#it's not really ship just fusion but... it could be ship

[dorkshadows]

The Writeup (Part 2!)

(From Jiaozi's Nezha doodle celebrating the 2.6 billion record on 2/2.) *In CN, it's common to say "my tendon pulled!" when you get a cramp in your limbs.

Translation:

Ao Bing: My leg cramped! [literal translation: My leg pulled (its) tendon!] Fish Demon: NEZHA PULLED OUT THE THIRD PRINCE'S TENDONS!!!!!!!!

Literally the day after I published this post, new developments cropped up in the Nezha 2 fandom :D I thought it best to wait and see if anything ELSE could happen before updating this. Thankfully, I waited because things did happen. They sure did happen! So I'm popping in out of retirement (again) for one (1) day (again) to update this before the first fandom writeup becomes completely out of date. I appreciate all the interest given to the previous writeup and I'd feel bad for leaving it outdated for everyone that supported it! So here's part 2 to catch you up on what's happening deep in Nezha 2 fandom.

4-5 weeks in, and we have already have new shipping lore, shipping stat updates, and new fuel for the Ao Guang discourse battles. And it's somehow just as long as writeup part 1 🤣

Guangying shippers have apologized to everyone they harassed, acknowledged the error of their ways, and now get along well with fans of other ships...NOT. Click below to see updates on fandom lore, Ao Guang discourse, doubling down, conspiracy theories, drama in the Nezha cosplay world, and a total lack of self reflection from guangying fans ft. more images and links than last time

Obligatory disclaimers again:

This is NOT about the people who happened to watch the movie, the people who are just interested in box office stats, the people who really enjoyed the movie, or the people who just really admire Nezha. This will be about the fandom fandom, the truly invested, the brainrot (affectionate) in its purest unfiltered form. This is a post about brainrot for those also suffering from brainrot.

This is a collection of patterns mainly from lofter, but also from douyin, weibo, bilibili, and xhs. I don't know how to warn for some of the things mentioned here, so just a blanket note of caution- if you read on, you are prepared to see anything and everything. If you are OK with all this, then- let’s go! 

PART 2 HERE WE GO:

Firstly, the general fandom is as creative as ever, and everything you can think of (and more!) has been written/drawn/discussed by somebody somewhere. I've seen Shiji Niang Niang bring Shen Xiaobao back to life, I've seen Ao Bing studying for the TOEFL, I've seen a Jane Eyre AU fanfic for Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao, I've seen Taiyi go on a diet, I've seen 1979 Nezha transmigrating into the 2019/2025 world, etc. etc.

The Lu Tong meme is also not even a meme anymore- lots of people seem to genuinely believe that randomly spamming any and all content featuring Lu Tong/He Tong with paragraphs of praise will result in them granting their wishes. So that's why you'll come across lots of comments with phrases like: "Lu Tong is the manliest of all men, the most powerful of all celestials, the strongest deer... please Master Lu Tong, grant me a raise from my boss."

Also, I didn't include these extremely cursed memes last time because I felt that they might cause people to die. BUT since everyone was strong enough to survive writeup part 1, I think you've proven yourselves strong enough to see these in writeup part 2--behold! Popular FAMILY GUY NEZHA edits:

These cursed images are popular enough that multiple people have made them their profile pics. That's not even the end of it...

Not only that, the fandom has also made "fusion" edits of the characters in the vein of the Nezha/Ao Bing fusion we saw in canon (as in, a Taiyi/Nezha fusion exists). If you wondered what things would be like if 1) Nezha possessed Ao Bing instead or 2) Shen Gongbao never stole the spirit pearl, wonder no further! Here is the answer:

Next, congratulations to lubao for completing the transformation from surprise crack ship to third most popular pairing in the fandom (4 and 5 probably go to Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao [longwangbao] or lutong/hetong [luhe] depending on the platform). Coincidentally, lubao is now no. 3 trending on weibo, beating out dilong. Professional cosplayers are also doing lubao cosplays for clout (to 10K+ likes on bilibili and even 100K+ likes across douyin, etc.). They even have their own animatics now. -> Every individual (main) character and ship has plenty of animatics; if you want to see them, just add the word "手书" (hand book) after whatever subject you're searching for. EX. For oubing animatics, just search for 藕饼手书, and many many will come up.

The lubao lore has also expanded since Feb.:

In Nezha 1, Shen Gongbao told Ao Bing he can teach him how to hide his horns in public. Lu Tong, as a deer, should also have antlers (as shown by his demon/animal form), but doesn't! This clearly means that Shen Gongbao taught Lu Tong how to hide his antlers with the same method he offered for Ao Bing.

Fans noticed that Lu Tong's eyes are brown in deer form, but as a human, his eyes are green- specifically, the exact same shade of green as Shen Gongbao's. They believe it means Lu Tong purposely turned them green because he took inspiration from Shen Gongbao's appearance.

They also noticed that in the post-credits, Wuliang and He Tong didn't seem to know where the underground prison was. Lu Tong guided them over. They believe this means Lu Tong was the one who brought Shen Gongbao into the prison and tied him up in the first place.

You can make the assumption that Shen Gongbao, Ao Bing, and Lu Tong all have the same hairstyle. Why? Because Shen Gongbao combed Ao Bing's hair (with the approval of Lu Tong's #2 enemy, Ao Guang), and he previously combed Lu Tong's hair. Out of love/obsession for him, Lu Tong has kept that same style. And now this is yet another thing Ao Bing STOLE from Lu Tong!

As of 3/9, Jiaozi put out this drawing of Shen Gongbao riding a leopard while acting as captain of the demon hunting team (to celebrate Nezha breaking the 14.6 billion record at the box office):

Since Lu Tong had that exact same pose, while also riding an animal from the same species, lubao fans took this to mean Lu Tong was again trying to copy everything Shen Gongbao did because he's just that obsessed with him.

As for fanon expansion, there is now a version of He Tong who is not only aware of Lu Tong's obsession, but also supports, abets, and contributes to his actions because she too felt abandoned by their shi shu. Now Shen Gongbao can never leave them again! Theirs forever! Too bad that pesky Ao Bing keeps getting in the way and doing annoying things like "saving his master" and "having morals."

And a little round of applause for Shen gonggong too for going from cartoon villain barely anyone cared about to earning the highest honor in fandom--becoming the resident whump angst pain machine. This was unofficial in the previous writeup, but now it's safe to call it official! You know his poor meow meow status is cemented when the average SGB-centric fsyy crossover is now, "Wuliang and his disciples torture the cultivation out of Shen Gongbao, seal his powers, and give him to King Zhou to do as he pleases. The royal court proceeds to treat him as some kind of party animal, all while using and abusing whatever's left of him-" (paragraph 1 of 100)

The average pre-canon story is also, "everyone except Taiyi tortures and mistreats Shen Gongbao at Yuxu Gong-" He's an alcoholic in these too, and he hates himself, and he's depressed and (insert any form of trauma here, he has it)- Someone said that they knew Shen gongong was doomed (by the fandom) the moment he showed up like That in the easter egg scene, and I think that person had the gift of prophecy.

Now for the main event! Dilong, Aobing Zhuan, and the reaction (or lack thereof) of Guangying shippers:

Yes, that's Jim from The Office. The above is a circulating meme made by disgruntled dilong shippers.

Translation:

If you look like this

("Nezha 2" Ao Guang) Your husband doesn't look like this

("The Sons of the Dragon" Ao Guang) Your husband looks like this

*The Sons of the Dragon is a nickname (derogatory) for Ao Bing Zhuan because detractors think it focuses on all of Ao Guang's sons except Ao Bing

I'm not too familiar with Aobing Zhuan itself, so if you or your loved ones know more about the storyline or drama, please feel free to tack onto this post with your own links, writeups, and/or input!

Dilong fans finally had Enough of the nonstop harassment and put together gigantic takedown posts on why Aobing Zhuan sucks, featuring citations, side by side images, and so on.

In addition to accusing the author of using Yinglong as a self insert, they also accused Yinglong of being a genderbent version of Ao Guang (as he used to be drawn in Dilong fanart back in 2019). They pointed out that the author modeled toddler Ao Bing after her own goddaughter instead of his image in the movie. Said author has also gone on record saying Ao Bing is the "least charming" of Ao Guang's sons. Aobing Zhuan gave Ao Bing a healthy number of friends as part of the supporting cast too; when readers asked how this is possible if his first and only friend is Nezha, the author said "The friends are dead, so they don't count!"

The receipts also tell us that even though Ao Guang (and his siblings) made Ao Bing's coat in canon, Aobing Zhuan credited that to Yinglong. His martial arts also came from Yinglong, even though everyone knows it came from Shen Gongbao. And it gets deeper-- as the story goes on, Ao Bing has less and less screentime and barely any "cool" moments. The story becomes completely about his older brothers (specifically his second eldest brother, Ao Yi), while all canon characters are ignored or shafted. It also goes wild with epic wars, battles, and subplots that the movie never even mentioned.

This leads to the fandom nicknaming Aobing Zhuan "OC Zhuan" (and yes, they are using OC the English way. This is not the Tale of Aobing, this is the Tale of Original Characters not even made by Jiaozi). Another nickname is "The Tale of Ying" not because Yinglong herself has that much screentime, but because ABZ fans have spent so long harassing literally everybody else in the fandom while using her as an icon and constantly saying "look, you've made yinglong sad" "how disgusting of you to split up such a loving couple" "you're not allowed to ship anything besides the canon couple" etc. etc.. while spamming fans of literally every other Ao Guang ship with pictures of Yinglong.

Even in non-shipping content involving Ao Guang and Ao Bing, they'll constantly talk about Ao Guang's wife and Ao Bing's mother and how totally important she is to them + the story. Guangying shippers have also constantly used a mother's day screenshot (of the official Nezha account wishing Yinglong happy mother's day with an image of her and Ao Bing in ABZ) as proof that she's officially married to Ao Guang, and you are therefore NOT allowed to ship him with anyone else, including yourself. It turns out that screenshot doesn't exist- the Nezha weibo never posted it. Guangying shippers faked the image.

Someone even asked deepseek (or baidu?) who Yinglong is and it said, "Yinglong is Ao Guang's father!" (incorrect btw, but this is proof that yinglong has no mythological connection to Ao Guang anyway). Fans also noticed that Aobing Zhuan- despite having a physical publication- wasn't featured at all in Nezha 2 merchandise. Instead, there's a cute picture book featuring parts of little Ao Bing's childhood (with NONE of ABZ's events).

The book is called "Memories of the Three Realms" 《哪吒·三界往事》and contains little stories about the entire cast before the events of the movies. This book was promoted as part of Nezha 2's merchandise, so it's safe to consider it a direct tie-in with the franchise. Noticeably, Ao Bing's family in the book consists of only himself, his father, his master, his aunt, and uncles. No brothers, no mother.

So TLDR, Aobing Zhuan "fell apart" in the fandom's eyes because:

It directly defies canon ideas and events

Guangying shippers faked screenshots to make it look like the Nezha team acknowledged ABZ more than it actually did

The art style is "ugly" (imho, it's less that it's ugly and more that it's very off model when it comes to canon characters and just doesn't fit Nezha's art style)

ABZ constantly puts down Ao Bing/Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao in order to elevate its OCs

Ao Guang doesn't like Ao Bing very much in ABZ

The author doesn't care about Ao Bing and was only using his name for clout; the author exclusively only loves Ao Yi

Yinglong is the author's self insert and arguably a plagiarized version of dilong!Ao Guang. Ao Yi has also been accused of being a plagiarized design of dilong!Ao Guang. (imo, not so sure about how valid these particular accusations are because all three designs are commonplace throughout all xianxia art)

Ao Yi, Ao Jia, and Yinglong (Ao Bing's brothers and mother) are fanmade OCs and might not even have those same names if they appear or come up in the movies

ABZ attempted to make a love interest for Ao Bing, but backtracked after backlash from oubing fans

The Nezha team seems to want nothing to do with it

The takedown was brutal. The rest of the fandom, specifically the confused people who had no idea why other fans were going on and on about Ao Guang's wife (who does not appear in the films) and closet dilong shippers, went, "Hey, ABZ does suck!" Why did it take so long for them to notice it sucked? General consensus is that because the comic was not very good in the first place so nobody talked about it or noticed it. Now they notice because 1) guangying shippers shoved it in everyone's face 2) guangying shippers/ABZ fans bullied literally Everybody else in the fandom

Then overnight, the fandom turned on ABZ and all its OCs. Now it's considered #cringe to like Yinglong, Ao Yi, and Ao Jia. People regretted paying for the comics, people tried get it refunded, and people apologized to dilong fans for hating on them based on falsely believing they were "splitting" a canon couple (and not because idk, harassing strangers over cartoons is rude??).

Regardless, everyone who secretly enjoyed dilong now came out to openly enjoy it. Dilong rose to #3 trending on several platforms, and dilong shippers rejoiced for finally being vindicated after literally 5 years of harassment. I mean pretty offensive and terrible harassment (CW terminally online fandom harassment methods): mass reporting, being accused of being degenerates, being accused of being uNpAtriOtIC, being accused of TrEAson, being told they should have died in their mothers' wombs, getting doxxed and suicide baited. Multiple dilong authors and artists were bullied into deactivating. The harassment got especially bad after Nezha 2 came out, so-

The tables turning on Guangying shippers can only be divine karma at work. Now in videos of people bashing dilong shippers, you can see comments saying, "hey op you dropped your clown nose!" and "get with the times, OC Zhuan fell from grace." Unfortunately, this drama has led to collateral damage in the form of-

Drama in the cosplay world:

However, there are lots of big name cosplayers doing Yinglong and Guangying cosplays. These people spent Big Money on their costumes. Now they're being told that ABZ has "fallen apart" and Yinglong was just somebody else's OC this entire time. Yinglong cosplayers feel personally victimized and don't know what to do with their costumes now.

To add fuel to the fire, fans have been insulting Yinglong cosplayers in the comment sections of their videos. Ao Yi cosplayers are facing a similar dilemma. Which leads to-

Yinglong fans react + Dilong fan conspiracies:

You'd think this would lead to some self reflection on the part of Guangying fans or an apology to their victims or maybe some attempt to be on better behavior. But why do that when it's easier to double down and play victim!

ABZ fans and Guangying shippers now believe themselves to be the biggest victims in the fandom. They feel that the takedown was made in bad faith and several points don't even line up-- Yinglong doesn't resemble dilong!Ao Guang that much, Yinglong is not the author's literal self insert, the spinoff is still canon, Ao Guang loves his son very much in ABZ too and those calling him a cold father in ABZ are pulling panels out of context, etc. They think they shouldn't be judged just for enjoying a comic and multiple people have called on Jiaozi to step in and acknowledge the Drama. Indeed, they shouldn't be judged or harassed for liking Yinglong or ABZ.

But I'd feel more sorry for them if they didn't spend the past month bullying and lying to literally everybody in the fandom, ranging from spamming all Ao Bing content with guangying comments to threatening Ao Guang x anyone else shippers with physical violence. Even on the notes of the last writeup, we have firsthand accounts of their cyberbullying:

^This is the kind of thing guangying fans do on a regular basis. (I'm so sorry they harassed you over something so stupid! All 6 of them owe you a kowtow and apology.)

The Drama continues:

According to dilong fans, ABZ and guangying fans have gone quiet but not gone away. They've changed tactics and can now be spotted on random Ao Guang content commenting, "I wonder who Ao Guang's wife is! I'm so curious!" and on Ao Bing content saying, "Oh I bet Ao Bing misses his mother and brothers so much." This is allegedly an attempt to get new fans to ask them about Ao Guang's wife and Ao Bing's mother/brothers + an attempt to do damage control for ABZ now that it's uncool to mention it publicly. Personally, I think the dilong fans are right about this theory. Makes perfect sense to me, especially given everything else ABZ fans have done so far.

Next, tying back to the cosplay drama, dilong fans believe the people attacking Yinglong cosplayers are guangying fans masquerading as dilong fans. These guangying fans are hoping to harass enough people for something major to happen (conveniently taking the heat off of ABZ). Then the wider media will report on cosplayers being harassed by dilong fans, resulting in the wider public going "Nezha fangirls are so scary!" resulting in cancellation of Nezha ships (specifically dilong) altogther in a complete repeat of 227 (the date in which Xiao Zhan fans mass reported AO3 over a real person fic, resulting in the AO3 ban in China and the ensuing backlash that caused the absolutely most nightmarish time of poor Xiao Zhan's life). Is this there truth to this theory? I have no idea, but wilder things have happened.

And lastly, no, Fei Wo Si Cun (established web novelist that published a dilong mpreg fanfic on main, as mentioned in the previous writeup) has not acknowledged the Ao Guang discourse drama at all. Jiaozi and the rest of the Nezha team have also not said a peep despite guangying shippers' desperate attempts to reach them.

Update to add: there was ALSO some fight between solo!Nezha stans and solo!Ao Bing stans on weibo. It didn't have that big of an influence, but was certainly an Online event.

And that's the end of the ride for now. Nezha 2 is still playing in theaters. Nobody knows what will happen once it hits STREAMING :D after all, 命由我不由天!

[love-and-war-on-cybertron]

most people ship Starscream with a reader who is just meek and one massive fawn response to being kidnapped, can i ask instead that once on the ship reader is just a MENACE? (doesnt matter who or how theyre kidnapped, theyre there now) Reader just antagonizes /everyone/ and likes to antagonistically flirt with Star? cus thats way more fun <3 (thinking of IDW/G1 but really any version of him works)

G1 Starscream is a shit, so I thought he would be the perfect match. Two petty bitches = EVERYONE else gonna suffer.

The first few days on the ship was nothing but screaming. Starscream assured them that once you had been tamed, you would stop that....

You did not stop.

The actual kidnapping had been quiet, making starscream think he picked the perfect little hostage to hold over the autobots. You would clearly cower in what ever box they kept you in, and beg to be released. Maybe even weep a little. Megatron would praise him for a job well done, and let his guard down a bit more.

You were not, however, the perfect docile hostage. You were just in shock. Once that faded away you decided to make it very clear you were unhappy about the situation. Starscream had entered the room, followed by Megatron, boasting on the fact he had captured an autobot's pet. You were mid escape, perched on the edge of the box he stuffed you in. There was silence, starring. Then you jumped on him with a screech. Clinging against the seekers metal, kicking, pounding and biting. Eventually, soundwave peeled you off him and put something heavy over the box to avoid that again.

So you started screaming. Insults peppered within the highest pitch you could reach. Your throat went raw, but it was worth watching them flinch and cover their audials. When you were hungry, you screamed, when you were woken up by their stomping around, you screamed. When they filmed a video, threatening the autobots with your well being, you were screaming in the background.

The only one you were quiet around was Megatron. His threats just felt *sincere* in the graphic detail he would give when telling you what he would do if you did not shut your trap.

When the screaming began to hurt too much, you turned to insults. Calling Megatron Bucket-head while on that hostage call had earned a laugh from the autobots and a fusion cannon to the face. Soundwave didn't know how to respond to you calling him the Dj wanna be. Starscream hurled back insult after insult till it was tit for tat. The only positive was that he wasn't hard to look at. Being around the cons more, you found them to be particular about their looks, almost as much as Sunstreaker.

Eventually you were banished to his quarters and his sole responsibility till the autobots gave them what they wanted. He sat on his berth, polishing his plating. Nothing else to do. He fed you, he let you run around (be chased by ravage) for exercise.

"Need a hand pretty boy?"

He pauses, head shooting up and fixing you with a glare, "What was that squishy?"

You grin, leaning against the glass of your temporary home. Making a vulgar gesture you repeat yourself, "Need a hand pretty boy? Looks like you could use someone to give you a few good stokes."

Starscream throws down the cloth and stands, marching over to you again, "Mind your tongue *welp*."

"Oh I think I would rather *waggle* it."

The Decepticon doesn't know how to respond to this. Your screaming he could take until he locked you in a closet till you tired out. Your insults he would just shoot back. This? He was stumped.

"Come on pretty bird, you don't want to chat?"

"Careful *pest*." Starscream hisses, "Don't make me silence you."

"Oh? Think you got something big enough to silence me?"

The autobots aren't surprised when you are returned only a couple days after being taken. But they enjoy bringing you along on future missions when Starscream is sighted.

[love-takes-work]

Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey on Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries

Rebecca Sugar and Ian Jones-Quartey gave an interview to Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries on hosts' Austin Taylor (he/they/she) and Brenda Snell's (she/they) 151st episode. (Ian's last name is correct in the title, but it's incorrectly written as "James-Quartey" in the episode notes.) The subject is the groundbreaking episode "Jailbreak," which just had its 10th anniversary.

The interview itself is bonus content! But then there is a podcast episode with discussion between the two podcast hosts with some additional perspectives from them (mostly Austin) as fans, with short clips from the full interview interspersed.

Highlights from the interview:

We hear a short introduction from Rebecca Sugar (she/they) and Ian Jones-Quartey (he/him) about their roles on Steven Universe (including that they both boarded on the episode "Jailbreak," even though Rebecca was the only one of the two who was credited as a storyboarder, along with Jeff Liu and Joe Johnston of course). Rebecca also wrote the song "Stronger Than You," and they both have writing credits.

Austin asks them to discuss the writing process versus the boarding process, and they go into some detail. It's a storyboard-driven show. First there's an outline; then the storyboarders write and draw the show, and they are responsible for the dialogue too. Premise and outline (Act 1, Act 2, Act 3) are mapped out first. Matt Burnett and Ben Levin played the writing/conceptual roles along with Rebecca and Ian, and they'd get the outline done which would then be handed off to a storyboarder. They essentially chose this process because they wanted to have it all: the traditional boarding process that made such good content, but still have the mile-high view providing an epic storyline. Other creators were always curious about how they'd managed to do both in that sense, and this is how they did it.

They go on to talk about episodes that are "pillars" of the show, how important aspects of the show were worked into big episodes all coming together. Ian talks about "visual set pieces" as a top down element--how "Ocean Gem" had ocean towers into space and "Jailbreak" had a musical fight sequence on a spaceship. They planned those big episodes as potential finales if they didn't get any more episode orders. Rebecca says it was really hard to write the show both as if it could end at any moment AND they were planting enough seeds for the future if they did get more episodes. Ian clarifies that they had a huge story planned that they hoped to get to tell, but they wanted viewers to be satisfied by what they got to give them.

Rebecca pitched "Jailbreak" to the Crew at the time that they were living in this hundred-year-old cabin. They had everybody over to go over the beats of the episode and the Crew members were skeptical that they could get all of that done in 11 minutes. Rebecca describes it as "excitement and terror." Ian praises Jeff and Joe for fitting it in with so much fun and energy. Nothing major was cut story-wise, but Rebecca tells a story they've told before about consolidating some of the content while Ruby is looking for Sapphire, which was disappointing because they had to drop gorgeous drawings by Joe at the board stage. Joe bravely announced he didn't care that they had to lose it. Haha! Ian thinks some fighting Peridot on the ship was consolidated too so it would fit in the song break.

Rebecca discusses how they learned in the first season that they really had to keep big reveals and concepts tied down to their own episodes. They had early ideas of Steven separating from his Gem early in Season 1 and it was just too much too soon. "Lion 2: The Movie" had a bunch of new concepts at once and the reveals were too much for a casual audience to catch everything. Pieces that had to be built for "Jailbreak" to work required individual episodes introducing concepts for how fusion works, where Gems are from, etc.

Austin the host says they'd been watching Steven Universe from the beginning, and they enjoyed the show as a casual viewer but they felt like people really NOTICED this show for the first time when "Jailbreak" aired. They want to know whether the Crew had any idea that the episode was going to be such an artistic and cultural game-changer. Rebecca describes being in a weird fan-cocoon with the content because they had had "Jailbreak" finished for a whole year by the time we saw anything and they were already all the way moved on to Season 3 of the show by then. They didn't know where to put their enthusiasm as a historically very fannish person. Ian describes how Cartoon Network would take completed episodes and leave them on the shelf for a long time before airing them and they weren't able to reveal anything. They believed they would just have a niche audience and did NOT foresee the huge fan response. Rebecca tries to talk about how controversial the content was but Ian interrupts to say it was also so different from everything their peers were making.

Rebecca picks up the discussion of the radical content, referencing how on Adventure Time they'd learned that same-sex content was a no-no so they had to wait until they weren't getting so much scrutiny before trying to build anything of that nature into the main text of the show. They got pushback internally when they turned the episode in, with decision-makers saying they could not have the same-sex relationship, but the song was done, the schedule was set to send it to Korea for full animation, it was really too late. They couldn't have done that earlier in the run, but now because of the stability they'd built, they could get it in under the radar. Rebecca mentions getting the suggestion that Ruby could be a boy, to which they replied that Ruby and Sapphire were Gems and they are in love and there's a song about it. They were then told no mouth-kissing was allowed, which was amusing to Rebecca because the boards for the episode never showed them kissing on the mouth. The planned kiss was always on the eye, and that was how Rebecca wanted it, because Sapphire kissing Ruby's tear seemed so intimate. They finally relented, saying if it was already done it was already done, BUT they weren't allowed to confirm the same-sex relationship or talk about it outside the show. Ian got in trouble for doing it anyway. He tells the story:

A fan asked him a Twitter question about whether Ruby and Sapphire would be considered a same-sex couple in human terms (he doesn't remember clearly what was asked, but I recall it's the question about whether they would be femme-presenting nonbinary lesbians), and he confirmed it while emphasizing that's the human version while they are Gems. Articles were written, the studio found out, he got called into meetings and scolded, and they made him apologize to one of the heads of the studio. He had to cool way off on how he answered questions from fans for a while, but eventually he was able to share the truth again.

Rebecca shares that the only expectation they were led to believe existed would be a negative reaction, especially if studios in more homophobic countries found out this content was in the show. There are places on Earth where being LGBTQ is a crime. The pulling of funding could lead to the end of the show. The studio apparently did not anticipate a positive response anywhere. Rebecca refers to the older LGBTQ fans as a "secondary demographic" that didn't matter to the the network at the time, and that they were entirely focused on the show doing well with 6-to-11-year-old boys. Rebecca wanted those kids to have this show too, along with their loved ones, and it doesn't seem to have occurred to most of the higher-ups that boys in that age group are sometimes themselves a queer orientation. The closest they got to believing it would be relevant to those kids is if they had same-sex parents. The concept of queer youth was years away for them. Rebecca didn't even really realize how many people it might resonate with because the work and its motivation was highly personal, only common in their experience with a few other artists they knew. (And artists are weird and unrelatable, right?)

Austin asks their guests to share some fond memories of making the episode. They go into the process of writing the song and how much pressure Rebecca felt when faced with the concept of writing a song for Estelle to sing. Rebecca consulted with Estelle to get her input on what inspiration would feed into a song that's a love song, a fight song, and a victory song all at once.

Rebecca so deeply wanted to use the skills they had--an animation degree!--to convey a message that could help influence the world in a positive way, and they specifically reference wanting people to be more accepting of a couple like themself and Ian. They wanted to tell young people that this kind of relationship isn't wrong, and with all the battles they fought against bigoted perspectives, they felt it was a vital fight. The clash between Garnet and Jasper is meant to represent taking a stand and advocating for those relationships, and Garnet's response to Jasper's hate was "too bad." This was one of the fondest memories Rebecca had--that they were able to take this deeply personal idea to their Crew, their composers and writers and artists, and have them all support and contribute to a message that they were being told was not expected to be well received. Rebecca and Ian drew the scene together of Garnet reintegrating, and they loved that they could bring the whole Crew into that world to make a difference.

Ian points out that they worked so hard to get this message out there and that was part of the reason he did want to share the truth on Twitter when he replied in a way that got him in trouble. They had gone in this deep and wanted it to pay off. "Jailbreak" used up all of its allotted retakes trying to make it as good as it could be. Ian talks about the song aligning properly and how even the release of the song has its own story. Then they discuss the Stevenbomb format and the messed up airing order, which was upsetting to Rebecca because the details are important (and Garnet's outfit going back to her Season 1 design sticks out like a sore thumb in the out-of-order episodes). Rebecca brings up the "Say Uncle" crossover and how it focuses on Steven learning to summon his shield reliably, which is very important for him to actually be able to do in "The Return," so it's odd to see him struggling with it in a later episode (despite that it was intentionally non-canon).

Ian decides he wants to talk about the Undertale fan parody of "Stronger Than You." He describes how their song didn't get publicized by the network, not even with major releases like this song, so it didn't get posted for months. In the meantime, the Undertale fandom used "Stronger Than You" in a parody, and that became many fans' first exposure to the song. Ian thinks it's funny. The Undertale version still has way more views than the original song.

Austin wants to say one more thing, and it's about the ending gimmick of the episode with an iris out as Connie calls to find out what happened. Austin thinks that's a great way to remind people it's a cartoon, and Rebecca chimes in to say how it was always really important to them to keep the show funny. They also then discuss that the fans outside the network's intended demographic sometimes became possessive of the show to the point that they said it was NOT actually for kids and that THEY were the core audience, but Ian says it's not true that it's not for those kids. It's for them too, and some of the work they did on keeping it funny and accessible to them was just as important. Rebecca points out that some of the people now talking to them about the show WERE those children who were in the intended demographic. Rebecca loved the secondary audience but also enjoyed when whole families could enjoy it together, like they did as a child with their father.

There's some discussion about Cartoon Network's inability to properly advertise the show most of the time (though Rebecca acknowledges they were "being difficult" and they were kind of the wild card), and they really wanted the events to be hyped as much as something like a big Game of Thrones episode because that's the level of importance these revelations have to the core audience. And for clarification, Rebecca loved and respected the S&P department at the network. Those people are often really cool according to Ian, and they'll have very specific requests for changes (like "you can only say 'sucks' twice," while "blows" was more acceptable than "sucks"). They can find any which way something unintentional could be taken as dirty or objectionable.

Highlights from the podcast episode/discussion:

In introduction, we hear that the day of the podcast episode's release--10 years after the groundbreaking Steven Universe episode "Jailbreak" aired--it isn't so headline-inspiring to have queer content in a cartoon, but that was not the case when Ruby and Sapphire's same-sex relationship was featured in this season finale. We hear a short introduction from Rebecca (she/they) and Ian (he/him) about their roles on Steven Universe (including that they both boarded on the episode "Jailbreak," even though Rebecca was the only one of the two who was credited as a storyboarder, along with Jeff Liu and Joe Johnston of course). Host Brenda jokes that they can't believe they actually got the creator of Pug Davis on the show. (They talk a bit about the graphic novel too.)

The hosts describe the content of the episode "Jailbreak," and then they cut to another clip from Rebecca and Ian discussing the characters' kiss. They're Gems and kissing on the lips has no special meaning to them, so the fact that Sapphire kissed Ruby on the eye wasn't less intimate as far as they were concerned. They discuss how a bunch of the episodes were aired out of intended order. They mention the Uncle Grandpa crossover (mentioned to be one of Rebecca Sugar's favorites!) and the host Austin gets their wires crossed a bit here by claiming "Say Uncle" was supposed to air after "Jailbreak" but aired before (it was actually the other way around), and claimed that she had her post-"Jailbreak" outfit on in the episode (she didn't; again, other way around; Garnet is wearing her old outfit and that's why we know it's technically intentionally a Season 1 episode).

The host says "Jailbreak" aired as part of the first Stevenbomb (a special event where they'd show a bunch of episodes in a row, usually over the course of most or all of a week), and points out that Rebecca Sugar had no part in the decision to do Stevenbombs. That was all the network's decision. For some reason the host Austin continues getting their wires crossed by saying "Jailbreak" was the last episode in the first Stevenbomb (it wasn't; "Full Disclosure" was the final day) and claimed that "Say Uncle" was part of the Stevenbomb (it was not), and then they say some episodes from Season 2 got pushed into Season 2's Stevenbomb (they did not; none of the displaced Season 1 episodes were ever used in a Stevenbomb--they were "Open Book," "Shirt Club," and "Story For Steven," plus "Say Uncle," which all aired on their own days outside of promoted events).

Host Brenda admits they have only seen the first five episodes of SU and they joke about "Frybo" being cursed. The hosts discuss the impact of "Jailbreak" on Tumblr (which they say was perceived as a platform already losing popularity because you could no longer post tits on your blog; that timeline is also skewed because "Jailbreak" aired in 2015 and the "no female-presenting nipples" thing happened in 2018). They talk about the revelation that "the rocks are gay!" and how important this was for queer fans. They discuss the nature of fusion and how it's not really the same as being the components.

Another clip from the interview plays where Rebecca says they had to "get out from under the microscope" before they could show some of the queer content, which is why it was so comparatively late in the show when they started to reveal Garnet's relationship. They knew from working on Adventure Time that same-sex relationships were not allowed to be portrayed. Making this relationship part of the identity of a central character the audience already knows and loves helps ensure that they will get to keep the content.

Austin and Brenda talk about the influence of Steven Universe on the generation that grew up with it, how many queer young people learned how to embrace their identity through the example of the show (and learned other important lessons about friendship). They talk about how awesome the song "Stronger Than You" is and how it was such a great anthem for people who needed it. They talk about Estelle's music video for the song being made at Comic Con in 2017 and how it helped a lot of people who were scared during the first Trump administration.

They discuss how the Cartoon Network bigwigs might have reacted poorly to the interpretation that they'd "broken a rule" and portrayed a same-sex relationship, and how they had to take the chance. Austin claims that they got some pushback and finger-wagging, and that Rebecca rejected the idea that Ruby could be a boy, and that they didn't straight-up say they were a couple and hey, friends could be this close too. (This spin isn't typically how Rebecca talks about their approach to dealing with the criticism from above--the plausible deniability "well they could still be seen as friends!" angle doesn't mesh with other statements Rebecca has made, though Rebecca does sometimes emphasize that they are not "women" but "Gems.")

They suggest that the Steven Universe creators sort of out-manipulated Cartoon Network by sliding this in when Garnet was already so central and they've already made popular content and merch of her, so they wouldn't be able to object to it without risking "losing" one of their best shows. (This also feels a little different from the way they usually frame it too; I've never heard them suggest that they essentially played hardball and tricked them into airing queer content. Usually the way Rebecca tells it, they certainly fought against the bigoted feedback they received, but they did not hold a lot of cards in the situation, and every battle was another possibility that they would lose the show. "I'm a big shot, what're you gonna do about it?" isn't a sentiment I've heard from them.)

Austin brings up international queer stories in animation and how shows like Revolutionary Girl Utena and Sailor Moon featured queer characters long before we were able to do it in mainstream animation in the West. They talk about the international audience for Steven Universe and how Russia in particular was not willing to air queer content, and therefore they dubbed Ruby as a boy. (Author's note: This is actually true, but it's more complicated. Ruby's Russian voice actor is a woman, Larisa Brokhman, and though they did imply she's male by occasionally using the equivalent of he/him pronouns for her in earlier episodes, they mostly dealt with this by avoiding any wording that used pronouns for Ruby at all, followed by cutting and refusing to air every episode where she and Sapphire were flirty. After Russia stopped airing the show entirely, the subsequent episodes began to be dubbed with the correct she/her pronouns for Ruby, but they knew it would not be released publicly inside Russia and would only be available in underground copies. By the way, if anyone believes they edited footage of Ruby to put a mustache on her, that did not ever happen.)

The hosts share some frustration over the fact that the HD version of the song "Stronger Than You" did not come out until around two years after the original was released. The episode cuts to a clip of Ian Jones-Quartey discussing how Cartoon Network didn't do a good job promoting the shows on their network and didn't get around to posting "Stronger Than You" on their YouTube channel for promotion until months afterwards, but in the meantime the Undertale fandom gobbled it up and released a fan version people got addicted to. They discuss how funny it was that the Undertale version was a lot of people's first exposure to the song and some of the fans didn't know it came from SU. We hear another clip from Rebecca Sugar saying how the team backed them up on deciding to take this episode forward, to be who they are and not have Rebecca fighting alone for queer content anymore. Rebecca describes it as a personal turning point. Rebecca really wanted to reach queer kids with the microphone they had.

[novantinuum]

So, one of the interesting meta things I've been thinking about lately with SU: Future is that...

When Steven was wanting to "marry" Connie so he could fuse with her and live as Stevonnie (which, given Garnet is the biggest example of marriage in his life, is genuinely how he conceives of marriage now), he was in fact acting out with the same sort of "fusion lust" that Pearl experienced when she betrayed Garnet in the episode Cry for Help. He felt a surge of belonging and joy and love he probably hadn't experienced in a long while when he got to skate as Stevonnie in the previous episode, and then he just... got fixated on that, I think.

It's... a really good thing that he at least had the sense to ask permission from her instead of resorting to subterfuge like Pearl did, but regardless both Steven and Pearl had a similar brand of insecurities at play causing them to want to become something bigger than themselves.

"No matter how hard I try to be strong like you, I'm just a pearl! I'm useless on my own. I need someone... to tell me what to do." -Pearl, Friend Ship

"Wherever we go I already trust I'd know what to do if it were us I'd know what to say I'd know how to be I'd know your entire syllabus..." -Steven, "I'd Rather Be Me (With You)," Together Forever

Both of them felt directionless and powerless on their own at this point in their lives, and came to the conclusion that a fusion relationship with another person would somehow "fix" them, would somehow bring purpose to their lives they didn't have on their own before. Which, of course, was not the solution at all. Pearl had to deal with her deep-rooted insecurities about her former role on Homeworld on her own, and Steven had to wrestle with his own mental state in therapy in order to once again regain a sense of trajectory within his world.

All this to say though, I hope the two of them had a heart-to-heart about this at some point beyond canon, because I think they would have a lot to connect with on this topic.

[carionto]

C'mon, Really? Look, Just, Let Me Help You!

Humans: We need to have a talk about your secret war plans against us.

Aliens: W-what? No, that's not it, how-

H: Our intelligence operative are very good. Don't pretend these [throws folder on the table that scatters hundreds of pages of classified documents all over] aren't yours.

A: F-Fine! Yes! We made plans about how we should fight you if we ever got into a war. We admit it! What do you want?

H: Huh? No, what I'm trying to say is, why do your plans suck?

A: Err... what?

H: Yeah, compared to our plans and war games, you don't seem to utilize all the advantages you have against us. There's not as much coordination and specialization of forces as we expect in our simulations. What gives?

A: You've lost me.

H: Look, every civilization should run military simulations against EVERY existing party, not just the ones you're natural competitors, or ones you see as antagonistic. Hell, while we were "vanished" our military literally had nothing else to do and spent a solid 200 years making up every kind of scenario against every single potential power we might end up encountering once we "reappeared".

Honestly, there are so many things we are shocked about once we got our hands on your plans, I legitimately don't know where is the best place to begin.

Okay, for starters, why don't any of your plans include making use of our superior technology? It would work, we tested it as well. We built a scale model of one of your capital ships, plopped one of our fusion reactors in and BAM, shields and weapons instantly became on par with our Destroyers, and could even do some serious damage to our Dreadnoughts (for a few seconds before our counterattack vaporizes it, but that's besides the point), so we know your technology is fully capable of handling us.

A: For the millionth time, we are not using unstable power sources that could totally blow us up at any point!

H: It is safe! Those things only have a 0.002 percent chance to fail, and a one in six hundred thousand chance of THAT resulting in an explosion. We've only had twelve incidents the entire time we've been using them.

A: No.

H: Well you ain't winning a war against us with that attitude.

But anyway, one other thing your plans never do is blow up Earth and irradiate the shipyard orbits, what gives?

A: That's an abominable crime against, well, EVERYTHING!

H: Weak. But okay. One other thing though, and this one is just baffling, your deployments and gathering locations are always in the most obvious and convenient places. Those are, no joke, where we would place recon units and prepare ambushes the moment we even got a hint of a whiff of hostility from you. How come you never seem to account for us expecting you to do the obvious and pre-emptively counter that. And inversely, you never expect us to not be in the logical places where we should be.

A: I think my head is spinning from that. What?

H: Reverse psychology? Predictive behavior, or whatever it's called, not a psychologist. If you want to win against your enemy, you have to think like your enemy first.

You look dizzy. I know it's a lot to take in, but we'll guide you through this. Think of it as homework. After we have a more thorough meeting on this subject, we'll wait and let you figure things out back in your secret HQ's. But, if the plans we acquire later still won't account for the things we discussed, we'll be very disappointed.

[dragqueenstarscream]

Personally, I'd kill for a Starop fic/ onshot where Starscream finally manages to cut ties with Megatron and it's just fluff of Optimus comforting him and assuring him it was the right thing to do, that everything will be ok for the both of them

-💌 anon

i wanna scream at the top of my lungs

tfp starscream x optimus prime

i've been waiting for an excuse to write something like this! i already have a fic like this planned for my monsterformers continuity, but let's do one for tfp because i just really want starscream to stick it to this particular megatron.

title comes from "lost in the ocean" by glass animals.

contains: established relationship, starscream leaving megatron, implied abuse, angst, fluff, optimus being a supportive partner

the night sky stretched on endlessly over jasper, nevada as the town slept below. apart from a few busy establishments, the people had turned in for the night. the same couldn't be said for the autobots, who were living it up in the omega base, passing around high grade and celebrating a hard fought victory.

away from them, though, sitting on a cliffside, sat one bot in deep contemplation.

starscream looked a mess. though ratchet had patched up his injuries, he still had filth packed into his seams and a smear of energon along his jaw. his thick brows were furrowed in concentration, as if pondering some impossible question.

but one thing stood out above all else.

starscream was alive.

he couldn't believe it himself, the more he thought about it. sure, the evidence for him being alive was right there; he could see the sky above him, feel the ground beneath his pedes, hear the night breeze swirling around his wings. but he felt as if it shouldn't be real. this existence, this reality was obviously nothing more than the dreams of a dying bot, and they would fade any minute now as he joined with the allspark.

but they never faded, and he never died.

the planet turned. the stars above passed by. the night grew shorter. the world moved on.

but starscream still felt stuck in place. mentally, whenever he lost focus of his environment, he found himself back outside the nemesis, daring to look megatron in the eye while his leader held his fusion cannon to his head. he couldn't bring himself out of that standstill. how could he? he was about to die. how could he move on when he was staring death in the face?

the stars drifted by overhead like ships on a glassy black ocean. a lone car drove by on the highway far below. the world moved on.

the sound of heavy thumps tugged starscream out of his thought spiral. for a moment, he thought that megatron had come to finish the job, but he knew the sound of his leader's steps from anywhere.

former leader. he had to keep reminding himself that.

"starscream?" a familiar rumble of a voice said from behind him. of course. it was optimus, doing his team leader duty, as usual.

"what do you want?" starscream grumbled, pulling his knees closer to his chest.

"ratchet told me i'd find you up here," optimus said. he came up on starscream's right and took his seat at the cliffside. the two bots stayed quiet for a few moments until optimus broke the silence. "how are you feeling?"

"how do you think i'm feeling?" starscream snorted derisively. "i'm now public enemy number one of the entire decepticon legion."

optimus only nodded, and his silence allowed starscream some more time to vent. "i can't believe i did that. i can't believe i actually did that. what kind of glitchhead says something like that?"

"what do you mean?" optimus asked, turning to look at starscream.

"what are you- i told megatron to go frag himself!" starscream exclaimed. "no one does that unless they have a death wish!"

"starscream," optimus started to say, but starscream wasn't done rambling.

"i should be offline," he said bluntly, getting up and starting to pace back and forth. "i shouldn't even be here. i told him off, and now, the entire decepticon legion will come for me."

"starscream," optimus spoke up, but starscream had more to say.

"why am i still here?" starscream asked, shaking his head, optics turned skyward. "i don't even know how i'm still online! primus, optimus, he had his cannon to my head! i can still feel it! and yet i told him to his face to stick it up his aft! how am i still here? how am i still online?!"

"starscream."

the stern tone of optimus' voice made starscream jump. he fell silent as he looked over to his partner, whose face was now fixed in a hard countenance. after a minute's quiet, optimus' face softened, and he began to speak again.

"you're scaring yourself with things that never happened," he said. "there's no need to be saying that you should be dead, because you aren't. you survived."

"but why?" starscream asked. "i still can't process it."

"because you were right," optimus said, "and megatron knew it. you may have been his second in command, but you were also his tool."

"what do you mean by that?" starscream asked.

"he used you to instill fear in the others," optimus explained. "you were an example he would set to the other decepticons. he needed you to exert his authority over them. now, with you gone, he doesn't have that weapon anymore."

"how do you know any of this? you weren't even there to witness it," starscream huffed.

"because i know that side of megatron very well," optimus sighed. "i know how ruthless he can be. you are not the only one he has hurt."

starscream didn't say anything. he knew the history that optimus and megatron had once shared. of course optimus knew what megatron was like. arguably, optimus knew him better than anyone else.

"i suppose you're right," starscream mumbled after an awkward silence as he sat back down, knees curled to his chest. it was the closest thing to an apology that he could muster at the moment.

"this was a long time coming," optimus said.

"too long," starscream grumbled, resting his forehead against his knees.

"either way," optimus said, "you did the right thing."

"by what? running?" starscream barked out a laugh. "i just did what i've always done."

"starscream, i was there with you," optimus said. "i saw what really happened. i saw you stand before megatron and choose to live for yourself, rather than him."

"optimus, i could've offlined where i stood," starscream snarled. "he had his cannon to my head!"

"and yet you stood your ground," optimus continued. "you made him back down. that takes incredible courage."

starscream huffed and turned his head away. "the only reason he left was because you were there to kick his aft if he tried anything," he sneered. in a quiet tone, he added, "that's the only reason i could stand up to him at all."

"starscream, no one else could've done what you did back there," optimus insisted. "and there is no shame in having someone to support you. i couldn't have made it as far as i have in this war without the autobots by my side. none of us have gone through this war alone, and no one is expecting you to do so." he reached out and wrapped his arm around starscream's waist, an invitation for a hug. "though we all have our own battles to fight, it doesn't mean we have to fight alone."

starscream sighed and moved closer to optimus, leaning into his touch. optimus gently squeezed his waist and turned to kiss him on his temple.

"do you remember what you told him?" optimus asked. "right at the end?"

"of course i do," starscream snipped. he took a deep invent, then said, in a calmer tone, "i told him, 'you need me, but i will never need you again.'"

"you said the right thing," optimus reassured him. "you won't ever have to go back to him again."

"you know he'll come looking for me," starscream huffed. "he doesn't like it when his prey gets away."

"if he ever comes back," optimus began, but starscream interrupted him.

"when he comes back," starscream corrected him.

"if he ever comes back," optimus insisted, "we're here for you." he squeezed starscream's side and said, "i'm here for you."

starscream chuckled and laid his head on optimus's side. "i know you are."

optimus smiled and kissed starscream again. "i'm proud of you, sweetspark. i love you."

"the feeling's mutual, you overgrown sap," starscream smirked, which made optimus chuckle warmly.

"the others are inside awaiting your presence, if you'd like to see them," optimus informed starscream. "i have to say, they're rather impressed with your bravery."

"as they should be," starscream joked. "not many people have told megatron to shove his cannon up his aft and survived."

optimus shook his head and laughed as he rose to his pedes. he reached one servo out to starscream, who gladly accepted and pulled himself up. together, the two autobots made their way back into the base, ready to return to the party bulkhead had set up for them.

the stars turned as the night passed on. wispy clouds drifted by. insects flitted back and forth along the wind. the world moved on.

and starscream knew, deep in his spark, that he would, too.

[zeevoidlight]

what's the deal with these two...

Seriously. Why is the suspicion and joking of their bromance even a thing that exists (outside of just shipping for shipping's sake and ppl making every male friendship a secretly frustrated gay relationship). Is it even a thing?

Do I ship Goku and Vegeta?... yes.. yes I do, I confess myself as part of the problem. But I feel is fair that in a show like Dragon Ball where there's sexually mature references and themes at times I can give myself the freedom to wonder. So i'mmana talk about two pivotal moments that marked a before and after for both of them together as a team: their Majin saga match and the fusion.

//////

As far as the show goes, there's not really much to go off of. They clearly both have their wives whom they both love very much, children, they love to battle and test themselves, they are bros (now at least), rivals for life, they better each other by challenging one another to get better.

On the other hand my autism tells me that that's not the whole story. Because I normally don't like to take things at face value when i can see more.

Is interesting to see how both, Goku's compassion and respect for Vegeta, and Vegeta's (albeit unhealthy) obsession over Goku, the fact that they were also the last of their kind and the only ones that could compete with each other to fight between themselves and against others (discounting Gohan since he always slacked on his training and wasn't really interested on fighting), the only ones that could understand how the other felt as being pure blooded, that Goku had a living example in Vegeta of his true origins to learn more about himself (like a walking Saiyan enciclopedia), that Vegeta had in Goku a new purpose in life (until he realized what he had with his family as well), all of that with time combined to create a dynamic where they both felt comfortable with each other, it made them be naturally closer than the rest of the cast (even if it was in rivalry terms). They famously became companions, with time forming friendship/friendly rivalry and some could even see them now being akin to brothers. Something that as much as Krilin was Goku's life long friend and will be forever he could never really fulfill all that Vegeta came to develop with Goku. And in a way I don't think anyone can either.

But there's also an important note to make about this relationship/friendship. Vegeta is the one that gives it more meaning than Goku does (at first). I feel like Goku is simply being his loving caring happy free self, while Vegeta takes it personal and takes so much weight on what Goku says and does and how it affects him (like Goku is just vibing while Vegeta is oozing jealousy towards Goku). As he later puts in words in Super (Granola arc i think), Goku is an egotist while he himself is an egocentric. And that difference is important to get to the point because from now on for a while the question is "Why does Vegeta".

Why does Vegeta put so much weight in their fight in the Majin Saga that he's willing to kill innocent people again just to have a match with Goku (going with the latin dub again since is more accurate to the original japanese one). And it isn't just about his ego, is about what he doesn't say as well.

Why is Vegeta the only character that is so against fusion, with Goku specifically because he has only fused with him and we don't know how would he react to fusing with someone else if it's needed.

Why is Vegeta so averse to touching Goku. At least after their fight and after him dying in the Majin Saga and once he is allowed to go back to Earth.

Why on the brink of the universe destruction was Vegeta acting like a cheated on girlfriend when he discovered that Goku had a new transformation and didn't told him about it (I would be mad at him too to be fair but i also understand why Goku wouldn't want to do so and he did it to not hurt Vegeta's feelings and have a good time under fair conditions. he gets half a point for the sentiment).

The Majin Saga

From all the examples people like to pull up when trying to argument sexual tension between these two there's only a few that I feel have some significance. And I can tell you when did it cooked enough to be a possibility. And that is right when Goku announced he was going to go back to Earth for one day and one day only, presumably forever. That's where something started, but it was brewing since Goku died to Cell and Vegeta lost Goku, his purpose, his obsession, his will to fight, and entered a depressive episode that lasted 2 years (aprox, since Bulma tells Chichi that Vegeta had been training for the last 5 years in the 7 year time skip). He honestly was a mess of a person right around that time. He couldn't even call himself a warrior under his own standards, he was trying to cope with the fact that he messed up with future Trunks and would have to change with his own present Trunks, he got stuck not being able to prove himself, etc.

Once he knew Goku was coming back he just had to do anything in his power to fight against him again, no matter what it took (he looks so excited too, that's cute). His entire meaning as the person he perceived he was and his meaning as a warrior and Goku's foil depended on it. He actually was in good terms with Goku up to here though (while in the Cell saga he was pretty much amicably antagonizing Goku for the most part, and the other spent feeling jealous). Agreeing to the tournament rules, being patient, enjoying meals together, bragging about his kid. But after realizing that they might not have their match because of Supreme Kio's pink menace, nothing else mattered, not Bulma, not Trunks, not the Earth or the universe or everything he had been building for so many years without Goku. Goku was the single catalyst for his relapse. Like... how is it possible that fighting with him and proving his worth is more important that it's been a rock in his boots for years now. But ok, he's a warrior so I can understand why, also because he was going through a Major (with capital M) identity crisis where he's trying to negate his newfound value in his family and new home while thinking that is what was making him weak, though he never really believed that since he knew Goku never needed to be cruel to surpass him, it was just a jolt reaction to not knowing how to handle it, and Goku could see through that very clearly by asking him if he really believed that bs about feeling good by being cruel and being a slave of his own mind.

But the thing is that during their fight it is clear that more than winning (which he would have enjoy to no end if they finished their fight and Goku didn't had a new plot convenient powerup hiding under his eyebrows again, though that wouldn't have helped him to grow), both were very much enjoying the act of fighting (since Goku said he wanted to end the fight soon so Buu doesn't get the energy but he didn't because he could have used Ssj3 and end it quite fast), Vegeta fighting against his previous rival now a bit more than that, Kakarot. Battling with him in perfect synchrony in an equal fight because what Vegeta actually wanted with the Majin Magic was to close the powergap and convince himself he had an excuse to not feel remorse because of the magic. And i say that because before Goku dying to Cell he really saw him as competition, but after he lost him i feel that alongside his remorse and embarrassment for the disaster that was that saga, in part because of his gigantic ego, he must have felt alone, now truly being the last pure blooded Saiyan alive and not in condition to call himself a warrior anymore under his own standards. And although he had Gohan, which he respected a lot because of his courage and his immense power, it was not the same since Gohan is a pacifist and didn't had the same passion for fighting like a pure blooded Saiyan so he wasn't even training. So by the time of the Majin Saga and once Goku came into the picture again I think he subconsciously regarded him differently and he ends up realizing it during their fight (although he doesn't vocalize it).

During their fight there's a specific moment. After Goku throws Vegeta to a cliff-side and he makes a hole in it to liberate himself with his ki, Goku comes to him and they both get very close just floating in the air and powering up, looking at each other. Vegeta is beyond pissed, Goku taking the fight very seriously. Then Goku smiles to Vegeta challenging him and showing he's enjoying their fight, and Vegeta relaxes for a moment changing his attitude and showing a smile back to him in empathy, sharing to him that he is enjoying it too and wants to challenge him back as well.

This whole fight is Goku's way to show Vegeta how much he actually cares about him and his well being despite what Vegeta might have believed up until then, how much he respects him as a warrior and an equal too, even risking Earth and Majin Buu's return. He did the unthinkable and menaced Kaio Shin with death if he dared to stop their fight, which Vegeta sure noticed and even reacted with complete disbelief. As Supreme Kaiosama says to Gohan and the others in the wasteland: "we cannot do anything about it. Fight until you can calm your hearts", because even Kaio Shin knew that they weren't going to actually kill themselves, they just had to talk (while fighting).

I know a lot of people joke about Vegeta being a repressed homosexual (or technically bisexual because y'know there's Bulma) because of his legendary obsession with Goku, and i'm not saying he is, but this fight is charged with sexual tension, mostly on his part, among other things of course. And is interesting that Vegeta, ever since the Namek experience (which was the first time in his life he was emotionally vulnerable to the point of breaking entirely), is the most emotionally fragile of the bunch and an unstable character. He feels everything very intensely like an open wound, and reacts in the same way while trying to hide under a curtain of pride, ego and his title of Prince (I mean, he's the one that actually openly cries the most out of frustration after Namek, just for starters).

Goku knew what he was getting into by agreeing to fight with Vegeta. He wasn't going to just let them set the score, he was going to give Vegeta the most intense therapy session ever by letting him discharge all that literal energy and anger, guiding him through his thoughts, playing by Vegeta's rules. Help him overcome whatever he had been brewing in his mind since they day they met thinking on where was the moment everything went wrong for years, so he could move forward...

And then... this happens...

... I don't think anyone expected something like this to even be a thing that he could do as a power that we will only see one time ever in the entirety of the show from him and is in here, lol. And not long ago I watched a semi abridged semi analysis commentary video on the fight and yeah, we coincide that there was something else going on here at the same time. Vegeta got a little too excited... He got rock hard by too much adrenaline (or testosterone, endorphins... i know science ok?), lol. And I didn't mentioned it but being that Saiyans were a warrior culture there exists some real life relation of warrior societies (like greeks, romans, spartans, norse, some aztec societies) and homoerotic practices as part of that philosophy and way of life. Fighting is everything and everything revolves around fighting. And finding a brother in arms could develop into something else (call it love or getting physical or whatever) out of admiration, or from hyper-masculinity with the purpose of dominating the other and demonstrating power by physically making every other man your peach and the others are like "wow, a man dominating a man? that's so mainly". And i'm not saying that that was part of Saiyan culture, just that there might be some similarities with what we're seeing.

There's a fine line between pain and pleasure, hate and love, fear and excitement, rivalry and attraction. And in moments of intensity where both opposite feelings collide can produce an equally intense and confusing response. We know for sure Saiyans by nature often confuse fear an excitement, and rivalry with attraction at least, like Goku when he confesses his motives and feelings on his first fight with Vegeta. And here Vegeta is going through a rollercoaster of emotions, and given that he is the most emotionally charged character it can go all places.

So, Vegeta tells Goku if he pretends to defeat him quickly as he said, Goku responds that he's trying to do that, and Vegeta asks if he thinks he can do it *slap slap* (the disrespect). He's trying to provoke him but the way he does it is kinda similar to what you'd do in a sexual encounter since he's not really hurting him too badly (which is really funny). And I'm pretty sure he wasn't thinking about anything sexual, just pure anger towards our buddy Kakarot, that doesn't change the fact that he did just lost his marbles to blind rage and wasn't thinking at all, just feeling intensely and acting freely on it. "Listen... don't you think this is enough humiliation I got from your part *hit hit punch hit*. This attacks are not enough to set the score. How is it possible that a Prince of Saiyans, that possesses such a great pride, was humiliated by a warrior like you (In the English version there's a series of flashbacks with dialogue but that's not a thing in the japanese and latin version so he continues...). What saddens me the most is that you saved my life, worm (he's referring to way back in the saiyan saga when they first met since for a warrior is way worse offense to get their death in battle denied since he now has to suffer all what he's been through for the simple fact of having been spared=being an embarrassment). You deserve to die! I'll break you to pieces right now! I'll start with the arm...".

((You got this guy having Goku in all tied up to a rock, legs spread out, slapping Goku in the face, talking about "not being enough humiliation", and saying "this attacks are not enough", all emotionally charged and intense with his obsession of a rival, high in endorphins and adrenaline, from a warrior culture, that even back in the day I was like OH MY GOOOOD!? What is he going to DO?!!... He wouldn't do it, would he?... The Buu saga was a return to form to OG DB's general feeling and tone, and if it was OG DB this scene would be absolutely interpreted as having that kind of hidden meaning even if nothing would have actually end up happening, though is still a very bold move in terms of sexual themes, just like that scene in OG DB with Bulma and the two RR soldiers. I was sweating cold, that when I heard him say "I'll break you to pieces right now! I'll start with the arm" I was like OH THANK GOODNESS he's just going to mutilate him... NO, WAIT...)) (also, notice that Vegeta is technically fighting a ghost because Goku is already dead).

Unfortunately for Goku though Vegeta didn't share the safe word and he had to free himself so he wasn't actually dismembered by the intensity of Prince Vegeta and they continued their fight, once again Goku leveling the field into a in a less emotionally charged more equal fight all things considered (while also mutually complimenting their fighting prowess). They talk again and Vegeta admits to him that he understands that he's never going to surpass him because Goku is more skilled at fighting, now getting into the real meat of the matter with him and his frustrations.

We get to Vegeta almost breaking in tears again, torn by the realization of his situation confessing all about how he wants to be who he was as a warrior and how he cannot cope with his new life on Earth having all this new feelings for his family and being passive that make him feel like he is not himself. That he wants to be ruthless like before because what the hell is even being anything else, that's a thing of weaklings. Which tells a lot about how he still doesn't know how to function outside of conflict and his deeply rooted self image since childhood. I mean... this kid (Vegeta) doesn't know anything other than living in conflict, constant stress, anger, and feeling in danger all the time before and during Frieza. He was around 31 years old when he could finally be free. And to me it says that it almost feels to him like he's afraid of disappearing as an individual if he cannot go back to being something he recognizes and is familiar with as he doesn't recognize himself being something else underneath of what he's saying. A who that is completely opposite to what he has ever known. Is something some people that had lived through a deeply traumatic upbringing experience. On top of it being a Saiyan it must have been really confusing and difficult because their nature and culture is nothing like that of earthlings, Saiyan's are naturally built to fight, but Goku is the only one that could probably understand that in some capacity as pure blooded Saiyan that managed to adapt to Earth. That's why he is the only person Vegeta can trust with this information, and because Vegeta genuinely trusts him. With no one else he has this level of openness, probably not even with Bulma.

And i love how Goku doesn't give up on him though after everything and he is still willing to listen and help. Without his help here Vegeta wouldn't have confronted and put into words his reality to later internalize it and fully embrace his love for his family, fully embrace his feelings, giving Trunks later his first hug. That was all Goku's doing.

Of course things happened since they were still in the middle of total annihilation at the hands of the strongest pink ball of bubblegum. and from this fight and his explosive sacrifice/ acceptance of his destiny, going forward Vegeta actually starts acting a little different. A lot more relaxed with Kakarot, more open and sincere, more focused on helping than competing, more agreeable (without betraying his character though) and no longer ignoring or being embarrassed of his feelings for his loved ones (like we see when he gets convinced by Goku to do the fusion using Vegeta's love for Bulma). And I'm pretty sure he felt grateful and in debt to him. Not only for his help with unjumbling his feelings during that fight but for everything he's done for him since the day Goku spared his life way back in the day (as we see him asking to Piccolo if he'll get to see Goku in the afterlife just before he sacrifices). A real true honest best friend/rival for life (like we see evident in the movie Fusion Reborn, which is supposed to happen after his sacrifice in an alternate timeline where both Goku and Vegeta die and Gohan is the one that defeats Buu).

Though he still was being a bit stubborn about wanting to fight Buu himself in the anime, but in the manga he just doesn't charge head first into trying to battle him, he just doesn't like the idea of fussing with Kakarot.

Then the fusion thing...

The thing about the fusion is that Vegeta usually never wants to do it because he's embarrassed by the dance (which yeah... that's absolutely fair) but this is not the metamoran one, is the Potara, and they don't need to dance. His usual complains then change to "I just don't like to be fused with him" or "I don't like the idea of uniting bodies with him" when they have to do it later (either in canon or movie, though the "I don't like to use shortcuts to fight" frequently comes as a reason but is always after they already did the fusion). And I don't know how doing a fusion with someone would feel like but the Potara at least has two ways it can go. For the Kaios just one person becomes the main, getting some physical characteristics and power of the other, and the other becomes dormant, just one person gets to be conscious. But for mortals, both actually remain conscious and they both "live" inside the body of each other as one new combined persona who is a combined identity, mixing mentally and physically, sharing memories, thoughts, feelings, everything in unison either the other wants it or not because when they are fused they are cooperating in a single brain so they think the same under this persona even if later they have separate thoughts on the same thing when they un-fuse. One example of how the logic of it is is in the Super Super Hero movie, where right after the battle with Cell Max Gotenks makes a comment to Bulma and she says "that was Trunks, wasn't it?!", and Gotenks panics and they separate, implying that even if it's a combined identity they still are conscious inside separately and can "influence" their thoughts to act more like so or so, like there's a dominant consciousness guiding the other at times. The fusion is even better actually if they are rivals because they get the rival boost. So is not too crazy to think that some would consider it a very intimate act, even more because is permanent (until the retcon), which Goku is so considerate to tell Vegeta at the very last minute and he's like "WTF!" and Goku is just down with it while Vegeta is regretting ever meeting this guy but does it anyways.

And we have seen other characters combine but they don't think much about it, Trunks and Goten specifically just find it fun because they are best friends and just think about having the time of their lives beating up the bad guys. But I think Vegeta specifically does feel like it's something too personal and intimate that requires a lot his will power to do. His concept of it is different for a lot of reasons that all derive from being a very reserved person in general in many aspects, so he is trusting his entire being and accepting opening to Goku here, and to a degree loose control of himself in an give-and-take act, because he is not silly like Goku but under the fusion he is going to be and act silly alongside him because there's no me and you under it, even switch his brain into feeling it's natural. Same with Goku and being more cruel and mock their opponent more even if he usually would feel is something he wouldn't do.

Ultimately and reluctantly Vegeta agrees for the sake of his loved ones and saving his new home, which is wild to me because he does sacrifices everything he is with the fusion being permanent since just a few hours ago he was just accepting himself as an individual. The pressure was really high.

Goku certainly didn't thought much about it though, just another way to become even stronger by cooperating with someone in a new way for the purpose of saving Earth, and simply not loose the battle for the sake of not loosing itself. He considered his options with others purely strategically without thinking what it could mean outside of that for him as an individual in that moment, because he did understood that if he fused with Gohan for example he thought for a moment if that would mean he would have to go to Gohan's school after they win, but in that moment he was definitely panicking for options just to win the battle and then later he could think about the consequences, as always (he was seriously considering fusing with Mr Satan permanently at the lack of strategic options! How desperate and out of your mind can you get!).

Out of all people it was better if it's Vegeta when he detected his ki of course, because the power boost is much greater to save the Earth and he considers him different at this point, someone he likes better as a selfless guy after his valiant sacrifice. He's so excited when Vegeta accepts because it means so much, it's the demonstration to Goku of his turn to an actual good guy, fighting for others and not just himself, and he's so proud. And the result of the fusion is this very playful, sassy confident and cocky warrior that we all know and love because is the best thing ever and I don't have Vegetto favoritism.

But something did changed in both of them after the fusion. I know is an anime only thing for better pacing (at least until Super came and made it a thing again in small ways of its own), but after the fusion thing Goku started to unnecessarily get into Vegeta's personal space more (I mean, I don't think there's anything more intimate than fussing and you'd have to get a level of trust and understanding with that other person like with no one else ever afterwards regardless). Like, I like that when they do the cheek to cheek attack, which again was completely unnecessary, Vegeta feels dirty about it, even muttering to himself "He's an opportunist...(as in like, Goku was sexuality taking advantage of him) I would have preferred the fusion" and Goku asks him is he's finished blasting Buu bits and Vegeta recoils and yells "Don't get close to me!". (In the manga there's not really that much fuss about it when they separate, they just get to work and directly from separating to Buu's brain).

The fusion represents the pinnacle of their growth together as fighting partners (and partners in general). Probably even more than that at this point for how much they share as rivals and how much they understand about each other above any other person, including their own wives in some regards for all they have gone through on things only they can share between themselves like their love for battle.

And if they both were friendly before while still keeping their cards up, now is when they start to act more like brothers and cooperating. Goku with his power and techniques and Vegeta with his strategic planing at the end of the Buu saga. Goku even becomes more playful with Vegeta, even sharing funny moments together. And as pointed out, I believe the fusion made them know the thinking, memories and intentions of the other to a degree.

This is the turning point for Goku as well regarding accepting his heritage as Saiyan. Because from then on he also accepts the values of the Saiyans as warriors (when before he would be more likely against it) and accepts feeling pleasure in having a good fair honorable fight without aid and relying only in his strength and talent just for the thrill he gets of it (much like what he felt as a child/teen), which he demonstrates by breaking the second pair of Potara earrings while Vegeta responds by telling him that he's so proud of him for going into the fight the Saiyan way. Also from then on others start to recognize Goku fully as a Saiyan (so much is the influence Vegeta has had on him that in the Super Broly movie Goku introduces himself to Broly, a fellow Saiyan, as Kakarot first over Goku).

Now, about Vegeta with the fusion, if he wasn't too sure about the fusion first, now every time the fusion is required he almost feels violated by the suggestion (which right before the kid Buu fight he actually didn't mind fusing again and kinda wanted it in the anime while this wasn't in the manga but ok). And of course, if he didn't had much thoughts on getting close and personal with Goku when battling because it meant nothing (like the arm riding in the Saiyan saga and their almost gory bondage session prior), now he recoils from him in certain situations (it... also didn't help that the first time they fuse they went dick first...).

Also also, there's a moment in the manga when Goku is fighting kid Buu in Ssj3 where Vegeta tells Goku that he guessed Goku was fighting overtime because he never intended for Vegeta to have his turn (because if he dies he dies for real), and Goku says that is not that, that he is just looking for an opportunity to reunite his power for at least a minute, and Vegeta gets all tsundere, blushes and says "So... So you weren't doing it to protect me?!..." (lol, well, here's the latin translation but you get the idea)

And onto Super, they made this thing about Goku asking Vegeta to grab his hand in order to instant transmission but Goku knows very well that's not necessary, he could have said to Vegeta to grab his shoulder like others do but he wants him to grab his hand, and Vegeta gets all flustered and nervous every time as if people are going to make fun of him for being gay or something (since we are told by the Pilaf gang that holding hands is very romantic and a sign of being a couple, and something to be embarrassed about, although from a childish perspective of course but this information was set up for the audience when Trunks wanted to hold hands with Mai). Like... Goku, do you have something to share as well?

They later spent 3 years in the hyperbolic chamber at Goku's request... 3 years together just sparing in a void where there's nothing but infinity and them! (At most they had spent not even two weeks of net interaction prior to that in all the years they have known each other, mostly just in times of conflict and as enemies/rivals/competition, and now they'll spend three years doing what they both love to do the most in friendly terms getting to know each other, just the two of them, are you kidding me?!!) which again, it wasn't really necessary because as Vegeta points out that wasn't going to make much of a difference in terms of power because they are at their limit of what their bodies can achieve by just fighting, and three years is a bit too much. And Bulma even got jealous/angry about Vegeta accepting the invitation. I know Goku went around asking a lot of other people the same request before him, but also everyone in the room (well Bulma and Piccolo) suddenly were paying A LOT of attention in that moment he asked Vegeta and what was he going to answer.

And then! They come out like they did? Matching beards? Truly looking like Spartans for real?! I kinda want to wonder how that came to be. A dare? They broke the razor or what. Obviously the implication is that they got so into their fighting that they just forgot basic higiene those last days but like... I don't even have to try...

It's become such a well known thing that there's something going on that even in official material (not canon exactly but official) acknowledges it. Maybe Goku knows something we don't since the fusion happened but it goes a little beyond just a joke from his part XD.

And i haven't talked about it because contrary to Vegeta Goku is very straightforward, but Goku has no shame or filter. He does seem to display asexual tendencies, but he's either oblivious to sexual stuff at times and how it affects others, or does it on purpose because he feels not much about it but does know how it affects others. So that cheek to cheek attack could have been Goku being oblivious, or Vegeta was right and Goku took advantage of the situation to get close to Vegeta on purpose. He's also known since always to not really care about the social conventions of things. He's a good guy, but he's also reckless, impulsive at times, and if he wants something he'll just get it without thinking of what are others going to think about it.

In GT there's actually not too much, they just remain companions and friends for life...(Is just so cute and fulfilling seeing them being like brothers). Vegeta again reminiscing of everything they've gone through and accepting his role in the powerscale and being very freaking cute with Bulma, being such a dad and all. The highlight is the fusion again though, where Vegeta is the one that says he wants to do the fusion "So what have you decided, Kakarot. Are we going to do the fusion or not", to which Goku just laughs and Vegeta is like "what are you laughing at", and Goku responds saying that "I'm not laughing, I just feel happy because is the first time you ask ME to do the fusion", and Vegeta is just averts his eyes and says "I hate you...", lol.

Of course, the bromance tones might be just fanservice (I didn't knew that in shonen is actually very common but if it is that way I'd argue is exactly because of these two since they were the OGs). But either if there's something or not I don't really care much about that. Because as characters I have seen them grow so much and they have learn so much about themselves and each other that them possibly being into each other might as well be just another aspect they allow themselves to explore if they're down with it, with whatever canon or the anime presents us to see and guess, just like they have with their own families, wives, form friendships, discover new feelings, ways of thinking, how they have become stronger and how they have change the people around them, meta speaking as well. Because it does feel natural for them, like it didn't came out of nowhere or out of purely fanservice (which it kind of is but it does make sense). Either they are just friends, honorary brothers or something more I'm happy with who they have become thanks to each other. And the trust they have for each other is what is beautiful to see reflected. I'm so proud of them and what they have achieved. Now they are inseparable as the best duo in history.

And in my conclusions I would say that Vegeta might feel something towards Goku for how much he has helped him and how he has come to admire and respect him in levels unimaginable... in a spartan kinda way if you like and if he ever was down with it. And Goku is just Goku. He loves in a storge kind of way because that's what he does. He knows Vegeta to a T, knows what he needs, and wants him to be happy as well and become the better version of himself, to feel comfortable and feel loved too because he admires him as well, and if he can help him he will do so. Is not really a physical sexual attraction (which doesn't mean it cannot derive on one if you want and as we've seen, specially with Goku) but there IS attraction and love in a different way.

[yanderefarm]

i mean fish have very weird/freaky (at least to our grounded-mammalian standards) mating/pregnancy procedures like,,,

clownfish (trans fish), anglerfish (literal fusion), seahorse (males kangaroo the baby), sharks (literal colosseum in the womb), octopi (they have to be virgins to live)...

and male ones are the ones with the most nesting/territorial instincts...so... comparatively, behaviorally speaking... he's basically masc nephyte at the very least. that and the 'haha seahorse dad'.

i think merman would work similar to other aquatic mammalians??? like orcas or whales, they're kinda matrialchal? often mermaids are depicted as women so... maybe they are matriarchal? afaik lots of fish have males as the bottom of the ladder.

and i think him having weird fish instincts would mesh well with the unknowingly-courting-him darling has w/ him and the yan aspect... especially with more sadistic darling... like a weird fish version of w/e a male mantis/spider has for their partners or smth... and to differentiate him further from nephy, it could be an actual instinctual thing instead of prejudice / weird misoginy? not like noemi or achilles. like, actual instict/need.

or he's an actually normal, army veteran but with fish fins and stockholm syndrome. idk, spitballing some ideas since i didn't see him have a lot of opportunity for his yandere-ness to shine.

can't believe i'm creating worldbuilding for some fictional man.

god now i cant stop thinking about him having claspers and it's not even in the horny way.

-👻 (i feel like i should've been 🤓 all along /joking)

NERD

no actually that makes a lot of sense I didn't even think about it. he probably like always assumed he would be the one courting a big strong mermaid who can crush him and then you just casually pick him up and he's flustered. like "oh no. this human is really strong and also nurturing... like the perfect husband..."

and i really like the idea of him instinctively being like praying mantis where he expects to knock you up and then get his head eaten. and instead youre sadistic but you always keep him alive. i can imagine him asking himself what he's doing wrong!! why isn't he a good enough mate to get killed c'mon man :(

that also gives a new light to the cannibal stuff because like... imagine he's torn between the horror and fear of humans and the instinctive arousal of being a source of sustenance for his mate.

i imagined his yandere as relatively harmless. he likes stalking you and sinking ships that get near you but I actually like this more. the idea that he ends up ripping apart anything that comes near you before he can even understand what he's doing.

i also like the idea of him having this instinct to lure you into the water, he wants to drown you but he also knows that would mean losing you and he really doesn't want that.

[starlit1daydream]

hello, do you have any personal HCs for jade?

homestuck tumblr on their way to immediately zero in on all my favourite characters (thank you chat)

Starting off incredibly dumb, but... textually, I think she'd have a British accent. Think about it. The only person who'd have been able to teach the girl to speak would have been Grandpa Harley. Just take that how you will, honestly.

I think she'd have had some trouble starting up and getting in relationships on Earth C; a lot of messy codependence just resulting from her... isolation, so to speak. She'd get past it eventually, I just think it'd be a little tough.

During the first few months on the Yellow Yard trip, she always felt like she could hear or feel Becquerel next to her when she woke up before realising he wasn't there. Some side effects of the fusion.

She sheds hair. A lot. Her friends have to pick up dog fur for days after she stays over.

In terms of shipping, I actually like pairing her with Roxy & Calliope! I think she slots fairly well into their overall dynamic and I think all three of them would just... get eachother in a way that maybe most other characters wouldn't. Very heavy aro vibes there, I'd say.

She'd definitely have some kind of sciencey-type job post-canon, I wanna say nuclear physicist? I think she'd have a real interest in engineering in general (something to bond with Roxy over!) and she'd have a lot of fun finally getting to pursue that.

I think she's aromantic to a degree, definitely. I can't really pinpoint why, it just resonates with some of my experiences. I think she's neat.

She definitely uses her Witch of Space powers for the most mundane utilities whenever she has the opportunity - 'grab the remote' requires a person to stand up until you can just... y'know, levitate it.

I think she's probably the only Beta Kid who isn't a massive gamer - but I think she'd like two kinds of games and two kinds of games only. She's either playing Animal Crossing and curating cute animals or playing an FPS and topscoring. No inbetween.

[mylordshesacactus]

The Barrissoka Fusion You Never Knew You Wanted

So in celebration of FINALLY rounding out the originally-planned slate of barrissoka Disney AU/fusion challenge fics, I thought I'd put together a masterlist for those of you who are new, returning, or just never got around to them when they were first posted!

By sheer good luck, there are an even split of AU types--three fusions (ie, Star Wars characters adapted to a non-GFFA setting), and three alternate timelines (where the core setting is the same, but events developed differently--in this case, in a way analogous to the core plot of the movie the challenge was based on.).

Fusions

Through The Darkness And The Shadows

Setting: Fantasy-Medieval AU: Beauty and the Beast

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, a young princess lived in a shining castle…

It'll Sound Like A Promise

Setting: Fantasy-Medieval (Scotland Redux) AU: Brave

A clan leader’s heir had to strive for perfection. That was why Ahsoka was currently hiding in a tree.

Look To The Sky With Hope

Setting: Pirates/Fantasy Age of Sail AU: Pirates of the Caribbean (62k, 5 chapters)

Anakin Skywalker. Every sailor knows that name. Captain of the ghost ship Twilight, ferryman of the dead. Some say he preys on merchantmen, out of vengeance for the loss of his ship and crew; others that he and the charred black phantom are an honest sailor's friend, a protector in the dark and the mist. According to Ahsoka, the truth is both and neither. But the Twilight is...well, it's not real. Barriss Offee may be new to this whole pirate thing, but she knows that. It's a legend, a story, a sailor's superstition; like mermaids and Fridays and the Kraken. The ship of the dead and its captain, they're just a myth. Aren't they?

Alternate Universes

Going My Way?

AU: Aristocats Podfic: By Writers_Block, available here.

Shipwrecked and stranded on a remote agricultural planet, Barriss Offee doesn't dare reveal her identity as a Jedi for fear of drawing unwanted attention that might endanger the younglings in her care. Enter the charming, compassionate young spacer Ashla, who drops everything to take the group under her protection and asks nothing in return, as Barriss grows more and more unhappy with the necessity of lying to a young woman who's been nothing but honest with them. Meanwhile, Ahsoka Tano and her master are on an undercover mission. She really wishes she could tell the scared young mother she's taken in that she's a Jedi, but, well. The mission has to come first.

Back To The Wind

AU: Cars. (I cannot emphasize enough that this is an AU and not a fusion. They are not cars. They are people. For the love of god. It's just a plot adaptation. Please stop asking me if they're supposed to be cars.)

A hyperdrive malfunction strands Ahsoka in a nearly-abandoned trading settlement in the Outer Rim. That's not the problem. While she works off her community service sentence, she ends up in the unofficial custody of a weirdly hostile Mirialan who won't stop giving her these long, searching looks and talking about the failures of the Jedi Order like she knows something Ahsoka doesn't. That's not the problem either. The problem is...Ahsoka's starting to wonder if she really wants to go back.

When These Moments Have Passed

AU: The Fox and the Hound

Jedi Master Plo Koon was sent to Shili to retrieve a Force-sensitive youngling...and arrived just a few hours too late. Years later, a Jedi padawan and an indentured bounty hunter find themselves in the same spaceport. They shouldn't be friends, not really, but...they're more alike than they are different, straining under the weight of roles they can't escape. That bond is stronger than the galaxy's expectations. Until it isn't.

Bonus

While these are NOT part of the very specific "I can turn any classic Disney movie into a barrissoka AU, fucking try me" original challenge that spawned all this, they're some very nice AUs and if you're into AUs in general, you'll probably appreciate:

Iced Offee, Caramel Twist

AU: Coffeeshop AU

(What? Someone had to write it.)

Mirror, Mirror

AU: Sith AU

(Series/Duology)

[jpitha]

Humans rig stuff together

The battle had been close. The Gren Warfinder had completely surprised them. They flipped nearby on a stolen drive and had started pounding the convoy. They were clearly trying to cut supply lines to the Colony in an attempt to starve them into surrendering. More than half of the ships in the convoy were destroyed before the Coalition was able to mount a response. Iixan was thankful that their ship was only mostly destroyed instead of completely destroyed. The Coalition dreadnought could waste no resources to repair though. They offloaded the cargo, handed out a case of multi-species ration bars and said that if the crew couldn’t fix the ship, someone would be by in 30 solar days or so to rescue them. With a ‘luck be with you’ they flipped away, giving chase to the Gren.

Iixan was ordered by the captain to assess the damage. The hull was holed in at least five places and two of them were too large to patch. They were going to be in suits for the duration. That was frustrating, but survivable.

What wasn’t survivable was the fact that two of the three reactors were offline, with one of them reduced to slag. Iixan found himself next to the non slagged reactor with the three human crew members standing over it. They stood around the reactor, one with their hands on their hips. Iixan didn’t know much about human body language, but they knew that pose was an important one.

He found their comm channel and clipped in. “…I’m telling you, we can just do a hard restart with something in place of the fusion fuse.”

“That’s insane. The fuse exists for a reason. If we let the field get too strong then the whole thing will collapse.”

“Is it better to have a rickety reactor and be able to Flash home, or no reactor and sit here, cold in our suits, eating-“ here the human shuddered “-multi-species ration bars for a month while we wait for the Coalition to remember we’re stuck out here?”

“Okay, wait. Maybe we can split the difference. What if we- oh hey Iixan! What’s up?”

At the mention of his name, the three humans turned to face Iixan. Their suits were bulkier and armored where his was just barely a skin of synthcloth and a helmet. He always wondered why human suits always looked like battle armor. Their large bulbous helmets were clear now, but they could be completely blackened, or even mirrored when necessary. Iixan always felt a little uncomfortable when multiple humans turned to give him their full attention. “Uh, Commander Mizzen asked me to do a damage assessment.” He peered around the humans at the three reactors. “Looks… bad?”

The first human nodded and gestured towards the pile of melted metal, still smoking slightly. The light of a nearby star shone through the smoke, giving it a pretty effect. “Reactor three is toast. There’s no fixing that one. Reactor one is offline with… minor damage. Reactor two is online and keeping us alive for now. We’re trying to decide if we can rig Reactor one to work enough to Flash home.”

“Rig?”

“You know” The second human shrugged in their suit. “Make it work enough to get us somewhere. It’s not fixing it, not really. Just like pretending it’s fixed to the point where it doesn’t realize it’s broken and it’ll run until it notices that it’s actually broken.” The other two looked at him and he looked embarrassed. “Figuatively that is.”

Iixan’s upper arms crossed themselves and made a motion like rubbing warmth into his arms. “And that works?”

“It’s a little more than pretending it’s going to work.” The first human sighed. “We can get it going, but it won’t be pretty and it probably won’t be… that safe. I know your sapient group is more sensitive to high magnetic fields and the reactor is going to be… leaky so you should probably tell the captain to keep the reactor hall humans only if we get it running.”

“You’ll be all right?”

The third human had a strange lilt to his speech. Iixan asked once and he said that he grew up in a place called ‘Minnesota.’ “Oh yah, it’ll be fine, but doncha know, it’ll be a mite dangerous for everyone. No worries though, we’ll make it work enough to Flash.”

The first human nodded. “Come back in a demicycle Iixan, you’ll see.”

Iixan completed his survey and reported to the captain. While he was out, people were able to seal some of the smaller holes to the point where you could take your helmet off in a few rooms. That would make eating easier at least.

One demicycle later, and Iixan returned to the reactor hall. The slagged reactor was in even more pieces than he thought possible, and Reactor one was partially disassembled. Iixan swore that he saw melted parts of Reactor three wired into the reactor. When he clipped into the comm channel they turned. “Oh Hi Iixan! We’re just about ready to test.”

Iixan pointed at the parts. “What are the… melted parts?”

“Oh, that was Will’s idea. We stole some of the… less melted parts from Reactor three to try and kick Reactor one over. They’re not exactly the same model, but I think it’ll be close enough. Just had to put in a few bodge wires in to get power and signal where it needed to be.”

Peering closer, Iixan saw that there was nearly an entire plain’s worth of wires roughly soldered into different parts of the reactor, crossing back and forth and across. The Reactor looked utterly broken. He looked up at the humans. “This… will work?”

Will smiled. “One way to find out, right? We’re going to force a hard restart and see if it’ll work. Tell the Captain to get ready, okay?”

Iixan made a gesture of supplication to the Machine Spirits and called the Captain. The Captain was just as dubious as Iixan was, but agreed to let them try. He signaled Will and the other two and they made that odd gesture of theirs where they curl their large fingers together except for their shortest one and stick it straight into the air.

“Here we go!” Will reached deep inside the Reactor and flipped some switches that were added while they were bogding.

After Will flipped the levers, the three of them jumped back almost as if they were injured. Iixan took another step back as the reactor spun up. The reactor hall had no atmosphere so he coulnd’t hear anything, but he could feel it. It had a thrumming vibration that was getting faster and faster. Iixan wasn’t a reactor technician but even he knew it didn’t sound right. The thrumming was… off balance somehow? It also sounded rougher? Still, the vibration was more and more intense until it felt like the grated floor was a shake table moving them around.

Suddenly, there was a prismatic flash and a shaft of pure white light shot out of the reactor towards the back wall. The humans jumped back and one of them reached towards a bundle of wires that was draped on the floor towards a wall when Will shouted “No! Leave it! We knew containment might leak. It’s otherwise holding steady. Let me refactor.” Will glanced down at his pad and furiously typed and slowly, the white beam faded.

It felt like the room would shake apart, and the reactor blurred in Iixan’s vision in a disconcerting way, but it was running. Will and the other two bounded up to Iixan. “That’s as good as we’re going to get it I think. It’s running at around 74.8%. If we run Reactor two at 112% We should be able to Flash home. We’ll have to stay in our suits, but that’s a sight better than hanging around here.”

The Captain was stunned when Iixan told him and demanded to see for himself. He was led to the Reactor hall but Will had warning him not to enter due to the danger. He stood in the open doorway watching the Reactor vibrate and blur as Reactor two ran with yellow and orange warnings all over the indicators as it was… gently overloaded. “Ancestors. You got it running.” He looked at Will. “How?”

Will demurred. “Oh, just a little bit of experience with these kind of Reactors and a human willingness to rig up a temporary solution. If it’s stupid and works, it’s not stupid.”

The Captain met Will’s gaze. “No. It’s still stupid. But right now we need some stupid. Well done. Now pardon me, I need to get the calculations to Flash home started before that-“ he points at the rigged reactor “-fails and traps us somewhere even worse than here.”

[physalian]

Creating Tragedy Through Human Error

One of my favorite sci-fi movies is Sunshine (07). In it, a team of highly skilled scientists is sent on a mission to our dying sun to essentially nuke the core to restart nuclear fusion and keep the star alive. They are aboard the Icarus II, the second attempt by a slowly-freezing Earth to attempt this hail mary, after Icarus I was lost. When the team stumbles upon the Icarus I’s distress signal, they have to make a choice: Detour to potentially save survivors and get double the payload (a second chance if they miss or it fails), or waste more time that Earth doesn’t really have straying from their mission.

They decide to detour, reward worth the risk, and when the ship changes trajectory, part of it becomes exposed to the intense heat of the sun outside the ship’s solar shield, and catches fire, burning up their only way to refresh their oxygen. Now, they have no choice to find Icarus I both for the payload and any chance of making it home, and chaos ensues for the rest of the movie.

The whole inciting incident for this chaos isn’t detecting the Icarus I’s signal, it’s the failure on part of the flight engineer to properly account for shifting their solar shield when they change course. It’s a simple, yet catastrophic human error, and he takes it incredibly hard—if the mission fails and they all asphyxiate before the payload can deliver, he will have killed Earth’s last chance for survival. All because he did some math wrong.

—

There’s something brutally tragic about a disaster that comes not from without, but within. Sunshine would have had the exact same stakes if the solar shield had simply malfunctioned and it was fate or the power of god that had killed them. Based on the name for their ship—Icarus—one can assume that human error, human overconfidence, flew them too close to the sun.

Sometimes shit just breaks. Sometimes the tech doesn’t work. Sometimes the bullet misses in a freak gust of wind. It’s a random fender bender on the highway. Not saying these plots are wrong at all, and having a character feeling like fate and the universe are against them is a compelling enough premise on its own.

But some of my favorite tragedies are tragedies because it all could have been avoided if one character made a different choice. One of my favorite TV shows has a climax where everything they’ve been working for, everything they’ve fought for all boils down to successfully inputting a code into a thing for a Sunshine-esque world revival. They’re winning the race, gaining ground, they’re at the console, the villains have lost. Meanwhile, the lone team member back home coordinating everything chooses to ignore a phone call from their allies because he’s busy and thinks they’re far less important. The villains then take these allies captive and hold them hostage—hand over the code or the innocent bystanders die right before their eyes—and the heroes balk, the consequences of which are devastating.

Had this one character stopped, thought, and not dismissed their allies’ call for help, none of this would have happened. Sure the villains could have shown up out of nowhere with them with zero buildup and just said “we caught them offscreen, uh, doesn’t matter how” and the choice would have been as agonizing to watch, but knowing it all happened because one character couldn’t be bothered makes it so much worse.

—

Some things to consider about doing this:

Try to avoid deus and diablos ex machinas. The latter tends to receive less backlash, because shit going wrong for no reason is less story-ruining than shit going right for no reason, but you can do better

This is high above a character simply forgetting about a macguffin or forgetting important information or something conveniently breaking or failing to turn on at the last second for no reason other than to be dramatic, this is something that the audience might not see coming before it happens, but understands immediately once the damage is done.

If you’re going to make it a fault of a character, make sure it’s a fault that character already has, a choice they would realistically make, instead of randomly making them an idiot to further the plot

Up to you whether you want the characters to realize the human error in all this. In Sunshine, that was the whole point, in the tv episode, I don’t think they ever connected the dots, but we did as the audience.

Typically, these are tragedies, and the choice that was made is irreversible. The character who makes it either dies regretting everything, or has to live regretting everything, but there is no quick fix. It’s not a quick “oops let me correct that,” it’s devastating.

Hope this helps, now get writing!

[agrlsname]

Thank you @therealsaintscully for the tag! I'm soon about to post what might be my very last fic, so it's quite fitting to look back on my journey now.

How many works do you have on ao3?

38 – all Johnlock, except for one GO fic. On New Year's Eve I will post number 39!

What’s your total word count?

371,360 (will soon top it off with another 221 words ;))

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What Friends Do (by FAR), Who I Really Am (personal fave), The General Idea, Coldness/Heat, Tomorrow's Song

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

At first I responded to every single one! And I still try to respond to every single person. But now, I sometimes only respond to the last one if it's a reader who's commented on every chapter and I get all the comments at once. I like staying connected to the readers, that's one of the most fun parts about fandom!

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

It has to be This Is Your Song. I mean, there's another one within a series that end in an angsty cliffhanger, but MCD surely has to take the prize?

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Oh my, nearly all of them have happy endings – so what would count as happier than happy..? Maybe it's actually the one that isn't posted yet – stay tuned for the resolution of the New Year's Kiss series!

Do you write crossovers?

Nope. I've written a fusion though (Johnlock and Moulin Rouge!).

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yup. Some people get really angry at John in What Friends Do and they take it out on me. It's interesting because many MANY others adore the story with all their hearts! I even wrote a sequel from John's POV just to try to get people to understand, but the haters didn't understand anyway.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Even though at the beginning I said I'd never, half of my works are now rated E or M. What kind? Um, is "emotional, gay sex" a genre?

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Many of them, into five different languages! Coolest thing ever.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, I think I'm too pedantic for that. I've loved working with my beta on some poem translations, though, that The Sky is Full of Fiddles is based on.

What's your all-time favourite ship?

38 fics – you all know it's Johnlock, right? There are others that I love, but nothing can ever compare.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I don't have WIPs! I'm too much of a control freak and perfectionist when it comes to writing – I want to be able to change the beginning when I'm writing the ending. I don't even have unpublished WIPs – I hate the idea of leaving works unfinished. If I was still in those first years of writing frenzy, when I was single and didn't have a child, I'd have expanded on This Time – but as it is, I knew that I wouldn't have the time to do it justice. So I purposely ended on a cliffhanger that would still allow it to stand on its own the way it is.

What are your writing strengths?

Emotions, according to my beta! If you ask me, I'd say describing things – often emotions, I suppose – in new, poetic ways that play on different senses and therefore make them immediate. It's something I love reading myself, anyway, so it's something I've been practicing for... well, decades now. I'd like to think I've gotten at least somewhat good at it.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm weirdly bad at coming up with the small details that aren't important, but needed. A recent example is I needed a character to text another with an invented problem to try to get him to come over. It wasn't at all important what the problem was, but it also couldn't be just anything; it had to be in line with his character. I could not for the life of me come up with this problem myself – eventually my husband did it for me. So those kinds of details in my stories are rarely from my own brain!

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Hmm, well, I've tried not to do that. As a reader I find it annoying to have to look things up, or scroll down to the notes. I have three fics in which characters aren't English; in This Is Your Song I added a couple of "Bonjour"s for flavour, which is about as far as my own French knowledge reaches... In the Fiddles series they're Swedes and speak my mother tongue, but I've written everything in English except for the words that English doesn't have (like for example "polska", a kind of dance), and at the very end, some song lyrics that are then translated into English in the end notes that come immediately after. I did want to add that song for flavour, but I didn't want it to be annoying.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Johnlock! I started in the aftermath of season 4 back in January 2017 and then couldn't stop.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

I'm wondering whether I will come back to fic writing at a later point, but for another fandom. I've long wanted to write more for GO, although I already have written one fic. It would probably be a lot of fun to write for OFMD too. Doctor Who maybe? I don't know, it intimidates me to write for a new fandom where I don't yet know the characters as well as I know Sherlock and John.

What's your favourite fic you've written?

This question is too cruel! There are so many of them that I love. Maybe I have to say The Sky is Full of Fiddles, after all – it holds such a special place in my heart for many reasons that go beyond the story itself (although that's true for several fics). Other faves are Your Daughter, The Zebra Sheets and of course Who I Really Am, which I'm liking enough to turn it into a novel I'm now trying to get published. See, I couldn't pick one!!

I'm on Tumblr way too sporadically to have any idea of who's already done this and who hasn't, so I don't dare tag anyone... Feel free to take it and tag me if you feel like it!

[neonfurryslop]

the "incest being a metaphor for being gay" shit is actually so incredibly rancid it makes me wanna puke. this whole situation does, especially the fact that kittycorn was secretly talking and drawing all of this too, a majority of it being unreleased but still somewhat being slipped into her slop of a comic. I've always found the interactions the siblings/near siblings have with each other really strange, especially the Chem and Blair shit, why would Chem be jealous of their sister having girls on her mind after that one fuckass loch ness monster/cow hybrid girl. ESPECIALLY the Sly and Eve shit making a knock off Sly in her still high school AU so she could thirst for her publicly I always found kits "sleeve" fusion posted PUBLICLY on kits cometcare blog a bit strange and made me side eye it a bit but I didn't think much of it because of how much squeak banks off of plausible deniability, its genuinely horrible. all of it is. I hate how ("""allegedly"""") no one is safe from this either, not even the youngest (publicly) posted member Chloe or even, again, Chem!!! also, I always kinda had a theory (that still isn't proven btw) that Beth was kind of a "stand in" for Sly or the apparent other cometfamily kittycorn liked shipping Eve with, scrap too since weirdly enough... both of those characters are blue LOL. again, its just me theorizing but my god, this genuinely sucks major ass

yeah it's just. it's so fucked man it's so nasty. i don't blame people for jumping ship, i just hope everyone personally affected by this will be okay /gen i seriously can't imagine the comics lasting much longer after this

[en-djinn]

For the next time you feel like yapping: I’m about halfway through the gotg game and I would LOVE to hear your opinions on it

this is a REALLY good prompt and i could be here all fucking day discussing every aspect of it and also that i the studio that made it and thief 4 is NOT as bad as everyone thinks it is and they have every right to be proud of it but thats a massive tangent and i havent even started yet. i love thief. garrett i miss you every day. anyway.

the gotg game actually has my fav interpretations of most of the guardians too which surprised me. im assuming ud wanna mostly hear my thoughts on the story stuff anyway even tho i am umm. an action game snob and i have a lot to say abt that stuff too cz its just a fantastic game and it was on my radar long before i actually got into gotg coz the reviews were like 'yo this is a great action game' and im like oooooohhh wiggles my fingers. anyway.

ok this um. turned out really fucking long coz i got wrapped up talking abt magus meta stuff again so. grins. 3k words long. the magus stuff is past the spoiler break bt its. kind of tied to what i was talking abt w the game version so. shrugs

game mantis is BY FAR my fav version of her its like the perfect fusion of her comic appearances in early gotg and the movie version. i like the comic ver bt she can b a little overly serious and i think the shift to make her more light hearted and fun was a good one. like how they changed peter to be a music guy and a tad sillier. i think it fits. and while i do actually like her mcu version its also like. too silly. mcu forgets that shes also like actually very wise and in tune w emotions and how other ppl think, and also a badass martial artist. right. game mantis gets to be all of those things at once. also shoutout to her voice actor for doing an awesome job.

draxxx.... im honestly still not sure if i prefer alien drax or mr douglas drax. if moondragon is around then i def want mr douglas. bt if shes not then its like... no harm done...? not much to say here other than that i do love tht everyone indulges him. thats like the big thing abt the game for me. the banter is sooo good, they playfully rib each other like friends do but u can tell they genuinely care abt each other just from the way theyre willing to go along w each others weird habits or unfamiliar culture stuff. so from that angle i rly like how they did drax, and his talk w peter in knowhere... ToT a problem w drax is also that i think too many things treat him as a joke to be laughed at for being weird and the game neatly sidesteps that by giving u both but making it clear that hes still a character w depth.

i have no big thoughts on rocket honestly aside from that i dont like the little goatee thing bt im also not a huge rocket fan so my opinion is worth little here lol. i liked him. fr me my big rocket things r like. his relationship w peter and groot and i loved both of those so i have zero complaints. the ongoing 'my ship' thing w peter was so well done compared to when its done in the comics LOL.

groot i just liked a lot its also my fav version of groot i think cz its so obvious how kind and sweet he is. bt so much of groot is like. dependent on rocket to help translate. that SAIDDD i love the convo sm later on when rocket+groot+mantis were all talking together and peter had no idea wht they were laughing at. wish there was a lil more of that bt theres soooooo much dialogue in the game already tht asking for more is so unfair. bt more mantis+groot would be cute. my fav groot is the one whos sooooo sweet bt also says slurs and has rocket being like YOU CANT BE SAYING THAT BUDDY. anyway ik a big part of him is also in the voice acting cz its like the Tone of how he says stuff since u cant understand him and i think the voice actor did soooo good at that. and then the little bits of physical acting too like when hes messing w the controls. i cant say too much coz u havent finished it yet ToT

gamora is where i have some issues bt its mostly coz im married to her old look+personality and dont like the newer depictions as much. in the game she comes off as rly young esp w the dyed hair and it doesnt rly fit my own view of her? as a more mature woman. one tht knows how to have fun and has a confidence tht comes with experience and doesnt rly get embarrassed abt herself or anything. so this gamora is just. different. i dont think its bad bt it doesnt mesh w my own view i guess. despite not being a huge gamora fan i have a lot of thoughts abt her esp w the way it crosses over w the magus stuff. shes a very inch resting char... i wanted to do my own outfit design fr her too bt never got around to it... coz thats my other gripe w game gamora. her outfit is so boring... ik its based on a comic look cz i read that run but i didnt like it there either. i feel like they can never decide on a good look for her at all. they either want her sexed up or not at all to the point that the outfits lose all sense of personality or flair and are just. overly practical and boring. which doesnt fit the her thats confident and likes playing w ppl. so yea. shrug on that one. as an isolated thing i like her but compared to everything else shes ever been, not so much. basically.

i actually wrote the rest of this totally forgetting to talk abt peter. i dont know what to say. abt myself for that. peter quill. i like him. u may have noticed i draw him in his game outfit like a Lot and its bcoz i ADOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE it. SOOOO CUTE. i also like his game guns the best! the white+grey+pink just looks soooo good. hes soooo sillycute in the game i luv himmmmmmmm. bt honestly game peter is a lot like other interpretations of him! not a whole lot to say. peter kind of has a pretty locked in characterisation by now right. this is still one of my absolute fav versions tho in design and personality. i think hes had better hair bt the outfit. chef kiss. and im always a sucker for a more immature peter, like the cartoon version too tho that can take it a little too far sometimes bt it meshes well w the baby adam so idm too much bt thats a whole tangent again. peter is good coz hes stupid immature loser idiot but he Cares so genuinely and so much and always tries to do the right thing and it rly rly rly rly shows in this. even when he knows he cant rly affect much or do a whole lot. its abt the Trying. i cant say more coz of spoilers but my god does it show. they did him well. ALSO THE GAME VERSION OF HIS MUM IS BAR NONE THE BEST EVER THEY WILL NEVER TOP THAT VERSION OF HER SHES SO CUTE

man adam is obvi what i wanna talk abt but u havent finished the game... since im putting this under a readmore im just gonna go ahead and say SPOILERS AHEAD!!! OK!! DONT SPOIL URSELF!!! GAMES REALLY GOOD!!!

HERES ARTEMY BURAKH AS A BREAK

ADAM WARLOCK GUY OF ALL TIME I LOVE YOU. ONE OF MY FAV INTERPRETATIONS OF MAGUS. WE'RE IN THE FUCKING MONEY.

this version of adam is interesting cz hes not usually depicted as like. old and tired already. since he comes out of his cocoon all shiny new. which i love. btw. i cannot lie to u i Love the versions where hes a baby or just forgets everything and has to relearn, its rly endearing. i wish more stuff Did something with it other than the cartoon. bt anyway. tangent.

i love his cocoon in the game i wish u got to see the inside better lol. its like a little house... and so goopy... its just funny cz the game version seems truer to the comics than any other interpretation of him. bt it also feels so different? i like it a lot either way bt its Interesting to me. and im not sure how to word why. in fact i am not sure what else to add hdsfjknsd. other than that i actually dont like his outfit just coz its the same problem as the mcu one as well where its too overly complex and a muddy mess of colours. the game outfit is WAY better than whatever tf the mcu did but its still like. the same concept. too much detail and not enough broad strokes? idk how to word it. like if u take out the tiny details its just sort of. nothingburger. also no lightning symbol stuff anywhere :(

bt ya i love the way he talks and i love what little stuff he got with peter and god i wish there was MORE its so unfair that whenever adam gets to be in gotg stuff hes always just there at the end and never gets to BE with the guardians outside of gotg v2/2008 comic. and the cartoon. bt even then. and it sucks that we wont get a sequel coz that studio is in hell rn! smiles painfully. i wanted to see him bicker abt nothing w peter more... or how theyd actually become friends...

bt the most i have to say here is obvi abt magus and magus+warlock as a duo. which isssss that ok so i have a Thing where i dont generally rly like magus as an actual alt personality? i like it when hes future adam. coz thats The Point. that adam can be the warlock or the magus and all that changes is a. an internal philosophy. or a worldview. they ARE the same person. theyre not separate people. bt if its done well and theyre still intertwined enough i think i can like it the other way too? coz the point is that they could be each other, right. so warlock has the capacity for everything the magus does. the magus has the capacity for everything the warlock does. there isnt a major dividing line between them. i like how the game does it literally because of the ONE bit adam has where he admits that he misses magus. doesnt feel complete or right without it being there. after peter says 'well ur mostly fine without magus now right and u were with it for ages' and adam basically says 'well i feel empty inside and like im missing something huge and i miss it being there but yeah i guess im "mostly fine"'. i WISH we saw warlock+magus interacting properly, like wht is the actual nature of their relationship. they rly dont go into that stuff at all. so i cant rly say much aside from like 'what ifs' and stuff, u know. i wish we saw more... sigh. but i adore magus' design in it and how they tie it to adams original motifs of. well. metamorphosis. adam is a moth caterpillar. so i love that they make magus look like one too! fluffy fuzzy little caterpillar. and just like a caterpillar, its always hungry. and u cannot blame a caterpillar for being hungry, its trying to grow. bah. tangent. bt who cares. i wanted that. an adam that didnt Hate magus, knows it had to be controlled and kept in line bt not one that hated it. if adam missed it, then they mustve had Some kind of relationship. almost all of magus' problems come from wanting recognition and to exist on its own and i think the game had a setup that couldve allowed for that eventually... i want an adam that understands tht magus is a necessary evil and they can work together. "where else could i go, who else could i love but you?" - line that infects anyone who does the dark knight quests in ffxiv but a lot of ppl ignore the fact that this is specifically talking abt another aspect of urself. its abt self love. i want that for warlock and magus. warlock hates himself soooo much and he hates all of his selves and everything he used to be, bt that makes him so unhappy. he needs to learn to accept himself. and magus is a literal representation of all those things. sitting there WANTING to be loved. sigh. thats a big tangent and i have actual comic stuff in case anyone wants proof and u know what why am i stopping myself. here they are

(from captain marvel v4 i think? v4 or 5 but im pretty sure it was 4)

i have nothing but bad things to say abt the fact that he was in these comics at all but this panel is good. speaks for itself. resentment at being hated for being how he was created to be. and u know what it is fucking unfair and i relate. sorry ill be saying that a lot. magus is right. everyone kill themselves and make me feel better. anywayyy

(from gotg v5)

this one could be up for debate on whether reborn magus is the 'same' as the old one but has warlock ever had that concession? not rly so i dont wanna say its different here either. this is a nature vs nurture thing that i also have some shit to say abt bt if im allowing myself ONE huge tangent here i wont go off on another one in the middle of it. actually fuck that i do what i want. and its relevant. coz there is one difference. and thats the actual original magus from the warlock comics by starlin, so actual future self adam. and then the one that spawned when warlock had the infinity gauntlet and he expelled all good and evil from himself, which is when magus became a separate entity entirely. bt also the thing in gotg v2 where he uses a discarded alt timeline that wasnt meant to happen and THAT was the one where he turns into magus so technically the reborn magus is made from the real first one that got deleted?? man idfk. i think there is a degree of separation from the two just coz its like. i dont think we know if the expelled magus experienced w. ok. im gonna call them magus1 (future adam) and magus2 (expelled evil) ok. we dont know if magus2 has the memories of magus1 or any of the actual lived experience because warlock of the main timeline DID NOT turn into magus. magus1 isnt from 616 or whatever. hes an alt version. magus2 should technically be the 616 version. i think. so magus2 could have been that mad simply out of principle of it, which is based and true and totally fair. anyway tangent over sorta. reborn child magus is magus3 and idfk which magus hes technically reincarnating from, probably magus1 since its the timeline that was destroyed tht adam brought back. REGARDLESS. WE'RE GETTING DEEP INTO THE WEEDS HERE.

SIGH i have so much to say abt gotgv5 and. magus3. lol. reborn magus. bt i wont do it here ive dragged this on way too far and we're not even close to being on topic so ill return to tangent 1.

(also from gotg v5)

loved this one cz its so clear abt it. at the core of adam is this desire to not be alone. every aspect of himself deals w it differently (amassing worshippers. usually. which is ironic because it doesnt rly fix the core issue. ppl can worship u but ull still be alone. very familiar w this sort of feeling myself.) bt warlock himself always isolates and hates himself and is miserable. he NEEDS the guardians.

(from gotg v2)

obviously yes it would be the biggest ego boost ever bt to me it still reeks of 'i dont want to be alone. i want my friends with me here too'. since phylla is the avatar of death, his entire purpose shouldve been to kill her. the ideal deathless world cant exist w her there.

(from uhhh fuck infinity wars iirc. yea.)

ok this ones just funny. but also the fact tht he made a copy of thanos to hang out with/serve him is even funnier and also AGAIN. the way it never lets itself be alone. always either coercing or forcing or creating versions of ppl he knows to be with him.

so yeah. thats my evidence for what is. idk if im reading too hard or if it was intentional ig. bt thats how i see it. so thats why i want magus+warlock to be on ok terms w each other in at least ONE thing. and the game seems perfect for it to eventually happen bt unforch its super unlikely it will get a sequel.

anyway. i also love that it talks in rhymes cz one of my fav things abt magus is how whimsy silly it is. topsy turvy fun. it fits so well. and esp since warlock uses a ton of alliteration and its a contrast between them. bt anyway. man.

ummm. as for the other chars? no strong feelings. lol. im REALLY glad they didnt make peter nikkis actual dad tho. lol @ most of this not even being abt the game. i have worms in my head and theyre shaped like this

also that is what i look like irl

[carionto]

Hyperbrake Racing

Everything in Human ships has a manual override. They love automating all processes and reduce any workload to nothing, but also have this compulsive need to be able to take direct control if so desired.

They also have emergency off switches for everything. Yes, including life support. Don't ask, you'll just get a variant of:

"But What If!?"

Obviously, this applies to things you should never under any circumstances shut down preemptively, such as a Hyperspace Jump.

The earliest space-faring civilizations quickly discovered that if a Hyperdrive has a power interruption even for a nano-second your atoms will get dispersed across a few light months. This is why all Hyperdrives have an internal chargeable uninterruptible power supply unit.

Humanity, however, did not allow "Not having any reason whatsoever" to stop them from figuring out a way. Utilizing their ridiculous quantum computer speed and the ability of their fusion reactors to charge a Hyperdrive mid-jump, and with an injection of a disgusting few million lines of hack code that manipulate all related pieces of hardware in just the most nauseating sequences, they created the Hyperbrake.

Also, not a metaphor - braking literally causes Humans to feel nauseous, sometimes throw up, rarely even pass out. Not a single volunteer crew member aboard joint vessels from any of the other Coalition species has dared to "test" what happens to them.

As with nearly all things Humans come across or invent, they will find a use for it should one not occur normally.

_____________________

Near Neptune

Daniel, Samantha, and Nicholas Schreier were three siblings ages 17, 19, and 20, respectively. Today they had "borrowed" their dad's General FordStar mark 980-MZ HaulerHound, a civilian grade transport typically used by small business owners. Dad, however, was an enthusiast, and had modified the "Hound Dog", as he calls it, with a military grade reactor and computer core. He's always been that guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who can get the thing legally enough.

There is a nearby research station that the kids often visit due to their mom working there, but today she was not. Instead, what they are doing, is racing against each other to set the best record. Well, technically the opposite of racing - coming to a halt.

Using the Hyperbrake, they are competing to see who can stop the closest to the stations outer point-defense range without entering it or you automatically lose. After Samantha's turn, they were suddenly contacted by the station. It was Yakovskii, one of mom's colleagues and a frequent guest at dad's barbecues, so they were on sorta good terms. Not by the tone voice coming through the comms rights now though:

"What in the Hell are you thinking!? At first I thought you were just messing around and accidentally did that, but TWICE now!?! I checked the trajectory, if you had stopped a half-second later, you would've ended up mere meters from Neptune's upper atmosphere! Did you account for the possible sudden gravitational pull? Can you maneuver that lumbering ship fast enough to not get pulled down? Not to mention Hyperbraking severely impairs your cognitive abilities for a moment? A moment that you need to be clearheaded for or risk DEATH!?!"

The three siblings could only hang their heads in shame and mutter out some weak apologies. After a moment of silence and reflection, Yakovskii speaks in a warmer tone:

*sigh* "Look, I understand it's a fancy new toy and you want to see what you can do. I get it, I really do. Me and my brother used to play vertical hockey the first time we got our hands on a surplus gravity field generator. But we first figured out how to make sure we didn't break our bones in case it failed. Seriously, never forget to consider your own safety first before you try out new things in a peaceful environment. You're not being chased by pirates or trying to avoid the law or whatever.

Take your time, pick a starting position that's further away and keeps Neptune and any of its moons to the side of the station, then aim for an area of space that only has the outer range of the defenses and empty space ahead from your point of view. And please set the regular Hyperjump destination within Sol, don't just pick a random place. The Hyperbrake sometimes loops in on itself and never executes the brake and can only be reset once out of Hyperspace. You don't want to get stuck in a pointless jump for hours do you?"

After this admonishment, the siblings apologized more energetically and took his advice to heart. They spent the next hour competing until all three were down to single meter differences and kinda got bored, so they docked at the station and hung out with the off-duty staff, played some poker, but then dad barged in and dragged them all home. They were not invited to the barbecue gatherings for two weeks, but only because mom told him to. Personally he was excited about all the data his kids had unknowingly given him with all their jumping and braking, a real stress test for his beautiful Hound Dog.