-year-old crush on dave strider that never went anywhere. but the approach she takes to life now is just... so incompatible with what dave needs. same for karkat. they both need a LOT of patience to come out of their shells, and jade is living life in the fast lane. the more she pushes, the more withdrawn they become. it is a disaster.

i want to fix it so fucking bad.

jade needs a lot of character development for all this to work, but the dynamic is absolutely there. some of their convos in early meat are so fucking funny dude, they are such good friends. it is absolutely not for lack of caring on either dave or karkat's part that things don't work out in the epilogues. it's this disconnect between what jade thinks is helpful and what dave and karkat need. i really want jade to find the balance between living at breakneck speed and waiting ten years for something to happen. i want her to feel loved for once in her damn life. and i want dave and karkat to stop being such depressing shut-ins. please guys you could balance each other out if you would just figure out how to communicate

anyway. there's your essay. it's mostly about jade. hope that's ok. i love jade harley so much my ultimate goal is to see her happy and mark my words i will figure out how

[electricfied-wolf]

So... you've been reblogging a lot of Starlight Express onto my dash and I feel like it's about time I ask what it's about? What I'm picking up is that it's... humanoid trains?

Whatever it is I must admit it's piqued my curiosity

OHHHH BOY YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY AUTISM CARD I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT STARLIGHT EXPRESS. Ooookay, there's a lot to talk about, especially because a new non-replica production like JUST opened in London. I feel like I'm gonna ramble a lot so we're gonna put it under the cut and I'm just gonna blab until I feel I've explained it well enough. First of all I should note that I am explaining just off the top of my head, if you'd like more info the Starlight Express wiki is run by some very committed folks and as far as I know every word on that wiki is true. Also if you'd like more photos you're gonna have to go there bc GUESS WHO LEARNED THE LIMIT FOR PHOTOS IN A SINGLE TUMBLT POST IS 30? ANYWAY ONTO MY RAMBLE!!!! And be warned, it WILL BE VERY LONG. CLICK AT YOUR OWN RISK.

What is Starlight Express?

Starlight Express (often abbreviated to Stex by the fans) is a musical produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber (yes the CATS guy) that revolves around a child's toy trains "coming to life" and having a big ol' dramatic race. They've got an underdog, a couple bad guys, train god and romance. Pretty much everything. Most productions are more song filled than dialogue filled. It has its roots in Thomas & Friends and some of the earliest stuff had a Cinderella type of thing going on (not surprising I'm sure), the plot is actually pretty easy to follow once you get used to it. Starlight Express is performed SOLELY on roller skates (not counting lndn24's scooters for the Trax and Control) for the entire duration! And in such heavy costumes too! The show has been performed since 1984 and has absolutely ZERO signs of stopping as the Bochum, Germany production is still being performed and as I stated above, there is now a non-replica production running at the Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre in London. And if you don't know what that term (non replica) means, it essentially means they are not using the traditional costumes for the show that John Napier designed and are taking quite a few liberties with a newer plot and characters to make the show something much more unique as compared to its replica counterparts.

An older version of Rusty and Pearl in the John Napier style (left) VS. Rusty in the style of the London 2024 production standing with ALW (right) _ I specify 2024 London as the show was originally produced in London but also got revised so there's like three London Stex productions I could be talking abt lol, though the costumes have gone through some pretty drastic changes even in the replica productions.

Electra's more recognizable costume (aka the more compact mohawk version of red/blue Electra) used up until the rehaul in 2018, and the one currently used in Bochum's performance of the show (aka used from 2018-now). The same character and both replica, but still different! Over the course of the many years these trains have shared our earth, I'd say that Greaseball and Rusty are amongst the few that haven't changed that massively over the course of the show (again, NOT counting the current non-rep). This show has indeed graced the US and was even performed on Broadway! Unfortunately, us Americans are really really boring apparently because the show (while still wildly successful) did not stick around here in the states. It is still however beloved by many and that is the sole reason why it has stood to be seen for 40 years: people can say the show was made on drugs and that its "weird" all they want, but Starlight Express has a bigger community than you'd think, and it is incredibly well loved by those in the community. We are VERY devoted to our trains. Despite everything though, it has never gotten a pro-shot and the only fully versions available for streaming (...in terms of official audio for official streaming) on places like youtube and spotify are the original 1984 London Cast Recording and "The New Starlight Express", aka the revised London production's album released in 1993. There is also the english and german version's of Bochum Starlight Express' "Ich Bin Ich" otherwise know as "I Am Me", but no other parts of that production have been released for streaming. You can technically stop here and just go on to the wiki and stuff but if you wanna spend like an hour listening to my infodump I AM going to keep going.

The Characters

Before I touch on the story (a much shorter section I assume) I feel it is important to explain the characters, as there are a LOT and they change depending on each production and long story short yes I am nowhere dear done with this post. The characters can be broken up into groups of which I'll introduce them by. I also cannot really do London 24's characters which I wish I could bc I'm dead obsessed w/ it but it literally just opened a little while ago so the only sharable photos of other characters I got are fuzzy and from the megamixes or backstage pics. So unfortunately no cameos from those guys in this post but trust me THE WEMBLEY PARK PRODUCTION IS SO GOOD. Uhm anyways. First I'll mention the Trax/Racing Marshals, no speaking roles and very simple costumes compared to the other trains. They're simply there to wave the flags for the races and perform other tiny tasks to move the show along, as well as doing some very cool stunts that the other performers cannot do due to the absurd weight of the main costumes. They're just as important as everyone else!

The Marshals (Bochum 2016) *note, I'm mainly going to use Bochum photos to show off the costumes because they're just usually better quality The Humans: Usually disembodied voices (with exception from two productions) our only humans are a little kid named Control, and their mom who is simply known as Mom/Control's Mom and also has an even smaller role than her child as she only comes in at the introduction to put Control to bed. Control is OBSESSED with trains which grants us the plot of this musical, over the course of the show they order the trains around and narrate the races, but (up until recently) typically don't play an active role in terms of properly interacting with the trains. They are, as their name suggests, the Control for the trains. In Bochum's performance 2018 and onward Control mentions having a grandmother who is hard of hearing, but to my knowledge said grandma is only brought up in that specific production. The National/Competing Engines: For pretty much every production excluding WP's, the non-main character racing competitors have been international trains from across the world. However their names and some of their designs have been changed over time, and the French engine even switched genders in the 2018 Bochum rehaul. I am excluding the doubles from the tours because this'll take all day if I don't. _______ The French engine- Essentially from the beginning up to 2018, Bobo the TGV. In/after 2018 in Bochum, Coco the Eurostar. Arguably the most changed of the nationals, originally a male character (Bobo) she was changed to be a female and even given a blue color scheme which Bobo usually never had as he was typically seen with orange colors in Bochum.

(Bobo (Bochum) and Coco) _______ The Japanese Engine: Originally Hashamoto (misspelling of Hashimoto but technically that's his official name), later changed to Nintendo in 1992 for all english language productions but still Hashamoto in Germany, and from 2018 onward in Bochum known as Manga. All three are labeled as Shinkansen bullet trains.

(Hashamoto (Bochum), Nintendo, and Manga) _______ The Russian Engine: Turnov the trans siberian express has literally just been Turnov this whole time and really he's hardly changed aside from his costume having to have its chest symbol changed due to obvious reasons. This poor guy has suffered greatly due to political stuff even all the way back in 1987, though I will avoid getting into that here.

Turnov (Bochum 1991), Turnov (Bochum 2018, ft. Manga) _______ The German Engine: Weltschaft originally, later named Ruhrgold, the german engine is the InterCity Express (ICE). Like Turnov he hasn't really gone through many major changes other than the original switch from Weltschaft to Ruhrgold, though the two are presented with very contrasting personalities.

Weltschaft (Bochum 1991, ft. C.B.), Rurhgold (Bochum 2018, ft. Espresso) _______ The Italian Engine: ESPRESSO! He's a fun one, very similar to Bobo in that they're both pretty flamboyant european engines. Not really similar to Coco though. Espresso's a silly fella, flirts with the audience sometimes. His design has also been pretty consistent.

Espresso (Bochum 1988), Espresso (Bochum 2021) _______ The British Engine: Our pathetic failure king <3, aka the engine that literally never races as he usually breaks down before he's meant to race. Like every time it's got to be one of the most consistent plot points across 40 years of showtime. Even through three different transformations this british loco cannot escape it. Originally named City of Milton Keynes, later Prince of Wales upon the opening of the broadway production, and in 2018 hit the stage as Brexit. Yes, you heard me. They named the British national engine Brexit, and no none of us are particularly proud of that but it is how it is. At least he's got some charm!

No images of Milton are available atm, Prince of Wales (Las Vegas, 1993), Brexit (Bochum, 2018) _______ OKAY WE'RE DONE WITH NATIONALS. We can talk about the important ones now.

So next I'll move onto our main trio of engines. Rusty, Greaseball, Electra. Lots of design altercations over the years but no name changes and basically no role changes. However, the most recent production involves a female and wlw Greaseball as well as a canon they/them Electra! We'll go engine by engine, talk about our trademark "old steamer", and then I'll move onto the cars. _______ Greaseball, the world racing champion of Union Pacific: Heavily greaser based with muscles that make coaches and freight cars alike swoon, Greaseball is a black and yellow diesel and one of the antagonists of our plot. He's the world racing champion at the start of the show. Dating Dinah (both at the beginning and by the end despite some issues) the dining car, VERY proud of himself and pretty damn self absorbent in pretty much every production. He is also NOT that nice. He was pretty terrible in the very original plot back in the day BUT DON'T FEAR! They very quickly edited those plot points and made him less terrible and more of just a really pompous jerk. Bochum GB is actually such a goofy guy by the end. His female counterpart in the new production doesn't lack her meanness either! She's just as big of a jerk but also just as big of a softie by the end of the show. Truly, the same in every universe. Being a girl and a lesbian does not destroy her asshole tendencies and I am glad for that. Let gay girls be jerks too!!!

Greaseball (London 1984, ft. Pearl, Dinah, and Ashley), Greaseball (Bochum, 2021, ft. Caboose)

_______ Electra, the engine of the future: QUEEREST PRE-2024 STEX CHARACTER WHOOOO? Despite never having been fully confirmed (at least up until recent) to be any specific non-cishet identity, Electra the electric engine has been an icon for the girls and the gays since day one. With he/him pronouns but a slightly feminine name and physical demeanor, it's clear he was made to represent a less traditional form of gender presentation as he has been played by actresses in the past too, though primarily has been portrayed by male actors. Andrew Lloyd Webber even once referred to Electra's main song, AC/DC, as "transgender electro-pop". Not to mention the casting notice for the 2019 Bochum cast having described Electra as 'gender fluid / androgynous'. Electra has a pack of "components" aka his freight car entourage who follow him around and sing his praises. He is also one of the antagonists, though antagonist is a bit of a strong word as he isn't as hardcore as Greaseball or our villainous railcar. He has more beef with the diesel than our main character as well, stealing his girl and the show at every opportunity. And also aggressively zapping him as often as possible. The only thing they have in common is that they're full of themselves, they want Rusty out of the race, and they want to win. No photos for Electra I gave him his spotlight earlier in this post. Though do remember that the newest version of Electra (got a little sleek helmet instead of hair, super pointy costume, blue and silver colors) is NOT he/him, they are they/them and so is their current main actor! Electra is accompanied by an entourage of "components", aka shiny and fancy freight cars that bend to the engine's every whim. Pre-2018 the components are Wrench the repair truck, Joule the Dynamite Truck, Volta the freezer truck, Krupp the armaments truck, and Purse the money truck. Post-2018 the components are Wrench, Volta, Joule, and Killerwatt the security truck, Krupp and Purse are no longer present. It is also important to note that pre-2018 Volta is portrayed as very feminine meanwhile post-2018 Volta is meant to be much more masculine. No photos for Electra they got photos earlier in this post and I'm trying to save myself from hitting the photo limit. Same for Rusty. _______ Rusty, the steam train: WOOO WOOO! WOOO WOO! Say hello to the titular bitchular that everyone loves. Seriously I've never seen a Rusty hater. Our main character and a timeless gem of the show, he's a pathetic wet cat, he's rusted and falling apart, and he meets god. The perfect man! Rusty obviously has the greatest arc over the entire story, he's our underdog and incredibly charming in all his forms. Overtime some actors have played him up as sassier while others amped up the wet cat energy (Looking at you, Javeen), but no matter how he's played you will feel sorry for him and likely fall in love with him. He's so overconfident at the start but is very quickly brought down by the other engines, fear not though, because he's the main guy!! I'll yap more about his whole thing in the story section. _______ The old steam engine: Had to make the title gender neutral w/ these guys bc GUESS WHO ELSE GOT GIRL'D IN 2018! Poppa, or in terms of Bochum 2018 and onward, Momma, is Rusty's mentor and the only other steam engine in the show. Quite stubborn, preachy in more ways than one, but ultimately good at heart. They're the engine that pushes Rusty to race and encourages Rusty to seek faith in the Starlight Express (Eyyyy title drop!). Most of this engine's role is story related too so I'll save that for then.

Poppa (Bochum, 1997, ft. Rusty), Momma (Bochum, 2018, ft. Dustin) _______ The freight: For the convience of I'm afraid to hit the word count, we're gonna lump the cars into whole sections. Minus one specific member of the freight due to plot significance. Anyway the freight!! Lots of people are big fans of them and I can't blame them. Though they went through a few changes here and there, they're usually a pretty consistent group (once again, minus 2024). From 1984 to 2003 they contained the boxcars aka the Rockies, then productions between 2003 and 2018 included the Hip Hoppers, with the 2018 rehaul marking the return of the Rockies to the show. All productions included Flat-Top the brick truck and Dustin the big hopper, and while Dustin does play a significant role in the show...there's a certain sixth member that plays the greatest role of all the freight. _______ The Red Caboose: Though his Bochum rehaul design spells out "brake van" on his shoulders (even though brake vans aren't cabooses, rant for another day) and he's gone by the Red Caboose for far longer, most know this beloved boy as CB...buuut the version that is widely marked as CB isn't technically CB! That was his original name in regards to the radio codes he used throughout the show- "10-4, smokey bear!" -C.B., 1984 "10-7, gone to heaven!" -Included in the segment after the first run of the final race -but his original name was dropped upon the entry to Broadway, from then on he was just the caboose, and he continues to be so to this day! No matter the production...or at least the ones he's in, he sticks out from the start as one of the guys to keep your eye on. And I'm sure you caught that, that's right, he's not even in every production! Though he is in most of them! His role is another plot heavy one so I'm sure you get the deal by now.

CB (London, 1984), Caboose (Bochum, 2006) _______ The Coaches: The girls, the lasses, the women, etc etc!!! Full of lovely ladies (again, not mentioning 2024's changes) and honestly the true stars of the show in my eyes. In this group is where you'll find our other main character! But would you believe they've also undergone swaps? Originally it was Pearl the observation car/first class carriage, Dinah the dining car, Ashley the smoking car, and Buffy the buffet car, and it remained that way for a long time...but there was an odd period in which Ashley was replaced with a sleeping car named Duvay, though Duvay didn't last very long in the grand scheme of things. Upon the 2018 rehaul, Buffy and Ashley were replaced with Carrie the luggage van and Belle the bar car. Belle actually shares her name with a coach that was present all the way up into the broadway production, though not really used afterwards. Belle the sleeping car was a companion to Poppa and while not part of the main quartet of coaches would usually appear with the other girls for Girls Rolling Stock! Broadway did OG Belle dirty but that's another rant for another day. Again, for simplicity's sake, we'll only individually cover the gals you absolutely gotta know about. _______ Pearl the observation car/first class carriage: Pearl girl!!! Very near and dear to me, our secondary main character and Rusty's love interest. The label for what type of coach she is varies from production to production, all you need to know for certain is she's a super shiny new coach and Rusty is absolutely INFATUED with her...but she's her own coach too, and she's not as quick to settle as he is. She makes it very clear that she wants her choices to be her own and she's not going to let someone else make those choices for her no matter what. She has her own little arc too. While in older productions Pearl is painted as being new but still having an established bond with Rusty, newer ones (aka bochum and london's current shows) paint Pearl as a completely new coach who doesn't know anyone and literally just got here, making her and Rusty's relationship a bit more fleshed out...but we'll discuss that more later!

Pearl (Bochum, 2011), Pearl (Bochum, 2019) _______ Dinah the dining car: HARD to not just ramble about how much I adore her. I am her she is me we are the same person, ESPECIALLY her 2024 variant same taste in women fr. A southern accented (usually) dining car, Dinah is Greaseball's partner with honestly a very inspiring little arc of her own, she's emotional and devoted to her partner but is not to be mistaken as someone who can't stick up for herself, because she makes it crystal clear that she's not someone to be pushed around. She was given even more of a powerful and independent personality in the 2018 rehaul/london revival, but she's always had fight in her from the very beginning!

Dinah (Bochum, 1993), Dinah (Bochum, 2018) AND WHOOPS TOO LONG OF A POST FOR TUMBLR. I'M GONNA HAVE TO PUT THE PLOT IN THE REBLOGS HOLD ON TIGHT. EDIT: I AM GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE A SEPARATE POST NOT A REBLOG BECAUSE TUMBLR WON'T SAVE THE REBLOG AS A DRAFT.

[savyir-genesizz-the-wizard]

gotta ask abt cogito & the cane, if you don't mind. even as a (phys) disabled person I have a hard time thinking of circumstances with D2 where disabilities wouldn't just be either a. healed by light or b. negligible with abilities or c. too much of risk on the field. hadn't given much thought to exos in regards to all that- I know pretty much nothing about exo anatomy either. I know we see some stuff with banshee's memory impairment, but that's not physical. au thing or did you find a way that the rep makes sense? /gen

Hello! So I think I've talked about it a few times in various Discord servers but didn't make a post so here are all my thoughts on this topic (as examplified by my oc(s))

Case A. Cogito is disabled because he was disabled before he died and it did not cause his death. His exo model is highly custom and a leg he kitbashed from a dead exo (when he was lightless) is very faulty (causes pain when he walks too much or runs, and sometimes doesn't bend).

This could also happen with human/awoken guardians (especially if they were born disabled). As Speaker said: "Devotion inspires bravery, bravery inspires sacrifice, sacrifice leads to death" - it would be fucked up if disabled people were somewhat except from that. If a guardian can be rezzed old (like Osiris) then it probably means that they get rezzed as they were at the point when they died so case closed.

Back to Cogito though - yes, light can help him as a mobility aid (he's a Warlock, he can fly pretty well) but obliviously can't always work (light restriction zones for example). And also yeah, it's very much a problem in the field sometimes. It's a big reason why he does solitary reaserch work and only raids with a big group.

Another example of this would be Kobzar-13 with his poor eyesight (this one is for me. I have very bad eyesight too tho it's not as bad, yet). His optics were damaged some time before he died so now it's like this. He could probably get them fixed but he just rolls with this. His ghost audio describes everything to him in his head which I think would be very cool.

Case B. Wawrzyniec is disabled (amputee) because his arm got cut of by Crota. Aka "various light restricting devices and light restricted zones". In this case soulfire. Cogito's scratch (on his head, I don't always draw them) also goes under this category.

This one is more of a stretch but I think that it's plausible. I guess that guardians more often die in these situations than escape disabled. There is also the fact that ghosts might be not able (or want) to heal certain injuries. You can say that Sloane is a lore example of this.

Another oc example of this would be Enebish who got burn scars and lost an eye during the Red War when the Traveler was caged. I don't really remember if anything was said about it at the time.

Bonus case C. I know that some people headcanon guardians getting disabled because of extended light usage. I personally don't think it makes sense and goes kinda against the healing power of light stuff. Case closed.

And about the non-guardians - multiple characters have these sci-fi prosthetics (Camrin's is super advanced and Variks'es is pretty shabby) that I imagine can depend of how much cash or girlfriend in STEM you have. Eramis even has ones for her both feet so the field must be pretty advanced. There is also brother Vance who is blind and clearly did pretty well (before he jumped into piramid zone and vanished forever (John Bungie, if you heal his eyesight I'll kill you)).

Bungie seems to be generally very indirect when it comes to showing disability. Except for PTSD. Which is to be expected from an fps shooter. Everyone wants a cool robot arm but no one wants to talk about the attitude to disability in different cultures.

Speaking of which - humanity is probably not much different then it's now. There are probably a lot of disabled veterans. I wonder if insulin is expensive in the Last City. Awoken and Cabal are probably weird about it. Neomuni, well, we've seen Maya Sundaresh. Eliksni are the most normal.

So yeah, that's all from me. Thanks for the ask!

[oohbuggypie]

super long discussion abt my headcanons for Don's tattoo, as well as Carmen's and Bull's !

WARNING!! these r very headcanon heavy and probably reach-y ideas so if u prefer to stick to canon / r scared of mischaracterization maybe dont read 🩷 also this is SUPER long so im gonna go ahead and put all of this beneath a cut bcuz i don't wanna flood + this is centered around ship talk and i know some ppl don't care 4 that ✝️ pairs discussed are CarDon and BullDon, but emphasis on Carmen and Don bcuz they're mentioned more than once!!

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

kay so i always talk abt Don having a tattoo but ive never clarified WHAT the tattoo is of / what it says . im usually stuck between not knowing what it would be;; a religious image or a religious quote ? a cross felt too basic, but an entire passage of text would just be way too much for Don in my opinion,, i don't think he'd ever want such a huge, obvious amount of black ink on his body forever. i came up with the idea that Don's tat in the Monster Hunter would be COLOSSIANS 3:2, and it felt very fitting ; it's small and fairly easy to hide, but it reflects a great amount of his world perception and his ideologies . and i think that the exact same style of tattoo would fit his regular universe character very well too !

so after some consideration and many MANY dumb questions, i have concluded: i think Don's tattoo would be JOHN 15:9 .

John 15:9 reads: "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love."

so why that quote ??

Don is a very romantic man :: he holds a very deep love for Carmen and he expresses that in his actions , seeming to dedicate his fights to her and celebrating his victories in her name . not only that, but i think his loving attitude is expressed through his non-romantic actions as well; he shows a considerable amount of respect to his opponents, and he recognizes his own mistakes! he's romantic , respectful , and to an extent - humble . i think that that verse fits him so well because it connects to his romantic personality and religious upbringing. along with being raised religiously, i think Don's parents took extra time to truly teach Don the lesson that love is one of life's most valuable and prominent factors. not only did they teach him to show kindness and respect to his peers, but i think they integrated the idea of finding romance very early in his life. they wanted their son to fall in love with the "right person", and they wanted him to treat his lover with deep devotion and respect. so i think that those two factors ended up melding together as Don grew up; religion reflected love, and his love would reflect his religion. so upon the two merging, i think Don made the decision to get that specific quote as a tattoo as means to reflect his two deepest values, and as a promise to himself that he'd find his true partner one day. so when Don truly did fall in love, he felt an even deeper connection to the tattoo.

Don's canonical partner being Carmen is adorable to me, and this is where the second portion of my headcanon comes in: i think that throughout the course of their relationship, Carmen would recognize the true sentiment that religion holds in Don's life and get a similar tattoo as devotion to her lover ! much like Don, to me, she wouldn't want an obnoxious or obvious tattoo simply because it doesn't fit the way she presents herself. so as a way to match her partner, i think she'd get the exact same kind of tattoo but with a different passage.

i think Carmen would choose ROMANS 1:11 - 12, and the placement would be beneath her right breast.

Romans 1:11 - 12 reads: "I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong - that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith."

i think the first part of the text ("I long to see you...") reflects the majority of Don's life where he waited to find his true partner, and how he and Carmen were bound to be together; she just hadn't met him yet. the second part of the quote ("...to make you strong...") is super fitting in the context of the idea that Carmen is Don's main motivation that drive his passions, like bullfighting and boxing. and the final part of the quote solidifies their love for each other - by sharing a tattoo, they share the love behind it and they serve as one another's guide of sorts.

-

as for Don being in a relationship with Bull, i think Bull would have conflicted feelings about getting a tattoo. Don, by no means, thinks that Bull NEEDS to get a tattoo to encapsulate their love ,, it was never a "required" or expected action to be reciprocated and Don understands that very well! both of them have already given each other deeply valuable gifts as ways to express their devotion. however, if Bull were to get a tattoo, i think he'd prioritize it being very small and very private.

to me, Bull's tattoo would be of the Virgin Mary in colored ink, placed on his inner, left thigh.

this is solely my opinion and i def don't expect anyone to agree, but that one is soo special to me . i think Don would have a very strong admiration of the Virgin Mary as an entire concept, and Bull took note of that love. he decided to represent it by choosing an intimate place that practically nobody else would ever see. neither of them see it constantly, but when they do they're reminded of just how deep their love runs . 🥹

OKAY I THINK IM DONE OMGG . this could be worded so much better but it's past midnight and this was literally ripping my brain to shreds all day so i HAD to get it out immediately 😭✝️ thanks 2 anybody that read all this omg i didn't think i was gonna talk THAT much .. srry but Don and religion r just sooooo good paired i HAD to share 🩷 okay goodniiiiiight

[themyscirah]

Simon's flash forward of the future being Jess' first appearance... 🤵🏾‍♂️💍👰🏽‍♀️ anyone???

[acheronist]

HI ISABEL i was thinking abt ur beechey boys + peglar/armitage extended cinematic universe while doing my laundry earlier (<- normal guy behaviour) and now i'm curious if u've thought of any actors/face claims for them – beechey boys especially bc we don't even have terror versions to use lol 👀🎤

HI GENEEEE 🖤 this is interesting.... honestly i've never been very good at fan casting shit because my default is always just going "x character should be played by riz ahmed" which ummmm would not work here i fear.

anyways everyone watch out there's gonna be mummy images below the cut

okay i really don't care about actors enough to do this well ummm LMAO johnny bertchtold YOU🫵🏻 are now john shaw torrington!! except johnny's way too tall and also ripped to be jorts.... i will say tho, as annoying as the john torrington/david young erasure is in the amc show, they did kind of nail it with alfie kingsnorth... now that's a skinny blonde bitch who looks half dead! he's got the right big round eyes + prominent cheekbones as jorts

if we could get some mutton chops and the uniform of a royal marine private onto ferdinand kingsley i think he'd be fantastic as william braine..... actually now that i'm looking at this i kind of feel like a genius for this one LMAO??

john hartnell is a little harder because i've already decided in my heart that this daguerreotype is 100% undeniably him even though the chances of it are actually probably very low. in actuality. but i have tried to match up the daguerreotype "hartnell" with the mummy hartnell and i do think it's a super close match.... i just wish mr. daguerreotype hadn't tucked his hair over his ear so i could compare the shape of john's ear.... but anyways there is actually one bg dude from terror amc who i have also kind of decided could be jarts!!! he was one of the dudes who voted to stay on terror and die there instead of out on the shale before everyone abandoned ship... he's got the right haircut for it <3 but also i think rob james-collier could be kind of a slay for jartnell if we can get him back to his downton abbey prime

and then thomas morgan hasn't really made his debut in the beechey boys cinematic universe (yet. chapter two still cooking......) and we also haven't exhumed HIM so this is really just like throwing a dart and calling it good. i did draw a little version of him here tho . so do with this as you will i guess. me when i'm just making up whatever the fuck. he should be kind of sickly looking as well though because my dude was going THROUGH it (+ he had one million pre existing conditions) before he died.

and for like... henry & thomas theyre much more nebulous in my brain..... maybe i'll try and draw them later!? i did do fanart here of henry tho but i fear it's got a heavy amc casting influence on what he looked like.

real life facts: thomas (5'9") is 2 inches taller than henry (5'7"), henry probably had broad/strong arms and shoulders due to climbing around in the rigging for his whole career, both of them had brown hair, and thomas was older than henry enough that he was probably starting to get salt-and-pepper grey during the miserable stressful parts of the expedition. henry's id papers describe his complexion as "sallow" and based on how many captains said he had a shitty/indifferent/bored attitude while working leads me to believe my king had chronic resting bitch face + looked vaguely exhausted and pale and unwell even when he was healthy.

also in my heart amc nailed it with giving thomas curly hair tho... charlie kelly is cute to meeeeee... unfortunately he isn't 40 years old enough. no source no facts anyways i just want to believe in curly girl armitage supremacy. ALSOOOO in my heart (again) henry has sailor tattoos-- HOLD FAST on his knuckles for good luck in the ropes + two swallows on his chest under each collarbone to mark his 10,000th mile at seas. i forgot what i was talking about. i think do think k*vin g*thrie's face was honestly too conventionally attractive for henry though. i just know my man was mid as fuck. frown lines from scowling, ink stains on his fingers at all times, never worn sunblock ever, thinks splashing water on his face counts as moisturizing etc.... MY henry peter peglar is pretty weather-beaten and looks like a mean cunt and sometimes he snarls at people like a badly trained dog. amen.

[souji-upseta]

yo my name is nyx, it's my birthday today (2/3). my birthdays have sucked SHIT the past few years for reasons that are depressing—

—cringe is also dead, i killed her myself, and i'm still grieving her loss. its been very hard for me—

—since i am the protagonist of Me and can do st abt this, this year i turn 31, and i will at some point turn 31.4, with all of this in mind, what do i want for my birthday? i'll tell you:

to talk about homestuck.

i'll do that, anyways, but you'd be doing me a gift by giving me a prompt to follow, and to feel slightly more validated in my inability to shut up about my hyperfixation.

so i'm asking YOU to talk about homestuck with me.

talk to me abt homestuck? ask me my headcanons. my thoughts. my relationship to the work. tell me yours. expect nothing that's profound, and plenty that's stupid.

i'm even turning anon on, for the first time in 6 fucking years. where making this happen.

this never expires btw. today is my birthday, but, for story purposes, let's say that it's still my birthday after it isn't, bc i will still want and, if i am honest, NEED you to talk to me about homestuck for years onward. i'm very metatextual like that.

i get the feeling it's going to be a long day.

>Nyx: Be the other guy.

You are now the other guy! What will you do?

>Web Tumblr User: Inbox Tumblr user souji-upseta?

>Mobile App Tumblr User: Do that, but hyperlink is unavailable?

=(n×∞)>

FOURTH WALL BREAK!

you are now nyx again, and i am now me, and i need to exposit some lore.

as in, some starting points to get u going, since "homestuck" is a very broad subject:

•i'm a massive massive slut for the epilogues and post canon content/hsbc. pesterquest is too good for this gay earth.

•dirk is my fav, ALL of the dirks, all of them, and it isn't even close. my fav relationship is the canon platonic/familial one between dirk and dave. i fucking love the striders. dave is my 1.5th fav.

•im more invested in dave's relationship to corndogs (and corn dogs) than you even know.

•mspa reader is my second fav after the striders, bc they are a good thembo friendsimp and also bc they are me and they are You. i might be biased. i love You. i love me. i love us. we're fucking gr8.

•im pretty canon-compliant, so my fav ship is dirkjake as exes (for now), and my fav ship as not-exes is panquadrant (canon) davekat.

i'm also really fascinated by rosemary and would welcome more opportunities to learn abt and talk about them but if homestuck makes a statement about anything it's to let the women and the sapphic characters tell their story (thats a joke, talk to me abt them too)

•june eg(g)bert real.

•i'm fascinated by classpects and the applications of paradox space's classpecting and extended zodiac system when applied to real life, since our only experience of those fictional systems is in linear dimensions of spacetime, and our only experience of astrology is as a species that in-universe cannot experience the sign caste system the same way the fictional aliens that created our species in their own image do. skaia knows, but we sure as fuck don't.

•i'm a former prince of heart (2012-2020) and a current knight of space, and my aspect is light. that is a thing that actually makes perfect sense for the reasons i just said.

don't ask me about vriska serket or (vriska) serket. not bc i'm not willing to discuss dark or problematic characters (hello, lanque bombyx) but bc:

for one, she can speak for her damn self, and has, tyvm.

for two, talking at length about a problematic character in any positive capacity marks you as an enemy of the state if that character is a woman, and being an enemy of the state is way too much fucking pressure for me for reasons i already explained as soon as i told you i'm a knignt of space. i wouldnt make a very good enemy of the state. it'd be an unhealthy blackrom relationship to the detriment of us all.

for three, i can just give you all my opinions/headcanons on vriska that matter:

•JOHN HUGGING VRISKA IN HSBC YESSSSSSSSSS

•she's greasy and gross and unkept af but not unclean or unsanitary, like, she bathes, she smells fine, she changes her clothes, but she's got the troll crust punk aesthetic absolutely on LOCK. she doesn't comb her hair.

•it would have been funny if she did even more bad things

•aradia did nothing wrong. vriska did but the meme is funny even if someone needs to take that meme out back and shoot it for the good of humanity.

•she should beat up ultimate dirk, and my reasoning for that is bc that would, also, be really fucking funny if she did

•john has both punched her in the face and hugged her, and now that john has punched aranea in the face, all that's left is for june—i assume she will have come out of her egg(bert) by then—to hug aranea and complete the circle of stupidity.

•she is trans yeah but she doesn't wanna get into it, she doesn't have to, and neither do i.

•vrisrezi most important relationship in homestuck.

there. you already got me to talk about vriska at length, and you didn't have to try. moot issue.

[fairyhagmother]

okay i know i’ve been annoying in your ask box a lot recently but i can’t stop thinking about livia and i throughly enjoy anytime you speak about her. so please, spare some livia cardew thoughts?

Oh please you could never annoy me <33

Under a cut due to lengthy and unhinged yapping and potentially triggering content (tagged)

Talking about Livia on here has really helped me refine her character — she has changed so much since I started thinking abt her, from outright villain to simply being misunderstood to outright villain again. Now she kind of sits in the middle. there is a dark streak to her, for sure, but she does also have some redeeming qualities.

I’ve always been under the impression that she was raised by her mother after the war so I’ve kind of run with that. Her father was a legal scholar who died during the war (still unsure how) and Livia misses him horribly. Livia’s mother buried herself in her work so Livia has pretty much raised herself (and has done a. not so great job at times). She’s been enrolled in ballet since her earliest childhood, and is actually an extremely talented dancer who has a knack for pushing through and past physical pain and could have been a professional, but her mother’s always said that it would have been a waste of her intelligence (🤨). She has a long-standing rivalry with Palmyra Monty that once resulted in um. fisticuffs. shall we say. Unfortunately for all, Livia has pretty poor emotional regulation skills and will get so angry, and so outraged, that she will lash out, usually after a period of lengthy seething. She figures out early on that sometimes causing other people pain brings her pleasure, especially if she believes that her fury is somehow justified (however skewed that justification may be).

She’s gay but doesn’t really know it.

She marries one of Arachne’s older brothers. Again I go back and forth with what happens to poor Tiberius Crane. He dies, that for sure. As you know I’ve sorta been playing around with Livia being Snow’s second wife, but the idea that he may have married Iphigenia Moss is so deeply horrific to me that I almost push back against it. I think that he takes so much from her that it exacerbates her mental health issues and that that is what kills her, and I find that extremely troubling.

Anyways sometimes I think she ends up marrying Snow because she loves power. Sometimes it’s because she’s on a revenge crusade for Iphie (which everyone thinks is really strange because Iphie and Livia weren’t even that close). Sometimes it’s because she genuinely thinks she may be happy with him (BUZZER. WRONG.)

Coriolanus and Livia are incredibly poorly suited to each other. It is fascinating. They seem so repulsed by each other that everyone is genuinely shocked when they have children together. like it’s a joke in the friend group where they will just look at each other in absolute disbelief and shock like when and how the fuck did THAT happen. It did and it was terrible. That Livia has constant affairs is the Capitol’s worst kept secret but somehow coriolanus is just like “my wife’s lesbianism is the only thing I respect about her.” I’m joking. Or am I. Idk it’s hard for me to reconcile snows obsession with control and his image with his rather unruly wife’s behaviour. I’m choosing to see it like how in medieval literature everyone knows king arthur’s wife is having an affair but no one says anything out of fear of disrupting the status quo. now I bet u didn’t think I’d manage to work king arthur into this but there you have it.

Livia hates her husband and fantasises about killing him constantly. She stumbles across the John collier clytemnestra painting while she’s at a reception at the Ravinstills and is deeply compelled like. Maybe she could axe coriolanus while he’s in the bath? Wouldn’t that be fun and empowering?

In some worlds she escapes her husband and drives off into the sunset after mobilising a network of women who hate coriolanus (there’s a lot). sometimes she realises that he will kill her so kills herself just to spite him and disrupt his career. She’s pretty unhinged by this point. I think she dotes on her children, particularly her youngest daughter, so I’m trying to wrap my head around a context in which it would make sense for her to leave her children behind? Maybe she thinks they will be safer with her gone but coriolanus not in power than they would be if she were around but coriolanus was in power? Idk idk initially this entire thing started bc I thought It would be funey if Livia gone girled herself but now I kinda can’t make it work lol

[angelsdean]

thinking abt this image again of long-haired kid dean and my own personal headcanons regarding dean's hair + john.

first off, i do think there's room for readings where john genuinely doesn't care abt dean's hair and doesn't make a fuss abt it, and anyone is absolutely free to read it that way. also trans dean headcanons !! so valid and i do enjoy entertaining those too<3

my other headcanon tho is that john does make him cut it, eventually. based on the size of sammy in that photo i'd say he's around 4 or 5 yrs old, which would make dean 8 or 9. to line up with canon flashbacks, lets just say he's about 8. this would be around the time john starts leaving them alone more and training dean up. and i think, military background john, would decide it's time for dean to cut his hair, military style. it's symbolic. childhood is over. long hair symbolized that carefree time but dean has to grow up now and be responsible. he's on his way to becoming a soldier. it's tactical too. long hair on a hunter gives your enemies something to pull.

it also lines up well with the kid sam we see in the imaginary friend episode. i always took issue with the casting of that sam, the very short hair felt so wrong, and sam's hair is such a defining character trait that i was like, that's just some kid, that could literally be anyone. that's not sam! however, looking at it through the lens of this headcanon, it makes sense. sam is now being left alone while john makes dean join him on hunts. sam has to grow up, be responsible. sam wants to be included on hunts, desperately. he's upset dean got to start training at a younger age. sam may even have requested the haircut to prove he's ready. or john decided, okay, it's time. either way, i think sam must've had some training at this point, maybe not enough to take along on the hunt, but enough to be left alone and defend himself. but eventually sam decides to grow his hair back out. and then puts up a fight (and generally gets his way) when john tells him to cut it again.

but i think dean keeps his mostly short thereafter, because he's generally resigned himself to the role of hunter. he's a soldier now. he didn't choose this life but he doesn't see an alternative. and the hair is symbolic of that. i don't even think john really forces it on him much, or enforces it, it just becomes a given. it's something dean accepts and puts on like a uniform. like he shrugs on that leather jacket. it's all costume and facade and playing the part of something he doesn't even really want to be. which is why i think it's so significant that the moments he doesn't feel he needs to perform or play that part, the moments when he's on his own or free from expectations, are the moments when he starts growing out his hair. stanford era. demon dean. post-canon.