#still doing that actually ! and the kid was just an example. it happens w all sorts of words or nicknames frankly 🥺

[anzuhan]

oooh in that case, are there people irl you're comfortable with speaking in 3rd person around?

anzu doesnt get to speak much english irl (which is pretty sad) and its easier to avoid using pronouns altogether without 3rd person !

but also anzu does have some irls where we also just change to eng sometimes, and anzu does use 3rd person around them.. and they also refer back to anzu without pronouns so yeah, we good !! 💖

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hi, I hope this is an okay question to ask. I am s l o w l y exploring and learning what kinds of kinks I like. I’m drawn to taboo kinks and I’m really curious about ageplay, but I’m worried that if I open the door to letting that be hot, I’m going to start seeing actual kids as hot. Obviously that doesn’t mean I would do anything about it, but I’m still not sure I want that in my head. Is there any truth in this fear? Could that happen?

well much in the same way that the majority of pup players aren't trying to hump real labradors on the street, D&D players generally aren't running around pulling swords on random shopkeepers, and my years doing Warriors Cats rp online never made me want to live in the woods pissing in the dirt and eating mice, I suspect that what you're attracted to is the safety of fantasy and play rather than the actual, literal thing. pretty big line between those two things, actually, and most people are pretty clear on the difference between stuff that's made up and harmless and stuff that's really really bad. I use this example often, but I assure you that my abiding love of Batman using his billions of dollars to dick around doing lawless bullshit has not softened my feelings on Elon Musk in the slightest.

I assume that, like most well-adjusted adults, you aren't attracted to children. what you're into is, presumably, adults acting in ways that are characterized as immature, carefree, cutesy, helpless, bratty, etc, and the dynamic of those playacting adults might have with others who take the role of their caregivers. that is... so, so, so far removed from being attracted to an actual human child. I don't know if you've ever actually, like, hung out with kids, but they're pretty different than adults. I mean obviously they're little humans who have their own opinions and ideas and personalities and have a right to autonomy and making their own decisions as much as is safely possible, but they are REALLY different from age appropriate, sexually compatible adults. someone doing ageplay is, like, a million miles from an actual kid.

it's kind of like how when Riverdale was on I'd see gifs of that insane redheaded lesbian and go "yeah, she's hot." like, sure, the character's a teenager, but that actress is an adult woman who's only two years younger than me and we all know that. the idea of fucking an actual teenager is vile. even if I were to see someone and have an initial aesthetic appreciation, the second they open their mouth and start saying 17 year old things the attraction is gone because I've realized that's a child.

(no offense to the teens in the room! you're great and I'm sure your 17 year old stuff is really important to you! but adults should not want to fuck you, is the point.)

so what I'm saying is: seems unlikely!

also, okay. let's assume the absolute worst case scenario happens and you experience a twinge of sexual interest towards a child. that's understandably alarming; that's not an urge most people want to harbor within themselves. that may require some dialing back from ageplay, or a chat with a kink-friendly mental health professional, or seeking out some community and advice from others in your kink scene who may have struggled with something similar. but please, give yourself some credit: you have some shred of impulse control within your body, yes? you're not going to make the leap from having a thought to being an active child predator in one fell swoop. the choice to harm a child, or to seek out pornographic material of child sexual abuse, are still choices that you would have to actually make. and it's making those choices to do harm that actually make child abusers a danger, not just having thoughts. having a thought all by itself doesn't hurt anyone; it's the way you act on it that has the potential to cause harm.

but again, I want to emphasize, sexual behavior is by and large a pretty easy wire not to get crossed with other things. please note the brave billions of people who manage to get through every day without groping their colleagues and random strangers because they understand it's not the appropriate time, place, or partner!

[luv-y0urself]

18 headcanons for woon's 18th !

day 1 : living with woon . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

established relationship!au | roommate!woon x fem!reader ♫．genre : slice of life, so much fluff... | wc : 789 | warnings : second person pov ! woon is implied to be a student ⏤ in college or high school is up to you to decide. as always, there is some mild bickering too :') 𖤐．first post of the series ! happy birthday once again, woon <3 make sure to let me know which one you guys like the most for the full fic on the seventh day ! more details on the masterlist linked below ↓

ᵔᴗᵔ﹕masterlist | the next day . . . [posted] !

living together-

there would never be a dull day if woonhak was living with you… literally. there’s always one thing or another happening around you guys, and you guys always make the most of it. 

like, there was one time when woonhak insisted that you teach him some of the yoga/pilates things you’ve been doing in your freetime, saying something like “it can’t be that hard…”

oh boy. poor guy was shaking just using a foam roller and doing a couple of exercises with it while you were nearly crying from laughter. 

“you won’t even be able to use a reformer!!”

“sh-shut up!! yes i can!!”

but even when you guys bicker with each other like that, woonhak is still someone that you can rely on for anything.

sometimes there are just days where you don’t want to do anything and just want to stay home, but he forces you to get up and do something, even if that’s going on a short little walk with him outside for some fresh air or just being next to his warmth while he’s doing homework for some of his classes, listening to his voice talking about random things to make you feel better.

he always has food prepared for you on those days – not processed, delivered food, but actual homemade food that he made, freshly prepared for you to eat.

“... thanks, woon.”

“you have to do the dishes.”

“are you kidding me???”

throwing tantrums-

cue the hundreds of videos of woon on the floor throwing a tantrum…

if something doesn’t go his way… this is definitely the type of move he would pull out of his pocket.

FOR EXAMPLE. if something goes wrong w the game he’s playing, he would lay on the floor and start doing this, causing you to run out of the kitchen, not even caring about the flour from your apron leaving a trail behind you as you stare at his flailing body.

of course. just when you're making your favorite cookies to eat during the weekend...

“... woon…?”

“oh my GOD i literally cannot beat this level this is absolutely horrible i’m so bad at this game–”

“woon– oh my god–” you run over and reach out to him to grab his hand holding the flailing controller, putting it down and grabbing both his wrists, successfully putting them above his head as you stare down at him. he finally stops and sighs, looking into your eyes.

“you know, sometimes i wonder if i’m babysitting a child or if i’m living with my boyfriend.”

woon scoffs, all thoughts about the game forgotten as he swiftly switches your positions so that he was on top of you now.

“well, obviously your boyfriend, right?” he gives you a mischievous smile before he starts tickling your sides, getting flour all over his clothing and face before you’re finally able to make him stop.

yes, throwing a tantrum means you have to go and calm him down… which also means this happens every single time too. you still haven’t quite figured out a way to get out of the situation, which wasn't good because woon was getting better day by day at finding your weak spots.

"woon – oh my god – let go of me! my cookies are going to burn!"

"not until you say that i'm the bestest boyfriend in the world."

"jesus christ–"

coparenting a pet-

now, although you insisted that you have enough on your hands with woon in the house, he always wanted to get a pet – a pet dog, specifically. you’ve always said no because that would be too much of a commitment for you guys. but… for his birthday, you finally decided to give in – all the while doing a small prank.

see, you packaged a couple of cute dog toys and gave it to him on the morning of his birthday. he opened them up, happy to see the plushies but a little confused. 

“aren’t these for… dogs…?”

you couldn’t help but smile. “check outside.”

his eyes light up immediately and he zooms out of the room, and you follow him with your phone recording, watching as he picks up the dog from the box that you bought him in and had left outside just a couple minutes ago, the small brown furball nearly disappearing in his arms.

his eyes look at yours with a look of wonder and joy, and he smiles so wide, making your heart warm just by looking at the two of them together. he puts down the dog softly on the floor and immediately pulls you into his embrace, his large hand covering the back of your head and burying himself into your scent by snuggling into the crevice of your shoulder.

“thank you so much, love.”

© luv-y0urself / 2024 | taglist : @onedoornet @blankjournal

[heyclickadee]

So, here’s the thing. The finale is weird. Yes, I’m hurt by the fact that Tech didn’t come back and that a character that’s very near and dear to my heart was badly handled, and that will never sit right with me. But even apart from that, the finale fundamentally does not function as a piece of storytelling or as the end to this story. I’m glad that people are enjoying it, and I will never tell anyone not to. But I don’t think it works. (I get very negative about the TBB finale under the cut.)

It’s not just the Tech stuff or the CX-2 stuff (which may very well have been the same stuff) that got dropped. It’s *everything*. Every theme, Every narrative thread besides retrieving Omega, every character arc except marginally Omega’s, Echo’s (also marginal), and Emerie’s, which was the shortest and gets wrapped up by her deciding to help Echo rescue the kids. It all stops. It makes everything that came before seem cheap and pointless if you take it into account. And this is so, so frustrating for me, because the entire show was driving towards this incredibly rich payoff, it could have been immaculate, and then it whiffed the ball so bad in the last episode that it didn’t just miss, it managed to knock over the bleachers and set the entire court on fire.

Some examples:

1. This season had a really interesting exploration of Crosshair’s PTSD via his hand tremor and how it was something he can learn to manage, but not something that would ever fully go away. Aaaaand then his hand gets chopped off. One, that was stupid. I’ve seen some excellent posts (here’s one by @the-bi-space-ace) detailing why that was a terrible way to handle Crosshair’s lingering trauma, and others talking about how the idea there was that Crosshair needed to move on and it was severing his last ties with the empire. The former, I agree with; the latter, I don’t, because not only—not only!—does this episode stop dealing with Crosshair’s trauma, it doesn’t even deal with having cut off his hand! It just sort of occurs. No one reacts to it, no one says anything about it, there’s no follow up or commentary, nothing happens as a result—it’s an event which occurs with no results coming after it. It may as well be an animation error. You can say it was about Crosshair needing to let go and move on, but that’s something you have to project on to the text, not something that’s actually offered by it. It’s empty.

2. Crosshair again: We also have the lingering issue of Crosshair’s guilt and the fact that he never seems to get to a point where it’s resolved. There’s set up for a resolution. We have that, “Sure you have,” like about Crosshair from Rampart. We also have Crosshair saying he deserves whatever happens to him in Tantiss. And then…no pushback. No resolution. No moment of Crosshair realizing that he doesn’t need to carry that burden. Nothing that says he didn’t deserve what happened to him. He had all this character development this season, but he needed - last little push to forgive himself—and we never get any indication that he does. It, like his trauma, gets dropped like a rock.

3. Hey! More Crosshair! A good chunk of Crosshair’s arc this season was about learning that anyone can change, first, and that no one is beyond saving. Eeexcept that goes no where.

4. Which brings me to my next point: There is set up for the CXs to be saved. Even if we’re laboring under the conclusion that CX-2 was never intended to be Tech at any point in the writing process (I have. Doubts. Yes, I’m calling the creative team liars, here, but with the understanding that they have contracts that may require them to lie), we do have the set up where we learn the electrocyanide zappers can be removed, and with Rex offering forgiveness to CX-1. “Whatever they did to you, whatever you’ve done, you’re still one of us.” CX-Tech or no, Crosshair’s arc was tied up with the CX plot, and because he’s the one the CXs tend to react to—or, at least, understands what was done to them—the set up was there for him to help save and maybe rehab the CXs. At the least, there was an indication that they could be saved. Eeexcept nope! That gets dropped like a rock, too, and they’re not going to deal with it. Time for maximum carnage.

5. Hunter’s arc actually takes a step backwards. Sure, he gets a technically happy ending, but because the squad is basically in the same place they were in “Pabu” back in season two (down a member but successfully hiding from the Empire in a safe place), it negates Hunter’s development towards actually taking action—and actually hurts Echo’s arc, too.

There’s been this tension all through the show between just sitting things out on the one hand (Hunter’s way) and taking direct action despite the futility on the other (Echo’s way), but instead of finding some kind of middle ground or third road, it sort of comes back around to saying that, actually, Hunter was right, they should have just gone to Idaflor back in episode three and never left even though the Pabu invasion said that no, you can’t just hide, and even Hunter’s development was moving in the opposite direction. And this also means that Echo never reaches a point where he feels like he can walk away and that he doesn’t have to get himself killed doing this. Despite development otherwise they both end up back at that conversation in “Tipping Point” without any move in either direction or resolution of that tension.

6. Omega. Okay, Omega probably comes out the best after the finale, and, conceptually, I actually love the idea of Omega becoming a pilot even if the epilogue falls a little flat for me. But stuff with Omega still got dropped, including:

- The force stuff. We have two episodes dealing with m-count (after learning in episode three what Omega was created to do). We also have Ventress telling Omega that she doesn’t have a high m-count as far as she can see, Crosshair immediately calling Ventress out for lying, and then Ventress basically saying, “Yeah, no shit, but if she has force potential she’d have to leave you behind, and it doesn’t matter what your opinion on that is, so I’m not dealing with that.” Aaaand then,m. That. Goes nowhere. Despite a bit of set up for Omega connecting to the force as early as episode one, and some more set up in Tribe, and that whole subplot of her learning how to meditate, and so on.

Now, I don’t think that it was ever going to turn out that Omega did actually have a high m-count or that she had a particularly powerful natural connection to the force. I think she’s probably got a low or baseline m-count. What I do think, however, is that we were going to see Omega connect anyway as a refutation of Palpatine’s and Hemlock’s entire scheme. Their goal (based off of the ST) was to create extremely force sensitive clones as a way for Palpatine to jump bodies without having to waste time re-learning how to connect to the force. You know—dark side, quick and easy path, focus on eugenics and raw power, etc. Had Omega connected anyway because of her big heart and desire to protect, it would have not only paid off that set up, it would have also refuted Palpatine’s and Hemlock’s entire goal. It would have worked so well thematically and the set up was THERE.

- branching off of that, I think the Omega force stuff was probably tied to the Zillo beast. We also had a through-line of Omega being good with animals and taking the time to calm them instead of responding with violence. The first time we see this is in “Replacements,” where she realizes that the ordo moon dragon (also an electrophage—I don’t know what to call these things—like the zillo beast) is just scared and hungry. This is all conjectural, but it still fits with what was set up.

- Moving on from the force stuff, we also had a through-line that started way back in episode two of the series, but which was really emphasized this season, about Omega feeling like she’s the cause of the bad things that happen to the people she loves. This is why she gives herself up during the Pabu invasion in the first place. This is never resolved! We get Omega’s confidence boost when she realizes she has the force kids to take care of, but we never get a moment where Omega realizes that she has no reason to feel guilty. She’s the glue that holds the family together! But nope! Also dropped!

- But wait! There’s more! The first two season finales have Omega watching someone she loves fall away while she’s helpless to do anything to save them. That’s perfect set up to put Omega in the same situation, but be able to save them, because she’s finally come into her own. Instead we just end up with her needing to be rescued again.

- Omega has this big speech in Shadows of Tantiss about spending her life stuck in one place or another against her will, and how she refuses to be confined like that. I don’t think Omega would have been happy just staying on Pabu for the entire rest of her childhood and young adult life, even if I think she’d want to use it on a home base. But! Dropped!

7. I still can’t get over the fact that the zillo beast is on screen for about two minutes and then just. Walks away. It’s a large beastie that’s been locked in confinement for a while and is probably hungry. And somehow it didn’t go straight to the reactors for some delicious energy smoothies. Like. It. Did. The. Last. Time. Someone. Let. It. Out. But no, that would have required it sticking around for something that was probably dropped sooooo ZILLO BEAST EXIT STAGE RIGHT I GUESS. (Edit: I have been reminded that Hemlock does say to turn off the generators once the zillo beast is out, so that at least makes sense. I still think the zillo beast should have stuck around to do something.)

8. You notice how there are a ton of commandos around Tantiss, even up through “Flash Strike?” And how they kind of largely cease to exist? And how Echo says that there are far more clones imprisoned in Tantiss than anyone thought? And then how they rescue, like, a dozen guys? Because we never find our way back to those cells Crosshair was held in during season two? And how Tarkin does mention not wanting to allow clone dissidence to turn into an uprising back in “The Summit?” Because I did. This show was never going to be about a clone rebellion, that wasn’t the point, buuut I do think the set up was there for an uprising at Tantiss itself. Begin the series with clones losing their agency en masse, end the series with some of the most subdued clones taking it back. Except nope, dropped, soooo we gotta pretend the commandos don’t exist and murder the hell out of poor Scorch.

9. SPEAKING OF. The batch does kill clones sometimes, that does happen, but they do at least usually make some kind of effort to be non-lethal even when they’re not using stun, and times when they do resort to lethal tactics are usually born out of extreme circumstances. Not here, though!! NO HESITATION MAXIMUM CARNAGE. For. Reasons I guess.

10. There’s one point IN THE FINALE where Echo mentions signaling for Rex. This never comes up again. Rex does not show up. In fact, despite being called, “The Cavalry Has Arrived,” the cavalry does not in fact arrive. There is no cavalry. Yes, I know it’s a reference to Wrecker’s first line. But I’m sorry if you call an episode that YOU HAD BETTER HAVE A CAVALRY SHOW UP. Especially when you have a one about calling them in! But that also!! Got dropped like a rock!!

11. One positive: the moment Crosshair and Hunter leaning on each other to make that shot was nice.

12. Sorry, but Hemlock’s death was deeply unsatisfying. Let’s do something more than just shoot him multiple times, okay?

13. Rampart’s death, on the other hand, was incredibly satisfying. That said, the conversation about project necromancer? I’m dying. It’s actually hilarious, because it basically goes like:

“Tell me about project necromancer.”

“Wow! How interesting!”

I’m.

Are you serious?

I’m going to become the Joker.

Yes, I know we know what project necromancer is because of a different show. That’s not the point, the POINT. Is that any pay off for project necromancer in this show got dropped. And that’s deeply frustrating from a narrative perspective.

14. Speaking of, we never find out anything more regarding that partially successful m-count transfer from episode three.

15. We also never do anything with those medical records!

16. And Omega has a whole crossbow she never actually shoots despite the fact that her role on the team was as a sharpshooter after Crosshair left, and despite her getting advice from Crosshair on how to be a sniper. The literal chekov’s gun never goes off. I’m going to go eat gravel.

17. AZI, likewise, got toted around for three seasons for no reason. Probably could have helped with the medical records. Given that he was a Kaminoan medical droid. Oh, and that Omega was Nala Se’s medical assistant. So. Hmm.

18. You can cut everything in the season past episode five and skip straight to the epilogue and end up in the same place. This is not because the other episodes are filler. Far from it! The other episodes are great and deliver some amazing set up. But, because the finale does nothing with that set up, it doesn’t go anywhere.

19. And you know what else? From a narrative perspective, there’s no reason for Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair to be in these episodes at all. They don’t accomplish anything and make everyone else’s job harder. Omega was doing fine, she would have gotten out with the kids with just Echo and Emerie, and Tarkin was coming to cut off Hemlock’s funding and shut everything down once Hemlock lost control of the facility anyway. I can only suppose that the whole reason they were in this episode ended up getting dropped, too.

20. CX-2. Listen, the answer we get about CX-2 isn’t that he’s not Tech. It’s, “Maybe, maybe not—you don’t get to know.” Because. He’s the only CX whose mask never comes off. After a season and a half worth of buildup of unmasking CXs and people pressing them to learn their names. It’s not a no, it’s a non-answer, which is far less satisfying.

And finally:

21: CX-Tech. I’ve seen some people speculating that there was a planned CX-Tech reveal that got scrapped at the last minute—dropped, along with the other points I’ve already laid out. And, honestly? I have to agree. Despite what the creative team says, because even their denials kind of come out weird (like the Kiners saying that the large brass chord in “Battle of the Snipers” was just a nice sounding brass chord and not a reference to “Plan 99.” They also basically say that the sacrifice theme from “Plan 99” is Tech’s leitmotif. Which. Is all over “Battle of the Snipers.” That theme. Not Crosshair’s. In a scene. Where he’s supposed to be fighting a shadow of himself who Totally Isn’t Tech but we put Tech’s leitmotif here and layered it in Techno music but nooo that was never supposed to be him. Nope. I mean, come on. I’m not stupid).This post is already long enough, so here are some posts by @apocalyp-tech-a pointing out the reasons why I think this was the case, and one by @eriexplosion pointing out why CX-2 as Crosshair’s shadow and only that doesn’t quite work. I don’t need to go over the trail that was laid out again. Up to the finale this was a character that had more screen time—and far more solo screen time—than Echo. Some people will not stop yelling that there was no evidence, and. No. I’m sorry, there was. I can’t agree.

And some people might say, well, okay, the show misdirected you guys and pulled off a twist by having CX-2 be no one, and well, I can’t agree with that either. Twists only function if the twist is more satisfying than the conclusion to which the story seems to be leading. And I’m sorry, you can’t tell me that a season and a half of CX building and three seasons (because I can find set up all the way back in episode one of the show) for Tech survival culminating in what amounts to a boss fight is more satisfying than getting to see Omega have her big brother back. You can’t.

The reason I bring this up last is because, yes, I think CX-Tech was a plot dropped at the last minute, but because I also think that it’s the dropped plot that ripped everything else apart. CX-Tech was an incredibly efficient way to tie up most of the lingering plot threads and dropped character development.

-Crosshair’s guilt? Okay, he faces down the end result of his decision to stay with the empire and possibly something he knew about (Tech would be in this situation because of Crosshair, and were given hints that Crosshair knew) and is finally able to forgive himself because they’re able to save him.

- Hunter’s decision to finally take action and be proactive rather than reactive is validated, because it’s the thing that finally gets him his entire family back.

- Echo saves someone the same way he was saved, and maybe he realizes that it is enough and that he doesn’t have to be a soldier forever.

- Wrecker’s efforts to keep the family together and keep Hunter sane finally pay off.

- Omega is able to protect the people she charges about and finally, finally has all of her brothers.

- Thematically, it rounds off each member of the batch (Omega included) traumatically losing and then taking back their agency in a way that correlates directly to who and how they are as people.

- It also rounds out the OG batchers each being haunted by a failure that has to do with the thing that makes them special.

- You get pushback against “Clone Force 99 died with Tech! We’re not that squad anymore!” because no, it didn’t, and they’re more than a squad, they’re a family.

- It comes around and closes the wound opened in Aftermath and ripped back open by Return to Kamino: they go in for Omega and lose someone, but here, they go in for Omega and get someone back.

- Would allow Tech to close off his lingering threads and finish his character development BECAUSE THOSE REMAINED UNFINISHED.

- Completely subverts the “bury your disabled” trope by making sure we know the character whose disability was explored the most’s life is more important than his death. Seems like an important thing to do in a show that is kind of about disability. Just saying.

- Makes the lack of closure and little mentions of Tech make sense from a storytelling POV because the necessarily catharsis would come from his return.

- And it would actually add some triumph to the ending. Yes, this little family survived. They outlived the war. They’re together, despite every effort to rip them apart. They made it, despite the dark times, despite the Empire, despite what they were made to do and be. They defied all of that. That would have been so, so satisfying.

As is, without Tech, without that CX-Tech reveal, we sort of end up in this weird place where all the themes are half-baked. They are more than soldiers…except Tech, who had to fall out of the story as a soldier (despite us getting the clearest glimpse of what his life outside of soldiering could have been). They get to live how they want…except Tech. They don’t leave their own behind, except Tech that one time. They should value their own lives a little…except Tech. They’re more than a squad, they’re a family…except Tech, the only one besides Omega to say that’s what they are, doesn’t get to see it, and they don’t get to have him around. We begin the series with a broken family and end it with a family broken differently. That’s not dynamic.

So there’s no really punch to the ending. It’s sort of…well, okay, we tortured a family for three seasons I guess. Relieved that the survivors are doing okay, but that’s kind of it.

22. The finale in general is just sort of a bunch of events which happen, but which don’t lead into one other. It’s weird. It’s not that too much happens, it’s that almost nothing happens. Nothing of substance, in a way. The finale is, in a word, the only true filler episode in the entire show.

TL;DR: I think a lot of stuff got dropped from the finale. I don’t know why. I suspect that it might have to do with the strikes—basically, the script was done, most everything was recorded and boarded, and then when the finale was in production they got sudden drastic budget cuts (this was during a time when the studios were disappearing entire completed shows and movies as tax write-offs), had to gut what they had planned, and couldn’t bring the writers or even showrunners in to smooth over what was gutted or to even pick what got taken out. They wouldn’t have gotten to choose or compress things. They were on strike (because the studios wouldn’t negotiate), and whoever did choose ended up just ripping out the stuff that would actually take any time or budget to deal with (so, basically everything I laid out), killing it (literally), and using the remains of what they already had recorded. And who knows how they had to fill in gaps.

But I don’t know for sure. Maybe it was that. Maybe it was a last minute decision to take certain plot points and put them in a different show. Maybe it was executive mandate. Maybe the creative team just sucked the whole time (that’s one I have a hard time buying—we have four other shows and most of this one that tell me that they’re better at their jobs than this). Maybe everyone said screw it, who even cares anymore at the same time.

Maybe nothing happened. Who knows? I strongly suspect something bad did happen behind the scenes that was out of the creative team’s hands—I really do, because that’s the only way I can make sense of this—but until we can get someone talking without six layers of PR and NDAs, we won’t know for sure. All I know is that The Bad Batch is an amazing show with 46 episodes that range from “fine-but-clunky” to “IMMACULATE,” with more leaning towards immaculate than not, and some incredible set up, and one episode so nonsensically bad it makes me want to eat drywall.

It’s just that the one terrible episode comes right at the end.

I love The Bad Batch. I love every single episode and all the things that were set up, but…eh, I think I’ll be ignoring the finale until further notice.

[callsign-rogueone]

maybe a weird question but how did you decide what type of gf each man “needs” or vice versa?

not weird at all! brace yourselves for an essay.

first, the ones that I didn’t think about too hard lol

starting with angel, who was the first gf to debut! this pair was really mostly wishful thinking / me just wanting a garrick in my life. but I started to really like the idea of big tough garrick with a soft, shy girlfriend. she’s someone he can be vulnerable with / who can take care of him a little bit.

and then duchess, for brennan: I felt like he’d like a partner who is as sharp as him, and also someone to tie him in to the revolution. reading about him at the viscount’s had me giggling and kicking my feet, so why not make his girl nobility too?

bodhi is another where I just made something up and rolled with it. the ogs know how that happened!! but for further development of darling, here were my thoughts;

he’s a perfect little angel, and is going to be obsessed with his partner (in the best way) so he needs a perfect sweetheart girl too + he’d be great for a shy girl because he’s a gentleman and wouldn’t be too forward or want to take things too quickly. (darling has since outgrown a lot of that shyness, but I digress.)

xaden’s family was rich and royal enough for arranged marriages, so why not bodhi too?

he also feels like he’d be great with kids / a family man, so I gave darling some much-younger siblings for them to play house with.

I just really wanted to have a black-cat-golden-retriever situation with liam and spark. plus they have a very short time together, so I went with someone who he already knows well as a good friend instead of him meeting someone at basgiath and trying to cram it all into one year.

now, the other half I did make intentional choices with and actually planned!!

sawyer, my sweet cheese…

our boy is a little insecure. and while I don’t want to say he “needs” to be the stronger, more traditionally masculine partner, I think getting to be someone’s hero would help build his confidence.

luceras (in my brain) is the fantasy equivalent of appalachia, so he gets a sweet country girl who can still also whoop ass when necessary (you’ll see.)

I also wanted him with a healer because of his injury (I read tower of dawn this summer and definitely got some inspiration there!)

I’m gonna try my best to not be salty about him and jesinia in onyx storm if that goes anywhere… because in my mind, him and peach are married with two daughters and a dog. she’s basgiath’s head healer and he runs the forge there.

moving on.

dain… oh, dain.

it’s very clear to me why him and violet didn’t work, so that was a starting point for love. I also wanted him to have a girl who could keep him in check a little bit.

she’s more willing to be doted on than violet is. she would one hundred percent have taken him up on his offer to go read in the library all day and not mess up her hair or have to do cardio before 9am.

I also see dain as more of a traditional guy, who would want a girly girl instead of someone like imogen or mira for example. so I made her quite feminine despite her still being a soldier.

she’s razor-sharp, which he seemed to like a lot about violet, but this often bites him in the ass — she’s very scrutinizing of his double standards and doesn’t hesitate to call him out on his bs, because fourth wing dain needed that. and what’s a rivals-to-lovers / supposed-to-be-enemies-but-became-lovers story without a little banter and arguing?

and also I wanted to heal his inner child a bit by making him a young dad. plus it’s a disruption to the very straight-laced, traditional mindset he probably had of being married first, and prioritizing his career… so that’s another opportunity for growth for him.

ridoc, my beloved

he’s more dimensional than he seems at first. he’s a joker, yes, but I think he’s also incredibly emotionally intelligent and caring. so he’d take good care of a fragile, anxious girl.

I thought a shy girl would also be cute for him — he’s the life of the party, but opposites attract. and he’d be determined to make her slowly open up to him (which you’ve already seen a lot of in their chapters so far!)

but I also see him liking a badass girl, and sweets is that when it comes to hand combat and her initial responses to his flirting. and her signet stuff, too. she’s really good at that.

aaric, our prince.

he has a better mindset than his dad/older brother but still needs a tiny bit of a reality check. enter sunny, stage left. her gratitude for literally everything and her newfound zest for life is gonna open his eyes to the way the other half lives.

I am also considering the possibility of ace or demi aaric (based on that one comment he made and literally nothing else) so a partner who has been used for her body in the past and is a bit traumatized by that / doesn’t want to do anything of that nature anytime soon would be a good fit for him too in that case. (spoiler, sorry!)

[also, re: the above -> all the girlfriends have pieces of myself in them and this is one I gave sunny, so this arc of her building self worth + trust with aaric (and our other fw boys) is important to me personally. there won’t be detailed descriptions of anything bad, just mentions of things she endured, but I’ll still tag those chapter(s) liberally + I completely understand if anyone wants to skip them!]

and while I’m giving stuff away, I’m also playing with the idea of the divine right of kings — that sunny was picked out by amari herself to be his queen. “luck”, fate, and the favor of the gods are really going to be strong themes in her story!!

[theloganator101]

The Great BNHA Review: We Live in a Society

The world of fiction! The place where everything in the story happens. So when you're worldbuilding there are many things to take into consideration to make the world of your story feel alive.

From the people that inhabits it, the cities, towns, villages, and locations the characters live in. And even having a set of rules to follow to avoid plot holes and help the world they live in make sense.

Much like how despite technology being more advanced compared to real life, yet still not being able to have flying cars or advanced robots. Those kind of things can sometimes break immersion in the story, and as a writer you would want to avoid that as much as possible.

HOWEVER! The world BNHA takes place in doesn't make a lick of sense when you think about it for more than thirty seconds, and the foundation of the world breaks the more you think about it.

Case in point, UA!

I think at this point we all can agree that UA wasn't an actual school and instead a glorified boot camp to train child soldiers to fight. And for a series called MY HERO ACADEMIA!! There's hardly any academia in it at all.

Apparently Hori didn't wanna bother with that part of the series and being forced to write "boring" scenes and just get back to the exciting battles. Like where're the scenes of the class studying for their latest tests? Where're the scenes of the kids doing their favorite activities? Where're the scenes of them bonding with their superiors?

WHERE'S THE FUCKING ACADEMIA PART OF THIS GOD FORSAKEN SERIES!?!?!

You can't just name it My Hero Academia and only give us 20% of what the show is called! It just feels like false advertising at this point!

Also about the whole child soldier thing? Yeah let's go deeper into that.

Why are we relying on TEENAGERS to fight in these big battles and save the world when they've only been in hero school for a single year? That's literally like forcing teenagers to discover a cure of a disease when they've only taken a year of biology class!

And yeah, I get it, it's an anime so it's expecting you to suspend your disbelief, and they already had experience with fighting villains before so it would make sense to recruit them. But again, these are fucking teenagers and we shouldn't be relying on them to fight battles the adults should be able to handle!

This is one of the biggest problems of having your story take place in a world similar to modern real life, because here adults actually gives a shit as to what children go through and knows it would be fucked up to send them to fight in war! And the excuse of it taking place in Japan and thus how they do things is different compared to most countries is NOT GOING TO CUT IT!

These grown ass adults should KNOW bringing kids to fight in a war is fucked up and should NOT be encouraged! But since they're so desperate they choose to get them involved! The only exception to this is Rock Lock since he already knows this!

Okay, let's step away from the whole child soldier thing and focus on something the story never gave us introspection of... the fact that we never got to see how quirkless people are really treated.

It's explained that 20% of the population is quirkless, so almost a quarter are born without it. And from what we saw of Izuku's life with it, discrimination must be a common thing in their society. So it would make sense to explore that since it's tied to the main character's backstory and how he's going to make things better for others like him.

... Except that's not how it goes.

We never get to see how the life of a quirkless person is like, we never get to canonically see Izuku interacting with someone like him with the only exception being Melissa. But the thing about her is that she grew up on an island and her father a respected scientist, so it's kind of difficult to tell how the quirkless life is like if this is the only example we get... and it's not a good one.

But wait! There is a canon major character that was also quirkless like Izuku! And it's Yuga Aoyama. And how did the story treated him?

Oh it was revealed real late into the story with no awareness and treated him like shit for being an unwilling traitor, then replace him with Shinsou who whined and complained his way into the Hero Course.

Uhh, what the fuck?

And the worst part about all this is that Izuku has no reaction or acknowledgement whatsoever! He doesn't sympathize or feel less alone, he doesn't comment or say anything about this! So it's like what's even the point!?

Oh don't worry, we'll come back to this whole Izuku not acknowledging his past later in the review! But there's one more thing I wanna talk about in this world.

Is how blatantly biased society is to the Heroics occupation.

From what we've seen and learned, people are not allowed to use their quirks in public. And that the only way would be able to legally use them is to have a provisional license... which is only obtained if you're training to be a hero.

Uhh, but what if you don't wanna go into heroics? What if there is a person who wants to be a comedian? A layer? A construction worker? What if they have quirks that they think would help them in their jobs? Would they get in trouble if they tried using their quirks on the job? Is the Provisional License exam the only way to be able to use your quirk freely? Is there another test people can take to get one if they don't want to go into heroics?

Yeah you see what I'm trying to say here?

Since Hori's so focused on getting to the next big battle that he barely thinks about the world BNHA takes place in and leaves holes in the process. The world of BNHA feels more like a dystopia where heroics is all that matters and that anything else is boring and not as interesting. And since the world itself is so flawed, that I don't feel immersed into it at all and all I have are these questions on how things are run.

So in the next part, we'll be taking a look into the themes and messages the story tries to tell it's readers... but oh boy, did it really fumble with it's messages.

[cripplecharacters]

I write fanfic, and have some concerns about MC's baby. Baby (Hope) was made in lab and has genetic differences. Currently, I consider something like Down Syndrome?

~

Background:

In canon: character mourning his best friend (an alien), and try to clone him. (Alien later later in story come back to life)

My thoughts: When you clone someone, but use DNA from 2 people, it's actually a baby...

Since they are different species, I consider having their child being either triploid (3x chromosomes) or tetraploid (4x).

Which can be genetic issues. And disabilities. I sort of base on Down Syndrome, but also different.

~

Things I thought issues:

1. Should I just have the kid have Down Syndrome? At least it's familiar, and unrepresented. But also DS is only 3rd 21 chromosome, not all chromosoms are 3.

2. Issue about the kid being a baby. Since initialisation is a big problem for ppl w disabilities, DS especially.

3. Dad 1 (the scientist) has a "what have I done" moment. It's before the beby is born, and before her differences are showing, but can be problematic. I try make it clear this is problem bc Dad goes 1) my dead friend didn't agree, 2) i shouldn't make a kid, 3) I'M HAVING A BABY!?!?

4. Also, I don't know if there's problem with "made in lab and different"? (Like it's "punishment", or something about mutations? Idk I'm not from USA nor Christian, but I know people who are has weird issues).

To be clear, both dads love their kid. They call her their light and "our little miracle". Though can also be issue?

Thank you!! I hope it make sense?

Hi!

First, I want to clarify some points from a biology perspective:

Humans are really bad at handling the wrong amount of DNA, and really bad at cross breeding with non-hominids.

A cross-breed between two species with different numbers of chromosomes may or may not be viable (best chance is when the species are closely related), but the hybrid is nearly always sterile.

A haploid (1x) from each parent can make a new human. Most organisms also work this way. But some organisms produce sex cells with multiple copies of the genome--for example melons can be made to have 2x seeds.

Aneuploidy (3x or 4x) is lethal to most species. Some (plant) species are more resistant, but still sterile--a normal 2x melon and a 4x melon produce a seedless 3x melon, for example.

Monosomies and trisomies are not always fatal, as evidenced by Down Syndrome among other chromosome disorders.

If you want to follow biological constraints, I think having Hope be a hybrid is not the best choice.

But you can do whatever you want, and model off of any chromosomal disorder you want, since you're dealing with fantasy biology.

I think the most important/constant aspect of chromosomal disorders is intellectual disability. Hearing and vision loss are also very common.

Infantilization is not so much a worry with an infant character. It's okay to have children in a story. It becomes infantilization if the character is routinely treated as far younger than their age.

I don't think being made in a lab is a problem. Genetic disorders happen, whether chromosomes are combined in a lab or in a body.

And I also think it's normal for your character to have all sorts of emotions about having made a new person. Just like when someone is pregnant. You're clearly showing it as his complex emotions regarding his actions, not disdain for baby Hope.

Mod Rock

[monty-glasses-roxy]

how often do the animatronics need cleaning?

That would depend on the animatronic and what they've been doing lately.

Sunny and Moon would be every week if you're lucky. Realistically, they probably need at least a spot clean every day. They can probably do that themselves though, and they probably do it at the same time as they get kids to clean up so as to set a good example and stuff. A full and proper clean is probably weekly at least though. Wouldn't surprise me if they kept trying to push it to every two or three weeks to save on effort and cost though.

DJ gets cleaned... basically whenever? He's a clean guy already, and it requires a little planning and coordination to give him a proper clean so it's more of a "whenever his handler thinks he needs it" kind of thing. He has a warranty since he's not a Fazbear built animatronic, so if they're ever over to check on him, they'll sometimes give him a quick clean too.

For Chica, it would depend on whether she's been eating (if she doesn't physically have the ability to eat) or not, and where that food has come from if she has. She could probably get away with a monthly clean up since she doesn't seem to handle food officially anymore, but with her habits, it can probably range from several times in one day, to up to a month. It really depends on what kind of month she's having, ya know? If she handles food officially, it'd be a quick daily clean, with a proper clean whenever needed.

Freddy could probably be every two weeks or so? He has a compartment for cake in his stomach, he can't exactly go too long before he's a health risk. And he's the face of the brand so he's got a lot of little kids running at him with their grubby lil food smothered fingers, as kids do. Probably gets spot cleaned daily unless his handler is particularly uncaring about the cake thing. He can and will make a formal complaint if it's any longer than two weeks though. Not that anyone really reads those.

Monty very rarely needs cleaning purely cause he likes fucking around in the water a lot. You'll just find him chilling, lying on his belly in the shower with cold water raining on him, or floating around in the water ways. He's one of the few animatronics that can float and he takes fully advantage of this! He basically cleans himself, so they only ever really need to actually clean him if he's walking around stinking of chlorine or something. He's by far the easiest to clean, he will let anyone ever stand there and pressure wash him for hours if you let him lmao it's Monty Enrichment!

Roxy very much does not like being dirty, but may not always notice if she's preoccupied with other things so it ranges for her as well. With all her fluff though, you can get away with just running a brush or a damp comb through it most of the time unless it's particularly bad. She should ideally be brushed out daily, and she would prefer this to be the case, but it really depends on who her handler is whether this happens or not. She's not usually popular among handlers, so unless she does it herself or the Minis do it for her, it doesn't usually get done daily until Cassie's dad gets the job. It's still usually the Minis and Cassie doing it due to some lingering trust issues, but he does offer every day.

She is only bathed when absolutely necessary though. Usually cause handlers can't handle her, she fucking hates it. Management recommends she get a proper clean up at least every month like mostly everyone else, but this has never been the case ever. Luckily, her attractions are both closed so she's in contact with the public a lot less, and therefore not really on management's radar for this kind of thing. So long as she's not walking around looking like a giant, dog-shaped dust bunny, caked in blood or stinking of sewage from exploring near the pipes, she can get away with it lmao

And of the course, the Minis don't usually get washed at all. Roxy doesn't know if they're waterproof and half the Minis say they are, while the other half say they're not, so it's really not clear to anyone how safe it is to do so anyway lmao

[celaenaeiln]

lol hi its me 12 am anon so uh tldr is that i hung out with my friend and we got drunk and we made out or smth but more importantly they made w fuckin list of dick grayson things i started talking abt while drunk

- “bad idea right?” but its dick grayson and his exes

- bruce technically gave dick a family but dick’s the one who like truly made it feel like a family when it comes down to it he’ll fuck up bruce for his siblings

- that one “5 man band” trope and how he can fit as the leader and the heart

- into a specific (blank) to lovers? dick grayson’s got you covered

- the “barney from how i met your mother basketball hoop scene” and “eleanor from the good place mom she never had” but make it dick and bruce (teenage or adult idc i’d love both)

- nightwing could 100% be the figurehead of the dceu (like im talking spiderman level) if dc would do something [this was timed . i talked abt this for like 30 minutes all on its own]

i am . so embarrassed. also i dont know if we made out before or after the rant and i dont know which is more embarrassing .

what. what. "more importan-" NO! NO ARE YOU KIDDING ME THAT IS NOT MORE IMPORTANTLY OH MY GOD!!!

MY MIND IS LITERALLY BREAKING RIGHT NOW!

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? Do you like her? Did she say anything?! I-

WAIT DOES THAT MEAN DICK GRAYSON LITERALLY GOT YOU TWO TOGETHER?!

NO WAIT!! SHE KISSED BACK. SHE KISSED BACK!

oh my god i'm reeling.

Have you guys talked about it yet?

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

I LITERALLY CAN'T THINK OF DICK GRAYSON RIGHT NOW AFTER THAT BOMB YOU DROPPED ON ME BUT FINE

"Bad idea right" was literally written for Dick Grayson!

Nightwing (1996) Issue #133

"Bad idea right?"

Actually every single Olivia Rodrigo's songs feels like Dick wrote it.

Like the sour album? Every time I listen to it I imagine that Dick just wrote the album because he was so mad at bruce after being fired from Robin lol.

"bruce technically gave dick a family but dick’s the one who like truly made it feel like a family when it comes down to it he’ll fuck up bruce for his siblings"

That's true too!

Batman (2011) Issue #11

"The truth is, I didn't save you from some dark fate, those years ago. You saved me from one."

Batman (2011) Issue #11

"And you still are saving me, every day."

Bruce gave Dick security but Dick gave Bruce a life. He gave Bruce the ability to become human, to be happy.

Take Gotham War for example,

Batman (2016) Issue #138

Bruce tells Jason he's saving Jason from himself and Jason in turn asks Bruce who's going to save Bruce from himself.

Cut immediately to -

Batman (2016) Issue #138

Dick.

Dick has always been there to pull Bruce out of his darkest days when he tries or is willing but Bruce giving up on Dick's ability to do so is symbolic of him giving up on himself. It's the height of Bruce's irredeemability.

Even after Jason died, Bruce indirectly called Dick to come join him but at this point his back up personality is too far gone for him to recover.

Batman: The Return

Dick literally is the reason Bruce stays connects to the batfamily. In a good way.

He has no reservations about keeping Bruce in check.

"that one “5 man band” trope and how he can fit as the leader and the heart"

5 man band trope: one leads, one contrasts, one thinks, one fights, and one keeps all of the above from killing one another

DAMN RIGHT

He's the leader.

Batman: Gotham Nights (2020) Issue #12

And the one that keeps them all together

Batman: Gotham Nights (2020) Issue #12

Dick is the defacto leader when Bruce is gone or lost it.

Batman (2016) Issue #137

Batman (2016) Issue #704

Batman (2016) Issue #704

"Selina doesn't run Gotham. You do. While I'm away."

And the family's protector.

Batman (2016) Issue #137

"into a specific (blank) to lovers? dick grayson’s got you covered"

Yup!

Canonical:

Childhood partner to lovers - Raya Vestri

Friends to lovers - Barbara Gordon

Enemies to lovers - Shawn Tsang

Psuedo-family to lovers - Helena Wayne (they actually married in Earth 2)

Crime fighting partner to lovers - Helena Bertenelli

Kiss at first sight to lovers - Koriand'r

Pseudo-therapist to lover - Bea Bennet

Landlord to lovers - Bridget Clancy

Teammates to lovers - Zatanna

X to lovers - literally him and everyone

He's just so shippable that way. Not gonna lie, literally all of his relationships Dick and his lover have been great together.

the “barney from how i met your mother basketball hoop scene” and “eleanor from the good place mom she never had” but make it dick and bruce (teenage or adult idc i’d love both)

The New Teen Titans Issue #50

Man this hits hard. I've never seen how I met your mother but the parallels in the basketball hoop scene and Dick's talk with Bruce are uncanny.

The thing I think is weird about Dick and Bruce's relationship is that it's steeped in insecurities for each other. Dick feels hurt and betrayed and lost as to why Bruce would take in a new robin so suddenly and Bruce's tenure as Dick's robin is riddled with insecurities about him not being a good enough partner.

Batman and Robin Eternal Issue #6

However it's because of these insecurities that I believe they are close.

The difference between Barney and his dad, from what I gather from the clip, is that his dad never acted like one to Barney.

But with Dick and Bruce? Bruce was a good dad to Dick. But he was a terrible partner. Bruce treated Dick like an equal while still fielding reservations about his age and dealing with his own insecurities. Bruce knows that what he's doing is not right but at the same time Dick is far too competent. His intelligence, his athletic skills, his compassion, and his fearlessness were light years beyond anyone Bruce had ever met and Bruce acklnowledges this.

Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder Issue #2

"The GAS was supposed to knock his OUT. His brain out to be sailing past the MOON, right now. What's this brat MADE out of?"

Batman: The Widening Gyre Issue #1

Bruce's biggest problem with Dick is literally that he talks to much.

Dick is equal in every way to Batman and even exceeds him in some ways when he was Robin itself. So Bruce pushes the responsibilities of Batman's partner on to Dick while treating his as his son, mother, therapist, and partner. And Dick steps up to that. Soon they fall into a rhythm where Dick is Bruce's one for all human interaction. So imagine when you have a constant thing with someone that you're comfortable with and they suddenly start holding back from you. They begin talking about how you're too young to handle adult responsibilities. How you shouldn't be facing that burden. Now you're confused. Those responsibilities they are criticizing you for are the very ones that depended on you for. So now you start doubting yourself and trying harder and harder to make them see that you can handle the job. While you're struggling with confusion, they're struggling with guilt.

That is Bruce and Dick's relationship. Bruce grew a conscious after 10 years and Dick can't understand it. So there comes the self-blame and strife.

What Dick doesn't understand his Bruce feels guilty of his over reliance on Dick. Dick's self-blame has come to such a point that now even when Bruce in full honesty rants about how proud he is of Dick, Dick holds reservations because if Bruce was really proud then he would dump all the responsibilities on him right?

It's really messed up.

"nightwing could 100% be the figurehead of the dceu (like im talking spiderman level) if dc would do something [this was timed . i talked abt this for like 30 minutes all on its own]"

LOL

I think the Dawn of DC does have Dick be the figurehead or at least he will be in the future. We're just getting the beginning now.

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

Nightwing (2016) Issue #100

"We want you to lead."

Justice League (2011) Issue #51

It comes full circle.

[humorisstoredinthetits]

Poly Heathers & Veronica and Love

This is a remake of one of my older posts, "Headcannons part 69420", updated with more stuff and more elaboration

Heather Chandler:

Chandler's love language (giving) is acts of service

She is always doing something for her wives, wether that be making them a little extra treat when she goes to make dinner or taking them to their favorite places on a whim or even preparing a nice bath for them when she knows they've had a hard day at work

By her own admission she isn't the best with words

She's brash and often rude and has a hard time vocalizing her thoughts, the inability to do so causing her much frustration

Why can't she just tell them how much she cares for them, how much she needs them, why is it so hard?

It actually caused her to start to fear that they would think she was ungrateful or even that she hated them, but after opening up to them about it she was reassured that of course they didn't think she hated them, they all had different ways of showing love and that it was ok that she didn't outwardly show it

Despite this, Chandler still feels the need to put in more effort into showing her affections but also that what she does is never enough

As a stay-at-home wife she has plenty of free time on her hands, and with that time she will try and think of something nice she could do for her wives

Sometimes its just as simple as her spotting something one of them would like at the store and picking it up for them

Other times she goes more out

For example, for a whole week Duke had been dreading a meeting with some agency which would determine what happened to one of her kids, stressing about it to the point of tears

So that day when she came home, Chandler had prepared her favorite dish (with a huge chocolate cake, Chandler knows her green-clad wife is a monster for that shit), went out to get some high end bath bombs, and even got Mac and Veronica to come home early to help comfort her incase things went poorly

Thankfully they didn't, but Duke spent the whole night teasing Chandler about how soft she's gotten

She tried to refute it but it was of no use, she was blushing heavily

The only thing she won't do for her wives is intentionally lose at a game

Despite her ego deflating since high school ended, the pride still remains, and Chandler physically cannot force herself to lose even if it would make one of her wives feel better

Her love language (receiving) is words of affirmation

Its amazing how a few words from her wives can soothe all of her worries

Maybe its because of how bad she is with words, but just hearing an "its ok" or "I love you" sets her mind at ease

It lets her know that her efforts appreciated, but also does so in a direct way

Despite being the HBIC for years and dealing with all the interactions that entailed Chandler is hilariously bad at gauging how someone is feeling

She's used to just intimidating people into doing her bidding, but she obviously can't do that with the people she loves

By having it told straight to her that she is loved and needed and that she's done a good job she can understands how they are feeling without any doubt

She also has a massive praise kink

Veronica once called her a "good girl" and Chandler's face was as red as her blazer for the rest of the day

Now when one of them wants to mess with her they'll whisper "good girl" into her ear and watch her blush furiously

Every Saturday the four of them will have date night

They don't always go out as a whole polycule, what they do is follow a schedule

For the first 3 weekends of the month they will have two 1 on 1 dates, and on the fourth week the 4 of them will go out

For example, Week 1 is Chansaw and McDuke

Week 2 is Chandlamara and Dukesaw

Week 3 is Chanduke and Mcnamaywer

Week 4 is the whole polycule

This way they can all have a day to spend quality time with each of their wives

They also follow a schedule within it for who sets up the date

For example in Week 1, one month Chandler and Mac will choose what they do for their date, the next month Veronica and Duke, and so on

The same applies to their group date as well

When it's Chandler's turn to choose, she prefers classic date ideas

Call her old-fashioned, but she loves the cheesey romance

Of course she loves getting dolled up and nice and pretty, plus she also gets to help her wives pick out something that'll match

If she's not with Mac she'll go to a fancy restaurant and order some wine and just talk and enjoy being with her wife

And she pulls out all the stops for this, getting the best table, candles, expensive wine, nothing is too good for her wives

Plus its nice not to have to cook for a change, even though she does enjoy doing it

With Mac things are a little different

The fancy restaurants she enjoys going to don't have things that Mac would eat on their menu and she would hate to see her just sit there while she ate, so instead they do another date night classic, going to the movies

They don't get as dressed up, presenting a fun challenge to Chandler as she tries to find something that looks nice but also low-key enough to justify wearing to the movie theater

Her and Mac get a huge tub of popcorn to share that they never eat more than a third of

Thankfully they both like their popcorn the same way, smothered in butter

The first time Veronica went with the Heathers to a movie and saw the sheer amount of butter they were putting on their popcorn she became very concerned for their cholesterol levels

Duke gets her own little kiddy popcorn bc she cannot stand having that much butter

Chandler will get a Diet Coke, Mac a Sprite, plus they share some candy

As for the movie, they'll usually go see a comedy or some kind of animated movie

Neither of them are a fan of action, most romance movies are too heteronormative, historical films are too boring, and horror is a big no-go, so comedy is an easy choice

They usually sit at the very back of the theater and cuddle

Heather Duke:

Duke's love language (giving and receving) is quality time

Its a win-win situation, she loves spending time with her wives and they love spending time with her

Out of the four of them she spends the least amount of time at home

Her job can have long hours, and she's often the first to leave in the morning and the last to come home in the evening

As such, when she comes home she is antsy to see her wives

Often as soon as she comes through the door she'll make a beeline to wherever they are (usually the couch) and just collapse into a cuddle pile

And don't get her wrong she loves her job, it can just be stressful sometimes and the long hours get to her sometimes

Its nice to come home and just exist with people who care about her

She's also the one who came up with their weekly game night

Duke thought it would be fun to do something outside their normal routine, but also something the four of them could do together

She loves just being around them, but she also wants to actively do things with them

That culminated when one day when going through Mac's things she found her old Wii, the discovery of which saw Mac launch into story after story about her and Chandler playing on it when they were kids, and all of the times she was a sore loser when she managed to beat her

Chandler: "I AM NOT A SORE LOSER HEATHER"

Mac: "Sorry honey, but you are the biggest sore loser there is"

Chandler: "AM NOT"

Mac: "You got so angry when I beat you at Wii Bowling that you broke my Princess Peach remote"

Chandler: "We were kids, you know how kids are when they don't get what they want"

Duke: (To Veronica) "She was 17, I was there, Mac started crying and I had to comfort her"

That gave Duke the idea of them all playing it together

Surprisingly they all played, so they plugged in the Wii and started playing

Chandler's sore loserness became readily apparent when Veronica began dominating at Mario Party

She may have targeted Chandler at every oppurtunity, but that still didn't justify her throwing the remote into the wall

They don't only play video games, sometimes they'll do board games

One time they tried to play Monopoly

That somehow ended with Chandler setting the fucking board on fire

They stay away from extremely competitive games after that

Really, Duke just likes to hear the others laugh

Hearing them cheer or giggle whenever they come ahead in a game fills her with happiness

That's part of why she pulls so many pranks, not only is it funny in the moment but it also creates a hilarious memory to look back on and laugh about

As for her choices on date night, Duke prefers to go shopping

A weird choice for a date, but its what she wants to do

She takes each of her wives to a different place to accommodate for their tastes

With Chandler, they'll usually go to a boutique

They'll go in, browse the new selection, and maybe pick up a few new things

Really its just an opportunity to see the other dressed up all fancy and sexy

With Mac, they'll go a bit farther outside Sherwood to some speciality shops that have a bit more variety than what they can get in their small town

These shops get Japanese imports of Pokemon merch, something Mac goes crazy over

She's become very friendly with the owners, and they've even helped her place orders for some of the more limited and hard to find collectibles

With Veronica, they'll go everywhere

The girl loves to shop

They often spend an hour or more in the LEGO store with Veronica debating which stupidly expensive piece of plastic to get today

They'll go looking for the newly released funko pops, to the bookstore, to Gamestop so she can fuel her addiction I mean get more Pokemon Cards

They don't come back without the Jeep being full of random crap

But the dates aren't about the shopping, its just something to do while they talk

While driving or browsing or waiting to check out, Duke will take the time to just talk to her wives about whatever really

Its a nice opportunity to just catch up or geek out about a show they were watching or a book they've been reading or anything and everything in between

With her job she can't spend as much time with her wives as she would like, especially not one-on-one time, and this is a nice way for her to keep up with what's going on in their lives

Heather McNamara:

Her love language (giving and receiving) is physical touch

Mac fucking loves physical contact with her wives

She is pretty much touching at least one of them 24/7

Wether that be holding hands, cuddling on the couch, or even just touching legs under the table

Whenever the are sitting she'll scoot her chair or herself over to where her and one of the others are touching

Its really calming for her, whenever they touch she feels a lot more grounded and in the moment

This is important for when she has a meltdown, she needs that feeling to help bring her down from the hysteria and back to reality

Her wives know this, so when they see a meltdown coming or one in progress they know to give her a big hug and hold her tight

This doesn't means she likes to touch everyone however

Mac is really only ok with physical contact with her wives and her dad, if anyone else tries to she starts to freak out

One time JD gave her a pat on the back and she started to have a meltdown, she wasn't expecting to get touched at that moment and she was getting touched by someone who wasn't on her list of ok people

She also will avoid touching other people

She refuses to shake hands or give hi-fives or anything of the sort

Whenever a store clerk hands her a bag she makes sure their hands do not touch during the exchange

This does not apply to animals, if there is a creature she will pet it and she doesn't mind dogs jumping up on her or cats coming sit in her lap

Her favorite thing in the world is being in the middle when they go to bed

They bough a 4-person Alaskan King bed when they first moved in together and it took them a while to figure out the best way to sleep comfortably

Eventually they settled on having Chandler on one end, then Mac, then Duke, then Veronica

Mac absolutely insisted on being in the middle, because it would mean that she gets cuddled by two people every night

She sleep the best whenever she's held tight by her wives

Surprisingly she's not always the little spoon, most nights she is big spooning Duke while Chandler is her big spoon

She's also big on hand holding

If they go anywhere she's holding hands with at least one of them, preferably two

She laments that she doesn't have 3 hands so she can't hold hands with all of them at the same time

If she's having a bad day she'll hold onto someone's arm and rest her head on their shoulder, usually Chandler's

Its a habit she picked up from when she was young, whenever bullies would harass her she would do that to Chandler in hopes that it would help protect her

And you already know she gives out plenty of kisses

Its constant with her

Whoever is sitting next to her on the couch usually ends up getting peppered with kisses

Some would call her clingy, and to be honest she kind of is, but its not a "if I'm not touching my wives i'm going to have a panic attack", its a "I like to be touching at least one of my wives if able to do so"

For her dates, Mac likes to have fun

She can tolerate the occasional traditional date at a fancy restaurant, but most of the time she finds it to be too stuffy and uncomfortable

She instead likes to be out doing something where she can just enjoy herself and not worry about having to be fancy or follow some unspoken rules of etiquette

She'll take her wives out bowling (if not with Chandler, she wants to enjoy her date and not get kicked out after Chandler breaks something bc she got another gutter ball), or to the carnival if that's in town, or even to the zoo or aquarium

Admittedly the last two are more for her than her wives, but she justifies it saying that it's the zoo, everyone likes the zoo

Whenever the Renaissance Festival comes to Ohio she'll take Duke and Veronica on their weeks

Chandler complained about it being in the woods and bugs and snakes and mud and the others knew that she wouldn't have a good time

They'll dress up as witches and go around the fair, watching shows and throwing tomatoes at the guy who insults you

If she's looking for something a bit more low-energy, she might go see a movie or go take a walk in the park or even stay at home and play some games

When they go to the park she likes to feed the ducks

Problem is that the ducks now recognize her and swarm whenever they see her entering the park, looking for food

Duke, who she was with at the time, took a picture of Mac surrounded by about 20 ducks all looking expectantly at her and send it to the other two with the caption "Duck Lord"

The point is that she wants to be out and doing things

Dates are supposed to be fun and exciting and a chance to enjoy life with the people you love, and she embodies that with her choices

Veronica Sawyer:

Veronica's love language (giving) is words of affection

Unlike her wives she is very good with her words, something which she uses to her advantage

Veronica felt like there wasn't much she can do for them to show them how much she loved them

I mean, what can she do for the girls who have everything

She thought about just telling them, but that didn't feel good enough

After some internal deliberation, trying and failing to come up with some grand extravagant way to show her thankfulness, she settled on using her strengths and just saying thank you and that she loved them

To her shock, the Heathers were very receptive to this

She was worried that it wouldn't be enough, that they would think she was being cheap or unthoughtful or even unthankful, but they were really touched by what she had to say

She later found out that the Heathers, especially Duke and Chandler, had very rarely been told "I love you" making it mean more to them

After learning that, she makes sure that she tells each of them that she loves them at least once a day

Usually its closer to about 20 times a day but its at least 1 so it counts

She still feels like its not enough, buts its less of an omnipresent dread like it was

Whenever one of them has a bad day and wants to talk about it she's the one they turn to, because she's the best at listening and being able to reassure them that everything is going to be alright

Her love language (receiving) is receiving gifts

You should've seen this one coming

Veronica loves shopping, so its only natural that she loves it when her wives buy things for her

Besides the whole "I got thing I wanted", it makes her feel loved to know that her wives went out of their way to find something she would like, or saw something and thought about her and bought it, or even made something for her

Veronica wasn't very wealthy growing up, so getting a gift was an extra special treat for her, and even now that she's at a point where money will never be a concern for her she's never dropped the feeling of gifts being a special thing

The Heathers are more than willing to spoil her tho

She often comes home to a new book from Duke or some kind of collectible from Mac or a treat from Chandler, and the smile she gets is infectious

For her dates Veronica prefers something a little more relaxed

She agrees with Mac on the principle that dates shouldn't be about getting all fancy and that kind of stuff, but she also doesn't think they need to be about doing things

She really just wants to spend time with her wives

Thats why for her dates, she tries to introduce them to things she enjoys

The big one is anime

With Chandler, Veronica deduced that she would like mystery anime, for example Death Note, or something that managed to infiltrate her walls and hit her right in the feels, like Violet Evergarden

On the day they watched the later they cried so much that when Duke and Mac got home they thought somebody had died and became really concerned

With Duke, Veronica thought she would enjoy action anime, so they watched things like Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia

After watching the former Duke tried to get them to go as the Hashira for Comic Con but Chandler refused

With Mac, she knew that she would like cute fluffy yuri romance, such as I'm In love with the Villainess

Out of all of them Mac got the most into what Veronica showed her, and they even started finding new series to watch together

Chandler pretended to try and hate it but Veronica walked in on her reading yaoi Light/L fanfiction one day and she could no longer deny that she enjoyed it

She also tried to introduce them into her LEGO hobby (addiction) but none of them really got the appeal, Chandler complaining that she could step on the tiny pieces or one of their pets could eat them

And they all absolutely refused to get sucked into her Pokemon card addiction, even Mac who loves Pokemon wouldn't touch it after seeing how Veronica is with them

And Just a little bonus

Kids:

The Kid talk was something that the Heathers thought they didn't need to have

The three of them all agreed a long time ago that they didn't want kids, and they thought that they had had that talk with Veronica or mentioned it sometime and knew their opinion

But one day after their wedding Veronica brought up the subject, causing the three of them to get really confused

It turned out that Veronica wanted kids, and what followed was a deeply uncomfortable conversation for everyone

The Heathers quickly explained that they thought, no, they knew they would be terrible parents and had mountains of issues that they had a hard time dealing with and it wouldn't be right to bring a child into this world knowing that they would have parents who could barely take care of themselves, much less a child

Plus look at them, they were four women all married to each other in the middle of a very conservative part of Ohio, their hypothetical child would be harassed because of something they couldn't even control

And how would they even have the kid? They're all cis women so they can't have one in the normal way, they don't know any cis men who they would trust to do this, and even if they did IVF which one of them would carry the child?

Veronica tried to interject saying they could adopt, but Duke quickly replied, asking what agency would give a child to any of them

In the eyes of the law they are all single women with documented mental illnesses, someone would get fired for even suggesting to adopt to them

That realization hit Veronica like a truck and she told them that she was going for a walk, ignoring the calls for her to stay and how they could talk this out

She quickly found herself at 7/11, JD's habit of freezing your brain had really stuck with her

And who else should be there but the slush king himself, greeting Veronica with the usual 'Greetings and Salutations' before noticing the blank look on her face

JD paid for her slushie and took her outside to their usual talking spot

Veronica muttered, asking him if he just lived here or something

JD responded that he actually kinda did, he got a loan from Chandler to buy out this franchise meaning that he owns and manages this 7/11

She gives a small chuckle but hearing the name of one of her wives cuts it short

JD tells her that he knows something is up and that she has to talk about it, keeping shit in only makes it worse

She responded in a curt tone that the Heathers don't want kids

JD quickly picked up what was going on but could only say oh before taking another sip of his slushie

A few minutes pass by before JD speaks up again, asking her what she was going to do about this

Veronica gave a small I don't know before JD told her that she has two options here

One, she divorces the Heathers and tries to find someone who does want kids and she's compatible with

Veronica is quickly taken aback by this suggestion, saying that she doesn't want to do that

He then gives her the second option, learn to live with it

He says that there's no compromise that can be made here, and it doesn't look like they're gonna budge on it

She needs to choose which is more important to her, them or kids

If she chooses kids then she'll always be unhappy with the Heathers and at that point it would be better just to get a divorce

But if she chooses them she's gonna have to deal with the knowledge that she won't be able to have kids, and if she chooses that she can't have the idea that she could convince their minds, because he knows the Heathers and he knows that once they've set their mind on something its near impossible to change it

He goes on to say that its a hard decision and not one to take lightly and it sucks that she's in this situation, the four of them probably should've talked about this before getting married, but she's in it now and there's nothing anyone can do about it

Veronica then sighs and starts to think about it, but the choice is clear

She loves the Heathers more than anything or anyone, and thinking about it she knew they were right, there was no ethical way for them to have a child in their lives, not with the kind of lifestyle they had and in the area they lived in

Kids are just not on the cards for her

The realization hurts, and she sits on that curb and cries, mourning the child that she knows she will never have

Once she finishes crying, she actually feels better about the situation

It occurs to her that she never really thought about kids until the wedding, mostly because most people she knew had kids after their wedding, so was there ever any real desire to have kids or was she just conforming to societal norms about life?

Thinking about it she knew she did want kids, but it wasn't an end-all be-all and she realized that she could live a life without a kid, but she couldn't live one without the Heathers

Plus getting pregnant sounded like it sucked, and she would probably be the one who had to carry the child, Chandler keeps the house running and it would fall apart without her supervision and Duke and Mac both have jobs, while she could work from bed if she had to

Maybe she's just coping with a sucky situation, but above all else she knew that she would choose the Heathers over a kid 100% of the time, she would just have to live with that choice

And in all honesty, she knew she would be all right, she just needed some time

I would like to thank y'all for reading and liking/reblogging/whatevering my stuff, I've noticed an uptick in those things recently and I wanted to let y'all know I appreciate every single one of you. I write these things with the hope that someone out there will enjoy it, so whenever I see a like or whatever I know that I've done what I set out to do

[midwestemoismid]

Do you ever love a character so much you sorta steal your entire personality from them,,

<autism rant>

Cuz like I'm obsessed with Nicole from class of '09, if sorta stolen my whole humor from her, Which isn't really a good thing because shes kinda a piece of shit, the game revolves around her being a horrible person or trying to kill herself or something like that, I'm not like as mentally ill as her, but my humor has evolved to be similar to Nicole and ive sorta had this not care attitude. I've also been really jokingly mean to one of my best friends (he knows its a joke, thats our humor) but I accidentally did that to my little brother and felt SO bad lmao,, (he said something very obviously and I loudly go "yeah no fucking shit bitch" then started apologizing profusely) This other time I was playing blooket w/ that same friend and I did something that made him eat a fake burger and I went really loud "have this fucking burger you fat ass bitch" and hje just stared at me like wtf,, and the other person on the call (who I just met) was SHOCKED.

i'm not a bad person,, hes okay with me making those jokes btw

well im sorta a bad person but i'm working on that

i sorta hate having obsessions over character because i want to BE THEM. and it sucks even more when theyre a horrible person--and when theyre a girl,, cuz like i want to de-transition and become a terrible person and chane my name to Nicole WHAT THE FUCK WHY I DONT KNOW and like i had an alt acc on tiktok where i used she/her and named myself nicole and it was like a class of 09 fanpage sorta. and like i dont wanna be a bad person nor do i wanna hurt people feelings or be addicted to drugs AT ALL but like NICOLE🙏🙏🙏

this always happens when i have some sort of obsession. i dont typically have favorites but when i do its like an obsession

and like one other problem with being obsessed with nicole is i accidentally obsess over mental illness and (stuff i shouldnt obsess over), wich is really bad and unhealthy.

I gain little obsessions over certain things, like right now im REALLY obsessed with a game called "bad parenting" and it's a really really sad game. I wont spoil it but its genuinelly depressing and made me cry. after i saw it i wanted to hug my dad and tell him i loved him for being a good dad. ive been listening to the backround song on repeat for a bit, i might even draw fanart of it idk,, but i feel like i shouldnt be hyper obsessed with it

as a kid i also was really obsessed with "salad fingers" wich had a sadish theme to it, i kinda forget the plot but i thought it was interesting and how the main charecter was kinda messed up.

I also really like "little miss fortune" wich was also really sad. again i dont remember the plot my childhood is sorta a blur and i dont remember it well

"Sally face" is another sad game i liked. not gonna spoilt it but i loved the supernatural bit and there was a lot of death.

I also really love horror movies, ESPECIALLY horror movies that go into psychology. Like for example, saw is pretty interesting because its cool to see if people would rather cut of an arm or die. I know it's fake but it's still really cool.

Theres a lot i find interesting but i dont wanna sound like im actually insane lol

This ran went in so many placed i forgot what the original post was about😭 took me abt 2 and 1/2 class period to wright

If you read this all, thanks! If you relate reblog or comment (or make a new post and tag me) and tell me what charecter you relate to/obsess over

[moe-broey]

Would you like some strangely elaborate specific ass headcanons? Of course you do!!!! Also I'm outsourcing a very specific dilemma. But you have to Learn My Methods first. Okay? Okay!!!!

PIERCINGS. AS STORYTELLING DEVICES. GO!!!!

Okay! So what the hell are we looking at and what exactly am I trying to determine, here? Well!!! There's a few different facets to this.

FIRST OF ALL. REALLY REALLY CUTE AND ALWAYS SO FUN TO ME

One, two, three!!! They're a set of three, and they're marked as such by how many sets of piercings they have in their ears. It's such a small detail that happened more by coincidence than intent, but it makes drawing all three of them together feel coherent and again, fun! I also really like the storytelling/contrast of the Askr siblings having golden jewerly, while Moe's is in silver (it does mix silver and gold more broadly -- but I'm talking just the face/ears here!). You get the sense (... in addition to Moe's more scruffy appearance in general), that one is from a more "common" background.

Okay, but what's all that text? STORYTELLING.... 2

Piercings, as a way to indicate connections to other characters, and to imply background information.

First example, it's noted that Bruno has had his in for a long time (... kind of regretting the specificness of "as a kid". That's supposed to have implications, but tbh it may be more fitting for Bruno as a whole to simply have said, "A Long Time"). He wears something modest, maybe a common stone, but still eye-catching. I like to think Alfonse became enamored with it (guys can also do this???), same way he was completely smitten by all of Zacharias. One extremely questionable piercing job courtesy of Zacharias himself and egged on by Sharena (who made a generous donation and/or sacrifice from her own jewelry box) later, it's a miracle he managed to heal them. Equally impressive is how long he managed to hide them as a teenager.

Meanwhile, you see Sharena's example is pretty straightforward! Assigned ear-stabbing at birth. It worked out well, though! Aside from that one time where her piercings mysteriously closed up and they had to be re-done, when she was little. Which could mean nothing. Alls well that ends well! In fact, she liked the look so much she decided to get another set done! Which may or may not come back later...

I will admit, the saddle plugs on Bruno were an impulse decision I made drawing this out (so not a super strong design headcanon, and maybe I could draw it better w more practice tbh, test run ect ect), BUT. MORE IMPORTANTLY. That idea, AND NEXT UP: STORYTELLING... 3.

On top of noting significant connections and providing background information -- here, you have gaining more and/or doing different Things with your piercings, as a way to indicate the passage of time or a change of taste. Woah, that's a lot of text! That's just my autism showing, I'll do you a favor -- with Moe specifically, the biggest takeaway here is:

One, two, three. There are other iderations of Moe of course, plenty of awkward in-between stages. But as I've developed it, I've found that there's like... three really plot relevant parts of its life. One easy to forget, two OH GOD OH FUCK, three that's the guy who lives here now. AWESOME!!!!

OKAY. OKAY. PEONY she has BEEN HERE THIS WHOLE TIME. What's up with that?

So we have background implications/information, we have connections to other characters, and NOW. WE HAVE. Paths that diverge. Sharena, 2. Peony, 1. Plus, a little bit of shape language with those tear drop earrings... on Sharena specifically...... ohghhghhf........

I've always been really indecisive with my Peony designs (for some reason it has been SUCH A STRUGGLE FOR ME), but I do like the simplicity of this one actually. The "Princess Peach core" note about Sharena is more about her color palette, but after writing that I went You know what. Fuck it *gives Peony Princess Peach earrings*. This does feel subject to change, but the idea they could be like water droplets is so cutes... I have really wanted to give Peony earrings with a blue gem though, BECAUSE...

The blue and silver are a nod to this reoccurring detail on Peony! So not only does it tie back to Sharena (IMPORTANT), it also (theoretically.) ties together nicely overall!!

Okay. So. Where does this leave me. Why did I draw all this out? All these little details that exist in my mind, why did I go out of my way to create this elaborate in-depth demonstration? Remember when I said I was gonna outsource some shit?

PROBLEM: I NEVER. EVER. EVEEEERRRRRR KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH LIF'S EARRINGS‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ AND THE LACK OF DIRECTION IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE GLARING EVERY FUCKING TIME I DRAW HIM‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

And what prompted all of this. What REALLY made me Think About This. I did another "ehhh Fuck It" with Lif's piercings, where he's sharing a panel with Moe, and

Ooughgughfhghhh...... them having the same earring arrangement.

But then. Then. I got autism brained about it. I can see Bruno having fuck all time to stretch his ears while on some gayass journey (... the. Timelines. Time in between Events. Maybe he wouldn't have full big stretched ears in Book 1. HOWEVER). Inconvenient, maybe, but if he's dedicated to the grind. He can do it. And I mean, have you seen his muscles? Dude CARES about his appearance. Meanwhile Moe ABSOLUTELY had fuck all time to stretch its ears before arriving in Askr. Then I'm thinking about Alfonse. NEVERMIND how much time it takes to stretch your ears, I'm thinking about the Number Rules. I'm thinking about how he's One, the first guy of a set of Three. I'm thinking about the Number Rule, to indicate Time. Why WOULD he have Three? The Number Rule, as Paths Diverging. There's Two of him, not Three. ALSO ASKING MYSELF "Would Alfonse get more piercings???" LIKE NO. BECAUSE. THE. THE RULE OF THREE. THE ONE TWO THREE. WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😫😫😫😫😫

Idk am I just insane. Am I a lost cause. Lif's ears are usually covered up by his long shaggy hair anyway. But really that does just make any time any piercings Would be visible, just. I am just so deeply conflicted torn between Goth Alt Men Hot and THE METHODS‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ THE STORYTELLING THE METHODS MY DEEPLY INTRICATE RITUALS‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[lennsart]

Ok ok ok so

I've bought the Zelda Encyclopedia because I am in a hyperfixated rampage about LoZ. And on one hand it's the best thing ever, because special interest is going brrrr.

But ! But.

I've bought in french. Because I... Am french.

And I don't know if the english version has troubles, alright ? But THE FRENCH VERSION IS A BADLY TRANSLATED HELL and I need to rant.

Keep in mind that I didn't study the book. I've skimmed through. And I'm already holding my head in my hands in a dramatic 'losing my mind' posture.

But anyway ! Here's the defendant :

This is the book I'm talking about, and all the pictures that follow come from this book.

Follow me into translation hell !

Note : I actually usually prefer the french translation in Zelda ! They do a good job at translating things that make sense, leaving things as they are when it isn't needed, and I often find the translated characters' names prettier. (Example : Makar, the korok from Wind Waker, is called Dumoria. I have NO IDEA why it changes so much but it sound so much better in my opinion !) So this is not VF hate. This is genuine uncomprehension as to WHY IS THE BOOK LIKE THIS.

Now, you don't need to go far into the book to have a problem with it.

First few pages. Like literally before the actual content of the book. Presentation of the games. Easy enough, right ? Not hard to beta read, RIGHT ?

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "THE MINISHIP CAP". WHAT DO YOU MEAN. IT'S NOT LIKE THE TITLE IS WRITTEN ON THE PICTURE ABOVE. How did it happen ?? The name doesn't even change in french, help

"Miniship cap" I already want to quit and it's my INTRODUCTION to this book.

We can divide the mistakes of this book in three categories :

- Lore mistake

- Translation mistake

- Wtf mistakes

I would place "Miniship cap" in the WTF category, for obvious reasons. (HOW???)

The first two categories are easily justified : they asked someone to reread the book and the person wasn't very interested/didn't know Zelda well. But it makes the book LIE

Example of lore mistake :

The title here is " The Ancient Temple, marked by the loftwings".

THE L O F T W I N G S.

This is the ancient temple in Twilight Princess. This is supposed to read OCCAS ! SKYWARD SWORD WASN'T EVEN RELEASED YET !! LOFTWINGS DIDN'T EXIST !

Why did this happen ? Well, in french, Loftwings are called "Célestriers" (mix of the words "céleste", celestial, and "destrier", which is apparently the same in english but I've never seen it before, it's a horse usually or an animal you ride). And Occas ? Are called "Célestiens". People that lives in the sky, basically.

So yeah, Célestriers, Célestiens, I SEE the mistake, ok ?

But still. Uncool. Boo.

Now, example of translation mistake :

The first sentence here is a description of a picture, it reads "Aryll is abducted by Helmaroc King on Ganondorf's orders".

Why isn't this shocking to you, english reader ? Because Helmaroc King is the ENGLISH name of the big bird. In french, there are no "roi Helmaroc" ("roi" means king). It has been translated.

But maybe the book doesn't know, right ? IT'S NOT LIKE THE NAME IS WRITTEN ON THE NEXT PAGE, RIGHT ?

THERE. LE ROI CUIRASSE. THIS IS THE BITCH I KNOW ABOUT. I'M LOSING MY MIND

But again, alright, I guess someone didn't think to translate the name. Some characters's names aren't translated (example : french Skull kid is called... Skull kid. I am thankful for that), so maybe they just didn't THINK to check if there was a translation.

Even though. It was on the next page.

AND I WAS GOING TO LET ROI HELMAROC SLIDE. I WAS.

AND THEN I LOOKED AT THE SAME FUCKING PICTURE I TOOK OF THE BOOK.

First thing I underlined, "Mélodie", is a typo of Medli's name in french, which is "Médolie". I get it, it's an anagram, I've read it Mélodie my whole childhood, OK French Zelda Encyclopedia. OK.

BUT "ÉPÉE MAÎTRESSE" ?? NO.

THE MASTER SWORD IS NOT FUCKING CALLED "ÉPÉE MAÎTRESSE". MAÎTRESSE IS WHAT YOU CALL YOUR TEACHER WHEN SHE'S A WOMAN AND YOU'RE TEN, OK ?

(Actually, "maître" and its feminization "maîtresse" do mean master. But it's. It feels wrong. It's not the in-game name, and it feels wrong.)

THE MASTER SWORD IS "ÉPÉE DE LÉGENDE", OK ? LEGENDARY SWORD. THERE IS NO ÉPÉE MAÎTRESSE.

AT LEAST I HOPE.

Breathing in, breathing out... Ok. A not so important one :

"Les oiseaux" means "the birds", and yes, in english, those cuties are called "little birds" which would be literally "petits oiseaux" in french. (I know, too much vowels, I'm not here to defend my birth language BEAR WITH ME)

But in the VF ? They aren't 'birds'. They are PIOUPS. (Pronounced pyoop, it doesn't mean anything, just mimic the bird's noise)

THEY ARE 'PETITS PIOUPS' ALRIGHT ? AND I LOVE THEM. I'm just. Sad that their name isn't in the book. This is petits pioups erasure.

(After checking, the item they drop is called "plume d'oiseau", so "bird feather". The word "pioup" is just in the description of the item, so... Maybe it's just me. BUT STILL. LET ME CALL THEM PIOUPS IT'S ADORABLE)

And we're not even in my favorite category ! May I introduce :

The what the fuck mistakes

Aka : I can't understand how they let it slide.

Here I want you to read the description of the picture 6.

"Playing the Song of Healing, Link gets his normal appearance back".

Ok, this is probably a description of when Link goes from Deku Scrub back to Hylian, so I am expecting a picture of Link !

Image 6 : WHY IS IT THE CREEPY LINK STATUE.

DID THEY KNOW ABOUT BEN DROWNED ?? WHY IS THE WORST POSSIBLE REPRESENTATION OF LINK IS DESCRIBED WITH "LINK GOES BACK TO NORMAL". NO. NO I AM CALLING MY LAWYER, BOOK, YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME.

You know, in a book, there can be translating errors... And, apparently, there also can be "we forgot to fucking translate" errors.

Plural.

IN THE GODDAMN TITLES.

And I studied graphic design, alright. I know, TRUST ME, I know your eyes can get used to the titles and make you miss 'obvious' mistakes.

BUT THIS IS WHY YOU GET SOMEONE TO RE-READ. This is a fucking official book ! That has been published by probably very official publishers, I don't know, I haven't checked !

POURQUOI LE LIVRE EST NUL ? POURQUOI EST-CE QU'IL Y A AUTANT D'ERREURS ? COMMENT EST-CE QUE "MINISHIP CAP" EST ARRIVÉ ? OÙ SONT LES PETITS PIOUPS ? ENGAGEZ-MOI POUR RELIRE LE LIVRE LA PROCHAINE FOIS C'EST PAS POSSIBLE !!

I at least hope some of you laughed watching me losing my mind in french ; I hit the ten images limit, but I'm sure I'll find enough for a part two. I've lost all faith in this book. I'll read it thoroughly just to scream about it on Tumblr.

[*holding a knife towards the book* I won't let anything slide, you hear me ?]

Now with a part 2 !

[nikiluv]

I JUST WANNA SAY THAT I ACCIDENTALY RANTED!!😭 u dont have to post or answer to this but i had to get this off my chest. but bro ppl who in this fandom are literally so soft istg😭its so irritating like. they treat riki like he's a fucking kid when he's 18 turning 19🤦‍♀️so he's a YOUNG MAN!! A MAN A GROWN ONE BTW who just so happens to b young like what's so hard to grasp. Nbs saying you have to treat him like he done experienced every walk of life, but at the end of the day he's still a man and he should b treated accordingly. and it esp pisses me off cuz they have no issue sexualizing the other members specifically the hyung line. and ofc I see other ppl kinda fester this energy into sunoo and jungwon even tho its mainly riki. I vividly rmb someone making a tiktok AS A JOKE!! saying I wanna get aten by sunoo like that when he inhaled a cake and ppl were doing entirely TOO MUCHHH!! and she rightfully called them out saying if it was heeseung or jake nb would care and ppl would agree and its like literallyyy. I've also seen ppl on here say they won't wrote smut for sunoo and riki and its like there's nothing wrong with that at all but why are we leaving out jungwon like hello?? hes very much still apart of that line and sunoo is older than both of them so its like?? if u leave one out leave them all out😭🤦‍♀️i could name so much more examples but this is alr getting so long. but I also had to mention the fact that I VIVIDLY rmb when jungwon turned 18 or 19 or wtv age ppl immediately started pumping out smuts with absolutely no fuss and its like?? WHERE WAS THIS ENERGY AT W NIKI???At least keep the same energy if u do ts like. And its just so much that plays into it too because everyone knows enhypen is catered towards women. I feel like that was their first mistake but on top of that it brought in a lot of young girls who's minds clearly still aren't developed and they feel as tho its like their job?? to protect them when in reality half of the group could literally be their uncle or something. Idk its just so irritating to see ts within a fandom because although I don't claim any kpop fandom anymore. I use to b a engene at some point and a nctzen at some point and LEMME TELL YOUUUU its such a difference!! although ncity has had its moments that was like the only kpop fandom who were actually funny and wouldn't baby none of the members. even if u were underage they would still treat u accordingly without sexualizing u. idk ima stop here cuz this is getting to long but its just so much shit wrong w engenes. like I said earlier u don't have to read or answer to this!! but engenes just annoy the heck outta me🤦‍♀️

it’s fine, what you say was facts tho, like I was an nctzen arnd 2020-2022 ish, and like no nctzen smut blogs said anything about jisung smut being wrote, I mean there where that didn’t agree with it but no hate comments or anything

To me it’s so insane about how people write so much crazy shit about jw but don’t keep the same energy w sunoo and riki

For sunoo it’s probably because he is portrayed at “more feminine” which is just his image, and also because of his sunsun ship etc etc

To me it’s if you wanna give the same energy to Niki, keep that energy towards ALL of Enhypen, don’t just “defend” Niki, talking about writing smut for him just to make yourself better

And the craziest thing is those that are super pressed are always the Enhypen smut blogs ? Like bro ??? Ur writing smut too, what are you on about?? (If it’s fluff blogs then I understand because they do not want to see them, which is valid, so just block, it’s fine, you don’t have to see things you do not want to, no need to send hate )

I really detest that people wanna write the craziest most lewd shit for the rest of Enhypen but when someone writes something for riki even slightly suggestive or fluff smut , they go berserk? Like dude, u go on and on about how we should not sexualise them, then don’t write smut ? Bffr 🤣

[crystalflarestuck]

Identity and Alternate Selves in Homestuck

Part 2: Karkat Vantas

This post is a continuation of a series of posts I am doing where I analyse each character through the lens of one of Homestucks main themes, Identity.

Part one can be found here

Karkat is a very interesting character when it comes to this topic. He is arguably the most humanlike of the trolls (with even his mutant blood colour matching our own) while also having his own quirks (namely yelling, all the time).

Karkat is also one of the first examples of Hussie exploring the idea of what it even means to be a different person (said explicitly in the authors notes of act 5). I am of course referring to the classic act 5 memos.

Toward the end of act 5 act 1 Karkat attempts to use Trollians transtimeline memo features to provide helpful information to his team but it quickly devolves into Karkat berating himself, both past and future.

This dynamic is more or less a way for Karkat to express his own self hate and loathing without directing it at what he views as "himself". By interacting with both past and future Karkat's he can both sideline responsibility for his actions by blaming it on his 'past self' while said past Karkat can't even comprehend the actions of his future self (regardless of how little the time difference is). This all comes to a boiling point in Karkat's memo to Jade where he and himself from just 3 hours later begin arguing each other more then actually talking to jade.

These memos can easily be written off as jokes but honestly? I think they bring a good point in relation to Homestuck. The majority of the events from act 1 to act 5 act 2 only happen over like a day for the kids and yet they still change over the course of the plot. The trolls have this type of growth at an even more insane rate when interacting with the kids, considering they only spend a few hours communicating. So the question then becomes how much does someone truly change in such a short period of time? Characters have complete arcs over the course of the sburb session and yet would we dismiss those just because it happened over such a short period of time?

This is getting a bit to philosophical so let's move on to another major aspect of Karkat and his identity, the cosmic 'destiny' of him to be a leader for the trolls and his relation to the sufferer.

The sufferer was practically for all intents and purposes troll Jesus. In Alternia he spread heretical ideas around the virtues of forgiveness, compassion and equality between bloodlines. This angered the ruling highbloods who started a war against the signless and his followers, which was unfortunately lopsided and resulted in his capture. Despite this his teachings would persist and tell of another Signless. One who would herald the end times and continue his work, leading his people to glory beyond this realm.

This second coming would of course be Karkat Vantas, with him and his friends playing SGRUB would cause the end of alternia. This all leads you to believe that Karkat is meant to be the leader, which he ended up accomplishing, not directly as a leader but instead being a uniting force between the players.

At first Karkat tries everything in his power to stay the leader of the trolls but eventually his self loathing causes him to believe he isn't worthy any more as a leader. He blames himself for what happened with the kids session as well as the whole murder-stuck fiasco on the meteor. Combine this with the journey on the meteor and post retcon Vriska basically replacing him as leader, Karkat generally is fine with his place of no longer being the leader. Despite this Kanayas meeting with Echidna only further confirms the idea that Karkat is meant to be a leader.

Echidna Believes that Karkat is instrumental in guiding the troll species in the new universe they are creating. While Kanaya is meant to help the reproduction of the troll species, Karkat is meant to help them not be so lost. Despite this Karkat still wanted to join the final battle, atleast before being knocked out by Kanaya to protect him.

Despite all this in the end neither of them fill their roles. In the credits we see our players set up some carapacian, human and trolls ecto babies to build civilization and they proceed to skip 5000 years in the future to not have to deal with rebuilding civilization as we know it, meaning both don't actually go through with their destiny (well until the epilogues kinda but also I wanna focus on canon rn).

Karkat's journey as a character focuses on this idea of us shaping our own identities, separate of that which is expected of us and that which is reflected in our other possible selves.

With that ends this post. This one took way to long for me to write mainly because I was busy rereading a lot of Homestuck to make sure I didn't say any information but I wanted it out before 413. I have no clue who I will write about next so if you want you can send ideas in the my asks but other than that hope you enjoyed this analysis.

[clefdesoll]

Can I just say how much I LOVE how this comic subverts your expectations a lot?? Like at the start of the comic you think Oh Mao's this big emo jerk but then as the comic keeps going you suddenly go, Oh w o w I don't blame the poor guy, he's been through shit and I understand why he lost it on Yokoka in chapter 2, that's a lot of bottled and justifiable resentment And when you first see Copycat and Fahrin, your like- Oh no!! are these two secret bad guys!? but then the comic moves along and its- Oh, these two are just dramatic anti heroes And lastly for Yokoka... At the start it seems like she's just this idiot hero, but then your like- Oh... When all of this comes back to her... its going to be devastating...

Ahh I’m so happy to hear this!! My favourite type of writing style “we’ll set some expectations for you, you’re used to this thing happening, you might even be a bit annoying expecting it to go a certain way… just kidding, we’re doing something else, something better” and when it’s done well I find it leaves me in kind of shock but then I become extra obsessed with the thing so it’s become the way I write haha!

Even in terms of simpler things and structure, it’s like this all the way. I really love playing with tropes. For example;

- the trope of the idiot protagonist here who’s strong and nothing really stands in their way is usually male, but in this story she’s female.

- the trope where a character we meet is past their breaking point and just kind of broken now and trying to manage and deal with it is usually female, but here it’s Mao

- the antagonist Hurricane was just minding her own business

- the sparkling hero everyone loves and looks up to is actually an asshole. Okay this one isn’t so uncommon anymore but it’s still always good, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of people who expected some sort of twist because they fell for his facade and thought he was possessed or cursed instead of having a mask off moment.

Hey do you remember who first told us Valyn is cool? The narrator! The same narrator who IMMEDIATELY has two lies in her introduction— she hasn’t lived in Betel’s forest all her life, something we know from the prologue we just saw, and her name isn’t Yokoka. You think she’s right about Valyn? Oops.

I really like to set things up that you’ll dismiss or not fully understand on the first pass but then the more you reread the more you spot and understand now. Another example: if you decided to reread the story now you might notice that Mao’s words to Yokoka in chapter 2 seem kind of familiar but also a bit odd/out of character for him… hey wait a second, isn’t this what Valyn’s words to him in chapter 15 were?

Now you can connect the dots that Mao said this in anger because Valyn says this to him all the time and to a certain level, it’s sunk in. It only took about 8-9 years for this to drop.

Don’t you love webcomics time…

(It’s also worth noting a lot of the force behind my writing was specifically two frustrations with all media I was trying to enjoy at the time: the mascot character never got to be a full character though I think this one has improved since, but more importantly… no one ever wrote a story about amnesia that didn’t annoy me! You’re all doing it wrong, I became a writer because of this!)