#sorry went off on a tangent

[tofixtheshadows]

Id love to hear ur interpretation and analysis on falin! She’s one of my favorite characters and and I was wondering what ur thoughts on her are

Man, I struggle to think of anything I could say about Falin that others have not already said. But she's one of my favorite things about Dungeon Meshi too.

So much of the story revolves around Falin, and she's not even there. Tumblr loves to talk about haunting the narrative, but Falin might be one of the best examples of it ever put to page. She's dead. She's alive. She's dead. She's alive. She's alive but she's missing, she's alive but she isn't herself. She's dead but she might wake. She's dead but she's frozen in ice. She's alive but she's sleepwalking. They chase her ghost and they chase her body all through the story.

I think what Kui does with her is fascinating. Not just as character with a personality we can analyze, but as an object in a narrative- that's why I say she's one of my favorite things about the story, because I also mean it in a mechanical sense. As a writer, Kui's really good at misdirection- that is, setting you up to believe or expect something about a character or a plot, and then turning that on its head. It's most apparent with Kabru, but it works really well with Falin too.

Because the precious little sister is a very well known character archetype, right? So is the gentle healer. The heart of the party. The white mage girl. The damsel in distress. The martyr.

And this isn't a Laura Palmer situation, where we find out that beneath her wholesome surface there's something dark and troubled. No, Falin truly is a kind and gentle person. That isn't where the misdirection leads (and that, too, I think, is another misdirection- it's not "Plot twist, she isn't as nice as you thought!", which would almost be too easy).

The misdirection here is more about structure than about character (but also, yeah- a little about character).

What I mean is, with these archetypes firmly in mind, along with a whole other host of fantasy genre expectations, I think anyone who goes into Dungeon Meshi un-spoiled probably expects Falin's rescue to be an endgame event; at least on a subconscious level, where you're not really thinking about it but in the back of your head you're already stretching out the story to place Falin firmly in the distance. Fire breathing dragon at the bottom of the dungeon is perfect final boss material, right? Slay the dragon. Rescue the princess.

And Falin is the perfect prize in the traditional old school fantasy that the concept of the titular dungeon is a send-up to. Blonde (white), soft-spoken, sweet-natured, beloved by everyone. An angelic figure.

Maybe that's why Ryoko Kui gave her white wings.

It is sort of jarring when chapter 23 rolls around and it's already time to fight the red dragon. And it takes a few chapters, but they succeed. And then Falin's impossible resurrection succeeds. But by then you guess that this is not going to be the story you expected it to be.

I want to point out that Falin spends a lot of time getting, well, babied, post-resurrection. Marcille washes her in the bath, despite Falin stating that she's capable of washing herself. Marcille schools her about her mana use despite Falin demonstrating that she is not hurting for mana, and brushes aside Falin's explanations. Both Marcille and Laios refuse to actually tell her what happened. Laios scruffs up her hair like she's a little kid and scolds her for something she can't remember doing. Marcille explicitly calls her a little kid when Falin tries to talk about how much she's grown.

Of course I'm not saying that Laios was wrong to act like a big brother, or that Marcille shouldn't be worried about taking care of her shell-shocked friend in the bath. But the framing of it clearly shows a Falin who is struggling to be heard.

If you'd like to address the big gay elephant in the room while we're here, I want to state for the record that- whether you read her as gay or not -I think Marcille is completely oblivious during this. Because Falin is her little friend from school. Her best friend, yes, but also the young tallman student she, in her infinite elven wisdom, had to mentor and look after. Marcille has not yet accepted that Falin is an adult now, nor has she accepted that she, herself, is only barely past teenagerhood developmentally and is not nearly as mature as she believes. Of course she'd scrub Falin in the bath and fuss over her.

Falin, meanwhile, seems more than aware of her own adult body and the inappropriate way Marcille is treating it.

The mana-sharing scene is, I think, Falin trying to get a little of her own back. How do you like it, Marcille?

And she tries again in bed.

Maybe she's wondering if their relationship will change now that they're grown ups. If Marcille prefers her as a little girl, or at least as a woman who lets herself be guided like one; if Marcille will react badly if Falin keeps trying to assert herself. She also might be subtly trying to signal to Marcille that bed sharing, like bathing, carries a different weight to it when you do it as adults rather than as children.

With all this in mind, the decision to turn Falin from the precious prize they rescued into to the vicious dragon they have to slay, hits a lot harder.

Falin with a powerful, monstrous, destructive body. Falin, who couldn't even stand to cause people pain from using healing spells, slaughtering half a dozen people in brutal ways. And that's not her, she's being mind-controlled, but as an object in the story she has completely flipped. From damsel to threat.

And I love that she carries a little bit of that with her when she's resurrected again.

Because she's no longer the girl who's going to let herself be stifled by her brother's and her best friend's co-dependency, no matter how much she loves them. She's different now: stronger, eyes open, forging her own path instead of following in their wake. Falin is still going to come back to them again, but this time it won't be because they chased her. It'll be because they let her go.

[pocketgalaxies]

sucks that beau seems to hate laudna. they have so much in common with this ep and the 95-96 eps of c3

tea! yeah it's sad bc i think that dynamic could've been rly fun but 1) marisha absolutely did not have her head screwed on straight enough to pull off a beau/laudna conversation and 2) i think they're both characters that require a significant amount of chipping away and also knowledge of a Lot of backstory to really see and understand all those commonalities, and beau (in this context) would absolutely not entertain laudna's company long enough for them to get to that point dkfjskdjfsd

speaking of which, i actually think it's a little interesting in itself that they weren't able to be on any level to chat with each other. it's a symptom of the fact that they both Present themselves a certain way that is vastly different from the way they are when amongst their closest friends and confidants, and those chosen Presentations are very different from each other. when meeting strangers/new acquaintances, beau is standoffish, rude, blunt, pessimistic. laudna is excessively bubbly and excitable and fills the space with both her body and her voice. extreme opposites. but in private and trusted spaces, they both fall closer to some middle ground. this is different from people like jester, orym, chetney, etc. – people who are more consistent in their behaviors across different social contexts (obviously i'm speaking in relative terms here – everyone is a little different and more vulnerable when they aren't meeting strangers). but that intentional masking of their more authentic (insecure, lonely) selves makes it a lot harder to put them in a space in which they would believably broach those topics with each other. idk i just think they're neat!!

[helluvahotmess]

'I want you to continue to be who you are.' what if i fucking died what then

[zzoupz]

Are you a proshipper?

what if the world was made of pudding

[reachexceedinggrasp]

I have a feeling you might relate to this or you might have even related this on your blog already, but I was just thinking of that Ghoul quotation water water everywhere and not a drop to drink

I think probably my favourite, maybe ever, quiet point of characterisation in a sort of villainous or Beast love interest is his or her having a poet's soul... whether that is conscious or unconscious romantic meditation. It's like Kylo musing to Rey when he says 'You have that look in your eyes. From the forest. When you called me a monster' I love that sort of wistful observation, especially because it evokes such potent imagery ('when we fought together in the forest and then you marked yourself on my face'). Or more literally something like Ghoul citing a line of literature, even when none around except for Lucy would know what he's referencing, it's for his own arrestment and amusement, this is how he sees/interacts with the world

I guess in that way, it reveals something new about their perspective on the world, even when they're somebody seemingly cut off from it - monstrous, othered, repellent, ugly - when they're able to articulate a certain beauty which other characters may not remark upon. It's sort of covetous in that sense, but I think it also sort of helps explain what might interest them about a Beauty, after all, there's something they long for and value (spiritual, aesthetic, existential beauty).

I thought you might be able to relate 🥰

Oh, totally. And with Cooper and Ben, specifically, which is a parallel I hadn't actually noticed until you've just pointed it out, we're being shown their sensitivity as characters. Not in the sense of being considerate, but that they're aware and alert to beauty and meaning in the world despite currently occupying a narrative role which might make us think they're simply destructive or nihilistic figures. And despite the cynicism they're both ostensibly espousing.

Cooper quotes or alludes to literature practically constantly relative to how little he speaks, always knowing people almost certainly won't understand him, and that's especially fascinating because he didn't make those kinds of references in the flashbacks. We could take this in a whole direction about how he created the Ghoul as a character to shield himself from the things he had to do to survive and is living within a meta-narrative deconstructing the reactionary anti-hero who overtook the white hat sheriff he used to play in his movies. The anti-hero he never wanted to be. He makes allusions because his life has become a story he's telling himself to stay sane. He's his own wry Dickensian narrator making asides to an imagined audience about dramatic irony and social commentary.

And an important part of his presentation to others before the war was painting himself as not sophisticated. Just a cowboy and then just a guy who plays a cowboy in the movies. He wants nothing to do with politics either in an interpersonal or broader sense, and disclaims any pretensions to being savvy despite being in a theoretically powerful position as a rich, well-connected major film star. I think he was genuinely naive, but I also think he often played dumb to avoid social conflict. He was complacent and his image helped him remain complacent. Obviously he was very willing to be confrontational when he saw wrong or injustice right in front of him (he goes after Bud Askins directly to his face about marines getting killed by shitty equipment, he challenges Moldaver when she calls him out), but pre-bombs he mostly uses his empathic perceptiveness and charisma to keep everyone around him happy.

In the wasteland we often see him doing the opposite and deliberately riling people up in order to gather information and assess or eliminate them as threats, but he's also only gotten better at disarming people when he wants to. As a handsome charming film star he pretended not to know anything, as a scary intimidating monster he pretends he knows everything.

What I'm wondering about as far as all this goes is whether Cooper always had a secret nerdy side and read all the classics as a teenager or perhaps while waiting between shots when he was working as a stuntman, or whether he wanted to fit in when he started to make it in Hollywood so tried to become cultured before realising that wasn't what anyone wanted from him. Or if he just spent 200 years alone and read anything he could find as a way to cling to his humanity. We know he was at least a bit intellectually curious before the war, because of his reading and retaining some article about studies on torture.

But YES, him quoting poetry and being so interested and insightful about Lucy, specifically is a huge part of how he's framed as a romantic figure. And he's already by far the most romantic figure in the show. If it were solely about his tragedy, you'd think they would emphasise the contrast between his pre-fallen and post-fallen state by stripping him of his heroic trappings, but they don't. He's actually more romantic post-'curse'.

It also gets me because he's an extremely smart, socially adept person who doesn't let others see him for who he really is both consciously and unconsciously on multiple levels and that layers of identity shit is my crack. He was a profoundly honest man who thought he was simple, but actually he was a glorious maze of contradiction and complexity waiting to happen who has now come into his own as a master manipulator.

[the-tenth-arcanum]

I can't believe trump is winning the elections...

[kathaynesart]

Hi there! Hope you’re taking care of yourself.

I was wondering if I could use your concept for Donnie’s visor and eyebrow display? Just the visor itself, not the background of why he wears it ofc. It’s such a cool look. I completely understand if not.

I am absolutely in love with his design as a whole (may he rest in peace) and every time I see his smug face in your response comics I want to scrunch into a ball of sheer joy. The drained battery expression is a punch of serotonin every time I see it.

That being said I am enamored with your art style. I don’t really know how to use words to express exactly what it is but it’s very shapes, with gorgeous lines and so very very expressive. Thank you so much for sharing your art.

Of course! The concept itself is by no means patented by me haha, however I would totally recommend creating your own spin on it to make it your own! Like maybe it’s more of a dome sphere (so that his eyebrows can lift higher which is a problem I run into haha) or maybe the pixelated display for his brows are less like bars and more like little square pixels or blocky Tetris blocks or even glitching!

Anyways these are just some quick suggestions off the top of my head. I love how people in communities can inspire each other to create new and amazing things through it :) Let me know if you ever post your design!

[amethystina]

I'm waiting so excitedly for your updates, old and new, I can't begin to tell you! You are the fandom treasure! And as I'm waiting and biting my nails I wanted to ask something, what do you think about the final scenes of episode 8 where Gaon has dinner with his professor and tells him he chooses Yohan's side. How come Yohan knew where to find them and the precise moment to come in and pick Gaon up, was he following them or did he and Gaon had a deal?

And what's with leaving his car to stand next to Gain and look at professor? I love this scene so much but I don't know if I understand its message right. Was it posturing, laying a claim on Gaon or what? I tend to feel that Yohan was possessive of Gaon when it came to professor and his police friend and I think I feel some of it in this scene but I'm not sure, I just don't have a clear grasp on it. Would love to know your thoughts!

Aww, thank you so much, sweetheart! This is definitely the first time I've been called not just a fandom treasure, but the fandom treasure. Thank you 💜

Ah yes, the "Ga On runs off with his new sugar daddy" scene. Or, as I sometimes like to call it, the "You just don't understand, dad professor — I love him" scene.

I'm joking, obviously.

(... or am I?)

I would say that Ga On and Yo Han made an agreement beforehand, yes. They probably talked about Ga On's choice to switch sides and while Yo Han would no doubt have loved for Ga On to continue on as a double agent (feeding Professor Min intentionally faulty information) Ga On is way too honest for that. So he probably insisted that, no, he'll call Professor Min, meet up with him, and just flat out tell him that Ga On's spying mission is over. He's now going to elope work with Yo Han instead.

And I find it hilarious to think that, most likely, Yo Han was just sitting in his car, perhaps scrolling through his phone, waiting for his newly acquired sugar baby to finish telling his semi-father figure that he's going dark side. Because Ga On gets up and starts walking before Yo Han drives up, meaning that it's not like Ga On saw the car coming and went "oh, better wrap this up now." It was probably the other way around, where Ga On leaving the table was the signal for Yo Han to come pick him up.

So yes, they definitely had an agreement, especially since Ga On seems to know in exactly which direction to walk, even before the car shows up, and doesn't look the least bit surprised by Yo Han's arrival.

They planned that shit.

Brutal.

As for the fact that Yo Han gets out of the car? Well, buckle up, my darlings, because I think we should take a detour to discuss intent.

Now, intent isn't necessarily important when you want to interpret a scene, but I like the extra nuance it can offer. And by intent, I mean what the scriptwriter/director might have intended with a scene. Why is this scene here? What was the plan behind it? How is it supposed to impact the overall story? How does it tie into the rest of the plot?

Which is never something you can say for sure, of course, unless there are interviews expressly stating it, but, a lot of the time, we can guess.

The intent behind this scene, in its simplest, purest form, is to show that Ga On is switching sides. And, with that in mind, it makes sense that he crosses that road to Yo Han's car (if you know me and my metas, you know how much I love lines, characters crossing said lines, and the symbolism of that) and stops to stand next to Yo Han. It's a very simple yet effective way to show Ga On's choice and where it will take him.

Into Yo Han's arms.

NOW. Intent is very useful because, depending on how skilled the person writing is, you can hide a lot of subtext and leave room for a lot of interpretation with a cleverly formulated intent. That's how censored shows get away with so much, because they can point to the perfectly reasonable, heteronormative intent behind a scene and pretend that there aren't also a lot of subtler nuances to the reading.

And, if they're extra bold, they also add hints in the presentation and execution.

The scene where Yo Han invites Sun Ah to the house is a perfect example of this, where the intent is to make her feel lonely, like an outsider, as she's invited to observe this warm, comfortable family. Not a bad tactic as far as manipulation goes, I have to say. So, in other words, very reasonable intent — makes sense with what they're trying to achieve.

The fact that it ends up looking more like Yo Han is proudly showing off his doting, doe-eyed househusband who's passively-aggressively and not-so-discreetly staking his claim is... well, that's just an accidental side effect, isn't it? Not intent at all.

And that's true. It's not intent that makes it look gay.

It's the presentation of the intent.

(Sidenote: To be a fly on the wall when Yo Han and Ga On came up with this strategy. Because, clearly, they were both in on it and, I mean, how did that conversation go? Inquiring minds need to know.

Like, how did they go from: "We need to throw her off balance. We'll invite her to the house, show what she's missing out on, but also give her hints that she could have it all, if she's willing to surrender" to Ga On going: "I'll cook a fancy dinner. That'll make her jealous."

I mean, he's not wrong but, like, Mr. Sugar Baby. What? x'D

Also, imagine Yo Han's face. Transcendent.)

Anyway. Intent can also ruin a story. I think most of us have read a fanfic and gone: "... that character wouldn't do that. This makes no sense." That could be a sign that the author's intent is clashing with the characters or the story they're trying to tell. Or, put more bluntly, that the author is so focused on forcing an idea that they don't realise that they're going against the logic of the story or characters' personalities. Things happen because they want them to, not because it makes sense, meaning that the intent isn't tied to the story or characters, but what the writer wants. This is badly planned intent.

And, most of the time, readers can tell when the intent is off, even if you might not be able to put your finger on it while you're reading. But if you're feeling a niggling doubt at the back of your mind, wondering why this scene is here, what this scene even means, or why this character suddenly seems to act so strangely, it could be that the writer didn't plan it well enough.

That's not to say that a reader must always know the intent behind a scene. Ideally, the story should be good enough that they don't have to stop and think about things like that. If the intent and internal logic are sound enough, it should just flow naturally.

Because, when it comes down to it, pretty much all scenes in a story have an intent and that intent should be in harmony with the characters' personalities and how they would choose to behave. And I don't mean that there can never be conflict or that characters can't disagree — I mean that all scenes should have a reason for being there. It doesn't have to be a deep or complex reason, but there should be a reason that ties into the overarching plotline. And characters shouldn't be forced into a scene they have no business being in. Intent is very important from a crafting standpoint.

And intent is one of the things that makes The Devil Judge such an absolute joy. Because while there is always a perfectly reasonable — and very heterosexual, we promise — intent behind most scenes, they often choose to present the scenes in a way that leaves room for a much queerer reading. Now, that can happen with almost any story, but what sets The Devil Judge apart is that it seems to be entirely intentional.

The presentation is by no means subtle or accidental.

Like, they didn't have to make Ga On shuffle up in a soft, comfortable sweater and greet Sun Ah like a caring househusband, but they did. That was a conscious choice.

And this scene you mention, with Yo Han getting out of his car when he's picking Ga On up, falls into a similar category in my mind. The surface-level intent is clear — show that Ga On is switching sides — but he could simply have said so. He could have borrowed a car and driven himself. Yo Han didn't have to come pick him up. And he certainly didn't have to get out of the car.

But he did.

And that might be what you're picking up on when you're saying that you're not sure if you're understanding the message correctly. Because in a drama this clever, that puts so much effort into details and, again, intent, it feels almost a bit odd to leave this gaping hole, doesn't it? Yo Han stepping out of that car should mean something, right?

And, once you've gotten this far, you've got a couple of options to choose from to fill in the blanks. Either you can assume that it was just something the creators chose to do because it looked/seemed cool and therefore might not mean much at all. And considering that this drama does that a couple of times, this could honestly be the case. Maybe they just thought it would be more effective to have Yo Han to step out of the car? To really hammer it home to Professor Min what's happening?

Your other option is to bring in the harmonisation between intent and characters. Because, if the writer is good and their characters consistent, you should be able to pick up on secondary layers of intent, running parallel with the main one. Because while each scene has an intent, each character IN that scene also has one (though perhaps it would be more comfortable to call it purpose at this point?).

In other words: If "it looked cool" isn't the answer, could we find it in the character's behaviour instead? What is their intent, based on their personalities and previous actions? Does that give a more satisfying answer?

What reason would Mr. Kang "Abyss" Yo Han have for stepping out of that car?

I, personally, think that the answer is pretty simple.

He is absofuckinglutely staking a claim.

He's stepping out of that car because he's a Possessive, Dramatic Bitch and wants to rub it in Professor Min's face. He wants to show that he's won, that he's turned the spy Professor Min sent, and that he's, quite literally, taking Ga On away.

Yo Han is basically going: "Thanks for the sugar baby — I'll make sure to ravish savour treasure him."

So while the main goal of that scene is to establish that Ga On is switching sides, the intent Yo Han adds with his actions leaves room for a very gay reading. In fact, I'd argue that doing so only makes the scene more believable, since Yo Han's actions are otherwise kind of... unnecessary? He has no reason to step out of the car and make himself known, unless it's for the dramah.

Again, the presentation of the intent is where the magic happens.

So, why this long, godawful rant about intent, you ask? When I could just have answered the question right away?

Because while I know that I'm preaching to the choir in terms of this drama being gay as hell, I just want to highlight the importance of intent and how it can change the reading of a scene. I think intent — or specifically the harmony between characters and intent, and the various layers of intent — is absolutely fascinating, especially in this drama.

Especially if you want to argue that it's gay.

Because there is, in fact, some scenes where I just... I can't. The intent and characterisation don't match at all — unless you add a queer element. Like, this drama is so clever. Not perfect, mind you, but so clever. And so careful with especially Yo Han and Ga On's characterisation. Very little is left to chance.

And so, if you keep everything I've said about intent and characters in mind, and I ask you to explain the intent behind this one, singular shot, can you do so without making it gay?

I'm not joking when I say that this scene, right here, was the one that definitively made me go "oh fuck, this is gay gay."

Because in most others — if not all — I can find that safe surface-level intent which means that the people behind this drama can claim plausible deniability. Of course it's not gay! Look at this perfectly reasonable, heterosexual intent!

Except this one.

There's no explanation for this. Ga On has no reason to look this jealous unless his jealousy is the main intent behind this shot. There just isn't. And it's only made worse by his huff and the way he clenches his jaw a couple of seconds later. Not even the argument that Sun Ah is their enemy so letting her fix Yo Han's tie might be dangerous can justify this, since that's not a look of concern or alarm — that's jealousy.

The intent is jealousy. Plain and simple.

And that's why intent is important. Because, if push came to shove, the intent behind this one, singular screenshot could, theoretically, be the only evidence you need if you wanted to defend a queer reading of this drama.

Because there is, quite frankly — in my humble opinion as the fandom treasure — no other way to explain the look on his face in a drama this meticulous and obsessed with details.

In this scene, unlike all the others, the queerness isn't just in the presentation anymore — it's in both the intent and presentation.

So, if you want the scene that says "this shit's gay, fam"?

This is the one.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[joznii]

You know, we’re all aware of the Sven vs Faendal argument, but what about Camilla? I’ve heard an analysis saying that she’s stringing both men along with no intention of committing, based on in game dialogue.

So I propose that all three of them deserve to be quarantined in a toxic love triangle in Riverwood.

Yesss i think theres actually dialogue she has with hod or orgnar or someone where he basically tell her to "stop stringing those boys along" and shes like "lmaoo nah" +she immediately starts flirting with the player character too

I kinda interpret her as someone whose SO bored and frustrated in this tiny ass town in a fairly rural province like skyrim and desperately wants more but instead shes stuck here creating drama to entertain herself

She wants to go after the golden claw thieves HERSELF before the DB comes to help and she argues with her overbearing brother constantly about her ideas to improve the store or taking the shop on the road (get her Out of Here)

But yeah i highly doubt she has Any plans on picking either of them even after the letter quest she just likes the attention and enjoys getting fought over, never really even Picking the "winner" in the quest just being angry at the "loser" (i think she didnt expect either of them to stoop so low) , ideally to her she'd get with someone (like the DB) who would actually fulfill her ambitions before ever genuinely choosing either sven or faendal.

They rlly do all deserve the hole theyve dug themselves into lol

(tldr; camilla valerius,,, she should be at the club😔)

[lupinmoonlight]

prof! lupin is everything and I’m addicted

I'm so obsessed with him it's unhealthy. I have a folder on my phone with 800+ edits of Remus.

I've also been re-reading the books recently (last time was back in 2017) and the man is SO FATHERLY!?!

In PoA when Harry faints on the train and Remus excuses himself...he doesn't go to speak with the driver...he goes to SEND AN OWL TO MCGONAGALL TO TELL HER HARRY FAINTED so when Harry arrives at school he gets swarmed by Poppy and McGonagall.

In OOTP he literally writes a letter to Mr and Mrs. Dursley to let them know that Harry was going with him and to not worry about him. He leads the entire mission to bring Harry safely to Grimmauld place. He stands up to Molly to tell her they all care about Harry. He tries to calm everyone down and starts serving dinner, telling Molly it looks delicious. He comforts Molly when she sees her boggart by PETTING HER ON THE HEAD GENTLY!?!?! He lectures Harry about letting Snape help him in Occlumency. He accompanies the trio to visit Arthur at St-Mungo's during Christmas!?!?! He goes over to sit with a werewolf to make him feel less alone and more human!?!?!

This man makes my heart melt every single day. I'm in a constant battle with myself, wondering if I want him to be my dad or my husband.

[oshiawaseni]

What pulled me into my love of MHA is the relationship between Bakugo and Deku... and seeing out they are now after reading recent manga chapters makes me so excited about all that is coming up... I don't know what about BKDK speaks to me... but I can practically feel the love between them, and complex, deep, and layered love is my biggest weakness. (I envy them.) <3

I cry over bkdk because their love for each other now is just so perfect, but circumstances kind of outside their control have torn them apart over and over. And it’s so hard to see characters who love each other as much as they do never get to tell that to each other, and knowing that both of them have gone through Katsuki’s death without having said everything they wanted to say. In that same kind of desperate way Katsuki went feral over Izuku falling into a coma and not being able to tell him everything that was now filling his head up completely. That he is sorry for all he has ever done to hurt Izuku and that he cares so damn much about him.

"You better not die on me Izuku, because I need you, and there's still so many things I have to tell you."

This was also probably why they added that extra scene of Katsuki thinking of Izuku after waking up. It helped convey his new and open concern for him. His "tsundereisms" until now had only been assumed, because the “dere” side of his "tsun" had been almost impossible to see. Hori had kept this side of him very well hidden - possibly with an intention to get his desired bkdk romance across the shounen jump finish line.

So all of Katsuki’s hospital scenes confirmed suspicions that this soft side has potentially always existed, only now he was no longer holding back his “dere” for Izuku. He wasn't keeping it caged inside his heart anymore. And this is why I started getting my hopes up for for bkdk canon.

Anyway, they wanted to be the one that’s always there for the other but they kept failing in that, lzuku’s many failings to save Katsuki up until now or the way Katsuki had failed to see Izuku’s love for him, which lead to the breakdown of their relationship for so long. The failure of both of them to connect to one another emotionally, communicate how they feel and really fight for each other and overcome the issues before so many misunderstandings had the chance to take such stranglehold over their lives.

Narratively, all of their problems and lack of understanding each other's emotional selves, despite being so close, has been built up to culminate in a singular point that we are still yet to see.

The purpose of showing how well they know each other and can predict each other’s future strategies and their connection in the battle sense… Hori wrote them like this to juxtapose it against their never ending misunderstandings of the heart. It highlights how connected their emotions should also be, hinting that that their feelings were headed straight for each other until the day they crashed into each other violently and beautifully. All the events as of late have mostly been about Katsuki coming to terms with the contents of his heart and now the time has come for Izuku to do the same.

A lot of what has been shown is Izuku’s tainted vision of their relationship, or Katsuki’s lonely perspective of never being able to say what he really wants to say the most. And sometimes it’s been about both of them not feeling heard. There has been a veil between their true feelings for so long and it’s high time it is lifted and they meet together as two hearts that can truly see each other without anymore of the pretence. That’s what some of us think will happen in the upcoming chapters, and why Hori keeps having the other couples make references and parallels to them in a lead up to “?” and also why this was drawn:

I take issue with people who don't acknowledge these overarching narratives that are guiding their characters together - and that they are very much "Not Done" with Katsuki's apology. Their many misunderstandings and hidden feelings for each other must be revealed to reach the conclusion of this story. Because bnha is THEIR story. The only reason I can come up with as for why people deny this future intimacy they'll share... is that if people were to admit these two aren't done with Katsuki's apology, they're also admitting the fact that BkDk are going to become even MORE closer, and they can see the writing on the wall if that ever were to happen...

[sciderman]

Sometimes i remember a comics moment i randomly came across somewhere, where Sam Wilson mentiones a musical and Steve Rodgers says he doesn't like musicals, to whitch Sam goes "Guess that means you really are straight" and even tho i don't care about Cap America or the Avengers, the moment stuck in me for that quote by Sam. And like....Sci, any ideas if straight men actually don't like musicals or is that bullshit?

actually i think i know more gay men who hate musicals than i know straight men who hate musicals. i've had a drag queen stop me point blank when i was about to sing a barbra streisand song, and i know so many gays who pointedly hate abba. so based on my experience i think the inverse is true. most of the straight men i know are kind of impartial about musicals, but gay men? hate.

my theory is that a lot of gay men don't want to fall into stereotypes, maybe. but thaaaaat's just a theory! a gay theory.

[youbutstupid]

You just don't miss with your takes do you? Nah but fr on Reid's anger, is he a little bit emotional and snippy? Yes, but that's normal. The situations that cause that anger in him are thoroughly unfair and he should be allowed to express it and have it acknowledged without having something stupid like the micro expressions thrown at him. He's also just not that socially inept, we see that he's able to process things quite well but despite this people (including fans) love to baby him and act as if he's totally incapable of emotional intelligence

I love asks like this and I’m so sorry it took me so long to respond

This is really interesting to me because we do see that Reid has a relatively okay situational awareness in the sense that it could be a lot worse. However this situational/emotional awareness isn’t necessarily because he himself is naturally good at emotions but rather because he has researched them extensively; I can’t remember where the quote is from but he states that he has trouble understanding people and that’s why he reads so much about them, and he admits that even with this knowledge it is difficult. So he 100% is able to understand a lot of emotional situations but rather because he has researched them and extensively as opposed to experiencing them like most people

I also think it’s important to highlight that it isn’t just the fans that baby Reid but the show as a whole and I think that was the writer’s intentions all along. Something that the show drills into us repeatedly is that the BAU is a family; they’ve done this by giving each member a complicated relationship with their own immediate family so they rely on the team. They’ve also done this by adding certain lines such as Morgan referring to Hotch and Rossi as ‘mom and dad’, Reid telling JJ that Morgan hit him like a child and also their repeated lines of ‘we’re a family.’

Obviously for this family to work, everyone needs a role and there needs to be a baby of the family and they make Reid that baby by making him significantly younger than the others, choosing an actor that is lankier and skinnier, putting him in dangerous situations and giving him childish nicknames such as ‘boy wonder.’ They also never hire new actors to play new BAU team members who are older than Matthew Gray Gubler; Prentiss, Rossi, Jordan, Seaver, Blake, Callahan, Tara, Simmons and Alvez all were newcomers at some point and were all played by actors/actresses who were older than MGG, even in season 10 when MGG was around 35/36 so it would’ve been perfectly normal to have agents younger than him, they never did hire anyone else so that Reid as a character could retain his status as baby of the family

[not-cool-enough-to-scuba-dive]

actually I would quite like to hear your thoughts on gender philosophy in omegaverse worldbuilding? :3

hm. anon, I fear this is a far larger can of worms than you probably anticipated. I'm going to spare you the worst of it by only giving you a short version, but be careful what you wish for.

I'm also hiding it under a cut because even the short version is embarrassingly long.

I'm hardly a connoisseur of omegaverse content, nor would I consider myself anywhere near an expert. I don't want to speak for all fics as I've admittedly not read many. I did do my master's diss about legal gender recognition, so this is more about gender and philosophically sound worldbuilding than an indictment of any particular writing or story tbh.

the short answer is I find omegaverse worldbuilding really interesting, but I've never fully been able to enjoy it due to the way a/b/o identities tend to have a biological determinist slant to them imo, and tendency for a lack of real world implications of what the omegaverse does to gender and character interactions anywhere outside the bedroom. I'd love to figure out a version that's more inclusive and philosophically/ideologically consistent, both with itself and with my own views on real life gender (basically, I want to make it make more sense, have less biological determinism, and be more inclusive of the wider range of human experiences). this is a big task, and ngl I haven't achieved it and don't anticipate doing so any time soon. I have like, a concept in my head, taking apart all the key pieces and putting them together again but different, but to make it thorough enough would require more effort and time than I have because I'm like, employed 😔

I feel like someday if I ever get invited to a powerpoint night though, this could be It.

[persephoneprice]

Hey do you have any thoughts on the names in tbosas, especially the Capitol students? Like how they have Ancient Greek/roman names. Do you have names you like or don’t like? I just think the way Suzanne Collins names her characters is really interesting and I was wondering your thoughts on it

oh this is such a fun question!

honestly, i LOVE the way suzanne names her characters- especially the capitol’s tendency to go for roman names. i think the capitol’s roman names vs the districts industry-related names really drives home the divide between the two.

(i wish i was one of those very smart fans who could connect the use use of roman names and culture to the capitol and come up with brilliant ideas but alas. i am not.)

and honestly, i’ve seen some people hate how on the nose some of the district names are but i actually enjoy it a lot. i love the names like hy and sol and teslee and mizzen.

my only real complaint is that i would have loved to see district 12 characters have more industry inspired names! i like katniss and peeta well-enough but as someone from appalachia, i think something more on the nose for them as well could have been interesting.

or, alternatively, it would have been interesting to see historically common last names of the area being used rather than names like ‘everdeen’ or ‘mellark’. (but that’s probably just me, and tbf i guess a name like katniss smith wouldn’t sound very good for a dystopian novel.)

sorry, i know you said tbosas and especially capitol students but somehow i keep ending up back at talking about appalachia- oopsie

anyway, what are your thoughts? do you have any names that you really liked or didn’t like?

[boysborntodie]

do you think ponyboy stayed gold?

This is such a good question, thank you for asking, like I think about this all the time.

Short answer, yes.

Long answer;

Nature’s First Green is Gold: Ponyboy at the start

In the context of the poem, it ‘to be gold’ is to be pure and uncorrupted as all things are in the beginning. Yet life and time leaves changes and leaves marks on all things. Pony starts off the poem as pure and untainted, gold like the sun. Even the first line gives a subtle reference about this:

Cherry sums Pony (at the start) up best here;

It’s not fair to say Pony has gone through suffering at this point because he very much has. His parents have died, he’s often in danger because of the Socs, he has problems with Darry, he sees the suffering of his friends and knows he can’t do anything about him and the injustice of it hurts him. And he’s 14 which is rough enough without dealing with all that.

But he’s ‘not dirty’ (dirty having a double meaning here). He hasn’t been ‘tainted or corrupted’ by life yet, instead having played a passive role throughout all these events. He’s gold. But of course, nothing gold can stay.

Nothing Gold Can Stay: Ponyboy throughout the novel

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age story. It’s the story about Pony transitioning from a boy to a man. It’s about identity and belonging (the song ‘Great Expectations’ from the musical following this theme). It’s about figuring out who you are and where you fit in, which Pony especially struggles with because he’s a greaser and greasers get the short end of the stick in life. It’s about a boy is even an outsider among outsiders (as @obliqueletterkennyreference pointed out to me during one of our conversations), because he can’t fit into the standards that have been places upon greasers (he’s both heavily embedded in greaser culture yet not greaser enough. It’s about Pony realising that the status quo hurts young kids and turns them into byproducts of a system that dooms them to either perpetuate the system or succumb to it.

Throughout the novel, Johnny and Dally symbolise the two paths Pony can take; to ‘stay gold’ or ‘get tough’. And it is only after they both die is Pony forced to choose between them both.

It really seems that Pony decides that it’s better to get tough. You can’t stay soft and good, because it means you’re keeping yourself open to hurt. It means you end up like Johnny, dying too young. The world is unfair and kills off those who are good and keeps those who aren’t alive. Thus, there must be no point to being good.

And yet, Ponyboy picks up the glass so it won’t hurt anyone. He decides that the only reason someone should ever use violence is in self-defence and that Johnny is right to reject violence. He becomes more understanding towards others like Randy, Bob and Darry.

And when he reads Johnny’s letter, he realises how prevalent the issue of this systemic abuse, violence and oppression is and how it hurts all those involved and that it cannot be left as it is (i kinda talk about this here). Not only does he reject this but he takes an active role, different from all the other characters who recognise these issues yet accept them as a part of life and never challenge it, by writing the Outsiders.

And thus he decides to

Holding onto the Hardest Hue: Will Ponyboy Stay Gold?

‘Staying Gold’ basically means for Pony to stay soft and true to himself, to not close himself from the world’s good just to steer clear of its bad and harm, to always choose to do good and be kind. To continue loving the world and appreciating its good and beauty.

The poem itself states: ‘(nature’s first green is) the hardest hue to hold’. And I think that inplies that staying gold will not be easily for Pony. Being gold is no longer his inherent nature; it’s a choice he has to make. It won’t be easy to stay gold. We see Pony internalise that ‘being tough keeps you from getting hurt’ and Dally isn’t entirely wrong.

But as Soda says, ending up like Dally is no way to be. To constantly be fighting and to harden yourself from any good. You can argue it’s not even possible because even though Dally says he doesn’t let anything affect him or care for anyone, he loved Johnny and Johnny’s death was what drove him into aggravating the police and killing him.

I think there may be a lot of back and forth for Pony. Growing and regressing and failing and getting up to try again and persisting. And he has the potential to get worse, to become tough and hardened. But it’s thematically important for Ponyboy to choose against it and staying gold, no matter how hard it can get.

And I’d say that this passage does imply that Pony will eventually get away from their town, the way Johnny, Dally and many others don’t.