#thanks again for the ask🥰

[beannoss]

Hi Bean!

I have a question for you! I have noticed in your writings that Twilight and Yor begin a romantic relationship after their secrets are revealed. Are you opposed to any romance between them before they find out? I assume if so, it’s because it’s morally questionable, though a lot of fans find romance before compelling as it raises the stakes considerably. I’m not suggesting one is right and the other is wrong, I’m just interested in your take on this! I love your writing! Thank you! 😊

Hello you! I'm always chuffed to see your name pop up 🫶😊!

Oh boy! Thank you for this ask — it's a big question but also I do have thoughts XD Sorry it's taken me a few days to get my ducks in a row!

I want to start, though, by emphasising that my thoughts and preferences here are exclusive to Spy x Family as a canon enterprise; they don't pertain to fanworks or other fan theories, I'm not out to yuck anyone's yum ✌️ ditto for even my own writing! You're right that I don't really have an interest in exploring that dynamic but I reserve the right to change my mind ;)!

[Reference herein to manga chapters not yet animated]

Right, so. There's lots of things I love about SxF, but one of the things that interested me early and keeps me engaged is that it operates under an interesting and complex morality. Spy work and contract killing are obviously an ethical minefield, and in the real world, generally to the bad. Within the world of SxF, Endo takes pains to write Twilight and Yor both firmly on the morally right side, even if Twilight’s tactics or Yor’s actions in a vacuum are frequently questionable. With Twilight especially it seems Twilight is currently (resisting) working through the impact and ethical implication of his actions on Anya. When it comes to Yor, I expect that’s where we’ll see him wrestle with similar questions through a romance lens. I think it was quite deliberate and important that Twilight specifically articulated that he’d been wondering if Yor had previous romantic relationships, and that it was now confirmed she hadn’t. As far as I can remember, it’s the only time he’s had that sort of reflection on Yor's life before the Forgers; I mention it because it mirrors times he’s reflected explicitly on Anya’s history and trauma and her needs as a child, with implication that his actions and motivations for adopting her could/probably will hurt her. I hazard that his observation about Yor will be similarly indicative of an arc down the line.

When it comes to canon, if the Yor x Twilight romance were to firm up while Yor still believes Twilight is Loid, I admit there’s a high chance I’d nope out. I want to emphasize firm up though… I tend to think Yor already has feelings for Loid (Twilight?) whether she’s fully aware of them or would necessarily articulate them as romantic (and I think this is being really interestingly conveyed and explored through her current feelings about kissing, though I may differ with some on how I think that may shake out). I also think there’s a… less high but not impossible chance that Twilight is aware he has or is developing feelings for Yor. I’ve argued before that he knows he has formed/is forming an attachment to her and that he knows he trusts her. I don’t think it’s too far from there to romantic feelings for Twilight: after all, attachment and trust (intimacy) are not things he's had in a long, long time. And given his current pseudo-short temper and general malaise comes out most with Anya, with Yor he’s been notably softer and more receptive. In my view, this is partially because so far he hasn't really done much that would really hurt Yor and nor has she done anything that would really hurt Twilight. So far, Twilight and Yor are on a fairly even footing.

This is a very long way of saying that I trend toward thinking we’ve got at least a few toes into the romance already.

The reasons I’d be a squicked by the firming up of the romance, pre-reveal, are related to its being morally questionable as you pointed out (I'll talk a bit more about that in a moment.) But it's also because I think it would undermine character arcs and dominant themes.

Twilight’s arc involves finding and forging a new pack, a new family. Somewhere safe and loving that he’s been denied essentially for his whole life (I don’t dispute that his mother loved him deeply and did her best to protect him: living with an abuser and then with her under war was never going to actually be or feel safe). A big part of this safety and love for Twilight is about being accepted, warts and all. Twilight started lying because he wasn’t accepted by his father as he was. There’s a fair bit to work through by way of accepting Twilight’s warts already — I think Yor will be fairly understanding as things currently stand, and that’s part of why they’re a good match. Their moral compasses, their sacrifices, how they see the world and how they want to try and make it better, align and/or resonate in foundational ways. However, given their current standing, pursuing deeper intimacy of a romantic/sexual relationship with Yor before reveals, I think would take it past the line. And particularly when considering Yor’s character arc.

Yor’s arc is also around finding love and security, but centred less around acceptance (although that obviously also explicitly features!) and more around self-worth and understanding her value. If the romance were to firm up pre-reveal, the false pretences are… I mean, to me, they lob a Molotov cocktail into that theme of self-worth and being valued, as she really would just be being used: the intimacy could never be real because Twilight is not Loid Forger. To expand a bit on an earlier point, perhaps ironically, Yor’s relationship with Loid is mostly on the up-and-up: they both know any marital connection they demonstrate is fake. They may be (are) friends, and also they’re under no illusions that it’s something of a tenuous friendship (at least for now). They co-parent Anya but are clear that this co-parenting comes with clear lines around and between their relationship otherwise. I want to tread mindfully here, because I also really like and appreciate aroace interpretations of Yor and Twilight and their relationship: I think this discussion around firming up their romance actually also holds true in the case of attempting to substantially deepen their platonic bond, pre-reveal. In the same ways, Twilight needing acceptance and Yor learning self-worth would be severely undermined by a pre-reveal apparent and false deepening of their commitment to one another.

On the point of it being morally questionable generally, yeah it is. I mean, look, it's fiction and they aren't real people who can be hurt by those actions. So in principle, Endo can write what story he wants, I wouldn't think it reflected poorly on him or anything like that. I just don't really want to read a story that goes to that place; it’s a squick. I'm sure this has been discussed before in fandom, but my read on the moral dubiety centres around the idea that it isn’t possible to actively choose or meaningfully consent to emotional or physical intimacy when one person is lying about who they are (and in this case, they're both lying about who they are... Although Twilight to a greater extent). This does tie back into SxF themes as well, as choice and consent are also… maybe not big themes of SxF exactly, but active choice and informed consent are things which have come up more than once (I have my thoughts as to why: for a character whose choices drive so much of the narrative, Twilight is actually also a character who’s shown to have little actual choice or control over much of his own life. Considering his motivations for a world where children don’t cry, imo valuing active choice and meaningful consent are important factors required for that world. And I also actually suspect the theme of choice will become more important the more we learn about Donovan, and his role as foil for Twilight.)

Also, honestly for me, it would be too close to a common trope in a lot of popular western fiction/media that I don’t like: a woman being taken advantage of by a man in some way, shape or form, and then through the magic of her non-specific womanness, forgiving him his gross transgressions under the thinnest of pretences. Particularly as Endo has already taken pains to sidestep that as a foundation of their arrangement. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised that were Endo to take the pre-reveal romance path, it would be a deeper interpretation of that trope, but as with other sexist tropes utilised in pop fiction/media, I have to ask why the choice couldn’t have been for a more interesting path, rather than retreading that one. And particularly given everything he's established for Twilight and Yor: it goes against much of what Twilight stands for — and indeed goes against much of what he meaningfully brings in his current relationship with Yor, that of encouraging her, supporting her, and shoring up her thoughts, opinions and self-image, particularly when she voices upset or doubt about them. It also goes against much of what Yor stands for: while the power imbalance would lie firmly with Twilight, it remains true that Yor’s lies in an apparently deepening intimacy would also undermine the safety and security she ostensibly creates for Twilight. She also so obviously hates lying, the prospect of her keeping her secret into what she believed was a real relationship would wreck her. Doubly so, given the weight Yor puts on Loid's acknowledgement of who she is and what she believes: something she hangs her self-worth on, a recognition of her value. And I'd argue here that it would actually, conversely, be impossible for Loid Forger to acknowledge or accept Yor's truth: that's only something Twilight can do.

And so I guess there’s also just the bare fact following from the above that I think a pre-reveal firming up of their relationship is the less interesting choice for what is a major franchise that has otherwise done innovative things. Another reason I love SxF is that it subverts tropes and complicates cliches. One of which includes communication: for a pair who have crossed lines as a foundation of their relationship, Yor and Twilight actually do a lot of communicating. That’s a subversion of many heterosexual romantic tropes and norms, at least in a Western context, and, to put it sort of flippantly, it would bum me out if it failed at the final hurdle.

I just want to emphasise one more time, my opinions and preferences here are strictly related to Spy x Family in an official canon capacity, and nothing to do with fanworks or fan theories or what fans want to explore in whatever fashion. Part of my feelings here are also honestly because of the tone and pacing of SxF. I think it entirely possible to do interesting things with those tropes and actually think Endo is the type of writer I would trust to do so. But the way SxF is written by way of tone, pacing, narrative priorities and audience demand, I don't think even Endo would be able to do them within SxF in ways that wouldn't squick me out and make me lose love for Twilight, specifically, pretty entirely. I'd rather he just didn't 😂

Tl;dr: in canon exclusively I’m not into a firming up of their romantic relationship pre-reveal! Their situation is complicated enough as it is; give these goobers the love they want and can share with one another, kindly and gently, when the world has been neither kind nor gentle with them. In my view, it’s already primed in their character and thematic arcs 🫶

[honeyed-blossom]

heeeyy!! literally found your blog today and i fell in love w valeriaaa🥹🥹 her hair is so pretty hello. anyways i noticed you wrote that before transferring to hogwarts she went to a liberal arts school! i inmediately imagined her forcing one of the boys to pose for her drawing practice (bc ominis is just ANGELIC and sebastian would come up with silly but dynamic poses)

lol idk if that even makes sense but anyways, again i love your art!!! have a nice daaay🫶🫶

HII!! HELLO! 💓💓 ahh im screaming - THANK YOU for liking my daughter 🥺🫶 You’re too kind to me, thank you for all the sweet words 🥺💗💘

shrieking YES!! She did go to a liberal arts school and I can totally see her doing that 😆 thank you for bringing it up bc I could yap about it FOREVER

Though her main concentration was dance, she definitely had a couple art classes under her belt, so she would be pretty decent. I feel like Sebastian would randomly find one of her sketches and would beg her to draw him. She’d only agree if Ominis her muse posed for her. Then afterwards, she’d force them to dance with her too hehe

[moodyvoid]

Are you going to get a switch 2 or do you think Shiggy will steal that as well?

Yes and I’m going to heavily guard it (He’s definitely going to steal it.)

[ifindus]

no one is talking about the enemies to lovers scotnor potential😤

you are so right! 😩so much potential!

[milk-heavy]

hey! Do you habe any tips for a beginner trying to take aesthetic pictures in ts4? I love yours! The colours, the setting, the vibes are just perfect, literal art (is this even the sims??)

I'd be glad to hear a few tips to get started trying to create such beautiful posts as well😅

🥺😳💘💌Ohhhh

Thank you so much for being so sweet!

I don’t even know where to start. Actually taking the screenshots I try to make the certain vibes for my game, that really inspires me to take a pictures a certain way.... Sometimes you just have to stop yourself and enjoy of gameplay, without looking around at what others are doing.

Anyways biggest contributor to the quality of my screens is reshade, additionally I use the SRWE and I just mess around with the editing in photoshop settings until I find something i'm satisfied with. At the end I add a film dust overlay. Also lighting mods makes a huge difference. If you are interested in what I personally use check my resources page.

[eliteseven]

Just wanted to say you write the dialogue of the tadpole gang so accurately! Lae'zel had me in tears!

!!!! AHHHH 🥹🥰 this means SO much to me!!!! Thank you so very much!!! I always get so nervous writing the whole group (which is why I’ve put off writing the wedding for like…forever- I’ve built it into this grand event in my mind lmao). I’m glad it reads naturally and (at least sort of) complies with their personalities in canon.

This and one other drabble are probs my last NobleHeart pieces for the foreseeable future tho. I love my girlies to death but I lost my job and I’m currently job hunting (yes I want to die), and it’s a timesuck. so I’m glad it got to include a lot of the gang, in hindsight! Like a little family reunion ☺️

I wanted to go back and add Wyll and Karlach but I thought they’d be too much of a comfort to Tav and calm her down too much lmfao. She needed someone who was gonna stir the pot 😈

[artist-rat]

inquisitor tarot commission for @leggywillow 💚

[dangaer]

don't ship with me my reply time can be anything from 1 week to 4 years and when I write asks you'll have to deal with novellas 💔

[mobius-m-mobius]

Do we have any new interviews of Owen talking about his time as Mobius? It feels like after Loki s2 he just disappeared into shampoo ads...

Unfortunately not any that I can think of, no 😔

Tbh considering promotion for S1 was impacted by the pandemic and S2 aired while the writer's strike took place it's probably a lucky break we got the few moments of Owen discussing Mobius we did since he's not one to participate in a ton of press even in the most ideal circumstances but still, talk about a massive shame there haven't been more opportunities to hear about his process because I genuinely think despite the unreal career he's had this was a real turning point in realizing how much his contributions were valued on set!

Not to mention the way he disappeared into Mobius is second to none, forever in awe of the way there's so much of his usual charm and persona there but you don't actually see *him* until they call cut, it's an amazing performance I'd love interviewers to bring up more often as well as how much depth there is to his performances in general since that's glossed over waaaay too often

[kindahoping4forever]

Goodnight 🖤

[oya-oya-okay]

I love how a bunch of people (me included) collectively agreed that shishio needs more attention

omg... IT'S SO CUTE..😭😭😭 REALLY CUTE!! Thank you very much!!💕💕💕

[ifindus]

Now that you’ve drawn nyo!Norway and regular Scotland, can I request regular Norway and nyo!Scotland? (I rlly like ur art btw 🥰)

Thank you! 🥰🥰 Now we have gathered all the ScotNor! Though OG ScotNor is still the best ✨

[turnipoddity]

As a kid, I was scared of seeing Billy the Puppet's face. Ur amazing and lovely chainshipping helped me overcome my fear of watching the Saw movie. Recently watched the Saw 2004 for Lawrence and Adam then got mindblown how they r so gay in canon and it makes so much sense why ppl ship them ❤️ Also, surprised I never got spoiled from the movie's ending.

Hesitate to watch the rest of Saw movies tho because chainshipping is only in the first movie and I'm still sad over the Chainshipping angst 😭 So I'll be consuming fan content of them.

Sorry for the long rant. I need to talk about brainrot. Thank you for introducing the world to more Chainshipping art ❤️❤️❤️

ANOTHER ONE!!

[running-in-the-dark]

here's a link to my shared folder (link)*

currently there's a bunch of John Larroquette stuff in there, including the 1080p upscaled version of Night Court. plus some other things that I uploaded before :)

*pw is in the tags

[brandwhorestarscream]

I’m loving your bittersweet reunion au so much!! How are the Jettwins adjusting to living with decepticons like Lugnut and Blitzwing?

Awww, im glad you like it! Haven't thought about that one in awhile, its good to have it back up again ^-^

Iirc tho, Starscream doesn't remain on earth with the twins. He (i think? I have so many AUs sometimes lines get crossed lol) uses the younglings as leverage to get himself back into the decepticons and claims sanctuary as a parent with dependent children: the warframes are critically endangered, after all, and as much as Megatron hates him, ensuring any decepticon children grow up healthy and safe will always take priority.

The twins definitely go through an adjustment period after they move into their undisclosed colony home with their carrier. They've been living weapons pretty much since the day they were born, so having free time and the opportunity to play and go to school is a completely new experience for them. Living amongst decepticons is a lot more pleasant than they ever thought possible: aside from the propaganda they've been fed making them antsy, they're also very used to getting sideways looks and snarky comments on account of them being blended frames. They're expecting the same from the cons, honestly, except instead of getting flack for their flight capability and not having blue optics, they expect to be looked down on for being half civilian, for not being proper seekers

It's such a nice surprise when nobody cares. No one even mentions it, no one bats an optic. Imagine their delight when they find out that they aren't the only bi-frame people there! All of the decepticons they've seen during active combat are huge towering warframes, but that's just it. They've only seen them during active combat, and of course the ones fighting on the front lines are the their biggest and best warriors. Cross-frametype bondings are by no means unheard of, and there are plenty of Cybertron-descended planets that aren't involved with the war at all and happily mingle with either side. There are plenty of younglings their age that are "halfas" too, and the twins are readily welcomed into their folds. They make lots of friends and actually come to really enjoy school: they're extremely curious and playful by nature, so an educational center where they can absorb all sorts of information and socialize to their sparks' content is everything they could ask for!

[heavysighing-dreamyeyes]

that slasher AU lives rent free in my mind i had to draw it! big and gentle giant reader had described jason but actually underneath those jacket is a fuckin ripped 6 pack serial killer

!!!! This is so cool!!!! I looove his hair and his knife especially!! Ee, that au was so fun to write and I'm thrilled it stuck with you enough to want to draw him! Thank you so much for sharing your work!! 💙💙💙

Slasher Jason fr gives off that warm, teddy bear kind of vibe until the switch flips, and you're reminder that hey, he's 200+ pounds of muscle and no inhibitions. (I love him)