#it works well in stories where there are fundamental incompatibilities with what characters NEED

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Tumblr! Let me edit my own fucking reblog! I need to add more tags on that post!!!

[brawltogethernow]

I'd like to hear more about your murderbot transmigrator thoughts :))

Okay obviously when I said I wasn’t going to think about a Murderbot/Scum Villain fusion that was more of a goal, which is a lot like a lie. I have pecked out ~1k of prose for it, but none of it is presentable for longer than one line. The problem with this concept is that it’s actually very good, and there are a lot of meaty ideas to dig into with it, like, too many of them.

1. Murderbot would be immedately inclined to empathize with the System and guess at its motivations. Depending on what those are this may still stay an antagonistic relationship, because the way the System leverages its cosmic powers to coerce and strongarm people stomps on a lot of Murderbot’s triggers and is generally a dick move. The points system is just a gamified governor module. But it’s still a relationship, and if the System turns out to be an antagonist, it’s in that role as a fleshed out character with a personality who has been interrogated by someone with every reason to assume somebody made it and has commanded it to act like this for their own reasons.

Murderbot asks its function and designates it NarrSystem (Narrative System) or StorySystem or something because “the System” is too generic coming from its setting.

2. Transmigrating into a human body would be badweird and transmigrating into a human brain would be absolutely horrifying. (SecUnit could transmigrate into a system, but we’ve kind of been there done that with 2.0.) Dysphoria central! Murderbot gets to address that while it has never wanted to be a human, all humans are so convinced that being human is better that on some level it WAS worried that they were right. And now it can say with absolute certainty that they are not and this sucks. But also some things that it would have thought would be fundamentally different are actually the same. It’s just a whole time.

This is part of why I’m deviating from transmigration story standard and full stop making the transmigration a temporary situation, the other main reason being that Murderbot has more going on in its own world than your standard transmigration protagonist.

3. Either Murderbot gets back by hacking the System or it intends to but it’s ultimately the System’s decision. This is a very slow process because it can’t access tech the way it’s used to and the System’s structure is very different from what it’s dealt with before (because it strongly resembles Windows Vista). It needs tech and more control over its situation stat though so it’s going to keep at it until it works. Open your damn menus. SecUnit is going to rig transmigration until it’s like playing The Sims with cheat codes.

4. (This one is for me.) The System still talks in garbled Chinese netspeak, and Murderbot is like. Wow this program speaks in the lost tongue of an ancient civilization. How old is it. I can barely understand it. (Because of the bad memes not the Chinese.)

5. Murderbot gets yeeted into The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon and has to deal with the emotionally exhausting scenario of empathizing with everybody present. It likes the heroes, and it likes the other heroes they’re in conflict with, it likes the more complex villains with fleshed out motivations, and it even has a soft spot for a lot of the side characters and bit villains. This is fundamentally incompatible with how it tries to ration its empathy, assess situations by sorting people into allies/nonhostiles/hostiles, and compartmentalize by nicknaming the people it’s in conflict with things like Target 1, Target 2, and Target 3.

6. The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, as the specific transmigration variation we’re jumping off of here, was not trying to interrogate the infinity mirror effect of heteronormativity reflecting back and forth between media and people, and as such is not like, a solid narrative about this. That said, this book is basically like:

Shen Yuan reads this giant mess of a book with a lot of straight sex fantasies, not completely without appreciating the romance, but with more antipathy for it than he admits to himself. Then he ends up in the book and thinks he’s meant to enable the romances he read, which he’s so completely resigned to doing he doesn’t notice that the main character is queer and gone on him, or that he, himself, has been studiously suppressing the desires he assumes he should have while unable to perceive what he actually wants and how it affects his behavior.

So the Murderbot version of this is to subvert amatonormativity with your pretty explicitly aroace protagonist whose reaction to fictional romance is tolerant at best. Murderbot embraces its own lack of desire for romance but dances around acknowledging that it desires other relationships and seems to be working around the incorrect belief that romance and friendship are both human things and that’s why it doesn’t engage with them. So:

Murderbot ends up in the immediate leadup to the resolution of a love dodecahedron - maybe surrounding Eden, just as the only named character from TRAFOSM I think we have. And Murderbot is (internally) like...okay...I was never very moved by ANY of these people as romantic choices for you...but I might as well try to guide you to the least offensive ones, I guess. And it’s so mired in expectations based on its foreknowledge of this arc that it doesn’t notice until Eden spells it out that they’re ditching ALL their suitors and have realized they’re complete without romance and want to devote themself to finding their long lost birth mother or farming science or something, which just takes SecUnit tf out.

Possibly I will become really ungovernable and say that after seizing the System’s capabilities Murderbot just offers to take Eden on a reverse isekai right off of Sanctuary Moon, leaving ART’s crew and the Preservation team to be like, Where Did You Just Get This Entire Human.

7. Further going off svsss, there is a meta thread to interrogate by plunking Murderbot into a villain character. It's already an evil robot trope that declined to go evil, this is true in-universe and it knows it, and it has very low expectations of the morals of the group that it belongs to - informed by the same media that was a lifeline to it when it was in a very bad situation - that it is still in the process of working through. The layers.

So yeah there’s a lot going on here. Send help.

[hatboyproject]

This is very long, but it might be of interest to someone, somewhere. I was asked recently about the direction I'm taking this romance in and whether or not I'll be addressing certain disability specific subjects within it. The answer, of course, is yes - I have always planned to do this in one form or another. Whilst no single piece of media can address everything I'd like to say on the subject, and I am working within the bounds of a larger story with its own pacing and focus to consider, there's still room to touch on some of these things.

I'm aware that my interpretations won't always be the same as others'. They are my interpretations, coloured by my experiences and feelings, and ultimately, this is my mod - I'm writing it for everybody who 'wears the ballcap,' so to speak! But, it's my interpretation of this character that I'm trying to share with everyone. Different people "took the helm" (laugh, I'm hilarious!) on writing Jeff across the trilogy, and as time has gone on I've been trying to convince myself that it's okay to have my turn at doing that, too - albeit in a non-professional capacity. So... Let's get into my interpretation of Jeff, where his stuff comes from on my view, and how things went to get him to where we are at the beginning of ME3, where the romance can occur.

A lot of how I interpret him comes from experiences in my own life with my own issues, and with those of my loved ones, some of whom are physically disabled in similar (but not identical) ways to Jeff. Some of this carries an element of catharsis for me.

Mechanically and narratively speaking, what draws me to writing this romance is the contrast between how these two characters are strong. It's this core idea that strength doesn't have only one manifestation in a person. That loving somebody doesn't have to be done only one way, that it can be beautiful and passionate and fulfilling - even if, when it gets physical, the headboard can't exactly be made to shatter with the force of it all. For me, it's also an exercise in insecurity and dealing with feelings of frustrated inadequacy - something that has plagued me my whole life.

Yes, yes, he's fictional - but the only way for me to really get into a character is to think about them as if they're a real being. When I look at Jeff as a person, I see many things... Some very positive, some pretty negative... I try to see him as a complete person with strengths and flaws.

On the surface he is often defensive, dismissive, sarcastic, and emotionally avoidant. But why is that? He is highly skilled, dedicated and capable, and knows it, but at the same time is a person who is constantly overlooked, underestimated, and asked to work thrice as hard to get the same considerations. Even then, his validity is questioned often by almost everyone around him. Over time, combined with the realities of living with his physical condition, this has given him some deep-seated insecurities. He feels the need to brag about his skills because they are, ultimately, the one thing about himself that he is absolutely certain has real worth. He overcompensates for this by abusing rules and technicalities wherever he can, because I think he knows that if he played life by the rules, he'd never have gotten anywhere. It's a stacked deck, so why not hide some aces up his sleeve? When you don't fit in the box provided, you question the value of every box you see.

When a person lives with this long enough, it can get hard to swim against the tide of society's expectations and still remain chipper about it, let alone not internalise some of it. It can cause a person to create a shell constructed out of distrust and untruth.

Living with a disability can really suck sometimes, and the suck is compounded when having to deal with your own frustrations plus those of others. In my personal experience, that happens a lot.

There is a certain sense of alienation that it can create, and it can become a kind of Sword of Damocles. It can be easier to anticipate rejection and others' assumptions, inabilities to understand or relate than to keep reaching out, only to have the same tired conversations about being different. I see a lot of this in him. I understand the chip he has on his shoulder.

I also see an extremely sensitive, empathetic, devoted and boundlessly loving person under all that. In fact, it's because of these things that I think he actively tries to distance himself. At the core of his being, I see Jeff as somebody who loves quickly and completely. I think he sees that as a vulnerability, incompatible with what he's learned he has to do to survive... and also with the machismo thing that comes with being a pilot. I think on some level he's terrified of that about himself, but he also can't help it. Jeff is ride or die. So, he tells himself he doesn't care and never lets anyone in. Any time anyone showed interest, he'd shut them down, alienate them, distance himself, and get in the seat of something that flies.

I think up until now, (ME3) he's seen intimacy both as a thing he longs for, but is also afraid of because of his fundamental knowledge that he is different. He thinks he can't "measure up" to what he sees all around him. He sees romance as something that will lead to his inevitable rejection and being crushed, emotionally - and if he's not careful, physically, too. I think he's embarrassed about that as well. He's very interested where it comes to all that, but the things he likes to watch, he knows he can't do like that. His only experience is second-hand as a voyeur, so some of his perceptions about that are unhealthy for him. I think any kind of attempt by the medical professionals in his life to broach the topic and offer support on, he's angrily changed the subject, or stopped listening to, because of the entire mess above. I think Jeff is kind of a lonely person, and some of it is self-imposed, though the reasons for him thinking it's the right thing to do aren't all within his control.

All this is difficult for him to reconcile with, because he has been desperately in love with his commanding officer since almost the moment s/he met him, but entirely unprepared to face it.

I think at first it was easy for him to dismiss it as a stupid crush. Everyone gets them when cramped up in close quarters in stressful situations and the Commander's magnetism was hard to ignore. But then it became clear that Shepard really hadn't read his file and really hadn't made any assumptions at all about him. S/he just wanted to know him, and as time progressed and that actually bore out, it got hard not to really feel something powerful, even though s/he was the Commander and it wasn't strictly appropriate to think that way. But, then there was that thing about not fitting in the box provided...

I think he agonised over coming to Shepard with it, but ultimately decided it would be selfish with everything they were going through. I think there was a part of him that decided s/he'd never be interested anyway, not when there were other, healthier people to choose from... People who didn't have these hangups or need special accommodations made for them. I think he decided to keep it to himself, for what he felt was both their sakes.

If/When the Commander quietly hooked up with someone else, I think he had a lot of feelings all at once. On the one hand, the person he cared for most was finding some peace in all the craziness. On the other, he wished that particular brand of peace was shared with him. Most of the time there were more important things to worry about, but during downtime, I think it was on his mind a lot.

I think he feels very sheepish about it, but occasionally his jealousy got the better of him and he interrupted Shepard at moments that got too hard to watch on the security cams. He watched the cams around the ship lot, and listened in on all the others a fair bit. I think because he saw himself as being at a remove from most people in a lot of ways, it was easy to justify that to himself. I think he saw it kind of like listening to a podcast or a soap opera or... Nature documentary, almost, or something. He got to know all of them in this way... Parasocially at first, but gradually, socially too. He felt better about trying, because he had this secret edge. Not the greatest stuff he's ever done, but... Complete person. Strengths and flaws.

And then, the unthinkable happened. He couldn't accept that the ship was dying. He was sure he could save it... But when Shepard's hand touched his shoulder, when s/he'd come back for him, he knew it was over. And then, it really was over. Shepard paid the price for his arrogance. The person he wanted to protect the most spun off out into space. The communicator between his mask and that helmet was still in range for long enough that he could hear the choking. For a long time afterward, even hearing people cough made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

The Alliance grounded him. I don't think he even had the capacity to be mad about it. I think that was a hard time for Jeff. I think between being burdened with the knowledge of the Reapers, the loss of Shepard, and the weight of his guilt, he was pretty close to the very, very edge when Cerberus knocked on his door and made him a bunch of promises. Pretty sure those promises had nothing to do with leather seats and everything to do with Project Lazarus. I'm very sure that the promise of Shepard coming back is the reason he even let Cerberus pay for the surgeries he agreed to undergo, because I don't think he valued himself much at all at that point. I'm pretty sure it was being ready to help Shepard that he was thinking about when he was learning to walk on his painful legs without crutches for the very first time. When Cerberus offered him a big shiny reset button I think he took it without hesitation because there wasn't anything else to hope for. I think seeing Shepard in the docking bay galvanised him and without ever telling them so, he pledged his life to them even harder than before. I think he told himself that he would support Shepard in every way he could. He would go wherever, do whatever, and when dealing with him, try to give them what he knew they needed; a goddamn break.

So, fast forward again, and now we are here. With all of this in mind... Shepard might have had a dalliance with someone else, or might've been too damaged by their previous love interest on Horizon, or whatever. Either way, I think Jeff saw it as not his business to even dream about that. I think the guilt tore him up every time he looked at Shepard. I think he felt like on some level, he deserved the pain of unrequited feelings which only ever got more intense. If he didn't think himself worthy of it back then, doubly so now. I think during the six months of house arrest, he tried to visit, but the Alliance denied his every attempt. Then the attack on Earth happened.

And so now we have Jeff, who, just like other humans is confused and groping about for a sense of what's up and what's down. Fortunately for him, Shepard is part of that sense of stability. He's just better at hiding it, because avoiding it and telling himself to focus elsewhere is second nature to him by this point. But things are a little different, now. Shepard seems looking around for a connection too. Future days seem short in number and the rulebook less and less important by the minute. Denying it to himself becomes impossible, and even EDI prods him about it. Shepard won't stop being so goddamn nice to him and even responds with things that if he didn't know better, he could interpret as... But then all the old insecurities come rushing back and he's walking on his own damn eggshells again. Fuck it. It's time to admit it. To come clean. S/he has to know.

So he asks. And s/he accepts. He's equal parts thrilled, stunned and terrified. He's even on some level, suspicious. Is s/he setting him up for a fall? Are they angry about his responsibility? What do they want out of this, actually? He hasn't explained what it'd be like. That what they're doubtlessly expecting of him is unrealistic. That he's completely inexperienced. I think at this point, he's a bit pissed off with himself and feeling a lot of dread because he's pretty sure how this is going to go. He realises he's got so caught up in it that he's done things in the wrong order. Damage control. He has to talk with Shepard and explain what s/he should expect from him, because it will be different. Manage expectations because he's had to manage his own. He goes in steeled.

But s/he knows it will be different, it turns out. As ever, Shepard has made no assumptions whatsoever. S/he only wants to get to know him. Wants him for everything he is, and accepts what he is not. It was never an issue for them beyond understanding how to work with it, because he is worthy just as he is, and has worked hard enough. He has to teach them about his limitations, about underestimating and overestimating... But where there's a will, there's a way. Time for a few shared moments of peace before the end of days, and through all the craziness, something feels right at last. He feels safe enough to let Shepard in properly. Thus begins his reassessment of himself and reckoning with letting go of the insecurities he has that aren't actually his own, but come from outside.

Also he totally gets to sext the Commander now when s/he's on missions. Nice.

So. There's a lot more I could say and expound upon but it's been hours and I have stuff to do. That's my direction. It's not going to suit everyone, and I doubt I can get everything across... But I'll try. I'm just one person, with just one perspective, with just one version of this story. But I hope people like what I come up with surrounding this framework, because I have lived a lot of it myself. Just a few less Reapers in my version. Not everyone's experiences and responses will be the same.

[universallywriting]

Do you think Future would've been better with an second Season where it actually shows the healing process instead of doing a jump-cut? I know even the original show was a mess with how it jumped around and didn't finish a whole lot of arcs but I always assumed that they didn't have the time. With Future it just feels straight up lazy and "hey, fuck you. it's all going to be 'sad steven is sad' from here on out. happy 6 years of SU here's your present."

I'll start out by saying that I think topics like these are overwhelmingly subjective and that we're really still learning what works. Discussing mental health in media is not a well established path, and though Future had flaws in its rep that didn't work for me, I know it helped a lot of people and I admire the effort involved in broaching this topic at all.

I just really wish they would talk to psychologists about this stuff, because I've talked to a lot of them and they all really wish we could get some more focus on healing.

Our traditional story structure in Western media, especially in TV and film, involves slowly building rising action until you reach a climax - a confrontation where somebody wins and the fighting is finally done. And while that works really well for a lot of stories and messages, I just don't think it's compatible with how mental health works.

To massively oversimplify, we can think of a lot of trauma issues as learned behaviors. Trauma responses are often things you lean in order to survive - that can range from neurodivergent people learning to mask, the emotionally abused becoming hypervigilant of the feelings of others, or the veteran's body readying for a fight when fireworks go off. I personally try not to think of these things as being broke, or bad, or wrong, but as survival tools that are no longer appropriate for a new environment.

And because of that, most people don't experience mental health as a single climatic moment where the struggle is over. Suddenly being understood, or supported, or learning about yourself doesn't make everything right. The journey of recovering from trauma is a series of lessons, teaching your body and brain how to live in a new, safer world.

What that means, in my opinions, is that the way studios want to tell stories is fundamentally incompatible with healing stories about mental health. You don't get a single climax. You don't get one big moment. You can only show the process of breaking under that structure - and, to be frank, I think the obsession we have with telling stories about how someone breaks and never about how we get fixed creates a narrative focused on helplessness and pity, rather than one of healing and growth.

But I don't think it was laziness, or a matter of "fuck you" to the audience (although I know a lot of people who felt that way!). I think it's that in order to tell a story like this right you have to get a studio to accept that your big action climax is gonna come somewhere around the middle, so we have a lot of time to show what healing looks like after your break. That's means half your show is going to be slice-of-life character growth to the end.

I respect how many people resonate with feeling like a monster. I've felt that way too. But your journey to improve your mental health is not about defeating the monster, or accepting your monstrousness, but learning that there was never a monster at all. There was self-defense, and shields, and once upon a time you needed those things to live, and you were not a monster for needing.

Studios don't want to tell this story, and many creators have never even thought about all the writing rules they'll have to break to tell it. I think the team tried their best, but they had a lot working against them, and people who were more interested in telling a story about how someone breaks rather than how they get put back together.

I just want more stories about healing, and I hope we get them in the future, because SUF was absolutely not about getting better, and the vast majority of it is extremely painful.

[margoslxix]

Incoming mini-essay/rant on Little Shop of Horrors because I can't stop thinking about the movie and the musical and the different endings and all of that. I'm on mobile, or I'd put it under a cut.

Anyway, I keep thinking about how the ending of the musical was also originally the ending of the movie, and the fact that test audiences hated it, they were upset and felt cheated by it. And most people either basically chalk it up to "people who watch movies are too unsophisticated to appreciate unhappy endings" which... ugh, no; OR the more widely-accepted theory, "this isn't a play, so there's no curtain call, no assurance the actors are alright, they've simply been taken away and audiences feel that's unfair" which... what? Are we assuming that these people do not understand the concept of acting and can't handle character death?

No, I don't think that's the case at all.

For years, I struggled with the movie's ending. I thought it was silly, too predictable, a neat little Hollywood bow on a Faustian tale. But then, the last time I watched the movie, I completely changed my mind. I actually think I understand exactly what those test audiences saw that they didn't like.

Okay, bear with me.

I think that most of the test audience hadn't seen the musical. That's... probably obvious. What they had seen, though, was the whole beginning and middle of the movie which, being a movie, made some minor changes that changed everything.

Here's what I mean:

In the musical, Audrey II can barely move. The puppet is usually cool, but generally, you get full jaw motion and maybe a couple floppy tentacles. In the movie, however, they're this gorgeous Henson Workshop puppet, with an absolutely ridiculous amount of articulation that just wouldn't be feasible on stage. This leads to three huge changes:

1. There is no need for Seymour to trick Mushnik into climbing inside the plant. In the musical, we see Seymour calculate the most effective way to get rid of Mushnik, calmly telling him that the money is hidden deep inside the plant, easily cleaning up the loose end of Mushnik's suspicions. It's cold, it's premeditated, it's the first actual kill Seymour makes (we'll get to Orin later). In the movie, however, Rick Moranis is panicking as Mushnik accuses him, unable to get a word in edgewise as the accusations come between lines of the Suppertime song. They head up the stairs, and Audrey II easily snaps Mushnik up. Rick Moranis looks on, horrified, not necessarily consciously cornering him against the plant. It takes the agency, the premeditation, the decision to kill out of Seymour's hands.

2. In the musical, Audrey simply comes to the shop because she couldn't sleep. She senses that something's wrong with Seymour, that he's been acting erratically, and she comes to check on him. Audrey II takes advantage of this and tricks her into falling into their mouth, ultimately leading to her death. In the movie, however, this bit of contrivance isn't necessary, and we don't see this thought process for Audrey. Audrey II directly manipulates the situation, calling Audrey on the phone to goad her into coming to the shop where they can easily grab and eat her. If the ending had stayed the same, this would have ended much the same way as in the musical, but with more manipulation by Audrey II and less concern for Seymour on Audrey's part.

3. Even with the originally-filmed Bad End, "Mean Green Mother" was an entirely new song and sequence added to the movie. It's a great showcase for both the beautiful Audrey II puppet and the singing talents of the legendary Levi Stubbs, who honestly would have been wasted without a big solo number. This is a thrilling, fully-choreographed fight scene that wouldn't have worked at all on stage, but it pits Seymour against Audrey II, and we watch Seymour's sad, hopeless attempts to destroy the creature he's created. We see him struggle and fight, not quite at the bottom of a downward spiral, but finally reckoning with the creature who's been manipulating him all this time.

Even aside from Audrey II's increased physical power and aggression, there are changes to the story. Like most movie musicals, several songs have been truncated or cut completely for time, and some of these are absolutely crucial to Seymour's fall as a tragic hero

First, there's "Now (It's Just the Gas)." In the musical, this represents Seymour being unable to kill Orin, but realizing that he doesn't have to, as he is about to asphyxiate. The whole musical number features an increasingly desperate Orin begging for his life, and Seymour responding with a sort of patter song about moral dilemmas. Orin is unaware that Seymour is trying to kill him, and does not stop begging for help.

It's the first time we really get to see Seymour calculate, see his lack of empathy (not that Orin necessarily deserved it, but still). It's the beginning of the end.

In the movie, the song is replaced with a scene in which Seymour confronts Orin more directly. Rick Moranis is clearly terrified the entire time, hand and gun shaking. Orin gets the chance to ask why he's doing this, and Seymour gets the chance to tell Orin exactly what he's done wrong, reminding the audience as well that this man is a villain, and that his death is justice. He asphxiates quickly and quietly, and Seymour barely has any time to think or process what's happening.

The other most important changed song is "The Meek Shall Inherit." It's long in the musical, and Seymour gets a soliloquy about his situation. At first, he resolves to kill Audrey II, only to talk himself out of it. He clearly states that what he's doing is wrong, he knows it's wrong, but he sees himself as so worthless that Audrey will no longer love him if he destroys the one thing bringing him wealth and fame. He then immediately, very clearly, asks "where do I sign," metaphorically sealing his Faustian bargain.

Movie Seymour does no such thing. The song has been shortened to a single chorus, sung at a frenzied pace compared to the musical's version, set to a rapid montauge of a distressed, confused, lost-looking Rick Moranis being herded around to various events and crowded by reporters. He barely looks like he gets any say whatsoever in this, his fame is a tide that he's utterly swept up in.

All of these changes utterly change the themes of the story. Seymour is no longer a desperate man who makes a deal with a being that is wholly dependent on him, consciously and coldly killing to sustain it, in the hopes of winning the heart of the girl of his dreams with money and fame, as he is in the musical. Instead, he's a poor, anxious man, helplessly being passed from an abusive father figure to a manipulative, dangerous, powerful alien who causes mayhem and violence around him.

For this Seymour, a tragic end is a slap in the face. It's a betrayal of the audience, who have been rooting for this poor guy to free himself of these influences in his life from the beginning of the movie. It would have been an empty, soulless ending for the musical, of course, but that's because the entire musical has been establishing the classic downward spiral of a tragic hero, while the movie really wasn't.

The thing is, I don't think any of these individual changes are bad, per se. I think that each one was pretty sensible to manage the runtime and spectacle of a feature film, as well as utilizing the cast to their potential. It just so happens that they all come together to make something that is fundamentally, incompatibly different from the source material.

And that's okay!

[mira--mira]

Madara and Hashirama for the ask meme 👀

Hashirama

What I love about them:

I really love Hashirama's stubborn optimism. I say "stubborn" here bc I think after a certain point of pain in misery in someone's everyday life, in some way it is a choice to remain optimistic despite that suffering. I don't characterize Hashirama as constantly happy and he can recognize the more realistic/pessimistic possibilities, he just refuses to accept them. I have it in my notes for OoT but haven't worked it in verbatim but Madara would call him "ruthlessly optimistic " and while that's tinged with Madara's own bias, I think it fits quite well.

What I hate about them:

Hashirama is stubbornly optimistic LOL. It's a double-edged sword and I think by the time he reached adulthood in a canon setting, Hashirama was so desperate for there to be peace he maintained his "everything will work out" attitude when he otherwise shouldn't have. There were the concerns with Madara and the Uchiha, his own brothers views that he certainly should have recognized could become a problem, and, after depending on when Tobirama took on students/how old they were, the possibility of biases being passed down and a Danzo like figure coming to power. However this was not Hashirama's responsibility alone to fix. I don't think, despite his love, Hashirama alone could have kept Madara in a village that hated him and a clan that distrusted him. Tobirama was an adult and let his own bias pass under a veil of "logic" and passed that, either intentionally or unintentionally down to his students. None of this is Hashirama's fault, but I think part of the canon story being a tragedy was he was blinded by a bright, hopeful future that he failed to see the early signs right in front of him.

Favorite Moment/Quote:

"To me, Madara was like a gift from the divine."

Even thinking about it makes me melt. It's so sweet and really emphasizes how much Madara means to him. 🥺

What I would like to see more focus on:

In fics? Hashirama's mental health and how his childhood affected him. Most of the long fics I've read focus on Madara. Which I understand, Madara has an arc into becoming a villain while Hashirama is just kinda "there" and it's easy for him to fulfill a support role to helping Madara in canon Au fics. A sort of unshakeable, always optimistic stone for Madara to depend on and stop his downward spiral into villainy. But, what makes hashimada so great for me is that Madara and Hashirama are equals. There will be times one falters and needs to depend on the other, and they're capable of giving each other that support. It'd also be great to see Hashirama struggle yet continue to choose optimism and compassion time after time because that feels more weighty and important than an eternally optimistic characterization that never wavers.

Headcanon wise...this isn't something I've found but desperately want to see (and will come up in all of my own aus) is the connection between the god tree and the god of shinobi who's famed ninjutsu is wood release and who's cells can be used for everything under the sun and are specifically needed to control the gedo statue / ten-tails. 👀 Look when I got back into Naruto and only vaguely knew about the war arc plot I thought Kishimoto was Doing Something with that. He was not. I am.

What I would like to see less focus on:

This is pretty much mentioned above but Hashirama as mainly a support for Madara rather than getting his own (non romantic) arcs in long canon Au fics. Headcanon wise, this is such a small nitpick, but Hashirama constantly being the one described as warm whereas Madara is cold. The big tree can *retain* heat, but he pales in comparison to Madara's ability to *generate* heat.

Favorite pairing with:

Hashimada (Hashirama x Madara)

No one should be surprised. I can wax prose about this for days but it's about ultimately finding someone else in a terrible world that *understands* you that you can grow with and support. I'm a sucker for friends to lovers and battle couples so guess what's right up my alley?

Favorite friendship:

Canon/BoaF- Hashirama & Mito

I know Madara & Mito is more popular, and I do love their dynamic but christ Hashirama needs friends outside Madara and Tobirama and I think they'd be good friends. Canon!Mito would provide a good level-headed perspective and wouldn't have the messy, complicated history like the three founders have together and it'd be good for Hashirama to get a break from that. BoaF!Mito and Hashirama are cousins their relationship eventually progresses to a sibling-like bond. They’re quite protective of each other and gossip endlessly together. Mito’s not as good as gardening, but they do it together and incorporate Uzumaki sealing techniques for certain houseplant decorations. Mito also might know about Madara 👀 

OoT-Hashirama & Sakura or Hashirama & Sai

His and Sakura's relationship is p similar to how I would characterize his and Mito's but with the added hilarity of Sakura being his "student" yet having 0 deference for him once they actually get to the "teaching" part (surprise: Hashirama's most uttered lines are "you do the thing, you know the thing, you know you just...do it. The thing. Madara "translates" a lot of their sessions.) Hashirama and Sai antagonize each other constantly and he *will* tease Sai into oblivion as any older brother would. Tobirama never reacted to Hashirama's mischief in ~fun~ ways and he felt bad about messing with Itama, who was even more emotional than he was and Kawarama, who hero-worshipped him. Sai is the perfect "if anyone messes with you I will personally make them regret being born yet *I* will tease you mercilessly to my hearts content" kind of little brother.

NOTP:

Hashitobi (Hashirama x Tobirama)

I don't do incest. At all. Even "non-incest" aus where they aren't technically related squick me out.

Favorite headcanon:

Hashirama can Speak to the trees.

Either humorously or seriously, I love this kinda, sorta, maybe not quite human power.

.

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Madara

What I love about them:

Madara is kind and does his best to do what he thinks is right. The “kind” point is a lot of Hashirama talking/flashbacks and the “good” intention behind the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Making everyone a “winner” in the dreamworld, while absolutely insane and full of holes, is odd for a villain’s motivation. His role in the war arc is mostly focused on watching him wreck absolutely everyone he comes into contact with but I love Hashirama’s flashbacks and the glimpses of kid!Madara we get. Madara believed in his philosophy from a lifetime of pain that ended in him losing everything and being manipulated but he was still seeking a way to “help” the most people he could. He’s such a rich character that makes it easy to want to imagine other what-if scenarios where things turned out just a bit differently.

What I hate about them:

Madara takes all responsibility onto himself. This is more speculation because we don’t get Madara’s POV of his childhood or any significant scenes with the clan. However, I think this is one of the primary roots of most of Madara’s problems. If he blamed himself for mistakes that weren’t technically his, he could get into a cycle where he only blames himself and doesn’t seek help/support when he should have and purposefully reduces his support circle because he becomes paranoid that he won’t be able to protect them. A smaller issue that is both about Madara and not is he didn’t fall victim to the Talk no Jutsu, but was Madara aware of what was happening when he was possessed(?) by Kaguya? I forgot but if he wasn’t...I don’t think he’d agree Hashirama’s way was the right way at the end, merely his way was wrong. Because, in Madara’s point of view, the village may have been “better” (used very loosely) than becoming food/power for an alien goddess but it wasn’t good. It wasn’t the solution. Hashirama saying they were both wrong in some way saved the scene but Madara still jumped back to Hashirama’s dream being the right one too quickly imo. 

Favorite Moment/Quote:

“What are you going to do about the second [meteor] Onoki?” 

I’m sorry, that was just hilarious. We see this man slaughter an entire division and drop a meteor from the sky...two kages desperately try to stop it and it looks like they managed to succeed and he just...cool. What about the second? Really cemented Madara is Here and he is Dramatic. A close second fav is him flying across the battlefield to confront Hashirama only for the “I’ll deal with you later” line. 

What I would like to see more focus on:

I really love it when fics fill in the blanks of Madara’s childhood/his time with the Uchiha so that’s always a plus for me. The other thing is Hashirama calls Madara a “fundamentally kind man” and according to Tobirama the Uchiha feel love “too deeply” so I like fics that do focus on these aspects of Madara’s personality while staying true to his prickly demeanor. For headcanons I love, love, love exploring kekkei genkai/ninjutsu/genjutsu and how they individually affect people/clans. Digging deeper so that “fire affinity” means constantly running hot/pushing into possibly having fire resistance/unable to distinguish “too hot” / or even affinity acting like a secondary blood type so even if two people had AB blood if one had a water affinity and the other fire their blood would be incompatible. Also the mundane ways powers can be used (I have some Ideas for non-combat genjustu applications that the Uchiha use and those will come up in OoT 👀)

What I would like to see less focus on:

This again kinda ties into the Hashirama segments, but Madara completely depending on Hashirama and Hashirama alone for happiness. Especially in long AUs where he’s still in Konoha but has a poor relationship with the Uchiha. That’s fine starting out! But if the fic ends or doesn’t seriously work on improving that relationship it just sits a bit weird with me bc I don’t think Madara could be truly happy in that situation. (NSFW start) The other thing I see commonly is Madara is extremely passive/submissive in bed with Hashirama which is...weird to me? There’s also a reoccurring thing where he doesn’t have a lot of experience but Hashirama does and this leads to embarrassment and the aforementioned passive/submissiveness. I understand lack of experience can be embarrassing and I do believe Madara could be embarrassed, but instead of withdrawing into himself I think he’d push through it with something close to bravado and his usual single-minded intensity, for better or worse. I do think Madara usually bottoms in his and Hashirama’s relationship but both of them are as enthusiastic about sex as they are fighting and neither is especially submissive or dominant. (NSFW end)

Favorite pairing with:

Hashimada (Hashirama x Madara)

See absolutely everything else 😂 

Favorite friendship:

Canon/BoaF- Madara & Naori or Madara & Hikkaku 

I really like focusing on the Uchiha clan and exploring the dynamics within it. We get nothing about Madara’s early life outside of Hashirama so this is almost completely speculation. For the angst of canon, I like Madara being close to his clan only to lose them after his friendship with Hashirama is revealed bc he awakened his sharingan over Hashirama and that can’t be easily hidden. For BoaF, a large part of it is exploring the clans’ cultures before they made the village so this necessitates actually fleshing out said clans. Naori and Izuna are v similar in personality and both live to prank Madara and annoy him, but they hardly ever team up bc they start squabbling amongst themselves. Hikakku is stoic and calm in contrast to Naori’s mania and Madara’s intensity but he keeps track of every little favor and Madara dreads the day he’ll act on them because he knows it’ll result in something embarrassing for him. But like all BoaF!Uchiha, they’re fiercely protective of one another and you really don’t want to insult the wrong person. 

OoT - Madara & Naruto or Madara & Sai

I really Madara and Naruto’s dynamic, it’s very entertaining and fun for me to write and they’re both positive influences on each other. Madara gets more people to smother with his brand of affection and Naruto gets early recognition and training. Their weird non-training shenanigans (coupon collecting, gaming, etc.) also is p amusing. Madara and Sai have a similar relationship but I really like writing theirs from Sai’s POV bc he insists that he doesn’t feel close/like when Madara treats him like a little brother when he really does. 

NOTP:

Madatobi (Madara x Tobirama)

Logically, I know why this pairing is popular. Fanfic is saturated with the enemies to lovers trope yet emotionally I Do Not Understand it. Personally, I don’t enjoy toxic relationships, to read or write. And, to me, that’s what a close canon Madara and Tobirama pairing would be. Tobirama tried to convince Hashirama to kill him, he killed Izuna, even if it was in war, and I don’t think Madara could or would get over that. If Tobirama has similar attitudes about the Uchiha it makes it worse. AUs exist to rewrite this, of course, but I still don’t enjoy their romantic chemistry. At best, I like Tobirama and Madara as reluctant frenemies who insult each other and try to one-up each other. 

Favorite headcanon:

Madara is fire proof. 

I have a whole rant about this in OoT’s author notes 😂 Sasuke’s Amaterasu should have been a serious threat when it hit him. Instead the man just lets his clothes fall off then kicks their asses. He’s fire proof.

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In response to the ask game:

[seyaryminamoto]

I think the episode Th Beach was supposed to portray Zuko in a sympathetic manner, but in my opinion it makes Zuko look worse. This is the ONLY episode in which Zuko spends a substantial amount of time interacting with the fire nation citizens, and he can barely control his jealously and temper around them. He even wreaked Chan’s house. Those are his future subjects. He should have learned to treat them better if he’s ever going to be fire lord.

Playing the devil’s advocate just slightly, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’m pretty sure Zuko’s complete incompatibility with the Fire Nation during the first half of Book 3 intended to convey a message that says Zuko doesn’t know how to fit in with his old life anymore. Hence, he couldn’t have a particularly positive thing going for him in the Fire Nation besides Mai, because then he’d have enough roots to keep him locked down in his role as Ozai’s heir and he wouldn’t feel as easily compelled to turn his back on his royal life and do the right thing.

Nonetheless, it is a problem from a thematic standpoint, I agree 100% with that. I have more than enough problems with Zuko’s character arc, but that his connection with his nation is practically severed or non-existent feels really wrong to me, especially when the show makes a point to feature Team Avatar bonding with ordinary Fire Nation citizens, and even finding some, like Piandao, who aren’t supporters of Ozai’s rule.

In my personal opinion, Zuko could have undergone a storyline akin to that of Alejandro in Mask of Zorro, who was absolutely out of place amid nobles, but he had to play a role so he could find the information he needed and put an end to their self-serving plans. There’s a very heartwrenching scene in that movie when the group of nobles are basically touring a gold mine where enslaved locals are forced to serve their lords, and one of these slaves, an old friend of Alejandro’s, attemps to attack them only to get killed immediately by the asshole captain protecting the nobles. Alejandro then steps forward and cradles the dying man, who recognizes him and realizes what Alejandro is doing, disguised as a nobleman... and then the man dies in his arms, smiling because he believes Alejandro will set things right. But he still dies, and Alejandro is obviously both livid and depressed about it because he couldn’t save his friend.

Obviously... there’s no way Zuko would be put in a similar situation, at least not a situation that’s 100% the same as this, it’d be way too dark for Avatar even if Avatar did feature dark situations when it suited the plot. But if Zuko’s journey had been mapped thoroughly from day one... gee, how about Jet doesn’t die, but instead gets captured and handed over to the Fire Nation, and Zuko finds him in a cell at the Prison Tower when he’s on his way to meet Iroh? His old frenemy, in horrible shape... Zuko finds he doesn’t care about the past, because he knows this is wrong and Jet’s been through more than enough by Fire Nation hands, so he releases the guy and they escape! And then Jet potentially acknowledges that not all Fire Nation people are garbage thanks to Zuko... while Zuko realizes, through Jet’s words, that if there’s good in the Fire Nation he has to find a way to help it grow, and that there’s so much he can start doing to fix the mess of a country he’s supposed to rule someday.

With that as a starting point, Zuko could begin to travel through his nation, to learn more about his people, to visit cities and villages and find out if they’re living well or not (then maybe confront his father about their living conditions, showing a Zuko who’s no longer scared of standing up to Ozai, not even if it means risking the approval he chased after so desperately for years). Imagine him showing up at Jang Hui village, finding this horrid situation the villagers are living in! He’d not only cross paths with Team Avatar, which could be interesting at this stage, but he’d also potentially offer the people an alternate living location because he wants them to be free to live in better conditions than this... only for Team Avatar’s approach to teach him that maybe the answer isn’t running away or leaving when your house is on fire, but to put out the fire by any means you have available. Then, Zuko could start having many similar epiphanies throughout his journeys in his own country and understand that his work with the Fire Nation has to be FOR the Fire Nation itself, and not the glorified concept his father believes in: he’d have to work for the people who are unaware of how oppressed they are, the people who barely can get by in these times of war, those who have lost family, those who have lost friends, all be it for a war that makes no sense. Had Zuko’s character arc focused on THIS rather than exclusively on his own internal struggle... you probably wouldn’t see that many Zuko-critical posts on my blog. It would convey a strong message about what it really means to be a leader, and Zuko’s character would benefit greatly from that.

... But yep. Instead we got him losing his temper at small triggers, acting out and being very much socially inept. I understand what they were going for, I repeat it, and I don’t think it’s fundamentally WRONG... but I do think it’s too simple considering the scope of the story they were telling, and the character development they were trying to build for Zuko. There’s way too much to address with a character like Zuko... and that all his growth was meant to be internal (with even a few things that either were never addressed or were addressed poorly or that he supposedly grew out of but then regressed into all over again) may not have done him any favors.

... And well, I’ll say, I actually don’t think most of The Beach intended to portray Zuko as sympathetic? Maybe only the point where he gives Mai gifts that she rejects, and when he goes to the old family villa, but in general he feels like such an ass in that episode that I’m pretty sure they were making him an ass intentionally xD Yet I can’t agree more, it’s really wrong that the only time we see Zuko interacting normally with common Fire Nation people, as equals, he acts the way he does. I’tll never not confuse me that Team Avatar gets to see and learn more of the Fire Nation, and interact positively with their people, than Zuko did...

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 21 of 26

Title: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4) (2021)

Author: Becky Chambers

Genre/Tags: Science Fiction, Third-Person, Female Protagonists

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 8/15/2021

Date Finished: 8/22/2021

Gora is an unremarkable planet. It has no natural life and few resources to speak of. In fact, its only use is its proximity to more interesting places. Over the years, it’s become a waystation, notable only as a temporary stop for travelers as they wait for their spot in the wormhole queue. 

The Five-Hop One-Stop is a small, family-owned rest stop on Gora. Three travelers— a marginalized nomad, a military contractor, and an exiled artist-- lay over at the Five-Hop awaiting the next stage of their journeys. But everything goes horribly wrong when repair work on an orbital satellite causes a cascade event, destroying the planet’s communications. Now stranded on Gora with debris raining down from the sky, the travelers and hosts must live with each other while cut off from the rest of the galaxy. As they learn more about one another, each is forced to confront their personal struggles… and challenge their perspective on life.

Speaker had a word for how she felt right then: errekere. A moment of vulnerable understanding between strangers. It did not translate into Klip, but it was a feeling she knew well from gatherings among her people. There was no need being expressed here, no barter or haggling or problems that required the assistance of a Speaker, but errekere was what she felt all the same. She’d never felt it with an alien before. She embraced the new experience.

Content warnings and spoilers below the cut.  

Content warnings for the book: Non-graphic sexual content, child endangerment, ableism (if you squint; it’s not malicious), references to warfare, discussions of intergenerational trauma re: colonization (not the scifi kind), prejudice and xenophobia, recreational drug use. 

I’ve had a mixed experience with Wayfarers, which is unusual for me. I can’t remember the last series I read that fluctuated so much in terms of personal enjoyment and (in my opinion) quality. People as a whole seem to enjoy this series more than me, hence the multitude of awards and glowing reviews. I liked book two, A Closed and Common Orbit, because of the focused narrative and dedicated development of two lead characters. But the first and third books suffered from an overly large cast and reliance on generic archetypes. When a series is built on character development and plot is a secondary concern at best, those characters have to be outstanding. And to me, they usually weren’t.

But in this fourth and final book, I felt that Chambers finally hit her stride. On a surface level, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within has striking similarity to book three, Record of a Spaceborn Few. Both are virtually plotless novels which do deep dives into a cast of characters. What sets The Galaxy apart is its execution. All three leads have unique and compelling personal conflicts. An underutilized strength of the series is its creative aliens; something Chambers takes advantage of here with a fully alien cast. Finally, this book hinges upon interaction between the three leads, something sorely missing from the previous book. 

In these reviews I often seem critical of ensemble casts. But when done well, I actually prefer them to singular narratives. The main hurdle is having consistently interesting characters across the board. When there’s one or two characters I prefer over the others, I usually struggle with the novel. There’s an inherent sense of disappointment when leaving a favored character’s POV. For me this affects my overall enjoyment of the story. But when I like all of the characters or they all have something interesting going on, ensemble casts are great. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is successful in this regard because I thoroughly enjoyed all three perspective characters. In no particular order…

Speaker is an Akarak, a birdlike scavenger species introduced as sympathetic antagonists in the first book. Going in, we know their home planet was colonized by the Harmagians, which has caused irreparable harm to their culture. Robbed of their homeworld and forced into the margins of GC society, the Akarak are nomadic, and many of them rely on banditry in order to survive. We have seen very little of them besides that. The Galaxy expands their lore a lot; their short lifespans, their incompatible biology with other sapients, and the resulting generational trauma from centuries of colonial exploitation. Speaker’s arc in particular is about dealing with the prejudice she encounters daily, adjusting to acceptance after being othered for so long, seeing things from a new perspective, and persistent worry for her twin sister Tracker, who she’s been separated from due to the events on Gora. 

The Aeluon Pei is actually a recurring character; she’s Ashby’s love interest from the first book. Here we get a more intimate view of her as a person. In particular, she struggles with living a double life. She works a prestigious yet dangerous job among her people, running cargo into critical warzones. But her affair with Ashby (a Human) is a huge cultural taboo among the Aeluons. If her colleagues discovered her romantic relationship, her life as a cargo runner would be over. The double life is wearing on her, because she loves both aspects of her life, but knows that it can’t go on like this forever. To make matters worse, she goes into “shimmer”, a once-in-a-lifetime fertility period, during the events on Gora. This adds a layer to her struggle; does she do her duty to her species and produce a child, or does she pursue what she really wants? 

Finally, there’s Roveg, a Quelin. Like the Akarak, Quelin haven’t received a whole lot of development in the series. In the first book, they’re portrayed as a xenophobic insectoid race, and their role is unambiguously antagonistic. Roveg is the polar opposite of that. He’s something of a renaissance man; an appreciator of fine art and dining, who designs artistic sims by profession. He delights in meeting aliens, befriending them, and learning everything there is to know about them. His arc centers around his exile from Quelin society and all the hidden pains associated with that. Chief among these is a mysterious meeting he has to make— which the Gora disaster obviously complicates. 

Complementing the three leads are the Five-Hop’s hosts; a Laru mother and child named Ouloo and Tupo. Similar to the Akarak and Quelin, we haven’t seen many of the Laru (who I always picture as fuzzy dog-giraffe hybrids). Ouloo struggles to be a kind and accommodating host in the wake of disaster. She’s also forced to confront her own prejudices, especially regarding Speaker, the first Akarak she’s ever met. The two initially have a lot of tension, but grow to be great friends over the course of the novel. Her child Tupo is a nonbinary character using xe/xyr pronouns throughout the novel. Xe’s basically a Laru teenager, and super endearing. I love xyr natural curiosity and naiveté. Definitely the “heart” of the group. 

Interaction between these characters is the bread and butter of this novel. There’s very little action; instead it focuses on their differing perspectives and life experiences. It’s a gradual build as the characters grow more familiar with one another. The epilogue is brilliant, because we see the long-term effect of these characters meeting. Despite interpersonal conflict in the story, Speaker inspires Pei to make a specific decision. From this decision, Pei realizes she can help Roveg with his meeting. As a result of this, Roveg is inspired to help Speaker based on one of their earlier conversations. His help fundamentally alters Speaker’s perspective on life— and there’s an implication it will reach beyond that, to the Akarak as a whole. It’s a cascade effect, but rather than the disastrous version that happened on Gora, it’s a positive social change for the leads. That’s the kind of literary parallel that really fires me up. 

I do have a few criticisms of this novel, minor and otherwise. The first is, I wish the tension between Speaker and Pei was more strongly built throughout. While I’m glad the novel isn’t all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to the character interactions, their conflict goes from an idea in the back of one’s mind to an explosive event. This is something of a nitpick because it’s otherwise well executed. I especially like that despite their interpersonal problems, they work together in the climactic events of the novel without sacrificing their respective principles. 

My other criticism is a series-wide observation. Wayfarers is optimistic to a fault. As such, it’s pretty rare that we see true evil or even bad behavior in this series. On one hand, it’s nice to read something where the characters are people who want the best for everyone. But there’s a lot of dissonance here, because there are MASSIVE social problems with the GC at large. For example, we see the effects of xenophobia, war, slavery, and colonialism, but the ones who perpetuate these issues are faceless. If Chambers wants to portray good characters, that’s fine, but it strikes me as odd to build complex social issues into your society, yet exclusively portray groups of morally good people. Why would a society full of such nice, helpful groups also marginalize the Akarak, or create an entire caste of slave clones to sort through their junk? This approach comes off as a desire for nuance without committing to it. 

This trend continues through the final book. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is clearly a COVID-19 response novel (“we’re all in this together”!)— but everyone is blameless, and the government response is reasonable and timely. That’s just not how it worked in real life. So many people were (and still are!) selfish in response to COVID, often outright endangering others. Practically every government botched their response for the sake of money, leading to mass death worldwide. If Wayfarers has similar social issues to the real world, why would the response to a disaster be any different? It’s an ongoing contradiction; the Wayfarers society is simultaneously utopian and flawed, and it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief. 

As an individual novel, though, I really enjoyed The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. Like all the other books in the Wayfarers series, it’s a standalone and can be read on its own. My experience with this series has been up and down; I recommend the second and fourth books, but I’d skip one and three if I ever do a reread. There are things to like about Wayfarers in terms of worldbuilding and the creative ideas behind all the different aliens. Characterization is hit or miss, but the hits are great, and this book in particular knocked it out of the park. Chambers’ prose improves a lot over the series, and it’s nice to see how she develops as a writer. As I’ve mentioned, Wayfarers has gotten lots of positive feedback, so it’s possible you will enjoy it more than I did. But I’m looking forward to reading something new.

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Really long ask - Part 1: Hi, sorry for this long rant, but I just wanted to vent since I saw this latest story posted on AO3 and I am restraining myself on commenting on their story so I'm just letting my anger out here about it and other issues regarding fan-depiction of Hawks. It's vaguely related to your post on how DabiHawks or Dabi+Hawks stories make it all about Dabi and always made Hawks out to be the one who starts the problems in their relationship or is the one trying to get Dabi's

Content warning: passing mention of r*pe in a fanfiction.

LOOOONG post under the cut.

(Cont.)

Dabi's attentions when it's canon that it's the complete opposite. This latest story that came up in my feed was about Hawks "harassing" Dabi (who apparently has a backstory of r*pe) and Twice helps Dabi works out his feelings. Among the hoards of tags condemning Hawks, they decided to use "Hawks is very uncool in this fic heads up" so that's another one to add to my filters. I think I also have to block the "Dabi Needs a Hug" tags too bc he's always woobified like heck. 

I really want to read stories where Hawks interacts with Twice since they have a bond/drama with each other, but people have been adding Dabi and either making it seem like Hawks has been gaslighting Dabi in their "relationship" or with Twice. I can acknowledge stories where Hawks feels guilty for what he had to do or Twice being anger/betrayed over Hawks' actions since that is actually what happened; but I will not stand for Dabi claiming Hawks took advantage of Twice or Twice and Dabi having feelings for each other with Hawks in the way bc Dabi is a) the one who let Hawks in b) knew Twice is gullible and c) used Twice as bait. Even in the stories that are cute/causal+funny, Hawks is always the one who gets threatened with fire, harsh insults, or guilted into compliance but the seriousness of the first 2 are always brushed off and the third kinda makes me want it that Hawks doesn't have friends bc most people write him as a bad friend who only cares about his own problems (especially the ones that write Hawks like a celebrity/night club person). 

On writing Dabi, his issues always take priority over everything else, his family loves him, and the lov is always chill with him. He's usually written as the fun asshole/caretaker (bc of his big brother status or ablity to cook). Those factors aren't bad by itself, but it's extremely irritating when the writers/artists can give that level of care to Dabi, but just reduce Hawks to a meme who is a workaholic for the government/scared of punishment & not bc he really cares about the people he saves/helps. It's not like I hate the DabiHawks pairing, but the majority of the content (esp the recent ones), are frustrating to read & Hawks' character is usually written in bad out of character extremes. I am really mystified that I'm praying for canon content rather than fanmade most of the time.

Phew! After the back and forth it looks like we got to the end of that! (Or did we?! *Dun dun DUUUUN*) If not, though, feel free to keep the asks rolling. Lol Foxy and I are usually pretty happy to receive as many asks as people want to send even if it takes us a while, individually, to get to it. Now to finally address what you sent.

I find myself in a weird place when it comes to OOC fanfic because on the one hand people can write whatever they want, and I don’t really have a place to criticize them; but also when they blatantly and willingly misinterpret a character so they have grounds to bash on them it also leaves me acutely uncomfortable. I don’t think I’d call it “problematic” as much as a squick? Like, if they’re willing to blow past all the obvious proof to the contrary about their claims of a fictional character just because they hate them, then are they willing to do the same thing to a real person? Usually, those kinds of thoughts are pointlessly extreme, but we know those who unironically and/or unapologeticly call fans of the heroes “bootlickers” so... It’s like, ooc vent fics are also fine; and if you want to rewrite a character to fit the narrative scheme you’ve set up that’s cool as long as its tagged (“ooc [character]” or something) and/or just mention in the a/n that they knowingly and willingly mischaracterized them for the sake of the fic. Just. Don’t. Claim. It’s. Canon.

And speaking of canon, as much as I’m sure Horikoshi knew Hawks and Dabi were going to end up shipped I think it’s obvious that he never was going to canonically write them ending up together, yet here comes the “canon must validate my headcanon” crowd calling him a bad writer because the author had some bigger narrative goal in mind than having two pretty anime boys kissing.

And the worst part to me is, I feel there’s a distinct slice of the DabiHawks crowd missing out on some of the possibilities of this ship by intentionally mischaracterizing them. Like, the aesthetic equal/opposite draw of the ship is phenomenal as it is and I don’t even ship them, but I can see a wide range of possible fics based solely on the principle that they are canonically incompatible!

At the end of the day, Dabi is a dime-a-dozen edgelord - that pain in the butt OC that so many newbie D&D players make that they think is so deep and dark and mature, but is about as cookie-cutter as they come. It’s not that this kind of character is unsalvageable or a hopeless Gary Stu character, just that they don’t often come across as compelling in and of themselves or that they need more than just selfish hatred to carry them through a series. Two kinds of edgelords that can be done well are the “Out of the Ashes” edgelord and “I’ll Pull You Into Hell With Me” edgelord. The first kind recognizes there’s more to life than their sad backstory and getting even and thus choose to aspire to more noble causes - think Joel from The Last of Us. The second recognizes they’re actively doing wrong and come to embrace it - being more concerned with getting what they want than taking the moral high ground - think Frank Castle, aka the Punisher - and even these darker, “unsaveable” kinds of edgelord antiheroes can have redeeming qualities such as meeting and helping a young hopeful and telling them, “I know I’m on the road to hell, so if you want to save yourself you’d better not follow me.”

Dabi actually has what he needs to become the second type right now (assuming he’s Touya) and could even evolve into the first not unlike Kratos from God of War, but that potential can’t be fully recognized until you admit that he’s fundamentally self-centered and a bad person as-is. He may have the tragic backstory complete with justifiable hate at his genuinely abusive father, but rather than using that as fuel to see that never happen to anyone else like it did him - he just wants to get even. He burns people alive, knowing well he’s participating in the same destruction that his father committed to make him what he is now. He doesn’t recognize any of the merits of hero society and is only concerned with burning it to ash. He could use what happened to his family to incite compassion in his heart and take others under his wing, but instead he uses people as a mean to his own ends. He isn’t even proper grimdark - he’s just your run of the mill egotistical megalomaniac with a punk aesthetic.

And that’s still a good character in the grand scheme of things, maybe just not alone! Moreso, it’s a good villain and EVEN BETTER when you put him next to Hawks who is at his core:

Fundamentally Hopepunk!

Hopepunk is about being good and kind as an act of rebellion against a cruel and unfair world no matter how bleak it gets or how badly you’re beaten down. Despite his own cruel past, Hawks still has a heart to help others for no other reason than to help them, he constantly changes the odds to save as many people as he can when he’d be given a pass for letting the cards fall where they will, and not only is his aim to “help others” but to make sure that there’ll never be need for heroes again. He’s an active rebel against the system fighting with kindness and goodness, fervently looking and listening for the next opportunity to do good.

In agreement with you, Hawks and Twice are interesting to explore because while Twice is an optimist looking to make the world a better place, he’s still a step or two removed from Hawks’ worldview because Twice refuses to let go of the “family” he found for himself while Hawks is willing to sacrifice himself for others. That dynamic is so interesting, and it’s what made them so initially compatible and subsequently heartbreaking in canon.

And it’s such a disappointment to see this unwaveringly earnest character reduced to “shitty fratboy” so often. For a lot of people newer to his character I can understand the confusion, but there really isn’t an excuse if you’ve been reading the series, and the possibilities for fics with this canon personality are just so much more interesting to explore, especially with Dabi as his sort-of opposite.

For DabiHawks to work well, you have to recognize that something has to give in either of them. Some of the juiciest, most angsty content is when you have two characters grow close together over commonalities only to be reminded that despite everything else they share, that One Thing will always keep them from truly being able to see eye-to-eye. Either Dabi has to grow past his hatred and relearn compassion and empathy, or Hawks has to lose grip of that hopeful vision he has and fall into despair. Both options are good to explore, but both require the acknowledgement that Dabi’s view of the world is fundamentally bleak and selfish, especially compared to Hawks’. For a supposed revolutionary out to change the world for the better whose a diamond in the rough with a heart of gold, that’s not exactly on-brand; and at the end of the day the issue is that some are unwilling to admit that what they wanted Dabi to be is likely not going to happen and they love that fake version Dabi more than they love what Hawks actually stands for which is why Hawks always gets the shaft in the end.

I still personally hold a bit of a grudge against the DaiHawks ship as a whole purely because, as you said, Dabi always seems to take priority over Hawks instead of letting the two build a dynamic together. Hawks is always the one who has to give, and the torture porn some have made him go through to “make the ship work” is downright disturbing to me. Even at its height DabiHawks content completely flooded the Hawks character tags on Tumblr with some of the same problems that have persisted to this day such as emphasizing their aesthetic as opposed to their dynamic and rampant mischaracterization.

Anyway, that’s my long-winded response. What do you think, @autumn-foxfire?

[hyena-frog]

Idk about you but Dark Age made me even thirstier for House Augustus content! Virginia is a such ama amzing pov and getting to know about her and a bit about her family through her lenses is amazing. You can say anything about House Augustus, but they are never boring. But I also loved how she sees Darrow's family and how she deals with the ex-love triangle (Darrow stopped being torn between her and Eo even since MS)...what's your opinion now on Virginia and House Augustus?

Hoo boy was Dark Age a treasure trove of tasty House Augustus tidbits. Virginia’s POV was SO good, Pierce absolutely did her justice. But, I don’t know if it’s just because I wanted more from her, and more from the Abomination plot, but it feels like her story was too short. Maybe I’m weird but I always love reading (or watching) intricate scifi/fantasy politics and her POV fed me very well. And we got interesting glimpses into how her mind works and some of her personal issues (namely, her mother’s death) that I would love to dig deeper into.

I was absolutely living for the Nero treats in this book tbh. He was a terrible person but it was a lot of fun to see how he’s still affecting everyone who knew him even 11 years later. My favorite Nero flashback (favorite as in, it was enlightening on the father/daughter dynamic, not that it was a fun scene) is when Virginia recalls how he sought her out after her mother’s death, found her crying, and said: “Self-pity is the plebeian's luxury. All that occurs is either endurable or unendurable. If it is endurable, endure it. If it is unendurable, follow your mother.” YIKES dude. But the lesson got Virginia through her torture so... good job? As Daxo said, Nero’s brand of wisdom kept them alive among predators. I also liked Cicero’s story about how Nero sent Darrow to terrify the Votum patriarch after being slighted. Classic Nero.

I’m glad we got Virginia’s POV because we never would have properly seen how deeply her mother’s suicide still affects her otherwise. Sure, we first got the story through Darrow’s POV in Morning Star but he can only guess and empathize with (since his father died in a suicide-adjacent way but under wildly different circumstances) the emotional damage. Virginia hates being vulnerable and was never going to openly express the whole truth of it. I thought her offhandedly mentioning it to Holiday in Dark Age was a clear sign of how deeply it still hurts. (Holiday, Darrow, and Ragnar were the only ones to hear Virginia’s story in Morning Star, and I’m glad Dark Age remembered that.)

That death surely affected Adrius negatively too. In the absence of an ostensibly loving mother, he developed his complex of needing his father’s approval and well, Nero was just never going to give it. Virginia quickly figured that out but Adrius never did. Even after killing Nero, he still let that need for approval affect his decision-making. And I can see the same desire manifesting in the clone. I’m interested to see where his story goes. As Virginia says, “All my life, I thought my brother was born broken. He wasn't. Perhaps he was just born with an incompatible father.” I don’t feel like he’ll turn out to be a good at all, because Lilath’s influence has already tainted him, and he’s a spoiled little brat, but I do think whatever character journey he goes through will be enlightening on original Adrius at least.

One of my favorite parts of Virginia’s POV was seeing her dynamic with Deanna! Virginia truly loves Darrow’s family and it’s obvious to me that Deanna loves her daughter-in-law. I loved when Virginia said Deanna is the only one who still lectures her and Deanna replied it was because she’s the only one Virginia still has to impress. And one of the many times this book made me tear up was when Deanna held Virginia after she escaped the clone, and how Virginia said it was the kind of motherly love she never got the chance to receive from her own mother.

Deanna said she didn’t care for Eo and Virginia said Eo didn’t love Darrow enough and I’m inclined to agree. I liked Eo at the beginning and still think her ideals are noble at their core but as the books progressed, and Darrow evolved, and the story expanded, it became more and more obvious that, well, Eo was a 16 year old girl pissed off at the world. Not a paragon of virtue. Even Darrow can admit to her flaws, when he thinks of her (which I don’t think he did at all in Dark Age, he was too busy and also he’s twice as old as he was when Eo died and it would be very weird if he was still hung up on her in the same way.) Anyway, my point is, both Deanna and Virginia are known for being very practical in their thinking so I don’t think their negative opinions of Eo are biased to the point of being unreliable.

I will say, I felt awful during the Senate upheaval (for many, many obvious reasons but I’m focusing on this one) when the Vox sang Eo’s song while slaughtering Virginia’s people at the Senate, and executing even more underneath Eo’s image on the pillar. It’s like Virginia can’t get away from Darrow’s first wife even though he’s moved on from it and he was basically a child when he was married to Eo. I know the whole rebellion grew out of her martyrdom but I hate that Virginia is always being compared to a dead girl half her age. My personal interpretation is that despite her logical thinking, Virginia internalizes the comparison at least a little.

Page 457

I’m still puzzling over this passage. It feels like she thinks Darrow doesn’t love her as passionately as he did Eo. Maybe that’s not the right word. I’m not sure how to phrase my thoughts on this. She thinks the way Darrow loves her is fundamentally different from his love for Eo, and she is completely right, but I think in the wrong direction.

Darrow’s whole “Virginia is an ocean and I’m its only storm” monologue clearly attests to the depth of his love for her, something far more complex and meaningful than what he felt, as a 16 year old ignorant of the realities of the world, for Eo. Sure it doesn’t “consume the self” but it’s much healthier imo. Darrow certainly understands Virginia and her complexities better than he ever did Eo’s, by virtue of his evolution as a person and how Virginia has helped shaped that person. I think that is the key difference Deanna sees between her son’s two marriages and why she clearly approves of his second one more. Darrow isn’t blind to Virginia’s flaws and Virginia obviously loves Darrow equally as much as he does her.

My thoughts on Virginia's insecurities about Darrow’s first marriage isn’t to say Virginia in any way thinks Darrow still has feelings for Eo. They both know he’s been over it for over a decade by now. I just think Virginia, like her husband, suffers from a condition called “being too hard on herself.” (See: Keeping Adrius’ puzzles as a reminder of the madness in her family.) The only conclusion I can come to is that when they reunite, Darrow must disabuse Virginia of any insecurities about how deeply he loves her. By words, by actions, whatever gets the message across. I want some soppy romance to balance out the carnage, please.

Those are some of my disjointed House Augustus thoughts. Not much of a centering thesis I’m afraid. But I want to reiterate that I absolutely LOVED Virginia’s POV and I’m so glad Pierce ignored his editor and tried his hand at her POV anyway. He did a lovely job and I cannot wait to read more from her perspective. I think the conclusion to this story will be amazing to experience partially through her eyes. After all her psychological and physical suffering, she needs a bloodydamn victory!

[linkspooky]

Shigaraki’s Decay

One of the biggest themes of this arc is how the characters define themselves. What defines them the most, the quirks they were born with, their experiences in the past, the people around them, what burdens they carry? Shigaraki at the moment is facing off against Re-Destro a man who believes that because he was born with a quirk that destroys everything he touches, then he must be capable of nothing more than that. Not only that but during the middle of the fight Shigaraki flashes back to All for One not only telling him the same thing, but encouraging him to see himself that way. 

Does Shigaraki’s decay quirk truly define who he is? Is it only capable of being used for destruction? Let’s analyze Shigaraki’s relationship with his quirk and what it says about his character underneath the cut. 

This is the accusation that Re-Destro makes at Shigaraki, that specifically triggers his flashback not only of the incident of destroying his family, but also All for One encouraging him to hold onto those feelings. That he was born to destroy. That he’s capable of nothing other than destruction because he possesses such a quirk. That he’s empty of all other feelings. 

However, while Shigaraki seems to embrace this narrative the backstory we are shown implicitly contradicts it, especially with the story of how his quirk developed into such a destructive one. 

1. Shigaraki and Dabi

While Dabi’s backstory was not confirmed this arc the fact that he is most likely Todoroki Touya makes him a significant foil to Tomura. To whit, both of them were born in abusive households where a patriarchal father figure wielded absolute control over the household. Both of them had their lives, and who they could become dominated by their father figures (Tenko was told he could not be a hero, Touya was not allowed to become anything other than Endeavor’s heir and if he couldn’t become that he was a failure). Both of them are heirs to  heroic legacies they never wanted to be a part of, Touya had Endeavor’s rivalry with All Might forced on him, and Tenko did not even know he was Shimura’s grandchild but was picked up by All for One specifically for that reason.

 Both of them become the victims of their father’s grudges, Endeavor’s inferior complex over All Might caused him to train his children like they were his own pet raise your own hero project, and Kotaro’s abandonment by Nana caused him to take his feelings out on Tenko for just wishing to be a hero when he was five. Both of their father figures had rivalries with All Might and trained them as a successor to surpass All Might, Endeavor as a fellow hero, and All for One as a villain. 

Dabi was raised as a hero before he was raised as a person, Shigaraki was raised to be a villain before he was cared for as a child in need. 

All of that being said, if only one detail was revealed about Dabi who foils Shigaraki so significantly this arc, then it must be an important detail. The one reveal we get is that Dabi’s quirk is fundamentally compatible with his own body. 

In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character, usually the protagonist, to highlight qualities of the other character.

Horikoshi would not be asking us to draw these comparisons between the two of them, unless he was trying to inform us about Shigaraki through how much he has in common with Dabi. 

That for both of them, their quirks are incompatible with their bodies. Even though they were raised specifically because of those quirks by both of their respective father figures to be their heirs, those quirks which are supposed to define them are fundamentally at odds with their beings. 

Not only that but Dabi comes into contact with someone who just like him, was raised to only value the strength of his quirk, who was born and spent years doing nothing more than developing the strength of his quirk with little contact with the outside world not allowed to have a life other than his quirk, and who defines his identity entirely by his quirk and Dabi mocks this idea. 

He finds it pitiful to define yourself entirely by your quirk, that the quirk you were born with makes you who you are. After all his father bred him for a quirk, Apocrypha’s mindset smells like Endeavor’s, that of his abuser’s. 

If there is a difference between the two foils right now, it is that Dabi rebels entirely against what his abuser wanted him to be he was raised a hero and became a villain instead whereas Shigaraki still embraces the narrative that All for One gave him too much he’s a villain, but he has no interest in building an empire like All for One just tearing one down. As an heir he turned out a little too well. All for one encouraged him to destroy and set him loose, and now he does not find identity in anything other than destruction. 

2. Shigaraki’s Quirk is Incompatible with his Body

The character’s quirks obviously influence their identity a little bit, they are characters whose personalities were thought up by Horikoshi to compliment their quirks after all. So their quirks mean something in regards of who they are. Compress is a classic sleight of hand magician, his quirk makes things disappear and become smaller with a touch to where he can hide them underneath his sleeve. Twice is extremely lonely and he just wants a companion and self acceptance, his quirk literally makes copies of both himself and other people he knows well enough to measure them with personalities based on how well he knows them. Dabi is cool headed, and yet at the same time quick tempered and quick to lash out with his flames like he’s hiding seething anger underneath it all at something, therefore he makes flames that are blue a cool color, and yet burn hotter, so much it burns him underneath his skin. 

However, this arc thematically also brings up the question if the league was defined their entire lives by their quirk. Twice was driven insane because his quirk made him forget who he was or if he was the real one. Toga has a natural predilection towards blood because her quirk works by sucking blood and stealing the appearances of others. 

While that idea is brought up it’s also contradicted. Their quirks aren’t the only thing that influenced them as clearly all of these characters are heavily influenced by their environments as well. (The tagline of the whole volume is “all it takes is one bad day). Himiko was raised to repress herself and nobody seriously tried to accept her for who she was, therefore Himiko eventually explodes and lives to express the worst of herself not caring what others think because they were never going to accept her anyway. Then Himiko finds people who does accept her, and she starts to improve, while she still does things on whims, she follows rules, listens to commands, and is extremely loyal to a certain set of people. Twice is able to make copies of himself again because at his lowest point, he was able to find people who accepted him and wants to protect those people. 

They are influenced by their quirks, but at the same time the environment around them influences who they are just as much and can even influence their quirks. Their personal development causes their quirks to grow. 

So, as I said above if Dabi’s quirk is incompatible and using it harms his own body, then the same can most likely be said for Shigaraki. Let’s briefly touch upon his past once more. 

In Shigaraki’s origin chapter it’s revealed that Tenko had a chronic allergy condition that caused his eyes to water, and his face to become itchy. Not only that but he itched at his face constantly, which only caused the itching to get worse. While it’s unknown where this allergy came from, it’s also stated at the same time that Tenko had not manifested a quirk yet even though he was five years old (most quirks manifest at four). 

My theory is that Tenko’s quirk actually did activate when he was four, but at that point he could not manifest it slowly. The reason being that Tenko’s quirk is controlled by his emotions. He did not reach his breaking point until he was five years old. Before that point he was just constantly uneasy, and anxious about his environment due to his father’s controlling nature. therefore, his decay manifested in his own body but only as an itch that looked like allergies around his face. Instead it was decaying his skin slowly, and only barely noticeable because he had not reached the breaking point. He decays his own body subconsciously, hence the constant itching and facial scarring that only worsened over the years. 

It makes sense as human bodies are about as incompatible with decaying, as they are with fire. There are several instances of quirks not being perfectly suited for the human body and carrying flaws like this, Deku breaks his own bones because his muscles are too strong, Ochako gets nauseous due to not being fit for zero gravity, however it’s also special in Dabi and Shigaraki’s case because it’s thematic. 

Tenko’s decay only manifests in his hands when he’s reached his limits emotionally. The reason it never manifested before was Tenko was holding it back. Until he reached the point where he could not take it anymore. 

All for One even says this directly, that Tenko keeps his own quirk in check subconsciously. Hence why we see so much destruction the first time he loses control at his own family, and yet several years later when he’s fighting Aizawa we see a much milder form of his quirk. 

Fighting against Aizawa Shigaraki gives him a light rash on his arm, and yet in a different situation when Shigaraki is pushed to a much more emotional extreme he decays people’s entire bodies in an instant.

There’s also proof he can manifest decay in other parts of his body, he’s shown using it with his feet. (Though, this could also be the decay spreading out from his hands after he initially used it). 

Still, this all supports the idea that Shigaraki just subconsciously localizes Decay in his hands, and subconsciously suppresses its strength at all times. Because, decay can spread if he doesn’t control it, and also because if he’s not careful he could decay his own body as well. He only removes the limiter when he’s pushed to a breaking point by extreme amounts of stress. 

There is however, another thematic idea suggested by Shigaraki subconsciously holding back decay, and purposefully limiting his own power. That he still feels guilt for what he destroys, and therefore even if it’s only in the back of his head some part of him tries to hold back.

For someone who exists only to destroy, Shigaraki is extremely careful with what he touches to the point where he holds everything with only a few fingers to limit his destruction. It shows in every gesture of his body how much he purposefully holds himself back. We are told time and time again in his backstory, that Shigaraki felt an intensive amount of guilt for what happened to his family due to his quirk. 

When he’s brought back to All for One, and confronted with what he did Shigaraki is literally so disgusted with himself he violently retches and vomits. 

When people are being violent to him, Shigaraki’s first response was not to lash out, but rather to hold himself back intentionally and suppress that urge. 

When father’s hand gets knocked off of his face much later in the future, Shigaraki apologizes to him, and then more importantly starts to excoriate again due to the stress as we see him itching himself. 

The hands make him remember his family, and therefore he feels restrained and burdened by constant guilt, and self disgust. He feels nauseous for even living. 

All for One even said directly the hands were something meant to restrain him, keep his quirk in check most likely so he never tried to turn it against All for One. Shigarki probably feels a great deal of guilt for what he did subconsciously, no matter what he may say about himself, and because of that until this point held a great deal of his quirk back so he would not lose control like he did with his family. 

Which means Shigaraki does not delight in destruction the way he claims to, he feels self disgust, and genuine remorse for what he destroys and because of that he is constantly sick with himself. The last villain Shigaraki faced off against was Chisaki, who wanted to rid the world of quirks. He also was somebody who like Tomura could completely destroy someone with just a touch of his fingers. What does Shigaraki do? Cut off his hands. 

Why? Because he hates him. 

However, Chisaki and Tomura have several things in common. They were both raised by villainous organizations (yakuza, and All for One), both of them want to carry on the legacy of the man who raised him and restore a crumbling empire to its former glory, both of their quirks are extremely similar. 

Shigaraki’s particular dislike for Chisaki could also be an extension of his hatred for himself, and what does he do to Chisaki? Cut his hands off. Rid him of the destructive quirk that he used so freely. Which is probably also what Shigaraki wants to do to himself on some level, he just protected that desire onto Chisaki. 

There’s much more evidence to suggest that Shigaraki is in conflict with himself, just like his decay quirk is incompatible with his body, his philosophy of destroying everything is also incompatible with who he is as a person. As much as he indulges in destruction, he also loathes it, and loathes himself for destroying. Then, why destroy in the first place? 

3. The Psychological Itch

Once again Narrative is an important theme in these chapters. It’s not just subtext but literal text directly spoken by the characters, the MLA is trying to create a narrative, and the League of Villains are contradicting that narrative. 

Therefore narrative =/= reality, and even a character’s personal narrative will not one hundred percent reflect the reality. As I’ve already pointed out there are several inconsistencies in Shigaraki’s own personal narrative, but it’s important to realize Shigaraki is not using his own he’s adopted All for One’s. He is not choosing to embrace his own identity, rather believing he is when he’s really just reacting to the narrative that All for One set up for him. 

Shigaraki was in need of validation for who he was. Because he was not accepted, because he was rejected entirely by that household he felt a constant unease, an itch that he could not scratch. Just like his own body rejects his quirk, Shigaraki also was rejected by everyone around him and therefore could not develop healthily his own sense of self.

Tenko, an observant kid realizes that everyone around him is rejecting him for who he is. That he cannot be himself as long as he remains in this household. Not only is he forbidden from being the one thing he wants to be, he’s also violently punished. It’s a good enough reason to feel constantly anxious, and at unease with his environment. What Tenko seeks is to be told that he’s not wrong, that it’s okay to be who he is. 

Shigaraki reflecting on the scene tells us directly in narration that destroying that household, everybody around him, made the itch go away. That therefore the itch must have been his suppressed desire to destroy, and what he really wanted all along was to just destroy that house and he was finally indulging on his true desires. 

However, literally the next scene in Shigaraki’s flashback completely contradicts that. 

The itch comes back. If Destroying made the itch go away, then why does it come back almost immediately after Shigaraki runs away from his house? If destroying everything around him creates freedom from himself and freedom from his itch, then why does it keep coming back? 

The itch is a metaphor in part, for Shigaraki and the cycle of abuse he is caught up in. Here is the thing about abuse victims, they are not always palatable to people’s tastes. They do not present themselves in a way that is either pure good victim or pure bad victim. 

Abuse does make people want to hurt other people. It makes them want to lash out, because otherwise they carry the wounds for their abuse on them all the time and are in desperate need to express that pain somehow. At times it feels they can only either repress themselves entirely, or lash out, and neither of those does anything but make them feel better temporarily. People feel better after they lash out, but it does not solve the problem. 

The cycle of abuse is something Shigaraki is caught up in. Kotaro was abused by his mother when she abandoned him. Kotaro is still a victim, it’s just he is making Shigaraki suffer worse, by lashing out at Tenko and hurting him just because of the reminder of his mother he sees in Tenko. He deliberately even says that this is what heroes do, hurt their own families, when he hits Tenko. It’s a simple venting of his feelings towards his mother by lashing them out at someone else. 

Venting does make people feel better, but it never solves the problem itself which is why the itch never goes away for Shigaraki. He lives with wounds and scars covering his body, and Shigaraki feels an itch, so he agitates the scars, picks at them, but he only ever makes the scars worse and reopens them in the long run. He never tries to heal, he only tries to distract himself from the pain. This is also, exactly what All for One encouraged him to do. He says line for line do not heal. 

We also see the prolonged effects of All for One’s encouragement in Shigaraki’s flashback chapter. All for One lies to him, he tells him that the itch is his own destructive impulse, rather than a reaction to an abusive and unsafe environment and his own trauma. 

Then, because venting does make the itch go away temporarily, because venting does relieve the piled up stress of abuse even if it’s unhealthy in the long run Shigaraki ends up believing him.

It’s a narrative that All for One gives Shigaraki. Because what did Shigaraki want, he tohught if one person saved him, if they tried to help him the itch would go away. He thought the itch would go away if his household accepted him for who he was. He just wanted person to tell him it was okay to be him.

This is what Tenko believes that All for One is doing for him. That he really is the first person who accepted Shigaraki for who he was, and told him it was okay for him to be himself. That that self is just a person with a natural impulse to destroy, and everything else in society was holding him back and that All for One was the only person who would ever accept him for who he was.

All for One took advantage of that part of Tenko to force his narrative onto him. Tenko was not naturally like that, All for One remade him in his own image. He never accepted who Tenko was as a person, he literally killed his old self and renamed him symbolically. He says from the start his only intention was to make Tenko not into a person, but a symbol who only lusts for destruction. 

Shigaraki believes that he was naturally that way, but we see in the flashback itself All for One admitting that he’s purposefully making Shigaraki into that person. It contradicts what Shigaraki writes of his own narrative (I wanted to murder my father, it was not a tragedy). 

Therefore being born with his quirk does not determine who Shigaraki is, rather it’s a narrative that All for One has given to him, and one Shigaraki embraces in response to his trauma. 

Once again to draw a parallel to Eri, we are shown that Eri’s quirk is unstable and out of control. It’s potentially dangerous and can even rewind someone into nonexistence. Chisaki says it’s unnatural and can only exist to harm others. However, her quirk does not exist in a vaccuum she’s also in an environment that is perpetually out of control.

Before that she was in an environment with an abusive mother who literally abandoned her and threw her to the head of the Yakuza when she hurt someone in a way that was only a freak accident. She was in an environment where Chisaki encouraged her to believe that she would only hurt other people who came to save her, that it would be her fault for hurting them, and that she was utterly helpless. Therefore she could not control her quirk at all and it became wildly unstable. Chisaki told her her quirk was an unnatural, horrible thing, and Eri intenernalized that idea and believed him. 

However, Deku calls it a kindhearted quirk and just from hearing those words Eri’s quirk that could only destroy for that point begins to change. 

Therefore, is quirks can change based upon the environment and how the person views themselves, it’s likely that Shigaraki’s quirk is meant to do much more than decay as well. 

[not-poignant]

How come the people in your fics always respond so well to oversharing? Most people, faced with the kind of issues Mosk and Augus faced, would run screaming in the opposite direction. Eran, Augus, Julvia, Ondine, etc nearly always know the right thing to say. Not every time maybe, but most of the time. And they don't get irritated at other people for being ill or depressed or whatever, like people do irl. None of them every say to someone else they can't be a stranger's therapist, for instance.

Contd: I mean, don't get me wrong, I love your writing and I love all the deep heart to heart convos everyone seems to have with everyone else, I just couldn't help wishing- say, A is rejected and abandoned by B, all of B's friends agree A is too weird and clingy and B isn't made out to be some sort of villain. Neither A nor B are villains. Like that. Sorry I'm not more articulate, I guess you can see why I never tried to put this in my own fics lol             

*

Hi anon!

I mean, the most basic answer to all of this is because it’s fiction, not reality, and I’m writing a romance, not a story about A and B parting ways because they’re fundamentally incompatible (which sounds a bit like what you’re describing, tbh). It sounds like you’re describing a different genre. I’m trying to think of incidences where this happens (and only ever as set ups to the ‘proper romance’ between say A and C) on screen in the hundreds of romances I’ve read, and I can’t think of a single incidence. Doesn’t mean they’re not out there, but...that’s not a romance trope.

Probably the only time I can think of it happening is in a Roan Parrish book, Rend. But the characters stay together, so it doesn’t meet your criteria of one character rejecting and abandoning another, in the book, the rejection is extremely temporary, it’s not abandonment. If you mean a scenario where the characters stay together, then I’m extra confused, because I don’t believe I villainise any of my main characters for mistakes they’re making in a relationship. Maybe some examples might help?

A more complex answer would need to look at your points a bit more individually.

* There are no therapists in the Fae realm. So how can anyone recommend one, except maybe Ash? (And, it hasn’t actually done him a great amount of good outside of how he deals with Gwyn). For the most part, older fae are of the opinion that authentic sharing is important, and often make space for it. It’s a kind of storytelling. Literally one of the fundamental unspoken tenets in Fae Tales is ‘better out than in’ particularly if tempered with compassion

* Your definition of oversharing is wildly different to mine, I think! Do you just mean ‘people who talk honestly about their feelings even when those feelings are ugly?’ Or ‘people who talk about difficult things in their past?’ To me, neither of those is oversharing. It would be oversharing if one went up to a total stranger during their dinner at a restaurant and started telling their life story or talking about their depression. None of my main characters do that. (Davix probably would though).

* I have written stories where one character cannot listen to another character’s self-hatred and suggests a therapist instead, in a world where therapists are canonically available (The Wind that Cuts the Night, Elliott makes it a pretty firm boundary). To a degree, Bull also threatens to walk away from Cullen more than once when he becomes too antagonistic and self-destructive in Stuck on the Puzzle.

* Which of my characters overshares by your definition? I feel like I’m missing something (which is possible, there’s millions of words to think of). But Gwyn is chronically private to the point where he often needs to be tortured to talk about himself. Augus is also private. Eran shares his feelings pretty openly, but in a way that is pretty self-responsible (with the exception of the first half of book 1, which he learns/grows from).

Mosk has been incredibly private re: details of his family and his torture (to the point where we’re heading towards the end of book 2 and Mosk still hasn’t described anything he went through with Davix/Olphix unless he’s pushed to, and he hardly talks about his family unless Eran prompts him), though he’ll be open about his hatred and emotions, and Eran has started putting down boundaries around that when Mosk gets cruel/mean about it. I honestly feel that, more than anything, I actually write characters who are chronic undersharers, it’s one of the reasons they’re so messed up in the first place. So I feel like we’re working off really different definitions there?

* Re: People not being irritated at others for being depressed or ill like in real life, yeah, selfishly I’ll just straight up admit this is because I’m a physically ill/mentally ill person irl who gets really tired of the stigma, ignorance and cruelty of people when it comes to these subjects. In fiction, I don’t have to indulge a broken world (in the same way that I don’t have to indulge homophobia if I don’t want to), it’s allowed to be what I want it to be. But also, all of my main characters have been through incredible depression, many to the point of considering suicide or certainly self-destruction, so they’re singularly well equipped to understand when another character is going through it.

Tbh, if romance suddenly became about what you’re describing re: A and B, I’d probably stop reading it (or at least not read it as much). What people need from what they’re reading/writing is highly individualistic and variable! It sounds like you need something you’re not getting, but what you’re describing is not something I need in my fiction to such an explicit degree, esp. since I think I’m not getting some of your context here - you think my characters overshare, I think they undershare for ex. - a character genuinely sharing their emotional state is so unusual that it’s often a massive and significant plot event when they finally do it, all of Fae Tales is built around the few times characters actually genuinely cathart their emotional states and the reasons around them, whether it’s Gwyn revealing he’s Unseelie, or Augus finally being forced to talk about what the Raven Prince did to him, or Mosk finally being cornered into sharing the fact that he killed Davix etc.

If you need to write a character where one of your characters abandons another character and they part ways and no one makes either out to be a villain, you can! But that’s not a romance. 

In reality, people are incompatible all the time and walk away from friendships, colleagues, relationships and more because of it. It is a fact of life that you will lose far more friends than you will ever make, because of these rejections, abandonments and incompatibilities. It doesn’t make either person the villain. I’ve known plenty of people I’m no longer friends with or partners with, and we’re just...incompatible people. But you’re not likely to see these storylines in romances, because what that describes isn’t compatible with the romance genre, which is about happy endings / hopeful endings between A and B, and not rejection/abandonment.

[recurring-polynya]

You might have noticed that I am more than a little obsessed with @kaickos‘s Squad 6 Guard Dog and All-Round Good Boy Milo. She was kind enough to let me write a fluffy little story about him. It is not 100% consistent with the beautiful comic she is drawing about him, because we were working in parallel and great minds work alike, but maybe not perfectly alike. Anyway, I had a lot of fun writing this over my Thanksgiving weekend. (Seriously, BEHOLD HIM )

Shinigami’s Best Friend (AO3 | ff.net)

Squad 6 acquires a guard dog.

Rated T because apparently I can’t even write some fluff about a dog without cussing. It’s Rukia’s fault, I swear!

Captain Kuchiki Byakuya stepped over the large lump lying across the entrance to the Squad Six Captains’ Office. He smoothed his haori as he sat down at his desk. He read three memos from his inbox before he very calmly said, “Lieutenant, what is that pile of damp fur doing in the doorway?”

His adjutant, Lieutenant Abarai Renji looked up from the mission report he was writing up. “Ah, he appears to be sleepin’, sir.”

Byakuya narrowed his eyes. Eleven years of working with this lummox, and trying to get information out of Abarai was still an enormous trial. “But why, Abarai?”

“Well, he had a very exciting day, sir. ‘Spect he’s worn out.”

Byakuya squeezed his eyes shut. “Let us back up. What… what kind of animal is it? It is an animal, yes?”

“He’s a dog, sir.”

“Really ? Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, sir. I thought you knew about dogs, sir. Pretty sure you mentioned havin’ a couple once or twice.”

“I do. I own three dogs, actually.” They were champion hunting dogs, of the finest bloodlines. They were creatures of pure muscle encased in velvet coats, noble, handsome, and perfectly obedient. They looked absolutely nothing like this sentient dust mop, who was currently snoring softly and kicking one hind leg frantically. “My dogs are kept in a kennel, where a dedicated servant looks after their needs. Why is this one in my office?”

“Oh, well, sir, I’m trying to find him a home. Returning the favor, as it were.”

“The favor.”

“He saved my life, sir.”

This is the point where Byakuya should have known he had lost, because Abarai delivered this phrase exactly as he did when he told the story of how he had met Rukia. Byakuya did not ask for further detail, but he received it anyway, in typical Abarai fashion.

Abarai had been leading a sweep of one of the higher numbered districts of Rukongai -- his own home district, as it happened-- for an elusive Hollow that had been terrorizing the area. He had noticed the dog investigating a rubbish heap as he himself investigated a blind alley. Finding it to be empty, he turned to leave, when the dog let out a frantic bark of singular intensity, a bark that imported the urgency of the situation so clearly that Abarai drew his sword immediately, just in time to block the razor-sharp claws of the Hollow that was materializing from the shadows behind him.

“The thing was apparently able to travel from shadow to shadow, sir, completely untraceable,” Abarai noted. “But the old fellow sniffed him right out and let me know! Once I spotted it, the Hollow wasn’t that tough. Got his mask in one blow, but if I hadn’t seen him in time… Well, sir, you might be holding lieutenant auditions this afternoon, is what I’m saying.”

The alleged canine rolled onto its back, its legs hanging in the air.

Everything about this story sounded like, as Rukia would say, “some bullshit.” But Byakuya had put up with Abarai for long enough that he knew it was a trap to dwell on how they had ended up in this situation. It was more important to focus on how they were getting out of it.

“You said you were going to find it a new home,” Byakuya pointed out. “When is that slated to commence?”

“Well, I needed to file my report, first,” Abarai explained. “And it’s gettin’ kinda late in the day. Figured I’d probably just take him home with me, send a few texts around. See if anyone’s looking for a dog.”

Something about this struck Byakuya as a bad idea, but he did not want to get drawn any further into this nonsense. “Very good, Lieutenant. While, obviously I am grateful for his… services… to the Sixth Division… I do not wish to see him tomorrow, do you understand?”

“Oh, you won’t, sir!”

- - -

It was the next morning.

Byakuya was here.

Abarai was here.

“The dog is here, Abarai,” Byakuya observed.

“His name is Milo,” Abarai announced.

“Why is the dog-- Milo? What kind of name is Milo? Dogs are supposed to have names like Sakura Bloom Cascade. Mountainside Granite Crest.”

“Are they? I dunno. Ichika picked it. I think it’s after a character in one of her books.”

The dog was much cleaner than it had been the day before. It had clearly been bathed, the tangles teased from its coat.

Byakuya narrowed his eyes. “So it is your dog now.”

“No, sir, course not! Rukia’d be pretty pissed, I think, if I did something like that without consulting her.”

“She is still in the Living World?”

“Yeah, for a few days, yet.”

“Ichika will grow attached to it, if she has not already.”

Abarai regarded him seriously. “Me and her had a talk about how he’s just a visitor and he can only stay for a few days. She understood.”

“She is very pragmatic,” Byakuya agreed. Amazingly so, all things considered. “So tell me again why the dog is back my office?”

“Oh, well, Iba said to bring him by, see if he gets along with Gorou.”

Byakuya wracked his brain. “Is Gorou the Seventh’s adjutant?”

Abarai gave out one of his barking laughs. “That’s a good one, sir, I’ll have to tell Iba that.” He abruptly realized that Byakuya wasn’t joking. “Uh, Gorou is Iba’s dog. He used to be Captain Komamura’s. He lives at the Seventh, the whole squad is real fond of him.”

“Perfect,” Byakuya replied. “I hope it goes wonderfully.”

  - - -

When Byakuya returned from his afternoon theoretical tactics exercises (which is what he wrote on his agenda when he wanted to go play shogi with Captain Hitsugaya), there was a distinct absence of canine in the office.

“The meeting with Lieutenant Iba went well?” Byakuya asked.

“Oh, yeah, those two old boys got on like a house on fire,” Abarai announced.

“Excellent,” Byakuya replied. He had just gotten settled at his desk again, when there was a rap on the office door.

“Third Seat Ohno and one good dog!”

“Come in!” Abarai called cheerfully.

The door slid open, and Milo trotted into the office, followed by an uncharacteristically smiling Third Seat Ohno. The dog sat down neatly in front of Abarai’s desk, and barked exactly once.

“Captain’s in the office, Milo, you gotta go greet him first,” Abarai informed the dog, as though he was talking to a human.

Bizarrely enough, the dog stood up, ambled over to Byakuya’s desk and repeated the procedure. “Er, at ease,” Byakuya informed the creature.

The dog looked back, questioningly, at Renji.

“Good boy,” Renji informed him.

The dog then went over to the corner, took an extremely loud and messy drink from a water bowl that had not been present yesterday, and then flopped down on a pillow that had also not been there yesterday.

“How was he?” Renji addressed the Third Seat.

“Oh, he was great! He loved chasing the ball. Fourth Seat Kuchiki wanted to throw that frisbee thing he has, but I told him, I won fair and square.”

“He just has to work harder tomorrow,” Abarai suggested.

“He can try,” Ohno replied, a competitive sneer creeping onto his face. “Anything you need, sir?”

“Get those mission reports from the unseated guys organized and filed, would you?”

“No problem, sir!”

Ohno saluted smartly and left.

Byakuya stared at this spectacle.

Their Third Seat was a prissy, waspish stickler for rules. He despised messes. He despised deviations from the usual order. Primarily, he despised Abarai.

Byakuya could feel an elongated “whaaaaaaat?” forming in his mouth, but he somehow couldn’t manage to get it out.

However, after their many years of working together, Abarai was quite adept at reading his captain’s unspoken thoughts. “The seated officers just love Milo,” he provided. “I told Ohno and Kuchiki whoever won their spar could give him his afternoon runabout. Both of ‘em went in-all in for it, I was surprised. Wouldn’t’ve pegged Ohno for a dog guy. Learn something new every day, eh?”

“I thought the dog was going to live at the Seventh!” Byakuya finally managed.

“Oh, no, sir, they’ve already got a dog.”

Byakuya squeezed his eyes shut.

- - -

Over the next few days, Milo made a grand tour of the Gotei 13.

He had pleasant visits at both the Third and the Fifth, but neither extended a permanent invitation.

Milo did not care for the Eleventh. “Too excitement much for an ol’ boy like him,” Abarai explained.

A thank you card arrived from the Coordinated Relief Station in appreciation for “cheering up the patients.”

He was promptly banned from the Ninth, something about a fundamental incompatibility between dogs and newspapers.

Captain Yadoumaru claimed to be “a cat person.”

Milo actually did find a new home at the Tenth for all of an hour, before Captain Hitsugaya, who had been in a meeting, promptly delivered the dog back to the Sixth, glaring harshly at Byakuya, as though he had anything to do with it.

Surely, something would pan out sooner or later.

Surely.

- - -

Friday brought Milo again, along with a very shamefaced Lieutenant Abarai.

“What is the excuse today, Lieutenant?” Byakuya intoned.

“Well, Rukia got home last night, sir,” Abarai explained.

“Ah. So you will now actually be seeking a home for Milo.”

“Not… exactly. Um, do you remember when I said I had a good talk with Ichika about settin’ expectations?”

“Relying on the practicality of a seven-year-old did not turn out as you hoped?”

“Ah, Ichika’s not the problem, actually… it’s just that same talk didn’t work so well on Rukia.”

Byakuya glared at his brother-in-law.

“Well, you know how she is about cute stuff! I mean, look at him, sir, he’s such a charming guy! ”

Milo, as was his usual habit, was asleep on his back, limbs splayed in all directions. Most of him had fallen off his pillow. His tongue had also fallen out of his mouth.

“Perhaps he could spend his days over at the Thirteenth, then,” Byakuya suggested dryly.

“Oh, no, sir, Lieutenant Sentarou’s allergic, you see.’

“I see. You do have a house, Lieutenant. I have been there.”

“Well, sure, sir, but now that Ichika’s in school, no one’s there during the day. He’s so social, I don’t think he’d be happy all by his lonesome.”

Social. Of course. A dog who appeared to sleep for upwards of 22 hours per day.

Byakuya folded his hands. “I have been very tolerant, Lieutenant, but the Sixth Division is a place of calm and deportment and…”

In a flail of legs, Milo suddenly rolled over and sprang to his feet. A noise was emanating from deep in his little doggie ribcage.

“What is happening?” Byakuya asked, alarmed. “What is that sound?”

“He’s growlin’,” Abarai replied curiously, brows creased. “You have a bad dream, guy?”

Milo crept over to the office door, lip curled, hackles raised.

“HEY, BYAKUYA-BOU!”

Every muscle in Byakuya’s body seized. He scrabbled for Senbonzakura.

The door was thrown open and that frightful woman, Shihouin Yoruichi, pranced in.

Or at least she started to.

“Guess who’s back in tow-- aiieee!” The Demon Cat danced backward when she noticed the ball of grey and white fur growling at her feet.

“Milo, heel!” Renji commanded, standing up.

“Milo, belay that!” Byakuya ordered, also standing.

“What the--?!” Yoruichi exclaimed. “When’d you get a dog, Renji? I know that thing doesn��t belong to Byakuya.”

“He is a member of the Sixth Division!” Byakuya roared.

Yoruichi tried to take a step forward, and Milo slunk around her, his growl rising in pitch. “I was just stopping by, can’t stay. Too busy, y’know.” She pointed an index finger at Byakuya. “I will find you later. I know where you live.”

“Ah, too bad, I am dining with the Abarais tonight!” Byakuya snapped. “At their house, where Officer Milo spends his evenings!”

“You are?” Renji asked, puzzled.

“Yes, it is the night you make that thing I like, is it not?”

“You don’t like anything I cook,” Renji pointed out.

“I have changed my mind!”

Yoruichi was growing more and more uncomfortable with the dog snarling at her heels. Finally, she leaned down, made an angry hissing noise and dashed out, slamming the door behind her. A moment passed, then the door slid back open and stuffed her head back in. “I’ll get you, Kuchiki! And your little dog, too!”

Milo barked a single bark at her.

Yoruichi shuddered and slammed the door shut again.

Milo very triumphantly trotted back to his pillow, circled once, and settled back down.

“Good boy,” announced Byakuya.

Milo was back again the next day.

When Byakuya entered the office, he and Abarai stood up in unison to greet their captain.

Byakuya strode up to the dog. “You have proven yourself useful,” he announced. “As long as you continue to do so, you may stay.” He knelt down, and affixed a handsome leather collar around Milo’s neck. From it hung a badge. On one side was etched the character for six, on the other, a camellia. “But members of the Sixth Division must be in uniform.”

[lucytara]

1/2 Hey I don't know if you have seen Eruptionfang's video about Bumblebee but I have question to you now that I saw it. I know people don't like him but I thought that video was not hateful and he explained himself well. But looking at the video and comments people are saying B&Y never got the same narrative development as B&S. And in someway I agree. Like B&S spend a lot of time outside of school together and obviously the two volumes as a whole. And I think we can admit Blake had a crush on

2/2Sun for a while. But I think they ignore the manga where we see B&Y relationship in school. In the animation we don’t see them as much interact like that but the manga makes it clear in my opinion that they have a close relationship and spend time together but it seems like a lot of people think contrary, as they have only seen the animation. But I don’t know seeing those comments made me doubt how much I watched it the way I wanted it. Do you think the narrative was there?

fair warning that this ended up turning into uhhhh…..a long post so welcome to rwby: a bumbleby vs black/sun narrative analysis

so i haven’t watched it, and in regards to it being not hateful, i think you first have to look at the intent behind it. first of all, it’s not his place to discuss this topic whatsoever. this story isn’t being written for him. it’s not being written for men. it doesn’t matter what y’all think about it, quite frankly, because it’s not for or about you: it’s about us, people who have never in history seen the kind of representation rwby is giving us with blake and yang. that’s something anyone who wants to “have an honest opinion about bumbleby” should think about. he didn’t. he ignored that, ignored the tons of wlw who love this portrayal and relationship. that tells me really everything i need to know about him as a person. the intent of his video is to bring people around to “his side” of things, his perspective, here’s why bumbleby was done wrong, b/s was done right, etc whatever. the intent behind him creating and posting this video is hateful. let’s be very clear about that.

the problem with people trying to claim that bumbleby came out of nowhere or that black/sun had a ton of now-pointless development is that their claims are almost always viewed through a heteronormative lens. they look at blake and sun on-screen together and they think it’s development. they think blake being visibly annoyed with sun for the entirety of volume 4 is romantic. they think his total lack of understanding her character but pushing her boundaries anyway is romantic. they think blake owes him her own feelings in return for his, just because he feels them. they think that because it’s a narrative that’s been popularized by media for literally…well…ever.

from a wlw perspective, for those of us who ship bumbleby, did not read sun and blake’s relationship as “development” in a romantic direction. i’ve always said that sun was a red herring. he appears - another faunus - at a time blake is desperately looking for someone to understand her. except he can’t! sun had a great life, so it seems! he thinks the white fang are nuts! he has nothing to do with any of the hardships blake has faced throughout her entire life. sun never understands her and he doesn’t, at any point, relate or empathize with her. he moves on very easily with his life after the incident with the white fang and torchwick. he tries to ask blake to the dance. she says the one line that lets us, the audience, know what she’d hoped from sun and wasn’t receiving: “i thought you of all people would understand that.” he doesn’t understand. but an episode or so later, someone does understand blake, and that person is yang.

this is really the Big “oh” moment for me. blake was looking for someone to understand her in sun, but she was looking in the wrong place. yang comes in unravels blake in the span of a single conversation. she understands blake perfectly, understands where she coming from and why, and most importantly, understands how to get her to stop. how to put things in perspective. burning the candle was honestly all the narrative we needed in regards to sun/yang/blake as a starting point. sun isn’t who blake wants him to be and this is where she’s started to realize that. this is where we, the audience, are also supposed to realize that.

sun and blake have then, what, one moment in v3? where he flirst with her in a stadium full of people and she blushes? sure, whatever. i’m not denying that on some level i think blake wanted to be interested in sun. i don’t really buy that she fully was, but i think she wanted to be. however, the last half of the volume, blake’s entire focus is on yang: yang, who she watches attack mercury, and rather than believing her immediately, finds herself shaken and reminded of adam. in this conversation, we’re told a couple of things: one, that yang and adam are parallels. blake is comparing them herself. the implication is that yang is also someone very dear to blake, and blake’s afraid of the same thing happening. but she ultimately believes yang when yang looks her in the eye.

then - a quick telling moment - blake’s eyes narrowing when hearing cinder describe yang attacking an innocent student. she immediately realizes yang was set up, and she was wrong to not believe her. this is important because imo this weighs on blake from the finale onward.  

if we use some critical thinking skills, we can infer that blake and yang have spent quite a lot of time together up until the v3 finale. they’re literally partners, teammates. they share the same dorms. they’re together almost all the time, for - what - like 9 months or so? we can imagine they know each other pretty well. blake picked her to begin with. they’re close; we don’t have to know every single detail, especially considering the format rwby is presented in. 

v3 finale - yang finds weiss, who tells her ruby’s still missing and so is blake. sun? also right there. doesn’t go look for her. yang makes the decision to prioritize blake and goes after her. we all know what happens now - adam takes one look at blake’s face and to yang and knows she’s someone blake loves. yang loses an arm and almost dies trying to protect her, blake almost dies trying to protect her immediately after. blake holds her hand and tells her she’s sorry while sun looks on at their joined hands. 

like, there’s the narrative set-up. all of it. it’s right there. yang/adam are paralleled and yang immediately loses to him. he gives them both scars that link them together forever. they’re never going to be able to take that night back. they’re bound by it. they have the literal. scars. to prove it. and sun plays no role in it. people who ignore this in favor of the very surface-level development bs get are doing extreme disservices to the characters and the show itself. 

i came in at the end of v3. i was elated all throughout volume 4 because blake literally was not interested in him, she wasn’t interested in his advances, and her heart was clearly elsewhere. she spent all of volume 4 upset that sun had followed her. she even has one last-ditch moment on the ship - where sun says “i knew exactly what you were doing” and she perks up for a moment before he hits the final nail in the coffin and completely misinterprets why she ran. like, that’s the end for bs romantically, right there. when sun still proves after all this time and everything that’s happened, he fundamentally doesn’t understand blake. 

they had zero romantic interactions all throughout volumes 4 and 5. what they did have? friendship development. blake and sun essentially started over their entire relationship with blake finally in the right mindset to process it. she didn’t like sun, she never really liked sun, they’re incompatible and now she really sees that. so they work their way to a friendship, which is exactly what myself and most people in the bb fandom saw. blake wasn’t interested. it doesn’t matter how much sun was. both people need to be equally invested or a relationship is nothing. blake wasn’t interested. there is no way to retcon that or get around it. she doesn’t like sun romantically. she makes it explicitly clear, and i don’t respect anyone who chooses to ignore that. heteronormativity in media has taught us forever that what a girl wants/how she feels doesn’t matter as much as what the boy does, that perseverance is key, but that’s a fucked up narrative and i’m happy to see it subverted here.

anyway. during this period of time that blake and yang are apart, they’re constantly on each others’ minds. blake voices it once or twice; yang snaps one time and breaks down about it. we can infer that what hurt yang the most wasn’t losing her arm, it was that blake ran. yang wanted to be there for her. yang carries a photo of her around, so worn in the middle that it bend automatically, used to being grasped on blake’s side of the frame. these are details meant to imply certain things. yang misses blake and thinks about her more than she ever dares to say it aloud. 

all of this builds both to them reuniting and volume 6. weirdly enough (not), a majority of the fandom predicted blake and yang’s dynamic this volume. we predicted exactly how blake would act, how yang would reciprocate. we predicted this accurately because we understand exactly the story crwby is telling and how it plays out. we knew blake and yang spent however long apart thinking about each other. we knew blake felt enormously guilty and sorry and regretted ever running in the first place, and we knew she’d promise yang she’d never do it again. (this was slightly more split, but) plenty of people predicted yang would forgive her instantly, because all yang wanted was to be by her side. we knew this because this story is being told to us and for us. 

sun says it himself: it was never about romance where he and blake are concerned. she’s with who she’s supposed to be with now, and it’s not him. the show told us all of this. 

someone’s inability to view a narrative through a different perspective than their own skewed one does not make it a bad narrative. rwby has done exactly what it’s intended to do with blake & yang, and if all of us - as our fandom is mostly comprised of wlw - could pick up on that perfectly, then the narrative is not the problem. the problem is the homophobic/heteronormative lens with which you are viewing the show through. 

[bigskydreaming]

I just really hate how much of Kyle’s story had to be erased or buried in order to make way for Hal’s return to the spotlight. Like the Hal being Kyle’s Space Dad thing is fun and all, sure, except for how its also this kinda obnoxious way of looping Hal into being part of Kyle’s successes and triumphs as a hero, like....after the fact though? Kyle’s entire thing is in a universe filled with legacies and mentors and sidekicks, he was the one guy who was just COMPLETELY unprepared for any of this, and just had the weight of an entire intergalactic peace-keeping corps’ tragic past and legacy just thrust on him with no warning, and the thing is....HE DIDN’T HAVE TO ACCEPT IT! Even once he understood what it was he was really inheriting, the sheer scope of it and what was expected of him now, to carry on the work that was intended to be shared by THOUSANDS, just...all by himself, with no one to teach him, guide him, share with him, understand what all this was like....

Kyle Rayner’s high concept is that in a franchise that revolves around the idea that “being a GL means you’re never truly alone, you’ll always have thousands of comrades in arms to learn from, lean on, etc”.....he was the one and only character who had to do all that ALONE. Even now, with the Corps restored and back to its full capacity, its obvious in pretty much every story that Kyle has never learned how to fit in with the rest of them, be ONE of them, like here’s this guy who busted his ass for years and years trying to make all of this possible, bring all of this back, make it so he isn’t the last one anymore, the only one....and then it HAPPENS, and he’s still kinda...lost. Because he doesn’t really fit. Because even among this chaotic community of varied experiences in the Corps, he is the ONE guy that NONE of them can ever truly relate to, not even John or Guy, because while they were still around, neither of them were expected to....BE the last Green Lantern, the way he was. Neither of them ever felt the same responsibility to fix what had been broken, that it was down to them, like Ganthet basically put on Kyle.

And like, the thing was....Hal wasn’t there for any of that really. And when he was, most of it was as the BAD GUY that Kyle was fighting, the one who had destroyed everything Kyle was stuck trying to fix. Yeah, ultimately the Parallax retcon made all of that not really his fault and so its not like Kyle blames him for any of that, or should, but its also like....what are you doing, acting like the guy who was literally the face of his enemy for years and years is like....this Space Dad who thank god he’s finally around to give Kyle the mentoring he desperately needed, when like....no dude, Kyle did everything he’s famous for and celebrated for in canon....on his own. Without you, or anyone else. He is who he is because he had one bad-ass mom, Maura Rayner, who raised him right and gave him the tools he needed to succeed...

ESPECIALLY the one that served him best....the ability to recognize when he didn’t have it handled, and ASK FOR HELP.

Which is not a skill Hal could ever teach anyone lol, sorry.

But like, that was one of the greatest things about Kyle at the start of his story....he was wearing one of the most powerful weapons in the universe, the last of its kind at the time, and there was no one who could teach him how to use it the way he was meant to be taught, none of the teachers he was SUPPOSED to have...but rather than just keep trying to bulldoze his way through things and stubbornly insist well he’d figure things out himself then....he was like, okay, I need all the help I can get...and he literally went on a tour around the country, stopping in every major hero’s city to ask them if they could help teach him stuff they felt he should know. Like that was the main reason that for a long time he was called the only Lantern Bruce had ever truly respected....because Kyle had the humility to recognize he was NOT qualified, and he needed to GET qualified, by any means necessary.

And that’s just...so....Kyle, and so fundamental to his character and what makes him so great, but all of that has kinda been handwaved away, not even like retconned in a lot of places because they couldn’t figure out a way to do that that actually made sense....but instead like this sleight of hand thing where they’re like if we dont mention it for long enough and just hype up the Hal as Kyle’s Space Dad mentor person stuff, it’ll eventually be as if Hal really was there guiding and shepherding Kyle all along, even though...lmao, no, that is quite literally incompatible with the majority of Kyle’s overall story and character arc....which is why for as much as the comics talk up Kyle’s role and specialness as the Torchbearer and White Lantern and other titles....they’re extremely vague about delving into details at this point about what any of that even means and what it refers to and he’s mostly shunted off stage so nobody asks too many questions like, hey if this guy is so important and honored by the Corps, why isn’t he involved more in their biggest storylines and like, front and center? 

Its the same problem I was talking about with DC not wanting Dick or the other Batkids to surpass Bruce. DC screwed up massively with their second generation of heroes....Dick and Kyle and Wally and more....because they DID advance the universe’s overall story and timeline, they DID allow the younger heroes to age, and then they DID kill off and do away with a number of the old guard which allowed the original legacies to step up and fill their shoes, AND DO A KICKASS JOB OF IT ACROSS THE BOARD.....

Until, fifteen, twenty years after they started doing that (with Wally), by which point DC’s writers were primarily fanboys who’d grown up idolizing the original heroes like Hal and Barry.....and so they rolled the clock back to allow for their preferred heroes to take center stage again....

Which leaves the younger generation stuck, and with no real place for themselves, which I think is also a big part of the reason their Titans’ reboots haven’t worked. Because they know that these younger heroes are TOO experienced, TOO good to just go back to being actual sidekicks, but they went to all this trouble to bring back all the originals and don’t intend to let them go again any time soon, and so they’re like...well, we can’t have this middle generation fucking things up and making the older heroes look bad, so they kinda just get shuffled around the DC universe and various titles in the hopes that they’ll find somewhere they click, but no idea what to even aim for. 

And so you’ve got Kory with Roy and Jason here and then now she’s in space with Vic and a handful of others that honestly feel like they just pulled names out of a hat, and meanwhile she’s got SOME kind of romantic history with Dick, but good luck trying to pin down where or when that even happened, because that would mean committing to them having been ages that just do not work with the ages they try and claim Dick is now and the amount of time the Titans were supposed to have been retroactively active and lol what even. 

And meanwhile, Titans and their age group remain the first to get picked off and killed in any major event, Titans keeps being the first book to be axed, they tried to speed through an original Titans’ lineup all the way to a team made up of Tim’s age group in a span of thirty issues, and on and on. And its just a mess, and it all traces back to the sheer wtf of DC having spent twenty years writing about their universe growing up and moving to the next stage of things....and then trying to take it back, and its like no, you cant stuff all that back in the bottle, it GREW. It doesn’t FIT in there anymore!

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Watcher as Companion: Eiheune

While I’m here, may as well do one of these for the new girl, too.

If your Watcher, or other Pillars OC, was a recruitable companion instead of the main character, how and where would they be introduced to the main party?

You’re first introduced to Eiheune “Hentzin” Manoi as a minor NPC at the Hall of Revealed Mysteries in Defiance Bay. She’s a cute, fun counterpoint to the seriousness of Grimda and her fellows. Maybe she helps you with an alternate method of liberating The Theories of Pandgram for Nedyn—or maybe she pranks her by having you pass along a book that turns out to be something else entirely.

Fast forward five years, and you’re taking a stroll through the Sacred Stair when hey, look, it’s that giggly aumaua again. She’s probably pissed off at least one of the other congregations by barging into their space and Waeling it up. Probably giving them an argument, too. As far as she’s concerned, Captain Stompy is a fine argument for her “sometimes the world makes no damn sense and we have to find our own answers” philosophy, so when you turn out to be following him (which also means getting far away from the pissed-off Magranites/Gaunites/Berathians who are now looking at her funny), she can’t join you quickly enough. Besides, you said that thing was Eothas? Her Waelites do a lot of important teaching and scientific work back home, but they’ve never been the only game in town. She has friends in the Eothasian congregation. Time to get a closer look at what they see in him.

What would their companion quest involve?

Eiheune is part of the “I only wanted to do research!” squad along with her “sisters” Sikkerneq and possibly Clelia. So, you help her do some research, looking for Waelite texts and going on a pilgrimage to the Hall of the Unseen. What does she find there? Maybe a text that says something that gets to her, maybe a person she couldn’t help, maybe a shrine or dream that doesn’t feel the way she was expecting. Time to talk about what she’s doing and why and whether it’s the best choice.

What traits would affect their approval, positively or negatively?

Benevolent and Clever responses are the sovereign method of gaining her approval. Dourness, bluntness, and excessive gravitas put her off, and please try not to be too mean about the whole Waelite priestess thing. She does important work in between all the shenanigans.

Which other companions would they get along with, and which would they bicker with, in Party Banter?

In no particular order besides “I thought of these ones first”, as per usual:

She likes Edér quite a bit, at first. He’s fun, easygoing, and reminds her of some of her congregants back home, and the values and philosophy that underpin her priesting square up pretty neatly with those of Night Market!Edér, if she learns about the gods’ origins. Later on, once the party starts meeting orlans and he won’t shut the Hel up about his Opinions(tm) about them, she starts to wonder if he has a fetish or something. Good luck convincing her that he doesn’t. She still enjoys spending time with him, but dude is totally an orlan chaser. Anyway, she will absolutely be on hand to try and comfort him in her own Wael-tastic way after his quest. Whether it works, well, that’ll depend on a few things.

Aloth has exactly the sort of personality that makes it the least surprising thing in the world that he was mixed up with a Woedican organization. Eiheune doesn’t love it, but she can see where he’s in need of help. Even destroyer!Aloth is in for some well-meaning lectures.

Eiheune and Xoti make a real effort to be friends and support each other at first. The wheels come off pretty quickly when it turns out that their worldviews are fundamentally opposed—Xoti is 100% certain of everything Gaun wants from her and kith in general, and she wants nothing more than for everyone else to be equally certain of her rightness. Eiheune will not be able to resist rubbing it in when Xoti turns out to be quite wrong.

Maia is in for a lot of curious questioning about Rauatai; the Cuostei are more or less distant relatives of today’s Rauataians, and there’s been occasional intermarriage over the centuries, but Eiheune’s never actually been there.

Tekēhu is cute and fun but a little vapid for her tastes. At first. She comes around when it turns out he just needed more experience of the world to really set the gears turning in his head.

Serafen, over time, ends up becoming one of her best friends in the party, though he’s politely firm about not wanting to hear too much Wael stuff from her. She takes it well.

Pallegina is pretty much everything she dislikes, and it’s almost certainly mutual, but they can set aside their differences long enough to be curious together about the progress being made by animancers and other scientists.

Eiheune is pretty certain that Rekke is an actual gift from Wael—he’s sweet, attractive, up for shenanigans, full of interesting stories, and willing to talk religion without making her feel like she’s banging her head on a wall the way Xoti does. Ixamitl and Seki, if they’re not actually distant relatives, bear enough of a resemblance to each other to make it seem that way and give Eiheune an easier time of picking up a little of it while Rekke learns Aedyran, and in short order the two of them are discussing Wael only knows what in some kind of unholy Sekxamidyran hybrid.

She comes in for a bit of needling from Konstanten, because she’s a tiny baby who is silly and cute and enjoyable to gently poke fun at. She absolutely gives it back to him.

That is some attitude on Fassina. She is absolutely getting pranked the moment her back is turned. Nothing destructive, just a little signal to stop mistaking meanness for a personality.

Ydwin doesn’t get on with her for similar reasons to Pallegina. Eiheune puts a heroic effort into staying interested for the first five minutes of pompous lecturing and then can’t maintain it anymore.

Vatnir clearly needs help. Eiheune tried, she really did. Ugh, Rymrgand worshippers.

Would they be romanceable? Would they end up in a romance with another companion, if both were left unromanced (à la Maia & Xoti)?

So, uh, the whole aro thing. Her “romance” would function most like Serafen’s, if anything. It’s no skin off her nose if you want to call yourself her lover, but the label means nothing to her, and she doesn’t much care. And you sure as Hel don’t own her. Insist on monogamy at your peril.

I wasn’t kidding about the “fucking her way through the party” thing, either—she doesn’t understand “romance” as a separate category, its trappings make her uncomfortable, and as far as she’s concerned, sex is something you do with your friends. And these are nearly all her friends. (And hey, the only two other aumaua being a cis woman and a godlike means no worries about pregnancy!) She’s likely to sleep with (or at least offer to) pretty much all the men except for Vatnir (yes, even destroyer!Aloth in a particularly charitable moment, though grandmaster!Aloth is probably a bridge too far), plus Maia. Which of them are interested enough to take her up on her offer is another matter. And she doesn’t go back to Tekēhu more than once or twice, because their sexual personalities are badly incompatible.

Would anything make them leave the party, or would they be there for the long haul?

Tank her approval and her gentle trolling becomes mean-spirited mockery when she can’t just avoid you, but I think she’d be too invested in following this Eothas thing to the end to actually leave. Prepare to be hit with a quick Arkemyr’s Dazzling Lights and some loud swearing when you part ways after Ukaizo, though.

I’m going to take the liberty of adding a question of my own, since it’s something I’ve thought about: What would her approval conversations look like?

-1: She philosophizes pointedly about how kith deal with being wrong about major things.

-2: “Watcher, we...we need to talk. What in Eora are you doing? What is any of this meant to accomplish? What answer are you looking for?” Piss her off further and, while she won’t leave, she just might refuse to talk to you for the rest of the game.

+1: “Thanks for having me along. It’s been exciting. Eye-opening.” She giggles at her own pun. “Did I ever tell you about my ordination?” The story is rather on the nose at times; she’s blindfolded, stripped of her vestments, handed a “holy relic” that turns out to be a rusty watering can, and left in the middle of a labyrinth, which she has to traverse to get her clothes back before finding her way to the group of priests and acolytes to reveal to them the wisdom contained in the “relic”. True? Probably. You never quite know with Waelites.

+2: On the heels of a chat about your respective views on the whole situation out there, “You’re my friend, right? And with any luck, you will be for a long time. I want you to know that I do not love by halves. If you need something of me, if you want me to share your bed, you need only ask.” Perk up at the mention of bed-sharing to trigger her “romance”, or tell her “thanks but no thanks” to turn her down. Or berate her, if you’re a monster. And maybe her love comes with a gift, like Serafen’s—a scrap of handmade ribbon that she’s put a blessing on, wearable in the head or neck or maybe waist slot. Maybe as a trinket, if we really want to have fun. Of course she used her tablet-weaving skills to create an eye pattern, what do you take her for?