#ive been tormenting my friends with these opinions so now tumblr gets to be tormented too

[raspberryjellybrains]

here's a list of male characters I think dream had a Thing with in no particular order and with explanations:

1. William Shakespeare: hot take, I know, but they feel like a regrettable one night stand. neither of them are happy that happened but it did and now they're here. wanna get drunk about it?

2. Cluracan of the Fae: another hot take but I have my reasons. dream seems unusually fond and permissive of cluracan, giving him allowances of rudeness denied to just about everyone else. cluracan, by all means, should make him want to shoot things but he doesn't seem to? I think they had a fling and it was awful for everyone around them and there are some lasting feelings that cluracan is not above exploiting.

3. oberon: I have literally 0 evidence for this other than that he Definitely had a thing with titania and I think oberon joined once or twice. dream became a weird negotiating tool between the two of them and that's why things ended.

4. faramis (mr. ferell?): a night in babylon, you say? changed your life, you say? owe him a favor, you say? they fucked.

5. lucifer: not a male, but not a woman and generally presents and is referred to as such. this one is pretty widely agreed upon because they have an oddly flirtatious dynamic. I think they had something pretty profound before lucifer fell, but things got messy and they both changed. some love still there, close enough to keep them from giving up on each other completely, but not enough get them back together ever again.

6. john constantine: they had wretched emotional hate sex that ended in dream disappearing with barely a goodbye.

6. honorable mention, hob gadling: I don't think they had anything but I do think they both wanted to.

this is by no means an exhaustive list of all characters ever so add on if you want or say I'm full of it, idc. I just think morpheus is bi and I love saying stupid shit about him.

[doctorofmagic]

Hai! You’re the best dr strange blog ive seen on tumblr and coming across your account again made me start reading dr strange comics. I really love when you analyze stephen’s relationships with other characters. I already read the Dr Doom one and i was wondering what your thoughts on his relationship with Tony was? They’re my two favorites and its hard to find people who like them because of the whole illuminati thing.

Greetings and nyoooh, thank you so much for your kind words!!

I’m so glad you’re reading his comics! Not to mention that you appreciate my posts with his other relationships.

When it comes to Tony, there’s a long road before we get to recent comics. First of all, Tony never liked magic and had a hard time to acknowledge Stephen’s powers (which is also common in both Beast’s and Reed’s POVs). When the Defenders and Avengers first met, they fought for the Evil Eye. In the end, they team up to defeat Dormammu (as seen in Defenders v1 #8-11 and Avengers v1 #16-18).

Later, they had a few team-ups (and if you’re looking specifically for Tony, Stephen and Spider-man, check Marvel Team-Up v1 #50-51).

Things start getting a little messy because, as you pointed out, the Illuminati happened. Still, they’re kind of close, despite their dubious decisions. But in my opinion, not THAT close because the members are really cold and professional. The same goes for Reed and Stephen, for instance. They respect each other but that’s as far as this relationship amonsgt the members go.

Stephen and Tony’s bond also went through a lot because of Civil War. Tony hunted Stephen and the New Avengers down fiercely, to the point of invading the Sanctum (despite the drama, I absolutely adore this moment because it SHOWS how powerful Stephen truly is).

However, after the Civil War, things returned to their “normal”. Somehow, Stephen and Tony became friends again, and Tony finally developed great respect for Stephen’s skills instead of simply bashing him. I think this happened probably because of World War Hulk. They were almost killed because of their mistakes.

Whenever Tony needs assistance, Stephen will be there to help and vice versa. Despite that, there aren’t many signs or hints that they’re very close friends as many people assume due to Infinity War, except for Invincible Iron Man v3 #3 and #5 and Doctor Strange v5 #1 (2018).

Coincidentally or not, I really believe that Doom shares a similar relationship with Tony. Everything I’ve said about Doom and Stephen? It also applies to Tony and Doom, only on different levels because they also have some differences. Still, I can’t really go as deep as my other post because, well, I understand Stephen and Victor way more than Tony. In fact, I know very little about him, this is why I don’t risk digging into the character that much.

What I can say is what I’ve read when Stephen is around, and that’s what I have to offer.

That said, here’s a list of people whom I believe are close to Stephen in comics (I think I’d also add Silver Surfer, Illyana and Logan now, since it was recently shown that Logan brings beer to Bats and Illyana just casually teleports to the Sanctum sometimes. Thank you, Savage Avengers, I owe you my life).

As you can see, my analysis is not that as deep as the one with Doom because, honestly? Stephen has spent much more time with Victor (45 days in Latveria in Triumph & Torment and EIGHT YEARS in Battleworld/Secret Wars) than with any other hero/villain (except for Clea, Wong and the Ancient One).

Ok, ok, I’m sorry, this post is about Tony. Focus.

I feel you when people hate Stephen or Tony because of one (1) poor storyline. Once I replied an anon who was really interested in knowing why I loved Stephen despite his flaws (the link is actually on my pinned post but here it is anyway). I’ve been learning to like characters more for their general characterization than for certain runs. I have a few exceptions, of course, I’m not supposed to love every single character that exists. But my mind has changed a lot throughout the years. I guess it’s called “wisdom that comes with age”. So, whenever I see discourse, I tend to avoid it.

I guess this is it? If you need more references, I can make a list (in fact, I’ve been preparing several team-up lists but I never find the motivation to conclude them RIP. But one day, I promise!)

Thank you so much for reaching out! Have a great day.

[longinglook]

I’m going to be gone for most of the day so I thought that the best way to use up my last 10 minutes before leaving would be to write a multi paragraph post on what I think about Fighter’s behavior so here we go

(under a read more because this could get very very long)

so. fighter. our confused messy boy we are just starting to understand

i’ve read a lot of tweets/posts/comments of people that don’t understand his behavior or think that his storyline doesn’t make sense which has always left me a bit perplexed because to me everything he does seems justified and coherent to where his mind is at the moment so i’ll try to explain

but first, something about me kfmslkcls 

i identify as lesbian but i have struggled with compulsive heterosexuality all my life, i’ve spent years identifying as bi because the scary part for me was not admitting that i liked girls but admitting that i did not like boys past the occasional crushes on fictional boys and let me tell you: a lot of what fighter does/the way he thinks reminds me so much of how i was and here’s a list of things:

1) he seems a lot more at ease with same sex friends, the only times we see him with hwa you can tell that he’s forcing himself to act a certain way, he knows he’s supposed to do boyfriend things like taking her on dates and kissing but he is not comfortable with it, he tries and fails at it. of course part of the reason is because of his father but not only does he seem uniterested in her, there’s always a sense of uneasiness when he’s with her, like he’s scared of actually having to kiss her. he’s fine with the relationship as long as it’s just texting and hanging out (like a friendship would be) but he seems not to want it to become phisical. since he’s a very confused boy he’s probably blaming all of this on his father forcing him into the relationship, instead of knowing right away that he’s not interested in her

2) thinking whatever he has with tutor is just friendship and teasing: i feel like this is such a common experience for most lgbt+ folks, thinking you just have a deep friendship with someone of the same sex, only to later realize it was actually a crush and you had no idea. ex. liking the casual cuddling and touches and looking for more, paying close attention to all the displays of affection, wanting to always be close and being a little jealous of everyone else that they interact with. I feel like a lot of people go through this thinking it’s just a friendship, especially if it’s with someone of the same sex because they are not even considering the option of it being a crush. that’s why fighter keeps saying that they’re only friends and he’s behaving like a close friend would, he just doesn’t let himself consider the option because it would be way too scary and that leads us to point #3

3) being too scared to say what he wants: he does this A LOT. instead of asking for something, which would mean saying it out loud and admitting it, he just acts. words can be so scary (again making this about me, i have id’d as lesbian for over 2 years now and ive come out to a lot of friends but ive never said the word lesbian out loud because it’s just terrifying to me), and fighter seems to only use them after he has acted to justify whatever dumb shit he has done with an excuse. saying something like “i kissed you because i wanted to” would mean admitting he wants to kiss another man (meaning he’s not straight) and that man is fighter (meaning he has feelings for him). it’s much easier for him to go with the flow  and do first, explain later. and by explaining i mean lying, even to himself because deep down he knows, of couse he knows what’s going on but acknowledging it would have serious implications on his life.

also the way he reacts to tutor asking him if he likes boys is a big indicator of what's going on with him, it's his way of answering, not his way of avoiding the question. he can't say it out loud so he shows it but then he's scared of the consequences and no homos it. and the choice of replaying the question scene while they're making out shows us that fight is tormented by it, he's scared of other people asking him that as well, now that tutor has noticed it more people could as well and that's why he pulls away. 

4) on a similar note, teasing until tutor does something/not wanting to be the one to start it: this is pure fighter behavior, hoping tutor will be the one to start it so he doesn’t have to. i called this gay chicken last week, it’s fighter making everything into a challenge so he can blame it on tutor and say that he was just reacting. we can see how desperate he is for tutor’s attention, how happy he is when he has it and how frustrated he is when he doesn’t. he’s like a child who wants people to pay attention to him but doesn’t know how to ask for it, so they start annoying people. fight knows very well that he could just say hey tutor i’m here, please talk to me but how could he give a realistic reason for it other than because i have a massive crush on you meaning i’m not straight. he knows tutor doesn’t back down from a challenge and he riles him up because he has learned what that will lead them to. it’s like he knows there’s an easier way to get to that, but it’s scary so he just keeps going with his soundproof tesing tacting which so far has worked every time. also in general reacting is a lot easier than acting, again a personal example: if someone asks me if i like girls I’ll say yes right away, but if i have to start the conversation i won’t. (one thing i do a lot is to be like “hey i have something to tell you about myself but you have to guess it”)

5) backtracking/giving mixed signals: again he’s terrified, he knows what he wants but he knows what /wanting it/ implies. sometimes he follows his heart, but then his brain comes back to tell him that, hey, you’re kissing another dude and you’re enjoying it and of course he freaks out and leaves. i would be way more annoyed with him if the show had been portraying tutor as pining and in love, meaning that fighter has been giving him false-ish hopes, but after ep.6 we see that tutor himself still hasn’t admitted to himself that he likes fighter (in bold because i feel like this part is very important and often overlooked) so they are both confused about their feelings. 

i don’t think they are actually confused, they know but they are scared which in my opinion is very realistic of how someone behaves when they thought they were straight and they are not. It’s not about being dumb or being slow, it’s about realizing that once you take that step and acknowledge you’re not straight your life changes. idk how many of you are actually not straight (i assume most just because tumblr) but like…… coming out is so stressful being straight is just so much easier you dont have to do shit i wish that were me

6) his father: i feel like we only grazed the surface of fighter’s daddy issues, but he seems to be a very controlling and inflexible man, meaning that he probably wouldn’t be thrilled at the idea of his son dating another man. we don’t know about fight’s past, and maybe he has already had crushes on men and had to repress them. fighter seems to be used to a pretty luxurious lifestyle, he can’t just fuck off and go against his father because he would lose his support.

so it’s not just admitting things to himself, which can be insanely hard on its own especially if you were brought up in a traditional family, it’s also having to deal with the reactions from everyone around you

I KEEP THINKING ABOUT NEW THINGS TO ADD TO THIS POST SORRY anyway i think fighter has already shown multiple times that he does care for tor, it's just in a very shy and lowkey way because he's scared of giving himself away but he does indeed worry about tor (ex. he notices tor is stressed about his test, he tries to help outat his part time job). it also seems that in times of urgency he's more explicit about ex. offering to pay off his debt when tor was being threatened or saying he's his boyfriend when the gross cafe dude was hitting on him

also can we talk about how heartbreaking and soft fighter can be when he lets down his guard and shows his emotional side ex. telling tor nobody has ever taken care of him like that or the way he looks every time tutor pulls away first... this poor boy is touch starved and he craves affection but he can't ask for it yet. he's going to be a real gem once he can be honest with his feelings

for future episodes i think that tutor and fighter are well on their way to realizing their feelings for each other and there's going to be some development soon, but i dont expect fighter to come out to anyone else in the next few episodes because there's a lot of work to be done still. i just hope they dont pull the /i dont like boys i just like you/ trope because i WILL drop this show. so. fast. please don't ruin this character please let him accept his attraction to men fully

in conclusion. i dont blame fighter for anything he has done so far, he’s scared shitless but knows what’s going on, i trust he will soon be brave enough to start being honest with himself and with tutor

man this did NOT  take 10 minutes to write and i dont have time to proofread