#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 !! 💖

[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.

[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.

[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!!

[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.

[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

[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 !

[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‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

[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 🤣

[thecoddaughter]

SPOILERS! So many thoughts (from a chat w/ my bestie)

I still don't hate the rat grinders... they are just kids manipulated by faculty. Jace would have had access to all of their records as VP, including Kipper's. That mixed with Porter seeing a Frostblade in the school.

I can't tell if they were recruited during the spring break trip or if this was a long term thing happening the entire time the Sophomore Year NMK arc was happening... Either way, they could have been recruited anywhere between the ages of 14-16. They are just so... I don't know... People forget they are kids a lot and need support and attention and when given attention that makes their day sometimes. If these kids just needed attention and felt neglected by the system their freshman year bc a group of kids your own age solve the big thing and save the town and missing girls, who some are also your age and everyone is adoring them and you feel like you barely made it out of your freshman year. (for personal context I am looking at this through the eyes of a edu major who spent hours observing and teaching sophomores this semester while the season was airing)

Kipper didn't kill Lucy, Porter did. Scared, alone, 16 years old and a teacher... but not your teacher, no your teacher is kind and fair and loves everyone no matter their faith. A teacher, 14 ft tall, finds you in the woods and kills you and you refuse to break down and break your family oath to worship him. Porter is so creepy "cool" teacher coded and it makes me so sick that I was like "Okay, Emily is just saying this for the bit now and doesn't actually believe it and I am so glad she stuck to her guns cause I didn't.

The thing about Ruben's dream and Siobhan saying they basically killed the old versions of themselves is such a high school thing to do. Obviously this is a lot more extreme than for example me walking around in ripped jeans and eyeliner for the first time asking "Am I edgy yet?" when my true nature is librarian core but I digress.

Long rant short (TLDR) they were just kids who were so susceptible to praise, attention, and guidance it just came for people with malicious intent.

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

#edward teach#im an adhd ed truther & this is so fucking true.#also shows how you view people w/ adhd if you’re specifically using it as an excuse to do this. (via @ourflagmeanscatboy on this post by @jaskierx)

I don't want to derail a post about racism, but I do feel like this shit needs to get talked about.

Because people will say literally the most deranged shit about Ed. I've heard the idea that he's gonna lose interest in Stede because he views people as hyperfixations floated. He's volitile and unstable (citation needed) he's messy (but he thinks pets befoul the ship and he couldn't believe he was living like this after letting Stede's cabin get covered in maybe a weeks worth of depression clutter) he needs a minder (despite constantly minding other characters). And all of that shit when pointed out as racist invariably gets explained away with "but I think he has ADHD"

And it's like, first of all that's a headcannon you have, where as his race is very much cannon. so I think even if you have the adhd headcannon, which to be clear, I do, you still need to lend more credence to the marginalized identities that are in fact cannon about him. That's not to say that these two things are contradictory it's just to say that you need to treat your headcannons about a character of color with awareness for how their race overlaps with other identities they might have and how their race might be impacting their behavior, and how projecting issues onto them, even if those issues are things you yourself struggle with, might be perceived by fans of color who are already constantly fielding racism both in fandom and in their every day lives.

but second of all, and I cannot stress this enough, yall are ableist as fuck.

Like, I simply do not know how to explain to you people that Ed losing Interest in Stede like that would not be a symptom of ADHD because treating PEOPLE like HYPERFIXATIONS is not a symptom of ADHD. If someone loses interest in you because they have adhd, and I feel like I've said this before, one of three things happened. A. they did not lose interest in you they are just forgetful and do not experience friendship decay so they think you are still friends, B. You were never a friend to begin with you were someone they exclusively did their hyperfixations with, or C. you are blaming the ADHD for something completely unrelated friendships fall apart all the time.

And it's like that example is just the most egregious. half the time when I see ADHD headcannons nobody's talking about like... Ed picking up a brand new activity on a whim, or him tattooing himself because he's experiencing the evil boredom. It's all gotta be traits contradicted by canon. And often it has to be about pain and suffering, and often it really just feels like an excuse to make up bullshit about Ed while beating the racism allegations.

and there's two enormous issues with this. The first one is that if you're gonna have a headcannon about a character you have to figure out how to apply the headcanon to that character without making up a brand new guy. Ed is in the 99th percentile in terms of executive function. His executive functioning skills are genuinely a strength for him. He can't stand mess and he keeps a clean ship, he doesn't get angry unless directly provoked. He also has a large number of shitty tattoos on his person, he stims, he's probably got some hyperactivity going on, and some emotional dis-regulation in terms of managing his disappointment and catastrophising. You have to actually look at the character and figure out what cannon things translate into ADHD and what adhd traits are contradicted by cannon and if you're just hollowing him out and putting an ablist idea of ADHD in as a stand in for a personality.

Like.. ok. My favoriate cannon ADHD rep in the world is the Percy Jackson series. Every one of those kids has adhd and dyslexia. This does not stop Annabeth from being a very functional character with a million irons in the fire who's an avid reader and a Smart Girl TM. Percy by contrast cannot focus for five seconds especially when you put a book in front of him, but he can think on his feet really well. Both of these characters are fairly realistic representations of ADHD because sometimes ADHD is severe executive dysfunction and mess and emotional dis-regulation, sometimes ADHD is having a million projects going at once in a desperate attempt to beat the evil boredom and sometimes it's being able to pick up new things with relative ease. Different people have different levels of these things, which is why in my favoriate childhood book series Rick Riordan was able to have so many different diverse characters with distinct personalities and have them all believably have ADHD.

But a lot of people who headcannon Ed as ADHD don't seem to be interested in figuring out how Ed's personality is compatible with that headcannon, they just want to hollow him out and give him every symptom ever and it's just like... oh, so that's what you think of us then. got it cool.

[asordinaryppl]

A3! Main Story: Part 4 - Act 16: Crossing Paths - Episode 18: Someone I Used To Know

Tsumugi: Good morning.

Staff: Good morning.

Director: Good morning.

Tsumugi: I look forward to working with you today as well.

Director: I’m so glad you accepted, Tsukioka-kun. I look forward to watching your acting today too.

Tsumugi: I don’t have much experience with acting in films. I’m still feeling my way around, but I’ll do my best.

Ryota: Tsumugi-san, good morning!

Tsumugi: Good morning, Ryota-kun.

Ryota: Look, look, I got up to here on the problems I couldn’t solve yesterday!

Tsumugi: Woah, that’s amazing.

Ryota: But these exercises just take so long…

Tsumugi: Then let’s try to find a different way to solve them later.

Ryota: Okay!

Tsumugi: Good for you, it’s impressive how you can study in between takes.

Ryota: Meh, I like doing both, so I don’t mind!

Tsumugi: That’s amazing. I have to follow your example and do my best, too.

-

Staff: We’re filming now. Aaand, action!

Tsumugi: “Do you have proof?”

Ryota: “... Will you believe me if I show you this? It’s Mom and Dad’s wedding ring.”

Tsumugi: “… Then, you really are my kid from the future?”

Staff: Cut! We’re checking it now!

Tsumugi: (Maybe I should have done this part differently.)

Staff: OK!

Tsumugi: (Ah, I can’t run through it again. But I wonder if it’s good the way it is?)

Tsumugi: …

Tsumugi: (It really is different from how a play comes together. I wonder if this is how Tasuku felt, too…)

-

Tsumugi: Thank you for your hard work.

Director: Good work. We’ll be counting on you tomorrow too.

Tsumugi: I will be in your care.

Ryota: Thank you for your hard work~ Tsumugi-san, see ya~!

Tsumugi: See you.

-

Tsumugi: (Filming ended early today. I still have some time until the time I asked the Director to come pick me up…)

Tsumugi: (That reminds me, there should be a gardening store nearby. Maybe I’ll go check it out.)

[Someone falling]

Woman: Urgh…

Tsumugi: !?

Tsumugi: Are you alright?

Woman: I-I’m sorry…

Tsumugi: Ah–

Woman: ——

-

[Car coming to a stop]

Izumi: (The place Tsumugi-san asked me to meet him at should be around here, but–)

Izumi: Ah, there he is. Tsumugi-san–

Tsumugi: Oh, good. Over here.

Woman: …

Izumi: Oh? Who is this?

Tsumugi: It seems like she suddenly started feeling nauseous, so I was keeping her company.

Izumi: Wha!? Do you want us to take you to the hospital?

Woman: Oh, no, no. I was just feeling a little bloated. I felt better when I sat down.

Woman: My husband will be coming to pick me up soon—

The woman’s husband: Heeey!

Woman: Ah, there he is. I’ll be fine now.

Woman: Thank you so much, Tsukioka-kun, really.

Tsumugi: It’s no problem. Take care of yourself.

Woman: I’m sorry for troubling you.

The woman’s husband: Thanks for all your help. We'll be going now.

-

Izumi: Was that woman a friend of yours?

Tsumugi: She’s someone I used to date, actually. It looks like she’ll be giving birth soon.

Izumi: !? W-Wasn’t that a little awkward?

Tsumugi: Huh?

Izumi: You even met her current partner…

Tsumugi: Ahh… I was surprised because it all happened in the blink of an eye, but she seemed happy, and neither of them seemed to mind too much.

Tsumugi: She always wanted to get married quickly, so I’m glad she found a good guy to settle down with.

Izumi: I see…

Izumi: (That’s pretty in line with Tsumugi-san’s character. They were talking to each other so casually back there.)

Tsumugi: I’m sorry for making you come pick me up.

Izumi: Not at all! I was just out on some business myself, so don’t worry about it. Besides, this place is a little inconvenient to get to without a car.

Tsumugi: It’s gotten a little late, would you like to get curry together on our way home? It’ll be my treat as thanks for picking me up.

Izumi: Are you sure!? Thank you very much!

-

Tasuku: “Stop! You’re wrong!”

Tasuku: … We got told off about this part pretty often, huh?

-

[Flashback starts]

Reni: This final performance gets a “passing grade”. Reflect on the meaning of these words well.

Reni: A safe result is not befitting of GOD-za. You must always aim for perfection. There won’t be a next time.

Tasuku: Yes, sir.

Haruto: Yes, sir!

[Flashback ends]

-

Tsumugi: I’m back.

Tasuku: Hey, welcome back. How did the filming go?

Tsumugi: It’s really different from being on stage. Honestly, I found a lot of things difficult.

Tsumugi: But it’s because of that that I found it interesting. Thinking of how to improve for next time is fun, too.

Tasuku: It’s just like you to be able to switch between theater and filming so flexibly.

Tsumugi: Oh, right, I met someone I used to know today.

Tasuku: Someone you used to know?

Tsumugi: The girl I used to date. She got married and has a baby on the way. She’ll be giving birth soon, apparently.

Tasuku: HUH!?

Tsumugi: Is that so shocking? I mean, I was surprised at first, too.

Tasuku: No, rather than shocked… I feel weird because you never talk to me about these things.

Tsumugi: Right, I didn’t have much experience in that field until university.

Tasuku: Right…

Tsumugi: More importantly, is that the script for your upcoming drama? It’s pretty messed up already.

Tasuku: No, this is… A script from my time at GOD-za that I dug up.

previous episode | masterpost | next episode

[woso-dreamzzz]

hey long anon back (another anon said they agreed w the “long anon” and that actually made me smile) here to apologize again out of courtesy of this long message even if you’ve said not to hehe (sorry for not listening to u)

WHAT THE HELL!!?!1!3?2?32 oh my lord. that ending is such a great way to leeway into what i assume will be the break point between jenni and alexia’s endings. thanks for already breaking my heart… again.

i was just wondering throughout this part if bambi was going to be considered for her own input on this decision. she’s obviously young but she’s ultimately going to be the one most affected by these decisions… but upon reflection i guess it would be hard to conduct that sort of conversation. maybe we can put bambi in an interrogation room and just straight up ask her who she prefers and connect her to a lie detector test (what’s another round of trauma going to do to her at this point? kidding. love u bambi i’m here for u and u only now) but seriously i feel like bambi’s rationale or input on how she’s feeling about either jenni or alexia is sort of needed… idk. maybe it’s just me?

eli telling alexia to think with her head and not her heart is so so real. both jenni and alexia definitely have their own opinions but i still do think jenni’s being more rational about everything—(hear me out alexia agenda) jenni has always wanted bambi and even if she’s expressed jealousy that she was alexia’s and not jenni’s… jenni ultimately has always thought about what was best FOR bambi. the argument that bambi is biologically alexia’s and thus should stay with her isn’t my cup of tea because it isn’t a matter of who claims the child… it’s a matter of who is the better caretaker. jenni’s proven to be just that. she’s had her pitfalls: not immediately realizing the signs of meningitis (even if it DID seem like she clocked symptoms but not what was happening… if that makes sense), inadvertently frightening bambi in the hospital. but what she does is always FOR bambi, and that manifests itself in her mindset and actions.

for alexia things seem unnatural. a lot in terms of bambi was sort of done for alexia and her own feelings/gain. injured i, for example—i sort of got the feeling alexia snapped at eli so she could hold bambi to regulate her feelings, to try and make herself feel better now that she’s lost her chances at playing in the euros. she comments that she’ll be able to spend more time now with bambi but that feels so bitter to me. putting bambi in football even if there were no results and then being disappointed was for herself too—it shows especially in her pride of jaume being a footballer later on. eli’s the one to suggest ballet and then alexia feels proud because bambi’s got alexia’s determination and drive. and it sucks she only truly sees this drive because she never used to spend time at the studio anyway. at the price of bambi’s happiness (to see her mother watching her at something she loves to do) alexia chooses to routinely run errands instead. buying her trains was probably the only thing done FOR bambi to flourish her interests and it makes me so upset bc even after all that i still feel bad for alexia 😭

again jenni is rational and knows her place. bambi is biologically alexia’s, and alexia has the last say. she’s respectful and won’t admit her deeper, darker feelings towards alexia’s now-tainted relationship with bambi. i like that her sole focus is bambi (the fact she’s thought through the ballet studio near her apartment and the fact that her club is good for childcare too has me so soft.) and while alexia’s made THE bad™️ mistake, and she IS trying to make things right… her rationale is to keep bambi for herself. to fulfill the perfect family picture she’s painted in her mind. there are instances where she admits jenni’s probably better (because she is) and so i’m lost again truly trying to imagine what it’d be like in alexia’s ending over jenni’s. would jenni still be present in bambi’s life in alexia’s version? can jenni move back to spain in either outcome? that way (again) bambi’s not uprooted from her entire family in spain and so jenni can ultimately be bambi’s primary caretaker and easily facilitate bambi seeing eli and alba <3

alright idk if i’ve made any sense… sorry if i didn’t 🫣 ps. thank you for treat you better iii <3 codi’s my most favourite person ever tbh. flowers for you and for codi! 💐 what’s your fav flower?

Bambi didn't get any input at all. It was completely out of her hands, mainly because she doesn't fully understand the situation she is in despite it all revolving around her. She doesn't understand the intricacies and just how close she was to having it affect her in a much more severe way. There's a chance that if they ask her then she'll choose whoever is her current favourite. She can't think about the long-term effects of her decision. But she should have gotten some input but Eli's right. Alexia (at the moment) has all the rights to Bambi so if she doesn't want to do something then nobody can force her to.

Jenni has always been in Bambi's corner from the very beginning but she definitely does have her pitfalls and the longer the situation goes on the more jealous and spiteful she gets. She's been caring for Bambi for at least a month now and Bambi's at that age where she mimics what she sees and all Alexia can see in Bambi now is Jenni. The only thing she has to grab onto (proof that Bambi is still her daughter) is that they're biologically related. That and Bambi having Alexia's drive is the only thing Alexia can think of that still gives her a connection to Bambi.

My favourite thing is when you guys pull in the wider context of the previous parts and the little things in the future too. Alexia in Injured is inherently selfish in her parenting style sometimes (it's something she works on in the future though). She is successful in football and she wants the other aspects of her life to be successful too and sometimes she's a bit blinded in her chase for her idea of a perfect family which is slightly what happened with Bambi. She was too busy showing off her perfect new child that she forgot about her other perfect child.

I mentioned it before but being a mother (at least to Bambi at first) didn't come easy to Alexia. She suffered severely from PPD after Bambi's birth and even when she recovered, those feelings (and guilt) were still there implicitly and they definitely come out sometimes when interacting with Bambi. Again, it's something she works on in the future because no matter what Alexia feels that she just can't be a good mother to Bambi sometimes (which is where she admits that Jenni definitely just does it better than her) but on the other hand, she knows she can be a good mother. Alexia wants to be selfish because she knows she can be the mother Bambi deserves but she also knows that she can't be too selfish because Bambi deserves the best chance at life too and that might not be with her.

Jenni would definitely be in some aspects of Bambi's life in Alexia's Version but to a much lesser degree. Her friendship with Alexia in that version never quite heals because she will never get over Alexia not letting her keep Bambi.

At some point in Jenni's Version, they move back to Spain but not immediately. Jenni still has commitments in Mexico and the distance from Spain and Alexia is probably good for Bambi at the moment.

Codi is my underrated fav. Her little badge tap when she lifted the trophy was so sweet. She's such a cutie. Jonas needs to play her more.

My favourites are tulips 💐

[saline-coelacanth]

Random lore headcanon type things because that's what my brain decided to do. So yeah here are some of the cool ideas that popped into my head that I wanna ramble about.

So I don't think we've been given a whole lot of information about the whole process of an elemental power moving on to a new person other than the basics. We know they can be passed on genetically, or given to someone manually, or they just sort of find a new host after a while. So I wanna give some ideas about how all this works,

Starting off with the most simple way, passing an element on through genetics. Assuming only one parent has an elemental power, it's pretty safe to assume their first child is gonna get the power unless it decides to skip a generation because Nya mentioned they can do that sometimes. Things only really get complicated when both parents have elemental powers because then it's random as to which power the kid is gonna get (at least in my version of things it's random)

So how exactly would the parents know for sure if their kid got their powers? Well I like to think the previous master would feel a gradual loss of their powers. Using Ray and Maya as examples here, I imagine after Kai was born, Ray could still control fire, but it started to get weaker and weaker over time until one day, he could no longer control fire at all. This was the main indicator that Kai had inherited his powers. And then when Nya was born, as similar thing happened to Maya with her powers.

Elemental powers also don't manifest fully until the kids are older, usually around their teens, but it can happen sooner like with Morro or Lloyd (but that could also be because they had started training when they were young). But I still like to think that even if they can't fully control their elemental powers, there will be little things that indicate what element they have. A master of ice would just naturally be cold all the time, and then the opposite for a master of fire. A master of earth would be much stronger than other kids their age. A master of lightning might gather more static electricity. Things like that.

Finally moving on from that, let's talk about the next method of manually transferring your powers to someone else. Unless I'm mistaken, I'm pretty sure the only example we know of this happening is with Zane, and we also didn't actually see any of this happen on screen. But I imagine transferring your powers to someone else would be relatively simple considering the previous Master of Ice was able to do it without anyone realizing. Just as long as the elemental master is willing to give up their powers, they can choose a new host and idk, probably do some little ritual that transfers the powers over. Again, we don't have much to work with in canon here.

The main downside to this method is that it would leave the original EM physically drained for a bit. See, with genetics they'd have the luxury of losing their powers gradually, but with this method you're giving up your powers all in one go. And as we've seen before, getting your powers taken away seems to be pretty taxing on someone.

And then the final method we have is when an elemental power just finds a new host which is what happened for Euphrasia. (Morro had been dead for a long time and I think the element of wind just finally decided it was time for a new host) So yeah, I imagine the most common way for this method to work is if an EM dies without passing their element on and then after a while, the element is able to find a new host. I think the reason why it took so long for wind to find a new host though was because Morro was just that stubborn and refused to give up his element. Another example that's slightly different is Nyad since she technically didn't die, but her powers did eventually find a new host because we've gotten multiple masters of water after her.

But another idea that I came up with is that an EM can actively choose to give up their powers and just like... send them into the world to find a new host I guess. I don't think we've seen anything like this happen in canon, but I like it as a concept so here it is. This would be similar to the method of giving a new host your powers, the only difference being that you don't have a specific host and you're just giving up your powers so they can find some new person to latch onto. It's just much risker than finding a new host yourself because then you don't know who's going to get the power.

And yeah that's my ramblings about elemental powers and how they get passed around. We don't get a whole lot of depth about this in canon so I think it's a really fun thing to explore and think about.

[horizon-verizon]

F&B's Writing & Gyldayn's Intent (Watsonian/In-World)

Gyldayn uses Rhaenyra, Alicent, & other women in the original document (that he's writing in years after the actual war, with the eye of a person who has learned more of the legend than hard boiled facts) to write propaganda-istly w/in the project of writing historically. They are mean tto be "moral" examples of what not to be and what not to allow in society, again, female rulers and woman who--baseline--tried to assert the same or similar tights to me. Or in Alicent's case, tried to use her connection to a male to attain more power to her that would be traditionally given if her son had been heir & become king. Even Alicent receives subtler criticism from Gyldayn/larger Westerosi culture for her trying to gain power or doing acts out of her role because it was not power that came through a passive (not peaceful) transfer of power. I mean that she actively worked to become the next Queen "Mother" (Not regent, she was never officially that. Aemond was Prince regent and she acted as regent while he was gone) instead of passively receiving that rank as her son ascend.

While I recognize & believe that Rhaenyra should have been the ruler just for the precedent if for nothing else, the then-value of her ruling to the cultural setting was that she was chosen by the past ruler, not hat she herself was a good leader. This is the quality that ennobled her cause for others to support her. The lords who followed her wanted to because they wanted to make sure their own heirs would have stronger bases to become the next ruler/leader of their house and thus they wanted to make sure that their own authority & decisions would be stabler. Alicent troubled this element of feudal power transfer by disobeying Viserys' wishes, thus her punishment of losing all her kids is also her punishment for daring to try for power. To in-world many readers.

Many events he describes or uses others to describe is uncredible & throws doubt as to what actually might have happened as well as who these women are & how much agency they could have actually had. After all, Alicent was a royal Consort, not a Queen Regnant. She, like other lady or Queen consorts, will never have the same authority or agency that her husband & male children have (the latter in some ways). The heft of her power is relegated to the court through more subtler, "soft-power" avenues & making marriage alliances only thru her husband's permission, rather than drafting & enforcing policies, going to war, etc. Everything is done under his permission or ignorance.

And even w/Rhaenyra to become a Queen Regnant, as the heir she still has to marry & become stuck in a situation her father poorly planned & arranged for her despite her likely being clear on who she wanted to marry where she faces arguably higher chances of people coming for her position by smearing her reputation. She loses her kids bc other people wanted to take advantage of her gender & were convinced Aegon deserved the throne more than her or were just trying to get power for themselves. She gets usurped for the same. Her mother dies from Viserys/the patriarchy's pursuit of a male heir. And yet, there is proof of her having more than just the one positive female connections AND court esteem than what HotD portrays BEFORE the war.

What about the Descriptions of their Personalities OUTSIDE of F&B?

My thing is that...even with Gyldayn *maybe* trying to make or imply Rhaenyra was this terrible person bc she only wanted to avoid war to protect her kids & not--as show!Rhaenyra does--to not make victims of those most vulnerable suffer the consequences of war and war crimes:

1) [pic below] GRRM described her to Amok as the sort of person who was exactly that, so I don't think it's likely that Rhaenyra was as reserved as adult!show!Rhaenyra was, nor that she cared abt "protecting the realm" anymore than bk!Viserys or either!Otto did. This is not an F&B source. This was recorded back in *2006*.

Amok was the artist who drew the official-official art of various characters, who GRRM gave very specific instructions & descriptions to help him realize these characters, btw. The description for Rhaenyra above yielded the blow pic.

🎨: Amok

2) "The Princess & the Queen" was part of an anthology called "Dangerous Women", & the introduction [pic below] explicitly lends more credence to the concept of both Rhaenyra & Alicent having *enough* agency to want a war & assert what they thought were their dues

As much as blurbs usually give us a quick and cursory idea of what the text actually gives and how Alicent & Rhaenyra could have been labeled as "dangerous" simply for being women with considerable power relative to other women around them and most noblewomen in Westerosi history, there's also just been textual hints (AND the GRRM instructions to Amok above) of Rhaenyra not being as compliant or reserved as most of show!Rhaenys. Asking for Lucerys to be named heir of Driftmark at all while Corlys is sick in bed (in the bk, Viserys didn't arrange for this at all before she married Laenor), for example. She went out to get this for her kids (and before people try to say this is her attempting to steal Driftmark from Baela and Rhaena, once again, CORLYS--the head of that house and the only determinant of who gets to inherit it, thus Rhaenyra's supplication, never wanted a girl to inherit said house. Plus even if he did, he'd have to make the deal with Daemon, the girls' father before he could name them....bc he's not their dad nor are they a part of his "house"!). She was not summoned nor was this a thing someone else did for her.

3) Even in F&B, Rhaenyra *does* try to avoid a war (even if nothing else to protect her kids) AND warns the greens that if they backed out of their claims...that if Aegon were to give up the crown, she wouldn't come for them. Aegon angrily refused her counter terms. Independently. And there is a whole exchange abt it that spans most of the "The Blacks and the Greens" chapter. It's unlikely that this portion was heavily twisted into making Rhaneyra look bad when Aegon is the one who looks out of control AND the maesters are funded by the Hightowers, especially for HotD to completely remove Rhaenyra's famous speech to Orwyle and those prior terms.

Instead, we got Rhaenys:

insist that she is not a part of a war she really is, has always been a part of, and always will be a part of through Daemon's daughters being her granddaughters

only support Rhaenyra once Rhaenyra shows hesitance that I'd argue is unnecessary bc the two camps, like in the bk, were actually waiting on how the lords reacted to their sent ravens and were preparing for a war JIC...so really Rhaenys acts more like the reverse of the evil-bitchy woman trope stereotype that plagued GoT [post by @rhaenyragendereuphoria], further evidenced by her otherwise staying silent like a wooden post

So...

The fact that these women tried to use their wits/courage or just immediately assert themselves gain more power and lift some restrictions on their agency is itself expressed through their more "fiery" personalities and thus I believe this is necessary to show in any adaptation. I mainly speak about Rhaenyra & Rhaenys, because if they hadn't made Alicent a SA victim at 15, I'd be fine with what we got.

And...

there doesn't have to be not a 0 or negative value of power one can wield or agency one could have even as a person with a marginalized identity. HotD hasn't really shown us what exactly Alicent has & hasn't tried to do aside from constantly trying to speak directly to Viserys or how she convinced him to allow her to sit at council. Where's the journey of her accruing that power & influence?

HotD has taken some quotes from Rhaenyra especially that we can't say are examples of her being this harridan of violence and sufferign Gyldayn tries to paint her as

Basically there is a level of credit HotD doesn't really give the original characters because they misinterpreted how & why the maesters wrote F&B, obviously being "team green", but also including accounts that disparage the greens. [this post by ozymalek vs this post by poorshadowspaintedqueens]

Excerpts from ozymalek:

The Dance era in "Fire and Blood" is something that will fundamentally cause the feelings of cognitive dissonance... ......................... It did not provide easy answers, it was written as a historical account, the in-universe historians were clearly biased. People, however, had trouble realizing who the historians are biased for and against. Team Green would have you think that "F&B" is biased against the Greens, because their allegiance as maesters clearly being to Hightowers notwithstanding, they could not evade simple historical facts: that most of the kingdom supported Rhaenyra, that Greens were horrendously misogynistic and that her usurpation was clearly wrong. That's why, approaching it from the "choose your favorite war criminal" point of view, it was difficult for Greens to accept that their preferred side is so cartoonishly evil... ......................... The maester's anti-Targaryen bias, however, manages to sneak in and mess with the reader's balance, causing said cognitive dissonance. ......................... It's hard to deal with it as a reader, let alone as a showrunner who's trying to adapt a story in which not everything is set in stone. They incorrectly assumed that, because they are constantly forced to question what is happening in the story, the bias is with the underlying idea that there was a correct side. As such, they assumed that all the inconsistencies result from maesters not choosing to view it that way.

Excerpt from poorshadowspaintedqueens:

There are hints throughout Fire & Blood that women were doing more behind the scenes and that the narrator (Gyldayn) just doesn’t care, unless they were also having scandalous sex. I, for one, think there was a lot more to Rhaenyra Targaryen, for instance, than those creepy, gross “lessons” Mushroom claimed she took from Daemon when she was 13, or having illegitimate kids with Harwin Strong and being “punished” by gaining weight (which is fatphobic as well as creepy). But a lot of that requires reading into the text and between the lines, rather than taking it at face value.

So if those women would have had their reputations or actions reduced to nothing by the author...where exactly do we see HotD!Alicent, Rhaenys, & Rhaenyra do "behind the scenes" AND in public--even in conversations that superficially look amicable--to realize this thing Gyldayn ignores?!!!

[this is before we realize that this didn't work, I'm in general, how situations are arranged not as they happened or the results which belied what Gyldayn himself would not have expected if he had lived at the time]

End...

So again, yes, F&B establishes the importance of Daenerys' rise to power & the importance of why her rise is so important if for nothing else (bc there's more than the political angle) for the politics of a female ruler becoming Queen in a sexist world. Abt to come to Westeros. At the same time, while Rhaenys, Rhaenyra & Alicent's agency was severely limited...it doesn't mean they had none. They had more than what other women had & usually had & supporters or lives that made them express more..."fiery" personalities & theyr were less afriad to really use those resources. So it really seems more like people can't take haughty & proud women as protagonists.

Real women & other marginalized groups in real history had their agency suppressed as well (relatively)...doesn't mean they had a value of 0 agency or tried to gain more. That through political authority & power even behind the scenes.

So, when I see an Alicent w/o at least deciding to tell her father (after she marries) that she will accrue her own power AND for House Hightower through her kids to compete against Rhaenyra

AND

I see show!Rhaenyra's decision to go to war framed as if she is the one making THE decision to plunge them all into war unfair & a clear wrong done by HotD when:

if Aegon were to become the next king, how seriously would he take the prophecy Viserys bestowed the knowledge on to Rhaenyra?

the greens (Otto) are not even thinking in terms of what's good for "the realm", & it's very obvious

when she came up through the floor on Meleys & killed so many KL peasants, Rhaenys herself basically gave the greens more *public* incentive to declare a war on Rhaenyra & make themselves look more like "protectors" against the "evil" blacks; in whatever version any writer makes of this event in Westerosi history, it will always be true that Rhaenys' granddaughters would be perceived as problems for the greens bc they are Daemon's daughters

Just bc Gyldayn, Mushroom, Septon Eustace, Orwyle, & all those other unnamed secondary tellers might have unintentionally or intentionally twisted some real behaviors or events to make some women seem more evil or irresponsible, or tried to heave that burden of responsibility onto the women rather than Viserys, doesn't mean that the women *didn't display* "fierier" behaviors or that we can't witness specific mini-events of them trying to gain more agency & getting it, even when it pans out to them losing so much through the war. It rather highlights, to me, how those assertive qualities were demonized AND the possible agency-grasping acts were ignored. Like how Alicent isn't that culturally credited for the green council.

But why is it bad or inadvisable to allow Rhaenys, Rhaenyra, Laena, etc. to even at least sometimes act away from their "bear with it" social compulsions as aristocratic women once in a while?! Why is it so conceived as either impossible or disliked for a woman like Rhaenyra or Rhaenys like to articulate their emotions at the violent suppressions of their agency or that of the others' through anger, annoyance, "rudeness", or rage, and more comparatively more evenly distributed instead of it just Rhaenys harping on Rhaenyra or Laena on Daemon?! If we assume Gyldayn made up or twisted their worst actions/words--and not that he exaggerated them--to degrade ANY sort of passion from a woman with authority or incumbent authority as "dangerous", then why do we tolerate the extreme dilution of of theior most active actions?!

Why would all this mean we have to mute their personalities, age them down to experience even more abuse, be even more intellectually unhinged, or experience a lack of support that they DEFINITELY had in the original story? Is this not all inherently sexist?!

There is one moment in episode 8 where Rhaenyra turns away from Vaemond when he disrespectfully mocks her during the council, and it infuriates me that Rhaenyra couldn't even face him or either verbally or nonverbally mock him back...this is then type of shit I'm taking about. And this wouldn't have negated the fact that she thought it necessary to move her kids from the Keep to avoid such various degrees of the same from the wider court and for her own kids.

Let me know if this post needs something. Despite its length, I still feel there needs to be something more added or to explain some thoughts.