#ii think the most fun you can have with a character is by putting them in sitatuons

[spitinsideme]

hi spitsy i saw this and it reminded me of you

YEAH !!!! CHARACTER DEISGN FUCKS SI HARD THATS SO ME ACTYALLY YOURE E8GHR !!!!GO CHARACTER DESIGN WOO !!! I LOVE DRAWING CHARACTERS ABD GIVING THEM OERSIBALITY AND DESIGJING THEUR OITFIT ABD EXPRESSIONS AND HAUR AND UDHGHSHS !!! CHARACTER DEISGN YEAH !!!! SEEING OTHER PEOOLES CHARACTERS FUCKS SI HARD T9O .. ALL OF IT .. IS BEAUTLFUL ..

[haitanology]

a study on the orchid, ran haitani

— a character analysis (yapping session, mostly) on the eldest haitani brother.

part i. the petals, who is ran haitani?

when one thinks of ran, charisma might just be the picture inside their minds. it’s exactly what he represents, and part of the reason as to why he is so loved. on the surface, he’s stylish, charismatic, and cocky.

ran knows how to present himself in such a way, others have no choice but to admire him. he’s confident and very strong, appearing so sure of himself before outsiders. one might think he has no weaknesses, his success explained by the single emotion he parades around everyone else.

you barely get to see him out of his shit-eating grin in the manga, always teasing and mocking. putting others below him, so successful and incredibly popular —one thinks.

but, is that all there really is to him?

part ii. complexity, what makes ran— ran?

ran haitani, behind the façade he puts up to appear so grand, is in fact, a boy much like the rest. confident, sure, but with a heart of his own and a hint of tenderness that is hard to acknowledge for most.

a sleepy, moody, boy who would much rather sleep than attend parties and get-togethers. a boy who loves his sweets, and taking care of himself to look his best. a boy with a dream, that we get to see him chasing by how he carries himself.

ran haitani is smart, having keen instincts, but deep down a kid that wants to have fun. gangs aren’t all to him, violence not the solution to his every problem and his motive, but rather a way to be what he has always wanted to —a celebrity of sorts.

it’s hard to pinpoint ran’s upbringing due to his lack of a proper backstory, but i believe him to be a spoiled kid who has always wanted more. stepping out of the shadows of his family to cast his own, while his brother stands beside him (and not in his shadow like rindou himself thinks, but that’s a different analysis).

he’s vicious and greedy, wanting to be at the top because it’s what he’s seen and admired ever since he was a low-ranking member of a gang. he wanted what those boys had, taking it away from them in the worst way possible —but in the most effective one in the world they are part of. he uses his intelligence for this, and the success is palpable.

but that’s only the half of ran that swirls in violence, written in the tattoo taking a part of his body. the other half, however, is the empty skin where the puzzle piece fits —rindou’s tattoo, the heart of his brother that completes his own.

because above all, ran haitani is caring and kind. the people he lets into his heart are absolute, attaching himself to and understanding them well. he cares for the hidden bonds that izana denied out of anger, but that were there for tenjiku, and he respects them and is mindful of those that can break it because he’s human.

he cares for rindou, and stays by his side no matter what. their strength remains in their brotherhood; it collapses when his younger brother is defeated, because the concern clouds the mind. ran and rindou are one, even remaining together in the future despite the difference in their dreams. (and considering their occupation, it seems ran was the one to step down to help rindou with his dream). although not very present or relevant, ran remains one of the best examples of an older brother throughout the series.

though i feel like, if there’s one moment where ran’s real character (and potential) shines more than any other time, it’s during izana’s death. the only real instance where we get a peek on who ran really is, the personality underneath the cocky viciousness and unfaltering grins. his heart is exposed and vulnerable in front of everyone else, giving full closure to izana’s own dream of creating a family of his own. ran’s heart is just as soft as any other, just tucked in with multiple layers of indifference and ego.

unfortunately, ran suffers from what many other characters in different animes do, the lazy face and arrogant smile syndrome. and, as well, got extra damage from the characterization that inevitably came with all of bonten.

part iii. bonten, why is ran so mischaracterized?

man, why is bonten so mischaracterized would be the better question. could do a whole series from it, too. most characters reduced to a single trait or sentence said throughout the arc.

what has ran been accused of? i’ve seen it all i think: a manwhore, cheater, abuser, alcoholic man who probably wouldn’t even care about anyone at all. and two ideas sprouting from this make me extremely upset. one, this characterization has been carried down to tenjiku/rt/kmg ran, and two, people will argue that this is true to ran’s character and who he really is.

is it? no. with the lack of bonten information, we can’t pretend this is how they behave. none of these men aspired to become criminals in the future, only did it for izana’s sake (in most cases). obviously, as part of a criminal group, it’s safe to assume he’s done some terrible shit. but does that include all listed above? let’s see.

why is it that ran is seen as a manwhore? he’s attractive and charismatic, a celebrity in his own territory, but this is probably only referring to the delinquent world. i doubt ran gets a girl every time there’s a party in his apartment when he doesn’t even appear to like those much. and i find it hard to believe that he’d spend his entire nights in nightclubs with strippers in his bonten days. why is that the normal with bonten fics? it has been said that bonten is involved with prostitution, but bonten is much more than those 8.

now, let’s make up these two cases. one, ran haitani has an established partner heading into bonten. he cares, cares and loves so much he’d make sure nothing would happen to them. wouldn’t even think of getting them involved. yeah, maybe the relationship grows a little gloomier. it is bonten after all, and mikey’s dark impulses are kind of just slithering into everyone’s lives. but i think that, assuming he just instantly becomes a cheater and abuser is just losing the plot. let’s try not to reduce the little personality we got of him even more.

second case scenario, ran haitani doesn’t have a partner. i believe this is the most likely choice, i don’t believe ran to focus so much on potential partners, or being a womanizer enough to charm every woman he meets. he’d much rather stick close to the people he calls family, and not rope in someone innocent to this whole mess. as much as i love ran (i love him a lot i think it shows) i personally believe he’s a person that does well on his own without a partner, not actively looking for one. focusing on his life and his brother’s, and the deep shit they are stuck into with bonten.

no tokyo revengers character is fully good, that’s what makes them so intriguing! and while ran haitani has a lot of questionable traits that make a terrible person to come across as an enemy, he has as much of a heart as any other character. the man has emotions, they just haven’t been explored by the author :(

part iv. respect, dignity & admiration, afterthought

in no way am i the haitani police (i am actually, just undercover) to tell you how to interpret a character. the fun in those who don’t get much information is to make up a background for them ! no correct answer since nothing has been said. however, i simply do not like this whole thing about ran being a horrible person and treating someone like they aren’t even a human being and people pushing it so hard to be canon. bonten has hurt many, and wattpad books too, i know they have some kind of fault.

ran haitani is such a beautiful character to explore, there’s many layers to him even if there’s none to see at first. a bratty, childish man who appears cold and cocky but is actually incredibly smart, and so vulnerable and caring. but that doesn’t do well in the world he moves around in doesn’t it? he’s such a silly little guy, and in my own little twist of things i believe him to be quite the loser.

i’m sure that while, it could be hard to approach him and get close, once he has a partner he’d be so loving and loyal. angst assured bc he probably would try to push them away at some point, but all efforts to be with him would be so worth it. he’d be a little possessive, maybe sometimes a little bit toxic, but with its up and downs it would be a beautiful relationship.

sad to see he has fallen into the fuckboy character stereotype, and bonten doesn’t do any of their members justice either. but despite all of that, i’ll always headcanon ran to be the hopeless romantic type, just keeping it well to himself. but once he loves, he loves. and it makes it so worth writing for him.

at the end of the day, all the different versions one comes across is what keeps the character alive, like them more or less. still, he shouldn’t be just reduced to a so called sex god who also doesn’t even know what an emotion is. or those theories that were so popular back then, shivers.

so yeah, happy birthday to ran <3 what a character am i right.

[understandingbimbos]

Bimbo Types, or Neapolitan Bimbo

(This is something I've previously gone over in my My Little Pony post but wanted to reiterate here.)

Bimbo can most easily be divided into three distinct archetypes. The Clown, The Innocent, and The Debutante. These archetypes are not absolute, they come in many variations and their traits can and will overlap.

The Clown, also known as The Free Spirit or The Wildcard, usually shows up as the comedic relief. They can be loud, showy, excessive, and obnoxious. Their sexuality is very self-assured, self-aware, and playful. The Clown's main concern (if any) is having or spreading fun, "fun" in this context being completely up to their individual style and personality. To give a very stereotypical example, a goth clown may have the most fun watching very violent horror movies or playing with spiders. Another clown could have the most fun (Incidentally) causing a ruckus or being mischievous, it's all about perspective, the possibilities are pretty much endless.

Examples of this archetype include but are not limited to: Jeannie (IDOJ), Pinkie Pie (MLP:FIM), Harley Quinn (BTAS), Synclaire James (Living Single), Jayne Mansfield (films and public persona), Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

The Innocent, also known as The Ingenue, is just as the name suggests. Not only helpless but often unaware and wholly out of her depth. Her inexperience and or meekness makes her prone to being taken advantage of. Despite this, she (usually) remains positive, kind, and happy to help. Unlike The Clown, The Innocent's sexuality is typically portrayed as natural, uncomplicated, and unintended.

Examples of this archetype include but are not limited to: Marilyn Monroe (films and public persona), Weena (The Time Machine), Lorelei Lee (in the novel), Elissa Megan Powers (Empowered)

The Debutante, who could also be called The Alpha Bitch, is probably the most popular in the modern era and who you're most likely to come across in real life or on social media. Her sexuality is mainly a means of control. She puts a lot of time, work, and effort into her appearance because beauty is both her business and capital. While she may, at times, enjoy and indulge in carnal pleasure it's far from her main concern. Being the most or unattainably desirable is how she knows she's better than others, how she's able to acquire and maintain control. The Debutante values social standing above all else, to her it's a matter of life or death, she would die without overwhelmingly positive attention.

Examples of this archetype include but are not limited to: Regina George (Mean Girls), Heather Chandler (Heathers), Courtney Shayne (Jawbreaker), Heather (Total Drama Island), Cleopatra Smith (Clone High), Jeannie II (IDOJ), Emma Frost (X-Men), Panty Anarchy (PSG), Ginger (Gilligan's Island), Holly Golightly (Breakfast at Tiffany's), Kim Kardashian, Rarity (MLP:FIM)

These archetypes are combined, remixed, and subverted so often it's hard to find pure examples (I tried my best, and even then this is just reducing them to their base archetypes and do not accurately describe every single one of these characters), but this is a good thing. It leads to nuance and diversity, and many of the most popular bimbo characters are mixed or subversions. Chrissy Snow (Three's Company) is a Clown and an Innocent. Elle Woods (Legally Blonde) arguably includes elements of all three. Romy and Michele's High School Reunion follows two clownish Innocents who realize they were bullied by debutantes. As far as I know, all bimbos exist somewhere along these lines (or perhaps on an axis) but we shouldn't view this as limiting, when you think about it the combinations are really seemingly endless, and I didn't even cover sub-archetypes! Many Debutantes are mean but they don't have to be. Innocents don't have to be completely pliable, you can do (or be) whatever you like, even moving from one archetype to another.

[sugar-crash]

🍬King Candy (Wreck-It Ralph) x (gn) Reader👑

(Beginning Relationship Pt. II Edition!)

(Just a tad bit different🔑 than it usually is, Have fun :))

- Tries his best to separate him from who he used to be to ward off suspicion of his shady behavior but as we can all see, he’s not exactly the best at it at times. Especially if you knew him when he was Turbo. Johunlz

- His more friendly King Candy look gives him far more leeway than he had as Turbo which he wanted purposely. He uses it to his advantage, especially when it comes to you, literally that one scene from Adventure Time. Shameless about it on top of that. ohcl

- Much like how he was previously, he teases you. But it’s far more lighthearted I guess? Sometimes he just says something absolutely mean as shit and then pats your head patronizingly in the same breath. Hate him. illu

- Being some of the shortest game characters of the bunch, he’s no stranger to being looked down upon, literally, and by then he doesn’t have much of an issue with his s/o being taller than him…

- However, if by some miracle or chance, you’re smaller than him, he thinks you’re so cute, affectionately calling you “snack-sized”, and he’ll say it when he tries to get on your nerves for one reason or another. thkl,

- Lovessss putting others down, when it comes to you, it’s more lighthearted or joking (with that little metaphorical bug in his ear relishing being able to do so), and anyone else??? Not as much. pu

- Lives for the praise you give him, as much as he doesn’t admit it of course, that self-satisfied and smug grin he gets whenever you congratulate him for having majority wins/being chosen the most as an avatar on Sugar Rush says it all. tvyl

- While being the one to establish the paywall and coin prizes (cause he’s an insidious asshole), he kinda hates that he can’t have an actual trophy like he used to— Can’t exactly display them for you to comment on later on considering they are constantly being used and turned into code. But hey, at least they have his insignia on them. aohu

- Calling myself out on this once more, but, the description randomalistic used for him in this YouTube video (which,,, I highly suggest watching if you haven’t already), specifically “a corrupt politician” is frighteningly accurate, he lies, he cheats, he sabotages, a perfect allegory for a corrupt higher power. vul

- And he fucking knows it man, proud of it even, one of his most successful works and he can’t even brag about it, can’t even tell you. wshjl

- We really don’t see what his relationship is between him and the other racers besides Taffyta claiming he wants to keep them safe and uh… The race track scenes. So from what I can ascertain I can fully see him acting like Miss Hannigan from Annie, specifically this one scene (yeah this post is just chocked full of links, bear with me), the mental image of him mockingly saying “she had to go bathroom” with his lisp makes me weak.

- Even in his new and far more prestigious position as King he still longs for more, with his limits and disguises imperfections not helping this inner turmoil, even in a game as big as Sugar Rush boredom takes root and he even his excuses that explain why he stays in Sugar Rush to you have a nearly invisible air of uncertainty to them.

- Makes a point to make you feel good, loved, cared for all throughout your visits to Sugar Rush, nothing is too good for you, there’s always more.

- I think this kind of behavior stems from this deep seated desire to make sure you don’t leave him, you could have everything you want with his help— Why wouldn’t you stay? Please stay.

- Caged. That’s how he feels secretly, I mean, who wouldn’t? He wasn’t exactly coded to be a monarch, all these responsibilities, not even his coding skills could help him with that…. I mean, would he even be himself without it?

- Achievements, what are they for when it’s the same thing over and over again? Validation? Attention? Power?? You maybe? Things he’s been chasing after for all of his life, well— Not you but he’s realized that he’s become far too attached to you, your softness, your sensitivity.

- Each moment spent together is far more significant to him than what he thought it’d be when he first showed interest in you— Thinking it’d be like every other relationship (mostly platonic ones) he’s been in, fleeting, and ending with you hating him, you had every right to after all.

- Sickness, an insult that had been thrown his way over a dozen times to the point where it usually gets a scoff and furrowed brows, but it feels devastating when you say it after his true nature is unceremoniously revealed by his hubris.

- Abandoned— That familiar pang ripping through his newly mutated form as you struggle for your life alongside the others that stayed behind to help every last one of the Sugar Rush people to get to safety from the unruly swarm of Cy-Bugs eating their home into nothing.

- Red. That’s all he sees as he brutally beats Ralph down into a pulp and cruelly taunts everyone else as he holds the overgrown bad guy in the air, eagerly and sadistically waiting for a little girl to meet a brutal end only to meet his own.

(Almr sarqr dprk’s sll lk sar klqr)

[heartstringsduet]

Favorite Fandom moments (this got way too long who is surprised) Thanks for tagging me: @tellmegoodbye @nisbanisba @reyesstrand

@welcometololaland @rmd-writes

@she-walked-away @everlastingday @strandnreyes

1. I binged season 1-3 in December 2022 by myself. A fun fact about me, i HATE procedurals. Usually I can manage a few episodes and enjoy them and then I think the formula of episodic rescues/crime solving is too boring. I thought I could maybe stay for the hot gay dudes I saw on my dash. But I fell in love with so much more than that. I rarely have shows with ensamble casts where I genuinely really like all characters. Michelle is the only exception. Goddamn that woman should only play faeries for the rest of her life. And weirdly, something I appreciate is watching these three seasons all by myself. It allowed me to really take the episodes in without any outside opinions or controversies or even over-hyping through others. I loved the show all by myself. And though a part of me wishes I would have found it earlier, I find a lot of joy in having these three seasons locked deep in my own heart, just for me.

2. Okay after all that too long blabbering, of COURSE I have to say the friends I made. Friendship has always been my biggest source of joy. Always. And I'm so blessed to have so many friends in my life, and more blessed to add people on my dash to them. If we text sometimes/often/daily or I just like your personal posts, know that I really care for what you put out there. You all matter to me, and I mean that.

3. Meeting some of you peeps IRL. And hoping to expand the list 💓

4. Sending out Holiday cards. Truly, I love doing it so much, even if the production last year was stressful I hope this year people will still be here and be interested in getting my lil card. And ofc I loved the ones I got back.

5. How creative and wonderful this fandom is. We are quite smol, but look at the big things we create. 2022 was the toughest year of my life, and a lot of what followed was an ebb and flow mentally, but one thing thatr eally helped me was to be more creative. And I thank every one of you who has left comments or sweet tags or created something themselves that keeps me motivated.

6. The Hello! Rafa/Ronen photoshoot . Still lives in my head rent-free.

7. Having people beta-read my humble writing. It helps me a lot! Just like reading fics by people whose writing I admire (y'all basically).

8. Fandom events. Like Gotcha charity, but also the Holiday exchanges and the watch parties and the server and so many little things in the cosmos of this fandom.

9. Even the disagreements. Idk. Very family dynamic to me and I don't mean to downplay how marginalized people are affected by some of it. But you tell me you hate someone's outfit and I will lovingly side-eye you like a cousin. It kind of is necessary to the eco system of fandom to not all be harmonious.

10. Most of all, how welcoming this fandom was from the very beginning. I try to be part of that. If I ever annoy you with engaging with personal posts, that's why. I want you to feel heard.

OPEN TAG (please use it if you want to participate and tag me back so I see!)

@herefortarlos @tellmegoodbye @paperstorm @eclectic-sassycoweyes

@emsprovisions @sapphic--kiwi @lightningboltreader @reasonandfaithinharmony

@alrightbuckaroo @theghostofashton @carlos-in-glasses @carlos-tk

@rangersoup @freneticfloetry @literateowl @firstprince-history-huh

@neversleepuntilfive @certifiedflower @ironheartwriter @henrygrass

@never-blooms @whatsintheboxmh @girlsnightout304 @bonheur-cafe

@lutavero @guardian-angle22 @toomanycupsoftea @actual-sleeping-beauty

@butchreyes @goodways @thisbuildinghasfeelings @ladytessa74 @lemonlyman-dotcom

@birdclowns @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @ameriicansrequiems @ambiguouspenny

@liminalmemories21 @louis-ii-reyes-strand @chicgeekgirl89 @fitzherbertssmolder

[greenfiend]

i just read your time travel theory and all i keep thinking about is how in back to the future 2 marty and doc travel to the future and biff finds the time machine and works it in his favor so when marty and doc travel back to present time everything is wrong and they have to travel all the way to the beginning. have you had any thoughts on such a twist? (by the way i love all your theories and you blow my mind with every single one)

Short answer: a big huge YES!!!!!!

I actually allude to this idea in this post!

I believe that we have already seen aspects of the show inspired by Back to the Future Part II.

For example: newspapers indicating different timelines. Just one example is the differences between the Will articles… the Henry-Edward Creel articles are another major example of this. -> click here for info on that. Credit to @aemiron-main for these amazing finds.

Another one is the Dustin and Mike walkie-talkie scene- it’s a reference to the first sequel of BttF (since it was the only one of the movies where they used walkie-talkies!).

Now for some stuff I think we WILL see referenced from the movie…

Now, I believe it’s very telling that they put “William” rather than “Billy” on the gravestone and that they played the song “Dear Willy” in the background of this scene. They are obviously alluding to the other William here as well, and possibly to a separate timeline where he died on November 6th, 1983. Not unlike how George Mcfly was murdered in the alternate 1985 in Back to the Future part II.

If true, then I’m even more inclined to believe that Lonnie is the #1 suspect. Lonnie being our Biff… and possible step father to Will…

Look at their similarities… “[He] always did have a way with women.” 🤢

Then, of course, we must have a scene like this one.

The alternate timeline!!! There’s absolutely at least one of these, possibly more. For this scene, I like to envision Dustin being the one to explain this to everyone.

Now for my favourite idea…

Our characters travelling back to a previous moment within the show! Ah… movie magic. I cannot tell you how much I love this concept. Blew my mind as a child. Look at how the events of the first Back to the Future movie were occurring as a second Marty was on a separate mission desperately avoiding detection from his past self. Time travel can be confusing as heck but damn it’s fun.

I will say that I do not think time travel within Stranger Things will occur in the same way as it does in Back to the Future. It’ll be different somehow. I mention a pretty *wild* idea here.

Now. Here are some things I’m nearly confident about:

Will will (or has) travelled to the past. SO much evidence of this, it’s nearly undeniable.

Mike *somehow* is their “ride” back in time. This is heavily implied when Dustin calls up Mike for a “ride” while the DeLorean is shown on the big screen.

Multiple timelines exist, and we will likely see them or at least learn about them.

Vecna, Mike, and Will are the characters most associated with time and time travel.

Ahhh I love time travel and Back to the Future. The Duffers clearly do too! Back to the Future has been referenced since episode one when we first saw Will in that classic red “life preserver”. The references go deeper than most people realize too. I gotta say too, the whole play being set in the 50s, with the parents as teens, is very reminiscent of Back to the Future as well!

I would not be surprised at all if they referenced this classic sequel a fair bit in the final season!

[dontmixpaintinyourcoffee]

A glimpse into my twisted mind

Head under the cut for close-ups and notes for this whole process because hoo boy this musical sure has eaten my brain

So first things first, I'm gonna write out the notes I have at the top down here because they're pretty foundational for all my designs going forward.

Historical accuracy is not a priority here. The story is primarily a fantasy based on the aesthetics of Mycenaean and Hellenic Greece. If the time period is more nebulous the anachronisms are less distracting.

This is more personal preference than anything. I love a good historically accurate piece, but I think I would find it more frustrating than satisfying in this case. If literally everything was accurate to the best of our knowledge except for the dialogue... it would drive me nuts. Plus, it's a reinterpretation and a fantasy story. When I look at it I don't want to think "Oh that's The Odyssey", I want to think "Oh that's THIS version of The Odyssey"

Also, to be frank, I'm being lazy here. I want to draw about this musical for fun, and I want any research I do to be for fun too.

From what I understand, we get most of our modern-day "common knowledge" of Greek mythology based on stories from the Hellenic/Hellenistic (still not sure which one is right) period, especially from Roman influences. However, The Odyssey takes place in The Bronze Age, around 1200 B.C.E. The Mycenaean period is something like 1600-1100 B.C.E. There's a solid 500 year distance MINIMUM between the two time periods. Hopefully I can take references from both, put my own spin on it, and make something that clearly calls back to "Ancient Greece" while still obviously existing in a world far outside our reality.

Now for God's Favorite Punching Bag!

This is a weird process, because there isn't a "canon" look for any of the characters, but I still wanted there to be a somewhat instinctual knowledge from the EPIC audience that the guy I was drawing was probably Odysseus. So I started with some of my favorite interpretations that I've seen. These Odys are brought to you by:

@gigizetz

Neal Illustrator on YouTube

@wolfythewitch

VirusAP on YouTube

They feature some crucial differences in build, shape, and style, but there are some interesting similarities across all of them. All of them share a heavy brow, some kind of facial hair, a prominent nose, and a crooked smile (not pictured in these doodles but it's there trust me.)

After that was figuring out the outfit(s). I took a LOT of inspiration from the Hades games, because I think they embody the kind of look I'm going for. Clearly based in history, but not beholden to it. So I took the designs of some of the important mortals that show up (Odysseus, Achilles, Patroclus, and Theseus) and laid them out next to designs of Odysseus and Eurylochus by Neal Illustrator and Gigi. Then for fun I added in one of the few pieces of pottery art I could find that didn't have Odysseus bare-ass naked.

I really like having some kind of cloak or wrap around his shoulders and neck, and I like the leather arm guards that pop up in quite a few of these designs, so that's probably going to be fairly consistent. I also really like the circlet shown in the Neal Illustrator and Hades II designs, it's a nice reminder that he is actually a king. With all that established, we finally move to my actual designs.

The man himself! Mid-Polyphemus encounter. I think this is the point in the story where he's the most put together. He just did the most heinous thing he's ever done*, but he's finally finished. He has 600 men to set an example for, and they're finally going home. He's trying to project confidence. He's well-groomed, he's got his circlet, he's got his comrades, he's not feeling good, but no one else needs to know that.

*up until that point anyways...

This guy is somewhere just before the Poseidon Incident. His beard is fuller and a bit scraggly, his hair is a bit longer and kinda tangled (the wind does not help), and those eye bags are a touch deeper. Losing those 12-ish people to Polyphemus hit him hard, and losing Polites especially took a toll.

Three guesses of when this takes place and the first two don't count. Those 7 years on Ogygia... They're rough. Physically he's the safest he's been since he left Ithaca, but just having to sit with all the horrors he's done and seen, alone with someone who is impossible to really talk to, achingly close to home... Yeah it's bad. I always pictured this scene happening in the middle of a roiling storm, when he realizes what he's considering doing and he calls out for the last person he knows can still hear him. (Also a little bit of lightning in the back to show Zeus being the one to trap both Odysseus and Calypso here)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

My interpretation of this Calypso is that she's very much manipulative and overbearing, but she won't remove his autonomy. She will provide him with food, but won't make him eat it. This is crucial to this version of the story, because EPIC wants you to sympathize with Calypso at least a little bit. If she was more like her original counterpart I trust that it would have been called out explicitly by the text, so I'm operating under the impression that while she's not a good person, she is at least not so malicious or selfish that she would take away Odysseus' choice in anything. More on her when I get to designing her. Just wanted to make my thoughts extremely clear.

Flashback! Baby Odysseus! Basic setup, circlet, chiton, youthful determination, you know the deal. He's probably about 12 here, which is about the age I picture him doing the boar trial. It was fun trying to hint at the shapes he would grow into in his adulthood. And of course a little bit of Athena influence in the back there. I don't know if a barn owl makes sense geographically, but honestly I just wanted to draw a barn owl. They're cute.

*Insert electric guitar riff*

Maybe my favorite Ody to draw??? He still wears those 7 years on him, but he's trimmed his beard and gotten himself some new clothes, and he's feeling murderously vengeful. Good for him. This is specifically his beggar disguise. I gave him a traveling cloak and some extra cloth to really wrap himself up with. The more he can hide himself, the better. He wants to be invisible, and if someone was to see him he doesn't want them to see any body language. This is just after he shoots Antinous though so... Jig's up :)

[writerbuddha]

Good morning, @writerbuddha. The other day, I saw some critics saying that there is a tone problem with The Phantom Menace. That it doesn't make sense for a film to be very childish and at another time to have a serious political plot. In my opinion, I don't see any problem. The film's political plot is simple and not at all complicated. There are few political discussions and most of them are in the second half of Act 2, which is usually the low point of the characters' arcs. However, I would like to know your take on this topic.

Hello! :)

Problem is that, in my view, the “criticism” of Episode I, II and III is the textbook example of groupthink. People don’t think about whether the “criticism” is valid, they don’t apply critical reasoning to these claims - it’s not the detailed analysis and assessment of a movie. I’ve met people who simply claimed, “the majority of fandom thinks this/that, so it’s plausible to believe it’s true.” And YouTubers who want likes and views are keeping this circulating, because I saw one of them explicitly stating, “tongue in cheek spite” makes you popular on YouTube quickly, whereas actual, reasoned and balanced analysis and assessment of a movie does not sell that well.

In my opinion, Episode I is not “childish.” I assume, people who say it's "very childish" are complaining about Jar Jar Binks - again. And possible believe that children are dumb and kids’ movies are meant to be infantile fun that occupies them for some time while you can finally get a break from them. For these people, serious lessons on democracy, society and politics cannot co-exist with Jar Jar Binks, and that's because, in my opinion, they refuse to acknowledge that there's a type of children's stories that are offering very complex moral, ethical, philosophical and psychological lessons and anchors that are relevant throughout one's entire life. They're mostly metaphors and allegories, presenting those lessons on a very abstract level, and you can make use of them in concrete situations. They're essentially the same stories and they fulfill the same role and function as the stories you can find in ancient mythology and in religious scriptures, in modern settings.

The political setting is very easy to understand: the governing body of the Galactic Republic, the Senate is planning to tax the trade routes. The a vast organization of businessmen doesn’t want that, and blockades Naboo as a means of pressuring the Senate. Then, it’s revealed that the traders are following the orders of a Sith Lord, who orders them to invade the planet. Queen Amidala asks the Senate to put an end of the occupation, but, as it turns out, the Senate is full of corrupt senators and the traders are able to pay them off, to stall the resolution of the problem, using bureaucracy. 

Another issue is that many people would insist that if a scene is about two or more people just talking to each other, it’s boring, and if you’re required to pay attention to what the characters say in order to understand the plot, then the plot is “difficult to understand.”  

So, I think that valid criticism of Episode I can be presented, but I'm yet to see one...

[miyuka1709]

hey hey hey for the send you a character ask: hero?

HEROOOOOOAOAOAFHJD

Yes thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you yes thank you!

~ Favorite thing about them

For starters, I LOVE HERO so much because he's been with us (TLQ) since the very beginning and even showed up at the end of Shifting Mound "fight".

And of course because he really cares about our well being. He hates dying and clearly very against hurting ourself and usually caring about the Princess' well being a lot too. He's a very... vulnerable? character, he's really sweet. I think the only times he's given up on us would be in the Tower (pledge), and in the Fury when he dies...

Also I like his voice.

~ Least favorite thing about them

It's not the thing I dislike of him, more like - I dislike the things that happen to him. The bad things. My heart HURTS when I hear he's in pain (but I am an angst/whump enjoyer so..)

And I know he's safe, I know he's willing, I know he's probably going to be okay and find the others, but leaving him in the cabin (in Leave with Princess Ending) makes me feel a little hollow.

~ Favorite line

"There's no turning back now, I'm with you till the end." (Chapter I)

"But I'm nervous" (Razor)

"I would like to look at a bird" (Razor)

"Whatever you were doing just now - please start doing it again." (Nightmare)

"__ Sounds pretty consequence free to me." (Any Chapter II)

"Okay, I'll trust you." (Mirror)

"Oh no, oh no, no - what did we do? Can we put it back? Please tell me we can put it back." (Prisoner)

"We just keep changing into horrible things we can't control. Make it stop, please make it stop." (Fury)

"That laugh! I think I'm in love!" (Chapter I)

"You were bored, I was just unhappy." (Drowned Grey)

"And I'm still here too!" (Burned Grey)

"Was it not romantic when I suggested it?" (Damsel)

"But I don't want to do a side-" (Spectre III)

Okay I admit it, I really like his voice. I like all the voices. This game has REALLY good voice acting.

~ BrOTP / OTP

Hero and Paranoid or maybe Contrarian - Hero seems like the type to try to get along with everyone. I loved the part where Hero had to run the autonomic nervous system, very silly, and I think Hero would have quite a lot of respect for Para for being able to do that. As for Connie, well they have some fun banter, and Connie stays with Hero in the cabin

Spectre/Spectre III x Hero as a rarepair? I just really like how Spectre calls him "the nice one".

I wanted to say that HEA would be a sweet one, but then again Hero was the one who suggested to just stay there and it made both of them kinda suffer... The same goes for Nightmare and Cage.

Are they brOTP or OTP? Maybe both, I don't know. I just think they'd enjoy each other's company very much.

~ NOTP

Most of the "mean" or "dangerous" Princesses probably scare him or make him feel uncomfortable. I don't have any strong feelings on this though.

Toxic ships are sometimes fun to explore?

~ Random headcanon

My friend says Hero can't spell restaurant.

If he ever finds the other voices after Leave with Princess ending, I think he'd try to lead the group after deducting that the others are way too traumatized or violent. Skeptic or Hunted might be second in command?

Not a headcanon but Hero reminds me of Noelle Holiday from Deltarune. They're insecure or a little hesitant about their own decisions and relatively nonconfrontational. They're kind to the ones closest to them, and generally want the best for everyone.

~ Unpopular opinion

He's not an uwu innocent delicate fragile boy.. I mean sure I act like it, but he does have his own wrongdoings/mistakes/things that would be better if he didn't ask us to do, like leave the Princess locked in (leads to Nightmare), leave immediately after Prisoner beheaded herself (leads to Cage), stay with Damsel (leads to HEA).

Although I think you can rationalize them? Most of his own decisions in Chapter IIs are fear-driven, but he's actually one of the more stable characters.

He's pretty insecure. He almost always waits for TLQ's decision before backing it up/defending us.

~ Song I associate with them

I don't listen to a lot of songs.. mostly OSTs or old Gacha animation memes.. seriously.

Girl Nextdoor or Lost Girl from Deltarune. Yeah.

He always tries to be peaceful and he's always been there for us. I think the softness of Lost Girl would suit him, I dunno.

~ Favorite picture of them

The only canon images we have are these, Hero does look very cute. He looks timid and hesitant, especially compared to Cold and Opportunist.

And here's some of my favorite fanarts of him.

- Forgive me for I am admittedly kinda shallow. I do love him, I really do.

[mr-payjay]

flutters eyelashes :) do you have any personality disorder headcanons for clover? or maybe nickel? hope you're doing well!!

Mostly Nickel's Disorders

Feb 19 2025 edit: this is somewhat outdated! nickel has hpd, npd, and cptsd. you can still read the aspd section if you like, but he does not have aspd, he just has some antisocial traits.

twitches. twitches. twitches. ok i skipped gleefully in the kitchen getting this ask because i am SO hyperfixated on nickel. here’s a nickel analysis if you wanna read that first but it doesnt go into his pds it just generally analyzes him:

for clover i dont have any disorders in mind BUT i have noticed she has a tendency to fawn or flee (ive always been pulled in by her fawning over nickel considering how much he’s hurt her). today i was watching some iii and i noted that shes a really strange but interesting character—ive paid attention to her before and ive done a bit of analysis (mostly talking about her odd reactions to nickel) but nothing recent. im planning to do some clover analysis after my nickel and balloon rewatch (im rewatching all of ii and taking notes on nickel and balloon respectively as i go along, ive done this with several characters before and i find it super fun). i would maybeee look her over for dependent personality disorder and borderline personality disorder, but Not to diagnose her with the full disorders themselves, more to analyze the dependent and borderline traits she seems to experience (tendencies). also would probably look into adhd or autism or both.

nickel stuff under the cut. it's long. tl;dr you can argue that nickel has hpd, aspd, and npd, but the most important to consider is hpd.

Histrionic Personality Disorder

nickel has hpd, credit to the lovely @t4twerewolves for bringing this up to me in the first place and introducing some of the symptoms he displays! i'll put down his hpd symptoms here and talk about each one.

1. is uncomfortable in situations where they are not the center of attention: yes, nickel is very attention-seeking! you gotta look at him like a school bully. he wants attention, he wants to be seen, he wants people to know who he is. the main point of hpd is that the hpder NEEDS attention. not just wants, but NEEDS. so even if they WANT positive attention, if they believe they can only get negative attention, they will stick with that (i talk about this more in my nickel analysis in the link above). nickel is seen constantly going for this negative attention, TRYING to provoke people, wanting them to get annoyed and Remember he exists and Give him the attention he’s starved for. which brings me to symptom 2.

2. interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior: yes. first of all, provocative in the context of the hpd dsm5 criteria means to provoke someone (as in: annoy people, start little arguments and fights, make jabs, etc.), not to be sexually provocative. in this case, nickel is EXTREMELY provocative. im sure you can think of times in the show where nickel purposely annoys people, but an example i particularly enjoy is in snapshot showdown, where nickel asks balloon why balloon doesnt believe in him. when balloon freaks out and tells nickel hes never believed in HIM (balloon) in the first place, nickel laughs and says he just wanted to see his reaction if he said that. the entire point of making that comment was to provoke balloon and get a big reaction out of him. again, look at nickel like a typical bully: he wants attention and reactions. i also recommend watching waffling about for more explicit examples of this behavior.

3. displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions: yes, nickel is shallow but plays up his reactions to ridiculous extents. a great example of his emotional display also rapidly shifting is in out of body experience, when he yells at clover and blames him for them all having died. he goes from angrily shouting at her with elaborate and theatrical wording about how “twisted fortune granted her wish” to immediately going deadpan and asking others their thoughts on the matter. actually, i’ll provide the clip to make it more obvious just how quick the change is:

he goes from dramatically calling her a privileged murderer to neutrally asking for opinions in an instant. i will say that nickel definitely has some intense feelings about clover (she really pushes him to think about his body and his feelings of inherent worthlessness as a nickel object, for one) but he still displays shallow and puffed up reactions around her and in other situations.

4. consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self: i would argue yes for this too, in fact, but it's often difficult to really go into this symptom since the characters are all objects (though its easier to prove with some characters, such as silver spoon). one thing ive noticed is that most ii hpders, such as lightbulb, paper, nickel, silver spoon, tend to wear things or care about their appearance more than other objects. lightbulb and her silly costumes, paper and his bowtie and santa hat, silver spoon and his skincare routine (and more explicit worries with his appearance)... and at the end of mazed and confused, nickel is wearing a somewhat extravagant outfit (for objects anyway) that he apparently bought with the money he got from scalping tickets. it’s eye-catching and unusual for any character to wear. i could go into his complicated feelings about his body as a nickel object (since it has to do with appearance) but it is technically irrelevant to the actual hpd symptom here and id like to research his self-image as a nickel more before talking about it in depth. either way, nickel cares about his appearance.

5. has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail: okay so this symptom means vague speech, speech that’s more about emotions and grandness rather than details or logic. hpders often base their opinions off of others (expanded upon in 7.) and an example of that for nickel is with his opinion of balloon. nickel vaguely expresses that balloon is awful, untrustworthy, just terrible in any way. he sticks to this extreme yet unfounded opinion and shuns balloon for ages even though he practically never dealt with balloon at all in s1 (since balloon's behavior there is the main grief the contestants have with him). nickel doesn’t have details to refer to; he’s just going along with what the majority says here. in s3, his opinion changes as he actually spends time with balloon. his speech is also generally confusing to understand. as ive been taking notes on nickel, ive had to stop for several minutes to deconstruct his lines and try to decipher what he’s saying. his manner of speech certainly isn’t precise or to the point. and another example of this symptom is him calling the new thinkers his “enemies at BEST” in best served cold, which is a very extreme (impressionistic) thing to say and clearly not what he actually thinks of them (which is just general dislike at first).

6. shows self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion: yes, nickel is QUITE theatrical! i still need to rewatch s2 but ive found many examples in s3. one of my favourites is in tragedy at 60 feet, when tea kettle tries to lure him and balloon into allying with her with hors d’oeuvres, and nickel starts loudly gagging and coughing then yells that he's REPULSED!!! then balloon tells him to calm down. its so unnecessarily dramatic and intense. i love it. there’s another scene in the episode where nickel slips on a banana peel and starts screaming for the doctor to come see him until balloon tells him he's fine, where he calms down immediately. that one's a combination of multiple symptoms (as most are) in fact, with 1. (seeking attention), 3. (rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions), and 6. (dramatic and theatrical behavior).

7. is suggestible (easily influenced by others or circumstances): i talk about this a bit in symptom 5, but nickel goes along with everyone when shunning balloon (and enforces it), despite not really having been affected by him in s1. he’s more contrarian than he is agreeable, but he still feels awkward actually standing out on his own (such as in try not to laugh challenge, where he gets uncomfortable and agitated once everyone disapproves of him for insulting yinyang so harshly) and tends to go for little jabs or arguments that he’s sure he can win (such as yelling at clover, who never fights back) rather than actually standing up for something he believes in. again, remember that he’s like a school bully! he goes for the easy targets and avoids real conflict.

8. considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are: so this is box. there’s some hints of this with balloon and suitcase but it’s more complicated when i could just talk about box. who is the perfect candidate to show this symptom of nickel’s. nickel is convinced box is a real living person. he talks to her about his decisions in the game, he asks for her opinion on things, he talks FOR her and assumes what she’s saying (nothing, in reality), and he even calls her his number one ally. all along, box is. a dead body. there is nothing there. even if box WAS alive but inanimate, this would still be an example of this symptom, because box tries to vote out nickel in s3 and lifering even mentions that box probably doesn’t want to be talked for. nickel thinks there is a close relationship of sorts here, when there is not.

here are some hpd subtypes (Theodore Millon, Personality Disorders in Modern Life, 2004):

hpd subtypes aren't super relevant anymore by the way, i just like categories. anyway, nickel has disingenuous hpd. which implies antisocial traits! interesting! so let’s take a look at aspd.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

1. failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest: technically yes. he gets suitcase to steal from meeple in theft and battery, but it IS part of the challenge in the show, so… that one's only a so-so for me. nickel also scalps people online, which isn’t illegal, but it is pretty lame. he tends to repeat these sorts of almost-illegal actions without going too far into breaking the rules (like using the pic-nix tables even though he’s banned), so we can infer that he doesn’t particularly respect authority but he IS still afraid of consequences and doesn’t have much desire to do more illegal things. he also tries to kill clover which is pretty illegal but it’s played comedically so im not sure how to interpret that? i still consider it an indication of this symptom, of course. overall, id say 1. ends up being a yes, mostly because i keep thinking of examples that fit just enough. he's clearly got the mindset.

2. deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit and pleasure: yes, nickel lies several times in ii, sometimes very blatantly (eg in best served cold, mephone asks nickel if the pie is two half-mile high pies stacked on top of each other, and nickel deadpans “No.”). he lies in theft and battery about suitcase’s willingness to steal for them. he cons others online through scalping for personal profit, buying an expensive outfit with the money he gets from it. he tricks suitcase into thinking he’s giving balloon a chance in kick the bucket, when he’s truly just setting them both up to fail. he’s fine with deceiving others.

3. impulsivity or failure to plan ahead: yes, nickel is pretty impulsive with his reactions, making them more exaggerated than they need to be (eg trying to kill clover in snapshot showdown) and not always planning ahead, just in his general behavior… an amusing example is the challenge in snapshot showdown beginning and nickel immediately running at top speed face first into the camera cabinet.

4. irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults: yes and no. nickel is very irritable and verbally aggressive, but he doesn’t often physically hurt people (since the symptom says “repeated” im keeping this in mind), since he does try to kill and injure clover but as far as i remember that's his only direct physical assault on someone. he also automatically dislikes most people (eg in best served cold where he calls the new thinkers his “enemies at best”) and is easily annoyed by others.

5. reckless disregard for safety of self or others: yes. using theft and battery again as an example, he puts suitcase in danger when forcing her to steal from meeple. he also tries to kill clover (and ends up injuring himself when he tests the trap with his foot, which one could say is reckless). im probably forgetting other examples.

6. consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations: not as far as i can see it. he does disregard safety, but he doesn't fall behind on obligations or anything. does fine in challenges.

7. lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another: id argue no. nickel feels guilty for making clover cry in title tbd (though it’s subtle: just a quick look after she runs away crying and a worried expression during the elimination when clover is being voted out) but he never actually apologizes to her. however, we know that apologizing is very hard for nickel, as we see in the scene in tragedy at 60 feet where he apologizes to tea kettle and balloon for his behavior in the episode (this doesn’t excuse him from not apologizing to clover for what he’s done to her, it just explains how nickel may feel remorse without ever doing anything about it). nickel shows remorse in the scene i just mentioned with tea kettle and balloon. he also shows remorse later on, apologizing to balloon in the great bluish bake off (even if i don’t care for the therapyspeak writing of this scene, nickel’s feelings here are still genuine). i can’t say if he feels remorse for what he did to suitcase or not, but with the evidence of other scenes here, i would say he probably secretly does.

so yes, nickel does technically qualify for aspd (at least 3 symptoms). but let’s just check a bit more. for funsies. the basis of aspd is mainly (as far as i know it) a need for autonomy and a lack of respect towards authority. he pretty much never respects authority (stealing from meeple, calling mephone insulting names, being very rude to tea kettle who we can infer is older than him, etc.). for need for autonomy, he does tend to avoid most people and is easily irritated by others, but he isn’t averse to having friends or depending on others like balloon or baseball. it’s pretty hard to gain his trust though, and he tends to stay loyal to the one person he chooses to respect. which can actually be a behavior some aspders have (respecting one or two people who feel Special and Deserving of it). in the end? i think it’s more fun to interpret nickel with aspd than not. if anyone wants to support or dispute this claim, feel free to talk about it in the comments or my askbox :) aspd is a personality disorder i know less about!

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

now, ive mentioned nickel having narcissistic tendencies before, but ive only ever looked him over for npd briefly and concluded he doesn’t have it. but its fun to recheck things. and since im already here, i’ll do an npd assessment of nickel too.

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (eg exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements): somewhat. nickel generally sees himself as inferior (which is normal for many npders), which i talk about more in my initial analysis at the top of this post in the context of his canon feelings of worthlessness. he tries to compensate for this in s2 in particular, turning himself into the leader of the armless alliance and forcing them to recognize him as superior. as far as i remember, he does not significantly exaggerate his achievements or talents.

2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love: yes. he becomes quite the tyrant in s2 to the armless alliance, relishing the little power he has and becoming quite agitated whenever he loses it (eg straight up threatening suitcase during the elimination in kick the bucket because he’s trying so hard to hold onto his power). he also enjoys being the director of the new thinkers in title tbd, and is charmed by them actually listening to him (until he remembers clover’s luck that was given to him). there’s also the “Oh, the things I’ll do for money…” line in stranded in paradise and the fact that he decks himself out in expensive clothes in mazed and confused, implying fantasies about riches as well.

3. believes that they are “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions): somewhat. i would argue that though nickel only respects very certain people (and still only to a limited extent), it’s more in an aspd way than an npd way. baseball and balloon aren’t high-status in any way, but they’ve EARNED his respect (although limited), which is another thing entirely than the npd symptom of wanting to associate with “worthy” people.

4. requires excessive admiration: no. nickel dislikes most people and accepts being disliked; he just needs attention, negative or positive. he does ENJOY admiration (title tbd is a great example of this, as he talks about wanting to be genuinely valued by others) but he does not require it in the same way someone like, say, silver spoon does. i believe he’s like most people are about admiration.

5. has a sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations): yes. in s2, he’s used to being listened to by the armless alliance, and becomes angry when he’s defied (eg being annoyed by suitcase befriending balloon in kick the bucket and tricking her into having balloon fail the challenge). in s3, though he’s not as entitled as he was before, he still insists on doing things his way (such as when he goes off to take photos of clover in snapshot showdown) or is ready to argue about it (such as when he openly asks to hear objections to him becoming the director in title tbd and is surprised when everyone agrees to it).

6. is interpersonally exploitative (takes advantage of others to achieve their own ends): yes. you can most clearly see this with nickel and suitcase in s2. a concrete example could be forcing suitcase to steal in theft and battery (I KNOW, im using this example AGAIN, it’s just a really messed up thing to do okay. it's a good example for many symptoms).

7. lacks empathy, is unable to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others (yes i changed the writing of this one slightly): yes. nickel clearly does not empathize with suitcase, balloon, clover, or others. he forces suitcase to comply with his demands while looking down on her for her kindness to balloon and her meekness. he shuns and puts down balloon without considering his attempts to redeem himself for a long time. he tries to hurt clover and yells at her multiple times, only realizing some of her pain when she runs away crying after he Literally screams that she’s a murderer. nickel still feels guilt and remorse, but he struggles to understand others’ feelings nevertheless.

8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of them: yes. nickel envies clover in a weird way (i still need to analyze it more), calling her privileged and lucky despite not actually wanting the luck for himself in the end. he’s unsatisfied with himself as a nickel object, being quite literally a low-worth object and becoming visibly upset at seeing dime in fff nickel for your thoughts. he’s afraid of being below others and envies those who might feel better than him on a level he can’t work around, like clover being born endlessly lucky and dime having more worth than him as an object.

9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes: yes. nickel looks down on people and generally dislikes them. he insults and makes jabs at people and struggles to see them as separate entities with feelings (lack of empathy), placing himself in a superior mental ranking. it’s kind of odd with nickel because his sense of worthlessness REEKS throughout the series (like you can easily spot it), but really, that IS how npd often works, isn’t it? he feels inferior and therefore decides that At Least everyone is actually way dumber and worse than him. making him superior in the end.

that’s 7 out of 9 (im counting “somewhat” as 0.5 each), which is enough to qualify for npd (minimum 5). congratulations nickel!

well this took me a few very very fun hours. quite the mental workout though. thank you very much for asking! my conclusion is that nickel has hpd (8/8), aspd (4.5/7), and npd (7/9), hpd being the most important. and though i don’t exactly think clover has any personality disorders, i recommend looking into causes and behaviors associated with dpd and bpd, since some of her actions line up with some of those traits.

[princesssarisa]

Character ask: Fiyero and Boq (Wicked)

I'm not really a die-hard Wicked fan, but here goes. This is for the musical only, since I haven't read the novel.

Warning: spoilers below.

Fiyero

Favorite thing about them: That despite seeming like a silly playboy at first, he proves to be a kindred sprit to Elphaba, who loves and respects her as she is, who tries to help and defend her when no one else in Oz is willing to do so, and who ultimately sacrifices everything for her, even (nearly) his life.

Least favorite thing about them: That he leads Glinda on by not breaking up with her even as he starts to fall for Elphaba, and then goes along with their engagement even though he doesn't want to marry her. He should have ended things between them long before it reached that point.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I can be snarky.

*I dislike fakeness and selling out.

*I can seem like just a fun-lover, but really I think and feel deeply.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I'm female.

*I'm not royalty.

*I was never a partying troublemaker in college.

Favorite line: His joke when Elphaba tells him she realizes he's not as shallow and self-absorbed as he seems:

"Excuse me, there's no pretense here: I happen to be genuinely self-absorbed and deeply shallow."

And these lines from his dialogue with Glinda at the beginning of Act II, where he calls her out on her tragic flaw of choosing fame and popularity over everything else:

"You can't leave because you can't resist this. And that is the truth."

And when she objects that no one could resist it: "You know who could. Who has."

brOTP: His horse Feldspur in the movie, and probably Boq, especially if we keep the Scarecrow and Tin Man's friendship in mind. Not to mention Dorothy, even though their interactions are kept offstage.

OTP: Elphaba.

nOTP: Glinda.

Random headcanon: Hmmm... In the movie, he really did eat grass as a child. He's not just joking when he says he did.

Unpopular opinion: I like him better than Glinda as a romantic partner for Elphaba. Of course I understand that Elphaba and Glinda's bond is more central and more fleshed out, I see the appeal of Gelphie as a ship, and I know how much Gelphie means to countless fans. But personally? Without denying Glinda's importance to Elphaba, I prefer Fiyero as her love interest. He embraces her values and comes through for her in a way that Glinda only does at the very end, and no attempts I've read by Gelphie shippers to dismiss that fact ring true for me. As a couple, Fiyeraba reminds me in many ways of Esmeralda and Phoebus in Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (these Stephen Schwartz musicals have recurring themes!), and I don't see many fans putting down that pairing, even though they're a bit underdeveloped too, and even though Esmeralda's friendship with Quasimodo is more central to the plot. On the contrary, the fans hold up their love as the main example of healthy love in that story! Besides, if we don't think Elphaba really loves Fiyero, then "No Good Deed" loses its power. If he's just "comphet" to her, why should his apparent death break her so much that she resolves to really be wicked and kidnaps Dorothy? And the reveal that he's still alive is what snaps her out of her breakdown and lets her reconcile with Glinda in the end. I have nothing against shipping Gelphie, but I can't dismiss Fiyeraba as just "boring comphet" the way most of the fandom seems to do.

Song I associate with them: "Dancing Through Life"

"As Long as You're Mine"

Favorite picture of them:

Norbert Leo Butz

Aaron Tveit

Andy Karl

Derrick Williams with Stephanie J. Block (more actors of color should play the role)

Adam Garcia with Idina Menzel

Jonathan Bailey in the movie

Boq

Favorite thing about them: Well, when we first meet him at least, he's a sweet, adorkable character, and if the Tin Man we know from The Wizard of Oz is a mostly accurate portrait of how he behaves on his journey with Dorothy, he never really loses those qualities.

Least favorite thing about them: First that he leads Nessarose on (a recurring flaw among the young men in this story, it seems) and lies about why he asked her out, even if his reason is to avoid hurting her. And later, of course, that he becomes such a bloodthirsty witch hunter, out to kill Elphaba for turning him into tin even though she saved his life by doing so.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I can be socially awkward.

*I'm not always good at standing up for myself.

*Sometimes I want to blame people for doing things that made me uncomfortable, when really those things were good for me.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I'm female.

*I've never had any romantic entanglements with witches.

*I've never been turned into tin.

Favorite line: His verse in "March of the Witch Hunters," even though it's his darkest moment:

And this is more than just a service to the Wizard I have a personal score to settle with El... With The Witch!

It's due to her I'm made of tin Her spell made this occur So for once, I'm glad I'm heartless I'll be heartless killing her!

And the Lion also has a grievance to repay If she'd let him fight his own battles When he was young He wouldn't be a coward, today!

brOTP: In the Shiz days before things go bad, Fiyero, Nessarose, Elphaba and Glinda (especially in the deleted scene from the movie that shows them all hanging out together). And after he becomes the Tin Man, Dorothy.

OTP: None.

nOTP: Nessarose or Glinda.

Random headcanon: When he sees Elphaba "melt," he'll be unexpectedly horrified; he'll find himself remembering their days at Shiz and the girl she once was, and realize that seeing her die horribly doesn't feel as good as he thought it would. (I'm basing this on the Tin Man's close-to-tears face after the Witch melts in the 1939 Wizard of Oz: we'll see if Wicked: For Good has Ethan Slater react in a similar way or not.)

Unpopular opinion: Even though he's far from blameless, nothing justifies Nessarose stripping him and all the other Munchkins of their rights and forcing him to stay with her, then trying to magically brainwash him into loving her. He may deserve some karma for lying about his feelings for her, but he doesn't deserve all that.

Song I associate with them:

His part in "Dancing Through Life"

"March of the Witch Hunters"

Favorite picture of them:

Christopher Fitzgerald

Riley Costello

Ethan Slater in the movie

[cassylost-inspace]

INTRO!!

Haiii :33 I'm Cassy anddd welcome to my 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 blog!!🐺🐺🐺 /nsrs/silly

I am an Arab, mentally ill (I have quiet BPD, GAD and hypers3xuality 😕), Muslim and minor

Im an intp 🥳

I really care for making the world a better place, despite not being so well myself 😔💔

I am an aspiring writer/artist!! I hope I can one day create something to represent Arab women a great light ❤️

I have absolutely no idea what I want to major because there are alot of things I consider intriguing,, I'm smart ig it's kinda what I'm known for (but I'm really bad at math, don't try me 😭😭)

I love fan inanimate insanity SOO MUCH,, he's my favorite character ever!!

(Im a minor don’t send me anything weird plz ☺️)

Kinnies::

(The extended list is on my Pinterest)

• cabby (iii)

•five (bfb)

•Test tube (ii)

•Fan (ii)

•Lightbulb (ii)

•Asuka (nge)

•four (bfb)

•Ruby (bfb)

•book (tpot)

•gelatin (bfb)

•Leafy (bfb)

•sayori (ddlc)

•Twilight sparkle/sci-twi (mlp)

•spinel (SU)

•Peridot (SU)

Here are most of my interests I have more I just probably forgot to put them 😭😭😭:

Dandy's world, sprunki, Theatre,Disney animated shows, Pixar, animation in general honestly 🤷‍♀️

ZEEVERSE 😻😻😻

I also love things like literature, science (biology, marine biology, chemistry, etc.) mythology, Physcology,, just alot of things that end in "ology" 😭

I mostly post about the osc and dandy's world though because they're my current hyperfixations 😔💔

Also I read books (mostly classics, Asian literature, female rage, coming of age, fantasy and graphic novels/comics) 🤯🤯

INTERACT

•Multifandom accs

•Osc fans

•Artists (duhh)

•Small accs

•Multishippers

•Outcasts ☹️

DNI

•(Basic dni criteria ☺️)

•Anti-therians

•Anti-furries

•Bullies in general 😭😭

•Ppl who mock disabilities (ableism)

•Ppl who hate on fandoms for no reason

•The fun police (go away!!!)

・"why do you still watch cartoons aren't you too old for that??"

THIN ICE

•Idk man

•Vivziepop supporters

•If u go on a post related to a certain ship and comment,, "ermm actually I think ... Is better 🤓👆!!" Nobody asked you bro 😗😗

•Fan ii haters 🥲

COOL PEOPLE!!::

@millylostintheosc (my wife 😌😌/plat)

@ryuatewater

@zeeposting and @zee-thezebra

@cloudstongue

@biblicallyaccuratefour

@noahthegreat4

@zombieefish

@atlasprefects

@homobrainjuice

@gardeniasilly

@trolling-pip

@ossydrawsthingz335

@ilovehatefulfan

@random-artistic-idiot

@cemetaryvampire

@vaporwar3

@alexthemacaronian

GO FOLLOW MY POOKIE BEAR NOW 😡😡😡

@millylostintheosc

"Oh no... I know too much.. See ya Test tube... "

Anyways ii movie dni /j 💕💕

[microknifeyuri]

Nickel's sense of guilt and fear of change. [Character/II S3 Episode 14 Analysis, part 1/?]

Today, the longest episode of Invitational has dropped, and I have many thoughts of it as well. Might do more posts analyzing the events that ocurred as of now in canon, but I would like to talk about the heaviest part in the lore and how most people are not getting it completely (in my opinion), and that being: Nickel's current point of view of Balloon and his relationship with Suitcase and BB.

We all know that Nickel's actions hurted the Grand alliance, but what happened in the episode is that they showed how apparently, Nickel doesn't get exactly that things were completely fucked up.

In the episode, he mainly focuses on the good memories he had with BB and Suitcase, and doesn't even seem to hate Suitcase either, unlike what most people thought (me included to an extent, though I did see him being hurt mostly with their relationship and what happened in s2), but.

Nickel doesn't realize that he actually fucked up with them a lot, and that's the main issue.

Like, sure. He knows that stuff were messy at points but that's all he says. He mainly focuses on the good moments he had with them, maybe that's a product of him growing once he got eliminated and came to terms with himself that "well yeah there was a bit complicated shit but we still had fun together", but deep down he feels a sort of... guilt? Regarding Suitcase.

But even then, Balloon scolds him for trying to erase the times where Nickel made all of them feel bad. Hell! Even then Balloon recognizes that Nickel hurted Baseball deeply! And he says how Suitcase was the only one who had enough courage to stand up for her! Because hey! Nickel did use the same treatment that he used with Suitcase on Baseball! But the difference is that BaseBall kept making excuses for him!

The person who Nickel has been, alongside Baseball, "ignoring" of some sorts, has been Suitcase.

But here's the thing as well: Nickel doesn't know how to make things better again.

Nickel doesn't understand... feelings and complex emotions to put it shortly. He's afraid of change, and the way he just ignores the bad stuff that happened and tries to say that it's the only way that things can work, is... somewhat sad. Nickel doesn't understand a lot of stuff. He probably thinks that, at the end of the day, those were just little conflicts and that there was more good than bad.

But... that would mean he would also be running away from his consciousness over what Suitcase told him.

About how none of what they had was real.

He doesn't realize the damage he has done because hey. As much as you all like to think that Nickel didn't have his reasons to be a dick towards Balloon, he did. He actually did. He even mentions it in this episode, that if Balloon didn't try to manipulate everyone just as S1 started, maybe things would be different.

Nickel SAW and KNOWS Balloon's by his awful actions, and he wanted to protect BaseBall and Suitcase from him, since he thinks that Balloon CAN'T be trust-worthy after everything he did in S1.

That's why he was so aggressive as well towards Balloon. Yes, he cared for BaseBall, but he also cared for Suitcase deeply. The thing is that Suitcase was Balloon's friend, and Nickel can't bring himself to think that someone who he saw being such an awful person, could possibly be targetting someone who he cares about as well. So that's why he tried to push Balloon away for so long. He tried to keep his relationship with Suitcase and BB, he even says it in S2 when Suitcase confesses that she voted for him.

But of course, this is even more complicated. Both Nickel and Balloon fucked up, but Nickel fucked up for a longer time. Balloon was actually changing, and Nickel did only take the protective stance when this was happening. Which like, Nickel was right on that. He had his reasons to NOT trust Balloon. The problem is that he couldn't accept that Balloon was changing, and that he wasn't realizing that his actions were hurting both BB and Suitcase.

What I think that people don't get, or what hurts me the most, is the fact that Nickel is in denial. But it's merely the fact that when he hears Suitcase's voice, he doesn't get angry or mad, or even panics, no.

He's just... shocked.

What are you supposed to tell someone who went through hell, thanks to you, even if you tried to protect her from whom you thought was bad? What are you supposed to tell the friend who you tried to protect and instead hurted them in awful ways?

What are you even supposed to do in that situation?

It's not only that, but the fact that he didn't even think twice when walking towards her, didn't even question if she was truly Suitcase. Like, he immediately went on and tried to explain himself to her-

He completely forgot about everything because he wanted to talk to her and, I do think that he feels guilty for what he did, but he can't put it to words/can't understand it completely after all- but his first instict after seeing Suitcase is to talk to her about it.

He wants to explain himself to her- maybe even apologize, but he doesn't know how.

The thing is that Nickel is smart. With logical stuff, not feelings, according to Adam himself. And that fucks it all up for him.

Nickel can't handle change.

Suitcase can understand change.

Balloon is always changing.

And BaseBall can't keep up with it.

And that shows it here.

Nickel is a complicated character. Guilt is eating him constantly but he lacks emotional intelligence. He can accept that stuff went wrong, but seem doesn't understand what or why they did go wrong.

He regrets what he did to Suitcase most likely judging from his behaviour the mere second he saw her, but he can't tell why exactly. Same thing as Nickel probably realizing that he keeps on messing up the more he clings into that mentality. He tries to move on from the past, but he can't. He even says it. There's no way to make things feel better as of now, so that's why he pretends.

But there is a way.

He just... needs to talk it out with Suitcase and Balloon.

That being said, thank you for reading this.

[redacteddoesstuff]

II S2 Ep 17 Spoilers

I'll be talking about what I got right from my previous theory post and some newer ones too.

Theory 1: The contestants aren't gone forever

This didn't happen. However I do think it will. I am one of the people who think there will be an act 3. Mostly because there are a lot of loose ends and plot points that they brought up (even just in this episode).

I am now more sure then ever that this is how their going to bring the contestants back. Or at least it will be an important part.

The fact that they continue to focus on soaps phone kinda proves that to me. Why bring so much attention to something meaningless.

Theory 2 (well not really a theory, more of a question): What about bow and dough?

Bow and dough are indeed created by Mephone. Which also means that Mephone can create soul-like-substitutes. Which is wild.

Theory 3: Mephone didn't know he created the contestants.

I was right with this one! Yippee! Kinda. While he didn't remember creating them, he did assign them personalities and quirks. What Cobs really did here was make Mephone put 2 and 2 together.

What I believe happened was after Mephone escaped he was like "Time to start a reality show! Wait... I need people for that" and his subconscious was like "haha, wait a minute, we already did that" and spawned in the contestants. Seeing as he had an interview with suitcase, a season 2 contestant, we can assume that the rest of season 2 and 3 contestants were all subconsciously spawned in, then held an interview with Mephone.

The picture below is just to highlight that even the season 3 contestants where characterized by Mephone.

Also I haven't seen enough people talk about how genuinely awful and disgusting what Cobs did here. It actually makes me kinda ill.

Theory 3: Mephone is part Prime Shimmer

I was also right with this one! I am on a roll! Mephone being a Shimmer just makes sense narrative wise.

Now, onto the theories/observations I have after this episode.

I don't think Mephone knew he could freeze everyone. Besides the fact that he didn't know he created them an therefore wouldn't think that was something that he was capable of, just look at him.

He has no idea what's happening around him. He's far more focused on the season 3 folder then his surroundings.

I also don't think Mephone created the island. He may have terraformed it but I don't believe he can straight up created an entire island.

And like I said earlier, I really don't think that this is the end.

Reason 1: the loose ends/plot points

It feels weird to me if they brought up important information just for it not to be used. Like Bow's tail story/coming back from the dead, Soap's phone, and the Prime Shimmers. Not to mention all the people who would still be there, like Mepad, Bow, Dough, Bot, Baxter, and the Prime Shimmers (and maybe toilet too? But that is a huge maybe in my books). Or even The Unvitational Committee. What do they feel about everything that's happened. What are they gonna do now everyone's gone.

Reason 2: common act structures.

While this is admittedly one of the weaker points, as they're allowed to do whatever they want, I think it's important to bring up. "Act" is a very specific word choice, and most stories follow a three act structure.

Reason 3: The themes.

II has a really prominent theme through the entire show, you don't have to be what others think of you. It can be seen within most character arcs. This episode is kinda the antithesis to that theme. Even the title "Through No Choice of Your Own" highlights that.

Reason 5: Brian said that there will be 2 special guest voice actors and we haven't gotten that yet.

Reason 6: He also specifically said "multi-part." People don't tend to say multi-part for 2 episodes, optioning to say two-parter instead.

Reason 7: Adam deleted his account shortly after he made(?) it. He also died from Mephone X. However this could just be nothing more then a fun way to leave and I'm looking to far into things. I thought it was important to bring up anyway.

Reason 8: General vibes.

While II has had lots of sad moments before, they usually have some kind of happy/bittersweet/hopeful ending. This is just depressing, with little to no upside.

Look man. I'm gonna be honest. This is mostly me sipping copium. I genuinely can't fathom there being no act 3. Like, that's not even an option. This ending is so genuinely horrible (emotionally) it's unreal. I might make another post just about how awful this all is for Mephone specifically. Like, it's the worst possible outcome from him. Anyways, post is ending here. I had some more ideas but I forgot them.

[autisticrosewilson]

Todd Family Tree pt. 1

I know you guys have been waiting with baited breath for this (Read: no one but me and a handful of select mutuals care), but fret not because it's finally here.

Let's start with the side of Jason's family we know the most about, Willis's. A lot of things I'll have to say about Willis himself will be things I've said before with maybe some new additions, but a lot of the focus will be on his relationships with his family anyway so hopefully it won't get too repetitive.

Someone on my last Todd Family post commented that the Ma Gunn aspect may have been retconned, however I already integrated it into my personal canon so let's just keep going shall we?

Also shout-out to @perseus-jackass who let me ramble to them about all of this and helped me iron out some of the finer details!

The Todd/Gunn Family; Canon:

- Willis reportedly named Jason after his father, Jason Todd Sr.

- Faye Gunn II is the niece of Willis which implies Willis has at least one sibling that is never mentioned, although Faye was either raised by or very close to Ma

- Faye was named after Ma implying that whichever sibling she was raised by was close to Ma

- Assuming Gunn is her maiden name, or perhaps an alias, she didn't keep her husband's last name and Jason Sr. Is never mentioned, which could mean that they split or that he's dead

- Obviously from a meta textual stand point the reason Ma Gunn was never mentioned as Jason's grandmother is because it was a later retcon, but in universe this and Willis's choice to keep his father's last name implies he wasn't fond of his mother/was closer to his father

Sub note: The candidates for Jason's mother included Lady Shiva (I'll get into my thoughts on her in Part 3) and an Israeli woman. Edit: @ammomancer informed me that Jason was Spanish (Basque specifically) in the Bombshells continuity as well!

- Ma was implied to be from Australia, and likely taught there for a time.

- Ma implied that she had sons, and possibly that they're dead. (I have obviously disregarded this, but I'm not against the interpretation that one or both of the girls are trans.)

So my version of Jason is black/Asian/Latino! I think he's Japanese/Indian from his mom and black/Latino from Willis so keep that in mind.

Fleshing Them Out; My Expansion:

I'll start with Ma Gunn, since we see the most of her in the comics and she has the most groundwork laid for her already. Mostly I'd like to make her a little more complex.

She's proven to be a ruthlessly pragmatic character, but I don't see her being someone who does what she does for fun. She's someone who values control, someone who doesn't take perceived slights lightly. I imagine growing up a woman on Gotham's streets with so many relations to organized crime builds grit, spawns bitterness and hate. She seems like the type to value tradition - in the Gotham crime family way- this is how she was raised and the way she raised her own children. There is no changing the world they live in, only surviving it. I think she really wanted to teach her kids, both the ones she birthed and the ones she fosters, how to survive.

That's not to say she really cares though, I don't think she's close enough to anyone to really care, even if maybe in the early days of motherhood she wanted to be. She's a stone cold bitch and she's proud of it, she made her kids strong and look at the reputation it's given her. Ma Gunn's school for wayward boys isn't just for strays anymore, there are some big names dropping their brats off for training these days. Crime lord daycare. Truly, only in Gotham.

Jason Todd Sr. Is a non-character. We know basically nothing but his name and that his marriage failed, and he's probably very dead. Which may or may not be related to said failed marriage.

Do I think Ma hired a hit on her husband? I wouldn't put it past her. I think she'd get rid of anyone if they were dragging her or the family down.

We can assume he was close to Willis, and I like to think that Mr. Todd was the homemaker because I can't really imagine Ma staying home to tend the kids. It's more likely her version of family bonding was a bank heist. Willis may have very well learned to drive from high speed car chases.

I think it would be very funny if Mr. Todd is from some third or fourth rate crime family that's using a mechanic shop as a front but Mr. Todd was actually really interested in it so he got an engineering degree and had little to nothing to do with the actual crime side of things. Maybe his family married him off to make him someone else's problem and while the Gunn's aren't a notable crime family they have a lot of resources and a lot of contacts, not to mention the small army of feral children.

Ma thought she was getting a seasoned criminal to help fund her illicit activities but instead he's a stay at home dad who has turned their home into a board game because he insists on fixing it all himself (if you use the microwave the doorbell might ring and you need a screw driver to use the shower ect.)

A lot of the experiences I associate Jason having with Willis I imagine Willis had with Mr. Todd, doing homework together, working on cars in the garage, Willis definitely learned how to cook from Mr. Todd because I just don't think Ma can do better than hamburger helper and public school lunch.

For the sibling situation, and I have no real evidence canon has completely left the building with this one, but I think he has sisters. Middle child Willis and also boy who grew up with all sisters Willis is real to me for reasons I couldn't say.

Completely made both of them up, but this is my house I can do what I want.

I'll start with the oldest sister, who I've decided to call Celia. I think she's the closest to her mother, the one who took over after her. Probably a serious, studious kind of person, she grew up with more opportunities than Ma did so she probably had more schooling. I can definitely see Celia as someone who worked her ass off to bring home good grades to make her mom proud and always falling short because Ma didn't really value traditional education.

Her and Willis definitely clashed growing up, Willis never liked Ma but Celia idolized her. Where Ma's crude demeanor and distance drove Willis to acts of rebellion it made Celia even more desperate to please.

Although I'm sure Willis would deny it, I think it's still a sore spot to him that Celia's way kind of worked. Once she got old enough to really learn about the business Celia was great at it, Ma started coming around to the benefits of having someone better with the numbers and paperwork.

I think that even after Willis leaves he genuinely tries to keep in touch with everyone, I don't think he ever stops trying to reach out to Celia. I don't think he agrees with who she became even if he saw it coming, regardless of how much he doesn't like their mother (he'd never say he hates her) Celia is still the girl who put bandaids on his scraped knees and let him crawl into her bed when he had nightmares and he can't bring himself to cut contact with her.

Celia is nicer than Ma, more adept at caring for the kids and because of this she earns their trust more which ultimately makes them more loyal to the Gunn's. This is a purposeful tactic because although she does see the kids as her own she doesn't see anything wrong with manipulating them for her gain. They're family, and family always want to help each other.

Jason was not allowed to visit his auntie, and didn't even know his grandmother was still alive.

I don't think she'd have a husband or boyfriend, a romantic relationship would take too much attention away from her business and if there's one thing she learned from her mother it's that a man would only drag her down or try to control her.

Willis is, to the surprise of no one, is who I have the most to say about but I'll try to keep it brief. For all he gets a bad rep I think he's a family man at heart, I'm positive he always planned on kids even if he wasn't sure about settling down with anyone at first.

Mostly because his mom kept trying to arrange marriages which is how he ended up dating Sheila for a time...which obviously didn't work out. One could say he wasn't keen on a repeat performance after that fell apart.

Man whore I fear, Gotham's fourth most bisexual man. Where's that one post about the goon who causes a distraction for his boss by making out with the bank teller and his wife. That's literally him Willis Todd ghost wrote that post. I'll get more into his various relationships in Part 3.

This man was born to tell dad jokes and wear funky ties but he's forced to live a life of violence and crime. Because of poverty and generational trauma.

I think the most tragic part of Willis Todd is that he tried. He loved his wife and he loved Jason and he gave everything he had to providing for them so Jason wouldn't have to grow up like he did but it ended the same anyway. And he'd never be disappointed in Jason, although Jason thinks he would, because home knows his son and he knows Jason wouldn't do it unless he really thought he was helping people.

I know everyone holds the opinion that Catherine was the most serious about Jason's school but I argue it's Willis, Cathy taught Jason to love learning but Willis taught him the importance of it. I think Willis always got good grades but he never went to college because part of ditching his family was ditching their money and most of what he made went towards supporting himself.

I've named the youngest sister Joan, and I think it's important to define her relationships more than her personality for reasons I'll get into in a bit.

For continuity's and sake I'll say she was a pre-teen when Willis moved out at 18-19, which would give her a large gap between both Willis and Celia - who I imagine are maybe two or three years apart - age wise. So while Willis likely tried to take care of her, to influence her away from their mom and sister, I don't think he was super fond of being at home to begin with so I don't think he was around much and I think Mr. Todd died not long after she was born so she didn't really have the gentle hand that Wills did growing up.

This left her with little to rely on but Ma and Celia, it was a real rock and hard place. Ma is honest in her ruthlessness at least, but Celia uses her love as a tool for manipulation. I'm sure she grew up right beside the other kids at Ma's school.

So I think it's no wonder that when she found herself with a baby she had no clue how to take care of, it was very easy for her mom and sister to convince her to give the baby over. Easy for Joan to decide that her daughter was in better hands with Celia as her mother.

And then Joan...vanished. No note, no phone call, no body. Most suspect it was Ma who did it, even though the woman had her kids - former and present - rip the city apart looking for her. No one knows the full story, and no one knows Joan Gunn's whereabouts.

Well, no one except Willis Todd, not that anyone else knows that.

Faye Gunn II has a lot of potential. I think there's a chance for her to parallel Jason. They both grew up on the streets and both have affiliations with organized crime, but where Faye is comfortable perpetuating the cycle of violence expected of the Gunn women Jason spends every night busting his ass to make sure another kid never has to go through what he did.

I also think it would be fun if maybe Faye wasn't entirely human, y'know give her a little bit of meta gene as a treat. Beast Boy isn't using the name Changeling anymore and I've long subscribed to Gotham operating by faerie rules so maybe she can borrow it for a few issues.

I don't have many thoughts on her as is but I'd like to do more with her in the future!

This got really long and I'm certain it will only get longer with the next additions. The next part will focus on the Clemens/Johnson family! Catherine Todd lovers stay tuned for part 2. Remember that all of this is just how I view them based on the cookie crumbs we get about them in canon.

[positivelyamazonian]

Hello again! I'm curious, what are your thoughts about the fandom debating how they disliked how Core decided to make Lara more evil in Tomb Raider 3? Like killing the pilot in the helicopter in cold blood at the end of the game, murdering most of Coastal Village, and so on... I think some people just didn't like her attitude overall in Tomb Raider 3 so I wanted to know what you thought. I'm kind of mixed on it but I still enjoy the game overall, especially the theme song!

I think it's mostly a sterile debate. In the 90s - and beyond - no one cared or put mind into moral compasses or setting good example... just for having fun. I don't see that much difference in Lara's attitude throughout Core's games. She could wipe out all the Tibetan monks in Barkhang monastery, Tomb Raider II. She let Pierre fall to his death in cold blood in Tomb Raider Chronicles. She had quite classist and cruel lines you could say to Janice in TRAOD. You killed lots and lots of Bedouins in The Last Revelation, even in self-defense. And of course, all that you mentioned about TR3.

Back then you saw these things and shrugged them away like it's for fun. Don't forget Tomb Raider is shaped after action adventure movies/stories, where the lives of anyone but the main character didn't matter at all, racist and colonialist jokes were usual and part of the comedic relief, and so on. In so many aspects Tomb Raider reflects the same mindset, even if it wasn't intentional on part of the creation team. Lara is an adventurer that plunders and robs cultural heritage for sport, and would kill in cold blood anyone that gets in her way. She's been always like this.

So for me, debating what it's obvious it's kinda a waste of time. They were games. We can't change it now. Is it wrong? Of course. Is it acceptable to keep writing characters and plots like this nowadays? Totally unacceptable. Shall we condemn it? We condemn it. And then we start playing again.

Acknowledging the shortcomings of the media we enjoy is the least that we can do. But apart of that I don't see the reason to cancel. It is wrong, it was done this way, we can't change it, only acknowledge how wrong it is.

For me Lara was never "good", but calling her "evil" would be not quite exact either. Maybe it's time to read this again? Many parts have not aged well but for the most my point still stands.

Thanks for asking!

To be fair that pilot was ogling her from head to toe or has not fandom yet noticed?