#i love background characters more than main characters

[utaoutauhito]

adding some of op's tags (I have cut them down so I recommend going through the notes on this post to read them in full)

#because i do see this idea that westerners have of women of color who face systemic oppression #who only seem to sympathise with them if their stories and personhood is palatable to a western audience

#there’s a lot to talk about about akio as a brown man who progresses in a eurocentic society (ohtori is in japan ofc but it takes heavy #influence from European culture and of course its a country where akio is a part of the minority in because he’s s brown man #another person pointed out that akio uses underhanded methods and is engaged to a woman of high social standing #in order to raise in ranks and reach his own position) #through the exploitation of a brown woman #and how race isolates akio and anthy with anthy’s bullying and hatred having that racial element—the way she’s dehumanised and slandered

#so utena explores what it’s like to love your abuser and not seeing any life outside of them #but when you consider anthy’s role as a brown woman #it’s taken a step further

#anthy’s not just a victim who loves her abuser. she knows her abuser in a way that others cannot because of their shared experience

#regarding race. other characters hold a privilege that akio and anthy do not so it will even feel a bit absurd for them to comment on #akio’s actions esp in regards to anthy because they don’t have that experience with race. they had privilege where anthy and akio did not #ofc this doesn’t change the fact that akio is an abuser. not just to anthy but to the students in ohtori. he is the main facilitator and #the physical manifestation of patriarchy

I want to add to all of this that generally speaking in Japanese media, female characters will tend to be lighter-skinned than male characters. if you eyedrop two characters from the same series, one male one female, with similar circumstances, backgrounds, personality tropes, etc, almost always the female character will be paler.

so I think the decision to make Akio paler than Anthy in RGU was probably deliberate.

Akio has the benefit over Anthy of being a man, but a dark-skinned man can be viewed as 'dangerous.' The other characters in RGU don't view Akio with suspicion. Being lighter-skinned, being a little less 'foreign' in his appearance relative to Anthy, may give him some access to being viewed more easily by the people around him as non-threatening, desirable, competent. He can be trusted, respected, permitted to marry a woman of the dominant race. This almost-acceptance can lead to the illusion that if he performs patriarchy well enough, if he upholds the system well enough, if he pushes the people below him down far enough, he can leverage the system to his own advantage and he can attain all the power and privileges of a man of the dominant race. (But this is not true--Akio's standing would always be incomplete and tenuous, he will never cease to be 'other,' and it feels as though Anthy understands this more than anyone.)

A lot of people talk about how Utena explores abuse through Anthy, and how she is not a perfect victim, she plays role in perpetuating the system that is built upon her oppression, facilitating her own abuse. But I’ve never seen anyone talk about the role race plays and the implications it has. Utena deconstructs the idea of a perfect victim and what it means to be ‘worthy’ to be saved from abuse and harm, but Anthy’s role as a brown woman who is being abused by a brown man adds a layer to her story and I think it’s extremely important and relevant to discuss

[chaifootsteps]

I find it funny that Viv justified stolas taking over the show completely by saying “he’s important to IMP and Blitzs story” But Viv. Stolas has one, the wjo family of stolas has one, but those four don’t.

That’s just a blatant misunderstanding of how storytelling works. Stolas’ wife gets more story and importance than blitzs ex. In fact blitzs ex becomes a minor supporting character to stolas’ and his development (literally mothering him). Stolas daughter gets the multiple focussed episodes and songs, blitzs daughter gets nothing, only minor support. All of stolas’ feelings get multiple songs. We are never allowed to see blitzs feelings in the matter and when he does discuss them, a conveniently timed angry mob appears to call him a terrible lover who must apologise or die. CLEARLY symbolising stolas as the scorned perfect lover.

Moxxie Millie and Loona serve stolas and defer to him throughout the show. The main conflict and villain of the narrrative is the family of stolas. Season 3 is entirely about his family. The family of blitz only get to debut for a few minutes in the background of a stolas centric episode. Viv clearly wanted to make a show about this precious sad prince and his sad musical adventures of love, but is stuck with the imps story she already started.

This isn’t blitz and imps story it’s stolas’ story, clearly.

Exactly. Stolas's story, relationships, and feelings have consumed so much of the plot that things which actually are important to Blitz and I.M.P. are -- Barbie, Loona's social life, Millie in general -- are sidelined. People joke that it's The Stolas Show because that's all it is now.

[oceanfruitsstuff]

Yapping during my rewatch

Even discussing Mike and Will, whether it’s platonic or romantic, I always think it’s important to recognize their right dynamic in the show. I think at large, most of the audience of stranger things brushes their relationship to the side. Which can be understandable at times, the way Mike and Will interact is very soft and delicate in a plot of chaos. Their conversations—again, platonic or romantic—are extremely intimate. We obviously see this with other characters as well, but with Mike and Will it’s kind of ignored because there’s this overwhelm and “flare” of Mike and El, people believing that Mike is El’s in a sense, so when Will comes in the picture I’ve seen people evoke the emotion of…jealousy maybe? I’m not sure how to word it correctly if I’m being completely honest, and this is all purely my opinion, it’s very possible I’m way off.

What I’m saying, there is a lack of flash when it comes to Will and Mike, their love for eachother as friends, as maybe more, is displayed in quiet understanding, while a lot (not all) of other relationships in the show have this air of bravado. Hoper and Joyce (sometimes not always, but they are dramatic), El and Mike, even friendships like Dustin and Lucas, or the core four. It’s comedic and attention grabbing in the way that it’s somewhat loud or dramatic or funny. Not saying that Will and Mike don’t have their moments, they most definitely do, we all watched the rain scene and the rink-o-mania scene, but there is this heavy weight on those conversations of Mike and Will never quite saying what they want to say or trying to say. It’s not funny, their conversations aren’t necessarily humorous really ever. They obviously have that back and forth together as friends, but when we watch them on screen, even when they’re shoved next to eachother every second of most seasons, it’s subtle. Most love is found in the quiet—without other emotions warping what love truly is. It’s not brash or angry or jealous, it’s soft, kind, and delicate, but most of all, understanding. My opinion of course.

I’m just yapping constantly, so if this is not where your thoughts or beliefs with Will and Mike are, totally fine, not saying I’m completely correct or anything. Anyway, Will is a character somewhat placed in his own genre for the first two seasons of the show, which is where we really get to know all these other main characters. So when he shows up in season 3 as himself + having a speaking role, people have already built relationships with the other characters that we know a lot better than Will. We don’t really know Will that well, we’ve only really seen him as him for two seasons, compared to the other core 4 or El. So, when he swooped in and still was—whether anyone wants to admit it or not—Mike’s #1 without him being missing or possessed, I think people had mixed feelings about it.

Of course Mike’s focus was Will in season 1, is friend is missing. And of course Will is his focus in season 2, he’s possessed by an evil monster that might kill him…but then it continues. We are told in seasons 3 that Mike has been ignoring all of them for El all summer, but when the true plot hits, we’re seeing Will and Mike shoved right next to eachother throughout the entire season. The rain fight, Mike chasing after him, the sauna scene, car scene, the Byers moving scene in the kitchen, the shot of Mike looking back at the house and then immediately cutting to Will crying. It’s odd the tensioned focus put on those two. I think people were expecting El and Mike to be this unstoppable duo once Will was safe and Mike didn’t have to “save” him anymore. I mean Mike is this main guy with the superhero savior girlfriend, Will is gonna just be in the background now right? I didn’t even expect when I was watching the show for the first time, getting to season 3, to see so much of Mike and Will, it made my clocks start finally working. and when El and Mike together didn’t really happen, I think it raised a lot of questions, confusion, and irritation with the general audience. We’ve seen promo for El and Mike for years, and then you watch the show and suddenly quiet Will is in the place everyone expected El to be in. Everyone kind of has their partner in crime in the show. Usually it’s Dustin and Steve, Max and Lucas, Hopper and Joyce, El usually has a plot alone or leans towards Max the last two seasons—then Mike and Will, but shouldn’t it be El? Why isn’t it El? They’re this main important couple everyone’s making them out to be, but their relationship is shown as very brushed off or “isolated” or even a joke at times when you actually watch the show, especially in season 4. Will always just beats her out, even if it’s by a sliver. In the sense that he’s basically getting the relationship Mike and El should have outside of kissing. Mike doesn’t really have divided attention, at times they all do it’s a very long show, but overall, he’s very focused on Will. They are a duo, almost everyone else in the show is a duo with their love interest—unless they’re single or their girlfriend lives in Utah. And El is right there for Mike to be paired with, but he never is and I think it’s always raised the question, whether people are voicing it or not, as to why that is. When anything happens, Mike looks at Will first, we are shown that a lot actually since I’ve been going back and watching, it’s actually kind of crazy. People hate to admit it, but Mike and Will have been best friends their entire lives, I think at the end of the day of course it’s Will. It’s impossible for it not to be.

Anyway what am I even saying who knows, I think nothing is being hidden about Will and Mike’s relationship, based on how they structure couples in the show, we are told exactly who is gonna be with who, no matter what other interferences happen on the way there.

[doodle-do-wop]

Kesler and Juline where cannonly childhood lovers, I think Juline had a temper and a hard time controlling her ability, and that Kesler was her alchemy tutor and wears dorky glasses similar to Milo Thatch. 

Do you have any Kesline headcannons thoughts anything at all

I’m working on a kesline teen fic and you have posted about them like three times in the last month which is more than most people do, yes there is a slight possibility of any of your head cannons ending up in the fic if they fit

Hi ya!

I have so so many headcanons

Elves show affection with loved ones (best friends, family, lovers, etc) by pressing foreheads together. The longer it lasts, the deeper the affections are.

Friends and family will do it for about the same duration as a normal hug

Lovers and friendships that are beyond love will obviously last longer.

Also I love childhood lover trope and that is canon now, Shannon is wrong. They were childhood lovers. Juline nearly failed her mid-term so badly due to her somewhat newly manifested Froster abilities being affected by her emotions making the beakers freeze over. It was a whole thing.

Kesler and Juline had known each other for years, like years!

Kesler fell first, Juline phased through the entire planet falling for him

Juline has had a fascination with human stuff for ages. Kesler just thinks it's funky but if Juline's blabbering about floppy disks he doesn't care what a 'computer' is, she's talking and he's listening.

Juline has constantly cold hands, Kesler holds them to keep her warm

Kesler likes baking, its like alchemy but you can add as many tart berries as you want, say less

Eda makes awesome pastries, Juline makes...interesting soups

will you survive? Will you need an elixir? Is it moving or is it just the smoke giving you hallucinations?

Jokes aside, Juline likes making soups that dont look appealing but taste amazing

its a prank and a good meal

They like to dance occasionally to some of their favorites (human music included) and will drag the kids into mini dance parties (this does mean Dex can dance, i eat canon for breakfast)

(once again ignoring canon) Kesler has slightly more rounded ears than most elves, Juline's are pretty pointed

they've cried over Gnomeo and Juliette (they're just like them fr)

Juline used to be shorter up until their third year of Foxfire, the girl shot up like a goblin i swear

Like how Dex shot up in Nightfal (i think) Juline was just tall

Random Juline and Kesler Firefox hc under cut, I was too proud of them to let them stay in the drafts shelf

Juline

peak annoying little sister

youngest of three

her and Eda are the only ones who kept in touch

their eldest sibling has always been distant so there was never really a connection between Juline and them

her and Eda shared a room up until their second level of Foxfire, they were just that attached to the hip

neither of her parents are Frosters, her mom is a Conjure like Eda but her dad is a Guster

Eda is older by just two years meaning she manifested first with Juline buzzing to manifest next, hoping to either be like Eda or a Guster, maybe even a Hydrokenic or maybe one of her great great grand somethings will do her a solid and-

she manifested as a Froster

she was not happy about it

kept freezing everything, left little frosty footprints everywhere, brought the room temperature down constantly no matter how wrapped up in cloaks and tunics she was

tying this into your headcanon of Kesler being her Alchemy tutor, Juline nearly flunked her alchemy midterm, scraping by the skin of her teeth

she had been docked major points for frosting some of her tools and even putting out the fire she needed multiple times due to nerves

Now onto Kesler

- as the youngest of his family, Kesler has at least three people telling him what to do at all times

- and none of them could agree

- he and his siblings were born more or less close in age (if you count close as 4-8 years)

- his youngest older sister was in Foxfire along with Kesler which means whenever Kesler had any trouble in class she was right there to both brag, and help (it was her job to be both unhelpful and very helpful, it's sibling law)

- Kesler got his love and knack for Alchemy from his grandfather who wasn't too shabby himself but Kesler was a natural

- he loves his siblings but hanging out with his grandfather doing random alchemy experiments was just their thing

- Kesler was terrible with Elementalism so much so his sister would occasionally take the long route to her classes to check on him in the Healing Room

- you could tell if Kesler Dizznee was within twenty feet of you if you could hear the tell tale sound of glass rattling in a bag

- he was in the same class year as Juline (I ignore canon) so when Juline Dizznee needed a tutor guess who was signed up as the sacrificial lamb

[fiona-fififi]

Call me homophobic, but I don't actually think it's great representation to stick a complex, dynamic, newly-realized bisexual character permanently with a flat, boring, underdeveloped love interest just because that was the first guy who showed interest.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

If I could write stories as quickly and vividly as I can envision them, I would have written at least three lovely novellas in the last week. Two of them this morning.

[cuteniaarts]

Digitalised + coloured + redesigned version of my Suiren and Vaatu sketch from two days ago, as promised!!

Coming up with Suiren’s design was a very long process of trying and failing because after you’ve drawn 9+ different versions of one character, the creativity starts to run a little dry, but I’m actually really proud of this one, she looks absolutely adorable <3

(Also yeah I did mostly just scribble Vaatu’s pattern because who has the energy to draw the all out accurately. Not me, that’s who, I’m chronically tired. People who draw him on the regular have my utmost respect. He’s still a funky little guy though :D)

Bonus, Raava incessantly screaming inside Suiren (and being completely ignored because Suiren is tired of her) while all this is happening:

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Where The River Meets The Soul

cosy-ish fantasy, romance

follows a herbalist who decides to find a magical bloom with healing properties which has become rare in recent years, after her sister is diagnosed with a terminal illness

she travels to the city, and along with a friend and an heiress, discovers that reuniting two reincarnated ancient soulmates will restore the bloom

but when she encounters corruption and betrayal, and finds herself getting feelings for one of the soulmates, things get more complicated

ace MC, genderfluid LI

[suffarustuffaru]

Reading your tags about how people miss the very obvious "there's some fucked up shit boiling underneath" regarding Otto, just gave me a sudden realization. Otto is the only character I know in fiction where they act all innocent and drive up the "clumsy", "just in the side-lines" and "straight-man (heh)" persona. When. Like no one's in the EMT camp is buying it. They know he's way more capable than he let's on. Meanwhile, the tomfoolery is completely brought on by the Western audience.

Like Otto is failing miserably to make other characters believe that he's not up to mischief, Roswaal even thinks it can bring his downfall. But the audience, who even sometimes *sees* his fucked up thought process, is buying it.

*head in hands*

no u bring up so many good points bc ive been really thinking about this for a while T^T its such an interesting phenomenon in the difference in perception otto has between the japanese speaking half of the fandom vs the english speaking half which can be explained by—yeah. media illiteracy mainly. im also putting my head in my hands anon T^T

because—okay sorry wkdndn im gonna get into meta again but hear me out bc this pattern of the fandom underestimating otto is interesting bc i kind of sort of i cracked the code maybe??? o.o i think the nature of otto is a character is that youre SUPPOSED to underestimate him at first, just like what happens sometimes in universe. i mean wayyy back then i definitely wasnt expecting him to get more depth added to him in arc 4–which was a pleasant surprise—which is also the reaction the vast majority of people have to reading/watching arc 4, along with the other vast majority reaction which is being a bit endeared to ottosubas friendship and respecting otto for being a good friend. and then its easy to underestimate otto bc of 1. all the chaos going on in rezero at any given moment and 2. hes almost always overshadowed by other characters doing worse shit or being more insane than he is and 3. otto of course damn well knows hes easy to underestimate and counts on that. thats what he did against roswaal in arc 4. plus—i mean even aesthetics-wise hes 100% DESIGNED to be easy to underestimate. his outfit and physical features make him look either friendly or frazzled or soft. so i think that the point is that we were supposed to be kind of fooled—at first.

because yeah, we’re endeared to otto. we respect him for helping subaru the way he did. we think that hes a nice person and we now support his actions especially after feeling sympathetic towards him after learning his backstory. (or at least the average audience member will think this wjdndn.) but like—you dont even NEED to look at any side content at all for it to dawn on you that theres something Wrong. with him. like all you need is main route arcs 3-8 aka ottos entire screentime thus far, because at arc 4 its so easy to overlook otto unless youre thinking a bit deeper (for example—he gets violent with subaru. like yeah its entertaining, its played for laughs a bit, yeah subaru needed to be snapped out of his own head, but was it 100% necessary??? why did otto have this response??? bc if you just look at the main timeline otto really decided to beat up subaru first. and bc this tendency is now Less Funny in arc 8).

but even if youre just looking at rezero face value, when you get to arc 5 its starting to get even more clear that ottos weird in the head. like we already saw him being very good at scheming and planning in arc 4–in arc 5, we find out about otto hiding the tome for a year. we find out WHY hes been hiding the tome for a year. the tome then leads the witch cult into priestella, so like—in the sense, otto is RESPONSIBLE for arc 5. but theres STILL a tendency sometimes for the audience to continue underestimating him even though by this point we’re getting more clues and many characters around otto, like you said anon, KNOW hes very capable. i keep wondering why this is, but arc 5 is, again, FULL of chaos and different storylines happening at once, so its so easy to almost kind of forget otto there in the background until he occasionally pops up again. plus otto serves an additional role as comedic relief sometimes—he spends all of arc 5 being bitchy and whiny (i say this affectionately HAH) about his camp being full of disasters, for example, so i think the natural response from the audience tends to be “aw otto!! what a silly guy!!” sometimes. you know? so its like. i think at this point some people tend to be like “yeah fair that otto was wary of roswaal and thats why he saved the tome…. anyway ooooh whats going on with these other plot points” wobsbss. its so fascinating bc—ok this might be my own personal experience but anyone reading this pls tell me if you agree or not—i dont think ive seen a lot of people actually even MENTION otto bringing the tome into priestella attracting witch cultists. and the english speaking fandom LOVES to go into certain characters’ wrongdoings so why gloss over otto????

the only explanation i have for this is that from arcs 3-4 underestimating otto is. kind of the point of his character UNTIL you get to arc 5 and the clues in the main story start seeping in even more. and also the western audience DOES have media illiteracy a lot. theres that too. just look at rezero content on youtube or reddit or fanfic sites or other things of that sort T^T but no yeah i think ottos nature as a character exacerbates it. youre supposed to start asking questions about him. youre supposed to start connecting the dots and then SUDDENLY its now EXTREMELY obvious in arc 7-8 and even while theres so much chaos going on its basically shoved in your face. arc 7-8 is just delivering on all the leadup that was arcs 3-5.

and i think that youve gotta be media illiterate for sure to NOT get that otto is not squeaky clean and innocent BY ARC 8. i think that ottos the deconstruction of the loyal best friend trope, and also a mirror into what subaru couldve been like if he decided to be more ruthless instead of jumping right to forgiveness and saving everyone, except sometimes that flies right over the audience’s head wkdndnd. it confuses me bc ive seen some people completely miss the point or completely agree with otto and overlook the Bad Parts of it or, you know, STILL think ottos perfectly sane—like T^T please.

and yeah so back to what you said about otto Not being underestimated In Universe—its such an interesting detail bc hes ALWAYS been simultaneously pathetic and Very Competent wjdndnd. but yeah no all of his friends have seen various hints and clues and evidence of what hes capable of. like even though he hid the tome from them successfully and even though hes hiding info now its INEVITABLE that its gonna blow up in his face one day. like you got characters like garfiel who literally saw otto punch the wall and break his hand in an unhinged fit of rage, julius who got snapped at by otto and while julius is a Bit naive definitely knows somethings off there, anastasia whos smart as hell and definitely knows not to underestimate otto, and roswaal who, like you said anon, literally went out of his way to stop otto from breaking his hand in another unhinged fit of rage and warned otto that he will literally be destroying himself if he keeps going on like this. its this fascinating dichotomy bc otto is NOT fooling anyone around him but at the same time his current schemes are mostly unnoticed—for now—which yeah i havent seen that in a lot of media!!! its an interesting balancing act bc people around him realistically know hes competent after seeing the Proof of that for the past couple arcs, but otto is still finding ways to try and Win…

which—again, the anger and violence is an extension of arc 4 otto!! this is the same guy!! hes always been like this!! ottos kind of stayed the same, deep down, this whole time and as an audience its ONLY shoved in our face with a big gigantic spotlight on it FOUR ARCS LATER, but it was hinted to all this time. and like you said anon—we LITERALLY see ottos fucked up thought processes. literally what sane person thinks any of that shit. its spelled right out for the reader HAH T^T which—yeah. media illiteracy…. and also this whole ask was a longer way of just saying that otto is VERY easy to see at surface level if youre media illiterate. but at the same time it should be very easy to figure out otto is A Bit Fucked Up bc tappei underlines it in bright red print!!! i think people sometimes just hang onto soft awkward silly otto and forget about the rest T^T either that or they dont think he cares about subaru at all. which. that phenomenon of thinking characters that do care about subaru Dont Care is also interesting to me bc why????? we’re at arc 8 and you STILL dont get it??? o.ooooo

but yeah apart from that….. i said this earlier but yeah sometimes some people agree with ottos realism in arc 8 which is. understandable, but the whole point is that he is EXTREME. with it. hes Not in the right here, but the same crowd that wants wanton revenge in rezero is gonna agree with that kind of stuff T^T ottos been lurking in the background so much so that tappei made it meta by doing the whole “walking in darkness” part of his character, so i guess people just. dont see ottos ACTUAL worst traits and instead think he would ditch subaru at the first opportunity or something. but at the point we are now, arc 8 ottos problem isnt that hed ditch subaru. his problem is that he would sacrifice the world for subaru. his problem is that he gets extremely angry at subaru for trying to do good. his problem is that hes trying to micromanage everything around him and is willing to sacrifice anything necessary to get what he wants. but sometimes people dont get that bc otto doesnt look sound or seem like a character thatd do that. the Underestimation part of his character is doing too well on. certain audiences. please T^T the soft and awkward and silly parts ARE part of his character just like all the Darker parts are!!!

additionally im also wondering if western audience perception of otto is also clouded by the fact that otto looks and sounds more feminine / androgynous and he doesnt have the appeal of Overt Power either……. he cant Really be waifu-ified… and he cant be used as a weird self insert like subaru…. and you Have to look at him closer to understand him…. and for some reason people dont tend to hate on him so aggressively, if anything people cant even see his actual canonical flaws half the time wkdndn so if youre not paying attention otto CANT be aggressively hated on bc theres nothing there if ur not looking at it….. and if youre not paying attention otto seems more “boring” compared to the others…… (not that people arent allowed to not have otto as a favorite character bc thats totally fair but im talking about the tendency to think hes Saner than he actually is.) but yeah these are just my guesses. i have no clue the western fandom is a little T^T some people unfortunately cannot read.

anyway. big thank you to the japanese fanbase for understanding ottos character more and making so much wonderful fancontent for him T^T also i think that we as a collective fanbase should stop underestimating otto in general bc its exactly what he wouldnt want and i think itd be really hilarious. <3333 make him explode with rage please

[puhpandas]

I keep thinking about how on earth they would canonize ggy bc like. at this point if they have to sacrifice Gregory screentime of just him to make something we already know actually canon, I would rather just take the screentime, but on the other hand they have to canonize it if they want to do anything at all with that plotline, and that makes me wonder if theyll stick with it as canon in the games at all or just leave it as background knowledge if u read the book 😭

[byanyan]

aaaand tonight i'm thinking about how byan was originally meant to be this irredeemable little shitbag who was a problem just to be a problem... but now they're a lot more sympathetic and much more just this traumatized kid who's been done so dirty their whole life. like, they're still not a great person or anything, but it's a lot more out of necessity than actual nature...

[mariocki]

Lo voglio morto (I Want Him Dead, 1968)

"If the Confederates and the Yankees sign a truce, the two of us are ruined!"

"And so?"

"So, they have to keep killing each other until we've sold everything. Everything, right down to the last cartridge!"

[srdcovka]

unless bobby retires we are NEVER getting ravi begins episode, im sorry to my catholic father but he needs to leave for the true star RAVI PANIKKAR to shine

[spacejammie-eimmajecaps]

YOU CHANGED YOUR PFP ?!?!!!

To me that's like. Changing your face. It will take me DAYS to recognise you again

On another note MATSUHANAAAAAAAA!!!!!

I did, for the first time in almost 4 years. I've actually been wanting to for several months but it takes me a while to process change so I had to work up to it (and tbh I'm feeling sooooo unsettled about it lmfao it's going to take me a while to get used to it)

Changed my ao3 pfp to the same thing because matsuhana my beloved<3

[apollos-boyfriend]

everyone once in a while i’ll go “hm. am i woobifying cpurpled too much by drawing him with these things (hair clips, mlp plushes, etc)” and then i’ll remember cbench mains do the exact same thing and are regarded as popular and really good/canon designs and i feel a lot better

[noxianwilled]

the whole opposition of ideals between those two, too. he says it doesn't matters, and that striking from the shadows would have ensured her safety and not put her in needless risk, while being a mercy that the target would die painlessly and quickly. but even before kat says anything it's obvious that's not as important to her. the dude didn't want a peaceful death, and he died fighting and knowing his work meant something - what she says she hopes is how she dies when she eventually dies.