#like yeah sure sure a character might LOOK good

[miyukisu]

DT 01: Gym Encounters .ᐟ

EP 01 | "Babe, what would you do if a girl approached you at the gym?" ╰ feat. gojo satoru, geto suguru, nanami kento, hiromi higuruma, choso kamo, toji fushiguro, sukuna ryomen, yuji itadori, megumi fushiguro, yuta okkotsu, inumaki toge (JJK)

tags - mostly crack, bit of fluff, tiktok trend, established relationship, playfully toxic just for the humor, slightly suggestive in nanami/hiromi/geto 's part, sukuna is violent what do you expect

MEGA MASTERLIST

DOING TRENDS MASTERLIST

"What would I do?"

"Yeah." You don't give him a chance to prepare as you go into character, pretending to be another girl trying to shoot her shot at him at the gym. It was only then he realized he was being roped into more of your silliness.

What was he going to do now?

────────────

— Does everything wrong -> Toji (sus...) & Yuji (genuine lol)

He was always down to humor your antics, especially this one as it piqued his interest. His enthusiasm made you happy. But you should have known that happiness would be shortlived.

There was a smile already plastered on his face before you even approached. Although, you chalked it up to him anticipating the scenario and not ACTUALLY smiling at a random gym girl coming at him... because why? Just why?

"Heyyy," you drawl out. "Would you mind being my spotter for a bit? I'm trying out a new PR for my squats."

Of course. It had to be squats. To be fair, the right answer here, regardless of the exercise, was to say n—

"Sure."

What.

"Excuse me. What?" you say out loud.

He shrugged and simply repeated his words. "Sure. I can help you out. PR you say? That's great. Hitting your gym goals and whatnot."

Eyes were narrowed and fists were clenched. He doesn't even look like he was second guessing himself. You weren't in the mood to even continue at this point.

"Game's over. You failed by the way."

A look of genuine shock crossed his face as if he didn't just happily entertain this hypothetical gym girl. "What? How? I was so nice though?"

"That's the point!"

Dumbfounded, he tried tracing back his actions, figuring out what he did wrong. "Isn't being gentlemanly the point here?"

This time, it was you who was dumbfounded. "You... you thought... you thought this was a test to see how gentlemanly you were?"

How even...

He nodded, hoping that his nobleness would somehow change your mind. He's lucky you're feeling kind today. He might need to redeem himself another time though...

— Absolutely won the trend -> Nanami, Hiromi, Geto

He was a bit reluctant to do it at first—not because he wasn't willing to participate in your fun—in fact, he was always ready to do his best if you asked him of anything.

It's just that he doesn't find himself to be a convincing actor, even in this kind of situation.

"It's okay," you reassure him, "just act how you would if some random girl flirted with you at the gym."

He gave you an uneasy smile. "Alright... if it makes you happy, sweetheart."

Glad that he finally agreed, you put on your best flirty girl impression and walked over to him. You could still see the hesitance on his face, but you thought it was a bit funny.

"Hey there," you say, smiling. "I'm looking to improve myself... I'm sure a good looking guy like you would have some tips hm?"

A beat of silence passes before he laughs awkwardly, probably stalling to give himself some time. "I don't know about that. I'm not exactly a coach or anything."

The fact that he even responded made your eye twitch and your eyebrow raise. "Oh that's alright," you say sweetly. "I bet a even a professional pales in comparison with a body like tha—"

He immediately crosses his arms as if to conceal the goods—err... his massive pecs, rather. He offers a smile. But it wasn't at all friendly. There was a menacing edge to it—a cautionary smile, if you will.

"If you're really looking to improve your appearance then maybe you should ask my beautiful girlfriend instead. I'm sure her experiences will align better with yours, will it not?"

Your eyes widen for a second at his unexpected response. He managed to turn the girl down while boasting about you. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone.

You let out a low whistle in response. "Nice response. I liked that."

He lets out a breath he'd been holding in for a while, playfully clutching his chest in relief. "For a moment I thought I had failed."

"Failed? Baby you earned yourself a fun night tonight."

"Oh? Oh."

— Ignorance is bliss -> Megumi, Yuta, Inumaki

He goes quiet after you assume the role of another girl—one who has the guts to approach a guy like him who CLEARLY wants nothing to do with anyone else at the gym. There's a look in his eyes that's telling you, "I don't want to be bothered right now."

That earns him more points in your book, of course.

"A guy like you must know his way around the gym eh?"

No response. Well, if him turning his back is counted as a response, then that's just about it.

"What? You shy or something?"

Still nothing.

"Yoo hoo~ I'm talking to you?"

Not a word escapes him. Instead, he begins walking away. A goofy smile spreads across your face at his actions, proud that your boyfriend passed with flying colors.

But being the menace that you are—you decide to pester him more. It's not everyday you get to pretend to be some random girl trying to flirt with him.

You quickly follow behind him. "Aw c'mon don't be like that. I'm just trying to be friendly." You reach out to grab his arm but he quickly turns around with a condescending expression.

"Back off. My girlfriend's scary."

Instantly, you let go of his arm and it drops down to his side. "Seriously? Me? Why not say that you're the scary one?"

"Did I lie though?"

...

"Okay. Fair enough. You passed though!"

He sighs. He's sure he's going to have a head full of white hair at an early age...

BONUS (Inumaki): You prompt him to whip his face towards you as you grab his forearm. With practiced speed, he pulls his high collar down to reveal his mouth adorned with his cursed markings.

"Leave me alone," he mutters. Any louder and the effects would have been stronger. Obviously, it was still you that was playing pretend with him, but he needed to prove a point.

Your arm forcibly lets him go and your body turns the opposite on its own, beginning to walk away.

"This is kinda freaky," you said. "But good job!"

— Exaggerated but eh... guess it works -> Gojo & Choso

You muster up the best flirty expression you can and began approaching him. But before you could get any closer, he held out his hand to stop you.

"I HAVE A GIRLFRIEND!"

A look of confusion crosses your face—amused by his exaggerated reaction. "I haven't even said anything?"

"I know a temptress when I see one. Just so you know—a temptress is nothing compared to a goddess," he exclaims. "The goddess being my girlfriend, by the way," he explains before clearing his throat. He was so into it that even his voice had a different lilt to it.

Throughout that entire exchange, he kept his arm up, still stopping you in your place. Even the expression on his face was overstated. It was kind of... adorable in a strange way.

"You're just saying that because you know the context of the situation."

He shakes his head. "Nothing you say will change my mind."

"I'm not even pretending to be another girl anymore..."

"That's what a temptress would say!"

You held your hands up in defeat, offering him a lopsided smile. "Goddamn, okay, you win the trend. Jeez... you can stop pretending now..."

With that, his usual relaxed expression returns before he wraps you in a suffocating bear hug.

— You cannot post this to the internet... -> SUKUNA

As soon as you began walking towards him, hips swaying at every step—he stood up, towering over you.

His aura filled the atmosphere. You were only playing pretend, but somehow he was radiating intimidation like it was the real thing��like a woman was actually approaching him and disturbing his gym time.

"Hey, big boy, care to be my spotter?"

He scoffed, crossing his arms, clearly flexing them for the added effect. "Come any closer and the last thing you'll be spotting is my fist heading towards your face."

"PAUSE." Your jaw almost fell to the floor. This was all for shits and giggles, but knowing him, he might actually do that. "You know that a girl is approaching you, right?"

"Yes. And?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'AND'?" Obviously, you weren't pretending anymore at this point. You were expecting him to simply ignore or maybe tell you to, "fuck off," but not downright ASSAULT.

"You asked me what I would do and I did. What else do you want from me, woman?"

He rendered you speechless. "Right... guess you did."

A deep sigh escapes you. This trend wasn't for him. But hey, at least you don't have to worry about him doing anything shady with flirty women at the gym...

©miyukisu do not repost/reupload/translate any of my works on other platforms

╰ author's note I really like this idea like I'm so swag for this, right... pls validate me or I will cry

[myfairkatiecat]

Sooooo yes I’ve heard you say this before and am well aware that you think it, but I genuinely can’t figure out for the life of me what it would look like from your point of view for his flaws to influence the way he “interacts with the story.” It’s hard for me to argue with because I cannot figure out what you’re talking about. Because the way I see it, my response (again, throwing out there that it’s not particularly good or thorough and I own that completely) adds what makes Keefe’s flaws reflect both his role in the story and the way her interacts with others. These flaws of his majorly influence the way he interacts with others (for example tam, for example Fitz, for example the entirety of lodestar) and also strongly impact both his relationships and the plot (for example the entirety of lodestar, for example the beginning of nightfall, for example the loamnore scene in legacy, for example the entirety of unlocked) (I do realize I just referenced like all the books I DIDN’T respond to) so I don’t really understand what you’re pointing to.

For the most part I do see where you’re saying Shannon treats flaws like they aren’t flaws, and while I hear you and would even be inclined to agree in certain cases, they mostly develop and then majorly swing back as a problem. Like, because no one calls him out he gets worse until someone does. For example, the issue with Keefe having ridiculous plans that will get himself hurt and disrespecting Sophie’s own agency becomes a pretty major issue in nightfall, which I’m pretty sure you’ve acknowledged is an important moment where Sophie does hold Keefe accountable. She does have issues with forgiving this guy, which is something VERY interesting about their relationship (want to point out that it would look VERY different from another character’s pov. Like say, tam or fitz) but there’s a reason she reacts the way she does, cause he was waaaaay out of line now kiss against a wall who said that

I don’t want to break down my entire argument regarding the OTHER half of the books right here, seeing as my response wasn’t even about that (which is part of why it’s a bit weak rn. Keefe’s character development doesn’t really pay off until lodestar/nightfall IMO and I don’t mean development in the good way) but there’s a reason Shannon writes that Sophie finds it hard to trust him sometimes. There’s a reason Fitz still has issues with him. There’s a reason Tam’s leaving scene in flashback hits soooo hard. There’s even a reason Sophie is constantly making excuses for keefe and forgiving him quickly. And ALL OF THAT looks to me like his character flaws influencing the way he interacts with the story.

So if that’s not it, what WOULD it be? People constantly calling keefe out every time he’s out of line and then him apologizing? yea that would make for a very interesting series with super interesting relationships between characters 👍👍 (honestly it might be but it wouldn’t be the brand of interesting we have right now and tbh? This Keefe is VERY fun to play dolls with, way more than the other version would be, so I think I’ll keep him)

So yeah. That’s my response to that but I still don’t know if it covers it because once again, I can’t tell what you MEAN because every time you point out a scene where you have that gripe, it feels like you wish he interacted with others or the plot in a DIFFERENT way, rather than actually showing that his flaws don’t impact that AT ALL. From an objective standpoint, they do. I can think of quite a few plot lines majorly influenced by the fact that Keefe has issues. Lodestar and beyond that’s practically the entire series

huh what was your rant’s main argument

this post is in no way a proper response to katie's response, so i just wanna make that clear from the start. i am actually going to make one of those. so this is not that.

the main argument of my rant is not "here is a list of keefe's worst qualities, doesn't he suck? now everyone point and laugh what a shitty/annoying/cringe/whatever-else-i-said guy" (well, except for the stuff that i said was subjective, like his humor). the main argument of my rant is that keefe's worst qualities never. impact. how. he. interacts. with. the. story. not a single flaw of his has any consequences, either plot-based or relationship-based. not a single bad moment redefines him in the audience's eyes (or is meant to, as written by shannon) or in sophie's. not a single shitty height he reaches has ever ever ever ever been portrayed as negative for longer than zero point four seconds. not one thing he does has any lasting, negative consequences, not for him, not for the people around him. not one thing. not one single thing.

the thing that confuses me about katie's response is that she is well aware that this is my main gripe with keefe. i am not silent about it in the slightest. i do not care that keefe uses his empathy dubiously. i do not care that he handed the cache over at the end of neverseen. i do not care that he breaches boundaries, or that he humiliates sophie constantly, or that he's infinitely stupid and reckless, or that he can't be serious during serious moments. serious. do not give one single shit about any of these things.

what i actually care about, my unending problem with keefe's character, my main gripe, the thing that will never stop annoying me about keefe, is that these things do not result in keefe facing any consequences for doing them, nor are they even villified by the narrative.

i understand that keefe's dubious use of empathy is because of his father. i know that he ran away to the neverseen because of his mom's manipulation. i get that he breaches sophie's boundaries because he genuinely might think he's helping, and that he humiliates sophie because he doesn't know when to stop, and that he's reckless and stupid because that's his character flaw and because he's trying so hard so fight his mom and make sure she doesn't hurt anyone else, and whatever else katie pulled out in her response to explain keefe's shitty behavior. i am aware. i know this. i am not trying to argue that keefe is a bad character because he has flaws and does bad things. that would be incredibly weird.

no, my main argument is that keefe's flaws do not function as flaws, but rather just as bad traits that, half the time, shannon herself does not seem to even be aware are bad.

here is a fantastic example. okay here goes: keefe has issues regarding not knowing where the boundaries are with empathy because he grew up with his fucked-up abusive father who likely extorted information out of him the same way he does with sophie and others (and also likely because he's brainwashed into thinking the law is moral, and there's no actual law against doing this).

now that i've passed katie's test, let's play my game: name one time keefe's using his empathy has, in the long-term, affected his relationships with people. name one time it's truly demonized and made out to be a bad thing by the narrative beyond "oh the person was angry and muttered something about empaths or glared at keefe". name one time it actually affects how keefe interacts with the story. name one time this flaw, something both katie and i agree on, actually affects keefe's relationships. name one time he's sorry, name one time he learns or grows out of it, name one time it's even just made out to be a shitty thing, and not in a "oh, that's just a thing keefe/empaths do, isn't it so annoying? oh well, guess we'll all just put up with it". name one time this flaw is actually recognized by shannon as a flaw. name one time. name one single time. name it. i want to hear it.

in theory, this is supposed to be a thing the reader keeps in mind as they read all my points. i think i actually did say after one of my points something to the effect of, "i'm not actually mad about [thing], it's just that keefe never faces consequences for [thing], which does make me mad. this is also something that applies to a lot of points i make, but it would get repetitive to say that after every single point i make, so just keep in mind that that's the angle i'm coming from". maybe it wasn't as clear as it was the way i just said it now (which i will keep in mind and change during the part two rant), but yeah. none of my points are meant to be "oh look at him isn't he so [flaw]" and stop right there with no further thought. they are meant to be proof that whatever keefe did is bad, so that when i get around to the back half of the rant, i can then say that [bad thing] is never developed or even made out to be bad. so, uh. yeah. here's a few times i say this in the rant itself:

also wanted to mention this quote (from katie's response):

the reason keefe reads as flat to me is that none of his flaws ever affect how he interacts with the story, not in any long-term negative-consequence sense. you can explain and over explain why keefe is the way he is all you want, but that will never change the fact that this is fully not at all my gripe with keefe. not even a little bit. explanation does not equal justification, and certainly it does not equal consequences. where are the consequences, shannon. where are they. where. where. i don't see them. i don't think they exist, actually.

YES!!!! EXACTLY!!!! IT DOESN'T JUSTIFY IT, IT EXPLAINS IT!!!! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M SAYING. YES. YOU GET IT. so you agree that this is shitty behavior. okay, cool. now name the place where keefe gets what he deserves for this. if this is shitty, it follows that it is a flaw, right? and if it's a flaw, it should be penalized, right? it should be made out to be a bad thing, right? now. where does this happen.

katie also makes a lot of arguments like this:

well, i actually did acknowledge fitz's main flaw at one point (exile incident, there's a screenshot a few paragraphs up), and i actually did explain why i don't think other characters (in this case, fitz) tend to be as bad as keefe. it's because there's actual development there with fitz's anger, and even if there wasn't, it's definitely vilified by the narrative. (i'd also like to say that katie responded to the bullet containing that fitz-from-exile section, but for some reason decided to cut out that section when quoting me in her response. i felt that was an important part of my argument, and that therefore its absence diminishes my point. in theory, this should not matter, but in reality, there are clearly people that are reading katie's response without reading my original post, and making judgement calls based on that.)

in conclusion, katie has made an argument. a good argument, even. one i actually mostly agree with, which is why i'm having such trouble writing a response to her essay. it's just that what she wrote is not (broadly speaking) a counterargument to what i wrote. it disproves nothing of my main point. nothing katie has told me is new information. i've read her pro keefe essay, which she knows. i'm aware that for everything keefe does that is shitty, there is a reason. genuinely it almost feels like an insult to my intelligence to imply i'm not aware of these things, especially considering shannon has a tendency to beat us over the head with the keefe pity party. i know why keefe is or does [insert flaw here]. i know exactly why it happens. i am aware. that does not change the fact that explaining why it occurs does absolute jackshit to change the objective fact that keefe's flaws are usually brushed aside or made out to be way less offensive than they really are. and honestly, if a flaw doesn't affect how a character interacts with the story, can we even really call it a flaw anymore? at that point, it's just a bad trait.

[flowerslut]

this is so random but look: i was re-watching eclipse and everytime jasper appeared on screen all i could think about was Cillian Murphy Energy and how he got 65x hotter than he already is (jasper not cillian) and why the fuck jasper stans never talked about this.

LMFAO wait are you saying jasper stans don't talk enough about how good he looks in eclipse???? I mean I feel like it’s just common knowledge at this point. he was pretty much a standing lamp in the first two films (y'know, alice's occasional arm candy that got a little bitey sometimes) and then in eclipse.... ugh. chefs kiss. we get it all baby.... the better wig... the actual lines of dialogue... the fucked up backstory... the fight training... and don't even get me STARTED on the fight oh my god

I saw eclipse at a midnight premiere back in 2010 and when he fucking punched THROUGH that guy I think I literally screamed. I was BESIDE myself. 17 yr old baby shan was inconsolable. nothing mattered to me more than watching this bitch tear people apart.

personally, I find it more attractive that he's just a fucked up rat man. a rehabilitated feral dog. I just *clenches fist* love any character that is fucked up. I love to stan someone who has committed atrocities. I need them to be cancellable on so many levels. I need them to have violated the geneva convention. if a character doesn't have a body count (non-sexual) or a controversial past (or present) then like? boooooring. i'm bored.

but yeah no mainly I don't think people talk about it because to us its like, A Truth Universally Acknowledged, y'know? also shoutout to david slade. he really really gave us shit like this:

and this

and this:

and honorable mention to these two screencaps that live rent free in my brain. that is all have a nice day <3

[moeblob]

Huevember 22

Brent, the most expressive bard to ever bard.

[rei-ismyname]

I definitely agree. It would be difficult for there not to be. He's certainly viewed as a faction leader by most of the outside world post-Morrison, but I think he's viewed like that internally as well. Most of the characters who choose to be X-Men buy into his dream and his methods, often more than I'd expect them to. I feel like a common enough thought process is conflating the dream, Xavier, and the X-Men so the entire institution can be seen as an extension of the man.

Agreed, at least not with any kind of regularity. Although, when he does give orders pre-~1988, he expects them to be followed 'without hesitation.' He also overrules Scott in the field whenever he wishes. He had this position of general and teacher and I think that kind of dynamic doesn't go away organically, especially considering the occasions where he's in the field and taken command (Secret Wars I comes to mind.) Or, as you point out, trying to give Wolverine demerits and belittling Scott.

He has been generous with his resources, though the flipside of that is everyone is fighting his war using his methods. People died and lost loved ones, received unimaginable stress and trauma, and aside from saving the world etc you could say their primary mission is a bust. He chose who he wanted, and yes many are grateful for the help received, but I doubt any of them suspected they were being drafted into a forever war.

I definitely agree that Xavier delegates the risk from his position of relative comfort and privilege. Not just harm from combatants either but the ability to pass in society. He fought in Korea, and unless he was using his powers 24/7 (possible) he absolutely killed people, or at minimum saw combat. He's not a combat guy except when he is. He certainly expects his X-Men to be.

The thing about him going public as a mutant in New X-Men is that it wasn't even him that chose to do it. Cassandra Nova did it to harm and discredit him. We'll never know, but who knows how long he would have kept up the facade. It does say a lot that him doing that or leaving for the Shi'Ar empire (again) wasn't strongly questioned by the X-Men. They discussed it but accepted it.

Also, I feel very confident saying that he was not an effective activist while posing as human. If you look at situations like the Kelly hearings or the Stryker debate he's incredibly passive and fails to reach people. The person on the street is shown dismissing him as an out of touch egghead, lol.

Yeah I really liked that Hank data page/letter from Hellions. That the people he's comparing are Xavier and Sinister means nothing, I'm sure :). Hank is spot on there, and it makes me think he perhaps gets more loyalty than he's owed? That's a personal thing though of course, and you're right that different X-Men might have a different idea of who their leader is.

He's an absolute disrespectful clown to Storm at times, often for ego reasons. I feel confident saying that, and I'm surprised she stuck around considering his imperiousness and unwillingness to even entertain he might be wrong.

Yeah, the implication is that people agree with Scott there. Xavier's transgressions are fucking severe. Still, he found his way back each time.

Agreed! He was specifically not in Age of X-Man. Not sure where he was but definitely not there. I think it's a jarring shift too, but I think that was always going to be the case. Rosenberg was writing end of days shit without knowing what was coming. Feels like editorial dropped the ball tbh.

I mean, he was responsible for other deaths. But I don't think that's what anyone is mad at him about. It feels more personal. His secrets and manipulation, again.

I'd like the same outcome tbh. If nothing else I'd like to him to earn his position/trust back, through addressing the harm he caused and becoming a better person. 'I hoped you'd understand' isn't good enough, it's the same old shit. Same abuses of power. I could see Kitty and maybe Emma being holdouts too. Logan is hard to gauge. He did try to kill him not long ago, but he usually thinks the world of him.

Why is Charles constantly held up as this leader for mutants when there are many other mutants who would be a way better leader than him and he at times is not very good at it.

I don't know if I'd agree with the word "constantly", since I do think that Xavier's reception both in universe and out tends to fluctuate.

Xavier, at his best, is a man of high ideals, who took in five kids with the intention of giving them a safe place to learn how to use their powers.

It's a genre convention for kid/young adult stories, for the parents and mentors to be, at best, uninvolved and clueless. Because that's how the kids go off and have adventures to begin with. Spider-Man for example gets away with superheroing because Aunt May doesn't know what he's doing. And Uncle Ben is dead.

Xavier takes the genre convention a bit farther though, because rather than being completely clueless, he's the one who actually sends them into battle. And well, when you start to look at it from an adult perspective, you quickly go "wait, what the fuck?!"

It probably didn't help that Lee and Kirby were pretty fond of stories where Xavier would fake impairment and depowerment, or just go off and do his own thing, so that the kids could take charge and act on their own. Or the way he was actively involved in lying to Warren or Jean's parents about what their kids were up to. He starts looking a bit manipulative at best.

So we have a guy with two warring sides at work: the visionary benefactor vs. the manipulative plotter.

And well, X-Men is a franchise that's been ongoing for sixty years, so we have multiple generations who go from kids having fun to adults boggling at the characters' decisions, and I think that tends to get reflected in which traits get the most focus when.

It's probably fair to note that from about the early 2000s onward, Xavier really wasn't involved in a leadership position at all until Krakoa. He got kicked out twice for bad decisions, was hovering around in advisory capacity, and died twice to boot. The second, biggest time ushering in the post Avengers vs. X-Men period, which I think was great for really shaking up the universe.

It also though introduced a lot of really bizarre (Watsonian) veneration for the dude. Maybe it makes some sense, Scott Summers, a character who'd been recognized as a paragon by even his enemies, has proven himself flawed in his own right, so maybe that inspires people to look back at the previous guy more fondly?

(Or we could go with my theory, that Scott-as-Phoenix accidently mind-whammied everyone to love Xavier and hate Scott as much as Scott himself did at that moment.)

But then there's Krakoa, which was a pretty grand, pretty new experiment. And while I may gripe about certain aspects of the storyline, I can't deny that it was definitely a big, earth shattering concept change.

It also wouldn't have worked with anyone but Xavier at the head. Even though Rosenberg's X-Men arc had ended with Scott and Jean reunited, and positioned to lead what was left of mutantkind together, they're not really nation builder types. (Scott had Utopia, but that was less a nation than a garrison, IMO.)

For Krakoa to work, it needed nation builders. Xavier has the influence over mutant kind, and has the characterization of a benefactor. Which very much fits with Krakoa's modus operandus: giving humanity things for recognizing mutant kind, and scheming and manipulating when they don't.

And it makes sense, I think, that he was successful. Not only does he have the benefit of the absence makes the heart grow fonder veneration from his death. But he's offering mutants something tangible and amazing: safety, a home, freedom from death and persecution, a lot of their lost loved ones back.

That's a big deal. It's just unfortunately, Xavier has that other side of him too, and his blind spots and worse impulses play a big part in why Krakoa ends up falling.

(Though, to give him something: there IS a version of Krakoa still out there, in the White Room, where a nation of mutant kind has grown and developed beyond Xavier and the Council's flaws. But it's notable that they did this without him. It always seems to work like that.)

[korkorali]

Hokay, we’re gonna have a small little fandom etiquette lesson here:

#Anti [Character] #[Character] Critical

See these two tags? They’re very good to use (if you want to write negative posts about a character) and very good to block (if you don’t want to see negative posts about a character)

Because yeah, you should be able to voice your opinion! You shouldn’t have to pretend to like a character just because a lot of other people seem to like them.

But maybe

Just maybe

When a character tag updates, like, once every two days on average

Maybe it can get a little tiring for people who like that character to see a bunch of hate towards that character instead of enjoyment

(And then they do stupid things like engage with and argue with that dislike instead of just blocking and moving on, which is genuinely A Dick Move most of the time)

Maybe it can get a little upsetting to see the same

Exact

Mountain of misinformation that maliciously mischaracterizes the character they like

That just gets repeated over and over and over

And stuff out the posts that are about enjoying the character within the tags

So try to use #Anti [Character] and/or #[Character] Critical when you are bringing up your grievances with a specific character, and try to block #Anti [Character] and #[Character] Critical if drama about that character is likely to upset you

Live and let live, and don’t muck up everybody else’s space to engage with what they enjoy

[dreamingaboutsakuratrees]

Dear God how I fucking hate when people dismiss s character's traits because "that's just a facade! you as the reader have to see underneath it!!" like yeah no fucking shit Sherlock, a well written character has more than one (1) defining trait but that doesn't mean their most prominent one or the one most recognized by fandom ISN'T there

yes this is about people thinking dick grayson isn't actually a ray of sunshine, that it's just a mask. he's much more than the happy one, of fucking course, all batfam members (when written well) are, but that doesn't mean that being happy and bright is not a crucial part of his personality. he brings light to people's lives, he's a beacon of hope, that's what Robin was born for, as a light to Batman's darkness. That's what Nightwing is. He can be serious, sure. He's smart, an amazing strategist, incredibly good at fighting, he can be manipulative and morally gray and sometimes an objectively bad person. But he's ALSO funny and quippy and bright and sunshine. BECAUSE HE'S WELL WRITTEN.

Like Jesus stop making him so sad and wrong all the time just because you want so bad to go against "fanon". It's not fanon if it's literally his core trait. It's not fanon if it's what the character was BORN AS. God.

[kyouka-supremacy]

It's actually quite curious that I've never found a sskk fic where Atsushi was jealous of the attentions Akutagwa gives Dazai

IMHO, I think it’s bc jealousy like that would mean Atsushi wanted Akutagawa to feel about him the way Akutagawa feels about Dazai, and I don’t think that’s the kind of connection Atsushi would envy anyone having with anyone

That's... A very good point

[discoreptile]

As of yet unnamed game card art!

[blujayonthewing]

so in juniper's campaign we've just found ourselves in a high-stakes situation that I as a player do frankly find stressful and am anxious about, but hey hi also the DM was like 'okay here are the exact mechanics of how this is going to work because I don't want to surprise you with serious repercussions, also here are all the options you will have to try to do something about the situation-- [affected player] what do you think? honest feedback, I don't want it to feel unfair, I want to be clear that I am not just trying to kill your character, and if it ends up being badly balanced we can revisit it down the road' and oh my god I could COLLAPSE and WEEP with gratitude

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also it's something (better) like, the exercise of deliberately [art imitates life imitates art] holding up Billions to My IRL Things Perspective and going like whaaat would i want for winston. first answer is you want any character to not have been within the scope of the show in the first place, and to exit it since they are. and you kind of get that in the accidental reward in banishing winston, since like in the end it's just that the show doesn't care about him existing at that point But like it's winston sitting there quietly as everyone leaves & turns out the lights & Then he can leave too; others have peaced out & nobody remembers he exists so Now he can go off & do whatever.

but like in true form i think they definitely accidentally baked in another divine reward for winston in that, like, the way he's kept around as fodder for these fun little [pov: enjoy abusing this guy] asides with him, where it Just So Happens that he's autistic as something they're unaware of but is completely relevant to the expectation we understand him to be inferior(tm), it Just So Happens that he's also ""bad"" at not ""causing"" abuse to be turned on him. he's ""bad"" at staying in line. like well yes Yes that's what i want for him. just like In Real Life it's like yeah Ideally i'd want people to be able to extricate themselves from where they're trapped in power structures & i'd want them to have the perspective about it of understanding they're not Inferior / i.e. they are as much a person as anyone else and they're not corrupting everything good / i.e. it wasn't them Bringing It Upon Themselves and it's not them being Destructive by toppling a jenga tower of a hierarchy that happened to be pressing down on them. and winston is the kind of [the ruinerrrrrr] who is Turned On exactly because he keeps acting like someone who's on the verge of breaking out of the [being in line] someone demands of him as autist, employee, whatever other supposed manifestations of [inferior]

like in the 5 second stretches in which winston's allowed to speak before retaliation, it's because he's like "matter of factly" delivering whatever Information that's useful for another plotline. then he Brings It Upon Himself by making people aware that he's Also existing in his own right as a person rather than what they think serves their own deal / what they want from him at all times, perhaps by expressing his personality (didn't appeal to them! so it was Wrong) or not b/c of anything in particular said or done at present, just b/c people have a constant / accumulating contempt for him so their being in the same room as him & able to see & hear him is already dangerous. the [we're just seeing Any Abusive Dynamic in action] continuing apace.

and it's like, well, right there. he's written as acting like someone who doesn't blame himself for how he's treated, which billions frames as being Rude & Mean, and so too does everyone's abusers lmfao like and that these are his moments that are written to be Bringing It Upon Himself. and it's like hell yeah he doesn't blame himself. hell yeah that his self-esteem can manifest as anger at all. hell yeah that he keeps expressing himself with personality & confidence & doesn't even disguise his having been hurt, & it's this [his ass is Not grey rocking] that billions frames as both him "causing" his abuse & making that abuse "successful" lol, wrow just like real life!! and when like speaking of real life yeah it's not "bad" that people Do engage in strategies to mitigate & survive, including things like blaming themselves or being too "boring" to be anything but a non dialogued background character b/c that's all that goes unpunished, it's bad b/c it's done to them at all, not [ohh they're doing it to themselvesss] and like i'm asking myself like Ideally. what do i want Ideally. and i'd want winston to know that it's being Done To Him & i'd want him to find as much room for his personhood & autonomy as possible. and that's basically how he's written anyways, and billions hates that like You See this is why he deserves it this is why he's doing it to himself. and i'm like my god if that's not Inspiration for like "so what if people don't find you Personally Likable" and not preemptively holding back all personality or anything that'd draw attention as if you exist as a person in your own right & not something that only either gets in the way of or serves their wants of a Real person (someone with more power) like hell yeah you have him out here doing it =']

another fun addendum is like, billions isn't getting into it much b/c it doesn't seem to care much about "what if some people were peers & seem to have a genuine, recipcrocal relationship?" but that it just so happened to be like "oh tuk as the next closest loser who deserves it might be nice to winston" while it's framing winston as the "worse" Loser as being....unconditionally supportive of tuk. while the one downside of billions Also giving bentuk as much as it is is that it also inevitably has that shadow of "but ben is Superior to tuk" and like that it's correct that everyone encourages tuk to Stop Bringing It Upon Himself and start being less of a loser; it's wrong for winston to be like hey let's go have a foursome. like yeah probably don't make a list of the women you work with you'd be dtf but it's not like i'm convinced "ah billions and it's strong anti misogyny stance like" roflmao and billions is Not reflecting on "the downsides of unconditional support?" there when winston was beaten up for criticising taylor earlier like we WILL take his ideas while looting his [beaten unconscious] body there but he WAS wrong to express them as though he's BETTER than taylor!!! mafee's beautiful show of loyalty in kicking his ass even when he might agree with the argument and then benefit when it's adopted by taylor anyways! so it's as usual actually purely based on hierarchy & who gets to be in charge of people. it's correct for ben to be in charge of tuk, unless he has to step aside for that bizarre dead-end subplot about how it's tuk's fault if he's treated badly, b/c it's really his own Failure to have Confidence to know he has good ideas [raising our voice to deliver this message over the sound of breaking desks and chairs and computer monitors over winston because he had the confidence to act like he deserved to talk to someone and because he knows his ideas efforts & results are good & valuable around there] like. and isn't it sooo fucked up to talk about who you're dtf in the episode that has it be neutral if your boss is dtf & lets you know but is nice about it (and you're already Correctly tending to their ego, which you're responsible for!) like hey no possible problem! it's not even so much of a problem for a boss man to have the sex they're entitled to & be rude about their leveraging their power in that acquisition that it Stays a problem into the next season. ew, winston is Known (Inferred) Dtf??? we'll use it to exploit His vulnerability, exacerbate it, & punish him further for good measure in another episode that just revels in abuse & violation with a sexual aspect once again, but like, hey tuk don't do that, winston's such a Bad Influence for being like, shrug, kneejerk intervening with the Good Friendship where the One In Charge leaps in & Tells tuk the Correct thing to do. obviously there's also the tragedy that billions will Never let winston push back against Real Winners like rian or taylor in A Way That Matters (actually gets in their way at all) lol like. one thing that would have really been fun, winston should've literal kneejerk started physically fighting wags in either pertinent scene in 7x03 for real 110%. i wouldn't be like Gasp Violence Is Never The Answer if he just hit someone to hit them b/c fuck you. or broke anything on his way out etc etc. billions would Never let him. which is the other side of the same coin of [why he should get to]

tl;dr how great that winston's being "out of line" means he's basically always noticeably flouting & rebelling against the [He Deserves Abuse] agenda lol. that IS what i want. his being "beyond hope" like ohhh he's sooo stupid he doesn't realize how much he has the bad tastes & wrong interests & annoying personality He Will Always Be This Way like hell yeah!!! billions like oh no winston's personhood will never stay tamped down & locked away such that some godawful person tolerates keeping him in their inventory :( ohhh the ABA will never work :( that's right!!!!!!!!!! although they're not sad about it because it's about relishing the promise there will always be True Inferiors you can enjoy abusing with your righteous power over, but like well you wrote him escaping anyways even while dragging other "better" characters into standing around to serve axe's need for more than 1.8 employees and [crickets, reverberating cough, sneaker scuff] like. another ""wrong"" thing for winston to do, another thing for him to not "deserve," which is itself godawful actually lol like lord what it "rewards" its Good, Deserving characters with, no thanks. meanwhile winston's punishment is that he's autistic and """bad""" at being abused like lmfao good for him, fantastic for him, just what i want

[nebulations]

Because you seem in the know: there's a new Trigun?????

(is it any good? I loved the original)

Aha, I'm less in the know than you think!! But I can assure you there IS a new trigun, trigun stampede, a reboot which seems to have different takes on some of the characters and themes!! I've not seen it yet and don't plan to for a while (I'm trying very hard to be kind to my brain and at least let the og settle in my head as I read the manga), but what I've heard sounds super cool!!

[britneyshakespeare]

i finished troilus and cressida today and no wonder they call it a problem play. honestly what was that

[todayisafridaynight]

had to do the y4 final fight twice (bc i let tanimura die by accident but thats not the point of this) and during daigos the 1st time my head was empty no thoughts BUT 2nd time around i kept begging him to not hit his surrogate papa and saying i didnt want to hit my kid what happened between those two fights that made me go family brained its so funny to me

i should never be a dad because my immediate thought to this ask was 'no kiryu should supplex his dumbass kid actually'

[chompe-diem]

shoutout to my discarded poll post for my followers asking whether or not i should watch crown of candy

[arolesbianism]

I have been playing beastieball and first of all very good game second of all smth smth Olivia Broussard