#i can't imagine it being healthy for their dynamic

[iedolon]

aphelios poring all of his effort and heart into little sibling figures because he never has the opportunity to dote and bully alune anymore-- while they're still loving, their relationship as siblings has grown strained due to conflicting interests and the burden of their responsibility

[spacedace]

Fuck whatever DC is doing with the al Ghul's characterizations and story lines, I've decided that from now on the al Ghul's are gonna be DC's version of the Addams Family instead.

Now I don't mean just give the various al Ghul's the exact personalities of the various Addams and call it a day. That's boring, that erases all the interesting parts of the al Ghuls, that's just using "find & replace" and not actually adding anything. I mean give them the vibes of the Addams Family.

Keep the al Ghul's as the al Ghul's with all their scheming and machinations and world domination attempts but give them all the unhinged energy, the casually insane view of the world, the deranged levels of love and devotion for family. Make them that group where objectively they are batshit insane but also you cannot argue with the fact that they are indisputably the most stable and functional family in the entire universe.

They're creepy, they're kooky, they're mysterious and spooky. Ra's many opulent homes and impenetrable fortresses are a museum and the al Ghul's really are a screa-um whenever people come to see-um (or when they lay waste upon their enemies in a surprise attack that has been planned for months and is just the first domino in a series that will ultimately lead to achieving a far greater goal).

They all love each other and want each other to be happy, they express this primarily with stabbing and murder attempts (its fine, death is a thing that happens to other people).

And forget the League of Assassins being a cult. Just make the whole vast globe spanning organization a collection of cousins/aunts/uncles/dear old friends ect. No one (not even the al Ghuls, if they cared to keep track of such things) is sure who is actually related to them and who just got absorbed into the ever expanding family tree based on their vibes being right.

(Is Sensei Ra's father you ask? Well he's certainly someone's father - probably.

Anyway have you heard about Cousin Cheshire? Despicable poisoner of a young woman, capable of the most horrific things imaginable - yes she is the sweetest dear. Like I was saying though, she just had a baby!

Everyone in the family is just so excited to throw a baby shower to celebrate! Ubu has really gone all out with the spike traps, he does so love getting to welcome a new addition to the family.

Talia of course has cultivated a brand new strain of the most toxic plants imaginable to make a brand new kind of necrotizing poison. You know, as a nice little romantic gift for Cousin Cheshire and that young man of hers. It really is so important to make sure you take time for you and your partner to go on dates and have a few pitched battles to the death on dark rooftops in the pounding rain when you have children.

Now there is some to-do about it all of course, you know how family get together can be. Everyone is arguing over who should get to give little Lian her first weapon and what it should be. Nyssa is pushing for grenades but Ra's is insisting on a sword - he's traditional like that you know - but Dusan has the vote so far on throwing knives. You know the kind that have the little divots along the edges of the blades them to make it easier to get the poison you dip them in to stick.)

I'm just saying that the al Ghuls should be a delightful cross between the Bond Villains they were originally conceived as and the lovingly unhinged Addams Family. It just feels correct in my heart.

(Again keep the interesting aspects of the characters and the nuances of who each of them are like their drive to save the world through destroying humanity and their strong environmentalist leanings and their constantly playing 5D chess and everything, but like, take away the racism and the cartoonishly evil for no reason bullshit and give them some fun feral energy to go along with it).

[teaboot]

While I'm happy that the word "gaslighting" is more known than it used to be, and that people at large are learning to recognize what it looks like, I feel like we need to be careful not to turn it into something soft and casual we throw around off the cuff without meaning.

Being gaslit is psychological abuse that fucks you up very badly, very slowly, at such a gradual pace that you don't usually know it's happening until it's already re-wired your brain.

If you're unfamiliar with the term, "to gaslight" is to intentionally persuade someone that they cannot trust their own perceptions of reality. It's a destabilizing form of manipulation that leaves you constantly anxious, off-balanced, confused, and dependant on others.

This is done by lying about events that have happened or about things that are happening, invalidating feelings and observations, and either denying, refusing to acknowledge, or deflecting away from hard facts.

As someone who has experienced gaslighting as a form of abuse, this is what I remember from when I didn't know anything was off:

"Oh, I must have forgotten what really happened."

"I'm just not seeing it from their point of view."

"Everyone has their ups and downs. This is normal."

"I guess I wasn't thinking about what I was doing."

"I must have been wrong."

This is what I remember from when I first started realizing something was weird:

"How come every time I'm convinced they did something wrong, they just talk to me a few minutes, and I end up asking for their forgiveness? What has me so convinced I was right in the first moment?"

"I should start writing things down when they happen, so I can go back and check later when I'm confused."

"If every relationship like ours (familial, romantic, platonic) works this way, how come I never hear about it, or read about it, or see it anywhere else?"

Getting out and adjusting to the real world is hard, too, and comes with rapid swings of unfounded guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, and self-deprication that are completely unfounded in reality.

You've been conditioned to believe that you are entirely helpless and unable to think for yourself, possibly "crazy" or otherwise fundamentally impaired, and that there is a singular source of guidance that knows exactly what is right, and all of a sudden that pillar of support has vanished.

The immediate "after" that I recall looks like:

Constant uncertainty. Because nobody is there to tell you what's real and what isn't, you approach every situation thinking at it from all angles. Every question has fifty possible answers and most of them are wrong and you don't know which. If you choose wrong, the world will end.

A sense of helplessness. You feel that nothing you do is correct, and it's easier to make no choices at all- or you make wild, reckless, impulsive choices, because you feel you have nothing to lose.

Memory loss. I don't understand this one, but it's not like memoriescare being erased, but more like... you're so used to treating your memories as dreams or imaginations that you reflexively dismiss anything you recall as fake, and you can't believe anything you recall because you don't think it was real. Your abusers voice is in your head, wiping things away and telling you that you did the wrong thing. And you believe them, because they're the only constant you can rely on.

Missing the abuser, or the abusive dynamic. Because you know now that it wasn't healthy, but at least you knew where you stood. As long as you said the right things and acted the right way, agreed and obeyed and did as they expected, you felt like thevworld made sense. Now you have to figure out which parts of you really are broken, and which parts are working fine in a really weird way, and it's like tuning a piano when you've never played one before.

The long term "after"- for which I can only speak for myself- looks like:

Having to double-check, triple-check, and continue checking hard evidence of an event before responding in an active way.

Consulting with trusted friends to verify that your observations are legitimate and that your perceptions are valid. Following up with them to see if someone is really angry at you, or if you're just projecting anger onto them because it's what makes sense to your old pattern.

Obsessive collection of "evidence"- saving pictures, writing detailed journals, making recordings and video, never deleting emails or old texts, because you still don't quite trust yourself all the way and you're afraid that someone will cause you to doubt yourself again.

Continued self-doubt and being "gullible": I have straight up seen people flip me off to my face in front of witnesses and then immediately tell me, "No, I was just waving", and my first instinct is to believe them. For a few seconds, I *really do* believe them. Your brain is so trained to latch onto what people tell you to believe that its really, really hard to hold onto information that you already have.

Learning to take ownership over your own actions. (I didn't mess up because I'm "crazy", I messed up because I'm a person and people do that.)

Instinctively seeking approval. (Takes a lot of work to remind myself that I don't exit to make people happy, and that some people suck ass, and I can tell them to piss off.)

I don't intend to invalidate anyone currently struggling with this- if you feel that something is wrong, it probably is. That's the thought that got me out. Trust that feeling that something isn't right.

I just want people who don't know what to look for to know what gaslighting *actually* looks and feels like, so they don't just roll their eyes and think, "Oh, that word doesnt apply to me- I'm not some snowflake".

('Cause we all saw what happened with "triggered", right?)

[k-martins]

Updating mine

MY TOP TEN FAVORITE JJK SHIPPS!!!!

10. SHOKOHIME

They stole Jogo and Hanami's place because I got it into my head that Jogo is like the grumpy grandfather and Hanai is the vegan aunt of the curse family! I like them. I think it's a ship with a lot of potential. I need to consume more content, but I love the fanarts!!!

9. HIGUNANA

This crack grew in me and now I'm suffering for them after the last chapter. In a kind universe, Higuruma and Nanami adopted Yuji and they live happily and happily!!! I think the two go together a lot and the fanfics are adorable! These Old Yaoi will be the death of me!!!!

8. CHOSOYUKI

They've come down a little, but man I still love them!!! Even more so now because my thirst for Choso awakened and I started reading fanfics of him being a good big brother and I fell to my knees! I still want to write more and explore his relationship with Yuji. And God, YUKI IS AMAZING!!!! THEY DESERVED TO STAY TOGETHER, AKUTAMI YOU DAMN IT!!!!

7. HIGUKUSA

A friend on twt is feeding me higukusa art and, god, this crack (not so crack, because that "I'll protect you even if I have to die for it" from kusakabe hit me hard) has taken root in my heart! I'm also obsessed with Higuruma, so I combined the useful with the pleasant!

6. INUOKKO

THEY ARE CUTE OKAY!!!! I AM OBSESSED WITH CREATING HCS FOR THEM!!! I don't consume much of their stuff, but all the fanart I've seen is cute and their participation in the itafushi fics I read is always welcome!!! It's kind of strange to read something where they're not together…

5. NOBAMAKI

MY OPINION HAS NOT CHANGED, OKAY??? NOBAMAKI IS WONDERFUL AND I WOULD KILL TO HAVE MORE OF THEM!!! But since I saw Nobara's flashback I've been wondering if Fumi wouldn't be a good ship too? Does anyone have a fanfic/fanart of him, by the way??? ANYWAY, NOBAMAKI IS STILL MY FAVORITE!!!

4. KIRAKARI

I'M IN LOVE WITH KIRARA!!!! SHE AND HAKARI ARE THE ONLY HEALTHY THINGS IN THIS MISERABLE MANGA!!!! I love imagining what their relationship is like, writing hcs slice to life minis and drawing Kirara! But I'm getting worried because I saw someone saying that Kirara could appear in the Hakari x Urame fight to help her boyfriend and I know what's going to happen and I don't want it to happen! GEGE GET THESE DIRTY CLAWS AWAY FROM MY BABIES!!!!

3. SATOSUGU

YOU RUINED BLACK AND WHITE FOR ME, YOU DEPRESSED BITCHES!!! My friend is obsessed with them and boy can I understand! These two are tragic, with a beautiful dynamic and a happy ending(?). Plus they fucked up my Christmas Eve. I hope these two bitches are causing terror in heaven!

2. ITAFUSHI!!!!

If you've known me for more than a second, you'll know that I have an average of five outbreaks a day because of these two. This whole thing about always trying to save others even if it condemns them destroys me, okay??? Fanfics and fanarts also feed me! And I'm going to convince all my friends to ship this too so I can yell at 2am at them about little details of their dynamic! AND THEY MATCH SO MUCH!!! Of course, no more than our first place!!!!

.

.

.

EVERYONE X THERAPY!!!

Please let the deaths stop and this become canon

Honorable mention for _ Tojikuna (more because a twt artist is obsessed with them and that rubbed off on me) _ Hainana _ Toji x Mamagumi _ Okkofushi (Yuta was Megumi's first crush and you can't get that out of my head) _ Uraume x Sukuna (one-sided) _ Yuta x Maki

[zarnzarn]

i see all these comments talking about this after the new episode, but. i would like to state for the record that stolitz isn't. toxic.

first off, the concept of a toxic and a healthy relationship are such... vague terms. when you're online, drenched in language and tight moral boundaries, trying to put a nuanced story like helluva boss's into boxes is easy to attempt and impossible to do.

a toxic relationship is one where one or both parties is maliciously affecting the other. I'm talking fetid, nasty, rude interactions where there is more hurt than love. they're unhappy more often than not when they're with their partner, there's no respect or give from the other side.

stolitz is nothing like that.

Stolas actively cares about Blitz and actually has no fear or hesitation in ADMITTING IT OUT LOUD TO OZZIE. he has been calling, texting, commenting, laughing and finding ways to spend time with Blitz. he's throwing everything he has to the wind, finding the courage to move forward with the divorce, putting everything he has into trying to keep him. he's been alone in a palace since he was born, on medication, with such less people dear to him that he remembered the circus boy who spent a day with him DECADES ago- so when blitz comes into his life and brings back in laughter and color and sex, he's holding on with everything he's got.

and blitz does care!!! he cares a LOT, the whole series we see him falling in love with stolas through SHOW NOT TELL (his expressions, his choices, his fear, his lashing out) and utterly unable to process that stolas cares about him too when talking to fizz; almost a desperate kind of denial-

cause yknow. the first time he tried to confess something to someone he really liked, he accidentally killed half the people he knew and ruined the lives of the rest?

thats gonna leave just a teensy impact on the will to express your emotions in the future, methinks.

even before that, he clearly felt like on some level that he was unworthy and he's said twice that he despises himself for the accident even though it wasn't actually his fault. being self aware doesn't stop the emotions from emotioning.

he keeps insisting its only sex so urgently to anyone who doesn't ask because he can't even imagine it being anything else. he's both disappointed and relieved when he repeats that stolas sees him as a novelty, because what else can it be?

(there's a whole other spiel of how brave both Stolas and Blitz have to be to say it out loud even when asmodeus can't afford to, considering how publically and completely beaten down both were at the club.)

(there's also another whole spiel about how frustrating it has been for ME to see all these comments over time with such bad takes based on like,, 20 min worth of info of a show that takes months to release an ep. like godDAMN have some patience?? let the story UNFOLD MAYBE? IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE AN EXPLANATION WHY WOULD YOU CRITICIZE THINGS THAT ARENT EVEN FINISHED ESPECIALLY AN INDIE ANIMATION- i digress)

mind you, this has NOTHING to do with abuse. an abusive relationship is one where one is actively harming the other with full awareness. Stella is an abuser and their marriage is abusive.

and stolitz isn't that; it isn't even unhealthy or toxic. it's a consensual, transactional fuckbuddy relationship that slid into something more for both of them.

but!!!!! one of the main reasons for the problems that everyone looks over is-

they're in a BDSM relationship.

I can't possibly delve into dynamics without making this a 10k research paper BUT even though we've gotten only hints and costumes and dialogue- they're very clearly and undeniably in a BDSM contract. Behind the scenes of this crazy show is a whole different story, of these two delving into the most hardcore kinks out there- knifeplay, painplay, bondage.

if you've gotten into the community, if you've read a couple dozen particularly good fics by authors who know what they're talking about, hell; even if your only experience is fifty shades or 365 or whatever- you gotta know that BDSM scenes are crazy fucking emotionally heavy. there's so much that has gone down between them during their full moons that helluva can't get into!!

but you know how in so many of these popular medias and fics, the dom in the relationship is also like,, the billionaire/mafia heir/prince, etc, the one with financial and physical power? this isnt that. it has been very clearly stated that stolas is subbing, blitz is domming.

now take a moment and think about how much that fucks up the dynamics.

in stolas' eyes, blitz is a confident, dangerous individual who's an old friend and cherished memory of his, who he's trusted wholly with his safety during sex and he's lucky to have; and he has been in an abusive arranged marriage for the past eighteen Years, he's probably not going to be pushing his luck with his dom that much in the first place. plus, blitz is never cowed by him during their conversations- think back to the first phone call right after he stole the book, completely unafraid.

and for blitz, it's someone trusting him again- but it's also a royal- a blue blood who's nearly untouchable and so much more powerful- who couldn't possibly like a piece of shit like him, apart from the sex he gets out of it. he only flirts once he gets some sort of cue from Stolas; he's desperately trying to view this as only a Goetia trying to get his rocks off, despite all the evidence to the contrary, because anything else is unfathomable to him, no matter how clearly Stolas shows it, because of the ptsd.

both of them thinks the other has the power. both of them aren't expecting the other to keep shut if something's bothering them.

and there's so much conflicting messages from the other too!

stolas calls him a plaything when trying to intimidate the humans; stolas cups his face gently and asks if he's alright

blitz asks him on a date and tells him to get better soon; blitz yells that it's only sex and doesn't reply to his messages

ya see?

bring it to fizzozzie for a second now; even though they do look all good on surface, you can still see fizz's trauma and doubt in all their interactions, they're still forced to keep the relationship secret. do you see his face when Ozzie says in hyperbole that he's never leaving the house again, or when someone accuses him of being a pampered house pet or when he got sexualized in the 7th ep? whatever happened in the interim between the accident with mammon, it fucked him UP. even though oz seems to be well aware of this when he tells him not to apologise and in their general interactions, fizz still visibly has trouble separating plaything/commodity from healthy relationship.

shout the fuck out to Ozzie btw, man knows whats UP. rooting for these two so much omg.

i forgot where I was going with this point, I'll edit it when i remember. but yeah! lovely fucking relationship, but damn what angst filled issues.

anyway, to sum up- stolitz is not a toxic relationship. the relationship is stuck sludging through misunderstandings and careless microaggressions and trauma responses, but it's not unhealthy or toxic because of the simple reason that most of the current hurt comes from... a misunderstanding. stolas didn't realise blitz would need reassurance about what they were and blitz didn't see stolas as someone who could get hurt.

unecessarily calling it toxic, even online, is more impactful than people think too. almost all spindlehorse ARE on all social medias; so MANY YouTube animators i know have found jobs there; they see your words, especially since a lot don't tag posts with "anti hb" correctly to keep them out of the main tag. there are Very few queer medias made BY queer people that haven't gone through heavy corporate revisions- helluva boss is practically a historical landmark in its success. it's very very very fucking easy to forget that not ten years ago some of the only queer videos on YouTube were butter lover (one kiss at the end post credits), dirty paws and welcome to hell (subtext).

the amount of "critical talk" helluva boss gets for what it is is very unprecedented. it's a beautiful show. can't wait for the next episode.

[writingforatwistedworld]

Hii, I'm glad you're back . Even if it was for a few days you really left a place in tumblr not just for your work but for your presence itself.

I had a question for a while and I'm sorry if you answered it before and I seemed to not notice , if that's the case then forgive my ignorance but I was wondering , since sebek seems to respect his grandfather alot and has inherited the hate for humans from him and it's a known fact in self-aware au that the faes 'love' the overseer alot I must say.. does that mean that sebek also inherited his 'love' for the overseer from his granpa? If so how did green grandpa see the overseer, what made him 'love' them and how does he show it .

If you don't want to write this then feel free to ignore it , hope you have a great day and don't forget to drink water and eat well<33

Hi there Anon. It's so sweet of you to say that. I didn't think I would have made such an impression on anyone. But I completely forgot to write about Sebeks grandfather -_-

Well, better late than never.

Self-aware au

WARNINGS: Jp-version spoiler (like, the whole thing!!!), (Platonic!) yandere themes, war, religion, unhealthy mindset, isolation, unhealthy family dynamic

(Platonic!) Yandere headcanons

Ah yes, our local way too loud and loyal member of the reptilian family. No need to to worry about him. I mean, what could go wrong? (Hehe…)

Baul was not from the Valley of Thorns. Growing up in Sunset Savannah he did not grow up with the beliefs of the Faes (in other words, he was not part of a religious cult)

So imagine the huge shock he felt when he finally became a solider under the Draconia banner and started to become more and more like the other Faes

Well, for starters, yes, he wasn't indoctrinated into the whole church thing since birth but also wasn't raised to see you as an equal like the beastmen of the Savannah

You could say that he was a healthy mixture of both

Emphasis on the “was”

You see, isolation and being the only one sticking out (if we discount the humans invading the valley) does leave you open for a lot of things

If we count two (being the surroundings he was in) and two (his more or less unnoticed loneliness) together, we can see pretty fast where that led

Never mind his superior (and friend I mean come on they might as well be brothers) Lilia constantly rambling about the Overseer, savior of all, and how you accepted everyone in your kind embrace

Ok. Nice. Neat. Great. In the beginning, Baul wasn't very interested in joining any kind of religion

But the longer the war held on, the more he wished there was someone he could ask for help in his task of protecting those he deemed close to himself (you see the generational pattern?)

At some point, even the proudest of all can't hold on for forever

So he turned to you, the supposed God that was on so gentle

And goddamn that religious gaslighting and placebo effect worked damn well

Not only did he feel like there was someone there who supported him from somewhere in the universe (even though that was just him believing too much but let have him have some hope, ok?) but also he finally had a community

Whenever he would leave one of the many churches in the valley a Fae would approach, thanking him for protecting their home

Sooner than later did the former non-believer think of himself as your chosen shield of the valley

The war came and went away

If only the same thing could be said about Bauls new religious beliefs

And when he saw that grandson of his, cute little chubby hands that gripped a wooden toy sword tightly, he knew that his position as the valleys shield would not cease

Yes, even Baul would die one day. Fae or not, he was at the end of the day mortal

But that talent of his grandson would surely be of use to you, right?

If his younger self would see him like this, would it run away? Would it feel disgust at the thought that his future self would use his own grandson for selfish, religious reasons?

If only Baul knew that “God” didn't even know they were living beings that existed in a different world…

[hyperblue]

as much as i enjoy the thought of kon immediately taking on fatherhood and confessing his feelings to tim in timkon clone baby aus, i can't help but think about all the potential for a slowburn that we can have, such as:

— making a deep dive into kon's view of the situation, exploring his clone feeling about himself, exploring his feelings about clark in particular — because their relationship is very interesting and complicated on it's own, and the biggest tragedy of it, in my opinion, is that kon was never clark's responsibility, in fact there was never a single adult person that had to take care of kon because kon initially never belonged to anyone. he's no one's child, no one's son, and us much as we might want to blame clark or, you know, any adult in his life for not taking care of him and protecting him, they had their right not to do it. someone should have had care, but also no one was obligated to. i really hope i make sense, what I'm trying to convey is that you really can't blame anyone for kon being unsupervised for most of his life no matter how much you might want too (aside from lex luther and cadmus itself ofc, but that would be a slightly different conversion); and kon knows that himself, has known that for a while, but the moment he's confronted by his own clone child it adds so much more perspective, and the conflict of once (still) being a child that no one wanted while simultaneously being introduced to a child that you don't have to want but if not you no one else will (tim will, but tim's also a slightly different conversation) would be so interesting and delicious;

— LOTS of awkward co-parenting from two teen-dads who might or might not be head over heels for each other but also not really having time to explore their relationship and their feelings bc they have a whole ass child to raise; not to mention kon's conflicted clone boy feelings and tim's haunting guilt that affect every single interaction of theirs. just imagine the pressure, the slowburn, the ust. imagine them knowing about each other feelings, but also knowing that it's not the right time — there might never be the right time anymore, not after what tim has done. imagine them negotiating visiting hours and weekends like they're some divorced couple. imagine them swinging their child between them on a walk home, imagine kon showing up early at tim's penthouse with fresh ingredients from the farm to make healthy breakfast, imagine tim dosing off on kon's shoulder while watching old disney movies with their kid right there on the carpet in front of a tv; playing house, but knowing damn well that they are not together. that they might never be together;

— clone baby getting used to this strange family dynamic that they have — knowing that kon is their other dad, but never ever calling him that (they have no memory of calling him pa! when they were much younger, no memory of kon crying and kissing their forehead right after; no memory of tim becoming really pale and then gently teaching them that kon is not pa, or papa, or dad, he is just kon, only even just kon); knowing that daddy loves kon, but for some reason that's something that they never talk about, and the kid is too afraid to ask because he knows that he'll hurt his dad if he does. fighting with tim and then crying because they want their other dad, but tim tells not to bother kon, as if kon might secretly hate them, and then hearing tim and kon having a fight from upstairs, stop acting like I'm going to flee any second, it's been literal years, when are you going to believe me when i say that i LOVE our child;

— tim trying his best to be a good parent and co-parent but still screwing up anyways because he's too trapped in his own guilt and insecurities; accidentally hurting both kon and their child by not wanting to hurt them, trying to distance them from each other when things are starting to get good, because they are not supposed to be good, tim does not deserve things to be good. shying away from kon's most innocent touches, refusing his child traditional summer vacation on kent's farm because he can feel his baby starting to prefer kon over him, and that's something that he doesn't know what to do with, all he knows is that he can't lose his baby not even to the love of his life. fighting with kon a lot, going they are MINE, stop pretending that you want them or care for them just to take them away from me, they are the only thing in the world that i love more than you;

— and then finally sorting things out after years, confessing their feelings, talking about every single insecurity that they both had about this situation; holding hands across kitchen table after crying their eyes out, and deciding to try it. restoring the friendship they almost lost somewhere along the way while trying to be a good parents for their baby — exchanging text that are not just visiting hours negotiations, awkwardly flirting like they are teenagers again, brushing each other shoulders and hands and sitting a little too close on a couch; getting to go on dates, getting to feel giddy and young about each other again, falling in bed together and getting to wake up from a sound of their kid destroying the kitchen, our child is hungry by the way, we should probably start getting out of bed. our child? yeah. our child.

idk man i just love the potential and complexity of it all. so many things to do with au, it really is an endless sandbox to play in

[bluejay757]

Lets talk about Simon and Betty

spoilers for episode 8

So a lot of people are throwing around some strong accusations about their relationship, some I can see where they're coming from, and a lot are really reaching.

As for the ones that I think are reaching, a lot of people are saying that Simon and Betty were a professor/student dynamic, except they weren't. Simon wasn't teaching a class he was a guest lecturer, and Betty, having read his work was interested. She was excited to meet him because she liked his research. Simon was constantly mocked in his field, if you actually read the newspaper clippings from "I remember you" you'll see that even after he found the enchiridion, he was made fun of. People were literally laughing at him and throwing things at him while he was giving his lecture. Betty likely was mocked too, it makes sense she was so excited to meet him, because this was her chance to meet one of the few people that actually shared her interest. She did not yet have a crush on him at that point in time.

I think after she got to know Simon on a personal level her fascination of him changed, as she no longer viewed him as a "celebrity" (I use that term loosely for a lack of a better word, I can't imagine his books sold that many copies, what with him being a laughing stock and him being genuinely surprised that Betty had read his work), but rather a colleague and equal. She even said that after their trip together she had grown to admire him as a person, so it's not like she had any kind of feelings for him prior to that. Now that's not to say her feelings towards him were completely normal, but there definitely wasn't a power imbalance between them.

A lot of people are saying Simon was selfish for making her stay behind, but he didn't make her. She chose to stay behind. She could have still gone on that trip, and continued to write to him and talk to him on the phone, but she chose to stay with him and go on different adventures. You're forgetting that Simon and Betty went on expeditions together all the time, it's not like she gave up her career for him, that would be a whole different story, but she made the decision to continue working in her field alongside him.

Also Simon couldn't have gone on that trip if he did want to because he wasn't offered to go, who ever it was that gave Betty that opportunity, wasn't anticipating on her bringing a friend, he also didn't have anything with him but like his wallet and keys you can't seriously expect him to go to another country with no luggage, no plane ticket, no money, no nothing. A whole part of Fionna's character arc is realizing that life's not a fairy tale, she was expecting something out of a romance novel and got a story straight from reality. Realistically the two options were for Betty to stay or to leave Simon. And I don't think her giving up her trip to Australia was a sacrifice, because there were other trips and opportunities after that, she traded that one trip for an entire lifetime of them, (or at least it would have been if war didn't break out)

And if you're gonna call Betty impulsive, call her impulsive because she went on a trip around the world with a man she had never met, not because she walked through a creek barefoot lmfao.

I'm not saying that Simon and Betty were perfect but there are other reasons to criticize them.

As for the actual problems with there relationship, none of them are their fault. Betty going literally crazy trying to bring Simon back was because of Magic Man and Patience fucking with her brain, a human being cannot handle the amount of magic she was given and it drove her to insanity. And Simon now, with risking everything to bring her back, she's literally fused with a chaos god and is going to live for eternity in that state, did you ever think maybe he wants to get her out of that for her sake? That maybe he wants closure and to say goodbye? Since he never got that chance. No it's not healthy for Simon to drive himself as far as he did to bring her back, but Jesus fucking Christ can you blame him for not wanting his fiance to suffer for literal eternity? They don't need to break up, they need therapy. I don't think their relationship pre-mushroom war was unhealthy, and I don't think it ever would have been unhealthy without Betty becoming Magic Betty.

Their relationship flaws are more so their own individual flaws that have bled into their relationship as opposed to ones caused by the relationship itself, that's an important distinction you have to see.

[poppy-metal]

much to think about artashi and more specifically dom!tashi and art and how its not just new for you its new for them too - like i imagine tashi has dommed art plenty of times, but never like - in a serious bdsm way like they have with you. its a very intense dynamic. you're they're baby. thinking of the first time you experience subdrop and it nearly breaks the relationship because none of you knew that was a thing or handled it well. tashi has never been super into aftercare - that's always been more arts ballpark, and she leaves him to tend to you almost always. but after a particularly grueling night of sex - her being distant after feels like a stab in the gut. you dont know what's happening or why you feel the way you do, you just know you feel small and miserable all day next day - you dont know whats wrong with you why you suddenly care so much that tashi coddles you like you'll die without it and you can't voice it - you'd be a burden. your relationship with the donaldsons is sexual. your feelings are separate. you're there to be a hole for them to use - but you feel so empty.

and tashi is so horrible with confronting when she's been an asshole - horrible at communicating in a healthy way in general she just sees it as you being sensitive. you knew what you were getting into - whining about it now just doesn't make sense to her. it prickles at her pride, to feel she's messed up somehow. she'd rather that blame lay with you, as you're the outlier here. frankly, she's not the best dom, to start - she has alot to learn about responsibility and tenderness. realizing she fucked up is a big blow to her ego. realizing there's something wrong with the way she treats you is hard to contend with, because it feels alot like you're saying shes too much to handle - when that's not it at all.

and art - his upset comes from not stepping up more. he can see how you deflate like a wilted flower when tashi leaves the bed after sex - he can probably deduce what you're feeling. but he wont make a rift. he wont 'pick sides.' when really, he should have picked yours - as your dom he should have been putting you first - as tashi's husband - he's putting her first. and that makes for alot of mess. he should be making it clear to you that you're valued and cared for, he should be working overtime to make you feel that - but he's not used to having responsibility either. being a dom - it was needed, but its still new - there's alot he doesn't know about it still.

just..... complex dynamics.

funnily enough its probably patrick who gives them both a reality check.

[appendectomy]

the house/cuddy relationship is also so interesting because a big part of the essence of 'doom' that the writers give their relationship is also based in direct comparison to the not-doomed-ness of house/wilson. there are so many moments where it feels to me that the writers are grabbing me by the shoulders, shaking me and going 'look!!! look at them and compare them look at how different these two dynamics are'.

one of the most obvious examples of this is in 7x09 when house is trying to get out of hanging out with wilson and going to cuddy's birthday dinner at the same time. cuddy outright asks 'you have to choose one of us,' and house replies 'i choose wilson'. apart from making me giggle, these lines also serve the very obvious purpose of not just being about where house would prefer to spend a thursday evening. it's quite blatant foreshadowing about the fact that, at the end of everything, house always prefers to choose wilson and is more capable of being there for him than he is for anyone else, including romantic partners and especially including cuddy.

the next big example of this that struck me is in 7x15 when cuddy is in surgery. this is an almost word-for-word recreation of the scenario in 6x10 where wilson went into surgery. they both want house to be there, and house struggles to show up both times. we even get this wonderful visual parallel between the two, which is something i've noticed has been talked about a little by other people on here, and so is definitely something I imagine the writers thought about too. with 6x10:

and 7x15:

the key difference between these two situations is house being sober in one, and on drugs in the other. house can be there for wilson and emotionally support him while also being sober, but he cannot do the same for cuddy. this comparison i think is such a clear communication that not only is house's relationship with wilson easier for house to maintain than his relationship with cuddy, but that it is also better for him mentally. with wilson, there isn't an anxiety that he isn't good enough for him the way there is with cuddy, and this just fundamentally fosters a better environment for him as an addict.

this says a lot about house/wilson, but it also says a lot about house's approach to romance versus friendship in general. he places so much more importance on the emotional challenges of a romantic relationship than he does platonic. he spends the whole episode of 7x15 practically agonising over wether cuddy will be ok or not, whereas he spends most of 6x10 telling wilson he's an idiot. he seems to doom himself in romantic relationships by creating so much of his own anxiety: he worries about getting it right, being the man cuddy needs him to be, doing what a good partner should, and it causes him to be unable to actually perform any of these actions without the crutch of being high. this in turn underminines the genuineness of any attempt to be better that he makes in cuddy's eyes. i don't think any of the emotional demands cuddy makes of house are unreasonable at all, but because house is such an emotionally stunted and volatile person he can't approach the very normal expectations of a romantic relationship in any sort of healthy way. the only relationships he can maintain are unconventional ones that don't have these expectations, like his friendship with wilson.

the next example, and the one that is most likely a little bit of a reach, is also in 7x15, specifically in the few dream sequences cuddy has that feature wilson. in the first, she imagines house and wilson as rachel's adoptive fathers (which i've already written a little bit about here if you're interested). then she has another dream set in a black-and-white 50s sitcom where she is the breadwinner, house is the housewife, and wilson is the mailman/milkman (not completely sure which of these he is, but he's definitely one of them). in both of these situations, wilson is the proverbial 'other woman': he takes the place of house's domestic partner in one of the dreams, and in the other he's the mailman/milkman to house's housewife, which traditionally in media is a comedic character pairing that involves the housewife cheating on her working husband with the mailman/milkman. i doubt this symbolism is really that intentional, and i don't think that it's meant to imply any sort of genuine romantic coding between house and wilson, it's probably just a couple of early 2000s gay jokes. but if you critically look at these instances, you can begin to extrapolate a sense that in house's romantic relationships, wilson is always hovering in the background. wilson is always the proverbial 'other woman', someone who's relationship with house is just as important and very likely also easier to maintain for house, just as the inverse is true for wilson as established by testimony from his ex-wife bonnie. i mainly think this inclusion of wilson in these dreams and the deliberate role he plays just serves to remind the viewer that while house and cuddy's relationship is rocky and uncertain, house and wilson's is pretty much constant and inevitable.

the last comment i have on this is about the scene in 7x23 where house crashes his car into cuddy's home. i think you can pretty easily compare wilson and cuddy situationally in this scene: house is putting cuddy in immense danger (though not actually intending on hurting her), whereas in comparison he yells at wilson to get out of the car before he does it. to me, there's an obvious difference there - a deliberate effort to endanger a person vs a deliberate effort to remove a person from danger. and in both instances, house is intentionally causing the danger. it very strikingly reminded me of the scene in 3x07 where house tells wilson to get out of their hotel room before he does something that could incriminate wilson. he specifically tells wilson 'maybe i don't wanna push this til it breaks' in regard to their friendship. house is very cognizant of not pushing wilson away completey, not squandering their relationship once and for all with his dangerous behaviour. but with cuddy, he gets to a point where he actively burns the bridge. the difference to me is sad and clear: house is willing and able to maintain his relationship with wilson. he is not willing and able to maintain his relationship with cuddy. and by comparing the two, each dynamic becomes clearer.

[pomefioredove]

Oh my god vil has overtaken my brain. Thank you every other person who sent thoughts about him.

Now here's ANOTHER thought. What if Vil just. Never stops giving kisses. Like, after chapter 6? And maybe especially during the two weeks that Yuu had to spend at pomefiore until the dorm was fixed?

Like. A lot of the time, the game doesn't really promote that much physical touch between the characters unless they're really close friends or it's just simple high fives and stuff like that, and even that is sometimes too much for them (like Riddle and Azul quickly separating after high-fiving after defeating the titan (or hugging?? I'm not sure exactly what they did lol))

So now I'm just thinking. That exceptional familial bond that Yuu and the pomefiore trio have created, they can't just drop it after everything they've been through, right? So it slowly but surely becomes a common occurrence.

You know how some people greet others by kissing their cheeks? Or maybe they just as a cute little thank you or simply to fluster the other. And because I'm delulu what if Vil just kind of lingers a bit longer with Yuu?

SWGWBSJ the feast of healthy and comfortable dynamics between those four that we were given has been stuck with me ever since finishing book 6 and it's just,,,,,, VIL WHY CANT U BE REAL </3

I understand, I understand! I literally read it like that too unfortunately I'm not immune to vil favoritism. he literally likes yuu the best and he's not even discreet about it. he loves the pomefiore family VERY much but with yuu it's just. different.

circling around to kisses, funny enough I already think of rook as someone who enjoys la bise (with those who will allow him, of course. dependent on the yuu but I imagine vil doesn't like being touched so casually and epel is epel) being french...ish?

now. vil is german. ish. in my opinion. physical touch is reserved for close friends. so it actually means a great deal for him to even kiss his friends in the first place, let alone making it a regular thing with yuu?? just get married at that point.

...and adding onto that, I do have somewhat of a guilty pleasure headcanon that vil is touchier with yuu than he is with anyone else because he is interested in them. it starts out as very very subtle flirting, but then... well, he kind of gets used to being physically affectionate with another person, and it eventually just becomes normal. kissing, holding hands, and (his favorite), getting to doll them up. it's just like. this is how things are. and it's nice, he likes it

(he spoils yuu rotten and isn't even subtle about it)

[pastel-medic]

So, wait, if Axel is the Spy that Red Medic removed the head of, how are they in a relationship? Wouldn't that spawn some kind of resentment?

I'm going to trigger warn this post for topics of s//cide, depression, and poor health because I can't exactly explain their dynamic without getting into Axel's mental health. I tried to make this as brief as I could but it ended up becoming an oc ramble anyway 😭 sorry in advance for the long post!!!

Also please note my personal lore and hcs for them isn't strictly based on canon lore, so RED Medic having Axel's head in fridge is due to different reasons than just being a crazy doctor :V

You have been warned!!!

This will be delving a bit more into Axel's character, and a lot of this I will try not to spoil too much as it is a plot point in an ongoing fic I'm writing.

Axel is, to put it simply, someone who struggles immensely with self identity and has a very nihilistic point of view. Working as a Spy for years since he was young has created a sense of worthlessness in his mind, as he viewed himself as a nobody who wears the faces of other people (especially after an incident that I won't detail since it's spoilers). He hasn't been able to hold relationships because he constantly "changes his identity", adopting a new fake name and fake history with every new assignment he's given while leaving the people he once formed bonds with behind once his work is done.

On top of that the people who had taught him to be a Spy often compared him constantly to his brother Pierre (RED Spy), so he never felt like he was good enough. He developed depression when he was a young adult and hasn't been able to cope in healthy ways, which led to him having very poor health and malnutrition. Every time he was offered help and support he rejected it out of fear and ran away (metaphorically and literally), the folly of pride and the guilt of being a burden to someone else. He's had many s//cidal tendencies (a lot of Axel is split from my personal trauma so bear with me), and believed that if he were to just disappear one day nobody would notice. He's waiting, HOPING, that one day he can just disappear forever...

So when he's taken by the RED Medic as a mere head in a fridge imagine his confusion when the enemy doctor refuses to kill him immediately no matter what he says. "Kill me" he keeps saying. "Later" is the only response he gets. Yet the doctor doesn't ever seem to want to. At first Axel thinks it's because of scientific curiosity, and he'd be right at first, but that's not the real reason Medic keeps him around. As it turns out Ludwig has a slightly twisted and odd excuse for keeping him around.

Seeing the Spy in a state of self destruction and withering health hurts Ludwig as a medical professional. A doctor's duty to heal others is something that even with his crazy mind still remains true. He can't help but feel the need to heal this person, his own enemy, who has become nearly broken beyond repair. He wants to help the Spy, but his solution is pretty bizarre and unconventional. If he keeps the Spy around he can try to heal the brokenness in his mind. As a head in a fridge he can't run away from the help offered to him. He realizes he doesn't want to just heal the Spy, he wants to help him; He wants to give Axel that feeling of value in his life that he struggles to have. He wants to be the person who can save Axel no matter how insane his methods are, a Don Quixote.

He wants to help Spy live.

"You are not the masks you wear, nor are you a nobody without them. You are you. And you are important no matter what."

As foolish as this logic is it's effective, as it doesn't give Spy that door to escape to. Now he HAS to see the damage to himself. Though the longer Spy stays with the enemy Medic the more he can see that he isn't the only one who needs healing. Out of all the people Ludwig can heal, he doesn't seem to be able to want to heal himself. All of his struggles are private, and he keeps the pain hidden away behind closed doors. It seems Spy is not alone when it comes to blocking others out. Medic knows he has sins crawling up his back, yet he actively pretends the Devil on his shoulder isn't there. Yet the more he ignores his mental strain the more volatile and unstable it becomes. He cannot see the damage he is inflicting on himself, and Spy knows he will continue to turn a blind eye unless he sees the harm it is causing. Regardless of how crazy it is, he realizes he wants to help the doctor too.

Spy wants to be someone who can help Medic see his self worth, a mirror to show him that he is more than simply a healer for others.

"How can you help those around you if you refuse to help yourself? You are deserving of healing too."

TL;DR to reiterate one of my previous posts about my MedicSpy ship their dynamic has always been about healing and finding security and comfort in someone who cares about you. Yes they have their flaws and are not perfect by any means, but they uplift and support each other because they care.

[narutouzumakiarchive]

i was neutral towards gaanaru because it has like 0 basis but now i dislike it because sasu**** shippers try to push it as the 'better gay ship'. they try too hard to disprove a ship they are not bothered at all since they are 'brothers' and just friends.

I've always disliked gaanaru simply because it's boring and the passion and romance lies in Naruto and Sasuke. I also have an innate repulsion to the "safe and healthy" wholesome uwu gay ships that fandoms try to prop up in opposition to dynamics that they perceive as more toxic. But don't worry. Even the SS fans that pretend to care about Gaanaru and think they should have more content can't be bothered to actually make more content outside of isolated performative posts comparing it to Naruto and Sasuke. [See example below: Only one Gaanaru post outside of SS content and they had to mention SNS]

Them pretending Naruto and Sasuke are brothers and latching onto other ships to discredit SNS and beat the homophobic allegations is just overcompensation. I mean, I would overcompensate too if I shipped a character who was defined by love with someone who couldn't even explicitly be tied to the sharingan transformation that signals said character's love — though I wouldn't have such terrible taste to begin with.

They try to disprove narusasu in that manner because they need fanfics and official fanart and novels that Kishimoto didn't write to even attempt to justify their pairing while Narusasu has the the text and classic mutual romantic coding. Naruto individuates Sasuke outside of Team 7 and Sasuke individuates Naruto outside of Team 7. They have a unique and valuable relationship.

And ultimately, Sakura herself was envious of Naruto and Sasuke's dynamic (note the close up on Naruto's face after Sakura's statement). If Sakura herself wanted to do the things Naruto did for Sasuke and wanted Sasuke to feel for her the same way he did for Naruto in a romantic context, why would narusasu fans not ship them?

Like Kishimoto intentionally framed their battle in the most romantic way ever. Imagine if right before Sasuke and Deidara battled or something, Karin looked at Sasuke dismally, confessed her love and said "I wish you could do Y for me to prove that you love me" and then Sasuke disregarded her and went to do that for Deidara instead. Kishimoto would never do that, not just because Sasuke and Deidara dont have the established emotional connection necessary for such a scene, but also because it would impart an obvious romantic subtext that people would recognize as such if it happened in any other show.

And if Naruto and Sasuke are just friends then they need to take it up with Sasuke who kept affinity testing (despite Naruto understating his feelings and calling him a "friend") and asking Naruto to define friendship... only being fully satisfied after Naruto moved outside of concrete labels like friend and instead identified pain as the reason for his affection and devotion. [The Naruto fandom is seriously something else honestly like the repeated "what are we" conversation even after Naruto gave him an answer would be a done deal anywhere else.]

[gooboogy]

I saw a post that's like "JonElias healthy fluffy dynamics so good" and like yeah that's great but also I loovee JonElias being so toxic and abusive. Elias who breaks and molds and grooms Jon to be his perfectly overpowered pet. Jon who can do everything Elias can't. Jon on the collar at the end of Elias's leash. Playing dreadful mind games with each other like Jon giving Elias a blowy all while vividly imagining strangling the guy to death. And they are both immensely satisfied by this. Absolute rivals. Goading and baiting each other into performing more terrible feats. Elias killing more "loose ends", Jon hungrily devouring statements from anyone he meets. Elias owns Jon, and Jon blames and hates him for everything. But they are just so devastatingly incomplete without each other. Two terrible forces of power eating each other to pieces, ending the world in a fury of self destruction and ruling the pieces as gods in eternal torment.

[missycolorful]

q!Phil will never accept q!Forever's love as it is now (and that's good for many reasons)

so, like, I totally understand why people are upset with Philza's rejection. Especially with how he kept repeating it over and over to Forever. A beating the dead horse kinda situation, it seems, yeah? Unforunately, this has to happen, with how Forever is acting.

He had made this very clear with BadBoyhalo the other day. When Bad asked "You don't like Philza for Philza?". Forever says "No, I never have."

Never, he said. Even if he might be lying a bit (like maybe he's saying this to ease BBH's feelings), for him to say that is... ouch.

And no, Phil wasn't there for that moment, but Phil seems to be aware of this, regardless. And Forever's heart is set on Brunim, not Philza. The references, the requests to imitate Brunim, et cetra. Right from the start, Forever only pursued Philza because of Brunim (that, and he gave him things, but that's still a plastic reason to have affection toward someone).

And Phil knows not to enable that. Imagining looking at someone, and realizing that they see someone else in your eyes. Imagine having moments that are probably genuine, but you can never be quite sure if you're both sharing a moment, because he's probably pretending he's sitting by someone else as the sun sets. That seems like such a shitty feeling, no wonder Philza keeps pushing him away.

Yes, he complimented Philza during the wedding, complimented stuff about Philza specifically (like his laugh), but that doesn't take away the feeling that you're basically just leftovers. Like "is he really saying this about me? or is he saying this so he can pretend I'm him when he has the chance?" Feeling like a replacement creates so much uncertainty, even if Forever acts genuine toward him.

And here's the thing: if Forever stopped obsessing over Brunim, if he accepted Philza fully as his own person, if he were to seek out Philza for Philza, Philza might give him a chance.

I don't know how likely in canon this is, tbh, because Philza, the content creator, has never really done gay rp, and it's clear he's a bit awkward and hesitant about it. Like, at most he'd probably just "give Forever a chance" by doing the whole flirting bit a la Fit. However, there's still some things that make me think that this idea isn't impossible.

For example, even when he rejects him, Phil emphasizes that he cares about Forever as a person; there's a connection there. Most of all, he keeps telling him it's because Forever is only thinking about someone else.

Look at any clip where he's pushing against Forever's advancements. That is pretty much the only thing he ever mentions when rejecting him. That's the huge obstacle here. It's about being projecting onto, and not feeling like you're valued for being you. If Forever were to treat him like his own person entirely, maybe they can have something.

(That, and I believe that q!Phil likes the attention Forever gives him, but this one I also can't be certain as to whether Philza intends it. It doesn't even in a romantic way, just, hey, he likes having someone to flirt around with cause it's fun. Because, like... Philza, why did you take a picture of Forever and then place your hand over your heart right after during Festa Junina? Motherfucker you literally let Forever (and others, granted) sit in your lap while saying "yeah this works" during Tallulah's birthday. You chased after him during the wedding to further rub in the "I'm not him" rejection.)

I'm... I'm just saying.

But overall, I really don't think this 'ship' is dead like others might. If anything I feel like this dynamic might be going in the direction it needs to develop and thrive. Like maybe we'll reach the point of "I like you for you. This is genuine. This is real. Let's have a healthy, balanced relationship." There's just no way they can get there until Brunim isn't a lingering presence.

[emin-folly]

Thank you for your answer! I was the one who asked about what Eobard's doing earlier haha

I also have this other question, but do you think he's able to get attached to someone else to the level he is to Barry? Since it's an obsession from his childhood, I imagine it would be hard to replicate, but I would love to see how his character plays out with others outside of the Flashfam, as much as I love them already

Hey! Welcome back! And you are very welcome~! I hope it was helpful to you lol

Excellent question! To really properly answer this, I'd like to briefly break down Eobard's relationship with Barry, if you don't mind! Now, for characters like Eobard and Barry, trying to accurately and fully explain in depth their dynamic in just a paragraph or so is basically nigh impossible lmao. These two just have such a rich and multilayered relationship that I can really only give you the bare Cliff Notes lol. Also, I just want to apologize because uhhh. I get really kinda rambly here haha oops

Okay so, let me first preface this what exactly the core of Eobard's whole character is: Love.

Eobard just wants to be loved. That's it. That is the root of everything he does.

To explain, we gotta go all the way back to Eobard's childhood. From what we see in the comics, Eobard is a very abused and neglected child. His parents wanted a gifted and successful child so they handpicked all his skills and made him very good looking. Unfortunately, they didn't get the memo that they still had to actually show love to their child for him to be successful. Ignored and shunned by his parents, baby Eo was very depressed and extremely desperate for any kind affection/attention. That's when he discovered the Flash. And I think the fact that it was Barry specifically played a major factor in his obsession with him.

Of course the Flash is very important to Eobard but something deeper that really resonated with him was Barry's ultimate pureness and unconditional love and compassion.

Eobard looked at Barry and saw someone who would love him unconditionally and without hesitation. In every sense, Barry really is pretty much the only thing that got Eobard through the dark times in his young life. The older he got, the more and more his parasocial relationship with Barry and the Speed Force began to consume him.

Eobard is very capable of love. The problem is, he's never been taught how to actually express it in a healthy, normal way so he lashes out, violently and obsessively. Because that's the only way he knows how. I think he definitely, on some level, recognizes that he is unlovable that's what drives people to reject him. To deal with this, he just retreats back to his fantasy; "Barry would understand, Barry would love me."

Sooo, yeah, you can imagine when the fallout eventually happened, you can see why it would utterly break him, emotionally and mentally.

To answer your question of if he would be able to love someone on the level he loves Barry, I would say definitely no lol.

Barry is just so, SO deeply intertwined with Eobard at this point that you can't really tell where he begins or Barry ends. It also has a lot to do with his obsession being formed during the most vulnerable and formative years of Eobard's life. Even if you hard set restarted the universe, these two would always have a cosmic connection with each other that you just can't erase.

As for other people, he is shown to have definitely gone back into other peoples' past and altered them drastically to suit his needs, ex: Hunter and August. But it's really only just more or less the one time and for certain reasons like he either wanted to manipulate events to play out a certain way (Hunter) or because he also saw a little too much of himself in them and was extremely jealous of their relationship with Barry (August). But honestly, most of the time when Eobard interacts with others, it's always either because he joins a supervillain group or he just happens to run into them coincidentally (like with Hal, the Justice League, Wally, etc)

Except for Thomas Wayne. Specifically the Flashpoint version.

I know I already talked about him but his and Eobard's relationship is really kind of unique and bears going more in depth.

Long story short, their whole thing started in Flashpoint, when Thomas killed stabbed him through the back. Then, in the Button storyline, after Eobard is revived (by the power of gay) and broke out of prison, he decides to immediately go and rough Bruce up as a kind of "gotcha" to Thomas. In the middle of their fight, he comes across Thomas's letter to Bruce and then he just?? Starts waxing poetic about "Oh Thomas, Thomas, did writing this make you feel better? As you burned with your world?" etc and it's like b r u h

This is literally the only interaction you had!! You just beat him up, mocked him and then he killed you. Why are you acting like you suddenly have a deep history together asjdgfsKJLGK

And it doesn't stop there. In a one off comic Tales From The Dark Multiverse Flashpoint, Barry dies and so to cope with this, Eobard tries to turn Thomas into his very own "Eobard Thawne", a ruthless stalker who would obsess over him. Because in Eobard's mind, to be obsessed over is the same as being loved, it means attention. Which is, notably, pretty much exactly what he wants from Barry. In the end, Eobard even went so far as to give Thomas a gift, what he so desperately wanted: his son and his family back. Whether Eobard did this out of any kind of sense of generosity or a more selfish motive is up for debate but it definitely says a lot.

In a following comic that's a prequel to the Button storyline, we see Eobard actually saves Thomas from the death of the Flashpoint universe and pulls him into the main timeline.

This is really significant because who else do we see Eobard go through this much effort to torment them? That's right--Barry. Now, of course Thomas isn't close to being on Barry's level in Eobard's eyes, far from it. But it's really clear that Thomas has become such a fixated point of interest for Eobard. By pulling Thomas out, Thomas essentially becomes a paradoxical being, and I think Eobard is really fascinated by that. He really likes having someone else on the same playing field as him. It's like Eobard, Barry and the other speedsters are playing a game of invisible chess which pretty much everybody on Earth is oblivious to, except for Thomas. Thomas is the only non speedster who actually knows the scores.

Could you argue that Eobard is just doing all of this for revenge? Sure, I suppose you could. But knowing how Eobard works, it doesn't feel quite accurate to just leave it at that. There's just too many little hints and cues of Eobard's love languages at play to just ignore that. Also like, Eobard doesn't like talking about his (true) feelings hardly ever, instead he wraps them up and disguises them with pretenses. He will say one thing while doing a completely different thing, a lot of times you can't take Eobard's words at face value.

As it is, Thomas seems to have become pretty synonymous with Eobard to the point now, whenever you see Flashpoint Thomas, it's very safe to assume that a certain yellow rat isn't too far behind~

I definitely agree with you~! I also absolutely love seeing Eobard interacting with other characters outside his scope of obsession, but sadly, Eobard doesn't really? Have much in the way of dynamics with other characters, as he really doesn't do people and people also tend to kinda hate him? But! There are a few exceptions, off the top of my head:

Eobard and the Rogues from the Justice League animated comic

Eobard and Poison Ivy's interaction from the Injustice 2 game (bow chica bow wow)

He and Superman actually have a brief but really poignant moment in the Tales From The Dark Multiverse

He and Al Desmond also had a brief partnership in the Sliver Age comics which basically consisted of Eobard mind controlling and pressuring Al into a life of crime, but I did definitely get the vibe that Eobard liked him--tho again, he has a very horrible way of showing it LOL

Also in the Silver Age, he had a brief dynamic with Star Sapphire (not Carol tho unfortunately) He was very flirtatious with her (he was like that with a lot of other women too--which definitely comes back to him being desperate to be loved) Anyway, uh wow, I didn't mean for this to be this long?? LOL If you'd like more concise, shorter answers in the future, just lemme know~!