#personally I find BOTH compelling and don’t think they are mutually exclusive

[fandomlurker333]

My take: Dean has never respected Sam’s autonomy in his whole life for two reasons.

1. Because he himself has no concept of it (he’s daddy’s blunt little instrument being thrown around, or he’s Sam’s protector — bodily shield for his baby brother, or he’s his provider — working/stealing/going hungry so that Sam can eat, etc.). He has no conception of a body that belongs solely to him because he’s never been allowed it. How can you give to someone else what you’ve never been given yourself?

I 100% agree with what you’ve said here. But the thing is that Dean can observe something outside of himself and say it’s messed up, and the rules be different for him and Sam simply because his self-concept is not separate from Sam. Because he grew up so psychologically fucked by their circumstances he literally never formed an identity separate from Sam’s wellbeing. This isn’t to absolve him, I’m just pointing out facts. 🤣

These two aren’t just codependent, they’re deeply enmeshed. And Sam runs off to Stanford to get a bit of distance and try to figure out who he is without Dean, who he is when he’s his own person, and frankly never manages it. And the way his life careens off the rails and he loses touch with reality every single time Dean’s not there (beyond Stanford) narratively hints at the fact that he struggles to do this in any sustainable way. It’s why (when he’s not soulless which lol) he always attaches himself to some woman and ends up turning into whatever they need.

We see them tackle this over and over —this can’t live with him, literally cannot live without him debacle. And for all Sam talks a good game, there are many times he sinks comfortably into the habits of enmeshment and codependency with Dean with no struggle. It isn’t that he’s doing a prison sentence chained to him. He also enjoys the benefits of their dynamic until Dean takes it too far and he’s forced to try and assert a level of autonomy that, in actuality, they’ve never learned or practiced.

I agree losing Sam in Season 2 fucked Dean up irrevocably and made all this worse. I also agree that the tight arc through season 5 was about Dean letting Sam finally make his own choices (being Lucifer’s vessel, saying yes, drinking the blood, etc. basically his worse nightmare). And it was Sam’s redemption arc. This is where they were headed since Season one. And the show was scripted originally to end here, which is why from S6-S10 they just loop back on the same themes and neither character seems to grow at fucking all.

My favorite is Season 11 when the writers seemed to have Sam finally just stop struggling and accept that what he has with Dean is not healthy, and it never will be. But! He does want it. He wants him&Dean. So instead of lying to himself about it and saying he doesn’t and running himself ragged yanking at the rope he continually retightens, it feels like he kinda of sighs into this.

And says okay this is what it is. This is reality. This is water. Dean and I are fucked. But I do want this. So where are my boundaries actually within this? Is there a way we can live happily within this dysfunction? Are there things we can negotiate? What CAN we attain?

Instead of this pie in the sky fantasy that he and Dean will be normal one day when he keeps getting into that passenger seat and falling into those same patterns he says he hates so much. 🫣Sam DOES have agency. It’s agency that is violated by many and our boy struggles bad, but for better or worse, he chooses Dean. I feel like Season 11 is Sam finally admitting to himself that he does.

Now the full horror take is, of course, that Sam is tired of fighting for any autonomy in the face of it being ripped away from him at every turn. And so settling into this relationship with his controlling older brother is like giving up. But I feel like that take disregards the second reason Dean can’t recognize Sam’s autonomy which is that…

2. They are canonical soulmates. Soul. Mates. Meaning they belong to each other at soul level. That most intrinsic element of who they are — it has been mated since they came into being. (Hello, is this thing on??) They have been joined together (bonded, MATED) at the soul level for the whole time they have existed. That shit is INSANE. Like can you even conceive of it?

It’s an incredibly romantic notion but it didn’t come from me! It’s written in the text! Sam and Dean are a “special case”.

It’s been acknowledged by the angels, the demons, and God (Chuck) himself. lol them two were MADE to be together. To fight together. To fight each other. To have their love conquer the end of the world (this is the resolution point of Season 5).

Sam and Dean’s love is meant to do the impossible (allow Sam to leash a heretofore unleashable all-powerful evil — Lucifer). Such is the strength (and purity!!! And unconditionality!) of their love. It’s literally written in the text!

They are soulmates. And to me this entails every ridiculous and romantic notion we have about soulmates. Being everything to each other. No one being more important. Being willing to die for each other. Being willing to kill for each other. Losing a big part of themselves without one another. And yes, with that level of intensity and inescapable intimacy comes all the toxic parts too.

There are many times the show deals with this question too. Are they at their worst when they’re together? Do they just make each other worse? And time and again it’s shown that — at least from their perspective — they are better together. They are better hunters, better people, better members of society, really, in the sense they’re better at paying attention to others outside of their unit of Sam&Dean. They’re only whole, human (“we keep each other human”) together. Dean and Sam both turn monstrous without each other.

But the full romance take is that they actually are closest to heaven and at peak joy when they’re together. We see this allllll the way back when they first get to heaven and Dean sees SAM with those goddamn fireworks. And Sam spends what I think is years after trying to convince Dean that the angels fucked up his heaven — that heaven really isn’t heaven without Dean.

That hell is, in fact, separation (another thing the show is not subtle about. See Dean screaming Sam’s name in hell, Dean ending up in purgatory without Sam, Sam in hell without Dean, etc.) Sam is always running away from it. That feeling of inevitability, of belonging. But he knows it’s inescapable.

The full romance take is they were fated for each other. They were born this way. They could never have been any other way. And so the best they could do is learn to find balance within that intensity.

To learn how to heal from and cope with their trauma (the biggest of which always seems to be losing each other) so they can figure out how to make every moment of their lives together as close to heavenly as possible. Because that potential is always there.

what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens when you've decided i can't be trusted again? what happens—

[freekicks]

I suppose I’m not sure what you want me to do here. I could explain what a kink is or do some psychosexual analysis on why some men are into “daddies,” but I think all that would accomplish is bringing us both five minutes closer to our last breaths on earth. If it’s not something you’re into, and it’s between two consenting adults, then I don’t see why it’s our business. I’m also unsure how, as someone who is reading erotic stories in their spare time, “daddies” is the subject that compelled you to write a letter to your local advice columnist. I have read things in the realm of smut that would make the common “daddy fetish” story look like “Goodnight Moon.” Come back to me when you reach the cold, hard bottom of the slash fic iceberg. You also seem to be conflating real-world relationships with erotica. These are not the same. Sure, there can be overlap, but to go from “this fictional character crossed a line in a fictional story” to “and that’s why I’m uncomfortable with people who remind me of that character” suggests, to me, that you took a wrong turn or two navigating this ethical corn maze. It’s not even a script limited to gays. I mean, mainstream pop culture is littered with what I would consider “daddy trope” dynamics. There’s a whole genre of beauties falling for beasts. There’s a popular children’s movie about it with a singing teapot and a fruity candelabra. What is a beast, if not a daddy by another name? You be the judge. I’m certainly in no place to dictate what makes you uncomfortable. I can see how you might look at, say, a large age gap between two adults in a sexual dynamic and think, “weird!” I’ve had thoughts like that as well. But I think discomfort in and of itself is not always a surefire sign that something immoral is afoot. Discomfort can be caused by any number of factors—personal experiences, biases, preferences, and so on. [...] Sadly, it’s all too common to see people exploit power dynamics—experience, money, fame, access, etc.—for personal gain. But this isn’t exclusive to age. All three times that I’ve been violated by men, the men have been around my age. Abuse can happen in any dynamic, and while I, too, find comfort in the notion that abuse can be easily sniffed out ahead of time, that there will reliably be telltale red flags, that’s just not how things typically work. I’m also reluctant to abide by the increasingly popular belief that “power dynamics” are inherently manipulative. The reality is, there are power dynamics in every relationship. If you are involved with another person, then you have entered an uneven playing field or two. No two people will be exactly the same age, same economic class, same appearance (I hope????), and so on, and so forth. This is not violence. This is dating. These are things that have to be worked through and navigated with mutual respect. There is risk involved, yes, but risk cannot be entirely avoided in life. I hope I’m not coming across as harsh, Confused! I think, or at least hope, that you’re coming from a place of genuine concern for others and, to be sure, I’d never want to outright dismiss anyone on a subject as serious and prevalent as abuse. But on the other hand, I find myself a member of a community presently under attack by accusations of “grooming” and predation. It’s made me particularly sensitive to insinuations from any political stripe that the gays are sex monsters trolling for their next victim, or that we’re all just victims in waiting, idling around until one of those nasty older gays creeps up and takes advantage of our vulnerabilities. I’m not saying that’s what you’re doing here, but again, what two consenting adults (ADULTS) do is not my business. I can make my own judgments, but I don’t have to give my rubber stamp of approval on it. I don’t have to formally condone or condemn it. If harm hasn’t been explicitly stated, then I won’t read harm into it just because I’m uncomfortable. I am not entitled to a perpetual state of comfort.

-Advice Columnist Hola Papi (aka John Paul Brammer) responding to a letter writer who was uncomfortable about the prevalence of daddy kink in gay erotic fiction.

just thought this might be relevant to a certain fandom right now...

[bigstripeylie]

Ghosts theory- “sucked off” edition

Apologies for the title.

I have a theory about how each of the ghosts in Ghosts has a parallel with another Ghost and how this could be the key to them finally being able to move on, or “be sucked off’ as Mary would say.

Putting it behind a cut as this is extremely long and rambly. Spoilers for pretty much every episode of Ghosts

First of all I was listening to Mat and Jim on the Empire Spoilers podcast and Mat said something really interesting about how he intended “you stays how you dies” to refer to the ghost’s mental and emotional state, as well as physical. So Thomas always being obsessed with seeking love is because he died broken-hearted and Fanny always being so grumpy is because she died angry at her husband. 

I believe, therefore, that if the ghosts were able to overcome each of their emotional blocks that would be the thing that would allow them to move on. Furthermore, each of the ghosts has another ghost that seems perfectly suited to be able to assist them in that.

Let’s go through them:

Thomas- Thomas died believing his love never loved him back and now is forced to spend eternity seeking for love as a ghost. If Thomas was able to find someone who could reciprocate his affections, this would the resolve that issue. In the Series 2 episode “About Last Night” when Alison drunkenly tells Thomas “if you were alive and I was 200 years older, then we might have…” we hear a choir start singing and Thomas is pulled, as if compelled, through the wall, similar to how Fanny is pulled forwards towards the window to jump when she “doesn’t even realise [she’s] doing it.” Thomas desperately craves love and affection from another person, but in life was constantly rejected by the people he loved most. You know who else that sounds like? Kitty.

Kitty- Like Thomas, she is from a wealthy family who sheltered her a lot growing up, but is ultimately good and tries to be honourable. Kitty also craves love and affection as well as companionship and she tries to seek it, first in Eleanor and then in Alison (because Alison reminds her of  Eleanor, like how Alison reminds Thomas of Isabelle). However it comes up again and again that Kitty’s relationship with Alison isn’t as fulfilling to her as she would like it be because her being a ghost prevents her from sharing every activity with Alison, and Alison cannot show her physical affection. Kitty is trying to recreate aspects of her relationship with Eleanor using Alison as a substitute but this isn’t very healthy for her, as it simply traps her in the constant state of seeking affection that will not or cannot be returned fully. We don’t know the exact circumstances of Kitty’s death but after Series 3, if seems likely that her sister was in some way involved. Maybe what is keeping Kitty trapped as a ghost is her need for approval and love that she never got in life? But by seeking it in people who remind her of Eleanor exclusively, she is further trapping herself.

If Kitty and Thomas could find love with each other, they could each fulfil the other’s need for reciprocated affection. They are both equally needy so this quality wouldn’t likely annoy the other. Kitty seems to genuinely enjoy high romance in earnest and in finding an outlet for her love in Thomas, she could finally move on from her sister. Thomas would also find someone to love him and could devote himself completely to someone who would actually return his love, instead of fruitlessly pursuing women who remind of Isabelle’s rejection. This could lead to the resolution of both character’s finally moving on from their deaths.

Next up, let’s look at The Captain-

The Captain’s central conflict is obviously his sexuality. I believe that the resolution to this conflict would be him finally accepting and coming to terms with being gay and feeling comfortable with that part of his  identity. Which ghost could best help him in this?

Fanny. 

Maybe not the answer you were thinking, but hear me out. The Captain already has a strong positive relationship with Fanny built on mutual respect. He is more likely to value her opinion as an equal that any of the other ghosts and he seems to align himself with her on most issues. Which makes his choice to go against Fanny and defend the same-sex wedding and its guests to her in “Perfect Day” really remarkable.

In “Perfect Day”, Fanny expresses some pretty disapproving remarks about the wedding guest’s attire and some homophobic opinions about the same-sex wedding in general, which prompts the Captain to defend one of the guests to Fanny. “It’s chic, it’s now, and if it makes her feel fabulous…”

Imagine a scene where The Captain has to defend himself towards Fanny in a similar manner after coming out, showing that he is finally accepting of his sexuality as being the right thing for him. 

Anyway, that was a slight digression…

Fanny is still struggling to deal with the circumstances of her own death which was brought about in part because she caught her husband having an affair with other men. Fanny needs to accept and come to terms with the fact that her husband didn’t love her and that while he was obviously wrong for murdering her, she needs to move on so she can stop reenacting it by jumping out the window every morning. Because she died feeling angry and betrayed, she is trapped in that state in death. Discovering that one of her closest friends is gay and realising that it is possible for someone to be both gay and a good person might prompt her to think differently about her own life, as she started do with Humphrey in Perfect Day. 

The Captain, in turn, could be driven by Fanny’s ability to accept his sexuality into thinking ‘if she can accept that part of me, then maybe I can too.’ Personally, out of all the ghosts, I think it could only be Fanny who could prompt him to think that because it would mean the most to him coming from her.

Humphrey- Humphrey died because he was trying to protect Sophie, who rejected any attempt to get to know him and who he believed didn’t even like him. In death he is trapped in a state of being a selfless self-sacrificing people-pleaser and desperately wanting to be included in the other ghost’s activities, even allowing himself be kicked and thrown around if it means he can just be involved. In ‘I Love Lucy’ he even attempts to make a relationship with Fanny work, showing he is willing to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of others.

Julian, by contrast, is the most selfish of all the ghosts at Button House. Deep down he feels guilty that his selfishness negatively affected the relationship with his daughter but seems not to be consciously aware that he feels like this. Julian’s selfishness to not spend time with his family ultimately leads to his death in Button House, as he neglected his family to spend more time at work and was clearly cheating on his wife, showing he is driven by selfish impulses.

If Julian were to perform a completely selfless act to the benefit of Humphrey, then Humphrey would get to feel as though someone was putting him first for once and valuing him the way he seeks to be valued. Julian would also break the pattern of selfish behaviour that caused his downfall.

The rest are little less well-defined:

Pat is the probably the ghost that we know the most about, through seeing his death and actually meeting his family in “Happy Death Day”, to the numerous anecdotes he reveals about his life throughout the show. However, I can’t decide for sure what is the thing that is keeping him a ghost. Pat himself seemed to think it was that he was missing his family, but this was ultimately proved wrong after he saw them again in ‘Happy Death Day’. Even meeting the boy who killed him and forgiving him in ‘Perfect Day’ didn’t cause him to move on. It could be something to do with Carol’s affair with Maurice but I just don’t know for sure. I like the idea of him fitting in with the plague ghosts. I think his personalty and leadership style would get along better with them than say, The Captain, who is too authoritarian. I also think Pat is someone who thrives in a group setting.

Robin and Mary are also tricky to work out what the thing keeping them as ghosts is because we know so little about their lives and deaths compared to the other characters. I think these are the only two ghosts who have not yet received a flashback to their lives. We know that Mary was in some way involved a witch-trail and this has traumatised her. Robin also has experienced a lot of trauma in his life but he seems to be more philosophical about it and accepting of it. He shows great empathy towards others both in trying to comfort Pat about his death in “Happy Death Day’ and Kitty in “About Last Night’, he could use his experience of trauma to help Mary deal with hers. They both seem to be looked down upon and ‘othered’ by the other ghosts due to their perceived lack of intelligence even though they are both very emotionally and socially intelligent.

If anyone has any thoughts about these last two pairings or any of the others, then please reblog and add your take!

I am not in any way saying that I think this is what will happen in the next series or what even I think should happen, but that this is one possibilities for much further down the road when the ghost are all ready to move on.

Also I have spent way too much time thinking about this…

[saffronique]

I Read Leopardstar's Honor So You Don't Have To: A Review (Not Spoiler Free)

Oh Leopardstar. A cat who has long divided the fanbase as a leader beloved by some and despised by others. After years of waiting (for some) she was finally given her own super edition. In a word it was... underwhelming.

Introduction:

The book opens during Leopardstar's kithood days. The first scene is adorably heartwarming- readers are treated to Leopardkit and her denmates playing the warriors version of hide and seek, and there are some absolutely adorable moments here, such as Crookedjaw helping Leopardkit escape the seeker by whisking her away on his back, and Mudfur doting on his daughter. The scene takes a sharp turn when Skykit, one of Leopardkit's denmates, lures her away from the group to shove her head underwater and berate her for giving away Skykit's hiding place in the last round of hide and seek. Skykit's actions are startlingly cruel here, as she tells Leopardkit that she's a rotten kit that killed her own mother and that she is doomed to the dark forest like all the other murderers. This understandably disturbs and traumatizes Leopardkit, and when she speaks to her father about it, Mudfur reassures her that she is good, and that Brightsky came to him in a dream to say that Leopardkit will one day save RiverClan. Leopardkit latches on to this dream, and the book follows her through relatively disjointed moments in her life as she tries to live up to her destiny.

Pacing:

The pacing of the book is an absolute nightmare. We don't spend long enough in any one part of Leopardstar's life to see her have any meaningful interactions with other cats, and thus the majority of the relationships she has seem surface level at best, forced at worse, with Whiteclaw being a notable exception. She spends maybe 3 chapters as a kit, 3 as an apprentice, 3 as a warrior, 2 as a mentor, and so on. As a result, we don't actually get the opportunity to see Leopardstar learning or struggling in a meaningful way at any point. We're TOLD she's a hard worker, that she's dedicated and loyal, but the book gives you little chance to actually see it. The book slows down long enough to force an almost love story with Frogtail, which Leopardstar ultimately gives up on to focus on her work, but then a few chapters later Frogtail is dead and it's back to jumping around through her life.

The book really suffers from a lack of side characters and relationships to help things feel connected. The only real through line is this silly dream from Mudfur-not even an official prophecy- that Leopardstar focuses on to the exclusion of all else. Compare this to Crookedstar's Promise and Bluestar's Prophecy- while both books feature a greater destiny that the characters focus on throughout the book, they are given the chance to develop meaningful relationships that last for large chunks of the book. Bluestar has her relationship with her sister and her rivalry with Thistleclaw, and even her friendship with Thrushpelt, all of which allow her story to feel genuine and naturally lend themselves to interesting subplots. Crookedstar has his relationship with Mapleshade, his romance with Willowbreeze, his desire to prove himself to his mother- again, all things that make him feel like a well rounded, multifaceted character. Leopardstar has her dream, and ONLY her dream. None of her friendships last more than a few chapters before the other character is killed off. Her most meaningful relationship, with her apprentice and adopted son Whiteclaw, has the potential to round out Leopardstar's character, but Whiteclaw's fate has been predetermined. We all know he's going to die in the gorge because we see it happen in Fire and Ice. After Whiteclaw's death, Leopardstar briefly has a compelling relationship with Silverstream after she discovers her relationship with Graystripe. Silverstream and Leopardstar have opposing priorities of love and duty, and the interactions between them are an interesting insight into both characters. Silverstream actively rebukes Leopardstar's mindset and challenges her priorities, something that would have been invaluable in making Leopardstar's choice to join Tigerstar seem more consequential. But Silverstream too is doomed to die, and by the time the book reaches its climax, Mudfur is the only cat left to challenge Leopardstar's choices. Instead of letting the rift between father and daughter build, Leopardstar has no problem simply banishing her father and medicine cat for disagreeing with her. No one that she cares about is left to challenge her for her decisions, and thus there are no real stakes to the choices she makes. Sure, Stonefur dies and its awful, but the book doesn't bother to develop any real friendship or camaraderie between the two, so it doesn't feel as impactful as it should. The book concludes with Leopardstar understanding that she's wrong and Mudfur convincing her that she's going to save the Clan from the disaster she helped create. At the very least, Leopardstar seems to understand the problems with this and points out that it's not really her saving the Clans, its Firestar. This is completely true, as she has no role in Tigerstar's downfall and no role in stopping Scourge. The best that can be said for Leopardstar is that she doesn't get in the way of Firestar here.

She faces no real struggles aside from her father's doubt as to her ability to lead, a dynamic already witnessed between Brambleberry and Crookedstar and done much better.

Awful editing:

This book suffers from an almost unbelievable lack of care on the part of the editors, with big chunks of text very obviously cut and pasted to different parts of the story without any effort to edit out nonsequitors. The most painful instance of this revolves around Stormpaw and Featherpaw's apprenticeship. In one scene, Leopardstar comments on the fact that Primrosekit and Pikekit will be made apprentices any day (Reedkit is inexplicably absent here, and Perchkit seems to have died offscreen though it is never mentioned) and notes that Stormkit and Featherkit still have their kit fluff and look tiny next to their older denmates. A couple paragraphs later, we see Featherkit and Stormkit being apprenticed to Mistyfoot and Stonefur, in a paragraph that EXPLICITLY STATES that it's the very next day. The other kits have mysteriously been apprenticed already. Boulder and Jaggedtooth of ShadowClan are inexplicably present at the ceremony, despite there being no mention of their arrival at any point and Leopardstar refusing Tigerstar's offer to join their two Clans together the day before. A few pages later (yes, literally just pages later, that's how atrocious the pacing is) we cut to a battle between RiverClan and ThunderClan at the Sunningrocks, where Stonefur and Mistyfoot's parentage is revealed. Leopardstar doesn't actually hear this, but she does overhear them discussing it in the most painfully forced way possible moments later. Leopardstar finds herself absolutely HORRIFIED that she's apprenticed two half-Clan cats to half-Clan mentors.... and then a few chapters later, after forming TigerClan, Tigerstar asks her if she still intends to make Mistyfoot and Stonefur mentors to Featherkit and Stormkit despite their parentage, to which Leopardstar responds that they are still loyal RiverClan warriors. Yes, I'm serious.

Leopardstar's character:

This super edition is nothing but a showcase of the absolute worst aspects of Leopardstar as a character. Throughout the book she is shown as racist, battle hungry, self-centered, foolish, and utterly lacking in compassion or even pity for any Clan other than her own. She is constantly making racist generalizations about cats from other Clans, actively wishes for WindClan's downfall, sides with Tigerstar simply because Fireheart is a kittypet, and, perhaps most disturbingly, tries to murder Fireheart in cold blood because of his kittypet background. This book literally does nothing to endear the reader to Leopardstar, it makes her out to be the most despicable, honorless cat imaginable. And honestly, if you're not a Leopardstar fan, I think that's one of the most compelling things about this book. The desire to see what atrocities Leopardstar would commit next was what kept me interested in the story, honestly it was the only reason I finished it. There was something morbidly fascinating about watching a character so self absorbed and lacking in compassion interact with the world around her. It was enjoyable in a way to see a character so deeply set in the beliefs that the series has repeatedly established as wrong time and time again. Pacing and editing aside, this difference in philosophy is a breath of fresh air after the same recycled plotlines and moral messages that the series has been using for years. This book isn't going to make you like Leopardstar, but it is going to make you love to hate her.

What the book did right:

While there were very few positives to the book, it wasn't completely lacking in value. The book succeeded in developing a deeply meaningful relationship between Whiteclaw and Leopardstar that, thankfully, wasn't a romance. Their mother/son and mentor/apprentice relationship does a good job at setting up Leopardstar's grudge against ThunderClan over Whiteclaw's death as we see it play out in the first arc. Honestly, Leopardstar as a character would have been served far better if this had just been a novella detailing the relationship between these two. That was probably the only real thing of value in the book, honestly. Aside from that, Frogtail and Leopardstar's relationship, while I personally found it completely unnecessary, addressed a topic I've been hoping to see in warriors for a while now-- two characters who love each other but decide that the things they want out of life are mutually incompatible, and part ways amicably. Leafpool x Crowfeather and Bluestar x Oakheart both almost did this, but fell short because it was only ever really one character who decided to end the relationship. Unfortunately, the value in this message is somewhat diminished by the fact that Leopardstar later laments multiple times that she should've given up on her goals and just had kits with Frogtail instead, an absolutely disgusting conclusion that plays into the recurring problem of misogyny in warriors where women aren't allowed to be both mothers and hold a position of power, they have to choose between the two.

All in all, this Super Edition is easily the worst so far in terms of plot, pacing, and writing, but I still found some enjoyment in reading the perspective of such a selfish, cruel protagonist.

[astermacguffin]

Generally, I think there are three major interpretations of "Evil Deancas"—it's a term that we use interchangeably when we usually mean different things. (Although to be fair, these categories often overlap and are not mutually exclusive.) We can summarize these interpretations as:

1. Evil as in "These are bad people"

2. Evil as in "These people are bad for each other"

3. Evil as in "How bad can these people be?"

The First Interpretation

This is perhaps the easiest interpretation to pull off in fics because all you need to do is make one (or both of them), in a sense, a bad person. Arguably, they're already bad people in canon, but what I mean here is the "evil in a theatrical way" kinda thing.

Within this category, there are even more specific interpretations. They can just be fun and stupid ("haha we're murder husbands") or dark and sexy ("Dean and Cas become rulers of the Pit and they erotically torture others and each other"—and yes, this is a spinoff series for DTA, made by THEE author of DTA), or some combination of the two.

A version of this interpretation that I'm 50/50 about is when the writer makes one or both of them SO EVIL to the point that the only commonality between the canon and fic version of the characters is their name. Yes, it's fun to do, but it's also so easy to do because you can just do this to any other character. Like, what makes these characters Dean or Cas aside from name alone? It's not as compelling to me. (NOTE: This is NOT a value judgment and I'm not saying people should stop writing how they want. I personally enjoy these kinds of fics from time to time.)

This is personally where I would categorize most of the Demon!Dean/Mark of Cain fics I've read so far. What's interesting about this is that the First Interpretation often entails the Second Interpretation (e.g. due to Dean being Like That, he ends up being bad for Cas as well), but not necessarily. Let me elaborate on this in the next part.

The Second Interpretation

This interpretation is the one that I personally think yields the most Destiel content. (Yes, they can be bad for each other even as friends, but if you're reading/writing deancas fics then chances are that you don't read them as a platonic relationship. Just a guess.)

I think this interpretation is at its most powerful when it's aiming to tease out and address the toxic aspects of Cas and Dean's relationship in canon. What's fascinating about this is that you don't even need to put them in canon world to do this; I have read many AU fics that meaningfully tackle their issues just as well as (and sometimes even better than) fics in the canon world. (Yes, I know they can be toxic. I've seen it; I enjoy it.)

Depending on how well the writer understands these characters, this interpretation can either go very well or very badly. There are three versions of this: 1) Dean is bad for Cas; 2) Cas is bad for Dean, and; 3) They are bad for each other. Which of these three you will focus on will ultimately depend on what you are trying to achieve in your fic. Often, I find that fics like this function as in-depth character studies as well. This makes a lot of sense, considering how the conflict in these fics are often internal more than external.

There are generally two paths that you can take with this. You can either take the angsty path where they just end up not being together, or you can take the Angst With A Happy Ending route and make them work their way into having a happy and functional relationship. (I'm personally a big fan of the second one.)

The Third Interpretation

This one is very unique because it often draws power from either of the first or second interpretations. Notice how this interpretation is phrased as a question and not a declaration. This is because fics like this often deal with answering questions.

The point of these fics is to explore not how bad they already are, but how bad they can be, given the right circumstances. This interpretation is a two-pronged process that asks you to answer these two questions:

* What circumstances would break them?

* How far would they go once they break?

A famous example of this is in With Understanding, where the answer goes:

* Dean breaks in grief after Sam dies in the Heaven Trials.

* Dean kidnaps FBI agent Castiel Novak.

Fics like this also function well as character studies, because they often use the already existing issues and neuroses of the characters and takes them to their most extreme conclusions (e.g. how Dean's control issues manifests in the kidnapping in WU).

Synthesis

This is a flexible category system for us to grasp what exactly do we mean when we use the term "evil deancas" and how these interpretations overlap. Not all fics would fit neatly into these categories, of course, but it is fun to think of which fics fit in which interpretations. For example, I think the godstiel arc in canon starts as a Type 3 for both of them (Dean and Cas both break from each other's perceived betrayals and enacts drastic measures) that then devolves into a Type 1 Cas and a Type 2 Dean. I'm not sure if this makes sense to any of you lol

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Hi!!❤️ So I was thinking about Leo’s route and realized he might actually be a yandere type character? What are your thoughts about that? Do you think he’s a yandere too?

Hiya~!❤️❤️❤️ 

As to my thoughts on Leonardo being a yandere, I don’t personally think that he is one? He appears to be the mature type, more of an indulgent deredere sort of deal. He is very emotionally defensive and can’t let anyone make sacrifices for him, but that’s not typically considered yandere in nature. I’d call it more a manifestation of unresolved trauma and nonexistent self-esteem issues he still needs to work through. It can make him a little unfair and a little forceful, but he never gets to the point where he absolutely decimates MC’s ability to live for herself or make her own judgement calls. If anything he wants her to put herself first to the point of personal self-harm. That’s the thing about his refusing to turn her in his rt; while that is controlling and wrong, there are also strong indications that MC deep down is terrified to become a vampire/rejects it herself? So I think that situation was more complicated.

Yandere’s are characterized by extreme behavior--often borderline murderous and violent--in order to maintain control/possession of the person they develop feelings for. Given Leonardo’s general track record, I don’t think this descriptor really fits him. Sure he retaliates at the end of his route but the context entailed protection from a serial killer. Even in the case of him seeking to walk into the door and follow her into the future, there was no possessive intent involved; rather he speaks to a concern that she stop sacrificing things to be with him.

Speaking of, that tends to be how I define the difference between normal love and more yandere behavior. Love tends to be more about healthy sacrifice, creating space for both people to reach each other on equal grounds (especially when it comes to creating a balance of power). Yanderes tend to be less interested in mutual give and take, and more obsessed with making sure the object of their affection can never leave them or want anyone else. They often want their S/O to rely on them for every need they could ever have, and make attempts to diminish or even sabotage their capacity to reach out to others/develop a healthy social environment.

That being said, it can be hard to define something based on what it is not, so I can offer who I think is a yandere in the game. So far the characters I see with this tendency in considerable enough measure to warrant the title are: Shakespeare, Charles, and Vlad. 

There will be some mild spoilers from future rts and JPN content, so I’m going to put it under a cut:

Given the connection between Shakespeare and Vlad, perhaps it is a little misleading to say Shakespeare is one of his own account. Even so, Shakespeare exhibits this behavior. From the CG in which he is holding manacles expressly to confine MC, to his active threatening to harm her in Vincent’s route (while one can argue it was protection, I see it only as a veiled expression of “If I can’t have you, nobody can”), to complicated instances within his own rt. Many may argue that it is not within his true nature, though my impression is that it is partially Vlad’s manipulation and partially his own predisposition. Iirc Cybird also slates him as the yandere of the game, so there’s a lot of evidence pointing to him being the biggest example of it.

Charles is a yandere but if I’m honest, he came as a surprise given his genki and generally upbeat attitude. Dazai’s route and a few of his stories in the JPN ver make it abundantly clear that his notion of love versus possession are a little confused. He pursues MC’s affections in Dazai’s route, but there’s plenty of evidence that he loves her for reasons that don’t really make a lot of sense? He knows nothing about her beyond her involvement with Vlad’s enemy, and goes to great lengths to seek out her attention/company. This escalates to the point where he openly agrees to help Dazai commit suicide for the sole purpose of “saving” MC from the despair of losing the man she’s fallen in love with. He even goes on to agree to murder Dazai in the past to answer that fervent need for her exclusive love. When MC comes to rescue Dazai, Charles is forced to confront the true nature of his feelings, and later develops what might be closer to the concept of real love for her.

Some of his event stories also indicate oddly manipulative behavior intended to guilt or sway MC into keeping all of her attention on him. Whether or not he will turn out to be a complete yandere I’m not sure, but he absolutely has the potential to sway heavily in that direction. He also, however, has the potential to ease toward more sincere, normal love--so his situation remains to be seen. There is also the fact that Vlad is manipulating him heavily with his mental compulsion, so as with Shakespeare I don’t always know how much of it is Charles or Vlad.

As for Vlad? I have...absolutely no defense or hope for this man. All I see is yandere. Granted I have not played his JPN main story so I don’t know what he’s like in love, but I have heard many indications as to his active manipulation of her mind and agency. I really don’t foresee any kind of equal relationship possible between him and the MC. There may be potential for that dynamic to be ironed out, but from the interactions I have seen--his fervent desperation to subjugate humanity and his near constant strangling of his sires’ freedom and self-determination--I sincerely doubt it would be possible for him. Even his turning MC into a vampire (which she indicated was something beyond her comfort zone/wishes in every other route) remains incredibly suspect to me. He is too self-obsessed and possessive to offer any kind of meaningful love.

While this may come as a surprise to many, Comte actually has a very slight yandere bent, but it would not be accurate to call him a yandere. The difference between Comte and Vlad is that Comte always sees these burgeoning desires within him and distances himself from being compelled to act on them to extremes. He admits to not wanting to share his MC with any of the men in the mansion, even though he’s well aware the house is like one big family; there’s no real risk to his love for her or necessity to be jealous. When MC gets hit on by another man and Comte finds out about Vlad interacting with her in his harmless florist persona, Comte gets uncharacteristically agitated. While usually measured and rational, his feelings tend to overtake him for a few minutes before he calms again--usually with reassurance of MC’s feelings for him. Furthermore Comte doesn’t usually exhibit the overwhelming violence and aggression that yanderes tend toward. And Comte doesn’t really limit her interactions with other people unless they are a sizable threat to her safety and well-being. The closest thing I can think of is his relentless buying her outfits as a means to appease his slightly possessive nature (adorning her in his colors), but even then when she tells him no he fully respects her wishes and stops. So he really only reflects potential for the sensibility, nothing concrete. In the end he’s still the more indulgent deredere type like Leonardo, just a little more balanced and possessive.

[himbeaux-on-ice]

// do not reblog // right, i’ll say my piece of this latest thing a corner of the Habs fanbase seems to be getting worked up over with Pacioretty, and then I’m genuinely leaving this website alone for a day or two, if not more:

if I believed that some guy on tiktok with shitty inconclusive shaky secondhand camerawork, a clear emotional baggage on the situation (ref: owns the old jersey, so uh might be a bit touchy about the trade perhaps?), and an expletive in his username (classy), could somehow see something in a brief nothing bit of footage that two national networks and dozens of journalists who report exclusively on this sport somehow didn’t spot enough to even comment on — in a dramatic finish to one of the most-watched games of the year — I would be a VERY different type of person than who I currently am. I have watched that clip five times and I literally cannot see anything for the life of me that conclusively fits what was described, and I can’t imagine how if it had happened it could have gone missed by every other credible eye on that game, AND furthermore not been brought up or dealt with by any of the Habs players who have been so vocal in protecting and sticking up for their young stars before. like, seriously, if that had actually happened, if he had actually spat at Suzuki’s feet (which, again, the video doesn’t show anything that is conclusively that to me), don’t you think somebody on the Habs would have challenged a fight or something about it tonight for Nick’s honour? would they *really* have just let that go without any follow-up or warning words in the press? setting aside everything I think I know about the Vegas player involved, *that* side of things doesn’t make any sense to me based on what I know about the Habs, and have seen from them this playoffs. like. post-game scrums happen. happened in Tampa-Isles. it’s annoying when you don’t know why, so it’s compelling to look for the Magic Secret Clue, and you want it to be something more interesting than just shoving and shit-talking. to a certain degree I get that. but come on

look, both players in this trade (BOTH of whom I like quite a bit, and BOTH of whom play for teams that I love BOTH of) have been pretty clear all week that they have personally moved on from 2018, and I desperately wish fanbases would do the same instead of needing to invent new reasons to be angry or make up villains in this story three years later. I could get into the way that a certain portion of Habs fandom has always been fucking WEIRD about this situation, but I’m just gonna leave that alone. but I will say hockey is dramatic enough without writing additional soap operas into it. I personally have always been happy both players seem to have ended up in exactly the situation that was best for them, and I’ve left it at that. there are PLENTY of reasons to get riled up and ticked off at opposing players/teams during playoffs (or even during this series) without buying into people who invent new ones wholesale out of old spite. it annoys me when other fanbases do it (hello, throwers of rubber snakes) and it annoys me when my own fanbase does it. it’s exhausting.

I will be cutting back my time on hockeylr during the rest of this series, as I’m suddenly starting to find this stressful more than it is fun. Asks will be closed and DM’s will be either off or restricted to mutuals only. I’ll post links if there are new fics. I’m not looking to start shit with anyone over this, which is why I’m not posting to or messaging anyone I saw sharing that tiktok directly directly, and I’d appreciate it if I get the same in return. If you think I’m wrong enough about this that it upsets you, I would prefer if you simply unfollow me and walk away rather than have an argument. Thank you, and enjoy the hockey 👋

[zaelous]

There is a section in Bellatrix’s wiki that states her marriage to Rodolphus is out of obligation in what amounted to little more than an arranged marriage of pureblooded candidates, and that she had no affection for her husband, never mentioned him in any conversations, nor bore him children. None of these statements has a citation from the text though, so I assume these to be conjecture based on the wiki author’s interpretation of canon??

I feel that there is evidence throughout the books to suggest that Bellatrix and Rodolphus were united in many ways, indicating a strong bond between them and the foundation for an unshakeable marriage, despite the fact that their union is rooted in extremely unhealthy conditions. The evidence of this that strikes me the most is their joint involvement in the torture of the Longbottoms as well as their joint incarceration in Azkaban, and particularly the sentencing hearing at which they are imprisoned. Specifically, Bellatrix’s dialogue in that scene: 

"The Dark Lord will rise again, Crouch! Throw us into Azkaban; we will wait! He will rise again and will come for us, he will reward us beyond any of his other supporters! We alone were faithful! We alone tried to find him!" 

These events indicate to me that not only did Rodolphus share his wife’s zealous faith and unwavering loyalty to the dark lord and his cause, but also her ruthlessness, her stomach for violence, her sadism, and her pride. Perhaps most compellingly, the way she speaks in this quote, Bellatrix utilizes a plural pronoun more than once, suggesting a very tight sense of group identity-- that is, she sees herself and her husband as a united entity rather than as separate people, which reveals a lot about her feelings towards Rodolphus even set aside from their larger group identity as death eaters. Even if you don’t agree with that interpretation, the use of “we” here suggests that at the very least, she considers herself able to speak for the both of them, which I feel implies a lot. 

Research into marriages within a cult setting suggest that while a jointly held faith can unite a couple, the presence of a religious figure actively controlling his followers and their lives within a very tight set of parameters becomes a sort of divisive presence within the marriage, as it is no longer a partnership between two people but rather two people partnered in the service of a third person, which ultimately complicates things. Accordingly, Bellatrix and Rodolphus’ marriage is both strengthened and weakened by their duty to Voldemort, as he is almost a third party in their union, and certainly is the party which receives the most deference, priority, and attention. 

A shared faith and purpose can be unifying, but sharing one’s partner with one’s messiah can also be difficult and quite demanding, placing an undo strain on the marriage that would not otherwise be present. However, this is a dynamic that is entirely necessary (and even requisite) for Bellatrix to be at all amenable to the arrangement of her marriage in the first place; as she would never align herself with a partner who did not share her dedication to her core beliefs, and the obviousness of Rodolphus’ dedication beyond any other mentioned personality trait of his is clearly something that would appeal to Bellatrix and likely even cause her to respect and admire her partner.

Particularly in the case of the torture of the Longbottoms, Rodolphus’ implied ruthlessness and stomach for violence and sadism cannot be denied. Simply the length of time it would take to torture two people of sound mind into a place of fractured sanity requires not only a longevity for the act of inflicting pain, but also quite a stomach for it. This inference is deeply important to the dynamic of their marriage because it confirms that Rodolphus would not only be accepting of his wife’s sadistic tendencies and her violent approach to problem solving, but that he is supportive of these traits to an immense degree. 

This means that as a couple, they share a likeness in how they view and approach problem solving, which immediately mitigates the issues that Bellatrix has with other pureblooded men such as Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy, both of whom irritate her due to their use of diplomacy, finesse, and application of mind games (which Bellatrix plainly has no patience for). Not only would Bella respect her husband’s ruthlessness, but one might even suggest that they share a unique and twisted hobby, one which would be the very foundation of a compatible match between two people.

Conclusively, the evidence points to a marriage built on shared faith and dedication, ruthlessness, sadism, and identity, all of which points to an incredibly tight match between Bellatrix and her husband. 

Often readers are quick to point out Bellatrix’s love for Voldemort as a mitigating factor in her marriage; however, given that their marriage clearly has strong foundational support in their shared zealotry, I believe that it is far more likely that Voldemort would have been seen as an entity both taking part in and transcending their marriage vows, eliminating any need for competition between Bella’s love for her husband and her love for the dark lord (which, admittedly, would be two very different types of love), and also eliminating the idea that these loves are mutually exclusive to one another.

Furthermore, in instances of idolatry and obsessive love such as what Bellatrix experiences for Voldemort, she is very likely compelled to view her world through his lens, to think of all things not in their relevance to herself or her own preferences, but only in reference to Voldemort and what he would find appealing. This sort of love does not, by its very nature, reciprocate, as worship is often a one-sided practice. It also does not leave room for the sort of honest intimacy and vulnerability that Bellatrix would undoubtedly share with her partner in crime, her husband, who would see her at her best, but also at her very worst, and still stand by her, still help her, and remain her confidante in all things. There is also no fear of rejection or punishment for failure in her relationship with her husband, as there is in her relationship with Voldemort, freeing Bellatrix to love safely and without reserve, at least to the degree to which Bellatrix is even capable of love, given her shallow emotional affect.

[preppymayhem]

EVERY GUNDAM WING SHIP YOU CAN THINK OF CHALLENGE

Okay I am not to going to do a whole ass multiplication table to answer this ask but you asked for it!

Ok I am not doing absolute crack!ships involving like one off characters with one off characters in different eps with each other. So this mainly is going to involve major and re-occurring characters. No ships involving the super old characters (the engineers, Quinze) or the super young (Mariemeia) is included. Also I don’t acknowledge Frozen Teardrop so no characters exclusive to that will be featured here.

Also with one exception I am only doing characters that either interact with the character or whom the fandom has made a thing

Dorothy x Catherine: I am super into for a ship where neither character ever meets the other. But I would think it would be a great opposites attract sort of thing. My Grade: C (Just because this is my feelings re: ships where there is no in canon interaction)

Duo x Hilde (2xH): Absolutely cute, totally normal and very respectable. My grade: A

Duo x Quatre (2x4): They would work, but also nothing really interesting or compelling about them as a romantic unit. My grade: D

Duo x Relena (2xR): As a total flash in the pan, completely AU thing sure, but as a serious thing? No. My grade: D

Duo x Trowa (2x3): Duo would do a lot to lighten Trowa up, it could be workable given the right circumstances. My grade: D

Duo x Wufei (2x5): I think Wufei is a little TOO intense for Duo. My grade: E

Heero x Catherine (1xC): He’d be dead in one minute. My grade: E

Heero x Dorothy (1xD): HAHAHAHA this is hilarious, I find it interesting, also she’d actually kill him. Also, she’s gay. My grade: E

Heero x Duo (1x2): HA! I admit if I was just to look at the dynamic it would just be a D or E in terms of it just not being my thing, but the fandom absolutely killed it for me. My grade: F

Heero x Noin (1x9): Very competent and thus very impossible. My grade: E

Heero x Quatre (1x4): I love their friendship and the way they relate, interesting things to explore about overcoming grief and trauma. My grade: B

Heero x Relena (1xR): Very good, Peak Dynamic, makes me cry, too many fic ideas. NUMBER 2 HET. My Grade: A+

Heero x Sally (1xS): I don’t think Heero would know what to do with a girl like Sally. My Grade: E

Heero x Treize (1x13): Their one absolutely hilarious conversation aside, that would be a nope. My grade: F

Heero x Trowa (1x3): I don’t trust Trowa’s judgment on Heero, and I think most of their conversations will be conducted silently and in code, but whatever it’s fine. My grade: D

Heero x Wufei (1x5): Very interesting, Heero might actually be the more stable one here. My grade: D

Heero x Zechs (1x6): This could have been a really interesting enemies to lovers ship if Zechs wasn’t such a douche. My grade: E

Noin x Une (9x11): A quality ship, they can bond with their terrible taste in men. My grade: C 

Noin x Sally (9xS): So, So, So good. Drift compatible should have been a thing. My grade: A

Quatre x Catherine Bloom (4xC): Quatre’s gay and Catherine doesn’t like him. My Grade: E

Quatre x Dorothy (4xD): They both deserve better and are also gay and I hate how they are paired in every het fic on the het side of fandom. I don’t like it. My grade: F

Quatre x Noin (4x9): Quatre’s gay, so not really. Grade: E

Quatre x Relena (4xR): I admit that I read a couple of fics once. But like again I don’t think Quatre is really attracted to woman. BUT IN A PLATONIC SENSE, they are great. My Grade: B (FOR THE PLATONIC POTENTIAL)

Quatre x Trowa (3x4): One of the best dudeslash pairings, they just click, but they have this fraught tension what with what Quatre did mid series, but they really are a GOOD. My grade: A+

Quatre x Wufei (4x5): Yeah, I think Quatre deserves better. My grade: E

Relena x Dorothy (RxD): Very solid, definite attraction there. Peak dynamic. My grade: A

Relena x Hilde (RxH): Very cute, but honestly it feels more pair the spares than an actual connection. My grade: C

Relena x Noin (Rx9): I see it more as a sisterly/mentor bond. My grade: D

Relena x Sally (RxS): Sally is a little too old but there’s a mutual respect. My grade: E

Relena x Une (Rx11): Une killed her dad so that would be a no. My grade: E

Sylvia Noventa x Main Soldier: Okay this is my one one-off character ship, but i call the soldier Thomas and they were sweet and I like to think they have been bonding: My grade: B

Treize x Relena (13xR): Strangely would find it interesting a few years down the line as sort of a power play sort of thing???? Wow I think we found my most problematic ship opinion. My Grade: D

Treize x Une (13x11): Could have been okay, but the writing of Une was weird. My grade: D

Trowa x Catherine (3xC): I don’t buy them as being actually blood related but they clearly view each other as a sibling relationship so yeah no. My Grade: E

Trowa x Dorothy (3xD): She stabbed his boyfriend and that’s a no. My grade: E

Trowa x Noin (3x9): Interesting and very competent. My grade: C

Trowa x Relena (3xR): They talk once and it would be fine if she had met him first. My grade: D

Trowa x Une (3x11): I actually like this (don’t hurt me) in a sort of can you imagine sort of way. My grade: C

Trowa x Wufei (3x5): Very serious, but not really all that interesting. My grade: D

Wufei x Relena (5xR): The fact that fandom amde this a thing feels very pair the spares and so I can’t get behind it especially when Dorothy or even Hilde are there. My grade: E

Wufei x Sally (5xS): I think they make good work partners, but not as a romantic item. My grade: D

Wufei x Treize (5x13): Well if love is having killed the person, they sort of got it. My grade: E

Wufei x Zechs (5x6): Wufei should have killed him too. My grade: E

Zechs x Noin (6x9): Noin’s character is wasted on him. But I have to hold up a little flag that I found the fandom back in the day the nicest part of the fandom. My grade: E

Zechs x Treize (6x13): Honestly it works because it gets them out of the way of everybody else. My grade: D

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Silver Snow:

When I finished Golden Deer, I said that it had felt like a more traditional Fire Emblem story than Blue Lions. Silver Snow is that but even more so (though GD is still the most trad-FE cast, IMO)

Having already played those two routes, it felt very much like a whirlwind tour of them both, plus another battle thrown in at the end - a battle that probably should have been harder, but I (completely accidentally) built the bulkiest Byleth imaginable, especially resistance wise, plus high magic - and so, by pairing high defensive stats with Nosferatu, I tanked every attack that came my way 

Gaming, for me, is just doing whatever the hell I feel like, stumbling into good results, and then pretending that I did it on purpose

I spent the whole battle with the Dragon Tales theme song stuck in my head. Kind of killed the mood

I really enjoyed that after wrapping up both the Edelgard and TWSITD plots, they basically Persona 4 you by trying to convince you that the whole game’s done now and all that’s left is to chat with everyone - though unlike in P4, there’s very obviously something left to do because they give you a whole month of prep time, rather than just one day

I felt the same way about this on Golden Deer - none of the characters are appropriately shocked by Rhea’s highly questionable actions 

Also - she says she’s going to explain the whole truth! And she doesn’t! Only the Byleth creation stuff! The other revelations from Golden Deer are missing! Rhea! Why! Are! You! Like! This!

This is actually a problem I have with this game as a whole - they want to keep certain lore and secrets exclusive to certain routes, but it results in every story feeling in some way incomplete. Like, Fates gets a lot of crap, but at least you did get a full story from your half (third? never played Revelation) a game for the price of a whole one. Blue Lions gets the worst of it, I think 

Plus, when you know some of said secrets, it makes characters who refuse to share them in other routes seem weirdly (and sometimes, contrivedly) cagey about things they really do not need to be cagey about. See: Claude refusing to tell Dimitri and Byleth in Azure Moon that he wants to End Racism, and instead vagueing about ‘achieving his dream’. This is not Edelgard wanting to conquer Fodlan and dismantle the entire social structure, Claude, your ideals really are not so controversial that you need to be this coy. Dimitri and I are cool, we getcha 

My one sentence review of the whole game is basically: Great characters, great world building, great gameplay - but really, really frustrating plot structure

I’m also really upset that Seteth does not have a dragon form

Speaking of Seteth, I married him this time around. I mostly decided to do it for laughs, but while Byleth/Dedue is still my number one Byleth pairing, I came to really, genuinely like them together. Seteth is one of my favs, now more than ever

It helps that romancing Seteth feels a lot less... creepy than romancing most of the students. I like Linhardt, but romancing him felt very weird to me because I couldn’t get over Byleth having first known him as a 16 year old under their care. Dedue, for the record, doesn’t elicit this response  because he doesn’t really feel as much like a student to me? Role-wise he feels a lot closer to the knights, and it’s just that he's been enrolled as a student for convenience’s sake, which makes him and Byleth feel more equal than they do with most of the other kids. Helps that he’s also on the older end

Anyway, Seteth and Byleth would be the nerdiest couple ever, is the impression I got from their ending. The confession scene made me laugh in how ‘oh we’ve got a lot of work to do - btw wanna get married? - sweet, now let’s get back to work’ it was. Mark Whitten is a gem

It’s also the the first time I felt like the game was actually shipping me with a main lord (Seteth taking that role in the absence of the box lords on this route). Haven’t done Crimson Flower yet, so no opinion on the Edelgard/Byleth relationship yet, but regarding Claude and Dimitri my (pretty damn controversial, possibly a bad idea to put out there) opinions on them with Byleth are that

Claude and Byleth are platonic bros, regardless of Byleth’s gender. I just don’t get any feeling of romance from their relationship at all, and so pairing them off feels weird (to me, personally - I don’t hate the ship or anything, though)

Meanwhile Dimitri 100% had a crush on his teacher at school, but after more than five years of enduring trauma after trauma, and then half a year of beginning to heal (whilst fighting a war culminating in the execution of his step-sister), Dimitri is nowhere near ready for a romantic relationship. And when he is, I wouldn’t want him with any of the main cast, Dimitri x Village Girl OTP. I guess if it has to be anyone, I’d be okay with Mercedes, maybe Marianne - hell, maybe even Claude - but really, I just want him to get a fresh start. I think that’s the healthiest option for him, in the end

I do think it’s a pairing that could work in an AU where Dimitri doesn’t have any of the experiences he has in canon, though 

And again, this is just my personal reading

I’ll also admit that I may be influenced by the fact that his two most popular pairings are with Byleth and Dedue, who I greatly prefer with each other. Mostly because I love Dedue with all my soul and his ending with Byleth is by far his happiest, in my eyes at least. It’s the only one where he puts some distance between himself and Dimitri and evens out the power balance in their relationship, which makes me happy because oh boy, the Dimitri/Dedue relationship is super interesting and compelling, but also (again, by my reading) all kinds of unhealthy as it’s presented for most of the game - power balance issues like I say, the fact that they tend to indulge, even encourage, each other’s worst instincts and behaviours, mutual guilt complexes - like I say, it’s fascinating, but damn screwed up. IMO, they’re one of the best examples I’ve seen of how unhealthy relationships aren’t always the result of one bad person, and how two good people can end up being very bad for each other

Though it is, again, a pairing I can see working (and actually being incredibly cute) in an AU where they’ve lived less horrible lives

And it’s not like I don’t want them to be friends, I just want them to also develop healthier boundaries and equal levels of respect

oh my god none of this has anything to do with silver snow what am I doing

But hey, speaking of Dimitri - I flip flopped on whether I thought his death was handled better or worse here than Golden Deer. It was given, I felt, more appropriate gravitas, but again suffered from ‘Dimitri’s dead! No, Dimitri’s alive! Oh wait, now he’s dead again’ in like, three successive scenes. And then you see his... ghost? I guess?

Dimitri really seems to get the short end of the stick on routes outside his own. Claude’s non-Deer roles were, in both cases I’ve played, much stronger and more fitting, and Edelgard is Edelgard

Maybe he’ll be good in Crimson Flower. Please. I miss Dimitri mattering. He’s probably my favourite of the three

There’s a point - obviously I don’t fully know Edelgard yet, but from what I got from the White Clouds section, above anything else she strikes me as an incredibly realistic depiction of a slightly edgy, extremely idealistic, but also highly naive and short-sighted teenager

Her whole goal, it seems, is meritocracy. She hates the crest system and the nobility, and she wants to create a system of equal opportunity. I can get behind that, but I really hope she’s prepared to accept the fact that true equal opportunity is basically impossible without recreating The Giver, as inequality is always more complex than one single factor being to blame for everything. Has Edelgard considered other limitations that make true meritocracy difficult to achieve? Has she been working on, say, a comprehensive benefits system? Or is she more of a libertarian type, and so primarily all about negative freedom and removing direct oppression? I hope Crimson Flower goes into detail on this, I’d be genuinely interested to know

I also find it interesting that she gets very angry about the fact that people hurt her and her family as a means to their own ends, so she decides that her own ends are to eliminate the system that lead to that happening - and she doesn’t care who she has to hurt in the process

This isn’t a CinemaSins *ding* plot hole observation, I genuinely think it’s interesting, and not actually that unrealistic

I also suppose her goal is no less naive than End All Racism By Being Nice To People, but Claude isn’t killing and persecuting people in attempt to achieve that, so it invites less scrutiny

I do wonder if I would have felt more strongly positively about her if she’d been my first playthrough. I do believe she’s a person that sincerely means well, and she’s certainly sympathetic, but - hmm. I’ll make my mind up when I finish CF

Anyway, paired endings. A few that I got include Raphael and Bernadetta (by far my favourite Bernie ending so far, seriously, what is that Caspar ending), Shamir and Leonie, which was cute and goofy (as Leonie’s endings tend to be, I notice, I do like that girl), Felix and Dorothea (not my favourite for either, but cute), Sylvain and Mercedes (the same but even cuter), Cyril and Petra (which felt wrong, partly because I love Cysithea a hell of a lot, and also because despite knowing there’s only about a year between them, Petra looks so much older pre-time skip), Ferdie and Marianne (super wholesome and sweet), and Linhardt and Caspar (my boyyyyssss that I refuse to ever separate again)

Not sure what I’m going to aim for on CF aside from keeping those boys together and also Ferdie/Hubert, as I’ve Heard Things

Flayn and Manuela have an A support so I figured they had a paired ending and it turns out they do not, which means Manuela was alone forever and Flayn ran away because apparently she hated having Byleth for a step mother I guess, rude

My Byleth (Myleth?) was prepared to be the best step mother in the history of the world, so offended

I realised ‘Javelins of Light’ is one of my absolute favourite tracks in the whole game. Mostly because it sounds like something out of Danganronpa, which made me nostalgic

I also like ‘Guardian of Starlight’ for somehow managing to sound like a Danganronpa/PMD: Explorers crossover track

I love how out of nowhere the Immaculate One fight is. It really does just feel like they needed something to distinguish the route from Verdant Wind outside of Claude not being around, so they just had a map that was less cool in every way except for the dragon

Is there an explanation for why Nemesis doesn’t show up on this route?

Also - I didn’t mention this in Golden Deer thoughts but I also found that final battle way, way easier than it was probably meant to be because I’d made everyone into a flier and so the floor damage hazard was meaningless

Which I totally did on purpose and not so I could make a stupid joke post about my all-wyvern team 

Anyway, in conclusion, Silver Snow was a good route, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would (I’d kind of thought it was just going to be GD without Claude, which isn’t... totally wrong, but it’s got some other stuff going on too), I liked Seteth getting to have a bigger role, I thought it had the best final boss (if not the best final boss map), and I liked that I got some more Dragon Lore (never a bad thing)

please don’t yell at me for my controversial shipping opinions 

[mirrormirrormag]

shine theory spotlight: @absolutelyolivia

Meet 17 year old Olivia Bokesch! A content creator from South Carolina who’s bold fashion and compelling voice has created a community of teens from around the world to show that fashion and politics aren’t mutually exclusive. I first met Olivia through a project we are working on called Our Era and when I realized that she blogged about fashion AND politics, I was hooked! I’m always looking for creators who see and recognize the intersections of fashion and politics in our daily lives because the simple act of dressing up as a woman in Western society is inherently political. Read more for the insightful conversation I had with Olivia and make sure you check her website and Instagram out! 

www.absolutelyolivia.com

IG: @absolutelyolivia

ST: So where did you find inspiration to start your website especially because a lot of blogs are kind of dying down. Where did you find inspiration to start yours?

OB: Um, well, I didn’t do much research before starting my blog [laughs]. My aunt was like, ‘you should start a blog’ because I was big into fashion and I think I would just search up fashion blogs. And I saw all the bigger bloggers like Who Wore What, and then I saw magazines like Man Repeller and stuff like that that were doing cool stuff. So I was like, ‘okay, like, why not?’ And so I guess that’s where I got inspiration, but now, I’ve definitely started writing less for it just because I'm focusing more on my Instagram content, which I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. So a lot of times I find my inspiration from kinda more Gen-Z oriented magazines, like Our Era Magazine because that’s more of the audience that I want to be geared towards.

ST: When did you start writing about activism and social issues and politics for your website? And like, what drove you to do that?

OB: So I kind of started getting into the activist world when I was about in seventh grade. My church was like, ‘okay, we're going to allow gay people to get married at our church’ and a lot of people left my church because of that and that really like impacted me for some reason, because I was really confused why people didn't think that was okay. And so that's when I started really going into politics more, but I always kept it separate from my blog because I just wasn't sure if it was an acceptable thing for me to talk about and I built my readership around fashion and not about social issues, so I was like, ‘are people gonna think that I'm crazy or dumb because I'm young and I don't know what I'm talking about.’ 

I think the first thing I ever published about activism was after Charlottesville and I wrote about privilege and what my privileges are and how I try to be aware of those and how other white people like me can be aware of our privilege, and I got really good feedback from that, I guess. I felt a little bit more empowered in speaking about my political beliefs, so that’s where I got started.

ST: How have you used that side of yourself and combined it with your love of fashion?

I’m actually writing an article for Our Era right now about fashion activism. I think that fashion is such a big empowering tool, especially for like, females, because that's something that a lot of us are drawn to— I don't want to speak for everyone— but I feel like it can be used as a tool to empower people to want to go out, and when I look at marches and I see people wearing outfits that represent their beliefs and who they are and maybe the cultures they come from, that's so beautiful and inspiring to me. And I'm like, ‘okay, I want to be badass like that. I want to live like that and I want to talk like that and I want to talk about what they’re talking about,’ so fashion for me is like a visual aspect of activism and so that's kind of how I try to tie that in especially when I talk about activism in my posts. A lot of times, I use my fashion as a way to draw people into what I'm talking about so then they may be more likely to read what I'm saying.

ST: So are these thoughts consciously on your mind as you dress up each day and plan shoots and these kinds of things? Does the political side of fashion ever play into the choices you make?

OB: They definitely do. Sometimes I'm like, ‘should I wear this to church’ or ‘should I wear this to a dinner with my conservative grandparents,’ you know what I mean? Like, what are they going to be viewing me as if I roll up in, like, a crop top and a mini-skirt? So I feel like it definitely does have a part in my daily choices, and then with the blog, I feel like I'm a little bit more freer with what I wear because I do want people to see me wearing what I want and be like ‘okay, if she can do it, I can do it.’ That's part of my goal in that. 

I just did a women's empowerment series and part of that series was a women in STEM photo where I wore a blazer and crop top but we were in a lab setting just to show that you can be— one thing I see is that, like, you can’t be pretty and smart and that’s just not true. Girls can want to look good, dress good, and still have opinions. 

ST: How has the community that you've built up played into the way that you view the world? Like, have they widened your worldview?

OB: They definitely have because I feel like when I started my blog and started getting into the blogging community, I was a lot younger and more naive, so I think it definitely helped. And like I said, I was just kind of getting into activism and stuff so being on Instagram and reading blogs really helped me learn and I have built a lot of my beliefs through who I follow. 

Sometimes I'll post something on my stories and someone will slide up and they’ll share another opinion or be like, ‘I don't know if this is how that is.’ So, it's definitely a learning experience and being able to be humbled by other views and realizing that your view isn't the end all, be all, has definitely helped me understand that there are so many different perceptions of the world. You gotta kind of build ideas for yourself, but you can’t let yourself be blinded by your own beliefs, so they’ve definitely made me more open minded.

"just seeing another woman rocking self-confidence in a badass outfit is empowering, no matter who they are. I like to think I can do that for other people when it comes to my writing."

ST: I forgot to ask this but, how did you even get into fashion in the first place? 

OB: You know, I’m not 100% sure. I wore mainly athletic clothes for all of elementary school, so my sister was like the fashion one, but I guess in fifth grade for my birthday, my grandparents took me on a shopping trip and I started getting into it more. But when I tell you the first stuff that I started picking out [laughs]. But I think fashion for me was a way to build my own confidence and that's really why I stuck with fashion; I just saw people being liberated through it

ST: In what ways has it empowered you? Like, if you weren't dressed in a way that gave you confidence, for example, how would that affect your interactions with people and what you do?

OB: I actually think about that a lot because I hate wearing oversized clothing, which is weird but to me I am most comfortable in a crop top and I don't know what kind of backwards patriarchal society might have contributed to that [laughs]. So on days when I wear an oversized hoodie, people at school will be like, ‘Oh you're looking rough today’ so it makes me more aware of how I present myself to people.

ST: Yeah, and another thing that I always tell myself is that when you dress up, you have power over how people will perceive you or whatever, so when you do wear an outfit that you feel really good in, what kind of vibe do you want to give off? What would be the ideal thing people would be able to tell about you?

OB: I feel like I just want people to think that I'm comfortable in my own skin. Regardless of whether I am or not, which again, that could give a false perception, but at the same time, when I see women, like, stomping down the street in a power suit, I'm like, oh my gosh, she's so cool. I want to be like that, like I want to have that energy.’ So I guess I want to give that energy to people to inspire them to go out and maybe go out of their comfort zone in the hopes that they feel the same as me and then do the same thing for other people.

"Since fashion is something so closely tied to the identity of female-identifying people, what you wear is political. When I get dressed to go out and wonder if what I’m wearing is “appropriate,” that’s political to me because it stems from the patriarchal society we live in."

ST: You brought up not wanting to give off a false perception about looking too perfect, so how do you manage that balance between wanting to empower people but not make it so that they're looking up to some unattainable standard?

OB: Yeah, that's really where I try to make my writing come into play. I try to make my writing pick up the slack for what my pictures may lack, which means breaking down that false perception. I want to make these like editorial images, because that is my passion and what I love to do, but at the same time, I don't want people to think that my life is like a magazine ad. It's not. But I think in real life, it may be harder because I have heard people say something like ‘you're always so put together.’ And I’m like, ‘Girl, I just broke down last night.’ [laughs] So I try to seem approachable with people in real life and on Instagram because that’s where people start to say ‘she looks like she's got it going on,’ but we’re both just trying to figure it out ourselves. 

ST: I personally feel like your fashion already gives off that vibe of like, very inviting; it's super playful and colorful, so what are your views on personal style and having a set style? Do you see yourself evolving every day? 

OB: I don't know. I've never really been able to pin down my personal style. I used to always describe it as feminine but with edge because I’m definitely not edgy or grungey, but if I wear a girly dress, then I want to wear combat boots with it, but sometimes I’ll wear a girly dress and want to wear heels with it, so I don't know. I think it is pretty much just whatever I think goes with the shoe, honestly. I would say my day to day style is like jeans and a crop top, which is a little bit more basic but I like to accessorize with jewelry and stuff.

"You gotta kind of build ideas for yourself, but you can’t let yourself be blinded by your own beliefs"

ST: And once you feel that way does that influence the way you carry yourself? 

OB: Yea, because if I have a presentation to do at school that day— especially if it's on something more political— and if I'm wearing an outfit that makes me feel good, then I feel like I can better speak about what I believe in and people will listen. 

ST: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

OB: In 5 years, I see myself in college studying Advertising, hopefully somewhere in the Northeast. I hope that I’ll have established my creative directive abilities enough that I’ll be able to be working in some way as a creative director for brands! I’m not sure if the blog itself will still be running, maybe with a rebrand, but I do know that I will still be creating content to inspire and empower my followers.

ST: I saw that you started a project called Faces of Feminism a couple of months ago, so tell me about that

OB: Faces of Feminism is a media platform that I co-founded with my friend Callan. The mission of FoF was to give a space where diverse people from around the globe could have their voices be heard and recorded. Through short submissions, interviews, personal essays, and informative articles, FoF served to bring to light unique voices using their own platforms to speak out about important issues to them. We got to interview people like Nadya Okamato from Period and Shivali Gutali from Girl Genius Magazine. We also featured essays from Anthony Belotti on how abortion is a trans issue and Kimmie Madrigal on her experiences with environmental racism. FoF is now run by new owners, but for about a year, FoF was our baby and it was hard to leave it!

ST: How has your experience with Faces of Feminism influenced the way you blog?

OB: FoF changed the way I blogged because it exposed me to the ways intersections of a person’s identity truly changes their unique experience with the world. It taught me how to better lift up voices of people directly affected by an issue, rather than centering my own. It made me more aware of how I spoke about activist issues on my blog and gave me a more open-mind to other people’s perspective. 

ST: You mentioned that fashion means something different for everyone but there is still the underlying similarity in that we all wear fashion for a sense of empowerment. How do you make sure your content caters to the lives of all people so that they can personalize your fashion and writing into their own lives?

OB: One way I make sure my content caters to all women is by having a broad personal style. This way, there’s a greater possibility that what I’m wearing can inspire someone else’s personal style. Plus, for me, just seeing another woman rocking self-confidence in a badass outfit is empowering, no matter who they are. I like to think I can do that for other people when it comes to my writing. I also try to be broad so that the topics I speak about can apply to whoever may be reading. I always encourage my readers to take what I’m saying and apply it to their life in a way that is useful to them. 

ST: Is that how fashion and politics intersect for you?

OB: The empowerment fashion creates is 100% how fashion and politics intersect for me. Since fashion is something so closely tied to the identity of female-identifying people, what you wear is political. When I get dressed to go out and wonder if what I’m wearing is “appropriate,” that’s political to me because it stems from the patriarchal society we live in. On the opposite end though, fashion is political when it’s empowering. It can be a rebellion in the face of the society we live in that tells us our bodies aren’t ours. I think fashion can be a visual aid to activism too; whether that be slogans on a t-shirt or a clothing line that was made ethically and sustainably.

ST: What do you hope people take away from your content?

OB: I hope that people come away from my content thinking that they have what it takes to wear what they want and/or to let their voice and opinions be heard. I want to show people that you CAN do what others are doing. You CAN join that protest. You CAN rock that dress. You CAN create beautiful content from home without professional supplies. You CAN grow and change and still be you at the end of the day. Overall, I want my content to be a point of empowerment in someone’s journey to self-confidence in themselves and the way they view the world.

[littlehollyleaf]

Hi! I was reading some of your 4x13 meta, and you mention Oswald feeling a sense of ownership over Ed. Do you think that sense is broken when Ed betrays him at the bank? There's a specific callback to Oz 'making' him in that ep, and then Ed rebels. From then on Oz doesn't really interfere with him anymore. He looks out for him from afar (ie resurrection), but he stops trying to convince Ed to join him. What do you think?

This is a really really really great question and I’m so sorry I’ve failed to respond to it for so long anon. I’m afraid Good Omens happened and I am a fickle little shit.

This is a bit of a drunk and rambling response but....

I don’t think Oz loses the sense of ownership over Ed after the ‘betrayal’ at the bank, no.

For one thing, I don’t think that ‘betrayal’ at the bank was... very significant? Like, I don’t think Ozzie took it much to heart? Ed gave that whole bit about how he and Ozzie had been ‘through thick and thin’ and that he had nothing against Oz and stuff and Grundy could CLEARLY get them free before the cops arrived so... it always felt to me that Ed wasn’t REALLY betraying Oz, just mildly inconveniencing him, as a ‘gentle’ warning that Oz shouldn’t hurt or antagonise Lee (like he did Isabella), because Lee was the one Ed (believed that he) loved now.

So while, yes, Oz didn’t interfere with Ed much after that, I don’t think it was a sign that he didn’t still believe he ‘owned’ or had ‘created’ Ed. Not ENTIRELY anyways. It’s perhaps fair to say that what happened at the bank did help Ozzie accept that Ed was ALSO his own person with his own desires and drives, and that trying to dismiss or overrule those would only serve to push Ed away from him. But I don’t think Oz realising/accepting that is necessarily mutually exclusive to him regarding himself as owning/creating Ed. I feel like Oz, much like Fish with him, would have felt that Ed owned his confidence and ability to be a successful criminal and be able to defy Oz TO Oswald’s influence. So, much like Fish, when faced with Oswald besting her, talks about how her greatest achievement was ‘turning Oswald Cobblepot into the Penguin,’ so I feel that Oswald, on being betrayed/bested by Ed at the bank, would have felt, underneath the frustration and hurt, a sense of PRIDE at being in some way responsible for making Ed into someone powerful enough to defeat him.

PLUS, it’s after the bank when Oz finds Ed (and Lee) stabbed and instructs Hugo to fix them. That suggests to me that Oz very much still felt a sense of ownership towards Ed - in the sense that he felt compelled to keep him alive, that Ed was ‘his’ to keep alive.

Basically, I don’t think having Ed ‘join’ him is what indicates Ozzie’s sense of ownership.

I mean, even when they were actively trying to kill each other I think there was that sense that Ed was ‘his’ - ie. his to deal with, his to kill. Again, in much the same way Fish tells Ozzie that even though they were at odds she chose not to kill him because ‘you were MINE.’ Even as enemies, I think there’s a part of Oz that considered Ed was ‘his’ to determine how to deal with.

So.... ultimately, no, I don’t think that sense of Ed as belonging to Oz is ever broken.

HOWEVER. I do think, esp. through S05, Oz also has a simultaneous sense that HE BELONGS TO ED. Or WITH Ed at least. What with all the ‘fate has different plans for us’ business.

So they are like.... an ouroboros or something :p They create and belong to EACH OTHER. They both owe huge parts of their identity to the influence of the other and both feel like they can’t exist without the other. And I think... maybe... that was something Oz learnt/accepted BEFORE the bank? (perhaps in The Sinking Ship the Grand Applause?) Ergo, the bank... wasn’t that significant to how he regarded Ed and his relationship with Ed? Because Ed fucking him over there was just.... something he’d come to accept as part of his ‘fated’ relationship with Ed? ie. that Ed might sometimes hurt him, just like he sometimes hurt Ed, and that was all part of how their connection helped shape the both of them?

........dunno if that makes sense. Sorry for giving you a drunken response, but I’m moving so far beyond Gotham right now I was starting to fear I might never be able to respond to this, so, I’m afraid this is probably the best answer I can come up with! Hopefully it’s not too nonsensical. 

(aside: on the flip side, I think Ed, at various points, has felt and feels an ownership of Oswald as well, plus a similar feeling of belonging to Oswald - so this intense, contradictory attitude towards their relationship very much goes both ways in my mind..... though I think Eddie resisted the idea of belonging to Oz for a little longer, while Oz has.... pretty much always been okay/resigned to the idea that part of him belongs to/with Ed)

[letters-from-the-three-houses]

Hello hello! I'd just like to say that I'm really glad I found your blog, it's super fun to see the hype and ideas circulating throughout it, it's helping with the hype, and it's mega fun reading your wonderful writing, keep up the fantastic work my friend! But if it's okay ask, may I get your stance on the idea of demon Byleth? Anything would be lovely, from personal preferences to actual likelihood of this outcome, or how it could affect the church, plot, characters, or Byleth themselves?

thanks, friend! it’s more than okay to ask! i’m super hyped so i’m happy to share my excitement with everyone. we’ll get through the countdown together :)

so as a bit of a background to those who don’t know/need a refresher, byleth (beleth) is the name of a fallen angel in hell who commands legions of demons. they’re sometimes depicted as a trumpet-playing cat, but they’re usually shown as a scary, stubborn, and intimidating man who will hold contempt towards the caster if they show fear/disrespect. there’s also a female persona who is thought to be a “small, frail, doe-eyed young girl”, as well as beleth’s true form. once they lend the summoner their power, the summoner will be able to cause any man or woman to love them until their desires are fulfilled. also, beleth is knowledgeable in math

(here are some more posts about demon!byleth that i build upon in my response: [1], [2], [3], [4], [reddit])

under the cut bc i wrote too much

disclaimer: i’m not an expert of demonology, so i might get some information wrong. there are also spoilers to other games in the series!

i personally think it’d be a cool spin. i love the idea of a demon protagonist, and the context is a good setup for a morally ambiguous, grey role. whether IS chooses to play around with it to create a more somber/complicated tone or not is anyone’s guess. knowing them, it’ll probably be straightforward, like revelation!fates, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive

as for likelihood, i think they’re called ‘byleth’ for a reason. it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll be a demon, but the name does hold some importance. for one, byleth is pretty niche. they’re only mentioned in two texts: 1) pseudomonarchia daemonum (johann weyer), and 2) ars goetia, which was based off of weyer’s work. even then, they’re more commonly adapted as ‘beleth’ or ‘bileth’. japan likes referencing the ars goetia for whatever reason, but when they do, they use the more popular names like amon, astaroth, baal, etc. (a.k.a demons who have been referenced in other texts). in fact, the only other byleth/beleth character i could find is beleth from floraverse (a decidedly not japanese webcomic), who’s portrayed as a cute toy cat demon

to be honest, IS has a good track record on meaningful names. they’ve been doing it for years now; a lot of references have some sort of influence or connection to their source material. sigurd is a hero descended from a god who forgets his wife due to a magic drink before being murdered, similar to his and deirdre’s fates in genealogy. eirika and ephraim’s prf weapons, sieglinde and siegmund, are twins in norse mythology. the goetia itself is the strongest dark tome in awakening, a nice nod to the fact that you use it to summon demons

the more recent avatars also have some parallels, especially their japanese names. reflet means reflection in french, which makes sense since they’re the representation of the player. kamui (kamuy) are a group of divine beings that live in the heavens, associated with different natural aspects (e.g. the hearth, sea, thunder, agriculture, etc.). this could signify kamui’s vallite heritage and dragon blood. both names (reflet + kamui) are also androgynous, and can be used for males or females

it might be a long stretch, but what really solidifies my opinion on the intentionality is the fact that there are different default names for each of the byleths. ベレト (bereto) by itself could have been a coincidence, but ベレス (beresu) is an alternative form of ベレト or bereto (much like byleth is to beleth). again, it could be by chance, but more support for it means it’s more likely that IS chose the name for a reason

also, you get to choose your ‘form’ when picking between f!byleth and m!byleth. iirc, the japanese version has the same connotation, so it’s not some awkward translation on the localization’s part

“but does that matter? what if they chose it because it sounds cool?” i don’t deny the possibility! after all, a lot of media use random names just because they sound sinister and evil. sometimes, there’s not a big connection between said character and the source material. but notwithstanding which demon they used, they still chose to name them after one. naming a character after a demon is a pretty big deal

so what does it mean? to be honest, it could mean anything. there’s a chance that the reference isn’t prominent (maybe they have a dark side to them or they become evil à la robin). if, however, ‘beleth’ ends up shaping the dynamics of the entire game, then a couple of plot points can be gleaned from it

it’s important to note that some aspects of beleth could be mixed and matched with different characters. just like sigurd + deirdre, it’s possible that they’re combined with the relationships that byleth has, meaning the characteristics don’t solely apply to byleth. for example, byleth might canonically play the bugle horn, and whenever they head into battle, they use it to communicate and relay orders to the other units (which would be pretty cool, actually; IS make it happen)

we know that byleth starts off unaffiliated with any of the three nations, and that there’s a catalyst that throws fódlan into war. it’s possible that byleth joining one of the houses parallels the ‘summoning’—the caster being the respective lord—and byleth lends them their power in order to do xyz. in the case of the original text, that means making everyone love them (implied to be the, um, physical kind), but it might just translate to a power shift in favour of said house

what’s really interesting, in my opinion, is that the ars goetia states: “For thou art conjured by the name of the LIVING and TRUE GOD…fulfil thou my commands…according unto mine interest…” in other words, you have to invoke the power of god in order to summon demons to do your bidding. while it seems odd that god would allow you to summon them in the first place, it does mean that the authority of god compels them to obey you. maybe the church of seiros will somehow control byleth using the goddess’s powers (a.k.a the crests)? that doesn’t mean the goddess has something against byleth (she could be a sideline character whose powers are being abused by the caster—or in this case, the church), but the fact that beleth is a fallen angel could signify some sort of relationship between them

my ideal would be that the byleths (+ sothis, who references isis/anubis) are anti-heroes, the church isn’t outright evil/corrupt, and the political tension between the three nations is what drives the conflict (with the crests as a macguffin). i’d love it if this time around, the choices we make influence the direction of the story! that said, i won’t mind if it’s the usual ‘defeat the evil dragon to save the world’ story. the worldbuilding gives a lot of freedom and creativity for what-ifs, so someone’s bound to make a demon!au if byleth isn’t one

the real question though is why jeralt named his kid ‘byleth’. unless byleth isn’t actually his kid. then that brings up a whole slew of questions about the mother

[asks are open!]

[kendrixtermina]

I haven’t played all four routes yet but from spoilers I do know that Edelgard has some feelings for Byleth regardless of the route. While the shipper in me likes that detail, objectively from what I’ve seen of AM/VW so far I’m not sure why El would feel that way. I don’t want to chalk it up to waifuism right away. Any thoughts on this, since you’ve played all the routes?

Comments on the premise

(Scroll down for an answer to your actual question) 

First of all this “waifuism” thing is exceedingly cynical. 

Male antagonists in huge classical words of art are given a tragic crush or adorable little daughter/sister them all the time so  as to humanize them, give them internal conflict and expose some contradictions about them, and people get how it’s tragic and gives them dimensionality and no one ever says the only reason is so fangirls will think they’re hot. If anyone gets made fun of it’s the fangirls for “not getting the depht” as if that were mutually exclusive. Vulnerability, temptation, struggle for independence... you find that all over the best stories ever told. 

For every damself in distress there’s one dude (her boyfriend) who manages to be a full compelling non-satelite human being despite having romance as a motivator the problem isn’t romance it’s bad writing. There’s certainly a problem if almost every single female character in a setting were entirely by romance but the idea that liking someone is to degrade, flatten and cheapen yourself is just as toxic. It can coexist with other more complex motivations and in fact lampshade them.

You might perhaps call bad writing if it were one of those situations where the villainess has no other motivation than dudes, brings it up constantly or is so defined by it that it keeps her from acting in any self-consistent manner or just isn’t taken seriously as an antagonist.  Not saying she’s a villain at all but you oppose her on the other routes.

I pretty much all the characters like Byleth and express regret when they go up against them... They have a sort of heroic charisma that’s why they’re the main character. (not per se the other way around - you don’t point the camera where nothing interesting/extrordinary is happening. Few stories tell us about a sack of potatoes falling over or people sitting on chairs, and if they did they’d be about pointing out how potatoes or chairs are actually plenty interesting)

They’re described as accepting ppl just as they are with that having been an attitude impressed on them by their father who himself is cool with Byleth’s own oddities, and also described as one hell of a badass field commander.  Also you DO run around all day bringing everyone gifts, their favorite snacks lost possesions and listening to their problems/lifestories. 

It’s not like it’s super over the top in your face it’s like a handful of lines many of which you might not even hear if you’ve recruited certain characters or don#t trigger certain engage quotes, and it ties into her greater characterization as someone with consummate laserfocus dedication who has pretty much given up on anything that doesn’t further her goal even her own feelings.  - having a crush is just one example, she mentions how she’d have preferred a more peaceful life doing idle fun things and did enjoy her time at the monastery where she got to be just another classmate sand fight alongside everybody else as a comrade.

Though she enjoyed her time at the monastery, her resolve doesn’t waver... but now it hurts a bit more to go through with what she had planned all along since it means losing some of the relative normalcy she had not dared to hope for anymore

You actual question (ie what does she like about them)

Crushes, by nature, are just something that randomly shows up and can produce quite a bit of a reaction in a short time. 

Regardless of route you save her from a bandit and there’s all the explore time dialogue and basically lived in close quarters/ saw each other every other day. Even if theyd spend more time with their own class theyd still be around the place doing cool stuff. That would be explanation enough, I mean it doesn’t necessarily mean that something had to come of it, that she wouldn’t get over it or that you’re immediately soulmates or whatever, I mean you can pair her off with plenty of other peeps in her route. 

Which isn’t to say that the whole thing is just any old youthful crush. Crush or no crush she really wants them to be allies. 

First of all Edelgard has been describing as being drawn to/ sorta ‘collecting’ people she views as talented and exceptional so if you are a badass she’s gonna like you (just in general not even romantically), and if you’re a badass who’s also her ‘type’ that might manifest itself as a crush as well. 

She says pretty early on that she thinks they have similar personalities, and she clearly looks for like-mindedness in friends and allies as well, of the ones that she gets semi-friendly with even before the timeskip the only one with a significant different outlook/temperament is Dorothea, and everyone likes Dorothea, since she goes out of her way to befriend anyone who doesn’t resemble an arrogant dunce. 

Also, she probably finds the idea of having an ally who is “like her” very enticing. First because she’s used to being misunderstood and someone who is similar might “get” her and relate to her. (Conversely there’s a lot of dialogue where she’s like “I know you’re lying” or “wow you’re telling the truth”... she doesnt find them that opaque/unreadable compared to the other characters. so this also goes both ways... this occurs regularly enough that its even kinda used to hint at who the flame emperor is (”I can tell you dont actually want to join me”)) 

Byleth is just generally described in a lot of scenes dialogues and supports as someone whos pretty accepting of peolples weirdness and quirks. Leonie thinks they get it from Jeralt. That tends to be a selling point for most of their romantic options especially the house leaders

Likewise, due to various reasons relating to her natural personality, station and backstory she finds it hard to step out of business mode, and ppl tend to sort of flinch away from her because she’s uncommonly powerful and also the princess, and she doesn’t like that/tends to feel somewhat isolated because of it.  Even ppl who know Edelgard well enough to have significant insight into her (like Hubert or Ladislava) still speak of her with a kind of awe.

Due to their upbringing away from mainstream society, sorta unphased slightly flippant personality and their own considerable power/competence Byleth is one of the few who isn’t daunted to approach her like any ol regular person. They’re powerful enough for her to approach them on an even level, or even rely on them/ take pointers from them. 

You also see that to an extent with Lysithea (who is not just a fellow experiment victim but also has a similar ‘serious/focussed’ outlook and love of sugary things) with whom she also gets various “I wish you’d joined me/pity that we must fight” sort of dialogue. She’s Edelgard’s one inter-house support (suggesting a similar “I kinda can’t help wanting to get to know you even though I know we might become enemies” dynamic at play) the “free recruitee” on the CF route (whereas the other cases are in situations where they have incentives to flip - Lorenz is only with the empire out of opportunism so why wouldn’t he join the kingdom if they look to be winning? And Ashe was flat out drafted and is only with the Rowes out of obligation) and if you spare her she’ll say that Claude explicitly told her to waive the white flag if things get tough because he figured that Edelgard would be likely to spare her. 

[dangermousie]

So, Kushiel’s Chosen

1. This series is making me realize that I have a huge difficulty with fantasy in which religion is both a crucial part of the story and real - by that I mean, religious dogma is an accurate recounting of real events. Apparently I find “but God told me so” as an accurate explanation/excuse ultimately off-putting. No deus ex machina in the literal sense for me. I am hardly either an atheist averse to any religion or a hard-core devout person disliking fake religions, but there it is. That might explain my love for Phil Tucker’s Black Gate series - its take on religious society and rebellion against perversity at its core made me adore it. I wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with the d’Angeline religion (which isn’t that different from Hellenistic beliefs, anyway) if the narrative wasn’t “this is religion but also actual truth of what happened.” That just sets my back up. 

2. That flows into my second point. It is no surprise Phedre is cut out for neither monogamy nor pain-free sex. I don’t have a problem with it because people have different preferences and as long as all involved are consenting adults, I don’t truly care. BUT. It’s one thing for her to tell Joscelin: “Honey, I only love you, but I crave sex with randoms and BDSM, neither of which I can get from an exclusive relationship with you. I put my needs above yours, so I am opening this relationship up. If you don’t agree and ditch, I get it, but sorry...” But instead the narrative is “OMG it’s my holy calling and my god literally commands me to suck strange dick while being whipped, why can’t you understand? That is so unreasonable!” and the narrative seeming to be on her side. When you bring religion into it, you automatically remove nuance from things. Phedre torn between her basic desires (non-monogamy, pain) and her genuine love for a man who can tolerate neither - that’s a potentially compelling, complex story. The moment you hand wave it as “well, there is no moral conflict, no issues of selfishness vs love or basic differences in understanding what a relationship means, because THE LORD LITERALLY COMMANDS HER AND SHE’S JUST SHOWING HER DEVOTION” you throw anything interesting out in favor of simplicity of thought a 10th century peasant might be proud of. And for a person like me, for whom either non-monogamy or BDSM are about as relatable as moon people, when you provide no nuance or exploration or psychological explanation but just “that’s the right thing per the Lord, shut up and worship some more,” it really becomes unrelatable and incomprehensible.  “Because you are told it’s fine” is not a great explanation for a reader any more than it is in RL.

3. And that brings me to my third point. The precepts of this world are in conflict with application and I’d love the books to acknowledge it. The motto is “Love as thou wilt,” not “the more sex the better.” To me that mean that if you want to have a different lover each day, that’s fine. But if you never want to touch another person or if you only want to be with one person in a mutually committed monogamous relationship, that’s OK too. But in the world of the book, the precept only seems to be applied to the first. (And that is not getting into the fact that I do not get how they went from past goddess having sex with randoms to take care of her companion to sex for money is holy. It would make sense to have no stigma around sex work or to view sex for altruistic reasons like taking care of someone as holy. But “I sleep with peeps because I want a new hat” as holy doesn’t seem to fit.)

4. At least so far, these books are making a great case for love not being enough to bridge differences. Because I have no doubt Joscelin loves Phedre body and soul and despite her unorthodox to me lifestyle, Phedre loves him back body and soul. But I see zero way how they can work out without one of them having to betray their fundamental nature. The way these books are written, I am pretty sure it’s Joscelin who will end up giving in and that doesn’t sit well with me (not that Phedre deciding to become model wife would either.) Relationships work best when they are equal and I think here she holds all the reins. I never found Hyacinthe particularly interesting, but he and Phedre would have been a comparable match. They’d have a happy relationship with each other and bag five people a week each on the side and probably give a family award to the best lay of the year. But Phedre getting it on with every other person with Joscelin waiting faithfully at home is not like that and not equal at all.

5. The plot is interesting and the language is great. I just wish the central premise of the heroine wasn’t so alien to me.

[evenrest]

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐕𝐀𝐋𝐃𝐑𝐈𝐍

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄

NAME: “ Lord Inquisitor Valdrin Evenrest. ” EYE COLOR: “ Susceptible to corruption as we are, they’ve changed several times. First with Felfire, now they’re Void touched. I supposed they’ve adopted a bluish hue but who can say really? ” HAIR STYLE/COLOR: “ Tradition has me bound; I’ve never dared to cut a single lock so it sprawls down my back. The blue-green to my previous black is a new feature. The curled ends are new too. I’ve grown to prefer it this way. ” HEIGHT: “ Approximately six feet. ” CLOTHING STYLE: “ Long robes of fine materials, velvet and the like. Structured. Good construction that tapers around the torso. I’ve no time for ill-fit frocks. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍𝐄: 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄

YOUR FEARS: “ It’s senseless to give the philosophy of fear any ground to stand on. If you can discern what causes you to feel apprehensive then you can control it. Fear is but a constructed mechanism for us to deny ourselves things we’d normally have the strength to obtain. A mind can be opened. Fear can be eliminated. Those who hang on to their fears do so because they are defined by them. Though I was served spoiled milk in my tea once. I could say I fear ever having to taste such a repugnant thing again. ” YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE: “ I find no guilt in the pleasures I seek. ” YOUR BIGGEST PET PEEVE: “ People who claim they enjoy the art of poetry but cannot sit through a recital of prose without yawning. Close your mouth. ” YOUR AMBITION FOR THE FUTURE: “ Oh—— I have many ambitions for the future.  Thoughts about business, the future, those within my circle—— Speaking too freely of such things cheapens them. More interviews. This is a nice touch. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄: 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

YOUR FIRST THOUGHTS WAKING UP: “ Ḻ̰̰͇e̜͎t̰̘͚̲̙ ̥̲͍̦t̶̘͖h̲͕̮̝̠̝̮̀e ̶̼w̟̳h̰͙͍i͙̘̝s̀p̢̺̣̱̞ͅe͕̠͖͍̺̻̜͞r͚̳͖s̶̺̰̮ ͜s̩͓̪̗̺͕͓e̠̗͟ṱt̹̥̭l̘̱͚e̘͕. ̤̺T̘̟͈̮h͖̹͈̤͚ey̧̯͕͙̲ͅ'̧̜͔̱͓̫re̺ ̳͕̜̺̖̳̟͡à̠͎̖̩l͈w̹͚̩a̜͉͖̦̖̹͈y̝̞͖͙̠̰̼s̳̼̘ ̵̜̦̫t͘h̖̥̥̖͈ͅe͉̣̞͓̤̦r͉̝͕̩͍̮e̺͕̹̤͇̞̣.̦̰ ̷͖̙͕C̱̞̹̫o͓m͏͓̫f̴̜o͎r̲͕̰̬̺t̨̗͙̰̱̜ͅ ̳͚̫̟̹͢t͕͖h̭͎͎͇̘è̠̞̞m̢̺ͅ ͚̲̮͡a̭nd̗͙̤̲ t͉̖h̛̥̪̖̬͈ey̺͎̳͘ ͓̜̠̝̭͢sh̶̜͖̼̹̗̺̻a͈̱̮̣͔͍ḻ̱̕l͙͍̩̮ ̛̘͎̲c̭̻̠̫͕͠o̥͚m͓̝̞͎̰̻̀f̬̠͙̻̼͞ͅo͍͍̗̲͙̳ͅr̗͔͇t̞̝̣̺ ̵̹̼͇͍̦̣̳y̤͉͍͙̳̣ou.̸̼̭̟͖ ” WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THE MOST: “ Anguish. How the heart renders itself useless to vices that seek to control it. How the mind is a slave to that piercing grip. The cycle of it. We all seek beyond our means—— ‘tis our nature. What we don’t realize is how vulnerable we make ourselves to corruption. Take a piece of beautiful art, a moving piece of written word——even scripture! Why do we cry at such beauty? Why are we compelled to crack when something pleasures us so much we lose ourselves in the agony of it? That is what I think about. ” WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT BEFORE BED: “ I feel like this question is loaded, intent on getting something cheeky out of me but who truly thinks about anything before bed? The mind runs laps through caverns as we drift—— stream of consciousness. I can’t really pin any of those down. ” YOUR BEST QUALITY IS: “ I’ve been told it’s my charm, that I can snake my way into anything. i’m very good with emotions.”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑: 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑?

SINGLE OR GROUP OUTINGS: “ Depends on both the intentions of the outing and the company. ” TO BE LOVED OR RESPECTED: “ Are they not both mutually exclusive? To be only one without the other seems entirely trivial to me. ” BEAUTY OR BRAINS: “ Again, there’s the necessity of some bond here. Why should we be forced to make a choice when there are things that possess both? ” DOGS OR CATS: “ Snakes. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄: 𝐃𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔?

LIE: “ Of course not! —— No. I’m lying. ” BELIEVE IN YOURSELF: “ If one cannot believe in themselves, how do they believe in any thing else? What purpose do you serve if you cannot find strength within your own existence? ” BELIEVE IN LOVE: “ Love is a grand proclamation of emotion that sweeps itself up into theatrics of life——so heavily intertwined in our existence that we cannot breathe without it. Anyone who says they don’t believe it is is simply scorned. Of course I believe in love. ” WANT SOMEONE: “ Pining is the sweetest torture and I gratefully revel in its pain. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐈𝐗: 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑?

BEEN ON STAGE: “ I’ve recited at a few salons but I can’t claim someone’s sitting room to be a stage. ” DONE DRUGS: “ I suppose you’re the type to consider some hallucinogenic mushrooms drugs, hm? ” CHANGED WHO YOU WERE TO FIT IN: “ This is a laughable question. Absolutely not. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍: 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒

FAVORITE COLOR: “ Blue-green of a rather dusky variety——a touch of grey. ” FAVORITE ANIMAL: “ Snakes. Perhaps my preference was not clear earlier. ” FAVORITE FOOD: “ Licorice. Only the dark kind. ” FAVORITE GAME: “ Those of the mind——right, puzzles. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓: 𝐀𝐆𝐄

DAY YOUR NEXT BIRTHDAY WILL BE: “ When spring begins next year. ” HOW OLD YOU WILL BE: “ My, my. I’m old enough. Well into my mid-hundreds. Let’s not keep tacking on the nuances of years, all right? ” AGE YOU LOST YOUR VIRGINITY: “ Are people truly interested in this sort of information? Many moons ago. It was not memorable. ” DOES AGE MATTER: “ It’s crucial that one has reached the peak of adulthood. Maturity comes with time. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄: 𝐈𝐍 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑

BEST PERSONALITY: " Two options here: either those that are heavily intellectual and can participate in long, drawn out dissertations or, those who’ve no idea what prose you’re rambling about but have enough life skills to challenge everything you thought a work was trying to teach you. I do so love being tested. ” BEST EYE COLOR: " My apathetic indifference is showing again. ” BEST HAIR COLOR: “ Are these things that people truly care about? ” BEST THING TO DO WITH A PARTNER: " Achieve. A reputation, of whatever flavor, is better than no reputation. ”

𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐄𝐍: 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄

I LOVE: “ —poetry that brings me tears.” I FEEL: “ —inspired. ” I HIDE: “ —many things. ” I MISS: “ — home. ” I WISH: “ —for his praise. ”

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

tagged by: @poisonatreyu, @keenmourn ( thank you both! ) tagging: @snowfallen-nymph @salt-water-siren @celestare @annoyed-acolyte @somberset ( any muse! )  | I’m new here and don’t know too many people so please, anyone else who wants to, I encourage you to do it!