#meta: headcanons

[sailing-ever-west]

I want to see more Luffy as an almost cryptid-like figure, leaning into the fact that he's actually kind of scary and unnerving. The strange boy in an unassuming straw hat whose smile is too wide and full of teeth, always spreading across his face when he should be running in fear. Wild black hair and dark eyes that stare straight into your soul. A laugh that's born of pure delight but sounds like the dangerous cackling of a madman, making you question What He Is. A creature who can take any shape and size, who appears in places he should never be, and when faced with death simply tells it no. Threats make him grin and drawing his blood seems only to make him stronger. Always, always hungry, and loyal to those who feed his gaping maw. A harbinger of chaos everywhere he roams, as though he were its patron saint. Luffy is actually terrifying and I need that to be acknowledged.

[demigods-posts]

blame this on percy being the main character. but i love that throughout most iterations of percy jackson and the olympians. book, musical, or tv series. he is somewhat aware that his story is being told. in fact. he is the only character in the pjo series that talks directly to reader. and i just love the implications that he can sense a plot point before it happens.

[heartsandmuses]

i keep seeing posts about how ppl wish that deadpool and wolverine actually fucked in the honda odyssey... but they did! they used almost every cinematic shorthand for sex possible in that scene. the focus on penetration (knives, claws) in incredibly close proximity. the bodily fluids (blood) spraying everywhere. the car rocking. the day-to-night transition. the way they're laying beside each other afterwards. the very deliberate choice of "you're the one that i want" playing in the background. they fucked!! it's hays code era fucking, bc it had to be approved by disney at the end of the day, but it still counts!!

[ilovejohnwinchester]

Thinking about early days on the road before John started leaving Sam with Dean and was still going around and talking to hunters trying to learn everything he could. Imagine you’re some hunter and you get a call that the new guy in town wants to meet at the roadhouse and talk demons or werewolves or witches or whatever, then he shows up with a 4-year-old and a baby. He’s real serious and writes down everything you say in his journal but he also has to get up halfway through to sing and bounce a cranky baby to sleep on his shoulder while the kid stares at you with a mouth full of French fries. No wonder every hunter in John’s generation seems to remember Dean and Sam whether Dean and Sam know them or not.

[unicornpopcorn14]

Chuuya's reaction to Dazai getting hurt during the Lovecraft fight has always been so interesting to me...

Because it's the kind of worry you'd never expect from a character as gruff as Chuuya, who had displayed nothing but hostility towards Dazai so far. Usually, characters that are labelled as "angry" or "anger issues" (which Chuuya is much more complex than that but you get my point) act more as a tsundere type of way when the one they "don't care about" gets hurt. And show their care in very, very subtle ways (ex. their eyes widen, their mouth parts and closes again, etc) before putting up their front once more.

Chuuya, however, is open, and vocal about it. His worry is clear not only to us, but to Dazai himself, the one he shouldn't be displaying the concern to (as per the cliche). Shouldn't it be some sort of secret that Chuuya does care? Isn't that what skk's dynamic has been shaping up to be until now?

I'm telling you- the way my mind blanked when Chuuya just casually.... showed concern not once, but twice, was a sight to see.

Besides, the context makes it much more confusing, because Dazai isn't some rookie, and Chuuya knows that more than anybody. He was the youngest executive in Port Mafia's history, of course he can handle a hit or two. Of course he'd seen him handle a hit or two, sometimes without batting an eye.

Heck, Chuuya himself was hurling Dazai like a ragdoll in their reunion, which was their last meeting. And you could argue that he was going easy on him, but Dazai has mostly withstood the same damage (as far as I could see), and Chuuya was as bitter as ever.

So that kind of contradicts both what we knew of Chuuya so far, and how their dynamic was shaped to be. I mean, that just makes Chuuya a hypocrite, yeah? What makes him care now, all of a sudden? What makes him care at all?

Well, to me, this backasswards reaction implies one (or more) of the following:

- Dazai rarely got physically hurt during their partnership and thus this is an unexpected thing for him to see (during a mission).

- The four years of separation made Chuuya unsure of how much Dazai can withstand physically now. Also the fact that he isn't in the mafia anymore, aka fighting enemy organizations on the weekly, would naturally make Dazai lose his touch in a way, what prompts Chuuya's reaction.

- Dazai getting taken off guard took him off guard which led to panic. Especially since the situation was (momentarily) out of their depth. Seriously wtf even was Lovecraft?

- During the dungeon scene Dazai was an enemy, while in the Lovecraft fight he was as an ally. The difference might be significant to Chuuya.

- This has always been Chuuya's reaction to Dazai getting hurt regardless of the situation.

- "Only I can hurt him like that" ahh logic

- Asagiri was still experimenting with their dynamic and thus there are some inconsistencies.

This scenario didn't play out again (after their reunion) for me to exactly determine which one is more plausible, but it is 100% canon for Chuuya to shamelessly show his concern and run to Dazai to check on him before properly dealing with their opponent, which I find to be such an appealing layer to their dynamic, and a good spin on the type of character he gets stereotyped as.

Bonus: Dazai also becomes a softy when Chuuya's hurt, especially post corruption. Dead Apple alone displays that multiple times.

All in all, Skk are doing a terrible job at maintaining their 'hostile' and 'antagonistic' relationship post their reunion. Freaks.

[thermodynamic-comedian]

what i think oiar employees listen to at work:

alice - welcome to nightvale

sam - white noise or r&b playlists

gwen - malevolent

colin - death metal

lena - the scp foundation database

celia - the magnus archives

[lassieposting]

Been thinking a lot lately about romanced Astarion post-spawn ending.

Because like. The Funnest™ thing about cptsd is how much of it gets delayed. When you're trapped in a lengthy, ongoing traumatic situation, you do not have the ability to process and start healing your mental wounds. Your brain and body go into survival mode, and all that matters in the moment is that you somehow cope with the horrors. He wouldn't have been able to even begin dealing with the physical, mental and emotional toll of two hundred years of torture, brutalization and dehumanization while he was under Cazador's control; he is in constant danger, surrounded by sharks in the water, and survival means not letting them smell blood. He can't afford to fall apart, to show weakness. He is shockingly functional and competent in-game, partly because he has to be to work as a game character, but also partly because...it do be like that, to some degree. When death, for whatever reason, is not an option, you just have to shut down and keep going. People adapt in order to survive, and when we learn that showing an "injury" (physical or psychological) only gets us punished, we learn to hide it.

Early-game Astarion is terrified - of Cazador, of Godey, of being hunted down by his siblings, of being staked or sold off at the first opportunity by Tav and the other companions, of turning into a mindflayer, of another painful transformation, of losing himself when he's only just regained his autonomy after two centuries, of what Cazador will do to him if he ever finds him - the man is overwhelmed by fear. He's on thin ice as a vampire, and he's not going to give them any more reason to want him gone. Survival instinct is still in control, and in this new situation, crafting some fragile safety for himself means not only selling his body for protection, but also being useful. Clear-headed. Good in a fight.

Endgame Astarion finds himself in a completely different situation. The time-sensitive overarching threats - Cazador and impending ceremorphosis - have been dealt with. He has a loving, supportive partner he's really starting to feel safe with - Tav/Durge has proved that they're on his side, that their affection is genuine, that they don't just want him for the one thing he's been told he's good for. They've told him they're going to help him find a workaround for his sun allergy. He's getting fed regularly. He has time to stop, and breathe, and just. Recuperate.

For the first time in 200 years, he is safe.

And it will probably take a while to catch up, during which time he will seem to be coping really well, but at some point, his brain is going to realise that he's safe, and it's going to finally start processing the sheer fucking horror he's been through. Since I haven't seen anyone talking about this particular fun aspect of cptsd, allow me to offer u some thoughts on issues Astarion and Tav might end up dealing with in the months/years postgame, during the

✨ Delayed Trauma Response ✨

Memory Gaps: Astarion realising, as he opens up to Tav, that there are entire years or decades of his life from which he has only a handful of memories. Great big blank stretches where he has no idea where he was, who he was with, what was happening to him. Some of the gaps cover years at a time where he was so dissociated and shut down that he just didn't retain any memories of what was going on around him. Some are shorter periods of particularly horrific torture that his brain has deliberately blocked out to protect him.

Recovered Memories: At some point, years into the future when he's done A Lot of healing, he might find that every now and then, a fragment of those lost memories will unexpectedly come back to him. He'll catch a particular scent on the breeze, or overhear a specific phrase in the street, or cross paths with someone whose face is oddly familiar, and he'll get a glimpse of an acute horror he'd filed neatly away where it couldn't hurt him anymore. He very rarely remembers all the context to those flashes of his past. He might recall that he was punished, but not what he was punished for, or he might remember words spoken by a greedy conquest, but be unable to recall the man's face.

Dissociation: Tav knows going into this relationship that Astarion has basically made an art out of dissociating during sex. They also know, from their shared encounter with the drow twins, that he's not great at enforcing his own boundaries - he'll always say he'll speak up and back out if he stops having fun, but in practice he rarely does; he's not used to having the option of saying no to his partner, and being punished if he tries. So they know there's going to be some practice and experimentation and negotiation necessary there, to figure out the rough limits of his comfort zone. But once he starts really processing, there may be days where he just checks out completely. Tav will touch his shoulder, and he'll startle and apologise - "Terribly sorry, darling, I was miles away for a moment there." And Tav will gently point out that he's been sat in the same spot vacantly staring into the middle distance for hours. They've been checking in on him occasionally and this is the first time he's responded. It's unsettling, to say the least.

Lost Time: Astarion was very young when he was turned, physically mature but emotionally juvenile. He was basically an overgrown teenager, in the phase of life where elves are just starting to learn who they are and what they want, and figure out their place in the world. But he never got to do that, because he spent his formative young adult years in a world where everyone became an abuser, where his only means of surviving was to smile and charm and obey while even his basic human dignity was stripped away. He learned that communication is based on manipulation. He learned that the powerful can do whatever they like to the weak. He learned an incredibly toxic, abusive way of life, and that was his family dynamic, his everyday life, for as long as he can remember. Now that he's free and safe, he's realising that the world doesn't actually work that way and that he's now far behind even shorter-lived races in social/emotional development. He's grieving for the person he could've been. He's grieving for the life he could've lived. He's grieving for all the years he already lost, and the ones he'll lose in the future as he flounders to catch up. A decent chunk of his life was stolen from him, and that's time he will never get back.

Flashbacks & Night Terrors: Specifically the kind where your brain convinces you that an injury you had a long time ago is actually an injury you have (or are receiving) right now. There are nights where he'll wake Tav in a panic, because his back feels like it's on fire, he can feel every freshly-carved wound dripping blood and he's in so much pain he doesn't know what else to do. If Tav looks, they see nothing out of the ordinary - old, long-healed scars, same as always. But the pain and the fear and the distress are all very real to him, and all they can do is try to comfort him, cover his back with cool damp cloths or healing salves, remind him he's safe now and they're not leaving him.

Boundary Shifting: Sometimes, Tav can come up and hug him from behind, and he'll melt into them a little bit and go all soft and happy. Other times, he might flinch away or go rigid at the same gesture. A lot of the time, it really depends on how he's feeling on the day, but at least a little bit of it is deliberate - he's pushing to find the limit of just how much autonomy Tav is willing to give him. He wants to know at what point they'll stop respecting his "no". Will they accept it if he doesn't want a hug? If he wants to sleep in his own room tonight? At what point will understanding turn to anger at being rejected? From the drow twins four/fivesome, we also know he's got a tendency to push his own boundaries, and jump into things he's actually not ready for, and Tav would be the one holding his hand through the fallout as he tries to figure out what his own boundaries even are.

Frustration! So, so much frustration. He wants to be Over It already. He wants to move past everything that ever happened to him and never think about it again. He hates that Cazador still has a grip on him, even in death - he doesn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction of dwelling on all his punishments, his cruelties. Sometimes, that frustration is going to explode outwards at Tav - he'll get angry at them for coddling him, or find something small to start a fight over, or he'll set an unreasonable boundary and try to defend it because he's still learning what healthy boundaries look like. Sometimes, it will implode inwards, and that won't be about Tav at all, but they'll get the brunt of it all the same - it might come out as self-loathing or self-punishment, and he'll react by doing something stupid, like trying to drive them away, because having a secure, relatively healthy relationship is terrifying and the instinct is to destroy it before Tav can. There will be yelling and angry tears and deeply unhealthy coping mechanisms, and they'd have to work through that. Trauma is ugly, and Astarion is right at the beginning of a very long journey towards healing.

Abandonment Issues: Astarion wants the relationship to be one between equals, but he's kind of got Tav on a pedestal all the same. They saved him. They helped him get rid of Cazador for good. They chose him and love him despite a wealth of better (in his eyes) options, and all his baggage. They stayed with him even when he has very little to offer them. We know his vanity and obnoxious self-absorption is a fragile attempt to obscure the fact that his self-esteem is in the dirt and he has virtually no self-worth, and there are a couple of occasions in-game where it becomes clear that he's afraid of losing the one person who somehow considers him lovable. After seeing Sebastian and all the other conquests, he begs Tav not to hate him, saying that he did what he had to. If he has a rival for Tav's affections, and Tav informs him that they broke up with the rival to be with Astarion, he's shocked and the first thing out of his mouth is, "You ended things with them for me? Why?" And if Durge tries to break up with him for his own safety, his facade drops and he immediately asks if he did something wrong. So while he's not afraid to argue with Tav, if something happens - like an angry outburst - that upsets or angers them, and he thinks he's at risk of losing that one steady, stable person in his life, he might well cling and overcompensate to try and repair what he thinks is a fracture in their relationship. He'll fawn or beg or crawl into Tav's bed to "apologise" and "make it up to them" because, well, very occasionally it worked on Cazador. With patience and good communication and lots of repeatedly driving the lesson home to overcome 200 years of education to the contrary, he will eventually start to believe that "I'm really pissed off at you right now," does not equate to, "You are the worst mistake I've ever made and I am leaving you."

Panic Attacks: I feel like honestly he'd get some symptoms of these on a fairly regular basis, but he's never been given any option other than just trying to power through them. He's used to realising he's shaking, he's used to feeling like he's watching himself from outside his body, or like he can't breathe even though he doesn't need to. He's very familiar with the sickening fear in his gut, so intense it makes his head spin. He's not used to being comforted or reassured about them - he thinks they're normal. Tav disagrees.

Anyway, cptsd is messy and complicated and often looks very different from person to person so these will not represent everyone's but these are just some ideas for what the ongoing recovery process might make them work through, based on the aspects I'm most familiar with.

Projecting? Who's projecting? I'm not projecting. Shut up.

[brainrotbutobsessed]

A list of canonical (to me) things Gale did while pining for Tav:

- Trying to subtly set up dinner seating to encourage them to sit next to him. i.e., Notices Tav prefers logs to stools, so he ensures he sits next to a log every time. (Annoyed when this doesn't worry/Someone else takes the seat).

- Pretends not to hear the first few times he's called so Tav says his name again (He's conflicted about this habit, as he doesn't want to come across as rude)

- Be seen around camp reading books on topics he knows Tav cares about. "Oh yes, I've been meaning to brush up on druidic/battle/bardic practices! No time like the present."

- Staring (This is all but stated in-game), my heart says specifically with his chin resting in his hand, watching Tav from across the camp. A book open in his lap for plausible deniability.

- Mentioning (more than he already does) how much Tav would like Waterdeep. "Oh you like plays/food/magic? Well in Waterdeep..." He's determined to get them to at least visit, and keeps a secret list of where he'd take them in town.

- Noting what meals Tav enjoys and stockpiling those ingredients "for just the right occasion."

- Minor magical improvements to camp. Raising the ambient temperature slightly, improving the smell of camp. Spells that are too small to brag about doing, but he wants credit for doing. Others don't tend to notice. (Another source of annoyance for him)

-Bragging to other companions if he and Tav have a pleasant moment or exchange. "You know I told a very humorous tale earlier, Tav seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. Would you perhaps like to hear it?"

~~~

Check out @tee-dohrnii 's breathtakingly adorable drawing of one of these post

[peachdues]

thinking about how canonically, Sanemi is drawn toward people with softer, more open personalities. People who are gentle; kind.

Kagaya — his presence is incredibly soothing and gentle to all who cross paths with him. Sanemi describes Kagaya’s manner of speaking as incredibly warm and gentle, going so far as to compare it to a parent lovingly touching their child’s face.

Masachika — chapter 168 demonstrates he’s incredibly kind, even able to recognize Sanemi’s skill and likely need for companionship after he spends god knows how long wondering the country, slaughtering any demon he can. Sanemi is a loose cannon after the death of his mother and siblings, full of rage and hate, but it’s Masachika who helps temper him a bit. It’s Masachika who brings him into the Corps, and it’s with Masachika that Sanemi forms his first bond after the horrific tragedy of losing most of his family. Masachika’s kind and loving nature is again displayed even after he’s killed and his effect on Sanemi’s heart is clearly profound. Sanemi is reduced to tears by Masachika’s wishes for him in his will, and it’s his words that enable Sanemi to accept Kagaya (and likely Sanemi’s own ascension as Hashira even though it came at the cost of Masachika’s life).

Kanae — we know she has a very gentle and kind disposition, enough that she sort of cows Sanemi when he visits the Butterfly Mansion. When Sanemi lashes out at Kagaya at his first Pillar meeting, it is Kanae who gently appeals on behalf of the Master, and she even touches Sanemi’s hand in an effort to help calm him. The few scenes we get of Kanae show her to be very sweet and easygoing; it’s her kindness that spurs her (and Shinobu) to ask about Kanao when she’s in bondage, and it’s her deep love of her sister that has her begging Shinobu to leave the Corps and return to normal life after being mortally wounded by Douma. Shinobu’s insistence on maintaining her smile is born of a desire to channel her sister’s kindness, even though she is deeply enraged and retributive.

So, what do these people all have in common?

They’re similar in spirit to Sanemi’s mother.

Here he is, this character who is presented as a hot head (even if Gyomei describes him as bashful at heart), someone seems to live and breathe to piss others off. He is boisterous, even obnoxious at times, and yet he is drawn to people who are his foil: people who are gentler, kinder.

Sanemi is drawn to people who share similar qualities of his mother, and that fascinates me. It isn’t that he only cares about them because they remind him of his mom in some way — it’s that he allows them to get close to him at all, because of their resemblance to her. Whatever relationship follows is natural and based on that person, but when it comes to Sanemi, half the battle is getting him to let his armor drop. But these people, the ones who still maintain some gentleness in a world that’s so cruel and bitter, don’t have that struggle.

Why? Because Sanemi looks for these qualities in people. Whether subconsciously or not, Sanemi searches for fragments of his mother in others, and that breaks my fucking heart.

[aficionadoenthusiast]

percy wanted so badly to not be the hero in his own story that he became the hero in everyone else's

annabeth wanted so badly to find a hero to finish her own story that she became the hero in percy's

[logansgaar]

Bucky's blue color coding is one of my favorite consistencies with him, as well as how consistent red is with negativity for him.

His blue coat during the war always makes me smile?? Every chance Bucky gets he picks blue.

Blue was still a feminine color back then, it only really became considered masculine and pink a feminine color heading into the 50s. It's just interesting to me that Bucky consistently picks blue, his all blue suit to Sarah's funeral is the equivalent of wearing an all pink suit now.

Steve's costume was designed for him based off the flag and aside from one greyish-blue jacket after his mother's funeral, he mostly chooses to wear muted, warm tones like browns, yellows and reds like other men in CATFA, especially Howard who wears a lot of red during CATFA. In the modern era Steve does also wear a lot of blue, but that could just be because of modern influences idk.

Every time we see Bucky dressed in something he would've chosen for himself pre-war it's blue, and even post-Winter Soldier he mostly wears blue with only once wearing a red shirt (when he was in hiding in Romania, when he presumably didn't have the liberty of being picky.) I'd almost say Bucky associates red as a negative color... Arnim Zola's bow tie he would've no doubt been wearing while he experimented on Bucky, Red Skull, blood, the HYDRA symbol, the Red Room, the Winter Soldier notebook, the red star on his arm, the Iron Man suit, the wall in his apartment in Romania (and arguably his red shirt in Romania too, since he was on the run and then mind controlled wearing it.) To a MUCH less severe degree, his and Sam's hostility with each other follows Sam's whole run with the red Falcon suit. Also lmao the suit he asks the Wakandans for for Sam is a lot less red than Sam's comic book CA suit is, the wings for example. This part is a reach but it's still a funny coincidence.

[superbat-love]

"Hi, I'd like a tattoo, please."

Bruce glanced up from the design he’d been doodling to see a man in a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and a thick mustache. He nodded in acknowledgment, hiding a smirk.

This man had been visiting Bruce’s tattoo parlor for months, each time in a different disguise, always requesting a new tattoo. The first time Bruce tried, every tool broke against his skin. Plus, the man always returned with skin as smooth and unmarked as a newborn’s.

Metahuman clients weren’t unusual for him, but Bruce sensed this one preferred to keep his identity a secret, so he played along.

"And what kind of tattoo would you like, Mr...?"

"Colby," the man replied. "I’m a cowboy. From Texas," he added needlessly.

Bruce pushed his catalog toward him, but the man shook his head, likely having memorized it by now.

"Can I request a custom design?" he asked, pointing at the paper on Bruce’s desk.

"You want... a smiley face?" Bruce asked, glancing at the childish doodle Dick had left that morning.

"No!" The man looked flustered. "I meant the design you were working on before I interrupted you. I really like it."

"Ah." Bruce glanced at the sketch he’d drawn absentmindedly—a bat intertwined with the Kryptonian symbol of hope.

"Very well. Have a seat, Clark," Bruce said, nodding toward the tattoo chair.

"Umm, my name is Col—"

"Colby," Bruce interrupted smoothly. "Sorry, slip of the tongue." He continued setting out his kryptonite tools, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

[darth-jess]

In my head, Vader relives every single moment he ever had with Padmé over and over again. Partly for comfort, partly because he misses her, but mostly to torture himself.

I wonder, if in all his remembrances, he thinks of how Palpatine admitted he knew of their marriage (Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover), and yet he still sent Padmé on a mission to basically seduce Rush Clovis.

And I wonder if it ever crosses Vader's mind that Palpatine did this just to drive a wedge between them. That Palpatine tried to get between him and his wife.

I wonder if he ever thinks about how many times Dooku tried to have Padmé assassinated, but Dooku was just taking orders from Palpatine.

I wonder if he thinks about every risky mission Palpatine sent Padmé on, missions where she got captured or badly hurt.

Vader is not stupid.

You know he thinks about these things.

You know he hates Palpatine for all of this, and so much more.

And yet, Vader stays by Palpatine's side.

Not because he believes Palpatine is his friend. Not even because he believes Palpatine will help him become more powerful, though he definitely tells himself this lie.

Vader stays because Palpatine is the only one who accepts him. If Vader left, where would he go? What purpose would he have? He would have to go live out his life completely alone and isolated, and he would be forced to confront all the grief and the horror he caused.

Nobody loves Vader, nobody ever could.

He hates himself.

Because he was the Chosen One, who couldn't save his mother, who couldn't save Ahsoka, who couldn't save his wife, who couldn't save his unborn child.

And this existence, of being used and made to do all these terrible things, is what he deserves.

[monstrousparalysis]

Hey y'all! Since it's Love Loses Wednesday for all who celebrate and I have plenty of thoughts about it, here's some of those thoughts I've had for my fellow enjoyers of Chip Bastard from the insanely powerful podcast Just Roll With It!

So.

Chip being so focused on family and friends, on finding Arlin and keeping his co-captains and crew safe, while the most he ever shows interest in romance is in brief, jokey flirting that's quickly brushed aside.

Chip buying a love potion, only for it to sit unused in his inventory for literal months until it unceremoniously drops into the mouth of the Electrodon.

Chip being unnerved or even downright scared when somebody shows a sign of being attracted to him (Amanda with the marriage, Jazz and his flirting, the frantic denial to Ollie that Gillion kissing him meant anything (which was then followed by barely any change in their relationship. A typically romantic act, done as an act of love between friends, and yet those friends never did start a romance. Curious))

Speaking of Amanda and the marriage: Chip waking up one day and suddenly being expected, even morally obligated, to be in a romantic relationship with somebody he doesn't even know, for reasons he doesn't even know. And even when he clarifies that he doesn't want this, that he won't give up being a pirate with his friends for it, he still can't leave behind the expectation fully, because Amanda, and thus this expectation, is literally chasing him. Sometimes it even comes from his own friends, because no matter how much he would prefer to just Not Be Married, there's no way for him to get out of it, especially not ones Gillion would likely accept, and therefore the expectation that eventually, he'll be in a romance, is inescapable.

And even more interesting, he's not opposed to the idea of getting married in general. He wasn't wholly against the notion of marrying Igneous just for the AC boost it would give them. Clearly, the problem he had wasn't with the marriage itself, but with the fact that he was expected to form a romantic partnership.

And lastly: Chip having his literal heart ripped out of him, and staying nearly the same. Making jokes about how his heart was stolen in a way that was literal instead of romantic. Writing to his wife that if death do them part, then now it has (and doesn't it even say something that the only way for him to escape the marriage, the expectations, was to die?)

He cares for his friends just the same. He cares for his crew just the same. He wants to find Arlin just as much as ever. And his avoidance of his wife, of the expectation that he perform romance, stays the same. But even if he's the exact same, he has an excuse for this now. Because clearly, somebody with no heart couldn't feel romance, and who cares that he didn't really seem to before he lost his heart either?

Chip being aromantic, on a textual, metaphorical, and thematic level.

[bathtubbbbbbbbb]

I have a head canon that the reason Vi was so pissed at Sevika specifically after she betrayed Vander is because Sevika was one of the main maternal role models in Vi’s life after her mom died.

I think too that she taught Vi boxing/fighting alongside Vander, like the line “still haven’t learned patience” feels like a much more personal jab rather than just some throw away taunt.

Sevika also for sure fills a maternal role for Jinx no matter how fucked up it is yk.

I think maybe that’s why Sevika seemingly dislikes the sisters so much because she’s been forced into this role for them.

I hope that in season 2, since we know Sevika is probably gonna be somewhat amicable with Jinx, her & Vi might find some sorta peace — maybe she even helps her stop drinking & stuff alongside Jinx, would be sick too if we got to see some sorta sparing scene between them where in Sevika fills that mentor role for her.

Edit: to further add to this maybe that how Sevika is gonna be the opposite this season, she’s going to actively take on a more paternal & mentoring role, we do see her in the trailer carrying a kid away from danger.

[meldingintheunderdark]

Halsin being so aroused he transforms spontaneously into a cave bear is very sweet. His shame and annoyance because of his lack of control... I like to think his wildshape is his oldest coping mechanism.

We know the Silverboughs are all dead because of a combination of illness and misfortune, therefore Halsin faced death and grief early in life. I wonder if his wildshape helped him to grieve his family after he joined the druids. Even as a cub/young male, he was already stronger and bigger than his wood elf self. Fur and fat, claws and fangs, he was at long last able to defend himself, even against the hardships of life. He discovered a way to deal with his feelings thanks to the most primal side of his personality. Maybe it helped to make things simpler. His feelings seemed less daunting. Some animals grieve too. Perhaps living among beasts as a bear allowed him to experience tragic deaths all over again, the harshness and unpredictability of nature as well as its beauty, until he could grieve and find joy once more.

In other words, his wildshape was often used to process intense emotions, hence its overwhelming presence when he’s enraged... or extremely close to the elven equivalent of a rut. Despite the passing years, the habit stayed as an adult. Halsin also mentions hibernating. Perhaps these periods were somewhat akin to “depression naps”, but excessively longer. After all he was the sole surviving Silverbough and one of the rare survivors of the shadow curse.

That’s why the scene is endearing. Such an ancient, childish habit Halsin was utterly unable or unwilling to ditch. His oldest coping mechanism exposed out of the blue to his first lover in a long while. So embarrassing. When the PC accepts and even desires his wildshape, it shouldn’t be reduced to a comical moment. Yes, the traumatized squirrel is funny, fucking a wildshape is a risqué kink, but come on. His lover wants him as he is, imperfections and all, from the wounded kid to the wounded adult. The PC embraces Halsin whole, unconditionally.

Sszazar won't understand how essential this wildshape is to Halsin at first, no time to muse over this when he's going to get railed by his cave bear of a lover, however he will sense it isn't merely about arousal. It's the uncontrollable and purest expression of Halsin's vulnerability.