#the fact that their flaws as parents is they are too good as a person/hero

[minsarasarahair]

This father-daughter will be the death of me.

I just love how he's a righteous hero and good nature person that was forced to make a difficult decision: To save his daughter over other people's life. He was guilty that he abandoned his principles in his past life and his daughter know how much he regret it. She can't blame him for the sacrifice he make for her so I'm happy that heroine now is like "I can protect myself, father. Go save others." Like "You always protect me in our past life and sacrifice so much for me so its time to listen to you heart now and choose what you believe is right because I'll always be proud of my father." They build up trust. Its not just your typical overprotective dad doting his daughter story. Both of them are good people. And I think her mom is the opposite of her dad? She has many lives in her hands so she chose them over her daughter. But she did tell the dad to pick their daughter after she left her behind. Its a risky move but she rather have her daughter live her life without connection to her as long as she's safe because her existence might be use against her as well.

His letter to his ex-wife (MTL): Spoiler says the dad was poisoned so he's having seizures and the mom saved him but she's also the one who poisoned him???

I picked up a brush, but I'm already having a hard time with the first sentence. What should I call you? I'm not ready to talk to you face to face yet, so I'm writing to you. I feel better for a while now, but the seizures are getting longer. I don't know when I'll have another one, and even if I can't help her, I'll still choose to go to my daughter. I regret leaving her alone for a very long time, and now I will never leave her alone again. I want her to know that her father is with her. Now that I think about it, I forgot to tell you. Thank you for giving your daughter to me. Have you ever met her? She has your eyes, but unlike you, she can laugh from the heart. She is my treasure. I know that if you saw her, you would not be able to help but cherish her as well. Yeon has been different since she was a little girl, so she rarely asks me about her mother. She told my grandfather that you abandoned her, which was not true. Growing up, she asked about her mother once, and I didn't tell her anything. If I had known this would happen, I would have told her everything then, so if I can't, I hope you can. The words "It can't be helped" may be meaningless in the years that have passed, but there are some stories that change your mind just by hearing them. I hope you'll take as many of your disciples with you when you leave, so that we can save at least one more person from this pointless war. I hope you accomplish what you set out to do without incident. I'm glad to see you're doing well after all these years. Finally. I don't blame you at all, so go ahead and live your life.

[nebbyy]

Lester Papadopoulos/Apollo x reader - It's Over, isn't It?

A/N: okay so a few weeks ago I was listening to the song “It’s Over isn’t it” form the Steven Universe series and this scenario came to my mind, so I thought I’d just make it a fic! For this piece I didn’t see a point in assigning a gender to the reader, so we go with gender neutral all the way😎😎(neither your godly parent is specified since it doesn’t really add anything to the plot, so you can choose whichever you prefer)

PART TWO IS HERE

Warning: insecurity, jealousy, angst (WITH comfort tho), mentions of suggestive activities

Word count: 3209

You kinda hate yourself right now, and you hate yourself because you are so angry right now.

Well maybe angry is an exaggeration, but still, you’re really, really upset.

And you know you should be anything but upset right now. I mean, the love of your life finally has the chance to go back to his home in the Olympus, regain his honor and his status as a god. Those were all good things that you should be ecstatic about, right?

Well, wrong.

Just thinking of it made you feel like you could throw up at any moment. Thinking about the fact that Apollo. Because, what will be of Lester, your Lester?

Your whole relationship had started because he wasn’t Apollo. He wasn’t the tall, tan, handsome and all mighty God of the Sun; he was just a normal teen, whose only things that made him stick out were his acne, his clumsiness and a somewhat nice voice. His mortal condition didn’t even give him a single chance to act in his usual exaggerated, narcissistic self. He had to start off from the start, build a personality that wasn’t based on his godly qualities, but on something more real.

And in that situation he found himself in, with his new eyes he had seen you, and you truly seemed like a deity to him. 

How could you be anything less to the rest of the world, he thought. You were your godly parent’s greatest hero, you were liked and admired by most campers both because of your victories and your looks. And he spent oh so many nights fantasizing about taking you back with him in Olympus, giving you the godly status that should be rightfully yours. But hell, with the body he’d found himself in he’d barely the courage to come up to you to talk.

He told you so many times how absolutely surprised he was when he found out that you actually liked him back, even if he looked like any 17 year old loser, his actual words. And you remembered too, how his voice was so shaky as he tried to muster up a coherent sentence, how his cheeks shone a bright red, how his hands were trembling as you took them into yours and his palms sweating. But in your mind, that was more beautiful than any sonnet, any haiku, any poem, any grandiose, Apollo-like gesture. Because that was Lester, not Apollo; and in your eyes, Lester’s awkwardness was what made him stand out, because it was purely genuine.

Now ever so often you wonder, if he used to feel like you’re feeling right now, like you’re no match to the person you love. You look at your reflection in the mirror of the bathroom, and the mean joke that played your mind made you highlight all the flaws you could spot in yourself. All things that a god could never accept in their lover. You feel so wrong, so flawed that you just wish you could turn yourself into mud and reform your appearance completely.

Gods, you’re being ridiculous right now, you think, you just want to slap yourself in the face and yell at your reflection to get a grip goddamnit! You’re one of the greatest heroes of your time, you survived two wars, you can’t possibly draw the line at a failed relationship with a god. 

At one point someone might think: but why are you so opposed to the idea that your boyfriend is finally becoming a god once again? How ungrateful can you be??

But the point is, you know damn well that the whole point of the creation of Lester was forcing Apollo into a form that would’ve been the total opposite of who he is.

Because Apollo is naturally flirty and superficial, he loves to love and be loved, and he pursues anything and everything that he finds beautiful. But he got bored easily of his love conquers, hence why he has so many kids. So in your mind, it was only natural that as soon as he was back to normality, he’d grow tired of you and move to the next mortal that piqued his interest, maybe even leaving you a single parent to a new demigod.

That’s why you couldn’t stop that nagging feeling deep into your core, as you walked out of your cabin, hearing all the girls already speculating about how beautiful, handsome, shiny and dashing Apollo will be once he goes back to his form. “And who knows, maybe he’ll set his eyes on some of the friends he made in here” squealed a girl, from which cabin you did not know nor care. Her friend replied: “Yeah I mean, ain’t no way he’s gonna keep staying with the same partner forever. I mean, come on, he’s Apollo!” They both giggled like school girls, then kept gossiping about something else, but you did not care enough to keep eavesdropping their whole conversation.

You really hated yourself for being like this right now.

Of course, you know that those two girls meant no harm, it wasn’t their fault if they knew just as much as you did about Apollo’s tendencies. And about that you’re already came to terms with, but there’s something else you hate yourself for…

You stopped reaching out to him. Or even worse, you even started to avoid him. 

Not also him, but your friends and siblings as well. You closed yourself off of everyone else in your life, opting to spend your free days in Camp by yourself, whether it is in your cabin, sparring or all alone in your favorite spot in the forest.

Which is exactly where you’re directed to right now, as you put your headphones in your ears, wasting no time to press play and then abuse the volume up button to muffle any sound from the outside. You walk past the two girls, past another group of guys that were training with one another, and past your friends too, who you didn’t noticed as they were calling and waving at you to join them for a quick snack, leaving them rather confused and preoccupied as it seemed that you were stuck in a trance, locked out in another dimension of your own.

You didn’t even see Lester excusing himself from the group to subtly start following you wherever you were going.

It’s a quiet place, the one in the forest, protected by a thick layer of trees and bushes that makes it hard to reach it; but it’s worth all the climbing and scratches for the beautiful sight of a clear waterfall that fell right into a circular body of water, surrounded  by a rather big field of moss, so soft and fresh to lay on during the hot summer nights.

And so you did, letting yourself fall on that natural mattress, then closing your eyes to feel the light breeze on your exposed skin, and let the words of the song that’s blasting at full volume at the moment fill your ears, although you can barely focus on what they’re saying

It really seems unfair, all of this. That you thought you had fallen in love not with a god, but with a boy. Somehow forgetting that boy and god mixed in Lester, two sides of the same coin.

And maybe he forgot too, because every time the two of you were together, he suddenly couldn’t bring himself to think of the responsibilities that were waiting for him. With you, he forgot about his lost and very much missed abs and tan, he forgot about his chariot and his comfortable place in Olympus. Hell, you even made him forget about all his old lovers. It was really only you in his eyes, just as he was in yours. If only he’d ever told you all of this though…

Your mind keeps swirling in a million thoughts, until it fixates on one memory in particular.

You and him, alone on that very same spot in the forest. In a similar situation as you were now, too, with your crappy phone playing music softly in the background, as the the two of you laid together, one next to the other. You turn around to look at him briefly, only to find him already looking at you. “What, do I have something on my face or..” he just shake his head with the most lovestruck eyes you’d ever seen, batting his eyes slowly before looking at you once again, “I just really want to kiss you right now”.

Your eyes widen. His eyes widen. Did he really just say THAT?

Neither of you were sure how or why, thinking back to it, you wonder if it was his godly charm poking at the back of his head. But that didn’t matter at the time, the future in which he came back to his godly state seemed so far from you, it wasn’t even an option in your head.

Nevertheless, after the initial shock from his words, you silently answered him with a slow, almost numbed movement of the head, nodding slightly, almost scared that if you moved to fast you would’ve whisked him away, or that he could’ve changed his mind already.

But that nod was all that he needed before crashing his lips against yours, one of his hands flying to grab the side of your head, while the other stayed put on its place against the ground to keep him from falling on top of you.

The kiss was an absolute mess: teeth clashing, nose bumping against each other,... but it was perfect that way to you. You broke away from each other for a brief moment to catch your breaths, and you just look into each other’s eyes. With chests heaving, breaths mixing, you both started laughing, if only for a moment, a laugh of disbelief at what had just happened.

But that laugh didn’t last long before he moved his head closer once again, this time more slowly, more confidently. The kiss was in fact much less messy, your lips found their place against each other, the panic from before had morphed into pure butterflies in your stomach and fireworks in your eyes.

After a minute at most, you broke apart once again, but only for Lester to reposition himself on top of you in a more comfortable position. Your bodies closer than ever, you could feel everything of him….

What happened after still makes your cheeks flush red at the mere thought, but it also causes a frown to form on your face. Those times, when it was just the two of you are over. Maybe it was just a time of crisis that brought you two together, the shock from a morta perspective might have caused him to cling onto the closes person he could find. You can’t help but imagine Leste- Apollo in that moment, laying in the clouds of Olympus in a much similar scenario, maybe with a beautiful nymph or a smaller deity, or a mortal he laid his eyes on while he was on this earth-

“There you are! I should’ve known that if you’re not around you’re definitely in here.” If it were a normal, mortal voice, you wouldn’t have been able to hear it over the deafening high volume of the music blasting in you ears. But it wasn’t a mortal voice.

It was loud, it was melodic, it resonated in the air like the echo of the most beautiful of songs,…

You wouldn’t even need to turn around to know that that voice came from no other than Apollo. That’s right, he probably came back to his true form already. You can’t even imagine what a scene that would’ve been, to see the handsomely perfect god walking around Camp Half Blood, how many boys and girls had probably followed him around drooling over the sight of him. 

You wish you could just stay put, coldly dismiss him and let him go for what probably is the rest of your life and his eternity. But, curiosity gets the best of you, and you can’t help but turn around tentatively, eager to see what your boyfriend really looks like.

Your mouth quite literally hits the floor at the sight. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve always found Lester really attractive, but this.

This was something beyond the concept of handsome or beautiful.

This, him, was beyond what humans can perceive and comprehend.

Yes, you knew that his skin was tanned, but as he stood in front of you it seemed as if his body was made of bronze.

And yes, you also knew that his hair was blonde, but that didn’t make them justice. They flew, like rays of sun through a clouded sky.

Of his eyes you knew nothing about, but you were pretty sure at this point that no description could really depict just how deep, bright, captivating, alluring, even, they really were.

Your mouth quite literally hit the floor at the sight. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve always found Lester really attractive, but this.

This was something beyond the concept of handsome or beautiful.

This, him, was beyond what humans can perceive and comprehend.

Yes, you knew that his skin was tanned, but as he stood in front of you it seemed as if his body was made of bronze.

And yes, you also knew that his hair was blonde, but that didn’t make them justice. They flew, like rays of sun through a clouded sky.

Of his eyes you knew nothing about, but you were pretty sure at this point that no description could really depict just how deep, bright, captivating, alluring, even, they really were.

Your throat felt tight, your mouth dry, and your whole body gives you this tingly sensation. With all of your strength, you took a deep breath to try and calm yourself down, before mustering all of your strength to speak without a pathetic shaky voice. “I thought you were going back as soon as you got your body back.“

“Ain’t no way that I wasn’t coming to kiss my beautiful partner goodbye.” He grinned as he swiftly took a seat right by your side, propping himself on his elbow, his eyes never once leaving yours. You swore his smile was intoxicating, you’d say contagious even if the thought that this might’ve been your last moments together didn’t fill your mind with sorrow.

You wanted to protect yourself from this, detach your mind and heart from him before he does it first, leaving you with an aching heart and moving on with his eternal life.

You felt a hand come up to your cheek, holding it softly as the sweetest melody came from his lips, “I’m gonna miss you madly once I’m back there, you know?” At that, you can’t help the deep anger that fills you from inside, a feeling that expresses through icy, stinging words, as you turned your head away from his touch, “I’m sure you’ll move on in no time.”

He frowned. That wasn’t the reaction he expected from you at all, but he didn’t really take it personally, it was so obvious that there was something troubling you. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” your voice is louder, a mixture of frustration and anger. But also so much sadness, that can be felt by just how strained the sound that came from your throat is, almost as if you were fighting back tears. You swallow hard, trying to recollect yourself, “I mean that you are a God, I am just a mortal. One of many. I’ve got nothing special to be remembered for, to be remembered by you for the rest of eternity. And Im okay with it, really. Our destinies were never meant to combine, I was just another one of your lovers.” As you spoke those last words you couldn’t help but let the tears flow from your eyes, those who always looked at Lester with a mix of love and mischief, now only filled with a never ending sadness.

Slowly, as to avoid scaring you off, the renewed god took your wet face in his warm hands, pulling you closer and wiping your tears off at the same time. Gently, he spoke: “My love, you couldn’t have said anything more wrong. You are special to me, and I could never forget you. In thousands of years that I’ve existed, no one had ever treated like you did, like I wasn’t a god. Sure, it was temporary and you knew I could’ve incinerated you as soon as I got back to… this.” He looked down, gesturing at his body, a sight for sore eyes that could’ve really made you unfocus on anything were you not so taken by your talk with Apollo at the moment. “But that didn’t stop you from treating me like we were equal. And I hated it, at first. I thought it would be part of my punishment. But as time passed, I realized that being your equal was the highest of honors I could ever get. You’re… you’re crazy strong, incredibly smart, unbelievably beautiful, way too kind for your own good, especially with those brats of the kids in this Camp.”

You giggled at his words, a consistent contrast with your tearful eyes and quiet sobs, “Some of those brats are your children too, genius.” “Well then it must run in the family.” You laughed again while shaking your head, but only for a moment before returning your full attention on the boy in front of you. He took the sign to continue.

“What I’m trying to say is, I don’t think I could ever be able to let you go. Over all the lovers I had through the years, which I’m sure you know are many, you’re the only one that saw me and treated me with true love and care. Not with fearful devotion, never fearing what I was capable of. I only ever saw this kind of love in Sally Jackson, and I mocked Poseidon for letting a mortal like many treat him so casually. But now, now I get it, and to be honest I can’t help but think that you’d deserve to be called a deity far more than many others who already are. Maybe even more than me. So I refuse to ever let go of this blessing that fate has given me. And if in order to do so I have to take your soul and put it on the sky above, to rest as a star forever by my side, so be it. But trust me you’re not getting rid of me so easily.”

You crumbled like a sand castle at his words, that he spoke with the very same tone, on the very same spot when you still called him Lester, and you promised to stick by each other’s side for the time you had left, only a few months before this whole encounter. You let your head fall into his broad chest, sobbing softly as you desperately clung to him. Your tears weren’t of sadness anymore, but of relief, for you had just been given the confirmation that your lover was still yours.You spent the rest of the night there, cuddling as close to eachother as possible as you rested in peace. 

The morning after, at dawn, when he had to officially go back to his daily duties, he begrudgingly got up from his place in your arms, placing butterfly kisses on your arms and neck, careful not to wake you. He left a little not right next to you, one that read: 

“I had to go, didn’t want to wake your pretty face this early in the morning.  Meet me here at dusk tomorrow, Forever yours,  A.”

It made you smile, seeing that note as soon as you opened your eyes, almost made you forget the lack of your boyfriend next to you,… and the yelling of your friends and siblings calling for your name in the distance.

You wasted no time walking towards those voices, and when they asked you just where the hell have you been all night, you just smiled and brushed it off, but everyone noticed how your usual bright self had mysteriously came back after days of brooding.

Hours later, you were calmly eating dinner with the other campers, laughing and talking and eating seemingly decent food. You were totally clueless as to where exactly Apollo was, but you guessed he was on his chariot, on his way to let the sun set and go to your secluded spot. But little did you know, he was in neither of those places. He was actually walking up to Zeus’ throne, tall and proud as he respectfully bowed to his father. “Apollo, I see it took you no time to get used to your old life once more. I trust you have learned your lesson.”

“Indeed, father. And I came here to thank you for it all. It was… better than I expected.” Zeus lifted a brow suspiciously, eyeing his son as if trying to make out what’s in his mind just by his appearance. “Mmh I hardly believe that you only came here to thank me for your punishment.” “Heh, you’re not wrong, father. I came here to make a request.”

“Depends. What is it that you desire?”

“How do you make a demigod immortal?”

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Backstory

Backstory - the history of the character.

It addresses the following:

Who the character is

Why the character is the way he or she is

It’s an origin story, pure and simple.

The most comprehensive backstories start from the very beginning of the character's life and ends the moment that your novel begins.

It’s generally in chronological order, but not necessarily written in narrative form.

It can be a collection of data, such as keystone events, names and dates.

The backstory doesn’t always need to be shared

Most backstories are just for your eyes only.

You can create a complex, rich, hauntingly beautiful backstory for your characters, but that doesn’t mean it should be in your novel.

Far too often, authors try to insert a compelling backstory into their novel. The result? It weighs down the story and slows pacing to a grinding halt.

Resist the urge to add your backstory to your novel unless it’s something that the reader truly needs to know.

You reader probably doesn’t need to know the names of your character’s parents, or other mundane details— but you do. You need to know everything that the character knows. This is how you can write from the character’s point of view effectively. 

Otherwise, you’re phoning it in and writing from sketch, not from portrait.

Depending on the scope of your novel, it may be a good idea to inject some of your backstory into the main story. You’re never going to give everything you know to the reader.

If you dump all of those facts without the benefit of context, it will overwhelm the reader and make it difficult for them to see the story.

As the writer, you take all of the facts you know, carve them into a beautiful work of art, and make the moral of your story obvious.

That’s what makes you the artist, and the editor an essential partner in the process.

Start with a present day character sketch

Even before you start writing, you already have a vague idea of who your character is currently.

Maybe he’s a crusty, old curmudgeon. Maybe she’s a optimistic, but naive, teenager.

No matter who your character is, start with what you know already and go back from there.

Ask and answer the following questions to start crafting a solid backstory:

What is this character’s biggest flaw? What’s the origin of this flaw?

Where is the character from?

Where are the character’s parents from? How did they come to have a child and under what circumstances? Was it a happy union or a chance encounter?

What is the character afraid of? Trace the answer back to the character’s childhood and explain why.

What makes the character happy? Trace the answer back to the character’s childhood and explain why.

What does your character believe about himself and how did he come to this conclusion?

What are his goals? Why does he have these goals?

Pinpoint a life changing moment

Everyone, your characters included, have select moments in their lives that completely alter their choices.

These times are rarely announced with fanfare.

Example: It’s not the wedding day that changes your character’s life, it’s the moment five years earlier when your character meets her spouse-to-be in the line at Burger King.

Thanks to the 20/20 vision of hindsight, you can see how the character’s present day life was shaped by seemingly random encounters and events that took place years ago. Remember that all of her previous choices take place in, and are a reaction to, her backstory.

Those choices made her into the person your reader meets in your novel. How did her life’s experiences shape her into the current character?

Explore the gray

No character is completely good or completely bad.

Resist the urge to paint any character as all evil or all angelic.

Even a villain is the hero of his own story.

Remove your black and white filters and look at the character as someone who exists in shades of gray. If he has experienced kindness along with pain, then your backstory should reflect that.

Use it as motivation

The backstory should always motivate the character - positively or negatively.

The character either stands on what he knows and has experienced, or he’s running away from what he knows and has experienced. Either way, it can make a compelling plot for your novel.

Creating a backstory takes time and thought, but you’ll find that the quality of your writing will improve. Knowing your characters inside and out will make them more real to you and, as a result, more real to your readers.

Source ⚜ Writing Worksheet: Character Backstory Writing References: Worldbuilding ⚜ Plot ⚜ Character

[itsabouttimex2]

What kind of yandere are they?

Explanations below/Click for higher res

MK has been through so very much. The glamour of being a hero wore off quick, leaving him with many insecurities and doubts. Giving him someone innocent and kind to protect stabilizes him somewhat, but makes him more vicious in an effort to ensure their safety.

Sun Wukong thinks as something worth protecting. You give him a purpose and a good reason to dust off his old bones and return to fighting- all he asks in turn is that you stay on Flower Fruit Mountain with him. And the world getting it’s greatest hero back is a worthy trade for your lack of freedom, isn’t it? (The most likely to kidnap you, tied with Macaque.)

Ne Zha uses you as motivation for his fervent service. If the celestial realm has you, then it’s clearly worth protecting. If someone so good and kind resides there, then why should he waver in his duty? This extends to personal fights in your name- he rarely comes out unbloodied.

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The Mayor keeps a close on eye on you, always watching from the shadows. You probably have a tie to the Lady Bone Demon in some way, an heir to her blood or powers. He cultivates your misery by pulling strings and arranged misfortunes- the fact that no one stops him or saves you is proof enough (to him) that the world is rotted to the core. Proof that it needs to be destroyed. Proof that you need something, or someone better- maybe him?

You justify the Lady Bone Demon’s ideals. She watches as you suffer and break, your kind soul perpetually punished for good deeds and unyielding optimism. If you trust people, they betray you. If you help people, they hurt you. Your life is proof to her that the world is cruel, and needs to be wiped clean. So she obsessively watches from afar, her mind constantly plagued with thoughts of you, and thoughts of ending your suffering. (The most manipulative yandere on this list.)

Azure Lion sees you cast from the Celestial Realms, thrown out for daring to try and improve the lives of mortals without approval from the Celestial Bureaucracy. Not only are you a perfect member for his brotherhood (and he will get you to join), but you also reaffirm to Azure what he’s fighting for.

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Zhu Baije is a very flawed man. By his own nature, he’s something of a troublemaker. You work to counteract many of the problems he causes, working hard to ensure that no fissure in the group grows too big. It’s easy to think of you as someone worthy of worship- you seem to have an endless well of patience and kindness. He just wishes that you gave a little less of it to people who aren’t him.

Ao Lie watches you close. He sees how you struggle to pull everyone together even when things are at their absolute worst, and respects your efforts. He sees a person always willing to stand up for other and for what’s right, never allowing yourself to stand idly by. The harder you fight to mend rifts between people, the more admirable you become to him.

———————————————————————

Mei just wants you- she doesn’t bother thinking it through or wondering exactly why. You’re nice and you’re good, so you’re hers. Her parents are fully supportive of her attempts to ‘adopt’ you, and have a room set aside for the day they ‘bring you home’.

Pigsy doesn’t think of his obsession as a hero, warrior, or soldier. He instead views them as a child in need or guidance and protection, the sort who would be benefit nicely from being taken under his wing- likely enlisting Tang and MK to help him corral you into his care. (The most likely to succeed in his goal, tied with Sanzang)

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Princess Iron Fan doesn’t think much of you at first, viewing you as a little more than a disposable pawn. But, to her surprise- you perform far more admirably than expected, so keeping you both alive and close becomes the rational course of action. She gets used to using you, then gets used to you, then wants you. And Iron Fan knows how to get what she wants.

Macaque at first is just using you, stringing you along. He trains you to be more like him, feeds you lies about Wukong and MK, gets you to hate them by filling your head with falsehoods. And somewhere along the line, he ends up getting attached. Instead of getting better, he doubles down on his manipulations, intent on keeping you close. (The most likely to kidnap you, tied with Wukong.)

———————————————————————

Tang Sanzang sees so much potential in you. You’re a feral little thing, tucked away under bushes and baring your teeth at him- a child acting like a wild animal. His holy heart aches for you, thinking of the struggles you must’ve endured through your life. With a pair of heavenly circlets for your wrists, Sanzang inducts you along for his pilgrimage, intent on bettering you bit by bit- by force, if he must.

Expect lots of tutoring and life lessons, all delivered with endless patience and a paternal attitude. Teaching you to read and write and behave might be harder than pulling teeth, but it will be done. Not to mention the four other pilgrims whom he positions as your ‘brothers’, who adore and respect him, each one swayed by his words of what’s ‘best for you’. (The most likely to succeed in his goal, tied with Pigsy.)

Tang probably mirrors Pigsy in his acquiring of a child- he finds some dirty little waif on the streets and takes them in as his own. Something ancient and repeating calls from within him, pushing him to take this little unfortunate thing into his care, to push them to be ever better- an inner voice calling for him to be kind and merciful. And really, who is he to deny such a kind urge?

Master Subodhi is a wonderful judge of character, capable of picking out both the flaws and strengths of a person. You could be troubled and impatient, or rude and reticent. All that matters is there’s true good inside you- however embryonic it may be. Through strict guidance- and with a not insignificant amount of amusement at the shenanigans you cause with his other students- Subodhi manages to slowly molds you into a better and stronger person. Mind you, all of this is through the masterful use of manipulation. Expect his other students to help him reign you in and chip away at your resolve to leave. (The most likely to have an obsession that’s stronger than him.)

———————————————————————

Sandy thinks that you’re simply wonderful. You’ve been a constant supportive force in his life, encouraging his therapy sessions, teaching him how to brew tea, vouching for him to shelters across the city. With your support, Sandy slowly becomes a better person, leaving behind most of his obsessive and possessive behavior behind. There are lingering traces, hints of overprotectiveness and denial of consent, holding you too tight in his arms and not letting go or slipping sleeping pills into your tea… but even those habits lessen in frequency and severity.

That, or you might be a child of his that he wants to be a better role model for. Sandy wants you to be happy! He wants you to be confident! He wants you to have a good dad! So he almost unhealthily works to improve himself, finding positive ways to channel his most toxic and unhealthy traits, hoping to become someone worthy of your love. (The least likely to hurt you.)

Everyone else treats Sha Wujing like a monster, hurling wicked names and cruel words. ‘Demon’ and ‘fiend’, they decree, and Wujing has long internalized their words as truth. He’s plenty happy to act on his learned monstrosity, lashing out at any who draw near- until you come along with a simple compliment and an admission of weakness. You aren’t strong enough to fight, not quick enough to run from him- but you’re kind enough that he doesn’t think to butcher you. Growing obsessed with you amplified some of his worst traits while also teaching him about unconditional love and support, the dichotomy of equal progression preventing any true growth for a time. Once Sanzang comes along, Wujing has to think long and hard on who he is and what he’s done and who he wants to be and what he wants to do- and decides to be better for you.

There aren’t many people that the Demon Bull King cares for, but you’ve managed to worm your way into his stony heart anyhow. It’s awkward to try and be open with someone so squishy and frail, but he makes a token effort to be less intimidating and overbearing so you aren’t as scared. It’s not easy settling you into his family (especially with his son now battling you for his attention), but he’s sure you’ll get used to it eventually. Iron Fan is more on board with your induction than her son, coming to view you as a lovable; if weak, second child. Red Son refrains from outright violence, but is notably icy over the sudden competition for affection. Still, in the strangest of ways- it’s family.

———————————————————————

Chang’e has been alone for a very long time. There’s no real way to know exactly how long, but isolation has taken it’s toll. Is it so bad to want someone to dote on and nourish? No! So you and her should be family! She’s even more insistent if Y/N is leporine in some way- the two of you are meant to be family! A loving lunar goddess and her perfect little lop, together on the moon. To her, it sounds like something out of a fairy tale. It might be more of a saccharine nightmare to her captive, though. (The most capable of keeping Y/N from escaping.)

The Scorpion Queen really just wants a friend, no matter what it takes to get one. Loneliness has gnawed away at her inhibitions and morals, leading her to snatch up the sweetest looking person around and haul them back to her castle. She’s not above using poison to keep you complement, brewing up several blends from her own venom. Paralytics, sedatives, you name it. One quick sting and you’re helpless in the Queen’s arms, ready to be pampered and protected. After she’s done cleaning and patching your new wound, of course.

Kui Mulang has been waiting for his lover for so very long… and then you come stumbling in, wide-eyed and unaware of the dangers that the demon possesses. You’re a funny little mortal, unworthy of having your weak soul devoured- not only would it not expand his lifespan too much, but he fears it might even make him weaker. Instead, he forces you to become a cute little companion/pet and regales you with tales of his lover, filling your ears with descriptions of her beauty and kindness. Don’t get the wrong idea, though- you aren’t making him a better person. He’s just found one single person to not be totally awful to. (The most likely to replace his obsession.)

———————————————————————

Syntax admires your work from afar, picking apart every bit of tech you manufacture. He’ll install dozens of cameras across your home just for the joy of watching you scramble to disable or destroy them. With the sheer volume of spyware distributed, it’s inevitable that you miss at least a few, allowing the spiderized man to maintain constant surveillance. He inducts your work into his own, picking apart the blueprints he’s stolen from you, admiring the many lines of code you’ve written. There’s a new camera in your house each day, slowly stealing away all privacy. The concept of a ‘blindspot’ doesn’t exist in Syntax’s carefully curated world- no closet, corner, or crawl space is safe from his leering eyes. You’re then subjected to 24/7 surveillance, your life becoming an ever-present livestream on the screens of Syntax’s machines. (The least likely to personally interact with his obsession.)

Huntsman has never seen a worthier adversary. You match him blow for blow and thwart his traps at each turn. He has to keep upping the ante as you escape his clutches, an ever evolving quarry worthy of pursuit. The biggest (and only) dilemma he has in regards to his obsession is whether he should taxidermy or cage you. Either way, you’ll make a nice trophy. (The most likely to kill you.)

It takes a saint to gain the Ink Curse’s attention. You have to be the most wonderful goody-two shoes darling in the world, a person who’s mature and rational and kind and responsible and generous and wise and loving. If you can manage all of that, along with having no major character flaws or massive mistakes in your past… then you have their attention. It is the worst prize you could have ever received.

Alternatively, be a child who gets trapped in the scroll. There’ll be a mocking form of pity to every interaction, but the Curse might try to mold you into an equally brutal punisher of sins. After all, what else can you do? You’re stuck, aren’t you? Get used to the company, kiddo. (The most likely to break you.)

Yellowtusk would happily speak with you until all the rivers of the world run dry. The two of you match wits in civil debates, opposing each other’s viewpoints and arguments with fervor. No stakes, no hatred, no grudges- just debate for the sake of debate. You grow together, sharing your wells of knowledge and expanding the breadth of your wisdom side by side. His obsession with you is softer than most, quelled by quick chats and simple skinship - but it’s obsession all the same, waiting to spiral out of control.

———————————————————————

Red Son’s pride is an irrefutable aspect of him. The half-demon views himself as superior to all but a select few- and you, unfortunately, do not fall into that group. Red thinks of you as something akin to a cherished pet, worthy of care and companionship, but not freedom or respect. He could control almost every aspect of your life if he so wanted, but that’s more trouble than he desires. If you behave properly, Red allows you to dress yourself and have a small collection of personal possessions. Also, expect him to personally forge you a tracking collar emblazoned with his family’s insignia. (He truly does care about you- deep, deep, deep down in his heart. But you’re still lesser than him.)

If you happen to be his sibling, though, his treatment of you becomes more bearable. He’s still insanely possessive and domineering, but there’s more respect for you as a person.

The Spider Queen also thinks of you as a pet, a cute little thing to dress up and lock in chains. You make the most wonderful decoration for her throne room, shaking in the corner with a shackle clasped around your wrist. Everything you wear is produced from her own silken webs, everything you eat is caught and killed with her own two hands. If you step too far out of line, expect your next meal to be the corpse of a loved one.

Peng looks at you with some strange mixture of pity and amusement. (There’s some genuine care in there, but they’d never admit it.) You’re the smallest and youngest of the Brotherhood, with naivety and kindness to match. They find it funny to toy with you in a variety of ways, though they take care to never truly cause harm. Ex: Knocking into you for the sole purpose of tripping you up, biting back laughs as you apologize for ‘not paying attention.’ Peng will ‘forgive’ what you perceive as a personal mistake, hauling you up and dusting you off before sending you on your way. You’re a fun toy. A devoted sibling. A cute little time-killer. And, somehow- the person they cherish above all else.

[themaidenofwords]

An Essay on Why Canon Batman sucks

I was reminded today of the many reasons why I say I'm part of the batfamily fandom and not actually into canon Batman stories.

To put it simply, I love all of Bruce's children, but the man himself (especially in his canon characterization) can fuck all of the way off.

"But TheMaiden, you can't just ignore canon! You can't really be a fan if you do." I can and I am so sit still a min and let me talk.

My main issue with Batman comics is the fact that they try to make him a morally grey character who's sole rule is basically that he doesn't literally murder people.

Everyone clap and cheer for the guy who isn't actively a murderer! He's so good for that!

Anyway, the problem with focusing on what would make Bruce "snap" or the fact that he's a dark traumatized little boy ok? is the fact that the city of Gotham and all of its Rogues is already so dark. You can't put black paint on a black canvas and expect me to notice the difference. When the "heroic" character is painted in just a slightly different shade of "charcoal #7" I will be hard pressed to see why I should be rooting for him over the villains he fights.

My biggest problem with Bruce is the fact that he is canonically an abusive piece of shit towards his kids. I will readily admit that this part is deeply seated in my own personal traumas, but that's a hard line in the sand that I won't allow to be crossed. I can't support a "hero" who doesn't have the bare fucking decency to not hit/ emotionally abuse his children.

"Oh, but you are ignoring the fact that Bruce adopted those kids in order to train them as vigilantes! He never intended to be a father figure!"

Well too fucking bad. If you adopt a child, that's your kid. period. There's no take-backsies just because you like dressing up in a fursuit and leaping off buildings as a hobby. the moment Bruce adopted those kids he established himself as their father, and that should take precedence to whatever his feelings may be as Batman.

"TheMaiden, you're being too harsh. Bruce saw his parents die! He was manipulated by Ra's when he was training with the Al Ghuls! He's traumatized and he can't help how he is!"

Again, I will readily admit that this part is rooted in my own life and beliefs, but I will not stand for the idea that people can't grow past their trauma and that you're destined to continue the cycle of pain. Yes, the trauma and pain you go through can make it extremely difficult to move on and can (and will) leave an impact on your life forever, But you still have a choice. Bruce chose to become Batman. He chose to be trained by Ra's Al Ghul. He chose to adopt six children, and he fucking chose to abuse those children for the sake of his crusade.

He doesn't get a free pass because of his past. He doesn't get a free pass because "overall he's doing good." He is to be held in contempt not even because of the bad things he's done in the past, but because he refuses to grow. He refuses to change and to be better.

"But he loves his children! He's just bad at showing it."

Intent does not redeem you. Bruce has had eighteen years to learn and grow. He has been through a lot of shit, but it is his responsibility to make certain that he doesn't put his own children through that pain. It is his responsibility to show his children that he loves them and to work to grow despite his flaws because of the love he has for them.

Call me harsh, but I refuse to support a "hero" who would nearly murder his own child and call it love.

[bibibbon]

Wait, did Hori completely skip over their second and third year at UA? Or is the graduation talking about a different year?

Love how there's still absolutely ZERO introspection from anybody about the war, what drove Aoyama's parents to force him into being the traitor, Tokoyami and Izuku possibly being Quirkless, or Aizawa being such a shitty teacher that he never noticed the UA traitor being one of his own students.

And Shinsou can go kick rocks. I've never liked him since I learned how pervasive Fanon!Shinsou is in the fandom, and seeing his Goob from Meet The Robinsons ass being rewarded for his victim mentality really irks me. Again, love how Aizawa supposedly hates favoritism despite turning around and favoring Shinsou (and Bakugou).

#BringIzuku'sFluffyHairBack

Hi @nutzgunray-lvt 👋

No hori didn't completely skip over 1A's seconds and third year. The time skip was only a few days (which bugs me even more) so I was talking about mirio and his classes graduation. Personally I feel like it's too early to do such a thing but I mind of see it as hori making a full circle moment with what he mentioned in the war arc.

Oh my Iam so mad that there is no and I mean NO INTROSPECTION about what everyone or anyone just went through!??!?! Like y'all just went through a whole war and there is nothing acknowledging that!!!! Heck not even last chapters hospital scene made an effort in acknowledging what went down. The only type of acknowledgement we get is mirio's speech talking about how the heroes are trying hard to go back to square one and how they know there is a lot of work cut out for them but other than that complete radio silence which is weird as hell.

I mean we have seen people die in that war arc, many suffered injuries or lost things, many are probably mentally or physically scarred or both and hori opening no acknowledgement to that and trying to go back to normal is just horrible writing. The fact that it's been a few days since the war and they're going back to school is horrible in itself.

The series in itself doesn't even bother to mention aizawas faults as a character or teacher. Look I got into MHA because of the fanon promise of dadzawa (so Iam bias and have a soft spot for it) but dam horis writing of aizawa is such a let down to what fics and friends have told me about dadzawa. Also it's such a shame that aizawa apologises to izuku mid battle using his first name btw and then we are never brought back to that moment it's simply a one off. Also the simple lack of intropsection and information coming from every character is seriously annoying me it's like I can tell that they're simply puppets that hori is horribly controlling.

Also yuuga deserves better I have talked about how I wanted hori to use the idea of transfer students and students dropping out but this was unsatisfactory. Iam not saying that yuuga shouldn't of dropped out but Iam saying that there was no point considering that he went through that whole ordeal saying that if he fights that the education system may overlook his treachery but now he is leaving?!?!?!?

I like the potential that shinsou had but in all honesty he is way too underdeveloped for anything. There hasn't been any acknowledgements of his own mistakes and flawed ideology, we never see his interaction with Izuku and him learning that izuku isnt privileged, we don't see him apologising to ojiro for insulting him, we don't see him actually warming up to 1A rather he seems to be happier in his own class. I have talked more about shinsou and what he could of been here

Honestly it never made sense to me why aizawa likes bakugo so much when bakugo is like a carbon copy of his childhood bully so🤷‍♀️. Shinsou I kinda get but dam it's not a good look for sure.

#BRINGIZUKUSFLUFFYHAIRBACK

Horikoshi has no reason to take away Izuku's fluffy hair!! I need it to comeback and I beg for him not to give izuku a disgusting undercut like those aged up fan arts do. Also best Izuku is MHA 411 izuku!!!

[a-problematic-writer]

I want to talk at length about The Ocelots. So... [Under a Read More for your convenience]

First off, I'm a firm believer that Aiden and Lukas are exes. No, you cannot unconvince me. It cannot happen. They're exes. This much I know. Chill, Chill. You can interpret them however you want. I believe there was a mutual romantic bond there though. They were childhood friends who fell for each other!!!! And broke up because Aiden got jealous and broke everything off after Lukas spent some time helping Jesse. [Think Aiden had always seen himself as inferior to Jesse subconsciously or maybe even partially consciously] I think, for Lukas, he figured he and Aiden would live in his little cottage--away from [Aiden's] adoptive father. I firmly believe Aiden dropped the bag on that one. And that's when Lukas' disdain for Aiden, Maya, and Gill started. 'Cause Maya and Gill took Aiden's side. However, in their defense, Lukas HAD seemingly left to be with the new heroes [and did I mention he didn't come after them during the witherstorm? Oops.] It's a whole mess.

Lukas was there by choice. He didn't feel stuck there. It wasn't because they were the only friends he knew. He genuinely enjoyed them and was the same about the rivalry with Jesse's team. He thought the others were a bit overzealous and did shoot them down when it got bad [aka borderline bullying], but he's arrogant and he poked and prodded too. I like Lukas better as a flawed person. I don't like that his arrogant side isn't explored. Let him be nasty! Let him be flawed but ultimately at his core a kind person!!! Love that shit!!

Maya and Aiden are siblings. This is just a personal take. They've always screamed siblings to me. Aiden is Maya's adoptive older brother. Though, she'd never say he was adopted. In her eyes, he IS her brother. End of sentence. They are blood-related to her. Aiden feels the same. That's his little sister.

Gill is the new kid to the ocelots having taken Petra's place when she and Aiden had a falling out. [That falling out being over how jealous Aiden was over her hanging out with Jesse, Olivia, and Axel and picking on the trio in retaliation] He gives blacksmith's son to me. Was likely gonna take over for his mom when the time came. He may be new but he quickly clicked with everyone and though Aiden was the slowest to warm up [fighting with the fact he's technically replacing Petra his ex-best friend] he DOES see Gill as a good friend.

Aiden does care about his friends. Perhaps too much at times. Enough to get jealous, a lot. He's scared of losing them. Already knows he isn't enough. He wasn't for his bio parents or even his adoptive parents. He's got a MASSIVE superiority complex and RSD and mild BPD. He's a mess. But he does care. He just has a TIME going about it healthily. I believe he is someone who under it all is timid and surprisingly kind. I do NOT believe his behavior in episode five is how he's always acted. Why? Petra can help me with that one. She says, and I quote, "He seems different, scarier." Thus telling me that he's not usually like that. And I will die on this hill.

Alright, I've rambled incoherently for long enough be on your way now.

[rise-my-angel]

I’m such a big Targ fan but I can not stand most Targ fans because they don’t get it. The valyrians are interesting and cool because they are fucked up. I love the Targaryens because I am a horror and sci-fi fan. Like yeah dragons are cool too but they wouldn’t be nearly as cool if everything surrounding them weren’t horrifying and twisted. I love Dany because she is a flawed and complex character and it is so easy to draw lines through her narrative to understand why she is the way she is and what led her to make different mistakes and how she got to her self delusions. But most Dany fans will call me a Dany hater for being like hey let’s analyze why Dany has never second guessed her decision to kill Mirri even though every other act of violence she’s been directly or indirectly responsible for (ie the crucifixions or Viserys’s death) has weighed on her conscience to some extent despite the fact that Mirri was a slave who was punished for rising up against her master, Drogo. The cognitive dissonance is so interesting and ripe for analysis but I have been accused of only pretending to be a Dany fan for recognizing this. A lot of actual Dany haters churn out way more meaningful Dany metas because most Dany fans are just oh she’s an unambiguous good hero who will be queen and I think that’s so boring

(note I got off my couch in the middle of writing a new chapter to go to my main computer to answer this that's how much you caught my attention)

The thing is, I totally get what you mean. Theres a Targaryean I am sort of like this for in a way. The character himself has been soured by such a deluded and hostile fan base about what is allowed to be said or thought about him, but if it weren't for the way most targ stans are, I would be 1000% more into Rhaegar as a character.

It would never change I think he's a bad person who did monstrous things for questionable if not quite selfish means who I would never support, but I also love Euron Greyjoy who is 100% an irredeemable monster. Rhaegar's entire existence is fasnicating. From the Ghost of High Hart being the reason his parents were married, to his life defining birth right in the middle of the fiery tragedy of Summerhall which effected his life. How such a terrible place was the only place he was every described as being happy in, likely because his existence is tied with great tragedy. How that likely deeply influenced him into buying into the Ghost of High Harts words of the prince that was promised being born from his father and mothers blood line which led to his delusions which ended up negatively impacting every person in his life leading to their deaths including his own. He should be a fascinating character study for me, but the way targ stans talk about him has ruined any chance of discussion because any nuance I could provide is going to be taken as pro Rhaegar talking points.

Same with Valyria in general. The Valyrian people were delusional and terrifying and the world is better off without them, but I love exploring why. I don't hate Targaryeans to hate them, I hate them because they are interesting to hate. They are facsinating because of what makes them horrible. And liking them as characters isn't at all wrong.

Its the lack of willingness to engage with their favourite charatcers greatest flaws and realistic motivations. It's a disconnect. They will push back against every single argument that Dany is a horrible, selfish tyrant possible, and then cite her atrocities as why I'm wrong and it's like..they have bought so much into the propoganda that they have created a false image of this character they supposedly love. Why love a version of a character that you need to bend over backwards to justify is the real version against the facts of the actual story?

They are desperate to look as if their favourite characters make them morally righteous. When liking a morally honourable character does not say anything about you other then what particular character you enjoy more then another. I am not claiming to be better then Rhaegar stans because I love Ned Stark, but they will slander Ned Stark as much as they can to justify why they prefer Rhaegar instead of just admitting they have a preference.

I get accused of being a Sansa hater, because I am both very against jonsa (ship and shippers) and I am very critical of her post season 4 character. But in the books and the first 4 seasons, shes not my favourite but I love her. But because I go against the popular ship and I am critical of her various actions over the course of the different versions of her character, I am seen as a hater. Its the same with Dany and many Targaryeans.

Its either toe the public opinion, or keep them out of your mouth which is insane for a fandom of a story literally built upon the varying complexities of a characters grey areas.

They want asoiaf/got to be way more black and white then it ever has been. Which is such a poor way of interacting with a story you are passionate about.

Dany can be a tyrant and an interesting character. She can be a cruel and selfishly bloodthristy woman and your favourite character. But these stans are allergic to those ideas not being mutually exclusive.

I dont hate targ stans because they are targ stans, I hate targ stans because they will attack any dissenting opinons that do not fall into their perfect protagonist hero image they've conjured up.

But they got nothing on me. I love Euron Greyjoy. The most disgusting monster in the whole series who I also would rather slingshot him into the sun then let him walk around alive in the world. I will never defend his bad choices, and never condemn someone for calling him an immoral monster. His lack of humanity is what makes his choices so interesting.

These targ stans though, could not possibly be strong enough to be the same for even a minute for their favourite Targaryean.

[isnt-it-pretty]

I found your Cyrus ask/post and really liked anon’s and your thoughts on it

Going onto my own projections lol, I always thought Cyno’s story parallels immigrants to an extent. He’s a desert dweller, but he’s basically been raised in the Akademiya. He’s Othered there because of the prejudices against the desert, but he’s Othered in the desert too due to being the General Mahamatra. He knows the desert, but from what I remember it’s implied (I think since the Sumeru archon quest?) he doesn’t quite know it as much those who actually live there, like Candace

One admirable trait of Cyrus at least is that he has a soft spot for children, and we see that when he’s willing to pretty much drop the case of the threat letter once he finds out it’s a 16-year-old responsible

So I think your take is very consistent of what we already know of Cyrus. Arguably, it’s still not the best outcome, because good intentions doesn’t mean it’s for the best. I honestly think he felt responsible for Cyno, as someone who was involved in implanting the fragment in him and seeing how it resulted in his sickliness. I also think seeing Cyno suffer was possibly half the reason why he ended the experiment and took him with him

But that’s me giving him the benefit of the doubt. Cyrus himself admits at the end of the SQ that he’s “not a good person” and that Cyno has reason to hate him. Like you said, he doesn’t give his reasons, so we’re left to basically guessing his thoughts that ultimately he’s a pretty enigmatic character. It doesn’t help that he’s not the most honest about them. He seems to be pretty emotionally-constipated and very avoidant in fact, and that bites him in the ass when he tells Cyno about Hermanubis but is not willing to get into any depth. Cyno even calls him out a little by the end of the SQ, when he clearly wants to talk to Cyno about something but ends up giving him “non-answers”, so he’s definitely not perfect

Either way, to that anon: you’re valid if u don’t like him. I was a little surprised at how much MHY went into Cyrus’ character, making him flawed enough to be justifiably disliked. It’s not something I expected from a NPC, but it’s a good direction from a story-telling standpoint (in that, I can see how this can be set up for conflict, but that’s my angst fanfic-loving heart lol cuz I doubt MHY will release a third SQ)

I'm glad you liked it! Here is the post referenced.

Cyno very much feels like somebody adopted outside of his culture (same with Kaeya), and he shares a lot with immigrants as well since the desert is basically treated as a seperate nation. He reminds me a lot of people who adopt children from Kenya or China (or other African & Asian countries), or indigenous children adopted outside of their communities, and then their roots are ignored and they're treated as the same as their family, even though they aren't.

I don't think there's any parents, adopted or otherwise, we know of in Genshin who are the idealisitic perfect parents. Kaeya's birth family is its own tangle, Crepus instilled a hero complex so strongly into Diluc that Diluc is now embittered and angry, Jean and Barbara's parents split up abd each took a kid (I mean seriously, what the fuck?), Kaveh's mother had severe depression and left him behind to build a life in Fontaine, Arlecchino is a mess for the Hearth children, Alice isn't the worst but she still left Klee for literally years, Dehya's father was a bandit, Diona's is an alcoholic, Kojou Sara's is a traitor, Wriothesley, Shenhe- you get the point. (Fischl, Bennet, and Yoimiya's parents are admittedly pretty good.)

Genshin has no problem giving us characters with complicated parental relationships. It's nice that we get to see Cyno still associating with Cyrus when so many other characters are estranged.

Cyno definitely deserves some straight answers though, and I think he'd get them eventually. Give it a few days to cool down and then go sit with Cyrus, listen to some tomato rants, and ask hos questions.

I'm too much of a baby to write or read arguments between Cyno and Cyrus 😭

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Analysis of Shouto-Touya/Dabi Relationship;

Thanks for the ask, @trinityrus. And dont worry. Your english is fine ^^. I actually talk about this a little in here and here but well, lets start.

I think Shouto and Touya’s relationship is very entertaining and amazing because despite the fact that they are siblings but they are strangers but even so, they are same because of Endeavour’s abuse but even that abuse is different so that makes them different.

Shouto and Touya always wanted to switch because they thought other one had it better.

Shouto always had Endeavour’s attention, he was used as tool to make his father’s dreams come true so he wished he could be just like his siblings but that wouldnt make his life better because his siblings are traumatized in a different way. That ‘neglect’, the idea that ‘they are failure’ to their father. Especially we know how it broke Touya.  Shouto cant relate to Touya’s desire to please his father because he never liked his father.

And Touya thinks if he wasnt failure, if he was strong enough, if he was just like Shouto, he thinks his life would be better but it wouldnt because that ‘training’, carrying the dreams of their parents is abuse, even Touya didnt see it that way. They both are miserable in a different way. Whether you are golden child or black ship, doesnt matter, because you are still abuse victim. Basically, just from the start, they unable to understand each other’s sitution.

Shouto as ‘golden child’, he hated his left side. Because his father abused his mother, Shouto didnt want to be like him, thats why he ‘repressed’ it.

Touya as ‘abandonded child’, he hold on every similarities between him and his father because he desperately need his attention. And he was never taught to how to put out the fire, which is why, instead of repression, we see opposite of it. Expression. Him ‘lashing out’. His feelings are out of control and he doesnt know how to stop it.

This is the same dynamic we see between main villain trio and main hero trio. Izuku repress his anger and self destructs while Tomura express his anger and his anger is literally out of control, both hurting himself and others. Uraraka repress her needs and her romantic feelings while Toga express everything. Same for Shouto and Dabi too. Shouto respress his anger and anything relates to his past while Dabi express and hold onto every part of his past.

Earlyroki was also repressing but even when he repress, his anger would come out of control. He would fail miserably and lash out to people around him. His fight with Midoriya calmed him down because he finally see his own wroth outside of his father and he started to heal. But the problem is his flaw didnt go away.

Shouto continued to repressing everything. He endured to work with his father and continued to training under him. We can see how his ‘anger’ didnt go away because he almost killed Tetsutetsu in match. He endures, endures, until he cant anymore. Then his feelings get out of control. Its good thing that Shouto wants to be his own hero but the way system it is, it forces him to work with his abuser and since hero kids are raised to be like soldiers, he is unable to heal properly. He wants to move on and be his own person but its like he is stuck.

Their biggest common point with dabi is that anger that made them more like their father, this is what Shouto see in Dabi. ‘He is me’. Its actually very mature of Shouto to see that he could turn out just like his big brother but at the same time, he is projecting a lot. Thats one of the issues between Shouto and Touya.

Shouto relates to Dabi’s anger but since he is trying to move on so bad, he is repressing his anger. One of the biggest flaws of both Shouto and Dabi’s is they distance theirselves from their feelings a lot.

This is why we see Shouto asking this; If you survived back then, why didnt you come home?

As if Earlyroki wouldnt run away, if he had a chance.

‘Dad was a madman, our family was messed up’. By saying this, Shouto lessens his own trauma. As if Endeavour didnt hurt innocent people. He is busy with ‘playing hero’ because thats how he was taught. End of the day, he is still hero and heroes are not allowed to have feelings in society.

Todoroki family doesnt really know the Earlyroki or you could say ‘it was okay Shouto to be violent, since he is hero and he only hurts villains’ but Shouto know his own feelings, his dark side and thats why he still can see Dabi as brother. He is the only one who seems to see Dabi as person more than other members of family.

Because of Endeavour, Shouto wants to become kind of hero who wants to save his family, he wants to be invidual so Dabi is perfect match for him. Dabi is big challenge for him to be the kind of person he wants to be because he symbolize the past Shouto tries to repress. He knows he has to face it but he really doesnt know how to. This is why we see him treating him as brother in one moment and tries to talk with him but the fight goes on, he starts treating him as villain. ‘You wont hurt innocent people anymore’.

Shouto cant reach out to Touya because he didnt adress his own trauma properly. If Shouto cant see himself as victim, he cant see Touya either. If society doesnt see the flaws of society that lets people like Endeavour get away, then he cant save his brother.

This is even more obvious with Dabi. He literally see him as puppet and copy of Endeavour. Just like Shouto, they both know what happenned to them is abuse, that they both are victims but he internalized his abuse too much, Dabi justify the abuse Endeavour did to him in his mind. That he is failure and Shouto is masterpiece so if Dabi cant see himself as victim, not as failure, then how can see Shouto as another victim, instead of masterpiece? They both dehumanizing theirselves, thats exactly why they unable to see each others as inviduals because they cant even allow theirselves to be invidual.

Once again, we can see this with Shouto when he looked at is brother’s power and he said ‘we both carry the same blood’, even though he was supposed to be not bound by blood. We can still see him struggling with his own issues.

So basically, if they want to heal, they have to adress their own pain. They have to accept that they are victims. Shouto has to stop repressing his anger and shouldnt force himself to get along with system and Dabi has to realize that even he was powerfull like Shouto, his problems wouldnt be solved. That training would still be abuse. So i cant imagine those two healing without acknowledging each others’s pain because that way, they will also have to acknowledge their pain first.

Both Shouto and Dabi still looking for a reason for their existence. Why were they born at that home? They both desperarely looking worth in theirselves. Shouto find it in class 1 A and Dabi find it in league. Shouto wants to know his brother better and be together with his family and Dabi in deep also wants to turn back to his family (except Endeavour because he doesnt deserve it).

Of course, Dabi is gonna push Shouto first and he is still pushing him because he is pushing himself. He acts like Touya is someone else, that his identity died but its not true. We see it with his fight with Shouto. First, he acts like a villain and make a speech about society but the fight goes on, he loose his anger and starts to act like brother, opposite of Shouto who repress it, Dabi express it.

Since those two desire for the same and they can understand each others more than anyone, i think they will eventually get along really well. And i mentioned in my other post, their characters really fits each others. Touya always express himself with actions more than words while Shouto always pay attention to someone’s actions more than their words. They will get along really well.

Bonus;

Source

When they were kids, they were strangers but Shouto always wanted to know about his big brother Touya more and most likely, Touya didnt want to feel jeolosy towards innocent Shouto but he couldnt help it. But if Endeavour wasnt horrible human being, then they would most likely support each others and become great heroes together. Even as villain-hero, they inspire each others so as heroes, they would even be better and thats the future they deserve.

[atla-confessions]

"that 'Iroh the hypocrite' confession is a lot of words to say you don't understand

The whole point of the "Azula needs to be taken down" is it goes against what Iroh is usually about, thats not Iroh being hypocritical, that is the writers highlighting just how dangerous Azula truly is"

Of course, Iroh's 14 year old niece is so dangerous and severly deep into the propaganda of his nation and the parenting of his abusive younger brother that even he, the one who is mature enough to realize all of the topics mentioned above, is spiritually enlightened and is basically always seeing the good in everyone (proof is his weird idolization of his nephew), can't stop for a second and put himself in the shoes of this child, his own family, in order to at least understand why she is like this. That's not at all a writing that betrays the essence and themes of his character(becoming a good person after doing bad things, seeing the spiritual balance of the world and hence being able to see that people can do both good and wrong and forever trying to offer guidance for those he encounters so that they can be able to lean towards that inherent goodness, hopefully), not at all a flaw in his character, that's just him being once again Perfect and anything that opposes this idea, is definitely wrong and evil, right? Thnx for the good laugh you gave me, hopefully, I'll leave you too a bit better with this educational discussion as you did to me.

"And the sending Zuko to fight Azula has nothing to do with a power struggle between siblings, Azula had no real power, Ozai just named her fire lord to continue to manipulate her, thus Zuko fighting her wouldn't been seen the same as Iroh taking down Ozai"

Oh, so a publicly known traitor going back to his country with the intent to usurp the position of power and governance, that was given to his sister, now the publicly known figure and power of authority due to the fact she's been chosen by the ultimate authority, the phoenix king to be the leader of the nation, and is quite literally the only ruling figure staying in the country and tasked with governing it, somehow, this Traitor vs The Leader of the Nation isn't actually a power struggle being painted in action here? Do enlighten me to what it is, if you can, because I seem to have misunderstood all the politics I've studied.

"And imagine thinking Zuko's never done anything good without "the good guys" givinf him chances, as if The Blue Spirit wasn't wanted by the fire nation from before Aang even wakes up."

Of course, the Blue Spirit must've been a noble hero fighting against the Colonizing Entity and doing heroic deeds, right? I mean, the fire nation wants him captured! Of course he must've been doing something good! Two questions came to my head right now, why and for whom did he do these deeds? All I know about this character is that he does things for his own benefit, things that ultimately did serve the world good such as kidnapping the avatar and brought harm too, such as stealing from people. And guess what, all of these actions came from a place of self interest and personal gain, they didn't come from a moral sense of doing it for other people so who's to say that, perhaps, the Blue Spirit being wanted by the Fire Nation is because he would do things that would once again benefit him, such as infiltrating military groups and centers to acquire knowledge that would aid him in his search for the avatar?

"Try thinking about why things are said rather than what is said"

Believe me, I don't share my thoughts unless I'm positively assured of what I didn't and did understand and I'm always welcome, happy and ready to be proven wrong and be taught what's correct and right. Do you do that too?

X

[pinkblahaj]

rick riordan's female characters pt 2: aphrodite's children

during my reread of pjo, rick riordan's portrayals of aphrodite's children was what made me first realize that his writing of teen girls might be problematic. it does make sense considering the demonization of femininity that used to be so popular, but it is valid to still be bothered by it. i have thoughts on how cabin 10 is described overall, as well as the specific characters.

cabin 10

in the earlier books, rick made the aphrodite cabin way too one-dimensional. yes, the goddess aphrodite is known for her vain and shallow personality, and yes, the other campers tend to possess well-known traits of their godly parents (ares' children are aggressive, hermes' children are tricksters, nike's children are competitive, etc.). but the way that aphrodite's children were portrayed as especially weak, preferring to look at their reflections and gossip rather than play capture the flag, did feel blatantly sexist to me. like of course because their mom is the most stereotypically feminine of the gods, they have the least battle skills.

at the beginning of HoO i thought rick might be atoning for some of these flaws. it was interesting that piper, a character who explicitly rejects traditional standards for femininity and beauty, turned out to be a child of aphrodite. but then her siblings were still very stereotypical and their cabin literally made her "gag". i found it unnecessary that rick specified in the lost hero that most of the cabin were girls. sure, it makes sense that aphrodite would want to have more daughters than sons, but that combined with the fact that they lack the skills of other demigods just doesn't look good. i liked that rick mentioned that despite her reputation, aphrodite was a war goddess and the oldest of the olympians, but i was disappointed that he continued to stereotype her children so harshly.

silena

i don't have many criticisms of this character, other than her being described as one of the few nice campers from cabin 10. i really liked that she valued love and kindness, which more of the aphrodite campers should have been like imo. although aphrodite and her children have a generally shallow reputation in the original pjo series, i appreciate the impact that silena had on the series and the way that she showed that aphrodite's children can still have bravery and strength.

i do wish that more attention is paid to how luke manipulated/groomed her and others (which i've been seeing the pjo fandom do more now, fortunately), as this is a big reason why i can't see him as a redeemable character.

drew

call me delusional but i am a proud drew tanaka defender. yes, silena was manipulated by luke and she sacrificed herself heroically. but she still betrayed camp half-blood and is part of the reason why several of them, including charles, died. drew likely looked up to silena and felt this betrayal extremely severely, and her bitterness is justified. i just don't believe that she became mean for no reason.

because rick is clearly capable of writing his characters with more depth, it's so disappointing that he put so little thought into drew. clarisse was a bully, but she is revealed to be under severe pressure from her dad and later becomes friends with percy. luke is a main antagonist but evokes sympathy from many readers. even octavian, who was unlikable from beginning to end, was suffering mentally and enabled by apollo, and thus didn't deserve all the blame. yes, some people are truly horrible for no good reason, but with all the trauma that the pjo characters go through, there was likely a much better explanation for why drew is the way she is. i hate that he just made her the most archetypal mean girl who immediately hates the female lead because they are interested in the same guy. (side note: it's funny that the only other living female asian character in pjo/hoo i can think of is annabeth's stepmom, who i do NOT claim)

piper

this character seems to be quite controversial, but i honestly was not as bothered by piper as i thought i would be upon rereading. her "not like other girls" phase lasts pretty much only one book... and it's realistic for teenagers to have cringey phase. since i do have a problem with the larger context of how rick wrote aphrodite's children, i do see why some are more bothered by it, bc rick portrays piper as better than her more feminine siblings. in this aspect, i do think piper had some lost potential. i think it's great that we have characters like piper and frank who aren't pure stereotypes based on their godly parents and who have to learn to embrace that side of them. but i wish we would have seen piper realize that being feminine does not mean you are stuck up and that she possibly had internalized misogyny. i really like the interpretation that her identities of being indigenous and queer affected her relationship with femininity and gender expression, but i doubt rick himself actually thought that deep into it. however, i've only read the first two books of toa, so there may be parts of her character i am missing.

i remember finding piper and jason to be boring characters during my first read of hoo, but after rereading, i think they are good characters who were placed in an extremely bland relationship. i personally am a subscriber to the lesbian piper + gay jason headcanon, as hera manipulating them into a relationship feels a lot like comphet. but i don't find their relationship unrealistic either. i feel like our standards were raised pretty high by percabeth, a relationship based on an actual friendship between two people who knew and loved each other deeply. but it's also normal for teenagers to get together quickly without knowing whether they are compatible. also, considering how short the expected lifespan of demigods are, it makes sense that we see couples like jiper and frazel who start dating less than a year after meeting. i also was never that bothered by piper being "obsessed" with jason... the other hoo couples tended to do that too, and her mother is the goddess of love.

piper's charmspeak was an interesting power, but i don't think it was super well thought out. obviously, there are some ethical questions about her using it on people, including her own friends, that are never answered-- especially because sometimes piper doesn't even realize she's using it. also, i found it hard to believe that in the lost hero she was already able to use it on gaea. i enjoyed the moments where we saw her other skills and would have liked to see more of them. her emotional intelligence (as seen in the way she helps annabeth defeat mimas) was underutilized and could have been a great staple for all of aphrodite's children.

[codenamesazanka]

I like Chapter 394, I like that Ochako finally took a chance to try to talk and connect to Toga, I like that Ochako tried to empathize with Toga and to see her as someone worth— maybe not saving, exactly, but worth giving empathy and compassion to, even if she is a Villain, even if she has done terrible things. Someone worth allowing dignity.

I do feel like this realization is a bit… overdue. Ochako acknowledges this herself - it might have been too late for a talk. The signs where there from the beginning, but it took her so long to notice. She had avoid really considering Toga Himiko until the last possible second.

This realization as a climax in a narrative does work, technically. You had:

the problem (What’s the deal with Toga Himiko and how do we stop her),

the rising action (Making a plan to confront Toga Himiko, fighting through to clones to reach Toga Himiko, trying to figure out Toga Himiko),

and so the climax is the solution - We stopped Toga Himiko by talking to her, realizing she’s been afraid that she’s not cute she’s considered not human, and so reassured her that she’s human.

But the way all this has been executed feels… off.

Because there’s very little about the villains that we the audience don’t already know, but there’s a lot about the villains that the Heroes haven’t even got a clue of. The audience have known the basic facts; and then we were just waiting for the Heroes to play catch up, to learn what we learned and to realize what we’ve realized nearly 200 chapters ago. Waiting for the Heroes to gain that knowledge, then use it to win the battle.

As it is, Ochako has finally realized that Toga has a strange instinct for blood that impairs her life and relationships, that Toga has not had an easy life because of it, that Toga wanted and needed human connection. All that is great, it’s exactly what was needed to de-escalate the situation and stop Toga at the moment.

And yet something feels lacking. Ochako still has no knowledge of how Toga’s parents treated her, or how quirk counseling did more harm than good, or even exactly why and how much Jin meant to Toga. She understand a bit of Toga’s problem now, and? How will she solve the rest of the problem?

In a way, I guess this is realistic. You don’t need to know everything about a person to help them. You can’t know everything about a person, and you make do with what you have. And a Hero should be willing to help someone even with limited information.

For a story, though, about flawed systems, and the societal accumulation of pain and injustice, and human connections, it’s rather unsatisfactory. What is Ochako, as a Hero who participates in the system and perpetuates it’s justice, willing to do about the root causes that created Toga Himiko? Will she get angry about the abusive parents and the quirk counseling and the overall intolerance of quirk society, these injustices that she as a Hero should stop? How will she truly stop the threat of ‘Toga Himiko’ - the threat of another ostracized, abused child pushed to the edge and lashing out as a result? Is she even aware of how big this is?

Ochako’s realization here is important! It’s the first step. But it’s a tiny part of a bigger epiphany to be had. It feels like she hasn’t reached the true climax.

[thekatebridgerton]

In one of your older posts you described Eloise and phillip as a single dad x magic pixie dream girl.

I was wondering if you could expand on this concept?

I've always wondered what happened after end of the book.

Honestly I need to read the Bridgerton Epilogues too.

I don't remeber when I said this about Phillip and Eloise being an example of the single dad x manic pixie dream girl trope. But it does sound like me. Mostly because to me Julia Quinn averted falling into the trap of making Eloise relationship with Phillip entirely two dimensional.

So we all know about the MPDG she's the female version of the hallmark hero. She's fun, quirky, outside the mold and seems to have landed on our hero's doorstep to cure his depression and make him feel like life can be fun again (then Julia said 'hey, what if the manic pixie dream girl had trauma after seeing her dad die and also had a family of wacky, equally traumatized siblings). Then we have the single dad, he's often overworked, depressed and his dubious approach to parenting has turned his kids into unruly brats.

Wait a minute, what do you mean that the resident MPDG has trauma? And a life of her own? so here's where it gets fun. Because as the story progresses we learn that not only was Eloise not placed in the story to solve Phillip's problems, she is quite frankly going trough a existential crisis of her own, and he and his kids are invertedly helping her trough it. Because we come to learn that Eloise is a lot more than this talkative extrovert who likes to give orders. She is deeply concerned about life passing her by and everyone moving on with their lives except her and she just really wants to find out if falling inlove IS actually something she's been missing out all along.

And it turns out that our depressed single dad really never had anyone to teach him how to be a good person, other than his brother who died. But he's been muddling trough and all this time the depression was because he simply has been beating himself up most of his life, for not being good enough or 'man enough' to fix everything that's wrong in his life without help.

And this is where we reach the deconstruction of the trope, because at the end of the story, Phillip comes to terms with the fact that Eloise isn't this perfect idealized woman of his dreams, I mean she's certainly brilliant and wonderful but not perfect. And that's okay, he never wanted perfect, he just wanted someone who would smile and maybe love him. He never expected Eloise to change his life but she did and he doesn't know how to go back to living without that.

And then we see Eloise, who never thought anyone would need her or appreciate her for all the things everyone told her were flaws, like being loud, bossy and energetic. And tho Phillip is not perfect, he does try his best to be better every day and appreciate who she is as a person, not because of how she's good at fixing his life, but because she's herself, a kind, friendly no nonsense woman with a heart of gold who can and will stand up for herself even against someone she loves. He's not her perfect one dimensional hallmark hero, he has a life of his own, and hopes, dreams and fears, outside of just pleasing her and being her husband. But he would do anything to make her happy and that's all she needs to build a good marriage.

It's very much real, in TSPWL how sometimes we idealize the people we are writing to, when we have never met them in person and build them up to be these perfect paragons of virtue and then we meet them in person and it turns out the manic pixie dream girl has trauma and the hallmark one dimensional hero, is actually just a guy trying to figure out his life.

Maybe that's another thing i love so much about this couple.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog 6: analsysising harder

I am having a finals' nightmare week in university, but finally found the time to sit down and relax, so here's to episode 3.

He's so supportive. For all his faults as a father, (like the fact that Joris might not be able to read yet in here, despite seemingly being pretty ready to be taught how to, as was pointed out to me by @dullard during our separate rewatch from this rewatch) the fact that Joris can sell things at the market all by himself at 7yo and knows what a commission is, is actually really cool. Good job, Keke! This once, I will not kill you with hammers.

Do start teaching your son to read/write soon. Please. Please.

ANALYSIS EVENT LEVEL 10 ALARM WEE WOO WEE WOO. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS.

Joris is seven years old. Kerubim was, by his own words, "barely older than him," during his confirmation ceremony at the Orphan Temple. Can we actually ask what Kerubim Crepin was doing, at seven years old, in the orphan temple??

As we know from Dofus Heroes Kerubim comic, he was busy being an orphan, plotting to resurrect his parents, (either adoptive, or step-father and biological-mother. It doesn't really matter !) and being sad, to the point that, as an adult, even while amnesiac, he empathizes greatly with a stray kitten.

Having dreams of not wanting to be lonely, projecting his loneliness onto stray animals... It's the reason why he's afraid of showing people that he's weak and driving them away, and what makes him a compulsive liar, as I've pointed out in the last post. He can't bear being alone.

No wonder, then, that despite being old, and having a decrepit house, he didn't try to find Joris a better home. It would be a betrayal of his own ideals of protecting children from what he went through. It would mean that someone so similar to him would, too, be all alone. And, a bit more selfishly, he does need someone by his side.

I would point out, that Atcham was in the temple, implied to be mistreated, that they are both full brothers who grew up in the same family, and that him and Kerubim didn't have the best relationship even as kids, — with Bashi also disliking Atcham heavily, for unstated reasons, — and how it all might tie into Kerubim also adoptng Joris out of guilt, because he feels like he might end up like Atcham, but I don't have ten hours.

And also bc Atcham doesn't appear often, and I am mostly delusional about this.

Kerubim avoids mentioning Atcham or any of his adventures in Brakmar, so... man just give us anything to work with.

Despite Keke playing it off now, he really didn't have an easy childhood.

For all the times I say he's a bad dad, or that I want to beat him up, it is all in jest. I think he's a very tragic character who was just... never really given a chance to develop a healthy way of interacting with the world.

And for what it's worth, he grew up to be as decent of a person he could have, and did the best he could, at becoming a family with Joris and raising him, as flawed and uneven as it is.

He really just wants this kid to have a good childhood, or an approximation of one, with no violence, loneliness, or fear he went through — and it's all going to be ruined in the movie, isn't it?

It won't stop me from joking about beating him up in the future of this blog, but I wanted to make my stance clear. No non-joking slander of Kerubim in this household. Ever.

I think he was scared shitless of having a deadly quest here, but HAD to pretend he wasn't, for the public. He looks happier now than seconds ago in the queue line, lol.

Low self-esteem can result in seeking attention through being loud and obnoxious, as well as a fear of embarrassment, so, it checks out. Lying is a likely thing for Kerubim to do, and I love and respect him for it.

His immediate reaction to being embarrassed by getting a clothespin, and made fun of, as audience laughs? Double down, baby! Though, his angry facade doesn't last until the end of the line. He's just... looking sadly to the side.

By the way, considering he's only a bit older than seven, the "I've been training for years" is a bit haunting.

Do you know who DOES deserve to get beaten with hammers for real, non-ironically? The god Ecaflip. Can I get an amen?

No wonder, Kerubim coddled Joris and wanted his life to be better! His life sucked!

Of all the things not to lie about, he seemed not to lie about being trained. Doesn't stop him from being beaten up, though...

We have to beat God Ecaflip with hammers. There is no other way.

For all his cockiness, he's so stressed out. His facade is so, so ruined, the second he realizes his plan is not working.

Really, this whole scene puts their relationship together the best. He's a God, holding Kerubim, a 7-9yo orphan, on a tiny string.

His whole life, Ecaflip just belittles him over some random bullshit, makes him hate his brother for being bald, and then gives him a gambling addiction before putting him into a mental asylum to treat it. All of that because he loves him that much.

We have to kill him. There is no other way. I may be a wakfu season 3 hater, but Oropo was right.

Yay, trauma bonding, in its correct definition!

If my whole family died, and a god cared so much about me, he made me the protagonist of various sad cringe stories of overcoming personal adversities mostly caused BY him, I too, would develop some sort of complex to cope. So I get it.

But I feel like, even if Kerubim will never voice it out loud, considering what repercussions may follow, deep down he knows that Ecaflip himself is one of the reasons for his loneliness, and that most of all, he's scared of him.

[wormsin]

brudick headcanon (no underage): bruce just adores dick. like just in awe. dick misses it half the time because he's too busy with other priorities, but bruce is like bursting at the seams with how much he just wants to be around dick and protect him and shower w him gifts and love.

ok this is more meta and sad than what you were probably looking for.

(if I get into the how and why Bruce is a withholding communicator this post is going to be way too long, so let's skip that.)

Bruce's love for Dick is as bright as the sun. it's codependent and unhealthy. Bruce imprinted on a child orphan whose parents were murdered right in front of his eyes, just like Bruce. to B, on some level they are the same person. he believes that Dick will experience the same darkness he does—that B struggles with constantly—and needs to save Dick like he couldn't save himself.

whether or not Dick faces the same darkness in the same way (and I think there are arguments to both sides there), Bruce sees Dick as an extension of himself. Dick's achievements, his inherent goodness, his status as a symbol of hope, the very fact of him living in the world, is saving Bruce's life. B believes Dick leads a good life in a way he cannot.

and of course, Nightwing is maybe the most renown legacy hero. he is a skilled (and flawed) leader, an excellent mentor, the only one Bruce can trust with impossible missions (Spyral). on a personal level, B believes Dick is the glue that holds the batfam together. of course Bruce is in awe. he is bursting with pride. he idolizes Dick.

and he wants that goodness for himself. Dick home. safe from the darkness. at all costs, alive. loved. the problem is... unless Bruce understands that he deserves love himself, he cannot give or accept that love from Dick. because Dick is the part of Bruce that was saved. and Bruce is the last bulwark against darkness. and honestly, keeping Dick at arm's length is maybe the most appropriate decision Bruce has made regarding Dick in his entire life. if they're together as a couple, the codependency is THROUGH THE ROOF.

AND THE THING IS, being an idealized object of hope is a huge problem for Dick. forget being sexually objectified—he is objectified by the other capes, and by himself. Dick is flawed. he absolutely does not accept support from his friends or ask for help; does not even keep them close in his life. (this is partially a comics medium issue). a huge martyr complex, even for a hero. very few people allow Dick to have personhood, and those that do usually have rocky relationships with Dick (like Barbara).

ITS EVEN MORE WILD that Bruce idolizes Dick in this way, because Dick has killed people. and is willing to in extreme circumstances. maybe Bruce doesn't consider him stopping Joker's breathing/heart a true murder. probably he doesn't know about the others. even if he does, I don't think it would challenge his idea of Dick as uncorruptible.

in most worlds, they won't get together or change the push and pull of their codependence. the circumstances have to be exceptional, and they both need to do a lot of growing up. but if they are together, the affection and love is intense, because Bruce is a dramatic, obsessive romantic, and once the damn bursts he will not be able to stop himself.