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hana-bobo-finch · 10 days ago

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(MORE PDBC QUESTIONS!!)

What's Fincg Island like? In my head I'm imagining it like Wuhu Island from Wii Sports but...that probably isn't right lmao. You've mentioned a town square before, so is there one central city with exterior cities occupied by the clans? Or does basically everyone minus like...tutrmeister and TBYTF live there?

Also, what do the little Pumpkin Daddy gophers mine for?

OHHHH YEEEES QUESTIONS….YEEEES AHAHAHAHA

gonna start with the simple question: the pumpkin daddy gophers dig for a variety of things. Nothing really in particular. Mostly malachite and copper, probably. Their real job is to keep the internet and power running. How they manage to do that with little pick axes I have no idea, but they do. The group is called “camp work” and they’re under the supervision of the legendary pumpkin daddy spider hybrid. Camp work is completely situated underground so most people never even realize how much work is going on. They get paid in key lime cookies. They’re known to be very fickle and if their working conditions aren’t absolutely perfect they’ll stop working, thusly shutting off the internet for everyone. Because of that Internet is very sparse on fincg island so it’s not used all too often. They also sort of act as messengers considering they can get around so fast (sort of think like Venus’s buds if Venus’s buds were extremely annoying and couldn’t heal you) but nobody likes them so they don’t do that too often.

and okay. Longer answer. What’s fincg island like:

I don’t fully know cause I’ve never taken the time to fully flesh it out, but there is a lotta miscellaneous details and traditions that I’ve came up with over the months so there is some stuff.

Firstly, it’s a really big island. Thusly there’s a lotta varying environments and such. I dunno how big it is because admittedly I’m terrible with any form of measurements because I have no sense of scale but uhhh maybe like 2,000 miles from north to south and 1,000 from east to west. That could be very inaccurate to what I’m picturing because again, the concept of scale does not exist in my head. My own shortcomings aside, I’ve never actually drawn a map of fincg island (usually abbreviated to FI so I will continue to do that from now on) or anything but uhhh I guess I could do an unofficial rendering of it right now:

yeahhh like this kinda. Not an all too interesting shape, kinda just an oval-ish blob. As you can see the regions are split more so split into directional terms rather than occupied clan zones. There are no real clan owned territories, it’s all just kinda a big mess, but clan headquarters are situated in different regions, meaning there are a higher ratio of certain clan members to others in certain areas as clan members tend to flock there. The central area is more of a mix of everything, but the northern region is mostly pumpkin clan, the southern region is fish clan (not that there are any members but the headquarters is situated there), western region is Ramsay clan (again, not many members actually there but it’s still seen as Ramsay clan territory) and the jørgan clan in the east. In general, FI is similar to Russia in its span of environments and such, and they share a lot of plants and animals because FI is loosely based on Russia. But moving on.

The history of the place isn’t well known because pumpkin daddy never bothered to preserve it so a lotta it is lost to time. The old owner of the island was some guy named Toprumo who was the equivalent of a piece of white bread. he was very boring and nobody really had any strong opinions on him. After pumpkin daddy took over, Toprumo was pretty much erased from history entirely. so it’s fitting the exact same thing happened to pumpkin daddy once he disappeared (mini side tangent but I fucking love the idea of just disappearing from history and stuff, it’s such an interesting concept to me. It’s probably especially evident in PDBC because PDBC is, very literally at its core, my effort to prevent an old story from being forgotten to time. Like I am just yapping to a small group of people in my mutual circle but it is the Only way to prevent that bastard finch from being forgotten completely. Anyhoo tangent over)

There’s one long road that goes across the island in a plus-sign shape. It’s the only road on the entire island because cars are so sparse that no roads are really needed. It has the incredible, beautiful name of “looney-lane-wane.” There’s a small group of traffic officers who are situated to patrol it but because there’s so little actual activity on the roads they just kinda hang out and do whatever they want, usually painting the road, so it’s kinda become one long mural (how safe it is to paint over road markers…probably not very safe. But somehow the only reported traffic accidents were all from pumpkin daddy and that’s probably because he probably shouldn’t have a license in the first place). The roads lead to factories, of which there are four in total: one in the north, one in the south, etc etc. These factories produce a myriad of different things, they don’t specialize in anything in particular.

The eastern region is…probably the least important which is why I’m starting with it first. Not a whole lot goes on over there, at least nothing that doesn’t go on in the rest of the regions. It’s the most populated region other than the central area due to the jørgan clan being situated there, and having the most consistently nice weather. Again there’s nothing special about it, at least not off the top of my head. I’m sure there’s something but its REALLY hard to find throwaway lines about certain aspects of PDBC because I have 10 different notes, each over 20k words long that I have to sift through and it’s a pain in the ass. But yeah I don’t think I ever mentioned anything about the Eastern region in particular. In terms of biome it’s kinda like a seasonal tropical forest I guess? There are stretches of unused land but for the most part it’s pretty populated. Not all too interesting, if you want to be forgotten, the eastern region is the place to go

The central area (which doesn’t actually have a name despite being the main city, I should probably make one some time) is pretty much the main city. It has the highest population density—which still isn’t that much, for its size FI has a rather low population—and is the main hub for everything. Because of that it’s quickly accessible by lots of different means of transportation. Even though the clan headquarters are deep into their respective territory, most of the clan leaders actually live considerably closer to the central city so they can access it more efficiently. It hosts a lot of the big events and such, and has loud speakers all around for any announcements being made (the other regions have this too but its most noticeable here). It hosts the Sunborn/Subborn (either name is valid) tree in its center square. The Sunborn tree is a pathetic, fallen tree, that’s really more of a glorified stick. It fell in front of the fish clan headquarters, triggering hidden land mines (technically they weren’t land mines, they were little creatures called Gerbombs that are explosive gerbils but whatever) that the Ramsay clan planted there. When sushi woke up to see the front of her headquarters completely destroyed, she called the other clan leaders and sure enough, they realized their headquarters were surrounded by Gerbombs too (which they safely removed, don’t worry the little Gerbombs are ok 🥰🥰🥰). Because the tree falling was the reason there wasn’t widespread damage in the headquarters, or worse, the clan leaders (minus the Ramsay clan of course) banded together in a rare show of unity and planted the tree in the central square to represent their bond. Ribbons are tied to the tree on dates of great importance to symbolize unity. The Ramsay clan hates this damn tree as you could expect but yeah that tree is in the very center of the main city.

OK THE WESTERN REGION. Much like the east there isn’t much lore to this place but I do have some stuff about it that’s kinda interesting. While the west is in generally expansive, mostly just dusty stretches of land and dangerous canyons, it’s actually one of the most populated regions due to one aspect: the stock market. The stock market isn’t what you’d assume it is, it’s a physical place that’s situated inside of an expansive dome, cutting it off from the rest of the barren area. It’s the complete opposite of the rest of the region. The stock market is a very trippy place, it’s almost all artificial, even the air. It’s almost always night and hourly music plays from loud speaks like it’s animal crossing or something, and there’s lotsa like…magic and wizardry goin on there. It’s simultaneously the main shopping district of the entire island and the main prison system. It started off as a prison, but the prisoners quickly learned they could basically start their own society almost and used their talents to start up their respective markets. Non-prisoners soon flocked there as business was booming there, and some also went for a simple escape from normality. Soon it became more populated with regular people than inmates. The black market is also situated there, an inmate realized they could dig underground and so they created an expansive tunnel system where illegal goods were sold. She became the head of the black market after that. The rest of the western region though? Very boring. Almost completely empty and it’s extremely controversial because the Ramsay clan headquarters is there. The one part other than the stock market that has any sort of…anything, is a large abandoned building that has what’s called the control room, but that’s a long story not worth getting into.

The southern region, again, doesn’t have much lore to it (there’s a lot of overall details of the island but nothing specific to certain areas). It has a lot of beaches and lakes, and is one of the only sources of water on the island, ans the water there is especially clean and rich in minerals there, so it is thusly highly protected. It can get really hot there so pumpkin daddy stays far away from it. Boating is a popular activity there, and it’s also the first place many go after moving to the island so it has a dense population of foreigners. It’s almost always storming there though, like to a dangerous degree. The leader of the jørgan clan can control the weather (looong story there) and he tends to go a bit crazy with the storms sometimes. It’s extremely windy there, so most outdoor objects have to be weighed down in some way, and there’s almost always lightning. It’s almost completely necessary to have an umbrella there, and some way to protect yourself from falling debris because lightning hits the tops of trees and buildings a LOT. basically it is a constant danger zone but nobody cares. The fish people for the most part live there, as it’s where they were originally fish. So it’s mostly foreigners and fish who live there. Not recommended to go to the southern coast to find a partner because intimate relationships between people and fish people are prohibited.

and finally the northern region. It’s the coldest place on the island, and the home of pumpkin daddy and the hybrids. The hybrids don’t come out during winter as they’re extremely sensitive to cold, so you won’t see them often, but they’ll occasionally venture out during the peak of summer which can get pretty warm. It’s not very populated. It’s most known for the margarita mountain range, the titular mount margarita being the highest point of the mountains, and the home of TBYTF, which makes it a rather dangerous area. The northern region is the hotspot for tbytf enthusiasts, as the gel it excretes tends to fall down from the mountains into large vats that are ripe for studying. There are also volcanoes in the southernmost parts of the north, but they aren’t all too active. The northern region was the first area to be populated, but is now the least populated as people migrated to other areas. Turtlemeister is from there. There’s, as I mentioned, an illegal crab restaurant there, and there’s also an assortment of mines with…questionable working conditions! While mudslides afflict all of the island, they’re especially bad in the north, making the ground almost constantly muddy in the warmer months. The ground freezes over in the fall and winter, but that can make it extremely slippery. There’s also a small stretch of land called Kurt’s field, noticeably flatter than the rest of the land, where a plane once crashed. The plane’s remains are still there, but the land is occupied and it’s generally agreed to not go there often. THE NORTH IS ALSO HOME TO THE SKULL ABYSS!!! it’s a mass graveyard that was meant to be put in the west but couldn’t be built due to not having enough space there, so it was moved to the north. It’s actually a subsection of the alcoves that’s open to the public. The skull abyss isn’t its actual name, really it’s called the land of resting but people just call it the skull abyss because that’s a lot cooler sounding. It spans over 50 miles and is populated by little magic skeletons who don’t really bother anyone aside from the occasional prank. If you’re there to mourn a loved one, the skeletons probably won’t bother you. Too much. The north is probably my favorite part of it, a lotta what happens there happens in the mountains but yeah

MOVING ON. FUNNY YOU SHOULD MENTION WUHU ISLAND because although geographically and culturally it’s nothing like it, there is one similarity!! i points. what the hell is an i point. ok ok so in the island flyover game mode in wii sports resort you can go aaaall around the island and gather i points which is essentially just information tidbits about each place you visit. anyone who played wii sports resort as obsessively as I did doesn’t need to be told all this but yeah. Fincg island has those, specifically because gourdie is the wii sports champion (very impressive accomplishment and how dare you even suggest otherwise) and wanted them put in. The i points around fincg island are pretty…unprofessional, I guess, it’s not like they could provide any helpful information for people. They’re usually just unrelated ramblings barely tied to the area they’re in, or they’re just personal information that Definitely shouldn’t be out there in the open.

So!!! Another aspect of FI is the bugs. It has a serious bug problem. The bugs evolved to develop lots of different self defense mechanisms and they’re just a huge pain in the ass to deal with. They’re also evolving to gain sentience at an alarming rate. There are already some bugs who arguably have reached human levels of intelligence and people are NOT happy about that. These include the butterflies, who nobody actually realized were butterflies at first because they just seemed like a random annoying duo who liked to steal artifacts (bugs and artifacts, I know. this was actually before I played bug fables, this is all a coincidence I swear 😭) . They only were discovered to be butterflies when they flew away to Mexico. probably should’ve been obvious from the start but people on FI aren’t very observant. There are probably lots of other bug people who people haven’t realized are, well, bug people. There’s also a roach who I absolutely love, she’s a little dancing roach who wears little tiny boots and has a disco ball. I love her. But other than THOSE bugs, who could probably be assimilated into human society…some are just annoying. They spread disease, first of all, so peace isn’t an option. There are glue bugs, who when you kill them they release an intense, fast drying liquid that glues together whatever it touches (usually your hands) for a couple hours. And worst of all, there are aphids. Not only do they destroy crops, but they carry a disease that targets your hand muscle making it so they have painful cramps and they’re forced into a stiff position. It’s extremely painful and it comes on so slowly that once you realize you have it, it’s too late. It can be cured but the pain lingers for months. So basically bugs are a huge problem. They’re also extremely manipulative! Don’t listen to the bugs they WILL gaslight you

Ghosts aren’t bad though. Yeah. Ghosts are just lil pests you might have to call pest control on to get them to go back to the spirit world but they’re not that bad. They’re around almost everywhere and just kinda hang out. You can become their friend if you want. There are also skeletons, stuff like that. But they’re not harming anyone so just let them be.

FI has its own language, sort of. Nobody speaks it, in fact it’s actually illegal to speak it, but there are some miscellaneous words of this language thrown into conversation here and there. There’s no actual grammar structure or anything, so it’s hardly even an official language. But it exists.

Beef grows on tree. It tastes horrible but cows nearly became extinct after a disease swept through so beef trees were made to protect cows.

Tv programs don’t have sponsors. They just let anyone make commercials for a small fee. The tv industry is a mess there.

The most lucrative business is bananas. They aren’t grown on trees, no, they’re grown in long strips of water. I don’t know how but they sprout from the ground in enormous sizes.

It has its own currency system. It is not at all fleshed out yet, all that’s known so far is cool coins and shmorgle coins. Idk how much they’re worth but yeah

Most music there follows a certain pattern of telling a story. Melody and rhythm are seen as less important than the messages it conveys. There’s one exception, a highly anonymous pop punk artist who nobody knows the name or face of. I should yap abt them sometime actually. Anyway

OK OK TRADITIONS. there are a lotta FI traditions.

First of all, there are festivals every week before and after a season change. During these festivals they say tiny threads fall from the sky, and if you find one and tie it to your index finger you get good luck in some form. They come in different colors, green being the rarest. Counterfeits are rampant.

There’s also the naming tradition, which I’ve talked about before I think. It’s the norm to change your name at a certain age to fit yourself better. Your original name, called your birth name, is an extremely sensitive part of one’s identity and should only be said by family members or partners.

On the topic of which, calling people by pet names, even strangers, is much more common and acceptable. Stuff like hun and sugar, they’re the most common and it’s not seen as weird to do so. It’s seen as being polite in fact (stuff like babe though…that’s still weird do not call anyone that)

Wearing eyeliner is extremely common. There are brands that are particularly cheap and don’t wash off easily, making it easily accessible to wear for long periods of time. Flashy jewelry and outfits are also the norm for any gender.

Marriages have slogans. Yeah. When you marry someone you get to make a slogan for your relationship! It’s a completely useless tradition!

When death occurs, it’s common for a water horn sound to play over the speakers. It’s expected to have a half minute of silence.

Blue is seen as an unlucky color! Much like how some cultures avoid certain numbers for bad connotations, they avoid the color blue.

ANYWAY there’s a LOT more but this is getting too long so. That is all for now.

#not a pikmin post #woohoo spent like 2 hours writing this!!! worth it!!!#pdbc

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inkblot22 · 8 months ago

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I agree!! aftermaths are ALWAYS my favourite to read during forced pregnancy stories and I actually hate when it ends with the yandere impregnating darling like how do u know if she truly got pregnant? where’s the horror in finding out you’re carrying your rapist’s child(ren)? how does reader deal with that? how does the yandere react to that? (I’m sure he knows but finding out the news from you yourself would surely elicit different emotions) how does he react when you say you wanna get rid of it? how do they both cope as parents? sooo many possibilities!! I’m glad to know the story I requested will not end with epel just impregnating darling!! thank you sm for that <3

also seeing as how both you and the other anon rank epel low I hope to see he be ranked higher in the future >:3

- epel felmier anon 🍎💜

ALL the freaking possibilities! The machinations of the yandere's mind when the baby-trapping (consensual or not) isn't received well is bound to be endlessly fascinating. Idk, stories work well sometimes if you let the reader imagine the hopelessness of a situation, but they work even better if you showcase it.

I'm putting the other stuff under a cut because I'm about to go on a bit of a tangent. Also, I have not read book seven yet, if anyone spoils it, I will temporarily block you until after I have read it.

I ranked Epel a C the first time because I didn't know anything about him at the time, almost every character save for the ones I really loved the designs for were lower than I would put them today, and frankly some were higher. I've done another tier list, this is not the old one. I have a pretty high opinion of most of the characters regardless of their ranking, here's the maker I used.

Okay, so, I feel the need to specifically explain Crewel: I don't like being treated like a dog. Pet play is not my thing, and I do not understand the hype surrounding him whatsoever. Why would I want to hang out with someone who probably smells like a really strong, expensive cologne and refuses to call me anything other than "good boy"? No thanks, y'all can have him. Crowley is self-explanatory.

Riddle, Silver, and Lucius all have their good qualities, I will admit. But I'm the type of person who would avoid both of the people for varying reasons (Riddle is annoying, I don't like being bothered when I'm minding my own fucking business because I'm "breaking the rules" and I don't want to wake up Silver and I don't know enough about him,) and I would get irrationally mad at Lucius for always getting into fights with Grim.

C tier is somewhat similar to D for me. I'd very likely not go out of my way to interact with these guys, but they're either more approachable or less irritating than D tier. I'm sure you can see a trend with at least two of them, but most of these mfs are too high energy or too intense. Sebek is here because while I don't like petplay, I do like degradation and I think he would be excellent at that, given his usual temperament and opinion on humans. Deuce is there because I find him to be a very one-note character. Everyone in this game is well-written, but not everyone can be interesting. Trein is here because I know I'd be constantly getting in trouble in his class for drawing instead of paying attention. By the way, when did people who were 50 become old? Idk I consider old to be like 70+ but maybe that's just because of the people I grew up around.

B tier is characters that I am aware I am sleeping on, with the bonus of Vargas, who I actually like quite a bit. Not enough to put him in higher than B tier, though. Ortho and Idia are sort of a package deal, but I do like Ortho less than I like Idia. Azul pisses me off but I am a sucker for a pathetic man.

EPEL!!! THE ONE WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!! Epel is like Deuce, if Deuce had more of a twisted view of himself. Reading though his little dilemma in book 5 didn't make me sympathize, but it did endear him to me. I can understand getting upset because you are literally unable to express yourself in a way that you would like because of reasons outside of your control. Beyond that, I love it when characters have a secret rough side (sorry Deuce.) Two-faced characters are my favorite thing.

A tier is characters I would like to put in S but I am too scared of them to do so. While C and lower are characters I would avoid because they're annoying, A tier is literally just characters I would avoid because they're freaky. I think people forget that the first interaction we have with Leona is him threatening to beat the shit out of us because we accidentally tripped on his tail. While Trey is sweet, he's the absolute definition of a two-faced character and he's way too observant to be comfortable around. Idk, maybe that makes him boyfriend material. I feel like anyone who has been on this blog at this point already understands my viewpoint of Jade, Floyd, and Rook. They scare the mess out of me and I love them for that.

With S tier, I'm actually going to specify a couple things: Sam is up there because I know I'd constantly be in his shop, buying things with thaumarks I should save just because I know his shop would smell like home. I feel like where a lot of people see Sam and think "this man can FUCK," I see Sam and think "big brother material." The sibling that I am closest to is literally just barely a year younger than Sam. Also, to clarify, I'm Black with family from the south. Grim is also sibling material. He's like a little brother, and I love him for that even though he pisses me off.

Now back to the WHORE KNEE. I very desperately want to bring my personal Vil series to this blog. I think maybe someone else would enjoy it, because what's more lovely than a man who sees what he wants in a person that isn't what he wants but forces to be what he wants anyway? I love that shit. Lilia is prime fodder for coercion fics, and I'd love to see more of those because he's very wise (because he's old as hell) and he's had a lot of practice at being a sweet talker. I think with a gullible reader?? Oh my god??? I'm not shy about my opinion on Malleus, Jamil, and Idia, and I think I talk about Idia a bit too much. Jamil stole my heart from the minute he was all sweet and kind in book 4 because he is so obviously two-faced that only the overly trusting would fall for that. Also, Jafar was something of an awakening for me. Who cares about Aladdin? I want the old man. As for Malleus, I like that he fills out the gap moe trope, but not overly so. He absolutely strikes me as the type to assume he knows best for both parties involved, and if he doesn't assume, he decides for you.

Anyway, knowing me, this list will have switched all over the place in a month's time. Thanks for reading my garbled nonsense.

#twisted wonderland #tw: dark content #tw: dark themes #tw: yandere #twst #the blot talks!#the blot gets personal???#the blot rants!#anon asks #anon answered #thank you for sending an ask!!#disney twst #yandere #this is really long #i'm so sorry

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bitterarcs · 1 year ago

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Pretty sure I have this in my rules ( look at me being too lazy to just read them over ), but I don't tag specific things that may be too violent or 'upsetting' etc. I have the strong opinion that violent themes come with the territory. I think a lot of people tend to be distracted, or choose to focus, on the pretty characters and whimsy of the world. It's likely easier with characters that are not affiliated with ShinRa, y'know the hero types, however it's their suffering and trials which led them down a path of the good as opposed to that of the evil. The overarching message is that ShinRa is evil, but a lot of people just gloss over that. Sure, there were good or decent people with honorable intentions in the SOLDIER program, however soldiers are soldiers. I won't go into detail about that facet as I'm trying to get to my main point. While I do think every member of the Turks had their different motives and moralities to join such a department, I also believe that every member is malicious, at the very least bad, and most certainly evil. Evil is too often depicted as black and white when really, it comes in shades of grey.

If someone makes an argument about how this Turk character was actually good but chose to be part of the Turks for xyz reason, I'll hear it out. At least in my depiction and how Reno views all his comrades, they are bad at varying degrees. Why wouldn't they be? They're the equivalent of soldiers carrying out black ops — trained to the highest capacity in a wide range of skillsets, taking on discreet missions, doing the things no one else wants to do, cleaning up messes, carrying secrets, and YOU KNOW . . kidnapping, murder, interrogations, torture, and you can only imagine the rest. This is why I have such a bone to pick with AC. It really paints the remainder of ShinRa as clowns, more so with Reno and Rude.

There's no doubt they'd keep their heads down while as they try to build ShinRa back up, but they wouldn't be knocking back drinks with Cloud and the gang for shits and giggles. The very fact that they're too friendly is just bleh. There's the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but AC makes it seem like an episode of some cheesy action flick where enemies and friends hold hands as one. I'm more inclined to think that Tifa and all of em would want nothing to do with the Turks knowing the kind of shit they're into, and they wouldn't even know the entire picture.

POINT IS, the Turks are ruthless. Some more than others know to have a personality outside of work and enjoy life, but the work they do is intense. As fun as Reno can be, I don't play him like a clown 100%. When he acts the fool, it's to lift someone's spirits or it's an act. He's a proficient killer and perhaps unlike other Turks with dubious morals, Reno loves his job and is quite evil for it. I also depict Rude as equally loving his job and being just as evil but not so blatant about it. The other Turks have their own reasons and moral compasses, but Reno chooses to see them as like minded.

Also evil corporations are only made possible by the evil people who work for them and make their goals realities. Hojo and the ol' Pres weren't the only malicious people.

#[ ⁰⁰¹ ; ooc ]#my psa for the century.#ff7 #ff rp

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babycharmander · 11 months ago

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Hello! I've been wondering, what's your opinion on 'queerplatonic' relationship types and the concept of 'platonic attraction', or 'squishes'?

As an outsider, these have always struck me as having romantic undertones, as they ultimately blur the lines between what's considered 'friendship' and 'romance' type relationships. But I'm aware that some people might just experience limerence without caring about culture typical romantic relationships, too. It's an interesting contradiction!

I wouldn't say there's romantic undertones. QPRs (or "zucchinis" as they're sometimes called--that was the first term I knew them as before QPR became more common) are going to vary between people--I've seen some folks in QPRs who enjoy kissing (or at least the idea of kissing each other), and some who definitely don't want that kind of thing, for example--but they are still very much a form of platonic relationship.

"Squishes" are pretty easy to explain though! They're the platonic version of a crush, which sounds weird until you realize it effectively boils down to a feeling of "this person is so cool and I feel a very strong desire to be their friend." I have ABSOLUTELY experienced squishes many times before and I wouldn't be surprised if allo people did too!

But I think some of the confusion does stem from cultural expectations and whatnot (at least in American culture--I can't speak to that of other countries). Amatonormativity dictates that the Best thing for people is to get married and have kids and will look at any relationship where any two people who are very close (particularly if they are male and female) and assume the relationship is Romantic because That Is How It Should Be. Because that's so ingrained in this culture, relationships that aren't exactly like that can make it hard to wrap one's head around.

QPRs are very very deep platonic partnerships, which, for folks who are seeing that thing from a distance, might look like romance. Admittedly I cannot fully define the differences myself as someone who does not experience romantic feelings at all (I imagine it's like asking a colorblind person what the difference is between two colors they can't see), but people who are part of QPRs understand their own relationships, and that's all that really matters here, IMO.

#bc answers nonsense #anonymous #sorry this took a minute!

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leogichidaa · 2 years ago

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Omg reblogging that post of James and Sirius brought renewed passion of the idea that Sirius gives off either this James dean poser vibe or a heartthrob vibe in the eyes of everyone in the school (opinion varies), and how the bottom line is he’s misunderstood by the Hogwarts populace…by everyone except James. Even Remus and Peter misunderstood him sometimes and I bet it was out of jealousy of his status in the school.

And at first Sirius didn’t care that he was misunderstood because it got people to keep a distance (while admiring lol). But when Lily and James started dating and entered that honeymoon phase of their relationship I can see the loneliness hit Sirius for the first time in awhile.

Ironically (or perhaps coincidentally) I can see Regulus as also feeling isolated and lonely? Like even though he thought Sirius was a twit he was still his blood brother and they’ve been through certain things by default in their family, but perhaps Regulus felt that Sirius threw it away and abandoned him for James. Cue rage.

Yes! I kind of feel like the marauder fandom at large is proof positive of this - Sirius is so frequently misunderstood in fanon. For such a complex and nuanced character he is alarmingly easy to put into a box because he has the trappings of a) hot bad boy everyone had a lil crush on and b) that cool kid who either bullied you or ignored you completely in grade school. Oh and c) tormented rich kid with a dysfunctional family. His surface presentation pulls out strong emotions - anger, envy, infatuation - and then folks define him based on those initial strong reactions.

James is such an important person for him because James is totally nonplussed by Sirius' status. He doesn't seem to be all that bothered by Sirius' family background in the train scene and he's not going to be jealous or blinded by Sirius being smart and pretty and whatnot because James is also smart and pretty and the like. So James can look past all that and see Sirius for who he is.

And, oh, my heart! Sirius didn't mind keeping everyone at arm's length when it was him and James against the world but then things shift when James starts dating Lily and shift again when they get married and have a child. James is expanding the love in his life while Sirius is getting less genuine intimacy.

I think @artemisia-black does a really good job depicting Sirius' loneliness and longing in Dog and Deer Detective Agency. He loves the Potters and they love having him around but he's a little bit on the outside of the family unit. There's a recurrent theme around tea and no one making Sirius' tea the way he likes it that speaks to this idea of not being truly understood and seen.

I definitely see Regulus as a lonely child as well. I think he is very adaptive, good at presenting the way he thinks is expected, and so no one really gets a chance to understand him. He keeps everyone at arm's length pretty intentionally, imo. And yeah, he and Sirius may not get along, but I think he's counting on Sirius to always be there and always be his brother. And I imagine that he could be more himself around Sirius than perhaps most people because Sirius is family but less...mm, I want to say less judgmental but I'm not sure if that's really true. Less punitive, perhaps.

But then things shift when Sirius goes off and attaches himself to James and makes new friends. Sirius is expanding the love in his life while Regulus is getting less genuine intimacy. Bah. But while Sirius is able to integrate Lily and Harry into his life and appreciate them, both for what they mean to James and as people themselves, Regulus cannot do that with James (imo).

I explore Regulus' anger at James for "stealing" Sirius a lot in my writing, but since we're making this parallel, I will add that I always thought that Sirius would be angry and a bit bitter towards Lily when she and James first started dating. Prior to the release of DH, which messed with my whole timeline, my hc was that Sirius told Snape about the Whomping Willow shortly after Lily and James started dating because Sirius was feeling left out and lonely, and he wanted to pull James into another great Snivellus prank so that he and James could bond in a way that Lily did not approve of. And he went and told James and James was like "wtf, no" and ran off to stop it and Sirius was just standing there bewildered and sad because James wasn't his James anymore...

#sirius black #regulus black #house of black #james & sirius #sirius & regulus #ask #freezedive

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wetbloodworm · 11 months ago

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some follow-up doodles to the post where deacon got got by a werewolf! explanations and ramblings under the cut

top left is obvious, deacon healing up after the attack plus bad dog space filler. he bounced back from the whole thing real quick, actually, mostly because. well. he was a werewolf at that point, and accelerated healing comes with the package.

top right, dragging deacon back out of the woods. part of asim's hunter training involved regular exercise and he's always been pretty strong anyway. he didn't always LOOK especially strong, though; a combination of T and healthier eating habits helped him bulk up a bit as he got older. he's not especially short though, he's 5'8", deacon is just real fucking tall. which i don't think translates too much in all of these but that's fine. he's slumped over/sitting in the right two so it's fine.

bottom right, so. the werewolf has been scared away and deacon has been secured. asim then had to avoid freaking out for uh. several reasons. obviously there's the attack, he's used to high-stress situations and people being in danger or even killed by monsters but it's different when it's your best friend. so that was scary. then the dawning horror of realizing his best friend was bitten by a werewolf, his best friend is going to become a werewolf, and like. asim's family's brand of monster hunters is very much the 'all monsters are inherently bad and a threat' kind of hunters, so his training made it clear that deacon was now a threat. idk if there's a cure for lycanthropy in this universe but even if there is one, i can't imagine it's easily accessible, and his family's opinion would be that you can't wait that long to take care of the threat. how many full moons will pass before you get your hands on the cure. how many people could die in that time. so, regardless, asim's training said that his best friend was beyond helping and was best handled by being eliminated. the only other time asim had someone he knew turn out to be a monster/turn into a monster was achlys a couple years before this, and he still had mixed feelings about how that situation was handled. and he'd known deacon for way longer and that's his BEST FRIEND and there were just. clashing ideas warring in his head. so there was THAT crisis.

next crisis was how to get deacon to the hospital. at this point asim didn't know how to drive and didn't have a license also. he could call 911 and drag deacon back to the spot he'd parked his car, but the hunter side of asim's family all utilized police scanners. they'd hear something about an animal attack and be all fucking ears, because yes sometimes it IS an animal attack but sometimes not. one of them might show up at the hospital to get a vibe check on the type of attack. asim knew he couldn't keep this news from his family forever, they'd find out eventually, but he wanted to control the story for as long as he could. especially while deacon was at his most vulnerable and at the easiest point he could be nullified as a potential threat.

so! asim ended up calling his dad to come get them. his dad's not a hunter and hasn't always been super thrilled about the lifestyle, and he's the parent asim has always been closest to anyway. asim knew he could trust him.

after drawing this i realized that deacon would be more likely to refer to asim's dad by name rather than mr. sayed, both because they've known each other for years and because deacon just strikes me as the kind of guy who refers to parents by their first name. like he's a young adult here so that would make sense anyway though i feel like it can vary especially when you were a kid when you met someone. but i'm not changing this because 'hi mr sayed' reads better as a kind of jokey thing than 'hi essam' to me. very polite while he's bleeding out.

and bottom left! on top of trying to figure out how to make the hunter side of his family be cool with deacon being a werewolf, asim also knew like. he kind of fucked up? according to his training, he fucked up. a civilian got bit by a werewolf, which is as good as them getting killed as far as his family cares. and then asim prioritized keeping the newly-infected individual alive rather than killing the active threat. the initial werewolf got away, and then asim saved the soon-to-be werewolf. so like, absolutely abysmal handling of the situation. his family was going to be livid.

so in the pic i'm picturing asim as in the waiting room while deacon is getting treated, anxiously trying to work out how to handle his family and feeling sick about how much trouble he was going to be in. on top of dealing with the emotional effects of the attack in the first place. or, not dealing with them, as the case may be.

really, this whole event is the start of asim half-retiring from being a hunter and generally adjusting his worldview due to eventually stepping back to look at all this and go 'hey that was fucked up actually', and it's also a stepping stone towards his parents' divorce lol. because his dad saw how stressed asim was when he was already worried about his friend, and later saw how asim's mom WAS mad about the situation, and this was also just another close call when every hunt has him terrified that he's going to lose his wife or his son. this one wasn't a hunt, it was a surprise, but like! asim's been taught to actively seek out situations like these! ayda's being trained to seek out situations like these once she reaches an age that's rapidly approaching! this sucks! this sucks!! he just wants his family to be safe!!!!

#asim tag #deacon tag #art tag #somaverse tag #asim's face looks different in every fucking pic of him #why do i struggle with you. what's up with that.#part of the problem is his eyes are fully open in most of these #usually he's got the half-lidded thing going on #that's not the only thing but like it's fine #actually remembered his locket this time unlike in the comic

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halt-kun · 2 years ago

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Hunter x Hunter Chapter 192 - Human Dog

let’s pick up a bit on the liveblog

So we can see Gn’s jajanken clearly did some damage

Rammot really vomited blood everywhere

It’s really satisfying to see

With this title I clearly now where we’ll end up urghhh

You clearly need a psychiatrist in your nest

Like they need healthier ways to deal with anger outbursts or strong emotions

Colt is able to enforce his authority thank god

A rift is being created in the ant nest

Cheetu was written Djido in french, I get it, they might not have made the link with the english name, it’s called a “guépard” in french

I really don’t get people who enjoy hunting, like can’t we have a ant that just enjoys taking pictures of humans on their free time

That’d be fun

Hagya is clearly a hedonist and only focuses on what brings him pleasure

Cheetu is more logical at least

TRUE

there is a bunch of humans even in the little country you’re in

probably one of the most abundant species among the macrofauna

I’m wondering if the feline parts of Cheetu and Hagya are responsible for their enjoyment of the hunt. It probably mixed with the human personality too

Hagya is a liar

If only Rammot could die right now

Colt really wants an oligarchy

I agree that if most people just act selfishly, it’s really annoying to find a common ground

but still a lot of opinion is always better

Colt is also not a fool, he knows you weren’t very serious, he’s just not calling you out in front of everyone

They’ve already organized a work rotation system

NICE

Colt is a nice guy

Who’s dead ?

OH NGL soldiers

one of them got crushed

ouch

I really love open spaces in Hunter x Hunter

I would love to eat with some friends here

too bad there are deadly ants and soldiers around

Yep it’s no an ants nest

This is a MINECRAFT BASE

beware of the miner here, very dangerous

They make drugs yep

I’m trying to imagine the quiproquo I could get if some of my friends took this drug

Me : “What do you mean you want some D²”

Him: Well, I’ve kinda been missing it lately, I don’t have enough money”

Me : “WHAT ?!? Since when do you go to sex workers ?”

Him: “UHHH! I usually go to my dealer”

Me : “you HAVE SEX with your dealer ?!? Is he hot ?”

Him: “What, no it’s just for the drugs”

Me : “You have sex for drugs ? Aren’t you and your boyfriend monogamous too ?”

...

ANYWAY

This is so sad

Of course NGL wasn’t the happy nature reserve they advertised.

Still sad

all these clueless people

Kite En is impressive

I like when skills vary a bit from mental or physical fatigue

I’d probably never be able to train En, I’d be overwhelmed by the sensitive input. I could definitely train it in my apartment though or in a field and feel the little insects all around.

Let’s talk about all basic and advanced nen techniques then

Ten : pretty chill to train, I’d probably do it all the time

Ren : I wouldn’t enjoy it as much but a few times a week, no problem, definitely tiring

Zetsu : I’d love to train it, erasing my presence and making my aura disappear

Hatsu : I just need a glass of water and Ren so a few times a week would be cool

Gyo/Ryu : I’d probably do it all the time, like moving your aura around seems fun

Ken : I like to do the plank and it seems to be similar so I guess I’d enjoy doing it

Shu : Maybe sometimes with some objects but it wouldn’t be very regular

In : Pretty fun to train I bet, like Zetsu

I forgot this was next

ASSHOLE your treatment of dog is horrible, if you think this is how we treat dog you’re really lower than the lowest of scum

DOGS are GOOD BOYS

and puppy play needs mutual consent too you sicko

It was also supposed to be a trap for nice people, really rotten ants here

Poor Gon

Kite is right, you don’t have the luxury to be sentimental here

Poor guy, I hope he didn’t suffer too much

Centipede and Mosquito time

Thanks Kite, immediately estimated who was the strongest and how to fight efficiently

I won’t be sad when you die you assholes

There is a limit to who I want to be empathetic with and you’ve reached it

I’ll probably do a little break and continue later today

#hxh c192 #hxh liveblog #hxh manga

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pomrania · 1 year ago

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Okay. There's a bunch more games in the now-current compilation (which makes sense as it was for multiple days), and I'm actually now getting around to things. Let's go.

The Case That Went Disco by @ninefourzerozero Listen, the "parts of one guy's self, each with different opinions and vocal about them" was my favourite bit about Disco Elysium, and I always love when I see on my dash stuff that takes that concept and applies it to different things. But aside from "concept", I like the mechanics bit here where if a skill loses influence, it gets discarded and a new one takes its place, it's just really neat.

Extremely Tiny Frog Wizards by @prokopetz As someone who's read all official versions of the actual game -- even played it once or twice -- it's fascinating to see how it looks when cut down like this. Especially when that abridging was done by someone who's not only intimately familiar with the base game (because they wrote it), but also has a high level of skill when it comes to technical writing.

Get Me Pictures Of Spider-man!!! by @iridium-bat It's always fun to see stuff people draw in a very short time limit -- even funnier if they're actually decent artists normally, because then you have the contrast of "what they can do with enough time" vs "what they can manage with thirty seconds" -- so I approve of this just on general principle.

In Every Generation by @tsuyoshikentsu I know I'm prolly missing a lot of background stuff here, but there's one thing I'm absolutely qualified to talk on, and that is how I like the mechanics. "Varied degrees of (potentially) improving a roll, for stuff your character is skilled at" is a pretty common concept, for the very good reason that it's, well, very good; but I haven't as often come across stuff where that's implemented as being able to reroll different levels of sucky rolls, depending on how good your character is at it.

Lighting Candles by @i8sigmapi This is a game I would never be able to play, because of my various issues -- not the issues alluded to in an earlier post in this thread, different issues this time -- but I'm glad that it exists; coming up with the problem, then saying how things get better.

Mailbox of the Demiurge by @infimace-blog The introductory paragraph made me giggle, that alone would earn it a place on this list. I also enjoy things with "when all you have is a hammer" problem-solving, and solving the collateral damage from said problem-solving. …also I'm not quite certain this is EXACTLY what "the Demiurge" means, historically, but a) fiction and b) leads to a nice flow of words for the title.

Res Publica by @orthernlight I'm only putting this on the list because I'm at full relevant energy at the moment and thus am okay with writing up more 'liminal' stuff. Because this game does not appeal to me; HOWEVER, I'm POSITIVE that for someone with a background or interest in ancient Rome, it'd be hilarious.

Trivia Heroes by @crackerjackalope I just really like how the concept behind it, is something I'd never come across before, but it makes so much SENSE; where you determine your character's strong points by assigning them to categories which you as the player feel more confident in. A nice form of "player skill determines in-game success", and I can easily imagine adapting it to things other than "trivia topics". I always love coming across shiny new ideas and concepts.

That's everything from the 5-8 November compilation! And it only took *mumble* days.

If you don't already know, @prokopetz is hosting a thing this month, where people are making 200-word RPGs. Here's some I thought were cool, and my commentary on them; in order of how they showed up in daily compilations. Disclaimer that I'm finding these entirely based on the compilation posts, which only show the title and the creator, so there's a chance I'm missing something I'd thought was really cool, simply because I didn't remember what it was called.

Bun Chaos by @nyalaholic This one just seems delightful. I always love stuff where the literal premise is "you are little creatures, and causing problems on purpose"; and everyone loves "stats that rhyme" (or at least I do, and that's what's most important when we're looking at my opinion). A thing I particularly thought was cool, was using a d20 to put a "time limit" (really more of a "rounds limit") on the game. Also, how the points are for the group total, because what really matters is "how much chaos was caused" and not "who did what".

Crushing It by @writemeasandwich I would never play this game myself, because folding paper into any shape more complicated than a basic paper airplane, makes my eyes glaze over, and also I have slow reflexes. However, I am glad that it exists, and it seems like it would be tremendous fun to watch; probably also to play, for people who don't have my particular issues. I enjoy the bit about "more dots shown is better, unless it's the most dots shown, in which case you want to avoid it".

Knock Knock, Cthul-Who's There? by @bookoramaenderteeth This one goes on the list because I absolutely ADORE the premise, it's just so GOOD. And also I like the mental image of just calling up some unrelated person and having them listen to the stuff you came up with.

Raccoons and Goblins by @kaninchen-reblogs Honestly pretty much ANYTHING where you play as raccoons and goblins would prolly make it on here. The gameplay seems pretty generic, which, there's only so much you can put into a thing when you're limited to 200 words, but 'generic' also means 'functional' (absolutely not a given with these kinds of weird games). Within that though, I love how the "goblin" actions all start with G, and the "raccoon" actions all start with R; incredibly basic stuff that just makes my brain happy. I like the bit about most of the 'actions' you choose are from your own list, plus one from the other list.

VAMPIRE DANCE FLOOR (not sure if it's supposed to be all caps, or if that was just to emphasize the title) by @danacarajb First off I always love stuff where there's various 'traditional' monsters; that's like a cheat code for my brain. But aside from that, the STRUCTURE of this is fascinating, how each type of monster has a different win condition, and WHAT the win condition is for each of them; they're all things that make sense for that type of monster, AND work within the mechanics. I think this is my favourite of the games from the first day, but I genuinely can't say how much of that is from its own quality, and how much is because it aligns with my tastes.

And I think that's where I'll stop for now, to post it, because I don't want this to just stay forever in my "I'll finish it eventually", and also there's a nice clear cut-off point of "this is the stuff from the first day".

#no fandom #added content #rambling

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abba-enthusiast · 2 years ago

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Hey I am hoping you can answer this (no pressure of you don't wanna answer).

What is the Swiss public's general opinion on Austria and Germany?

I am just super curious about this. Thank you!

Hiiii, thank you for your question!!

(I can really only speak for the german speaking part of Switzerland, specifically the part near the German border (Nordwestschweiz) because that’s where I live and experiences and opinions might vary)

That being said, the first thing I would like to point out, is that in most cases, I believe Swiss people don’t actually know that much about Germany and Austria (maybe in that regard Germany more so than Austria, just because it's such a big country) and most of our feelings toward these countries tend to be somewhat superficial and/or based solely on the experiences with German/Austrian people living in Switzerland.

I‘m gonna start with Austria, because i think it’s easier:

At least in my experience Austria is very positively regarded in Switzerland. Idk how to explain it but there's a sense of community, camaraderie even... It might be the Alpine (skiing) culture that connects us, or the fact that we both don’t speak the ‚correct‘ german and hence have been victims of many jokes made about us by Germans (I mean sure, we might also make a little fun of the Austrian pronunciation, but just know it comes from a place of admiration and love). In my experience a lot of Swiss people appreciate the Austrian cuisine, culture and the hospitality and generally consider Austrians to be very easy-going and friendly. I think when it comes to the general mentality of the people, Austrians are more similar to Swiss people than Germans are, which makes them more likeable to us.

So overall, I'd say Austria has a pretty good reputation in Switzerland :)

The way Germany and Germans are perceived is a little bit trickier: I mean Germany is obviously a very beautiful country and I'm fairly certain most Swiss people would agree with me on this, but unfortunately, on a very superficial level, Swiss people tend to not regard Germans that highly and I think there are a number of reasons for this:

firstly, compared to Swiss people, Germans just happen to be very direct. („Ich hätte gerne ein Brötchen, bitte“ vs. „Ich krieg ein Brötchen“, you know?) and obviously that’s just cultural differences, but to Swiss people this directness is often interpreted as rudeness or arrogance. Swiss people are extremely reserved and I could imagine that that probably looks to Germans like aversion, which makes them dislike us, which in turn makes us dislike them… so it’s a vicious cycle :/

Secondly, since the 90s, there’s been an influx of German people who come to work in Switzerland and I believe a lot of Swiss people felt (or feel) threatened by that, especially since there is no language barrier (like for example with immigrants from non-german speaking countries), which means that the Germans can get highly qualified jobs. (I might even argue that they have a slight advantage in jobs that require (public) speaking or generally a way with words, because whatever they say will sound so much more sophisticated when compared to somebody speaking standard german with a strong swiss german accent. And Germans have a lot of little phrases that make them sound real intelligent, while Swiss people tend to sound more… crude? Idk). And since there is a considerable amount of very smart Germans who work in Switzerland to get that big buck but still live in Germany where the cost of living is cheaper, there is some resentment from Swiss people who don't think this is fair.

Thirdly, I think the fact that we technically speak the same language, yet still Swiss people often have to switch to Standard German to communicate, accentuates and augments the already existing cultural differences in a rather negative way. Plus, a lot of Swiss people experience a kind of inferiority complex when speaking standard German, and that certainly doesn’t help.

Fourthly, a lot of the time it's more of a Hassliebe when it comes to Germany, because we just like to complain about stuff and hate admitting that something or someone is actually quite nice and might actually be better than us in various ways 👀

HOWEVER. We absolutely don’t hate Germany! I think most of those feelings of ‚resentment‘ are just due to a somewhat superficial understanding of German culture and a feeling of intimidation in regards to our big neighbour lmao.

There’s loads we love and appreciate about Germany! Just to list a (superficial) few:

German cars

Die Autobahn

Billig Einkaufen

Europapark

Bier

Pfandflaschenautomat

Brot/Deutsche Küche allgemein

your incredible dedication to Spargelsaison

all the niche rules you come up with and all the loop-holes you find in regards to those rules

the ability to make paperwork so complicated. it's truly fascinating

And I also think a lot of Swiss people are secretly quite envious of how direct Germans are "allowed" to be, and of how much more friendly/less reserved they are.

Sorry for the essay lmao, this got kinda out of hand but i really really really want to emphasise that we do! not! hate! Germans and Germany! I really think what tends to ‚strain‘ our mutual relationship are the cultural differences - as I said, in the eyes of the Swiss the Germans might seem rude and for the Germans the Swiss might come across as cold and unfriendly. But as soon as these differences are acknowledged, we can really get along quite well <3

In conclusion, I think most Swiss people are rather fond of Austria and Germany :) I hope this answered your question

(Swiss people if you disagree with me or have anything to add, please do!!)

#sorry this turned into a novel lmao but i just don't want people to think we actually hate germany cause we really don't #to all my german mutuals (dutuals) I LOVE YOU ALL PLEASE DONT THINK I HATE YOU OR GERMANY <3 #but basically i think it's really the conflict of the german directness and the swiss reservation that might make it seem like we don't #like germans #german stuff #helvetia #ask #anon

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gimme-mor · 3 years ago

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ACOTAR THINK PIECE: ELAIN ARCHERON, UNTOUCHABLE

*DISCLAIMER*

This will be a long post.

Please take the time to read this post in its entirety and truly reflect on the message I am trying to send before commenting. My goal is to use my background in Gender and Women’s Studies to deconstruct the comments I have seen on Tumblr and Twitter and bring awareness to the ACOTAR fandom.

The reason I am tagging “Elriel” in this post is to call attention to the arguments in the Elriel fandom that: weaponize Elain’s femalehood to shame real life people for their opinions about Elain’s character and her relationship with Lucien; victimize Elain’s character in fandom discussions; and coddle Elain’s character, which limits fandom discussions about her narrative development and prevents the ACOTAR fandom from holding Elain accountable for her actions and inactions in the same way that the fandom holds other characters accountable for their actions and inactions. It is for these reasons that I WILL NOT remove the “Elriel” tag from this post because all of the above points contribute to the toxic discourse surrounding Elain’s character.

I urge those who use these arguments to understand their implications, why they are problematic, regardless of intent, and reexamine their contributions to the ACOTAR fandom. I WILL NOT tolerate anyone who tries to twist my words and say I am attacking people and their personal shipping preferences. In fact, I AM CRITIQUING THE ARGUMENTS THEMSELVES NOT THE PEOPLE USING THE ARGUMENTS.

Also, I highly encourage the Elriel fandom to read this post because it addresses how the concept of choice as an argument enables arguments to exploit social justice and feminist languge in order to vilify Elucien shippers, among other problematic things.

Elain Archeron is one of the most polarizing characters in the ACOTAR fandom. Though opinions about Elain vary, arguments in the Elriel fandom cite society’s perception of traditional female characters in comparison to non-traditional female characters as the reason behind the hate, and this belief is used to provide an explanation as to why other characters in the series are favored over her. In the series, Elain is portrayed in a wholly positive light and this image carries over into the Elriel fandom, painting her character as a good and kind female who has been unfairly wronged and a victim of circumstances that were out of her control. When arguments in the Elriel fandom oppose other viewpoints in the fandom, they fall into one of three categories:

Category 1: Weaponize Elain’s femalehood to shame real life people for their opinions

Maybe people who hate Elain are just jealous of her in a weird way similar to when someone hates the pretty, nice, and charming girl in school just because she is too perfect

Disliking Elain is misogynistic

What happened to feminism? What happened to women supporting women? What happened to she can say no? All of that disappears the second you force Elain to be with Lucien

Elain antis are misogynistic

All Eluciens are Elain antis

Antis claiming they’re feminists when in reality they hate on Elain and Feyre but love Nesta

Elain antis are such sore losers. Y’all were that bunch of people who could not get over being rejected from hanging out with the cool kids so y’all are projecting your hatred towards pretty people now to get validation

I don’t get how Elain’s love for gardening equals boring for some people. I’m sorry your misogyny finds traditionally feminine activities boring

Why are you attacking a female? What did Elain do? Where are your feminist voices?

The fandom is misogynistic towards Elain

If people loved Elain they would ship Elriel

If you hate Elain it says a lot about your feelings toward women

If you hate Elain because she has no “development” then you must hate Azriel because otherwise you’re misogynistic

Eluciens are turned off by the idea of a woman that has the autonomy to reject a man for the simple reason that it is her choice

Eluciens are all about feminism and “it’s HER choice” until it comes down to females not wanting a male

Eluciens don’t respect Elain’s feelings when they ship her with someone that was part of her trauma and makes her feel uncomfortable

The way some Elucien shippers completely disregard how uncomfortable Elain is around Lucien is so hilariously not funny. Prioritizing being mates over Elain’s feelings is just regressive

It’s hard as a fan of Elain to see someone ship her with a person who makes her physically uncomfortable to be around. Wouldn’t you want both characters to be happy to be around each other

Imagine if SJM saw all the awful things her “stans” had to say about Elain

It’s true that we know comparatively little about her, but is she really boring or do you just not value stereotypically feminine traits?

So y’all are just gonna tell me you prefer Elucien over Elriel? Even though Lucien treats Elain as if she’s something that belongs to him? The only reason he wants to be with her is because she’s his mate, he doesn’t respect her, doesn’t treat her as his equal, even though that’s what mates should be? He doesn’t bother to look past what’s on the outside to see her for who she is. And Elain is obviously repulsed by the idea that she should belong to anyone or have no choice in who she can be with. Azriel is her friend and the only person who sees her quiet strength. He has so much faith in her, in her abilities; he’s the one who kept her company when no one else did, he’s the only one who bothered to see her for more than her brokenness. You’re going to tell me you still prefer Elucien over Elriel?

The more I see Gwynriels that ship Elucien out of their hate for Elain, the less I can understand Elain stans that ship Elucien. Pls Elain has made it very clear that she doesn’t want Lucien, why would you ship her with him? Do you hate her too? Smh

The real question would be, if you care and understand Elain why would you ship her with Lucien (where she canonically shrinks when he is near)?

People crying over Helion and Lucien’s mom not getting to be with each other and her being forced into a relationship she didn’t want, but also ship Elucien? Just say you hate Elain

When Elain’s book is out, Gwyn stans will look like clowns and I will laugh because they set her up by shipping her with Azriel just because they hate Elain. Watch them play the victims now because Elriels are clapping back the hate they’ve sent towards Elain

As romantic as wanting girl who is visibly uncomfortable around a guy who caused her trauma to end up with the said guy. Guess their standards for romance are in hell

Category 2: Victimize Elain’s character

Gwynriels only want Gwyn with Azriel because they despise Elain

Gwyn stans and Gwynriels are Elain antis

No one in the books dislike Elain, so why are there so many people who do?

Elain hasn’t done anything wrong or questionable to warrant the hate she gets

Not having Elain’s POV makes it easy for people to be swayed a certain way about her character if you already don’t relate to her in some way

It’s been years since this series came out and we haven’t gotten a lick of an Elain POV, but people still hate her for what? We don’t know her thoughts, dreams, or aspirations

We haven’t even had Elain’s perspective yet and people are passing these judgments off on her

Elain antis who say she’s boring are just cruel when she has obvious symptoms of PTSD like Feyre and Nesta

Gwyn is one of the most overhyped characters and that’s only because most people hate Elain and they couldn’t wait to find a random girl to ship Azriel with

Nesta was abusive to her sisters but Elain (who has only ever been kind) is painted as the villain

From the text we know that Elain is the epitome of feminine stereotypes (gentle, gardening, baking, non confrontational for the most part). Yet people still call her boring or deny that she has any interesting character traits?

You can’t love Nesta and hate Elain

People hate Elain because of internalized misogyny and lack of taste. All the girl does is tend to her garden and mind her business and they treat her worse than Tamlin

Does Gwyn deserve all this support? Of course yes! She is amazing! But where’s that support when Elain was in the same situation as she? Where’s that support for her right now? Why do they idolize Gwyn for her interactions with Azriel and hate Elain for having any interaction with him?

It’s not even a ship war anymore, they just hate Elain

People hate Elain for no reason

Some of y’all don’t like feminine traits and it shows

We know less about Eris and Helion but people don’t call them boring. Why would rejecting femininity make Elain more interesting?

Elain has had a lot forced upon her

The main reason I believe most people love Gwyn so much is to get Azriel away from Elain. It’s not a secret that Elain has been a widely hated character for years so suddenly we get a new female who has a minimal amount of interactions with Azriel and BOOM. New ship that once again doesn’t make sense (just like Azriel x Emerie after ACOFAS)

Elain hasn’t done something so terrible for her to get this hate. At this point some of you are just being misogynistic and you don’t want to accept it. Don’t call yourselves feminists and then say bs like this, it’s embarrassing. She’s pretty and everyone agreed to hate on her

Just a personal feeling, but I feel like a lot of the Elain hate stems from internalized misogyny. That to be a strong female lead, you need to pick up a sword and fight. That to be strong, you need to adapt traditionally masculine traits

Elain is feminine. She is beautiful. She loves to bake and garden. She is docile, quiet, observant, and a people-pleaser. All traditionally feminine traits. Yet for some reason, she’s like the worst in these people’s eyes?

I think also maybe a lot of people can’t relate to her femininity? That her being so beautiful and quiet doesn’t allow for the people who dislike her not to self-insert? Most of the hate stems from people not wanting Elain to be with Azriel. It’s mean, but maybe the people who hate Elain literally just can’t self-insert if they have a story and that’s why they’re vehemently against it?

Poor Elain. The Cauldron dealt her a bad deal. Upon emerging as Fae, she is immediately declared by Lucien as his mate, never mind that she was already engaged to a prick. Her love life is not good

It blows my mind how they really think that they can compare all the shit that Elain gets with some dumb jokes about Gwyn on Twitter (and yes, the “hate” towards her started mostly because Elriels are clapping back, it was bound to happen)

I would think of it as anti-feminist with Elain and Lucien because she has consistently stated that she does not want him so if she was forced to embrace the bond that would be taking away her right to have a choice but with Az she feels comfortable around so if they were mates then Elain would be happy and feel safe which again should be the priority for women to feel safe in their relationships with anything and to not be forced into any type of situation aka the mating bond in this

Category 3: Coddle Elain’s character

Elain has value the way she is, in all her domestic girly glory. Not every character has to be badass

We don’t speak of Elain’s flaws frequently because everyone else already speaks badly of her, mainly in an unfair way

There is definitely something deeper going on with Elain but by no means will she ever be evil or any less feminine. That goes against everything we already know about her

It’s ok to critique Elain because she needs growth but y’all keep forgetting the shit her and her sisters went through

The last “bad” thing Elain did in ACOTAR was not help Feyre when they were impoverished and I’m tired of people acting like she’s a terrible character when it was their father’s responsibility. It happened 4 books ago and Feyre has forgiven both Nesta and Elain

Elain’s character and the evil Elain theory are a great example of the trend where people only consider female characters interesting if they reject femininity

We don’t know enough to hate Elain

Many people want Elain to turn evil (which in my opinion seems to come from a place of internalized misogyny)

However we don’t tend to talk about her faults, at least not publicly, as that has been, and still is, done to death, and I--personally, at least--find it much more fun to theorise about potentially interesting aspects of the overall plot, than dwell on negatives

And ultimately, I would be shocked if Elain has a more karmically-charged story than Nesta, considering that Elain’s “wrongs” are so much less severe and bad than Nesta’s, and Elain has already apologized for them (or paid the price in other ways, like through what Graysen did)

I guess I also think Elain has suffered and been punished enough. I hope her story is about finding hope in terrible situations, and learning to love her new life, and choosing her own path after everything that has been done to her. I don’t think she needs to be punished anymore or face any additional trauma

Also, why is she being judged on her decisions as a human at all? Fae are monsters to humans! They enslaved them for thousands of years, and the Wall was erected to keep them out

Like I’m sorry, but think Elain would want to leave her ONLY FAMILY AND FRIENDS for the Spring Court where she has no one because--oh look, lots of flowers!--is the craziest thing I have ever heard

Her sisters are in the Night Court. Her nephew is in the Night Court. Her closest friends (Nuala and Cerridwen) are in the Night Court. Her love interest is in the Night Court. Her extended family is in the Night Court. Her home is in the Night Court

SJM isn’t going to keep two sisters together and split up the third. Especially not keep Feyre and Nesta together and separate Elain. They were either all going to end up in separate places, or together. Not 2 here and 1 there

Compared to the other female characters in the series, Elain is the only character whose femalehood is at the center of conversations; this is because arguments in the Elriel fandom fixate on it when discussing her character. While Elain, Feyre, Nesta, and Mor are all representations of white womanhood and white beauty, Elain epitomizes the most fragile version of white womanhood. It’s easy to blame society’s perception of traditional female characters in comparison to non-traditional female characters when it comes to the discourse surrounding Elain’s character because it: falls in line with the fixation on Elain’s femalehood to silence opposing viewpoints; is a simplistic explanation that fails to tackle the underlying issues with Elain as a character, the same issues that are downplayed in-universe; absolves Elain of her wrongdoings; prevents the ACOTAR fandom from holding Elain accountable for her actions and inactions within the series; and diminishes the impact Elain’s actions and inactions have on those around her. It’s not that Elain is hated in the fandom because she’s a traditional female character; it’s the fact that arguments in the Elriel fandom deflect a critical analysis of Elain’s character because she’s a traditional female character who embodies the ideal white woman in need of protection. White fans and white-aligned fans of color, especially white women, have a tendency to vehemently defend, gatekeep, and coddle white female characters in fandom; this makes it difficult for other fans to engage in critical discussions about these white female characters because they’re viewed as flawless and all around perfect characters despite evidence to the contrary. Since Elain is viewed positively by the other characters in the series, it has rendered her character untouchable to any perceived slight or criticism in fandom discussions because those negative opinions challenge what has been said about her character thus far. And as a result, her character has been placed on a pedestal and implicitly hailed as the epitome of white womanhood; and when she’s criticized, it’s seen as a direct attack against white womanhood. Arguments in the Elriel fandom: exploit feminist language and perpetuate white feminist tactics under the guise of defending Elain’s character; center Elain in conversations about female oppression in the ACOTAR world and uphold white feminist ideologies in their critique of ACOTAR’s patriarchal society; and use the fragile white woman narrative to victimize Elain in Lucien’s presence, playing into racial biases that are associated with white supremacy’s defense of white womanhood.

Feminism is a social movement that seeks to promote equality and equity to all genders, and feminists work toward eradicating gender disparities on a macro-level, in addition to challenging gender biases on a micro-level. As feminism became more mainstream, a flat and oversimplified version of feminism emerged: mainstream feminism. The mainstream feminist movement is meant to represent all women, but rarely does it center conversations around issues that concern most women. The problem with mainstream feminism is that it’s just a popularized version of white feminism. White feminism has relied extensively on an individualized understanding of women’s oppression, exclusively from the lens of privileged white women. White feminism only focuses on the oppression experienced by white, able-bodied, affluent, educated, cishet women; and it views gender as the key mode of privileged white women’s oppression, isolated from the privileges granted by their other social identities. White women can be and are oppressed under the patriarchy but only because they are women; their identity as women does not exempt them from the privileges granted by their whiteness. The term white feminist does not mean any feminist who is white, but refers to feminists who prioritize the concerns of privileged white women as though they are representative of all women. However, the term is not exclusive to white people. Because white feminism is so pervasive, people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds often buy into white feminism, believing that if they work hard enough, they may be able to reap its rewards.

Just like white feminism, mainstream feminism only recognizes the identity of being a woman, assumes that all women share common experiences of gender oppression, fails to address other social identities in relation to overlapping systems of oppression, and disregards privilege in relation to various social identities. Just like white feminism, mainstream feminism is palatable because it doesn’t seek to challenge the systems in place, instead its goal is to succeed within them. Essentially, mainstream feminism and white feminism are extensions of performative feminism. Performative feminism is a type of performative activism that’s used to describe feminist views that are surface level and solely for the benefit of one type of person. It’s a pretense which often has nothing to do with genuine activism. Arguments in the Elriel fandom normalize and promote performative feminism because the topic of feminism is only referenced when discussing Elain. This indicates that these arguments are engaging in disingenuous discourse to push a personal agenda within the ACOTAR fandom, and it becomes more apparent when they use white feminist tactics to shut down opposing viewpoints:

White feminists weaponize and exploit feminist language to silence the opinions of other women, especially when they’re called out for their problematic behaviors

White feminists use the phrase “Women supporting women” to defend other white feminists who exhibit problematic behaviors instead of holding them accountable

White feminists weaponize phrases like “Women supporting women” and “You just hate women” to attack other women who disagree with them on any given topic

White feminists use phrases like “All women face challenges” and “Stop pitting women against each other” to sidestep conversations about privilege

White feminists divert conversations away from privilege and towards the Trauma Olympics to equate their struggles to the oppression of marginalized people

White feminists skirt around the realities of other forms of oppression and discrimination, downplaying the experiences of marginalized people

White feminists diminish or ignore the ways in which gender oppression affects other marginalized people

White feminists paint those they harmed as aggressive, mean, or divisive when confronted with the ways they have harmed a marginalized group

White feminists deflect criticism by focusing on the anger or emotions being expressed rather than the issue that is being discussed, invalidating the concerns of marginalized people

White feminists speak over marginalized voices in an attempt to sound “woke”

White feminists get defensive and insist there’s no way they could be a part of the problem because of what they’ve done to help marginalized groups already

White feminists say they don’t see color in an attempt to obscure racial issues that need to be addressed

White feminists center and victimize themselves in conversations about racism, which derails necessary conversations from taking place

White feminists who are white weaponize the intersectionality of their race and gender to avoid accountability

Feminism is not meant to be approached from an individualistic perspective nor is it only about addressing the experiences of privileged white women, it involves addressing the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, and other social identities as well; and it involves addressing how these social identities relate to privilege. Moreover, feminism is not about women upholding complete loyalty to other women because of a shared gender identity, and to claim that it does implies that women should be held to different emotional standards than men. If men are able to dislike and criticize other individual men, real or fictional, without their characters being compromised, why aren’t women granted that same privilege?

It’s clear that SJM set up the ACOTAR world to mirror a patriarchal society, and that the imbalance of power between males and females stems from sexism. Arguments in the Elriel fandom analyze the ACOTAR world through a feminist lens to show how ACOTAR’s patriarchal society, to which the mating bond is innately tied, contributes to female oppression and limits their agency. When choice and free will are emphasized as part of Elain’s arc, they imply that Elain, through the mating bond, experiences female oppression under ACOTAR’s patriarchal society because of her identity as a female with that identity being the focal point of her oppression in the world. Elain is one of the most privileged characters in the ACOTAR world: she’s High Fae; she’s the sister of the High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court, which gives her access to wealth and political influence because of that connection; she’s able-bodied; she was magically blessed by the Cauldron; and she lives in Velaris, a place that grants females autonomy and power because of the beliefs of Rhysand and Feyre. Arguments in the Elriel fandom trivialize female oppression in the ACOTAR world because they disregard the fact that Elain’s privileges prevent her from experiencing female oppression in the same way that other marginalized females in the world do. The mating bond being one such example because those around Elain are not forcing the bond on her, instead they’re allowing Elain to reach a decision about the bond for herself; a privilege that other marginalized females in the world probably wouldn’t have. Just because Elain has endured hardships in her life and is a female in a patriarchal society, they do not erase the privileges she holds within the ACOTAR world. The failure to include Elain’s privileges in discussions about Elain being a female in a patriarchal society feeds into white feminist ideologies because white feminism operates from a very narrow perspective; it doesn’t take other intersecting identities into account when it examines gender oppression, leaving no room for discussions about privilege (or lack thereof) in relation to those intersecting identities. When discussing oppression in hierarchical societies, it’s imperative that privilege is also included in the conversation because privilege and oppression are not mutually exclusive; they equally affect the ways in which people navigate those societies through their social identities.

Rather than attributing Elain’s uncomfortability to her new life as a Fae female or the mating bond itself and her trauma to the Cauldron, the King of Hybern, or Ianthe, they’re placed on Lucien to cast his character in a negative light. Moreover, fandom discussions portray Lucien as a possessive character to further emphasize Elain’s discomfort despite the inaccuracy of this characterization in canon. Arguments in the Elriel fandom play into racial biases when it comes to Lucien (a male character of color) because they mischaracterize his character in order to victimize Elain (a white female character), placing her character in the role of the white damsel in distress. In Western society, the concept of womanhood has been conceptualized from a Eurocentric perspective with femininity and feminine attributes favoring white women. It’s the idea that a certain type of femininity is only inherent to white women as they are seen as the embodiment of an ideal womanhood. White womanhood has been a symbol of innocence and purity, and white women have been viewed as fragile beings in need of protection. The reason white womanhood functions within white supremacy is because it’s the same idea that has motivated white men to kill and beat black and brown men. The so-called protection of white women has been used as a justification for the horrific violence committed by white men because black and brown men were stereotyped as aggressive and seen as a threat to the virtue of white women. The white damsel in distress trope considered white women as worthy of protection because of their perceived innocence and purity; women of color were not granted that same treatment because they did not fit into the ideal image of womanhood. Over the years, this trope became a means for white women to exercise limited power in a patriarchal society with white women weaponizing their status as the damsel much to the detriment of black and brown men. It’s through the white damsel in distress trope that white supremacy sustains its dominance in Western society. The misrepresentation of characters of color in fandom, the dismissal of their importance to the overall story, and using them as tools in arguments centered around white characters are the foundation of fandom racism; they’re examples of how racism moves silently in fandom spaces. Instead of examining their behavior and taking constructive criticism from fans of color, white fans will often double down on their bigotry and center their uncomfortability in the conversation when confronted with their complicity in fandom racism. White fans expect fans of color to swallow fandom racism in its many forms in order to not ruin the experience of fandom, dismissing the fact that racism is prevalent in nearly every aspect of society. This mentality ensures that no one is held accountable for the harm they caused and alienates fans of color in fandom spaces.

To reiterate what I mentioned in my first think piece: terms like “oppression”, “the right to choose”, “feminist”, “feminism”, “anti-feminist”, “anti-feminism”, “internalized misogyny”, “misogyny”, “misogynist”, “sexist”, “sexism”, “racist”, “racism”, “classist”, “classism”, “discrimination”, and “patriarchy” are all used in specific ways to draw attention to the plight of marginalized people and challenge those who deny the existence of systems of oppression. Yet these words and their meanings can be twisted to attack, exclude, and invalidate people with differing opinions on any given topic. When social justice and feminist terms are thrown around antagonistically and carelessly to push a personal agenda, it becomes clear that these terms are being used to engage in disingenuous discourse and pursue personal validation rather than being used out of any deep-seated conviction to dismantle systemic oppression. Being an ally, activist, or feminist is not an identity, it’s a practice. It requires: ongoing self-reflection; holding ourselves accountable; listening to marginalized people; educating ourselves; dismantling implicit biases; challenging those around us who are exhibiting problematic behaviors; and action behind our words.

It’s important to be aware of the language that is used within the fandom when defending or critiquing characters and ships. It’s also important to question how an argument is framed and why it’s framed the way that it is to critically examine the intent behind that argument: is it used as a tool to push a personal agenda that reinforces problematic behaviors, or is it used as an opportunity to share, learn, enlighten, and educate?

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Tagging: @spell-cleavers @bookofmirth @m0bulidae @ilya-boltagon

#elain archeron #elriel #acotar fandom #acotar: fandom critical

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levi-ships-eruri · 4 years ago

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Levi Ackerman NSFW Alphabet

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

Levi is a cleanliness freak and after a few moments of holding you and making sure that you are okay, he would get up and change the sheets. Means, you have to get up, too. And while you are up, you should go and take a shower. He will join you there and MAYBE this will lead to a second round. However, he will definitely make sure you are alright, clean, and safe. And tbh, there is no better feeling than going back to bed with Levi and cuddle into the fresh sheets.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Levi is quite confident about his body despite his height. On himself, he especially likes his hands and his long, slender, and calloused fingers. They are quite aestethic and he knows how to use them on you, reaching places inside you that your own fingers cannot reach. However, these hands are also shed in blood. Therefore he loves to see that his hands can also be soft and caring on your body, and bring pleasure instead of death.

On you, Levi is definitely an ass and thigh kind of guy. But his favourite body part of you is your face: eyes, lips, nose, jawline... He loves when you glance over to him from the other side of the room, a little smile on your lips. He loves the blush tinting your cheeks. He loves the soft look in your eyes when you tell him that you love him. He loves to see you let loose when you come on him.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

Levi HATES to make a mess. So when he comes, he comes inside of you. He also thinks this is quite intimate and therefore likes it (plus, secretly thinking he is marking you. Boy sometimes is insecure). When it comes to oral, he wouldn’t force you to swallow. If you wanna spit it out, he would hand you a tissue. Same if something drips out of your mouth because sometimes he comes A LOT.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Levi is pretty vocal about sex and wouldn’t hide something from you, not even the awkward first-time-stories. But there is one thing he is shy talking about... he is not one to share his partner. EXCEPT for the two persons he trusts the most: Hanji and Erwin. Levi caught himself thinking about a threesome with his partner and one of them (or...a foursome...no too much trouble), but he would not dare to bring it up. He would be super embarassed if Erwin turned down the idea and he wouldn’t want Hanji to tell everybody or to brag about it (they would do this, let’s be honest).

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

Levi is over 30 years old, so he had gathered some experience. He started in the underworld, not necessarily because of need, but because he thinks it is something he is...supposed to do? Something that was normal for people to do? Later he also had sex when he needed to release some anger, and only later started to really enjoy it and to think about what techniques would please his partner. So, when the two of you start having sex, this guy knows what he does and is willing to learn everything about you and your preferations.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

Doggy: He loves to push you down, a hand between your shoulders, your ass up in the air, pounding into you.

Missonary: Levi is a broken man and he loves to hold you close to him and bury his face into the crock of your neck.

Sitting: Both of you sitting, your legs wrapped around him, bodies closely pressed together, hand and lips everywhere they can reach. It is the most intimate position for the really emotional times.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? Are they humorous? etc.)

Levi is pretty serious in the bedroom, but he will make cocky remarks and smile a lot (sometimes also cocky, sometimes soft). Sometimes you will break out laughing because he cannot shut his shitmouth and will say something downright ridiculous.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? Does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

His hair down there is dark as well and neatly groomed, maybe even completely shaved. He is aware that bodyhair does not have anything to do with bad hygene, but he just feels better shaved or groomed. Levi’s body hair (and facial hair) also takes a lot of time to grow due to his time in the underground, but in this case it is rather beneficial for him.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

Levi is super intimate. Not necessarily overly romantic, but intimate. This is something between you and him, something special. So unless it is a quicky during stressful times, he will take his time and make sure that both of you feel good and loved. Often having sex with him is the closest you ever feel to him because Levi can show his affection better by acts than by words. Afterwards you sometimes have the deepest conversations.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

Levi’s sex drive is not the highest and he has no problem with not jerking off for a while. When he feels the need to do it, he will do it during his super effective shower sessions because this way it wouldn’t make a mess.

However, when he is in a relationship, his longing gets stronger. If he cannot see you for some time or if the two of you just cannot find any time for the do, he will have a frustrating jack-off session, which only causes his need for you to grow.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

Captain Kink: Levi likes to take the dominant part. He likes to hear you call him Heichou in bed, but not too often (he loves his name from your lips even more).

Bondage: Levi loves to tie you up and make you squirm beneath him. Orgasm denial is not a real kink of him, BUT he will do it all the time when you are tied up. When he gives you oral in this state, you can be sure it will take at least AN HOUR before he lets you cum.

Stockings: Since he is a leg guy, he enjoys seeing you wearing stockings. And he wouldn’t admit, but seeing you taking on your boots and gear the next morning is a huge turn on for him. He cannot wait to take them off again in th evening.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

His bed or the floor of his room, where he has control over the mess the two of you make.

His desk. It will make much more of a mess and will make a chaos out of his paperwork, but he is a sucker for the view of you sprawled out on his desk.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

Levi is actually pretty hard to seduce, which makes flirting with him really hard. He notices the flirting, of course, but is good at ignoring it. As already mentioned, he gets pretty turned on when you get dressed into your boots and gear.

Whenyou spend the day apart from eachother, glancing at each other from a distance, waiting for the night to finally come.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Degrading: Apart from public belief, Levi would NEVER degrade you because he hates being degraded so much. His whole life has been a pain so far, so why should he take this into the bedroom, where he just wants to show his partner his love?

He would also not hurt you. Maybe a few spanks or some very light choking and hair pulling, but he would never ever hurt you in any way. Same reason as above.

Don’t. Call. Him. Daddy. He thinks this is super weird. Just stay with his name or Heichou/Captain.

Anything including piss or feces. Just no.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

Levi highly enjoys receiving oral, especially when he is sitting and you on your knees in fron of him. When you blow him, he will finally let loose and you can see his face slightly being tinted red, eyes closed, lips a little apart. His hand will be in your hair all the time and towards the end he cannot hold back and will thrust into your mouth once or twice. His low grunts get a little more high pitched when you run your tongue around his tip.

But Levi is also pretty talented in giving. As mentioned before, he likes to tease you with his mouth, loving the feeling of you squirming beneath him. Be prepared for a lot of edging, cause that little gremlin is a sucker for your desperate moans.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

Levi is a little more on the rougher side. His thrusts are deep and strong, his pace rather “average” at the start, but he gets faster in the course of the act. If the two of you have some time, he will vary his rhythm, from slow and sensual to fast and strong, and back again. Quickies will be, as the name suggest, as quick as possible.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

Oh, talking about quickies: If you are in a relationship with Levi or anything like this, quickies will happen very often. He is a busy man und you most likely will also be part of the survey corps, so you need to use every little space of time you can get. This often results in steamy sessions in the forest against a tree, or a more private session in his office.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

So, semi public sex, like in the forest, is a thing. But he would always make sure to not get caught, especially not by some cadets.

Apart from that, he is pretty open in bed. Tell him what you would like to try and he will most likely agree, as long as it is nothing from his no go list. If he picks up something new (thanks to Hanji most probably) he will also not shy away from bringing it up and ask you about it.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

Oh boi, we are talking about Levi. When the two of you have a whole night, you have to be the one to stop him at some point - for your own sake. Levi can go for several rounds, even the whole night and this can easily be too much for someone without special power.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

So let’s imagine a more modern setting, because I think there are no sex toys in our common sense on Paradise Island. In a modern world, Levi would definitely get and try out some sex toys, especially vibrators which he could use on his partner. He would also be a little curious to try them out on himself, but he rather uses them for teasing you. He would have like 2 or 3 items, not too much, not too fancy.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Ohhh, be prepared for a lot of teasing. Levi enjoys to have a little power over you and your pleasure, and he will make use of it. He is especially unfair when it comes to oral, holding your hips in place while he is taking is sweet time to pleasure you. It drives you mad and this man has a lot of patience.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

Levi is not really loud, but his soft little grunts and moans are like music. He only gets a little louder when you tease him while giving him head, but he will also scold you for it. That shitmouth. Otherwise, you will hear him whisper “fuck” and “shit” while he is pounding into you and coming close to his climax.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

Levi is quite curious when it comes to new techniques. Soon after joining the squad, he discovers that Hanji has quite an interesting collection of books with...a lot of explanations and images. So one day, he asks them to borrow some of these books to study them. But before, he threatens Hanji with death if they tell anyone.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

Have you seen Levi’s season 4 arts? This man is packed, damn. Errected I would say he is between 7′0 and 8′0. So Levi’s dick is pretty average in girth, but long. He knows how to use it as good as he uses his swords.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

Levi’s sex drive is pretty low, since he is not a horny teen anymore. Of course, he feels the need from time to time, but he can pretty good control himself. When he is in a relationship, however, his sex drive will grow a lot, since it is one of the ways of showing you how much he loves you. If the two of you have time, you will easily have sex 3 or 4 times a week.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Levi only sleeps 3 hours per night, and this will not change after sex. He often holds you until you are asleep and gets up afterwards, to either sleep at his desk or do some paperworks. He will, however, make sure to be back in bed when you wake up.

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littlespoonevan · 3 years ago

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kinda new here so idk if you've answered this before but what's your hc for Eddie's sexuality do you think he's gay/bi/unlabeled etc and why you don't have to explain why if you don't want to but I'm nosey and would like to see your thought process if you feel like it

hey bud! i actually don't think i've ever answered this before!

so my natural reaction upon watching the show and shipping eddie with buck romantically was to consider eddie to be bi. and i do think if we ever get any sort of canon confirmation of his sexuality (that isn't straight) it would be that he's bi.

however over the last couple of months the more i've thought about it (and the more fics i've read about it), i really, really like the idea of eddie being demisexual. i know people have varying opinions re: shannon but i absolutely believe he loved her and i never once questioned that watching the show tbh.

the fact that he loved her doesn't negate that he probably proposed out of a sense of obligation (or bc of pressure from his parents) and that one of his biggest reasons for agreeing to let her back into his and christopher's lives was because of what he believed a family should like. like as far as i'm concerned, all of that can still be true without taking away the feelings he had for her at one point, y'know?

i think, for all that eddie is a very affable and charming person, i could definitely imagine that he struggles to let people in and/or open himself up to the possibility of romantic attraction unless he has a strong emotional bond with someone (hence why it was easy to fall into bed with shannon the second time around). it's something we've seen in his platonic relationships so i think it's not difficult to make the leap it might apply even more strongly to his romantic ones.

even the way he talks about ana in 5x02 supports this headcanon for me, y'know the whole 'she's the first woman i've wanted to spend time with since shannon' thing. it's a very telling way of describing her value to him. that it's difficult for him to want to be around someone that much and it feels significant for him that he likes spending time with her

(again, i definitely believe whatever fleeting feelings he's had for her have dwindled to pretty much nothing by now and it's obvious there's a huge disconnect between them but we're clearly seeing another example here of him trying to construct the family he feels christopher deserves rather than the one he wants)

overall i feel like when i consider how i view eddie as a person and the way he acts and reacts to things and the connections he has on the show, it's just the one that fits the best for me :')

#anon #asks #911 related #(am i also maybe possibly projecting just a tad?)#(probably lmao)

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the-purity-pen · 4 years ago

Text

PTC: part v

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x Fem!Reader

gif by @pascalsky

Word Count: 2,312

Rating: PG

Warnings: sweet moments, little bit of angst.

A/N: here’s the next part! some reveals. did you guess correctly? @creativekat and i are having a blast writing this and we really do love this story and these characters!

Series Masterlist

You looked around the large rented ballroom and shook your head nervously. You had brought up the idea of taking the kids out on field trips to facilitate their learning and the Heroics school board had decided to hold a fundraiser to help take this from an idea to reality. You hadn’t imagined that they might opt to raise said funds by auctioning off dates with the Heroics themselves. Since the event would be opened to the public, it couldn’t be held at HQ (a logistical nightmare) so a local Events Center had been the next best option. Now, as you watched the room beginning to fill with people you could see why. This was, apparently, the event of the century.

Soft classical music was being piped in from speakers in the corners of the room as people mingled, getting drinks from the bar. Your students were all wearing black outfits and acting as greeters and coat-checkers so the gathering masses would see just who their money would be helping. You quickly realized, for some here, it wouldn’t matter where the money was going. A night on the town with one of the Heroics was a hot commodity.

Glancing over at Marcus, surrounded by half a dozen women, you understood the appeal. The urge to go over and rescue him from his adoring fans was strong, but you couldn’t do that. For one thing, as the teacher of his daughter and the other Heroics’ kids it was inappropriate. For another thing, you’d spotted your brother in the crowd and you just knew he’d have an opinion on your feelings for Marcus Moreno and you just didn’t want to hear it.

Wearing a suit and tie was really nothing new but wearing it that evening made Marcus super uncomfortable. Not that the women who were flocked to him would have complained. A few of them tried chatting him up casually but there were a few making comments about what their ideal date night would consist of. One of them even tried slipping him actual cash to try to rig the auction.

Marcus shook his head with a forced polite smile as he got more uncomfortable until his gaze looked out and found you. “Ladies, I have to go do my part in helping set up,” he explained with a slight lie as he gently pushed through them and walked over to you. His smile changed from forced to nervous as he approached you and leaned in to speak to you.

“What else is left to set up? Please tell me there’s something so I can keep myself busy,” he added with a soft chuckle as his eyes did a very quick, brief scan over your scan to take in your outfit. “You look beautiful by the way,” he commented quietly as he attempted a smile at you.

At his compliment you couldn’t help the heat that rushed to your face. You didn’t feel beautiful most of the time. Cute, sure. But beautiful? No. But, if Marcus Moreno was saying it maybe you needed to believe it. You shook off the exhilaration of the moment to focus on what he was asking. “Ummm, do you want to add the raspberry sorbet to the punch?”

The two of you walked to the end of the table where several pints of fruit-flavored frozen goodness had been softening and you handed him an ice cream scoop with a smile, “Thank you.” You giggled before adding quietly, “You look really good yourself. I’m sure you’ll bring in a lot of money.” You were surprised when Marcus blushed. A little thrill shocked your spine realizing you were the cause.

Missy cleared her throat getting the attention of you and her father, “We��re done getting all the coats hung up. We were wondering if we could get some snacks?” Marcus looked at you for the answer since you were the one in charge for this event. Nodding, you said, “You guys have done more than enough. You’ve earned a break.”

As she walked away, Marcus leaned closer, asking, “Are you going to bid on me?” His smile nearly melted you.

With a nervous laugh, you replied, “I don’t think that would be a good idea.” Marcus’ brows knit together in a frown as he scooped some of the sorbet into the punch bowl, watching it fizz as the softened dessert melted more into the liquid.

“Why’s that?” he asked, trying to conceal the slight disappointment in his voice. He was excited to participate in something that would help raise money for Missy and her friends and the school but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t see this as an opportunity to finally have you on a date night with him.

Just then, a clearing of a throat and a slap to Marcus’ shoulder caused both of your attention to break from one another. “Well, well, well,” Miracle Guy’s voice broke your concentration on Marcus and caused you to turn to look at him. You forced a smile as the blond male continued talking, “Looks like we’ll be in some pretty heavy competition tonight huh Marcus?”

The question seemed playful in nature but Marcus, and you, knew better. Any chance that Steven could show up Marcus, he would absolutely try to. You shook your head slightly and went to the other end of the table, suddenly feeling tension in your shoulders.

You absent-mindedly straightened a stack of napkins that were already pristine and watched as the two men finished their conversation. Was it too much to hope Steven wouldn’t press the subject with you? You watched as Marcus handled the other Heroic smoothly, then Miracle Guy, also known as your older brother Steven, approached you. Again, you molded a wobbly smile onto your face.

“How’ve you been?” The question was ignored as Steve glanced around before casting his imperious gaze on you.

“So, are you and Marcus Moreno going out now?” He said the other man’s name through clenched teeth.

With a shrug you replied, “No. What gave you that idea? Why would you think that?” Inwardly you cringed. You were never very good at hiding your feelings.

Steven picked up a small plate and helped himself to a couple slices of cheese, “I overheard the kids talking. Wheels seemed to think you were interested.” He popped some gouda into his mouth and then, “I just don’t want you to get hurt… and getting your hopes up that a Heroic like Marcus would… well, I’m just worried he’ll get bored, that’s all. I’m looking out for you.”

You scoffed. The way your fists clenched around the napkin you were currently holding, crumpling it should have been a sign that you wanted to punch your brother for being so rude. The guy hadn’t even had a serious relationship and yet he still managed to have a son by a woman he so-called loved. What did he know about love or relationships or even what it was like to be with you in a relationship? He had no right.

His name was called across the room and he gave you a pitiful smile. Your nostrils flared, trying to calm yourself before Miranda came up to remind you that it was just about time to start. You nodded, thankful that she had broken your frustration towards your brother. You walked with her towards one of the front tables as she kept walking to get onto the stage and welcome everyone to the event.

Marcus had watched as you and Miracle Guy talked, narrowing his eyes when you clearly got agitated. But, then Miranda had interrupted and the blonde hero had walked toward the stage. He yearned to go to you and take your hand, to make sure you were okay, but the event was starting and he had to join the other Heroics at the table reserved for them.

Miranda introduced the emcee for the evening, a local newscaster, and joined you at your table while the rules of the date auction were explained. Reaching across the table, she grabbed an open bottle of red wine pouring two glasses, “You look like you could use a drink.” She knew your family history, since she’d been on the interview committee when you’d gotten hired and you appreciated her support now.

Taking the glass, you smiled, “I shouldn’t let him get to me. I’ll be fine.” You glanced over at the Heroics table and saw Marcus looking at you. He smiled and you couldn’t help but smile in return, your heart fluttering in your chest. Your attention was again diverted when you heard the emcee announcing that Miracle Guy had pulled in $870 for the school and then Marcus’ name was being announced. Your stomach turned while the women around you all cheered wildly. You felt jealous of whoever won this date and watched Marcus walk up to the stage.

Marcus fiddled with his tie as he made his way onto the stage. His face felt hot even before he stepped under the hot stage lights. The cheering and hollering didn’t quiet down until the emcee shushed the crowd at least four more times. Marcus was smiling but he felt his palms get a bit sweaty. For a man who was constantly in the news saving the world, being in front of a crowd to be auctioned off for a date seemed to make him nervous.

His eyes squinted as he adjusted to the light and when he scanned the room, his eyes landed on you for a long moment. His breath caught in his throat, secretly hoping that you would bet on a date with him. Everything in his mind was trying to telepathically tell you to bid.

The emcee barely got his words out to start the bidding before the first few hands rose up, shouting $100, then $150 and $200 in rapid succession. There was a murmur of giggles and whistles as the emcee shouted out the bid numbers and kept trying to explain what a date night with Marcus would entail.

Your eyes couldn’t leave Marcus even after he had caught your gaze a few times. Your heart was hammering as you thought about the real possibility of someone else going on a date with him. The bids had gotten up to $700 and it was down to two people. Both of the women in question had been acting especially thirsty when talking to Marcus earlier.

Throwing caution to the wind, you raised your hand, “$750!” Every eye in the room seemed to turn in your direction with varying reactions. Miranda’s eyebrows shot up, but she grinned at you. The two other bidders glared in your direction. Your students all shared happy grins (especially Missy and Wheels). Steven looked disappointed and aggrieved. But, the only person who mattered to you in that moment was Marcus and he looked relieved and happy, a wide grin forming on his face.

There was some more bidding back and forth while you did math in your head trying to figure out how much you could actually afford. You really didn’t want to lose this. Finally, you bid $1390 and everyone in the room waited to see if either of the other two women would raise the stakes yet again. Finally, the emcee announced, “At $1390, the highest bid of the night so far, a date with Marcus Moreno to the lady at Table 4!”

Breathlessly you leaned back in your seat then gasped, “Oh my God… what did I do?” Marcus was just as breathless as he heard the applause and watched your face as he finally stepped down from the stage.

As he approached your table all eyes were on him and subsequently, you. He stood in front of you, towering over your sitting frame and you audibly gulped at the impressive broadness of him. "So a date it is," he said quietly as he sat down in the chair next to you.

His heart was hammering as he placed his hand over yours and patted it gently before looking back to the stage to see Mrs. Vox coming onto the stage to be bid on.

Off to the side, Steven was furrowing his brow at you and Marcus, trying to see if he could study what your lips were saying to each other. His nostrils flared slightly as seeing how relaxed and comfortable Marcus was around you. Almost as if you had been together already.

You could feel your brother’s eyes on you, and you were sure he suspected you’d lied to him about your relationship with Marcus earlier, but you ignored his glares. You had bigger things to worry about right now. Like the fact that you’d just paid an overwhelming amount of money to go on a date with the parent of one of your students. You’d never crossed the line like that before and the fact that you’d done it this time had you reeling.

Not to mention the fact that he was a Heroic! Growing up powerless in a family full of superpowered people had always made you feel like an outsider in your own home. And they hadn’t done anything to dissuade you of that notion. If anything they’d made it worse, amplifying the sense of inadequacy you’d experienced.

Glancing over at Missy, who was trying to hide an enormous grin, you remembered the talk you’d had with Marcus at the Parent/Teacher Conference. She was, essentially in the same place you’d been back then. But, Marcus made her feel loved and accepted for who she was. As you moved your gaze away from your students your eyes met Steven’s and you gave him a determined tilt of your chin before turning back to Marcus.

Leaning forward you whispered, “I can’t wait.” Then kissed him on the cheek.

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maxwell-grant · 3 years ago

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Charlie Chan. Who is fascinating, because he was created explictly to be an anti-Yellow Peril character. Unlike most Chinese characters of the time, he's both intelligent, physically capable, and unambiguously heroic. In the novels, he's simultaneously proud of being Chinese AND proud of being an American citizen. He gives orders and instructions to white people, and the narrative treats this as perfectly normal and acceptable. There's a bit in the first book, when an attempt to trap the..(1/2)

(cont'd)There's a bit in the first book where an attempt to trap the protagonist fails, because a message supposedly from Charlie clearly isn't because Charlie's English isn't broken, it's like poetry. Etc. The movies made him more stereotypical, & played by white actors in yellowface, but still, he's a heroic Chinese man, who is as capable and patriotic as any white man. Nowadays, he's thought of as racist caricature. Which he is, but still, it makes one think.

I'm not nearly as acquainted with Charlie Chan as you are (and I definitely suspected he was less racist in the original books because that's nearly always the norm when it comes to pulp characters) but yeah, that "Which he is" is forever going to be the most unfortunate and saddest part of it all when it comes to Charlie Chan. For all the virtues that can be bestowed on Charlie Chan, for everything great that the character had going for him and inspired, the fact that the least offensive image of the character I could find to put here for illustration's sake is from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon kinda exemplifies the big elephant in the room when it comes to Charlie.

Charlie Chan is a great example of two things: One is the way progress is never a fixed quantity and often what was progressive and forward-thinking in it's time can become something outdated and backwards and downright offensive given enough time, and the 2nd is my constant stressing that this is all the more incentive to reclaim the pulps and either highlight or fix aspects of them, instead of dismissing every aspect of them based on the preconception that everything about it's history is unforgivably bigoted and must be handled with the nuance of a sledgehammer.

I stress time and time again the need to highlight and understand the prejudices that went into pulps, because either ignoring them or wielding them as a weapon to attack them does no favors to anyone. The pulps weren't exceptionally bigoted - look at literally any medium in it's time period and you'll find bigotry and prejudice and hatred - and they were exceptional in the number of POC heroes and heroines. Pulps were a medium of experimentation and cheap entertainment that gave way to much, much more varied kinds of protagonists than were permitted in films, serials, novels, comics and radio serials of the day. Imagine if no one was allowed to bring up and discuss superheroes without mentioning the Superman Slap-a-Jap posters or the Captain Marvel story so horrifingly racist it was recounted by an American ambassador after it deeply offended a friend's son and a major influence on the 1950s anti-comic trials. "Pulp fiction had deeply, unforgivingly racist depictions that deserve intense scrutiny and cannot be ignored" and "Pulp fiction was significantly ahead of every other medium at the time in regards to authors and editors striving to publish stories about heroic POCs, this cannot be dismissed and is something that needs to be perpetuated" are not exclusive facts. "A product of it's time" is not an excuse and never was, but it's a fact nevertheless.

Every time someone speaks favorably of Charlie Chan in any capacity, they have to start with a long preface of everything positive that the character had going for him. Yes, he's a deliberate subversion of the Yellow Peril, he's a heroic protagonist, he's plump and good-natured and humorous but far from a joke, he's friendly and pleasant and well-educated and wise, he's a good dad and family man and a terrifically sharp detective who's so good at his job he gets called to solve crimes all over the world, and none of these traits are apparent to people who have to google the character and repeteadly see a white man in awful make-up into every single image of the character, who watch the movies and cringe at the broken English. It's hardly relevant in the face of all the Asian-American critics who acknowledge the character's virtues but rightfully point out that this fortune-cookie spouting caricature, acting subservient to whites and whose virtues are based around his proximity to a white American ideal, doesn't represent them and they shouldn't pretend it does.

Which isn't to say that to like Charlie Chan is "wrong", a lot of East Asians love Charlie and the character's obviously got fans in Asian Americans. It's a complicated subject and I obviously cannot begin to vouch in a subject so heavily based around perceptions I cannot experience. And I deeply detest the idea of speaking for others on their particular experiences on this kind of matter, which is something Americans do a lot everytime they talk about representation in media.

So instead, I'm going to tackle this on a roundabout manner by going on an unrelated tangent to bring up an example of representation that isn't quite representative of what it's supposed to be, has a lot of issues that have been dissected by critics among the people it was supposed to represent, and none of that stopped the character from being popular and beloved and from being claimed anyway. And it's a Brazilian fighting game character, which means it's completely within my ballpark.

Yeah, obviously Blanka doesn't look like anyone who lives in Brazil (whatever resemblance he bears to redheaded jungle protectors of Brazilian folklore is purely accidental). Obviously neither Jimmy nor Blanka are Brazilian names or even exist in the Portuguese lexicon. Obviously there are issues in Street Fighter's approach to representation across the board, sure, and I'd actually say Laura is much worse than Blanka in that regard (again, my opinion, obviously not universal), but the fact remains that Blanka is and has always been pretty controversial. Obviously there's Brazilians who took offense to Blanka and they weren't wrong to do so, and I obviously do not speak for everyone here, that goes without saying.

Obviously the idea that Brazil's major representative in a global cast of characters, the first big name Brazilian character in videogames, is going to be a freakish jungle monster who roars and bites faces has problems, as is the fact that all the others get to be regular people representing fighting styles from their countries while Blanka doesn't. None of the Brazilian SF characters represent Capoeira, which is kinda shitty to be honest. And there's a whole stereotype of Brazil as a backwards land of beasts and savages that Blanka's creation played into. There's no shortage of ground to criticize Blanka's representation and Ono actually apologized in an interview once, but then he learned one teensy little thing:

Street Fighter is very popular on Brazil. Would you like to leave a message to the fans from there?

"Ono: Yes, I'm aware. At the time of Street Fighter II a lot of the arcade machines produced went there, so I knew we had lots of fans there. A message to Brazilians, well, I'd like to apologize. I know Blanka's a weird character and I don't want any Brazilian to feel uncomfortable with that.

When Blanka was conceived, we knew there were forests in Brazil, and so we thought he could look like that. I was actually kinda nervous knowing I'd meet Brazilian journalists. Still, this is the first Street Fighter in ten years, so we'd like all fans to play, including Brazilians, which are many.

Thanks. Well, but you should know that Brazilians love Blanka

"Ono: Ah, good! I was scared of getting beat up if I ever went to São Paulo! (laughs)"

(That's from a 2012 tv special called The Greatest Brazilian of All Time where over a million viewers voted to elect whoever they wanted, and Blanka was going to win. He was polling ahead of Aryton Senna and PELÉ, fucking Pelé, yes this happened. He wasn't even disqualified for being a cartoon character, it was an open poll, he was disqualified due to canon stating he had been born in Thailand, which I think may have been retconned since then. Again, A MILLION BRAZILLIANS voted for this contest, and Blanka was going to win.)

Blanka is great and sweet and lovable, he made the best out of the incredible shitty hands fate dealt him and became a cool and strong green man who shoots lightning and flies, a self-taught warrior who rides whales and planes to fighting tournaments, and he loves his mom and friends and kicks ass and after he's done he dances in joy and gives the kids of his village piggyback rides, and Brazil loves him. He doesn't represent any existing person or fighting style, he's rooted in a negative stereotype and incorrect assumptions, he's not even really Brazilian, and he's our boy and nobody can take him away from us.

No criticism of Blanka, no matter how in-depth or even right it is, is ever going to affect that, because regardless of what was wrong or misguided and offensive about him, we claimed him and loved him so throughly that Capcom kept playing up Brazilian representation in every subsequent game post Alpha, and because of Blanka's impact and reception in such a big game, Brazilian characters have become a staple of fighting games, and that's how we got much more diverse representatives in those games. Fighting games have more Brazilian representation than LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE on media not produced here. It started as BAD representation, with way less thought put into it than Charlie Chan, and it still mattered to a lot of Brazilians who reclaimed it and made it better than it was ever intended to be, and as a response to it, it gradually became better.

Progress is not a fixed quantity, it's an uphill battle, and it's not unwinnable. Everything's gotta start somewhere.

The Good Asian is a ongoing comic that I think does the best job I've seen yet of handling an Asian American detective protagonist, which is not really a high bar in the first place, and more to the point, The Good Asian illustrates the 2nd part: the reclaiming. The Good Asian deals a lot with the realities that a 1930s Asian-American detective would run into, the strained circumstances and relationships between said character and the world around him, because it's born from an author who took a look at Charlie Chan and Mr Moto and the like and recognized the potential in those stories that could not be fulfilled in it's time period by the people writing said stories.

The Good Asian pays little reverence to Charlie Chan, but it acknowledges that it cannot exist without Charlie Chan, and it reclaims the Charlie Chan premise at the hands of someone more adequately equipped to tell a gripping story that goes places none of Charlie's contemporaries would ever go. Regardless of how good or bad of representation Charlie Chan was, Charlie Chan mattered and was beloved and inspired a better example for others to improve on or rebel against.

I desperately wish that I could google Charlie Chan without having to look at a guy in yellowface, and the ONLY way that's going to happen is if the character ever gets meaningfully brought back and reclaimed for good by people who can meaningfully tackle the character and present him as he should have always been presented.

And then, I imagine it would be a lot easier to show people on how swell Charlie really is. A true, positive role model and hero, who no longer has to look like a gross cartoon to be able to exist at all. Who can finally be what he was always meant to be, and always was deep down.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #charlie chan #detective fiction #the good asian #street fighter #blanka

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