#so take the canon with a grain of salt

[7weaslesinacoat]

i keep seeing this and i saw another post saying something similar but it genuinely icks me so much when i see something like-

“insert character is actually a horrible person!” or “insert character is actually a good person!”

especially in comics, because first off-

these are fictional characters, i know we all love them- but they’re just placeholders with a name and personality that we tell made up stories about. they can’t be a piece of shit, because they aren’t anything, so don’t get so worked up.

second off when they DO come across that way, especially if the character is a protagonist or a “good guy”-

and then in one specific story or one timeline there is a dickhead version of them (batman is a great example, nightwing, talia al ghul- it happens so much in comics chat 😭) then i see so many fans or members of the community jump on the hate train for not just that characterization, but the character as a whole.

this also happens when said characters are given flaws to make them more realistic, talia al ghul is a huge victim of this (and usually MORE SO than most dc characters because she is subconsciously profiled all the time).

anywho, i see all these people dogpiling on a character even though 90% of the time that characterization is just a choice by the writer.

comic writers aren’t looking at protagonists and long standing characters and deciding “yeah they’ve actually been racist this whole time”, no, a couple writer made a stupid decision that got published. and the great thing about comics is that not everything you have to imagine as canon! not every iteration of batman is the batman that you love! and that’s ok, that doesn’t make a character bad.

and it definitely doesn’t excuse hating on fans of that character because your canon of that character doesn’t fit another’s.

(i feel like what we should be doing when discussing characterization is be aware that it is all taking place in comic books- like “oh my god i hate all star batman” or “in canon deathstrokes done some weird shit” instead of saying “i hate batman.” “deathstroke is a pedo”—even though he kinda is—

because what about media where he’s an anti hero? and what about the millions of media where batman’s *not* a dick? if your evidence for your claim is specific, make a claim about the specific evidence, and not the masses of unrelated data)

[omgitskaii]

love that y’all liked the hc’s so i’ll bring some more to the table:

sam sometimes ask castiel to check if his soul is intact; no matter how many times cas assures him it’s there, sam always doubts himself

cas gets phantom pain on his shoulder blades from his wings

when dean has nightmares, he often gets violent with himself or things around him; there’s occasions he’s woken up with deep scratches on his arms or his fingernails stubbed and bloody from abuse to his wall. he tries to hide them when he wakes up.

dean sometimes flinches whenever cas raises an arm to him. he tries to play it off when it happens, but cas will always notice and assure him with a gentle touch afterwards.

when dean was still hosting michael in his head, whenever he’d fall asleep, dean would unintentionally visit him in the bar. michael would taunt him through the door, so often that dean has come to believe some of the stuff he said. he doesn’t tell anyone.

there’s a pillow in the library dedicated to sam for whenever he falls asleep/passes out reading lore books or cataloging

dean will get someone else to hand him painkillers, saying he’s too lazy to get them himself. but it’s really because he doesn’t trust himself.

cas will intentionally seem “dense” just to make dean laugh and does it mostly to fuck with sam.

sam and dean will play mystery puzzle games together to try to do “normal things,” but both of them will just apply hunters lore to it, which makes the game 10x more complicated, and then both give up.

it’s a habit he picked up when he was a kid hunting with john, but dean will still try to hide his injuries no matter how bad they are. it’s gotten him into trouble on multiple occasions.

sam bites his nails when he’s nervous or stressed out.

sam keeps an old jacket that dean gave him once when he was a kid that was way too big for him, even in his teens. it was a ratty thing from the thrift store and dean picked it out for him because he was too cold in the motel their dad set them up in. sam still wears it sometimes. it finally fits now that he’s older.

dean is soft on jack and claire because he sees himself in them, but deep down it’s also to reconcile how he first failed ben. he thinks of him sometimes, and on one occasion has sent him an anonymous birthday card. he believes he’s not father material and wasn’t made for it, no matter how badly he wants it.

dean has turned tricks in order to fend for him and sam when he was young. he’s never told sam.

cas makes rounds in the bunker to make sure both brothers are safely asleep

sam hates needles

dean has spent a lot of his time alone studying spell books to find some way to safely see cas’ true form, or some extension of it. later on, when he finds a way to make it possible, assures rowena with a quick text that he knows what fifth base is now.

sam and cas make an effort to hang out one on one. they go out for coffees sometimes when dean is off on a solo hunt, trade notes on different pieces of history and lore, or they’ll watch lengthy documentaries together.

dean goes to visit bennys grave in louisiana

whenever cas is pissed off he’ll mutter things in enochian

both dean and rowena actually do make an effort to be friends. they both just pretend to be insufferable for the sake of appearances, even though they did initially hate eachother. they’ll occasionally meet up for drinks, and rowena calls it ‘girls night’ despite deans annoyance.

cas gets pissed (and/or jealous) whenever someone touches deans shoulder

sam will sometimes jump on dean on the couch or throw shit at him when he’s relaxing in his room to piss him off, because he’s an annoying little brother. in older sibling fashion, dean will always chase him around the bunker at least once when he gets fed up before inevitably giving up to grab a drink or when cas yells at them for being idiots

dean lets jack, claire, and cas put on their own music in the impala. sam is furious about it when he finds out, but also secretly happy for him knowing how personal that actually is for his brother.

they used to do this when they were little, but sam and dean will still share clothes sometimes, even though they are sometimes too big/small. dean will lend cas his clothes too. it’s more of a comfort thing.

dean buys fidget toys for sam. sam has a collection of fidget spinners in almost every room in the bunker and multiple laying around in the impala for when they have to do stakeouts.

selectively mute dean. there are times where dean will go a few days without talking, usually due to rough nightmares or hunts gone wrong. he’s tired of taking his anger out on people, so he keeps to himself.

cas has robotically perfect handwriting, even when he needs to write something down quickly

dean likes to sing when he’s alone and he’s very good at it, but will purposefully sing off key when anyone comes in. he’ll usually sing whenever he’s cooking or working on baby, using his tools or utensils as a microphone.

[graythursday]

‘gotham gazette’ newspaper promo for ‘the penguin’ hints at harvey dent addition to the universe— “is our legal system dented beyond repair?” + riddler crumbs :>

[telesodalite]

Never getting over Fulcrum being a project manager...

Idk why, but something about that is so funny to me. Not just because the title of "project manager" is inherently kinda funny for a Decepticon, but also because-

1. It's vague sounding and hard to explain irl because it technically exists in multiple fields, like healthcare or manufacturing, which surely translates into canon in some way.

2. In canon, it's simultaneously a really mundane, innocuous sounding job, yet it's also a super morally awful position to reside over depending on the context. (*cough* forced colonization and cyberforming *cough*)

And 3. It solidifies the fact that behind all the surface level militaristic work we get with both the Decepticons and Autobots, there's also Cons and Bots with "normal" jobs in both factions.

Like, sure yeah we get scientists and doctors, engineers and programmers, but usually in big important or warfront positions. (For plot reasons, understandably.) But it's also really funny and interesting to think of those that worked background positions, or minor jobs.

Like an Autobot working in their equivalent of an HR department, or a Decepticon who runs one of their outpost's or starship's kitchens.

Just all the pre-war jobs that didn't just disappear with the war, but instead evolved to exist within the factions.

It's particularly funny with the Decepticons though, because it could be a super mundane job or situation, but because it's them, it has to have an air of ~e v i l~ to it, either legitimately and/or merely for the vibes, like Tarn's "performance reviews".

[heartonxions]

CW: BLOOD!!!

ooh.. he’s a little fucked up actually.

i want her soooooo bad it’s crazy. anyways… her necklace thingy in their first outfit is a slay… honestly levy being a chunky necklace liker is so good (making shit up about her because i can) i love their pant outfits!! i wish she was drawn with pants more… i think they were all such slays (the like three times she wore them) i miss the old ft style so much

i think about the scene where she tells lucy she wouldn’t mind seeing her butt instead of her manuscript often…. levy… levy my bisexual gender mcfuck king..

[dailyeohkakyoin]

did you guys know that i have a twitter

[starlight2634]

So what if Noe didn’t actually kill Vanitas?

We all know that The Case Study of Vanitas is from Noe’s POV and how at the end of the journey he kills Vanitas.(which I think for Vanitas is freeing him)

I have a theory. And it could just be bs and all but hear me out.

From my semi vague understanding of the plot, Vanitas’ name isn’t his own but the original vampire of the blue moon’s.

And with Noe saying he killed Vanitas at the end of the journey, and I’m going on a limb here, that he figuratively killed him. Like somehow freed Vanitas from his role as the vampire of the blue moon without killing him.

As in Noe got rid of Vanitas role and thus killing the name of the vampire of the blue moon. The whole anime and manga(haven’t read) revolves kinda around Vanitas freeing Curse Bearers by finding their true names.

What I’m trying to kinda say is that Noe found the blue moon vampire’s true name and set them free, releasing Vanitas role as the blue moon vampire.

TLDR: Either Noe figuratively kills Vanitas and Vanitas is released from being the vampire of the blue moon. Or this is just a 3AM random thought and I’m sleep deprived.

[meowyjean]

couldn't stop thinking about the intersections between my current interests, so i made a brainrot venn diagram:

[violinist-rachel]

Character Notes

Karl:

Playful, rebellious, and quick to tease.

He enjoys pushing people's buttons to see what makes them tick. In the past, it's mostly in light fun. In the present, it's mostly out of malice or to deflect.

Held a mixture of bitterness, sadness, and fondness towards humans due to feelings of abandonment when the park closed. This gets twisted into a deep hatred after the events with Rachel.

He's typically careful and calculated, but when successfully provoked, all plans get thrown out the window.

Though still guarded and masks his emotions with a smile, past Karl is more trusting and emotive than his current state. Because of this, I'm allowed to draw Karl with a wider range of expressions.

Presently, Karl is now shown almost exclusively smiling. He specifically makes it a point to never show when he's bothered by something (though this is often betrayed by his eye-twitch).

"Deary me" is generally used in a mocking, faux surprise/concern. It's a phrase he coined in the past to mock Rachel's speech patterns.

** The important thing to note about Karl is that he was a casualty in the incident with Rachel. None of what happened that night was planned. **

The last thing he says by the end of the story is "I hate you." This is also his final lie.

----

Rachel:

Catholic; Half Irish, half Jewish.

She comes from a middle-class family and is relatively well-off.

Her and her family were close friends with the owner of a shop that specialized in violins.

As a child prodigy, she suffered heavily from gifted child syndrome, both in childhood and in adulthood.

She used to be more rebellious and mischievous in the past, but became notably more placid and subdued after the incident with Karl.

She leaned strongly into religion after the incident with Karl due to heavy, unresolved guilt. However, she was never a devout believer and wanted very little to do with it in the past.

She's often seen smiling and content in front of others, but more often than not, it's not entirely genuine; a parallel to how Karl acts.

The people around her actually picks up on this, but doesn't say anything about it to her.

Similar to Karl, she also has a tendency to bottle up and hide her emotions. This often results in emotional outbursts when she reaches a tipping point.

** The important thing to note about Rachel is that the events of the incident were triggered directly as a result of her actions.**

One of the last things she does at the end of the story is perform in front of others with her violin. This is also the last time she plays the violin for an indeterminate amount of time.

[rustedleopard]

Monsters are made up of "Love, Hope, and Compassion," but I see it as a metaphor for their society as a whole. The Underground society is more peaceful, due to much less competition than humans, most likely due to less access to resources, which most likely contributed to cooperation.

Perhaps because of this, their scientific and technological progress has slowed down (the closure of Steamworks and the dismissal of all engineers. And the opening of a scientific complex with ONE scientist.) although because of the magic, they probably don't need that much technology...

As I said, their society is becoming more peaceful and monsters are just more inclined to cooperate. For them, murder is an unthinkable act (remember when Ed joked "that now he is with the wind," Martlet was shocked by these words.) Perhaps the monsters have built a kind of utopia within a limited framework

Even if the monsters broke the barrier and killed all the people, many people didn't like this result very much.

(Starlo rummages through a garbage dump and finds a VHS tape of Saving Private Ryan and takes it to his gang's house to show everyone, thinking it's about cowboys;)

P.S. This is the result of my brainstorming, which I decided to share with you.

I find it interesting that people think that monsters are made of "love, hope, and compassion" when the book from the Snowdin Librarby states:

Love, hope, compassion... This is what people say monster SOULs are made of.

But the absolute nature of "SOUL" is unknown.

After all, humans have proven their SOULs don't need these things to exist. - Book 6 (from the left) in Snowdin Library

Note that it doesn't state that monster SOULs are 100% confirmed to be made of "love, hope, and compassion;" it's just what they're said to be made out of (by monsters, so this conclusion is of course going to be biased) but what monster/human SOULs are actually made of is unknown. Love and hope and compassion are things that both humans and monsters need to live though. A monster denied these things will Fall Down because, being composed of magic, their dispositions are weaker than humans and they rely heavily on their SOULs/emotional state to sustain their being.

But humans have physical bodies that aren't linked so closely to the state of their SOUL. A human will certainly not die without love and compassion and hope, but that doesn't mean that they'll remain the same. Take what Frisk turns into over the course of a No Mercy Run (and I suppose I can throw Clover in here as well, even though they're from a fan-game). They become worse, warping into violent beings that are unrecognizable as human (Frisk)/unrecognizable as their former self (Clover). It's not a literal death of the person but more of a figurative death of the self.

Or look at Flowey: former monster, now SOULless being who's become so detached from his own emotions that love and compassion feel foreign to him. He's not dying from a lack of those feelings, but the person he used to be died over time + hundreds of Resets and Reloads and he's turned malevolent. He's able to recognize himself in Frisk when they finish a No Mercy Run in the Ruins ("Hahaha... You're not really human, are you? No. You're empty inside. Just like me."). This is the closest that you will likely get to seeing what a monster could become without love, hope, and compassion without Falling Down because Asriel exists in the physical body of a flower that is sustained by DT. And here he is drawing a comparison between himself and an exceptionally cruel human, proving that humans and monsters aren't so different from each other in the matters of the SOUL.

Tl;dr, personally I don't think that monsters are made of love, hope, and compassion like they claim to be. They still bully each other. They still hurt each other. They still want to go to war against humanity* and bring about the death of humankind. That doesn't sound loving and compassionate to me. They're peaceful beings and a large part of that is because of their magical physiology that relies on them feeling good in order to exist + they're all crammed under a mountain that practically forces cooperation with one another (you're stuck with your community whether you like it or not so you might as well get along). But that doesn't make them perfect.

And I have no clue how Starlo mistakes Saving Private Ryan for a cowboy movie from the title alone, but rest assured that I doubt that the Five making it through a war movie. Or any sort of movie that's excessively violent (unless it's a western and the violence is depicted in a more glorifying way but even they have their limits). They're LARPers, entertainers, not fighters.

*Though this fixation on destroying humanity seems more like monsters focusing on some nebulous goal that comes with their freedom than actually wanting the death of the human race, judging by how quickly they give up the War as soon as the Barrier is broken. Monster society is peaceful, crimes in the Underground are of the petty variety like theft. They lack the disposition for violence, judging by how so many of them aren't actually attacking Frisk/Clover but are instead communicating via magic which is perceived as an attack by humans--and those few monsters that are attacking for real can be dissuaded with the proper ACTs. I'd imagine that because monsters are so divorced from violence, they don't truly understand the suffering that comes with it; had they been plunged into actual war, they wouldn't have lasted long.

[esprei]

lil challenge from twitter i did for fun

volo my good friend volo

[not-the-living-ghost]

giggling remembering the time i half-jokingly headcanoned the night nurse as homophobic because of the way she interrupted edwin mid confession

[revenantghost]

The fact that I've heard second-hand from convention attendees that Orange has said that Knives and Vash share the same basic body model. And yet. And yet. For some reason they stole his ass. Why

[revvethasmythh]

An idle thought, really, but I think it's interesting to see fandom latch on the metaphorical interpretation of things like Laudna's relationship with Delilah as a metaphor for addiction or Imogen's psychic powers as a metaphor for either chronic pain or queerness, but there's much less attachment to or discussion of the characters who explicitly, canonically dealt with exactly those things. By which I mean Scanlan's substance abuse, Veth's alcoholism, and even Ashton's chronic pain (which feels like it was discussed much more before it was confirmed canon, and seems to be brought up mostly just as ship fodder these days). I suppose one could argue the devotion to the metaphorical interpretations lies in the fact that it's an interpretation of canon as opposed to being explicitly so, meaning there's more wiggle room to project a personal interpretation onto it. Explicit canon is more concrete, less malleable to the individual viewer. Still, if we're going to talk about addiction now in a metaphorical sense via Laudna, it leads me to wonder if we will see further discussion of the characters who explicitly dealt with addiction (Veth and Scanlan), as opposed to Laudna's purported allegorical version of it

[pepteezer]

touched up and colored that one evil peppino sketch i made since i’m making a playlist for him and wanted him to be the cover u_u

Evil Peppino playlist here! 🖤🍕🔪

[sebright]

While I would like to play DD/DDDA, the concept of MP being bestowed will but it being in the Arisen's body, to slowly be consumed by the Arisen's behaviors and character, and therefore lose even part of their identity, is a huge turnoff for me. I don't acknowledge this lore for my DD(2) story. One of the biggest enigmas for a pawn is the concept of will and acknowledgement of choice and desire apart from their Arisen and purpose that is dependent on the cycle. To be consumed into the image of their Arisen totally nullifies that. It proves they truly have no choice but to kneel to their Arisen's shadow. It's dooming. I suppose to some pawns they'd welcome it because they are subservient to their Arisen even in death and may accept the fate at face value and wouldn't know any better.

Kraus, however, wouldn't want this for Liam. Liam, coming to be conscious of will as something he could come to possess, would be pulled apart if he was to mutate into a person he loved , respected, and cherished. Instead he'd be a mockery of that, slowly twisting to wear the skin of someone that martyred themselves for the sake of existence free of a scripted cycle.

Liam existed long before Kraus, perhaps even the cycle as Oblivion has always been. He was not created by Kraus. He calls forth an entity but he does not dictate what that entity will look like, only that he feels he 'needs someone I can trust.' His Will was a beacon for Liam, a chance at escaping a void where he only knew the idea of light and color but may never experience it. He chases this powerful Will, finds himself in the presence of purpose, and the human body he comes to possess is his own, it's created naturally based on what sort of presence he was within the Rift. Liam's fully natural state, the state he is innate to, is Oblivion, and his dragon form(whether hijacked by Oblivion's desire for nonexistence or not) is often quite comfortable for him to be in. Hijacked, mentally he is distraught and in immense pain as he's being ripped in innumerable ways and weaponized.

Kraus only shown a light and allowed whatever that was within the Rift to reveal itself. He didn't know what to expect, and he wasn't impressed with Liam, nor truly wanted a pawn hounding his steps, nor wanted the task he was charged with in the beginning but that changes over time when he realizes he is the chance that stands between a continuous failing cycle that has left the world stagnating and a world where while uncertain and evolving, is free to choose how it meets uncertainty.

Tldr: pawn gets to keep his own body once bestowed with will. I don't acknowledge DDDA or DA pawn lore concerning bestowal of spirit/will and body mutation/transfer. I don't headcanon that Kraus makes up Liam's physical appearance either, that just comes along with Liam naturally. He forms a bond with a pawn, a contract (using DDO's lore), and he has to earn the chance to summon a pawn that is to be his to command initially, it's not just given to him. but he cannot manipulate Liam's core appearance. Even if I joke about it. (;