#it's just my personal view on the whole thing

[amielbjacobs]

I have to admit I was immediately suspicious of these results, just on the face of them. I consider myself a proficient reader despite my patchy educational background (GED, no college education, moved schools a lot, homeschooled, etc), and this is, as the OP mentioned, exactly my cohort - 28-32, not "kids these days." While I've noticed that other people my age typically don't have the same vocabulary as I do, it beggars belief to say that the average college-educated person in my age group can barely read at all. People my age are chronic texters and tweeters, how is this possible if they're so confused by unfamiliar text that they hallucinate dinosaurs into it?

With that prejudice out of the way, I went into the study with two questions: 1) Would I be considered a problematic reader by this study? and 2) Is the average person as bad at reading as this study presents?

I think it's fair to say that the study has demonstrated some kind of difficulty reading in the study sample, but I also think that the methods of the study have exaggerated the severity of this difficulty. A couple things that stuck out to me:

The sample chosen. I would say that the language used here is pretty abstract, even by the standards of Dickens. It's also a sample from the Victorian era, which causes both linguistic and historical problems (i.e., it's easier for a reader to parse the bits about "Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets" if you understand that they used gas lighting in the Victorian era). The use of this sample as the only sample means that the researchers can't distinguish between difficulty reading texts from the Victorian era and difficulty reading modern texts. I agree that it's reasonable to ask English majors to be able to understand a passage from this book, but from a scientific perspective, it robs the researchers of the ability to make fine distinctions.

The time limit. I timed myself reading 3 paragraphs of this text, and came up to about 3 minutes. That means that likely it would take me 7 minutes to read the sample paragraphs. (I couldn't time myself reading the sample paragraphs because I already read them while I was reading the study, so I moved on to the next few paragraphs.) I am a much faster reader than a lot of people; I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that the average person might take 14 minutes or more to read this text in ideal conditions, which isn't too far off from the total 20 minutes allotted for the interview. With this in mind, I think that 20 minutes is too brief of a time limit to get a good view of people's reading abilities. When you introduce time pressure, people will read in a different way than they would ordinarily. I know the study says that they didn't have to get through the full seven paragraphs, but they presumably knew that they only had 20 minuted allotted, and they could see the seven paragraphs presented to them. Essentially, introducing time pressure robs the researchers of the ability to distinguish between bad readers, and very slow readers. It also increases the risk of the subjects becoming very nervous - more on this in point #4.

The "talk-aloud" method. This method strikes me as very different from the way in which one normally reads a text. Several times, the researchers describe the subjects treating each sentence separately and being unable to carry context forward from one sentence to the next. But is this weakness inherent to the subjects, or is it created by the methodology of the study? Surely a method in which you stop after each sentence to discuss and interpret encourages the reader to take each sentence separately rather than as a whole. It also forces the subjects to use multiple different types of skills at once: first, they have to understand the passage, then they have to put that understanding into words comprehensible to other people, and lastly they have to actually speak those words. In my opinion, it would have been better to give the subjects a choice of methods (recording or writing) and then let them create a translation of the passage in their own time.

The Researcher Is Present. This is, imo, the biggest problem with the study. The facilitators are present all the way through the interview, leaning over the subjects, prompting them for more info and even, at one point, laughing at the subject's misinterpretation of the text. I'm not saying this to judge the facilitator who started laughing; what the subject said is funny. But people are social animals and having to explain yourself to another person who might laugh at you is inevitably going to affect what you say and how you feel. Being a subject in this study sounds like hell! It's an incredibly awkward setting, and you can see in every excerpt how nervous all the subjects are. Are the subjects always this bad at reading, or only when they're nervous? We don't know, and we can't know, because of the methodology.

The Researcher is Present, pt 2. With any study that has any kind of self-reported element, the researchers run the risk of being told what the subject thinks the researchers want to hear - that's unavoidable. But by putting the researchers physically in the room, one on one, with the subjects, you crank that element to 11. The researchers repeatedly criticize the subjects for not stopping and looking up more words or concepts that confused them - but they don't consider the possibility that the presence of the facilitators is what's stopping this. In an ordinary social setting, it's socially unacceptable to just stop and google every word that you can't understand, and I would argue that the setting of these interviews caused the subjects to feel this social pressure. The researchers also take the subjects' assertion that they could read the rest of Dread House with no difficulty at face value, and wonder at the source of this false confidence. But they're not considering how humiliating it would be, as a college english major, to admit "no, I don't think I could make it through this book" to a person who's just watched you struggle through seven paragraphs (and who might have laughed in your face about it!). Of course 100% of the subjects claimed they could read it with no problems!

In conclusion, I think the researchers are probably right that these subjects exhibit some degree of difficulty reading, which isn't great for English majors, but I think their methodology has significantly exaggerated it. I hypothesize that some of the more sensational interviews (the women who thought whiskers belonged to a cat, the woman who thought there was a megalosaurus roaming the streets of 19th century London) might be explained by subjects absolutely panicking and losing the ability to think rationally. I would also be interested to know if the facilitator's expectations about each subject shaped the interviews; I couldn't help but notice that all of the problematic and competent readers were described with she/her pronouns, while the only "proficient" reader cited had he/him pronouns.

i appreciated this study: "They Can't Read Very Well: A Study of the Reading Comprehension Skills Of English Majors At Two Midwestern Universities"

essentially, a pair of professors set out to test their intuitive sense that students at the college level were struggling with complex text. they recruited 85 students, a mix of english majors and english education majors - so, theoretically, people focusing on literature, and people preparing to teach adolescents how to read literature - and had them read-while-summarizing the first seven paragraphs of dickens's bleak house (or as much as they made it through in the 20 minute session). they provided dictionaries and also said students could use their phones to look up whatever they wanted, including any unfamiliar words or references. they found that the majority of the students - 58%, or 49 out of the 85 students - functionally could not understand dickens at all, and only 5% - a mere 4 out of the 85 students - proved themselves proficient readers (leaving the remaining 38%, or 32 students, as what the study authors deemed "competent" students, most of whom could understand about half the literal meaning - pretty low bar for competence - although a few of whom, they note, did much better than the rest in this group if not quite well enough to be considered proficient).

what i really appreciated about this study was its qualitative descriptions of the challenges and reading behaviors of what the authors call "problematic readers" (that bottom 58%), which resonated strongly with my own experiences of students who struggle with reading. here's their blunt big picture overview of these 49 students:

The majority of these subjects could understand very little of Bleak House and did not have effective reading tactics. All had so much trouble comprehending concrete detail in consecutive clauses and phrases that they could not link the meaning of one sentence to the next. Although it was clear that these subjects did try to use various tactics while they read the passage, they were not able to use those tactics successfully. For example, 43 percent of the problematic readers tried to look up words they did not understand, but only five percent were able to look up the meaning of a word and place it back correctly into a sentence. The subjects frequently looked up a word they did not know, realized that they did not understand the sentence the word had come from, and skipped translating the sentence altogether.

the idea that they had so many trouble with every small piece of a text that they could not connect ideas on a sentence by sentence basis is very familiar to me from teaching and tutoring, as was the habit of thought seen in the example of the student who gloms on to the word "whiskers" in a sea of confusion and guesses incorrectly that a cat is present - struggling readers, in my experience, seem to use familiar nouns as stepping stones in a flood of overwhelm, hopping as best they can from one seemingly familiar image to the next. so was this observation, building off the example of a student who misses the fact that dickens is being figurative when he imagines a megalodon stalking the streets of london:

She first guesses that the dinosaur is just “bones” and then is stuck stating that the bones are “waddling, um, all up the hill” because she can see that Dickens has the dinosaur moving. Because she cannot logically tie the ideas together, she just leaves her interpretation as is and goes on to the next sentence. Like this subject, most of the problematic readers were not concerned if their literal translations of Bleak House were not coherent, so obvious logical errors never seemed to affect them. In fact, none of the readers in this category ever questioned their own interpretations of figures of speech, no matter how irrational the results. Worse, their inability to understand figurative language was constant, even though most of the subjects had spent at least two years in literature classes that discussed figures of speech. Some could correctly identify a figure of speech, and even explain its use in a sentence, but correct responses were inconsistent and haphazard. None of the problematic readers showed any evidence that they could read recursively or fix previous errors in comprehension. They would stick to their reading tactics even if they were unhappy with the results.

i have seen this repeatedly, too - actually i was particularly taken with how similar this is to the behavior of struggling readers at much younger ages - and would summarize the hypothesis i have forged over time as: struggling readers do not expect what they read to make sense. my hypothesis for why this is the case is that their reading deficits were not attended to or remediated adequately early enough, and so, in their formative years - the early to mid elementary grades - they spent a lot of time "reading" things that did not make sense to them - in fact they spent much more time doing this than they ever did reading things that did make sense to them - and so they did not internalize a meaningful subjective sense of what it feels like to actually read things.

like, i've said this before, but the year i taught third grade i had multiple students who told me they loved reading and then when i asked them about a book they were reading revealed that they had absolutely no idea what was going on - on a really basic literal level like "didn't know who said which lines of dialogue" and "couldn't identify which things or characters given pronouns referred to" - and were as best as i could tell sort of constructing their own story along the way using these little bits of things they thought they understood. that's what "reading" was, in their heads. and they were, in the curriculum/model that we used at the private school where i taught, receiving basically no support to clarify that that was not what reading was, nor any instruction that would actually help them with what they needed to do to improve (understand sentences) - and i realized over the course of that year that the master's program that had certified me in teaching elementary school had provided me with very little understanding of how to help these kids (with perhaps the sole exception of the class i took on communications disorders, not because these kids had communications disorders but because that was the only class where we ever talked, even briefly, about things like sentence structures that students may need instruction in and practice with to comprehend independently). when it comes to the literal, basic understanding of a text, the model of reading pedagogy i was taught has about 6 million little "tools" that all boil down to telling kids who functionally can't read to try harder to read. this is not productive, in my experience and opinion, for kids whose maximum effort persistently yields confusion. but things are so dysfunctional all the way up and down the ladder that you can be a senior in college majoring in english without anyone but a pair of professors with a strong work ethic noticing that you can't actually read.

couple other notes:

obviously it's a small study but i'm not sure i see a reason to believe these are particularly outlierish results (ACT scores - an imperfect metric but not a meritless one IMO for reading specifically, where the task mostly really is to read a set of texts written for the educated layperson and answer factual questions about them - were a little bit above the national average)

the study was published last year, but the research was conducted january to april 2015. so there's no pandemic influence, no AI issue - these are millennials who now would span roughly ages 28-32 (i guess it's possible one of the four first-year students was one of the very first members of gen z lol). if you're in your late 20s or early 30s, we are talking about people your age, and whatever the culprit is here, it was happening when you were in school.

i think some people might want to blame this on NCLB but i find this unconvincing for a variety of reasons. first of all, NCLB did not pass because everyone in 2001 agreed that education was super hunky-dory; in fact, the sold a story podcast outlines how an explicit goal of NCLB was to train teachers in systematic phonics instruction, because that was not the norm when NCLB was passed, and an unfortunate outcome was that phonics became politicized in ed world. second, anyone who understands anything about reading should need about ten minutes max to spend some time on standardized test prep and recognize that if your goal is truly to maximize scores... then the vast majority of your instructional time should be spent on improving actual reading skills because you actually can't meaningfully game these tests by "practicing main idea questions" (timothy shanahan addresses this briefly near the top of this post). so i find it very difficult to believe that any school that pivoted to multiple choice drill time in an attempt to boost reading scores was teaching reading effectively pre-NCLB, because no set of competent literacy professionals would think that would work even for the goal of raising test scores. third, NCLB mandated yearly testing in grades 3-8 but only one test year in high school; kansas set its reading and math test year in high school as tenth grade. so theoretically these kids all had two years of sweet sweet freedom from NCLB in which their teachers could have done whatever the fuck they wanted to teach these kids to actually read. the fact that they didn't suggests perhaps there were other problems afoot. fourth, and maybe most saliently for this particular study, the sample text was the first seven paragraphs of a novel - in other words, the exact kind of short incomplete text that NCLB allegedly demanded excessive time spent on. i'm not really sure what universe it makes sense in that students who can't read the first seven paragraphs of a novel would have become much better reader if everything else had been the same but they had been making completely wack associations based on nonsense guesses for all 300 pages instead. (if you read the study it's really clear that for problematic readers, things go off the rails immediately, in a way that a good program targeted at teaching mastery of text of 500 words or less would have done something about.)

all but 3 of the students reported A's and B's in their english classes and, again, 69% of them are juniors and seniors, so like... i mean idk kudos to these professors for being like "hold up can these kids actually read?" but clearly something is wack at the college level too [in 2015] if you can make your way through nearly an entire english major without being able to read the first seven paragraphs of a dickens novel. (once again i really do encourage you to look at the qualitative samples in the study, lest you think i am being uncharitable by summarizing understandable misunderstandings or areas of confusion that may resolve themselves with further exposure to the text as "can't read.") not to mention the fact that most students could not what they had learned in previous or current english classes and when asked to name british and american authors and/or works of the nineteenth century, roughly half the sample at each college could name at most one.

the authors of the study are struck by the fact that students who cannot parse the first 3 sentences of bleak house feel very confident about their ability to read the entire novel, and discover that this seeming disconnect is resolved by the fact that these students seem to conceptualize "reading" as "skimming and then reading sparknotes." i think it's really tempting to Kids These Days this phenomenon (although again these are people who in some cases have now been in the workforce for a decade) and categorize it as laziness or a lack of effort, but i think that there is, as i described above, a real and sincere confusion over what "reading" is in which this makes a certain logical sense because it's not like they have some store of actual reading experiences to compare it to. i also think it's pretty obvious looking at just how wildly severed from actual textual comprehension their readings are that these are not - or at least not entirely - students who could just work harder and master the entirety of bleak house all on their own. like i don't think you get from "charles dickens is describing a bunch of dinosaur bones actually walking the streets of london" to comfortably reading nineteenth century literature by just trying harder. i really just don't (and i say that acknowledging i personally have had students who like... were good readers if i was forcing them to work at it constantly... but i have also had students, including ones getting ready to enter college, who were clearly giving me everything they had and what they had was at the present moment insufficient). i think that speaks to a missing skillset that they don't know are missing, because they don't have any other experience of "reading" to compare it to.

just wanna highlight again that although they don't give the breakdown some of these students are not just english majors but english education majors a.k.a. the high school english teachers of tomorrow. some of them may be teaching high school english right now, in case anyone wishes to consider whether "maybe some high school english teachers can't read the first seven paragraphs of bleak house?" should be kept in mind when we discuss present-day educational ills.

[gay-dorito-dust]

Hello dear author, hope your day is going well. This is my first time requesting, so please bear with me. I was wondering if you can perhaps write about bob with a reader who likes to paint/draw. It can be like general headcanons or an actual fic where the reader likes to draw him because she likes him but is scared of rejection so she resorts to admiring from afar, until he comes across an opened sketchbook and he can’t help but glance at it and freezes when he sees himself and a whole lot of fluffy cuteness ensues. Sorry if it’s too specific, you can do whatever you want with this. I love your writing and hope you have a nice rest of your day :D

Art was a talent you had honed out when your mind got too loud, you drew or painted things or people that brought you joy or you felt a companionship with, which was why your walls were littlered in skteches of cute puppies and kittens along with drawings of your fellow teammates: John on his phone, Yelena with Fanny and her guinea pig Houdini, Ava phasing through a wall, Alexei and his 'Avengerz' outfit in responce to Sam's copyright claim.

but the one person you seemingly skteched the most was Bob Reynolds, the man you seemingly felt the need to capture every single movement as though you'll never see him read a book, wash the dishes or just do domestic tasks within the Watchtower. He was at peace when doing all these things, his brow wasn't furrowed, his bottom lip wasn't bitten to death, his hands weren't raw from his wringing of them.

you even drew his messy mop of hair as it falls infront of his eyes, his small smiles as he watched the rest of your team squable over who's turn it was for movie night. You even drew his interactions with the stray kittens and alleyway dogs that he often feed and kept hydrated whenever they were at the doorstep of the Watchtower. His heart was kind and knew no end of it either as no matter what Bob was presented with, he was gentle and kind with it.

He was so beautiful that you feared that you could only ever view such a beauty like him from afar, he was a sacred treasure that should be seen but never touched. You couldn't help yourself when you fell for him, he was light and warmth within invinsible but very human skin, he was like a gentle breeze that ruffled your clothes and the tops of trees, the birdsong that woke you up every morning with his sweet voice greeting you as you walked into the kitchen only to see him there with two mugs already prepared.

He had remembered how you took your drink, how you like your sandwhitches cut and which bowl you prefered to eat ceral out of. It seemed as though his mind was a massive memory bank of small things that he had taken notice about everyone and kept it within himself to honour those small thing he noticed about everyone on the team.

so you dedicated an entire sketchbook to him, every single last page was filled to the brim with him falling asleep in his book nook chair, him sat at the very end of the sofa during movie nights, hands on his lap as though he didn't want to intrude on anyone else's personal space amongst many more. Bob was and is your muse who you could never stop drawing and or painting as you felt it would be a dishonour to him for he was the man who should have sketches and stories made about him.

at least you thought so but you were someone that saw through the eyes of an artist and Bob oh so happened to be the apple of your eye. It was as though your heart was telling you to immortalise this man however you could and make him look the most beautiful man in existance, which you thought was impossible inicially as in your eyes Bob was already the most beautiful man you've ever met.

if anything Bob ruined all men for you for they could never compare to a man who only wanted to be more, to be useful in whatever way he could. They could never compare to a man who's smile warmed you immeditely, who's voice brought a sense of calm to your mind and who's presence was enough to reassure you that everything was okay.

The man was made to have art of him drawn even he might not think so, you couldn't confess your feelings to him in fear of putting him in an situation he wasn't ready for, and instead channel your feelings for Bob by drawing him as the man you saw daily; a gentle man who had immense strength that could easily crush anything with ease, yet he chose to be soft with everyone and everything. He would carfeully dog ear his books, put away the plates, cups and bowls with such cautiousness as though he feared the sound of ceraminc would disturb everyone in the tower.

you felt as though you could easily describe Bob within a few sentences or less, yet also feel as though that those very same sentences wouldn't do much justice for the man he actually was, he was everything you wish you could have and everything you knew you might never have as your feelings might not be reciprocated and you didn't want to disctract him when he was getting himself back on track.

so you kept silence and kept your heart drawn out on the pages of your sketchbook when your feelings became stronger, finding the blonde that lingered at the ends of Bob's hair just as beautiful as the rest of him as they glowed like gold in the light. Even when he fiddles with it between his fingers it looked like he was toying with strands of gold, looking at them with indifference and a sence of regret. You wish you could tell him how you saw him, but felt as though you were overstepping a line somehow, so once again you remained silent.

You thought you had concealed your feelings well enough with your drawings, yet when you went out of the room to grab something to eat and drink after realising how long you've went without. Yet what you didn't know was that Bob had come to your room to do just that, having noticed your absense for a good majority of the day and having grown concerned when he remembered just how little you had to eat since this morning.

you both missed each other by at least a millisecond, like two shooting stars with totally different locations to be, barely getting to see one another by anything other then a short lived glance.

By the time Bob got to your room it was clear to him that he had missed you somewhere, but something told him to still go into your room as he gazed at the sketches, drawings and paintings that littered your walls, giving your room life and an insight to your creativity as he admired each one of your works, wishing he could have as much talent as you did.

there were sketches of john, Ava, Alexei, Yelena doing their own thing but what caught Bob's attention the most was the sketchbook that lied upon your bed, open to an unfinshed sketch of...him? Bob didn't mean to pry into your personal belongings but he didn't think he was worth being drawn, being immortalised by your hands and the closer he got to the book, the feeling of becoming breathless worsened within his chest as he got to glimpse at what you saw when you looked at him.

there were sketches of him reading in his book nook, caring for the strays that came to the tower, just Bob doing Bob things but the way you made him seem ehtreal, like there was no possible way that he could exist in a life so shitty. you made him look at peace, at calm and so normal, you made him with the intention of drawing him as just Bob, not sentry nor void but just bob and only bob.

Bob wondered how long you've been drawing him for to know about the whole feeding the strays thing, but the further he looked into the book, the anwser became clearer, you've always known as there were drawings for when after the void inncident months ago, his hair blonde in some parts but mainly his natural brown nonetheless. you made a man like him look like both a god and yet have the manerisms of a simple man, you made him look as though he held all the light in existance within his very being.

You made him look nothing like who he saw himself as, nothing like the person he despised when looking in the mirror every day, you made him look like someone who was proud and happy to get to be alive and to be the embodiment of something he never really thought of himself as. It made Bob wonder if this is truly how you saw him, seeing as he always second guessed himself and lacking confidence in some aspects of life, so seeing someone like you view him the way you did through an artists standpoint as though you couldn’t stop drawing him no matter what he did, as if you would rather waste every single bit of paper drawing him in his baggy sweater and lounge pants a million times over then ever leave it empty.

You’d rather have a filled sketchbook of him then an empty and devoid of life one, always feeling the need to keep reminding yourself that he existed and he was seeing joy the perfect muse for you, seeing as there were more sketches of him then the rest of the team combined and that was enough to have his cheeks flushed and his heart rate a little elevated. Bob might not see himself the way you do just yet but by god he hopes he does because the way you see him makes him feel beautiful, seen and heard in a multitude of ways.

He had read how people wished they were the muse to an artist as it meant being immortalised by them, to be seen in a light that they never could, and Bob didn’t know he needed the same thing until he saw your drawings of him taking care of Fanny and Houdini when Yelena was off on a mission, putting away dishes, bowls and cutlery, or even when he had found himself fighting sleep with the way you’ve captured him teetering between sleep and staying awake. Bob now understood why being seeing as a muse, seen by an artist was something so heavily desired because now he got to be the muse, he got to have what others always wanted and he genuinely didn’t want you to stop even if his emote body felt like it was on fire but in the best way, the only way he ever wanted.

He felt wanted, he felt needed and most of all he felt loved by every single sketch you’ve drew of him.

He alters thought you didn’t like him like that, at least not that he could tell seeing as you were seemingly always drawing whenever he was near, now he knew that wasn’t true. For even if he was just simply standing there you’d draw him with the light shining his body in a way that he would’ve never taken notice to before, you’d draw him with a halo and angel wings for all he cared and still he’d felt like his heart was somehow getting even faster then before as his hands eagerly flipped to the next sketch of him as the dark thoughts within his head dissipated.

If you saw him like this then you must like him, there’s no other explanation to it, but Bob didn’t want to pressure you into confessing nor did he want to admit that he went through your things without permission, yet he couldn’t help the way the sketchbook called to him into having a nosy, into having a look until he was practically absorbing everything the sketchbook had to offer. Bob had a little book of his own that he wrote things in, whether it’d be his thoughts or how his day went or his general views on the likes of Yelena -whom he saw as a surrogate sister- Ava, John and Alexei. Yet when it came to you Bob could write paragraph after paragraph of words and still feel like it wasn’t enough to describe you and how you made him feel.

So looking at your sketches made him realise there was a common ground between the two of you, both indulgence in the art of expression through different mediums, both having a good chunk of a book dedicated to the other as if you’ll die if you stopped, destined to only ever keep the other on your mind and no body else. Bob didn’t think his writing was all that good, most of it was how he felt during that time so there was scribbles and rushed writing that looked unintelligible, almost as if he was on a time limit but in reality he was unable to properly write down or formulate coherent sentences whenever you were the subject. He couldn’t help it and from the looks of your sketchbook you couldn’t help it either.

So when Bob heard that you were heading back to your room, he was quick to put the sketchbook where he found it and leave as quickly as he could in hopes of preventing you from getting skeptical that someone had rummaged through your room, looking through your things like a lovesick puppy wanting to know if his crush felt the same or not. He would find the strength to tell you one day but it was clear that wasn’t today.

When you got back to your room, you knew something was amiss for your sketchbook looked about as though it was hastily put back in place, like whoever or whatever was in here didn’t want you to know about their escapades.

And not only that but one of your sketches of Bob was taken, the sketch where you had drew him when the light from the massive glass windows hit his back, making him take your breath away upon gazing at him never less looking at him fully.

You knew you would soon find out who did it, because you didn’t know what you’d do if you were to find out that it might’ve been bob, even though you highly didn’t think he’d ever do such a thing as he was respectful and didn’t cross any boundaries much as he didn’t want anyone to cross his. You’ll get your answer soon enough, even if it means interrogating the group to find out who had taken your sketch.

Meanwhile Bob in his room was staring at the aforementioned sketch, holding it to his chest as a weight lifted from his chest, glad to know that the person who he liked liked him just as much back, but he knew you’d knew soon enough and come looking but he wasn’t exactly going to hide. No. He wasn’t going to as he was going to wait until you figured it out that it was indeed him who took the sketch and finally get what he’s been wanting to say off of his chest once and for all.

[sacredsorceress]

Cass 🤍

I'm so glad your requests are open!!!! So I was thinking for a request, could be head canons or not. What would it be like for Bob shy and awkward guy vs reader who's very extroverted and open. I think there could be a fun dynamic there.

🥹🤍

☆.°*Bob Dating an Extrovert HCs*°.☆

pairing: bob reynolds x extrovert!reader a/n: OO YAY!! as an extroverted person with an introverted bf this is so my cup of tea. i’ll do headcanons now but I def want to explore this in a full fic soon <3 word count: 1k warnings: none I think? fluff!!

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・bob masterlist・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

Bob felt some days that there must have been some magnetic pull or magic spell that you had on people that just made them gravitate towards you in a ways no one ever did towards him.

On many an outing, Bob had stood awkwardly at your side as you gave an old man directions, laughed along to a joke that some lady at the crosswalk said, or cheerfully shared where you got your outfit from after a compliment from a stranger.

And he wasn't confused, per say. Bob understood why people gravitated towards you- you had friendly demeanor, kind eyes and an infectious smile that you passed on freely to everyone you saw. People had to try not to like you.

What he couldn't understand is how you so confidently engaged with so many people. If he had been in your shoes, he would have fumbled over his sentences and somehow manage to disgruntle the other party. As kind as Bob was, as you assured him many a time, he just didn't draw people the way you did.

Really, it was just another thing that he loved about you: that your view of the world, experiences, and people were so different from his.

That being said, if you had a lot of friends he would be so nervous to meet them.

Bob would almost try to get out of it- rehearsing his faux illness to save him the embarrassment of making a fool out of himself in front of the people who mattered most to you-

but in the end, he would go. Bob may have been scared, but you were his girlfriend. His fear of disappointing you and seeing the sad "oh... okay" on your face as he lied to you was greater than his fear of a night out.

When he did meet them, you'd have to hold his hand to ground him.

But obviously, even with his meekness, it went swimmingly, with your friends even commending him on being able to balance you out.

Opposites attract after all.

Some things won't change for Bob. As I've mentioned before, Bob has an addictive personality and would stay far away from a night out drinking. Although being with you had brought him out of his shell more, there were simply some things that he wouldn't do.

If you had a night out without him, Bob would be waiting up for you in bed reading. The second you walked through the door, he'd mark his place in the book, look up at you, and wait for you to repeat the whole night for him verbatim.

"And then- oh my god, Bob, you wouldn't believe it-"

And he would listen just enough to be able to answer any questions you might quiz him on, but mostly he'd just be admiring how pretty you look talking about your friends in the warm glow of the lamplight.

Though he may be sober now, Bob is no stranger being drunk or having a hangover. If you walked in the door stumbling after a night out, he'd guide you into the bathroom, tie back your hair and get you ready for bed: with medication and water waiting on the nightstand for the morning.

If you were in the habit of having friends stay over, Bob would make up the pull out couch, no questions asked, stock the fridge and leave snacks out for your guests.

"Bob, I love you." Your friend would groan flopping onto the freshly washed sheets. "Can you marry her already?"

And it was moments like that where his cheeks burned bright red and he excused himself to the other room to avoid stumbling over his words and embarrassing himself further.

Whether you intended to or not, you would often share stories with others from your relationship with Bob. In your case, they often slipped out when telling an unrelated story that you had gone off track on, or you simply didn't think it was anything worth keeping secret.

You were an open book and your love for Bob was nothing to be ashamed about.

Bob wouldn't even know until he'd be walking into the kitchen of the Avengers Tower one day and everyone would just look at him.

"Bob, why did you not tell us that you keep picture of team in your wallet?" Alexei asked.

"Forget that," John interrupted, mouth full of cereal. "Why do you hide it behind your condoms?"

And if it were not for the Sentry serum pumping through his veins, Bob was sure he would've died of mortification on the spot.

But Bob couldn't even find it in himself to be upset with you because you not being able to stop yourself from talking about him just made his heart swell.

So many people loved you in this life, and you still chose to love him. He really wasn't sure he would ever understand it, but he would try his best to prove you right.

You would have to go with him to his doctors appointments if something was wrong because Bob would be too embarrassed to discuss his body with another person like that.

If the Void ever did make an appearance, he would hate you. He thrives off of Bob's loneliness, but being with you made that impossible. You effortlessly merged him into your daily life and relationships, making enough time for Bob to be alone with his thoughts long enough to spiral, extremely rare.

Your friends would become his friends and vice versa.

On the rare occasion your social battery died or someone had hurt your feelings, rendering you silent, it was as if Bob's backup system had booted up. He'd glance at you worriedly, reaching for your hand and take over the remainder of the conversation: either insisting to your friends that it was time to head home or defending your honor against some asshole.

Even if he stumbled over his words doing it, watching him take care of you like that did make you swoon.

I feel like I could go on about this all day, but Bob would be perfect with an extroverted partner. Opposites attract and your conflicting personalities would bring balance to one another- you getting Bob more out of his shell and confident in his own skin, while he kept you grounded, safe, and loved in the privacy of your own little bubble.

☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・inbox・°☆.。.:*・°☆.。.:*・°☆

[astars-things]

Birthday posts

Summary- SMAU where Jack, Lando, Quinn, Luke and Half of the grid post y/n for her birthday and a bonus Insta edit of what y/n posts for Jack

*all photos are from pinterest I do not own them

Family posts↓

liked by @.Landonorris @.Y/n_hughes and others

@.QuinnHughes Happy 24th birthday to these two crazy idiots. As your older brother, I've witnessed your wild nights, chaotic ideas and questionable fashion choices over the years, and documented most along the way. Watching you grow up side by side has been one of the greatest joys of my life. Love you both  

tagged @.Jackhughes @.Y/n_hughes 

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@.Y/n_hughes who tf is cutting onions near me rn  

@.Jackhughes not crying just... sweating from my eyes bro

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liked by @.Jackhughes @.Y/n_hughes and others

@.lhughes_06 happy birthday to the two people who made growing up equally fun and mildly traumatic. thanks for being my built-in best friends, role models (sometimes), and constant sources of chaos. love you both, even when you roast me in group chats

tagged @.Jackhughes @.Y/n_hughes

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@.Jackhughes its called charater development and you're welcome 

@.Y/n_hughes Love you baby bro. Also role models sometimes?? please. i’m clearly the best example you’ve ever had 😌

→ @.lhughes_06 who are you trying to lie to rn?!

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liked by @.Landonorris @.trevorzegras and others

@.Jackhughes Y/n, You are many things in life and I'm so lucky to call you my little sister, wombmate, my best friend and my partner in crime. From the moment we entered the world (a whole 2 minutes apart), you’ve been right by my side through everything. You have supported my hockey dream since we were little and I couldn't be more thankful for you. No matter how far apart we are from each other our bond grows everyday. Love you forever and always lil sis ❤️

tagged @.Y/n_hughes

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@.Y/n_hughes Jacky...I'll forever support my partner in crime ❤️ but why you got me sobbing on my bedroom floor

→@.Landonorris I can confirm she is on the floor sobbing

@.trevorzegras broo this made me cry 

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Grid posts ↓

Liked by @.User @.Y/n_hughes and others

@.danielricciardo Happy birthday to this absolute legend who matches my australian energy perfectly. Thank you for capturing my good angels whenever we shot for Mclaren social media very much appreciated. You make every paddock day 10x more fun. Don’t ever change, Y/n 🍾

tagged @.Y/n_hughes

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@.Y/n_hughes Danny ric...Love you so much pookie and hey, you’re welcome for the content

→@.danielricciardo love you too 

@.Landonorris when did half of these photos even happen? 

→@.Y/n_hughes next Question 

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liked by @.Y/n_hughes @.charles_leclerc and others

@.carlossainz55 Happy birthday pequeña estrella (Little star)  Thank you for being a number one Carlando supporter even when we didn't ask for it. When I moved on from McLaren you still showed me support and cheered me on and I couldn't ask for a better friend and also thank you for putting up with Lando, Your paycheck for emotional labor is in the mail 

tagged @.Y/n_hughes

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@.Y/n_hughes Love you always Carlitooo 

@.landonorris wait she’s getting paid for putting up with me??? → @.carlossainz55 mate it’s back pay at this point

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Landos post↓

liked by @.oscarpiastri @.User and others

@.Landonorris To my dearest Y/n, Happy Birthday my love. You love me on my best and worst days, You cheer the loudest for me even when I want to give up, You help keep me humble when my ego gets to big, You are the calm to my chaos and You make my smile on days I don't want to smile. Words don't do it justice on how much I love you but I’ll spend forever trying to show you. You are my heart, my peace, and my favorite person in the world.  

tagged @.Y/n_hughes

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@.y/n_hughes currently sobbing. you’re everything, lando. always have been, always will be 💛 → @.landonorris and you’re stuck with me forever. sorry not sorry 🫶

@.jackhughes this is cute and all but if either of you makes out in front of me today i’m walking into traffic → @.lhughes_06 he’s not kidding.

@.oscarpiastri glad someone keeps his ego in check tbh → @.landonorris betrayal from inside the team?? wow.

@.danielricciardo ok but who actually wrote this for you?? → @.landonorris rude. I’m soft sometimes.

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Y/ns post↓

Liked by @.Jackhughes @.trevorzegras and Others

@.Y/n_hughes Jack, You are my older brother by two minutes but you never make me forget that. No matter what you're doing whether its sleeping, getting ready for a game or out partying you make sure to always make time for me to have a five minute phone call just to check in on each other.  And those five minutes mean more to me than you know. And those five minutes mean more to me than you know. You're my wombmate, partner in crime and I would give you my kidney if you asked for it but I'll never let you borrow my phone charger and I think that sums up our relationship perfectly. Love you forever, even when you steal my fries. 

tagged @.Jackhughes 

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@.jackhughes this made me emotional. love you always, wombmate ❤️ → @.y/n_hughes love you too. fries? no. charger? never. My kidney? fine.

@.trevorzegras watching the hughes twins bicker is better than 90% of TV shows → @.landonorris petition for a reality show. just them. no filter.

→ @.y/n_hughes Yeah no...not a good idea

@.quinnhughes i blinked once and y’all went from fighting over who got the front seat to this 💀 → @.jackhughes i still deserve the front seat → @.y/n_hughes he’s delusional, your honor

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please reblog, like and comment 🫶

[thisislito]

I wonder if this is affected by peoples hate of ‘cringe’ and being cringe. Because like, anything can be cringe.

I gave blood yesterday. I’ve never done that before and I am terrified as fuck of needles and blood. But I wanted to do it because I have high hemoglobin and because it’s a small way I, a disabled adult, can help people.

It was cringe when they asked if I could really do it, it was cringe when I had to explain I could do it, just don’t let me see the needle or the blood bag.

Guess what? I did it. And that blood will be used to help someone else.

Cause it wasn’t about me. Their concern wasn’t about. Sometimes I do something because it is better for others.

That’s why I voted, even after the people misgendered me and used my middle name (I’ve legally changed mine to reflect myself) as an excuse because I didn’t pass well enough. That was cringe as fuck, and humiliating.

And I still voted because I knew that Kamala being president was a whole lot better than Trump. Kamala atleast was for human rights, and had a whole plan for increasing rural health systems, decreasing poor tax, and overall boosting the economy by helping the average person. (And also taxing the mega-rich, which would have helped a lot)

Because I actually read the damn policies!!!!

And I knew the Project 2025 would decrease tax on the rich, increase it for the poor and (vanishing) middle class, and decrease healthcare for people.

And I knew when trump said “he didn’t support that, he supported plan 45/47”

That it was the same thing!!!

Because I read it!!! The only thing removed was a national abortion ban.

“Lesser evil is still evil”

Is such a Calvinistic view on life. With that logic, everyone, ever, is irredeemably evil and nihilistism is right, nothing matters.

And you know what? No. I choose to believe in beauty and life and joy. I choose to know I can bring joy to another, vote in a way that matters, and make calls that make change.

I choose to believe in a better world and that I get a say in that world.

The smile on a friends face? The relief of someone whose rights are protected?

I’ll fight for that, for the rest of my life.

op turned off reblogs but i wanted this on my blog so i screenshotted it

[doberbutts]

this whole debate regarding transmasculinity is so weird for me because it's like, i see the argument that trans men benefit from transmisogyny, and i just... don't think that's true? like, a lot of these discussions seem to take phrases from discussions about white privelege and replace "white" with "tme", which just doesn't really make sense. perhaps i'm looking at things wrong, but i'm unsure how trans men would benefit at all from transmisogyny. are there transmisogynistic trans guys who throw trans women under the bus? yes, just like there are binary trans people that throw non-binary and gnc trans people under the bus. every anti-trans law and ruling hurts all trans people. the uk supreme court ruling has been used as an example of trans men not being effected by anti-trans policy, but that ruling did not say trans men were allowed into women's spaces. it said trans men aren't allowed in men's or women's spaces. that doesn't mean that trans men are worse off from that ruling than trans women, but especially with how much "tme privilege" is compared to white privilege, i feel like people really play up the differences between trans men and trans women, when in reality i think we have a lot more in common regarding our life experiences than we do differences.

So this is sort of a multi-faceted thing here.

I don't necessarily have a problem with the understanding that if all else was exactly the same about me except I was a trans woman (or even a cis woman!) instead of a trans man, that my life would probably be harder and I would face challenges that I simply do not face in my day to day life. I think that is objectively true. Just as I think it is objectively true that I could live the exact life I currently live right now as a woman- I would just have to date slightly different people. I've even offered this opinion unprompted in conversation about gender multiple times.

I just think that this is a hypothetical, and that the chances of me running into someone with literally the exact same life as me with a single gender difference is fairly low, because there are a near infinite amount of combinations of various intersections and identities and a significantly smaller number of people who live in my geographic area. There are some who get close- like my Canadian friend- but she also has a number of differences which do dramatically impact the way she lives her life vs the way I live mine.

Which at that point makes the "who is more oppressed" point moot- because the other person's life may differ so significantly from mine and their point of view may consider something worse than my point of view. For instance, the trans woman who mentored me in college felt that being murdered is worse than being raped. I have the opposite opinion, that being raped is worse than being murdered. Unsurprisingly, the violence that affects our respective demographics is directly reflected in our feared "worst outcomes". It's a matter of perspective, and there isn't one right answer to two horrific acts of violence regularly enacted upon the transgender community as a whole.

She had the opinion that we both had the right to use the word transmisogyny to discuss the differences and similarities of how we were treated from "both sides" of the gender equation. To this day I still think her framework made more sense than a significant amount of what I see online. But people have called me an MRA for *checks notes* listening to the trans woman who taught me most of my basic queer politics.

I don't think that what trans men vs trans women experience as a demographic are that different. I think what differences do exist are largely the same hate coming from the same place, wearing a different face depending on who it's directed towards and what assumption that person has made about their victim.

And I think a lot of people are caught up on a "finished product" as the mental pictures of their theory and not the in-progress or still-closeted portions of their own communities. Sure, a guy like me who passes for cis in 99% of situations nets a lot of situational male privilege. But does the teenage trans guy with a Disney Princess name who can't breathe a word to any of his friends and desperately wants to kill himself while his parents deny him access to gender-affirming care and force him to wear push up bras and short skirts and heels and make up? Because that was me too, and I'd love to know what male privilege I experienced as I was pinned to the ground while they put makeup on me, while I was flashed by strangers on the bus, while I was sexually assaulted by a classmate.

There is this disconnect as though anything we've experienced prior to coming out no longer exists, and as though simply coming out fixes the entire situation and the male privilege fairy comes down from the clouds to deliver our he/him pronouns herself. Sorry, but I was on the receiving end of a whole lot of misogyny and misogynoir until suddenly I wasn't because I looked too much like a man for people to continue to treat me like a woman. I've known I'm transgender since I was 13. That day didn't hit until I was 30.

Do trans men have the ability to lean into transmisogyny in order to benefit from it? Sure. But so does Caitlyn Jenner on a fairly regular basis, so I don't think you have to necessarily not be a trans woman in order to do so. Kanye West has benefited quite highly from his own antiblackness, despite being modern white supremacy dancing monkey. Cis women on the Supreme Court voted against abortion rights. Musk is an immigrant and Trump is a felon and they both are gleefully enacting policies to hurt immigrants and felons. Being *able* to wield oppressive structures to hurt others you see as below you does not require you to be in a different demographic than those people. It just requires you to have a slightly different experience as a result of a different intersection.

[ghouljams]

Idk honestly I could probably write a really in depth analysis on the prevalence of the blue/brown eyed Ghost debate, and what it means in terms of fandom politics especially when coupled with whether Ghost is a natural blond or a brunet, but I doubt anyone wants to hear about the political implications of people pushing most popular character in the series as aryan...

well, i for one would absolutely love to hear about it, but to be fair my degree is in media studies so fork found in kitchen

but tbh is it surprising that this kind of discourse (along with the whole Gaz “not being interesting enough” bs) is a prevalent discussion in a military propaganda game fandom? probably not lol

i also agree with your take that his eyes are brown as part of his character development and that it feeds into the complexity of the dynamics between them

anyway, don’t feel pressured to talk more about it if you don’t feel like it, just wanted to let you know that at least one person would read all of it lol

Much love!!

- Morph

Ghoul thoughts under the cut because I love media analysis and rambling

You hit the nail on the head by bringing up the Gaz "not being interesting" bullshit in relation to this entire thing because I absolutely see the crux of the brown vs blue eyed Ghost debate being a debate over which eye color is "better" which has inherently racist roots.

And as an immediate disclaimer: I am not saying that headcanoning Ghost with blue eyes makes you racist, I am not saying that headcanoning Ghost as blond makes you racist. I am simply pointing out that the way we view certain traits has been and will be filtered through a lens which requires an examination of our own values/beliefs.

It is so intensely interesting to me that in a fandom with a history of racial exclusion, for a media property that upholds whiteness as the pinnacle of virtue, that upholds western ideals and values as the height of moral purity, that places the good guys in a position where they can do NO WRONG despite having a higher torture rate than the bad guys, that a faceless character would be arbitrarily assigned blue eyes and blond hair despite textual/in game evidence to the contrary (yes there is evidence).

Now maybe I am just sensitive to certain things because I paid attention in school and know what a dog whistle sounds like, maybe that's all this is. However, within a fandom that seems to cater so hard to white women and has racist bullshit popping up every other week, I think... maybe we should examine why we want Ghost to have blue eyes.

I find that with faceless characters headcanons always exist within the hopes of making them more attractive. The idea that they would be ugly under the mask is antithetical to the wish fulfilment of fandom, so it makes sense that people would come up with a face for them. But then why are so many faceless characters made into skinny white blonds? Surely people would want some diversity- oh no, wait...

So we make Ghost blond. Alright, I mean he was a brunet in the comics and in the one scene where we see him take his mask off he's got dark hair, but I guess there were too many people with dark hair on the 141 already, so we gotta mix in a blond. But then why the blue eyes? He has blue eyes in the '09 comic, but in every cutscene we see in the '22 remake his eyes are brown. There's already two members of the 141 with blue eyes, so we don't need another one for diversity. So then why give Ghost blue eyes? If you want him to be closer to the '09 version why make him blond as well?

It's because people want to make him attractive, and in the dominant racial zeitgeist blue eyes are attractive. Which... I mean do I need to ask why? It's because they're a white european trait and people still hold white features as the attractive ones. Same with the blond hair. That's why WW2 Germany designated Blond hair and Blue eyes as the "true German" traits and created a whole class for them "aryan."

So what are the political implications of creating an aryan character out of the most popular character in the series (one who has minimal voice lines and minimal canon backstory in the reboot) within a fandom that regularly disregards/ignores the main black character? It's the continued upholding of whiteness and a specific kind of whiteness as more valuable than others. I'm not even going to say more valuable than blackness, I would say more valuable than other white traits. Why are blue eyes more attractive than brown eyes? Because they're more "white." Why is blond hair more attractive than brown? Because it's more "white." Why is a blond haired blue eyed Ghost such a popular headcanon despite evidence to the contrary? Because he's more white that way.

Now I like blond haired Ghost. I think it's an interesting addition to the color pallet of the team, and I like that it makes him look more like a ghost to be so washed out. But I think fandom has a habit of following what becomes popular within head canon spaces and making it fandom canon, and so many of us don't examine why a headcanon might pop up. Where did Ghost having blond hair come from? When did we all decide that was what we were going with? Why is it even a debate whether or not he has blue or brown eyes, and why does it matter?

If I said right now that Ghost 100% in canon of the '22 game has brown hair and brown eyes, would people get mad at me? And why? Why would it matter if he had brown hair and brown eyes? Does that make him less attractive? Why? Why does it matter? Why do you want him to have blond hair and blue eyes? Why do you care? What is the difference between blue and brown that makes it so important? For God's sake look at the societal conditioning that you've been put through! Why does it "make more sense" for him to have blue eyes if he's blond? Why?

Every single idea we have of what is and isn't attractive has been designed for us by the society we live in. Consider what ideals are being upheld when deciding that the "hot" character is blond and blue eyed while also discarding the black character. Being anti-racist and dismantling your own racial biases is a long and constant process, but it is so vitally important. And once we start examining those biases all sorts of shit starts popping up.

And before someone comes in and tells me it isn't that deep: maybe you should look at why you need it to not be that deep, does it make you uncomfortable to think that you might be feeding into these biases without realizing? And who does it benefit to have it not be "that deep" is there perhaps a group of people that would want you to not examine your preference for blue eyes and blond hair? Some sort of brotherhood perhaps...

[ceoandslutler]

kuro antis who love grelle either know fiction does not affect reality or they believe the people they consider immoral deserve abuse

let me elaborate...

one thing i will never understand is how many grelle fans (even madam red fans) in the kuro fandom are brutal antis / jokingly "sebastian haters" / "s3baci3l DNI or i will kill you" like it's so bizarre to me...

we watch sebastian get molested by madam red and constantly sexually harassed by grelle but it's fiction so like it doesn't matter... but they're antis. so why does it not matter to them? like i support women's rights and wrongs but come on

it's the whole "yana is amending her trans character since she's poorly written" and yet it's not like she's been completely retconned. she's still a "problematic" (loosely- same way antis use it) character.

it implies 2 things:

one, hypocrisy and how the 'holier than thou' disgusting proshitters dni rhetoric is actually bullshit because in the end, your pfps/fav character is a character who sexually assaults others

two, surely you understand that fiction ≠ reality because the sexual harassment sebastian receives from grelle isn't real and therefore it's okay to like grelle as a character because grelle is not a real person who perpetrates sexual harassment.

but those who say fiction = reality and still claim grelle as their fav are the most bizarre in my opinion. because that implies something. her actions are justified because they're against sebastian. surely the words baron kelvin said to o!ciel are clearly disturbing and uncomfortable. he's not a pretty female character like grelle but i would reckon if a female character behaved like he did, the kuro antis would hate them, just like many of them hate the viscount. but her and madam red's sexual advances towards sebastian are somehow okay, somehow comedic, while the sex jokes in the green witch arc between loli sieglinde & shota ciel is somehow far worse, despite also being painted as comedic (and also coming from a place of misunderstanding not genuine malicious desire)

because mentally they have convinced themselves that if it's a "bad" or "trash" character getting abused then it's okay. and if these people think fiction = reality, what does this say about their irl views? do they know any "sebastian"s in real life? people who they consider worthy of being sexually harassed? people whose boundaries are okay to cross because they're "bad", "immoral", "subhuman"?

i just think it's a bit uncomfortable to think these people claim to hate "predators" (because 'fiction affects reality') but the way they consume kuro is "omg love grelle, she's my absolutely fav ❤️❤️" as if she isn't a 'problematic' character... unless they truly think she isn't and her actions are justified if it was irl, since they think fiction is real. now that's where it gets scary.

this isn't to say i hate grelle or madam red or any of the characters or that yana was wrong for writing sexual harassment but genuinely... how can you say "fiction affects reality" and in the same breath have your fav be a serial sexual harasser ?? she's a legendary character but like antis have co-opted her into a cinnamon roll morally good girl as if she's not a badass unhinged morally gray woman

uhh don't go interact with any kuro fandom antis over this, this is just an opinion of mine and it's kinda been in the back of my brain for a while because these people are NOT consistent w their views at all

[joyfulhottubfuntik]

Here's more of me rambling about how Ford's often characterized in the fandom for those who are interested in such things.

A big thing that I've noticed about how a lot of people perceive him, is they think of him as somewhat of an emotionless and rational genius, who, for a lot of his life, doesn't appreciate human connections and thus hurts all of the people who get close to him. Then he reunites with his family and comes around, because of course he does, he's a character from a disney kids' show.

And I get why that is. After all, he does talk a lot about being held back by his family, and he's also a loner who went 10 years without reaching out to his poor struggling twin brother and only did so to ask for help.

And, I mean, a cold-minded scientist who initially doesn't care about other people but learns how to is a fun character concept, I have to admit. It's not what Ford's like though.

I'd say that that's how Ford sees himself, who he wants to be. But he fails at it miserably.

If you ask me, all of Ford's words and actions that make some fans form such assumptions about him, actually go to show how much he cares and has always cared. Because, if anything, the sole reason for his "oh, I'm the smartest coolest person ever and Stan was just holding me back" was that he was trying to hide how hurt he was.

Not getting into his dream college was not the most deviating thing to happen to him the night of the science fair incident. In fact, he did accept the possibility of getting rejected, quite calmly at that. The thing that really hurt was that (the way it appeared) Stan did it to him, selfishly went behind his back, didn't care about Ford and his dreams. And what is a teenager who has just lost his best and only friend like this supposed to do? Of course he tried to find a bright side to this, of course he goes "well, I didn't need him anyway" and then pushes himself further and further to get the most out of the situation, to prove everyone wrong.

And Ford's friendship with mcgucket was in a way him looking for that other person, longing for his brother and the dynamic they had. But, as someone who's already had his best friend betray him once, he starts to panic the moment he notices (what he thinks are) warning signs. And that's not mentioning the way his abuser is there the whole time, trying to manipulate him into feeling suspicious.

And, as for that abuser, it is no coincidence that Bill uses Ford's childhood nickname for him. Even after years of anger and emotional pain, it was still something that Ford viewes in a positive light, at least subconsciously.

And okay, I'm not usually as serious about ppl mischaracterizing my favorite characters, just because I don't tend to care that much. But for Ford it's different, because the fandom doesn't just get a few things wrong about him, they make him into pretty much an opposite to his canon self. Because I feel that's what portraying him as cold and uncaring does: it rids him of the very core of his character, the thing that dictates most of his actions.

[ultimateinsomniac]

seen a couple posts talking about the ending of the drv3 chapter 5 trial so here's my personal take:

shuichi and kaito didn't "ruin" kokichi's plan, because it never would have worked in the first place. monokuma had too much control over the whole situation. i think monokuma threatening to kill everyone and kaito stepping out of the exisal was the only way that trial could have ended, regardless of what shuichi did.

it's partially because of kaito's nature and partially tsumugi's as the mastermind. we know tsumugi will do ANYTHING to keep the game going, including breaking the rules, so if there was an unsolvable murder i guarantee she would bend the truth to make it solvable. she's not going down that easy.

kaito didn't completely understand kokichi's plan- he was only doing it as a favor from one dying kid to another. the second it looked like his friends would get killed because of it, he jumped ship. kaito cares too much about others, and not enough about himself, and he would never have risked his friends being executed.

if kokichi's plan DID work, and they voted kokichi as the blackened, i don't think THIS monokuma would have let it slide. it would still be an incorrect vote, and tsumugi clearly doesn't care about the rules the way junko did. she'd kill all of them and have kaito "graduate." i don't think kaito would let that happen, and i don't think he even had enough faith in the plan to GET that far, especially if monokuma started pushing him to reveal himself the way he does in canon. he didn't care about "tricking the mastermind" the way kokichi definitely did- he just cared about making sure everyone made it out alive.

that isn't to say that kokichi DIDN'T care about everyone else (clearly he very much did), moreso that he cared a lot about fucking with the game itself. he hated the game, and he hated the audience, and i think, crucially, he hated the killing. his view on it was different than kaito's, and while they both wanted to "end" the game, that meant different things for each of them.

kaito is headstrong and easy to anger, and extremely loyal. kaito made the conscious decision to murder kokichi, and he did it to save maki. there was, of course, the element of wanting to "end" the game, but i really don't think that was his main goal. it was a killing game, and he chose to kill, even if it was for someone else. kokichi gave kaito a reason to kill him, but kaito still chose to commit murder. i think the guilt of that was eating at his pride, and that's partially why he showed himself at the end.

kokichi and kaito are both flawed people, and they made bad decisions. kokichi's crazy ass plan was a shot in the dark, and it was desperate, and both of them were dying. shuichi did the best he could with what kokichi gave him, and i don't think enough people give him credit for that. he even tries to backtrack when he realized kokichi's actual goal!!!! the plan was just so flawed from the beginning, because kokichi still had no idea who the mastermind was, and he didn't trust anyone enough to ask them for help (you could argue he DID trust them with the plan after his death, in his own convoluted way, but it's behind so many layers of distrust that it was doomed to fail.)

i think we all too readily believed the idea that, if it worked, this plan would end the killing game and everyone would live happily ever after. MAYBE in a junko-run killing game, like ch6 of trigger happy havoc, but not with tsumugi. if they voted kokichi, i think monokuma would have smoked kaito out and then killed everyone. it wouldn't have been a checkmate.

[caughtafishie]

blackbeard 2.0, "your feelings for stede fuckin bonnet", and izzy hands

hey first meta post so here we go :) ive been thinking on this a bit and i find it interesting how blackbeard 2.0 (01x10-02x02 ed) comes about, and how it falls on izzy more than anything else.

we see ed right after stede leaves, wearing stede's clothes, crying, and generally coping with his boyfriend leaving unexpectedly. i mean the way he was dealing with it was pretty par for the course imo. not only do we see him in this sad-but-mostly-calm state, we see him actually trying to personally connect with the rest of the crew during this time as well. singing with them, telling them he'd prefer them call him by his actual name, bringing up the idea of a talent show. we see that his initial reaction isn't really volatile at all. like i said, he honestly seemed relatively calm at first considering what had just happened to him. this is ed's reaction. and it doesn't seem all that unhealthy to me.

but then, we get to the scene. yknow, the "namby-pamby in a silk gown" scene. this is the first time we really see ed's attitude change from being just generally (rightfully) upset to actually angry. we see him visually change by the end of the scene, starting out pretty chipper cleaning stuff up, but then ending up completely building his walls back up by the time izzy is done berating him.

at this point, ed reverts to blackbeard 2.0. notably not a direct result of stede leaving.

which brings me to 02x01, "the vibe is poisoned because of your feelings for stede fuckin bonnet."

by this point ed is.. well obviously not doing well at all and is taking it out on the crew, but mainly izzy. this is where i find the conversation gets really muddled with which way people view the abuse and retaliation within ed and izzy's relationship. people tend to say that during this time ed was abusive toward izzy, izzy's abuser, but i think all blackbeard 2.0 shows us is that its the other way around, and always has been.

ed is a sensitive guy who got caught in a whirlwind of a career after a pretty treacherous childhood. yes he is a pirate, but first he is human. and that seems to be something that izzy is deadset on taking away from him.

at this point in the story, izzy doesn't view ed as human. he views ed as blackbeard. a myth. a legend. someone who is supposed to fit into his view of blackbeard. not a human. not a "namby-pamby in a silk gown pining for his boyfriend." blackbeard is strong and manly and masculine. blackbeard can handle anything. blackbeard is an ideal. blackbeard doesn't really exist. at least, izzy's version of blackbeard.

so the second izzy saw that humanity, he did his best to strip him of it. that whole scene with izzy is basically telling ed hey, you're not allowed to cope with your feelings in your own way. you're not allowed to have feelings. or else.

imagine how this felt for ed to hear in such a vulnerable and emotional spot. you just have to suck it up and deal with it? "be a man?" from what we see that isn't how ed deals with things. he actually feels his feelings and lets them out in pretty healthy coping mechanisms (crying, writing music etc). being told that you just have to shove everything down and "put your mean face on or else" is more likely what set ed off to be blackbeard 2.0.

this is my biggest gripe with "your feelings for stede fuckin bonnet". if it was just his feelings for stede, we would've just seen blackbeard 2.0 pop out immediately after ed's return to the ship without him. he essentially would've just been this unstable ex girlfriend trope if that was his genuine first reaction to stede leaving. no, that is his reaction, ON TOP of stede leaving, to being told that he can't be upset about it and deal with it in his own way. so what does he do? he crashes out. understandably imo. because what other choice is he really given?

even as blackbeard 2.0, we see ed crying in private. a lot. like i said, he's quite sensitive and bottling things away probably isn't very much of an option for him. so he cries alone where he probably feels safest to. he's effectively trapped, a caged animal expected to perform a show for his "first mate", constantly. not only has he lost his safe space with stede, but the one other person he considers family is refusing to show compassion or even acknowedge his humanity. "edward better watch his fucking step."

so izzy saying that the ship is toxic due to ed's feelings? i'd argue blackbeard 2.0 and all the agony that came along with it falls completely on izzy. imagine if ed got to just go on with his own grieving process and find connections with people along the way. i don't see how blackbeard 2.0 would've come about had ed been able to just deal with things in his own way. thats why i have such a problem with this wording placing blame on ed. they were gonna have a talent show for christs sake. all up until izzy took it upon himself to dehumanize and break ed down till he was nothing. nothing but "blackbeard."

so i think it's real rich coming from izzy, "your feelings for stede fuckin bonnet," cuz i'd say it's his feelings about fuckin blackbeard that caused all this.

[snail-scholar]

Yapping about Andy and Leyley below

(this is very stream of consciousness and unorganized, read at your own risk)

ashley's concepts of love and sex are so different from andrew's (and just in general) it's no wonder they have trouble making their relationship work

but while i interpret this as "she just loves differently and has her own ways of experiencing sexual attraction", andrew seems to interpret this as "ashley's views of love and sex are fundamentally childish", which is NOT a good combo with "parentified sibling syndrome"

ashley has agency, and she should be able to use it to explore and experience love and sex in order to figure things out for herself. but andrew can't recognize that, for all his life he has been attached to her to clean up after her messes - never allowing her to experience the growing pains that come with the consequences of your actions. as far as he understands it, HE is her "agency". he thinks of himself as an adult while ashley is an eternal child.

his whole motivation is to leave behind andy and leyley and grow up. be "normal" adults as andrew and ashley. but he has no idea how to go on about the getting leyley to grow up thing.

unintentionally or not, andrew stunts ashley's growth. he knows how to be a lot of things, her friend, her older brother, her parent. but being her equal is something he's yet to figure out - so used to seeing himself as below her, thinking ashley doesn't respect him, that it doesn't occur to him that he has to see ashley as an equal too. in andrew's mind, he respects ashley plenty... but it's really the same amount of respect a grown person is expected to give a kid. enough to acknowledge them, not enough to see them as an equal.

ashley won't grow up just because you told her to. that's not how it works.

andrew is the hand on ashley's head whenever she wants something. he coddles her, scolds her, protects her - that's all he knows. that's what she wants, right? i can give leyley what she wants (never grow up) AND reach my goal of growing up together, surely <- thoughts conjured by the utterly deranged

newsflash andy, it's a lot easier to fuck your sister when you think of her as the grown ass woman she is. and she'd probably have a more """adequate""" view on relationships if she got the respect she needs in order to feel validated as a person deserving of love

TL;DR: it's genuinelly impressive how many problems these fools could avoid by communicating properly

[jessiso]

"Conflict of Interest"

A Criminal Minds fanfic | Spencer Reid x Fem! Reader | Part II

You, a sharp-tongued defense attorney clash with Spencer Reid over a high-profile case—but the real conflict starts when tension turns personal.

cw: moral ambiguity, power dynamic, romantic and professional conflict, implied romantic tension

w/c 2,578

(CLICK HERE FOR PART I)

...

The bell over the café door chimed softly as you stepped inside, escaping the mid-morning chaos of the courthouse.

You barely noticed the warmth of the place or the hum of quiet conversation—your mind was still tangled in legal strategy and cross-examination notes.

You just needed caffeine. A moment to breathe.

The line was short, mercifully.

As you waited, you reached into your briefcase, fishing out a worn legal pad—your shorthand scribbles still damp from the drizzle outside.

“You always order a flat white with an extra shot?”

You didn’t need to look up.

That voice had a cadence you could already recognize in a crowd.

Precise.

Thoughtful.

Just slightly amused.

You glanced up anyway.

Spencer Reid stood a few feet away, coffee in hand, curls slightly damp from the rain, a dark gray scarf looped messily around his neck.

He wasn’t in his usual suit jacket—just a button-down rolled at the sleeves and a tie that looked like it had lost a battle with a coat rack.

You lifted an eyebrow. “I didn’t know the FBI kept tabs on coffee orders.”

“I don’t,” he said, taking a sip from his cup.

“But I’ve seen you order the same thing three days in a row. And I notice patterns.”

“Of course you do,” you murmured, not bothering to hide your smirk.

There was a beat of silence as the barista called out the next name.

You stepped forward, paid, and moved to the side, expecting him to leave.

He didn’t.

Instead, he shifted a little closer, eyes flicking to your notepad.

“Cross-examining a witness?”

You turned the pad slightly away from view. “Something like that.”

“I always wondered how defense attorneys build their strategy. You have to poke holes in airtight cases, right?”

“Not always,” you said, accepting your coffee from the counter.

“Sometimes we just have to show that the case isn’t airtight. Reasonable doubt, Dr. Reid. That’s the name of the game.”

He gave a thoughtful nod. “And is there reasonable doubt in this one?”

You tilted your head. “Are you asking as a profiler or as someone who keeps showing up where I am?”

Reid didn’t flinch, but his mouth quirked like he was trying not to smile.

“Coincidence. I swear.”

You gave him a dry look. “You don’t seem like the kind of guy who believes in coincidences.”

“I don’t,” he said, and then added, softer, “But I’m not complaining either.”

That earned a pause. A real one.

Because beneath his quiet tone was something else—something warm, unspoken, maybe even a little vulnerable.

And you weren’t sure if it was the long hours or the emotional toll of the trial, but for a moment, you didn’t want to fight.

You motioned subtly to the corner table near the window. “You sitting?”

He blinked in surprise. “Are you inviting me?”

“I’m saying if you’re going to interrogate me every time I get coffee, you might as well buy me a scone.”

That made him laugh. Really laugh. The kind that crinkled his eyes and softened his whole face.

He followed you to the table.

You slid into the chair with practiced ease, placing your briefcase beside you.

Spencer sat across from you, notebook already half out of his coat pocket, though he tucked it away again—clearly debating whether this counted as business or not.

You sipped your coffee. “So. Is this the part where you ask me what my childhood trauma is? Try to unpack why I chose to defend accused criminals instead of prosecute them?”

He shook his head. “I’m not profiling you.”

“Liar,” you said, not unkindly.

“I’m curious,” he corrected. “There’s a difference.”

“And what about you, Dr. Reid?” you asked, chin resting lightly on your hand. “Why the FBI? Why profiling? Did you wake up one day and decide you wanted to stare into the void for a living?”

He tapped the side of his cup. “I wanted to understand why people hurt each other. And maybe help stop it from happening.”

For a moment, his tone was distant—like he was looking through the window but seeing something much farther away than the courthouse across the street.

You studied him. “That’s a heavy burden to carry.”

“It’s lighter when someone believes they can make a difference.”

You leaned back in your seat, more affected than you wanted to admit. The intellectual banter was one thing—but this? This honesty? That was dangerous.

So you pivoted. “Is that your way of telling me you think I’m defending the wrong man?”

Spencer hesitated. “I think you’re doing your job. And I think you’re very good at it.”

You watched him carefully. “But?”

“But I don’t think your client’s being honest with you. And I think you already know that.”

There it was.

The tightrope.

You exhaled slowly, fingers wrapped around your paper cup. “I don’t need you to protect me from bad decisions.”

“I’m not trying to,” he said quietly. “I just think you deserve the whole truth.”

For a long second, you said nothing.

Then, softly: “Truth is a luxury in court. We work with facts. Evidence. Holes in stories. But truth?” You shook your head. “Truth gets buried under motive and headlines and crossfire.”

Spencer nodded. “So you keep your armor up.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

He smiled faintly. “I think I already do.”

You looked at him, really looked. And maybe it was the soft lighting of the café or the way the world felt a little quieter here, but suddenly, the space between you didn’t feel so adversarial.

It just felt close.

Too close.

You stood, gathering your things.

“This doesn’t happen again,” you said, not quite meeting his eyes. “Coffee. Conversations like this. It muddies the water.”

He rose, too. “I don’t think the water was ever clear.”

You stared at him, surprised by the quiet gravity in his voice.

Then, softer: “It’s not personal, Spencer. It can’t be.”

He nodded once. “I know.”

But as you turned to leave, you felt it again—that tension pulling between you like static before a storm.

And deep down, you knew neither of you was walking away clean.

Not from this case.

Not from each other.

The door swung open with a low creak as you stepped back into the rain-glossed sidewalk, caffeine in hand and conscience smoldering.

You didn’t make it two steps before a sharp voice cut through the fog of your thoughts.

“Well, well. Look who’s fraternizing with the Bureau.”

You turned, shoulders stiffening instinctively at the sound of her voice.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Valerie Knox stood at the edge of the café entrance, trench coat cinched tight, her gaze cool and calculating beneath the rim of her umbrella.

A wry smile ghosted her lips, the kind that never quite reached her eyes.

You matched her expression with one of your own—neutral, polite, with just the right amount of professional distance. “Morning, Valerie.”

“Morning,” she echoed, too pleasantly. Her eyes flicked past you just in time to catch Spencer Reid pushing through the door behind you, scarf still slightly askew, his expression unreadable.

Valerie's brow arched. “Interesting place for a sidebar.”

You didn’t look at Spencer. You didn’t have to. You could feel the heat of the moment still clinging to your skin like a second coat. Instead, you straightened your shoulders and met Valerie’s stare head-on.

“I wasn’t aware the prosecution had jurisdiction over my caffeine intake.”

“You’re right,” she said, voice cool. “But I am curious why my expert witness is grabbing coffee with opposing counsel. Mid-trial. During recess.”

Spencer, to his credit, didn’t flinch. But he also didn’t speak. Smart man.

You offered a smooth shrug, sipping from your cup. “The café was public last time I checked. I don’t interrogate everyone I share a line with.”

“Really?” Valerie tilted her head. “Because from where I stood, that looked a lot like a private conversation.”

You stepped a little closer, your voice dropping just enough to signal warning. “Careful, Counselor. You start accusing people of impropriety without evidence, and you’ll end up violating your own ethics code.”

Valerie smiled tightly. “I’m just pointing out the optics.”

“And I’m pointing out that optics aren’t facts,” you replied, calm and lethal. “You want to file a motion about my coffee break, be my guest. But I’d suggest spending that time shoring up your case instead. Because right now? You’ve got a handful of inconsistent witness statements, and a whole lot of circumstantial narrative. You don’t need to be worrying about who I’m talking to. You need to be worrying about what your star witness forgot to tell you.”

That landed. A flicker of doubt moved behind her eyes.

But she covered it well.

“I hope you’re not pressuring him,” she said quietly. “Or trying to get around discovery rules.”

You gave her a look that bordered on insulted. “Spencer Reid isn’t exactly the type to be pressured, Valerie. And I don’t break the law. Even when I bend it.”

You turned, stepping off the curb toward the crosswalk as the light changed, not bothering to look back. But you heard Spencer’s footsteps behind you, steady as ever. And you knew she was watching.

When you reached the corner, you paused just enough to let the tension settle between you both like mist.

“You didn’t have to follow me out,” you murmured, still not meeting his eyes.

“I know,” he said. “But I didn’t like the way she was looking at you.”

That stopped you. Just for a breath.

Then you shook your head, jaw tight. “That’s not your job.”

“No,” he said gently. “But maybe I wish it was.”

Your throat tightened, and for once, you had no clever reply.

Only the whisper of traffic and the echo of things you shouldn’t want.

The crosswalk light blinked to red. The moment passed.

“I’ll see you in court, Dr. Reid.”

You didn’t wait for his response.

But as you walked away, you could feel Valerie’s eyes on your back and Spencer’s gaze lingering far longer than it should.

Whatever you’d just stepped into—it wasn’t just coffee anymore.

It was a collision course. And the fallout was coming.

The courthouse loomed ahead, all glass and gray stone, rising like a monument to rules that didn’t care about nuance.

You tossed the last of your coffee into a nearby trash bin, the heat still lingering in your palm long after the cup was gone.

Inside, the air was colder. Sterile. The kind of chill that seeped into your bones no matter how many times you passed through the security checkpoint.

You flashed your bar card at the officer without breaking stride, heels echoing on the polished floor as you moved toward Courtroom 5B.

Behind you, you could hear the faint shuffle of Spencer’s shoes, slower, less certain.

When you reached the door, you paused—hand on the heavy brass handle—and took a slow breath.

Focus.

You could not afford to be thinking about warm café lighting or the softness in Spencer Reid’s voice. Not when a man’s future—possibly his life—was hanging in the balance.

You stepped inside.

The courtroom buzzed with the low murmur of post-recess repositioning. Jurors filed back into their box, jackets rustling and papers shifting.

The judge’s clerk was already in place, typing something at a clipped pace. Your co-counsel nodded at you from the defense table, a question in his eyes you didn’t acknowledge.

You slid into your chair and pulled your legal pad onto your lap. The scribbled notes from earlier stared up at you like a dare.

Across the aisle, Valerie Knox took her position at the prosecution’s table. She looked cool and composed—but the way her gaze flicked to Spencer as he entered behind you didn’t go unnoticed.

He didn’t look at her. Or at you.

He took his place on the witness bench, hands folded neatly in his lap, profile sharp against the paneled backdrop of the stand.

His posture was the kind of still that wasn’t just calm—it was controlled. Deliberate.

The judge entered moments later, robes sweeping, gavel tapping once for order.

“Let’s proceed,” came the clipped instruction. “Dr. Reid, you’re still under oath.”

Valerie rose smoothly, the picture of prosecutorial poise. “Dr. Reid, before the recess we were discussing your behavioral analysis of the defendant. You mentioned his body language during the interrogation was inconsistent with signs of genuine remorse. Can you elaborate?”

Spencer nodded once. “Yes. In the recorded interview, the defendant used distancing language when discussing the victim—‘that woman’ instead of her name—and avoided direct eye contact when referencing the night in question. These are behavioral markers that, while not definitive, often align with deceptive behavior.”

You didn’t shift in your seat. But you watched him.

He wasn’t looking at you. But you knew he knew you were watching.

“And what about the timeline?” Valerie continued. “Does the behavioral profile you constructed align with the prosecution’s proposed sequence of events?”

“It does,” he said carefully. “There are consistencies in the pattern of escalation observed in similar cases. The emotional trigger point matches the timing of the alleged confrontation.”

Valerie stepped back. “No further questions.”

The judge looked to you. “Defense? Your witness.”

You stood slowly, the fabric of your suit whispering as you approached the stand.

Spencer’s eyes finally met yours.

The courtroom fell away for half a second. Just long enough for your heart to remember what it was doing an hour ago.

You stepped into position.

“Dr. Reid,” you began, voice steady, “you stated that the defendant’s language in the interview suggested deception. Would you agree that such language can also result from trauma or fear?”

He blinked. “Yes. Context matters.”

“Would you also agree that your profile was built primarily from post-arrest materials?"

He nodded again. “Correct.”

“Which means your conclusions are built on observation and general profiling models, not personal interaction.”

“Yes.”

“And in those models, would you say there is room for error?”

He paused. “There is always room for error.”

That hung in the air for a beat too long.

You let it.

You paced slowly. “Is it possible, then, that what you perceived as deception could also be confusion? Stress? Panic?”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s possible.”

You turned back to face him fully, voice low. “Would you say, Dr. Reid, that the truth can sometimes be obscured by what we expect to see?”

Spencer didn’t answer right away.

When he did, his voice was quieter.

“Yes.”

No one moved. Not the jury. Not Valerie.

Not even the court reporter.

You held his gaze for a fraction longer, then returned to your table.

“No further questions, Your Honor.”

The judge nodded, scribbling something on a notepad. “You may step down, Dr. Reid.”

Spencer left the stand with that same deliberate calm—but this time, you saw something different in the set of his jaw.

Not guilt.

Regret.

He returned to the gallery, slipping into a seat near the back, just as the judge launched into instructions for the next witness.

But you didn’t hear much of it.

Because Spencer Reid had just admitted something on that stand. Not just about the case—but about you. About the way expectations could cloud truth. About how neither of you were walking into this clean anymore.

And sitting at the defense table, heart pounding quietly beneath your pressed suit, you realized something unsettling.

He hadn’t just given you a way in.

He’d given you a warning.

And maybe… a choice.

[silent-sanctum]

"Jotaro as a Father"

Alright, this is another popular discussion about Jotaro's character. It also falls victim to the fandom's tendency to resort to "black and white" thinking, perhaps combined with other minor factors (and another case of me liking to overanalyze my favorite characters because Araki left so much about him vague)

This user has posted this on another "opinions that I will defend until the end of time" and garnered thousands of likes. This was probably the most liked quoted retweet. And it irked me. Am I surprised? Not really. Disappointed? Absolutely. And they are probably the 80% Jotaro fans that don't understand him.

And as your local Jotaro defender and anti-Jotaro mischaracterization person, I am here with another essay exploring more of his mentality. This time, it's about him being a parent, and while he isn't the best father, he isn't that bad either, or at least how the majority of the fandom thinks him to be.

I have made a previous character essay that talked about Jotaro's crippling weaknesses under the facade of strength and competence in detail. If you're interested, I'll leave this sentence linked to the post.

Now keep in mind: This character study is all assumptions and headcanons, BUT they are grounded in canon (e.g., pattern of behavior, general personality, actions he took, etc.) instead of what is popular in fanon interpretations. And much like how I wrote my previous essay (with the CEO and her POV on her emotional reservation), I will be drawing a lot of thematic comparisons with another show I've watched.

Why? Because sometimes, there are patterns on how groups of people can function in life, and it's not just the writer's bias and blind defense of their favorite character.

Second, I need to make this clear also: Jolyne is valid for being mad at her father. I am not invalidating her feelings at all. This essay is about exploring his headspace and what led him to do what he did. That's it.

Okay. Now onto the essay itself.

"Is he a bad father?"

Ehh, I can say that while he isn't good, he isn't bad either. His parenting lands more in the grey area, instead of either end of the spectrum. Because we all know at the surface level that he got married, had a daughter, went AWOL, divorced his wife, and stayed away from his family for their safety.

The action was bad: Neglect is neglect, no matter the excuse, and it can cause the affected people to respond to it negatively in the long term, especially for children with an absent parent.

However, the intention was good: He chose to stay away from his family because he attracted danger to his loved ones, who couldn't see the threat. He's a Stand user who could likely draw in other Stand users. He cared for them, and he wouldn't want to risk their safety by being around them.

It's complicated and nuanced. I feel like it's wrong to just shoehorn him into the "bad father" category, when the generalized view of what a "bad dad" is being abusive or leaving the child with malicious and/or selfish intent. But he doesn't hold up the "good father" title either, when being a "good dad" involves being a constant support for one's child, which he didn't do in Jolyne's late childhood to her teens.

So, he's neither good nor bad. He's a father doing all that he can with his current circumstances.

And yes, while I could leave it at that with the whole "he's neither good nor bad, but somewhere in between", many have placed their arguments about why he's a bad father and the alternatives he could've taken instead of completely choosing the self-isolation route.

The most popular one was this question:

"If he knew he was a danger, why did he have Jolyne? Why did he choose to have a family when he was going to stay away from them in the end?"

Here's the thing though… He didn't.

Jotaro doesn't have the hindsight that the audience has. He couldn't have known until he noticed it later down adulthood, where he grew to become more observant of his surroundings.

And even if he did know, is he not allowed to be human? Do you want him to just be a lonely marine biologist who just does the Speedwagon Foundation's (SWF) Stand work 24/7? Is he not a person who is capable of feeling love for someone else, and has wants for himself outside his job?

Yes, he's diligent. He is capable of self-preservation. He is powerful. But even the strongest individuals have families of their own. They have close bonds with others that they treasure. Why? Because being able to love and feel love is what makes someone "human". Jotaro is a human just like most of us. He isn't a working machine who just does his job.

Let me introduce this show called "Moving." It's a show where basically "superpowered parents who used to be special agents, hide their superpowered children from organizations who wish to exploit or kill them." It's a relevant show to this essay since the protagonist's father behaves similarly to Jotaro.

In the show, this man is the government's best agent with special abilities. He carries out his missions and reports back after completing his task. He does his job seriously and rarely fails an assignment. In isolation, he describes himself to be cold and stoic, who is unable to socialize much due to his role as a special operations agent.

One day, he encounters the protagonist's mother: The organization's top graduate with exceptional marksmanship, who also possesses special abilities.

And despite both of them knowing the risks of getting too personal and intimate, guess what happened?

They both fall in love, even if it means being locked into being exploited by the government. And not only that, guess what else happened.

They have a child together.

Let me remind you: They know they are high-profile agents. The best of the best. They are aware of the risks that come with interpersonal connections, but they had that family anyway. Why? Because they were human. To find normalcy in the midst of their circumstances.

My point is that Jotaro is a person who's allowed to have a life, even if it couldn't be completely normal given his situation. Jonathan got married and had a kid. Joseph got married and had children. What makes Jotaro any different? Because he's workaholic, stoic, and reserved like the dad in the show? That's not a fair assumption if you ask me.

Another thought raised was this:

"Couldn't he just have given and trained Jolyne with her Stand?"

It seems plausible, and it sounds cool. But you have to know how Jotaro operated and why that couldn't be the case. His life after Egypt went down the drain. Heck, you could even say that his life changed when Star Platinum awakened in him. When Stands became a permanent thing in his day-to-day.

No matter how much he likes to focus on his day job as a biologist, he now had to shoulder being the SWF's go-to investigator for the supernatural. Not only did he work hard in his profession, but he had to do the Foundation's tasks as the Joestar bloodline's active patriarch and as the one who slayed DIO.

He couldn't have a normal life anymore. Not with his involvement with the Foundation and the enemies he attracted.

Now answer me this- What parent who loves their child will subject them to a life like theirs?

"Moving's" main premise is the lengths that families will go to protect their children, including from their past. The couple I mentioned raised their superpowered baby in hiding. And here's the kicker: It's the father who chose to suppress his son's abilities so he could live a normal life.

Again, this is the same cold, stoic man whom the organization treats as its best agent. And it's not just this family. There are multiple examples of parents in this show choosing to let their kids hide their powers.

Your daughter has caught the teacher's attention because of her power? Fake her death.

When you see the organization's leader smirk at you after learning that powers are hereditary, and you have a child? Go off the radar and leave everything, but your family, behind.

Jotaro never wanted Jolyne to be involved with Stands. He didn't want her to risk her life fighting a random Stand user when she could live the life of a normal teenager. She didn't have a Stand. Her mother didn't have one either. Why burden his child with the responsibility he had?

And did his isolation work? For the most part, yes. That is, until the incident with Romeo.

But then you ask yourself:

"He could've called her! Texted her! Sent an email- something! It's the 2000s! Technology's a thing by this point!"

Remember what his main character flaw is… Communication. If there's any fault that he has without debate, it's his inability to connect and socialize with others properly, and his poor maintenance of his bonds (as I have stated in my previous essay).

This argument could go in two ways. One is the whole communication issue, and maybe he was either too caught up in his job to update them, or he didn't want to share any details, thinking it's best for them not to know. As flawed as that thought was.

OR we could go the Snipster route, wherein he DID call Jolyne to check in on her, but because he kept making excuses as to why he's not coming home and is always away, she gradually grew to resent and hate him through the years, up until at one point, she yells at him to not call her anymore if he was going to continue being an absent father.

Pick your poison.

This leads to the next argument:

"He's a bad father because he's completely absent from Jolyne's life! He rarely bonded with Jolyne at all!"

Then why does Jolyne have so much anger towards him? If he were a fully absent father (as in I-didn't-know-you-existed type of absent), she shouldn't be holding so much resentment toward Jotaro. So, why is she hateful to him?

Because at one point, he was a present parent in Jolyne's childhood before he left. Yes, he could be busy working, but he could've spent his few moments of respite taking care of his daughter to the best he could as a loving father. She is the child he cherished after all. His weakness.

Not to Jonathan or Joseph levels of "golden retriever" and "grandiose" type of affection, but perhaps in more domestic, quiet ways: Cook her meals, read her books, listen to her talk about her day, help and teach her with homework, etc.

If he were a fully absent father, Jolyne should've felt apathetic and confused when meeting him again, not anger. If he were completely absent, Jolyne wouldn't have engaged in delinquent activity to catch her father's attention.

Again, in Moving, the protagonist is raised by a single mother from his childhood to his teens. He does not know who his father is, because when the dad was present, he was a toddler and therefore couldn't remember him. To him, his father is a stranger.

And how he reacts to the father at the end of the show is him not being upset or mad. It's him being surprised, confused, and neutral toward him. Why? Because he doesn't know him.

I would show the images but there's an image limit and I'm sad

Heck, you can say the same for Josuke and Joseph if you want an in-universe example. Josuke never knew who his dad was and was raised by Tomoko all his life. And when he meets old man Joseph for the first time, he's confused and is generally neutral to him. He's shy even when he helps him after his cane broke.

---

Jotaro leaves a lot to interpretation, and while I see a gem of a post here and there sometimes, I have to trudge through a sludge of mischaracterization and an oversaturation of memes that downplay what's canon in favor of fanon validation.

And I get it. I browse Twitter, check the timeline for updates, and notice that most users are impressionable teenagers who are from the West and go about their days living with Western individualistic values.

Maybe, just maybe, some people will project the "bad father" image to Jotaro as a result of their own daddy issues. Just like how misogynists will project themselves onto a favorite character like Jotaro.

I'm not saying this as a definitive truth, but as a possibility. Jotaro is fictional after all, and people will use fiction as a reprieve from reality.

TL;DR? He isn't a bad father, but he isn't a good one either. He's a father who does what he can to protect his daughter, with all his flawed mentality and caring heart.

[theyluvlyss]

i saw your post on needing more creativity (to word it briefly) in remmick/sinners fanfics and IM HERE TO SUPPLY!! im thinking of making a new account should i do it???

𝐘𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐘𝐎𝐔 !!!

per my last couple of posts, I would LOVE some requests to start piling up. I wanna see more ideas and thoughts for me to work with (and fangirl about🥴✋🏽-).

and as far as you making an account goes, anon, I ofc encourage you do it if it will make you happy - legit, the whole reason I started this blog was because I wanted my own space to write, say, request, post, etc. whatever tf I want, so you'll never get a 'no' from me when trying to do the same😌🫶🏽.

reminder to all, though !! to reiterate/add to some of my boundaries when it comes to sinners requests specifically !! ...

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I know I have and am usually/typically willing to write taboo topics when it comes to other fandoms, but sinners (to me, in my personal opinion) is a lot more sacred and special, so there's certain changes i'm making/abiding by apart from my usual/normal rules out of both respect and just the simple fact that it's just gonna be strict 'round this bitch, like, idk what to tell you lmao.

- NO moore twins incest or stepcest, i'm not doing it.

- no weird "sammick" bullshit, this is not a sammick ship friendly blog, don't interact, follow, or request things regarding that ship towards me, you'll be blockt with a QUICKNESS.

- I do welcome think, theory, and thirst pieces in my ask inbox, but be aware each of those topics will be kept separate from one another. time and place rules; don't bring up think piece material in the comments of an imagine I worked hard on that has nothing to do with the nuances of the movie and it's themes - and vice versa - don't start thirsting under posts I may make regarding how I view the characters and their role/purpose and whatnot.

- i'm not at all opposed to age gaps, but i'm not doing anything illegal, so don't even go there. but yeah, again, this is vampire media/content - age gaps are a large chunk of the appeal and if you don't like that, then maybe you're not ready to engage in vamp content, idk😭🤷🏽‍♀️.

- unless written or requested otherwise, reader will always be assumed 20+ years old, black/black-coded, and southern. and when it comes to requesting otherwise, plz be clear with your intentions on why, and don't be weird - like seriously, if I see something I don't like, it's not getting written and I will put you on blast, I don't have patience whatsoever for nonsense, so don't start😭🙏🏽.

- i'm a bit picky when it comes to plots, fair warning (i'll try not to let it be an issue tho lol no worries) - especially modern au's, so don't expect a whole lot of those unless you want some of my more "awkward" writing (for lack of a better word) lmao.

- I will write for...

elias "stack" moore

elijah "smoke" moore

sammie "preacher boy" moore

remmick

bo chow

- I shouldn't even have to say this, but NO, I will not be doing any kkk members x reader, kkk dynamic work, kkk NOTHING. I don't even have the words to explain the disgust and anger that it brings me to even think about it, i'm fighting for my life not to say nothing violent and out of pocket rn-...

- be aware that I don't have an official masterlist yet, so stay tuned for when that gets uploaded, because when it does, that means the very first of any sinners related fics of mine has been completed and added :D !!

- and last but not least, basic fanfic/account etiquette...

don't like what I write? don't read it.

don't like me or my content? block me.

questions? just ask, and be respectful.

and finally, if you leave any type of negativity on my page, you'll be dealt with accordingly.

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anyways, that's all for now. thanks for reading this and for all of the strong engagement, love, and support I've received so far on the topic of sinners fanfic, it's really jarring in a good way after being kind of a dead account for a while😭🙏🏽. I hope I can deliver what y'all want/are expecting💕.

byeeee /ᐠ^˕^マ !!!

[yumiyawning]

weirdo!Reader x fond!Aran

cw: established relationship, post timeskip, aran being a sweetheart, honeymoon setting, fluff, you guys went to Brazil, so basically there are pre timeskip paragraphs but the whole thing is post get it? Suna and the twins mentions!!! suna is in purple, reader pink and aran in blue blablabla, my relationship goals lowkey

𐙚 fond!Aran, who always thought you were a weirdo, I mean, anyone with a sane mind would think that: you barked back to dogs, for cake's sake! Hell, he was sure you'd bark at them first, if it weren't for Kita's restraining presence. Back in high-school, he used to be...taken aback by your unusual attitude, but he eventually grew fond of it..? It wasn't always like that, don't get fooled, the first time he ever met you, you stared at him silently for 3 seconds and bluntly told him "You look like you whistle to yourself while folding laundry, like a Disney princess." Aran, then looked at you confused with his lips parted before Rintarou snatched you away, claiming you were a "deranged person that unfortunately was his friend" to which you grumbled at him, claiming he was the deranged one. Mind you, this was his first interaction with you and Suna, but not his last with either of you!

𐙚 fond!Aran, who that same day, finds himself doing just that!!. After that first interaction, he's pretty much encountered you in every volleyball practice, because you're a loser and have no other friend than Suna and the twins. And oh— does he learn things about you: the way you scrunch your nose up when you're annoyed, which coincidentally happens a lot when you're around Atsumu; the way your hair is wavy enough to form loose curls but wavy enough to cause knots in your hair, making you huff(you huff a lot he notices); and the way your cheeks are so damn full, it makes him want to bite them— what???

𐙚 fond!Aran, who somehow, ended up marrying you in Brazil. But before all that, the proposal ceremony. Oh boy— where do I even begin. Everything was supposedly settled for THE day. A perfect, sunny day, he had settled for a beach day, knowing your love for the sea and well, nothing could possibly go wrong right...?... You twisted your ankle. In the sand. Somehow. Aran, that day, had to deal with you bawling in his arms as he carried you to the safety guards' office, and with the thousands of tabloids published that same day in which could be read: "Ojiro Aran, volleyball star was seen at the beach with his girlfriend!". He was pissed, but eventually proposed as you were laid in a hospital bed, making you cry and snot all over the place, again. That night, when you got discharged, you told him you felt like you lived in a telenova and oh— he couldn't agree more.

𐙚 fond!Aran, who full-on sobs when you walk down the aisle, holding your paternal figure's arm. Huge, snotty tears streaming down his cheeks and you weakly giggling just makes him want to cry even harder or to choke you, who knows. Poor boy was sniffing constantly while reciting his vows and oh— his eyes were full of love (and tears) when you recited yours. A funny moment Suna will forever remember is the exchange of tissues before you gave each other your rings, and hah! bold of you to assume he'd delete it. Never, ever is he deleting it, for blackmailing purposes. he saved the photo AND the video.

𐙚 fond!Aran, who now, is laid in bed and looks at you with fond, loving eyes as you're standing in the balcony, admiring the view and....croaking at a seagull...? "What are you doing?" he asks, amused by your nonsense, to which, you answer nonchalantly, "Communicating with my spirit animal". Aran gets up with a chuckle and drapes himself around you, his happy place, with a yawn, watching you hiss and screech at the poor bird. "Baby, don't be offended. But you are a spirit animal yourself" he says with the most innocent face known to man, to which, of course, you get offended at, like you always do. "How dare you!!!! I'm your wife, I'm not a spirit animal" you scowl, eyebrows furrowing and oh— you're so cute he could die for you. He would die for you; he chuckles and accepts your punishment: a light slap on his shoulder before pulling you closer to him with a content sigh. "Yeah, you're my beautiful and weirdo wife."

彡AN:....hey 🤨 this took me 2 weeks to finish so be grateful little gremlins 👹👹 jk ofccc but yeah I was like so lazy to write anything so I made some bots on character ai instead 🤷🏻‍♀️ talk about a productive person ..... anyway I also had a dream involving the father of one of my bestfriends 💔 so uh yeah I kind of feel awkward 🧍🏻‍♀️but yay I passed my exams!!!! love yall mwahhaahhahahaha 😍😍😍

𝓽𝓪𝓰𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽: @the0ishere, @nekomaniac, @wordsofelie, @haikyu-mp4 (let me know if you wanna get tagged or not!! 😥)

ᴺᴼᵂ ᴾᴸᴬᵞᴵᴺᴳ: "Sugar! Honey! Love!" by Kali Uchis!! (can you tell I'm a kali uchis enthusiastic)