#kinda insane about them

[essentialthyme]

By the laws of mutualisim, I must now know ur every thought and opinion on ur DA ocs and playthroughs! the audience craves knowledge and information 😌🫶

Valley, I take so much liberties with my Dragon Age stuff 😩

I have a tendency to keep things boring and make human characters, so heads up.

In Origins, I played through all the intros and ended up going with Cousland. She grew up sheltered and kinda of introverted, but polite and respectful, and her brother taught her how to fight and they figured out she was fast and sly, so she is a rogue, basically. Never gave anyone any troubles until she turned like 17 and started hooking up with every woman she possibly could. Then, tragedy strikes and she kinda shuts down, and becomes very serious and just... angry. She abandons her (already flimsy) beliefs. She is still respectful to those she feels deserves it, but diplomacy is far from being her go to. Still wants to do the right things, but achieving it through violence. It is her companions (especially Leliana) that bring back her spark, her will to live, and she never goes back to who she was, but she goes back to interacting, smiling, talking, opening up.

Here the timeline splits into "canon" and "non-canon'', but the truth is both of then are non-canon, haha:

Canon: She romances Leliana.

Non-canon: She romances Morrigan.

In both cases, she performs the ritual with Morrigan (because the restriction is stupid lmao). She... really wants a family, so she is unable to pass up the opportunity given to her, but there's a bit of a fight between her and Morrigan, because Cousland negotiates her way into being a part of Morrigan and her child's life. Well, children, as Morrigan gives birth to twins: Kieran, with the old god's soul and Nora, without.

Hawke is simpler. A blue rogue who is super extroverted, charming, polite, diplomatic and funny but like, in an appropriate way. Very eager to please, very loyal to those she cares about. The problem is she cares about a lot of people. She takes on the role of caretaker, and it takes a toll on her, but she never quits. None of the trauma she goes through break her like they did Cousland.

Hawke falls first. She is head over heals for Isabela from the very beginning. Hawke never resents Isabela for the end of act II, one of the things she is adamant about is that she would NEVER tie Isabela down. Lucky for her, Isabela fell harder.

Fun facts: My ONLY character to ever have blue eyes, they remind Isabela of the sea. The iconic mark over the nose is actually a scar.

Inquisition is tough, I have not played it, but I know a lot about it. I have barely any interest in any of the companions. So I made two characters: Trevelyan and Lavellan. Lavellan is super shy and timid mage, but very fierce and grounded, down to earth, but a complete powerhouse. Trevelyan is a mad woman. She is purple Hawke turned up to 11. She flirts with everyone, cracks bad jokes at bad times, resolves personal issues in the worst way imaginable. Drinks more than she should, and gets into fistfights at taverns. Bit of a fuckboy. But she is a formidable warrior, and an excellent strategist, so everyone kinda puts up with her because well, she is a genius when it comes to battles. She is also a mage supporter, hates the Chantry, and clocks prejudiced people in the face without a second thought. Lavellan and Trevelyan were together during the events of the intro, both survive, so who is the Herald depends on my mood.

For the "canon": Lavellan is the Herald, and she takes one sniff of Cullens's racist ass, sends him to rehab and puts Trevelyan in his place. Trev isn't as bad with Lavellan, they go through most of the stuff at the beginning together, and they rely on each other, so Trevelyan has a soft spot for Lavellan, and shows a gentle side no one else gets to see. You see where I'm going with this? Yup, my oc's romance each other. Lavellan has a crush on Cassandra at the beginning, but that goes away eventually, and bam.

For "non-canon": Trevelyan is the Herald, and Lavellan is a companion. But Lavellan ends up falling for Josephine after the Cassandra fiasco, and so Trevelyan, being the chaotic entity that she is, falls for none other than Leliana. I just couldn't pass up the idea of romancing her yet again. Trevelyan has to take on a more serious role here, and Leliana is the one who sets her straight, basically.

I promise I tried to be brief 😭

[obsob]

once more around the sun!! :3

[billskaarsgard]

Sebastian Stan wears Thom Browne for L'Officiel USA; photographed by Ryan Lowry

[hahahalfwit]

I HATE MIRROR MIRROR IM GOIGN TO FROW UP

[sophfandoms53]

Anyway shout out to Dewey who constantly looked like he was having the worst time of his fucking life in the pitches

Just an 11 year old pissed off at the world it seems😭

[bunnieswithknives]

Fop redesigns for funsies but also bcs I saw some star heel boots and had to put Dale in them immediately.

[royaltea000]

This man has no idea how close he is at all times to being attic wifed

[rapidhighway]

trying to show you the absolute cinema i had the pleasure of watching in tonights dream. We could’ve had it all

[marlenacantswim]

so is the sbpd's two-way-mirror setup just kinda shit and no one's realized, or can shawn spencer actually just. perceive things through two-way-mirrors? is the implication that his knowledge of lassiter's behavior is so complete, he's just able to predict his precise position and actions with perfect timing? this is never explained.

[i-mode]

ep10 previews dropped i made a companion image to go along with the first pic i made during my reread

[doomedclockworkdotmp3]

heeyyy gaaanggg

the pose and the background of the album version (left) are based on oingo boingos only a lad album art. not cause i think he has anything to do with it but just cause ive been wantin to draw that pose for like. weeks and i didnt know who to put there. so why not my latest bug man.

[skitskatdacat63]

Vettonso complaining about each other not respecting schrondinger's track limits on the radio compilation + Seb's commentary that made me a bit feral

Must include these sexy ass pics okay, it makes me feral how hard they race each other.

Also SO upset that we got this vid and there's also pictures(and presumably a vid out there somewhere) of Fernando, back then, ALSO debriefing this race. And yet we never got them together?????? Evil. Fucked up.

Imagine seeing them complaining about each other but also having to (begrudgingly if you're Fernando) compliment each other IN FRONT of each other. Maybe its a good thing it doesn't exist, bcs then I'd have a heart attack.

[spenglerstwinkie]

“To the race and to the next part.”

“To the race, and the next part.”

[ying-doodles]

Fellas, is it gay to force your husband best friend into becoming an archangel after you become the king of hell so you both can live forever?

I made up the outfits by the way lol, there's no official design for them in CPSM yet. Also, I like drawing higher ranking angel halos like crowns almost, I dunno why, it's just fun-

(original drawing base by @/reddsmess)

[anachronistic-falsehood]

Vash and Femininity: Trigun Stampede and its Themes of Bodily Autonomy, Exploitation, and Vague Gender Fuckery

alright sit the fuck down. we're gonna talk about THEMES

I was on Twitter- terrible idea usually, but a couple people I follow made some tweets that got me thinking about Trigun's overall themes, and here we are. So let's talk about some themes in Tristamp! And I'll take a couple looks at Trimax as well, just for fun :3

Let's look at how the showrunners utilize gender roles and exploitation of feminine characters to show how unhealthy Knives' obsession with his ideal of Vash is, and how horrific his exploitation of Vash and the Plants is.

Vash, from the beginning of Tristamp, is someone who cares about people's choices. When people kill others in front of him, he reiterates that whether someone lives or dies is not another person's choice to make. This is something he learned from Rem (a prominent female figure in his life). He refuses to kill people because that is not his choice to make. To kill someone is the ultimate removal of their bodily autonomy. They can no longer make any choices at all; they're dead.

Vash is also someone who has almost no choice in what path his life takes. He's constantly dragged around by outside forces, namely situations that are caused by Knives (which we'll get into later). Vash doesn't make things happen, things happen to Vash. The majority of events that occur are not his fault. He's pushed and pulled in a thousand different directions. His entire life is completely out of his control.

This can be seen as early on in his life as the Fall, something he had no control over and had no idea he even had a part in. Even later, in the ship with Luida and Brad, after he's been rescued from the desert, he's kept in handcuffs right up until he's shown to be of use to them and the Plant on their ship. After that, he could theoretically say "no, I don't want to go to other ships and heal their plants," but he doesn't. He's Vash. He's helpful and nurturing at his core, and these people have done so much for him just by letting him stay, so he'll do whatever they ask, no question.

This carries over into his adulthood. At Jeneora Rock, he goes to look at their Plant at one simple request, doesn't protest when he's dragged into a duel-- he doesn't take initiative unless someone's life is immediately at stake. He lets people tell him what to do and lets himself get dragged around by the wrist. He doesn't even pretend to have control over his life like Trimax Vash does, which I mean. Fair. Why pretend to have a grip on your existence when it's impossible to do anything without a gun pointed at your head?

Vash is a very passive character. He's nurturing, kind, gentle- he's a guy that fits a lot of very typical feminine character stereotypes. If you wrote this same story but made him a woman, I wouldn't bat an eye (but I would definitely be looking at it a lot more critically, what with the amount of stereotypically nurturing/motherly female characters in media already.)

This contrasts directly with Knives. He makes a decision and carries through no matter what stands in his way. He takes initiative. If Vash is a passive character, Knives is an active character. Wherever he goes, he leaves a lasting imprint. He makes shit happen! If outside forces make things happen to him, he'll go out of his way to make sure that particular force doesn't affect him again.

These two tweets I saw are what got me thinking about this originally. I just feel like here's a good place to put them as a segue into talking about episode 11.

Episode 11 is where a lot of this feminine imagery really just. Explodes in your face. IT'S RIGHT THERE. You can't dance around it if you try. And it kind of reaches a peak when the connection reaches 100%, the gate opens, and. well. THIS happens to the Plants.

Plants, in both Trimax and Tristamp, are almost always typically feminine-looking. Knives and Vash are the only two who are male or even masculine at all. Knives, as the most masculine out of all of them, is the one trying to take charge, and mould the world as he sees fit, to a degree that is detrimental to both him and everyone else. And Vash-- passive, feminine, kind and nurturing, whose Angel Arm in the manga always sprouts decidedly feminine-looking Plant parts-- is the one being exploited for Knives' plans. It's no mistake that they made the giant plant formation at the end of ep 11 look like a giant woman that almost resembles Rem.

Vash wants people to make their own choices and keep their autonomy when it comes to their bodies and lives. Knives is the exact opposite. He wants all Plants to become independent and he uses Vash to achieve that goal, without asking what Vash wants or even knowing what the Plants themselves would prefer. He exploits Vash for the soul purpose of trying to make these Plants have Independent Plant babies. He's completely incapable of seeing that his choices are not for the greater good! He thinks he's saving them, but none of his actions are for the good of anyone but himself. He’s just violating them for his own gain.

They're really leaning into gender roles for these guys, but in a way that screams "HEY, LOOK AT THIS! ISN'T IT FUCKED UP? LOOK AT HOW FUCKED UP THAT IS. LOOK AT THIS, AND BE UNCOMFORTABLE, AND KNOW THAT IT IS FUCKED UP."

Because it is! It's so extremely fucked up. They're using this imagery and these roles, something that makes most of us intrinsically uncomfortable, to drive home how unhealthy Knives relationship with his ideal of Vash is. That's the point. We're supposed to be uncomfortable with this.

Now of course there's some nuance to it. Like, you could see Knives as somewhat of a feminine and/or queer-coded figure as well, ESPECIALLY if you look at some of his panels in the manga, which could in turn lead to themes about infighting and control within marginalized communities, but that might be something for another post. :3

And there's definitely different ways you could take this! Vash, with all this feminine imagery, could be either transfem or transmasc coded, depending on what way you'd rather see it, which could lead into themes of how people outside the norm constantly face a lack of bodily autonomy and are exploited for purposes outside their boundaries. We could also look at Wolfwood and his lack of choice over joining the Eye of Michael and becoming the Punisher, and how masculine men (particularly men of colour) are often forced into violent roles against their will. If we look at Trimax, the exact same could be said for Livio/Razlo and people with disorders such as DID/OSDD.

There are many different ways you could spin these themes, some of which I don't feel personally qualified to discuss. If anyone who is qualified to talk about Wolfwood or Livio/Razlo or even other characters related to these themes, then god PLEASE add onto this post or make a post and tag me or something. I would love to read it!

Anyway, in conclusion: Vash is a feminine figure constantly taken advantage of and exploited and and he's so incredibly trans/nonbinary-coded that it drives me insane. Thank you

[raconteur-wanpi]

Was.... was the ship Franky found after being hit by the sea train possibly the abandoned "Laboratory For Peace"??? Like, y'know, the MADS ship/headquarters?

Wait. That would... actually explain how Franky was able to run into such a strange ship. Completely devoid of people, yet full of technology and machinery that's almost never seen in the One Piece world. OK, damn. Incorporating that in my belief system.

Like, the design checks out, right? Look at the tall shape and the circular windows. Especially if you ignore the fact that this depiction of it seems to be intentionally "cutesy" and cartoony, since it's meant to evoke Lu Feld's propaganda about the true intentions of MADS.