#i can probably write an entire essay about how much i love his character

[dramashii]

LI HONGYI as Xiao Se in THE BLOOD OF YOUTH (2022)

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

oh shit i just realized i forgot to post the trans dipper essay

oh well, better late than never!

Introducing - Why Mason "Dipper" Pines is Trans and Why that Matters - an essay I spent more time on than I did my actual college project today

Mason "Dipper" Pines from Gravity Falls is trans. Trans masculine, to be specific. Do I believe this was intentional? No. Do I believe that there's a seriously convincing case to be made? Fuck yes.

So first off, he's just like me frfr, which is pretty compelling in and of itself. But that's not enough for a whole essay, so we move onto our second point - character designs. Dipper is designed like, well, like every modern-era trans man I've ever drawn who isn't goth. The shorts, the one shirt in the one color, the absolute insecurity. He even does the hunch of the back! Also, I think I heard somewhere that the vest is to make his shoulders look broader, which I'm not entirely sure is canon but I am accepting this whole-heartedly. It's such a trans move of him. He's too young (and it's summer so it's too hot) to wear a dysphoria hoodie so he picked a vest. (I say too young because dysphoria hoodies usually cover your chest and Dipper and Mabel probably haven't hit puberty.)

The second part comes directly from science. According to this article, and many others, sex in identical twins is complicated, but most identical twins will be born the same sex. There are cases where this isn't true (which might be the case for Mabel and Dipper) or they might be fraternal, which is also pretty likely. However, looking at them when they were younger (and listening to their very similar voices), it's likely they were identical and both girls. That's not to say I dislike trans Mabel - every trans woman I draw dresses like her, so I do love her being trans as well and them hitting the age of like. 10. and swapping genders is incredibly funny and adorable to me.

So, we can't reliably use the aforementioned evidence, then, can we? After all, identical twins can be different sexes, although rare, and we don't have any proof they are identical beyond their visual (and when they were younger, audible) similarities. Well, first off, I'd say that's pretty compelling evidence already. In a cartoon, especially one as detailed and beautiful-looking as Gravity Falls (the art is good and I will die on this hill), visual language makes up for a lot. And Alex Hirsh has gone on record saying that he very much wanted Jason Ritter and Kristen Schaal for Dipper and Mabel respectively, to the point where he would have canceled the show if Kristen hadn't signed on, so I wholeheartedly believe every character (with the exception of Grenda and any other characters who had last minute va's picked) had their voice actors picked very specifically. I can't find whether Jason Ritter voiced younger Dipper, though, so that's a dead end.

Now, that's all well and good, but it's a lot of visual language, isn't it? Why don't we move into something more based in the writing itself?

So the first and most prominent example of Dipper being transgender is the episode Dipper vs Manliness. You know it, you probably have emotions on it, it's the episode where Dipper is trying his hardest to be a man's man. The episode was supposed to be about toxic masculinity and how to be a real man is to stick to your morals. It's a good lesson and in my opinion, holds up even in 2024. Pretty good. Does a great job of what it wants to do. Now, Dipper vs. Manliness has been dissected to hell and back already as a transgender allegory, so I'll keep this brief: the episode centers around Dipper being mocked for not being manly. While Mabel and Stan still see him as a man, albeit an effeminate one, it gets to Dipper. He proceeds to do anything to prove himself a real man. If viewed as a trans allegory, Mabel is teasing her brother and not realizing how deeply it actually hurts him (whether accidentally because she fails to realize how insecure he is over it or because she hasn't been there before, depending on how you want to headcanon it). As for Stan, I like to pretend he's supportive but regularly forgets Dipper was ever a girl, so he makes a serious slip up because of that (and/or he's regurgitating stuff said to him. That hits harder if you also headcanon trans Stan, which I am warming up to). Dipper proceeds to try and prove himself a man, crying when he takes even one more blow to his self esteem/sense of identity as a man, and eventually gets comfort from his family when they realize just how BADLY they messed him up. He is affirmed as a man and the episode ends. Everything that can be said, has been said - including that you don't have to act toxically masculine - or even masculine at all - to be a real man. Remember this part, it will be important later.

So, other trans moments for Dipper come a little sparser. Dipper vs. Manliness is the example for a good reason. But still, there's other moments. The short Voice Over from one of the short story compliation episodes is another one that's commonly referenced as a metaphor for voice dysphoria. Yes, Dipper's voice is cracking in ways common for a cis pre-teen boy his age, but the pitch and tone of his voice can also be seen as his more feminine voice peeking through. Taking the potion can be seen as taking testosterone or other hormones. Granted, this falls apart when you consider that Dipper is later discouraged from taking the potion, because that could be read as Dipper being discouraged from transitioning, but on the other side of the spectrum, it could be read as Dipper being affirmed as a real man despite his voice. From that perspective, his family prevents him from taking (possibly dangerous) homebrewed hrt. Also, the euphoria he gets when it does change his voice is just. Absolutely adorable.

Now, my favorite resource for Dipper acting trans is in the episode Headhunters. He's asking Manly Dan questions and Manly Dan calls Dipper a girl. And MAN the discomfort on Dipper's face. He immediately attempts to correct Manly Dan, but is shut down and the episode moves on. I think that for such a short moment, it does a good job of making Dipper seem trans, though. He is called a girl and feels extreme discomfort around it. He does not like being called a girl. He is not a girl. But he's not shocked or surprised or even really offended - he's resigned. He's used to being called a girl. Sure, he hates it, but he doesn't cry or scream or anything. Sounds to me like a trans man who's absurdly used to being misgendered but still hates it. That pain never goes away, but sometimes all you can do is flinch in discomfort, try to correct and move on, like the episode does.

For a (mostly humorous) video of more of Dipper acting trans, check out this video.

So I think we've made a pretty compelling point for Dipper Pines being trans masc here. Looks pretty good, yup, this is a great essay, let's wrap it up. Oh? What's that? The name of this essay?

Why Mason "Dipper" Pines is transgender and why that matters.

Well, let's dive into section two of this essay - why does Dipper being trans matter?

Someone could easily say it doesn't matter. Just fun fandom headcanons, that's it, wrap it up now. Nothing more to say. Dipper is trans and that's just a fun reading of his character.

But I don't think that's the case. I think that Dipper being trans means so much - to trans fans of the show, to fans who have never seen or spoken to trans people before, and to queer fans of Gravity Falls and similar shows. (I personally am a Steven Universe fan who really valued the representation there, so Gravity Falls and all it's queer coding means a lot to me.)

First and foremost, I'm not going to keep you in the dark as to why you're remembering my earlier point. As a recap, it was this: Dipper vs. Manliness, and by proxy, Gravity Falls as a whole, says that you don't have to be traditionally masculine to be a real man. For a show that spends a lot of time mocking a kid commonly headcanoned to be a trans man, that says a lot, and a lot of stuff I think more people need to hear.

You do not need to act like your gender to be your gender.

You do not need to present like your gender to be your gender.

You do not need to fit some rigid box that society enforces to be who you are.

If you are a man, you are a man, trans or cis, regardless of how you act. (And the same goes for women and nonbinary people! You don't have to fit a mold.)

You don't owe anyone anything.

You don't owe people masculinity. (Or femininity or androgyny for that matter.)

I think that's part of the reason Dipper vs. Manliness ages so well. Dipper reads as trans, especially to queer fans, and his story in that episode tells us that we don't have to be someone we're not for people to take us seriously as who we are. At the end of the day, the really masculine thing is staying true to you - a sentiment echoed and reversed in The Last Mabelcorn, where the most feminine thing you can do is to stay true to yourself. I can't find it right now, but I could swear that there's a That GF Fan video explaining my point a little better. The point is, there's nothing that makes you more of whatever your gender is than staying true to yourself.

Additionally, if Dipper really is trans and someone sees themself in him, that can help them explore their gender or explain it to other people. Young kids who have never interacted with trans people before can see Dipper and grow up to connect the dots - or grow up to have him crack their eggs.

I know I'm new to the fandom and I was already out before watching the show, but he really helped me explore my gender. I like dressing like him - he's very relatable, even though I'm old enough to be in college now. I see him as a very anxious, slightly paranoid trans kid, and I see a lot of myself in him. He has a lot of issues, and a lot of issues that aren't trans specific but definitely hit harder when you are trans. He makes me feel seen on a level that I never thought a cartoon character could do.

Honestly, here would be a good place to put a rant about representation in kids media - queer kids under the age of 12 exist and struggle. I liked a girl (before realizing I was trans) in fifth grade, so about 9 years old. There are kids who experiment with their gender when they're younger than that. We're here and we exist, and every single time a character in children's media is made and is prevalent, another kid is able to really see themself.

That's really the point of this section. Dipper is trans. That matters. People - mostly queer kids but people of all ages - see themselves in him. He's here and we see him as queer because it's validating. It feels so good to hear Stan affirm him at the end of Dipper vs. Manliness, because it proves that at the end of the day, you don't need to present as super masc or femme or androgynous to be who you are.

Gravity Falls, through coding Dipper as trans, sent a message:

You are seen. You are loved. You are valid.

Thank you for reading this all. Trans Dipper means a lot to me, and I love writing him and seeing him in general. I want more of him because Dipper being trans means the world to me.

I love you all. Have a wonderful day. Remember to stay true to yourself.

[connect404]

So I saw this tweet earlier Abt the dynamic between Stanford and fiddleford during the partnership and how similar it was to Stanford and bill's dynamic (incoming essay)

AND I COMPLETELY AGREE

As much as I love fiddauthor (or just ford and fiddleford in general) , fiddleford doesn't deserve the type of treatment he got from Ford.

Throughout the entire partnership,ford treated him poorly and only ever cared about him if it was related to the portal. Fiddleford was willing to work with him even though he knew he was being treated poorly,not to mention he didn't know abt bill or his intentions yet (at the time) and still had his suspicions while working with ford. He remembered to give ford a gift (hand-knitted special gloves for him to wear with several failed attempts beforehand AND a snoglobe of the shack) yet forgot to get a gift for his own wife.

He does all this but the second he tells ford that the portal is dangerous and should be destroyed,ford gets angry at him and says he doesn't need him ???

That's not to say ford isn't completely a POS , he does enjoy fiddleford's company and his partnership with him. Ford even gets closure with fiddleford and actually apologizes to him for all the shit he did to him. Ford gets character development for the most part and actually becomes a somewhat decent person. He's terrible but that's what makes him a great character. He does horrible things but also acknowledges he did said things and actively tries to not do that,even if it's hard to avoid it.

(op said he's objectively an awful person for what he did but also loves him anyway because that type of writing is what makes his character compelling and honestly I relate)

It's a shame that ford favours results over sympathy/empathy. He only ever cares people when they are of use to him and when they say something he doesn't wanna hear,he throws them to the side and searches for another.

Another thing Abt ford is that he tends to be stubborn and an egoist. No matter the situation,he always puts himself before others. This can be a good thing sometimes (like when he gets electrocuted instead of just giving bill the equation) but it's always shown in a negative light. Stan dedicated almost his entire life to bring back his brother after several decades and he never even got a thank you or when instead of hearing Stan out on that invention he broke in highschool, he just let his brother get kicked out (Ik the twins are kinda crappy people but Stan breaking ford's perpetual motion machine was an accident damnit. It's been 30+ years and he still won't let it go 😭😭)

DESPITE SAYING ALLAT....ford isn't completely to blame for his behavior and how he treats other people around him to the point of being manipulative. Sure,his main flaws are what make him act this way (insecurity,need to be better than others,doesn't really think of others,etc.) but I think the only reason they've become worse is because of bill and how he manipulated ford,basically feeding into his ego and validating his beliefs. That, combined with his occasional selfish urges makes him want more.

More knowledge.

More praise.

More fame.

And this need for more makes him impatient. So much so that he starts using the same manipulation tactics (whether intentionally or unintentionally I'm not sure) bill used on him on fiddleford to try and get the same results,since said tactics work on him,so it would makes sense for him to do the same.

TL;DR yes,ford is a bad person but he's a bad person with layers and that's why I love him sm. Also fiddleford deserved better treatment

Anyway this'll probably get like 5 likes but uhhhh I'd love to hear any take on this really.

Agree,disagree I'd love it hear it

[wisecrackingeric-2]

LONG ASS MESSAGE UNDER CUT!!!!!!!!!!!! ITS A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE!!! I’ll tag everyone whose made a star for this drawing in the replies- if I’ve missed anyone or if you wanna be added, PLEASE LET KNOW!!!!!!!

At the time of writing this, there’s about 40 minutes let of 2023, and I’m VERY DETERMINED to get this posted before 2024 so I am in a bit of a rush so alas, this may not be as well-written as I’d like it to be but that’s the price I must pay alas HDNEHENEJDN

I wanna start this by saying I’ve always had a lot of anxieties surrounding the New Years, and things changing- even just seeing posts that were from the year prior always seems to give me anxiety. Things change, people move on, while I stay with the same interests- it’s always been something I’ve struggled with, but making this has helped me come to terms with all of that and I’m glad.

Theres no better words I can say right now other than; Thank You. Thank you so, so, SO much to my friends, both new and old- my friends who’ve been here since the very beginning and have stuck by me through this whole rollercoaster- and to all of my new friends, who it sometimes feels like I’ve known you all for at LEAST five years and not like, five months or something HDBWHNWUDNDHDJS thank you to everyone who has ever been kind to me, supported me and enjoyed what I’ve created- I’ve recieved probably the kindest words I’ve ever heard in my entire life this year. Thank you to the people who stuck by me when times got tough and helped me through my own seemingly very insignificant or silly problems HDNEJENSK

This year has easily been one of the best years of my life. 2022, to keep it short, was awful- I came out as a Transgender gay man to my parents and it went awful. I was dealing with the worst mental health of my entire life and there were times it felt like there was no hope. On top of all of that, my childhood dog passed away- so all and all, I wasn’t looking forward to the future. But my loving partner introduced me to Resident Evil, and as a result the community as a whole- and to say it changed my life would be an understatement.

I know it’s obviously no secret that I have a favourite character, Luis Serra Navarro- but to say his character has changed me as a person for the better would also be a MASSIVE understatement. I’ve never ever in my entire life resonated with a character so profoundly before- as a queer and trans man, I saw myself reflected in his performance, and that means more to me than words can even describe. His character encapsulated me in a way no other has done before, and genuinely helped me accept my autism, my queerness and my trans identity as a good thing- I could write absolutely ESSAYS on his character and I have. I’ve consumed more Don Quixote media than I think I ever would have otherwise HDNEHENEJD and to say I’ve genuinely become a more confident and happier person because of his character would, again, be SUCH an understatement. It’s truly hard to describe how much he means to me, but I hope my words give a good idea.

For the first time in a very, very long time, I get to look forward to my future. I don’t see my Queerness or my Trans identity as a setback anymore; I have things to look forward to, plans I’ve made and a future I can look towards. And I cannot thank my friends- all of you know who you are- André and Andrea and everyone in my life and this small little community I’ve unintentionally formed for giving me that opportunity. Words will never be able to describe how grateful I truly am, but I hope this is close enough.

Thank you for letting me fully indulge in my autism and enjoy Luis’ character to the fullest. I’ve never felt happier enjoying something in my entire life.

Thank you everyone. For everything. May you all successfully defeat your own windmills <3

[ladysomething]

I know that writing is not a simple matter, but I didn't expect to consider so much. Thank you and SaiyanWitcher for creating such a wonderful fic.

I think this has gone beyond the ordinary fic, since you have created a character like wygig Charles. This is more like a serious thing.

I really hope Charles can win WDC.

I'm still a little worried about whether the contract will strike out in the follow-up content.

God, I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be for Charles to reauction. And what Max would definitely do to protect his beloved Omega.

thank you for your kind words. there is an extensive amount of work that goes into a fic like wygig, and both @saiyanwitcher and I really appreciate it whenever people mention it. it makes us feel warm and gooey haha.

also because you have specifically mentioned Charles, I do feel like I want to ramble about him a little bit, particularly in light of the US election yesterday.

I always knew that wygig, and Charles in particular, were a vehicle for telling a deep and complex story about gender, a woman's place in the world, and the complexity of being in love with somebody who fits into all the traditional moulds of upholding societal values.

partly this is because of my own interest in gender and gender politics - as I mentioned a few days ago, I've studied it in the past.

partly this is because when SaiyanWitcher told me that she would like for me to write an omegaverse fic, I knew the only way I would want to do it was if I had something to say. reading essays on omegaverse and whether they are subversive or uphold traditional gender dynamics was how I realised that I wanted to fit into a bit of both: be subversive by making commentary on our system through omegaverse.

however, the longer I've been writing this (January will mark a year since I wrote the first chapter), it's become more and more a Point for me. wygig is not just a romance with a side of commentary, the entire point of it is to critique gender roles and gender politics.

the biggest and most obvious example on this is obviously Charles avoiding all of the things that mark a traditional omega (nesting, scenting, even having heats), but also in his journey with wanting kids.

obviously he rejected everything in the past, but that's not really a way for him to live. he was effectively denying himself his wants and needs, just because he hated his second gender and what it meant for him.

ultimately his journey is about reconciling the two halves of himself: his hopes and dreams, with his wants and needs.

max, of course, makes up a huge part of that. Max has, for the majority of the story so far, been a huge obstacle in Charles' path of self realisation and acceptance, because he has been the picture of a traditional alpha, and of somebody trying to oppress Charles (yes, of course that wasn't his intention, but he still did it - also its own point).

But Max's part in Charles' journey is to uplift him. To give a voice to him, and his needs, and to make him feel safe. His role in Charles' gender journey is protect him by allowing him the space to be who he is. His role is to do for Charles the things he simply can't for himself because of his gender: to be publicly equal to Charles, to give him the tools he needs to amplify his voice, and to meet Charles half way with love and support and zero self interest.

anyway. I know that probably makes wygig a little too real for people, and I have been told multiple times in the past that it's difficult to read/triggering, because of how deeply it explores these topics. of course I understand that - it was designed to be difficult to read.

but I'm so happy that so many of you are along for the journey, and love and appreciate what I'm trying to do with this beast.

[thisbarbiereallylikesbirds]

Aly do u prefer yoshi + splinter being the same character or separate? could u rank the yoshis/splinters from your least favorite to most favorite? thank u!

Good question!!

Personally, I prefer it when they're the same character, it's just more interesting in my opinion. Now, that's not to say that Splinters that start out as a rat can't have cool backstories (I actually really like 03 Splinter's), but I always find myself more intrigued if they used to be human. It really allows the writers to dig into what it would be like for someone to suddenly not be human anymore. Plus the idea of a guy getting turned into a rat and then turning around and being like "I guess the only course of action is to raise four turtles in the sewers" is really funny to me. It definitely takes a specific person for that to be their first course of action.

And, of course, if he was human first that means he probably had a close relationship with Tang Shen. I wrote an entire essay on why she's such an interesting character to me so I won't get into that here, but getting to hear about her from a primary (and often biased) source is really fun. I love characters that haunt the narrative.

Now I've only ever seen Rise, 03, and MM/Tales in full. I've seen a few episodes of 2012 but 87, the comics, and all other iterations aren't gonna be included since I don't know enough about them.

Rise Splinter. What can I say. I made the Nameless Trio just to put this idiot and his friends in situations and watch how they react. His past with the Hamato Clan, the whole Lou Jitsu era, and the Battle Nexus era are all super interesting to me, plus I love reading and writing little fics where this man who had no intention of ever even interacting with a child suddenly has to raise four of them. While he's not always the best father (or the best person if we're being so real) it's clear that he loves his kids.

03 Splinter. This guy is just...the sweetest I can't even. In my opinion he's the best dad out of all the Splinters (at least the ones I've seen). I mean he literally used to be a rat, and yet is a good father even by human standards (it's my personal head canon that he had a rat family before at some point so he does have practice raising kids, but still). I love how Yoshi would just bring him literally everywhere, I love how much he cares. He's just great.

2012 Splinter. Now I know some people really hate this guy, and like I said early I haven't seen the whole series. However. This man has a cheese phone and runs on a wheel. He committed to the bit and I have to respect that. Plus, his whole backstory with Karai and Shen is super interesting to me. And in my opinion Splinter and Shredder being brothers is an elite choice. The obvious favoritism of his children isn't great, but I can appreciate a complex character.

Mutant Mayhem/Tales Splinter. I'm gonna be so honest I don't know if we've really seen enough of this guy for me to have a super concrete opinion on him. In my review of TOTTMNT I did talk about how annoying it was to have him just speak vermin, and I do still stand by that. That being said, I don't hate him. It's obvious that he cares about his kids and wants the best for him. I've seen some theories that maybe he was lying about his past and used to be Hamato Yoshi. Personally I don't buy it, but due to my personal preferences I do kinda hope that's the case lol.

This ended up being a lot longer than i thought it would be!! I hope you enjoyed me rambling about the old rat man.

Thanks for the ask!!

[lousyglitch]

Scott pilgrim takes off inhabits the same artistic space as the matrix 4, or even the final fantasy 7 remake. I mean this as a good thing. It has the distinct touch of an artist that made something that defined a generation revisiting the art that outgrew them a thousandfold with more maturity and different interests.

These interests usually skew meta, they're about what drives someone to revisit something made by a past version of oneself, about the experience of suddenly gaining more influence than anyone could reconcile, where criticisms of your work (which you also, no doubt, have many) become synonymous with criticisms of your culture. If you've been here a while, you probably know (and are tired of) what I'm talking about, manic pixie dream girls and aloof average male protagonists, toxic nostalgia, pick your theme and it's a video essay title.

Imagine having every read of your 2004 funny video game-coded coming of age comic reverberate infinitely toward every direction, people saying your main character taught a whole generation of men to be self-absorbed while the exact opposite type of people rant about how your secondary lead "ruined a whole generation of women" because of hair-dye or whatever. Imagine Edgar Wright makes a movie adaptation of your cute little comic that somehow launches the careers of half of the current celebrity pantheon simultaneously. How would that change you?

Well, for one, it makes you less relatable. The truth of an aloof nerdy guy dating in his early 20s is a lot more universal than the truth of an artist in his 40s forever defined by the event horizon of a thing he wrote half his life ago. The matrix 4 couldn't stop talking about how it feels to have created the matrix. The final fantasy 7 remake can't help but to constantly examine what it means to remake final fantasy 7. It's easy to see why someone would hate that indulgent meta trend, I'll probably never write a generation-defining story, why would I care about the first world problems of someone who did? It can feel distant, and at its worst it can feel insulting. Like it's pointing the finger at the fans, whispering 'you did this to me'. I get that.

I get that, but I love it.

It's the fundamental difference between wanting something that is like something you liked, and wanting someone that is from the same creator of something you liked. The difference between feeding the mona lisa into an AI and finding a new authentic da Vinci. You can't make something entirely new if you religiously stick to using the parts of something that's already there. The human behind the work will always have influences you didn't realize, thought patterns and aesthetic preferences that weren't entirely clear in their previous work, no matter how much you deconstruct it. More importantly, the human will also change, and this organic self-continuity will reflect on the art. I don't want the creator of something to hold their own creation with the same zeal as its fans, because someone who did that simply wouldn't have been capable of creating the original piece in the first place.

I don't want a product, I want art.

Scott pilgrim, the original, indulges the most earnest impulse we have-- that of self-mythologizing, of creating a narrative off of our own lives. To depict the mundane as fantastic, interpersonal relationships as adventures. It resonated with so many people because it was earnest, and it was also picked apart to hell and back because it was earnest. Its flaws were on display, and not just the ones it intended to show. But in my opinion, the opposite impulse, that of washing off everything that could be criticized and presenting the cleanest possible image of yourself through your art, is just... bad. it makes for bad art, or it just freezes you. The very first hurdle of creating anything is getting over that, then maybe the spotlight will fall on you. If it does, you'll get everything you ever wanted, but everyone gets to see through you.

So, how do you revisit something like that? You have two options. Either you take all the pieces and try to reassemble them exactly how everyone remembers it, signing your name as a formality, looking at a mirror in which you no longer see yourself, or you talk to it. You dialogue with your own work, with who you used to be. You travel in time and talk to yourself. You question them, acknowledge them but also teach them a thing or two. You don't respect the product, you respect the feeling. You find the same earnestness that made you put pen to paper for the first time, and you point it towards your new loves and fears. Maybe you make it less about the main guy, take the chance to develop your secondary characters, maybe you give the girl more agency. Maybe you summon the future and refuse its answers. Maybe you fight yourself.

That's the harder choice. It submits your new self to the scrutinizing eyes of a whole new generation, it risks alienating the people who identified with your previous piece. It's riskier, probably less profitable, and by any pragmatic lens probably a bad idea. But it's the only way you can make art. It's truth, the truth that got you there in the first place.

It's how you get it together.

[gartenofbanny]

Andrealphus's first appearance in Unhappy Campers was probably the most mediocre introduction in all of Helluva Boss thus far. Andrealphus had no build-up aside from a single line Stolas said in The Circus.

Instead, Andrealphus has been moreso built up as a character outside of the series entirely. Tweets made by Vivziepop releasing his design and describing his role

This is one of my main issues with Andrealphus's introduction as a whole. He wasn't introduced within the series itself but on Twitter. Keep in mind that he is supposed to be a major antagonist, and usually antagonists who are major have introductions within the series. But maybe he does have an introduction within the series with dramatic effect behind it..right?

Right?

When Western Energy released 13 seconds into the episode, Andrealphus just appears.

No entrance, no in-show introduction, no explained role, just nothing. Andrealphus just appears as if he's always been in the series. This is the worst villain introduction I've seen in Helluva Boss because there was no introduction within the show.

It's like the writers had no idea how to introduce him within the show and just tweeted who he is and what his role is and called it a day. That's not how any character introduction works because they're essentially spoiling their audience. Instead of building him up within season 1, giving the audience something to theorize and talk about, eventually paying off with an appearance they just do "Hey, here's this character that will appear in a future episode! Let us explain to you who he is instead of letting you put the pieces together yourselves!"

So, I'm going to bring up one of my favorite introductions to an antagonist in fiction. You all have heard of Dragon Ball Z, right? Well, here's how one of the main antagonists, Cell, was introduced.

Words can not express how much I love this introduction, why it has a great build up, and how it's fucking terrifying. But I don't feel like explaining right now.

So now that you all watched the video or have already seen it, Lets try something different. Remove the majority of the video, immediately cut to Piccolo facing Cell with Cell already absorbed the last citizen of the city and Piccolo about to fight Cell while screaming his name. That doesn't work because two things are missing.

And that is the build-up and

ACTUAL INTRODUCTION

This is why Andrealphus's introduction into Helluva Boss is mid (if you can even call it an introduction), Andrealphus had no actual introduction within the series aside from a throwaway line a couple episodes before and no actual introduction within the series either. Andrealphus just appears in Western Energy, and the episode acts as if like the audience already knows who he is and what he does.

Newsflash, we don't. Well, we know who he is, but that information was given outside the show. Because for some REASON, Viv and Spindlehorse write their characters outside of the show.

-Insert Millie thread reference here-

Am I expecting Helluva Boss to have Dragon Ball Z's level of writing? No, it's Helluva Boss, lmao. But I did expect it to have a decent villain introduction, especially when the villain is really major. Helluva Boss has had pretty decent villain introductions and twists with Martha and Striker. Hell, in my opinion, the DHORK Agents had the best introduction thus far, but it just fumbled the bag with Andrealphus.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Andrealphus's introduction sucked and he's honestly just painfully boring as an antagonist overall, but that'll be a topic for a different essay. That's all I have for today. Thank you all for reading, and I hope you all have a great one! ❤️

[pale-opal]

Hear Me Out 2:

So. I know that this image, like the ones in the last post I made, is incredibly niche. I also suspect that, the MMX and Warrior Cats fandoms, much like the Mega Man and Homestuck fanbases, probably don't have that much overlap. However. I am not going to let that stop me from drawing this conclusion: if the books existed in the MMX universe, Axl totally would've read Warrior Cats. And he would've loved it. To prove this, I am going to write an entire multipoint essay about this strange little reploid, and this somehow stranger series of books. Buckle up, folks. This one is going to get wild. Now, first things first: I need to explain what Warrior Cats is. For those of you not in the know, Warrior Cats (also known simply as Warriors) is a book series that follows several different groups of cats known as "clans" through their time in a forest. Every writer who has worked on the Warrior Cats series has done so under the pen name "Erin Hunter". However, some of the authors identities are known. For example, the first few arcs were primarily written by a woman named Victoria Holmes. - The cats are not anthropomorphic (for the most part). They are feral. Humans exist, but they can't understand them. Pet cats are referred to as "kittypets." - A clan cat receives several names during their lifetime. If they are born into the clan, they are born as [noun/adjective]kit. As an apprentice (a warrior cat in training), they would be called [noun/adjective]paw. Once they become a warrior, usually at 12 months (or "moons", as months are referred to in the books as such) of age, they will become [noun/adjective][noun 2]. Cats who are the appointed leader of their clan are known as [noun/adjective]star. Cats that join a clan from elsewhere have a chance to go through this naming system as well, but they do not have to if they don't want to. Cat names will be used interchangeably, depending on when that specific cat had that name. - Leader cats have nine lives, of which are given to them by Starclan (cat heaven). There can only be one leader at a time. Also, there is a hell-equivalent known as the "Dark Forest". Dead clan cats get sent to one of these two places after death. Their ghosts can also die - either through fading (being forgotten by the living), or through severe injuries and other similar causes of death. - The clan cats follow a set of rules known as the "Warrior Code". It is mostly composed of basic rules, such as not being allowed to kill cats for no reason, not being allowed to quit being a clan cat to go live with people, etc. However, some more complex rules were added. An example includes a rule that allows a leader to be disposed by their subordinates. - I will be discussing spoilers for the entirety Warrior Cats series. If at any point during this essay you want to put on a life jacket and jump ship so you can experience these books blind, feel free to do so (however, I do recommend skipping to the final few bullets of the "Additional Notes" section before leaving the cruise, as I do mention topics that I think would be a disservice to not warn new readers of beforehand). I also have to provide a content warning for violence because these books can be dark sometimes.

Part 1: Character Arc Cousins Something that makes a book or story likeable is relatability. And how do characters become relatable? By having experiences that readers are likely to have gone through themselves. And if we go through the Warrior Cats series, we find that there are quite a few characters that Axl would relate to. For instance, there's Firestar:

Let's go through a list of the things he and Axl have in common: 1. Born as a kittypet named Rusty, Firepaw leaves his home to join Thunderclan because he feels he's meant to be doing something else with his life. Axl leaves Red Alert when they become evil, and joins the Maverick Hunters because he doesn't feel that it's right for him to be using his copy ability to harm innocents. Shared experience: leaving home to pursue their destiny. 2. Firepaw spends the majority of The Prophecies Begin (the first set of Warrior Cats books) trying to prove himself worthy of being in Thunderclan, even when he becomes Firestar. Axl spends all of X7 trying to prove himself to the Hunters, and continues to work toward doing so when he fails to win X's approval, even after all he's been through. Shared experience: proving themselves to people who are older and more experience than they are. 3. At the end of The Last Hope (the final book in the Omen of the Stars collection), Firestar dies from his injuries in a fight against the ghost of Tigerstar I (long story), his final life being spent protecting his clan. Guess what happens to Axl in X8? If you guessed "gets a mysterious black crystal shoved into his head by Lunime's corpse after working together with his homies to kill him, leaving him in a near-comatose state," congratulations! You're right! Your prize is... um... the satisfaction of being correct! Huzzah! Shared experience: dying/becoming severely injured after working to secure the greater good for their loved ones.

Firestar's not the only character Axl would relate to, either. There's also: - Squirrelfight (both characters do reckless things to keep others safe, and have an early habit of rushing into things. They also have trouble getting older people to take them seriously.) - Hollyleaf (both she and Axl betray people they care about - and they both do it with murder, too. (Axl has to kill the members of Red Alert, while Hollyleaf betrays Thunderclan by killing Ashfur (note: to clarify, Hollyleaf did not betray Ashfur specifically. She betrayed the clan by breaking the Warrior Code (although one could make the case that she didn't actually break it, but that's a whole issue of its own))) - Dovewing (similar to Firestar somewhat: both Dovewing and Axl work with older characters, and struggle to fit in with them)

Usually, the more relatable the characters are, the more a viewer or reader will enjoy the story. And with four whole cats that he can feel free to project himself onto, Axl's all set to have a great time reading Warrior Cats on the basis of the characters alone. But that's not the only reason he'd have a heck of a time. There's also:

Part 2 - The Drama of it All

Let's make another list. This time, we'll take note of what Axl likes, what kind of person he is, stuff like that. Axl: - Is trigger happy. Literally. One of his lines in X8 directly states that the thought of fighting mavericks "makes [his] trigger finger itch". The boy lives to fight. - Is a child. Based on his behavior (not taking certain things seriously, wanting to be treated as an equal to those older than him, being easy to amuse), as well as the way he is voice acted (he had a female VA for X7, and a common practice in voice acting is to give male characters who haven't gone through puberty a voice actress or a male VA who is younger or around the same age as the character being portrayed. Additionally, the voices given to him in X8 and Command Mission are at a somewhat higher pitch than X and Zero's - while he does sound older, it's clear that he's younger than X and Zero) tell us that he is not meant to be the same age as the other members of the Hunter trio. Warrior Cats is aimed at middle-school aged children. Keep this in mind. - Despises injustice. He ditches Red Alert when they go maverick, and spends an entire game trying to become a Hunter. And after he becomes one in between X7 and X8, he gets darn good at it. By Command Mission, he's an S-Class Hunter alongside X and Zero. Oh, and in X8 he shoots Lunime in the middle of an evil laugh and tells X and Zero to disregard his evil monologue that he just finished giving.

Based on all this, I think it's safe to say that Axl would enjoy how Warrior Cats includes the following: - The first antagonist, Tigerstar I, attempts to kill Bluestar (the leader of Thunderclan prior to Firestar), kills several innocent cats in his quest for power, and manipulates a dying clan to become its leader after getting exiled from Thunderclan. And how does he get his dues? By getting killed by the second antagonist, Scourge, with all of his lives being taken by one wound, (yes, this is considered a children's book series). And Scourge gets killed by Firestar, who takes him out after coming back to life from Scourge killing him first. You know. Like a boss.

- The majority of Warrior Cats start off as kits or apprentices, meaning that they begin their journey as children and/or pre-teens/teenagers. Recall the target demographic for the books. Now recall how old Axl is. I think you see where I'm going with this. - All of the major villains in the Warriors series meet a terrible fate, one that matches their horrible actions. We already talked about Tigerstar I (and Scourge, to a lesser extent). Now here are some other examples: Brokenstar: He forced kits (aka BABIES) into becoming apprentices before they were of age (6 moons old) (which is not only against the warrior code, but also dangerous because... well, I think we all know why it's a bad idea to send an actual baby out to do certain things like hunt or fight against entire adults in any context). He meets his end by getting blinded and poisoned by his own mother. And then when he dies, he goes to the Dark Forest. Ashfur: After becoming bitter over how Squirrelflight chose another man over him, he decides to go and kill her and her children. But guess what? Not only does that loser fail miserably in doing that, but Hollyleaf also takes him out. Unfortunately, Ashur somehow gets let into cat-heaven. However, this lapse in Starclan's judgement leads to Ashfur being able to magically force all the dead cats in both the Dark Forest and Starclan to do his bidding. He also possesses Bramblestar. But you know what happens to him afterwards? HIS GHOST GETS DROWNED IN A POOL OF WATER THAT SAPS THE LIFE FORCE OUT OF THE CATS THAT GO IN IT. YOU KNOW. LIKE A FREAKING LITWICK (shout out to Bristlefrost for being the one to take out this poser).

Part 3 - It's Not All Perfect Now, anyone who's read Warrior Cats knows that the series has some... interesting flaws in its writing. From forbidden romance being the Special of the Day every series to established lore being retconned at the drop of a hat, the Warriors books have gone through their fair share of bad writing decisions. Here's how I think Axl would respond to some of those issues:

1. Continuity Errors: - "Redtail's Debt" has dubious canonicity. It was established in the second book of the first arc that Redtail, the first deputy of Thunderclan talked about in the series, did NOT kill Oakheart (a former deputy of Riverclan) in a battle that took place in the first book's prologue. Whether or not he did was a huge part of the intrigue of the first two books, and finding out he didn't was an important part of uncovering Tigerstar I's treachery. The writers who took over after Holmes retired from the series retconning this has horrible implications for the series timeline. (And it makes Ravenpaw (one of the most iconic characters, and the one who revealed that Redtail wasn't a murderer) look like a liar for no reason. And we can't have that.) As a result, I think Axl would be pretty upset about this one. I feel he'd take the lore for these angry kitty-cats super seriously. He probably has a mock timeline in his room on the wall. He takes notes whenever new bits of worldbuilding is introduced. He represses the urge to bang his head against a wall whenever the writers confuse a cat's lore with another (looking at you, Graystripe). He knows everything about these cats, and he knows that Redtail didn't kill Oakheart. - On that note, the Heavystep situation would drive him up a wall. For those of you don't know, Heavystep is a character who has died a grand total of three times in the Warriors series. But he was never leader or anything like that: no, the authors just kept losing track of him. But you know who didn't lose track? The readers. I like to think Axl has an original copy of the book Dark River. In the original print of that book, Heavystep was brought back to life for a fourth time. This was later fixed in a reprint, but Axl doesn't know that. 2. Forbidden Romance: Until recently, cats who belonged to different clans were not allowed to become mates. But due to some changes in the Warrior Code, that is less of a problem. However, that doesn't change the fact that we got a lot of forbidden relationships in the series before that point. But even with that in mind, I think Axl would actually eat this sort of plotline up. He'd love it. We've already established that he would enjoy the more violent aspects of the drama. So why not the drama that takes place between characters in non-violent ways? - I figure that Axl would enjoy it until the last book of Omen of the Stars (AKA The Last Hope). That's when he starts punching the air out of frustration. I can totally see him venting about it out loud to anybody who will listen:

Axl: "And then Dovewing chooses freaking BUMBLESTRIPE over Tigerheart, even though Bumblestripe tried to ask her out DURING A FUNERAL." Zero: "And then what happ--" Axl: "Dude, I haven't even told you the worst of it. Before all that, Jayfeather was catching feelings for someone from the freaking PAST because TIME TRAVEL. And - oh. OH. Let me tell you about Firestar and Spottedleaf. Guess what they do. While everyone around them is dying and fighting for their lives. Guess." Zero: "Firestar.... moves on from her?" Axl: "HA! I WISH. No. Instead, they have an entire MOMENT. IN FRONT OF SANDSTORM. I HATE IT HERE." - As you can tell, Axl wouldn't exactly be supportive of the whole "Spottedleaf x Firestar" debacle (Spottedleaf dies in the first arc after Firepaw develops a one-sided crush on her. Spottedleaf starts to reciprocate as a ghost (after Firepaw becomes an adult and is named Fireheart), only for this to continue... until the day Spottedleaf's ghost dies). I imagine Axl would be fine with it at first, but once Firestar becomes mates with Sandstorm? All bets are off. I just can't see Axl supporting Firestar emotionally cheating on his wife. Axl would appreciate a lot of things - adultery most likely wouldn't be one of them. - Omen of the Stars would probably leave a bitter taste in Axl's mouth as far as forbidden romance goes (even after Dovewing ends up getting together with Tigerstar II) until The Broken Code, which would end up redeeming the concept in his mind in the most dramatic way possible:

Axl: *Is crying* X: "Aw, Axl! What's wrong?" Axl: *Is holding book 5 of The Broken Code, weeping miserably* "Bristlefrost and Rootspring just w-wanted to be h-happy, but now they can't, because -- because Bristlefrost is dead!" X: *Has no idea what he's talking about, is trying his best* "Oh, no! That's... that's awful." Axl: "And now all Rootspring has left of her is a vision of her and him with - with the kids that they'll n-never get to have-!" *Sobs* X: "Okay... how about... how about you read something a little happier-" Axl: "No, that - that's okay. I wanna finish it." X: "Are... are you sure?" Axl: *More serious than he has ever been in his life* "Yes." X: *Puts hands up* "Well - okay, then!"

Part 4 - Conclusion So. To sum this up, Warriors is a book series that contains copious amounts of violence, underdog characters to root for and relate to, killable villains, romance, and things that people can complain about. And Axl is someone who would enjoy all of that. In other words:

Rest in peace, Axl. You would've loved Warrior Cats. ...

(Yes, I know he's technically not dead. But he may as well be since we never got X9. The writers of the ZX series didn't even know what his final fate was supposed to be. That's why we got Albert and not Axl. Seriously. Look it up.)

Part 5 - Additional Notes Here are some other things that I would like to say that wouldn't fit into the whole of the essay:

- This took way longer than expected: it was in my drafts since August 10th! I actually had to edit a certain part of the essay because the arc A Starless Clan concluded while I was writing this. But now it's free. And I am now able to start work on another essay meant to boggle hearts and minds. Get ready. - Axl's favorite villain would be Tigerstar, even though he reminds him of Sigma. Reading about him getting killed twice gave him deja vu. - Zero would read Warriors to get a feel for it, so that he could understand whenever Axl started ranting about it. He ends up losing the plot and has to resort to watching YouTube videos. - X, on the other hand, would get super invested - but only after Axl started reading A Starless Clan. Which means that he's got a long way to go before he can relate to Axl's cat-related tangents. - Signas tried to read Warriors because Axl brought it up during a meeting once. He confused it for Tailchaser's Song (1985) and ended up introducing Axl to a new book to get excited over instead of figuring out what's "hip with the kids." - Axl cried at the end of The Last Hope. He bawled his eyes out. Just completely inconsolable. And then he read Dovewing's Silence, and cried some more. - When Grey Wing said "Kill me. Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars that you won.", it formed an entire core memory in Axl's brain. He would totally say this at some point in the fight against Red. And Red would just laugh and recall when Axl lived with Red Alert and spent a bunch of his free time reading silly cat books. The tension is eased. And then Zero runs over with his sword while screaming a battle cry and then they remember that they're at war. - Now for the serious parts. To begin with, there is a certain novella in the series known as Spottedleaf's Heart. Long story short, I don't like the idea of Axl reading this book. I don't like the idea of an actual child reading this book (at least, not without guidance). So Axl will not be reading it. I do not feel like it would be appropriate for me to explain why here, since it involves topics that would be hard to discuss in what's supposed to be a lighthearted essay. However, Moonkitti has a video that explains the issues with this book in case you want to know what it is I'm referring to (however, please heed the warning that she provides at the beginning). - For the second point, I'll cut straight to the chase: Warriors has quite a few examples of ableism and sexism. I didn't discuss either of them in-depth because I felt that it would be out of place tone-wise in the grand scheme of the essay, but again: I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't at least warn new readers about these aspects. To be specific, these problems are issues because it sometimes feels like the writers resent having disabled and female characters existing in their narrative at all. However, something that is worth mentioning is that there seems to have been efforts made over time to fix these problems. - In case you're wondering how Axl would feel about all this, here's how I see it: he'd hate it. While there aren't any disabled characters in the MMX series that he could've interacted with, Axl does know what it's like to be underestimated and mistreated for reasons outside of one's control. So he would most likely be personally upset by how the narrative takes the chance to sideline or get rid of characters in a similar position, regardless of whether or not the reason why was because of a disability (I imagine he would have some very strong words to say about what happened to Snowkit). As for the sexism: as far as I'm aware, most of the female influences in Axl's life are positive, with him knowing all of them personally. Why wouldn't he get mad about how the series treats women? Especially when all of the ones that he's friends with have been directly involved in what he does as a Hunter, or in saving the world in the case of MMX Command Mission?

Additionally, the books sometimes have legitimate trouble properly writing abusers. Some are written in genuine, believable ways, while others are written that way by accident or aren't fully treated the way they should be by the narrative. This leads to some... odd implications as to what is considered abuse in Warrior Cats and by the authors. In light of that last sentiment: do not come after any of the authors. While you don't have to respect all of their writing decisions, that doesn't mean you can just run around attacking people. Be respectful.

Furthermore, Warriors also includes relationships between characters with lengthy (and sometimes problematic (which is a topic that warrants it's own discussion, although I am not sure if I should be the one to discuss it)) age gaps. Keep that in mind before you start reading. - TL;DR: read the books at your own risk. And be mindful of what you're getting into.

[voiceofthebroken]

hey there! don't mind me dropping these for the stp ask game

3. (Explore) Who's your favorite Vessel?

5. (Explore) Who's your favorite Voice?

19. (Explore) Do you have any unpopular opinion regarding the game?

ooh hmm,,

3. personally I'd say my favorite is the Prisoner! I feel like I could relate to her on a personal level, she kind of feels like me personality-wise (though I have been described as the Damsel before). I also use chains as a metaphor like being chained down to life and other factors, not having the freedom to do what you wish to do (this also is where Cage is a close contender, where she is described like how I would think about dissociation, which I really liked). other than that, I think she's aesthetically pleasing to me? I like how chains looks, I don't know. I like the funny Narrator lines when he reacts to the fact she cut her own head off too

my other favorite, however, is the Nightmare mostly because she's the first Vessel I've seen when the full game released (thanks to someone's playthrough, I went ahead and got the game for myself, and then I got Spectre lol, I think she's silly :3). I also like her design with the cracks and the mask... she's really cool (probably my favorite design out of all of the Vessels)

in regards to the Pristine Cut,Happily Ever After would be my favorite. it's the one route the Narrator admits that some things are worse than what he had feared. it's very symbolic and I suppose that resonates with me having been stuck doing the same actions over and over again before, and with life in general. it's something that really makes me question "was I really happy with being stuck in that for so long before?" to which the answer is no, I wasn't truly happy for those long months of repeating things for someone else's sake. like how Happily Ever After was trying to follow Smitten's wants so he could be happy (I've always seen Smitten as a little manipulative in a sense, more subtle than the Narrator and Opportunist. I didn't expect to see that expanded upon in the Pristine Cut, and that's definitely a thought for me). with that personal experience I have with a similar relationship of sorts, Happily Ever After is one I can relate to in that aspect

5. do I need to pull up a powerpoint presentation on why I like them all? /silly, this is gonna be a bit difficult and I'll try not writing an entire essay on why I like the Voices :3

Broken gets his own spot since he's my blog name lmao (sopping wet cat /pos). before the Pristine Cut, I already liked him since he kind of symbolized depression in a sense and I could relate to some parts of him. after the Pristine Cut... I like him more, like how he shows his strengths in the Apotheosis and the Cage. he appears empathetic outside of his main route, like how he comforts the others in the Fury (even the Player and Narrator). he managed through the pain of the Fury taking us apart and putting us back together atom by atom (Cold also does that, but in a different manner). I'll hold Broken in my hands like a little blorbo, he deserves some love and care after everything

my main favorites has got to be Hunted and Cheated though, with Paranoid and Opportunist close behind (various roleplays had me realize I relate to some aspects of Opportunist and made him more likeable as I think more about his character in that way). Hunted is because he's always been a comfort to me, maybe with how quiet he is or how he is our survival instinct. He's someone you can trust, someone that can be relied on when there's danger all around (sort of a reason why I pair Paranoid and Hunted together but that's not part of the question). and even after what happened in Stubborn's version of the Den (she eats he eats she eats he eats...), I'll be Hunted's fan. he's like a silly cat rabbit creature,,

Cheated is my other favorite because he's really funny. he's a funny little guy that turned the Cage into a comedy when the other variations are much more serious. and I love cards, to be honest, even though I don't know a lot of games and I'm not great at them. I love the card symbolism in his dialogue, he's a little gamer guy and I love him for that. at the same time, he can be pretty relatable when life slaps random things in your face that's just like what the hell??

Paranoid is because (I find myself saying this a lot but) he's relatable in a sense. he also can be funny in his route with the Nightmare. I still need to think about his moments in the Apotheosis and Cage where he's going on about how it's a dream and how the world is fake (which he's pretty correct in that), that line in Apotheosis when he doubts himself hits hard in my opinion. Opportunist is also there because... well he's a little mischievous scheming guy, but I started thinking about it more as a defense mechanism to hide his vulnerability. in the Witch, he fully believes she would betray us and he is correct. although we backstabbed her first, in a way it also shows the lack of trust there was in the beginning. Opportunist, I feel, is like someone with heavy trust issues but goes along with the crowd in order to survive. he'll take advantage of others and try getting in the best position as that's essentially what other people in society seems to do. he'll suck up to the one who has power so he doesn't look bad to them, it's how he knows how to survive

this answer is getting longer than I expected, I'm so sorry 😭 Cold gets an honorable mention though because I relate to him to most in regards to being detached from myself mostly (I love reading the analysis people have for him, it's so interesting)

19. unpopular opinion uhh... you see, I don't exactly have an unpopular opinion because why would I? :3 (I'm not sure if this is considered unpopular but I don't think Opportunist is a complete asshole... even though he's very obviously a backstabber. also it could just be me, but I really don't like the Shifting Mound for some reason. or at least her in her final form. she's very calming before the end, but at the end she's just... I don't know, very overwhelming. I like her character and how she's written, but I just don't like her in general if that makes sense)

[kebriones]

it is entirely out of character for alcibiades to say "i hate myself" given that he is literally the Best at everything he does. if the ancient aristocrats like plato or alcibiades failed, then they would just get better by sheer resource of their genius; they would never even express self-pity bc it would be shameful. alcibiades' exceptional traits and ability to adapt to any situation stem from supreme self-confidence, never self-doubt or self-hatred

For anyone reading this, this is in reference to my fanfic which is a modern university AU which is heavily out of character for everyone involved anyways, and which I wrote on a whim while waiting for painkillers to kick in, in my bed. So please forgive any out of characterness, it's all just for fun. However, I don't think that particular bit was out of character for him, so here comes the essay.

I take a lot of how I characterize alcibiades in my fics from plato. If you read plato's symposium, the self-hatred, self-pity and self-deprication is very much there in alcibiades' speech. When he's with socrates, he says he feels like he can't stand his own life because he sees his deficiences and his mistakes. He understands that if he's to stay with socrates he must let go of many other things he wants and he can't do that, and he's saying outright how ashamed he is of himself when he meets socrates and has to admit certain things. In the Alcibiades 1, he is even more humbled by his shortcomings, expresses opn self-doubt and confusion.

This is what makes alcibiades so interesting and multi dimensional. He's at once extremely aware of his shortcomings AND extremely confident in himself, ashamed of himseld BUT ALSO has a bloated sense of ego. This conflict is very obvious in how plato writes him. And, for plato to write these things, he must also have some knowledge of such internal conflicts. If socrates was as he's presented, associating with him would make going through this humbling necessary.

Both in Plutarch and in Xenophon, we have alcibiades showing fear and uncertainty (when he's afraid to disembark immediately after returning to peiraius, even though he had been recalled to ahtens for a couple years at that point and had won her many victories)

This might be my subjective reading of his speeches, but I feel that in terms of expressing self-pity, he does so in thucydides, xeonophon and plutarch. He often laments the injustices done to him in his public speeches. For the speech he gives upon returning to athens, plutarch says "He lamented and bewailed his own lot, but had only little and moderate blame to lay upon the people. The entire mischief he ascribed to a certain evil fortune and envious genius of his own."

We must understand that alcibiades' ego didn't stop him from being a master manipulator. Andocides wrote that alcibiades has no problem with using tears and begging when it comes to gaining something for himself.

anyways yeah I feel kind of strongly about this because it's such a core conflict of his character, especially in plato's writtings, and a very interesting one at that. You have someone who's behaving as if he's so much better and above everyone else, and probably believes it most of the time, but when he's with socrates, he is forced to see that this isn't true. In the Alcibiades 1, this is exactly what socrates uses to make alcibiades see that he needs socrates if he is to become great. Because it's only socrates that can show him his deficiences, and again in plutarch it's said explicitly that this is why alcibiades respected and loved socrates above everyone else, because he humbled him and he was smart enough and self-aware enough to understand, at least sometimes, that this was necessary if he was to become as good as possible.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/740136068340482048/the-funniest-dni-i-ever-encountered-in-all-my-12?source=share

As a House Martell stan, it's been interesting to watch the evolution of that particular corner of the ASOIAF fandom over the years. For a while, because they were less present on the show (and their actual focus on the show was pretty bungled), they were mostly the favorites of superfans who'd read the books and therefore were deeply devoted to the whole ASOIAF universe, and given how much that means memorizing various types of Targaryen incest over the years, were almost never antis. A lot of people were also drawn to that they were the ~sexy, liberated house, as well as there being a fair number of POC who identified with some of the few non-white people in those books who were actually fully-realized characters (in the books, not so much in the show). IME it was usually people who were also shipping a lot of the other popular "problematic" ships in the fandom like Jaime/Cersei and Sansa/Petyr Baelish.

Then, at some point - particularly after the show ended and the fandom shrunk a lot - it got infected with a bunch of people writing long essays about how Daenerys and the entire Targaryen family were inherently "white supremacist" (previously, it had been more common for POC and other fans who focused on anti-racism to stan Daenerys, and point out that what the final season did with her was some white bullshit that tried to conflate killing oppressors like slavers with killing poor downtrodden people) and there ended up being a fandom fight between those people who saw the Targaryens as the more racist house or the Starks, but they all stanned Martells but in a very shallow sort of way just because they were the POC house. It's also worth nothing that Dorne has equal primogeniture - women can inherit, and in the books it's Doran's eldest daughter, Arianne, who is his heir, even though he has two younger sons - and it also is more accepting of LGBTQ+ people and bastards and general "sex outside of marriage" than most of the rest of Westeros, so it attracts a lot of people who are into them for that reason. I mean, I like them for that reason among others, but of course that's going to be a magnet to people who want to prove that they're extra special progressive for stanning them over like, the Lannisters.

Also, probably worth noting, the people in the second group were generally younger. Book-centric fans generally tend to be older IME in ASOIAF fandom. I feel like whenever a fandom is younger, there's more likely to be more anti behavior.

Anyway it was very weird to get back into ASOIAF when I read Fire and Blood and then when House of the Dragon started airing, and feeling like "my corner" of the fandom had become completely unrecognizable in my absence.

Also, I suspect it's probably drawing in some people who just really like Pedro Pascal. (It was better when it was drawing in the Alexander Siddig stans from DS9 fandom, snerk. Although even that fandom has had an obnoxious influx of younger purity-policing virtue-signalling types discovering it these days, writing stupid discourse about how Garak/Garashir is problematic and people should instead ship characters who don't like each other that much and don't interact much one-on-one because the combinations of them are more progressive or something.... sigh! Anyway, probably not helped by the fact that Game of Thrones completely wasted him, even though his character was one of the best ones in the books and a big one that drew me into loving House Martell. He would've been great as book!Doran, but alas....)

I'm also going to say that as others have pointed out, I'll always be mystified by the fact that ASOIAF even HAS antis. If you're that opposed to incest, age-disparate relationships, violence, etc. anything controversial, how can you stan the actual canon of that show? Or the books, which arguably have even more rape and incest and ephebephilia going on. It just seems like you'd have to have a very adversarial relationship with canon to a point that I just don't understand why you don't pick another fandom. Of course, it's probably really just that antis are hypocrites.

--

Hypocrites, yes. But also drawn to material that they're not comfortable being drawn to. The younger they are, the more the cognitive dissonance makes them act out.

I don't condone it, but I do understand it.

[littlespoonevan]

Hi, can I please ask for some of the essays about the cemetery talk and what we were supposed to take away from that scene? If you feel inclined, that is 💕

well i don't know if i can write an essay exactly bc tbh i still don't know for certain what we're supposed to take away from that scene. but i do know the tone of it was completely different to anything we've ever seen for buddie before and it also lasted so much longer than most of their scenes have before??? like i just went back to rewatch it to refresh my memory and it's 3 minutes???? that is an incredibly long scene for two characters to have in an ensemble show when they're literally just talking and it's not strictly moving the plot forward

but to try and break it down a bit:

i find it fascinating the way eddie reacts to buck talking about natalia. that weary, almost irritated, "really?" when buck admits he'd met up with her followed by the "dating somebody you rescued, you know what never ends well." it's So Different to the snarky way he used to react to taylor. like when he'd make comments about taylor you knew he was mostly joking or at worst, just being a little bitchy. but he sounds genuinely frustrated when buck brings up natalia. the closest thing i can compare it to is that it's a more muted version of "his fiance's abby" and we know eddie knew how deeply buck was affected by losing abby so it feels a bit like eddie is potentially annoyed bc he knows buck will probably get hurt again???

then you have buck saying the whole "i think she sees me" bit which echoes so much of buck's overarching storyline and his struggle with love in the past. and i know some people call this eddie's 'oh' moment but i definitely don't consider it an "oh i'm in love with him" moment. i feel like it's more of an "oh he doesn't see that i see him too" moment, if that makes sense?? and i think there probably is a bit of frustration with that for eddie given that the will scene is eddie as loudly and demonstratively as he can saying "i see you" y'know? nevermind all the little ways he proves he knows buck

and tbh i think my favourite part of the scene is actually the last 60 seconds because first you have eddie saying "you haven't been the same since it happened, but then again how could you be?" and it's just!!! 1) it's literally him proving he does see buck and probably knows him better than anyone else and 2) there's a very subtle hint of realisation in his voice when eddie says "how could you be" as if he's been convincing himself buck is fine this entire time (maybe post-couch nap) only for him to now realise buck really, really isn't.

tHEN he says "you don't have to be anything for anybody" and it might be my favourite words to ever come out of his mouth tbh because it's just once again emphasising the gentle way eddie lets buck be?????????? "i had to do it" "i know you did", "you knew i wouldn't" "i knew you wouldn't". eddie is So Good at offering buck a reprieve whenever he needs one and he's usually the person best able to break through all the noise in buck's head to make him understand that he's fine just existing as himself.

aND THEN eddie makes the comment about how going through near death experiences change a person and all i can think about is how after eddie's near death experience he made the decision to tell buck about his will after keeping it a secret for a year and how he never actually answered buck's question about why he kept it a secret in the first place and i have to ask, eddie diaz what changed in you???????????

combine all of that with the fact their outfits mirror what they wore in 5x14 and the absolute irony of eddie saying dating someone on a call never works out only for him to pursue marisol two eps later and just- i don't know if they pivoted bc there was a fear season 6 would be the end of the series or if the last few eps were always supposed to go the way they did but this scene in 6x15 raises so many questions and i feel like i don't have the answers to any of them skjahd

[deconstructivesurgery]

plspls PLEASE tell me anything youd like about owb...... im playing through nv for the first time and have yet to get to the dlc.... i have a passing knowledge of it but not much, and i am obsessed with these mad robobrain 2.0s and their relationships with each other and the courier

oh god almighty i don't even know where to START. i have gone insane over this specific DLC in the past to such a ridiculous extent that i'm in the middle of making an actual informative essay about it. styled the same way i write actual academic papers. i think i hauve COVID or whatever.

Off the top of my head, one of the things I love the most about OWB at first glance is the way it beautifully ties into the world of the Mojave itself and the other story DLCs (minus Honest Hearts) in subtle and yet fascinating ways that are a lot of fun to discover yourself or to tie together. Playing the NV DLCs, you'll find Big Mt.'s work in places you'd barely expect- slowly piecing together with every new bit of information the extent to which some of their work "breached containment", so to speak. You'll also find ties to other DLC stories scattered throughout the DLC area itself, keepng a beautoful, believable coherence between OWB and the outside story. It's an absurd, comedic terror of a DLC, to be sure- and yet, it's so grounded in the world of Fallout that I find it doesn't wreck your disbelief. Like some OTHER bizarro Fallout content has for me in the past. Looking at you, "Zetans" bullshit that I hate.

I'm also a big fan of the environmental storytelling throughout the entire DLC- something as simple as exploring the homes of the Think Tank in their secluded little vault-esque shelter (where I presume they sheltered out PART of the war before transferring to the brain tanks for longevity, OR which they potentially just lived in Pre-War) can tell you so much about their characters that you'd just never really pick up otherwise. The characters are simultaneously hilarious and... I mean. Heart-wrenching if you're willing to let your heart bleed for a bunch of demented amoral scientists whose entire Pre-War job was to try and resolve the war in America's favour in the nastiest ways possible. I personally find something so compelling in the unique ways their memories and personalities are equal parts warped by the passage of time and the recursion loops impacting their thoughts, and true to the people they were Pre-War.

(If I'm being vague about a lot of this, it's because I think some things are fun to find yourself and if I explained everything I liked about the DLC I'd probably just end up rehashing every single character and most of the plot points in the entire thing.)

Also it's just straight up fucking yonkers over bonkers. You get called a Lobotomite. You get to watch the world's worst co-workers (who have been cooped up in robot bodies living in a state of induced dementia together for the past god-knows-how-long) argue with each other like the world's pissest pack of schoolchildren. You get to hear some guy shriek at you about the terrors of Communism and the horrors of his high-school nemesis RICHIE FUCKING MARCUS for a solid five minutes. The entire thing starts off with an absurdly long insane conversation cutscene. One of the Think Tank members also like canonically cums in your gun. What's not to love, I guess.

[loquarocoeur]

Hey lovely! I’m back w another anon, at this point I’ll put an emoji so you know it’s the same person saying hi bc I’m not sending this on my blog name but ashshsjsh.

The asks and your responses on the spanking shit have me wanting to send this ask that I’ve been thinking about, but like. After the end of ‘pushing buttons’ I rlly enjoyed the bit where charles was almost insecure, and max responded the way he did so beautifully about how he loves charles the most bc he’s charles and what about it him he finds so loving and hot and how he was mentioning Charles’s pleasure too and that just. Really made me want to have a fic perhaps on the doms pleasure a bit. Not entirely but if you’d want to I’d love for you to get into charles head and thoughts a bit. It’s hard to explain what I mean because I’m being vague bc I’m embarrassed enough typing this as is lmfao but I hope you kinda get what I mean here? How you were talking about charles headspace in the other ask and everything I just got very Inchrested

I just love this verse and the way you write and maybe I die everytime I see another blog post of yours about some smutty shit! Maybe!

- 🦢 (I’ll make myself the swan emoji anon bc why the fuck not. Hi it’s me I sent the asks like max speaking Italian for maybe one line perfectly and made the suggestion about the ‘monza fic having the hotel tifosi chanting. Idk I just wanted to lyk it was me ahahshsjjs)

Okay hi, hello, I'm here with my thoughts now and absolutely YES, prepare for an essay:

Like idk, I've been meaning and trying to get into Charles' head a bit more since forever, but it is just quite hard nailing him down, he's just a very complex character nowadays with that duality between his 'dom persona' I guess and then absolute golden retriever, head over heels, bend over backwards, and jump when Max says jump sweetheart he is outside of that headspace

It's just there's just so many things from Charles' perspective to think of, you know, specifically talking about sex scenes now:

Like, okay, first of all, he's just a man, Max barely needs to take off his shirt. Like he's absolutely insatiable, he goes insane for a glimpse of Max's stomach, the only time he won't even try to start anything in the shower is if he got an orgasm five minutes ago, so obviously there's the aspect that he just thinks Max is fucking hot, just looking at Max does it for him, and also men are men, it feels good getting their dicks wet I guess

But then there's also obviously the thing that we don't talk about enough in fandom and that's that doms like being dominant just as much as subs like being submissive

And you know it's hard to nail it down and elucidate it, because we don't have enough examples for it, because (and this is also totally fine of course) fandom is just usually very focused on the perspective of more submissive people for probably many reasons which we won't get into rn, but the point is like you have to make this shit up as you go, there's not a script and an easy how-to like there is for writing submissive perspectives because we've all read thousands of those of course

Because like obviously Max technically has as much if not more control over the situation as Charles does with safewords and all, but Charles obviously LIKES being or feeling in control

There's kind of this underlying societal belief that we often get where it's just perceived as inherently bad when someone wants or likes to be in control or in a position of power, which is why I feel we hear the dom perspective waaay less than the sub one, because ironically, the doms are too shy to speak up I guess lol

But you know Charles obviously likes that he can tell Max what to do and he does it, he likes how Max, just as a person, is quite dominant in the way he behaves, he's not a follower, when someone says sit down Max asks why, and he's no different with Charles when they're just them and there's no dom/subness going on, but he likes how when they're in that space and Charles says sit down Max sits the fuck down

And then I think the thing I always emphasized most is how Charles just gets off on seeing Max feel good, like he gets off on making Max feel so good he loses all function, and that comes back to Charles having just as much of a praise kink as Max, but he doesn't need Max to tell him he's doing good, he needs to see it

And then it's just how do I fit all this in and consolidate it with the way that of course, Charles is far from quiet or reserved during sex, he won't shut up actually, but there's these times when, from Max's perspective, you have no idea what's going on in his head, because he has this talent for just turning his face blank

And don't think I as the author somehow know any more than you do when it comes to Max's perspective like guys idk either, I was just there

But yes, I do hope to elaborate on it a bit more in the future🥰❤️❤️❤️

[ladysomething]

this is a bit random but I was wondering if you had any other rpf ships from formula 1 that you like (other than brocedes) that overlap with the drivers making up lestappen.

I’m a big charlos lover and wygig is probably the only lestappen work I really like and that’s 100% because of your amazing writing and nothing else (in terms of finding that driver dynamic alluring) because I’ve been trying to get into lestappen for a while and it just isn’t happening.

I think one of the reasons for this is that in the charlos that I read, Charles plays a very different role and is presented often much more masculinely and assertive and morally grey in comparison to a lot of lestappen. therefore, I feel like it’s difficult for me to shed the perception of him I hold in that ship and move over to lestappen works where his role in relation to max is largely unchanged no matter the AU or scenario.

so that brings me to my question, going through your bookmarks I noticed that you read some Maxiel and some Pierre/charles also, is it difficult for you to perceive the characters of ‘Max’ and ‘Charles’ outside of the traditionally lestappen framework? and when I say traditional I don’t mean things like who bottoms and who tops because it’s very diverse in terms of that but just generally the ‘magnets/opposites attract/one true rival/inexplicable obsession since childhood’ vibe that they seem to have in most fics. or do you largely restrict yourself to lestappen because other dynamics with those drivers are just not as interesting?

unrelated note- loved the latest snippet <3

hm. well I suspect that probably you and I have a very different starting point on this anon, and approach it from fundamentally different points of view. not to say either one of is either correct or incorrect, I just think it's probably not necessarily going to help you get into lestappen.

but I guess I'll tell you my journey, because it might shed some light.

so I got into f1 last year, resisted rpf for a while, eventually decided I'd give it a go, and pretty much just ... went to the highest ranking ship for f1. at the time, it was maxiel, so that's how I ended up there.

I didn't feel a particular draw to maxiel irl, but I adored the fics! some of them were absolutely phenomenal, and even though I didn't/don't ship maxiel, a couple fics have really stuck with me and even define how I write Max in lestappen.

when I went through the entire maxiel tag, I went to the second highest ranking ship: lestappen. now, I confess, I had intended to just do what I did with maxiel, which was consume everything and then move on, but as you can tell .... well. that did not happen.

its from fic that I learnt the lestappen lore, and its how I expanded into my actual interest of the real lestappen friendship. now the reason for this is pretty simple: I love their lore. I love their history. I fucking love the idea that these two guys grew up hating each other, and now have so much respect for each other that they're so weird about it. it's just a dynamic that really scratches an itch for me.

there are certainly other pairings that vaguely interest me: I've dabbled in some max/lewis, some Charles/seb. if I like the setting, then I like the pairing.

but, honestly, it sounds to me that the reason you're not so sure about lestappen (the 'rivals to lovers' aspect, if I've understood your ask correctly) is in fact the very core of it. lestappen authors explore it so much because it's what defines their entire relationship.

but it's not for everyone, and that's totally fine. if you don't see the allure, you don't see the allure. if I'm being honest, I don't see the allure of Charlos at all, but that's for my own reasons and there is no fic I could read or long essay on it that will change my mind.

now, I think what you're also asking me is ... if I see Max as a rival to Charles, can I also see him as having had a boyhood crush on Daniel? and tbh for me, the answer is yes. I don't always agree with characterisations (just as I don't always agree with them inside lestappen either), but I think ... people aren't all things all the time, right? a person can be multiple things at once.

some ships just bring out different sides of people. e.g. Charles is a giggly mess with Max and for some fucking reason says that he wants to win the WDC but not if it means something bad happening to Max, while also at the same time be the person that happily brushes off Lando, while also the same time joke about adopting Oscar, while also at the time wanting to square up against Lewis to prove he's better than him.

the way I would write Charles with Max is very different to the way I would write Charles with .... Lewis, for example, because he feels different things and acts in a different way and has different motivations. it doesn't make him an inherently different character, it just makes the dynamic different.

anyway, I'm not entirely sure I really answered your question tbh, but I hope you got something out of it anyway!