#or fuck. not even value. just accept. believe. dare i say even respect.

[britneyshakespeare]

I really don’t feel like we’ve reckoned as a community with the consequences of the “ace discourse” and “MOGAI hell” era. A bunch of people had their phase of being a cyberbully and validating all the fears and anxieties of asexual and aromantic people around their own invisibility. They spread their own basic incurious ignorance and pushed people back in the closet, back to being the laughing stock of a premise rather than a real group of people who share an immutable orientation, not an ideology. 

Asexuality isn’t a culture. It’s not a political ideology. It’s just an orientation and it deserves wider recognition just like any other identity in the LGBTQIA+ community. People live in general unawareness about asexuality and its related spectrums, which leaves people feeling ashamed and broken, just like any other erased and embarrassed group of people. Just that phenomenon is really not so hard to understand.

Some people are going to live without sexual or romantic attraction, and considering that’s such a huge part of how most people structure and visualize their lives, yeah, it’s a thing worth mentioning in public. It’s inherent to the heteronormative blueprint of society. But for years on here (and still to this day in some corners) people just wanted to deliberately misinterpret definitions of our terms, make bad faith strawman memes out of children’s self-expression, and overall make a punching bag of asexuality, even going so far as to say, often and loudly, that our increasing visibility perpetuated homophobia. Again, as if being asexual is a viewpoint or a belief. Something other than just what we are, plainly and simply.

Yeah, I don’t really know if I wanna let that go just yet. I feel like we can’t just “move on” without more people actually talking about this.

[some-beans]

How about the dorm leader bois with a reader who’s like Samurai Jack?

thank you for the ask, annon !! samurai jack. . . that's a blast from the past !! and sorry it took a hot minute to get out and that it's kinda short !! lowkey had trouble trying figure out how to write it

✎...pairing: twisted wonderland dorm leaders x samurai jack!reader ✎...themes: chaos, can be seen as platonic or romantic ✎...enjoy !! ✎...notes: can you tell which characters are my favourite, ace slander, i tried to keep it gender-neutral, but mentions of afab and amab in some parts

𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐋𝐄

i feel that riddle would find you pleasing to be around due to the fact that you respect the queen of hearts' rules

even if you sometimes forget them, he values the fact that you try anyway

well that, and he's lowkey scared of getting his ass folded by you

he once saw you do that to ace because he was annoying greatly and decided to teach him a lesson

let's just say ace doesn't do that anymore

no one does

but overall, riddle respects you

𝐋𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐀

leona wasn't really paying attention to you until basically manhandled a couple of savanaclaw students who tried to pick on you for being magicless

well damn

if you were afab, for example, leona would actually show so much respect for you

considering how a vast majority of his nations army is women, he wouldn't dare to get on your bad side

he could hear his mother scream if he was disrespectful

if you were amab, for example, leona would show you some respect for you

he would still make sly remarks or tease you, but nothing too much because why bother getting his shit rocked

he'd much rather nap

speaking of naps, he doesn't mind napping when you're around because you're quiet and peaceful

𝐀𝐙𝐔𝐋

gonna be honest. . . a little scared

i mean, a person capable of defeating a shapeshifting demon, who sent them eons into the future, was gonna scare him

despite that, he will try to get you to sign a contract but fails

why??

because you know shady stuff when you see it

whenever you read a contract, you read every. single. word and makes azul kinda annoyed

however, if you deem the T&Cs acceptable, you best believe azul will rave about it alone

he'd most likely act as the lounge's bodyguard or a debt collector like floyd and jade

𝐊𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐌

this ball of sunshine loves the fact you can fight so gracefully

he would sometimes sneak off from jamil just to watch you train ー even if meant getting scolded by the both of you

he will buy the best of the best swords and gear for you ー you've tried to deny them, but those puppy dog eyes are too powerful

when he sees your scars, he almost cries a river

no seriously, it almost happened

so you learned to just accept the gifts that he gives you

he also asks a lot of questions but tries to make sure not to step into sensitive territory

𝐕𝐈𝐋

he wasn't too intrigued with you, to begin with, but that wasn't until he managed to see the scars that littered your back

and that's when he started to notice other small scars and callouses

now, this is vil we're talking about, so expect him to try and get to use all these lotions/creams to aid with your skin

albeit reducing them or making them smooth, he will find a way

other than that, vil isn't surprised when he found out you're a samurai

i mean, he has rook

but one thing that vil does like about you is your dedication to protecting the ones you love

he finds this similar ー in a way ー to his dedication on being the fairest of them all

𝐈𝐃𝐈𝐀

two words: fucking terrified

you're a mother fucking samurai

what the shit??

but for real, his inner otaku is vibrating at a rate that could shatter glass

you remind him of so many different characters from various shows and he would love to see you fight, but he would never admit that

hearing about your time travel story also made him think of different isekais and such

god, you're really bringing out the otaku in him, aren't you??

𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐔𝐒

colour him intrigued

you're a warrior and a great one

he absolutely loves hearing your battle stories and how you got each scar

he's definitely interested in the whole time travel adventure you went on

he's almost like kalim in a sense ー child-like curiosity

however, he does fret over your healed battle wounds like you just got them ー you find it very endearing

[pumpkinpaix]

Pleeeeeeease get into the class one at some point because I very much want to understand the class dynamics happening in the story but I have yet to find a meta that dives into it

god anon you want me dead don’t you alsjdfljks

referring to this post

okay, so -- my specific salt about class interpretations in mdzs are very targeted. I can’t pretend to have a deep understanding of how class works in mdzs generally because uhhhhh yeah i don’t think i have that. i’m just not familiar enough with the genre and/or the particulars of chinese class systems. but! i can talk in general terms as to why I feel a certain way about the class dynamics that I do think I understand and how I think they relate to the themes of the novel! i’m gonna talk about wei wuxian, the daozhangs, xue yang, and 3zun with, I’m sure, a bunch of digressions along the way.

the usual disclaimers: i do not think you are a bad person if you hold opinions contrary to my own. i may disagree with you very strongly, but like. this isn’t a moral judgment, fandom is transformative and interpretive etc. etc. and i may change my mind. who knows what the future will bring!

OKAY so let’s begin!

here’s the thing about wei wuxian: he’s not poor. I think because characters use “son of a servant” kind of often when they’re trying to insult him, a lot of people latch onto that and think that it’s a much stronger indication of his societal status than it actually is. iirc, most of the insults that fall along the “son of a servant” line come after wei wuxian starts breaking severely from tradition. it’s a convenient thing to attack him for, but doesn’t actually indicate anything about his wealth. (exception: yu ziyuan, but that’s a personal familial issue) this is in direct contrast to jin guangyao who is constantly mocked for his family line, publicly and privately, no matter what he does.

so this, coupled with all the jokes about wwx never having any money (wei wuqian, sizhui’s “i’ve long since known you had no money” etc.), plus his like, rough years on the street as a child ends up producing this interpretation of wei wuxian, especially in modern aus, as someone who is very class conscious and “eat the rich”. but the fact of the matter is, wei wuxian IS rich. aside from the years in his childhood and the last two years of his life in yiling, like -- wei wuxian had money and status. he is gentry. he is respected as gentry. he is treated as a son by the sect leader of yunmeng jiang -- he does not have the jiang name, but it is so very clear that jiang fengmian favors him. wei wuxian is ranked fourth of all the eligible young masters in the cultivation world -- that is not a ranking he could have attained without being accepted into the upper class.

wei wuxian’s poverty does not affect him in the way that it affects jin guangyao or xue yang. he is of low-ish birth (still the son of jiang fengmian’s right hand man though! ok sure, “son of a servant” but like. >_> whatever anyways), but for most of his life he had money. he, jiang cheng, and their sect brothers go into town and steal lotus pods with the understanding that “jiang-shushu will pay for it”. this is a regular thing! that’s fucking rich kid behavior!!! wei wuxian is careless with money because he doesn’t have to worry about it. he still has almost all the benefits of being upper class: education, food security, respect, recognition etc. I think there may also be a misconception that wei wuxian was always on the verge of being kicked out by yu ziyuan, or that he was constantly walking on eggshells around her for fear of being disowned, but that is just textually untrue. i could provide receipts, but I admittedly don’t really feel like digging them up just now ;;

even in his last years in yiling, he was not the one who was dealing with the acute knowledge of poverty: wen qing is the one managing the money, and as far as we know, wei wuxian did little to no management of daily life during the burial mounds days -- mostly, he’s described as hiding in his cave for days on end, working on his inventions, running around like a force of chaos, frivolously making a mess of things -- it’s very very cute that he buries a’yuan in the dirt, but in classic wei wuxian fashion, he did Not think about the practical consequences of it -- that A’Yuan has no other clean clothes, and now he’s gotten this set dirty and has no intention of washing them. is this a personality thing? yeah, but I think it’s also indicative of his lack of concern over the logistics of everyday survival, re: wealth.

furthermore, i think it is important to remember that wei wuxian, when he is protecting the wen remnants, is not protecting common folk: he is still protecting gentry. fallen gentry, yes! but gentry nonetheless. wen qing was favored by wen ruohan, and wen ning himself says that he has a retinue of people under his command (the remnants, essentially). their branch of the family do not have the experience of living and growing in poverty -- they are impoverished and persecuted in their last years, but that’s a very different thing from being impoverished your whole life. (sidenote: I do not believe wei wuxian’s primary motivation for defending the wen remnants was justice -- i believe he did it because he felt he owed wen ning and wen qing a life debt, and once he was there, he wasn’t going to stand around and let the work camps go on. yes, he is concerned about justice and doing the right thing, but that’s not why he went in the first place. anyways, that’s another meta)

after wei wuxian returns, he then marries back into gentry, and very wealthy gentry at that. lwj provides him all the money he could ever want, he is never worried about going homeless, starving, being denied opportunities based on his class and accompanying disadvantages. who would dare? and neither wei wuxian nor lan wangji seem to have much interest in shaking up the order of things, except in little things like the way they teach the juniors. they live in gusu, under the auspices of the lan, and they live a happy, domestic life.

were his years on the street traumatizing? yes, of course they were, there’s so much delicious character exploration to be done re: wei wuxian’s relationship to food, his relationship to his own needs, and his relationship to the people he loves. it’s all important and good! but I feel very strongly that that experience, while it was formative for him, did not impart any true understanding of poverty and the common person’s everyday struggles, nor do I think he ever really gains that understanding. he is observant and canny and aware of class and blood, certainly, but not in a way that makes it his primary hill to die on (badum-tss).

this is in very stark contrast to characters like jin guangyao and xue yang, and to some extent, xiao xingchen and song lan. I’ll start with the daozhangs, because I think they’re the simplest (??).

I think both xiao xingchen and song lan have class consciousness, but in a very simplified, broad-strokes kind of way (at least, given the information we know about them). we know that the two of them share similar values and want to one day form their own sect that gives no weight to the nobility of your lineage and has no concern with your wealth. we also know that they both disdain intersect politics and are more concerned with ideals and principles rather than status. but, I think because of that, this actually somewhat limits their perception and understanding of how status is used to oppress. as far as we know, neither of them participated on any side in sunshot and they demonstrate much more interest in relating to the commoners. honestly, i hc that they were flitting around trying to help decimated towns, protecting defenseless villages etc. I ALSO think this has a lot of interesting potential in terms of xiao xingchen and wei wuxian’s relationship, if xiao xingchen is ever revived. regardless of whether you’re in CQL or novel verse, xiao xingchen really doesn’t know wei wuxian at all, other than knowing that he’s his shijie’s son. he knows that cangse-sanren met with a tragic end, like yanling-daoren before her, and that he wants to be different. but here is cangse-sanren’s son, laying waste to entire cities, desecrating the dead. I would very much like to get into xiao xingchen’s head during that period of time (and i think, if i do it right, i can write some of it into the songxiao fixit), but that’s neither here nor there, because i’ve wandered off from my point again.

i would posit that song lan is used to an ascetic lifestyle, and xiao xingchen probably is too -- but that’s different from poverty because there’s an element of choice to it. I also think that neither of them is particularly worldly, xiao xingchen especially. he lived on an isolated mountain until he was like, seventeen, and he came down full of ideals and naivete about how the world worked. I think that both of them see inequality, that they are angered by it, and that they want to do something about it -- but their solution is neither to topple the sects, nor is it to reform the system. rather, it seems to be more about withdrawing and creating their own removed world. I think that the daozhangs embody a kind of utopianism that isn’t present in the minds of any of the other characters, not even wangxian. honestly, baoshan-sanren’s mountain is a utopian ideal, but one that is not described. it exists outside of and beyond the world. i have a lot of jumbled, vague thoughts about utopianism generally, mostly informed by china miéville and ursula k. le guin, and I don’t think i have the ability to articulate them here, but i wanted to. hm. say something? there is something about the inherent dystopianism contained within every utopia, that utopias are necessary, but also reflections of the existence of terrible things in their conception. idk. there’s something in there, I know it!! but i suppose what I want to say is -- i do not think the daozhangs understand class and social hierarchy very deeply because they don’t see a need to examine it deeply. for their goals, the details aren’t the point. they’re not looking to reform within the system, they’re looking to build something outside of it. I think they spend a lot of time concerned with alleviating the symptoms of social oppression, and their values reflect the injustices they witness there.

regardless, even if their story ends in tragedy and there is a certain amount of critique re: the utopian approach, i think the text still emphasizes that xiao xingchen left a utopia and that he thought that people mattered enough for him to try, and that was an incredibly honorable, kind, and human thing to do.

YEAH SURE THE DAOZHANGS ARE THE SIMPLEST ok ok RETURNING to class and moving forward: xue yang.

i also don’t think xue yang has class consciousness lol, or not in any way that really matters, but I do think poverty impacted him in a much stronger way than it impacted wei wuxian. wei wuxian spent some years on the street as a child. xue yang grew up on the streets. chang ci’an’s horrific treatment of him was directly due to his class and social standing: chang ci’an is a nobleman and xue yang is not even worth the dirt beneath the wheels of his cart. what I think is the seminal point though, is that this does not make xue yang think particularly deeply about systemic injustice, because xue yang is so self-centered, self-driven, and individualistic. he is not even slightly concerned about how poverty and class might affect other people -- they’re other people. what he takes away from his experience is not an anger at being wrongfully cheated by a system, but an anger at being wrongfully cheated by a specific man.

xue yang is not particularly concerned with the politics of the aristocracy -- he has no obvious ambitions other than, “i want to eat sweets whenever i please”, “i want to hurt anyone who wrongs me”, and “i want to be so strong that no one can hurt me”. like, he just doesn’t care -- it’s not the kind of power he wants. he sneers at people for like, personal reasons, not class reasons -- “you think you’re better than me” re: xiao xingchen and song lan. to him, all people -- poor, wealthy, noble, common -- are essentially equal, and they are all beneath him. after all, what does he care what family someone comes from, how much money they have? everyone bleeds when you cut them. some of them might be harder to get to than others, but xue yang does not fear that sort of thing. it’s just another obstacle he needs to vault on his way to getting revenge and/or a pastry.

ANYWAYS onto jin guangyao (wow this is hm. getting rather long ahaha oh dear): I would argue that the two characters with the most acute understanding of class/societal politics and the injustice of them are jin guangyao and lan xichen. i’ll start with jin guangyao for obvious reasons.

where xue yang took the damaging effects of poverty as personal slights, I think jin guangyao is painfully aware that there is nothing personal about them, which is, in some ways, much worse. why are two sons, born on the same day to the same father, treated so differently? just because.

he watched his mother struggle and starve and work herself to the bone in a profession where she was constantly disrespected and abused for almost nothing in return, while his father could have lifted her out of poverty with the wave of a finger. why didn’t he? because he didn’t like her? no -- because he didn’t care, and the structures of the society they live in protect that kind of blase treatment of the lower class.

“so my mother couldn’t choose her own fate, is that her fault?” jin guangyao demands. he knows that he is unbelievably talented, that he has ambition, that he has potential, and that all of it is beyond his grasp just because his father didn’t want to bother with it. his mother’s life was destroyed, and his own opportunities were crippled with that negligence. it isn’t personal. that’s just the way things are. your individual identity is meaningless, your humanity does not exist. when he’s kicked down the steps of jinlin tai, it’s just more confirmation that no matter how talented or hardworking he is, no one will give him the time of day unless he finds a way to take it himself and become someone who “matters”.

jin guangyao’s cultivation is weak because he had a poor foundation, and he had a poor foundation because he was denied access to a good one. he copies others because that’s all he can do at this point, and he copies so well that he can hold his own against some of the strongest cultivators of his generation. he’s disparaged for copying and “stealing” techniques, but -- he never would have had to if only he had been born/accepted into the upper class. the fact is that i really do think jin guangyao was the most promising cultivator of his generation that we meet, including the twin jades and wei wuxian: he had natural talent, ambition, creativity, determination and cunning in spades. in some ways, I think that’s one of the overlooked tragedies of jin guangyao: the loss of not just the good man he could have been, but the powerful one too. imagine what he could have done.

jin guangyao spends his entire time in the world of the aristocracy feeling unsteady and terrified because he knows exactly how precarious his position is. he knows how easy it is to lose power, especially for someone like him. he’s working against so many disadvantages, and every scrap of honor he gets is a vicious battle. jin guangyao fears, and I think that’s something that’s lacking in xue yang, wei wuxian and the daozhangs’ experiences/understandings of poverty. i think it’s precisely that fear that emphasizes jin guangyao’s understanding of class and blood. jin guangyao exhibits an anxiety that neither wei wuxian nor xue yang do, and it’s because he truly knows how little he is worth in the eyes of society and how little there is he can do to change that. to me, it very much feels related to the anxiety of not knowing if tomorrow you’ll have something to eat, if tomorrow you’ll still have a home, if tomorrow someone will destroy you and never have to answer for it. it’s the anxiety of knowing helplessness intimately.

moreover, jin guangyao is the only person shown to use the wealth and power at his disposal to take concrete steps to actually help the common people typically ignored by the powerful -- the watchtowers. they’re described in chapter 42. it’s a system that is designed to cover remote areas that most cultivators are reluctant to go due to their inconvenience and the lack of means of the people who live there. the watchtowers assign cultivators to different posts, give aid to those previously forgotten, and if the people are too poor to pay what the cultivators demand, the lanling jin sect pays for it. jin guangyao worked on this for five years and burned a lot of bridges over it. people were strongly opposed to it, thinking that it was some kind of ploy for lanling jin’s personal benefit. but the thing is -- it worked. they were effective. people were helped.

i believe CQL frames the watchtowers as an allegory for a surveillance state/centralized control (i think?? it’s been a minute -- that’s the hazy impression i remember, something like a parallel to the wen supervisory offices?), but I personally don’t think that was the intent in the novel. the watchtowers are a public good. lanling jin doesn’t staff them with their own sect members -- they get nearby sects to staff them. it’s a warning network that they fund that’s supposed to benefit everyone, even those that everyone had considered expendable.

(did jin guangyao do terrible things to achieve this goal? yeah lol. it’s not confirmed, but his son sure did die... suspiciously...... at the hands of an outspoken critic of the watchtowers........ whom he then executed....... so like, maybe just a convenient coincidence for jin guangyao, two birds one stone, but. it seems. Unlikely.)

lan xichen is the only member of the gentry that ever shows serious compassion for and nuanced understanding of jin guangyao’s circumstances. lan xichen treats him as his equal regardless of jin guangyao’s current status -- even when he was meng yao, lan xichen treated him as a human being worthy of respect, as someone with great merits, as someone he would choose as a friend, but he did so knowing full well the delicate position meng yao occupied. this is in direct contrast to nie mingjue, who also believed that meng yao was worthy of respect as a human being, but was completely unable to comprehend the complexities of his circumstances and unwilling to grant him any grace. you know, the difference between “i acknowledge that your birth and status have had effects upon you, but I don’t think less of you for it” and “i don’t consider your birth and status at all when i interact with you because i think it is irrelevant” (“i don’t see color” anyone?)

to illustrate, from chapter 48:

大抵是觉得娼妓之子身上说不定也带着什么不干净的东西，这几名修士接过他双手奉上来的茶盏后，并不饮下，而是放到一边，还取出雪白的手巾，很难受似的，有意无意反复擦拭刚才碰过茶盏的手指。聂明玦并非细致之人，未曾注意到这种细节，魏无羡却用眼角余光扫到了这些。孟瑶视若未见，笑容不坠半分，继续奉茶。蓝曦臣接过茶盏之时，抬眸看他一眼，微笑道：“多谢。”

旋即低头饮了一口，这才继续与聂明玦交谈。旁的修士见了，有些不自在起来。

rough tl:

Probably because they believed that the son of a prostitute might also carry some unclean things upon his person, after these few cultivators took the teacups offered from [Meng Yao’s] two hands, they did not drink, but instead put them to one side, and furthermore brought out snow white handkerchiefs. Quite uncomfortably, and whether they were aware of it or not, they repeatedly wiped the fingers they had just used to touch the teacups. Nie Mingjue was not a detail-oriented person and never took note of such particulars, but Wei Wuxian caught these in the corner of his eye. Meng Yao appeared as if he had not seen, his smile unwavering in the slightest, and continued to serve tea. When Lan Xichen took the teacup, he glanced up at him and, smiling, said, “Thank you.”

He immediately dipped his head to take a sip, and only then continued to converse with Nie Mingjue. Seeing this, the nearby cultivators began to feel somewhat uneasy.

all right, since we’re in full cyan-rampaging-through-the-weeds mode at this point, i’m going to talk about how this is one of my favorite 3zun moments in the entire novel for characterization purposes because it really highlights how they all relate to one another, and to what degree each of them is aware of their own position in relation to the others and society as a whole.

1. nie mingjue, who is a forthright and blunt person, sets meng yao to serving tea and is done with it. he notices nothing wrong or inappropriate about the reactions of the people in the room because it’s not the sort of thing he considers important.

2. meng yao, knowing that his only avenue is to take it lying down with a smile, masks perfectly.

3. lan xichen, noticing all this, uses his own reputation to achieve two things at once: pointedly shame the other cultivators in attendance, and show meng yao that regardless of others’ opinions, he considers him an equal and does not endorse such behavior--and he does it while taking care that no fallout will come down on meng yao’s head.

is this yet another installment of cyan’s endless lxc defense thesis? why yes it is! no one is surprised! but this is my whole point: both meng yao and lan xichen understand the respective hierarchy and power dynamics within the room, while nie mingjue very much does not. this is not because nie mingjue is a bad person or because nie mingjue is stupid--it’s a combination of personality and upbringing. nie mingjue is straightforward and has no patience for such games. but then again, he can afford not to play because he was born into such a high position: that’s a privilege.

to break it down: meng yao knows that he is the lowest-ranked person in the room, sees the way people are subtly disrespecting him in full view of his general who is doing nothing about it. in some ways, this is good -- nie mingjue’s style of dealing with conflict is very direct and not at all suited to delicate political maneuvering. after all, the way he promoted meng yao was actually quite dangerous to meng yao: he essentially guaranteed that his men would bear meng yao a grudge and that their disrespect for him would only be compounded by their bitterness at being punished on his behalf. (it’s like, why often getting parents or teachers to intervene ineffectively in bullying can just be an incitement to more bullying -- same concept) meng yao’s reaction during that scene shows that he’s pretty painfully aware of this and is trying to defuse the situation to no avail. nie mingjue gives him a bootstrap speech (rip nie mingjue i love u so much but. sir) and then promotes him, which is pretty much the only saving grace of that entire exchange, for meng yao at least.

lan xichen, on the other hand, understands both that meng yao is the lowest-ranked person in the room and that any direct attempt to chastise the other cultivators in the room will only serve to hurt meng yao in the long run. he knows that if this were brought to nie mingjue’s attention, he would be outraged and not shy about it -- also bad for meng yao. so he uses what he has: his immaculate reputation. by acting contrary to the other cultivators’ behavior, he demonstrates that he finds their actions unacceptable but with the plausible deniability that it wasn’t directed at them, that this is just zewu-jun being his usual generous self. this means that the other cultivators have no one to blame but themselves, nothing to do but question their own actions. there is nowhere to cast off their discomfort. meng yao didn’t do anything. lan xichen didn’t do anything -- he just thanked meng yao and drank his tea, isn’t that what it’s there for? he doesn’t disrupt the peace, he doesn’t attack anyone and put them on the defensive, but he does make his position very clear.

i know this is a really small thing and i’m probably beating it to death, but I really think this shows just how cognizant lan xichen is of politics and emotional cause and effect in such situations. certainly, out of context I think the scene reads kind of cliche, but within the greater narrative of the story and within the arc of these characters specifically, I think it was a really smart scene to include. it also showcases lan xichen’s style of action: that he moves around and with a problematic situation as opposed to moving straight through.

not to be salty on main again, but this is why it’s very frustrating to me when I see people call lan xichen passive when he is anything but. his actions just don’t look like traditional “actions”, especially to an american audience. it’s easy to understand lan wangji and wei wuxian’s style of problem-solving: taking a stand, moving through, staying strong. lan xichen is juggling an inconceivable number of factors in any given situation, weighing his responsibilities in one role against those in another, and then trying to find the path through the thicket that will cause the least harm, both to himself and the thicket. lan wangji and wei wuxian are not particularly good at considering the far-reaching consequences of their actions -- again, not because they are bad people, but because of a combination of personality and upbringing. they’d just hack through the thicket, not thinking about the creatures that live in it. that is not a terrible thing! it isn’t. it’s a different way of approaching a problem, and it has different priorities. that’s okay. there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides, and where you come down is going to depend on your personal values.

okay we’ve spiraled far and away from my original point, but let’s circle back: i was talking about class.

I think it’s undeniable that class, birthright, fate etc. are some of the driving forces of thematic conflict in mdzs, and the way each character interacts with those forces reveals a lot about themselves and also about the larger themes of fate, chance, and what it means to be righteous and good and how that is and isn’t rewarded. a lot of the tragedy of mdzs (the tragedy that isn’t caused by direct aggression on the part of one group or another) stems from the injustices and slights that people suffered due to their lot in life. it isn’t fair. none of it is fair! we sympathize with jin guangyao because we recognize that what he suffered was unconscionable, even if we don’t excuse him. i sympathize A Lot with xue yang as well for similar reasons, though I understand that’s a harder sell. this is a story focused on the mistakes of an entrenched, aging gentry and the effects that those mistakes had on their children, and a lot of it has to do with prejudice based in class and birth status. whether the prejudice was the true reason or whether it was just a convenient excuse, the fact remains that the systems in place rewarded and protected the people in power who used it to cling to that power. mdzs is also a story of how the circumstances of one’s life can offer you impossible choices that you cannot abstain from, and it asks us to be compassionate to the people who made terrible choices in terrible times. it’s about the inherent complexity in all things! that sometimes, there are no good choices, and i don’t know, i’d like to think that people would show me compassion if I had to make the choices some of these characters did. not just wei wuxian, mind you, every single one of them. except jin guangshan because I Do Hate Him sorry. and i guess wen ruohan. i think that’s it.

good. GOD this is clocking in at //checks notes -- just over 5k. 8′D *stuffs some weeds into my mouth like the clown i am*

(ko-fi? :’D *lies down*)

[cursedwriter]

Dancing with your Ghost - Fushiguro Megumi

Jujutsu Kaisen Masterlist 

Warnings: Deals with death, Megumi has various breakdowns, it’s just really sad over all... sorry for making you cry in advance! 

Words: 4.9k

Author’s Note: Kind of inspired by this song: Dancing with your Ghost - Sasha Sloan // Also, when they dance, I kinda imagined them to dance to this: Technicolour Beat - Oh Wonder 

“Is he still in there?” Yuji pointed at the door by the end of the hallway. Gojo was walking in his direction, his expression unreadable.  

“No matter what I tell him, he won’t come out.” His voice sounded tired, almost worn out. The sight must’ve been hard for him to bear. Itadori gulped. He wasn’t sure if he could take it. “You should try talking to him. Maybe he will listen to you. We both know he would regret it if he missed the ceremony.” Gojo patted Yuji on the shoulder, hand lingering for a few additional seconds in silent comfort.

“I’ll try my best,” Itadori nodded, though, he sounded more hopeful than he was. This was going to be rough.

Soon after, Gojo disappeared behind the corner and out of sight. His shoulders were slouching and his head was hanging low as if he couldn’t walk upright. This was hard on everyone. But the person who had it the worst of all was…

“Fushiguro, can I come in?” Yuji knocked on the door three times. No answer. He tried again. This time more forceful. “Hey, Megumi! It’s me, Yuji! Do you mind if I come in?” Still no answer. Itadori sighed, but he pushed the door open anyways, peering into the dimly lit library of the Jujutsu Tech High school. Admittedly, he’s never been in here before. Yuji wasn’t really the non-fiction reader… or anything that wasn’t manga, really. But upon entering the room, he couldn’t help but gawk. The shelves were stacked to the max, piling up above his head in a seemingly endless supply of books. There were books everywhere. The amount of knowledge that was stored in here was immense. And all about curses and jujutsu? Incredible! Maybe he should’ve come here sooner. He bet that there had to be at least a dozen books about Sukuna here somewhere.

“It doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense.” Itadori was pulled out of his thoughts by the repetitive mantra that was coming from somewhere behind a shelf. He followed the sound that was mingled with quiet sobs and he had to force himself to keep walking. This was more terrifying than facing all the curses of this world together.

“Megumi?” He peered around the shelf, finding his friend sitting on the old wooden floor, frantically flipping through a book with yellowed pages that seemed to be falling apart at the seams. It must’ve been ancient.

“No sense, no sense, no sense,” he repeated over and over again as if that phrase was the only thing keeping him sane.

“Megumi?” Itadori tried again and finally Megumi’s head snapped up and he looked at Itadori like a deer caught in headlights… only way worse. His eyes were bloodshot with dark purple circles underneath them. A stark contrast to his sickly pale skin. Briefly, Yuji wondered if Megumi had slept at all since it happened. Tears were streaming down his face and it felt like they would never stop. An endless river of sorrow and despair. Yuji was sure he heard his own heart shatter in his chest as he looked at his best friend. He wished he could take some of the pain away. Even if it was just a little, but of course that was impossible. “The ceremony will start soon and-“

“That’s stupid!” Fushiguro cut him off harshly, his voice hoarse and quieter than usual. “Why would there be a freaking ceremony when she’s coming back?!”

“Megumi, she-“

“No! Stop it!” He yelled, throwing the book he was reading against the opposite wall. “Stop it! Shut up!” He pressed his palms against his temples as if he wanted to crush his own skull. “I’ll do it, you’ll see! All of you! You’ll see! I’ll bring her back! I’ll bring her back, okay?! I will – I will!” He repeated it over and over again and it was apparent that he wanted to proof himself right more than anything else. Maybe making him believe would help ease his pain? Should he encourage him? No. Despite wishing that he could provide some words of comfort right now, Itadori knew that false hope would be the cruelest thing he could offer. No matter how much it hurt, but Megumi couldn’t go on like this… searching for something that wasn’t real.

“Megumi, please. You’ll regret it if you don’t come,” Itadori tried again, picking up the book that Megumi had thrown away. He flipped through the first pages and he could already tell that the answers Megumi was searching for weren’t in this book. It was mostly about how sorcerers could reincarnate as curses if their dead bodies weren’t handled properly. If they died you had to make sure that the last hit was infused with cursed energy. Usually, that took care of things. However, if they died of natural causes, diseases or accidents there was a special ritual, a ceremony that made sure their bodies were put to rest accordingly. Kind of like a funeral, but then again, not quite. This was the ceremony Fushiguro refused to attend, even though it was highly valued among sorcerers. It was a way to pay your last respects, value their accomplishments and thank them for their sacrifice. He probably refused to go because that would make her death final and he would be forced to move on, no matter how hard it would be… and it was going to be very hard.

“SHE’S COMING BACK, DAMMIT!” Megumi yelled at him, reaching for another book that was stocked in a pile he’d built himself. The tower crumbled with the way he yanked it out, dozen books falling to the ground, scattering to their feet. It was eerily quiet for a second, Yuji didn’t dare to speak. The atmosphere so thick, he doubted even Maki’s demon blade could cut through it. And then, right when he wanted to say something, anything really to get rid of the suffocating silence in the room, Megumi started sobbing. Not like before. Impossibly, it was even worse. His whole body shook with the action, hands that were clinging onto the book were trembling and despite him hanging his head low, Yuji could see the frequent tears that were hitting the old worn out pages of the book, blurring the ink further, making it almost unreadable.

Hesitantly, he took a step forward, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do. Should he hug him? What could he even say? Should he call for someone? Gojo-sensei? Would he know what to do? Or Nobara? Or, wait! Y/N always knew what to do when it came to him… Oh, right…

Yuji slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand. How could he forget?! It really didn’t feel real yet, huh? Itadori tried to swallow the big lump in his throat as he crouched down and gently took the book out of Fushiguro’s shaking hands. He looked so fragile, as if a single slap to the wrist could break his arm.

“I just don’t get it,” Megumi whispered. His voice sounded far away, as if he was underwater or as if Yuji had cotton in his ears, muffling his voice to a point where it was almost incomprehensible. “It’s just so unfair.”

Yuji placed the book on the ground beside him, skipping over the title “Resurrection and the balance of the world”, it read. He gulped again. Could it be possible?

“I know it is.” He laid a comforting hand on his shoulder and another muffled cry escaped Megumi’s mouth. Yuji had seen a lot over the course of just one year, but not once has he witnessed such utter despair. The sight pulled on his heart strings in ways he couldn’t even explain.

“She fought against the most heinous creatures every day and you’re telling me she died because some fucking asshole thought it was a good idea to drive while being absolutely shit faced?!” Some of his words were swallowed by his sobs, but Itadori understood him well enough. “I refuse to believe that! I refuse to accept that!”

Momentarily Itadori was thrown back to the moment they got the call, he remembered it all too vividly. The shock, the confusion and his scream…

“I’m sorry for your loss,” the nurse led them into the room. The air was chilly and it smelled like disinfectant.  The stench so unbelievably strong, Megumi thought he might throw up. It burned in his eyes and nose and he distantly felt his cheeks getting wet. He couldn’t tell if it was because of the smell or of what was to come… at this point, it still felt like a sick joke, some twisted game or prank. Just not real, like a dream, a nightmare he would wake up from any second.

There was a single bed in the middle of the room, the body underneath covered by a white cloth. Gojo, Nobara and Yuji gathered around it, hands clutched together in front of them as if they were silently praying. Megumi hesitated. He stood in the doorframe, looking at the scene in front of him and nothing seemed to make sense anymore. Everyone was crying. Even Gojo seemed more tense than usual and he was sure he saw a stray tear slip from underneath his sunglasses.

The room was silent, except for the door falling shut behind him as the nurse left them to mourn in peace. This was a dream, right? A nightmare? How could it be anything else?

Megumi’s footsteps echoed off the walls as he hesitantly approached the bed covered in white sheets.

This is just a dream. This is a nightmare. You’re going to wake up any second now. Just wake up. Wake up! Wake up, dammit!

But he didn’t wake up. Not even as he reached for the white cloth. And he didn’t wake up as he slowly lifted it up. He didn’t wake up when everyone sucked in a sharp breath. And he didn’t wake up as Nobara’s knees buckled and she fell to the ground sobbing. He didn’t wake up as he laid his eyes on your peaceful but lifeless face.

Megumi didn’t wake up. But God did he wish he did.

He stood there for what felt like an eternity. Studying your features. How your hair was softly flowing on the pillow, how your lips were slightly parted as if you would wake up at any given moment and tell him something important. But he also noticed that your cheeks lacked their signature pinkish tint and your lips were more blue than their usual vibrant red.

His hand inched closer to your face, connecting to your cheeks and adoringly caressing it. It was cold underneath his touch. Your skin feeling more like wax than it felt alive.

No one said anything, the only sound was Nobara’s quiet sobs that she tried to stiffle to the best of her abilities. Everyone watched Megumi and no one knew what to do. Neither of them has ever felt so helpless. Even Gojo was rendered speechless at the heartbreaking sight in front of him.

And then, everything slowly started to sink in…

She’s gone.  She’s gone. She’s really gone! You’re not waking up! Why aren’t you waking up?! Wake up!! No, no, no. This can’t happen. This can’t happen. This isn’t happening! Tell me this isn’t happening?!

Didn’t I just talk to her this morning? Didn’t we talk about going to the beach as soon as it got warmer? Didn’t we make dinner plans? Didn’t she boast about a new recipe she wanted to try? Didn’t this just happen? And you’re telling me that all of that is just… gone? Just like that? In a moments notice… poof?! Evaporated into thin air? You’re telling me that?

“Wake up, dammit! Wake up, dammit! WAKE UP!”

Everyone stared helplessly at Fushiguro. At first no one knew if he was talking to himself or you, but then he started desperately shaking your shoulders, repeating the words over and over again. “We wanted to go to the beach, remember? You told me you couldn’t wait! Come back, and I’ll drive us right now! Come back! Come back to me, please! Please!”

Gojo couldn’t bear the sight anymore. The way he shook your body as if that would change anything. With a few long strides he closed the distance between him and Megumi and pulled him away from the bed. He was thrashing at him, screaming in his face to let him go, but Gojo didn’t listen. He gladly took a hit or two if that meant Fushiguro could get at least some of his frustration out of his body. To Gojo, the room itself was a hard place to be in – for obvious reasons. The energy here made him feel uneasy and on edge. The amount of cursed energy gushing out of Megumi was immense and almost unbearable. He had to get his emotions in check or else…

Megumi continued to yell and thrash. “Let me go, you bastard! Let me go! I need to see her! I need to see her!”

“I understand that this is hard for you, but you need to calm down!” Gojo’s voice was stern. This was probably the first time ever that he actually put on the façade of a responsible adult. Nobara and Yuji watched the two with wide eyes, but didn’t interfere otherwise. “If you keep this up, you might end up cursing her! Do you want that?!”

“Let me go! Let me go!” Megumi wasn’t listening.

“Megumi, snap out of it!” Gojo’s palm connected to Megumi’s cheek, his flesh burning hot where it had connected. For a moment, the room was silent again. Only Megumi’s labored breaths broke through the thick tension.

“You bastard!” Megumi launched himself at Gojo with all his strength, but that was exactly what Gojo intended. It was better if he directed all his energy towards him than having it leak out of him uncontrollably. Otherwise he had the potential of manifesting a new special grade curse that neither one of them wanted to deal with, especially if you were to be reborn as said curse.

Megumi stopped his relentless attacks, knees buckling under his weight as a single agony filled screamed echoed off the walls…

Megumi slowly opened his eyes. His head was aching, blood soaring in his ears. What happened? He looked around himself. The room was dark, only illuminated by the moon light that peered through his partially closed blinds. He was laying in his bed, the room a mess just like he remembered. That was unlike him. Well, ever since that day he hasn’t been himself at all. Now, he more or less felt like an empty shell, existing but not alive.

He groaned, sitting up while he rubbed his temples, hoping to get the relentless throbbing to stop. Ah, that’s right. A few flashes of the previous events reminded him of what had happened. Megumi’s frustration and anger had gotten the best of him and he started throwing books, ripping them out of their shelves and even tearing some of them apart when he couldn’t find the answers he was looking for. Yuji had to call for Gojo and he in turn had knocked him unconscious.  

Megumi huffed. Great. Now he was probably not permitted to go to the library again. He should really start thinking before lashing out like this. No, matter, though. If push comes to shove he’d find a way in and if it’s the last thing he did. He didn’t really care anymore anyways. What’s the worst that could happen? Expulsion? That was nothing.

He peeled the covers back, his shirt sticking to his body uncomfortably. Maybe he should take a shower before he went back again.

Reluctantly, he got up and walked towards his bathroom, mindful not to trip on anything that was scattered on his floor.

Once he was there, he turned the shower faucet on, letting the water heat up while he stripped out of his clothes. His head was still killing him and his whole body ached. He shivered, even as he got into the shower and the hot water burned his skin. He was still cold. For some reason he didn’t seem to be able to get warm anymore, as if you took all of his warmth with you, when you left him.

“Ew, stop doing that,” you laughed wholeheartedly as Megumi shook his wet hair in your face after coming out of the shower. “Seriously, are you a dog?”

“No, but I love hearing you laugh.” Megumi wrapped his arms around you, pressing your back against his naked chest as you both watched your reflection in the mirror. “I really love you, Y/N. So much,” he whispered in your ear, not taking his eyes off the mirror. He could see the faint blush on your cheeks and he placed a soft kiss to the nape of your neck to emphasize his words.

“I love you, too.” The smile on your lips and the way your eyes sparkled with joy, filled his heart with warmth and light. He could bask in it for all eternity and he would never get tired of it.

Megumi turned the water off, still shivering. It was to no use. His skin was burning red, though, and the whole room was filled with steam and yet, he had goosebumps all over his body. His teeth started clattering as he dried himself and he put on new clothes.

The clock on his bedside table told him that it was three in the morning. He felt like he forgot about something… something important. What was it again?

And then his eyes widened in shock. No, no, no.

“Hey, look!” Megumi felt your slender fingers wrap around his wrist, your warmth immediately warming his cold skin. You tugged him gently and he followed you. It didn’t take long for you to reach your desired destination and you stopped, eyes shining with awe in them as you watched over the city, lights sparkling and illuminating the darkness. Megumi couldn’t deny that the view was breathtaking, but he couldn’t keep his eyes from constantly looking at you instead. The way your face lit up, the way the lights danced on your face and how your cheeks were always tinted in their usual pinkish color, made him fall for you all over again. His heart hammered in his chest and his pulse picked up. Butterflies assaulting his stomach in the best way imaginable and he felt like he was floating above ground. Never has he felt so happy. “There! It’s starting!” You beamed at him as the first flash of light painted the night sky in a bright blue color, then it changed to red and then green. The sound of other fireworks being set off rang through the otherwise silent night. Here, on top of the mountain away from anyone, it was the most peaceful place he could imagine. But he wasn’t sure if it was only because of the view and the fact that no one was around or if it was because you were here. Whatever it was, he didn’t dream to fight it. The feeling so foreign yet so welcomed.

Suddenly your hand appeared in his line of vision and he didn’t hesitate to take it. What he didn’t expect was you starting to spin around. It took him a moment to catch up. “C’mon, Megumi, what are you doing? Don’t just stand there so stiffly! Dance with me!” You urged him on and Megumi felt his cheeks heating up in embarrassment. He could only hope that you couldn’t see it.

“There’s no music, though,” he said, trying to find an excuse to not make a complete fool out of himself. You see, Megumi wasn’t a dancer. Give him a choreographed fighting formation and he could do that no problem, but moving his feet to the rhythm of a song? Nope. That was sure to end in him tripping over his own feet and in the worst case break his leg or arm.

You rolled your eyes at him, but instead of saying anything, you reached into your back pocket to get a hold of your phone. It didn’t take long and the sound of the fireworks was mixed with the soft tune of a song that he didn’t know. “Better?”

Well, not really… Megumi scratched the back of his head, unsure. Better to come clean, I guess. “You see… I can’t really dance… like at all,” Megumi stammered.

“So what? I can’t dance either,” you laughed, spinning around and jumping up and down like it was the most normal thing to do. The smile on your face never faltered and you did another spin, throwing your hands up in the air, moving them around awkwardly. Megumi couldn’t help but laugh at your awkward movements. You looked so silly, it was hilarious. “See? Now it’s only fair that you make a fool out of yourself, too. You can’t leave me hanging like this!”

What the hell, right? Megumi started moving his feet, still super stiffly and anything but graceful, but he did it. He looked at you, following your movements and it didn’t take him long to get the hang of it… well, somewhat at least. He still looked really awkward and helpless, so you reached both your hands out for him again and he grabbed them without hesitation, just like before. You started spinning both of you in circles, giggling at the way his face lit up slightly. He joined your laughter, looking at you with the most adoring smile in the world. It felt… so easy. Everything with you felt so easy.

So now it was just the both of you, spinning around in fast circles, laughing at the night sky filled with stars while in the distance the sound of fireworks slowly died down. The music playing softly in the background, but you didn’t even care that the rhythm of the song didn’t match with your movements at all. Nothing mattered in that moment. Just the two of you. Together. Forever.

“Ah, I was wondering when you’d show up.” Gojo scratched the back of his neck, smiling apologetically. “Maybe I was a bit too rough, when I knocked you out. Sorry about that.”

Megumi stared at him sitting in the front row of lined up chairs. The room was only dimly lit by the candles at the other end. The soft light they cast illuminated a picture of you in a black frame. It was the same one he had saved as his phone background. Megumi gulped, feet moving on their own as he approached Gojo, though, he felt his knees wobble unsteadily. The air became thicker and thicker with every other step he took. It felt excruciatingly hard to breathe. It was suffocating.

Megumi sat down on a chair next to Gojo, forcing himself to tear his eyes off the framed picture in front of him. If he didn’t he was afraid he might break down again. So he shifted his attention to the man in the chair next to him. He was already looking at him, his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses, as usual. There was a slight frown in his features, though, and his mouth was pressed into a thin line, a stark contrast to his normally giddy self. So Gojo could be serious, huh? Who would’ve thought? Bet you would’ve loved to see him like that…

“Megumi,” Gojo broke the silence first, his tone soft, but there was a certain sternness behind it that Megumi didn’t know he had until now. It left no room for interpretation. This was going to be a serious talk and Fushiguro didn’t know if he was ready for that yet. “I know that losing someone you care about is not easy and I’m not trying to pretend that I know exactly what you’re going through right now, but I’m telling you as your sensei and as a friend… you have to move on. And that means you have to stop looking for ways to bring her back.”

Megumi opened his mouth to tell him off, but Gojo just held a finger up to show him he wasn’t done yet. The crease between Megumi’s brows deepened, but he kept his mouth shut regardless. “The world works under a few distinct principles. Rules that cannot be broken, if you will. Like we know that after the sun sets, dawn will come. With darkness, there is light and no matter how harsh a winter might be, spring will always come next. And the pinnacle of those rules will always be that with life there comes death. We don’t get to choose when this’ll be or how it’ll happen, but from the moment we’re born we know without a doubt that we’ll have to leave this place at some point. Death is certain. It’s but one part of life and disrupting that cycle, breaking one of the unbreakable rules, would cause the whole system to fall apart. It would level the ground for mayhem and destruction, nothing would make sense anymore. The world would crumble. As sorcerers you know that we protect the ones who cannot protect themselves, but we also maintain balance and Megumi… while I do understand your desire to see her again, I have to warn you… even if there is a chance, I won’t let you do it at the expense of everyone else’s life.”

Silence fell between them again. Megumi had a hard time believing that these words really just came out of Gojo’s mouth. Deep down, he knew he was right. He knew it was a futile plan to bring you back. It was selfish and irresponsible, but he was so… desperate. So desperate to hear your voice again, so desperate to listen to you laugh or complain, so desperate to feel your delicate and warm touch on his cold skin. He was so desperate for these things; he couldn’t think straight. His mind felt foreign to him without you there. He didn’t know who he was, who he would be without you by his side. He didn’t know if he wanted to be in this world anymore with his source of warmth and comfort gone. They said, time healed all wounds but as of now that seemed impossible. Just a thing people told themselves to keep moving forward. A lie that was supposed to protect oneself from the cruel and harsh truth that the world didn’t stop spinning, that time passed by and that dawn always came… no matter what. The world moved forward regardless if you were here or not and it felt like a cruel joke to him. Nothing seemed the same. He didn’t recognize anything, looking at the world with different eyes. How could there be a world without you in it? Why was everyone moving forward while he was left behind? And how could they? How could they move on? Why didn’t the world stop spinning? It should. Because nothing felt right. Nothing was the same. And yet… that only held true for him.

Megumi wiped away his silent tears with the sleeve of his shirt. “But I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” he croaked out. It was the first thing that came to his mind. He replayed the morning with you over and over again and he couldn’t remember if he said goodbye to you when you left that fateful day. Did he? Did he not? In any case, he would’ve never thought how final of a farewell it would’ve been in the end. “I don’t even remember the last thing I said to her,” he sobbed.

He felt beyond guilty for not being able to recall it clearly. Did he say ‘I love you’? Did you say it back? He wanted to believe he did, but he just wasn’t sure and it drove him insane.

“She knew that you loved her very much, Megumi. I’m sure she knew until the very end.” Gojo patted his shoulder a few times, before he got up. “Take all the time you need.” He left the room, closing the door behind him, but not before he turned around one last time, looking at Megumi with worried eyes. “But remember, Megumi… You have to move on eventually, no matter how hard it is. For her sake and your own… Just know that you have people in your life that you can rely on any time, okay?”

Megumi nodded and Gojo let the door fall shut behind him. The silence that ensued was almost deafening. Finally, Megumi let his tears fall freely, sobbing like a child and sucking in air after shallow breaths.

Everything hurt with you gone. How could he ever move on? How could he ever love again? Megumi was scared he might break in half. How much pain could someone even bear? Though, deep down he knew that he didn’t have a choice… He had to try. And he would try his hardest to keep moving forward, holding on to that tiny glimpse of hope that one day he’d see you again. And when he did, he swore to himself to never stop telling you how much he loved you. Always and forever.

[kirinda-ondo]

You know him, you either love or hate him (or are moderately confused by my sudden dive into this hyperfixation); we're talking about Orko because I have a lot of feelings.

As a disclaimer, I am not gonna claim to be some kind of superfan. I am not aware of every single iteration of the lore and all of its secrets. I don't know anything about the DC comics. I'm only halfway through the 2002 series as of me writing this. I am not someone you want to have discussions on the wider Masters of the Universe.... universe with. However, after watching Revelation, the entire Filmation He-Man (and some of She-Ra, cause he was there too), and going on a deep dive of storybooks, annuals, and minicomics courtesy of He-Man.org and the lovely people who submitted their scans there, I do feel pretty qualified to at least talk about Orko.

So, with all that being said, I'd like to get into a little bit of backstory, if only for my followers who came to this blog for completely different things and are wondering where the hell my love for this funky little wizard dude came from all of a sudden. Truth is, Orko is actually one of my earliest faves! Mind you, I only had limited access to Masters of the Universe as a kid, only seeing a couple of rented VHS tapes and later getting my hands on a small pile of the Golden Books from Goodwill, but apparently it was enough for Orko to  imprint himself into my brain. However, also due to my limited exposure, he kind of got shifted to the back of my head as I got deeper into other things. I still knew for a fact I liked Orko a lot though, even if I couldn't quite remember why anymore.

And then Masters of the Universe: Revelation dropped on Netflix. I'm not gonna get into my opinions of that show lest I open a flood of irrelevant discourse (for those uninitiated, it is a bit... divisive, to say the least). However my feelings on the matter did encourage me to go and watch the original and well, holy shit I love Orko more now than I could have ever comprehended as a kid. He is THE quintessential underappreciated comic relief character I tend to gravitate towards, and then some.

But before I get into that, let me back up a bit and explain. Orko is a Trollan, a race of magical little dudes that are basically floating sweaters with hats and covered up faces. Out of these Trollans, Orko is an incredibly fucking OP archmage. Like, they straight up call him Orko the Great, he's so powerful. But then, he gets caught in a freak storm that whisks him away from his home dimension and into Eternia. Immediately, he runs into a young Prince Adam, who is trapped in a swamp/tar pit and needs rescuing. Orko, being the upstanding lad that he is, uses his magic to save him but in the process loses the item that allows him to focus his magic to the swamp (in the 80s version, it's a medallion, but in the 2002 series, it's a wand). Worse yet, the magic (and dare I say the very laws of physics) in Eternia works pretty much the opposite as it does in Trolla, so he's been incredibly nerfed.

So basically, Orko is trapped in a topsy-turvy world away from friends and family, a world with magic he is fundamentally incompatible with. Ouch. He's not completely screwed, however, as he is rewarded by the king and queen for his heroism and appointed... the court jester. Double ouch. He surprisingly doesn't seem to mind though. He genuinely does enjoy entertaining people, even when his tricks only ever work like half the time because he's basically a Mac program trying to run on a Windows computer.

It's not all horrible though, as he does quite literally get adopted by the royal family  and thus sort of become the entire palace's weird son/little brother (despite being older than many of them. He's very, very child-coded largely for the purposes of being a stand-in and example lesson to the actual children watching). But also, more importantly, he becomes one of the very select few to know that Adam and He-Man are one and the same.

But outside of secret-keeping, he is actually a pretty valuable ally to have against Skeletor and his dudes because even though his magic is kind of screwed up, when it does work, he's still one of the most powerful mages on Eternia. In various materials, he's created floods, a second winter, and hell, he can literally explode himself and still be perfectly fine. He's also really clever and can weasel his way out of a number of situations. In one episode, for instance, he manages to convince someone that he's He-Man and Adam is his "assistant" in order to free him from captivity so the day has a better chance of actually being saved.  He's also got the ability to just be really frustrating and incomprehensible to the point that villains who capture him sometimes either don't want him or don't know what to do with him anymore, which is honestly really funny. In an episode of She-Ra, the villains tried to scan his brain but because the inner machinations of his mind are that much of an enigma, he got diagnosed a weirdo and broke the entire machine. Absolutely delightful.

However, there's a lot more to Orko than just comedy and bungled magic. He's actually surprisingly complex!

See, going into this, I expected Orko's whole situation be played entirely for laughs while the sadder implications of his existence go entirely unaddressed. Coming off the heels of characters like Cobalt and others I enjoy, I'm used to this sort of treatment by writers. But they actually don't do that. The depressing subtext is for once, actually TEXT, which was INCREDIBLY surprising to me. We actually get to see another side of him, a side that hates that he can't be taken seriously no matter what he does, a side that is well aware of all the trouble he causes and feels like a burden to those around him. He actually runs away on multiple occasions, fully believing that he's unloved and everyone would be better off without him, even if that couldn't be further from the truth (a point which the Sorceress hammers home with multiple straight up magical video presentations, and in the 2002 series, a literary adaptation, of why he is loved and important).

Underneath all the hyping himself up that he does, there's a lot of insecurity. He's someone who desperately wants to be loved and respected and feels that without funny magic tricks to entertain people, he has no inherent value (which is incredibly relatable if you are also known by people as The Funny One). At one point he agrees with the notion that he doesn't feel like much more than a pet, which is absolutely heartbreaking. Even when he gets the ability to go back and forth between Eternia and Trolla, his feelings of inadequacy now extend toward his family, worrying that his own uncle, the one who taught him everything he knows and greatly contributed to him being Orko the Great back home in the first place, wouldn't be proud of him. Being on Eternia highkey wrecked his shit, man.

However, even when given the opportunity to go back home for good, he always chooses to stay because he's loyal as hell. Even if he needs some reminders, he does know he's needed not just in the fight against evil, but just because his friends and newfound family genuinely love him. It's heartbreaking, but also incredibly wholesome. I did not even remotely expect a comic relief character like this to get this much depth and respect from the writers, especially not from the incredibly campy and cheaply animated 80s series. I am genuinely so unused to this.

But I think that's also what separates him a bit from his fellow Silly Kid Appeal Characters That Kids Fucking Hate ala Snarf Thundercats or Scrappy Doo. He not only makes a concerted effort to be an actually useful ally, but he's also in fact very self-aware of his status as one of these characters. He knows he screws up a lot but he actually tries to accept responsibility and fix it. It makes me wanna root for the lil dude. Now I understand if someone isn't a fan of the brand of humor he brings to the table, or feel like he's simply a distraction from the Cool Buff Dudes Fighting Each Other, but I hope you can see why he might also be a really appealing character to other people, both kids and adults alike. I mean, he was popular enough to be embedded into the canon despite originating from the cartoon and not the toyline for a reason, after all.

Orko is a fun, entertaining, but also complex, heartwarming, and relatable character. I know there is a faction of people that would disagree with me, but I don't think you need to change him all that much or make him a super serious character to be more appealing. He's already got a lot going on that a writer could easily work with. It all just depends on where you decide to focus. Take a lesson from the show and accept that he's fine just the way he is.

[jadelynlace]

Omg i know u said ink drinker ivar started to show y/n who he really is more when he fell for her, but like, i wanna get to know this man! Who is he? Can u tell us more about his personality and values? Like what r his vibes? Ahh i’m so obsessed w him

Oh, who is Ivar?

Well, he's a jack-ass, he's a smooth talker, he's a nerd, he's a sarcastic shit, he's a protector, all rolled into one. He likes his hoodies and his leather jackets, his combat boots, his mustang, and not admitting to the fact he needs to wear his glasses more often than he should.

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin, he lives rent-free in my mind. There's no end to how he rolls through my brain, and if this doesn't answer your questions I apologize. There's just so much.

I think first and foremost, Ivar is loyal. He's the most loyal person you'll ever meet. Or, he can be the meanest. It's all going to depend on how he's treated. He's pretty relaxed when it comes to just existing in the room with him. He'll keep to himself, draw, play on his phone, play video games. He's comfortable with his own company. That tends to happen when you close yourself off. You have to learn to rely on yourself, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying your own solitude.

Now, his values. Ivar is a family guy. With limits. He's a mama's boy through and through, there's no denying that. He'd walk through hell to see his mom smile. To make her proud. He loves her more than anything, and after watching what she went through from his father, God, Ivar can't believe just how strong some people can be. That's another thing he loves about you: your strength. When his parents finally split, when he and Hvitserk were just finishing high school, he really learned the core value of family. And that, family, is whoever you want it to be. Like, everyone always says "you only get one family!" Well yeah, and you only get one appendix, and when it fucks with you, you cut it out of your life. Ivar values strong relationships. His mother, Floki, Hvitserk, you. A few close friends from past tattoo conventions, people who do his craft as well as he does. Ivar also values children; he values treating children with respect, he knows what he went through as a child. He would never wish that on an innocent kid. I say it time and time again, Ivar is great with kids. Kids want to be loved, they want to be accepted and encouraged, and safe. Ivar will give them that. And hell, not even his own kids. His nephews, Floki's boys, friends of his with little ones. Cousins, relatives, yours or his. Those kids flock to Ivar because his energy is just so...pure. You swear he makes a friend with a child everywhere he goes.

He values the freedom to express himself. He's an artist, he'll draw until his fingers bleed and fall off. And then he'll draw some more. He values an environment that's not overly stressful. He still doesn't get how you and Hvitserk manage some of the shit you both have to deal with. He values acceptance. And that should be no surprise. (Looking directly at you Ragnar.) He values the ability to be alone, to be left alone, without being questioned. Sometimes, he just wants to go into his studio and exist. And that's fine. He'll come back, and he really loves that you let him be. You tell him that dinner's on the stove if he's hungry, you'll be reading if he needs you. He sometimes just needs to let his brain chill. To listen to some music and create art.

As far as his personality... Ivar is a geek. He'll geek out about math, about superheroes, about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and True Crime. About sports. About the latest and greatest in the world of tattoos. He's silly when he wants to be, he makes you laugh harder than anyone you've ever met. He's witty and sarcastic and God, sometimes you just want to smack him. Sometimes you want to put that mouth to better use.

This brings me to my next point. Your pleasure is Ivar's pleasure. He gets off on making you cum, on making you feel incredible. He gets off on watching your head tip back, on how your body moves, and how it's for him to worship. The filth that can pour from his mouth, about what he wants to do with you--sometimes you swear he only thinks with a different head than the one on his shoulders.

He's a protector. If someone fucks with you, he's there to see it through. And maybe to remind you that murder is wrong. If someone is giving Hvitserk shit, Ivar will kick ass and take names. Anyone so dares to look sideways at you, at his mother, oh Lord. Get life insurance.

He gets too far into his own head more often than he doesn't. He's his own worst enemy and worst critic. He holds himself to an impossibly high standard, so much that he'll never reach it. He's a perfectionist. He's a neat freak, and you can't believe he's the youngest of five boys. He'll clean up after himself, everything in his apartment has a place. It's borderline obsessive, but neatness makes him content. Probably because his brain is so messy.

He's not a perfect person, no one is. He gets stuck in his ways, he can be defensive. He can be moody, and he can be confused when you tell him to talk through what he's thinking. That concept is so foreign for him because he doesn't want to scare you with his thoughts. Because sometimes, they scare him. When he offers help, to you or anyone, and it's not immediately accepted, he gets angry. There are subtle underlying anger issues when it comes to certain scenarios. He has a history of unstable past relationships, with Ragnar, and women he's gone after. He fears abandonment and can get clingy. And then when he sees himself doing that, he'll become withdrawn, he doesn't want to annoy you. He walked on eggshells for a while, before he really opened up about a lot of this, because he didn't want to lose you. You'd never leave Ivar for expressing himself. For simply communicating. That was new to him too. Emotions, feelings, they were bottled up and he was taught to keep them that way. He doesn't want to be alone in his life. He wants to love and be loved for who he is.

I apologize if this didn't answer your questions or help at all. I'm always down to answer more "specific" questions or blabber about HCs if that helps. 😅

[lunar-lair]

ok say hello to my insanely new oc who ive made entirely to be a villain who is still an excellent adult and a decent parent, probably. cares too much abt kids. think reigen mob psycho with a drop or two of milla. worked under Nick From The Mailroom and was actually in on his scheme.

has always been rather cold and brash towards adults, but is more caring towards kids. in my brain he has a brooklyn type accent? rough and tumble, walks around without a tie, yknow? they keep him cause he sorts mail real good, though.

(added a read more because this got INSANELY LONG AKSKSK i spent like an hr on this h)

he was a delugeionist, but only because he kinda just wanted to rip the world apart a little; lysandre vibes, thinks a lot of it is scum and needs to go. thinks the *psychonauts* are scum and need to go. hes psychic but suppressed it, think aquato parents but extra toxic about it, and straight up just saying being psychic is unnatural. wouldnt go to loboto parent lengths tho. so he adopted that thought of 'being psychic is unnatural and wrong', which contributed to a lot of self hate that was never learned out. likely, he realizes hes a shitty person and thinks he needs to go too. so like...yknow hank, dbh? kinda the vibe im gettin right now. way more formal, of course, and while usually gruff, is more polite when its needed; can and *will* beat the shit out of you verbally in a factual way, though, and can talk more street-lingo if hes talkin to real thugs. (probably winged it on his own after failing college or smth, hes got the vibes.)

anyways, its this plot where he slinks off and starts planting mistrust in the psychonauts or something. and inevitably he just...shows up and starts kidnapping people. dismantling things from the inside and all that. he left and formed a group who also hated psychics at some point, likely friends of his parents and friends of friends, all from his hometown. all of them fight *insanely* dirty, and a lot of them are insanely vulgar. the kids are supposed to be kept away.

but theres a line to follow here.

this man is a fold to raz. hates the psychonauts, hates being psychic, adopted his parent's hate of psychics, hates the *world.* raz is young and unburdened and unjaded...mostly. hes not the shock of water some young characters can be when it comes to being the foils of other characters; think steven with a villain or something, right? but raz is sassy and a little jaded, and not total sunshine positivity.

hes a child this man could look down on and not be immediately annoyed by, who is worried by yet respects raz's realization of the world as it is, however little that is.

and yet raz is still his foil. he still mostly loves the psychonauts, despite it all, he loves being psychic, for the most part, he dodged adopting his parents previous values, he still seems to have an even view of the world as a whole.

raz is jaded, if only a little, but he moved past it and accepted that things could still be bright. this man is jaded, but he stayed in his stormclouds, never looked for the sun.

ok where. was i. RIGHT ok so. at the beginning of this...story? the man finds raz being talked down to by one of the office workers; someone with weak psychic powers whos insanely jealous of his prowess. an adult who envies the young prodigy. and theyre giving him some insane task to do, like cleaning all of the closets within the hour, but hes saved the world twice, so he smiles and nods along, because he said he would help around the motherlobe, and this adult is asking him to do something that seems simple enough.

and this guy, internally, goes 'bitch.' for a good long second bc 1. dude even if you envy a kid, kinda fucked to show that?? not their fault 2. WHY are you asking a 10 year old to do that. why is there a 10 year old here. holy shit thats a 10 year old oh my god hes so tiny (no one told him there was a 10 year old because they knew hed stomp right up to management but. regardless. he is going to stomp up to management after this and no one can really stop him. except maybe raz well see)

so yknow. dude fixes his slight slouch and walks forward and politely tells this woman that 1. hes 10 why are you jealous of him and 2. hes 10????????? and shes like shit hes 10. and apologizes. and walks away

and raz is VERY ?? bc she was doing what? why is him being 10 important? and its that young part of you that gets pissed when people try to keep you from doing things because youre young and hes DEFINITELY yet to learn that piling responsibilites that should be handled by adults onto a child is fucked up in its own special way (looking at you ford, *nick*)

and the dude calmly explains because yea. he gets that. and he still sounds gruff and a little peeved but he squats down to razs height and he talks simply and factually, telling him straight on why it isnt right.

and. huh. people dont really do that for raz. except for sasha, sometimes, everyone likes to dodge the truth a lot with him, because hes 10, and sometimes, hes too nice to tug it out of them.

and this guy, this man that raz is already polishing a trophy for 'good adulting' in the back of his brain with his striking statements about how adults should handle things and kids should-kids should...get to have fun. not be traumatized.

for the shock on his face when raz said hed already saved the world a couple times, whats some closets. he reigned it in, said that its weird he saved the world, because thats usually their jobs.

and this guy offers his hand on instict before he stands up, even though he doesnt seem very sweet and kind like the adults that usually offer raz a hand. and he takes it, i think. he takes it.

warm. warm, a little nice.

reminds raz of his dad, maybe. he wonders if this man has any kids himself, but keeps his mouth shut, because he thinks he already has the answer, and its yes.

(he doesnt have any. he would wish he did, but he knows hed fail to raise them right.)

and when he stands, he asks raz what he was asking that woman for, and he says hes doing tasks around the motherlobe because his papers are still coming in. the man doesnt ask. (he knows what 'papers' means, realizes this is the tiny junior psychonaut every room in the damn place has been buzzing about, and he has fucking words for forsythe.) he just offers for the kid to sort mail under his supervision.

and that sounds boring. at least, it usually would.

this man is interesting, and a good...person? a good adult? hes...hes new. hes new, and calm, and a little like sasha but a lot not, and he thinks he trusts him.

so raz grins and says yea, mail sorting sounds nice.

(debatably, raz does not take his hand. hes too jaded when it comes to adults. debatably, he does not feel any warmth from this man who has taught him every adult has been telling him wrong. debatably, im projecting. but thats the whole point of ocs, hm?)

and then holes crop up in motherlobe systems. people are kidnapped.

raz keeps seeing the strange man, keeps telling him things, keeps hearing back, gruff and factual and a little annoyed, but raz can almost-just-barely tell its not at him, with the way he talks.

he can tell. he can tell.

he can never tell. this man is making sure he can tell.

raz trusts the man, is still polishing that trophy for 'best adulting' he has settling in the back of his mind.

and then the man comes with a militia.

he did not seem jaded. he did not seem hateful. he never showed any anger or hate towards raz.

but thats because he knows kids dont deserve it.

an excellent moral or two. a rotten, broken heart.

and at first, they keep the kids away, because these people fight dirty, because this isnt their battle, because the man has been sending emails about why 15 year olds are in a secret psychic agency.

(he does not mention raz. by razs second visit, he had just marked the boy down as another reason to hate the psychonauts as a whole, and especially its higher ups.

hes also regretting his alliance to nick by about the third. if he had known the man would puppet a child as if they were a toy, he would have organized his own rebellion ages ago.)

but eventually, the psychonauts need all hands on deck.

they send the children to find the missing agents.

the interns are fought on the way. some of them avoid the child, know the boss would pummel them.

they get to the base, and the strange man, the one with the broken trophy for 'best adult' (still barely-polished, because hes still so sure) still nestled in the back of razs brain, is still there.

the junior psychonauts are spotted. one of the guards throws a few rocks aimlessly.

they surprise them. one almost hits raz.

its intercepted instead.

and the other junior psychonauts watch as this man, their enemy, a villain, in their eyes, reprimands the other man for even accidentally daring, for even trying. for doing something they might have done just a month or so ago, if they had decided he was too much weirder than they already had.

and he yells something like, "Why the hell is he even here?! This is an enemy base, of whats a rebellion! This is a *10 year old*! What kind of adult sends a child *near* something like that?!" and he truly sounds angry this time, raz finds. hes too angry to keep it in. he still sounds gruff and oddly proper. raz is standing there, arms hanging. hes baffled in a specific way, the way he was every time the man's brow furrowed when he mentioned a harrowing story, the way he was the first day they met.

and he asks, a little quiet, a little small, a reminder of how young he really is, "Why are you still trying to keep me safe? We're supposed to be enemies now."

And his brow furrows further before flattening out, and he tilts onto one leg, and he swears he almost kneels to a knee.

He cant believe it. He really cant.

"You're 10." he says simply, softly, that factual way. "You shouldn't even be here."

and raz pauses. the interns freeze.

"...well, here I am."

and i think...it would be so intriguing if this was done halfway out of the mind, because this man is so against anything psychic. it would be so *compelling.*

so raz steps forward and asks again, asks why hes doing this.

and the mans eyes harden, he tries to turn off that soft heart, trying to remind himself of all that he hates. because he hates the psychonauts, because he sort of hates the world.

and raz asks why he could ever hate the psychonauts, head tilted, before listing off the few he knows to be true. but other than that, how? and ok, the world sucks a little, yea, hes seen that, gets that.

and he appreciates that this kid isnt totally gung ho about existence.

but he hates that he isnt, too.

and its this back and forth. everything the man hates, why he hates it. raz saying why its good but admitting why its bad.

and hes swayed, just a little.

but the man stands up from the kneel hed inevitably instinctively put himself into, and walks forward, hand held out yet again.

"You shouldn't be in the Psychonauts," he tells him, soft, factual, brow furrowed. "Come with me. I'll bring you back to your parents, or wherever it is you want to go."

raz contemplates. thinks, for a long moment.

he grabs the mans hand, warm and firm, yet again, for a terrifying moment.

before he reaches up to slap a mental door on his forehead, and astral projects into it.

he thinks this man is good. thinks hes just jaded.

thinks hes the best adult hes ever met, one who just happens to hate a lot of things.

hes only 10.

hes not letting someone who can tell him so clearly whats wrong and right for adults to tell him go that easily.

aaaand yknow. raz does his razzy thing. learns about why the guy hates the world and the psychonauts and himself. helps him learn that its not all bad, that he was excellent to raz, and still is, that things can be bad and good all at once.

the man concedes that raz is very capable, very smart, and can do a lot. but that doesnt mean he should have to.

raz tells him, though, that he likes working for the psychonauts. its his dream. and he realizes some things he was told to do were kinda screwed up, now. that maybe, in honesty, he was dealt a bad hand.

but hes done what he can with that hand, and he ended up with a royal flush.

and uh! yknow!! then raz leaves his mind and he calls off the rebellion! its like a rhombus of ruin type adventure, except without the villain being present beforehand. its just not clustered in insanely close with a ton of other wild shit.

anyways this got really long? sorry?? its an oc i just saw good adult and slight father vibe potential in the vibe i instantly got on him and then i went feral???? rip maybe someone will read this and if you did. congrats i honestly really liked how the whole foil and good-yet-bad and consideration of raz being 10 thing worked out. this oc is almost like our representative in the psychonauts world the way reigen is for the audience in mp100. yea :) i match them up a lot but thats just cause they vibe a lot. anyways its 1:40 am now and i spent abt an hour on this hope it vibed mildly byeeee

[rpbetter]

I'm so tired of roleplaying with people who don't put half the commitment I do into our threads and muses. I'm so tired of feeling like I'm a weirdo or like I don't belong for that. Any other hobby and people wouldn't care if I took it seriously. Why is roleplaying different? How can I keep going like this if I'm getting rudeness from all sides? I can't even go outside my already tiny bubble and find more partners, because I always see people putting roleplayers like me down and it's exhausting.

"Why is roleplaying different?"

Well, Anon, I know that was a rhetorical question, but I have some thoughts on that. To the surprise of no one!

I strongly believe that this is an issue with how fandom has come to dominate roleplaying. As I've said before, it really wasn't always like that. Of course, you always had canon characters and almost all RPers were invested in a fandom or two. The difference was that online RP was once viewed much more like tabletop RPGs are.

When the RPC became a near-total offshoot of Fandom, a lot of shit changed and very rapidly...and within Fandom, a lot of shit was changing very rapidly as well at that time.

RP has always been something looked down on (though, at least no one ever accused written RP online of being literally demonic like they did DnD, or made correlations to murder sprees like they did LARPing, so there's that) as strange, not the good, understandable sort of dorky.

Part of that is almost certainly because of the difference in the way society views writing vs the way it views hobbies like gaming - writing is seen as an intellectual pursuit and a job, gaming, even at its most negative points of view in wider society, has been seen traditionally as a downtime activity only.

But. RP was not looked down upon from within Fandom or in roleplay communities themselves like it is now.

When the whole experience of fandoms themselves became extremely mainstream and open, it welcomed in a ton of shit ideas and behaviors that were not previously prevalent. It changed RP, too, along many of those same lines.

When your hobby is considered objectionably weird by people within the fandoms you love and RP in and that makes you a sort of lowest-tier fan, the viewpoint of RP to RPers becomes something lesser than a valid hobby. When RPers are the same people who engage with Fandom monetarily, anything not monetized is passively consumable content, including RP. And RPers are trying to both deflect shame and struggling with wider society's mixed messages, that now hit them everywhere online as well. Shit like, "you don't have to monetize your hobby, it's okay to just make really good cross stitches of memes for yourself" and "if you're not paying me, you have no control over me."

We seriously do not view RP as a proper hobby anymore, that's why. There are many factors to that, those are just few, but that's the ultimate answer. It's not seen that way because it's not valued in the same way.

I think much of the problem with muns losing their entire shit over anyone else approaching the hobby differently, dare I say...more seriously, is related to a lot of complex psychology about self-esteem, control, and anxiety. So many people here struggle with serious self-worth and confidence issues, and I think to many of them, whether they realize it or not, when they see serious RPers, they feel like that's an inherent judgment and a danger to their own enjoyment. Because RP, as writing, is a skilled hobby - the more you practice it, the more skilled you become with it. Meaning that someone who approaches the writing seriously is going to be at a higher skill level.

Enter the way we're training to think about writing again - when they see someone who is very practiced, skilled, and confident with their writing, the learned idea is that they're somehow superior in a nasty, personal way.

I most certainly do not think that makes it alright, it isn't, and I'm not very tolerant of it.

It's absolutely alright to engage with RP in any way you see fit. If that's extremely casual, it's a minor hobby for you, that's great! I'm so happy you're enjoying yourself, and I mean that in no facetious way. But not when that is the only form of it respected and accepted. It's just as alright to have RP as your primary, serious hobby!

The only way we can all enjoy a hobby with such great variance within it is by respecting each other's variables, not by vilifying them. It's recognizing that, no matter how much you enjoy the mun and/or muse, they're not engaging with the hobby in the way you are, it's not a good fit to write together. (Please, begging y'all to be friends with those who are different, not enemies, shit's sake. You've not got to write together to be friends!) Instead of labeling them and being hateful. Different =/= a threat.

And, to go off a bit lol y'all demonizing serious RPers really don't get that there are some intense tones of ableism and more going on in that narrative of yours, huh?

Not that anyone requires a reason to be serious about any hobby, but when people pick a hobby like RP as their primary one...you should probably have the maturity to consider why that is. Could it be that they focus on a hobby they can do from their homes and that requires low physical involvement, and has a degree of separation from direct socializing, for a reason?

Serious RPers tend to be limited in their ability to pursue other hobbies. Mental and physical health, region, finances, and ability to spend time outside of the home are all very common limits for those who "take RP too seriously/are addicted to RP."

Maybe take five seconds away from your own issues to consider that the person you're shitting on for something so minor as a difference of importance of a hobby might be the full-time caretaker of a special needs child, having to remain home and on a very small income. They might be chronically ill or suffer from agoraphobia. They might live in an area with no hobbies of interest, affordability, or at all...or they might live somewhere that is incredibly dangerous for them.

I honestly do not know where these people have been that they've been aggressed at by serious RPers, but that's usually the excuse. (I'm not saying it has never happened or does not happen, before anyone goes there.) The idea that serious RPers are extreme elitists who are demanding that other muns do what they do, how they do it. That they expect other muns to be online and RPing all the time, that they be "available for entertainment at all times" at the cost of real-life matters. Having the expectation that threads not be dropped constantly or that a writing partner not leave for months with no contact is neither of those things.

In over two decades of RPing across almost every platform type that has existed, I have literally never seen that be either a singular RPer-type problem or one that serious RPers are even more likely to deal in. I've seen the opposite, actually. Which is not a condemnation or a statement that all casual RPers do this, just what my experience has been. And one that actually stands to reason based on the way they view and engage with RP - quick replies, quick entertainment, and very low commitment to threads, muses, or other muns. Of course, it's annoying to them when a more serious RPer is unwilling to do rapid-fire style quick, short threads from an ask with them, but is writing the lengthy replies they already owed instead.

That's probably a factor as well, in here among a plethora of misunderstanding/unawareness of differences - for many serious RPers, it's not easier and more fun to write short, quick threads. So, what a casual RPer is seeing is that they're willing to put all this extraordinary effort into a massive reply to someone else while their easy, fun, quickly done thread is waiting in line.

Misunderstandings and unawareness breed hostility, period. And there is a hell of a lot of those things in the RPC.

What serious RPers are expressing are either boundaries/expectations or frustration. Not a demand that you be around all the time, but an expectation that you leave them alone if you're not also a serious RPer who will be committed to threads and muses. Not hostility and elitism, the frustration that it's already difficult to find muns who will work out before you add in the majority rule of casual RPers.

It's incredibly disheartening, frustrating, and honestly, a bit anxiety-inducing to constantly be the weird one, always have few choices, and to be at risk of being Problematic purely because you take the hobby seriously. You can't vent without someone jumping on your ass to remind you (even if you said numerous times that "real life comes first" and "people can do what they want") that omg, people have lives, people can do what makes them happy, it's just RP.

It's so upsetting when you think you might have found a good writing partner, then, you see a PSA they've reblogged about how it's a "hobby, not a jobby," and "no one owes anyone anything, ever." Excuse me, as that last one is a direct quote, let me redo it so it is verbatim: "no one owes anyone here anything - EVER !!!"

I said I wasn't very tolerant :)

But seriously, exactly what you've expressed is why I'm not...it's another form of controlling others instead of trying your best to control your own experience, and it's often extremely hateful. I'm not tolerant of anything like that, it's no longer supporting preferences at that point. When your preference is the only one that will be tolerated in the community, it's not a preference anymore.

It's something that makes others feel isolated, afraid of harassment, and depressed. It is a hobby and it isn't supposed to make you feel like that!

And, no, absolutely the fuck not lol the "answer" to this isn't that you're taking it too seriously and need to take a break. I'm so tired of seeing that shit tacked onto RPH responses and vents and PSAs. You're not saying that RP is making you feel this way, "just take a break and come back when you agree with everyone else" isn't a solution.

Of course, if you do feel like your time here has become so upsetting? Yeah, obviously, you should try to find some other things to supplement your downtime that make you feel happier again. Engage in some other forms of writing just meant for yourself, or that can be published as fics. Spend some more time on a game you enjoy for a while, or get invested in a new one. Learn to shape bonsai or make no-knead rolls. Whatever would make you happy as a hobby when you're not here.

Other than that, however, well...we're not going to be implying on this blog that you're too serious and need to take a hiatus until you have no emotional investment in your hobby. That's insane. I'd not say it about hiking, martial arts, dog obedience competitions, hobby farming, or painting either.

I wish I could think of some solutions as to where you could look that wasn't like this, but it's definitely the majority of the RPC. It doesn't help that, due to this, serious RPers have a tendency to quietly stick together and not venture out into the RPC. They're just not incredibly easy to find.

I will say that they tend to be:

novella - if you're not here for serious RP and sticking around for a while, you're not going to invest the time and energy into particularly lengthy writing

older RPers - I would say that twenty-five is probably the youngest, with early thirties to late forties being the majority

in fandoms with a large adult base of fans - even if it's a franchise friendly to, or even meant for, younger fans, if it has a particularly active adult fanbase, it's a better chance of finding serious RPers in it

as above, old fandoms - fandoms that have been around for a long time tend to have more serious RPers in them

fandomless OCs - tend to have a higher chance of being written by serious RPers than canons or heavily fandom-involved OCs

RPers who do not do a ton of advertising for their muse(s), but when they do, they don't advertise them based on activism points or trends

slightly more likely to not have an emphasis on highly aesthetic blogs, graphics, icons etc. - they use a modified basic tumblr theme, low on graphics, their aesthetics are not on-trend, for example

anti-content policing/"write what you want" style muns

muns with more extensive rules pages - they plan to be here for a while, they take writing, RP, and their muse(s) seriously, so, it's a bit more important to them to head off problems before they start

those with older characters/FCs - be that literally in age or the character being one that has existed for a long time

"stay in your lane" style muns - if they're opining on fandom or the RPC, they must really be angry about something

those with numerous and detailed headcanons - for example, their response to a HC meme ask like, "what's your muse's favorite ice cream flavor?" is going to be treated seriously, not simply answered with "mint chocolate chip because my bby is gross"

As usual, not a complete or perfect list. I don't fit some of the things on there! It could give you some things to look for when trying to find other serious RPers, though. It's based on observances from someone who was never a casual RPer, even as a minor (me, obviously), and maybe it could at least keep you from continuously running into hostility about your approach to RP.

I've honestly considered making a list of some sort expressly for RPers who are on the more serious end of the spectrum, but...in a RPC back when things were dominated by serious RPers, I did that sort of thing with a RPH I had, and it still got labeled as being a list for and by Elitists. I don't know that anyone would want to put themselves out there for potential harassment on tumblr, you know? It was a joke then, just having a group of RPers label you as an Elitist. Here, you get told to kill yourself, and none of us need more of that shit, right?

Try to hang in there, Anon, I know it's upsetting, and I'm so sorry that something fun has gotten to be like this.

Try to understand that these people are coming from a place of irrational defensiveness, often in response to bullying themselves at some point or feeling bad about themselves. That doesn't make it right, but it does make it easier to not take to heart.

And keep at it! In my experience here, once you find a group of people you fit into, it really is...A Group. Especially among RPers who are ostracized, they stick together, they promote each other, and they're very happy for their mutuals to become your mutuals. Once you find them, it unlocks so many opportunities for the interactions and type of RP you've been missing!

[quackinquack]

Recap and Theories of Quackity’s Second Lore Stream

         1. Sam (72 hours before the visit)

So after the first cutscene which basically shows us that Quackity has been visiting Dream daily, we get to find out what was going on with Sam in the time between Tommy's death and revival. So we find Sam on an island in the middle of nowhere, where he's been overcome by grief and guilt over Tommy's death. Quackity and Sam talk, and eventually it gets to Quackity telling Sam it wasn't his fault that Tommy died, it's entirely Dream's fault. He continually escalates the situation in order to convince Sam to kill Dream with him, and in this conversation you can interpret Quackity as being sometimes genuine and caring or continuously manipulative (Although personally, I think it’s both). 

They leave the island in a rage, ready to kill Dream. Only for Sam to back out once they get to the prison. Sam says Tommy would want him to keep Dream locked up, and that if someone else dies, Dream is the only one who can do anything about it. At this point, Quackity lashes out at Sam for backing out, and claims that Sam can redeem himself by killing Dream. Sam, in my opinion, does want to kill Dream, and does hold a great amount of resentment and malice towards him, but is holding back mainly to respect Tommy’s wishes. 

An important exchange to end this conversation is: 

"It's okay if you don't want to do it Sam. But at one point or another, someone's gonna have to teach that guy a fucking thing or two. And if it's not you Sam, it's gonna be me.” 

"Okay, but we can't kill him."

So this is obviously a prelude to Quackity and Sam in the first lore stream. Now that Tommy has been brought back and Quackity has seen him, he has confirmation that Dream can revive people, making him valuable. Quackity manipulates Sam into letting him torture Dream by playing into his guilt over Tommy's death, as well as exacerbating his anxiety over something similar happening again in the future. He has already convinced Sam that Dream's death will be the only way to his own mental peace, even if he simultaneously feels it's his responsibility to keep him alive in order to abide by Tommy’s wishes. This also explains why during the exchange, Quackity reassures Sam multiple times that he won’t kill Dream.

Along with Tommy’s wishes, they still have another hangup: Dream is the only one capable of revival. So it makes sense that Sam is so willing to help and allow Quackity to torture Dream daily. Once he learns how to revive, Dream no longer holds any value or power. Not saying Quackity is gonna kill him after, butttt....remember that Quackity didn't actually sign any of the papers Sam gave to him when he first visited the prison...kind of indicates that when something goes wrong, Sam won't be able to hold Quackity responsible because Quackity never actually agreed to his terms. And whatever happens to Dream will fall on Sam’s shoulder.

(Sidenote: This also brings up a few questions and theories about revival. Depending on the rules of revival and what it requires, is it possible to revive oneself? Because I do have some theories about Dream visiting Schlatt in the afterlife after killing and reviving himself...)

So mainly for this chapter we get to understand their motives a bit better, we get a greater insight into Sam's character and his guilt, and we learn more about Sam and Quackity's relationship. Personally, I think Sam trusts and cares for Quackity, as exemplified by him worrying over Quackity being in a cell with Dream, as well as not checking that he signed the books. And I think Quackity does care somewhat for Sam...but not enough to not guilt him over Tommy's death so he can torture Dream. (More confirmation that Quackity is an 'ends justify the means' type of character now!)

        2. Badboyhalo (42 hours before the visit)

Okay this chapter revealed the most about potential future plots imo! Quackity digs down to the egg and places a bunch of TNT everywhere, only to be interrupted by Bad and Punz. We learn that Quackity wants the egg gone because of how it's affecting Bad - I believe Quackity wants Bad on the side of Las Nevadas, but only once the egg is gone. From their conversation a bit ago on Bad's stream, we know that Quackity thinks of Bad highly, but is also fully prepared to 'get in his way' if need be. In the end, Quackity does set off the TNT, and then we get a cutscene of him hazily walking through the area with the egg speaking to him. It says "how dare you try to take this one from me, you will suffer for this". 

Also, apparently during his conversation with George, he says 'what the egg', so some are theorizing that he's already been taken by the egg (throwback to Karl distracting Quackity away from the egg in the past, indicating in some future he was taken).

And another thing, Quackity has been shown the egg before (not sure if it was /rp though), but he went through the usual entrance. Which has led some to wonder how Quackity knew where to dig down to reach the egg, and if there's someone who leaked that info to him? I've also seen people say that the TNT near Punz seemed to go off first, so some are theorizing that Punz is maybe a traitor(?) though I don't know too much about Punz's character so take that with a grain of salt. I would also like to theorize that the traitor may actually be Fundy, considering one of his lore streams where he is chased down by a black figure, and once he sleeps there is Quackity's smile and casino sounds. Plus him being warned against Quackity in a book. 

Additionally: we've seen Puffy accidentally blow up a creeper on the egg, and all it did was turn obsidian for a couple seconds. I have a feeling that all that TNT didn't really do anything but upset the egg. That said, we also know Tubbo recently lost a nuke. I wonder if Quackity is attempting to blow up the egg again... 

This is all, of course, a prelude to Quackity and Bad's conversation in the first lore stream, so now we know why Bad seemed pretty hostile to Quackity, and why he essentially said Quackity was 'getting in his way'. (Although he did still visit Las Nevadas with him...) Potential allyship between Las Nevadas and the egg question mark?

        3. George (24 hours before the visit)

Quackity sees George standing outside the prison, and the two have a sweet and happy greeting, as it's been a while since the two talked. Quackity begins talking about Las Nevadas and the casinos (which we learn he built for each member of El Rapids) only to be interrupted by George asking 'what about Kinoko Kingdom?'. We learn that while George, Sapnap, and Karl have moved on from El Rapids already and created Kinoko Kingdom, Quackity has believed it to still be a country, going as far as to create Las Nevadas and casinos for them, and had no idea of even the existence of Kinoko Kingdom. George insists that Karl told him, but we quickly learn he didn't. The meeting ends with Quackity somberly agreeing to maybe visit one day.

Quackity and Sapnap/George/Karl's relationship is now soured a bit on Quackity's end. He doesn't seem angry or hateful to them, but instead unsurprised and saddened at their leaving him behind. (Also, on the wiki, Quackity's relationship sign towards Sapnap and Karl has changed while theirs hasn't towards him.) It seems likely that Karl may have forgotten to tell Quackity due to his memory issues which are a result of his time traveling. Whether that be him just forgetting to tell Quackity, maybe telling a past/future person similar to Quackity, or maybe he has completely forgotten who Quackity even is, is unknown at this point. On the side of him having completely forgotten Quackity though, we do have the fact that Karl has distracted/saved Quackity from the egg in the past, but didn't do so this time…It's also hinted at that Quackity created Las Nevadas as a place for the trio to get married (similar to Las Vegas!) so :( sad face. 

Also, I have no theories on why George was waiting outside the prison, but I'm sure you NotFounders have a couple ideas ;) In terms of Quackity's character, this chapter is him at his most vulnerable and emotional, and therefore provides us with the most insight to his character so far. In the previous lore stream, we saw him somberly take down El Rapids, piece by piece, then jarringly interrupted by his plans to torture dream daily. That cutscene seemed, to me, to be him moving on from El Rapids completely (although he does still seem to care for the El Rapids members). An attempt to both confront and let go of his past.

And the tone change makes me feel that this was very much the last straw for Quackity, and the 'new man' he's become is far less...friendly than he's been in the past. So we saw his moment of acceptance, but now we get to see his heartbreak. And it really is sad, the way he reacts to what is a betrayal in his eyes. He's unsurprised that he was unwanted and forgotten, even by his own fiancés. And I believe that's very much related to Quackity choosing to see Schlatt in the previous lore stream. For a quick recap, basically Quackity and Schlatt had a toxic/abusive relationship during the whole Manberg era. Quackity has, understandably, been very resentful towards Schlatt since. So it makes sense that only in light of being left behind by the people he valued most, does he agree to go and see Schlatt in the first place. Especially since Schlatt is the only person who has reached out first and wanted to see Quackity.

        4. Wilbur (During the Elections)

We get a flashback to the election times, where Quackity and Wilbur have a conversation. 

Quackity asks to genuinely talk with Wilbur, who initially says no, then says he'll try. Quackity says that he understands that Wilbur is trying to protect his people, trying to save his nation, and that he doesn’t hate him or want to overthrow him. He states that none of this is about fighting to him, and that he just believes there is a major difference between him and Wilbur. He states that he likes to see the good in people, and believes that there’s a side to everyone that wants to see a better future, and that’s what’s different between him and Wilbur. He retells his story of coming to L’Manberg, how he felt unwelcome, and that he’ll become president himself just to make sure no one else ever feels unwelcome. 

Wilbur responds with an interesting line, “Your aspirations of optimism are not going to be subject to my nation's security. I'm afraid.” Wilbur claims that everyone has a good side, but that side is only there to help themselves, and if you want to really help people, you're going to need power. He continues to make a speech about how one could make a movement or resistance, and they would be celebrated, but it will change nothing. During this portion of the speech, we see flashbacks of Quackity interacting with Technoblade and Dream.

Wilbur continues to say, that “if you have a revolution, everyone will hate you. You will sacrifice everything, and you will lose everything you've ever had. But you will come back and everything will be changed.” This portion of his speech is aided by flashbacks to Wilbur blowing up Manberg, with Philza in sight. Wilbur continues by saying that power is only gained through swords, steel, violence. Not diplomacy or bureaucracy. 

He continues to say that even if everyone has the good side Quackity claims they have, the only way to prove it is by showing their dark side first, presumably to gain power. He ends with another interesting line, “When I look at you, as a fellow outsider, you're not ready for that.”

There have already been a lot of fantastic takes on what this says about Wilbur’s character, so I’m not going to talk too much about that. I would, however, like to acknowledge that Wilbur was a lot more jaded than I’d noticed, even before the elections. He refers to Quackity as a ‘fellow outsider’, and it seems to me like he sees himself in Quackity, at least when he was younger and more naive. Wilbur, by this point, seems to have already had the revelation that the only way to have any influence on the server, even a positive one, is by first gaining power through violence. Quackity, as we see him now, jaded and hurt so many times, seems to finally agree with Wilbur. And so we end with him leaving a note to Wilbur, calling him a ‘dearest friend’ and saying that he won’t make the same mistake again.

I thoroughly believe that Quackity didn’t actually lose his bet with Schlatt. One reason being that if he did, there is literally nothing forcing him to make good on his word, especially to this extent. And I don’t think Quackity, as he is now, would try nearly as hard as he is to get information on revival just to save Schlatt, of all people. It seems to me that Quackity is actually trying so hard so that he can revive Wilbur. There are only a few people dead at the moment: Schlatt, Mexican Dream, and Wilbur. Quackity does not have a good relationship with Schlatt, he literally didn’t know who Mexican Dream was, and he referred to Wilbur as a ‘dearest friend’. As for why he left the note in that spot, I’m not sure. I mean, it is where Wilbur died, but I wonder if Wilbur, as a ghost, can actually receive the note? 

Additionally: In the very first cutscene of the stream, we see three figures, entirely black, riding on horses. We know that one of those figures chased down Fundy, as well, and Fundy was also warned against Quackity. When Quackity leaves the note for Wilbur, we see him, as a completely black figure, leave on his horse. So we know who one of the figures is, but I wonder who the others are? And what exactly they’re doing that they need to be disguised for? 

++ Random tidbits that I don't know what to do with!

The Red Banquet apparently only needs one more lore stream before it happens, do with this what you will.

Charlie Slimecicle apparently said he's gonna be 'doing some gambling' so. Hm.

Three months ago Techno and Philza arrived on Sam's island, where there was only the cross at the time, and said 'its foreshadowing!' sooo its safe to say they've been planning this for a while.

[ooops-i-arted]

I am dying to know your thoughts on the S2 finale

I’m dead.  I’m dead I’m freaking dead

Overall absolutely loved it yessssssss, so good!

Mmmmm so much good rampaging and fight choreography yessss.  Personal favorites were Din versus Gideon because the cinematography was so gorgeous, Luke’s entrance because I am a lightsaber-loving girl, and Din versus the Dark Trooper because Din ilu but watching you thrown around like a ragdoll was simply hilarious

Also I don’t think Din getting repeatedly punched in the face was supposed to be funny but I was cackling

Also man, if he hated droids before imagine how he feels now

Also good cinematography:  I loved all the shots of the TIE fighters and the shuttle coming out of the whatever-they-called-it chute, beautifully framed shots.  This whole episode was really gorgeously shot

I am a simple girl.  I see Cara Dune shooting Space Nazis and then beating the living shit out of them, I receive serotonin

I feel similarly about Fennec Shand, she is amazing

Bo-Katan was the only downside to this episode because she’s an annoying bitch but her comeuppance was SO worth it.  HAHAHAHAHAHA NO DARKSABER FOR YOU AND IT’S RUBBED IN YOUR FACE HOW MUCH YOU DON’T DESERVE IT

Especially after talking to Boba like that, HOW DARE YOU SPEAK LIKE THAT TO A REAL MANDALORIAN YOU STUCK-UP COW

Okay I GUESS it made sense to bring her along, Din clearly knew what he was doing using her, but if you’ll allow me to be petty and snotty for a moment, I prefer appearances from REAL Star Wars characters not TCW nonsense

Speaking of which HOLY SHIT LUKE SKYWALKER HOLY SHIT LUUUUUUUUUKE LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUKE

In an earlier post I said I didn’t want a Luke cameo I take it back it was beautiful even if the CGI was just a touch off but it didn’t ruin the moment at least for me Like for any other character that entrance would be overlong and overdrawn, but for Luke Fucking Skywalker?  He deserves it and it was amazing.

My sister and I were, once again, literally screaming at the tv.  And then we managed to stop, Artoo came out, and we started again.

(Lol you know Artoo was just sitting there going “There’s ANOTHER one of these green fuckers?!”)

Gideon is such a cool villain.  So crafty and clever and always doing his best to stay one step ahead with excellent monologuing and fighting skills and also he has STYLE.  As my sister put it “He reminds me of Dooku” and “I’m glad Disney has figured out how to do villains again.”  I’m very glad he’s not dead and I hope he comes back and continues to be nefarious.

Villain honorary mention to that asshole pilot (in a Lambda-class shuttle! loved seeing one again!) who decided to talk shit about Alderaan, Cara gets an A++ for shooting him for it (and for clocking Gideon later)

“I yield” I fuckin died

So like.... I’m sure Din would be a great Mand’alor, he’s compassionate and clearly has a knack for bringing people together and deeply cares about Mandalorian ways (with a little adjusting for accepting others’ Mandalorian ways) but.... does he want this?  Because he seems to just want to mind his own business.  Not rule a planet he’s never seen and doesn’t really have any investment in.

Anyway to the Big Moment, I think Grogu going with Luke was overall well-done.  Grogu’s consent is clearly valued by Luke, he’s not baby-snatching him or anything (which is not what the Jedi ever did anyway), and while Luke addresses Grogu directly mostly, he also respects Din’s decision as Grogu’s father.  Luke clearly takes what they both want into consideration.  And of course, Grogu won’t go unless Dad says it’s okay and to me at least (maybe because I watch these halfway into ACCPOV mindset anyway) I felt like Grogu had already come to the decision himself, that he was ready to go train but only if he had Din’s support to do so.  I AM CRY.

God you know Din was dying inside though.  ME TOO, BUDDY

Overall I feel Din starting to remove the helmet has been a little too...easy?  I guess?  I’m not sure exactly what I wanted out of it more but he seemed to turn around too quickly for me given how hardcore Din was about it before.  That aside, Din taking off his helmet to say good-bye to his son was a beautiful heart-wrenching moment and straight-up murdered me with feelz and I loved it.

Lol so was Cara just standing there thinking “You wouldn’t let me remove it for A FATAL HEAD INJURY but now it’s okay????”

It was bittersweet but it definitely didn’t feel like an end to me.  Luke talks about training Grogu; he’s certainly not replacing Din as his father or anything, and like I said seems to treat Din as Grogu’s father.  Din says “we’ll meet again.”  And ofc Baby Yoda and Din are Disney’s big marketing Thing right now.  This isn’t good-bye forever, just good-bye for now.

That said as a teacher I’m picturing Luke setting up Class Dojo and sending Din a link and immediately getting five billion messages a day

Also you know Grogu spends the entire trip to Jedi School telling Luke all about how awesome his daddy is.  At least when he wasn’t trying to steal pieces from Luke’s cockpit with the excuse “Dad lets me do it”

So Din has lost his ship/home, almost everything he owns, gave up his beloved son, has taken off his helmet and even if he decides it doesn’t break his Creed he still probably has to do some serious Processing about it, and has just accidentally become ruler of a planet he’s never seen or even believes is worth going to.  CAN THIS MAN PLEASE HAVE A GODDAMN BREAK

Anyway imo the only big misstep of this episode was we didn’t get Din and Baby’s reunion.  Din fights Gideon and then he’s herding Gideon up into the bridge.  Where’s the emotional reunion between father and son?  Removing the baby handcuffs and making sure his boy is all right?  Baby finally relieved at being saved?  YOU’RE NOT GONNA SHOW US ANY OF THAT?!  (You’ll be seeing it in ACCPOV though, that’s for DAMN sure.)

The after scene was cool, the Boba Fett one is pretty much the only show I’m really interested in and I liked the little teaser.  Especially Fennec freeing the poor slave girl.

Tl;dr Loved it and was just wishing for one more big scene of Dad & Baby reuniting

[unohanadaydreams]

In your personal opinion, out of all the cast who is the most likely to be a yandere? And, who would be the worst one?

Well, considering the abundance of large personalities with poor respect for boundaries in Bleach, we’ve got some nice choices tbh.

FEATURES: talk of yandere, unhealthy relationships, possessiveness, ect.

My vote for the worst, in terms of how extreme, unapologetic, and violent, would be:

Kenpachi Zaraki -

He’s obsessive in canon, chasing after what he wants with no regard for consequences or other people. If he’s after a fight, for example, the other person saying no doesn’t compute. He just starts attacking.

He is offered and accepts genuine kindness and closeness from ONE person--Yachiru, who is also a reflection of his own soul. His ONLY primer for love of ANY kind is a little girl who is fucking obsessed with him and wants only what he does (with the exception of candy).  Kenpachi views fighting as the only way to garner respect, power, and security--Ikkaku sticking around first and foremost because of Kenpachi’s strength and Yumichika sticking around first and foremost for Ikkaku lend me to leave them off this list.

Also, think about where he grew up and the way he is likely to hoard and protect with deadly prejudice the person he loves, like he probably did with anything he valued growing up. He lived in a world where no one gave a shit to give him a NAME--he had to name himself--, where everyone fought over scraps, and where protecting yourself probably meant treating everyone else as the enemy until proven otherwise. I mean, he fights fellow captains NO problem--the structure of captains of the gotei 13 being allies means fucking zilch to him.

When this man switches from apathy to care for a person (more accurately, when he REALIZES his care for someone), the table flips and fucking shatters. The rules change. Kenpachi becomes possessive of your time and attention because love is clingy and needs constant protection from a world where the strong live and the weak get left to bleed in the streets. Especially after the loss of Yachiru, he’d feel extremely motivated to keep you in a position where you could not leave him. He loves you and therefore you are a part of him. And he can’t lose another part of him.

Kenpachi is like the perfect storm of earnest feelings, poor emotional maturity, blatant disregard for people at large, and proclivity to violence imo.

I think the fandom at large has a tendency to really sanitize how little fucks he gives regarding the boundaries of others. As well as how little he cares about other people.

He killed the only person he ever admired for the SOLE purpose of strength--to have the chance to get stronger--to fight and prove himself the strongest. Maybe he felt something about it, but he still DID it, and his attitude toward Unohana leading up to that point could lead one to believe he missed Yachiru the opponent in that moment of her death more than he could ever miss Unohana the person.

That said, if we look at Yachiru, he does not mistreat her. He allows her anything and everything at the disregard of others. Yachiru can do no wrong and is, at most, annoying to him some times. She can undermine his words and yell at him and terrorize his district and he does not care. He loves her, so she’s above reproach. Partly because he loves her and partly because he simply doesn’t care about his or her actions affecting others!!! Even Ikkaku doesn’t dare really discipline Yachiru for all the physical abuse she throws at him.

Obviously there would be differences between how he treats a child and how he treats a romantic interest, but the jist is: He would express his love how he knows and be violently possessive. All the yandere boxes are checked.

Other ones I think just SCREAM most likely?

Izuru Kira -

The slope he finds himself sliding down to ensure you won’t abandon him is awful slippery. It starts small, of course. Some person he doesn’t particularly like invites you to a party through him--that classic ‘hey tell Reader they should come by tonight! and you too, Izuru-kun!’ Well. ‘Should come’ isn’t a formal invitation is it?

He starts falling from there. Starts being a more subtle two faced scumbag than his captain previous. Starts being more ‘grave’ than ‘sullen’. Izuru blooms a love strong enough to brave any person or obstacle and wields shears sharp and ready for anyone foolish enough to touch it.

A lot of his actions are less physical violence and more social and emotional harm to others. He gets away with stabbing a small fry and challenging a peer to a duel and leaving them with one less arm here, but for the most part he’s more covert.

Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez -

He’s really similar to Kenpachi in violent and obsessive tendencies. I think the main differences are 1. he is more self aware emotionally 2. he is much more violent.

And I think what keeps me from considering Grimmjow as the Worst is that he would be initially pretty shitty to his romantic interest as opposed to Kenpachi. There would be an initial fight within himself that would cause him to be prickly and mean, to scare them off and spare himself potential heart ache.

Mashiro Kuna -

For fucks sake, she gets mad when Orihime talks to Hachi. She is VERY possessive. The fact that she just got left behind in Karakura town severely blows my mind (I mean, I’ll digress on that because the splitting up of the vizards was just!!!!!!!!!!), but she is clearly clingy of those she cares for in canon.

She would be one who might try to hide her violence and threatening under a thin veneer of ‘oops, haha, that silly Mashiro threw a tantrum and accidentally clawed some dude’s eyes out after he cat called reader!’ She really leans into being viewed as a vapid, silly woman who acts too young for her age. For the most part it works. Or she doesn’t get caught at all.

There’s a reason she has the longest manifestation of her mask and it’s because she and her hollow stand united in fucking people up when they both don’t get their way.

Momo Hinamori -

Another victim of betrayal, like Izuru. The difference is that Momo knows when she falls in love that if someone like Aizen were to ever do to you what he did to her, she wouldn’t be able to recover. Her post breakdown revelation was this: no one deserves first chances.

If someone in your division puts their hands on you, two weeks later there’s news that person was a horrible person who got thrown into the maggot’s nest for conspiracy to harm the gotei 13.

Momo’s smart like that. Never outwardly that violent. Never one to reach for her sword first. She thinks. She plans. She ruins the lives of anyone so dumb as to fuck with you.

Unlike Izuru, she never lets her partner in on the game. There’s no begging for you to understand she’s doing this for you--she never lets any one survive or feel safe enough to tattle on her--none of that.

Giselle Gewelle -

Probably the most transparently there. The most likely. The reigning ‘she was practically one in canon so what did you expect’.

She will keep you by her side forever and ever even if you need to be a zombie for that to happen.

[werevulvi]

I wanted to write a bit about sex segregated spaces, in regards to people who pass as the opposite sex. This is not actually about trans people, as much as it is about the safety, integrity and general rights of male-passing biological women. I am not the only gender non-conforming woman who gets tossed out of female only spaces, based on the false presumption that we’re men. I do not care about validating trans women, or even trans men, for that matter. I care about real life practicality, risks and safety for ALL women, not just those who look conveniently clearly female, which starts with accepting that some women, whether they've medically transitioned or not, pass as male. And none of them should have to feminise themselves to access female only spaces. Whether that be to ensure safety from males, or to just take a leak.

The fact that I choose to keep my beard has almost nothing to do with that I'm male-passing. It may be my strongest "male" feature, but it's hardly the only one. I still pass as male with a clean shaven face, which makes shaving my beloved beard rather pointless, in my opinion. I would realistically need to go through more than just facial hair removal to pass as my own sex again. I'd probably even need facial feminisation surgery, hair transplant, voice feminisation and full body hair removal, at the very least, to even get close to passing as female again. But even then, I'd probably STILL be read as a trans woman, i.e. male. And even IF I did all that... WHY should I have to mutilate myself (a second time) by buying into harmful patriarchal beauty standards, which would worsen my dysphoria and reduce my comfort in my own skin significantly, to be allowed the safety of male-free spaces?

Does that sound feminist to you? Because to me, it's incredibly misogynistic, and strongly counterproductive. To uphold patriarchal gender roles for the safety of women... is the most insanely anti-feminist double standard I can possibly ever think of.

To lay out my argument on this topic, I'm going to use my own experiences as examples a lot. Mostly because I cannot with any conscience speak for anyone else than myself, at least not in such detail and with such harsh judgement. But I'm sure a lot of my experiences are applicable to other masculine women as well.

First off, I still consider myself gender critical, but my allegiance to radical feminism has been waning lately. This is mostly due to that although I agree with the base premise of radfem, I tend to disagree with the proposed solutions to almost all of the issues, because to me they come across as unfounded beliefs (yes, BELIEFS) that "it would just work" without much of any evidence to back up such a claim.

And when it comes to trans people, I've noticed a lot of... shall we say, willful ignorance, going on among many radfems, which does affect opinions on gender abolishion as well as sex segregated spaces to appear rather... intellectually dishonest, to be frank. Although this is not intended as a call out by any means, I merely want for people of all sides of the radfem/gender critical/pro-trans fence to stay critical and keep questioning everything, even one's own beloved ideology. Which I don't see a lot of. Instead I see almost religious defending of radfem as the ultimate/perfect ideology... oh, guess where I've seen that before? I've come to believe that "hivemindedness" is probably part of every possible ideology out there. Even radfem.

So, anyway.

One thing I come across time and time again is the belief (yes, I dare say "belief") that people never pass as the opposite sex, although it's mostly directed at trans people, this very much applies to people who are just gnc as well. Let's not forget that. And this belief seem to often lead to that transitioned/gnc people can just use the space intended for their biological sex, no problem. However, this is not the case. There is a problem. Very many trans people, and some gnc people, pass well enough to at least blend in enough to not raise much of an eyebrow among the opposite sex, and to most definitely stand out as an outsider among people of the same sex. OR they pass barely enough as either sex, and thus stand out as an outsider among both the same sex and the opposite sex, which can cause similar problems with single sex spaces.

There's also the thing that it generally is easier to pass as the opposite sex among complete strangers, compared to people who know you/your background. They tend to read you differently, depending on that.

At least in my experience, complete strangers assume I'm male and don't even as much as raise an eyebrow about how male I come across as. They accept their false assumption at face value. And why wouldn't they? 99,97% of people who "look like me" are biologically men. Then people who know I'm transitioned, but didn't know me pre-transition, tend to see me as a female who looks very convincingly male, whether that makes me a masculine woman, trans man, or any other (female) label in their eyes. They claim to be able to "see" my female nature, yet they somehow had no idea before I told them about my true sex. Then people who know about my history and saw it happen from the time before my transition (now only really my family) never quite succeeded to see me as anything other than a gnc woman. To quote my dad: "You look like a woman who's trying to look like a man." Although I'm sure my mom and sister don't have quite as harsh views about me, lol. They still seem to see me the way they always have, regardless of what name or pronouns they use for me.

This matters, because although people who know I'm transitioned and may even have witnessed my transition from the beginning, struggle to see me as a man (which I respect entirely and I'm VERY careful to not push wanting to be seen/read as anything in particular, but also, people do not want to be rude, especially irl) that does not go for people who have never even seen me before the moment I walk into... say, a public bathroom. To them I cannot possibly be anything other than a man, and it's almost impossible to change their view of me as male once their brains have registered me as such. I need to conjure up pretty fucking compelling evidence to shatter that view they have of me.

This is important, because it means I cannot feasibly use female only spaces, unless someone else (who is also female) vouches for me and explains my situation for me. This is, most likely due to people being more likely to believe an unlikely explanation when it's told by someone else, because maybe I could be lying; and only someone of the same sex as me can accompany/escort me into female only spaces, obviously. But even then, there's a ton of tension around my presentation. An air of distrust, basically. The question that hangs in the air: "Is that a trans woman?" even after they've been given a thorough explanation of my situation. It's uncomfortable for everyone involved. Imagine how it goes then if I'd just show up unannounced, and without someone to vouch for me. I just get booted on sight.

Yes, I can whine about this all day, but that is NOT my point.

My point is that I'm either directly, or implicitly, unwelcome in female only spaces, despite being biologically female, because of my transitioned appearance... despite I'm not even on testosterone anymore since 2 years ago. Sure, most gnc women (whether transitioned or not) don't seem to have turned out quite as passable as me, but clearly, it happens. So let's stop pretending that it doesn't.

So with that in mind, I don't always have access to a gender neutral space. Like for example when I travel with the ferry that goes between my island and the mainland of my country, there is only men's bathrooms and women's bathrooms. No third option. That's a 3 hour boat ride, and with my coffee drinking habit, I will need to pee at some point or another while aboard that ship, alright. And no, peeing in the ocean is not an option, as squatting over the railing would be incredibly dangerous, and most likely not even remotely allowed. Granted, I don't take the ferry often, it's just the most clear example I can think of. Because it's my only means of transportation to/from the mainland, except from flying, which is incredibly expensive, less reliable and obviously an environmental hazard. So when I do have to use that ferry, I'm kinda stuck with my choices.

So then, am I better off going with the men's or women's bathroom? I am much more likely to be left alone to do my business in the men's, so even though that is not the space I want to be in, nor do I think it's "right" for me to be there, sometimes it's even a bit scary, other times even impractical if there's only urinals and no stall, and it's absolutely not validating at all - it's the only bathroom that I can realistically use, without too much trouble. And I don't want trouble. But I also hate having to put my own safety on the backburner for the perceived safety of other women, who are not actually at any higher safety risk when left alone with me.

So, onto the more general, political aspects of this issue:

Women in male only spaces may be less of an issue in regards to safety, at least for the majority of people (men) in that space, especially if the woman in question passes as male. No one gives a fuck, generally. But problem is then that she is at far greater risk than the majority of people (women) would be with a single male, in a female only space. As I think a group of women against one male is generally less risk towards the women, when compared to a group of men against a single female, which can be extremely dangerous for her. Although I've so far never been faced with any sort of violence in a male only space, let's not pretend that my presense in a male only space is somehow LESS dangerous for me, than how dangerous the presense of ONE male in a space with a whole group of women, would be for those women. Statistically and realistically, I'm at a far greater risk than they are, and no, I do not have any more choice in the matter than they do.

Thus, this kinda skewed idea of safety and choice, becomes a question of ethics, I think.

Furthermore, I'm a person of principles, and it wouldn't sit right with me that if males should never under any circumstances be allowed in female spaces, but females could be allowed in male spaces. I refuse to be a hypocrit on purpose! No, if males should never under any circumstances be allowed in female spaces, then females should also never under any circumstances be allowed in male spaces. OR, if females CAN under some special circumstances be allowed into male spaces, then males should be allowed the same in female spaces. Both of these solutions pose serious problems, which I keep seeing being brushed under the carpet a lot, and that annoys me.

But if we go with the first idea, of barring people from using opposite sex spaces altogether, then where the fuck do I pee? Should I utilise my "right" to use female spaces, despite making everyone uncomfortable and feeling threatened by my presense, as well as risking being kicked out and forced to use the equivalent male spaces anyway, which is exactly what that idea is meant to prevent - or should I completely avoid being in places which I know does not have a gender neutral bathroom, such as the ferry? Would that not be discrimination? Which is the most reasonable option here, what is the most practical, what's wrong and what's right? Do I even have a RIGHT to use female bathrooms, and if so, how do I prove it, considering my ID still says I'm male?

Trans men aren't gonna be nearly as willing to use female only spaces, and trans women definitely not eager to use male only spaces. But aside from that validation factor, I have the exact same struggle as trans people do on this particular point. Quite often they do toss and turn at which bloody bathroom to pick, not just out of validation, but because they genuinely struggle to figure out which one is the best option for them practically. Especially if they don't quite pass as either sex, and most and foremost just wanna do their business without unneccesary drama.

Also, to clarify: barring trans people from opposite sex spaces is NOT discrimination, as they never belonged there to begin with - but leaving them with no other option than to pee themselves, is. Which means that I think it's fucked up to barr them from those spaces BEFORE having solved the problem of "if they can't go there, then where?"

Perhaps I'm the only one around here who cares about males' integrity, safety and human rights. But even if so, I should not be the only one to care about gnc females' integrity, safety and rights. Male-passing females, whether transitioned or not, whether bearded or not, are still female, and if we don't want them in female only spaces, and not in male only spaces either; why? Because they "chose" to medically transition and/or dress in men's clothing?

Yeah, well, in most cases of transitioned females, they transitioned because of dysphoria, which no one chooses to have. It's a medical condition. Barring people from spaces they'd otherwise be welcomed into, due to the visual outcome of the treatment of their medical condition... is ableism. Barring a woman from a female only space she belongs in, solely because her unusual physical appearance freaks you out... is ableism. Also, simply being gnc and being viscerally uncomfortable with presenting femininely is also not a choice. And even if it was... shouldn't it be? That's why I cannot roll with that sorta solution. I dunno if it counts as a form of discrimination by definition, but it just smells a lot like it from where I sit. That it's no more right to toss me out of, or give me trouble, in a women's bathroom, than a masculine women who also passes as male but who has not medically transitioned.

That said, however, women's safety DOES matter a lot to me. Hence my reluctance to join their spaces, despite being a woman myself. I guess, what I'd want is complete sex segregation to work in my favour, but I can't promote a rule that would discriminate against me. I'm sorry, I just can't. I desire FUNCTIONAL sex segregated spaces, but realistically they cannot function. Truth is that the only womens spaces I've been allowed into since I began passing as male, are "trans inclusionary" ones that openly allow in trans women, ironically. I care about the safety of other women, and their right to have their own spaces... but not at the expense of my own rights, as a fellow woman. To say otherwise would be a crime against myself. I really wish this could be solved in some way that would work in practice, but honestly I don't think it can anytime soon. Not without some seriously tried and proven, practical and humane methods to check what sex people entering single sex spaces actually are.

That is the reality that people have to face. And personally I'd rather focus on women's rights than trans rights, but as a woman who's medically transitioning, I'd shoot my own foot no matter which one I'd choose. That's quite a dilemma.

So where my opinion stands on this right now, is basically this: I think female only spaces should only be for biological women, but I'm reluctantly okay-ish with males who pass as female utilising female only spaces, and vice versa for females in male only spaces. However, this does not feel ideal at all. It's a compromise. Ideally, I want such spaces to be entirely sex segregated, and for even people who pass as the opposite sex (like myself) to be allowed into spaces of their biological sex. My appeal here is both realistic practicality with the reality that some people really do pass as the opposite sex, as well as the safety, rights and integrity of male-passing women.

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic Villains: Sweet or Shite? - Part 15: DR. EGGMAN

There are some villains I like. And there are some villains I don’t like. But why do I feel about them the way I do? That’s where this comes in.

This is a mini-series of mine, in which I go into slightly more detail about my thoughts on the villains in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and why I think they either work well, or fall flat (or somewhere in-between). I’ll be giving my stance on their designs, their personalities, and what they had to show for themselves in the game(s) they featured in. Keep in mind that these are just my own personal thoughts. Whether you agree or disagree, feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions! I don’t bite. :>

Anyhow, for today’s installment, it’s finally time for him. The bad doctor himself. Gather round ladies and gentleman, for the spotlight is on the arch-villain that shines above them all... Dr. Eggman.

The Gist: It's the dawn of the 90's. A little company called SEGA had an ephiphany. They wanted to make a video game juggernaut that could rival the quality and iconic appeal of the then-unmatched Super Mario Bros, and their current star, Alex Kidd, just wasn't doing it in the way that they hoped. They promptly set about starting anew, as a worldwide phenomenon wasn't going to make itself.

So a gentleman named Naoto Ohshima created a selection of design concepts for this brand new mascot. One of these concepts was President Roosevelt in his pajamas.

Seen here with his catgirl body pillow.

The response to this character was “This is good, but we think kids would prefer kicking the shit out of him”, and so he was given an antagonistic role instead. In the meantime, after juggling the rest of their ideas, they eventually settled on a rabbit hedgehog named Sonic for their main protagonist, knowing his Mickey Mouse-like aesthetic would help endear him to the audience, and the franchise as a whole would have an easier time gaining a DeviantART fanbase later on down the line.

Initially, the character of today's review was but a mere lackey among many, seemingly little more than one of numerous minions working for Sonic's originally intended main villain, the Nonspecific Goblin. He was also dressed as a bee for some reason.

Which is the least weirdest thing in this image.

At some point however, they all got together and decided that actually, the guy with the moustache was the only one worth shit, and so he was upgraded to the role of main villain himself. With a spiffy new attire of red and black, he was given the bold title of Dr. Eggman, because with a shape like that, what else are you gonna call him?

“Funny you should say that”, laughed SEGA of America, as they rebelled like an angsty teen and named him Dr. Ivo Robotnik instead. While this name does make equal sense for the character, as he is indeed a hard worker who also happens to like robots, the reason for this name's existence seems to have been mainly because they thought Eggman was too out there of a name for an egg-like man. Whatever the case, this would confuse a lot of fans for years, and remains a point of divisiveness to this day... Unless you're like me and your first game in the series was Advance 2, in which the manual clears it up right away, and you accept the idea of a character having two names and immediately carry on with your life.

He would have aimed it perfectly if it weren't for the Sonic Heroes Parrot distracting him.

And that was that, really. It didn't take long for them to come up with his characterization, which was that of a cackling fiend with an ego to end all egos. This guy was the Narcissist Alpha, more king than actual kings, no strings attached. Other villains would build statues of themselves, but only Robotnik would deface Ancient Egyptian monuments to improve them with his face. Other villains would think “Nah, refacing all four in Rushmore would look silly”, but only the Eggman, the Eggmyth, the Egglegend, would go “Well fuck you, I'm doing it anyway.” Then he'd do it anyway, and proceed to address to the entire world that he did in fact do it anyway.

It also didn't take long for them to develop his primary schtick. With the dynamic of Sonic VS Eggman, you had a classic rivalry between nature and technology. Interestingly enough however, this turned out to be executed more tactfully than your typical Amish-abiding examples in similar media. Never was technology itself regarded as a corruptive influence that you should never utilise no matter what. Rather, it was only as good or as evil as the person using it, with it just so happening that the villain loved machinery only slightly less than he loved himself, and it was countered by Sonic’s best friend being a techno wiz in his own right anyway. Anyhow, with his machinery, the doctor would make a name for himself among video game baddies by confronting his enemy as the boss of nearly every zone in each game, rather than hide away until the endgame.

And all without a driver's licence.

In his soon-to-be-30 years of activity, he has largely remained the same since his inception. Other characters have been introduced, other villains have came and went, but Eggman has remained THE villain of the franchise, and he's remained a vital part of the Sonic the Hedgehog universe... with a slight redesign along the way.

The only ad I don't want to skip.

The Design: Eggman's design may be more simplistic than the likes of Bowser and Ganondorf, and he may not look as openly threatening at first glance, but it's still a very iconic look no matter what look it is. His original appearance was devised so that kids could have an easy time drawing him, which only makes me feel worse about not being able to do it as a grown adult without it looking like a Sexy Legs Kirby.

Still, it's a classic for a reason. With his to-the-point colour scheme, contrasting heavily with Sonic's blue, and his capelet collar resembling walrus tusks, it was an instant winner and made everyone goo goo for g'joob.

The Emeralds he’s juggling are a metaphor for the divided fan community.

And when it was time to give the cast an update for Sonic's first real 3D adventure (or at least the first one that didn't get axed for being a magic eye seizure), Eggman got a respectable change of his own. He was taller, his getup was militaristic, and his body was more legitimately egg-shaped rather than basketball-shaped. He also gained a pair of goggles that he never uses, except in scenes where he puts them on and then never uses them.

“How do my chicken legs not collapse under the might of my gluttonous mass? Find out in an unrelated tie-in novel that you have to pay additional money for.”

There was also that one redesign from 2006, but...

Be it Classic or Modern, I've always loved his design. Before he even says a word or does anything, you know from his appearance that he's a bit of a clownish sort. But he also has a subtle creepy vibe going on, with the way his glasses often obscure his eyes, and how this only makes the pearly-white, unnecessarily wide grin on his face that much more empty and unsettling. This little bit of eeriness hiding among his cartoonish physique reflects the full extent of his character pretty accurately, as we’ll delve into soon enough.

If nothing else, it's more effective than him having no eyes at all.

GRRRRRRRR FUCK YOU BUNNIES THAT I CAN'T SEE

The Personality: If you've seen my villain reviews, then you'll have gathered that Sonic's rogues aren't known for having much in the way of personality. There are exceptions, but they are indeed the exceptions. More often than not though, whether it's an alien conquerer, an ancient monster, or Dan Green the Recolour, they can be summed up thusly: They're evil, they want to destroy the world, and the heroes stop them because they're evil and want to destroy the world. If they're feeling particularly daring, they might go for a second colour.

Luckily, as if to counter all these cardboard drawings, the central adversary of the franchise makes up for these voids of personality by actually having one. And what a personality it is.

The writers of SatAM looked at this and thought “No, this won't do, there's no character to work with here.”

He really is brimming with comedic charm. Every moment that he's present...

Every moment that he shows off...

Every moment that he basks in his own glory...

Every moment that he unveils a new wicked scheme...

Every moment that he puts his enemies to the test...

Every moment that he challenges the world...

Every moment that he laughs at the world...

Every moment that he lives, nay, every moment that he breathes...

Yes, the man has plenty of humor, and it's part of what makes him so enjoyable and memorable. However, if you think being a clown is all there is to him, then prepare to have your expectations subverted initial assumptions taken in a unexpected direction, because although he puts the goof in goofy, he ALSO puts the “oh...?” in “oh shit”.

For you see, Eggman is by all means the epitome of Laughably Evil, but do not, under any circumstance, take him at face value and write him off as a joke. He is anything but.

For starters, he can swing a planet.

There is a rule of thumb that I personally go by with Eggman’s characterization, one that I believe is an immediate make or break factor in regards to whether or not you understand what makes this villain work. Eggman - when you put all his secondary traits aside - is made up of two prominent halves. There’s the egocentric meme machine that bounces up and down like a kid with his N64 and laughs like Santa... and there’s the monster buried within that remains completely and utterly unrepentant for everything he’s responsible for. This is very important. Despite the character’s simplicity at his core, many writers have failed to grasp this, official writers included, and I for the life of me cannot understand why this is such a recurring problem. Eggman is funny, AND Eggman is evil. Both are equal. When you take away one or the other, you may have a funny character, or you may have an evil character, but you don’t have Eggman. Simple as.

Armchair intellectuals may argue that Eggman’s deeds aren’t that evil, since he tends to be merely callous rather than actively trying to hurt or kill people. Those people are probably the types on TV Tropes who weigh a villain’s evilness and effectiveness purely through the surface-level scale of their goals rather than what they actually do to achieve them. While it is true that Eggman tends to be more apathetic about the aftermath of his actions, that doesn’t - and shouldn’t - negate how dangerous he is. It shouldn’t negate what he’s capable of. It shouldn’t negate how far he’s willing to go. And it shouldn’t negate the consequences and casualties that can and do result from his many schemes.

Seriously, think about this for a second. If you confronted Eggman about his current plan to... I dunno, make a water park in Africa or some shit, and you informed him that there has been unexpected mass suffering as a result of this, how do you think he would truly feel about that? What do you think he would actually say to that?

Spoiler: No fucks.

If anything, that he “merely” doesn’t care either way as long as he gets what he wants is more uniquely horrific and deplorable than if he were a generic baddie who committed his evulz specifically for evulz’s own sake and nothing more. At least you’re inadvertently acknowledging that other people’s lives have value when you act one-dimensionally gleeful over ending them, but when your immediate response to the side-effect of a million potential deaths and environmental disasters is “Oh well, fuck ‘em, Eggmanland time baybeeee”, that’s a new level of cruelty.

Besides, even in the Genesis era, he was carpet bombing Angel Island...

“Good thing I have this shield. Sucks to be this forest!”

And he’s only gotten worse since then, indulging in such acts as going full suicide bomber with a missile, after his initial plot to destroy and rebuild Station Square through the means of Chaos and the Egg Carrier didn’t work out...

But don’t worry, he kept it lighthearted by making it look like a penis.

Making one of Sonic’s friends go insane with power against their will, forcing the Blue Blur to put them down personally...

It’s ironic, cause he’s metal. Or do I have to awkwardly explain the joke two more times before I’m a proper YouTuber?

Capturing thousands of innocent aliens, and forcefully converting them into mindless beasts...

I’m pretty sure I saw Alfred Molina conduct this experiment one time.

He even removed the heroes’ collective IQs so that he could shoehorn a cliffhanger on an already terrible game.

Thanks, cunt.

And honestly? When it comes to Sonic and chums at least, Eggman does let out a more openly sadistic side now and then. Need I mention that time when the doctor forced Sonic and two random buddies to make their way through a trap-infested island of his own creation? Not for the sake of nabbing Chaos Emeralds or anything of the sort mind you, he just wanted the blue motor mouth to suffer.

Images you can hear.

To make matters even worse, as befitting of his manchild tendencies, he’s ridiculously petty. How petty? Petty enough to abduct a little girl’s mother for no other reason than because Cheese completely trivialized his forces the girl was friends with Sonic and helped participate in the latest kicking of his own ass.

He only picked Vanilla because there was no Strawberry.

But at least his captives can admire the sheer variety that their captor has to offer. One of the greatest things about the doctor's style is that anything goes. With all due respect to Bowser, he tends to stick with his fiery castles (although he has been branching out recently), and plenty of other villains in gaming tend to be similarly stuck in their ways when it comes to tastes. Eggman, on the other hand, will create all sorts of fortresses and reside anywhere on the planet and beyond. It can be in the sky, in space, somewhere hot, somewhere cold, under the sea, in a circus... and every now and then, he might combine some of them together and thensome. So long as it's even vaguely mechanical in some way, his ground rules have already been ticked off.

Hang on a minute...

You know what else Eggman is? Relentless.

Persistence is a quality that most villains by their very nature share, lest they cease to be an effective antagonist. But once again, Rrrrrrrobotnik maxes out more than any other, and will often go to insane lengths to keep the current plan going, or if not that, then to spite Sonic.

Exhibit A: Sonic 3 & Knuckles, in which the grand finale consists of the madman throwing a gravity-shifting contraption your way, busting out a Kaiju-sized robo, escaping with the Master Emerald after his defeat, continuing to escape even after the Death Egg has been thoroughly destroyed, getting chased through the asteroid fields in space by Super Sonic, and only finally going down when the escape craft and the piloted mech controlling the escape craft are down. And all of this came after a grand adventure where, among other things, he destroyed an entire level just to kill you.

There are immortal omnipotents that put up less of a challenge.

“Looks like it’s time for Plan... *checks paper*... F.”

His relentlessness also reveals another side of the doctor that is simultaneously admirable and terrifying: He bows to no one. No one. Doesn’t matter who it is. Doesn’t matter how powerful they are. Doesn’t matter how much the odds are stacked against him. If another villain were to demand that he cower before them, the scientist would laugh and show through physical demonstration that this is not the way the egg rolls. Unless he’s absolutely unable to do so, he will give it his all every time, and even if he can’t, he’ll use his crafty mind to find some other way to get around the issue. You can beat him in battle, you can foil his plans, but you absolutely cannot break his resolve.

“Dad said it’s my turn to play with the Ruby. I know this, because I’m your dad.”

What about his relationship with those who actually serve him? Specifically, his own robots? Well for the most part, he treats them like absolute crap, what with verbally abusing them at every corner and being all too willing to go full Vader on them the moment they mess up. He IS capable of expressing fondness and giving praise to his more successful creations, like with Metal Sonic and Gamma, but even then, it’s a roundabout way of praising himself, since he’s the one who made them what they are. So basically, you’re only valuable to him if you make him look good.

Gaming in the Clinton Years in a nutshell.

And as for Sonic? Yeah, like with any legendary and long-lasting hero/villain dynamic, it’s obvious that Eggman has some degree of begrudging respect for his opponent. But if you think this respect would dissuade him from actually going through with his ambitions of rulership...

As the hedgehog’s apparent demise in Sonic Adventure 2 proves, as well as his defeat at the hands of Infinite and the subsequent six months of brutal conquest in Sonic Forces, Eggman is dead serious about his goals. If you think he’d get bored after conquering the world, he would simply expand his resources and have a crack at conquering the rest of the universe. When he says he hates that hedgehog, I’m inclined to believe that he means it, and although he may enjoy his “games” with Sonic to an extent, I also can’t see him wanting to remain stuck on square one forever.

If this were Sonic X, he’d just grieve.

By the way, the scene above? Undeniable proof that for all the doctor’s boasting, he’s not actually lying or exaggerating when he prides himself on his brilliance. Because when you get past his goofy exterior, when you look beyond the occasional, relatively minor mistake (*glares at IDW*), you’ll see that... yes. He IS brilliant. And not just in the science department either, although his countless robots and strongholds over the years are no doubt a testament to his credentials there. While he may prefer to go in big and bold, he can also be shrewd with his strategies when he wants to be.

Sonic’s aforementioned near-death experience, for example, was the result of Eggman turning the heroes’ own cunning plan on its head by being one step ahead of them. And in Sonic Unleashed, he lured his enemy into a trap, culminating with him cancelling out Super Sonic.

“...and pay the price for your Werehog gameplay...”

And after all those years of struggling, he finally got a giant monster under his complete control. “But he had help!”, you say? Yeah, from himself.

Did Flynn sleep through all this...?

Much like his inner nature as an evil bastard, Eggman's effectiveness is likewise commonly underestimated by writers. Yes, he occasionally makes mistakes. Yes, he occasionally overlooks details. Yes, he occasionally lacks foresight. But he is NOT stupid. A hero is only as good as their villain after all, and if Eggman is portrayed as a bumbling fool, then how can Sonic be a truly great hero? Eggman is humorous, sinister, and when the chips are down, competent.

...Did I mention that he's also a master Olympian?

The Execution: There's no surprises here. You knew from the moment you saw this review that my stance wasn't going to be anything less than 100% fanboy adoration. In that respect, this section almost feels redundant, because there's only so many ways I can say “Dr. Eggman is the fucking shit and I'm eternally grateful to Mr. Ohshima for bringing this absolute masterpiece into our world” without it getting repetitive. So to cap this review off, I'm going to very briefly compare his portrayals in other media, and explain why they tend to not be as good as the original SEGA Eggman.

“Cause they’re not balanced, right?” you ask. “Cause they veer too far in a particular direction? You're so predictable,” you add. To that I say:

1. Yeah, basically.

2. ...S-Shut up...

3. While the conclusion may be obvious, it's nonetheless important because as I mentioned previously, despite how straightforward this villain is, writers seem absolutely intent on not getting the point. There are loads of villains out there who share Eggman's talent of mixing hilarity and evil together with a bow of competence on top. Two of those villains are among the most famous supervillains of all time, in fact. You might have heard of them.

Joker can do it just fine. Green Goblin can do it just fine. And plenty of others can do it just fine. So why is it such an issue with Eggman? What is it about a round body and a long moustache that gets people to think “No, this guy is absolutely incapable of being comedic and threatening at the same time, no question, end of.” Is it because he’s a more cartoony franchise? Well, that can't be the case, because even Mario has a couple of beloved examples. Fawful, anyone? How about Dimentio? Cackletta? King Boo? K. Rool? Hell, you could even count Bowser himself depending on the portrayal.

Anyway, the point is, writers tend to miss the mark for one reason or another. With Sonic X for example, he wasn't too bad in the beginning, but as the show went on, he became exactly the toothless non-villain that many people misjudge him as. We all know that scene where he berates Black Narcissus for harming their captives (not for pragmatic reasons mind you, he genuinely took issue with the act on moral grounds, even though his own hands weren’t exactly clean either), but even before that point, he was doing such things as healing an injured Sonic without an ulterior motive, not taking any opportunity whatsoever to start conquering Sonic's world because he was pining for Sonic's attention, and being the Jiminy Cricket to Chris Thorndyke's Pinocchio. Why they thought the goddamn villain should be the moral conscience of this show remains an unanswered question, but at least it no longer influences how he's portrayed in the games.

Then you have the IDW comic, which is a similar tale of starting off decent and then careening wildly into the abyss, but for different reasons. Initially, he was built up to be in-line with his competent, foresight-packed self from Forces, with his inevitable return being met with dread, and a delightfully devilish scheme to match when he finally did so. But somewhere along the way, Ian Flynn thought that Eggman coming back from his amnesiac period and returning stronger than ever with a new minion and a deadly virus wasn't enough to up the stakes... so they decided to “up the stakes” by turning both the doctor and his new minion into massive imbeciles so as to justify their plot getting hijacked by the Deadly Six, a move so predictable yet infuriating that it got even me to turn against the Six. And the reason the Six got invited in-universe is because Starline decided he didn’t like being unique and devolved into Snively 2.0 behind Eggman’s back. All this from the alleged “best writer” for the series...

Yeah, same.

And then you have the Boom version, which shares basically the same issues as Sonic X but in a more mundane fashion. It's easier to dismiss because it's a comedy-centric show and his redesign makes it easier to separate him from mainline Eggman, and I'll gladly admit that he does have a lot of genuinely funny lines that redeem him a little bit. But yeah, too much of not being a true villain for my tastes.

Now this isn't to say that there haven't been portrayals in other media that are up there with the original. The versions that I consider better off than the ones above include...

- The OVA Eggman is pretty faithful all things considered, aside from his romantic feelings for Sara, which feels slightly off since the idea of Eggman loving anyone other than himself is incredibly unrealistic at best. But it doesn't actually soften or undermine his deviousness, so I'm willing to let it slide for an alternate take. Especially since he gave us the best Metal Sonic out there.

- AoStH is far from a perfect show, but there's a reason why even its detractors tend to treat its version of Robotnik like a national treasure. Admittedly most of that is because of the legendary Long John Baldry and the endless memes associated with this incarnation, but despite hailing from a comedy-focused show like Boom Eggman, this Robotnik still had a lot of legitimately dangerous moments, more than you'd think.

- And of course, Jim Carrey's Robotnik in the Sonic movie is just... *chef's kiss*

So obvious aesop though it may be, but you see what the more effective portrayals have in common, I assume?

Granted, this also isn't to say that SEGA Eggman himself has had a perfect track record. The decade's worth of upstagings and backstabbings by other villains should be enough of a counterpoint to that claim, and I've also made it clear now and then that I take issue with certain games regarding what they do with the doc, no matter how revered they may be by other fans. Sonic Adventure 2, for instance. I praised the fake emerald scene, and I do sincerely believe that he has a number of other badass moments in that game, but because Shadow was playing him like a fool the whole time, I can't help but have a bitter taste in my mouth when I look at the bigger picture.

So close to greatness, yet so far...

So in that case, which game do I think has Eggman's best showing overall? That's not in any way an easy question, but lack of dialogue aside, I'm gonna go with Sonic 3 & Knuckles again, as the classic journey through the sights of Angel Island plays out in a way that highlights just how determined, ruthless, and underhanded he is with carrying out his mission to revive the Death Egg by any means necessary. Other games do win out in other areas - SA1 for how bastardly he is, Forces for how cunning he is, Colours for his hilarious announcements, CD for using the scenery to show the effects of his actions, Mania for not letting the other villain walk all over him - but for the purest essence of the doctor at his cartoony yet competent best, I'd say S3&K is a reasonable bet.

And when it comes to all his many traits, which one do I find the most special one of all? Well again, far from easy to answer, but I think the coolest aspect about him is also one of the most overlooked. Robotnik, despite whatever superhuman qualities he may occasionally unveil, is for all intents and purposes a regular guy with a big brain. This might make him appear unimpressive when compared to your average Final Fantasy villain and the like, but if anything, it paints him in a more flattering light than expected, because he doesn't even need to be on their level to still be on the radar. It's easy to be a big bad threat when you're an ancient demon or an almighty god-like being, and you only have to wave a hand to cause armageddon. But when you're just Some Guy™ going up against superpowered opponents, meaning you have to earn your threat level the hard way, and you prove to be a challenge every step of the way regardless, because you're just THAT much of a genius... that's fucking awesome, no other way to put it.

And you know what else is awesome? You may not like Eggman, and you don’t have to like him, but like it or not, he is directly and indirectly responsible for a vast majority of the coolest and most loved moments and aspects of this franchise.

The opening to Unleashed? Eggman set up the scene.

Shadow running around and continuing to be part of the franchise? Eggman released him.

Blaze getting involved with Sonic’s world and continuing to be part of the franchise? Eggman’s half-responsible for that.

Metal Sonic? Eggman made him.

Egg Dragoon? Eggman.

Big Arm? Eggman.

Monkey Dude? Eggman.

That text is missing a blue checkmark.

This review is probably longer than the echidna family tree in Archie at this point, so I better finish it off. If it wasn't obvious from all the paragraphs I've belted out in this post, I'm very passionate about Eggman and the way he’s portrayed. Ever since I got into the Sonic franchise in 2003, I immediately took a liking to the doctor, and to this day, he remains not only my favourite Sonic villain, my favourite Sonic character, but also my favourite character period. Some may find it a weird or lame choice compared to other, “better” characters, but that's the way it is, and I ain't about to change it. I am very unlikely to ever stop enjoying the hell out of this villain, and even if he got irreversibly ruined in some way, I'd still continue to love what he was before that point.

Because yeah, he's not the deepest character ever, but... who cares? Is it not enough that we find something that appeals to us? When I got into Sonic, I was introduced to fantastic games, a likable cast, high quality soundtracks, beautiful worlds, numerous friends on this very site, and of course, the lovely treasure that is my partner. I may not have been with this franchise during the 90's, but it's given me just as much fun, nostalgia, and happiness as those who were. Despite the flawed titles, despite the fandom conundrums, I still love this series.

And I still love this absolute prick.

Crusher Gives Dr. Eggman a: TWO Thumbs Up!

[fawnhunter]

Oh shit my first post.

Hi my name is Claire and I present to you my A-Z fluff headcannons for Bakugou Katsuki. My king.

A= activites- what do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

— This boy enjoys anything where he has a chance to make you smile and see it happen. He doesn't enjoy things like going to the movies because he won't be able to talk to you, but things like coffee dates and going to the mall he would be totally down for.

— Bakugou is one the kind of person where even though they have free time, they still have things they may want to do. That being said, he always makes sure you are at the most 15 feet away from him while doing said thing. Even if he’s just trying out a new recipe and you're sitting on the couch fidgeting with your phone. That's all he needs.

B=beauty- what do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

— This may be weird but he admires how much common sense you have, being he's the one that runs head first into crazy ideas and issues, having you gives him the feeling of being balanced. He always trusts you to make the right decisions for the both of you.

— The thing he thinks is beautiful about you is your shoulders and your back. He enjoys how you relax around him when he pulls you into a hug. Again, you give him that sense of being balanced.

C=comfort- How would they help their s/o during hard times or when they need it most?

— LOL. This man can barely handle his own emotions, how do you think he is going to handle yours. But in all seriousness as soon as you started crying he would have not the slightest idea of how to help you. He would probably try hugging you, but in the most stiff and awkward way. So awkward in fact it even stifled a laugh out of you.

D= dreams- how do they picture their future with their s/o?

— As a person who really doubts himself deep down on the inside. He decided that once he found that someone who really loved him for him, he was never going to let them go. This being said he already decided he IS going to marry you, it's just a matter of when.

E= equal- are they the dominant one or are they more passive in your relationship?

— I see him as the one who is always on you about your well being and not about the things you do. He has enough respect to understand that just because you're his, it doesn't mean he owns you. Still, he just always wants to know you're okay.

F= Flirting- how often do they flirt or tease their s/o? How smooth are they?

— This smug bastard is a damn good flirt.

— He is the smoothes man on the freakin planet. He KNOWS what he's doing.

— Will not hesitate to drop his voice a few octaves, wrap his hands around your waist and growl in your ear just to get what he wants.

G= Gratitude- How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o does for them?

— Katsuki is extremely grateful. His mom raised him to be thankful if nothing else.

— He notices the things you does for him, and always expresses how lucky he is to have you

H=Honesty- do they have any secret that they keep from their s/o or do they share everything

— If there was one thing he would keep from you, it would be how he treated deku when they were younger. Although if you were to come and ask about it, he wouldn't lie.

I=Inspiration- did their s/o change something about them or is it the other way around? (it could be personal issues or just trying new day to day things)

— To him you make home feel like home. Before you moved in with each other, he would have never called the place where he lived home.

— But now you moved in and added a little bit of you everywhere. Your favorite blanket on the couch, your shampoo next to his in the shower, and his favorite pictures of you two on the wall. He noticed all these little things and loved them all.

J=jealousy- do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

— Whew… here we go.

— First off it's never your fault, most of the time you were completely oblivious. Just walking into places with you he could see the way heads turned to look at you, all the while you were playing with the veins on his hand as you held it. It made him content in a way. It warmed his heart how you were only focused on him.

— But also how dare those people look at you.

K=kiss- how do they kiss? What was the first kiss like?

—I love the idea the katsuki tastes like caramel and brown sugar and HEAVEN and im gonna fucking stand by it.

— He's very heavy on the tongue. But he's not sloppy and overwhelming about it.

— Kisses with him rarely stay on the lips. Kisses on your jaw and neck.

— Enough to leave you flustered but not needy.

— When he's done he always kisses you on the forehead.

L=Love confession- How did it go down?

— It was your sixth or seventh dinner date, this one was at your place because you were trying to convince him you could cook just as well as he can.

— There you guys are sitting on your couch after dinner snuggled up watching a movie. You had fallen asleep on his chest. Hair tickling his nose. He looks down to see you snoring, your serene face looking so content. He leans down and gives your forehead a kiss.

— “I love you y/n”

— The look on this man's face when you snuggle in closer to him and whisper.

— “I love you too Katsuki”

— Is one of pure bliss.

M=Marriage- do they want to get married? How do they propose? Wedding day description?

— When he proposes, he does without a care in the world. Just one late night on the couch when suddenly he asks

— “Can we get married now?”

— The way you choke on air is hilarious

— “LiKe right NoW!!?!”

— “No dumbass in a couple of weeks or months..i don't know,,ANSWER THE QUESTION”

— “Yes, we can get married sure.”

— And from that point you didnt lift a fucking FINGER. He called his mom the very next day telling her you were going to need a dress (completely ignoring the screaming coming from his mother's end) Called his friends and asked Izuku to do all the intense planning.

— There was lots of orange and green

N=nicknames- what do they call their s/o?

— “You look cute baby”

— “Love ya....dumASS!”

O=Obsessed- how protective are they of their s/o? How much are they worried about them?

— He would end the fucking world for you. NO questions asked. Whatever you needed he would do for you.

— He knows you can protect yourself, hell, you remind him of that fact constantly. However he likes to make in known that he is there as back up as extra consequence

P=PDA- are they obvious about the relationship? Do they talk a lot about his s/o? Are they okay with affection in front of others?

— A doesn't feel the need to hide anything. If he wants to kiss he's going to, and that just fact.

— Will definitely boast about how great you are and rub it in to his friends all the amazing things to do for him.

— Will not admit it out loud but this man is putty in your hand and your wish is his command.

Q= Quirk- some random ability they have in a relationship

— Gives the BEST massages. His hand are already so warm and huge and…(this is fluff and i almost forgot)

R=Romance- how romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o smile? Are their ideas rather original or creative?

— Not the most extreme romantic. Can be when the time calls for it, but mostly enjoys that fact that you are there with him, rather than focusing on anything else.

— He finds that when he complains and bitches about his day it make you smile. (he has heard that he has a very expressive face)

S=support- do they push their s/o to do better? Do they believe in them?

— Katsuki is the one person in your life you will alway be able to depend on.

— WIll do whatever they need to do to help you achieve your goals.

T=thrill- are they okay with a certain routine or do they need some spice every once in a while?

— Routine is this boy's best friend. He likes coming home knowing what to expect and what to prepare for.

— All though he doesn't hate surprises and is always down for some spur of the moment fun.

U=Understanding- how well do they know you? Are they sensitive to your emotion?

— To Katsuki keeping you happy is his number one goal. This means he knows all the things that you love and like to do, and he tries to bring them up as much as possible.

— That being said, your happiness is really all he understands. I mean he can tell you are upset. But would have no clue how to go about it.

V=Value- how important is your relationship compared to other things in their life?

— In his mind, as long as he has you, everything will be alright. Meaning he puts you above all else, because you lead him forwards.

W=Wild card-Random Fluff bomb!!

— Katsuki likes to spoil you. You mean the world to him, and he knows he doesn't say it enough.

— Which means clothes, shoes and maybe even that new mixer (which he kinda wants as well) will just appear in your house giving no choice but to accept them.

X=XOXO- how affectionate are they? Are they a cuddle bug or do they like their space?

— Shows you he loves you more physically than saying it out loud.

— Will take any chance he can to cuddle when at home.

Y=Yearning- how do they cope when they miss you?

— Like shit. You are a big stress reliever for him and he normally has you there to make him feel better. But if you're not there not only does he miss you but he also has no one to really talk to. Therefore turning him into a grumpy monster

Zzz- how do you both fall asleep/nap

— Is the big spoon.

— He likes to sleep behind you so he can place his head in the crook of your neck.

— Other times he likes to completely lay out on top of you with his hands around your waist and his face on your stomach or chest.

——————————————————————————————————————————

Thanks for reading babes.

MY REQUEST BOX IS OPEN PLEASE IM SO BORED AT HOME. ( I do Headcannons, short blurbs, and maybe scenarios) 

Also be chaotic in my ask box I don’t mind ☺️

[iamnightduchess]

Afterthoughts

(SnK 128)

To the Yeagerists thinking that they can take down both the Armored Titan & the Female Titan, well, hate to reiterate this BUT the last time someone managed to deal the final incapacitating blow to either one of them had been only one person:

Mikasa "BAMF" Ackerman

She, who was worth a hundred soldiers when she was a fresh graduate, at this point would have been worth more than several hundreds of Yeagerists and also fighting together WITH both titans.

"Boo... she's a slave. xx is better than her."

"She's an ice-cold bitch. How dare she treated Louise, a dying girl, like that?"

"How can she feel empathy for people of the world she doesn't even know of personally compared to a girl who worships her & somewhat 'emotionally blackmailed' her dedication towards Eren?"

"How could she work with the same group of people who tried to murder her days before?"

Bashing Mikasa herself as a character is one thing, comparing her to another character is a low blow. She grieved & mourned for Sasha, she's compassionate towards Gabi & Falco. She has compassion and mercy towards people that needs it. Louise is anything but.

Back to the Yeagerists, the trigger-happy bunch needs to hide behind guns & gears they're not even well-adapt on to instil fear, while homegirl need no more than her freaking bare hands to defend herself and fight for what she believes in.

"She's a traitor. She betrayed her own comrades and the people on the island."

Paradis is her home but do you think she'd rather sit quietly, turn a blind eye towards the Yeagerists' drunkenness towards power, ascension towards madness & live with bloods of the many innocents (related or non-related to Eldian history) on her hands? She would rather die fighting for what she believes in, just like how her parents have taught her. Her childhood was first destroyed when selfish, violent humans imposed into her family's home. She's been there at nine years old. Like hell she'll be okay with the Yeagerists' stand. If someone comes into your house to fuck with your freedom/rights, you have the right to defend BUT not to go on a killing spree of all potential criminals out there and take justice into your own hands unless you're Batman. Isn't that what Mikasa & co did when Marley's battalion came days before? Guess what? The battalion left the Warriors and Magath behind & that does not mean JCAM should kill the leftover Marleyans and watch passively as Eren released not a group but ALL of the CTs inside the walls to fuck with the rest of the world.

Chapter 127 & 128 are displaying the courage Mikasa needed to fight for her own ideals for the first time - even if that means going against Eren's will.

Just saying, some people can go on and on about the tasteless, exhausting slave memes/jokes or their neverending barrage of vitriol against the 'cringevengers' just because they believe in a will that is different than their 'genocidal overlord'.

At this point of his story, Isayama has clearly place both sides on the scale: there are no rights or wrongs, good guys or bad guys as we were initially introduced to. We have seen both perspectives.

If you think because it's fictional, therefore genocide is alright, go on ahead. Though that does not justify the hatred you've been displaying towards the MarleyParadis Alliance.

I understand Eren's drive & actions BUT it does not mean I accept his will. However, that does not justify that I should hate on & attack his character. If you want to project your personal ideals on either side's characters, you are more than welcomed to do so but please have more class than that.

I believe that is the series' creator's intention.

"If Isayama lets the cringevengers win, that is bad writing."

"I hope the cringevengers lose. They're ungrateful for what Eren's doing for them."

"The alliance are a bunch of idiots with no plan."

"Yes it's his series, but as a fan, I deserved the right to express my unhappiness with the way he wrote this and this."

So, you'd rather JCAM just sit on their asses & do nothing?

Eren wins. Freedom for Paradis achieved. Rest of cringevengers settle down & have kids while the rest of the world retaliates in 50 years. Magath, Warriors & co. can die. Ok, The End.

What kind of values do you think Isayama wants to deliver through HIS story?

Reiner & Annie understood that the Warriors have no right to ask JCAM of anything. Reiner even suggested they stay behind in safety so they won't be forced to make that difficult decision like they did. (Look at how far the kids have grown?)

Interesting theme to note: Mercy. Sasha showed Gabi mercy but the same girl that she spared shot her to death. Gabi didn't understand then. Second round, Mikasa showed her mercy and Gabi finally understood. It finally humbled her.

Hate on Hajime Isayama all you want, as everyone can see on BSM's latest cover, the man's filthy rich enough to open his own sustainable business after SnK wraps with the royalty he gets from merchandise, prints and all. His 'bad writing' got him published & he has set his mind on an ending that would hurt some of us. If the alliance loses, Eren perseveres & millions die, it would hurt me so much but I would respect that because that is the route Isayama has chosen. I am already grateful for the opportunity & the experience he had blessed us all with.

Isayama doesn't owe anyone shit. He's a content creator, he is telling HIS story, not yours. As fans, shouldn't you take his material and learn something from it instead of making fun of or hating his decisions? Debate constructively please but stop spreading the hate.

You can choose to opt out of the series, moan all you want but in the end, you'll be the first group of people who would be obsessing with any ounce of spoilers at the beginning of a new month. Stop attacking or provoking people who is 'on the other side' of the ideal you believe in.

I am just someone who wants to share. As fans, we have the right to disagree with some of Isayama's stance/direction but there are always lesson(s) to be learnt:

Respect & Love.

You can love someone & still disagree with their ideals and be on the opposite side. In the end, Mikasa loves herself enough to decide on her own to stop Eren. As fans, stop projecting your hate towards the characters. Learn from them instead.

[fandom-necromancer]

917. I didn’t want you to see me like this.

Shoutout to the awesome anon requesting this! Unfortunately I realised I misunderstood something only after finishing this short, so this is Sixty saying it to Allen not the other way around as you prompted. You second one will have it in the right order :)

Fandom: Detroit become human | Ship: Allen60 (Warning: violence, gunfights)

Sixty hated that he had to walk through the bullpen to exit the building. They were a separate unit, their office was in a separate building, why did they have to see these idiots every day? He maybe could have stomached the humans and androids working there he hadn’t yet met and would never have to talk to. But he absolutely despised the four people he did know: The other RK800 unit who called himself his brother and had been the reason for his mission to fail and Cyberlife’s downfall. His alcoholic human partner who had dared to shoot him. The RK900, who he had hoped would be the worthy opponent he deserved, being the superior model. The complete moron of a person the RK900 had instead fallen for. No, Sixty hated them with every bit of his being, hated them for their failures and their indifference towards them. He had been thankful he had been sent to the SWAT unit of the DPD, working directly under and with their Captain, an incredibly remarkable human. Maybe the only one Sixty ever respected. All he cared for was a job well and effectively done with minimal casualties. Something Sixty could easily grasp and adopt as it was similar to his base programming, something he still held onto even in deviancy.

Having at least one human share his believes and work ethic made everything else endurable. Still he was relieved to be outside and to enter the transporter after the Captain while all other humans followed. He was a well-respected asset of their team, having saved countless lives of hostages and other SWAT-members with his efficient fighting style and quick calculations. He never did it for the humans though. Everything that counted to him was his reputation, his flawless statistics. Every other RK unit had failed their mission. Be it to fall for the virus and start an android revolution, be it to deviate and help said RK with it or be it to join deviants and fall in love instead of destroying all deviants and remaining machine. Sixty made sure to impress. He had deviated, but he didn’t embrace the emotions with it. They were part of him of course, but that was it. A part of many.

‘Okay, you all have been in the briefing, so I won’t bore you by sitting through it again. But are there any questions? Everything set? We can’t allow any mistakes, there are lives on the line.’ As always, Sixty sighed inwardly, but didn’t complain. Short attention spans and memory loss were the most annoying human failures in his opinion, but Captain Allen always kept it in mind, despite being organic himself. Another quality Sixty admired him for – on a completely professional level of course. He was met by heads shaking and mumbled negations. ‘Fine. Sixty, you still okay with going solo? Someone could accompany you.’ The android scowled at the humans sitting on the benches to either side of the transporter rattling through the streets. ‘I am fine. A human accompanying me would only hinder me and raise the risk of casualties.’ ‘Okay, then. Just take care then. You will enter through the back entrance, while we serve as a distraction just outside the café.’ Sixty nodded. He didn’t need a repetition of his role, but the Captain always tended to treat him like he would treat a human. He knew it was a matter of making him feel equal to the others and more accepted. But when he knew he was better than that it just sounded ridiculous and unnecessary to him.

They arrived at the location and the men left the transporter to get to their positions in front of the little cosy café. A weird place to hold hostages in, but who was Sixty to judge. At the edge of the transporter, Captain Allen held him back. ‘Hey, Sixty. I meant it when I said take care. You might be right saying we want no human casualties, but I want all of my men back at the precinct unharmed. That includes you.’ ‘Don’t worry, Captain’, Sixty smirked, pointing at his forehead. ‘It needs more than a bullet to kill me.’ He knew that mentioning his first death just made the man uncomfortable, but it was an easy argument to bring whenever there was misguided concern. He wouldn’t fail his mission like the other’s had. And if he did, he was just a machine. He could be repaired and if the damage was bad enough to make repair impossible, then he deserved it for his mistakes.

The Captain walked outside, standing before the rest of the SWAT-members in position to start his monologue to whoever held the people inside hostage. It was just a distraction unless the criminals agreed to let their hostages go and comply. As soon as he began to talk, Sixty left the transporter and hurried around the building to the back entrance, always out of sight by any camera or the big front windows. Arriving at the back entrance it was easy to hack the lock – a low security digital pad. Absolutely no challenge for an android like him. The lock clicked open a few seconds after his interface and he was to wait for Allen’s command. Bored he kicked a stone through the back alley and watched a few pigeons scatter at the disturbance. There was no way they would let the hostages go. When had that ever worked? He sighed, this time out loud. He hated waiting when he could be productive instead.

‘Sixty? You copy?’ ‘I’m in position’, the android answered, rolling a little stick in between his fingers. ‘You are allowed to intervene. Use non-lethal force wherever possible. We are your backup, should you need it.’ ‘I won’t’, Sixty sighed, but couldn’t hide his anticipation. This would be another flawless mission without doubt. Another red LED turn in the RK900 at his statistics update and the RK800 would congratulate him, what equalled a defeat in Sixty’s mind. But most importantly, Captain Allen would praise him again in front of everyone. ‘Moving in’, he announced, as he shouldered through the door, not missing the whispered ‘good luck’ under the Captain’s breath. As if he needed that.

Sixty hurried through the small kitchen of the café completely silent. There was no sound of his entrance, until he was standing inside the main room, gun raised and action calculated in a split second. The first bullet hit the first of four criminals in the leg, shooting clean through the lower leg. He fell down, Sixty taking his place immediately to punch the next and grab his arms in the confusion. Holding both of them behind his back he had acquired a human shield and disarmed him at the same time. He moved forwards, kicking the next one in the groin. He doubled over and let the gun slip out of his hand. Sixty quickly kicked it away and moved towards the last one, who had finally reacted and grabbed a hostage, very much like Sixty had done. The android took a second to calculate his plan more thoroughly, then raised his gun to shoot. The criminal’s hand was so shaky he doubted he would have pulled the trigger. Sixty hit him in the shoulder, the idiot letting go of the hostage to touch the wound. Immediately Sixty was near, grabbing the damaged shoulder and pressing, so that the man screamed and let go of his weapon.

Sixty was close to signalling his Captain a [mission successful], as he sensed a gunshot behind him. The first one, the one he had shot in the leg had still held on to his weapon and proved the android wrong, who had thought the pain to be too much to think clearly. But there the asshole was, shooting him. He would have laughed at the audacity, had the bullet not hit one of the major thirium tubes in his chest and hadn’t his HUD immediately started informing him of a thirium shortage in his legs. They gave in, but Sixty managed to shoot the first criminal in the hand, rendering him unable to harm him further. During the fall he had pulled his human shield down with him and kept him in his grip next to him.

‘Captain. I need backup. Unit compromised. Hostages safe. Criminals incapacitated for now.’ Admitting this defeat weighted greater than the pain he felt. Immediately there was chaos, the rest of the SWAT storming the place and cuffing the criminals on the ground. Sixty let go of the one he had held as Captain Allen appeared in his vision. ‘I didn’t want you to see me like this’, Sixty grumbled static and looked away from the man’s far too emotional eyes. ‘Shut up, what is going on? What can I do to help? What happened?’ ‘Got shot in the back. A thirium tube is broken. I failed my mission. Sorry.’ ‘The fuck you did. You didn’t fail. You got shot on a mission. You still made it, didn’t you, you dumb machine? Look: The criminals are alive and arrested, the hostages are all alive and unharmed. Sounds pretty successful to me.’ ‘I should have been better.’ 'Hey, hey, Sixty! Shut up. You did fine. You did well. I should have given you someone as backup.' 'That’s exactly what I mean! I failed to prove my value. Now I'm just another Connor who needs a partner.' 'Goddamn, there is nothing wrong with accepting help.' The Captain grunted lifting him up and snaking an arm around Sixty's upper back. 'Come on, we'll patch you up in the car.' 'I'll be a failure just like Connor.' 'You won't, Six. You won't. We are a team, right? No one needs to know about this, if you are so damn stubborn to count this as a failed mission.' 'Really? You won't tell them?' 'Why should I? You did fine, Sixty. Even more than that. Also, I’m Captain of SWAT, what I tell and what I leave out for them to read in some forgotten folder down in the archives is my responsibility, isn’t it?’ ‘And I won’t get a partner to babysit?’ ‘How about I offer you to partner up? How does partner of a Captain sound? As I remember the other RKs only have a Detective and a Lieutenant.’ Sixty perked up. That would indeed be something he could boast about to them… Also, he could be near the one human he really respected. This may not be so bad after all… ‘That would sound great, if I think about it. My expertise might be of help to you.’ ‘Of course, I would feel honoured to have the best RK for a partner.’