#not the only way to interpret it obviously but i think i'm sticking with this

[voidartisan]

anyway today in things that I wasn't supposed to get out of one of my psych lectures but did anyway:

i'm taking a personality class and we started off talking about psychoanalytic theories of personality (Freudian, Jungian, etc) because they've laid a lot of the foundation for our modern theories and the terminology has found its way into the layperson's lexicon etc BUT while we were talking about the Jungian theory of the shadow (the dark park of yourself that you must confront in order to become fully individuated, according to Jung), my professor talked about how this concept is something that is embedded into some of our oldest myths and tropes, and as an example he played the clip from esb where Luke confronts the vision-Vader on dagobah and kills him only to find out that it's himself, etc.

but it just made me think. like OF COURSE the dark side isn't actually a part of the force. the force is just the force. it's not going to corrupt you or magically twist your personality. the power it offers might give more opportunity to do/become evil or whatever, but the dark side is just the dark side of YOURSELF. you give in to those selfish, greedy, rage-filled impulses and that's what leads you to become corrupt. that's why you start using it twisted and taboo ways, not the other way around. it's so blindingly obvious and yet I don't think I ever fully thought about this way before. the reason the dark side seems to turn you into everything you hate is just because it's everything you hate most about yourself.

[ot3]

i feel like the plot has really been lost in the conversation about sexualizing underage characters in anime.

one of the points that the anon who sent me that big bulleted list made about frieren is that "the female character designs are clearly lolibait and evoke the ‘1000 year old elf who looks very young’ trope" and yeah, clearly frieren is evoking the ancient elf who looks young trope just by being a literal direct example of that thing, but i'm not really sure in what way her design could be considered lolibait?

she's pretty short and flat chested but other than that the only part of this character design that's meaningfully childish is the pigtails. it's not exactly a design that's made to show off how relatively young she looks, nor is it a design that seems geared to be sexually appealing in its own right. and it's especially not a design that's designed to be sexually appealing because the character looks young. every inch of skin between the toes and neck are covered, and the only place anything is visibly form fitting is on her knees and calves. the rest has some pretty voluminous drapery going on.

in general a lot of people are pretty weird about anime character designs. like you've got whatshername from bocchi the rock. the red one with the guitar. i havent seen it hold on let me google her.

this lady. she's 25? i think. anyway obviously she reads as 'young' but also to the best of my knowledge everyone in bocchi the rock just kind of looks like this because thats how the artist draws people. is this lolibait? i've certainly seen people imply that character designs like this one are part of 'pedophilia culture' but to me that's just kind of scaremongering bullshit

i feel like it's just kind of an insidious thing to say. like ultimately at the end of the day, do either of these fictional characters resemble a real human child? no. they look like Cartoon Characters.

when adult characters that have faces stylized in the typical 'anime' fashion also have curvy builds and big busts, people will call it creepy because they're of the opinion that you're sticking a child's face onto an adult body and that's degenerate pervert behavior. then on the flipside, if they have straight figures and small busts it's also degenerate pervert behavior because the artist is CLEARLY just trying to draw a child and claim it's an adult.

so like what's the conclusion to be drawn here other than that there's a certain kind of stylization that is just automatcally interpreted as Pedophile Proportions. i really feel like acting like this stuff is a gateway drug to pedophilia is acting like fursuits are a gateway to sexually abusing animals.

[communistkenobi]

Hi, genuine good faith question if you'd like! How is TOS racist? It was my understanding that the OG Series was like, huge for equality in media?

I’m speaking primarily about the content of TOS itself, not its historical impact - I understand it had various historic firsts in terms of having characters of colour in respectable roles, which I’m not dismissing. My experience with the discourse on here surrounding the show is that people front-load these character representations as emblematic of the show’s progressive politics. Which, if we want to go that route, TOS was contemporary to the US civil rights movement, which provides us with a handy measuring stick to see how TOS actually grapples with race, not just the presence of characters of colour themselves. I'm going to be kind of defensive in this explanation, not towards you specifically, but because I have had this conversation with people online many, many, many times, and so any defensiveness on my part is in anticipation of arguments I know will come up as a result of making the basic claim that a show made in America in the 1960s is racist. I'm also going to be copy + pasting from an older post I've made on the subject since it's been a while now since I've watched TOS so some of the details are fuzzy.

Like okay, the premise of TOS is that the Enterprise, as an ambassador of Starfleet/the Federation, is seeking out new alien life to study. The Prime Directive prohibits the Enterprise crew from interfering with the development of any alien culture or people while they do this, so the research they collect needs to be done in an unobtrusive way. I think this is the first point at which people balk at the argument that TOS is racist or has a colonial conception of the world - the Enterprise’s mission is premised on non-interference, and I think when people hear ‘colonial’ as a descriptor they (understandably, obviously) assume it is describing active conquest, genocide, and dispossession. Even setting aside all the times where Kirk does directly interfere with the “development” of a people or culture (usually because they’ve “stagnated” culturally, because a culture "without conflict" cannot evolve or “develop” beyond its current presumed capacity - he is pretty explicitly imposing his own values onto another culture in order to force them to change in a particular way), or the times when the Enterprise is actually looking to extract resources from a given planet or people, I’m not exactly making this claim, or rather, that’s not the only thing I’m describing when calling TOS racist/colonial.

The show's presentation of scientific discovery and inquiry is anthropological - the “object” of analysis is alien/foreign culture, meaning that when the Enterprise crew comes into contact with a new being or person, this person is always read first and foremost through the level of (the Enterprise’s understanding of) culture. Their behaviour, beliefs, dress, way of speaking, appearance, and so on are always reflective of their culture as a whole, and more importantly, that their racial or phenotypic characteristics define the boundaries of their culture. Put another way, culture is interpreted, navigated, and bound racially - the show presents aliens as a Species, but these species are racially homogeneous, flattening race to a natural, biological difference that is always physically apparent and presented through the lens of scientific objectivity, as "species" is a unit of biological taxonomy. Basically species is a shorthand for race. This is the standard of most sci-fi/fantasy genre work, so this is not a sin unique to Star Trek.

Because of this however, Kirk and Co are never really interacting with individuals, they are interacting with components of a (foreign, exotic, fundamentally different) culture, the same way we understand that a biologist can generalize about a species using the example of an individual 'specimen'. And when the Enterprise interacts with these cultures, they very frequently measure them using a universalized scale of development - they have a teleological (which is to say, evolutionary) view of culture, ie, that all cultures go from savage to rational, primitive to advanced, economically simple to economically complex (ie, to capitalist modes of production). And the metrics they are judging these cultures by are fundamentally Western ones, always emphasising to the audience that the final destination of all cultures (that are worthy of advancing beyond their current limited/“primitive” stages) is a culture identical to the Federation, a culture that can itself engage in this anthropological mission to catalogue all life as fitting within a universal set of practices and racial similarities they call “culture.”

This is a western, colonial understanding of culture - racially and spatially homogeneous people comprise the organs of a social totality, ie, a society, which can then be analysed as an “object,” as a “phenomenon,” by the scientists in order to extract information from them to produce and advance state (ie Federation) knowledge. The Enterprise crew are allowed to be individuals, are allowed to be subjects with a capacity for reason, contradiction, emotion, compassion, and even moments of savagery or violence, without those things being assigned to their “race” or “culture” as a whole, but the people they interact with are only components of a whole which are “discovered” by the Enterprise as opportunities to expand and refine the Federation’s body of knowledge.

Spock is actually a good example of what I'm talking about, because he is an exception to this rule - unlike the others in the crew, his behaviour is always read as a symptom of his innate Vulcan-ness, where his human and Vulcan halves war for dominance in his mind and character. Bones (the doctor, one of the main cast) constantly comments on Spock's inability to feel things, that he is callous and unsympathetic, ruled by Vulcan logic to such an extreme that his rationality is a form of irrationality, as his Vulcan blood prohibits him from tempering logic with human emotion and intuition. Now you can argue that Bones is a stand-in for the racists of the world, that Spock proves Bones wrong in that he is able to feel but merely keeps it under wraps, that Vulcans are not biologically incapable of emotion but merely live in a socially repressive culture, but this still engages in the racial logic of the show - Vulcans are a racially-bound species with a single monolithic culture, and Spock's ability to express and feel 'human emotions' is the metric by which he is granted human subjectivity and sympathy.

And on the flip side you have the Klingons - a “race” that is uniformly savage, backward, violent, and dangerous. In the episode Day of the Dove, where Klingons board the Enterprise along with an alien cloud that makes everyone suddenly aggressive and racist (this show is insane lol), the Enterprise crew begins acting violent and racist, but the Klingons don’t change. They aren’t more violent than before (because they already were fundamentally violent and racist), and they don’t become less violent when the cloud eventually leaves (because they are never able to emerge from their violence and savagery as a social condition or external imposition - they simply are that way). Klingons are racially, behaviourally, psychologically, and culturally homogeneous, universally violent and immune to reason, and their racial characteristics are both physical manifestations of this universal violence as well as the origin of it. The writers and creators of TOS are explicitly invoking the orientalist idea of the “Mongolian horde,” representing both the American fear of Soviet global takeover as well as blatantly racist fears about “Asiatics” (a word used in the show, particularly in The Omega Glory where a fear of racialised communist takeover is made explicit) dominating the world.

This is colonial thinking! Like, fundamentally, at its core, this is colonial white supremacist thinking. Now this is not because TOS invents these tropes or is the origin of them, it is not individually responsible for these racial and colonial logics - these conceptions are endemic to Western thought, and I am not expecting a television show to navigate its way outside of this current colonial paradigm of scientific knowledge. I’m also not expecting an average person watching this to pick out all the intricacies of this and link it to the colonial history of Europe or the colonial history of western philosophy/thought. But this base premise of Star Trek is why the show is fundamentally colonial - even if it was the case that the crew never intervened in any alien conflict, never extracted any material resources from other people, this would still be colonial logic and colonial thinking. The show has a fundamentally colonial imagination when it comes to exploration, discovery, and culture.

I think a good place to end is the opening sequence. The show's first line is always "Space! The final frontier." I do not think the word frontier is meant metaphorically or poetically - I think the show is being honest about its conception of space as an infinitely vast, infinitely exotic frontier from which a globally Western civilisation (which the Enterprise is an emblem of) can extract resources, be they material or epistemic

[hellspawnmotel]

i LOVE ur analyses (ur noelle + ralsei ones completely changed the way i view those characters) and if u ever started a yt channel for video essays i would BE THERE. ur art has a comforting quality that can be twisted into something disturbing/raw that i rlly like and admire. i wanna know more of ur thoughts on chara. i think they killed themselves bc of their dread of humanity + they thought what they were feeling (anger/vengence) was inherent to being a human and not a monster. thoughts?

thank you, that's very kind of you!! I don't think what I have to say would be very well suited for video essays though haha, it's just my personal readings of the text and I really don't want people to look at it and assume that I'm completely right, or even that I think I'm completely right. there are tropes and themes that I get particularly caught up in and I have my very obvious biases, plus when it comes to deltarune the story isn't even done yet..... I would hate for somebody to get totally invested in my interpretation and then get mad or disappointed if something that happens further in negates it. (that and my video making/editing skills begin and end with cutting together amvs)

as for chara..... (warning this is about to get heavy, maybe don't read if you're dealing with suicidal thoughts of your own)

.....always a complex question, especially when it comes to their death. I never really want to say anything definitive about them, because well, we don't actually know, do we? but this in particular...... with suicidal thoughts and ideation, you're always looking for a way to justify it. I don't think there was one specific reason chara went down that path, because there never really is. it starts with one thought, and then all the reasons you could possibly come up with start to clump together and form an unbearable weight. I think it's significant that chara came up with "the plan" after (accidentally or not) poisoning asgore. maybe it started with the guilt of hurting somebody they loved, which grew into the guilt of 'I'm such a burden to these wonderful people, they would be better off without me' which grew into the guilt of being human at all. but they still wanted to be useful to their family, leave them with a gift.... if their death can both free monsterkind AND destroy humanity, then really it would be worse of them to NOT die. that idea would stick in their brain and become a comfort to them- it's okay, because before too long, everyone I love with be safe and happy and I'll be dead, and I won't have to feel so awful every day. this is the only way to make up for all the time they wasted on caring for me. but then, of course, everything goes so extremely wrong..... I can't imagine the anguish chara would've felt in death, for not only failing but dooming asriel alongside them. they weren't thinking about the pain it would inflict on their family even if the plan had worked, or ever stop to consider that one day they might be able to feel better, and now they'll never get a chance to see it.

I think that also nicely leads in the main routes in undertale's storyline. in one, chara is a passenger on frisk and the player's journey, and they watch frisk inconvenience everyone they meet over and over but ultimately make their lives better just by being a friend and believing in love, which mirrors chara's own life and what they failed to see in it. in the other, chara is guided into dealing with their pain in a different way, by destroying it. the world is cruel, and unfair, and it hurts the good people while the bad flourish- better to do away with it entirely. if there's no life, then there's no suffering. if chara is all that exists, they become the nexus of pain. if they have to become a demon anyway, they can learn to love it. it's all humans are good for anyway. maybe this is easier than trying to fight it ever was.

but like, it's not, obviously. being a good person is hard sometimes, and it's even harder to be good to yourself. in the end though, if you give into hate and destruction, you'll be left with nothing but emptiness. whether through harming others or harming yourself..... either way you've closed yourself off from the world and your ability to experience the beauty of life, in all its faults.

okay I think I should stop there before I get too preachy or existential LMAO I hope that answered your question though! talking about chara is a dang rabbit hole. like, you're a creepypasta-ass character from a video game, why you making me think this deep. maybe if you werent so tragic and interesting I'd get less distracted, jerk.

🌻

[skufdaddyswansea]

I’m genuinely curious what you would do if you were in Curly’s shoes for the week leading up to the accident. This isn’t a malicious question, I’m just obsessing over his inaction because genuinely considering the circumstances, what could Curly have done to prevent the tragedy? They’re a few months in of a year long expedition— too late to turn back, too early to try and make it to the finish line— and your estranged best friend has done something unforgivable. There’s no temp jail on the ship either. You’re all being fired after this. There’s no way for Anya to get any sort of pregnancy care or an abortion procedure on the ship, and she may well give birth during the trip. It’s like… genuinely, what do you do?

It's hard to say when you're on the outside looking in. When you're looking at someone else failing to do something, and knowing the consequences, it's easy to say "Well, I would have done this differently." But obviously I'm not actually under the same pressure, with a clock ticking over my head or anything, yknow? So all I can say is what I hope I would do.

Ideally, I'd like to think I'd strip Jimmy of his rank. No access to the cockpit, to be accompanied at all times (or at least as much is reasonable. But then I don't know how successfully you can rope Swansea and Daisuke into going along with that.) I can't say how that would turn out for the long term, 8 months is a long time. Especially with everything else going on. So plenty of time for someone to slip up somewhere.

I'd also tell Anya she was welcome to sleep in medical room since it can lock. If I'm being honest she might even be able to convince me to give her the gun under the right circumstances, but I don't really think that's a good thing, that could just as easily become a disaster.

As for the pregnancy that's... much more difficult. There really isn't anything Curly could have realistically done about that by the time he found out. Especially because Anya herself is the nurse. Swansea could potentially have the experience to give her support there but tbh I get the feeling he wasn't particularly involved in that process with his kids either. (...Does Curly have kids?? This is making me realize we don't really know what his family life is like. I get the feeling he's a bachelor though, it probably would have come up if he had a family to worry about. Anyway.) I guess the only thing to do would be to make sure to actually check in on her and give what ever support is possible.

And again, who knows if any of that would have worked out for the better, or if I'd be able to stick to it. No matter what you do it's going to be a bad time.

I guess in the truly ideal situation he'd have spotted the red flags in Jimmy's behaviour and done something about it long before it reached that point, but there's no way he could have known how bad things were going to get that far in advance.

So I get what you mean, I don't envy his position at all lol. Thinking about this did make me realize that I think the way I've been framing my Curly analysis has been a little overly judgemental. I just kind of assumed most people went into the game with the idea that Curly was totally innocent like I did, and then over-corrected to make a point. I still stand by my overall interpretation, but I probably should have been a little more balanced. After all, one of Mouthwashing's strengths is being able to put you in the shoes of someone who does awful things, and showing that they're still just a human with flaws, while not glossing over the ramifications of their actions.

[nitewrighter]

When writers say the riddler is too silly for modern Batman stories, I wonder how much of that is code for “I can’t write good riddles”. I mean, even btas only had a few episodes with Eddie because Dini admitted they had a hard time coming up with them.

I suppose it brings up a problem with writing a character who’s supposed to be smarter than you.

It’s easy to have joker blow up a bunch of buildings.

You want to show a villain is tough, have them smack the heroes around a little.

You want to show a character is a genius, just have the build robots or time machines or whatever.

But very few can hit that intellectual sweet spot between “overly complex word puzzles so difficult Bruce has to pull the answers out of his butt” and “dopey puns that wouldn’t make popsicle stick standards”

I mean obviously the puns and silly little puzzles are a vital part of the Riddler, but you know, even if you can't write that, there are aspects of the Riddler that you can focus on that still feel true to the core of the character. I think the pathological need for attention can be a great focus for his character, and I think the Arkham Games did a fun job with that even if the majority of the 'riddles' were just in-game puzzles and him taunting you. There's also something to be said about like... certain facets of the Rogues basically getting offloaded onto the Joker because DC feels the need to jam Joker into everything to make it sell. Like, you have variations on Harvey's Two-Face origin story getting offloaded onto the Joker because of the Joker's (might not even be real because one of the Joker's whole THINGS is that he's an unreliable narrator) "Red Hood" origin story in The Killing Joke. So like, Bruce and Harvey are childhood friends, but then DC will bring in the Joker and kind of co-opt (one of) Harvey's origin stories to say, "Batman was, while unintentionally, intimately involved with the creation of the Joker." But like... the whole thing about the Joker is that we, as the audience, aren't ever really supposed to know why the Joker's Like That. That's the whole point of him having multiple "You wanna know how I got these scars?" stories in Nolan's The Dark Knight.

But like... take the Joker's obsession with being Batman's Ultimate Nemesis in The Lego Batman, for example--you actually have a lot of Batman's relationship with the Riddler in that particular interpretation of the Joker, because for the Riddler, it's all about proving himself as Batman's intellectual superior, and actually a major factor of their chemistry is that this obsession is significantly one-sided on the Riddler's end. And I think the Matt Reeves Batman also handled that "one-sided obsession" aspect of the Riddler really well, as well. Like, for Batman, it's all just mystery to solve and then you finally get to the Riddler and Paul Dano's Riddler is like "Wrow. I knew you'd find me because we're so alike and we're besties! It's allll for youuuu!" and then you have Batman fire back with "We're nothing alike--! Wait, I just remembered I'm also an off-putting loner freak. Uh oh." So like... there are ways to feel true to the Riddler even if you can't go full camp.

The Riddler WANTS Batman to find him. He WANTS Batman to solve his riddles because not only is that the only way he is 'seen' but he believes it also gives him control in how he is seen and who he is seen by--although it really doesn't because Batman has already made his assessment of "This is an egotistical loner freak who is desperate for attention and obsessed with me."

[untildawnss]

until dawn characters overhearing their partner saying something negative about them/their relationship

just a few short drabbles about the characters' weaknesses or worse traits and how they might react to hearing a partner talking about it. and wow, this actually took a while.

kind of angsty, but the endings of most of these are kind of open for interpretation

ashley

"i don't know, i just feel like we're stuck sometimes. we're not really doing anything. it's getting kind of boring."

ashley stopped dead in front of the door to your living room. she had wanted to spend a quiet evening at home with you, like you usually did on fridays but evidently you'd had other plans. and you obviously hadn't expected her to get home early. she flexed her hands, once, twice, and opened the door. the room went quiet, you and your friends looked at ashley. "babe, you're home." you smiled, not sure whether or not ashley had heard you. "sit down, i'm gonna get you a glass of wine." you patted the couch next to you. "no thanks. i think i'd rather go and be boring," ashley grabbed her laptop from the coffee table, "in the bedroom. alone."

beth

"seriously, her sister is over all the time. i know, i know they're twins and they're close and everything but i feel like aoutsider in my own relationship sometimes because she never says no to her family and i get the short end of the stick."

beth heard your voice drifting through the open window. you were on the patio, on the phone with your best friend while hanging out the laundry. beth was in your bedroom on the floor above, changing the sheets. are you fucking kidding me? beth sucked her teeth. she knew that you knew that she'd always been the most mature and stable of the washington siblings and that they were super close. "you know," she leaned out of the window. you looked up at her, startled. "you're my family, too. and i never say no to you." - "you heard that?" you groaned. "uh, yeah, me and like the entire neighbourhood. so what's wrong with me and hannah hanging out? it's only once a week." - "nothing, it'd just be nice to be included every once in a while." beth smiled widely at you. "aw, i didn't know you wanted to hang out with us. you should have told me."

chris

"he's always doing something on his phone, sending josh some stupid video or planning another dumbass prank with him. sometimes i think he stopped maturing past the age of 16."

you heard the front door close. apparently you had missed the jingling of chris' keys while you were busy looking for a salad bowl in the kitchen. "cool, didn't know you thought that way about me." chris dropped a plastic bag on your kitchen counter. "i brought dinner, got your favourite. thought i'd come over and we could hang out, maybe watch a movie or something. but it seems like you're busy." you had turned around to face him. "chris, i didn't mean it like that. i'm sorry." he was already on his way to the door. "no, you did." - "fine, maybe i did. but it doesn't mean that i don't love you. where are you going?" he was standing in the doorway, doing fingerguns at you. "josh's place. because i'm immature like that." the door closed and you pulled out your phone. can we talk about this? you walked back to the kitchen, the smell of your favourite food filling the room. thank you for dinner. - let's talk tomorrow, like adults?

emily

"emily wants this, emily wants that. emily gets what she wants, whenever she wants. it's all about her. i think she's her own favourite person in the world and everyone else are background characters for her enjoyment."

emily's phone pinged when she received the voice message. it was intended for your best friend but you had misclicked when opening the chat without realising it. she smiled when she saw your name on the screen and eagerly tapped on the little arrow to play the message. oh. the message wasn't for her. but you had thought of her alright. was she really that bad? her phone pinged again. don't listen to that. too late, she thought. i'm sorry, i didn't mean that. but you did, she knew. because she knew she was a bitch sometimes. because she knew that she had been selfish. no, you're right. she texted back. can i have a second chance?

hannah

"can you believe it? we had a fight and now she's packing her stuff to go sleep at her sister's place. she's blowing it out of proportion. talk about overreacting. everything is drama with her."

hannah had texted her siblings to come pick her up while she was throwing clothes and toiletries into a bag. whatever you were fighting about had escalated, both of you were to blame for that. but now you couldn't even wait until she was out of the house to talk shit about her? absolutely not. she knew she was sensitive but calling her dramatic was unfair. if she stayed, neither of you would sleep tonight. both of you needed to calm down. so naturally, hannah had called her twin sister and asked if she could stay with her for a few days. and naturally, beth had gotten in her car. the place was just too small for both of you to try to avoid each other after an argument. hannah was trying to give you space but sure, she was the one overreacting, not you in the living room, knowing full well that she could hear you. "you know what? if everything's drama with me, maybe i'll do you a favour and move out." hannah zipped up her bag and made her way to the front door. she heard a clatter as you dropped your phone. "what?" hannah was putting on her shoes now. "i said," she removed the butterfly keychain from her set of keys before putting them back. "i'm moving out. we're done." she walked out of the apartment and got into beth's car.

jess

"ugh, sometimes a part of me wants to shake her and ask her to just act like a normal human being. she's not perfect, so why does she pretend to be?"

last you checked jess was in the shower for her "self care day" ritual. that usually took a while, so you put in your earphones and called a friend while you were in the kitchen preparing dinner. you had jokingly complained that her long showers would drive up the water bill because she just had to keep up that image, that she was driving herself crazy competing with no one but her own ego. you hung up when you put the dish in the oven to clean up, maybe see if jess was done in the shower and have a pre-dinner glass of wine. you walked out of the kitchen and stepped right into a small puddle in the hall. ew, wet sock. "jess, can you leave the water in the shower next time?" you walked towards the bathroom and opened the door. jess was standing there in her underwear, a towel wrapped around her head and staring at her reflection. "hey. dinner's almost ready. you want a glass of wine?" she turned around to look at you. "do you think i'm vain?" her question took you by surprise. "what?" - "do you think i'm vain? i heard you talking about me and i want to know if you think i'm vain." she looked like she was about to cry. "jess, babe, no that wasn't what i meant. it's just- you try so hard all the time but you don't even need to. i love you just the way you are. you can be a little high maintenance, though." she sighed. "i know i'm not perfect-" - "you don't need to be." - "but can i still have that glass of wine?"

josh

"i feel like his caretaker sometimes. take your meds, take care of yourself, go to bed at a reasonable hour, don't drink too much, blah blah blah. i'm so over it. at one point he has to start living for himself and not just because everyone else bends over backwards for him."

you hung up the phone and turned up the TV's volume. when you went into the kitchen to get a drink, josh was there. "hey, when did you get home?" - "while ago," he shrugged. "why didn't you say anything?" you opened the fridge, looking for something you're in the mood for. water, or maybe some wine. "heard the TV, wasn't really in the mood for that." josh tapped his heel against the cupboard behind him. "okay. you want anything?" you pointed at the contents of the fridge. "wouldn't want to be a burden." he turned his head to look at you. "wouldn't want you bending over backwards to take care of me." he clenched his teeth. "yeah, i heard that, too." you let go of the fridge door and it closed slowly. "josh, i-" you started, trying to find something to say. "it's okay. i know i'm not always the easiest person to be around. but i'm trying, i'm getting better." you reached out to touch his hand but he pulled back. "i called chris. he's coming to pick me up." - "oh, okay. when are you coming back?" - "i don't think i should."

matt

"it's like matt doesn't even have any opinions of his own. he always just agrees with me. i don't think he has made a single decision in his life, ever."

it had been a week since matt had read your message. he had been using your laptop because he had forgotten his at home and your devices were connected. he hadn't planned on reading it but saw that it was about him. he hadn't even told his sisters or ashley about it and they were usually his go to people. maybe he was bad at making decisions. he hadn't decided how to handle this situation, anyway. yeah, you'd noticed that he had pulled away and asked him if something was wrong but he had made up an excuse about an assignment he had to turn in. he was still thinking about whether to ignore that he had seen the message or try to talk to you about it when you, once again, made a decision for him. his doorbell rang and when he opened the door, there you were, smiling at him. "hey, thought i'd come over. you're done with that assignment, right? can i come in?" maybe he'd finally make a decision. "actually, no. i don't think we should see each other anymore." your face dropped. "what? why? what happened?" - "guess i'm just making a decision for the first time in my life, ever. we're over."

mike

"he's such a fucking macho sometimes. i can literally not do anything without him swooping in and taking over because he thinks he's god's gift to humanity or something. right now he's putting up a shelf because he didn't think i could handle it. it's my place."

you were in your bedroom, sending a voice message to one of your friends. mike had finished putting up the shelf and was about to knock on your bedroom door to ask you if you wanted to grab something to eat when he realised you were talking about him. wow. guess you really needed to get that off your chest. he'd always thought he was just being helpful by offering to do stuff for you. was he really that overbearing? was he a macho? mike had always thought you were grateful when you accepted his help but maybe he'd misinterpreted the way you smiled at him earlier. it did look forced but he thought it was just the stress of moving. before he could move the door opened and you were face to face with him. "mike! were you eavesdropping?" - "not on purpose! but you were kind of yelling." he shrugged. "didn't realise you thought that i was such an ass. didn't realise i was being an ass." - "you're not an ass, just-" you started. "god's gift to humanity?" he said, pretending to fix an invisible halo. "i'm sorry, i promise i will stop swooping in and taking over and wait until you ask me for help. if you still want me."

sam

"we barely spend any time together. she's always doing something, hanging out with her friends, going climbing, running or swimming. are we even in a relationship anymore or just roommates? i don't even know where she is right now."

sam was right above you, watering the plants at the top of the stairs when you walked in. you were probably talking to a family member or a friend. about her. she wasn't sure if she should say something or not. she had continued watering the same plant while listening to your conversation and the water was overflowing now. it reached her feet and soaked through her sock. "crap." downstairs she heard you mutter a quick goodbye before you called through the house. "sam? are you home?" - "yeah, i'm here." she called back from the bathroom, looking for one of the ratty towels you used for spills. you had kicked off your shoes and were walking up the stairs. "don't move, i accidentally drowned gilbert." all the plants had names. sam emerged from the bathroom and threw the towel on the ground, swiping it around with her foot to wipe up the spill. "i didn't know you were home. did you, uh, hear me just now?" sam was staring at you. "yeah," she admitted. "i don't want us to be over. but i don't want to give up who i am, either." you nodded. "i know. compromise?" sam nodded back at you. "we can try."

[cbk1000]

Well, I guess that kudos is sticking around, but honestly, it doesn't change the fact that the work didn't land for me. I wasn’t trying to be mean, just saying what I thought. If you're gonna publish it, fine, but don’t act like it was some sort of high praise. Keep the kudos if you want, but don't expect me to pretend I liked it.

Interpreting my response to your previous ask as acting like it was some sort of high praise is an INSANE failure of reading comprehension.

You absolutely did intend to be mean, you're just upset that I thought your insults were funny instead of taking them to heart.

'But don't expect me to pretend I liked it.' Listen. I need you to stop and think about this for a second. We are complete strangers to one another. I'm not expecting you to pretend you like it. I do not know you. I don't want or crave your regard because, once again, you are a stranger and my only interaction with you thus far has been you sending a rude ask to my tumblr account. Whether you like it or not does not mean anything to me because I do not know anything about you as a person or your personal tastes. I am not a friend or coworker who expects you to put on a good face despite your true opinion.

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're very young and haven't yet learnt how to appropriately interact with strangers online, so to recap: this ain't it. That message you sent was one of the cringiest things I've seen in more than 20 years of participating in various online fandoms. You need to reread what you write before you send it and really think about if that's the way you want to represent yourself, even anonymously.

But above all: it's fanfiction. Free gay internet writing. Written by a rando you do not know, and do not have to interact with. Just close your internet browser window and don't think about it again. You're the one who initiated this. You are the one dragging out your association with a fic you do not like. Contacting me twice now about a fic you didn't like is indisputably strange behavior. If you want to participate in fandom spaces without alienating everyone, including writers you do admire, you need to stop doing this sort of thing. The reaction is always going to be, 'What a douche'. Even from people who themselves don't like the fic it was aimed at. Your time in fandom will be far more pleasant if you concentrate your time and attention on the fan creations you DO enjoy, and that is what I recommend you do.

I can't tell you what to do, obviously, but I encourage you not to message me again. I will delete any future responses from you, because frankly, this is not healthy behavior and you need to focus on something that brings you enjoyment instead of getting hung up on a single fic you didn't like. I have disliked and not finished loads of fanfics. I merely close the window I was reading it in and go do something else, and that is what you need to do.

[rainbowsky]

twitter BJ_ByYourSide/status/1427940852433776640 I'm confused on why this clip isn't on everyone's favorite list. There so much here! DD not wanting to sound fake and wanting to keep stuff away from the media. Reminds me of when he seemed upset with dd for praising him until gg reassured him he was being sincere. And obviously this is crush behavior- "what did he say about mee", so cute! Do you know when this was filmed? I would imagine the earlier stages cause he seemed insecure

This is the link, to make it easier for readers.

Hi Anon,

I'm a bit confused about why you think this isn't a popular clip. This one is actually quite popular, and fans made a big deal about it when it was first released. It's maybe not as popular as the 9 minutes of bickering on a boat or the lewd moments or jealousy in 3 languages, but it's also not nearly as exciting as those clips.

To me in order for a clip to be exciting it has to be entertaining (and ones containing both of them are always the most entertaining) or it has to reveal something new about them (jealousy in 3 languages seemed to give clues about their sexual orientation, for example).

This clip, while cute and also somewhat hilarious, doesn't give anything all that new. We already knew that DD is into GG, we already knew that he's the sort of person to be invested in what GG thinks about him and in what GG says about him.

I also don't see this clip the same way a lot of fans see it. I don't see it as 'early days, guy has a crush on another guy' at all. It strikes me as fairly normal behavior that doesn't give us much timeline insight. I think anyone discussing an interview where they were a likely topic would want to know what the other person said about them, especially if they were romantically involved with them.

If anything, that clip makes me eye the Devil's Timeline even more. There are a few things that stick out.

DD is speaking pretty openly about how sweet, handsome, cute, etc. GG is. That's not something I see someone as reserved as DD saying about someone he doesn't know well, to people he doesn't know well.

When the producer says that GG said they 'have a good friendship', everyone in the room starts laughing. To me it comes across as, "That's the understatement of the year." Like the people there know that GG and DD are more than just friends.

When DD brings up the game, I think he's musing about things he could have mentioned in the interview but didn't - not that he's 'excited about having had some alone time with a guy he has a crush on', as so many turtles think. That's only reinforced by what someone said in the comments of that clip, that "I didn't want to say it" in reference to the game was actually mistranslated and would be better translated as "I forgot it", which is why the producer said, "Your reaction was slow."

Similarly, someone in the comments said that "Am I fake?" (in response to why he didn't say all these glowing things about GG in the interview) would have been better translated as, "I would have sounded fake." So some fan impressions come out of how the clip was translated.

Everyone's going to have their own interpretations/impressions of things. A lot of fans read DD as insecure here, trying to pump the producer for information about his 'crush'. That's not at all how I saw this clip.

To me, judging from DD's body language and demeanour, he comes across as relaxed and maybe a bit bored. I don't see any insecurity at all in his behavior or speech.

He's obviously quite comfortable in his surroundings and with the people around him. DD is a scrupulously polite, often very reserved guy. He simply wouldn't behave so casually around people he doesn't know well or have a good rapport with. Some of his behavior could come across as rude if he's interacting with a superior he doesn't know very well.

So this clip tells me that DD has developed a laid back relationship with the crew, which leads me to believe he's not the 'new', 'shy', 'insecure' person that fans read him to be.

I also get the impression - like I said before - that DD is already in a relationship with GG at this point.

It's hard to say when it was recorded, but likely well into filming. After all, those interviews were filmed as promo, and it's unlikely they'd start filming those things before the cast and crew had gotten well into the groove of the project.

Just my two cents. Like I said, a lot of people have a different view of this and that's their right. We'll likely never know for sure what this was really all about.

If people don't talk about clips like this much now, it's probably because the BTS is really old and people aren't talking about any of the BTS much these days. These BTS moments were all filmed nearly 6 years ago.

Edit: here's GG's interview, which is being discussed in that clip.

[ranticore]

happy anniversary STBH!! i bought both books while on a week break and read them both in two days voraciously despite my phone failing to decipher the epub files (squinting at a 200x zoomed pdf is a painful way to read but it was so worth it). i am periodically rotating the characters round my mind like the hypothetical apple number 1. Cain especially has been placed in my little mental cabinet of curiosity that i drop by during quiet hours to think about. love that man. number one cain fan. chewing him like an interesting stick. i love every other character as well though theyre all so fascinating and v human

anyway all this ramble to say i love your works and im patiently waiting for the moth release. ur prose is so lovely and i love love love the way you interpret folklore and mythology and your art

question for the stbh gang: what actually are their daemons? i know felix has estibarith the swan but im so curious as to the rest...

omg noo i'm so sorry the epub didn't work! i know you already suffered through it but for anyone else with this issue, i have a recommendation for google books app (if using android) but even if that doesn't work, you can always contact me and we can make something more readable (like a pdf with big font or something) that fits

i'm so happy that cain resonates with people, that old man is a favourite of mine even if i did forget to change his name from the original placeholder (whoops). he's a lil fucked up now but his story is far from over

as for tha daemons..

Islin: i narrowed it down to two potentials?? That i kind of bounce between. I tend to lean more towards a polled bull than anything else - a same-sex daemon which would be the only one in the cast i think, which i tried to parallel in pern story with him being the only one who doesn't match the canon rules for rider sexuality & dragon colour. but regardless the daemon is called Tarannach and the overall symbolism is a massive powerful dominant animal who is nonetheless "de-fanged" in some way (polled cattle naturally lack horns!) and appears more peaceful as a result. Tarannach is wilful and domineering, disagrees with Islin frequently (before Islin has his spine-growing moments), and unapologetically takes up space. would also be a massive inconvenience in day to day life but that's kind of the point. Before settling as a bull, Tarannach went through phases of wanting to be smaller and smaller.

Bowman has a dog daemon. It just has to be that way, there's no getting around it. I joked around that she would be a poodle but actually I would lean more towards a collie instead, a herding type. Something that looks rough and ready but is actually surprisingly high maintenance. Her name is Nell/Nellie. Her personality is irreverent, never takes anything seriously. She turns into a feral animal during the full moon.

We know Estibariz is a swan but some more about her - she wanted to be a lioness, something big and fierce, and Félix insisted that she would probably end up a serpent or a fox, something with connotations of being a sneaky liar, and he felt that when she did settle, it would be an externalisation of some inner ugliness he never wanted anyone else to see. when she did settle she enjoyed a big I Told You So. When he was taken by Puck and spat out again, she returned as a form-shifting daemon again, and had gained the ability to separate from him and travel long distances. She never shapeshifted willingly though. The first person to touch Estibariz aside from Félix was Bowman. The second person was Helena.

Clarion is the only one whose daemon was actually, for real, a horse. His name was Drey and he was a dapple grey draft breed.

Senca is obviously a witch so also had a daemon who could travel far from her. He was a bird, I thought maybe a nightjar or collared dove. Never got that far in the au so didn't pick a name. We'll just call him Namiliyath

Léa's was a thorny devil

Jean's is a ferret and her name is Missy. It looks like it could potentially be an ermine, a symbol of nobility, but no. It's a common hunting animal, white with black eyes.

Erica's is a magpie

Pascal does not have a daemon. There's something there that looks very swanlike, but it speaks with his voice. In a human au, it's a golden eagle.

I don't think I made anything for other characters, again I never got that far writing it

[shantechni]

One thing I greatly appreciate about the 2012 series is that Raph's temper is rarely ever shown to be entirely on him, which might be hard to believe, but it's true.

Pivotal episodes that focus on Raph's temper are Turtle Temper, Slash and Destroy, The Good, the Bad and Casey Jones, Newtralized!, and Mutant Gangland.

Turtle Temper

We get our first front row seat to how Raph tends to let his anger carry him away to the point that the mission and his brothers became an afterthought, and everyone is right to be upset with him. A random, smacktalking slob isn't the end of the world, but after 15 years of hardly interacting with anyone other than your family, it only makes sense for him to be angry that this total stranger is managing to tick him off. But no one downplays the situation or tells him to just, "stop getting mad," they more or less told him to stop letting his anger do the work. Splinter said it best: "It was I who made his [Shredder's] words into weapons. That's the choice I made. What choice will you make?" Translation, you're allowed to be angry, but it's what you do with that anger that determines the outcome of things.

Slash and Destroy

This will always be in my top 10 favorite episodes solely for being such a good scenario of Raph's anger being a poison to someone he cares for, not just his family, but Spike. Firstly with his family, he's right to get mad when his comics are ruined, or when Leo constantly sticks up for Mikey, or when Donnie's experiment gets out of control and nearly hurts Spike. It's the accumulation of those things that makes him lash out and eventually take the mutagen to his room, greatly to the dismay of an already apologetic Donnie. Anyone who lives in a full house knows: he feels disrespected and stifled, going so far to wish he were out on his own.

Now for Spike, we obviously know the mutagen messed with him in more than a physical sense, but it's clear that Raph's angry venting didn't help either. Not only did Raph push his brothers away when they weren't intentionally agitating him, namely Donnie, but he's largely responsible for Slash's desire to get rid of his brothers. Slash thinks his and Raph's tempers are what make them stronger and better than the others, that they could be doing so much more without them. Raph doesn't agree with him, not even a little, because for as much as his family gets on his nerves, he'd miss them way too much to ever leave them.

When Splinter told him to meditate on it, he wasn't dismissing the fact that Raph was rightfully upset, but that he was letting his anger run on again. He needed to stop and think about why he was angry, and understand that Donnie didn't mean to nearly hurt Spike. That even though he treasures those comics, they're just comics at the end of the day. Whether or not he would've reached that conclusion without the loss of Spike is up to interpretation, but Splinter reminds Raph that he still has his brothers.

The Good, the Bad and the Casey Jones

It's a tried and true concept, but it never fails to be a good concept when Raph and Casey's tempers clash. Before that though, we once again see Raph lose control of himself due to his family and he's clearly bent out of shape over his lack of control, the guy attacked Leo without warning and has his brothers flinching away when he yells at them. His statement is an interesting one: "This always happens. I'm fine until those guys push my buttons. It's not like I was trying to hurt Leo. They just don't get it." Now couple it with this one from Leo: "What are you saying, Raph? It's not that you are angry, but we make you angry?" Raph goes on to refute that question before somewhat proving himself wrong when he snaps at their teasing.

The situation is never truly resolved because Casey leads some Foot Bots to the lair, but it's clear that Raph is half accepting and half in denial of having anger issues, and his brothers don't quite understand it themselves (explained by why they teased him and unknowingly made him feel like they weren't taking him seriously). But Leo seemed to get an idea from the earlier teasing when he tells Raph they were just "busting his shell." He doesn't say it with malice or like he was wronged, he's fairly apologetic despite the humor written all over him. And, in a way, Donnie and Mikey alleviate the situation in their own way by not reacting too much to Raph's outburst, or even when he returns. Donnie slips out a short quip and leaves it at that, because they know Raph just needed some time to himself without them messing around.

Newtralized!

The bigger focus of this episode is obviously the Newtralizer's plot for the Kraang and Slash's redemption, but Raph's temper is still front and center from the first minute of the episode. Though it's a fact that we've seen on display before, Raph getting angry because someone he cares for isn't being careful enough is still an important point, especially now since Raph is close enough to Casey to be angrily worried about his wellbeing. Though it's never directly addressed (Raph's argument is that Casey is holding them back and getting in the way), Raph learns over the course of the episode to not exclude Casey just because he's not as skilled as them.

Mutant Gangland

Lesgooo another favorite--starts rubbing my hands together. It might even be slightly higher than Slash and Destroy because Raph is less angry and more frustrated that he's stuck in the training phase with his brothers, feeling like they aren't doing any better when they can't go all out on each other. It's understandable, they just barely saved Earth from the Triceratons but most of that can only be attributed to Fugitoid's "sacrifice", then the Triceratons were the ones who finally put an end to the Kraang, not the turtles, and Shredder is still out there somewhere with his henchmen roaming the streets. Outside of feeling outclassed during their conflicts in outer space, Raph feels like they aren't doing enough.

But, since Raph pinned the blame on Splinter taking Leo's side, saying he's forcing them to hold back and that they clearly don't understand how he feels, Donnie saw an opportunity and shot back at Raph with the usual insult of him complaining about Leo all the time. That obviously makes him feel worse, and he storms out in typical Raph fashion. Splinter sets the boys straight though; aside from telling them that he won't always be there to play mediator, he tells Donnie straight up that he should grow up and could've responded in a more mature manner. They all need to learn to stop feuling the fire that is Raph and understand where he's coming from, and Donnie sees this in person when him and Mondo go after Raph and Raph doesn't immediately accept his apology.

(Excuse me as I geek out over season 4 being the season where we see them grow out of their bad habits, like Leo rushing Donnie to do something, the guys unnecessarily angering Raph, them underestimating Leo, and not taking Mikey seriously. Like, they still happen, but the boys quickly recognize when they've messed up and I just-)

Don Vizioso and his gang blows a hole in everyone's day of course, but by the end of the episode, Leo and Donnie apologize to Raph (who wasn't used to getting so many apologies at once), and Splinter reminds the turtles to not let their conflict separate them from each other.

-----

...So yeah I just really like that Raph's temper is handled nicely when it's threaded with the conflict of the episode, idk lol-

[pondhue]

some fear no mort thoughts 💭

during the ice cream shop scene where morty's projections of rick and diane are having their 'argument', to me it implied that deep down, morty believes that rick didn't deserve diane? like deep down he wishes he would actually talk to his grandma and ask her "why him? look at who he is/what he's capable of becoming"

diane sounds so resentful, fed up, and even disgusted (like she said). she's so squicked out by him. and by those words coming out of diane, i think morty was also telling rick (he didn't know he wasn't real at the time of course) that rick didn't deserve morty, either

rick obviously has spoken about how replaceable nearly everybody in his life is except for diane. of course this was a (very destructive) coping mechanism, but even so it doesn't excuse how poorly he has treated morty (and nearly everyone else in his life) for a majority of the time they've known each other. and if you have followed the show you know that morty is absolutely right to feel that way. like yes now rick is changing, but that's only been recently. morty's still sorting through his own resentments, fears and regrets with his grandpa. he doesn't have other people in his life really, and rick is the closest thing he has to a friend/best friend/parental figure (that's 'present') but rick also been a source of his trauma and torment for so long. their codependency has done a number on morty, and after years of repressing his emotions he's slowly accepting and digesting that. once morty chooses to figure out what was going on himself by himself, rick is sidelined instead of him (in his pov of the projections) morty decides to take matters into his own hands, to regain control of the situation, with no influence from rick either. and through this he learns to accept himself for who he is, and comes out with a better understanding of not only his place in rick's (and his family's life), but his own place in morty's life, his life. his security with himself. he's accepted that he was afraid of being responsible for his grandpa's sadness, but rick's sadness is his alone, not morty's. and morty can only do so much, and that's fine.

he's not his trauma. he's not replaceable, or irreplaceable, he's just morty, and that's okay. rick and just rick and that's okay. even if rick wasn't with him during his journey, he was okay with it in the end. in accepting rick for who he is, morty accepted himself for who morty is. now morty isn't sticking around because he feels like he has to or is forced to, he's doing it by choice, and his alone.

this is just me thinking out loud/my interpretations of the messaging of the ep and how the clear shift in rick and morty's dynamic (and morty's feelings/thoughts on it) was portrayed (which i really liked). this ep was so layered and complex and i'm just glad that we're reaching morty's arc of him finding his own person and focusing on his own feelings instead of someone else's.

[egg-emperor]

Been thinking on that tactics statement about Sage and Eggman hesitating to do them. What's your interpretation of that? It almost sounds like Sage is suggesting ideas that even he finds a little messed up at first. Not to say he wouldn't do them they only said hesitate after all. Either way I'm glad they're locking in on Sage being evil and implying she's giving Eggman really messed up plans. "She's a good baby guys!" NO SHE AIN'T SHE'S FUCKED UP AND THIS IS MORE PROOF!

Oh you mean this?

(Translation here)

Going by the part where it says she's a rational thinker, I'd assume the "tactics" in question are actually in reference to these certain Frontiers scenes, where she makes plenty of suggestions of tactics that Eggman certainly heavily hesitates to implement into his action plan lol

Because these are all examples of Sage being the rational one to suit that first part- in proposing teaming up with Sonic as an option to free him and eliminate the threat,

in insisiting that he goes back in Cyber Space for his safety,

and suggesting again that he team up with Sonic as the solution

While Eggman is very hesitant to fit second part because he fucking hates Sonic and hates being told what to do or hearing any suggestions if it's something he doesn't like, even if it's with his best interests in mind XD

While I love evil and fucked up Sage and it is canon, I definitely can't imagine that bit of text in the blog implying that she suggests any tactics that would make Eggman hesitate for ethical reasons

Because nothing is too far or fucked up for Eggman as long as it benefits him and doesn't result in the complete destruction of the world because he wants to rule it and it would result in his own death too

In fact, he's still obviously the much more fucked up one between them for being the one who hates Sonic much more with no change and finds joy and celebration in his death, while she ends up being much less hostile towards Sonic over time

She started out feeling the same way in the belief that Sonic must be eliminated and clearly wanted to kill him too but that's specifically because Eggman programmed her that way and gave her those orders

But of course she still stays with Eggman out of loyality despite his hatred and willingness for Sonic to die and it doesn't sway her one bit even after her developments and warming up to Sonic because she still loves Eggman and feels loyalty to him so much more

I can imagine Sage being the one who's occasionally being the more ethical one as I can imagine her thinking "this is a bit fucked up but it's Father's will, so I'll do what he wants to make him happy because that's what matters most"

Which is why she still sticks with him after he laughs at and celebrates Sonic's death in Frontiers despite her warming up to him, and when he's cruel to Orbot and Cubot in front of her in The Murder of Sonic despite her choosing to see them as her brothers. Her love and loyalty for her creator overrides any other feelings for her

But even though that's what I'm certain that part of the blog is referring to instead, Sage has clearly already shown herself to truly be evil and on Eggman's side, enthusiastically aiding him in his evil instead of changing him into better person, even after she became less cold and hostile towards Sonic and co

But yeah she's clearly all for Eggman's evil and all for protecting him, despite knowing exactly how dangerous and evil he is and supports him conquering the world and fully accepts and supports and works to fullfil his selfish and evil desires which is awesome and Eggman is very happy about lol

Again, her loyalty and willingness to serve her creator and master is still far stronger. She prioritizes Eggman's safety and knows what makes him happiest and embraces it, as she was created to do and as the exact reasons that he values her so much, for doing so very efficiently

She's definitely not a good guy and pure innocent sweet toddler changing Eggman for the better, even despite any development she had. It's so awesome and so much better and more interesting than the fanon idea that she's a pure innocent sweet little girl who is turning him into a better person and a softie

Nah, she's gonna follow along with everything he says no matter how fucked up she finds it personally and for as long as she can keep him safe in the process. And he'll be even more delighted on the occasions she suggests something messed up and evil, those definitely aren't the kind of tactics that he'll hesitate for, unlike the more heroic-seeming approach of teaming up with Sonic who he hates and showed a lot of hesitance towards in the game. He'd immediately approve and authorize those and jump into them without hesitation because that's his jam

They're gonna do such fucked up evil things and be their best evil selves together and I'm all for it hehe

[four-leaf-loco]

Okayyy but Halsin/Gale is underrated!!!! But also I need to analyze it to the last detail before bed so please excuse any like anything. My brain is so empty 😅

Both intellectuals, albeit in different fields. Halsin obviously enjoys medicine as a topic of research but he also does druidic magic and practices! He does a lot of academic shit. Halsin is just wayyyy more humble about it, i.e. doesn't make it his personality (though I love that facet of Gale's character/genuine)

On that note, I think Gale would think Halsin respectable for his attitude. Because Halsin is loving and caring for others. It's a mostly selfless pursuit, but also one of passion (a passion or duty, frankly I'm not too sure on certain subjects), and I think Gale would appreciate him.

Wizardry is a sorta selfish pursuit vs. medicine

Halsin I think would be amused, lovingly, of Gale's passion in his general demeanor, when he's emotional and open (like the spider scene, the romance scenes, the others I'm forgetting lol). Gale sticks to his morals and guns, even if such is gray, or from base emotions like disgust. But nature is gray, too. I don't think there would necessarily be jealousy but maybe longing to be allowed to be capricious with his own emotions too.

Halsin is very silly. So is Gale. They are silly men, inherently. In one way or another, on purpose or not.

Both miss so many social cues, good gods the audhd relationship we all need.

Both extremely loving!!!!!!!! They obviously love their partners very much. Halsin once again is different bc he is polygamous and Gale, atleast in the midst of the story, is not. It's debatable Gale's source of feelings about poly, but that is a major difference btwn them

The debated brothel scene where Gale flees, because why we aren't exactly sure specifically, only that he was uncomfortable in some way. Horny? Yes. Complicated? Also yes. But also this I sorta interpreted as Gale maybe in the past, or still a little bit, being on some level okay with (informed and mutually consenting) flings outside the relationship. Maybe Mystra ruined it for him? Who knows. But I do think once he is more secure he would be okay with Halsin's style more.

I think if they were together, Halsin would be understanding though. But Gale would have to be too, that Halsin's heart could not be contained, but that he still loves Gale all the same.

But they could definitely make it work, I do think.

Post game arcs, I think it will go well with Gale's "good" endings, where he relearns to be appreciative of the mundane, without giving up his passions. Becoming a teacher, a househusband, explorer. Whatever ending happens, Halsin would have a home for him with open arms. You just know Gale would love those kids to death too. Maybe he'd teach the kids from time to time, take them on illusory trips, give them spoils of Waterdeep. But usually he will teach them to cook, help them with questions, tuck them in. Maybe his mother would visit too, with Tara. Bc obviously these are his kids now, and Morena's grandchildren.

NSFW

Also you just KNOW the sex is raunchy, magical, and kinky af. Vines. Astral twister. Wild af positions if Gale's knees can keep up. All the damn time if they could. The furniture they have to replace, Halsin just stops making the beds and furniture in general with legs bc they always break. Don't be remiss either Gale tops too. They're both constantly trying to out pleasure each other. Essentially fighting to get on top, or get the other to settle onto the bed.

[roxannepolice]

Re: my therapy thoschei quote rants. One, maybe just maybe it'll last longer than until 16th because current suggestion is to apply for a month prolongation. So less "I'll never make this as perfect as I want" stress and more "what if one person (the principal) will cut me off at the home stretch with 240 a4 pages already in place" stress 👍👍

And two, yeah I'm obviously very classics and tensimm biased, and of course there's just plain personal preference, but I think there's also a level at which it is only later on that things got... convoluted. Overconvoluted. And for me this is where legitimate criticism steps in. Like, there are much fewer ways in which you can fuck up a simple thing than a complicated one. And when you want your characters and relationships complex, you're likelier to end up contradicting yourself. If it was thought through hypocrisy and this was conveyed by the text - great. But that's not always the case.

The simplicity in ClassicWho was kind of natural for the medium that tv was at the time (you simply CAN'T be intricate and rely on micro acting when the episode will be watched one, two times tops), and I think it carried over to tenyana and tensimm in a more self-aware and thoughtful way. Even if tensimm, or Ten, or Saxon aren't someone's cup of tea, that's what it is: it's not someone's cup of tea - but I've never seen either criticisms or defences that relied on explaining how the tea is actually coffee, you just have to taste it harder.

What I'm trying to say is, I really, really enjoy simplicity and straightforwardness in art. That's not to say I want authors to guide me by the hand, but rather that there's a difference between discussing something complicated in simple and precise terms and discussing something simple in complicated and vague terms. To stick to tags used, I don't need Simm!Master to have a tragic backstory to embitter him towards the Doctor in s10 (this is purely about interpretation, it's great as headcanon and fic material), because welp, his function in that story is to be an asshole and the story is very frank about it. The fact that it needs memory shenanigans and characters being just plain stupid to remotely work is how I'd define bad writing, but that's a topic for another rant.

Basically, there's a difference between participating in discussions of soteriology in catholicism and cardinalsplaining what the Pope actually meant about good atheists going to heaven.

But I guess this is also an invitation to suggest classic and tensimm quotes that don't sit right with someone, because one thing is sure I will be needing brain warm ups in days/weeks to come...

[magicwhiskers29]

I think with s5 properly confirming Wukong and MK's biological relation in terms of their stone, it's been kinda interesting seeing so many people suddenly declare how much they love the two of them as brothers?

Bare with me here, because I'm having difficulty articulating, but it's like... In the early season days, there were a LOT of blatant readings of their relationship as father-son, because season 1 had no mentions MK's parents at all, and season 2 only had him call Pigsy "Dadsy". Since the show never really established who MK's parents were at this stage (only that MK potentially saw Pigsy as one), a lot of people latched onto Wukong for that, because of his mentorship of MK.

Shadowpeach probably also ties into this, in that if there's two guys that they ship, and then a kid they both mentor, there's gonna be an urge to use that kid as their child. I think this likely wasn't as big of a factor, given Macaque's lack of early appearances, but I'm no Shadowpeach expert, so I couldn't say for certain.

But the point is, this is how a lot of people wanted to interpret their relationship, which is all cool. It's a common enough one to latch onto to, especially for the dynamic they have. I think it was an oversimplification of their relationship, but that's an inevitability when you want to stick a complex student-mentor relationship like MK and Wukong's into a single family label.

So I think it's kinda funny that as soon as canon indicates that a brotherly relationship is more accurate, lots of people start seeing it as that in retrospect. Like, obviously there were always people that saw it as that, just as there were people who saw them as uncle and nephew, or not familial at all. But I think there's something interesting to be seen as how people's perception of the same events warps as soon as they have a suggestion to look at it a different way, especially when it's something as nuanced as how to define Wukong and MK's relationship.

Their dynamic is of a teacher who isn't sure how to teach, and a student who worships the very ground that this teacher walks on, because they're the student's hero, only to see that the teacher is just as fallible as they are, and learn to help them, and stand on more equal footing with them in turn.

That's hard to sum up in a single dynamic! Especially as just a single family dynamic, no matter what it is