#technically speaking it shows up in multiple canonical instances… like…

[bleue-flora]

It’s just fully dawned on me that c!Dream is literally canonically a homeless stripper…

[rangerdrabbles]

Timelines

A sequel to “An Officer and a Psycho” posted sometime back. Wes is best, but every so often, I like to write about Alex for funsies. Mentions of Back to the Future crossover goodness, and my canon-divergent SPD A Squad Charlie.

“You’re back!” Alex Drake stood up when he saw that it was Virgie that had entered the room.

Virgie didn’t have the heart to remind him that she’d technically only been gone five minutes-that was the benefit of time travel. She understood why he’d worried, though, even if her memories of the matter weren’t entirely intact. “Yep,” she said instead, and hugged him. “Boy, do I have a story for you.”

“Oh?” Alex hugged her back and frowned in concern before letting her go and gesturing for her to sit down. “You didn’t run into any trouble, did you?”

“No actually. And even if we did, Wes could probably charm his way out of a snake’s den. Eric says he’s the kind of guy who grows on you-like a fungus.

At the mention of Wes, Alex made a face, which caused Virgie to laugh.

“You know Wes makes the same face when I mention you, right?” 

Alex sighed and rubbed his temples, but managed a small smile nonetheless. He couldn’t be irritated at Virgie-not ever. Not after all they’d been through. “Well?”

“I know you warned me timelines could be complicated, but this is a good one,” Virgie said. “You know that movie trilogy from the 20th century called Back to the Future? Well, turns out in this timeline, it’s true.”

“It’s-no, that can’t be right. I would’ve read about it somewhere.”

“Alex, there are multiple timelines-you can’t be expected to read everything. And besides, if the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can show up in an In Space timeline, Back to the Future can be real. Can we time travel to that timeline to see the look on Andros’ face?”

“Virgie!”

“Kidding, kidding.” Virgie leaned up to give Alex a kiss on the cheek before continuing. “Well, everything that happened in the movies happened. Emmet Brown invented the time machine sometime around 1985, Travels were made to 1955, 2015, and 1885 respectively, with Emmet himself settling in 1885 in spite of being born in the 20th century.”

“He can’t just-” Alex sighed in frustration. “And how is it that this only showed up as a minor blip on our systems rather than-”

“I think we’ve both learned that nothing in time is as certain as we might believe,” Virgie replied. “That being said, things still need to be monitored so there isn’t absolute chaos. As for why it only showed up as a minor blip, I’m not entirely certain. The time machine, originally a DeLorean but later a train, was  manmade invention kept secret except to a small few.”

“But surely with someone just traveling through time at will would’ve created some sort of alarm on our radar,” Alex mused.

“According to our data, there were at least two instances of timeline skewing that would have had a major impact, but apparently they were fixed before our agents could be dispatched.”

Alex paused, processing all this information. “So how does this lead to 2025?”

“Well, when Wes and I arrived, we headed straight for SPD headquarters, figuring that was the best place to start for information. After some time speaking with Commander Crueger, we were able to trace the source to A Squad Red Ranger Charlotte ‘call me Charlie or else’ Clayton Brown.”

“Let me guess, a descendant of Emmet Brown?” Alex rubbed his temples again. “Time travel isn’t for personal gain, it’s-gah!” He’d loosened up a bit since working with Wes and the other Time Force rangers, but Alex was still...Alex.

“She has a watch with time travel capabilities. And yes, she’s aware of what could happen if it falls into the wrong hands,” Virgie continued. “Apparently she’s used it to visit relatives a couple of times-”

“WHAT?”

“-and thwart certain catastrophes. I have a feeling that the other blip from 2025 that was unsolved has to do with her-something rippled slightly on the day the Dino Thunder rangers accidentally traveled to the future. Their memories should have been erased of the day. Oddly enough though, they’re A-squad rangers alongside Charlie. I think maybe Charlie was trying to prevent something horrible. The timeline itself wasn’t impacted too much from it, however.

Alex sat in silence for a moment, then frowned in thought. “What do you recommend?”

“Monitor the situation, and nothing more. If this is a family that creates minor changes at best and fixes the worst, I don’t think we have much to worry about. We might need to step in someday, but not today.”

“Very well; sounds good to me. Thanks for checking it out.”

“Thanks for letting me go. Though I still think it would be fun if you and I went to the Library of Alexandria or something. And don’t you dare give me that look.”

Alex laughed,forgetting the mini-lecture he was going to give. “We’ll talk.”

“Is that a maybe?”

“That’s a ‘we’ll talk.’“

[bloodraven55]

“But Bumbleby was rushed/forced to pander to the gays—”

There are a number of glaring flaws in this argument, most of all the fact that no straight relationship is ever called “forced” or “pandering” even if people don’t like it, let alone “rushed” when it’s only on the verge of officially happening seven seasons into the show, but I want to break down all of the many levels on which it’s wrong in order to hopefully kill it once and for all.

“It came out of nowhere—”

Jaune was crushing on Weiss the second he saw her, Sun was crushing on Blake the moment he saw her, Pyrrha developed feelings for Jaune in just one Volume and showed some interest from the moment she saw him, and Blake goes from being consistently annoyed at Sun throughout Volumes 1 and 2 to suddenly having a crush on him in Volume 3.

If Bumbleby supposedly “came out of nowhere,” then so did W/hite Knight, A/rkos, and B/lacksun. But no one ever has an issue with the speed at which those characters started having romantic interest in each other. And I’m not even saying they should—they’re all very valid ships and whether they came out of nowhere or not isn’t the point of this—but there’s a clear double standard applied to same sex ships as opposed to heterosexual ships here and it invalidates this point right out of the gate.

“It was rushed—”

Blake and Yang are only just now close to becoming an official couple after more than six whole Volumes of knowing each other. There is no possible universe where this would qualify as “rushed.” Again, W/hite Knight and B/lacksun albeit both one-sided at least to begin with both became obvious things within literal episodes of the characters meeting, and Jaune and Pyrrha were showing blatant romantic interest in each other by Volume 2 before kissing in Volume 3.

In the last case you can argue that it went at a faster pace because Pyrrha was going to die, but that doesn't change the fact that no one complained that it went too quickly—or about the other two ships I mentioned which were both initially based solely on one (1) instance of a guy showing interest in a girl—and yet people say it’s too soon for Blake and Yang to get together when they’ve had over twice as long for their relationship to develop.

“The shippers forced it into the show—”

I don’t think I even need to add any more here when the words of CRWBY speak for themselves.

“Toxic shippers think everything is gay—”

I mean, I’m gay and I only truly ship a handful of the possible same sex pairings in the show—certainly far from the majority of them—and I also ship a number of straight ships, but go off I guess.

I already made a post on this here, but it’s insanely dismissive and ridiculous for heterosexual people i.e. the ones who usually use this “argument” to assume that they know better than actual LGBT+ people what is or isn’t good LGBT+ representation, and for them to assume that just because they missed build up that it therefore isn’t there.

I can’t take someone seriously when they go into a discussion determined to believe that they’re already right and don’t listen to a word you say to prove otherwise, especially when they’re debating on a topic which doesn’t directly affect them and which they don’t have the same level of firsthand knowledge of.

“The wasps only care about Blake and Yang getting in each other’s pants—”

Actually, it’s the people who are most aggressively against Blake and Yang being a couple that tend to reduce their relationship to being entirely about sex even though they haven’t had a single remotely sexual interaction in the show, but if this were true then surely Bumbleby shippers would be very unhappy with the show because Blake and Yang have still not “got in each other’s pants,” or “swapped clit juice” as I once saw someone tastefully describe it?

But that isn’t right. Because in general us Bee shippers are currently exceedingly happy with everything that’s happening in the show to do with Blake and Yang’s relationship. So how can that be if all we care about is whether they fuck or not?

The answer is of course that we don’t only care about whether they fuck or not—in fact most of us couldn’t care less whether it’s ever so much as hinted that they have sex, both because the show almost certainly won’t ever go there and because that isn’t our priority—we’re just enjoying watching them fall in love.

Honestly this argument is one of the most lazy because one look at RWBY will tell you that none of the romances are at all sexual thus far so any shippers who truly only care about that aspect wouldn’t stick around very long when they’ll just end up disappointed. And of course the way that these people inherently view same sex relationships as sexual is homophobic and disgusting too.

“CRWBY rushed it to give the rabid shippers what they want—”

Like the last two points, this is a “criticism” that I’ve only ever seen levelled at same sex ships and never straight ships, so it’s yet another example of double standards and hypocrisy, but that’s only the start of what’s wrong with it.

The most galling thing about this is that these people insist that all LGBT+ people because as I’ve already mentioned that is always the group which statements like this are aimed at just want to see two characters of the same gender make out as soon as possible, which is simply not true.

No one would ever claim that straight people just want to see a man and a woman get it on as soon as possible and dismiss the worth of a straight relationship because of it. So it’s ridiculous to try and force that logic onto shippers of same sex ships, who are primarily LGBT+ people themselves.

If anything, we care even more about the quality of our ships—how healthy they are, whether they’re well built up or not, etc.—because we hardly have any to begin with in comparison. If one straight ship is rushed or poorly written, then there are plenty of well-handled ones to choose from instead, but the same isn’t the case for same sex ships.

We want to be represented well, which means that we want healthy relationships with plenty of development where the characters actually have chemistry and complement each other. We might still support rushed or badly-written same sex ships sometimes because it’s still representation which we are overall sorely lacking, but we don’t want them.

“But they ship baited with Blake and Sun—”

First off, straight ships can’t be baited the same way that same sex ships can. It’s simply not a comparable situation. But of course B/lacksun shippers are entitled to feel disappointed that their ship didn’t become canon. That’s utterly valid and understandable. However, that doesn’t mean that the writers or the show in any way misled viewers regarding what was happening.

“But Sun winked at Blake—”

And Yang also winked at Blake in Volume 2 while asking her to the dance, just like Sun winked at Blake in Volume 1 and then asked Blake to the dance. And Blake turned Sun down when he asked initially, specifically told him that they were only “technically” going together when she ran into him outside, and told him definitively that she had chosen to give her first dance to Yang.

“But Blake blushed at Sun—”

And now she’s also blushed at Yang, in a far more intimate scene at that. Next point.

“But Sun met Blake’s parents—”

And? Simply meeting someone’s parents doesn’t on any level automatically imply romance. Ghira didn’t even like Sun, and while a lot of people like to claim that Kali “ships it” which would be extremely flimsy evidence to base the canonicity of a ship on anyway, she’s someone who would do the same with anyone Blake brought home so it means nothing. If Blake had actually chosen to take Sun home with her herself then this would be a valid point, but she didn’t, so it has no weight whatsoever overall.

“But Blake kissed Sun on the cheek—”

And I kiss my mother on the cheek the exact same way every time I say goodbye to her. If you think that type of kiss on the cheek has to be romantic then quite frankly I’m not sure what world you’re living in. If the camera had been close up, if there had been any shots at all of their reactions, any blushing or lingering looks, a more private setting— literally anything to give it some actual weight and make it feel significant, then this might mean something, but it’s framed as a totally platonic goodbye with zero romantic coding.

And that’s without even mentioning the fact that right after that moment Sun flat out states that his time with Blake was “never about [romance],” which sort of kills the idea that anything about that scene was supposed to be taken as romantic. There was no reason to include that line except to make it clear to the audience that Sun and Blake parted ways as friends who now have no intention of ever becoming anything more.

Seriously, if they wanted us to think that there was still something there, then Blake would have been shown to be thinking about or missing Sun even one since they separated, but he hasn’t been brought up for even a second. If they wanted to set up a continuation of anything romantic for them when the group reach Vacuo, say, then they would have started doing it by now.

Plus the reverse argument that Blake and Sun have never hugged or held hands—both of which Blake and Yang have done multiple times—works just as well, perhaps even better since handholding is a well-established romantic cue in the show already thanks to A/rkos, R/enora, and O/zma and Salem.

“But why was Sun even there in Volumes 4 and 5 then—”

Because Blake needed a friend who she could exposition to about her thought processes and personal problems so that the audience could understand what she was going through, and she wasn’t as likely to open up to her parents about that stuff right away when she was convinced they’d hate her for leaving.

Sun was there to support Blake as she developed and to tell her that running away hurt the very people she was trying to protect. That was his narrative role in that arc. There was nothing to indicate that a romance was being built in those more than twenty episodes they spent together and if it was going to happen that would have been the time to do it.

On the other hand Blake and Yang’s shared arc together is built on the fact that Blake’s romantic ex, who Blake had already directly contrasted with Yang and whose Semblance was already a foil to Yang’s, maimed Yang specifically because Blake loves her. The basis of that arc has romantic weight, which is what makes the difference here. Though the scene at the end of Volume 3 where Adam takes Yang’s arm isn’t romantic in and of itself, I should clarify, it just has romantic significance in that it makes it clear that Blake and Yang’s feelings go beyond mere friendship.

In short, the summary of this whole section pretty much boils down to: two characters spending time together doesn't inherently equal romantic development, and it isn’t in any way “baiting” if those two characters don’t then get together.

The characters’ feelings follow a fairly logical progression over the course of the show, with Blake showing interest in both Sun and Yang in V1-V3, then ceasing to show interest in Sun after that as their relationship becomes totally platonic by Volume 5/the beginning of Volume 6 at the very latest, while the events of the Fall of Beacon only solidified how strong her feelings for Yang were and once she reunites with Yang their relationship begins to head towards romance.

It’s a pretty realistic depiction of how human feelings work, and a far less messy situation than in a lot of other shows where there isn’t the same massive level of hatred and vitriol towards the “victorious” pairing, because this was never even really presented as a love triangle or rivalry.

To conclude, I just want to list some of the contradictions that I’ve seen within the arguments made against Bumbleby, because I think it’s very telling that the people who are against it can’t even settle on one coherent narrative on why it’s bad.

“Bumbleby has no development, but also the show focusses too much on Bumbleby.”

“Monty wouldn’t have wanted Bumbleby—it goes against his vision—even though I didn’t know him and have no idea what his vision actually was, and he explicitly stated that he wanted LGBT+ characters in the show who might already be in the main cast and that he wanted Blake and Yang to have a shared arc together, as well as being responsible for the set up of that arc with Blake and Yang being introduced as Beauty and the Beast while Adam canonically represents Gaston.”

“The Bumbleby shippers have so much influence that they forced the writers to make the ship canon, but they’re also just a vocal minority who don’t matter.”

“Blake and Yang hardly interact—they’re barely even friends—but they also interact too much and it’s making Bumbleby take over the show.”

“Arryn is a victim of the toxic wasps who harrassed her and sent her death threats for saying that the song Bmblb doesn't automatically make the ship canon, which there is zero evidence of,  but Arryn is also an unprofessional cunt for expressing her support of Bumbleby.”

“None of Blake and Yang’s scenes together are romantic so Bumbleby is forced, but even when they have undeniably romantic interactions I’ll ignore them or deny that they mean anything so I can still pretend it has no build up.”

“Bumbleby is bad because Team RWBY are a sisterhood, but all of the other straight relationships within teams—even those who’ve flat out called each other ”family”—are fine, and I’ll just pretend that there aren’t other definitions of the word sisterhood which have nothing to do with actual sisters and are the ones that actually apply in this case.”

“Blake and Yang’s relationship could be seen as romantic or platonic, but I personally think they’re just friends so Bumbleby is bad and came out of nowhere.”

I’ve seen all of these countless times with my own two eyes and it’s absolutely hilarious to be honest. Anyway that’s it. I have yet to see a single logical argument as to why Bumbleby is bad that isn’t made in bad faith, fallacious, or just doesn’t hold up when you actually look at the show. It’s about to be canon, and at this point to be honest anyone who doesn't like that can simply accept it or go and watch something else that will pander to their specific tastes instead.

[e-vasong]

Can I ask about your writing process?

Huge fan of your TUA fics here - the way you just GET the characters is incredible - its almost like reading a novel written by the actual show writers!

How do you go about your characterisation and your drafting process? Any tips on nailing the complexities of the characters (specifically five)?

Thanks!!!

:') This is literally so nice I don't know how to respond, oh my goodness. I wish I had, like, life-altering writing wisdom for you here, but I honestly feel like my entire process is kind of a mess. I'll share it with you anyways, though, just in case you can glean anything helpful from it. I’ll tuck it below a cut, but here it is (ft. some of my specific characterization notes on Five, since you asked :D).

Pre-draft: Concept stage! This can be a variety of things -- sometimes it's a specific scene. For me it's usually a challenge of some sort. I like to take things that I think are unlikely for a character (under what circumstances would [x] character ever become a bad guy? How would [x] character’s secrets get revealed if they never talk willingly about their emotions?) Then I build out from there. I outline sometimes now, but I’ve been winging all my pieces for so long that it’s pretty tough for me. 

Draft one: Throw things at the wall. If I let myself, I will spend way too long agonizing on making every word perfect on the first go around, and I’ll never write anything. So draft one has permission to be as bad as it needs to be: sentence fragments, OOC dialogue/actions, clunky word choice, the whole nine yards. The most important thing is getting the words/scenes on the page.

Draft two: What sticks? Everyone is different -- I find it easier to edit than to write in the first place. So here’s where I look over my work from draft one. Is my sentence structure variable enough? How are their voices? Their actions? Does the narration work with the POV I’m using for the scene? 

Like, okay. I’m working on chapter two of the end of the war right now. Currently, it includes this line:

“How did you even—” Five starts, then shakes himself.  Absolutely not.  He isn’t entertaining this.  “Luther.”

In retrospect, I’m not wild about it. It doesn’t sound in character to me. I’m not pulling out receipts right now or anything, but the more I think about it, the more that I feel certain that Five rarely expresses surprise unless really shocked. Part of this is likely the contrast between him in his siblings (all the stuff about the Apocalypse and time travel is familiar to him and new to them, so the show has a lot of “Five explains [x] to his siblings while they look flabbergasted by him.”)

Anyways, it doesn’t sit right. So maybe, instead:

Five frowns, taken off guard. He could ask, but--quite frankly--he’s starting to think that he doesn’t want to know. He does, however, know what this is a preface to -- Luther is going to meddle. 

“Luther,” Five says it like a warning. Luther either doesn’t hear it or doesn’t care.

Anyways, rinse and repeat step two as much as necessary, and you basically have my entire drafting process.

Characterization, though, I have a more thorough process for!

Fanon and meta is super, super helpful, but I definitely prefer to look at canon first and foremost. I find it easiest to build characterization by asking myself questions about the character! I mean, don’t get me wrong. The first step is just to...get your own read on their personality? And there’s no trick to that. Everyone comes away from watching a show/reading a book with a slightly different interpretation of a character’s personality. But when building off of that to write them, I find questions helpful. They vary from fandom to fandom, but, like, here are some of the questions I’ve asked myself while writing Five.

What motivates them? For Five, this is a super easy one. He literally says it at multiple points throughout the show. He’s motivated by his family. To the point of wanting to save the world because they’re a part of it. Five troops through injury and pain and discomfort, but one reference from Handler about a deal to save his family is enough to coerce Five into 1 - working with her when he doesn’t want to and 2 - taking a job that he doesn’t seem like he wants to take.

How far are they willing to go to get it? For Five, he’s willing to do pretty much anything.

Are there any contradictions in their characterization? This is a weirdly specific question, but! People are inherently contradictory. Sometimes in TV or movies or books, it’s just bad writing. But sometimes it’s because people are complicated. So, in TUA, Five is consistently a big-picture thinker throughout the series. He seems to view his job at the Commission with apathy because he knows that it’s part of maintaining the timeline and necessary for him to get back home and stop the Apocalypse. He plans to kill an innocent person because he believes the butterfly effect of their death could stop the end of the world. He is, in many ways, a utilitarian -- the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. The greater good sometimes requires a lesser evil. Pull the lever in the trolley problem, and kill the one to save the five. Unless that one is one of Five’s siblings. 

For instance, his dialogue with the Handler in season one seems to imply that he is willing to give up fighting the Apocalypse if and only if she can guarantee his siblings’ safety (though this admittedly turns on how honest you think he was being with her -- I think he was honest, but smart enough to know she’d never follow through, but a fair argument can be made either way.) There are a million ways to read this, and the fun of playing with characterization is that you get to experiment with them! I read it as proof that Five is so driven by his desire to save his siblings that he actually places their wellbeing above his own moral compass (whether his moral compass is right or wrong is a whole other debate.)

What are they like at their best vs. at their worst? At his best, Five is strategic, driven, independent, determined, loyal, and protective. At his worst, he’s controlling, suspicious, bloodthirsty, temperamental, and obsessive. Of course, most people don’t just switch between these two extremes, and these traits frequently coexist, interact, and manifest in milder ways.  Five being suspicious usually manifests as him being cautious until he’s confronted with a character (in season two, Lila) that strikes him the wrong way. Him being obsessive is often just a side product of the fact that he is determined, loyal, and protective.  The fact that he can be controlling is connected to how independent he can be -- the same reason that Five tries to keep Diego in the mental hospital, never tells people that he’s injured, and hides things from them is the same reason he’s so quick and effective at getting things done. This is just a handy way of compiling a flaws/virtues list, and I like to look at it in terms of the potential extremes because I think it makes it easier to see how they interact to create the middle ground where the character actually exists.

How do they talk? Arguably the most important question for actually getting their voice, and the easiest way to nail this down is to just...look at the canon dialogue. Does the character use really big words? Do they talk in long gusts or in short, clipped sentences?  Do they use contractions more or do they not shorten things? This is the hardest part of writing Five for me, because my first impulse is to make him talk like an Intellectual (tm) and Very Erudite Adult. Like, I default to that when writing him, and it’s a horrible habit (in my opinion) because...while he does speak that way sometimes (usually when explaining things to his siblings) that’s not actually how he talks most of the time.  (Like, for instance, I tend to default away from Five using contractions in my first drafts of things. He actually uses contractions a lot, and frequently shortens words--”got to” is “gotta” for Five, “because” becomes “‘cause”, etc.) 

Other examples:

Five: Billions of people are about to die tonight. You can change that.

The Handler: Tonight, tomorrow. So little difference in the scheme of things. Don't you remember the Commission's raison d'etre? What's meant to be is meant to be, or, as I like to say, que será, será.

Five: It's bullshit in any language.

I love this exchange so much :D. And it establishes some great things about the way Five talks! He doesn’t dance around the issue or debate her or try and prove her wrong. He just tells her he thinks that that opinion is dumb, obviously.  He’s blunt, straightforward, and honest. (This seems to tie into the thing I was saying about Five and contractions -- he picks the most straightforward way of saying things unless he’s giving a technical explanation.)

Five: Okay, Luther, but be careful. I mean, I've... I've lived a long life, but you're still a young man. You got your whole life ahead of you. Don't waste it.

Five talks like an old man. Not all the time (though there’s a wonderful gif set out there somewhere of Five using old timer slang -- wait, I found it here.) He doesn’t use the old-timey slang all the time -- and I personally like the idea of mixing up Five’s slang habits and including slang from all sorts of eras because he’s a time traveler whose primary source of interaction after four decades alone was other time traveling assassins. But! He also talks in a way where he shows his age. 

Regardless of where you think Five’s psychological age falls (I have my own Opinions on this), he seems to unilaterally view himself as the Big Sibling, and by a very large margin at that. That’s reflected in how he talks. Not always, since not every line of dialogue is relevant to his age. But stuff like this, or related to it, crops up a fair amount. He counsels his siblings on their problems (as when he comforted Diego post-Eudora’s death), and there are little moments like the quote above, where the point is that Five has indeed seen many more years than his siblings and has the perspective to reflect that.

Well, this is way too long now, and it’s really late where I’m at. I feel like the comprehensibility of this post has been steadily declining the whole time, but if other writers have tips that they want to add onto this, please go ahead! 

[catgirlxox]

Ben Is Too Good For His Own Good

Aka a "cinnamon roll", if you will. Yes, I'm writing an essay on this. 

So it's nothing new that Ben has this "second chances" philosophy, but that is indicative of the possibility that he would let himself be in damaging relationships in hopes that the other person would change or improve. 

There have been various instances of Ben kind of just brushing off being treated poorly. I wouldn't say that this makes him a push over or anything like that, but I never see any of these things being pointed out. They're just kind of laughed off.

Just the other day, in fact, I had someone privately DM me saying that they don't believe Ben ever had any trauma or side effects from his lifestyle, even questioning “what nightmares” I was even referring to. 

On top of that, it's a very common thing in this fandom to state things like "the girls deserved better than Ben." I'll always be of the opinion that Ben is the one that deserved better, and I have plenty (logical) reasons why, but that’s besides the point. 

Even though Ben is so forgiving and cooperative, giving everyone a second chance to change, it just doesn't sit right with me that we should just be okay with some of the horrible things that are being justified here. That doesn't mean you should hate these characters. I mean, Ben clearly doesn't. But it honestly says more about him than any of them. 

It says a lot to me when I see Ben seeing the best in someone, even when they've done horrible things in the past or are in the midst of doing something bad to him. 

One example, which I keep bringing up on this blog, is the episode "Vilgax Must Croak." Besides everything else that Vilgax had done to him in the past, in addition to throughout the episode up until this point, Ben was still shown believing that Vilgax could have tried to save him by jumping in front of Ben to shield him from a (seemingly extremely destructive) blast from Attea. 

Things like this also explain why I don’t support shipping Ben with Attea, but that’s besides the point too...

Of course, even if he did save Ben by doing this, Vilgax was only manipulating the situation to make it look like he was trying to save Ben when he was really taking the chance to break himself free of the handcuffs. 

But, even so, this seems to mean that Ben believes that Vilgax does have it in him to do something good. Ben was admittedly shocked by what had happened at first, but by the next scene where he turns back to human, he's got his guard down enough for Vilgax to take advantage of the situation again and shoot him in the back. Because, please realize, if Vilgax didn’t “save” him, he wouldn’t be able to shoot him in the back. 

But anyway, in conclusion, as the title states, he's too good for his own good. 

The next unfair circumstance which displays the same thing happens in the episode "No Honor Among Bros." I am aware that the following is uncharacteristic of Rook and had only happened because Rook was under the influence of a substance, so I want to acknowledge that, but I am mostly focusing on Ben's actions here.

Ben and Rook eventually are set up against each other in the tournament, and, besides the fact that Ben already doesn't want to fight anyone needlessly, as shown by his previous match against Malice where he was BEAT UP FOR THREE HOURS...

...he clearly holds back while fighting Rook in this match, too. 

The one time he actually hits Rook with a decent shot, which knocks Rook out temporarily, not only does he immediately go check on him to make sure he's not badly hurt, but also turns back to human, leaving him somewhat more vulnerable then he would be as Upchuck. 

This seems to mean that he trusted Rook wouldn't take that chance to hit him right back. And unnecessarily hard too, at that. 

This knocks Ben down, making him lose the fight. The important thing to take away from this is that, regardless if he just chalked it up to Rook not being himself, he still didn't seem to hold it against him, besides just being slightly annoyed. 

So, basically, he got his ass beat multiple times only because he was holding back for the other person's sake. He's too good for his own good. 

Then there's also Kevin and Tetrax. Both are former "criminals", albeit for different reasons, and Ben still had it in him to befriend both of them. This is probably due to the fact that they've built trust over time, and fought evil together to protect others, including each other. 

I don't like to look past the fact that Kevin, while admittedly not entirely in control of his powers at the time, has tried to kill Ben on multiple occasions. But, like I said, Ben has grown to trust him and they have each other's back, so there’s no need to really expand on those two all that much. 

Then there's the sad story of Elena. 

You could argue that the reason it's difficult for me to look past Elena's “mistakes” is because she was given little to no chances to redeem herself. And perhaps there is some truth to that. 

However, there has been a scene which seems to be what is considered "redeeming" - when she attempts to sacrifice herself to save Ben. 

And while Ben himself seemed extremely moved by this at the time, clearly not holding any hard feelings towards what she had just done to him throughout "Revenge of the Swarm", I can't say that I feel the same. 

I can't say that I feel the same because Ben's life would not even be in danger at this point if she didn't attempt to suffocate him. Should I see her as a “hero” for saving Ben from herself? 

Especially when it’s evident that she had enough self control to attempt to commit suicide, but somehow not enough to not attempt to kill Ben again once she realized that her suicide attempt failed. 

Ben: “Elena! They’ve been controlling you! You’ve got to fight them!”

Elena: “They’re not controlling me, they are me! And I am them!”

Another thing about her predicament that I don't understand is whether or not her choices are voluntary. The other characters say outwardly that "the chips are controlling her", while she, in response, claims that they are not controlling her and instead, that they "are her." 

Elena: “They give me what I want! They fulfil my deepest desires! Even the ones I don’t know I have!”

She also claims that the chips want what she wants, and because they “are her” they give her the ability to get everything she might want. By that logic, she would want everything that had happened up until this point, which is crazy and inexcusable. 

If she is the chips, implying there is no other Elena inside that is the “true” Elena, and she genuinely wants to do things like stalk Ben and attempt to kill him, then I don’t see a way to excuse or justify that.  

But then, in the midst of choking Ben to death, Julie tells her that she couldn't seriously want Ben to die, which Elena responds to seemingly confused or unsure for the first time, and only states it must be what she wants, before claiming that she really did care about Ben. 

I’m sure Ben would agree that she could still be redeemed at this point. He would probably still agree she could be redeemed after all that I’m about to go over as well.

And, while this is evident since he did state the following, believing, once again, that there is still good in someone who had done horrible things:

Ben: “There was enough of my friend left to save my life.”

She still came back to make the situation worse instead of taking the chance to redeem herself. 

Unfortunately, unlike I suggested earlier, and instead of leaving it at that after surviving her suicide attempt and traumatizing everyone in the process, she returns in "The Perfect Girlfriend" impersonating Julie, being the cause of Gwen suffering a pretty significant injury, and, let’s not forget, attempting to kill Ben once again. 

It’s even worse that she chose to do so at such a vulnerable point in Ben and Julie’s relationship, considering that they had been arguing lately, even in the beginning of that very episode. I’ve actually had someone claim that this episode proves that Ben’s idea of the “perfect” girlfriend is someone who does everything he says and may as well have no individual personality. And, because someone I think is credible enough to speak on Ben’s behalf believes that to some extent, it just shows me that it’s possible many other people in this fandom might believe the same thing.

To me, it simply seemed as if he believed that his relationship with his girlfriend was finally improving, which is a good thing. It doesn’t seem all that unreasonable for him to not question why they were suddenly getting along much more than before. Why would anyone question their relationship with their significant other going well, especially after going through a rough patch? 

Regardless, after realizing the reason why this was the case, he must have also felt horrible about not noticing sooner, which sucks. He’d be seen as a jerk for questioning why his girlfriend was being so nice to him had he done so, but he’d be seen as a jerk for not noticing that it wasn’t really her all this time anyway.

I hate to keep flaming her, but Elena chose to put him in that position since the chips allow her to fulfil “all her deepest desires”, apparently. Because that's what you do to someone you "love." 

While Elena's story wasn't continued past Ultimate Alien, the Ben 10: Omniverse comic "Parallel Paradox" did attempt to tie up loose ends. 

Before I continue, I have to state that the comics are not technically "canon.” However they are official source material and therefore should be accurate to canon. So, for clarity, and for those who haven't read this comic, Elena here is basically presented as if she is voluntarily a criminal. She's apparently stealing tech for money, working for some other higher level bad guy, and clearly has a grudge against Ben after what had happened. 

I’ll provide the relevant pages below, but Elena states that Ben was “rude” to her the last time they saw each other...when, in the moment she is reffering to, she had impersonated her way into Ben’s living room and had the nerve to get into an argument with him when she was clearly in the wrong. 

But Ben himself wasn’t even being rude to her in that particular scene, either. He was trying to explain why what she was doing was wrong. He only resorted to using the Ultimatrix once Elena resorted to violence herself.

At the end of "Parallel Paradox", it's revealed that Ben feels like Elena hates him, despite all that she's done to him. Which is interesting, since it doesn't seem to me like he's done anything to her to give her a reason to hate him. Not even supposedly being “rude.” It seems like it should be the other way around, really. 

I know that I wouldn't hesitate considering filing a restraining order against someone who stalked me, attacked my friends, kidnapped my significant other, lied to me, and then attempted to kill me twice. 

But Ben? No, AFTER ALL THAT...he actually wants to help her and wishes she didn't hate him for no reason. 

Or maybe she doesn't have a grudge against him for what he did do, but rather what he didn't do, in her view. The irony is that Ben clearly would do anything he could to help her, she just isn't accepting that help. She just wants what she wants and will stop at nothing to get what she wants. 

She seems to constantly be putting the blame on everyone but herself. And the first step to changing for the better starts with changing oneself by changing old habits and actively working to do better. It's even more sad that she doesn't seem to realize just how much faith Ben does have in her, despite the horrific stuff in Ultimate Alien. 

If she really loved him, she shouldn't let him down. But at this point, I don't know if that's the case anymore. 

Anyway, at the end of the day, what astounds me the most is that Ben isn't mad at her. I mean, he should at least have serious trust issues by now! It really puts things into perspective and explains why there even is an alternate future where a pairing like Benkai can happen. 

If someone like Kevin, who hated Ben as a kid and actively tried to kill him, can become his best friend, and if someone like Elena can also get away with causing so much unnecessary harm to Ben without so much as a displeased glance, why wouldn't he give a girl who just likes to bully and pick on him another chance? 

I still don't believe he deserves that, but I fear that is it is extremely likely, even if it comes from a good place.

And because he gives everyone 764845786448578 chances. 

[senotsuri]

Its surprising that given his popularity, the show didn't even try to adapt leonidas into the show.

Like if I'm getting my facts right here the game is supposed to take place before the doom dimension arc but also after it aswell? I'm just losing it. Like imagine, "oh the worlds gonna be destroyed but ULTIMATE BATTLERS TOURNAMENT"

Like don't get me wrong, it gives a reason on why so many brawlers were there during the final battle but at the same time, Drago not being ultimate dragonoid makes my brain go brrr.

Technically speaking, if we’re going by the game timeline... the tournaments before UBT have to have happened before the Doom arc, but the UBT must happen before Drago can evolve a second time. This also means that the Pyrus tournament must happen before Delta Dragonoid exists. This means there’s a massive chunk of time where nothing happens.

And Masquerade keeps Marduk from doing anything to the player until the UBT. This means the tournament is required to even have the chance of stopping Vladitor, who is a threat, even if he can’t do anything outside the tournament, or there’ll be consequences.

If Leonidas did appear in the anime, I’d probably have him appear after BB, because I’m pretty sure the game came out after that season, not during (not during the original broadcast time. Reruns so you could catch up aren’t counted in this case), so he’d be a NV bakugan. That would make the whole of NV2 be a little more interesting, because if Leonidas never left the Doom, then the only bakugan he ever knew would be the Legendary Soldiers.

Who died.

This essentially means that Leonidas would be desolately lonely, unless he leaves. And, if the attribute energies worked that way, he could always use them as a beacon to find the soldiers, and take out his anger on them for leaving him in the dust. Only to find that they didn’t do that on purpose.

They’re dead. They’ve been replaced. They had to be, or vestroia would be vestal’s again.

Like... nothing goes right for Leonidas, even after evolution. He’s trusted by nobody but his partnered brawler, and he’s otherwise the loneliest being in existence.

But. But, but, but, but... if Leonidas was introduced in BB, then we’d have the fun of a “canon” version of first VG protag/Rikku, and most people don’t exactly like that. Otherwise, that means there are multiple Leonidas. Multiple instances of the dead wanting to slaughter everything in sight, just to have the chance of feeling better.

Leonidas is either, however you’d want to intergrate him in;

lonely.

has a canonical partner (who’d probably have to have a different story to go with it. Preferably including being tricked by Masquerade, to Leonidas’ advantage, as Leonidas probably can fly back through the portals to the Doom caused by the doom cards, since he can escape at will.)

isn’t a unique bakugan as a result of his weird origins.

Choose your favourite, but I do like 1 for storyline purposes, 2 for lore mechanics, and 3 for the sheer power implications of bakugan (if they can collectively make multiple Leonidas while dead.)

[nobaettadr]

 🍇  :    how would my muse describe their childhood?  how much has it impacted the person they are now,  or will become as an adult?  around what age did they or will they start to mature,  and why?  do they wish to go back to their days as a child,  or have they embraced adulthood? 

       ★   //    FRUIT HEADCANONS.  /   @rivclry

these are all pretty loaded questions for leif and blend together, so at the risk of meshing stuff and going on tangents, i’ll split them up.

how would my muse describe their childhood?

looking back on it now when he’s older and understands context, leif would be able to describe his childhood for what it really was: a difficult time where every day was lived in fear of persecution. he’d readily admit though that his childhood was much, much harder for lachesis and especially finn than for himself ( and maybe nanna, though he wouldn’t try to speak for her ); he still remembers, especially many of his earliest years, a relatively innocent time before he knew what was going on and his own role in everything. 

his earliest memories are largely benign, and he talks in canon about fondly looking back on warm, familial occasions with dorias, glade, and selfina. he also fondly remembers the years with the bishop of frest. even though, in the big picture, they were refugees who scraped by day to day, i don’t think leif himself recognized this during those early years, in large part because those around him, finn in particular, went to great pains to make sure leif didn’t suffer where they could, even, as canon tells us, going for days without food so that he would have something to eat.

so i think that even though he’d be able to now pragmatically say that his childhood was hard, he’d also emphasize that it wasn’t all gloom, and that there were still bright spots he holds closely to.

how much has it impacted the person they are now,  or will become as an adult?

all of it, and immensely. leif exclusively has his upbringing to thank for the kind of person he is now. there’s multiple instances in fe5 where he says something along the lines of “[X person] helped me / sheltered me before, so i have to help them!” of course, this is indicative of leif’s innately magnanimous spirit, but i think it also speaks to his unique circumstances. he’s well aware that he would not have survived, would have been captured by the empire and killed long ago, if not for the selflessness of people who had little reason to aid him, but did anyway. this sticks with him over the course of his life, and he never forgets it. it’s the reason why he’s fairly unique among FE royalty in his ability to put himself in the shoes of even the lowest commoner and understand what it’s like to have so little that you have to live off the generosity of others.

i’m fairly certain august says something to the same effect in fe5, that leif has to use this unique circumstance of his to not make the same mistakes as his ancestors, who, for all their good intentions, still suffered from the ‘prince in his high tower’ problem that made them unable to bridge the gap between north and south thracia. because of his impoverished upbringing, leif is in a position to help the south thracians from a place of genuine understanding rather than as a rich king coming in to dole out alms for the third world country ( that he technically conquered ).

around what age did they or will they start to mature,  and why?

while i think that leif in general has always been a pretty serious kid, having the bishop of frest, who at the time was the caretaker he’d had the longest and had been the closest to, sacrifice his life to execution to buy leif time to escape, was the event that took the last of his innocence and opened his eyes to what was happening around him. it was the first instance that keenly showed him his own youth and helplessness, as well as the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders, and the weight of the first of many lives that would be given so that he could fulfill that responsibility and hope they had in him.

do they wish to go back to their days as a child,  or have they embraced adulthood?

a difficult question. i think leif would admit to both. part of him misses back when he didn’t have as many worries and could play make-believe stories with nanna and asvel and dream of battles grander than they ever ended up being, or even return to the simple life he had in fiana. he does, in some way, feel like he never got to have a childhood, which later in the war he realizes is hardly unique to him and that, in some ways, he’s fortunate to have had the people around him that he did have.

but leif is also sensible enough not to really long for that past nostalgia, anymore. he wouldn’t want to leave behind the people who are depending on him now, and he knows that his place is in fulfilling the duties and position he’s stepped into. leif might have been forced to grow up too fast, but he also has always wanted to grow up, to be ready, to be seen as an adult and fully capable. he doesn’t want to be a child anymore, or be seen like one, since for him that’s associated with vulnerability and, more importantly, with helplessness.

[plague-of-nice]

*back at it again for the other meme, ily* 1, 3, & 4 for any Jonahs you want

fren, thank you so much! ILY!! I’ll be skipping to 3 & 4, due to prompt 1 already asked by another person! Yet again a long post bc I have no self-control and insist on rambling about all versions of Jonah-  (this is take 2 of me replying to this ask tho so I promise this is certainly a bit more concise, compared to its former iteration)

If your s/i was originally in canon and had a fanbase, how do you think they’d see your s/i? And how passionate this fanbase would be about them?

Regardless of universe, I like to think Jonah makes for a decent supportive NPC in general, She is... a friendly face with good intentions, willing and eager to brave danger if it means seeing things through.

[Skull/girls] If not a fighter herself, Jonah is a randomly re-occuring NPC in specific story mode campaigns. In her pursuit to draw close to the Skullheart and study it, she follows certain characters in their quest, posing as a typical paparazzi reporter. Hmm... Putting it that way, I see how she could possibly annoying- but then again, I also see her being one of “the dlc characters we could have had”.

[PK/MN] She could honestly pop-up in either BW or SWSH granted that she’s a Unovanite in-universe. Either way, she’s merely an NPC, being an established journalist who has randomized chances of popping up in areas where notable events had just happened. People wouldn’t really find a battle with her notable (or at least I think so), considering she doesn’t have much of a team with her to begin with. I do like thinking about her being in BW, then randomly showing up again for SWSH. She’s just there, wanting to study and report the Dynamax phenomena.

[G/W2] The window of opportunity is right in front of me, you bet she’d probably be yet another supportive character in the Noble human P.S., alongside the Captain and her friend, the character of whom I shall call Sir ���Flirtsalot” so it’s censored from this site. I shan’t go into extreme specifics of the lore but hey- there’s an investigation on a possible traitor politician, and who knows? Maybe the Captain called in someone to help the player with it.

I’m sorry Q#3.1... I am h o r r endous with names-

If your f/o and your s/i were a couple in the original canon, would your fanbase ship you instantly? Or only after some bonding?

[SG] Considering her partner is simply a supporting character as well, I’m sure the relationship flies past everyone’s radar unless hints were dropped. Perhaps... it is a scripted phone call while Jonah is being spoken too, and Jonah endearingly speaking to her girlfriend for a brief moment-

[PKMN] I suppose if the technicalities of the game is considered, the player finding out about Jonah’s budding relationship with the “Rock Star” (e y y)  is only possible if they manage to interact with her multiple times across the story campaign. She’s there covering the opening ceremony, she’d be all over the place mid-game, and she’d probably show up exiting the backroom as the player walks in before the championship. I imagine her dialogue would basically hint at the relationship’s development- and dare I hope players find it cute-

[GW2] Is it Free Real Estate? Yes... Almost- Am I bold enough to say that her and the Captain’s relationship basically becomes the B-plot of the main Pers. Story campaign? There will be as much bonding a few story instances could muster- Meaning the player essentially becomes witness to Jonah & Logan’s story of Pining™.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

10: Stay Alive

Miles has been Spider-Man (in-universe) for less than 5 years. And he’s stayed alive. That’s cute, even though him staying alive owed a lot to Molecule Man.

Ultimate Peter Parker only ‘died’ (and he didn’t even die really) because he sacrificed his life. It wasn’t like he made a mistake, he actively chose to give up his life.

Meanwhile 616 Peter Parker managed to stay alive for like 10 years before his first death in Secret Wars which was due to a literal God so...is Miles remaining alive that impressive? Is it even something to put him over Peter?

Using the argument that Miles doesn’t die whilst fighting Ultimate Goblin instead of dying is again fucking ridiculous because Peter battled and survived Ultimate Goblin multiple times before his ‘death’ in Death of Spider-Man. In that instance it was again an act of sacrifice more than anything and he was carrying a major injury from saving Captain America and taking a bullet for him or something IIRC.

So it’s a false equivalency even if you ignore the fact that the Oz drug both Peter and Miles have make them effectively immortal.

Him surviving Secret Wars isn’t that impressive either. So he manages to stow away and avoid death. How...heroic? Not to mention PETER also avoids the final incursion on his own lifeboat.

Yes Molecule Man saves Miles and brings back his mother, but he literally saves everyone too. He just happens to shunt Miles into Earth 616 and resurrect his mother. That’s not something Miles can do that Peter can’t because it was based upon Miles having a random burger on his person. Had Peter had that same difference. Uncle Ben would probably be back if Peter had a burger.

It’s not that Miles has the magic power to bring back dead people via his actions he just got lucky.

Also doesn’t him never having his loved ones remain dead kind of make him a Marty Stu?

 9) Alleged immortality

Again...Marty Stu.

But for the record Ultimate Peter, whom this video apparently wants to conflate with but also switch out for 616 Peter when convenient and not treat as a separate character. Also has that power and it’s not even alleged. Also gotta love CBR using a picture of 616 Norman Osborn who looks nothing like Ult Norman when discussing the Goblin killing Peter. Then following that up with Raimi Norman who like 616 Norman is definitely not a Hulk Goblin.

 8) Regenerate

 Miles is more durable huh?

 So...when exactly did Miles survive being crushed beneath machinery weighing a locomotive...under water?

 When did Miles survive being buried alive for 2 weeks?

 When the fuck did Miles survive a beating from Juggernaut, or Morlun, or the Hulk, or Collossus empowered by both the Juggernaut’s powers AND 1/5 of the Phoenix Force?

 More durable my ass.

 The evidence for this is also laughable.

 First of all it’s based upon being able to burst from his restraints and fight back after being drugged which...Peter has definitely done at least once or twice.

 Second of all it literally comes from a comic based upon the USM CARTOON not even the canon Miles. It’s literally cherry picking anything from any version of Miles.

 His durability is also being measured by being able to survive several thousand volts of electricity and like...does the author of this video not know who the fuck Electro is?

 Being tortured by doom and then saving his Dad is also not something Peter couldn’t do. Peter wet through worse in the MP trilogy alone.

 Same thing about being lit on fire. Shit one of those crappy #700.ONE issues showed Peter doing that!

 7) Spider Sense

So Miles spider sense allows him to predict the future when he is dreaming.

Er...Peter’s spider sense has done that in the JMS run...

Not to mention this point is ‘Miles can do this and Peter can’t because it MIGHT develop into something more later maybe’

His Spider sense intensifying isn’t that unique either. Peter’s does that too, again especially in the JMS run.

Miles’ Spider sense going off faster than Peter’s also could just be artistic licence stanning him in his own title.

 6) Speak Spanish

 This is the first legitimate point in this article.

 Too bad it ruins it by saying Peter had difficulty connection to certain residents because of language barriers.

 First of all traditionally Peter as Spider-Man is a pariah.

Second of all how many times honestly has he been shown to be disconnected due to a language barrier within NYC. MOST PEOPLE speak English like him.

Being bilingual also doesn’t give a character ‘more depth’. It’s literally just a skill. By this logic Peter being able to drive gives him more depth than Miles.

Yeah it acknowledges his community which is nice but that’s not greater or lesser depth that’s just a unique feature. And one that he technically doesn’t even need to speak Spanish to acknowledge. I barely speak Greek but I still acknowledge my culture.

 5) Learns Quickly

Yes Miles definitely learns quickly, unlike Peter Parker who

-          didn’t have a mentor or video footage upon which to learn how to be a superhero from but still owned Doc Ock early in his career.

-          Figured out a cure to the Lizard within hours of seeing his notes for the first time

-          Invented webbing in his room.

What? Miles gets the win because he was able to learn how to fight from Peter’s video footage when he was 2 years younger?

The age gap is mitigated when you literally have basically an instruction video to follow whilst Peter despite beig slightly older still figured it out entirely on his own.

Miles studying Norman’s fighting style and using that to defeat him is also not that big of a deal. Peter can and kind of has done that. he just REMEMBERS his enemies fighting styles instead of going over video footage of them. If anything THAT makes him FASTER than Miles in the learning department.

 4) Maintain a Relationship With Gwen Stacy

 Oh....fuck....you....

 First of all Miles and Peter’s relationships with Gwen are different given that Miles’ is mostly platonic and a colleague and Peter’s was romantic oh and you know THEY WERE DIFFERENT GWEN STACY’S

 Yeah Miles being able to keep a relationship with a Gwen Stacy who doesn’t die is much fucking easier when he and Gwen have the benefit of hindsight from 616 Gwen’s death AND Spider-Gwen has fucking super powers.

 If MILES was dating Gwen whilst lying to her about being Spider-Man and she had no powers and they didn’t know she could die like that how well would he have actually been able to keep her around?

 Not much better if at all.

 Bringin up Gwen’s clone is also fucking asinine. It wasn’t that Peter was UNABLE to maintain a relationship with Gwen’s clone so much as he didn’t want to. Or rather he was unable to keep a relationship with her clone because he’d moved on and was in love with Mary Jane which isn’t a matter of him lacking an ability Miles has at all.

 Also Gwen doesn’t help Miles cope with his mother’s death. At all. Because they didn’t spend any quality time together until AFTER his mother returned to life. FFS CBR!

 Saying Miles was able to save Gwen when Peter wasn’t is again bullshit because the circumstances were totally different. In particular Peter saved Gwen MULTIPLE times in the past before she eventually died due to a small but significant mistake.

 3) Be a team player/more sociable

 I will grant this article that TEENAGE Peter was less of a team player and less sociable, but that changed over time.

 The article shoots itself though by

a)      Implying Peter was an Avenger as  a teen

b)      Saying he was never truly a part of the Avengers team when he was on it. Er....yes he was. It was badly written but he was truly a member no doubt. His self doubts also rarely if ever came into play. Over all he lacked much personality whilst on the avengers

 the article is also two-faced because it ignores how Ultimate Peter WAS a team player and WAS able to have friends and accept help as a teenager.

 2) Communicate with his best friend.

 Well Ultimate and 616 Peter’s best friend is Mary jane and he communicates with her just fine...especially with his body language If yA Know wat I mEaN ;D

  Everything the article says aboiut Ganke pretty much applies to Ultimate and 616 MJ in regards to Peter.

  More than anything this point is where you REALLY see the video cherrypicking between the Ultimate Peter or 616 Peter. Literally in the last point it was quoting Captain America saying Spider-Man wasn’t ready to join the team from the Ultimate universe yet when it comes time to analyse his friendships in high school suddenly we switch to 616.

 1)      Turn invisible

Not only should this have been one of two things on this entire list but this list is so bad it literally IGNORED the one other ability Miles literally has that Peter lacks, the Venom blast.

 How do you fuck up that badly?

 0)      The ability to be falsely praised and put over undeservedly

Now THAT is an ability Miles truly has that Peter doesn’t.

[lycorogue]

Who Wants to Meet My OCs? (Part 3a – Glitches Originals)

Look at me, following my plan and actually having the next part of this series posted on a Sunday! Whoot!

As I have mentioned before, I've wanted to do this series since November, so I'm excited I'm able to actually follow through with it finally. If you're just getting into this series, the long-and-short of it is that I want to introduce you fine people with all of my main OCs. They will each get their own Sunday bio post to introduce them individually, but in the meantime, I wanted to give insight on how I came up with them.

In Part 1, I had given a broad overview of the whole Meet My OCs series, as well as some generic IRL background to the inspiration and creation of my two main worlds:

Gyateara

Glitches

In Part 2, I talked specifically about the IRL inspiration for my main Gyateara OCs:

Amara Yori 

Natalie [Last Name TBD] 

Connor [Last Name TBD] 

Jolene Crisslebalm

Now, in this third part for the series, it's time to talk about my IRL inspiration and creation for my Glitches OCs. This list of characters is MUCH longer than what I have for Gyateara, so this may take a bit. In fact, there were so many characters - this post was 9 pages in Word - I had to split up this part into two more parts. So this first part (3a) focuses mostly on the Original Characters that are characters from the role play game X-Future. The next part (3b) - which will be published in a few minutes - will focus on the characters that started off as X-Men canonical characters, and how I reworked them into originals.

If any of this sounds interesting to you, feel free to keep reading below the break. If you'd rather just skip on ahead to the character bios themselves, my first one should be up next Sunday.

First, I should probably explain how characters are supposed to be formed in the game that birthed Glitches. As I mentioned in Part 1, Glitches started its life as an X-Men role play on a message board/internet forum in a Play-By-Post style. The role play game is called X-Future, and I loved the story we were telling so much that I wanted to re-tell it to the world. However, the more I build Glitches, and the more I try to make the story an original work, the more I realize that only a small portion of the characters and overall role played plot can truly transition over.

Regardless, the way characters are created for X-Future is as follows:

My husband has a lineage chart set up on the forum. There are two lists of available X-Men comic book canonical characters: list of usually male and usually female characters. I say “usually” because there are characters like Mystique, who is usually recognized as a female character, but is technically gender fluid, and has had long canonical runs as a male character.

The players get to choose ONE of the listed characters; therefore choosing either their character's father or mother. This allows the players to have a connection to at least one canonical character of their choice, and/or the potential for a power set they'd like to have for their character.

Hubby then rolls on the other chart to determine the other parent. Therefore, if a player chooses a female character for their parent, Hubby rolls on the male list to find the OC's father. There is also a “Sinister Shenanigans” option where the X-Men character Mr. Sinister created you as a clone of two mutants, in which case your “parents” could be both male or both female as well as the standard “a male and a female.” There is also a chance – again using Mystique as an example – for your character to have “same-sex” parents biologically, since Mystique could also be someone's “father.”

Once parentage is figured out – and Hubby posts the second biological parent on the boards – he then rolls on another chart to determine the character's power set. He does this because it keeps the players on their toes, evolution is weird, and real life is random, so why can't games be? Options he uses for a character's powers include:  --> Character inherits powers from both parents in equal amounts  --> Character inherits powers from both parents, but favors the father's powers with only hints of the mother's powers  --> Character inherits powers from both parents, but favors the mother's powers with only hints of the father's powers   --> Character inherits a variant of both parents' powers  --> Character's powers are a mesh of both parents' powers (for instance, a fire manipulator and a rock manipulator could produce a lava manipulator)   --> Character inherits father's powers  --> Character inherits mother's powers  --> Character inherits a variant of father's powers  --> Character inherits a variant of mother's powers  --> Character inherits neither parents' powers, and instead forms their own powers (I think that's all of the options he uses...)

Once Hubby figures out the mutation the character has, he posts it on the boards. After that, the player then gets (mostly) free rein to create their character. Some other restrictions include the starting age of the character being high-school-age unless special permission was given, the backstory of the character must not counter other character's backstories or the already established history of our Marvel continuity, the character has to be an Xavier Institute student or Brotherhood of Mutants member, and Hubby needs to double check character profiles for any potential issues before they can be posted. (It's rare that Hubby doesn't approve of the profile)

So, those are the basic 5-easy-steps to creating an X-Future character, which comes into play with 2 of the characters I'll introduce today. Speaking of, let’s get to them, huh?

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Chayse LeBeau [Last Name to be Changed]

Ironically, I'm going to start off with a character that isn't mine. Chayse is my husband's character, but he gave me full permission to use him in Glitches. Mostly because he trusts my treatment of his character – most of my Miraculous Ladybug readers will tell you I'm very good at keeping characters True-to-Canon – and because Hubby knows that I'll probably talk about nearly every single one of Chayse's lines and actions with him, just to make sure I'm keeping him in character.

Chayse, being my husband's character, was the first character ever made for X-Future. Hubby's favorite X-Men of all time is Remy “Gambit” LeBeau, so naturally Hubby chose him as Chayse's father. When Hubby rolled onto Kitty “Shadowcat” Pryde as Chayse's mother, we had to do some quick continuity work to figure out HOW that relationship happened. We are HARD CORE Gambit/Rogue shippers. They are by FAR our OTP (with Shadowcat/Colossus as a close second). If Gambit was with anyone other than Rogue, we needed a reason for Rogue to not be in the picture; not a possibility at all. Hubby created an event called The Reaping where Professor Charles Xavier, Jean Grey, Magneto, Mastermind, and Rogue all die in battle. There may have been some other casualties, but those are the main ones I remember...

Anyway, once we realized Rogue had to be dead for Gambit to be with anyone else significantly enough to have a kid with them, we then went back to “X-Men: Evolution”; the show that inspired Hubby to create X-Future. In the TV series, Kitty and Rogue were besties, and so Hubby and I decided that Kitty and Gambit were comforting each other in their grief over losing Rogue. That grew into a tight friendship, and eventually a romance blossomed. The two got married, and Chayse was born.

Chayse is basically my husband without the anxiety and terrible knees. If Hubby could be as athletic and outgoing as he wished he could be, he'd be Chayse.

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Amelia “Lia” Mordeaux [Last Name Still Workshopping]

Lia was my first-ever character for X-Future. Since Rogue is clearly my favorite X-Men – I mean... check the handle and icon – I really wanted to chose her as my character's parent. However, after Hubby and I jointly determined that Rogue had been dead for nearly two decades, I struggled to figure out who else to choose. So many different power sets and great characters. However, in the end I ended up going with Amara “Magma” Aquilla. I am a bit of a fire freak – something that will come up later – so the idea of my character being able to manipulate magma seemed fun to try. In truth, though, the deciding factor – aside from how adorable Magma was in “X-Men: Evolution” - is the fact that her name is Amara.... like my Gyateara character; my oldest OC.

Rolling on the chart, Hubby landed on Jamie “Multiple Man” Madrox. Based on the personality we saw in “X-Men: Evolution,” and ignoring that poor Jamie was only about 12 or 13 when depicted on the show, I lamented at how “lame” Lia's father was going to be. In the end, I did sprinkle in a touch of the badassness Jamie showcases in the comics, as well as whenever he's shown – usually as a villain *sigh* - in the cartoons. However, he's still LARGELY a nerd still for X-Future, and became a bit of a neurotic helicopter parent.

Lia ended up with her mother's powers exactly. The only difference is that instead of just a magma form, Lia encases herself within obsidian skin. I even designed her to look like Amara did in Evolution, with the straight brown hair and Brazilian skin. (It was easier for Evolution to just have Amara be Brazilian than trying to explain the existence of Neo Roma within the Brazilian rain forest so she could remain White with blonde hair and blue eyes) Lia being basically a carbon-copy of her mother – something I headcanon as Jamie's duplication DNA accidentally turning Amara's egg into a clone of her – meant my next struggle was trying to figure out why Lia was at the Xavier Institute. I didn't want her to have been raised there, but why couldn't Amara just train her daughter on how to control identical powers?

In the end, I decided that Amara has to go. Hubby and I came up with a mission where Amara went MIA. She is perceived dead, but isn't confirmed dead, along with Storm, who went missing on a similar mission a few years prior. Without his wife to help train their daughter, and having NO CLUE how to handle a 14yo blowing up his yard with geysers, Jamie sent Lia to the Institute, and promptly signed up as a faculty member so he could still be close to and keep an eye on his daughter: the last family he has left, and a reminder of his wife.

For Glitches, I did end up shifting Lia's race to Hawaiian (Polynesian? Should I specify?). Having her be part Native Hawaiian just felt more fitting with the lava-focused powers. Yes, there are volcanoes in Brazil, there is also one in Washington state. Still, you wouldn't necessarily equate Washington state with lava as much as you would equate lava with Hawaii.

Lia was SUPPOSED to be my naive rebel; a 14yo who was getting her first taste of freedom at the Institute. She was going to wear less-conservative outfits, be flirty, and maybe break a few rules: curfew, being in the guys' wing of the dorms, skipping a class or two, etc. She even started off like that... for about a game session or two. She instantly fell into her main personality though: reserved, shy, maternal, and unsure of herself. While I do love this character and who she is, she also wasn't who I initially wanted to play. Enter: Willow.

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Willow Driver

Originally, we had about a dozen players, which was fantastic. However, Hubby still wanted to “fill out” the school. He wanted a few NPC students the players could interact with when the other players weren't available. He had a small list of NPCs, some of which will make their way to Glitches as background characters. On this list was Willow. Hubby actually created her, designed her, and was all set to role play as her. Then we got to talking about how I loved Lia, but was a bit disappointed that she didn't turn out the character I was aiming for. Hubby knew that Willow was indeed much more like who I wanted to play, so he passed her over to me.

Soon enough, Willow went from an NPC I ran to my secondary character. Since she was the character I wanted to play the whole time, she quickly surpassed poor Lia as my preferred character. In fact, a lot of my “companion stories” that I have written for X-Future center around Willow. Specifically, Willow and my friend Ronoxym's character Devon. They have a.... complicated relationship. Willow is just a much more fun character to write. She's playful, manipulative, unsure, confident, loyal... she's just a walking ball of contradictions as she's trying to figure herself out.

If Chayse is who Hubby wishes he could be, then Willow is me with virtually no inhibitions. She's my playfulness, my confidence, my lust, my impulsiveness, my spontaneity, and the athletic prowess I wish I had.

In contrast, Lia is basically everything keeping me from being Willow: my caution, my fear of disappointing my parents (both the one who passed and the one who raised me), my maternal instincts, my reservations, my critical thinking, my constant knowledge of potential consequences, and my insecurity that I'm ever going to be the best version of myself.

There's one more side of me though. That's where Trish comes in.

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Patricia “Trish” Morrison

Trish did NOT turn out remotely close to who she was in my head. Heck, she even refused to be properly formed while I still was picturing her in her first incarnation. Trish truly did create herself.

Remember my friend Ronoxym's character Devon I mentioned a few paragraphs up? Well, he's the son of two Brotherhood of Mutants characters. In other words, he's the son of villains. He was orphaned as an infant, and when he was a teen at the Xavier Institute he ran into his father Pyro. The man suspected that Devon could be his long-lost son, and hinted that if Devon joined the Brotherhood then Pyro could help Devon figure out who he was. Devon eventually took the bait, and left to join the Brotherhood and discover who his parents were.

At the time, The Brotherhood was just made up of the Marvel canon characters; no one there for Ron to role play against aside from NPCs. I decided to create Trish so he would have a player character to role play off of. Originally, Trish was supposed to be a potential love interest for him.

Trish.... was not a fan. I actually had mental images of Trish gagging at the thought of her destined romance with Devon. Even when I tried picturing her flirting with Devon for the sole purpose of getting close enough to stab him or slit his throat: a sort of Black Widow character. She still gagged and REFUSED to let me have her show Devon anything other than disdain. He became her number 1 rival; her arch nemesis. She was actually in love with Pyro, and hated that Pyro's attention was now torn between her and his long-lost son. Her goal in life, aside from making Pyro fall in love with her; age be damned, was to murder Devon.

She then became more psychotic the more I wrote her. She has the power to create fire, and is completely fireproof herself. She loved playing with her fire, and became a pyrophile; getting highly aroused around flame. She had the stereotypical serial killer childhood of fulfilling her early bloodlust by torturing and killing animals. When she got caught by her twin sister, and her parents threatened to call the Mutant Police to collect her, Trish burnt everyone alive in their family home. She then lived on the streets, killing anyone who got in her way of survival. Eventually, she got taken in by The Brotherhood and Pyro, where her murderous tendencies were aimed at anti-mutant groups like The Purifiers.

If each of my main X-Future/Glitches characters (jointly named simply My Girls) is a part of my personality, then Trish is my anger, my love of fire, my dark desire to be an arson (ya know, if it didn't cause terrible destruction and harm), my ability to hold grudges, and my aggression. I wanted her to be fairly on-par with Azula from “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” but with her manic end-game personality making more of an appearance. I wanted her to be like Minatsuki Takami from “Deadman Wonderland”, or Tanya Degurechaff from “The Saga of Tanya the Evil.” In other words: tiny and unassuming, but terrifying and intimidating if her true self is ever seen.

I don't know if I never played her correctly, or if Ron just couldn't picture a character I run as THAT intimidating, because Devon was always quite unfazed by Trish and her threats...

EDIT: Holy smokes! How did I completely forget that Trish has theme music!? The main reason Trish is yet ANOTHER fire user, when we already have so many in X-Future, is because of her theme song. See, I was fairly obsessed with Fall Out Boy’s song “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)” when it first came out. I would spend days just listening to it and “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons on repeat.

One day I was rocking out to MSKWYDITD for probably the 4th time in a row or something, and I lamented Lia being so mild mannered. I would have loved to have had a chaotic fire user that would follow the destructive high energy I felt whenever I heard that song. Someone who would as much fun as those women in the music video. I mean, just watch them. I wanted a character with their energy and vibe: 

I wanted another fire user, and Devon had JUST defected to The Brotherhood on X-Future, so I figured it would be perfect to make that more chaotic fire user as a Brotherhood member. THAT was when I figured “She could be a good foil for Devon; two fire users, one more chaotic than the other”... and THAT was when Trish went “Fire yes; Devon fuck no!”

I haven’t been able to control her since...

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So, there you have it, the truly original characters that make up the core cast of Glitches. Next up, as in a few minutes, will be the adult cast of my story: the characters reworked from their X-Men canonical origins. Stay tuned!

[labyrinthus-magici]

🔥!!!

Was looking at my muse list to think of something that stood out but since I couldn’t pick one I’ll just go w something that affects a lot of them but anyway like 

As an autistic person I personally thing the large majority of the magi/snb cast is autistic coded! The fandom as a whole (although it’s not just the magi fandom tbf it’s kind of all of them I’ve been in) ignores that a lot! 

I have seen autistic Judar before which is VALID but it’s really frustrating when Judar and Morgiana are the only two you see (and Mor as an afterthought) bc they’re the ones with the more “stereotypical” traits (i.e Judar being antisocial/struggling with empathy which is probably due to trauma and not even his autism considering that. studies show that it’s allistic people who lack empathy for autistic people usually and not the other way around but I digress!) and I’ve been told that other characters who are autistic coded can’t be bc they’re like idk??? competant lmfao??? I don’t get when allistic people say a character can’t be autistic bc im like lmao good to know you know every autistic experience and trait! Maybe you can educate me on my own disorder that you don’t have bc you clearly know so much about it that you couldn’t possibly be overlooking something! 

Anyway my muses that I intentionally play as autistic and some of their main traits are bellow the cut bc it’s lengthy (The others I’m probably going to accidentally autistic code bc I. am autistic and it affects my writing but ahiodfhg)

Morgiana: Mor is a pretty obvious one, although I do love her autistic coding! So like most of these characters but with Mor esp you have to keep in mind that she canonly has c-ptsd (post traumatic stress disorder but when it’s not a single traumatic event but living long term in a traumatic environment such as an abusive home or any other variation) so that affects how many of her autistic traits present themselves. I do think that she’s become very good at masking (i.e hiding autistic traits) due to them being punished and because of that she is exhausted because masking is very taxing. I think that she started to unlearn this considerably once she joined the caravan with Leila’s encouragement but it was subtle bc while she did become close with Leila and Sahsa she didn’t open up entirely. 

Once she gets to Sindria though and starts opening up I think that she’ll relax a lot because she can see others with the same traits who don’t have to hide them. Masrur especially points out that it’s important for her to stim and because she’s not the only one who deos this, everyone is understanding and accommodating at times when she’s non verbal/not able to speak.  

One thing that really stood out to me about Mor is her hyperempathy. Because she doesn’t talk much, it’s hard for some people to pick up on, but Morgiana often has strong feelings of empathy for others. At first this is something that she struggles with, because it’s something that others have taken advantage of and used to hurt her, and because she’s afraid of her emotions as a whole. Later though, she learns that this can be her strength. Morgiana’s most powerful moments (in my opinion) like when she rescued Nadja, when she confronts Alibaba about the consequences of what the fog troupe is doing, and many other instances, are very emotionally charged. She’s also the first to empathize with the pirates that Madaura has brainwashed, and is able to get the others to empathize with them too. 

Morgiana was my first favorite magi character (the reason I even got into magi in the first place tbh) bc it was so empowering to see someone with many of my traits in an empowering role of a hero because of those traits and not just with them as an afterthought! 

Masrur: I’m going to focus on snb just because that’s what I’m more familiar with as I haven’t read the parts of magi that Masrur is spotlighted in in a long time although honestly all of this stuff applies to Masrur later but it presents itself differently because whilst autistic people never grow out of their traits, just like anything in a person, it changes and becomes more nuanced as a person gets older and gets more experience. 

But Masrur is another autistic coded character! A lot of his traits can technically be explained away by canon/plot details however in this house we don’t  think that because there’s technically an argument against autistic headcanons that it’s at all valid so ANYWAY 

To start we have the way he sees himself as different from others, the way he goes to sit by himself because he feels like he can’t fit in with everyone, how he’s not like them, how he’s just a monster with a single purpose that’s already been fulfilled. Normally, I wouldn’t count this exactly as an autistic trait however Hinahoho is the one that comes to talk to him because he can relate to this experience which is autistic coded so! One thing that’s a common experience in autistic people is feeling quite literally inhuman, usually in the form of an alien, fairy, or fictional character (as it was in my case). This is becuase of the isolation that we normally face in childhood. For Masrur, he feels different from the others, like who he is isn’t someone that would be wanted and that’s something that I can relate to quite strongly. It’s not until he comes to the Sindria trading company, a place full of Neurodivergent coded characters (the ones that aren’t autistic coded are coded as other disorders as well such as ADHD and BPD among others I don’t think there’s actually one person  there who’s neurotypical considering that. The entire theme of the Sindria trading company is that they take in people who are outcasts and in need of help and usually those people tend to be ND.) that he comes to realize that he does belong and that he is valued. 

In addition to that we do see him stimming or doing stim like behaviors at times, he sometimes is talkative and others seems mostly or entirely non verbal, he tends to misunderstand social queues, struggles with subjects that he’s not interested in, etc. 

I think it’s super important to take into account Masrur’s autistic coding because Masrur gets to be HAPPY. Like, yes, he does experience a lot of traumatizing things, but by the end of Magi he still has his family, he’s happilly married and a good father. These are things that people think autistic people can’t have or don’t deserve, and we never get to experience this things in character’s that are canonly autistic. So for me seeing an autistic coded character with such a positive development was something really positive, it’s the same way for a lot of these characters, seeing so many autistic coded characters getting the development that the deserved was what drew me to magi inittially if I’m perfectly honest. I didn’t know it at the time bc I had no idea I was autistic until last year (coincidentally from autistic friends also from this fandom!) but it really was what drew me in. 

Hinahoho: Oh God where do I even START with autistic icon Hinahoho? I think, out of any snb characters Hinahoho is the most heavily autistic coded. Like there is literally no other explanation for his character I can think of whenever I see him I get so happy bc I’m like!!! Yes!!!! Autistic dad!!! I love him!!!  

His backstory first and foremost focuses on his separation from the rest of the people in his tribe because he has unconventional interests (art!!) and that he isn’t able to pass the test and become and adult at the proper time. To start, being a “late bloomer” in things (or alternatively doing things too soon in some cases) is a common autistic experience. A lot of us due to many reasons (mostly due to ableism and lack of accommodations) we aren’t able to do the things that our peers do at the same times like drive, attend college, or move out of the house etc. This isn’t a lack of competence just that we aren’t able to go about things in a way that we are able to thrive in, and this is exactly what Hinahoho’s development highlights! He never does pass the warrior’s test in the way that is most traditional, instead Sinbad (whose an Adhd ND icon if you ask me but I haven’t added him to my muse list yet so aidofhg more on him and the other adhd icons in this series later ahidofhg) mentions how there’s multiple ways to be strong, how he doesn’t have to do things the same way as everyone else to be worth something. 

There’s also the ableism that he faces from others in his tribe. In addition to judging him for not having become a warrior yet, he is bullied by others and treated like a child when he shouldn’t be. The others are so unkind to him for being “different” and “weird” and having “a personality like a fish left to dry” (WHATEVER THAT’S EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN LMAO I STILL DONT GET IT) that in his introduction he starts sobbing bc Sinbad said thank you to him like. Like God can I relate to this, honestly his experiences though not exactly the same as my own deeply resemble how I was before I found out that I’m autistic. 

Then, after he learns to love and accept himself and marries Rurumu (Oh!! That’s another thing, people acted like he was unlovable but Rurumu always loved him. He never had to change who he was or mask his autistic traits and that’s SO important because honestly I can’t even imagine someone who isn’t also autistic wanting me romantically especially when I see shit about people taking autistic people to homecoming and calling it “inspiring” and “selfless” and a “learning experience”) he then turns around and teaches others to do the same. I noticed that he becomes very close to both Drakon and Masrur who are both autistic coded and he helps teach them to love themselves like??? LIKE???? and with Masrur he literally points out that he can empathize so points for hyperempathy again. I’m loving how many magi characters have hyperempathy that is ultimately good. Bc it’s usually a weakness in character’s that have it. 

Drakon: Honestly once again idek where to start when his entire development is deeply autistic coded but we’ll start with his backstory. So to start there’s the power imbalance between him and his (neurotypical) siblings. Whilst he is the youngest, I think that the reason that he’s unfavored in the family and is the one always catching shit is because he’s autistic. This is something that happens so often is that when an autistic child has allistic siblings the allistic one is favored or if not favored they definetely get treated better because autistic children are particularly vulnerable and easy to manipulate. With Drakon’s childhood, although again the circumstances in my case aren’t exactly the same, I really am seeing my past self. 

He was from a young age branded as a prodigy, told he was already basically an adult even though he was still a child, and this is so common with autistic children who show a semblance of talent in something. However, he isn’t praised for this in a healthy encouraging way, instead he’s given the responsibilities and expectations of an adult already. In addition to that, he is conditioned to mask his autistic traits, in addition to being taught to devote his entire self to his cause. The fact that he internalized everything so deeply that he had a breakdown when he realized that he wasn’t wanting to die for his cause, that he thought he had to follow everything to the letter all the way down to his deepest feelings, is in my opinion an autistic trait as I showed exactly the same traits for other matters, internalizing things at the same intensity. He social scripts quite a bit, meaning that he has a strong sense of “this is how things SHOULD be so if they AREN’T this way then everything is in RUINS and we have to fix it IMMEDIATELY” he has the roles he’s been given and he strongly believes that everyone else has a role. This does become far more healthy once he’s unlearned the toxic things that he was taught but he still does it, but in a healthy way. Everyone has a role to fulfill, and he’s strict about this, when people aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be becomes irritable and struggles to keep functioning as normal. 

Then there’s the fact that his entire development is learning as a teenager that he’s become a monster, literally in this case, learning that he is hated so much that he resolves to leave his humanity behind, only to gain love and acceptance and learn to love himself in the form that he takes. While I don’t think every monster is autistic coded (as that would be problematic for obvious reasons) developments like this resemble our experiences so well? It’s a perfect metaphor for what it’s like, honestly. 

One reason I think that it’s important for me personally to acknowledge Drakon’s autistic coding is because he’s a strong leader and people think that autistic people cannot be leaders, that we’re incompetent. So to see a character with my traits be someone noble, to become king even, and to thrive is something super positive for me because again it’s something that people think we cannot do that we cannot have but we really can. 

Leila, Sahsa, & Nadja: With these three it’s mostly projecting just because we don’t see enough of them for them to really be that autistic coded HOWEVER tis my blog and you get to hear all my hcs asdfgh. I like to hc these three as autistic 1. bc Leila and Sahsa’s relationship is beautiful, and to contextualize that as a romance between two autistic women is really nice for me who as I mentioned before struggles to ever see myself having a love like that. 2. Leila and Sahsa take to Morgiana and encourage growth in her and I like the idea of them helping her to relax a little on hiding her autistic traits. 3. Because as an autistic person it’s difficult for me to interpret characters as not autistic (where not autistic is other’s defaults for me autistic is the default, so it would be more accurate for me to say I have some allistic headcanons rather than autistic ones lmao) I actually started headcanoning Leila as autistic by accident because I wrote a fic where she had a shutdown (which is when there’s too much stimulants i.e sound or sights etc. and we have to go lay down and rest and shut out the stimulants that are bothering giving us sensory overload.) and was like oh!! Time to make both her and Sahsa autistic bc who’s gonna stop me lmao. 

Also one headcanon I have for Nadja (in addition to her joining Leila and Sahsa’s caravan with her family) is that after Morgiana rescued her she developed a special interest in adventure and heroism which is really cute on one hand bc she always wants to learn stories of heroes from the locals of the places they visit and her parents are like aw she’s talkative sometimes! She’s making friends!!! But on the other hand she tags along on Leila and Sahsa’s “oops lmao just fought an entire band of thieves again” adventures and is that “Let me see what you have!” “A KNIFE!!” “NO!!!” vine so ahidfohg be careful u fuckin superb lil baby. 

Myron: Hers is a bit shorter since we don’t have a whole lot of her in canon, but her strict following of perceived social standards and social scripting makes me headcanon her as autistic. I also like the idea of her being autistic because so often people think that we can’t be proper or socially conscious but more often than not we overcompensate, the deal is that we struggle to understand neurotypical social cues not that we hate socializing. 

Titus: Oh man I shouldn’t have put him so far down on my muse list bc this one is going to be lengthy. There’s a reason whenever I info dump about my son to people that I always call him Autistic Gay Icon Titus Alexius.  

I’ll start with the fact that he struggles in social settings, i.e Sphintus thinking he’s so fuckin awkward at first. (Even tho I hc Sphintus as autistic too but like I said autistic is the default for me ahidfg) He has a special interest in magic, evidently, and is very info dumpy about it as times (though not as much as notable autistic icons Yamuraiha and Ugo). Also his best friends are Sphintus and autistic adhd icon Aladdin so like. Convenient. that the three most autistic coded kids at school becomes besties. asdfgh. Also none of the 4 magi are allistic tbh. 

ANYWAY that aside and glossing over the whole separation he feels from the others (which I could go into length but it’s similar to Drakon and Masrur’s and Hinahoho’s deal and this is getting so long already oof) can we just talk about how fucking POSITIVE his Hyper-Empathy is for his character and the story? 

Okay so like. Let’s start with the 5th district, how after just a little while there he immediately jumped into action with LMAO TIME TO BLOW A HOLE IN THE SKY IM BUSTING EVERYONE OUT LADS. Like. Was it dumb? Yes. Was it noble and valid? YES! And he STILL SHOWED UP TO CLASS READY TO FIGHT THE NEXT DAY. He also tried to call out Mogamett how many times? And still stood his ground with the 5th district, even when Mogamett tried to manipulate him by saying he only cared out of his selfish desire to befriend Marga, he immediately analyzed himself critically and came to the conclusion that no, he really just wanted everyone there to be safe and happy. 

Then, when he goes to Reim and Just. Hhhhhh HE’S SO GOOD. AND HE HAS SO MUCH EMPATHY. The fact that he immediately begins changing things, is firm in that, but his main motivation is that he so desperately wants everyone to be safe and to live happily, the fact that his people’s problems are by extension his own because he feels real pain when others feel it. That’s hyper empathy and though it’s something that can be manipulated he doesn’t let that happen, he uses it for good! 

When he gives his speech about why they need to abolish slavery in Reim asap, he begins to cry and exclaims that any one of them could die tomorrow, that they need to priooritize the people that are in the now who are suffering that they have the power to help their people and to liberate their country and appeals to everyone’s emotions that way and breaks through. Also the other changes he makes?? Like making the Colosseum into a LARPing spot? That’s so fucking good? What a nerd? I love him???? 

I can go into more detail with Titus but for time reasons I won’t but. We stan Autistic Gay Icon Titus Alexius here. 

If you read all of this I love you sm thank you for reading this rambly mess. ahdiogfg 

[eenefangirlanalysis]

The next morning the sun rises up over the land. Wow, this is the most realistic sunrise I have ever seen in a cartoon. And once again we’re brought back to where the Eds had their infamous fight. This is the area where everyone had their downfall.

I wish we could have seen more or how the kids slept through the night. It’s their first night away from the cul-de-sac and sleeping outdoors.

Kevin has been wandering around all night in search for Nazz. And he’s had no luck.

Did it rain? There are wet patches scattered around the land.

Kevin is towing his bike as he walks through the wet land. Again, he normally has the bike in front of him whenever he’s walking with it. The bike isn’t that important to him right now. 

“Ah, what’s the use? Probably gettin’ back at me, for what I don’t know.”

The writers have turned Kevin into a clueless mess. Well, technically he’s been clueless regarding the way he treats others. Kevin still has a soft spot and cares deeply about the people around him. For instance, he looks out for Sarah and Jimmy. My favorite moment is from Fistful where he makes sure that everyone is out from the cafeteria before slamming the doors shut.

Kevin has a strange and yet important relationship with his bike.

I have a head canon that Kevin’s parents are divorced. He lives with his Dad as his mom lives in the city. It’s implied that Kevin moved into the cul-de-sac and lived in the city before. The decision to move was very one sided between the parents. I also believe that Eddy’s brother is part of the reason who Kevin’s mom left.

Kevin’s mom gave him this bike the day she left. After Bro nearly hit Kevin with his car Kevin’s parents had a huge argument. His father refused to go back to the city feeling that he was closer to his job at the jawbreaker factory. Kevin’s parents have always had their issues. 

And if she felt Kevin was unsafe in this neighborhood why not take her son with her? I believe that Kevin’s mom has always had emotional and personal issues. Emotions are Kevin’s weak spot. He struggles not knowing what to do. And that is his downfall in his relationship with Nazz.

Their parents never had healthy relationships. Kevin and Nazz struggle with the concept of love. Is it good or bad? What is love?

I know this sounds strange but Kevin loves this bike as if it were his mother. It was the last gift she ever gave to him. And he feels like she’s there. He wants to protect the bike at all costs. Kevin wants his mother back in his life. I feel that Kevin was/is closer with his mother then his father. They talk but don’t have an emotional bond.

While cleaning a dirt stain Kevin’s spies something.

“Eddy?”

“EDDY!!” Kevin belts out. He jumps on his bike and races after his victim!

“Time’s up, dorko!”

Only, it’s not Eddy...

I have to admit that the Kanker’s had me fooled when I first watched this scene.

“What a drip. He fell for it like a tin of canned hams.”

Was this Marie’s idea?

Where or how did she make that outfit?

This is the side of Marie I would have loved to have been explored more. She is the most underwritten of the sisters. Marie Kanker is the most popular among mainly due to her punk chick look. Although she sports an intimidating look Marie is a much different person on the inside. She likes Edd, a nerdy, polite, and clumsy boy who is the complete opposite from herself. Maybe that’s what Marie likes.

I also think that Marie is quite sensitive. A Fistful of Ed is the best example. She’s immediately upset with Edd’s actions believing that he was a bully under a mask. Family means everything to Marie. And she hates fakers. 

Marie is not who she’s portraying on the inside. I have mentioned the connection between the ‘cool girl’ from Pixar’s Inside Out. She wants to look as if she has it all and is confident when she’s scared that someone will find out. 

Not much is known about the Kanker’s Dad’s. Since Marie is so fearful of violence then maybe her biological father was violent. The Kanker’s family history is one of my favorite concepts to write about. These three sisters come from three different Dad’s. They live with their mom in a trailer park. And they’re poor. They don’t mind how they have to live their life differently from everyone else.

Similar to the Eds the girls don’t want to be a part of the in crowd. The world hasn’t treated them fairly. The same goes to them but they weren’t raised right. BPS is their spotlight of growth. Multiple fans believe that the Kanker’s don’t learn anything. Starting in season 6 they backed off from attacking the Eds. 

The Kanker’s are the heroes in Big Picture Show.

They girls capture the kids who are after the Eds. They were doing ‘their boyfriends’ a favor. Since Fistful when Eddy stood up to them it changed how they looked at the world. A male figure has never raised their voice at them like Eddy. And think about their attacks on the Eds. That’s not normal. We can imply that this may have been what their mother was like, but what if the Kanker’s was sexually assaulted by one of their father’s or anyone in the world. Their mother does not trust men. 

And the Kanker’s are quite secluded from the world. They’re never encouraged to go out and make friendships or hang out outside. Saying this, the Kanker’s do have a pretty good grasp on the outside world in the movie. You know, I think that’s due to moving around so much. They’ve seen too much of the ugly. The Eds brought out the good for them.

Biking at the speed of light Kevin slams into a road barrier. Or May.

May is always treated like the object or the most unfair by her sisters. Lee and Marie do it out of love but they should show her more respect.

May hardly speaks during the last half of the movie. Watch closely.

Kevin’s bike sadly meets its doom colliding with this barrier.

Wow, there is more signs of life in this move then I thought. That’s a strange way to put it but the kids are close by to civilization at all times. They were never lost. Physically.

“So much for your ride, huh, tough guy?”

The Kanker’s are not fond of the cul-de-sac kids. In fact they’ve always been annoyed by Kevin. Kevin was the first kid outside the Eds for the girls to harass. Well, Kevin getting tortured is the best thing to see any day.

“NOOOOOOO!” Kevin McCallister.... I mean, Kevin screams.

Literally, my favorite Kevin face.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

"“Post-Infestation Affective Blunting Syndrome,” Dad was saying in the other room. “By far the most noticeable symptom is the flat affect—the relative lack of emotional expression—which can create the illusion that the person is genuinely not emotional, but usually that is not the case. I know that it appears Joey isn’t responding to you, but that is an adaptive response for him right now. It is a normal, healthy neurological reaction to the sort of stress...”"

DVD commentary: Is my inner Psych student showing?  Pretty sure my inner Psych student is showing throughout THX 1138.  

Seriously, though, being a huge Psychology nerd made me fascinated by the idea of how the field would respond to the discovery of yeerk infestation.  I may or may not have gone up to multiple Psych friends at multiple parties and started conversations with “You just found out that aliens which can more-or-less demonically possess people exist, and have existed for years.  What are the implications for our conception of selfhood?”  Being as it is that most nerds are also geeks, I got plenty of surprisingly good answers to that question—credit for the realization that the symptoms best parallel catatonic schizophrenia goes to a counseling peer.  I also miiiiight have written an entire DSM-IV-TR entry for “Post-Infestation Affective Blunting Syndrome.”  Because I’m a dork.

However, if you actually think about it, yeerks would probably have a big impact on the DSM-IV-TR, which was coincidentally released right around the same time this fic is set.  Psychology is eternally descriptive rather than prescriptive (although you’d never know that from watching Hollywood depictions) and as soon as a new pattern of distress or maladjustment starts emerging, psychologists start running around trying to figure out how to alleviate it.  The specific name is my attempt to imitate the real naming conventions of the DSM: “Post-Infestation” is a pretty parsimonious way of describing the fact that (unlike most things) the distress has a known origin, “Affective Blunting” is the technical term for a lack of emotional expression that isn’t underpinned by a lack of actual emotion, and “Syndrome” refers to the fact that it’s a loose collection of observable symptoms whose long-term development and course aren’t well-known.  (Like most people, I have A Lot Of Feelings on the inadequacies of the disease model of mental disorders, but *emphatic sigh* for now “syndrome” and “disorder” are the generally agreed-upon terms.)

Of course, the “affective blunting” would be just the most obvious manifestation of the experience that gets problematically shorthanded into “zombieism” throughout my series.  The difficulty of executing willful bodily motions comes partially from my own speculation about the effect of cognition and behavior being dissociated on natural neuroplasticity (basically what Steve explains with synaptic pruning going into overdrive if one isn’t using one’s body) and partially from the sparse descriptions of ex-hosts we get from canon.  Chapman and Eva are both unable to walk on their own or speak normally in the first several minutes after regaining control of their bodies, and a future in which the yeerks have had control for years is shown as one in which caged hosts are slumped over in apparent apathy rather than calling for help or fighting back (#7, #41).

However, as I wanted Steve to emphasize in that passage, PRETTY MUCH ALL MENTAL ILLNESSES ARE SITUATIONALLY ADAPTIVE.  The simple fact is that depression is an adaptive response loss of situational control, anxiety is an adaptive response to situations in which threats are both common and ambiguous, rituals are reasonably-adaptive responses to executive control problems, psychosis is a reasonably-adaptive response to perceiving the world as full of patterns and accepting all sensory stimuli, and that most symptoms are pretty good at getting people through acute Bad Shit and only later causing chronic Bad Shit once the immediate threat is gone.  That fact is important because we need to cut down on the stigma against mental illness, but it’s also important because it (we hope) potentially holds a lot of the keys to trying to help people dismantle some of that distress and maladaptation.  

I really try my best to apply that “everything has survival value, yes even things that hurt you” principle when writing about the ex-hosts and Post-Infestation… (PIABS?  Let’s call it PIABS.)  There are several moments with Tom (and, I hint, Bonnie) experiencing partial or complete dissociation, because dissociation does a decent job of mentally removing an individual from a situation that the individual cannot physically move away from.  I have some of the hosts display repetitive motions (Tom folding and unfolding his right hand, Eva spinning her bracelets, the lawyer from #23 and his finger-twitch) that are meant to be a little like rituals and a little like stimming, because both of those are repetitive motions that soothe an individual and—in this case—help to serve as reminders that one is in control of one’s own body.  Even learned helplessness (i.e. sitting still and literally not moving even to blink for hours on end) would probably be adaptive under circumstances where fighting back could only get you hurt by the yeerk.  It was also one of my personal principles to name the syndrome at all, because (and Cates was the one who pointed it out to me, but now I can’t unsee it) there are waaaaaay too many works of [fan] fiction out there that describe entire disorders (PTSD, GAD) or specific symptoms (panic attacks, flashbacks) without ever using the specific name, as if trying to have it both ways: to explore the issue without really exploring the issue through playing coy with a stigmatized topic.

On the subject of which, I felt I couldn’t show the hosts having invisible disability without showing stigma as well, because there are (in all of human history) very few instances of disability or disorder without stigma.  Le sigh.  Humans suck.  There’s this natural human tendency to go “you don’t look like you’re suffering, so you must not be suffering” that comes up in everything from conflating depression with sadness to denying assault survivors’ experiences if they don’t act in ways that align with people’s (usually Hollywood-based) ideas about what trauma looks like.  So I have to imagine that it would be hard for people who never experienced infestation firsthand to wrap their heads around the reality of it, and the fact that distress in ex-hosts often manifests as sitting there (apparently) calmly and not reacting to the situation.  Ergo, side characters like the angry mom in this scene who… just don’t get it.  And do a lot of harm with the best intentions in the world, thanks to their Not Getting of It.  Ergo, the need for ex-hosts to spend time around each other in order to support each other (i.e. the entire plot of Eleutherophobia).

And god I hope I’m being respectful about this.  I don’t know if I’m doing this right, I’m just trying my best from what little I know.  This series is just the best I can do to try and explore realistic complications of the Animorphs war.

[sage-nebula]

Zelink for every game you've played :D

That is so many games … but CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Legend of Zelda (1):

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I mean, I guess? Haha, there was really nothing here. Since this was the very first game, character development basically didn’t exist, so like … I really don’t have an opinion one way or the other. People can do what they want, and I’m not against it, but I personally just don’t see anything there worth really talking about or shipping, haha.

Adventure of Link:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

Same deal as above. My memories of AoL are really hazy, but iirc this is the game where Zelda is asleep for the vast majority of it, but also where we see an implied kiss at the end, which … honestly feels a lot like “here, you are rewarded with a gf” to me, which is why I “nonono” that. I’m mostly neutral, but also kind of really “meh” on it as well.

A Link to the Past / Link’s Awakening / Oracle of Ages/Seasons:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I’m kind of neutral on shipping Zelda with the Hero of Worlds, because while I think there could be potential there, they spend virtually no time together and, in the Oracle games, the fact that they barely know each other shows. The fact that Link could mistake Marin, who has deep red hair, for Zelda (who is blonde) seems to further cement this to me. Yes, he was half out of it due to the fact that he had just woken up after being knocked unconscious during that storm at sea, but the fact remains that hair color is one of the most immediately obvious markers of a person’s appearance and he still made that mistake. This is no doubt due to the fact that he and Zelda have spent barely any time together, I feel. Additionally, Link did spend quite a lot of time with Marin, and the two of them even went on a date. While I’m not at all opposed to multi-shipping and while it’s clear that he and Marin cannot be endgame (I mean she might have become a seagull ffs), I’d much prefer to ship him with Marin before Zelda, hands down.

Ocarina of Time / Majora’s Mask:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

Again, this is a case where Link and Zelda didn’t really spend a lot of time together … and the majority of the time they did spend together was spent under deceit with Zelda pretending to be Sheik. I understand why she couldn’t tell him who she was (and I think that Link would understand, too) but that doesn’t change the fact that a good chunk of their relationship was spent with Zelda pretending to be someone else. And before anyone says anything, no, gender is not an issue here, especially since I am fully on-board with the headcanon of OoT!Zelda being genderfluid. The issue here is that Zelda pretended to be a completely different person entirely. Even if she had pretended to be a female different person, the same issue would exist. I think that, regardless of the necessity of the lie, Link would still have some trust issues, both in the sense of “if she lied to me about that, she could lie about other things,” and “don’t you trust me enough to tell me?” Then again, the second she dropped the disguise Ganondorf got her, so. :/

There’s also the issue of how she sends him back to his childhood at the end of the game. Link doesn’t speak, so we don’t know exactly how he felt about that decision she made, but she also doesn’t ask him if that’s what he wants, she decides that’s what he wants. And true, he does hand the Ocarina of Time over when she tells him to, but … that’s just it. She tells him to. The exact line is, “Link, give the ocarina to me. As a Sage, I can use it to return you to your original time.” Now, Link’s feelings on this are completely open to interpretation. It depends on how you characterize him and how you interpret his body language. But I just rewatched the scene (in both the original N64 graphics and the 3DS remaster), and it looks to me like he has a bit of hesitancy there—like he doesn’t necessarily want to, but technically the Ocarina of Time does belong to the royal family and, anyway, it’s a directive from the Princess of Hyrule. Can he really say no? Like, I guess he could refuse, but … mmmhh. He seems conflicted. But regardless of how he does or doesn’t seem conflicted, I do still think the fact that Zelda doesn’t ask him if this is what he wants is an issue. She decides that it’s what best. And whether the Triforce of Wisdom gives her insight that makes her right or not (and considering the timeline split, I think that’s debatable—I think that it would have been better to leave time business to the one who’s the Hero of it), I still don’t think the fact that Zelda thinks she can make huge life decisions for Link makes for an entirely healthy relationship right off the bat. I think they’d need to work on it.

That said, I do ship this in the context of Rose Zemlya’s fics (The Return and Reconciliation and all the one-shots and drabbles in-between), because in her fics they do work on it. They actually get to talk (and, well, fight) about Zelda’s tendency to deceive and lie because she feels it’s what’s best, as well as her removal of Link’s autonomy in the decision at the end of OoT. Additionally, I enjoy the way she characterizes both of them and think it works well. But outside of those fics, I’m neutral on it (kind of “ehh”), and in the end would probably rather ship Link with others (such as, for instance, Malon). I also think that, personality-wise, Zelda and Ruto could work well, though the fact that Ruto is a Zora gives me pause, as you know. XD

The Wind Waker / Phantom Hourglass:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I looooove Link and Tetra! While I do take issue with the way Tetra was damseled multiple times so that Link could rescue her (though this is typical of Zelda games), and while I also take issue with how Tetra is mysteriously and disgustingly whitewashed the second she is revealed to be Zelda (though that has nothing to do with the ship), altogether I think that Link/Tetra is a wonderful ship, and this was the first time that I undoubtedly shipped a Link/Zelda pair. 

To begin with, one of the things that I really like about the Hero of Winds and Tetra is that they are both hotheaded and both levelheaded at different times. Link is provoked by Aryll’s capture and Ganondorf’s taunting; he chases after his sister and loses his temper and attack Ganondorf, both actions of which were poorly thought-out and result in him needing rescuing, by Tetra. However, Tetra likewise loses her temper when her crew is threatened, when she is captured, and acts recklessly to save Link from Ganondorf (which results in both of them needing to be rescued by the Rito lmfao). She’s not immune from thinking irrationally or impulsively, and I actually think that she would be more prone to losing her temper / getting annoyed in casual situations, whereas Link would be calmer and more level-headed. In this sense, I think they balance each other out really well.

Of course, both Link and Tetra are about twelve-years-old, so they have a lot of growing up to do! I don’t think either of them are in a romantic mindset by the time the game ends. However, they do go sailing off to find a “new Hyrule” together, and we know thanks to Spirit Tracks that they succeed (doesn’t mean they start the new royal family, of course—just means that they find new land together). I think that there’s plenty of potential there for when they grow up, and I also think that Aryll would be 100% on-board. (A shipper on deck, if you will. ;D)

Twilight Princess:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I have nothing against it, but I also don’t ship it, tbh. I say “maybe” because they could always get to know each other post-game, could grow to care for each other, could grow to have feelings for each other—but that’s all hypothetical. They don’t bond at all over the course of the game (Zelda is barely in it, tbh), and I don’t really see potential there for them in canon. There’s no real interest, Zelda is barely a presence in the story. So I’m not against it, but I don’t really ship it, either. There’s not enough for me to.

Spirit Tracks:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

I only played Spirit Tracks once and I honestly don’t remember it very well, so I’m afraid I can’t give an indepth analysis on this one. However, I do remember really loving their interactions throughout the game, and that’s key—this Link and Zelda have plenty of time to get to know each other and interact, and it shows. I think that they were really cute and that, while (once again) they’re young, there’s a high probability that they could develop feelings for each other in the future.

Skyward Sword:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

This probably would have been a “MY HEART,” but then BotW showed me what “MY HEART” really means. More on that in a second, though. ;)

I really, really like what SS did with Link and Zelda. They’re childhood friends, and that shows; it’s clear that they care for each other a great deal, that Zelda is protective of him when it comes to the bullying he receives from Groose and the others, but that he’s just as protective of her when it comes to any threats. There’s an element of playfulness in their relationship, in that she teases him for being a sleepyhead, she’s not afraid to play around with him, she knows he’ll take it well. They’re honestly very sweet with each other, and I swear the scene where he takes her hand and drops into a kneel before her squeezes my heart every single time. (As does the scene where she seals herself away, tells him that he’ll have to wake her up this time, and he cries as he leans against the crystal, damn.) I will say that it does bum me out a bit that Zelda is damseled (sealing herself was an action she undertook as part of her own plan, so I’m not talking about that—I’m talking about when Ghirahim kidnaps her to resurrect Demise), but again, that’s par for the course with Zelda games, so I can forgive it.

I do think that this is the game they’re the most canon in, though. We know that this Zelda is the one who went on to form the Hyrulean royal family (and that all other Zeldas are descended from her), and I mean, their song when flying on the loftwing in the beginning is called “Romance.” I think we know who her king was, js.

Breath of the Wild:

ship: ew / nonono / maybe / ship it / aww / otp / MY HEART

THE BEST ZELINK TO DATE, ALL OTHER ZELINKS CAN TAKE A SEAT PLEASE. 

The best part of this Zelda/Link pair is that it is undoubtedly a slow burn. They knew each other for quite a long time even prior to Link’s near death. In Zelda’s diary, she notes that “he” has been selected to be her personal guard, with the emphasis hers. This implies that she knew him beforehand, no doubt because he was already training to be a knight, as his father had been before him. (Often times knights were nobility, so it’s incredibly possible that she even knew him from noble court prior to his entering in to be a knight.) Despite knowing each other beforehand, however, they weren’t friends. We know that Zelda’s dislike of Link wasn’t really personal—it was wrapped up in a lot of her own issues and insecurities, and how she projected her feelings onto him—but all the same, the fact remains that although they knew each other and had a history, they weren’t close. This means that we see them grow closer over time.

While I am admittedly rather “ehhh” at the way her feelings shift is carried out at first, that we see her reconsider in a “rescue romance” type of light when he saves her from the Yiga assassins, I do appreciate that despite the framing of the memory it wasn’t really shown to make her fall instantly in love with him. Rather, it opened her eyes to the fact that she should get to know him better, that he doesn’t hate her, that she should make an attempt to talk with him. And she does, and they do. They grow closer, get to know each other, become friends first after such a rocky start and then let feelings develop. And what I really, really love is that Zelda never loses her complexity through any of this. Even when it comes to the moment when her powers awaken, although we do know for canonical fact that it was her love for Link that allowed her powers to awaken, I also feel like Zelda throwing herself in-between him and the Guardian Stalker wasn’t just because she loved him, but was also because she couldn’t bear for one more person—much less the last person she had left—to die because of or for her. Like, yes, love was there, but so was survivor’s guilt. Zelda loving Link did not reduce her to a love interest. And, despite the fact that you’re told to go save her for the duration of the entire game, Zelda is not damseled. She is not a prisoner. Ganon is her prisoner and she’s waiting for Link to come pick up the slack. They are, inarguably, equals, and that is such a nice and refreshing change. 

They still have so much to do, so much to catch up on. Zelda especially needs to get reacquainted with the world now that she can finally walk through it again. And, as we see in the Golden Ending, they have work that must be done and they are putting that on priority. However, they have time. They now have so much time to rekindle their friendship, grow closer, build a life together, and we’ve seen the foundation on which that can be built. This is by far the best rendition of the Link and Zelda relationship yet and I’m so glad it exists. A+++++, well done, Nintendo.

[loveshotproductions]

CampCamp Dimensions AU

***Forgot to post this on Tumblr, so here you go***

FINALLY I got this mess down on paper Hope you like it, and it's readable!! WARNING: Suggestive Content(ex. mental illness, self-harm, abuse) Setting/Premise: This AU's premise of this is centered around multiple universes, including the main canon universe. In terms of universes, labeled under CC-036, this world, in particular, is a bit more "flexible"; because it functions solely on Cartoon Physics. This means no one can truly "die"; in fact, death has their very own set of rules and mechanics. the Respawn Mechanic: The "Respawn" Mechanic is a large set of conditions to ensure the safety of the people. Like the name states, if a person manages to die, or in the condition of death. When the old body gives in, a new copy will take their place. This new copy has all old memories prior to the accident leading, literally able to learn from their mistakes. The only way a person can actually die is if the person's heart is damaged beyond repair. If that happens, they are able to die normally. There have been instances of people surviving will semi-damaged hearts, but they usually do not live as long.   Character Bios: The Main Three:    Max: Max is widely known for a multitude of reasons: aside from horrendous cat allergies. He's one of the few people in the Camp that is aware of the Alternate Universes that exist. This is the reason he is often viewed as on edge and paranoid, having a strong fear of dying. To add insult to injury, he's is schizophrenic and will hear and see nightmarish versions of his friends. Despite everything, he tries to keep somewhat of an optimistic attitude, though he's still smug and sarcastic whenever he wants to be. He is Neil's Nurse assistant and has a knack for making cat plushies          Neil: Neil, on the surface, seems like an okay kid, but he is practically the least sane of the bunch. As the Unofficial Official Camp Doctor(after accidentally killing the previous one), he's widely known for going a bit overboard on "Surgeries" which often excuse to brutally mutilate fellow campers and David.(But mostly David:l). Because of these sudden outbursts, Max is often the only one that helps him not go too far, who he often see as a little brother. Aside from his job, he's often viewed as tired, mature, sarcastic as hell, prideful of his work, but can be delusional at times. He's the oldest of the Main Three and feels the need to take care of Max and Nikki as surrogate siblings.    Nikki: Nikki is still the same extroverted self, but still, has a lot of drawbacks. Born with Chromesthesia, Nikki can not only perceive sound as color but people as well. This color perception has let some of it surrounds her in a color wildfire, but it can only perceive herself as monochrome. But, she is able to find solace in communicating with the wildlife that surrounds her. Having a rocky past with the Flower Scouts, she's often viewed as an outsider and, to put it bluntly, a freak of nature. Despite this, she is widely accepted among the other campers and especially the Main Three. Counselors:    David: David is a series of bad habits and regrets. He's been trapped in an abusive relationship with Campbell since he was a kid, has huge emotional problems, and has the unnerving feeling of being watched. Due to the years of torment, spurred by a rough household, he also has the tendency to cut himself to calm his nerves. David, of course, keeps this all locked away in a long list of repressed memories. With the only person knowing this is Gwen.    Gwen: Gwen is the last person you expect to be a camp counselor. Actually, the only reason that she is one is to get more credits on her resume for community college. She usually doesn't care about the young campers, leaving them to do what they want, but tries to in spite of everything. The only reason she hasn't decided to bail out is to make sure no one dies, especially David. Being the only person who knows of his abusive relationship, and tends to his wounds after a session, and constantly tries to make David stand up for himself. In a way, Gwen is the driving force of the camp staying afloat.   Other Campers:    Preston: Preston is not the nicest person in camp. He more known for being a recluse, and bitter towards anyone and anything. He has an exceptional talent for making costumes and the traditional voodoo doll. He's more widely known for having a small grudge on Max, for ruining an old play of his. He has created a doll of virtually every camper and believes that they're for their protection. Harrison also takes advantage of Preston, not really, as a "henchmen" for his ideas. Usually ending in failure. He proclaims to be the sanest in a world full of morons, though Preston has little to no sympathy towards anyone.      Harrison: While normal looking on the surface, Harrison hides something darker. Due to a freak encounter with an artifact at a museum, Harrison is actually a human fused with a trickster coyote demon. He tries to hide this by constantly claiming that he's normal, and goes into panic attacks trying to defend himself. Even though half the camp already knows, aside from Nerris and Space Kid. He's roommates with Preston and uses him as a ploy to explain his "conditions": suddenly spawning coyote ears and tail, eyes glowing red crosses, and speaking in Sumerian when angered. You know normal people stuff, Right?!        Dolph: Dolph prides himself in his art skills, sometimes. When he's not constantly drawing to improve, or throwing away a current painting he was working on, Dolph is, well, a mess really. He often puts a lot on his plate and stresses himself to exhaustion. He is a pure perfectionist, and anything that's not up to his standards immediately, Dolph basically shuns in disgust. In addition, he takes the position of a professional organizer, mainly to disguise his OCD.            Nurf: Nurf is more of a mixed bag of other characters and personalities than a kid. Diagnosed with Multiple Personality Disorder, Nurf isn't exactly the same person more than once. He's mainly seen around Dolph, acting as a Leo Bloom to Dolph's Bialystock.    Ered: Ered may look tough on the surface, but on the inside acts as a mother to the other campers. Being the oldest of the campers, she takes responsibility towards everyone. However, you almost never see her without a cigarette in hand. Ered is widely known through the camp as a constant smoker and is somewhat rude towards given sass. This is especially true with Max, as the two constantly fight with one another. Despite it, She deeply cares for the others and even carries around a first-aid kit around just in case.      Nerris: Nerris is questionable when it comes to facts. Having some knowledge for the extended universes, Nerris is a person of wide knowledge. But not all of her facts are true, they range from slightly true to completely false.      Space Kid: The youngest of the campers, Space Kid is the most innocent, and the most killed offed. He shares a bond with Nerris and often believes everything they hear. There are no threatening monsters in this AU, the only "monsters" in this world are Ghosts/Spirits. Ghost are people who died violently in obscure conditions; People are still unsure how this happens, and research is still conducted.    Jasper: Little to no one knows what exactly happened to him to result in this fate, but he watches over a certain person, feeling a need to protect him; despite playing a role in his death Outsiders: Flower Scouts: While innocent on the surface, each member of this camp is actually a part of an elitist cult. Cult activities murdering animals as the sacrifice, and demonic communications.    Erin: Second in command; loner at most, and a tsundere at best; fond of watching the world burn from a distance    Sasha: Main leader; psychotic; determined to continue the legacy; Wishes to rule the world    Tabii: Romantic of the group; 100% yandere for Neil, Will meet with a terrible fate Woodscouts: They are technically the same as their counterparts, except less aware of Max's illness Alternate Dimensions(as of now): "Caterland"/CC-603 A sadistic alternate world compromise of individuals having cat ears and characteristics.The citizens in this world enjoy elaborate parties and murdering one another for fun.  "Dollhouse" CC-025 A strange alternate dimension in which all of the campers are living dolls, created by David as a commission for small plays and shows. The adults(I.E. David, Gwen, Campbell, etc.) are all human. Another lesser known dimension. "Prime" CC/001 The main canon universe

[lindasharonbn]

Duplicate content: causes and solutions

Search engines like Google have a problem. It’s called ‘duplicate content.’ Duplicate content means that similar content is being shown on multiple locations (URLs) on the web. As a result, search engines don’t know which URL to show in the search results. This can hurt the ranking of a webpage. Especially when people start linking to all the different versions of the content, the problem becomes bigger. This article will help you to understand the various causes of duplicate content, and to find the solution for each of them.

What is duplicate content?

You can compare duplicate content to being on a crossroad. Road signs are pointing in two different directions for the same final destination: which road should you take? And now, to make it ‘worse’ the final destination is different too, but only ever so slightly. As a reader, you don’t mind: you get the content you came for. A search engine has to pick which one to show in the search results. It, of course, doesn’t want to show the same content twice.

Let’s say your article about ‘keyword x’ appears on https://ift.tt/2HzipT2 and the same content also appears on https://ift.tt/2r7vSWS. This situation is not fictitious: it happens in lots of modern Content Management Systems. Your article has been picked up by several bloggers. Some of them link to the first URL; others link to the second URL. This is when the search engine’s problem shows its real nature: it’s your problem. The duplicate content is your problem because those links are both promoting different URLs. If they were all linking to the same URL, your chance of ranking for ‘keyword x’ would be higher.

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Info

Table of contents

1 Causes for duplicate content

1.1 Misunderstanding the concept of a URL

1.2 Session IDs

1.3 URL parameters used for tracking and sorting

1.4 Scrapers & content syndication

1.5 Order of parameters

1.6 Comment pagination

1.7 Printer friendly pages

1.8 WWW vs. non-WWW

2 Conceptual solution: a 'canonical' URL

3 Identifying duplicate contents issues

3.1 Google Search Console

3.2 Searching for titles or snippets

4 Practical solutions for duplicate content

4.1 Avoiding duplicate content

4.2 301 Redirecting duplicate content

4.3 Using links

4.4 Linking back to the original content

5 Conclusion: duplicate content is fixable, and should be fixed

1 Causes for duplicate content

There are dozens of reasons that cause duplicate content. Most of them are technical: it’s not very often that a human decides to put the same content in two different places without distinguishing the source: it feels unnatural to most of us. The technical reasons are plentiful though. It happens mostly because developers don’t think as a browser or a user, let alone a search engine spider, they think as a developer. That aforementioned article, that appears on https://ift.tt/2HzipT2 and http://www.example.com/article-category/keyword-x/? If you ask the developer, he’ll say it only exists once.

1.1 Misunderstanding the concept of a URL

Has that developer gone mad? No, he’s just speaking a different language. You see a database system probably powers the whole website. In that database, there’s only one article, the website’s software just allows for that same article in the database to be retrieved through several URLs. That’s because, in the eyes of the developer, the unique identifier for that article is the ID that article has in the database, not the URL. For the search engine though, the URL is the unique identifier to a piece of content. If you explain that to a developer, he’ll start getting the problem. And after reading this article, you’ll even be able to provide him with a solution right away.

1.2 Session IDs

You often want to keep track of your visitors and make it possible, for instance, to store items they want to buy in a shopping cart. To do that, you need to give them a ‘session.’ A session is a brief history of what the visitor did on your site and can contain things like the items in their shopping cart. To maintain that session as a visitor clicks from one page to another, the unique identifier for that session, the so-called Session ID, needs to be stored somewhere. The most common solution is to do that with cookies. However, search engines usually don’t store cookies.

At that point, some systems fall back to using Session IDs in the URL. This means that every internal link on the website gets that Session ID appended to the URL, and because that Session ID is unique to that session, it creates a new URL, and thus duplicate content.

1.3 URL parameters used for tracking and sorting

Another cause for duplicate content is the use of URL parameters that do not change the content of a page, for instance in tracking links. You see, https://ift.tt/2HzipT2 and https://ift.tt/1CRUpLZ are not the same URL for a search engine. The latter might allow you to track what source people came from, but it might also make it harder for you to rank well. A very unwanted side effect!

This doesn’t just go for tracking parameters, of course. It goes for every parameter you can add to a URL that doesn’t change the vital piece of content, whether that parameter is for ‘changing the sorting on a set of products’ or for ‘showing another sidebar’: they all cause duplicate content.

1.4 Scrapers & content syndication

Most of the causes for duplicate content are all your own or at the very least your website’s ‘fault.’ Sometimes, however, other websites use your content, with or without your consent. They do not always link to your original article, and thus the search engine doesn’t ‘get’ it and has to deal with yet another version of the same article. The more popular your site becomes, the more scrapers you’ll often have, making this issue bigger and bigger.

1.5 Order of parameters

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InfoAnother common cause is that a CMS doesn’t use nice and clean URLs, but rather URLs like /?id=1&cat=2, where ID refers to the article and cat refers to the category. The URL /?cat=2&id=1 will render the same results in most website systems, but they’re completely different for a search engine. 1.6 Comment pagination

In my beloved WordPress, but also in some other systems, there is an option to paginate your comments. This leads to the content being duplicated across the article URL, and the article URL + /comment-page-1/, /comment-page-2/ etc.

1.7 Printer friendly pages

If your content management system creates printer friendly pages and you link to those from your article pages, in most cases Google will find those, unless you specifically block them. Now, which version should Google show? The one laden with ads and peripheral content,  or the one with just your article?

1.8 WWW vs. non-WWW

One of the oldest in the book, but sometimes search engines still get it wrong: WWW vs. non-WWW duplicate content, when both versions of your site are accessible. A less common situation but one I’ve seen as well: HTTP vs. HTTPS duplicate content, where the same content is served out over both.

2 Conceptual solution: a ‘canonical’ URL

As determined above, the fact that several URLs lead to the same content is a problem, but it can be solved. A human working at a publication will normally be able to tell you quite easily what the ‘correct’ URL for a certain article should be. The funny thing is, though, sometimes when you ask three people in the same company, they’ll give three different answers…

That’s a problem that needs solving in those cases because, in the end, there can be only one (URL). That ‘correct’ URL for a piece of content has been dubbed the Canonical URL by the search engines.

Ironic side note

Canonical is a term stemming from the Roman Catholic tradition, where a list of sacred books was created and accepted as genuine. They were dubbed the canonical Gospels of the New Testament. The irony is: it took the Roman Catholic church about 300 years and numerous fights to come up with that canonical list, and they eventually chose four versions of the same story…

3 Identifying duplicate contents issues

You might not know whether you have a duplicate content issue on your site or with your content. Let me give you some methods of finding out whether you do.

3.1 Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a great tool for identifying duplicate content. If you go into the Search Console for your site, check under Search Appearance » HTML Improvements, and you’ll see this:

If pages have duplicate titles or duplicate descriptions, that’s almost never a good thing. Clicking on it will reveal the URLs that have duplicate titles or descriptions and will help you identify the problem. The issue is that if you have an article like the one about keyword X, and it shows up in two categories, the titles might be different. They might, for instance, be ‘Keyword X – Category X – Example Site’ and ‘Keyword X – Category Y – Example Site’. Google won’t pick those up as duplicate titles, but you can find them by searching.

3.2 Searching for titles or snippets

There are several search operators that are very helpful for cases like these. If you’d want to find all the URLs on your site that contain your keyword X article, you’d type the following search phrase into Google:

site:example.com intitle:"Keyword X"

Google will then show you all pages on example.com that contain that keyword. The more specific you make that intitle part, the easier it is to weed out duplicate content. You can use the same method to identify duplicate content across the web. Let’s say the full title of your article was ‘Keyword X – why it is awesome’, you’d search for:

intitle:"Keyword X - why it is awesome"

And Google would give you all sites that match that title. Sometimes it’s worth even searching for one or two complete sentences from your article, as some scrapers might change the title. In some cases, when you do a search like that, Google might show a notice like this on the last page of results:

This is a sign that Google is already ‘de-duping’ the results. It’s still not good, so it’s worth clicking the link and looking at all the other results to see whether you can fix some of those.

4 Practical solutions for duplicate content

Once you’ve decided which URL is the canonical URL for your piece of content, you have to start a process of canonicalization (yeah I know, try to say that three times out loud fast). This means we have to let the search engine know about the canonical version of a page and let it find it ASAP. There are four methods of solving the problem, in order of preference:

Not creating duplicate content

Redirecting duplicate content to the canonical URL

Adding a canonical link element to the duplicate page

Adding an HTML link from the duplicate page to the canonical page

4.1 Avoiding duplicate content

Some of the above causes for duplicate content have very simple fixes to them:

Session ID’s in your URLs? These can often just be disabled in your system’s settings.

Have duplicate printer friendly pages? These are completely unnecessary: you should just use a print style sheet.

Using comment pagination in WordPress? You should just disable this feature  (under settings » discussion) on 99% of sites.

Parameters in a different order? Tell your programmer to build a script to always order parameters in the same order (this is often referred to as a so-called URL factory).

Tracking links issues? In most cases, you can use hash tag based campaign tracking instead of parameter-based campaign tracking.

WWW vs. non-WWW issues? Pick one and stick with it by redirecting the one to the other. You can also set a preference in Google Webmaster Tools, but you’ll have to claim both versions of the domain name.

If you can’t fix your problem that easily, it might still be worth it to put in the effort. The goal would be to prevent the duplicate content from appearing altogether. It’s by far the best solution to the problem.

4.2 301 Redirecting duplicate content

In some cases, it’s impossible to entirely prevent the system you’re using from creating wrong URLs for content, but sometimes it is possible to redirect them. If this isn’t logical to you (which I can understand), do keep it in mind while talking to your developers. If you do get rid of some of the duplicate content issues, make sure that you redirect all the old duplicate content URLs to the proper canonical URLs. 

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Info 4.3 Using rel=”canonical” links

Sometimes you don’t want to or can’t get rid of a duplicate version of an article, even when you do know that it’s the wrong URL. For that particular issue, the search engines have introduced the canonical link element. It’s placed in the section of your site, and it looks like this:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://example.com/wordpress/seo-plugin/">

In the href section of the canonical link, you place the correct canonical URL for your article. When a search engine that supports canonical finds this link element, it performs what is a soft 301 redirect. It transfers most of the link value gathered by that page to your canonical page.

This process is a bit slower than the 301 redirect though, so if you can do a 301 redirect that would be preferable, as mentioned by Google’s John Mueller.

Read more: ‘ rel=canonical • What it is and how (not) to use it ’ »

4.4 Linking back to the original content

If you can’t do any of the above, possibly because you don’t control thesection of the site your content appears on, adding a link back to the original article on top of or below the article is always a good idea. This might be something you want to do in your RSS feed: add a link back to the article in it. Some scrapers will filter that link out, but some others might leave it in. If Google encounters several links pointing to your article, it will figure out soon enough that that’s the actual canonical version of the article.

5 Conclusion: duplicate content is fixable, and should be fixed

Duplicate content happens everywhere. I have yet to encounter a site of more than 1,000 pages that hasn’t got at least a tiny duplicate content problem. It’s something you need to keep an eye on at all times. It is fixable though, and the rewards can be plentiful. Your quality content might soar in the rankings by just getting rid of duplicate content on your site!

Keep reading: ‘ Ask Yoast: webshops and duplicate content’ »

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