#i mean he literally represents the concept of “i don't give a fuck”

[bluescribble]

A prince is also an heir.

lol

have i mentioned i never read the epilogues ?

[mdhwrites]

I’m honest to god baffled that fantasy shows like Steven Universe, Amphibia, Star Vs The Forces Of Evil, and Gravity Falls have an abundance of memorable human characters with memorable locations that make you want to live in that human community while The Owl House BARELY has any of that.

Camila, Jacob, and Masha are probably the only human side characters that are memorable and have a impact on the story, and Gravesfield is too forgettable and full of not so good people (which even then is questionable considering Luz’s antics) that it makes it hard to want to live there.

It’s almost as if TOH is desperate to want people to want to live in the demon realm and forget about appreciating Earth and being human, which ends up making it even more immature compared to other shows that at least TRY to express how important it is to appreciate your human side and it makes the main human characters much more likable cause they know being human is just as important.

If Luz doesn’t bother to appreciate her human world more, why should I care about her?

This isn't a bug; It's a feature.

(Before I begin, just as a reminder: Fuck JK Rowling. I hate how much I have to praise Harry Potter for this.)

There is a LOT to say about TOH wanting to be the Harry Potter for a new generation. The concept that all of humanity is worthless so you should escape into our other side of reality is a big thing there too. Part of why Harry Potter, and ESPECIALLY Hogwarts, means so much to people that they literally can't give it up is because of the escapist fantasy involved with it. The story made one believe anyone could be whisked away to a fantasy realm where they were important. Where they could face the bullies and win. Where they could be so much more than reality made them feel.

The Isles is pretty clearly meant to feel similar. It's the ONLY explanation for why Belos' tyranny isn't actually present besides to make being an apprentice to Eda even cooler than it normally would be. The Coven System could be inspired by a lot of things, like D&D, but it's hard to deny that Harry Potter is the easiest example, especially with The First Day reinforcing that even the school is divided up by these covens. There is ZERO bigotry, of literally any sort, even magical preference, because that would make the Isles unappealing. It wouldn't be somewhere anyone would want to escape to because the world would be too much like our own.

This is further reinforced by how Harry Potter has the Dursleys while TOH has just implied repression of Luz... Except that it DOES have more, doesn't it?

This is part of why I think TOH fails in this regard. Why we don't see a lot of TOH OCs, or Hexside OCs, minus future kids which is just mashing the canon characters together. It's too insincere and too modern a work in order to actually be the escapist fiction it wants to be. Again: There are MAJOR storytelling concessions to make it more attractive as escapist fiction but it won't commit.

This is why we have Camila as our main representative of humanity. The 'trope' is to make her awful. The worst person imaginable. The Dursleys fit that after all. But modern writing trends are too self aware for that sort of thing. They need to try and twist tropes to look clever (I would date the start of this somewhere around Frozen) or else they look silly and are to be thrown away. So instead of the evil home life to run away from like in Harry Potter, where that gives Harry permission to only care about the new world he's entering, even if it's just a secret society, we instead have Camila. The saint. The one who is first wronged by Luz and never really gets made up to by Luz because, well, that goes against the fact that Luz is clearly meant to, even by the end of S1, want to choose the Isles over humanity EVERY TIME. Why she starts an entirely new life there without even thinking about things like, I dunno, how the fuck do I keep dating this witch when I go home. Amity and her never do have a real conversation about the promise because that's inconvenient to the escapist fantasy.

This attempt at being 'clever' over being sincere is also why Hogwarts is a much more magical, literally and figuratively, setting than the ENTIRE ISLES. There is magic and secrets and interesting discoveries at literally every turn at this one school. Meanwhile, TOH wants to be able to make modern social commentary despite the fantasy land its in, and also wants to be taken more seriously than fantasy often is, so it needs to be grounded and mundane and mostly like our own world because otherwise they might actually have to make a world that's interesting. It fits into modern writing trends that give Twitter easy fodder to talk about THEMES, regardless of how well those are actually tackled, but get in the way of being escapist. Of creating a world that you'd actively beg to live in.

This is actually something I'll give modern isekai and is a large part of why it's so popular: It is extremely escapist. Even the more serious ones still make the main character be the biggest badass ever and the 'dark' elements actually conform just to make him a bigger badass. To give him more than he already would have by genre convention. They do that mostly through sincerity of concepts. By going "This is what we're doing, this is what we're giving the audience, FUCKING GO."

TOH never has that unity of purpose.

BUT

This lack of unity of purpose also meant that while PLENTY of anime are bigger, more popular and more influential than TOH, as far as western media goes, it was a strength. Like I said, it leans into current trends with writing. It is unique, even amongst anime, for having an explicitly LGBTQIA+ main character, adding to the escapism for those specific groups. All while packaged as a kids show for those who don't like kids shows, much like how Avatar for many is anime for those who don't like anime.

Now this is where I might talk about the other shows you brought up, especially Amphibia but, well... None of them are going for such pure escapism. Bare minimum, their main influences aren't pure escapism. They're more rooted in old isekai or just straight aren't influenced by isekai or Harry Potter. They're genuinely more complex about the relationship between the worlds because for their stories, both worlds actually matter. Neither is meant to be entirely abandoned like TOH wants to abandon the human realm.

There is a reason why Luz ends the series only learning about magic after all despite claiming to live in both realms because she has no interest in the human realm. There's a reason the villain is pro-human realm. It's all meant to point to not just wanting to run away but encouraging it. That's not even always a bad thing. I've written porn for god's sake, the last thing I can criticize is the desire for escapist fiction. It has its place.

TOH would fill that place better if it would just be honest about what it was. I'm still glad it comforts those who need it to be their escape though. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[sthormiiii]

What do you like and don’t like about Aaravos ?

omgomg ty for the question i love talking about my man!!!

(this came out wayy longer than i imagined whoops)

okok so.

the things i love about aaravos are many. starting from the obvious, his design!! he is so so pretty i love startouch elves designs in general (all the concept art in the art of the dragon prince made me lose my mind!!) and also the fact you can get a lot about him from his design, like how he changed after he fell and the way he lost many of his accessories which probably represented his status in startouch society- AND THE BLACK HOLE IN HIS CHEST PROBABLY REPRESENTING HIS HEART???? like, he LITERALLY LOST HIS HEART?????

thennn, we go on his personality! that man suffered for CENTURIES, he had to witness so Much Stuff. he got through so much trauma and lost everyone who he ever cared about. but does that bother him? i mean, yes ofc it does...but despise all of it, he still keeps up his silly personality! and manages to still be himself :33

the thing is, my interpretation of aaravos's character is probably very personal, and most of the things i think about him are from my own headcanons, but!!!! we know he is inspired from prometheus, giving humans magic despise the gods (other elves and dragons) didnt want them to have it. but he still did it. he helped them out when they were struggling, and because of it he got punished.

thats the thing!! he loved humans SO MUCH he couldn't help but help them, even if he knew it would get him in trouble.his love for humans, for magic, for xadia, its what keeps him going, he wants to be free and be able to see xadia again, to see the sky, and feel the grass under his feet! him pre-fall was just,, so so filled with love for everything around him

now.

clearly, he also did some really fucked up stuff (like swallowing killing adidi and probably also luna tenebris) he isn't completely good or completely bad. he's in between and everything he does he does it for a reason which he believes is the right one-

rn hes a psycho, he spent 300 years in isolation and he is full of anger and just wants to see the world burn😞😞 he lost everything and everyone and yes hes the villain rn,, but he still has all that love inside of him. his love for humans...for magic...his need to feel someone, anyone by his side, to know hes not alone- him trying to help viren in s5 (in his own fucked up way) shows that he still cares☹️☹️

so yeah, i just- love complex characters!

now, the things I don't like- this is a hard choice bc i honestly love all his flaws too?? but i would say i dont like how the show handles him lmao.

i could talk about this for hours, but to make it simple i think they are totally wasting his character here. like. we're never going to fully see aaravos in all his shades bc

1) we dont have time for all that

2) even if they somehow manage to give us a glimpse of all the pain and suffering he carries on his back,, i think its a bit too late to make the viewers completely emphasise with him

the whole mystery of aaravos arc should have taken a different direction imo. but desides that, i still love the show sm and i cant wait to see more!!

god i love talking about him.

[demonwebs]

hc + 👍 for a headcanon about things they like + hc + 👎 for a headcanon about things they dislike.

Thematic Headcanons.

hc + 👍 for a headcanon about things they like

secretly he has a huge sweet sooth that he tells no one about , and he especially loves fruits - can't eat them like a normal person , though , gotta drool all over himself like an absolute savage . it's required . he loves peaches most of all , but anything juice and sweet goes , second on that list is grapes , cherries and strawberries . back in the underdark , most of his diet consisted of ... you guessed it - mushrooms ! which to be fair , he does like , especially the fun side effects , but , he definitely prefers to indulge in sweeter things if he's not eating purely for sustenance . he is , admittedly , a bit of a brat when it comes to his pallor , at least by drow standards , because back in the underdark his family (unlike 99% of the population) could actually afford to import seafood and fresh fruit / vegetables from mantol derith , still , it was expensive , and definitely considered a luxury . once he got sent to the surface and realized how cheap and easy it was to get his hands on those , he quickly decided it was the only redeemable thing about this wretched sunny land .

hc + 👎 for a headcanon about things they dislike

he really , really dislikes driders . as in deep-seeded hatred , not even ... fear . fear was when he was a kid , and his matron or his sisters would threaten to 'feed him to the driders' , but eventually that morphed from just fear and dread into ... pure spite . if you meet kar'niss in game , he'll be the cruelest you've ever seen him . why ? i mean , driders are generally seen as aberrations who have failed their goddess in lolthian society , so why wouldn't he be right ? except ... it feels personal , and you'll notice it feels fucking personal every time he comes across a drider , like the very thought of their existence is offensive to him . the animosity comes from the real fear of 'shit, that could easily be me one day' , obviously , but he doesn't wanna think about that . lolth's fickle . falling into her favor is hard , falling out of it ? easy as breathing , and as one of lolth's own , he knows he's fated to be tested over and over , and he knows and has seen what that failure could mean in the flesh growing up , and it chills him to the bone to think that could be him . what terrifies him even further is that it being delivered by her yochlol handmaidens personally means his own patron would probably be the one to do it . when lolth gives him nightmares to tug at his leash , or when he happens to have a particularly bad hallucination , this is always where his mind goes to . being a drider is not just horrifying in concept alone ( i mean ... literally , the transformation lasts weeks but feels like 100 years while you go through it , and after it's done ? the pain never stops . you're a mindless beast , but just aware of yourself enough to know what has been done / is still being done to you . you're a failure and you'll be reminded of this every day while you live , and you don't even get the courtesy of death . you still have to serve the goddess who twisted into this - you don't get a saying in that ) it's very much the source of one of his deepest fear , because it represents what he's genuinely scared of : not death , failure , being stripped of everything that makes him 'useful' . so , being catastrophically altered ( losing the thing he thinks gives him most of his advantage thus value , his appearance ) , being shunned by all of drow society ( his status ? gone . his family ? gone ) , and losing any bodily autonomy he ever had to begin with . he'd be bound to lolth with no means or will to ever get out , body and soul , worse - not her chosen , her slave , the lowest of low .

[itisbop]

Project Announcement

I wanna get this off my chest. There is no hate for the designers or devs, just criticism.

As much as I love the Sands of Time Season, it doesn't mean it's perfect. Theif Edgar, Dynasty Mike, and especially Shelly Dancer make me feel icky because of the problems behind it.

I will say one thing, at least they didn't play a Cookie Run Ovenbreak and do anything with bombs. (And they thankfully don't MISTREAT THEIR COMMUNITY MANAGERS).

Once again, I still like the season for the most part, and I still like the game, but it rubs me the wrong way and just seems to gnaw at me. That's what everything that bugs me does to me, unfortunately;but, I don't want to let this ruin my enjoyment, so I want to redesign it!

I'd like to ask you people here if you have any suggestions and what could be done to accurately represent the cultures. I want to try the "Sands of Time" concept, but in a way, that's not stereotypical.

Now, a few things I want to clarify (consider these disclaimers) :

- THIS IS NOT ME SAYING I'M BETTER OR "FIXING" THEIR DESIGNS. "FIXING" OTHER PEOPLE'S ART IS A HUGE NO NO, AND IF YOU DO THAT YOU ARE NOT WELCOMED HERE. Also, those guys are professionals and have made a lot of other great concepts with brawlers and cosmetics. (I.e. I fucking love Scorpion Chuck so much, and though I'm very neutral on Surgenie, good play on words however.) This is meant as two things : Criticism and awareness on how important it to represent a culture. And fun/a drawing exercise since I want better at designing characters.

- I plan on making this into a video so I can hopefully reach the community as not a lot of people are aware of this issue. If you give a suggestion and would rather be anonymous if I use it, please tell me. I value your guys' safety, and I don't want anyone coming at you.

- If you like any of the stuff I redesign or talk about the way it is, okay. You do you. As long as you are aware of some of the problems and issues with this depiction, that's okay! There is literally no perfect thing in the world don't let Puritiy Culture fuck you up.

- Finally, I plan to redesign the following :

The Mystic Wander Trio

The Environment

And some of the Sands of Time Skins. (+ Giving Angelo a skin like these too because he deserves it)

Any and all help is appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read this!

[the-crow-binary]

Im quite curious about your opinion on the portrayal of the french revolution; I know it was a super complicated political moment with multiple fronts from the commoners wanting better life conditions, the bourgeoisie wanting to get the nobility out of the way (which it's part as to why it cant be directly translated into 21'st century american capitalism analogy 🙄), how multiple nobles supported the revolution for moral values despite going against their families interests (bc social class influences but doesnt instantly determines your morals) and that many revolutionary groups supported the independence of Haití (heck, many members of my countries independence participated and almost got beheaded in the resulting mess. And ad hundred and something years later France would try to invade us lol). What im trying to say behind my ramble here (sorry for that lol) its that im sure nfcv made it a slavery bad black ppl vs white ppl american dilemma without getting into the complexity of it and i say this as a foreigner with basic history knowledge, so i do wanna see your take on it

Which portrayal of the French Revolution? 🙃

I swear this very important Historical event that affected not just France but all of continental Europe and is considered as one of the world's biggest events was just used as background for the characters to fight and be racist. The characters keep throwing around the word "revolution" from all sides, but we don't see shit. Maria gives context in the first episode (there's a revolution, they overthrown the monarchy and declared a republic, they arrested the king...), talking to a group of revolutionaries, and from then on the story could've literally taken place in an imaginary country with imaginary politics it would've been the same.

Oh, what am I saying, there IS one thing. Our motto. 🙃"Liberty, equality, fraternity" 🙃 Yeah it has been thrown here and there... Except that it wasn't our official motto yet. We had the notion of liberty and equality, sometimes fraternity, and it was in the middle of other words such as "friendship", "sincerity", "charity" and "union". There is some people and even some books who used this motto but it was abandoned then taken back later... Just this is a mess lmao but the point is. I cringed everytime the characters screamed "Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!". And while we're on the subject, Richter, at some point, meets three girls during a festival (I suspect one of the girls to be Marianne, who wasn't a real person but the symbol of Liberty) talking about dressing up as Liberty and Equality and Fraternity. And Richter, thinking he is so smart, say that you need to be a man to dress up as Fraternity, because it means "brotherhood" (and the girls go "sisternity then" and don't correct him). Oh, and the writers clearly thought it was very clever too, since later on Annette's teacher (and even the Messiah I think??) will ALSO talk about the motto, saying "liberty, equality, brotherhood". IT DOESN'T MEAN "BROTHERHOOD". I MEAN IT CAN. BUT IN THIS CASE IT MEANS "FRATERNITY". IT'S A TERM TO TALK ABOUT A BOND EXISTING BETWEEN PEOPLE CONSIDERED AS MEMBERS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. AKA IT CONCERNS EVERYONE. YOU ARE NOT CLEVER, AMERICAN WRITERS.

Also I thought a fucking festival at a time like that where people dress up at the concepts of our not-exactly-official-motto-yet was stupid, and it is. There was no such festival, however, we did have the "cult of the reason". To put it simply: it was a serie of events and civic holidays wich were organized by a group of atheists. In it there WAS an event called "Fete of the Reason"... Where one ACTOR dressed up as Liberty. It was NOT multiple people representing liberty, equality or fraternity.

The fun fact is, the French Revolution was a pretty good occasion for NFCV to promote it's CHURCH BAD mentality. We were taking away the church's power, more people became atheists, anti-christian vandalism and blasphemy was actually encouraged, it was a mess. Paris even ordered to shut down churches at some point, wich did not happen in the end. So yeah, this precise moment, right before the Vendée War, was perfect for the church-haters those writers are. And it ended up just being as bad as the original show, without any nuance... Ok there might be a little bit of nuance because of Mizrak, a guy who served the church and in the end actually team up with Richter and the gang, and it looks like he's there to stay. Emmanuel (the abbott) tries to be complex, but in the end, he is still a God-obsessed man that makes terrible decisions and is not a good representation for the church. So okay, it might be a BIT better than the original show thanks to Mizrak, but it's not saying much.

Another thing. Only the main characters are shown to have a dislike for the church. We don't see ANY of the french people doing anything against the church (but we do hear the church complaining about the revolutionaries, tell don't show y'know), not even talk about it. It's mostly jokes about how haha priests are sexual predators/they can't keep it in their pants (with the occasional "it exploits the people and take their money" line, and by occasionnal I mean once). There IS a few shades thrown at God here and there, honestly I didn't bother remembering the exact lines because they are so cliché and really not that deep. I think Maria is the one complaining the most.

What angers me the most is the lack of ANY ACTION FROM THE FRENCH PEOPLE. It's like nothing is actually happening except vampire killing people and vampire hunting (wich begs the question: WHY bother making it happen during the FRENCH REVOLUTION?). Nocturne literally made the french people the side (oh what am I saying, the BACKGROUND) characters in their OWN REVOLUTION. AND ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS. WHAT THE FUCK. Maria is supposed to be a revolutionary leader but she doesn't lead anyone. We never see anyone do anything outside of the main characters. The french are literal planks, except from those three girls from the festival and villains, they don't even have a voice. At some point the vampire Messiah arrives in town, in plain view, and people are like "OUR SAVIOR IS HERE! OUR DELIVERER!" and I thought the people shouting were vampires, but no, there is humans TOO. ALL TOGETHER. And you have no idea how much I hate that they basically portray the french people as not doing shit and needing someone else to save them 🙃 To do things for them 🙃 And also. That that someone else is not even french themself. 🙃 Even without the Messiah... the revolutionaries we saw were led by Richter (romanian/american/british idk at this point), Annette (Haitian, even if Saint-Domingue was owned by France at the time), Tera (Russian) and, of course, Maria, who's both Russian and French, at least. Those four were doing most of the work while the french people were in their houses cooking baguettes, I guess. And by "work" I mean fighting vampires and night creatures, there was nothing done about the Revolution. Almost like there is NO REASON TO MAKE A CV SHOW ABOUT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION

Oh and I just HAVE to talk to you about Saint-Domingue, and the BLACK PEOPLE ARE OPPRESSED theme going on with Annette. And that's when I'll have to take out this magnificent dialogue again:

"Even these french with their high ideas, what do they know about we've suffered? And what do they care? They're building new world, but it won't be freedom, or equality or brotherhood for US"

This is said by Annette's teacher. Worth to note that before that, in episode 3, she also shat on the French revolution and our motto. Basically, the show portray the French Revolution as being one thing and the slaves in Saint-Domingue having their own other revolution. And not just that, it implies that the French did not care about slaves, and that they do not know what suffering is (yeah, people just start revolutions because they feel like it y'know 🙃). And the anti-white dialogues are portrayed as normal and are even applauded, btw. And it is BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUULLSHIT. MY FUCKING GOD. OH THIS SHOW MAKE ME SO ANGRY.

First off: Only the colonies were pro-slavery. The french pretty much weren't. A "Society of friends of black people" was even created in France in 1788 to fight for the abolition of slavery. People fought for black people's rights during the French Revolution. Books written by black people to join the fight came out. The French Revolution scared the colonies who were very against losing their slaves and it led to Haiti's own revolution (slaves rebelling, killing their owners, burning the plantations... Nocturne at least got that part right). So both revolutions are very closely linked and the slaves might not have rebelled at this point if it wasn't for the French Revolution threatening Saint-Domingue's economics and creating social upheavals.

And what does those shitty american writers remember? BLACK PEOPLE OPPRESSED. BLACK PEOPLE SUFFERED SO MUCH MORE THAN EVERYONE ELSE. LOOK AT THESE POOR BLACK PEOPLE. WHITE PEOPLE ARE SO POWERFUL. THE FRENCH ARE UNGRATEFUL ACTUALLY. BLACK CHARACTER IS RIGHT TO SHIT ON THE WHITE FRENCH WHO DON'T CARE ABOUT THEM.

FUCK.

Oh, and I mentioned the Vendée War earlier... So, fun fact, during the revolution, we have what we call "la Terreur". It's a pretty gruesome period of time during the Revolution that caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people. La Terreur happened from 1793 to 1794. So one year after this first season of Nocturne. 🙃 I'm just saying. It wouldn't surprise me if they used this for season 2. 🙃(I literally do not trust them)

And the vampires... Look the vampires have their own can of worms that I'm not motivated enough to open. I'll just say that, of course, in classic NFCV fashion, the message the show is trying to pass is not subtle at all. They're just evil. All of them. All of the french nobles. Evil evil EVIL EVIL!! NUANCE AND COMPLEXITY ARE FOR PUSSIES.

Also the count of Vaublanc? Annette's ex-owner? This guy existed. And he never owned slaves. He was pretty pro-royalty, at some point he voted against slavery, then later voted in favor of it... but he did not own slaves. But honestly I don't care about that guy much, I just wanted to show that NFCV really doesn't care about nuance. Everything has to be black or white (lol) and that's why we have no human nobility in Nocturne.

Urgh. UUUUUURGH. I SWEAR WATCHING THIS SHOW WAS A PAIN AND THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT THE MORE PAINFUL IT BECOMES. THERE IS SO MUCH GOING ON IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NFCV IS DOING JACKSHIT WITH IT. I MEAN IT'S SO MUCH FUNNIER TO SHIT ON THE BELMONT CLAN AND SHOW TIDDIES TO MAKE THE FANS HORNY.

So, my opinion on the portrayal of the French Revolution: CREATE YOUR OWN FICTIONAL REVOLUTION NEXT TIME AND LEAVE THE HISTORY OF MY COUNTRY ALONE.

[blooming-violets]

Sorry this is gonna be a bit of a rant since it’s something I’ve had strong feelings about since joining the AG/TASM fanfic part of the internet, and you’ve provided me a great opportunity to talk about it.

As a trans person, I am BEGGING fanfic writers to stop writing Marauders stuff. I’ve seen so many people defend it with “separate art from the artist” but like it or not they are still supporting JKR. Separating art from the artist only really works when the artist can’t profit from it. She has done SO MUCH harm to trans people and particularly trans youth in the UK and it’s so fucking disheartening and gives me such an ick when I see TASM writers also write for Marauders because it truly comes across as “I love and support the trans community except when it comes to this because I like it.”.

Even if you ignore the transphobia and holocaust denial (YES IM SERIOUS, she’s denied parts of the holocaust at LEAST twice and she literally did it a second time the other day), the original writing is so fucking problematic. Things just off the top of my head being;

The goblins being stereotypes of Jewish people

The fucking racism with characters like Cho Chang and Kingsley Shacklebolt

The last Fantastic Beasts movie’s plot literally being trying to make WW2 and the holocaust happen

This point needs to be taken with a grain of salt since this was some bullshit Joanne said after the books came out, but werewolves in the universe being meant to represent people with aids. Which is so fucking awful considering one of the two werewolves was attacked by the other as a CHILD

The most ironic part of this is that if Andrew is truly the person he presents himself as, he would probably fucking despise being associated with HP, even if it is just a fancast. But yeah all this to say fuck JKR, fuck Marauders fans but also thank you so much Katie for that last anon answer because I genuinely don’t see that enough in this corner of the internet.

Even Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter himself, has spoken out against her and continues to loudly support the LGBTQ+ communities. When your own beloved Harry doesn't even want to stand by your side, you should know you fucked up. Sadly, she does not, and instead leans harder into her bigotry and hatred.

I've always been someone who is very loud and opinionated when I see things that I disagree with, which I know can rub some people the wrong way, but fuck it. I don't like to whisper about my issues on the sidelines, I like to confront the problem head on by being very clear about where I stand and how I feel. I'm not gonna sit around and let someone align me with JKR just because I'm writing a stupid werewolf and Peter Parker fic that exactly 5 people are reading lol. It's not even a popular fic like get out of my asks jfc. Esp when I can tell this person has not read a single sentence of my story and is completely basing their judgements on my header image of AG's face next to a wolf gif.

In this past week I have seen both a Steven Harrington werewolf au and a Daredevil werewolf au cross my dash. Do we think they're getting called out for supporting HP?? No. Because their actors weren't "fan casted" as something years ago. Fan casts don't even mean anything! There was never a movie about them. AG was never casted or played this role. It's literally nothing but a bunch of fans agreeing that they like his look for a fictional character.

Anyway, I'm also ranting back at you haha. You can rant to me anytime. I love a good rant and I agree with you 100%.

Werewolves were not created by JKR. Andrew Garfield has nothing to do with Harry Potter. Don't make make snap judgments about a person's character based on a picture you saw. Support your trans community. Don't be dick.

And, if they actually read my werewolf au, they would see that it's literally about learning to overcome your own hatred and biases of people different from you and learning to love those you were taught to hate. Crazy concept, I know! 🙄😉

[jennycalendar]

pls explain the jennyangel thing because i truly do not understand

yes absolutely! my jennyangel tag is a mess. it would help all of us as a society if i consolidated my thoughts.

so let's start from angel's perspective. jenny is someone who in a lot of ways metaphorically represents the enduring spirit of the girl he killed -- the girl who also changed his life by being loved, because her family made him who he is. the fact that such store is placed in that girl as a martyr to the point where her descendants are willing to serve one of their own up on a platter to angelus, putting her in close proximity to him in such a way that will place her in serious danger should he feel inclined to hurt her -- a young woman with lots of potential, her life ahead of her, moving through this world with genuinely good intentions -- is so fucking loaded. jenny being here and believing in him is really significant considering what he did to her family. she represents a chance at redemption. being forgiven by her means that there is a possibility that he, as he is, can be seen as a good person. her belief redefines his curse as something given to him to resurrect a man who she believes can do good in the world -- and i think angel would find that tempting in a whole lot of different ways.

and also -- hello! amends! jenny as the most constant face of angel's torment! jenny as the one who is most effective in pulling him down into the darkness! leaning in all close and being all touchy and whispering about how nice it would be to fuck buffy and give up! jenny represents SO MUCH to angel, even if he doesn't ever actually articulate it!

meanwhile, on jenny's side of the equation, angel is literally the same thing to her that he is to buffy and drusilla. she was introduced to the concept of him in the formative years of her life -- possibly even earlier than buffy and dru, as we'd ballpark their first encounters with him as in their teens, & jenny has known about angelus since CHILDHOOD -- and while she initially comes to sunnydale to watch him, we don't see her as ever actually dedicated to that mission. she's mostly just living her life before the (poorly written horrible bad) backstory kicks in. which, sure, retcon consequences, but also: there is this accidentally created implication that this has never been a mission jenny's wholeheartedly believed in, & that angel saving her life was really the final nail in the coffin (in more ways than one! ha ha ha). she has spent her entire childhood with the threat of him hanging over her head, and i think it would be more than natural for her to be curious in a lot of different ways, including (privately) sexually. there is nothing more Gothic Romance (and also nothing more jenny) than the allure of the forbidden, and this is a mysteriously murderous older man known as "the one with the angelic face" who ostensibly took an interest in one of jenny's family members. AND, again, this is exactly the same sitch as buffy and drusilla! she grew up in the shadows of what was done to the people around her. so much of what she became was in response to shit he did. he had a huge hand in shaping her and i think she'd have very complicated feelings about that.

i say very flippantly sometimes that i think making out would solve them, but my honest onion is i think it is such a compelling and fucked up and deeply weird dynamic & there's definitely mutual unresolved/unrealized sexual attraction in canon. i don't think it's ever anything either of them would pursue or even want to admit to -- and i also don't think that in canon it ever really becomes A Thing -- but i do absolutely think that at the very LEAST jenny considered the notion of being courted by angelus in her teens (in a subconscious sexual fantasy kinda way), even if she's mostly let go of that by the time canon starts. they have had a huge hand in shaping each other's identity and that is so weird and i think they should kiss about it.

[pastelclownkitty]

SOUL'S GUIDE!WHIT

learn about the au here!

Info below the cut!

(he/they/love for whit here)

Whit is basically a fucked up version of cupid. However, it's not really accurate to say that. Those were just my original plans, though the concept has changed a lot since then.

Whit tracks down newly deceased souls, specifically those with a major attachment to a loved one, and gives them a chance to go back. They make a contract for the person to sign that revives them and gives them enough time to spend with their loved one before their soul and body fully pass on.

Upon signing this contract, they pause the decomposition process on the body (with Arturo’s help) and return the soul to it. The chosen soul returns to the world of the living for a couple of days to sort through everything, and they carry on to the other side peacefully. Though, things easily can get messy with this process.

If the soul stays in the body for more than 3-5 days, the body starts to decompose at a rapid pace with the soul still in it. This process is extremely painful and horrifying, and is usually not directly told to the person signing the contract. Whit tries to prevent this from happening through subtle hints (ex: "Are you sure you're not satisfied yet?", "Wouldn't it be fine to return now?", "You may stay longer, but don't blame me if anything happens.") but never tells them exactly why until it happens.

"If they didn't read the contract, that's their own fault. It was right there in print."

That's the basics of *what* he is doing! Now we get into the specifics as of why he chooses this method. Love wouldn't do something so taxing if it didn't benefit him (outside of being literally obligated to). So, what do they get out of it?

Well, we have to get into how this process works. Souls are made purely of energy. When the soul gets put back into the body, that energy manifests again into a physical form. The reason the bodies decompose rapidly after only 3-5 days, despite Whit himself putting the process on pause, is because he's harvesting the energy that the soul produces. The soul eventually loses enough energy to not be recognized as "alive" anymore, and falls apart quickly to make up for the paused time.

It actually benefits Whit a lot more if the person stays for too long and the body decomposes, because it releases more of the energy that went into keeping the body alive again (which ends up being a lot!) which is why Whit doesn't just tell people directly. If he can get the extra bonus, he will. After all, they've done their part, haven't they? They signed the contract and stayed long enough, surely any longer would just be greedy of them.

Why would Whit be harvesting this energy? What does he have to gain from this?

Whit actually has a sort of virus in his covered eye. It manifests as a red rose, and slowly spreads throughout his body in a way that sort of looks like cracks or veins.

god please let the image work

It's less accurate to call it a "virus", since it's really closer to a parasite. The parasite feasts on his powers and energy and slowly destroys love's angel form. Stopping love's work would mean letting it win, which would reduce them to a hollow shell. Literally. Love's body would remain as if it were living, but all senses would dissipate. Red roses would start blooming out of the cracks in love's body, and the parasite would thrive using his body as a home. Basically, Whit would enter a weird limbo state that's "not quite dead, not quite alive!".

Although I don't have a full explanation as of why this parasite appeared in the first place yet, my current WIP idea is that Whit attempted to use this process on his mom to see her one last time when they first became an angel, but her soul was already too far gone for them to reach. This plunged him into a deep depression for multiple weeks on end and caused it to bloom from his despair. It’s also because I’d like to base each angel around a flower. Whit has red roses since they represent love.

Well, that was a lot! Now time for personality changes!

He would be a lot more graceful and proper. Their job is pretty serious so I don't think they'd crack jokes nearly as often, but they can still enjoy a good pun now and then. They may also struggle a bit more with empathy and be more prone to actually disliking people and holding grudges, although they won’t show it. Manners come before personal opinion, especially when it comes to business matters.

A lot more laidback around the other angels. Would rather not give a bad first impression to a soul passing through their section. They have enough of their plate already, with just having died and everything. The other angels already know what love is like, though.

extra whit image for the soul to end this off on :3

[respectable-username]

What the actual fuck was Good Omens Season 2? Like actually, what the fuck? It feels like a first draft written by a first time writer that somehow mistakenly got put on air.

Spoilers under cut

First of all, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Cw assault: Crowley literally assaults Aziraphael by kissing him without consent. It was actually disgusting. And up until that point, Crowley had been the only character acting in-character in the entire series. And then you go ruin the only good character from the original series left by making them commit sexual assault, in the last 5 minutes of the series. How did nobody in the entire production process look at that and go "hey maybe let's not?"

And now onto the other offences of the show that hit well before the last 5 minute mark. None of these are nearly as disgusting as the one above, but they were considered absolutely awful just as writing offences before the _literal assault_ outshone them all.

Like I said, _nobody_ from the original series except for Crowley (ignoring those last 5 mins) acted in character. Poor Aziraphael's character was absolutely assassinated, especially undoing his character arc from the previous series. And what they did to Gabriel and Beelzebub? Those characters weren't the Gabriel and Beelzebub we saw in Season 1. Like, just nothing in common. And I'm not just talking about the amnesia plot (another lazy writing technique) but even the parts where he _should_ have been in character, he wasn't. It was _painful_ to watch the romance scenes at the end when a) the new actor for Beelzebub didn't have the same chemistry with Gabriel as the old actor, and b) THAT'S NOT HOW THESE NON-HUMAN CHARACTERS WOULD HAVE COURTED EACH OTHER. THEY'RE. NOT. HUMAN. THEY'RE SYMBOLS OF BUREAUCRACY. THEY'RE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CONCEPT OF UPPER MANAGEMENT. THEY ARE _NOT LOVEY DOVEY_.

Sorry, sorry. But also, an amnesia plot? Seriously? I know of exactly one place where an amnesia plot has been done well, in the book "The Rook", and pretty much nowhere else. It's _lazy_ and _cheap_ and did I mention UNDERMINES THE PURPOSE OF THE CHARACTER AS A SYMBOL OF UPPER MANAGEMENT RATHER THAN A FULL CHARACTER IN THEIR OWN RIGHT? Gah, and that's not to mention how the world doesn't act like the world in the scene he was introduced. Do you really think everybody on a busy street in London would stop and stare at a naked man happily walking along with a box covering what needs to be covered? Have you _met_ the British? The verisimilitude of the world was broken in that scene and never recovered, truly feeling like a set and not an actual London street like in the first series.

And then there was their piss-poor attempt at "diversity", which was textbook tokenism. Now I would like to be very, very clear here: I am pro-diversity in media. I'm pro telling a wider range of stories from a wider range of people. I'm hungry for queer love stories. But you know what else I'm hungry for? Good writing. And this feels like textbook "we need to throw these elements into the story to check the boxes the fans want", rather than actually taking the time and effort to craft a good story featuring diverse characters. All that to say, the lesbian relationship feels like it was shoehorned in there because some producer said "the audience wants gays, so let's give them gays". Never mind that their story felt rushed and shallow and the actors did _not_ have that kind of chemistry and did I mention shallow? Real human beings don't act like that. There was no subtlety or subtext or layers of meaning, just "character A says they love character B, character B rejects character A because they're already in a relationship, but character B's relationship is _obviously_ toxic and so character B will eventually break off that toxic relationship and end up with character A." And don't you come telling me that they didn't get together in the end. I've seen 16 year olds write romances with more grace than this. This being hit over the head with a cricket bat while the wielder screams "they're gay and in love do you get it" in your face. And it's doubly painful after how artfully Crowley and Aziraphael's relationship was crafted in the first series, filled with wonderful delicious depth and longing and subtext and beauty and just... the only flaw in the S1 writing of their relationship was the fact that the writers chickened out on having them get together in the end at the point it made sense in their character arcs. These S2 characters are little more than cardboard cutouts being puppeted by a couple of preteens who have yet to experience their first crush. And it just hurts because it only adds fuel to the homophobes' claims that queer relationships aren't good in media, because the two queer relationships that were explored were this first draft nonsense plus the one that resulted in _literal assault_.

And then there were the flashbacks that added nothing but yet still broke established canon. Yeah nah, those events happening at those times do not fit into the known character arcs of our leads over the centuries. And they didn't add anything new, aside from the groan at the nepo baby episode with Peter Davison (David Tennant's father in law) and Ty Tennant (David Tennant's son). Peter Davison you can get away with because both him and David Tennant were established actors before they became family, but then bringing the next gen in too? Especially as Ty Tennant is as white as A4 paper standing beside two mix-racer characters supposed to be his siblings. Couldn't you have gotten another mix-raced actor to play the part rather than Tennant's son? Though credit where credit's due, the actor who played Jemimah in that episode was bloody adorable and deserves all the good things.

And while mentioning positive things, I may as well post the other good things about the series: Shax was a delight, and Muriel was adorable and I just want to give them hugs and listen to them ramble about all the things they learned about earth for hours on end. And I think that's end of list.

Now back to the incompetent. You know how series one followed multiple characters in multiple locations and our favourite bois were only two of many leads? Yeah this series _only_ followed Crowley and Aziraphael. Which feels again like it's pandering to what some executive producer said the numbers told them the audience wanted. It feels like it misunderstands the first series on multiple fundamental levels. And it's not even like they had so much story that they only had time for Az and Crowley! The pacing drags as the characters perform inconsequential actions that don't move the story forward. This includes most of the flashback sequences. It's just... it's just bad. And the only reason the story even manages to take as long as it does is because it relies so heavily on an idiot plot. As in, plot points that only happen because the characters conveniently lose all their braincells in that moment. Honestly, that seems to be a major problem with the whole series, with plot driving characters instead of characters driving plot. It's just so _painful_ to watch!

I went into this series with low expectations, knowing it would never live up to the standard of the first season. I just don't understand how it somehow managed to successfully limbo under the already low expectation bar I'd set with so much clearance. And given the absolutely masterful first series in all aspects except for it's chickening out on Crowley and Aziraphael's relationship at the end, it feels like a slap in the face to follow it up with what feels like a design-by-numbers corporate cash grab. It feels disrespectful to the memory of Sir Terry Pratchett. It feels like what you get when you don't give writers the time, scope, and money they need to do their job properly. It feels an insult to the actors and set designers and cinematographers and all the other cast and crew who did their best with the material they were given. This season of television should never have been produced. I'm gonna spend next weekend rewatching season 1 to palette cleanse, then cancel my Prime Video subscription again.

And just to wrap up, all the Doctor Who references were painful. Yes, we know David Tennant starred in both shows. Yes, we know a lot of the core audience is the same. No, it's not clever to _keep bringing it up_. If it was one time, maybe you'd get away with it. But again, just another of those reminders that the executives are standing here going "put this in to make the audience happy" rather than being added because it made sense to the story being told. And I'm saying that as a big Whovian for whom Ten is my Doctor!

[deliriumsdelight7]

I hope it is okay to message you about this I don't want to swamp Phoenix with messages since I'm sure she has many anons right now! I survived my abusive ex who tried heavily to lie and twist things on me within our community, despite that he started dating and hurting me when I was 15 (til 17 when he found someone else) and he was almost 30, the tactics he and his friends used on me and other girls really similar in that callout. 1) One of those callout people dug deep into her blog, found a selfie from a decade and while they did color out her face there seems to be others digging elsewhere like her twitter, a lot of it reads as if leading to potential doxxing will come next. 2) Another user has a separate callout for someone that is writing for their pleasure smut with ST characters x children between newborn to 12 among other original stories, how the children enjoy it. Commenters include a man who talked about how enjoyable it was to read, to keep it up, and how he was writing one about a 12 month old. So LIKE idk how phoenix shipping dustin x erica when erica is older based on their dynamic and thinking it'd be cute one day makes her a monster just like those people writing shit like that? The skewed mindset is shocking. Maybe it makes me an anti to say that, but like jfc one is shipping because fun dynamics, the other is making literary csa for pleasure purposes. Not the damn same and to classify it as the same IS FUCKED for other victims and survivors of that. the call out about that is here: percygranate / 717945449642967040 and I really think that this deserves a lot more attention. Phoenix should not be in a class like what this example is doing. This literally how people ruined Michael Jackson's life. 3) This isn't really info but I do hope this can reach peace for you all. It's triggering to read the callouts. Erica being a young black girl played by a young black actress, I understand wanting to protect her and what she represents to fellow black fans, it is different for black people and I think that does deserve space for a conversation. Trying to have a dialogue and clear up miscommunications/things taken out of context is how this should have been handled, not a trying to ruin someone's life with such an evil real criminal label over fiction. Just a lot of love to Phoenix, you, and everyone else directly involved.

Thank you so much for all of this information, Anon. I’m really grateful that you took the time to write all of this, and I’m sure Phoenix will be, too.

I’m very sorry to hear that you were groomed and harassed by your abuser, and I hope you’ve been able to find healing from that.

For your first point: would you be able to send me links to any posts on that blog that threaten violence, doxxing, or any other harassment? Phoenix and I are blocked, and in order for us to report the harassment, we need links of the behavior. If you’re comfortable, you can reach out to me in DMs and I will absolutely respect your privacy and not share your identity with anyone. If you feel unsafe doing so, you can by all means stick with anon asks. Whatever you’re most comfortable with.

For your second point: I wasn’t even aware such a thing was happening. If so, that’s pretty damn gross. I would prefer to stay out of any public call-outs for it, though, because call-out culture is what’s landed fandom as a whole into the mess it currently is. I’m going to stick to my policy of “don’t like, don’t read” on this one. But, for the record? Hardcore squick.

As a side note, I’d like to point out that the “underage Chrissy” concept does not exist in a vacuum. I was there, Gandalf. I was there the day (cough MONTHS cough) The Other Ship accused Hellcheers of being pedophiles, going so far as to say that Chrissy was the same age as Mike and Dustin and Eddie was 22. A bunch of Hellcheers decided that if that ship was going to make a stink over an eighteen year old and a twenty year old, we’d give them something to complain about. Phoenix was far from the only person to indulge in it. In fact, for a few weeks, the Hellcheer Prompts blog was flooded with nothing but requests for underage Chrissy fics. All of this is to say, there are massive amounts of context missing from those call-out posts. Context which I was there for. THAT is why I defend Phoenix, and will continue to do so.

And for your final point, I 100% agree that a respectful dialogue could and should be had before jumping down people’s throats. Unfortunately, for many people, joining a mob and organizing a witch hunt is often more rewarding than having a constructive dialogue. Anger and outrage are an addiction. But living like that, creating an environment that demands moral purity on pain of life-ruining accusations and violence, it’s only a matter of time before you fuck up and the mob you were a part of turns on you.

Thank you again for taking the time to reach out, Anon. It’s deeply, DEEPLY appreciated.

[heybaetae]

Jimin said he would like to show a more raw (and I think he said explicit too?) side of him and everyone immediately thought: naked. Which is fair but what do you think this raw and explicit might mean? Do you think he would sing about his experiences sort of like Jungkook in My time? Or call out something like Yoongi likes to do? Honestly I don't think Jimin would do that But I also have no clue what he might be doing so everything is a possibility 😅

the maturity tends to fly out the window when any of them even remotely say anything that could be translated into english as meaning something sexual (whether they meant for it to or not) and it’s lowkey kinda tiring. i don’t say this to strip away the intention of their words if/when they are referring to something more mature in that way, but a recent example i can think of would be during namjoon’s live the night indigo dropped. he described one of the songs as giving one an “eargasm” but i think it was roughly translated as “ear orgasm” and grown ass people were literally having conniption fits over the fact that he may or may not have simply said the word orgasm in korean. like that’s not just a fucking word, but something to quiver over because people are always looking to sexualize anything namjoon says for no reason. and it was just so odd to me because they literally didn’t care or bother understanding the context of what he was actually saying or stop to remember that there is a literal language barrier that isn’t always going to translate exactly the same way between korean and english, such as slang terms like eargasm and that it’s okay to just…be normal sometimes lol. are we twelve? why are people behaving like this? anyway, YOUR QUESTION…idk! i kinda interpreted that comment from jimin as just writing much more personal lyrics and kinda laying himself bare in more of a figurative sense than literal. more open about his thoughts and feelings, not necessarily just about sex (if at all), but maybe more about his identity as a person. that’s what being “raw” means to me, anyway. i can easily see that being represented through more explicit visuals in choreo, concept photos or music videos. but who knows! i’m eager to find out! if he does take a more literal approach towards explicitness, then okie doke, good for him 👍🏻

[mdhwrites]

Why TOH really doesn't want a theme of discrimination.

Every demon in the show is depicted as evil, dumb or as good... because they don't want to be a part of demon culture.

That's the thesis and it's not an over exaggeration. In the main cast, the only demon of the DEMON REALM is Hooty who is treated as slow, less intelligent than the other members of the cast, and as a joke by the writers as he never elevates himself above being simply comic relief. Association with him seems to be the earliest sign that Lilith is meant to be seen as a joke and her relationship with Hooty ostracizes her from the rest of the cast. Makes her appear weird because she's the only one who can like the bird tube.

Otherwise, they're all antagonists. Most of them are just one note villains for that matter. In S1, every demon with a real speaking role is a villain. The monster hunters, Warden Wrath, Tibbles, the basilisk, the publisher for King and even Boscha if her third eye denotes demonic heritage. Anyone who we see at least as neutral are pretty much just background characters. The ones from the prison in the first episode are really the only ones who get a moment of heroism.

Now you might say: What about Bat Queen? She's the richest person on the Isles and she... Isn't a demon. She's a palisman. Made by, or at least for, a god with the insinuation they give. Bare minimum: Not for any demon known to the Isles. So she doesn't count.

There ARE witch antagonists in S1 thankfully. They're Matt, who goes on to obviously be a good person at heart, Amity who... Duh and Lilith who is also redeemed. None of this happens to any of the demons though even if ostensibly this is their world since the entire dimension is named after demons.

Which, as a note, also is part of why saying TOH is anti-colonial means ignoring an entire race.

Even KING, who should have been the demon representative in the main cast, was then retconned not to be one. Worse yet, only once that retcon began did the show start treating him with any real respect. As a demon... He was just a dumb comic relief character as far as the show is concerned.

So when we FINALLY get a reoccurring demon... It's Kikimora. That should be all I need to say there.

Now the final argument: Vee. Vee is a good person, right? She's not a villain or antagonist, just a good person. And you would be right. The framing on Vee is the problem. As the ONE genuinely just good demon, we have to evaluate how she is different. She is different... Because she rejected the Demon Realm. Her parallels with Luz are even supposed to make it clear that she is better at being a human THAN LUZ. Which has the awful implication, if we want to say TOH has anti-discrimination theme, that the only good demon, is a domesticated demon. One who wants to be a human.

That's. Fucking. Awful.

And just to cover my bases: Yes, discrimination is more than a race thing but the concept of discrimination on race is actually pretty much the only one ever brought up. The fact that no one gives a shit about ethnicity or sexuality or gender actually hurts the theme because you have to project those things onto the show instead. And any allegory to discrimination is explicitly done through races. Fantasy races but that still frames it as a racial issue so its theme on anti-discrimination is going to struggle to branch out beyond racial lines because it effectively ignores that any other form of discrimination might even EXIST.

And for the finale!... I don't think any of this is on purpose by the writers. Yes, they bring discrimination into the show but just like how real life conflicts will often ignore the complexities of all the groups present, such as us referring to all Native Americans as one whole group rather than their separate tribes and histories, the show effectively forgets about the demons. They're just there for flavor because if literally all of the characters of the demon realm were elves, it wouldn't feel like it fits the name at all. It adds spice to a scene and adventure if you have demons of all sorts and sizes.

But the witches are the conventionally attractive characters who are easy to latch onto and so they are the main cast. Everything that looks other becomes a target for villainy because of that juxtaposition. Unfortunately, none of this helps any sort theme of inclusivity. That we are supposed to look past the outer shell and see the person within, regardless, race, gender, sexuality, etc. like that.

Instead, TOH tells a very basic fantasy story and in doing so, falls into the fact that a lot of classic fantasy was written by racist white dudes and the fact that the term demon is charged due to LOTS of religions that paint them out as wholly evil. Without actually interrogating these concepts, it can be easy to fall into them.

So yeah, I think this is a theme people need to stop trying to apply to TOH.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[brookstolemybrand]

The more I think about the "Imu = Umi (Sea)" theory, the more I hate it

1: It's entirely based on writing their name out in Latin letters, even though we don't even know which romaji spelling (if any) Oda was thinking of for the name イム. We don't even know if "Imu" is what he had in mind, it could be "Im" or even fucking "Emu" for all we know. It has never been written in romaji in the manga as far as I know

If you reversed their name in Japanese it'd be ムイ "mui". Which, actually if you do look up "mui", you get 無為 which Wiktionary translates as "idleness" or "inaction", including a concept in Taoism that I'm not familiar with so I'm not gonna comment on that any further, and "the ultimate truth of detachment from nidāna (causes and effects)" in Buddhism, which is kinda fun for the next point:

2: I think the wordplay that's way more likely here is either イム (Imu) coming from the kanji 仏 (Buddha (or a buddha, as in an enlightened person)), or the verb いむ meaning "to avoid" or "to detest", or both

The 仏 connection also works because it also applies to their presumed surname Nerona: ネロナ = 神 ("god")

So that's a pretty strong indication that we're supposed to see them as some kind of a spiritual or godly figure, or that that's what they see themself as (well we knew that already lbr)

Also the way Imu uses the made-up pronoun ムー "muu" to refer to themself makes me think the "mu" could also be relevant and the word that immediately comes to mind from "mu" is 無 = nothingness

3: How is Imu in any way related to the sea? The guy lives literally as far from the sea as physically possible. There's no connection. The only thing that maybe barely could be argued to connect them to the sea would be that they caused the sea level to rise by nuking Lulusia, but even then that seems like a stretch. They didn't directly raise the sea level, they used the sky themed ancient weapon to create an empty hole in the ocean. That's less of a sea power and more of a sky power, which the sea itself then reacted to by rising. If they really represented the sea then why not give them Poseidon? (Either by making Imu Poseidon instead of Shirahoshi or by just changing what Poseidon even is). Or just giving Imu sea powers in some other way.

To me Imu seems like a character that's strongly associated with the void, not the sea. They're all about erasing things, places, people, history, even the knowledge of their own existence

... idk, maybe I'll be proven wrong and it turns out that yeah Imu was the incarnation of the sea all along, but I highly doubt it

The interpretations I presented could be equally wrong, but at least they make more sense to me (ftr they're not my own ideas, they're ones I've seen other people suggest, although I am sorta loosely interpreting and connecting them myself here. Which could be a bunch of nonsense, who knows, obviously I'm not fluent in Japanese and I don't know much about Buddhism, much less Taoism)

[hersweetrevenge]

WARNING for a long conversation about abuse, violence, consent (or lack of), sexual dysfunction and a truly, deeply unhealthy relationship.

even after posting this, i've been thinking on what it was about michael and corey that i was trying to present through this story. what part of their vile and interesting and fucked up relationship does this story represent?

there are two sides of the cunningmyers coin:

a partners-in-crime romance that indulges in sex, violence and the american dream.

an abusive partnership where genuine violence and trauma is rife.

romance

i focus mostly on the romantic elements, because i mostly write from corey's perspective and that is what he is focusing on. he's enjoying himself, he feels in control -- this is poetic justice and sweet revenge on a whole other level. core is forever looking for a way out, he's a man who's been emasculated, belittled and brutalised his whole life, and he's finally free from it all !! corey is heading west and nothing can stop him !!

michael represents everything corey wants (power, masculinity, control) and everything he's been told he is (monstrous, violent, unlovable). corey sees everything in michael -- a lover, a father, a god -- and seeks to maintain that by any means necessary.

the whole point of corey and michael's relationship is that it's a movie. a movie where they're on the run, robbing liquor stores and staying at cheap motels, never stopping until they make it to the edge and disappear on the horizon. ghosts in the desert. this is what corey wants and michael is his enabler.

abusive

it's very, very obvious that corey and michael have an unhealthy, unstable and depraved relationship. the checklist of problems with their relationship is truly endless (a huge age gap, untreated mental illness, literal murder) and from an outside perspective, they are ultimately two people that -- if one doesn't kill the other first -- can only make each other worse.

@/toastysalt actually made me realise back in loving the dead (my other dd;dne) that the power imbalance is constantly swinging from michael to corey and back again.

in loving the dead, corey wants to have sex with michael while pretending to be a corpse. he suggests this idea by telling michael it's "like play-pretend" because that's the only way he thinks michael will understand him. i don't think for one second that michael is anything close to unintelligent, but corey uses a simple, childish concept to explain it, completely missing all of the nuance and negotiation that comes with healthy kink practice.

similarly, in holy water corey initiates sex on somewhat shaky grounds. he's offering a favour, but it's something that corey wants, something he wants michael to want.

i'm a firm believer in corey's manipulative nature (a trait he gets directly from joan). in many instances he isn't being malicious in the sense of trying to hurt someone through manipulation, but he does use manipulation to try and get his desired outcome. corey does what he has to do to get his desired result. but then, as toastysalt said, "michael is such a menacing motherfucker" that it's difficult to imagine manipulation working on him -- it might be corey's intention but they're both so awful that even their most fucked-up desires or behaviours are all just part of the give-and-take situation they're in.

even in terms of their age gap, one of the more standard "problematic" aspects of the relationship, the power imbalance isn't clear. michael is much, much older than corey and corey treats him with the authority that comes with that, but michael has a very limited experience of the world, he's been institutionalised since the age of 6 and his emotional and social growth have been stunted ever since. similarly, corey grew up in an abusive home where he was infantilised and emasculated, while also baring the emotional responsibility of dealing with joan's dysfunctional emotional conditions, but his socialisation is much better even if he is awkward or shy. corey has knowledge, or access to knowledge, that michael never had, he's much better at taking the lead when interacting in the world than michael could ever be.

@/slutforstabbings has given me so many thoughts about my own work over the past year or so, but specifically about how michael views corey, in contrast to how corey views michael. michael regards corey with a sort of morbid curiosity -- he studies him the way he was studied. michael doesn't need the "companionship", but corey's own intelligence and mood swings and sick little fantasies are interesting enough for michael to keep him around, for now. honestly, corey is like enrichment for michael.

any semblance of "care" michael shows comes down to conditioned behaviour that michael just hasn't shaken off yet. like when he "checks in" on corey when he's in the bath -- would michael actually save corey if something happened? probably not, but also it's just something you do -- check on someone in the bath). if michael wanted to kill corey, he would do it. he probably will do it, one day.

the fact that neither corey nor michael have stable or proportional views of the other provides a huge opportunity for skewed dynamics, with both of them tolerating the others behaviour for different reasons. michael because corey's downward spiral is entertaining, and corey because this is what love is, right?

consent

i think the true point of you're awful, i love you is the idea of consent and how that would even work when neither corey or michael have the capacity for a healthy relationship. they both have profound trauma, they both have issues with compulsion and/or control, as well as with boundaries and behaviour, and they both have the capacity for severe violence. the sexual element of their relationship is fundamentally dubiously consensual for both corey and michael.

before we even consider the sexual element, this whole relationship is built directly on violence. michael has tried to kill corey and corey has fought back to an injuring degree. corey is kept in line with violence, and he still wants to connect it to some sort of love because otherwise he's just being smacked around again, just like he has been his whole life. the fact that michael keeps sparing him is what keeps corey sweet.

i think of michael as asexual in that he does not experience sexual attraction, and completely sexually-indifferent, in that he has literally no opinion on sex, good or bad. michael would always pick violence over sex, but if necessary, if there is nothing left to slash and stab and drain then sex will do. michael is fascinated by the human body as a source of detached eroticism, evoked by gore and wounds and the last gasping breath of life. and if not prompted by violence, arousal is simply a function over which he has no shame. all that is to say that michael wouldn't choose to have sex with corey, if violence was an option.

corey does experience attraction and is sexually driven in a way michael doesn't even understand. to his own detriment, corey is a people pleaser. he's been told how unlovable he is, and is desperate for approval, validation and affection. coupled with the heavy implication of abuse at home (where boundaries are very loose at best) and numerous issues regarding gender and interpersonal relationships, corey's misplaced sexual appetite leads him towards unsafe and unhealthy behaviours. is corey specifically attracted to michael, or does michael just represent everything corey is attracted to?

both michael and corey have psychosexual issues which manifest in unconventional sexual "preferences". i put preferences in quotes because i don't think michael has preferences, but he does have optimal situations where corey's advances would be most effective (namely post-murder), while corey veers wildly from the opinion of sex-as-violence to sex-as-currency to sex-as-validation, depending on his mood. if corey wants michael to hurt him, it's because love and violence are directly connected in corey's mind, to a fetishistic degree. if corey wants michael to be in love with him, it's because corey in unlovable and if anyone could love him it's someone like michael. he needs michael's love, imagined or not, and will seek it out by any means necessary.

their whole relationship can be spun in so many terrible, unethical ways. there are no good dynamics with them, in every possible scenario there is a question about if either of them are entirely informed and willing.

corey won't enforce sexual boundaries even if he's being hurt. is that really consensual, if corey wouldn't or couldn't stop michael? michael has no personal desire for sex, so is corey taking advantage of him for his own desires, especially when he consistently suggests that it's michael who wants it? but then michael could physically stop corey if he waned to, so isn't his neutrality equivalent to consent? and corey could stop offering favours if he wanted to, because michael doesn't care either way, so isn't that corey's own choice, even if it's a misplaced way to keep michael pleased with him?

in conclusion

despite my bonnie and clyde road trip, the horrible, fucked up realities of corey and michael's relationship is what makes it so compelling to me. i want them to fight and fuck and make each other so, so, so much worse. i want it to hurt them.

both of these characters are complex and utterly dredged in issues that trying to piece their relationship together in any sort of way is interesting.

you're awful, i love you

corey and michael have a toxic and problematic relationship? no way! but their toxic ways aren't as clean cut as you might expect. the question is: who is really in control?

WARNINGS for corey cunningham x michael myers, age difference (not specified but inherent), smut, unsafe kink practices (safeword? what's a safeword?), murder, domestic violence (up for interpretation), dubious consent (with suggestions of other consent issues), an implied abusive relationship and a brief reference to child abuse. tagged heavily for safety. dead dove; do not eat.

taglist: @slutforstabbings @ethanhoewke @voxmortuus (if anyone else wants to be tagged in corey related things, just let me know !! or if you don't want to be tagged anymore, that's okay too, just let me know !!)

Corey never says no.

Doing as he’s told is easy. It’s safe. He’s been doing it for as long as he can remember, being good and obedient and unresisting. Sit, stay, behave.

There’s a hand around his throat, crushing and cold, and Corey stops kicking a lot sooner than he would like to admit. Hollow, black eyes bore into his and it hurts. Hurts deep down in his chest and he can feel himself falling, staring straight back into those unforgiving eyes and Corey wants so badly to say no, to make it stop, but he can’t bring himself to do it.

He doesn’t realise that Michael – and that was Michael, wasn’t it? – has let him go until the fresh air almost winds him and the stark morning light burns his eyes.

As he crawls through the scrub, covered in filth, he ignores the ache in the pit of his stomach. He’s had better mornings. He’s had worse ones too.

Corey is covered in blood and not all of it is his.

The corpses, propped neatly in the corner, never saw it coming. How could they? Sound asleep in their motel room; silly them, forgetting to lock the door. The handle was cold in Corey’s grip, he twists it, slowly, listening for movement inside but hearing nothing but their steady, sleeping breaths.

Michael has this down to a fine art, and who is Corey to stop him? No, Corey hasn’t been able to stop Michael, even if he’d wanted too, since that very first time he looked into Michael’s unforgiving eyes.

Corey watches Michael’s knife sink into hot flesh, blood spilling thickly onto the rumpled sheets, and he’s jealous. Fuck, he’s jealous. Because there’s blood on his face and the walls and all over the sheets, and Corey can see Michael’s growing arousal as he draws the knife back, before plunging it in again. Controlled and primal all at once, the way Michael unleashes himself on them. And oh god, Corey wants that, he wants to let Michael tear him apart like that, wants to be at his mercy, wants to be the thing that makes Michael hard and throbbing beneath his clothes. He wants, he wants, he wants.

The blood-soaked sheets dry slowly, sticking to Corey where he’s bent over the end of the bed.

Michael isn’t nice to him, but Corey tells himself he likes it that way. Love and violence always come hand-in-hand, don't they? Michael is rough and fast and unstoppable. Controlled and primal all at once, the way Michael's bloodlust always finds it's way to Corey, willing and waiting to receive it. Corey is just like any other body for Michael to split open with his violence – with his knife, or his cock, or his bare fucking hands – but doing it this way means he can do it over and over again.

Corey is covered in blood and some of it is his. He’s dripping with it, down his thighs and his face, tasting like pennies in his mouth. Corey should know better by now, should know that nothing can stop Michael when he’s riled up, when there’s nothing and no one left to satiate him any other way. Corey bites down on his lip again, breath hitching with every thrust but it’s too big, too fast, too rough for him to even try and brace himself. He wants it so badly that it feels like the most awful betrayal when all he can think about is how much it hurts.

Through gritted teeth, Corey gasps, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” when he comes. Michael grunts, low and hoarse in his throat. Stoic. Or curious. He’s curious, watching Corey feel something he himself has never felt before. Studying the way Corey’s face scrunches, how he whines and pants. Observing how Corey’s shaking hand grips his half-hard cock while he rides out Michael’s violence. Sit, stay, surrender.

In truth, Michael had never touched Corey with anything other than violence, but Corey doesn’t know that. Or maybe he does, and he simply chooses to forgive, because he just doesn’t know any better.

(Violence, violence, violence...)

When it’s over, Corey rolls onto his back, sore and sticky and silent.

They’re not fucking anymore, they’re fighting. And somehow Corey still gets weak-kneed for a hand that feels like home around his throat.

Corey had pushed too far, said the wrong thing, fucked up in some way he could never of predicted. There’s a hand around his throat, heavy and hot. He scrabbles at Michael desperately, short nails digging into weathered skin as Corey tries to pry him off. Just like our first time, Corey thinks, only he tells himself that he can’t quite remember it.

The walls in this place are thin, and their neighbour from the room next door bangs hard, twice, for them to keep it down. Corey can’t help the way his legs kick, the scuff marks his boots leave behind when his feet catch the wood-panelled walls.

A knee lands in Michael's gut, and a sickening second goes by while he processes the blow. Corey's eyes are still wide and wet, but his lip twitches into an almost-smirk.

Underhanded, perhaps, but Corey always fights a little dirty. It's his one defence against Michael's inordinate, brutish strength; a knee in the gut, a bite deep enough to draw blood, a half-hearted gouge at a milky-blind eye, a sharp kick to the knee as he scrambles back, the frantic groping at a rotting latex face.

Corey drops into a heap on the musty carpet, throat burning as he sucks in a breath. Michael stands there, staring, with cruel black eyes. Sit, stay, obey.

Michael doesn’t usually hit him – just chokes and grabs and manhandles – and for that Corey is grateful. It would remind him far too much of Momma.

Doing what he’s told is safe. But it’s even safer to do it before he’s told. Show Michael how good he is for him – how good and obedient and unresisting – before he can even decide that Corey might have been bad at all. And Corey is good, which is probably why he’s always owing so many favours.

“Thanks, I owe you one.”

It was already late when they crossed the state line into New York hours ago, and the next motel they find will definitely have their names on it. But Corey’s starving – he’s always starving – and Michael stops at the Wendy’s drive-thru when Corey asks.

“Please, Michael. I’ll do you a favour?”

They’re driving through Oregon and Corey wants to go camping. At the next general store they pass, they load up on supplies – food, water, maps, sleeping bags – and head off the road into the forest. The night sky is so clear it’s almost scary how many stares watch them as they lie in the bed of the truck.

“I’ll do whatever you want, anything you want.”

Some half-drunk asshole in Nebraska picks a fight with Corey, over something or nothing, while he’s smoking outside a bar. Corey holds his ground, bracing himself against each shove before the guy gets bored and lets his grudge go, but not before spitting at Corey’s feet and ambling off into the night. Later, Corey watches the blood pool at the drunk's feet as Michael draws his knife back.

The only light in their motel room comes from the TV set, out-dated by about 20 years and hanging on just barely to a signal from the crooked aerial. It’s better that way – so no one can see what they do in the dark.

“You want me to do you that favour?” Corey always asks, as though Michael might answer. He pouts, lips parted just slightly, as he looks up at the older man from down on his knees. On his knees like he’s bringing offerings to an altar. And he is, in a way. Offering up his goodness, his obedience, and praying that it’s enough. Enough for what? Sit, stay, beg.

Michael stays still, watching carefully as Corey moves slowly, hesitant in the same way he was when they had come across a deer walking down an empty highway. Corey had made them stop, hopping out of the truck, holding an upturned hand out to the creature. Corey, who had barely so much as petted a dog before, oh so gently led the deer off the road, into the flanking forests. Corey undoes Michael’s fly.

Michael never says no.

[kitkatpancakestack]

Actual real genuine question from someone who has shipped Buddie since the nanosecond Buck turned around to look at the new guy… but I’m wondering what makes you feel that canon Buddie is inevitable? Sorry if you’ve addressed this before but I just watched the season 5 finale and have pretty much lost all hope at this point so I’m really interested in your side of it.

Hey anon! No worries, I'd be happy to go into my thought process a little. Apologies if this gets long!

So, I should preface by saying I didn't actually start seeing Buck and Eddie as a possible romantic pairing until the back half of s3. And I wasn't set in stone about it until s4. And s5 has just been a rollercoaster ride.

The way I view their relationship I try to view through the lens of every other canon couple I've been a proponent of over the years. Admittedly there is a certain trepidation and hesitancy around Buck and Eddie, just because of what them being together would entail, and the fact that a story like theirs really hasn't been shown on television before. But I think it helps to get down to the foundation of it all, bypassing all of the ready reasons why it "can't" happen or "won't" happen or "will never" happen. I've said before that there is what the script is saying, and there is what the scripts is saying. Foreshadowing and story arcs are represented through scene transitions, music choice, wardrobe, and thematic parallels. Things don't just pop up out of nowhere. There is usually always established precedence for something occurring on the show. I try to think along the lines of what we are being told vs. what we are being shown. For example:

During Eddie's awkward af relationship storyline with Ana, we were being told that he was finally moving on and doing something for himself and had found the perfect addition to his family. We were being shown that there was something dishonest about his approach to dating her and that it wasn't explicitly for himself.

From the minute Buck and Taylor reconnected, we were told that they were both in a similar state of stagnancy regarding relationships and that they had grown and would likely slot together in a more compatible way. We were shown that their core identities had not actually changed and they were careening toward this inevitable dissolution of their relationship.

(putting the rest under a cut to save y'all's dashboards)

I think a lot of people were disappointed after 4x14 as well, which I understood in the context of what we were told (Buck and Taylor kissing and getting together because they're compatible in their goals now), but not in the context of what we were shown (Buck being suspicious right off the bat of why Taylor is waiting for him outside the hospital; Buck not running after Taylor because Ana called to tell him Eddie was awake; The will scene coming after and not before the kiss scene with Taylor).

I could literally go for pages dissecting scenes and transitions and other choices (hmu if you want any of that, it's hiatus season so that means it's peak crackheadery time), but for the sake of not doing that here I'll just mention the two scenes in s5 that really fucking sealed the deal for me:

Eddie holding Buck and Christopher's heart drawings in his hands

Ravi's "a partner should be someone who always has your back" comment to Buck.

Those two choices just . . . kind of floored me, tbh. And they wouldn't be significant if there was not precedence for that significance, because we've seen the extended metaphor of Eddie + hearts since s4, and the concept of partnerships and ideal partners being someone who "has your back" was the literal shooting off point of Buck and Eddie's relationship, and the stated reason Eddie and Shannon didn't work out.

Obviously these are my opinions and my beliefs but I feel pretty good about them. And also there's so much story that has already been told and so much story yet to be told, so I wouldn't give up hope just yet, but I can't singlehandedly convince you of that. I suggest going back and doing a rewatch because sometimes when you consume it all together like that and not piece by piece weekly, it's a lot harder to look away from.

I hope this helped at least a little bit, and if you need anymore clarification or anything else, feel free to reach out! It's hiatus season baby!

(and, yes, I am prepare to eat my words if all of this turns out to be nothing, but I am also prepared to dance upon the graves of all those who doubted. I'm ready for anything.)