#people have their own hc/fanon version of these two

[the-owl-tree]

thought I was chill and normal about discourse until I was on twitter (I know) and saw a warrior cats opinion thread (I know) and read ppl saying they think squirrelflight was worse than bramblestar and I. I’m tired of being a spiteful hag

i KNOW lots of the fandom have dropped off after oots but it is wild to see the newest arc have Bramblestar manipulate a member of his clan into setting up a situation where he can publicly humiliate her and still have people go "well! have we considered sometimes she's reactive and doesn't do everything he says and that actually makes her worse/deserving of this?"

[venbetta]

Ooo, the headcanons were really cool!! Do you have anymore you'd like to share about Freddy, or perhaps some on Monty?

Indeed I came up some for Monty (I'll do Freddy a little bit later again today, he's very fun to write about).

Montgomery Gator

Monty is probably close to most fanon interpretations that I've seen, which he's mostly an misunderstood, angry, infamous bassist. Unlike Freddy, Faz Ent don't keep him supervised, therefore makes Monty a wandering delinquent through the Pizzaplex.

Compared to his chill disposition in the promotional art, he's close to the completely opposite. He's easy to anger and frustrate, he's not good with socializing with guests like the others (he can handle teens and adults but younger kids are under his radar). His time is mostly spent golfing and at the catwalks, since not many people go into Gator Golf. He doesn't get a lot of attention like the other glamrocks.

At night, its the same case, except he vandalizes parts of the mall and his room to release frustration. The techs and staff are afraid of him, so his maintenance is infrequent and mostly rare; when he's sent to Parts and Service, they always have to shut him down as a safety precaution. And since he's so imposing, he doesn't get punished a lot, making him an absolute menace to his bandmates and staff. When he's not breaking stuff, he's mostly quiet and brooding and playing his bass in the corner.

I think that's what makes him and Freddy foils of each other.

Quick tidbits

Monty's companion would have to be Roxy, since they're both new mascots in the entire Fazbear lineup, and they both have... problems that they definitely vent to each other about. Two broken besties.

Monty enjoys playing bass and drums, drums aren't something he gets to play often but when he does, it feels right for him (think of Gwen in ATSV when she plays drums lol)

He and Freddy have a bit of a rivalry, on Monty's end he just wants what Freddy has; that being attention and fame, Freddy sees Monty more as a nuisance (I might make a seperate post about these two's dynamic hehe).

I know it's messed up but... I love angst. Monty decommissioned Bonnie, it was a mix of Vanny's influence and his own envy

After the events of SB, Monty feels guilty for it, thus resulting in him isolating himself and being angry most of the time. This poor gator doesn't have a single happy joint in his body.

On a lighter note, he and Chica have a friendly rivalry. He doesn't know how to play guitar as well as her, but they like to show off to each other

The only few things he doesn't destroy are his bass and the plush toy version of him

I wanna be funny and imagine he has a plush toy of Freddy that he doesn't necessarily destroy but beats with his fist and talks shit to... (and sometimes cuddles with bc I'm a monteddy shipper, leave me alone)

He's not a fan of being touched that much, and he doesn't try to touch others due to his claws. Man's is touch repressed and touch starved.

I know this a cliche interpretation of Monty, and some of these things feel a little out of order (maybe that's just me). I imagine he gets better after SB and kinda comes out of his isolation and anger over time. Soooo yep, those are my Monty hcs

[casurlaub]

Currently on mental health break

(Look after yourselves!)

Hi!

I feel the need to make one of those intro posts because recently a few blogs started following me that seem to be more into the fanon interpretation of things, and I don't want anybody to get the wrong ideas about what to expect from this blog.

About me... I'm 29, she/her, pan/bi (I don't care which label), and demi (my, it took me so long to figure that out).. I used to be a judge but dropped out because of a myriad of reasons but mainly because of... well, depression. I cannot, for the life of me, remember how many letters there are in the alphabet, I love carrots but they make me nauseous, and my socks always have holes.

So... let's move to the important stuff.. JK sucks, and parts of the canon suck too - like the house elf stuff and her naming "skills" which are very telling, her fat shaming, and the anti-trans shit that is even written into the original source material. But for the most part, the characterization isn't one of them. So on this blog, I will defend the canon version of characters, flaws and all.

To make myself clear: hc characters as trans and writing characters as gay etc is great and I fully support that. What I mind, however, is the heteronormative, mysoginistic cliches we keep seeing under the guise of 'progressive' queer ships. If you not only change their gender or their height but also their personalities so that they fit heteronormative stereotypes that's problematic. Same goes for the casual racism going on in this fandom. Portraying non-white people as huge, buff guys with anger-issues is - you guessed it - problematic!

What to expect from this blog:

Me applauding the many great people out there. Do you even know how great you are???

Me geeking out, especially about the characters and ships I love most (and sometimes writing/sharing anti-posts about my own favs when I'm too fed up with the fanon version of them).

Me writing long-ass metas at two in the morning because that one post was the final straw.

Me brain-vomiting stuff into the void of the internet that really no one asked for and no one cares about.

Me ranting and contradicting myself.

Nuance - or at least, I try. But I'm just a person with biases, and I read the books through the lens of my own experiences, so yeah. And of course there's always a range, even when sticking to canon.

(I say I care about nuance, but you'll find me swaying to full-force apologetism the next second - get used to it, I'm a hypocrite).

Some writing. I shared some microfics/one-shots already (soulmate microfic, over 30 microfic, fix it one-shot, wolfstar raising Harry one-shot (sort of), drabble collection), but I'm working on a long wolfstar fic starting in 1971 and carrying all the way through to 1998. It's solely from Remus' s POV and I'm trying to pay attention to everything (!) in canon so that it makes sense with all the scenes we see in the books - although I wouldn't call wolfstar canon. I think itl'l be around 900k-1 million words in the end. Right now I'm at 950k but I need to add stuff, cut stuff and just generally work through it. I plan on starting to post it before I turn 30 (which will be in mid-December).

Remus/Sirius will always be my OTP, and I've made a post about why I think they make sense even from a canon perspective and with their canon personalities (not saying they are canon, but don't tell me I haven't read the books). But I do feel the need to point out that I disagree with most of the depictions I see nowadays in this fandom as the characters I fell in love with are barely recognoizable. I prefer post-PoA wolfstar (or AUs), but I think Hogwarts wolfstar can work. It's just indefinitely more difficult to make it work with their canon personalities. Btw, me loving wolfstar doesn't mean I negate the co-dependency James and Sirius have going on - which is obviously canon. I also love James and Sirius so much.

As for other ships... I love Scorbus, Jily, Hinny, Romione and Grindelore. And I love a whole bunch of characters regardless of any ships, including but not limited to Ron, Dumbledore, Ginny, Fleur, Luna, McGonagall, Hermione and Scorpius. And I'm not anti Tonks - I'm just anti Remadora because I think they both deserve better. But it is what it is, jk wrote that and for what it's worth I do think Remus loved her in some way.

I can get very passionate about fictional characters, but I'm an adult, and I know they're fictional. And I believe I can take criticism, so if there's anything on your mind...

It's always my personal opinion I'm talking about; I don't think I'm some kind of hp authority, but that goes without saying.

What not to expect from this blog:

Art (I reblog, of course, but you don't want me to draw, believe me).

Dumbledore hate / Remus hate (don't confuse with criticism, I'm all for criticism). No ATYD hate either. I have my issues with it, but it's not the author's fault it has become the fandom's new rulebook.

Me dumbing down James and Sirius, etc.

Me abandoning James and Peter. But, sorry not sorry (and wolfstar aside), I will keep pushing my "Remus and Sirius were close friends at Hogwarts" agenda (but as were Remus and James, obviously, and Remus and Peter, and so on, with James and Sirius being inseparable).

Jegulus/Slytherin skittles stuff. If that's your thing, that's fine, but it isn't mine.

Me keeping it short.

I'm always happy to discuss stuff! :)

Most important information for last, right? If I speak ill about Remus, it is always with the most love possible. I keep saying Sirius is my favorite character, but he has a lot of fans out there, and avoidant, self-loathing, passive-aggressive, manipulative, ruthless, but also smart, brave, kind, loyal, empathetic, thoughtful and selfless (yes, you read that correctly) Remus holds a special place in my heart.

[senseioftheseidiots]

Me with Canon Wu: You let your brother go get your stuff for you and look what happened. You made a 'friend' of a Serpentine and taught her something you shouldn't have and looked what happen ! You filled a young child's mind up with dreams and broke them down and look what happened !! And even now with the Ninja, you don't tell them a single warning before they go into battle and LOOK WHAT'S STILL HAPPENING !! And after all of that, I find myself-!! Me with Your Wu:...still coming back here even though I shouldn't because you really need help with your issues and everyone makes mistakes and your superior- Nah, nah, I'm kidding but in all seriousness, your version is kind of what I want to believe for the character now. I don't hate on the original Wu since you can't beat the original but you also can't beat the fanon ! So with lots of love, enjoy making more content for him !

This has been sitting in my asks because I completely forgot about it- so ill use this as a headcanon dump, thankyou >:) You throw out alot of points here on the segment for canon wu, so let me throw in things ive held onto in hc to all of it PLEASE NOTE MOST IF NOT ALL OF THESE IS HC ALONE/TIMELINE SPECULATION "You let your brother go get your stuff for you and look what happened." This happened AFTER the meet with aspheera I believe, after it happened the two were forbidden to go outside monastery walls without permission, completely isolating them from the outside world in hopes nothing like that would happen again. Wu at this point was incredibly afraid to disobey his father because if their punishment from last time was isolation from a world outside their monastery, what more could happen to them? [it only got worse from there, but we arent talking about that yet.] "You made a 'friend' of a Serpentine and taught her something you shouldn't have and looked what happen !" Wu genuinely just wanted to be friends with someone, being the sons of god the fsm was rather picky on who exactly got to see the two. And he's never made proper connections until now, through out the entirety of their childhood [before teens] im pretty sure all wu knew as companionship was his brother, and when he found someone willing to help them, he didnt want to think about the warnings for the chance that she might actually be good, and that keeping a promise was the way to gain a friend " You filled a young child's mind up with dreams and broke them down and look what happened !! " If were talking about morro here, ANOTHER HC TIME to fuel my delulu state, look- He didnt WANT him to fight garmadon, hear me out here- if you go back to the scene of morro being tested to be the green ninja, the sword of fire ISNT the sword of fire. My hc here is this is the ONE time he's tried to change destiny for the better. It doesnt mean morro was destined, no, this was going to happen either way, but he tried changing destiny because this wasnt morro's fight, and he was afraid of what may need to come if it DID end up being him that was destined. He didnt want that. But when he did do it and got his own student killed [he tried finding him. he tried getting him back, he didnt want to come back.] He gave up. And this is where his mindset solidified, he couldnt change destiny, people will die, and itll be his fault. This was his fathers punishment for him. " And even now with the Ninja, you don't tell them a single warning before they go into battle and LOOK WHAT'S STILL HAPPENING !! " This one is funny to me cause, one, wu doesnt know how to fucking trauma dump I dont think he would even be able to think about it unless someone asks him, its actually the 'it never came up' thing. BUT, he wouldnt want to say much too quickly due to Morro's incident. Hell he didnt even want the ninja to see the green ninja scroll. If he had said too much too quickly, well theyll either turn evil or die..or both-

" .still coming back here even though I shouldn't because you really need help with your issues and everyone makes mistakes and your superior- " Hehe, thank you!!! I hope you enjoy the buncha headcanons i have here for you

[viaviv124]

Reworking YanBerry

Stay with me

Okay so i love how we can all agree by now that fanon swap aka blueberry is an abomination that's reduced to "ew what is that thing" jokes. One thing that spawned from him is YanBerry. For all the newer people in the fandom or people lucky enough to not have seen what that is, here a small recap:

Basically this little uwu-mination as a cliche Yandere, a Yandere being someone heavily obsessing and going insane for their love interest, more often than not relying on violence and murder to get with their beloved, mainly paired up with his own brother. There was this one comic or something where he poisoned Tacos to kill someone and it became a whole thing. YanBerry is also part of the Fallen Stars, a 'dark' version of the Star Sanses consisting of Shattered Dream, Emotionless Ink and YanBerry. Thing that confused me about it is why they would ever hang out together because their motives are not matching at all.

BACK ON TRACK, I like the rough concept of Yanderes. As in 'going insane over someone you love'. And it can still very well work for Swap (from now on referred to as Blue. To me Blue and Blueberry are two different characters. I'm just way too used to saying Blue than Swap so there's the distinction). Maybe not the "lets go batshit crazy and murder everyone for my senpai uwu" but more like literally focusing on how his psyche is slowly deteriorating. How and why the person he's in love with has such a heavy effect on him can be different from story to story, espacially when it's a longer one you can really take time making a reason, but like instead of going full on insanity lets focus on the decay.

The Decay

Blue is Papyrus-Coded, making him very sweet, kind and compassionate but also sorta starved of attention and affection in a way he craves it more than anything. That alone can make a great base for the reason.

Now, let's travel a bit into headcanon territory since a big part of the fandom, from what i've seen, shares a similar hc for him and considering i made the concept based on that image of him i think i should describe/clear up how i see him. Naturally though you can use whatever headcanon you'd like. This is just me rambling at midnight about a concept. Anyway, this is in a universe/version where Blue is a member of the Star Sanses and is the level headed, mature and sensible one. Between an immortal dumbass and an immortal sunshine with most likely lingering issues and depression (also kinda a dumbass ngl. He never really had a chance to grow up properly) Blue is the braincell/deescalator. He keeps Ink and Dream grounded but also lacking behind a little bit because he is not immortal and has a little trouble keeping up with what the other two are capable of.

Now, Blue is in love with someone. Heavily in love. One might say head over heels. This triggers something in him. Something dark. And he himself doesnt quite understand why. The key difference here to a cliche Yandere like YanBerry is that he doesnt just turn into crazy murder/stalker man overnight. It all happens slowly. Blue does develop huge jealousy issues and obsesses over the person he fell for, from now on referred to as Herz (= german word for heart. Didnt want to go with the english one in case i'll use it later on to avoid confusion). Espacially the jealousy comes with very dark thoughts, turning from simply keeping Herz to himself to gradually more violent, eventually evolving into murderous fantasies. Blue doesnt act on these thoughts and urges and is rather heavily disturbed by them. He's not used to having thoughts like this. He doesnt know what's wrong with him so that he thinks like this. Bear in mind, Blue is good down to the core. He's a sweet and kind soul who always did his best to see things positively. Suddenly being subjected to such a toxic and muddy mindset, that definetly gets cloudy at times, is new to him. It's scary. I'd imagine at one point Blue isolates himself or at the very least avoids Herz, either because these thoughts got too much or he accidentally lashed out a few times and said something nasty or attempted to/did hurt someone by accident, since he wasnt in control of his thoughts and feelings. He's terrified of himself and of what he can do. Blue isn't weak by any means so he definetly could follow through with what his head is telling him. He's isolating himself to protect others because he cant trust himself and his mental strength anymore. He feels so lost. Because after all this time he still doesnt know why this is happening, just that it is and wont go away. No matter what he tries, he cant fix this.

This breaks him. Slowly but surely everything inside him shatters like little pieces of glass. The isolation only strengthens the insanity creeping in. Blue feels horrible but he's no longer in control of his own thoughts, feelings and body. The dark thing, spawned by his love for Herz, has finally completely broken him down.

At this point you can just go wild with Blue's insanity and as it decreases or increases over time, espacially once he's seeing Herz again. As long as it ties with the struggle and sort of stays a thing in the back of his mind. What i think is also important, don't throw Blue's entire character out the window in favour of having an unhinged, crazy character. This insanity is less about Blue's characteristics and more about how he thinks, how he precieves things and how he acts on the thoughts and urges he previously tossed aside. Naturally this affects his character quite a bit but bear in mind that all of these urges and thoughts were spawned because of Herz. There's absolutely no reason for Blue to act much differently when talking to a friend for example, unless Herz gets brought up in any shape, way or form. Blue is completely infatuated and obsessed with Herz, but he's still Blue. He has the same wits, skills etc. Even if he's scheming or who-knows what, he can easily act normal. Insanity doesnt mean making a complete 180° on someone's personality. It's more that they're not in control of their brain. They're heavily mentally ill and maybe a bit scattered. The insanity can also show by certain triggers only etc. There's many possibilities of working with it. Signs of Blue's rotten mental state can definetly show but he can also act like everything's alright. If you're doing a comic in particular, a nice subtle hint of Blue definetly not being himself is not showing his eyes or face or giving his eyelights a slightly different shape, maybe a bit wobbly/shaky or a bit sharper etc. The window to someone's heart is their eyes, get creative!

Conclusion-ish

In the end you can portray characters however you'd like and i cant stop you. This isnt a "write Yandere Blue like this, everything else is wrong!" post. It's just a concept i've had in my mind for a while now and i wanted to share it because i like late-night rambles when i cant sleep lol. Write Yanderes however you'd like, the trope IS very fun, after all! I just think it's really interesting to also highlight the "how does a normally sweet person react to suddenly feeling murder-y?" side of things instead of the ever so bland schtick of "haha i kill ppl, now love me" that many Yandere stories build upon. Yes i've been getting back into (psycholgical) Horror Anime like Higurashi, how did you know? Lmao

Either way, good night! I've been writing this for well over an hour :'D

[jedi-enthusiast]

If I may ask : 1, 2, 9, 10 and 13 for the choose violence game

Choose Violence Ask Game

Obligatory Disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions, feel free to disagree but if you're gonna be hateful, rude, or anti-Jedi then just block me and move on instead of posting your bullshit on my page. Like what you like, hate what you hate, but leave me out of it.

Oh you can absolutely ask!

1 - The character everyone gets wrong...

Padme Amidala---I can explain this, but if I do then it's gonna be one of my long ass essay posts.

2 - A compelling argument for why your fav would never top/bottom...

Ok, this isn't necessarily an answer to the question, but my fav is Obi-Wan and I HC that he's a switch. So instead of getting an argument on whether he'd top or bottom, you're getting an argument on what type of partner he is.

No one can convince me that Obi-Wan is not a service top/bottom, no matter which one he is. Obi-Wan cares a lot about the people he loves and wants to help them/do things for them. So it makes sense to me that when he's sleeping with someone his own enjoyment isn't the point, he wants to make his partner feel good and have a good time, even if he won't necessarily derive any pleasure from it himself. Making his partner feel good is the point.

9 - Worst part of canon...

The whitewashing of the clones in the animated shows!

Like dear god, make them actually look like Temuera Morrison!

If they can animate all sorts of weird alien designs, they can animate POC characters.

AND THEY'RE FUCKING CLONES FFS, IT'S NOT LIKE THEY'D HAVE TO MAKE A MILLION NEW DESIGNS, JUST ONE NEW DESIGN THAT THEY REPLICATE AND TWEAK AS NECESSARY!

10 - Worst part of fanon...

I know I've said the anti-Jedi stuff a million times, so I'm gonna pick a kind-of different answer to try and keep things interesting.

I really hate the fanon version of Mandalorians where people basically just glorify their violence, take a bunch of stuff from the Jedi and apply it to them, ignore literally anything bad about them, and then lift them up as this "amazing utopian group of equality, equity, and good will" when...that's not really what they are. Especially when people do it to bash the Jedi.

13 - Worst blorboification...

I'll give you guys three guesses, and the first two don't count.

(It's Anakin, I know, I'm predictable)

[seirosu]

uvu hc + emperor wilhelm

send me  ‘ hc ‘  + a word and i’ll write a headcanon about it regarding my character.

this is probably less of a cohesive headcanon and more of a dive into my personal take on fanon amid a ton of headcanon , but i don't think its easy to talk about wilhelm without giving some context as to my own version of the first emperor .

( nevermind rhea throwing away all her work because -- this quote is important )

seiros met wilhelm long before the founding of the adrestian empire . once an unknown boy from a long lost rural hamlet in the south of fodlan , wilhelm made a name for himself before ever joining force with seiros . as a young man , he was vivacious and ambitious character whose personal experiences walked him down a path of decisive action and organization against the rise in careless violence , theft , and razing coming out of the north of fodlan , where nemesis had long prior ascended to the status of a legendary ( and mythological ?? ) " king " for his gifts of power he'd shared with the bandit groups of the northern lands .

wilhelm gained favor whilst heading a small resistance group against the excess of bandit activity migrating into the south during his lifetime . he stood for the working people , primarily those who were unequipped to defend their villages against the northern bandit invasions . upon reuniting with seiros , they combined force to develop a militia force that would eventually ( largely by way of elective auspices or lack of other option ) evolve into an empire that consumed the southern lands -- the adrestian empire .

ultimately , the two sought to condemn nemesis on behalf of the goddess ( seiros ; spiritual power ) and the people (wilhelm ; physical power ) . the people largely supported wilhelm as there had been no other union of power in the south and the isolated villages otherwise were powerless to defend themselves . and seiros , having long made a name for herself by way of her patronage and support in the south , had already gained much favor .

saint seiros and emperor wilhelm are the double headed eagle that represents adrestia , and very popular figures of their time . so , i bring this all up to reiterate that from a historical and political lens , yes , these two were very crucial allies essential to the foundings of the universe of 3 houses .

but i want to take out that line from above : he saved me . i'm sure his strength and prowess is great , and he has physically saved rhea many times ( not unlike jeralt ) but i took this line and ran with it . one thing about seirros is that whether she's aware of it or not , she's always looking to others for safety , comfort , and change . she alone will never be the trigger for large change -- because seiros/rhea represents stagnation as security .

what wilhelm did , was reinstill a level of trust and love for humanity that seiros had previously treaded away from wearily . i often regard those years prior to the establishment of the empire as a period of half-life for seiros , who largely avoided connecting with living beings and locked herself into this internalized quest to avenge-the-dead-before-joining-them . he pushed her in positive ways and she grew to trust his judgement at times more than her own .

wilhelm's very nature challenged seiros to be okay with the discomfort of being alive .

it also does help that seiros and wilhelm share a common interest in nemesis and the northern bandits . in my interpretation , wilhelm's father passes away in the razing of his farming village by northern bandits . . . prompting a very personal vendetta against the legendary king of bandits for promoting and encouraging such behavior . wilhelm lost a father , and seiros lost a mother . they both become known for supporting the south . both , are fiercely determined and ambitious people . even when operating separately , they channel the same hopes for the future .

it really was inevitable for the two of them to form a very passionate relationship . and wilhelm , always knew it . however , seiros's lifespan is far longer than wilhelm's and as such they fell prey to the issue of . . . being the right person at the wrong time . seiros is very much so on a journey -- one that continues on far after wilhelm is dead -- and her one fatal flaw is her inability to see a future for herself .

he wants to marry her , to put name to their relationship and love , but she keeps saying no . he's asked her three times . she's always run away . not yet . its not the right time . she's not ready . that's where they are at this point . its not due to any lack of affection , nor its not a disagreement or misunderstanding . i think its very fitting for seiros to deny her own personal happiness in favor of pursuing this higher . . . ' purpose ' she's clinging to by serving as a proxy for her mother . in the end , seiros learns to live , but not for herself .

seiros's love for wilhelm is very strong and enduring . looking ahead , rhea holds onto that relationship very close to her heart generations later . she tolerates no slander or bastardization of that part of her life . she loved the imperial bloodline for generations after because of that love and respect for wilhelm . he was special .

he had reminded her of the joys of music . he had taught her to be open to experience . he had reminded her to have humor in the dark . had taught her that she was beautiful for just existing . he got her emoting and expressing herself again . he made her powerful . he made her a home . he made her laugh and play and have fun --

he helped her reunite with her mother . he gave her a lot of hope .

man , he did save , support , and gave his all to her , y'all .

[yes0another0outsiders0blog]

Finally rereading The Outsiders like I said I would. I think I'll probably be doing a chapter a day, even though it's short enough that I could probably bust it out in one or two sittings. I'm really prone to burnout and I am trying to write a bit each day and I have a job to work and adult tasks to do and such, so a chapter sounds like a good goal with that considered.

Also, I'm sick as a fucking dog while reading this first chapter. Not relevant, just a little fun fact.

Anyway, have my thoughts while I read it!!

The Outsiders Reread : Chapter One Notes

less than a page in and I'm already tired of Ponyboy being Not Like The Other Girls

he's 14, that's positive, I should not be able to stomach a well-written 14 year old on account of them acting very 14, but also shut the fuck up

"yeah, I read books, unlike EVERYONE ELSE" go to hell

not to intentionally misread and water down a character, but Ponyboy saying "but sometimes I just don't use my head" is literally all you need to fucking know. that's it, that's the book

we get it, Pony, you come from a very hot family, yall are all conventionally attractive. paragraphs, ffs

also, I love that Soda doesn't drink. that he has a drunk on life attitude. could absolutely never be me, love that for him, unfortunately I fw Two-Bit's vibes with alcohol a bit more--

and the fact that Soda is the only one that can tease Darry.

there isn't a single positive thing said about Dallas besides "I didn't like him, but he was smart and you had to respect him." but frfr he's so great.

but if I met any of these fuckers irl Soda is the only one that I'd have a chance in hell at not hating. and that's only because he seems like he'd be enough of an emotionally/socially intelligent people-pleaser to actively try to get someone to like him, lol.

kinda salty about Johnny being called the gangs pet, wtf Ponyboy. not like he's one person's main reason to live, is SUCH fucking ride or die, later kills a man for Pony. but yeah, he's a pet. he tags along. what the fuck ever, man. if anything, Ponyboy (you know, the person that's mainly part of the gang bc he tags along with his older brothers, the BABY of the group, the quiet & sensitive one that doesn't have a single braincell outside of pure booksmarts) is the pet. like, sure, Johnny has trauma and is really quiet, but let's be so fr right now.

despite what is said in the book (bc it's Ponyboy's pov so we only get his perspective, obviously) I'm sure Darry gets after Soda too.

also, oldest children that become parental figures in some degree are allowed to be mean to their baby siblings. it's our right. as a 20-something year old with a young teen baby brother with common sense in the negatives, I am very biased in saying that Darry is always objectively 100% correct in every situation ever (heavily exaggerating, I just relate a lot).

forever mad that we don't get more Sylvia!!! my most random fav!!! so much love to her!!! she's basically an oc with how little we get of her and how many headcanons I have, I don't even really like the main fanon version of her either, but GOD she's my girl fr

NO BECAUSE WHEN I WAS 14 IF SOMEONE PULLED THEIR OWN KNIFE TO DO A DISSECTION THE WAY MY TONGUE WOULD BE DOWN THEIR THROAT. Ponyboy, babygirl, you did NOT deserve for that girl to hate on you like that. RUDE.

"Dallas deserves everything he gets, and should get worse, if you want the truth." agreed, that's my though process as I'm making the nastiest headcanons for him. my life's goal is to make this man suffer or make him into a loser, and all my hcs do both

breaks my heart so much how Ponyboy talks about Darry, leave my boy ALONE, dude!!!

my headcanons for Darry are usually the exact opposite of my hcs for Dally, I just want this guy to have the very best ong. I'll get so unrealistic with it too, bitch, YES I'll give you an absolutely stunning sugar mommy, babe!! just stop being stressed and stop having bad things happen for a few minutes!!! I almost struggle making in character, good headcanons for him because I just want to give him fluff and filler only and nothing else--

[and-stir-the-stars]

For the ask game, I'm curious about 6 & 8 in general, and 9 for By Cain's Own Hand. ~Dire Kumori

6. What character(s) do you find most difficult to write?

William, kinda? I have an idea of what I want William to be: a man obsessed with image and control, a man who must be in control or at least APPEAR to be in control at all times; a man who must be the one with the power in any situation; he loves his children but only as extensions of himself, his power, and his own accomplishments; a quick-minded manipulator who can both sit back and watch things play out and be the one pulling the strings the whole time. I just don't really know how to take that idea and make a believable person out of it yet. That's why he's been so "conveniently absent" in My Brother My Wound as of yet.

Buuut, I haven't actually written William yet, so he can't really be my answer, can he? So, I'd have to say Elizabeth. I have difficulty writing her because... well, to be honest, my whole Thing in fandom is "choose one character and completely obsess over them with everything I have" and that one character is very obviously Evan. For fnaf more than any other fandom I've been in, I usually care about characters other than my Comfort Character in terms of how they relate to my Comfort Character (my CC if you will, lmao). It's easy to care about Michael because his and Evan's stories are so hopelessly intertwined, but there's been no semblance or suggestion as to the kind of relationship Liz and Evan had/might have had in canon, as far as I'm aware. That gives me a sort of double whammy in terms of having difficulty writing Liz because 1) she's not clearly connected to Evan despite being his literal sister, and 2) I have no canon to draw ideas from in how to present their relationship even in the times when I WANT to write Liz. I have to rely heavily on other fanon interpretations of her character, which feels like stealing tbh. It's hard to be excited to write a character with a stolen personality.

8. Which fic or hc do you feel the most proud of?

Ack, asking to me to feel positive emotions about myself and my work? How cruel of you; I have too much anxiety for that :/ (<- complains about the ask game I myself created)

I'd have to say I'm the most proud of the Dire Consequences, Springlocked Mike, and Silent Protector aus, because 1) they were originally based completely on my own ideas rather than being tweaks of other people's aus, and 2) they've gotten so much attention from other people, oh my god. Literally everything from chaotic DMs at midnight to one-shots written at two in the morning to (multiple!) comics and fanarts. It's genuinely... so much (/pos). I'm literally just a Little Guy, yk?

9. What scene in BCOH took the longest to write, and why?

I'd say the hardest thing to write was the beginning sequence in chapter 2. It ended up being completely different in my hesitant outline.

I wanted that chapter to start with some of the anger Evan has been unknowingly feeling finally being unleashed. In my hesitant outline, I actually had the thing that pushes Evan over the edge written as Mike asking Evan about seeing Liz almost die to Circus Baby.

Before writing chapter two, I noticed that Evan and Mike actually have a bit of a parallel: in my version of the canon game timeline, Evan feels guilty for not being able to stop things when he watched Circus Baby kill Elizabeth, and Michael too feels guilty after he watches (well, is the contributing factor) in Evan dying to Fredbear.

At first, i wanted to make a reference to this parallel in the Nest Torn Empty verse. I wanted Mike to ask Evan in a fit of hopeless desperation how Evan could have possibly dealt with the guilt of almost watching Liz die to Circus Baby (not that Michael really believes Evan's "tall-tale" about Liz almost dying, but he knows Evan believes it) since Mike is having so much trouble dealing with Evan's almost-death himself. Only Evan misinterprets Mike's questioning as Michael making fun of him for being scared of the animatronics, and after almost dying to one at Michael's hands, Evan snaps.

This idea didn't work for... several reasons, and I ended up scrapping it entirely.

One reason is that yeah, this parallel exists, but I only noticed it because I'm a fic author/reader who was looking at Mike and Evan's stories as just that: a story. Michael wouldn't be looking at his and Ev's lives in the same way. Michael isn't introspective enough for that, especially not at this age. But the most obvious reason is that Liz ISN'T dead in this story, so Evan doesn't feel guilty about not being able to stop Liz's death. And, I don't know, something fundamental about the idea just didn't work.

I tried to think of another version of events that could make Evan upset enough to have him yell at Michael to leave. I couldn't really think of anything, though.

But, I did already have the Hell Scene (where Evan asks what Hell is like because some part of him thinks Mike wanted to send him there) already written out. The Hell Scene was one of those ideas I really liked but wasn't sure yet where to fit in the timeline, so I wrote it out while I still had the motivation and excitement to write it. I kinda thought that I wanted the Hell Scene to come later in the timeline while I was writing it. And I wanted to drag out the dynamic of Evan believing Michael wanted him dead and Michael being unaware of that detail for way longer by not having Evan mention the hell thing until sometime after the Stairs Scene.

But I decided to move the Hell Scene to the beginning of chapter 2, and then having Michael realize "wait, my little brother really thinks I wanted him dead" just seemed like it should naturally fall after the Stairs Scene, where Evan genuinely thinks Michael would have thrown him down the steps.

I think replacing the Circus Baby thing with the Hell Scene worked a lot better, although the hell thing was rather abrupt since I could no longer go back and plant seeds to foreshadow that Evan had been thinking about hell after moving the scene back so much in the timeline.

@dire-kumori

[the-s1lly-corner]

Creepypasta au ramblings

Including some ideas, headcannons, potential plot stuff, ect ect

Gotta get the brain juices flowing and written down somewhere

Okay so. Admittedly, I haven't really been working on the au that much, due to my hyper fixiation on the owl house taking up my brain. And that'll likely still be the case with the upcoming finale so.. yeah!

Anyways, with what I have now;

I already know this is going to be a written collection of various connected stories; as opposed to a comic <\3

If my experience with making comics in the past says anything to me, is that it'll crash and burn before any of the juicy stuff happens.. and I'll get burnt out incredibly fast

Only downside to sticking to a written format is that a lot of these characters have redesighs <\3

Not big ones, most carry their basic look that just about everyone knows

Save for Kagekao and Laughing Jill

Good news is, Kagekao, as of now, doesn't have a role.. yet.. maybe.. again, I'm still figuring out the overarching story

Bad news: Laughing Jill is actually a huge roll in one of the side plots (more on that later). She still holds the same basic design elements as her canon design has: black and white clown gal

Only difference between the real design and my take is that Laughing Jill is a funky ragdoll; and she's small because.. yk, she's a doll. Can literally fit inside a decent sized backpack (again, will elaborate on this later)

Though of course I suppose I could just

Describe her as small

(I'm dumb and writing this as I think)

Moving on

I also want to do different plots and side things that all either connect to larger story, or show different perspectives and such; maybe each chapter switching from one characters POV to another

And I already have a long term plot! For... two specific characters

I want there to be a side thing where Jane is trying to hunt down Jeff and put an end to him for

Well

You know

Offing her parents

Along the way she stumbles into Jill, and the two team up to find the dude; along with Jane trying to balance her goal and everyday life. Because unlike most of the other characters, she lives a very normal life otherwise... when you don't look at her past. She has a job, she lives in her own apartment, she's gotten her education. Other than gunning for Jeff, she has no interest in taking the lives for others. So with Janes chapters it'll likely follow both settings/sides of her life

Speaking of settings

Locations

I don't know where exactly it would take place; country/town wise.. it may be spread out across different areas since itd be odd if all these creatures and stuff were living in the same place; gotta dispurse them or people will just. Leave the area

Yk?

But as for like

Actual places that the characters will be interacting in will be anywhere from towns, woods, eft ect

And yes

Because this is a mix of fanon and canon

The slender mansion will be in this au

Although probably not in the way most people interpret it; it won't really be a safe house for every creepypasta character buuuuut im still working on the way i should execute it

Probably make it a hotel of sorts; for most characters its not a permanent home. Be it they dont wish to stay, or they arent welcome there

Moving on, Im gonna write masky/tim and hoodie/brian the same way i do in my silly imagines and hc posts; treat the proxy as a separate personality from the person. Each having their own set of morals, behaviors, and memories; not too dissimilar to how MH shows them off IIRC

Though these versions of them are a mix of MH and CRP since I enjoy both renditions, as a fan of both materials. Plus I feel like if this did become something, a few of yall would be upset if i didnt have them... plus theyre fun to write

Speaking of characters that 100% wont be in the au, for various reasons, are:

Ticci Toby: because I just don't really jive with him like i used to, and the character has more or less been ruined for me by others.... though theres a chance he MAY appear, its just HIGHLY unlikely

Clockwork: she just makes me uncomfortable

Off*nderman: do i really need to elaborate on why I'm not adding him?

Really those are the main 3 I have beef with, but

Yeah

Anyways

Yeah idk what else to type but

!!

Hopefully I'll have more ideas cooked up soon

[javic-piotr-thane]

oh interesting! i can’t read books at the moment so i havent read any of them. that makes a lot of sense ab leadership. i like my little hc that they made it more communist - ianto did behind the scenes stuff/correspondence w thr queen etc, tosh was coordinating from the hub, & then the other two also pitched in for other causes (nice and vague, well done me hahah). i actually wondered when i rewatched KKBB if they had spread out the leadership & then the writers were like ‘haha nope!’. ive read a lot of nice ianto takes over fics which is probably swaying me a bit lol

i actually dont mind broken! its a bit strange but i think it fits well enough. its more that i dislike that it (kind of) limits the options for fan-decisions on when they sleep together first. while lots of people are happy to wiggle canon about and create wonderful new things, lots more tend to stick w canon as is (or major points) and i think defining when they first sleep together gives it a bit more weight and impact (even belatedly) on the episodes (& fanworks). i mostly enjoy the plotline otherwise (although the sleeping together did catch me off guard the first time!)

thats true about fandom shaping it. i am still very much on the fringes - i think i follow you & perhaps one other tw blog - just because i find fandom a lot of stress and i’m in my early 30s so lots are younger - but i’m working my way through the available fic (well, mainly the ones on ao3 ik there are many on LJ that i am gonna have more trouble finding later lol) and that probably is shaping my view of characters. some more than others, i suppose. but i have been finding a lot of ooc representations (for me) which makes me think perhaps theres a fandom-intent on portraying them. i cant quite word this!

i’ll do a comparison - i consumed a lot of HP fanfiction, it was my main fandom for fics for a lot of years, and my first fic ever. and now i cant tell you for certain which portrayals are true to canon, and which are based in fanon. because i stopped engaging w canon (for many reasons including the most obvious) and now i’m left wondering - eg was that how neville was in the books or is that how fandom has shaped canon into their own desires and interpretations. and thats not to say thats a negative! because i think fanon is incredible. but i do wonder when i read a fic without that background, without the decade of engaging in fanfic as it shifted, if i am reading it as OOC when it’s actually in character for the fanon version of the character.

i hope that makes sense, i have a lot of trouble with coherence lol

you're making sense!! this is a problem ("problem") for many fans i think, which is why engaging with the source material (when possible/comfortable, obviously, i know which situation you're referring to) can be important if you really want to keep your interpretations close to canon. (you might not want that, or not care, at least in particular instances; something something Sherlock actually makes 100% of the tea on the show with his name and not John.)

as for fic that feels OOC to you; if you don't like it, i recommend you learn to spot it early and avoid it. simple as that. god knows i went through that phase in my early time in this fandom XD you have to read a bunch to figure out what you like and don't like in the first place, i think, but after a while it tarries out and might only shift slightly afterwards - and you know what to avoid and what to seek out.

[the-insomniac-emporium]

thoughts on Bela///Donna?

What a lovely can of worms you've placed in my inbox, dear nonnie. I cannot wait to open it and lose followers (regardless of what I actually say).

Since this is, uh, a subject of some debate among RE8 fans, I will be inputting my thoughts on the idea of the ship (and the possible controversy), as opposed to doing HCs or something for it (which I recognize might be what you were asking for, despite the excessive /s).

This is all based on my playthroughs of the game, as well as what I've managed to double check on the fandom/wiki for it. I know that a lot of people who read fanfic for the game haven't actually played it, likely having been lured in by Tall Vampire Milf, and so I hope that some people will be open to a reminder of, like, canon vs fanon? I've mentioned in a previous post that there's a lot of details for RE8 that are not made clear, and I feel the need to reiterate that in this post. Capcom left a lot of stuff up to people's imaginations, or kind of just hinted at in game or in concept art.

But more importantly, regardless of what game we're talking about, regardless of the conclusion I come to (and the one you come to) at the end of this post, I want to say that I absolutely understand the need/desire to have your own perspective/take on the characters from the game, as well as their dynamics. If a ship makes you uncomfortable because you see the characters as being family members, it's totally okay. Block the ship tag, or filter it out when you look through fandom stuff, don't follow people who post for it, etc, etc.

If you think of characters as being family-family (like, not just "we got married and are now a family" but, like, "we're siblings/parent and child") and still ship them? uh. sorry, bruv, maybe think of hitting that unfollow button. No, seriously, hit that unfollow button. This blog is anti-incest, thank you very much.

The last thing I'll say before putting it under a read-more (for both length and major RE8 spoilers) is that I recognize that I might have missed something, either in game or developers talking about things on social media, and so if you read through this and go "god, J, you're such a dumbass for forgetting *critical piece of media*" or even just "okay but have you seen *small but meaningful piece of media*?" please. Just. Please. Tell me. Link me to that shit. I WANT to know if I'm wrong. I've literally avoided talking about this for as long as I could in order to TRY and make sure I have all the context I need.

With that said, let's examine what context we are given for Alcina Dimitrescu, Bela Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, and their relations to each other. I will be leaving my personal thoughts on Bela///Donna at the very end of this, as somewhat of a conclusion, somewhat of just a "hey, this is what you technically asked me about".

Firstly, let me begin by explaining what I consider to be the 3 tiers of "canon"

In-Game/Direct: The highest, truest tier, the definitive canon. This is everything that takes place in game, excluding certain hallucination scenes (ex: Mia was not really in House Beneviento, but we can infer some things from what Donna made Ethan hallucinate about). Things either happen, or are directly stated by characters. There's some wiggle room for dialogue, as characters can lie, but overall we, as the audience, assume we are being told the truth. At the very least, games usually eventually make it clear when a character has been dishonest. Examples of Direct Canon include the following: Ethan is infected with the mold, Lady Dimitrescu drinks blood, Heisenberg wears sunglasses, Mother Miranda can shapeshift.

Concept Art/Developer's Notes/Indirect: Mid-tier and debatable, the "we think, but we're not sure" of canon. Resident Evil: Village contains lots of concept art that the players can browse through, all of which include notes from the developers about the game, characters, environments, and story. Sometimes the notes make something "direct", but oftentimes they do not specify whether the listed idea is still canon or if it was removed during development. This tier also includes information that is implied/can be inferred from tier 1 information, but is not directly stated. Examples of Indirect Canon include the following: Donna's mother died by suicide, Moreau was going to have his lover fused to his back, Duke was originally a fifth lord, Heisenberg was going to have a twin. As you can see, not all of the concept art ideas made it into the final version of the game, so it can be hard when some information seems like it might still be true (such as the matter of Donna's parents).

Fanon/"False": Sometimes collective ideas in a fandom become so widespread that people start interpreting them as actual canon. Sometimes it gets hard to remember what's just obscure lore and what's fanon. When we get a piece of fiction as overall vague as a lot of Resident Evil: Village is, there's bound to be some confusion over time. That's one of the main reasons I waited to talk about Bela////Donna until after I had recently replayed relevant sections of the game, as I wanted to remind myself of what we're actually told. Examples of False Canon are difficult to pinpoint, but might include things like: Hufflepuffs are good at finding things? The Avengers got along for awhile and all had their own rooms in the tower? There's a number scale for the danger level of ghosts in Danny Phantom?

For this post, I will be limiting the majority of my notes to the first two levels of canon, and will do my best to mark them as such. Now... let us... begin.

Alcina Dimitrescu:

Born no later than 1914, Alcina Dimitrescu was 44 years old when she was granted the Cadou by Mother Miranda. (1st Tier: Canon. Source: A note in the castle basement from a servant is dated 1958, and mentions both Alcina and her children. Secondly, Miranda's experiment notes state that Alcina was the 181st subject, and was given the Cadou at age 44. By doing math, we can then determine the earliest Alcina could have been born.)

Alcina refers to the other Lords as her family once without any disdain (when Ethan first arrives at the castle and is caught, Alcina says "you've escaped my little brother"). In a private journal (located near where she threw the infamous vanity) she insults the other Lords, and expresses anger that she is "treated like a sister to them". She argues with Heisenberg without any hesitation, and seems honest in her hatred of him (per Maggie Robertson's wunderbar performance). (1st Tier/2nd Tier: Canon with a sprinkle of interpretation for the last line)

Alcina openly refers to Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela as her daughters, and wrote in her experiment journal that she felt instantly connected to them (as mother and daughters). (1st Tier: Canon).

Bela Dimitrescu:

Likely born in the 1930's or 1940's, in order to be an adult by 1958 (the first dated appearance of the Dimitrescu daughters). (2nd Tier: Based on inference)

Dialogue shows that all three of the daughters do love their mother, and reinforces the bond Alcina's journal mentions. (1st Tier: Canon)

We are not given any information about how Bela feels about the other Lords, or even what she knows about them. Once can assume that she shares the ideas of her mother, either because Alcina tells her things directly, or because Bela (who is eager to please her mother) picks up on them over time. (2nd Tier: Based on inference)

Donna Beneviento:

No idea when she was born. If you've read one of my recent posts, then you know that it's almost entirely a matter of 2nd and 3rd tier canon.

Of the four lords, Donna seems to have the most story within the 2nd tier, and has very, very little in the 1st tier. Duke says she's somewhat isolated, and that her "playmates" never leave the house. Miranda's notes state that Donna is mentally ill, and the gardener's diary states/implies (bit of both) that Donna has severe social anxiety. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly canon)

Supposedly, her parents committed suicide while she was still a child. This is indicated in concept art/the attached developer's notes. However, the only part that's also directly stated in game is that her parents (specifically her father) died while she was young. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly canon)

While Donna only has one voice line in the game (and it's sad), Angie talks a fair bit. Angie seems to disapprove of the other Lords, or at the very least enjoys mocking them, as well as enjoys watching them fight with each other. As Angie is connected to Donna, and Donna has some level of control over her, one can assume that the two have similar (if not the same) opinions. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly Canon)

Donna was adopted by Mother Miranda as an adult. It's unclear exactly how old Donna was, or what exactly Miranda did as her "mother", just that Donna was excited about it. (1st Tier: Canon)

Other Relevant Information:

Heisenberg refers to the other Lords as his siblings a minimum of 1 time. Similarly to Alcina, however, he openly insults them and seems to hate them. He just, you know, hates Mother Miranda the most. (1st Tier: Canon)

Mother Miranda does not actually give a shit about the four Lords, intended for them to die before the ceremony, and has been manipulating them for her own gain this entire time. Her notes and dialogue make it clear that she only cares about getting Eva back. Somehow mother of the year and worst mother ever. At the same time. (1st/2nd Tier: Mostly Canon)

It's unclear who treats Alcina "like a sister" to the other Lords. Were there cut lines of dialogue that cemented the idea of them being a "family"? Did Miranda call them a "family" as part of pretending she cared about them? I've done my best to dig around, but there's very little in game that treats them as a family of any sort.

As each Lord ruled their own section of the region, they don't have any mentions of interacting with each other outside of meetings with Mother Miranda. None of the notes for any Lord (and their relevant experiments) mention what the others are doing. In game, their environments are very separate, very well divided, though this is likely as much for gameplay as it is for story.

Conclusion:

I do not not believe there is enough in game evidence to suggest that Alcina and Donna consider themselves to be siblings. There's the possibility for a large age gap, Alcina was a fair bit older than Donna when she met Miranda, Donna is a social recluse whose closest bonds were with dead blood relatives and dolls, Alcina openly dislikes (if not hates) the other Lords, they seemingly lived very separate and distanced lives, and Mother Miranda does not enforce the idea of "family". Furthermore, the sheer contrast between how Alcina interacts with/speaks of the other Lords compared to how she interacts with/speaks of her daughters says a lot about her feelings. Even if Heisenberg takes the brunt of her anger, Alcina never once says anything remotely positive about anyone other than Miranda and her daughters.

As Alcina/Bela and Donna are not blood-relatives, the definition of what would count as "incest" does vary depending on who you ask. Personally, I do count non-blood relations as potentially incestuous. For example: Alcina "dating" one of her daughters would be incest, regardless of the fact that she's a mutated human and her daughters are weird swarms of flies.

Now, I do understand how popular the idea of the four Lords being a real, chaotic but still close family is. And as I mentioned above, it's totally valid to not like the Bela///Donna ship, whether it's because you think they're family or some other reason. I don't personally see them that way, even in my definitely-not-canon stories.

Do I personally ship Bela///Donna? Nope. Have I liked art for the ship? Admittedly yes, even if I thought some of it was, like, maiden x Bela because Donna didn't have her veil and I'm a DUMBASS who doesn't always remember to read tags. Would I ever write for it? Yeah, probably, assuming I didn't miss anything in game/that I don't eventually change my mind.

[braveswine]

MY JAMES

PLEASE READ THIS POST about my portrayal of james. while these are things that i am going to put in my rules. but i also wanted to post it here and if i come of a bit pissed it is mostly bc i have been around for 6 years playing this man and i am tried. 

 my james is not fanon. do not assume things about him and the way i write him. sure you can have your own ideas of who james is but don’t push those ideas onto me. that is the basics but i also do feel a very real need to put more what i just mean with that into detail. please read the headcanons that i have in linked in this.... please i beg of you.

my james reputation over all at howgarts if you are not a slytherin is over all is postive. ( hc which goes more into  it )

my james did not do random pranks on fellow student. he did it on school property and at times school faculty.  

if anything my james might have gotten in a duel with yours in which he handed them their ass, because james would often do that when he thought people where expressing ideas of blood supremacy and thinking that things like the dark arts are okay. this will especially be the case when it comes to him interacting with other slytherins where he will in most cases be straight up aggressive ( hc which goes more into  it ) 

my james did not ask lily out a millions times.  if we have not talked about it before hand or if you are rping as one of the marauders you muse will not know james has a crush on lily.

my james has dated other people then lily. and no they didn’t break up bc of lily or james having lingering feelings for lily. 

my james is not an idiot. to me which i base off canon, he is one of the best students as a whole. he didn’t need someone like lily or remus to hold his hand through things academically.  

when it comes to my james over all it was not a surprise that he became headboy. 

my ideas the whole severus and james things is a whole thing that is just complicated. the basics is that i think they were both instigators but due to james almost always having someone else there with him like sirius that created a massive gap of power imbalance. not saying it will excuse it but the main reason my james ever went after severus was due to him expressing interest in the dark arts and james hate for it is very personal. while there is other aspects of it of course that is the main one. it was never about lily or something like that. of course that doesn’t make james going after him okay, because two wrong don’t make a right.  ( i will go into this more in it’s own hc but at the time i just don’t have that up. ) 

with this i am not trying to say how your muse would feel about my james but what i am saying is please base their ideas of my james and the way i write him. i don’t mind people disliking him but like i said i want them to dislike my james not some other version of him that i don’t even write. 

i am not saying if anyone writes him like this or don’t in general agree with me on this to make you feel bad about yourself. i am saying it so people will actually treat my version of james like the person i actually write him as. 

[of-the-wingwatchers]

alright, so. more on the fanon Wingwatcher symbol we made:

some of the more obvious things would be the eye and dragon - with it representing the Wingwatchers watching out for dragons. it’s also meant to be as diluted as it is, mainly because well. they don’t want it to catch the attention of a dragon - hence why they make sure that while noticeable up close, it isn’t easy to spot. they want it to blend in fairly well with the Wingwatcher uniforms

but some specifics about it because yes:

typically you��ll only see the symbol on a fully fledged Wingwatcher’s uniform. it’s also meant as a symbol of graduation of sorts, and represents their status as a full Wingwatcher

this version of the symbol (greenish-blue grey) is the most common version one would typically see - there’s actually different variations for the badge which changes in rank in some cases, and the amount of experience in others. this method is more new in a sense and was put in place by the Wingwatcher commander before Brook (who i hc to be named Sparrow)

the commander’s badge is more tinted with faint gold, while the second in command’s has more of a silver. other Wingwatchers who have been around for four or more years have bronze tints. while the other two aren’t based on age, the bronze tint is. most Wingwatchers w/ that hue of badge are at least over the age of 19 (as Wingwatchers typically start training at either twelve or thirteen years old and the average time it takes to complete that training is about 3-4 years - they typically graduate at 15-16 years old depending on when they started and how they handled the training)

the Wingwatcher symbol was designed by a Wingwatcher who was around during the time the people in Valor lived on the surface. they were the last Wingwatcher with artistic talent that managed to make a prominent impact on the Wingwatcher culture and by extension Valor before passing (they died in the attack on Valor)

after the burning of Valor, there were actually some debates on whether to keep the symbol or not due to the recent events. this was more linked to some Wingwatchers who managed to survive believing that the dragon part of it was a grim reminder of the attack or that it didn’t fully encompass the aspect of their job that was increased since heading underground - protecting the civilians. and some were just minor complaints with it. both Commander Sparrow and Commander Brook kept it as it was out of respect for the Wingwatcher who made it

also imagining that sometime in the future Ivy does end up doing some slight tweaking to the design and perhaps makes an alternative one (or more accurately, ones that represent the specific tasks some Wingwatchers dedicate themselves to). but she ends up keeping it as it was because she doesn’t want to disrespect the Wingwatcher either and honestly admires their past work, despite what little she’s seen of it

the dragon doesn’t have a name but it’s fun to hc that some of the Wingwatchers have their own names for it (more specifically the Wingwatchers who don’t hate dragons or like/love them. yes this is referring to both Foxglove and Ivy)

[coinofstone]

Combining 4x12 and 4x13 The Sword in the Stone pts 1 and 2 into one post, no commentary tracks on either episode, unfortunately.

4x12 The Sword in the Stone pt 1

I really don't mean to question any of this homoerotic comedy gold, but why has Arthur got his chainmail on before his pants? Surely chainmail is a post-trouser application?

"No one likes to be called fat, Merlin"

Arthur sitting there moping over Gwen is the biggest self own. "I look for her in the room, and she's not there. Then I remember why." Yea cuz you threw her out you DUMBASS. Sick of TV trying to make me feel sympathy for dudes who played themselves.

Can you hear the music when you see this

Such a great shot. AND a great piece of music too.

Dear reader, you're probably expecting me to make a shit ton of hypnosis jokes, and you know, you're not wrong, but first - there is something pressing that needs to be addressed:

Behold, the most awkward handshake of all time. Eoin is literally going for his bicep instead of his forearm, what even is that?!? And poor Percival, he's got one injured dumbass hanging off him on one arm, and another dumbass trying to shake his other hand like he's never seen an arm before. It looks like he's reaching up into his armpit because of the angle 😂😂 I'm cackling watching this gif loop.

Same energy:

(Gif credit not found)

THIS is why Elyan/Percival is the superior side ship:

Look at that sweet sweet chemistry. I almost always see Percival paired with Leon or Gwaine in fic and I just... how on earth can you pass this up? These two are perfect together. That LOOK Elyan gives him and Percival's giddy face as he looks over at Merlin and Arthur 😍😍😍 it looks better in the video than I can reproduce in gif

Christ, he DOES play the bimbofication well, doesn't he? "Whatever you say I'm entirely in your hands." I feel like at the time that was the line that spawned a million fanfics.

Morgana that is a magic snake, not a pen

Agravaine is so fuckin creepy. I mean I'm glad it took this long for him to go full blown creepazoid but we ALL saw it coming. Even tho he's NOT her uncle it's still gross, he's twice her age and disgusting.

How many brothers did Ygraine have anyway? Tristan I guess we'll never know but why would Agravaine really want his sister's SON dead? Fuckin royals.

Is Arthur listening for woodworm?

Why is Tristan twice Isolde's age

I miss Simpleton Arthur, but at least King Arthur looks good fighting in those tight capris

Arthur's all moody about Agravaine betraying him and Merlin is so supportive. If I were Merlin I would've been dropping "I told you so's" left and right.

What I don't get, is if Merlin knew Gwen has been in Ealdor, why has he never told Arthur this?

Gotta figure the people of Ealdor are not gonna be too happy about their village coming under attack cuz King Arthur is hiding out there. He's not even their king 😂

4x13 The Sword in the Stone part two

It's weird to have what feels like a ending moment ten minutes in

Tristan is such a dick

Won't eating moldy bread just make Gaius sicker

Hey um... how did Arthur get his clothes back? Did he keep a spare set in Ealdor? You know, for all those times he visits Hunith with Merlin? What's that you say, I'm getting fanon confused with canon again? Am I though?

Actual scene from when Merlin was telling Arthur the Bruta coda:

Omgggg the way he looks at Merlin's mouthhhhhhhhh before he goes to try and pull the sword from the stone

This is probably the second most iconic scene in the series, after the round table scene

and yes, I realize I'm going to hell for this but I can't be the only pervert watching this and thinking about how incredibly ... phallic it is.

There's a whole other level of subtext to this. Not just the phallic imagery but Merlin literally leading a doubtful Arthur to this ... performance space in front of a crowd, where Merlin is in full control of what's about to happen - and he guides Arthur through the motions, encouraging and confidence boosting, until Arthur becomes the truest version of his self. I say Merlin is in control but that's not even entirely accurate, he's only in control of releasing the sword from the stone, but that in and of itself is of no consequence; the power in this scene lies with Arthur, in his faith in himself - which is what Merlin is really helping him reclaim; the sword is just metaphor.

But am I supposed to believe that this subtext isn't intentional? Especially immediately after Merlin had Arthur in a trance-like state where he became more pliant and willing to be led?

My god if I were involved in this fandom when this was airing this episode would've made me lose my MIND.

Daaaamn Leon coming on a bit strong there but okay.

Nice to know that Morgana Pendragon, last priestess of the Old Religion, powerful Socereress and current ruler of Camelot, freezes and whimpers in terror at the first glimpse of an unexpected octogenarian in her castle.

I never watched any cast interviews beyond the SDCC panel that was in the S3 extras but I really want to know where that little laugh Old Man Merlin does came from. That little 'heh' is just the greatest thing ever, I'm dying to know if he based that on anyone or anything in particular.

Hey remember in S2 when Morgana got a whole bunch of hairbrushes for her birthday? Bet she wishes she knew where those had got to now.

This brief moment between Gwen and Arthur is actually perfect. Arthur has for so long gone been brooding about how he loves her but he's angry, even though we, the audience, know he has no business blaming her, none of the fucking characters do, including Gwen. But Gwen has also been through a lot, and he's given her zero benefit of doubt the whole time. So watching her march up to him and angrily tell him that she still loves him, then walking away without letting him speak - him, the king, her, leaving the 'tho God knows why since you behave like such an ass' unsaid at the end. It's really a beautiful, perfect moment.

Arthur: what happened to you, Morgana?

Morgana:

We love a mirror corridor fight scene

Percival and Elyan tho 😍😍

"Hold me"

No parallels there, nope, not at all.

Arthur: will you marry me?

The castle staff: christ, not again

Merlin's got himself a new coat for the occasion and everything!

Why is it that Merlin never checked on Aithusa? Never even asked Kilgharrah about her? You'd think he would've felt some kind of obligation, as the last Dragonlord, towards her. Yes I'm going with 'her' don't @ me it's hc.

As per usual, if there's anything worth commenting on in the special features for S4 I will create a separate post.

[thedreadvampy]

So this was sent to me by @atiredpan weeks ago when the White Jon conversation was very live and I'm posting it (belatedly) with their blessing (they didn't want to put it up publicly and have it seem like an attack which I really very much appreciate but wouldn't have minded) and I percolated for a few days and then got very busy for a few weeks. Response follows.

So I feel weird about how I'm responding to this stuff, I'm launching rapidly into taking about/explaining my own experience in a way I'm worried maybe comes across as a direct comparison. It kind of feels like I'm talking in a way that's like brushing off your experience and saying OK BUT HERE'S WHY I'M RIGHT and that's not what I'm trying to do, it's just that there's not much I can usefully add to what you've said - you know your experience better than I do, and I'm not gonna go around trying to read into it or reexplain it. So I'm going to talk about where I am/have been coming from, but not with the intention of countering your points, all of which I think really resonate.

First off, the post where I was like "Jon is white and if you disagree you're Wrong" was, unreservedly, just a shitty post and I'm not suprised it upset a lot of people. I'm really very sorry about that, it was thoughtlessly written and pretty stupidly posted.

I totally get that my whiteness has fed into how I hced Jon (and as I think I've said before I saw Jon a certain way well before I engaged with any fanworks, just as you did). There's a lot of reasons I imagined Jon as white from pretty early on, a non-negligible one of which was like...That's Jonny. This is a podcast by Jonny, about a character with the same name and mannerisms as Jonny, and Jonny is extremely white. It would have felt weird, when I was listening to TMA as a Friend Podcast, to stick a brown face onto what at least appeared at the time to basically be a self-insert character of my white friend. Now that's a really personal thing informed less by the story and more by the circumstances under which I've interacted with it, but it certainly laid a baseline. I didn't really have a clear mental picture of Jon (or most of the characters) for a looooooong time (for an artist I'm really not a very visual thinker) but I had a few sort of mental sketches (Jon is short white balding and awkward, Martin is tall biracial and scruffy Basira is fat and somali Melanie is my friend from work etc) which I developed a long time before I encountered fanworks.

I saw the alienation you mentioned and I connected it to class and gender, not race, because I’ve met a lot of cis men, white and otherwise, who interpolate trauma, class insecurity, insecurity about their own abilities, and so on into withdrawal, denial and snappiness. So for me I had an interpretation of that element of his personality which was pretty much race-neutral, and then I had these existing cues leading me to assuming he was white (largely that Jonny is white, but also wee stuff in the story that...it’s not like anything substantial enough to remember, let alone justify, but there were certainly interactions that pinged whiteness for me personally)

There are actually iirc a few throwaway references to Jon being promoted above more qualified candidates throughout (or at least I thought I knew that before s5), but the time I decided I thought White Jon was an obvious conclusion was of course the conversation where Sasha expresses frustration about it. and the context of that conclusion (at least as far as I can see) wasn't "people of colour can only exist in subservient positions/defined by oppression" but was informed by two things that were going on with my life around the time that episode aired

I had been having several conversations with friends of mine (and largely friends of Jonny's) who work in London in the museums/archiving sector and who are the only women of colour in whole departments or even whole museums, and who experience so little career mobility compared to their less-qualified white counterparts (we're talking about women graduating top of their class at Oxbridge with anthropology or library science masters and stellar original research, with a decade or more of impeccable work experience and acting up, being left in internship and low-grade positions, while white men who "fit the culture" but have 0 museums experience sail into upper management positions and then stay there until they retire). So I'd come almost directly from these conversations into what to me sounded like exactly the same gripe in TMA.

I'd been at that point working for about a year and a half on co-coordinating the anti-oppression committee in my workplace, which was a very Good Progressive Activist Charity with Good Lefty Principles, and over the course of experience sharing and discussions both with colleagues of colour and along lines of wealth, disability, class etc, I was very much confronted with the realisation of how much 'being adequately qualified' meant different things for middle-class good-university white men vs much more highly skilled and hardworking women of colour or people of different class and wealth backgrounds. Obviously I'd known that before in principle, but not really having been in Salaried Workplaces (as opposed to like. service and retail hourlies) I hadn’t got so up close and personal with it. So that was also very fresh in my mind, this like...big substantial experience of how Good, Well-Meaning, Caring, Thoughtful, Woke white men just........did not need to think about this. at all. and were startled and discomforted to face it. and that this was also true of most white middle-class women. and these conversations were really carved down the middle between white middle-class European women saying ‘this is such a surprise when we have such an equitable hiring policy and diverse staff, that there’s this gender gap’ and women of colour in the room wearily saying ‘yeah, there’s a gender gap, there’s always a gender gap and it is always a racialised gender gap’ so yeah I was definitely thinking about the intersection between being passed over at work because of gender and because of race.

The point about Tim is interesting because I think for me what’s getting lost is that I don’t think Jon is entitled as like...a Character Trait. He’s not like...Toxic Masculinity Man. He is very anxious about boundaries and about his own capacity to do harm. But it has to be pointed out to him where he’s doing harm. He doesn’t notice where he’s been unfairly advantaged, and that’s to me much more reflective of most people’s relationship to white or male entitlement. 

As I say, that exchange with Tim and Sasha cemented the Jon Is White hc in my head specifically because it was so reflective of conversations I had had with women of colour working in similar workplaces, about white men, usually about white men they generally liked or at least didn’t have beef with beyond their unfair advantages. 

It seems odd to me to frame ‘bitching about your boss on your friend’s behalf to make her feel better’ as more similar to white entitlement/white privilege than any of that tbh? That’s just...being friends with someone? 

Anyway I recognise that it’s not white entitlement to accept a job. Obviously it’s not, it’s just sensible under the circumstances, you get lucky and you grab it. For me my sense of Jon as white-because-of-this is not “he took a job he shouldn’t have taken,” it’s more about his obliviousness to the impact he has on others, and also primarily how people react to him. The interaction between Sasha and Tim is saturated with the of course it would be him I mentioned above, but even before that he walks through the world not expecting to have to think about anything but his conscious decisions, and he’s caught aback when people see him as out of place or as having power above his station.

I think it’s impossible to extricate ‘this is where my head was at’ from that interpretation, and also like obviously my own whiteness is a big factor. And not just my own personal whiteness but the place I grew up (which was 98.3% white) and the world which reflects back whiteness. So this is in no way intended as a bolshy This Is The Correct Headcanon the way my Bad Post was bc examining it I’m like...yeah I mean this is about how I personally interpreted this based on where I was at at the time. But I do feel like there’s some communication gap in what it is about this unqualified promotion thing that pinged me - it’s not that All Bosses Must Be White And All Brown People Must Be Downtrod, it’s something quite specific about the tone and tenor of the interactions around the getting-a-job.

But also? Idk. Kind of unrelatedly, and people obviously should feel free to disagree with me on this, it feels kind of off to frame this as defaulting to a white Jon? I sort of think that my idea of Jon as white is very much not ‘white until proven otherwise’ - part of the reason for my original strident tone was that I felt that I was being expected to drop a headcanon I had for specific reasons and default to the fanon version of Jon without actually having any reason other than ‘this is how the community thinks he should look,’ and without really understanding anything about what that means, and while obviously defaulting to a non-white headcanon isn’t like...entrenched in the way that defaulting to a white headcanon is, it does seem to me like this is perhaps part of why white fans slap brown skin onto a character without thinking into what that means or why they’re doing it.

The thing I’m struggling with as regards my personal headcanon here is that I could decide to only ever draw Jon as Fanon Jon, but it wouldn’t be because I had strong reasons to see him that way, it wouldn’t be the same as why you see Jon as brown, or why I see like...Melanie as Indian, it would literally be Default To Standard in a way it isn’t for you. And I don’t feel that I have Defaulted To Whiteness, or where I have it is for reasons specifically to do with Jon (I visualised Jon as white because I visualised him as Jonny, who is white), not because I think every character is White Until Proven Otherwise. Like, my reasons for understanding Jon as white may be bad reasons, but they are reasons, not post-hoc excuses (I can’t like...prove that. but I know it to be true at least on a conscious level). I didn’t go Oh Jon Is White Because Everyone Is Unless I Have Reason To Think They Aren’t, Hooray, Here Is A Post-Hoc Justification For Why It Isn’t Racist To Think That. So while I am totally on board with the idea that it may be shitty, harmful or poorly thought through to hc Jon as white, I’m not sure I can fully see it in myself as being default. But I do understand that that isn’t necessarily what came across in my original short post.

Honestly, the reason I took issue with Fanon Jon and Fanon Martin in such a bolshy way in the first place was that I didn’t get why these characters were universally seen as Asian and white, respectively, and had such strong and consistent fanon images, when none of the other characters did, and when I was seeing people drawing people like Sasha and Melanie and Tim as white way more when in my mind there was no reason to assume they were white. On an emotional level I guess I think either there’s Fanon As Lore, or there’s no fanon (and I prefer the latter) and my discomfort came from the place that the one character I absolutely saw as coded as white in the core cast had this one really specific Ambiguously Brown Fanon Look (which from what I’d seen at the time didn’t seem to be like...backed with anything or coming from any personal interpretation for most of the white fans I was seeing on like Twitter and Tumblr) but white headcanons are everywhere for characters like Melanie or Sasha or Georgie, who seemed to me to be unambiguously people of colour, or characters like Tim or Martin (who could perfectly reasonably be people of colour and who I hc as Rroma and biracial respectively)? I don’t know, it’s difficult to express, but I find it frustrating.