#still a big bully though and generally awful to be around

[lioma-gaming]

Noctis: "What're you doing here? Didn't you say you had no interest climbing down 'this filthy hole'?" Ardyn: "Oh, I did and I still do. But then where would you be without my guidance? I suppose someone will have to drag your sorry remains back to the surface when things turn sour, and from what I've seen, you are entirely incapable of staying out of trouble." Gladio: *smirks* "Will you look at that. He cares." Ignis: "Hardly. I suspect it's rather his personal investment in our endeavour that he worries about." Ardyn: "Your Royal advisor's observation is as astute as always. But then again, does it truly matter why I've come to help you?" Noctis: "Yea. Yea it does." Gladio: "A lot."

So, I tried bringing Ardyn with me into the Crestholm Channels dungeon, which didn't work at first, I guess because he doesn't have an animation for climbing ladders. But, once I've walked far enough away from the entrance, he just shadowstepped teleported after Noctis & Co.

Learned a couple of things about this supposedly broken party member:

Ardyn can take damage, but won't enter Danger state or drop dead. HP and Max HP recover at a normal pace.

It's not possible to use items on him, as he doesn't pop up in the selection.

He uses different walking animations when exploring a dungeon, just like the Chocobros. Also wears a more tense look.

It's possible to equip swords in Ardyn's primary and secondary weapon slot, but he can't use them or attack in general. He does, however, rush at enemies from time to time so his battle AI might not be entirely broken. Would love to have given him the Mutant Rakshasa Blade, but since it's a great sword, it's not part of the "sword" selection.

He ended up getting stuck on the ledge when I dropped down to fight the Nagarani (which is a pity, because I have yet to find out if he can suffer status ailments) and I chose to teleport out of the dungeon because frankly, I've gotten lost way too many times in Crestholm Channels in my previous playthroughs.

Will try the Bavlouve Mines with him, though!

Also, love Prompto's dungeon commentary. <3

[wandringaesthetic]

I saw a post on bluesky asking what made Luca Blight such a great villain, and I didn't answer it there because I got the vibe they were trying to farm out their media literacy in order to create content, but it was a question I wanted to answer:

A big plot point in Suikoden I is that most of the imperial generals are under the influence of evil magic and that's what causing them to wage a war of extermination on their neighbors. Out from under the mind control magic, most of them will join your cause. Luca is so sadistic and over the top evil that you might think something similar is happening with him. But no, this is just him, this is a wholly human evil, he is just actually this awful.

Taken by himself, Luca is just a guy who sucks. He is a ONE dimensional character. He's a sadist. He likes killing and tormenting people for fun. He arguably has a traumatic backstory, but that does little to make him empathetic, because his reaction to that trauma was to decide that there were two types of people: victims and bullies. So by God he was going to be a bully.

But we don't take Luca by himself, because he's the crown prince, and as a bonus he is also a very big and strong guy who not only enjoys killing, he's very good at it.

So what makes Luca interesting isn't Luca, it's other characters' reactions to him. His father and his sister are unwilling or unable to reign him in. Some of his generals try to mitigate the damage he causes and some of them enable him in order to advance their own agenda. He's a potentially valuable weapon--if you can avoid cutting yourself with it.

Notably, Luca is the main antagonist of Suikoden II and [major spoilers for a 25 year old game but learning this is a big part of what made me interested in Suikoden II to begin with]

Luca dies about 2/3s of the way through the game. Even though he pretty much singlehandedly started the war, his death is not enough to end it, because the people who used him to advance their own agenda and the people who have a stake in the war continuing still have their own ambitions. Those who have been fighting the war still want to believe in its cause. They still believe or pretend to believe in its legitimacy.

Luca absolutely needed to be killed, even most of his supposed allies think so, but killing him alone can't fix the problems he caused.

And he dies hard. It takes three parties of your dudes, a full 18 named characters, to kill him, and a couple of arrow volleys and a final duel with your hero besides. In that last duel Luca has less than a quarter of his health bar left and he can STILL kill you if you fuck up. And through all that, he never transforms into some final form. He never uses some forbidden magic. He's just a big guy in plate armor under no power but his own wretched human soul, screaming and cursing you and bleeding to death from multiple arrow wounds and continuing to fight like a fucking demon while dozens of his soldiers die around him. He dies harder than Rasputin, and that has the added effect that it doesn't feel cool. You are not some badass overcoming some invincible monster. You are killing a rabid animal. You are summarily executing a guy in the woods because his own allies tipped you off because even they knew he was too dangerous to allow to keep living.

[brokenmachinemusings]

hi!! i was looking through tianchen posts and i saw yours a long time ago about him having aspd... i was wondering about your thoughts on that more recently / if you have any other pd (or other disorder) hcs for the rest of the cast?? sorry if this is strange or random im just really excited to see someone interested in the same media as me who talks about this stuff, i find a lot of comfort in these kinds of things as someone considering and diagnosed with some stigmatized disorders

hi!!! thank you so much for the ask :-) so glad to see more mentally ill link click fans!!! (not saying mentally ill in a bad way btw, just that we are as an objective truth) i do have more hcs but due to dissociative amnesia i tend to forget them! plus i have to rewatch link click haha i’m long overdue

i know that i hc that lu guang has szpd and schizophrenia (as well as i’m a fan of him having ocd as well), cheng xiaoshi with bpd and dissociative identity disorder (my copium). a popular headcanon i see around is xia fei with npd but i don’t have quite enough of a grasp on his character yet🤔 (nor do i for liu xiao & vein). like i can definitely see slight hints but it’s like, ehhh, i need to know more. even though his pv tells a LOT about him

li tianxi i think has some kind of dissociative disorder as well… specifically headcanon her with depersonalization derealization disorder because i doubt she’s fully present in most circumstances, especially around the jobs. oh and the li twins (and shiguang) are all autistic to me though that’s off-topic

cheng xiaoshi and qiao ling share some kind of anxiety methinks as well… although anxiety is a much more “common” disorder i think they can get it. qiao ling can manage it through medication and routines, cheng xiaoshi is too disorganized to be able to do anything about it (also, generally speaking, i think his anxiety wouldn’t be medically noticed. nevermind all the other disorders)

anyway… time to explain the more interesting stuff. which will be under the cut, because this will get LONG.

cheng xiaoshi with bpd i think is kind of understandable. he has a huge fear of abandonment, he was also abandoned, he was reckless and impulsive as a child due to not getting the support he needed. he’s highly emotional, another trait among those with bpd and he can easily set himself into other people. despite that, nowadays he knows what he wants and he can focus very much on his tasks/goals. he is empathetic but there’s a distinction to be made — he’s empathetic because he’s in the bodies of other people, while someone like qiao ling is empathetic because she immediately notices them or their situation. not to say he isn’t empathetic outside of that, obviously.

anyway, how does this play into DID? well, see, first of all, we need to think of the root of what causes DID — severe and ongoing childhood trauma (it’s important to note this is in the child’s eyes and is different for everyone), typically between the ages of 3-10. this age is still scientifically debated, but we’ll use it for reference.

the sichuan earthquake in the show happened in may 2008 iirc — which would be cheng xiaoshi turning just about 8 himself. so, he was presumably somewhere 6-7 (or even younger) when his parents left him alone. simply that neglect can be enough for a child to dissociate into different states — especially with the bullying he was experiencing, i wouldn’t be surprised if it was so awful for him that his brain did start to dissociate.

but that’s not the only thing. he’s the most vastly depicted in different official arts, from the most happy-go-lucky guy to the most down in the deepest trenches man can imagine, specifically in that one recent cafe collab art where it was him & lu guang & liu xiao. if you want me to add any official art, let me know, i’ll reblog it under this post.

and by now, you might be thinking — doesn’t the possession play a big part in this as well? yes it does, it entirely does. to me, being able to enter different people’s bodies and feel what they feel so deeply is entirely DID coding. especially in correlation to the other characters — li tianchen’s possession is hollow, also indicative of his lack of empathy and even aspd if you’re willing to go that far. lu guang only peers into pictures — watching the events unfold, unable to do anything about them, even if it hurts him. li tianxi can see and feel thoughts & memories from far away, but not quite possess the same, she’s only there in relation. it doesn’t make her feel any less, though. cheng xiaoshi on the other hand, usually doesn’t know anything about the person, jumps straight in and turns into them. coupled with the usual disorientation before and after a dive, i think all of this is very indicative of him having DID. if you need more detail or have any questions though, let me know, i’m always happy to explain.

lu guang on the other hand… boy oh boy, where do we start.

actually, i never explicitly thought of lu guang with ocd — only as a passing thought pre-yingdu. now, recontextualizing AFTER yingdu gives a whole new perspective on this.

i’m not sure which to explain first, though. the schizophrenia is the most headcanon-y of mine, so i’ll just stop that there and say that i think it gets worse with each timeline and that his brain deteriorates in that way, which also causes him to get worse hallucinations/delusions each time and it all influences his decision making process. there, that’s done.

szpd i headcanon that it was more relevant in the first timeline. not that it still isn’t, it’s a personality disorder, probably untreated, but i think my way of seeing it is more “interesting” to say the least. while most of fandom goes “oh, they fell in love at first sight!!!” i actually think the opposite; i think that lu guang never wanted to be that close to cheng xiaoshi, that their meeting was all a coincidence and they kept finding each other. in the early days, lu guang didn’t want him anywhere close, explaining his aversion to contact early on, where he repeatedly pushes cheng xiaoshi away and is hesitant to be around him. also explains his lack of friends, methinks. not that he doesn’t care, he obviously cares, it’s simply that he can’t get attached very easily. by the end of the first timeline, i think that he realized that he actually loves cheng xiaoshi too deeply and that he feels like his only family is gone and he can’t live without him. which is, well, why he dives. complete with cheng xiaoshi’s dying wish! isn’t that lovely?

this all pairs into his ocd, i would say. he’s so careful about keeping each timeline the same — trying to act as his previous self, trying to keep the timeline in check. he’s under a lot of stress, and he thinks that if he fucks up once, it’s all over for sure. he doesn’t like unpredictable outcomes either. it’s why he has such an elaborate journal detailing every single thing — and i think it influences cheng xiaoshi’s dives too, when he leads him. it’s not just regular stress and worry, it’s the anxiety of messing up somewhere on top. that everything has to be right down to the minute and even the second. i would say that his habit to clean around is a way to keep his intrusive thoughts in check too, at least to some degree. could you imagine how much his brain cycles through? it would be bonkers.

i’m not sure if i ever made a post about li tianchen or not, but i still heavily hc li tianchen with aspd. he developed it as a kid, not just because of his mother dying — generally the way his father was acting towards her, the fact he had to protect tianxi and oversee all of this at the same time. he saw how cruel and unfair the world was from a young age. not to mention, the cunning liu xiao, who i still have to get into the brains for, instilled this mindset of “eat or be eaten” / “all or nothing” (specifically with “hunt or be hunted” and “are you a beast or a hunter? do you know the difference?”) that’s common within aspd minds. the fact that he had to solely take on the job of being li tianxi’s caretaker, be taken under qian jin’s wing and detach himself from anyone around in order to simply provide, all led to his developing aspd i think. “anyone against me or my sister” meant an enemy. it’s to supply themselves, really. to survive. and that’s what’s important, isn’t it? no matter the method. he doesn’t exactly have a grasp on right or wrong, either. i still find the scene where he gets angry at cheng xiaoshi for “not doing anything because it’s all the same” so heartbreaking and pretty much summarizing of his character. he doesn’t know what others go through, because it doesn’t concern him and doesn’t help them survive. which is why i find his whole story to be so tragic. he has to let go of his sister and his past, and somehow move on with nothing left in his life any more. that said, i hope they don’t butcher his character too much in the upcoming season. but link click very much delves deep into the psyche of their characters, i wouldn’t be surprised if director haolin researched psychology and mental health deeply before writing any of them. it’s also what's one of the strong suits of link click, and i hope we see more of it.

i hope you enjoyed this rant or analysis or whatever. if you have any further questions or want to add something let me know!!! i had lots of fun writing this :-)

[bellysoupset]

"Figured where do I know your face from," Vince said, sitting in front of Max in the teacher's lounge. Mr. Daniels was pushing the food around on his plate.

"Yeah?" he asked, uninterested, "where's that?"

"You broke my arm when I was 10," Vince glared at the other man, who let out a little snort, still staring at his plate. When Vince didn't chuckle too, he frowned and looked up.

"Wait, you're serious?"

"Yeah," Vince sat before him, eyebrows raised, "you're the big kid in the playground who bullied me when I moved here."

Max let out a groan, letting his fork fall back down on the plate, "aw man, I'm sorry. Middle schooler me was a shithead," he grimaced, "I don't remember breaking anyone's arm, though, I'm really really sorry."

Vince rolled his eyes, unimpressed, "well, but you did..." he frowned then, noticing Max waxy pallor, "what's wrong with you?"

"Generally? Right now?" the other man shrugged, quirking an eyebrow and causing Vince to let out an annoyed sigh.

"We've established you're a shithead generally, so I meant specifically at this moment," he clarified and Max let out a chuckle at that, scratching at his cheek.

"I think it's just a hangover," he shrugged.

Vince raised his eyebrows, on a Tuesday? Damn whoever said teachers didn't have fun.

"Shithead indeed," he sighed, getting up once more, "don't hold my kids back today."

"Sure, sure, I never do," Mr. Daniels waved him off and Vince wrinkled his nose with annoyance, before walking out of the teacher's lounge.

Most teachers ate in the lounge, but it wasn't a requirement, so Vince went to the parking lot and found a nice bench in the shadow, unwrapping his lunch and scrolling through his social media. It was a nice break after a morning packed with kids, to be reminded the adult world still existed out there.

Luke had already flooded his DMs with memes and there were two texts from Wendy, one being an outfit check of her in gym clothes that had his heart skipping a beat.

Vince typed a cheeky response to her texts, smiling at his phone, only to hear a snort.

"Well, hello, Mr. Monacelli," he would recognize his sister's voice anywhere. Sophia's hair was up in a ponytail and she sat next to him on the bench, "why are you smiling at your phone?"

"None of your business, now, is it?" Vince scoffed, "where's the rest of your mean girls pack?"

"Hurling up their lunches in the bathroom," Sophia said, jokingly putting her finger inside her mouth and Vince wrinkled his nose in distaste. He really couldn't understand how his middle sister had such an acid sense of humor, nothing like the rest of the family.

"That's horrible to say, Soph-"

"Yeah, yeah," she rolled her eyes, criss-crossing her legs, "you can't embarrass me in class."

Vince snorted, "embarrass you?"

"Yeah," Sophia glared at him, "none of your i'm-a-cool-teacher jokes, nu-uh. Don't even mention you're my brother, you're gonna ruin my reputation."

"I'll make sure to fail you, just so they know there's no special treatment," Vince turned back to his sandwich, "or maaaybe I'm gonna bring up your super embarrassing crush on my best friend."

"Are you never gonna let that go?" Sophia jumped up, glaring at him, her cheeks turning red, "I was a kid!"

"It was literally six months ago," Vince grinned, "get out of my sight, kid."

"You're so mean," she pouted, "I'm gonna leave you a terrible teacher review."

Vince rolled his eyes, chuckling as the girl stomped away. He loved her dearly and it was really nice to be back in her life, but Sophia was also the most annoying person he knew.

She was also a senior, which wasn't a good thing, because Vin was already struggling to make the older kids respect him and he knew it wouldn't be any easier if his influential little sister decided to make his life a living hell in the classroom.

Hopefully Sophia was just bark and no bite.

It was to no one's surprise when his last class rolled on and yet he met an empty classroom. Vince sighed, glancing at his watch. Fucking Daniels, again.

He was going to strangle that man.

Vince was already ready to stomp out of the room and forcefully retrieve his kids, when suddenly the door opened. He straightened up, ready to face the swarm of frustrated teenagers, as they always were after chemistry class, but instead it was just Sophia.

Alone, which was all the more worrying, her blue eyes were huge on her face.

"What's wrong?" Vince asked, talking over her as his sister said:

"Mr. Daniel's is really sick and we don't know what to do... Can you help?"

Oh great, Vince thought, stepping out of the classroom, "what happened exactly?"

"He was off all class, but we said nothing- And then like, just now he suddenly stopped talking and barfed everywhere and-" her voice dipped, switched to Italian as Sophia groaned, "it's so gross, Vin."

Vince sighed as he followed her down the hallways to the chemistry room, "why didn't you call up a nurse?"

"We didn't want to get him in trouble..." Sophia frowned, planting her hands on her hips, "you're not gonna get him in trouble, right? He's cool."

And hungover, Vince thought bitterly, but despite his feelings he nodded, "I'm not," he promised, "stay out here, I know vomit makes you sick."

She let out a grateful sigh, slumping against the hallway wall as Vince entered the room.

It was truly a sight to be seen, fucking spectacular. Vince had no idea how he was supposed to not report the fact that Mr. Daniels had somehow managed to puke on his own boots and in a large puddle in the middle of the room.

He was folded in half, bracing against one of the tables and most of the teenagers were pushed to the opposite side of the room, looking completely horrified.

"Alright everyone show's over," Vince said, gesturing to the kids, "you have history class now, go get some water and then to the classroom, shoo."

Despite his somewhat harsh words, most of them looked visibly relieved there was an adult in the room. Vince cringed as he saw some kids that were almost green with sympathy nausea, he just hoped he wouldn't have to deal with that as well.

Once the classroom cleared out, Vince approached the other teacher, who was still mute, save for a couple hiccups and little sniffles.

"Okay... So hangover, uh?" Vince couldn't help but say, touching the man's back and Max let out a loud groan.

"No," he rasped, "no way this is a hangover. I'd never- Not in front of them..." his voice trailed off and he shuddered violently, "my head is killing me."

That didn't really help his i'm-not-hungover case, Vince thought, forcing the shorter guy to straighten up. He immediately grimaced, realizing why Max had stayed in that position. There was vomit down his band t-shirt and clinging to his auburn beard.

Without thinking Vince touched his cheek, then forehead and let out a sigh. The guy was burning up.

"I have good news and bad news," Vince said, side stepping the beige mess on the floor and pulling Max to a clearer patch, before pushing him to sit down in one of the chairs.

The blonde fell like a ragdoll, spreading his legs and wrapping an arm around his stomach, "good news is that I didn't shit my pants?"

Vince scowled, "good news is that you're sick, so this means we can tell the nurse and you're not gonna get penalized for hurling in front of the kids."

Max let out a little huff at that, "terrible good news-" then he hiccupped and groaned, "get me the bin..."

Vince couldn't believe there was anything in the guy, after seeing such copious amount of vomit. He also couldn't help a wave of sympathy as he thought of how much Mr. Daniel's reputation was fucked after getting sick in front of the seniors.

He planted the bin in front of the guy and then crouched next to him, carefully pulling Max' curtain of blonde hair and tying it on the back of his neck, "you're gonna be fine for a minute? I'm gonna go get a janitor."

Max let out a sickly burp inside the bin, raising a thumb up.

Once Vince got back in the room, now followed by the janitor - Maurice, who was also a relic from his school years - Max had folded on himself all over again, both arms wrapped around his stomach, head resting on the school desk.

"Man, c'mon," Vince sighed, frustrated, "try and help yourself, the principal is gonna have your head..."

"Uhm," Max groaned, "I don't- I don't feel well..."

Maurice let out a snort, "you'd think he's feeling fine after throwing up everything he ever ate," the man teased and Vince couldn't help but chuckle at that, grabbing Max' arm.

"You'd think," he agreed, pulling the blonde up, "c'mon, nurse's office. You have someone who can pick you up?"

"What...?" Max's gaze was all dazed. At least he had managed to clear the vomit from his beard, probably with his hand and wiped on his jeans. Vince grimaced at the mental image.

"Someone to come get you?" Vince repeated, pulling the guy down the hallway, "you're out of it."

There were curious faces on the hallways, kids out for a bathroom break stopping to watch them and Vince sped up, causing Max to stumble and collapse against his side.

"I'm gonna hurl again," the man mumbled and Vince shook his head.

"C'mon, we're almost there-" he wrapped an arm around the other teacher's waist and pulled Max against him, making them walk even faster.

The minute they got inside the nurse's office, Max turned to the big flower pot and heaved, his whole back arching as he let out a deafening retch and brought up a mouthful of bile.

"Goodness heaven's, Mr. Daniels!?" the nurse exclaimed. Mrs. Doyle was elderly and never used to do anything back when Vince was a student but tell the kids to go back to class. At least now she couldn't tell them that.

"He's got a really high fever," Vince said, keeping a hand planted on Daniels' back, as the man braced against the wall and continued to heave, not a thought given to Mrs. Doyle's sad palm tree, "and he's been sick," a lot, Vin mentally completed.

"Uhm- Well, he can lie down in my office... I'll get him so gatorade, until he feels-"

"Just let me go home, for fuck's sake," Max groaned, his voice all raspy and Mrs. Doyle frowned at the swear word.

"I don't think I can release you when you're this sick, I need-"

"I'm not a fucking kid," Max turned to glare at her and Vince stepped between them, glaring at the man.

"Then don't behave like one. You can't drive like this, either let Mrs. Doyle call someone or sit in the office and wait until classes are over and I'll drive you," he said strongly, causing Max to raise his dazed eyes at him and scowl.

"There's no one to pick me up," he groaned and Vince sighed, dropping his shoulders.

"Then go lie down, I'm just gonna finish my class and I can drive you," he turned to Mrs. Doyle, who was stunned into silence, "he can stay, right?"

"Of course..." She frowned, "you're the Monacelli's kid? Little Vince?" she suddenly held her hand down to her hip and Vince blushed, while Max let out a raspy chortle.

Vince nodded, his whole face aflame, "I'm gonna go, I have a bunch of teenagers to calm down. Hopefully you're not contagious, otherwise our lives will be hell for the next weeks."

Max groaned, stumbling forward towards the nurse's office, "yeah, don't count on it."

[prismaticpichu]

Cloud tells his mom about Sephiroth locking himself in the basement and he hasn't eaten in days. She figures that is just NOT GOOD and makes him a home cooked meal and a jug of lemonade and determinedly goes to the mansion to deliver it...

Heck yeah! Them maternal instincts kicking IN! ❤️

Claudia is not at all unnerved by the ambience of the manor. Not in the slightest. She has the rawest of Nibelheim hearts, desensitized to anything and everything the town has to throw at her. Cobwebs? Nah. Creaky stairs? Please! She’s wrapped her delivery in layers upon layers of tinfoil so a speck of dust can’t so much as LOOK in the direction of her food. It was for the sad, confused military man!

Sephiroth is as oblivious as ever as she reaches the room, his nose buried in a book and about half of the library’s arsenal scattered around him.

“Excuse me… Sir?”

Sephiroth stiffens, and his world blips. It isn’t that fuzzy shape’s voice that he heard just then, pleading for him to come back, pleading for the 100th time. It’s… different. Completely different. Satiny, almost. Velvety.

Loving,

Is this—

Sephiroth’s voice leaves him in a crack. “…Mother?”

Claudia, standing by the door, is very confused. But it’s an amused confusion that flashes across her face.

“You can say that, dear. I’m Cloud’s mother. He came here with you on the mission.” She smiles. “He’s told me a lot about you.”

Sephiroth turns around then. The names don’t click in his mind, almost ricocheting. The only thing that truly sticks—that matters—is the fact that she is NOT his mother. She is no one then. Irrelevant.

“Get out,” Sephiroth snarls, that previous awe draining from his eyes. “Now.”

Claudia, though, is not deterred. Not in the slightest. She sees his eyes, and sees the ink splotched all around them. Clear as daylight, dark as bruises. Dark as the ones her poor Cloud used to come home with. These books—they are bullies. That’s what they are. They are hurting him. He needs to get out of here.

And by Gaia, he is so thin. So pale. He needs to eat!

Sephiroth takes a step back as Claudia steps forward, the unearthly shape of his eyes quivering. But them maternal instincts are already activated. She carefully unwraps the big, delicious grilled Chocobo and hands it out to him, her voice soft and gentle, channeling all the nights and tears and solaces ribboned between the very essence of her motherly soul.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

Maybe it’s the way she said it. Maybe it was the way she looked while saying it. Maybe it was how good the Chocobo smelled in that dusty library. Something in Sephiroth splinters then—a toxic, steely fortress mortared with instinct and vulnerability cracking from her presence. And a fortress can’t stand with one crack; so it crumbles entirely.

They sit together on the floor, and Sephiroth tells her everything. He breaks into a sob, telling of his friends, how he can’t let go of their betrayal, how it still stings. He tells her of the revelations in the Reactor, of what flowed through his veins and the lies he was built around.

And Claudia listens. She listens, and she tells him that it’s okay. Over and over and over. That it’s not his fault. That nothing is. That he’s…

“Dear…” Claudia takes her plate back, only shiny white bones remaining. “You are not a monster.”

There’s something about the way she says it—the kindness in her voice, the tenderness in her eyes, the warmth of her aura… Sephiroth brushes his hair aside, sniveling.

He thinks he believes her.

They leave the manor that very night, Claudia’s love squeezing through his plated shoulder as they return to the surface of the town. Zack pulls Sephiroth into a hug and thanks Claudia profusely for bringing him back, and as Sephiroth hugs him back, as he starts to cry, Cloud watches the scene unfold with a whole spectrum damn full of questions. He goes to stand beside his mother.

“Wow, Ma. What did you do to get the general back?”

Claudia only smiles. “Just what every mother knows best.”

And all of a sudden there’s a giant silver-haired man guy thing towering over Cloud in the family photo. Yippie-do!

[highly-important]

I think a big criticism I have of Heartstopper is how it makes a sexual minority (Ben) the face of homophobic oppression.

We know that one of the things that affected Charlie the most was the bullying he went through earlier. That it was so bad no one can really put it to words.

Charlie describes his bullying in a very abstract and intangible way, and never directly points the finger at anyone specific.

In general, there is this collective amnesia about who actually bullied Charlie and who let it happen. No one is really held accountable for it.

This is also very similar to whatever happened with Elle at Truham. Elle was extensively bullied, but she brushes off her problems and we never see the extent of her trauma. We honestly don't even know how this actually affected her, apart from the ways that she minimizes herself. But its all abstracted - no one is really ever identified as responsible or complicit.

Ben is the only person who is identified from that time in Charlie's life, and it means its easier to blame Ben for it than anyone else.

I understand why Nick and Charlie don't want to forgive Ben, and I don't think he is owed that forgiveness. But I also think Ben is a stupid 15 year old in an awful, traumatizing situation. There is reason to believe he would have behaved differently if he wasn't also in a homophobic environment. Do you think Ben could hear other people call Charlie disgusting and not internalize it himself? And the responsibility for their relationship going badly isn't squarely on Ben's shoulders, either.

There is also no reason why someone else, like Araji or Farouk couldn't have given him an empathetic moment or helped him a little. Ben is equally deserving of support and compassion.

Ben becomes the face of Charlie's trauma, and Ben seems to bare the responsibility for it. The straight people around him slip under the radar, despite arguably being the ones bearing the most responsibility for Charlie's issues. Charlie's self hatred, his ED, and the cutting are all caused by the bullying. The straight bullies are allowed some grace and empathy that isn't given to Ben.

We forget that Nick has been a part of Harry's friend group for years. Nick isn't really doesn't stick up for what's right on his own, and doesn't help much when they hit Tao with the ball. Obviously his feelings for Charlie cause him to reexamine these things. But its not something Nick ever has to come to terms with. (Its similar with Imogene, she hangs out with and enables some of Charlie's tormentors, but never really has to come to terms with that.) And in S2, the actions of Nicks' friend group are largely forgotten, and the emphasis is put on how supportive they are when Nick comes out.

It is very realistic that kids would react differently to an unpopular kid coming out than they would a popular kid coming out. But they're still the same people. Charlie doesn't even feel resentment that the same people who called him disgusting are now voicing support of Nick.

It is the bullying that made Charlie feel disgusting, its the bullying that gave Charlie an ED and made him self-harm. And its the bullying that made Ben want to keep his relationship with Charlie a secret.

If Nick was friends with Harry for a while, and Nick doesn't really remember the bullying Charlie went through, it also means that Harry maybe wasn't a main antagonist when Charlie's bullying was "really bad." So even though Harry is the face of homophobic bullying, even he is disconnected from the "really bad" that happened the year before. Harry is just an asshole, and somehow not responsible for causing serious trauma.

We get more of an indication that Harry can grow and do better than we do Ben. And yes, even though Harry is never forgiven or forgotten, he's also never confronted with it either.

All the straight people at school are easily redeemable because weirdly, none of them seem to actually be complicit in the "really bad" bullying that fucked Charlie up.

(And even making these distinctions between when the bullying was really bad and not so bad missed how any kind of daily micro aggressions, no matter how small, can build up to have toxic effects. Hearing your sexuality degraded pretty consistently can have huge negative affects on your health, even if to an outsider it doesn’t look like that much.)

I am seeing more and more media do this - make a minority the face of that minority's oppression. Its this gentle way of exploring oppression, while avoiding making people outside that minority group feel uncomfortable or ask difficult questions about their own complicity.

It perpetuates this idea that homophobia is actually over, despite the fact that somehow, mysteriously, the affects of homophobia are still felt. Harry is written as someone who can improve, Ben is written as someone who is incapable of change. I think there is just something deeply unsettling about who is given compassion and empathy.

Not only does HS really avoid the hard work of showing how Ben gets better, but it avoids the hard work of having the straight characters confront the harm they caused.

And I'm not saying this to "cancel" Heartstopper or tell you you're a bad person for liking it. I've written extensively about the things I think this show gets right. But I think that making a minority the face of minority oppression is a damaging trope that we should be as critical of as we are of tropes like "Bury your Gays"

[xplrvibes]

some people on twitter are getting really mad at colby for apparently ‘ditching’ shea for his new girl saying shit like oh he led shea on and now he’s pushed her away lol

they’re fully acting like he’s committed an awful crime like why are they cancelling him 😭

(side note - i’m actually, whole heartedly convinced that half of the fandom genuinely hates colby and everything he does fills them with rage lmfao)

This is going to be a one and done, on this topic. I don't like Shea, don't like what she's doing. Never did like her, as you all know, because she has been an absolutely awful and manipulative bully and generally trash person over the years and I don't want her taking up too much space on my blog because of it.

But I felt the need to just put this out there before I move on, so here we go, behind a cut for anyone who doesn't want to hear it lol.

You know, I find this whole "taking Shea on her word all of a sudden" thing interesting.

According to Shea, they had a 10 year (even though he was still living in Kansas 10 years ago) "on-again, off-again thing" that was "mostly just talking" and was "never official," although it was "almost dating, but not official" for 2 years (even though there hasn't been a 2 year period where Colby hasn't been at least seeing someone, if not hooking up).

She doesn't seem to know any of his friends and not a single one of them follow her on socials - in fact, most of them unfollowed her several years back. Of particular note is the fact that Sam, after all these years of her being Colby's future wife, still hasn't followed her back...but has followed several of the other girls Colby's been linked to over the years, including M.

She never seems to have a clue about what is going on in his life and has been promising (and not delivering) fans content with Colby for years now - including her telling everyone that her and Colby were going somewhere to film a documentary in January of this year when Colby had already told everyone on xplrclub that he and Sam were going to be in Vegas or in Texas filming in all of Jan and then in Australia for most of Feb. She promised to have him on one her streams on a day when he was actually in Hawaii, then another day when he was actually in Kansas visiting family.

She hasn't been invited to a single party or group gathering of theirs since 2019, save for one time when she visited Colby and Sam in Las Vegas - which came across as very awkward, given the above.

She complained about never getting invited to snc's Halloween parties - you know, the ones that have 500-1,000 invitees and snc have claimed include an invite to every single person they know and are friends with? Yet Colby's soul mate gets left on the list somehow, 6 years running?? (One year he had four different past flings there at once. But the future Mrs. Shea Brock just didn't make the cut somehow)

Oh, bonus: she once told a gc full of her fans that Colby asked her out, but she turned him down because she valued the friendship too much. Funny how those turns tabled.

Colby meanwhile, has never hidden that he considers himself single, does not think he's met "the one," uses Raya to find dates, hooks up and has flings....he's not just pretending to be single, he IS single.

So. to recap: They have had a 10 year friendship and emotional bond that Shea deluded herself into thinking was more. Colby comes around her again after having had a cancer that could've easily rendered him unable to have children, and her grand idea is to tell this guy she freely admits she was never even dating that she wants to cash in on some vague promise he may or may not have actually made to her about getting married and having CHILDREN???

I'd have left her ass, too.

But sure. He's the bad guy. By the way, to hear Shea tell it, Colby did the same thing to her that Sam did to Kat. But all the people trashing Colby were the first ones in line to defend Sam from big bad mean Kat and her hurtful words because "he wasn't ready" and wah wah wah. Isn't that funny...and on par.

So yes, lol. Most of the people pissed about this are using any excuse put in front of them to trash Colby cause that is the only enjoyment they get out of life. Trust me when I say they are backing the wrong horse with Shea. She's not the hero victim y/n sainted good girl she pretends to be.

[blueinkedfrost]

Betty and Veronica - Heathers

A recent rewatch of the film, considering the enigmatic Ms. Finn.

Image source

Betty Finn and Veronica Sawyer were best friends as little kids in the same small town.

They're named after Betty and Veronica from Archie Comics, where Betty is more conventional and Veronica is more wild and exotic, and after Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain, where Huckleberry the orphan is more responsible and Tom the spoilt child is more lawless and fantastical.

Betty Finn and Veronica Sawyer - you'd expect them to go together like Batman and Robin, Holmes and Watson, Tintin and Haddock, Snow White and Rose Red.

Similar to their name inspirations, Betty's costume design makes her look like a conventional, modest, geeky good girl, while Veronica (the film's protagonist) is rebellious and brooding and glamorous and active.

At some point before the movie, Veronica left Betty behind, joined the popular-fashionable-girl clique the Heathers, and slowly became miserable carrying out her duties as a member of the lipgloss commissariat. This is Betty's first appearance in the film, where she excuses Veronica for standing her up.

VERONICA. Hey, [Betty], I'm really sorry I couldn't make it to your birthday party last month.

BETTY. It's okay. Your mom said you had a big date. Think I'd probably miss my own birthday for a date.

VERONICA. Don't say that.

Veronica's more popular friends soon pull her away from her brief encounter with Betty.

Then, Veronica met a boy who seemed like a rebellious loner who shared her sentiments about how awful the Heathers and their ilk and society in general were, and there was a lot of attraction, but things started to fall apart when Veronica's boyfriend pushed her into murder.

Veronica broke up with JD, still wanted to stay away from the Heathers, and called on Betty Finn to come over for croquet.

BETTY. I'm not as exciting as your other friends.

VERONICA. That is bullshit.

During the game, Betty encourages Veronica to win, putting herself down at the same time:

BETTY. Knock me out. It's the only way to win.

VERONICA. It's not my style.

BETTY. Nice guys finish last. I should know.

Although this repeated self-deprecating speech from Betty comes from humility and vulnerability, it pressures other people into providing emotional labour and comfort. Betty's self-effacing to the extent that her dialogue all but forces Veronica to comfort her, though at the time of that croquet game it's Veronica who's in the most trouble. Humility is a virtue, but this is toxic humility - the sort that warps right around to sucking all the attention in the room and wrapping it around you as the main character.

And we're not given much positive about Betty. She's a loyal friend, but she expresses that loyalty by broadcasting low self esteem, pressuring other people to come to her aid. There's no courage or ingenuity or backbone shown in her brief scene.

So, Veronica is not very comforted by her past best friend Betty.

Compare Betty to Martha Dunnstock, who has a similar amount of screentime but gets to be more interesting. Martha gets a prank note and walks straight up to show it to Kurt (honest and brave); takes a chance on trusting JD (friendly); befriends Veronica at the end of the film despite all the bullying that the Heathers put her through (forgiving).

Betty doesn't reappear in the movie, but she's mentioned one more time.

HEATHER DUKE. Do you think, I mean do you really think, if Betty Finn's fairy godmother made her cool, she would still hang out with her dweebette friends?

Veronica doesn't reply. This might be because:

She believes power/popularity would corrupt anyone. It corrupted Heather Chandler into bullying other people, it's corrupting Heather Duke into doing the same, and JD's murders have escalated for similar reasons. If Betty had power/popularity she would be corrupt because everyone would be. However, the end of the movie counteracts this idea. Veronica embraces power (the red scrunchie) and also embraces Martha (formerly unpopular), so there's optimism that it's possible for someone to wield power a little better than those who came before.

Veronica doesn't know Betty well enough any more to answer that.

Veronica knows Betty well enough to answer that ... and the answer is no.

What did Betty say?

BETTY. Think I'd probably miss my own birthday for a date.

Symbolically, Betty would give up her own identity (birthday) to be popular (have a date).

Conclusion: Heather Duke isn't wrong about Betty.

If lucky chance made Betty popular, she probably would be as bad as Veronica's other 'friends'.

Veronica's ending is with Martha, not Betty. Martha displays qualities of being brave, honest, and kind - more positive qualities than Miss Finn.

[aikoiya]

Hello, this post idea is something you probably have to take time to think of because of your big supernatural idea and lore stuff for this Danny Phantom AU (also the GIW comes to Amity Park WAY later then canon.)

One day in Amity Park just after Phantom stopped a ghost attack ( again), Danny is at Nasty Burger with his friends and while they are talking about the new DOOMED update they heard screaming as they look out the window and saw a giant glowing wave moving through Amity Park quickly and the people that got touched by the wave either turn into a monster or suddenly uncontrollably have magic, team phantom doesn't even have a moment to plan when the wave suddenly went through Nasty Burger and people got turned, Tucker turned into (any Egyptian monster that you think fit tucker the best) and Sam suddenly have the power when she was controlled by Undergrowth and Danny.... Actually Danny feels like nothing changed for him, while everyone is distracted by their change Danny stealthy go ghost and went to his house and hoping that his family is spared by the wave and his hope is fulfilled in that his family doesn't even change. While Danny is glad that his family is still normal (for a ghost hunters) but he is wondering about WHAT CAUSED THIS WAVE TO HAPPENED.

Meanwhile in the town next to Amity Park (not going to use the town random generator today) deep in the abandoned mansion basement in front of a dead curse god ( I am only using the random generator for name, you could find a god name that specialized in curses) there are 3 teenagers who killed that god.

The teen with a magical sword: At last, if the ritual is right, there is enough anti curse energy to cure my sister from that awful curse and redirect it back to that god.

The teen with a crossbow: Umm Rodney? Do you think what could happen if anyone notices a wave of energy moving fast?

Rodney Torres: Oh don't worry Joshua, the intended duration of the wave is this town and the town around it and people will not remember it if they are not cured of curses or saw a person uncursed in front of their eyes.

The teen with a flying drone named Michael White: But what if there are lots of people who got uncursed at the same time?

Rodney: don't worry, unless the Town next over is filled with unknowingly cursed people, we are fine. (Unfortunately Amity Park is full of cursed people.)

Tldr Amity Park is full of people who have a monster who cursed to be human or a witch who has their magic locked by a curse in their family line and in this au curse are in the bloodline until uncursed by the being who cursed them (or a ritual that requires a dead curses god energy) and I want to know (you don't have to do most of the named characters) what kind of monsters or mages are some of them?

(note. The people who are not cursed when the anti curse wave hits are the Fentons, Dash Baxter because of my belief that jock can never be a real monster just bullies at worst, Valerie Gray, and Vlad Master. Also when Danny went to Clockwork for an answer, all he got is "the god of curses is dead for a ritual to save a person's sister from a deadly curse which also punished the curser for their actions" and a direction for the town that where the curses god died)

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I'm guessing that these are characters made up?

I was a bit lost for a while.

But it's an interesting idea.

For Sam, I was thinking her being a sorceress with powers similar to a mix of what she had as Plant Sam & Raven's sort of shadowy powers from Teen Titans.

Tucker, I see him becoming a werewolf, but rather than the traditional werewolf, I'm thinking he'd have a more jackal-like appearance.

I'm also thinking about Paulina being turned into a Veela from HP. It sort of fits her.

I'm not sure about the others, though. It might take me a bit of time for those.

[cathy-gabby]

I’ll Be There, Jin

October 23, 2024 Wednesday

This piece of writing has been sitting in my drafts for several days now. It has gone through several revisions – from being very spiteful to being an absolute downer.  I just wanted to write something very HAPPY for Jin.  But I have to get some stuff off my chest.

This is Jin’s time to shine. And he has been shining so brightly even beyond the grasp of the fandom that left others in awe or in shock. His fans are amazed by what he has achieved and are excited for all the heights he can reach. One cannot help but think that he would have been the most popular member and would have been the most successful solo artist if his star had not been stumped repeatedly by the company which does not want him to outshine other members.

Hah! I sound like I am victimizing Jin.

But his fans who have been here from the very start could attest to their nerve-wracking fear during every group comeback – praying for at least more lines or more screentime for Jin. I was not here yet in 2020 but moots would remember it as hellish time for Jin and all of them – for Dynamite to be a global smash hit but Jin only had a few seconds of song lines and screentime. No wonder he felt imposter’s syndrome which could have triggered his depression. Watching YT contents from that time, I could see what people were talking about – of Jin barely interacting, talking only when asked, zoning out and gazing off into the distance. That was just one example, though. Please don’t get me started on My Universe. Or of how the company has successfully quashed his dream of becoming an actor. Or of how they never defended Jin from the bullying and social pressure for him to enlist even as early as 25-effing-years-old.

But Jin is past all that. All he needed was for all his efforts recognized by an unbiased entity like the military and for everyone to see what an achiever he is. All his successes and accolades in the military are a big fat F U to everyone who bullied him to enlist and those who thought he is a lightweight. And these have exceedingly boosted his confidence! Post-military Jin gets out of the military base guns-a-blazing with confidence and sexiness (without taking off his clothes, mind you!). His six global ambassadorships (and still counting!) are a huge slap on the face of those who mocked him for the Jin Ramen endorsement. Big brands like Kolon Sport and Mini Cooper sponsoring his Run Jin episodes show the trust that these companies have in his impact. When left on his own, without company manipulation, Jin shines like the superstar that he is.

Now Jin is about to release his own solo album. The others had their own time while Jin was enlisted. They had their effing time! (Sorry if I sound angry because I am.) When they enlisted, many fans also left and were on hiatus. Those who stayed are working to keep their biases relevant – holding streaming parties for their biases’ albums even while Super Tuna was newly released, spending huge amounts of money and time to defend a member’s reputation for a ‘scandal’ that has become more scandalous for being dragged for so long now and by giving the media and misanthropes more arsenal for hatred. (Don’t they realize that they are feeding their enemies’ ego by reacting? When will it end?  Of course, it is easier said than done. If it is Jin – heaven forbid – I would have done the same. So I get them.)

Admittedly, the fandom is divided and might have been dissipated. (There is no ot7!!! If there are, they are few and in-between.) So, what does it mean for Jin?

I truly admire the very hardworking Seokjin fanbases and Seokjin girlies who have been working their assess off to promote Jin – buying physicals, pre-saving songs, donating money, posting stickers and posters on the streets so more GPs around the world will know of his album and listen to his songs, and generally hyping anything and everything about him. Do I even have to ask for more from the company? Whether we like it or not, the company has favorites and they have not been subtle about it. Of course, it might have been something to do with the terms of their individual contracts. Only they know.

But Jin has been doubly working his ass off to promote himself, albeit in a subtle way. He starts off by promoting himself to the gp, joining gp-popular TV and YT shows, being an Olympic torchbearer, and attending the fashion show.  He knows his market; hence, the TV show appearances and HAPPY album events exclusive for Japan Jinland. He is very much aware of what makes his fans tick: the concept photos (blond Jin!!!!! Jin with guitar!!!!) are pandering to his fans, Run Jin episodes that make us all HAPPY, song collaborations with people from varied genres (rock Jin! pop Jin!). Jin is truly everywhere. I do not want to be in the shoes of his haters right now.

But I honestly do not care about them.

I am on a Jin-lockdown so nothing and no one can distract me from supporting my man. We have been waiting for all of these exclusive Jin contents for years, so nothing, absolutely NOTHING and NO ONE can burst our bubble of HAPPYness. Most importantly, Jin is very, very HAPPY with everything that he is doing. What better way to make him HAPPY-ier than to make sure that his songs and his album gain the greatest achievement and make everyone HAPPY.

So, on October 25, Friday, 2PM KST, I’ll be there and will be HAPPY from then on.

What about you?

[bluespring864]

"The Martian AU"

I’ve seen a few „author of the Martian AU, if you see this, know how much we loved your story” posts go around and because I know the author I can tell you that yes, the author of the Martian AU is on tennisblr sometimes and you should probably have wished that they weren’t. Tennisblr and one aspect of the fan culture on this website is precisely why Blood Star is gone and why it most likely won’t be coming back.

Several times over the last months I have tried to tell all of you to be a bit less cruel about certain tennis players, and one Novak Djokovic in particular (because with your hate posting you are bullying the fans of the player, not the player!). The way he gets treated on here bothers me too, obviously, and I’ve spoken up for my own sake sometimes, but I tolerate a lot (maybe too much). When, however, my friends are affected by this stuff, it’s a different matter.

So one of my friends is this incredible writer, who decided to share a tennis fic with all of you for free, just for the love of storytelling and because they enjoy writing it, and they did this even though they’re a slow writer and they pour a lot of time into each chapter. As we all know, this story resonated. I have never seen so many gushing posts about a fanfic on tennisblr, at least not since I joined. What only a few of you know but what you really could have guessed to a certain extent because of the way the character of the same name is portrayed in Blood Star is that they are also a big Novak fan. In fact, he’s their fave.

I don’t know if you can imagine how jarring it is to see people on here, and often the very same people who gush about that fic, make/share mocking memes about the player they support, diagnose him as a definite racist for no good reason and just generally wish for that player to lose and be done as soon as possible (I obviously don’t remember who posts what because I’m not that chronically online, but I think I have only mentioned stuff here that has been reblogged or posted by people who also professed to love that story).

Well, the fact that this story disappeared on the day Novak lost his semifinal is no coincidence. Personally, I think the hate maybe wasn’t even quite as bad as when he lost Wimbledon, but that just tells you how absolutely awful it was before. (And it was still so bad this time around that some people who aren’t Novak fans asked for people to tone it down, which I’m very grateful for!) In any case, the author of the Martian AU ventured onto tumblr that day, and who can blame them for feeling a certain betrayal about the fact that many of the people who were so kind to them when it came to their story couldn’t at least keep their glee about the author’s favourite tennis player losing an important match to themselves, or keep it to direct messages or wherever else the Novak fans wouldn’t be bombarded with it. No, all those posts about how great it is to see this player lose, about how good it apparently is for tennis, about how people can’t wait for him to hang up his racquet etc. were there to mock them instead.

Us fanfic authors write for fun, and when the fun stops, we stop writing. Well, the fun stopped and the story is gone.

[mdhwrites]

Now that owl house is over ive noticed an uptick of people kind of retconning the show? like pretending Boscha was the one who ruined Willows life and that Amity NEVER bullied her (they have fully just deleted her entire first appearance of spending 3 minutes harrassing Willow for fun),

or generally just ignoring writing flaws like luzs selfish behaviour, alador being made to one eighty, or smaller things like Skara being including in 'misunderstood' by Willow and rewriting them.

I dont really get it, why not just admit Amity could have been written better, or note how when put in context luz seems very selfish and this should have been better thought out or at least considered in her arc? you can point out these issues and still enjoy the show.

I mean... That's happening for the same reason why I can still write Lumity/Lumischa in a loving, sweet relationship instead of having to acknowledge that Luz gives such little of a shit about Amity as to let her go die alone without warning. Fan content doesn't need to even reflect the analytical beliefs or truths of the show. In fact, it doesn't really need to reflect the show AT ALL sometimes. But this is only true for fan CONTENT. If people are talking about analysis with the show, that gets a lot murkier. I'm not going to be an ass and be like "Oh, they're trying to change the facts!" Not at all. Here's the thing: My blogs tend to be as long as they are when it comes to analysis because of the aggregate actions of the show and characters and what that says about them. For most the words matter WAY more. And The Owl House likes to state what it wants the truth to be rather than backing it up with actions. This is why it goes SO HARD on backstory elements that aren't meant to inform us of character motivations but are supposed to imply that the person they are now is who they've always been so you just forget about they used to be. You forget that Eda was honestly not good to King for like half of S1 if not just the majority of S1. You forget that King acts, talks and others act and talk to him like he's a young adult who's just lazy as shit rather than an eight year old who was adopted by Eda. You forget that Amity was a CUNT for much of her life because look at how much she cares about her teammates or how awful her parents were! It's not good storytelling and it rarely recontextualizes motivations as much as it tries to scapegoat them. We were never going to get a character like Zuko with this writing style because part of Zuko is how much he has INTERNALIZED those trauma we see in S1 and so those never go away entirely. They are still a part of his character. There is no version of Zuko that is pure smiles and laughter like there is for Amity or Hunter. BUT it is to some extent effective, especially since a lot more focus is put on big moments rather than the small ones. I hate Reaching Out for all the small things in it. For all the moments where a small change in dialogue or action would have Luz not seem so entirely callous about Amity's safety while death looms on her mind. What do most remember from that episode? Luz spinning Amity around, Amity not being able to handle Luz's dramatic entrance into the ring and the final conversation where Luz spills out her heart and Amity proves just how amazing a girlfriend she is. Any of the small details that paint Luz poorly, they dismiss entirely because "Look how much pain Luz is in! I'm going to focus on her pain rather than how she is acting because of that pain." Without like, you know... The fact that those going through hard times are STILL responsible for their actions.

I'm not even asking for Luz to have been perfect in that episode but a lot of the time, people will say that hard times prove who you are. I don't like the fact that I can tell I still have a lot of anger in me because I can get more aggressive when I'm tired or just sad than I like to be to others. I apologize and try to keep myself in check though. If this is Luz on a bad day... Then Luz at her core doesn't give a fuck about other people. If her core was that she cared too much, her trauma response should be to focus on those she cares about the most but she doesn't give a SINGLE fuck about Amity that ENTIRE EPISODE. Even down to her saying to join the brawl. She admits it's not because she thinks it's the right choice for Amity or for the situation but that she will always choose chaos. That's not taking into account the person. But that takes ignoring the fact that the text of the episode is trying its hardest to make sure that you are on Luz's side entirely. That by the time Lumity get to the Grom tree, you're not looking for Luz to apologize for breaking her promise at the end Falls and Follies or for ANY of her actions, but instead you're wanting Amity to make Luz feel better.

Luz's choice to stay in the human realm is the same way. The text of the show, the words as stated by characters, is that this is a sacrifice. That it is a noble martyrdom of any happiness Luz could ever have but that she's doing it because she is certain that if she goes, she could only fuck things up. As such, Camila going to the Isles isn't her making Luz do the right thing and actually fix her fuck up but instead Camila being the best mom ever because even though this world scares her, she will do everything in her power to make her daughter happy and give her chances at happiness. This is why I don't blame anyone for liking the show. The show understands good concepts. It thinks that it is doing everything right. And so I have to pull in so much else about the show, all it builds up, contradicts, etc. like that in order to point out why I feel the way I do. The way people might who can't figure out the words because something in the back of your mind is going "Wait, Luz hasn't told any of them the truth and Amity is talking about the future but Luz isn't saying anything but the show says that this makes Luz a good person, not a bad one and that feels wrong for some reason but I can't figure out why." And that is a rough place for most fan analysts. Like they don't do this super often. They aren't ready to pull up an episode list and truly interrogate the thesis in their mind. It's going to be motivated as much by emotion as it is logic. And that's not even a bad thing as most of them are going to do it based on an aspect they love or hate but they're not going to let go of other beliefs they have for the show.

This is part of why I do read every comment that comes across my blogs or my asks. To listen to the other side. Someone yesterday in fact tried to defend Luz becoming a witch at the end because the theme of the show isn't reality vs. fantasy, it's purely about finding a place where you belong. And for a second I was like "You know, that is actually a compelling argument. There is something there." Then I remembered that Yesterday's Lie explicitly pointed out that Luz could have been happy in the Human Realm, that her life was good, and that maybe she needed to question what she was doing. Almost like, I don't know, the question of fantasy vs. reality, of the grand adventure you want versus the fact that life is complicated and messy wherever you go, is a major theme of the show and Luz specifically, right down to King's crown turning out to be nothing but a toy.

But I did my due diligence and did interrogate the question properly and won't say that it has zero merit. Amity finds happiness with Luz. Willow finds happiness with plant magic instead of abominations. Hunter finds happiness out of the EC. There is definitely an aspect of it to the show but it doesn't feel like a main thrust of it. Honestly, I think even if it were, it's made weaker by how much these characters have to change themselves for their happiness. Willow and Luz are the only two who survive contact with a space that will make them happier as Lilith, Eda, Amity and Hunter all effectively have their characters replaced at some point away from their core to a new narrative function that usually either turns them into a joke or something incredibly bland and generic rather than unique and personal.

Analysis is COMPLICATED. Good analysis is HARD. I mean, someone tried to refute me on Titan Luz being a deux ex machina probably in part because they like the spectacle it brought them and while I still debated that my original points stood and that their arguments actually made it clearer how it was a deux ex machina... That doesn't make it a bad thing. But to most fandom analysts, the very term means the story is beyond redemption if it uses that. Meanwhile, I'd argue the deux ex machina appears to be the best part of that episode because it allows such a joyous spectacle for the fans to enjoy, including the angst spectacle of Luz dying. ALL of this is also what led to me final statement for my tierlist: TOH is worse than the sum of its parts. In order to articulate why though, you have to be able to examine all of those parts and TOH is such an ambitious show that there are a LOT of parts with a lot of movement to them to examine. That's a lot harder than questioning if one part is worse than you'd like but keeping a firm belief that the rest is just as good as you always believed, or vice versa. I mean, when I did the Found Family blog, I literally had a moment where I went "I genuinely expected Eda and Luz to have spent time enough to justify the finale because I do believe in their relationship as mentor and student but the two spend almost no time together in the second half and WHAT THE HELL!?" I was caught off guard by finding out that a part of S1 I was firm was good and functional was a lot shakier than I'd expected. But I did my diligence in double checking and then exploring the answer I got.

And I could get into the excuses people give for the show like the shortening but... I mean, I still agree with someone on my Discord that if an analyst excuses something as due to the shortening, they better have a DAMN good reason for it. I will actually listen to an argument for Hunter's character arc being worse because of the shortening due to S2A likely still being mostly produced without that knowledge. I won't forgive that it already had signs of being bad and as bad as most arcs in the show though because even with Eclipse Lake he's being treated as a joke and only truly as an enemy by Amity for a little bit and his OWN COVEN. Eda and King treat him as a joke and so does the episode so while his arc could have been better with more time, it's hard to say it would have been good. Because an excuse actually has to correlate with what is presented. And The Collector exists so... Really, there's no way of using the shortening as an excuse. Not when I've literally made a compelling argument for why a full S3 would have at best been good because the show clearly wanted more time than was EVER reasonable without a firm guarantee from Disney and Disney hasn't given a show more than 3 seasons in a WHILE. (I would link the blog but I couldn't find it quickly)

But again: A lot of these people are just wanting to talk about a show they love and you know what: More power to them. I talk about this show so much because I want to talk about a show I used to live and my brain is rigged to overthink EVERYTHING. A decade ago and I would have been way worse at these blogs than I am now, especially since back then my point was to prove I was right and smart while nowadays it's much more about wanting to teach about writing and discuss aspects of it. And there's a lot I can teach with The Owl House but if I half ass my analysis, you're not going to learn and so I try to be a bit more thorough than maybe I even have to be. If this blog doesn't prove that in spades. Edit: Part of me wonders if part of this is a misinterpretation/abuse of Dana saying that whatever she's stated is as valid as anyone else's headcanons and that only what explicitly happened is canon for the show. Which, as always, for many, meant rip Aro/Ace Lilith and Lesbian Amity. -_- ===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[musicfeedsmysoul12]

So… how would YOU rewrite MHA?

Well, a lot of the things @doodlegirl1998 said are true and are what I would do if I did rewrite MHA, but as @anastasian-dreamer says I do think that the death of Midnight and Eri's stuff are good for the story. Midnight dying alone and off screen is a moment that can really emphasis with the audience that death is a common thing in this world for heroes, and while she gets remembered it becomes just another headline affect a week.

Of what I would change though is:

1) I would want Bakugou to be removed from heroics after the final exam. I would have a build-up that really emphasizes both 'big fish from the small pond moving to the ocean' and the emphasis on flashy quirks alongside discrimination. By this I mean I'd dig out my fav headcanon: Aizawa thinks Bakugou was a bully victim from his peers and his attitude is a reflection of it. Bakugou still gets a strike his first day for nearlya attacking Izuku but it's somewhat brushed off because at the time I think Aizawa has read a basic file on his students but doesn't know everything.

Which is actually something I would have be the norm rather then just Aizawa. The hero teachers all have a test the first day to actually get a feel for their students and to judge them if they're good for heroics. There's another tract at UA called 'Secondary Heroics' where students are put if A) they missed the cut off for heroics, B) they failed the entrance exam BUT have a useful Quirk or C) they were part of the heroics program and removed due to a lack of ability, reliance on their Quirk or a general attitude. Something like my Red Flag program. Aizawa doesn't expel the kids, he sends them to secondary heroics in order to shape up. However often times the kids don't make it out of secondary heroics because they end up washing out. It's never held against them because being a hero is HARD. You can move back to the heroics program if you prove yourself or if you place high in the sports festival compared to a hero student.

Izuku and Bakugou stay in regular heroics because Aizawa in this AU does think both deserve the regular hero course. He sees how Izuku figures it out and goes: Oh, bad teaching and again he thinks Bakugou probably just needs to learn he doesn't need to protect himself. Still, he gets a strike as a warning and because they can't have students hurting each other.

After this, Aizawa gets the full files and learns Izuku is a late bloomer. He still thinks Bakugou is a victim because it's full of teacher praises, so he goes: ah, his peers thought him villainous though. We get todl this, we get shown this. And then it slowly is torn apart for Aizawa as he sees signs that point towards bullying. As Bakugou shows it's all about him facing actual consequences he's upset about, not that his peers don't like him. Then, I would have the final exam. I think in this one, they would know better then to put him and Izuku together, so instead I'd switch Izuku and Todoroki. Bakugou fails his final exam after getting mad Todoroki wouldn't listen, assaulting him ala how he punched Izuku. Bakugou is removed from the program as this is his third strike AND he failed his exam. Meanwhile, the other students who failed got a note that they will take the exam again before the next semester after summer school. If they fail, they get moved to secondary heroics.

How is this discrimination showing? Mostly it's because of Aizawa's assumption and we would see evidence that this happens frequently.

2) As an addition to the above, I would have the class reject Bakugou after some time due to his attitude. I would have a few hold outs who assume the same as Aizawa but they would eventually reject him to. They would band around Izuku, and frankly lay out how awful Bakugou is and Izuku shouldn't keep trying to be his friend. So Izuku gets dragged away from Bakugou and slowly begins seeing what was wrong with how he was treated by society, with flashbacks. Which then leads me to Inko.

3) Give Inko her own character. She's just a plot device in canon, and I would love to explore her as a character to give us more. Right now, as a lot of people agree, she reads as a neglectful mother who never supported her son because we BARELY see her unless she's freaking out about something her son did. Either play into that or have her be different.

4) Endeavour and Dabi time. I said before that I prefer Endeavour's redemption to Bakugou's and I stick to it. But I would also kind of... hmm... okay so Endeavour is convinced he was in the right. However because he gets to be number one, he ends up going: Oh I didn't need to do that, so I'm sad now, you have to forgive me. I then want Shouto and Natsuo to go: No we don't. Fuyumi and Rei... I'll admit I like the idea of Fuyumi being very much: yes we do and we can be a family again!! I also though want this ideal broken for her and her to understand her brother's don't have to forgive their dad.

As for Rei, I said before that we don't know the full story with her and while Horikoshi is scrambling to make Endeavour less bad I do find that the idea Rei wasn't completely innocent is an interesting idea. Rei's pushing for more kids is something I would want to keep, tying it into their marriage and having her want Shouto to be like: hey so it worked, I didn't suffer this for nothing. I would also though have her be slightly neglectful of her elder kids. Not intentionally though. Her mental health is something I would also focus on. Staying years in a mental hospital isn't as far fetched as some think, and I would really have it be adressed. Which then has Shouto being confronted with how society messed up his family because his rosy view of his mother and her protecting him gets shattered by Natsuo. I want Shouto to have to face the fact there was a lot going on because in reality that's what abuse is like.

This would then tie into Dabi who I'd keep mostly the same. I want Dabi to know he's in the wrong and not care. I want him to want revenge KNOWING it's fucked up but wanting it anyway. Because I love just a complete dick and the idea of it being Dabi is fun because I want him to have a sympathetic past but be unsympathetic. I would then though also focus on the idea of him being a villain and I would show his victims so we're aware of it. His arson cases would be discussed from the first chapter as a 'hey so this guy is shady'.

5) which brings us to all the LOV. Give us reasons they're villains and show us their crimes. Show Toga stalking and killing, show Spinner being shunned and resorting to crime, give us them as criminals. I'm firmly no redemption if only because I think it's more interesting but I still want to see more. (Also Magne needs to live).

6) Overhaul should have been in the news and his drugs should have been known to be a thing. It builds him up and then we get a gut punch when we learn Eri is the one whom the drugs come from.

7) Iida and Uraraka needed more spotlight as Izuku's friends and I would have Todoroki stay a friendly rival to Izuku. Shiggy is his big rival though.

And... that's what I would do that's different i guess.

[lumiereandcogsworth]

curious (and you may have discussed it but!!) do you think Adam, once he got his body back, had to relearn certain things? like did he have to rewire his brain to remember “oh right I’m not that strong anymore” or, assuming the castle had any low door frames, do you think he might’ve forgot he wasn’t quite as big anymore and still ducked out of habit?

oooh !!! i have only slightly discussed this before, emily asked about adjusting to his height and not being as tall as he used to be, so i’ll link that here!

i do love the idea of him relearning things because things are just Different. i think he would find both his hands and teeth extremely uncomfortable at first. he got used to the fangs and the general sharpness of his teeth, as well as having really pointy thick claws, so when everything is suddenly smaller and smoother, i think it’s like an awful sensory experience that he has to get used to. (and it was definitely an awful experience to adjust to, when the curse initially happened as well).

on that note i thought of a headcanon recently that i think in his post-curse life he develops a hand fidget where he taps the tip of each finger to his thumb repeatedly. i just think he’d find how small and smooth his finger tips were so WEIRD so he just forms a habit of feeling how flat and non-claw like his fingers have become. i bet he also develops a similar stim of counting his teeth with his tongue. all very unconsciously but just because it all feels so weird at first!!! but then it just becomes fidgety habits.

i definitely agree with what you’re saying though i think adjusting back to his shorter (though, he’s 6’ as a human, so he’s still fairly tall by comparison to belle (5’5) or whoever) and scrawnier build would definitely kind of suck. i touch on this in the first post but he’s always been a scrawny guy, and bullied for it too, so i think he kinda at least slightly appreciated actually having some stature and strength to him. (overall though he was miserable of course, but just if he had to find SOME kind of silver lining, that would’ve been it.)

anyway yeah i definitely think he’d have a reflex of ducking where he always used to duck, or thinking he can move things a lot easier than he could. i also feel like he just forgot about putting on stockings and shoes. which is ironic because he hates being barefoot typically. (and belle loves being barefoot, which is why he’s always annoyed with her cold ass toes when she gets in bed lol) but he had to relearn like, waking up, putting on slippers, going to the dressing room, putting on stockings and shoes, etc. the first handful mornings he probably just got up and started walking around and then was like AGHDKFJDK BLEGH! ya know, when you have sensory issues?

and as a final note, and i should’ve put this in the first post but it just came to me now, i imagined belle one time asking him if he missed his height (he probably reached for a book and then grumbled about how it used to be at his eye-level) and he kind of smirks and says “sometimes, i suppose.” but then he walks over to her and she’s standing in front of him and he says “but i am a very nice height now so i can do this,” and he leans forward and kisses her forehead and she’s like :))) !!!! and he chuckles, proud of himself for making her blush >:)

[cellspex]

Finally caught up on Miraculous LadyBug and...

I always knew I wasn't going to watch this show until there was evidence the Love Polygon was actually going to go somewhere, so when season 5 ended I finally caught up with the show. Except by "caught up", I mean I only watched a handful of 'plot relevant episodes' of seasons 2 and 3 and watch from 4 forwards. Some will say its cheating, and they're right. My view of the show is very different from people who have been following it for years episode by episode. And while I obviously can't tell what the entire fanbase is thinking, the gist I've gotten is that they are very irritated from feeling like theyve been jerked around by the writers in terms of certain character directions, how long its taken for Love Polygon to go anywhere definitive, and by the season 5 finale. So as someone who didnt have to wait through years of expectation and disappointment, i know my view of the series is going to be quite different, especially since I'm comparing the most recent seasons to what I barely remember about watching season 1 years ago and finding it very boring and repetitive, so I admit going in my standards were low. Compared to that, I actually had a lot of fun with seasons 4 and 5, impressed at continuous story threads and continuity, though it was by no means flawless, the bad guys feeling like actual intimidating threats sometimes and the fights having actual strategy, the big difference between this and its predecessor Sailor Moon, where there was no strategy whatsoever, attacks just hit or they didnt until the episode ended. Even knowing that the two leads would eventually get together and that I wouldnt have to wait endlessly for it made the silly romantic drama more fun. But there's a lot emotional burdens both leads have to bare and I think they're handled pretty well. Actually getting together mutually feels too slow and too fast if that makes sense, but I'm glad it happened finally and that they still don't know their identities, so there still a shoe to drop.

The drama around Chloe which seems to be a particular sore spot isn't all that interesting to me, I never liked her, and would have given anything for her to leave, and though there was a point she could have had a redemption, I don't know if her character would have had a point if she did, she just would have been one in the crowd, though I don't like her as the worlds flattest bully either. But the only thing as satisfying than a proper redemption arc is an absolute horror show getting their compuence, though for Chloe she'd need to spend an entire season cleaning toilets with her hair to feel like she got what she deserved, I know she has an awful mom, but at some point that stops being an excuse. But I understand more people feel like the writers are and making her too awful. But then the season 5 finale...

I was enjoying it for the bulk with a genuinely tense and exciting battle and conflict, and then the last 2 minutes happened. I can only guess they did what they did because they're leaving some shoes to drop for season 6, but its VERY unnearned and sells a lot of characters short including Adrien and Gabe. There's just a lot of... why? It honestly felt like an idealistic dream sequence and I honestly dont think its real, or it shouldnt be. But in general I was having fun, but it seems a lot of fanbase isnt anymore. But maybe I just havn't heard from enough of them. How do you feel about Miraculous Ladybug? #Miraculous Ladybug

[gone-series-orchid]

do you think any of the villains are written well? i think caine's crew was good in Gone, but after that they just got. stereotype-y. and a little two-dimensional.

that’s a good question! i’ll hesitantly say yes—though the best antagonists, captain orc and his gang on bully row, don’t stay antagonistic for long (unfortunately).

i think having orc and howard and their group stay the ostensible leaders of the fayz would be really interesting. it could lay some of the groundwork for orc’s development early on, precluding his murder of bette. it would be fascinating for michael grant to have to toe the line between keeping orc and howard as firmly antagonistic figures while still underlining their general ineffectiveness as leaders.

not to mention, keeping orc in power for a longer time would give more “oomph” to the whole bette situation—there would be more suspense leading up to it. hypothetically, at this point we’ve gotten a pretty good insight into orc and howard’s specific petty antagonism. they’re the schoolyard bullies given an unprecedented amount of power…but they don’t really know what to do with it. they’re still menaces, and dangerous because they’re so confident (howard) and stupid (orc), but at the same time they don’t know any more than any other kid does about this new world little pete has created. they’re bad kids hopped up on this new influx of authority, but they’re not evil.

so when orc does accidentally kill bette, it’s even more of a shock than it is in canon, because we’ve seen what his rule is actually like and we know what kind of person he is.

maybe bette’s death could be built up to even more. maybe orc at this point is used to punishing people with his baseball bat if they don’t do what he says (always below the chest, though). he does it to intimidate and shock kids, and it works. sam and co. are of course concerned and disgusted by his and howard’s schoolyard tyranny.

maybe orc starts drinking at first to celebrate his captaincy (his gang has confiscated all the town’s alcohol for themselves because haha, the adults aren’t around and they can do whatever they want). he drinks to heighten his enjoyment, lower his inhibitions, and numb whatever mild stressors he’s dealing with as the fayz’s captain. he probably doesn’t even connect his drinking with his dad (that’s how different the context of said drinking is!) at that point. he’s on top of the world. he’s riding high. why shouldn’t he have fun and get drunk with his friends? it’s the fayz, after all. it’s a party.

it’s only after bette’s death that he drinks to dull his suffering and guilt.

sorry, i kind of went off on a tangent. anyway!

in a similar vein, i enjoy the human crew for their very human awfulness. i think mg writes them well. i just wish they had a lasting effect on the fayz as a whole and were generally taken more seriously as threats—the gaiaphage, drake, and caine were always prioritized over the call coming from inside the house. which of course, they’re bigger threats, but there’s something a lot more compelling about rooting out the villains festering in the fayz itself. zil and the human crew are driven by bigotry and resentment that have grown because of the power dynamic of the council that the protagonists have spearheaded.

i guess i just love pathetic bullies being the big bad antagonists of the fayz. they’re more interesting because they’re so fallible and human. i just don’t find caine or drake or the gaiaphage interesting in comparison.

on the coates trio, i definitely think they were at their peak in the first book. in hindsight i’m really surprised mg didn’t refer back to their alliance in later books. that might give drake a little bit more pathos, if he half-genuinely looks back on his time with cementing kids with caine and diana through a rose-tinted lens. sure, it’s mostly the torture he enjoys, but being a weird whip-handed servant to a radioactive alien in a mineshaft sounds pretty lonely. maybe he misses being a normal sadistic kid instead of a weird monstrosity, at least to a point. once the shine has worn off. 🤷‍♀️

anyway once again! sorry this got a bit more scattershot than i meant it to be. i hope i answered your question!

please feel free to send more asks!