#i don't think there was a canon conformation that he was the one to call her that but it checks out with his usual behavior

[thewisewill80sbyers]

One thing I don't agree with is the idea that "Mike was pushing away Will" because that never happened in canon, the only moment in which you can think that is with the half hug at the airport, but then we find out it's because he was feeling jealous, awkward and upset that Will didn't reach out so it wasn't really him trying to keep Will away, it was more that he thought Will didn't want to be near him... we also find out he was trying to call Will, and immediately after they spend a few minutes together Mike is following him around, fighting with him because he feels like Will is annoyed at him and doesn't want to be there with them, and also after they go back home he's spending all his time with him, apologizing to him and asking him to be best friends and then being attached the whole season even with the very last shot when those idiots are even BREATHING in sync................................ he's a simp

And in season 3 he wasn't doing that either, because even spending most of his time with El he went multiple times out with Will and the others to watch movies so he was trying, and then when he was preoccupied with his fixation on El because she dumped him he still saw that Will was upset by him being an ass about DND and IMMEDIATELY starts apologizing, going after him and at the end of the season he wants to make sure nothing will change between them (even if he can't stop it)

None of what Mike did can be defined as purposefully pushing away Will IMO at most you can say that what he was trying to do was conforming to being "the boyfriend" and lost himself in doing that by focusing on looking mature and cool for El's attention... ( which is also what Mike himself said to him when he apologized " I was focusing too much on El and I feel like I lost you " )

but to me it's pretty clear he also wanted Will to remain near at the same time, the problem is that he can't handle both of them and can't find a way to keep them both when he's dating El because he loses who HE is when he's dating her + Will is jealous and suffering (thing that El will be immune from when Mike starts dating Will btw, because Will loves Mike and El doesn't)

And the problem was also that Will wants the REAL Mike, so he's upset whenever Mike is losing himself, not counting the pure jealousy factor, what upsets Will the most is when Mike is not showing his real self because he feels ashamed of being a nerd or feels like he has to "grow up" and change if he is in a romantic relationship etc.

That's also why Will is so good for Mike, he is like his compass to not lose himself, like a lighthouse in the ocean that's bringing him home, and a mirror that's showing him his true reflection. Mike in return makes him feel brave and capable of fighting, which Will always wants to be because he's usually considered as fragile by the other people around him after what happened to him... They need each other in that way, they make each other the best version of themselves.

Anyway, I think it's more Will trying to keep his distance from Mike by not calling him when he was in Lenora because he was upset that Mike didn't send him letters like he did for El... But it was all just miscommunication and in reality the last thing they want to do is be distant from each other, I don't feel like any of them really pushes the other away, Mike just has problems balancing both El and Will, and Will has problems not feeling the enormous jealousy and heartbreak because his love for Mike is not something that can be contained easily ❤️

[cutetanuki-chan]

John: hey guys, here's my first companion, my bodyguard. her name is Alecto

Mercy: Alecto

John: no, not like that >:c

[shizucheese]

Hey guys, we need to talk. Because a certain little something in TMAGP 8 is causing what is genuinely the most toxic part of the Magpod fandom at large to once again rear its ugly head. So let's talk about podcast character appearance head canons, shall we?

I'm tagging this with the Magnus Archives, TMA and Magpod tags because I am absolutely calling all of you out, but if you don't want spoilers for The Magnus Protocol episode 8 then stop reading right now.

.

.

. Okay, so, Gerry exists in the TMAGP universe. He's happy (or at least acts cheerful). And some people have headcanoned this to mean that he is no longer goth, or at the very least isn't dying his hair black with bad box color. And other people have decided to get seriously agro over this. I have literally seen with my very own eyeballs someone call "un-gothing" Gerry a "hate crime" and calling the person they were talking to "gothphobic."

Let me make this absolutely clear for all of you: podcasts are a purely audio medium and unless a physical trait of theirs is explicitely stated, everyone's headcanon for how a character appears is valid. Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid. But also

Rainbow Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid. Pastel Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid.

Not Goth At All TMAGP Gerry is valid.

Bald Gerry who has actually gotten his brain cancer diagnosed in time and is getting treated for it is valid. Somebody's headcanon of a character that has no canonical description to them, or whose headcanon matches the few crumbs of canonical description we have but otherwise doesn't look the way you imagine them to, is not going to take away from your own headcanon of what a character looks like. If someone imagining or drawing a character looking a different way from how you imagine them looking somehow takes away from your enjoyment of the fandom or otherwise makes you feel like you need to barge in and tell them that they're Wrong and need to conform to your headcanon or else, that is a reflection on you, not them.

And this problem way predates TMAGP, let alone TMAGP 8. The only description we have of John is that he is in his early 30's and has prematurely greying hair.

If someone thinks he looks like the pastiest motherfucker to ever dwell in a basement, an extra-in-the-Adam's Family or Tim Burtan protagonist of a man, let them.

What's that? You want to tell them that John is BROWN and if they don't headcanon him looking that way they're WRONG and RACIST? Back away from the keyboard and go outside.

(Ironically, as someone who started getting grey hairs in my hair in my 20's myself, I'm pretty sure everyone's headcanon of John, with tiny little whisps of grey in his hair, is wrong, because if he was so grey that people were surprised to learn he was "a child of the 90's," he was probably full on salt-and-pepper when he was in his 20's.)

The only description we have for Martin is that he (man who canonically has the self esteem of a used doormat) describes himself as "not the smallest guy", Not-Sasha called him "roomy", Melanie is skinner than him, and Jonny said he imagined him as a "bigger guy" who would beat Alex in a physical fight. If someone decides to take this information and conclude that it means he's tall, broad and has muscle, rather than that he's overweight, fucking let them. If your first instinct to this is to run to your keyboard and call them "fatphobic" or otherwise bash them for it, I once again urge you to back away from your keyboard and go outside.

Someone headcanons Basira not wearing a headscarf? We have exactly 0 canonical physical description of her and the people who headcanon her as having one are basing that purely off of her name alone. Fucking let them. Someone headcanons Melanie and/ or Georgie as a skin color you don't agree with or a hairstyle you don't like? Fucking let them. As long as someone's headcanon of a character's description doesn't contradict the few canonical descriptions we have of a character, why do you care? Them having a different headcanon from you doesn't take away your right to imagine the characters looking however you like, anymore than it should take away their right to do the same. Someone headcanoning John as white (or Black, or Asian, or Mixed, or whatever) isn't going to make all of the fanart of John as brown with long hair suddenly disappear, nor the fanfiction describing him as such (although I do often wonder if the opposite is not true; is the fact that John looks the same in so much of the fanart I see on here really because of fandom "consensus", or is it because people are absolutely awful to anyone who draws him Different?). Someone headcanoning Martin as not fat isn't going to make the mountains of fanart of him as a fluffy little marshmallow vanish into the void (although I do remember hearing about someone getting bullied off the internet for daring to draw Martin as not fat). And someone headcanoning Gerry in TMAGP as not being goth isn't going to take away your preciouse goth TMAGP Gerry headcanon. That should be part of the fun of it, shouldn't it? Seeing what different images people have conjured in their heads of these characters we only get to experience with our ears, and celebrating the differences as well as the similarities? Why are we bullying people into conforming to one appearance of a character when no actual canonical appearance of them exists?

[heliianth]

Hi, I saw your repost of @i-heart-hxh and wanted to ask you a question of why you consider the zoldycks patriarchal in nature. Someone here pointed out that while the ones with the most authority in the family are indeed men (silva, zeno, killua who is a boy who is the heir, etc.) they aren't explicitly sexist in nature because means they would hate any sort of non gender conformity. They allow kalluto to dress in feminine clothing, illumi to have his pseudo sexual alliances with hisoka, and the alluka misgendering seems to come more out of fear of her then explicit transphobia (still not okay though, obviously). Of course, this is assuming that gender norms are the same in hxh verse/Japan (I think the wiki says that japanese boys used to dress like kalluto did?) or that the zoldycks are just androcentric but not necessarily sexist/homophobic. Sorry for the wordy post, just wanted to see your pov.

Hi thanks for asking !!!!

I'm not sure how organized this will be because I have a lot of thoughts. First I want to talk about how Kikyo is treated.

Here we can hear Kikyo's thoughts on it herself—"No one ever asks me first!" The context is that Zeno is releasing Killua from his cell, and she's lamenting that he just does it without her permission. This is of course because Zeno ranks above her. But the way she says it—"ever"—implies this is a reoccurring problem, that her views or opinions (maybe just on parenting, maybe in general) are frequently dismissed or minimized.

There is also the case that Milluki is deliberately made a mama's boy in order to make his character more comical, or to degrade him in the eyes of the audience.

This attitude toward Kikyo seems pretty pervasive to me as well. The butlers don't seem to think too highly of her—I showed this panel ^ in my response. At the very least, Tsubone doesn't seem to be fond and considers her lesser than Silva or Zeno, probably in regards to composure and conduct.

This exchange also colors my perception of Kikyo's place in the family. Viz translates it a little differently than the 2011 anime, which I watched first. I went back to grab the raws for it and double check, as is responsible when there's a translation discrepancy like that.

This is how Viz translates it:

Now in the 2011 anime, Silva is a lot more vulgar—or harsh, I suppose—to Kikyo. I recall he tells her to shut her trap, or to stop whining, or something similar. That is actually the more accurate translation.

This is the extracted raw text:

Silva: しばらく好きにさせとけよ Kikyo: だめよ何言ってるの (next bubble ->) キルが立派な後継者になれるかどうか今が一番大切な時期なのよ Silva: わかってるじゃねーか (next bubble ->) じゃあつべこべ言わず黙ってろ

It's the final bubble which conveys that vulgarity.

DeepL's translation gives: "Then shut the fuck up and keep your mouth shut," and when both speech bubbles are conjoined, it gives "You know what I'm talking about, so why don't you shut the fuck up?"

QuillBot's results are pretty similar: "You get it, so stop whining and just be quiet."

What a way to speak to your wife, huh? Killua's little mental chart in the Election Arc shows that he seems to think they love each other, but Killua is also an unreliable narrator when it comes to his family's dynamics. In fact, Killua himself also reflects this attitude—he's very dismissive of her. He openly threatens Kikyo on multiple occasions and calls her annoying, etc. He also canonically has behavioral problems around older women who hold authority over him. This is probably learned behavior, mirroring the way other people treat his mother. It just sort of adds to the idea that she's not very well respected.

Now, maybe this is just because Kikyo married in. Maybe if Silva had a sister or something, she would be treated better. All we can do is speculate on that, but everything with Kikyo is canon.

When it comes to the issue of gender nonconformity, it's way more vague and up in the air. I think I see it differently than many people. We don't know much about Kalluto, but he's introduced as joined at the hip with Kikyo, and Killua seems to think they love each other. Though as we've established, he's not the best source.

However, he is practically the only source just because we see so little of Kalluto.

My interpretation is that Kikyo dresses up Kalluto in clothes she likes herself, or at least heavily influences his style, because they are so close. It may be because Kikyo has such little respect, that she clings onto Kalluto, her youngest. If that wasn't the case, Kalluto might dress differently.

I went to search the HxH fandom wiki for something similar to what you said and found this in the trivia section: "The furisode was born in the mid-1500s as a garment for both male and female children of middle- and upper-class families. Only around the 20th century did it become a strictly feminine type of kimono, although gender differences existed before that. Therefore, Kalluto's choice of clothing could be in keeping with his mother's tastes since she was introduced wearing a very outdated (by real-world standards) bustle gown. / How the obi (sash) is worn can depend on the wearer's sex where wearing around waist is done by males, while wearing underneath the breasts is done by females."

There's no citation so I did a cursory google search, and this information seems to come from the wikipedia page on the furisode, which elaborates: "According to one 17th century text, boys could wear furisode until their 18th year, or until they went through their coming-of-age ceremony, which usually occurred in late adolescence. Girls were supposed to cease wearing the furisode upon marriage, or upon reaching their 20th year.[4] Initially, furisode did not differ noticeably between the sexes, but fabric designs started to become more gendered in the 19th century.[5] In the 20th century, furisode became restricted to women and girls only, as part of the increasing gender-specificity of children's clothing that developed in the wake of Western influence.[6]".

So in the case of the Zoldyck family, I do believe that Kalluto's is moreso a case of tradition, rather than gender nonconformity. But that's not to say this is the only interpretation. I think it's reasonable to conclude Kalluto dresses like that himself, considering he continues to do so once joining the Phantom Troupe. Again, all we can do is speculate.

I admit my conclusions on Illumi are similar, we just don't have enough information. Based off what I know and can remember, I'm not even sure if the Zoldycks are aware he's technically engaged to Hisoka, though I could definitely be wrong (because Hisoka hired him, right?). I also fail to see how their relationship would be a problem before that engagement—I never got homoromantic vibes between them beforehand. I know people do ship them. It just goes over my head I suppose.

As it pertains to Alluka, it's very hard to say whether Nanika is the cause for their transphobia because Nanika is effectively the vehicle that creates an allegory for transness in the first place. We can't exactly ask, "If Alluka didn't have Nanika but was still trans, would the Zoldycks accept her?" because, again, Nanika is the way the Togashi has decided to deal with these themes. Nanika is the transness and within the allegory, the Zoldycks (minus Killua) are transphobes. It's also worth it to point out that Illumi uses 「弟おとうと 」 (otouto—younger brother) when referring to Alluka, which doesn't seem to me to be a result of fear the way the English pronoun "it" might be. More info on gendered terms in reference to Alluka in this google doc.

Finally, the values of the Zoldyck family in of themselves are sexist. They clearly value physical strength, obedience, and disparage empathy/compassion. Killua is considered "weak-minded" "moody" or "erratic" (depending on your translation of 「でも暗殺者としては失格だよムラッ気があってさ 」) for his kindness and rejection of his hierarchical power in favor of his desire for connection.

These are not inherently female traits and I'm not trying to say they are, but within sexist society, they are perceived as feminine, meaning women are devalued and men are ridiculed for displaying them. Women in the Zoldyck family are given respect and power in regards to their proximity to traditional masculinity—strength, loyalty, maybe whether they are blood-related to the current head of House—and obedience to the family. In my eyes there's clearly a misogyny problem here.

I do believe that if a woman happened to be the strongest of the Zoldycks, she would be head of House. I've previously said in a genderbend scenario with Killua as a cis girl, I believe she'd still be heir. But I also believe she'd have more familial expectations in regards to dress and conduct—not too masculine because that's queer, but not too feminine or else that's weak. Maybe patriarchal was too strong of a word because it implies there's some rule that the male father is always on top, regardless of strength. But you see what I'm saying, right?

Hopefully this clarifies my stance :3

[dee3312t]

Why Sasuke's Physical Beauty Matters

Thinking about this again, Sasuke’s characterization is super interesting to me, especially how he’s physically characterized with his beauty.

Firstly, I think his extra stylized, iconic “duck butt” hair is integral to his character. It’s spiky and edgy, meant to be rebellious. He’s the ultimate revolution. Even Naruto and Itachi had pretty normal hair! But in Boruto, Sasuke's hair looks plain and flat (neutral terms--not a diss to other people with this hairstyle). The edges are completely gone--matching his newfound conformity and detachment.

And further, why is he canonically attractive and what does it mean? I think the army of Sasuke admirers Kishimoto depicts throughout OG Naruto and Shippuden adds to his characterization as the anomaly—the one who goes against the grain. He questions the chunin exams and analyzes why and how they take place. He challenges the status quo in Konoha. Kishimoto actually keeps up with this motif whereas he seems to forget about other motifs (ahem, the Hyuga clan curse).

Sasuke's beauty also emphasizes his determination and focus. He could have had anyone he wanted but remained disinterested even as an emotional teenage boy. Kishimoto even has Sasuke call it out when Kakashi brings up Sakura’s feelings, with Sasuke literally saying, “I don’t see why I should love her and why she should love me.” (Now, I will add an important caveat that in an ideal world, I don’t think he’ll stay this disinterested forever, because Sasuke too deserves love and healing once he’s ready for it and grows up more. People don't stay stagnant, and trauma deserves to be healed).

Sasuke is fiercely single-minded and driven, and is a character that acts as a foil to the protags, the main narrative, and Kishimoto furthers these motifs through Sasuke's physical characterizations.

[nqueso-lies]

https://www.tumblr.com/nquesoxlies/780567152604463104/let-people-be-upset-about-their-favorite?source=share

tbh there's also something a loooot of ppl need to learn calling "setting realistic expectations." i personally wouldn't want eddie back without an on-screen conversation between him and CHRIS about what CHRIS wants, otherwise his entire plot in texas would feel kinda moot with a throwaway "yeah chris is fine with coming back to LA :)" since this plot was big enough for eddie to drop everything to go finally make things right with his son. i didn't expect for him to show up for the two-parter. meanwhile, everyone i saw who was momentarily disappointed bc no tommy was like "ah well, we know we're almost definitely getting him next episode bc of leaks" and went on to enjoy the episode as a whole

its genuinely fine to go "aw no eddie? :(" its Not fine to review bomb an episode and repeatedly bitch about the director not putting ur favorite man in the episode when it makes 0 sense for him to come back so quickly and without showing us that he IS still working on being a better dad to chris. hell, go write fanfic about it where eddie IS back instead of review bombing!!! that's probably a way more fun use of time than review bombing!!!

honestly, these fans make me dislike eddie more and more ngl which isn't even the actor or the writers faults at all. if he leaves the show then it's not going to impact me that much unless his ending is fully unsatisfying, and that'll be more of a "cmon, writers, you knew this was where this was going, do better." i have never watched the show only for eddie like these people have. came into the show expecting to love madney + henren and ended up very emotionally invested in bathena while enjoying buck and eddie as well. i'm on the same page as a lot of ppl who have been here longer than i have been: we love the entire show rather than just eddie. honestly, i think half of these people don't even like buck. i already know most of them don't give a shit about the rest of the show from insulting ravi over him distracting buck with tommy to turning josh into the "number 1 b*ddie cheerleader" to ignoring henren unless they can use them as a "gotcha!!! you don't actually care about queer rep!!!" like.

@ BoBs: do YOU? because every time there's queer rep that threatens ur fanon ship, u actively get homophobic about it down to, what, 600? of you PROUDLY admitting you would commit a hate crime to make your stupid ship canon--including both real men and fictional characters like josh and tommy in your "i'd hate crime for them teehee!" bullshit.

idk queso its just wild to me how often i also see the "eddie diaz pretty pretty princess who wants to paint his nails!!!" like. painting ur nails isnt gendered, the fuck? BoBs see anyone gender non-conforming and goes "wow, inherent sign of queerness, i am very smart :)" while feeding directly into toxic masculinity with the idea that if you don't adhere strictly to what's deemed masculine, then clearly you're queer. even if you say you're straight and know you're attracted to women and only women, you're gay because you (checks notes) have emotions and cry over your friends and did ballroom dancing when you were younger.

anyway if im being petty then i kinda hope that eddie leaves to focus fully on chris and making a life for the two of them in el paso and ravi takes his place on the team so that we get indian rep permanently on the show for a bit! i think he could bring some new life into the team (regardless of whether the show goes on for one season or more) and it'd be nice to see buck in a mentor position to him. plus i'd love to see his dynamic with the rest of the team <3 i am still available to play his love interest who is there for a single episode before being relegated to one-off mentions <3 /hj

Yes to alllllll of this, Annie!!!

What's ironic to me, based on something you mentioned, is the nail painting. They want sooooo hard for RG to actually be gay yet an actor who does paint his nails (for self-harm reasons) they call a slur and tell him to die.

Like???? Wtf are we doing???

(I know your ask is about the characters but that shit will always rub me the wrong way about Ryan stans)

[jackoshadows]

"... best you have a new face as well.” He cupped her chin, turned her head this way and that, nodded. “A pretty one this time, I think. As pretty as your own." - Arya, ADwD

A recap and a lesson for fandom newbies -

We have this CANON ACCURATE fanart of Arya Stark from the incredibly talented Tonyloom with the long face, brown hair and grey eyes dressed for feast time at Winterfell as the daughter of the Warden of the North.

A Sansa fan gets triggered by this Arya fanart because it's different from ones that Sansa stans usually like for their 'Stark sisters' fanart - where Arya is drawn dark skinned to highlight Sansa's fair complexion because Sansa is beautiful and Arya is ugly, where Arya is missing teeth, always a sword in hand, messy hair being braided by Sansa to conform to what Sansa likes etc. - and goes on an insane rant about how Arya fans don't want Arya to be ugly because of equating goodness to beauty....

So Arya fans respond to this attack on the fan artist and point to the book text where several characters call Arya pretty and beautiful and ask why they should consider the character ugly when she is not in the text of the books.

A BNF then jumps into the discourse and reblogs the 'Arya is ugly and Arya fans have internalized misogyny' post and pretends that Arya fans are the ones starting this whole discourse on Arya's looks.

BNF tags it as 'This is weird discourse, who cares if Arya is pretty'. Who cares if Arya is pretty? The weird, racist Sansa stan that you reblogged the post from, who got triggered by some Arya fan art and had to go on an entire rant, that's who. Who cares? Well you cared enough to reblog an 'Arya is ugly' post and point fingers at Arya fans, that's who.

And now the BNFs reblog spreads like wildfire amongst the casual fans and we have many who actually think that canon Arya is ugly and Arya fans just have internalized misogyny. This, children, is how the many wrong but popular fanon gets created.

Remember, this BNF had nothing to say about racist Arya fanart. Nothing to say about sexist posts where Arya is masculinized and her femininty stripped from her. Nothing to say about the many posts from Sansa stans/Jonsa shippers about how Jon is repulsed by Arya's ugliness and loves Sansa because she is so beautiful.

But they had to step in and make sure everyone knew that Arya is ugly and it's Arya fans who are the problem.

This is actually nothing new. The reason there is so much wrong misinformation about Arya and Daenerys, and the way this fandom has opinions about these two female characters, is because it's been crafted over decades of fandom BNF's spreading posts and meta like this through BNF blogs like Asoiafuniversity. Explained so well in this post here:

Villainizing Arya fans as 'bad fans' has long been a thing in fandom. Asoiafuniversity, which was the goto place for all things asoiaf in those days, had actual posts equating Arya fans to Walter White fans from Breaking bad who hated on his wife Skylar.

Keep in mind, this is an actual quote from a post on the most popular asoiaf blog when the fandom was very active:

The interesting thing about Arya is that unlike most of the male Bad Fan icons, she doesn’t have a wife to embody her Bad Fans’ frustrations and serve as an outlet for their ire – no Betty Draper, no Skyler White, no Carmela Soprano. Instead, she has a sister, Sansa, who winds up serving the same function. Much of Bad Fandom is a gendered phenomenon, pulling for he-man figures against shrewish wives who just don’t understand them. It’s fascinating to see how the phenomenon can alter itself to accommodate a female-female pairing while still targeting characteristics we typically gender female. The Bad Fan is nothing if not durable.

So much toxic sexism masquerading as feminism, where they equate Arya fans to the chuds who hate female characters and whose unfair target is Sansa because she is 'female'. And Arya is a 'he-man' figure....The mind boggles.

But this was the typical vile sexist garbage Bnfs were spewing about both Arya and Daenerys in the days when fandom was most active and this is where a majority of the sexist opinions about Arya and Dany comes from.

This is why these canonically wrong aspects of these characters are so widespread and entrenched in fandom thought that it doesn't matter if we use actual book quotes to show that it's the exact opposite.

[breadvidence]

4 and 14 for the fandom asks? :3

4. Say something nice about a ship you don't ship (it can be another ship in your fandom, a mutual's OTP, etc)

I really admire how all of Amis fandom and its various combos of young men bumping uglies builds up a call-and-response within itself to flesh out characters that are more or less sketchy within the novel (or very sketchy in the musical). When @megab prompted me for Enjolras/Feuilly, I seriously considered whether properly writing the pairing required reading fic as well as brushing up on their parts of the Brick.

14. The ship that always makes you smile.

Gillenormand/Myriel. I associate it with fandom pals and the Letters server, and it makes my mind goes to my fic idea for them, which is a semi-comedic piece (after his grandfather's death, Marius and Cosette find a collection of his letters that are at turns romantic, erotic, passionate, melancholy—the trace of a love affair with what they presume at first to be a noblewoman; among other things, reading them aloud to each other prompts Marius to grow as he hears the mysterious paramour's gentle remonstration of his grandfather's failures spoken in Cosette's voice resonate with how he fails her, & also sometimes leads them to interrupt themselves to fuck filthy, listen, Myriel writes really well, ok, and also they're a super horny couple canonically; & part of what makes it comedic to me is that I'd make my audience real uncomfortable with Marius also identifying with Myriel's struggle with Gillenormand, this skin-prickling sense of Gillenormand's desire for control and conformance and expression of love as sexualized violence being directed at his child as much as it was towards his lover; one of the jokes is Marius repeatedly criticizing Myriel's inability to keep track of body parts in his erotic letters, really, you'd think there was more than one prick involved; the punchline comes when they read Myriel's final letter and Marius says, puzzled, oh, the handwriting seemed right, but why was this in the stack?, it's signed by a man, & Cosette is like dearest I thought you were joking complaining about the number of pricks).

[doodlepede-doodles]

It has always been my belief that Hornet isn't special because she has a gender, but specifically because she was expected and allowed to have one. She was made to be a Real child, a Real person - the vessels were intended to be blank, and so they are dehumanized and unpersoned, in spite of (and because of) their interiority. That is the tragedy, that each is a person who wasn't allowed to grow up normally.

I bring this up because I remember the fandom being really really really aggressive about what pronouns you used for vessels. Like you would get suicide baited if you called THK "he", you would literally get harassed if your own vessel oc didn't use they/them. It was ridiculous and small-minded. I don't know if the fandom is still like this, but it made things really fucking unfun back in the day, knowing you were going to get attacked if you didn't conform to word-of-god from team cherry and specific lore interpretations.

For a while actually, I've been thinking about writing a fic where THK grapples with their gender as a part of their personhood they can no longer ignore in a post-canon au kind of thing, where they try to separate what thoughts and feelings are left over from PK and the Radiance, and what is truly them on their own (hint: not how being a person works, it is your experiences that make you who you are, there is not some inalienable unblemished core inside of you somewhere, all of you is you) and anyway they realize that they do actually have a gender, and cautious exploration with pronouns is something they're allowed to do. They/them because they are ignoring their gender is not the same as they/them because they are embracing their gender, yknow?

[bfdiredux]

ough itd be cool if there were more queer rep than just like a few characters using they/them !!! i personally like transmasc enby sapphic pin! {so not projecting trust} i think like at first {during like bfdi-bfdia} she tries to conform to the norm and stuff so shes like super sassy, tries yo be super girly, ect. but then since shes been through so much during bfdia, she sorta just,,, stops caring about how she presents,, i think this could happen like around like during the final stretch of bfdia?

then like during idfb shes sorta just. there. only wearing whatever she has, not really caring anymore, then maybe as bfb starts she kinda slips back into old habits, theres these new people she barely knows anything about, and shes been thrown back into competition,,, so she begins to try and present acceptably again.

then as tpot starts, maybe she can realize "hey maybe i dont... need to do. that" and just kinda chill doing what she wants now, sometimes still dressing feminine, coz who can resist those pretty flowy dresses? and sometimes just throwing on whatever she has. but now, shes comfortable not thinking about what others think, and its all for her.

but i dunno im just like projecting what happened to me onto her because. ya,,, but i think more queer rep would definitely be cool coz irl its way more diverse than just a couple enbies in a sea of guys and gals lol

Mmmmm queer characters 😋

The current (& growing) cast of queer characters are:

Price Tag [Biromantic enby; they/them]

Winner [Enby; they/them]

Every algebralien ever- none of them are straight

Loser [Alloromantic transmasc; he/him]

Gaty [Sapphic grayromantic transfem; she/her]

Profily [Enby; they/them]

Pin [Sapphic transmasc enby; she/her] (Thank you!)

-

I don't have many complaints with Pin. I adore her story in BFDIA and her relationships with the other contestants. She makes for a great villain and it's clear that somewhere between BFDIA and IDFB she becomes a better person. I'm leaning into believing that someone's going to call her out and she's going to realize how badly she's been treating others.

My one problem with her is how they handle her disability-- her lack of limbs. She loses them in early BFDIA, has this disability throughout her villain arc, and then gets them back by swapping them out for her pigment before IDFB once her arc is over.

I just. ?? No. That's ???. No

We need more disability rep anyway

Redux!Pin's character proposal:

In BFDI, Pin is rather mean-spirited, but clever and resilient. She's fierce and confident and good at what she does.

This carries over to BFDIA when Woah Bunch forms. However, interacting with Donut and Coiny makes her realize she can have valuable friendships. She's gone from doing challenges for herself to doing challenges for them all.

But FreeSmart is getting on her nerves. They do things that hurt her and her team. They practically make her an inanimate object. She lets her frustrations out-- she's vengeful and vocal.

It accumulates in PointyPointyPointy when FreeSmart steals her music. HER work to progress. They CHEATED their way to the end and Pin WON'T LET THEM WIN.

She is TIRED of the disrespect. She is TIRED of taking it easy. She TRIED being nice and it DIDN'T WORK. She TRIED playing fair and it DIDN'T WORK.

So she won't.

Screw them. She'll do what is right by her and Coiny, even if it means being dirty. She ensures they're put up for elimination and REVELS in it.

Cut to BFDIA 18. Woah Bunch is disbanded by Golf Ball. Coiny says the line:

"May the best player win."

Oh.

She sees how it is.

She sees how it is.

Fine. She doesn't need Coiny. She doesn't need anyone. Screw them all, she'll play and win for herself. She ANTAGONIZES the other contestants.

I don't know how her redemption is going to play out in canon. During IDFB she'll start exploring her identity and reflecting. She's been so focused on the game that she rarely ever thought of who she is and now she has a chance to.

She gets her pigment removed. She's going to start fresh.

She gets it back before BFB, perhaps due to being recovered, and stays red for the game.

She's concerned about what others think, too. Sure, there's other outwardly trans contestants but.. god, she doesn't know.

She's got sass but has become nicer. She genuinely cares about others and supporting them.

I think I have to flesh out more of BFB before I'm certain on what I want to do with her there.

In TPOT 2 she's hard against cheating(or what she sees as cheating) because of her behavior in BFDIA. Two is fine with the glue, so...

Huh. Okay, then.

Coiny and Pin also have that moment in TPOT 2 where Coiny says he enjoyed how BFDIA went and had fun-- Pin argues against that. She's not proud of her actions and the worry of being like that again is still present. It's weighing her down because it never left her side.

She knows on some level that she doesn't need to care about what others think... But it's there, a quiet concern.

In TPOT 2 she'll learn to ignore that again. It doesn't matter.

If so... she can be who she wants to be. That applies to her looks too.

She gets her pigment removed again. It's time to start fresh. It's time to let go of her past actions.

She tries out different decorations throughout TPOT up to her elimination.

Pin will eat anything with paprika. She LOVES paprika.

She's loved collecting tokens since BFDI!

ALSO Pin will not have limbs after she loses them in BFDIA. At all.

[david-talks-sw]

The fact that Dave Filoni called Anakin “the greatest Jedi ever” is proof that he’s bias AF. His anti-Jedi rhetoric is bupkis.

I wonder if he means "the greatest" in terms of in-universe fame...?

Dunno if this is the case in Canon (then again Dave Filoni blatantly ignores any *non-motion* transmedia elements in Canon so meh), but in Legends he's:

"Anakin Skywalker, the Hero with no Fear™, handsome, dashing, the face of the Republic's army during the Clone War, the only Jedi who tried to resist the nefarious Order's coup and was treacherously murdered for it".

And I seem to remember that, in Canon, he's like the Jedi Temple's superstar anyway, every Jedi recognizes him on sight. I mean, that line from Baylon about "Anakin speaking highly of Ahsoka" must have some meaning beyond artificial personal stakes.

So from a fame and a "power level" standpoint... sure.

He's the greatest.

I'm giving Filoni the benefit of the doubt.

While I've talked about why Filoni's entire headcanon about the Jedi doesn't track with what George Lucas' intended narrative, I think it's worth acknowledging that Filoni's bias comes from part of his duties while directing The Clone Wars was.

One of the goals of TCW was humanizing Anakin, expanding upon his character make him go from "a character whose only purposes is to embody the themes presented in three movies based on the matinee serial format" to a relatable person, a good man, the hero Ben mentions to Luke in A New Hope.

I think it's normal that he'll see Anakin in a more positive light.

Also (and full disclosure this is just me theorizing I am no authority on any of this so if turns out I'm wrong just come right out and say so)...

I'm pretty sure that Filoni, Lesley Headland and most of the recent Star Wars authors are all Gen X, raised by baby boomers forced to conform to society, obey authority and have proper decorum (boys don't cry!) all of which they strove to rebel against. Add to that the corruption they witnessed growing up and coming out of high school, and you see a kind of jadedness emerge. "The rules aren't as black and white, the world is grey."

So while most of them and the boomers despised the Prequels upon release, a few of them projected a more individualistic headcanon onto those movies that fit with where their head was, at the time.

As such: Anakin isn't interpreted by them as a cautionary tale about what happens when you're greedy. He's a misunderstood rebel, a non-conformist who has his flaws but is ultimately good at heart. Which isn't entirely inaccurate, but it is very clearly an embellishment of a character who will one day become a space nazi.

The fact is... the Prequels were made by a boomer. One with very liberal values and who was himself a rebel, but a boomer all the same. The whole point of his story is...

"we all must come together and fight as one, if push comes to shove; we must all be compassionate and selfless if we are to survive; don't be greedy, let people go when it's their time to leave".

And then he makes the Jedi say that, making them beacons of truth and good and compassion in his fairy tale, now aimed at Gen Z kids.

Gen X-ers hear/read that and project all the boomer BS they had been told onto the Jedi...

"oh, so the Jedi are saying you shouldn't love yourself, you shouldn't be yourself, you should give up on what makes you an individual to fit in, you shouldn't feel any emotions"

Because nobody is that good, realistically, right?

This happened in other mediums. The one that comes to mind on the spot is the relationship between Mufasa and Scar.

In The Lion King, Mufasa is strong and noble, Scar is weak and conniving. Simple enough. Around that same time, in A Tale of Two Brothers, young Mufasa is shown to be pretty nice with Taka (Scar), who is framed as a spoiled brat to begin with.

Skip to the 2019 remake, and it's hinted Mufasa gave Scar his wound, and in The Lion Guard they explain that Scar got his nickname from Mufasa mocking him for a misadventure.

He went from being a noble king to a bully who had it coming, Scar is an underdog who got picked on. Because again: nobody is that pure, right? Fairytales be-damned.

Nothing is black and white, it's all grey.

So yeah, long story short I do think that Filoni being part of the generation that wasn't the target demographic but was old enough to retcon the crap out of the Prequels also plays a role into his view of Anakin.

[trothplighted]

I don't consider Bellatrix only a victim, and it annoys me how, when I try to explain Bellatrix's behavior and how it came to be with intelligent points, Bellatrix fans flock to me and accuse me of justifying her and making her into a victim, saying things like, 'Let women be evil, they don't all have to be sad and hurt.' But like... Voldemort was sad and hurt too, wasn't he? He hid it behind hatred, sadism, and anger, but he was, no? He was a victim yet he was still the biggest oppressor around. Harry pitied him after all. You can find someone imposing and strong, yet pity them for their pathetic behavior. It’s like they relate to Bellatrix and don't want to be called sad, so they project their fantasies onto her. But like... that's boring and dehumanizing. I'm aware Bellatrix probably didn't think of herself as a victim, she was proud and appeared confident, but there isn’t only one type of victim, the kind that’s sad, cowering, or pitying. There's many other too.

I genuinely don’t understand how people can look at a woman who embodies the “Darth Vader stabs himself nonfatally to win a fight because the thing he hates most is himself” story from Star Wars Tales and decide that she’s not in any pain, that she isn’t suffering. She’s taking that suffering and projecting it outward onto everyone around her, but it exists.

Every villain in HP has some kind of hidden humanity or sympathetic point - I’d go so far as to say even Umbridge does, because you could really do some interesting things with an unconventionally attractive woman who doesn’t physically match the ideal feminine form being nonetheless exceedingly femme and girly and being shut out from participation in “normal” girlhood by her peers because she doesn’t look right or has cringe-inducing uncool interests and who then channels that trauma into relentless pursuit of conformity and sucking up to authority and persecuting everyone who’s more different than she is because it makes her feel superior. Dolores was once a little girl who made the wrong choices about her trauma responses. Bellatrix was too.

As a result I’m with you, I don’t think it’s particularly feminist to say that her overt bigotry and hatred mark her as some kind of gloriously empowered woman, or that her position of power makes her less of a victim of abuse, or that her emotional state must be joy and happiness all the time. And I’m kind of shocked (though not surprised) that the current state of the fandom around her seems to be in such intense denial of her complexity. She (like all the women in this series!) is INTENSELY interesting because she’s not just one thing or one trait and also because she is so obviously unsatisfied and unhappy.

I got accused yesterday of writing a sad girl OC and it made me laugh, because there’s canonical justifications for everything I say about her (and I didn’t even go as far as I could have, about my theories regarding possible sexual abuse and how she responded to that) and because nothing about her is actually happy. She’s trapped in a hell of her own making, and she’s smart and powerful and witty and bold and fiery and fights like a man by throwing her weight around. That’s what I like about her.

[bluecatwriter]

So I watched a tv movie called Bram Stoker's Van Helsing (2021) that's only about the London Lucy segment of the story and… you know how no one (despite Van Helsing's fear) is seething with jealousy over Lucy? well, it's a love triangle now because they wanted to make it more interesting. Arthur and Jack keep headbutting for dominance and Arthur is so jealous that he's the one who throws the garlic away at night, for Jack to not be the one who becomes the hero in Lucy's eyes.

Putting this on the pile of Dracula stuff that includes Arthur, but completely changes him to "fix how boring he is"... (see also Anno Dracula (allies with Dracula, becomes a serial murderer all because the Newman loathed Arthur in the book), The Athena Club series (allies with a demon to become a fascist ruler), Dracula 2006 (huge rich jerk, invites Dracula to fix his syphilis), Dracula 2020 (loves to publicly humiliate Jack, horrible person)

Every day I learn about a new adaptation in which my boy is massacred... :'( Bless you for watching so I don't have to.

Turning the Suitor Squad into a love triangle (square?) is just lazy writing, period. Ohhh, multiple guys are interested in one girl and they're jealous and fight over her?? HOW ORIGINAL. *eye roll* It's such a cliché that there is NO excuse for using it, and triply so when the source material doesn't have it in the first place! Arthur throwing the garlic away because of some male ego thing makes me want to smash a chair through my dining room window.

It's honestly discouraging how little imagination adapters seem to have. All right, adapter guy, so you think Arthur Holmwood is boring... it's not a completely unreasonable statement. But look— look at the actual source material and see what's buried there! Just off the top of my head...

-Being someone who cries so openly and on so many different people is a huge character trait. Show how he's defying Victorian masculine norms by freely expressing emotion (or how he's conforming to the stereotype of Sighing Lover) and do something with that.

-What kind of person travels literally all the way around the world, having tons of wild and wacky adventures, and yet never tells any stories about it? What is his motivation for not trying to impress his girlfriend with tales of running from wolves or crashing a ship in Polynesia? What does this say about the way he experiences life?

-The story is ripe with little hints about how incredibly close he is to both Quincey and Jack. If adapters weren't so homophobic, they could explore all sorts of possibilities there.

-He likes dogs! That's a whole character trait!

-All right, adapter doesn't want to engage with any of that and is set on making him evil? Okay, then, make him evil in a way that fits the source material. Once again, making him jealous of other men or a philandering spoiled lordling are super-cliché. How about thinking about what could make him actually go off the rails? Is he haunted by how obedient he was in killing Lucy, even when he didn't know exactly what was going on? Does he carry a grudge against Van Helsing for making him into a killer? Do we take the text at face value that when he set his mind to it, he was ruthlessly effective in ending Lucy's undead life— does he get addicted to that feeling, does he get righteously caught up in vampire hunting (or just murder) because he can't bear the thought that he could've been wrong?

People making adaptations don't have to follow canon, of course, but it seems reasonable for the decisions to be rooted in canon, for readers/viewers to be able to draw a line from point A to point B. At the very least, there's no excuse to fall back on tiresome tropes.

Thanks for giving me the chance to rant about this. :D

[post-modern-prometheus]

STRANGER THINGS CHARACTERS RANKED BY HOW ANGRY I'D BE IF THEY DIED

from less angry to most

first of all disclaimer: i... like angst. like i'm gonna kind of be giving some hot takes and most of what i'm gonna be doing isn't like "i'll be so sad" it's: narratively that's a stupid move and it diminishes my respect for u as a writer (@ duffers, fic writers do whatever u want)

i'm gonna ignore like. vecna and random villains bc like yeah i'll be happy when u die.

and pls don't bring eddie back, even if my dad would love that. he just likes guitars.

but my first hot take: max mayfield bbg if u don't freaking stay dead i'm gonna lose my MIND. bc i'm still angry they are even hinting at her survival but i've written so much ab this so i'll limit it to: stakes!!! like why does everyone come back!!! it really is cool that they lost and that scene was done SO WELL i was sobbing!!! STOP PLEAASE!!! buuuut i will mention i want her soul whatever to be some guiding force in the upside down and itd be cool n horrific if she "woke up" but it was rlly just the mind flayer and she rlly was gone and they had to kill her!!

murray idc

i'm gonna try not to delve into side characters but i hope ted wheeler is BONES for funsies. like i want the wheelers to be orphaned...

which leads me to karen wheeler my bestie... if anyone has followed me ever u know what she means to me. if we can get the wheeler arc awesome!!! but if she dies, it NEEDS to be as a consequence for not breaking the cycle and staying with ted. PHYSICALLY!!!

steve: im sorry i wouldnt gaf but also we would not hear the FREAKING END OF IT EVERRRR

jonathan: if stancy happens he shld kill himself in front of them changing the trajectories of their lives forever bc wtf. i like him n nancy but also i think if possessed will killed him early on a la jean grey then i would be so happy and be able to say ive called it since like s2. OH AND IVE ALSO ALWAYS SAID THIS JOYCE FOCUSING ON PROTECTING ONE SON SO HARD SHE LOSES THE OTHER <333

do i start the mike paragraph now? bc there are multiple different facets of this take. but i'll keep it simple and i'm happy to elaborate: if he's straight kill him. HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. like give him smth to dooooooo. except u literally won't have earned that so idk but i want smth to happen with him if hes not gay bc he's me and I'LL WANT TO DIE. im actually having a hard time writing ab the possibility of mike being straight bc it's so unfathomable to me LMAO. whatever. i like angst and itd be fun. except i rlly think he's surviving bc of that one leak with hop.

dustin, i also feel like ppl are annoying af ab and infantilize him so let him go thru some shit this is the interdimensional eldritch horrors show.

nancy: i kind of want all the wheelers to die and kind of like be that one family that just. went away. like literally embodiment of forced conformity gone. but as for nancy, i feel like they'd need to write the hell out of it for it to feel right. thats true of anyone tbh.

im kinda in to killing the kids just bc like woo horror show and stakes whatevs but erica is not dying.

robin is like not dying, neither is vickie.

i'd be pissed if hopper died only bc he alr had the fake out death. which SUCK ANYWAY.

if lucas dies im OUT WTF DID HE EVER DO TO ANY OF U

will and honestly it's bc of the fake out death but MORE SO bc it would undermine ALL the stakes of every season bc what do u mean bob died and will still dies. what do u mean hop gave up el for will and he just dies later. lameeeeeee. give the boy some peace.

im putting joyce higher than will and some of u will crucify me for that but tell me u think they would kill her for her own character/narrative/arc reasons and not to further the development of a man (hopper, will, etc). like she STARTED this show.

if el dies i think that would make me more mad than byler not being canon genuinely, FUCK OFF. the idea of her dying started this whole post bc i saw a tiktok of mbb reacting to el's "ending" and i'm HOPING she was just mad bc mlvn is over. PLEASE (like esp if byler is canon bc WDYM SHE WOULD DIE AFTER HER AND HER BF BREAK DIEEEEE)

[sadlittleratboy]

I once said Tomura vaguely had she/they vibes to me on tiktok, back when I had one, and people ate me alive bc I listed his hair as a reason (and also bc I continued forward with using he/him pronouns throughout the video and I'm like...but that's the canon and I'm talking about something theoretical that I don't necessarily have a hard hc of, they/them Dabi is a different story lol) and people were like "thinking femininity is tied to long hair is transphobic and misogynist and blah blah" and it's like no you completely missed my point.

Firstly, I know that, because back when I was a girl and embracing my femininity in ways that I won't now that I identify as more masculine, I had short hair. I always had short hair. Androgynous girls with short hair lead me to the conclusion of being nonbinary.

Secondly it's not about the hair length, it's about the hair STYLE. Every transfem I've ever met started with that style or similar when it grew out. It's cute, it's fun, they're playing with long hair for the first time or even just in a new context.

It's also just about the general vibe. I listed elegance as a reason too, just the way he moves, but nobody considered how he's also so NOT elegant sometimes. It's the type of elegance he has, because there are so many different types. It's also int he way his so expressive. He shows so much on his face, which men tend to do in manga but it just feels different with Shigaraki. Again, I'm going on vibes.

Also being a nonbinary girl suits him because he'd be a total girlfailure, a loser girl, and I love that. Every transfem I knew was also a massive nerd. Most importantly I don't see him performing femininity in a traditional way. He is performing femininity by identifying as feminine and performing. He wouldn't change how he dresses or talks, he would simply realize that his identity isn't quite what he thought and run with it, because that's the kind of person he is. All those masculine codes brash actions like putting his feet up on overhaul's table to show dominance, and using ore, none of those things NEED to change because gender is so complex and that's FUN.

Again. This is mostly off vibes. I know a lot of people that think it/it's or other neopronouns suit him, and I can see that, especially with the way he dehumanizes himself (and with his stinky rat behavior, something a lot of nonbinary people, myself included, identify with), but that element actually makes me personally stray from that hc. Shigaraki dehumanizes himself in a negative way, and I think that's not good for him. Of course an argument can be made for that being the call all trans people have to be vaguely inhuman and monstrous in ways that only we really understand, so I don't think it's a bad hc at all.

I mean honestly he reads trans masc just as much. A lot of the league reads kind of trans because we tend to see ourselves in weird little outcasts. It's just a vibe a get from him. A lot of the she/theys I've met just also kind of have this "fuck gender and expectations, I'm doing my own thing over here".

Also there is of course the constant of Shigaraki chosing how he identifies himself and defying the expectations other people have placed on those identities. He's Shigaraki because he is, not because of AFO. That's his villain name because he connects to it. Despite all that he constantly gets deadnamed too. It's just...the vibes, the ability for anyone to read into anything what they want because their own experiences and it will fit because fiction is flexible (and even when it doesn't, does it matter?).

Anyway, his vibes, his masculine features and mannerisms along with the feminine ones and the feeling of being feminine even without having to conform to it (much like Magne did, and lots of people read her design as transphobic but tiger was literally there performing as a full transitioned man still comfortable with his feminine side, and it's like...all the trans women I know don't bother to shave and wear masculine clothes either occasionally or always even after starting hrt). It's finding a home within yourself as you slot the missing pieces into place and realize you find joy in different pronouns because they better describe you. Every trans person has their own wild ass journey and uses different ways to describe themselves with different things that bother them or don't and I think trans hc are fun for that very reason.

[princelylove]

Good morning/afternoon/evening Dear Prince. I hope you're doing and feeling well and I apologize for my stupidity, here are pretty pink flowers for you 🌸🌷🌺🪷🌺🌷🌸 I'm sorry for being stupid and overbearing and breaking your rules, just delete my previous two letters so I ask for a simple sadistic Kakyoin and masochist Darling.

Please, thank you and have a wonderful day.

I honestly can't recall what this is in reference to, so, sure, forgiven.

'It's punishment time, baby.' always rings in my ears whenever I think about Noriaki's character. You'd think he wouldn't be the type to drop cool one-liners, that's kind of Jotaro's whole deal, but he is. It's embarrassing, too, especially when he chooses to drop them.

There isn't a worse time to be called 'baby' than when you're tied up in the air like meat in a slaughterhouse.

Noriaki is a very traditional sadist, he's very physical, but there's not much he can do to physically overwhelm you, Noriaki has a small-ish frame and a lean silhouette. His canonical height is 178 cm / 5 ft 10 inches, which is tall if you yourself are short, but not in comparison to the giants he calls his friends. It's just not fair, is it? It's difficult to be intimidated by someone slender, usually. He considered himself on the taller side before, but it's just not the same when he isn't broad nor intimidating. Noriaki is pretty, really, and he has no interest in changing his appearance to conform to what you think someone scary looks like. Noriaki understands his weaknesses, but to him, they add to the play. Haven't you heard of the halo effect?

You wouldn't assume he's the type to strap you down and have his way with you. It's kind of exciting, isn't it? To be controlled by someone who cannot physically overpower you? He's quite the opportunist, he takes advantage of people assuming he's not dangerous just because of his body.

Noriaki favors tools, he uses his stand, obviously, but whips, his belt, rods, and anything he think could be amusing to use on you are entirely fair game, really. He's quite experimental- as long as he thinks he can use it for more than an hour, he'll try it. Slow torment calls his name, can you really call it an indulgent session if you're not there until the sun rises?

He's the typical rope bunny's ideal partner, Hierophant Green makes for wonderful rigging on top of the arsenal Noriaki calls 'toys.' He doesn't really like to use his hands to hurt you- it just doesn't do anything for him. He'd rather choke you with Hierophant Green than his own hands, you look lovely with ribbon tied too tightly.

He's more fond of just restricting his darling over something like birching, but honestly, it's all so tempting. If running knives down your pretty skin gets tiring, he'll have fun making your body swing back and forth in the air.

Honestly, Noriaki loves to make his darling uncomfortable first and foremost. He wants his darling to squirm before they'll truly think how badly it hurts, it isn't fun if you don't warm up a little. Don't you know anything about foreplay?