#the same could be said of literally every other character making important choices.

[flagellant]

I have seen takes where people claim that dunmeshi only happens because Marcille loves Falin so much she uses ancient magic to resurrect Falin, and I am stating that this is fundamentally missing the point in a way hostile to actually understanding the entirety of the work as a whole, because all the characters have their parts to play in the story that, without their unique actions and input, the plot would not happen/the series would not be the same. Dungeon Meshi wouldn't exist/happen if any of their actions and choices were not a thing.

To hyperfocus on that single moment because of your ship and frame it as though it is the single most important moment in the entire work is to disrespect and misinterpret the work as a whole, whose core themes revolve around the importance of community and sharing meals together, not just "this elf has a lesbian crush on a human".

I have nothing against Farcille, genuinely. But it's been very interesting seeing that a fandom mostly defined by a femslash ship for once can get just as brainwormed about their OTP to the point of ultimately and fundamentally misunderstanding/mischaracterizing the entire thing as any other fandom dominated by mslash.

[slushie5544]

Character Backgrounds to this au:

Alright, I'm about.. Halfway done with writing this whole concept out and already halfway done with the first chapter so I figured before I get this out I give some stuff that won't be specifically mentioned in the fic but is important to this au!

Perry’s Background

Percival B. Fletcher aka just Perry is just an ordinary guy who has a very special interest in herbs and collects/uses said plants to help make remedies for small ales. He had bounced around a lot within the family because his parents were always adventuring to discover new lands so they weren’t always around.. Kind of like a Hey Arnold or Scootaloo from Mlp (FIM) situation I guess you can say.. Anyways, it was always unstable with how often they came and gone until one day they decided he was “old enough to come along and make his own choices. (He was only 13).” however during one adventure the last thing Perry remembers was the strong aroma or something sweet or maybe it was bitter, he couldn’t quite place it but then his parents were standing over him trying to get him to swake up but then saw them disappear or maybe something else happened. He couldn’t quite remember as his memory is foggy of that night.. But somehow he found himself in the woods lost and eventually in the middle of nowhere until he was found by some knights (GWCA) that took him in and yeah.. Now he’s with Lawrence and the rest of the family,, He doesn’t talk much after whatever had happened not that he really could anyway as it always came out as a raspy whisper that he didn’t enjoy hearing, to be honest, he was just a lil self-conscious about it. Plus it brought up memories of him trying to scream out with nothing escaping from his mouth..

By his late teens, the boy showed clear signs of not only survival tactics but also combat when it was necessary. Not only was his strength impeccable but his compassion and love for his neighbors only gained him more popularity in the village. There was a very brief moment where the attention got to him and next to him, he was pushing himself to the brink of exhaustion by helping so many others before himself. Thankfully with the help of his brother, once he had kids by their late twenties, Perry swore he would put the kids above all else which offhandedly helped the man take care of himself. With shared naptimes, lunches, and dinners were always the best when Uncle Perry made them (Linda wouldn’t admit it but she was a bit jealous of his signature soups). Without realizing it, he’s the piece of the family keeping them together.

However, there was one secret he kept from even his closest loved ones. An oath he made to protect them at all costs. 

~~

The Royal Doofenshmirtz Background

Heinz Doofensmirtz despite being the oldest child was always overshadowed by his younger brother Roger who ‘could do no wrong’ in this world according to his family and all of their peers. Meanwhile Heinz was always seen as a mistake, someone who messes everything up, a true Doof; nothing like his perfect brother.

While Roger was praised for trying his best on an exam and despite Heinz getting every answer right, his younger brother still knew how to talk to anyone without seeming like a complete dummkopf. It wasn’t fair, when his sibling broke into their father’s study and accidentally set the library on fire. He saved his younger brother and yet he was the one who was punished and reprimanded. Why did he have to be the one not allowed in the castle anymore? Was this all he was to his family? A tool?

No literally they had him like a literal garden gnome outside and sur he made a single friend but Balloony had disappeared one cold night and that had been the same night he lost his arm due to chasing the balloon through the forest ignoring his father’s screams to get back. Now listen, it’s said that the king did his best to look for his son in the woods, but he had been too late and a beast of the night had gotten to him and dragged him into the woods. The claw marks across his face were all the townsfolk needed to hear to believe such a harrowing tale about their King losing his eldest son to a creature in their woods. This totally didn’t start the hysteria of the town.

However that doesn’t mean he’s away from the constant pestering of his oh so ‘loving’ family aka Roger who keeps trying to convince his older brother to ‘accept their ways’ so he can come back home maybe they can come up with a grand story of how ‘he saved his older brother after so many years!’, their mother constantly nagging through letters and condescending remarks to ‘fix his attitude’, and well.. Their vater doesn’t even speak or look in his direction and just gives him the cold shoulder, not that Heinz cared because for all he cared that man was dead to him as much as he was to the other.

Some stuff might seem familiar but I tried to add as much as I could to these headcanons without spoiling much of the actually story! Ok Thanks like always for even reading this far! Much Love to all of you and good night (it's 4 in the morning)

[beanghostprincess]

Tbh I don’t even need Shanks or Buggy to be pining 100 percent of the time, I’ll gladly would read a fic or thing where they both have moved on (for the most part because Buggy hasn’t ever been normal about Shanks ever as evidence by the earlier at chapters he ever even appeared in. Nobody who’s moved on gets flashbacks to the time a guy made you eat a fruit) but Shanks sees the opportunity to at least… talk to his old crewmate and takes it. They used to best friends after all. Just curious to see what Buggy’s been doing is all. And Buggy is just in a position where drinking with isn’t the worst he could do that day so he accepts the invitation. None of them have been “pining” for the other really. They never even really expected to run into each other like this again.

… and all it takes is five minutes of Shanks listening to Buggy rambling to remember that little crush he had on him as a child and it takes an hour for him to suddenly realize “…. Oh fuck. The feelings back. Or it never left and was just behind a layer of time that now has been pulled away. The exact same feeling. Fuck. Turns out it wasn’t even a “little crush” either. Shit. Gonna drink myself into a stupor.”

And it doesn’t even take half an hour for Buggy to suddenly remember why the idea of going for the One Piece with Shanks seemed like at least a feasible idea at one point before Shanks managed to destroy Buggy’s image of him as a shining Star so thoroughly, because Shanks has put his remaining arm around him and is laughing and there’s just this charisma dripping of him and Buggy remembers that Shanks looked kinda cute back in the day with just the slightest amount of baby fat still in his cheeks but now he’s fucking STUNNING and god why is he wondering about the “what ifs” and “what could have beens” NOW? He hasn’t questioned his choice to leave that fool standing in the rain for DECADES why is - Fuck it! Gonna drink himself into a stupor.

New dynamic dropped: “We used to be over each over but now we had one good night out that made us question everything and none of us can be normal about it for five minutes”

You literally read my mind completely with this. I am obsessed with this concept because it's, for me, the closest to their canon dynamic and characters. They're still very important to each other and seeing the other brings back both good and bad memories. Their relationship is extremely complex and full of love covered in layers and layers of years without each other and new experiences. And I'm 100% sure they constantly ask themselves what could've been or what would have happened if they had stayed together. Chapter 1082 of the manga (why the hell do I know the number? Don't ask. I am not obsessed and it's not like I reread that chapter every day) confirms that. They make me go insane. I wish I could say more about it but you've said everything on my mind???? Thank you.

[captain-crowfish]

bothering you with questions! there's so much stuff on your blog, who are your favorite characters? do you have a top 5? why them?

Heyhey howdy! 5 favorite characters... hmm... Well honestly my favorites (for the most part) change like, every other week. But I'll attempt this, and hey, I feel like having a bit of fun with this list, so why not? Also I'm limiting myself to one character per media.

5 of my favorite characters (I know you said top 5 but I'm doing this in no particular order):

1

Eda The Owl Lady (The Owl House/2020-2023)

Although not the protagonist, I can't shake the feeling that Eda is one of the most important characters in modern animated television, mainly in regards to what she represents; Found family, chronic illness, disability, non-conformity~ But aside from that, I love her episodes! I always look forward to her interactions with other characters because she is always just OOZING with personality.

2

Nimona (Nimona/2023)

Speaking of representation~ Of course, representation, metaphorical or not is one thing, a memorable personality is another. If I could describe her in one word, it would be CHAOTIC. But in the best way. She is GLEEFULLY chaotic, but how could she not be? She stands out from all the other characters in this film, both demeanor and ability-wise, but she doesn't really have a choice, she embraces, to an extent, her role as a villain in society because 1), It doesn't allow her to be anything else, and 2), destroying the property and pride of her oppressors is SOOOO satisfying.

Also her gruesome nature fondly reminds me of Winnifred from Boxtrolls speaking of which...

3

Archibald Snatcher (The Boxtrolls/2014)

HAHA IT'S HIM IT'S THE GUY I FEEL VERY NORMAL ABOUT THIS ONE IN PARTICULAR Now, I feel like, normally when people say "favorite character", the first assumption about that person's feelings toward said character is generally "Aw yeaaah! Go character! I want them to succeed in everything!" NO! NOT THIS ONE! STAPPIT! BAD! Nonono, he's not my favorite because I inherently thought "wow that's a cool character", I used to not like him! I used to think he was terrifying! And I'm not saying he isn't terrifying, both in design and motives, but at some point I begun to ask myself the question, "why?" Why are you a bane to my existence yet simultaneously the most fun I've had thinking about anything in a long, long while? And I think I figured it out, You know what else is terrifying? The fucking circumstances he was forced to live under! And that in no way makes any of his political manipulation, scapegoating and attempted genocide excusable, nothing excuses his actions! But GodDAMN if the movie he's in isn't a gut-wrenching depiction of what pushes a man over the edge! If I were to say "Snatcher is the victim!" The general reaction would probably be "NUH-UHHHH!!!!" And you'd be correct, Almost! Because both him and Eggs come from almost the same place of oppression! they are LITERALLY at the bottom of the social ladder, and both of them have to fight their way out! Snatcher brought himself up by turning Boxtrolls, the only class below him, into a scapegoat, and turning the entire public against them (read: attempted genocide). And if anyone reading is wondering about my thoughts on his Drag Persona: It's his main form of escapism! If he gets to be flamboyant, lavish, a functioning propaganda preacher, and actually have some positive attention from (and maybe flirty interactions with) Lord Portley-Rind, who is he to turn that opportunity down? Eggs on the other hand, brings himself up by taking down the upper class(es) and their LITERAL machine of oppression Violence against minorities is what makes Snatcher the primary villain of the film, although arguably Lord Portley-Rind is an even bigger antagonist as he upholds the system that turned Snatcher into what he is, a system that he's still not intelligent enough to question, as he think he can win it by playing their game! Boxtrolls is a fucking "Leopards ate my face" movie and I toss and turn every night wondering WHY I even BOTHER thinking about it so hard when no one else will? It's not just because I think he's hot, guys, I promise.

4

Junior (Storks/2016)

Guys... I really don't know why I've been watching this movie so much recently. I kind of hate the fact that I love such a stupid fun movie about birds working for not-Amazon and something something family is more valuable than work and corporations. Funny bird movie. Yea I love the silly haha funny bird baby movie. I think about haha stupid bird movie a lot. I have it on Blu-Ray now because I like the goofy bird movie.

5

Akhira (Wolves of The Mist/2013)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh man this is gonna be a tough one... only because It's hard to get media more obscure than "10-year-old animated xenofiction series from youtube that has been almost entirely wiped from the internet" But man.... I love Wolves of The Mist. I STAN Wolves of The Mist. I like Rosali but I STAN Akhira. You go girl.

[doctormage]

ok I have my veilguard thoughts. I put both things I liked and didn’t like here. it’s not a complete list and I reserve the right to add more as I think of them. godspeed

narrative thoughts

shouldn’t have been surprised but was genuinely floored by how racist they were about the qunari. my god.

like I think it might be worse than inquisition. they literally distorted their voices and hid all their faces. deeply insane

also very disappointed that the culture with the most potentially interesting approach to gender (the qun) was just pigeonholed into being like all the others’. esp bc the trans companion was literally qunari. what happened to roles in the qun being their genders, like….

and on the note of racism/orientalism, what the actual fuck did they dress Isabela in. why are all the lords of fortune armors like that. gun to my head I could not have predicted this

almost no reference to the long standing conflict and prejudice bw tevinter and the qunari. and almost no reference (outside codex entries) to Actual Fucking Slavery in tevinter. all very bizarre

I think a lot of shit got ignored because they were trying to make the game as marketable as possible to players new to the franchise. which I logically understand but hate in practice, bc how are you gonna decide this game is “character driven” and then make almost every character from the previous games, including our choices as the player characters, irrelevant

I mention this in the immersion section but it’s relevant here too. all the stuff that got left behind or unmentioned made the world feel small to me. the world building and lore are, imo, important and load-bearing components of this franchise. I’m still thinking on how they could’ve done it differently, or what missing pieces were most crucial, but for now I’ll leave it at that

appreciated that characters’ feelings of anger and injustice (like Harding about the titans or Neve if you didn’t save Minrathous) and/or weirdness and guilt (like Bellara and Davrin about the evanuris) were respected and discussed. I won’t say everything was perfectly handled but it’s miles away from the shit we’ve seen in previous games

I’d been afraid they were gonna completely rehabilitate solas as a mostly good guy and I’m glad he was still shitty in a lot of ways LMAO

I’m still mulling over his ~penance~ of holding up the veil w his life force or whatever but I do appreciate that they weren’t just like “ok the evanuris are gone and the veil can stay up and everything’s fine now” about it

wait brain blast this goes PERFECTLY W MY SOLAS/ATLAS PARALLELS (1, 2) ACTUALLY HELLO!!! HELLO

gameplay thoughts

wasn’t in love w the combat system but I didn’t dislike it as much as I thought I would. I felt very limited by the amount of abilities I could have usable at a time though

enjoyed that both play styles for a mage (staff vs orb+knife) had viable ranged and melee components. also the orb and knife combo was just cool in general

I like the companion-specific abilities instead of just class-specific, makes them feel more important as a person than just a function

wish I could actually switch to the other companions tho. wouldn’t really do anything but still wish I could lol

that said I do like the very specific ability branches for the companions too bc it makes my life easier lmao

as mentioned previously, I miss armor crafting terribly 🤧 feel like pure shite just want her back xx. anyway. I wore the exact same armor literally the entire game and just kept upgrading it

didn’t love the da2 style “you can’t put your companions in just ANY armor” thing but didn’t hate it either. I appreciate the dedication to the vibe

the hero of the veilguard armors everyone got were really cool (tho I didn’t love bellara’s. sorry my love xoxo) and I’m interested to see what they look like if you pick other choices for their personal quests

unsurprisingly I wish there’d been more stuff to loot and collect out in the world but that’s just who I am. Picks Every Single Elfroot In The Hinterlands Gang rise up

moving around was kind of annoying but I think again that’s just personal preference. plus I’m a fog of war enjoyer (satisfying to clear a whole map of it yk) so do with that what you will

the way the maps were set up isn’t badly but it did kind of discourage me from exploring the way I did in dai, sort of how exploring felt like a huge bitch to me in da2. so it would’ve been nice to have more incentive to explore other than like, a rarity upgrade for a weapon I never use from a chest that took me 15 minutes to get to lol

already said this but I’ll say it again: bring back 4 person parties I miss my friends

really enjoyed how the banter was place based and REALLY really enjoyed how they would be like “what was I saying?” and repeat it if banter was interrupted by combat or something

no fancy party quest or level!!! v disappointing. we had so many options. we even had 2 parties in the game and they were both lame :(

very much wish they’d made it clear that completing certain main quests will lock you out of others. I only missed one companion side quest bc of this but it haunts me

honestly. extremely unpopular opinion but I never minded all the dumb little fetch quests in DAI lmao. I love you quarries I love you logging stands I love you astrariums. I don’t love you ocularums but that’s bc you’re made of tranquil skulls. fucked up

immersion thoughts

way, WAY fucking better at taking your character’s background into account regarding dialog (both in conversations and in cutscenes) thank god

it felt…..small? I wasn’t expecting it to be set up like inquisition with a bunch of big open maps per area, but it felt a little stretched thin. might just be me though

this also sort of ties in w the stuff in the narrative thoughts, about how a lot of historical conflicts and issues (including SLAVERY!!!) were barely touched on at all. the intranational problems add depth to these places as much as the international ones

(btw isn’t the “black divine” supposed to be kind of a conspiracy theory??? is it not meant to be heretical and shit?? that tevinter has their own secret divine and they don’t respect the authority of the southern chantry??? this was not addressed at ALL?????)

some of the areas felt very removed from like, the rest of the country they were in, if that makes sense. eg, the rivain map was weirdly isolated to me and I’m like. where do people live. lmao

the gender stuff is. weirdly handled. as excited as I was to have the opportunity to play as a nb rook and to have a canon nb companion, it was extremely immersion breaking to hear them all say “non binary.” there are a trillion ways to go about this without making it feel like a weird anachronistic DEI seminar

could not fucking tell you how long the events of the game take. ik this isn’t a huge deal to everyone but it is to ME lol

most decisions felt like it made sense that rook was the one making them. or at the very least, it made sense in context and wasn’t just like “hey Cole, you should be more human/spirit.” for example I liked how the way you talked Harding down is what solidifies her narrative one way or the other; we’re not straight up telling her what to do

loved the companions’ book club and notes and conversations. legitimately so endeared by it all. I wish what conflict there was had felt more serious so that the resolution felt earned, but all in all I really enjoyed their dynamics

the golden/black city being arlathan is just. not fucking discussed after we discover that!!! like we all just decide not to completely disprove andrastianism and then go on our merry fuckin way I guess!!!

other thoughts

Solas doesn’t like raisins 🫶

I fucked hard with the solas and felassan memories, and the various notes from felassan you could find

I was never a huge fan of the “ancient elves were spirits that took physical form” theory (though not for any particular reason) so it makes me sad to know my tweenage solas musings are decidedly debunked 😔

mythal fragment stuff was weird. wasn’t a fan

what happened to solas’s elf army. lmao

also what happened to the foci/orbs. aren’t those titan hearts or something. didn’t we discover this in trespasser

where is solas going once he binds himself to the veil??? the same place he put the evanuris? couldn’t he just…..make it different lmao like he created it. I get being all martyr-y and masochistic abt it to atone for his mistakes or whatever but if he’s bringing lavellan can’t he make it suck less?? 😭

feels like we got a LOT of old questions answered (yay!!!) and not a lot of new questions to think about (sad)

THE MUSIC WAS LACKING IM SORRY. I AM STUNNED THAT HANS AND LORNE DID ME LIKE THIS BUT YOU KNOW WHO WOULDNT HAVE DONE ME LIKE THAT IS MR TREVOR FUCKING MORRIS

major choices

dalish veil jumper elf mage rook

romanced bellara 🩵

saved treviso, which hardened neve and blighted minrathous

lucanis spared illario (just to see what would happen tbh. the answer is basically nothing)

gave the griffons to the dalish

softened(?) harding? idk I picked the “remember who you are” dialog that got her the child of the stone relationship title thing

taash embraced rivaini culture

emmrich revived manfred

bellara saved the archive

made a deal w the threads

davrin ultimate sacrifice :( I didn’t know :(

neve kidnapped by elgar’nan :(

redeemed and saved solas. happily ever after w my lavellan as god intended. sorry

idr where I put everyone to help w factions while fighting elgar’nan but everyone survived the final battle (except davrin obv who died before. RIP my absolute king im so so fucking sorry)

[eisforeidolon]

I think there's an extent to which every interpretation of the show is biased to some extent. We all watch the same show, sure, but with fifteen years of canon? Where we all have our favorite characters and favorite arcs and we're all going to remember certain parts more prominently? That fundamentally shapes how we interpret it. The fascinating thing about stories is that two people could consume the same show, remember it equally well, and still come out with wildly divergent interpretations of it. In many cases where neither is more objectively true than the other!

This does not, however, mean all interpretations are equally valid.

If we're looking at a canon and someone bases their fundamental understanding of it on something that happens hundreds of times versus someone who bases said understanding on something that happens a bare handful of times?

If we're looking at a canon and someone evaluates a character because of the choices the character makes, the things they say, and the things they do in the show versus someone who bases their evaluation on the character being 'just like X' who is them/someone they know IRL?

If we're looking at a canon and someone bases their interpretation of what is important on season-long arcs all the plot action revolves around versus someone who bases said interpretation on arcs they insist must exist because of throwaway jokes and background details that never drive the action?

If we're looking at a canon and someone bases the way they see the story on things the characters literally do or say on screen versus someone who bases the story they see on what they want to read between the lines as probably happening off-screen because because?

Those are not even on the same planet as equally valid interpretations of the canon, because all of the latter cases are more about pointedly ignoring large portions of the canon or just making something up you wish was the canon. That's fine for fanfic ... but it has very little to do with the show itself.

[shxugx]

my theory academia

also known as “what i wrote in my notes app to explain my mha theories to my wife, who knows the bare minimum of mha lore”

* manga spoilers ahead *

SO i begin with Red Shoe TheoryTM

Red Shoe Theory is basically the idea that Izuku’s trademark red shoes are a specific brand made for quirkless people.

The doctor in episode one explains that quirkless people are biologically different than quirked people. one of the differences is they have a second toe joint in their toes. a very specific and odd thing to include, but go off i guess

then we see izuku’s ugly ass (affectionate) red shoes. he wears the same damn shoes since he was a kid to literally current day. no one else in the series has this type of shoe and he wears them with everything.

theory is basically bc of the toe joint, they have to wear specific shoes to accommodate.

now: this is kinda a dumb theory by itself. however, i lied when i said only one character in the series wears them.

there is two.

introducing the Shigaraki was Quirkless theory.

HandJob McGee is the only other character that wears these red ass shoes. but they’re not just red. they’re fucking identical to izuku’s. again, not super compelling at first.

until you take in account the UA traitor, Aoyama Yuuga.

he was quirkless. his parents, rich and stupid, asked AFO to give him a quirk. he gives him Naval Laser and now basically has his family enslaved and forces him to be the traitor.

something odd about aoyama’s quirk (besides that is fucking stupid) is that it hurts him. not in a “worked out too much” way but in a “can barely use it” way. he gets better with training but he can barely handle using it for a few seconds without being in pain and he is RELIANT on support gear, something people with quirks are taught not to rely on as it is a handicap in case their gear is destroyed. he has no choice and has to wear it because otherwise the fuckin bitch leaks n shit

there are two other characters who’s quirks hurt them like this. izuku and his liquified bones, who we also know was quirkless

and shiggy.

all the characters we have seen that have toxic quirks have a natural immunity or defense against it to protect them (IE: kacchan and fire, mina and acid etc)

however, shigaraki is literally flaking away. we also know that he was originally Tenko shimura and had black hair and black eyes. now tho, he has white hair and red eyes and his skin is so dry he scratches constantly.

his quirk is decay.

his body is slowly decaying itself as a reaction to the quirk because it’s not supposed to be there. he’s basically turning albino.

now. this i feel like is too obvious to not be canon but *shrugs*

AFO manipulated and groomed baby Tenko bc he’s a petty ass bitch

AFO forced decay onto bb tenko, causing him to accidentally kill his family, and be the one to find him after to “save him”, and it was planned every step of the way.

So this is easier just to go in order of tragic events.

Yoichi Shigaraki, first user of One for All, brother of All For One, so obviously All For One is a shigaraki.

Nana Shimura. Seventh user of one for all and All Might’s beloved mentor.

All Might, who is still alive and who AFO hates.

Nana Shimura. Also known as Tenko Shimura’s grandmother.

now.

nana is dead. bc afo fucking killed her.

all might is not dead and is proving to be afo’s biggest asshole to date.

all might continues to be heartbroken about nana’s death to current day. it’s no secret how important she was to him.

afo, an immortal petty bitch, thinks hmm how can i make all might suffer the most.

oh i know.

finds her quirkless grandson and says “hey lil boy i can give you a quirk! :D”

tenko, 4 and stupid, “omg really!! :D”

afo, *gives tenko a super fucking destructive quirk*

*sends him home*

(note: he could have also have it to him without tenko knowing it happened idk. the details are flexible but the main point it the important thing here)

tenko, fucking accidentally kills his entire family bc how was he supposed to know better.

afo, is immortal and rich so has people watching to make sure no one gets close to the boy and he swoops in to “save him”

proceeds to groom him and traumatize him by making him wear his fucking dead family’s hands on his body to constantly remind him he is a killer and evil and afo will be the only one to be kind and care about him

afo brainwashes tenko into forgetting what happened and who he used to be (through grooming, gaslighting, etc) and now he only knows himself as tomura shigaraki.

plans to make him basically the successor to afo and be what kills one for all/ all might is sick poetic fuckery of all might being killed by his mentors grandson.

(also adds a reason as to why nana is the only female user. to show that she is important to the story beyond just being a past user/mentor)

now this next theory has less of a hold bc of lack of evidence but i personally head canon it to be true.

Dad for One

basically. midoriya izuku’s dad, midoriya hisashi is actually AFO.

he left when izuku was diagnosed as quirkless which could be considered hypocritical considering he sought out tenko but i think afo is a dramatic bitch and wanted to fuck with all might but ALSO

tenko is older than izuku by at least a few years, so he would have already had that plan in motion and may have stuck around just to see if izuku developed a quirk worth stealing or not and decided he wasn’t worth it. or could have also just not been able to get away with using him bc of inko and the bakugous. or a little of all that idk. (i GUESS it’s possible that he also actually did care about izuku and didn’t want to hurt him but i meeeannnnn idk man i wasn’t there)

BUT BESIDES THAT

* horikoshi has confirmed that izuku’s dad would be revealed before the end of the series and we kinda don’t have many options left here (at least i saw something that said that at one point, could be bs but STILL his dad is one of the last mysteries of the show)

* afo’s fuckin face is destroyed so we can’t see any resemblance BUT Yoichi looks INCREDIBLY similar to izuku

* it honestly makes the story super fucking interesting?? like izuku is the son of afo, born quirkless, given the quirk one for all by all might, all might basically becomes dad might, and izuku is the one to take his father down with the help of the previous users (including his uncle yoichi) in an incredible poetic justice loose end tying satisfying ass ending

i also wanna add that the Dabi is Touya Todoroki theory being canon gives credibility that this story has a thing for the family drama plot line and why wouldn’t they use it in the main characters storyline?

in conclusion, i held my wife hostage for a solid hour and a half to explain these to her, not dissimilar to this meme;

and i wanted to share it bc i worked too hard on it to just delete the note lmfao

[riverjphoeniix]

|| PARTNER SEARCH 9/19/24 ||

Intro ➯| Hi hello, if you’re looking to give the icon a name, I go by Jude. I am 28 years old and live in the Midwest (CST) I would say that I’m a fairly laid back writing partner with a wide arrange of interests. However, if you’re looking for someone to write slice of life, cheerleader and bad boy, fluff or purely smut I may not fall exactly into that category. However, I have been writing for well over 14 years (YIKES) and love diving into new and expansive stories!

 Content I enjoy/prefer ➯ | I feel as though it is important to put the content I prefer above writing preferences just so it is clear, and I don't waste anyone's time ♡ I will always, always, always prefer writing dark content above anything else. This means mature themes such as addictions, crime, toxic relationships, gangs, apocalyptic, dystopian, angst and drama will always come first. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean I don't write anything other than that. I've written and enjoyed celebrity and small town plots before but preferred them if they involved some of the themes I have listed above (I almost never deny them! )

 I have almost no major triggers but would prefer to discuss any you may have as to respect those boundaries ♡ As for smut, I would prefer it not to be the main focus of our stories. It can be involved, just not majorly. I do primarily f x m and f x f. Every day, I am gaining new inspiration for characters through various types of media. Click this link here to see my navigation that leads to all sorts of helpful information!

 What I enjoy in a writing partner ➯ |

 I would say that my writing style could be defined as strictly literate. Which means when I send a reply, it should be expected that I will send multiple paragraphs in response. This doesn't necessarily mean that I expect the same in return, either! I would much rather have quality over quantity as long as we are both having fun and enjoying ourselves ♡ Nothing makes me happier than world building as well!~ If world building is ever an option, I always much prefer it! I believe that the more characters are involved, the more chances there are for character development and various obstacles to create. Not only that, but I think always having extra characters to stir the pot makes things SO interesting. I also prefer not be the one to only write the male roles and prefer if you’re upfront and honest when it comes to playing male roles. Please do not be open to doubling if it's just a means to getting a ship that you’ve been wanting. I will more than likely notice. That means not favoring and only responding to roles where I play a male, and neglecting the roles where I play a female. Keep it fair. Partners also must be 21+ and understand that replies will not always be quick and fast. I often work, and I am working on my personal art business which means I may be online and responding when it comes to just having fun and chatting, plotting, head-canoning and sending ideas -- but I could be working on art on the side as well! Nothing makes me happier than having a partner where we both respect when each other is busy or when we are taking a moment for either personal reasons or mental health. I also prefer to use real face claims as opposed to drawings/anime/etc.  Helpful info ➯ | If you have any triggers, anything that is off limits, anything that makes you uncomfortable, PLEASE do not feel shy to let me know ahead of time. Even during, before, or after a reply. DO NOT HESITATE. It does not matter at all the time, what matters to me is your comfort and your boundaries. I will not be upset, and I will completely understand. As for my triggers and my boundaries, I do not do any plots involving minors, massive age gaps, incest, bathroom kinks, or vore . If you are hoping for a major choice to be made, please feel free to do it if you feel this would add to the story – HOWEVER, if it involves something extreme being said or done to my character, I would prefer this to be discussed with me beforehand. Thank you! I look forward to writing and making some cool stuff with you <3

 Feel free to like this post or DM me and I will get back to you! ♡

[soullessjack]

SPN?

1) honestly jody and donna , i know they aren’t entirely canon but both actresses support the idea and that’s good enough for me ^_^

** secondary is jack/harper i LOVE them and we deserved to see more. #letjackfuck2k24

2) rowena and jack!!!! i see their dynamic as an aunt/nephew type thing and I love (almost) every time they’re together (omitting the time jack witch-napped her to bring back Mary). I wish we got to see more of them </3

3) Sam and Amelia. usually i can handle the show’s bad moments as enjoyably bad but season 8 was paint-drying levels of boring. Amelia was a bland nothing-burger of a character and the rest of Sam’s normal guy arc did absolutely nothing for him or the season

4) hmmmmm….. not sure I have one actually 🧐

5) JACK <3 my most special boy in the entire world i love him more than anything ever Even my other special interests and fixations 😭 he’s been deeply important to me for 7 years now and probably will be for the rest of my life!! I self-ship with him and plan on getting several tattoos for him and hopefully I’ll be able to meet Alex again someday :3

6) Lucifer/Nick, hands down. Lucifer stopped being an interesting villain to me around like S7 or so honestly, and every time he got brought back it just felt like such a lazy move from the writers or a painful excuse to keep mark on the payroll

7) something that should’ve happened…very broad question for this show. Destiel should’ve happened, a better finale should’ve happened, some deleted scenes and scripts should’ve happened, Jack being covered in more blood and maybe having a longer lasting ‘villain’ arc should’ve happened …many such cases

8) something that shouldn’t have happened…again, many choices, but to save time I’ll just leave it at Nick’s entire character. besides (see #6) he straight up shouldn’t be alive. Dean shot him in the head with the Colt all the way back in S5 lmao

9) hmmmmm……i think my entire blog is full of rare (if not downright unpopular) opinions, but if I had to choose one that is Extremely rare, I’d go with this one: Dean is one of Jack’s dads. As frustrating as his initial behavior is, he does grow past it, and he puts genuine effort into being a better mentor/father figure to Jack—not only because he does care about them, but also because he literally could not forgive himself for how he acted and wanted to make up for it as much as he could.

obviously they do have a very complicated and rough relationship, but that’s literally every other relationship on this show, and it’s kind of agitating that they aren’t given the same nuance or understanding that the others get—especially when half of the discussions surrounding it can be boiled down to “bad man mean to helpless baby” (which is another thing on its own but ill stop here). I don’t mean this as an excuse or apologia for Dean’s behavior, but when you consider that he’s a severely traumatized person with a relatively small support system and a canon tendency to verbally abuse/emotionally distance himself from people as a coping mechanism (literally what he had a breakdown over in Purgatory) it’s a little easier to understand it.

everyone is quick to talk about how he said “Jack’s not family,” but nobody paid attention to the fact that in the script, he’s mildly horrified at Jack agreeing with him (if you truly meant an insult, wouldn’t you’d want the target to agree?). or that after jack restores the world from chuck’s damage, Dean not only fully expects/wants them to go back to the bunker with them (IE continue living there) but he also literally fantasizes about buying jack a big screen tv and recliners for saving the world. so id love if the fandom ixnayed on the “uncle” shit. ironically the only one of TFW to actually be Jack’s uncle is Cas, biologically

alternatively for a rare opinion: i want jack kline biblically, carnally, horrendously, homosexually, expeditiously, and so on and so forth.

[rpgsocialservices]

Major Themes in 'The Forest of Drizzling Rain'

Disclaimer: I haven't played the original Forest of Drizzling Rain, so this only applies to the 2022 remake.

First, lets lay out the themes we'll be talking about. This game has a lot of them. Generational trauma and the cycle of violence; community; and the duties we owe to the past and the future. There are more, such as modernism vs traditionalism, but lets stick with these for now.

Generational Trauma/The Cycle of Violence

This one is perhaps the most obvious. The Taking Spirit was egregiously hurt and continued to perpetrate that same pain for literal generations. Shiori and Koutarou are both victims of the Taking Spirit even if they weren't actually taken, and they had to make the choice to break this cycle or perpetuate it. It is notable that they exorcise the spirit by closing the wound with the help of her child, rather than with violence or force. The later would have been a perpetuation of the cycle while the former takes a stand to end it, and that decision makes this theme of a game explicitly about the nature of generational trauma and the way it needs to be addressed rather than about a simple 'violence begets violence' theme. The other point that makes this theme more poignant is that Shiori and Koutarou have both had their entire lives affected and shaped by this cycle of trauma. They are victims of it and it very clearly left its marks on them. The fact that they are so directly affected by this generational trauma and the cycle of violence makes their decision to break it all the more impactful, because it was a deliberate and difficult choice that required them to face their own personal past traumas directly.

That said, the actual in-game portrayal of this is less cohesive than the on paper summary. The game tries to tell a story of two characters who are reckoning with the very real effects of generational trauma on their present lives. There is a spirit who tried to take them as children (and is still trying to take children in the village), and it is currently actively out to kill them. A pretty straightforward supernatural plot. Conversely, the spirit's story largely centers themes of gender violence. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that stories haven't done it well before. However, rather than theme of cyclical violence carrying through and connecting the two story-lines in a smooth way, the spirit's story overtakes Shiori's in a way that comes across as a disjointed struggle for screen time, rather than a connected narrative.

Community

Community is a theme that runs through every aspect of this game, from the main plot to each characters individual arcs. Its a manifesto on the importance of a community that supports each member by illustrating what happens when that fails. The Spirit's community betrayed her entirely. The village being overly closed off and internally reliant leads directly to two children almost dying, and the lack of acceptance given to Shiori means that she almost doesn't save them in time. On the flip side, although Koutarou is almost entirely failed by his community, Shiori's grandfather steps up and, by providing that care, saves his life. The failures of a overly insular community to address the problems that plague it instead of burying them also highlights the ability of a healthy and connected community to save itself and its members. None of the victories in this game could be accomplished without the community that supports Shiori and Koutarou.

Duties We Owe to the Past and Future

This one is, I think, the most interesting and narratively important theme that this game has. The overarching plot of the game is that Shiori needs to uncover the secrets of the Taking Spirit and then help her pass on. Shiori's family has been in charge of defending against the Spirit for generations, and she and Koutarou both made promises to the Spirit in order to protect the other. On a direct level, they have a duty to fulfill their promise. On a more broad scale level, they (and the rest of the village) have a duty to put the past to rest and to rights. In the game, failure to do so results in violent ghost haunting; but this is only a distilled and easy to digest representation of the consequences of failing to do so in the real world.

At the same time, there is consistent theme of the pressing need to attend to the future. Shiori is going to college, young children are growing up, and Koutarou can't stay in a dilapidated museum forever. Things need to change, and the future is fast approaching, but it can only settle in rightly when the past has been addressed. We owe a duty to our future selves to make the world more livable just as much as we owe a duty to the past we come from to address the reality of how they lived. The young generations will live in this world, and whether or not its a world poisoned by unhealed sickness is up to the people who are living in the world now.

[godsofhumanity]

Could you please do a Hera hc with other Olympians too and please elaborate on Zeus

lol, at this point i'm just doing the whole damn pantheon hey ahahahaha!!!!!!!

ZEUS

i've written LOADS about Hera x Zeus, but somehow i don't have a single "pure" Zeus x Hera hc list. so, i'll save that for if i ever get a Zeus x Hera ask by itself, because i think that'll be cleaner and easier to read. i'll summarise here though.

the short of it: Zeus and Hera do love each other.

the long of it: their relationship is like, the most complicated thing ever.

now, this is about Hera, so i'm not gonna write about why i think Zeus does what Zeus does, but from Hera's perspective, i hc that she's always known that this is what her marriage would be like.

i don't think she got married to Zeus and then "suddenly" he just started having "affairs"--- both were very crystal clear that this would be the case.

but love is a bit complicated, and i believe Hera and Zeus had enough faith in each other that they believed they could make it work (and they do. sort of. with a few a casualties).

one thing about Hera that i feel is incredibly important to her character is that she forgives. not everyone, but those she loves. i hc that she has a HUGE heart-- i've said before that i believe she inherits this from Rhea-- and i believe that she does forgive Zeus every time he goes "out" because, as Queen of Olympus, she knows there's a much bigger plan out there.

POSEIDON

i've always felt that Hera's best friend, most trusted confidant, would be Amphitrite. not only are they sister-in-laws, but they're both Queens, and both wives to cheaters. so i feel like they have a lot of common ground-- a lot to bond over.

as such, i feel that Amphitrite and Hera would hang around a lot, so i think, by extension, Poseidon and Zeus would hang around a lot.

i don't really know if Amphitrite loves Poseidon, i mean she probably does considering that she stays with him, but i honestly don't know for sure... in any case, she does tolerate him, and i think by that fact, Hera also tolerates him.

now, i don't really feel like the elder Olympians maintain a sibling relationship the way other god-families do-- like, Leto, Artemis and Apollo are tight as hell and literally kill for each other-- i think Prometheus, Epimetheus, and that whole titan generation are also incredibly tight. but, between Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera, i don't think they're that close-- this is likely because they never grew up with each other. Kronos prevented that. they sort of all just appeared fully-grown, and that's not really the same as actually growing from childhood to adulthood together.

that's why i don't think Hera is that close with Poseidon-- they're brother and sister on paper, and they would consider each other brother and sister for sure, but i just don't think they're that close.

also, like i was saying before, since Amphitrite and Hera are very close (and by choice, too), i think that, if not for Amphitrite, Hera would be a bit more distant from Poseidon on account of him being so similar to Zeus in terms of behaviour... now with Zeus, i think his behaviour is explained by his role as King and Father of the gods, but Poseidon doesn't really have that same rank so i think Hera would be less forgiving.

anyways, even so. in the myths, there are a few times when Poseidon supports Hera in her rebellions against Zeus, so that's not to say they're hostile towards each other-- they're friendly, but not close.

DEMETER

see here

tl;dr -- they're besties.

HESTIA

i think Hestia and Zeus would be the only ones who are actually able to maintain proper relationships with their siblings.

Hestia, like i said before, is the older sister. and i do think she helps out all her siblings when she can, even if that's mostly just providing a listening ear and shoulder to cry on.

Hera, obviously, has a lot of crying moments. i think Hestia would be one of the few characters she'd be feel comfortable crying in front of.

i can imagine Hestia doing a lot of baking <33 Hera seems like a sweet-tooth, so i think Hestia would bake her a lot of sweet treats-- pastries, and biscuits, and cakes.

HADES

i think in a similar vein to Poseidon, Hera's relationship would be good but not really all that close.

i suspect that after Hades and Persephone's marriage, Hera and Hades would actually become closer because i think Hera would make it a point to help Persephone navigate the ways of being a ruler, so they would see each other more often.

PERSEPHONE

see here

tl;dr -- they're good.

ATHENA

see here

tl;dr -- they're good.

ARTEMIS

see here

tl;dr -- they hate each other. they do not interact if they can help it.

APOLLO

i think they're on better terms than Artemis and Hera, but still-- Apollo definitely does not like Hera due to the python incident, and Hera definitely does not like Apollo because she perceives him to be far too arrogant.

nonetheless,, i do believe that Apollo, at the very least, doesn't really go out of his way to be rude to Hera. i mean, i could see Artemis being intentionally unhelpful, but Apollo, if Hera asked a favour of him, i think he would do it, albeit, if only to have her owe him one.

one pretty pivotal incident to me is when Hephaestus loses his leg- i mentioned previously that i think Hephaestus, as a child, accidentally walks in on Hera and Zeus arguing, and Zeus, mistaking Hephaestus for a servant, tells him to gtfo and shoots him with a lightning bolt-- now, Zeus' lightning can melt the very heavens and rip through the fabric of time, so it delivers pretty permanent damage to Hephaestus' leg. still, i think Apollo is the first one who Hera and Zeus summon, and though he can't do anything to fix the damage, he can at least reduce the pain for Hephaestus, and i do think Hera remembers that.

furthermore, Apollo retains a good rapport with all of her children, so that puts him Hera's good books.

Eileithyia, Hera's eldest child, was the original goddess of childbirth until Artemis was born and also became associated with it-- while i don't think Artemis and Eileithyia are close, i like the idea of Apollo and Eileithyia being good friends. he's a healer, she's a healer (for women during childbirth especially), so they get along well. and importantly, i don't think Apollo tries to make her feel insignificant; it's the opposite. so Hera can respect Apollo because of that.

otherwise, yeah. they simply tolerate each other.

HERMES

Hermes, Persephone, and Athena, are the three children of Zeus not mothered by Hera, but still "loved" by her.

like i said a billion times before, Hermes has this very playful, childish, innocent attitude that makes him very cute and annoyingly adorable, and people can't help but like him. Hera is no exception.

Hermes is ALWAYS in Zeus' palace because he's the messenger boy. but i can imagine him also doing trivial things for Hera like filling her cup, or getting her snacks. and realistically, he doesn't need to carry out these silly errands for her, but he does it anyways because-- i think Hermes actually does like Hera. she's not his step-mum, but idk. idk how to explain it. he just likes her and respects her.

i hc that Hermes is always complimenting her. like he'll deliver a message and say, "Oh, Queen Hera, is it just me or are you looking more radiant than ever today?" silly, suck-up things like that. and Hera knows that he's just trying to earn brownie points, but she secretly likes the effort he puts in.

Hermes does kill Argus, Hera's prized "knight", and i think she would have been majorly pissed off with Hermes because of that, but i like the idea of Hermes being very respectful of Hera, and not flaunting it in her face.

again, like with Apollo, Hermes maintains a very good relationship with all of Hera's children, so this works in his favour with her too.

anyhow; all in all, they have a pretty good relationship.

HEPHAESTUS

her son!!!!!!!!!!! i think she adores him very much.

she's always in awe of his works. i think she visits his forge very often, just to chat with him and keep him company.

i don't really know what else to say here because honestly, they're about as tight as a mother and child can get.

ARES

the problem child.

Hera, i think, has always seen how much of trouble Ares has had fitting in with the other Olympians. he's too brash, too loud, too violent. but he's still her son, and i think she loves him same as all her other children.

i think it's very difficult to see him get sidelined against the others, but is always immensely proud to see him stand up and do well.

i think the worst moment was when Zeus gave Athena shared rights to the war domain.. i think this would have infuriated Hera a lot-- i mean, she summons Typhon partly because of this moment.

while she's generally proud of Ares, i think they have a falling out over Aphrodite.

as the goddess of marriage, as the wife of a cheater, as a mother, she recognises immediately when Ares and Aphrodite start having an affair while Aphrodite is still married to Hephaestus, and i think it just breaks her heart into a million pieces.

here she is, a woman who has being married for hundreds of years to a man who sleeps with so many others and EVERYONE knows about it and knows about her pain.. Ares has grown up seeing all the bastard children Zeus brings back, and knows the pain and distress it has caused his mother, and STILL he decides to enable that behaviour...

and i think that's very complicated because she still loves Ares, and of course she loves Hephaestus-- and as a mother, what is she supposed to do? i do think she tells Ares immediately that he should stop because it's going to end really really badly (and Hera is right of course).

nonetheless, it is a huge relief to her when Ares and Hephaestus make amends to each other and move on with their lives.

DIONYSUS

again, i haven't fully characterised Dionysus in my head just yet so i'm not sure where he stands with Hera.

on one hand, Semele's death was so ghastly, i cannot imagine Hera ever liking Dionysus. on the other, Dionysus was raised a bit by Hermes and i think they're similar, so by extension, Hera should probably be ok with Dionysus.

but i don't really know.

i think Dionysus tends to stay out of Hera's way. i do like the idea that Dionysus is Zeus' successor-- he will be the King after Zeus, so i suppose he probably has managed to warm up to Hera.

also, i think Hera would be one of Dionysus' biggest customers in his little wine business hee hee

APHRODITE

Hera HATES herrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i don't think Aphrodite hates Hera, but Hera definitely hates Aphrodite. always has.

when Aphrodite first comes to Olympus, Hera's biggest fear is that Zeus will cheat on her with Aphrodite. it takes a lot of promising, and oath-swearing to assure Hera that that won't happen (and i don't believe it does because Aphrodite and Zeus aren't recorded as having children together).

but then, when Aphrodite marries Hephaestus, she cheats with Ares. and that's awful. Hera didn't want to get cheated on, and instead her son is the one getting cheated on. that's awful.

to be clear, i think the story is a bit more complicated and i don't think Hephaestus is blameless,, and i do think Ares and Aphrodite were more genuine than Aphrodite and Hephaestus, but it doesn't excuse it. and Hera knows that. and i don't she ever really forgive Aphrodite for what she "does" to her sons.

even though that's not entirely Aphrodite's fault-- i mean. it takes two to tango.

anyhow. Hera's relationship gets better when Aphrodite and Ares get married for real, and even better once Hephaestus marries Aglaea because it's like, yes, ok, both sons are doing well and have moved on. so that brings peace of mind to Hera.

like i said previously, Aphrodite doesn't hate Hera. i think she completely understands Hera's feelings towards her, and she simply accepts it, and does her best to show Hera that she really does love Ares, and that she isn't malicious or evil. and i think it partially works.

[everybody-loves-purdy]

Honestly dont get the "women were villainized to justify his whining" actually. Like he had beef with female characters, they disagreed and it was made clear this is just his pov of the situation and that said women were justified? that's not villinization that's just him having conflict with them.

I think some people point to how he treated Bramblestar differently they had him get close to bramblestar so they could show his retirement story and establish squirrelstar as the rightful successor. Like yeah he butts heads with squirrel but are we going to ignore that all the things he did so on was also showing how he was in the wrong even and how she made a wise and strong authority figure in comparison to the flaky and wavering bramblestar who just accepted whatever nightheart said was right? Like they aren't great at it but the erins do not shy away from their protagonists being of the wrong or varying opinions. Nightheart had beef with Squirrel specifically because she was in the right and he was blinded by his hangups, made pretty clear by his arc ending with "and all those women were totally right and he apologized or conceeded to them and thinks the world of them now". That is not villainization that's just conflict and character growth. Like it's not a question, he was shown to be wrong even through the fog of his own pov.

Like honestly I know this fandoms very touchy about how women are characterized but how do they expect us to get the complex non romantic relationships and grey morality where people arent just good or evil and are allowed to grow if the protagonist isn't allowed to have conflict with female characters? Like sorry but it's a real "we want complex dynamics" yall can't even handle a mother and son having an argument where no one is the bad guy just because you view it from the guy's perpective.

For heavens sakes all three characters have mommy issues and his is the one that ISN'T a villain, and the other woman he had conflict with was literally made leader and shown to be a great choice. They weren't villainized, Nightheart was just wrong about them and his arc involved realizing they were right.

Also while complaining that he villainizes every female character people seem to conveniently forget Lilyheart and sorrelstripe, who are just as wishywashy as Bramblestar and just as unquestionably liked by Nightheart despite their disagreements with him. They just don't get quite as much attention because they aren't former main characters and literally the leader of the clan in the middle of the power shift arc, but they both get clearly defined personalities and roles in Nightheart's life as fellow clanmates not romantically involved with him, yknow that thing that we want more of.

Like to make this argument you have to ignore that there's literally only 3 men in Nightheart's life at all, he only liked one of them because they supported his childish views as a way to establish how far he fell as a leader and how childish said views were, the other is dead and everything he thinks about him is a fabrication to imagine a parent he gets along with, and the other gets 2 scenes and comes as a package deal with his sister, and ultimately the reason he doesn't fight with any of them is because they aren't important, literally the same reason he gets along with all the other women in the clan. That's not exactly glowing reviews for the men.

Also all this is still ignoring the fact that the person nightheart likes the most is Sunbeam, also a female character, at first because exactly like Bramblestar she indulges him, except we get her pov and we see what Nightheart looks like from her pov which is wrong and hurting other people and she calls him out on it. And he listens to her because shes not as close to the situation, and she immediately befriends said other women and shows exactly how great they are as people when you aren't literally in the head of someone having conflict with them.

They did not villainize the women for Nightheart's story, they in fact went out of their way to do the opposite at most every step even despite literally being his antagonists for several books. This arc has given us female villains AND a cast that is mostly female characters. There is plenty of misogyny in these books and not all of their scenes are bangers but this ain't it.

I do mostly agree except for specifically the scene in Sky where Sparkpelt and Finchlight are just really antagonistic towards Nightheart despite having little precedent for this prior. You could maybe make an argument for Sparkpelt, but Finchlight is just nonsensical since she was very supportive of Nightheart and his name change in the previous book. I get obviously inconsistencies between different authors, but it’s just so weird and so out of her established character and motivations. And even if you could make an argument for Sparkpelt I still find that out of character given what we saw the previous book, I think she should have been disappointed (and maybe poorly trying to mask it) but not as angry, Nightheart could still get that feeling of rejection from her if his name change made her sad. It probably wouldn’t even matter as much if this argument and rejection from them wasn’t a massive reason why he wanted to leave.

[redshoes-blues]

THE ACOLYTE FINALE!!! Immediate thoughts on just finishing the finale, and omg. That was wild. I have a lot of thoughts.

I mostly loved it. Actually, this may have been the strongest episode for me, and that’s coming from someone who enjoyed every episode, although I wish there were five-or-so more minutes so some things didn’t feel rushed? Like I wish Osha and Sol had more of a conversation before she killed him, even if it was her yelling and airing her anger towards him for what he did, and him trying to explain himself a bit more than he did. It felt too quick.

I loved the show overall and generally have very limited and minor critiques that have more to do with its short runtime than anything else. But the two larger things I sort of question the decisions of:

The choice to have two separate flashback episodes interspersed between the much more high-stakes present day timeline is one that I think took away some momentum in the start and end of the season. And I really enjoyed both flashback episodes, so it isn’t to do with the episodes themselves. I think I would’ve been fine with this if those episodes were more ingrained throughout the whole season, with gradual reveals instead of two whole episodes in the past? Idk. I just wish the season had been maybe two episodes longer so we had some more time exploring character dynamics, I guess (especially Qimir and Osha, who I feel could’ve used another episode together before the finale).

Killing Yord. Okay, I loved Yord and Jecki and was upset they both died, but I saw the purpose at first. It wouldn’t make sense for them to be on Brandock and for them to survive, especially with where the season ended up. And I do think Jecki’s death was important and purposeful. It showed Qimir’s brutality and really broke Sol. That said, I don’t feel the same way about Yord, who died for nothing. That blonde Jedi who follows Vernestra around in the last few episodes is literally a knockoff Yord, lmao. I think it would’ve worked to not have Yord go to Brandock at all. Maybe he stays on Coruscant with his padawan. And then he’s the one working with Vernestra later on. I think that would have more weight to it than some random guy showing up who we have no attachment to, and who has no personality. But I also adore Yord, so that’s my bias showing.

Aside from the Yord thing, all of my other issues could have been solved with a longer season. I really wish it would’ve been ten episodes long, or even that the episodes were 10-15 minutes longer each so we could have a bit more time with the characters. But that’s more about issue with the live action Star Wars show model more generally, and not so much The Acolyte, which did pretty damn good with the time they were allotted.

Moving on from those points of minor critique!!

THAT WAS DARTH PLAGUEIS!!! Oh. My. God. I fucking lost my shit when I saw him. Was NOT expecting A. Plagueis (thought it would be Tenebrous, tbh) or B. him to make an appearance so early on in the episode?! And then he just doesn’t show up again. It’s so ominous. And Osha and Qimir are both chilling on that planet still…I’m terrified for them both. Also: he looks perfect. Incredible work. He’s terrifying.

OSHA BLEEDING THE KYBER CRYSTAL FROM SOL’S LIGHT SABER AFTER KILLING HIM IS FUCKING WILD AND I WILL NEVER BE OVER IT!!! Like. She killed him. I sorta expected that tbh. But BLEEDING HIS CRYSTAL?! Omg. The very weapon he used to murder her mother and she bled that crystal. Wow. Okay symbolism!

Very glad Osha didn’t just immediately join Qimir as that would’ve been super weak for her character. I like that she only decided towards the end.

Mae is babygirl <3 her fate left me distraught

So Vernestra was Qimir’s master like I thought and she definitely gave him those scars via her whip in an attempt to kill him when he turned to the dark side. It’s giving Obi Wan and Anakin. I’m so glad Vernestra is helping Mae, as well.

This is how and why the Jedi become involved in politics. Wow. The senators no longer trust them and require the Jedi to be under their thumb. That’s the beginning of their downfall.

Even still. The fact that the beginning of the Jedi’s downfall is directly caused by a man’s mistakes done out of love and believing he was doing the right thing is absolutely tragic. I like how Vernestra recognized that Sol was compassionate but also fucked up. She saw him for his whole self. Not just one part of him, and I appreciate that nuance. It would’ve been so easy for her to write him off as purely awful or purely good, but she didn’t. Hopefully fans can take a bit of that nuance into discussions, too.

Overall, I have more to say that I’ll get into in other posts, I’m sure, but I’ve loved this show and REALLY hope we get a season two.

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

Mean Girls 2024 reviewed by this random girl with weird thoughts

(Although I think my thoughts for this aren’t that weird).

Spoilers!

THE GAY ENERGY. THE QUEER GIRLS ENERGY. How many girls are smitten with Regina?? Cady had heart eyes the first time she saw her, GRETCHEN is… oh my gosh. Plus all the random girls in school.

I feel like lots won’t bring this up cause sadly Rise of the pink ladies were not that well marketed (PLEASE WATCH IT AND WATCH IT NOW!!), but when I saw ARI NORTATOMASO in the classroom I was like CYNTHIA’S DESCENDANT ??!! >:0

CANON LESBIAN JANIS!!!!! Finally!! But I am not sure how I feel about just giving her this random girl as her date to the spring fling.

I kinda wish to get more scenes with Cady and Janis. Idk personally ever since I read this chatfic from 2018 where they got together over this conversation I’ve kinda had a thing for them

(I’m not joking when I say this fic has been a huge inspo for me to start writing fics of my own. Like. Thank you person who wrote it. You’ve orphaned your account now but this fic will always be in my memory)

I’m not saying I needed them to be gfs in the movie just that I wanted some more moments :>

So the movie lacks a lot of the iconic moments from the 2004 film, but it’s supposed to be an adaptation of the musical anyway. Also if they just said every iconic line again it would just feel like an exact copy of the movie and that wasn’t the point.

Cady’s songs lack a bit for me. In the musical, she sang so loudly and expressed so much, but she sings so… quietly… here. I guess it’s a sort of choice for her character, and maybe this worked better for the movie format - musicals become different on stage and in movies, you can’t always be as theatrical on film as you can on stage. But, I just didn’t feel her emotions at all in the same way.

REGINA AND JANIS’ SONGS, THO? YEA. THEY SLAYED. I do feel sad they cut Gretchen and Karen’s parts out of Meet the plastics. Also that they cut Damian’s songs… Stop is literally such an important song because it gives advice not only to Cady but also to everyone watching?? I remember hearing it in 2018 and I personally felt like it could help me to not send too many texts to people, because when people didn’t answer I got nervous and sent even more. But then… some songs maybe don’t work as well in movie format, I don’t know.

Also because Janis is canonically gay now, I’d rather be me is officially a queer anthem!!!!! 😁😁

Not sure how I feel about changing ”Janis is a space dyke” to ”Janis is a pyro-les”. It doesn’t sound as good in the song lol. But, in the musical, Janis’ sexuality was more ”up to interpretation” and so got called that because when asked if she was a lesbian, she replied ”I AM A SPACE ALIEN AND I HAVE FOUR BUTTS”. An incredibly funny line and really had the early 2010s random humor going for it. But, when wanting to make her explicitly gay, they needed something better, and I understand that.

Now, many people see Regina as a closeted lesbian herself. I get it, since she has no chemistry with any boy and it seems like she just dates them for publicity. No boys except for Damian have personalities (did Shane even have a line?? He was just. There.) But, I am a bit insecure. Because at times it seems like she was one of those homophobic girls in middle school. I’m just gonna go from this movie alone, as I feel like in the Broadway show and in the 2004 movie that’s other kinds of discussion (the 2004 movie especially feels more like she actually was homophobic tbh). In the 2024 movie, Janis came out to Regina, and Regina put a rainbow pin on her stuffed animal as an ”ally”. Also Regina and Janis kissed. Regina did it to see how her boyfriend reacted, and it was at the expense of Janis. Regina then had her stuffed animal with a pride pin talk in a mocking voice and it was clear this was to make fun of Janis. Janis then got so mad over this that she set Regina’s backpack on fire (ok Ámbar Smith whatever works for you). From this story, I am a bit unsure if this came from a place of Regina maybe wanting to tease her boyfriend and then it got out of hand, or maybe she was curious about kissing Janis but she was like 12 and repressed those feelings. Because she supposedly wore a Pride pin as an ”ally”, that’s much more than what a homophobic would do - but, her bullying of Janis definitely contributed to homophobia. Regina is a mean girl, so we should not excuse her actions even though she is slaying. Closeted lesbian or not, she did some homopbic and harmful things.

Regina in this movie sometimes felt like she was just doing a bunch of things without care. In some ways, I think Regina is just living on some sort of cloud and there was all this anger inside of her and she didn’t know what, and it’s possible she just does not know how to handle all the popularity because she’s like 16. So she hides behind a lot of layers and just does stuff for the thrill of it, maybe trying to get some sort of enjoyment in life, but nothing is enough. And eventually she snaps and watches the world burn. Maybe this is why all the songs she has in the movie, including the ones that originally had more singers, only had her singing now. Showing that, even when she is around people, she is alone… (yes, the other girls sing in world burn but they don’t sing to her in the same way) and she has not found her real place in the world and she acts like she knows it all but she doesn’t really. And everyone keeps telling her how great her life is. If her life is so great, why does she feel so unsatisfied?

They didn’t ruin Revenge Party which I appreciate. I also loved that they added the deleted lines from the musical. I wish that Cady has more power in her voice when she shouted ”ONE CANDY CANE PLEASE” but oh well.

The way they all reported on the incidents at North Shore high like it was national news… like, my schools has meme accounts and stuff, but never that we reported on the stuff like it was celebrity gossip lmao. Then again I don’t even live in America so idk what’s going on over there.

I do like how Janis and Damian are the narrators. It’s possible a lot of things that happened was their overexaggerated retellings of what actually happened. Maybe this is just them telling freshmen about tales everyone tells them as they start high school.

School buses keep being the top 10 scariest jumpscares. Laughed out loud tho that instead of focusing on Cady and Regina’s argument, they just argued in the backround and then Janis finished up her song as Regina just gets hit by the bus in the background

I’ll probably have more to say in the future.

[onlyplatonicirl]

very very good chapter yippee yippeee tcoti my biggest special interest yay hurray huzzah

but in all seriousness the newest chapter was fantastic, all the characters are so well writte, despite condemning what error has done i can sympathise with him so well in this chapter and now throughout the entire story, he is a being who exists outside of reality unable to properly integrate into it because its just not in his nature, his body rejects its very existence and his mind is completely shattered (even more so after what the council did lmao), he seems so hopless in these last few chapters focusing on him, all he wants is to just get to his little void and curl up on a nice comfy bean bag and then fucking die

the way youve characterised ink is also incredibly interesting, he isnt this paragon of moral superiority but he also isnt a naughty no good bad man >:(( , he really truly is just such a uniquely neutral blank slate of a person (or monster ig), he doesnt seem to have any motivations outside of what he deems to be moral but his sense of morality is somewhat twisted by his desires and is doomed to forever be selfish because it only ever serves to suit himself and the current emotional palette hes experiencing, he cannot truly feel in same way others do so hes always running off of what his id tells him, what does he need in that moment to survive? what does he want in this moment to make him feel good? hes a pleasure seeker through and through, so long as his desires dont conflict with the relationships hes already established he'll go for that goal and he wont stop until hes got locked between his teeth through hell or high weather, doesnt matter if it conflicts with his moral compass, who needs one when no ones looking?

dream is also another really fantastic character in this fic, truth be told im usually not the biggest fan of him, a lot of his characterisation, like ink, lacks nuance, hes either a happy go lucky naive ball of energy, or this rude burnt and backstabbed cigar smoking loner, but dream in this seems to be a lot more nuanced, hes had bad past experiences and he does what he believes is right, every character in this story has these sets of moral principles and not all of them align, which is really interesting when you put them all in one room (the council) and force them to try and agree upon one major decision, the results of which will literally affect the entirety of the multiverse, dream believes in a great good otherwise known as utilitarianism - making choices which will maximise the happiness of everyone involved - and right enough killing or otherwise disposing of error would be the most utilitarian option, but he cannot shake the fact that murder is wrong despite how much he hates him and everything hes done

needles to say i am excited for the next chapters, i want to see these three relationship evolve (or devolve), and from the looks of it, dream corruption arc 👀👀????? he may not go the path of his brother, but hot damn that boy is gonna be pissed off at the world and the people who live in it and i cannot wait to see him tell them all whats what

glad to have you back in the writing biz

YESSSSS THANK YOU FOR THIS, YOU GET ME!!!! YOU GET MY CHARACTER ANALYSIS WAAAAHGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Ink is a TRUE NEUTRAL and has his own interests in mind. That being said however, when he has a normal emotional palette he does genuinely care for the people important in his life, such as Dream and Error. He’s mildly pissed off at Error and more pissed off at Dream, but he does care. It may be shallow but it begs the question - is it anymore shallow compared to people with souls?

Dream is at his core a good person, and he was opposed the murder. He’s happy and kind, but he’s also not an idiot, and after going through everything he’s been through he’s more an in his right to be pissed beyond belief

And Error, well, you nailed EXACTLY what I was going for

I really wanted this story to be something that people could have discussions about, arguing in favor of and against characters and their actions. I’ve seen people get in ARGUEMENTS over alchemy and whether or not he’s in his right to do what he did. And I love it

THANK U SOOOO SO MUCH FOR THIS!!! I absolutely adore hearing people’s takes on characterization and what they think will happen. They’re all so complex and I ADORE them for it

The closest character we can get to “evil because I love being evil” is like - Nightmare and Killer probably, but we already know enough about their characterization outside of TCOTI to where I don’t really have to say anything lol

[sarah-dipitous]

Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 59

Jus in Bello/The Runaway Bride

“Jus in Bello”

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: No one died, so…sure

I’m so worried Bela’s gonna die in this episode

Every time this FBI agent shows up I feel bad for him. It’s giving “this’ll be known as the day that you almost caught Sam and Dean Winchester” like, yeah, he detains them for a while but try always get away

Look. I hate John Winchester as much as the next guy, but listening to anyone who didn’t know him talk about him like that?? Ooooooo, no. He was not a good dad, but he didn’t do THAT, agent

What the ACTUAL FUCK?? Ooohhhhhhh the deputy director is possessed by a demon??

So…what IS the game plan here?? Literally on both sides. I get the demons wanted to come in and kill the boys, fine. But why take out literally everyone? I guess the answer I’d get is “why the hell not?” But also why is Agent Henriksen so fucking calm??

Hey. Hey, Sam?? What the hell, man?? All for a rosary?

Dean…why are you this excited about having a hit out on the two of you? Is it the blood loss from getting shot??

OH SHIT OH SHIT OH SHIT. He grabbed the rosary to make the toilet water holy water because now HENRIKSEN is possessed!! THE TWISTSSSS!! And now everyone else has seen the demon leave

Best part of the episode so far? Dean and I sharing one braincell. Henriksen wakes up from the possession and the first thing he says is “I shot the sheriff.” I recall that the FBI deputy director is also dead and think “but you didn’t shoot the deputy” just in time for Dean to say that

That is the correct response, anyway

This poor girl. She’s just a receptionist.

Aw dude…fucked it up for everyone in here. Ok maybe not. It only allowed Ruby in

I wish I could like Ruby. But she is EVERY “writers trying too hard to write a ‘strong female character’ that they’ve written the same character as all the guys they write but cast a woman to play her” I’ve ever seen

I’m mad at Dean right now. This girl’s choice (though based in patriarchal bull shit from her religion) should be respected and not this soft ridicule. It’s still ridicule from him but he’s not trying to be malicious. So yeah…I’m not…not too happy with him. OMG CAN WE STOP TREATING SEX LIKE IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD?? Like, yeah, I don’t want this girl to die either, but the fact that she’s never had sex is not the main reason she shouldn’t die

I will say the battle coming down to a glorified water fight is pretty great. Followed by a mass exorcism

At least they didn’t have….I was just about to say that at least they didn’t have to kill Henriksen to end the animosity between them, but then the show killed him anyway, along with everyone else

“Been On My Mind…”: some hate flirting between Dean and Bela but otherwise no

“The Runaway Bride”

God....I hate her scummy fiance. I'm so glad the TARDIS abducted Donna.

I love how much they antagonize each other. <3<3<3<3<3 They're so perfect "the what." "the TARDIS" "the what." "the TARDIS" "the what." "it's called the TARDIS" "that's not even a proper word!"

She's taking this all very well after all her shouting. Like, she just found out aliens exist and she's standing next to one in his spaceship that kidnapped her and she says "it's freezing in here with these doors open"

Oh...I wanna hug both of them. The Doctor's wounds are so fresh from Rose's departure, and Donna's so scared and covering it up by yelling at him.

There it is...the moment it's too much (for now)

Okay, but I hope Donna's wedding dress after Journey's End had pockets. I wouldn't get married in a dress that didn't have pockets. You should want better for yourself, Donna

I DESPERATELY want to know what she said when she chewed out the taxi driver to end with "and that goes double for your mother!!"

AGAIN with the masked Santas!!

We need longer seasons again, in general. A 6/8/10 episode season of any TV wouldn't have time for the two kids cheering on Donna and the Doctor from the backseat of their parents' car.

Why are you bad at lying about having a time machine? Can't go back on someone's personal time line.......apparently?? My dude...

Oh...no...the reception. And then everyone's yelling at her like she did something wrong. Sure, her crying is not 100% genuine (or even mostly genuine). But they're also not completely disingenuous. She didn't ASK to be abducted. She spent that whole time TRYING to get back so she could get married. My poor Donna.

I always enjoy the way they turn Christmas staples upside down. The Star of Bethlehem now being the ship the spider queen is on...it's brilliant.

The more Torchwood gets involved in things, the less I like them...anyway, I love how Donna's avoided seeing every alien invasion in the past two years/ever

"I'm a pencil inside a mug?" I love her so much...

There's really nothing left to do other than laugh at the absurdity of it all when your wedding gets ruined because you got abducted and now, you, your fiance, and the alien whose space ship abducted you are riding segways in the secret lower basement of your workplace where you met your fiance.

God. He's so used to Rose absolutely LOVING his manic "I just figured out what's going on and I'm going to tell you as quickly and excitedly as I can and you might not understand but I'll slow it down for you eventually" rants, and Donna does NOT have time for those. She's like "you are literally talking about ME, a LIVING HUMAN RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. You better STOP being giddy about this and just tell me WHAT IS GOING ON," but the way she says it is with a literal slap in the face.

Why does the empress of the Racnoss know/care about Christmas? Do the Racnoss have Jesus???

...I hate him. I hate him SO. MUCH.

I just reread the post about Donna not letting Lance and the empress hurt the Doctor. So, I'm crying. She deserves so much better than everyone in her life.

There's something to be said about the Lance/empress vs. Donna/Doctor dynamics. Lance was promised the chance to see what was going on out in the universe if he would work by the empress's side and betray humanity, and in the end she betrays him for her own purposes. Donna and the Doctor were just thrown together, she is promised nothing, and she actually GETS to see the formation of the earth while BARELY getting along, and while they do part ways, they WILL come back to each other, and toward the end of this year, they'll do it again. I'm fine and not crying.

What I'd give to see Jackie Tyler freaking out about this...

Time Lord pockets are bigger on the inside, too?? Unfair

So yeah...again with the Doctor wiping out entire alien races. Gonna be keeping an eye on this. Should it be "Number of Episodes Since the Doctor Potentially Committed Genocide"? Think it might be...

The fact that after ALL THAT Donna still doesn't think Lance deserved to die. Precious. Cinnamon. Roll. Too. Pure. For. This. World.

Number of Episodes Since the Doctor Potentially Committed Genocide: 0