#idk she's not very genre-savvy

[inconsistent-kuroshitsuji-blog]

Hello. If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for headcanons about the kuro characters and their favourite video game genres/series? ^_^

Absolutely.

Kuro characters and their favourite video game genres/series

don't know why, but he looks like he'd enjoy simulator games

if Black Butler would've happened in the modern day (and someone would've taught this grandpa how to use technology) he would probably used these to learn the things he needs to know as a human

cooking simulator (or Cooking Mama), school simulator, anything that could be useful like that

definitely also enjoys slasher games

simply judging by the way he enjoyed that bloodbath on the Campania, he'd looooooove extremely violent games

idk, I don't know too many in that genre, but Dead by Daylight could be one of his faves

but nothing with guns. Those things are beneath him. He wants the real thrill of the kill

oh, please, as if he'd even know what that is

he doesn't even have time for this

imagine the hours wasted on lines of code and digital pixels

do you know that one game where it's basically like a VR job simulator with different kinds of jobs like cook or office or gas station? Instead of humans, the NPCs are robots that insult you at every given opportunity and set you up for failure. Yeah, he'd like that.

also, Powerwash Simulator

ok, stereotypical, but dress up games

especially Style Savvy (ngl, these games are way too good)

other than that, she seems like a casual enjoyer of Animal Crossing

except that she bullies all the ugly neighbours off of her island and hunts for very specific characters (so basically like me)

another obvious choice is Bayonetta

I mean, have you looked at her? Slashing her way through demons and angels while having chainsaws for arms and legs? The cunty outfits?

Let me tell you: Bayonetta and Grell? An iconic match made in heaven

I can't decide

either he's a die-hard Mario Kart player or a huge Sonic enthusiast (the older games, not the newer ones)

he probably doesn't have enough time to really play though, since he's either out working overtime or out partying

he doesn't seem like a shooter person

okay, this is coming out of me because of a huge lack of sleep (it's currently 1 am where I'm living), but why does he look like he would drunkenly play Fortnite or Roblox?

"You got games on your phone?" No, back the fuck up dude. You're an adult.

Why did I just write that? Inco, what's wrong with you?

this is very specific, but that one Coraline game for the Wii and the DS

he's definitely leaning more towards psychological horror games

American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns. You can't convince me otherwise

he's an unfairly skilled Mario Kart player, to the point that it almost seems like he's cheating (he's 100% cheating, just like when playing Uno)

on the other hand, he's a huuuuge sucker for Kirby games

doesn't matter what type or gimick, he loves it and has perfected it down to the last frame

but you'd never know unless he wanted you to know (and I know it because I am God and run on my last bar of my batterie and because he's officially and undeniably my husband, deal with it. Omfg, this is so fucking cringe, I'm gonna go shoot myself, I'll be right back.)

well, first of all, you need to explain everything to him because he couldn't even read the instructions on the screen (I'm 100% convinced that his eyesight is pure batshit and he's just cheating his way through the manga through some deus-ex-machina type of shit)

newsflash, but he loves horror games

I really see him with games like Resident Evil or Don't Starve Together

also, Undetale

you know, because of morals and choices and consequences and all that (surely not because of a skeleton with dry humour)

maybe it would help to show him a bathing simulator so this crusty man learns how to clean himself

is it too obvious and on the nose to say The Mortuary Assistant?

omg, look at him! My boy! Finally animated! I love him so much! My boy!

ahem, so anyway...

Trombone Champ

he'd play it on his loudest speakers just to annoy the hell out of everyone

also, you know those really cheap horror games you can find on Steam that are really terrible? He lives for those

idk why, but he seems like he'd enjoy Portal

and Assassin's Creed. Especially the first four mainline games

continueing with puzzle games, he really enjoys Professor Layton, no doubt

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's it for now. It's almost 2 am and I have to help out at a sports event I only registered for to watch some random kids suffer in the heat. But now I have to wake up early for that... Oh, how ironically bitchy life is. And to top it all of I have to work the graveyard shift today. Coffee and energy will be my best friend today.

So, yeah, that's it for now. Or maybe not, maybe I'll pull an all-nighter simply so I can't oversleep. If you're up for a part 2 just slide into my requests and I'll see what I can do.

Until then~

Your Inconsistent Kuroshitsuji Blog~

[polyhexian]

Eda refers to the Martlet as Marty. I feel like Jasper would find this endearing. Idk if they're friends (does Jasper even HAVE friends in this AU? sad) but they'd at least be running in the same circles. Casual acquaintances who appreciate each other's work. They exchange idle chit-chat in the night market.

If anyone figures out who the Martlet is before Jasper makes his identity known, it's Luz. She's smart, she's genre-savvy, she still low-key thinks she's in a fantasy story (lol), and she IMMEDIATELY clocks the Martlet as 1) Having a mysterious identity, 2) Having a mysterious BACKSTORY, 3) Being low-key sad, like, ALL the time despite his cheerful badass persona, clearly he is HIDING INNER PAIN, 4) HE'S GOT A SERIOUS SOFT SPOT FOR KIDS AND AN APPARENTLY-PERSONAL HATRED FOR BELOS, THIS IS NOT ADDING UP TO ANYTHING NICE, 5) It is entirely possible she gets a glimpse of his Emperor's Coven sigil at some point.

It's not a priority for her to figure the guy out, and it'd take a while for her to collect all the pieces to the puzzle. But after meeting Hunter she pesters Lilith for information about the Golden Guard, which leads to talk of the old one, so she knows Jasper existed. She knows Hunter is an orphan being raised by an Evil Emperor, which is just…welp, there are stories that go like that and they ALWAYS involve parental drama. She sees the Martlet and Hunter fight and notes that Marty's not as antagonistic as he could be.

…Bahaha, I have no idea how to make the timeline on THIS concept make sense, cuz she doesn't know Belos = Philip until Hollow Mind and who knows how that episode would even go down in this AU, BUT imagine her cornering Jasper like "ARE YOU CALEB WITTEBANE???" and Jasper just. fucking losing it. XD

(Does Jasper know Belos's name is Philip? Does he know the surname Wittebane? Does he even know he's human? Or does he put two and two together when he catches Luz watching an echomouse journal entry? Does he get just as interested in the journal as she is, but his interest is more morbid curiosity?)

Once Luz figures things out, or once things come out, she is just, like. Unholy screeching. OH MY GOD IT'S LIKE A REVERSE DARTH VADER SITUATION.

"Human," Hunter says, infinitely tired, "WHAT are you talking about?"

"Huh, yeah, it kinda is," Eda muses.

Jasper says that bullshit "people like me don't survive stories like this" line exactly one time around Luz and she is NOT having it. NUH-UH. NO SIR. You are NOT allowed to become a sacrificial father figure immediately after being reunited with your son! Her insistence on this is only PARTIALLY due to her own paternal loss trauma, it is also very much fueled by her love of storytelling! She drags out a whiteboard and does an impromptu presentation on TROPES and CHARACTER ARCS! She gasps as she realizes - it's not HUNTER'S redemption arc that's the big one here, it's JASPER'S. He's been riding a redemption arc for 16 years! You don't just kill off a character after that kind of development! Everyone knows Redemption Equals Death happens, like, IMMEDIATELY after the Heel-Face Turn, we are WAY past that threshold! Jasper is kinda overwhelmed but appreciates her optimism.

YEASSSSS

He doesnt have FRIENDS.... but he knows people. Like he works with the CATTs fairly often. He probably shows up to meetings and stuff and hangs around. People KNOW him. He probably does know eda, they're very similar and both hate Belos. He's cagey and he's not going to reveal much but I imagine there's been a time or two he's gotten seriously injured and it's her doorstep he shows up on. He might work with the CATTs but he doesn't trust them. He feels in his bones a trust for eda. She won't turn him in, she won't pull his mask off or tear his identity from him. She'll annoy him sure. But she won't MAKE him do anything. So once in a blue moon he shows up bloody and miserable on her doorstep to ask for help. He stays the night and he's gone by morning. He probably leaves something as a thank you. Maybe some stolen snails. Maybe a stolen owl beast potion. Potion ingredients. Whatever he has.

Luz ABSOLUTELY clocks his shit IMMEDIATELY. The only thing is she doesn't know about Grimwalkers. She's missing info on the golden guards. But it's obvious he's Hunter's dad and it's obvious Hunter doesn't know that. So she thinks like... maybe he escaped Belos but left Hunter behind... but like he is still his like biological dad. She thinks he left Hunter behind and is filled with guilt.

It's not until he is unconscious on Camila's couch and she knows what Grimwalkers are that she's like... putting the pieces together

AND ABSOLUTELY SHES ON THE "NO MOTHRRFUCKER YOU DONT GET TK DIE TRAGICALLY NOW"

[kabutoraiger]

weekly boomger thoughts

their little singalong was very adorable... & taiya's beautiful sensei was so wise and genre savvy to be handing out such sentai-coded advice to her young pupil

as per usual with this show though there's almost always some aspect of each episode that's kind of. bewildering. in this case the idea that taiya was being sent to regular-ass daycare/after school programs as a child? is he not the heir to a mega rich family... shouldn't he have had a nanny instead?? i guess his parents wanted to instill humbleness and class solidarity in him from a young age or something

and i truly don't know what the intention was behind him looking so depressed when they asked where sensei is now. i was like oh she died young of illness huh :( but. zero further info provided on that front so who's to say. if she really did just move away idk why you'd stare tragically off into the distance like that but ok

[chungledown-bimothy]

Yes!!! I didn't like Gerard at first because I was like "oh this is just a cowardly, vain man" but then once we started learning more about him and seeing him actively put himself in danger to save the children (as well as pulling Ylfa aside and trying to cheer her up and give her some confidence), he's really growing on me. Murph characters are usually some of my favorites, though, so it's not that surprising!!

Ylfa getting all those tokens, though... Yikes. And it's always when they fail charisma checks specifically, which has to mean something. I don't know what it means exactly, but I'm excited to find out!! Do you have any theories?

Ex fuckin actly!

I also wasn't super sure on him at first, but I had faith that Murph can give depth and incredible growth to every character he rocks up into the dome with.

I think Cody Walsh also was a character who was, at first, similarly one-dimensional and not very interesting, not much more than comic relief, if I'm being entirely honest.

I still didn't like him by the end, but Murph certainly did an amazing job with how he, in very real and natural ways, grew into an actual person.

Oooh boy those tokens. I think that her getting three upon failing against something that made someone who was being set up as part of the Big Bad react the way she did put some pieces into place for me.

This isn't an original theory, I've seen a couple people positing it, but I really like it.

I think that they're insanity markers, or something along those lines. Something that shows them losing their grip on the reality that they're in. No clue how that'll mechanically play out, but I'm confident that, if they die again at least, how many they have will have major negative repercussions.

I think it was Ally who theorized that, if they keep dying, their stories will keep getting muddled, and Brennan said that they REALLY don't want to keep dying, that things will get Bad if they do. I think that how bad will be influenced by how many tokens they have.

idk though. I'm not really all that genre-savvy here, certainly not as much as I was with acofaf, so I'm far less confident in my theories.

Brennan's got a massive fuckin brain, and I cannot wait to see what other fucked up shit that cunty little nerd has in store for us ^_^

[narrativelysignificantturtleduck]

a playlist for ty lee!!!! <3 <3

similar to mai's, the sound and genre was very important. while idk how many of the artists here would be classified as hyperpop, i was very much inspired by the idea of girly exaggerated pop music with a dark undercurrent. there weren't any songs that fit lyrically, but the vibes of scene queen's bimbocore eps are so ty lee.

1. bubblegum bitch - marina

got a figure like a doll / don't care if you think i'm dumb / i don't care at all

like i said - seemingly shallow girly pop with a dark/satirical side.

2. pink diamond - charli xcx

i'm a pink diamond, i need space

mostly just here for the aggressive & pink vibes, but it's about how charli felt trapped during the pandemic, wanted to go out and party but couldn't. ty lee, of course, also felt trapped, which is why she ran away to the -

3. circus - britney spears

all eyes on me in the center of the ring just like a circus

after growing up lost in the shuffle with all her sisters, ty lee wants to be a perforner who's the center of attention

4. starstrukk - 3OH!3 ft. katy perry

'cause i just set them up / set them up / to knock them down

ty lee manipulating all the boys in "the beach". there's a pretty sad edge to this song - this girl manipulates bc she doesn't know how to love. ty lee is also pretty disconnected from her feelings, especially when she's flirting with men but also just in general. she's willing to do azula's cold and cruel bidding, and do it with a smile.

(for the record, i started thinking about this song that way bc of marina's cover. not to be like 'acoustic covers are automatically deeper' but i probably wouldn't have given this song any thought without her version.)

5. one woman army - porcelain black

i'm on the battlefield like, oh my god / knocking soldiers down like house of cards / i'm a one-woman army

a pretty standard girl-power track that just happens to refer to knocking soldiers down and therefore fits ty lee. there is a dark side to this song, though - it's about being powerful and successful but it's one of only 3 songs by the artist, and she hasn't released anything since 2014.

6. flux - poppy

i'm just a possession / for your amusement, for your confusion

her relationship with azula. i think azula genuinely had feelings for her, but azula also does treat mai and ty lee as possessions, as tools and means to an end. and ty lee makes herself non-threatening and praises azula all the time, molding herself into the compliant subject she knows azula wants her to be.

7. girl of the year - allie x

tell me i'm the only one / i like your lies

ty lee is attention-seeking because of her upbringing lost in the shuffle - mai was right about that even though it was mean - but she is also savvy enough to realize that most of the time when she has people's attention it's because they're treating her as an object. the boys, the audience at the circus, azula.

8. mirrorball - taylor swift

i'm still on that trapeze / i'm still trying everything / to keep you looking at me

similar to previous. ty lee is a performer, who has backed herself into this box where she feels if she's not entertaining, molding herself to what people want, she'll be discarded.

9. cheerleader - st. vincent

i've played dumb when i knew better

video

about her decision to betray azula at the boiling rock, deciding she won't be azula's "cheerleader" anymore, will stop playing dumb. shoutout to comradekatara's albumgaang yet again.

10. fetch the bolt cutters - fiona apple

other people have already explained it better than i could.

[saltedsolenoid]

tv trope for rosine,,

you know how tvtropes redacts spoilers? i did that here too. haha

Hidden Heart Of Gold: She'd die for those she cares about, [     ]!

"The Reason You Suck" Speech - Zigzagged : Her speech is addressed to multiple people in her life, one of which being herself!

Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism

The Power of Friendship

Genre Savvy: Used for comedy, and quickly abandoned when [ ​​​                                                   ]

He's Back! : lol

Locked Out of the Loop: The story revolves around Rosine keeping a secret, not helped by the fact that [                and     ] all also know parts of said secret.

Easily Forgiven - Subverted: [                                                                                                          ]

Would Hurt A Child: In reference to [      ] who does. On multiple occasions.

Didn't Think This Through: Wherein Rosine 'killed' [           ] in the bad ending, which was the only thing keeping [     ] alive.

Ditzy Genius: Although mathematically inclined and a programming genius, Rosine can hardly hold a conversation with someone she doesn't know, and got all but forbidden from working at her own parents' bakery.

Teen Genius: Despite having an innate knowledge of artificial intelligence and computer programming, this girl is 15 years old.

Refusal of the Call: Despite trying her absolute darndest to ignore [     ], she still ended up having to deal with the consequences.

Building of Adventure: The Old School, rumored to have simply gotten 'destroyed' around 20 years ago. This location is later on [                                                       ]

Broken Pedestal - Zigzagged: With Nathan, who was Dead From The Start. Later shown to be [                                  ]

A.I Is A Crapshoot, paired with the (figurative) Evil Twin and Benevolent A.I. tropes -The character of MIRA takes the 'good twin' role, while [                                          ]

The Leader: By virtue of knowing the most about the situation, Rosine Strom becomes the leader of her friend group within the [                          ]

Childhood Friends: with Aluzie Decidate

Trademark Favorite Food: chocolate croissants and very lightly seasoned sunflower seeds. Played for angst after [              ]

Anti-Villain: Despite being the protagonist, it's shown that in some endngs,[                                                         ]

Lack Of Empathy: Played for autism? idk

Sleepyhead: "honk shooooo mimimi" <- actual quote ( i think)

Because Destiny Says So: no matter how much you try to fight fate, it knows where you live.

The Pollyanna - Inverted: After a CERTAIN INCIDENT, Rosine dropped her optimistic side entirely.

[surveillance-0011]

oh geez uh uh any w-3 headcannons????

Yes many tee hee.

Most of these r new/havent said before but I will repeat some for sake of not having to rummage thru tags. ANd the ones rotting in my drafts. Sorry for length i am. not normal about these fish

DJ (they/he?) is nicknamed Faith, and with the og japanese name this nickname would be Chu(ji)

Timpanist (he/it) is nicknamed Val, jpnese version would be Oo(shiki) or just Midori bc that's a bit more presentable name

The Cellist (they/she/he). Uh. I don't have a set nickname for them I usually just call them The Cellist/ cellisake I think they'd be okay with being referred to as that too. I've also called them Algin even tho that's technically not who they are... I've seen Blade as a nickname for them but something like Jr or Kid in reference to the whole "First Child" thing could work. Idk I'm indecisive ig they have a lot of nicknames

They are all ND

The Cellist and Faith started the band and Val joined soon after. Perhaps it makes more sense for it to be the other way around but I feel like with the Cellist being stubborn and more out there with their ideas that they'd initially forgo a more traditional instrument until they realized something was missing.

Val and Faith live together. The Cellist lives alone, maybe nextdoor w/ a lil pulley system between the two houses. Houses made during the Salmon Run are not really meant to be long term so this was meant to be a temporary arrangement to streamline their work but as you can see it's been some time.

Faith finds this nice, they were pretty much homeless and just couch surfing pre omega 3 and ended up moving in w/ one of them in their permanent ocean residences and they decided for the Salmon Run to keep a similar idea

Faith likes a lot of urban, cool culture. Streetwear, graffiti, hip hop and break-dancing... etc etc. They're also very tech savvy. Preferred genres r edm/techno, rap +rnb and punk...

Val enjoys an active lifestyle. Into travel, camping, fishing and more outdoorsy things, working hard, eating well, taking part in festivities and trying to give back to the community when he's not too caught up in his own stuff. Likes traditional salmonid music a lot but also pretty big on grunge and nu-metal

The Cellist likes reading and interacting with art that is like. "good enough" for him. Most of it is confusing or dreary. Likes coffee in the morning and maybe a small glass of scotch on a lonely evening. And being right. As for genres he'll go for whatever he thinks is groundbreaking in specific songs mostly regardless of genre.. but I feel he'd like rock. Probably post punk and more experimental stuff? Maybe folk and some classical music... idk idk!!! If anything it's mostly stuff like Trout Mask Replica...

The Cellist does however claim to not like pop music. This is usually not a lie but. She does actually like some of the Squid Sister's songs maybe even some stuff from OTH or C-Side. She would rather die than admit this.

I do feel like if any of them had to choose a favorite band of the ones we know DJ would choose Dedf1sh or Sashimori maybe C side.. Val would go for bottom feeders and Cellist would say uhh ink theory may be.. it’s good jazz music

Also uh Splatfest teams!

Faith: Scissors, Grub or Fun, Grass, Sweet, Milk Chocolate, Aliens, Gano- Power. and Vanilla!

Val: Rock, Gear, Fire, Spicy, Dark Chocolate, Nessie, Courage, Strawberry

Cellist: Paper, Grub, Water, Sour, White? or Dark. Bigfoot, Wisdom, Mint ChocoChip

They have all physically fought on multiple occasions. There's been at least one near breakup too

The Cellist's dorsal/hair fin is greying, their coloration is also a bit warmer than other salmonids

Val is not completely blind it its injured eye but its vision is fucked. It's also sensitive to light and sensation which is a major reason for the eye patch

They all respect each other as musicians and people and deep down they all care but they really do argue a lot. They're not really people who blend well together at all. DJ rebels against all that is mainstream and all they don't like and even stuff they're more neutral on for the hell of it. They kindof think they're cool for being a jackass but theyve also just become very callous bc they didnt have a choice when they were younger... and they kind of feel like they're still on the defense. Esp since the other two are more experienced and older and tend to treat him like a kid sometimes esp the cellist...

Val means well but he often struggles to take others into account. He's very goal oriented, a one-way track sort of guy who often acts more than a little clueless or even selfish. Not as petty or stubborn as the Cellist but he's got a lot of inertia. That and he's just... kind of shit at socializing in ways that don't piss other people off. Says a lot of accidentally insensitive stuff too. Comes off pretty intense to some as well!! And the Cellist. Well. Stubborn, emotionally repressed, physically and verbally clumsy... they are also a very sensitive person with a lot of emotional empathy where they kind of sponge up whatever vibe they feel, but they don't quite have the ability to act on what they think would make things right!

So yeah they fight a lot between these clashing personalities that bring out the worst in each other and other creative differences. The stress of the job adds to it!

Faith has an older sister. Val has two older brothers and many younger siblings. The Cellist is an only child which is uncommon in salmonid society

Faith is a Goldie, at least partially so. Val is a cohock from a family of steelheads and Big Shots and is extra durable bc of this. The Cellist is a Maws or meant to be one... he either did not complete training or retired due to his clumsiness...

All of them have healthy appetites esp Val and the Cellist

Val and the Cellist have both been in different bands before. Val was in a rock band that only lasted a summer when he was like 17-18 and then was part of a traditional salmonid music ensemble for a couple years before ω-3

As for the Cellist they’ve been through a couple different musical groups. They left most due to creative differences and not getting along with band mates.

This is the DJ’s first like. Band. Before this they just did solo gigs and posted stuff online

[thekisforkeats]

the not them takes tim instead of sasha for an au ?

(Sorry this took a while to ask, spouse was sick yesterday.)

Ooof. You have to give me the hard one right off! I went through a lot of stuff before I decided on how to do this.

First off: For some reason my brain keeps insisting they'd have Anil voice Not!Tim, I don't know why that makes no sense. But here we are. :P

Secondly: This is going to be so much worse than NotSasha, because that's how I'm feeling right now. :D

1) I'm torn between the idea of Not!Tim being basically fanon Tim--just really ridiculously in-your-face and agent of chaos--or much, much more subdued. Thinking about it seriously, given the way the NotThem seems to work, I'm inclined to lean toward the second. So: Tim is not longer the Archives Fun Guy, but much more of a quiet dude. He's not the Fun Police or anything, but he's not making Princess Bride references or calling Jonah Magnus "Jimmy Magma." Sort of S3 Tim without the anger.

2) Martin is the one who notices Tim is "off." He keeps trying to convince Jon of this, but Jon refuses to believe him, so he winds up doing his own research and trying to find the missing tapes and so on. Jon winds up honing in on Sasha as the potential Gertrude-killer really early on (Sasha wanted the job, after all!!) and they have a straight-up shouting match in his office where he admits to paranoia and so on. Sasha is way more Eye-aligned by nature than Tim ever was, and she doesn't have all the pain of a dead sibling to bubble up, so they wind up teaming up to try to figure out what's going on. By the end of S2, Sasha and Jon are listening to Martin and they go after the NotThem together.

3) This does not make the confrontation at the end of S2 go any better! The NotThem is a difficult creature to figure out how to handle. Sasha and Martin get separated from Jon, wind up in Michael's corridors, Jon winds up finding Leitner and getting framed for his murder, etc. Sasha now has a reason to get revenge and starts investigating the tunnels a lot more, trying to figure out how to destroy the NotThem. She manages to talk Basira into giving her a lot more of the tapes and figures out a bunch of stuff about Elias and Jonah Magnus. Sadly, she does not figure out the body-hopping bit; she just thinks that Jonah Magnus is still in the Panopticon.

4) The plan to deal with Elias during the Unknowing is actually also a plan to have Sasha go and destroy Jonah Magnus' body. Martin distracts Elias long enough for Melanie to get into his office, sure, but Elias swiftly realizes that Sasha is missing and puts everything together. He goes down to the Panopticon and there's a struggle in which Elias/Jonah winds up taking over Sasha's body because she nearly kills Elias. This is way, way less than ideal for him, but he decides to make it work until he can body-hop again. (I figure the body-hopping doesn't trigger any "everyone gets hurts/dies" clause in the Archives contract.)

5) "Sasha" claims that she couldn't find her way down to the Panopticon and encourages Martin to take the deal with Peter Lukas specifically so that they can finally "deal with" Jonah Magnus once and for all. Jonah-as-Sasha is able to take a much firmer hand in the entire ordeal than Jonah-as-Elias was from prison, so that the confrontation in the Panopticon takes place much earlier. The upshot of this is that we get those 10 episodes of Scottish safehouse romance; the downside is that Jon and Martin directly blame themselves for Sasha's death because they encouraged her to go down into the tunnels on her own so there's a lot of angst.

Jon still says "this is for Sasha" while stabbing Jonah, because it's not Sasha anymore.

And the NotTim still gets smote at the merry-go-round Domain because fuck the NotThem anyway.

(Trust me writing this up hurt me just as much as reading it will hurt you I'm sure.)

[knifepatron]

(reposting bc the last one got messed up) 

part 1 of some precanon changelily thoughts which i will try my best 2 explain under the cut

so basically copy-pasting what i said on twitter: (this isnt any kind of theory this is just headcanon stuff that spiraled into a whole thing i spent way too much time thinking about)

also everyone should read this thread from mr damato about travis and margaret and fate and luminaries first its rly tasty and i pulled a lot from it (not gonna link it bc tumblr will eat the whole post but heres the first twt in case yall wanna search for it which u should)

and! this isnt necessarily taken directly from characterizations in the show as much as it is like, stuff i thought would be a fun precursor to the versions of them we have now

with what we know abt margarets view of fate as duty and travises view of it as loss of agency its fun 2 think the first time their story played out as margaret trying to live up to a kind of protagonist heroism and travis sorta stuck in the role of distressed love interest. we also know they both knew the changelings tale and were probably kind of aware of their own role in some iteration of it, but i think travis was genre savvy in a “i can understand the story conventions at play here and use them to my advantage” way and margaret was narrative aware like this

more on the travis thing. a lot of his Deal has to do with a sense of narrative, cosmic powerlessness that he flips between broodingly resigning himself to, lashing out against by being impulsive and self destructive, and playing up around others when its useful

in the gencon eps he says since starfall hes gotten by getting people to help him out by lying and making up tragic backstories for himself but we learn in ngoni hes never even tried to learn anything abt his whole changeling situation. he’ll seek help from people but not for himself AS himself, only as whatever pitiable but charming role hes inhabiting at any given time because vulnerability sucks so much ass!!! and its easier and also very much safer to accept shelter from people while keeping them at arms length by making them think youre something youre not so you can cut when they stop being useful

so idk knowing even before margaret entered the picture he was always kinda Like That i have a hard time imagining hed just like, get a crush on some rando in the woods. also i think romances based in several layers of artifice and performance that accidentally develop something genuine are fun

and like, if morningstar saw enough in him as a child to decide he shouldve gotten sent to the shadow realm, we like 2 joke abt travis being the Worst Guy but in addition to puppeting the captains body around and rigging the crew vote what else is on the heavier side of the spectrum of shitty things he could do? find some kind snake-pitying mortal and use her willingness to help him and their shared knowledge of story conventions to pull her into a doomed fable just to spite tfq and test the limits of his own power as a/the Changeling? idk maybe. i think it was to orimar that travis said when youre alive for so long you have to make little games to keep yourself sharp

so at least at first he doesnt seek margarets help against tfq as himself, he does it as The Changeling, or as Tam Lin, or as William the mythological archetype, as someone who can be saved by The Maiden and play a part in her story to make her feel important and useful because he knows thats what she wants. like ig in a way trying to kickstart your own insisting-on-itself luminary myth in such a way that you can keep a certain level of self awareness and control over it. learning the rules to break them and all that

but genre savvy and wont save you!! you changeling in the game you changeling in real life!!!! and now youre in love love with the mark of your con because unfortunately part of her whole thing is being very easy to fall in love with

but then like. what if she only cares about you for the image of yourself youve tailored to her lure her into helping you? isnt that what you wanted? what if she realizes your deception and leaves? what if she doesnt and dies here?

and theres a bitterness with someone taking for granted freedoms you dont have, throwing them away to be with you and for what? because she pities you? because she thinks she can save you? because doing so would serve her own self image? how dare she. pictures unrelated (im sorry women specifically crane wives mabel podcast and mitski for taking contextless bits for scraps to apply to little podcast guys)

so where does the tragic changeling performance as an emotional manipulation tactic end and the genuine cry for help self-justified as a narrative 4d chess power play begin? idk

will get more into my thoughts abt margarets whole deal later but i have finals this week so that might not happen for a minute egehge 

[ladyofthenoodle]

current au in my head: marinette does quit in origins and alya is ladybug

marinette and alya are still friends but it’s different. marinette is quieter, shyer without the boost of confidence from being ladybug, and she feels more and more insecure next to alya, who is very caught up in being a hero. but marinette is the only person who never questions alya being flaky, which keeps them close at first

alya is too genre savvy to buy into secret identities - she knows they have to stay hidden form hawkmoth, but each other? so she and chat noir reveal pretty early. and that starts changing things more, because alya and adrien start getting closer outside the suits too, but marinette is too nervous to hang out with adrien. so she hangs out with alya less.

but then! animan! it starts the same because adrien and nino are still buddies. alya is a little apprehensive about adrinette because she thinks adrien is still hung up on Original Ladybug™️ but she can’t tell marinette that and she can’t tell adrien why ninette isn’t gonna happen either. so she goes along with the plan but then! she locks marinette and nino in a cage

marinette, not knowing nino was into her, decides to bond with him over their Unrequited Crushes. nino, who has just seen alyabug in action, is actually fine with this. they bond. so naturally instead of alya trying to help marinette confess to adrien, in this au, nino and marinette just go around wearing increasingly ridiculous disguises to spy on adrien. and marinette has to stop nino from following akuma battles to try to get a glimpse of alyabug

anyways then volpina happens and marinette and nino are both spying. they get the book out of the trash like in canon but since there’s no tikki, nino just takes it and quietly shoves it back into adrien’s book bag during class. so adrien ends up being the one to meet fu

adrien and fu do NOT get along very well. fu is annoyed that the identity rule is broken. adrien is annoyed that fu won’t tell him anything about Original Ladybug. but fu doesn’t know who alyabug is so he doesn’t really have a choice but to work with adrien so they are kinda at an impasse

adrien is slightly less besotted with ladybug than in canon but 100% more obsessed with her because he feels like he personally failed her. when he does get a chance to recruit temporary heroes he is extremely invested in each of them because he doesn’t want to make the same mistake

this leads into marichat at some point i guess? idk here is the point where my head is currently stuck

[smells-like-mettaton]

I'm sending Alphys the fastest i can

First impression

I was kind of caught off guard by how she seemed "genre savvy" compared to the other Undertale characters? Like, everyone else saw themselves as the hero of their own stories (Papyrus and Undyne) or at least prioritized their own perspective on what course of action you should take (Toriel and, to an extent, Sans). But one of Alphys's first lines is this:

From her perspective, I couldn't think of why she would see Asgore and the other monsters as the "bad guys." It was interesting that she was the first monster in the game to definitively empathize with us. I couldn't help wondering what her angle was, since she obviously wanted us to trust her. (Though after the quiz show I quickly trusted her more, all the way through Hotland, to the point where I didn't believe Mettaton saying that she manipulated the puzzles and stuff lol)

Impression now

Best character love of my life. She is so flawed and so perfect. I would listen to her ramble about anime I dont care about for hours

Seriously though I think she is so smart and talented and has such interesting connections with all of the Undertale cast!! I don't know how to boil that down to one impression lol

Favorite moment

There are so many perfect Alphys moments, but any time she gets confident like this is just so hilarious and amazing to me. At this point she had Undyne have been dating for less than a day and it's still so obvious that Alphys really is the less shy one out of the two lol

Idea for a story

I have written most of my Alphys fic ideas at this point... OH!! ok so technically I have already started it but it's an Alphys/Alphyne Megamind AU :D (With Alphys as Megamind, Mettaton as Minion, Papyrus as Metro Man, and Undyne as Roxanne. Who Hal is is a spoiler ;) Of course the roles aren't exactly like in the movie but that's the base of it)

Unpopular opinion

Probably every opinion I have about her?? Idk man. It's not even an opinion but she's confirmed to work faster than Gaster by one of the Gaster followers.

Also she IS confident, just not in the traditional ways. She's very confident that her opinions about Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2 are right. She's confident enough to flirt with Undyne (shown earlier). There's just a lot of her personality that isn't often portrayed in fanworks because she has so much depth and it takes a lot of effort to accurately present her nuances. The contradicting parts of her are what make her feel so real and wonderful though.

Favorite relationship

I really really love her friendship with Mettaton!!! So important to me. They are besties <3 I can't stop thinking about how when he left his family for the first time, she was the only friend and the closest thing to family he had.

Favorite headcanon

How can I have a favorite. There are so many good ones. I do really love the headcanon that she was the one to boost up Sans's powers for the no mercy run. I also like to think she freelances in tech repair on the surface, and also makes youtube videos of crazy science stuff featuring her friends (ex. her and Undyne doing mythbusters-level nonsense)

Oh yeah and the headcanon that she has dated/crushed on nearly every main character in the game. U get it girl

(p.s. all images have alt text)

[mattelektras]

toughts on the new horror anthology marvel announced? also toughts on elektra and horror themes in general?

i’m a horror gal thru n thru so remember that you asked for this

marvel have rly good fodder for horror comics but they just never fuckin use it. when dc was doing dceased i talked about all the different subgenres marvel could be doing in the halloween season!!!! and i will do it again!!

daredevil would be perfect for found footage kind of horror like. hell’s kitchen residents piecing together their own footage of matt vs whatever cloverfield type of shite is going on

identity horror w spiderman and his clones

historical horror w elektra in like. ancient japan w the hand. or just straight up demon shit in modern day.

tech horror in wakanda

cosmic horror w the guardians considering they spend half their time in the skull of a celestial. or they used to. idk what mcu lite guardians are doing nowadays.

high school drama turned horror w the xmen……. prom or whatever and then celebratory vacation to this fucked up island that’s kind of alive but jean also has to choose between her 15 suitors at the same time as dealing w mr sinister’s fucked up cabin in the woods experiment!!!!!

classic monster horror w elsa bloodstone

more daredevil because your girl plays favourites, zombie horror w all his dead friends and girlfriends.

revenge horror with elektra after her dad dies. or after matt dies. kill him for some extra flavour

psychological horror w moon knight if they PROMISE not to be weird about mental health. OR something a la the descent. where he goes somewhere to find something out about the bird god living in his brain and it gets a little fucked up

some more xmen w survival horror in the savage land. a sentinel type thing but more like mr predator from predator hunts them all down

slasher horror w the various wolverines. laura n akihiro have to deal w their father in one of his stab stab beserker episodes

genre savvy horror w the runaways and young avengers

purge type shit w the punisher. i’m sure he will bring up his dead family

cultist lovecraftian horror w wanda. dr strange, voodoo, dr doom etc can come too. NOT like budget horror Welcome 2 My Twizted Mind wendy in the mcu.

home invasion horror w the xmen or in avengers manor/tower wherever those bitches are living right now but when only the avengers i like are home

blade just. literally doing his normal shit

i could genuinely go on for days. the potential is right there but all marvel ever does is like. oooh everyone’s a zombie and the genre has no connection to the characters that are it it or waaaa x character kills the marvel universe waaaa. it’s BORING. this is a company run by boring bitches. elektra is RIGHT THERE and every year i say please may i have a halloween variant at the very least, company that i have never said anything mean about. and every year they say NO shut the fuck up to me PERSONALLY!!! they mail that shit to my house in a big fuck you red envelope. and at this point i would rather they didn’t bother if they’re not gonna at least TRY. horror one shots are just one of the things dc just does Better

as for elektra and horror, i’ve made my stance on the potential relationship there pretty clear. like. she could do it all. she could be the final girl, she could be the dies first and comes back slightly fucked up in the sequel, she could be the villain, she could be pre death, she could be post death etc etc. there are SO MANY THINGS abt her that fit such a wide scope of horror tropes. one of my favourite movies ever is all the boys love mandy lane and she could DO THAT!!!! the innocent in the beginning, victim of circumstance (college, pre death, young adult elektra) to actually no fuck all of you, refuses to be manipulated by the people, mostly men, around her, turns out to be the killer. the audition is another. let her torture the shit out of stick or bullseye when they think they can use her. she already has so many aspects of horror stories in her own, she’s been covered in blood so many times and for what!!!!!! we’re not doing anything with it!!! she’s a KILLERRRR and in a horror au, everyone can die!!! it’s prime territory!!

and women in horror is such a fuckin goldmine too. like especially women who have been through shit and to see what happens when they’re forced into certain situations. as well as women who HAVENT been through shit and just wanna go apeshit one time. there’s a reason why so much horror focuses on women and that’s because they’re usually made by men who want to see some women suffer but that’s changed so much since and like yeah. there are a still a good few that are like ok we get it you want to see a woman get tortured. but there’s so much more substance to it. or there could be???? it’s a women’s power fantasy like iron man is a men’s power fantasy and i will not be elaborating. brad from ohio wants to be rich and for girls to like him. i want to kill people with an axe in a life or death situation. we are not the same.

tl;dr. it’s the genre she deserves after being a character that’s revolved around the men in her life since the dawn of time, and after the man who created her is one of the slimiest motherfuckers ever to leave his primordial soup. she could ENCOMPASS the genre for marvel but no one listens to me

[strideofpride]

Okay and meta-wise re: your latest fic & comments I would love to hear more about your thoughts on the humphrey siblings and their artistic ambitions vs their parents’ artistic successes.

It made me think of Amy March saying “I want to be great, or nothing.” which feels like such a Jenny-ism, but it’s Dan too!!!

Okay for reference, here's the fic.

And the comment:

And also...idk something I've never really seen talked about is how Rufus and Alison both didn't quite get to live out their artistic dreams and goals to their fullest extents/in the ways they wanted to. And what kind of effect that would have on Dan and Jenny as they embark on their own artistic dreams. Idk I think you could explain a lot of Dan and Jenny's behavior in regards to writing and fashion in that they are trying so, so hard to be more successful than their parents because they've seen what a life without fulfilling your artistic dreams already looks like. Idk...something I would love to think about some more.

So like...I didn't grow up in an artistic family. But as someone who does have artistic dreams and goals, it's kind of a bummer to look around and see all these nepotism babies get in through their last name and knowing I'll never have it that easy. So I can only imagine it would be even harder to have grown up in an artistic family where neither of your parents were really successful even though they had both wished to be and have that metaphorical albatross hanging around your neck as you embark on your own artistic pursuits. Not that Rufus and Alison were quite starving artists, but Dan and Jenny know firsthand what it's like to grow up with unfilled passions. They know what that looks like very well. And that's got to be scary as hell for the both of them.

Knowing that it would be so much easier for them to make it if their parents had been successful first, knowing that they're going to have work twice as hard as the rest of their classmates despite being more talented than them, I think is something that was definitely fueling Dan and Jenny and their relentless pursuit of their passions. Like I love, love Jenny's arc in 208-210, I think it's so heartbreaking but great storytelling, and it really pains me to see people shitting on Jenny in those episodes like??? She knew this was a big moment for her, she knew she was on the path to success, she had given up pretty much everything and severed ties to everyone she cared about to get there, only for her one mistake to have been too trusting of Agnes??? Like, it's real to life, but also, Jenny didn't do anything to deserve her dresses being burned like that which makes it all so much worse? Idk it's so tragic and it doesn't make me feel better that Jenny ends up working in the fashion world under the girl who relentlessly bullied her, sorry.

And with Dan, man. It's really depressing that all of the characters end up like their parents in the end, but Dan to me is maybe one of the more depressing ones (but we can argue back and forth about that for hours lol). Cause he might not have tried as hard as Serena and Nate did to get away from his parent's influence, but he was certainly the most genre savvy and yet...could not help repeating his father's mistakes over and over again. Did he ever have another novel success after Inside or was he just a one hit wonder like his father is a thought that haunts me.

And yes! That Amy quote is soooo both of them, wow.

[bladedwoe]

|| THE BASICS ||

NAME: Astrid

NICKNAME(S): none lmao

AGE: 31 (though I may change it around at some point, she’s in her 30s)

SPECIES: human / nord

|| PERSONAL ||

MORALITY: lawful / neutral / chaotic ||| good /  gray / evil 

RELIGIOUS BELIEF: Idk how to explain it because she’s not polytheist, she doesn’t believe int he Night Mother, but she believes in Sithis, but TES’s mythology is very different from ours because there is daedra, the nine divines, the eight divines, etc.. 

VIRTUES: chastity / charity / diligence / humility / kindness / patience / justice

PRIMARY GOALS IN LIFE: Help restore the Dark Brotherhood to its former glory, have the Dark Brotherhood be feared, make a ton of profit for the Dark Brotherhood and maintain its legacy. Her goals vary a bit by her verses, but this is the most consistent among all of her verses.

LANGUAGES KNOWN: English, I want to also say French because it’s a vibeTM, but I don’t see where she would learn it lmao

SECRETS: I’m still finding out as I write her, but she keeps her family and her life before she joined the Dark Brotherhood a secret, only shared with a select few but even then she’s vague about it. I guess her whole betrayal of the Dragonborn/Listener is a secret until its exposed.

QUIRKS: Sometimes when she’s distracted, Astrid will toy with her dagger and sometimes will accidentally run her finger over the sharp part, creating a cut in er finger. She also picks at loose strings on her clothing, so that will slowly weaken the material over time. 

SAVVIES: M.urder & a.ss.a.ssination obvi, but I think leadership? In a way? She was able to keep the DB morale high when the Night Mother wasn’t around, when there was no Black Hand, and they had to rely on gossip for who has done the Black Sacrament, so I think that’s one of her strengths. Charisma is also one, planning, and intelluct.

|| PHYSICAL ||

BUILD: slender / scrawny / bony / fit / athletic / herculean / babyfat / pudgy / obese / other  (The thing with this, Astrid doesn’t have an entirely curved figure. It’s there, but not overly apparent imo. In my view of her, she has a little bit of larger hips, but it’s hard for me to figure out her body type exactly on this).

HEIGHT: 5′8″

SCARS/BIRTHMARKS: Astrid actually is very concerned about “preserving” her beauty and is scared of aging showing on her face and body, so that’s part of the reason why she wears gloves and loves her shrouded hood (other than the whole anonymity involved with it). So she tries to prevent scarring on her body, but there are birthmarks, which actually don’t bother her as much. She has birthmarks on her neck and some spots on her arms.

ABILITIES/POWERS: N/A other than I guess the enchantment her blade has in her main verse.

RESTRICTIONS: Astrid’s ego & paranoia is both her downfalls. She almost finds herself untouchable, underestimating her opponents, but is overly worried about her leadership status being taken away from her. She also has a fear of betrayal within the Dark Brotherhood, which is rather ironic for what she does in her storyline (regardless of her motives). Her stubbornness and controlling ways can leave a bad impression and they really poke holes in her leaderships with how they could be a potential weakness to exploit (mostly with her paranoia as well). Her persona and lack of really showing her “true” self can be a restriction on her relationships, always feeling as if she has to play a part.

|| FAVOURITES ||

FAVOURITE FOOD: Main verse would be honey nut treat or mudcrab dip. In her other verses, she likes a various soups.

FAVORITE DRINK: Wine, preferably, but she isn’t particularly picky tbh.

FAVOURITE PIZZA TOPPING: Pizza doesn’t exist in any of her verses, but if she had to choose: she likes a lot of cheese and olives.

FAVOURITE COLOR: Red

FAVOURITE MUSIC GENRE: Classical lmao

FAVOURITE BOOK GENRE:  I go more into this topic here

FAVOURITE MOVIE GENRE: N’A in all of her verses, but horror (don’t tell anyone she likes Hallmark Christmas movies)

FAVOURITE SEASON: Either Fall or Winter. She likes the colder weather and she likes the fall of the leaves, the tying up loose ends. She likes the eerie quietness with winter and bundling up around a fire. It’s also around the time she really plans out for the next year.

FAVOURITE B.UTT TYPE: Astrid doesn’t have a preference ;^)

FAVOURITE CURSE WORD: “Damnit.”

FAVOURITE SCENT: Pine needles. She likes the smell of the forest or the smell before it rains.

|| FUN STUFF ||

B.OTTOM OR T.OP: T.op but one can still d.dom from the bottom, so she honestly has no big preference tbh.

LOUD BURPER OR SOFT BURPER: Soft burper.

SINGS IN THE SHOWER BATH: No, actually! She may have once or twice, but she really takes her bath times to think and contemplate, but also just... enjoy existing? LIke a moment to pause and breathe. She also treats baths as a self care thing and as a reward to wind down after a successful job.

LIKES BAD PUNS: Sure.

THEIR OPINION ON THE MUN: Neutral. She has no issues with me and probably enjoys that I want a more descriptive, multi-layered portrayal of her. A lot of people literally are like Astrid = bad with her whole betrayal thing because they don’t look beyond their character being betrayed. They don’t see her remorse in her last moments and how she did it for her family (yes, a selfish interest on her part with how she wanted to go back to when she was the one entirely in control with her leadership versus the finding of a Listener). But if Maro didn’t go after the Dark Brotherhood when Astrid and him made the deal, the Dark Brotherhood would still be standing without the listener. And too the Dark Brotherhood isn’t good in the first place lmao, it’s an evil organization. So she would probably respect that to some extent. Unlike my other muses, I haven’t actually put Astrid through too much torment and part of that is because she’s my newest muse.

TAGGED BY: stole it from my other blog.

TAGGING: @maxymuses @bxynjolf @malkhes @aelathehvntress​ @agglomerate​ & anyone who wants to do this! Steal it form me and tag me!

[nikosheba]

Okay I read your defense of Turin & yeah!! I also did not like his chapter in the Silmarillion but CoH has left me very much spiraling about him and what he represents - elvish vs mortal perspectives, doom & reactions to it, possibility of overcoming it, etc... I don't always like him but I LOVE thinking about him (and characters around him!) and there's so much more to Turin's story than like. a tragic unlikable guy, and I get why it's one of the chief 3 stories of the whole legendarium

Yeah!!! He really frustrates me sometimes--it was only like two months ago that I was like....oh man how am I going to write Turleg when Túrin is such a piece of work lmao. And I started rereading CoH looking for quotes, and the more I flipped through that book, the more I fell in love with him. 

Part of it is, I can’t think of anyone else in all of the Tolkien legendarium who just...cannot understand how other people think, the way Túrin does. He’s always fair with other people (this is stated outright with the Gaurwaith), and cannot understand why people aren’t fair with him. He never comprehends that he’s being deceived--which I think is unfair to lay on his shoulders tbh. 

One great example of how he just cannot understand other people, even other humans, is the knife-giving scene (which I believe is cut out of the Silm), which just totally encapsulates the frustration of him all at once. For those who haven’t read CoH, at one point when he’s very young, his father gives him a very fancy knife of elvish make. It’s Túrin’s last birthday before the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, not that he knows it. Túrin then immediately runs out to find his best friend, a lame older man named Sador who does little woodworking projects for Morwen and Húrin, and gives him the knife, entirely not understanding why this would be perceived as a bad thing. So it’s very like:

In Túrin’s mind: Got lovely knife > Sador does a lot of woodworking > the knife made me happy to receive > it will help Sador in his work > give Sador the knife

But no one else sees it like that. Húrin is fine with it but a bit baffled, and tells Túrin basically, “Fine, but idk when I’ll be able to get you another knife like that.” Morwen actively dislikes this, and says that she thinks it’s useless to give something so fine to someone who’s just going to waste it. Even Sador is unhappy, because Edain custom says he can’t refuse the gift, but he knows it’s far beyond what he even can make use of, and that he cannot give it back to his young master without causing offense.

So here we have a 8-9 year old boy (sorry my copy is downstairs, I forget whether he’s 8 or 9), who has something nice happen to him and immediately his first thought is to pay it forward, and he winds up making everyone unhappy. And that just sort of....sets the tone for his life. 

It isn’t that he doesn’t love Finduilas. He does! He loves her like a sister--and textually, he never even really understands that she’s in love with him. She hints it, but she never tells him outright, and he is baffled when people talk to him about her in a romantic context. But he loves her! Like a friend and a sister--and has no idea why Finduilas’s mysterious (to him) feelings mean that now Gwindor, his friend who saved him from his madness, is angry with him, or why people keep placing this huge emphasis on his relationship with her.

The really tragic thing about Túrin, for me, is that he’s not genre-savvy. He thinks he’s in a Great Hero Tale, and has no idea he’s in a tragedy. I’ve said before that Children of Húrin feels like a dark inversion of Tolkien’s work to me. Acts of heroism are unrewarded. Acts of love are punished. Valiant stands get everyone around you killed. Beleg “yields to his love over his wisdom” and dies for it. There’s no reason that Túrin should have known the lovely maiden who kept begging him to marry he was his sister--he yields to his own love, and they both die for it, along with their unborn child. (For the record: he does love her, it’s not one-sided, she just wants to hustle the relationship along because it’s wartime and she fears to lose him, and he wants to wait for a more peaceful time.)

He even casts his sword aside at one point and is determined to live a peaceful life. But peace will not find him, and he is forced to take up the sword again, because his bow can do nothing against Glaurung.

A good portion of the angry, violent things he does are actually in defense of those who can’t defend themselves, or in defense of women. He’s oddly chivalric--with Saeros, his cry is, “Run, mocker of women!” When he goes back to Dor-Lómin, it isn’t until Brodda brags about sexually assaulting Túrin’s aunt-figure and scorns Túrin’s mother that Túrin goes super violent on him--and again, in anyone else’s story, killing Brodda would be the stuff of great songs. Alone he goes into a fortress that was stolen from his birthright, to find that there’s a drunken, abusive, cruel tyrant in his father’s place, and Túrin rouses the downtrodden, kills the usurpers, and casts out the rest. 

And everyone blames him for it. They tell him he shouldn’t have, even though they fought alongside him, because now more wil come, and they will suffer for it. Túrin even begs them to come with him to Doriath or at least Brethil--he was safe there, after all--and they refuse, preferring to starve in the mountains or commit suicide in Dor-Lómin rather than follow him on a difficult trek.

ETA: I forgot to add that he also becomes Captain of the Gaurwaith because he kills Forweg to protect Larnach’s daughter; he never questions what’s going on, he just sees a girl with torn clothes being chased and immediately murders the guy chasing her--and when he sees that it’s Forweg he doesn’t exactly feel bad about it, just offers to do the same to Andróg if Andróg doesn’t start drinking his Respect Women Juice.

Anyway YEAH I also love thinking about him...and the fact that Elrond names him as one of the great Elf-Friend Heroes in LotR makes me so freaking emotional every time, WOW. The fact that the Lay of the Children of Húrin was composed by a minstrel in Sirion, that Elrond would have heard it as a little child and remembered him as an Elf-Friend and a Hero, makes me absolutely SOFT inside. 

Túrin did legitimately deserve better. He deserved to be in the story he thought he was in. And dammit, I’m a fanfiction writer, I’m going to give it to him.

[firelxdykatara]

P1: The rwby fandom is being really weird about that scene with ironwood shooting slate huh? Cause it’s like you said: he doesn’t have a history of reacting violently to situations up until the very end of v7. Actually i remember ironwood being the one to stop winter from killing? (idk if she actually had the intent to kill but her blade was at his neck) Qrow in a fit of rage. And now you’re telling me Winter is terrified and shocked by ironwood killing slate. Idk i guess you could argue that

P2: that what ironwood did was a cold-blooded execution but still WHY? That still isn’t in-character for him from what we’ve seen so far. Maybe crwby realized that being afraid of salem doesn’t make james paranoid bc she’s a real threat so they decided to make james see threats everywhere. Threats that he desperately and “robotically”  tries to eliminate. This would solve some problems with the writing while creating a whole lot of other problems that i don’t even want to get into

Honestly, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.

For whatever reason, the writers/showrunners (is there a meaningful difference for a show like RWBY? genuine question, I’m not sure how the production is structured) decided they needed another villain. I’m not sure why, since they have a whole slew of villains and more than enough obstacles to throw at the heroes by keeping Ironwood as a morally grey ally with an opposing viewpoint, meaning he could very well have become an antagonist without getting yeeted over the moral event horizon on a rocketship. But whatever the reason (his heart or his shoes wait wrong show), they wanted to add to their cast of card-carrying evil villains, and picked Ironwood, and by extension anyone following him.

Rather than setting this up volumes in advance, though--for instance, by showing him reacting irrationally, with unnecessary violence, and these reactions getting more extreme despite not having concrete evidence that Salem was acting--what they did was have Ironwood act as a rational, reasonable man, who had to make some very tough choices. He never reacted with unwarranted aggression to any situation before volume 7--again, his ‘I’d have you shot’ comment was delivered with sarcasm in a moment of irritation, but there was no heat behind it, and he certainly wasn’t threatening to actually shoot Qrow--and he had very concrete reasons to set up the embargo and close Atlas’ borders.

He knew about Salem--he knew everything the heroes know, except the fact that she is immortal and can’t be destroyed, a secret which Ruby chose to keep and which, in the long run, did more harm than good (and yet none of them reflected on why Ozpin might have been keeping that secret in the first place, but I digress)--and he knew that her agents were acting in Remnant. He knew they were behind the Fall of Beacon, and he knew they all remained at large. Not a single one of the instigators of Beacon’s fall was captured in the aftermath. For all he knew, Atlas, the greatest remaining bastion of military strength and the only kingdom that might have a chance at defending against her if she chose to make her move (which he had every reason to believe she soon would, since this was the first time in centuries that she had acted directly to anyone’s knowledge), was going to be their next target. While global communications were down, he had no way of getting fast and reliable information from the other kingdoms. He could not risk spreading his forces too thin in an attempt to protect them without that knowledge--which is why his focus was on Amity Arena.

Get global comms back up and running, talk to the other kingdoms, warn them about Salem, and then they might have a chance. This was a plan, by the way, that team RWBY was all for, even though it meant that he would be setting up the entire world to fail because they knew Salem couldn’t be defeated. Ruby encouraged him to keep diverting resources from Mantle to finish the tower as quickly as he could. No one so much as mentioned the fact that if he did, and he told the world about Salem, they would be gearing up for a fight team RWBY&Co knew they would not be able to win.

Not until after James told the people of Atlas about Salem--again, without the crucial knowledge that she was immortal and they could not fight her.

So, notably, the entirety of volume 7 we see James Ironwood reacting reasonably, and rationally, to very real threats. We know Salem is a threat, we know the world is in danger--shit, we know Atlas is in danger, because Watts and Tyrian are there causing chaos. We see him take in the news that Salem is immortal much more calmly than I think the situation warranted--I would not have blamed him for exploding then, because the fact is that they didn’t give him this critical information until after it was nearly too late to act on it. And now he had an entire kingdom of people who likewise are laboring under the false belief that they have a chance against Salem, that she can be defeated, if they stick together. Which the protagonists know to be false, because if that were the case, then Jinn would have said as much to Oz when he asked how she could be destroyed.

(Which doesn’t mean that RWBY won’t pull some sort of ‘actually she only said Oz couldn’t, because he didn’t have the ability to unite the world [even though that’s bs], so team RWBY can kill her with the power of friendship actually’ ending out of a hat, but still, when it comes to characterization, we have to go by what the characters know and what they might reasonably believe based on the information they have--not meta knowledge we have as an audience because we’re genre savvy and can see the writing on the wall.)

None of his behavior throughout volume 7 indicated that he was on the verge of a complete mental break with reality that would lead him to start shooting people, including a child containing the soul of his best friend, in cold blood let and right. But I suspect that the crew was relying on the fandom having decided that James must be a bad guy, because he’s a military leader and military = bad, and the Ace Ops are effectively cops and cops = bad (even though if we’re going to call the Ace Ops cops, then we need to be calling all huntsmen cops, including Weiss, who performed a legal arrest on screen; if huntsmen have the authority to act as law enforcement officials, they are cops, period), and since they are already mostly bad, performing (and condoning, since there were six witnesses, four of them armed with auras, who just stood there and looked at each other after watching Ironwood gun a defenseless man down) cold-blooded murder is just the next logical step. Of course James would just murder a guy standing in between him and power, he’s a military leader, they’re all evil!

Nevermind the fact that Salem is literally right there, and if ever there was a situation that called for martial law to be legally enacted for the continued safety and protection of the kingdom (there’s a reason martial law exists, and there are reasons it can be justifiably enacted and enforced!!!!!) this is it.

Anyway.... yeah. I am unsurprised by the general fandom reaction--nevertheless, I’m disappointed by it. And I hope for the day in some nebulous future where the very idea of nuance and gray morality doesn’t just make a majority of them break out in hives.