#most of the drawings could be interpreted as platonic but a couple are not like that

[mushroomsie224]

My sister got ahold of my sketchbook and opened it RIGHT TO THE UNFINISHED CEDLOCK SPREAD. IN FRONT OF MY MOM.

Luckily I snatched it away before my mom saw it <3

[cherriiramen]

I think you need to seek professional help if you actually ship thor and loki together

And I think ‘get help’ is a greatly overused and incredulously exaggerated term that people absolutely love to use when referring to the least ‘abnormal’ things that just didn’t fit their tastes. If you’re going to step up to me and prove that my taste in fiction is immoral and wrong, sick, twisted, whatever you name it, and that it makes me some spawn of Satan for indulging in it, then be more convincing about it. Be more mature. Use less cheaper words.

“They’re brothers!! Stop using the ‘theyre not blood related’ excuse!!” Oh I’m sorry I have to put it to you, on account of you yourself repeating the same excuse over and over again, of course there are going to be several people who will repeat again and again, what you seem to continuously miss, and what your surface-levelled half-witted brain seems to interpret as a disaster to humanity. And this cycle won’t ever stop until you miraculously learn to stop treating FICTIONAL ships, I repeat, FICTIONAL, between two FICTIONAL characters as a major problem to our society.

I think most of those who stuck by for a while now must have noticed that even when I do post ship art of ANY couple, it’s extremely rare that I even remotely go beyond soft/mild themes, and that way the drawings could easily be interpreted as platonic AND non-platonic, which you yourself would’ve easily noticed if you just stopped clowning around for a second. But of course, you like to behave like my blog is a terrorist organisation. Anyhow.

Move along, illiterate fool.

[mademoiselle-red]

I’ve been thinking about how my favorite genre of fanfiction are works that seem to say to the original work, “great concept but I want to execute it differently.” I love how it takes the building blocks of the original work and show how the resulting story could have been arranged differently.

A sub-genre of that I absolutely adore are fanfics that are beautifully written, gentle, whimsical, or romantic in tone, but whose concepts, thematic and stylistic decisions are explicitly hostile and antagonistic to those in the original work. There is something so enticing about the gentle violence of a Draco/Harry fic that turns some of values and choices of the original series upside-down.

I love the way this played out in the fandom for the Alexander Trilogy by Mary Renault. The second book in the trilogy, The Persian Boy is itself a “transformative” work that offers an alternate interpretation of the history and cultural myth(s) of Alexander the Great. It imagines a romantic relationship between Alexander and the eunuch Bagoas, his only male lover recorded in official histories. The story centers this relationship while sidelining the much more heavily mythologized and romanticized relationship between Alexander and the general Hephaestion, his friend / right-hand-man / maybe-lover . Historians from antiquity record in extravagant detail Alexander’s deep emotional attachment to Hephaestion, but nothing about sexual love was ever written in the official histories. By making its protagonist Bagoas, The Persian Boy centers the romance around the explicitly queer relationship over the maybe-queer relationship historians liked to call “platonic”. The novel does depict Alexander and Hephaestion in a sexless marriage-like kind of romantic love, but does not make it the focus of the story. The focus of the romance is between Alexander and Bagoas. I think the novel is very successful in selling this romance and challenging the Alexander / Hephaestion mythos. But it is apparent that the fan favorite couple, even in this fandom, is still Alexander/Hephaestion. And most of these fan works write back against The Persian Boy’s narrative decision to de-center Hephaestion by re-centering Alexander/Hephaestion in their stories, drawing from both Renault’s work and the works of Roman historians, medieval poets, renaissance artists, and other contemporary novelists & historians. When reading and writing Alexander/Hephaestion fanfics, it sometimes feels to me like the mythos itself is writing back against Renault’s attempt at subversion with the might of millennia of storytelling and the fury of millennia of marginalization. On a meta fourth-wall-breaking level, Renault’s Bagoas had foreseen this: Hephaestion will always win, in both The Persian Boy and in the cultural consciousness of its fans. He had won long before Renault set pen to paper, on the day the historical Alexander, the Alexander of our world, immortalized their love through his elaborate displays of devotion and grief. The part of me that reads literature like a blood sport delights in the knowledge that in the collective cultural consciousness, Alexander will always love Hephaestion more.

[manglechanbluh]

So I had this urge to represent family trees from the server WHILE sorting everyone by generation. Which was a good excuse to draw everyone’s design ! At first I wanted to make only one with lose interpretation of the canon + hc but like just for the whole Skeppy jr thing I had to do 2 separate version or that I really wanted to do a Sally design but the image of a fish in a humanoid family tree was too funny to not draw

Explaining some of my choices : 

-For the generation classification I didn’t go by age groups because it will be way too complicated ( and too loonggg ) to “””estimate””” every characters age and will add inconsistencies. So I just went with the Middle being the reference for everyone classification. Hope it makes sens

-Also the generation groups just serve as indication, this is why some characters are btw 2 groups. The more a character is closer to the group on top/ bottom the older/ younger they are in their group

-The "couple" line is used for duo and or romantic relationship, so polyamorous, platonic couple ect ect

-For my Sally hc design I do think she is a shapeshifter, I just wanted to go crazy with a salmon lady design ( even tho the hair fins are not fishly accurate )

-The grayish red line "Other" in the canon ver, is for other or inderteminate relation like what’s going on btw inanimate-diamond-block-SkeppyJr and c!Bad or for c!Skeppy possibly being c!Sap dad in the canon since Sapnap did say that c!Bad AND c!Skeppy being his character’s fathers was his favorite hc sooo it could be canon ?? This is why it’s crossed like that

-Cross on pink line is when love is dead :) ( pretty self explanatory )

-Even if I really like the idea of c!Phil being father of 3, in the canon c!Techno really is like an old friends of him this why he has the most change btw the 2 ver

- I really struggled to sort out c!Fundy in the hc version because without thinking I would go "Oh yeah cfundy is older than ctommy duh" but then I really don’t like the idea that Wilbur as a son older than his little brother ssooo It result in this cursed image of c!Fundy being younger than c!Tommy and quite close to Micheal babies generation.

I’m sure it’s way messier than it is in my head, so don’t hesitate if you have question !

[daniclaytcn]

hi! i'm kind of new to watching 911 and shipping buddie, and i've just finished 5x01, currently on 5x02. seeing eddie have a panic attack when someone mentions ana being chris's mom and again looking scared when ravi mistakes her for his wife, all while buck is the only person to notice that something is off and ask about it was so confusing. like, so far pretty much everything i've seen wrt buddie is very sus but this in particular feels like such an intentional choice, and i just keep asking myself, why would they be doing this if not buddie canon?

i know that KR has previously said that she interprets buddie's relationship as simply platonic, but everything in the actual text of the show seems to point to a canonically romantic direction, especially the s6 spoilers i've read abt the couch metaphor. what do you think? should i let myself hope for it?

-- NewTo911Anon

hi! welcome to the fandom, and i hope you're enjoying the show!

first off, i'd just like to advise you to not pay much heed to the interviews, and you definitely should not let them affect your enjoyment of the show. watch the show, interpret it, draw your own conclusions, but don't let the whole word of god thing affect your opinions too much! there can certainly be some valuable insights from the interviews, done by showrunners and actors, don't get me wrong. but let's be clear on one thing, when it comes to upcoming plotlines, showrunners often lie their asses off. and for good reason—they can't go around spoiling what they have planned. the biggest example of this i can think of is tim minear saying after 4x14 that there were no intentions of dealing with how the shooting affected eddie's PTSD, only for eddie's struggle with mental health to be one of the defining storylines of s5. if there are plans of buddie going canon, you can absolutely expect the showrunners to keep their cards close to their chest and straight up lie about it, because this will be a major deal. a long-running friendship between two men who have been presumed to be straight would be groundbreaking, and there is no way they would spoil the surprise factor of it. so as much as they call them platonic, or even brotherly, nothing is canon except the actual text of the show. you need to take everything they say with a grain of salt.

you're absolutely right about it being sus that buck was the only one to openly notice that something was wrong with eddie! it is a very obvious nod to the fact that while even ana, who was committed to being in a relationship with eddie, could not bring herself to push him to open up; buck completely broke down his walls and got him to tell him what was going on. there are so many instances like this, where buck and eddie are singled out and written in a manner that is more similar to the way the other endgame couples on the show are written, rather than the friendships. it's definitely not all in your head.

i won't say too much about the couch metaphor, because i think you should watch s6 yourself and draw your own opinions, but i will say this—somehow, more than anything else, this is what's made me the most sure i've ever i've ever been, that buddie is going canon. it feels like the show has completely let go of the subtext; it's not even up to interpretation at this point. even the GA is starting to notice from the latest episode, even official reviewers for the show are pointing it out.

i think there's definitely a good chance of buddie happening, but like i said, you need to draw your own conclusions. and try not to let the uncertainty affect the way you engage with the show—911 is about more than just this, there are so many good and complex characters and relationships. so, keep an open mind! i hope you enjoy the rest of s5 & s6!

[epickiya722]

Random ask....Do you think anime like Free, Sk8, Jeweler Richard and Yuri on Ice are queerbaiting or at least have semi canon couples? I mean I love those anime series and my fav otps are from those series, but what do you think? Also, why do you think shounen series like bnha, haikyuu, and naruto has the largest shipping fandom compare to canon romantic BL series?

Hmmm...

Okay, off bat, I'll say that "queerbaiting" is a lose term to me. People use it so much that most of the time I feel like they say it just to say it. (Not directed at you, Anon.)

And I actually never watched Jeweler Richard. I've heard of it, but I didn't watch it... because I forgot about it. I also, never watched all of Free!

Now to answer the first bit... I'm leaning towards "no" here.

Queerbaiting to me is if the promise of some queer rep happening is marketed just to draw in the audience and then the people who made said show switches it up at the end like "oops sorry, actually these characters are totally straight and they're dating people of the opposite sex" and erase all that rep or just never touched on it.

Yuri On Ice, I wouldn't consider it queerbaiting because we get some same-sex romance. It happened. Even if the gay romance in there was used in marketing, it still happened. Sure, it did lure in the audience, but promises were not broken. Yuri and Viktor are a thing.

Same for SK8, I don't consider it queerbaiting either.

BONES never promised us that Reki and Langa were going to be a thing by the end of season 1. We also gotta remember that SK8 isn't a strictly romance. It's a SPORTS anime just like YOI. So the show focused more on skateboarding and the purpose of it for the characters than actual romance because it's not necessary.

It's why I really disliked how some people treated the ending as if it was the worse thing in the world. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't get mad at it because I just wanted my boys happy and skating together again.

Just because Reki and Langa didn't kiss, it didn't mean that we were queerbaited. They weren't promised to be a couple. Surely implied, maybe yeah, but explicitly promised? No.

Also, just because a couple doesn't kiss at the end doesn't mean they're not canon. A ship doesn't have to kiss to be canon!

Kida and Milo didn't kiss at the end of Atlantis: the Lost Empire, but guess what? People were aware they're a couple by the end of it. They held hands and that was it.

Kissing isn't the only romantic gesture. There's hugging, cuddling, holding hands, words and even jumping in front of someone to protect them.

And just like how all that can be romantic, it also can be platonic, too. It depends on the context of how that action or those words are being used to show romance or just platonic feelings.

We really don't know if a relationship is a canon romantic one unless it's confirmed.

Back to SK8, at best, the relationship between Reki and Langa is an explicit close one. They trust each other, they want to skate together, they're comfortable around each other, they are friends.

And with a season 2 apparently coming, Reki and Langa may just happen. It was probably built up the way it was for a chance to make it canon, just in case they could do a second season. But just in case they couldn't, they ended it on a safe note, let the audience interpret how Reki and Langa feel about each other but made it clear that they are indeed close.

Now for the second part!

I think those animes have the largest shipping fandoms over BL series because they are some of the most popular animes. A lot of romantic series slide over the radar because series like BNHA and Naruto have a wider reach. There's games, cons where the VAs show up, movies, collabs, etc. They're also the "less risky" series.

People wouldn't clutch their pearls if someone says "Oh this anime is about superheroes" or "this anime is about ninjas".

However, if you say "Oh, this is about a romance between two boys", you're probably going to get someone homophobic.

I also figure because even without gender or sexuality involved, people don't care for an actual romance anime. With a romance, it's like... because it is a romance you know who is going to be with who. You can be happy with the choices, but maybe the thrill isn't there. You know the clichés and whatnot. The characters are the same characters you see in any romance.

However, let's say with BNHA. There's a thrill to shipping... I'll take DabiHawks off the shelf for this. There's a thrill because DabiHawks, it's a variety to it. You don't get the "boy next door" or "the better guy but not the choice". You get two enemies that fans turn into lovers in their fics. People dig the enemies to lovers trope and characters like Hawks and Dabi have fans drawn into the series. They're "cooler" than the male love interest of a romance.

And fanworks are there to create something that you can't possibly get in canon.

Some people may feel this: what's the point of writing a fic of a ship that is already canon?

[apatheticlexicographer]

ok yk what i still have no opinion on whether mike is gay or bi from either a textual or headcanon perspective, HOWEVER i do have opinions on his s1 "crush" on el.

some people say that he did have a real crush on her, which is evidence for him being bi. some people say he was just concerned for her and it was other people's behaviour (lucas, nancy) that made him self-question and interpret it as a crush.

so, using my personal experiences as a point of reference, since that's the best i can do on this bitch of an earth: i'm aroace. i'm like 80% confident of this on the worst of days, and if there's a scrap of attraction in me i'm still definitely somewhere on both spectra. aesthetic and platonic attraction are all i experience.

that being said, i had crushes when i was a little kid, or at least i felt things i interpreted as crushes. i would meet somebody who i felt giddy and happy around, who i wanted to spend all my time with and have all their attention on me. there were i think two guys and a girl??? i was firmly convinced that these crushes were real, and i even kissed a couple of them. in hindsight, would i call these crushes real??? sure, why not, they felt real at the time. if i felt the same thing now, would i still call it a crush??? nope. i do feel the same thing, and i call it a squish. the feelings never matured with age the same way my friends' crushes did. i have no desire to share any kind of romantic affection with people i have squishes on, i just really, really want to be their friend.

obviously there are a couple of things you can draw from this. first of all, kids have a very narrow point of reference for how to label their emotions, both due to the limited range of terms they've been exposed to and the very small amount of personal past experience they have to compare with. i was raised by extremely progressive parents in the 2010s in a predominantly atheist country and still was unable to accurately label my feelings until i was about fourteen. mike is from a conservative family in 1980s small-town america. enough said, really.

secondly, although this is mostly subjective speculation and definitely not meant as some deep character analysis, i do see quite a lot of similarities between mike's "feelings" for el / his relationship with her and my experience with crushes and squishes. the people around him are the ones initially teasing him for having a crush, even when he doesn't believe he does. when i was a kid i would get teased for hanging out with my male friends all the time, and when i was at sleepovers people would accuse me of lying if i said i didn't have a crush at the moment. he spends a lot of time with her and tries to express affection in romantic ways but continually draws back from this. i would kiss my best friend because it was the only way i could think of to make her understand how much i cared about her. he thinks she's pretty. i experience aesthetic attraction and it's confusing AF, particularly when you have a squish on the person. most notably, all of his crush symptoms have only decreased over time. all of my squishes have faded eventually, either because i successfully befriended them, i got to know them better and was disappointed, or i was separated from them and lost interest.

so basically what i'm saying is mike can have had what he believes to be a legitimate crush on el and still not necessarily be attracted to women and also GREY-AROACE MIKE CANON REAL AND TRUE that boy likes dragons too much to be allo

[parkminijiminie]

This is gonna be a very long ask (sorry about that) but there were three different things that I wanted to talk about.

1. I really dislike when cishet jikookers try to assign heterosexual standards to whatever potential romantic-sexual relationship Jimin and Jungkook could have/ have had. I dont know if you are queer or not, but many queer people tend to have more *situationships* than meet-like-become bfs/gfs-love-marry relationships. When you add the layer of them being celebrities since they were teenagers I think that would only decrease the likelihood of their relationship ever being like an average heterosexual relationship. I will also add as a disclaimer that I am a queer woman and cannot speak directly on how mlm relationships develop. Having said that, my thoughts on what their dynamic is/was (if it really has been sexual or romantic) are that it was probably a combination of experimentation, convenience, and chemistry, and less serious than the average expectation of male-female relationships. During the 2017-2019 years where most of us seem to think there was undebiably smth going on between them beyond a friendship or brotherly bond, they had a lot of proximity and very busy schedules. Ironically, the two times where Jungkook has had dating rumors (with evidence) have been during times where they are not in close proximity and have different schedules (i.e., the break they took in the fall of 2019 and early this year when Jimin was extremely busy while Jungkook was not.) I am not trying to diminish their bond by saying it was purely out of convenience. Its possible for love to come out of that convenience, but what I am saying is that that type of dynamic also might have left them wondering if there was every anything more out there for them. Similar to the whole ch2 situation, when we remove the whole enlistment thing out of the equation, its probable that some of them wanted to try something different but that didnt mean they didnt like being in the group.

2. Tomdaya. Why tf am I bringing Tomdaya up? lol

Back during the shooting and promotion of the 1st Spiderman movie there were a lot of rumors of whether Tom and Z were together. Most of the gen public wasnt keeping tabs on that but Zendaya fans were quick to realize that he would often fly out to see her but they were very secretive about what they then referred to as their “friendship”. Sometime after, there were pap pics of Tom with a woman that clearly did not look platonic so her fans immediately realized that they either broke up or were never a thing in the first place, only friends. After that, they both went on to have semi-public relationships with other people. Then, a few years later they get papped kissing and are officially a couple. At that point, most people werent even aware that there were some sus things early on in their *friendship* and just assumed that they just got together much later after they met. I don’t want to over explain it, but Im hoping some of the parallels Im trying to draw are clear.

3. Finally, I am really curious about who that anon thinks Jimin might be dating. Right now the only sus thing Ive seen that could be interpreted as a “thing” is his friendship with Lee Saeon. Not only is he the only person Jimin has been spotten out with casually, but it also looks like he wears a lot of Jimins clothes. He was even spotted with Jimin AND JK a few years ago. He starred in a BL and did say that he was strictly an ally, but he would not be the first or last closeted queer person to call themselves an ally lol. Despite Jimin spending so much time with him he has never brought him up and always talks about his friends in plural even though its always the two of them alone (except for that one time with jikook in i think 2021). Im sure he has other friends so its interesting to see why its only ever the two of them going out. Him and Eunwoo have also been kinda sus sometimes but its been a hot minute since we’ve seen anything from them lol.

I do agree on your point about queer relationships. Personally, Ive been in a heterosexual one for years, but I know from friends and family that comparing heterosexual relations to queer ones isn't very fair. The challenges , expectations and risks when you're queer are completely different and the way to acceptance and a steady relationship , especially in a country which doesn't support you, is a very different than what straight people go through.

On this topic, I find something Jimin once said very interesting. He said he used to think he was just living life and having fun but it didn't turn out that way and had to accept some things and come to terms with them (not an exact quote). Many people, including myself, thought he meant coming to terms with his sexuality (for the record, I believe he's shown us clearly he is queer, possibly bi).

That being said, I believe in your theory about his and JKs relationship. Given their age, profession and country, if there ever had been something between them, I doubt it had been linear and straightforward, as some would like to imagine. Them being young, busy, and constantly together with one being bi and other (probably) at least bi-curious is not something to be dismissed. I genuinely don't think that if they had something more than friendship, it was superficial, but it most likely was complicated.

I see Saeon's name being brought up a lot when talking about a potential partner for Jimin. I don't want to speculate much about someone who said they're heterosexual, but it's not impossible for them to share something more. At least the physical stuff he has mostly gotten out of the way already 😁

Does someone know when him and JM became close?

[savingthrcw]

Kate Austen

Page under construction

Some important canon divergences:

-This is the most important thing, key to Kate regardless of me eventually writing other ships because it explains a lot about her (I'm talking about her relationship with her father as you'll see): I will be writing Kate as having feelings for Sawyer by default even if you write he doesn't feel the same way (she'll get over it, I don't want to forceship!), and trying to push them away because, like she said "every time I look at Sawyer, every time I feel something for him, I see you, Wayne. It makes me sick", and I interpret that as not only her thinking of Sawyer as potentially unreliable in romantic settings even if not abusive like Wayne was (she pictures the two of them as a very toxic couple, especially knowing herself and how she'd keep pushing him away, so she doesn't really him a chance to prove her wrong) BUT, more importantly, it means to me that she's scared he'll bring out of her everything she has inherited from Wayne, because she's more herself around Sawyer than around others and she keeps pulling closer and pushing away; she sees Wayne because she fears she's like him in many ways.

Wayne always pushed her darker side out until she killed him, and she's scared she'll find out she's too much like him so she runs first (same fear she had about having children, and Aaron proved her wrong, turns out she could be able to give healthy love if she gave herself the chance). This fear exists regardless of Sawyer, and will follow her in romantic & familial & strong platonic relationships in this order.

I want to point out that this doesn't need to come up in our threads because very dark (depends on your triggers and her relationship with your muse), but it was very clear that Wayne, while believing Kate to be "only his wife's daughter" (but still, you know, a young woman under his roof that he watched grow up), was making passes at her, at least in the form of sexual comments while drunk and grabbing her. I write Kate as sure this was going to go somewhere beyond words and the last push that made her kill him, besides having just found out he was her biological father. She hates him and everything else I said, and even more so for hurting her mother, but she was also terrified.

-her feelings for Sawyer will dissipate if we are writing another ship or if we write that from the beginning they never interacted as much, but if they were there she'll always care for him.

-I write her as caring very much for Jack but not being in love with him. I will write her as distraught after seeing him with Juliet and still sleeping with Sawyer that night, but it will be because she knows she hurt him very badly, begging for his help to save Sawyer and 'making him' perform surgery on Ben. It's guilt. It's also feeling she can't be the person he deserves. She's not going to be with Jack if she goes home. You can have your Jack feel for her whatever you want.

-Kate's afraid she'll also 'pass on' the evil onto a biological child somehow. If she's raising Aaron in one of our verses that fear has taken a dive and is almost gone, because she can never imagine hurting him and she's beginning to see that a biological child would be equally innocent and not draw anything evil out of her.

-Now here's the kicker: I have to write Kate as more open than she is in canon. I think the difference comes from not relying as much on Jack, not letting herself grow as close due to guilt (over manipulating him/using his feelings at the very beginning) and that changes everything. Because if I write her the way she is in canon, threads will lead nowhere because she'll shut down. So I'll put her in situations where she's forced to speak up and make different choices. Not much, because it's still Kate, but enough. You can assume she's running away from openness in between threads, of course, but during threads when doable I will force words out of her, probably by changing some neutral small choices (example: not leaving immediately which results into a conversation not being closed).

Example: if Sawyer tells her she can use him, doesn't have to pretend she wasn't upset about Jack and Juliet when she slept with him, instead of not defending herself because it's true she will later tell him that it wasn't like that because in this blog it's not, and because I'll find an excuse to make her admit it, even if it's just anger.

potential scenarios:

-I'd love to write Kate staying on the island with Aaron due to things going differently, and traveling to the past with the others, or just Kate, no Aaron. Or for Sawyer to go with her, back home with all the difficulties and awkwardness there. Write other things happening, other encounters, wounds, situations, going off-canon, having her and Sawyer actually discuss how she feels about Jack (and maybe she goes stay with Claire again after they fight over the pregnancy scare instead of going back to Jack) (or she COULD be pregnant and terrified), or like I said explore her relationship with Sayid more, since there was something going on there in the first episodes and they kept being close (but could have been closer). With Juliets and Jacks, if they are okay with the changes, there could be more focus on the '3 years later', keeping in mind that Kate stayed single. Same for potential Claires who may return to Aaron and be helped by her. Or even better, all these characters survive and go home and threads can be set there too! Let's save whoever we want and write nicer things too, besides causing them new pains!

[tamayosclinic]

If requests are still open is it alright if I request a tengen x artist! Reader fic (can be headcanons instead if you prefer, I don’t really have a preference) where the reader can often be found drawing him (and his wives if your okay with including them) I love the idea of a lovestricken (?) Artist falling in love with their muse and would be interested in seeing how you would interpret this concept/prompt :)

Tengen + Wives x GN!Artist Reader

Warning(s): Suggestiveness at the end

Author's Note(s): Nonny you read my mind. I was working on an idea like this with a photographer reader so I just went ahead and changed them to an artist. I ended up going with HCs because the fic was a long slow-burn. Enjoy.

Word Count: 707

As the self-proclaimed god of festivities and flamboyance, Tengen thought it was fitting to get art done for him and his goddess-like wives. Ancient gods get various works of art, and he thought to follow in their footsteps.

So when he gets word (more like overhears the locals’ conversations) of a talented artist living not too far from his estate, he has to inquire. That led him and his wives to your humble home on the outskirts of town.

You recently started selling your paintings to the local art shop, which has gained more widespread attention than anticipated. Your house was open for visits by usually wealthy customers capable of making the journey for a commission.

So you do not bat an eye when you hear a knock at your door and greet your visitors. You could not deny you thought the four of them were extremely good-looking from the start, but you were professional the first time at least.

You fit in so well with the family dynamic, and throughout your first time with them, you constantly had to remind yourself you were just a hired artist. Little did you know, the feeling was mutual. Tengen and his wives were impressed with your skills, and your personality only drew them closer to you. They all agreed to come back soon as they were heading out with a painting in tow.

From then on, they would visit weekly, and whoever came varied. Most of the time, all four came. Other times it was just Tengen or the wives. It’s times like this that allow you to get to know each of them better.

Tengen was loud-mouthed and had a big ego, but that and his charm only made him more attractive to you.

Hinatsuru’s calm, motherly presence made her approachable from the start. If you ever have any insecurities about your art, you talk to her and she gives you as much reassurance as you need to feel confident.

Suma gets attached to you the quickest. The more you spent time together, the more she’d cling to you. Makio scolded her the first time, but when you said it was okay, Suma’s physical affection skyrocketed to following you around the house. It’s adorable and you never mind it; however, if you need some space, she will quickly back off.

Despite Makio having a rough exterior, it was not long before you saw she is just as sweet as Suma and sometimes as calming as Hinatsuru. I can see Makio taking the longest to see you as more than a friend. She does not oppose Tengen finding another wife as long as they get along. It is just that your relationship with them started out professionally, and Makio thought you would at most like to keep it platonic. However, she and the others eventually could not stop envisioning life without you.

Tengen will not start pursuing a new partner without getting his wives’ permission. Thanks to his great hearing, he knew all of you felt the same way about each other. After he gets his wives’ permission, he does not beat around the bush. He just showed up at your house one day and asked you out. It was just you and him for the first couple of dates, and then the wives joined.

Before dating, Tengen never told you about his profession. All you knew is that he appeared to be in some military and sometimes had to be gone for weeks. It was shuttering to learn about demons and the demon slayers. The days they were gone filled you with heart-wrenching anxiety, even with their frequent letters to you. However, it was nothing compared to the warmth and joy you felt when they returned home. The house would bloom back to life, and you all spent time catching up over dinner and intimate moments late into the night (can be either fluff or spicy or both, depending on your comfort level with them).

Ever made a nude sketch or painting? No? Well, Tengen and the wives are up to be your first nude models. Tengen suggested it. Gods are often naked in art. I will leave whatever happens during or after the session up to you.

[boycottyashahime]

I feel like me and the rest of the fandom are being gaslighted by Sessrinners and the existence of Yashahime itself when they keep on crying out that Sessrin was “obviously the intended canon from the start,” and “who else was going to be the mother?” And like…no? Before the existence of that dreaded Drama CD (which itself isn’t canon and just satire) there wasn’t a single hint or shippy subtext pointing toward Sessrin ever becoming a thing in the future. I legit went back and skimmed through all the episodes (even the Sunrise invented filler ones) and chapters the two appear in and no interaction between the two could even be taken as ambiguous, it’s all very strictly platonic. Rin didn’t even have so much a puppy love crush on Sesshomaru, she was excitedly shipping him with Kagura and yet shippers, Sunrise, Shiina and Rumiko wanna tell me she was an intended love interest all along and Sessrin antis were “just too blind to the truth?”

This is literal fandom gaslighting. The only possible hint that exists in the OG anime that I might give shippers is Takemaru in the 3rd movie comparing both Kagome and Rin to Izayoi, but 1: It’s not any actual shippy interaction coming from either Sesshomaru’s or Rin’s parts and only exists from the observations of an outside observer who mind you, is currently clearly losing his mind and 2: All the movies are non-canon, so just like the Drama CD they don’t count. (Though in retrospect realizing that Sumisawa directed all the movies like how he wrote the Drama CD and directed Yashahime it most likely was intended to come off as a “hint,” it’s definitely not an obvious one that normal non-pedos who don’t have lolicon brain rot would ever pick up on, I know I didn’t my first time around and was frankly shocked during Yashahime’s initial announcement that Rin was actually being considered a serious candidate for the twins mother)

So let me get this straight, all the shipping “hints” that even exist for Sessrin are all from non-canon material? Not the actual original manga or show itself? And Sessrinners still wanna insecurely scream at the top of their lungs on how “Sessrin is canon” and the fandom has to be forced to accept it? No, fuck that! I know gaslighting when I see it!

I agree wholeheartedly - through Yashahime, we're told by Sunrise and affiliates that the only valid interpretation of the relationship between Sesshoumaru and Rin is a romantic one. We're told that it was inevitable that they should get together, that there was no other option for the two of them, and that this is a GOOD development instead of a regression. If we point out that a romance between the two was unsupported in the source material, and that the interpretations we took from it were much more platonic, we're gleefully dogpiled by shippers who insist that WE'RE the ones who were drawing those platonic interpretations from nowhere. Pointing to specific scenes and interactions that indicate Rin is not Sesshoumaru's equal, that she obeys him like the child she is, that Sesshoumaru plays the role of a surrogate father, are points that are dismissed without counterevidence and a handwave, if not ignored altogether. There is no reason to believe that these two characters aren't meant to be a couple someday, you're just looking at this through the lens of WESTERN morality, and antis are committed to an insane moral standard.

What are you talking about? I don't see a gaslight. You're just crazy.

Honestly, at this point, it's a wonder that we bother to back up our opinion of the matter at all anymore. Obviously actual evidence from the manga doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what you can SHOW actually happened in the story and how your interpretation can be drawn reasonably from the text. All that matters is whether a writer at Sunrise with a VERY clear bias toward depicting these types of grooming relationships managed to get HIS interpretation widely distributed or not. Because if you're part of the official entity that officially OWNS the IP, your opinion matters more, I guess.

RT shrugging and yielding to Sunrise's version of the relationship certainly doesn't help matters. Though she HAS (at last) come out and said that she personally viewed Sesshoumaru as a parental figure to Rin, I don't think that she ever cared one way or the other whether people shipped them. I speculated a while back that the reason we never got her stance on the matter sooner was because she didn't want to alienate ANY of her Sesshoumaru fans, because him being one of her more popular characters meant that her voicing an opinion on his relationship with Rin might mean some people would stop reading/watching Inuyasha altogether and it would hurt her bottom line. I'm more convinced than ever that this is the case, because she out-and-out AVOIDED questions about Sesshoumaru getting together with Rin when she's older up until after the first season of Yashahime, which she would only do because she wasn't going to make them a couple, but she knew that her friends at Sunrise might want to take a crack at it at some point and she didn't want to close that door. She only went ahead and finally gave her own perspective when it was clear the show was a major flop after the mother reveal, and there was nothing left to lose by trying to recapture some of her lost Sesshoumaru fans by showing them a little solidarity.

Not sure how successful a move that was, given I know a LOT of folks who are still very upset and not buying anything Inuyasha branded anymore. I guess the only ones who will really know for sure are RT and Sunrise, as reflected in their plunging profits.

[marikn]

Let’s talk about Byler, shall we?

More specifically, I want to talk about my predictions for s5 based on various tidbits I’ve heard about the duffers and their inspiration, and trends in past media.

This is going to be pretty long but just stick with me, I promise it gets good.

(EDIT) This theory is not a happy one and has been upsetting people.

I talk exclusively about my doubts here. If anyone would like to see it, I can make another post about my byler hopes :)

Anyway can someone tell me how to insert a cut

1. Destiel syndrome

Byler reminds me an awful lot of destiel. I never finished watching supernatural, but I definitely heard about what they did in the finale, and I think it’s likely that byler would end up in a similar situation.

I fear making them obviously canon would result in a lot of controversy. I think it’s much more likely that we’d get a scene similar to destiel’s confession, where the “I love you” can be interpreted a couple different ways. 

Since Mike and Will often speak in a sort of code, I’m willing to bet Will’s confession will be encoded, and therefore entirely implicit (this ensures that the general audience can interpret it as Will talking about platonic or familial love instead), and Mike will be left stunned/speechless/unable to respond in some way before Will leaves, most likely to go straight to his death (like Castiel).

2. I don’t think we are going to get a byler kiss

As much as I would love to see it, I genuinely don’t think it will happen. There are a couple reasons as to why I think this, mainly having to do with the “bury your gays” trope.

I think Stranger Things has too wide of an audience for a kiss to happen, and I think the duffers know this. Typically, explicit romantic interactions in same-sex couples are avoided (unless the intended audience is the lgbtq community) because straight people don’t want to see that. No matter how beautifully a love story might be written, there are people who will claim they forced it for representation, people who will say it ruined the show, and people who will outright cover their eyes in disgust (I’m not exaggerating— I live with people who do this). It’s too much of a risk, especially with how popular the show has gotten.

All in all, there are too many “normal” people who watch st, and an on-screen queer kiss between two main characters would prompt too much backlash.

3. Star Wars parallels

The duffers have said they’ll be drawing inspiration for season 5 from Return of the Jedi. As it is, we can already see some parallels between the Star Wars characters and the stranger things characters (max in a coma/han in carbonite, el lifting nina/Luke lifting the ship). Assuming that Henry/Vecna/001 is meant to be Palpatine, I see two logical options for Darth Vader’s parallel. 

One: Eddie.   This ties into the kas!eddie theory a bit, but Vader’s origin began with Anakin’s defeat. Obi-wan battled Anakin and left him for dead on a remote planet, and he would have died if not for Palpatine and the suit he’d made for him. Palpatine remade Anakin entirely and gave him an all new identity— which could be a possibility between 001 and Eddie, now that we know the numbers have the ability to revive (el reviving max’s body in the finale). 

Two: Will.    This is the more likely option. In Star Wars, Palpatine poisoned Anakin’s mind by using his own fear against him (Anakin was seeing visions of his wife Padme dying, and was desperately searching for a way to save her). Palpatine took Anakin’s weakness and applied the necessary manipulation to mold him into a tool.

Much like Anakin’s “death” at the hands of Obi-wan, we can assume that Will Byers “died” in 1983 when he disappeared. When he came back, his mind was compromised, which allowed the mindflayer to take control of him. Much like Anakin, Will would (in theory) be willing to do whatever it takes to keep his loved ones safe, which will lead to his downfall (villain arc not included).

If they were to parallel Will and Vader like this, they would turn Will onto the path of the tragic hero archetype. At the end of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader turns on Palpatine in order to save Luke, sacrificing his own life in the process. Remember when I said Will would confess to Mike right before walking into his doom?

4. Every ending has a beginning

Will Byers is going to die.

This show started with Will, and it will end with Will. Most likely, he will sacrifice himself for the sake of his friends and family. Once he does, I can see us getting a shot of Mike holding his body (probably similar to Richie and Eddie from IT) and only then will we get a glimpse of how Mike really feels about Will.

Will’s sacrifice will either destroy Vecna, or give El the upper hand so that she can kill him herself (this is, after all, her unfinished business). However it plays out, I have low expectations of Will actually making it through. The duffers seems to have been foreshadowing this, too.

Will has never had a happy childhood. Even before the Upside Down, he had Lonnie and the bullies weighing him down. He’s been doomed since the start; all throughout the show, he can’t seem to catch a break. He alone is linked to the upside down— to Vecna. We even see the two of them heavily paralleled through Vecna’s backstory (being “sensitive” children, not getting along with other kids, drawing the mindflayer). He’s been put through so much, time and time again, and it all reads very similarly to Harry Potter’s “pig for slaughter” storyline. 

Like Harry with Voldemort, Will was marked and linked to Vencna when he was taken into the upside down. From then on, he’s been able to feel Vecna’s presence in his mind and in Hawkins whenever he’s active, the same way Harry can feel Voldemort’s presence through his scar. They have a permanent connection, whether they like it or not, and the only way to break it is for one of them to die. Obviously, since this is the final season, they will find a way to defeat Vecna. I will not be surprised, however, if that way requires Will to die somehow. 

Only this time, there won’t be a way for him to come back.

(insert genius and well-crafted conclusion here) Basically: it’s not looking good for byler. 

[thetaekookcloset]

I agree with everything you said about jungkook and taehyung. There is a faction in this fandom that believes taehyung is straight based on him saying he wants a wife and children almost a decade ago, and him mentioning he wants 5 kids a bit more recent i think. There is a lot of reasons to think taehyung is conservative. However, there is another faction that thinks hes one of the most open…over jungkook. I highly disagree with that. At the beginning, you can tell taehyung was struggling to accept himself, he was deep in the closet. The fact he is the hyung in the relationship contributed to his reluctance to go any further back then.

I do think jungkook struggled too, but my thing is he moved to seoul and lived with his aunt when he was still in middle school, and he mentioned that his parents really gave him free reins to do what he wants. Jungkook seemed more accepting of himself. I know lots of taekookers say taehyung inspired jungkook to be more open and free. Yeah i agree with that, but it wasnt a one way street. I think jungkook also inspired taehyung to be more free. There were plenty of instances where u can see jungkook pursuing tae, and tae pulling back. Also, the hyungs mention that jk is the type to keep persevering until he gets what he wants. Taehyung probably pulled back to save jungkook and the group from further scrutiny.

A lot of tkkrs really analyzed sweet night to the ground, so i never bothered to even think about what it means, but here i go. Its pretty undeniable to me that taehyung had non-platonic feelings for jungkook. I think taehyung pulled back for everyones sake. Contrary to what a lot of tkkrs think, taehyung wasnt the “reckless one” as a lot of tkkrs believe. It was just a back and forth, and you wouldnt believe how easy it is to truly slip up about the fact you’re in relationship with your own “co-worker” you have to act distant with. Its not like he intentionally wants to expose them. They both reciprocated their feelings. If you remember the jimin, jhope, tae, and later jk vlive. When jk says he needs to wash up, and soon as he said that, tae says the same, then hobi laughs. Tae turns to jk all wide eyed - like “omg did i just say that on vlive??” - then jk saves face by changing the subject. I wouldnt have thought anything of that whole exchange, but its the way they react to it thats more revealing than literally anything else. Thats why vlives are so telling to me. They are the most unedited and raw versions of themselves, because nothing can be edited while its live.

Moving on, i think taehyung tried to pull back a few times and keep a bit of distance. Hence, why we see this hot and coldness. If anything, i think they planned to be together only after the group was over, but i dont think thats the case anymore. I think theyre as together as much as a couple could be in a group as huge as they are. My opinion was that in 2020 around the time the contract renewal began, they started a serious relationship. Its just the way they act around each other now, and how idk what to call it really, maybe more open? More free? More relaxed? With how their relationship feels with each other that makes me think hmm… something has changed(?) between them nowadays or feels different. Its like the feeling of a relationship overcoming a rocky, hard patch and them just looking more steady and comfortable with how things are between them. Sorry for the long ask, i just wanted to put my opinion into the void ig.

I totally get the desire to put your own take on things out there, anon!

I think it’s so interesting how we all make a lot of the same observations, pick up on a lot of the same details, and then draw slightly (or sometimes drastically) different conclusions from them, or have our own interpretations of what they mean.

Like I totally agree that there’s this shift in how TK acted starting around 2020, but personally, I read that shift more as a change in their surrounding circumstances rather than as a change in their relationship itself.  Or if it was a change in their relationship, I would tend to think it had more to do with the details of it, rather than the whole shape of that relationship changing -- as in, maybe they went through some challenging times in their relationship and then they were able to work through that together.

Personally, I think it’s unlikely that they would be able to have mutual attraction and feelings, while living and closely working together for so long, and not end up acting on them.  That’s a big part of the reason that I believe that if they’re together now, they probably have been for a long time.  I would think that if those feelings were there from early on (which they seem to have been, in my opinion), they would either have needed to act on them or found a way to set them aside and move past them.

Since I don’t think it’s likely that they did the latter, based on the way they are together now, I believe it’s more likely that they would have gotten together years ago, rather than as recently as 2020.

There’s a romance to the idea that they might have tried to hold back from being in a relationship while still in the group, and I can see why some people might find that likely, but personally I think it would just be too hard to hold that stance if they were actually in that situation, especially as teenagers.

As I said, though, there definitely does seem to be a shift in 2020 -- it’s something everyone seems, more or less, to have picked up on.  Huge sections of the fandom believe it’s the evidence of Taekook repairing their distant friendship and becoming closer again, I think it’s a reflection of a change in what they were allowed to show on camera, and you think it was possibly the start of them having an official relationship -- we all have our reasons for our theories, but it’s interesting that we can all see the same details.

Oh, and just a side note on Taehyung because I’ve gotten some asks mentioning this since I talked the other day about Taehyung being more demonstrative of his affection: it’s definitely true that in the past, Taehyung held back more in that regard than he has been for the last few months.  As you’ve pointed out, there were times when it was Taehyung pulling back from Jungkook or hesitating before reaching out to him and that sort of thing, though personally I’ve always found it hard to describe anything between Taekook as hot and cold, even with those moments of hesitation.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

[daniclaytcn]

(Different anon) the jo/mallory scene is such an interesting thing to bring up when talking about the finale because when the ep aired it confused me a lot because i wasn’t really sure what they were trying to say with that parallel, and i didn’t get why the fandom still liked it in the context of buddie being canon. yes they bring up how much jo and mallory love each other and how much mallory loved jo’s mother the same way buck loves christopher and eddie but it also seemed very platonic in nature.

i swear i don’t mean this as a bad-faith interpretation and i don’t think it was malicious at all but it felt like they were pigeonholing buck into the role of ‘dad’s best friend’ instead of…idk. chris’s second parent. i’m very open to having my mind changed but that scene has always bugged me bc it felt like a way to say that buck deeply loves eddie and chris but ‘platonic best friend’ is all it’ll ever be.

i dunno, if you have a different opinion i’d really love to hear it because i’ve always felt a little crazy for not loving that parallel like the rest of the fandom does (including the people that still hope for buddie canon).

the point of this scene, in my opinion, was to draw attention to the similarities between jo/mallory and buck/chris/eddie. and the most blatant similarity, of course, is that in both cases, you have two best friends who loved each other very much, and one of them entrusted the other with the care of their child. this is true of both dynamics and especially so of buck and eddie, given that their relationship hasn't turned romantic yet. it's not necessarily to make a statement that 'buck is only chris' dad's best friend' and he will only every be that. if that was the only point the show wanted to make, they could just have chris refer to buck as "uncle buck" and put an end to the whole question. lol.

i think that...the jo/mallory scene can't, and shouldn't be read in isolation without taking the entire context surrounding buddie into account (and this goes for pretty much any other scene imo). while interpreting it, we also need to take into account the way the rest of buck, eddie and christopher's story has been written. the themes surrounding them, and the many, many times they have been paralleled to the canon couples on the show—which is far more than the number of times they have been paralleled to any of the platonic/familial ones.

i mean, this is just my interpretation. and yours is perfectly valid, too! there are multiple ways to read this scene. i just think that this fandom tends to fall into the habit of failing to read storylines or arcs as a whole, just taking individual scenes and reading them only in those contexts, and that is something we should try and avoid, so that we don't write off the actual potential in the story.

[kachuusha]

why I think isayama did itend to hint some romance between levi and hanji

this is kind of a ranty post because I am tired of being told to not ship levihan because apparently "it ruins their friendship"

ever since the beginning of aot isayama had shown us snippets of levi and hanji's closeness and how well they know each other. yes their bond that was portrayed in the earlier stages of the series does not necessarily have to mean that they have romantic feelings for one another. yes it is valid to interpret some of those interactions as romantic but they could also be just purely planotic. but this is where chapters 115, 126 and 132. those are the chapters that I think solidified the fact that levi and hanji. what happened in chapters 126 and 132 are things you cannot simply brush off as platonic.

one does not simply ask someone to run away and live with them. people would always counter this with "but hanji only said that because they are tired!", yes hanji is tired that is an undeniable fact given what hanji was put through in that month alone. but if isayama's only intented to show us that hanji is tired so they wanted to run away, why did he go for a dialogue that may have romantic implications? why did it have to be "maybe we should just live here together right levi?" and not hanji directly stating that they are tired and they want to run away? another thing to note is that this was not the first time isayama implemented this narrative. here is a compilation of the amount of times the living together plot was included in the story. also why would isayama bother drawing hanji blushing? yes hanji does blush a lot but the context of the scene is important. why did hanji blush this time? because levi heard what they said which sounds a lot like a proposal. again I would get countered by people claiming that levi rejected hanji. but did he though? levi wakes up to hanji already fixing a cart that can transport him, this is a strong implication that hanji was not going to stay in the forest. maybe for a brief moment they had really considered of just staying there with levi. hanji actually admits to mikasa and jean that they had thought of abandoning everything. but doing that would he very uncharacteristic of hanji. maybe hanji said that because for a moment they wanted to be selfish, to have something for themself. to be able to say something that they desire which is a life of peace and with levi safe by their side. but deep down hanji knows they couldn't abandon the people who need them and waste the sacrifices their comrades had made. that's why levi tells hanji that he knows them. levi knows that hanji wouldn't be able to bear the guilt of leaving everything and everyone behind. and to that hanji agrees with levi that yes they can't. so where is the rejection? all I see are two people who have decided to walk on the same path. to me, levi's words felt more like an assurance that he is on the same page as hanji and is affirming their decision. another thing is that when levi asks hanji where will running get them. that felt like an implication that they cannot run away yet not when they have responsibilities to bear. because by simply running away they cannot achieve true peace.

by now I am pretty sure that most of you by now are aware of levi's unrequited love dialogue in 132. I also discussed this in a separate post so check it out if you want. why would isayama insert something like this in the dialogue? levi implies that hanji's love for titans is unrequited but there is a mutual feeling with someone. I've seen people say names of other characters but that doesn't make much sense considering hanji just practically confessed to levi a few days ago in their universe. whose mutual feelings is levi going to naturally confirm them? wouldn't it make sense if it was with him?

and of course levi saying dedicate you heart for the very first time and he said it as a farewell for hanji. this isn't something you can simply brush off because levi has been in the survey corps for 10 years and this was the only time he says it. not only that but he couples it with the gesture of striking up his left fist over hanji's heart. why couldn't he just do a standard salute and hanji would salute back to him? why did it have to be something that looks so personal? and the focus on their eyes and hanji's quivering lips is just something so powerful.

then we even get isayama uploading a photo of that levi panel saying see you hanji in 132 but without his bandages so we could clearly see levi's sorrowful expression. for what reason did he upload this? and first of all he really had to take a photo of it because covering levi's face in bandages.

just recently, 138 was released and it practically confirms eremika as a canon ship. and the thing about that? there are numerous parallels with levihan with the dialogues and how some panels were drawn. also made another post on it so here is the link if you are interested.

so if isayama only intended for levi and hanji's bond to be seen as platonic then why would he bother inserting hints that are romantic in nature? like I said in the beginning, some can be taken as purely platonic in context but the other ones are blatantly romantic. and them having parallels with a ship that is strongly hinted to be canon is just something you can simply brush off.

this became a bit longer than I thought. if you made it until the end then thank you. there are some things about 115, 126 and 132 that I still did not say in this because I am planning to make separate posts about them when aot ends. so basically this concludes my rant on why I think isayama was indeed inserting romantic hints in levihan's dynamic.

[darkcircles4lyfe]

retrospective & predictions

Since we're on a hiatus week (between 320 and 321) I feel like waxing poetic about the depth and growth of bkdk for a bit. Especially because it seems like we’re right on the edge of their biggest development yet, I’m getting the urge to lay all my perspectives and insights I’ve picked up from others out on the table. This is ultimately only my subjective interpretation of subtextual material in canon, though. If you’ve never quite understood what people see in their dynamic and you’re actually open to hearing me out, maybe from this you can at least see where we’re coming from. And if you don’t like my takes after all, well, we’ll see who’s right in the coming chapters, won’t we? What I have to say can be taken platonically or romantically; I appreciate both. 

putting it under the cut, since it’ll be long:

At the risk of projecting, I want to start by examining a couple things based partly on personal experience.

From many different directions, I often hear people expressing that Deku’s persistent attachment and admiration for Bakugou is baffling at best. Despite the bullying, despite Bakugou’s loud, rude, and uncompromising personality, he still puts effort into their relationship and frequently describes him as amazing. It seems like Deku himself is aware of this as he’s said things along the lines of how he’s difficult, BUT... etc. Although I don’t think it’s exactly that Deku finds Bakugou’s personality hard to be around, but that he’s deliberately expressing patience for Bakugou’s emotional turmoil. 

I have to say I know what this sort of patience is like, as I went through it with someone I love. I only chose to put up with their behavior because I decided the possibility of what our relationship could be was worth it. I wasn’t blind or submissive to how they treated me, and I wasn’t coerced. I simply expressed myself and established my boundaries while still allowing them the opportunity to join me in my world once they got over their own hangups. And guess what? It worked out in the end. That doesn’t mean there aren’t circumstances where it’s better to cut ties, but I want to stress that true reconciliation is possible sometimes. I used to worry that other people around me thought I was delusional for seeking it, but what really helped was my therapist reminding me that I’m smart and strong. So I think Deku deserves to feel the same. In a way this is his whole mission in life, his approach to being a hero as well as his personal relationships.

Let me also be clear though that I don’t mean Deku is only tolerating Bakugou’s personality, his mannerisms, the parts of him that will likely never change. I’m drawing a line between those things and his emotional state (they so rarely align anyway, but I’ll get to that later). In fact, I think Bakugou’s general attitude is part of what Deku admires. This is gonna be hard to explain without inserting personal experience too, sorry. As a writer myself I’ve noticed I’m drawn to writing characters that are brazen and bold and don't mind telling people off. Really it’s because I operate in the world in the polar opposite way. I try not to draw attention to myself, I’m quiet, and I’m a people-pleaser. People who project confidence, especially in an impolite sort of way, fascinate me. It’s good to take cultural context into account, too: I've heard people who’d know better than me that part of the reason Bakugou is the most popular character in the Japanese fandom is likely because he contradicts a lot of their social norms. His disregard is refreshing and cathartic. I can speculate that Deku has a similar point of view based on what he thinks but does not admit about Bakugou being his image of victory and how this sometimes makes him mimic Bakugou’s speech and mannerisms: 

There’s also the bit in this fight where Deku realizes he's the only one able to receive Bakugou’s emotions. This is because he’s the most intimately familiar with him and his situation, but I think there’s another layer. Deku, as we know, has a self-sacrificing tendency, and in the current chapters we’re seeing the worst side of that. But let’s also not forget that to an extent, it can be a positive trait: resilience. When it comes to Bakugou, he has an almost comical ability to dodge the potential fallout of his outbursts. The example we all jump to (and fight about..) is how in ch1, apart from the initial shock of Bakugou suggesting he jump off the roof, the most he reacts is to criticize him for saying such a ridiculous thing. However, I think their interaction post- sludge villain is a lot more interesting:

Note two things: 1, in his head, Deku is practically making fun of how Bakugou’s acting as he stomps away without waiting for a reply. It doesn’t faze him. 2, Deku thinks, optimistically, that he can now focus on a different career choice. This is astonishing really. Up to this point, none of Bakugou’s attempts to put him down have worked; he just kept pursuing his dream. The only reason Deku concedes in this moment it because for the first time, he has been shown that he really couldn't do anything in a fight against a villain. All Might told him he couldn't be a hero (although he’s literally about to take that back in the next few pages lol) and the other heroes at the scene gave him a lecture about it too. It was those experiences, and not Bakugou’s words, that truly affected him. And when All Might tells Deku he can be a hero after all, it’s not thinking of Bakugou’s bullying that makes him sob and fall to his knees, it’s the memory of his own mom never telling him those words he so desperately needed to hear. Having spent most of their lives together, Deku must have been aware all this time that Baukgou was influenced by larger societal forces rather than a core judgement, so he didn’t take it personally. He separated the person from the action, and because he’s resilient and patient, he is thus equipped to handle Bakugou’s emotions. It’s a testament to his maturity and emotional intelligence, really. 

But I can almost hear some of you saying, “that doesn’t mean Deku should have to be the bigger person here!” Correct! Just because Deku is perfectly alright bearing all of that, doesn’t mean atonement-era Bakugou sees it this way. We can track his awareness of Deku’s care and selflessness as follows-

The bridge scene, when they’re little kids: Bakugou conflates Deku’s heroism with pity, and subsequently thinks Deku is looking down on him because Bakugou’s own insecurity makes him defensive.

The Sludge Villain, and also Deku vs. Kacchan Part 1: Bakugou witnesses first-hand how easily Deku jumps to risk his own life, but still thinks he’s being looked down on. 

The Sports Festival: Bakugou fights Uraraka and recognizes her endurance strategy and refusal to give up as very Deku-like. He’s half right. He thinks Deku advised her in the fight, when in reality she just mimicked Deku because she admired him. I want to draw attention to his very sober comment about her not being frail. It’s a great endearment of Uraraka’s character and Bakugou’s respect for her when others didn’t take “fighting a girl” seriously, but it also reflects on his opinion of Deku. Deku isn’t weak either. He never was.

Deku vs. Kacchan Part 2: Deku finally corrects him about the whole looking-down-on-him thing, and Bakugou is informed that Deku’s selflessness is in fact the reason All Might chose him. Since Bakugou had been in search of what he himself was “doing wrong” for All Might to favor Deku over him, he now has to reconcile the fact that selflessness is a heroic trait, and moreover something he lacks. This is also possibly the first time Bakugou is able to see his past actions toward Deku as bullying since he previously thought it was more mutual. Additionally, Bakugou can now link Deku’s selfless behavior to what he perceived as pity/contempt, and realize that Deku has been giving him A LOT of grace. Maybe too much. Maybe more than Bakugou deserves, and definitely more than Deku should have to. Holy heck- now Bakugou has to figure out how to live up to all the faith that’s been placed in him. 

Subtextually, we can see Bakugou’s feelings about atonement reflected in the Todoroki family:

1, Shouto is another example of Deku growing a friendship using his selflessness (since their fight in the sports festival) and their relationship is being acknowledged here where it hasn’t been in Bakugou’s situation. Perhaps Bakugou is wishing it could be so simple for him, to be able to thank him for being his friend like that. Deku saying the pleasure is all his also probably calls to mind how a mere apology from Bakugou would probably be dismissed because that’s just the kind of accommodating person Deku is. Bakugou has to operate more quietly in order to actually make up for their past. I personally don’t interpret this scene as Bakugou being jealous of Deku and Shouto’s friendship, exactly, just the lack of emotional baggage. Side note, Deku and Fuyumi are kinda similar in their desire to repair relationships. I like that she’s the one to give him some credit. 

2, With the common terminology, this can be interpreted as Bakugou receiving a model for atonement, one that is about action, and nothing to do with receiving favor or forgiveness. It’s a sense of duty. 

Many of the above sentiments are repeated in the flashback conversation between All Might and Bakugou right before Bakugou’s sacrifice. 

Bakugou acknowledges his bullying and that it happened because of his own insecurities, but aside from that, it’s interesting he neither confirms nor denies All Might’s suggestion that he’s trying to atone, or that Deku doesn’t see it that way. All Might is a bit of an unreliable mentor sometimes, but I don’t think he’s misreading here. Rather, Bakugou is displaying his tendency to hold back when talking about things that would make him really emotional. Besides, admitting to what he’s doing kind of defeats the purpose. He isn’t seeking acknowledgement. All Might has gotten to the crux of the issue here when pointing out that Deku doesn’t recognize the atonement, likely because Deku doesn't think Bakugou even needs to atone. Am I reading into it too much to say Bakugou looks wistful at this? It’s kinda frustrating sometimes trying to interpret Bakugou’s actions because he’s so paradoxical. Loud and in your face, but also extremely reserved. Sometimes I feel like I’m grasping at thin air, but hey, being hard to figure out is part of his intrigue as a character. The simplest way to look at him is to assume that unless he’s really showing vulnerability, he’s probably deflecting and hiding something.

Speaking of Bakugou’s tendency to to hold back emotional stuff, there’s his apparent lack of issue with Deku calling him Kacchan. Maybe to begin with, in his warped perception of things where he thought they hated each other, Bakugou saw it as Deku’s way of getting back at him for calling him “useless,” and didn't dare give any indication that it actually bothered him. However... consider how betrayed Bakugou has appeared when he was noticeably thinking Deku was looking down on him- the bridge scene, and the beginning of their first year at UA when he thought Deku was hiding a quirk all along. He looks shocked and hurt. That kind of emotion couldn’t be invoked by someone Bakugou didn’t actually care about his relationship with. “Kacchan” comes from a long time ago, before their relationship was strained, so it’s connotations are pure. Maybe somewhere deep down, Bakugou has always been hoping that Deku’s continued use of the nickname was not simply a matter of habit or teasing, but a vestige of friendship they’re both clinging to, and Bakugou himself was too afraid to admit to himself that he felt this way about it, so he mostly ignored it. (These are not original thoughts I am having here lol, this is a common interpretation. I’m just laying everything out like I said.) 

And now we turn to the current situation. Personally, I’ve been looking frantically back and forth between them wondering who’s going to break down first (Deku vs. Kacchan Part 3, this time it’s just a fight to get the other person to cry? ha.) Both have looked like they’re approaching a breaking point for some time. Also, I’ve addressed this before, but I think it’s significant that Bakugou is no longer wearing his mask with his hero costume, in contrast to Deku recently donning his own. It feels symbolic of Bakugou about to be upfront about how he feels.

The question is, what is it going to take to get Deku to accept help? If you ask me, Deku has dug himself so deeply into the I’m-doing-this-for-everyone-else’s-safety-and-smiles hole, no common sense argument can possibly reach him. By the end of 320, Deku’s mask is off, and we can see how desperate he truly is. But he has not cried, yet. I predict we’re going to see a bit more of his defiance, this time on full display on his face as the remaining class members and his other friends take their turns. But then I think Bakugou has to be the one to break down so Deku can witness his actions having the opposite effect he intended. People have been pointing out that Deku is currently ignoring Bakugou, and oof, that’s gotta be intentional. Regardless of what Bakugou says, it’s going to be wrapped up not only in his understanding of Deku’s self-sacrifice, but also the betrayal Bakugou feels at being ignored/left behind that ironically echoes his previous perception of being looked down on, as well as a need to express how much he cares about Deku before it’s too late. He must show that the two of them are inseparable because they both act to save each other without thinking, and both feel like losing the other would be like dying themselves. All Might may have been right when he told them they could learn from each other after Deku vs. Kacchan Part 2, but he didn’t fully realize that idea by making sure they stuck by each other for support and balance. 

I can’t wait to see what it’ll be like when they do finally get to that point, totally in synch and in tune with each other. They’ll be a powerful force no one is quite prepared for. Who knows when that will be, or even which chapter will be their big showdown, but I know the day is coming.

To speculate even further, I think the 2nd user is going to be really important really soon. And no I don’t mean to suggest that the 2nd user is Bakugou. But I do think their resemblance is key. Okay this is gonna be convoluted...

See how 2nd is the only one still standing? I think that’s symbolic of him withholding his quirk. Deku may not even know what it is at this point, let alone have unlocked it. Given that 2nd approves of Deku’s strategy at this point, it seems odd for him to withhold his quirk based on lack of faith. I think if his quirk was something that would help Deku in combat, he would have shown it to him already like the others did. So what if those gauntlets of his are support items that are meant to make up for his lack of a combat-oriented quirk, rather than to augment it? Mind you, I still have no idea what his mysterious power might be, but I’m dead set on it not being explosion-y. Regardless, I think 2nd looking like Bakugou is more about aiding some grand visual parallel, so! You know how 2nd and 3rd were probably intending to do away with Yoichi but 2nd changed his mind as soon as they made eye contact? This is really a long shot, but I wonder if 2nd’s quirk has something to do with that exchange. Maybe it’s something psychological, or some 6th sense about people he meets. So... in that way 2nd’s quirk could play a role in bkdk reaching a deeper understanding? Idk! But it could be significant at least that 2nd left Yoichi’s question about why he reached out to him unanswered. 

One more thing- while I was gathering screenshots I found this. I think “you’re the last one I’m telling” might be foreshadowing for Bakugou revealing his hero name to Deku and it being a Big Deal:

As for other lingering threads in the overall plot right now, such as the UA traitor, Stain, whatever Tsuyu is apparently about to do, All Might’s car maybe in the background of the last page of 320... man I have no idea. All I know is there’s literally 320 chapters’ worth of build-up to this confrontation that can’t be interrupted. 

See you next week <3