#that show you can only focus on ships and ‘hot’ characters

[captainwaffles]

I finally watched and finished the Avatar and the last Airbender!

Yay I loved it!

I come to tumblr to find cool post

Immediately only find ship post!

I love tumblr /sar and the ship culture here

[starcurtain]

Comparing Phaidei and Other Hoyo MLM Ships (Part 2)

<- Part 1 is back that way.

In the first part of this, I laid out some of the ways Phaidei fits within Hoyo's normal pattern for queer-coded MLM ships: They're equals but opposites, perfectly matched; they've ostensibly got a "rivalry" as a cover for their laser focus on each other; their models are deliberately placed closer together in cutscenes than other characters' are, and they're intentionally paralleled to a heterosexual married couple. All of these are traits that other Hoyo MLM pairs also show, a sort of foundational standard for Hoyo's queer-coded MLM ships.

But then Phaidei just took a huge side-step around all of them, and started doing things that Hoyo hasn't done in any of their other recent games. (Tiny aside here: HI3 does wildly different things with its characters; I think that being first published when Hoyo was a more obscure company allowed them to get away with things--like the Bronya/Seele kiss and Welt and Co.'s cross-dressing, for example--that "modern" Hoyo games cannot get away with due to greater levels of public scrutiny.)

I said it in the other post, but it bears repeating:

You really aren't imagining things--Phaidei is actually different.

So I wanted to take a closer look at what was making it feel so unique, by comparing its differences to other popular Hoyo MLM ships.

Here we go:

1. The Feeling's Mutual

There was no heterosexual explanation for this framing.

In Part 1 of this post, I noted that Hoyo has a typical personality pattern they follow when queer-coding their male characters, particularly in using "difficult" personalities to create an artificial sense of distance between the characters. If one character is angry all the time, or tsundere, or using sarcasm to cover for their fear of getting close to others, Hoyo can mobilize that personality gap as a shield to give anti-LGBT+ players plausible deniability. Hell, there are people still out there genuinely convinced that Alhaitham and Kaveh have a toxic relationship. There are people out there saying Ratio despises Aventurine because he was mean to him one (1) time while undercover. That's how effective injecting a little bit of bickering into a queer-coded relationship is.

Hoyoverse is very, very familiar with creating this delicate balance of teasing the ship while feeding anti-LGBT+ players and censors just enough "Look, they don't like each other; they're arguing!" contrary material to avoid setting anyone off.

Which... makes it absolutely bizarre that they made almost no effort to do this with Phainon and Mydei.

Sure, on paper we're told that Phainon and Mydei are rivals. Phainon describes it as "He's both my friend and my foe." And yes, they have their quips (Phainon's "It's exhausting talking to you sometimes" comes to mind).

But animosity--the genuine desire to one-up each other--is completely missing from Mydei and Phainon's "rivalry." They aren't Sasuke and Naruto. They aren't Izuku and Bakugou. They don't actually even want to beat each other--they want to be equals. If you defeat Mydei in the 3.0 competition, Phainon immediately folds and calls the contest off. If you let Mydei win, Mydei immediately folds and declares no contest.

Although Aglaea notes they compete because they're "impulsive youths," what she was actually missing is that Mydei only let himself be goaded into Phainon's hot bath competition because he was worried about Phainon and wanted to take Phainon's mind off the failed trial. Then, immediately after beating Phainon in the hot bath challenge, he lets Phainon win the "take more people home" challenge, to tie up their score again.

In fact, Mydei and Phainon's relationship is so devoid of the actual back-and-forth typical of other Hoyoverse MLM ships that at one point, Phainon even asks for it:

(Though he's equally quick to demand compliments from Mydei too.)

Instead, virtually every line from Phainon and Mydei through both 3.0 and 3.1 reiterates that they care deeply about each other, and are concerned for not only each other's physical well-being but also each other's mental and emotional health. They freely and consistently support each other both on the battlefield and off, confessing their struggles and relying on each other for advice. Whenever they're separated, the game intentionally hammers home how worried they are without the other around.

Over and over and over again, the devs tell you how well Mydei and Phainon know each other and how much effort they're putting in to take care of each other:

The game doesn't let us forget that they are one another's "closest person," and that the respect they have for each other is mutual. Although I wouldn't go so far as to speculate they actually recognize romantic feelings, canon makes it clear that they are aware their emotional connection goes both ways. They don't just value each other's battle prowess, intelligence, or usefulness--they value each other's feelings explicitly, every single time emotions are expressed between them in the game's text.

In fact, Mydei even scolds Phainon for approaching their goodbye with a straight face; he knows that Phainon is hurt by their parting, and he wants Phainon to be honest, as Mydei is being honest in turn:

The rainbows in the background really sold the scene, ngl.

This isn't Renheng, where resentment has taken away any glimmer of joy. This isn't Ratiorine, where even if Aventurine were in a more stable mindset, Ratio's inability to spit out his feelings might keep them from going anywhere. Even with Haikaveh, the Hoyo ship known for Alhaitham's devotion, Kaveh's own struggles and refusal to accept Alhaitham's kindness are an active plot point keeping them from progressing. Maybe you could draw a parallel between Phaidei and Cyno/Tighnari for levels of "mutual," but even then, Cynari interactions are often left off-screen or in the background, for the players to fill in the blanks. On the contrary, Phainon and Mydei's fondness for each other is constantly in our faces.

The devs wanted players to know Phainon and Mydei are invested. We're supposed to see how much they want to be near each other.

More than that, we're supposed to understand just how deeply they trust each other.

Okay, okay, yes, I know this is massive foreshadowing to the inevitable betrayal and tragedy impending (come on, Amphoreus wouldn't qualify as an ancient Greek drama without it!), but I think that a lot of people are missing the key here: By this point in the story, Mydei already knows how he's going to die. He knows someone is going to stab him in the back and finally end his immortal life. When he entrusts Phainon with this secret, he's not trusting Phainon to keep him safe. He's trusting Phainon to do the opposite.

He's telling Phainon: "I want it to be you."

If the prophecy can't be changed and fate is set in stone, then Mydei wants Phainon to be with him in his final moments, to be the one to finally set him free from the "curse" he perceives his own immortality to be. Of course it would be Hoyo who makes "I want to die by yours hands" into a declaration of ultimate trust, but it is an explicit statement of trust, in a way that very few--if any--other modern Hoyoverse MLM ships get to show each other on screen.

Phew, that was a lot!

But I think this is one of the clearest and most defining differences between Phainon and Mydei and other Hoyo MLM ships--the devs took away players' ability to claim they don't get along. You might still be able to call them "just friends" or "brothers in arms," but unlike Alhaitham and Kaveh who fight, Ratiorine who scheme, or Renheng who are actual enemies, Mydei and Phainon explicitly like each other. They trust each other. They seek one another out.

It might seem like a small thing on paper, but this is actually a big thing in practice. Hoyo is pushing the boundary here, reducing the avenues for deniability. It is harder for anti-LGBT+ fans to claim that Phainon and Mydei don't have obvious in-game ship-tease than for virtually any other modern Hoyoverse MLM ship. (By the way, this is why people have resorted to calling Phaidei "industry plant yaoi;" because they can't deny the queer-coding is actually there this time, they instead have to try to de-legitimize the ship in other ways, such as dismissing it as nothing more than bait.)

This also means Hoyo has less of an "out" if people start to really question. It would be harder to explain away Phainon and Mydei's relationship than it would be to explain away even Alhaitham and Kaveh's. Alhaitham and Kaveh have "They're always arguing" and "Their friendship was ruined by their fight" or "They're just roommates," etc. to lean back on. Phainon and Mydei... are really bad at even pretending to be rivals...

All of this to say: Hoyo made a bold and deliberate choice allowing two of their mainstream male characters to be so emotionally close and attentive to each other on screen. They went outside their own current comfort zone for this one, guys.

2. We're Conspicuously Missing a Twink

Moving on from Phaidei's emotional differences, I wanted to talk specifically about Hoyoverse's perspectives on gay men, and how easy it is for companies to slip into not only stereotypes for gay characters, but also extremely heteronormative portrayals of gay relationships. As sad as it is, it is easier to market queer-coded male characters to yaoi fans (who are often--although obviously not always--heterosexual women) if they fit into the expected pattern for heterosexual relationships: a highly masculine man to "wear the pants" in the relationship, paired with a delicate, effeminate man to obviously be the bottom.

Now, don't get me wrong: Gay relationships come in all varieties; people have different preferences, and categorical groups like "twinks" and "bears" exist so people who have those preferences can find each other. Obviously plenty of hyper-masculine (and just masculine-leaning) gay men do want more effeminate partners. Plenty of real guys consider themselves twinks and have great relationships with men ranging all the way up the most masculine dudes you've ever seen. But "masculine man with feminine man" isn't the only kind of gay relationship around, despite the fact that that's what Hoyo's yaoi shiptease might lead you to believe.

(Edit: I can't believe I have to say this, but it seems some portion the HSR fandom cannot read, so apparently I do: Stop using my post in your hunk/twink or hunk/hunk discourse; if you didn't bother to read the paragraph above this in which I word-for-word point out that real gay relationships come in all varieties, including lots of relationships between masculine men and more effeminate men, then that is on you--this post isn't about how "hunk/hunk" is more "real gay" material or "hurr durr twinks bad;" it's about how Hoyo has served up the exact same ship with different clothes on 13 times in a row, with their constant modus operandi being yaoi genre staple tropes in which one character is essentially designated as the bottom and the other as the top specifically using masculine versus feminine coding, because that is what sells to the yaoi fan demographic they are targeting, particularly to heterosexual female yaoi fans, who are predisposed toward heteronormative relationship patterns even in the gay media they consume. The only situation in which hunk/hunk is "more progressive" than hunk/twink is for Hoyo, who clearly have hunk/twink as their comfort zone and only very, very rarely step out of that established pattern. This entire post is about Hoyo's patterns for creating their mlm ships, not about gay rights activism--read the essay in the context of Hoyo's design philosophy or just stop reading here, fucking please.)

I don't want to say that Hoyo's track record on this front is bad, because honestly it's not. Their male characters often have surprisingly complex expressions of gender identity, with interesting blends of masculine and feminine traits. But... Hoyo does have a pattern. Plenty of their queer-coded MLM ships fall into this same general (and kind of stereotypical) profile: a masculine man with a more feminine man. Alhaitham is inexplicably ripped and represents calm rationality, while Kaveh is "the spitting image of his mother," has to wring out his wrists when he uses his own weapon, and represents passion and romanticism. Ayato is the head of his clan; Thoma holds housekeeping classes for Inazuma's other housewives. Xingqiu is the "refined" rich boy in ruffles; Chongyun is the down-to-earth working lad. Wriothesley is the most masculine man in Genshin Impact; Neuvillette mothers the entire race of Melusines. Over in Star Rail, Aventurine covets pink diamonds, bathes himself in sparkling perfume, and is so tiny Ratio's hands can encircle his waist. (I don't actually think Aventurine is that feminine, but trying to pretend that he isn't designed to evoke queer tropes is just silly.) Moze is as ripped as Alhaitham, while Jiaoqiu is... very pink. I'm going to talk more about Renheng in a sec, but Renheng is also this way, with the more "delicate"-looking Imbibitor Lunae to Yingxing/Blade's solid frame.

Mydei and Phainon don't fit this pattern at all. Both of them are as tall as Star Rail models come, and while Mydei's build has an impressive degree of bulk, Phainon is no slouch either:

Neither one of them is visually effeminate in any manner, and they're also not effeminate in personality or role in the story. Neither of them is a housekeeper or a home-maker; (again, poor Aventurine catching strays, but:) neither of them is in the business of blinding people into deals with their good-looks or careful facade of helplessness.

Theoretically we could say the devs tried to squish Mydei into a more heteronormative role by giving him traditionally "feminine" traits: he cooks, he plays house with children, he puts milk in his juice and turns it pink, he's paralleled almost exclusively to his own mother... But his role in the plot is such a quintessentially masculine story (son of a self-fulfilling prophecy, father-killer, god-slaying warrior, king to his people, aura-farming champion of the Amphoreus battle cutscenes, etc.) that clearly we are not meant to perceive him as a stereotypically feminine figure. The whole "malewife Mydei" thing comes across as so comedic because he is so masculine.

Conversely, Phainon, despite being the "gentler" of the two characters, the one who is described as having a soft heart and being outgoing and kind, is even less suited to being called feminine. His "Messiah"-esque role in the story, literally being the "prodigal son" of Amphoreus, paints him as the very picture of a classical male hero. Even more so than Mydei, he is a private and closed off person who hides his heart--and his own identity--from those around him, traits more often stereotypically associated with emotionally-closed-off men than female characters.

Up to this point, Hoyoverse had a relatively stable pattern in the MLM ships they baited in their recent games. They primarily played it safe, sticking to queer-coding relationships that both visually and narratively reflect heteronormative relationships.

But Phaidei once again broke the mold.

This time, Hoyo chose to queer-code not the more delicate-looking man (although I guess there's still plenty of time for Anaxa, I shouldn't sell him shorter than he already is lol), but two overtly masculine male characters, who can't be readily projected on to a stereotypical heterosexual relationship. This was a big departure from Hoyo's norm, and I think this actually deserves a lot more respect than people are giving it. Hoyo didn't have to pick their two muscle-bound warrior male leads and make them close and caring. They didn't have to expose themselves to the obvious question: "Why are two 'manly' characters being so soft on each other?" It is harder to pass off Phainon and Mydei's queer-coding as accidental, or suggest the fans are just reading too much into it, when nothing about them can be mistaken for a "traditional" heteronormative relationship. For a game produced in China, where standards for depicting men and masculinity in media are so high, making the choice to bait two masculine men together (let alone this expansion's "hero," who is an expy of a beloved former character), was a very bold and risky choice on Hoyo's part.

Companies don't make bold and risky choices on accident.

Finally, I wanted to make one more point about why I appreciate Phaidei's emotionally attentive depiction--it's because there's a whole other realm they could have taken the "definitely going to turn into a villain" queer-coded main character. As I mentioned in the first part of this post, queer-coding villains is a trope as old as dirt. When you queer-code a male villain particularly, you add an extra layer to the danger: Now the male villain is not just a physical threat, but a sexual one. Adding queer-coding to the male villain has often, in past media, been used to conflate homosexuality with deviance or perversion and suggests sexual violence even if nothing ever truly occurs.

Maybe the real Hoyoverse queer-coding was the red flower petals we threw along the way.

I said I was going to bring up Renheng, and here it is: Unfortunately, Blade and Dan Heng fall into this latter pattern a bit. Although he has his reasons, the game's portrayal of Blade's "pursuit," especially in the early portion of their story, casts Dan Heng into the role of the victim, a young man being hounded by a crazed stalker who refuses to let him go. Their cutscenes, including Dan Heng's nightmares, paint Blade as an overwhelming presence who invades both Dan Heng's physical space but also his mental space, making it impossible for Dan Heng to escape his clutches. This "We must pay the price together" absolutely reads, out of content anyway, as some sort of yandere death pact. Their lightcone is literally called "Nowhere to Run."

Even though Blade is not deliberately engaging in any form of sexual behavior, his obsession with Dan Heng in their early scenes can give players the impression of a cliched "depraved homosexual," and the implication that sexual violence could occur is present through their early interactions. This isn't on accident; Hoyo was playing with the yandere trope on purpose! I'm not going to lie, part of Renheng's early appeal for many players was how scary and dominating Blade came across as. The subtle sexual implications of pursuit are the point, and if you think Hoyo wasn't capitalizing on the intersection of "sexy" and "dangerous" with Renheng's early interactions, then you're probably a little too pure for this world.

As things progress, of course, we see this dynamic between Renheng dissipate, shifting his narrative from "crazed pursuer for unknown reasons" to "potentially the victim" of their past scenario, an effect which they achieved through the slow drip feed of Yingxing and Dan Feng's backstories. This, I think, speaks to not only a shift in the devs' intentions for Blade and Dan Heng's relationship (there's more to be said here about the Yingxing-Baiheng-Dan Feng mess that is the cut lore, etc.), but also to a shift in the way the devs wanted Blade to be perceived by fans, from a potentially predatory figure to a much less toxic potential love interest.

Anyway, back to Phaidei: We know that Phainon is headed for a downfall. It's been so obviously foreshadowed at this point that there's really nothing much more to say than that--however, even though he will likely also descend into villainy like Blade, and even though we know he's very likely going to kill Mydei... I don't think that the devs will use Phainon's queer-coding as part of his villainous identity. I don't get any sense that the dev team has any intentions of conflating Phainon's potential homosexuality with depravity, or using it as a motive for his descent into villainy (he might be gay and a villain, but he won't be a villain because he is gay). I definitely don't think we will see the kind of sexually-threatening physicality between Flame Reaver and Mydei that the devs did earlier with Blade and Dan Heng, even if "stabbing someone from behind" does have an inherent sort of sexual symbolism.

I appreciate that even in a story headed for the obvious "stabbed in the back by the villain form of the man I loved," the devs seem like they have moved on from falling into the pitfall (accidentally or intentionally, to sell yandere tropes) of portraying of gay men as predatory.

3. Leave Room for the Trailblazer

In part 1 of this post, I mentioned that Hoyo uses the placements of characters in scenes to indicate closeness, and I already pointed out that Mydei and Phainon stand really... really... close together, much closer than they stand to other characters.

However, it's not just that their models are literally positioned closer together in cutscenes--it's that their body language explicitly closes other characters out. Plenty of Hoyoverse MLM ships are ship-baited by moving the models of the male characters closer together, but very, very few of them are positioned to so consistently exclude even the player.

For comparison, consider the well-known scene where Alhaitham brings the Traveler and Paimon to his and Kaveh's house, which was framed with both domesticity and intimacy:

Although Alhaitham and Kaveh are also prone to the "stand shoulder-to-shoulder" thing that Hoyo does when they want to imply closeness between characters, the framing of their scenes nevertheless leave enough space for the Traveler and Paimon to be active participants in the conversation, enough space between Alhaitham and Kaveh for Traveler to not look blocked out.

For example, despite standing next to each other in that moment above, the camera deliberately cuts Alhaitham out, so that only Kaveh and the Traveler duo occupy the shot. Later on, Alhaitham bridges the divide between the Traveler and Kaveh, turning away from Kaveh toward the Traveler--once again, the conversation and scene are open to the Traveler, and thus, to the player.

Here's a live demonstration of my earlier point: Alhaitham and Kaveh stand closer together than the player and Candace, indicating their closer connection.

Other scenes play out similarly--although Alhaitham and Kaveh are close, their body language doesn't actively exclude other characters or the player from feeling like part of their conversations.

Over in Star Rail, we see the same general situation. We know that Aventurine rarely stands close to other characters, with Ratio being the one relatively consistent exception, but even so, the camera will usually give them some breathing room, making it feel like there's enough space for the player on the other side of the screen to be part of the moment:

Meanwhile Blade excludes both Dan Heng and the player, putting us on equal footing to Dan Heng and giving the impression that the player and Dan Heng are standing against Blade together. There is still room for "us" in this scene.

However, once again, Phaidei proves the exception. Mydei and Phainon don't just stand close--they don't even want to share air with anyone but each other.

A very normal way to have a group conversation. Definitely.

Consistently when standing side-by-side, they turn inward to face each other, rather than facing other characters in the conversation, literally forming a closed unit despite the fact that they're supposed to be in a group scene:

The thirdest third wheel to ever third wheel.

If it wasn't enough for the devs to just imply that the Trailblazer isn't able to break through Mydei and Phainon's circle, they decided to call it out in the text itself, echoing the player's own thoughts: "What about me?"

As I mentioned in the first part of the post, the devs also consistently use specific camera angles to capture both Mydei and Phainon in the frame together, at the same time, further emphasizing the closed nature of their conversations.

You will never see so many over-the-shoulder shots again in your life. You are the outsider looking in!

Perhaps most telling about the devs' intention to create an intimate air for Phainon and Mydei's conversations is that literally everyone else disappears when they speak to each other. For example, Phainon and Mydei's first goodbye takes place in the Garden of Life, which is actually a pretty bustling plaza with numerous NPCs. But every single NPC was deliberately removed by the dev team for Mydei and Phainon's scene there, to allow them a private moment:

Even in their final farewell, where Mydei was seen off by a literal bustling crowd of NPCs, not a single person is visible during their goodbyes--until the exact moment Mydei reminds Phainon that the whole rest of the world is waiting for him. The whole rest of the world didn't even exist for Phainon until Mydei forced him to remember.

It's not just the Trailblazer (and us, the player) who is third wheeling Mydei and Phainon's relationship. They literally exist in a world of their own when they speak to each other. No other modern Hoyoverse ship is on this level of excluding even the player--excluding even the damn NPCs!--to make a point about their closeness.

I thought I was going crazy the first time I was watching these scenes, thinking "It can't be that the devs actually went that far in framing Mydei and Phainon as a pair." But they did. They actually did.

The envelope has been pushed off a mountain, my guys.

But that still wasn't enough for the devs. They needed to go further.

4. Deploy Shoujo Manga Trope #57

I know I just said that Phainon and Mydei's relationship doesn't map well a typical heteronormative male/female relationship, but that doesn't mean the devs gave up on any and all attempts to apply typical romantic cliches to Phaidei. On the contrary, the dev team's thought process seems to have been "Hey, we're doubling-down on our queer-coding for Phainon and Mydei. How can we make it really, really, really obvious they're a ship?" And then they literally spun a roulette wheel of romantic tropes and threw every single one of them at patch 3.1 at the same time.

We have the "romantic lead beautifully framed by red rose petals blood glitter":

The "You used my love to manipulate me" subplot:

Phainon begs for compliments, and Mydei's reaction is to look away demurely and call him a scoundrel?? Am I seeing things?!

This is where he'd be blushing like a tomato if he was a female character.

The "please look after my dear husband when I'm gone" tragedy trope:

THE RING???

"LET'S MEET AGAIN IN THE NEXT LIFE"?!!

What do I even say about all... this...? Do I even need to say anything at all? Has any MLM ship in a recent Hoyoverse game gotten remotely as many romance flags? Alhaitham, where is Kaveh's ring?!

What I actually want to say isn't a specific breakdown of any of these moments, but what they mean in totality. Remember that Hoyo made every one of these choices with deliberate intent. They knew what the picture would add up to. These are explicitly romantic tropes that are extremely difficult to interpret in other lights.

You are supposed to read "If there's a chance in the next life" as "I want to be reincarnated with you; I want to meet you again; I want to be with you in a softer world."

You're supposed to think of the ring as a wedding ring. For one, Gorgo would only have gotten it through her marriage to Eurypon, but even more so--there was no reason this item needed to be a ring in the first place except to evoke images of wedding rings. We already knew from 3.0 that Castrum Kremnos used crests and seals for identification. Why make it a ring and not just the crest of Castrum Kremnos? Furthermore, why involve Phainon at all? The audience would never have known any different if Chartonus just said "Found this I did, have it you should, Mydei." It's a ring and it's a ring deliberately from Phainon because the devs want you to see it as a wedding ring.

What an incredibly bold move on Hoyo's part, and I don't even really mean just in the context of being a Chinese company, but even in the context of being a global company. Hoyo lives and dies by the revenue of their character banners, and choosing to explicitly and (nearly) exclusively apply romantic tropes to their male lead and deuteragonist in a brand-new patch cycle was a legitimately daring choice. Their deliberate application of romantic staples to an MLM ship, in a way that is difficult even for anti-LGBT+ fans to write off, was a very, very calculated decision. I genuinely hope it pays off for them. I hope Mydei and Phainon's banners both sell well, so the devs' receive a clear message in turn that fans appreciated their boldness and their commitment to creating queer content for these two characters.

I'm just going to end on one final note, about a scene that you may have noticed I conveniently skipped. Yes, the most conspicuous scene of them all:

5. A+ Censor Dodging

By some miracle of obliviousness, some Olympic-level mental gymnastics, or by sheer force of will, I think some people might still have made it to this point thinking that Phaidei was not being deliberately baited by the devs. You could maybe, somehow, convince yourself that the blood glitter rose petals and the shoulder-to-shoulder emotional conversations were just coincidences, that the tsundere "I'm not worried about him" was just dudes being tough guys, that the Trailblazer was a third wheel because Phainon and Mydei are "just good friends."

But then devs said "No, we need to be unmistakable. We need to make ourselves 1000% clear. We are baiting the yaoi fangirls, guys; please stop ignoring our hard work."

If going further than they've ever gone with Mydei and Phainon's body language wasn't enough, if Phainon's being willing to kill a god to save his man wasn't enough, if implying a wedding ring wasn't enough, what else could the devs possibly do to remove all plausible deniability and make it undeniably clear that Mydei and Phainon are queer characters (even if it is only for the benefit of yaoi fangirls)?

They can do something they've never done in their recent games before: Imply actual sex between male characters.

(Side note, Hoyo lesbians have had this implied sexual content pass from the beginning. You will always be famous, Beiguang. It's only the male characters that can't even have implied sex. 😂)

Obviously Phainon and Mydei are not having sex in the game. The dialogue even goes out of its way afterward to remind us that they remained fully clothed in that bath, thank you. But the refusal to show what was actually happening--censorship used as a tool to imply--the cut to the black screen, the narration of one animal pursuing another, the discretionary water droplets between the moaning... (And another little edit because @mynabirb made such a good point in the tags: The fact that they chose to "censor" this with a butterfly, the literal symbol of romance in Amphoreus, is almost too much. The devs really did say "Time to silence all doubts.")

From the player's perspective--and examining this as a choice on the dev team's part--there is no way to read this scene other than "sexually suggestive." You're supposed to think "This sounds incredibly sus." Because it is sus. Because the devs added this scene knowing that it would intentionally make people think about the idea of Phainon and Mydei having sex.

Sure, this scene is really funny in context. You're supposed to come out of it laughing, going "Wow, they're idiots." But you will also, whether you like it or not, come out of this thinking "Damn, Hoyo really went all in on the yaoi bait, didn't they?"

You can't "Devs didn't mean it" out of this one.

Which is brave as hell on Hoyo's part, to be honest! Even if this is nothing but queer-baiting, they saw that sick yaoi fan money and decided to go all in on it.

Say it with me: A dev team from a country with notoriously strict rules against depictions of homosexuality in media, from a company with a huge global fanbase including many conservative and religious countries, and with a majority male target audience, went out of their way to undeniably include sexually suggestive gay content in their game.

Whatever their motivation--be it simply money or from a genuine desire to tell gay stories--this wasn't a casual decision. This took commitment. This decision almost certainly went all the way to the top brass of the team for clearance. Someone probably had to fight to get this added.

But they did it, and not with Kaveh and Alhaitham (the previously undisputed kings of current Hoyoverse queer-coding) but with two brand-new (to Star Rail at least) characters who have extremely important roles in the game's on-going narrative--major characters who can't be overlooked.

Phaidei is literally built different.

But I'm still left with one lingering question:

Is Hoyo queer-coding or just queer-baiting?

Even though I played 3.1 in a sort of stupefied haze because I actually couldn't believe what I was seeing in Phainon and Mydei's scenes, I also ended it with a pretty bittersweet feeling.

How amazing that Hoyo pushed the envelope so far with Phaidei... But at what cost?

Did Mydei really have to leave Okhema never to return? Or is he being banished from the plot because his relationship with Phainon was too intense?

Isn't this just the "bury your gays" trope, in essence?

Lore-wise, there isn't any reason Mydei actually has to leave Okhema forever. Sure, he presumably is going to fight the Black Tide where it manifests across Amphoreus, but what about that requires him to "never return"? Demigods aren't geographically bound to the locations their Titans blessed, or Aglaea and Anaxa wouldn't be able to leave the Grove. There shouldn't be any reason Mydei can't visit Okhema when he wants.

The more you think about it, the worse it looks that the dev team implied Phaidei harder than they've ever implied an MLM ship before, only to immediately turn around and go "And then Mydei left forever." As if the only way it's okay to make characters that gay is if you then get rid of at least one of them. (Speaking humorously, at the rate Phainon and Mydei were going, if the devs didn't get rid of Mydei, he and Phainon probably would have been making out on-screen by 3.2, but you know what I mean.)

Sure Phaidei can be the MLM Star Rail ship with the most support in canon--but only at the cost of never being seen together again, apparently.

I'm not sure I like this trade off.

However, I am telling myself to remain cautiously optimistic. We know that Mydei's role in the story is not done, and that he and Phainon are destined for at least one more reunion, even if it won't be a happy one. We've been told that Amphoreus's story will be "heart-warming." I choose to believe that the devs will try to scrabble some sort of positive ending out of all this. At the very least, perhaps we'll end with a "in another life montage," and get to see Phainon and Mydei finally meeting in that library.

So is Hoyo queer-coding from a genuine desire to include gay characters or just baiting hard to sell Mydei to fangirls?

I'd say let's wait and see. Amphoreus has barely started cooking.

In the meantime, I think it is worth examining (and appreciating) Hoyo's willingness to mix up their own patterns, break their own trends, and to try something truly new and different with Phaidei. Even if this is all the content we ever get, Hoyoverse did things they haven't done before in any of their recent games, and showed that they're willing to push the limits for queer content in order to tell the stories they really want to tell.

I am a served fan, Hoyo. Well played, well played.

[love-and-war-on-cybertron]

Teach a bot to kiss: Rodimus

I rewrote this a couple times and I might just do so again. buuuuut for now.~

Rodimus taps against his desk, venting out a rush of hot air. His focus is far from the stack of data pads and he is trying to keep it even further away from the human sitting on said stack. Your focus is on your own human size data pad, trying to help him out. Optics lingering on your mouth, your lips. The shape, the color, the way they purse when you're thinking too hard. He wonders if they are as soft as your hair. Or more plush like your body when he carries you. Your lips move as you silently read to yourself, a flicker of your tongue behind teeth makes Rodimus give up any attempt to focus on work.

A few nights ago, Swerve hosted a human movie night. You had called it a rom com. Swerve and you loved it. Most were perplexed, but the snacks and drinks were worth a stay. Then there was the scene where two characters embraced each other and started smashing their intakes together. Being the only human aboard, and thus defacto human expert, the bots asked you questions about the strange act. The closest any of them came to understanding your flustered explanation was a data transfer without cables… and data. Just sensitive nerves of the lips.

Rodimus spent every night since tracing the lines of his derma, wondering what it would feel like to kiss. More specifically, what kissing YOU would feel like. Curiosity leading to more research of rom coms. More research leading to more curiosity. Curiosity leading to want. There was one teeny tiny problem. Actually there were multiple problems, including the fact he was the captain of the ship. No doubt in his mind that Ultra Magnus could pull at least ten codes on what that was not permitted from his memory. The biggest problem, is the smallest.

You. You are small.

Most organic species are diminutive compared to Cybertronians, humans especially so. Rodimus thinks it's adorable, who knew there was something smaller than a minibot? You are tiny and soft and fragile. One wrong swipe of his hand had already sent you to the med bay. If he picks you up and squeezes too hard, if a bot isn't paying attention to where they are stepping, if you fall off their shoulders. Just being around his kind is risky. When has Rodimus ever shied away from risk?

It wasn't like you two hadn't been dancing around some sort of mutual attraction. Snarky innuendos, compliments, any excuse to spend time together. There was something there. Rodimus may not be able to do a data transfer with you, but he had a mouth, and you had a mouth. could he kiss you? Would his size be an issue? what if he didn't like it? What if you didn't like it?

"Can you show me how to kiss?"

Looking up from the datapad, you give Rodimus a questioning look. Clearly doubting you heard correctly, "What?"

He carefully takes the datapad between his thumb and index, placing it to the side, his optics focused on you, "Show me how to kiss, like in the movie."

"Oh… Oh um…. wow." You take a moment and run your hand over your hair, "You want to… learn how to kiss?" He could practically hear you panicking internally. See your temp rise the same way it did when he would teas you.

"Yeah. Cultural exchange." Rodimus chuckles, tapping his digits against his face plate. The way he says that has you narrowing your eyes and catching onto his game.

"Cultural exchange?"

"Cultural exchange."

"Alright… pucker up."

After explaining why you said that, a little bit of snark, and a little bit of thinly veiled flirting; Rodimus had you in his hands, lifted up to reach him better. Your eyes flickering over his helm, his finials, the lines of his hands. Anywhere but his optics.

"Nervous?" he asks.

You pause, a hand on his chassis to steady yourself. Eyes finally meeting his gaze, "Yeah…"

His spark flutters at the soft tone you take. "Yeah… me too." Rodimus watches as you find a comfortable position, glancing up at him. He doesn't want to say too much and make you change your mind. "I'm gonna… just… you stay still, okay?"

Rodimus nods and keeps himself still as possible, feeling the rapid beat of your heart through your hands on either side of his face plates. Carefully lifting yourself close, his other hand comes to steady you. It reminds him how fragile you are. A kiss to his chin doesn't give much sensation, but Rodimus' spark still jumps and chases his thoughts away from those thoughts. A kiss to his helm and he dims his optics with a hum. Intakes hitch when your lips find the corner of his mouth, making him turn his head. Brushing against your mouth before he jerks back.

"Sorry." He mumbles, shifting slightly. Patience was a virtue he struggled with. One kiss in and Rodimus wants more, to kiss you back, like they did in the movie. You just offer him another smile and kiss again. The metal here has some give to it, smooth, warmer than the rest of him. Which was a lot to say for a bot that already ran hotter than most. From the corner, to the center; small pecks trace the seam of his mouth.

Rodimus dares to give in and kiss you back, his movements restricted and stiff. Hand flexes slightly against your body. He doesn't like being passive, and shifts, hand still cupped against you to avoid another trip to medical. Every peck from you is followed but a gentle nudge back from him, the puckering eludes him. Doesn't stop the bot from pressing against your cheek, trying to mimic what you did earlier. It takes a couple tries to properly judge how much pressure he needs. It's more nuzzling that your typical kiss. A good first try for a cybertronian. Soft. So soft. All of you, but your lips especially so. Rodimus gets bold, trailing kisses. With enough nuzzling to find the right spot, your neck. His engine revs in response to your gasp. That was a good sign, he was doing something right. Another and your muttering something, pushing him away.

"That's for another day Roddy." You press your forehead to his chin and ignore his pout.

Rodimus presses a kiss to your cheek again and you can feel him purse his lips, getting a little better, "So I'm the greatest kisser you ever had, right?" "Oh my god…"

[dangermousie]

The Glory (2025) - final verdict

For those who don't want to read the whole thing, short version: has its issues but overall would recommend.

Now, you may go "but Mousie, you ranted so much recently, really? What changed?" Two things - (1) I adjusted genre expectations and (2) after the nadir of eps 20-25, I found 26-end quite solid and much more to my liking (they moved on from random side characters and back to core relationships; it also helped enormously that FL again started caring for someone(s) who are alive - concubine, stepkid, husband etc.) The drama never returned to true obsession levels of first half for me but it finished well.

Anyway, moving on...

Visually, this drama remained GORGEOUS throughout. I can forgive a lot to a drama this beautifully shot; the look is even more impressive when you know it didn't have a large budget.

The acting was also solid - Chen Duling slowly but steadily went from "oh her ugh" to "oh her yay" for me with every drama and this is no exception. I don't think I'd want to be friends with Hanyan and I don't necessarily like her as a person, but she was wonderfully acted (in addition to being solidly written about which more below.) It was very much her show and the rest, ML included, were basically supporting characters and she carried it off.

The plot was...not great. This writer wanted to get from point A to point B without caring much about the route (Royal Consort's basically offscreen-plotted downfall that took five minutes total is a particular lowlight but the dad's apparently incredible powers - how is he not the prime minister with those skills - were also not great.) But not every drama can be Joy of Life or The Advisors Alliance and compared to something like e.g., Si Jin or Brocade other recent grrlpower dramas, the plot of this one was quite good.

The villain was a weakness because it's boring to have a true sociopath with no complexity or weakness or anything. I suspect the writer just saw him as a stand-in for the patriarchy all these women needed to defeat (the heavy-handed message of this drama was very) but still - a little complexity would help. I do think the men overall were an afterthought in this - the women were all well thought through and whether you liked them or not, logical results of their relationships and circumstances, the men (even the ML) not so much. They were all the equivalent of busty girls in a shounen anime. I do think this is a failure of writing - you can have one-gender focused stories that still make the other appear real people (Joy of Life female characters and Legend of Zhen Huan male characters all feel like real people) but it's honestly not a cardinal sin here since the focus WERE the women and they were written well so I didn't feel the lack most of the time (if only supportings are written meh, it's forgivable.) But the female characters were all intriguing and the story took many of them places I did not expect (the concubine and her daughter? OMG about both of them.)

I ended up buying the ship because they do fit together (and would one really inflict either of these violent schemers on a "normal" person?) but if you want a romance-centric drama, this is obviously not for you. Interestingly, while I ended up liking them and shipping them, I was not rabid the way I thought I'd be and the lack of focus is not really the reason - I was RABID about Kill My Sins protags as a couple and they never even said I Love You let alone kiss or anything. But that's probably because in addition to just preferring LSS x Shawn as actors (they are both huge faves of mine), that drama was a true dual protagonist story - they both were mains in their own lives and narratives which occasionally intersected and were allowed great and equal complexity and life outside the narrative which made me more invested. FYX was hot and psycho and angsty which I love in a fictional man, but he never felt truly fleshed out outside the narrative and interactions/meaning to Hanyan.

I loved loved loved how uncompromisingly bleak this world was and how the characters all stepped in the muck and stayed there (for once, people with trauma did not miraculously come across as saintly and chirpy) and how there were second chances for characters who'd normally not get them (the concubine and her daughter) and how both FL and ML (and concubine etc) did things that I morally disapproved of or that (more shockingly) censors should disapprove of yet it made sense in character and, totally unexpectedly, they were not punished with death by the narrative because people are complex and outcomes are complex and and and.

I also loved that Fu Yunxi was married before and banged his first wife and seems to have liked her. Thank you!!!! (Seeing some peeps on mdl/twitter trying to bend themselves into pretzels to preserve a period adult man's virginity for FL was...well.) I loved that he was a random war orphan, no secret noble identity. I loved that lesbian pirate got to live and hopefully will come back to FL someday. I loved that the happiness at the end was "for now" but sufficient.

Anyway, this is going on and on and on so I am gonna stop on saying I adored that this was a dark story that has been so sadly absent from recent sunshine cdramas and that it had real danger and stakes. It became a surprise hit and I really do think it shows there is hunger for these types of stories; hopefully producers will take note. And I love that the protags were allowed to do all that and yet get a happy ending. That is so so so rare and so so so appreciated.

[vroomvroomwee]

Unpopular opinion, but I think the hellaverse team are really fucking up with the new merch drop. Don't get me wrong I'm really happy for radioapple shippers you guys must be over the moon, but I can't help but dread the reactions after season 2.

Because there's two options:

a) Radioapple becomes canon.

Personally, I really wouldn't like the ship to be canon because ultimately I think it's more fun to explore the dynamic from a fanon standpoint. It wouldn't make sense to focus on their relationship when there's so little time, when Lucifer and Lilith are still in love (confirmed by Vivzie), when Alastor is still aspec rep and many people find comfort in seeing a character who isn't in a relationship, and especially when the CANON VERY HEALTHY wlw main relationship is so overlooked by the mlm ones. Also, it would paint Vivzie as a liar since she's all about freedom of shipping and it would prove how popular headcanons and ships, bullying, nagging and putting pressure on creators would eventually reward the fans which is... yeah, not a good message to send.

Or

b) Radioapple doesn't become canon.

Now, this is what is itching at my nerves. Because I think we all know that particular section of the Hazbin fandom would completely rage that their fav ship isn't canon. They're already famous for sending threats and harassment to artists, fic writers and other individuals for shipping Lucifer and Alastor with other characters I can't imagine what will happen if all that radioapple buzz from Hot Topic, from Vivzie, from Amazon Prime, from their official twitter accounts proves to be just bait. Not to mention there will be a whole wave of accusations that all of these parties were queerbaiting with their radioapple merch because they know people will buy it and stay interested in the show which if we're being honest isn't untrue. There will be all of this buildup, all of this leading fans on only for nothing? Especially if we're considering the fact that Al and Lucy don't seem to be involved in any other merch or posts with other characters or ships (eg. lucilith, radiostatic, radiorose, charlastor etc.)

Personally, I think the merch is obviously meant for a cash grab, which is what makes me concerned because they don't seem to be levelling the field at all with either denying the ship is canon or confirming it. All they seem to be doing is watch the drama unfold and not regulate it in the slightest. Ultimately, if the ship doesn't become canon (which it probably won't) there will be heavy backlash

I think radioapple can be a cute ship (if done properly), but I'm very scared for season 2 lmfaoo cuz we know from experience this fandom can't keep it's cool when it comes to this ship

[dedise]

comprehensive list of things CriMi fans need to accept:

both JJ and Reid were valid in their reactions in season 7: JJ didn't have a choice, as much as she saw her friends hurting if she had told just one of them that Emily was alive Emily's life would have been in serious danger; likewise, Spencer had a right to be hurt by it, and as a recovering addict it's fair that he might have thought of relapsing. both points of view were fair, JJ's comment on Reid's profiling skills was probably made so that Spencer would talk to her

people getting hung up on Rossi's comment of what he had done to the black kid when he was a child in the 60's (or around then) are incapable of accepting that people can change, and that the world isn't black and white. wether it truly happened or not, it happened during a time period where racism was, in fact, the norm, and where Rossi might not have had an easy time either (Italians weren't exactly liked by Americans at first, that's a fact). it was poor person versus poor person, an unlucky and uncomfortable situation. the fact he was wrong in his actions doesn't mean he wasn't able to grow and become better, people change

JJ's character ended up being used to shoulder everyone else, she was demonished in lieu of elevating others

Derek's "Devil's advocate" persona was unnerving, he was never right in his assumptions. sometimes he was an horrible friend, referencing to when Penelope wanted to visit the guy that almost killed her and Reid in the season 9 finale. get a grip my dude, emotions are conflicting

as much of a light in the darkness Penelope is, she was objectively too much sometimes. her being unable to keep secrets is not quirky or cute, it's embarassing. y'all defend her because she is a fictional character, if you had someone like her around you probably wouldn't be able to stand her

Hotch leaving the way he did did not make sense. he didn't leave when his wife was murdered while their son was in the house, bfr

Jason was NOT a good mentor. he brutally ignored Spencer's addiction (technically it was his problem, as Reid was his protegé), called Hotch on his birthday even tho he had the weekend off, and probably knew Hotch and Haley were having issues. he was kind of a dick tbh

Haley had her rights. she married a lawyer, not a fed. they had a child. she was worried and wanted her son to have a father, and Hotch to know his son

fans baby Spencer way too much. he's a grown ass man, the fact he's "hot" doesn't mean he can't make mistakes. "uwu autistic" he's an adult

the CriMi writers jump from one money bag to the other; when Hotch left Spencer became the sole focus of everything, now that Spencer isn't in the show anymore they're queerbaiting with Jemily, and their quirky one liners for Voit are just cringe

they're trying to paint Voit as the new Foyet, only problem is that Foyet was actually terrifying, and had a sarcastic and cynical sense of humor. Voit tries, and fails

Evolution is NOT good. the team went from incredibly smart to a bunch of idiots, Voit did not need to appear for season 17, let alone 18. Bailey's "master plan" to dismember the BAU is empty, he tells them "don't", they do, and nothing happens to them. he's there as a place holder because the writers needed a way to reach the 45 minute episode mark

the "family dynamic" in Evolution does not exist. they left Rossi to his own devices for a whole year, where's the family in that?

Luke Alvez is a good character, argue with the wall

"BAU gate" existed for years, the Unit Chiefs knew, yet Hotch didn't say anything, or Penelope (master hacker) wasn't able to close it and track the creator? yeah, no, that plotline sucks

Will DOES NOT deserve the hate he gets. he's a great husband, great father, Jemily shippers are hating on him because it gets in the way of their fantasy ship

back to Derek, when he was angry he said hurtful stuff indeed, unfortunately tho some people do react that way, it's very realistic (also considering that due to what happened when he was child, he tends to be distrustful). he's very well written, and people ignore that at his core he is a teddy bear. he's complex, and it is interesting to see the two worlds collide lmao

every BAU member is human, they all have good and bad qualities, humans are not monodimensional

maybe I left something out, lmk your thoughts (asks are open if you wish to stay anonymous)

[microknifeyuri]

i find it genuinely sad that people only talk about misogyny on the ii fandom when it comes to defending taco but no one goes over the way people treats most of the female characters which is like ACTUALLY misogynistic and the actual issue. i went over taco's thing a lot of times already but i'll also cover it here. like lets see how people treat women on ii briefly.

like have you seen how people treat suitcase. how she's often treated as a kid/constantly forgotten as a person outside of using her as a weapon to villainize a guy that does want to fix things with her. have you seen how little care people put on her. have you seen how they only remember that she exists for suitloon or barely even have anything to comment on her

have you seen people talking about candle outside of her being hot or outside of silvercandle? have you seen how people LITERALLY villainized her because she wanted to take care of herself? have you seen anyone say anything about her on a deep way? have you ever seen people focus on the way working with silver affected her outside of "silver doesn't deserve her"?

have you seen how GENUINELY HORRID people were about cabby winning s3? how they still SOMEHOW made it about silver? how people were incredibly ableist towards her? how they still kept going on how cabby wasn't an actual good person? on how she didn't deserve the win?

have you seen how mic, the character that genuinely has the best writting in the whole show, only gets talked about to completely miss the point of her arc AND ONLY for shipping, completely disregarding her growth as a person? completely forgetting that her story is one of growth and healing?

have you seen how people sexualized test tube to the point where she's only seen as a hot scientist or as a weird gal who's a freak instead of focusing on the fact that she's someone who heavily struggles with mental health and making connections? like people simped a lotttttt for her when she was having a whole breakdown because she was going to lose her friend, and no one really focused fully on those aspects of test tube's character.

have you seen the overall way people treat lightbulb? she's just a shell of her character for the fandom. she's genuinely so so deep and interesting but she got fully downgraded to just nonsense on fanon takes.

have you seen how people treat taco? have you seen someone even focus on her as a character outside of her being a "hot villain"? have you seen anyone actually get what she's going through? have you seen anyone wanting her to get better but also not forgetting what she has done? have you seen anyone actually understand why she can't get a redemption arc on the traditional sense? have you seen anyone not immediately go to defend her when taco herself does not want to be excused, nor does she think she should be? have you seen anyone getting that she's a complex character and that they can still enjoy her without having to excuse her actions? have you seen anyone ACTUALLY getting why taco needs to let go of ii and not make up with the people she hurted? have you seen anyone treating taco on a reasonable way? have you seen anyone treating her as fully capable of doing bad things but also capable of getting better if she really does try? have you seen SOMEONE that actually CARES about taco outside of her being attractive?

my point is. the ii fandom is rooted in misogyny, yes. but it is not because of people preferring other characters or what not. sure there MIGHT be some cases in which that's the thing, but most of times it isn't. the fandom is genuinely overall horrid about women and don't actually focus on them outside of being hot either. like i have once seen someone who genuinely hated candle but simped for her because her violence was hot in ep 17 and like. that's Not Really Good.

and most of the fem characters that aren't deemed hot or don't have anything to hate them for get often ignored (ex. pepper, soap, clover, etc). also don't get me started on how MOST OF THE TIMES THEY JUST HAVE TO give women a familiar relationship with a male character to which they happen to have a positive relationship with on hcs (ex. Candle and Yinyang being hced as mother/sons, Cabby and Yinyang is the same case) which uh. you know. it doesn't really sit right with me

you can think a woman character is hot/attractive and also care about her. you can like a fucked up woman as well while also not justifying her actions, it won't make you a bad person. like personally i really really love microphone and find her attractive but at the same time i genuinely care about her story and how much she's a story about growth and finding yourself, alongside with other people. a lot of the stories of the women charas are ultimately about growth and finding themselves on ii. and i think all of you should be focusing on the depth of a character instead on whether a character is hot or not therefore we can define if they deserve to be treated with decency, like that's ever done anything positive anyway

!! THIS POST IS NOT LOOKING TO CAUSE TACO RELATED DISCOURSE. KEEP THAT SHIT TO YOURSELF. THIS POST WAS MADE AS A FORM OF CRITICISM ON HOW LITTLE PEOPLE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT FEM CHARACTERS ON II WHILE ACCUSING OTHERS OF MISOGYNY SO DELIBERATELY. IF YOU GET OUT OF TOPIC I'LL BITE YOUR HEAD OFF (NOT A SERIOUS THREAT BUT BY GOD BE DECENT) !!

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

i've seen zks be like "if we were self inserting we would've been doing so with mai since she's such a blank slate character" but the thing is mai *does* have a personality, it's just an unconventional type of personality they can't personally relate to as much as they can with katara or jin

Katara also has a personality - one zutarians constantly disregard for the sake of self-inserting. Hence them constantly going on and on about how "No 14-year-old girl would go for a bald 12-year-old instead of the hot, older guy with a cool scar."

I wouldn't even say Mai's personality is unconventional, it's just personality that sexism says girls should not have. Being all nurturing and soft and vulnerable with someone else doesn't come easy to her, she doesn't react with too much emotion to most things, yet she will speak her mind when something isn't to her liking - and most things are not to her liking because, despite her apathy, she's not exactly someone people would discribe as "easy going". If Mai was a guy, especially a conventionally attractive one, she would be super popular, much like her boyfriend who could be a real bastard sometimes.

You just have to look at all the zutara fics, fanart and meta that constantly make Mai out to be an uncaring, cruel, and downright abusive person for doing things like not pretending to like something just because her boyfriend was the one to get it for her, or getting cranky, or asking Zuko to get her food, or simply getting mad at him when he unfairly accuses her of liking someone else... and then act like Katara is the "better woman" for supposedly being super easy going and "only wanting love"

Zutarians want a doormat girl that they can use to not only ship themselves with Zuko, but also to CONSTANTLY suck up to him. Katara just happened to be the one that was there from the start and, more importantly, didn't actually interact with Zuko that much, so she doesn't ruin their fantasy of "ideal girlfriend for precious boy Zuko" (extra ironic considering that, if Katara really was that passive instead of stubborn and strong-willed, Zuko would fucking hate her).

Because Zuko and Katara are rarely seen truly talking to each other and having to deal with their clashing personalities/goals, zutarians just pretend the negative scenes were "repressed sexual tension" to ignore the simple fact that these two characters genuinely hated each other - Zuko hated her for being a foreigner that dared to put up a fight against his nation's imperialism, and Katara hated him because imperialism killed nearly everyone in her tribe, including her mom - and then hyper focus on the few positive scenes, taking them out of context to make it romantic.

More importantly, they can pretend that they were TOTALLY thinking about each other during all those scenes in which they're dealing with literally any problem, as if Zuko and Katara were each other's "saviors", even though their arcs have nothing to do with each other -and since these are the overwhelming majority of the "scenes with zutara subtext" they are PERFECT for people who like self-inserting because they are completely blank slates.

But Mai? There are entire episodes in which her romance with Zuko is a super important part of the plot - and she speaks her mind regardless of whether Zuko likes what she has to say. She can be bossy, she can be cranky, and she is her own damn self (which Zuko canonically likes). More importantly, the show doesn't take the easy route of "every problem in their relationship is caused by something outside of their control, like the war or an obviously evil romantic rival that is totally coercing one of them into a relationship" - aka the lazy excuses Zutarians use to justify why their ship was never canon, let alone endgame.

Mai's personality is not easy to erase because she has an actual dynamic with Zuko, something Katara didn't have until the very end of the show and thus it naturally didn't get fleshed out enough to threaten the idealized version of it zutarians came up with in their heads. If Mai had been a one-off character like Jin, with only enough time to be charmed by Zuko's cluelessness, they would LOVE her.

[sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes]

snakes and octopi give the best snuggles

Word count: 2,727 (wow, satisfying!)

Warnings: nightmares, brief descriptions of violence and gore, brief descriptions of kidnapping, spoilers for the movie Martyrs (2008), cursing, could be interpreted as u!Patton but he's more just young and foolish

Relationships: dark side family, focus on platonic anxceit and platonic dukexiety, no romantic ships

Characters: Virgil, Janus, Remus, Orange Side, Roman (mentioned), Patton (mentioned), c!Thomas (mentioned), Logan (mentioned)

The first Sanders Sides fanfiction I've finished writing in nearly 4 years!!! Woohoo!

Note: part of this is inspired by the beginning of Alice In Wonderland (2010)

“I really don't see why that's such a big deal.”

A snake crossed his arms from where he leaned against the counter. A hot-blooded short fuse paced across the living room carpet.

“You should be able to! He thinks he's so high and mighty, trying to take as much creative control as he can for himself! It's absurd!”

“On the other hand, giving too much control to You-Know-Who could be disastrous.”

“Good! Maybe those three need a wake up call, Janus! They get to sit on their fucking diamond-encrusted thrones all day while we rot in this putrid basement!”

Janus stood up straight, letting his muscles tighten slightly, “my job is Self Preservation, and the best way to keep our Centre’s mental health at its prime right now is to let them walk all over us.”

The other side narrowed his eyes, “and what's that going to do in the long run, huh? Make their high horses’ legs even longer?” he stomped over to the deceitful side, poking his chest, ”shove their heads even higher up their own asses?!”

“What it'll do in the long run,” Janus clenched his fist, “is for us to begin influencing Thomas when he's at a less busy stage in his life. Intrusive thoughts and dark creativity aren't good for adulting, Wrath. Be reasonable.”

“I'll show you how to be reasonable-”

“Guys?”

Orange and Yellow both shrieked at the small voice, whipping around to see Gray looking at them through the bannister, blanket pulled around his shoulders and his hair a mess.

“God, we need some sort of alarm for when you pop up…”

Janus glared at Wrath and turned to look at the youngest side, his expression softening.

“Another nightmare?”

Anxiety nodded.

“Come on then,” Janus took the boy's hand and led him back up the stairs, but only after calling a quick “you're burning up!” over his shoulder, and Wrath immediately ran to get himself some ice water.

Janus sat at the boy’s bedside, silently watching as he pulled the covers up to just under his eyes and laid back to rest his head on the pillow.

“Come on then,” he reached onto the floor and grabbed Anxiety’s favourite bat plushie, passing it to him, “tell me what happened.”

The small side hugged the toy as tight as his little arms would let him as he began to recall the events of his night terror.

“I-I was on a stage, in front of millions of people… we were performing some sort of comedy.”

“We?” Janus chimed in, “who else was there?”

Anxiety paused for a second and grimaced as he focussed on the memory, “well there's Thomas, a-and… the light sides.”

Deceit made a rumbling sound of acknowledgement in the back of his throat, hand gripping the bed sheets.

“And… they hate me,” he pressed the bat plushie to his face, “s-so much. They say I'm bad, a pest mist.”

“Pessimist,” Janus gently corrected, though his thoughts were somewhere else entirely.

“Yeah, that… and…” Anxiety’s trembles grew, “and…”

Janus shushed him softly, “hey, hey,” he opened up his arms, an invitation, “it's alright, spiderling. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”

The child shook his head and crawled into the hug, breathing out as strong yet gentle arms enveloped him.

“No, no, I-... I wanna.”

The elder side nodded.

“I, um, so I tried to fix the problem by quitting the show, throwing in the towel, all of that…”

“Yeah?”

“But t-that made them even more mad. They chased after me, broke into my room,” Anxiety tightened his grip on Janus’ shirt as more tears welled up in his eyes, “they took me away from you, and w-wouldn’t let me see you ever again!”

Janus swallowed.

“Impossible,” he whispered, “they would never be able to keep us away from you, my dear. We'd tear down every wall in the Mind Palace to get you back.”

The child went still, his breath catching in his throat.

“Virgil?”

Silence.

“I know you’re awake, sootywing.”

“You’re gonna be mad…”

“You don't have to hide anything from me, honey. It's just a dream.”

“W-well…” he swallowed, “in the dream y-you did try to get me back at first. But then…” fresh tears messed up his eyeshadow even more, “then you said that things were better here without me, that- that-”

Janus stopped resisting his urges, allowing his other 2 pairs of arms to wrap around the small side.

“Never,” he hissed fiercely, rubbing Virgil's back and holding his face in his hand, “you could never make things worse, my little raccoon.”

“They said the opposite,” the other whispered, voice still shaking but less so now that he was in one of Janus’ super-special-super-rare hugs, “that I just make Thomas's days worse, that I'm a burden on him that needs to be controlled, that-”

“-is absolutely not true,” Janus finished for him.

“Is it though?”

Janus frowned.

“I-in the dream,” Virgil continued, “after you guys left me with them for a while, I s-started to get used to being with them a-and eventually,” he hiccuped, voice thick with guilt, “I was happy with them.”

“Sweetheart…”

“I'm sorry!” Anxiety sobbed into his chest, “I don't know why it happened, I-”

Janus laid Virgil back into his bed, tucking him in with his bat plushie and gently wiping away his tears.

“That was just Stockholm Syndrome, honey.”

Virgil tilted his head to the side in confusion, and Janus melted a little at the pure objective cuteness of the small action. This kid wasn't just his spiderling, his black kitten, his baby bat, his raven, the Dark Mindscape’s little hidden butterfly, their raccoon… he was now his little black lab puppy too.

“It's when a hostage sympathises with their captor,” Janus explained, “It happens often. And remember, this was all a dream, it doesn't mean you would actually feel that way if it happened.”

The kid nodded and took a few deep breaths, blinking slowly before looking back up at the older side.

“D-do you think I'm bad?”

“Oh, darling,” Janus leaned down to press a kiss to his kid’s forehead, “we're all bad here.”

Virgil leaned up to trace his little fingers along Janus’ scales, and Janus gently took his hand in his own and kissed it too. Virgil smiled a little at that, and the sight was enough to fill Janus’ heart with joy for weeks.

“Well,” he mumbled under his breath as he pulled away, “that's what Morality thinks.”

“What was he like? Before the split?” Virgil heard him anyway. Janus forgot the kid had near-superhuman hearing.

Janus leaned back and thought for a moment, “at one point, we were very close. Back before he decided that lying is never good,” he frowned slightly, “we used to… bake cookies together, things like that.”

“Could we do that?” Virgil piped up, “bake cookies? It sounds fun.”

The yellow one smiled, “of course, hun. Just make sure Duke doesn't try to put glass shards in the batter.”

“Or Wrath with the hottest hot sauce?”

“Yes, that too.”

Janus looked around the room absentmindedly, eyes eventually locking onto the terrarium containing his baby’s baby tarantula.

“You know, if those light sides are ever mean to you, you could start feeding Charlotte fatter worms.”

“Why?”

“Because. She'll get bigger, and bigger, until one day she looks like Shelob…”

The snake side leaned down so that his face was inches from Virgil's, and smirked.

“...and you can set her after them to gobble them up!” Janus scuttled the fingers of all six of his hands along the boy’s sides, mimicking the movement of a spider’s legs, making the child shriek with laughter.

“Hahahahaha! Stop! S-stop! Janus!” He gasped out between giggles.

Janus eventually let him go (though only after having thoroughly enjoyed the angelic sound of his kid’s unbridled laughter) and sat back up, looking down at the little jumping spider with a smile he would never let anyone else see.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Mhm,” he nodded, “thanks, J.”

“It's my pleasure,” he murmured, reaching out to cup Virgil's face for a moment, green and purple eyes meeting yellow and brown ones, before standing up and walking towards the door.

Right as he opened it, Virgil called out to him again.

“Janus?”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

He melted even further at that.

“And I you,” Janus breathed out, voice and face full of fondness, “more than you'll ever know.”

Virgil's eyes shone along with his smile, and Janus took in the sight for a moment before switching off the light.

“Try and get some more sleep, hopefully with dreams full of fluffy spiders.”

“Night, Jan.”

He shut the door gently.

As his door shut, Virgil's room was cut off from the light in the hallway and plunged into pitch darkness. While he didn't mind this at all, he wasn't the slightest bit tired anymore, and it was hard to read books in the dark.

He reached behind his pillow and grabbed his trusty flashlight, fiddling around in the darkness until he found the ‘on’ button.

When he finally turned it on, the first thing he saw was a mad face inches from his own.

“Hey Virgie.”

Said side immediately screeched and whacked the intruder on the head with the torch, already hyperventilating.

“Remus, oh my God!” he shrieked, “I thought you left here when I fell asleep last night!”

Having already recovered from the blow, the Duke sat up and shook his head, specks of blood splattering on the bed sheets and walls.

“Nope! I've been here all night pretty much!”

“What? Where?!”

“Well,” he suddenly turned shy, ”you know how you've been having problems with that monster under your bed?”

“Of course,” Virgil groaned.

“I know, I know, but listen to this! There's a portal under your bed that leads to my room!”

“You can come in here when my door is locked?! When I don't want you to?!”

“Well, not anymore. Now that you know it's there you can lock it whenever.”

“Oh,” Anxiety breathed out and nodded, “that's okay I guess.”

“So!” Remus started, “while you were asleep I portaled to my room to get some stuff and…”

The Duke reached behind his back and pulled out a DVD case, shoving it right in Virgil's face.

Virgil read the title on the front of the case and gasped, “Martyrs? Remus-”

“I know! I was able to get a copy dubbed in English too! The movie just came out so I think it's a great find!”

“But-”

“And, like, Virgie, I know you can speak French for some reason and all but frankly the language sucks and I want to focus on the gore instead of the subtitles.”

“Remus, it's an 18+ movie!”

“Yeah!” He grinned manically, “you're 8, I'm a teen, and there's a plus because it's premium, just for us! Come on, let's watch it! I know you're wide awake after that nightmare.”

“Oh!” Virgil bellowed, “so you were here when that happened and you did nothing! Great! Thanks! You're such a good big brother!”

“I didn't wanna make it worse!”

“And why would that happen?”

“You were sleep-talking.”

“...Oh.”

“Mhm.”

There was a moment of tense silence.

“Any-fuckin’-way,” Remus hopped up from the bed and turned on the TV on Virgil's dresser, “Martyrs time!”

They were both sitting on the floor, Remus hugging Virgil from behind with his chin resting on his head.

“Jan and Wrath were talking about you when I went down.”

*Really?” Remus mumbled as he continued to stare at the screen, watching in awe and admiration as Lucie shot each member of the family who tortured her.

“Mhm,” Virgil nodded, “something about creative control.”

Remus froze as he processed the words, scrambling to pause the movie before staring down at his friend, “what did they say?”

“Uhh,” Virgil’s mind blanked for a second as he continued to look at the screen, which had been paused on a frame of the dead daughter, “someone trying to take it away from you?”

Remus stayed silent.

“And then they called you Dark Creativity?”

“I-” he stuttered.

“And then they said there were 3 light sides instead of 2-”

Remus pushed the words out as quickly as possible before Virgil could interrupt him again, “I’monlyhalfofCreativityandtheotherhalfismybrother.”

Virgil stared at him blankly as his brain slowly dissected the jumble of words just thrown at him.

“You're… not all of Creativity?”

Remus shook his head, not wanting to speak for one of the only times in his life.

“...How?”

“Well… the reason we're all split into light and dark is because the original Creativity split first. When Thomas was around your age he got too Christian and decided all the fun stuff was bad so it was forced out and voila! It made yours truly. And then Morality decided to split all of us off.”

“Why?!”

“I dunno, for funsies I guess.”

“Huh… So is your brother the one trying to take more creative control?”

“Eugh, probably.”

“Don't like him then, I'm guessing?”

“He's the worst!” Remus hollered, “all glitter and ponies and magic godmothers! The only ones who die on his side of the Imagination are villains!”

Virgil gasped, “is that why I'm not allowed in the Imagination alone?!”

“Yeah, but don't go snooping around now that you know that! And don't let Wrath or Janus know that you know about my twin!”

“Why?”

“They wanted to wait til you were older so you would understand. The split is behind us, Virgie. It's the past. And you came after it. You being a dark side from the moment you formed was the start of our perfect family. You don't need to dwell on something you didn't exist to see.”

“Okay,” Virgil nodded and then giggled, “way to bash the entire subject of History there.”

“If you learn from it you can't repeat the best bits!”

Virgil laughed and relaxed into his friend's hold as he unpaused the film.

Both of them stared at the screen as the credits rolled.

“Keep doubting…” Remus echoed.

Virgil hummed in thought, “what afterlife would make someone want to go to it, but for others to not know what it is?”

“Maybe if there's none at all?”

“But then why would she want to stop living?”

“Because she knows all the work she's done torturing people til their last breath was for nothing, and that life really has no meaning at all?”

“No afterlife is boring though, Remus. Surely you agree?” Virgil turned to look back up at him, “wouldn't you want it to be some sort of Lovecraftian hell?”

“Oh, I would love that, you know I would. But, y'know,” the Duke sighed, “Occam's razor gotta cut us out of our skin and bleed us out until we're dried skin suits and a pile of bones.”

“Eugh.”

“Yum.”

“Ew!”

They both giggled. Virgil shifted until his back was pressing into Remus’ chest and he closed his eyes with a content sigh. Watching the goriest movie ever made with his insane best friend really tired him out.

Remus crossed his legs to wrap them around Virgil and tightened his hold. A surge of violent protectiveness coursed through his veins as he thought back to the conversation between him and Janus he had eavesdropped on.

“Hey, salticidae?”

“Hm?”

“If those light sides ever do try to Beauty And The Beast ya or some shit, you can call me to come and help you through the portal!”

“...Oh!” Virgil’s eyes lit up, “that's a great idea! As long as you bring some weapons with you.”

“For you,” Remus grinned, “I’d bring only my best.”

When Janus and Wrath recovered from their screaming match and went to check on the youngest, they were met with a sight that was immediately placed into the family photobook.

Virgil was curled up into a ball while hugging his bat plushie close to his chest, letting out tiny high pitched snores. Remus was wrapped around him with all 4 limbs plus his tentacles, letting out much bigger, grosser snores.

Ironically, being cuddled by the embodiment of intrusive thoughts was a great way to get rid of nightmares.

And, for nearly a decade, everything was perfect for the little dark family.

Until, like the twisted shadow of a Disney Princess, Virgil's dream came true.

[finishwhatyoustarted-event]

Tools Tuesday - Tagging - March 18

This Tools Tuesday is all about tagging, for when you’re ready to post your finished work on Archive of Our Own or any other site that uses tags! AO3, as the most popular fic posting site, will be the focus.

To begin: what are tags? And why do we use them?

Tags are keywords used to describe a fic or post. They can serve a variety of functions, but at their core they tell a viewer what to expect when they click in. On some sites (like Tumblr), they are at the bottom of the post or in the body of the post (like bsky). On AO3, they are the third thing seen, after title and author.

As seen in this handy infographic from SummerofSpock on tumblr, tags on A03 fall into 5 rough categories: Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme.

[full image ID in ALT text. Infographic titled “Tags are Tricky…a quick and dirty guide” with tag example lists in the categories of Canon, Format, Tone, Relationship, Theme. Each box is a different pink, in a gradient. End ID.]

source: https://summerofspock.tumblr.com/post/698388759652319232/mostlyinthemorning-i-kind-of-suck-at-tagging-so

Not every fic might use every category, and there are certainly tags that overlap categories. There’s also what I consider a 6th category, which is Author Commentary (no beta we die like xx, character needs a hug, why did i do that much research for a single paragraph, etc).

All of that aside, why should you use tags?

They help readers find and enjoy your fic! The two main uses of tags when searching is Seeking and Avoidance.

Seeking is when a reader really wants to read a particular thing, like they want fix-its only or just Modern AUs. Once they narrow it down to fandom, these are the tags they’ll type into the search bar. If your work isn’t properly tagged, it won’t show up, even if it’s the epitome of a Coffee Shop AU and that’s the term they search. Generously tag so readers can find you!

Avoidance is excluding a fic from consideration due to a particular theme or topic. Maybe their pet just died, so any mention of Animal Death is out. Maybe they are really tired of a particular ship, or are narrowing down for a rarepair. On AO3, there’s a section in the filter bar for excluding tags (see below, boxed in blue). Readers can eliminate what they don’t want to see, which is wonderful! They can select exactly what they want; not every fic is for every reader. Generously tag, so readers can be selective!

[ID: the Archive of Our Own filter bar Exclude section. End ID.]

Still unsure how to tag your work? Or stuck on other aspects, like ratings and warnings? The Fanfic Author’s Guide to Metatext (As Used on Ao3) by Eiiri is an incredible, in-depth explanation of everything contained within the metatext (tags+warnings) block on an AO3 fic. I — this event’s mod — use this text as part of my determining for rating guidelines, and I have found it extremely helpful for tagging my own works. View in full on tumblr and AO3 at these links

full text in post:

AO3 version, from which you can download as a pdf, epub, or other format:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30986561/chapters/76535018

Additionally, this event requires certain tags be honored and present as needed, primarily common content warnings or hot topics. See the rules post for more information. These tags at least need to be present in any promo post that are applicable, though tagging the fic itself is always good practice. After all, tags are like the ingredient label of a fic.

Still not sure what to tag and want more inspiration? This post from @/insanitysilver has great links to further help, as well as an example of a tagged fake fic!

~

Have a question not answered above? Is there something important I missed? Want to see a post about tagging for Tumblr, Twitter, or another site specifically? Start a discussion in the replies and reblogs! Thanks for participating, and good luck with your wip!

-

Tools Tuesday is a weekly part of the Finish What You Started event where I share various resources I have found to help everyone complete their WIP. Have a resource you want to share? Send it in a message and I’ll take a look!

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Kairi

kairi is the third protagonist of the kingdom hearts series and the third member of the destiny trio, alongside fan favorites sora and riku. sora/riku shippers HATE kairi, and will go out of their way to discount her at every turn. the hate for her ranges from typical "she's a boring bitch" to fans of soriku making five-hour long video essays reassuring their fellow shippers that the big bad kairi won't show up in the next installment – to quote one video, "she's in a box. she's on the shelf. four walls, no door." kairi is the greatest bogeyman the soriku fandom has ever known, to the point where most of said video essays and fanon meta posts focus not on why sora and riku should get together, but rather on why they don't like kairi.

Literally has a 100+ page Google doc fan theory writing her out of the narrative and putting all of her (few) canonical accomplishments onto half of the popular m/m ship (soriku). Don't even get me started on how her memory was completely written out of the canon plot of re:coded. KH is a nightmare to explain so dude trust me she is THE victim of yaoi

She is so fundamental to the plot and themes and narratives of game and yet it is near impossible to find anything about her thats not ship bashing pre-mlm with the other two characters. I dont even care if she ends up with one of the main characters i just want fans to see her as a cool character to love or like, anything other than “annoying comphet girl.” You can write your mlm but pleaae stop inventing comphet where it doesnt exist. She does not even get to spend time with sora ever?? Why does everyone see her as a threat and a thing to destroy?? Let her have friends so help me

Misa Amane

she gets treated in-canon the way fandoms treat female characters that Threaten an m/m ship. it's like, "oh why don't you go sit in the corner and be pretty, misa, while the Men have intelligent conversation and pretend they aren't ten seconds from fucking each other, doesn't that sound nice?" it's infuriating. and MAYBE it's better now but i remember her getting treated the same way in fanfiction too, like we all need to do just as badly by our female secondary characters as fucking tsugumi ohba, but with the added insult of making her be alternately oblivious of the relationship between light and L or actively trying to sabotage it—incompetently, of course, because god forbid misa be allowed dignity or moments of cleverness.

she's one of the first characters I think of when I consider old school fandom misogyny. The annoying bitch and clingy crazy gf allegations were AFTER HER ASS. She's also a lot more intelligent than people gave her credit for, but most seem inclined to take the Very Biased word of our unreliable, narcissistic narrator and his homoerotic arch nemesis and claim that just because she's bubbly and into romance that she's also a complete moron. Which is blatantly untrue. Everyone was afraid of Misa girlbossing too hard. Killing people and devoting yourself to the deranged twink of your dreams even though you know he'll never love you back??? Having a hardcore goth aesthetic and being so Hot even literal Death Gods are into you?? God forbid women do ANYTHING!

Not only is she the victim of yaoi culture, she is the victim of early 2000s misogyny by an author that wanted to introduce a girl character because he knew his male rivals were getting too homoerotic. She is a goth bimbo icon who portrays what I think is one of the few callouts for stan culture and what parasocial relationships can do to both the stan and the idol. The fact that she is a toxic fan of Kira and also hot, funny, sociable is tragic in its own way, which I think the author did try to touch on but was too misogynistic too really get through. Of course, she was reduced to villain status by the fandom and anime alike because she got in the way of the supposed romance in their psychological horror anime.

[poppitron360]

Ok so in another post I talked about all the reasons why Valzhang is better than Caleo, and I wanted to do one on Valgrace as well (lmk if this should become a series).

Bear in mind I am only on HoH- I haven’t read all of the Caleo bits yet, but I know she ain’t gonna treat him right.

I was originally SUPER sceptical about Valgrace (“I ship them platonically” “Jason is the Token Straight Friend”) and while I don’t think it was ever cannon I 100% THINK IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN.

Seriously, my eyes have been opened to Valgrace, to the point where the fanfic I’m writing about them currently clocks in at around 5,934 words.

I am OBSESSED. It is a PROBLEM.

And some of the fanarts/fanfics of them are SO CUTE I COULD DIE- it was hard NOT to ship them after reading some of y’all’s stuff. Keep up the good work.

Anyway buckle up ‘cause I’m ‘bouta write a whole dam essay on this.

1. The whole appeal of Jason Grace’s character is that he sees through your insecurities and lifts you up because he is too pure for this world. So narratively speaking, why is he with the most stable character? Yeah, Piper’s got issues, but compared to the others? She’s doing pretty well for herself. I mean, her parents are ALIVE!! Wouldn’t it just make more sense, narratively speaking, to put Jason with the MOST insecure character??? He can support Leo, help him in his arc, and it would give Jason a time to shine by highlighting his best qualities.

2. Throughout most of the books, Jason is the ONLY ONE who actually consistently sees through Leo’s mask. Everyone else’s POV of Leo is “Haha Leo said something funny and goofy and we’re all trying to be serious here, Leo. Gods, he’s soooo annoying!”, whereas Jason’s POV is like “Jason could see that Leo was desperately trying to keep it together for the good of the group, and he thought that was noble and brave and good and kind and awesome.” Like I said above, he’s able to lift Leo up because he sees him, and knows him. Something Calypso never did. There are several interactions, during TLH particularly, where Jason is just like “Hey, Leo? You are great. You are awesome. You have saved our lives multiple times. Whatever just went wrong, it wasn’t your fault. Stop beating yourself up about everything. You are a valued and respected member of this team. I love and appreciate you.” And Leo still puts up those walls with the jokes and the sarcastic remarks, and Jason is nothing but patient with him. Calypso was never like that.

3. I can’t find the line in the book, but there’s a bit in HoH where Jason’s worrying about the “To Storm or Fire, the World must fall” line in the prophecy, and he says words to the effect of “I like living, but I’d rather I die than Leo, anyway horses-” and seriously?? Rick missed a trick by not making them a couple. There is WAY more potential for angst if there’s that romantic feeling involved, knowing one of them is going to die, and both being willing to sacrifice themselves for one another like this is “Merchant of Venice” or something (I will explain the obscure Shakespeare reference in the comments). Calypso would never give up her LIFE for Leo, and Leo would only give up his because she’s hot.

4. Okay, most of this is copy-pasted from my post about Valzhang, but it still applies, and it applies to them maybe more so. They get so much more time together to establish a meaningful relationship. Their arc carries over all five books, and we get to form connections as a reader to them both, so the payoff is a lot more satisfying. Unlike Calypso, Jason is his own character separately, and not just an add-on to Leo’s arc. Their friendship is a key focus in their chapters, and a key point in their character development, as Jason is the first person Leo ever opens up to about his mom. When Calypso showed up, Leo had already gone through that journey of letting down those walls, so it was a lot less meaningful. They had little to no time to develop a relationship, and we never get a chance to care about Calypso as a person. She’s just kind of a plot point for Leo/Percy’s own development, and never her own character.

5. What separates Leo and Calypso from the other relationships in the series is that they were not written for each other. Frank and Hazel? Written for each other. Jason and Piper? Written for each other. Percy and Annabeth? FUCKING WRITTEN TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER. Cal was brought in during BoTL to cockblock Percabeth, and then Rick realised Leo “needed” a girlfriend, so picked her. But you know what two characters were written to be best friends right from the get-go? Like literally it’s established in the first couple pages of the first book? Jason and Leo. Much like how Valzhang were always meant to be rivals, Jason and Leo were always meant to be best friends.

6. Like I said in the last post, Leo doesn’t NEED a girlfriend. He can heal his trauma with friends and found family, learning to love and accept himself, learning that he doesn’t actually need the attention of a hot girl to be valid. Jason is the best person to help him on that journey, seeing as how his character thrives in uplifting others. The only person who ever loved Leo unconditionally died when he was eight. His blood relatives abandoned him, and he clearly wasn’t treated very well in the foster homes. He constantly feels like he has to work to prove he’s earned his place among the Seven because for him, family has never been a guarantee. Jason cares for Leo even when he’s fucked up, even when he’s a crying mess on the floor, even when he feels most like he doesn’t deserve to be cared for. Leo thinks he needs the attention of a hot girl to give him validation. What he really needs is to find a place among his brethren- and Jason offers him that place.

So, kids, that was it for today’s edition of “Why Literally Any Ship Is Better Than Caleo”. Tune in next time for our fav ✨trauma twinsies✨ Valdangelo!

[hersterical]

Imagine with me a Greek tragedy in a fantasy steampunk setting with groundbreaking and supremely creative animation, phenomenal voice acting, and an absolutely banger original soundtrack and some of my all time favorite fight choreography ever. Not only is every single character complex and morally grey, but the narrative also recognizes this and respects it. It is absolutely full to the brim with symbolism, metaphors, foreshadowing, callbacks, parallels (visual, thematic, and all other kind of possible parallels you can imagine) and each and everyone of these are used expertly. Maybe even perfectly. It has storylines and themes that are both wide and far reaching, but also just so incredibly personal and intimate. The relationships are so complex, with a special focus on the relationships between sisters, fathers and daughters, and found family. A lot of heart and love went every single moment of this series and it shows

For caitvi specifically on the surface they get grouped together with ships like korrasami and supercorp a lot. So that’s their basic vibe, but there’s a lot more to them than that. They are just about the perfect battle couple. They start off as reluctant allies (with immediate chemistry) which quickly evolves into a real partnership. They see each other. They understand each other. These are two of the toughest women in the world. They have to be strong. They are the only ones that they can be vulnerable with. THEY ARE SO SOFT FOR EACH OTHER. And that’s all within about three days of meeting each other (the last 2/3 of season 1). By the time season 2 comes around, they are all each other have. At least before this Vi was trying to reunite with her sister and Caitlyn had her parents and Jayce, but now there’s only each other. They argue and become a little bit too dependent on each other. While they were bringing out the best in each other in season 1, they’re now bringing out the worst in each other for the first 3 episodes of season 2 (get you a ship that can do both). They’re opposites. Vi literally refers to them as “oil and water” in season 1. But they’re also the same. All they know how to do is to fight and to never stop no matter what. They both love their family’s so much. They both heal and destroy each other. They’re great and I love them

There’s also a lot of hot characters

So yeah, I’d really recommend this show @juanabaloo

[olderthannetfic]

Reading some of the recent-ish asks on your blog got me thinking about 1st person fic. I personally am not fond of it, but I think it’s largely a matter of characterization? It’s already difficult for a lot of writers to get character voice across in dialogue, so sustaining it in personal narration over an entire fic can be even more of a challenge.

And if a writer is able to keep a consistent character voice, it then runs into the problem of whether my idea of that character’s internal narration matches this particular fic writer’s. Most of the time, it does not, with the only common exception I’ve seen being fics where the canon includes either some mind reading or first-person narration from the character in question.

The end result is that I am very quick to back out of a fic written in first-person, not because I think it’s a bad style but because I don’t have confidence in the character voice fitting what I want from that fandom.

On the other hand, I am completely open to professional and original fic written in first person, mostly because I am being introduced to a new character with the perspective already established. I am also more open to reading a first-person fic from a side character or OC point of view than from a main character or one I’m strongly attached to, though those run into the same issues as all OC fic do (personal preference being minimal OC focus, but I have greatly enjoyed “outsider perspective” fics in this style in the past).

First person just feels like a very specific tool, and I’ve definitely read fic where it was used poorly, but mostly I’ve decided I’m not really up for taking the gamble when I have other options to explore. A lot of the worst first-person fic I’ve read have definitely felt like the perspective was an excuse to “tell not show”, often with alternating perspectives so you could be sure both sides of the ship thought the other was really hot! I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not something I personally find satisfying or seek out for my own enjoyment.

To me, first person is most effective to build intimacy and character depth with the perspective character and their interactions with the world around them. When it’s done well, it’s spectacular for strong character identity.

--

I think people underestimate how much third needs to show characterization in narration to be good, but yeah, first is more in your face when it sucks.

[helluva-shit-show]

So I was re-watching "Oops" grabbing some screenshots for a different rant when it occurred to me, damn, Striker really should not have been in this episode. I know it's not a hot-take, lots of ppl have said this already, but I mean even for the way the writers want the show to go, right down to tone, they really botched an opportunity. I'll let someone else talk about how Striker working with Crimson makes both antagonists so much less intimidating, right now I'm just gonna focus on the narrative so far, and unfortunately for a lot of critics of the main ship it's pushing, this will have a lot to do with Stolitz.

So when we first meet Striker, it's in "The Harvest Moon Festival". The episode starts with Stolas inviting Blitz and the gang to be his royal guests at said festival. Blitz makes him promise it's neither murder work nor a sex thing and Stolas agrees. This is (to the audience's knowledge) the first time Stolas has invited Blitz out to be seen together publicly without any strings attached. He's not being bought, he's not acting as a bodyguard, and he's not expected to bang anyone at the end of the day.

Blitz meets Striker, Striker boosts up Blitz's ego immediately, they enter the pain games together, split the win, have a general good time, and at some point off screen, Blitz offers Striker a job at I.M.P.

And then Blitz catches Striker trying to kill Stolas. He's pissed, but not as pissed as he gets when Striker almost causes him to shoot Moxxie.

Blitz bites the man and puts a hole through the wall during the fight. They really go at it, it's a pretty intense fight, and you can really feel the rage in Blitz during it.

Putting a pin in Stiker for a minute, let's skip to the next episode, "Truth Seekers" we get a peek into Blitz's headspace surrounding Stolas. He feels chained to Stolas, but through his expressions during the staircase climb, it feels like he wants it to be more than just transactional. Well, at the least, hopes it can be more. Stolas swoops in at the end of the episode and (not without belittling Blitz verbally) saves Blitz and the people he most cares about. And then Stolas asks for a "reward". This 100% highlights Blitz's torn feelings. Does he let himself believe the care is real, or is it just for sex at the end? Well...

He got his answer didn't he? Stolas doesn't stand up to Ozzie for him. He doesn't make a clear statement that Blitz is more than just a cheap lay. And that hurts.

At the end of the night Blitz can barely get the words out to set a boundary for himself.

The next time we see these two interact is in "Seeing Stars". Do we get to see the resolve of the night at Ozzie's? Nope. But something has clearly changed since then, bc not only does Blitz show genuine concern for Stolas and try to reassure him, at one point, briefly, he's even receptive to Stolas's flirting again.

Two episodes later, Striker is back. Blitz very much so has complicated feelings surrounding Stolas at this point, but he shows not just concern, but both fear and rage again at the thought of Striker harming Stolas.

One could definitely argue at this point that this is about his means to continue his business and source of income and that of his employees, but there is something to be said about him almost cancelling Loona's doctor appointment to go save the rotten owl. Loona is always Blitz's first priority, and though a single vaccine might seem small in comparison to a life, if it really took five years for an appointment, that could be his daughter's life as well, assuming "hellbies" is just rabies but it's in hell. He thought about it. He was ready to turn the car around when Millie and Moxxie stepped in.

And even though Striker got majorly character assassinated in the episode, he tore up Stolas really bad. Him and his angelic weapons do carry real stakes with them, however much they want to make him a joke character. (Again, such a waste of potential)

With the narrative we know the writers are going with, Blitz does care about Stolas. The realization he can get hurt is probably shocking and terrifying to Blitz. He'd probably both be angry with himself for not going, but getting to the original point, he'd probably be furious at Striker.

Now I know Helluva has a huge tone issue. Is it a comedy? A lot of the time, yeah. Is it a drama? There's definitely drama in it. Romance? Highly debatable. Horror? I mean, it does take place in literal hell, so. Action? It's mixed in there too.

Personally though, I would like to think that the next time Blitz saw Striker, he'd tear him to shreds. I'd think the tone would be on the more serious side. He's hurt Millie and Moxxie very badly in Harvest Moon, he's hurt Stolas to the point he was hospitalized, that's three of the four people Blitz is currently close with. Narratively speaking, Striker could easily be Blitz's main external antagonist. It works both from a more action based tone, but also if you want to push Stolitz, which we know they do. And yet...

He's just an irritation for Blitz.

He didn't need to be there, it could have just been Crimson and his sharks. Would it have felt weird having him be a stand alone villain again just 3 episodes after he was first introduced, sure. But not any weirder than Stella's personal hitman looking for work in Greed and just happening to find it with said Mafia boss.

I know this was a Blitz/Fizz episode, I get that, I'm not complaining about that, hell, it literally could have been just them figuring their shit out together. But that just makes it even more glaring that Striker shouldn't have been there. This wasn't about him, this wasn't for him.

He's cowboy themed, right? And he's given Blitz plenty of reason to beat the absolute shit out of him? After hurting Stolas like that, (narratively speaking) his next showdown with Blitz should have been some high noon duel shit. Blitz rocked the vest in Harvest Moon, just give him the duel revolvers and start counting steps.

[megzscribbleznwordz]

Meet the Mods!

(Dividers by @animatedglittergraphics-n-more)

Hello world! This is my first time running anything other than a personal blog, so please bear with me djejjfjfjdjd

I go by Mod Meg, or Mod Diane! I'm twenty-one years old, and I go by She/They pronouns!

This blog is for all my Adult Animation writings and headcanons!

I focus mainly on X Readers and Headcanons. Although I focus on X Readers, I'm definitely down for almost any character x character. I <3 crack ships so even if it's absurd, gimme gimme. If I feel particularly inspired by your request, I may even write more for it!

I'm also a selfshipper and love sharing f/os! Don't be surprised if you see self-indulgent writings about my f/os lol. My carrd with my f/os, along with my kins can be found here: https://megzscribbleznwordz.carrd.co/

Rules

TERFS/Homophobes/Any phobia of any kind are and will always be banned. Along with this, i do enjoy darker themes and tropes in media. I however will not be writing beastiality (Although I defer to the Harkness test) or pedophilia, as I'm not comfortable with doing that personally. Otherwise have at thee with whatever else pretty much.

I am over eighteen and am open to writing smut/NSFT, though admittedly I have little experience with it. Requests are open, but keep my slightly lower skill level in mind! All Smut requests must have either a blog listed or be off anon. This is to ensure no minors read/request smut. All anon Smut requests, or ones with no attached blog I will request a blog be added!

I reserve the right to refuse any requests for any reason. I will never harass/bother/make anyone feel bad, there are some things I'm simply uncomfortable writing

I'm not putting any limits on the characters I write for, as long as any character with smut requested is 18+ in source!

I write platonic, familial, and romantic bonds! Just clarify which one you're expecting, please! Romantic is the default.

Please include a purple heart (💜) Emoji in your ask if you want to be included in my tag list!

I tag posts based on source and content if you want a specific character search for (insert name here) X Reader or (insert name here) Headcanons. Same applies to source!

Similar to my X Readers, any ships between canon characters will be tagged (Character A) X (Character B)

Smut is tagged minors dni and MDNI, please block these tags if you're a minor!

Listed below are the sources that I write for. I'm aware that some come across as silly, but I myself am silly, so if you have a silly request, hot damn is it going to be silly. Please, please, please include character and source in your ask!

Linked to each source is the master list for that source! I don't have any specific blacklisted characters; as of now, my only blacklisted source is Rick and Morty.

Sources

Moral Orel

The Venture Bros

Smiling Friends

Space Ghost C2C / The Brak Show

Your Pretty Face is Going To Hell

Aqua Teen Hunger Force

Metalocalypse

American Dad

Family Guy

Futurama

The Simpsons

King of the Hill

Superjail!

Bojack Horseman

12 oz. Mouse

Mission Hill

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