#is he a genuinely fascinating character that explores morality and humanity in an extremely human way? also yes

[asentienthaze]

I love finding random tumblr posts describing just the soppiest most pathetic man and then just reblogging it going

"haha

jon sims"

[djsherriff-responses]

I know they're kids movies and there was no set plan for the series besides "be fun and entertaining" but the ice age movies is a fascinating timeline of how media aimed at children changed throughout the years

Like the first two films were surprisingly grounded in it's narrative themes of grief, death and survival, which are almost none existent in the later movies

The first film had a mother of a baby die on screen and later had a sequence of the main character remembering the loss of his own partner and baby , along with the plot of Diego being conflicted between helping a mammoth return a child home and feeding his family of fellow tigers. There's also the fact said baby is a human , so there's a lot of conflict within the animal characters on if returning the baby would be worth the risk , considering the possibility he'll grow up to hunt them regardless

The second film follows up those themes with everyone afraid of how they'll cope with their climate becoming warmer. Manny in particular being afraid he is the last mammoth and feeling a responsibility to be with Ellie to ensure the survival of their species , but Ellie doesn't see herself as a mammoth and thus doesn't feel that sense of responsibility. We get a flashback sequence of her being lost when she was incredibly young and found by possums, thus raised by possums with no mammoth figures growing up, so she's dealing with an identity crisis herself while ensuring her and her brothers survive

Those movies were still for kids and had comedy obviously, but these two stories treated death a lot more seriously whilst the newer films had a different tone all together

The most noticeable example of the tone change between the first and later films is the predator/prey situation. The first movie's plot hinges on the way predator animals (and humans) need to eat meat in order to survive and the moral dilemma that comes with talking animals befriending their natural prey/predator , but by the 5th movie it's treated more as a way to make jokes than something that actually impacts the characters and their relationships. Genuinely how does Diego and other carnivores eat?

The 3rd movie does touch on Diego's situation of being a meat eater living among herbivores and the effects it's having on his physical health, but the movie rather focus on Sid's sudden jump to being a Dino dad and the secret dinosaur world than actually tackling that aspect. Diego's plot line ends up being protrayed as a guy who doesn't know how to cope his best friend having his own family, which is fine, but the film never addresses there were factors that result in Manny and Diego relationship conflict, like the fact Diego is struggling to feed himself

Like, yeah the third film arguably still has survival themes, but Ellie's pregnancy does not hinder her abilities to do anything until she's in labour and even then it's made more so to take jabs at Manny's paranoia. Buck's near death experiences are him gloating about being an extreme survivalist, it's such a stark contrast to the previous two movies

By the 4th and 5th film, the stories were focused more on wacky adventures that borderlines on the realm of fantasy that just happened to have ice age animals involved, with exploration of character's being handled with "kiddy gloves" and relying on tired tropes with increasing modern references thrown in

I know everyone brings up how the first film was a found family story of three dudes helping a baby only to go on giving almost everyone a love interest of the opposite sex, but that's just one element of how these movies changed throughout each installment

There are kid movies and media being made today that do tackle more "depressing" topics, but it seems far more rare compared stuff our generation grew up with

[leonardcohenofficial]

when i seriously engaged w dw i was a big ol rose girl (and so love her very deeply even still) but your recent answer so neatly crystallized here why martha/s3 was some of the (modern) show’s best AND worst writing. the fans were def unkind and racist bc she was Not Rose ™ and Black, but the show (and occasionally the doctor himself) literally also did the same thing. in better hands, the tenmartha emotional arc could have been an incredibly powerful exploration of the doctor’s capability for ‘human’ manipulation because of his more or less constant rolling thru a rotating cast of (usually young) beautiful creatures who often, at least somewhat, worship his alien inhumanity and he’ll outlive - made all the more powerful by martha recognizing it and Getting The Fuck Out tbh. like make no mistake i love the doctor but he can be so terrible about keeping companions at arms length while also clinging and never letting go of them

literally exactly precisely thissssss; the doctor is not (and never was) all good; he has messy deeply contradictory flaws that show up in both his broader sense of morality/what he considers right and wrong/what risks he chooses to take/what he's willing to sacrifice or put in harm's way in order to to have what he believes to be the moral high ground AND the way he interacts one on one with people ESPECIALLY his companions. i think so much of the tenmartha dynamic is genuinely really fascinating (and drives me mildly crazy) but so often when the doctor is manipulating martha, the narrative punishes her in a way that i think is neither due nor deserved. i say this not because i think that the doctor's "bad" behavior needs to be punished narratively in some sort of puritanical way—characters should be complicated and have issues that are interesting to look at in analysis—but martha as the person receiving all of that shit shouldn't have had to endure it for a full season seemingly without end. the fact that she got out really feels so important to me because very few other companions get that type of ending and the will-they-won't-they of it ends in a way that feels very decisive; martha traveled with the doctor and loved him deeply and realized she can and would be fine without him and when he wanted to cling on tighter she prioritized herself and left him. it's a choice that very few people who know the doctor on that level, having seen the very best and very worse of who he is and what he's capable of, get to make and i think that it's extremely significant that it's martha who's allowed to make that decision.

[thebettermccoy]

Why do you like dark beast?

Hey, that's a good question!

I enjoy the fact that Dark Beast is such a dark twist on 616 Beast; where the original Hank McCoy (during the 80's/90's) is goofy, compassionate, and driven by a genuine love for discovery,Dark Beast channels that same intelligence and true passion into something dangerous and depraved. (As to why Beast is my other favorite character -- which would technically be a precursor to this question-- well, that is a longer story and deep-dive into more personal things, but if you would like to know more about that, I can make a separate post about that.)

But I digress...

It’s like all of 616 Beast’s curiosity and energy have been twisted, turning him into a figure who doesn’t see people as friends or allies, but as specimens and disposable tools. I find it fascinating how, despite his brutality, he still retains that love for science and the thrill of exploration—except, with him, it’s unbound by any ethics. It’s like he’s a walking cautionary tale about what happens when intellect is left unchecked by morality, or just how much nurture plays into the development of a person and their beliefs/personality traits.

Henry is the ‘what if’ character who was played into action as an actual doppelganger. What if Hank lost his humanity? His sense of responsibility? What if he came to the 616 reality and replaced the current one? What if he got away with it for weeks/months? (timelines are a little hazy in the comic world sometimes). What if he's still running around the 616 world making it a worse place?

Henry is compelling because there’s a familiarity that makes him more sinister to the reader, like Hank’s worst qualities taken to their extreme. He’s not just a mustache-twirling villain (though he keeps that type of energy); he’s still witty, charismatic (or at least, knows how to fake it, since at base level he is 100% gremlin), and genuinely curious, which makes him far more of a threat than anything he can manage to physically mutate himself into.

TLDR: I like Dark Beast because he is Beast with unapologetic, evil gremlin energy.

[kittymanya]

Who's your favourite OC of yours and why? =]

Killing me with the hardest question possible i see...... dgfhdgdjhdf

Really though that is super hard, i have wayyy too many ocs and my favorite sort of swaps around every few months or so. sometimes it just cycles between the same few for a year or two though.

I would sayyyy right now? Probably anybody from Mary's whole squad. Which would be her (Mary-Anne Cassia), Samiel, Roberto Yun-Capo, Hale-Bopp, Puss in Boots (aka Danyel Mewette), and Winter Adams. All of them are here in this photo! (Hale in the star, Winter in the heart, Roberto in the triangle, Puss in the square, Mary in the circle, and Samiel in the..whatever you call that shape. He has the gun)

To narrow it down even further, specifically my top 4 are hale, mary, puss, and roberto. And then out of that Mary and Puss are probably the two im currently most focused on (but again the whole cycling thing applies here ahjgdjhfg for all i know next week ill be back into being obsessed with roberto)

I like them mostly because they're my first ocs that are actually in a sort of sci-fi setting, which is something i always wanted to do but struggled to! But then i watched Wander Over Yonder again and i was like damn....i could do this but with insane people.

All of them except for Hale-Bopp started off as either Lobotomy Corp OCs or just straight up LC characters that i just..yoinked and changed up a bit, because me and my girlfriend have a Lobotoym Corp rp and their personalities had developed enough to basically not be themselves as they were at the beggining anymore. Samiel was Der Freischutz, and Puss in Boots is.....Puss in Boots. Although he was never actually in the game, he was cut content that we decided to bring in for the rp, so everything about him is still, essentially, about 90% my own creation, since the only thing he had in his cut content was art and some flavor text.

I really like Mary in particular because i think she is just, a horrible human being, but in an interesting and somewhat sympathetic way. Which is something done a lot I know, but i mean hey there's a reason those sorts of characters get so popular ajhgdhj. She does awful things and doesn't let herself open up genuinely to anybody, but she's masks all of it under multiple layers of joking around and being weird in general. She's extremely emotionally stunted, refuses to allow herself to experience genuine connection despite desperately wanting it, and she makes this into everyone's problem. But she's very good at what she does, and extremely competent in other aspects, which is what manages to keep the whole group together.

Puss in Boots on the other hand, is also an emotionally stunted character but in a different form. It's not quite as bad as Mary, who can't handle emotions in herself nor with others very well. Instead Puss mostly struggles with handling his own thoughts and feelings while being excellent with other people. Sort of. He's great at reading people, and he isn't dumb, he often has great advice, but what he is, is PUSHY. He doesn't know how to let things happen naturally, and so often makes things worse instead before theres any progress. I think that the dynamic between him and his (unwillingly, on Puss's end) estranged brother is fun to explore. He has a very strong sense of justice and has lots of conflict with Mary, because she's one of the few people who he can't read very well (Samiel being another one, but he's still easier than Mary) He can't tell if he despises Mary or if he's just concerned for her, and it keeps him around on the ship out of fascination, like a pet project. He hates everything about most of the crew (except winter, and somewhat okay with Roberto) he hates their behavior, their jobs (3/6 of the crew being hitmen/assassins) and most of all he can't stand their morals, or lack thereof.

It'd be a LOT to go into further detail ajhgdhjdf so i think this will do fine as a start bc its. um. 7AM where i am and i have not slept. Oops! But if you want to ask any further questions about them i have most of their info on my website!! (except samiel, who's page i have not finished yet. it's mostly finished, just that his backstory page only has the TLDR section filled in and not in full) https://kittymanya.neocities.org/art/ocs/oclanding

I can't link directly to their pages bc i set up my site weird and im not sure how to fix it really without recoding the whole page, but if you go to the 'sintane' tab theyre all in the first section! They're the first 6 characters that show up in the list. So theres a lot more info there and if you have any more specific questions about them i would LOVE to rant about them :D

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

However, I do think they have the potential for a very interesting and healthy platonic relationship!

Talia is the only person to truly reach out to him (at extreme cost to herself!). She is the only person to ever tell him that him being alive again is a good thing. She is one of a select few people to whom his Beast Wars angst of 'I was hurting people just cause I was mad :(' could genuinely apply to without massive caveats. She's one of a select few people who I think Jason could and would make amends with, without having to hollow himself out in order to cater to them.

I think if Lost Days hadn't been retconned into confusing oblivion, and Jason chose to reach out, make amends, and put in the work, there's the potential here for a genuine mutual friendship... which both characters seem to desperately need.

But only long after the events of Lost Days and UtRH. I don't think he considered her a mother figure back then because frankly I don't think he considered her. Don't get me wrong, I love Jason more than bread and wine, but during Lost Days he did not have the emotional capacity to reciprocate any of the support she gave him.

Talia deserves better than to be trapped serving her Father just because he's her Father. She deserves better than being tethered to a man who has demonstrated repeatedly that he has no room for her in his life. She deserves to have other things going on in her life. She deserves her own goals and ambitions and a real ally to help her achieve them. Someone that she could trust to back her up no matter what anyone else (like her Father) wants.

Jason could be that real ally to her.

He also has the fascinating potential to be an example of her faith in humanity's better nature proven right. To the bats he's always way over the line blah blah blah, but she is the one who turned him towards the anti-Heroic path in the first place. Her morals align with his enough for them to be a good fit for forging a friendship, while being different enough to give them meaningful, resolvable, dynamic conflicts.

Talia being willing to let him kill in some scenarios, so it's not a binary choice, but then demanding that they give someone a chance to grow. Jason not trusting them, wanting to just get it over with before the betrayal he feels is inevitable, Talia countering with "How can we give up on them when after all that happened, it turned out that I was right about you?" or something like that!

Talia could have someone who isn't just tolerating her due to familial obligations but actually supports her because she is valuable in and of herself and has good ideas... And Jason could have the same.

Under the cut I'll discuss this in relation to the incredibly long and elaborate fanfiction I'm writing:

So, in my Chained series, Jason is literally and metaphysically owned by Tim. The main theme I'm using this premise to explore is "To what degree can a relationship founded on extremely bad, unbalanced power dynamics be made livable/good through constant good faith efforts by both partners?"

Talia and Jason's extremely messy power dynamics in Lost Days feels like very fertile ground for exploring that theme in a less rigid context. I want to see them trying to reconnect and build bridges over the course of the fic, growing out of that first mode and into something new.

Additionally, the way Talia has had gender roles applied to her feels super relevant for one of the ways I'm contextualizing Tim and Jason's relationship.

Ultimately there are no equivalents to their situation. It is unique. However there are interesting parallels to dynamics such as Owner and Pet, Employer and Servant, Wielder and Weapon, Worshiper and God, and most relevant here: Husband and Wife. Specifically the horror show that is the housewife with no legal rights subordinated for the rest of her life to the breadwinner husband who makes all the decisions.

All women in DC have been shafted with a lot of both diagetic and authorial misogyny over the years, but the sheer magnitude of fucked up shit Talia has been put through just because she's a non-white woman is staggering. I read comics she's in and just...

I want to see Jason help her escape those fucked up roles, while she teaches him how to survive being stuck in them.

Having examined Lost Days from a Talia centric POV now, I do think I like the idea of Talia being a mother figure to Jason but in a specific, nightmarish, one-sided, gothic horror way.

Frankenstein retold from Elizabeth Lavenza's point of view where she tries to parent the Creature after he has already gone violent while trying not to get murdered by him herself as he rages against Victor kinda deal.

[janumun]

I imagine being captured by Overblot Malleus would feel like a mixture of sleeping beauty's and Rapunzel's lifes. Like we all know Mal absolutely doesn't want Yuu leaving. This dude is the heir to a dark fae throne, so he likely has some empty buildings or towers around for his uses. Overblot Mal probably locks us in there. And he probably goes extra miles as well. Depending on how resistant we'll be and what exactly the situation is when he overblots, he probably has a little cage in the shape of a coffin he puts us in from some weird, cursed magic mumbo-jumbo (CUZ COFFINS ARE HIS CHARACTER Ill DIE ON THAT HILL. This would work out as a pretty interesting episode/lesson.

Malleus going overblot under extreme corruption of stress and fear of denial from his most important person, Yuu being very concerned for their love interest, going to check on him only to see his room a total mess, when their guard is down Malleus walks out of the shadows to use his magic to put his dear under a sleep spell, putting them in a magic coffin of thorns that protects their being from the intruders he knows will come very soon, Deuce and Ace hearing their friend was kidnapped by the dragon from his the dorm's members, so they have to get some help and save Yuu before Malleus takes over Twisted Wonderland and does something...quite undesirable to his prisoner! :O It'd be curious to see how the group works together to bring down Mal.

Gods I am having so much rot over this (And the potential hentai anime this would make don't look at me I am allowed to dream! Overblot Mal in love is a fucking yandere we all know. Super handsome evil dragon fae man kidnapping his true love and claiming them to show them how pent up his desires became when he met them AAAA >;O).

Your mind and dream are A+++ and valid, Nonny. Your concept of a coffin (?!) for his choice of prison is also stellar. Rescuing Yuu, however. Would they even be able to? 🥰 I don’t think it would be possible, unless the minds of individuals like, say Leona and Azul, could be put together, to use. If they ever agreed to cooperate, that is. That is a delicious brain-rot LOL thank you for sharing.

If it’s any comfort, I think even the usual Malleus has the propensity for darker impulsions. I count him among the few characters in twst, with a nice, untapped yandere potential, were you to ever trip him that way [on purpose, kind of like Mystic Messenger’s bad ends] LOL. Withstanding the delectable fact that any of the boys can be flipped over, under the proper, guiding… circumstances 😌 they’re villains, ahem

How I see fae, in particular; they do not share the same inclinations and morals as humans do, nor are they bound by some of our – what fae consider foolish – ideals.

Also going via canon, you see Lilia far used to, and knowledgeable of the ways of humankind, while Malleus still finds their certain habits odd and fascinating. And when he does, I believe he genuinely cannot fathom why humans do the particular things they do, and often turns to Lilia for his insight on their strange customs.

This is more of a personal thought but I also believe the fae cannot lie, as have been depicted via various fictional iterations, throughout the ages. I immensely enjoyed myself, exploring that particular inhumane aspect of fae, a bit, in a recent spicy Lilia story I posted, but in short, since they are incapable of lies, their quick-witted, devious natures lead them to carving other, effective alternatives. And any who consider their incapability to lie, a spot to exploit, would soon find themselves proved very, very wrong, if not… dead. 😇

They honor and respect one who is true in tongue and spirit. And when one is genuine of heart, and in their love, why ever would they shy away from expressing that love? Among the fae, they value honesty, above all, after all. No pride of his is scarred or belittled in Malleus’ frank display of devotion and adoration towards you, and who is to say there would ever be... inhibitions set into place, or even considered, in his love?

Oh, humans, with their silly little peculiarities 😇

Lilia certainly won’t be one to stand in the way of his precious ward’s first, and only, beloved.

[spockandawe]

oooh spicy. Ship that is most misunderstood?

Ship that is most misunderstood: 💢

Ooooh, I like this one. This list could get VERY out of hand if I let it, because I'm a petty binch when it comes to characterization, and changing characterization has the power to REALLY shift a ship's dynamic. Hmmmmm.

Well, to go back to Bai Wuxiang, then... Bai Wuxiang/Xie Lian. In this case, I don't have any issue with the gratuitous cruel-for-the-sake-of-cruelty content, it FITS the character, but I'm very, very convinced that there's a lot more going on inside BWX's head. I will die on the hill that in addition to the cruelty, there's a lot of real affection and desire to nurture, which can express itself in positive or negative ways, and, crucially, the quiet, unvoiced hope that someday Xie Lian will surpass him, echoing the way that Xie Lian is pleased when Lang Qianqiu declares that he's going to be better than Xie Lian. Articulating this in a convincing essay is extremely hard, which is why I haven't done it yet, but I have strong opinions, lmao

Jin Guangyao characterization is.... a delicate balance, especially when it comes to any of the 3zun dynamics, but there are plenty of writers who do it well. Wen Ning is a TOUGH one, and he doesn't have any frontrunner ships like some of the other characters. I feel like the tides have kind of shifted once I entered the fandom and this is less of an issue now, but I have no patience for Sweet Smol Bean who is the most innocent creature you've ever seen and doesn't get angry or act out. Almost any ship he can plausibly end up in has some delicious crunch to it, and I want to FEEL that. The character is very quiet and shy, and is also super willing to throw down and fuck shit up from a very young age. And then he loses everything. Like I said, I haven't run into this as much in newer fic, but I think this aspect of Wen Ning is just crucial to making any ship work. A wwx/wn fic can get away with leaving it out, maybe, but in any other ship, it tastes like you cooked a meal without spices.

And........ mmmm, I think I feel like kicking this hornet's nest XD I have opinions about shipping clones now. Because their whole social situation is absolutely fascinating to me, and is part of why I'm now in star wars fandom instead of being a casual star wars consumer. It can be hard to ship clones! Not in the least because I don't think they're legally.... people? Morally, ethically, well, obviously they are, but they are mass-produced humans who were made to order to use as a disposable army. They were raised in isolation, with millions of other clones, some aliens, and a few other human trainers. They grow up into adults with rich inner words and their own wants and needs and spread out a little into the wider universe. They want to do a romance, perhaps. Now... with who?

I don't even want to talk cloneshipping here, because I get why some people call it incest, even if I think that's an unfair comparison and doesn't even make in-universe sense. And, of course, I totally support the right of people to be uncomfortable with it and avoid it, for whatever reason, which they don't need to justify to me.

But oh boy am I uncomfortable with how often that means the desire to Ship seems to translate to 'look, this non-clone is teaching this clone how to be a PERSON, and it's ROMANTIC.' I think I'm... moderately jaded when it comes to crunchy shipping dynamics. I think it's genuinely hard to make me nope out super hard on that basis. But WOW does this do the trick. The first time I stumbled into this, I was upset, and it was a strong enough response that it took me a while to figure out why it bothered me so badly. I feel a little bad about how much I hate this, because clone ships are overflowing with character/reader content, which I also can't stand for separate reasons, and there's a lot of overlap, and it all pings me as something with a heavy concentration of young writers exploring the medium and having fun and learning how to tell stories.

But also, I'll see a story where this cute young lady meets a tired, stressed clone, and teaches him how to talk about his feelings, and there's often bits where she treats him to new sights and activities and experiences he's never had before (because he's basically part of a slave army who has been genetically engineered to age at double speed and spent his childhood training for war) and my skin just crawls. It's been an experience!!! I'm still new enough to the fandom (which is an integrated part of a behemoth fandom) that it's hard to articulate my feelings about this, specifically, or speak to broader fandom trends. But wow, it's been a while since figuring out 'oh, this is what the author wants to communicate' had implications that made me SLAM out of a fic that quickly.

[papers4me]

List of Intriguing Golden Kamuy Characters: (part 1)

As I read more chapters of Golden Kamuy, the characters get more fleshed out & layers upon layers of their broken selves get explored.

A general theme: is the the changing mentality of men before, a mid & after wars. How their psyche & mind change as the brutality of war breaks them apart.This manga is very unique in presenting its characters as human with degrees of good & bad in every one of them. None of these men is innocent & naive. They’re all aware of their current position as war soldiers whether deserters, discharged or on duty. Basically it is a manga abt broken men. Asirpa, the sole female protagonist, is presented as an innocent but practical character, but will she stay the same or will the hunt for gold & the worry for Ainu future change her?

Fascinating aspect: the dynamics between characters are one of the most entertaining in anime that I’ve read! truly unique. The characters, thanks to the plot, are forced to change sides & join different groups repeatedly throughout the story & each time, I discover new brilliant dynamics!!! The humor is good with a dash of adult jokes! The deadly hotel dynamics, the circus dynamics, the trip to Abashiri, the trip to Karafatu dynamics! & more, are all well-done.

Below, I’ll write very short & general broad summary of what I find fascinating abt each character. I’ll divide them into groups.  ( contains spoilers)

1.Sugimoto's group:

Saichi Sugimoto: the protagonist. A discharged soldier. He is a troubled soul who has very low self worth despite his immense desire to stay alive. His kindness contrast his violent brutality. He kills criminals/soldiers with no mercy yet he’ll put himself in danger for those he cares for. I’m especially interested in his journey to reconcile with past self. I need for him to have a journey away from Asirpa & everybody. A self cleansing path where he accepts that perhaps it’s okay for him to not end up in Hell. His own personal issues with his past & the guilt he carries coupled with his fear that Umeko (his first love & his friend’s widow) will see the monster that he believes he’s become is highly fascinating to me! How will he deal with that? & if he were to ever meet Umeko again will she sense the past Saichi or the blood drenched Sugimoto or if there will be a different Sugimoto when the gold hunt is over? Perhaps, we won’t ever know. Perhaps letting her go & letting all his past go is part of his new journey? Can you start new while ignoring the past? I need to see Sugimoto’s own journey!

Asripa: 12 or 13 year old girl who is independent & capable to sustain herself without the need of any man. This child’s young age is especially important for the story that is full of adult  & veteran men of war as she represents the hopeful future. The future is the children who shouldn’t be plagued by their parents’ sins & desires. Her father put her in the center of danger & threw a huge burden on her. His own dream that is conveniently introduced as the salvation of her ppl. A dream that kept changing with every new step he takes, a dream that clashes with other men’s dream & for them to achieve theirs, they need Asripa who is is in the middle of it all. I want Asripa to find a path that is hers, not her father’s. Moreover, I want her to grow independently from Sugimoto whom she now considers the center of her own dream. She needs to see the world & grow up as a woman before she ties herself with others for life.

 Shiraish: A comic relief convict with unique escape skills, who in the later chapters has grown immensely without loosing his comic value! I love his growth!! & yet is to come! he’s become the rational one in the group while being super silly! Very satisfying indeed!

2.The 7th Division: (aka the most fascinating set of characters)

Tokushirō Tsurumi: One of the most well-written villains that I’ve recently come across. He’s fluid, entertaining, manipulative & fascinating. You literally can’t predict his moves or even his moods! Can’t tell if what he’s saying is truth or lie. Tsurumi is the writer’s unchained character cuz while Hijikata is tied a bit by historical reference to a real character, Asirpa to the Auni & Sugimoto as her bodyguard. The writer can simply write Tsurumi freely to fit every shape & every mold. There’s even logical reason for his mood swings & erratic behavior; he lost part of his brain in a war explosion & wears a metal plate to cover the open wound. He’s extremely clever, analytical & his schemes go along way into the past. He even molded & exploited his men to his advantage. He has a tragic background & in the later chapter was able to validly show the pros & cons of Wilk & Hijikata’s plan’s while masquerading his as the more logical one. He can be a comic relief, terrifying, genuine, cunning, loving, despicable, handsome, disgusting & above all it creeps me out how alive he seems in the chapters! he’s so animated I feel he’ll leave the manga panel & invade my space!! good stories need well-written antagonist & the writer really hit it with Tsurumi! well-done.

Hyakunosuke Ogata: Another unpredictable character. Like Tsurumi, he’s given a tragic background & just like Tsurumi as well, he makes unexcused & horrible decisions. Clearly he’s mentally unstable (a running theme in GK). Ogata, in addition to being the best sniper in the show & performing well in war, chose to add innocent victims to his list. He shot his brother & even attempted to kill Asipra, any writer will make this as simply a lunatic character, but this writer chose to tie such unexcused behavior to Ogata’s unstable psyche to show that from his own perspective; it makes sense! Afterall, it’s simply “ normal” to not ever feel guilt over killing human. His brother comes to haunt him in one of the most cinematic scenes & even plays with his mind. You’d think Ogata has gone rouge against everybody? Guess again, he’s got allies. Told you it’s hard to predict!

Genjirō Tanigaki: loved, endearing & dumb. lol. he’s simply a “shoujo girl” in a historic war manga. Tanigaki started dark, torn, filled with guilt in one of the tragic background stories, but was released from his tormented soldier persona by a convict who taught him, it is okay to start a new again. Desert the army, let go of the past & start again. he’s rewarded with a wife & a daughter but not before going on a journey with the others to showcase his manly charms & naive persona! love him.

Hajime Tsukishima: Another fascinated character that silently took me off guard with how much I cared for him! I had to go back & see where did he start! He was a background character assisting Tsurumi, then slowly became a prominent character with his own fascinating background story where you feel for him & see the depth of Tsurumi’s manipulation. I can’t even begin to explain Tsukishima mentality & psyche in this short summary! he’s got depth! that’s for sure.

Otonoshin Koito: the youngest in the division & one of the youngest men in the entire cast, but got high army rank thanks to his father & joining a military academy. You wanna know how manipulative Tsurumi is? read Koito’s background story. epic! Koito is impulsive, stubborn, inexperienced & highly skilled. He’s a bit naive at times but not dumb. He’s got amazing comic relief value tied with plot importance! His dynamics with Tsukishima & Ogata & Sugimoto are brilliant! you’ll never get bored!

Tokishige Usami : another unstable character. He shares Ogata’s belief that it’s normal to not feel guilt. Through him the writer argues that whether you come from tragic background (Ogata) or loving family (Usami), not feeling the slightest guilt over killing human is not normal. Ogata kills his mother while Usami kills his friend, both were young when they did their first innocent kill. However, unlike Ogata, Usami is very loyal to Tsurumi & obsessive of him. He’s strong, skilled, deadly & very creepy!! like very~~~~ creeeeepy~

Kōhei Nikaidō: from one of the creepiest sadistic soldiers to a sad, mentally unstable & tormented shell. He’s become such a valuable comic relief! I used to shudder when I see him, now I can’t stop laughing. Hard fall for the sadistic Nikaido! lol.

Kiktua: a new addition. So secretive & appears level headed & has good sense of morals.

Airko: another new addition: Ainu soldier. Appears naive, with high morals yet indecisive.

I could say more abt each character, but this is meant to be a summary. Each character is deep & has broken mentality that led to their decisions whether excused or unexcused. The convicts & Hijikata are next! But I had to start with Sugimoto & the 7th division! cuz that’s the main dish!

[darkpoisonouslove]

Ask 2 and 5 for Griffin and Valtor :)

2. What’s your favorite relationship in your story? Could be the main one, one your characters shares with a friend, etc.

Griffin and Valtor are a favorite relationship of mine because there is just so much with them. There's a lot of complexity with the moral dilemma their relationship poses for Griffin and the possibility it offers to explore how love has made them both better and worse. It provides an interesting side of losing yourself in love to the point where it becomes dangerous not just for you but for everyone else and that is something that could have made the show's views on love more complex. There's also a very close connection between love and power in their relationship and that is super intriguing to poke at. And of course, as someone who loves angst, this just delivers a lot of that so I can't resist it. Wish I could explain better but my concentration ran away and I can barely string a sentence together anymore.

5. What makes your main ship so compatible? Or, what makes them so incompatible? What do they see in each other?

This is about my rewrite so my version of canon.

The thing that really brings them together is the fact that both of them are used to never being seen as good enough. The Ancestral Witches are always harping on Valtor about not doing well enough on missions and abuse him as they please because he does not rise up to their standards. And Griffin is used to the world seeing her as yet another dark magic user aka evil just because she has chosen to be a witch. It takes them a little while to figure out that they have that kind of understanding between them and that is why they are both perfectionists (even if that manifests in different ways with each of them) but once they do, it becomes a lot easier to work together because they know how to avoid the other's trip wires. It also strengthens their convergence to have more understanding and trust of the other. (On top of that, they have both experienced jabs about their magic. Griffin has been despised because of her dark magic and Valtor has been told he has no right to his Dragon Fire because it was stolen from Domino.)

Both of them have big egos even if Griffin's works in subtler ways and will be absolutely petty if their ego is hurt. It's not great for their partnership until they figure out how to take credit for their joined efforts. After that it's just a nightmare for anyone else to be around them because the ego of one of them feeds of the other's ego and vice versa and they can be quite unbearable. To them, though, it's great because they've finally found someone who recognizes their talent and can match it.

Speaking of, they both love the fact that the other one can match them step for step. At first it was more of a push and pull dynamic that lacked sync. Valtor thought that Griffin was too much talk and no walk since she was always planning so much and was afraid of the action (or at least that's what the Ancestral Witches tried to put in his head). Griffin thought he was too impulsive and was only succeeding because he had the might of the Dragon Fire, otherwise no magic would keep up with the way he was wasting it. It turned out that Valtor just has a lot more knowledge on magic that allows him to draw more power and can do the same for her. And she is just compensating what she lacks in raw power with a solid strategy. They are just the two sides of the same coin and it challenges the other to do their best in order to keep up.

They had similar goals. Valtor wanted to have enough power to break free from the Ancestral Witches' control and prove himself in his own right (not as their servant). Griffin wanted enough power to get rid of the stigma around dark magic that is the Council's propaganda. They were both ready to go to extremes to get what they wanted. Contrary to what the Ancestral Witches were suggesting, Griffin wasn't scared to go through whoever was standing in her way. She just preferred to do things with stealth and finesse where possible but she would resort to murder if that was the only way to achieve her goal. Valtor just does not happen to place value upon human life but he also wasn't on board with the mass destruction that was in the core of the Ancestresses' plan. They just wanted to destroy the world because destruction is all they understand but Valtor wanted to have realms over which to impose his greatness. Tbh Valtor was first intrigued by her complex view on morality since she wasn't operating with the idea that she is morally correct while she also didn't view herself as morally incorrect for killing people who were in her way. She was simply viewing it as necessary sacrifice for a better world and that made him curious.

There's their shared pursuit of knowledge, although with Griffin it's more genuine curiosity while for Valtor it's just another way to power. The more you know about a person or about magic, the more control you have over them. Griffin on the other hand, just finds it fascinating to learn about the world around her, just for the sake of knowledge.

Ask me fanfic questions

[ichabodcranemills]

re: D*rklina

@musical-chick-13 I’m putting this under a read more, because I have additions and, yes, it is long 😂

So, as far as I can tell from what show-watchers have told me, yes, he is definitely worse in the books. And specifically, the general idea in said books seems to be that just because someone is charismatic and attractive and “gets” parts of you doesn’t mean that they’re a good partner or even worth your time, which is a message I have waited FOREVER to see. Beauty (and to a lesser extent, magnetism) does not equal goodness. The Dark/ling (I have no idea if the names will show up in the tags so I’ll put slashes in the middle of them, wow this website’s features need revamping) always seemed…very entitled to Al/ina. There wasn’t any desire for them to become equals (even in a moral sense by dragging her down to his moral level or raising himself up to hers). His behavior and pursuit of her seems much more motivated by the idea of being able to congratulate himself on the fact that he’s “won” her. She’s more of like…a conquest to him? And maybe that’s a huge misread of his character on my part, but the Leigh, the author, HAS said in the past that some of the Dark/ling’s dialogue and actions were written as a way for her to make sense of and deal with an irl toxic relationship she was in during part of the writing period, so I…don’t think it’s a completely unreasonable interpretation? And that’s not to say that power imbalance ships should Never Be Shipped (because they can be genuinely compelling or even fun to watch under the right writer), and Leigh has even said that she Gets The Appeal herself.

But I think the reasons Tho/schei works for me where D*rklina doesn’t are because 1) Tho/schei have genuinely known each other for a long time (and even been on good terms for some of it) but the Dark/ling decides, despite being this all-powerful charismatic force who is hundreds of years old, to get pettily involved in a teenage love triangle in very little time which is a choice that makes absolutely no sense to me at all, 2) The Doctor is an extremely morally grey character, in a way that if they aren’t careful could easily match the destructiveness of The Master. They both are aware of this, and both of them believe themselves (in their own ways) to be “above” morality (The Doctor in the sense of “I know what’s best and my choices are law” and The Master in the sense of “My choices are law and I deserve to cause destruction and have complete control”. There are…not equal, but similar enough levels of moral ambiguity that it makes sense to me that they still Get™ each other. The Doctor also likes Intellectual Challenges and Foiling Grand Plots, to the point where it’s often the Most Important Thing, and The Master not only provides those, but enjoys the conflict as well, and 3) They actually are close to being equals. They’re both very smart, powerful, immortal. Obviously The Doctor has Much More Life Experience and a more extraordinary legacy because of the Timeless Child thing, but Missy’s primary goal was simply “I want my friend back” and Dhawan!Master freaked out because it was impossible to see them as equals anymore. The Doctor, as per Twelve, wants the Master to be good because they’re alike in a way no one else in either of their lives are. They kind of…want the same thing but in different ways, whereas The Dark/ling, while understanding The Burden Of Power, doesn’t actually want the same thing Al/ina does.

And that relationship between D*rklina could still make for a fascinating dynamic, and one that in another life I might even be into myself if not for the whole “reducing it to Good Girl Saves Bad Boy” trope that I keep seeing within a good deal of the fandom. Not that a general fandom reaction or misread should prevent anyone from enjoying something, but I’m so tired that it’s nearly impossible for me to separate them at this point, lol. Ultimately it boils down to the fact that they seem like such fundamentally different people that I don’t personally see how they could ever truly find common ground or genuinely appreciate their similarities. I think the most interesting exploration of a romantic bent to their dynamic would be in a context  where they are so different and recognize that they’re so different, and they might want to focus on their similarities, but it’s not enough. There could be this undeniable pull between them, but what does that really mean when held up against who they are and how they choose to interact with the world? And then having to deal with the necessary antagonism that results. I guess I see the existence of this ship as like…more of a thought exercise than anything I would ever want to happen in any way other than a one-sided attraction on his part, or that could ever truly be narratively justified. But also like…I hate him, so that makes it kind of hard for me to want to explore it in any way at all. Which that’s a personal thing. Other people like this character, and I’m genuinely happy for them that they can see something I don’t.

UGH, I’m sorry this got so long. This is what happens when I have an urge to Share my Thoughts.

I totally understand your feelings and I think the show did a good job on not only humanizing the D*rkling, but also making the relationship more palatable. I, mean, I’m sure we can partially blame Mr. Barnes’ soulful eyes, but I definitely got the impression that, while the D*rkling wants to use Alina for his own gains, he is very drawn to her as THE Sun Summoner, as in “we are linked and will inevitably be the only one for the other”, he basically tells Mal as much.

And I don’t blame you for losing interest in them because of the fandom, it can be very frustrating, especially if one of the characters didn’t appeal to you in the first place (I mean, I’ve been there, hello R*ylo, lmao)

I think I get what you’re saying about how this works out in the books and how what draws me to D*rklina isn’t necessarily textual. And I think I might have went in a little biased when I watched the show, because, before I did, a friend told me she was getting Thoschei vibes from it, but didn’t especify where, So I watched and there it was: M*lina… okay, school best friends, us against the world, but in general, eh, they were too “perfect” (as in, no real conflict between them). And then D*rklina with everything I said on my original post. I mean, I was looking for a thoschei-like dynamic and I found one ��.

I’ve read some spoilers for the book, so I know my whole “200 years later” fantasy doesn’t happen, so I agree with you, this ship is more of a thought exercise. But I think the show sets it up in a way that is Just My Thing, whereas the book is more straightforward with how incompatible these two are, romantically. But the fandom will ship away, even in kinda blergh ways, it’s how it is 🤷

[harrowscore]

Mikasa Ackermann, Levi Ackermann, Amane Misa, Aeron Greyjoy for the charactet ask :3

SOMEONE HEARD MY PRAYERS AND NOW MY TIME HAS COME, tysm!!!!! <3

okay, let's start with levi (my beloved):

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life (THEE little feral anime man after my heart)

hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang (Dark, Tall and Snarky + piercing grey-blue eyes and chronic insomnia? clearly my type ❤)

hogwarts house: gryffindor (maybe....?) | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

ugh, the hp sorting house system is way too reductive. he has qualities of gryffindor, slytherin, and hufflepuff - brave, astute, loyal to a fault, etc. so it's a hard choice. but if i really have to choose, i'd go for gryffindor. i know that his Bad Boy facade shouts slytherin, but while he has larger goals (killing all the titans, then saving the world etc.), he's got no actual ambition for himself. hufflepuff would also be a good option.

daemon (from the his dark materials series): (because i've just decided that's just way more accurate than the hp method) some kind of big feline. maybe a panther - a black panther would be the ideal - aloof, predatory, dangerous, fiercely independent.

best quality: besides his obvious strenghts as a leader and warrior, the way he cares for his comrades-in-arms. it's very hard to gain his trust and respect, but once you have it, it's forever. he's pragmatic and ruthless, yes, but he also has a huge capacity for compassion and friendship. not that he would be effusive about his affections, of course.

worst quality: none, he's absolutely perfect ❤ jklsdfhjk jokes aside, he really struggles to open up (a serious understatement), idt he ever talked about his traumatic past with anyone. i mean, maybe he mentioned it to hange and erwin (erwin knew him when he was still an undergound thug, so...), but... he's not great with feelings. despite his apathetic, intimidating mask, he feels and cares deeply, but he has a long history with losing the people he loves, so he tries to not personally care about his squadmates, which can be both a strenght and a weakness. of course, he spectacularly fails at this.

ship them with: well, it's not a secret that i'm a huge rivamika fan, this ship is almost literally consuming my waking thoughts lmao. imo they're perfectly compatible: very similar personalities (stoic, the strongest warriors, absolutely terrifying on the battlefield but with a soft underbelly), very similar pasts/experiences, so many parallels that it's actually ridiculous, etc. i love how they're both each other's equals and likeness (yes, i took it from jane eyre. no, i don't regret anything lmao). a lot of tropes i love, too: Terrible First Impression (the Pride and Prejudice vibes are so strong with these two, you have no idea), Kindred Spirits/Mirror Images, Veteran/Young Prodigy, The Last of Their Kind, even Height Difference lmao. i could write a whole rivamika manifesto, but this is already too long. (maybe for some other time 👀) i would've loved for their dynamic to be more explored in canon but alas, isayama clearly didn't give a shit about the ackerman legacy, he just used it as a plot shortcut to give them conveniently unique powers, since they never really talked about it 🙄 (and before some troll comes into my askbox shouting "you iNcEsT fReAk!!!!1!!", they're only very distantly related. we know shit about the ackermans but we know for sure that they've got at least several generations between them. biologically their shared DNA is 0%, obviously they don't see each other as family, all the eldians have a dead ass common ancestor from 2000 years ago so they're all basically ⁓related anyway. if you really wanna scream about i.ncest, go watch got/dark/the borgias and shut the fuck up please. or alternatively go outside and touch some grass) sorry for the rant, uh. anyway, i can also see levi/erwin. idk if i'd ever care enough to read a fic about them (i'm usually a huge multishipper, but for some weird reason not when it comes to rivamika? same with braime and kastle tbh), but still, i can see it.

brotp them with: hange and erwin, obv. veteran trio >>> ema trio, sorry not sorry (at least h. and e. died before yams had the chance to ruin their character arcs)

needs to stay away from: ...uh, filth, i guess? lmao

misc. thoughts: besides the stupid teenage fangirl crush i have on him, i'm genuinely fascinated by the man himself. he's a huge mess of a contradictions, and yet somehow it works: he's violent and brash and kind of an asshole, but also has a strong moral code and integrity; he's obv very skilled at all the killing/torturing stuff and yet he has a huge respect for life; he's got a potty mouth to say the least, and yet some very aristocratic manners/tastes (the way he sits, his preference for tea and usually refined clothes); he comes from what's supposed to be an illustrous bloodline, he's methodical and very precise, and yet he was born and raised in the underground, he's been used to filth and blood and poverty since he was a child, kenny of all people was his father figure, and probably has known no other life than a perennial survival mode existence. he's "humanity's strongest soldier", but while well-built he's also small, the david to the titans' goliah, and probably not what people would assume a born warrior looks like. he's also one of the few characters who stayed true to himself and his original characterization until the end, bless you smol king ❤

(okay, this is getting long!)

mikasa:

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them (so much. she deserved better ❤️) | actual love of my life 

hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! (stunning lady ❤) | 10/10 would bang

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

this is actually easy: mikasa belongs to hufflepuff and no, i won't take criticism (just joking lol). enough with this "hufflepuffs are fluffy puppies/Cinnamon Rolls <3" thing: mikasa values loyalty and duty more than anything else. she's also hardworking... and fierce, strong, lethal. yes, hufflepuff and lethal are not mutually exclusive concepts.

daemon: (finally the better option) a she-wolf, fiercely protective of her pack.

best quality: loyal, brave, incredibly strong (alongside her more fragile qualities). practical and level-headed on the battlefield, at least when eren is not included in the picture.

worst quality: struggles to let go of the past (understandable, considering her trauma). tunnel-vision when it comes to eren, obv. extreme levels of delusions ("if only i spoke openly about my romantic feelings for him - as if i didn't made them abundantly clear in ⁓6 years - he wouldn't kill 80% of humanity :(((" lmao okay. just. okay), but that's more on the writing. she's sadly more static than any other main character throughtout the whole series.

ship them with: see above :) but recently i've also started to be intrigued by mikasa/annie and mikasa/sasha. also, i'm sympathetic to jeankasa fans, though i don't actually care for the ship.

brotp them with: EMA trio, especially armin+mikasa. their friendship is so beautiful and special. also sasha.

needs to stay away from: ...... eren, at least romantically. again, that's more on the writing than anything else, but e.remika unfortunately encompasses many tropes i loathe with all the strength of my old shriveled heart: childhood friends-to lovers where the (male) childhood friend doesn't acknolewdge/is completely indifferent to the other (female) friend's romantic feelings, she hopelessly pines for him for years without anything more than a cold shoulder... until in the last chapter it's revealed that he loved her all along and doesn't "want other men to have her!!! :((" (then why did you have no reaction whatsoever to jean's years-long crush on her while she was jealous of any vaguely female-shaped human being you were friendly to, including hange? are you that dumb, man?); the female character's development and entire arc 100% revolves around the male protagonist - she has no goals, no dreams of her own except staying with him forever and ever; the romance is based on an idealized childhood dream, therefore reaffirming those childish illusions would make the character regress, not actually grow up (and nope, epilogue!jk doesn’t count; that also lacks build-up - i would’ve said the same about rm as well, so it’s not about shipping, guys, it really isn’t - and mikasa needed an inner change; getting married to another man but still praying to eren’s shrine is not substitute to actual development lol). post-time skip she's never really frustrated/angry with him, they never get a confrontation about him becoming a, y'know, mass-murderer of gigantic (pun intended) proportions; she puts him on a pedestal, and never stops idealizing him/never sees him for what he actually is (the narrative framing him as some kind of tragic martyr/saint eren from paradis with zero agency and basically... no clear motivation for the abovementioned mass murder, and not the actual complex tragic anti-hero/villain motivated by revenge and righteous fury he deserved to be, does not help). it lacks a good or even decent build-up - it's basically all tell and not show. now, if they'd actually been childhood friends to enemies to lovers/mutually co-dependent... it could have been interesting. sadly, it's not my cup of tea. of course this is just my personal preference, no hard feelings to the shippers.

misc. thoughts: enormous potential. she's been my fav female character since s1 - and ah, i miss s1!mikasa, when she had actually other stuff to do besides mothering eren. i love that she's the strongest warrior (second only to levi, obv), that her skills are never called into questions despite her gender, i love how she stands up for herself and the people she loves, that she may seem cold and stoic and yet has a such a huge heart, that she's not perfect but also sometimes awe-inspiring. sadly, she never really gets out of eren's shadow; what she lacks is an arc focused on herself. that's why imo getting deeper into the ackerman lore would've helped (also, you cannot make the main female character and the most popular male character descend from the same Unique Bloodline or whatever, and never really make them acknowledge it out loud; as a writer, you just can't lol). my spite is so strong that i'm currently writing a ridiculously pretentious fic that's 70% development for her character, to give her a voice, and 30% ackerthirsting. (yes, that's the fic i'm always vagueblogging about lmao, rip @ my brain). if any other rivamika fan is interested… mind you, it’s in italian tho, and idt i have the skills to translate into english.

misa:

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life 

hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

daemon: mmh, maybe some kind of butterfly? beautiful, colorful, and short-lived.

best quality: glorious fashion sense, more inventive and ingenious than fans actually give her credit for.

worst quality: shallow, impulsive, and obv her dependence on/obsession with light (which stems from trauma btw, but still… the very opposite of a relationship between equals).

ship them with: rem, kinda (monster/human ftw!). also weirdly enough mogi, a little bit? she deserves someone who actually respects her… though she’s far from being a perfect angel. she may actually be crazier than light on some aspects. but in this house we stan evil ladies anyway, so i have no problem with that <3

brotp them with: uh, idk, maybe matsuda?

needs to stay away from: obv light. also takada.

misc. thoughts: a tragic victim of sexist writing. she may be… unhinged to say the least, but she didn’t deserve the abuse she got from light (and from the fans). the female characters’ writing in dn is so bad that idk if it’s on purpose, to kinda mirror the reality of women in a patriarchal society (dependent on men, housewives whose life entirely revolves around their husband/boyfriend etc.), or just casual misogyny lol. it’s even more baffling since we don’t know the author’s gender (they may be a man, a woman, nb, anything really). i tend for the latter option tho.

aegon greyjoy (now, i wasn’t expecting him lol):

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life 

hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang

hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff

i’m so sorry, i haven’t the slightest idea lmao. maybe gryffindor? mind you, it’s been a long time since i’ve re-read the books, so i don’t have many thoughts about him.

daemon: maybe it’s cliché, but some kind of fish/squid lmao

best quality: ugh, i really can’t remember much from his chapters :(( he’s not a coward, i guess? (lame answer, sorry!)

worst quality: definitely his religious fanaticism.

ship them with: no one.

brotp them with: uh… his family, ig? except euron.

needs to stay away from: obv euron. brr ://

misc. thoughts: i genuinely like the greyjoys chapters, though i vastly prefer the martells (with the exception of theon and asha, bcs i love them). yes, they’re deranged. yes, victarion is… well, victarion lol. but the drowned god religion is actually interesting, grrm knows how to write trauma - every time aeron mentions euron and that freaking door i’m like… :// - and the tragedy of it all… just great writing all around.

okay, that’s the end lmao. thank you so much, love!!! ❤❤

[theholycovenantrpg]

CONGRATULATIONS, MIMZ! YOU’VE BEEN ACCEPTED FOR THE ROLE OF RAPHAEL.

Admin Rosey: I never really thought that Raphael’s application would be so f u n to read. Macabre? Absolutely. Impassioned? Of course. But hilarious to the point where I was giggling? Definitely unexpected but that is what made this so enjoyable and it is ultimately why this application received a r e s o u n d i n g yes from each of us. There was a perspective that I always envisioned for Raphael but was never able to articulate it myself until you laid it out, word by word, with this application, Mimz. Raphael is such a multi-faceted and character that holds so much potential, and the way that you wove it into every aspect of the application made this so fun to read. Thank you so much for taking the time to produce such a wonderful application! Your faceclaim change to Kendrick Sampson has been approved. Please create and send in your account, review the information on our CHECKLIST, and follow everyone on the FOLLOW LIST. Welcome to the Holy Land!

OUT OF CHARACTER

Alias 

mimz

Age

21

Personal Pronouns

she/her

Activity Level

i’ll typically check the dash every day, and i try not to keep replies stewing for longer than a couple of days! that said i can be a little slow, especially around exam seasons.

Timezone

pst

Triggers

REMOVED

How did you find the group?

miss minnie bleubeard’s blog

IN CHARACTER

Character

raphael, with a fc change to kendrick sampson

What drew you to this character? 

short answer: divine amorality sexy HAHAHAHA

long answer: there was something i read a little while ago about some of the best surgeons being able to dehumanize their patients to a rather frightening degree. there’s a level of abstraction that you need in order to not let your empathy get in the way of the practice of medicine; ultimately, a body is a body is a body, right? and then there’s the moral quandary of healing - it is a doctor’s duty to heal, but what does that actually mean? to what extent is a doctor’s duty to relieve suffering? to obstinately prolong life? if the body heals but the mind still ails, is a person healed? what i’m getting at, here, is that in some ways the healer is the most dangerous character of all. 

when i read raphael’s bio, there was a quote in that article from a surgeon named david cheever that came to mind: “as a result of anaesthetics, the surgeon ‘need not hurry; he need not sympathise; he need not worry; he can calmly dissect, as on a dead body.’” to me, raphael is an explosion and expansion of this concept. raphael is, quite literally, a medical ethicist’s worst nightmare, and to me, that’s absolutely fascinating. without sympathy, what separates a healer from an educated control freak with a god complex? with raphael, we can extend this concept to its furthest extreme. raphael isn’t even human - how could he even begin to sympathize with an experience so foreign to him? why would he worry about something trivial as human suffering when it essentially exists as a theoretical concept to him? divine beings have no reason to play by human rules, and as a creature raised by god’s side raphael was so far removed from the concept of human suffering that it’s sort of a no-brainer that he developed a sick fascination with it, like a child who managed to con their parent into buying a grand theft auto game and is obsessed with running over pedestrians because the stakes never quite feel real. it’s a perspective i’d absolutely love to explore in a group rp setting because the nature of rp means that it’s kind of...completely unsustainable? like as writers we’re shoving these characters together, which means that raphael will have to be exposed to mortals. there’s room for a lot of character development there, and it seems like something extremely interesting to explore.

BUT HERE’S THE THING⁠—and this is where the character gets really fun, in my opinion. i’ve talked a fair bit about god complexes already, but when applied to raphael an interesting question is raised: how much is a complex, and how much of it is actually being divine? what really made me want to get my grubby little hands on the reins of raphael’s story was seeing the disconnect between the way his connections are written from raphael’s perspective versus the other character’s perspective. it’s a fun little hubristic shade that makes him an unreliable narrator and infinitely more interesting than a simple morality thought experiment. i think it’s easy to see raphael as this super cool, all-powerful master manipulator (i think that’s a pretty accurate take on his self-image, in fact), but he’s not the only player in this game. for every pawn he’s trying to move, there is someone else trying to use him in a similar way, and i don’t know that he truly understands the ramifications of that. see, i think it’s easy to reduce raphael to the points i discuss in the previous paragraphs because that’s what he wants you to think of him. but this is a world of gods and superpowers and magical political intrigue and game of thrones doesn’t exist so nobody can tell him that he’s on the path to becoming a cersei lannister (admittedly i haven’t watched got so this reference might not be right but i feel like it’s right so uh. yeah!). maybe i just like to see arrogant men getting knocked down a peg? this might be a projection of that. i dunno. i just know that there are quite a few mind games and mental gymnastics to untangle with raphael and that’s fun. he’s fun.

also. i would like to once again reiterate: divine amorality sexy. it’s not good, to be clear, and i don’t condone it, but i’m just saying.

What future plots do you have in mind for the character?

WHEN  THE  CITY  CRUMBLES  AROUND  YOU  AND  YOU  HOLD  ITS VESTIGES  IN  YOUR  HANDS,  WHOM  DO  YOU  BLAME?

i think Raphael’s big character arc revolves around a simple question: how far are you willing to go to achieve what you want? 

ostensibly, it’s an easy answer: very far. but when your desire is antithetical to your very purpose, when chasing it puts you at odds with the thing you’ve worked to build, do the goalposts move?

(the correct answer is that raphael did not build caelum. he simply destroyed god.)

let’s say, hypothetically, that raphael gets what he wants. the world is thrown into war and chaos and destruction, yadda yadda, raphael gets his blood and his suffering, great. he’s lived through this before (a couple times, actually), so you think he’d realize by now—eventually, the dust will settle. people will tire of suffering. and where will that leave raphael? how many times will you remake the world to watch it burn? can you ever be fulfilled chasing a temporary high? 

(the correct answer is no, but raphael is an immortal being. more importantly, he is a patient one. he will wait a million days for rome to be built, if only to witness the single day in which it will burn.)

i think raphael needs to reckon with these questions. i think he’s lived far too long with his mentality unquestioned and that has made him both insufferable and a major threat to society. this is a long and pretentious way to say that raphael honestly kind of needs a hobby whatever the thc-verse equivalent of therapy is, but i think any sort of positive character development is contingent upon a recontextualization of suffering and chaos and raphael’s masks.

of course, this isn’t to say that introspection will only lead to positive character development. perhaps a raphael who looks deeper into his psyche will come to understand that his desires outweigh his role; perhaps such thoughts will push raphael over the edge of propriety and into something more outwardly despicable. no matter what, though, i think that the direction of raphael’s character development will be largely shaped on how he decides to prioritize his⁠ roles and goals. 

FOR  WHOM  DO  THESE  HANDS  HEAL?

let’s discuss the archangels, shall we? despite it all, raphael genuinely loves his brothers. i would argue, even, that raphael believes that his scheming is in service to the other archangels; he’s not blind to the way complacency has softened the angels. at this point, the only true threat to the angels is themselves—if michael wants to to unlock a state of sanctifying grace, it will happen at the hand of one of his kin. 

i spoke earlier about raphael’s goals ultimately being futile. this is largely because they are diametrically opposed to michael and gabriel’s goals, and while raphael knows this intellectually, i don’t think he’s quite thought about what the long-term implications of that conflict entails. he’s so caught up in the conflict between michael and gabriel that he’s neglected to consider how he factors into the dynamic. could he be the common ground that brings michael and gabriel together? could he be the final straw that breaks them apart? he is excited for the fighting, the fallout; but has he stopped to consider what the long-reaching effects of such a rift may be?

raphael is breaking his family apart because he loves them. will that be enough, when he is sent to pick up the pieces? whose side will he fall on, if he is to pick a side at all? 

DID  PYGMALION  FALL  IN  LOVE  WITH  THE  BEAUTY  OF  HIS  CREATION,  OR  THE  BEAUTY  HE  CREATED?

i said this in the previous section but i’d like to reiterate it: i think a big reason raphael is Like That is because the stakes have never quite felt real to him. raphael’s a pot stirrer, but he’s not a creature of action. to this, i say give him real stakes. to be honest, i don’t know exactly what that entails, because i could see a number of ways in which tangible pressure manifests itself for raphael. perhaps his meddling with michael and gabriel steps too far, and his brothers  perhaps the angels become suspicious of his maneuvering, in which the spider is drawn into his own web of intrigue. maybe we apply positive pressure, where the ails of the world require a healer and raphael is tapped to higher purpose⁠—and higher power. maybe raphael will find himself tempted by the very demons he holds in contempt. 

the point is that raphael has largely been a character who acts through others. even now, we see this through his grooming of romilda, with his subtle manipulation of michael and gabriel. i want him to become a more active character, either by his own volition or by his hand being forced. 

similarly, i’m extremely interested in seeing how raphael navigates the political elements of this verse. i expect it stings a bit to be the only archangel not given a position of leadership; perhaps he holds lingering resentment toward zadkiel for being given a role raphael had expected to receive. does he subtly undermine zadkiel’s leadership? i want to watch him play up tensions with the vices, to hide a vicious war-hawk perspective under the guise of a concerned healer. i want him to smile in abaddon and samael’s faces and plot their suffering in his mind. i want to see the snake slither in the grass, to return to his original form as a spider spinning a web of intrigue across his court. yes, i want a more active raphael, but i think the political drama is ripe for development, as well.

WHEN  I  SPIT  UP  MY  SINS  AND  BEG  FOR  REPENTANCE,  WHAT  WILL COME  UP?

this one’s a long shot, but i could maybe...see...raphael……..falling. i can guarantee you that the idea has never even crossed raphael’s mind, and that he would literally rather be smited than be cast out of caelum, but i can see it. i think he might be happier, actually; if he fell, he could really lean into the chaos and suffering thing without any compunction.

of course, this is something infinitely easier said than done. were raphael to be cast out of caelum, he would have nowhere to go. infernum would never take him⁠—he’s made far too many enemies among their ranks. he could wander the holy land, but he’s far too proud to bind himself to its existing social systems. (he wouldn’t be able to look gabriel in the eye.)

raphael would have absolutely nothing. 

but he would also be free.

that’s right, i think that a horsemen-style liberation arc would be an absolute banger for raphael. again, i don’t think it’s feasible unless a very specific set of circumstances happen, but just imagine a raphael with nothing to lose, free to go absolutely apeshit. his only prerogative is to make sure you have a bad day. he is free to sow whatever chaos, whatever suffering he so wishes across the land. WHEW.

Are you comfortable with killing off your character?

yes, but i don’t see him going down easily.

IN DEPTH

Driving Character Motivation

entomological curiosity, in short. consider: why did god leave the apple in the garden of eden? why do humans keep animals in glass cases? why do children burn ants with magnifying glasses?

raphael wants to observe the world. a good healer must understand his patients at a fundamental level, and such truths are only revealed when the subject is broken down to its basest parts. you see, raphael was weaned on temperance and virtue; there is a lush decadence to emotional extremes that he finds most fascinating. they are debased. they are crass. they are wantonly sentimental, in a garishly beautiful way.

but this is not all. he wants to stave off boredom, and these are the tools he has to play with. for all of his machinations, raphael is a simple being. raphael has no grand ambitions, no lofty ideals, and that is what makes him so dangerous. he wants to be amused. he wants to be stimulated. he wants to observe a world in which things happen.

ostensibly, this is not as selfish a motivation as it may seem. as a healer, raphael knows something that many do not: serenity cannot exist in perpetuity. it is impossible for the world to remain unchanged⁠—even if the change is not evident, it is happening. an eternal peace is all but a stagnation of the kingdom; the only thing stagnation breeds is degradation. the angels are weakening because they are not being challenged. michael and the virtues may be doing extensive research to find an alternate explanation, but raphael knows this to be the truth. 

of course, the irony underlying the selfless explanation of raphael’s motivations reveals the truth of the matter: it is a farce. perhaps it is a lie that raphael has even convinced himself he believes, but it is farcical nonetheless. raphael claims he wants to invoke change because stagnation is dangerous, but riddle me this⁠—if this is true, why has raphael never changed? centuries upon centuries have passed, and the world has changed around him, but raphael himself has remained largely unchanged. he is the orchestrator of change, not its agent nor its subject, and that is just the way he would like things to stay.

Character Traits

CHARISMATIC - there’s a reason very few have cottoned on to raphael’s true nature, and it’s not (just) his pretty face and magical girl-esque aura. there’s something effortlessly captivating about raphael, a pace to his cadence that has you hanging on to his every word, a lightness to his smile that makes you want to coax it out whenever and however you can. everything about raphael puts people at ease, except for his eyes, which tend to put people on edge if he’s not careful. he’s not gregarious or the outgoing sort of charismatic by any means, but he does manage to exude an overwhelming charisma.

PATIENT - it’s important to remember that before raphael turned on god, he waited for him. raphael performed healings for centuries and never raised a hand against his father in that time. think of all the angels that fell, that rebelled; raphael was not among them. no, raphael played the dutiful son, allowing his resentment to fester and boil deep underneath his skin, but never to surface. for centuries he served loyally, biding his time. remember: lucifer fell. raphael did not. which one killed god? as i mentioned in the plot section, raphael will wait a million days for rome to be built to witness the single day it burns. prolonged suffering is perhaps the most beautiful of all. fortitude goes hand-and-hand with patience.

INTELLIGENT - in a few ways. raphael is well-studied, with extensive knowledge of biology and chemistry and history and politics. raphael is emotionally intelligent; he hides his true nature behind a veneer constructed to meet expectations. he may not be as talented as gabriel in this regard, but it is a skillful construction nonetheless.

MANIPULATIVE - i mean. yeah.

ARROGANT - he thinks he’s smarter than god???????????????? tbf god was a bit of a headass in this universe but we’ve all read enough tragedies to know where this kind of hubris ends up going.

CRUEL - there’s a bit to unpack here. i’d argue that there are two types of cruelty: malicious cruelty and callous cruelty. raphael is certainly capable of both, but i think he embodies the latter. with certain notable exceptions, raphael’s cruelty is rarely personal; it is a thoughtless sort of cruelty, the type inflicted upon beings considered expendable. raphael is selfish and petty and powerful, and these traits coalesce into a casual cruelty. 

In-Character Para Sample cw: light gore

Look at how they look at him. God’s good little lambs, lined up all in a row, passive and pliant and patiently awaiting benediction. Patiently waiting for Raphael. 

Raphael hates them.

No. This is false. It is difficult for Raphael to muster up stronger feelings toward mortals than a vague sort of amusement, the sort of affinity one might have for a particularly stupid kit when it does something surprisingly clever. In this regard, he understands that he differs from his kin. Gabriel, in particular, has developed a particular fondness for the mortals. Why anyone would wish to strip mortals of their most fascinating behavior⁠—to the point of openly defying their Father⁠—is beyond Raphael. He has given up on trying to reason with his brother on the matter. 

The first supplicant is beckoned forward. They pray to the Lord and Raphael touches their forehead with one palm, cups their chin with the other. His fingers splay carelessly around a throat all but bared to him and the ceremony is so mechanical Raphael allows his thoughts to wander⁠. 

How easy it would be to tighten his grip. How beautiful it would be, to watch the lamb’s naive adoration flash into fear, to watch fear darken into betrayal and resentment and the most beautiful emotion of all: despair. He can feel the pulse at his fingertips. It would quicken in a stress response, he knows. It would quicken, then it would pound, and then maybe it would stop.  It all falls to Raphael’s whim. In this moment, Raphael holds their life in his hands. They have all but laid on his sword for the promise of absolution and when they look up at Raphael with their dumb, trusting eyes he can see the sparkling tracks where tears once fell, down the hollow of a cheek into the pool of a collarbone. He finds himself overcome with the desire to trace the fall with his tongue. “Give me your pain,” he murmurs. Let me taste it. Let me understand. 

He takes it. He does not taste it. He does not understand.

He releases the mortal. Those beautiful tear tracks are already fading. “The Lord be with you,” he says, and perhaps he even means it. His Father’s gaze burns into his back, even from a world away. He’d laugh at the irony, were he free to. Is this the weight you so desire? he wants to ask the devotee. No, Raphael knows the truth: God’s love is a shackle. God’s love is a leash and it is holding Raphael back from his fullest potential.

“And also with you,” the lamb responds. Their head is bowed obediently in prayer and they shuffle away, appropriately awed. The next supplicant is beckoned forward.

The light of Raphael’s presence obfuscates the darkness in his eyes.

— 

Later, much later, Raphael finds himself studying his hands. He flexes them, balls them into fists, stretches his fingers as far as they will spread. 

How easy it would be to tighten his grip.

The hand is at once an individual unit and a summation of individual parts. The hand contains twenty-seven bones and thirty-four muscles connected by over a hundred ligaments and tendons. Wrists connect to metacarpals, which connect to carpals, which taper off into delicate phalanges. Individually, each of these parts are largely useless; were Raphael to take a scalpel and drag it through a tendon, across the joints, the strings would be cut and the puppetry would cease to dance. You would be left with a small pile of carpals and metacarpals and phalanges, loose strings of muscle and tendon. At times, it is difficult to fathom how such mundane component parts are the instruments of extraordinary acts.

Raphael flexes his hand, watches bone shift under skin. If he remembers correctly, mortals have an idiom about knowing your hands, or something along those lines. He will not pretend to be familiar with mortal culture. Did you know that, wings aside, mortals and angels all have the same bone structure? 

Of course you did. It is common knowledge that God made all beings in His image, or so the story goes. 

This is an easy answer, but one with interesting implications. Let us extrapolate. If mortals and angels are essentially biological mirrors, and each are made in the image of God, does that mean that God will bleed like His creations? Slide a scalpel across God’s knuckles—will His puppets cease to dance?

Raphael could find out. It would take only a single blade, sliced through a single tendon. 

Now, Raphael is not so arrogant to believe himself the blade. He would not even consider himself the hand. Such a role requires a particular kind of conviction—

( —and that sort of conviction is made manifest in bitter disillusionment⁠—the sort inflicted upon Michael. How easy it would be to find himself in his brother’s ear, whispering of their Father’s capriciousness and the unnecessary cruelty that resulted for the poor, poor humans— )

( —and that sort of conviction is made manifest in righteous anger⁠—the sort inflicted upon Gabriel. How easy it would be to find himself in his brother’s ear, whispering of their Father’s neglect and the unnecessary cruelty that resulted for the poor, poor humans— )

( —and that sort of conviction is made manifest in a whetted hunger⁠—the sort God gifted to each of His angels. Hunger breeds hunters and heaven is full— )

—that Raphael simply cannot embody. Rage has never been his forte. 

Consider, however, that the hand is controlled by nerve impulses. A spark is all the hand needs to transform from a collection of bone to an agent of action. Yes. He clenches his fists. Here are the bones, the veins, the tendons, the muscle. Angels and mortals all share the same bone structure.

Does God?

Extras

pinterest.

raphael has classically beautiful wings. i’m talking TEXTBOOK cherubic angel wings, with the sweeping white feathers and all. raphael kind of hates them, though he takes a great deal of pride in them.

raphael doesn’t have a signature weapon. he’s proficient with blades, yes, and fights with a surgeon’s precision, not the strongest nor the fastest but eerily efficient in his blows. but he is a healer—at the end of the day, his empty hands are all he needs. (his empty hands are what you should fear.)

raphael hates the heretics pro forma but. but. he cannot deny a certain...fondness for them. the heretics exhibited such dedication to a futile cause; they believed their suffering to be something noble. it’s a laughable notion, certainly, but a sentiment so distinctly human it’s almost charming. should they wish to return, to throw themselves on the knife over and over and over, well. raphael shall not complain. he shall smile beatifically, perhaps abate their suffering, even⁠—and watch them do it again. 

in a modern au, raphael is a reality tv producer. ok actually he’s probably a surgeon but i think he’d make a very good reality tv producer. alternately, there is a universe out there where raph fixated on like...baking, or k-pop, instead of suffering. those are good timelines, i think. maybe not the k-pop stan timeline.

raphael is the living embodiment of that dwight schrute “we need a new plague” meme.

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 14

oh boy Here We Go, its time to die

ngl I've been putting this off bc I'm not ready to be destroyed hhhhhh

oh god. overlords giant fuckgin face on the cover. I regret everything

ohhh some good ole functionist flashbacks 

is this momus the same guy as senator momus from the shadowplay stuff? lemme say...class traitor

and then some garrus 9 flashbacks, ft chromedome’s snarky interjections. my man you are Not gonna be on the ups much longer oh lord

this is reminding me that I really do need to read the wreckers stuff

chromedome, stop posing jauntily, I'm trying to prepare myself for emotional devastation and you aren't helping 

cd bringin that emo theater kid energy

and here's megatron! well, flashback megatron, but still

megatrons head looks so fuckin weird there

love the thematic (and extremely plot relevant) use of ‘til all are one’ here

WHY is megatrons bucket helmet removable. I hate it 

also overlord is so big gay for megatron its unbelievable 

the name ‘heretech’ is A Lot lmao. right up there w/rigor morphis in the puns category

cd hhhhh this is why you don't talk to your captives in this sort of situation...even to make snappy comebacks, but especially not to TELL HIM YOUR PLAN....now overlords all worked up over megs being alive and yall are screwed

ah, some good old weird birth/re-birth vibes going on here, classic jro

like he literally tells megatron ‘congratulations...its a superwarrior’ god hvbdkhjfbjsf what is it w/jro and pregnancy/birth/reproduction themes

but also like I Kinda Get It bc that IS a pretty intriguing thing to explore w/an alien species like the transformers, who are living machines...ok ill strap on my biologist boots later and get into that when its more relevant lmao 

cd is breathtakingly un-genre savvy here. my man you should have never gotten involved in this oof

overlords weird ab guns are weird

uh no! now overlord is in the drivers seat, and smiling unsettlingly with his creepy lips

its brainstorm!!! I love him

SOUNDWAVE I love soundwave sm he’s just the coolest and best

is that trepan that overlord grabbed? I'm assuming it must be but I have a terrible memory for these things so I don't really remember what he looks like lmao

IS THAT PHARMA

also damn cd rlly b out here committing war crimes/crimes against humanity (crimes against cybertronians? that phrase doesn't really carry over well). the fact that the secret government lobotomy & brainwashing labs populated the ‘good guys’ side is....hhhhhhwow

cant believe cd’s real name is tumblr 

also I love the misdirection from cd not disclosing his ‘real’ name, which leads the reader to think that he’s secretly a different established/important character...but nope!

ahhhh and the reversal of cd and overlords positions in-panel so we can tell that Things Have Gone Terribly Wrong even before we zoom out to see cd in the chair instead of overlord...nice

love how prowl & co made up the whole ‘whiteout vacuum’ thing to lie to the people about overlord...yall really do be breaking moral laws left and right huh

the continuing hilarity of prowl referring to rewind as chromedomes ‘friend’ despite knowing full well they're married...and now that it’s been revealed in-story that they’re married, its just str8 up funny instead of funny AND meta 

is tarn a phase sixer???? genuinely I don't remember lmao

I feel like I could write an essay abt how interesting it is that prowl is so insistent on figuring out the whole phase sixer puzzle and making autobot phase sixers, despite the war being over (and with the autobots having won it, too). like, that's yet another fascinating psychological reaction to the never-ending civil war ending

and the way that prowl is able to rope multiple people into this scheme, which shows that he’s not the only one who thinks that way

aw, bumblebee still has a few morals, unlike most of the rest of anyone. too bad it certainty didn't help anyone in the case of repairing overlord

like, cd is RIGHT, they don't need their own phase sixers - and especially cause like...they won against the cons without any phase sixers already, so whos to say they cant win again the same way? smh prowl 

god I love the exchange here....prowl subtly threatening chromedome, while also calling cd his friend and probably meaning it genuinely, and chromedome looming menacingly over prowl then pinning him down and messing with his head...ooooof. 

also that panel of cd shadowplaying prowl and prowls face is just super blank...sinister as hell, i love it

also also, I'm actually really glad that that plot thread of ‘cd was complicit in what happened to dominus and rewind doesn't know’ didn't end up happening

I also find it a little funny that this very intriguing scene didn't end up going anywhere in mtmte, but from what I've heard the whole ‘cd rearranged prowl’s brains’ thing had big consequences for prowl in exrid or w/e, which is interesting

brainstorm wearing a version of perceptors targeting reticle eye thing...hello....

also I like the fact that they subtly establish when this is taking place by showing brainstorm working on the humansonas, which means this was before the last issue 

drift brainstorm chromedome shaking hands meme: making stupid decisions bc they listening to prowl for some reason

drift, this is Not the way you should be going about showing your dedication to the autobot cause

brainstorm is on a totally different wavelength than cd and drift hvbfdskhfdskjf brainstorm is just here to have a good time and maybe cause some chaos

the tablet saying ‘project: end in tears’ TOO REAL the tears are from ME. AUGH

hhhhhhhhhh the fact that cd did all of this bc he wanted to protect rewind from the war maybe restarting....ouch :( love makes you do stupid things sometimes

I cant get over how h*rny overlord looks...like I cant even describe it, its not necessarily that overlord himself is h*rny, or even that he’s drawn h*rny in the sense that he’s sexy or provocative...he just has those Vibes. this makes no sense except in my head ok

overlord escaped....no way! who could've seen that coming! probably anyone with a brain who isn't blinded by trauma and/or a misplaced sense of duty/love....Ls

AND HERE’S OVERLORD, READY TO FUCK EVERYTHING UP. GODDD

never over the panel of overlord grinning maniacally and cracking his knuckles with the text ‘next: massacre!’ cheerily overlaid 

GODDD this issue god....I mean we haven't gotten to the soul-destroying parts yet but this stuff is so intriguing...the nuance is THERE! and this is basically what we’ve been building up to for all of mtmte so far, and Oh Boy is it gonna be a big one, you can just tell....

[the-glitter-acetylcholine]

Harry Potter characters that were criminally underused (in no particular order)

(MAJOR SPOILERS)

Luna Lovegood - literally only introduced like halfway through the fifth book, yet probably the most influential ravenclaw character. Her odd mannerisms and odder outlook would have made her a fabulous addition to the golden trio’s shenanigans, yet she only serves this purpose in one case

Mad-eye Moody - he’s “well-developed” in the fourth book, and we get a lot of content of him... only to discover it wasn’t him at all. Then, he briefly appears with the order and then dies. Great. What a wonderful use of a skilled fighter and mentor.

Remus Lupin - okay, so he does get the whole third book but then... he just fucks off? Ofc then he, too, returns to fight with the order, fall in love with a woman half his age, have a baby with her, and then die immediately thereafter. He’s just such a cool guy with so much to offer to Harry and to readers (when it comes to insight on discrimination in the wizarding community) and he just doesn’t get a chance to do nearly enough. What a wasted opportunity.

Pravati and Padma Patil - yeah, these are two different characters, but we know so little about them that I can’t even discuss them individually. They’re twins in different houses! How cool! There’s so much to be explored there, especially considering the competitive atmosphere among houses that Harry perceives. Not to mention the fact that they inexplicably agreed to go to the Yule Ball with Harry and Ron respectively despite a) apparently not knowing them very well and b) not even being all that desperate to hang out with them at the ball (I think Padma asks Ron to dance a few times and then gives up) (side note: this made me extremely mad when I was little, because I had I major crush on Padma). What compelled them to do that? What are they like? What are the differences between them that caused them to be sorted into different houses? Gah, they could have been so interesting!

Cho Chang - this is one that makes me genuinely a little mad (same goes for #6). She’s just so two dimensional, and that’s really not fair. She’s a decoration on Harry’s arm for what? A year or two? And she then cries, dates Diggory, and then she cries again (I think she dates Diggory first but you get the point). HER PURPOSE IS NOT JUST TO CRY OVER GUYS. She’s a ravenclaw. Let’s hear about that. Where do her interests lie? Is she an academic? Is she an artist? What kind of intelligence does she have, what kind of knowledge does she seek? What made her like Harry to begin with? Did Harry ever like her for more than her “sleek black hair” (not a direct quote, but I’m sure it’s described as something to that effect)? I want to knowwwww

Lavender Brown - aka... Ron’s brief, annoying girlfriend? The precursor to Romione? I mean, was this girl even in the D.A.? Maybe she was, but I don’t remember, and that’s the problem. She’s a Gryffindor. She’s brave, she’s headstrong, she’s proud! But she’s only ever portrayed as overbearing and clingy which SURE, may be some of her traits, because she’s allowed to have flaws, but that’s not all she is. I want to see her relationship with Pravati and Hermione, who she roomed with for six years (beyond her annoying Hermione when she dated Ron). But nope! I guess she’s just another accessory!

Nymphadora Tonks - i.e. Tonks. She’s funny and brave and powerful, but we barely get to see her in action (yes, before you ask, i had a crush on her, too). She’s interesting, so interesting, because her emotions are often expressed through her appearance, and she undergoes like two full personality shifts throughout the books (it’s worth noting that she’s also introduced pretty late in the series, book five, i think). She’s depressed for a while, then she falls in love, gets married, and has a son (and then dies), and, while it seems like this is a lot of usage (which it is), I can’t help but wish we had seen a little more of it all, specifically of her falling in love and of her married life, of her motherhood, before she died.

Xenophilius Lovegood - literallly (i would argue) one of the most interesting characters in the series, despite the fact that (I think) he is only featured heavily in one scene. I would definitely call him a more complex character than Snape. In his one scene, Xenophilius offers the golden trio one of their most important lessons through the Tale of the Three Brothers, the story which ultimately wins them the war against Voldemort. And yet, it’s a trap. He’s stalling, keeping them around so that Voldy’s goons can come pick them up and presumably kill them, or at least imprison them until Voldy comes ‘round again. But, and here’s the important part, he does it to save his beloved daughter. His daughter, who is the only family he has left, after his incredible scientist-witch of a wife died doing what she loved. The Lovegood’s are a family of inherently good people, yet Xenophilius sides with the very people who took his daughter in a weak effort to get her safely back. His plan won’t work, they won’t return Luna. They DON’T return her, but Xenophilius is fundamentally weak, made weak out of his love, and his fear of losing the last person in the world he has to care about, to protect, to love. He’s just SO DAMN INTERESTING ughhhhh give me more Xenophilius pleaseeeee

Kingsley Shacklebolt - he’s??? so cool??? Literally he’s just awesome, but we barely see him. He acts as a spy, essentially, when the ministry gets taken over by the death eaters, and helps the order actually get shit done, but he’s just so underused. Idk, I don’t have much to say except that he’s awesome and I want more Shacklebolt content

Cedric Diggory - he’s actually talked about a fair amount, so I don’t think I need to say much, except that he is literally the nicest guy ever, and, despite Harry actively hating him for like a whole year, he helps him in the Triwizard Tournament and represents Hufflepuff beautifully as being more than just the “miscellaneous house”. But then of course he’s killed before he and Harry can become friends, and before readers get a chance to understand anything about his social status (is he the asshole popular guy or sweet quite guy???) or motivations. Of course.

Percy Weasley - aka MY FAVORITE WEASLEY KID. R*wling did my boy so dirty. He’s cool because he’s kind of a stuck up academic asshole stereotype, or at least Harry perceives him as such, and then he changes slightly over the years as he and Harry both grow and mature and then it all culminates in his great moment of emotion and humanity! Fred’s death is, without much contest I think, the most devastating death in the whole series (Dobby could admittedly give him a run for his money, though), in part because he’s just so damn sweet and funny and innocent, and in part because right before it we FINALLY get to see Percy smile. He smiles at a dumb joke Fred makes, and then Fred DIES (a well placed death, I’ll admit begrudgingly), and just the juxtaposition of the moment... *chef’s kiss*. And then we never really check back in on Percy, and we don’t really get enough closure on that moment. :/

Colin and Dennis Creevy - again, two characters stuffed together, this time because we actually know a fair amount about them and... they’re kind of the same character. Colin is obsessed with Harry, and so is Dennis. That’s about it. I just WISH we got a little more on these kids, on why they felt so drawn to him as this apparently untouchable hero among them. Were they abused? Orphaned? Abandoned? Did they have some sort of trauma in their lives that made them so attached to the idea of a savoir? Or did they simply regard Harry as most little boys might, as a cool sort of action figure character? The world may never know :(((

Susan Bones - God, I wish I had more to say about her. She’s sweet, she a hufflepuff, I think she helps Ron at one point in Herbology. Her aunt dies I think. Is she the one who had the rabbit at one point? Idk, she’s just one of those characters who’s so far in the background that she almost stands out, and I kinda just wanna know more.

Fawkes - yeah, I know he’s a bird or whatever, but he’s fucking cool, and we get a Fawkes-ex-machina in the second book and then he’s essentially inconsequential for like... forever. I want to know how he and dumbledore bonded, why his feathers in those two specific wands were so attracted to Harry and Tommy boi specifically, other than symbolism uwu. Does Fawkes have a moral compass, or does he simply follow Dumbledore’s orders? Could his loyalty potentially be changed?

Narcissa Malfoy - please, for the love of god, give the Malfoy’s a chance. At least Draco and Narcissa. Narcissa is essentially the flip side of Xenophilius’s coin. Her side of the family is shrouded in dark magic, but her priority is keeping her dear son safe. I just want to know her and her inner struggle more intimately, because she’s such a contradiction, she’s a death eater who loves and protects, a dark magic user who wants to create something warm and beautiful for her family. She’s scared for a husband, a top death eater, one of Voldemort’s personal faves, and scared for her son, who she knows is good at heart but who struggles through the first steps of death eater initiation out of a sense of duty, a duty to her and his father. She’s the intimate mother figure, yet she’s an antagonist, fundamentally speaking. Fascinating.

These are just some I thought of off the top of my head, I’m sure there are literally hundreds more, from the two guys from the Knightbus to Bathilda Bagshot to Nagini the legend (also wtf happened to her in the Cursed Child?? Nvm, I can’t even get into that shithole right now), and I have to admit that I still love Harry Potter, for its characters and it’s incredible world building, though R*wling is a massive piece of terf-y shit.

It’s important to note that I understand the purpose of flat characters, I understand the purpose of background characters, of undeveloped characters. What I’m pointing out here is that there was a lot of potential in these characters that was largely squandered because R*wling focused her energy on attempting to redeem Snape without a redemption arch, attempting to redeem Dumbledore with an inadequate one, and refusing to properly redeem Draco despite his well-developed arch, for some fucking reason. If you can’t tell, I’m salty, but I’m only salty because I care. Ily, have a good day!!

[paragonrobits]

MCU AU where Tony is straight up just a super genius Obadiah kept in the basement of Stark Industries making weapons, and was so deliberately sheltered and isolated from the real word that he genuinely had no real influence on anything going on around him, or any awareness of what the stuff he was making was actually doing

Obadiah also deliberately set it up so that Tony was a charismatic face of the company, but he had no real say in anything, and was unaware of this, because Tony did have just enough influence to hire people and keep them on, and one of the people he hired was Pepper, who is genuinely aware of what’s going on and has in fact been gunning for Obadiah and his job literally the instant she was hired.

(thus, Pepper as the boss of Stark Industries is a thing from the get-go, or at least her long term plan)

Rhodey is also in the dark on the true nature of Stark Industries. He’s Tony’s friend, and while he’s frustrated at how naive and obstinate he can be, he’s genuinely unaware of the nature of his company and that Tony has less power in it than anyone would suspect; as a result, neither of them has any real thing to do with the military buying Stark weapons, though they lean on Rhodey to make the most of that, even though he gets Tony to rein in the things he makes for the sake of not going full mad scientist. Rhodey believes in accountability and chain of command, but he also believes that putting an arc reactor in every missle for maximum boom is an extremely bad idea when those missiles are going to official military stuff. he’s about deterrence and shields, and doesn’t want tony actually making dangerous weapons for people that can’t be entirely trusted.

when the Ten Rings go off script and don’t kill Tony, the harshness of the situation, and them being blunt about everything going on, opens Tony’s eyes to the reality of what’s been hidden from him; seeing the consequences of the things hidden from him induces a strong aversion to killing if at all possible, makes him passionate about saving people, and gives him an even nastier guilt complex about responsibility and the things he creates.

some other important details: Yinsin actually survives the escape from the Ten Rings, though its hard to say if he ought to be a supporting character or go off and do his own thing. Possibly he takes up a role similar to Coulson; after his experiences and the rise of superheroics, he becomes fascinated by Weird Stuff and tends to pop up everywhere in an investigative role, often serving to speculate on HOW something is possible. If Yinsin is baffled by something, its narrative shorthand for something that is genuinely mystical or otherworldly. Bonus points if he has his own narrative going on throughout the movies that ultimately culminates in him becoming a full fledged sorcerer off-screen, but its never actually shown; instead, snippets from his appearances set up a story and its up to the viewer to figure out how it all fits together, so that he has the coolest possible story and its an outrage we don’t get to see his journey firsthand.

(Also, Yinsin makes his own equivalent to the Iron Man armor, though it’s not meant for combat, but exploration and medical tools.)

JARVIS’ nature as a true, sapient AI is also made clear from the get-go, though the ficition is that he is simply a household smart system that’s modeled to sound like the real Jarvis, and in truth, simply this ficiton alone has made Tony famous among AI Researchers because holy shit he made an actual AI. MULTIPLE TIMES. he keeps making friendly AIs that consider themselves part of the human family, for lack of a better word, and seem to have human moral values.

(Once Ultron shows up, it’s made abundantly clear that his cruelty, vindictiveness and desire to kill all humans is an aberration. if he’s around for long enough that the other AIs have an opinion on him, they don’t like him very much. he feels.... off.)

personally i think having Tony as being totally sheltered and divorced from the realities of the world he makes at the beginning of Iron Man 1 would soften a lot of the later criticism; making him go full ‘mad scientist genuinely unaware of the potential of what he makes and what it’s used for’ feels genuinely right with his character development, and shifting the CEO aspects to Pepper entirely also gives her more agency.

basically, Tony’s later obsession with accountability to the point that it makes him reckless and wild? it’s a trait from the get go, it just gets... amplified, by later events.