#i’m not saying he should but can we not make him a dehumanized character?

[melamoon]

frank : has a breakdown over his past with matt, recurres to Curtis when he’s in need of help and does the same with karen, partnerships with micro to take down bad people, has talks with his wife and empathizes with him and his kids, lets himself be physically comforted by karen in several occasions, constantly helps madani as she also helps him, helps amy be safe throughout a whole season, sleeps with beth and invites her and her kid for breakfast….

people: “frank’s a loner… he kills people and he’s bad 😠… he can’t have friends or partners because… he kills!’

[durgetavoc]

Yes I really want to know the horrors of the shit bucket. I’m quite surprised that he isn’t obsessed with cleanliness. He always struck me as the type but then again… I guess I’m wrong.

Oh god, here we go then.

SPOILERS FOR THE HOUSE OF HOPE

(CW for...The Shit Bucket Guy, obviously)

So, if we ever decide to go steal the Orphic Hammer, we can go visit The House of Hope, there, we obviously find Raphael's collection of artifacts, his eternal debtors, and one of them is… This guy.

You should know that all eternal debtors are condemned to a certain task/action. It's difficult to know if this has anything to do with their contract with Raphael, if it is a distortion of an already existing trait of their personality (for example, the Perfect Eternal Debtor, the Theologist Eternal Debtor or even the Voyeur Eternal Debtor) or if it's a way to completely dehumanize them (Loyal Eternal Debtor…My beloved :( ). It seems to be a mix of everything, that wouldn't be surprising if Raphael did what seemed most entertaining to him.

But let's focus on the Shit Bucket Guy, since he's the one that interested us today.

As our affectionate nickname for him indicates, we find him in front of a chamber pot with a visible green odorous cloud above it, which confirms us that it has been used (when you interact with the pot, here what the game says : "An overpowering stench singes your nostrils. Nothing good happened here."). The debtor doesn't appreciate us getting closer to it, and if we ask him if he is its guardian, this is what he answers:

His "name" in the game is "Unclean Eternal Debtor" and if you're taking a look at his face... Yeah, I guess he's not just guarding the pot. When we observe the animation of the character, he walks around the pot, makes a hand gesture to smell it, and that's it.

It has become a running joke in the fandom, particularly for us, little mouses. Those who have been to the House of Hope know about the Shit Bucket Guy... But nobody talks about him.

(Yeah I couldn't help it.)

It's not really surprising, the presence of the chamber pot, and not just any one, RAPHAEL'S, raises other questions. One might wonder if it's not a little OOC coming from someone like him.

Let's take advantage of this question to dig... A little deeper.

Here's, imo of course, why it's somehow relevant to show Raphael's chamber pot and what this tells us about him.

Shall we?

1. Don't be fooled by appearances, he POOPS like us!

Raphael. Raphael. Raphael who embodies sophistication, intellect and danger... Alluring and at the same time fearsome, a fascinating mix. Goddamnit, he's a suave motherfucker, and he fucking knows it.

In video games, it's part of the suspension of disbelief to not talk/show toilet, unless you're in a life simulation game like sims. It's not just taboo since it's one of the most private aspects of our life, but it's also... Not relevant to the intrigue most of the time.

Showing us something that intimate about him disintegrate his mysterious aura. We learnt that Raphaels shits. Yeah, absolutely astonishing. Reminding us that he's exactly at the same level as us. Like the title said, despite his charming manners, his eloquence, his theatrical gestures... He's still human, hells, part human.

2. In the Devil's house.

The first time we meet Raphael, he wastes no time in bringing us to his home, on his own terms. We only see one room, and this is what we see:

Luxurious place, lavish displays of food, ordered furniture... Promising, right? This is how Raphael wants to give as a first impression. I think this scene is perfect as a metaphor. Remember what Gale said? He's taking us to dinner! Like a date, he wants to impress us, seduce us.

But when we're back to this place during our improvised visit, what do we see?

Rotten food. Blood. Skeletons. Mess. Remind me of my room before I have to rush to clean everything because a friend comes over.

By choosing to enter Raphael's home, into his privacy, the game takes us on a tour of his home: we discover what is hidden behind Raphael's character. It is of course expected that we discover his secrets and/or aspects of his personality that he would not wish to reveal, at least not before we make a deal with him.

Haarlep, his incubus, also participates in this demystification. Through them, we can learn about Raphael's sexuality (I'll be quick on this since @bitethedevil did some really good analysis posts about it):

Raphael is only attracted to himself (hence Haarlep's appearance)

He is a bottom pillow prince

And he doesn't last in bed (a valuable information that can be used to anger Raphael later)

Once again, this is another very intimate aspect that is revealed to us. I'm sorry to say it, but Haarlep basically plays the same role as the chamber pot to accentuate the intimacy of the place and also to ridicule Raphael, thus revealing to us what he really is.

3. Raphael hates his father.

Our favorite cambion is having daddy issues, and the chamber pot seems like a nice response to the statue his dad gave him. It's a "blink and you'll miss it" kind of detail, but it's funny to point it out. Show don't tell as it's finest.

4. How bad it is to sell your soul to Raphael.

This one is easy... The Shit Bucket Guy is an example of Raphael's cruelty : "This is what could happen to you if you make a contract with Raphael."

Sure, it's funny because the whole thing is ridiculous: "Guardian of his chamber pot? Seriously?", but it's hard to really laugh at it if you take into account the other eternal debtors. The whole place is designed to make you uncomfortable, because it's not treated as a joke. They had a life, had to ask Raphael for help, and are now reduced to doing something degrading until the end of time. They don't even have a name anymore. They could be your Tav/Durge or your companions...

Suddenly, the temptation to make a contract with Raphael is less appealing after seeing all this, isn't it?

Conclusion : Now the question that burns our lips : What could this guy have done to him to be reduced to this? And why?

My first instinct when I met this character was to think, "oh boy, you must have really pissed off Raphael..." let's be honest, it's the kind of torture you could imagine to your worst enemy or at least a very annoying one.

It could be that, or maybe, mayyybe...

Remember Mephistopheles' statue?

What if Raphael was SO annoyed by this gift that he woke up one day thinking "fuck my dad, fuck his gift" and decided to literally shit on him by putting a chamber pot in front of this statue to express his thanks. And just like any narcissist/paranoid guy, he named a "guard" to be sure no one would spy on him through this (it sounds delirious, but again, we learn that Haarlep was send to distract Raphael, so why not?)

Sure, maybe Shit Bucket Guy annoyed Raphael in the past, but wouldn't that be kinda fucked up that this guy didn't do anything that would justify this treatment? He's just a dude, and Raphael is just a pissed-off daddy's boy (and a very mature one).

Or maybe, Raphael just thinks it's funny. And who are we to discuss a devil's sense of humor?

In any case, sorry Shit Bucket Guy, but it wasn't your lucky day.

PS: Hush, I can hear you wondering "do you think Raphael is scat???" and on this subject I would say: I don't think so, his narcissism is there after all, but he also seems really into humiliation. So maybe it's for the best we don't really know the answer to this question.

After all, only Haarlep can judge him (so the bar is already on the floor).

[unsiredtribrid]

I feel like so much of the theme of TBOSAS for Coriolanus and even Lucy Gray is choice. Like do you choose to humanize and have empathy for the people suffering on the other side, or do you become fearful and choose yourself always?

I think the burden of interpreting Lucy Gray that’s left on the shoulders of the reader is partly a test in and of itself. Like do you believe Billy Taupe’s accusations about her character, who was as fearful as Coryo and wanted Lucy Gray to die along with him (just the same as Coryo did in the end when he shot at her after he thought he was poisoned by the snake)? Or do you take Tigris’s interpretation where she thinks Lucy Gray is someone trying her best and doing what she has to in traumatic circumstances that are trying to get her killed?

Coryo also favored Tigris’s interpretation closer to the beginning of the book— he even joined Tigris and stood up for Lucy Gray’s character in the face of the Grandma’am’s bigotry. And he really did believe it, too. But then as the book goes on and he’s groomed and then put into situations where he has to choose between his own fear and being more empathetic, he lets fear win. He starts questioning if Lucy Gray is just using everyone (in that case, men) around her, which also mirrors how Billy Taupe spoke of her.

In the end, both men did choose that they would rather have her dead than not have her at all. Which, to me, when you compare that with the things Lucy Gray has actually actively done so far, is a pretty strong indicator that Tigris’s views are the ones that are more ‘correct’.

No, we can’t see into her head. Yes, she probably started out flirting and using her charm to try and get a shot at surving the games (which is one of the most appealing things about her character). But how do you as the reader interpret that? Do you think it’s someone doing what they have to to survive, or do you think of it more negatively and see her as a liar or someone you just can’t trust? In good faith and conscience, you would look at it and say that using one’s charms on the people of the Capitol to try to escape being killed by the Capitol is absolutely 100% fair game and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, it’s what people should be doing. In some respects, like with all performing, it becomes genuine connection and it moves people to understand you even if it started out ‘fake’. No one criticized or took issue with it when Peeta did it. And in the exact same way, it didn’t make Peeta less empathetic and kind to people of the Capitol who weren’t directly involved in what was happening to him. You as the reader can choose to believe that of Lucy Gray, just like you did with Peeta (even if, in Peeta’s case, you saw actual evidence of it since you weren’t reading from an unreliable narrator with limited perspective).

Whether Tigris is ‘right’ about Lucy Gray is almost irrelevant. What is relevant is the decision, as the reader, to assume the best in her and treat your opinion of her with empathy and the benefit of the doubt. That’s what Coryo should have done at the end of the book, but he didn’t. That’s part of the over arching theme about treating other people better and not dehumanizing them or assuming the worst in fear and paranoia.

Regardless of the fact we don’t get much time with her and we can’t see her inner monologue, what we do see Lucy Gray do isn’t anywhere in the ball park of what Snow ends up doing at the end and then after. Lucy Gray puts a snake down Mayfair’s dress to freak her out, but even that wasn’t something fatal. Mayfair was fine and she lived up until she was killed by Coryo. Lucy Gray stood up for herself against Billy Taupe (not to say there aren’t nuances to how their relationship probably became rocky off the page, before we’ve met either of them. I’m sure there are, even if we’ll never know them), but there’s no indication his claims are true. All we have is Lucy Gray’s word. She claims that she flirted a little as part of the job, but that’s all it was. She says she didn’t do sex work to survive, but openly admits she would if it meant keeping Maude Ivory alive. And that’s without including the other nuances of that conversation, which would be that she was 16 (and younger) and ‘sex work’ here would really be rape because it would likely involve men. So? Assuming anything less than savory because of Billy Taupe’s implications there just seems pretty dark/fucked up.

But back on track, my point: as the reader, do you choose to believe her, or are you paranoid? Do you choose to look at all of the situations she’s in and think she’s a survivalist using her charms and wit, or do you think she’s malicious in some way? How you think of her with little information is important and just kind of feels like its own test and thought exercise.

Even if she set the snake on Coryo, it wasn’t a poisonous one so it was little more than a distraction and maybe a way to get him to worry about that instead of chasing her. Even when she had suspicions he could kill her, she chose to use her smarts to flee and (maybe) survive. But in contrast, Coryo chose to try and finish her off because he didn’t like how his heart broke at the thought of her not ‘caring enough’ about what they have to even have a goodbye before he left. He hated the loss of control of the situation. It was part of the reason why he ended up involved in the rebel plot and killing Mayfair— he was obsessive over Sejanus and needed to feel like he was in control of him in some way. He needed to know what he was doing. And in some ways that was out of genuine love and care, but in some it was fear. And the fear is what made him choose betrayal when he got himself in that situation where he was surrounded by jabberjays and Sejanus was openly talking about a rebel plot that could get them both executed. He chose betrayal to save his own skin because he was scared. He wanted control and then he didn’t have the guts to go as far as he needed to, so he chose his own life. Same thing with Lucy Gray when he fired that gun. He was scared of the unknown factors. Started worrying about her killing him or telling on him and all sorts of things because he was scared and he chose not to believe in her.

Will we ever know if Lucy Gray actually cheated on Billy Taupe? No. Will we ever have more than her word? No. Will we ever know if she was truly attracted to Coryo at the start of their flirtation or if that was 100% a tactic until she caught feelings later? No. Will we ever know if she set the snake on purpose or even if she knew it was venomless? No, not really. But that’s not the point. The point is, do you look at her actions laid out in front of us and choose to believe the best in her? Do you choose to be empathetic and see the situation from her perspective despite being directly in the head of the main character who was groomed (and scared) until he descended into madness?

Someone once said that the difference between everlark and snowbaird’s dynamic is Katniss and Peeta were willing to die for each other before they even knew if the other had definitive feelings for them that they could control. They loved each other even when they didn’t know the other’s exact feelings or their perspective. They were even directly posed to kill each other in the games because originally only one could survive, so they actually had every reason to choose paranoia and didn’t.

This ability to choose good faith seemed to persist even after Peeta was hijacked. But with snowbaird, Coryo had to ask Lucy Gray if it was real before he saved her life (in the movie, at least. In the book it was less cut and dry and he wondered if it was one sided in the midst of his feelings unfolding and far before he cheated to save her). Coryo even says himself to Lucy Gray that he knows his jealousy and the way he wanted her to be thinking about him (and be into him), is stupid. Because it is— she’s in a life or death situation fearing for her life and it would be a miracle for her to have time to figure out or even have a crush on someone when she’s about to die and every ounce of energy is put into both that and the fact she’s locked in an actual cage. It is actually stupid for him to be jealous over that.

But again, as the reader, (to flip the script for a second and talk about Coryo’s side) do you interpret this as Coryo being a complete piece of shit who doesn’t care about her at all and is ‘sociopathic’ for worrying about how she feels about him in this situation? Do you think them having feelings at all is just completely trivial in the face of a life and death situation where she has more to worry about? Or do you choose to believe that Coryo is a teenager here who has grown up living in situations where his life hasn’t been safe and he’s been starving, so that’s just the norm for him at this point, and it’s actually beautiful that he was able to feel something like a crush or love in the midst of something actually traumatic? Even though the tributes have it much worse, the Academy kids have been groomed into this worldview and have been dying (and just generally being hurt and traumatized) during this program that the adults devised in order to test/‘perfect’ their own war crimes and fascism.

But to circle back to the snowbaird and everlark point, there’s a huge difference in perspective that the ships had here and the outcomes/results were completely different. Snow didn’t find peace. He was paranoid and bitter and awful. Katniss and Peeta had to work at it but they could find moments of peace because they chose to believe.

I’m a snowbaird shipper and not an everlark shipper (soz, they just don’t give me buzz 😔) because I personally find alllll of these things about Coryo and Lucy Gray to be really fascinating and I think they have insane chemistry. I also think it’s sort of like a Greek tragedy, in a way. It feels like they had a lot stacked against them, even their very personalities, but despite that they did feel real love. And I think that’s beautiful.

But I wanted to talk about all of this because people discuss Lucy Gray a lot in terms of if she was ‘manipulative’ and sometimes people even just flat out put blame on her, which… I don’t even know how to address that because it’s very hard for me to understand how they could read the book and come to that conclusion in any way. But yeah, these are my thoughts on it and just generally the technique Suzanne used for Lucy Gray’s character and how readers engage with that.

[aho-dapa]

Just like saying this again but

- Papa Archeron was not gambling, he was doing his medieval equivalent of overworking a job that wasn’t paying him enough to pay off his loans

- His loans cough debt, is actually not his fault at all, it was an inherited debt by the previous Prince of Merchants, which ran in his family

- (Okay but can we talk about the expectation of that title and how this debt may have literally controlled his life since the day that he was born???)

- He did that voyage to Bharat because it was the last chance his family had before the medieval mafia came in and literally busted his kneecaps

- Said injury literally leaves him disabled, which is obviously not a conversation this fandom understands but, anyway his injuries mean he can’t work in the way able bodied people can, say, like his daughters

- Not only is he now a disabled single parent with no programs to help his children, he cannot hunt or teach them things he may or may not know because sjm’s world building is a trash fire

- Nesta and Elain not doing shit when it came to their very lives being at stake with starvation is literally??? sjm herself even says they weren’t even more than one dimensional characters at this point so (edit, saw a post about executive dysfunction and depression, and frankly, YEAH THAT TOO)

- Please stop calling him useless yall I’m begging

(Edit, useless is also just not good phrasing for anyone at all in general. Useless implies that people should inherently have a use, which is just dehumanizing)

There’s also something about how he could have done work in other ways, but he was never written to play that role by sjm

And neither was Nesta or Elain at this point, Feyre’s whole family was written around Feyre, because of her, to make her life more of a hellhole, and not as people that exist outside of her

Which is just frustrating since sjm later bases this half assed dynamic for the future of their dynamic and like??? Weak.

[jackdaniel69nice]

remember u mentioned the big rant about noumu two days ago? gimme gimme

The way the nomu have been treated has been highly over looked. The first nomu we met was an empty shell to be puppeted around. They had no intelligence and was deemed “braindead” or “inhuman”. This set the standard for how all nomu were treated even when those conditions were no longer true. The high end nomu (like kurogiri) were highly intelligent, in fact they had the memories of their preceding lives and personalities, they were COMPLETELY human. The nomu process was more of a quirk addition upgrade than anything. And then at Jaku they were all slaughtered.

I’m not saying the hero’s (including Aizawa!) are in the wrong for killing them, oh no, it was completely within their discretion to make that decision. But I AM saying the hero’s decision to kill the nomu was the exact same thing as Hawks killing Twice, and yet it was NEVER treated or even mentioned in the manga in such a way. The entire matter is COMPLETELY brushed over. In the mha universe the nomu have no protection of rights, anyone can do ANYTHING to them. Kurogiri and Shigaraki are nomu, the HPSC could have them killed after their arrest due to them being too “dangerous”, they could even be experimented on like animals to see how they were made. We are familiar with Shigaraki and kurogiri, we knew them before and after they became nomu and even subconsciously still think of them as human, we still give them the respect to be treated like people.

I think the biggest distinction between kurogiri and Shigaraki and the high end nomu are their appearances. The nomu have MUTANT traits, and that is what makes them seen as monsters. When you make an argument that the nomu were “evil” and needed to be killed think about all the other villains with strong power and heteromorph traits that have been arrested instead (like at the usj). Hero’s are supposed to be nonlethal, they are supposed to arrest a perpetrator with as little harm as possible. The biggest running theme in mha is the idea that EVERYONE can change, everyone can be redeemed, so why weren’t the high ends given that chance?

When you start calling a certain group of people “monsters” and dehumanizing them the line you draw between them and others is very thin. If people start seeing the nomu as monsters what about the people that LOOK like nomu. The line becomes blurry and suddenly these completely innocent people are being targeted. Some people even mistook Midoriya as a nomu, they were afraid of him because he had multiple quirks and appeared dangerous. I have no doubt the tension between heteromorphs and non-heteromorphs escalated so quickly because of this, we saw how Ippan Josei (ordinary woman) was treated as a villain.

Once again I need to say I’m not actually criticizing the death of the high ends, if the hero’s had been trying to keep from killing them they never would of won, but this was a lose lose scenario. This is a WAR, there were deaths on both sides and every battle is a fight to survive; you have to do what you must to win. I am only saying the deaths of the nomu wasn’t treated like it should have been in the manga by the characters. Every day I’m very VERY glad the HPSC has been eradicated.

My personal theory/hc for the post war era is that all the surviving top heros will retire and form a new government maybe even with nezu as president. I firmly believe because of kurogiri being an example of someone who is “good” but also a nomu will lead to any remaining high ends like shigaraki to getting human rights (aizawa wouldn’t stand for anything less). It’s really important to note that most of the nomu were just normal PEOPLE that were horribly experimented on, it would be in the best interest to help them with treatment. Maybe there could even be a way to restore their minds and undo the process.

[serickswrites]

Lonely Place of Longing VIII

Master list link here (includes chapter links, summary, and character bios)

Warnings: gunshot wounds, gunshot, blood, unconsciousness, infection, dehumanization, hurt/aftermath, hurt/comfort, hurt/recovery, caretaker and whumpee

Halle enjoyed her time with Dylan. Enjoyed listening to his soft, warm voice. Enjoyed learning about his favorite books. Enjoyed watching him enjoy movies for the first time in who knew how long.

And as Halle entered her eighth month with Scutus, she realized perhaps she liked Dylan a lot more than she realized. Dylan was kind despite no one besides Halle showing them kindness. Dylan was thoughtful despite no one thinking about Dylan. And Dylan was beautiful despite being called a monster on a regular basis.

Halle realized, as panic gripped her heart on their next mission and Dylan was out of her line of sight, that she loved Dylan. The thought gave her relief. She could do something about this. Even if Dylan didn’t love her, she had to say something. Just so Dylan knew that someone loved him.

“Nothing will come of it,” Halle told herself as she waited at camp for Dylan and the scouting party to return. “But I have to say something.”

But as the evening wore on and Dylan didn’t return, Halle’s anxiety grew. Grew as she watched her other team members become more restless. The scouts should have been back by now. Just as Halle was going to speak with Aubrey—Thomas had placed them in charge when he left—someone called out that they could see the scouts returning.

One by one the team filed in. But still, Halle couldn’t see Dylan. She tried to keep her face blank as she strained to see if Dylan was bringing up the rear. Her mouth went dry as she saw Lysander and Titus carrying a field stretcher between them. “Not again,” Halle murmured as she hurried forward to see what had happened to Dylan.

“What happened?” Halle asked as Thomas met her with Lysander and Titus.

“We…..we don’t entirely know. He was ahead of all of us. I lost sight of him. And then he was unconscious on the ground bleeding.”

Halle stepped around Thomas so she could see Dylan fully. Dylan’s sweat slicked hair had fallen over his face, his soft curls a foamy mass. “Dylan, can you tell me what’s wrong?” Halle asked as she pulled the field blanket off Dylan so she could assess his injuries.

“He’s been shot. Multiple times.” Halle’s heart was in her throat as Thomas’s words sank in. Shot. Dylan had been shot.

The gun shot wound in Dylan’s shoulder had mostly clotted, it was more a graze than anything else. But the hole in his stomach was still actively bleeding. Actively bleeding and not clotting. Bleeding so much that his already pale skin was ghostly white. “I can’t treat this here. I need to get him back to a med bay.” Whatever strange healing abilities Dylan may or may not possess were not enough at this point. He was dying. He was dying and Halle had to do something.

Thomas frowned. “You can’t just field patch it and then treat him when we get back?”

Halle was already rummaging through her pack for something to stop the bleeding. “Thomas, he’s bleeding to death. I can’t treat that here. I can stabilize the wounds, but in order to actually save him, I need a full med bay.”

Thomas sighed. “Ok. I’m going to get everyone ready to move out. We’ll need half an hour. We should be back at Tectus in about six hours. Will he make it?”

Halle didn’t like that the question made her worry even more. “If I wake him up, he could teleport us all back. We’d be there in no time.”

“I can’t authorize that use of power, Halle,” Thomas said sternly.

“Look, I can field cauterize the wound. But I don’t know what damage has been done. I have no idea how much blood he has lost. The sooner we can get back, the better.” Halle brushed Dylan’s hair back, hissing at the heat that was radiating off Dylan. “Something is infected. Thomas, we need to get back now. Or I’m not sure if Dylan will make it.”

“Fine. But you and I will have a discussion about what merits use of powers when we return after you make sure the weapon will live.”

Halle nodded. She would take whatever consequences if it meant Dylan would live. Dylan had to live. Halle rummaged in her pack, searching for the one thing that she knew would wake Dylan up and buy him enough time to get home.

“Lay him flat,” Halle ordered Lysander and Titus. “And then I need you to make sure he doesn’t knock me out.”

“Why?” Lysander asked, his eyes wary.

“Because,” Halle uncapped the syringe filled with adrenaline, “people have a terrible habit of waking up fighting with this.” She ripped Dylan’s shirt, exposing the skin over his heart. “I am sorry, Dylan,” Halle as she stabbed the needle down.

Dylan woke with a gasp, his icy eyes filled with pain and confusion. He sat up suddenly, clumsily raising his hands. Lysander pointed his gun at Dylan’s face while Titus grabbed Dylan by the shoulders.

“Easy, easy,” Halle said, unsure if she was speaking to Dylan or to the two teammates.

“Halle?” Dylan asked as he tried to focus his gaze.

“Dylan,” Halle said gently. She touched Dylan’s extended hand, gripping Dylan’s fingers gently. “Dylan, I need you to get all of us back to Tectus.”

Dylan’s eyes were hazy as he stared at Halle. “Why? I’m….I’m not allowed to….to do that.” Dylan’s speech was stilted and halting.

“Because you’re really hurt, Dylan. Really bad. I need to get you back to the med bay in order to heal you. It will take us too long to get back the regular way.”

“Oh,” Dylan said softly. “You’re bleeding.” Dylan nodded weakly at Halle’s bloodied fingers.

“It’s not my blood. Promise.”

“I….can….try.” Dylan said as he tried to rise.

“Stay down,” Titus ordered as he pushed Dylan. Dylan yelped with pain as Titus’s fingers brushed his graze.

“Careful!” Halle shouted as she glared at Titus. “What do you need, Dylan?”

Dylan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Nothing.”

The world tilted on its axis as Halle felt the ground disappear beneath her feet. Just as she began to feel off, the solid tile of the Alpha Team quarters materialized beneath her feet. “That was incredible, Dylan,” Halle turned to smile at Dylan.

“G-G-Gladddd….y-y-y-ou,” Dylan started to say breathlessly as he struggled to keep his eyes open. He coughed heavily, blood flecking his lips. He took a wheezing breath and shut his eyes, clearly lacking the energy to finish whatever he was going to say.

“Get him to the med bay,” Halle ordered again as she ran to Dylan’s room. Dylan would be ok. Dylan was always ok.

Hours later, Halle sat in Thomas’s office awaiting her punishment. “How’s the weapon?” Thomas asked carefully.

“He’ll live. He’s still unconscious, but he’ll live. Thank you for allowing him to use his powers to get home.”

“I spoke with Samuel about your actions today.”

Halle braced herself for whatever consequence would come her way. It didn’t matter. Dylan was alive. That’s all that mattered. “And?”

“And Samuel reminded me what an asset you are to my team. Your quick thinking saved our most powerful weapon in the fight against evil.”

“So I’m not in trouble?” Halle asked, not believing her ears.

Thomas smiled. “No. But I am going to say this, Halle, don’t do it again. I don’t care if Owen—“

“Who’s Owen?”

Thomas’s teeth clicked as he snapped his mouth shut. “No one you need to worry about. Just know that this won’t happen again. I don’t care if we lose Dylan. We cannot let him use his powers outside of battle. It’s just too dangerous. Remember, Halle, I warned you. Don’t be fooled by whatever Dylan talks about. He is dangerous. He could destroy you, us, all of us, without second thought. Do not let your guard down.”

Days later, Halle found herself sitting at Dylan’s bedside, quietly watching Dylan read.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Dylan said as he peered over the edge of his book at Halle. He moved gingerly as his stomach wound was still healing. The graze on his shoulder had already scabbed over and was healing well.

“I was afraid, Dylan. So very, very afraid. On the mission.” Halle’s voice was small.

Dylan’s face filled with sadness as he spoke. “I’m sorry I scared you. I…I will try to not do that again.”

Halle shook her head. “I wasn’t scared of you. I was sacred for you. I’m not afraid of you, Dylan. I was scared you were dying and I wasn't going to be able to help. I was afraid you were beyond my ability to save you. I was so afraid for you, Dylan.” She swiped at her eyes, refusing to allow the tears to fall.

Dylan’s face became guarded. “Why is that?”

Halle didn’t respond. She had to say something. This was her opportunity. But he may not reciprocate. It didn’t matter if he did or not. He had to know. Had to know someone cared for him. Truly cared for him. “I love you,” Halle blurted out suddenly. Her cheeks heated. “I know you probably don’t feel the same way. But I wanted you to know that I love you. I love all of you, Dylan. And…and you don’t have to say anything back. I just….couldn’t leave it unsaid.”

Dylan’s face softened. “I love you, too, Halle. I have for a long time.”

“Wait, really?”

Dylan nodded. “I didn’t think you could ever feel that way for….for me. So, I was happy to be your friend.”

Halle leaned across the bed and kissed Dylan on the lips. Dylan’s lips were surprisingly soft. Dylan melted beneath her touch. Halle poured all of her love, all of her joy, into the kiss. And Dylan answered her back.

“Can I just say I am so glad that you do feel the same way as I do,” Halle said as she pulled away so she could climb on the bed. “Because that would have been really shitty if you hadn’t felt that way.”

“Could’t agree more.”

Halle barely left Dylan’s room after that. She only left when she knew someone was headed to Dylan’s room. Halle was certain she was violating many rules with Dylan. But she didn’t care. So long as Dylan didn’t bear the consequences, she didn’t care.

“This makes me so happy,” Halle said as she lay with her head on Dylan’s chest. She could hear the thrum of Dylan’s heart beat beneath her head.

“I’m glad, sweetheart,” Dylan said as he carded his fingers through Halle’s hair. “It’s made me beyond happy, too.” Dylan picked up the book he had been reading when Halle came in and began to read out loud again. Halle loved listening to Dylan read.

“What did you think about the monster in this?” Halle asked.

“It’s like a knock off Cŵn Annwn,” Dylan said, pausing his reading.

“A what?” Halle had never heard of the word. She wasn’t even sure what language it was.

“Uhhh, they’re the….the….you know….what’s the word for it?” Dylan closed his eyes. Dylan began to mumble in a language Halle had never heard before.

“What are you even saying?”

“Wild hunt! That’s the word. The hounds from the wild hunt!” Dylan said like it was very obvious.

“I have never heard of any of that before, Dylan. What are you even talking about?”

“It’s a mythical spectral hunt where I’m from. I guess that's not a thing here."

“Which is where again?” Dylan didn’t have an accent. He spoke Halle’s language better than most native speakers. What did he mean where he’s from?

Dylan’s eyes got a far off look as he spoke. “Somewhere far from here.”

“You don’t have an accent though.” Halle hoped that Dylan would share more about himself. Halle realized with a pang of guilt that she still didn’t know very much about her lover.

“I worked very hard to lose it,” Dylan said with a smile. “It took a long time, but I did lose it. When I first got here, people had a difficult time understanding me. Now they can. But, I don’t think I’ll lose the language. Or at least I hope not. I don’t have anyone to practice with, though. It’s a dying language,” he said with such sadness.

“Do you remember much from before you came here?” Halle knew that one of the side effects of the imbuing process was memory loss.

Dylan shook his head quickly. “I’ve been here longer than I was out there. Not a lot to remember, I think.”

Dylan’s words had Halle’s heart twinging. She couldn’t imagine not being able to remember her home, her family, who she was before she came here. “I’m sorry.”

“Why would you be sorry? You didn’t do this to me. And besides,” Dylan cupped Halle’s cheek and leaned forward, “I wouldn’t have gotten to know you, sweetheart, if I hadn’t come here. And I can think of no better reason to be here than that.” Before Halle could reply, Dylan kissed her.

Halle took Dylan’s book and placed it on the nightstand. She had plenty of ideas of what she could do with the free afternoon they had. And ways she could show Dylan how glad she was that Dylan had come here, too.

Tags: @beomsstudio @mousepaw @keeper-of-all-the-random-things @eyehartart @corbytheking

@seysposts @cosmic-butterflys @wormjerky @godnessofmagic

@daddyslittlestgirlll

@thatlittlefirestarter @defire @jthecalmone @shook-skull @sagencrafts

@theforeverdyingperson @bilightningwhumper @cryptid-potato @fox-fox234 @deepfriedpan

@4-err0r-4 @half-duck @bigmiki @amberconnverse636 @penguin4473-blog

@abbyreader23 @lateuplight @firelan @octafi @paingoes

@xo7-parad0x @whumpandcomfort @kazekunai @pedro-pedro-pedro-pedro-pe @soul-of-a-local-bard

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@kay-kayxb177 @alwaysjaywalking @decayanddie @demetercabingreen-thumb @never-enough-novels

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@anightmarishwhump @steh-lar-uh-nuhs @st0rmm @ay5ksal

[everythingseasoning]

Talking about: Neil Gaiman’s SA victims, Neil Gaiman’s son, Tanith Lee, the fandom. Tw: mention of rape.

Everything that has surfaced is profoundly upsetting. I’ve read the NYT article on Neil Gaiman, and a few others, as well as this tumblr post. It’s quite apparent now that Neil Gaiman is a shit human. He takes and he takes what isn’t his without regard for others, horribly indifferent to how he’s hurting others.

The victims of Neil’s assaults deserve to receive acceptance and support. Believe them when they say they’ve been violated. Gaiman himself confirmed that he did sexual acts with them, but claims they were “consensual.” The numerous women who have spoken up have stated they were pressured, which is rape. Being pressured entails they did not feel safe at first, and they did not feel safe during the act, either. That is rape. That is Neil Gaiman ignoring the needs and feelings of others in order to get what he wants. We cannot forget that there was a power imbalance: one person was renowned and idolized by many, had a huge platform, fame, and money. The pressure to please him (even if that means betraying yourself) is a naturally occurring one, even if it goes against gut feeling. Neil also made statements about his inability to be a decent human to others, saying that he was caught up in his own story and unable to see into the stories of others. In other words, he was extremely selfish and acted cruelly. While I don’t doubt that hurt people hurt people and that most monsters were once, tragically, human— the fact of the matter is that the women he assaulted and raped suffered violent and dehumanizing acts, lived with the aftermath of sexual abuse, and likely felt deeply isolated in their trauma, watching as their tormentor succeeded in his life, haunting them with his freedom and fame— They deserve to be heard, and helped.

And Neil Gaiman’s innocent son was also exposed to sexual violence at a young age, witnessing such acts committed by the man he knows as his father— the man who should be his example— who is supposed to be his safety and lead. Any kid who has to witness such confusing and dark acts will warp, or break, without proper support and healing. Neil Gaiman has successfully ruined his son’s life, by trauma and by reputation. I am beyond saddened for his kid. A big part of me wonders if Neil went through something similar as a kid.

Tanith Lee, who passed in 2015, is also a victim to Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman ripped off from her story, creating the successful series “the Sandman” by taking from Tanith Lee’s characters and imagination— and he never credited her. Lee’s beloved work and all her efforts were stolen from her and rebranded in plain sight. While Tanith Lee struggled as a less successful writer, Neil Gaiman soaked in all the praise and money he got from using somebody else’s efforts and imagination. Lee never lived to get her credit. It must have been beyond frustrating and emotionally painful for Tanith Lee to have this happen to her.

It’s horrible that Neil Gaiman’s victims went through what they did, genuinely hurtful, appalling shit. I’m also sorry to the people who found comfort in Neil Gaiman only to get terribly betrayed and let down. It comes as a shock to many because many of the stories and art he created were beloved for good reason. While I’ve not read much of his writing, I’m sure the blow of devastation has hit many really hard.

There are other discussions that are relevant, about separating the art from the artist, the topic of reading the work by Neil Gaiman in the future, and how hurt people hurt people. Something must’ve happened to Neil Gaiman to make him such a monster. I won’t talk about them here because I’m still figuring it out myself. A good thing we can do in this situation is listen to the victims and be there for our fellow friends. I hope everyone can receive the acceptance and support they deserve and need. Remember to take care of yourself and put your phone down, away from the news, if you need to do so

[radabeast]

A Character Analysis of Mohg

Okay. so this started as a ramble in response to tumblr/twitter talk i’ve been seeing, and then branched off into an entire multi-para analysis… bear with me. or not. TL;DR: i feel mohg is a very compelling and even pitiable character in the overall story of elden ring, but also he is very not a good person. And well, duh

i do agree that mohg having any sort of sexual misconduct toward miquella ISNT canon and doesnt Need to be considered as such, however. to say that “there is no implied incest here at all” also is honestly not quite right.

in his very introduction cutscene, mohg takes miquella’s hand, calls him “my dearest”, and presses his forehead against it. says “miquella is mine and mine alone”, implying that, you know, he values him as more than just a replaceable key to assuring his own rule. and while “bloody bedchamber” is agreeably too vague to canonize any sexual contact… it’s also definitely a curious term to use in regards to half-siblings?

i agree that you can be a mohg fan and it doesn’t have to be Weird. i agree that mohg is a very compelling, VERY intriguing, and even sympathetic character. but i also think it’s a bit of a disservice to the full brunt of his role, as well as a naive sort of de-fanging to him, to think he would be capable of like. a whole blood cult, but not incest or even worse. or god forbid, that he’d even NEED to be BEWITCHED in order to kidnap miquella

mohg’s whole origin is of someone who was forsaken, abandoned by god herself, and then found a new mother, one who has promised him love and purpose. he is very capable, but also very starved. this starvation of love, appreciation and praise has led to him creating an entire cult around himself, devoted to his supposed future dynasty.

clearly, he’s got the drive to conquer, and a very apparent disregard for a good amount of life. he didn’t just approach miquella and try to manipulate him into a partnership— he stole him, while he was cocooned, and while he was helpless and unable to even possibly consent. he did not care at all for miquella’s beloved haligtree, and the denizens within it that saw it as their very hope; mohg forsook them from even his own presumed form of salvation, and left all of the haligtree without their own savior, their greatest hope. they know not who took him, or even presumably who could’ve possibly done it; all they know is that he is gone.

i will go so far to call this not only callous of mohg, but also cowardice. instead of a diplomatic attempt, he pulls a secretive kidnapping and retreats down to his palace hidden beneath the earth. not by any means a forthcoming fellow, but we also honestly shouldn’t expect that of him. and like, come on. the corrupting blood? the blood that gets put inside of you and corrupts and infests? i could make a whole analysis on that too. it’s insidious!

but circling back around. mohg is someone who is starved of love and family, so in addition to his desire of praise and power (as a direct offspring of marika herself, no less!), he has made his own warped, corrupted version of one— a cult, as well as positioning himself a consort of his own half-brother. miquella is not a beloved sibling to him, but a tool and a key to his rule; the formless mother told mohg that he was needed, and mohg took him. he is not treated as a person by him, awake and able to converse with his own thoughts (and we are outright told mohg receives no answer at all, ever). miquella is dehumanized, and placed within a role he wasn’t able to consent towards. (varre and the other non-surviving surgeons also shared a very similar fate, as well.)

so with that— while i actively abhor the idea of incest or even so far as rape, yes— why WOULD it be outside of mohg’s known character to behave as such, though? even the potentiality of it. i’m not going to get on a soapbox, i’m not SAYING you should accept a canon that he’s an incestuous rapist. all i’m saying is that, yes, it actually could very well track, and feed into his character further?

mohg is a sympathetic character indeed, abandoned by his mother, god herself, for his very appearance outside of anyone’s control, and then left clinging to the one and only hope he’s ever found in the formless mother. of COURSE he’d listen to whatever that mother says. of COURSE he’d have a warped view of personhood and family and love. even if mohg was capable of those detestable things— and he’s already a murderous kidnapper with a blood cult, mind you!— that doesn’t disregard that we can see where he was coming from, how his upbringing would lead to this!

i respect mohg fans, and mohg fans also need to be treated with respect. but i also think we can’t just say it’s crazy to say that mohg isn’t morally detestable, or potentially capable even of those things, even if with a pitiable bent. and that’s fine if he is! he is a story character and he fills a very intriguing role

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

JON SNOW DAY 8: FEAR AND TRAUMA 😔

The relationship between Catelyn and Jon is one of the most divisive topics within the asoiaf fandom. No matter where you stand on this debate, we can all agree that the influence each character has on the other’s life is a negative one.

Every time I write about this topic I feel the need to say that no, I don’t expect Catelyn to act like a mother to a child that isn’t her own just because the kid is related to her husband. Jon fans often get accused that we want Catelyn to “mother” Jon but frankly there is not a single Jon fan (at least as far as I’m aware of) that believes she’s obligated to do so. 

With that being said, there is a difference between acting like a mother and treating a kid with basic decency.  Catelyn is failing on the second aspect and fans rightfully call her out on that (same as they do with any character that is horrible other children).

We learn from Jon’s pov that she never calls him by his name. Minutes ago, on the same chapter she calls him “bastard”. Which means that mostly she avoids him, not even acknowledging his presence and that when she has to she’s calling him degrading names like “bastard”.

Her eyes found him. They were full of poison. "I need none of your absolution, bastard." Jon lowered his eyes. She was cradling one of Bran's hands. He took the other, squeezed it. Fingers like the bones of birds. "Good-bye," he said. He was at the door when she called out to him. "Jon," she said. He should have kept going, but she had never called him by his name before. He turned to find her looking at his face, as if she were seeing it for the first time.

AGOT, JON II

Do you know how dehumanizing is for a child never to be called by their own name by an adult that lives in their home? And worst, have the same adult calling them degrading names? Catelyn, by the way she treats him, makes sure that Jon feels unwelcome on the only home he’s ever known.

I often see fans dismissing Catelyn’s mistreatment of Jon as simply avoiding him. Which can be harmful on its own but the thing is that Catelyn’s ill treatment goes beyond of that. Jon is terrified of her to the point he kept postponing saying goodbye to a brother he loved (Bran) simply because he knew she would be on the same room. This kind of reaction isn’t born by a kid who simply doesn’t interact with an adult in a position of power. This kind of fear means that  some negative interactions between them existed in the past. 

The text also supports this, because when Catelyn is irritated by Jon’s presence in Bran’s room she doesn’t simply ignore it. She threatens him that she’ll call the guards aka using her power as the lady of the house to indimidate this  powerless teen:

Once that would have sent him running. Once that might even have made him cry. Now it only made him angry. He would be a Sworn Brother of the Night's Watch soon, and face worse dangers than Catelyn Tully Stark. "He's my brother," he said. "Shall I call the guards?"

AGOT, JON II

Lady Stark has casted a large shadow in Jon’s life. During the years he lived in Winterfeel, he always tried to be quiet, in the shadows. He never wanted to be in the spotlight (despite the fact that we constanly see post- Winterfell Jon wanting to be acknowledged) because that would also draw Catelyn’s attention. He also never felt fully belonging on his own home which was partly due to his stepmother’s mistreatment. Even long after he left Winterfell, he keeps having nightmares where she personfies his fears and insecurites.

Finally, I want to write about Jon’s relationships with his siblings and how Catelyn influences them. I’ve seen fans claiming that Jon had a good relationship with his siblings because Catelyn allowed it to happen but I honestly disagree. In my opinion, Jon has a good relationship with most of his siblings despite Lady Catelyn’s efforts to sabotage them. Canon also supports that with Catelyn speaking to a very young Robb about what makes his half brother different to him, to the point of Robb being agressive about it (something that older Robb who isn’t so easily influenced by his mother would never do):

Only this time, this time, Robb had answered, "You can't be Lord of Winterfell, you're bastard-born. My lady mother says you can't ever be the Lord of Winterfell.”

ASOS, JON XII

Another example of Catelyn ill speaking about Jon to her kids comes when she tries to convince Robb not to name Jon his heir. During that conversation she even compares Jon to Theon  (who as far as she knows is responsible for her two other sons’ death) implying that Robb’s half brother is capable of also harming their family:

"Jon would never harm a son of mine." "No more than Theon Greyjoy would harm Bran or Rickon?" Grey Wind leapt up atop King Tristifer's crypt, his teeth bared. Robb's own face was cold. "That is as cruel as it is unfair. Jon is no Theon."

ASOS, CATELYN V

Also, I don’t think it’s a coicidence that the child who is closer to Catelyn (Sansa) is also the one who has the most distant relationship with Jon. As Jon once again informs us in his pov, his sister always called him “half brother” instead of simply “brother”:

He missed the girls too, even Sansa, who never called him anything but "my half brother" since she was old enough to understand what bastard meant.

AGOT, JON III

To conclude, Catelyn hating the fact that her husband has cheated on her and has a child born out of his infidelity doesn’t make her an awful person, just a human one. The fact that instead of blaming Ned she has put all the blame to a powerless child is one of her negative traits and fans are justified to call her out on this.

[kdotan]

Details + Fun Snippets I Noticed while Re-Reading TAMB! Vol 1

I recently added volumes 16-19 to my TAMB collection on my shelf, so I figured it’d do a bit of a re-read to freshen my mind before I dive into the rest of the College arc! TAMB has so much rich worldbuilding and lore (not mentioning ALL the foreshadowing) so I’m excited to see what I can connect to later points in the story and also just fun little bits.

A little side note is that I haven’t seen much of the anime so I won’t be able to say much in terms of comparison or differences ^_^

Volume One:

Starting off strong here! The art is of course brilliant, but it’s also really cool to see how much improvement there is in later volumes.

The immediate whammy you get hit with seeing poor Chise, no self-confidence or much will (at least, when it comes to protecting herself.) One thing I found interesting is how Elias treats her, much like a pet (he even calls her “pup!”) It comes off as a little creepy and dehumanizing when we don’t know him yet.

The Ariels! One thing I love about TAMB is that the magic system in the world never seems limited to one place. Obviously Chise’s from Japan, and the story is set in England, but also the Ariels mention America and the monsters there, too!

Poor Chise! She’s literally so surprised that anyone would ever Like her or give her things.

“But also… To make you my bride” BRO HAS NO IDEA WHAT THE HELL HE IS TALKING ABOUT LMAOOO

Silky immediately enraptured with Chise. Not only because she’s a Sleigh Beggy, but also it’s a lady in the house!!

Chise’s messy hair! How cute!!

“you look kinda strange and sketchy” LOLOLOL THATS SIMON’S FACE

Angie being the one with the steel chair and reminding Elias “you FOOL not everyone knows your strange inhuman habits”

the poppies!!

Chise having some cute moments with Hugo!!

Chise assuming Elias and Angie are lovers, and then assuming they’re eloping when Elias says she’s married. Chise is very honest!!

SIMON

Silly’s reoccurring Giant Sandwiches

Take a shot everytime Chise gets thrown into a body of water in this series. Seriously! It happens a lot!!

Lindel!!!

“The living should not envy the dead” yeah that still hits hard

Nevin’s death is so heartwarming. He doesn’t fear his death and it shows, and it’s an eye opening moment that Chise carries with her for a long time

Ulthar arc!! It’s a pretty good introduction to a deeper delve into magic

Molly being a female cat and still being referred to as “King”

Elias bringing up that children can see through his disguise and being Uncomfortable with it. Foreshadowing for later!

ALICE. MY GIRL. One of my fav characters!! She looks a bit more scruffy in these first appearances than later down the line (more like her concepts), though that could also be Chise’s perception of her.

Oop and there Chise goes into a lake.

And the first look we have at Chise’s mental magic/looking into the past and memories that comes in clutch when she swaps with Cartaphilus!!

Overall a very strong first book. Establishes the magic systems (with a focus on mages and sleigh beggy mechanics) and Chise’s struggle to care for herself as quick as she cares for others.

[outofangband]

(Reposting this mini post because I inevitably had more to say also I’m still sick so like, apologies if this is even more rambling than usual)

Previous post on this

“Morwen (Brodda) had seen once when he rode to her house on a foray; but a great dread of her had seized him. He thought that he had looked into the fell eyes of (an elf) and was filled with a great fear lest some evil should overtake him. And he did not ransack her house nor discover Túrin else the life of the true heir would have been short.”

Just a fun linguistics note! Fell in this instance is an archaic word, meaning, fierce, cruel or terrible, and actually is where the word felon comes from

I know I already rambled about this forever here and in a number of posts in my word ran among them tag but I just literally cannot ever stop thinking about the language used in this scene

I will never not be obsessed with this passage. It’s such a visceral description of fear and it is entirely distorted. It’s such a jarring jump to the perspective of a minor villain figure, something that we don’t usually see in Tolkien, not like this

The language!! It’s so strong!

“A great dread of her had seized him”

“Filled with a mortal fear, Lest some evil overtake him”

Morwen looks at him and he is afraid for what? His life? His soul? He thinks Morwen, or what she can do*, is evil! It’s hard to explain but the use of the word here feels similarly jarring to the use of the word horror being used about this same character in BoLT, albeit for opposite reasons

What does he fear in that moment?

And just in that line! Lest some evil overtake him! Brodda clearly believes that the evil is the other! Not himself, despite his literally working for Morgoth! It’s just a really interesting line with such a plethora of implications.

It shows very clearly what he considers evil or at least what he doesn’t. It’s not what he’s doing to Aerin, it’s not what’s happening to the other Hadorians, it’s not the murder of a nine year old that the passage says would have happened if he had entered the house.

The evil, to him, is Morwen.

Another thing  I think is interesting because when humans in Tolkien are compared to the elves it’s typically an honor! It’s because they’re seen as particularly beautiful or elegant or observant/sharp, etc but here it’s like…dehumanizing? Othering? It’s beyond a negative thing, it’s a call to violence that Morwen avoids then only because Brodda *is* so afraid of her. It’s not a fear there’s any safety in though. Quite the opposite.

I went into the legacy of this scene in the notes of my post on food control in post Nírnaeth Hithlum and am almost done with a longer post about this! But it’s so disturbing. Obviously what is most horrible about Brodda is what he does to Aerin - and she is often the most immediate victim of his hatred of Morwen, the most obvious example of this being how he beats her for her aid to Morwen (what I went into the implications of in the previously mentioned post). I do not want to ever mitigate this. But there are branches of misogyny overlap and there is something disturbing about his hatred of Morwen in itself as well.

Does this make sense? Again I have another post about this so I don’t want to go too much into this but I hope this makes sense.

*which of course she cannot actually do! I do love to make fun of Brodda endlessly for this scene but as I said in my main post about it, there’s absolutely nothing funny about it for Morwen. It’s terrifying and imbued with the threat of violence; not abstract or superstition based but real, tangible violence that Morwen, especially as a survivor of the Bragollach, has likely seen firsthand

Other note: I’ve always imagined that Morwen is standing in the threshold of her house and stepped out if not to confront him than to put herself between him and Túrin. I suppose it’s possible she was already outside or something, obviously there’s no way to know. But I personally have always imagined that she steps outside when she realized someone was approaching. I think the courage there is extremely profound especially as she had no way of knowing that Brodda would flee like that.

Final notes: someday I will post my writing of this scene from Brodda’s perspective because it’s one of my favorite pieces I’ve done lately.

[o-wild-west-wind]

A Biracial Reading of OFMD, ft. Iggy’s Revenge Izcourse

a.k.a. I typed out a sentence that turned into an accidental essay of meta, whoops!

Y’all…I love this fandom to pieces, but I don’t think some of you realize why not all of us love Izzy/may be critiquing him. And major disclaimer—I am in NO WAY telling anyone to stop enjoying him as a character. This is NOT an anti-Izzy post (I will go into more detail on why I in fact encourage you to keep doing so later, and to the people who are sending unsolicited hate mail to Izzy fans & haters alike: please don’t!)—I’m just tired of seeing vitriolic hate against the people writing about him as an antagonist, or critiquing his actions based on canon, or post after post of “why don’t people love Izzy like I do!!” and then aggression when people explain their honest opinions. Look: we all have our skrungly little bad guys. I get it!! I’ve got my own collection!! I too have become a consumer and enjoyer of the Izzy fanon!!! PLEASE don’t take this as an attack—I just want to provide some personal, potentially fresh context from at least one (obviously non-exhaustive) perspective for those who want to know why Izzy isn’t universally adored, and also to make a plea for a safer fandom space where we can talk about our perspectives on these fictional characters without escalating to unnecessary vitriol, especially as s2 be upon ye (bc holy shit fandom is supposed to be fun, we’re having fun and that’s an order 😤)

(Oh, and I know I’m potentially stirring the pot with this post, but this should go without saying: don’t send each other death threats. What the fuck. Nobody do this?!)

So now that the legalize is out of the way: I want to share that the reason I initially imprinted on this show—and on Ed specifically—was because I’d never seen an explicitly biracial character treated with such complexity, nuance, and grace. While our ethnic makeups are vastly different, I too am half-white & half-brown—which means we’re absolutely nothing culturally alike, but our worlds view and treat us as pretty much the same regardless. And like Ed, my dad resents my mom and my racial makeup, and is prone to what I like to call “white violence.” Not going to overshare on the internet, but let’s just say that all this compounded makes Ed feel highly relatable to me (although for legal purposes I promise I have not krakened my dad 🙃).

When I first watched the show (and honestly also until my 3rd or 4th rewatch), Izzy IMMEDIATELY made me think of my dad. He also immediately made me think of Ed’s dad. Their mannerisms, word choices, and tones of voice; the obsessive need for control; the default of violence; the gradual dehumanization until an ultimate kraken-ifying breaking point—it all read to me like an intentional parallel. A shadow of white violence following Ed around that he hasn’t been able to shake, and mirroring to him the things he fears the most, including the things he fears within himself and feels forced to become (he is half-white after all, and this is a whole other post, but tl;dr there can be a lot of baggage that comes with being half-white/half-poc in regards to grappling with your toxic relationship to that white side of yourself, and especially if your white parent was racist and/or violent). And you can claim a different reading of all of this if you want (I genuinely mean that, like I’m in favor of meta & I think it’s great to analyze these things) BUT. that does not change the fact that I felt what I felt as a result of what was portrayed on screen and combined with my lived experience. Because fictional characters are just that—fictional—and are vessels by which you can process the world; we will always bring our personal lived experiences to anything we consume, and that’s okay—that can be the point, even. Art imitates life imitates art. Interpretation is the name of the game!

(more under the cut)

So when I watch this show, it’s a helpful tool for me to process my own feelings of being victimized by the white violence that’s followed me around my whole life, as well as the ways in which I’ve rebelled against it/tried to make peace with a non-toxic version of whiteness (in parallel to the more overt theme of masculinity, which is—ding ding—inexplicably tied to whiteness and western colonialism) via chaos, love, hurt, and sometimes giving up and giving in—and in this process, Izzy is a safe target. And you know why that is? Because he’s FICTIONAL. I can feel rage towards him because he’s NOT REAL. I can better understand and process the pain I’ve felt and rarely seen societally acknowledged by watching it paralleled on screen via actors and writers who have likely also grappled with similar feelings (I mean, I genuinely have made more progress with my personal biracial trauma via this show vs. years of therapy), and if I want to assume the worst of Izzy based on my interpretation of canon to help me through this? That’s fine! Because I can’t hurt his feelings and he can’t hurt mine!! Because he’s not real!!!

And here’s why I still support the Izzy-enjoyment: I am sure that many of the people who love Izzy and defend him to the ends of the earth probably feel a similar way that I do about Ed. It’s why we get all riled up and protective of these characters, why we might take attacks on them as attacks on ourselves; recognition of the self in the form of the other, and all that. Izzy is a vessel by which to safely work through the dark feelings and the pain you’ve bottled up—and he’s a safe way to do that because he’s FICTIONAL. And that’s a beautiful thing imo!! That’s truly the beauty of art—it is what we make of it, and what we make of it helps make ourselves better. It’s good to be open to interpretation.

HOWEVER: that does not give you permission to discount my relationship to this show (as I will not discount yours), and more importantly: that does NOT give you permission to reject the notion that canonically in s1, Izzy is literally and thematically (emphasis on thematically) an antagonist who is purposefully written to cause harm that can be interpreted as a hate crime, especially to those with lived experience of homophobia/racism/ableism/bullying/etc.—and you cannot harass people about this when conversing about theories of canon. If someone sees Izzy’s dialogue as cutting, degrading, and even triggering, that’s extremely fair of them to do so—clearly Ed was written to feel it that way! Con himself has paralleled Izzy with Judas! And can interpret it all differently? Sure! But you CANNOT assume that everyone else will, and then get upset when people don’t. I can’t believe I need to spell this out about an angry white guy in a show about toxic masculinity, but if someone does not like Izzy, it is likely due to a personal history of harassment (or worse) that he is reminiscent of; by making a point to defend him to someone—even if you are well-intentioned—you are very much putting salt in a wound.

I want to take this opportunity to further emphasize some tenets of fandom in general:

you can like characters who do horrible things without needing to jump hoops to argue their morals as pure 👏

conversely, you can critique their actions and still like them (encouraged, even) 👏

you can like characters who do horrible things simply because they’re cool and hot and interesting—don’t worry, we know it’s not the same as liking people like them irl 👏

your liking a villain archetype says nothing about your own moral virtue 👏

you can like horrible characters and see reasons for why they are the way they are/view them as tragic/note sympathetic dimensions of their personality/root for them to have redemption arcs while acknowledging that said redemption arc may not have happened in canon yet and that these are implicit, not explicit, readings of canon 👏

and you can also reimagine canon and change their contexts in fan works so that they ARE morally virtuous 👏 but PLEASE just be mindful and accountable when you do this in a context where not everyone will see a character the same way as you, and where multiple of people of marginalized identities have spoken out about the harm not doing so can cause. Just be honest, sincere, and kind, listen and learn, and don’t harass people for understandably needing space from a character that symbolizes something different to them than it does to you.

Also: blocking tags or people just because they have character opinions different than yours is totally okay and does not mean anything other than “I am curating my online space to have a better time,” it’s NOT personal

And most importantly: FANDOM IS FOR FUN! This isn’t our day job! We come to fandom to decompress. Don’t ruin people’s safe spaces!!!

Like I said, I’ve grown to enjoy Izzy over time thanks to fandom and fanon, and I think it’s fantastic that fandom can have such diversity in the way it interprets canon. I can’t wait for his probable redemption arc (it will likely be a healing thing to witness for many of us) and I’m truly glad that we can all have different relationships to the same characters. But please—when some of us need Izzy to be a punching bag, just let him be a punching bag. No, it’s not homophobic and DEFINTELY not misogynistic to view him as an obstacle in Ed and Stede’s relationship (baffled by the amount of times I’ve seen this take—it’s a funny joke but if you actually think Izzy is treated the way female characters related to other mlm ships have been treated, the point is very much going whoosh). You don’t have to engage; it’s not personal. It’s not about YOUR relationship with him—it’s about MINE. Please let me feel and even discuss rage towards him when I think about episode 10. Please let me throw as many sandwiches at his head as I need to. Because I PROMISE, it won’t hurt him—because he, and none of these characters, are real; and yet we, the fans, very much are.

[hemlockfire]

In defense of Cardan

Rereading The Cruel Prince is fascinating, because there was such an effort made to show Cardan as “cruel” in the beginning, and he does do some nasty things. For instance, I don’t think we ever learn if he had a good reason for his random cruel act of tearing the wing of a faerie who didn’t bow to him. That moment has always bothered me and I don’t have an explanation for it. 

And yet, so many of his interactions with Jude can be seen through a different light on a reread after we know his character better. Once we know he does not relish violence and expends a lot of energy avoiding his own humiliation.  

Take the everapple incident during astronomy lessons. 

Valerian and Nicasia certainly wanted to hurt Jude, and Locke was already playing his own twisted game. But knowing what we learn later about Cardan, all his possibly cruel actions go slant and are arguably a kind of protection, the only kind he can offer Jude while being subtle about it.

First, Nicasia starts it - she steals Jude’s notebook and slaps her across the face. 

Cardan looks over, and I can tell from his expression that she has failed to please him.

I’m not sure if Nicasia was trying to please Cardan. It may have been for her own amusement, not his. But he’s already wary and not thrilled about what’s going to happen.

Then Valerian shoves the faerie apple into Jude’s mouth. Nicasia steals her salt, the antidote, before she can reach for it. Valerian shoves the apple back in her mouth, choking her, and Jude begins to black out from lack of air. Someone yells “Do something!” and it’s unclear who - this was probably not Cardan, because it doesn’t seem like his method of intervening. Maybe it was Locke, maybe one of the teachers or bystanders. And then...

   Abruptly, Valerian is kicked off me. I roll onto my side, coughing. Cardan is looming there. Tears and snot are running down my face, but all I can do is lie in the dirt and spit out pieces of sweet, fleshy pulp. I have no idea why I am crying.    “Enough,” Cardan says. He has an odd, wild expression on his face, and a muscle is jumping in his jaw.    I start to laugh.    Valerian looks mutinous. “Ruin my fun, will you?”    For a moment, I think they’re going to fight, although I cannot think why. Then I see what Cardan’s got in his hand. The salt from my basket. The antidote. (Why did I want that? I wonder.) He tosses it up into the air with a laugh, and I watch it scatter with the wind. Then he looks at Valerian, mouth curling. “What’s wrong with you, Valerian? If she dies, your little prank is over before it begins.” 

So Cardan is the one who intervenes to save Jude’s life before Valerian can choke her to death. He’s freaked out, he doesn’t want this, and it’s possible his friends basically know that and are messing with him just as much by messing with Jude. 

He has also gotten his hands on Jude’s salt. Now, why would he have bothered to pick up her salt? It was inside her basket, which Nicasia had, and that’s not the most direct path to an imminently choking Jude. I think he was intending to get her the antidote.

Except then he was caught out in an awkward position where, for just a moment, it looked like he might be helping her - he’s even just pulled Valerian off her. He can’t show that weakness to any of the court teens, least of all his friends. So he improvises and scatters the salt, making it look like he’s part of Valerian’s game. This sucks for Jude, who needed that salt, but it’s also probably the best move to avoid a target on himself and a worse target on Jude, who he’s now reframing as a game, a plaything, not something to completely destroy. While that is still dehumanizing and demoralizing, it is still ultimately safer to downgrade her torment to a fun joke for them, not something that should end in physical harm. He is deescalating a situation he can’t entirely defuse. 

This intentional choice of his, one he hates having to make, is reinforced by the difference between his words and his expression.

   “Prince Cardan?” Noggle says. “She ought to be taken home.”    “Everyone is so dull today,” Cardan says, but he doesn’t sound as if he’s bored. He sounds as if he’s barely keeping his temper in check.

He’s trying to maintain the attitude that this is silly, this is no big deal, but he’s simmering with anger at this assault on Jude, and possibly at the way he must carefully strike this tone so that his friends don’t escalate, or worse, turn on him too. It would be bad for him in general if they turned on him, but it would also leave him with no power to put a stop to how they’re treating Jude.

   Nicasia smiles, holding up the golden thing she has in her hand. The filthy, mashed remains of the apple. “Come lick my hands clean. You don’t mind, do you? But you have to do it on your knees.”    Gasping and tittering spread through our classmates like a breeze. They want me to do it. I want to make them happy. I want everyone to be as happy as I am. And I do want another taste of the fruit. I begin to crawl toward Nicasia.    “No,” Cardan says, stepping in front of me, his voice ringing and a little unsteady. The others back off, giving him room. He toes off his soft leather shoe and puts one pale foot directly in front of me. “Jude will come here and kiss my foot. She said she wanted to kiss us. And I am her prince, after all.”     I laugh again. Honestly, I don’t know why I laughed so infrequently before. Everything is marvelous and ridiculous.    Looking up at Cardan, though, something strikes me as wrong. His eyes are glittering with fury and desire and maybe even shame. A moment later, he blinks, and it’s just his usual chilly arrogance.

Once again, he has saved her from the everapple. Nicasia was not just going to humiliate her, she was also going to drug her more. Cardan had to stop her. 

But he can’t just play the hero here. So he suggests that Jude, who has also just said she would be happy to kiss any of them, kiss his foot. It’s humiliating, sure, but it’s also innocuous compared to Nicasia’s intentions, and kissing his foot will not further drug her. 

He has to keep playing this game to get them both out of this as cleanly as possible. He’s still struggling to keep his fury under wraps, though, and it slips through when Jude looks at him. 

And then Locke becomes an active player in the scene. 

   “Well? Be quick about it,” he says impatiently. “Kiss my foot and tell me how great I am. Tell me how much you admire me.”    “Enough,” Lock says sharply to Cardan. He’s got his hands on my shoulders and is pulling me roughly to my feet. “I’m taking her home.”    “Are you, now?” Cardan asks him, eyebrows raised. “Interesting timing. You like the savor of a little humiliation, just not too much?”    “I hate it when you get like this,” Locke says under his breath.

This exchange is harder to parse. In the moment, it does look like Locke is the only good guy, who is sweeping in to save Jude from Cardan and Nicasia and Valerian. This is how Locke wants it to look, and it is how Jude interprets things immediately after.

But knowing what we learn later about Locke’s character and his intensions, and noting how quietly intrigued he was by this incident up until this moment, it seems that Locke has decided to chime in to play the hero on purpose - he’s seen his in with Jude, and that is acting like he’s on her side and getting her out of this situation. 

Cardan knows all about Locke’s love of “story” and watching things play out, which is why he makes a jab at him that Locke seems to think some humiliation is fine, at least. He’s asking where the line is for Locke, who is acting morally superior when Cardan knows that’s hypocritical. On a first read, it seems that Locke is saying he hates when Cardan gets into a mood to humiliate people. But on rereads, it’s more likely he’s annoyed that Cardan won’t fully surrender himself to the unfolding story in front of them, or allow Locke to move it forward unhindered.

Now, I’m going to take a moment to wildly speculate about a couple things. First, Valerian probably could have come up with this idea and gotten his hands on an apple himself - it’s not like they’re rare, and they’re known to be dangerous for humans. But why now? He’s not that bright - if he wanted to do this to Jude, why hadn’t he done it before? Is it possible that Locke suggested it and/or handed him the apple? Secondly, Lock is the worst, and I think it’s entirely possible that he didn’t only want to play hero by walking Jude home. If he got to have a little “fun” with her on the way home and manipulate her into thinking it was consensual, well, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind that either. We know he sucks. He’s awful. This doesn’t feel like a stretch to me. Jude was not guaranteed to be safe alone with Locke while nearly naked and drugged.

I think Cardan knew or guessed some of that too. 

   Cardan pulls a pin from his coat, a glittering, filigree thing in the shape of an acorn with an oak leaf behind it. For a delirious moment, I think he’s going to give it to Locke in exchange for leaving me there. That seems impossible, even to my wild mind.    Then Cardan takes hold of my hand, which seems even less possible. His fingers are overwarm against my skin. He stabs the point of his pin into my thumb.     “Ow,” I say, pulling away from him and putting the injured digit into my mouth. My own blood is metallic against my tongue.    “Have a nice walk home,” he tells me. [...]    I suck on my injured thumb, feeling odd. My head is still swimming, but not like it was. Something’s wrong. A moment later, I realize what. There’s salt in my human blood.

This, to me, feels like Cardan’s most risky move. He might have given himself away to everyone, but he almost certainly did to Locke. While Locke probably already knew how Cardan felt, so he wasn’t revealing anything wholly secret, confirming his feelings could also be dangerous. 

He might have been able to pass it off as a quick moment of cruel harm toward Jude, or even managed to prick her finger without anyone else noticing. 

But crucially, he ensured that she did not walk off alone with Locke while not in her right mind. He did it. He got them out of that situation without revealing any of his feelings (well, he tried - probably only Locke noticed) and made sure Jude, whose human blood he knew would have salt she needed, received the antidote to the everapple’s effects. 

Cardan did make Jude’s life harder throughout their teen years, but I really don’t think he ever intended real harm to come to her. He was a bully, but not a complete villain. And once he had a certain reputation, he had to maintain it and use it, just to navigate through sticky situations when his friends decided to commit villainous acts themselves. 

I could continue on about all the other indications that he has helped or defended humans, but I’ll leave that for another day. 

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts: 373 — Friends

Thank you all, as always, for your patience.  As I said previously, I had some cruds catch up with me, on top of holidays and house guests, so between those and work, it’s been rather some while since I’ve had the time and energy for dedicated post writing.  But here’s this, finally!  And since the next chapter is much more scattered around in multiple places, it should be easier to write about.

As to this chapter, I’ve decided, rather than breaking it down chronologically or by broad topic, to cover it one character at a time, since this chapter more than many really is about the interplay of characters.

Hit the jump!

On Pig-Nose Guy

Taken strictly as-written, he’s got a pretty good head on his shoulders.  As many people have said, attacking a hospital under the auspices of a leadership of a known terrorist is the most desperate kind of play, the heteromorphs are doubtlessly underinformed and, as of this chapter, are being openly told not to think.  The fact that he doesn’t give into his emotions in those circumstances is admirable!  Still, I can’t help but think I’d have preferred to see him ask questions of his own leadership, rather than trusting the judgment of a teenage hero student who—like Deku in his bad faith bargaining with Overhaul—has no authority to speak for Hero Society at large.

Also too, it remains tiresome that he and the others are only asking these questions just now, instead of back when they were first told that they were going to be attacking a hospital.  This is especially the case given the weird inconsistency between pig-nose guy saying he couldn’t bring himself to hurt the people in the hospital and the gaping absence of anyone asking him to hurt the people in the hospital.  Maybe Scarecrow would have tried to goad them into that eventually or it was something they were told to do in advance, but if either of those is the case, we certainly never saw evidence of it on the page, which keeps his dilemma here from ringing completely true.

I do quite like the evocativeness with which he’s drawn.  As ever, Hori’s art is great, especially his expressions, even when his narrative decisions are being underwhelming-to-infuriating.

On Scarecrow

Christ, I hate the way Horikoshi insists on giving the MLA these awful little extra cruelties to make them worse than they need to be, as if, “Militant antisocial terrorist cult,” isn’t bad enough.  I could deal with the “meant to bring about our supremacy” bit—that’s not new rhetoric for MLA types—but am considerably more exasperated with “mighty meat shield.”

Like, guys, that’s just not how the MLA think of their rank and file.  Yes, they prioritize their leadership, always have, so it’s not that I mind as such that Scarecrow would think of the civilians as ultimately expendable.  But the key is that the MLA view such deaths as honorable, as important martyrdom to reach their goals.  They don’t and never have treated their people as “meat shields” in the derisive, callous sense that that term implies.

Again, look back at this sequence from Chapter 329: 

Does this sound like someone who doesn’t deeply believe in the orders he’s being given and the person he’s being told to lift up?  There’s no reason to portray this guy as a bad actor.  An extremist, absolutely, but thinking so explicitly about the manipulation of the civilians’ opinions just makes it sound like he wants power for its own sake, and that’s never been the MLA’s bag.

I’m particularly annoyed with Horikoshi having Scarecrow think of Shouji as an octopus, which feels akin not just to a minority thinking of another member of his group as [relevant derisive slur], but to putting that thought in the head of someone who wears the mantle of an activist, a student of history, someone who can speak passionately and eloquently of the rightness of his cause.  Scarecrow should know better than this, and portraying him as falling back on this dehumanizing language for his own kind is just another thing that makes him feel like he’s operating in bad faith, making him an even more strawman-ish depiction of someone who’s already set up as a violent radical.

…All of which makes it even more strange that a nameless hero apologizes directly to him.  Which is a pleasant surprise!

On the one hand, I like a lot that even someone who Horikoshi is making some effort to portray as not-genuine still gets a straightforward, genuine apology.  In principle, I’m in favor of that, because I strongly believe that even villains who are acting in bad faith deserve to be treated humanely and have their issues recognized—and regardless of what else we can say about him, Scarecrow does have a huge scar on his head that’s implicitly a result of anti-heteromorph violence.  Further, for Horikoshi’s plot here to land, it is important for heroes—not just students, but adult members of the system—to acknowledge that the heteromorphs have a legitimate grievance.

On the other hand, it does also still feel a bit like farming out apologies and weaknesses to nameless nobodies because god forbid any of the characters the audience has been encouraged to like be acknowledged as having flaws or biases.  It’s one of BNHA’s long-running issues that Horikoshi has this big system he wants to critique but, with the exception of characters like Bakugou and Endeavor, whose whole arcs are founded on personal improvement, he’s uncomfortable letting sympathetic and/or popular characters meaningfully reflect that flawed system.

As a result, we get stuff like last chapter’s apology for perpetuating heteromorphobic microaggressions coming from Mineta instead of Sero, no shallow fame-chasing students ever folding from the pressure and dropping out, the immense wishy-washiness of any critique of All Might, and, inversely, the facile resolutions of thorny issues like the traitor plot, the HPSC’s corruption, Izumi Kouta’s hatred of heroes, or, here, the idea of heteromorphic discrimination.

On Shouji/The Resolution

This continues to be a desperately wanting resolution.  Shouji still holds up this idea that heteromorphs can change the minds of bigots by just acting cool and admirable enough when his own backstory should have taught him that there is no such threshold. Bigots cannot be made to be ashamed of their bigotry, Shouji!  They will find ways to justify it; they will hide it if it looks to be socially unacceptable and then talk openly about it when they think they’re among people of like mind; they will react with resentment when called out.

And like, I do believe that bigots can change, and some of the examples I’m aware of are a credit to the actions of a person the bigot had hated, but those examples are all the more remarkable for their rarity.  It cannot be the default and ongoing responsibility of the oppressed to Nobly Endure until bigots change their minds, to risk their own safety just to win approval from those who hate them.  That’s what Shouji’s answer here says, though, and it’s frankly unconscionable.

And it’s such a bizarre chain of events!  Like, Shouji was just telling Spinner that this attack was going to set heteromorphs back thirty years, but now he’s saying the rioters are a shining light?  He was (baselessly) castigating them for showing up without a plan, but now he’s saying that the feelings that drove them to show up were neither useless nor wrong?

Are we to believe that protests have never happened before?  So either heteromorphs have been quiet and stoic and noble about this for generations and in exchange they’ve gotten infamous historical massacres and highly conditional semi-safety in sufficiently large cities while still suffering dehumanization and increased rates of criminality, or they have protested before but feel that their needs have been ignored.  When Rando The Hero apologizes to Scarecrow for never having realized heteromorphs were in such dire straits, which are we to believe is the explanation: that he never saw because they never spoke up, or he never saw because he wasn’t looking?

When Shouji tells them they look like a shining light, it recalls Scarecrow’s dialogue about how heteromorphs were never illuminated and would have to become their own light—but who exactly is to be credited for kindling that light?  Shouji tells them the feelings that drove them to come weren’t wrong, but we know that the MLA were working behind the scenes to stoke indignation and hurt up to the tipping point—what Scarecrow this week refers to as radicalizing these peoples’ passion.

So like…  This all seems like it never would have come about without Skeptic and Scarecrow and even Spinner and all the rest’s hard work.  So what’s going to happen to them, the people who enabled this change, in the end?  Do the nice and good victims who stood down before they went too far get embraced, while the people who drove them to be noticed get thrown in prison and forgotten about?

There’s this weird dynamic in the series where heroes and Hero Society ignore the problems their society has—sweep them under the rug, as Shigaraki put it—so insistently that change requires people willing to Go Too Far, like villains.  Then, when villains do exactly that, heroes are like, “You may have legitimate grievances, but you’re Going Too Far.”  Yes!  Because that’s what it takes to make “the good guys” pay attention!!

So what happens after this?  Do the agitators get put in prison while everyone else is just free to walk away?  What about the dozens and dozens of people who’ve already been rounded up and restrained?  Do they just get to walk?  Or are they going to prison too, for all that their feelings were totes correct, because they were captured before they had a chance to either press on or stand down?  (This, incidentally, takes us right back to the difficulties in dealing with an underground army—how do heroes on the ground know who’s a radicalized civilian and who’s a member of the PLF?)

So that’s all the usual headache-inducing platitudes.  There is one positive thing about all this that I want to talk about as well, though: the outcome of Shouji fighting while also talking.  I said it about Mirio a while back, and it applies here too, for all that it got lost in my deep frustration with the content of Shouji’s words: it is possible to carry on a dialogue while still defending oneself and others.(1)

Consider how this would have gone down if Shouji hadn’t been here.  Rock Lock thinks—in a moment that very clearly illustrates the current dilemma—that all the rest of the hero side could do was defend themselves by force.  That fits the current hero modus operandi, which the students have, up until now, been playing into.  Presumably, left to their own devices, the heroes and police would have either eventually hit a morale tipping point that broke the crowd, who would have been captured or fled with their resentment unaddressed, or the crowd would have overwhelmed them, freeing Kurogiri and cementing themselves as villains.

This makes Shouji—a pivotal figure as the tides of battle shift and we move into a new stage—a potentially very significant model for how the conflict resolutions from here on out are going to look.

A huge number of Hero Stan types disregard this strategy, which is why we’re all so frequently subjected to those tiresome, “Well, the villains were trying to kill people; do you expect heroes to just stand back and let them?” false equivalencies.  Here, though, Shouji provides a sterling example of how to engage with villains in good faith: defend as much you need to while keeping the conversation going as long as you can, in the hopes that eventually a breakthrough/understanding can be reached.  That’s the whole point of the Shonen Jump talk-no-jutsu trick.

I don’t buy Shouji’s message here by any means, but the manner in which he delivers it is unimpeachable.

On Mic

I love Mic being the ruthless one of the Rooftop Trio; I really do.  It’s been very entertaining to watch the telephone game of Realist Mic Fans talking about how this was totally predictable and only Fanon Mic Fans are surprised by it.  ‘Cause it’s 100% true; Mic’s always had those undertones, which were really what set him and Shirakumo apart despite their surface personas being fairly similar.  Look no further than Mic’s reaction to the traitor reveal!

That said, predictable or not—and the set-up was always there for it to be Spinner carrying the day here, not Mic—it really does hit deliciously hard.  My favorite part is that Mic never actually opens his mouth to call to Shirakumo himself—not this chapter, at least.  All his thoughts and pleas for Shirakumo are strictly internal;(2) externally, he’s winding up to unleash his quirk again.

An aside: The one quibble I have with this scene is that it’s legit unclear to me who Mic is winding up to attack here.  He’s very obviously prepared to kill Kurogiri if it comes to that—indeed, his internal monologue suggests that his killing Kurogiri was even a part of the plan here, albeit only as a last resort.(3)  However, he also says that was only on the table if it looked like Kurogiri was about to be taken back.  He explicitly notes that Spinner is down, though, and he’s already seen that Spinner’s alone, so who is he even worried about taking Kurogiri at this point?  Why attack Kurogiri when the main threat has already been neutralized?

So is he attacking Spinner, then, to make sure he stays down?  That seems a bit beyond the pale even for the most ruthless member of his group, doesn’t it?  And even if he were willing to go that far, an attack on Spinner doesn’t seem consistent with where his gaze is focused—aimed forward rather than down and to his right—and is even less consistent with his train of thought about Shirakumo fading away and leaving only good memories.(4)

As it is, it reads like Mic is already telling himself to execute Kurogri to prevent even the possibility, now or in the future, of Kurogiri regaining consciousness and making a decision Mic doesn’t approve of.  That’s very Plus Ultra of you, Mic, but like, in a really bad way.

Anyway.

Compare Mic’s silence to Spinner, who openly begs Kurogiri to save Shigaraki, and we have yet another scene that beautifully illustrates the tendency of heroes to embrace stoic self-denial even at the cost of their personal bonds for the greater good, while villains utterly reject questions of big-picture morality in favor of embracing/preserving the things and people they personally value.

On Spinner/The Final Hand

Man, I didn’t like Cook’s rendering of Spinner’s patchy dialogue as caveman-speak, but at least it made clear that Spinner’s thinking was irregular.  Here, comparing to the raws, you can still see the irregular kana usage throughout, but the official release portrays his thinking as largely clearing up once he gets all the scales blown off and shrinks back down to his normal size.  The sentences are fragmentary, but that could be read as a result of him being semi-conscious.  More importantly, “I” is back in his dialogue (“All I wanted” rather than e.g. “Me just wanted”) and his verb usage gets more regular.  That’s all to say, the official release makes it look like Spinner’s mentality stabilized in a way that doesn’t seem to match the raws.  Frustrating to get my hopes up like that!

Anyway, there’s been a certain amount of discourse getting around about whether Spinner’s crutching on The Hand for Shigaraki and now Kurogiri is good or bad, whether Spinner’s feelings for Shigaraki are leading him to make decisions that are bad for both of them, to what degree Spinner cares or should care about heteromorphic discrimination and so on, and I just want to say that I’m in total agreement with @codenamesazanka​​ and @robotlesbianjavert​​’s takes on the matter, as can be read in multiple posts.  These posts put it all so well I don’t particularly feel the need to retread it at length.

To be succinct: Spinner is doing the best he can from a position of limited information, and dinging him because he’s, what, prolonging the amount of time Shigaraki spends away from the miraculous saving light of Deku’s good intentions?  Fuck that; Deku doesn’t even have the courage of his convictions to speak them aloud, and even saying them to the people in his head, the best he could muster was, “I want to try.”  Nothing he’s done so far has earned him a right to the League’s trust.

There is one aspect of that I want to talk about specifically that I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere, which is the Spinner-Stain-Deku angle.  To wit, I once theorized that Spinner would be a key person in Deku’s drive to save Shigaraki because a) Spinner has the clearest understanding of Shigaraki as a regular person, whereas Deku’s limited exposure had only allowed him to see The Crying Child and The Symbol of Fear, and b) Spinner defended Deku that one time during the training camp attack on the grounds that Stain declared him worthy.  I thought Spinner’s action at that time might later give them enough common ground to recognize each other as having good intentions, enough space to at least tentatively open a dialogue, and advance their common goal of Helping Shigaraki from there.

It’s looking less likely now, mostly because of Spinner’s eroded mentality meaning he doesn’t have the ability to carry on a conversation with Deku right now about Shigaraki.  That’s not the entirety of the reason, though.

Firstly, there’s the issue of Spinner’s loyalties.  He was only cosplaying at being a Stain devotee to begin with, and has cultivated a much more deeply felt loyalty to Shigaraki, who, last Spinner heard, explicitly wants Midoriya Izuku dead.  New leader, new directive.

Secondly, there’s the problem that even if Spinner were inclined to give Deku the benefit of the doubt originally, so far as he can see, Deku has done nothing but align himself with the hero status quo, and particularly with Endeavor’s status quo.  Endeavor, who Stain condemned, and who Spinner’s own teammate revealed to be an abusive monster, the worst kind of person imaginable to be hiding behind the mask of a hero.  Endeavor, who contributed to Shigaraki being in such a state at Jakku that Spinner was driven to use The Hand to begin with!  Deku has given exactly zero sign that Spinner would be aware of that he’s willing to treat Shigaraki any differently than the hero establishment would, so what basis does Spinner have to entrust Shigaraki to him?

Both in terms of a Spinner who decides things based on who he's following and a Spinner who decides things based on the evidence of his own eyes, Deku fails coming and going.

Anyway, I still think it would be good to somehow get back to Spinner as a bridge between Shigaraki and Deku, because Deku saving Shigaraki based on nothing but his empathy for The Crying Child is desperately insufficient to truly address all the problems Shigaraki Tomura represents, but that’s a good deal more up in the air at this point, so I guess we’ll see how it goes.

As far as The Hand is concerned, I really do wonder if we’re starting to see its symbolism shift somewhat.  Like, yes, yes, it is a concrete reminder of everything AFO raised Shigaraki to be, that’s all true.  But it’s this hand, too:

Nana, who wanted to save her son, wants Deku to save her grandson, and wants Shigaraki to not forget the boy he used to be—it’s her hand.  Carried by Spinner, the person who loves Shigaraki the most, extended beseechingly to Kurogiri, the one who protects Shigaraki Tomura, the one who “cannot abandon others.”

Just saying, there’s a lot packed into that hand that AFO didn’t put there.  Letting him be the only authority on its symbolism is kind of letting him make the rules, isn’t it?  He isn’t the only one who gets to decide what things mean, and believing otherwise is just ceding him control of the narrative.

We even have a prior example of this in One For All: what began as a play to bring Yoichi under AFO’s control instead grew, through Yoichi’s desires and those of the people OFA was passed to, into a power meant to bring AFO down.  Eventually, even that purpose was eclipsed by All Might and Deku’s desires to use that power to save people.  The Final Hand, while much more gruesome, could go the same way in terms of it being utilized in ways counter to what AFO intended.

On Kurogiri

Kurogiri strikes me as being in a potentially crucial position, and not merely for his ability to disrupt the heroes’ plans, which up to this point looked like there were going to lead to nothing but yet another rotation in the cycle of Hero Society sweeping all its problems under the rug until something rancid causes an eruption.

No, the more important thing with Kurogiri is that he’s in an even better position than Spinner to provide a bridge between the hero and the villain sides at large.  Spinner may have the better vantage point on Shigaraki as he’s developed over the course of the series, but Spinner’s pretty locked into the position of villain and victim; he’s never once been on the right/light side of Hero Society.

Kurogiri, if you assume that he’s become something of an amalgamated existence (reflecting his use of ore rather than watashi this chapter) has lived in both worlds.  As Shirakumo, he has all the memories of an idealistic hero with a good upbringing, solid bonds and a stable place in society.  As Kurogiri, he’s had plenty of exposure to the social deprivation, systemic bias and manipulative wickedness that creates villains.  There's no one else in the story who has both the experience within Hero Society to believe in its value but also the perspective to understand why villains don't believe in that value.

That’s if you assume he’s become an amalgamated existence.  My favorite read on Kurogiri treats him as the survivor of a traumatic experience, one that has fundamentally changed him such that he can’t reconcile with his old friends as long as they refuse to recognize the person he’s now become in favor of fantasies about who he used to be.  Sadly, I don’t think that’s particularly well-supported by the story thus far,(5) but the pronoun shift is an exciting new development!

Really, despite Shirakumo breaking through once, I want to think that it would be impossible for him or the heroes who want him back to ever shake "Kurogiri" entirely if they can't assure him that his cat (Shigaraki) is going to be taken care of. Because even if Shirakumo might choose otherwise consciously, that care is him; it's the whole foundation Kurogiri is built on. Heroes can't just will it to go away and think they’ll have anything left afterward but fragments of a person.

The editor’s note at the end of this chapter said the battle was moving to a new stage, and let me tell you, I am so ready.  Heroes are not yet at a point where they’ve earned a victory, moral or otherwise, so Kurogiri returning to his bartender roots and putting this whole war in a shaker before pouring it out into different glasses is incredibly welcome.

Stray Notes

O  I appreciate that Nimble, even when her talk bubbles indicate that she’s shouting full-volume, still shows no indication of a mouth.  How does she eat, I wonder?  RIP to my dreams about Spinner’s #1 Advisor getting anything important to do, though; Horikoshi’s Women Sidelining disease strikes again.

O  Spinner’s biggest contribution this chapter, wherein he finds the strength to surge forward in desperation to help the person he cares about, comes after he loses all the bulk and extra-scales; it’s like an anti-quirk evolution.  This continues to prove the point that Spinner’s biggest role in the plot was never about the strength or weakness of his quirk, but rather about his heart.  Love-interest coded Spinner is real.

O  So what was up with that big ominous panel of the gun and the sound effects of it firing last chapter?  Because I really feel like if someone just opened fire on the crowd, it should be WAY harder to have the whole extended dialogue Shouji and pig-nose guy have this chapter.

O  The color page at the start really is incredibly gorgeous.  God, I wish Hori did more color pages for the villains.  We are so underserved in this specific category.  I did see some people talking about how Shirakumo’s face here is an adult’s face, not a teenager’s, and if that’s true, I feel like it raises a whole bunch of fascinating questions about what Ujiko is doing with corpses to stimulate growth.  As if the Winged Noumu didn’t raise enough of those already, mind.  If Noumu can age, does that mean they can die of old age??

---FOOTNOTES---

1:  I made a bitchy quip last chapter about the manga’s earlier stance that words are less important than actions, but just to be clear, my issue isn’t talking itself—I think talking is very important, and something the heroes should be doing a lot more of, but that the current system disincentivizes them from doing.  The trouble is when the talk is a bunch of empty twaddle that refuses to outline the specific action being proposed to address a character’s accusations.

2:  I’ve seen a number of people talking emotionally about Mic’s last yell for Shirakumo this chapter, but I think they’re misreading the art.  If Mic were calling that name aloud, it would be in a talk bubble, not the internal monologue text overlay.

3:  And wow, does that contingency ever remind me that Hawks was a key member of the team that masterminded this plan.

4:  Please go read @codenamesazanka​’s excellent meta on how Hero Society prefers dead victims to victims who couldn’t be saved.

5:  Shirakumo’s sole action upon being woken by Aizawa being to spill Ujiko’s location is not a promising sign.  The most generous read possible that reconciles that action with a Shirakumo who cares about Shigaraki would be that Shirakumo legitimately thought Shigaraki being imprisoned in Tartarus was a better outcome than letting Ujiko have his way.  That’s feasible, but it’s also the case that, as far as Kurogiri-as-trauma-victim goes, I’m just not convinced Horikoshi approaches the story with that level of allegory in mind.

[bakuhoes-dumbass]

Aberration - Chapter 1

MHA!Various x Fem!Reader

Thriller/Horror/Drama

Criminal!AU

Words: 2.3k

A/N: Yay, here’s the first chapter of my new AU! It might be a little slower at first but it’ll pick up the further we get into it. So I hope you like this!

Warnings: Yandere Themes, Mentions of murder, blood, felonies, bullying, swearing.

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of MHA, just this story. In no way does this reflect the characters, writers or VAs of the show/manga. MINORS DNI.

~~~

Aberration Masterlist/Character profiles

~~~

In this world, mutations, renamed as ‘Quirks’, are abnormal. Only about 5%-8% of the world population are known to have these so called ‘Quirks’. You are a graduate of one of the most prestigious science tech schools in the country. You’ve been selected to work for a secret scientific research facility that houses some of the most notorious criminals in the nation. Besides their crimes, what makes these individuals incredibly dangerous are their mutations. After meeting these individuals, they seem to have taking a liking to you. That should make your research and search for the cure all that much easier…

Right?

~~~

Before you stands one of the largest facilities you have ever seen. You take a deep breath, attempting to calm your rapidly beating heart. Adjusting the strap on your bag, you make your way into the research center.

Upon entering, you gasp in wonder. The inside is huge, tall pure white walls that meet at a double paned glass ceiling. In front of you is a wall of security, stretching to accommodate the vast interior of the lobby. You walk up to the nearest security officer and give them your information. Thankfully, you were on a list and after checking you over, you're granted entrance to the building.

That's where you meet a man and a woman, both dressed in white lab coats and carrying clipboards. You bow your head to the two of them and they return the gesture.

"Ms. Y/N, I presume? My name is Shota Aizawa and this is my assistant, Momo Yaoyorozu." The older of the two speak.

You smile at the two. "Yes, nice to meet you. I'm Y/N, L/N, graduate of UA science tech. I am so happy to be here and look forward to working with the two of you."

The younger girl nods and smiles, gesturing behind the two of them. "If you would kindly follow us, we can get started."

~~~

"Ms. Y/N, here's the list of the inmates you will be working with from this point on."

Momo hands you a clipboard containing pictures and descriptions of each individual. Your eyes scan the information on the page in front of you, your brow raising with each word you read. "There is… quite a bit of information on these individuals."

Aizawa nods. "Considering how dangerous the subjects are, it's best to have every detail we can."

You internally cringed at the term 'subject'. These were criminals, yes, but they were still living breathing people. Noone deserves to be dehumanized, no matter the reason.

Shaking your head of those thoughts, you continue to look over the notes in your hands. One in particular catches your eye. " 'Multiple counts of 3rd degree murder by reason of insanity' and yet he's only deemed as a level 4 danger?"

The doctor looks over your shoulder at the character profile. "Ah, yes. Fumikage Tokoyami. He's an interesting one, to say the least." You wait for him to continue, but seeing as it doesn't seem like he will, you gesture for him to elaborate. "Tokoyami himself is actually fairly harmless and incredibly cooperating, which is why he gets a level 4 only. However…" Aizawa looks down the hall of the facility to a door near the end. "Dark Shadow is deemed a level 9."

Your eyes shoot up in shock. "Dark Shadow? A level 9? Explain."

"Dark Shadow is his mutation. It's a completely sentient being that he harbors inside of him. Highly dangerous, more so if there is darkness." He looks back at you. "I'll let him explain the reason why he was instituted. He always prefers to explain the story himself."

The more Aizawa explains Tokoyami's situation, the more your excitement builds up, wanting desperately to meet this man. This was such an interesting mutation and you couldn't wait to hear everything he had to tell you. You take a breath to calm your childish manner and clear your throat.

"If it's alright with you, sir, I'd like-" You look down at your clipboard once again. "'Inmate 06' to be the first one I meet with."

Aizawa nods and writes something down in his notebook. "Very well. Follow me this way please."

You follow the doctor down the long white hallway, your excitement growing with each step. Along the way, you notice each door on the facility that lines either side of the stretched hall. Each door had a narrow window towards the top and a small number engraved underneath. You don't take too much notice and keep following the doctor to your destination. However, an eerie feeling makes you freeze in your tracks.

You slowly rotate your head and look at the inmate's door you stopped next to. The color drains from your face as you see two ice blue eyes peering right into yours. It felt like your breath was stolen, a hint of fear and anxiety built up within you from this intense gaze. After what felt like hours, you snap your gaze back to Aizawa and Momo, who were standing in front of a door you were also supposed to be at.

"I would highly advise you to keep cautious while you are in this facility. While we keep all inmates in cuffs that neutralize their mutations, the technology has not been 100% perfected yet and parts of their powers may leak out. That is why we have additional precautionary measures in place for each inmate." Aizawa gives you an impartial look as you walk over. "Now. The only special precaution with Inmate 06 is the lights must stay on at all times. There are no light switches in his cell, so nothing should go wrong. But like I said, always stay cautious."

You nod your head at the doctor's words and turn to face the door. Aizawa places a hand onto the keypad next to the door, scanning his prints before buzzing and opening the door. You give the man one last nod before making your way inside the room. The room itself is bare. White floors, white walls and an equally white ceiling. Nothing was in there except a desk with a chair and a bed.

On top of that bed sat a young man with the body of a human and the head of a crow. Your eyes widen in awe at the beautiful being in front of you. Tokoyami tilts his head and gives you a curious look.

"Oh. Hello, there. I've never seen you before."

The deep voice of the man shocks you. You bow your head and give the bird man a smile. "Hello, Tokoyami. My name is Y/N. I'm the new scientist at this facility. I'm here to get to know and observe you all to help further our findings for a cure. I hope we can be friends."

Tokoyami blinks. "You want to be… friends? With us?"

"Yeah, of course. Why not?" Your smile never leaves your face.

"Well, maybe because we're all… felons? The greater majority of us being murderers?"

"I truly believe everyone deserves a second chance." You gesture to the desk chair, silently asking if you could sit. The man nods and you greatly take your seat. "Now, would you ever be so kind as to answer a few questions for me, Tokoyami? I would like to get to know you a little better." You take out your pen and notebook, opening to a fresh page.

Tokoyami nods again and you give him a smile. "Just a few standard questions first. Can you please state your full name, age and date of birth?"

"Fumikage Tokoyami, age 22, October 30th."

"What is the name of your quirk and how does it work?"

Tokoyami fiddles with the quirk-cancelling cuffs around his wrists at the mention of his quirk but answers anyway. "It's called Dark Shadow. It's a fully sentient shadow that resides inside my body. It can come out when I call call it or it can show itself on it's own. But it's always connected to me and cannot be separated. It…" Tokoyami takes a breath. "It gets stronger the darker my surroundings are. So the less light, the less control I have over it. If it gets too dark, it completely takes over me, no longer under my control."

The longer you listen to him, the wider your eyes get and the more they shine in wonder. "That is incredible! To have that kind of quirk is truly fascinating!"

Hearing your words of praise would have made Tokoyami blush, if he could. He clears his throat in embarrassment. "Why, thank you for those kind words. Though, I doubt having this...quirk, as you say, is all to be impressed about."

You shake your head. "You may not think so, but really, I've never seen anything like it." You excitedly write a few things down before making eye contact with him again. "Now onto my final question of the day. Can you please tell me the reason why you are here?"

Tokoyami stays silent for a moment, staring at nothing in particular, residing in his thoughts. You clear your throat and he looks up to you. You give him a small, comforting smile and it causes Tokoyami's heart to beat harder. For some unknown reason, he suddenly feels like he can trust you with anything.

"I've been charged with multiple counts of 3rd degree murder." He sighs, recalling that day. "I was invited to a college party on a date, by someone whom I had grown quite infatuated with. I never really was one to socialize and never really had any friends. But I really liked this person, so I went. At first it was going okay, nothing too out of the ordinary. Then, the host decided that playing truth or dare was the way to go.

 So my date dragged me to sit down and join them. Every time I was asked, I always chose truth. And everytime, their questions were about my appearance, my mutation. Laughing at all my answers, mocking my looks, talking about how unnatural I was. The more they asked, the more my anxiety and anger built up. But my stubbornness didn't want to show any weakness, so I stayed. 

Finally, I decided to just choose dare instead. At that point, I decided that nothing could be more humiliating than what they've already done." His sharp, red eyes flickered to yours. "Oh, how wrong I was. They dared me to go into the closet with my so-called 'date'. We were shut in and from then, they decided to tell me how this whole thing was a set up, just to humiliate me. That anyone with mutations like myself should just disappear because of how disgusting we are." He spits out that word like it was rotten food. "Remember how I said Dark Shadow gains control in the dark? Well, with my anger rising and the fact that it was almost pitch black in that closet, I lost control of myself and Dark Shadow took control of me. Next thing I remember, I was standing in the middle of the college dorm party, blood painting the floors, the walls, and the entirety of my class slaughtered."

You almost dropped your pen in shock but regained your composure. You give the poor young man a sad smile. He sighs and finishes off his explanation. "I was arrested and charged with multiple counts of 3rd degree murder by reason of insanity, considering I was technically not in my right state of mind at the time."

The two of you sit there in silence, basking in all this new-found information. You close your notebook and set your pen down, facing Tokoyami directly. "Listen to me. There is nothing wrong with the way you look or your quirk. Just because it isn't the societal norm, doesn't mean it's disgusting or wrong. Remember that."

Tokoyami blinks in surprise."Um, thank you." Those were the only words he could say, as how shocked he was at what you said.

You tilt your head and stare at him. "If I may ask, would I be able to feel your head? I'm very curious as to what your feathers feel like. It would greatly help my research as well."

"Oh. U-um, yeah. Sure."

You move to gently sit next to Tokoyami, so as to not startle him too much. You slowly lift your hand and place it on his head, eyes lighting up as you card your fingers through his feathers. "Oh wow, they're so soft!"

Tokoyami's heart speeds up, his feathers ruffling at your touch. He gazes at you with something akin to admiration. No one was ever gentle with him like this before. After another few seconds, you retreat your hand, Tokoyami almost whimpering at the absence.

"Well, I better get going. I have quite a few more things to do today before my shift is over." You gather up your things and bow your head at the half bird boy. "I greatly appreciate your time and look forward to our future sessions. Have a good rest of your day!" You smile at Tokoyami before heading back to the door and signaling Aizawa to open it.

"Goodbye, Ms. Y/N. I look forward to meeting with you again." Tokoyami watches you leave his room. Once you're gone, he runs his hand through his feathers, imagining they were your fingers.

As the door closes, you turn to Aizawa who gives you a disappointed look.

"What?"

"You touched the inmate. Why in the hell would you do that?"

You place your hand on your hip and give the doctor a stern look. "I was curious about his mutation and wanted to see how it felt."

He sighs and runs a hand down his face. "We try to avoid any physical contact with any of the inmates, as it may trigger something deep within them. Remember, Y/N. Every single one of these individuals are dangerous and unstable. Any abnormal behavior could result in catastrophic consequences."

You sigh and shake your head, giving him a chaste nod. "Yes, Sir. You're right. I promise to heed your warning and modify how I work."

The doctor looks satisfied as he turns on his heel and walks further down the long hallway. You quickly follow to keep up. "Now, on to your next subject. Inmate 04, Eijiro Kirishima." You flip the page of your inmate profiles to see a picture of a red-haired man. "He is of a higher danger level, so make sure to keep your guard up. And for the love of God, under any circumstances…

Do not touch him."

~~~

Taglist: @theblueslytherin @sterassion @somechick30003 @meena-in-a-nutshell @justtj-andnonumberspls @zombieonna @amajikiwife @yulifee @atexansadventureintokinkandlife @ep-ip-ha-ny @hcneymilkks @pastelmoonwitche @stayarmytinyzenmoa-l @railmeddy @unlimitedfirepheonix @confaegion @drownedbytears @burntcrips @silverqueenie @the-lady-writes-what @awkward-confused 

[If your name is bolded, I was unable to tag you.]

[merakiui]

Okay okay okay I’ve been thinking about this for a few days now here’s my list of genshin boys most likely to least likely to become a yandere and why:

-xiao. Millennia of suffering and he meets somebody who makes the pain dissipate? Hell never let go.

-diluc. People have died in his arms, he can’t risk losing another loved one... it’s not like he doesn’t have the wealth and resources to keep his beloved by his side.

-Childe. I think he’d be the most dehumanizing yandere - he treats you almost like a child (haha) as be manipulates his way into your heart. And god knows that he gets what he wants.

-albedo is obviously in the top half of this list. We’ve talked about his yandere tendacies before so I won’t relist them but jeez get this boy some therapy.

-razor. Now this sounds surprising but after years of protecting his Lupical, do you really think he’d let somebody he loves and sees as helpless wander alone? I feel hes less captor and manipulative and more of a stalker if he becomes a yandere

-venti. Freedom is his entire world, but can he let his beloved have freedom if it endangers them? One of the most manipulative ones on this list, except he has no clue that he’s doing it.

-kaeya. Maybe you’d gotten to close to one of his secrets. Maybe you’d figured out something he wanted to die. It doesn’t matter much now, all you know is that you were tried and declared guilty by the knights of favonius and were sent into a dungeon protected by the Calvery captain himself.

-zhongli. Has the yandere desires, but refuses to give in. He’s loved and lost so many times over the years and he figures he doesn’t want to take that away from his beloved.

-chongyun. I’ve gone back and forth between him and xingqiu for this one, but I feel like these last 3 are all pretty much tied for not being a yandere. However, if he met someone who could somehow null his congenital positivity than he might move up on this list...

-Xingqiu. He has a strong sense of justice and honor, the idea of manipulating, stalking or god forbid kidnapping his S/O is appalling to him.

-Bennett. Literally just tryna vibe. Devotes as much time as he can to make sure any relationship he has is healthy.

So basically:

Everybody on this list: *frothing at the mouth, thinking of ways to keep their S/Os with them*

Bennett, Chongyun, Xingqiu and to some extent Zhongli: what the fuck

Your list... Simply amazing. Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m beginning to wonder where other characters would sit on the list. Mainly Scaramouche though aha oops Anyways, please never stop sharing your thoughts!! They are so GOOD!

Xiao’s backstory and past is just perfect material to fuel his yandere desires. He’s suffered for so long and has never really experienced positive emotions, let alone love itself. The poor adeptus is always brooding on his own and here comes his darling, bright and happy and just...perfect. They’re like a glimmering star in his murky darkness and he wants to treasure them. There’s no way he’s going to let go of the feeling he gets when he’s with them, nor is he going to let them leave his side.

It makes sense that Diluc would also be at the top of that list. He’s got the making of a yandere, especially considering all of the people he’s lost in his life. Now that he’s found someone so important to him, he can’t risk losing them. It would destroy him if he found out that his darling got hurt or was even killed because he wasn’t taking enough precautions to keep them safe. He’d definitely blame himself if something like that happened.

Childe, pspspspsp!!! The power this man holds... Omg he makes for such a terrifying yandere. On the outside, he seems warm and disarming—just your normal, happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He’s not dangerous at all! No way. But under all of that falsified charm is someone who knows how to pull strings. He’s a Fatui Harbinger, so of course he has the means of getting you wrapped around his finger. It’s not all that hard when he’s got money, power, and strength. Plus, when he wants something he’s not going to stop until he acquires it; Childe lives for the thrill of chasing after you and it’ll be even more fun once he catches you. Someone should send me more thoughts about yan!Childe!!! orz orz

Albedo also qualifies as a neat yandere! Something about yanderes who are into science is just...fascinating to me. It’s also cool because Albedo’s rumored to be a homunculus, so that adds to the intrigue! Albedo has the resources to get what he wants as well. It won’t be all that difficult, and if it proves to be challenging he can just think of other solutions to pacify his darling. He is a researcher, after all, and a good researcher seeks to find the best solution to a problem.

Razor would be a feral yandere. He’s more action than words. He doesn’t put much thought into what he does because it feels more like an instinct to him. He’s just protecting his Lupical. There’s nothing wrong with that! So why are you acting so difficult? D: 

Like you said, Venti’s not aware of his manipulation and he just does it because it works. His belief that everyone deserves freedom is probably what really holds him back. He doesn’t want you to feel caged, but that feeling is practically inevitable since he’s always hounding you. Venti is a very suffocating yandere and he doesn’t even realize it.

KAEYA! KAEYA! I love the idea of Kaeya having some sort of blackmail on you—something so bad that you absolutely can’t let the world see. And so he uses that to keep you quiet. If you did stumble upon one of his secrets, he can’t possibly have you running that pretty mouth of yours. But if you do end up spilling his secret, it’s only fair that he shares yours, right? An eye for an eye, as some would say. Kaeya’s very smooth and calculative when it comes to handling blackmail. Whenever it feels like you’re trying to one-up him and possibly escape, he’ll flirtatiously remind you of the power he holds over you. Blackmail is rather compelling, is it not?

Zhongli does have the motive to be a yandere, as you pointed out, but he’s a strange case. On one hand, it makes sense that he’d want to protect his beloved at all costs, but on the other he’d probably be aware of these unhealthy tendencies. Although he probably uses the idea of a contract to keep your relationship going, even if it’s clear you don’t want anything to do with him. But if you do, that just makes it easier on him! 

NO BECAUSE I THOUGHT THE SAME FOR CHONGYUN!!! Not the yan!Chongyun piece rotting in my drafts for a month or two now ehehee I had some thoughts about Chongyun but never bothered posting it for some reason. Anyways, I do think Chongyun has potential to be a yandere! As you mentioned, his congenital positivity can become an issue and he doesn’t want that to seriously affect his daily life. So he’s probably very pleased to find someone who can nullify that positivity. It’d be similar to Xiao’s case; Xiao likes someone who can be the light in his dark world. Chongyun falls for the person who can null his congenital positivity and is someone who he gets along with. 

The only way I can see Xingqiu being a yandere is if he wants a noble, storybook romance. Okay, that sounds strange, but consider it! He’s a huge bookworm who probably doesn’t exactly experience romance aside from what he reads in his novels. Although he doesn’t dabble in the romance genre all that often, he does like the idea of being a hero and sweeping someone off of their feet. So when he meets you—another fellow bookworm or maybe the two of you are thrown into an arranged marriage—he just feels an undeniable connection. This must be some form of fate or a sixth sense. Maybe he can be the main character of his own story! You’ll just have to cooperate and you can be the valiant knight’s love interest!

Bennett’s vibes are so nice. How could he be a yandere? He’s just too sweet and pure. He’s really just here to chill and gather an adventuring team full of great friends! But if anyone has any thoughts...please share them! 

That’s it. I’m writing about Scaramouche even though he’s not on the list. Please, why do I simp so much for him? Anyways, we don’t know nearly enough about Scaramouche to determine his backstory or past. But he just oozes yandere! Most of the Harbingers are probably the same, to some extent. He’s like Childe with all of the power and resources, but whereas Childe relishes in the chase Scaramouche refuses to put up with it. It’s just way too inconvenient for him. He’d rather catch you when you least expect it and then keep you for himself.

Gosh, he’s a very determined and possessive yandere with a strict agenda; this man probably cheats in order to get you. He’ll send his underlings to do the work in his place. They’ll stalk you and report back to him and it isn’t long before he learns of your friends, certain family members you’re close to, and even where you live. It’s terrifying, but this is Scaramouche we’re talking about. For someone so short, he sure knows how to intimidate and beat fear into those below him. Good luck to the poor soul who catches his eye. 

I must thank you for making that list! It was lots of fun to consider their mindsets and behaviors as yandere. :D