#i was gonna say except gender specific dialogue

[ckret2]

I know you semi hyperfixation is/was on samurai jack, and ppg was only related for the au, but do you have any hcs on ppg you want to share?

Okay sure. PPG was my show when I was like, nine—there's a distinct possibility I read more fanfics about PPG than about any other fandoms except Invader Zim & Transformers—plus I just rewatched the entirety of PPG in a failed effort to distract myself from Samurai Jack, so I've got a few fresh ones:

— There has been at least one wild one-night stand between Prof. Utonium and Him. I don't know when, I don't know how, but it's happened, and then they just tacitly agreed to never talk about it. No emotions involved, purely just sex. They both enjoyed it, they both regret it, and they'd both do it again.

so, now that I have your attention,

— Most of the people who live & work nearest to Mojo's volcano are like, weirdly fond of him.

Sure if he comes into your store there's a 50% chance he'll steal his weekly groceries but there's also a 50% chance he'll forget he's supposed to be evil and actually pay for them. He's either DELIBERATELY a menace because that's his thing, or else he's grumpy yet extremely formal and polite. And he has such interesting stuff at his garage sales. And he HAS saved the world a few times, he's not so bad! And let's be real: a chimp walking around in a little suit and a little cape is ADORABLE.

When you're that close to his lair you see him just going about his normal daily business WAY more often than you see him doing his supervillain stuff (and you might even be comparatively safe there, since if he's got some new giant robot, he usually won't start kicking down buildings where they might fall on his own lair), so everyone just sorta got used to him.

Now they miss him when he's in jail. When he comes back to one of his regular haunts after a long absence people will go "Hey, Mojo, you're back! Didja break out again or get out early for good behavior?" "What an asinine question that is, the answer to which would be obvious if you stopped for a moment to consider the personality and temperament of the person to whom you are addressing it, which is me. I BROKE out!" "Haha, that's our Mojo!"

Mojo has NO idea the neighbors like him.

Also I like writing his dialogue.

— I don't think conquering/ruling the world actually appeals to Him that much. Yeah, it's CURRENTLY his goal; but I think he just wants as many people to suffer as possible, and recognizes that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. If that means he needs to wear the crown, then so be it.

But if somebody else sufficiently evil conquered the world first and made everybody sufficiently miserable, he wouldn't intervene, he'd just sit back and let 'em rule. This is great. Free buffet.

— When I first watched the show as a kid, I was inexplicably fascinated by Him. Something about Him just compelled me in a way that was instinctively familiar—familiar in the sense of part of the family—but that I was incapable of expressing in words.

This is because, at 9 years old, I did not know about queer people. But even so, in my heart of hearts, I already knew that demon was queer as hell.

But now it's 2025 and we can get a lot more specific than that.

I don't think anybody's gonna be surprised if I say I headcanon Him as having some kinda genderfluid-genderfucky nonbinary thing going on. He strikes me as the exact polar opposite of the agender, genderless, androgynous side of the trans umbrella; he's like, maximum gender. As much gender as possible. Not always the same gender but at LEAST one gender at all times, often more. Primarily juggling male and female but if you hand Him a fresh new gender he'll try it on for a few days to see how he likes it. However if you hand Him a neopronoun he'll toss it in the trash. He uses he/Him pronouns ONLY, regardless of what his gender is up to.

No idea what his orientation is. Only that it includes Prof Utonium.

— Just to cover both sides, I feel obligated to mention that Prof Utonium is 99% sure he's straight.

Was 99% sure he's straight.

— Trace amounts of Chemical X sometimes get in the water and/or food supply. (Not due to Prof. Utonium; he's getting his supply from somewhere else and that's where the accidental poisoning comes from too.) Chemical X can build up in the body like heavy metals.

Unlike taking an acute short-term dose of Chemical X, which gives you powers then wears off quickly, long-term low-grade Chemical X poisoning that results in bits getting permanently incorporated in the body can cause symptoms that include, most commonly, turning people green; but at the low doses you'd get from ingesting tiny bits of it slowly, it typically doesn't grant any power, you just get weird symptoms. And this is why there are just,, randomly some green people running around in Townsville. Hence: the Gangreen Gang.

Obviously, Mojo's also green due to permanently having Chemical X in his biology, but he DID get a big enough dose to get (brain) power. The girls are about the only people with Chemical X permanently in their system that AREN'T green, due to their other ingredients balancing it out.

— this isn't an actual current headcanon but when I was nine I convinced myself that Snake was, like, cool & smart & actually had charisma. lol. lmfao. this is what happens when you're a small child who really likes snakes: you see a snake and you WANT him to be cool.

— I think as adults the Powerpuff Girls have grown fingers and toes. Their bodies are still pretty weird in other ways, like they still have the bug eyes and disproportionately short torsos compared to their arms/legs, but for some reason missing fingers/toes strikes me as a juvenile trait.

Unfortunately, this means that when their normal classmates are dealing with puberty symptoms like zits and hair growing in weird places and bra shopping, THEY'RE dealing with puberty symptoms like weird little nubby fingers and toes. You know how babies teethe and it's a miserable painful affair? That's how the girls get fingernails. It's uncomfortable and soooo embarrassing. They're wearing mittens to class in August.

Buttercup is in her edgy preteen phase and going HEY YOU WANNA SEE WHICH ONE OF MINE'S THE LONGEST NOW?? 🖕

That winter for the first time they get gloves with fingers, and are confused that they don't also get socks with toes.

Their handwriting is horrible for the next few months.

— If you stick all the local villains together in a big room, eventually Mojo and Him will drift over to each other and start shit talking everyone else in the room.

— All three girls go through a supervillain phase before they reach adulthood. Like, actual voluntary supervillain phase, not like when Bubbles knocked her head and thought she was Mojo.

Buttercup's comes first, to nobody's surprise. Let's be real, she's already having micro-supervillain phases as a kindergartener, and the local villains have the dental records to prove it. She might even have more than one villain phase.

Lotta things could triggered it—hanging out with a bad, "cool" crowd? Greed? Just, angry at the world? Frustration with their recurring villains and deciding to deal with them more permanently? Got in a fight with Prof. Utonium and shouted "YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND ME, NO ONE UNDERSTANDS ME!" and flew out of the house and an hour later half of downtown's on fire? Side effect of that demonic bargain she performed to become Mange? Why does nobody ever talk about that demonic bargain.

— Bubbles has hers next. Her love of cute animals progressively expands to include a broader and broader range of animals, until it includes the kaiju of Monster Isle. She starts refusing to fight them, then fights Buttercup and Blossom when THEY fight them, and THEN she just flies to Monster Isle, declares that she's moving there and joining them, and says from now on she's protecting them from ALL threats. Including Townsville. Naturally, they run rampant.

Bubbles's supervillain phase lasts the longest of the girls. She remains close friends with the monsters after that. She still refuses to fight them, but now if she goes "pllleease stop destroying the city, if you do and I don't stop you I'm gonna get in troubllle 🥺" they'll usually go all right okay fine. If the monster's in town specifically looking for a sparring match with the girls they'll willingly relocate out of town for the fight, now that the monsters can just ask for a match rather than have to goad the girls into it.

She might get a job working with the monsters after graduation.

— Blossom's supervillain phase is the last and most devastating.

She tries to take over the world.

She's the smartest, she's the best leader, she knows what it would take to make the world a better place, if everybody would just listen to her then she could make everything perfect, AND IF THEY WON'T CHOOSE TO LISTEN TO HER, THEN MAYBE SHE SHOULD FORCE THEM TO.

Mojo's like "Now YOU understand how I feel EVERY SINGLE DAY!"

He's genuinely impressed by the planning and intricacy of her evil scheme. He thereafter starts calling her up to workshop his own evil schemes before he executes them and she always goes "Mojooo I gave up villainy, I'm NOT gonna help you with your plot" and then she helps him with his plot. Because if somebody's doing something wrong she's irresistibly compelled to correct them.

It's 50/50 whether she then tells his scheme to the other girls.

— Now, I don't say this very often. I consider this a high honor that I award only to the most worthy and well-qualified. But I think there's compelling canonical evidence to support the theory that Mojo Jojo is an AuDHD king.

— You know how sometimes the kinks that people develop are a response to the traumas & taboos that happened to be twisting around in their heads when their libidos were developing, and so they end up with kinks that either lean into or buck against the fucked up stuff they dealt with as kids and being able to reinterpret that part of their life in a safe sexual context helps them reclaim a little power over those situations?

On a completely different topic, you know that one episode with that super sweet and charming substitute teacher Mr. Green who loves children and brings cookies to class and is always kind and caring and patient, and also he's a fanged horned green monster who dresses like an evil wizard? And he kindly and caringly and patiently teaches the Powerpuff Girls—right after they tried to attack him—that you can't judge people by their appearances, even "icky" "ugly" monsters? Remember him?

You think he's probably been getting treated like that his whole life for being a nice monster?

So anyway Mr. Green has a super secret very embarrassing erotic fantasy about being a noble knight in shining armor slaying a terrible evil monster. Sexually. With his "sword." And also a literal sword.

Which he feels horribly guilty about. He knows how awfully monsters are treated! He is one! Why would he get off to leaning into the worst propaganda? But hey, you don't get to choose what kinks your brain hands you.

So on weekends he hangs out around Townsville's gay scene quietly searching for a huge terrifying-looking monster who likes to bottom and has a humiliating erotic fantasy about being slain by a hero.

— way back in 2002, Mojo's sob story to manipulate the girls in the movie totally worked on me too. I forever after believed deep in my heart that Mojo should become a good guy and reconcile with the Powerpuff Girls. (AND LOOK WHO WAS RIGHT. LOOK WHO WAS RIGHT! 9-YEAR-OLD ME VINDICATED, BABY!!! sorry I only just saw Powerpuff Girls Rule for the first time like three days ago and I'm still riding that high.)

Anyway, over 20 years later, Mojo's sob story in the movie is STILL working on me. And I'm STILL heartbroken that Prof Utonium rejected his accidental simian son even though Mojo was just trying to manipulate him, too. I want that chimp to get unconditional love and acceptance poured on him until it seeps through the aloof supervillain shell he's built around his heart, and I want it NOW!

And even if he stays a villain, I want the Utonium family to fully acknowledge him as their weird estranged son & brother! He should get invited to family dinners, dammit! He should get a birthday party with the girls! Technically he wasn't born that day, but I doubt anybody kept hold of the records of when Jojo was actually born, so it's close enough!

[autisticlancemcclain]

fic rec friday 31

welcome to the thirty-first fic rec friday! where, on friday, i rec five of my favourite fics.

1. Skirt, Dirt, Worth by @ardett

Lance wants to see Pidge wear skirts and makeup. (But really he doesn’t.)

i know the description doesn’t give much, so you’re going to have to trust me. and i really truly do recommend this one. this one...it’s one of the first vld fics i read, actually, as it was early 2017, and i’ve only had the strength to read it once. it’s not that it’s traumatizing or gory or particularly hard to read except that it’s...heavy, is the word? it made my heart pound and my breathing go fast. i couldn’t...i was feeling absolutely everything lance was feeling and it was scary in the way being vulnerable is scary. it has influenced everything i have ever written. if you’re looking for really early team dynamics and a quietly emotional exploration of gender that will change your perception of it for eternity then i cannot recommend this enough. and i hope i will find the strength to read it again soon

2. putting it into words by @jilliancares [EXPLICIT]

Lance decides to bottom for the first time. (This one's so full of fluff that you MIGHT have the visit the dentist afterward.)

very soft and sweet and emotional! exactly what the description says, you go into this fic expecting something specific and you are satisfied by the end of it. jillian has always been and will always be very talented at exploring young, barely adult klance learning how to be with each other and be themselves.

3. Say Yes To The Mess by @astrolatte

"Keith?"

"Yes, Lance?"

"Is that a dead Altean boar on our front porch?"

"Yes, it is."

"Did you bring the dead Altean boar and leave it on our porch?"

"...do you like it?"

Keith wants to sweep Lance off his feet with his proposal, that is if he doesn't get himself killed first.

one of my fave post-war fics ever tbh. like this made me LAUGH. i love how awkwardly earnest and affectionate keith is, i love how many mean lesbians are included, i love keith & lance’s family, i love long suffering and endeared lance. the whole thing is a sweet and funny masterpiece

4. competitions by @jilliancares [EXPLICIT]

After a certain competition goes wrong, Allura tells Keith and Lance that they're not allowed to compete anymore. Naturally, they bring the competitions to the bedroom.

i love this one bc its so real. like of COURSE these losers would do this. and of course it would work for them. they are rivals first and foremost. rivals to lovers? no. they are rivals AND lovers. they are somehow something more homoerotic than rivals

5. teamwork makes the meme work by muuni 

Allura creates a groupchat for the newfound members of the Gender-Sexuality Alliance club at Voltron University. Everything goes downhill from there.

Keith Why was I never considered

Shiro You know why.

Keith For fuck’s sake You shank a guy once and suddenly you’re “violent” and have “anger issues”

Pidge keith you;re gonna make me piss my pantsnhdjkljdhjh

people like to shit on chatfics all day long ‘oh they’re cringe’ ‘they’re not funny’ ‘they’re overdone’ false. you need to learn how to have fun. chatfics are SO MUCH FUN. dorky dialogue?? memes?? vines bc this fic is old enough for that?? occasional regular scenes to flesh out the story? a sequel? team as family? klance?? MATT/HUNK, WHICH I HAD NEVER SEEN BEFORE AND HAVE NEVER SEEN SINCE?? this fic is amazing and i will hear no slamming of the genre

that’s it for today (and sorry i was late)!! i’ll see y’all back next friday for the next fic rec post!!!  

[prophecydungeon]

8, 28, 29, 34, 38 👀

8. Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

ah... going to go with my personal Gold Standard here:

"You keep saying that.” Ichigo glances away; he feels embarrassed for some reason. For no reason. “We. Us. Like I’m not a Soul Reaper.” "Nah." Grimmjow's eyes don't shine in the dim light, save for the odd muted flash behind his pupils. Tapetum lucidum, Ichigo recalls; like a layer of mother-of-pearl at the back of an animal's eyes. "You're somethin' else entirely. These Soul Reapers are them to you, too." It's quiet, save for the rustle of soft air through trees, the distant buzz of conversation as the two student Soul Reapers wrap up their drills, clapping each other on the back and laughing at their bruises. "If Aizen created you to be swords," Ichigo starts, ignoring the warning of Grimmjow's ever-deepening frown, "then he meant for you to be—" "Used," Grimmjow finishes pointedly, and his lip curls. His teeth do shine in the dusk, sharp with promise. Held, Ichigo thinks instead, and bites the edge of his tongue.

i am sooooooo proud of this whole fic and this whole scene in particular. i think just about every comment i've gotten on it that included a specific quote had "made to be used/held" in it.

the whole premise of this fic is that grimmjow wants something very specific from ichigo, and flat-out asking for it would entirely undermine the whole point of it, which is that he wants ichigo to want to fight him rather than do it out of a sense of obligation. every conversation they have leading up to that point is grimmjow testing the waters, prodding without poking, reminding ichigo of who he was last time they fought without outright demanding it. this conversation takes a slight swerve from the point just before The Line, but it's still a part of that calculated prod: remember, you're not one of them, you're the thing that nearly cut me down, and i'm that thing, too.

28. Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

girl gender neutral that's YOU. you and i are so Same Brain about media and writing that very genuinely it's like reading something that i would have written except i didn't have to write it and i get to scream directly in your ear about it. :')

i'm having a hard time coming up with two others because i honestly very rarely read Everything™ by one author, and the people i do follow across fandoms are friends who drag me into things or friends i drag into things. The Joys Of Friendship!

29. If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

oh this is a hard one... HMM. see, the thing is, the answer to this would be take hold of the sun, but you Quite Handily sequel'd it in a way that still makes me want to scream into my hands. most other fics that made me want to chew on drywall were absolutely perfectly self-contained and i couldn't imagine something more to them in either direction. i'm gonna Think On this one for a while because it might actually be a fun personal project........

34. What are your thoughts on non-con and dub-con?

eh 🤷‍♂️ this falls into that category of things for me where, like, i don't really purposefully seek it out or avoid it, but the fic does have to stick the landing for me to be like "oh hell yeah" about it. dubcon in particular is... dubious... [i am ignominiously hauled off stage] because there are certain tropes where like, if the characters stopped everything they're doing to stare at the camera while having a discussion about boundaries and consent, that would have me closing the tab IMMEDIATELY. however, i have also read things where the consent is very much dubious and it's incredibly clear that the author is, uh, not actually intentionally treating it as dubcon in a way that imparts The Flavor (does that make sense?), and that turns me off immediately, too.

tl;dr: nuance, and also, eh 🤷‍♂️, and also, sex pollen is a pillar of society

38. Talk about a review that made your day.

answered!

[pricemarshfield]

oc smash or pass

i was once again tagged by jackie @a-treides ! and y’all KNOWWW i’m going with tav.

rules: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

basics;

full name: tav khoury height: 5'8 age: 32 gender: woman but in a male lead of a romance novel kinda way pronouns: she/her sexuality: bisexual

pros:

once you have her loyalty, it takes a LOT to lose it

very, very charming when she wants to be

she has expertise in insight and isn't conflict avoidant, so if you're not one to start a conversation about something that's bothering you, she will, AND:

high charisma, so she's good at communicating, and high wisdom, so she knows to actually do it before things reach a breaking point

the above two points combined means she can open a dialogue and resolve conflict before you've even realized that's what she's doing. a win for the deeply anxious among us

will stick by you for both a quiet evening in and a raucous night on the town, and be equally content with either

really thoughtful gift-giver; she'll get you enchanted goods that are not only good for you mechanically but also fit your Aesthetic

curious about everything, so you'll always have something new to talk about!

versatile, in all meanings of the word

she is covering all date nights. she's got forty thousand gold on her person at any given moment

not a jealous person; if you want a monogamous relationship, she'll stick by you happily, and if you want polyamory, she's down for whatever

SO fun to get drunk with. she's got the best stories, and most of them are even true!

cons:

devoted to the point of zealotry to a chaotic evil storm god. has killed a LOT of people in his name (but not like. people she knew. you don't have to worry about that. it's more that the blood on her hands rivaling the worst of her companions)

thinks arguing is hotter than flirting, and will do so without much indication that that's why she's picking a fight. this will continue forever

she is Weird(tm) about raphael. he's dead now, but you are still gonna have to deal with that baggage. she stole his incubus' underwear and wears it to this day (pro: she looks hot in it!)

vain about her own legend

control freak, but only in really specific, small ways that are more annoying than anything. you can bring down the wrath of an archfey or whatever on her, no issue, she'll help without complaint, but gods help you if you fuck with her organizational system in ANY way

loves lying. is SO good at lying. will become immediately defensive and resentful if any attempts at truth serum/magic are done to her, regardless of how serious the situation is that necessitates it.

high-insight also means that if there's something you're hiding she WILL know and it will INFURIATE her (she is a hypocrite). good luck trying to surprise her with anything

gets snippy if she thinks someone is smarter than her. also, has an intelligence score of 8.

warning for wizards specifically: she's weird about you. it is an inferiority complex thing on her part but if you say that she will call lightning on you both

her entire party wants her carnally and some of them are more jealous than she is (except gale. they get along fine it's just platonic as hell)

this is already long so propaganda can be found in her tag here :)

[ravenwolfie97]

alright, first things first, i gotta introduce you to my three brand new rescue teams!

Red Team Gooseberry: Duck the Psyduck & Chikorita (no name) Blue Team Fireflower: Leif the Bulbasaur & Cinder the Cyndaquil DX Team Epoch Spark: Tori the Torchic & Sparky the Pikachu

all of the teams ended up having some kind of interesting thing to them for Gooseberry, i don't think i've ever played as a Psyduck before and i neglected to give Chikorita a nickname for Fireflower, i chose Cyndaquil over Torchic as my partner here because i love both Bulbasaur and Cyndaquil a lot as starters and thought it would be nice to have my two faves together and for Epoch Spark, funny enough, from the quiz I actually got Psyduck again, but since this is a newer PMD game I had the option to freely choose as well. and after much deliberation, i decided on Torchic and thought it would be kind of funny to have my partner be a Pikachu - i purposefully chose her species, gender, and name because my very first PMD team had the protagonist as a girl Pikachu. and choosing Torchic was not just a gut decision, but also to 1. round out the protagonists' types and 2. to reference the human-turned-pokemon in the PMD manga Ginji's Rescue Team which i love and cherish dearly

anyway, i started by going through the first dungeon of the game and getting our rescue team formed, and here are some of the things i noticed between the old and the new:

first, i should mention the quiz, or more specifically the pokemon selection screens. i do find it very funny that all the pokemon are just jimmying around wildly, but it also was. just a lot of sensory input. i will give it credit where it's due - it is a lot more interesting than just selecting from a list! but i do feel like Gates and Super had it better with a literal rotating cast rather than a chaotic cloud of bustling lil guys

what i thought was interesting out the gate was the fact that barely any of the text in-game is altered. it's the exact same dialogue for most of the time, with the exception of a few additional scenes not present in the old games, like a partially verbalized tutorial and when you put on the scarves as a uniform for the rescue team - which, by the way, was super cute

speaking of text, i don't know what exactly my reasoning is for being against it, but i find the little speech bubbles in dungeons to be really annoying. it's a fun idea conceptually to have more of an inner monologue as you roam around and fight and stuff, but having something to say every time you fight or get attacked is just… too much. i didn't see an option to turn them off but i kind of hope there is one and i just didn't see it

there is a pretty steep mechanical difference between the two that is very evident when playing them side-by-side. DX is mechanically very similar to Super, and given that i haven't touched Super in a few years it took me a while to remember that this wasn't completely novel and in fact something i had to get used to before. and also while i knew the movesets got more beefy and diverse as time went on in the franchise, i forgot just how robust the movesets you get out the gate are nowadays. back in the day, Pikachu knew exactly what it would in the main series games at Lv. 5: Thunder Shock, Growl, and Tail Whip. but now, in DX, my Pikachu knows Fake Out, Electro Ball, Grass Knot, and Iron Tail! like that's insanity!! and you can't even use a basic A-button attack anymore, but that's one of the things you're immediately taught in Blue/Red! it's gonna be a weird thing to juggle back and forth, i think

i noticed there was a "Random" button when making the rescue team name, and i absolutely love it. i only went through a handful of choices but they were all really good and fun and some in particular were very silly. it was very charming i will say, though - the default was "Efficiency" and it was so incredibly close to my first team's name "Electricy" (bc Electricity was too long to fit) and it really threw me hkjjk

after listening to all three iterations of that handful of sound tracks at the beginning, especially for Tiny Woods, i still feel like DX missed the mark somewhat. i will say that the version heard in Red was closer, but it's still very well mixed in Blue. DX just has issues with the relationships between timbres and between instruments' dynamics, as i've heard in a couple of its other OST remakes. it's not as offensive in person, but it's still a bit too over the top

one of the reasons i hesitated so much on getting DX was because of the aesthetics. it's radically different from any previous PMD game, and evokes kind of a storybook feeling. playing it for myself now, as far as i've gotten, i'm not the most into it, but i do appreciate it. i think my main issue is that it feels kind of unpolished and also quite cramped. the 3d renditions of 2d spaces just feels very small, and the 3d games before this didn't have that issue at all, so i feel like it's either to do with the dev team being different than previous installations, or more than likely it's just because they're struggling to adapt something from the past rather than coming up with environments and scenarios wholecloth

i do find it kind of incredible and amusing seeing the progression of how games have changed in the last 15 years, like seeing a language select at the top of Rescue Team DX, and the fact that it autosaves so it doesn't need to include the tutorial scene in the original that teaches you to go to bed to save. i just think that's really neat :3

i think that's it concerning the first impressions. overall, i'm actually most fascinated by what hasn't changed than what has. i would have expected an updated dialogue beyond adding scenes for the more modern demographic of PMD players instead of what is essentially a copy-paste from the original games. and i know it is copy-paste because i Just read it twice over in both Red and Blue just before booting up the new game! idk if that's a bad thing, but it's strange to me that it is so unaltered. i dunno, my feelings so far are mixed, but i've only just gotten started, so we'll see what comes next!

[lady-lunaaa]

Light in the Dark

Pairing: Cassian x f!reader

Rating: SFW but minors dni

Warnings: no specific body or gender descriptions except use of pet names "pretty girl" and "princess", mating bond, hurt/comfort and just plain ol' lovey dovey fluff

WC: 1.6k

Summer prompts: outdoors, stream x

Dialogue prompts: "Let's go on an adventure", "Thank you, for tonight" x

a/n: just a lil' something something for my wife @dabilove27 who has Cass brainrot 💙 I hope this scratches some type of emotional itch, next time they're gonna fuck, promise. This is unbeta'd and was written in a couple hours, it probably shows lmao.

Lullaby: link here

Today was a hard day. You couldn't say why, it just was. Everything set your anxiety wheeling, spinning around your mind until it made you dizzy and sick. Your intrusive thoughts spiraled out of control, escalating and growing until they were all you could see, hear, think and feel. As soon as you woke with the fluttering wings of anxiety in your chest and that telltale pressure in your stomach, you wrote the day off.

You avoided everyone in the house, too lost in yourself and that hollow feeling the depression carved out of your chest. You felt bad for avoiding your friends, your family, but you were too tired for their bickering and teasing and the concerned looks you knew they'd give you when your answering smile was too tight and your words too short. Cassian was away today, training early this morning and then business at the Illyrian war camps, no doubt to butt heads with that War Lord dick, Devlon. But when you woke you felt a flicker of reassurance shoot down that bond between you, caressing your soul, soothing. It was also a question, to which you sent back an equally reassuring caress, 'I'm fine'.

Maybe it was a good thing, for him to not have to bear witness to one of your moods. You loved him dearly for always being there for you religiously when you were down, but it also pained you, the thought that your own dark moods might drag him down with you. He always assured you that wasn't the case, but it didn't stop your brain from telling you otherwise. You sighed, a tear rolling down your cheek, and just like that the dam opened. Emotion, pain, blossomed in your chest and lanced through you, and you barely managed to clamp down on the connection between you before you broke. Sob after sob escaped your throat and your thoughts ran rampant about what a terrible person you were, what a terrible Mate you were. Never good enough, always a burden. You don't know how long you lay there crying to yourself, desperately trying to keep your despair from leaking down the bond to your Mate.

At some point you fell asleep, and that was the blessed moment the relentless thoughts and emotions stopped, your mind clearly too tired to antagonise your dreams. It was a warm, calloused hand that woke you, cupping your cheek gently, warming you from the outside in. Your eyelids fluttered in recognition, Cass, the other half of your soul returned. You nuzzled into his palm and gave a small, sleepy smile to your Mate.

"Hey, pretty girl," his deep resonance rumbled through the air between you, from deep in his chest all the way to yours, sinking into your bones and calming your nerves.

"Hey, pretty boy," You teased lightly, your mind already clearer and anxieties dampened, like seeing him immediately put those self-hating words to bed. You opened one eye to peer at him and were greeted with Cass in his casual leathers, weapons and siphons away for the day, and his still-damp hair tied back in a loose bun. He must have come home, found you asleep, and slipped into the adjoining bathing room for a wash. His beauty never ceased to amaze you, every time you saw him those first time butterflies fluttered low in your stomach. His tanned skin looked even darker in the gloom of your shared room, his wings a mere shadow, black against black. And his golden eyes were so bright they almost glowed--your light in the dark.

"Is that so? I prefer to think of myself as rugged, handsome, sexy as all hell; but I'll take pretty. Az will be distraught, that's his specialty." You can't help but smile at your insufferable, cocky, silly Mate, always doing his best to make you smile on cloudy days.

"Oh sure, you're all those things," you hummed, "but you're right, Az is very pretty."

Yours words sent a growl rumbling through Cass, his broad chest deliciously defined in the blank tank that stretched across his pecks alarmingly. Oh, how you loved to rile him up, he always fucked you best when you pushed him.

You laughed, "Okay Okay, I take it all back!"

But apparently, that wasn't enough, if his large hands that reached for you were any indication to go by. He scooped you into his chest as if you weighed nothing, his thick fingers sinking into soft flesh as he tickled you mercilessly. You squealed in alarm and squirmed in his lap, and while you were distracted he rose from the bed and marched over to the balcony that led out into the open air. He drew the curtains and took a step into the outdoors. One wingbeat, and you were airborne.

The feeling never got any less thrilling, the quick ascension into the heavens that made your stomach drop and hair whip around your face fiercely. But within seconds you had leveled out and were gliding through the air peacefully. You were wearing your thick comfort leggings and a white shirt, nothing fancy, but you were glad for the long sleeves that kept the slight bite from the wind at bay.

You sent a thrum of confusion down the bond, and Cass flicked his eyes to yours.

"Let's go an adventure." His lopsided grin was all canines and charm, and your heart tugged, love blossoming anew for the beefy male who held you so firmly in his arms.

You snuggled into his chest, arms tightening around his neck and playing with the loose hairs at his nape, ready to embark on whatever journey he had planned.

You landed in a small clearing that was cut through the middle with a gurgling stream, the sound of water rushing over pebbles filled you with a sense of peace that you had craved all day. You breathed in the fresh evening air, the warm temperature dampened the chill off the water, and the night sky your new home was known for by its people shone brilliantly above. Stars flecked the heavens above, sworls of blue and purple painting the sky, illuminated by the moons glow.

You sighed contentedly as Cass set you down in the grass, joining you moments later. You looked out across the sparkling water before side-eyeing him curiously.

"Why are we here?" You asked quietly.

"Why not? I can't take my lady for a midnight stroll? Is chivalry dead?"

You shoved an elbow into his ribs and he wheezed, cutting you a playful look that turned instantly solemn, those amber eyes full of concern.

"You felt it," You sighed out the statement.

"Was kinda hard not to, I was worried so I came home early."

Guilt tore at your insides and Cassian's pained look told you he felt that too. You played with your fingers, twisting them together nervously.

"Do you want to talk about it?" His usually loud and cocky tone was so gentle and low that it made your heartache. The voice he reserved just for you.

"No. It was just the usual stuff, a bad day is all." You answered honestly, voice a little thick.

"How's that bad day lookin' now?" He asked you, that playfulness returning but still edged with a gentle concern, as he nudged your side with his arm.

"A whole lot better," you smiled up at him earnestly, marvelling in the way his skin gleamed in the moonlight, a sweep of silver across his high cheekbones.

"Can I make it even better than that?"

"Mhm," you nodded at him coyly, "you can hold me."

His eyes sparked, that molten gold igniting, as he happily pulled you closer to him across the earth. You hoped you didn't get grass stains all over your leggings, these were your best bum-around pair. Cass enveloped you in his warm embrace, your back pressed to his muscled chest and his thick arms around your middle. You sat on the bank by the river and let your Mate hold you, thinking about all he did for you, just to cheer you up. He knew exactly what to say to have you giggling and smiling so wide it hurt your cheeks. He knew exactly what to do to take the stress of the day off your shoulders, how to wash it all away and replace it with only love, affection and a shared silence that only lovers can find comfort in.

His chapped lips pressed soft kisses to the back of your neck slowly and his heated skin kept you cozy and warm.

"Thank you," you spoke suddenly, "for tonight."

You tightened your fingers where they laced through his, resting in your lap. He squeezed back firmly and rubbed his cheek where it rested against your own, the act so soft and intimate that your heart swelled.

"Anything for you, Princess."

You turned your head to the side and caught your lips with his, his surprised hum vibrated through your flesh and made it tingle. You allowed him to part your lips with his own and poured yourself into him, giving all of yourself to your Mate after the suffocating loneliness and isolation you inadvertently shared with him earlier. You hoped to erase the bitter taste of the bad feelings for you both with something sweet and light. And Cass accepted. He drank you in, drop by drop, tongue sweeping over yours hungrily.

And as your tongues danced languidly under the stars, he poured all his emotion into the bond that tethered you to him forever more. You opened up the connection completely, absorbing the adoration and contentment and desire he allowed you to feel flowing from him. You wrapped the swirling emotions tightly around yourself, to protect you from hurt, a balm on your heart.

And you took all the love and positivity and affection that you saved up just for him and weaved it around his, strengthening that tether between you that joined your hearts as one. Your Mate. Your light in the dark.

This is for you beautiful wife. Hope it lifts your spirits and gives you the warm fuzzies. Love you always <3

[azurelyy]

!!Azurelyy’s 100 Supporters Event~!!

I’d like to thank all of you for 100 supporters! This blog has helped me through a lot of personal shit and I want you all to know that each and every interaction, follow, comment, etc. means so much to me! This event is to celebrate you all and is my way of saying thank you. <3.

Okay, now that the mushy stuff is over with... On to the fun!

I have fluff and smut dialogue prompts from a collection of my favorite movies/tv shows/books! You may choose any prompt with any character from: Naruto, Avatar the Last Airbender, FMA Brotherhood, Kingdom Hearts, or InuYasha (so long as they aren’t on my will-not-write list, found in my rules).

Rules

- This event will last from July 28th, 2022 - August 31, 2022. This is a celebration, after all! 

To participate, you must send in an ask/message me and indicate your request is specifically for the event.

You must choose a line of dialogue from the list AND the character to go with it. Please specify if there is anything else you want (ie. specific setting, a specific trope/kink, or if you have a preference on whether the char or reader says the dialogue line you chose.)

The requests will be posted on my own time. I will try and get to all requests before the end of the event on August 31. 

Please make sure to specify gender for Smut requests. I mainly write f!readers, but can do m!readers if requested. Gender neutral smut requests will be implied only (how the character feels, etc. without specific descriptions).

These requests will (hopefully, this is me we’re talking about) be shorter than my usual requests. I am hoping to keep these as drabbles that are 1.5k words or less!

Once a prompt is chosen, I will cross it off. If you choose one and it has been taken, I will allow you to pick a new one - if you want!

All requests will be tagged under “azurelyy.100event”

You have to follow my rules.

Have fun! Thank you guys again for 100, and I hope we can celebrate more milestones in the future <3.

Fluff Prompts:

“Don’t forget: I’m also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”

“So, it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really, really hard, and we’re gonna have to work at this every day. But I wanna do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me. Every day.”

“I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

“You have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love… I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.”

“It was a million tiny little things that, when you added them all up, they meant we were supposed to be together, and I knew it. I knew it the first time I touched her. It was like coming home, only to no home I'd ever known. I was just taking her hand to help her out of a car, and I knew it. It was like magic.”

“I’ve fallen in love. I’m an ordinary woman. I didn’t think such violent things could happen to ordinary people.”

"Love isn't patient, and kind, and humble. Love is messy, and horrible, and selfish, and bold. It's not about finding your perfect half. It's the trying, and reaching, and failing."

“I can't see anything I don't like about you.”

"I am done being scared, and I am done keeping secrets. I love you."

“But mostly, I hate the way I don’t hate you. Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.”

“Why me?” “Because you saw me when I was invisible.”

 "I've come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours."

"You're late." "You're stunning." "You're forgiven."

"As you wish."

"I'd rather fight with you than make love with anyone else."

"I'm the exception..." "You are my exception."

"Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I’m scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you."

“I can’t remember anything without you.”

“You had me at hello.”

"What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey, that's a pretty good idea. I'll give you the moon." 

Smut Prompts:

"I wish I knew how to quit you."

“Now, try your best to stay calm.”

“Put that thing back where it came from or so help me.”

“You must forgive my lips... they find pleasure in the most unusual of places.”

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

“You’re only in trouble if you get caught.”

“You should be kissed - and often - and by someone who knows how.”

“Take me to bed or lose me forever.”

“Either you have feelings or you don’t.”

“Oh, how we’re going to hurt each other.”

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield it.”

“Tonight, I will make you mine.”

“I desire you. I burn for you.”

“I need to taste you.”

“What are you doing?” “Making you feel really, really good?”

“I need you... do you feel how I need you?”

“Will you be quiet?”

“Where did you learn to kiss like that?”

“Beg for mercy. You can’t have it, though, not yet.”

‘I didn’t say I wanted an apology, did I? I said ‘Bite me again.’“

[whoree321]

the bad batch + what romance/rom com movies they watch with you

each of the bad batch x gn!reader

ok first and foremost i really truly believe to the pits of my soul that every single one of these fuckos loves romances and you cannot under any circumstances change my mind

ALSO it’s a gender neutral reader except kinda in echo’s theres like a very brief quote regarding breasts but like i still think even that is pretty gender neutral tbh

so anyway

Hunter: Pretty Woman

this is not the first time that i have publicly declared that i think hunter has a deep rooted connection to the movie pretty woman and it will not be the last

first of all this movie is incredibly soothing to hunters overwhelming savior complex

second of all hunter is literally richard gere (debonaire but emotionally distant gentleman that learns to love) and julia roberts (hooker with a heart of gold) at the same time

he was a little skeptical the first time you put it on but he instantly fell in love with it

the humor, the sensuality, the class divide, the glamour, the unconventional cinderella story of it all. it just really butters his bread

after the first time, when you suggest watching a movie and you pick this one he’ll act very aloof about it (“whatever you want cyar’ika, it doesn’t matter to me”) but secretly he’s really really happy bc it’s one of his favorites (you def know this and def pick it more often)

he absolutely hates the scene when stucky the lawyer hits vivian. like it doesn’t matter how many times he watches it he will fully turn his head away from the screen and say “I don’t like this part” and when it’s over he nuzzles a little closer into you and very tenderly kisses your forehead

he loves the soundtrack too. like he fully exposes how much he likes the movie when you catch him singing or humming “pretty woman” or “it must have been love” absently to himself (you kept it to yourself for a while but eventually you just had to tease him about it. he just smiled a little sheepishly and admitted he liked the songs before promptly changing the subject)

hunter also lowkey definitely wants to recreate the ending where richard gere shows up to her apartment in the white limo with you bc he thinks it’s such a sweet gesture and he wants to treat you like royalty

Crosshair: 10 Things I Hate About You

if there’s one thing about crosshair it’s that he’s a sucker for the enemies to lovers genre

maybe its just him projecting (spoiler alert it most certainly is) but he really enjoys watching the drama conflama of a miserable bastard be tricked into love

and really that’s the true essence of 10 Things I Hate About You

he will grumble and bitch and moan about not wanting to watch a ‘chick flick’ when you put it on, but 15 minutes in and he’s hooked

he has strong negative opinions on literally every single character except for kat and patrick

(crosshair really really wants to think he’s patrick but when it comes down to it he is katarina stratford in every single possible way)

he doesn’t say a word throughout the entire movie but you can tell when he’s annoyed at like bianca or cameron or joey bc he will openly scoff at them

will absolutely hum along in your ear during the “can’t take my eyes off you” scene and make out with you during the paintball scene

(seriously he wants to be patrick verona so bad)

when it’s over and you ask him what he thought he’ll roll his eyes and say “i guess it could have been worse” but his little smirk let’s you know he enjoyed it a lot more than he’s willing to admit

Tech: 50 Shades of Grey

ok hear me out on this one

tech is a huge movie talker. like subtitles are a non-negotiable if you wanna be able to take in any of the movies dialogue bc tech is most likely gonna make commentary over it the whole time

this makes him absolutely indescribably so much fun to watch bad/corny movies with

he will go off about EVERYTHING. the plot, the dialogue, the acting, the costuming, the music, the production quality. nothing and no one is safe. whether you just enjoy letting him talk at you or you join in on the roast, cheesy movies are a hoot between you two

and honey. 50 shades is one of THE cheesiest movies ever

you and tech will literally spend the entire duration of the movie tearing it to shreds

and the thing is tech is a very sarcastic, funny guy when he wants to be (and when it comes to you he definitely wants to be) so by the end of it he will have you in absolute stitches from laughing at the ridiculousness of both the movie and him

with any of the other batchers watching a movie like this either turns into a shy, slightly awkward experience (wrecker, echo) or an incorrigibly horny experience (crosshair, hunter)

but in this context tech literally has no shame or squeamishness about sexual things (why should he it’s a natural biological process?) so to yall the sex stuff is just another thing to roast

literally christian grey could be fully tying dakota johnson down and flogging her and tech will be like “in the last 3 minutes they have panned up to her nipples 4 times. this is criminally shoddy cinematography”

even tho he’s busy giving a detailed play by play critique, he never fails to keep some sort of physical contact with you (wrapping an arm around you and running his hand up and down your skin, playing with your fingers or your hair) so you know he’s enjoying spending this time with you despite his nasty words about the movie

also 1000% after you watch it tech will do extensive research on the ins and outs of bdsm and will have lots of hypotheses he wants to test out (as long as you’re willing and able ofc) ;)))

Wrecker: 13 Going On 30

of all the bad batch members, wrecker is the only one who unabashedly loves any movie that could be considered a chick flick

like he doesn’t even try to hide it or act like he’s too masculine for it. he loves romance and he’s proud of it

this man will have full marathons with you. rom coms, regular roms, tragic roms, hallmark roms, you name it and he’s game

his absolute favorite tho is 13 Going On 30

i feel like he has a huge soft spot for childhood best friends to lovers stories like he finds that type of lifelong partnership so endearing (and he loves to live vicariously through jenna since that type of romance was obviously never an option for him)

wrecker is also very childlike at heart and i think the idea of a 13 year old sweetheart trapped inside the body of a 30 year old cut throat magazine exec is so amusing to him (and maybe makes him feel just a little bit represented in the media)

he is definitely the type to completely engulf you in a cuddle for the entirety of the movie and he DEFINITELY cries into your shoulder at matty’s wedding when jenna is crying on the stoop with her dream house

he wants to try razzles so bad. like so bad. i think if he ever came across them somewhere he would barter at least one of his brothers for them

wrecker really just loves love and watching movies about it just reminds him of how lucky he is to have his own love story with you <3

Echo: The Princess Bride

i feel like it’s glaringly obvious why echo loves this movie

pirates. sword fighting. decades long revenge plots. the value of an honorable, loyal man. true love that never wavers even in the face of devastating tragedy and the darkest of hardships. clever but goofy humor.

echo considers this an action/adventure movie and NOT a romance movie (even tho it 100% totally is a romance movie) and requests to watch it very frequently

he can quote the whole thing. i’m seriously telling you echo loves the princess bride with his whole chest

even tho he refuses to admit it’s a love story above all else, he really does try to model himself in your relationship after wesley

like especially given what happened at the citadel and all the time you thought he was dead, the cinematic parellels are alive and present in y’alls relationship and he strives to be even half the man to you that wesley is to buttercup

literally in your day to day life he will sometimes respond to your requests with a smooth “as you wish ;)” (it doesn’t matter how many times he does it it still gives you butterflies)

when you watch the movie, he snuggles as close to you as possible and does his best to make youre comfy the whole time (he’s insecure about his prosthetics hurting you no matter how much you reassure him they don’t)

he just loves to be able to feel your heartbeat and your laugh when you giggle at the funny bits

every single time without fail at the part when buttercup is about to stab herself he leans down, ghosts his lips against the shell of your ear, and whispers the line in time with wesley: “there’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. it would be a pity to damage yours”

every single time without fail you wind up making out until he pulls away and tells you to watch the next part when wesley challenges humperdinck to a duel to the pain

echo just loves you to bits and wants you to know he’d endure a thousand fire swamps for you

Omega: Clueless

i have this really specific obsession with omega being a total girly girl and having very traditionally feminine interests as she keeps experiencing the universe and being exposed to a spectrum of gender expression beyond clone (masc and boring) and kaminoan (ugly)

so with that headcanon of her in mind, it’s vital to me that she sees clueless as soon as possible

clueless is an essential piece of media for a girl entering adolescence and i will die on this hill

it has literally everything you want and everything you need to develop into a well-rounded young woman

it’s so deliciously 90s and glamorama and valley girl humor and camp. its got meaningful female friendships and valuable life lessons and paul mf rudd

if there’s one thing you should encourage a burgeoning hetero teen girl to do, it’s to stick to dating guys like paul rudd in clueless. the earlier this message can be broadcast the better

the second you’re able to steal omega away from hunters watchful eyes (“hunter we’re just gonna watch finding nemo i swear!”) you show her this movie

at this point omega is not really a girly girl, but omega also has absolutely zero feminine influence in her life

the first time she sees clueless she is absolutely obsessed. like seriously she is so enamoured with the glitz and glam of cher horowitz

she asks you questions the entire time. she wants to know about EVERYTHING. the makeup, the clothes, the hair, the slang

(she definitely goes around saying stuff like “i’m totally bugging” for long enough afterwards that almost all of the boys have slipped up at least once with some ridiculous valley girl slang. you thought you were gonna die of laughter when you overheard tech say “as if!” to wrecker in the middle of an argument)

it just really introduces her to this whole world of femininity that she didn’t even know existed and she absolutely loves it

she makes you watch clueless with her seriously once a week at minimum. she begs you to style her hair like tai’s and you can’t help yourself when you happen to run across a little yellow plaid dress and buy it for her on sight

(hunter was gonna scold you for recklessly spending credits until he saw how omega almost cried from how happy she was for the gift)

honestly she enjoys the romance of it all and paul rudd is def her first celebrity crush but she enjoys more that you and her now have this special thing of hair and nails and pretty dresses

she loves how confident and beautiful and special you’re able to make her feel, and you love that you get to bring her that small sense of normalcy and happiness

[cienie-isengardu]

Erron Black. Arguably a character I don't know much about. Is Erron Black feminist, sexist, or just soft on girls? Now I know MK everyone can fight everyone, but in story mode...

In MK10 Milenna impale his hand with a knife, but he doesn't fight her. I'll except injury for that one.

But then with Cassie Cage later, he fights her, only after she engages him, but once he knocks her down he stops fighting her to fight Kung Jin in the market.

Later on the bridge fight, we do see him fighting Jacqui Briggs, in the background, but she charged him, so she initiated it, and when they focus in he is fighting Kung Jun again.

In MK11, when young Erron Black goes after Jade and Kotal, he let's Jade leave without so much as a glance.

In the Black Dragon fight pit, even though she is right next to him, he ignores Sonya Blade until she actually attacked him. He doesn't even point the other gun at her, he points it up and looks away, until she punches him.

The only time it looks like he initiated a attack on a woman was when Sheeva got shot in her shoulder armor (and shrugged it off), but we immediately see him chasing down Nightwolf, so that looks like a accident. And they only fight after she punches him across the room.

And in the comic's when he kidnapped Cassie and Jacqui he defended them against Kano, telling him not to hurt them, and when he realized they were in serious danger, tried to free them and help escape.

Unless I'm missing something, well he doesn't avoid it, he doesn't fight initiate fights with women.

Before I will talk at length about Erron Black and his attitude toward women I wish only to emphasize this is my subjective opinion and there is no need to agree with me on this. Because no matter how much source material will be brought into discussion, there are many ways to interpret his mindset, especially since A) what Erron says is not always compatible with what he is doing and B) the specific game mechanics that limit and/or adapt his “personality” to the needs of the storyline.

Long text ahead!

Mortal Kombat X’s stated Erron Black was hired by Shang Tsung 150 years ago. So he was born and raised at least the previous century and half, thus his approach to women may be old-fashioned but I wouldn’t say he was somehow deeply concerned per se about gender to begin with. Yes, the mentioned examples suggest otherwise but their context is as important as Erron’s action alone. Because the context of the game will not always work well with in-universe logic. I’m talking here stricte about game mechanics that are built around chapter’s main hero that must win against the opponents and in the mentioned examples Erron was sadly just an obstacle to beat down so it is not like he could headshot Mileena, Sonya or Sheeva or any woman and be done with the problem despite how marksmanship is his forte. Also, the game mechanic in MKX kinda made me joke that Erron shouldn’t be left on his own for too long because his competence in those chapters seemed that bad (from Outworld’s main cast only D’Vorah looked to me as a competent character and she was a traitor, that says a lot about Kotal’s team doesn it?). Anyway, on the basis of the specific nature of the game alone I wouldn’t go so far to judge Erron’s mindset, especially since he was a background/supportive character in MKX and MK11 story modes. So far, Black didn’t have his own chapter - thus the story isn’t told from his POV.

To be honest, games and comics present Erron in different lights, thus his approach to women may vary from one source to another. Because of that let’s firstly look at the sources separately.

In MKX, on Kotal’s voiceless order, Black was going to kill Rain. Mileena attacked Erron by surprise before he could shoot down the rebel but it was Kotal’s chapter so the emperor was the one that dealt with her. Erron was part of the background during chapter 2 without any impact on the story.

Then we have chapter 4 about Kung Jin.

When Cage Team met Erron Black for the first time, the man demanded to know what is Special Forces’ business here including “a reason why we shouldn’t kill you”. Despite the not so friendly welcome, Erron was willing to address Takeda’s remark (“I can read you… You’re not from Outworld.”) and did not resort to violence once Cassie’s explanation did not satisfy him. Looking at the uncertain situation of Outworld, Erron’s lack of trust is understable - Kotal was still at war with Mileena thus in constant danger. Of course, it is up to interpretation, did Erron listen to Jin solely because the prospect of money spoke to him so much or there is some bias (thus the cynical remark about Raiden’s seal and dismissive attitude) against Cassie, the woman in charge. I personally tend to think Erron was simply cautious because the last Earthrealm that got close to Kotal tried to kill the emperor. And yeah, Kano is nothing like Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda or Jin but there was no way for Black to know that for sure, especially since Outworld and Earthrealm weren’t really at the best terms at that time and Raiden’s name did not foreshadow anything good.

The next sequences may be interpreted as Erron being soft on women but I’m gonna present here different possibilities:

Once Jin went ahead to disrupt the execution, Erron’s first reaction was to shoot him yet Black took aim instead of shooting blindly without care for the crowd (or at least the slow down of his action is how it looked to me). Because he was focused on Jin - the main culprit whose action caused unwanted riot, Cassie easily stopped the attack. Should Erron be more focused on the female soldier at his side? Most likely, but all of this happened in mere seconds so I can understand why stopping Jin acting on his own accord was priority to the mercenary since it was related to his job and he was the one that agreed to take Earthrealmians to Kotal. Which may be the reason why Black just knocked down Cassie and immediately ran after Jin. And mind you, Erron knocked down Cassie by hitting her on the head with the butt of the pistol, which is not a gentle way by no means.

The chapter 6 is focused on Takeda and partially on Cage Team’s run from captivity. The Earthrealmians were important hostages, even if falsely accused of working with D’Vorah. So it makes sense that “Outworld Champions” weren’t trying to kill them. Otherwise Kung Jin would be shot down for good yet Erron kept him just at gunpoint. Once again, the game mechanics don’t make much sense considering how Jin stayed behind as air support but somehow ended up on the bridge while Jacqui disappeared somewhere in the background. Also, the same as with Cassie in Chapter 4, Erron did not kill defeated opponents nor tortured / injured for fun (Rain is a different matter because Erron went for killing only after Kotal’s voiceless order to finish the traitor).

In Chapter 11, Erron is even more degraded into a support role and he did not attack nor take part of the skirmish in the forest until Jacqui beat down Kotal. Personally I suspect he could be (in universe) too injured for hand to hand combat but once Team Cage was surrounded and Kotal gave the order for execution, Erron was aiming at Jacqui and if Sub-Zero did not show up, Black most likely would shoot to kill.

(Also, he did not shoot any enemy from a distance, so the women and men were treated the same although if this is a matter of game mechanics or Erron’s own moral code, hard to tell. Black recognized himself more as Outworlder than anything else so he may actually follow the common there idea of one on one fight.)

So, MKX story mode alone does not tell us much about Erron’s mindset about women because he has never been the one starting fights in the first place. This kinda makes sense since he is a mercenary and kills or injures only those who Kotal wishes to see dead or punished. Besides that he didn’t injure / kill Cassie when he had a chance but he didn't do so with Jin either. MKX!Erron gives the impression of a collected, detached type of person who is far from macho stereotypes or psychopath/sociopath like Kano.

Thankfully there is additional information like dialogue intros and Erron’s ending (from what we learned about Erron's approximate age) that aren’t canon per se but at least give some insight into his psyche.

The best counter argument for eventual Black’s habit of going easy on women is his own ending in which he ambushed and killed Cassie, Jacqui, Takeda and Jin (this situation was repeated in Briggs’ ending except this time Cage Team was saved by Jax). This is a rare moment in which Erron was the attacker and on his own initiated the violence toward others. In this case, he attacked women and men alike.

Then we have intro dialogues in which Erron usually deals with people in a professional manner, some even sometimes addressing in a polite way. Like “Mr. Kung” to Lao, “Mr. Hasashi” to Scorpion and “Mr. Takahashi” to Takeda. Surprisingly, he addresses Cassie and Sonya by their military rank (Sergeant Cage and General Blade respectively) which suggests that whatever Erron learned a century or two ago about gender-related social norms most likely evolved accordingly to his own life experiences, especially those gained in Outworld.

At the same time, it seems some of outfashioned - harmful - convictions are still enough deeply rooted in him to say stuff like that:

Kenshi: The friendless wanderer.

Erron Black: Least I don't take orders from a woman.

Kenshi: Which century are you from?

Which is kinda ironic since Kenshi takes orders from Sonya whom Erron addresses by high military rank without any snide comment about a woman in the army. But as far as I managed to check the intros, this is the only(?) one outright sexist thing Erron said to anyone and surprisingly, he didn’t say that to any woman, just to Kenshi. Frankly, if the idea of taking orders from women was so offensive, why would Erron bother to call Mileena the Crownless Queen or Kitana the Fallen Princess, if both titles by itself imply facing women that are used to give commands or even hire people like him? Once again, there is little to no sexist attitude toward women in context of their power over other men. Which suggests that whatever prejudices Black may have, he does not allow them to affect his interaction with other characters. Usually, at least.

Okay, the insult toward Kenshi could be some of Erron’s deep-seated sexist beliefs adding to the reason why he didn’t support Mileena in the fight for the throne. Yet, at the same time, if that was the case, he could outright say he doesn’t agree to be bossed by a woman to her (or he could be accused of that by her or any character really). Of course, it could be something similar to Black’s claim to care only about money with MK11 strongly hints he is saying one thing and doing differently but I will come back to this topic in a moment.

Another argument against this insult: Erron was one of the characters that did not mock Mileena’s look, origin or called her crazy. If he really thought listening to women's orders was so bad, then he didn’t show that when interacting with her or other female characters.

At the same time, like many other male characters, Black is not immune to the beauty of women around him and some of his comments sounds disrespectful and are unwelcome by the ladies:

Sonya: The gunslinger.

Erron Black: I could take you away from all this.

Sonya: I must be a jerk-magnet.

→ Sonya is not amused by Erron’s words at all.

Erron Black: Hello, beautiful.

Jacqui: Messin' with the wrong girl.

Erron Black: But it feels so right.

Jacqui is like the only one woman described by MKX!Erron as the beautiful one, the other he usually referred to along the lines of hot / sexy. Yet once Jacqui outright warned him to not mess with her, Erron deliberately ignored her because it amuse him. Whatever it is a sign of an old-fashioned mindset (a remnant of the times he grew up) or just simply (male’s) egoism on his part, Erron likes to flirt with women but he does not always respect their opinion or wish to be left alone.

At the same time, Erron rarely tried to change women’s minds about him or their eventual relationship. So far, only the intro dialogue with Kitana seems to be the exception:

Kitana: Stop!

Erron Black: We've barely begun, my lovely.

Kitana: It will end quickly.

Black may put his own amusement above other people's personal comfort, yes, but didn’t act creepy like Kano did, especially toward Blade-Briggs-Cage family as a whole.

So we have this

Jacqui: I really don't like you.

Erron Black: I really don't care.

Jacqui: As long as we're straight on that.

in which Erron doesn’t care for Jacqui’s dislike of his person but doesn’t impose himself on her. He does not resort to the common rapist “excuse” that woman says no but her body says otherwise, like Kano did (“Your mouth says Kano, but your eyes say Kan-yes.”) and this contrast puts Black in a more positive light. Similar thing happened in the intro dialogue toward Tanya.

Erron Black: My friend, Tanya.

Tanya: We are not friends, bounty hunter.

Erron Black: Have it your way...

Again, whether trying to be friendly or ironic, once Erron was “turned down”, he simply accepted the situation without any additional crude remarks.

Interestingly, interaction with Sonya showed that Black was capable of rethinking his statement about hot/sexy women:

Erron Black: Girls with guns? Always hot.

Sonya: I'll shove 'em up your ass and fire.

Erron Black: Almost always hot.

Those examples suggest Erron may treat women differently, depending on their “fighting experiences”, age and origin and maybe even how sexually / aesthetically appealing they are to him. For example, veteran Sonya’s threat was taken seriously while (novice / new generation) Jacqui’s warning was ignored. At the same time, the intro dialogues didn’t hint at any romantic or sexual interest in Ferra (a young female symbiote) nor D’Vorah (Kytinn) and relatively good looking Mileena who deserves a separate paragraph.

To be honest, Erron, Johnny and Kano are like the main three men openly showing their (sexual?) interest in women around them. Understable, Black’s flirting / comments rarely were appreciated yet he still was less creepy or aggressive towards others than Kano. Erron didn’t bother to hide his eventual (sexual) interest in beautiful women but it can’t be said A) he had no control over his sexual drive and B) has rapist / sexual predator tendencies.

Another interesting thing: with few exceptions like Kano or Quan Chi, Erron threatened people with violence usually after they offended him and most of the time maintained professional neutrality toward his rivals. In that regard, Erron treated other characters the same regardless of their gender.

This is something worth keeping in mind how Black, as mercenary, in general is not the initiator of violence. Unless someone will pay him. For money, Erron would attack (kill) anyone, including women (to Tanya, “The Kahn wants your head.” + Erron’s Epilogue).

The last detail to talk about: one of the intro dialogue with Cassie suggests Erron thought she was an easy opponent.

Cassie: Is something funny?

Erron Black: I'll win this easy.

Cassie: You're going down hard.

but to be fair, he thought the same about Sub-Zero

Erron Black: You're an easy target.

Sub-Zero: As are you.

Erron Black: Bullets beat snowballs any day.

so I wouldn’t say it was the bias toward Cassie because of her gender and just Erron’s own arrogance (and maybe lack of good judgement on his part).

In summary, MKX!Erron in game alone tends to act in a professional manner. He had an occasion to shoot defeated opponents but did not seize the opportunity against not only Cassie but Jin as well. During the storyline he was rather collected, emotionless. In intro dialogues he openly expresses his interest in tough, relatively attractive women yet the banter is far from the creeping tone of Kano’s interaction with female characters.

Then we have Mortal Kombat 11 in which past and future timelines are messed up. Sadly, Erron’s characterization departs from the neutral-polite one seen in the previous game. Of course, this could be blamed on the younger version of Erron, but frankly, twenty years for someone living at least for a century and half shouldn’t make that big difference in behaviour and well, MK11 outright claims Erron is prone to violence for violence’s sake instead of just money. Which is one of many plot-holes and divergences between both games I guess.

Anyway, Erron, again, was the background character to beat down, so it is worth remembering that he couldn’t permanently hurt or kill anyone from the main cast. In chapter 2 he let Jade get away when he was facing Kotal and frankly, there is little explanation for that in-universe wise. I personally suspect it may be related to Erron’s own sense of honor, as in respecting one on one fight without cheap moves like shooting someone’s beloved person. Not practical in the mercenary job but it is possible for someone born and raised around two centuries ago. Also, Shao Kahn’s anger was focused mainly on killing Kotal for taking the throne. Because of that Erron could be not interested in Jade who simply did not have any significant political matter at that time. Sadly, it is really hard to say for sure what was on his mind.

In chapter 6, past!Erron stormed the Special Forces Base alongside Black Dragon members. There were women in that group but sadly, Black did not interact with anyone beside Johnny Cage. We can at least assume, Black did not mind fighting side by side with women.

Similary, present!Erron in chapter 7 showed up in the background during the alliance attack on Coliseum. The attack was led by Kitana (albeit did Erron join her to save Kotal out of loyalty or for money, it was not explained) and there were female fighters in the group. It seems then Erron does not mind fighting side to side with women.

During the pit fight (chapter 8), past!Erron faced the past!Sonya and the past!Johnny. Frankly, the same as in the previous chapter, game mechanics make little sense because there was no real reason for Erron to open the ring and face the characters when he could simply shoot down both from a safe distance. This really undermines the whole point of Black being a gunslinger, isn’t it?

Anyway, Cage took the forward position (which I think is both because despite his injuries he tried to shield Sonya AND because he actually met Erron during an attack on a Special Forces’ base) and got shot in the arm. After a short skirmish, Erron knocked down Johnny and aimed to kill the injured man.

The most logical thing for Erron in this situation would be to shoot down Sonya first and then finish already beaten down and exhausted Johnny. In defense of the Black though it is worth emphasizing that he didn’t completely ignore Blade nor turned away from her.

Most likely the weird slow-down action of aiming at Johnny was a moment of distraction that Sonya simply used to attack. Similar to MKX, game mechanics do not allow Black to headshot the main heroes, even though, in-universe, he should do just that and be done with the job. There is also a possibility that past and present Kano still wanted to keep Sonya alive for their own amusment (torture and sadly most likely rape) what could explain why Erron didn’t shot her from safe distance. I mean, the game alone did not voice what Kanos really ordered Erron to do.

I know that MK games like to slow down action for dramatic effects, but I strongly believe it was actually a matter of a few seconds of distraction (Erron looking aside to shoot Johnny and aiming) that Sonya took advantage of rather Black ignoring her on purpose. Even more since Black did not hesitate to shoot at her and seemed to enjoy facing “the legendary” Sonya Blade.

The same as MKX, Mortal Kombat 11 does not explain Black’s mindset. He does not shoot Jade or Sonya when he has a chance but he does not make any rude remarks toward women in general. However the intro dialogues shed a light on the complicated relationship that Erron has with women.

From what we learn about Erron, his childhood was far from normal or safe. We don’t know details, but what he shared with Cetrion and Cassie strongly suggest that Erron’s both parents were abusive people:

Cetrion: You shot your own father, Erron Black.

Erron: Sonofabitch had it coming.

Cetrion: Honor thy parents, mortal!

or

Erron: My Ma would’ve loved you, Cassie Cage.

Cassie: Aw, sounds like you miss her bunches.

Erron: I hated Ma.

or

Erron: I grew up around tough women.

Cassie: Didn’t they teach you respect?

Erron: They taught me to hit back.

The last statement suggests young Erron was abused by women (most likely including his own mother) to the point he is now willing to hit back anyone regardless of their gender without remorse. Erron himself says “I ain't above shootin' a lady” (intro dialogue vs. Sonya).

Beside that, an abusive mother alone could influence Black’s approach to women - and most likely she did, since he admitted to hate her. Surprisingly, Erron uses the past tense (“I hated Ma”) so there is a chance he gained distance over time in that matter. It also seems like whatever he feels about mother usually doesn't affect his relationship with other female characters. For example, in the mentioned banter he did not insult Cassie for reminding him about the abusive parent. Despite the bad childhood intro dialogues hint Black actually likes dangerous women.

Erron Black: I stepped out with Nitara before you.

Skarlet: You clearly have a type, Erron.

Erron Black: Just like living dangerously.

Like in the previous game, Erron openly shows his (sexual) interest in various women. The interesting change however is how:

His interest extends now to more alien-looking female characters like Nitara or Sheeva. Surprisingly, Mileena’s advances are still rejected. Also, Erron has like zero respect for the goddess Cetrion but to be honest, he does not respect any god.

Erron is more disrespecting by using nicknames like Legs or Baby Doll for Sonya or Sugar for Cassie. Of course, it may be just the “charm” of younger Black - hard to tell in most cases which version is speaking - but it creates an overall feeling of ironic, at times irritating or insulting approach to female fighters. At the same time, there are women that Erron refers to in a rather consistently respectful manner - Jacqui (Miss Briggs, Little Lady), Jade (ma’am, missy), Kitana (Princess, Kahn).

Before I will focus on the complex situation with Mileena, I need to talk about Erron’s important trait: he often says one thing but does the opposite. This is especially noticeable in intro dialogues concerning money and loyalty. Both games agree the main motivation for Black is a good payment, albeit MK11 highline also the thrill of danger. Anyway, Erron admitted he is willing to betray Kotal, a current employer, if someone offered a better deal (“Until a better offer comes along.”, “There's always a better offer, Kotal”). This strengthens the impression Black cares only about himself yet he rejects all propositions coming from Kotal’s enemies such as Shao Kahn, Rain or Mileena, Quan Chi, Shinnok and Kano/Black Dragons. At the same, he is willing to work with/ for Kitana who happens to be the best friend of Jade, Kotal’s beloved. Which makes Erron still operate in a group wishing no harm to the ex-emperor.

I’m bringing this into discussion because there is strong possibility that under the tough guy act, Erron still follows some “old-fashioned” sense of morality and is decent enough to not attack or harm women (and in my opinion, people in general) unless A) it is part of the job or B) is self-defense. Which could explain why he let Jade walk away or why he didn’t shoot Sonya from a safe distance but faced her in hand to hand combat. Depending how long he lived in Outworld, he could simply adapt into local customs - the people of Outworld are a combat-focused society and because of that have a strong sense of honor code. Erron’s eventual softness toward female fighters would get him in serious problems and I doubt he could afford such weakness when serving Shang Tsung or Shao Kahn.

So, why did Erron not want to serve Mileena, the designated successor? As the Empress, she was in position to offer the best (materially wise at least) deal after all.

In MKX!banter Erron claims Kotal paid him better:

Mileena: You aided the usurper.

Erron Black: He offered more coins.

Mileena: ...and no protection.

Meanwhile, MK11!Black outright says it was not a matter of money but of Mileena’s behaviour. Considering how prone to violence she was, it is no wonder why Erron decided to work for someone else.

Erron Black: Now what's got you all rip-snorting mad?

Mileena: When I gained the throne, you abandoned it.

Erron Black: Wasn't no pay worth dealing with your crazy.

This brings me back to the MKX’s banter suggesting Erron may dislike being bossed by women. Considering the implication he is currently negotiating a proper deal with Kitana Kahn (“New Kahn, same deal?”), the problem is more complex than judging someone by gender alone. I mean, Erron worked for Shao Kahn who himself was a cruel tyrant so sadism shouldn't be anything new for Black, right? Except, he was hired by Shang Tsung and because of that I think it is highly possible Erron had just indirect contact with the Emperor. Thus Erron could be not ready for Mileena’s unstable nature(?) and cruelty.

I mean - Erron comes from a pathological family and grew up around tough women. In his opinion Cassie has some traits or behaves in a way for which his mother would’ve liked the girl. So there are certain things that Black connects to hated mother. Now, Cassie is more of an extrovert type of person, showy and with sharp ripostes but she is one of the good guys and cruelty for fun is not her thing. So, if someone like Cassie can somehow make him think of a hated parent (that most likely is dead for decades now), how much Mileena could trigger Erron in the wrong way? To the point he chooses his mental health over money and/or thrill of danger?

If this is true, we may further wonder if bad experiences with tough women in childhood are the reason why despite flirtatious nature, Erron’s interest in female fighters usually is strictly sexual attraction? Because it really looks like he does not try to emotionally connect with women. Even his “thing” with Skarlet seems to be more a matter of thrill than a serious relationship, considering how Erron was okay with her eventual death.

(The possibility of Erron being freaked out by Mileena also rises an interesting question about her mental state between MK9 and MKX)

This is why I think Erron did not have a problem with working for women as long as they did not remind him too much of past abuse. And this is pretty nice implication, considering how tough guy Erron is for most of the time.

Because of that, Kotal questioning if Erron is jealous of Jade could be read in different way too:

Erron Black: So, you and Jade, huh?

Kotal Kahn: Jealous, Erron Black?

Erron Black: She's quite the looker, Kotal.

And yeah, Erron brings this to the matter of appearance alone, but hopeful as I proved earlier, Erron sometimes says one thing but does (thinks) something totally different. Because of that I suspect he may not be really jealous of Kotal for having a sexy lady but actually of the relationship itself. You know, build on respect and love than just build on sexual drive.

Like I said before, the game cutscenes and character banters may be interpreted in many ways but for me MK11!Erron Black - at least the older version - seems to mask his trauma and/or complex nature of his relationship with women under the act of tough guys. At the same time, there is a high possibility he still follows an out-fashioned sense of honor and though he is not above shooting women, he does not attack them unless it is demanded. Though to be fair, in my opinion this is how he approaches everyone. A mercenary’s mindset that distinguishes him from the likes of Kano.

In Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermatch, Erron met Sheeva, when the Shokan Queen in the company of Fujin, Nightwolf and Shang Tsung carried a coffin to the Soul Chamber. Black and Baraka decided to confront the Shokan woman and it quickly turned into a fight (and the typical game mechanics).

There is a question though - did Erron really take Kitana's offer or did he stay with Kotal? Because it’s really suspicious that he happened in the place where defenless, injured Kotal was in the healing process. Anyway, whatever the case, Black directly or indirectly worked for the new Kahn so it is highly possible his actions were dictated by Kitana’s best interest rather than his liking or disliking anyone.

Let’s just look at the situation - Kitana is the empress but she promised to treat her allies as her equals. That means Sheeva, as well respected Shokan Queen, plays an important role in the new regime - killing her or permanently injuring was out question, otherwise Shokan people could rebel against Kitana and in result the freshly established peace would go straight to hell.

In my opinion, this is why Erron asked Sheeva’s group to go with them quietly so the situation could be explained to Kitana without unnecessary violence. Black actually was okay with Sheeva go to Soul Chamber as long as Shang Tsung (Shao Kahn’s sorcerer) and the suspicious coffin was returned to him. Thanks to Shang Tsung, one of Tarkatan warrior died and thus the situation got out of hand. It makes sense Erron was more focused on Shang Tsung (hated by Kitana), Nightwolf (whose current self is revenant) and Fujin than on Sheeva who, potentially, was protected by political immunity.

When the Shokan Queen beat down Baraka, Erron in my opinion did not try to hurt her, only fired a warning shot. Maybe to make sure Sheeva will not kill Baraka (another important leader whose support Kitana needed to uphold the peace in Outworld). The Earthrealmers on other hand were another matter. Maybe Erron was too trusting or too reckless to not pay more attention to Sheeva or simply didn’t really think she was the traitor. It was after learning she is trying to resurrect Kitana’s evil mom - a dangerous, not consulted with Empress decision - Erron faced Sheeva in hand to hand combat.

Not much to analyse here, especially not with limitations of game mechanics yet I strongly believe Erron’s course of action was dictated by political situation and Kitana Kahn’s best interest so killing or seriously injuring Sheeva could be out of question. Also, like I said previously, Black is rarely the aggressor, what I believe is related to his mercenary’s mindset.

The last source, Mortal Kombat X comics series, requires a little clarification: I treat it as a potentially additional insight into Erron’s psyche than any real canonical material. Partially due to many plot-holes but also because of overwhelming violence used for violence’s sake alone. That said, here what happens:

Earthrealm (Special Forces) and Outworld (Kotal Kahn) weren’t on the best terms. To help Kotal, Erron and Black Dragons kidnapped young (under 21 years old) Cassie and Jacqui and took them to Outworld. During the journey through the dangerous jungle, girls tried to run away but got hurt in the process by Kano. Erron openly talked against brutal treatment of prisoners.

Looking at the difficult situation of Kotal, it was in Erron’s best interest to keep Cassie and Jacqui in one piece. Otherwise the whole plan would fail and then Kotal would be forced to deal with really pissed off Sonya Blade. And that would take a bad turn for Black himself. But like I said earlier, the tough guy act could also cover Erron’s more empathic nature that in the mercenary world was seen as a weakness to exploit. I personally think he did not like torturing people if that was unnecessary but also that he would have spoken against it even if Cassie and Jaquie were boys.

Then the Red Dragons attacked to take over hostages.

(Once again, a tough guy act with the “girls are Kotal’s property” as in cover up his worries about the situation or his true mindset, or mix?)

When the fight started, Erron went to tied hostages:

One one hand, Erron needs the girl to stay alive and not be taken by the enemy. On the other hand, he does not promise them safety nor ask them to run away. He is freeing them so the two girl (both under 21 years old) will fight against experienced criminals armed with swords and other dangerous stuff. This is actually an interesting detail, because it suggests Erron thought Cassie and Jacqui had a chance against thugs or that at least that way they wouldn't be a burden to him.

Jacqui punched him and Erron, either was taken by surprise or did not want to hurt her, was “saved” by Kano. And then betrayed by the Black Dragon leader.

Kano’s worlds raise a question, how much Erron is driven by the money and how much he uses the tough guy act to actually hide his unwanted “vulnerability” (as in, having moral sense and not being the heartless psychopath like Kano).

My general conclusion about Erron is that, for a side character he has a really complex relationship with women around him. I strongly believe that Erron sticks to some old fashioned sense of honor that mixes well with a mercenary's mindset. Thus rarely he is the one attacking first. This most likely influences his interaction with female fighters but at the same time, Outworld is not a place where people are judged by gender but for their skills and powers. So, Erron living there for decades for sure got influenced by that mindset to some degree.

I would not call him a feminist - not because he couldn’t be one but for lack of proper material to analyse. Feminism has many shades but in the most general sense is about establishing the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Erron does not show much opinion on that matter and does not interact with “common” women; those truly weaker than him, disabled or anything else other than warriors, soldiers or queens. With lack of such interaction there is no chance to come to a proper conclusion.

Does Erron have a soft spot for women? It is possible but that would not stop him from hitting back or killing them if the situation called for such action. I think the safest option is just that Erron is in general a more emphatic and honorable human that he wants to admit, to not look weak or be exploited by others. In contrast to Kano, Black for sure has some moral code he follows no matter what. Even if this get him into trouble more often than not.

Hope it answers your question!

[ventriloquisthief]

i keep thinking about how kris was the peak of fire emblem avatar customization but i'm gonna put it under a read more because i have many thoughts

sure, robin and corrin are both cool, but the fact that kris wasn't locked to a specific class at the start of the game and instead got to choose from a pool of classes meant that they could simply have a decent bow or lance or whatever non-sword(/tome for robin) weapon that was available except for staves.

the portrait changes a bit depending on the class you start as which? very good touch. sure it stayed as that one if you reclassed into a different branch of classes but the fact it was different at all is what matters the most.

also the stat/growth customization being more than "select stat to go up. select stat go down." is nice too, since the somewhat abstract choices deciding modifiers also have some small effects on the actual dialogue. not big ones but like, if you say you were a noble's child then a piece of dialogue in the sixth prologue map will reflect this. but if you say you were a farmer it uses a different line instead. all five options are different there (and there's a couple other instances of this for the other questions' answers) but i can imagine it'd be hard to do that for the whole game. it's the small things that count sometimes though

(before someone mentions them, yes, byleth and shez both also exist for the class options but. all you get to customize for them is name, gender, and class. something with the cutscenes i'm sure but that's not the point i wanted to talk about with this post)

[colorisbyshe]

Don’t publish if you don’t want, it’s fine and ilu and hate the clowns that show up in your askbox with anything other than Sasuke love, but ace rethoric, ideology, discourse, whatever you want to call it vibes P E R F E C T L Y with the cissexist, heterosexual, white supremacist patriarchy. it’s the reason why it only took aces a decade to form a semi-coherent movement. the system isn’t afraid. it embraces this shit for a reason. aces ain’t radical or tearing down the system. they uphold it.

I’m gonna close my ask box for a bit after this because... I’m gonna have to defend some shit rn and I’m not in the mood to waste my time like this.

There is something to be said about how a lot of ace rhetoric reaffirms harmful things like rape culture and even just reinvents conversion therapy tactics (and I have said it all, trust me). There is something to be said about how easily asexuality has been absorbed into mainstream culture as opposed to trans, gay, and bi identities, sure. I’ve spoken about that too.

But does it vibe perfectly with all those things you listed? No. If done correctly, asexuality and the ace community could work in tandem with feminism and the LGBT movement (as in allied with, not a part of) to dismantle rape culture. Because people, of any gender, DO face discrimination for not wanting sex. We just must also recognize the same culture also punishes people for wanting sex, too. It’s a catch 22 except for the smallest group of human beings, where your mileage may vary depending on how many privileged identities can stack up and shield you from the catch of it all.

Asexuality and rhetoric around it COULD be extremely helpful in enhancing discussions around sexual expectations and happiness without sex. About boundaries in relationships and how sexual mismatch can be a dealbreaker and that’s okay. IT could be a helpful tool on dating apps so people know “Don’t date me if you wanna smash.” We could have LGBT ace/aro spaces for people who are LGBT but maybe want spaces to talk and organized based on their specific needs, whatever they may be.

Asexuality and aromantism don’t inherently mesh with white supremacist patriarchy or heteronormativity or whatever. They certainly CAN but they don’t inherently.

A lot of the work I would PREFER the ace/aro communities do is already being done in feminist circles and LGBT spaces, I’ll admit to that. But if aces and aros got their fucking shit together, dropped even just half of the appalling shit they say, and joined up... it’d be nice and helpful.

I “got into” ace discourse years ago (and have been trying to escape ever since) not just out of protectiveness for LGBT identities, which a lot of ace rhetoric does harm and attack, but also out of a frustration with a community poised to do SO MUCH fucking good and instead focuses on doing less, every single time.

I want there to be dialogues abotu life without sex and romance and what happiness looks there. I want talks about marriage benefits and assets for people without romantic partners. Or more talk about how to help elderly single people who don’t have kids or partners as windfall for when they can’t take care of themselves. I want talks about how hard it can be to survive on single incomes or discrimination against single mothers or people who want to adopt on their own without a partner.

I want all that so fucking badly and instead I got 5+ years of “My cock is flaccid and I’m queer for it.”

So I won’t take a smear campaign of “Actually, society loves aces/aros” because that’s not true. In some contexts, it might be a bit true. Society would love for some marginalized people to have no sexual desire or romantic impulses. And I’ve spoken on that.

But in a lot of cases... it’s a lot more complicated than that and there are a lot of no win scenarios for people where to have or to not have sex/romance are punished in different ways but punished all the same.

Or maybe society as a whole doesn’t care and doesn’t punish it but also doesn’t consider perpetually single people in terms of designing social services.

There’s conversations I want to have and want the ace/aro communities to be have and they’re being sidelined for ace discourse, inventing a new term for “experiences sexual attraction but is ace for it,” or crying about how if perry the platypus is or isn’t good asexual representation.

Let’s talk on that instead of saying “heteronormativity loves women who never want to have sex or date.” Because... no.

[luckycheesefoodie321]

ok...ok ok ok... ok... so I watched Mulan (2020)... spoilers + LONG POST (yo this took me an hour and a half)...

before yall scream at me for spending money on it, lemme just say i was fully intending to wait until December so that I would not have to give even more money to the Disney machine (especially in light of things that happened with John Boyega) nor endorse individuals who support police brutality or oppression... but my mum and sister nagged me to buy it so we could watch it now, and explaining the politics of supporting both Disney’s greed and the controversy around the lead actress and would’ve just frustrated us both so I paid for it -_- please don’t crucify me... 

also want to preface this by saying I am not Chinese (though I am Asian), and I understand that the 1998 film and this film have inherent issues, given neither were directed by Asian directors, let alone Chinese ones... so the representation of the Chinese culture is likely flawed (and likely straight up wrong) in many ways... additionally, Li Yifei has been shown to support the actions of police in Hong Kong, so just know I’m viewing her role purely from an acting and movie standpoint...

now that’s done... general rating for the movie

when compared to the original animated film (my favourite Disney movie of all time): scrapes by on a 5/10

movie that stands on its own as I watched it (just note I’m the type of person who can enjoy pretty much anything - even if I’m hyper-critical of it): 7/10 (I’m very generous but my viewing experience was nice)

if I break it down completely into its underlying faults and wash away the Hollywood sheen and the nostalgia filter: 4/10 for themes 8/10 for cinematography and the technical aspects... (this movie was gorgeous to look at and had some really fun camera work, sue me for enjoying the visuals)

Full SPOILER review:

For the most part, my nostalgia filter from the animated film, which I dearly dearly love, basically had me ecstatic anytime there was even a hint of a reference to the animated film (see: occasional notes from the songs), and also sorely disappointed when the acting or the general pace pulled the fun or the emotion from key points (see: A Girl Worth Fighting For being abruptly cut off upon seeing the carnage would’ve been so much more impactful because they actually showed the bodies in the 2020 version but instead we got this kinda funny convo referencing the lines completely separated from that scene)...

The biggest issue I have with the film is that Mulan was naturally skilled from the beginning and was told to suppress her abilities.. making her OP from the beginning undermines the 1998 journey where we see every step of her development both in physical ability and her emotional struggles... then through her wits, intelligence, and strategy, as well as being on par and even better than her fellow soldiers, she manages to defeat Shan Yu and makes us feel her “Hero” status is very much earned... so it takes away from what the 1998 film tried to show in suggesting Mulan could just OP her way to victory at the drop of a hat.. and also implied her being dishonest about her true identity was her primary flaw? idk thematically they were trying to be super empowering of women and the capability of women, and the boxes women are forced into according to society... but then suggest Mulan was always inherently gifted/had a special power and that is why she succeeded, while the other soldiers worked hard and effectively achieved the same goal (albeit in a less flashy manner)... so the message gets very confusing...

i felt that Xian Niang (was that her name?), the Witch, had a lot of potential, but I was also really concerned they introduced her to make sure Mulan had a female enemy to defeat, and Shan Yu/Bori Khan was a minion of this female enemy... so in that sense I’m glad she served as a foil to Mulan... I would’ve liked the parallels more if the “being your true self”/”bring honor to us all” theme wasn’t so muddled... Mulan was accepted while XIan Niang wasn’t because they both had powers, but then Mulan convinces her to take the noble path and so Xian Niang died for her? idk there was a better way to fold her into the story...

Shan Yu/Bori Khan was about as much as I expected from him... I think he matched Shan Yu for skill, though idk about ferocity or intimidation power, though the actor was decent enough... but I did enjoy his and Mulan’s fight... less impactful because he didn’t even know about her and how she was the one to take down most of his army...

didn’t mind that Mushu was missing... fondly referred to the phoenix as Mushu (though I understand there may be cultural missteps in a phoenix being the spirit/ancestor/guardian)...

I also didn’t mind they removed the power imbalance between Shang and Mulan and had her love interest be a fellow soldier...I really liked Yoson An’s character actually...but the romance element was significantly dialled back, so we didn’t get the bisexual icon that is Li Shang... also Li Yifei’s emotional acting was normal but not outstanding... so her feelings for Honghui didn’t really register much except for that first time they chat in the barracks about girls, and right before she goes home... (just me being pouty about him not joining the Imperial Guards to Mulan’s home and presenting himself for matchmaking... though I understand it was to keep focus on Mulan’s journey, not her love interest)...

while it probably wasn’t the intention of the 1998 film, the positive portrayal of gender fluidity, the specific empowerment of trans and bisexual individuals through Mulan and Shang (bc let’s get real, he was just as attracted to Ping as he was Mulan), all did not ring in quite the same way in the 2020 version... again I’m not part of either community, so I can’t say for sure, but this is what I read from it...

overall the fun was taken out, with the songs... I would say this is probably on the higher end of Disney Live Action adaptations, there were some fun moments and funny dialogue even, and I didn’t mind that they were trying to do something different, unlike some of the others which made it note for note the same... but ultimately the biggest flaw of most of the adaptations are that it removes the fun and the levity in lieu of a more serious tone... 

I accepted no songs (I was hopeful and then pleasantly surprised when they did pay some minor homages through the score to the original’s songs)... but the fun moments were meant to be intentionally undercut by the reality of the war... there’s a reason A Girl Worth Fighting For was cut off so abruptly in the 1998 version... it was the moment where these trainees (all of them young and having never experienced battle or war before) suddenly realised the severity of the situation before them, and it was in that moment they accepted their fate and duty to protect the kingdom...

the 2020 version just kind of had them walk through the carnage without any real build up... the grand battle sequence with the avalanche was pretty well done, the overdramatic “Hua Jun died but Mulan lived” scene notwithstanding.. i didn’t mind that Mulan volunteered to expose herself rather than be forced half-naked into the snow by the Chancellor dude... didn’t like Honghui got the “you listened to Hua Jun, why is Hua Mulan any different?” line... the “I believe in Hua Mulan” was kinda goofy, but I could see what they were going for... it was kinda undermined by the Commander saying “you dishonoured your family and this regiment but hey, you’re brave and loyal kid”...felt very patronising...

I’m not gonna lie, I kinda loved Cricket... he was adorable and I had half a heart attack when I thought he’d died... 

DIDN’T REALISE MING NA WEN MADE A CAMEO UNTIL I CAME ON HERE...so that was nice..

still pissed they didn’t even put the drum beats for “I’ll Make a Man Outta You”...they were using drums during the training sequence too so would’ve been real easy to do so AND THEY DIDN’T...they did it for “Bring Honor to Us All” and “Reflection”...idk why they couldn’t even give us that much of my favourite Disney song...

again, cannot emphasise enough how gorgeous this whole movie looked...and there were so many fun camera work moments... the visuals had me dead on the floor ya’ll...

idk what else i have to say now...

tl;dr I enjoyed the experience of watching it, but hooooo boi the film is flawed as hell...

[crispyjenkins]

Hi Crispy! I was just wondering how do you write characters with multiple pronouns (he/they, she/they)? I’m having trouble trying to vary them throughout my story but it just feels strained on my end. I only have my own experiences to go off of as a fledgling non-binary person and I can’t find any writing resources on the subject. It’s ok if you don’t have an answer I was just wondering!

hmmm that's am excellent question! and like most things, there isn't any one answer. (so of course my answer is heckin long rip)

my personal experience with varied pronouns is, for lack of a better word, varied (ﾟ◡ ﾟღ) when i first started going by he/they (oh lord like six years ago??), I was one or the other for whole days or weeks, and i was going by two names also, so myself and others would associate they/them with one name and he/him with the other. truthfully, i've never written this dynamic

i rarely pass as masculine usually, and i've found in work environments it was so so much easier to have coworkers and customers use he/him because i want to be read as masculine first, if that makes sense? like i wish there was a masculine-they/them if that makes sense? (ღಥ◡ ಥღ)

i have only ever had one person in my life successfully bounce between he and they evenly for me, i honestly don't know how they made it look so effortless to just. use both in a conversation or when they're telling someone about me?

in the context of writing, i still struggle switching, say, obi-wan's pronouns to they/them when i normally write them with he/him? like i'm thinking specifically the agricorps obi, good lord i kept forgetting their pronouns and automatically writing masculine ones. and it was hard to correct in editing, because it. read really normal? it didn't actually stand out to me reading it back, i think largely because obi-wan already has masculine pronouns in canon. WHILE writing it though, blehhh it took me out of the groove a lot because i was constantly having to correct myself and then i'd worry about if i was being clear enough on who's who in a sentence, or with dialogue tags, and i relate to the struggle you're describing A Lot. (i'm writing an nb din right now where they also aren't sure of grogu's pronouns so it feels like a MESS of they/thems everywhere, but then i realised it would be a mess if they were all he/hims, too, i'm just more like. acclimatised to gendered pronouns and was way over thinking it)

now, i also had this problem in hunger 'verse, using Naberrie for obi-wan. it felt clunky and out of place and i was constantly correcting myself.

i guess what i'm getting at is that like 99% of the time, the clunky you feel while writing is because it's something you've never done before, and/or are worried about doing it "right" (or respectfully) , and/or are worried you're not making it clear enough.

i've written varied pronouns like you're describing only once, and i never posted it because i never finished it. i got caught up in worrying about if the readers would understand, if i needed to have an explanation in the notes, if other nb folx were gonna tell me i was doing it wrong

i'm all over the place in this answer omf, but my advice is this: there's no formula for how often you switch between he and they, she and they, etc., because every nb's ratio is different, if that makes sense. if your character doesn't lean any more to one side than the other, i sincerely don't think it matters how or when you change up their pronouns (except maybe not in the same sentence, unless in dialogue; jury's out on switching it up in the same paragraph, i think that's up to you!)

it'll be a little strange for readers, only because they've likely never read that before (lord knows i haven't 🥲) but it's a little strange for those reading a they/them character for the first time, too. it's just a new experience, and by the time the reader really gets into the story, they won't notice it

i don't believe in the "only write what you know" because fuck that, BUT using your own experiences as inspiration or a starting off point or as a learning tool is important too! i can't tell you how important it was for me to start writing obi-wan with hunger 'verse, because he was 22 and i was 22 and I needed that connection to really solidly and understand what i was wanting from him in everything else i wrote for him (as well as everyone else in star wars tbh)

so maybe that's a starting point for you? if you go by, or are wanting to go by varied pronouns, there's nothing stopping you from applying that to the character you're writing. when would YOU switch between them? how frequently? do other characters know or is it only in their internal dialogue/exposition?

your writing feels clunky and forced because you're writing it. when i'm unsure if something is clear enough or too confusing, i usually send it to my kid @theclonewarsbrokeme, and cannot recommend another set of eyes on your work enough. not even a full beta reader or anything, just someone else to look at it while you're writing, largely because, quite often, it reads just fine

[vomara]

I saw your posts about Katara and the general treatment of female characters in the new ATLA fandom and what i wanna know is, why is it like this now? You know usually i'd say if there's misogyny in a fandom is because the show itself has big problems with it. But ATLA is like, the complete opposite of that? It's a very good show in terms of equality between female and male characters. And it was out there pushing that over a decade ago.

Like who's coming into this show full of great women and going "I only care about the boys and the girls are annoying"? Methinks these people are far too accustumed to shows and fandom where male characters and male focus are the norm, and they come into this show and start perpetuating the same, but this is to me at least almost entirily the fandom's fault. Cause the show isn't out there purposely ignoring or giving bad dialogue and arcs to the women in it. (2/2)

yeah, i agree. there's a very clear and longstanding male-centric bias in fandom in general, and atla is no exception, and yes, it really isn't well-supported by canon, which has plenty of well-developed female characters. atla fandom isn't the WORST i've been in, but the fandom focus has... shifted very male-centric nowadays in a way that wasn't always so prominent. while i'm not gonna say that it was a fantastic thing, before about 2015, there was a little bubble of more female-centric fanwork in the fandom -- mostly concerning azula, but other characters, too. (again, i don't think that it was a fantastic thing, given the fact that a lot of azula fanwork tends to ignore fundamental aspects of her, but it was there, and it existed.) now what? the fandom is predominantly z*ukka, with lingering remnants from a thriving z*utara fandom.

in general, i don't blame fandom for zuko being a fan-favorite -- he was practically designed that way. dramatic and attractive, with one of the most visible character arcs in the series. for other characters, you actually have to pay attention to see how they learn and change; for zuko, you don't have to pay much attention at all. but exempting him, the two most developed characters are aang and katara, both of whom get glossed over in fandom, particularly 2020 fandom. since katara is the main female, let's look at her.

why is she so disrespected in fandom? i think we can start by examining the largest pairings. the z*utara fandom goes all the way back to the airing of the show itself. it's a genuinely compelling dynamic and i like it, but the fandom repels me deeply... because katara is often forced into a position where she has to perform emotional labor in order to force zuko to redeem himself. her character often loses spark, and she sometimes becomes passive in way that's not canon. not to mention there's a whole subset of z*utara tropes that feels very... colonialist. and being a brown girl, fitting her into these more passive, colonized molds is... uh, not a good look on the fans. but i digress. at least she's there and present.

now flash forward to post-2015, but especially 2020, z*ukka fandom. (this fandom existed prior, but was much more lowkey.) the one thing about a lot of mlm pairings in practically every fandom, is how fans can choose to exclude the females of the narrative. this is in no way a disparagement of gay shipping -- but it is a criticism of how those same shippers behave to other characters. other characters, especially females, become accessories to their main ship, and because of that, they often become flat and unidimensional. furthermore, z*ukka had a rival ship in z*utara, so establishing a sense of superiority comes down to proving that sokka is somehow better than katara in some form or another. and how? she's homophobic, she's whiny, she's a "mom", she's "straight" (???) ... or maybe they call her badass and assign her no other traits. maybe they even pair her off with another person to get her out of the way, so they can focus on their mlm pairing, which they justify as more important because it's "progressive shipping". essentially, unlike z*utara, z*ukka stans can very conveniently throw katara out the window. she doesn't need to be present, and so often times, she isn't.

it's just all part of this continued shafting of brown girls in fandom. the fandom CONSISTENTLY loves to hate katara, specifically because she talks about her trauma so much. (which is justified as hell! she lost her mother and then became a mother to the rest of her village at a young age, and she uses this trauma to help her empathize with others!) zuko's out here monologuing about his trauma, and everyone loves him, but this same love doesn't extend to katara. it's irksome to say in the least. sokka, who's of the same race, gets a lot more attention, and that really says a lot about how gender plays into fan-following, because he isn't quite as developed as she is.

there are other girls in the fandom with notable followings, but honestly it would take forever going through each one of them step by step. azula is the most significant in fandom, and that's partially because her character development is strong and visible in the way that zuko's is. also, people have a tendency towards enjoying more unstable females, but that's its own thing. overall, though, even she has been long outstripped by the fan-following of the main mlm ship in fandom. there's no way to compete with that.

and really, that's all it is. this recent misogyny is very much a result of this almost cultish shift towards one particular ship in fandom, an mlm ship that very obviously allows for the exclusion of female characters. once you become a superfan and enwrapped in this type of cultish shipping, you no longer need canon, you no longer need the rest of the cast, and you no longer need female characters, and so you can just enter into a nice little echo chamber where you talk about the same two characters over and over again and get completely disconnected from the original material. and that sucks, because often times, it's the canon context and the complexity of other characters that provide complexity to these characters you're discussing, and now that you've disconnected, you've warped and flattened the dynamic of everyone including those favorite characters into something very generic and boring. and that's a travesty! but, well, i suppose it’s just another byproduct of misogyny.

[humanmosquito]

this is definitely gonna be a ramble-y post but i’ll neaten it when i’m done. (edit:  didn’t really but I’m sick of this sitting here already)

I’ve put this under a cut for obvious reasons. There’s more things I didn’t like about this book but I forgot most of the plot immediately after reading it.

Given the usual time skips in Clare’s work you’d think this would be 6 months down the line and Livvy would have been completely forgotten about and is mentioned sporadically to motivate the main characters. 

I’m not really buying the shock of Livvy’s sudden death i would say Clare’s done a job here and she’s certainly tried, but i’m not buying it.

Her treatment of Gay Characters (capitalisation necessary) is bad but so much worse with Alec than any others and i hate reading about her Alec bc of the way she infantilises him. Also has Clare seriously not found any way to solve problems in her own fictional universe without constantly reintroducing the same guy??? (who is also just a bunch of stereotypes of queer men) (Magnus)

you don’t need to use two separate images to describe people moving in the background, it’s fine.

why is Christina using Spanish pet names when we’ve never seen her using Spanish conversationally before? also, ( and this is a very specific thing to to be so worked up about like 4 years after i read it the first time) but why do whatshisname and Christina have to talk in English instead of implying the conversation was in Spanish but had been translated or even mention it at all? (okay, coming back in later to say that she does use Spanish randomly in this book, Clare has a habit of making Latine characters use Spanish randomly to show they’re Latine.

isn’t Mark 20 or something? I’m legitimately confused about these lines.

there’s no need to suddenly start using fancier language for two whole sentences. also you can just say she visited a wax museum or even Just Madame Tussaud’s (which i’m guessing is the place we’re talking about). also: why is all the dialogue in this book so stiff and overly formal? I know they’re in shock and some of them are functionally strangers but it’s still so off from how people normally speak. (I’m willing to excuse the faerie characters because everyone who writes faeries makes them speak super flowery but that’s it)

there’s no break between Mark and Helen’s POV.

 I’m pretty sure than Simon is secular, why is he suddenly sprouting hebrew? (CC makes no effort to show him engaging with judaism in any form and has him Christmas shopping at one point in tmi)

wouldn’t that make it much easier to break in? (this is needlessly pedantic, I know)

A lot of people said that Emma just becomes a way to talk about how amazing Julian is and I’m beginning to see that. She focuses on the sound he makes walking along a hallway way too much. (Also: coming back a week later to add that Julian just gets worse and worse and for a character that we’re supposed to love(?), he has absolutely no redeeming qualities.)

Doesn’t witchlight only light up when a shadowhunter is holding it? I remember that from TID.

The rally with Dearborn feels like an attempt at the bit at the beginning of 1984 where they’re watching the propaganda video and the woman is crying out for big brother. also, there’s no way to write people chanting someone’s name that doesn’t make it feel like mediocre fanfiction, huh? The whole scene is very over the top and not at all like the actual process of radicalisation. 

who thinks like this? Who thinks about themself like this?

The descriptions of the shadowhunters at the funeral are weird. Emma is described as putting on gear then wearing a dress, Christina has a gear jacket over a dress and Ty is in full gear.

she’s not even being subtle about stealing plot points from the tv show, is she?

why does she keep choosing random words to translate into Spanish? It isn’t necessary unless the word also means a specfic type of that word. A vela isn’t a specific type of candle, that’s just the Spanish word for candle. 

Doesn’t Jonathon Shadowhunter creating runes go against tsc canon? No one could make new runes except Clary because of her extra angel blood. (I should know, I read the fucking Shadowhunter codex). (there are more instances of CC creating thing that go against canon but i kinda got bored of making this list after here)

(I know the answer to this one is just CC’s incest fetish but) Why did everybody just let Christina get engaged to her cousin?

I have to say that my suspension of disbelief lasted longer than I thought it would but it ends with Julian killing a Rider with a D&D figurine.

The whole Thule bit feels like it was copy-pasted from ao3 (While we’re on the subject of copied from ao3 “Ragnor Fell lives” is such a “saw it on Tumblr” cop out)

how did the cohort get Jaime? It’s not explained and I wish it was.

Julian sucks. capital-S Sucks. For the guy Emma is facing Losing her Shadowhunter life for and going into exile for, he’s a dick, with emotions he comes off as creepy, over-sexed and obsessed. Without he’s somehow even worse.

Zara calling Cl*ce disgusting and being called wrong for it is such an obvious dig at the people who criticised Clare when she wrote them nearly fucking in a ditch when they thought they were bio siblings. (I’m p sure they’re also adopted siblings and they consider the same man their dad, so it would still be incest.) 

Also, she’s so one-dimensional and every scene with her, especially in the last 1/2 of the book was exactly the same. (emma attacks her but decides to let her go which was a ~mistake~ with consequences (consequences being “we see Zara again”))

It's not even a subtle D*mbl*dore's Army rip-off, huh?

I take back all the things I thought about Clare improving as a writer, chapter 33 makes literally no sense, also cannot do dialogue or consistent characterisation. (how did any of these get published, TMI especially)

Once again, Clare seems to be stealing plot points from the TV show. (Of course there’s going to be some overlap between the show and books even after it diverged from book canon but it’s getting pretty ridiculous at this point, isn’t it?). 

Okay, every woc in this book is here to further the white protagonists’ story (which i guess is the purpose of supporting characters but the white supporting characters do fuck all) And i get they have their own love interests but it was super forced (don’t @ me for this, Kierarktina had potential but it was all rushed in the second half of this book because Clare realised what a cash cow it was)

Diana gets a little tropey (Speaking as a trans person) but her treatment b Vlare and the other characters was okay. I do wish she was allowed more personality than “no one can love me or know me because I’m trans” (it’s stupid and overused) and “helps the Blackthorns and Emma”. (also Clare knows that you don’t stop taking HRT, right? it isn’t a limited course, it’s not Gender-Changing Antibiotics.)

My final thing is that it went on way too long, like, insufferably long. (you’d think long enough to explain some plot holes, but no.)

[kokkuri3]

I think VnC’s treatment of female characters is better than in PH, where most of them were props, tools to further the development of males, *coughLacieyoudeservedbetter*, tools to humanise the males *coughAdayoucan’tfixhimwithlove, endlessly forgiving and impossibly saintly *coughreallyAlyssyou’rejustgonnaforgiveJacklikethatyouarenotangryatall??*, amongst other problematic tropes.

VnC’s treatment of female characters is absolutely better than PH’s-- in fact, I’d say VnC was one of the few shounen manga to consistently treat its female characters with the same passion and respect as its male ones. One thing I say often is that VnC feels as thought it was written with Mochizuki having acknowledged PH’s problems (the complete lack of nonwhite characters, the continual mistreatment of female characters, the at times facetious treatment of issues such as incest or pedophilia which is... Not A Fan) and to that effect, I think she is making a deliberate effort to make multiple female characters with their own arcs which exist outside of men, who have important relationships with other women, who are capable of agency in the same capacity as their male counterparts.

This post isn’t really about VnC though so I’m not gonna sing its praises much anymore. I’ve talked before about how, despite being written by a woman, despite clearly acknowledging misogyny as a chronic problem among violent men PH is... not especially self aware when it comes to the misogyny of its own narrative.

I’ve made my thoughts on Lacie clear before (see here) and particularly how I believe her treatment was one of the times where PH’s treatment of women was particularly remarkable in that it’s good, despite her arc being drenched in misogynistic abuse and violence. I absolutely wish that the atrocities pinned on Lacie being not her fault was made more clear (aside from what I said in the post, and Oz saying that Lacie would never desire for the destruction of the world she loved) but I don’t think her writing itself was misogynistic-- I’d even go as far as to say it was feminist, though, obviously, I’m open to disagreement.

What most certainly does piss me off, however, is the writing of Ada’s arc. Yesterday I joked about Ada being the ‘anti-Lacie,’ and while it was a joke, I still intended some seriousness with it. Unlike Lacie, who was forced to constantly reevaluate her morals and the positions of her and her loved ones as a person whose existence was an inherent sin and who was abused throughout her life, Ada’s arc is built around the fact that she has never had to question anything. Similarly, while Lacie’s arc is about how she sought her own agency despite being surrounded by and allowed only those who were at best complacent in her suffering, Ada’s arc is about how... she continually sought out and apologized for a misogynistic predator despite being surrounded by better options.

The gender of the Core of the Abyss is something which I think warrants a separate post, but the official translation refers to the Core as being female, and for nearly the entire story she takes the form of a girl. Lacie reached out to an entity referred to and most often perceived as female, sought to understand her, and was abused as a specific consequence of this. Ada, meanwhile, made no real attempts at sympathy for her female counterparts. She never sought to question the circumstances of Noise, or Echo, or their relationship with Vincent. She gave forgiveness for crimes she had not been affected by nor did she even understand; her defense of Vincent was done not out of concern for Noise’s psyche but out of unquestioned pity for her abuser.

Ada’s arc bothers me for its utter lack of agency. She was a teenaged girl, expected to fix a predatory, abusive man in his twenties, and throughout her arc she is given no real means of choosing other options nor protecting herself. Her decision to defend a predator was not even an educated one; she simply did not know. Nor did she ever really come to understand anything about Vincent, aside from brief glimpses into his past. Ada is dragged around by the plot, pursuing an abuser she did not know was an abuser yet still felt sure she could heal, being forbidden from choice-- where she was not denied choice in the sense that she lacked the knowledge to make one, she was denied choice via other characters forbidding her. She was not allowed to protect Vincent though she wanted to because Vincent felt it was too dangerous to allow her to, she was not allowed to remain beside her friends and family though she wanted to because they felt it was too dangerous to allow her to, she wasn’t allowed to stay with Vincent because it was too dangerous, she wasn’t allowed to see him again because it was too dangerous... and she’s never given the choice to do anything but go along with it.

Alyss’s forgiveness of Jack is... a more complicated issue. That Ada “forgive” Vincent-- along with many of their other interactions, I might add-- felt utterly meaningless to me. Ada had never really perceived Vincent as performing a slight against her, being perfectly willing to assign any violence he committed against her as either her own fault, or part of his mental illness, thus Not His Fault. That Alyss forgive Jack, who was violent towards her, who she understood as victimizing her and others... I don’t like it, exactly, but at least it’s not the same.

I’m not sure “forgive” is even the correct word for what she did-- she acknowledged him, and she was gentle, but she never told Jack that she forgave him. Vincent’s dialogue during Retrace CIII supplements this in saying he suspects that Alyss’s feelings for Jack are the same as his own.

Vincent feels unable to either forgive Jack nor reject him entirely, feeling that he had done too much good for him to ever really hate him. Alyss, similarly, felt too strong a love for Jack to reject him outright. She never expressed sympathy for his actions, nor did she make any attempts to defend him. There was no misunderstanding on Alyss’s part on whether her love for Jack was unhealthy, but she loved him nonetheless. When she finally “finds” him, she offers no words of kindness. She simply expressed her gratitude in having done so before calling him a hopelessly lonely man, making no further attempts at even acknowledging him.

Of course, there is the inherent misogyny of a character arc about a young girl infatuated with an adult man, to the point of destroying her other relationships in pursuit of it. That Alyss was deliberately isolated and that Jack be the only person aside from the other Alice and the Core of Abyss-- two entities that cannot be meaningfully separated from herself-- is an obvious contributor, but that does not erase the problematic aspects of her arc. Then there’s the matter of Alyss’s wish to die being the only one treated as though it was a necessary evil, as opposed to a reflection of the individual’s personal instability that should be addressed through supporting them as opposed to killing them. It’s sort of an unfair double standard, and that the plot make Alyss’s death a necessary evil is a matter of author choice, not something inherent to the work.

On the topic of other instances of misogynistic writing in PH as a whole, there’s the matter of Alice and Sharon’s arc. While I don’t think either arc is in itself misogynistic, both characters are totally ignored in favor of their male counterparts. Despite Alice being one of the most important characters in the series, she has almost no narration and is frequently characterized as, to quote a friend of mine, a “feral animal.” She’s not given the same emotional or psychological depth as Oz or Gil, despite having around the same number of appearances and being the plot’s catalyst. Sharon has her own arc, theoretically, but we only ever see it within the context of Break or Reim despite being more of a main character than the latter. That Sharon spend entire volumes not appearing a single time is a recurring joke. A major part of her characterization-- that she feel insecure in relationships due to her halted aging-- is not revealed until the last chapter of the comic. Her arc ends with her marrying to a character who... I wouldn’t have been upset if the two of them had had any real interactions outside of Break, but they didn’t. There’s no inherent problem with their relationship except it’s boring and rushed.

Then there’s the matter of the sheer number of female versus male characters whose purpose in the plot is to die violently-- the Flower Girl, Vanessa Nightray, Bernice Nightray, Miranda Barma, Mary, etc. All of these characters did little or nothing to actually progress the plot, and all are murdered by a male character with the exception of the Flower Girl (who is a sex worker in the anime adaptation, and while I don’t know the canonicity of that, I feel it worth mentioning). 

Ultimately, PH suffers a lot for Mochizuki’s internalized misogyny. Her narrative seems over eager to forgive perpetrators of misogynistic violence, and in many ways over eager to characterize sympathetic men as misogynists. A Pandora Hearts without its themes of misogyny seems... nearly incomprehensible, though that’s in large part because of how meticulous the narrative as a whole is. The improvements Mochizuki has made subsequently, though, are noticeable and greatly appreciated.