#the relationship between these two has the capacity to fuck a guy up like no other

[thelilylav]

GOD the way Chase really is the prodigal son. The injured leg, the stubble, the lost love over a mistake that ruined the relationship. The way he self-isolates, the way he tries to use sex to escape emotion, the complicated history with faith and god.

The way House could see it all before it started. Re-watching s8 e12 and thinking about how House fired him the second he saw a glimpse of himself, trying to keep Chase safe, and how he genuinely thought Chase left only to find out he stayed in the hospital. The second he did, it was done. He didn't take his chance to leave, and then he couldn't bring himself to again.

[rancidhomo]

I wouldn't usually be all in on anything related to vacant rich white guys but I think its the way that the vapidity almost imperceptibly ebbs every now and then that has unfortunately captivated me very much.

Based on 95% of Saxon's words and behavior, like Chelsea I also would have quickly come to the conclusion that Saxon is soulless, interacting with his environment and other people in superficial ways that barely penetrate even a centimeter past his skin, never compelled to truly engage with the world, or allow any force to do even a little bit of substantive work inside him.

Most people unfortunate enough to have a conversation with him would probably assume that he's never known love in his life - and that he doesn't even know he hasn't, either. That's why it's so satisfying to me to witness the moments where Lochlan does something that briefly catalyzes evidence of something substantial existing within Saxon.

e.g., when Lochlan places his hand on Saxon's back and runs his fingers through his hair, Saxon's immediate unguarded look of euphoric overwhelm at the intimacy of the moment is absolutely wild. How few gestures of genuine, intentional affection has Saxon been the recipient of? For a moment, Lochlan's action allowed us to glimpse an interiority/depth of emotion in Saxon that he usually seems devoid of.

Also, in Saxon's flashback to the kiss, he is effusing such a palpable glow of vulnerability. You can feel it with the positioning of their bodies (Lochlan higher and bending down to Saxon), the warmth of the light, the softness of the kisses that Lochlan is bestowing on Saxon, Saxon letting the back of his fingers lightly graze across Lochlan's neck.

He is exposing his longing for tenderness. Lochlan's love and affection briefly shows us that Saxon is a human capable of feeling. He is a person relishing connection and intimacy with another person on mutually-informing emotional and physical levels, something that I'd assume neither of them have experienced before.

I will say that the story as Mike White has written it makes sense to me. These are two lonely brothers, raised at different times by bizarrely disconnected wealth-obsessed parents who either didn't teach the boys how to love others/cultivate relationships in healthy ways, or perhaps did and said things that actively hindered their children's emotional development and capacity for connection. Lochlan as the youngest child alone in a house with uninterested and distant parents, no instinct for developing love and intimacy with others and terrified that his loneliness will be forever. Saxon as the oldest child, out in the world grinding for useless and empty experiences with people just as vacant as him, incapable of getting anyone to love him and terrified that his whole life will be devoid of sincere intimacy.

I buy Sam Nivola's theory that Lochlan isn't sexually attracted to Saxon and that his actions were influenced more by his people-pleasing impulses. I think he recognized that Saxon has a physical/sexual attraction to him and, knowing how much Saxon prioritizes physical sexual experiences, wanted to offer gratification/consummation as a form of connection.

Although it may not be distinctly sexual, I do think that Lochlan gets a tremendous amount of pleasure from making Saxon feel good. He is happy to tenderly kiss the affection-starved brother that he loves deeply and that he knows loves him just as much in return. Saxon seems to actively crave both Lochlan's emotional and sexual attention, and Lochlan seems to enjoy giving it.

Even though they are more-or-less strangers in each other's lives due to their age gap, their love for each other is likely the only easy, natural source of good feelings they have. The distance between them in age/life stages/actual physical space, however, makes access to those feelings difficult. It makes sense that two siblings from a fucked up family, one or maybe both of them queer in a repressive conservative religious environment, with severely stunted emotional development, would interpret each other's love as the only thing that could bring them happiness- but more importantly, the only thing that will keep them from dying alone and unloved. It makes sense that in circumstances like that, the boys wouldn't know how to stop themselves from conflating and seeking to gratify all of their impulses for connection, with each other, all at once.

[youmakemyhearthowl]

Heres the thing about Evan 'Buck' Buckley and who he DESERVES to end up with.

Buck deserves someone obsessed (healthy) with him. Someone whos all in and can't get enough of him, because lets be honest, hes fucking sunshine. Should that be Eddie? Sure, the foundation is there for it and they are good for eachother.

That being said though, I'd be perfectly content seeing them stay just best friends. Because they are good together and its beautiful to see friendship like that shown on tv especially between two guys.

Heres the thing though, if they just stay best friends Buck cant' end up with ANY of his past partners, especially Tommy.

Now hear me out okay? I don't dislike Tommy because he isn't Eddie, I dislike Tommy because hes a jackass. Hes biphobic at best, emotionally abusive at worst. Look at how he talks to Buck, how he treats Buck like hes stupid or immature because Buck is 30 something and just found out he likes dudes and is scared?? Get real, thats a dick move. Baby gays are still gay and know what they want but its terrifying to learn this at an older age, to try to embrace something new. (Its terrifying at any age but you get what I mean) and then Tommy shoves Buck out of the closet in front of EVERYONE and dosen't even try to stop it, to make sure its something Buck would be okay with. And he talks down on Buck, talks to Buck the same way his parents do and if you care about Buck in ANY capacity youd want better for him.

I'm sick of the writers acting like its okay to have these on again off again relationships that are hurtful, especially to a character that has been used for nothing but other peoples needs his WHOLE life. Like sure people can have on again off again relationships that aren't bad but thats not the case with ANY of Bucks past partners, and to have him end up with any of them would be a real fuck you to people like Buck. People with abandonment issues and trust issues and so so much love to give with nowhere to put it.

So if Buck ends up with ANYONE, even if its not Eddie I BEG the writers to make a new character for that place in his life. A KIND person who sees Buck as an equal, who wants to just be around him and his amazing friendship with Eddie. Someone who sees who Buck is, what hes been through and understands that Buck DESERVES weird crazy obsessed with eachother friendships because hes fought fucking HARD to get them. Worked for them and keeps working for them.

Im a Buddie shipper through and through, but I'm okay if they don't end up together as long as whoever Buck ends up with LOVES him, all of him, and its a healthy beautiful relationship. Because those are real and people find them and if anyone deserves it, its Buck.

[tobiasdrake]

what do you think of the most important relationship in all of dragonball? I speak, of course, of the world champion Mr. Satan and his pupil, mr. Buu

The entire Satan and Buu plotline is delightful, and it's not without reason that their bromance has become an ever-enduring part of post-Z materials.

Story-wise, this may be the best decision that the Buu arc made.

Toriyama sets this up in advance with the little boy whose blindness Majin Buu heals.

While flying around and slaughtering people for funsies, Buu finds this kid that's not afraid of him because he can't see Buu. He heals the boy's blindness so he can be properly afraid, but the kid is grateful rather than scared.

Buu finds himself enjoying that.

So Buu decides to offer his new friend a little more help, even while he's killing and blowing up everything else.

This moment demonstrates that Buu has a capacity for kindness; He just hasn't learned better. Like a child, he craves attention and validation from others but doesn't know the difference between negative attention and positive attention.

He's acting out because he wants to be noticed. Which brings us to the Earth's response.

The man who defeated Cell is here to slay Majin Buu and restore order to the world! Hail Satan!

He's fucked. He is so unbelievably fucked. Even he knows how fucked he is.

To his credit, Satan doesn't run for the hills as soon as these two guys leave. He actually did come here with the intent to confront Majin Buu and save the world.

Satan is often taken for a full-on coward because he does typically try to get out of fighting people who could end him in a flick of a finger. He's Pamput tier as a fighter and he knows these people outclass him by an unbelievable margin.

But I think it speaks very highly of him that when the world looked to him to save them from Majin Buu, he didn't try to run from it. He's not going to try and fistfight Buu, hell to the no, but he does make a good faith attempt to slay the dragon, to the best of his meager ability.

Hell, when all else fails, he even does try to fight Majin Buu directly.

It takes a lot of nerve to swing on an invincible god-killing monster who will absolutely turn you into candy and eat you the moment this conversation stops being fun for him.

This isn't cowardice. Satan's an arrogant blowhard who steals glory he doesn't deserve. As he and Buu settle into their friendship, he even makes plans to steal glory for Buu's defeat should it ever come to pass.

But he does want to save the world from Buu. He just has no idea how to do it. This is so far beyond him it's not even funny. Even after he basically moves in with Buu, he's still got victory on his mind.

He's here for the same reason he went to the Cell Games. Satan has the spirit of a hero somewhere under all that bluster, deceit, and glory hogging.

It's the arrival of Bee that changes everything.

This is the blind boy with the milk all over again. But this time Satan is here to see it, and it changes his approach to how he's engaging Majin Buu.

Once Satan sees this nicer side of Majin Buu, he finds himself armed with the greatest secret weapon he could possibly bring to this conflict. More powerful than bombs or poisoned chocolate. The one weapon that can truly defeat Buu: Empathy and understanding another person's point of view.

BOOM. It's done. Mr. Satan just saved the entire fucking planet from Majin Buu. His ultimate technique is asking Buu nicely to stop. No one's ever said this to him before. He didn't know better.

And this comes at the worst possible fucking time, oh my god. Seconds after Majin Buu agrees he won't kill or destroy anymore, snipers shoot his puppy.

This wouldn't be a big deal ordinarily. Buu would just erase these two assholes. But he just promised he wouldn't kill and destroy anymore. He wants to keep his promise. So all he can do is stand there and fume.

Buu has no idea what to do in this situation if he's not allowed to kill these two shitheads. Satan has not thought to convey the correct nuance for how he can behave in this context. So he's trying so hard to keep his promise in a situation where he should rightly be allowed to defend himself and his friends.

Satan's able to defuse the situation by beating the shit out of these clowns himself, and they save Bee's life with Buu's healing. But when Shooty McDickface shoots Satan in the back, Buu fucking erupts.

The contradiction between his promise not to hurt humans anymore and his furious need to waste these bastards is too much for him, allowing the darker aspects of the true Majin Buu an opening to seize control over Daikaioshin's innocence, which had up to this point resulted in this childish demeanor of his and made this friendship possible.

It's noteworthy that the first thing Evil Buu does is resolve the contradiction.

He does not care what he promised Satan. He's going to kill. And then he's going to resume killing. It was a mistake to have ever stopped.

The other really noteworthy thing, after he becomes Super Buu, is his behavior during his Human Extinction Attack.

God, what a horrifying image. This is the darkest fucking moment in Dragon Ball history. This is somehow worse than blowing up the planet. It's so horrific. Buu is really living up to his function as a god-killing horror whose very existence is a slight against the heavens.

Super Buu uses God's Temple in Heaven as a vantage point from which to fire billions of homing shots down into the Earth precisely targeted to kill every last human being remaining in the world. In a matter of minutes, he purges all human life from this world.

All human life except Tenshinhan and Chiaotzu, who were able to evade the shots aimed at them. Look, if you're going to shoot billions of ki blasts at once, there's a limit to how powerful they can be.

And Mr. Satan, who Buu skipped. Even with his innocence restrained and chained inside of him, Buu still can't escape his feelings for the one man in all the world he can call a friend. Even in this moment as he purges life from this world, Buu simply couldn't bring himself to do it. Not this one.

Even at his darkest, Buu's love for his friend will remain so long as any scrap of influence from Daikaioshin, so long as the thing that makes him sapient to begin with, still lives inside of him. A problem that only Pure Buu would ever manage to solve.

"The surge of emotion that shot through me when I saved your life taught me a valuable lesson: Where Caroline lives in my brain. Goodbye, Caroline." ~Majin Buu apparently

Such a weird resolution to their developing friendship, but Majin Buu is a magical creature unbound from any physics whatsoever so it works.

And then, for good measure, Satan legit saved the Earth from Majin Buu for real by convincing the totality of the resurrected Earthlings to contribute as much genki as they could muster to Goku's Genki-Dama, because there are genuine advantages to being a publicity hound.

Mr. Satan's greatest martial art is PR. He may be a glory-stealing publicity shill sitting pretty off the achievements of others, but goddamn is he good at getting his face out there and being a household name.

People underestimate the value of PR. He might just be a figurehead, but he's a damn good figurehead.

And he got to keep his new bestie too.

This is so unexpectedly sweet. Satan's relationship with Buu was the highlight of this arc. It gave a lot of depth and personality to both characters, turning Satan from a funny joke at the Cell Games to a powerhouse MVP of a protagonist.

It's just. Y'know. Shame about his daughter who basically drops off the face of the plot never to be cared about again. Videl's basically a cameo now, existing mainly to be the mechanism by which Gohan has a daughter.

So. Y'know. That sucks. But I've already talked about Videl and how screwed she was by the narrative.

Looking at post-Z materials, however, you can feel how much of an "Endgame, we don't have to go anywhere with this" sort of thing Satan and Buu's friendship is. GT basically wrote Mr. Buu out of the plot by having him fuse with Uub, while DBS goes out of its way to not let him participate in anything. The one arc he's featured in replaces him with Daikaioshin directly.

I don't think anyone really knows what to do with Mr. Buu now that he's one of the gang. Instead of writing plots and thinking about, "What can Buu do to contribute to this?" the vibe is always "Oh fuck me, what are we going to do about Buu?"

But even when the writers are struggling to find something for him to do, his ironclad friendship with Satan never wavers.

[denimorigami]

You ever think about how Horikoshi gave us like five seasons/however many fucking chapters to build up Bakugou’s relationship with Jeanist and then when there was a really great opportunity for an emotional payoff he just didn’t do that. Like okay I am a big Edgeshot fan, I like Edgeshot for a lot of reasons, and I think his character was very underutilized throughout the series, but I also don’t think this needed to be his moment. I understand that the general intention with choosing Edgeshot to save Bakugou was to go “look!!! This is a hero acting heroically and it doesn’t even involve an emotional attachment to the person being saved!!!” but… this is immediately undermined by the Edgeshot-Jeanist flashback sequence. He doesn’t have an emotional attachment to Bakugou, but this is still being done with personal motivations not solely related to heroism for the sake of heroism. In some capacity, we are being suggested that it is partly out of his bond with Jeanist that he is making this sacrifice in order to save someone he knows Jeanist cares about. Which is fine, and I enjoy the flashback scene for a number of reasons, but again, this undermines the point of making it purely selfless. So, if the sacrifice being made is not truly from a purely selfless motivation,

Why was it not Jeanist ??

Again, five seasons of build up on this relationship. Yes, most of it happens in the background/side plots, or it is vaguely implied offscreen, but it very much is the case that they have a relationship. This is Bakugou’s non-teacher mentor figure in the series, and it is clear that in spite of his standoffish “I don’t like anyone ever” attitude, Bakugou does actually seem to like him. He seems to have learned some things. The two have some neat parallels with each other. It’s a good, solid relationship even if it isn’t the most deeply explored thing in the series.

So… this was the opportunity for an emotional payoff. A culmination of their relationship with something that actually matters to happen between them, which really hadn’t happened in the series since they first met. It is a bit harder to come up with something equally impactful to a literal sacrifice of one’s life, but again… this concept was also immediately undermined with the original scene as well which really removes any of the draw of including it in the first place. It’s great that, in theory, Edgeshot was willing to die for him. This did not actually happen, though, which cheapens the entire thing and, in my opinion, makes it pointless to even include. Either actually kill the character you are killing, or don’t bother fake-killing them if you don’t want them dead. I’m perfectly fine with a death fake out (Jeanist has multiple of these that I actually enjoy), but in a high stakes emotional climax? Bad time for that and just feels pointless.

I can think of at least two good ways to get that payoff I’ve been talking about, and if I can come up with alternative plot lines, I really feel like Horikoshi could too. Edgeshot being willing to do a heroic thing that ultimately has no consequences for a generally vague reason (because Horikoshi doesn’t choose to really… explain much of anything about who Edgeshot is or why he does fucking anything ever) doesn’t really add anything new to this story. He’s a pro hero who does the heroic thing because he’s a pro hero, and also that’s his best friend’s weird little surrogate child figure, I guess. It just doesn’t feel satisfying so much as “here’s a guy with a quirk that maybe could solve this situation if you squint and suspend your disbelief really hard.” It just seems like such a missed opportunity, not only to explore one of the deuteragonist’s important relationships, but to have a scene that really adds something to the themes of the story.

[auberge13]

These two moments are taken from the conversations Jon has with each of his parents before joining the Legion of Superheroes. There is one particularly interesting difference between how Lois and Clark each view the decision.

(Lois Lane 2019 issue #4 and Superman 2018 issue #16)

"doesn't leave you much of a choice, does it?" vs. "I am jealous of... the choices in front of you"

Now, if you're like me, this is the kind of thing that makes you very excited about characterization and storytelling so let's get into it.

Clark is a character who never really felt like being good was a choice that needed to be made. He was raised to be good by Ma and Pa and he is so inherently good that he can't imagine being anything else, let alone choosing to be anything else. Meanwhile, Lois intimately understands that being good is a choice that you have to make over and over again, even when it's hard. Doing good the way she does is constantly challenged, particularly by her father. Her choice to do good costs her that relationship with him, and she isn't able to fully reconcile with him before his death, which is explored intimately in this book (read Lois Lane).

As my friend @fae-morrigan put it while we were discussing this, "I feel you could easily read it in a way where Clark is jealous that Jon's been shown he could be Other Than Good and make an informed choice about Being Good. Where Lois knows that choosing to be good often comes at the expense of other good things (in her case, her relationship with her father)"

There's a key moment in the issue after the above screenshot that really showcases this.

(Lois Lane 2019 issue #5)

It's important to acknowledge that there is no part of Clark that would choose not to be Superman. They're the same guy. Clark would do good anyway in whatever capacity he could, he just happens to have a really large capacity. When he says he is jealous of the choices in front of Jon, it is less about doing or not doing good, but rather about how he's going to do it.

(Superman 2024 issue #1)

My friend @ultfreakme explained this really well. "comparing LOSH to college works like that because Jon's going to college (learning to be a hero), but he gets to pick from a million different majors and fuck around for a bit with a support system to fall back on if he fails. Clark went from high school (regular dude) and straight into a job (being a hero) with no ability to like....try something different."

So that's what we can learn about Lois and Clark from this, but what about Jon? The comics do a really cool thing where they break up Jon's complex thoughts about this choice into multiple conversations with different people. With Lois, Jon expresses the sense of obligation he feels. With Damian, he's able to share his hesitance, even telling him that he doesn't think he wants to accept the invitation at first. Finally, with Clark and Imra, he's able to feel his excitement about this new step in his life. It is all very college! I felt all of these things before I left too! But beyond that, this is also a great example of the way Jon will compartmentalize his issues and limit his vulnerability depending on who he's talking to. He has a tendency to minimize his own feelings in order to make other people more comfortable, which you can really see in the different things he's willing to express with each person.

Anyway, I think there's more to be said here and I'd love to hear what other people think about these moments, but I'll call it here. Moral of the story, read Lois Lane 2019 and then create something for the Jon Kent Week Mama's boy prompt- the Jon and Lois in that book are top tier. Also, if you've gotten this far you clearly like this kind of analysis so here's my post about why they aged up Jon. When I posted it Tumblr had put me in jail and turned me into a robot (wow Absolute Power is so immersive!) so it didn't show up in the tag. Sorry for the plug but I'm a little bitter about it lol.

[kivaember]

Random question: How jealous do the guys in your ac6 ships get?

Okay let's see:

VIV621 - 621 doesn't have a jealous bone in his body. Once 621 trusts someone he trusts someone, and it'd never cross his mind to be insecure over Rusty looking at someone else, or to 'mark his territory' if someone flirted with Rusty bc he knows Rusty will reject them. He's very much like "well yeah, of course people will flirt with him he's attractive" and just shrugs things off.

He's also very clinical when it comes to sex and relationships. He knows that relationships are mutually beneficial, and that both parties need to derive some sort of pleasure and satisfaction of it. As such, he approaches it kind of like, an agreement rather than a committment? If Rusty looks at someone else, 621 just shrugs his shoulders and expects there to either be a renegotiation of their terms, or for him to cancel it.

He'll be upset of course, but he's also just used to not having actual input in the making or breaking of contracts, so he'll never say or do anything, which does give off the impression he's a little apathetic. He just lacks the capacity to be jealous of Rusty getting attention or admirers, and he trusts him totally anyways, so it never even crosses his mind to get worked up. He's very chill, zen you could almost say.

Rusty however.

Rusty.

He puts up a laidback front and is good at pretending, but he's such a jealous bitch. If anyone flirts with 621 he will be sizing them up for a coffin and compiling a five step plan on how to kill and hide their body without being caught. He's prone to 'marking his territory' (he's bitey and 621 gets a lot of love bites) and figuratively pisses a circle around 621 if he feels like people are looking at him too much or thinking of making a move.

He's also under a sort of assumption that 621 is a bit naive and oblivious to flirting or people trying to take advantage of him, and coupled with his jealousy, it can make him snappish and overprotective from time to time. It does occasionally irritate 621, because he feels like it's patronising lmao.

HOWEVER, Rusty's very aware that his jealousy is a bit of an irrational beast, so he has a good grip on it and never lets it control him - and when 621 tells him to knock it off he does so immediately. He does trust 621, but as someone who grew up on a planet where people died or left unexpectedly, he's got a lot of unprocessed trauma and attachment issues that he hasn't really unpacked. Deep down a part of him is terrified of losing more people he cares about, so he unconsciously clenches his fists around them and is on guard for any 'threats' that'll take them away from him.

This boy needs therapy. They both do, really.

Walt/Mich - Michigan and Walter are kind of weird. When they first got together it was a friends with benefits kind of deal, and Michigan did keep sleeping around when with Walter, until he gradually just... stopped doing that, because he realised Walter satisfied him enough both emotionally and sexually.

Meanwhile Walter was monogamous but it was more from a lack of interest in other people than him wanting to commit to Michigan solely. As far as he's aware, their relationship has always been open, and so long as Michigan shows him a clean STI test every so often, Walter couldn't care less if he was going to weekly orgies and fucking ten people at once. Walter has a very clinical approach to sex and relationships though, in that he considers sex to be a biological function to relieve stress and tension, and to strengthen a bond between two individuals. As such, Walter doesn't get jealous of Michigan's many partners (when he was sleeping around), but...

He does still get jealous. He knows he and Michigan are """friends""" and that they have a very close bond that he both hates and craves. If he feels like anyone is trying to intrude or muscle in on that, Walter gets vicious and catty and isn't afraid to chase off someone he feels is an interloper.

Some Young Jupiter lore: when Michigan was still in Furlong and Nile was his corporate rival in Balam, Walter actually genuinely disliked Nile for the longest time. Because he saw that Michigan and Nile had some weird friendship alongside their rivalry, and it made him feel threatened even if he couldn't really figure out why. It irritated him so much lmao

(eventually he chilled out with Nile when he realised that he was getting worked up over nothing, but for almost a year Nile was dodging death whenever he ran across Walter on a sortie, because Walter aimed to kill every time lmao)

Michigan, hilariously, is very chill. He gets childishly jealous if he feels like Walter is "looking" at someone else, but he easily gets over it and doesn't get carried away. Unlike Walter who holds a grudge for months and actually attempts several murder plans on the "competition" (sorry Nile, the fear of god (walter) was put into his soul). In the end Michigan knows Walter, and he knows Walter has little to no interest in other people and won't stray, even though their relationship is technically "open". He just gets his moments from time to time, but they're brief and short-lived.

O'Keeffe/Flatwell - hilariously......................... they're not jealous people at all, because they have a deeply warped view of their own relationship, what with being divorced spies on opposite sides. If anyone told Flatwell that O'Keeffe was sleeping with someone else he'd express shock that someone could tolerate his everything long enough to bed him. Meanwhile if someone told O'Keeffe that Flatwell was sleeping with someone else he'd just be like "well yeah, I'd be surprised if he wasn't."

If these two went to couple's therapy they'd end up in a research paper or something.

Freud/Rusty - Freud is. Not? jealous? Except he is. Freud is weird. Freud is the type whose jealousy wanes with his interest in the person at the time, what type of interest, and how motivated he is to get worked up by something (which is directly proportional with his boredom levels). If he does get jealous, though, he will make the object of his jealousy regret they ever heard the name of Freud.

But other times he doesn't feel a blip of jealousy and is like "yeah sure, whatever". He's a weirdo. HOWEVER!!!! BIG HOWEVER!!! If it comes to jealousy over someone trying to steal his skilled opponent that's making his heart race, he'll flip to murderous in a split second. In the realm of love and sex, however? Yeah, it depends on his mood at the time.

Iguazu with anyone: He is the most jealous man alive. He'd be the epitome of this meme:

[jonathan-cranes-mistress-of-fear]

Hey! This is Anon from the "love OC's ask". I just wanted to thank you for defending the OC's from idtiots on internet. Like the post Amor made about Scarecrow's work still being used was such fun thing to read. To have someone call it cringe just because they add something about they OC in regard to the post is upsetting. They even added warning before OC part so people can skip it! I adore Amor headcanons either they are about Jonathan or her OC and relationships with them. But why do you think Scarecrow has such toxic part of fanbase? Like they even don't acknowledge his "canonical" comic partners. Like Sherry Squires was big part of Masters of fear! Jonathan or Linda Friitawa and her relationship with Scarebeast! Jonathan? Why are some people so mad that Jonathan has a partner, be it canonical, OC or self insert?

Misogyny and fetishization is your answer, as mentioned in a previous ask. This isn't just Scarecrow, it's any and all shippable male characters. If given the choice between shipping two males who (more often than not) never interact / absolutely hate each other, or shipping a canon male/female ship, they're gonna ship the gay stuff.

Look, I have absolutely nothing against shipping an lgbtqia+ pair, but don't think you're being sneaky when you very obviously ignore or erase canon in any capacity to make your ship work. Note, this isn't just a problem in the rogues fandom, it's ALL fandoms. (it can also be said that erasing a characters culture or skin tone falls into the same bucket of oh fuck no. Ever see people complain about Damian Wayne being drawn to look white? It's a real issue; and not just in comics)

This is a multifaceted issue. The majority of pop culture is straight and white. Obviously we're getting better. I see more gay ships in popular shows, I see more non-white characters with real stories and lives that aren't used for a racist joke ala family guy

I totally get wanting to explore dynamics of different ships, or shipping what you as a person are attracted to. That is always OKAY. Wanting to see yourself as the hero, for example, is okay. Characters like Tiana did SO MUCH for children who previously didn't see themselves as a disney princess.

Let it be known, your average gay male ship isn't an issue. Nor are most fandoms or people in said fandoms. Most people genuinely just ship for fun. Many are multi shippers. Many have m/f and m/m and that's being really general and not mentioning trans ships!

Its when very loud minority send death threats and tell others to commit suicide because they're shipping a female presenting self insert with a popular male character in a fandom dominated by a certain gay ship.I was once told in an anon ask that I should give up talking about my OC because why would Scarecrow love her when he has Riddler? Riddler is SO MUCH better, nobody cares about my stupid OC!

That's not why I stopped, but it didn't help

Not only that, but men in general greatly dislike popular female characters, not so much for shipping reasons but because they can't imagine a world were men are not in the spotlight. And then there's the problem of straight women blatantly creating fetish content about gay men.

it's a huge can of worms, there's so many strings attached to this issue. I honestly don't know if I am giving the problem justice.

[souji-upseta]

yo my name is nyx, it's my birthday today (2/3). my birthdays have sucked SHIT the past few years for reasons that are depressing—

—cringe is also dead, i killed her myself, and i'm still grieving her loss. its been very hard for me—

—since i am the protagonist of Me and can do st abt this, this year i turn 31, and i will at some point turn 31.4, with all of this in mind, what do i want for my birthday? i'll tell you:

to talk about homestuck.

i'll do that, anyways, but you'd be doing me a gift by giving me a prompt to follow, and to feel slightly more validated in my inability to shut up about my hyperfixation.

so i'm asking YOU to talk about homestuck with me.

talk to me abt homestuck? ask me my headcanons. my thoughts. my relationship to the work. tell me yours. expect nothing that's profound, and plenty that's stupid.

i'm even turning anon on, for the first time in 6 fucking years. where making this happen.

this never expires btw. today is my birthday, but, for story purposes, let's say that it's still my birthday after it isn't, bc i will still want and, if i am honest, NEED you to talk to me about homestuck for years onward. i'm very metatextual like that.

i get the feeling it's going to be a long day.

>Nyx: Be the other guy.

You are now the other guy! What will you do?

>Web Tumblr User: Inbox Tumblr user souji-upseta?

>Mobile App Tumblr User: Do that, but hyperlink is unavailable?

=(n×∞)>

FOURTH WALL BREAK!

you are now nyx again, and i am now me, and i need to exposit some lore.

as in, some starting points to get u going, since "homestuck" is a very broad subject:

•i'm a massive massive slut for the epilogues and post canon content/hsbc. pesterquest is too good for this gay earth.

•dirk is my fav, ALL of the dirks, all of them, and it isn't even close. my fav relationship is the canon platonic/familial one between dirk and dave. i fucking love the striders. dave is my 1.5th fav.

•im more invested in dave's relationship to corndogs (and corn dogs) than you even know.

•mspa reader is my second fav after the striders, bc they are a good thembo friendsimp and also bc they are me and they are You. i might be biased. i love You. i love me. i love us. we're fucking gr8.

•im pretty canon-compliant, so my fav ship is dirkjake as exes (for now), and my fav ship as not-exes is panquadrant (canon) davekat.

i'm also really fascinated by rosemary and would welcome more opportunities to learn abt and talk about them but if homestuck makes a statement about anything it's to let the women and the sapphic characters tell their story (thats a joke, talk to me abt them too)

•june eg(g)bert real.

•i'm fascinated by classpects and the applications of paradox space's classpecting and extended zodiac system when applied to real life, since our only experience of those fictional systems is in linear dimensions of spacetime, and our only experience of astrology is as a species that in-universe cannot experience the sign caste system the same way the fictional aliens that created our species in their own image do. skaia knows, but we sure as fuck don't.

•i'm a former prince of heart (2012-2020) and a current knight of space, and my aspect is light. that is a thing that actually makes perfect sense for the reasons i just said.

don't ask me about vriska serket or (vriska) serket. not bc i'm not willing to discuss dark or problematic characters (hello, lanque bombyx) but bc:

for one, she can speak for her damn self, and has, tyvm.

for two, talking at length about a problematic character in any positive capacity marks you as an enemy of the state if that character is a woman, and being an enemy of the state is way too much fucking pressure for me for reasons i already explained as soon as i told you i'm a knignt of space. i wouldnt make a very good enemy of the state. it'd be an unhealthy blackrom relationship to the detriment of us all.

for three, i can just give you all my opinions/headcanons on vriska that matter:

•JOHN HUGGING VRISKA IN HSBC YESSSSSSSSSS

•she's greasy and gross and unkept af but not unclean or unsanitary, like, she bathes, she smells fine, she changes her clothes, but she's got the troll crust punk aesthetic absolutely on LOCK. she doesn't comb her hair.

•it would have been funny if she did even more bad things

•aradia did nothing wrong. vriska did but the meme is funny even if someone needs to take that meme out back and shoot it for the good of humanity.

•she should beat up ultimate dirk, and my reasoning for that is bc that would, also, be really fucking funny if she did

•john has both punched her in the face and hugged her, and now that john has punched aranea in the face, all that's left is for june—i assume she will have come out of her egg(bert) by then—to hug aranea and complete the circle of stupidity.

•she is trans yeah but she doesn't wanna get into it, she doesn't have to, and neither do i.

•vrisrezi most important relationship in homestuck.

there. you already got me to talk about vriska at length, and you didn't have to try. moot issue.

[ciaossu-imagines]

Frau NSFW Headcanons

I don’t, for a second, believe that Frau is a virgin. He gained an interest in sex pretty young – by thirteen or fourteen he was really interested in it and was definitely beginning his fondness for porn by then. I don’t think he lost his virginity for another couple of years after that though. The experience was a pretty good one and he doesn’t have a lot of regrets about it. He wasn’t in a solid relationship with the person or anything, it wasn’t something really romantic or anything, just two teens who were attracted to each other exploring each other’s bodies and exploring their own capacity for pleasure, but it’s still a memory he remembers fondly. While I do think he’s someone who strikes out a fair bit, I still think he’s someone who is more than a little bit experienced when it comes to sex. He’d need more than one hand to count the amount of people he’s slept with – I’d say even more than both hands. Between casual or more serious sexual experiences, I’d put his body count at around fourteen or fifteen.

That leads to my next point. I do think that Frau is someone who is completely comfortable with more casual sexual experiences. While he does believe that sex is going to be more meaningful and intimate in a committed relationship or in a situation where he has serious feelings for someone, he also believes that sex can be just as enjoyable and pleasant when done just for pleasure or just for fun. He has no problems being someone’s one night stand or in establishing casual hookup situations with women in the towns he travels through. If he’s in their town and they’re not in a committed relationship, there’s a few people whose beds he’ll find himself in if he plays his cards right.

Frau’s very confident in his naked body. He’s in really good shape and he isn’t afraid to flaunt it. That confidence in his body extends to his penis. He doesn’t have any issues with his size and he doesn’t worry that he’s going to be too small. If anything, he might brag a little bit about how he’ll be the biggest, and therefore the best, that the other person has ever had. Will he be the biggest? Honestly, probably not, unless his lover has only had below average or just strictly average sized dicks inside them. He is on the larger side of average though, about six inches fully erect, but he is really girthy. He’s thick, which can cause issues for some of his lovers. It can be a little painful for his lovers to take him in the first time unless they’re really turned on and fully lubricated. While Frau kind of took this as a good thing in his younger and less experienced days, he’s come to realize that it’s not really a compliment to his size or skills if he’s causing his lovers pain or a less than stellar experience. Because of this, he’s slow and methodical when it comes to foreplay. He makes sure to get his lover for the night really turned on – if he can get them to cum once or twice, all the more better, but he at least wants them turned on enough to be begging for it. He doesn’t take the need to use lube as any kind of insult, like some people can, and if he feels like it would make things better for his lover, he’s going to be the one reaching for it. He’ll apply it for them, taking his time while he's down there to manually stimulate them, whether it be rubbing at their clit or asshole before fingering them, making sure the lube gets everywhere it might need to go.

Frau has some pretty strong, and kind of messed up, ideas when it comes to gender roles. In his mind, it’s largely up to guys to really make the moves sexually or romantically, to be the ‘attacker’ and because of this, he wants to be the one to instigate things sexually. He wants to make those first moves, to flirt with and seduce his partner. While he’s not going to discount a female partner making those moves once in a rare while, if it happens too often, he’s going to feel unnerved by it and almost emasculated. Is that toxic as fuck? Is it a negative trait? Big yes’s to both of those questions but nobody’s perfect and that includes Frau and those attitudes are definitely part of the negative aspects of his personality.

It’s really hard to mention Frau, when talking about the sexual side of things, without touching on something we see a lot of in canon itself. Of course I’m talking about his porn collection here. He loves porn, he hoards it, he hides it around the church in canon. He’s not shy about showing it to others and makes no secret that he consumes porn regularly. It’s almost an addiction to him. It’s kept from being a complete addiction by the fact that, if the opportunity is given to him, Frau is always going to choose sex with another person over a night in with his porno mags and he’s able to cum with a partner without needing to rely on porn for that orgasm. But by himself, when it comes to masturbation, Frau absolutely cannot get off without porn – it’s killed any ability he had to fantasize sexual situations inside his own head, like he used to when he first became aware of sex. Without visual stimuli, he just can’t get himself off; he’s massively blue-balled himself any of the times he’s tried.

Speaking of masturbation, it’s something Frau does a lot. He’s got a high libido and a rather perverse mind. It’s a daily occurrence with him, something that’s as much a part of his routine as brushing his teeth. If he was able to, Frau would be a lover who would want sex every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, but because that’s not really in the cards for him and his body still needs that release, he’s stuck with getting himself off about that often. It doesn’t help that Frau is definitely the sort who gets mildly horny when they get really bored. He’s bored, so why not pass that boredom by jerking off and feeling good? He’s an expert at getting himself off quickly and knows just how to touch himself. He’s a lot quicker and rougher with his cock when jacking off than he prefers a partner to be, mostly because he doesn’t want a partner to think that he has a problem with premature ejaculation. When masturbating, he can get himself off in under five minutes after all.

Sticking with the theme of masturbation here, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Frau will be perfectly understanding of a partner’s need for masturbation and alone time sexually, even if the two of them have a very healthy and active sex life together. He gets that sometimes people just want to get themselves off, whether it’s because they’re just not in the mood or don’t have enough energy for full on sex or they just want that orgasm quickly. He’s fully open to mutual masturbation if it’s something his partner is willing to try out. He also, though he might have problems admitting it, kind of finds the idea of being stuck watching his partner get themselves off, while he can’t even touch himself, kind of really fucking hot. However, these are things he’d only be willing to do if his partner were in the mood and okay with them. If what they want is just him to leave them alone to get off, he can and will do that.

What he’s not so okay with? Their sex toys. Frau realizes that his partner has toys they use for masturbation. He’s not so naïve as to believe they don’t and he might even have glimpsed one once. But he doesn’t want to be confronted with those toys and he wants his partner to keep them shut away and out of sight when he’s around, even in the case of mutual masturbation, where he just wants to watch them get off with their own hands. He has a little bit of an attitude towards sex toys where, while he won’t begrudge his partner the use of them, he feels a little threatened by them. Upon seeing one former lover’s dildo, his exact words were ‘how am I supposed to compete with that’ and that should tell you all you need to know on that subject.

I have no canon evidence for it, I have no justification for it, it’s simply a vibe and a gut feeling I have within me, but I think Frau has kind of a panty kink. He seems the panty-sniffer type to me and I think that, if he had a committed lover, he’d use their used panties, wrapping them around his lubed-up cock, to get himself off.

Frau would be more than willing, actually very eager, to make porn of his own. He’d never pressure a partner into it, but if his lover was willing, he’d like taking photos of them. Of course, naked photos of them, with Frau telling them how to pose, would be things he’d want, but he’d want to take it further. He wants pictures of them as they masturbate in front of him. He wants to take pictures during sex. If they’re comfortable with being recorded, he’d be game to shoot amateur pornography. If they feel more comfortable doing so without their face in view, he’d get that and would find ways around it. He’d never publicly release the videos or pictures – that extends past his own comfort zone, but they’re things that he wants for his own personal use and he’d add them happily to his own pornography collection. Even long after he and any particular lover he recorded or took pictures of had been broken up or simply not hooking up anymore, I do think he keeps the pictures and videos and uses them to get off, the memories making it even easier for him to do so. However, I will add the caveat here that if the person asks him to delete the videos or pictures, whether they’re still together or have broken things off, Frau will delete them without a moment’s hesitation. He just doesn’t think to do so unless asked.

[secretoreimo]

Hello I can't resist the obnoxious urge to blabber about my feelings so long analysis under the cut!? JHSDHJKJS

Okay, so. Indeed, while I understand that the game couldn't keep them blood-related for censorship reasons and such, I do think it killed the impact of them getting together a good bit.

My suspension of disbelief kind of tanked when Kirino asked Kyousuke to be her boyfriend right after he poured his heart out, expressing his insecurities that something might change between them. The game really does treat it like it's not only a non-issue but also a logical step to take, now, and I honestly have the capacity to ignore that for what I'm here for (them interacting, period), but it was definitely jarring.

I will say though, I did like that this began because they sat down to have a genuine talk about it. That felt much more organic and in-character than the nonsense we got in season 2, with the screaming in public and whatnot. And it did a lot more to stress the lengths they've changed since the beginning of the series, letting them sit down and confess to each other nervously. Well, I'd have liked if it were significantly more nervous, personally.

The thing about their relationship is it is inherently fucked up, like. It is at the center of all of their problems. Kirino has a crippling obsession with "imouto eroge" and this stemmed from the fact that, from a VERY young age, she believed herself to be a freak who had improper and disgusting feelings for her older brother, and eroge was something she latched onto as an escape from that reality. Sure, it did end up just being plain her favorite thing, but it came from that place.

I think if there's one thing I'd credit the anime for, it's that she didn't admit to her feelings ever, not until the very end when it was absolutely undeniable that they were reciprocated. She was repressed for so long I truly don't believe there'd be a reality where she'd say it first. Kyousuke has his own daddy issues, but there's something to be said regardless of a guy who is otherwise pretty normal, but finds himself falling in love with his little sister, however estranged. He's pretty fucked up, himself. Although I wish he hadn't screamed it in the center of the street at the top of his lungs in the most soulless loss for his character ever, I think the only way for them to actually move forward in a relationship would be for him to come to terms with it and say something first, however long a process that may or may not be.

I love the scenario the game poses where their relationship starts to take a "maybe I'll invite her out, just the two of us" turn, and she actually agrees instead of being flat out disgusted and disparaging. Sure, the beach was a little random and the game could have picked a better excuse than "idk why im inviting her to the beach it's almost like i got her route in a video game", but like. Idk, I like it when they interact, it feels natural for the most part. The game feels really good when you scoop out those little moments of "we're not siblings actually we're just a boy and a girl and it's natural".

Even just this scene post-confession, if I were to pretend that part had happened a different way, the banter over how they're gonna continue as a couple is pretty cute and in character.

I'm rambling about all of this not like to bitch I just have so many feelings and things I like and don't like and there are parts that I'd mix and match between anime canon and game canon and things... it's kind of fun. All in all I'd say this feels like an extremely well-written (and well-voiced) fanfiction. I'd accept these things in a fanfiction and move on, just as I'm gonna do for the game, but since it's official I get to be a freak on the internet and write paragraphs about it jhfhjsg

I am ultimately of the opinion that them being blood-related is the better story, it says more about their flaws and their personalities, and tbh I'm a sucker for characters who shouldn't be in love falling in love. Especially when they're as lovingly crafted as the characters in oreimo are. This series really is something special, I think, and it's kind of impossible to describe that to someone who hasn't seen it and just knows it for its reputation as "the anime where the brother and sister get married and kiss on the mouth at the end", which I guess is all anyone was gonna get from season 2

I rambled so long that I don't even have time to continue playing past their confession!! Now I have to go to sleep, but continue I shall soon, because... I love them...

[botanybulbasaur]

one of my friends once had a discussion with me about how he didn’t understand aros and how queerplatinic relationships work. snippet of a discussion we had at ye old lunch table below (i’m blue text, he’s pink text).

”so, aromantic people— at least, how i personally experience being aromantic— is like.. i don’t know, less capacity for romantic love? imagine this.” (i lay out my hands on the table, visualizing two tubes of different lengths) “these are tubes, meters— whatever the fuck. they measure someone’s romantic love for someone else, right?”

“yeah?”

“yeah, nice. stay with me here. one of these tubes has more capacity for love, one of these has less. you can only fill the smaller one so much, but what matters is that it’s full. that’s the maximum amount you can love someone, even if it’s different from tube to tube.”

“okay, yeah, sure, but you still only love them a little. how would someone be willing to date another person who doesn’t love them that much?”

“i don’t know, man. they’re willing to settle, i guess? or they know the other person loves them as much as they can, and that’s enough for them.”

“but you don’t love them as much as they love you.”

“you love them as much as you can. people are all different, including how they love. like how you’re really not capable of liking girls, yeah?”

“no, i do like girls. i just choose to like boys more.”

“but that’s not how it works for most other people. if you’d talk to another guy who uses the gay label, you’d probably find they aren’t attracted to women at all. that’s the thing about labels— they tell people about you. you saying you’re gay is a label you choose to inform people that you’re not interested in dating women.”

“yeah. but what about the topic from earlier??”

“aro is a label too. it informs people that you don’t have the same capacity for love that they might— like a warning, kinda.”

“but you don’t love—“

“dude, i genuinely don’t wanna hear it. you’ve never dated an aro person.”

“i dated [his ex’s name], though, and he didn’t love me like how i loved him! that’s what made us break up, he didn’t love me as much.”

“but he wasn’t aro, and he didn’t love you to full capacity, dude. he didn’t love you as much as he could, and that’s the difference between him and an aro person in a queer platonic relationship.”

“you’ve never dated someone, how would you know?”

“i have, actually. don’t assume things, please— it was a while ago, though. we were both kids, confused definitely. we ended up breaking up because i didn’t spend enough time with him. i loved him as best i could, though.”

“maybe you just didn’t like him enough.”

“(pause, silence)— please don’t say that. please don’t, that’s seriously fucked up.”

“okay, but you didn—“

“[friend’s name], i’m going to cry if we keep this up. touchy subject— horrible subject, even. let’s stop.”

“..okay.”

obviously, some details and context are left out here. what matters the most to me is the aftermath— he ended up apologizing for bringing up his ex, but still held his stance in the argument. i said it was all fine— it actually wasn’t, even if i could keep my shit together at surface level. as soon as i got to the staff bathroom i threw my jacket on the floor, started getting in my head about it. rest of the day was terrible, but i can spare the details.

moral of the story, be nice to aro people. be nice to everybody, even if you don’t understand them. your actions have consequences.

[grodyego]

talk about the relationship between Dove and Vega?

OHHH GLADLY !!!!!

dove and vega kind of take the longest to fully warm up to each other (rakesh is really kind of the binding glue that holds them together. tbf that remains true even after everybody is fully friends with everybody else, hes just kind of the heart of their team that way). they don't start out disliking each other or anything like that, but they are both mutually quite bad at making friends and interacting with other people in a "normal" capacity, for their own reasons (vega's a control freak who struggles to understand other people and dove lowkey doesn't even think of himself as a full human being most of the time), and they're both pretty stubborn by nature and thus naturally butt heads a bit. dove finds vega's apparently flippancy towards others and her only priority ever seeming to be her "work" or gathering data to be irritating at best and actively unnerving at worse. vega likewise is pretty quick to catch and callout dove's bad habit of projecting onto other people and the hypocrisy that lends towards and thinks it makes me come off holier-than-thou and preachy at times, so it causes some tension !

all that being said, given that dove and rakesh are actual partners in the field (and their relationship grows quite quickly), vega reasonably starts to get pretty apprehensive about becoming a "third wheel", which for dove's part he does pick up on, and goes out of his way to do things to reassure that that isn't what's happening (nor could it ever be, frankly). hes pretty good at recognizing that vega is still pretty young without condescending to her about it because he actually sympathizes with her position pretty greatly, he can understand what its like, hes kind of been there. vega for her part appreciates that most people seem to think both of them are creepy and weird, and she has a lot of fun kind of filling in some of the blanks for him on some aspects of the future he doesnt fully understand, cuz like. i invite you, fellow autists, to imagine how amazing it would feel to be able to infodump about everything youve ever been invested in, from scratch and in such a level of detail it was as if you were explaining it to somebody who has just showed up that day on earth

again vega's pretty limited in her social circle and usually insists she doesn't want or need friends, kind of in contrast with how she often behaves, i think she would even maybe initially be kind of. almost mad that not only has dove managed to make her care about him, but to the point where she is like, emotionally invested in his wellbeing and safety. NOT cool of him. she came to highly secretive questionable ethics factory so that she'd never have to do that again and then rakesh already took what was supposed to be her only one exceptions spot, now she's gotta care about two people ???? who both work in the "not only will you die it will hurt the entire time you're dying" department ????? thats exhausting. fuck those guys

[conquestable]

doing a vibe check on allen for character study purposes, broken down by screen time per episode

(mentions of mark, nolan, and allens girlfriend in a (varied) relationship capacity, as well as speculations about thaedus in a plot capacity, and also battle beast in a battle beast capacity):

about 4.2k words under the cut, just yapping away about one of the best characters

1x2

(theres some more nolan/allen based content couching this encounter that i didnt notice when strictly watching allens screen time)

omg i forgot how tiny allen was before his transformation, and his CAT EYE AROUND HIS EYE HELLO??? hes sooooo cute

and he says "this is what you call protecting your planet?" SEE??? EVEN ALLEN CAN TELL HES HOLDING BACK

allen cant tell the difference between mark and nolan other than mark doesnt have a mustaches HAHA… my hearts desire that hes fucking them both in canon, you cant tell me im wrong, he has a taste

"are you using your time out?" "i get a time out?" HELLOOO?????? shshshheeeeeeeeeshhhhhh…… i mean i get that its a COP thing but still

mark is so stupid, hes so stupid, allen just explained in plain english he was here to test your strength and you failed, and youre like huh???

im allen kin, we dont know how to spell in this house

when mark tells allen his name is invincible and allen laughs kksdjhd dfnmbdfkj asjkdgbjkwerbjk d,jfbgdl sdfblkjbfjgkdb jkhsdbfgsd,ksdjbf fjkdsgbb kjdsbf;jgb

and hes looking at mark like this, im in love with him

and he apologizes for getting so rough with him im WEAAAKKKKK he thinks mark is just a kid

1x8

hahahahaha mark is wound up for a punch and allen just flies right up like he aint even scared (cuz hes not, its just mark)

allen has been coming to earth instead of urath this whole time, and his whole mission in life is to fight vitrumites, so you would think he knows them pretty well, but he somehow has fought nolan before and didnt know he was a viltrumite? my sweeet dumb jock, my darling little idiot

hes also too stupid to put together that mark is nolans son, when he thinks they look so alike he couldnt tell them apart in 1x2

when mark tells him nolan left, and allen says its super weird, RIGHT after saying mark was weird for being a good-natured viltrumite. like father like son like father like son

wow the amount of trauma allen dumps in like point two seconds HAHA. he was made in a breeding camp and doesnt know his parents, cuz viltrumites blew up his planet when they refused to submit

AND MARK SAYS HES JEALOUS, MY MAN DOESNT KNOW HOW TO READ A ROOM TO SAVE HIS LIFE

mark is having his little big brain fortune cookie moment like "yeah man, life is just a seed in the wind"

allen tries to warn mark the viltrumites will be relentless when they attack, and mark is like "yeah i know" but do you mark? do you? you pussy footed around with conquest and he killed your girlfriend, i dont think you know yet.

2x3

unopans achieved harmony with nature and technology okay okay i can get it (although it sure doesnt LOOK like it, i see a lot of tall buildings and not a single tree)

"the ones that died never knew who conquered them but those who lived quickly learned the name viltrumites" damn thats HARD core

okay there was the rebellion allen referred to

the way their breeding camp thing is presented as if it was a touching way to save their people im actually dead. let people propagate naturally whats WRONG with you

that useless old guy i can never remember his name, i forgot he was their goddamn saviour, he doesnt deserve allens loyalty, somethings wrong with that guy but i cant put my finger on it yet. if it turns out later hes some kind of deep double agent im gonna roll my eyes so hard

allen is the first successful attempt at mutating super soldier babies, my man has a body count before hes even born, what a traumatic backstory to give such a sweet tender guy, i love him i love him hes making the best of a bad situation and has such a big heart

okay so allen lost when he fought a viltrumite before (and they let him live? pin in that.) so maybe when he fought nolan he didnt know it was a viltrumite because nolan was holding back while fighting aka blending in and keeping his cover

allens roll as a "planetary evaluation officer" and his real mission being to fight as many strong opponents as possible to build and recruit for the rebellion is such a wholesome parallel compared to the violent way viltrumites do it. its superficially the same as viltrumites slaughtering everyone but the strong, except allen leaves them alive when hes done with them. gives them a pat on the head and encourages them to do better. theres a reason viltrumite numbers are dwindling, why they only come to attack mark one at a time, or in packs of just three

allens whole arc is so wholesome i cant stand it. he says his mistake led him to meet mark grayson and pull him closer to his destiny, hes making so much lemonade with his lemons

i love his theme music, its so simple and upbeat, just like him

hahaha not allen going to meet his nerd friends and catching an attitude immediately, the dumb jock energy stays

oh hes grumpy cuz the nerds tease him for being a big dumb jock TTToTTT i love him so muchhhhhhh

actually, why the fuck are the COPs surprised that mark is half viltrumite? like they dont know the viltrumite mission is to conquer and breed?

the COPs again being shocked that mark didnt know what a viltrumite was implies that nolan WAS doing something weird by not grooming mark from birth. mark should have BEEN knew that he was destined to be violent and evil, why did nolan wait til he got his powers?

even when allen explains how it went down it makes no sense. i guess nolan is a late bloomer just like his son, took him 20 damn years to make up his mind to defect from the army. only a blink in the time of his life span tho i suppose

allen is such a good boy, hes so earnestly explaining his point and patiently waiting for them to bicker about it before guiding them on

that un named old guy announces that he thinks that nolan abandoning his post is important because its the first time a viltrumite has ever rebelled. however i would like to counter by questioning why he himself hasnt stood up as a defector. if he thinks its so important that people know its possible, he should say it with his whole chest. sm so shady about him i dont like him

he even times his agreement with allen just right to shut him up from further convincing the COPs that rebellion is more possible than ever. i feel like hes posted here to stoke the rebellion and keep it running fools errands in incompetent circles

hmmm allen goes on to talk about how there might be other viltrumite babies out there, but i dont think hes thought through those implications. if there are, theve been evil-ized by their parents. mark is an abnormality and a lucky chance, dont waste it looking around for whats not there

im further suspicious because the COPs dont seem to know anything about the viltrumite mission to breed with the strong, and the old guy could have told them this, but hes leaving them in the dark on purpose. sm not right sm not righttttt

and the way he tries to tell allen theres a traitor, hes hiding in plain sight, HES the traitor allen, get him, get himmmmm

and the way he makes allen think it was HIS idea there might be a traitor, leave my big dumb jock alone, dont play with his brain like that

ALLEN HAS A CAT?????????????? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA HOW DIDNT I REMEMBER THIS

HES SUCH A CUTE DADDY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

oh my god allens girlfriend is hot as fuck, how many of those things do you think she can fit inside him at once, omfggggg their five second interaction was so sexy i love them

this was exactly the right kind of fanservice thank you thank you uuwuwwwwaaaa thank you

allen please stop eating bugs in front of me please please please listen to your girl its disgusting hows she gonna kiss you after that

his cheesy pickup line and her cute little laugh stopppp T-T

little lick of his coercion kink slipping in, she asks him to tell her about work and he says no, makes her ask a second time

not him getting literally ripped away from her TToTT

they just wanna know about nolan? they cant find him? they dont have enough manpower or intelligence to find out on their own? they gotta ask chatgpt?

man theres no way allen thinks hes getting out of this alive, but he gets in one last look at his girl and sneaks in one last joke TTT-TTT

the way i was sooooo sad when i watched him die the first time, hes a really lovable character

ugh im convinced that old guy is absolutely the traitor, the way he tries to come and comfort allens girlfriend is sick sick sick if he doesnt mean it

and i mean, what other reason could he POSSIBLY have for turning off allens life support? he couldnt know it would make allen stronger, thres no way

2x5

he says "well this is a nice surprise" when he wakes up not dead, i love my big precious man

BIG BEEFY MAN

and then that old bitch revels his deep dark secret to allen in a further play to manipulate him into his hand, why is it a secret, hmmm???? and his choice of using allen as this tool is so perfectly devious bc allen has exactly the kind of charming personality to get nolan and mark on the COPs side without questioning its leadership too much (but maybe im reading too far into it)

hes siccing his big beefy rottweiler on mark and telling him to go fetch, "bring him back here so i can murder him before hes a problem"

2x6

allen tries so hard to communicate with immortal but immortal is nothing but a chihuahua all yapping and snapping and no listening, but allen wont fight back cuz hes a good guy and he doesnt hurt puppies

"ill kill you" "we just met" lord have mercy, allen is so into foreplay

ALLENS SO CUTE STOOOPPP

and the way he criticizes the immortals beard for lacking a mustache hahahaha there could be a very niche fic about mark starting to grow a mustache and allen getting horny over it (you look even more like your dad now WWOOOFFFFF)

awww he feels bad that the immortals girlfriend just died, his heart is so big

allen asks mark to take him somewhere more private

wooooooooooof and meanwhile amber is trying to text mark she misses him but being too insecure to hit send, while marks got a hot rippling man in his room

mark puts the sock on his door and allen points out that it usually means someone is fucking, and mark agrees thats what it means

allen sits on his bed and breaks it, its the way the writers are trying to force me to see the homoerotic implications and write fanfics about them

mark comments on how big allen has gotten and allen gives a half assed explanation of how it happened, slipping in he was murdered by viltrumites (which mark does not question at all)

allen you did NOT need to lean in and whisper in that boys ear that the old man is a viltrumite too

mark doesnt even question the news that the old guy is a viltrumite either, bc he trusts allen and so allens judgement must be good, right?

cue marks next life vent

mark asks if allen thinks nolan is dead, and allen says he doesnt know (so they dont know about the execution yet)

mark complaining about how he doesnt have enough time to spend with his girlfriend, well mark, allen can fill that sexual void for you while youre gone

allen says he wont fight mark cuz he would win hahahahahaha

allen is a buff history nerd, he knows all about the big battles that affected history and he gets excited when he sees nolans books

oh nooo but hes taking the books back to the COPs and that old guy will have his hands on the last hope the rebellion has of defeating the viltrumites TT-TT

wait allen just apologizes to mark for his dads imminent execution, so does he know or not??

he offers to ask around to see if the viltrumite prison is real and if nolan is there, and he acts like its just a favor for mark, but its actually just a good idea period. nolan is clearly un-allied and primed for rebellion recruitment

man mark got lucky telling allen no, i dont think he realizes how close he just came to being in their clutches

not allen notes but it goes on to show nolan in the prison, and that guy with one eye is telling nolan not to let his legacy end this way, but re: everything else i ever said about nolan, i think hes clearly given up his viltrumite legacy but refuses to dedicate himself to a new destiny, thats why he wallows in his suicidal death sentence instead of joining allens team, hed rather end his legacy all together than have one that goes against his heritage, he doesnt know he can be something new, he doesnt know he could help change the future. the one eyed guy just spits his past back in his face and doesnt let him think there are any other options, he cant possibly be redeemed, hes always been a monster and he will always be a monster until the day he dies

2x7

some things just happen way to easy on this show hahahahaha allen is just randomly floating through space and playing with his cellphone when the exactly right viltrumite ship almost runs him over

everyone keeps telling me how big and bad and scary anissa is but i really dont see it yet. she lets mark off easy and she doesnt kill allen when she has the chance, she doesnt even really knock him around at all, just chases him while he dodges her. like what is she taking him to prison for? the prison is supposed to be so rarely used that its mere existence is questioned, and shes gonna take some random space trash she found floating around there? is it the COP pin on his shirt?

2x8

man the guy with one eye using physical violence on nolan as a form of punishment really lacks any kind of punch, for lack of a better word. they use violence for EVERYTHING, is nolan supposed to be intimidated that you hit him in the face a few times? made his nose and mouth bleed a little?

allen is sooooo happy to see nolan, and nolan cant hide his surprise. he thought for SURE he was going to die here, that he could commit his suicide in peace, and here comes some big handsome burly man to rescue him, what the fuck do you mean???

and allens face when he asks nolan if he remembers him hahahahaha they definitely fondled each other in the past

wowwwwww i cant wait to see more of them together, the tension is so good between them

nolan answers allens call even when he doesnt have to… he could easily ignore allens poking and prodding, but he answers, hes so desperate to know theres another way out, he wants to be saved even if he cant admit it

allen tries so hard to convince nolan they are on the same side, but nolan is too busy throwing is sad boy temper tantrum to hear it… its ok nolan let it out, allen is here for u baby

allen even praises nolan for the small acts of rebellion hes committed so far, tells him what a good job hes done raising mark, aaaaaaaaaaaaaa, stoking that hope in him that things can change, he can be a good guy if he wants to be

allen is such a good boy i wanna kiss him i wanna kiss him, hes trying to convince nolan that the only way to atone for his mistakes is to help try to fix them, he cant just fuck off and die and leave mark to pick up the pieces

and nolan saying he thinks he misses his wife TTTToTTTT i know everyone clowns on him for this line, but this is literally him recognizing his own humanity for the first time, and giving himself the opportunity to admit that he had something to live for other than conquering, he had debbie, he had love, he had a family, and if he cant be a viltrumite anymore he has to be something else instead, and all it takes is that first step to leap forward into something new

3x1

allens bit about how the viltrumite empire is so big and bad and yet the food sucks is so apt hahaha, they talk big but there aint nothing there is there. and nolan just goes "no duh, we kill, not feed" a little louder for the people in the back

nolan remembers allens smaller body, recognizes his new strength, i bet hes been thinking about it a lot in there, wondering who would win if they fought again

and allen is so flattered stoppppp

nolan says "you can just fuck off and die for all i care" and allen says "aw baby i love you too"

and then they take allen to kill him and nolan perks his little ears up and goes "youre alive!?" you love him just say it, hes your big ol teddy bear

the way he tries to make nolan admit out loud he was worried about him and nolan starts stuttering stoopppp itttttt fuck that old man up allen, put it so far inside him that his kids can taste it

and the way he keeps teasing nolan when nolan goes nonverbal, im in love with a big orange man

3x4

i love the over the top comic book narration of his big grand plan for finding nolan, as if most of it didnt really happen on accident, it reads as so eager and so confident, and the way he chooses to highlight how much effort he put into influencing nolans heart is really sweet, hes such a sweet good boy

ALL HOPE WAS NOT YET LOST!!!!! HE MISSES HIS WIFE!!!!!!!

its so funny they tried to kill allen with a laser, why dont they just beat the fuck out of him again with their hands, what are they doing playing around with him like that

oh theyre not even viltrumites working the prison? then who the fuck are they? and why dont allen and nolan just bust out? theyre not even viltrumites??? ToT yall fuckin around

allens right, break out of there before the real viltrumites get there, listen to himmmm

nolan i swear to god drop this lone wolf suicide boy bullshit ill kick your ass myself

not allen saying hed rather kill himself than keep listening to nolans whining HAHAHAHA me too buddy (its foreshadowing)

SO MAKE IT RIGHT!!!!! NOLAN YOU CAN MAKE IT RIGHT!!!! YOURE SO STRONG YOU SHOULD FUCKING ACT LIKE IT!!!! SET A GOOD EXAMPLE FOR YOUR FUCKING SON!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!! GET HIM ALLEN!!!!!!!!!

nolan says no one more time istg im gonna

like father like son, nolan needs to see some people get hurt before he gets off his ass and does something useful

but allen never gives up on him waaaahhhhhh allen my love

allen cheering for nolan sssstttoopppppppppp wwhhhhaaahhhhhhhh allen my love

the way he talks to battle beast, im dead

battle beast is the baddest, you can not get him off his grind

"sir beast" me too allen ToT

the way allen tells battle beast to "keep his hands off" nolan hits sm so good

nolan, allen is going to drag you kicking and screaming through your drug withdrawals and you will get through it in one piece, he will be there for you, dont even worry about it (the drugs is the hierarchy of violence yk)

(man and allen only uses violence when he knows its necessary, which makes him such a good friend and mentor to mark, thats exactly the kinda shit mark needs to see healthy examples of)

"was your betrayal worth death?" "yes" oh you think you sound soooo noble rn telling the killer in front of you that you pity him for never being able to understand love, mf you dont understand love either, youre still in the blossoming stages of it, youve only just tasted love for the first time, you havent learned how to fight for it yet, at least the killer youre pitying knows how to stand up for what he believes in, stand up and fight for something!!!!!!!!!!!!

man i love battle beast, my phenomenal one trick pony, youre just a fighting little man arent you, my vicious little kitty

allen saying battle beast is "a fan" is so fucking funny i TTToTTT yeah my cat is "a fan" of doing little bunny feet too

"i said go" "i hear you, but im gonna do this anyway" peak level canon tier allen soft dom dubcon flavour i love it im slurping it up

re: nolan needs to see someone he loves gets hurt before he does something fucking useful

and that random telling allen hes "not so special" as nolan is watching him get beat to death, and the very fact that allen IS so special to nolan is what gives him strength, gives him a reason to live, youre starting to get it nolan, just let it sink in a little further

allen apologizing for ruining nolans execution is soooo TT-TT cuz if this is how hes gonna go out, if he really is such a failure, at least he can respect nolans wishes and let him die in peace, with nothing left to do but relent

STAND UP AND FIGHT NOLAN!!!!! HE LOVES YOU AND HE NEEDS YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEBBIE AND MARK AND OLIVER NEED YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and the way he roughly tells allen to get up as if he werent just being beat to death, as if he didnt just spend 100 years trying to convince YOU to get up, is what makes him a tsundere. he cant commit an act of love without verbally condemning it bc his wires are all still crossed

and even still, allens so proud of him for STANDING, he says "i knew you had it in you" im gonna cryyyyyy

battle beast floating away pleading "more more more" what a guy, what a fighting little man

allen praising nolan for saving his life TToTT nolan never did a GOD damn thing in his life to deserve an angel like you, allen, but im glad he has you

and then teasing nolan when hes emotionally vulnerable aaaaaaaa where can i purchase my very own allen the alien

allen is so sweet sttooooppppppp wwahhhh

nolan is like a scared little puppy, its okay baby, allens big ol tiddies are right there for you to lie your weary little head on

and nolan saying no viltrumite could ever commit an act of love, allen assures him that he just did, and hes capable of so much more, waaahhhhhh

nolan finally coming into some clarity and giving allen some useful information lets goooo

allen having to coax the words out of him uggghhhhh i love their dynamic

he trusts allen enough by now to give allen his most valuable intel, not just to tell it to him, but also because its only with allens support that hes able to recognize how this information could be useful to him

the end, heres my fave comic allen panel as a treat for sticking around

[lovesickeningly]

pulse (2001) review

★★☆☆☆

──── ♱ ────

likes:

- ryosuke. he kinda reminded me of ryuji from p5, and I liked his outfits, but of course I’d watch a horror movie and be thinking about the outfits. it was funny that he had to write down, “print screen,” or else he’d forget to hit the button that’s right there on his keyboard.

- the overall aesthetic. I feel like this isn’t exactly praise tho, as it’s just what things looked like in that period of time, and not some crazy accurate present day imitation. my partner and I kept pausing to try to see what video games ryosuke had.

- the sound design. this was honestly the best part about the movie imo. the screeching dial-up-internet-esque sounds provided so much tension on what would’ve otherwise been mid or boring scares. I loved the scare that had the sound build up only to go completely silent.

- leave it to japan to still have the trains running during a ghost apocalypse lol

──── ♱ ────

dislikes:

- the relationship between harue and ryosuke. it just didn’t feel fleshed out, and I didn’t feel like there was really a connection between these two characters. harue as a character was a let down as well. I thought there would be some connection between her and the killings or the way they started, and that would be why she was so fixated on this whole thing before it even blew up, but we literally know nothing about her motivations. and why wouldn’t she be the one to tell ryosuke about the maximum capacity ghost realm theory (mcgrt) and not the rando grad student that we never see or hear about again? why wouldn’t she be the one to point out the ghost kid in the library to him and not the random grad student? they literally already had a scene in the library together where it could’ve been added in. I think she just existed to give ryosuke somebody to save or lose, which is lame and lazy.

- the inconsistency. there was no clear, singular pattern to the killings. if we’re to believe mcgrt, then what was all that talk about loneliness, and people wanting to die because they felt alone? if mcgrt is true, wouldn’t the pattern be: ghost leaks into room > room is taped off > somebody goes into taped room > has a traumatic experience because of the ghost > deletes themself days later. this would make the whole internet and technology thing completely irrelevant.

alternatively, if the internet IS relevant to all of this, wouldn’t it be like: the original video (the one shown multiple times of the guy with a bag over his head and writing on the wall behind him) is some sort of cursed video that has set off a chain curse that latches on to people online like some sort of virus. this curse, or virus, makes people feel overwhelmingly lonely until they decide to delete themselves days later. the virus is also watching these people through computer screens. given the time period, with the whole y2k scare and it being the dawn of the internet, I feel like the movie was trying to have some sort of “internet bad” message, and this second theory would fit into that while making all of the loneliness talk make sense.

however, the movie unsuccessfully combines these two things…I guess? I literally don’t understand what this movie was trying to say was going on. the thing is, I LOVE horror media that doesn’t explain itself. I have a whole shelf filled of junji ito’s works. I love ARGs because of the work you have to put in to understand them. being spoon fed a word for word explanation absolutely kills a horror media for me. BUT there’s a fine line between show-don’t-tell and just straight up throwing things at the wall and having the audience make up whatever they want out of whatever fucking sticks. so many good horror movies nowadays do the show-not-tell thing, and because of this, people have started to think that not fully understanding a movie right away = cinematic masterpiece. that’s why shitty writing like this ends up being lauded as a “cult classic” in the grand year of 2024.

- why was the computer lab that harue was working in trashed? it’s literally never brought up.

- there was all this build up for what people see when they go into a taped off room, and then once we finally got to see it from ryosuke’s pov, it was literally just some guy…

──── ♱ ────

overall

I’d give it a 2.5 out of 5! I don’t think I’d watch it again because two hours is a long time for basically no payoff, but I don’t regret watching it either.

[blindwideopen]

I found out that we were bonded for a time, which is why it hurt so much to be without you. Now that you're out of my life I feel better, more free, but I feel the remnants.

You're still on my mind, whether I want you to be or not. Deimos is haunted by the damage Eth has caused. By the damage you all have caused. He's no longer capable of being host. And it makes me feel terrible since we've done so much for him to continue being host.

All we can do now is just protect him while he's in such a vulnerable, reduced state. It genuinely breaks my heart that such a lovable guy has been broken this much and STILL has hope for you. He STILL loves you with all his fucking broken heart.

It genuinely fucking angers me at how you could have such a good thing and fuck it up like this. What are you afraid of?

WHAT WERE YOU AFRAID OF?!

To HAVE TO HURT HIM LIKE THIS?!!!!

YOU HAD SO MUCH AND YOU RUINED IT.

YOU HAD CHANCE AFTER CHANCE AFTER FUCKING CHANCE, MAN.

AND ALL YOU DID IS HURT AND TAKE AND TAKE AND TAKE FROM HIM UNTIL HE WAS A SHELL OF A MAN.

YOU FUCKED DOC UP SO MUCH THAT HE DOESN'T TRUST RELATIONSHIPS ANYMORE. HE HARDLY EVEN TRUSTS HIMSELF.

YOU LEFT HANK TO PICK UP AFTER YOU TIME AND TIME AGAIN AND THE ONLY REASON HE SURVIVED WAS BY AVOIDING YOU AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

BUT EVEN HANK HAS A BROKEN HEART. ONE HE STUFFS DOWN SO FAR BECAUSE HE'D RATHER HIDE HIS PAIN THAN LET HIS PAIN BE USED AGAINST HIM.

HE WAS BARELY GIVEN A CHANCE TO SHOW WHO HE COULD REALLY BE BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T WAIT.

YOU DIDN'T WANT TO WAIT.

THEY'RE ALL STILL DAMAGED AND IM FUCKING BITTER. I'M BITTER AT HOW TERRIBLY YOU HANDLED EVERYTHING.

And guess what?

YOU RAN.

LIKE A COWARDLY DOG WITH ITS TAIL BETWEEN IT'S LEGS INSTEAD OF TRYING TO REACH OUT BECAUSE I FOUND OUT THE TRUTH.

And with everything, we were once again left with a broken heart. Feeling like the King's Fool who finally figured out that he's the one who's been played. When all the Fool wanted to do was to see a smile on that man's face. A Fool who wanted something genuine. And got metaphorically executed for it.

Might as well bow to you once more because you did it. You ripped my heart out.

Instead of talking you ran.

Instead of talking, I'd been cast out once again.

Instead of talking, you'd rather watch from afar and continue talking down on yourself for continuing to hold onto the shackles I was trying my damnedest to free you from.

Instead of talking, you would rather accuse me of being who I am not.

You would rather see the past in me, instead of the present that stands right before you.

You probably never even saw us after a certain point. You never wanted to.

You fear us.

We are the unknown.

And naturally, humans fear the unknown.

While I'm still human, I'd rather embrace the unknown.

Where you'd rather stay stagnant to some capacity, I'd rather grow, change. I would rather become myself, rather than some pet. Some reflection of what you, and even my own family think I should be.

See me.

Not someone else.

I want you to see me.

Take the time to know me once again.

If I matter to you in any capacity...

Then see me. Look at me. I want you to acknowledge and accept just how far I've come. And how much work still needs to be done.

I still genuinely love you. The real you. I love the person you were. Who you could have been and will be. I loved you even as things were falling apart. And I still love you now.

I will tell you something I've never been more sure about: it was never wrong of us to love you. Deimos was never crazy for it, everything he did was for you. Even hiding his feelings, stuffing it all down. Splitting himself into two people in an attempt to appease you.

I just hate that what you gave to him, to us in return was so much trauma and pain. Nothing but pain and agony for the entire time he's been around.

Doc was never wrong for loving you. He sleeps more than he ever has now that you're gone. He sleeps with that ring. He never lets it go. No one ever takes it from him either. Sometimes we dream about you because of him.

Benrey actively loved you. He hid himself just to make you feel comfortable. And he still hides. He still fucking hides. He has so much love for life and people and he still hides.

I'd go on but I'm tired.

You're never going to see this anyway.

You've always been a person to us.

I just wish you saw us for us. Not what you fear we were.

You'll never see it.