#perfection doesn't exist they say

[betweensunflowersanddaffodils]

~ Kevison ~

cc: @ourfinehouse

[the-barefoot-hatter]

pediatricians are hard to find.

you aren't broken and other important things a triangle needs to hear

[areyoudoingthis]

I am SO grateful that ed and stede exist as characters exactly as they are. I'm so grateful for these two men who are traumatized and messed up and struggle to even like themselves, who are terrible at communicating, who make enough mistakes between the two of them to fill an entire ocean. I am so grateful to watch them struggle and be seen and be loved and reach out for the things they want and are maybe starting to believe that they deserve. I'm so grateful that the show lets them fall in love and get together exactly as they are, that it doesn't say they need to wait until they've become some unattainably perfect version of themselves before they have permission to have that. i am so grateful for ofmd

[bixels]

So I l’ve been getting into your ko crisis story lately (it all sounds rlly awesome btw) and i was curious - you’ve said in the tags in a previous ask that ash is comphet, so is that gonna play a major role in her character arc/journey in any way?

Yeah, the story basically covers her journey of redefining her identity as a queer Asian-American disabled woman in a sports-entertainment industry, which is a media landscape that specifically targets, exploits, and fetishizes people like her.

[plasma-studios]

my hot take is that good representation means diverse representation. including rep that would be deemed shitty

[lord-squiggletits]

Y'know the thing about writing feral/unhinged versions of Orion/Optimus, is that you can't go too far into the feral/unhinged direction to a point where OP's core character traits are lost or become too diminished. After all, in a multiple-continuity franchise like TF, part of what makes the stories make sense is that even if details change (sometimes major details), the characters are still recognizably themselves to one degree or another. (Although this isn't always the case due to executive meddling or some characters being such blank slates from their initial G1 appearances that there's basically nothing to model them off of, but I digress.)

It's pretty much another reason why I love IDW1 Optimus, bc he literally is a canonical feral/unhinged Optimus who's unhinged as a direct consequence of who he is as a person and what he's been through. Like, he still has those fundamental character traits of trying his best to be moral and make good choices, trying to be a role model, etc, except after 4 million years of war and untreated depression he's basically holding onto his sense of self by his fingertips. So when he "goes feral" e.g. losing his temper and beating up/killing people or saying hurtful things, he's feral in a way that's directly tied to his normal personality and not just as a random quirk he has.

IDW OP's feral moments arise from the gaps between "Optimus' attempts to be who he thinks he needs to be" and "the reality of the world that he can't fix/seems to only make worse" that cause him to lose hope, or become cynical, or lose his temper. But in this case, the unhinged-ness makes perfect sense because it arises out of Optimus trying and failing to be the best person or to make the most morally good choices he's trying to make. Basically, the "feral/unhinged" label is just another way of me trying to say that he's not just unhinged because he's weird or because he's a bad person, but because it's an emotional reaction (more like an emotional explosion due to pent-up emotions) to the context he exists in.

I'd also say that IDW OP's personality being generally reserved/stoic and (trying to be) noble works in tandem with those moments he has of going feral because it makes him more realistic. His psyche is treated in a way where the writers are like, "Hey what if the pressure of having to be everyone's idol and be the best person in the galaxy at all times actually broke Optimus down mentally and emotionally?" It makes IDW OP far more relatable. Instead of naturally being a perfect Christ-like figure who never wavers in his morals or convictions and is just naturally a nice person who always has the wisest and best answer, being a good person is something that IDW OP has to consciously strive to be. Even when he feels like it's useless, or the cycle of violence will never stop, or any attempts he makes to help only ends up with things becoming worse.

And I feel like this does a service not only to IDW Optimus as a character, but also as a sort of moral/philosophical perspective for the reader to ponder upon? I feel like culture at large (or at least my experience of it) tends to believe that "goodness" in a person is simply an innate feature that people are born/not born with, and that being "good" means that you must be good at all times, both in your actions as well as the way you feel emotionally about yourself and the world. Like, there's a tendency for our vision of "a good person" to be good in every aspect at all times without having to try to be a good person. So I think IDW Optimus' character stands as a good example of how someone can be good at heart but still struggle to maintain those feelings of optimism and hope and justice. It's a good idea to have such a paragon of a character (in-universe and out-of-universe) be so conflicted and to even be mistaken, misguided, or make things worse because it shows that goodness is as much about "trying to behave/act in a way that is good" and not just "existing as an innately good person."

It's way more realistic for a person to want to be good, try to be good, and sometimes/often fail than it is for them to just be a good person. I enjoy the fact that IDW Optimus is both a good person at heart, but also has to strive to be a good person and live up to other people's expectations of what they see in him. I like how he wants to be a good person and change society for the better, but he also spends a good amount of time either feeling hopeless and alone or being angry at/detached from other people because of how frustrated they make him. He's realistically portrayed as someone who wants to be good and hopeful and change things for the better, but is also mentally and emotionally broken by that burden because of how impossible it is for him to Fix Everything and be the Perfect Prime/Leader/Autobot that people see him as. It's this fascinating mixture of "yes, this is who he is as a person" but also "there are things he desires to be that he could never possibly become or live up to."

This got really far off based from feral/unhinged Optimus sdklfjaslkdlfkas. The TLDR is that if people want unhinged OP, I feel like they should give IDW OP a chance because he IS unhinged but he's unhinged in a way that's a realistic/thematic representation of how being an Absolute Good is impossible. And how being a good person isn't just about Existing And You Are A Good Person, but rather goodness is a constant state of flux in which you adjust, you make mistakes, you lose your temper and feel hopeless, but then you pick yourself up and try again.

Also IDW OP really likes climbing in dangerous wilderness and jumping out of flying vehicles which I think is very feral and sexy of him to do.

[mokeonn]

I fucking hate the tetris effect so much. Like oooh lemme play this funnie little card game rogue-like, ooh it's so fun it's gonna be the only game I play for weeks now, oooh what do you mean I'm fucking duplicating multi-card holographic sevens in my dreams

[gurorori]

if you say shit like 'autism is not a disability' i hope you actually have really bad things happen to you and you are banned from the autism community for the foreseeable future. get another fun weird club if you so badly need one

so profoundly tired of people trying to make autism into this whimsical quirkiness when it's for most people a serious and debilitating life altering disorder

[astarlightmonbebe]

slightly hot take (?) but personally i felt the reactions in ep 17 were all in-character and justified... don't have the time to get into it, but it boils down to the fact that knowing something logically =/= knowing it emotionally

[the-busy-ghost]

Me normally: Let people love what they love

Me, after a Test Match Special commentator expresses their belief that the new All Creatures Great and Small is somehow "better" than the 1978 version: This is pure insanity and TMS can no longer be trusted on anything, how can they even be trusted to know about cricket, do they have no TASTE

[raccoonlovesmacncheese]

My pronounces are she, not he

Because I'll never be him

[quietwingsinthesky]

part of me wonders like. what if ruby's mom had just left. what if ruby had said "i'm named after a road", looking at her with so much hope in her eyes, and her mom, who made this choice nineteen years ago, couldn't handle it. and left.

[whispers-of-lilith]

Was going to post some 4am spicy thoughts, but the literal second I start writing them down, my brain says, "no. must be perfect. keep rewriting those 5 sentences until they're perfect. make the whole thing longer while you're at it too".

And for the love of all that is holy, I fucking hate my brain. I just wanna post my silly little thirst without it needing to be perfect.

[here-there-were-dragons]

i have to wonder what super hardcore militant vegans think should be done about obligate carnivore animals, because in all my painfully-rapidly-approaching-30-years i've literally never actually seen anyone give a clear consistent much less halfway feasible answer on that

[shakingparadigm]

Something that I think about until my brain hurts is how "perfect" Ivan is. He's surrounded by peers who look up to him and are even jealous or intimidated by him in the garden, he's a top student and so trusted by the aliens that he doesn't even have to wear a collar or chip. He's mature and intelligent for his age, he's incredibly handsome, physically fit, charming and interactive with his fanbase, supported by his wealthy alien parent and the countless brands that want to sponsor him. He's voted NUMBER 1 in fandom popularity, for gods sake. All of this fortune and he's still miserable because he will never have the one person he based his whole life around. And it kills me btw!!!! Till is such an integral part of Ivan's life, yet Ivan didn't show up in Till's song at all, didn't show up in his core memories ONCE.

[triglycercule]

the satsujinki is such a dumb and silly concept i love it ngl. like the murder time trio can just FUSE together??? just like that??? excuse me hello this is absolutely hilarious.

(for context the satsujinki is the murder time trio's stage 3 in their fight. it's not canon to something new or horrortale or dusttale BUT it is canon to the person who made the murder time trio boss fight (TOUKEN KAMUI I LOVE YOU SO MUCH) ,,,, sooo........ (i am very aware that the satsujinki only ever forms in the very rare instance that the trio are about to lose and their souls are already exposed. and theres also almost zero information on the satsujinki like ever. so i'm just ditching everything and going with the idea that the mtt can fuse together and have a fusion. because that's sillier :3))

do they just like do it at random times?? if the trio's ever struggling in battle do they ever just nod heads at each other and fuse like a signal that "we need to pull out the big guns". or is it like something REALLY personal and touchy that they only do for special occasions (i'd assume literally BECOMING ONE PERSON is a pretty sensitive topic esp for the insane freaks that are the murder time three,,,,,) do they need to do a steven universe fusion dance for it? what WOULD a fusion dance between the mtt look like??? is the satsujinki like their estranged child that they refer to only in vague sentences? can the murder time trio communicate to each other in one head when fused together. does the appearance of the satsujinki change if it's killer absorbing dust and horror's souls and not dust absorbing killer and horror's?? what about if its horror instead of dust. do the trio have control over each of the pairs of arms???? who gets control of the main body. do they pilot the satsujinki like a mecha suit??? does the satsujinki have feelings??? does it have literally every issue the mtt has? can it hear phantom paps and ser killer's hallucinations??? does it HURT? can the satsujinki function to do anything except kill. how would it even WORK how much lv would it have?? is the satsujinki a IT??? ive been calling it an it this entire time because what IS IT.

i also think its funny that the name literally translates to "the murderer." or "the killer" hello that's just dust's og name or killer's literal name repeated??? it also means "devilish homicide" or "god-killing demon" in which i say,,,, cmon man. the mtt is a cringe concept already but these names are just COMEDICALLY bad it's hilarious 😭😭😭

if you have a fusion together is that the ultimate form of a relationship. mttpoly is so real they became one person. isn't that kinda intimate. being the same existence,,,, they all started out as sans (the same guy) and now they're fused together as the satsujinki (them all as the same guy). this is a strange concept that i think is hilariously funny and needs elaborating on