#i understand that villains for the sake of being evil is fun but we have like 3 of them already in mortal kombat

[ntaras]

i sure hope people analyze shang tsung’s backstory as a man living in poverty forced to deceive other people for the sake of his own survival and don’t start complaining that giving him this kind of backstory makes him lame!

[drenched-in-sunlight]

Can I just say how in love I am with the way you draw Marika? Like every art you post of her has my jaw dropping…you add such a beautiful layer of humanity to her with her dynamic expressions and poses—it’s so refreshing to see especially when so many fan arts of her needlessly sexualize her or dial her down to a one-dimensional stone-faced villain (which a villain she is—but she is still complex)

And I adore how you draw her partial nudity as something natural, meaning that you don’t draw her without a top for the sake of objectifying her,

Your art is overall so pleasant and colourful and fun to look at, and your takes of Marika’s character in your fanart is literally what made me more interested in who she is in-game.

Thank you for drawing her the way you do! (And for drawing Elden Ring fanart in general💕)

i've been letting this ask stewing in my inbox for a while because it makes me so emotional 🥲

if you look at how i drew Marika before anything in the DLC was announced, it did fall into the two categories you were talking about, because despite having a little more positive view on her than the rest of the fandom at the time, i still had no idea who she was as a person. and by that time i were more interested in Malenia, so even though i did try to envision how Marika was, it's a very distant and vague image. which is what i love about Elden Ring lore in general: we see Marika via how her children see her.

it was easy back then to conclude we'd never get her, and "mother" is a distant term that will always be overshadowed by "God", so i just went along with the general haha evil sexy girlboss thing that the fandom was doing. but then the DLC teaser dropped the another elusive (possibly firstborn) child of her, with a statue of her holding a baby in his boss room, she started to get more little quirks that's so human in my work (the small smile, the little lock of hair that curls gently) because for the first time, we see her through the eye of a son that evidently adores her, so she gets a bit more human, because someone views her with emotions that are not fear nor distance.

then the DLC drops, and it's not just through Messmer's eye (or the entirety of his being that carry so much of her love it weighs him down and twist into the most horrible curse in the end), it's through the eyes of her family that were no longer there at all. it's the jar innard enemy that huddled in a jar and clutched at a piece of raw meat, it's the Grandmother's gentle smile as she rest among a sea of flowers, it's the solitary minor erdtree that bathed the whole place in the kindness of gold, it's the Fire Knights and soldiers that clearly viewed her as Mother as much as she was God, it's Miquella throwing away his love and doubt because he didn't know how to deal with the revelation that his mother was once a fallible human just like the rest of them, it's Trina's entreaty that Godhood was just a cage that would kill him slowly, it's the final boss music with the female voice belting "Hail, Marika the Eternal" - in the place where she had to wade through a sea of flesh and blood, her family included, to ascend to Godhood. it's finally understanding that to her, Eternity is to live for all her loved ones that have fallen down.

and somehow, it all comes back to this portrait at the base game, right at the Roundtable Hold, of a woman with permanently lowered eyes.

yeah i know after the DLC i've put on such a Messmer-style protective glasses for her, it shows very clearly in my art. now she could cry, looks sad, small smile, big smile, looks silly, looks cute, looks serious, her hair is pulled up in twenty different ways, she jokes and talks to animals and goes back to be just a simple young girl rolling around in the grass, blah blah... im drawing all these with eyes wide open. and i have no intention of stopping lol.

sometimes, things that already come alive will never go back to be a cardboard cutout anymore. if ppl don't like it, block me or whatever, in my space, i'll do that makes me happy. and im very glad that other ppl could find their own happiness and solace with my work too :) thank you for such a thoughtful and kind messages!

[roz-ani]

One issue I don't quite get and want to briefly comment on is the idea that Alastor has to be either an old-school villain who's just evil for the sake of being evil, or more of an antagonist with actual depth, emotions, and traumatic backstory to explain his actions, letting the audience relate to him. I think we're going to extremes here. We don't have to go, "Oh, I understand why he would do that". The main goal is for us to say, "Oh, so that's his deal".

While we don't know exactly what Alstor's deal is, what the exact terms of his contract are etc., he is, without a doubt, the most complex character in the show. He's in a unique position since he technically helps Charlie achieve her goal, but it's obvious he's in it for selfish reasons, with some grander scheme going on behind the scenes. May he eventually be the one the main cast will have to fight at some point? Sure. Would it be even more fun because he is a part of the said cast? Absolutely.

Let's get one thing straight: Alastor is evil. He's in Hell for a good reason. He's a cannibal and a serial killer. And I know we can absolutely forgive characters for doing the absolute worst, but he is not a good person. And yes, you can like (and simp for) evil characters. (If you think being a fan of intriguing fictional creations makes you a terrible person, you need to get off twitter and tiktok to actually interact with real people.) At the same time, the finale of season 1 simply made it clear that Al does have depth, and that he's going to be a three-dimensional character. Not that his actions are going to be suddenly justified.

But why can't we explore evil characters while enjoying them and letting them be evil? We can. Alastor started his carnage in Hell before making his deal, so it's not the main reason behind his less-than-questionable actions. For now, he's looking for freedom so he can (re)gain power and be in control again. At the same time, he is growing attached to the other characters. I highly doubt he'll be redeemed; we'll just learn more about him, his backstory, and his goals.

Can you even call Al an antagonist? If you ask me, he's more of an anti-hero. Heck, do we know who he is? Not really, and that's the point. He's one of the main characters, but he makes himself separate in both the story and the writing. He's a wild card.

We don't know what's coming for the Radio Demon in season 2. The first one established that there's more to him and that he started growing fond of the other characters, while the finale made Al realise it almost got him killed. He was humiliated and it reminded him even more that he's still under someone else's control. At least, that's how I see it. Alastor may become more sinister as the story progresses, and as he's getting more and more desperate to free himself of the contract. AT THE SAME TIME, he did come back to the Hotel with a smile and consent for a group hug, so it's not like he's going to blow it up in the first episode. He's not against the Hotel itself. He's doing his own thing, knowing that the titular establishment is an inherent part of his story. All paths lead to the Hazbin Hotel. My guess is that he will simply become more active.

Alastor is already a three-dimensional character; there is no doubt about that. But it's not like he's getting reckoned here. I don't really understand where this notion of our Radio Demon being an old-school villain came from in the first place. He's always been a mystery. Okay, maybe in the pilot it was not so clear-cut, and I'll admit, it would be fun to just see the Radio Demon as a powerful entity overlooking the hotel for his own pleasure. Turning him into a villain later on? Meh, depends on what would happen in the story if that were the case. Watching Jack Horner in "Puss in Boots", reminded me how much I missed villains that were not an initial antagonist's evil-incarnate-superior. However, it was quite quickly established that there is more to Alastor. He would have to appear pretty rarely to not go through any character arc in a show with such an ambitious storyline as Hazbin Hotel (and what a delightful character would we lose if that was the direction the writing team would have taken?). I would mention the pacing actually harming that development, but it's clear this is the show's biggest problem, and we just have to take things for granted.

If anything, Alastor is being restrained from being purely evil. To me, he's a combination of both of the character types I mentioned at the beginning, leaning more toward the well-developed anti-hero. Just let evil characters be evil and three-dimensional. 

[i-am-lakuna]

[‼️TW: This post is not sexual content itself however it talks about asexuality and thus also discusses sex.‼️]

Before pride month ends I want to talk about Transformers characters that are on the aroace spectrum!!

I want to clarify that since Cybertonians don't reproduce sexually that makes them all asexual in cannon!

...However the fandom still has a lot of different interpretations and headcannons. Some of these include procreation while others are robots being sexual for the sake of "fun" rather than biology. I personally feel VERY uncomfortable with the idea of sexual reproduction in transformers but fandom is fandom and I am well aware of how it ignores the cannon so this list is made with that in mind.

As for the aromantic part of this post....

Sadly none of those are actually cannon since the creators haven't said anything about it and it's never said out loud in the media these characters are from HOWEVER I feel like most of these are very heavily implied. If you're confused about labels please look them up!

Sorry this post only contains three characters, I'm writing this literally last minute before going to the airport lol. I feel like there are maybe some more that I've missed so you're welcome to comment or reblog if you want to add to the list!

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Shockwave: aromantic, asexual, could be aplatonic in some continuities.

I HAD to start with him. Speaks for itself really, if you're in the fandom you're probably familiar with how little emotion Shockwave expresses in general. Sadly though most people either see him as a completely emotionless monster or make him the super ooc :( He has no interest in sex or romance and some versions of him do not care for platonic bonds either.

The fandom sadly does not understand this, I'm not completely against him being shipped with other characters I just wish it was written properly and with his sexual/romantic orientation in mind. I feel like there's some interesting queer platonic lab partner shipping potential here but again this fandom is terrible at not sexualising him for some reason.

He does show care for others in SOME continuities, in Cyberverse we see that he used to be friends with Wheeljack and possibly some other characters. He does have emotions, even in other shows/media, we see him get visibly angry in TFP and Earthspark. So just saying that he doesn't feel anything is a straight up lie. He follows logic although we do see him make non logical choices when influenced by emotions, it's rare but it has happened.

I'm planning to make more content about him and being aroace spec soon. I want to show people that just because you don't feel forms of attraction or love towards others doesn't mean you're completely heartless. And yes I know an extremely stereotypical evil robot probably isn't the best character to use to prove a point like this but I just need people to stop mischaracterising him.

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Shadowstriker: aromantic, asexual.

[most of this is refering to her in Cyberverse, thought I do mention IDW briefly]

What is it with clearly aroace female characters, usually villains, and being called masc lesbians? No offence to lesbians but please y'all let us have some representation. Sorry pooks she doesn't want a girl, she doesn't want anyone actually. Which doesn't mean she doesn't value friendship, just look at how she interacts with Soundwave and Lazerbeak! That's found family if I've ever seen it!

I think she's someone who struggles a lot with emotions and intimacy just in general, though we do actually see her emotions slipping through the "mask" more towards the end of the show, even being happy [thought it was quite bittersweet] and part of a group hug in the last episode. Well done her for actually accepting physical touch that isn't punching someone in the face! She's a very untrusting character who tends to assume the worst in everyone and is really aggressive for most of the show. She has absolutely no interest in romance or sex and is probably apothisexual/apothiromantic. But as previously stated I think platonic love is really important to her. She's the type of person who would kill for her found family, in fact considering she's a Decepticon she probably has.

She's one of those extremely interesting and emotionally complex characters and yet somehow she's always overlooked. I see people talking about wanting more well written female characters and HERE SHE IS! Honestly I'd recommend watching Cyberverse even if you're just doing it for her, it's worth it. I could write a whole essay all about her. Can y'all tell she's my favourite? Because she is.

As for shipping I do like the idea of her being in a queer platonic ship with Flamewar and Slipstream in the IDW comics they're in, though again, I don't think people know how to write qp relationships...

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TFP Soundwave: demiromantic, asexual.

This one is only specific to one continuity and that's Transformers Prime. Not saying other versions aren't on the spectrum, I have a quite couple headcannons, though I feel they might be a bit ooc/self indulgent so I'm not including them since I'm trying to keep this list as "likely to be cannon" as I can.

In the show he doesn't speak and doesn't really have a face so he doesn't really express himself a lot. Though he still definitely shows emotion, just, differently I guess? He is uninterested in sex, I think he could be in a romantic relationship but it would have to be someone he's already emotionally attached to. Platonic love is extremely important to him but specifically his cassettes, they're his family. Others however.... I feel like he doesn't really care for a lot of the characters in the show but then again he doesn't show emotions much so he could just be hiding it.

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[queen-dahlia]

𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐯𝐨𝐧 𝐎𝐛𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐧

𝗠𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟵 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘂𝗺

Note: Translation is not 100% accurate. Expect grammatical errors.

// : alternate translation | ⫘⫘ : flashback

My second night at Obsidian was by no means peaceful.

Lord Gilbert invites me to eat the cookies with him on the bed in an ill-mannered way.

But I can't taste it.

When I cast my eyes down, cold fingers grabbed my chin as if to say no—

Gilbert: "Hey, I want you to tell me one thing too..."

Gilbert: "You haven't made eye contact with me once today. Why?"

The blood-colored eyes, which do not reflect any emotion, loom in front of me.

A faint exhale mingled with the breath, and my breathing became shallow.

Emma: "… I feel like it."

Gilbert: "You're still reeling from yesterday, aren't you?"

Emma: "If you know what I mean, don't ask."

Gilbert: "I'm asking you because I don't know. ...How can we make up?"

Emma: "It's not like we're fighting."

Gilbert: "You're mad at me, aren't you? For saying, "You'll be glad if I die."

(Even though you know.)

I gently brush off Lord Gilbert's hand, keep my distance from him, and nod.

Gilbert: "You are such a saint that you would respect even the life of a villain. Aren't you kind?"

I understand, but it doesn't add up. I think that's how Lord Gilbert is feeling right now.

(Even if he is the worst of the worst, Lord Gilbert is—)

Emma: "… The owner once told me that Lord Gilbert used to be a boy with a beautiful heart."

Gilbert: "Ahaha, what is that?"

Emma: "And he even told me that I am like Lord Gilbert."

Gilbert: "… Huh?"

I felt the atmosphere around Lord Gilbert sway slightly.

Emma: "I am often told by Rio and others that "I take care of others and neglect myself..."

Emma: "Lord Gilbert, you also did this in the beginning, didn't you?"

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

Gilbert: "There are different criteria for evaluating a beautiful heart…"

Gilbert: "Let's define beauty in your case as "having more love for others than for yourself."

⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘⫘

(I wasn't aware of that, but if everyone says so, I have to admit it.)

I am not neglecting myself by any means.

I'm just happy when people around me laugh... That's all.

Emma: "If Lord Gilbert's root is the same as mine, then you chose the path of becoming evil yourself for the sake of others."

Emma: "There had to be a price to pay to correct the deceit and corruption."

Emma: "I think that's what this is all about."

Gilbert: "No way, is that what you think of me?"

Lord Gilbert tries to laugh it off, but his eyes are not smiling.

It didn't seem to be a misguided consideration.

Gilbert: "And even if that were true, then what is beyond that?"

Gilbert: "Are you going to say, "You are actually a good person. So you shouldn't die?"

Gilbert: "Ahaha, don't do that, okay? That's disgusting."

Emma: "I won't say it. Whatever the reason, Lord Gilbert chose the path of evil."

Emma: "It's ridiculous to think you're a good person, and I've never thought so."

Gilbert: "Then you don't mind if I die, do you?"

Emma: "You're taking this too far!"

Gilbert: "Yeah? I think death is the norm for villains."

Emma: "I think it's cowardly. When you die, it only makes you feel better."

Gilbert: ". . . . . ."

Gilbert: "Ahaha! Yes, that's right. I see, you're the type of person who wants to make life a living hell, aren't you?"

Gilbert: "So when I think about you being angry... well..."

Emma: "Don't get me wrong! I don't care if it is a living hell or not."

Emma: "It's just... just..."

Emma: "… It's just too unrewarding."

Gilbert: ". . . . . ."

(This person... Why is he trying to fulfill his ideals even at the cost of his own life?)

If it were me—I wouldn't be able to fulfill such a great ideal for a stranger.

Not unless you have someone really close to you—someone that you absolutely want to protect from deceit and corruption.

(Me and Lord Gilbert are different. But if we're similar, then maybe...)

Emma: "My definition of a friend is "someone who is fun to be with, makes you laugh, and makes you want to wish them happiness."

Emma: "And Lord Gilbert is my friend."

Emma: "… If you're my friend, don't try to leave me."

(I really don't think it should be rewarded.)

(Including the Blood-Stained Rose Day, Lord Gilbert does things that are unforgivable.)

I can't honestly wish for happiness, either.

I even feel like there is blood in my words.

(So, only in this room.)

(Only when it's just the two of us…)

Emma: "I... did not dislike Lord Gilbert's malicious kindness."

Emma: "Why would I want to kill such a person?"

(If I could kill, I wouldn't be in such pain all the time.)

(That's why... I got so angry.)

Gilbert: "… That's so sweet it's repulsive."

(. . . . . .)

The words of rejection were wrapped in a countless number of thorns that I didn't expect to be aimed at a friend.

Gilbert: "If my single word can set Rhodolite on fire, and killing me won't do that—"

Gilbert: "Are you still going to say, "I don't want you to die," when you have to make a choice like that?"

Gilbert: "Me or Rhodolite. If such a balance is held out in front of you, you won't hesitate."

Emma: "No, I am lost. I'm lost and confused, and I will find another way."

Gilbert: "What if a lot of people die in the meantime?"

Emma: ". . . . . ."

Gilbert: "That's what I am to you."

Gilbert: "You can't be with me unless you're ready to kill me."

Gilbert: "Unless you want to be a traitor in the truest sense of the word…?"

(It was Lord Gilbert who first offered me a "friend," so why is he pushing me away like that?)

(… It's as if you want me to wish you dead.)

I knew from the beginning that Lord Gilbert's definition of "friend" was different from mine.

But when the perceptions don't mesh this well, I am beyond angry and in despair.

(If Lord Gilbert thinks that way, he shouldn't have been so kind to me in the first place.)

(What he says and what he does are in contradiction.)

(I wonder if he wants to make me suffer. ...that's a possibility.)

Gilbert: "Hehe... just the right opportunity. I have something I was going to give you when we get back to the castle."

(In this way…?) **

Lord Gilbert stands up and takes a small case out of the drawer of his office desk.

The lid of the case, which was obviously made of high-quality material, was opened, and as I approached it and looked inside, I saw that it was something of a shape I had never seen before, something I had no idea what it would be used for.

(… I don't know what it is, but I know it's not good.)

It's a polished piece of silver.

When I look closely, I can see that the metal is decorated with delicate roses.

The metal had a rotating golden round thing on it and a bright red rose charm on the black part that appeared to be the handle.

Gilbert: "Yes, Little Bunny."

Lord Gilbert makes me hold it with a smile.

It felt so comfortable in my hand as if it had been made for me.

Gilbert: "That face... you've never seen it in Rhodolite, have you?"

Emma: "Is this common in Obsidian?"

Gilbert: "No. This is a prototype that I made, so it's not on the market."

Gilbert: "But it's easy to use."

Lord Gilbert grips the cylindrical silver part and presses it against his own chest.

I instinctively had a bad feeling that made me break out in a cold sweat.

Gilbert: "First, this is a safety device, so remove it, then turn this. And if you finally pull the trigger—"

Gilbert: "Even Little Bunny could kill people easily."

Emma: "Ah..."

It slips from my hand, and Lord Gilbert grabs it before it hits the ground.

Gilbert: "Don't drop it because it might explode if it oscillates."

Gilbert: "Well, there is no live ammo in it right now. Don't forget to load it properly when you use it for real."

Emma: "Lord Gilbert, this is..."

Gilbert: "It's a gun."

(Oh, my god!)

(No, wait, is this a gun in the first place?)

The guns... I believe they were a new type of weapon that has been seen on the battlefield in recent years.

But the guns I learned about from books would not be so small or easy to handle.

(It's totally different from the guns I know.)

(Even though Obsidian is an advanced country in military technology, this is...)

My fingertips tremble at the thought of holding a tool that could easily take someone's life.

Lord Gilbert noticed this, put the rose gun on the desk, and gently wrapped his hand around mine.

Gilbert: "You know as well that my gift is to accept or be accepted."

Emma: "I don't have any use for this stuff!"

Gilbert: "Right now? You might think this is a murder weapon."

Gilbert: "But in other words, it could also be a "weapon needed to protect what is important" to you."

Gilbert: "But I'm sure you'll have limited opportunities to use it. As long as I'm here, your life isn't in danger."

Gilbert: "But you see, I am your greatest enemy and world disaster, protecting you."

Gilbert: "There will always come a time of choice. There's no harm in having it."

(How can you say that?)

(... Do you really want me to kill you?)

Emma: "I will not accept this time. I will never, ever accept this!"

I tried to shake his hand off vigorously, but Lord Gilberto tightened his grip and…

Gilbert: "You're not very understanding."

He pulled out a nearby chair and forced me to sit down.

Then he kneels down in front of me and pulls up my skirt.

Emma: "What are you doing!?"

Gilbert: "If you resist, I'll tie you up, okay?"

Emma: "Unreasonable..."

Gilbert: "You're a hostage, so you have to understand."

Cold fingertips touch my thighs, and my body trembles involuntarily.

(What are you really doing...?)

I seriously thought about kicking him off, but he didn't seem to want to touch me, instead, Lord Gilbert picked up something like a leather belt that was on the desk and began to wrap it around my leg.

Gilbert: "Yep, it fits."

Smiling with satisfaction, he attaches the gun to the belt.

Apparently, it was an accessory for carrying a gun.

Gilbert: "Carry this weapon with you at all times."

(… You're not listening to me at all.)

When I appealed to him with my gaze as if I couldn't understand his words,

Lord Gilbert notices this, softens his eyes, and for some reason bites my thigh.

Emma: "Hey, why would you do that!?"

Gilbert: "Oh, am I mistaken? You had a cocky look in your eye, I thought you wanted me to bite you."

Emma: "You know that's not true, right?"

Gilbert: "Hehe…"

With a confident smile, Lord Gilbert clenched his teeth, far from feeling sorry.

The mark on my thigh was painful... yet there was a glamor that I couldn't look at directly.

Gilbert: "But if you don't, you'll die, okay? That's what this place is about."

Emma: "… Don't you hate authority?"

Gilbert: "That's that, and this is that."

Gilbert: "This is Obsidian. Even if you don't like it, you have to accept my gift..."

Gilbert: "Even with this, you must not resist."

A cold hand lifts my leg and then bites me on the calf.

It felt different than trying to instill fear in my body... and force me to obey.

(I'm not scared... just embarrassed.)

His tongue crawls over the bite marks, and my legs tremble.

I was about to say stop — but I gasped.

(… What's with that face?)

His red eye, which rarely reflects emotion, seems to have a somewhat melancholy look.

The sad face that makes my heart clench, whether Lord Gilbert is aware of it or not...

(Does it only look that way because I'm looking down?)

(No... but...)

When I stopped resisting in confusion, Lord Gilbert raised his head, and our eyes met.

Gilbert: "Oh, your face... You're in so much pain and suffering."

(What do I look like?)

Gilbert: "Wouldn't it be easier if we just hated each other?"

Emma: "… I agree. I wish I could manipulate my emotions to my liking."

Gilbert: "If you could do that, though, you wouldn't be human."

Laughing softly, Lord Gilbert bites me again.

Sooner or later, my legs were going to be covered in bite marks.

(He's doing terrible things to me... but I can't refuse him.)

(I wonder… if I've been trampled.)

Gilbert: "…… I'm sorry."

(Eh...)

The faint sound of a voice makes me gasp.

But Lord Gilbert only smiles refreshingly, and his red eye flickers.

The heart of the trampling beast was never revealed.

[eisforeidolon]

"I think the one that still boggles me the most is Lucifer stans mad at the Winchesters for being SO MEEN to him."

Please tell me this is not actually a thing? Good grief. Lucifer is a great villain in early seasons, and transforms into little more than a giant bag of dicks as the show keep bringing him back past his expiration date. If anything, the Winchesters should have been MEANER to him. Guh!

So, on a slightly related but different note, I love that Sam is never nice to Crowley, and I see a lot of people crap on him for it because Crowley's fun abd charismatic and occasionally an ally. But, Crowley is a very very bad person, and he has done both petty and hideous things. He manipulated Dean into getting the MOC, for cripe's sake. Sam is wise to not trust him. Also, Dean is mean to him, too in Season 10, manipulating and lying to him. And I say, GOOD!

This doesn’t mean I don’t like Crowley the character, but when people hate on either brother for not trusting or being nice enough to the constantly or occasionally evil supernaturals in their lives, all I can do is roll my eyes.

No one on this show is entirely trustworthy all the time, and that includes both brothers, so people shouldn’t get too uptight about others criticizing characters from time to time. It’s just the harping on one brother constantly (Sam or Dean), and painting them as the bad guy, out to ruin the ither's love, that is ridiculous.

I wish I could tell you it wasn't a thing, but I definitely came across it when I was still going into the general tags. Blocked and never looked back. I'm not telling anyone what they can and can't get out of a tv show or any other media so long as they aren't being dicks to other people about it, but sometimes I Don't Get It and I Really Don't Want To.

Things with villains in the latter seasons of SPN just get ... weird. It's like they kinda tried to redeem all of them and make them the Winchesters' buddies? But in a really half-ass way most of the time? Like, I genuinely like some of those characters, but they did some evil shit. Meg got Jo and Ellen killed, attacked them several times, and was part of Bobby ending up in a wheelchair. We met Rowena torturing random hotel workers on a ceiling. Gabriel killed Dean a whole host of times and was an even bigger coward than we knew. Crowley held Bobby's soul hostage, killed several people they saved including Sarah Blake, talked Dean into the MoC, prevented Lucifer from going back into the Cage, etc. And don't even get me started on Eugenie's Thing about Lucifer and how they wanted Sam to be joking around with him (which apparently some people would have been into that, SMH). It was like they couldn't stand to just let evil characters be evil, or at least let the Winchesters consistently treat them as if they were as untrustworthy as they actually were.

So yeah, getting all up in arms about Sam being mean to Crowley is just ... do you not remember all the shit Crowley has done? Like, even when he was technically sort of on their side he was constantly being a self-serving manipulative dick! C'mon! He's a great character but the furthest thing from a trustworthy ally.

Some fans really do seem to get to a point where they don't want to even try to sympathize with or understand the characters that aren't their faves while excusing the characters they like from pretty much anything and everything.

[mdhwrites]

If you really don't like Amity having bad parents being a reason why she became antagonistic initially, what do you think would've been a better reason for why she acted the way she did initially? After all, no one is born mean.

So first: Sometimes kids are just mean. Not everyone comes from a broken family or has some sort of trauma that caused them to be an asshole. My twin brother is a narcissistic, abusive dick while my sister is incredibly selfless and caring and SHE is the one who has gone through real abuse and a failed marriage while my brother's biggest whine to make is... Honestly not much. Hell, I don't have some big trauma to explain why I have depression. I just hit adulthood and my brain's reaction to the stresses and changes was to shatter like glass. Humans are complicated like that

BUT to be fair, in a narrative no one needs to be evil just for the sake of evil. It's part of why Belos is boring. Even with Sasha, she's made more interesting by the fact that she doesn't think she's in the wrong for two entire seasons. So what could have been a better reason for Amity to be antagonistic?

Easy: The reason they gave in Covention and then expanded on in Lost in Language. It's actually the Willow stuff, the stuff that is more tied into her parents, that sucks way harder for Amity's character. Amity, early on, is an overachiever who deeply cares about her craft and takes things very seriously. That is just generally opposed to who Luz is in general. The fact that Luz wants to be a witch when there should be no way for that to be possible, made worse by how Luz treats it like something that should be fun. The fact that Luz is constantly messing around while she's working herself into an aneurysm. These are very natural conflicts that could have been explored more by the show but they made a severe mistake.

They made Amity an over the top, practically OOC, villain when she first shows and they show this by having her bully Willow and say this is what she normally does. The problem for Amity is that now she NEEDS an explanation to be such a bitch. It's not something a little understanding can deal with because it's not friction that causes her to be mean or standoffish, it's that she just straight up enjoys torturing this one girl. And mind you: It was still her choice because she only had to stop being friends with Willow. She didn't have to target her for extra bullying as we see is the present status quote.

It's also bad for Luz. Part of why I don't buy that she's some tortured outcast who has been mistreated is because she doesn't blink when it comes to Amity. One moment of cuteness and Luz is immediately going "Let's live out my fantasy and befriend her!" despite Amity being the absolute epitome of the sort of girl who supposedly would have made Luz's life hell back home. By the end of Lost in Language though, their third major episode together, they're effectively friends.

Honestly, with how little of characters Gus and Willow are, mostly serving to let Luz into Hexide and closer to Amity, alongside the fact that Dana herself said she wanted a queer romance as fast as possible... I just wouldn't have given them an antagonistic relationship. Bare minimum, not enemies to lovers (not that the show really tries that hard). Their personalities are enough to make an interesting, classic dynamic without making them hate each other at first.

Honestly, if I were to try to suggest a rewrite: Make it so that Covention is the third episode, Luz forces Eda to take her there because she sees a sign and tortures Eda like in the episode, Gus and Willow don't do anything besides exposition and introduce the concept anyways and then have the episode go the way it was originally but instead of it being because she's comically evil that she steps on King's cupcake, have it be for King's actual personality. She doesn't like the freeloader who she sees as mooching off of things and so stomps his cupcake. Gets across her serious attitude and that she is a pretty severe person. Luz makes her challenge, they have their duel where Luz finds out about Eda's sister and Amity being Lilith's pupil and after their heart to heart (because Luz in S1 had no reason to chase Amity in Covention anyways besides empathy for a crying girl), Luz gets an idea: She's going to befriend Amity and in the process, mend the rift between Lilith and Eda. This gives an actual plot purpose to getting closer to Amity.

Then you don't have the episodes wasted on Gus and Willow, nor the episodes wasted apologizing for Amity's behavior but instead can focus on Luz breaking into Hexide to say Amity. While Amity doesn't like the methods, she appreciates hard and dedication and doing it so as to be nice to her? That... That touches her and she's willing to see what the human does, especially if maybe she can learn some of that glyph magic to supplement her own? Make her a better witch too achieve her own goals?

And as they grow closer, it becomes less transactional. Grom can still happen like it did with Amity expecting Luz to want something for helping but nope! It's just because Luz is nice. And then for the finale, Luz doesn't have to be alone in her heist because while it puts her future in jeopardy, Luz has taught Amity enough about being a good person and doing the right thing that while she'll still want a disguise, she'll come with to try and save Eda's life. An act of early rebellion against what she believed in, the morals taught to her, so as to be able to properly show she's changing to not just blindly accept the EC as the best option. This also allows for the betrayal of Lilith to mean more to Amity if their mentor and student relationship has meant more to the series. Suddenly, her dance with anarchy becomes more fervent because her teacher, the one she saw as the best proof of how great the EC is, was lied to and tricked by the Emperor and now against the coven.

And for S2, if her parents aren't the main pressures on her, if it's just because she's a kid who cares about success, you don't need Escaping Expulsion and can spend half of that episode and the entirety of Looking Glass Ruins exploring Amity trying to figure out rebellion, potentially not wanting to put Luz at risk after she almost died in the S1 finale, but justifying it as her always doing things on her own. They have a big adventure climax against Belos that's also exploring rebel Luz and afterwards, Amity gives Luz a peck on the cheek for always being there. Always helping her figure things out when she'd be too stubborn to see clearly herself. Then go into Knock Knock Knocking with little changed if you want to keep that moment of them getting together the same.

It's not a perfect outline but it's what I came up with while writing this. And if you're thinking this is too much time spent on Amity, you need to remember that she already consumes a third of Luz's time during episodes in S1 and 2. Sure, TOH claims to not be a romance but then the original way it's written is unjustified because Amity already has more time dedicated to her as a pure romance without ANYTHING to do with the plot and barely anything to do with the themes at best.

But I will also admit that this is with hindsight and a more indulgent rewrite than I normally allow myself to. After all, I removed two entire characters for this. Characters that hardly matter to TOH anyways but if I was really trying to keep to it, I wouldn't get rid of them. The deck is stacked in my deck regardless to make it 'better' and that's not fair to the show.

But I hope that my point stands clear that Amity didn't need to be a real villain, even if only for an episode. She could have been a light antagonist, if she even needed to be that. Nothing is really gained by it in the grand scheme of TOH besides the Twitter posts who make shallow claims on her arc by using the angry face in episode 3 versus her smiling with purple hair and going "Can you believe this is the same person?"

And my response every time because of how shallow her villainy is, which makes her arc shallow, is why should I care? Because blaming her parents doesn't make me care.

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

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

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

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[multishipper-baby]

heyyyss !! dont know if youve talked about this before but i know you have an interest in eakoweddy and/or eakowededdy and i was wondering...

what is your vision of freddeak? (i dunno what theyre called.. sorry) i mean. i can imagine fredeak and eakwynn dynamics but i have some trouble thinking of a dynamic for freddy and eak so i wonder what YOU think of them. im really curious !!

-Vibrates- YES I can absolutely tell you about my freddeak dynamic! I have a lot of thoughts about them, both as a duo and as part of my OT3/4 madness, so I’ll try to explain all that a little. Warning: this is very long and rambly. I'm sorry if you wanted a short answer lmao.

How the ship happens

With this ship, we have a few interesting narrative points we can explore:

Eak is currently working with Owynn in his quest to find shadows, so he’s an antagonistic figure in Freddy’s life.

Eak doesn’t know Freddy has a shadow yet, and Freddy doesn’t know anything about the villains' plans, which means neither of them are aware of their antagonistic relationship yet.

Eak doesn’t actually want to work for Owynn or hurt anyone, but instead is doing it out of a desire to help Cami. This means he’s very likely to betray Owynn if given the opportunity.

So, what can we do with all this? I think it would be very interesting to explore the possibility of Freddy ultimately being the reason Eak decides to leave Owynn’s side, outing the whole plan and leading up to a victory for our heroes. It would be very poetic, I think, for Owynn to lose because someone from his team chose Freddy over him.

But how would we get there? It’s simple- like I’ve mentioned before, we know that Owynn is looking for shadows. Cami is the one who has the magic violin and her ability to control people, but in Ep. 4 Season 2, Owynn asks Eak how the search is going, which leads me to believe that he’s supposed to be doing something offscreen related to finding the shadows. As far as we know, though, Eak doesn’t have any special abilities, so… What is he doing? I like to think he’s the one keeping an eye out for rumors, trying to figure out who could have a shadow through the grapevine- looking for people who talk to themselves, or have odd mood changes, or seem to act differently depending on the day. And because of all this, it’d be easy for him to figure out something could be going on with Freddy, and decide to take a closer look. Especially if he knows Owynn has a special interest in him. So, now we have a reason for the two of them to interact. How would their dynamic work?

I think it would make sense for them to form a very casual friendship, at first- nothing exceptional, just classroom friends. Someone you hang out with at school and like alright, but aren’t close enough to actually invite to your house on the weekends or something. Eak wants to figure out what’s going on with Freddy, but he’s obviously going to look suspicious if he immediately jumps into trying to be best friends after not talking to the guy during most of their school year(s). And with their time together, there’s a chance for things to slowly take a turn.

Eak isn’t evil. He’s willing to do some evil things for the sake of the plan, but it’s clear that he isn't having fun with it the way Owynn is. The only reason he’s even helping with the plan is because he cares so much about Cami, and later, because he’s worried that things going wrong will lead to Towntrap getting hurt. He’s obviously a very loyal guy and, if he even got close to Freddy, I can imagine his loyalty would start getting in the way. So he’d be the perfect character to finally get the animatronics on the loop of what’s actually going on, hoping that they’ll be able to help him (and Cami, and Towntrap) get away from Owynn. I don’t even think Freddy would feel betrayed (although maybe he’d be a bit hurt) by Eak lying to him at first, given how understandable his situation is. I mean, who wouldn’t lie if it’s to save their friends from death? So, they can work together to defeat Owynn and have their little happily ever after.

The dynamic

Okay cool, we have a way for the characters to get close. But how would they actually interact? What kind of relationship would they have?

For starters, I think they would have a good start in the relationship, given the fact that Eak would probably know about Fred from the start- and wouldn't find that all too surprising. Eak is already informed of the shadow world, and of magic in general, so I think he'd be able to help Freddy navigate that part of himself more easily than someone who isn't as aware of it like the animatronics. Not to mention that Eak already knowing who Fred is and what he is means that there's no need for Freddy to hide or feel nervous about him, so that would be a pretty big weight off his shoulders (especially since I think Fred and Eak would get along. I ship them too, after all).

Plus I feel like Freddy deserves someone who's a little too devoted, someone fully ride or die. The animatronics are good and I like all their friendships, but Freddy is always getting dragged into weird shadow stuff and has a villain gunning for him- he needs the guy who would risk his life just to help a friend.

On Eak's side of the whole thing, I think he'd be glad to have someone a little more on his wavelength. Cami and Towntrap are polar opposites in every way- one who's very serious and another that never seems to fully grasp the seriousness of the situation. One who's cold and unfeeling and another who feels things too much. One that's smart and cunning and another who somehow fucks everything up. He loves them, but they're kind of A Lot. Having a partner who's more relaxed, more down to earth could do wonders for him. Someone needs to keep him from going insane, and Owynn definitely isn't going to do that lol.

A thing worth mentioning is how much Freddy teases Fred in Season 2, once their relationship is more friendly, and how much Eak does the same to Towntrap. They would love poking fun at each other and you can't convince me otherwise. They can be a little mean, as a treat <3

Also I have the headcanon that Freddy is touch starved and Eak is canonically very touchy. Freddy who's too shy to say he wants affection x Eak who is so comfortable holding his hand and putting his arm around his shoulders and sitting close enough to touch that he does it constantly. I want good things for Freddy, what can I say?

A tangent about my AU

If you’re not aware, I have an AU called “FHS: Farewell Despair Highschool”, which is a crossover AU with the characters of FHS inserted into the plot of Danganronpa. I’m mentioning this here because working on this AU is actually what really sold me on the ship, so I’d thought it made sense to mention how their relationship works in it. Be warned though that if you haven't played Danganronpa this part might be confusing.

Since the AU takes most of its elements from Danganronpa, I thought it'd be interesting to think about what an actual full game for the AU would be like. Because the entire thing would be completely from Freddy's point of view, all the characters will be filtered through his eyes and they'll need to interact with him for plot and character progression. So, I had to think about how Freddy's relationship would be with all the characters, and how each of those connections would develop as the game progresses and more people die.

During murder investigations, Eak and Freddy end up working together quite often- with Eak being the one that watches over the scene of the crime and examines the corpse most often due to being one of the less squeamish students, while Freddy is the main detective that ends up solving all the cases. Due to this, Eak ends up being on Freddy's side when there's conflict amongst the class, becoming somewhat loyal to him. In his eyes, despite Freddy's flaws, he's still the one that's pushing them all forward by solving the mysteries so far- which means they'd all be dead without him. This becomes especially true given that Freddy's biggest rival is Meg, someone Eak doesn't get along with.

So, our anxiety ridden and zero self-esteem Freddy now has someone on his corner. Eak isn't the only one who's supported him, of course, but by Chapter 4 most of his friends are dead, leaving only Eak and Usagi as his main companions. He feels more confident in his reasoning abilities, given that he's been able to solve everything the game throws at him so far, but emotionally he's breaking down more and more as their numbers drop. He's in need of this small support system he's made for himself more than ever before…

…and then Eak becomes one of the killers. Not to save himself, mind you, but to get rid of all of them. Eak wants them all to die, for a reason he won't specify, but that he assures him is very important. He needs to kill them all for their own good, because he cares about them so much. They need to trust him and choose death. And Freddy doesn't get it, can't understand it, so he lets Eak die to save the rest.

Except he later finds out that Eak was very much telling the truth: he tried to kill them to keep a secret so horrible, so despairing, so awful that it threatens to destroy all of the survivors mentally. But together, they manage to pull through, and find out that everything that's happened to them was only part of a simulation. Which means that they have the chance to reunite with all of the dead students… Eak included.

Now, this AU isn't about freddeak. Not only is it not canon, but it's not even the main relationship Freddy builds in it- that would probably be Freddy and Usagi, or Freddy and Chica, or Freddy and Meg. But I thought the dynamic between these two was very interesting as I examined it more deeply, and I couldn't help but enjoy it a lot. I love the idea of them becoming friends. I love the idea of Eak defending Freddy when he's too unconfident to defend himself. I love the idea of Eak's betrayal, and how it's not actually a betrayal, but an act of love towards his classmates. I love how later learning the truth about what happened reframes it almost like it was Freddy who betrayed him, by not believing in him while Eak always believed in Freddy. I love the idea of them reuniting and working through their awful trauma together. It's very detached from anything canon, but it certainly won me over.

I actually have thought more about their reunion and the “post game” storyline and all that other stuff but that also has a lot to do with a larger group dynamic and both their relationships to Owynn so we'll leave it here for now. But since I mentioned Owynn, how about we transition to…

The larger OT3 dynamic

Okay last section I promise. Now, we'll be talking about my idea for freddeak in the context of eakoweddy (Fred is there too but won't be discussed much because he's got other stuff going on and this is already getting long).

So obviously I like eakwynn and oweddy- just following me for a while will make this abundantly clear. I like a lot of Owynn ships. However, I don't think a lot of Owynn ships would be necessarily healthy. He's the villain, he looks down at others, he's willing to hurt basically every character we've met so far for his own ends… he's just not a good dude. This isn't really a problem for me, as an enjoyer of complicated and toxic relationship dynamics, but it does leave me wondering: if we wanted a ship that could redeem and help Owynn become a better person, what would that look like?

I think Freddy, on his own, would have a good shot at it… but he'd definitely struggle. Freddy, for all he tries, isn't very good at being assertive with anyone that isn't Fred. He's often pushed around or ignored by others, and Owynn is very much used to doing these things. Owynn has also shown so far that he's likely to hide away his true intentions and personality with the heroes, so we don't know how willing he is to show Freddy his true colors. Not to mention the whole “Owynn blames Freddy for some unmentioned transgression and seems weirdly obsessive about his revenge” thing. Very gay, but not very healthy.

On the other hand, there's Eak. He already knows all the worst parts about Owynn, knows all of his flaws and bad intentions. That's one of the main appeals of eakwynn for me, the idea of falling in love with someone after already seeing them at their worst. And Eak is a headstrong guy, who isn't afraid to speak his mind, even when what he wants to say is rude. If Owynn wasn't holding Cami and Towntrap over his head, Eak would definitely call him out whenever he crosses a line. However, I don't think Eak would necessarily be able to really “redeem” Owynn. I always imagined their dynamic as a more mutual thing; Eak makes Owynn a bit of a better person, but Owynn also makes Eak a little worse. See, I think Eak being a very loyal person has the chance of making him a bit of an enabler, too willing to look past the bad behavior of someone he loves and too willing to defend them when he shouldn't. He can call out Owynn when it's necessary… but he might not want to do that.

But the two of them together? I think they would balance out each other's weaknesses. Freddy keeps Eak from forgetting his morality too much. Eak makes sure Freddy is heard and not brushed aside. Freddy shows Eak the best in Owynn, and Eak helps him brace himself for the worst of Owynn. They compliment each other wonderfully.

And they can also work as each other's emotional support. Because of course not everyone is going to accept that they want to date someone that hurt them both. I imagine the animatronics, Cami and Towntrap would be far from thrilled to learn about the relationship. But with both of them dating Owynn, they can talk about him without worrying about judgment from others. They get that part of each other. Bonding over mutual bad taste in guys.

It's nice to have a crazy guy to smooch, but sometimes you want to also smooch someone less crazy. They're each other's less crazy <3 and I think that's gay.

Conclusion: Eak and Freddy should kiss.

[rocasterum]

Dead Boys Detectives final thoughts

27092024

i finished the show last night at midnight and it left me buzzing! i loved every aspect of it, Crystal's dynamic with Charles, the slow build up of Edwin's coming into the understanding of who he is and who he loves as well as the confession, i havent enjoyed a confession this good in ages where yes it took a lot of courage to get his feelings across but it looked and felt so easy for Charles to understand it and take it all in as it is and accept him and his feelings for what they are ' have forever to figure out what this is between us' just paraphrasing it since everything is all jumbled is the best open ended rejection i've seen and it's so well delivered and would have loved to see them explore it in future seasons but we all know that won't happen sadly. i loved Esther as the final boss she is just so good at delivering her lines and straight up being evil for the sake of it! yes Cat king told us the why she became a witch but that really is just that, it doesnt absolve her of all the horrors she put people through and the pleasure she gets from it. i've missed a good villain who is just that, a villain and goddamn was she a great one.

i love how the show didnt shy away from giving Crystal something to think about other than being a mary sue with powers that just come in handy at any moment but actually make her a flawed character who wasnt really someone good in the past and used her powers for her own gains, that she learnt to accept her past and work on her present as well as showcase her struggle throughout the show in getting her memories, fighting off david and failing a lot of times as well as how she gained her powers back. I was one to hate on any Netflix female lead character because of how they would write them as all powerful righteous quirky female characters who do no harm but no Crystal did harm but she did as much if not more good as she did harm because she's just a teenager! they are all teenagers navigating a chaotic world. and i really love the actress's portrayal of her and just how she delivers her lines with raw emotions, loved her a lot!

this one is personal but call me prude i dont care however i really loved the minimal PDA and sexual actions in the show it really made it feel comfortable to watch and the kissing scenes were there to aid the narration, Crystal and Charles's relationship as well as Monty and Edwin's they werent just kissing scenes for the heck of it for the viewers to take pleasure in but for the characters to develop and grow

now to my favourite characters Niko! i kinda laughed at the understandable lack of proper manga and anime references due to liscening and copyrights issues but they did their best in showing her nerdy shut in style as well as make her a character who grows out of her hikikimori problem into someone who loves to help everyone despite failing at times, they didnt make her stupid comic relief but an actual smart awkward female character, a good friend to Edwin i honestly loved every scene of them both together.

the cat king was a fun watch whenever he came on screen and he had his own goals instead of just 'use him to progress the plot forward', he did what he did and he was the start of the main storyline of the show Locking the boys in the town as well as kickstarting Edwin's journey in self discovery. and his final interaction with Edwin was really lovely and sincere.

Am quite upset knowing that i will never see the cast again because netflix cancelled the show but in another hand am satisfied with this one season, they told everything they had to tell about the characters each one of them was given the spotlight they deserved even Tragic Mick and it ended well for a season. Aside from the ending where they show Niko and the dandelion folks who were funny to me btw, unlikely friendship haha, i could live with just one season.

i would love to see Niko come back and for Edwin to have his friend around, they make a great quadra team with their own respective personalities but i am satisfied with just this one season in fear that netflix would ruin the show like how they did with Umbrella Academy. Honestly if it werent for a tumblr post talking about Dead Boys Detective i would have never given it a chance or had this much fun watching it. Loved it to bits! ps: i also really like how all the actors are adults, they looked like teens so i had to google their ages considering the issue film industry is going through with child actors exploitation and all so am glad they hired adults to act in this. also didnt Finality? i forgot her name the one who came with the Night Nurse in the end to let the boys continue their work say the same sentence Tragic Mick told to Niko before they went to help out the boys at the witch's den? i really loved that tid bit, i loved the dialogue, gosh i love the scriptwriting of this.

[humanpurposes]

hello! I’m the anon who had sent a message about your my heart belongs to daddy fic and fanfic writers oftentimes portraying alys as a villain or impediment between an OC/aemond in their stories or someone who’s cheated on while he finds his actual love. I don’t believe your characterization of her fell into the former trope but I think maybe I’m personally biased because I think alys is a captivating character and imo it’s a bit tiring for so many writers in this fandom to depict her and aemond as this loveless, passionless dynamic just so his relationship with their OCs have any weight to them in comparison (it’s also a bit confusing as there’s not much in the book about them but what is there does not strike me as a dynamic free from lust or attraction). I guess it’s something I was conflicted with re: your fic because the smut is very hot and your tone as a writer is not badly-written at all but it’s a pattern of people reducing her to being a mother of a daughter or an evil ex. and as a character, he doesn’t really strike me as the kind of guy who would go for a soft, sensitive girl (in canon I mean). he’s insane so he would want someone just as insane and odd as him imo 💀 idk if that makes sense but just wanted to clarify. people can write whatever they want obviously.

Hello again!

Yeah I can completely understand that it’s frustrating to see a character you like be reduced to a trope, and to be honest I do agree with you that Alys has been done dirty in a lot of Aemond fanfics. In the interest of good storytelling, a pointless love triangle for the sake of drama just does nothing for me unless it brings something interesting to the story. This is a common feature in fanfiction though, diminishing an existing pairing or one of the characters, just to make room for an OC or another ship.

I can only speak for myself here. As with everything I write, I wanted to create something unique and write characters and relationships that are (maybe not realistic) but believable. I had a lot of fun translating the canon into a modern setting, Alys and Aemond's relationship included. For me it's not as simple as two people being in love or being attracted to each other, there's ulterior motives and questionable power dynamics, all in the context of the uncertainty of war and Aemond's clearly unstable mental state. I think until we get a portrayal of their dynamic in HotD it all comes down to individual interpretation, but I am intrigued by Alys as a character and I'm really excited to see what they do with her in the show!

Thanks for reading and taking the time to reach out. At the very least I'm glad you enjoyed the smut 🤭🫶

[these-detestable-hands]

Truly an Ask Game Tuesday.

1, 7, 8, 14, 16, 18, 25

Honestly, just answer them slowly and when you have time. These are your fan mails. You don't reply to ALL of your fan mails in one go!

Yippee I love answering questions as soon as I get them.

1. The character everyone gets wrong

Valter from fe8. Listen. I know he acts vile and Riev directly says he has raped women and it's heavily implied Valter wants to rape Eirika but please hear me out.

Valter acts like this because of the cursed lance. This isn't a story of a cruel man who hurts others for fun, it's a story of a man who fell victim to a curse. In the Duessel and Cormag A support, they say the lange only corrupts those who are already bad people and I think this is stupid cause:

A. I don't really believe in good or bad people, only good and bad actions so it doesn't make much sense that it would affect Valter but not Cormag, but whatever I guess.

B. They say Valter was always evil and the lance just made him worse but that's not giving him credit for how he was before. Maybe he had violent urges to kill and rape before, but it means he did a good job of controlling himself and not letting it show. Maybe he felt guilty that he had those urges, maybe it was something he was actively working on, only for the cursed lance to ruin all his progress.

Valter has the opportunity to be an incredibly deep and fun character but it's completely ignored because IS did not choose to flesh him out and so the fandom takes his character at face value!! I think a sacred stones remake would be good because it would allow them to flesh out Valter (and the other generals) more and he really needs it. He's such an important villain but he's treated like crap by both the devs and fandom!!!

7. What character do you hate, not because of canon, but because of the fandom?

Kahaku probably. I mean I already didn't like him very much but the fandom is infuriating. He's strange and does bad things and hurts Fushi's loved ones but people just ignore that for the sake of shipping :/

8. Common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

The spy x family manga has a good balance of showing all three protagonists equally because they're equally important (though there's a little extra attention given to Twilight because he's the protagonist protagonist) but the anime gives way too much attention to Yor and Anya and the fandom doesn't like Twilight very much so people are happy about this. It sucks because beyond being a comedy, spy x family has an amazing story but the anime reduces it to silly Yor and Anya shenanigans so there's NONE of the espionage and fictional politics that I signed up for.

14. That one thing you see in fics all the time

I don't read much fanfiction actually and I'm very picky with what little I do read.

16. You can't understand why so many people like this thing

The canaries in dungeon meshi!!! Obviously Mithrun is amazing but we hardly see the others at all, I genuinely cannot fathom why people like them when we hardly have any idea of their personalities outside of daydream hour. I didn't even remember their names until I saw people constantly posting about them. It's also just a little upsetting cause of the one extremely sexualized brown woman :(

18. It's absolutely criminal the fandom has been sleeping on...

Honestly everything in witch hat atelier. The only characters people ever post about are Qifrey and Olruggio (as a ship) and Coco and Agott (also as a ship)

It's a good manga where the fandom is being lost to shipping. It just sucks. I wish people would actually give a crap about the story or the side characters but NOPE as always people are just shipping. Also side note Coco and Agott are 12 and Coco is dealing with the severe guilt of functionally killing her mom, now is NOT the time to be worrying about getting a gf.

25. Common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Ok so in ace attorney 4, the antagonist Kristoph has a really big secret but won't say what it is. He's executed before you can find out what it is. People hate this because it's annoying to not know but honestly I don't get it.

Kristoph is a very secretive and calculated killer, a lot like Cylira or Benedict (if Benedict killed people) and it makes perfect sense for him to never confess whatever secret he had. I like that he dies and we don't know what it was, it fits for his character.

[dangerous-advantage]

why the kraang in rottmnt: the movie work so well (for me)

(obvious spoilers fir the movie; if you haven’t watched it, go do so)

i’ve been ruminating on the idea of this post for a while, so instead of doing any actual writing, i have decided to spitball my thoughts on this subject

if you would like to read, go ahead. if not, okay? then don’t (/lighthearted)

i’ve seen/heard the argument a couple times from people who i’ve watched the movie with or have watched the movie that they didn’t like the kraang as villains, and/or how they were implemented

to this i say everybody is entitled to their own opinion, and if you don’t like them as villains just off of vibes, that’s fine

it gets dicey when people further elaborate. while i’m sure there are many reasons why you could dislike the kraang, but the idea that they are “bad villains” feels a bit... untrue?

so i want to explore why

to be clear, this isn’t a call-out or anything of the sort. i’m talking about a bunch of pink brain aliens from a franchise called ‘the teenage mutant ninja turtles.’ it’s not that deep (/lighthearted)

from the people i’ve talked to, the usual justification for their feelings is that they feel the kraang are one dimension. evil for the sake of being evil.

and that’s not untrue.

the kraang have one big motivation: to overtake the world. maybe they foster anger for being locked in the prison dimension, but that’s more of a ‘as well as’ type thing

but i don’t necessarily think that this is bad in the context of the story.

quite a few people who say this to me haven’t watched the series, so i can almost understand why they think this. (i’ll maybe explore that more later though.)

but to the rest, i can only assume their thought process revolves around evaluating the kraang (1) by themselves, instead of as part of a larger narrative, and (2) based off of the prevailing idea in modern media that villains must also be entirely dynamic characters with their own set of nuance.

so i’m going to explain why i disagree with both of these.

number one: evaluating the kraang as an individual part of the story instead of within the context they inhabit.

if you were to isolate the kraang as villains, i understand why you would come to the conclusion that they’re lacking. warmongering aliens hellbent on destroying the world, for no reason other than honor. where have we seen that before?

oh yeah— everywhere!

but i take issue with this. one, in defense of this, the kraang aren’t just your general baddie archetype. they do have underlying nuance.

we see in the scenes with raph (and it’s later parallel with leo) that the kraang operate off of a different moral framework than that of our heroes.

it’s not just their perspective. it’s their societal background. the strongest are those on top, the weakest do not last. a very hierarchy-based viewpoint

beyond that, though, is the fact that making the kraang more nuanced wouldn’t work within the context of the movie.

there just isn’t enough time to set something like that up, and it would only complicate and overinflate the narrative, distracting from the main themes and underlying message

the movie isn’t about them, not really. they play an important part. but they’re more of a catalyst, to force our main characters (notably leo) out of their comfort zone.

they are proving that something has to change, by taking away the sense of security (which raph is representative of) that both we and the characters had come to rely on, and in doing so, stripping back the layers to reveal the cracks more glaringly than ever

even if the writers were able to pull of a sympathetic/maybes take on the villains, i think it would be... extraneous?

the reason the kraang work so well (in my opinion) is that they are nothing like we’ve seen before. all the previous villains, including shredder, have been “fun”

you have your typical “villain-of-the-week” types (like warren and hypnotic), your bigger yet still “fun” anti-hero types (big mama abs baron draxum, who are both more nuanced) and shredder, who despite being very scary, is stilll nuanced

he’s the father of karai. his reasons for taking on the suit of armor (given to him by what we can assume are the kraang) were motivated by good. at the end, after he’s defeated, he joins karai in what constitutes their afterlife.

so we’ve had our fair share of nuanced villains. what we haven’t had?

the kraang. villains with no chance of reasoning with or goodness. villains that do not care about fun and entertainment. they are here to take over the world, and if you get in the way, they will kill you.

it’s why the movie hit so hard. why the beginning scene was even allowed to exist. if there were and peaceful option out f this, the boys would have taken it.

that’s why there can’t be.

now, this next part is much more meta, so if you don’t care, feel free to skip.

i don’t want to get too deep into this since i’m just writing my thoughts as they come to me, but it would feel amiss not to mention the bigger picture behind this criticism. why do people think this?

within the writing community, there has been this shift. actually, within the artist communities at large. it comes with post-modernism, which is a whole topic on its own.

basically, post-modernism is a response to modernism. it shows the darker side to the modern world, and the negative side of the ideas presented in the previous movement.

it’s the start of this nihilistic idea that nothing really matters, and things don’t work out like they do “in the movies.”

with it comes a level of nuance. basically, consider perspectives that you wouldn’t have before. like the villains’.

but like all movements, eventually, it has to come to an end.

if you want to know more, there is this really fascinating video essay by thomas flight titled something along the lines of “why do movies feel so different now?”

it’s very good, but basically, it explores the shift between post-modernism and this new “thing” we’re going into: meta-modernism

a name which, given the fact we had to use “modernism” for what is now the past, feels very fitting.

(it does worry me about future naming conventions a little— what’s next? neo-modernism?? lmao)

now, that’s kind of in its own vein, but the point is this: villains don’t have to be over-complicated.

if you have the time and narrative to spare, go for it. explore the villains and anti-hero’s to your hearts intent.

but it’s important to know when something is too much (like the length of this text post analyzing the villains in a movie titled ‘the rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles.’)

don’t shy away from having a sterotypical big bad. if you’re a good enough writer, you can pull anything off. you just have to handle it in a certain way.

not every bad guy has to have seventy-thousand layers of nuance, and the rise movie is a great example of a narrative that benefits from keeping it simple.

it had a story to tell, and it did it wonderfully, enough to send fandom-altering ripples through (in my opinion) the tmnt franchise as a whole

when a movie can pull people n and make them fall in live, despite their original feelings about the show, while also wowing the fans of said show? you know it’s good.

and you have to admit: the rise kraang are scary as fuck /pos

i could get more into why the kraang work exactly as well as they do, with the surrounding context and how they changed rise, and what i do and don’t like about the movie, but this is long enough, and i’m already not going back to fix my typos, so. i’ll end it here

if you did somehow slog through all of that and would be interested in my thoughts, let me know,m. who knows, maybe i’ll actually end up doing it maybe! (/lh /j)

[cinemabuffoon]

rant incoming!

I fully believe that the expendables series is one of the biggest wasted potentials of a movie series in recent cinema history. This series could have (and should have) leaned heavily into the energy of the expendables 2, which is the best one imo so I might be biased, where it leaned into the fact that it was a bunch of action stars from various eras and embraced it instead of constantly trying to hand things over to younger cast members or botching what could have been one of the most entertaining franchises to exist. I mean for goodness sake Jean Claude Van Damme is literally named Vilain and is generic villain™️!!

I personally enjoy these movies because I'm there to watch some of my favorite action stars be cool and shoot up crap and pal around, and thats what it always should have been. Now, it can be as serious or unserious as it wants to be (like I've stated before I lean towards 2 so that's my preference of the ratio) but it should have been focused on this cast of characters. I understand that Stallone had stated with the third movie that he wanted it to open to a wider/younger audience but I really think that was the wrong choice. As far as I've seen from various fan response, we are all here to watch this cast! these guys! Not some younger actors we don't really care about. They should have ham'd it up! Maybe they kill off some mebers every once in a while if they want to keep it interesting. They are the expendables after all! They could bring on so many cool actors too. Imagine if in the expendables 3, instead of being what it is, they brought in some of the female action stars from the 80s / 90s! They could be new additions to the team, a mercenary squad that has a cool, friendly yet competitive rivalship with them, or even as villains! Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hamilton, Uma Thurman, Michelle Yeoh, etc!! So many cool ladies that would have been a fantastic and fun way to keep the movies fresh while staying on brand. Now if they wanted to bring on younger crowds then maybe bring on some more established "modern" action stars then. Ronda Rousey kinda makes sense to me because to my understanding she's fighter in real life. I do think you can bring on newcomers and I'm welcome to it! But I wish they didn't want to hand it over to them. I understand many of these actors are aging and may not want to do this forever and thats completely fine, but i feel that there is a better way then how they went. Also! longer standing villains would be so great! Not necessarily like Thanos but maybe keep them on for more then one movie. Allow establishing time or allow more time to have the battle of good v evil! I.e Vilain was two movies and not one, Stonebanks (who was wasted in 3 smh) given 2 or 3 movies due to his connection with barney or 4 if they had a really good concept/reasoning/writing, etc. There's so much I could probably add and maybe I will later if i think of it but it saddens me to see the state of where this franchise is heading. I hate that Tool hasn't been back once, his arc will never be finished. I hate that so many actors that should be in this arent any more or never will get to be due to its decrease in quality. I hate that the latest movie feels like the lacroix equivalent of a tangerine. I hate that these movies have had more bad than good recently. I know they were never masterpieces, but as someone who loves action films and enjoys many of these actors movies, it was such a fun franchise and one that's potential has been squandered. It's just sad. This is also coming from someone who is relatively new to this series. I didn't grow up with this so I have no nostalgia or anything, I'm not blinded by rose tinted glasses. I'm just a fan who wishes better for this series. I hope we get a movie that absolutely revives and revitalizes this franchise but after 4, I'm not betting anything on it.

feeling like we should have gotten sequels to the A-Team (2010) instead right now

[overheaven]

hypmic spoilers

hahah nooo don’t humanize Rei he’s so sexy and unknowable…

no but really i do want him to always be at least a smidge “irredeemable” if you know what i mean. “redemption” is so trite and misused in fannish type stuff these days so i don’t even like using that word but it’s the best i’ve got. i really hope his motivations don’t end up wholly justifying his actions yknow? i don’t think he needs to be a villain (i don’t think there are any villains in hypmic actually, just antagonists. characters with wildly different motives and morals yknow.) but i would be very sad if all of his edges got smoothed.

while i love guys who are just Bad and Gross all the way through, it makes for an interesting character that he was “good” (or at least “honest”) at some point but then he got burned or even just backed into a corner and had to play the villain to get [his loved ones or even himself] out safely. again, Hypmic just doesn’t have many characters who are just evil for the sake of being evil, the main characters DO often have good intentions and multilayered backstories, complex conflicts that they have to deal with and navigate imperfectly. they all get messy. but i do fear Rei’s choices being undermined by a big HAHA IT WAS ALL AN ACT!! AND I’M SORRY!! moment. he’s a lot like Ardyn from FFXV for me, where yeah the guy as we know him was forged in grief and genuine good intent, but that doesn’t absolve him of the dubious things he’s done on the way here. remorse doesn’t mean shit when you’re digging your heels in and continuing to stomp down a path of spite.

i mean he even tells Saburo that one time like “even if i had a good reason for it, i still abandoned you kids.” so he’s aware of the role he’s been given, he’s not biding his time until he can shuck off this slimy facade and reveal a kind sad repentant man uwu— he IS a bit of a scumbag and he knows it. & he doesn’t expect his family to forgive him! (also i personally would love if he’s been kind of like. leaning into it too much and yknow. might as well have fun with it! if you want me to be a suspicious scheming conman, i will be! he’s committed to the bit too much etc etc. his solos are all about hustling and manipulating people and all that… it would be charming if that’s a genuine side of him just as much as his more “noble” ideals are)

ULTIMATELY i don’t want fans to end up with a really shallow take of “aw he was just a wife guy all along 🥺 he made some mistakes but he’s trying to take the world back from these Evil Women 🥺 he loves his sons 🥺 which means he’s Good, actually” UGH. like that’s my worst nightmare lol. but i guess other interpretations don’t have to be my problem even if that comes to pass because yknow he’s subject to my own He Would Not Fucking Say That sense when i come to this fandom & i can always pretend i do not see it i just. (claws at my skull) please let him be gross. just let him be sleazy and mysterious. he can have a heart of gold underneath but please understand that he’s still Like This now and he can’t go back.

THAT ALL SAID i don’t take issue with the most recent events, he’s still not showing us all of his cards and he’s still always cryptic. there’s a lot of potential for him to still be dishonest and stubborn, weaving webs and burning things down, all that. Otome is posed as someone who had good intentions but became “corrupted” so to speak. Rei even says he thinks something of this nature & that’s why he’s trying to destroy what she’s done in order to correct it all. so narratively, Otome is the Big Bad and Rei is “on our side” (i.e., on a team, part of the main cast) but we really shouldn’t forget that he’s a foil for her. whatever ideals he has are not The Solution just because he’s on this side— they’re his ideals, not the story’s ideals. his goals & methods are probably just as Wrong as hers by now. also i love them both a LOT i think they should both get worse.

i don’t have a conclusion to this post lol. just pondering the state of things and admiring the complexity of this character that i love, and how you can’t have his complexity without baggage, and hopefully things will get even MORE complicated as the story goes on… it’s great.

also i hope he pays attention to Jiro soon because i don’t want my baby suffering from too much middle child syndrome please please please let him have a one on one with Jiro too

[aecholapis]

If there was ever a new Brave show, what would you want it to be about/what would you want it to involve?

Oh, what I wouldn't give to see a new Brave emerge from the depths of Sunrise's animation studios. But the chances are slim, infinitesimal even, microscopic to the point that I've given up hope to see some kind of series revival one day. At least we're still getting figurines and HD Blu-Ray remasters of the animes, but that's pretty much it.

What we are left with is our imagination and perseverance and thankfully, some fans have those attributes in abundance. I'm not going to call them out by name - you all know who you are and you should know your efforts are greatly appreciated by this small fandom.

Some of them have made a great effort to come up with new ideas for their own original shows that have sprung from their imaginations and they are kind enough to share it with the world. As someone who loves reading about pretty much any thing and everything relevant to the media I'm obsessed with at that time, I also love reading about other people's take on the already existing and well-established fictional worlds.

I've already mentioned my own and the OCs that are part of it, but to be honest, this is not exactly the direction I would take the franchise if I had a say in it. There are many great ways one could revive the Yuusha series and my own silly idea of a story is not it. There are too many themes that don't fit with the overall tone of the series - it needs to be as light-hearted, emotional and thrilling as the original one... which it isn't.

I'll list the answer to your ask under the cut if it's alright with you.

First of all, one thing that I would love to see is a way for the producers to link the shows together. It can either be done with little easter eggs or references to the old shows,

There is a reason why almost all Braves follow a pattern in terms of plot progression and action and I think they should bring that back. The monster-of-the-week format has worked well with almost every series and while it's definitely not the perfect way of storytelling, it makes for fun times.

Let the villains be silly, give them control over some ridiculouly huge thing and watch them decimate the protagonists with it until they learn its attack patterns and defeat it with the power of friendship. It wouldn't hurt if they did it once or twice every ten episodes.

We need more villains who are evil for the sake of it. They don't need a thorough reason to destroy the universe. And give us our beloved morally grey rivals/antiheroes turned allies back, please.

Nowadays I feel that most characters aren't as colorful as they used to be, but not here, nuh-uh! They need to have at least two primary colors in their frame (RYB, RGB or CYMK, doesn't matter which one) as long as they wear it with pride. Example: my man Draias is a walking fashion disaster, yet he doesn't care about his appearance and I love him for it.

I want the Braves to originate from

✨ s p a c e ✨

not Earth, thank you. While I don't have anything against human-made robots or those who were created by our planet's nature, the thought of them being aliens is so much cooler.

The OST would be a banger for sure.

Another thing I want to see is a more in-depth exploration of the themes and issues they deal with. BPJD had its fair share of addressing themes that are usually targeted at older viewers rather than the actual target audience of pre- and elementary schoolers. I don't want that to get lost in a new show. Children are just as capable of understanding and dealing with heavy themes if they are offered an explanation for everything they might not fully comprehend.

While I don't like humans in robot media in general, BPJD was probably the only show where I think they handled them well. THe human side characters weren't as prominent as they had been in the previous and following Braves. The robots were finally in the spotlight and got the development they desperately needed. Yuuta and Deckerd had a unique bond, they were like siblings and that was so wonderfully presented that I couldn't help but like their pure, albeit codependent relationship.

More platonic relationships. More focus on friendships. More familial love and found family. More bromances, more womances. The same amount of explosions and action.

And please let everyone be normal about women, GGG Final was just. No. (I love you, Anryuu, but the rest of the cast were done dirty)

As for the plot, anything would work. Aliens invade the Earth, philanthrophic Braves come to defend it. Maybe they've been fighting the other guys for a long while, maybe they haven't. What matters is that it should be something that makes sense for a Yuusha show.

And give them badass designs, please.

[heyclickadee]

Eight, “A Gentleman With Thistle-Down Hair.”

-So, first off, I do think it’s interesting that the gentleman with the thistledown is always referred to as that—the GENTLEMAN with the thistledown hair. He’s technically the king of a fairy kingdom, but he’s always named as being Strange’s and Norrell’s social peer. Not sure what to do with it, but there you are.

-I love how Norrell knows exactly who he’s summoning, but we never find out. Not for sure, anyway.

-Is this where I can complain about the BBC adaptation?

OKAY. SO.

Listen, the BBC adaptation is great, it’s a decent show with and amazing cast; I just don’t think it’s a very good adaptation, and what they did with the gentleman with the thistledown hair is a big part of why. The gentleman is…mercurial, larger than life, malicious, sure, by fairy standards as well as human ones but also seeing things from a wholly non-human point of view. He’s violent, cruel, capricious—but also full of, I don’t know, living AND a complete non-understanding of human needs. He’s not just evil. And he’s fun. Aaaaaand then the adaptation made him into a mephistophelean villain which I just. I don’t like. You lose a lot of what made his dynamics with the other characters important. AND what makes him so dangerous. He doesn’t have to go around making deals; he does in this one case, because Norrell is asking him to do a specific task and he wants something out of it, but otherwise? He can just kind of do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, if he feels like it.

-Norrell, to his credit, does actually try to think through how the gentleman could be tricking him.

-Norrell, against his credit, bargains away half a young woman’s life for the sake of his career. Maybe not 100% for that, but. Mostly. And he begins that career with a lie.

-It’s really interesting that we cut away before they do whatever magic it is that brings Emma back from the dead. We know that whatever it is requires a fairy’s help—hence the gentleman—but that’s all we know. And Norrell’s little, “Where is everyone? Miss Wintertowne is asking for her mama,” afterwards is probably the most shaken he comes across on the entire book.