#i don't care if this contradicts canon in any way i just did it cause funny

[thereisabearonmyceiling]

first (bussiness) meeting

[lnkedmyheart]

The cool thing about skk to me is that despite me joking most of the time when I say there is no way to read them as "just enemies" or "just friends" its actually true. Out of all the relationships in bsd, all of them can be clearly labelled as something and you get a pretty good picture of what their dynamic would be. Like with sskk you can say enemies to best friends and it would be right because they did start out as legit enemies who are growing to trust and care for each other and it's a lot more clearly defined where they stand with each other in universe even if Atsushi doesn't quite understand it. Aku cares about him whatever way you want to see it in he has grown to care about him. You can define what Fukumori and fukfuku are, you can even define what rimlaine were even if that is by virtue of us already knowing that they were based on a real couple. And even with Dazai you can clearly define his relationship with Kunikida (work partners and friends), Oda (dearest friend), Ango (close friend that he has some animosity towards but really still cares for him).

But you can't quite place skk in a neat little box because they don't make it clear. Their words constantly contradict their actions when it comes to each other. They have each other in their dislikes but they are both weirdly obsessive about each other. They understand each other to a ridiculous extent, they trust each other way too much, they have more faith in the other's humanity than in their own. They act like vitriolic best friends but claim to despise each other. And I have honestly not seen Dazai be this physically affectionate with anyone. Even their descriptor for each other is simply "partner" which is such an ambiguous term cause it can mean anything from work partners, partner in crime, romantic partner (based on rimlaine's whole partner situation considering their whole...thing) and so on. And it doesn't help that aside from Chuuya once, nobody actually acknowledges that their partnership ever ended, including Fyodor. Even Dazai refuses to use the word ex.

I used to wonder how Chuuya's friendships and relationship would play out in contrast but with 15 and sb it's clear that Chuuya does struggle to fully warm up to people and tends to be more reserved with his affection, so his dynamic with Dazai post sc makes a lot of sense.

The only other dynamic in canon with this much ambiguity is Fyolai but there at least you have some attempt at explaining Nikolai's side of things. For how in your face skk's closeness is we don't actually know what their deal actually is outside of some kind of intense friendship .

Is this just my long and convoluted way of saying I really wanna know what happened between stormbringer and dragon head as well as before dark era? Yes. This isn't particularly in any sense supposed to push some romantic dynamic on them, all I'm saying is their dynamic is such an enigma.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

that you bake of this

I find it interesting how the first poster is accusing groups of TB stans of not handling criticism, when TG stans (particularly Alicent stans) are the ones most often "melting and crying" over criticism.

Pointing out Alicent's hypocrisy and cruelty, the fact that Aegon is a rapist, and Aemond was a coward and cruel are all met with screaming. They flat out deny any facts of canon that show how awful their favs are. I've been told to kill myself multiple times just for pointing out actual canon things Alicent has done. Like, the call is coming from inside the house TG lmao.

I don't deny that there are certain people who claim to be TB but have absolutely braindead takes (namely certain Daemon stans, which is very sad). But the fact of the matter is, those people are a very small percentage. The percentage of insane people who can't stand criticism is wayyyyyyy larger in the TG fandom.

Most of TG stans' so-called criticism of Rhaenyra is just calling her a whore, saying she roll over and take any injustice, and that she's not nice enough. Of course we get annoyed and angry with that, it's not even actual criticism; it's just noise. The few times they actually have valid critiques of Rhaenyra, they still tie it in with calling her a fat whore. Anything of worth they could possibly offer is always completely bound to their intense hatred of Rhaenyra.

No, Rhaenyra isn't perfect, we don't expect people to just blindly worship her. She's not a good person, she's classist, and she wrongfully ordered the executions of innocent people twice. However, she's the rightful heir, that's literally a fact. We expect Rhaenyra to be supported because she's a victim of the patriarchy and misogynists. She doesn't have to be your favorite character, but the fact remains that she's the rightful queen and the Greens are usurpers and warmongers.

As for the whole "team smallfolk" idea: it's basically always used as an excuse to be blatantly hateful towards Rhaenyra. The "team smallfolk" and "team neutral" people never attack the Greens with the same vigor as they do Rhaenyra and her family. In fact, most of them even say that they're "green leaning".

The contradiction in this idea of supporting the smallfolk and the Greens simultaneously is that if the Greens hadn't interfered, the Dance and the deaths of the thousands of smallfolk wouldn't have happened. Rhaenyra and the Blacks didn't start the war, the Greens did. The Greens committed the most atrocities and refused every single offer of peace Rhaenyra offered.

I think the second poster is hilarious though. I don't know if they're TG, I assume so based on the subreddit. I don't know if they meant to, but they pointed out just how hypocritical the first poster's mini rant was. The first poster tacked on "Also they hate "Team Smallfolk," and the second poster pointed out how most of TG also just don't give a shit. Even if the second poster isn't TG and was just going to that subreddit to start something, there are still so many TG stans who admit that the smallfolk don't matter to them. I even had an anon once tell me that the maids Aegon raped don't matter to them as an answer to why they like and support him. I'm not going to say that they're right on not caring, but at least they're not hiding behind that false moral superiority.

Like I said earlier, the Greens were the ones who caused the deaths of thousands of smallfolk, both indirectly by starting the war and directly through Aemond and Daeron. The Greens didn't care about the smallfolk in any way, they only cared about power. Any TG stans who act like they're "better for the smallfolk" are delusional.

To sum up my thoughts: the first poster is projecting. Every single one of their criticisms apply better to their own group. The delusion and false superiority that poster displays are hilarious and frustrating.

[m-s-justice]

Though it is a sad thought knowing that without Richtofen, Takeo remains the same and probably even worse than ever if he was the officer that tortured Miller. Cause he learned his lesson that he shouldn’t rely on false leaders like the Emperor. I’m betting Nikolai got locked up in Vorkuta given that he’s technically one of Stalin’s enemies due to his political background.

if they do go that route they will definitely be reverting whatever development they got in the original universe. Atrocities were common on both sides of the war and I doubt that any of our crew is entirely "moral" since there's no such thing as a "moral" war, considering how much they throw themselves rather gleefully into it. If Takeo *is* the officer, he has certainly experienced a bastardization arc where he becomes more "evil" so to speak.

I however doubt that because it contradicts his scant characterization pre-115 experimentation where he had condemned the Division 9 for their use of POWs as test subjects. I simply cannot see him treating Miller like that without some major Fucking Up of his life to make him compromise his honorable ideals.

However if we did go along with it, a bastard Takeo seems like an interesting angle to pursue considering the other ones are very honorable and respectable. Kinda like seeing an Oath Breaker paladin instead of a regular paladin; lots of things to explore about a person who has abandoned their code. But the writers would need to be Extremely Careful because that could get Really Racist *really quick*.

As for hypothetical Nikolai, having him be imprisoned would definitely change things around for him. More than likely disillusion him to communism and his own government/country. Probably either depress him more with him being abandoned by everyone (his wife dies, his home is destroyed, his country betrays him) or it turns into rage. Ultimis Nikolai was too addled to have strong opinions while Primis Nikolai was too despondent + removed from the situation to showcase his emotions without it feeling shoehorned in. also it would probably wean him off alcohol since it's not allowed in prisons (though one could argue that he just drinks moonshined prison liquor)

A rageful, even more confrontational Nikolai sounds interesting. The ones we've met are always subdued in some way, either by alcohol or their own mental demons. An outspoken one would be pretty refreshing considering their natural coping mechanism seems to be either repression or resignation.

Though that offers a trend within these hypothetical reboot ultimis, that being the hoisting off of previous inhibitions. Which I guess could be symbolic considering how oppressive Ultimis Richtofen was. Without him there, they are more "free" for better or for worse.

I suppose that leaves Dempsey. What exactly could he be "freed" from? We don't know anything about him, really. He served in the Marines and was happy with that, plus he could leave at any time. He is only truly restricted when he is captured by Richtofen, who cannot do that in the new universe. The only thing I can sort of grasp at is Player Control? so I guess it means he's "freed" from being playable. Which I guess is a Dempsey W??? it has weird implications yet no real consequences on any canon story because his Player Shtick is purely meta. damn you Dempsey I can't even speculate about your ass.

[rulerzreachf4n7]

I'm trying to say this in THE NICEST WAY possible, toxic shippers have the stupidest reasons for not shipping Huntlow

Heya! Now before I go into this please know I AM NOT a toxic/force shipper, I am not forcing you to ship Huntlow, simply just telling you why your reasons don't make sense and contradict to the canon versions of the characters of the show, and with that let's go

Reason 1: it's not possible for Hunter to trust Willow after Below possed him and in general

Oh. My. Fucking. Titan...Im just going to automatically assume you've never watched Any Sports In The Storm, that one part in Reaching out, Labyrinth Runners, Clouds On The Horizon, Kings Tide or the entirety of s3, I'M LITERALLY TRYING TO BE NICE BUT YOU ARE ACTUALLY FUCKING STUPID, Hunter trusts AND CARES Willow by first, in reaching out, giving her his penstegram account to chat, saving her from getting hurt in clouds on the horizon, yes, it's wasn't actually Luz, it was an illusion, and in the same episode Willow tried to save Hunter (or so she thought it does matter if it's actually Luz it just proves she cares about Hunter) and when Luz got captured by Kiki she was very anxious and hurrying everyone to get to Kiki to save Luz, yet again, don't come at me with just because it was illusion doesn't mean she dosent care about Hunter, she thought it was him, she cares about him a lot cause she was in a hurry to save him (or so she though it was him)! Hunter was comfortable and trusted her to cut his hair in thanks to them, in the same episode he wasn't uncomfortable with Willow holding him after the possession, in for the future HE LITERALLY SAYS HE CARES ABOUT WILLOW, NOT JUST GUS, WILLOW TOO, he comforted her after her breakdown and saved her and Gus, Willow trusts and cares about Hunter in ending of for the future by holding his hand (pinky promis?? Idk what to call it lol) and literally said "Thanks Hunter, you mean a lot to me to" which Hunter replied "yeah...sure, no problem"

Reason 2: they head canon either Hunter, Willow, or both of them as aroace, asexual, or on the spectrum

Oh. My. Titan, did you like know aroace/asexual people can like STILL DATE??? you completely misunderstand the meaning, just because they don't experience ALL ATTRACTION dosent mean THEY WON'T EXPERIENCE ANY, you know what "little to none attraction" means, it fucking means someone who has a bit, A BIT, NOT ZERO, THERE'S STILL A PIECE OF ATTRACTION THEY CAN HAVE FOR SOMEONE, I'm literally trying not to be as toxic as possible but people have the most fucking stupidest reasons

Reason 3: you ship Lunter/huntric/huntmira/boschlow/ect

Well that's fine, but those ships don't make sense in my eyes but I won't write an entire paragraph on why it doesn't make sense (I'm doing it after this post lol 💀💀) and also boschlow is literally toxic pookie it's not the enemies to lovers you want Boscha literally bullied her, if you think that's chemistry you're fucking stupid and never seen the entirety of s1

And hehe silly reason I'd like to add!!

Reason 4: they're bland, don't go well together, rushed, and have no chemistry

Oh my fucking Titan, OMG y'all! Did you know you could uncancel you're own show?! NO YOU CAN'T DUMB FUCK, it was rushed because it WAS FUCKING CANCELLED, SORRY POOKIE DANA CAN'T DO NO SHIT ABOUT IT, it's not like you can get rid of all the episodes and make it hunlow themed, sorry, we can't get all the things we want in life, and by saying that it wouldn't work by the first impression in ASIAS is stupid, sure Willow made a bad first impression but Hunter seemed mildly phased by this other than just being a bit spooked out and startled, and NO, HE DIDN'T JUST DEVELOP A CRUSH ON HER ON SPOT, sure, he could think Willows pretty, but that doesn't mean HE HAS A FUCKING CRUSH ON HER, and people saying that it's not a "half a with Hunter" because Hunters a grimwalker dosent make any sense, may I remind you this was made before hollow mind, he's still convinced he's a powerless witch by Belos lying about it to him, he thinks he's a half a witch while yes looking like a witch on the outside despite having no bile sack, and he doesn't seem to think as himself as weak like Willow does on the other hand, eh, I wouldn't mind if they took out the half a witch, and btw it's not supposed to be a romantical aspect it's supposed to be a similarity, people have also said she's only there to comfort him, even though that's apart of Willows personality, SHE'S THE RELIABLE ONE, LITERALLY SAYING IT IN FTF, she's supposed to comfort people, supposed to be the person everyone rely on, but thats not just her whole personality, based around her reliability, she's so much more than it! People say they think they're both better off as friends in their opinion, it's totally fine! I don't give a shit really, but if you're going to state a reason why you dont think a ship is realistic, then at least watch all the episodes they're in and use some common sense at least! It's the bare minimum!

And that's all!!! I hope you understand and if I made any incorrections please let me know!! I really hate toxic Lunter and huntric shippers, or shippers in general, they just make up excuses instead of saying that huntlow isn't their type of ship or they ship something else, but if you're a multishipper you're totally cool! (Even considered being a multishipper hehe)

[skaruresonic]

The double standard gets more annoying when you realize fandom don't ACTUALLY care for canon...if it means abitrarily bringing back chars or reffing stuff

Like, fans are mad Iizuka didn't know what Choco Island from Tails Advejtures was regarding Forces dev. Ignoring that it's NOT a game made by Sonic Team, and very blatantly contradicts Tails having low self esteem and being bullied before he met Sonic (then you have other Aspect Games do dumb shit that contradicts Sonic Team stuff, along with weird rehash of Green Hill). I'm aware Sonic Channel recently reffed it last year, but notably don't mention events of the game. Same for Fang being canonized, Triple Trouble isn't mentioned

People hype up Emerl being in the Shadow short ignoring that the literal diary entries note that Shadow wasn't even awakened yet. At least one can argue that Doom was mem hacking, but people genuinely believe that the memory is legit and don't care cuz "OMG, SHADOW VS EMERL FIGHT"

Same for people treating Neo Metal as a basic Super Form that can kick Sonic's ass, when no, it's just a recepticle to gaining DNA needed to tutn inyo a Perfect Chaos based form

A lot of this really just boils down to "canon be damned, I want char fights, or any game is canon cuz Aaron Webber said so"

It's a mess

People hype up Emerl being in the Shadow short ignoring that the literal diary entries note that Shadow wasn't even awakened yet.

Admittedly I couldn't remember the content of Gerald's Battle diary entries, so I had to look them up. Reading through them, I realized that Shadow fighting Emerl renders Gerald's problems nonsensical in hindsight due to the way establishing Links works, as stated by Battle.

In addition, Gerald says it was the researchers who managed to subdue Emerl and seal him away. For some reason, the researchers kept giving Emerl more and more weapons to absorb:

---

Journal 5

The higher ups are threatening to shut down this research facility. I had no choice but to hand them the Gizoid to buy more time for my research. I tried to be careful and commanded it to never absorb any dangerous technologies. However, I have heard that other researchers have been making the Gizoid absorb weapons. Apparently, the way to cause the Gizoid to form a new "Link" is to show it power that surpasses that of its former master. While this poses immense danger, I cannot risk losing Maria.

---

Journal 6

My worst fears have come true. The Gizoid has absorbed enough weaponry and technology that it has started to go out of control. The resulting rampage resulted in the destruction of most of the "Ark." ... I have deciphered the rest of the stone tablet. It says, "When the Gizoid had learned all that it could, it became a god of wrath, and all was destroyed." The researchers somehow managed to subdue the Gizoid and sealed it away. Luckily, it only had one "Chaos Emerald" installed. If it were to have all 7 Emeralds installed, it might destroy the whole planet. The Gizoid is too much of a liability. I tried destroying its core, but nothing I did worked. I understand too little of the technology that built him. My best hope is to try and reprogram its AI into a free-willed, emotions-based AI...

---

Assuming this fight is indeed real, and that Shadow wins, that raises an entire slew of problems.

If Shadow fights Emerl, and inadvertently establishes a Link with the Gizoid by defeating him, Gerald's dilemma vanishes instantly.

All Gerald would have to do then is order Emerl to follow Shadow the way Sonic did:

Therefore, Gerald would have no reason to "try and reprogram its AI into a free-willed, emotions-based AI" in a last-ditch effort to bring the Gizoid to heel. He would have had no reason to install the final program or a soul identical to Maria's into Emerl. The events of Sonic Battle would never happen in the first place. Shadow's interference would have rendered his efforts moot.

tfw the fight is so peak that it threatens to break canon

Now, again, granted, this scenario is predicated on the assumptions that

A.) the fight is real; if it isn't, I just have to question why our time is being wasted on a fake scenario,

and B.) Shadow wins the fight. If he loses and Emerl goes on to destroy the ARK, that'd be another issue - how do the researchers manage to subdue him where Shadow cannot? And wouldn't that kind of feed into Shadow's complex about being unable to protect Maria?

Idk, the implications become weird and untenable the more you think about them. Maybe Black Doom really is sticking Shadow in a scenario where he makes him feel as WEEEEEAK as a certain masked villain, but I must ask once again what the point of that is. I ain't playing SxS Gens just to watch this motherfucker get woobified, you know what I mean?

---

I'm aware Sonic Channel recently reffed it last year, but notably don't mention events of the game.

Just because ST references things doesn't necessarily make them canon.

(coughs)

---

Same for people treating Neo Metal as a basic Super Form that can kick Sonic's ass, when no, it's just a recepticle to gaining DNA needed to tutn inyo a Perfect Chaos based form

A Super form? Why?

Metal couldn't complete his transformation without everyone's data and Chaos' ability to metamorphize. In Charmy's words: "Incomplete freak!"

---

A lot of this really just boils down to "canon be damned, I want char fights, or any game is canon cuz Aaron Webber said so"

It's a mess

Peak fiction often hinges on the aesthetics of a scene rather than the logistics. Who cares if Shadow fighting Emerl is so acanonical that it has the potential to retcon Sonic Battle as an entire game? It feels right, therefore it must be right.

Personally, I feel like it detracts from both Shadow's backstory and the ARK's unique identity as a research facility somewhat to have all of these disparate elements link (pun not intended) back to Shadow in some way. The ARK needs to be able to stand as a bastion of scientific progress on its own merits, with all the implications that brings to the table, and not just be regarded solely as Shadow's birthplace.

It should be stressed that the ARK developed tools of destruction alongside projects of medicine and healing. That is worth taking into consideration when examining the colony's purpose as a whole.

When people speak about the colony's darker underbelly, they tend to portray its horrors as those of unethical medical experimentation. In actuality, the real horrors reside more in the general territory of the politics of WMD development. "What the fuck did they have to create a planet-destroying cannon for? Who commissioned it? Why? What was its intended use?"

SA2 and Battle both touched upon the dangers of weapons of mass destruction. In particular, the ethical considerations and mindset of those who created them. These themes reflected the cultural anxiety of the early aughts concerning their development and use.

SA2 is more subtle in that it leaves Gerald's motivations in developing such a weapon ambiguous - Eggman raising questions of whether it was Gerald's legacy and intent to destroy mankind. Battle, on the other hand, is so blatantly anti-war that you're practically hearing War Pigs by Sabbath in the background.

The Gizoid counts as a WMD. Nothing can prevent it from going on a rampage and destroying everything, and flexing your power in order to retain control only escalates risk the more you do it. The only real effective countermeasure Gerald could think of was to give it a soul to dissuade it from ever pressing the nuke launch button. Or, in more allegorical terms, temper one's destructive impulses via conscience.

It takes Eggman forcibly overpowering and dehumanizing Emerl in order to reduce him to a WMD again. Except he loses control of Emerl immediately thereafter and winds up having his Final Egg Blaster getting aimed at the Earth without his consent, much like how nuclear bombs cause indiscriminate destruction.

It's such a brilliant and multi-tiered message, artfully delivered by Battle. Which is why it becomes undercut if we can have Shadow solve Gerald's problem in an instant.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Let’s pretend for a moment that Wanda’s antis are right and she actually did sign up for Strucker’s experiments knowing full well that he was Hydra. Would that make her and Pietro irredeemable? I mean, they didn’t exactly join Hydra’s ranks; they volunteered to be lab rats. There’s kind of a difference.

I suppose if this were true then the question would become “for what purpose did they volunteer?” I could see it being spun similarly to the five Winter Soldiers from Civil War who volunteered to be more efficient agents, but I don’t think something like that would be in character for either twin.

I think there would be at least a small gray area if they knowingly used Hydra to get powers and then planned to either abandon or straight-up destroy them. But then again, if you think the “if you work with Nazis then you are by definition a Nazi yourself” mindset should be applied in that situation, then I could understand that too.

Obviously this is a moot point since the only account of their recruitment shows otherwise and from what I know nothing contradicts it, but I just want to look at the worst possible scenario.

I'd say intention matters the most. If they knew they were Hydra and they only joined them with the intention of using them to get powers so they could then betray them and go straight to the US to kill the Avengers... it's still messed up but I wouldn't call it "joining Hydra". That'd be more like "using them".

Now, assuming that was the case and they had always known, but their plan was to leave and not stop/kill them, I would have an issue with that. These people were killing Sokovians right, front and centre in their experiments and it would be out of character for the twins to not care about that. In fact, judging by their immediate rejection of Ultron once Wanda sees the many deaths he intends on causing, it wouldn't make much sense that they'd be selective when it comes to saving lives: if we don't count Johannesburg, they never attack citizens, quite the contrary. Their battle is with the Avengers, no one else. And Wanda isn't exactly a fan of killing people either, we can see that in Lagos when she basically leaves it to Sam to be more forceful while she just uses her magic to stop them (never kill them).

My point is... using Hydra like that doesn't make you a nazi but the problem is you're there with them while they're doing unspeakable things to other people. And if you do nothing to stop them and you just focus on yourself and what you can get out of them... then yeah, that's despicable. I wouldn't expect the twins to stand up against them immediately post-experiment (we can only imagine the mental state they were in at the time), but once they had full control of their powers and they were alert enough... not doing anything to destroy that base and just running away is messed up, no doubt about it.

However like you say, this is speculation and it's still up for interpretation as I don't think canon stated at any point that they knew for sure they were volunteering for Hydra. The prelude comics make it clear the twins didn't know they were Hydra, and these bunch of nazis weren't exactly advertising themselves (much less in a country that had been invaded by American troops, it would have been pretty stupid to do so), so how were the twins supposed to know? Also, I highly doubt they met Strucker right away, the scientists conducting the experiments as seen in WandaVision were two nameless goons accustomed to seeing volunteers die at the first contact with the Mind Stone.

Assuming lab rats would be informed of everything Hydra did or didn't do is plain dumb. So Agent Brexit had no way of knowing Zola was Hydra but the twins are supposed to know everything that happened in that base? That's hilarious.

[starrbar]

Okay so Yin Yang Yo! was my absolute FAVORITE fucking show when I was a young kid, like I dunno, 10 to 13 years old. I recently revisited the show and well, I've outgrown the writing QUITE a bit. I'm in my late twenties now. But it's still very nostalgic to me, and I figured hey, I got a few light-hearted ideas, so I'll scribble em down and post em somewhere.

One of my favorite characters from YYY was Yuck because he was cute and scruffy. I like scruffy. And I probably enjoyed his voice acting too.

Anyway, I spat out some ideas for how I might rewrite the episode "Yin Yang Yuck" for a fanfic or something, but I'm too busy to write a whole fanfic, so here's the raw juices.

So first, I don't like how flippant the beginning is. Yin and Yang fight daily, and often physically, so it seems silly that this one time only, they would create life. What's a specific thing Yin and Yang would do in this fight that's different from others?

Let's say they've both been learning a new move that's high level. Master Yo taught them the basics, but neither of them can successfully use it. Hell, Woo Foo Aura might be good for this? Putting aside Aura Or Not cause I'm just having fun here.

Yin has a partial grasp on the idea of it because she'll happily express love and passion, but Yang is too embarrassed to express himself and he tries not to feel those vulnerable emotions. So let's say Yin gets REALLY pissed at Yang one day (hopefully over something much less dumb than what started their fight in canon) and she gives in to using her anger for her aura instead, and Yang does the same, even though his anger is normally performative and light-hearted. The two of them genuinely set out to hurt each other in some way, which is what flares up their worst traits—traits they're directly channeling into physical Woo Foo energy.

Their auras reject them because of their misuse of their emotions to fuel the power, and instead they clash and combine. The sheer power creates a new being made of both of their worst qualities, topped off with hatred for each of those qualities and their good ones as well, because well, they were feeling some level of hatred for each other in those moments.

He calls himself Yuck because he is full of self-loathing and awful contradictions, and because the parts of Yin and Yang that love one another despite their differences did not get transferred to him. Yin and Yang are left without the ability to feel any negative hateful emotions. Maybe sadness? But not anger. Not the desire to harm.

I also just realized that yeah, I'd make Yuck nonbinary because he was made from a boy and girl who perform their genders in such AGGRESSIVELY normative ways, but I could buy that he uses he/him because nobody in this family knows what nonbinary is and Yuck isn't really concerned with it, but he still finds that he's completely being perceived either way. He doesn't care about his pronouns, etc.

He's also not really in a position to figure out what identity makes him feel right? Because again, he's just made out of awful traits. He's ashamed of ALL his interests and all his circumstances (and Yin and Yang's circumstances), so he lashes out any time someone tries to be nice and understanding towards him. He's disgusted by Yin and Yang's sugary sweet kindness. He's driven to violent rage when someone so much as steps in his way. He snaps at people when they seem to "have a tone" or look at him grumpily or don't respond to him quickly enough. He perceives every action someone takes in the worst possible light. He's miserable.

Master Yo is alarmed at what Yin and Yang did, and especially that it resulted in a new living person being made. He decides that it would be the most humane to split him back up and send his traits back to the twins, because they're incomplete without being able to work through them naturally, and Yuck is a being created purely to hate and hurt. However, Yuck doesn't want to die, of course. So he attacks.

Master Yo can easily kick his ass tbh. There's no reason little level 2 Yuck should be able to beat a Woo Foo master. But maybe Yuck has hostages. He doesn't attack Master Yo directly, he keeps him away by threatening others. Yin and Yang have to come up behind him and try to take him by surprise, and then they have to "kill" him to his face when their surprise attack fails. It pains them both to do this, but they have to be whole again.

After the fight, they're back to their normal selves and Yuck is gone, and they still feel like they just did something cruel....

[the-galactic-catt]

off anon this time!!! but,,, more specifics,,,,,, what do you think their relationship was like during the roman empire? did greece live in the same house or did he stay on the east? i have like a billion ideas about this, but i would like to hear yours first

HOLY FUCK HERE WE GO

OKAY OKAY SO- first of all, i don't like a lot of things about canon, especially greece's depiction, so many of these will contradict canon material. don't like that ? that's cool, but i can't do anything about it, just scroll

okay, on we go:

i actually headcanon that they've had already established a relationship before the roman empire, aka when ancient greece colonised south italy, aka magna graecia.

ages in hetalia work really weird so i decided to throw it all out the window for this: before the roman empire decided to take veneziano and romano in, romano lived with greece and his mother and they were both young. not as young as they are depicted when they are chibis, but not teenagers either. think: 10-12 years old.

the relationship was somewhat friendship, somewhat acquaintances. not bad, but not close either. they just kinda co-existed and hang out sometimes (i have art ideas for those, just you wait).

ancient greece took care of the both of them as well as her other colonies but she definitely favoured her son the most. it was clear that she didn't view the others as her children but rather just much younger roommates. she wasn't distant, she cared for them, she just didn't care on the same level as her son. that definitely didn't fuck with romano's head yep nuh-uh, completely free from any mental instabilities that would come later in life (cough).

now, roman empire ? yeah, they didn't get to see each other much, which made them feel very odd. they weren't that close but they did have an understanding of each other and a bond that they didn't have with anyone else.

when romano tried connecting with veneziano and the roman empire not only was he met with yet another adult having favourites but it also just didn't feel the same. unfamiliar. lonely ?

greece took it about the same, except instead of feeling a disconnect with his family, he felt a disconnect with the activities that used to bring him joy. almost as if something was missing that used to make them fun. or mayhaps someone ?

when the roman empire colonised greece, it was basically ancient greece taking her on-and-off flirting with the roman empire to the next level and moving in with him. not really a romantic or sexual relationship, just constant yearning and basically a game to see who will eventually yield/give up. both greece and romano found it incredibly gross and they liked to complain about it when they weren't around.

romano and greece reconnected for the amount of time they had left, before the spanish, french and ottomans came along. i'm not sure how to put it into words, but imagine finally meeting up with an old friend. it's awkward at first because you haven't talked in centuries, but it slowly mends and by the end it's as if you were never separeted in the first place. and yes, the friendship grew stronger too, much to romano's persistent denial (again, more art ideas~).

(one way they would bond even before the roman empire was by teaching each other their cultures. one image i have in my head that i would love to draw soon is of greece showing romano how to make and decorate clay pottery. it will probably be a mini comic, cause i need to feed myself somehow)

when they separated again, it was more sad for the both of them and they took it worse than before, because this time they had an actual friendship and not just a weird "i think he's cool but idk what we are so i'll just wait and see if he considers us friends or not" from the both of them.

the rest of the headcanons i can either communicate only through art, which will take a while, or they take place in the more modern times.

if you see any typos, no you didn't (it's 3 am, give me a break). thank you so much for the ask, i hope you are satisfied with these ! i can't wait to hear about yours !!

[ask-codeearasure]

The UTMV fandom has an ableism problem and you probably noticed this before, as it's very prevalent in fanworks with Ink. It's canon that Ink is neurodivergent in some way, most speculated to have AuDHD or one of the two, and sometimes he is also headcanoned to have Antisocial Personality Disorder and/or Dissociative Amnesia on behalf of his compulsive antisocial behaviors, a couple of his internalized beliefs towards societal systems, constant lapses in memory, and the fact they have no recollection at all of their true origins.

But not many people actually do shit with this aside from making him a villain that truly cares for no one and nothing aside from his own devices or they make him the butt of a joke on the side of his friends (mainly Swap and Dream) getting unreasonably irritated with them based on the behaviors caused by their unmedicated symptoms.

The latter is the part that pisses me off more, and this is a trope common throughout American media too, where the character with weird but harmless behaviors and just can't sit still or pay attention to things that don't interest them are often put on the line to suffer socially at the hands of their peers.

Dream and Swap being ableist and having no patience in particular is completely fucking ridiculous, because Dream has PTSD and the personality of an actual saint while Swap is often headcanoned to have AuDHD as well. They have quite a few overlapping symptoms and experiences, but if they can't understand Ink's issues, they can still accommodate for them. They can still have boundless patience and support. They wouldn't make Ink feel like a burden because of his symptoms. It's almost like that's something actual friends would do for each other. And legit the one time one of Ink's friends did break off personal ties with him, it was on account of personal beliefs about the quality of life of the people around them, NOT his neurodivergence, which is a perfectly reasonable stance for Dream to have. This doesn't make Ink a bad person either. I doubt Dream would have departed on a note like that anyway.

I despise it the most when his memory issues are the source of contempt on behalf of his friends. I imagine it stresses him out sometimes that he forgets such prevalent information easily and frequently to the point the notes on his scarf aren't always going to work.

Having Dream make targeted fucking sighs whenever that happens isn't going to help, you're just making him look like an asshole when it is part of his very character to avoid that as much as possible, and flipping that same behavior onto Swap isn't ending in any favors either. Ink is supposed to be the resident asshole of their little trio, and most of the time they aren't even intending to be one. It's just one of the viable outcomes that are once again dependent on their symptoms and sometimes the beliefs contradicting with Dream's own. But sometimes Ink is intentionally an asshole, and that's an outcome based purely on circumstance and what they want to do.

In no manner is Ink the perfect disordered character, as there is no such thing, but I think it's an actual problem when people think it's funny to mock neurodivergence and pass him and other characters like him off as "incompetent" or an "embarrassment" to the characters who are supposed to love and value him because he can't do all the things everyone else can and/or because he functions on a different wavelength.

It not only passes the notion that this behavior is acceptable, but that it's expected for other neurodivergent people to be just as "annoying", "incompetent", and "embarrassing" for things they cannot fucking control.

This probably isn't an unpopular opinion, but it disappoints me that attitudes like the one I presented aren't talked about more.

-- Sarco

Anyways, i want you guys to give me your unpopular opinion about Ink (it's for science)

[sixstepsaway]

What I dont get is like. The people who think Izzy Deserves Worse... first off no he doesn't by any actions->punishment scale that isn't insane even for a grimmdark pirate genre this show isn't. Second why would you think it isn't extremely rude to tell people who like Izzy this??

Like I hated Calico Jack nearly every second he was on screen. He annoys me. It's not even that he's evil or whatever I just find the Jack Ass genre he's from bordering on a squick. (Also this is one connection to Ed's old life that is DEMONSTRABLY WITH NARRATIVE INTENT both a huge dick that lives for senseless violence and a manipulative bastard. Somehow the hate for him is less virulent lol) And I don't think even he Deserves to get his toe cut off and fed to him for killing Karl??? (In fact I hope he's alive and comes back to cause trouble bc hating him and seeing Stede hate him is fun in small doses) But even if I wanted to see him tortured horribly and dead I still wouldn't post that on his tag or go up to people who like him to tell them this in detail and they're horrible for liking him?????

It's not even that they hate Izzy or want to imagine drawn out torture porn for him that's like. Fine. Write it down and stick that up on ao3 with the correct tags im sure more people are into that. But to act like it's the Moral and Good thing to want this to happen in canon and everyone who disagrees is glorifying abuse and not see the contradictions there is????????? Puritan logic is truly something else. They get to the result first (hating a thing) then work the logic backwards (so the thing is morally impure and you not liking it is a sign of your virtue. Everyone who disagrees is evil) so the result is impossible to budge

(I dont use twitter bc it's a cesspit but Ive had to block so many morons on the Izzy Hands tag here bc they're either fully malicious tagging the hate or cant be trusted to know that if you write his name on the post it'll go to the tag anyway)

Im not even going to send this on anon I dont care lol

(I think the first paragraph of this is referencing the person who said Izzy would get his comeuppance under one of my posts, that I replied to. If so, I want to clarify that they didn't actually mean it that way, and came back to explain as such. It was just a matter of miswording.)

People who come into Izzy Enjoyers' askboxes to bitch that he's The Worst baffle me. The first time I received an abusive ask about him I had simply mentioned him in passing on a Blackbonnet post (along with Jim and Lucius and at least one other). The second time was the same thing. It was clear that I liked him, else I wouldn't have included him, but I wasn't feral about him yet. It was only once I told the anon how wrong they were and deep-dived on Izzy's actual characterization in the show that I realized how much I loved him and how much he really didn't deserve all the shit he gets.

Then again, the anons I got after that post, one of them told me they hoped I got shanked for liking him, and I thought that was downright hilarious because they were wishing a pretty nasty death on me and meanwhile Izzy's (who they said was abusive and terrible) worst crime was he tried to get Stede mercifully executed. It was just very funny to me. They were acting like their perception of Izzy, which they deemed made me immoral because I like him. Makes me wonder what that says about them.

I think if the toe scene had been in Black Sails, it likely would have been a sexual assault (see: my comments on the framing of that scene) rather than the toe thing, which although wasn't contextually played for laughs, it was somewhat used as a... muppety, over the top thing that Ed comments on having done in the past? Because it's over the top and vaguely cartoonish, it becomes a lot less dire than what something like Black Sails would have done, and more fitting of the show. But even on something like Black Sails, what Izzy did receiving a punishment like that would have been something that-- Well, a bad guy did. Someone who our protagonists were actively fighting against. (I do respect OFMD for being willing to push Edward down that morality scale, with the faith to bring him back up, actually)

Calico Jack fit a purpose but he really was deeply irritating, and it wasn't helped at all by the fact I love Black Sails' Calico Jack, who is, and I have said this before, the only Black Sails character who could flounce into OFMD and fit right in, right along with his stupid little sunglasses and mullet.

And no, Calico Jack definitely doesn't deserve his toe cut off and fed to him for killing Karl (which was definitely deliberate. He did that on purpose. Whether he did it to push the crew to turn against Ed or whether he did it because he just enjoyed it, well, idk either way, but it was deliberate through and through).

I HOPE JACK IS ALIVE TOO ACTUALLY!! I want to see him and Izzy interact. More than that, I want to see him come back on board and Ed forgives him because eh, he forgave Izzy so he has to forgive Jack really, doesn't he, and it's all water under the bridge now isn't it, so you just end up with Ed going full jack-ass again with Jack, and Izzy and Stede off to the side, bonding against their will over how much they hate Jack.

I can just see it in my head, you know?

Stede: mm, i wonder Izzy: What Stede: What? oh, i didnt know you were there. no, i was just talking to myself. last time jack was here he said his last two crews mutinied and tied him to an anchor and threw him overboard, and i was just wondering-- Izzy: If it was true? Oh I guarantee it was bloody true. Fucking git, I can't stand him. Stede: ... Izzy: ... Stede: ... actually Izzy: ? Stede: I was actually wondering if our anchor could be spared for a night Izzy: I'll fetch the rope, you distract Edward

Plus, Stede being jealous of Jack is adorable and I love it, and him and Izzy recognizing jealousy in each other over it being pointed at someone else rather than each other? Nice.

But even if I wanted to see him tortured horribly and dead I still wouldn't post that on his tag or go up to people who like him to tell them this in detail and they're horrible for liking him?????

Right? It's so fucking weird they're like this!!!

It's not even that they hate Izzy or want to imagine drawn out torture porn for him that's like. Fine. Write it down and stick that up on ao3 with the correct tags im sure more people are into that.

Oh, no no no, they can't do that. That would be wrong. Hurting a fictional character is the same as hurting a real person. Unlike spewing venom and death wishes into their inbox!

But to act like it's the Moral and Good thing to want this to happen in canon and everyone who disagrees is glorifying abuse and not see the contradictions there is????????? Puritan logic is truly something else.

YESSSSSSS. Oh yes. And it's weird to see people so vehemently arguing that something like the toe scene could ever be moral and good?? It's weird. And they act like Izzy is abusive for yelling at Ed a bit, but Ed isn't abusive for cutting his damn toe off without his consent!!

They get to the result first (hating a thing) then work the logic backwards (so the thing is morally impure and you not liking it is a sign of your virtue. Everyone who disagrees is evil) so the result is impossible to budge

This is precisely it, yeah. Idk if you saw this post but a nonnie asked why people try to say Izzy is so manipulative and I boiled it down to: if Izzy is Bad and Manipulative, Ed is free to be an uwu soft baby who has never done anything wrong himself, it's all been Izzy.

I think it probably just starts with people seeing the fact that a lot of us love Ed and Izzy's chemistry (and Izzy and Stede's!) and would love to see more of that chemistry, and thusly want to explore or write about it, or root for more to come of it in canon (look, I would love to see Ed and Izzy have a furious make out scene, okay? give me that, show, please. even if it was a flashback or something) and they feel threatened and afraid that this ship that they don't like might win out over their main ship.

I think a chunk of that fear comes from how accessible the writers are now? Back in Ye Olde Days if you wanted to tell David Jenkins how much you love Izzy, you'd have to write a letter or an email or something, and send that off as fanmail, and his secretary would probably read it, or his intern or whatever, and that intern or the studio execs or whatever would eventually be like, "You know, the fans really respond well to Izzy. It seems like having more Izzy and Con would be good for ratings."

But nowadays, I can go onto Twitter, @ david Jenkins and start yelling about how much I love Izzy and Blackhands, and there's a pretty good chance he'll read it. Con spends half his life yelling at tories and the other half of his life retweeting spicy Izzy art, a lot of which includes Blackhands or Steddyhands or even Gentlehands. It's very clear that the cast and crew and thusly also the writers are being exposed to this ship and its shippers, and I think that terrifies the kind of people who feel that those ships threaten their OTP's canonity. (Is that a word? Canonness? Canananananofnsnks)

(I dont use twitter bc it's a cesspit but Ive had to block so many morons on the Izzy Hands tag here bc they're either fully malicious tagging the hate or cant be trusted to know that if you write his name on the post it'll go to the tag anyway)

I use Twitter and it really is a cesspit. What's funny though is on Twitter I've never been yelled at or sent abusive asks for daring to like a character, unlike here on Tumblr where I have received many, yet I feel much safer and more comfortable on Tumblr than I ever did on Twitter. Go figure.

Im not even going to send this on anon I dont care lol

tbh the izzy haters seem more intent on yelling at izzy-likers and izzy-neutrals that mention izzy in passing than yelling at izzy lovers like you and I

it's truly a weird thing

[moa-broke-me]

So... It's been a while. I've finally finished the mane 6, like actually finished them this time, and I want you to see them in full! I also want to walk y'all through the process and the differences made between the roughies and these ones.

First up, we have Fluttershy!

After revising a tiny bit, I decided to get her hair back to a warmer pink, like how it is in the actual show, and lightened it up a little bit. I even gave her eyelashes a raspberry color to match the darkest part of her hair, which is something you'll find I do for everyone here because it's a nice touch.

I gave her blush and a few moles too, 5 to be exact (can you spot them all?) but aside from that, nothing's really changed much with Fluttershy.

Now I don't like to get into this too much, but my alter does (But the parasites in me want the candy)

-she's trans <3

-she's disabled (broken wing that never healed right, technically she can fly but it's very painful and she can't go far without needing to rest)

-she also has misophonia

-she's very passionate about biodiversity and ecosystem management and... Hate's a strong word, so she uses it very rarely. But she uses it for lawns. That, and abusers, are the ONLY exception to the 'never say hate' rule.

-speaking of which, and this may contradict canon because I've only watched up to season 4, but I don't care because I'm taking more of a Mariolore-esque approach to this anyway, but she doesn't have any family featured in the show from what I remember. So I'm gonna say her dad abused her for her femininity. He wanted her to be more rough and tumble, more aggressive, like the other boys. she was picked on at school too, her main nickname was 'chicken' because of her disability... Caused by her father. So she left. And that's why she lives alone. Also why she doesn't raise her voice, because she was yelled at as a child.

-she's a homesteader, so she's able to live off of what she grows in her garden for the most part. She saves a lot of money like this, and by living in a house that's actually abandoned and doesn't technically belong to her. So no bills to pay!

-her actual job is working retail at Rarity's boutique, the whole animal rehab thing is something she does as a volunteer because she doesn't want a profit motive to spoil her intentions. This of course means she's subjected to a fair bit of verbal and sexual harassment, but Rarity's a good boss, she treats her well and kicks out the customers who give her shit.

Next one, Pinkie Pie!

I gave her way more charms. Like... WAY more. If you'll notice, that lollipop is actually the same as Rainbow's old eyes, I just couldn't let those beautiful swirls go to waste! I worked so hard on the ice cream one, y'all wouldn't BELIEVE- anyway.

Pink eyelashes to match her hair, blue and pink gradient eyes instead of the blue from the show, and that I gave her originally, because I really wanted to give more characters unnaturally colored eyes. I even added these little bubbles to her eyes in the colors on her cutie mark because I still didn't feel like it was extra enough. I got the rainbow sprinkle freckles too, these aren't natural by the way, they're drawn on. I added both face paint and stickers, and I honestly can't believe I used to think my first design was extra. Looking back in it, it looks somehow... Plain? Like. Compared to this one at least.

Anyway, fun fact section because I guess I'm doing this now.

-She's pansexual and pangender<3

-Plus size too <3

-Cupcake and Carrot Cake are basically parents to her, she left her family's mine (no it's not a rock farm, you can't farm rocks, call it what it is. It's a mine.) without much, and was totally lost with nothing but her calling to guide her. In this society, you're an adult the minute you get your cutie mark, so it's not like she was expecting anyone to take her in. But they did, taught her all they know, and she's happier than she's ever been

-Her cartoon powers are actually because despite not being a unicorn, she was born able to wield magic, due to some unicorn ancestor. She's the only one in her family with this ability, and in fact, the only one in her entire community. Now, the town she grew up in was never named in the show from what I remember, so I'm giving it one; Roughshod*

*In case you didn't know, Roughshod is an actual word. You may recognize it from the idiom 'running (alternatively, riding) roughshod', which basically means 'to act without regard for others' feelings, opinions, personhood, wellbeing, or even safety.' It came from the practice of 'roughshodding' a horse's shoes, meaning to have the nails sticking out a bit in order to get a better grip on rough terrain. This made getting trampled by a roughshodden horse especially painful and injurious, hence the idiom. I thought it suited the bleak and conformist atmosphere of her hometown very well, and honestly, with how abundant rocks apparently are there, a lot of them probably did roughshod their shoes so they wouldn't slip and fall. it has a Watsonian AND Doylist explanation, so that's why I went with it. Also it just sounds appropriate from a phonological perspective. Anyway, done ranting about Roughshod… For now.

-She actually met Rarity through the cake couple commissioning custom aprons for their employees, and they've been besties ever since

-Autism and ADHD, most of these characters have either one or the other, in fact autism is actually very normalized in this universe as, well, most of the time, your special interest is literally MAGICALLY TATTOOED on your BUTT

Ok, Rarity next!

There really wasn't anything to change with her, except adding more jewelry, nixing the gold scrunchie in favor of just more locs holding her hair up so it looks more like a bun than a ponytail because looking back, the old design definitely looks like a ponytail. I DID change the eyelash color and undercut color just to make more sense with her design. I also shifted the blue streak to more of a mint green, since I know there's a possibility I'll be doing the other three princesses later and I don't want her to look too much like Luna color-scheme-wise. Also redid the iridescent finish on her horn because I didn't like the way i did it the first time.

Fun facts!

-She's mixed afro-arabic <3 Grew up hijabi, but isn't anymore. Her mom still is though

-Parents split, mom moved to whatever the hell equivalent of the UK is in this universe, I'm calling it the HA (Horseshoe Archipelago) for now, if anyone's got a better name, or knows if there's a canon UK equivalent, comment! But anyway, that's why she has the accent when literally nobody else does.

-Lipstick Lesbian

Ok, next we have Rainbow Dash!

I made some tweaks to the face shape, added bobby pins, switched her hair up a little bit, and even gave her new eyes! It thought the rainbow swirl was too much, and I was going to give her the magenta eyes she had in the show, but I wanted to deviate more since this was supposed to be, y'know... A redesign. Inspired by those old 3D glasses and chromatic aberration, I gave her these ones, which if you'll notice, have this transparent outline of cyan and red, and are themselves a gradient of cyan and red, but with magenta as the mother color, in order for the middle to look less gray.

Other than that, I just reshaped the bridge piercing and switched the white fields in the checkerboard bandage to magenta.

Fun facts about her, this is more fun than I thought.

-Butch, genderqueer lesbian

-She's had top surgery, she didn't like her boobs much and they were getting in the way

-Grew up with a single mom, named Slap Dash, because I thought it'd be funny. She was broke coming up, though, and pegasus culture is very hyper-individualistic and machismo, placing value on physical prowess and aggression more than anything else, so relying on others or being vulnerable is highly frowned upon. Meaning they were basically on their own.

-ADHD

Next up, we have Applejack!

I'd say, out of everyone else, she's gone through the least changes. Really, she just needed just a more desaturated color palette and a bow for the ribbon. I know it's sacrelige to leave her without her little hat, but I mean... The illustration's so big already.

Anyway, gave her better freckles too. So, fun fact time!

-She's aroace!

-She's dyslexic

-Not much else to say for her honestly, nothing that isn't canonical, like in the show... But yeah!

Ok, final one: Twilight Sparkle!

No previous designs to compare her too, so let's just go over my thought process while designing her;

I wanted to make her look chunky and blocky, so lots of straight lines. in fact, the only round shapes are her eye, and her barrette. But her barrette isn't actually hers, it's Luna's. Celestia gave it to her back when Luna was still banished, as a gesture of affection.

Fun facts!

-She's also plus sized!

-She's Desi

-Bisexual

-Autistic

That's... Kind of all I have for now, if you'd like I can do their families/siblings, the other princesses, or even like a 'what's in their bag' series?

Hey so... Literal YEARS after leaving the mlp fandom, as in, long before I even had tumblr, I've recently uh... Gotten back in, a little bit?

It's all @meepmoopmaap's fault, he made a FANTASTIC infection AU, it's on AO3. Actually no, it's also my alter's fault (don't @ me ok I get that most ppl use headmate but alter is just more natural for me) since he's a fictive from the show and has been VERY active recently, but I digress. Point is, I kind of wanted to... How do I say this?

I wanted to make them centaurs, thought it could be cool to add a human skin tone for the top half and then their old ones, also add some necessity for clothes.

I also just wanted to redesign them overall.

So, obviously, we HAD to do Flutters first, and I thought this was gonna suck but it didn't and I'm actually kind of proud of it?

This is just the head and hair, and a pretty rough draft too, but here.

So, I wanted to give her a big nose, because big noses are cute, so I did. The strands in her face are since she's, y'know. Shy. I worked VERY hard to ensure there were as few straight lines or sharp corners in the design as possible, because I wanted it to be gentle and soft-looking. I even gave her beaded lashes to help with this, and they kind of look like teardrops which is oddly appropriate?

About the eye color, I... I completely ditched the teal eyes in her original design, in favor of olive green ones. I was planning on giving her more pops of olive green, but since this was just a profile head shot, I couldn't do much.

The teal eyes always bothered me, even when I was a kid, since I felt that it shifted her color scheme too much in the 'pastel primaries' direction occupied by Pinkie Pie which, if y'all like, we can do next. Also just the fact that half the cast had blue eyes really bothered me for some reason?

anyway. The olive green seems to suit her more anyway, and I've shifted the hair more to purple... Which may have been a mistake?

Anyway. Suggestions welcome, just keep it friendly. I have a block button and I'm not afraid to use it!

[supernaturalnovelsandmore]

Supernatural Novel: The Unholy Cause

Welcome to my review of the fifth Supernatural novel, The Unholy Cause

Author: Joe Schreiber

Timeline: Set after Episode 5.08 Changing Channels but before Episode 5.16 Dark Side of the Moon

Location: Mission's Ridge, Georgia

Synopsis: As the pressure mounts for the upcoming apocalypse, Sam and Dean head to the historic town of Mission's Ridge, GA, where the Civil War is less about the past and more about the present. With interference from Castiel, demons, and Judas Iscariot himself, how can Sam and Dean prevent a major catastrophe from befalling this small town?

Review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Warning: Spoilers abound!

After the last book, I was really hoping to see an improvement in this one, and boy did I! I've finally hit the Supernatural tie-in novel I was hoping to read from the beginning! It read like an actual episode, I could hear the actors speaking through the character's words, and I really couldn't find anything that contradicted canon.

In addition, the actual storyline was compelling and the side characters interesting. With the other novels I've reviewed, it's taken me most of the day to read them because I kept getting distracted. This one, I read straight through without stopping. I love reading a book like that!

Side note: This novel does dive in to Christian theology and the story of Judas Iscariot (who betrayed Jesus). If you are uncomfortable delving into that portion of Christianity, you may not want to read the book or this review (though my review notes about that will be minimal).

Now, since I don't have any canon vs. non-canon comparisons to make, today's review is simply going to be a list of my favorite scenes and how certain scenes relate to what's going on during this period in Season 5.

Cameo!

Sam and Dean are informed of the case by one Rufus Turner! He's only in it for a brief bit, but he's still funny as heck asking the police to pay his dry-cleaning bill.

We get a nice character introduction of enigmatic (clueless) Castiel who's trying to heal Civil War reenactors who are understandably frightened of him. He's still searching for God at this point, but we also get this nice character beat for him:

"I walked the battlefields of the South a hundred and sixty years ago," Castiel replied, a faraway look entering his eyes. "I moved among the men and brought their souls to glory. And now..." Something moved over his face for just an instant, so rare and brief that Dean almost didn't catch it; a flicker of hope. "And now," he repeated, "I'm healing again."

Of course, Dean has to explain that none of the reenactors actually need healing and he goes back to being determined to find a 'First-order witness' - someone who broke bread with Jesus Christ.

I found this part surprising within the book, but as I thought about it, it made more sense. The TV series has to tread a very careful line with Christianity so as not to offend a bunch of viewers, but the books have a much smaller audience and can take these liberties. Personally, I was fine with it. They didn't go too deep and stuck with the witness being Judas (who doesn't exactly have a great reputation to begin with).

There's a fantastic brotherly moment where Sam shares the sheriff's name (Jack Daniels) and they then go back and forth trying to guess what this Jack person is like i.e., fat vs. skinny, bald vs. hairy...

Dean: "Nam vet. Buford Pussar type. From Walking Tall." Sam: "Deliverance refugee. Civil citations all over his desk."

One of things I love about this book is the brother's relationship. This banter and other character beats really feel authentic as opposed to the prior novels. (I won't spoil what the sheriff is actually like - needless to say, they play a major role in the book.)

Just a few pages later from this great banter, we're back to the drama as Sam and Dean argue about a nightmare Sam had that he can't remember, but which could be relevant to the case.

"What's this about Dean?" Sam demanded, "Is it about you not trusting me? Because if it is, there's not a whole lot of places we can go from there." "Yeah, you're my brother," Dean said. "But you're also Lucifer's prom dress, and if he's seeding your dreams with hints about the master plan, then maybe it might be a good idea for you to look at 'em as close as possible. That's all I'm saying."

And of course, Dean gets concerned about Sam as they split up to cover more ground. It's music to my ears! There are a number of other conversations like this that really emphasize the strained relationship Sam and Dean display in Season 5.

Another surprising character beat is the influence of Lucifer on Sam because as he's doing research at the local historical society, Sam (and the historian) are surprised to find out he can read Coptic, an ancient Egyptian language. It startles Sam and once again emphasizes how different he is.

At a particularly gruesome crime scene (a mass grave), there's a brief moment with Dean that really shines as he looks down on the skeletons in the mass grave and finds a similarity to what he did in Hell:

Because that was what he did after spending years down there, doing what he'd done... Through sheer force of will, Dean shoved those notions aside...Now more than ever he didn't want that experience contaminating the way he looked at the world... not that he had a choice. Hell had been his Vietnam. It had stamped its mark on him for all eternity, and no amount of denial or self-imposed ignorance was going to change that.

There's an additional moment of traumatized Dean that I wish they could have shown in the tv series:

Sam: "Are those bloodhounds?" Dean didn't answer... When Sam finally caught a look at his brother's face, he saw that Dean's cheeks and forehead had gone absolutely white, as if every drop of blood had been sucked away... "They're not hellhounds, Dean, they're just dogs..." Dean didn't answer. He was still listening to the barking and howling noises coming closer, crashing through the undergrowth. He seemed paralyzed by the sounds.

There are more to these Dean passages, (too much to copy), but I really like that we see actual effects of past experiences.

There's also a nice scene with Sam and a young teenager that really highlights his ability to connect with kids around that age (of which we see later in the TV series):

"My brother and I grew up without a Mom, too," Sam said... "It wasn't always easy... Not everybody gets that." "I still dream about her sometimes, you know? Even though I was young when she... when it happened," Nate blinked at Sam. "Weird, huh?" "Are they good dreams?" "Yeah." "Then it's good. That's your way of remembering her."

The last third of the book is very action-oriented and has multiple instances of hurt Sam and hurt Dean, with the requisite caring from each brother.

Once again, I've gone on too long, but I'll end with a couple of favorites: Humor:

The sheriff glanced out the window, (referring to Baby) "And haul that piece of crap car to the impound lot. I don't want it cluttering up my street." "Woah!" Dean snapped, a sudden rush of anger rising in his face. "Watch your damn mouth. You can't just---"

Drama:

"This is blood money," Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out the Shekel. "Bobby says the only way anybody gets their hand on this..." The rest of the sentence was getting stuck in his chest, and he made himself finish it, "is by betraying someone you love." Dean stared at him. "Dean..." "Look," Dean broke in. "Don't get too hung up on it, okay? It doesn't necessarily mean anything," he stood up and brushed off his jeans. "Whatever happens between us, we'll deal with it then..."

Thanks again for reading! I'll be back again next week with War of the Sons!

[meandmyechoes]

ACIKVWZ for the ask meme!

A - Ships that you currently like a lot.

I'll have to say Ahsoka and Rex. For years I've been shoving them under the carpet for fear of entrapping myself in a romantic lens. But with all the life experience both on and offline, I'm much more comfortable to continue celebrating the trust and teamwork between them as the ideal sibling relationship.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Nothing came quickly because never quite care about ships anyway. Hmmm… I'll give you the standard scandalous answer:

I have an anti-rex*oka manifesto deep in my drafts that will never grace the public eye. (*deletes the 500-word disclaimer*)

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

No. My tumblr experience has always been an entertaining, educational one.

I'm accustomed to being a one-girl fandom anyway. Since young, pretty much all stories I like are lesser-known irl. I'm the strict-canon analyst type so I wasn’t extensive in reaching out. Therefore luckily, all the people I do meet, are rays of sunshine.

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

Artemis Fowl. He is a *spoiler* villain redemption arc and I find myself fall for this trope that I'd otherwise opt out in a villain-centric story. The Arctic Incident did such a good job revealing his vulnerability at the same time retaining that cold calculation of genius. As soon as he sees the potential to be good again, I'm rooting for his second chance. It was a true satisfaction seeing that to fruition. His friendship with Holly is so good, it's just ah.

Y'all might bet I'll say Ahsoka for this but frankly hers isn't one predictable and I don't feel, to be rooting for her character arc to go a certain way. Because I see her past a character, I see her as a person, and no matter which path she chooses, I will (blindly) support her. (also her story hasn't ended yet) So I don't feel that way to a question worded as above.

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Anakin Skywalker. The gifted kid burnout always hit me hard across fandoms, but only until this year, when I hit 23 and realize we’re the exact same age, it hit all me all at once this new wave of admiration for him. I relate to him in his struggle to express emotions and candidness in his interpersonal relationships, that earned cockiness, the self-doubt and egotism, and most importantly our inability to let go of Ahsoka. He is a contradiction and so am I.

I’ll need to give an honourable mention to Hino Eiji. Having a tragedy that defined you, questioning and revolutionizing the whole basis of your lifestyle and beliefs, but still striving to do the most within your capability is kind of how I slowly try to pull myself back after a rough coming-of-age. He is not the favourite character that I’m attracted to because they represent Perfection™ and a glass ceiling, but because they shared all my flaws and showed me it’s possible to choose a brighter future.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

This is the last answer I penned down, because I just forget whatever I don’t like in canon anyway. 

I’m not sure if it’s a narrative trope or just a bad trend, but it’s never a good idea to tear down childhood heroes just to be ‘edgy’. Well this is obviously about the sequels, but personally I take more offense at the mess of Ryuki Rider Time.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related.

It amazes me that my post-fandom self is going to surpass in percentage of lifetime my pre-fandom self one day. And I couldn't be more grateful for all the joy, and enlightenment of such devotion reveals.

"Being a fan doesn't mean you were there from the beginning, it means you are willing to be there until the end."

Send me Fandom Asks :3

[enderwalking]

Whats up its tsubasa anon, bsck to ruin your day!

I see your "fai was never able to learn healing magic" and I raise you: fai was told as a child that his greatest crime was that he wasn't willing to die, that he wasn't willing to let his brother die. How the death of an entire world was blamed on that decision.

Do you think about fai, desperate to trade his life for his brother's? Do you think about fai, unable to bear his magic being the source of any more violence (unwilling to let syaoran, soul or no soul, contain that violence, to wield it), asking to die? Do you think about him giving up on reviving his brother for the chance to protect these people he was never supposed to care about, that he was supposed to kill when the time came?

Do you think about kurogane, no family left in the world, no context for the centuries of hurt built up in fai, seeing this as fai giving up on them? Kurogane who learned love from his parents as guardians of a country, who didn't stop fighting until they were forced to by death?

Do you think about these two men, so intensely products of the hurt children they once were? One unable to tolerate the others desire to die, one unable to forgive the other for forcing him to live?

Hey what do you think the c!emeraldduo equivalent of "Good morning, kurogane" would be?

see this for me is where the comparisons begin to fall apart a bit because while this is all true of fai and i Am extremely fucked up about it thank you very much trc anon you're the WORST, cphil's flaws have never particularly been about self-destruction or sacrifice imo? he's always been quite conscious of survival, and while i don't think he would ever hesitate in throwing himself on the blade for the sake of his loved ones, i don't think he would ever seek it so desperately the way fai does, even in his worst moments. cphil's flaws, at least to me, are instead about like. this contradiction between responsibility and separation? responsibility because he has to be the one to fix things, to see things through, to teach the lesson and repair the damage, but separation because he also has to exist Apart from people, whether that's because of his regrets over the pain he's caused them, or because he believes the best way to respect them is to give them distance, or just because of the ever-present knowledge that everyone he knows and loves he will one day lose.

in this au, where he's been conditioned to believe that his mere presence in people's lives has the power to doom them, i think that tendency toward separation becomes even more pronounced. he exists among the group and will do what he can to help because he has a job to do, a responsibility to fulfill, but he Will Not push, he will back off at the slightest show of resistance, even if he knows that he should interfere he just. can't. because what if he just makes things worse?

and like. in canon, c!emeralds have years and years of camraderie and shared experience and understanding backing their relationship, but in this situation where they don't have any of that and all ctechno knows is that he Has to fight for everything until his dying breath (because ctechno in any universe is all about loyalty and duty) whereas this guy backs off the second things get hard? yeah, kurogane's vicious callouts of fai's flaws would definitely still exist, even if the flaws in question are different.

in this scenario, the thing that causes the acid tokyo fallout would probably not be ctechno forcing cphil to stay alive, but instead putting him in a situation where he is forced to take action against his will, and in doing so cphil's fears are proven right; something goes wrong, someone fails to be saved, and once again it's all his fault.

also, this is completely derailing but you did get me thinking: cphil does not have fai's flaw of self-sacrifice, but um well do you ever think about "keep the discs i've done enough with my life" or like uhhhh

[occupyvenus]

i REALLY don't understand the kind of audience who don't realize jon is a hostage right now. they took his boat and his weapons, but d/ny said he wasn't a prisoner so i guess he could just swim to shore and walk unarmed back to the north if he wanted to no big! and then there's the folks who think kneeling is the same thing as making an alliance like literally i don't understand how the big speech about perpetuity could have gone so far over their head like the stakes are high dudes

This will kinda cover a huge portion of my up-coming “Targ!Bowl vs Targ!Cest” - post, but who cares since you asked and I wanna talk about.

Though I absolutely understand you and your frustration I kinda do understand why some parts of the audience don’t realize all that, or at least not the severity of it. 

I’m not even talking exclusively about the shippers who, to like anything from 50 -99%, don’t care what happens as long as their ships becomes canon, or the stans who will find a way to sugarcoat and excuse absolutely anything, anything I tell you, before admitting their fav has done some seriously terrible things or, dear god, “problematic” traits and storylines. 

It also seems plausible to me that some parts of the more general, non-obsessive, “I don’t read the books” or “have a blog about it” kind of audience, have trouble to really grasp these issues. You wanna know why? D&D are half-assing it. Right now they are half-assing two narratives, instead of whole-assing one.

I propose the following theory: 

Right now D&D are setting the stage for dark!Dany, while simultaneously selling her as Jon’s love-interest this season. Those two narratives are pretty much forced to hold the other one back, because Jon can’t fall for “ the villain”, while Dany can’t break bad out of the blue.  

Leaving us with this incoherent mess, slightly ooc characters and actions that don’t influence the story in a “logical” way or even contradict each other.

Dany’s “transformation”, if you will, has to be properly foreshadowed, it has to be sufficiently hinted at from the moment she touches westerosi soil. The audience has to be able to look back and think “Oohh… I guess what she said there wasn’t alright. Should have seen that”. But she also has to appear loveable enough to warrant any kind of affection Jon displays towards her. The audience’s reaction once dany does break bad should be “But why did Jon!? Well, I guess I didn’t think she was that bad back then neither.”

There you have it. That’s why her behaviour seems so appaling to some people, while others are still strong advocates for good!Dany and everyone in between doesn’t know what the fuck to think. That’s why you can make a strong case for both, or more precisely for neither.

This is apparent when you look at the fact that every “negative” characteristic she portrays is counter-attacked with one of two things: 

Someone else making a comment, implying the exact opposite.

The narrative conveniently jumping to a new plot point, reducing the immediate emotional impact of what we just saw.

Here are some examples:

Varys interrupting their dispute at it’s climax | Their first meeting didn’t go particularly smooth. They did not see eye to eye, they were not moving towards an understanding. Quite on the contrary, their interaction become more antagonist with every line of dialogue. It’s starts with both of them playing nice (in their own way), moves to Dany saying that Jon is breaking faith, Jon telling her that he doesn’t give a fuck about her birthright and ends with Dany outright accusing Jon of being in open rebellion (!!!). Where do you think that conversation was heading at? An intimate conversation about dead brothers? Dany has made her stance on Northern Independence clear, she see’s it as treason, I swear to all the gods, if Varys hadn’t walked in right then and there she would have explained what exactly the punishment for treason and oath breaking is. Try making a romance out of that. But conveniently enough Varys did come in at the perfect moment, dissolving all the tension into nothing, ending the scene on a half-baked Jon is her prisoner-but-not-really note.

Tyrion telling Jon about Slaver’s Bay | I don’t know if you had noticed, but Dany left her undeniably good accomplishment of abolishing slavery out of her little speech. She exclusively focused on awful things that have happened to her and the two big achievements that make her so god-darn special: Bringing dragons back into this world and making the Dothraki cross the Narrow Sea. All her statements were about her, not about the good she has or could do in this world. I strongly believe this is to imply that her conquest is deep down rooted in selfish desires. Contrasting Jon, who embraces his role as king to protect and save his people. So of course, we need another character to swoop in and remind us of the good things she has done. Too make it more clear: Dany says that “faith in herself kept her going”, Tyrion reminds Jon that “she protects people from monsters”. 

Jon is a prisoner, but hey, he gets dragonglass | Jon was a “prisoner” prisoner for exactly five seconds, when he - rightfully - complained about it to Tyrion. It is establish that Jon wants to leave, but simply can’t, because Dany took his ship, thus making him her prisoner. If D&D had some balls they could have pursued this narrative, but instead wooossshhhhh we are jumping ahead to Jon being allowed to mine dragonglass. Now it doesn’t matter whether Jon is staying on dragonstone by his own free will or not. He needs that dragonglass, so of course he will stay to mine it. The audience was forced to contemplate Danys decision to lock him up for like a minute, before rendering the conflict obsolete. Begging the question why it was necessary to begin with, if not to show Dany doing some un-nice things to one of our protagonists.

Varys and the whole “burn someone alive” issue | This isn’t limited to her interactions with Jon. I am going to talk about Dany threatening to burn Varys alive, very much, very soon. Right now, all I want to say is that it is not a good omen. It’s one of the clearest indication so far that Dany will embrace her “inner dragon” and cause some serious destruction when doing so. Dragons plant no trees. But all the not-so-great undertones of her interaction with Varys are forgotten in the next scene when she embraces Melisandre with open arms saying “we decided to pardon all those who served the wrong king.” Sucking all the dark implications of threatening someone to BURN HIM ALIVE right out of the audience’s mind. Emphasizing that part where she pardons former “traitors”. If that scene would have cut away from Dany right after “her promise”, without reminding ous of her “forgiving” side, that little comment would have left a way more bitter taste in your mouth than it did. 

I don’t wanna spoil anything from episode 4, (next paragraph contains very minor spoilers!)let’s just say that Dany demanding that Jon bends the knee, is met with another character stating that “Dany was chosen by her people”. Supposedly trying to establish a parallel that doesn’t hold any water in her current situation in westeros, anyway. But again, it is taking the sentiment expressed by Danys actions and words (a chosen king should kneel to her, whom his people didn’t choose) and twists it to paint Dany in a better light (she too was chosen by her people). It doesn’t make any sense when you think about it, but it fabricates enough emotional connections, for the audience to soften their view on Danys opinion on northern independence. 

Do you see what I mean? I have a couple other examples, but some of them are from episode 4 and I’m going to go into this in my upcoming post anyway. The unobservant and/or biased show watcher simply has no time to properly process all this in one go. I’ve watched each episodes several times, am pretty obsessed with this whole thing and even I took some time before noticing a pattern. 

Most people will just stick to that component of the narrative which is coherent with what they already know: that Dany is one of the good guys, a hero of this story. All her questionable actions are either dismissed or boiled down to “well, it turned out okay in the end”. As sloppy as the individual narratives seem to be (neither dark!Dany, nor, let’s call her hero!Dany are well developed, they overlap, contradict each other, etc.), they did a fantastic job at keeping the audience in the dark about it. Why? 

Because for one reason or another she has to fuck Jon. Why that is, can only really be judged once we seen the whole of season 7, probably season 8, but I do have a couple of ideas why:

It happens in the books and D&D shouldn’t have cut the episode count. Maybe Jon and Dany hook up and/or develop feelings for each other before she breaks bad in the books as well. But since we only have 10 episodes where that could happen and dark!Dany and targ!bowl also has to happen at one point, those two storylines overlap. It isn’t too far-fetched that something will happen in the books as well, since Jon unknowingly committing “incest”, while being tormented about falsely-assumed incest is just too … fucked up, not to have crossed grrm’s mind.

It’s a red herring to throw the audience of Targ!bowl and Jonsa. Yes, I do belong to the people who are pretty very much certain that Jonsa will be endgame. I also belong to the people who are pretty very much certain that targ!bowl will happen one way or another. Believe me or not, I believed that Jon and Dany would rather fight than fuck once she comes to westeros, way before I ever thought about Jon and Sansa being a thing. So it’s not because I’m a salty shipper. So what else do I have to say? It’s a red herring, they are throwing us off the rails, to make Jonsa and Targ!Bowl extra-super-duper-surprising in season 8. And probably a bit rushed as well. Great. Just what I wanted. At least Jonsa was properly set up in season 6 and they mention each other every episode. Coincidence?

They want to have a sex-scene with Kit and Emilia. D&D are trash. They have sexualized countless other encounters on the show, single-handedly coined the term “sexposition”, I do believe they could write in a Jon x Dany sex-story just because. You can call that fanservice if you like. I’m not going to stop you. 

Maybe they thought Jon and Dany having “a history” would make targ!bowl more engaging. Could be.

Either way, I personally feel a bit exhausted by this decision. Not because it “threatens” my ship, it doesn’t imo and not because I’m so opposed to the idea of Jon and Dany hooking up or even having a love-affair. It’s because the screenwriting is sloppy. It’s because they are messing up Danys characterization and maybe Jon’s as well. It’s because both Dany and Jon contradict themselves and the development of their relationship simply suffers by Dany being set on the path to the dark side, without any character on screen noticing it (at least yet. I have this feeling that Tyrion will seriously start to doubt all this very soon.) 

I know this got way too long again, but giving unwanted, unnecessarily long answers is my forte after all. 

I’m still holding my fingers crossed for Jonny playing Dany, all I can do is wait and pray. Let’s see how the rest of the season / series progresses, but for now I’m going to leave you with some wisdom from Ron Swanson, D&D should have taken to heart IMO: