#so on some level he probably DOES care about the sisters. but he's abusive and controlling to them. hes not safe for them

[j0kb0x]

Since guts and blackpowder gives us free range for the characters here’s some personal headcanons for their personalities and lives given you can only psychoanalyze them so much. This is as realistic as I can make it based off surface level psychoanalysis + untrue garbage I made up.

Barry:

Despite his short temper (Typical brit) Williams is socially inept and shy. Like super timid. That dumb little softboy persona he has going on there shouldn’t be an indicator that he isn’t dangerous. Dude literally got trained as an infantry solider. He doesn’t want to hurt people, in fact, he avoids it when he can. The war is needless to him and he doesn’t understand why they’d draft someone like him — a lowly stableboy who’s quite known in his village for treating his horses and farm animals like his babies. His overly affectionate and polite personality (which came directly from his overbearing mother) has landed him a lot of bullying by his peers. Aforementioned hesitation to the enemy, but to zombies? He’s under the belief they’re from satan himself like the rest of the world. Afraid of them, but feels a spiritual duty to slay God’s enemies.

Jean:

He’s overly paranoid of Napoleon failing, and holds those french revolutionary beliefs. He wants Napoleon to win, so badly. He really doesn’t want his children living in a world with a stupid monarchy eating better than they do. Jean has no comprehension that maybe Napoleon isn’t the best fit for a country’s leader, in fact he’ll yell at you if you suggest otherwise. His wife died during childbirth and this, coupled with war has hardened him. He has never laid a single hand on his children because his father was deeply abusive, and of course this resulted in a pretty pessimistic, sad, depressed mess of a man. Constantly wanting better and yet fearing the worst. He’s a tough love kind of fatherly friend. Eat your damn rations or you will die. Speaking of which he literally wants to die :D

Jacob:

If this were modern day he’d be legally blind. His clumsiness isn’t the result of stupidity. The direct opposite in fact. He overthinks his job way too much and couple that with his dogshit eyesight, it’s no wonder he has a track record of being the napoleonic war’s personal south park Kenny. If ever a cartoon were made, I could l definitely see him in the background nailing in stakes incorrectly and getting confused as to why it wasn’t as affective as the other sapper’s. He has two sisters back at home and they hate him. They’re pro-monarchy, he isn’t. He raised and took care of these awful pieces of shit. Who were independent thinking teenagers by the time their parents died of sickness. So he couldn’t really influence them even if he tried. He has largely remained non(?) un(?) courted and unmarried his entire life. Hes a huge wine mom induced by stress and if you ever asked him why he never took a wife, he’d start spontaneously crying probably. Sad drunk. Cannot show emotions unless he’s drunk.

Karl / Unnamed Officer:

Selective mutism, ambition.. Way too much ambition. He wants to take down Napoleon himself and even fully believes he’s capable of doing so. Wants to cheat his way above the ranks somehow. He hides this and refuses to reveal his intentions to virtually anyone. Trying to get as close to the general as possible. Not because he agrees with the monarchy thing, but he just wants the fame and glory that comes along with executing him. The other men have horrible tempers but him? Holy. shit. He does not usually act upon his anger but as a wise man once said, “Silence speaks louder than words.” He silently judges those he’s angry at. Could imagine him getting teased, gripping a damn teacup so hard that it shatters in his hand and causes the entire room to go quiet. His whole regiment is batshit TERRIFIED of him. He refuses to betray his life story, let alone if he has any family. Nobody knows crap about him and that furthers the fear. Karl literally popped out of nowhere and his adorable babyface and gentle voice has won him the hearts of women wishing to be his wives… Whom he rudely pushed away in disgust. Has anyone seen that one scene in pootie tang where a woman is simping after him, and so he slips her a bowl of milk like a fucking clingy cat? Yeah I feel Karl would pull something like that.

[danlous]

I'm getting tired of hearing the sentiment that Louis doesn't care about Armand's trauma or have any sympathy for him. In the museum scene his expressions and body language were almost exactly similar to the scenes where Claudia and Lestat talk about their respective assaults. And in all these scenes he's mostly quiet. So does it mean Louis doesn't care about Claudia's or Lestat's traumas either? Of course not. It's just how he outwardly reacts in situations like this. He tends to shut down and doesn't know how to express his empathy and distress. Dreamstat represents Louis' hidden thoughts, but at the museum he's actually next to Louis listening quietly for the most of the scene. It's only at the end when Armand compares Marius, Magnus and Lestat to each other that dreamstat reacts angrily. And it's not mocking what happened to Armand, it's a manifestation of Louis' discomfort, him fearing that he's being manipulated and being uncomfortable that Lestat is brought up and that his relationship with Lestat is compared to Armand and Lestat's disturbing relationships with their own makers.

What Louis says to Armand in San Francisco is incredibly cruel. He's on drugs and extremely upset and intentionally trying come up with the most hurtful words he can think of, they both are. He very obviously deeply regrets it later. When he wakes up after the sun scene and remembers what he did and what kind of things he said before it he's ashamed and distressed. He's crying (though partially because of pain) and immediately tries to apologize to Armand and reach out for him. He's not angry when Armand leaves him in pain, probably thinking that he deserves it. When Armand later says "after what you put me through here i deserve this" Louis agrees. That's not someone who doesn't care or have empathy.

As often with Louis, i think the things he says to Armand are as much about Louis himself as they're about Armand. He sees himself in Daniel, and his entire speech to Claudia in 2.01 is directed also at himself, and he's projecting his own self-hatred and insecurities onto Armand. Louis fears that he is boring and dull. His husband repeatedly cheated on him and laughed in his face when Louis asked isn't he enough. During his depression years Lestat complained about Louis just reading and not leaving the house and how he was drawing Lestat into his gloom. He felt his sister-daughter was more interested in the theater and the coven than spending time with him. The coven mocked him and his passions and didn't find him that interesting after he stopped being a novelty. He was told that he didn't have much artistic talent. In the 70s his life seems to be repetitive and meaningless.

Louis subconsciously detests the qualities he recognizes in Armand that he recognizes and detests in himself - including being a victim. The interview was interrupted when Daniel criticized Louis for going back to Lestat and for his passivity and suicidal ideation. When he's fighting with Armand that all is on his mind. What he says about Armand's "daddy vampire grooming him into a little bitch" actually brings to my mind such scenes as how he derisively said in the second interview that he had become an unhappy housewife living with Lestat, and how dreamstat called him a "little whore". The shame of having experienced abuse and all the feelings of emasculation and degradation that came with it have never left him. Even in the second interview Louis firmly says to Daniel that he doesn't consider himself abused and that he isn't a victim. I don't think Louis consciously thinks that being abused makes someone a bad or weak person, but on some subconsious level he probably feels like that - at least if it's about himself. Again, in this same episode we see Louis acting like he deserves how Armand treats him after their fight and his suicide attempt

[chaehwa-archives]

friendly rivalry deep dive part 19

I’m now at the halfway point in this Friendly Rivalry rewatch project, and what a journey it’s been. To be honest, at the outset, I wasn’t sure how well FR would hold up, or how much this kind of in-depth analysis would pay off. I should have trusted my gut, though. This series is a gem. It’s rare for any piece of media to be made with this level of intention and complexity, and for a GL drama? Depends on how far you stretch the definition, but you can probably count them on one hand...with a missing finger or two.

I’ve been a little worried, though. I remember loving the first half of FR, and I remember loving Episodes 14-16, when the relationship between Jae-yi and Seul-gi takes center stage again. The episodes in between I mostly remember...being confused. Of course that was partly due to pre-Netflix era bad subtitle translation. We all know FR is complicated enough without having to decode every single line of dialogue.

Still I’m curious how I’ll feel about the second half this second time around. Is it as messy as I originally thought, or will the rewatch help things click into place?

So far I’m optimistic. Episode 9 is a gut punch after the whirlwind romance of Episode 8, but it might be one of my favorite episodes yet. In this post I’ll just cover the prologue concerning Je-na, and in Part 20 I’ll cover the rest.

Hopefully everyone reading this has seen the show and knows what you’re getting into with Je-na’s backstory. Just a heads up that we’ll be discussing a sexual relationship between a teacher and student, among other kinds of abuse, so brace yourself.

We’ve seen four prologues so far, one for each main character. All of them were hard to watch in their own way: Seul-gi faces bullying and addiction; Jae-yi loses the will to live under the weight of her father’s curse; Gyeong is cringe and needs to go to horny jail; Ye-ri is starved and neglected by her mother. But I’m calling it: Je-na’s backstory is the most brutal of them all. This poor girl. I am so upset.

Like the other prologues, Je-na’s is a kind of keyhole we can peek through to glimpse her private inner world. But it’s also a key. Je-na’s story illuminates the lives of the other cast members, and reveals a dark truth at the heart of Friendly Rivalry: as fucked up as Seul-gi, Jae-yi, Gyeong, and Ye-ri are, these girls are actually the lucky ones. 

The first scene revisits the violin bow incident we first witnessed in Episode 3, when Tae-joon forced Jae-yi to hit Je-na as punishment for failing to answer a math problem. Later in that episode, he found Jae-yi crying in bed and told his version of the Cain and Abel story, casting Je-na as Cain, the older sibling driven by murderous jealousy.

The very first thing we learn about Je-na in Episode 9 is that she is absolutely nothing like Cain. She doesn’t have a vengeful bone in her body. Je-na cares so little about being surpassed by her sister that she answers a question wrong *on purpose* just to protect her.

Je-na is a refutation of Tae-joon’s parable—her big heart doesn’t fit into his brutal world. But, as we’ll see, that heart isn’t enough to save her. In a loveless family where any sign of vulnerability is exploited, and in a society built by Tae-joons for other Tae-joons, her heart is a liability. 

There’s one interesting detail in this scene that’s easy to overlook. Seul-gi tells us in her narration that Je-na erases the correct answer because she chooses to get hit rather than hit her sister. But...wait. Je-na erases her answer *before* Tae-joon explains that one of the sisters will have to hit the other. How does she know?

The way the scene is shot, we can’t see the violin bow at first, but the whole time the girls are answering math problems, it’s sitting on the kitchen counter in front of Tae-joon. Je-na can see the violin bow and probably guesses that some kind of punishment is coming. And she knows her dad punishes failure. So she acts on a hunch, and her intuition is right.

This tiny scene communicates so much. Je-na is just as clever and observant as her father and sister, but her choices follow a different emotional logic. Tae-joon expects his daughters to act out of fear and self-preservation. Je-na acts out of love and self-sacrifice. Although he’s oblivious to it, Je-na understands her father here better than he understands her. She’s one step ahead of him, subverting the rules of his game before he even has a chance to explain them. In her own way, she’s a genius. But emotional intelligence means nothing to Tae-joon, who only senses weakness.

In the next scene, Tae-joon has already given up on Je-na. She isn’t ruthless enough to be molded into his perfect creation. He argues with his wife (they seem on the brink of a divorce, which is probably why we never see the mom around in the present day) and insists that if they split, he’s keeping Jae-yi. She’s the future of the hospital.

(Of course, if they do end up splitting—I think it’s implied later that they are living separately?—he keeps both kids. He needs both for his divide-and-conquer tactics to work.) Je-na overhears her parents arguing. Then, when Jae-yi wakes up and follows her into the hallway, Je-na covers her ears and hugs her. Jae-yi’s hand tightens on a table cover, and one of Tae-joon’s many awards—a trophy for surgical excellence—falls and strikes Je-na on the foot. She starts bleeding but doesn’t cry. Instead she helps her sister get ready for kindergarten.

My gawd this scene. Absolutely heartbreaking. And there’s just...so much to unpack.

Like the previous scene, Je-na is again doing her best to protect her little sister. And, once again, she gets hurt for it. This time, not only is she physically injured, but she also has to listen to her father tell her mother that he doesn’t want her. Despite the favoritism Tae-joon is showing Jae-yi, though, Je-na refuses to lash out at her sister. She doesn’t seek revenge for the physical or emotional wounds Jae-yi inflicts, either.

Because the award falling on her foot is clearly a metaphor for a different kind of injury. Je-na’s unending sacrifice for Jae-yi’s sake goes unrewarded. Jae-yi never returns her sister’s care or affection. It’s not malicious—she isn’t trying to hurt Je-na’s feelings. She’s a child and doesn’t know any better. But still...it hurts. It hurts when you hug your sister and she won’t even put her arms around you.

(In society, sacrifice like Je-na’s usually goes unacknowledged, too. We have awards for “excellence,” but there’s no trophy for taking care of your sibling in an abusive household, even though Je-na is more of a hero than her father will ever be.)

The trophy is a symbol for the true source of the wound, the wedge that will continue to drive them apart. It’s not one of Jae-yi’s awards that causes the bleeding—it’s one of Tae-joon’s. And it’s his influence that gets to Jae-yi and pulls her away from Je-na’s love. You can see the first signs of that influence on Jae-yi when she coldly observes, “Your foot is bleeding.” This is the same girl who was devastated by hurting her sister not long ago!

Je-na and Tae-joon represent the two conflicting sides of Jae-yi’s personality. On one hand you have the compassionate and selfless Jae-yi, full of affection for and fiercely protective of the people she loves. We can see all of these traits embodied in Je-na. And on the other hand is the cold, distant manipulator embodied in Tae-joon.

As if this scene weren’t already gut-wrenching enough, go back and listen closely to the parents’ argument in the background. When the trophy falls, yeah, that’s their mom screaming. Tae-joon likes his sick little mind games, but he doesn’t hesitate to use physical violence if he thinks he can get away with it. Under his veneer of respectability, he’s just a bully, no more sophisticated than the girls who terrorized Seul-gi in school.

Speaking of Seul-gi, two things. First, there’s the obvious parallel to the closet scene in Episode 3, when Jae-yi covers Seul-gi’s ears to protect her. Now we know where she learned that from, and now we know that Je-na’s caregiving and protection is probably (apart from her relationship with Je-yun) the only form of unconditional love that Jae-yi has ever received. Whether it’s conscious or subconscious, when Jae-yi protects Seul-gi, there’s something genuine there—at the very least, she’s trying to imitate what she thinks real love looks like.

Consider also the scene where Je-na dresses Jae-yi for school, and how often Jae-yi has expressed affection for Seul-gi by dressing her—whether it’s the gift of the new uniform in Episode 3, or the gift of the scarf in Episode 7...or the gift she’ll give at the end of the series.

We’re also starting to see parallels between Je-na and Seul-gi. Like Seul-gi, Je-na fears abandonment, and is desperate to be loved. As a defense mechanism, she tries to be independent, taking on the adult responsibility of caring for her sister without expecting any help. She sacrifices herself day after day, denying her own needs, in an effort to hold her family together, while Seul-gi denies her humanity, setting herself apart from everyone.

The difference is that Seul-gi is forced by her isolation and by her circumstances to grow a thick skin. She stops expecting anything more than neglect and mistreatment from people, and learns to survive on her own.

Je-na’s self-worth is tied up in her family from the beginning. And because her family is controlled by Tae-joon, that means tragically seeking validation from a system that will only demand sacrifice while continuing to abuse and degrade her.

On some level, Tae-joon must know that Je-na’s love for her sister is a threat to his power over them both, which is why he isolates them. Under his influence, Jae-yi distances herself, and Je-na is left utterly alone. Her sacrifice is not only not repaid—it’s punished.

When Jae-yi and Je-na are leaving for school, there’s a shot of Je-na glancing up at Tae-joon, who’s watching them from the balcony. Like the violin bow scene, this shows us that, whatever Tae-joon thinks of their abilities, Je-na is more advanced than her sister in some ways. While Jae-yi remains emotionally stunted by fear, Je-na is carefully attuned to the power dynamics within their family. But she’s also powerless to change them.

Powerlessness makes her desperate, and in the next scene she prays to be stricken with an illness so that her family will pity her.

Wait. She’s so desperate to be noticed...that she prays for a disease that will make her stand out and be recognized? Does this remind you of anyone?

It’s little Seul-gi with the princess dress!

As her family is leaving church, Je-na suddenly collapses, and she’s diagnosed with narcolepsy. It’s never made clear exactly how “real” her narcolepsy is, but unless you accept divine intervention as an explanation, the odds that she would coincidentally develop a very noticeable neurological disorder moments after wishing to develop such a disorder seem…low. At the same time, even if it’s staged, this isn’t the kind of emotional manipulation that Tae-joon and Jae-yi excel at—it’s no galaxy-brain chess maneuver. It’s an impulsive attempt to meet an emotional need. And like Seul-gi’s impulsive choice to wear the princess dress to the beach, Je-na’s desperate attempt to be seen will have fateful consequences.

At this point, Je-na’s story doesn’t just echo Seul-gi’s—she’s also a counterpoint to Gyeong and Ye-ri. Like Ye-ri, Je-na is neglected by her parents, and seeks attention through a fantasy—in this case, the fantasy of her invented health condition. And, like Gyeong, Je-na grows up in Jae-yi’s shadow, constantly overlooked because of her. The difference is that Je-na never grows bitter, never resents her sister for receiving all the attention, or her father for ignoring her.

Je-na clearly wants to repair her relationship with Jae-yi, and when Jae-yi comes to visit her at the hospital, she allows herself to hope. Maybe this is her chance. In spite of all the pain Jae-yi has caused her, she still takes the risk of reaching out.

Jae-yi meanwhile is torn between her father and her sister again, between opening her heart and guarding it. She clearly does care, or she wouldn’t have come in the first place. But she doesn’t dare show her true feelings. That would be a sign of weakness, something Je-na might be able to exploit. Instead Jae-yi sulks, and when Je-na comes on a little too strong, she runs away, taking Je-yun with her.

Jae-yi is a lot like Seul-gi here, prickly and suspicious of affection. Which is probably why, when Seul-gi gives her the same standoffish treatment, it reopens all of these old wounds. Seul-gi reminds her a little bit of herself, and also reminds her of all the ways she’s hurt her sister over the years. Part of what draws her to Seul-gi in the early episodes might be the simple fact that Seul-gi makes her feel things again, when she’s been numb for so long.

It’s also easy to see why Jae-yi is so attached to Je-yun. Je-yun is safe and uncomplicated to love. She can project all her affection for her sister onto the dog and not have to worry about her guilt or her regrets or the ugliness of human relationships.

Jae-yi’s rejection of Je-na in this scene is heartbreaking enough, but what comes next is worse. For a moment, Je-na’s prayer seems to be answered when Tae-joon comes to her and apologizes for his failures as a father. It...worked? Someone in her family is finally giving her the attention she’s wanted for so long?

But just as Seul-gi in her princess dress ends up abandoned on the beach, Je-na’s plea for attention backfires in a cruelly ironic twist. She’s been neglected by her father for so long, she’s forgotten what his “support” means. It doesn’t mean love—it means more pressure, more surveillance, more expectations and conditions.

Interestingly, in the same way that Tae-joon failed to notice Je-na’s self-sacrifice as a child, he seems oblivious here to what’s actually going on in her brain. I don’t think he suspects that her narcolepsy could be fake, and he doesn’t seem to realize what’s motivating her, either. Je-na couldn’t care less about her grades or class rank. What encourages her to try harder in school is his moment of apparent remorse—his acting like a caring father for once in his goddamn life.

But Tae-joon can’t fathom how anyone could be motivated by love. He only understands fear, power, and control. And his use of these tactics against Je-na, who lacks her sister’s emotional armor, nearly destroys her.

Je-na and Jae-yi have essentially opposite reactions to the pressure of their father’s gaze. Jae-yi buries her emotions deeper and deeper to become the ruthless studying machine he apparently wants. Je-na becomes more impulsive, more reckless, less rational. Eager to earn Tae-joon’s approval, she turns to good luck charms, then to drugs, and finally to cheating.

Which brings us to the most uncomfortable part of an already unpleasant tale: the relationship that develops between Je-na and her math teacher, Woo Do-hyeok. The first time I watched Friendly Rivalry, I wasn’t sure how we were meant to read this relationship, and that uncertainty made me anxious. It seemed possible that we were being encouraged to view Do-hyeok as the victim, and I didn’t enjoy that implication. Now that I’ve had more time to sit with it, though, I actually appreciate the nuanced way FR depicts sexual abuse.

Do-hyeok isn’t overtly sinister. He’s not obviously villain-coded the way Tae-joon is. His concern for Je-na seems genuine at first, and it probably is. Putting ourselves in her shoes, it’s easy to see how she would view him as a lifeline. He’s…fatherly. And he’s the only adult in her life who seems to notice or care about the stress she’s under.

Which makes the way he takes advantage of her insecurities and emotional distress extra upsetting. This girl needs help. She needs there to be just *one* decent adult in her life. Do-hyeok is so good at playing the part of that figure, he almost convinces us as viewers that he could be an okay guy. He might have even convinced himself that he has Je-na’s best interests at heart.

But his conversation with Je-na, when he catches her trying to steal exam answers at night, is full of subtle manipulation. Hiding behind his mask of fatherly concern, he uses veiled threats and flattery to poke and prod at her vulnerabilities until she is totally at his mercy. When she throws herself at him, he’s surprised, but he doesn’t stop her. He’s had plenty of opportunity to set boundaries before now. He not only let her cross them all, he’s been nudging her across himself.

It’s also emphasized again and again that Je-na is not in a position of power or control. She’s so terrified that at one point she is literally on her knees begging for her life. She’s not a puppet master, and this is no careful scheme—the video that will be used later on to blackmail Do-hyeok isn’t part of a set-up. It only exists because Je-na sets her phone down on a shelf to light the room, and because Do-hyeok happens to brush her smartwatch by accident.

Honestly...this scene is just so upsetting. There’s nothing nice or neat or easy about it. It’s a sad pathetic man betraying a desperate girl so hungry for validation she immediately places all her trust in the first person to say a kind word to her. It’s the one authority figure in Je-na’s life who might be able to help her, who might even want to help her, choosing to exploit her instead. It’s fucked up, but I’m glad Friendly Rivalry resists the urge to give us a simplified or sanitized version. So much abuse in the real world is messy this way.

I still have questions about this prologue: Why does Do-hyeok show up at the school at night, anyway? Why was he keeping an extra Hankuk University keychain in his drawer? Why is Je-na’s pencil purple? Feel free to drop any questions you might have in the comments. I love trying to solve these mysteries together.

But the next entry will definitely loop back around to this prologue, since Episode 9 is full of references to Je-na’s backstory. So I will save other thoughts and ramblings till then. Sorry for the long wait this time, hopefully the next post will come sooner!

[kittencomicslol]

How Gyutaro would like to cuddle

I spend an ungodly amount of time thinking about him and have so many cuddle headcanons so here we go

(Some of these were written at like 12 am in the description of literal music playlists durring my phones downtime but I did my best to spell check and make them fit)

• First off, Gyutaro would probably not be big on physical touch at first. He grew up his whole life only ever either giving his sister physical affection to keep her healthy/happy, and most physical touch he felt was abusive. So naturally relationships would be harder with him especially in the touch department.

• It will probably take months or years to get him ready to actually snuggle for hours, so work up to it!

• It would probably start off with hand holding. Gyutaro’s hands are pretty big, and usually rather cold. Even if they are a bit rough and calloused you still loved holding them even if it was just for a minute or two to help him feel comfortable.

• Like I said before it would take a while, but eventually after working up to hugs it would probably go faster after he realized how nice it was to be able to hold you.

• He will ALWAYS be a big spoon. Not just because he’s probably bigger, but for two main reasons. One being his spine, he knows it would most likely be uncomfortable and he doesn’t want you to be uncomfortable.

• He also likes being able to hold you close and have his arms wrapped around you. Gyutaro cares immensely for his loved ones and he always wants to be able to protect and or watch over them. So the same goes for you, he wants you close.

• it’s not always necessary but he also enjoys placing his chin on top of your head when he spoons you. It makes him feel closer, he likes being able to feel and smell you better to know you are close. You make him feel relaxed and comfortable.

• even if he is a demon and he doesn’t necessarily need to sleep (or maybe they just can’t?? Idk) he will lie there all night long just to make sure that you are close and safe while you rest.

• He gets nervous when you rest your head on/by his chest. Gyutaro was never upset about his looks after a certain amount of time and even took pride in how he could scare off or disgust others.

• But when he’s around people he loves he’s a bit more insecure about his deformities or different looks as shown when Daki yells at him.

• He doesn’t want you to be uncomfortable on his chest because of how skinny he is and his ribs. Even if you tell him you don’t mind, he will still internally worry. He knows it’s not his fault he can’t get any meat on his bones; but he still wishes his body was more comfortable for you.

•If there is any part of Gyutaros body he actually likes and or prefers with affection, it’s his hands.

• He has always been prone to hand holding since Ume was little and they were human in order to keep her close and safe. Hand holding lets Gyutaro know that you are close and safe, and that is something he appreciates down to an unconscious level due to his human life he had long forgotten.

• Another thing he likes is definitely how he can use them to rub your back, cup your cheeks, or pet you and run his fingers through your hair. Whichever thing you prefer, all of those are things he very much enjoys.

• He's a demon, sure, but with that spine and slouch? He gets back pain like hell and he never wants you to experience it so back rubs help him be at ease that you are comfortable.

• Cheek holding/caressing? Something he does with Daki to help her calm down and feel better when she is upset. It always helped her and even though she can be a bit bratty about touch when it’s outside of comfort or battle, he always appreciates how his hands seem to help both her and you calm down.

• He loves how comfortable you look resting your head in his palms, so please by all means if you want to do that then just tell him, he will love it!!

• Playing with your hair? He raised a little girl and still looks after her, of course he knows how to handle and care for hair. He is always super gentle, making sure to not tug on a single hair you have.

• Like stated before, Gyutatos top priorities are keeping you and Daki happy and comfortable. So if you want to be petted or have your hair played with? Consider it done.

• Speaking of hands, he LOVES yours. Making sure you are close and alive is of course one reason discussed before.

• It is no exaggeration to say Gyutaro grew up with no affection at all, the most he got was when he was parenting Daki. And becoming a demon only made those gestures more lacking.

• After getting comfortable with touch, his favorite things are when you scratch his head gently or when you run your hand along his spine.

• He doesn’t want to gross you out or make you uncomfortable with his monstrous form, but if you want too? He is more than happy to oblige.. he loves how delicate and soft your hands are, and how much care goes into you being so gentle with him. It helps him with his back feeling uncomfortable since he’s always slouching

• He knows you know he is an upper rank demon who would be fine even if you did accidentally hurt him.. yet you still did everything you could to make sure he never even felt the slightest bit of discomfort.

• His hair might be messy and dirty, so help him wash it out and brush it will you? He might complain but he does appreciate it and secretly enjoys every single second of the domestic care you give him. Such sweet and small gestures are foreign to him and make him feel so soo loved.

• He was usually the one running his hands through someone else’s hair or patting them, and it didn’t take long for him to realize he enjoyed receiving that treatment just as much as giving it.

• Gyutaro usually isn’t aware of when he scratches his skin, let alone when it bleeds. He could care less usually, as if it mattered. It would just grow back. But.. with you.. it’s different.

• Gyutaro knows how poisonous his blood is, he has seen how it harms others. Whenever you two snuggle or are even remotely close he is hyper aware of any scratching or urges.

• Even if in a situation you were immune or it didn’t hurt you, he wouldn’t want to risk it. He also wouldn’t want to risk upsetting you by getting you messy with his own blood or ruining your clothes.

• Gyutaro can and will do every little thing possible to ensure your absolute safety when he is with you.

• Despite his lack of knowledge on affection and or romance, he still has his own special ways of expressing his love.

• Just like he does with Daki, he understands that you might not understand why he does what he does or that you won’t even notice the effort he puts in. He doesn’t do it for your praise or approval (though those are things he would absolutely adore) he does it out of love and respect for you.

• He doesn’t expect any sort of praise in return since he never got any from his sister because she was too immature to ever understand how wonderful he was to her.

• But if you notice? Jeez, will he feel flattered. It will probably make him want to scratch himself since that is how he responds to overwhelming emotions. But he won’t, and you know why.

• Just a simple thank you would be enough to fluster him, knowing he made you happy and proud of him sends him over the moon.

• Some things that particularly fluster him are sudden kisses(especially on his birthmarks) and praise.

• He can’t and will never get over the weird sensation of your lips on his skin or against his own.

• You never seemed to find him disgusting, and even though he worried you might one day snap out of whatever you were in and realize how hideous he was; for the time being he enjoyed your kisses.

• Kisses on his forehead are comforting for him, kisses around his nose, mouth, cheeks and chin fluster him very much; especially if it’s targeted to his marks

• The feeling of your breath up against his neck, the way your lips trail soft little kisses up against his skin sends shivers down his spine. How did he get so lucky? He didn’t know.. but he would never want it to end

• Despite being easily flustered and or overwhelmed by kisses, he really truly does love them.

• And praise? Oh goodness..

• At first and earlier on in the relationship he usually will ignore or refuse any praise about his appearance, even if he visibly becomes flustered by the pet names of ‘pretty boy’ and ‘handsome’

• He ignores them because he knows they aren’t true; at least to him they aren’t.. and unfortunately they most likely never really will be exactly true to him. Though over time he becomes more accepting of it, finding solace and comfort in how at least you find him attractive and lovable.

• Comments about his skills and strength are not only an ego boost, but they make him giddy because it means you are watching. You pay attention to him enough to notice such intricate details about him, his fighting patterns, his skills in combat he’s so proud of that usually don’t get much positive attention.

• He also appreciates praise about his strength because he feels like it makes you feel more safe to know he can protect you. And even if you don’t particularly think that way, HE still feels more proud and confident because he knows he can protect and care for his beloved.

——————

BAHHHH RAHHH RAHHGGHHHH RAHH RAHHHHHHH!1!1!1!1!1!1!

That’s all :3

[mtreebeardiles]

Rate Your OC (Traits)

Tagged by @dandenbo — many thanks!

Let’s see, let’s see… been replaying ME so let’s go with Evvy:

Mod from @clericofshadows (Evvy is not a fashionable man, but has had fashion thrust upon him)

Rating:

0/10 never expresses this trait

5/10 sometimes expresses this trait

10/10 almost always expresses this trait

Compassion: 11/10 the man cares deeply about other people to the point that it's honestly detrimental to his own health sometimes. He firmly believes anyone can change for the better, though the level of his compassion does vary depending on how well he knows a person. Having come from a pretty rough background himself, he knows how much someone's circumstances can contribute to a person's bad choices, and thinks everyone should be given as much of a fair shot to choose differently if they want

Bitterness 5/10 this is a tricky one, since any feelings of bitterness have a tendency to be redirected back at himself, when it should probably be directed outward. The Alliance doesn't listen to, say, Kaidan and Ashley? Then that bitterness is for a shitty system and snobby upper officers. If the Alliance doesn't listen to HIM? Well, clearly he wasn't good enough to warrant respect, and he's bitter at himself for not being better

Happiness 7/10 This varies widely depending on where we are in the story, but he's been known to find little pockets of happiness and cling to them pretty hard whenever he can. Baking is happiness, feeding his friends is happiness, geeking out with Tali and Kaidan is happiness. There was a lot less of it during ME2, but even there he managed to find some equilibrium with his new (and not so new) teammates

Politeness 5/10 He's generally easy to talk to and approachable enough once people get to know him beyond his reputation as a somewhat scary/spooky dude, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a conscious decision on his part to BE polite, which is why his rudeness is a bit more like a slap to the face when it hits -- because that IS an active choice he's making. He's usually rude on behalf of others, though (headbutting other krogan on behalf of Grunt, etc)

Honesty 8/10 Generally honest to a fault unless he's talking about himself and how he's feeling. The way he grew up (abuse in the foster system, abuse in the Reds) kind of had this general effect of seeing himself as a means to someone else's end, and for a long time he can't fathom why his own feelings would matter all that much

Bravery 7/10 Most people consider him brave, but he wouldn't think that of himself. He thinks of himself as scared, and his actions as a means of controlling what he can to make that fear go away.

Recklessness 5/10 Not much of a risk-taker for the heck of it, really, though that doesn't mean complete avoidance of risk in and of itself. He may have been more reckless when he'd been younger, but even then he didn't consider himself...well, frankly as a person in his own right. He was always something to someone else, protecting someone else, and being reckless would have been antithetical to that. As a kid, it was protecting his adoptive sister. As a soldier, it was protecting his fellow soldiers. As a commander... you get the picture.

Ambition 3/10 He never wanted to be in the Alliance, and whatever dreams he may have let himself entertain as a kid have faded a long time ago. Post-war, the man just wants to live quietly, maybe open a bakery, and never don the armor again. Maybe ambition will be rekindled when he has time to figure out who he is outside his titles and honors.

Loyalty 9/10 He's definitely more loyal to people than he is to organizations, but that doesn't mean he won't criticize a good friend if he thinks they're doing something stupid or self-destructive.

Love 9/10 He intensely loves his friends and adoptive family, and doesn't really rank the types of love that come as a result. Romantic, platonic, familial, it's all love and it's all important.

Sense of Family 5/10 This is another tricky one, as he's fiercely protective of the family he has (adoptive sister, later Kaidan, his closest friends from the Normandy), but in the traditional sense the idea of STARTING a family freaks him out so bad he'd probably break out into hives. He does end up marrying, but he's content to be uncle to his clone's twin's kids with no real desire to ever have any of his own.

Attractiveness 5/10 Rated in terms of himself, and how he sees himself. He's vaguely aware that people find him good-looking sometimes, but he's always accepted the same thing he's been hearing since he was a kid, that he was too "spooky, with those spooky eyes" to ever really be considered handsome, so he just doesn't think he is. He's okay with that.

Agility 10/10 From a young thief in the Reds to an infiltrator class N7, Evvy's always been quick on his feet, adapting to circumstances and finding a way through, finding genuine thrills in working his way past obstacles. What is infiltration if not a fancier way to say breaking and entering? :P

Sex Drive 4/10 When he's in the mood, he does love sex. He is not often in the mood, but does love kissing a whole lot, he just doesn't need it to go any further most of the time. (Gray Asexual, leaning towards indifferent on the sex positive/repulsed scale)

Tagging back uhhhh trying to think of folks I haven't seen yet @bluerose5 @theoriginalladya @urdnotflexthejedibard @illusivesoul @aleiocus and whoever else wants to play! And some of ya'll I know got more than one OC ;) Doesn't have to be ME, either

[emiliaisis]

Silco is an abuser and a terrible father figure and i'm sick of people pretending he's not.

On the arcane fandom, even to this day there's this weird ass narrative of Silco being "the perfect father for Jinx" or "A loving father who only looks for his daughter's best interest" "girl dad" or whatever other shit this people call him right now.

And the way that i fucking despise this cannot be describe with words unless you count screams of rage and foam as words.

But let's go point for point shall we?

First, how did they meet?

Well the show is kind of ambigous with where they met in time, we know that Vander was already present in the girls lifes before the death of their parents but there is no indicator of prior relationship with Silco. I will then assume for the lack of info that Silco was never an uncle figure to the girls, he was probably too busy with their Zaun plan and he does not seem like the kind of person who would get along with children therefore i will declare that his attempt in murdering Vander and the kids was his first formal introduction to the sisters. He knew they existed, but he didn't had a formal bond with them.

So we can say that when Powder thought she was abandoned by Vi was when Silco stablished contact with her.

Now let's look at this scene in a more raw way, no music, no animation nothing. Just words.

This little girl is crying. She is right now processing the fact that almost all of her family is death. This was all just a very awful chain of events, but her mind cannot comprehend this, this is all her fault in her perspective.

Then comes the true culprit. This man alongside all of his goons are ready to kill her, end with her family's legacy.

Then she just clings to him.

She's acting on pure impulse, because that's what children do. She clinged to him not because she trusted him, not because he seem like a good person but because as a child she would be looking for comfort in the moment where darkness was consuming her mind. And this is the exact moment where this man gets a hold of this vulnerable child and will basically set it all up for him to mold this child into his "Jinx".

"OH BUT THOSE WEREN'T HIS INTENTIONS YOU CANT SAY THAT"

Grooming is a manipulation tactict therefore it is not bound to intentionality, most manipulators don't even know that what they're doing is wrong. Silco very much fits in this.

He projected himself in this child, he said it himself "We'll show them all". This is literally not the case, Vi didn't betray her sister she was having a natural reaction to a traumatic situation, but Silco obviously wouldn't care about it, he doesn't know this children out of this surface level interaction, what matters for him is that he has found someone, he might not have the intention of grooming her but this will be his action from now on.

Now let's take a look at the kind of parenting methods he applied. Most of the community will probably call it "gentle" if asked.

I will however describe it as extremely negligent.

First thing first, Jinx's hideout is dangerous af, this place is not appropiate for...Literally anything, not for testing explosive or treat wounds or to let a child be there constantly. Because i really doubt Jinx only started to have this place only around the time where act 2 was starting considering that at the start this place practically looked like a monument to her trauma. So Silco let this girl spend most of her time in this isolated space that looks like it's going to collapse at any minute, let her test dangerous explosives, and also the final episode shows she could've fallen or thrown herself to the bottom at any moment.

"But Silco has some stuff that Jinx painted over! That means he loves her!"

Abusers can be and actually a lot of them will be loving. Plus loving doesn't mean he takes good care of her, we can say that he loves her but that's it, somebody doesn't hate waffles when they like pancakes and Silco isn't a good father figure for loving his child.

And if anything this loves he has for Jinx only isolates her.

Jinx didn't had anybody but Silco before Silco's death.

Her relationship with Ekko was the equivalent of a crater left by a meteor strike.

Sevika and the rest of Silco's goons/allies just saw her as a problem, a mess who will sooner or later kill them or kill herself.

And outside of them it doesn't seem like anybody else in Zaun cared much about her before the attacks on piltover.

Silco is the only one who actually talks to her, and he only ever tells her that she is "perfect". Good to know that you love your child buddy but your child is literally having hallucinations every three scenes where she even talks to her death brothers, has careless behavior for her own and others safety to the point where it almost looks like she's eargerly making the chances of her dying higher, and just generally seems like she has given up on everything but you.

Individuals who suffer through mental illness need help, literally any kind, wether it is a person just helping us with tasks that might be difficult for us or a psychologist (any mental health professional tbh) that assist us in our way to be more healthy and not harm ourselfs or others.

Letting your daughter fall deeper and deeper into a pit where she's literally treating one of her wounds with staples and looking at a shattered mirror while in crisis is not help.

Grooming a child so they can become a goon for a drug lord is not an act that reflects paternal qualities.

And treating Jinx's character as if she was the one who dragged herself in the pit while constantly praising her abuser is not a display of intellectual abilities. The way this fandom is so blatantly ableist when it comes to Jinx should be studied, before we saw AU Jinx almost everyone and their moms was convinced she would've ended similarly all because everyone turned a blind eye to the man behind all of her problems to the man that named her Jinx. Or worse they blamed Vi another child.

All to protect the fragile perception of the ideal father.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[angelgirl768]

DBH 9-1-1 AU

@pineapplehazard posted about their DBH AU for 9-1-1 a little while ago and I mentioned my similar AU but never got around to sharing it so let's go!

The basics of the AU is that it takes the DBH characters and puts them into the 9-1-1 format. We follow Detroit Fire Department Station 128, dispatch, and a little of the Detroit Police Department. This is probably going to get long, so here's a curtesy read more

Station 128

Elijah Kamski - the fire chief. The boss of everyone, but a minor character since he's not really heard about often

Markus Manfred - the captain. He lead a revolution, he can run a firehouse

Daniel Phillips-Lambert - kind of the Buck of the group. He's impulsive, but has good intentions. His gear all just says "Phillips" so everyone just assumes that's his full last name (he hates the other half so he doesn't want to see it and never brings it up)

North Kelly - also impulsive. Maybe she's more like Buck and Daniel's more like Eddie. Daniel does need more juice. She also kind of gives Marjan vibes in the whole Firefox/general badass way

Josh Sawyers - the level headed, smart paramedic. He doesn't like people being hurt, so of course he helps them get better.

Luther Park - the strong one, obviously. Though, he's also a very gentle and caring paramedic. He's just really sweet and strong and big and idk what else to say

Dispatch

Rose Chapman - supervisor of dispatch. She gives very similar vibes as Sue, so she just fits

Kara Archer - also a supervisor of dispatch. I kind of put her in Josh's spot. Been there for a while, trains new recruits, all that

Simon Phillips-Lambert - the main dispatcher we follow. He's too anxious to be on the field, but getting help to people and keeping them calm while they wait for it to arrive is second best. He follows up with the 128 on how a call went and things turn flirty with the captain. They have a phone-only relationship, so it takes until they meet in person for Markus to realize he's related to Daniel at all

Jerry Bosch - dispatcher buddy. No one knows how he stays so cheery while handling 9-1-1 calls all day. The pansexual ray of sunshine

Detroit Central Station

It basically all stays the same as canon

Hank Anderson - lieutenant who perfers to work alone

Connor Anderson - police officer and Hank's son. He also works alone and I almost see him in a similar role as Carlos. And Daniel is his TK. So there's some fun on-again-off-again stuff to be done there

Gavin Reed - detective sometimes consulted for cases

Colin "Nines" Anderson - officer partnered with Gavin. More of a background character, but I have to sprinkle in reed900 where I can

Connan "Sixty" Anderson - another background officer. Maybe a part of SWAT

Misc

Ralph Vladimery - (former?) firefighter at another station (the 151?). The burn scars are a fun element to play with. Did he get them on the job? Were they what inspired the job? idk but there's potential

Rupert Travis - also a firefighter at the same station as Ralph. They just give "worked together" vibes

Chloe Hersh - the underappreciated therapist. She has a lot to deal with from these guys

Alice Archer - Kara's daughter. She's sweet and must be protected. Still abused somehow. Maybe Todd's her biological father? Grandfather? Uncle? idk

Emma Phillips - Simon and Daniel's adoptive sister (the twins are adopted). They have a difficult relationship with the whole "biological kid vs adopted kids" thing and a large age gap

Leo Manfred - Markus's older adoptive brother (Markus is adopted). He's still an addict, so that's a fun character arc to get to eventually

[l0stfoster]

Can we hear more about Har-bit childhood? I remember you mentioned his dad being abusive and his mom ignoring it.

Does the gang know about his childhood?

How was he towards his sister during those time and if it effected their relationship later on?

Is there lasting effects?

I love people asking about the backstory/childhood stuff it's so fun. Alright, let's get to it! Everything is below the cut, sorry if some shit isn't worded right, I'm a little out of it today so I'll likely come back to edit this as needed.

General information

- As I've said, Two’s mom is a harpy and his dad is human. Neither Two-Bit nor Molly took after Mr. Mathews, and he wasn’t too happy about that. He left when Molly was around 3 and Two was 13. - I've always imagined Mrs. Mathews being a nurse, so she was constantly out of the house for long shifts and so on, and so forth. She trusted Mr. Mathews since he'd kept whatever malice he felt on the down low.. for the first few years. - I've already said it but I'll bring it back up; Two-Bit constantly had his needs and habits as a harpy repressed by his father. Feathers clipped, he wasn't allowed to preen, etc. Human social norms were super-enforced, and Two or his sister were disciplined harshly for behaving in any way a harpy would. - Harpies crave social bonds or a flock mentality; , something that Mr. Mathews was so thoroughly against agreeing to. He'd also treat them as if they should be human, then get all pissy if they didn't meet that expectation. - His dad was an alcoholic, and unfortunately, that's a trait Two picked up as well. - Mr. Mathews wasn't usually physical, but there were moments. It was mostly emotional and psychological abuse that the kids had to deal with; he'd make tons of derogatory comments about Two and his mom, call them monsters, etc. Neglect was pretty evident too, Two had to learn to fend for himself from a pretty young age and had to learn to care for Molly when she was born. - Speaking of which, Two constantly took the brunt of the responses his father held when it came to Molly's behavior as a literal baby. This is probably where the physical aspects of abuse got the most rampant since Two-Bit defending Molly was seen as having an attitude. - Two-Bit was forced to lie regarding how he was being treated as well, he was told for a long time that he wouldn't be believed, that he was being dramatic, or that Mrs. Mathews would leave. - Ms. Mathews was going to file for divorce once she could afford the financial issues that would follow it, but one day just came home to a quiet house, save for Two-Bit trying to ease a fussy Molly. They haven't seen him since.

Does the gang know about his childhood?

- The levels of knowing about it vary, but Dally and Ace definitely have the best gauge on Two's childhood. Dally had witnessed it a ton firsthand, and Ace got to hear it from Two himself. Darry's also pretty aware of it, as not only did he get glimpses of it while they grew up, but he vividly remembers the nights when Two-Bit would show up drunk and just,, talk. - Steve and Johnny are also pretty aware, they don't know the details, but they know that the guy fucked up enough for Two of all people to shit talk. Hell, Two doesn't hold the same malice that his dad faces towards Paul or even Bev. You need to fuck up bad for Two-Bit to despise you. - Everyone else doesn't know the full details, but it's not hard to make assumptions.

How was he towards his sister during those times and did it affect their relationship later on?

- Their relationship wasn't impacted, if anything their bond was strengthened as Two did everything in his damn power to keep her on the opposite end of their father's wrath. - He would've killed the man with his bare hands if he dared to lay a hand on her. Hence why he continued to defend her, even if he shouldn't have had to; babies are going to be noisy and need a lot of attention, and god forbid a father has to care for their own child.

Are there lasting effects?

- There's a good bit of remaining trauma from Mr. Mathews, yeah. Two covers a lot of his personal angst with his humor and loudness, but things shine through. His sister didn't experience it enough to have a grasp on how bad things were. - There was a lot of deep-rooted shame in Two due to his harpy nature and how his father responded to it. For a good long while, he hated being one. He still longs for his father's approval despite his abandonment but resents the neglect and abuse. The only reason it hasn't prevented him from forming bonds and relationships is because his mother did her damn best to turn it around. - Two-Bit absolutely hates that he drinks. He knows he shouldn't be doing it, and he knows it reminds people (and himself) of his father; but just because you know you're colorblind doesn't mean you can see the colors. Addiction isn't easy to deal with. - Two also gets really aggressive if anyone directs anger toward him or his sister; it's a reflex. His brain associates that loud and violent behavior with his father.

[owmylasagna-blog]

What do you think of this scene where Lee embraces Eddy near the ending of the movie, and then try to fight Bro to defend him? I found this really cute, and kind of conviced me Lee genuinely likes and cares for him (even if he don't return it, probably never will). I find a shame how many people don't talk about this.

You see… I start answering these questions and then I spiral out into analysis nobody asked for. Here goes!

I had to go back to rewatch these ending scenes of BPS to jog my memory and I can see what you’re talking about. Lee hugs Eddy, picking him up like a cat by the armpits. It’s brief but she’s drawn with little animated bubble hearts. This honestly surprised me, I’d sort of forgotten them from the scene. In this instance it does seem she is genuinely crushing on him. Or maybe she is enamored with how cute he is - I can’t overstate how comically tiny Eddy looks when she is holding him. I’d agree too that Eddy is less than thrilled. Very in character as usual.

Now Lee’s reaction to Eddy getting walloped by Bro is SO interesting. And not from any romantic or shipping perspective in my opinion. Honestly, all the Kankers witnessing Eddy’s abuse (EVERYONE witnessing Eddy’s abuse) is wildly transformational. I’m amazed by how much character analysis you can pack into this 2 minute scene just based on each characters’ reactions but I’m gonna try and stay focused on the task at hand. Lee.

I really admire Lee springing into action here. I think it speaks so much to her bravery, hard headedness, and role as a protector and leader of the pack. Throughout the show we see how she is the typical Oldest Sister and this shines through in how ready she is to defend Eddy. I always interpreted Lee as maybe the most hardened and cynical of men among her sisters, possibly because she remembers the most when it comes to her dad and stepdads. As the eldest, her mother probably levels with her the most about how men are good-for-nothin’, backstabbin’, two timin’, free-loadin’... you get the idea. I have no evidence of this but let's just indulge my inference.

Lee projects a lot of these ideas onto Eddy (the Kankers all do more generally with the Eds), often treating him more like a “boy toy” or thinking that through enough coercion and beating into submission he’ll become the semi-servile husband of her dreams. There is a lot to be said about the tension and toxic hetero relationship dynamic going on here but I can’t blame Lee for grabbing the bull by the horns, taking her control. Unfortunately for Eddy she chose Eddy, and she’s unaware and uninterested in how he feels about it all 99% of the time.

So you can imagine when she sees Eddy, the neighbor boy she has been tormenting because of all these mixed messages about men, getting abused by his brother, an older male family member. The pieces really have to be coming together for Lee of who the real enemy is in this situation. She has to relate and sympathize with Eddy at that moment. For the first time Lee humanizes Eddy, finally seeing him as just another kid that’s been wronged by the men in his life. Like, my heart aches thinking about this. Her blood must be boiling. She comes to his defense in a way we’ve only seen for her sisters. It’s very moving! I love her righteous feminine rage!

This brings up a bigger point of how BPS deviates in some ways from the typical dynamics of the show. The fact that the Kankers are banding together to protect their “boyfriends'' from the rest of the cul-de-sac kids is sort of new. Most episodes are Eds VS cul-de-sac kids or Eds VS Kankers or the occasional Eds VS cul-de-sac+Kankers. It’s nice to see one group of outcasts coming to the defense of another (despite likely not having the best intentions). It takes the Eds royaling pissing off the cul-de-sac kids to catalyze the solidarity between the two trios. And when Bro comes on the scene they get to redirect their antagonizing towards someone who deserves it a bit more.

I’d like to imagine after BPS there is a major shift in the way the Kankers treat and view the Eds. Maybe it’s the eddeddy blinders or maybe I’m still not 100% convinced Lee really has a crush on Eddy but this feels like it could be the start of a more amicable relationship. Or they silently respect each other from afar, Eddy still being tentatively terrified of her ferocity or ever getting on her bad side. But more generally Lee would back off on her antagonizing, and maybe unpack whether or not she likes Eddy or she liked the idea of Eddy. I really can’t see her being very interested in him romantically after BPS but she could have more sympathy and understanding than before.

Anyway it was nice to have a reason to talk about Lee more, so thanks for bringing it up!!! This is just my little interpretation that got way out of hand.

[qedmirage]

Studio Ghibli Presents: These Two Children Slowly Dying Of Poverty

This one's a rough one. Probably the goriest studio Ghibli film and instead of the fantastica demon gore of Princess Mononoke it's two children slowly dying of malnutrition. It's often described as an anti-war film and while that's not incorrect, viewed in the context of director Isao Takahata's broader work - including the canal movie - it really strikes me as a film about the need for charity and a collective mindset. Because the thing is, these kids? They could have made it.

Takahata's first film as director was Horus, Prince of the Sun, where the fairytale magic sword Horus needs to save the day can only be made by the combined efforts of the whole village. The 160 minute Canal Movie isn't just a documentary on an effective use of community action, it's something of a passion project that blew past its budget and schedule. These themes show up in other Takahata works and he revisits them to the point of seriously endangering the company's solvency, so it's fair I think to focus on them over the anti-war message in Grave of the Fireflies.

So anyways, the film starts with our protagonist dressed in rags in a train station, people skirting around him, nobody really stopping to help. One stranger leaves a small bit of food but he only gets any dedicated attention from the janitors, who note that he's 'another orphan' as the shot slowly fades in the corpses of multiple other starved children.

Does that remind you of anything? Does the way people start and then divert their path, passing by without helping recall anything you may have seen in a train station, by a highway? Anyways. The film's events start out 'bad' with the incendiary bombing of Kobe; our protagonist's mother suffers extreme burns and dies without regaining consciousness. The film's view is...stark. The shots of the bombing's aftermath are desolate, sepia-tone backgrounds, and the injuries in the hospital itself are detailed in the way that makes clear the references weren't media depictions but real, documented injuries. The kids go to live with an aunt and struggle; the money and supplies they bring with them don't last forever, the aunt is constantly treating them as loafers and a burden and it becomes clear that the people in this film have a very understandable, familiar, and fatal level of selfishness to them. Seita runs and hides in the caves instead of fighting fires when the air raid siren goes off, and because it's 1945 and we don't know about PTSD yet he gets berated for cowardice (remember: it has been less than a year since his city and mother were annihilated by hellfire). Seita's Aunt berating them for not working tracks. She's got a short fuse, it's WWII, Everything Is Awful, but things start to go bad when her arguments with Seita escalate to him cooking all the food for himself and his four year old sister separately, and they go to worse when Seita and said sister move out to be away from the aunt's abuse. Lady, he is 14 years old and all of you are already almost starving, him being the sole caregiver for a 4 year old is not a funny running away it is a thing that kills people.

This is the thing. People don't die of starvation overnight. Seita runs into adults and other people again and again who have these brief interactions, recognize that he is in a bad state, and who move on without making sure he's okay. There's a farmer, a cop, a doctor (who even diagnoses Setsuko with malnutrition!), and yes the aunt who doesn't see them for several days. And it's understandable! They have a lot of shit on their plate! The farmer barely has enough food for himself, the doctor has a whole line of other patients, the aunt is licking lone grains of rice off her hands. But it's the non-caring from the people around Seita that turns their situation from a bad one to a fatal one. Some other things I took away from this, less organized:

Nobody can contact Seita's dad, and it's mentioned he was on the Maya at a fleet review a year ago; that ship was sunk almost six months before the film even starts. They get confirmation (and bereavement payment) only at the very end of the film, when the surrender means the military no longer feels a need to censor its losses.

The depiction of the physical effects of the malnutrition is starkly realistic; this film has the most human physical suffering on it of Ghibli's corpus. I'm not posting the malnutrition shots but the "ohagi' sequence and doctor's visit are haunting.

The Aunt at one point says he should go live with other relatives in Tokyo, though Seita doesn't know their address; even if he once did, about a week before the film starts Tokyo suffered a massive bombing that could have killed or displaced them.

This really is the wartime experience for civilian populations. Your parents die, your house is destroyed, you go into poverty, and you're hungry. 0/10 would not recommend.

Seita dies on September 21st, 1945, after the surrender, before the US food aid program hits full stride (see: ice cream barge)

This film is an adaptation of a semi-autobiographical shorty of the same name, informed by the author's own experiences. Obviously he lived; his sister did not. For all his faults Seita is more noble and handles things better than the real author did, and yes Seita dies at the end. So this is the more soft and idealized version of the real events, kind of? And in that idealized version he writes himself dying. And like... man, I hope he found peace with that part of his life. That is a fucked up situation he was put in and I do not know if I or anyone else could navigate it successfully.

Good film. I think it's got the sharpest edge to it on the Takahata films. There's a meticulous attention to detail that really brings it home...don't do industrial war and don't abandon people, society

[hyperfixingfr]

I just had a 2 x Cree shipper try to follow me on main so I'm gonna say this bullshit again since grown ass adults can't get the damn point. Content warning for some mentions of weird proshipping stuff. Not in depth.

2 x Cree is a proship/comship. Aside from the disgusting age gap and role Cree has over Hoagie (most likely having babysat him and/or kids his age), she ASSAULTS him. With no reasoning behind it or comedy/playfulness to it. That's two different types of proship: abusive x abused, and authority x controlled. If you wanna say it for what it really is, much younger x much older.

I. Do. Not. Care. What. You. Change. NO ONE WITH A BRAIN DOES. You can't say, "but I made them adults", "but I made Cree nice" and expect people to take you seriously. The fact that you go as far as to change the canon character just to attempt to justify a disgusting ship should make you stop and think. If you need to change an aspect of canon to make it look better, your ship is disgusting and probably wrong. I don't know why you 2 x Cree shippers keep insinuating this makes it okay, because it doesn't. You don't look at siblings and decide, "how about we make them just really close friends so I can ship them!".

Cree is, as far as the canon has told, unwilling to change. She has no intention of it. She has "nice moments" with her sister, but that means nothing when you think about how people who act like that irl do it. They can't be all evil, or else no one would let them into their lives. It's completely unreasonable to change the very key villain aspect just for some stupid ship. If something were to happen in canon where she has a change of heart, then I would retract my statement. But she hasn't. And it doesn't seem like that will EVER happen, because Cree is supposed to be the villain of the Lincoln family. Her tendency to assault him alone makes it weird, but him being a very obvious abuse victim almost seems like a sort of non con justification/abuser support message. He has been hit and berated by his grandmother for at least since Tommy was a baby... His "feelings" for her in the show are most likely a trauma response at most (similarly to how S/A victims suffer from hypersexuality) and at least, they're just because he's confusing his feelings for Abby with Cree.

And that's just one reason why it's a disgusting ship. What makes it even more concerning is the gap. Look, if they met as adults with fully developed frontal lobes (aka 25+), I'd raise an eyebrow but I'd let 4 years slide. But they didn't. They met as little kids. Hoagie had been in the KND for a long while and most likely knew Cree ever since first grade - when she would've been in fifth grade. She has been there to watch him grow four years behind her ever since he was 7 (estimate). Not only that but the one episode implies that Cree frequently babysits for children of Hoagie's age, if not for Hoagie himself. Betty seemed to be extremely familiar with Cree and extremely trusting in her capabilities to babysit, implying it wouldn't have been her first time. Yes... I get that it was a dream. But the dream was also rooted in reality at the beginning. Hoagie thinking of her as someone to babysit him alone should make you feel weird about the pairing being together, even when they're adults. Because even as adults, they'll still have the same connection they had back then. Those connections don't go away. Normal people tend to always think of their babysitter as, well... Their babysitter. They would remember feeling that sort of connection with their babysitter, and vise versa. But even if she wasn't babysitting him, it would still feel weird. They have four years between them (for all we know, it could be closer to five due to uncounted months). That would make Cree in 9th grade (high school) while Hoagie is still in 5th grade (elementary school). That's such a big gap that Hoagie isn't even in the school level behind Cree, which would be middle school. He's so young, he'd still be in elementary school by the time Cree finally goes to high school. And to remind you once more... They know each other very well during this period. I'm sure they see each other frequently due to teens clashing with the KND. That, or visiting Abby and seeing Cree there.

I'm just gonna say it... It's ridiculous to ship them and try to justify it. If you're just proship and like pedo ships go ahead and just say it. I'm not gonna think of you any differently, but saying it out right is better than trying to hide it. There is NO REASON to want to ship them unless you like the problems the ship has. Abby is right fucking there, and she isn't abusive nor too old for him. It's the same family too - come on! If you personally don't ship 2/5 that's fine. But trying to ship 2/Cree instead is almost blatantly saying, "I wish 2/5 was more problematic". Cree is the older, more malicious counterpart of Abby. Aside from that, they're very similar. Cree is literally Abby's foil. There is no reason to think 2/5 isn't your flow, but 2/Cree is... Unless, once again, you like disgusting ships. And none of you hit me with the "but I ship Abby with someone else" because I don't recall anyone in this fandom bashing multishipping or polyamorous relationships. A matter of fact, most people in this fandom think of Sector V as polyamorous. Don't you dare use the fear of a harmless thing such as multishipping to excuse a creepy ship.

The maturity of you 2/Cree supporters/neutrals is shown very clearly through the amount of bashing and hatemail I've gotten from grown ass adults. None of you have acted any more mature than me and that says a lot.

To sum it up... I'm not a shipping wars person. I'm someone who has very reasonable evidence to support my feelings of disgust towards this ship. There's no reason to want to ship it unless you're proship with the existence of a near identical, canon, within normal age range, much more kind and loving character.

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

anyway for the Fucked Up Fire Nation Royal Family Analysis

i think it’s important to note that this is the last time in her life azula would have supportive adult guidance that wasn’t just flat out abusive, and it’s really sad to see, because she’s… a kid. a fairly normal kid. a mean one, but the reason is equally as sad to see- she idolises her father. she adores him, and kids at that age do imitate the behaviour of adults around them! azula's behaviour is an imitation of her father- she's so young it's almost certainly imitation of someone- and that behaviour is concerning.

she’s violent, callous, and you can already see a burgeoning manipulative streak within her (as much as it’s possible at her age- it’s transparently obvious bc she’s like. five or six years old she’s not really old enough to do it well). but she’s not the monster we‘ll see later on. most obviously, she seems to genuinely love her brother on some really messed up level. she drags him into her “games” (even if they’re basically just bullying) she drags him into her eavesdropping and she does genuinely warn him about the risk to his life- albeit in a cruel way. she wants to be around zuko! she doesn’t have a solid grasp on how to express that at all- since the person she admires and looks up to doesn’t even see her as a person but an extension of his own will- but she does care.

but by the time of the series, we'll see her actively just completely fine with killing her brother. even when she was eleven, she was happy to see his abuse. and the reason why, i think, is probably pretty obvious but also sad as shit and that’s the fact that the prior abuse zuko went through (and therefore, azula experienced by proxy- abusing one child in front of another is threat of harm and therefore abusive in turn) most likely started, or at least intensified, after the flashback seen in this episode.

which also means what we're seeing? the fucking sad scenes of baby zuko? yeah, they’re probably the happiest memories the poor kid had.

but yeah, anyway. while the children's mother was around, they at least had someone looking out for them- someone who would be able to do something to protect them and cares enough to do so. i absolutely think he was abusive before then- the fact azula, who idolises him enough to earnestly hope for him to become the fire lord, mimics abusive behaviour, is sign enough of that. for kids that young, bullying is in fact often an expression of a bad home life, because young children mimic what they were taught. but it had to be subtler, it had to be something that their mother couldn’t pick up on.

but once she was gone? once ozai was the fire lord, and not just a second son, a spare for if the heir were to perish? anyone who cared enough to stop it couldn’t. ozai had enough strength both martial and political it’d be essentially suicide. even iroh couldn’t do anything when zuko at thirteen was mutilated in front of him.

and from what we can gather, it seems a very clear scapegoat- golden child dynamic emerged. zuko was the primary victim of direct abuse, made to feel useless and humiliated for not living up to his sister, while azula grew up being made to watch this, internalising that she was superior to her brother and therefore had to be perfect else she’d meet the same abuse he did. and just. ughhh. poor kids. i mean this absolutely does not excuse either of them especially azula who's pretty clearly abusive towards her polycule but like. they were prisoners inside a gilded cage of a castle and treated like living extensions of a sadistic war criminals will. no wonder they became shitty people (and zuko is trying he's just mentally fucked from the abuse and believes he's the one in the wrong and therefore obsessively clings onto the excuse his father gave for abusing him and tirelessly works to change that into something his father would love because he sees approval and love from his father as a sign he’s doing good because he is sixteen. the latter part about approval applies to azula too but she’s also pretty clearly entirely uncaring about the morality side even if she does admire and love her father)

[julietasgf]

Why do you think Ma stayed with Strabo after seeing all the terrible things he did? I feel like she probably does love him on some level since she's still with him no matter what he does, but it's just like why??? While reading your fics on the Plinth family, I kept wondering why Ma didn't just leave Strabo. This isn't a criticism of your works, I just genuinely didn't understand why Ma kept staying with him even after seeing all the terrible things he was doing Sejanus. Like why was Strabo leaving Sejanus at school simply for being a few minutes late not a good enough reason for her to divorce Strabo's ass and take Sejanus away??? And when Strabo hits Sejanus, she still doesn't leave him??? Do you think D2 had more of a patriarchal culture where divorce was highly frowned upon and it was expected for women and children to just obey the father/husband and weather through the mistreatment/abuse? The line where Ma says that she's an adult who knew what she was doing when she accepted Strabo's love really stuck out to me because yeah, if she wants to accept that kind of terrible love, well like she said, she is an adult and it's up to her if she wants to be treated that way. But Sejanus is a child who didn't get the choice of choosing to be the recipient of his father's "love", he was brought into the world and had the misfortune to be stuck with a terrible father. Like it's one thing to be an adult and accept that kind of mistreatment, but to stand by and watch as a kid is forced to "accept" that kind of love??? Did Ma ever actually bring up divorce/separating to Strabo, or was that all just her internal thoughts? Would Strabo have made it impossible for her to leave him anyway? I know it's not easy to leave a toxic, abusive relationship, but I just keep wondering why it seemed like Ma didn't choose Sejanus over Strabo. Like why didn't Ma do more to protect Sejanus from Strabo? She keeps saying that she knows that Strabo is a bad man but it felt like she kinda just watched as Strabo destroyed Sejanus mentally and emotionally? But also what did Ma love about Strabo near the end? She knows he's a terrible person but still loves him? What are this man's redeeming qualities to have Ma stick by him through literally everything??? Also did Strabo just not care about the rest of his extended family in D2? Like he had to know that by siding with the Capitol, he was gonna screw over his own family in D2. To me, he seems like the type of man to not give a crap about his in-laws/wife's side of the family, but what about his own blood relatives? Like did he not care about screwing over his own parents and siblings (if he had any)?? And what if his own nieces and nephews were picked from the Reaping? Do you think any of Sejanus's cousins were sent to the Hunger Games? If Strabo could have some influence on Marcus being in the games, I want to believe that he could also influence it so that his nieces and nephews are safe from the games, but this is also Strabo we're talking about sooooo I guess I wouldn't also put it past him to not care if his nieces and nephews were reaped. this got kinda long, but i've been thinking a lot after reading your character studies and i think i'm kinda obsessed and in love with those works now lol

hi!!! so, first, tysm for reading my works, it's genuinely so sweet from you to tell me that you liked it and I'm so happy that you enjoyed them :((( <33

okay, so, I'm going to be very honest with you: I don't know either, and I wish I knew.

talking about the book, and not my hcs and not my works: I never understood why ma plinth stayed with someone like strabo. she clearly loves her district, she clearly holds her culture and traditions dearly, and she doesn't seem happy at the capitol. her family cut ties with her, only her sister still keeps contact. there's a part near the end where she says that when they moved to the capitol and got to the house for the first time, she felt like it was a disaster, she knew it was a disaster. ma is such a sweet person and it just didn't make sense to me. was she okay with what strabo did at the war? was divorce never an option? was she willing to choose strabo over her family? why?

I have two points regarding this (and now I'm also talking about my hcs and my works).

first one: what you talked about a patriarchal culture in D2. I think it's probably the most possible and strong option. it didn't seem like ma plinth worked or had any job or occupation besides being strabo's wife and sejanus' mother. her family cutting ties with her and her not seeming to have an actual option regarding moving to the capitol (because, to me, it seemed that if she could, she would come back, she would stay). I don't think that it's that frowned upon women working in panem, but I do think that when a man can sustain his family alone (especially after the war), it means status and power. ma plinth seems very dependant on strabo's money, and I wonder what would be her options if she left him; what would she do? where would she go? she doesn't even have a family anymore.

second point: apathy. now, the whole thg universe has very complex characters, and none of them are completely flawed or completely good. ma is lovely, she's sweet and kind and genuinely one of the nicest characters in the whole saga, but she watched her husband betray her district, her home, and did nothing. she watches fucked up shit happening and does nothing. it's not that she doesn't want to do something, but it's just so much easier to just let strabo do whatever he wants, even though it hurts, even though it goes against her morals. she did it regarding her home and leaving it, she does it regarding her son (even though for sejanus, she does put a little more of effort, but not enough to make actual changes, just to protect him from further harm).

I think ma fell in love with strabo once when he was a young, passionate man, ambitious but not completely bad, and then they married. the years passed by, and he got more and more ruthless, and more and more cold, but divorce didn't seem like an option, not really. I think ma still loves strabo as some sort of response, trying to keep in her mind more of the boy she met than the man she married.

(I actually have some hcs for how they met, why ma holds strabo so dearly to the point of trying to live with the fact that he's the worst, and my thoughts on sejanus just keeping the cycle going on with his ending with coriolanus but this is for later)

OOOH I HAVE SOME HCS REGARDING HIS FAMILY, but again, this is for later. but making it short: I think he had siblings, I don't think he cared about them, and this goes beyond just being ruthless. now, it didn't come to my thoughts the idea of one of sejanus' cousins getting reaped; even though it's a very interesting concept. I don't think it happened to sejanus' cousins from ma's side of the family; she would be heartbroken if that happened, and she's already devasted with having to move to the capitol, so I can totally see strabo playing his cards to make sure none of them actually get reaped. now, regarding sejanus' cousins from his father's side... the story is very much different.

thank you again anon, for your ask and for telling me that you enjoyed my stuff, it makes me very much happy <33

[ripgray-moved]

How does Peter feel about Charlie, and generally how is there dynamic?

so this is a really complex and layered question so forgive me in advance for waffling lol!

i haven't published my updated about on the site yet as it isn't ready ( it's very extensive! ), but i'll share this little snippet from it to give a good idea:

[...] Charlie, his little sister, is born. Due to Paimon's possession, it is believed that she is born with a multitude of learning difficulties and cognitive issues, though she spends her lifetime being somewhat of a medical mystery to the specialists that Annie and her husband Steve take her to see. The end diagnosis, though somewhat irresponsible in its delivery, is moderate to heavy autism— and from then on, Peter becomes her unofficial carer.

peter feels a deep sense of obligation to charlie from a very young age on account of how busy his parents are with their respective careers. he is largely emotionally responsible for her, and learns skills such as cooking and taking care of a young child when he himself is still just a kid. i think that's part of why he seems "regressive" in some ways, in terms of his hobbies and certain traits like the whole blanket collecting thing. also responds well to his dad calling him things like 'petey' and 'buddy': because in those tiny little things, he gets treated like the kid he never got to be.

that inevitably breeds a layer of resentment between them. peter himself ( if we're looking at the time charlie was alive, not the overall timeline explored on this blog as i play pete almost exclusively post-paimon as an adult ) is a child and an older male child at that. he'd very much like to have his own separate friends, life and hobbies, but there isn't much room for that. he can't develop 'normally' because he has so much to do, and most places he goes socially he has to bring charlie along with him. even though he knows it isn't her fault, he sometimes catches himself wishing she wasn't there; not dead or anything like that, just not present where he is in that moment. he wants some damn privacy. wants to go to the fucking mcdonalds on his own, like an average teenage boy.

there's also a level of trauma-bonding between them, though only from peter's side as charlie doesn't really retain the horror of the paint thinner incident courtesy of paimon. actually, that's a quick note i'd like to make: none of this is a representation of autism by the way; the whole point of it is that she isn't autistic, she's possessed by a demon— but you can't exactly get a diagnosis for that in most places lmao. this isn't meant to come across as "charlie can't do anything because she's autistic"; it's paimon hindering her so heavily, given his poor adjustment to a host so young and unfit for him.

the above being said? by and large, peter feels a deep love for his sister, in part because he feels so responsible for her, but mostly just because he's her big brother and as broken as their family is, he steps up to the plate. he doesn't want charlie to feel as alone as he does, and even though it can be difficult to connect with her because of her possession, he still tries his best.

charlie doesn't have much of a personality because of her possession, but her affection for art, though bolstered by paimon, is very much genuine. the two have some nice memories built on peter trying— and failing— to sculpt and draw like her. they also do have some genuinely positive memories of hanging out both in the treehouse and in the woods surrounding their home, as well as a couple on family outings / holidays when they were both younger.

their dynamic is probably best described as strained, though it's for reasons that neither of them can help, as well as their frail sense of family on account of their absent— and in annie's case, abusive— parents.

[vtori73]

One thing I realized about the bigger part of the JJK fandom that bugs me is that I feel sometimes they are projecting their own prejudices onto the work. What do I mean by this? Basically, while JJK does have issues with how it could spend more time on the girl/woman characters it's definitely not worse compared to a lot of shonen especially compared to ones similar to it and some of what people perceive as misogyny is more so their own misogyny/ poor analysis of JJK.

One moreso small example being the fact that people are quick to say and believe that the girl/women characters have contributed nothing plot or story wise to JJK which is extremely false and makes what they have done seem like nothing and meaningless & they genuinely believe any of them could be replaced by anyone/boys or men which isn't entirely true but even if it were... you could basically say that about any character almost in the story someone was saying Nanami was useless to the plot for fucks sake but we all know it's bullshit doesn't change with the girl/woman characters either.

One example of a character you can replace without also changing the story would be Mai, her being Maki's SISTER is integral to the plot and Maki, the story would not be the same if she was a boy because while there are men who are treated poorly in the Zenin clan it's only if they don't have or have low levels of curse energy while Mai & Maki are also treated poorly not only because of that but because they are woman who are meant to serve the men as well. Maki's arc was about overcoming and defeating an abusive misogynistic family FOR HER & HER SISTER! She, unlike Toji who just left she was forced to come back and made it everyone else's problem because of it which brings to my next example of fandoms own misogyny bleeding into JJK.

Maki keeps being compared to Toji and while I get it of course let's not pretend that a LOT of this continued instance that Maki is Toji 2.0 is just a misogynistic analysis of her character and peoples insistence of it are just diminishing her character and actions. Maki is a BETTER version of Toji, Toji wishes he were Maki, Maki is not an irresponsible deadbeat who SOLD off his child for money and only regretted it as he was dying. Sure, on a technique/power scale they are the same but power isn't the only thing that is a measure of their character (despite everyone wanting it to be because it's a shonen so I get but also... no). Maki IS better, she not only left but dealt with her horrible family and didn't become just some assassin for hire to fulfill her whims of gambling. Sure we can't say for sure how Toji would have been if he were Makis place and had his wife killed by them but also... that would have never really happened mainly because there would be no point for his family to go after him after he left. They went after Maki because as a woman and someone with no curse energy she needed to know her place and so needed to be reminded of it & why they were always interfering with her goals. Maki unluckily had a sister with some curse energy too so they also used her to get back at Maki which caused a further hatred & riff between Maki & Mai but they still cared and loved each other otherwise they wouldn't have cared if the other had died in that disciplinary pit.

Maki and Toji are similar and I won't deny that but denying Maki is her OWN character who is probably objectively better than Toji is just fandom being misogynistic! "Well one eyed cat compared them," yeah COMPARES and that happened maybe once or twice, but fandom won't shut up about it despite the fact that Gege does this ALL the time because he likes to, it's part of his storytelling, he likes to call back to older scenes! And again, that doesn't somehow make her Toji 2.0 because of it. I honestly don't even think Gege is trying to make her that either, she is too different from Toji, not to mention she has never met him or anything, i would get it if there had been even SOME connection to them besides the family thing but there is nothing else to connect the two besides Heavenly Restriction which is JUST a technique doesn't mean she's suppose to be Tojis replacement (technically I do think she is but not because he misses Toji she was always meant to be a better version of Toji OR what is more correct Toji was a weaker inferior Maki and Maki replaced him).

.

.

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I'm also going to argue now after thinking about it that she is supposed to be better than Toji on a technical/skill/power llevel as well because SHE FUCKING DID WHAT TOJI DID TO GOJO AKA BABY GOJO BEFORE HE BECAME EVEN MORE POWERFUL AND MAKI DID THIS TOO SUKUNA THE KING OF CURSES WHO DEFEATED GOJO WHO WAS AT FULL POWER (yes, I know Sukuna is in a weakened state, so was highschool Gojo if we are being honest)! Sure, the scene was probably moreso just a callback but maybe also possibly to establish the power level Sukuna is at right now... But who knows, for NOW I would much rather just claim it Maki is more powerful than Toji! 😛

Oh, also yes, I do not think it's at all farfetched to think fandom misogyny is coloring people's perception of the series ESPECIALLY considering how much misogyny is in fandom in general(not just JJK) that people within don't even notice and let slide so it's not hard at all for me to think some wires are getting crossed.

Update:

A lot has happened since then but my main argument now for Maki being better than Toji on a power/skill level is that even if Sukuna is as powerful as baby Gojo at that moment after defeating full power Gojo doesn't change the fact that she survived multiple blows from him, specifically multiple BLACK FLASHES which are the strongest moves in JJK and these are coming from Sukuna, I don't know how the compare to Gojo's move in general but I would think they are possibly stronger considering Sukuna is stronger than Gojo & despite him being in a weakened state i don't believe the power of bf changes regardless but it is possible they aren't as strong, but still would be super powerful and very likely stronger than baby Gojo's power level. So yeah... Maki is better than Toji in every conceivable way, & no one will change my mind on this!!!!

Also yes I acknowledge I misspoke a little bit before Sukuna wasn't "technically" at full power (right?) but he was still very powerful though and defeated Gojo in that state, I think technically he did get more powerful when he brought out his full Sukuna form but he still wasn't technically at his full power because he's still missing a finger that's I believe his isn't able to get to (I honestly think the may have explained more recently happened to it but I honestly don't remember, lol).

[markdmilton]

Cannon Events To Aim for

Canon events. I recently learned what this phrase means, and I think it is important for my story. It is the most crucial part of my connection to the Hunger Games. As this is a story that suggests we weren’t told the whole story in the Hunger Games itself. This is supposed to be considered a new version. There must be some things that remain the same. Certain elements are necessary for the story to remain true to its source. I know some of the cannon events. I believe sharing a few that are not spoilers for my version is crucial to show where they interconnect and to demonstrate why I am using canon events at all.

First, spoiler warning for any of the Hunger Games. I assume anyone reading this will know about all the spoilers in all of the books, probably even better than I will, but it would still be appropriate just to give you a warning for anyone who is randomly just reading this. So, here is the warning.

SPOILER WARNING! THERE MAY BE SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!!! SPOILER WARNING!!!!

Cannon events tie the two stories together. They remind us of the original story, kernels of truth behind the differences. The very first example is how Mavery and Katniss both enter their Games. They volunteer. Katniss volunteers for her sister. Mavery for her niece. That, however, is where their similarities in this situation end. The relationship between Mavery and her niece and Katniss and her sister are wildly different. Katniss loves her sister dearly. Katniss wants to protect her sister from something horrible. Mavery loves her niece in some way, but not the same. It’s different. It’s a far more complicated relationship based on a situation that is wildly different and involves a level of mental and physical abuse. Still, she volunteers for her. Hoping for the better. But Mavery goes in expecting death. Finding an ending to her life.

This is where our story truly diverges, and it happens before the story even begins. Mavery already lived all of this. She volunteered. She went into the Games. She had won with someone. Then she died, and that is where our story picks up. So, while their cannon event that spark is the same, the first time it happens is much earlier in the story for Mavery.

Another cannon event for both of them is their fathers dying. Katniss and Mavery both had their fathers die at a young age. They both died in mining accidents. The two of them then had to take care of their families at this young age. They both go out into the forest to do it. It is how they do it that changes. Mavery links up with an apothecary and gathers all of the ingredients the apothecary needs. Katniss uses her bow mostly. Mavery, while knowing how to hunt in some rudimentary sense, doesn’t like doing it. She much prefers the gathering aspect and knowing all of the healing that can be done with it. Which is a big difference between her and Katniss, where Katniss doesn’t want to be part of the healing because she doesn’t want to see people suffer.

Harlin and Haymitch have several cannon events as well. One being they both won the fiftieth games when they were 16. They were then the only ones for their regions until their respective girls arrived. They then began to act as pseudo-parental figures. The two of them face challenges being forced to be seen as parental figures. The two of them are alcoholics. They also both have nicknames for the girls they are taking care of. (Also, as a note, I know these aren’t all cannon events, but these similarities lead to things that could be considered cannon events, so please indulge me) One thing Harlin has in his games is that he loses his arm. It is not explicitly stated how or why at the moment, but he does lose his arm.

Another cannon event and the last one I will be talking about (at this moment, if you want more, please let me know) is both Katniss and Mavery’s first games ending with the two of them coming out of the arena with someone else. Katniss comes out with Peeta. Mavery came out with Merik. Katniss and Peeta are both from District 12; however, Mavery and Merik are from Districts 17 and 4, respectively. These elements are both fundamental to their stories and will continue to play significant roles within them.

There are a lot more cannon events that occur within this story, but I think you should find them on your own. Because while these things have to happen. The stories of how they deal with them, how they think about them, and what they do in response change based on the girl telling the story.

So, come check out these cannon events and others in my Hunger Games fanfiction-isque story: Sacrificial.

And may your heart be as pure as your Sacrifice.