#i mean he was plenty angry in general for the way his people have been treated around him

[aceofwonders]

the extra layer to rhydian’s anger issues in that he doesn’t even know who exactly killed his dad so he does not have anyone specific to blame or direct his anger towards

[variousqueerthings]

i do think that specifically david tennant being very openly supportive of the trans community has had an interesting effect -- because usually im kinda like "it is nice to know that people whose work i enjoy don't want me dead" and that's kinda my level of (at this point) quite cynical engagement with what a celebrity or artist does or does not think about transness, because these days it feels like it's almost fashionable for well-known (or post-well-known) people to come out of the wordwork and say what they think about trans people, which can get very stressful in its own way (the amount of headlines that try to be misleading or just plain don't say and so you're just like "ok i guess this week i have to find out if [spins wheel] thinks i deserve rights")

but david tennant has a different feeling to it. and to be fair, there are plenty of people with skin in the game, who absolutely deserve to and ought to speak out on behalf of their children/partners/community/friends/family/etc. and im always happy to see these people speak, and dt is included in that list as well

but david tennant is veeery specific in this here country of terf island, in which the labour party will openly state that it will allow certain book writers to affect their policies on trans people, and that's partly because of the effect above in which "having opinions on trans rights seems to be a celebrity game that keeps you relevant, which includes ex prime minister tony blair making his opinion known (hint, it wasn't a good one)" but also because david tennant is known as a national icon to rival that of whatsherface

he was the main actor on doctor who, in the top three, if not very top of british broadcasting iconography that exists. he's one of this generation's most famous shakespearian actors, the other thing that this country-as-culture is most proud of. he's a mainstay in children's film and tv, a standout in modern british crime drama (broadchurch, des), and that's not mentioning things like jessica jones, good omens, and star wars

this guy has no social media, and some of the biggest cultural capital in the uk today -- labour i believe it was made a twitter joke about him ousting the current prime minister as the doctor ahead of this week's election, because that's an iconic scene from doctor who

which means that when he openly calls transphobes whingy and asks them to shut up, there's a bit of a ripple... i mean what are you gonna do, get angry with the doctor? from doctor who??? the man who played a definitive hamlet????? the man who's just done rave reviewed performances of macbeth???? scrooge mcduck????????? this man who occasionally guests on cbeebies???????????

said prime minister and his party and hosts of transphobes go absolutely crazy every time he makes an appearance wearing new trans ally apparel, as if a. he sees any of that and b. it's a dignified response to a man saying, in essence, "i would like my kid to be safe and happy"

david tennant constantly making these statements, again and again, is a powerful voice in the modern fight for trans rights in the UK, in some ways unfortunately, because you wish trans people could have been heard before it got to this state and that it wasn't about being famous, but to be fair, he's also making that point again and again

it kind of feels like the first time in a long time that there's been proper pushback against transphobia in this country from a perspective that the transphobes can't dismiss so easily -- they can try but like. again, one side is a bunch of raving nonsense-spouters on a joke website who mostly belong to a party that's about to get decidedly ousted from the political scene, the other is beloved national icon and star of stage and screen, mr david tennant

of course, it doesn't hurt that the three main actors of harry potter and everyone else who's majorly involved in doctor who, past and present, is also supportive of trans rights, which maybe there's a separate point to be made about the strangeness of a mainstream tv show becoming a cultural battleground for peoples opinions on equal rights, especially now with ncuti gatwa at the helm, because i think some of what ive seen in relation to dw is more extreme than any piece of cultural media ive been alive to witness bigoted reactions to (including star trek), and ncuti gatwa as a black queer man is taking a hell of a lot of flack that is racist and homophobic

but labour... if you're inviting random artists to give you opinions on trans rights, david tennant is right there, and you know he'd make sure to bring along trans rights activists and professionals to get the space in the room they ought to have had all along

[olderthannetfic]

I don't get my fandom. They want more queer rep. The main cast is a bisexual femme woman with a preference for women, an aroace gender-indifferent AMAB man, a genderfluid all-pronouns using AMAB person with a beard who wears a dress, and a biromantic asexual bigender AMAB man who is agender + male. The supporting cast has a lesbian girl, a middle-aged ace het woman living semi-romantically with another woman who is the main cast's (emotional) adoptive mom, and a ambiguously queer character whose gender is never really confirmed or discussed.

A big criticism I also see is "the writing team is all cishet". One, we don't know that, someone could be closeted. Two, why is that a problem? I think it's great that they went, "this makes sense for who this character is. We don't have to force them to be cishetallo just because that's what you normally see in animation. Web animation can be different. This is who this person is and that's fine."

I'm 19. I talked to my half brother, who is 38, about this and he actually choked on his coffee. He said when he was my age, nothing like this was easily accessible for him. It would have been jaw-dropping representation for him. I asked about the writers being cishetallo and he said, "who fucking cares? I would've moved Heaven and Earth to see these characters hanging out and just fucking existing back then!"

I know you get a metric fuckton of asks, but I'd love to hear your take on this. You've been in the queer community way longer than I have (I've barely started interacting with queer people IRL; I grew up in rural Wyoming) and I do wonder what this debacle looks like to people in other age groups. I'd also be curious to know what older people would've thought if they'd seen this friend group in media when they were younger. I know it means a lot to me. But I feel like I don't get what it would have meant back then.

--

Well, written up like this, it might get an eye-roll for sounding like Captain Planet casting. (You know "One of A and one of B and one of C" in a way that feels kind of forced.)

But yes, I think most older queer people when looking at the actual canon would be like "Sweet! A cast full of queer characters!"

I grew up somewhere shockingly liberal for the 90s next door to some old, married lesbians (who still live there, as it happens). It still sucked for teenagers. I had an okay time, but I was always hearing about other teens having an awful time even as the adults in the same communities did okay. And that's a very, very good version of what it was like in the 90s.

I did have access to queer media, vastly more access than most teens had. It was still mostly art films, boring coming out memoir, and The Pain of Being a Minority serious literature. What I wanted was genre fiction with a romance b-plot between queer characters I found hot. There was a bit of that, but not much.

I don't know that I personally would have killed for the exact set of queer rep in a modern show, but that makes sense. There are plenty of identities that present about the same but where people have internal reasons for choosing one or another. There are different forces making one queer identity or another more embattled at a given point in time. So while broadly similar queer people have always existed, there actually are fads in identity to an extent. (This is different from "wharrgarbl, the blue hairs with their pronouns!!!", which is just people being ahistorical assholes.) Modern media does and should reflect these differences. It might be for me, but it's going to be for 40-something me, not teenage me if it's coming out right now. If it's for current teens, it's not for teen me.

But yeah, in a general sense, I agree with your brother: "Damn, we have so much today! That's cool!"

The kvetching is usually people being angry that it's not representing their exact slice of queerness instead of someone else's. Or, let's be honest, a lot of it is "You didn't make my ship happen! How dare?!" dressed up as activism.

...

One thing I will say is that teenagers were extremely dramatic in my day too, and black-and-white thinking was just as common. Looking a gift horse in the mouth is not new. Yes, your fandom is full of idiots, but I wouldn't read too much into it.

[vodika-vibes]

a innocent, tiny sunshine reader being completely oblivious with alpha-17?

The Devil's Luck

Summary: You’re parents have always warned you that you were far too naive about the way the world works, they feared that you would have a bad ending. But you’ve never been worried. You’ve always had the devil’s own luck, after all.

Pairing: Alpha-17 x F!Reader

Word Count: 1018

Warnings: None

Tagging: @trixie2023 @n0vqni @imabeautifulbutterfly

A/N: This is another ask that's been sitting in my inbox since last year. I'm a little worried that I didn't quite get the vibe needed for the oblivious, sunshine reader since I wrote from the reader's POV rather than Alpha's. This is set in an AU where Alpha-17 somehow became Mandalore (I have a whole plot on how that happened, but it's largely unimportant to this.)

“How are you adapting to life in the North?” The currently Mandalore, Alpha-17, asks in a low rumble as he towers over you. “It is very different than life in Sundari.”

“Different, but not bad.” You agree as you favor the massive man with a brilliant smile, “I’m just glad that you aren’t going to try and force to fight for you.”

There’s a dry look on his heavily scarred, but handsome, face. “There are plenty of men here who are more than happy to fight, an unwilling soldier is more of a risk than an untrained one after all.”

You laugh, “I’ll take your word for it.”

He glances around your home, still filled with unpacked crates and boxes, and sparsely decorated. “And how are the others treating you? I would hate for you to inform the Duchess that you’re being mistreated.”

“I think you’re overestimating how much Lady Satine cares about what I have to say.” You open a box and peer into it, cooking utensils. Nice, you’ve been looking for these. “The Duchess has already determined what she thinks of you and yours, Mandalore.”

“And what does her grace think of us?”

“That you’re little more than rabid animals, I’m afraid.” You’re genuinely apologetic about telling him that, “I was warned, on more than one occasion, that I should expect to be treated as little more than chattel.”

Alpha raps his knuckles on your counter, annoyance clear on his face, “Is that right. And she sent you here anyway?”

“She didn’t.”

“Sorry?”

“Send me. I’ve been wanting to leave Sundari for ages so I jumped at the chance.” You grin at him, “My parents were horrified.”

He crosses his arms across his broad chest, “If you wanted to leave, why didn’t you move away before?”

“My parents.” You reply as you make a face.

“...you’re an adult.”

“Yeah, that argument only really works in theory.” You shrug, “They think that I’m naive and worried that leaving Sundari would have me accidentally joining a cult or something. Apparently I’m ‘easily influenced’.”

He quirks an eyebrow, “That is pretty concerning, if it’s true.”

“I’ve never been worried. I’m Lady Lucks favorite.”

He releases a quiet chuckle, “Sure you are.” His dark eyes scan you for a moment, and then he leans back against your counter, “I’m having a dinner tonight. Nothing big or overly fancy, just me and some of the ambassadors towards the other sects of Mandalorians.”

“Sounds awful.”

“Generally is.” He agrees, “I want you to come.”

“Me? Why?”

“Because you’re a New Mandalorian who not only moved from Sundari to Little Keldabe, but is also thriving.” Alpha replies honestly, “Because you’re short and cute and very non-threatening. Because I want you there to have someone interesting to talk to.” He shrugs, unconcerned, “Take your pick.”

“...you think I’m cute?”

He shoots you a look, “Is that really the important thing here?”

“Yes~”

“I think you’re cute, beautiful, stunning. All of those nice things that you’re supposed to say to a woman.” Alpha replies with a roll of his eyes.

You grin at him, “Thank you~”

“You’re welcome. So, do you want to come?”

“Mm...I don’t really have anything to wear to a nice dinner.” You admit, “And won’t people get angry about you inviting me and not them?”

“By people you mean my brothers? If they have a problem with it they can come and talk to me.” He pauses, “But knowing my brothers, the moment they hear the word politics they’re going to run for the hills.”

You laugh softly, “I don’t blame them, really.” You fall silent for a moment, tapping your lower lip with your knuckles, “Yeah, alright. I’ll come to dinner with you.”

“Good,” He lowers his arms and leans them against the edge of the counter, “And now, because you told me that you’re oblivious, I’m going to be much more clear.”

You tilt your head curiously.

“This is a date. I’m asking you to come on a date with me.” Alpha says, amusement clear in his voice, “My intention is for this to become something more.”

You stare at him, your lips parted for a moment, and then your face burns. “...oh.” You squeak out.

“Is this a problem?” Alpha asks.

“No! Uh...outside of the fact that I don’t think I’m ‘mandalore’s girlfriend’ material.” You say quickly as you press your hands against your burning cheeks and try to force the flush away.

“The only person who’s allowed to decide that is me. And if I say that you are, no one is going to question me on it.” Alpha stares at you for a long moment, “So, still interested?”

“Yes!” Your face burns when you realize just how excited you sound about it, and you squeeze your eyes shut as you slide your hands over your face, “Um...I mean...yes. I am.”

You don’t see Alpha���s wide grin, and you don’t see him push away from your counter. You do, however, feel him wrap his hands around your wrists and tug them down away from your face, “There you are.” He murmurs his voice a low rumble that rolls through you pleasantly.

“...hi.” You whisper up to him.

“Hi yourself.” Effortlessly, he walks you backwards until your back bumps against the wall, “Is this too much?”

“No.” You reply immediately, “I think it might not be enough.”

He chuckles, and lowers his head so that his lips are hovering just over yours, “I think ‘Mandalore’s Girlfriend’ is a perfect title for you.” Alpha says, “What do you think, cyar’ika?”

“I think it sounds really good.” You agree.

“Good.” He closes the short distance between your lips and his, and you almost instantly respond, your hands sliding across his armor to find purchase between the plates so you’re able to cling to him.

He kisses you like he’s trying to replace the air in your lungs with himself, and you can’t be happier about it.

And, just before you lose yourself in him and his lips, you can’t help but think that you really do have the devil’s luck.

[cardentist]

"haha Wow can you Believe how crazy it is that jay outed tim's medical records?"

Hoody:

1: stole tim's records from when he was 8 years old, which meant that he had to Specifically and Intentionally track them down To steal them. from his house? Maybe, we certainly see him breaking into tim's house plenty. (though why would tim even still have those)

2: baited jay both in person and online implying that tim was lying to him (reminder, the last guy who lied to jay about his intentions tried to kill him with a gun and turned out to have tried to murder all of his friends. and tim himself had watched jay sleep, been in videos threatening him right before jay's apartment burned down, and tried to physically attack him.)

3: intentionally planted the records in a scary tunnel under the abandoned burned down mental hospital and lead jay there by the nose, going so far to write how much of liar tim is in big bold sharpie on the files themselves.

4: after all of this happened hoodie's immediate next step was to break into tim's house, steal his medication, and intentionally set off and film tim having a seizure and post it on the internet.

Hoodie leaked tim's medical records, he specifically and Intentionally baited jay into finding and documenting them because it proved that tim was lying about the slender haunting only starting recently for him.

and it's important to note that jay's response wasn't to get angry with tim, it was to Blame Himself and express empathy for tim.

it's Also worth noting that the majority of the records were redacted (including tim's Name), which is a point in favor of both jay And hoodie (hoodie still cares about tim, even if he's angry at him and willing to hurt him to push him towards what he thinks needs to be done).

moreover, jay's censored tim's last name before (several times, actually), just like he's censored amy and jessica's phone numbers. I think it's safe to assume that part of the reason why jay filmed it was because those details Were redacted (that and, of course, evidence keeps disappearing from his house and from his laptop. which means if he forgets about them and they're stolen then they're just gone- if there isn't some other record of them online, of course).

my point being, it burns my ass that people blame jay for this and hold it against him like it's the worst thing that he could've done, without ever holding it against hoodie.

I feel like this is a cross section of fans only holding characters accountable for what other characters get mad about (tim was Right to be angry at jay for it, but he didn't call out hoodie. probably because there'd be no point, he can't exactly hold him responsible. likewise jay Deliberately didn't get mad at tim about what he did as masky, at least not openly, so fans tend to not understand his perspective)

And fans holding jay to a different standard than they do other characters in general. whether it's because most of his personal information is on his twitter (secondary material people are less likely to go through, especially while watching), because his voice acting tends to be less emotionally charged (it was probably just that troy's acting was a little awkward, but I personally like to read him as autistic), Or because he's just generally not as cool.

either way, people tend to hold jay accountable for things they let tim and hoody off the hook for. and it's kind of Really insane in this case.

[rivkae-winters]

You Will Rot

I adore this entire scene and their entire exchange and there are plenty of other posts out there on it but I’ve never come across the points I wanted to make hence why I'm writing this. Specifically on the implications of exactly what rots since that latched into my brain and would not let me go.

As always: this is only my interpretation of canon, there is no one true analysis to take as gospel. In fact please interact with your thoughts if you have any! I enjoy talking to other people about this sort of thing, fandom is all about discussion after all!

My stance on this line is one of nuance. I tend to think Sephiroth chose the worst words he could think of without fully considering the full implications.  He said the thing he knew that would hurt Genesis the most after the entire conversation beforehand.

What does it mean to be told to rot? Or even so told you will rot. 

In the FF7 universe, most explicitly displayed in CC, bodies dissolve. Corpses, both monster and human, are depicted as dissolving to return to the Lifestream. This is re-confirmed in the remake. 

Rot is not a term for humans, it’s not a cultural concept the same way it is for us in the real world. To decay and decompose are not processes that sentient beings undergo.

Rot is something for objects- things that live but aren’t alive enough or connected enough quote-un-quote to return to the Lifestream in the same dramatic manner. Rot is for things like food and flowers and things that are below the level of humans or animals or anything with general sentience. 

Sephiroth is telling Genesis here, he is not just a monster: he is insignificant. He is telling Genesis that he is not enough of a sentient being to return to the Lifestream and he’ll continue falling apart in real time just like a piece of fruit left forgotten and rotting on the kitchen counter. He is telling Genesis that at the end of the day he’s already dead in every way that matters and is no longer a person. Sephiroth is telling Genesis that he will have no mercy given to him at the end of the day: he will rot and waste like an object lacking sentience and then he will be left there.

Sephiroth is digging into Genesis’s own deepest insecurities here. Genesis fears not just being irrelevant but being rendered a non-entity, to be kept or out of control. Genesis has defined his entire life as a journey to be someone to be enough to be someone worthy of love and praise and being seen. Objects aren’t people, and Genesis is an object to Sephiroth with that statement. 

The only person who could help him no longer considers him a person- nor a thing with sentience. 

Obviously this is all over analyzing Sephiroth’s dialogue. This line was said with calculation, yes, but it was also somewhat reflexive. Sephiroth is under a lot of stress in this scene and Genesis has been slinging everything he never wanted to be told at him in a single conversation. Genesis then has the audacity to try to act as if he did something good. While Sephiroth’s world is collapsing around him and his other defected friend acts like he did him a favor. Sephiroth is angry, who wouldn’t be angry. Sephiroth thought the world of Genesis prior to his defection, he thought the world of both of them and those illusions have been crashing down around him.

So he uses Genesis’s own grief over his former friend’s tattered life that manifests as self deprecation and self dehumanization against him. He confirms the de-humanizing rhetoric that Genesis has been attaching to his own existence. Sephiroth in his pain and anger pushes past the fears that Genesis has been externalizing to what he knows Genesis is truly afraid of. 

If Genesis considers himself a monster than by the standards of the person Sephiroth thought he knew he is already living out his worst fears. He is nothing, he is nothing without his mind. If Genesis wants to be what he once considered a non-entity: wants to wallow in the rot and non-personhood so much then he can. 

Sephiroth turns his back on, in his mind, the moving corpse of the long dead Genesis Rhapsodos and walks away. 

You will Rot You are Nothing

There is also something to be said here for the Kanji used in the original!

I’m not touching on this as much as I would have liked to but it would be criminal if I didn’t at least pull out a Kanji dictionary.

I pulled Sephiroth’s line from here; warning the website is not in English at all but easy enough to navigate via context/knowledge of story events and the characters' Japanese names. 

Sephiroth’s line is: 朽ち果てろ kuchihatero

This is translated in the official English release as “You will rot” and in a pre-US release fan translation from May of 2007 roughly the same way as “Go decay”

朽  Decay; Rot; Remain in Seclusion

果  Fruit; Reward; carry out; achieve; complete; end; finish; succeed

[1][2] [3 specifically for 朽][4 specifically for 果]

Thanks for reading!

[phantom-thieves-official]

look i know I talk abt pegoryu all the time BUT there's so much to love about Ryuji outside the context of ships. Like, there's plenty of good characters in p5 but Ryuji steals the show, no contest. He's so kind and selfless. He's the first to give joker a chance. He's not even on particularly good terms with Ann and is pissed off at Kamoshida's creepy behavior on her behalf. When they enter the palace and get attacked, he tries telling to joker to run even though Ryuji himself is being attacked by the guards - he wanted joker to leave him there and was okay with putting himself in harm's way to allow joker an escape. He's not moved to take down kamoshida by his own potential expulsion, or his own anger about their history, but is moved by seeing what kamoshida is doing to other students, particularly shiho. After the kamoshida arc, he doesn't say anything about his own trauma or history with kamoshida, he's just happy that things will be better for Ann. He's the first to forgive makoto after she gets kidnapped by kaneshiro and has generally been a thorn in the phantom thieves' side for weeks. In fact he jumps in front of a moving vehicle to get a taxi to follow the people who took her. He fights with mona and gives a half-hearted apology, but all that animosity is out the window when the group finds mona and haru being harassed by haru's fiance. His entire confidant is about him trying to help the track team, which benefits him in absolutely no way, even after they turned on him for standing up to his abuser. even after the track team themselves physically assault him in an early social link rank. he wanted to get a track scholarship for his mom's sake, not his own. He puts himself in danger to get the lifeboat when shido's palace is sinking. he puts himself in danger and takes an attack from possessed cendrillon in maruki's palace. he gets angry when hearing about joker's past, but doesn't actually seem to have much anger in regards to his own - in fact, consistently through the game he gets angry and moved to defend others while not mustering that same righteous sort of anger for his own sake. Everyone else is his priority. he's the only character who has mistakes in the plot of the game that he owns up to and apologizes for - for getting mad and scaring futaba, and for being preccupied by their fame. he's a momma's boy. he's joker's best friend and right hand man, and more than anyone else he opens up to and confides in joker, to the degree that he has moments like that which occur outside of his confidant whereas nobody else really does (he calls joker through the story several times and confides in him about things like his apprehension abt the current events or how he is sorry he got mad and yelled earlier or even just that he's worried about the kamoshida plan.) the world has been so cruel to him and he still finds so much compassion and selflessness within himself. he's similar to his drunk, abusive dad, with a temper and a reputation for outbursts. but he's a twisted, funhouse mirror representation of that. his anger is justified and sparked by seeing others mistreated. his outbursts were just him standing up for himself and his whole team. and for it he got abandoned and shunned. he's a deconstruction of the people who've hurt him; he's similar to them while also standing for the exact opposite of everything they stand for. he's selfless and kind and driven to protect others even at the cost of his own safety, social standing, or well being. he makes mistakes and owns up to them, then tries to be better. he trusts joker so much. he's been hurt and abused and kicked while he was down and he still wants so badly to help others. as cruel as the world has been to him he doesn't let it embitter him or make him cynical and mean.

tldr; your honor, I love him

[pluckyredhead]

So the Bill Willingham Steph post crossed my dash again and got me wondering... if you're a writer, what IS the best way to respond to fans (singular or group) that publicly call out your writing at a con? Obviously you shouldn't wish violence on them but since it's not like you can un-write the story, do you ignore them? Change the subject? Argue back?

I mean, I can't pretend to know the BEST way to handle a volatile question in a public space, when saying nothing is not an option.

But I also want to challenge the idea that fans were "calling out [Willingham's] writing," because that wasn't what they were doing. Sure, plenty of people said he was a hack online. But at cons, what they were asking was "Why doesn't Steph have a memorial case?"

I always hammer that point home because it's so astonishing to me now. We didn't want them to bring Steph back from the dead. We just wanted them to memorialize her fairly. We were asking for crumbs, and it infuriated Willingham and DC Editorial. To the point that when they did bring Steph back by revealing Leslie Thompson had faked Steph's death, Tim goes "So that's why she didn't have a memorial case!" They would rather have her alive than give a bunch of (mostly) female fans the tiny bit of fairness they had been asking for. It's just mind-boggling to me now how little we were willing to settle for and how angry it still made DC.

Anyway, the decision to kill Steph was editorially mandated, and the decision not to give her a case was also editorially mandated - neither of those were Willingham's decision to make. (The other objection fans had, the sexualized depiction of Black Mask torturing Steph, was also not Willingham's fault - that was artist Jon Proctor.) Now, obviously Willingham couldn't just say "Not my fault, ask DC" because throwing his employer under the bus would not have been good for his career. But DC also shouldn't have hung him out to dry.

I think ideally with any controversial storyline, the publisher should have a discussion with the creators about the best way to handle questions so that everyone is on the same page. But what happens instead is that creators (underpaid freelancers who are almost all in precarious financial circumstances) bear the full brunt of any anger, blame, or harassment, and the publishers (massive corporations*) get to ignore it.

Of course, in Willingham's case, he was not harassed, but asked a polite question ("Why doesn't Steph have a memorial case?") that he probably could have easily said was up to DC without getting in trouble. But instead he chose to publicly fantasize about committing violence against real women, because he was annoyed. So that's DEFINITELY not the answer.

So in conclusion: in general publishers should step up more, in specific Willingham is a fucking douche.

-

*When I say "massive corporations" I'm talking specifically about DC and Marvel, who are owned by Warner Bros and Disney respectively. Image is not a massive corporation. Also, DC Comics and Marvel Comics are in tricky positions because they are actually small, weirdly ramshackle legacy publishers who in a lot of ways still operate like they did when Marvel had two (2) actual employees, Stan Lee and his secretary Flo Steinberg. They operate on tiny margins, everyone who works there is criminally underpaid, their HR is a fucking joke... So like, none of this excuses editors for repeatedly not supporting their creators during times of controversy (THE FUCKING MOCKINGBIRD COVER, Chelsea Cain is a TERF but that shit was ridiculous), but I think it's also important to remember that when we're talking about the people editing these books on a monthly basis, we're not talking about Bog Iger or David Zaslav - we're talking about someone living in NYC or Burbank working 60 hour weeks on a $45K salary so that Disney has enough IP to make Guardians of the Galaxy 9 or whatever. It's complicated.

[pastrydragon]

Accent, speech pattern and Voice headcanons for the Gotham Rogues.

Riddler

In casual settings, Eddie has a slight New Jersey accent and cusses with the frequency you would expect from that.

He almost always has perfect grammar and has a very impressive vocabulary.

But there are some situations where "Fuck" just does not have a suitable replacement.

When he's going against Batman, The Riddler adopts a more trans Atlantic accent since it goes with his gameshow aesthetic.

Also since a LOT of his schemes are publicly televised he doesn't want to cuss on camera or forget to project his voice.

So adopting a different accent helps his brain remember how to act on camera so he can always appear classy.

Edward's voice is a bit more high and nasally than average, but not to an annoying degree. It's not particularly unique either. So if he remembers so change his voice slightly then he can make a phone call to anywhere and they won't recognize him.

Emotional variations include his accent getting thicker when he's angry or exhausted.

Scarecrow

John has a very rural Georgian accent.

Scarecrow: The Master Of Fear has a rather dramatic way of speaking due to his love of classic literature and poetry.

His years in academia have also left him with a very intellectual and scientific vocabulary.

John speaks with a kind of intensity and eloquence that you'd expect on a stage rather than at the front of a classroom.

A smooth baritone only enhances the effect.

Had he not been a professor, he would have made a killing as a raidio star or television narrator.

John only breaks out Southernisms when he's embarrassed. "Well I never!" "Why I outta-" he also stammers when embarrassed. otherwise his speech patterns don't have noticeable emotional variation except the ones he puts there.

Mad Hatter

Jervis has a strong Bristol accent. Which is an English accent that strongly pronounces R's and tends to slap an L at the end of words that should end in a vowel.

The classic example is Opera'l instead of Opera.

His voice is naturally high and soft, often making him sound much more indulgent toward others than he's actually feeling.

Although he does quote the Alice books often, he does not quote longer passages exactly unless he's having an episode.

The rest of the time he'll change them to fit what's happening or merely reference them.

If he's feeling particularly lucid and cheery, you may not even hear mention of the books at all.

Stress will cause longer more accurate quotes and chip at his lucidity along the way.

His only other emotional variation comes out when he's feeling flirtatious.

Jervis's voice tends to get more breathy and cooing around people he likes. He also goes harder on his R's giving some words a purr like sound.

Harley Quinn

We all know and love our girl Harley's Brooklyn accent.

Honestly I can't make an improvement on the BTAS version so scroll down.

Poison Ivy

Pam has a Virginian accent. It's the kind of southern bell accent you'd associate with Blanche Devereux.

Pair that with a voice like a lounge singer and everything that comes out of her mouth sounds sexy.

Even when she doesn't want it to.

It's actually pretty annoying for her.

Unlike John she uses plenty of southernisms such as "I Reckon" "Over yonder" and of course the venom filled "Bless your heart."

Catwomen

The Miami accent is strong on this women, and it tells you exactly why she moved to Gotham.

You can't wear all black leather in the kind of weather Florida's got.

Miami heat isn't sweet to everyone.

Being a second generation Cuban immigrant, she speaks Spanish fluently and while she speaks both it and English seamlessly she has run into one glitch.

She will occasionally forget whether a turn of phrase was originally English or Spanish.

She called John a dancing skeleton once and no one has let it die. From Esqueleto rumbero- Literally: Dancing skeleton, Meaning: Very thin.

Her actual voice is a pretty standard alto. Like Ed, as long as she disguises her accent she can basically call wherever without being recognized.

Another rogue that hits their R's harder while flirting. But it's less a seductive purr and more an "Oh, I'm being HUNTED" kind of sound to hear.

Bane

Bane is directly from Venezuela and has the accent to match.

His English is phenomenal for someone who's only been speaking it a few years but it's not always perfect.

Whenever he doesn't know or forgets the word for something he'll describe it using other words until the other person figures it out for him.

For example, this interaction between him and Riddler: "I need the office knives." "... I'm sorry, what?" "The office knives, with the holes in the handle." "Hmmm, is the answer perhaps scissors?" "YES! I need the scissors!"

Edward is the grand champion of figuring out what Bane is saying if Catwomen or Music Meister isn't there to translate the word from Spanish.

Bane has a naturally loud and deep voice which can make him sound aggressive even when he's not trying to be. His size doesn't help.

But really he's a very calm and levelheaded person.

If he's actually angry, you'll know it from how quiet deliberate his speech becomes.

A quiet Bane is a dangerous Bane.

Joker

New York accent.

Drops occasional NY phrases but doesn’t mention anything culturally significant to New York unless someone else brings it up.

He doesn't remember what part of New York he's from but if asked he'll say Coney Island.

His jealousy over Eddie growing up in Wildwood is real.

Harley swears up and down he's from Staten Island and anyone familiar with the different New York accents would agree with her.

Joker has a pretty distinct reedy voice that all gothamites will recognize as soon as they hear it.

It gets even higher on the rare occasion he's scared or nervous.

Music Meister

SoCal (Southern California) accent.

This accent is also called Valley Girl.

He's originally from San Diego and spent his early twenties in LA so the accent is thick and locked in.

He moved to the east coast to attempt a Broadway career before turning to villainy and kind of regrets not moving back west first.

He's the first person to complain about cold weather and bad Mexican food when the chance pops up.

But he's gotten too fond of the other rogues to seriously consider leaving.

Even if the Scarecrow keeps smacking him with a newspaper every time he misuses the word "literally".

He automatically starts singing his words when he becomes frightened or incredibly nervous. Which made sense until he revealed he did that even before he got his powers.

Odd.

Killer Croc

Waylon has a thick cajun accent, that along with a naturally growly bass voice can make it difficult for others to understand him.

He prefers speaking French to English and will go out of his way to talk to people he thinks might speak his preferred language.

Jervis, Edward, Victor Fries and Joker speak with him in French when in a one on one conversation. 

Yes Joker speaks French, no he doesn’t remember why or how. He honestly didn’t even know he could until he met Waylon. 

Waylon is incredibly charming and personable once you figure out what he's saying, he's definitely the most well liked rogue among his peers next to Harley.

Emotional variants include getting even more growly when angry and speaking completely in French when distracted.

Penguin

A lot of people say he has an English accent, he doesn’t, never say this in front of him.

The man is WELSH, and he has ruined people’s lives over having his accent confused on particularly difficult days.

He takes great pride in his heritage and being accused of being “English” of all things is one of the quickest ways to sour his mood.

No offense to Mr. Tetch of course, it's the principle of the thing really.

He rarely speaks Welsh these days unless visiting extended family.

He does use the proverb “Deuparth gwaith yw ei ddechrau”(Two-thirds of work is starting), mostly to himself but he’ll use the proverb with others when appropriate.

Emotional variants include his voice getting squawk like when scared. He also laughs like a mad pelican.

Clayface

I forget who came up with this originally and I'm kicking myself for not remembering but I've adopted the head canon that Clayface was an "aging" K-pop/drama star that was on tour in the states when his manager coerced him into trying an experimental cosmetic treatment that turned him into Clayface.

So Clay has a very strong Korean accent and probably speaks the worst English out of all the rogues.

It's passable but he understandably just wasn't expecting to need it this much.

Despite his difficulties he still somehow gains control over the majority of his conversations and seems to exude likability.

He's trained for years to make his voice as soothing and pleasant as possible and he's not going to let being a mud monster ruin his hard work.

Until something triggers his traumatic memories and sends him into a frothing rage full of bubbling curses or a depressive meltdown where he becomes a pile of blubbering goo.

He's totally incomprehensible when he's having either kind of breakdown even to other Korean speakers, honestly HE doesn't even really know what he's saying.

Many of the rogues have hired him to put his acting skills to use in various schemes and Clayface is amazed at all the new voices he can do.

He's also been Music Meister's backup vocalist for a few of his schemes so you know he's legitimately good.

Bookworm

He has a rather general east coast accent.

Until he gets angry and starts cursing in Portuguese.

You'd never guess because he's an ashy fucker and his skin never sees the sun since he spends all his time reading inside, but the guy is mainly indigenous Brazilian.

You might be able to get a clue from his facial features if he wasn't wearing the world's thickest glasses and a hat.

He has near permanent "Library voice" so people often struggle to hear him above everything else that might be going on.

His voice is surprisingly sonorous and captivating when he can be well heard.

Since Arkham doesn't often get new books, fresh literature was fought over until Joker suggested "AudioBookworm" which is just Bookworm reading the new book aloud for everyone.

Until his little used voice gives out a bit at which point Scarecrow or Mad Hatter will step in until the end of the chapter.

Mr. Freeze

Victor has a moderate Icelandic accent.

Riddler and Joker have a competition going to see how many lines from Skyrim they can trick him into saying.

Victor figured it out immediately but plays dumb to this day in order to fuck with them.

He said "Hey, you. You're finally awake." to Edward after he woke up from a nap in the rec room once and Victor will treasure the face that nerd made forever.

Victor has a bit of a "resting bitch voice" he always sounds annoyed.

Unless he's talking to Nora, then he just sounds like a simp.

Not really a voice head canon but he gets hiccups very easily from laughing.

BONUS Nora

Nora is from Belarus so she often got mistaken for having a Russian accent.

But unlike Oswald she rarely cares enough to correct people much less get angry over it.

Nora speaks with great confidence and authority, even when she doesn't necessarily have either.

Her voice definitely broadcasts "Don't even fucking THINK about arguing with me."

The personality and accent get her the nickname "Ice queen" wherever she works.

Which is very unfair, she's a kind and compassionate women!

She's just also right and she should say it.

Nora's voice becomes utterly saccharine around Victor, they're absolutely obnoxious to listen to together.

[marshmallowprotection]

sorry if you've been asked this before, but what is your opinion on V's GE Saeran? i've seen someone say that Saeran's character was ruined in his AE and i genuinely dont understand why or how 😭

I don't think I've ever seen someone say that VAE Ray or VAE Saeran are bad. I've seen plenty of people talk about how Another Story, in the simplest terms, "ruined" Saeran's character. I believe most of the people who say it generally wanted to a route with Unknown, and not Ray, Suit Saeran, or GE Saeran. They wanted to try and explore being the assistant to Unknown while he tries to destroy Saeyoung and V in every way imaginable, and dismantle the fabric of the RFA.

I don't fault people for wanting an Unknown route because I can't say I didn't want one, either. But, I don't appreciate people hating on Ray, Suit Saeran, GE Saeran, VAE Ray, or VAE Saeran. Sure, they may not be your cup of tea, but are you really gonna kick them in front of the people who like them?

By all means, it's okay to not like character but I get so frustrated when I see character hate in the main character tag. I'm all for the criticism and commentary on why a character isn't your favorite, it can be super interesting to see why people don't mesh with certain character elements. But, blatant character bashing ain't it. Saeran is not the character who gets bashed the most often in our fandom, we know that award goes to Rika and V.

But, even so, I come across people bashing Another Story for one reason or another, and when it comes to Saeran, there are a lot of reasons why I understand he's not everyone's cup of tea there, and I'll say I understand why people don't like certain aspects of his route or the way it's portrayed. You don't have to enjoy Another Story, it's just that, Another Story. But, I really do hate when people bash the others just because they wanted an Unknown route and can't stand Another Story for that reason alone.

I haven't seen as many people do that in recent years, but I can remember seeing it quite a bit back in the beginning. Listen, though, I have my own gripes with the VAE. I've talked a lot about how I hate the way Cheritz forced you to pick out forgiveness to get the Good Ending.

Sure, it's called "forgive or judge", but you are made to feel awful if you chose judgement. Cheritz got backlash for that, and I'm glad that Saeran's After Ending RINGS HOME THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FORGIVE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, AND IT'S OKAY IF YOU WANT TO FORGIVE THEM, IT'S YOUR CHOICE AND THAT SHOULD BE RESPECTED.

I think, if anything, what people hate about the treatment of VAE Ray and VAE Saeran is that they do not get to reunite with Saeyoung on screen unless you play the forgiveness ending. You feel forced to be the one to give forgiveness even if you don't want to be—to be able to see the brothers be together again. That's the only thing I can think of that would frustrate a new player who is upset with the way the VAE's written upon first playing it.

Saeran and Ray have minimal screen-time in the VAE, as well. They have one scene that shows up before the forgiveness ending, and it isn't bad for them? It's a scene that has them acknowledge that they were hurt, and that it feels hard to look towards the future when they feel like they lost everything.

"Can I ever return to a normal life, V?"

"Of course you can, once you feel ready."

How is that not in character?

What is not in character there?

What makes that bad for Saeran's character? Saeran doesn't want to be angry. He doesn't want to hold onto hatred and anger, especially in the confines of Another Story. It might be different for Unknown or even SE Saeran, but for the characters in Another Story, they don't want to be angry anymore, not Saeran, and not Ray. That's typically what people get really angry about the first place, though. They get angry because they want them to be angry. They project their feeling of hurt and anger onto Saeran and Ray and expect them to feel what they do.

That's simply not how it works in this world. You can't force someone to judge another person forever just as much as you can't force them to forgive another person. It's your choice. I understand the hurt that people feel, people tell us that we HAVE to forgive, and they don't let us feel angry or upset. Cultures typically dictate this idea of forgiving and letting go, but that's not healthy for everyone. As long as you are not hurting yourself or others, hold onto your hurt and anger. It's that simple.

And if people tell you that you're wrong for that, fuck them. But, in the same vein, it's important not to shame another person for making a different decision. I cannot stress this enough because people don't seem to understand me no matter how often I say this, as long as you are not HURTING YOURSELF OR OTHERS, feel whatever you need to feel about what happened to you. Your feelings are no less valid if you choose forgiveness over judgement, or vice versa. Everyone's feelings matter.

Respect other people and know that if they care about you, they'll try to respect you, too. Forgive, don't forgive, judge, don't judge, do what is best for you, and stop shaming Saeran for choosing peace. He isn't going to judge you for choosing to have judgement over forgiveness, Jesus Christ.

If there was another reason why they hated VAE Ray or Saeran, I'd love to hear it, but I think this pretty much covers why people may not like em'.

[starsurface]

Hello!! I was wondering if I could request headcanons (or fic? Of your choice really! I dont know if you do fics and I wouldn't want to push you!) of MK11 Dark Radien in babyspace?

I know you've gotten lots of requests concerning him but I love your Lord Radien works sm! Importantly I hope you're taking breaks eating plenty, and drinking lots of water! Thank you for all the works you've done they've been so lovely to read! - @counting-sheeps-n-bunnies 🐑

Hi!! I do do Fics, but they have to be specifically requested!! If you ask for Fic or Hc, I might do a Fic sometimes, but Hcs are just easier in general to do. But I still to fics!!! <3

WARNING: A lot of the Hcs have Yandere/Controling Themes!!! There’s talk of Forced/Very Pushy Encouraged Regressing!!

There is NO hitting, or kidnapping, or anything of the sort!!! Just ‘overprotectiveness’ to the point it can be seen as Controlling!!!

Also Dark Lord Raiden might be a bit out of character because he's similar to Lord Raiden . . . but not exactly as sane as Lord Raiden? Pookie here just needs a bottle and therapy, fr.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

CG Dark Lord Raiden w/ Babyspace Regressor Hcs

⛈️ Dark Lord Raiden is . . . something :D

⛈️ ^ Not saying this in a bad way, but maybe not in the 100% most positive tone either (still love my Pookie though)

⛈️ He’s over-possessive of the people he loves, especially his baby

⛈️ He’s lost so much, most to his own actions, so the idea of losing someone so close to him? His friend/partner? Or his baby? He couldn’t bare the idea. He won’t bare the idea.

⛈️ He has a nasty habit of overbabying you, making you feel small when you should be big

⛈️ How? Easy, he’ll just do things for you!!

⛈️ Why would you need to tie your shoes? Raiden can do it for you

⛈️ He’ll put his hand on your shoulder, guiding you through things you might be able to do completely fine normally

⛈️ Getting colorful designed bandaids even when your big and insist that a normal bandaid would work too

⛈️ Normal Lord Raiden has an accident of looming over people, but most times doesn’t notice it

⛈️ But Dark Lord Raiden? He’s constantly looming over you, sometimes accident, other times to make sure your okay

⛈️ He’s very tall, and it’s easy to feel tiny around him (it’s almost like that’s what he wants . . .)

⛈️ In fact, that is what he wants!! You can’t get too hurt when your small!! Babies really shouldn’t be training or doing dangerous big kid things, and get to stay right next to Dada! Dada can easily protect you! He’ll make sure you don’t get hurt! <3

⛈️ While I’ve described Dark Lord Raiden as overprotective and . . . a bit insane - He does love you with his heart soul and body

⛈️ I mean, of course he loves you!! Your his good friend/partner, and at times he’s sweet little baby, how could he not precious you?

⛈️ Other than all ^ That stuff, he’s quite similar to his old self

⛈️ He’s a little more loose on certain rules, as long as it makes his baby happy

⛈️ More candy after dinner? Normal Lord Raiden would set his foot down, but anything to make Dark Raiden’s baby smile

⛈️ However, he’s more stricter on ‘dangerous’ rules, like going near outlets or certain objects in the kitchen (he’ll watch you like a hawk in the kitchen)

⛈️ But all punishments (like timeout or the stairs) have been moved off the table!!! He could never make you cry or hurt you

⛈️ One thing that might make you cry or trigger your regression sometimes is that when Raiden gets angry, loud scary thunderstrikes will be heard outside

⛈️ They’re rarely directed towards you, but he’ll make sure that your okay and he didn’t scare you too badly

⛈️ It takes a lot of conversation to let him ‘allow’ you to be more independent while small

⛈️ No one is good enough to watch you, not in his eyes

⛈️ But he’ll allow playdates and supervised babysitting!! His Brother is his main go-to for these things, but the Earthrealmers will do fine as well

⛈️ His favorite little activity with you is storytime

⛈️ He gets to have you in his arms, most likely bottle/sippy feeding you, reading a nice little story that he knows you love

⛈️ ^ It also counts as cuddle time!! :D (He’ll get another actual cuddle time later though)

⛈️ As established Dark Lord Raiden (Lord Raiden in general) is very tall!! This also means he’s super strong, as the Protector of Earthrealm

⛈️ Which means he’ll have no trouble carrying you everywhere!! <3

⛈️ Your too small to walk, and crawling might hurt your little knees!! We can’t have that happen, now can we?

⛈️ Of course he’ll let you run around for playtime, especially for bigger regressors

⛈️ But where’s a better, and safer, place than Dada’s arms?

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I do have a lot of requests, but I do enjoy doing them. I'll make sure to take care of myself, promise!!

And I'm so glad that you enjoy my work!! <3

Fun Fact: I did not care about lord Raiden when I first made my blog!! Shocking, because he's quickly became a favorite of mine!! I really like him now. <3

[spilledmilkfkdies]

So what are your personal thoughts on Yilidth (if you haven't already answered). I hadn't read the comics in a while but I don't think they ever said anything about him being related to Duman, though considering his eye and hair colour I guess it was probably implied. How do you think he created him? Like did he just use magic or did he had a one night stand and then years later, a basket with baby Duman just appeared with a letter telling him he's the dad, and he's like "Oh, f*#k".

I actually made an au where the wizards had joined Yilidth's wizard cult as novices and one task that he made them do was babysit Duman. Imagine the chaos😂

I think I have given my thoughts on him before, but that was both a while ago and I didn't appreciate him as much as I do now, which you can tell 💀💀 very angry very rambly stuff over there- So let me give some more/updated thoughts!!

Him being underused and shoehorned is still very true, unfortunately. He could've been a super handy tool to give us more information about the whole Terrestrial conflict, since that was an interesting part of canon that might have benefitted from a bit more exploration, even if it was a bit late. But then he just. Wasn't?? He was announced, he came, he died?????? And that was the first and last we saw of him. Honestly deranged boooo yucky.

He never even got to interact with the wizards again- You could literally say he was just some random criminal that had been locked away and almost nothing would change, and that's really his main problem. Aside from his design. I mean, love a blank canvas to throw a bunch of takes at, but come on!!!!!

Him and Duman's relation was never really mentioned either, I don't think? Beyond the "He was the leader of the fairy hunters!" there's really um. Nothing. Like in general. Ask canon Yllidith their names and he'll give you a blank stare fgbhbn- Tbh I'm surprised Duman's even in the lil flashback thingy at all ngl

Now, can we call any sort of relation implied? Are we gonna give them that much credit? Well idk! I'm just personally a fan of it so I just kinda. Squinted real hard. Matching eye colour? Mhm. Hair colour? Sure kinda. Yllidith having illusion magic and Duman being a shapeshifter? Yep that lines up enough for me, that does it, they're related now. Some people see the vision, others might not- I've spoken to plenty of people who aren't a fan of the take and that's a-okay, just know that I very much am 👉👈

This is a. Surprisingly consistent thing for me too?? Like yeah there's a case of "it depends on what I'm doing", there usually is- But not to a large extent ig? The method varies, but in a lot of stuff I'm doing now there's definitely a relation in one way or another.

Usually Duman is more or less made from scratch, a magic'd up baby, if you will. Though the process did include Yllidith's blood, so you have enough wiggle room to still say there's a blood relation. (Duman wouldn't.) (Yllidith only does when it's convenient.) But I've been getting the urge to explore a more normal approach where he was just regularly born lately, so maybe I'll get to that at some point too.

And!! If you ever feel like sharing more of that AU in any way, please do, because it sounds absolutely DELIGHTFUL. Imagine them thinking it's gonna be an easy enough task, and they wonder why nobody else wants to do it, then little Duman starts shapeshifting into horrors beyond mortal comprehension. Bye, I'm obsessed.

[scrapyardboyfriends]

I think the main take away here continues to be that these people are just bad at their jobs.

I mean I get that they want us talking because they love nothing more than generating buzz and hype and this is getting us talking. It’s just that they also kind of fail to deliver every time. And it’s not just with the Robert and Seb of it all that they disappoint. Just look at the Tina nonsense. Or what they did to Rishi.

So all of this that has got everyone worked up again is seemingly just a repeat of what they did with Luke and Robert’s maybe appeal and Aaron moving on with Ben. And it didn’t work then and it doesn’t particularly work now either.

And I feel like the biggest reason it doesn’t work is because none of what they’re doing is actually necessary to achieve what are seemingly their goals.

The only thing it does is get people talking for a few days and lets the soap mags use Robert’s picture to get clicks again. And like that’s a goal too I suppose and it does give them a few episodes worth of ultimately empty drama but then they also just piss people off again. But they’ve also never truly cared about their viewer’s feelings either so 🤷🏻‍♀️

With the Ben situation, they went out of their way to provide a loophole for Robert to appeal and get out of prison early. Yes it provided an exit for Luke but none of that was actually necessary to make him leave. The sexuality retcon would have been enough or like literally just a random break up with Vic because he was such a nothing of a character who cared if he stuck around anyway.

But no, instead they had to dangle the possibility of Robert getting out of prison early in front of us and Aaron just to squeeze out some drama for Aaron and Ben and have Aaron ultimately choose Ben, which felt very silly all things considered even if we were supposed to take it at face value and then they gave us and off screen Robert telling Vic he didn’t want to try and appeal anyway because they didn’t have Ryan coming back so there was no point.

But there was no reason Aaron couldn’t have just struggled to move on from Robert with Ben on his own when they first started (badly) attempting to date. Like when the divorce was finalized. If they’d just had him deal with those feelings and have talks with Vic about moving on and feeling guilty because of Robert and actually talked to Ben about this too, that’s still potentially several episodes of drama and makes a whole lot more sense too and doesn’t throw any characters under the bus. Like sure, Robert’s in prison for another thirteen years at this point, Aaron does realistically need to move on and it is what Robert wanted for him. It’s just that this is the first time Aaron is confronted with that possibility. He’s allowed to have a hard time and there was plenty of character based drama there without inventing convoluted loopholes for Robert getting out of prison early and getting people’s hopes up only to do nothing with it.

It becomes just a frustrating short cut of a storytelling device that actively makes the story worse because when you compare Aaron’s wealth of feelings for Robert against the nothing he had going on with Ben, Aaron making a statement that he would “still choose Ben even if Robert showed up tomorrow” is absolutely absurd. And actually undermines the relationship they’re trying to build between Aaron and Ben.

This with Seb and Ross and John and Robert all feels like the exact same play from the proverbial playbook.

This time they’ve gone out of their way to make Seb coming back entirely possible. They’ve killed Rebecca off screen and with no previously known relatives of Rebecca’s, he really should have come to Vic but that’s not their goal.

They just want a few days of drama, a reason for Ross to be angry and bitter for his return and to give Aaron reason to talk about Robert again.

But in my opinion, they could have achieved all of that without dangling the very real possibility of a Seb return in front of us.

They could have just had Ross and Rebecca have a bad break up off screen. She could have denied him access to Seb and run off. That’s plenty for him to be angry about.

And Ross being back and talking about Seb at all is enough to bring up those feelings for Aaron and trigger a talk with John about it all.

Now, like with Ben, there’s absolutely no reason why Aaron couldn’t have the Robert talk with John without all of that considering that they also went out of their way to make John the long lost gay half brother of Robert, which is it’s own level of unnecessary absurdity.

And in fact it would have made far more sense for them to have had this talk like you know months ago when Aaron first learned who John was. But instead they decided that those two were just never going to have a real conversation about literally anything and that John, the man rebuilding the Sugden family, was just not going to be curious about the Sugdens at all and definitely not the brother that was literally the ex husband of the man he was sleeping with. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️It’s just even more absurd than the Ben thing, which takes so much effort. Haha.

So instead they dangle the Seb carrot and go out of their way to force a conversation that should have already happened just so Aaron can once again “move on” from Robert into a new relationship.

But it’s so much sillier this time because the relationship between Aaron and John is even more pathetic than the Ben one when stacked up next to both what Robron had and what Aaron still feels for Robert all these years later. And because this is literally the third boyfriend he’s has post Robert.

I mean don’t get me wrong, I love that Aaron still has this wealth of feeling for Robert all these years later and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with him still loving him while moving on but he should have dealt with these feelings already but because the stories where he does are so ridiculous, it never feels like he genuinely does and so here we are again.

And I know it’s because they like having those short cuts in storytelling, they like being able to use Robert to get us talking but it’s so infuriating every time because all of that just makes the story worse every time and it’s baffling that they can’t see that.

The specter of the still very alive Robert Sugden is still haunting the narrative five years later on this Halloween because well…they can and it’s easy.

And once again you have a Robert from prison making decisions that will shut down the story as fast as it began because even though all signs point to something happening, it’s not.

And as absurd as it was for Robert not to even try to appeal back then, this is even more ridiculous that Robert wouldn’t want Seb to live with Aaron and his sister. At least with Vic. I mean I suppose you could claim that he doesn’t want to risk disrupting Aaron’s life after he made his sacrifice but this is his son we’re talking about. But fine, this retconned Aunt has a relationship with Seb and she’s probably stable since she’s not an on screen soap character. He probably is better off.

But the story isn’t.

And that’s the thing with this one that annoys me more. Sure, maybe they don’t want to hire a seven year old (though how expensive is a seven year old?) but there’s also nothing really stopping them from doing that. It’s not like trying to get Ryan to come back. This is something they can actually do and it would help Aaron’s character so much as I outlined yesterday and help rebuild the Sugdens. Once again they’ve gone out of their way to build a convoluted story that makes this possible but they’re not going to do it even though this time it would be so easy.

So again, I’m just back to these people being terrible at their jobs. And once again realizing just how much they don’t care about their characters.

[raayllum]

I keep seeing people calling Callum Snake boi what does that MEAN

Little slice of fandom history and also because it's my fault (TLDR at the bottom in bold):

Years ago, a few days after S1 came out and when JK Rowling wasn't an outspoken bloody TERF there were discussions of what Harry Potter houses the characters would fit into. The general consensus for Callum seemed to be that he'd be a Ravenclaw because he's clever and artistic, but I argued for Slytherin (whose symbol is a snake) because I saw him more so as ambitious than just curious and more selectively loyal when it comes to his motivations, etc etc.

If you've been following me for any period of time you might know that I tag Very Meticulously, so as a trans person and a trans ally I was like I don't wanna use the TERF's terminology anymore, but having a tag to talk about a specific aspect of Callum's characterization (his wonderfully harsh temper, his intense selective loyalty, his obsessive ambition, etc etc) was still a useful prospect to me. Thus Snake Boi Callum as a tag was born, mostly as a joke? And so I could find metas that talked about his characterization (specifically) as I don't think I had a characterization tag almost at all for a while?

It started to pick up steam in my tags specifically when there was starting to be a little bit of - pushback isn't the right word cause everyone's entitled to their own interpretation and characterization of a character, nor does everyone have to engage with every part of a character's canon personality or actions in their fandom stuff if they don't want to.

But there'd be stuff of people forgetting that he can be pretty mean when he gets angry or not seeing him as selectively loyal to Ezran and Rayla? People would also be surprised but accepting, or resistant, to his growing and consistent parallels in characterization with Viren and Claudia (even if they are all still, ultimately, different from one another).

I saw a fair bit of sentiment during the hiatus of "oh he'd Never ever do dark magic again" (which I never believed even immediately post-s2) or in discussions of how he'd respond to Rayla after she left in Through the Moon graphic novel (set shortly after S3). Some people thought understandably that he'd care a lot about the lie (that he'd get to go with her) and the abandonment, understandably so - they're both shitty things to do, but I also sympathize/cry over why Rayla thought she had to do them, but I never thought he'd think the lie was that important, and focus more on the abandonment aspect as a source of hurt.

Snake Boi Callum as a concept also got some mileage in the development of my Cube Hostage Exchange Theory as well, an ongoing theory since November 2020-ish that Callum will help Aaravos / give him the Key of Aaravos in order to save Rayla's life if she was injured / taken hostage. I don't know if they'll do that scenario now because S5 basically delivered the exact thing, just with Finnegrin instead of Aaravos, but there was some more legitimate pushback to said theory/scenario during the hiatus because people thought Callum would never help a villain like that or take such a big risk for someone he loves. I'm not gonna say that I was wholly right (because I wasn't) and again people can interpret his actions in S5 in whatever way they want, but I will say that all of S5 was one of the most validating experiences of vindication I've ever had in my whole life, so that probably speaks for itself

But yeah, it's a term that's kinda caught on (I would say 60-80% of the fandom sees Callum as someone who would risk the world for Ezran and/or Rayla, with 20-30% - maybe less? - seeing otherwise, hence why I think it's caught on; but again, having an 'unpopular' opinion in fandom doesn't necessarily make it wrong, god knows I've had plenty) and then in the discords I'm in, a few people thought a week based around those traits would be fun and boom. Snake Boi Callum Week was born.

TLDR; Snake Boi Callum is a fanon catch-all / shorthand for the 'darker' / more emotional and torn side of Callum's personality (his ambition, his temper, particularly his fierce protectiveness and selective loyalty) that is being explored by whoever wants to in a fun fandom week. His bio in official series material does read that he values "those close to [him] more than anyone or anything" after all (which again, was very validating after years and seasons of seeing and writing him with that exact sentiment)

The tagging also means that for people who don't agree with this characterization for whatever reason, or whom dislike the emphasis on it, can blacklist it easily (as is the intended purpose with all tags on my blog)

He's a goofy nurturing guy who will Cut You and verbally eviscerate you without question if you hurt his loved ones or piss him off enough, and I love that for him. He's a little snake boi and we think he should have lots of angst (or sometimes not enough when it comes to killing/threatening people) over how far he'll go to protect the people he loves, as a Treat

[nights-nonsensical-ramblings]

Hi :) got any knuckles headcanons? (or sonic hc in general)

Alright, buckle up cuz I’m about to live up to the third part of my name

Knuckles may have a short temper but He’s super chill and calm most of the time, Sonic is just exceptionally good at pressing his buttons.

He may act all rough and tough but he’s a huge softie and once you get to know him you’ll see his kind and gentle side.

he’s so good with small creatures and knows how to restrain his strength so he doesn’t hurt them.

Chao really, really like him. He grew up around them and know how to look after them.

It is not rare for Knux to end up in a pile chao. Especially on colder nights.

Since he can sense chaos he’s able to recognize all of his friends chaos signatures and he can tell exactly who’s on Angel Island. (It is possible for him to miss someone in the same way you can miss someone calling your name if you’re really focused on something)

It also means he gets an early warning for any chaos based moves and attacks.

His strong connection to chaos also leads to him being a target for things like ghosts.

He’s able to sense them, but they’re able to sense him. Malevolent ghosts will attack him first most of the time and ones without any true goal will follow around after him.

Knuckles’ Guardianship starts to apply to the people he cares about and anyone who hurts them will have an angry Guardian to deal with. (But he’s still willing to beat his friends up for fun because that’s a way sonic characters bond.)

He plays the aloof card, but he gets super worried when a friend is injured. Being a protector is a huge part of him and he doesn’t like to see what he protects in danger.

Less of a headcannon and more of an idea I like. (Although, with the Master Emerald this is possible.) But Knuckles with healing powers speaks to me, him being a skilled warrior who most people only see when he’s riled up for a fight, but also a gentle and kind healer that very few people ever get a chance to see.

and the idea of him being a grumpy healer who will yell at you for getting yourself into danger has plenty of entertainment value.

I love it when Knuckles get to have echidna traits. They’re such a cool animal an I think that should be acknowledged. Knuckles has big long claws like a real echidna does perfect for digging.

digging is a relaxing activity for him and he’s accidentally scared his friends many times by popping out of the ground with zero warning.

Also Since he’s an echidna he’s electroreceptive

the first time he was in a modern house he was so confused. He could sense electricity everywhere but no one else had any clue what he was talking about.

thats also another reason why he hates wearing communicators. He’s constantly able to feel electricity moving through it and it feels uncomfortable. (Tails is working on one with a lower electrical output for him)

It also means he’s the go to for finding faulty wiring. Tails just points out a room and asks him if the electricity feels weird.

The Master Emerald raised him and used its power to guide and teach him.

His ability to glide has a level of m.e influence to it. I’m not set on how much, but his gliding working the way it does can’t be 100% natural.

knuckles’ connection with the Master Emerald means that if he chose to fully tap into the Master Emerald’s power he’d have the potential to be one of the most powerful and dangerous creatures on the planet. The Master Emerald has been able to mess with time and space like it was nothing. It breaks the rules of gravity on a daily basis. It can make the chaos emeralds useless.

But Knuckles doesn’t believe the power is his to use and believes he is only there to guard it.

a situation would have to be truly, truly dire for him to choose to wield it.

Okay I still have a lot more than this, but I’m gonna cut it off here before I go on forever.

[priincebutt]

Holy shit those are such good prompts and I wanna send you an ask for every single one! But I'm gonna go with the one that jumped out at me first!

"People say I'm jealous but my kink is watching you ruin your life."

And please don't hate me but... Alex/Hunter (platonic/ hate-ship)

it's hot when you have a meltdown an ACD x WASP-y Hunter ficlet

Hunter is so boring. And he's such an asshole, with his constant need to correct people and his over-abundance of intelligence he insists on flaunting. He's not someone you take home to your mom, but he's a good fuck, so who is Alex to say no?

It started a month ago. They were both at the same bar late, and one shot had led to another, which led to an angry make out session that was more teeth and tongue, and next thing Alex knew, WASPy Hunter was in his bed, undone and writhing and conquered. And then it happened again, and Alex wasn’t… mad at it, honestly. He should have been, but there was something satisfying about fucking Hunter’s brains out, hearing him moaning Alex’s name like it was a sacred oath when during the daylight hours he used his name as a curse.

So now things between them are… weird, but manageable. During classes they still race against each other, pushing for the better score or the more correct answer, seeing whose hand can fly into the air the fastest to answer the professor’s question, needling at each other and generally pushing one another higher and higher. At night they take their aggression out in the only way they seem to know how – between the sheets. It’s better than physically fighting, Alex guesses, but it’s still so weird to know that he can absolutely loathe Hunter, and everything that comes out of his mouth, one moment, and be balls deep in him the next and it’s… fine. Normal, now, even.

But just because they’ve seen each other naked doesn’t mean Alex still doesn’t get absolute glee when he sees that he’s scored higher on their finals than Hunter has. If anything, it fuels him, and Nora gives him a look that screams ‘you’re being a fucking weirdo’ when Alex recounts, later that night, how he managed to beat out Hunter on their final by ten points.

He isn’t expecting the ‘u up?’ text when it dings on his phone at exactly 12:58 AM. But he has finals tomorrow and has been studying since June and Nora left, and Alex shrugs his shoulders as he fires back a quick affirmative text to Hunter. It’s not even five minutes before he gets an ‘omw’ text back (because Hunter has roommates and Alex is lucky to have a shitty but private one bedroom above a deli). He continues studying until he hears the familiar knocking on the door, and he lets Hunter in, eyes him up and down like a predator sizing up their prey, and immediately clocks Hunter’s distress.

“It’s fucking dumb but I’ve just had a bad day and could really use some… physical release, you know?” Hunter tells him angrily as he drops his coat on Alex’s couch and shoves his hands into his pockets. They don’t do feelings, and this feels awfully close to towing that line.

Alex shrugs his broad shoulders and stretches out his stiff arms, and he notes the way Hunter’s dark eyes clock the sliver of torso revealed by the motion. “Okay? You don’t have to come in here with a fucking sob story, Hunter. I like fucking you plenty, we don’t need to make this like, a thing. It can just be sex.”

“I know,” Hunter agrees ruthlessly. He crowds into Alex’s space, puts his hands on Alex’s waist and shoves him back and against the wall. Alex has a solid few inches on Hunter, and is reasonably more bulky, but sometimes he likes to be pushed around a little bit. Sue him.

“My fucking car broke down and I had to walk a fucking mile in the goddamn snow. And then I came home and my roommates had managed to catch something foul on fire and the whole place stunk. Not to mention my grade on Doctor Lewis’s exam which was abhorrent –” Hunter stops talking when he sees the smile that curls around Alex’s lips, like he derives absolute pleasure from this poor bastard’s pain. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Hunter growls as he shoves at Alex’s shoulder.

“My friends all think I’m fucking jealous of you, but my kink is watching you ruin your life, baby,” Alex shrugs his shoulders as his fingers curl around Hunter’s throat, constricting slightly, enough to shut Hunter up as he catches him in a searing kiss.