#like i just see so much of fandom insisting that actually people take their headcanons and spec too seriously

[fiona-fififi]

Okay, but are people actually taking things too seriously or are you just taking their posts too seriously and assuming everything not followed by "this is a joke" is representative of someone's immovable thought process and not, you know, just people being silly and having fun??

[velvees-archive]

Some post-SOJ DLC case thoughts about Edgeworth, his opinion on marriage, and by extension, love.

…and how, at the very center of this discussion is one Phoenix Wright.

Contains spoilers from 3-5, 6-5 and 6-DLC

As if the subtext wasn’t enough.

I wanted to share some thoughts about the DLC case and Edgeworth's insistence on remaining unwed, which, from what I've seen, is a commonly employed gotcha moment against NaruMitsu (because all relationships must end in marriage, right? /lh). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t really mind. I just…didn’t find the dialogue exchange very damning.

Coming off 6-5, where Edgeworth says this,

I saw the DLC as an extension of Edgeworth's sentimentality, this time directed at Phoenix’s romantic prospects.

To make my stance clear, I don’t think Edgeworth is blind to romantic overtures; he just doesn’t care about them very much. As in, Edgeworth is largely unaffected by and uninterested in matters of the heart (with a concession that he is obtuse when it comes to people expressing interest in him, unless they're Wendy Oldbag over the top about it). But even if you feel he's terrible at sensing romantic tension, my argument still stands. Edgeworth doesn’t care about romance, and we never really see him prying into anyone’s romantic relationships…

…with the exception to this being Phoenix Wright’s.

From Bridge to the Turnabout:

Sorry for the janky screenshots. I didn't didn't take 3-5 pics on my Switch so I had to search for YouTube clips. Let the record show I actually really enjoy Feenris PLUS I love angst, so this interaction was…chef’s kiss.

Assuming Edgeworth doesn't care about romance but he can understand romantic signaling, this is already pretty condemning. Why are you poking around Phoenix's business if you're so uninterested in love? Surely, there are bigger fish to fry, like investigating the Inner Temple Garden because the clues found could be vital to catching the victim's murderer?

Assuming Edgeworth sucks at detecting any romantic undertones, the implications are even worse. You're telling me the guy who doesn't know the first thing about romance somehow clocked Phoenix and Iris's chemistry this quickly? How? For what reason were you able to catch it? How attuned are you to Phoenix's personal affairs?

Now, shifting back to the DLC case, we have this lovely interaction when you show Miles the wedding chapel pamphlet:

Something to note with Phoenix’s “W-Wait. You’re not thinking about finally settling down and getting married, are you?” is that the screen flashes and we hear the damage sound after the “W-Wait."

Once again, Miles inquires about Phoenix's love life, this time after Phoenix asks about his. I've analyzed my fair share of Miles Edgeworth dialogue, and I don't think he pingpongs questions just to make conversation (see: “Say something, Wright. I’m not good at small talk.”). This leads me to believe he was genuinely curious and (subtly) trying to fish for information. And why would that be the case?

My overarching point is this: Edgeworth isn’t as obtuse about romance as everyone makes him out to be (both in-universe and from a fandom perspective), which makes his mentioning marriage plans around Phoenix even more suspicious. The way the scene reads to me is that Edgeworth, in Phoenix’s company and swept away by the intimate atmosphere, lets his interest in Phoenix Wright slip through the cracks once Phoenix shows him the pamphlet. It's sentimental of him and it surfaces—once again—while he's investigating a case. At risk of sounding repetitive, there are bigger fish to fry.

It'd be less suspicious if Phoenix had similar conversations with other cast members he shows the pamphlet to, but it never gets to be this personal, even when he presents it to Maya, his best friend.

Good news if you feel otherwise about my “Edgeworth isn’t that obtuse” headcanon though, because should you believe he is actually just that clueless, you now have to contend with this:

If Miles can’t pick up on all things love, why is he so attuned to Wright’s (and to my knowledge, only Wright’s) romantic prospects in particular?

So yeah. Checkmate, I guess. Edgeworth might not be interested in marriage or love, but he’s definitely interested in Phoenix’s partners, or lack thereof. Take that how you will.

[aaaddyyh]

Character analysis - Homicipher (pt. 1)

These are theories, don’t take my word for it. I welcome any other point of views, but there’s a big reason I’m posting: the lack of horror.

I’m not really here to complain about the fluff/nsfw headcanons and fics all around the Homicipher fandom

because everyone can enjoy content the way they want best!

But one of the many reasons I love the game so much is because of the horror element.

I noticed that people joined the fandom because of Mr. Crawling, or after romanticizing Mr. Scarletella and his motives. But I think, beyond all of that, every character has so much horror potential, which people don’t exploit enough.

I want some inclination towards dead dove, but there’s very few writers that post that kind of stuff. I love the thrill, I love the dread, the chase and the fight. That suspanse and stress that makes the horror actually crawl up my spine in a chilly shiver.

Time to ramble, please just hear me out 😞

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀.　　　　　　　　　　⠀⠀⠀✦ ⠀ ⠀　　　　　　　　　　　　　　⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀* ⠀⠀⠀.　　　　　　　　　　. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✦⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀.　　　　　　　　　　　　　.　　　ﾟ .　　　　　　　　　　　　　. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　✦ 　　　　　,　　　　　　　.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

　　　　　　*　　　　　　　　　　　.

.　　　　　　　　　　　　　. 　　✦⠀　   　　　,　　　　　　　　　*

　　　　　⠀　　　　⠀　　,

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀.　　　　　 　　⠀　　　⠀.　

　　˚　　　⠀　⠀  　　,　　　　　　.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　.

　　　　　　*⠀　　⠀  　　　　　⠀✦⠀　

　　　　　　*　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　.

　　　　.　　　　.　　　⠀

　　　　　　　　　　　.

　　　　　　　

　　　˚　　　　　　　　ﾟ　　　　　.

　.⠀　　⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀‍⠀,

　　　*　　⠀.

　　　　　.　　　　　　　　　　⠀✦

　˚　　　　　　　　　　　　　　*

.⠀ 　　　　　　　　　　.　　　　　　　　.

　　　　　✦⠀　   　　　,　　    　　　　　　　　.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀.　　　　　　　　　　⠀⠀⠀✦ ⠀ ⠀　　　　　　　　　　　　　　⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀* ⠀⠀⠀.　　　　　　　　　　. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀✦⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⋆｡°✩ Mr Crawling

- and traits I think people overlook

★ He’s an entity who claims can’t stand up, but does so up regardless in order to “intimidate”. There was no one to actually be intimidated (besides Mr. Stitch), because we all kicked our feet and giggled. But I don’t think some understand how truly terrifying that is.

The seemingly innocent character that poses no threat, who doesn’t intimidate anybody, suddenly stands up. He is so tall that he has to slump over to not hit his head. It’s already creepy seeing someone stand like that in a dark corridor, but how he overall seems to walk slow, threatening, makes you realize that maybe he’s capable of much more than what he claims.

To top it off, he is not slow at all. He catches up with Mr. Stitch in no time, despite Mr Stitch running for his life. Mr. Crawling grabs him with ease and kills him in one blow. He could be a very big threat to us too, had we not given him what he lacked: attention.

★ Imagine if we don’t give him the attention he wants. Yes, I understand he will get upset, but I doubt he’d just go hiding, unless we straight up attempt to hurt him. I’d much rather picture him fight for out attention and affection.

Here’s a hypothetical: what if that sadness eats him up until it turns into frustration? What if he would force us to give him attention, because he liked the taste of it, so he wants all of it, all of you. Not in a healthy way. Because we all know that Mr. Crawling is capable to inflict harm, so he’s not that clueless puppy we love to picture him as.

^ again, a lot of potential for dead dove

★ He’s puppy coded and all, but his obsession with us is not sane at all. Maybe he doesn’t exhibit it in a crazed and insistent manner like Mr. Scarletella, so we don’t get the creepy vibes across like we’re supposed to, but that doesn’t mean we have to glaze by it and turn a blind eye to this well written trait.

★ He seems to protect us, despising the moments we’re away from him.

An entity that doesn’t explicitly express discomfort when you’re interacting with other being, but will try anything to keep you for himself, to get your attention back on him, albeit in a tame and quite respectful way.

But the moment something unexpected happens, especially if it involves you being away from him, he is ready to use violence.

^ I can’t help but wonder if that respect would slowly fade away with time and, the more comfortable he gets, the more insistent he could become for your affection.

★ He has the tendency to get jealous too, but only on the inside: let me remind you about how he found an equivalent to the cat ears we put on Mr. Chopped, calling him cute. Mr. Crawling, somehow, got a grasp of human ears (which could imply he got them through violence - or not necessarily, who knows) and posed for us, wanting to also be called cute. I wonder just to what lenghs he would go for us and not only, for our attention.

★ He eats humans! Isn’t that reason enough to be scared? Had he not liked us, would we be a meal too?

★ He stood up to Mr. Scarletella, because he seems aware Mr. Scarletella wants us for himself. If we give him our name, our soul, that means Mr. Crawling would lose us. Isn’t Mr. Scarletella stronger than Mr. Crawling? Wasn’t Mr. Crawling risking a lot by protecting the woman the scarlet umbrella man stalked so feverishly?

A side note: it seems that, by covering our eyes, Mr. Scarletella’s effects on us dissipated. I started believing all his illusions, all his tricks, they all start from eye contact. Mr. Crawling, who lacks eyes (?), covered ours too, then told Mr. Scarletella to leave, and he did. Is it because Mr. Scarletella couldn’t do anything anymore (having no physical body)? Does Mr. Crawling know more than he lets on? I get that Mr Scarletella is “unsafe”, but I don’t see Mr. Crawling protecting us from any other entity as hard as he does from Mr. Scarletella.

Maybe Mr. Crawling avoids at any cost for Mr. Scarletella to take us away. Therefore, when we were forcefully snatched away, he freaked out and decided to use violence (Mr. Stitch scene). Being away from him eats him up from the inside, so he’ll do anything to make sure we never leave him.

★ Overall, I think Mr. Crawling is a pretty neat character, well balanced between respectful of boundaries, yet obsessive. There’s a lot of mystery engulfing his origins, his seemingly clueless nature and his mere existence.

And I would like to conclude with another hypothetical: if you would be watching a horror movie with all these amazingly written characters, wouldn’t “Mr. Crawling unexpected horror scenes” be the biggest plot twist? The one character you expected to be innocent, is evil? But not by any means to harm you, but a character that incites dread to others and is so violent with anyone else (entity or human), because he only wants you and to know you’re happy? That’s just bittersweet.

── .✦. ── ── .✦. ── ── .✦. ──

Please please write off of these if you want, it would be so amazing to see a darker side of Mr. Crawling, not just fluff or NSFW, because there’s so much more to him than the tip of the iceberg!

And sorry for being repetitive, it’s the first time I rant on here, giving more insights to prove a singular point is in my argumentative nature. And I am waiting for other theories, I really need people to talk with about the game ☹️

── .✦. ── ── .✦. ── ── .✦. ──

[the-glorious-evolution-fanart]

what’s your take on this whole “viktor is czech” controversy im seeing so many posts about how we can’t say viktor is russian or any other Slav anymore because of harry lloyd saying he did a czech accent

(I'm answering immediately since this is kind of an active topic that will probably quickly die. Please first read my entire post.)

I am of the opinion that everyone is allowed to headcanon a character however they want, and that it's not nice to insist everyone else adopt one's own interpretation especially if it's not canon. Even if things are canon, people can always choose to purposefully ignore canon in favour of what they prefer. This says nothing about quality - that can go either way. Sometimes the original writing is bad, other times it's good and fandom interpretations are of low creativity/low understanding/quality.

This accent discussion is not a controversy, it's just a tug of war between some fans. Lower the bullying and arguments everyone! It's okay. There's not much point fighting between fans, when companies hold all the power.

~

The reality is more complex than "what canon actually says".

Previous League version

Originally, Viktor the Machine Herald was designed to on the surface quickly read like an Eastern-European mad scientist engineer, with "vibes" from the Red Scare (and things like Red Alert). It has roots in ideas about scary effective heavy machinery. He was made to have a stereotypical Hollywood Slavic accent. If people read into it as Russian, it wouldn't be incorrect, thought the company. That doesn't mean he's hard-coded as Russian. There's the opinion of the lead writer Praeco being shared online in which he says:

He makes the fast mental jump (just like many viewers/players) and lands on the surface-level stereotype, which he thinks is all there is to it. This is false. Viktor's original, release lore from 2011. has no cultural hints towards Russia nor those stereotypes. It is a great basis for developing a more detailed story, which people would certainly love if it was done in an animated medium.

What the lore does have, are similarities with Nikola Tesla, a Serbian engineer and inventor who was conned by Edison, had his work stolen and often been viewed as crazy. Viktor's in-game abilities are inspired by some of Nikola Tesla's hypothetical inventions. His staff has a Tesla coil on it.

I personally write Viktor as being Serbian-inspired due to this, and it's also easier for me as I'm Serbian, so I can make up a headcanon about old lore old Zaunites speaking this language thus explaining the accent when they speak Common; and not stress over messing up a translation. There's also the fact that we are very underrepresented in pop-culture, and even when we are, it's most often as unintelligent criminals.

That doesn't mean that people headcanoning League Viktor as being Russian-inspired are automatically incorrect.

2. Arcane Viktor

Here's the interview with the voice actor. There's a couple of things here to be noted. He says a "frail Eastern-European scientist"... meanwhile Czechs are Western Slavs, not Eastern. This tells me the Americans leading the show didn't pay much attention to ethnicities, as those things don't matter to them.

Then Nikola Tesla is brought up again - proving the original core archetype. But Nikola Tesla was Serbian, who are South Slavs, not Eastern nor Western.

To Americans, we are all interchangeable. They really don't care. They hired a British voice actor, despite there being countless Slavic voice actors they could have contacted. I can even reach a bunch of them.

The voice actor they hired had only practiced a Czech accent in one of his previous works, and it was "close enough". And what I can say is that he doesn't sound neither Russian, nor Serbian to my ear. Our accent is way more heavy and explosive (actually pretty similar to original in-game Viktor! Just less dramatic) while Russian would be way more softer. I've seen some Czechs say he does indeed sound Czech, and I think that's completely valid! But Arcane Viktor is Czech not by design, but out of necessity.

Czechs (Česi!!!!!) are also very little represented in pop-culture. Basically non-existent. They have also historically been behind the Iron Curtain, so you must understand their position. I think people have the right to headcanon Arcane Viktor as being Czech-inspired, despite what all the inconsistencies and frankly bad mixups have been said by the production crew behind-the-scenes. And they absolutely should not be bullied and forced into headcanoning Arcane Viktor as Russian or any other ethnicity! What's in the work itself sounds Czech, not Serbian. That said, I also think people have the right to personally headcanon Arcane Viktor as any ethnicity-inspired as they wish. Just know the state of things like I shared here, say what your personal headcanon is and don't vaguepost or bully other people. Those throwing rocks first should stop.

3. In the end, I personally view Arcane Viktor as Czech-inspired, League Viktor as Serbian-inspired, but it's not even wrong to consider him generally Slavic-inspired, as these nationalities really don't exist in Runeterra. Political situation aside.

[decepti-thots]

☕ ~ trans woman whirl?

I love trans Whirl headcanons but I think I love them for totally different reasons than I usually see, tbh? That is- I think a lot of the time the fandom just goes 'oh! Girl Holoform Spotted! now this character is girl, and we can say character is trans girl because in the comic they are called he/him' and tbh I find that attitude as fandom often implements it annoying for a couple reasons; one, it often feels like a kind of 'if character Looks Like Girl, well, character Is Girl' deal which tbh feels kinda shallow to me ngl, and two, it (and similar under-expanded upon headcanons) not infrequently seems to be a way for the fandom as a whole to justify the general lack of content for the very explicitly canon trans characters by instead being like 'all the material we make for these characters not treated as such in canon proves that we definitely love trans characters. don't think about how lug or anode or arcee don't get that same attention, or that this content only offhandedly actually deals with transness 90% of the time', you know? Bit mean, but I can't help but feel that's a repeated tendency in the fandom, tbh. I would feel less like this if the fanon trans headcanons did not just vaguely go 'oh. also ig they are trans, how nice' with no follow up and instead actually treated these characters as having opinions about being trans, but in too many cases they unfortunately... don't. (And no, them being robots is not an excuse. Anode has opinions on this. Arcee has opinions on this, a lot of them!) But we're here to talk about Whirl, and I want to talk about why I do love trans Whirl, so.

I love trans Whirl for reasons far outside of that, and I think taking that approach to the idea does it a disservice tbqh. Specifically I like trans Whirl for the same reason I like reading Verity as trans, because it adds to Whirl's character arc about being denied agency over identity and clawing it back on purpose in a way where the trans reading feels especially resonant and like it genuinely adds to the overall subtext of her arc. Whirl's entire character is one where the violent removal of agency in her life is so much a focus it changes the course of history; Whirl refusing to let the functionists that ruined her life win is why Elegant Chaos plays out as it does. Whirl is a character whose entire sense of self as a person with the ability to make any choices at all was viciously ripped away from her, and in turn a character whose response to that is to make her ability to choose exactly what she does so utterly undeniable that even if you hate her, even if you think she's repulsive, even if you want to throttle her, you cannot pretend she is not in control. In that specific context, adding in the idea that she would choose her own gender, in defiance of a Cybertronian culture that implicitly treats gender as an alien unwelcome influence, so she can have what she wants- that rules. There's also such a line to be drawn there between Arcee's arc and Whirl, I think, that is so great. That's where I see why it is so good. Being seen as just a gun to be aimed that everyone professes distaste for but still wants to stick around and do dirty work, but you insist upon your interiority being seen as just that; your interiority. And all the things the people who want to do to you which you hate being what you embrace. It's fantastic. I simply prefer that as an angle through which to view the ideas than like... haha well Whirl's holoform is Girl With Guns how funny. You know?

And one of her most "humanising" moments is when she extends that to someone else. I'm thinking of when she tells Tailgate that Cyclonus was lying about his injuries; that part where Cyclonus is trying to protect Tailgate in a way that is ultimately toxic for them both. Sure, everyone else agrees that the best way to handle this is to lie for your own good so you don't make a decision people don't want you to. But that's not fucking fair, and who gets to decide what's "your own good"? Viewing that in light of a Whirl who is not just vaguely a woman but specifically linking that to the way Whirl's rigidly defined role under a functionist heel ruined her sense of identity, because they know what's best for you whether you like it or not- damn, that is COMPELLING. And I find that just. So much more compelling than what fandom so often does with the idea. Whirl, above all else, knows how important demanding agency is. I think that makes Whirl a character ripe for a reading as trans, and I love that for her so much. she'll grab you by the throat and make you acknowledge her. and she's right every step of the way, no matter how much you want to look away. i love her.

tl;dr WHIRL TRANS WOMAN GOOD. LOVE IT. no really i just, it's so good.

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

I don't know what your take on the whole asexual/aromantic discourse is, but have you noticed an uptick in people insisting that characters who are heavily implied to be gay are actually aroace? It happens a lot in one of the fandoms I'm in and it makes it so hard to have discussions about these characters. There's this particular character who is like deeply deeply traumatized and has completely reasonable trust issues due to it and I've seen so many people insist that that makes them aroace. It's such a reductive interpretation, but any sort of push back toward it gets you branded a bigot. And whenever I see people try to argue against it they always preface it with "if you have this headcanon you're so valid, it's so so valid, but" and it's like fuck off why do we have to do this shit?

Anon, don't get me started. I have so much to say about this.

I have seen so many people say that the reason that gay ships don't kiss as often as straight ships do is because "oh they don't need to prove their relationship by way of physicality! Their relationship is deeper than sex and kissing!!!" and it's like... no shit? Almost all relationships are deeper been sex and kissing lmao. The presence of sex and kissing does not take away from how deep a relationship can be. Two people wanting to have sex with each other are not more shallow than two people who don't. And for some reason, I only ever see this argued with regard to gay ships. Straight ships get to kiss all the fucking time. Nobody ever argues that straight people not kissing deepens their relationship.

There were some people who were upset about the men from Good Omens kissing in the season 2 finale, because they felt like it took something away. Probably the aroace headcannon that they had, and it's just so ridiculous. Like. We know you don't want to see gay people kissing on screen. We fucking know.

People will do literally anything but admit that they are fucking homophobic and think that two people of the same sex kissing is icky. Even if they identify as aroace, go put those fucking headcannons onto straight people and let gay people fuck nasty on screen. Y'all are so fucking annoying. Gay rights have not progressed so fucking far that we can put a stopper in gay people kissing on TV. We are not so deep into gay rights that you can throw a tantrum about wanting your gay characters to stay "good and pure" by never kissing or having sex with each other and not come across as homophobic. I don't care how much fucking representation you want. Gay people also need to be represented, and the majority of gay people kiss and have sex, so stop your whining every time that gay people actually kiss on screen. You sound stupid, selfish, and homophobic.

[qiu-yan]

3 6 7 11 16 20 25

bro is trying to get me killed lmao /s

choose violence ask game

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr:

this shit

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

gonna be honest here, the single most annoying part of the MDZS fandom is that one hyperspecific sort of wang and xian stan who insists on shitting on not only the other characters, but also other wang and xian fans who ship the characters in ways they don't approve of. this kind of stan can not only be relied on to have the worst possible takes on everyone ranging from jin guangyao to jiang cheng, they can also be relied on to harass other wang and xian fans simply for putting wang on the bottom. fun times.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

surprisingly, no one yet. sometimes i feel the hater urge to dunk on the morally-pure version of wei wuxian that the diehard wei wuxian stannies have collectively hallucinated, but i still find the wei wuxian from canon to be quite compelling.

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

the "canon jiang cheng" and "canon jc" tags. everyone stfu

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

"morally pure wei wuxian who did nothing wrong ever." to me, wei wuxian's hubris, his unique capability for inventing new kinds of cruelty, his failure to think of the consequences of his actions, his tendencies to run away from negative feelings, and his ultimate failure to protect the people he was trying to protect, are what make him a compelling character to me. these flaws in parallel with his courage, kindness, stalwart moral compass, and genuine love make him interesting to me. so i don't quite understand fans who instead insist on erasing all the morally grey and highly interesting stuff he did in favor of insisting he did nothing wrong ever.

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

not quite what the question is asking, but i found the actual wang and xian romance in the original novel to be a bit lacking. mainly because (as other people have said already) a lot of the romantic development happened when lan wangji was drunk. at the very least, i wanted to see lan wangji's reactions to his various drunken adventures once he sobered up the next day, and i'm rather disappointed we never got to see that.

furthermore, on wei wuxian's end, it did kind of feel like wei wuxian was using this exciting new romance to distract himself from his past problems, even though it also seemed like he didn't actually know all that much about lan wangji. the only version of the romance that makes sense to me is the one where wei wuxian was already into lan wangji (subconsciously or consciously) in his first life; otherwise, wei wuxian falling in love with lan wangji during his second life, when he's yet to process any of the shit that happened in his first life, feels too much like him running away from his problems with a guy he believes will validate all his decisions. meanwhile, on lan wangji's end, i feel like the novel just did not give us a lot to work with in regards to his character. so it feels like, if you want to be a fan of lan wangji, you have to do a lot of the legwork of building up his personality yourself.

what also disappointed me a bit about wang and xian, as well as lan wangji's character arc itself, is that lan wangji is never really challenged on a moral-dilemma level in the same way that many other characters are challenged by the story. how do i explain this...alright, i'll put it this way. i've been brainrotted about madohomu (madoka magica) since i was in middle school. and that's partially because i know for a fact that, if homura was put in the trolley problem and had to choose between [killing 5 strangers] and [allowing madoka to die], she would choose to kill those 5 strangers to save madoka. but after reading MDZS, i realized i legitimately did not know what lan wangji would do in such a moral dilemma. because MDZS equates [being morally righteous] with [supporting wei wuxian], lan wangji is never placed in a dilemma where he has to choose between sacrificing wei ying and doing something the audience would think of as unforgivable.

these are just my own hyperspecific tastes, though.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

gonna put my hater hat on for a second, but i kind of roll my eyes at the jiang cheng haters complaining about how jiang cheng stans keep posting in the "canon jiang cheng" tag. dude, if it bothers you that much, just block the jiang cheng stans. then things will be peaceful in your favorite tag again.

[femdemon]

While I'm posting about my experiences with transandrophobia, I feel like people are weird about headcanoning characters as transmasc specifically. Like, obviously, there's your regular old gender and sex based bigotry a lot of the time about headcanoning any character as being anything other than strictly cis, perisex, and gender conforming, but people who allege to be progressive and open-minded get really weird and hostile about transmasc folks specifically seeing ourselves in fictional characters.

Like, okay. I've seen people say, "If you're only headcanoning overtly feminine characters as transmasc and overtly masculine characters as transfem, and you yourself are cis or whatever, maybe you should ask yourself why and whether or not you might have some internalized binarism you need to work on." And this is true, and good to point out! But then I've seen other people take this very good and true message and do some medicalism, gender essentialist bullshit to it like, "Yeah! Stop headcanoning feminine characters as transmasc altogether! Especially if you're a gender non-conforming transmasc person who heavily relates to the character in question and see a lot of yourself in said character. Don't you wanna be taken seriously by Normal People? Don't you wanna be seen as a Real Man? You can't headcanon this character as transmasc, then. Obviously, they're a trans woman, actually, like it's practically canon. In fact, you're Committing An Erasure if you headcanon this character as any gender other than a trans woman, and this is a crime that can never be forgiven and must be punished with Shunning until you admit that you're wrong."

And, like, I'm not saying that this never happens with other headcanons, I've absolutely seen it happen with other queer identities, I just see it a lot with respect to my own gender and I feel like it's bizarrely frequent. Why exactly are people so threatened by even just the idea that a character could be interpreted as transmasc? Why do people get this heated about basically any fiction or insist that it has something to do with representation when it was never canon to begin with? Some random person online who definitely isn't the author isn't in control of the story or characters, and it does nothing to the canon for them to have an opinion or idea about it that you don't like. I know that not everybody has gotten the "fandom isn't activism" memo yet, but even still, it just strikes me as really strange to sort of gatekeep who's allowed to relate to certain characters, or even just imagine them in ways that are different from fanon.

It kind of feels a lot like that thing people do where they're like, "Oh, the aces and aros want some characters they can see themselves in, we'll just give them the aliens and robots (never humans) and such, that should be enough." And then when we're like, "Okay, yeah, I can definitely see a lot of myself in this beloved robot character," suddenly it's all, "Nooo, beloved robot character couldn't possibly be aspec! You buffoon!!! How dare you!!!" It's like, even when we do get "permission" to have headcanons and characters we see ourselves in, we still don't really have it. And then I wonder why I'm always so drawn to inconsequential background characters who contribute nothing to the plot - I've totally been conditioned into it because liking and relating to the main cast is forbidden, I guess.

I know this is a very niche, small problem in the grand scheme of things, but it bums me out. Especially since a lot of this is coming from people who consider themselves allies and stuff, and we already face so much backlash just for daring to suggest that we have unique struggles. Not even when we're having fun storytime with our fan fiction do we get a break.

[kaddyssammlung]

Im the stc lore anon. Im very aware of the old interviews. In fact thats exactly part of why i get so frustrated with the fan interpretations of lore. Because its one of the things in my view that debunks the romance about sleep theories. Its just very frustrating feeling so strongly about my theory the fan lore is not canon while seemingly most of the fandom assumes the fan lore is absolutely 100 percent canon and just needs some more puzzle pieces to unluck the True Story. I used to believe the fanmade lore, but i no longer can do so especially when ive seen various bits of concerning behavior in the fandom where i think people take it wayyy too far. I think the only "canon" interpretation of the lyrics is the real person behind the masks life story, otherwise theres no "canon" and we are supposed to do whatever we want. But i think things have just gotten wayyy out of control with the its about a romance with sleep theory. What makes me actually hate it is how much people insist the people on stage are "characters" (i regularly see disclaimers saying "dont worry im just talking about the characters not the real people" when i really dont think they are "characters" in the way people think... this is not an anti fanfic/shipping/headcanon about real people stance btw i dont care about that as long as you dont go too far, i just dont like the insistence theyre "characters" because that feels so dehumanizing) and how rude people are if you dont agree with the fanlore (the vitriol aimed at alternate interpretations is really disgusting, especially the "why are sexualizing the lyrics, youre a bad person" crowds vitriol and insistence theyre the Good Fans while if you dont agree you deserve awful things). Otherwise, i just get *personally* annoyed with how often i come across the "its totally canon that its about sleep theories" when i dont want to *personally* hear those theories at all. I hope im making sense, and maybe im being an asshole in how im expressing my views idk. I just really feel like an outsider in this fandom and get so happy when i come across people who actually agree with me because it makes me feel less alone and like im not stupid or whatever. Just have fun, let the music mean something special to you, and remember the band (and their fans for that matter, going back to the vitriol thing) are human beings, thats what ultimately matters. I just think the lore as the fans see it has gotten into concerning territory. Wont leave any more anons about this for now because i dont want to drag this out more, i just saw your replies/post and wanted to respond in hopes what im trying to say will finally come out right (im not always the best with words, im very blunt, im very opinionated, etc)

Good Morning or Guten Morgen or Happy Timezone

I get your point and I don't think that you're an asshole.

I think you are struggling with something that many struggle and the fans that you call out also struggle with that: it's acceptance. Or accepting what is; in that case it's fan's who act a certain way or have different opinions or see things in a different way.

Acceptance is a mastery. It's something that is very hard to achieve.

Your situation reminds me of something that I could not accept for a long time in that fandom. So I'm going to talk about that.

This will probably be a long post so I'm hiding this and also mental health topics will come up.

I always had this assumption that everyone could see what I see when I look at Vessel. I'm talking concerts photos and “peeled Vessel” and the things that get revealed when the paint comes down. To me his scars are one of the few things that I can observe and so can everyone else, right?! There are so many even the ones from a certain attempt on both his right and his left forearm.

Well...right?! They are right in your face....

No! They are right in my face. I got into weird arguments about this topic. Which is a weird thing to argue about because this topic is a very painful one and also a strange one. There is a giant stigma around it. There are even “mental health professionals” on YouTube who refuse to talk about that topic and pretend that it does not exist because YouTube does not like these topics. It's a weird topic.

But it was exactly that what got me into the lyrics so much. I wanted to figure out the story behind what I could see.

All I found was myself and the parts of me that I denied that even existed. I stopped searching for the story and started to face myself instead.

I found a great new spiritual teacher because of that. She teaches acceptance and also sacred neutrality.

It's been almost a year now with her teachings and me finally accepting that not everyone can see what I see when I look at Vessel.

There will always be humans out there who call all of this an assumption. To them he did not self-harm and does not have scars from a certain attempt. To them that's an assumption while for me it's a fact.

Those fans are not worse then me and I'm not better then them. I can accept that they just have a different view on everything.

It's the same with lore interpretations or the way that some treat them in a (your words) dehumanizing way.

I can accept all that I just don't read it or interact with them. I let them have their view on things and I have my weird view on things.

I argued with fans that said things like: I don't even like their music or listen to their music but....

They are a thing, too btw.

When it comes to Sleep btw. To me it's an entity. They are very real btw. I learned how to deal with them, too. But I can totally understand that many humans out there just don't get topics like entities or idk...I mean I saw fairy-like beings right in front of me one day. 99% of humans would probably just say that I just made this up. I can understand that or rather I learned how to accept that.

When I first heard about Sleep I thought about that day and the fairies. I just thought...maybe that guy is a bit weird like me?!

We all had different experiences that shaped us. And also some fans really are just 14.

One of the reasons why I left the big Discord for example was because they allow all ages. I had an argument with a nine year old! That's when my alarm bells came online and I thought to myself: no...not okay! Some fans act a certain way because they are actual kids.

Like I said....I found a place within me to accept all that.

But it took a lot of facing myself to find that acceptance. And it's a process that is on-going.

Maybe this helps you...maybe not....maybe it clarifies something...maybe not.

I'm learning everything from her btw. It's energy work....energy work means you work with your soul, your higher self, higher dimensional beings....all theses things.

One thing that I forgot....accepting something and agreeing with it is not the same thing. I can totally disagree but still accept that something.

[musicalmoritz]

Defending Terukane Like It’s My Job

Don’t yell at me for this but I feel like MOST of the hate I’ve seen towards Terukane is just because they’re both men. I’ve definitely seen people dislike it normally and those people mostly keep to themselves but the people who adamantly hate it with a passion are so weird. It’s a completely normal ship, yes it’s toxic but not enough to warrant the amount of hate some people give it. Every canon TBHK ship has had scenes of physical violence against one another, and the way Teru treats Akane is used as a gag so it’s not meant to be the main takeaway from their dynamic

Their rivalry motivates both characters and is overall shown to be something positive for them. If Akane hated Teru as much as he claims to, they wouldn’t have scenes of lightheartedly teasing each other like friends do. Like it or not their characters are good for each other, if not romantically then as rivals and/or friends

Back to my main point though, it’s perfectly fine to dislike Terukane but the way some fans talk about it sounds so targeted. Someone on Reddit called it the second worst ship next to Tsu//mane like really??? Out of every ship in the series you think it’s that low??? Worse than the other incest ships??? Worse than the minor x adult ships??? Terukane is objectively the worst??? Sure Dave

I think it’s the way the passionate haters always dumb down their dynamic and bring up how people shouldn’t prefer it over the holy straight canon ship. I like Aoi//Aoi nearly as much as Terukane but c’mon guys, one straight ship out of a million isn’t anything groundbreaking. They talk abt it the same way dudebros talk abt Sato//Sugu and idk, I didn’t think the tbhk fandom was like that😔

I see a bit of this aimed at the other gay ships too (even Mitsukou) but for some reason Terukane antis are especially angry. I get it, it’s repetitive seeing ships between two conventionally attractive men become super popular in every fandom. I myself get a little bummed out when my low quality Terukane fics get 3x as many kudos as Aoi//Nene fics I spent months working on. But that’s an issue with fandoms, not gay men, and even so people can read and ship whatever they want. If you want to see more straight fan art and fanfics then make it yourself

I also saw this one person on Pinterest insist that Teru is aroace coded and that Terukane is problematic because of that…babe please read the manga. Teru’s mystery crush has been a consistent thing since the first chapter and AidaIro confirmed he does actually like someone. I’m all for more aroace representation and if you relate to his character, feel free to headcanon him as whatever you want. But don’t push your headcanons onto others, especially not when you have to alter canon to justify them. Teru could absolutely still be aspec in some way but him having a crush on Aoi (or Akane) is a semi-important part of his character

So yeah hate Terukane all you want, headcanon them however you want, but maybe consider where that hate is coming from before you post an angry rant about it online. And maybe read a character analysis or two before giving the worst take I have ever heard in my life. Just a suggestion

[icedteaandoldlace]

1, 7 and 12 pleaaaaase for the choose violence ask :))

Choosing more violence today than usual because the ask list calls for it. You've all been warned. 😅

1. The character everyone gets wrong.

Patty Spivot. I'm a Westallen fan till my dying day, but there are some catty Westallen fans who cannot let that thing with Mark Mardon go, and insist that she is the embodiment of everything wrong with real-life law enforcement, solely for wanting to do the thing that 99% of the fandom is frustrated with Barry for not doing, which is killing the person who killed one of her parents. She didn't even go through with killing him, she did things by the book in the end. Plus it was one guy and it was personal, it's not like she was out here power tripping just for the heck of it. Also, I'm not 100% certain how the Spallen shippers characterize her, because I don't really hang out in the Spallen side of the fandom, but I feel like people tend to forget that she's a nerd and make her out to be some cool it-girl instead. Patty is not a cool girl. She is a very very pretty nerd girl. I mean that in the best kind of way.

Caitlin is also horribly mischaracterized (in different ways) by both the Snowbarry fandom and the diehard Westallen fans. The only people who are right about Caitlin are the people who like both her and Iris. Everyone else is too biased to think clearly.

And of course Iris is the most mischaracterized, but everyone already knows how and why people get her wrong. And people getting her wrong is the reason why they get the other two wrong, and everyone is doing it on purpose, and it's a mess, and it's super annoying, and if everyone could just be NORMAL about these girls, things would be swell! But as it is, people are racist and petty and vindictive, so things are ridiculous.

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

So I hate to say it, because I do actually like this character very much when she's onscreen in front of me, but my word, the fandom made me so sick of Cynthia. (She would also be a good answer for that first question, because she's so mischaracterized as someone way more straight-laced than she actually is, but in her case it seems like a genuine case of Wow People Really Don't Pay Attention, Do They?) Is it weird that I hate fanon Cynthia because fanon Cynthia is a better girlfriend and a better person in general than canon Cynthia is? (yet still working for the collectors??) Because that's where I'm at. Tbh I blame the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4, 'cause I feel like headcanons and fanfiction about Cisco dealing with losing both his best friends by leaning on his girlfriend gave people expectations for what their relationship was gonna be like, and then they just...didn't register when it didn't turn out like that. Like, at all. Now, I enjoyed her time on the show for what it was, I still enjoy rewatching episodes that she's in, and would hardly be bothered to mention any of the issues I have with her if people would just see her for how she is. But for whatever reason, she's put on this pedestal and viewed as the person Cisco should have ended up with, even though every storyline they have together is loaded with examples for why their relationship would never work out in the long run. Cynthia was not the love of Cisco's life, she was something he needed to get out of his system. He wouldn't let himself date Golden Glider 'cause she was a criminal, but Cynthia being technically "team good" because she's in law enforcement gave him the inch he needed to pursue a relationship with the kind of bad girl he thought he wanted to date. But she turned out to be his Morgan Harris (which will mean nothing to anyone who hasn't watched the '80s Anne of Green Gables miniseries, but whatever), because he finally got what he wanted, only to realize that what he really wants is something else. So it's frustrating to me when people take a girl who clearly didn't want the same kind of relationship that Cisco wanted, and whose personal values clearly didn't align with his, and warp her to be some Iris-level, supportive-girlboss-wife material, who's totally never made an unethical decision in her life and works for a good upstanding organization committed to Justice™️—and insist that the writers were wrong to break her and Cisco up, because everything was ~Fine~ (insert dog in house on fire meme), when clearly breaking them up was what was best for Cisco. Because he was floundering trying to make things work with her, and they just didn't. They could never be fully happy together because either one or both of them would have to change their entire personality to make it work—and neither of them was willing to ask the other to do that. They're star-crossed. They have always been star-crossed. It just took them a while to accept it. And it's taking the fandom for-freaking-ever.

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them.

Obviously I stay raving about why everyone should love Kamilla. I'm sure you all know the spiel by now.

She's sweet, she's smart, she has style, she can keep her head in a crisis, she's gentle but knows how to tell someone off when she needs to, she has no superpowers or combat training of any kind, and yet willingly joins in several dangerous missions because she cares a lot about helping people, and protecting the people she loves. Despite being seriously underutilized, she actually has much more development than people realize, but folks insist on saying she "doesn't have enough personality to be interesting/to take from canon and build off of for fanfiction" JUST BECAUSE SHE'S NICE AND SOFT-SPOKEN AND GIRLY, AND PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT TF TO DO WITH A NICE GIRL CHARACTER WHO DOESN'T ALSO PUNCH STUFF. Not that she's not badass when she needs to be, but that is entirely beside the point! Now I understand that some people tapped out of the show early and didn't get to know her. But the way people who lasted 7 whole seasons just write her off as flat and boring drives me up the WALL. She's a photographer! She's a bartender! She reads comic books! She likes Star Wars and Fantastic Four! She cooks! She organized an art show! She subbed in for the rest of Team Flash when they were unavailable! She knows how to operate a satellite! Because she's watched Cisco and Caitlin do it, so clearly she's got mad observational and fast learner skills! She's maybe, possibly vegan, but also possibly not? She has at least one sister, and she made friends with all of Team Flash very fast, and it's no wonder, because she's shown to be thoughtful and a good listener several times! There are SO MANY little details about her slipped into canon that you can easily take and run with and develop further in fun ways, and that's part of why she's one of my favorite characters to write for! Also, HELLO, the supportive, attentive girlfriend everyone projects Cynthia to be? Kamilla actually IS! Literally WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE????

[davekat-sucks]

"OH my god, Anon! [Feferi]'s PETA!"

spot on on, because if meenah is more like caliborn, feferi is more like calliope. and thats how you get beforus, a nanny state planet that pretends to be an utopia. tumblr. speaking of which.

I'm cool with whatever people do in their spare time, you know, you do you. But what ticks me off is when they start acting all authoritarian with their headcanons, insisting they are canon and claiming others are clueless, ignorant, illiterate, tone-deaf, every internalized or externalized -ist and -phobic under the sun etc for not seeing it that way. Treating fictional characters with more decency than they do with real people essentially. So because I dont give a single iota of a fuck anymore, let me call out this retarded fandom that butterfly effected all western fandoms turning into warzones and hussies lazy hack ass really quick.

Here's the deal: Some people really just wanna show off how "woke" they are to others, so they slap labels like they're trendy accessories and project onto characters without giving a damn about their background or personality. That usually backfires and ends up with pretty darn terrible results. We all know this, we've heard the HS2 horror stories. And that's exactly what went down here again.

Because, lately, there's this, as I said let's call it headcanon, floating around insisting that the Vantases, Kankri in particular, are canonically aromantic asexual (aroace). The Vantases are the worst possible candidates in the whole webcomic for this. Why?

1: celibacy ≠ aroace. first one is not an orientation, but a choice to abstain from acting on attraction. and the other IS a orientation, not a choice, where you feel little to no romantic or sexual attraction. so much for respecting some people's identities and values. If the vantases HAVE to be assigned a human label despite being fucking aliens, why not demisexual???? kankri even asks karkat if he might be "panquadrantic demiromantic", doesnt that fit how the signless took time to open his heart to the disciple and had a love that went beyond all quadrants with her?

they are both HORNY and THIRSTY as hell for the pyropes, the captors, the leijons, john egbert, i dont fucking know, take your pick. make them fuck a clown. That's why Karkat is obsessed with romance and Kankri panders so hard, they are both that pathetically desperate for someone to connect and care for them back as obsessively intense as they are with everything.

3: Some previous anon pointed out how HIC, besides being an authoritarian tyrant that wanted galaxy-wide conquest, is an eugenicist fascist. Yes. She genocided limebloods. So did Beforan Feferi actually. And you know Karkat's handle? carcinogeneticist? How he inherited the Signless's burden? These things are all related, and let me use a comparison to explain how or why. Imposing this label onto them would be as perplexing as suggesting that Aang from THE LAST AIRBENDER, being a monk, should also be aroace. Right after all the airbenders were wiped out by firebenders, also authoritarian tyrants that wanted world conquest. Do you see the parallels? Karkat and Kankri have significant self-esteem issues, stemming from their mutant blood, from which bloodcaste they mutated from? Limebloods. The caste that has faced intense persecution, to the extent of genocide, on BOTH planets, resulting in their GENETIC LINEAGE being wiped out from the troll GENE POOL. Limebloods are EXTINCT. That's why their mutancy is their burden, it saved them from being killed, but condemned both to a lifetime of suffering and hiding under the same culling regime that killed their kin. And that's why the burden is the responsibility of revitalizing their bloodcaste BY PROCREATING. ADDING THEIR GENES TO THE TROLL GENE POOL. But because both Karkat and Kankri are fucking idiots with crippling self-esteem issues and Hussie wrote with his asscheeks, what did these two chucklefucks do instead? One praised the Empress that wanted to kill him and wanted to become her thresecutioner, and out of desperation did the devil's tango with the worst and most disgusting vile living being available, a hussie self-insert. And the other became fucking CELIBATE to focus on what was truly important to oppose the regime he disagreed with… performative bullshit that nobody asked him to care about, overcorrecting to the point of being even more offensive than the start, and not actually solving any problems but creating more. To make "progress as a civilization" with trigger warnings, HE DIDN'T PRESERVE THE FUTURE OF HIS OWN BLOODCASTE. NEITHER DID KARKAT WHO WAS TOO BUSY WATCHING MOVIES. And that was actually clever writing, because if you are a fandom activist who hates kankri, and also think hes unironically aroace because he's celibate, congratulations! You fell for the trap, youre exactly the kind of person Kankri is satirizing, he also missed the point by hyperfocusing on labels and hating himself, and like a self fulfilling prophecy, became the same thing that he was fighting against without realizing because he unwittingly ended up aiding troll eugenics by doing the hard work and taking himself out of the dating pool!

So next time you see a pretentious writer vagueposting about you or your interpretation of a character or guilt tripping you because you dont adhere to their offensive stereotypes, check if they headcanon Kankri as aroace, and if they do, you can simply smile and rest assured knowing that nothing you do will ever be as disconnected from reality or as far off the mark regarding character interpretation as that. Why would you listen to these evil people? Are you like Hussie?

That is truly why Davekat really fucking sucks and always fucking will,

Because not only did it ruin everything with their nonexistant chemistry-less relationship but because thanks to it and pandering to its stans, Sea Hitler won and both muties are out of the gene pool and limebloods remain extinct. That IS actually canon.

And while Johnkat and Jadekat are excellent, Karkat and Kankri's harem of trolls is better than davekat. Suck my dick.

PD: What's that? Baby HIC married Karkat? Doesn't surprise me. Grooming kids is her whole thing. There really was no excuse for not making Karkat fuck Sollux or Terezi instead.

Karkat and Kankri's Harem are better than Davekat. Meenah, Porrim, and Aranea sprites from @befriendus Damara sprite by @magua-vida

Condesce, Disciple, Redglare Neophyte, and the Dolorosa by elanor-pam

[in3rci4]

• A THOUGHT ABOUT THE BLAKE FAMILY •

Author's note : I'm slowly coming back to The Black Phone fandom , and here's a little theory of mine of the story behind the Blake's family , I'll gave the nickname of " Dahlia " the mother because of the flower , they never said her name so don't take it as the official name or the one I'm calling her , warning , this headcanons might be long and out of pocket . Probably there's spelling mistakes , and there's angst too so suicide , violence , mental , physical illness , etc would be also mentioned.

What's the backstory of the Blake kids parents ?

I believe Terrance had it tough on his youth , a housewife mother that came from the country side by his arranged and much older husband that yes , was hard working , but he was an asshole with his family . Terrance would be scolded by his mother for standing up for her when her husband used her as a punch bag , he would be sent regulary to detention for his smart mouth and would often get into fights for the same reason or to defend someone else when the fight was unfair on his eyes . Once his poor sick mother died and he had to stay alone with his dad , he spent more time on the streets as a rebellious teenager , drinking and having fun with his same out cast friends . Once he got his first job , he saved enough money to leave his house and have a new life , much calmer and stable life .

Dahlia was the daughter of a homeless woman that was often seeing near the local church asking for money or food , people said she was kind , but she was ... touched . If she wasn't asking anything , she was seen talking to the air , sometimes calmly , sometimes angry , in the worst cases scared , running away from the unknown , and those were the times people would avoid her to all costs . Nobody knows exactly who's the father of Dahlia , or if she was consented at all , but one day the woman started to have a pregnant bumb on her belly , and then after 9 months , she disappeared and left her baby on the church's door the exact hour they opened it . The nuns took her to the orphanage along with the other children , and a lot of times the couples that came looking for a child to take care of wanted to adopt her , but they never actually did it , not even once . Dahlia was a sensitive and quiet child , and the other kids loved to bother her , often ending in crying or silent regret for not being more vocal about her dislikes . Her friends ? Only imaginary.... Or well , that's what everyone thought . With time as she grew up the nuns called a doctor on her because she insisted a little way too much that she saw these invisible people , everyone believing a mental illness was starting to form in her . Pills , injections , holy water , praying , it didn't stop until her late teens when she just accepted not being adopt at all and her " friends " didn't exist , just focusing on her grades , so they disappeared , just like her dreams . Outside , the world showed her another way to live without feeling fear or shame for who she was , the 60's being her wild card to meet people that was all about magic , pacifism and freedom , feeling finally understood and free to live her life how she wanted .

One night without moon in a secluded bar the two met , in Terrance eyes , she was the most beautiful woman in the entire place , standing on a corner looking at some random painting hanging on the wall , he got close to her , and starting to have a small conversation that soon got bigger .

He never felt like this with someone before , or thought someone could be this beautiful .

Between laughs and smiles , they got separated in the morning and forgot to ask each other's names or phone numbers , but destiny had another surprise for them . They bumped into each other while walking on the street weeks later and started to talk and laugh once again , but they both made sure to stay in contact and meet a next time . They were different yet had a lot of things in common , and the things they didn't share to like , they would be open try them out if the had the opportunity to see the other smile .

1 year going steady was enough for the young couple and they got married with some other guests on their wedding , Terrance was already saving money to buy himself a house , and so he did to start living their own american dream .

Without warning , Terrance got fired from his job , and Dahlia's work as a cleaner wasn't enough to maintain the house , and he didn't want his wife to have that weight on her shoulders , so when a friend of his recommend him to go and try in the Rocky Flats nuclear plant , he didn't thought twice in signing in . It was a demanding job , but at least he had one instead of nothing . Terrance was lucky he would say , a lot of his co workers say they felt weakness in their bodies , see their skin become more reddish than normal , loose almost all the hair on their bodies or have random bleedings in their nose or mouth from time to time , in the worst cases a huge pain in muscles or eyes . He listened , but he wasn't scared , no , as long as you did everything carefully, the radiation won't catch you , right ?

Dahlia happily announced him that she was pregnant and he was ecstatic about it , it was like the energy boost that he needed to continue . Terrance didn't told Dahlia anything about it , how could he ? She was carrying a baby and dealing with all the stress and sickness that a pregnancy comes with , she didn't need to know the sudden deafening headaches that he suffered , he needed to be strong for her , for them , and if his pain had to be sucked up in silence , then so be it .

1965 , their baby boy Finney was born , he was the most well behaved baby in the mother - baby unit by the nurses words , they would compliment Dahlia for such adorable and healthy little gentleman and she would smile proud of doing such a good job with her kid . When Terrance was finally allowed to go inside the room , his eyes couldn't believe he was now the father of such fragile child , he was hesitant to carry him on his arms, afraid to hurt him accidentally, but his wife assured him that it was fine , and so she gently put Finn closer to his chest , and he swears that for one instant when he looked down and smiled with blurry eyes , his little baby boy smiled back to him .

A few years later , when Finney was a curious and talkative toddler , Dahlia got pregnant once again with their second child , his father happy to hear that they will have their second baby on the way , and their older brother Finney even more , totally ready to have little sibling to play with . Their little little Gwendolyn was the princess of the house , she would be spoiled with all her mother's kisses , her brother hugs and her dad's cuddling .

They were a happy family , a good , healthy and happy family .

But then Dahlia started to notice little Finney talking by himself ,and if she asked who he was talking to , he would always answer that with a friend , and at first , like once the nuns did , she dismissed it as imaginary friends , and that's it . When Gwenny got old enough speak , she would sometimes run towards her mom scared of nightmares that she had , and that's what they look like , only nightmares . They seemed weird , but not enough to panic .

The panic began when Gwenny had way too specific dreams about people in danger and Finney started to touch things or go to to places that he knew he shouldn't go , but he would do it anyway because " the voices told him to " . She took them to the doctor , but they didn't find any wrongness in the children . She started to have anxiety towards what this could possibly mean , or how could she make her stop , but Dahlia didn't even know how she got over it in the past in the first place .

This continue for a long time until it stopped , and when their mother would ask them about their dreams or " friends " they would answer confused that it was fine , as if they didn't remember what they been through before . Dahlia confused yet relieved she let it go , and never told Terrance anything about it .

Little by little , her own dreams and "imagination" started to come back to her , sometimes a whisper behind her neck , weird dreams that felt too real , an undistinguishable silhouette on the dark , a person that would speak or be seen by her and then all the sudden disappear like air or magic . She tried to ignore it , Dahlia tried hard to live her normal life and focus on her family and job .

But then the encounters got more and more frequent , people would ask her who she was talking to as they didn't saw anyone near her , she would find out that her dreams had something to do with people on television or the missing posters , and when spirits recognized her as a their only way to speak with the living world , they got more persistent and multiply as well .

When Dahlia couldn't ignore them anymore , she tried to help them in her own way , maybe telling them a direction , talk with a family member of theirs to give them a message , visit places that they used to go , take a special object for them , etc . And it worked at first .

She sometimes would apologize to those poor ghosts that would find out their lover got married once again , that their family moved to another town , that their loved pet died , that she couldn't just go and find their bodies , and some would forgive her ,

Some wouldn't .

The haunting dreams would make her wake up with guilt and regret , but all she needed is to watch her children faces in the morning and Dahlia would remember once again why's she's doing what she's doing . Terrance noticed his wife more anxious and nervous , but she would tell him it that she was fine , and she would come up with a simple excuse that would let her husband skeptical , but he had his own headaches to deal with , so he would let it slide .

One benevolent spirit told her to search protection for her and her kids , because their special gift might attract evil forces towards them . Dahlia tried to ask them for more information , but they disappeared . And she didn't know where to start searching that so called protection for her family .

She went to the church , but the holy water and prayers would only make her dreams go away , not the ghosts . She went to a gypsy woman that had spirtual knowledge , those rocks and incenses cleared all the ghosts from her sight , but her dreams would start to be more and more gruesome than before . Nothing was working , and she gave up .

And when she gave up , the evil spirits entered on the game .

These poltergeists would show her the crimes they committed in life , these poltergeists would scare her in her job , in her house and in Dahlia's dreams as well , the worst ones would be terrifyingly close to her kids or throw things at her when she ignore them or tried to go somewhere else .

Dahlia couldn't hide her fear anymore , her kids started to ask their mom if she was ok , her coworkers recommend her to take a break and try to get some sleep , but Terrance didn't believe Dahlia's excuses anymore , but it wasn't like she wanted to tell him what was going on .

He then decided to go to her orphanage and ask the nuns what they knew about her , and they told Terrance about her " mental illness / schizophrenia " when she was a child and teenager there in the orphanage , reason why the adults never wanted to adopt her .

He came back home late thanks to the long driving to that old creepy place , but Terrance could never imagined that when he came back home , he would find his wife , the love of his life , holding a knife against the air as she screams prayers like a maniac , while his kids were in a corner scared and crying from fear of the situation .

Terrance runs towards her and takes the knife out of her hands while he hugs to calm her down , in Dahlia's eyes , she sees how the evil phantom comes closer to her children , so in fear she takes back again her knife in her hands and runs towards her children . Confused they run away from her , as she tries to stab the soul of the one that's hunting her , but they dissolve like magic , and Dahlia realizes Terrance look of disappointment and her babies look of fear in their eyes .

Dahlia cries , cries and drops the knife , tired , frustrated , confused , scared , without a clue of what to do or how to stop all of this . Terrance tells the kids to go to bed as he gets closer to his wife to hug her back once again , she hugs him back tightly desperate from any comfort and warmth of her lover . The married couple goes to bed as they cuddle after so long without doing it, because the next morning , the physiatrists knocked at their door , so they could gently ask Mrs Dahlia Blake to start a treatment in their establishment .

The woman started to yell at his husband because how betrayed she felt , after he told her he believed what she says , after promising to stay by her side forever . This didn't stay unnoticed by the specialists as they tried to calm her down , but Dahlia couldn't go to mental hospital , she couldn't take pills and receive injections that she doesn't need to stay docile , not again , so she refuses , she expressed her anger by yelling at them to get out of her house . They went outside yes , but came back with syringes filled with haloperidol so they could take her away .

Her last words :

" No , please , stop ! Terrance please believe me ! Please don't let them hurt the kids ! Protect them fr- ...."

The drug that they gave her made her lost the little control she was trying so hard to keep , so when she goes to sleep , the evil in the night possesses her body to walk towards the 2d floor window , as they let her body falls she wakes up , only to die seconds later on the cold floor of the hospital's yard

Without the opportunity to do anything , without the opportunity to say goodbye or see one last time her family .

But if the other life exists , she will be always watching over them , waiting for her turn to be listened .

Ps : I would like to know if you share this idea or not guys , I want to see your opinions !

[pass1onepr1ncess]

Source Memories

I wanted to gather all my thoughts and find a place to put down everything that I remember about source, and I know people love headcanons posts on this site and this is kinda like that in a way so I figured "Why the hell not?" I would like to add that while these are from my memories of the events of Vento Aureo, some of them are also from my life afterwards. I don't have a ton of memories from after we all left Rome, but there's a couple. I stayed in Naples for about a year after that, but then I left and never saw any of them again, so.

Giorno

He was already pretty tall at 15. I think he was, like, 5"9'? I didn't know at the time, but now that I have extra knowledge I'm fairly sure it's because of the Dio/Jonathan genes. Those guys were fucking huge. I wouldn't be surprised if Giorno had grown up to be at least 6"0. However, I left Naples around the time we both turned 17 and he was about 5"11', so not quite. But again, I left and we were both still growing.

He wasn't white. He didn't have a whole lot of Japanese features from his mom, but his skin tone was one of them. He was more tanned than myself, which to be honest wasn't saying much but y'know. He wasn't the darkest either, though. In fact, he was still on the lighter side of the group.

His hair was extremely voluminous. And shiny. I think I only ever saw him take out his braid once, but oh my God. I think I asked him if he used a hair mask or something and he said no but that he used coconut oil, I think.

I don't think he was an actual vampire like his father, I don't think it was really genetic. Not in my source, anyway. But he did have a set of fucking canines on him. Also, he yawns like a cat. Narancia and I watched him do it once and saw his teeth and looked at each other because I don't think either of us had ever seen anyone with teeth closer to fangs than Giorno's.

He liked humming things. I don't really know what music he was thinking about or if it was even actual songs he was humming, but he hummed little tunes a lot. It wasn't very loud, and I could tell it was just to himself. He had a smooth humming voice, though. It made me wonder what he would sound like if he ever sang, but I never got the chance to hear that.

He was one of the few people in the group who didn't drink. Pretty sure Bruno offered him some wine once, but he turned it down and said that he didn't drink. That was the only thing he ever said about it, though.

Gay trans man. You could see his top surgery scars from the window in his shirt he always kept open.

Bruno

I don't think he had ever lived there, but you could tell by his physique and facial features that his family was extremely Greek. Also, Bruno was probably the palest out of all of us. He spent more time than the others in the turtle both to guard me and to keep out of the sun. And even when he went out, he put on sunscreen almost everytime he left. I never saw him get burned, but that could also just be because he was careful. Not sure if he really was prone to sunburn or if he was just overly-cautious. I wouldn't put it past him either way.

He was very strict. I didn't know any of them that much at all while I was with all of them, despite everything that happened. Bruno made sure that we were all aware that I was "The Mission" and that none of them were supposed to get close to me or get attached. He made sure I knew, as well. Told me not to talk to them too much so I wouldn't form a bond with them. However, things obviously changed after Venice. But by then, we hardly had time to talk at all. In the end, I didn't know Bruno that much before he died, but I could tell that he started to care about me despite being the one who insisted I was off-limits. I know the fandom likes the idea of him being an adoptive father to me, but to be honest he felt more like a protecticve older brother.

His eyes were a very dark blue that very much seemed almost black in the shadow. But when we were outside, you could tell that they were more of a deep cerulean.

He was hopelessly in love with Leone. Had absolutely no chance of hiding it even if he wanted to, and he didn't want to. He would look at her like Flynn Ryder looked at Rapunzel in the floating lights scene in Tangled. Leone wasn't fond of PDA, so they never actually even showed many signs of their relationship even with their own squad around. But you could tell from Bruno alone that they had something special. I remember before everything really got dangerous, seeing him look at her like that made me hope that I'd find someone like that someday.

That little black part of his suit wasn't lingerie. Not in my source, at least. The way it moved with his clothes made it clear that it wasn't a tattoo, either. It was just a part of his shirt.

His zippers didn't leave scars unless the parts he had unzipped were left unzipped for too long. The longer they were unzipped, the more prominent the scars were. I had/have (in headspace) the one on my wrist, and it's pretty prominent because 1) the zipping wasn't the original cause of the injury and 2) the zipper popped when he died and before Giorno brought him back. The scars they left behind were also zipper-shaped. Like the teeth, I mean.

He liked being near the ocean. I think the sound of it put him at ease and helped clear his mind or something, I'm not entirely sure. He just liked being by the water. It wasn't the same if we were more inland with rivers or something. He just seemed more relaxed when we were specifically by the sea. I didn't know why back then, but now I know that it must've reminded him of home.

Leone

Black transwoman. It was never my business what surgeries she had, but I know she was on HRT. She wore her hair in micro braids, and her roots were a much darker purple than her braids. I'm pretty sure her hair was naturally purple, but it was braided with yarn which is where that lavender color came from. She was the second darkest in the group.

She... didn't talk much. Much preferred her own company over anyone else's- except for Bruno, but she never liked to be too close with him while anyone else was in the room. If I didn't talk much with anyone else in the group, I hardly spoke to Leone at all. But even then, I think we both knew that amidst the group of almost all men, we both shared a bond since we were the only two girls. Since she didn't talk much and I wasn't allowed to talk, there were times where we would be listening to the boys' conversation and hear something strange and we would both look at each other from across the room in that gossipy sort of "Did you hear that, too?" kind of way. But, that was kind of the extent of my interactions with Leone. I'm sure if we were given the chance, we would've gotten along. She probably could've been a really cool older sister.

She really liked her wine. I don't think there was a moment at any point on the trip when she was with us that there wasn't at least one bottle of red wine among the group at least. She would sometimes send Mista or Narancia to get extra bottles when she was running low. Bruno said something at one point about her drinking on a mission, but she waved him off and reassured him that she'd be fine. She spaced her glasses out just enough that she wouldn't get drunk, so I can only assume she'd been used to drinking on the job and knew how to handle herself. She offered me a glass once. In any other circumstances I might've accepted, but I was too on-edge and paranoid then. I wanted to stay as alert as I could be, even before the whole San Giorgio Maggiore debacle. Bruno reprimanded her for offering it to me, though. Said that I was too young to drink. She said that he doesn't seem to mind Fugo, Mista, or Narancia drinking, and he replied with something about it being different with them. That I had a whole life ahead of me that didn't need to be tainted with alcohol. I didn't have the heart to tell him that I had already drank with my mother before.

I never left the turtle when we were in Sardinia. Bruno had instructed me to stay put and that they'd let me know when we were safely off the island. When everyone else came back, no one told me what had happened. Not specifically, just that they ran into some trouble. Hardly any of them even spoke to each other for the first few hours on the boat. But when we left without Leone and when I saw everyone's expressions, I knew. It was a weird feeling because I remember thinking to myself that I was grateful that Bruno had told me not to get attached. I was grateful I didn't know her, but I still felt sad. It definitely hit Bruno the hardest. Narancia was more outwardly expressive with his feelings, but I could tell Bruno was... I don't even know how to describe it. He just looked miserable, like someone had just ripped a piece of his soul from him. Giorno checked on me a couple times, I think we were in a similar boat (metaphorically speaking). He had only joined the squad for a little bit, so he also wasn't entirely close to Leone. He was the only one in a semi-stable frame of mind to be checking up on others. Mista just sat off to the side by himself, taking apart his pistol and putting it back together again over and over. The Sex Pistols were worried about him, but he ignored them until it was time to feed them.

Fugo

There's gonna be so little about him on this list because we hardly spoke at all before Venice and then he left and I never saw him again so... Idk.

He made it clear by his facial expressions that he did NOT like me. Like a mixture of anger and suspicion. I knew this even before reading PHF, but reading the book and getting his perspective on it made a lot of things make sense. He was suspicious because I didn't talk and was distant, especially considering I was related to The Boss. I understand, and I don't blame him. I kinda wish I could talk to him again and explain myself a bit, but I think Sheila E helped him understand my side a bit as well even thought I never met her. I'm sure the events of PHF did happen in my source, but I wasn't around to witness them. I left Naples before it all went down, I never saw Fugo again after Venice.

I think he had the same feelings towards me as he did towards Giorno. We were both New(TM) and I think he was both upset that his routine and daily life had been disrupted and changed and also just generally suspicious of us.

Out of everyone, he seemed closest to Leone. He obviously had a bond with Bruno, as did everyone else on the team, but he stuck around Leone like he was her clingy younger brother. She didn't seem to mind, which I was a bit surprised about given how she was. I'm sure she might've protested at some point, but I guess they had been teamed together long enough that she gave up trying to push him away and got used to it. They kinda looked like that "Excuse me, he asked for no pickles" meme lmao.

Mista

He was. Really creepy towards me. Not excessively so, like he wasn't being a weirdo in general he just. It was clear that the only other woman he had ever really actually hung out with was Leone and he didn't really know how to process that I had boobs or that I showed a lot of skin in my outfits. I know he didn't mean to be so weird about it, but it was enough that I have a permanent distaste for him. Like the time in the van when he was whispering (badly whispering, btw, I could hear every word) to Fugo about my boobs and I just kept looking out the window pretending I couldn't hear because I felt so awkward and gross about it. I kept wishing Leone would take her headphones off and smack him or something, anything to make him shut up. And then Bruno slammed on the brakes and Fugo went flying into my chest and gratefully he was normal about it and tried to apologize and I think he felt just as awkward and embarassed about it as I did- but then Mista had to make it even weirder for all of us! He just. I didn't like him and I still don't. Not all Mistas, just the one from my source. He makes me wildly uncomfortable and the fact that he was 18 while I was 15 makes it. I just try not to think about it!

He smelled, like, REALLY bad. He constantly smelled like sweat and onions but then he would douse himself in an UNGODLY amount of Calvin Klein cologne to cover it up like that was an acceptable replacement for a shower. But then the cologne was just too much and it smelled like chemicals. Also, those pants were real zebra leather. Do you have any idea how insane you have to be to wear actual leather pants in summer? In Italy?? In Naples????? We swapped bodies and I swear to God this man's legs were drenched with sweat and the leather would stick to the skin and it was a HORRID sensory experience. Not to mention the fact that he was also even weirder about him being in MY body.

The Sex Pistols were pretty cool, at least. They were fun to talk to. I'd give them snacks sometimes when Mista wasn't around because he didn't like them eating when it wasn't meal time.

I'm, like, 95% sure he did actually have OCD. It wasn't just the 4s thing, either. Sometimes he would have to spin the cylinder of his pistol a few times before it "felt right" so he could actually shoot. Or turning a doorknob multiple times before opening the door, or retracing his steps on the sidewalk before moving forward. I don't mean this in a bad way, I just genuinely think he had OCD and that's okay. If he did, it's not like it was his fault.

Pretty sure he was cishet. Or maybe not straight, but I'm fairly sure he was cis. But also, I didn't know much about any of them and could be absolutely wrong! Also he was some kind of latino but I never asked about specifics so that's all I know.

Narancia

Nara is the hardest to think about, I think. I've always thought that if we were given the chance to have known each other in any other context that we could've been really good friends. Maybe even more? I'm not even sure myself, to be honest, But I know I have strong feelings about him. He ignored Bruno's whole spiel about not getting attached to The Mission and would sneak into the turtle to hang out with me. It was fun. He kept me company, which was nice because I was so intensely bored. The guys didn't give me anything to do other than just sit around in the turtle, but I know even then that I was having a better time than they were, so I can't exactly complain.

He let me in on a decent chunk of the gang gossip. Not a whole lot, but he told me about Polpo and the arrow before it became a whole thing. He didn't know about the whole Requiem thing, but he knew the arrow gave people stands. It was how he got Aerosmith when he first joined the gang.

He was Indian, I'm pretty sure. and Genderfluid. I don't know what his sexuality was, but I think he may have had a crush on me? Like I said before, I don't know. There was, maybe the start of something between us that we didn't have enough time for. Too much going on at the time for that.

He had already seemed keen on wanting to befriend me even before we got to Venice, but he seemed to stick pretty close after we left the Church. I didn't know then about the "Trish is me" thing because I was unconscious for that, but it was clear that his motivations had changed from "I'm going to protect you because I was told to" to "I'm going to protect you because I understand you." He was almost always in arms length of me after that, like if he got too far he wouldn't be able to save me. Which is kinda funny considering that his stand was long distance, but it was sweet.

Given that he was the only one in the gang who had genuinely tried to form a connection with me despite the circumstances- and specifically the way it happened- his death hit me the hardest. He was going on about how he wanted to go back to school and all these things he wanted to do when we got back and then all of a sudden just. He was gone. I was homeschooled before my mother got sick, and I didn't really have any friends. Narancia was the first person who I felt somewhat close to, someone I could call a friend. And even though I knew him for a very short time, he impacted me in a way that only my mother had before. And yet, when he died, I couldn't cry. I was too scared and on edge and Aware that Diavolo was nearby. But a few months later when Giorno and Mista helped to set up a funeral, when I saw how empty the church was and how Mista and Giorno were the only ones there, I broke down. He was right, we were extremely similar. Just like me, he lost the people who cared about him and was betrayed by people he thought he could trust. And he was so bright, despite it all. Even though he had been hurt, he still carried a smile and tried to make his friends laugh. He didn't let his pain dampen his positivity, and he was hopeful to the very end. And the fact that he was the one in a casket when I hadn't done anything to deserve my seat at his service, the fact that he died protecting someone who probably didn't deserve it. I couldn't take it. I don't think that way anymore, and I'll forever be grateful to him for what he did for me. Both in protecting me and being my friend. I try to stay positive and keep my head up because it's what I think he would do. That way, he never truly dies.

I tried to look up what kind of flowers Giorno grew over hia body in canon, but I couldn't find anything that quite matched how they're drawn. But at least in my memories, they were pumpkin blossoms.

Anyway, here's your little reminder that my asks are open if anyone wants to talk about source. I'll answer any question as long as it's not weird or creepy.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/729708592592306176/how-about-a-different-discourse-death-of-the

What this ask is missing, a bit, is that Death of the Author *does* mean that the author’s take on things is no more or less valid than anyone else’s. It’s about decentering authorial intent in analyses of media. Barthes is pretty clear and quite pointed about it in the original essay.

What bothers me about misuses of it and what I think this anon means to say is when people start decentering the actual *text*. The idea behind Death of the Author is also that the text stands alone. You don’t need to look at any extra shit to understand it. As you said, it was a response to a mode of analysis that obsessed over plumbing through author biographies.

The issue with what people do in fandom is they ignore the text. “I don’t like this element of canon, so it doesn’t exist.” (Which is different from arguing that it’s there but it sucks because of XYZ reasons, so I’m going to consciously ignore it in my fan works. This is when people just act like it isn’t there in the text in the first place.) “You have to take my bizarro world out-of-nowhere headcanon that is based on nothing except that I want it to be true, that I love this character and I wish they were XYZ therefore they are” and take it just as seriously as headcanons that actually engage with what’s in the show/video game/book/movie/whatever and use that as their basis (like building off something that is subtextual in the original work).

Granted we all do this to some degree, we all come to a text with our own biases and you can’t *always* easily separate those out, and that can affect, for instance, your interpretation of what the subtext is, but I think the irritating fandom behavior is when this kind of ignoring-the-text-to-substitute-your-own-reality is this very deliberate sort of laziness. The annoying thing in my current fandom is people who are fans of this one ship that they insist is the most progressive and other people just don’t see the scintillating “subtext” of because we are bigots or whatever, between two characters who don’t interact that much for two MCs and when they do it’s not at all shippy (but these characters both have very shippy subtext with different characters), but where these people think the ship *should* exist because of their identities. And their “evidence” for the ship is always gifsets taken way out of context and not including the dialogue that makes the non-shippy context for that scene very clear (including that it might actually be shippy for conflicting pairings). It’s like this bizarre version of “close reading” that strips out the largely context *deliberately* in order to make a particular conclusion seem more compelling than it actually is.

Anyway, all that ignoring-the-text stuff is STILL bad analysis per DOTA. Since the point of DOTA is to go based on the text, if you’re obscuring the text you’re kind of just installing yourself as a new author.

This is why DOTA doesn’t mean “anything goes.” It just means “authorial intent is just one interpretation that doesn’t have to matter.” It doesn’t mean other stuff we use in analysis doesn’t matter, and if anything the point is to make it even more text-centric than the older author-centric analyses were. People can still disagree about what the text says, of course, but they should both be going back to it in how they construct those arguments, and not, like those shippers, deliberately ignoring chunks of the text that weaken their arguments.

--

I don't think all of them are consciously throwing out actual canon, but they are often throwing out all context that would help evaluate subtext.

Like... if you're analyzing a Marvel movie, you might ignore what the director said in an interview, but you probably shouldn't entirely ignore the fact that it is a Marvel movie and apply assumptions that make sense for some arthouse film.

And, yes, if you're arguing for shippy subtext, even unintentional on the part of creators, "I like this ship because..." needs very little, but "This ship has more support than this other ship" requires going back to the actual text and looking at it in its totality.

There's a lot of faux-intellectualism around garbage like TJLC where people try to make themselves feel smart by using the language of close reading while having the media literacy of a bucket of rotting fish.

[shrimplymoray]

I saw your writing requests and can I request Vil x Idia?

I always have to push my rarepair lmao

No rarepair is safe from us >:))

I love rarepairs, they've always been my faves on fandoms cof cof Floy'Nya cof cof

Ya didn't really gave me a prompt to work for, so hope you don't mind some general headcanons of them! If you ever want more, or something specific of them, you can request it away!

Cw:

Vil Schoenheit x Idia Shroud

No one at first believed or understood just HOW those two got together.

I mean, THE Vil Schoenheit, a famous model and actor, with a huge fan base and with products stamped by his face dating Idia? The nerd otaku dude who doesn't leave his room, like, ever?

Some were even concerned if Vil was under some form of course or potion effect, which he responded by an offended gasp.

"Do you think so lowly of me that I would ever fall for a curse like that? Dear Seven, you really underestimate me and Idia, don't you?"

The way they got together is... A rather uncommon one. Idia found Vil doing an advertisement for a game he really liked, and he got a tiny celebrity crush.

Ortho insisted Idia shoot his shot, because the chances of a parasocial relationship becoming unhealthy to someone are higher when there are no sort of communication between parties.

Idia went through the toughest boss fight in his life, which was pressing the send button. That felt like such a normie problem, he almost gave up... Until Ortho pressed for him. Great. This action will affect the main game forever.

Vil was... Low key endeared by the message. It was bold and talked in a lingo he isn't used to seeing. He felt generous enough to give some time to this gloomy samurai person.

They didn't even realized they were so close together until Ortho went thanking Vil for making his big brother so happy.

Cue to Idia's door being kicked open and Idia cowering in his chair almost crying in fear as Vil scolded him about not going to talk to him directly.

They became an odd pair after that. Vil makes sure Idia gets his needs taken, including touching some grass (much to his dismay).

And Idia teaches Vil about technology methods to make his career better. (He doesn't mention about the Vil x reader fanfic tab on his tablet though)

Vil found it obvious how Idia was head over heels for him, but he felt oddly calm about this. It didn't feel like other people crushing on him, where he needed to step on eggshells to maintain this pristine image.

Idia seemed to find him "having max charisma and appearance stats" even when he was a total mess, in his eyes.

It was a new thing for him, letting himself show his "uglier" side to someone, and not being the perfect Vil Schoenheit. And Idia seemed to not care in the slightest, although he did get flustered a lot whenever Vil shared a picture with his hair down. Vil learned from Idia's ling that that was "simp behaviour".

Idia... He never had so much attention from someone so different in his life. And for once, it didn't scare him. Actually, when Vil complimented him for showing up to class, he felt oddly proud and confident.

Ofc Vil was the one to confess first. I mean, Idia was going through the 19th mental breakdown over how to confess at that point, and Ortho was NOT a reliable source of advice on the matter.

Ortho is their biggest supporter, and says that Vil needs to take good care of his big brother, since he is very fragile and also very scared.

Rook was actually very supportive of Vil's choice. He is the biggest Vil fan, but he puts his dear Roi du poison's happiness over his. And to be fair... Their dynamic is enticing. It's unique. A beautiful form of art on itself!

Others were very much confused but grew used to it.

An odd pair, sure, but who said love couldn't be odd?

Their favorite pastime together is casual dates at Idia's room. Where Idia geeks about how this super rare character he summoned had such OP skills that his team two shot the boss, all awhile Vil paints his nails so they have matching colours.

Don't ask Idia why he is showing up to class so much, or he will run away and hide in his room. He is trying! He even wore his uniform 2 times this week!!

They are so silly, I think I got carried away lol. Hope you enjoy this!!

Have a great day/night!