#idk maybe I'm overthinking all this

[maganne-bonete]

In reference of my tired rambling from last night

I think I need to arrange my interpretation and headcanons over Gilded Helianthia as I may be one of the very few in the Empires fanbase who obsesses over these things. This is what happens when a historical hetalia fan becomes hooked with these fictional minecraft countries. (yes, Empires is abt people who rule over fictional minecraft countries and everything I will write about it is purely filled with headcanons.)

So to start, is to have a look into societal norms in Gilded Helianthia:

Helianthia, being an agriculture and warrior based society puts lot's of importance on the community and family considering that fields and farms are cared for by large families and communities together. The larger the family, the better.

It is expected for women, especially in rural places, to marry and have kids, and is seen as a responsibility. Even with Helianthia's more historically matriarchal culture and society.

Women are treated equally to men but marriage and having a family is expected.

This is also expected from men in Helianthia even in cities and in the capital. Getting married and having a family or a "sense" of family (not required to be "traditional" or het) is the norm.

They are a very extroverted and social culture. Being "alone" isn't seen as normal and you're expected to be with people.

Now, is this expected to be the norm with any of Helianthia's historic rulers? Is it expected when learning about their politics and history that ALL their queens and leaders are/were married and with families of their own?

No

There were queens who never married nor had children like queen Zoryana, Lyudmyla, and Halyna

The hero Nadiya from the independence war never married nor had any lovers. Several accounts confirms this from those who worked with her. After the war she just retired to the countryside and went back to working on her family's farm.

One of the renowned folklorist and poets of Helianthian history, Vasyl, lived mostly on his own and never had any lovers.

Historically, there have been people in Helianthia who never really met such expectations yet it's still something many people expect their kids to have once their older and of age.

This led to some claiming and comparing their lifestyles to the likes of Vasyl or Queen Halyna and the likes. (Basically, what I'm saying is that there are non-partnering people in their history but people are still stubborn on what they want from others.)

So, what about Pearl?

Pearl was a farm girl from a town in the countryside. In a typical canon, she is an only child. In the Gilded Sky au, she's siblings with Grian who's her older brother.

In the fic that I'm writing it's just gonna be from the typical canon. So, no Grian. Which would make her as her parents' only daughter and expected to get married and continue the line.

Her family and people of their province bordering the Overgrown nation are matrilineal in practice.

Not that she didn't had cousins but it's still what her mother would have wanted.

Her family has a long oral history from the times even before the independence war when the nation was still under Mythland.

But Pearl always felt alien to the idea of it. She read up on the lives of their queens and thought of making her parents proud of her in a different way.

She was ambitious and really cared for her people and nation.

She'd tell her mother this when she was still 15 and her mother was surprised since "We're only farm folk here, we can send you to the city to study if you liked but running to become queen is beyond the imagination. Our family might have been town chief or lieutenant in the past but queen is such a big ambition."

But it was something Pearl still insisted on.

So her mother and father tried supporting her on her decision while still bugging her on finding someone to marry.

She had to keep telling them that she's not interested or she just doesn't like the others from their town that way.

Maybe her standards are too high, she'd think. She doesn't find any of them attractive or anyone she'd consider marrying.

When she went to the capital to study for university, she was met with the Vasyl Society and the Zoryana Women's Org. From there she started having a better way to describe herself and tried explaining this to her family.

She's never been interested in anyone, and not that she thinks she will any time soon, and she has no plans of having any children.

Her parents then accepted this as a part of her and continues to support her on her studies.

Now for a fic plot.

I mean, all of that could be a fic plot. I have mentioned at one point that I hate or find queer stories of "realizing their sexuality" or "accepting who they are" like over done. I want queer stories where the person is just who they are and they've already been through that arc in their life.

(Although I am a hypocrite for planning a "accepting who they are" narrative for my hetalia fic but I want to make the excuse that it's because I'll be projecting as a filipino)

But I really couldn't think of any other plot that has her as the main focus, where she has long identified as Aro. (or something of the like in-universe)

The thing with Pearl, as much as how the fanbase doesn't want to admit it, narratively she's always a good supporting character to others and she has no actual major arc. Her arc, if she had any, was to realize that it was foolish to ever trust Xornoth and that her bestfriend was now hard to reach with the level of corruption he's in. And even then, it ends up with serving Saus' arc more than anything.

"But Marga, this is fandoms we're talking abt. This is where an oc or a side character could be turned into a main character if we wanted," you all might say to me.

True, why couldn't I just make Pearl the main character during the canon events? What if she discovered a cure for the corruption before Gem and Katherine and instead it even worked on Xornoth as she also intended in the canon? No binding ritual to a crystal or double suicide with his soul linked twin brother needed. Or that she was always with Scott? Or that while Scott had his own prophecy as the Champion of Aeor, there was also a prophecy in Gilded Helianthia? Truly very AU at this point. And there's nothing wrong with any of these ideas.

But then how do I write about her Aromanticism then?

I'm not into the idea of having Aro stories having to relate to someone who's attracted to them. This is why I'm not gonna have a story about Gem's feelings over Pearl and Pearl not liking her back. Or the need to juxtaposition it with her friends who are in relationships or are in the middle of yearning. And it's not like she's a partnering aro either. I kinda made that clear in this post.

I hope I'll eventually figure this out. Maybe take a bit of a break. Maybe I'm over thinking this.

[nattikay]

Naming Kiri - part 1 (part 2 coming eventually)

[autoauthor]

Android AU Endings (Part 1 : Android Victories)

Thanks to the lovely @doveywovy and everyone else who gave that AU lots of love. You all inspired me to keep thinking about that universe and its possible conclusions. Here's half the endings I've come up with so far.

Ending 1: Izuna keeps Tobirama drugged and oblivious.

Inspired by a time when Tobirama was sick under his care, Izuna keeps Tobirama completely reliant on him using chemical means. Tobirama is so out of it that he doesn't realize anything is wrong - Izuna is careful to obscure the passage of time. The androids win and Tobirama is none the wiser. (Cute, domestic, incredibly fucking toxic. What more could you ask for?)

Ending 2: Tobirama is restrained but still fighting.

At some point, Tobirama caught on to the androids' plans and fought back. Izuna subdued him and is now keeping him captive in his own home. Sometimes he's lulled into complacency by the domesticity of the situation. Sometimes Izuna drugs him until he forgets why he should be wary. Either way, Izuna is watching him 24/7 from every corner of his home. Escape is unlikely. (Stockholm syndrome may be widely disputed but I mean c'mon we all know that's where this is going)

Ending 3: Tobirama dies trying to stop the androids.

Tobirama fails in a final last stand and is killed for it. Maybe he even decides to choose death when Izuna offers him a way out. The androids accomplish their dastardly goal, however, victory feels hollow for Izuna. (Izuna's breakdown may lead to an eventual human victory much later down the line. Absolutely no one wins in any case.)

Ending 4: Tobirama almost succeeds but can't follow through.

Tobirama's plan is carried out flawlessly. He's in the perfect position to shut down all the androids and free humanity. Right when victory is within reach - he looks at Izuna - and gives up. Tobirama is wracked with guilt over betraying humanity. Izuna gives him many freedoms for choosing to side with him. (Good ending?)

[king-candybug-backup]

I'm noticing an uptick in comments complaining that most of the current WIR fandom content is Turbo instead of the other characters and, like... you guys know you can search other characters by their specific tags, right??? Or exclude Turbo from search results by temporarily blacklisting him in your filtered tags?

Idk, it's just weird to me to be discouraging towards people making fandom content just because it's not the specific content you want to see, like, it's ok to want to see other content, but complaining about how other people aren't catering to your tastes enough instead of just making the content you want to see yourself is kinda bad vibes, y'know?? (And that's not to say that I think those comments are intended out of malice of course, I really don't think they are, I just wanted to point out that it can come off as a little entitled, as well as discouraging towards people who just want to draw Turbo, which is something that should be fine if that's what they want to do. Fandom should be fun for everybody, and there's lots of tools available to curate your experience with it!)

[window-on-the-west]

In the end I really do want to get offline. It's not that I miss "the days of internet yore" it's that I miss not having an internet addiction and I miss when things like art and writing mattered to me. This is part of content culture I think. Art people created and spent precious time on becomes white noise that I forget about within minutes. I hate that. I hate that I just scroll. I don't want to be this way

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

Im frothing at the mouth I NEED to know more abt Vox's relationship with Valentino and Angel. Like literally what is the dynamic there. He clearly isn't under Val's heel, in fact I'm inclined to believe Val is the weakest of the Vees just in general, but Vox doesn't really seem to. Like him. Either. Both Vox and Velvette seem pretty done with Val's shit tbh idk why they keep him around. Though the heart while lighting Val's cigarette implies there are feelings there... wait fuck are Vox and Val even dating in the show- like has that been confirmed or are we just assuming? Because wether theyre official or not changes their dynamic a LOT- I personally am leaning towards them being an item but Im in such a frenzy rn that I'm questioning even the most logical of conclusions so wHO FUCKIN KNOWS- all of that isn't even TOUCHING the Angel bullshit like bRO THAT LOOK IN POISON. VOX WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU HIDING. WHY THE FUCK WERE THE LITTLE BLOOD DRIPS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF HIS MOUTH DURING THAT SEQUENCE!?!?!? WAS IT AN ANIMATION ERROR OR DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN SOMETHING!?!?!?!?!?!?!? ALSO THAT FUCKIN "ANGEL QUIT?" LIKE HE WAS EXCITED!?!?!?!?! WAS IT JELOUSY? WAS IT RELIEF BECAUSE IF ANGEL'S GONE VAL WILL(HOPEFULLY) BE MORE EMOTIONALLY STABLE??????? DOES HE FEEL BAD FOR ANGEL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WHAT IS GOING ON HEEEEEEEEEEERE I NEED TO KNOW THERE ARE SO MANY POSSIBILITIES IM GOING FERALLLLLLL LIKE I DON'T EVEN HAVE A THEORY HERE THERE ISN'T ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO MAKE ONE I JUST- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[transboytism]

i hate my artstyle ugh 💔 WHYY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THAT I HATE IT!! IT'S SO STIFF! SO UGLY!! UGH!

[heartbeetz]

Y'know. I never even designed my sp.yro s/i after adding those dragons to my f/o list a while back. I oughta get around to that at some point. I wanna be a cool dragon...

[newsies-united]

btw if someone tells you their name. you don't need to ask super specific questions if the name isn't traditional. by the way. just in case you were wondering.

[mediaheart]

it's 1:42 AM and what if i am actually aromantic.

[strxnged]

everynoe stfu i just had an epiphany..../ apparently i can be verbally articulate?

[littledesertfox]

Kinda thinking about whether I should post some of my art on here should I find the time to draw again ... on one hand I think it'd be nice to share it, but on the other hand I'm worried that somehow, people who know me from my regular account will stumble across this one and recognise my art style, and I'll be called out/cancelled because they probably won't understand this community🤐

[juvederm]

i wish i had more josh mutuals that don't seek to include chris in everything like. i don't hate chris at all or dislike cc, i said this already but. just clarifying again.

i don't like how most ppl who like josh don't even really like him. they usually like josh if chris is also there. like y'all don't get me. i'm here solely for josh and i like to have fun w characters on their own. i don't get why most interpretations of josh always include sam or chris.

and abt ppl only liking josh when sam or chris are there-- i don't mean to be rude, but josh is more interesting than those two combined, bc of the stuff he has going on beneath the surface. he doesn't need them to be interesting, he's already compelling enough on his own.

im still insecure about posting in this fandom even tho i do it every day. but i'd be less nervous about posting my josh stuff if the people who claim to "like him" weren't so. odd. cuz the josh mutuals i have rn (who solely like josh on his own...) are okay with every silly doodle i draw of josh, bc they don't care. they're here for him and they just like him

meanwhile cc likers that i've met are really. not people i get along with. bc like i said, they kinda only like chris and josh and that's it. id go as far to say they don't even like the game lmfao bc they only like it for cc.

idk... real josh fans are ok with seeing him in a dress from time to time lol. one of the main reasons i can have fun with his character is bc i know Allll there is to know about the source material + josh's canon depiction. which i honestly love, i don't need to change josh in order to like him. but i feel like some ppl do that and those r the people i can't get along with

i wish ppl were more open to having fun w these characters. posting them in silly outfits and such shouldn't be like, anxiety inducing lmfao i want to have fun and i wish others would be more open to that but as of rn, it just doesn't seem that way.

it's hard to tell if i'm making this up or if my anxieties are real, but the thought of it being real is enough to have me stress over it every time i think of posting or if i'm drawing something.

but everyone who follows me for ud-- hi, thank you for following and liking and reblogging my stuff, esp thatoneudguy cuz he supports like everything i say and make lol (and special shout out to queerkearney for always complimenting my work, its rly motivating <3) y'all are cool!!

[albatris]

can't decide whether I wanna go all in on some bullshit madeup science for this mystery rentalcar drug or whether Less Is More

[hecatesbroom]

The fact that Alec got some Excellent Relationship Advice from a grumpy lesbian who thought she'd missed out on the love of her life just keeps running through my head. Like,, for all everyone knows he's a straight divorced man. He gets along in a very weird way with Ellie whom he clearly loves but tends to yell at and doesn't even address by her first name. It's not unlikely to the public that they slept together, but they would never. What did Jocelyn think she was advising him on? Why did he not follow that advice, because I'm like 99% sure it was about Ellie (whom he proceeded to ghost for three years after the second series ended, thus catastrophically failing to follow said Good Advice).

Because that's what usually happens in stories like this: someone says something momentous that didn't seem too important at the time it was being said, it would do nothing for the person who gave the advice (Jocelyn), who would just proceed to tragically miss out on the love of her life like she said, but the whole thing would gain a sense of closure by having the person she advised (Alec) get with the (platonic or romantic) love of his life. Thus having the advising character's tragedy serve a purpose, namely averting the main character's own, very similar, tragedy. But instead Jocelyn's words don't seem to have any sort of impact on Alec's storyline. He's just there to listen to her, maybe as a sort of opening to start her storyline, but the fact that it's him Jocelyn is talking to when there were others she seems more inclined to speak to? That's a bit odd.

Was the show trying to hint at something (queer)platonic between Ellie and Alec?? And at Alec being too much of an idiot to see what's right under his nose? Or were they trying to subvert queercoding by sort of queercoding the straight relationship in the series, but having the middle aged lesbians get together?

I don't know what they tried to do but I'm here for it

[aggravatedanarchy]

I fucking love video games that are buggy as fuck

Fucking around in Vault 3, helping those guys escape- I come back with the key and two of them are outside the cage and one of the Fiends is inside it instead. I'm like "wow okay," move on, unlock the cage.

And then I just. Get to watch them all crouch and "sneak" out of the cage, pushing up against and stopping in front of Fiends the whole way.

I genuinely don't know if they're supposed to just be fine once you open the cage? So like maybe that last bit is par for the course. But coming back to two of them just wandering that room, chillin with the captors? Incredible. 10/10 I recommend this game to everyone.