#i probably mischaracterize in my own fics but i don’t really care when i’m writing i only care when im reading lol

[crescenthoax]

I can’t lie and so sorry if this ends up being really long and rambly but I was v surprised when you said you didn’t expect anyone to care about Floris and Aemond’s relationship, to me, they were almost enigmatic as a couple. While ofc as the main pairing Aegon/Annika (❤️) get the focus I felt like Willa and Daeron had more of an overtly loving relationship (Like that sort of proposal?? MY HEART. THOSE BABIES.) While Aemond and Floris had been around in the story for a long time, they seemed to have one where they seemed to operate as partners rather than a couple. Like i remember when it was revealed that Floris was pregnant I was like “THEY HAD SEX?!” I still shipped them ofc and like when they got reunited I was like “omfg just kiss her!” but I was convinced in my head fsr that was like all building up to some sort of catalyst or smth! I had expected that with the Alys stuff that it would be like really revealing in that way for them. I’m really excited to meet your Alys. Anyway so sorry for rambling 😭 I really loved Floris in which we mostly saw her through Annika’s eyes and their relationship; it pains me to know we won’t see them together again.

Since she’s gone, I do want to ask how Aemond actually thought about her? Did he love her? Was there problems between them? I’m sooo excited to see his next POV bc holy shit the trauma 😭

No don’t worry because I LOVE when you guys rumble about the story it makes my heart go wooshhhh. I love rambling about it too! ♥️

I suppose I didn't think anyone would care about them because I actually never thought anyone would read the story at all, let alone like it😭 I always wanted to make it very pro-green and when I started planning it back in october I was still writing my other Aemond fic and people always complained about how much they hated how green centric was so I thought well I’m probably gonna get so much hate with this one (it wasn’t the case at all and I’m still shocked abt it). Most of the fics I found about Aemond back then while not necessarily bad, always had him betraying his family at some point, and I had never encountered a story that humanized their side. It seemed to me that Aemond was always mischaracterized; I always saw him as a very complex guy when it came to feelings and relationships. In my head, if Aemond were to love someone romantically, I never thought of him as someone who would enjoy pda or made a big deal out of his feelings. I think of him as serious and very reserved person, the opposite of Aegon who I see as more likely to have flamboyant relationships, being more hypersexual and unable to keep his hands off his partner.

I think that, in my story, that's the Aemond I wanted to portrait and the Aemond I also needed. He is kinda mad and cold, but he’s a man who cares deeply for his loved ones and shows it by doing everything he can to protect them rather than with actual words. He's a man whose love comes from duty, which I find interesting considering the famous phrase we all know, “love is the death of duty,” because I believe it's the opposite for him. He loves Floris, in his own way, because he learned to love her. Because that's what he must do. And he cares about his family, and since Floris arrived he's been a support for all of them, especially for the children. Besides, she saw him throughout his grief for Helaena while supporting his mother and the children because she's a dutiful person. I still feel like they're companions, they complement each other perfectly because they're opposites (I've already said the best way I can describe them is that she's sweet where he's bitter), and unlike Annika and Aegon, they have clear priorities and duties that they put above their feelings and needs. And yes, they did have sex haha, I just think Aemond has a lot on his mind beyond sex (there's a lot of baggage there for him too), and their relationship isn't necessarily the most physical. But they do have chemistry. And he allows himself to be gentle to her than to anyone else. With Daeron and Willa, it's simpler because they're the definition of puppy love.

To sum it up, yes, he did love her. And he will mourn her and we are going to see all of it because man do I love writing about grief🥳

[lovee-infected]

I enjoy reading character analysis to understand them more and I've also noticed that some insert fics are like too exagerated and their personalities are far from the canon twst. I think some writers are just basing their fics to others and and makes conclusion about it and ignore important details or text on their cards?* And as a reader, I do sometimes think that "this" character are like that. Like Vil, being portrayed as narcisstic and beauty obssessed charac, I think he isnt like that and theres more to him than we think. Sorry for the long ask✌️

You're totally valid anon and I see your point, you know while I agree that each idea and interpretation on characters is worthy on its own and no one is bound to having a specific opinion or belief, getting too wild with personal fantasies and ignoring the originals can totally ruin the writing. Characters are often mischaracterized especially in reader insert fics and the most annoying part is that almost everyone is making the same mistakes about him-! Like some of the noticable mistakes would be:

(1) Femininely has nothing to do with Vil's terms of beauty

Oh lord what can I say- It's even against what Vil himself directly said through chapter five and how he cleared his point on male and female equal, and you can tell he is pretty strict about it.

Like did you just forget what he told Epel when he complained that he doesn't want to act like a girl: “a boy getting embarrassed about ‘acting like a girl,’ -- what year is your head stuck in??? did you take a time machine from 100 years ago??”

He doesn't seem to be one to appreciate the concept of labeling beauty as a female-only thing and on the other hand, he doesn't really seem to like the way women can be looked down on while being compared to men either. He seeks equality, and beauty wasn't ever defined as a feminine act in his dictionary; while there are tons of requests asking for: Vil forcing their trans s/o to wear more feminine clothes/ Vil asking their fem! s/o to wear more feminine stuff an look cuter/Vil complimenting s/o's appearance for not being feminine enough/... And literally TONS of requests like this. Please, you're forgetting one the most important parts of his personality, he considers male and female to be equal and it's so hecking important to show that he holds respect for all genders nonetheless.

(2) Vil's maturity is often ignored

Honestly, within all twst characters Vil's maturity on its own really impresses me. From the way he speaks to how serious and sincere he is all I gotta say is this man is waaay different from the way he's charactetized in most of the fics. Idk why but, he's sometimes charactetized as a guy who's ready to boil you alive if you dare touch any of his expensive make up pallettes or eyeshadows. Oh please, Vil isn't an angry child.

Also he often decides to keep his anger in, though you can tell when he's mad by just looking at his face. Clinching fists, trying not to talk and most likely, walking off or asking people to leave him alone until he calms down a bit is most likely his usual way of expressing his anger, but I've seen him being described as a loud, feral figure like Riddle is! Oh god no- Are you just ignoring how calm and collected Vil often tends to be?

(3) What's with the potato fetish?

While it's canon that Vil can sometimes call people around him potato. You may like to know that in some languages, potato is translated as "Apple of the ground", which can be an interesting reason of him using this nickname for people.

Watching Vil call students potatoes can be as entertaining as watching Malleus play with his tamagotchi, but again, it's important to realize that you don't have to only use potato when you're thinking of what Vil might say in a reader insert/situation!

Come on there are hundreds of different statements and sentences you can use other than just 'potatoes' and it'll get boring to read him saying the same nick name over and over in a fic. Good lord of course this isn't the only word he uses in communication so please try to avoid using it too much. This, is NOT the only word that he knows to use! (Seriously though I've seen being used like 6 times in a 500-word drabble)

(4) Please avoid spreading false information about him and his personality

Funny how I'm saying it here, but don't forget that you do not own him! Vil Schoenheit is a property of Disney/ Aniplex and all, which means that no one can certainly decide on his sexuality/ background/ unexplained character details unless it's officially announced.

Why am I saying this? Because some people are seriously going to far! I've seen people attacking others saying that Vil's pronouns are She/Her and not He/ Him like: EXCUSE ME...???

I don't want to get into details explaining how this drama is going but I've got to say something anyway, YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO DECIDE ON HIS PRONOUNS! None of us do!

It's totally okay to have your personal preferences on his pronouns or anything else, but you must avoid spreading such information and forcing them on others as long as they aren't confirmed! Please keep your headcanons for yourself and don't confuse the fandom with them. Everyone's free to have their own headcanons but it's never okay to force them on others!

(5) Vil has a LOT to talk about other than just beauty!

Man... sometimes I feel like the fandom is just doing him dirty. Most of the reader inserts, fics , and even Vil memes have something to do with beauty while it's important to try and look through his personality as well instead of just sticking with the beauty aspect.

For example, through the Halloween event, I couldn't be any more surprised when Vil found the crying child who had lost their parents through the crowd and instead of just leaving them to headmaster or asking someone to take care of them he actually started to play with the child and entertrain and confront them on his own! That was probably one of his sweetest moments through the whole game and it really changed my mind about him! It was great to know that Vil as well can have a softer side when it comes to children, just imagine how good this can be used while writing a father AU for him!

His talents on the other hand need to be recognized, for example: his acting skills back in the ghost marriage proved how much of a great actor he can be and this can also give us lots of ideas to use in writings. On the other hand he's much of a celebrity on his own ( Woop- he's also got 2m followers on magicam) which gives us another great plot to write for him.

The way he is around close friends, how he compliments them and gets complimented by them in return, the way he manages Pomefiore and tries to put the students into doing their best in using their skills and lots of more interesting details that can be found through his stories are there to tell you that he's a lot more than just a beautiful Queen. A considerable part of his background as well is going to be released at he end of chapter 5 (Yes baby after the overblot Vil) and I hope that gives us all the opportunity to come up with stronger personalities and plots next time that we're describing or even, characterizing Vil!

Lmao I kind of rushed to finish this so I didn't get to talk about him as much as I wanted to, but hope that this is useful anyway.

[angelssdecay]

Why Xiao isn’t just some edgelord, an essay by yours truly (or: I need sleep)

Before you read!! 

This was mainly written because I kind of got tired of Xiao being labelled as ‘edgelord’ a lot of times and while I have nothing against it when it’s jokingly said (after all I call Childe a ‘clown’ all the time or Klee ‘Arson child’ haha, you get what I mean) I also feel like him getting meme’d as that leads to a lot of mischaracterization. I’m not here to attack anyone or anything!! Just sharing my personal thoughts about him influenced by his canon lore in game + headcanons I developed while writing fics for him. I hope you don’t mind my brainrot.

-            I suppose that a lot of Xiao’s characterization as an ‘edgelord’ comes from his wildly dark history and the way he expresses himself (like growling when he’s thinking about his past memories) that is quite different from other characters in Genshin when he’s not like this because he wants to but because he’s been shaped by his trauma that reaches wide into the past and the fact that he doesn’t belong in the human world   -          he is stuck in the mortal world while having to defend it from otherworldly beings and forces that threaten to destroy the fragile balance between both worlds, and it’s a task he fulfils with pride because it was given to him by Rex Lapis, the god who saved him from his former master – 

-          an evil deity who had abused and used him and forced him to commit atrocities that still haunt him to this day; he never wanted to kill, he never wanted to have to take away someone’s dreams but he was helpless to resist and in the end he stained his hands with so much more blood than he ever wanted to   -          taking his trauma and the way he talks about it and labelling it as ‘edgy’ is plain disregarding towards the pain he went through in his early years when his innocence was stolen from him and then utterly destroyed until Rex Lapis saved him and gave him his life back, a duty he can be proud of and the chance to regain a bit of his former gentleness because that’s who he is deep inside: a kind and gentle soul that never wants to hurt anyone

  -          not to mention the trauma he experienced by having to watch the only family he ever had, the other Yakshas, perish one after another – whether it was because they were consumed by the darkness they fought and killed one another or because they died in battle – he wasn’t able to save any of them and while it’s never talked about in-game lore I doubt that their deaths didn’t leave a mark on him that lasts till today. To be heralded as the last Yaksha is surely not a title that Xiao is proud or happy about.   -          to get to his character trait of him usually keeping his sentences curt and to the point (like his good morning line ‘’We're wasting time. Let's go.’’) and him growling when he thinks about his sorrowful past that probably made people label him as edgy – does it really surprise anyone that he doesn’t talk like humans from Teyvat talk when he’s a) not human and b) has spent almost all of his life in solitude?   -          which would obviously lead to him being extremely used to dealing with emotions and humans; despite having such a kind and selfless heart (more to that later) but he’s just not used to conversing with humans - mainly because Adepti need to keep their distance from humans lest their adeptal energy will harm them   -          when Xiao kept his distance from humans all these years, it was for their own good (something he says during the first meeting with the traveller and something I think he firmly believes in because past encounters with humans never went well for them and again, he doesn’t want to hurt anyone and certainly not humans)   -          and while he’s gotten used to living in solitude I don’t think he actually enjoys having to live like this – he’s incredibly lonely and suffers from it - and just like every living being he longs to have someone to talk to and who understands him, even appreciates him although this is something he wouldn’t dare to wish for because it’s something that can’t be fulfilled (Lumine: sikes you thought you can stay alone forever, yeah too bad for you I’m here for you now)   -          it was stated in the article about Xiao and his creation process how curious he is about the human world despite trying to hide it from others (and himself too because longing for something you can’t have or take part in hurts like hell and god knows he’s experienced enough in his life) -  but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t yearn to experience those feelings of warmth and love that most humans as well   -          and when I say love I don’t necessarily mean romantic love although I don’t count it impossible for him (though it would take a long time for him to break down his own walls and find the courage to love and be hurt, and I think abrupt love confessions would frighten him because he simply never experienced it before – a life of bloodshed and battle certainly don’t help with understanding his own or other hearts)   -          no, what I mean are the different kinds of love he’s seen humans share with each other – a mother’s love when she puts her child to bed with a goodnight kiss, a friend’s platonic love when they hug their friend who’s sad or simply out of joy – it’s all things he never got to experience for himself but secretly longs to experience as well (fight me on that because I’ll die on that hill)   -          and this also leads to me firmly believing that he doesn’t hate humans no matter how often he ‘mocks’ traditions and customs – it’s mainly to hide his own curiosity and longing to join them knowing that he doesn’t belong with humans. But he certainly doesn’t hate them no matter his words because you can’t guard and protect someone without loving and caring for them. If he truly despised humans he would have never risked his life and soul for as long as he has to protect them.   -          and he knows that he will never receive any gratitude for the suffering he endures, nor that anyone will pray to him, or even pray for him to come home from battle safely – all he has left by now is himself and his duty he proudly continues to fulfil to honour his fallen comrades and his contract with Zhongli – and yet he keeps fighting such a thankless and seemingly endless battle without any complaints or lamenting his cruel fate; if that isn’t kindness then I really don’t know anymore   -          not to mention that if he truly was an ‘edgelord’ he’d be lamenting his cruel fate or curse at everything for forcing him to live such a life devoid of any warmth and joy – but he doesn’t. Because no one survives thousands of years with a heart full of hatred and no one understands that better than him who has fought against the lingering wrath and hatred of fallen gods.   -          and while Xiao himself doesn’t believe that he is kind (after all both his hands and soul are stained by blood, he’s nothing more but a weapon or so he would say if someone told him he’s kind) it’s his selfless and devoted nature and his love for the simple things in life – a nice dish of Almond Tofu, flowers, the soft tunes of a flute - that make him such a gentle soul – he just doesn’t realize nor acknowledges that part of himself   -          so if someone loves him they have to love all the cracks in his soul and try to pour their light into them, be patient with him because it will take him a very long time to get used to all these feelings, to the reassurance that he is loved and also deserves to be loved, after all this is so foreign to him and very likely to frighten him but in return he will love unconditionally and be forever loyal as he is loyal to the land he continues to protect 

...and what more could anyone ask for, right?

[probably-haven]

after binge reading i have come to a new revelation: I’m not a fan of most Xiaoven fanfics

Don’t get me wrong, I love the ship and its one of my favorite to think about.... but most of the fanfiction for the ship just- doesn’t sit right with me for a number of reasons. 

Disclaimer: these are personal opinions from my own taste and are in no way an attack against any authors out there, because frankly fanfic authors are great and not like i could do better lol. As these are personal opinions, I acknowledge here and now that a number of people disagree and that they are under no obligation to change their opinions in any way as it is not and never will be my intention to tell others what they should be thinking That said- read at your own risk if you want- meh, anyway-

time to share some opinions that have been on my mind lately

The biggest reason.... is how they handle Xiao. And I don’t even mean mischaracterization because Xiao is such a complex and yet simultaneously simple character that as long as you’re somewhere in the range of “Xiao vibes” it’s really hard to write him out of character because of his complexities. What I mean is something that i actually completely agree with as being accurate to his character. In nearly every single fanfic I’ve seen, there is some element of idolization that Xiao has for Venti, or for the sake of reference, Barbatos. He tends to think himself beneath Barbatos and/or indebted to him, whether that be because he’s an archon, because he saved him, or simply because of Xiao’s tendency to dehumanize(yes i see the irony in that word usage) himself.  This by itself isn’t an issue but its often how this trait of his is treated.

Imma just list a few ways I’ve seen this be handled within Xiaoven fics. - It isn’t handled, it’s just there and accepted as a part of who he is in the story - It isn’t handled but his trait is treated as source of humor within the story - Venti(and others) roll with it (finding humor in it, just cant change it, encouraging it, making jokes about it, etc.) - Venti takes advantage of it(whether accidentally or purposely) - it’s actually addressed(by Venti or someone else or the narration- can go a number of ways, but just- even a brief reference to the fact that its not a good mindset fits in here) - savior!Venti(Where venti disagrees with it but the way it’s written gives off “god among mortals” vibes- like he’s just being humble and truly is above him in reality) - its the focus of the story  - not directly addressed but shown to be destructive.  - they chose not to not include this in the story’s characterization of Xiao(just saying that this is valid ahead of time) Theres others but i have a lot already.  Note that I tend to read more ‘serious-toned’(idk if that makes sense) fics so that may skew my perception

Now there’s a few that i have issues with on their own- both instances of it not being handled, Venti(and others) rolling with it, Venti takes advantage of it(purposely(and without good intent)), and savior!Venti. Xiao not only has this trait, but he is unfamiliar with what is normal in relationships or emotions as a result of isolation and inexperience. He is also either not aware of or not concerned with what is considered strictly “healthy.” Combining these makes for a rather dangerous combination and just accepting it as “oh he’s just like that, it’s who he is” or making it out to be something funny- It’s not wrong or bad by any means necessarily, and I could still possibly enjoy it to an extent depending on a series of different factors, but its- not as often.  Even in the case where I do enjoy reading it however, I would still feel uncomfortable sharing it with or recommending it to others because in the first instance it feels like normalizing a destructive and dangerous mindset, and in the second case it does the same while simultaneously making a joke of it. It’s the same deal with Venti or other characters rolling with it, but that’s probably gonna be mentioned later too. Not to say that this is a “wrong” way to handle it, that it makes the fic bad, or that authors even are normalizing anything by doing so, just that in my specific instance- not a fan. 

I’ll get to the others when i talk more about Venti, but for now: It’s the focus of the story. I think I saw like... 2? where the story was like- focused on this and why its a problem which- power to them, address those real world problems like a boss- but also i wouldn’t actively seek it out or anything- like, good job, but doing so just leaves it open neutrally for other factors to decide how good a story i think it is. 

not directly addressed but shown to be destructive. You’d think i wouldn’t like this- but frankly in fanfiction not everyone wants to address every character flaw verbally because it can through off story, narration, dialogue, and general flow to do so. This can be with an event, an action, a dialogue, a mere comment, making it actually fit into the it’s actually addressed category except that its- subtle enough to make its own category. plus i live for show not tell- in everything- its a thing. im- very much a fan of when the fics do this but the subtlety is easy to miss and its not common so- 

It’s actually adressed- doesnt have to be a lot- just mention anywhere or imply anywhere that maybe idolizing someone as a god and savior and being in a relationship with them while having little knowledge of standards, emotions, relationships, or healthy behaviors in general- maybe isnt the smartest idea in the word. (”Call me Venti, not Barbatos” by itself is not enough to fit in this category tho as a note)

-

Now lets talk about Venti...

uh.... those who have followed me for awhile will probably already know this but... I have a lot of opinions on Venti and a pretty- “niche(?)” perception of his characterization that isn’t shared by a lot of others- so I don’t actually read as much Venti fanfic in general as you might expect because I often end up disagreeing with how writers portray him, which again, in no way is their characterization wrong, but- “their perceived truth” conflicts with “my perceived truth” and by extent so does the characterization, though neither is any more correct than the other from an objective point of view, if that makes sense... but anyways now that that’s said, moving on before this becomes a philosophy lecture, as fun as that would be for me.  I’ll try to keep my “perceived truth” out of this for the first bit. 

Venti’s response to this: 

He rolls with it: this depends on the mood of the fanfiction. If they dont put a lot of stress on that trait of Xiao’s it totally fine but if the trait seems to be a major part of Xiao’s character, it seems like normalization once more. (more on this later)

he takes advantage of it purposely: if its an AU or something and Venti’s like a villain(i saw a few) then- villain venti isnt my cup of tea but i have no qualms. If they don’t portray Venti in a negative light while having him take advantage however that’s a bit uncomfortable to read for me because it feels like normalizing taking advantage of that mindset as well as the mindset itself. However, i did see a number of instances of Venti using it as leverage for like- self care- which i definitely have no qualms. Xiao: [insert probably destructive idolizing statement about being indebt] Venti: How bout you pay me back by actually sleeping for once smh or other variations are okay and depending on the vibe are actually a really fun dynamic as long as it doesnt turn into romanticizing or normalizing it, y’know?

Venti accidentally taking advantage of it.... I love angst- and in most of these theres a sense of guilt when he realizes- and i just think thats a lovely way of addressing the dangers of such a mindset for both sides. As long as it doesn’t keep repeating to the point of romanticization its totally cool to read in my eyes(not irl ofc). If Venti never realizes he accidentally took or is taking advantage it feels a bit like normalization, and if he does but just- doesn’t care thats- a rip.

savior!Venti...... i- i hate. the story giving off vibes that Xiao’s mindset is technically correct while Venti oh so humbly tells him to treat him as an equal like the wonderful and charitable person he is.... i just- no. of course thats over dramatizing it- I think the main thing that gives it this vibe is when Venti doesn’t seem either concerned, surprised, uncomfortable, or otherwise have a negative feeling towards Xiao’s mindset. Just- it makes the whole thing weird in my eyes when Venti doesnt really seem to have his own reason to oppose the mindset idk- 

-

fact time!

Venti is the god of freedom. His backstory is freeing Mondstadt from a god’s tyrannical reign. His origin is a windsprite, just another breeze bringing changes for the better. His form is a nameless boy who played an instrument and then died, thus failing at his only dream and only ever accomplishing anything because of the help of others. He slept for a thousand years after the archon war to avoid putting Mond under the rule of yet another tyrannical god. He only even became a god because Andrius chose to let him. He wouldn’t have even had that chance if the nameless bard had survived, he’d remain just another wind while his friend ascended to godhood. Venti sacrifices his own power for his people’s freedom. 

now that I’ve laid out a number of canon facts, time for opinions:

Venti has little to no desire to be seen as a god. He thrives in, comes from, and emphasizes a lack of superiority in quite nearly everything. The first Ragnvindir, who canonically turned his back on Venti after Decarabian’s fall, likely did so because one- he anticipated power would corrupt and Venti would soon become just another tyrannical god, two- he suspected Venti used the nameless bard in an attempt to rise to godhood, or three- idk insert other possibilities to acknowledge again that i could totally be wrong.

Look me in the eyes and tell me Venti wouldnt trade godhood for his friend in an instant. His godhood was only granted to him because his friend died and could easily serve to constantly remind him of what could have been and what he lost. Venti takes no enjoyment from being seen as superior and in my opinion, I feel that it could actually make him largely uncomfortable when his divinity and abilities as an archon get involved-

also self promotion for my favorite posts- check out #archon war era venti if thats interesting to you

so anyway Venti rolling with it or making jokes about it just doesn’t sit right with me.- 

-

Okay! enough talking about that mindset!

idk- i have... a few/lot of other gripes and stuff or just things that kinda throw off the vibe for me but that’s the main one plus my general personal pickiness when it come to Venti fanfics- but this has gotten long enough already- 

idk i just felt like rambling about it and i haven’t done a long post in a while so-

again, I love the ship and its actually one of my favorites- just the fanfic isnt my thing..... that doesn’t mean i don’t still love it and come up with a whole ton of brainrot and ideas on it tho lmao

[ruby-whistler]

Are you normal or do u sometimes go "IVE BEEN SCARED OF SLEEPING WITH THE LIGHTS ON(off? Idk its hard to decipher)"/lyrics -curious anon

me: oh boy, can't wait to try and make a tumblr blog! Before i do i should research it- *what in the hecking heck is an xkit*

djskdjsk i had no idea what an xkit was until yesterday and when i got it i got too confused and uninstalled it - dw curious anon i don’t use it either i just vibe and do whatever i guess. if you tag correctly and make good posts things should work out, can’t wait to see your acc around!

I got some sad-ist merch :DDD!!

yooo!! that’s so pog for you! it’s probably pretty comfy :D

me standing ominously in your askbox waiting to rec my fav fics:

fjsjdjsk i literally just finished passerine i still have 80 more (some of which are like 300k words long) on my to-read but uh if they have c!dream mischaracterized i’ll not be reading them anyways so it’s very hit-or-miss, will probably get through some of them quicker-

After many moons spent under the dsmp, seeing discourse and analysis alike, i have come to the conclusion i simply do not have the energy to care about any lore outside of c!tubbo and c!tommy's and will only defend them. And that is ok. It is ok to not watch or care about all dsmp or want to discourse about them or analyze. Idk man was thinking deep thoughts today

it’s ok to watch entertainment and enjoy it the way you want to! it’s great to want to enjoy or talk about your fav character!

the problems come up when you attack other people for their perspectives on the medium or spread misinformation about different characters based on only watching the perspective you like, but you know - if you’re not doing analysis, you really don’t need to look that deep into it.

it’s ok to just chill. your feelings about characters are valid! :D so yeah i agree with you! let people with different opinions exist if they’re also being respectful (e. g. tagging correctly).

Hey ik u worked with animgician's newest vid and i found a not-crit (i rlly think) little thought on it if u wanna see it

yoo feel free to send it in!!

No one: me: *shuffles around* wanna hear about my cool warden c!tommy au?

may i interest u in a little bit of my writing? If not that is ok i just wanna see if my writing is any good before working on a fic lol

Anyways if i am not in the askbox for a little it is because i am now writing a proper fic thing out. Wish me luck o7 -curious anon (i have three different lyrics i am going to be incorporating and a little analysis and just a smidgen of projection)

Ruby do u wanna read a little something i wrote? *does the little fingers thing* its really short just a headcanon with a little prose

i sure do! that sounds rlly cool - are you sure you don't wanna make a post about that on your own account though? i don't mind seeing it at all but i think the c!tommy tag would be able to appreciate that au better than my followers. you've gotta find the right target audience, y'know? /lh

though of course i'd love to see your writing, i'm sure it's great! looking forward to it :]

Ayo i remembered u talking about how punitive punishment doesn't work the other day so i want to discuss. What would u consider to be a fitting "punishment" for c!dream's canonic killing of mexican dream?/gen

i mean... we're not trying to - being against punitive justice is about the fact punishment is wrong, not just certain types of it. asking me what a "fitting punishment" would be is sort of very not getting the point.

hurting people further is not going to teach them anything and it’s not going to help anyone, why is it necessary?

so the answer is: none. he shouldn’t be punished, actually! he should learn on his own that what he did wasn’t right, and that’s about it. that’s the thing about transformative justice. him becoming a better person who Wouldn’t Do That again because it goes against who he is.

however, there’s also restorative justice, which is working to “make it up” to the victims. to which i propose; dream has the revival book and could literally bring him back once he is out of the prison. give him some powder maybe. md would probably be chill w/ that.

Yknow. In all my time in dsmpblr i can confidently say that the main differnece between c!dream apologist/enthusiants and c!wilbur/sam ones is that the c!wilbur/c!sam ones want their fav to have a breakdown and c!dream ones want theirs to get positive reinforcement /hj /lh

i’m pretty sure the sam and wil ones also want them to get better/get redeemed, at least deep down, but i get what you mean! you’re *glances at the 🟩⛏ gc where all we do 24/7 is write angst about c!dream being terribly hurt and then we cry about it* 100% correct. no angsters who like the pain here *nervously laughs* we all just want him to heal and be happy for the rest of his life with no heart-shattering breakdowns whatsoever! /s /lh

Hope ur having a great day m8 :]] -curious anon (also i have a new canon fact i wanna share. In quackity's alt lore stream yesterday he said (to the best of my memory) that "no law/juridsiction exists on the dream smp to prevent one from building anywhere" so i guess that clears up the big debate on wheather or not c!dream had a right to enforce rules (or basically the arguement that he owned the server by divine rule)

no i’m - i’m pretty sure that’s just how it works. dream still owns the smp, but he himself has said wayy back at the beginning “everyone can build and go wherever they want” and that was that. it was one of his rules on the smp, it was his main problem with l’manberg. being able to build anywhere were the rules that he “had the right” to enforce. and he did, not because he was a god, but because it was his smp, his home that he claimed for his friends. wouldn’t call it a big debate, it’s really that simple.

.AGONY. HURT EVEN. THIS IS HOW IT IS FOR CURIOUS ANON. I LAUGH, I CRY, I FIND AN ANIMATED GIF ON TWITTER THAT SQUEEZES MY C!TOMMY ENJOYER HEART INTO OBLIVION. (i am being dramatic btw for the funnies just so ya know) I AM NOT GOING TO FINANICALLY RECOVER FROM THIS. AAAAAAAAAAA UEEEEEEE

OK THAT FREAKING

O U C H-

also for the old phil ask. Hes a bad dad because of how he treated ghostbur. I will elaborate if u want

didn’t ghostbur just say “i’m not wilbur” and philza said “you’re not my son” and they went on with their day? weren’t they actually in agreement that he wasn’t the same as wil when he was alive? i don’t remember him really treating him badly tbh other than disowning him which seems fair to me, because ghostbur was a literal stranger to phil at that point?

wish you a nice day, curious anon! (i’ll be back on my essays and answering other asks now, so i might not reply right away :])

[ks-caster]

It’s Like Watching Fanfiction – An (Un)Necessarily Long Critique of The 100 Seasons 6 and 7

Ah, the familiar cry of the content-starved fan, particularly as our favorite shows descend into the depths of mischaracterization, unexpected ships, hiatus, abrupt cancellation and shock-value death endings. I’ve said it myself about so many of my shows, while wanting to spend some time watching the characters but not wanting to re-hash episodes I’ve nearly memorized: “I wish I could just watch fanfiction!”

But the further into seasons 6 and 7 I’ve gotten, the more I’ve come to realize that my dream of having new and exciting possibilities for the characters come miraculously to a screen near me wouldn’t be the pleasant experience I’d imagined.

Now, depending on the type of ending you like – hopeful but with a lot of lose ends left to your imagination, or bittersweet but more definite, you could consider either seasons 1-4 or 1-5 their own complete stories.

Both seasons 4 and 5 ended in a way that suggested an unknown but likely positive future. They could have been considered conclusions for the main characters’ developmental arcs, and while season 5 went a little off the rails in terms of offscreen character development and sudden new characters, they both stayed fairly close to the original concept: survivors living in the ruins of the apocalypse. All four (or five) seasons emphasized the importance of the found family dynamic (although those dynamics shifted radically in season 5 due to the time-skip, they remained an important source of character motivation).

But seasons 6 and 7? Those feel like I’m watching fanfiction. And I don’t love it.

A story told on a whole new planet with a new environment, culture and cast of original characters was always going to feel like an AU – it sort of is, no matter how you swing it. If that was all that had changed, then I think the story would still feel cohesive.

If it weren’t for the timey whimey bullshit.

Now, fun fact: when reading fanfiction, I love time travel stories. I haven’t posted any myself but I’ve sought out and read them voraciously, for every fandom I’m in. I love the idea of characters meeting themselves or their friends at radically different ages, plot points and levels of experience and the way that changes things for both groups. (Yes, I’m also a Whovian if that wasn’t blatantly obvious). I also love a good amnesia arc. And I DID think that the Josephine/Clarke body possession thing was pretty cool.

So why did season 6 and most* of season 7 fall as flat for me as they did?

The simple fact is that some things – and characters’ emotional dynamics are one of those things – are so much easier to get across in writing than on screen. A good actor can make us feel the character’s emotions, but unless the film goes full-on Clarke’s mind space, we can’t really know what they’re thinking in individual moments. For the most part film as a genre has ways around this, but if it’s mishandled, then the emotional beats come off all wrong. (See for reference Tony Stark’s funeral where half the actors didn’t know what was going on due to Disney’s spoiler fears.)

If you’re going to include time skips in which things have happened and character dynamics have changed, you cannot handle it wrong.

Which brings us back to seasons 6 and (so far) 7 of The 100. So far to date we’ve had all of this occur either offscreen or asynchronously enough to be confusing to an audience watching the episodes in real time:

Jordan’s entire life prior to meeting Napkru in the waking world

Octavia’s character development while living on Skyring with the Diyozas

Hope’s first 22 years of life, on Skyring and (I presume) Bardo

Echo, Hope and Gabriel living on Skyring for 5 years with Orlando

Going back a little further, we also have the season 5 timeskip, which brought us Spacekru as found family, Clarke adopting tiny!heda, and Octavia building Wonkru. Now season 5 took care to show us Wonkru flashbacks and dedicate time to show Spacekru and the Griffin family loving on each other, making inside jokes etc. But it was still incredibly jarring for the audience in a lot of ways, because at the end of the day, we’ve spent four years with the character dynamics and development doing one thing, and no amount of telling us that they’ve had 6 years to do another thing while our time with them only lasted about one year in comparison is ever going to undo the importance of “show don’t tell.”

Let’s take Bellarkers’ beef with Becho for example. (Disclaimer: Since I don’t really have a strong opinion either way on the popular Bellamy ships, I hope that I’m representing what I’ve read from other people accurately.)

I understand cognitively that Bellamy and Clarke knew each other for one year (during which they were in a lot of intense situations that really didn’t leave them the emotional space to figure out how they felt about each other outside of “I don’t want to lose this person”) and Bellamy and Echo knew each other for seven years (six of which they had plenty of low-stress time to get to know each other, grow and mature side-by-side, etc.).

But that doesn’t compute on an emotional level when I as a watcher went straight from watching Bellamy and Raven tearfully eulogizing Clarke on the ring, to him turning up with a coffee mug and a plucky attitude to rescue her the second he finds out she’s alive and in trouble. I don’t think that could compute emotionally for me without having spent the last few years watching the dynamics shift and Becho happen. And that was with the writers giving me as a watcher an episode at the end of season 4 where Bellamy stops Echo from killing herself and connects with her on an emotional level, and then one at the beginning of season 5 where we got to see the spacekru dynamics, including them being together.

So we’re watching this show, many of us for the found family character relationships (god knows it’s not for all the positive happy feeling I get from watching *checks notes* ah, yes, characters having to constantly choose who to kill off in a string of increasingly huge and horrible genocides. *Side-eyes my life choices for getting into this fandom in the first place.*) Okay, we’re watching this show for the characters, and between seasons 4 and 5, many of those dynamics radically shift offscreen. Becho is the easiest and probably most talked-about example (well, and the Blake siblings, but the radical change shown in Octavia’s character between 4 and 5 makes that at least a little easier to choke down) but there are plenty of others, take your pick.

Although it makes perfect sense for a lot to change between separated groups of people in a half dozen years, it makes a lot less sense to an audience watching week to week, particularly when the show’s limited amount of screen time was too focused on plot to really delve into those changes and let us see and understand them. That was what made me think that the show was headed into jump the shark territory in season 5, but I really wanted to know what happened to my faves (Octavia, Raven and Memori, to be specific) so I kept watching.

Our fandom’s excellent writers spent the hiatus crafting mid-time-skip vignettes and missing character moments, and I spent the hiatus reading them. And I remember thinking that it would have been great if even a quarter of this content could have been put into the show to ease the audience into the dynamic shifts – but of course they’d never have the screen time to do all of that.

Especially, coming back to the main point, since written fiction allows the audience to see inside the characters’ heads, while television (usually) does not. It’s much easier to write a scene in which, say, two characters who have known each other for 7 years show that they’ve gotten into a relationship some time before the scene, and convince the audience that their relationship is good and healthy and genuine, than it would be to produce one for TV.  

And then we come to seasons 6 and 7 – the 2-part AU longfic, stuffed full of OCs, loosely connected to the “science” of the original show, and heavily reliant on memory-bending time travel as a plot device.

As season 6 airs, the audience hasn’t really had a chance to process all the radical changes from season 5, and already we have a Marper child running around furthering the plot, and Octavia walks into the Green Flash from Pirates of the Caribbean and walks back out with a personality transplant.

Meanwhile, Clarke gets an actual personality transplant, and it takes even the people closest to her a concerningly long time to notice. Now, if I’d read that in a fic, the writer might’ve taken care to remind me as a reader – particularly after a long hiatus between seasons – that with the exception of Madi none of Clarke’s friends have seen her for more than a couple of weeks in 6 years, so them not noticing for a while that she’s behaving strangely isn’t really all that strange. But on TV, I don’t get to see Gaia’s thoughts when Clarke lets Madi go to school despite the danger – Tati Gabrielle’s facial expressions can only do so much to make up the difference. Because the time spent apart was not (and really could not be, based on the structure of the show) properly acknowledged on screen, scenes like that one leave audiences floundering and pointing out bad writing.

Having watched 7x02 The Garden, I think if I went back and watched season 6 after Octavia returns from the Anomaly, her conduct – especially around Bellamy – would make a lot more sense. (That was the plan for this weekend actually – but my damn Wi-Fi conked out…) However at the time it just seemed weird and unnatural. Had it been the only example of off-screen or asynchronous character development, it would have been a lot easier to swallow. However, season 5 happened, meaning both that I was still getting used to all of the new dynamics and that I had a higher standard for Octavia’s off-screen development, because we got enough bunker flashbacks that I felt like I at least understood Blodreina.

What would have made the whole thing make a lot more sense a year ago would have been if the hair and makeup department had made an effort to make her look older, so that we could see time had passed for her. Now, Marie is 33 in real life, and so was the Octavia who figured out that up is down and got Davy Jones Locker to send her back ran out of the Anomaly, so yes, that is what an actual 33-year-old looks like, and the media has distorted my perception of age. But from an audience perspective, I saw an actress playing a 23-year-old go in, and the same actress playing the same 23-year-old come out.

Gabriel pointed out that her hair was longer, but that only accounted for a few months of time. Since she went in looking dirty, wounded and exhausted, and came out clean, healthy and energetic, she could have passed for younger before I would have thought she was older. (In fact, I want to say there was a theory circulating at that time that the Octavia who came out of the Anomaly was actually a younger version of herself, and she was missing memories because she’d never formed them. I don’t remember whose theory this was though. If you know or if it’s your content I’m referencing please feel free to let me know and I’ll edit!)

In addition, the shifting loyalties in Wonkru near the end of season 5 complicated the character situation – in season 6, the majority of Wonkru peeps (lookin’ at you, Miller and Indra) switched over to the commander’s side. While Indra didn’t really have enough screen time to express an opinion about Octavia, Miller was very clear in season 6 that she was anathema now – which although that was probably a semi-reasonable step for his character, it just felt like someone took his Bellamy-and-or-Clarke-following season 1-4 character and popped it into his season 6 costume without taking the time to address the road he took to get there.

Post-lockerAnomaly Octavia had to face and slay her demons. (Grumbles and links the interested reader to this POST from @osleyakomwonkru regarding that horseshit.) Afterwards, she shows a major shift in personality, particularly towards her brother. Because we as the audience wouldn’t see her time on skyring for about year in real time (or learn that she was ten years older and therefore a lot more mature, the chemical changes of which would account for at least some of the difference even if she couldn’t remember anything else) we had no choice but to associate her change with the slaying of Blodreina, which seemed like a ham-fisted way of forcing her a quick and slick redemption arc and prepping The Blake Siblings to go back to being ride-or-die for each other in season 7.

Raven’s season 6 personality was also radically different from her 1-5 development – while I understand her having a remaining beef with Clarke and being emotional due to Shaw’s death (RIP!) the fact that the writing in season 6 reduced her to the nagging shrew trope until they needed her to do a coding deus ex machina just added to the feeling that I was watching someone take the characters around, change them to their own preferences (even if that preference was to push some into the background and make them tools for the B-plot) and toss them into an AU story. Which I could have enjoyed more if I had been reading it and therefore seeing inside the characters’ heads – and if I hadn’t paid for the privilege with ad revenue instead of voluntary clicks of the kudos/like/reblog/comment buttons.

Another issue with time skip relationship is exposition for the lesser known characters’ backstories. Both seasons 6 and 7 have so far had dramatic character mother death reveals that were conveniently not told to their most important people specifically because the appropriate time to tell those stories would have been during the offscreen time skips. I will (grudgingly) accept Echo, an adult making a conscious (and familiar) decision to change up her personality to fit into and survive within her environment, choosing not to tell a traumatic story that reminds her of her past. (She’s my next meta – stay tuned!)

I will not in a million years, however, believe that the Clarke Griffin who I watched for four seasons be set up as the blatantly obvious “compassionate mom-friend protagonist” adopted a traumatized 6-year-old, moved into said child’s village, burned or buried the bodies of everyone who lived there, and never ever brought up the child’s dead birth parents.

No way. The ONLY reason that could have possibly been scripted in that way was because that conversation needed to be there for plot reasons and the appropriate time for it to have been had was during the 6 years they spent off screen. Similarly, while (again) I’ll buy that Echo chose not to talk about her mom’s death with Bellamy before he decided to be a dick about it, I fully believe that the timing of that conversation was only there because if it had occurred on the ring where it would have been more appropriate, the audience would have missed it.

Now, picture this: if the scene with Madi had been in a written fanfic, Clarke could have said “you didn’t lose me,” Madi could have said “I didn’t mean you,” and Clarke could have remembered Madi telling her the story of her birth mom dying in her arms. Then Clarke could have mentally made the decision that she didn’t want Madi to relive that in an attempt to empathize with her, and she makes an effort to convince her that she’s fine. In just 2 or 3 paragraphs a written story could have effectively conveyed both the exposition and the emotional beats of the scene, concluding with Clarke making a (maybe misguided but still sweet) attempt to be a good mom by not dredging that up for Madi (or something – I’m not defending the crappy and inconsistent writing of Clarke’s parenting we’ve on screen so far).

Moving right along, we had a lovely flashback montage of Hope and Dev, which was sufficient to make me (and several of the tumblrs I follow) care about Dev at least enough to be saddened by his death. However, what we didn’t get was a damn crumb of flashback showing Orlando and Anomalykru developing any kind of familial relationship between him agreeing to train them, and whatever dynamic we were supposed to pick up on at the end of that episode. I got a little protective big sister vibe from Echo and Hope but that’s it. They apparently expended their allotment of emotion-inducing flashbacks on the dead guy, and failed entirely to make me give a shit about (as it turned out) the next dead guy.

Now we’re going into an episode with Octavia on (presumably) Bardo in the promo, so I’m guessing we get to see her skyring-self link up with her return-to-Gabriel-with-clean-hair self. As least with Octavia’s jumping storyline it seems like the writers have consistently made some kind of effort to fill in the blanks.

But we’re also looking at the rest of the season where Echo, Gabriel, Hope, oh hi Jordan I forgot about you again, Diyoza, Octavia, and probably Bellamy and Hoth!Kru (AKA team let’s follow Raven onto a strange planet without putting on suits or having an exit strategy, yay!) have all experienced asynchronous development over periods of multiple years. Given the show’s track record from seasons 5 and 6, I strongly suspect that this won’t be handled any better, meaning that the final season of this show is going to try not only to resolve all the plot points, but to toss in a bunch MORE offscreen character development and hope we catch on.

Beyond character development jumps, we also have Raven and Murphy losing their seasons 1-5 development in season 6 only to have to re-learn and re-change back to who they already were in seasons 4 and 5. Murphy learned to value his spacekru family and stop putting himself first 100% of the time, and yet his arc in season 6 happened. Raven has always been involved in the big life-or-death decisions, and had her being-the-bad-guy moment in season 4 with the rationing, but as we saw in 7x03 the writers really wanted to… redo all of that for her? The girl blew up a bridge full of guys and flash-fried a 300-person army when she was 18; blood on her hands may not be fun but what’s with seasons 6 and 7 acting like it’s something new?

While I’m aware that Jason said his seasons are individual movies (don’t admit that you’re bad at continuity buddy ‘cause that’s what it sounds like) seasons 1-5 and 6&7 are clearly telling separate stories (or 1-4, 5, 6-7 if you prefer). The trouble with 6&7 is that unlike seasons 1-4 (and sort-of 5) we no longer know the characters. Every time someone sits still too long, character-development wise, plot comes along and hits the reset button, tosses them into a wormhole for a couple of years and they come back with the same face but no continuity. It was difficult enough to deal with in season 5 – between 6 and 7 I just can’t keep up. (Even writing this meta, I have to keep going back because I remembered another character who fell into this trap.)

Now if a fanfic writer had done the exact same thing – same plot, same time skips, same organization – it would have played out completely different to the readers. We could have gotten to see inside the character’s minds when they arrived back on screen, seeing things with new, older eyes. We could have had minimally invasive flashbacks to show important exposition (like the disaster that was the conversation about Madi’s mom) and verbal descriptions to point out differences like Octavia’s ten-years-older body. Additionally, the plots of seasons 6 and 7 are so different yet full of overdone callbacks to the earlier seasons – if a fan was writing their own AU story but still wanted some of the trappings of the original plot I’d get it, but on a TV show written by the same people it just feels like they ran out of ideas.

Watching seasons 6 and 7 is exactly like watching fanfiction would be – but without the written and fan-made advantages of fanfiction, they fall flat.

*I do like season 7 better than season 6 because the content of the individual episodes containing Murphy/Emori/Raven and Octavia/Diyoza/bbyHope was still enjoyable content, so 2 out of 4 I have liked so far, despite this very very long rant I’ve just written explaining why as a whole I rather hate the season overall.

[shadowofthelamp]

fic ramble about characterization under cut. author’s notes of my brainspew!

man, the more I see about it, the more I wanna make dib a lil more feral in the fic. I guess I fell back into the characterization I’m doing because I like the idea of him being a little more chill as he grows up (mostly because he knows zim definitely isn’t going to actually conquer the world at this point) but he SHOULD still be... weird, just about different things. he’s still seeing this partially as just a cool experiment to get excited about, but I was trying to imply... idk, just closeness? I didn’t want to make it so they had to make out so that you knew they were comfortable with each other. they’re still pushy and insulting and weird at each other sometimes, they’re just also both used to it so it kind of slides off.

I’m not sure I still like the idea of him working at the lab as like a regular job but it’s way too late to change THAT at this point. I was planning to have him lean off that as time went on anyways. 

it’s really weird writing a multi-chap like this, honestly, since my ideas on characterization are sort of shifting as I write. reinvention was more like a series of drabbles that went in chronological order. let me help was so incredibly self-indulgent (it involves self-insert shipping) that I figured anyone else who actually cared was a perk. can’t mischaracterize the oc if it’s supposed to be you! when was my last real fic like this? probably crushing the code, started when I was fifteen. and that one I had it roughly plotted out before I even started. here, I only figured out the plot after about chapter five or six, and I’m still not sure where it’ll stop to go into the potential sequel.

I guess with oneshots I don’t really have to care about how other people talking about how they characterize things, since it’s already over. normally I wouldn’t mind, but seeing other people have ideas that I think are better but wondering if it’s too late to shift mine is... bleh.

although ‘having to deal with zim all day’ IS a good chance to let him crack a bit. passive characters are easy to write but annoying to read, I know. I’m going to try and make dib more active. I was trying to balance between florpus, show canon, and my own hcs, and that’s still a tough balancing act. 

I do genuinely like how I’m doing zim, though. he’s gonna be a total momma bear when that kid gets here. honestly he’s probably a better parent anyways since he gets attached to things so much, dib is just better for ‘preparing’ since he sort of knows what to do just from being a human person who kind of knows what babies need. he just doesn’t have much of a guide for actual good parenting which is where the trouble is probably going to start.

I won’t change things a lot, I don’t want it to be jarring or anything, but I’m still re-adjusting to writing these guys so I apologize if it seems kind of shaky from one chapter to another. people do seem to like it, so it’ll just be some tweaks here and there!

[jojotier]

Wifey Kak vs Fuckboi dub Kak gone overboard, go

(welp. One year, and writing over 100k words in total, and this is how I’m ending off 2017- not with the finale of the first part of my super intensive plot fic where I made 56 original stand user characters just to create an intermediate Kakyoin Lives au part between SDC and DiU to try and explain why hamon is never used again and try to tie parts 2 and 3 more cohesively together. Not with more myth au where muse Rohan finds the grisly truth of Reimi’s murder and begins his trek down to the underwater underworld to demand her soul back from death god Jotaro. Not even with the bits I’ve been working on with dead inside retail worker Kakyoin having to deal with the only supernatural 7-11 in Japan and haughty water witch Jotaro trying to scare him.

But with some fanon mischaracterizations of Kakyoin. With these awful, awful characterizations. I hope to God you know just what you’ve wrought, with this drabble- and to anyone who’s just finding out about my fanon clone au, I am so, so sorry. Happy New Year!!!)

“Hey- what’re you doing in here?”

Nori started, nearly fumbling with the cute rose decorated porcelain knife in his hands but thankfully not managing to nick anything. Which was lucky! Usually he was way more clumsy than this, constantly getting little bumps and cuts from even mundane activities… Though it didn’t really bother him much! He always had Jotaro right there to take care of him and kiss any injury better, like the attentive, romantic gentleman he was. Sometimes, Nori wondered how he was able to find a real life Prince Charming.

Gently setting the knife down, he brushed his starchy hands off on the pastel pink apron- cute, frilly, and printed with a cherry pattern of course!- and Nori looked up to find- another version of himself, standing right there! He was much taller than Nori’s own five foot tall frame, and he had a pair of shades resting on his face, with their signature curly bang (colored neon orange, for some reason) pinned up underneath a backwards ballcap… In short, he looked to be the exact opposite of everything Nori was!

This should have come as shock to Nori, but honestly, after the first three or so other clones of himself, it got to be a little tiring, acting all surprised… No matter how many of them claimed that Nori was a clone and that they were the real Kakyoin!

“Hey, didn’tcha hear me?” The other Kakyoin leaned down, waving a hand in front of Nori’s face rather rudely. At least ten neon glow bracelets shook on his wrist. “What’re you doing in here? You don’t look like the type to be holed up in a kitchen in a dumb apron- and you’re me, so I know you’re definitely not the type.”

Nori frowned, eyebrows furrowing. “I’m cooking- my hungry guys out there are practically starving!” He worried his bottom lip in his teeth, thinking to himself how awfully sad it was that all of this was happening, with this investigation and those other versions of them melting in that awful, awful display of blood and viscera, with their faces peeling- God, he shuddered just thinking about such a grisly thing. Those poor clones weren’t around anymore, suffice to say… “You’d think that someone around here would have remembered that we all need food.”

“You know we could’ve just ordered out, right blondie?” The other version of Nori loomed over him, leaning down even more until his face was inches away. That was when Nori smelled the alcohol and… was that the smell of MARIJUANA? Where was this other version of himself getting DRUGS, of all things?! Maybe in the same place he got those awful khaki boyshorts that he was wearing under his gakuran for some reason. “Then again, you sound just as empty headed as you look.”

“Hey- that’s mean!” Nori told him, frowning even harder despite the fact that it probably wasn’t effective with the ten inch height difference. And the fact that he himself didn’t have a dorito chin that looked like it could gouge someone’s eye out. “I’m not the one reeking!”

“Hey hey hey,” His clone slurred, trying to flip his bright orange hair and failing, since it was under the hat still, “blame weedeater and his dolphin fucker Jotaro over there, they’re the ones who’re handing out the good shit.”

He jerked his thumb back towards them and Nori leaned to the side for a moment, looking at the green haired clone of himself, red eyed and trying to tell his version of Jotaro how hot his mother was, a strange amount of airhorn sound effects overlayed from some invisible plane of existence that made it almost impossible to make out what the Jotaro clone (holding a dolphin plush with mysterious stains) was saying. Nori and the fuckboy version of himself stared for a moment before they both gave a simultaneous shudder, looking back towards each other again.

Yeah, no one would ever be worse than those guys.

“Besides, it doesn’t negate the whole look you have going on in here- I mean, the blonde hair, the cute apron, the way you’re just standing there like that…” The fuckboy version of Nori leaned a bit more towards him, until their noses were brushing together… “Makes you seem like some brainless ditz to me.”

“Am not!” Nori frowned as hard as he possibly could, bordering on the point of pouting with his cute lips, trying to give a look of stern disappointment even though his darling Jotaro had told him many times that when he tried to do that he looked more like a wet kitten than anything. “What do you even want here-?”

“I never said I didn’t like it. It’s cute.” He pulled back a bit as Nori stumbled back, face going beet red. How dare he! Nori was a taken man- and this was his own clone! The audacity! Then he kept going, saying something so salacious that it nearly gave Nori a heart attack right then and there. “Is it true what they say? Blondes have more fun, right? Well, why don’t you show me…?” Nori’s eyes widened as his clone advanced, leaning until Nori was pressed against him. “I’m always up for a good time…” He leaned down to whisper in Nori’s ear. “… Baby.”

“KYAH!” Nori shrieked, pushing his clone back. His clone stumbled a bit, before catching himself and pretending like it never happened. “Why would you-?! I just- the nerve!!! The NERVE of you coming in here, when I’ve got so many hungry guys out there- there to feed, and you come up out of NOWHERE and just–!”

“C’mon, babes,” His clone whined, pouting at him. “You can forget your hungry guys for a second, can’t you? What do you wanna do?”

“I-! I just… I.” Nori paused, taken aback. He blinked. “I don’t think… I’ve ever been asked that before…”

“What- if you wanna do something?” His clone asked, eyebrows shooting up. “Dude, what are you, someone’s bitch?”

“Hey-! It’s not like that at all…” Nori said, tears suddenly welling up in his eyes. “I’m the wife in mine and Jotaro’s relationship-”

“YOU’RE A HUSBAND!” The redheaded Kakyoin clone (who seemed oddly exasperated when Nori saw him) yelled distantly from the other room.

“Uh. Husband, I guess.” Nori amended, not really wanting to be a bother. “Well… He does so much for me, and he’s so sweet, and loves me lots, and he decides a lot of things for me so I don’t have to think too hard and-”

“What, Kujo? Sweet?” The frat Kakyoin sneered, staring Nori down. Nori shrank a little more in on himself. “That guy’s like the biggest asshole on the face of the planet! Can’t take a hint. I swear, the dude’s still stuck in his emo phase- shitty eyeliner and bullshit MCR fetish and all. All he’s good for is a good angry fuck every once in a while…” Which didn’t sound like Nori’s Jotaro at all, though he supposed that he would be, if this was how his own clone was. “Even then- you gotta make your own decisions man.”

“I- but my hungry guys…” Nori weakly offered, feeling like he was in vertigo.

“Well how’s about you choose this hungry guy over here?” The clone in front of him said. Their faces were both gravitating towards each other.

“What… what are you in the mood for?” Nori breathed. His heart was hammering in his chest.

“You.” And like that, the kitchen and the rest of the world faded as their lips crashed together.

While the two Kakyoin clones were liplocked, the real Noriaki slowly raised the metal pipe in his hands, tempted, oh so tempted, to step over the threshold and into the kitchen. Behind him, the real Jotaro took notice, and immediately rushed over to slowly lower the pipe. “No.”

“But-”

“No. No. Apparently the old man needs all of their activities recorded.”

“They’re going to melt anyway! It really is more humane to-”

“Kakyoin holy shit.”

“Right, right- we still have to find the user.” Noriaki dragged one long suffering hand down his face, slowly lowering the pipe. “Sorry, this entire thing is just… taking far too much of a toll on me. Where did these two even come from? Did they even come with their own Jotaros? Christ, what’s with them all multiplying…”

Jotaro pried the pipe away from Noriaki’s hold, holding it away from him just in case. “Who knows. The only thing we can do is keep going. Minori and Jojiro are saying that they found the CLAMP clones, at least- we can start there and see where the hell they went before.”

“Yeah… yeah, just what we need. To deal with them.” Noriaki winced, and Jotaro patted his shoulder somewhat sympathetically. They both turned away, leaving the kitchen alone.

In the corner, a milfhunter watched, shades gleaming and fedora tipped. In front of him, the makeout session between both Kakyoin clones continued, but he planned to-

Fuck this is stupid. I can’t do this anymore. In a nondescript room in the liminal space in the direct center of America, I pack up my bags. Not even a bee movie fic written long ago could match up to the shame I have inflicted upon myself, seeping into every single pore with the ferocity of deadly nightshade, etching its poison kiss into my skin. I take a small, framed portrait of Hirohiko Araki from my pocket. A dusty tear rolls down my cheek.

Oh well. This isn’t canon to the AU anyway, so I guess I can do whatever the hell I want.

[autumn-foxfire]

Here’s me sobbing because BBQ provided such a good and detailed answer on all the issues I have with dabihawks in the fandom (even though I love the ship a lot T-T).

Sadly, I know what story you speak of anon as I saw it in the Dabihawks tags as well when I was looking through it myself (much like how a fox looks for scraps in the rubbish... wait no, that sounds offense in hindsight! I’m not saying people’s stories are rubbish! I’m just trying to say that I have to search for stories that are more to my tastes as someone who has a vastly different view on the pairing then most people who ship it! ...and now I sound pretentious T-T).

Said author is a very anti-Hawks person and is someone you probably should avoid if you like Hawks and want to read about him in character. They do tag their work (now) but that’s only because they got many complaints in the past about acting like their view on Hawks was canon and now they just whine on their blog about Hawks fans not being able to take “constructive criticism” about him (not that anything they say about him is constructive or criticism, just pure hate that they’ve mostly cooked up in their head to hate on Hawks). Personally, I wish they hadn’t tagged the story as Dabi/Hawks because it wasn’t a Dabihawks story, it was a Dabi/Twice story with Hawks character bashing which they claim was a vent fic.

I know people are free to write what they want but in that case then we’re also free to criticise them too and so when I say this, I’m not saying this in a place of anger but rather from a place of someone who enjoys both Dabi’s and Hawks characters, they write both of the ooc and I do not enjoy their work. They’re also not interesting in constructive criticism about their characterisations so I wouldn’t even leave a comment anon. Just ignore the story and live with the knowledge that at least your not sad enough to write a character bashing story with someone you hate (harsh? I don’t care, this person has urked me for awhile now with their stupid takes on Hawks).

They also have a very woobified view on Dabi (much like the rest of the fandom sadly) and they tend to use that view in their work. They’re free to do so but you’re not going to get anything with canon-like characterization from either Dabi or Hawks in their works so just avoid them.

To get back onto Dabihawks as a ship, BBQ really did cover all of the issues I have with how the fandom treats them. It’s so frustrating as a person who loves both Dabi and Hawks but is so tired of them being mischaracterized all the time (people always make Dabi a better person then he is while Hawks a worse one too which is frustrating. I want to see the couple struggle to love each other as they are in canon, not their popular fanon selves)!

I think this happened due to the fandom misunderstanding these two characters at a base and/or trying to fill the gaps in their characters with common tropes that you would usually see in these ships however for me doing so ruins their characters and what makes them an interesting dynamic.

Also the fandom has a massive issue with people not willing to see Dabi as the one in the wrong or the bad person in the relationship (instead they usually force Hawks into that role instead). I really don’t know why but I think it has to do with his popular fanon interpretation. They see him as the League’s big brother, the asshole who secretly cares for his friends and family but that just isn’t who Dabi is in canon. Dabi is a selfish man who will use and hurt his friends and family to achieve his own goals, he allowed Hawks into the League and allowed him to get close to Twice despite knowing he was here to ruin the League because Dabi doesn’t care about the League, he just didn’t think ahead about how Hawks ruining the League’s shit also messed with his plans. Dabi is also pretty honest about his true nature, he’s never tried to hide it really but his fans jump through hoops to try and excuse him (and I still don’t know why! Let Dabi be an asshole fandom!).

Meanwhile Hawks is turned into the living meme, the happy-go-lucky person who’ll put his foot in his mouth and hurt Dabi and/or the League somehow by being the “states right hand” and usually is made to see the “error of his ways” through the League’s found family. All complexity in his character is usually taken from him and he’s reduced to a man that does anything for the “greater good” even though that’s a characterization that has been disproven by canon. People will ignore his goals and motivations and just make him a puppet of the HPSC who needs Dabi to cut the strings.

If you’re into these characterizations then good for you, it seems the majority of people are. Sadly for me, I absolutely loathe them as I feel they ruin what makes Dabihawks so interesting to me in the first place.

I’ll be honest when I say I haven’t read a dabihawks story that has interested me in a long time (sadly the one I did enjoy has been seemingly abandoned T-T). I still love the pairing but I hate what I view to be fanon dabihawks.

Maybe I’m just being pretentious but I wish people would see and create for the Dabihawks I love. (cough canon cough)

Really long ask - Part 1: Hi, sorry for this long rant, but I just wanted to vent since I saw this latest story posted on AO3 and I am restraining myself on commenting on their story so I'm just letting my anger out here about it and other issues regarding fan-depiction of Hawks. It's vaguely related to your post on how DabiHawks or Dabi+Hawks stories make it all about Dabi and always made Hawks out to be the one who starts the problems in their relationship or is the one trying to get Dabi's

Content warning: passing mention of r*pe in a fanfiction.

LOOOONG post under the cut.

Keep reading