#in the way that I would have The Ship for a lot of them I mean

[halogenwarrior]

I would like to add to this: I know it gets often said that fans gravitate towards male characters and pairing up male characters because of wanting relationships with equality of power, with people countering how these stories have stereotypically gendered power dynamics all the time, just with two men. And I think the key is it's not about equality of power, but equality of sincerity.

The thing is, a lot of people (especially in the fan fiction writer demographic, but really a lot of humans in general) love sincere, powerful emotions in their fiction, and that's what often draws them to characters. They love seeing characters struggle and suffer, whether in a tragic tone or them ultimately triumphing over it, they love seeing characters have strong emotional bonds with each other deeply meaningful to their arcs where they would do anything for the other person (this particularly relevant to the reference I was making to fans writing shipping stuff), and they love both characters who wear their emotions on their sleeves and characters who don't, but have cathartic emotional transformations that forces them to face their emotions in their darkest times rather than just being stoic with unexplored depths 24/7, and perhaps growing into greater empathy and openness.

And the problem with this is that all of these forms of sincerity, in fictional narrative (in the qualities women are portrayed with) and in real life (in the qualities women are stereotypically ascribed), have been historically weaponized against women to show them as more sincere in those ways than men and portraying that as a negative thing. Women breaking down under intense suffering being used to "put them in their place" or fetishized, romances or other relationships between a woman and a man where the woman is so sincere about her love for the man that it absorbs her whole character and leaves nothing of dignity, competence or other facets of the self while the man is not all that sincere and just sees the woman as one small facet of his life, relationships between a woman and children where their deep love for the children is exploited narratively to show she should be nothing but a vessel for them without individuality, passionately emotional women shown as hysterical and unworthy of respect, less outwardly emotional women whose development into opening up more is inextricably tied to them becoming passive, feminine and "knowing their place" rather than having active goals and "cool" qualities.

So this leads to a situation where people are understandably jumpy about any of these narrative tropes being applied to women because of this weaponization of them, and try to make female characters in an insecure manner that avoids them. But all of these expressions of narrative emotional sincerity they are avoiding still remain things people find very compelling in characters and their stories, which means there is a whole range of narrative beats people are avoiding in women, and often in an annoyingly "meta" way (i.e woman who is guarded and strong not so much because her particular personality, life circumstances and outlook made it that way or she is trying to put on a front to herself or other people within the story, but because she is trying to prove something to the audience and always seems halfway through the fourth wall). People don't like the insincere female characters like this either, because they don't like insincere characters in general. And as long as there is a constant avoidance of things that tend to be compelling and popular in characters due to their sincerity and emotional resonance when it's a woman, women are going to be less popular.

And if someone does include those beats, even if they do it in a way that avoids the sexist weaponization that has often historically come with them when they are used on women, with their arcs basically being the same as male characters who had the same beats and characterization and are loved for it, people are so paranoid and tired of seeing it in women that they see them as a misogynistic stereotype anyway, and the character fails to get "credit" or love for it even when they are well-written. Because people often tend to laser focus on a given trope as sexist in the most literal sense, like an A.I would view it, rather than realizing it's the particular framing behind it that makes it sexist (or racist, etc., this happens with all manner of bigoted tropes) and if you took away the framing it would just be a neutral character trait or story beat. For example, the whole discourse around the "serious, practical woman in comedy show or media where people are doing exciting things " and the "manic pixie dream girl", which seem like opposite tropes but are really united in how they deny the man humanity. The problem isn't that the woman is serious, it's that they are serious in a genre where the exciting, funny or uncouth things are used as the medium to explore the character's humanity and make them interesting, so them refusing to participate in it makes them not be as human or interesting. The problem isn't that the woman is silly and free-spirited, it's that the narrative has no interest in the internal thought process, background and outlook that led them to be like that and just uses them as a vessel for a man's development (which leads in the worst case to real women who have those superficial traits but obviously not the narrative framing to be called manic pixie dream girls). As a result of all this you have things like posts I've actually seen where someone explicitly said "I would hate my favorite male character if he were a woman because he suffers so much in the narrative" (even though the suffering is part of why they love the male character). The fear of weaponization of sincerity makes people dislike it in a woman when they would like the same thing in a man, even when in this particular case it is not having the weaponizing framing and is literally just a gender swap of the male version.

There's something extremely depressing to me about how many people just don't want to get weird with female characters the way they do with male characters.

Like, I can kind of see why a lot of people feel weird about writing about bad things happening to female characters, but what it leads to is everyone putting female characters up on a shelf where you can admire them but you can't actually do anything interesting with them because that might be sexist or just make people feel bad. And I think that's actually a whole lot worse in the long run.

[letterboxdd]

Seeing a lot of weird takes on Bix and I think what people need to realise is that not all people are cut out to be soldiers. You can be a part of the Rebellion but not actively participate on missions.

Bix is a mechanic. A mechanic living a somewhat normal life - apart from selling illegal parts to Luthen - on Ferrix. Then everything changes. She’s beaten and sees her boyfriend shot and killed right in front of her eyes - because of her, because he tried to save her. Then she’s left to sit and stare at his dead body until Paak and Wil helps her get away. After that, there’s the capture, interrogation, torture. She is brave, she is strong, she doesn’t tell them what they want at first. But eventually she breaks.

The torture is horrifying. You can see how much it changes her, she is so out of it, she is broken, when Cassian rescues her she even tries to stay saying ”No, they’ll get angry.”

A year later we find her on Mina-Rau and we see that she still suffers from nightmares. During the day she looks somewhat content, doing her job as a mechanic on a peaceful planet, the moment with Wil and Bela is sweet and shows us that. But the threat of the Imperial ship brings that fear back immediately.

Then she is brutally attacked, almost raped, and ends up killing her attacker with a hammer and shooting an imperial. This is the first time we ever see Bix kill someone. Then she loses another friend, Brasso.

One year later, things are very different. No longer peacefully hiding out on some planet, she has joined Cassian to go on missions for Luthen. One thing remains the same: She still has nightmares.

What’s interesting about this nightmare compared to the first one is that in the one on Mina-Rau, Dr. Gorst comes after her, standing over her, removing her blanket, the one thing she had for comfort when she was captured on Ferrix.

In the nightmare on Coruscant, there’s Dr. Gorst and a dead soldier who Bix feels guilty over because we learn later that Cassian killed the soldier because he saw Bix’s face.

But in this dream, the way Dr. Gorst is talking to her, it’s not really as if he is an enemy to Bix. It’s almost as if Bix sees herself on the same level as Dr. Gorst.

She’s a killer now and she’s not handling it well.

We see Bix taking drugs in order to sleep. She can’t stop seeing the dead soldier’s face. When Cassian is away on Ghorman, the place becomes a mess. When Luthen visits she says ”I’m not loving Coruscant”, and you can tell she feels boxed in. When Cassian returns and asks how she’s doing, she dodges the question.

Luthen sends them on the mission to kill Dr. Gorst and she gets her revenge. We see her smile when she walks away, the Bix is back.

Jump to arc 7-9, Bix and Cassian are living on Yavin. This is definitely the most healthy that Bix has ever looked since before her captivity on Ferrix. They have a cozy home, they live among people who are fighting for the Rebellion, the one thing she has left except for Cassian. And oh, do we find out how strongly she believes in the Rebellion here. Much more so than Cassian who is struggling and wanting to leave.

Here is where I see people wanting Bix to go to Ghorman and kill Dedra. After all the things listed above, I think it’s quite clear that she’s not a soldier. In the end, Bix is a mechanic, she is brave and she is strong, she’s a fighter and a survivor but she’s not a soldier. I think I can draw a parallell to Mon Mothma’s character here and state for the record that women can be fierce and strong and interesting characters without being ruthless killers.

And while I’m sure I would have enjoyed seeing Bix killing Dedra if that’s the way they went with her character, I do actually like that they went this way with Bix. After everything she has been through and all the dealing with her trauma, I find it more interesting that she doesn’t go down that path but instead went with a more healthy path. Besides, we have other female characters for the ruthless soldier type of roles - such as Vel and Cinta.

Now for the ending. Bix makes the most selfless, difficult, cruel sacrifice. Leaving Cassian - the one who she has leaned on during her recovery, the one she can not even remember not knowing, the love of her life - behind for the sake of the Rebellion.

This is Bix’s choice.

In the chaos that’s been following them, with the danger that’s been surrounding them, it’s quite clear Cassian has taken the lead. This can be shown in the scene at the end of S2x09 where he says he wants to leave and I quote ”We’ll leave before it gets too complicated.”. He didn’t ask what she wanted, it was merely ”I’ll talk to Draven tomorrow.”

I’m not at all looking down at Cassian as a character, I love him as much as I love Bix, I’m merely stating the facts here.

Then Bix makes her own choice. It is a cruel one, very much so, because she makes the choice for them, for him, and leaves him without saying goodbye in person.

It’s not fair to him.

But it is a selfless act, all for the of the sake of the Rebellion. Bix believed that he had an important part to play in the Rebellion (and we know that she was right).

That is a very interesting story arc to me. She made her choice. And along the way, she realised that she was no soldier like Cassian and instead she found her own path. And had we gone down the soldier path, the only way to write her out before Rogue One would have been to kill her off and I am glad we didn’t get that for Bix after everything that she has been through.

Sure, it would have been interesting to see what else Bix did on Yavin but there are a lot of storylines and too little screentime. I’d like to believe she did work as a mechanic for the Rebellion there, doing what she’s best at. Knowing Bix, I’m sure she wouldn’t just sit in the house all day and wait for Cassian, some people seem to believe that if you’re not a fighter for the Rebellion then you’re simply a housewife.

Besides, even if she would have became a housewife, if that’s what she became content with after all her trauma, then good for her.

But I doubt that’s what she became. What I love about this show is that they don’t need to spell it all out for you. Her skills as a mechanic are also very useful to the Rebellion, every single person and their contribution matters.

In conclusion, not everyone are cut out to be soldiers but that does not diminish their character.

[quadrantadvisor]

This post reminded me of the time I got entranced by the idea of in-universe rpf and wrote an "excerpt" of a hypothetical accidental selfcest fanfic.

The Lore tm is that in a universe where Bernard never met Tim, he became a prolific Capes RPF writer as well as conspiracy theorist, and that the popularity of the Bruce Wayne/Batman ship gave him the fun idea of pairing up the Wayne kids with Batclan counterparts, which lined up surprisingly well! Tim, who frequents the Gotham Capes RPF tag for normal reasons (as a kid he wrote a surpisingly popular series of gen fics where his self insert oc got adopted by Batman, he was like 11 don't judge him) sees this fic and finds certain details, such as, y'know, shipping his family members with themselves, highly suspicious. He must investigate this person and find out how much they know.

-

[...]

“What are you doing here, Nightwing?” Officer Grayson sighed. He looked tired, the hero noted. He understood that. A city like this could make a man tired in his soul. “The case is over. There's no reason to see eachother anymore.”

It didn't take long for Nightwing to find a reason. “There's no Batman in Bludhaven,” he said. “I need to take allies where I can get them, and you… I think you're in the same boat.” He remembered the photos of young, pretty Richie Grayson, smiling in the tabloids,  and thought about how the force could beat down someone like that. “I know you want to make Bludhaven a better place. We can keep helping eachother, working together. We need eachother.” That was all true. But none of it was why Nightwing had come to the officer's apartment balcony.

Grayson rubbed a hand over his face. “I don't think you understand how much trouble I could be in. If the other officers found out I was slipping information to a vigilante…” He frowned, the dark circles beneath his eyes even more pronounced with the expression. “They don't trust you.”

“Do you?” Nightwing couldn't help but ask.

Grayson clenched his jaw, and his gaze on Nightwing became piercing. Looking at him, the vigilante knew—he had been beaten down, but not broken. His free spirit compressed into something stronger, harder. There was fire in his eyes. “I don't know,” the officer said, “should I?”

In some ways, the display of dominance was adorable, and Nightwing couldn't help flashing his signature sharp grin. “You can,” he promised. “It's up to you. But I could show you.” He hopped onto the balcony's railing with his inhuman grace, and held out his hand. “If you put your trust in me, I'll make it worth your while.”

The man looked dubious, gaze flicking from Nightwing's shielded eyes to his outstretched hand. “How?”

“You used to be an acrobat, didn't you, officer?” the hero asked.

Grayson looked away. “That was a long time ago.’”

“Well,” said Nightwing, still grinning that wicked grin, teeth flashing in the dim light, “how would you like to really fly?”

The officer's eyes went wide, and for a moment, Nightwing worried he would close the door, shut him out, and it would all be over. Then a determined look swept over him, and he stepped forward, reaching out.

Grayson's hand slipped into his, and Nightwing took the leap.

[...]

End notes:

😭 why did you have to become a cop richie how am i meant to acab like this????

like yes cops are Bastard but like. Richie Grayson was an outlier and should not have been counted. he's perfect your honor. he's never done anything wrong in his whole life. no one tell me otherwise pls

also nightwing is some kind of fae creature but don't worry about that

[intuitive-revelations]

Jumbled thoughts and theories on belief and metaphysical engines, the Nexus, and fate of the Web of Time...

"Do all those gods seriously exist (not just as alien fakes) in the DW universe? How did the Doctor supposedly meet them?"

Keep in mind, belief making something real is hardly a new theme for DW. The most obvious example for this would be belief in the Doctor being able to empower him in The Last of the Time Lords.

We also know that every story has a place in reality, with the Land of Fiction, not to mention the Doctor's own statement in The Gallifrey Chronicles:

"My dear, one of the things you'll learn is that it's all real. Every word of every novel is real, every frame of every movie, every panel of every comic strip."

But I hear you. Suppose, for example, we want a more concrete example of this applied to religion:

Look no further than the series I've long batted for: Class.

In "The Metaphysical Engine, or What Quill Did", Quill, Ballon and Dorothea literally travel into several afterlife realms using something called "the reliquary", or a "metaphysical engine".

DOROTHEA: This, as best we can tell, is a 'metaphysical engine'. QUILL: Metaphysics? Metaphysics aren't real. It's just thought. DOROTHEA: Everything in the universe is conserved. Everything. Even belief. Get millions of creatures believing something strongly enough for long enough and even space responds.

Quill even gets to meet (and fight) the goddess of her own people:

"Ok, so there is a device that can take you into a theoretical space where beliefs are real, you haven't answered how the Doctor is going about meeting these gods."

Is now a good time to mention that the metaphysical engine is bigger on the inside?

"Yeah, but so are a lot of things, even the Barber's ship..."

Except, there really is more here. Because the TARDIS itself is a metaphysical engine. Canonically. Explicitly.

In the First Doctor Short Trip "Every Day", the TARDIS actually ends up seemingly landing in a man's head, as he struggles to come to terms with his wife having an affair, which manifests as a time loop. Once it's broken, they suddenly find themselves far gone from the loop:

"What happened?" asked Ian, looking around in shock. One minute they had been in the house, the next they were on their way. "I don't know for sure," said the Doctor. "But my TARDIS, you see, is a metaphysical engine. It can travel through all the dimensions related to space and time. It's possible that, on this occasion, we entered the dimension of one man's mind. One man's imagination."

Other stories have similarly seen the TARDIS breach into metaphysical space, even at one point physically landing in the Doctor's own mind in the VNAs.

Some of the Doctor's other meetings with legendary, mythical, or fictional characters (even on-screen: the Devil, Robin Hood, Santa Claus etc.) start to also make a bit more sense, don't they?

This all perhaps also shouldn't feel that incongruous, considering we had the Doctor literally end-up in Bethlehem in time for the birth of Christ just this Christmas (even if that one wasn't itself by the TARDIS).

This, perhaps, also sheds light on how the Barber's plan really was going to work.

I mentioned in my live reaction that the "World Wide Web / Nexus" strongly resembled the idea of the Web of Time (with "signals" even being transmitted through it in a way resembling the Matrix). Well the Web of Time, in expanded universe lore, is partially constructed through something called the "Observer Effect", in which temporal probabilities become fixed in history, named after the real-life effect in quantum physics. Through this, history becomes fixed by those that perceive it - designed to enforce Time Lord dominance over history.

For an in-show example, think of the laws of fixed points established by The Angels Take Manhattan: if you read your own future, you fix it into being. This is one reason why the Time Lords ostensibly forbid Time Lords from interacting with one's own past or future, despite the many times we've seen this violated.

I'd make an argument that the Nexus, if it's not literally connected to the Web of Time in some way, effectively serves a similar purpose. Just as observers can shape history, the Nexus allows believers to shape reality, via the effect Dorothea mentioned previously. By controlling it, the gods secure their own existence, just as controlling the Web of Time secures that of the Time Lords. If it is destroyed, those stories are lost, just as history as we know it is transformed by the degradation of the Web of Time.

This may sound like a lot of fanwank, but I have a suspicion that this kind of thinking with regards to the Web of Time is good to keep in mind over the next few episodes.

I theorised after Episode 1 that the TARDIS trying to "pull" itself back to Earth via the Web of Time is what resulted in those various landmarks somehow ending up pulled into the middle of space between MissBelindaChandra-1 and the Earth. That these represented sort-of "node points" in the Earth's history as represented in the Web, and by continuing to pull when it couldn't arrive, the TARDIS had actually pulled them towards it, rather than the other way round.

One episode on, and we get the "vindicators", devices designed to do exactly what I just said!

DOCTOR: We land anywhere, and the vindicator casts out a signal, like a fishing line - whoosh! - to May 24th, 2025, and we use it to pull the TARDIS in like a hook. So we must land.

ANOTHER episode later, and it's revealed that Mrs. Flood (hey remember she said she literally wanted to seize God's kingdom?) actually wants the Doctor to be using the vindicators? We also discover, even more concerningly, that Earth's future history, despite its significance to the universe, has been completely erased.

Next week in Episode 4, we get a relatively grounded episode, that ends with someone "rejecting the Doctor's reality", who is then seemingly recruited by Flood.

Finally, this week, we get this: a story of someone determined to control / tear down a Web stretched over time and space.

Put all this together with the ongoing decline in Rassilon's established laws of rationality, which started after the devastation of Gallifrey in Series 12 and the creation of the Flux, but accelerated after the Doctor fell to the point of using superstition outside the bounds of the Time Lord noosphere in Wild Blue Yonder, and what we know about the final two episodes, including episode titles (which I won't repeat here for spoilers), and it quickly starts to seem like Mrs. Flood might be planning to tear apart the Web of Time.

This may admittedly seem like a bit too much for casual viewers, but the vindicator element at least I'm feeling pretty confident with. If this WILL actually connect to the Web of Time, we'll see, but today's episode didn't exactly dissuade me...

[forsaken-headcanons]

SO SORRY IF I SENT IT TWICE, TUMBLR LAGGED AND I HAD NO IDEA IF IT WAS SENT OF NOT. (I had to colour it att again on mobile. IT WAS PAIN)

Since Mod Nooby wanted to see more of my Forsaken characters changed to fit Blocks Tales here's a part two about BT!007n7 and BT! C00lkidd!!!

After getting freed from Banlands, 007n7 took C00lkidd and decided to lay low in a small village in the Demo 4 area. (A desert/oasis village)

There are some gangs/groups lead by people that lost their family members during the Team C00lkidd hacking attacks. They hold a grudge and want revenge. If they someone ended up bumping into hacker duo, a nasty fight would happen

007n7:

He has a control panel for C00lkid, where he can also read the mood of his creation or any thought C00lkid sends him, is able to access his point of view and is able to control him (he rarely uses the last option)

007n7 and Shedletsky came to understanding/ created an alliance. 007n7 can continue his experiments but the bigger ones need to be reported and must have someone trusted by Shed to supervise.

At first 007n7 was reluctant about working with Shed, but with time he realised that this alliance is beneficial for him. And now he legally does illegal things.

Hates traveling on a ship. Why? Because he always gets seasick. It (obviously) makes him sick, but also makes him have a sour mood.

With time village people started trusting him more and now he sometimes helps around village, uses his hacking skills in different way than before, although he makes them know he's not happy about helping them. (He's always grumpy in front of people. It's his way of keeping them away)

Lost count how many times he got a lecture about the way he's mistreating his son. Was lectured by Shedletsky, Player, People in the village. EVERYONE!!! Does he care? It makes seem like no, but slowly it gets inside his head and slowly, really slowly starts to see their point of view. But since he hates when he isn't in the right, he's hesitant to make changes.

Once he and C00lkidd fought another hacker, it caused C00lkidd's code to get completely messed up and drop 'dead'. 007n7 knew he could fix him, but since it was the code that got damaged it meant that C00lkidd might never be the same. This were one of the most stressful weeks in 007n7's life. Eventually C00lkidd turned out to be okay, only with minor memory loses. That was the first time 007n7 started the hug.

Often falls asleep during work, which results in sleeping in odd positions, although he always wakes up in be

C00lkidd:

When he has trouble understanding emotions, he sends a signal to 007n7's c00lgui to inform him in hopes of help understanding them.

Doesn't go against his father's orders no matter what. Any task given by n7 will be completed, no matter the cost.

Has trust issues when it comes to anything related to Builderman and Banhammer (because of his dad getting banned and what he heard from Player's rant about 'Builderman')

At first everyone in the village was afraid of him. He wanted to make friends, but everyone ran away at the sight of him. He understood why, but it didn't mean it hurt less. And when he brought up this issue to his dad... Well, he didn't care.

Player is the first one who treats C00lkid like actual child and not deadly hacker or line of code. Which resulted with other village kids and adults to become more open and now they unofficially adopted him in. They are his emotional support and helped him understand emotions better.

Loves helping out around village, with his unnatural strength and hacking skills people learned to appreciate him. (He's a lot more liked than 007n7)

His abilities are mostly locked away now, so he accidentally won't cause a disaster. Despite this he's still overpowered.

Is on Hatred's hit list. Not even Player knows why.

Cherishes every bit of attention/care he gets from his dad. And was overjoyed when he started to give him more attention.

Enjoys copying/mimicking people.

Really, REALLY likes doing origami. He learned it from Azure (I also made Azure and Two Time in BT. I'll talk about them next time)

Uses his skills to prank people. (He's a mischievous little guy). He especially enjoys changing people's clothes into Team C00lkid all red uniform. (Main target: Player)

1x1x1x1, calls him him a "Spawn from hell". It's not with malicious intent. Just annoyance.

For C00lkidd, hacking is a second nature. So Shed had to make a special anti-hacking bracelet so he won't accidentally use the c00lgui in public. After all, Team C00lkidd is known as one of the most dangerous hacker groups in the world.

Once some bandit wanted to attack C00lkidd. The bandit ended up having to buy himself a new sword, after all what do you expect after attacking a metal robot with a simple sword.

He doesn't have to eat, but does it anyway. He really likes ice cream

Has a special folder in his memory bank. It's labelled "C00lkid's favourite memories folder".

He created a song in a pirated app, where he put random sounds that sounded nice [Insert Forsaken C00lkid chase music]

If he sees his dad sleeping in uncomfortable position, he will teleport him to his bed.

Normally is left to do what he wants, but sometimes assists his dad.

~ Purple anon (I apologise for bombarding the inbox!!! I think I'm done for now... The fixation hit me HARD)

HI!!! HELLO!!! we say as we cock the shotgun behind our back /silly

GODSSS just. these are so adorable. no words. holding them all so close.,/, hgrajkhwlkahwddhjghasd

[eddiegettingshot]

hima i don’t expect a response bc i know it’s A Lot and would cause drama lol but i am feeling so so sad for eddie (and just the general state of 911 discourse) bc every time he’s hurting and needs buck to be there for him too, there is a very vocal section of this fandom (are they really in the fandom if they hate every character besides buck and ugly? but that’s another discussion) that is so cruelly racist. it becomes so transparent when it’s positioned as buck is this sweet precious baby who never does anything wrong and has everything wrong happen to him, while eddie is an abuser who is looking to corrupt and punish buck because he has anger issues and is- but don’t make it about race, they say! it makes me so miserable. bc yeah it’s a show. but this thought process translates outside of the show too, whether or not they recognize or admit that. and the fact that when you bring this up they just say “you’re just mad that eddie is straight and that my ship is canon” is so???? it’s been particularly egregious after this episode and it makes me fr want to cry. if buck reacted with that anger it would be a righteous expression of emotion, but eddie is violent? after the weird dismissal of bobby’s death as a fandom shipping battle and this blatant racism it feels so hard to enjoy the show i love on here? the plot line with bucks parents rotted so many bts on this website i swear. but like i said, i don’t expect you to respond to this, but know that i feel the same way you do and i am hugging you through the phone🫂

ok i actually do want to publish this because yeah it is like deeply hurtful every time it happens (and i’m sure there are buddie shippers who are also acting like this i’m just not really seeing them). it’s always gutting to see how obviously racist ppl are and how this majority-white fandom completely encourages and allows it to proliferate to the extent that non-white fans get shit for having issues with it. this too in a space where issues of race are overlooked while we HAVE to talk ceaselessly about white gay ppl… also reflective of real life lmao. that this has been an ongoing issue just fucking sucks and is really painful but. what can u do at this point i guess.

[mirrren]

Major spoilers for ep 17 of 911

Ughhhhh okay I’m gonna get beat up for saying this but we throw around words like “gaslight” and “narcissist” so much online that sometimes I feel like there are a lot of people that don’t entirely realize what those words mean. Allow me to give a perfect example, from someone who was raised by a narcissist (hi daaadddd): watch the newest 911 episode and listen to the way Eddie talks to Buck when Buck gets home. I’m not even going to get into the train wreck of an argument they had before, no, for now we’re just focusing on the after.

Something narcissists love to do when they know they’re in the wrong is to shift focus. They’ll give you a gift they know you like, or take you somewhere special, all while ignoring the elephant in the room. It’s a way to manipulate your emotions. You’re so mad at them and then woah! Now you’re going to a fancy restaurant or you have a new diamond necklace. Or someone you miss has just come home from Texas. What a big family reunion this is. It’s a way to make them feel better about themselves, make them seem like the good guy. Remember in Tangled when mother gothel and repunzel got into an argument about seeing the lights, and then mother gothel came back home she announced she was going to make hazelnut soup? She doesn’t bring up the argument until she notices that her “gift” hasn’t shifted the blame effectively. Now, in Eddie’s case it actually works, and Buck doesn’t bring up their argument, so Eddie gets the glory of being the good guy.

Let’s rewind a little bit now. Folded sheets and a note that says “gone to the airport.” Do you fold your sheets when you sleep on a friend’s couch? Maybe if you’re polite. But the inclusion of this detail better serves as a way to hint to the audience that Eddie may be gone forever. Still it works to prove that Eddie had malicious intent. He could’ve put the note on the fridge. He could’ve written “brb” or hell, maybe even texted Buck to let him know. But he didn’t, I wonder why? Gaslighting 101 tells you that if you want to actually make someone feel like they’re crazy it has to be significant and insignificant at the same time. You can’t just say “no” and expect someone to be efficiently gaslighted. If you want to manipulate someone it has to be plausible, something you can twist or something you know they’ll forget. I was born at 10:50 but my dad always insisted I was born at 11. He was able to gaslight me through this because he knew 1. I didn’t have proof and 2. It was so close in time that it really didn’t matter. A few years ago he started to say I was born at 10:50 and any time I tried to argue that he always said 11 before, he would deny. I didn’t have proof that he said that, and I felt like I was going crazy.

Now, mirrren, you ask, what does your traumatic backstory have to do with Eddie Díaz of 911 fame? Hang on I’ll get to it. When buck came home surprised that Eddie was there, Eddie said “my note said I was going to the airport. The airport and Texas are not the same. They don't even have the same amount of letters in their—” which is true, but he never said he was going to be back either. It’s his tone that gets me. “Buck is so stupid for not realizing that he was coming back, Buck should’ve known, Buck is so lucky I’m around because I’m the only thing keeping him attached to sanity, I am a great person for doing this to Buck.” It’s patronizing, and it’s insulting. Narcissists do this a lot. Most of what makes gaslighting insanity inducing is the fact that the manipulator makes you feel like you’re stupid, like you’re just a kid. Maybe Eddie wasn’t intending to manipulate Buck, but his words and his tone indicate the opposite. If he wanted to make Buck feel like he left to Texas that’s still messed up for a friend to do. Even if I shipped buddie I would feel that way. Because this interaction was just so similar to how my dad made me feel every day of my life.

It’s understandable if those of you didn’t know that this behavior was a red flag. I don’t want to hate on any buddie shippers out there. But this behavior is concerning, even if it’s just a plot device or bad writing, it’s indicative of unfavorable characteristics and I can’t support Eddie after that interaction. I know it was an apology. He says “heard some dick was being mean to you” and sure I guess that is apologizing but does he ever say sorry? Does he even say that it was him that’s being mean? And if he did say sorry, or even if he did say it was him, what kind of apology is that? Make your best friend think you’ve left forever just to return with two people you know he likes? Nah I’m still mad, bud.

I had a lot more I wanted to say, but this is already so goddamn long I’ll cut it short here.

[procrastinatingfeminist]

A lot of works inspire me, but often not necessarily in a way that would be useful for a reader, looking for similar potential reading material.

Sometimes it is a small, overall pretty inconsequential worldbuilding detail, which has my weird brain hyperfocus on and try to work out the logic behind. It shares absolutely nothing with the fic that inspired the thought, outside of maybe the same crossover fandoms. (It was Leverage/Highlander/Firefly crossover, in case anyone wonders. I started thinking about the logistics of immortals trying to sense each other across space, and what would "there can only be one" actually mean in a world with an constantly expanding universe, instead of a single world. If I ever manage to write a coherent plot out of it, i will certainly not use the 'inspired by' function. Another case that I run into constantly, is trying to justify the muggle/wizard division and economics of the wizarding world in Harry Potter-verse, which also would be pretty useless for someone interested in reading something that echoes the original books).

Sometimes it is the ship and the character dynamic that I took inspiration from. But that is such a vague, murky criterion as to be nearly useless. What I ended up writing, was nearly ten times the words of the original and - aside from the pretty rare ship, which i guess could be used to narrow down the author, if that weren't the only fic she didn't post to AO3 - I recognise that the result has pretty much nothing to do with what I got inspired by. Also, not something I would tag with 'inspired by'.

Sometimes the inspiration is what I call 'spite fic'. It is what I end up writing, when I read something and go 'he would not fucking do/say that!!!' or "no, the fuck, the magic/society/whatever in this fictional universe doesn't work like that!!!' Even if you ignore that linking both works could be interpreted basically akin to leaving a negative comment on the author's fic and stirring up shit, I also do not want to make the author responsible for my feelings. Yeah, so I was unhappy by that fic and it inspired a very strong reaction, but that doesn't make that authors interpretation of canon un-valid. They shouldn't have to deal with my unhappiness. Some can shrug the implied criticism off, but some wouldn't and the solution is not to make one of us to quit fandom, but to live and let live. So long as my fic doesn't have some very specific identifying details, why would I link them?

And sometimes the inspiration derives from some very specific phrase or trope usage, that is prevalent in the fics the author writes, some specific fanon that they developed and that I simply internalized because I have read so much of it. So, yeah, if you are familiar with the author, you would probably realize the source of my inspiration, but it would be useless for finding similar fic.

In most cases I would put the name of the fic/author in the author notes, but none of these in my eyes justify the 'works inspired by' function. The connection is too vague, too tenuous or too far removed to be useful. I would only use it, if you can actually see the similarities between the works, when there is more than simply the same fandoms or the same pairing that is echoed.

(Not that I have posted a lot. But there are plenty of WIPs in my WIP file that are inspired by all sorts of things).

Sorry but the 'credit to your inspirations & tags not being enough' person doesn't understand how fandom works. What is snitching and complaining to another writer even gonna do? Besides start drama ofc. I see posts of people requesting a concept be written and 3 people saying under it that they are going to do it every single day. If you think just one person is allowed to write every trope per ship, maybe fandom is simply not for you?

--

Oh, I'm willing to believe that they've found a case where someone really did copy.

The problem is that they seem to think this means it must be conscious. It's actually incredibly and annoyingly easy to copy by accident. I've witnessed it plenty of times. I can't think of a time I've done it offhand, but I often google catchy phrases I just "thought up" on the suspicion that I did not think them up: I remembered them.

There's also the possibility that the copying isn't what they think. I wrote a fic for Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty where there's this "What kind of demented psychopath would even think of this?!" moment, and then it turns out that the protagonist, who is a secret novelist, is actually the one who thought it up. The "villain" was just lifting it from one of his books.

I've for sure spotted this same little beat elsewhere in the fandom. There's at least one fic, but I'm pretty sure there were more or some meta posts or something, and I don't know if I read them before or after I used this...

But we absolutely did not copy it from each other.

[raemirs]

What is special about SifLoop to you?

OH BOY WHAT A LOADED QUESTION!!! to be honest if i explained everything we would be here for 2 weeks and also that's a lot of spoons that i dont have so. i will offer a heavily, HEAVILY abridged bullet pointed version.

-oh, that one person who will understand you more than anyone else in the world. that person who is always on the same wavelength as you, who understands why you do all the things you do, who you never have to explain anything to, who you can simply look in the eyes and have telepathic conversations with... they are that person, to each other <3 on virtue of being the same person, but still! i have always been a sucker for this type of dynamic due to being socially ostracized as a ND child growing up. i yearned for the longest time to find that one person who i didnt have to explain or hide any of my strange quirks from (i have since found that one person for me, and boy it is sweet!) and i think it's awesome that sifloop can be that person for each other :)

-sifloop as an allegory for self love is not something i explore too often (which is a crime!!! i should explore it more!!!!), but ohhhhh, is it juiiiicy. these goobers deserve to love themselves, but if they can't bring themselves to do it for now, loving the other is a good first step. one of my all-time favorite sifloop fanfics, simple as existing (please please PLEASE read it, it's soooo good) has most of the things i love about this interpretation of sifloop! aghhh... loop taking care of siffrin's body because it was once theirs... ughhghhhhhhhhhhhh im normal im so normal im normal

-you can take sifloop in so many interesting angles! do they love each other in an actual romantic way? is it some form of fucked up self love? does it no longer count as selfcest because they've undergone such different life-altering experiences? is it such a deep emotional bond that it transcends mere romance or platonic love and cannot be described with words? well, no need to fear, because you get to pick! and the dynamic will be guaranteed to be juicy anyhow <3

-mashing the above two bullet points together creates one of my favorite interpretations of sifloop i've seen yet! something something an annoying trait present in yourself becomes endearing when present in someone else you love. something something by learning to love the traits they hate in themselves in the other, sifloop can begin to learn how to love themselves again. by loving the other, they can start to heal. im normal im normal im normal

-as a touch-starved little freak myself i love love love how sifloop are both touch-starved to hell and back because!! they can fix this with each other!!!! make those fuckers hang off each other like wet clothes!!! they will never let go of each other ever again!!! at every possible scenario they will be at least holding hands or something more!!! both of them want so so much touch and they can give this to each other in precisely the way they want!! it's so fucking good!!!

on the flip side, you can take sifloop's craving for touch in an angsty direction as well! again, love how you can take sifloop's dynamics in so many ways and have all of them be just as compelling and correct. i explore this angstier direction in another post of mine <3

-siffrin is really easy and fun to draw and loop being siffrin means i can turn them human and then boom i get to make cute ship art while drawing the little guy i love twice. what a steal! (i've also recently figured out loop's star form and it is quite fun to draw as well hehehe)

-i'm sure there's WAYYYY more i've missed talking about, this is just the stuff that's come to mind first. as you can tell by this short and abridged summary (/sar) of why i love sifloop, i have a normal amount of thoughts about them <3 here's to many more moons of being insane about sifloop!

[katkitexpressoone]

I saw some comments that Boblena couldn't happen because it's not in the comics. But they forget that it wouldn't be the first time that they explore the relationship of two characters who have no relationship whatsoever in the MCU. A great example is Kastle (Karen Page/Frank Castle) never interacted in the comics, but in the MCU they did. And it was like Boblena. In Lewis' recent interview he said that he saw their relationship more as siblings and that he was even surprised that people shipped them and that I interpreted it and that they didn't imagine that people could see something more in their relationship and that people could interpret it in any way they wanted. It was the same thing with Deb and Jon in season 2 of DD. It was never their intention at the beginning to do something romantic, even in season 1 of Punisher they still hadn't established anything in their relationship. And with their great chemistry, plus the support of the production and the public, and now after years it was confirmed in DD BA that the feelings they built since they didn't know if it would be romantic or not, have now been canonized! So I see a lot of Boblena now in the beginning similar to Kastle, and neither the actors nor the production expected that the chemistry would be so good and the public would buy it so much. Now we have to know if they will explore more of this relationship. And I also don't see a problem in shipping Bob and Yelena, because the actors think one thing and the writers can write another. And for me, I only consider the characters siblings if they name each other that way in the scene, then I agree, but so far I don't! If Lewis himself said that we could interpret it however we want, then… If he's saying that, what's the problem, right? And they also said the same thing about Kastle, even with their romantic feelings for each other, I still see people saying that they are "father and daughter" and siblings too. And about that, this is my opinion.

Whether this relationship is going to be romantic or not, it will only be built on the basis of partnership and friendship, that's fine! But there's no problem with people liking them!

[liedownquisition]

Dickroy people hyperbolically insisting they will kill themselves if Royjay wins and I have to use all my strength to keep myself from going you promise? in response because I have some sense of decorum and basic appropriate conduct 😔

akljdkjl They're SO DRAMATIC about it. Guys it's not that fucking deep. Other statements I've seen include "If DickRoy doesn't win then I'm going to kill YOU" and so on and so forth.

(Sorry Anon, I'm going to use this ask to complain about a different argument)

And the one that's really been getting me because holy fucking shit is the argument that "DickRoy is better because Roy is an actual person in it."

You know, I considered arguing that, actually, there's a lot of great fanfiction out there that doesn't minimize Roy and that the sanitization of his character is largely due to the batfanon black hole that everyone acknowledges most of the time but for some reason with JayRoy it's like a whole separate thing and not a by-product of popular tropes that are generally Bat-centric with everyone else as their accessories.

And by the nature of typing that paragraph I have, in a way, made that argument, but I've also somewhat changed my mind on how I want to really discuss this because I think there's a larger issue at hand here:

Fictional characters aren't people, you cannot erase their personhood because they don't have any.

I'm so sorry about whoever lied to you about that.

A lot of people are mad that JayRoys are willing to engage with and discuss Roy's addiction in an interrogative and compassionate way. They're not going to phrase it like that though. Because if they did phrase it like that it would betray the fact that they would rather ignore that part of Roy's character entirely except perhaps for brief little one-off references

You know, like how Dick Grayson only brings it up every now and then to throw that fact in Roy's face as an insult every time he's feeling pissy, especially when Roy is telling him something honestly kind of fucking true that he doesn't want to hear.

Frankly... I don't actually think I care if most of the shippers did or do erase Roy's "personhood." If I don't like their content I won't engage with it. There are plenty of ships, plenty fo fandoms, where this same phenomena happens all the time. Especially because we are talking about FANfiction.

AMATEUR fiction which is often clumsy and raw and inexperienced, that doesn't know how to realistically step back and have extensive focus or reference to more than one characters' struggles at a time. Even the worst fanfiction is a learning experience for the writer. Over time they might get better, or they might not. It doesn't matter. All that matters is t hat they enjoy themselves, and that other people sometimes enjoy it too!

We're all just out here doing our best, and trying to have a good time. We're not out here to make award-winning fiction, we're here to make the blorbos kiss, because they're not people, they're imaginary dolls and we can do whatever we want with them because it's not for you, we're not appealing to a broader market.

It's just for fun, and I think when you start arguing about character personhood, you're taking it too seriously.

Would I, personally, prefer to engage with depictions that display a degree of understanding of canon and respect for the characterization that's been laid out over decades? Yeah, I won't lie. I like that more. But, what I consider that to mean and what YOU consider that to mean and what THEY consider that to mean are all very different perspectives and interpretations.

There are sooooo many comics. And it's not a fucking crime to not read all of them and remember that in Bleebus Bongo Adventures Volume 4 Issue #516 Beefgus said he doesn't like Lemon Cake when you write your bakery AU and have Beefgus pick Lemon Cake off the menu and claim it's the best one they've ever had and that because they've had so much good Lemon Cake and have a lot of opinions about it in their life it's a real compliment.

There's nothing wrong with changing around character dynamics and relationships for an AU. And, technically, by nature, most fanfiction is already an AU, because it's not canon. And, maybe if they're trying to argue it's canon compliant then maybe it's a little more like "I don't think you and I read the same canon" but I don't really see that tagged a lot on SHIPFIC unless it IS a canon ship which obviously JR isn't lol.

They're just... Look if other people are playing with dolls in ways you don't like then I'm not sorry. That's their prerogative. Stop being so dramatic, you look like a child throwing a tantrum.

And I'm getting really tired of being the bigger person about it when they're taking every chance they can get to be anything but.

[mscaseys]

honestly, certain shippers insistence that mark/gemma is a doomed ship but theirs isn't is especially absurd when you consider he/ena's role in gemma's abduction and torture.

so they're saying that mark and gemma's marriage is unsalvageable because "it's been two years, they've been through a lot, so they're completely different people now" but they think reintegrated mark will have no issues with the knowledge that hel/yna was, at the very least, a co-conspirator to the kidnapping and torture of his wife????? do they think he/ena getting gemma's name wrong, while being aware of the aforementioned kidnapping and torture, will be a non-issue for reintegrated mark in retrospect???? make it make sense

like if mark/gemma is doomed so is their ship 🤷‍♂️

i get your frustrations and i think a lot of that discourse has to do with what s2 has shown us tbh. like before s2 aired, i fully expected helena being helly's outie to be a huge point of contention for the innies, but they basically don't really care at all? hell, even when omark found out imark was with helena's innie, he barely reacted (though i can chalk that up to him being #lockedin with the rescuing gemma mission). so i think a lot of the audience not caring about the fallout of helly's outie being helena is because the show itself hasn't made it a huge point of conflict yet.

that being said, i too hope s3 addresses that because it's one of the more interesting aspects of the show to me. one of my main issues with s2 is how they gave some huge reveals but then never really follow through with how those reveals affect the characters. and i can make up so many excuses for why they weren't properly explored for thematic/storyline reasons, but i think i'm also allowed to be disappointed about the payoff, especially for a show that strives to be character-driven.

i think it's also why gemma as a character was so well received (at least from what i've seen both on and offline) because her reveal to be mark's wife in s1 had huge payoff in s2 with 2x07 and then their reunion in the finale. she's basically the catalyst for the events of the second season and her rescue in the finale is the most satisfying arc to me (even if i didn't especially enjoy seeing her scream for mark, but that's a different thing altogether). like the s1 reveal was that she was alive and held prisoner in lumon's basement, and s2 ended with her being freed. see? not so hard! we also got a bunch of omark crashouts, which were realistic and satisfying responses to that reveal! and obviously the challenge with her character now would be where her arc goes now that she is free (hopefully, but i seriously doubt they'll recapture her again that would just be bad writing).

i do agree with reintegrated mark having issues, and the thing is, if you look at s1, he wasn't ready to move on with anyone. so that's why i find the whole idea that he's going to miraculously 'fall in love with helena eagan bc love transcends severance!!' a bit... ridiculous. even without all the baggage of being next in line as the ceo of lumon, outie mark wasn't ready to move on from gemma (until the s1 finale, where he is considering quitting his job, before finding out that she was very much alive). and now that gemma is alive and free from lumon, the idea of him divorcing her because 'they're too different from who they were 2 years ago!! no way they could ever come back from this' is such a reductive idea to me (sorry). again, not to say that everything will be fine between them because this was traumatic for the both of them, but them breaking up and him running off into the sunset with the person who was at least complicit in gemma's kidnapping + so involved with lumon (who, from outie mark's pov, destroyed his life) seems like such a leap to me.

now i'm going to gush about mark and gemma so stop reading if you don't care for them in a romantic capacity but i think it's also no coincidence that they gave us a mark and gemma backstory. they really put in the effort to establish that they were married for 4 years and were loving and have been through the good and bad with each other. the show didn't need to show us flashbacks, but they did because they want us to be invested in their relationship. i also know way more about them than any other relationship because we really got to see their dynamic. before 2x07, yeah i knew mark loved gemma but to actually see what he lost? to see how they actually were with each other? i come away from that episode with a newfound understanding of why he severed in the first place, and how high the stakes were in getting her out. i know a lot of people don't particularly like/care for the romance in severance and that's fine, but for me personally i love mark and gemma!! i don't think it's reductive in any way to the viewing experience to root for them, and i don't think it's "dismissing the themes" to like them. i am so invested in their future arc, but for now i'm just going to keep the faith and trust the writers until s3 comes out xx

[fallloverfic]

Thoughts on To Be Hero X Episode 6: Two E-Souls

What an episode XD

I'm a bit worried about shipping anyone because my characters of interest seem to keep dying alkdjal Yes, Nice died (presumably) in Episode 1, but Wreck also maybe died later lakdjla Ah well, it's never stopped me before!!

They really pushed Shang Chao and Yang Cheng together this episode. Yes, there was lots of love triangle stuff, but surprisingly interesting moments of making Shang Chao matter a lot more to Yang Chang. I know the idea is to make Shang Chao's death more relevant for Yang Cheng, but still.

Just... this whole sequence with Rock setting them up, and it being framed as an awkward date. Shang Chao having interest in Yang Cheng... I love it. I love all of it. Even if he could have alternate reasons for it like money (maybe), building up his own hero business, platonic friendship, or even just because Xia Qing likes Yang Cheng, this is still so adorable.

I still love E-Soul's secretary(?) and his pink outfit. Looking fly, sir.

I think the episode handles the identity fraud thing in odd way, but eh. I think another point should be made how 1) there are many actors pretending to be E-Soul, and even contests for who can be the best, which E-Soul seems to support, so by certain standards, this is fine and allowed, and 2) it would be kind of complicated to make people stop believing in Yang Cheng, which is kind of what Shang Chao is saying. Identity fraud is an individual choice, not a mass movement of people convinced you're someone else.

I didn't think about it last episode, but this arc is giving me Death of Superman vibes.

Yes, Yang Cheng using his new powers to... electrocute children. I imagine it's just static shock (another great DC Comics character), but... well... It's good to remember that electric shocks can kill and tasers can be very dangerous, even if they're meant to just knock people out, which even on its own is dangerous for a variety of reasons. Even static can be bad. If nothing else, it can burn and paralyze.

There's something really tragic about E-Soul going from this person who fought actual villains (maybe) to... selling action figures of himself. A lot of celebrities do it, obviously, it's just framed in a really kind of sad way? Like ah yes, we're holding a press conference to announce the limited edition statues of myself.

I'm just saying, Yang Cheng doesn't wear the gloves all the time. He could have had it off while Shang Chao worked on it. He didn't. This was a choice. I notice that right hand Shang Chao. I NOTICE IT!!!!

It's also really lovely how hard Shang Chao and Xia Qing are supporting Yang Cheng. Shang Chao is putting a lot of effort into it, not just from a money and convincing his father angle, but also clearly through his technical expertise.

They're just so cute. "It comes from each person that supports, trusts, and loves you." INDEED. THAT LAST ONE THOUGH. Followed almost immediately by putting his hand on Yang Cheng's shoulder.

He believes so hard in Mr. Hero.

I love when Shang Chao is driving the car towards the ongoing crime, and Shang Chao is also talking animatedly into a walkie talkie and Xia Qing is tightly holding onto her seatbelt, looking reasonably concerned about the distracted driver. She deserves better. Poor woman.

I have a weakness for speedsters: I've been a Cyborg 009 fangirl for years. Yang Cheng and E-Soul are not 1:1 with Joe, but there's just a little in the scenes where Yang Cheng races off. His determination and conflict feel similar, too and I actually think they're similar in age.

I also think we hear Yang Cheng's theme/E-Soul's theme(?) in this scene. It sounds nice! If anyone has a link to it, I'll add it to the post.

The whole Yang Cheng fight scene was really cool. Babe doing great!!

I know a lot of us suspected that Shang Chao was the true villain behind everything, and who knows, maybe he really is all along or something, but I like to think he's innocent, he just wants to support Yang Cheng. And that support is really adorable. Taking photos, planning events... It's just really cute. I do, however, wonder why he at no point hires a lawyer. I'm glad he thought up the petition, and it's great his father (maybe Mr. Shand?) managed to get Enlighter, but a lawyer would also have been nice, too :D I mean unless pink dude was a lawyer, E-Soul didn't seem to have one at the mediation either, even with all his money and connections, so I don't know...

It was nice to see Enlighter again. And he's kind of random, but fun! Also, although he's not a lawyer, he does the semi-accurate thing by casting doubt onto the evidence: they can't prove it was Yang Cheng, and it's very unlikely it was him. They can't prove Yang Cheng is guilty. That's likely how a case would have been handled. Though it wouldn't have worked out in this specific fashion. The goal of the defense isn't to find who committed the crime, it's to show how weak the evidence/the case against the defendant is.

They're just so cute, they end me. Every time Yang Cheng feels doubt, Shang Chao is there being like hey :3 Yes, I know Shang Chao asked Xia Qing out. I'm not into the ship, but I support anyone going for an OT3 thing here. Still, I'm rooting for my guys.

And then, alas, the bullet they were previewing... hits Shang Chao. This show sure does have it out for characters associated with the color yellow (Nice, Wreck, Moon, Shang Chao). I think it's interesting he was playing with the helmet when it happened, maybe to tease the theories about him becoming E-Soul or something. And obviously it's to accidentally make the gunman think he's Yang Cheng.

Sad days, sad days. But hey, maybe he's fine (that's not really what a gunshot to the head looks like, so maybe it was a graze, plus, it hit him through the helmet, which might have been armored to some degree, even if it didn't fully stop the bullet)! We'll see next episode, I suppose. (Though the preview for Episode 7 seems to show Yang Cheng and Xia Qing attending a funeral, even though we had a fake-out funeral before with Moon). And who hired the assassin? Pink dude? E-Soul? The fear villain? Someone else? Was it just a rabid fan of the original E-Soul or Yang Cheng? We'll have to see. It definitely seems to make sense why that portal E-Soul (presumably Yang Cheng) was attacking older E-Soul in the character trailer.

Again, I really like how they're using 3D animation in this series and swapping between art styles. It's a lot of fun. But every time they do the 2D, it makes me really wish that was the primary way they were doing the series... It's so much nicer looking...

Overall, it was a great episode. Looking forward to Episode 7! (And if you need some Shang Chao/Yang Cheng comfort, here you go)

More thoughts:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6 (You are here)

[unsaidace]

Sorry to drop into your ask box but I have been blown away by the reaction to the last couple of episodes. I’m fairly new but I am gobsmacked alleged actual mental health professionals are coming out to defend Eddie’s actions in the kitchen. That is straight up terrifying to think about.

Also seeing tiktok edits about how good it was and how they just need to hug each other, and how the shoulder grasp was their thing to help Eddie connect them emotionally. I have been in some toxic fandoms and I feel like I am being gaslit. That scene should have buried the nonexistent romantic relationship there and then. I find myself frustrated by the ‘oh Buck is sad, throw a kid at him’ aspect as well because it invalidates his whole feelings.

I have gone on a blocking spree with how bad the takes have been, like saying it’s racist to criticise Eddie or even ship BuckTommy. Having seen the hatred to Lou and Tommy but comparing it to the scenes, i am baffled by the levels of hate and vitriol. Lou is doing his job and they’re pleased to be harassing him and other actors. I like Buck Tommy, I like their scenes and I hope they bring them back! I loved how Tommy treats him like an adult and allows his feelings to be voiced.

Also I wish Ravi would replace Eddie full time because he has so much to add and it feels like certain people only like Buck when they can make him Eddie’s punching bag or doormat.

Welcome to the world of the 9-1-1 fanbase. I’m sorry that you’re seeing it like this as a newcomer, because before Buddie basically took over the fandom? It was actually quite a chill place.

The first thing you need to know about the Buddies is a simple fact; they truly believe that this is The Eddie Diaz Show™️. They think he’s the “main of all mains” or something, that the show wouldn’t exist, wouldn’t be as successful as it is, without him. Of course, that argument gets destroyed the second you look back to season one and realise that the show was successful enough to get renewed for a second season without him, but you’ll never convince them of that. You’re correct in saying that this scene should’ve buried any idea of romance between the two of them but they’ll twist anything into ship material. They did it with couches and lasagne, so naturally they’ll do it with emotional abuse too.

The second thing to note; they don’t actually like Buck. Not one of them truly gives a fuck about him. They treat him like a child, or a naughty puppy who’s just pissed on the carpet. You’ll get used to that, unfortunately. It never gets less annoying, you just learn to tune it out for the sake of your sanity. You’ll also see several bad faith takes about Buck’s “selfishness”, and about how Eddie “simply tells Buck what he needs to hear”. The “filtered tags” option in your settings and the block button are going to become your best friends; use them liberally. The rest of us do, you might as well join the ranks.

As for Ravi replacing Eddie, I think a lot of us are on the Ravi Main Train™️ at this point. We’re all tired of Eddie being stuck in the same cycle as he was in season 3, with no real growth anywhere to be found. Adding Ravi to the team permanently would be a great way to refresh the show, while keeping us familiar with the characters. We know Ravi, we like him, there’s no need to work in a new face with a new backstory and hope they connect with the audience. Ravi has all of that already. He’s the perfect “new” addition to the main cast, the perfect way to give the show that “fresh” feeling without making us adjust to yet another new character that might not land in the way Tim hoped (see Lena Bosko and Lucy Donato for examples).

[otakusheep15]

Twisted Wonderland x Heathers

This one is the one I was personally very excited for! Heathers was my favorite musical growing up, and it was the show that made me a theater kid.

As always, this is less of an actual AU and more of who I'd cast if NRC did a production.

Veronica Sawyer: Riddle Rosehearts

I debated on this a little bit, but I can't think of anyone else who could fit this role better. He's sarcastic and witty, but also a bit niave about how the world works, much like Veronica. I think he'd be good at playing Veronica as her mental state deteriorates, and I lowkey think it'd be funny to watch him freak out over hearing "Dead Girl Walking" for the first time. He would kill it of course, but it would take him a while to be fully comfortable with it. I also think his dynamic with other characters in-game suits Veronica and her dynamics surprisngly well.

Jason J.D. Dean: Floyd Leech

This is mostly just me feeding the FloRid fans. I don't ship them myself, but I understand and I see the vision. As for him as J.D., I think it makes sense. J.D. goes through a lot of emotions throughout the show, and I think Floyd would be good at portraying them. He has an amazing voice and I know he would kill all of the songs. Plus, he's manic and insane, and I just know he would do so well in this role.

Heather Chandler: Vil Schoenheit

This was a no-brainer. He's a diva, he's an icon, and he's a legend. I love the idea of him haunting Riddle during the show, and he would look so good in her death robe. Of course, he has a stunning voice that suits Chandler's songs as well. Chandler is undoubtedly the star of the show and he would soak in every ounce of spotlight possible. It's not the biggest role in the show and she mostly stands around after she dies, but I know Vil could pull it off better than anyone.

Heather McNamara: Cater Diamond

I NEED Cater singing "Lifeboat" in my life immediately. He fits the preppy, slightly air-headed character who's actually deeply depressed and anxious perfectly. If anyone could understand her character, I think it would be Cater. Plus, his dynamics with both Riddle and Vil fit the role as well I think. He admires Vil a lot and has a tendency to suck up to him, which is something McNamara does with Chandler. In a similar way, Riddle and Cater have a surprisingly close friendship, much like McNamara and Veronica do by the end of the show.

Heather Duke: Azul Ashengrotto

I have had this thought stuck in my brain for months and I can finally get it out. Azul would make such a good Duke, especially if they do the West End version where she gets her solo song. Azul would play her so well, especially once Chandler dies and Duke reveals her true nature. As an angstier note, he has a lot of the same insecurties that Duke has, especially the body image issues. I think he could tap into that aspect of the role well.

Martha Dunnstock: Kalim Al-Asim

This just makes sense in my brain. He's sweet and kind, and I can see him and Riddle having a sweet dynamic. I don't fully buy into him having a crush on a jock like Ram, but I think he could pull it off. Also, the thought of Kalim singing "Kindergarden Boyfriend" would legitimately put me into a coma. I also think that, like Martha, Kalim is a lot sadder than people think he is, but they both hide it behind optimism and whimsey.

Ram Sweeney/Kurt Kelly: Ace Trappola/Deuce Spade

I decided to put these two together because they can honestly be interchangable. If I had to designate specific roles, Ace would be Ram and Deuce would be Kurt. I think they would play off of each other well and I could see them being super over the top. I specifically want them to sing "Blue" because I don't think they'd enjoy singing "You're Welcome" very much. I also think they'd be hilarious during "Big Fun" and their death scenes.

Bill Sweeney/Big Bud Dean/Coach Ripper: Ashton Vargas

He fits these roles so well and it has be absolutely rolling. Him singing "Dead Gay Son" would be so iconic. Him as J.D.'s dad would be iconic. Even him as the coach would be iconic. Vargas was built for these roles. I rest my case.

Paul Kelly/Mr. Sawyer/Principal Gowan: Divus Crewel

HEAR ME OUT PLEASE. Does he fit any of these roles? No. Would he particularly enjoy playing any of these roles? No. Would he be absolutely insane during "Dead Gay Son"? Absolutely. Plus, I'm also hear to spread my Crewel x Vargas agenda.

Mrs. Sawyer/Pauline Fleming: Lilia Vanrouge

My favorite thing is putting Lilia in the silly teacher roles. He would absolutely kill "Shine a Light" like no one else could. Lilia has the zany, slightly off-putting vibe Fleming has, and he could play into that well. I know he would go absolutely crazy with this role and just amp everything up to 110%.

[averyboleyn]

911 Grief & Guilt

I think the main issue with how the show deals with each character's grief and guilt is when they confront each other and explode, they're getting out their feelings and dealing with their issues the only way they know how but they unknowingly hit at some very deep pain of the character they're talking to. We as the audience see everything. We know how both sides were affected, we saw the event and the aftermath, and we know all the background information that influences their reaction.

There has been a lot of discussion about the Eddie & Buck fight and who is the "bad guy". I feel like because we've seen all of Buck's feels of abandonment, and we as an audience saw how much Bobby meant to Buck as a father figure and the gravity of what the loss of him means for Buck and his future we see how hurtful Eddie's words were and how deeply they could affect him. The lawsuit fight could also affect people's opinions but we don't know if Eddie apologized off camera. Eddie has guilt wrapped around his grief for Bobby. He moved to be closer to his child but being away meant he wasn't there for Bobby's death. I don't think he was implying that he could somehow have saved Bobby when no one else could but things could have gone differently just by having someone else there and he would have been there to experience Bobby's death with the rest of the team.

Both times they had a "divorce" Eddie has had something else going on i.e. Shannon's death/her asking for a divorce right before, moving to Texas to be with Christopher, not being a firefighter, dealing with his parents. That doesn't excuse him taking out frustrations on Buck but it makes him human. Buck is someone he can trust to not leave no matter how messy he gets. He can feel his full feelings. He does take them out on Buck and that isn't right but in real life people make mistakes with those they're closes to all the time.

Buck clings to people because he's scared of them leaving so he's the perfect person to act as someone's emotions punching bag. Buck holds too close which can suffocate people which if why others get annoyed with him trying to fix everything. I'm a "fixer" so I know the feeling and I know how hard it can be to not be able to just make everything better.

They're both human going through something horrible right now just trying to figure out how to heal. They both need therapy and some serious discussion about their feelings and emotions and some apologizing. I do think for the audience we need some on air apologizing for past behavior and acknowledgement of each others tramas.

Disclaimer: I have no hate for anyone and no ship preference, please no hate mail. Thank you