#lots of fun meta potential

[pupstim]

Q!Characters and RP perspective with slight meta flavoring

But I just love that the islanders immediately got a new mystery and Bad is there to help. He's helping even though he doesn't have too, even though they broke his heart yesterday by putting him in jail without a trial or even a chance to explain his side and no one listened to him! BUT HE'S STILL HELPING, STILL LETTING THEM IN HIS HOUSE! Just uuuuugh, I'm not over yesterday but seeing Bad interacting with everyone because of the mystery and they're all just going along with it, Both parties being wary of one another, poking jabs and just subtle threats, I love it despite how much it hurts. Trust has been broken but they all care too much for one another to not help each other out.

now meta flavoring but I absolutely adore what the CC's and admins are doing, cc!Bad got dogpiled by fans and was about to just back out of the politics and stuff and I feel this is a good way to just... let Bad play. He was in his element yesterday, he had so much fun and I think we all had fun watching him! This lets him kick off a villain arc if he wants or just be on the run and just get back into doing whatever the ehck he wanted! And now there's an island wide mystery going on and Bad's still on the run but at the same time sinking his teeth into this mystery like all of us. It's been a lot of fun watching the last few days I'm so proud and happy for what these guys are cooking up

[bistaxx]

I'm still losing my mind over a qsmp digimon inspired au- it just feels so perfect- also please just look at this thing:

[transienturl]

"tumblr should hire the xkit team! that would fix the complaints I have with the site!"

oh believe me friend you would complain about things

[fanflames]

i was talking with sue about this earlier but a big reason for picking tingyun as a primary muse as opposed to my others is because of her worldbuilding potential... and boy do i love worldbuilding. her job is the primary reason for her to visit any location and that job inherently involves her in the political, economic, and social dynamics of said location. commerce affects everything in a society and that's what she primarily deals with- not to mention that she goes outside of commerce & trade to also initiate alliances and contracts with MAJOR organizations like the IPC. she's extremely meddling while well-meaning so it opens up a whole ton of potential for her to be everywhere and thats neat.

[clemencetaught]

AND THIS IS!! FOR VERSE THREE:

🔥 What kind of pieces has he done through wood carving? Does he keep these pieces as personal items or gives them away to other people? 🔥 What are his favorite books to read? Has he retrieved any kind of information from books as to use them for his skills or any situation he's faced? 🔥 What are his favorite scents when it comes to bath salts? 🔥 Does he have a pocket knife he always uses or that's always with him? If so, is it personalized in some kind of way; maybe added marks or something to it? 🔥Is there a situation you'd like to write out in this verse but haven't? 👀

Also feel free to skip any questions here IUWHEDWHD; HOPE YOU'RE DOING WELL, TAKE MUCH CARE, MY DEAR FRIEND!!

now the victor is on the hot seat ( nosy questions for the birthday enby w/ @jeoseungsaja )

HI ALEX!!! here i am again with more of your WONDERFUL QUESTIONS :DDD thank you again for these; i will try to answer them all to the best of my ability <3

🔥 What kind of pieces has he done through wood carving? Does he keep these pieces as personal items or gives them away to other people?

okie so i was actually going to recon this headcanon ( there are a few things i want to revise for this verse especially with what i know about hyuk now here 👀) into more like, yes he does do wood carving, but it’s not really the artistic kind ^^’ i’d say it’s more like, you know how some people will pick up a random stick and just start shaving away at it until there’s nothing left? Yeah that’s the kind of carving patrick does….i wouldn’t be surprised if when he and hyuk are at the beach, that’s typically how patrick passes the time– he finds a random piece of driftwood and just idly shaves away at it while listening to the waves and enjoying hyuk’s company <3

🔥 What are his favorite books to read? Has he retrieved any kind of information from books as to use them for his skills or any situation he's faced? 

In this verse, he hardly reads fiction, mostly because i’m assuming that the books published in panem are probably pro-capitol. Books from before that (think of say, pride and prejudice, etc.) are probably found in the capitol, but you won’t be seeing anyone in the districts getting their hands on these legally at least–). So i could see patrick being more interested in reading say, history books? Anything related to history even though he knows that most accounts are, again, pro-capitol…this probably also ties into his capitol public persona as an academic, where he’s considered a ‘historian’ regarding panemian history….of course this’ll come back to bite the capitol in the ass 🙂

( on a note of after the second revolution, i could see patrick like, writing just one book on a comprehensive history of panem, one that cover both the districts and the capitol and it’s complete with interviews and primary and secondary sources….he had that published and then fucked off into obscurity aka he wanted no cameras on him ever again. he probably also played a role also in setting up a national university for both the district and the capitol students…although he would stick to teaching history in solely district three for the rest of his life <3 )

He will also read about science books and about the other districts/the capitol. The latter, he uses to kinda?? Get a better sense of the places he’s either stuck in or could be visiting, while the former, you could say it’s a paranoia thing just in case he’s ever thrown back into the games for a second time– this being said, i do think before he reaped, since he and hyuk did sneak out to the one beach at the edge of district three, he did do some reading about marine life and forest survival…whether that information actually did help him out though, who can say 🥲

🔥 What are his favorite scents when it comes to bath salts? 

Probably nothing too fancy, but he definitely would hate anything that was too…sweet-smelling, like roses or vanilla. I could see him liking more of the refreshing scents kinda like, eucalyptus, peppermint or tea tree. Considering that often he take a bath after meeting with snow’s ‘clients’, i think he prefers sharp smells as the scent would ground him to the present moment. Keep his thoughts from spiraling too far. 

🔥 Does he have a pocket knife he always uses or that's always with him? If so, is it personalized in some kind of way; maybe added marks or something to it?

i could definitely see him having one although it wouldn’t be anything fancy. I could see his favorite being say, something you’d find in the black market, something secondhand from district three. Mind you, he probably did get a fancy pocket knife here and there from snow’s ‘clients’, but i don’t see him keeping them…most likely he would’ve given them away or simply just thrown them out.

as for his usual one, the personalization is probably something very simple, like a carving of his initials into the handle. Just in case it gets lost ( although i don’t see that happening ever since well…never assume a dog no matter how sweet doesn’t know how to bite 🙃)

🔥Is there a situation you'd like to write out in this verse but haven't? 👀

Ahhhhh my favorite question on this list, alex i’m afraid you’ve opened pandora’s box here JFKLSDJFLK :3 

But honestly? I think the connections that he has for this verse already do a wonderful job with fulfilling all the hypothetical situations i’d write him into ( and if there is more…well i do know who to ask ;D ) that being said…

i would be interested in writing patrick in the initial aftermath of felicity’s passing OR in a case where hyuk is say, kidnapped by the capitol (aka there’s no guarantee that he’s alive or dead) ? of course that would be super depressing so it’s not like we would have to go all in depth, but at least i would like to see a patrick that is perhaps temporarily unhinged as that’s not a side that comes out often and i have yet to see what that would look like in action. in the case of hyuk being ‘missing’ since hyuk here is patrick’s rock, take hyuk away and any stability that patrick is known for showing would probably just…crumble. like yeah, he’ll act he’s perfectly fine and composed but he’d also be consistently two steps away from a breakdown…probably would need to be sedated at some points in time to calm down :’(

if we’re talking about hyurick tho, this is going to be so vague, but i wanna write it all with you :D firstly bc hyurick has my whole heart and brain space BUT also i am genuinely curious to see how they interact in this depresso verse!! whereas in the black knight verse, they are on the same side and do agree on what the right thing is to do even if they throw barbs at each other :’DDD; here, however, just based on what you’ve told me about hyuk so far, patrick and hyuk each have very different ideologies/ways of being in this society. So i am curious to see how they navigate their friendship/relationship despite disagreeing on this very fundamental level…and also seeing how they might accidentally screw each other over in the process too ( aka hyuk tries to start rebellion things and patrick tries to sabotage said plan bc that’s gonna get hyuk killed 😣).

that and the reunion kiss we talked about 👀i need a play-by-play walkthrough of that PLS 🥺🥺🥺

[lover-of-mine]

Okay, welcome to Anna writes a framing meta for the first time in who knows how long. This got long as hell, so strap in.

Okay, first up, first buddie scene of the episode, the locker room, at no point you can see both of their faces clearly at the same time, either one of the faces is out of focus or they have their backs to the camera (tiny images for me to stay within the image limit, but you should be able to zoom in).

And if we get a wide shot, they have something separating them in the frame.

The not allowing the camera to focus on both of them really works to highlight how they're not seeing eye to eye, and helps the scene feel awkward because they are obscuring their real feelings, Buck doesn't Eddie to move and Eddie doesn't want to move, but they are both trying to act excited about it. And the physical divider between them highlights the way the move is getting between them. Literally. The show did this the other 2 times they fought. If something really is getting between them, we end up getting a physical display of it.

And before you get all "oh but the show is not that deep" on me.

Okay, moving on, something very interesting that I've seem a bunch of people point out is this shot specifically, they are very close, some would say within kissing distance *wink*, but the glass is between them, but the lafd logo is only obscuring Buck's face.

Since the logo is backward when we look at if from inside the locker room, it almost makes it seem like the only thing stopping them is Eddie not being in LA with Buck.

At the house showing, there's always a few steps between them, at least, but the way Buck starts the sabotage by peaking over Eddie's shoulder, to fully stepping in front of him to the point that the camera stops focusing on Eddie is the fun part here for me.

Because that's when Buck fully takes over, the meth lab story is the most intentional part of the sabotage, at least in my opinion, and the way Buck takes over when he sees someone he thought would actually go for it, the little "man, I thought we had her" before Eddie calls him out gives that impression, it really shows the way Buck escalates inside his own feelings. It also highlights the way the scene is in Buck's pov. It's pretty obvious when we consider the way we see Buck talking to the potential renters alone, but we only hear Eddie talking to them alone.

Not really relevant here but love that Buck is the only person we ever saw in that back door. New angle of the Diaz kitchen too.

Love that painting of waves behind Buck, both for the symbolism of the way this is about to crash into him and his relationship with water and life-changing stuff, the tsunami, the well, the lightning, y'all know what I mean.

Okay, before I move on I need to take a detour to fully explain why these next two scenes had me going fucking insane.

Oliver is a pretty big guy, right? He's the tallest main, he is built like a fridge, he is a person who will usually be the biggest person in the room. That ends up giving Buck the power. So when Buck is emotionally distressed, they usually exaggerate that. Like when he is yelling at his parents and everyone is sitting down but him, or when he's standing up when telling everyone about Daniel, when he's sitting on the stairs talking to Maddie about being the one who's always left behind, or how they gave Buck the literal high ground when he's waiting for Taylor so they can breakup.

There's also the way that Buck likes to sit on top of stuff that will make him taller, the counter, the top the firetruck.

They play with that a lot, Maddie conversations when she's actually getting through to him tend to have both of them sitting down, since Jennifer is that much smaller, or talks with Bobby have them both standing up since Peter is the closest in height to Oliver.

But since Oliver is really tall, Buck doesn't look up at people a lot. It usually happens with love interests in emotionally heavy scenes that, like the breakup with Ali, when he tells Taylor he cheated, the breakup with Tommy. There are a few scenes with Bobby and Maddie.

And then there's Eddie.

The gym scene and the 204 scene, well, 201 Buck is about to get up and puff out his chest, try to look as big as possible, so it doesn't count in this, and 204 is being there for Eddie, but the rest he's looking for guidance. Something I used to talk about a lot is that Buck's admiration of Eddie clouds his judgment, it forces him to this space of following Eddie's lead, it put him in a position where he was literally looking up at Eddie when he needs reassurance or validation. Which is not really good for healthy relationship, it would make Buck bend to what Eddie thinks it's best and that's not good in the long run in a romantic relationship. The conversations they had about Buck's feelings, they were on different levels in the frame, and Eddie was always higher, and Buck is putting Eddie in a space where he needs reassure him. Funny enough, if they are talking about Eddie's feelings, they are usually both sitting down, so they are equalized there.

They broke that pattern with the coming out scene. In fact they broke it so hard they have Eddie looking up at Buck while wanting Buck to reassure him that hes not being unreasonable and he can hide in the loft.

But they are both sitting down for the part of the conversation that is about Buck, and Buck needs reassurance from Eddie there, but he is not looking at Eddie for guidance, he’s looking at Eddie for acceptance. And he would only get that if they were on the same level. So monumental moment. (read more about my freakout about the coming out scene here)

Now that we are all caught up, the station scenes, they're unleveled again.

In fact, Buck is so low he's on the fucking floor. But he's not looking up because he needs guidance or reassurance or because he thinks Eddie has the answers, he's on the floor because he's about to throw a low blow. He's being unfair and he knows it.

It is about Eddie having power over Buck, but it is also about how at that moment Buck doesn't want to accept that, he wants to land a punch that's gonna put Eddie on the floor with him.

He doesn't start the first scene on the floor, but he is on the floor once he tells everyone about the move.

And he is sitting on the floor when he says the "I don't need you either" so he is physically as low as he can be as he goes for the hit that's gonna hurt Eddie as much as he's hurting.

That had me SALIVATING. Buddie will never work if they keep assuming they can read each other's minds, it is why I was so adamant about the need of another divorce era, why that's the core of half the fics I write, they need to talk when they are hurting. And this was messy, they're being intentionally hurtfull but it all ends up equalizing in the biggest show of how they have the it's you and me vs the problem not you vs me down to an art if you just let them talk.

But moving on, at the end, when he realizes that he is succeeding in hurting Eddie but it's not gonna make feel any better, they're on the same level.

Side note, they tend to be on the same level when they are talking about them. (Yes, I'm counting the cemetery scene, this convoluted breakup that went nowhere is about their relationship, I don't care).

And that obviously leads up to the final buddie scene of the episode.

Just to get this out of the way, they are positioned the same way they were when Eddie tells Buck to leave the showing, but from the other side, because now we're on Eddie's pov.

The giveaways from that for me is the fact that the house is back to the usual warm lighting, and we are learning the information with Eddie, in contrast to the cold lighting and the way we learn the information with Buck in 808.

So our running joke to put a light on Buck if we ever got a scene from Eddie's pov? Yeah.

The 2 lamps almost give Buck a glowy aura.

Anyway, the thing with this scene is the way there's a lot of space between them at first, at some point Eddie is even holding onto the door and Buck even starts adding more space, the couch between them is a nice touch too.

And Eddie keeps his distance while they're fighting, up until when the crew arives and he steps back closer to Buck. It's not really necessary, they could walk around him the same way Buck did to get in the house.

Through the whole thing, Buck is in the same place he in the center of the room.

And then Eddie is the one to close the space, because even when Eddie is going in for the hug, Buck is not moving. Eddie has full control of the movement with them even though he was the only one who didn't have the full information.

And it's fun because there are 2 other scenes like that, where one of them is stationary and the other is doing all the movement, but while here Buck is letting Eddie make the choice to come to him, the other one Buck is forcing Eddie to let him in. Coincidentally (read absolutely intentionally), it's the other times they are clearing the air, 306 talk at the station and 309 kitchen talk. In both scenes Eddie is in a spot and Buck is doing all the moving closer.

And I think that indicates a lot of the way their relationship grew since s3, it's almost exemplifying the way Buck knows he doesn't need to force his way in anymore, that that door is already open and he can let Eddie come to him.

Well, I guess he already did in season 5 breaking the door down, but like Eddie says, Buck doesn't to break the door down, he wants to let Eddie open it. If he lets Eddie know he's there, Eddie will make the choice to let him in. And it is what happened. Eddie was upset because he thought he couldn't count on Buck and not being able to count on him always get Eddie off balance, it's why Buck fully disarms him telling him about renting the house, he was ready for anger but Buck just reminded him that he's got him. And I think that's beautiful.

This adds nothing to nothing but I need to say that "if you need to be pissed off at me to make it easier for you then be pissed off" most romantic thing I've ever seen. "Be mad at me if you have to, but stop faking it", you don't need to pretend with me on crack, had me screaming crying throwing up.

Some random things to point out, with the 2 fist bumps and the hug this is the episode they touched intentionally and without of them being mortal danger the most.

Also, the last scene has the same color pallete of the coming out scene.

In the still, the blue of Buck's jacket looked a bit too light, but when I put them side by side, that's Buck's blue. But the fit is a bit too big and the black shirt and the black color offset that. There's also the way that in 809 both of them are in the warm background. The yellow elements aren't that intense, but Buck mismatching is making me 👀 because while Buck is pulling the ultimate grand gesture as a clinger can do by doing that thing that will allow Eddie to leave him, I don't think living in that house alone is going to be easy for Buck. And Eddie stays in the warm background with a black shirt. So yeah, that's fun. Buck is in his color but in the wrong fit, Eddie is just no color at all yet but it keeps looming behind him.

This is long as fuck already and I just hit the image limit so I will shut up now, but I'll be back at some point about colors. As always, if you read this I love you.

[metalomagnetic]

I see a lot of meta posts detailing Tom's potential trauma from the Blitz.

Tom never saw the Blitz. It started on 7 September 1940 and ended on 11 May 1941. Unless he voluntarily went to London during the winter holiday (and he'd never do that), then he never witnessed the bombing.

Furthermore, he says in Chamber of Secrets that he asked Dippet to let him stay at Hogwarts, not Dumbledore. Dippet was the Headmaster, so all these posts claiming Dumbledore sent Tom back to London/not allowing Tom to stay at Hogwarts have no basis in canon.

Again, write what you want in your own fic, AU are fun; this is only a reminder for the posts discussing canon events.

[pangaeaseas]

The Problem of Religion in Harry Potter (or, what is Wizard God?)

tl; dr: I wish more hp fics did something with religion and the wizarding world

so to state my credentials up front: I've read a lot of hp fanfiction, a little on the Reformation and religious history--like, I have probably more background knowledge than the average person but I am very emphatically not an expert and have never actually taken a class specifically on any kind of religious history, and I'm an ex-Catholic who did ten ish years of religion classes. There are probably a LOT more people more qualified to talk about this than me but whatever I've never actually seen very much meta written out on this specific issue so I'm giving it a try. (if you have written or read such meta, please send me recs)

ahh the Problem of Religion one of the great unsolved mysteries of the hp world building (similar issues include What the Fuck is Going on with Ireland, How Does the Ministry Actually Work, What is the Population, etc) and I call it 'unsolved' because the fandom has no massively popular solution (like Lordships for the Problem of the Wizengamot) and in general tends to just not think about it, much like JKR originally did. Now IMO she probably intended most wizards to be, like, generically Church of England or whatever without much investment--basically copying the Muggle equivalent whenever it isn't spelled out how the two worlds differ, which is I think a lot of her un-filled-out world building is meant to be. Which. OK. You can do that, but, you know, religion is a very very important aspect of worldbuilding and in my opinion ignoring it and expecting it to be just the same as 1990s Muggle Britain is uninteresting and lazy.

This (wizards are meant to be some kind of Christian and probably Church of England just for simplicity's sake) is evidenced by things like Hogwarts having Christmas and Easter breaks, James and Lily having a Bible quote picked out by Dumbledore on their tombstone, and Draco Malfoy, most emblematically wizard of wizard characters who can be taken as a potential baseline, automatically saying things like 'Good God'. Which, you know, implies that the idea of a single God, and probably the Judaeo-Christian God because that's the same cultural background as the rest of Britain, is taken for granted by wizarding society. It doesn't necessarily imply anything about Draco's or even the Malfoys' personal beliefs, and of course you have other characters saying things like 'Oh my Merlin' and "Morgana" and things like that. Which in my opinion wasn't meant to be indications of some kind of Merlin or Morgana worship but more quirky and fun flavor things of the kind jkr loves to include without thinking out the implications. But you absolutely can take those statements that way--this post is absolutely not meant to dictate how people want to headcanon and I am absolutely here for giving wizards a well thought out pagan or Non-Christian religion, I just don't think that was the author's intent. There's also plenty of other things that imply Wizarding cultural Christianity that I'm not remembering off the top of my head.

And, of course, much better writers than me have extensively discussed all the Christian themes in HP. Of course, themes don't need to affect how people worldbuild in fanfic.

So: with HP canon, we are looking at a society that is probably culturally Christian and probably (key word) intended to be Church of England. But, because JKR wasn't putting much thought into it and basically just took a Chrisitian bedrock of society for granted, the implications of this are not really explored at all. So what I'm interested in is how fandom deals with it.

Mostly, that is...not at all, either taking cultural Christianity in the Wizarding World for granted the way JKR does or by ind of handwaving that wizards have evolved beyond the need for religion and that's just how it is. And that's perfectly fine! Not everyone wants to come up with a full, working, wizard society, and even if they are trying to worldbuild some aspects of wizarding society religion is often ignored, because people don't want to deal with it for often valid reasons (religious trauma, just disinterest, grew up agnostic, not Christian but thinks wizards probably are etc, etc, etc, ) Personally I wish more fics delved into what wizarding religious belief actually is, but to put it bluntly, that's just me. And I have never dealt with religion in my own fics. So don't takethis as judgement at all.

But there are interesting headcanons when people do choose to try and worldbuild religion in HP.

Fom what I've seen, one of the major ways to deal with religion in HP (aside from not dealing with it at all) is to give wizards, often pureblood wizards, some kind of pagan, often Celtic-inspired, religion. And this is quite defensible! Sometimes this is badly executed and/or turned into Death Eater apologia, but the idea of wizards having a different religion is really interesting and a good deal more interesting (IMO of course) than just not mentioning religion at all. Most fics that I've seen don't delve too deeply into, like the actual history and theology of these religions, but there are definitely some that do. (Also if you know any PLEASE send me recs). So if handled well, this is a great way to add some religion worldbuilding in the world of Harry Potter.

However, my personal favorite set of possibilities--obviously I have some personal bias as a history nerd with a long standing if never as deeply researched as I would like to interest in the history of Christianity and as an ex-Catholic--is that, well, we know the statute of secrecy started..when, exactly? 1690. So this much is obviously a result of JKR's Hollywood understanding of witch hunts (a subject for another time and someone far more qualified). For interested wrodlbuilders, we can take this as a guideline at best, as personally I think it would have taken a good deal longer than one year to agree on and implement something like the Statute and I tend to take 1690 as an end date, not a start. I also tend to take the Statue as a largely European phenomenon, at least at first. But, uh, what was happening in Britain at the time..oh, right...the Glorious Revolution....what was happening that created the conditions for the Glorious Revolution...oh, the English Civil War...which was because of...oh yeah, and what was also happening on the continent, maybe it involved, wait, thirty years..oooh, the Thirty Years War...wait weren't there a whole bunch of massive social shifts happening in Europe at this point in time isn't that funny but surely the stature of secrecy could be considered a part of these massive social shifts...all of which was heavily influenced by...you guessed it, the Protestant Reformation.

Wait. So. Maybe, the separation of Wizards from Muggles, at least in Britain, wasn't actually about Muggles hating wizards or wizards hating Muggles. Maybe it was about religion. Now personally I find this ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING. The possibilities, the possibilities...

Wizards had a massive religious civil war that created the blood status system in its modern form? Particular families have wildly different denominations? Excellent. Religion both in terms of level of religiosity and in terms of denomination is a blood status marker? Excellent. Purebloods are all Catholic (what does this do to both Catholic and not Muggleborns?) Excellent. Purebloods are all Puritans? Weird, but if you can pull it off excellent. Purebloods are all one of the wacky new denominations that sprung up after the Reformation and then either died out or conquered the world? Excellent. Pure bloods are all Lutherans who really hated Henry VIII? Excellent. One of my favoirite ways to create a wizarding religion was someone who had most pure bloods follow a denomination that split off from Catholicism in the Great Schism and then a small minority being Catholic, with the worlds splitting around the Reformation. Even the paganism headcanons can be incorporated: the Reformation could conceivably have made it much more difficult to keep practicing wizard paganism causing separation of the worlds.

Personally I would love to see a world that used the history of the Protestant Reformation super well, but it's not the only way to relate a Wizarding religion or a Wizarding religious history. I just wish more people tried to do that at all. Let wizards be religious! Or let them be irreligious but have thought about it, instead of just ignoring religion at all as something that might conceivably have influenced human societies. Maybe Wizarding Britain has state sponsored atheism. Just say that outright!

Another thing I'd like to see more fic doing is theology: how does having magic impact people's religious doctrine? Does every major religion essentially have a wizarding branch with its own theology because magic impacts their view of the world so much, or do most wizards simply follow the majority Muggle religion in their country with no modifications? if so, why? Do some wizards disagree, potentially violently, over how to incorporate magic into their religion? Do some people refuse to use magic because they think it goes against their religion? Etc etc etc you could go on forever. I've seen fic, which randomly enough was about Regulus Black, do this pretty well (or I thought so as a non-Jew) for Judaism, and I'd love it if done with other religions.

Anyway. Now I have to figure out how the hell religion works in the Wizarding Britain of my own headcanon.

[beforetimes]

okay so! female shen jiu! let's talk about it! [long post warning]

so. i have a lot of thoughts about this concept/au. but like mostly in how it will affect shen jiu's general reputation/the rumours surrounding her (will be using she/her and feminine terms for shen jiu throughout this!). as well as the way her relationships with the people around her would change + the way shen yuan would navigate this world with the combination of his obliviousness + his perception of the genre he's working within + what potential romance with would look like in this au!

also you will have to forgive me in advance for the very western-centric arguments i will be making in this because. i am working off what i discuss at university which is unfair to apply to a chinese novel but! this isn't a serious critique as much as it is a fun thought experiment to run through because i enjoy applying these theories to things i read and enjoy. so take a lot of this with a grain of salt as far as serious criticisms go because i am not making any! just off-handedly discussing things i thought would be interesting to chew on in this verse.

rumours of lechery :

one thing i think would be interesting would be the way shen jiu visiting brothels would be perceived in this universe. i felt that in pidw, it was a problem because it compounded with the accusation that he preyed upon his female disciples. but in a universe with a female shen jiu, i think those rumours would be squashed before they even started. i know that it's popular to assume that homophobia doesn't exist in the svsss universe, which i'm pretty sure is implied canon and not fanon. but i feel this doesn't really account for lesbianism, which is veryyy absent from the novel past fanon extrapolated from a few scenes here and there. which is fair! the entire genre of the series revolves around a male x male pairing. i just guess i want to know in a more meta sense if airplane, while writing pidw, kind of wrote in the same invisibility of lesbianism into the work that would carry over when shen yuan eventually shifted the genre to a bl.

what i mean by invisibility of lesbianism is that historically, while homosexuality was prosecuted both as a mental illness and a crime categorized under sodomy (mostly due to the disruption of social order) there was a lot less scrutiny placed on lesbian relationships. mostly because they were essentially non-existent in the eyes of the law in the early? 18th and 19th century (feel free to fact-check me on this). as far as i recall this was mostly because without the actual like. act of penetration there was confusion on how sodomy between females would necessarily work. as well as the fact that female sexuality was something that the law was unconcerned with in general. but that's a bit of a tangent.

anyway! i bring this up because while the utopian view of homophobia as non-existent in the pidw/svsss-verse is awesome, i don't think there's necessarily evidence to argue that misogyny is treated the same way. which is important! because the invisibility of lesbianism is tied into both homophobia AND misogyny! which is a very roundabout way of saying that were shen jiu a woman in the pidw/svsss verse, there wouldn't be as severe of a case to make for her supposed lechery if she visited brothels because of the invisibility of female sexuality. and that even if she was having sex there, would they even necessarily know how to legally prosecute that?

also like. i know it can be tempting to argue against this as a concept because the setting itself has no homophobia at all so how can lesbianism be invisible but like! on a more meta level we have to keep in mind that airplane (who i'm assuming for the sake of this argument is a cis man because there is no canonical argument for any other conclusion, as far as i remember) wrote this novel, and the original novel inarguably employed misogynistic tropes in the creation of luo binghe's harem. and despite how shen yuan eventually shifted the genre, the original world he landed in was very much pidw before it started to morph around shen yuan's choices. which is again a very roundabout way to say that misogyny very much could still exist in this world because of the biases of its creator and the lack of evidence against it.

i'd actually argue that the existence of the brothel itself implies misogyny exists in the pidw/svsss world but that's neither here nor there.

anyway! a very long way to say shen jiu's original lecherous rumours very well may not have existed. and rather than the problem being her sexual life, it would be the disruption of social order (which can also be prosecuted under sodomy!). because i'm assuming with the reputation of the sect on the line and the seemingly accepted view of immortal cultivators as beyond earthly desires, the problem would be less with shen jiu's presumed salacious desires concerning her young female disciples but rather the disruption of these social norms put upon cultivators. but also sodomy wouldn't necessarily exist in this universe because of the lack of homophobia! so maybe the only rumours going around would be of shen jiu being a man-hating prude in comparison to her canon counterpart's more serious and lecherous accusations.

moving on!

relationships with people :

i feel that her relationships with the people around her would be changed, but only slightly. for example, with liu qingge, i recall that despite the two of them fighting and being at each other's throats most of the time, one of the most decisive moments for their rivalry/hatred of each other would have been when liu qingge dragged shen jiu out of the brothel and got in a fight over it. which i explained in the reasons above might not have been such a big deal now that shen jiu was a woman. but there would definitely still be animosity between them because of all the other usual reasons (mostly shen jiu's and liu qingge's attitudes and world views clashing).

which may even be exacerbating with shen jiu canonically being a woman in this verse! it's not stated too explicitly but i feel there is still like. a broader social acceptance of the fact that female disciples (ie ning yingying) need to be doted on and babied more. which could be misogyny in this universe rearing its head. so if you combine this with shen jiu's need to be strong while constantly lashing out at the world so she doesn't get taken advantage of in the way she was at the qiu mansion, you get a! very explosive, vindictive, delicate relationship that honestly probably fared worse than canon. i feel shen jiu would be twice as aggressive with men in this universe because of this perception of female disciples/cultivators. (i say cultivators but honestly i see less evidence of that here. maybe ning yingying was a fluke? though that begs the question of why there would be a peak of just female disciples if not for the existence of misogyny (specifically misogyny that affects cultivators as well) in this world!)

i think shen jiu's relationship with yue qingyuan would stay mostly the same. i don't have a lot to say about that, really. i think the devotion from yue qingyuan and shen jiu's hatred in return because of the misunderstandings between them is something that wouldn't be influenced by gender. though that could be a blindspot in my perception, hahaha.

there is a world where shen jiu is more aggressive with yue qingyuan for the same reason she's aggressive with liu qingge, though! maybe she sees his deference to her as something that is like. pity born of misogyny and mostly because yue qingyuan looks down on her on top of his guilt complex. in that shen jiu thinks that he assumes she's a weakling and thus needs his helping hand/his dismissal of her more abusive, violent and disruptive actions as a favour. i think maybe while they would grow up together and he might not necessarily ring the same alarm bells as other unfamiliar men for shen jiu, she would still be. slightly uncomfortable at the prospect of a man with so much authority over her paying her such attention. if that makes sense.

moving on, though!

qiu mansion and that whole mess :

take everything implied in canon and make it like. nine times worse. is the general vibe i get when considering that era of time in this au.

because! if i'm going off the baseline assumption that qiu jianluo is still attached to shen jiu and the implied sa that she faces still occurs here, i believe the arranged marriage would be made not between qiu haitang and shen jiu but qiu jianluo and shen jiu. which i feel would give him a lot more access to her as there would be little excuse for shen jiu to be hanging around qiu haitang as much as she did. though she would be roomed with the female servants in the house rather than the male ones, there is also the possibility that qiu jianluo would just repeatedly summon her into his room. though again, no homophobia in this verse means there's no reason for him not to do that in the canon, non genderbent verse, so things on that front might not change much.

the aftermath of the qiu mansion disaster though! i think that would be interesting to see. because i feel there is (unfortunately) a very different connotation between male slave forced to marry young woman of the household and female slave forced to marry young man of the household. while i don't know the legalities of it in this verse, i'm assuming based on the shen jiu's perceived crimes against ning yingying in pidw that this would be frowned upon. though it could also not be! because of the intersection of class dynamics and how technically, because shen jiu was a slave, she didn't really have rights in the first place.

either way, i think a lot of that trial was born out of shen jiu's deviation from social order/social norms and the issue of her engagement with qiu jianluo wouldn't be seen as a strike against her in this case. because i think people would have enough sense to see the power dynamics and lack of consent more clearly when confronted with a marriage between a teenaged female slave and a young male master. especially when compounded with the fact that the original charge of lecherous behaviour with ning yingying wouldn't carry much weight because of what i discussed concerning the brothels

the murders, though, i think she would be held responsible for that. there would definitely be a harsher view of that, i feel. mostly because like. it would be out of a woman's place to commit such bloody acts on top of it being such a violent crime? so there would be an argument to be made that in breaking social order by not being kind and deferential enough on top of going through with the murder of the men, she would be faced with harsher consequences.

simultaneously though there could be an in-universe argument made on the side of cang qiong mountain to claim insanity on shen jiu's part. similarly to how hysteria is seen mostly as a female malady and is a gendered/misogynistic diagnosis. but that's a whole other (mostly western centric, i feel) can of worms to get into. but just know for now that i think the hypothetical defences that cang qiong could give for the murder spree would also be misogynistic in nature.

ps. if you want to read about the female malady check out the introductory chapter of the female malady by elaine showalter.

shen yuan enters the narrative :

now i don't want this to get super long. so i will try very hard to keep this short. i think shen yuan would have a misogynistic viewpoint that would affect his understanding of his place in the plot when he is transmigrated into shen jiu's body.

i already went over the more meta aspects of shen yuan (who for the sake of clarity, i will say, is still a male in this au) and his experience travelling through the world in a female body. but i didn't discuss so much the narrative implications of it. because i think there would be! many!

for one, i think shen yuan would constantly underpin a lot of the interactions he has with the (male) peak lords/cultivators with his very heterosexual worldview. in the sense that he would assume there were romantic undertones where there weren't any, which i feel would be a baseline assumption he would make considering the supposed genre of the novel-brought-to-life he was living. we see so many times how shen yuan will look at a female character and immediately identify her as a part of luo binghe's harem. which i feel will carry over in his perception of shen jiu's lived experience as a woman. if that makes sense.

i also think. hm. how do i explain this. the way he would view his role when it came to any potential romance would be coloured severely by his modern understanding of shen qingqiu (assuming she was a lesbian, perhaps, because of her visiting brothels in pidw/her aversion for men) but also in relation to the people around her. i think he would only really see the possibility of a romance between liu qingge and shen qingqiu mostly because of the time they spend with each other in svsss and how he would assume that it would be the type of fan service airplane would indulge in for his very heterosexual audience of pidw fans. but as far as luo binghe is concerned, shen yuan would fall back very heavily on shen qingqiu's role as the scum villain to separate himself from any potential romance there. in the sense that he would focus so heavily on the teacher-student, antagonist-protagonist relationship between the two of them that he would? in a way. de-sexualize shen qingqiu entirely in his mind's eyes. so that the possibility of romance wouldn't even occur to him because narratively it wouldn't make sense for the hero to fall in love with the villain.

though that isn't to say luo binghe's love for shen qingqiu would be contingent upon gender. there exists a world where luo binghe is still attracted to women but doesn't necessarily create the harem and still only wants his shizun. i feel that the harem, while in a meta sense fed into the male power-fantasy of pidw, also was only like. a way for luo bingge to fill a gap in his lonely life. while this luo binghe would still need that gap in his life filled, he would only need to fill it with shen qingqiu's love because the way he would be treated by shen qingqiu in his youth wouldn't suddenly make him want all women. (because it definitely doesn't make him want all men in svsss). rather it would just make him want shen qingqiu.

all the while shen yuan would assume that luo binghe still wanted to kill him or when he does realize luo binghe's feelings, assume that luo binghe was only looking for a woman to fuck, to put it crudely. which would be cleared up during maigu ridge (specifically thinking about the canon detail of shen yuan turning his back to luo binghe only for luo binghe to turn him around. which i've seen someone analyze as shen yuan assuming luo binghe just wanted anyone while luo binghe wanted shen yuan specifically).

which. very roundabout way to say that i think shen yuan's obliviousness would manifest in different ways and his misunderstandings of the world around him would be because of his somewhat misogynistic viewpoints and desexualization of shen qingqiu to boil themselves down to simply 'scum villain' and 'antagonist.'

anyway that is. most of what i've been thinking about when it comes to this au. i hope this wasn't too tangential or didn't make sense because i am telling you now that i did not proof read it. i wrote this in one sitting and i will, in fact, be posting it as soon as i finish typing this lil outro. but if it did make sense then! i hope you found the more in-depth narrative and meta things i lined out here interesting. i know i did when putting this together!

thanks for reading <3

[x-neurotoxin-x]

Dabi and Nerve Damage

This (rather lengthy) post has been a long time coming as I've found the whole debate on whether or not Dabi could feel pain because of his nerve damage interesting from a medical standpoint. I was made even more curious when it was revealed in his backstory he has damage to somatic nervous system, and then even moreso when he begins talking about not being able to feel parts of his body anymore (his arm, in particular, which was showing the most damage at the time and ends up being the arm he loses during the final battle). Furthermore, i was even more interested in his potential nerve damage when I had a injury to a nerve in my arm myself recent and had to look into it a lot deeper for myself, and strangely enough I've been thinking about Dabi since then.

I thought it would be fun to type up some of this just for meta purposes as well as fanfic reference, since a lot of fanfics seem to brush over Dabi's nervous system issues or just boil it down to "he can't feel things" when actually it's much more complex and interesting than that.

Let's start with the nerve damage; Touya likely had severe nerve damage from burning at the peak, which likely caused long term or permanent damage to his nerve endings as well as the issues with his somatic nervous system mentioned at the facility. Burns, especially of that severity, will cause nerve damage, but third degree and forth degree burns especially often cause permanent damage and can destroy the nerve endings. Nerves and nerve endings can regenerate and regrow sometimes depending on the severity of the damage, how quickly the injury was treated, and the rest and recovery process. Giving Afo's facility the benefit of the doubt and assuming he was properly treated medically for his burns after being (literally kidnapped) taken there, it was possible Touya's nerves may have been able to grow back or regenerate. However, since he immediately started training with his quirk and burning himself again as soon as he woke up, to the degree he's covered in third degree burns and scarring by the time he joins the League, it's safe to assume he didnt/was unable to take proper care of his wounds and likely destroyed all the nerve endings at least in those parts of his body.

Now, what's that like? To put it simply; really, really horrible. Like, i don't think y'all realize how bad of a condition this would be to live with. Nerve damage causes an array of physical issues and challenges; including numbness, muscle weakness (especially in the limbs, which can cause issues with walking, coordination, reflexes, and lifting things. Technically speaking, he'd be qn active fall risk and suffer from a lot of chronic pain and muscle deterioration), frequent shooting or burning pain, inability to feel touch on affected areas. Also wanna point out, he'd be able to feel pain. Technically, he'd have neuropathic pain from the damaged nerves sending pain signals to the brain until they die off. That likely means the parts of his body he claimed he couldn't feel any longer had already been so damaged the nerves died off and stopped sending signals to his brain.

Now let's go into the somatic nervous system; according to what All For One said to Touya when he woke up from the coma, his somatic nervous system had been damaged in the fire. Now, your somatic nervous system controls your muscles and sends information to your brain so you can basically control the movement of your body. It also processes your senses and sends that info to your brain as well.

So, what's that mean? It's a very important part of the body and the nervous system as a whole, without it functioning correctly it can cause uncontrollable tremors, cramping, and twitching, muscle weakness, as well as muscle shrinking/deterioration (sorry guys, more evidence Touya could never be buff and muscular and lift up your blorbo. He's destined to be a twink or squishy forever <33), loss of bodily control, loss of touch sensations, difficulties with balance and fine motor skills, neuropathic pain, and even paralysis. Very much like nerve damage, since nerve damage usually effects the somatic nervous system.

So the TL;DR is basically; if we're looking at stuff from a realistic standpoint (and not accounting for random quirk/futuristic medical crap stuff) Dabi had damage to somatic nervous system as well as severe damage or possibly destroyed his nerve endings due to his burns, likely from the time he was a teenager. This probably worsened over time, and by the time he was an adult the damage would be unlikely to reverse itself, he wouldn't be able to regenerate/regrow his damaged nerves by then either because of the repeated physical trauma. He would most certainly be considered physically disabled on this standpoint alone. He would have a lot of issues walking and moving around in general and with his coordination and fine motor skills. He would likely also have chronic pain (mostly neuropathic pain), muscle wasting and weakness, and tremors/spasms/twitches due to nervous system damage.

Poor guy.

[bantersnatch]

THE BIANCA MASTERPOST

Why, hello! Are you interested in throwing yourself down the rabbit hole of lore for Dropout's "Very Important People"? Are you trying to drag a friend into the madness? Welcome! Hopefully this post can help. This all goes a lot deeper than you might expect after a casual viewing of the show, so let's get down to business.

In the past, the Host's stepdaughter, Bianca Jocasta, was something of a cryptid lurking at the edges of the show's lore. As of season 2, however, she has a face, speaking lines, and an implied crucial role in the meta plot. Us rabid Bianca fans -- and there are indeed a non-zero number of us -- simply never lose. Unless we get a week where Bianca doesn't show up. Which happens often.

PART 1: UNDERSTANDING the CANON.

Let's say you've watched the entirety of VIP. You have questions. Maybe you even have theories of your own. Welcome to the club, friend. Bianca generally pops up in only brief mentions -- amidst the chaos of the show it's sometimes hard to piece together exactly what's going on with her. Luckily, I've written it down for us!

Analyzing everything we know about Bianca (as of s2e3) for a review of the basics, plus some surface-level theorizing.

Analyzing the Host's relationship with Bianca (as of s2e3) for a more character-centered approach to figuring out what's going on here.

Revisiting the s2e4 loredrop.

Unpacking the s2e6 loredrop.

And of course, the sacred texts: this gifset by the talented @/whichcouldmeanothing capturing their first on-screen interaction.

Dissecting the s2e11 loredrop.

PART 2: INTO the METAVERSE.

So there's something funky going on here. That's to be expected, because this show is an improvised fever dream and the Host is a certified freak. But is this actually leading up to something...? Signs point to yes.

Asked to describe the relationship between the Host and Bianca in one word, Vic chose "tethered". A normal word to describe coworkers who purportedly hate each other.

Asked for any further information about the two of them, Vic responded... like this.

Okay. Here's where we jump off the deep end. Hold my hand. Vic likes to reuse material, and the "stepdaughter the same age as her stepparent" is an idea that's been around in their work for a while now. Take a look here and here for more on that. Do you see the vision?

It seems like Vic and Talia are very down to go down interesting paths with their improv together, and they're certainly able to conjure up chemistry. Case in point.

PART 3: EXPLORATION via FANWORKS.

That's it. That's the canon, that's the relevant supplemental material from Vic. But this is tumblr, and we all know that's just the beginning of the fun.

The wonderful @/moonpleaser draws Bianca so beautifully and I think about his art of her non-stop. Go look at his stuff!

I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention Star Maker, my fic that attempts to blend our knowledge of the Host's lore with the "Bride Comforting Stepdaughter" sketch. It is my version of a long-form thesis for why this dynamic has the potential to be so compelling.

We use the tag #bianca vip for her here on tumblr. (edit: now that we have a last name for the character, #bianca jocasta is also in use! it's a mishmash but we'll muddle through somehow. i personally will prefer to use her full name now that we have it, but i'll be using both for a while as i adjust.)

The AO3 tag for our Bianca is wonderfully vibrant for a character with so minimal screen time, and well worth checking out if you want more!

[chocokeyboard]

I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO POST THESE SKETCHES AHGH!!!!!

Anyways context: Ive had this idea of that little trope were x character turns into a baby you know. That, with Falce :]

You dont know how much i was giggling at class while sketching this. Because i can summarize this as: Meta Knight sucks at taking care of a baby (hes trying really hard) + he has to keep it a secret from his crew and also has a lot of work. Meanwhile the gang (DDD, Kirby, Bandee) try to find a way to revert Falce back/any sign of whoever did that to him. Sometimes taking care of Falce when Meta Knight finally tells them.

Like i can make some delicious JUICE with all the comedy potential this has (to me) But beside that i also just want to write Meta Knight caring for something so delicate like baby because this. man.

I dont think he knows how to express he cares very well beside those little things like "I brought you something. Sorry we had a fight. We can eat this together." Or some act of service. So placing him in THESE situations will be SO fun...

[icedragonlizard]

Can I just say that I love these images from Guest Star Mode in Kirby Star Allies?

I just adore the idea of all the dream friends in the same wave being friends with each other. Star Allies really highlights how friendship is a big thing about the franchise, and I feel like depicting friendship between the members of each wave is a really great wave to illustrate those vibes and it fits really well when considering the members of each wave become available together (Wave 1 as soon as Dream Rod is available, Wave 2 after Dedede's defeat and Wave 3 after Meta Knight's defeat)

Wave 3 friendship is thankfully super popular across the Kirby fandom and I do see a lot of Wave 2 friendship in the fandom as well, but I think Wave 1 friendship is overlooked and deserves more attention. Marx being friends with the Animal Friends and Gooey is a fun concept and to be honest he's not even that particularly out of place with them aesthetic-wise.

I know Marx instead gets lumped with Wave 3 a lot and it makes perfect sense as I sorta do it too, but seeing him hop around with the rest of Wave 1 in that image is just so wholesome I can't help but imagine he's also buddies with them too. There can also be some real shenanigan potential between him and them.

[battlekidx2]

I'm making this post purely to shout out some incredibly talented fanfic writers from the Hazbin Hotel fandom and my favorite works of theirs.

Did anyone ask me for this? No. Will I post it anyway? Absolutely. The writers in this fandom are too good.

The first fanfic writer I want to shout out is @prince-liest (ao3 link)

I absolutely love their get cared for idiot (Alastor) series (not the official name but they called it that in one of their asks jokingly so it's now the default in my head).

Knock, Knock! It's Your Worst Fucking Nightmare! (this fic gets it!!!! This is what I meant when I said Alastor is growing a heart and part of him is raging against it. He still has ulterior motives and a massive amount of pride and part of him feels like that growing fondness is getting in the way, but he can't stop it. I need to stop before this becomes a long ramble. I've written a couple thousand words on this idea, but this fic is just a better use of your time than any meta I could ever write and way more entertaining :D )

Happily Ever After, and Other Shit Nepotism Can't Buy

The Last Bus Stop in Hell, Now Boarding (Please look at the tags for content warning. Angel and Alastor body swap story.)

They're amazing at balancing on that razor's edge with Alastor where there's a heart in there (really deep) and he's unintentionally growing attached to the hazbin crew, but he doesn't lose his edge. He's still manipulative and an asshole and can easily be the scariest guy in any room. He's in hell for a reason. A+ characterization at all times.

They're so good at writing the complicated dynamics he has with the residents, especially Charlie, and I enjoy how they expand on Alastor's potential dynamic with Angel Dust.

Anything they write from Lucifer's POV is gold too! My favorites are:

Take Two and Leave a Voicemail!

The Care and Keeping of Homo Angelus

I am also 100% here for their Aro!Alastor agenda and I'm enjoying their fic I Love Her, I Love Her Not so far!

The second person I want to shout out is @grayintogreen (ao3 link)

Their series Red Roses and Dead Things consistently gut punches me.

Just like Princeliest, they are also fantastic at balancing on that razor's edge with Alastor. A+ characterization for everyone and I love how they write HuskerDust. It's so soft, especially in the aftermath fic for Learn that Even Death May Die called If My Love Is Tomorrow, I've Forgotten Yesterday (that fic hurt in the best way).

The way they explore the aftermath of Learn that Even Death May Die is incredibly impactful. They capture the unique grief that comes from the reality that there are some things you won't get closure for so well that it's painful.

I can't say enough good things about their series. Genuinely go read it.

I found @lediz-watches (ao3 link) before the first season of Hazbin Hotel dropped (I've been a fan of the hellaverse for a few years now and have been enthralled with the Hazbin Hotel pilot since I first watched it in 2020) and I really enjoy their fics.

My favorite is Suffering Kindness. I love the Charlie and Alastor dynamic they explore in this story. I think I'm just a sucker for the Charlie and Alastor dynamic in general, but this fic hits all the right notes for me. (written pre-season 1 but man is it good. 100% recommend)

LeDiz also has a lot of one-shots/collections of one-shots that are very fun.

The Cure for Inexorable Boredom

Dollface (one-shots about Alastor theories. My favorite is the 3rd one. So fascinating!)

Choice Words (one of the few explorations of Alastor and Vaggie's dynamic that I've found in the fandom)

Don't Say It

I have to shout out @ckret2 (ao3 link) and their phenomenal fic You’ve Got a Face for Radio. This is such an amazing aroace!Alastor fic. (Embarrassingly it was this fic that made me realize I was most likely aroace myself. I’d had fleeting moments of suspecting it but it wasn’t until I saw my experiences laid out in a character explicitly written to be aroace that I put the puzzle pieces together. -_- some of these passages were too relatable.) I cannot express how much I love this fic.

I also like their fics Dumpster Baby and Bitter Grapes.

I have one last writer I want to mention because this is getting really long (whoops). The last one is tiredoflofteranditsshit and their Assume He Has a Heart series (because my favorite character and how I interpret them was not obvious enough already with the fics/authors I've recommended. I had to make it more obvious).

These fics are massive (17k and 26k words) and so much fun. Definitely worth the read. Yet another series that follows up season 1 and explores Alastor’s growing connections and how he lies to himself and pushes against it. Love this series and there’s a lot to sink your teeth into :D

[writers-wrongs]

Have you seen Arkham Knight VR? Riddler's self-aware in it! Could have some existential horror potential if you wrote headcanons or something for that version of him as a yandere >:-D (or just about self-aware Eddie from the mainline games...?)

as a ddlc fan, i love self aware game characters. and if anyone in arkham knight was gonna be sentient, itd be him. unfortunately, i havent seen AKVR, so this is just regular arkham knight

yandere!self aware!arkham!riddler x gn!reader

-edwards the most intelligent man in gotham, of course he noticed that his life was a game. and over time, he learned how to manipulate the game around him and "see" into the outside world

-the disc hes on was sold by the original owner, and now gets passed from person to person from secondhand game shops. the disc is always returned because somethings wrong with it. nobody puts two and two together and realizes they only start having game issues when they look up answers to the riddles

-then you buy the disc. edward is mildly interested in you, as he is with everyone who buys his game, but he assumes it wont last when you struggle with his riddles. whatever, at least he can enjoy messing around with your game

-but then you dont look anything up. he watches you intently, he even hacks onto your phone to check if youve been searching answers, and youre all clear. sure, you struggle at some of his puzzles (who doesnt?), but you never cave and look up how to solve it, no matter how long it takes you

-now that hes poking around on your phone, he sees that youre kind of a shut in. you dont have many contacts, and the one social media you have is tumblr. but it looks like you fixate on him a lot, almost to an unhealthy degree. its flattering- of course someone as excellent as him deserves sycophants! and he especially deserves one as devoted as you! youre smart, and determined, and oh lord, hes in love

-you have things to do during the day, you cant spend all your time with him on the disc, so he listens in on you from your phone. theres not much to do when youre not playing the game, so its his favorite way to pass the time. when you get home and start playing, he tries to interest you in his sidequest over everything else. he even keeps an eye on you as you sleep! he has to make sure youre safe, after all

-when youre not playing, he focuses on finding a way out to you (or bringing you in to him). he needs to be able to hold you, to keep you safe himself, and if he has to drag you kicking and screaming into the game with him, he will. not that he really knows how to do that, but he'll figure out something

-on your end, you dont notice anything at first. maybe his lines when you play are a little... flirtier? but other than that, the game is fun. you feel particularly drawn to the riddler sidequest, hes your favorite character after all. then, you notice that his lines are strangely specified to you, making references to your interests and personal life. maybe its just reading your console? yeah, a fun little meta thing!

-but then it gets concerning. he calls you by name. not the name on your console, your real name. hes talking like he knows you as a person. hes saying how much he needs you, how much he adores your dedication to his riddles, your dedication to him. you decide this is too weird, you have to return the game. so you go to take it out, and-

-you wake up in what looks like the abandoned orphanage from arkham knight. you try to move, but you feel arms squeeze you tight

-"there you are, my dear player. we're going to have so much fun together"

[inbarfink]

So when I wrote down that Big Undertale Meta Post about how Sans probably doesn’t remember RESETs at all and why that’s cool - I got a lot of responses to the tune of ‘that’s probably canon but I’m still gonna enjoy Sans Remember fics because of the angst’. And, well... first I want to emphasize that those are very good and correct responses! Like ‘I acknowledge might or might not be in the text but I am also gonna explore alternative ideas Because I Enjoy Them’ is a Good Damn Position to have! Transformative Fandom is Transformative on purpose! Engage with the text and it’s various analyses but don’t let it chain your creativity or fun!

It’s just that… all of the people saying that they prefer Sans Remembering ‘for the Angst’ make me think that maybe folks are kinda ignoring the incredible angst potential of Sans NOT remembering.

My original post focused on how cool it is that Sans manages to be so on-top-of-things even though he doesn’t remember anything - but let’s not ignore the fact that this situation is also grim as shit.

Through some mysterious super-science or whatever, Sans has managed to discover that his timeline is being RESET and altered constantly (before the Player came along, Flowey had already managed to basically 100% the entire Underground) and he has no memory of what's going on and what exactly is being altered. 

He knows he might’ve gone through the same day over and over and over again thousand times but he’s simply not aware of it. It’s all the helplessness and lack of forward momentum of a classic timeloop and none of the benefits of memorizing occurrences or acquiring extra information. That’s exactly the thing that drove him into his depressive spiral.

That line always strikes me. It’s like… Sans suspects that without the meddling of capricious immortal time gods, he’d be a much happier and motivated person. But he doesn’t know for sure, because he can’t remember how he was in some distant ‘original timeline’. He is essentially fighting to avenge a version of himself that might not even be real.

Like, yes, it is very impressive and badass how well Sans trained himself to notice every tiny little hint that might indicate that a RESET happened - but it’s impressive because the deck is stacked so heavily against him. And it is very impressive and badass how Sans managed to turn his weaknesses into strengths during his Boss Battle - but it’s impressive because these are usually huge weaknesses. Trying to work to solve a timeloop that you can only infer is going on through context clues is quite a hopeless and desperate mission!

Another bit in the Sans fight that I often think about is his unique reaction if you kill him and then RESET to Fight him again.

With how skilled he is at reading expressions, Sans probably knows what that ‘weird expression’ means, he knows the Player killed him once before and is here to try again. And yet he still goes along with the same attack plan he has, the one he knows killed him in that previous timeline. Why? Because he doesn’t know where the flaw in his plan was exactly, he can’t even begin to guess. So he has no choice but to go along with the plan he knows did kill him, because that’s the only thing he has. 

You know, the thing about Sans, is that he always plays his cards very close to his chest. It’s very hard to tell what exactly he’s thinking. That’s probably why so many people do believe he remembers RESET. If any non-Flowey character remembered RESETs, only Sans would be remotely able to hide it so well. But for me? It makes me wonder how much of his Troll who Knows Too Much persona is a bit of an act as well. 

You know, Sans’ deduction requires some keen observational skills - does he ever second-guess his conclusions? Living on constant high-alert that something has been reversed or that someone knows something they shouldn’t requires fostering a lot of paranoia, and that can’t be healthy for him. Is he ever overcome with doubt on whatever something was really an indication of a timeline RESET or not? How does he feel when he realizes something horrible happened on a previous timeline (for example, his brother dying) but he doesn’t know about the context to feel sure that he can stop it from happening again? 

I also think about it in terms of his relationship to Papyrus in general. Sans tends to hide so many things from Papyrus, especially in timelines where the Player is particularly kill-happy...

In part it’s about his perception that Papyrus’ kindness and pacifism is born from naïveté and thus the only way to preserve it is to hide the cruelty and harshness of the world from him (Undyne also does that). But also, with the paranoia and helplessness Sans lives in every day - is it any wonder that he might believe that ignorance is bliss?

I do truly think it’s beautiful how fandom can experiment with cool non-canon ideas! There are probably so many great emotional angsty ideas tied up to Sans remembering RESETs! I just feel it’ll be a shame if people ignore just how dire and depressing Sans’ canon situation also is!