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aspoonofsugar · 4 years ago

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I hope this is not too much of a hassle but by any chance could you do an analysis on Watts, Tyrian, and Hazel.

Hello anon!

Sure, no problem :) I think I have shared some thoughts on these three characters in other metas, but I’ll get this chance to organize them and to put them all together.

In general, I would say Watts, Tyrian and Hazel are not extremely deep characters and they mostly work as foils to others, drive subplots in specific arcs and highlight themes.

Here is a list of their major narrative roles, as for now.

1) They symbolize three parts of Salem:

Each member of Salem’s inner circle represents one side of her.

Watts is her entitlement.

Tyrian is her desire of destruction for the sake of destruction.

Cinder is her wish to be free.

Hazel is her inability to grieve.

They are Salem’s three flaws. The reasons why she ends up the way she is.

Salem’s journey starts because she is unable to grieve:

Salem: No! No! What did you do?! BRING HIM BACK!

And because she feels she deserves better than others:

God of Light: When you first came to me, I did pity you. But it is clear now that your selfishness and arrogance have led you astray.

Finally, she enters the pool of Darkness and embraces destruction:

Jinn: Instead, it created a being of infinite life with a desire for pure destruction.

At the same time, Tyrian and Hazel also represent Salem’s inability to understand the cycle of life and death:

God of Light: You must learn the importance of life and death. Only then may you rest.

The cycle is about loving life and accepting death. However, Salem initially refuses death (like Hazel) and then starts despising life (like Tyrian)

Interestingly, Hazel is eventually able to understand Gretchen’s choice:

Hazel: I'm doing what Gretchen would have done!

And dies sacrificing himself for others, just like Gretchen did.

I wonder if Tyrian’s death will be something which will instead be linked to him finally aknowledging the importance of life. Since Tyrian is a very negative character (and I do not think he will have a redemptive or particularly empowering death) it might be something as simple as him begging for his life.

2) Watts, Hazel and Tyrian all act as the main secondary villain of a specific arc and they are linked to the main theme of that arc.

a) Hazel fights in the Battle of Heaven and he is linked to Knowledge:

Oscar: Did she know the risk of being a Huntress?

Hazel: She was only a child! She wasn't ready!!

Oscar: She made a choice!

Knowledge is complementary to Choice. It is what you must aquire to choose wisely. However, initially Hazel does not understand it. He dismisses Gretchen’s choice as a her being tricked and he himself lacks the knowledge to make the right decision.

This is why his turning sides is linked to the relic of Knowledge:

Jinn: Why, hello again, old man. Did you have a question for me?

Hazel: Actually, I think all my questions are answered now.

He finally understands the truth and is able to choose:

Oscar: What are you going to do?

Hazel: What Gretchen would have done.

b) Watts displays his hacking abilities to its fullest in the Atlas Arc. This connects him to the theme of Creation and in particular to its negative declination aka Control:

Cinder: You said in your message that you have control over Penny.

Watts: I said I had Penny under control, not that I could telekinetically force her to do whatever I want.

He hacks Penny and overwrites her will. Moreover, he himself ends up manipulated and “controlled” by Cinder:

Cinder: You deserve this, Arthur. We'll be back.

c) Tyrian has roles both in the Mistral Arc and in the Atlas Arc. However, he misses from the climaxes of both, so I think he will be important in Vacuo and maybe he’ll find his death in that arc. Moreover, the theme of Destruction seems to fit his character.

Finally, when it comes to themes, Hazel, Tyrian and Watts all explore the theme of trust (aka one of the main themes of the Atlas Arc) in a minor way.

To be more specific, the theme of trust is explored throughout the story in different ways. I have explained it better here and here.

It is interesting because the theme of trust is explored starting with Ozpin, Oscar’s foil, who does not trust others, so our protagonists feel betrayed. However, in Atlas they find themselves in Ozpin’s shoes and must choose if to trust Ironwood or not.

Here, we explore a form of conditional trust. This idea is presented by Ruby, who wants to be sure it is safe to trust Ironwood. So she keeps secrets and studies him until she decides she can trust him… only to discover that was not the case immediately after. This happens because trust can never be completely safe. Actually, in its most negative declination, this kind of trust becomes the control symbolized by Ironwood.

No matter what, trust is always a leap of faith. This is why trust is a risk. Oscar shows this concept well. He decides to still trust Ironwood at the end of volume 7, but it does not work. Still, he does not stop and decides to trust Emerald and Hazel. This time his trust and faith are repaid. He is fred and gains a new ally.

Anyway, even if trust is worth it, the exploration of this theme in Atlas actually ends on a negative note. It ends with Cinder who is an enemy of trust because she uses others’ trust and feelings against them.

In short, we are shown what trust is through Oscar, what it happens when there is no trust through Ozpin and how trust can be twisted and manipulated through Cinder.

Well, Hazel, Watts and Tyrian explore these same ideas in their subplots.

Tyrian takes advantage of the lack of trust among Robyn, Clover and Qrow:

Tyrian: It's taking a very long time for this show to get to the good part.

He exploits it and manages to kill Clover because of it.

Hazel shows the power of trusting others instead:

Oscar: You want him to trust us? Then trust me.

Oscar’s trust makes him willing to listen and later on he decides to help the kids escape.

Finally, Watts is used and discarded by Cinder, who fakes trust and friendship towards him and Neo.

3) Hazel, Tyrian and Watts all foil a member of Ozpin’s group and show their flaw in a clearer way.

Hazel foils Ozpin himself:

Hazel: He didn't tell you my tale, did he, boy? I thought you looked familiar, to think that evil was inside you when our paths first crossed. Your blood won't be on my hands, it'll be on his.

On one hand Hazel accuses Ozpin of sending kids to their deaths, while hurting children himself. On the othet hand Ozpin speaks about the importance of making choices, but does not give all the knowledge necessary to make an informed choice. So, both characters earnestly believe in their ideals, but they are also hypocrites about them.

Watts foils Ironwood.

Watts accuses Ironwood of having used his genius only to dismiss him later on and does not aknowledge how he himself has taken advantage of Atlas society that leaves those below (like Cinder) to rot. Moreover, both Ironwood and Watts frame themselves as rational, but lose precisely because they dismiss the importance of feelings for both manipulation (Watts) and trust (ironwood).

Finally, Tyrian foils Qrow.

In particular, Tyrian embodies Qrow’s self-destructive tendencies, which are Qrow’s true flaw. As a matter of fact Qrow ends up hurt in both fights (the first tiem physically, while the second time emotionally) not because Tyrian is stronger than him. He ends up hurt because of his flaw.

In Mistral, his misunderstanding with Ruby leads to him being poisoned. This happens because Qrow is so scared of his semblance that he keeps others away and does not explain himself.

In Atlas, his cynism leads him to make a pact with Tyrian and this leads to Clover’s death.

4) Finally, Hazel, Watts and Tyrian all foil a member of CEM:

I have discussed Emerald and Mercury’s foiling with Hazel and Tyrian here and here.

Hazel and Tyrian step in as Emerald and Mercury’s parental figures once Cinder leaves them behind.

Hazel is Emerald’s positive parental figure, but he is blinded by his flaw, just like she is.

Tyrian is Mercury’s negative parental figure, but he also tells the boy truths he needs to accept.

At the same time, Hazel is what Emerald really wants (an adult who looks out for her), while Tyrian is who Mercury thinks he wants to be (a big bad man). In both cases, they are not what Emerald and Mercury really need. Emerald must learn to be more independent, while Mercury needs to nurture his positive relationship(s).

I have discussed Cinder’s foiling with Watts here, here and here.

Watts embodies Cinder’s flaw (her hunger for power) enveloped in everything she hates, but also deep down envies (being an Atlas elites).

It is interesting that Watts is not really a mentor figure for Cinder (differently from Hazel and Tyrian for the murder kids). He is a colleague, so they are on equal footing. Interestingly, though, they both try to discredit the other and to act as the other’s superior.

In general, this is another way to convey that Cinder is less child-coded than the two kids she took in.

At the same time, it shows how Atlas makes relationships between equals difficult because in Atlas everyone always tries to be on top and discards the ones below.

5) Hazel, Watts and Tyrian’s arcs, when they exist, are very short and simple.

Moreover, they are built on what ifs.

What would happen if Hansel lost Gretel?

He would stay a prisoner of the Witch forever, until he manages to free himself doing what his sister would have done:

In a sense, Gretchen still frees Hazel, not physically like in the fairy tale, but psychologically because she inspires him.

What would happen if Watson were envious of Sherlock?

He would join Moriarty and end up consumed by his own envy:

Watts is shown eating a green apple while controlling a falling Atlas. This is interesting because Atlas is the house of our titular Snowhite and green is a color associated with envy. It is as if Watts has taken the bait Cinder offered him using his feelings of entitlement and jealousy:

Cinder: You have everything you need?

Watts: Oh, believe me, this is everything I've ever wanted.

His arc is also a clear case of wants versus needs. He gets what he wants, ignoring that this is not what he needs.

What would happen is the Scorpion killed the Frog, but survived?

The answer is that he would keep making pacts he breaks (like the one with Qrow) and would keep poisoning others (both physically or psychologically).

This until he leads himself to his own demise, just like his fable counterpart.

Thank you for the ask!

#rwby #rwby meta #hazel rainart #arthur watts #tyrian callows #salem #qrow branwen #ozpin #james ironwood #cinder fall #emerald sustrai #mercury black #murder kids #rwby murder kids #asksfullofsugar #anonymous #my meta

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autisticshadowthehedgehog · 4 years ago

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Team Chaotix found out how to Time-Travel and are (probably?) using their powers for good

[I.D.: Screenshot of Shadow the Hedgehog, the cutscene before “Mad Matrix.” Shadow approaches Team Chaotix, standing in front of Eggman’s computer. Vector says “Well, we need your help to hack into [Eggman’s] computer... and don’t ask why!” End I.D.]

What a title, huh? Let me complicate this more by explaining this is going to deal near exclusively with the 2005 game Shadow the Hedgehog and Chaotix’s role in it.

My thesis statement for this is as thus: In Shadow the Hedgehog, all endings are actually technically canon; the universe was reset back at the end of them all until the True Ending was reached, and the universe was reset by none other than Team Chaotix.

Is this theory going to make at least two insane reaches? Yes. Is it a crack theory? uuuuuuuuh depends on how people react to it

So, let’s get into the logistics of how and why I think this went down.

Part One: What was Team Chaotix’s Mission?

Team Chaotix appears very briefly in ShTH; Charmy is on a solo mission on “Prison Island,” the whole team seems to be in “Mad Matrix” with Vector in “Cosmic Fall”, and they appear briefly aboard the ARK at the end of the game. (Which... I don’t think they left? Were they up there when Shadow isolated himself inside? Is that why he wasn’t gone for long, did he get sick of their shit and pilot them back to the planet--)

The point is, from the few appearances of the team in the game, we know that they are on a mission, one so secret/confidential that no team members tell anyone what it is- even Charmy, who has the impulse control of a kid left alone in a room with a million buttons.

Of course, with their appearances, we can figure out some elements of their mission, and it becomes quite clear that their mission has something to do with the Space Colony ARK.

Charmy’s solo mission, for starters, in “Prison Island.” Charmy is there to collect five discs from GUN, discs that I don’t believe the player ever finds out the contents of.

[I.D.: Three screenshots from Shadow the Hedgehog, of Charmy’s dialogue in the “Prison Island” stage. He says, “Heeey, Shadow! I gotta ask you something! Vector told me that he wants to find five top secret discks... but, like... what’s a top secret disk?” End i.D.]

As the Hero Route of Prison Island immediately transitions to “Mad Matrix”, the implication is the GUN discs have something to do with hacking into Eggman’s computer.

Oh, yeah, the team needed to hack into the files of Eggman’s computer, with Espio having to gather data himself. Again, what they were looking for is never revealed, but Vector insists that it’s urgent.

[I.D.: Screenshots from the beginning of the “Mad Matrix” cutscene. Espio is sitting at a computer, attempting to hack. Vector says, “Are you done yet? At this rate, the entire day will be wasted.” Espio turns and says, “Hey, back off! Data retrieval isn’t exactly my specialty.” End i.D.]

Vector attempts to locate the ARK’s computer room, again for no stated reason.

[I.D.: Vector at the beginning of the “Cosmic Fall” route. He says to Shadow, “We’ve got to make it to the computer room before this place collapses!” End I.D.]

Upon it being found in the True Ending, Team Chaotix once again hack inside the computer. After Gerald’s video begins playing, we don’t see them again.

So, to recap: they are all gathering information from GUN- which was pretty much the only organization with any information on the colony- and Eggman, a member of the Robotnik family; with the fact they were later on the ARK and stealing GUN documents, it’s likely they were looking for information on Gerald on Eggman’s computer.

So, while we don’t have the explicit mission, we can clarify that it definitely has something to do with the ARK. An important question, though, which might be able to clarify their entire mission, is who is their client?

Part Two: Who Sent Team Chaotix on this mission?

Team Chaotix’s missions are almost exclusively client-based, and even if we say that they don’t have one, there has to be something that tipped them off that they needed to get to the ARK.

The client themself is a bit of a mystery- it can’t be any non-chaotix main character, as literally nobody seems wise to what they’re up to. And considering Charmy was, uh, pretty much literally stealing GUN files, we can safely assume they’re not working for GUN.

But their client had to be someone who knew there was important information on the ARK, which was pretty much unknown to everyone before SA2, and afterwards, even if we assume the ARK incident is common knowledge, there has to be something specific the Chaotix were sent after.

And something important.

In case you haven’t played ShTH, during the entire game, the world is being attacked by demon aliens intent on murdering and eating everything on the planet while also setting it on fire. You’d think that Chaotix would want to deal with that above a relatively unimportant mission. So whatever they were doing was more important than fighting/hiding from/investigating the apocalyptic monsters attacking them.

What would be important than the, as I said, apocalyptic demon monsters?

Potentially... a way to stop them.

[I.D.: Screenshots from a cutscene in the Last Story. Team Chaotix are attempting to hack into the ARK’s computer. Vector says, “Espio, we need you to focus, cuz if we don’t hurry all the data we recovered will be lost.” End I.D.]

So. You know how in every one of my metas there’s a part where I leap off the deep end?

Let me just say this outright.

What if the one who sent them on their mission... was none other than Gerald Robotnik?

So, here’s my mission statement.

Gerald Robotnik, sensing that something bad was going to happen on the ARK, made his video message for Shadow. We know this because of, you know, the content of the message.

After the ARK massacre, Gerald obviously cracked, but left behind some hint of the video’s existence, or a hint of a way to defeat the Black Arms that nobody picked up cause nobody knew they existed except the people on the ARK. Who, you know, GUN massacred. Thanks GUN.

What the hint exactly was I’m not sure-- in Sonic X he wrote a shitton of stuff on the walls of his prison island jail cell, maybe he left something there. [Something to note-- Sonic X begun airing before production of ShTH, and it second and third seasons, the ones featuring Shadow, would probably be being made while ShTH was in production.]

[I.D.: Screenshots from Sonic X of Gerald Robotnik’s prison island cell, which has multiple scientific notes scribbled across the walls. End I.D.]

We already know the Chaotix know of Prison Island and can get there from Charmy’s appearance in his route, so them being there and seeing something left behind isn’t impossible.

So this hint was discovered by the Chaotix, who pieced together that this ARK message would give the information needed to defeat the Black Arms-- I believe they knew that there was a message specifically, as they seem unsurprised and happy when the message appears at the end of the game, meaning it was among the things they were looking for, if not the only thing. They also figured out that the only one who could defeat said Black Arms was Shadow. Hence why they’re not only hacking into the computers of two Robotniks, but they, in different timelines, accompany and assist Shadow in his little angst party missions.

[I.D.: Screenshots from the end of the “Cosmic Fall” Hero Route. As Shadow walks away, depressed that he’s what he considers a failed experiment, Vector says, “Hey... don’t go there... yet! Things may not be what they seem. You could be...” End I.D.]

But then why wouldn’t they tell Shadow what they were up to? Sure, he has amnesia, so you can’t just say “your granddad might have a secret way to kill the demon aliens,” but you could say “we think there’s a message for you.” So why didn’t they?

Because, my dear friends, they only have twenty-four hours, and it takes quite a while to explain and prove time travel to an amnesiac hedgehog.

Part Three: What Route leads to the True Ending? The Time Travel One

Here’s where we get into crack.

Let’s put everything together and then go into Connie’s HellBrainMode™

The Chaotix’s mission is so secret that either they didn’t dare tell Charmy, or the ADHD 6yo understood that he had to shut up for once (and I say that with love) and thus not a single one of them dares reveal it.

The Mission definitely pertains to the ARK, Black Arms, Robotnik Family, and Shadow.

The Chaotix vaguely knew of the message that was needed to defeat the aliens, and so they were attempting to hack Robotnik computers to find it.

For some reason, they don’t even tell Shadow what’s up, even though due to their penchant for traveling with him and protecting him, they likely are aware he’s a bit important at the moment.

...so why does Shadow the Hedgehog have so many endings anyway?

On that last point... ShTH has an insane amount of routes, but really only eleven endings, with #11 being the final, canon ending. But all the endings are plausible routes, no matter how goddamn dark they can get. It seems the only thing that separates the endings is Shadow’s choices; whether he remains neutral, assists the Black Arms, or fights for Earth. Of course, the true ending involves him fighting for Earth, his friends, and Maria’s final wish, but the path he takes over the day of the Black Arms invasion needs to lead him there.

Does that mean he must follow a Hero route to reach that? By the time he gathers all the chaos emeralds, he can’t be in the depths of despair or convinced he’s an android, etc.; he’s definitely not in one of the endings where Eggman or Sonic die, seeing as they help him out in the True Ending. So if Eggman and Sonic are alive and Shadow’s not literally losing all hope in everything, we have to assume neither a Dark nor Neutral route was taken, as Dark tends to end with dead Sonic and Neutral tends to end with Dead Eggman.

Something interesting-- several Hero Routes involve helping the Chaotix. Gathering the discs for Charmy, helping Espio collect necessary data, helping Vector find the infamous computer room... Of course, most Hero Routes involve helping your friends when you see them, but the Chaotix specifically are looking for GUN/Ark/Robotnik/BlackArms information. While they will not share this information with Shadow, helping them puts him on the Hero Route, aka closer to the True Ending.

But which ending leads to the true ending? None of them, and yet all of them.

None of them end in the place where the true ending begins-- Shadow alone with the Chaos Emeralds, ready to discover the truth about his past, and about to be ambushed by an uninjured Black Doom while his friends are about to burst in to try and save him, having apparently discovered more about what’s happening.

Hero endings end with Shadow defeating Black Doom earlier, Neutral ends with depressed Shadow and dead Eggman, Dark ends with angry Shadow and dead Sonic. So a whole nother timeline was taken. Then what was the point of the first ten?

Well, through the first ten, you do learn certain information, don’t you? So who’s to say someone else going through the first ten endings wouldn’t learn something as well? If someone could, say, reset the day to the beginning every time Shadow has an angst moment and fails to save the world, and then use what they learned the last time in order to try and steer Shadow on a better path...

And in the True Ending, when Shadow and his friends are attacked by Black Doom, Shadow hears voices in his head-- voices from several different routes. Almost as if something in his mind clicks, something that feeds every route into him to make a final decision.

[I.D.: Gif from the Last Story of Shadow the Hedgehog; Shadow is on the ground, and voices are heard, represented here by captions, which read, in order: “I will avenge those whose blood has been spilled!” “Did I... die?” “That’s why you were created...” and “Please help me, Shadow.” End I.D.]

So what route leads to the last ending? All of them. All of them, so that the information gathered... gets the Chaotix on the ARK. To get the message out to Shadow.

Part Four: The Timeline of the Chaotix Time Travel

Every route begins with the same cutscene-- the beginning of the day, as the Black Arms invade... as their comet gets close enough to reach the planet. Let’s say, hmm, Gerald, for example, realized something might go horribly wrong when the Black Arms showed up if Shadow was traumatized and confused, and tried to make some kind of safeguard. The safeguard ended up being a reset button,* but it relied on the position of the Black Arms’ comet-- so thus, you can only reset to the beginning of its approach. The beginning of the day. And only the one(s) pressing the button remembers the reset, that could be an issue.

*Note: we’re using “reset button” as a general term, obviously it doesn’t have to be a literal button.

The Chaotix break into the remains of Prison Island sometime before the Black Arms attack; perhaps they sensed something was up, perhaps they noticed some weird stuff was going on, who knows. But they get in there, and find Gerald’s notes, and figure out some important stuff-- the Black Arms are invading, there’s a way to stop them on the ARK, and... oh, what’s this, this thing that the GUN scientists could never figure out how to use but hid away in case they figured it out one day. It’s a comet reset button?

Oh, comet, like the one right overhead-- oops.

The Chaotix are unable to stop the comet from arriving in the first place. So Vector puts together all the pieces-- “ultimate lifeform,” fifty-year timeskiip, whatever hints Gerald left-- and figures out that, likely, Gerald knew about the Black Arms, how to stop them, and that his ultimate lifeform, Shadow, is the key to saving the planet.

He sends Charmy to retrieve discs from GUN involving the ARK and Gerald on Prison Island, and then sets Espio to hacking into Eggman’s systems. Once they’ve got the info they need, they hop on a spaceship and race to the ARK. Thing is... each of these steps could go wrong in any way. Charmy doesn’t find the discs, Espio can’t reach the data, Vector can’t find the computer room, they fail to reach the ARK, or, above all, Shadow shows up and fucks up their shit.

Thankfully, the Chaotix have the day reset. Every time the planet starts to go to shit, Vector resets. Shadow just killed Sonic? Reset it, now, before those demons crash into Earth. Omega just texted Rouge to tell her that Shadow is convinced he’s destined to lead a robot uprising? Reset. Shadow is depressed thinking he’s a failed experiment that never should have been created and thus literally falls into such a state he can’t or won’t fight the Black Arms? Gotta reset that shit. They reset at least ten times, each time gaining more information and figuring out what they have to do. Charmy gets Shadow’s help in one route, then in the next timeline repeat remembers the locations. Espio knows how to break into Eggman’s computer. Vector figures out where they need to go. They figure out where the Chaos Emeralds are and where and when to get them to Shadow.

The eleventh and final reset begins, and Chaotix informs the Sonic Squad that the Black Arms need the Chaos Emeralds to destroy the planet and that they need to go keep an eye on Shadow. Somehow they get Eggman onboard-- idk they probably just namedropped Gerald and he listened to whatever they had to say. Once they’re sent off, they rush to the ARK.

Shadow, in the Last Route, has gathered the Chaos Emeralds off the ARK, somewhere on the below planet. Everyone else is on Earth, including Sonic, Black Doom, Eggman...

Everyone but the Chaotix.

The Chaotix, who continue working on this Big Case even after the Black Comet has descended through Earth’s atmosphere and the Black Arms are killing everyone on the planet.

The Chaotix, who are trying to hack into Gerald’s computer, looking for something important.

The Chaotix, who show absolutely no surprise or concern when Gerald’s message appears, implying that this could be what they were looking for.

The Chaotix, who are not seen again after the message is played.

Because their work is done.

Shadow’s choices lead him to make the right decision, but that final push he needs to defeat Black Doom is Gerald and Maria’s message. And once it’s played, he saves the goddamn world.

And then is stuck on the ARK with the Chaotix until the next game. Oops.

#shadow the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog 2005 #team chaotix #vector the crocodile #charmy bee #espio the chameleon #sonic theory #sonic meta #mine #connie writes #connie theories

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unioncolours · 3 years ago

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A 2nd Majsasaurus Year!

Today, 22nd of September 2021, it’s been two years since I officially joined the magical world of fandom. 22.9.2019 I uploaded the first chapter to my fic Shadows and Sand, and the rest is history.

I did a deep dive into my first year as a fic writer and active member of fandom last year, when it was my first anniversary. You can read it here!

In that meta discussion about my membership of fandom, I presented it as if walking on clouds. I was so, so happy and talked during all the discussion about my happiness in fandom.

Since that post was written, my life and also my perception of the fandom I am part of has changed. Change isn’t always bad, as I really had a honeymoon phase with fandom over a year ago, and the low after hit hard.

But let’s see what I’ve been up to and what I’ve been writing! The following year provided much change and fun things! Please keep reading 💜⬇

The first fic I wrote since 22.9.2020 was a Sakura x Ino fic. I had for a longer while been interested in writing a woman-loves-woman ship, which I had never done before, and as a wlw-person myself the urge to explore that part led to Promise me this is just a kiss. The pairing itself was chosen on rather random, it had to be two women and I like Ino, so I chose the most popular Ino-wlw ship for this for convenience.

I really liked writing the fic and it was well-received! It was the first time I had written a fic that was entirely centred around exploring feelings and having sex.

After this I jumped directly onto the next idea that had been boiling inside me for a longer while. Up to this point, all I had written, except the wlw-fic, had been set in the Naruto canonverse and I was itching to try to work with a multi-chaptered modern au! The pairing was of course my beloved Shikadai x Inojin.

It was during the creation of this fic I began to struggle. This was a new genre, as this was romance only and all my other works had been action and fantasy based, except the sex fic of course. I was maybe over critical and stressed, which resulted in me having a hard time writing it. But I made it. Was the sky always this beautiful? ended up being 35k long, and in hindsight, I freaking love, love, love how it turned out in the end and what it represented. I am very proud of this fic.

I “upgraded” as a fan by the end of October when I bought myself a digital drawing tablet. I began drawing fanart of Shikadai and Inojin and preferably them two together, haha! I still draw a few days a month and find it extremely fun as a side hobby beside the writing.

We are now in November 2020. By this time, I had completely finished my zine fic, Under the Scorching Sun, which I had written during September and October, for the Shikatema zine I was kindly accepted to. I was proud of what I had created and was eager for the rest of the contributors to wrap up theirs, so we’d have a wonderful zine for sale in 2021. It was lovely to write ShikaTema again. As the zine fic was about to be released in months from when I had at first finished it, I wanted of course to write something fans and friends could immediately take part of on the internet. I had hyped myself up to a state where I wanted to write a third and final story in my series To love and never let go, my epic series about Shikadai and Inojin.

Now, I should maybe have waited another month, but I was worried the readers would give up on me if I didn’t write it right away. In December, I began writing To find hope in the Universe, with my usual speed and love for the art.

What I by then didn’t realise or even recognise was that I was very slowly turning burned out. I ignored all the signs.

In December I wrote simultaneously as Hope in the Universe a fic that was part of the Shikatema server’s Secret Santa event. The fic’s name was The Ghost Stories of our Hearts, and it was ShikaTema, as the event’s name suggests. It was fun to write and despite the final big fic, Hope in the Universe, pressing down on me, I finished The Ghost Stories of our Hearts and was very happy with the result. Sadly, at this point the burnout began taking control over me, and I never managed to reply to the comments.

The 15th of January, I began uploading To find hope in the Universe. It was a lovely experience, even if it was tainted by negative feelings coming from my decreasing happiness and the fact that it didn’t do as well as To dance above the Stars, the second fic in the series. To deal with two very contradiction emotions, loving my work, the characters, how I have painted an entire world around the characters and how I knew some people honestly loved my hard work, and then the negative feelings coming from not feeling good enough and depressed, was a difficult thing to navigate and still is when I think back to that time. It didn’t help that during the process of uploading the fic I went through grief, and I chose distraction as my coping method. I kept writing and working, the only thing I ever knew.

Our pre-order of the Shikatema zine was in full motion by this time and it was a nerve-wracking time! Mostly because of excitement but also worry. I’m super happy for my friends who were part of the zine, with whom I could share all the excitement and nervousness with. The zine ended up making good sales, which made me happy among the uploading of the long fic.

To find hope in the Universe was completed 31st of March 2021. When I uploaded the final chapter, I felt nothing. It was so weird, so spooky, to have finished a long fic and a series on top of that and not feel anything. But deep down, beneath the layer of depression, I felt great pride.

That was the emotion that broke free once the burnout left me. Pride.

I had created this empire of Shikajin, a whole alternative timeline, an alternative canon from my own head and to this day, that is my internet legacy. I love Trial of the Heart, which I wrote in 2020, but if I have to choose between ToH and this series, I will choose To love and never let go in a heartbeat.

So, even if it felt depressing and hopeless in the moment, I look now back with pride and happiness. Never forget that. Never forget that I made that.

April was a curious time. I swore to not write anything, because I had by now recognised that I was burned out and needed to rest, yet managed to scrape together three smaller fics.

The first one was another wlw-smut fic, TemaSaku this time called Another Light. I wanted to explore that part once again. I wrote it in canonverse and honestly think the fic ended up extremely nice. Perfect amount of feels and sex. It didn’t feel hard to write at all, because the setting, characters and emotions were so different from the fics I had written the last five months.

Now more interesting things lay on the horizon! A new zine, the Ino-Shika-Cho zine called Beyond a Bond had an interest check during the spring, and later the contributor application. I urged in the interest check to please give us the next gen kids, Shikadai, Inojin and Chocho – my kids and babies, and when it turned out they were going to feature, I had to apply as a writer. For this application I wrote a one shot, called It’s just hair, and I loved this spunky little story featuring the best babies that I created.

I also edited one of my tumblr fics, And then I kissed him, into a longer, better version that I later in May uploaded onto AO3. It was once again a Shikajin, a sequel of Trial of the Heart, and it was a fun little project.

Now May came and I sent in the application for the zine early, which I now am relieved I did. I am happy that I did the work for the application in April instead of May, because in May I had a few breakdowns and another grieving period, which lead to complete creative paralysis. I didn’t write a single word during May, only uploaded the two one shots I had prepared in April.

What I did do in May was to read through the Shikatema zine I had contributed to! It arrived in the mail! I was so nervous; my whole body was shaking when I opened the package right outside the post office. The zine now resides on the parade place in my little zine shrine in the bookshelf. Thank you to the mods who made this a reality!

To my great happiness my zine adventures continued as I was accepted to the Ino-Shika-Cho zine as a writer and was assigned to write my favourite characters. I felt so relieved and overjoyed, mind blown by the sheer talent among the contributors.

On the other fandom front, June didn’t continue any brighter, with stress and mental pain still having a strong grip around me, despite the very happy news that I am still so grateful for. I wrote a Yamanaka family fic which to this day hasn’t seen the light of AO3, because of negative emotions surrounding it. I turned into a complete wreck compared to me in June 2020. In June 2020 I was flourishing, I loved what I did, I loved fandom and I loved the friends I had made through Discord servers. Now I could find myself crying my eyes out over a wip not going the way I wished it would. What had happened to Bex 2021?

I was so incredibly frustrated with myself, groaning in defeat when my hands just couldn’t write. I managed to push through 6k of what I called my “emo au” – more of that later – and finish the Yamanaka fic which is still buried, and on top of that I had the zine and another fandom event, The Naruto Photo Album, to create content for. Why couldn’t I do it? Why couldn’t I find happiness in something that once was my reason for happiness?

In the end, I managed to write 15k in June. My former monthly word count used to be 30k. One could think this would turn into the end of my fic writing career, or the beginning of a longer hiatus, but I am stubborn and want to meet the expectations of the people who love my content, so I didn’t want to give up. I wanted to try. I wanted to be whoever I was before.

Funnily enough, the healing came in the shape of the most self-indulgent fic I have ever, ever written, a fic I like possessed began writing July the 1st 2021. It was nothing less than a freaking fairy tale AU, namely a Shikadai x Inojin Peter Pan AU. I can hear you laugh at the silliness of it, but this whimsical AU gave me back my love for writing. I hyper-fixated on this story quite a bit and stopped writing on everything else, something I almost never do.

Only happy boys fly ended up being 21 000 words long! I knew it was a niched story, and true to my guesses, the story has to this day very low stats. Today, two months after it was published, it has just above 100 hits and 10 kudos, so for all I know, only ten people read and liked it. I try to not care too much, since I love the story and in some way, that story saved me from going batshit insane over my emotions about writing.

At this point I had begun writing my fic from the Ino-Shika-Cho zine, finding joy in silly scenes with my favourite characters and trying to heal. The writing process was frustratingly slow, but one word at a time I got forward and as of today, the draft is done. The pre-orders are in December. At the side of the zine fic I wrote a short fluffy Shikajin story, CLEAR, a story with almost no plot, because I knew how much self-indulgence could help me.

And then, I finally began writing for real on my emo au, A gang of fallen stars, which has the first few chapters up right now! I have for the first time in six months a longer fic (if we don’t count the Peter Pan story) and it feels… good. This fic is once again a modern au, but in darker tones than my other modern au from November 2020. I honestly like what I have so far, even if I during June and July almost planned to never finish it. I am so relieved I managed to begin the upload. In September the Photo Album was released and I could show my two fics I wrote for it.

It sounds like this year has been nothing but misery, and at times it felt like it. However, there are a few fandom friends who brought light to my life when I couldn’t see it. The first ones to mention are of course my partners in crime, @notquitejiraiya and @thespookymoth. Together we created a server dedicated to Ino-Shika-Cho during the spring and it has been tons of fun with the members there! Thank you two for listening to me and for being my friends during 2021.

I also have to mention Soverel, who carefully begun taking contact through comments and likes on my twitter, and later through direct messages, and it has been a fun ride ever since. We’ve had lovely discussions which are very dear to me and your support means a lot to me. Thank you for being you and for drawing so many wonderful artworks you’ve shared with me. Haha, and for making me play Genshin Impact, even though I do it like twice a month!

Another person who has made my days so much brighter is @sugarriene. Thank you for sending me that one dm that made us chat regularly, thank you for popping up and sharing panels and your wonderful drawings with me, and for vibing head canons with me. You are a lovely person, and you make me happy.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to @yoboseyokyu for listening to me when I had to yell into the void and for making me happy with your cute posts on both twitter and tumblr.

Since September 2020, I’ve written around 195 000 words and drawn close to 35 illustrations, most of them of Shikadai and Inojin. Almost 200 000 words of Majsasaurus. I’ve created a Discord server and I’ve been part of two zines as a writer, plus a free PDF-project.

It has been a wild year. A year filled with passion for my favourite characters and ship, with the excitement that came with being part of projects and hyping them. It was a year where I learned to draw digitally, and heck what fun it was.

This also a year where I learned people can be mean to me because of what I ship and that fandom friends won’t necessarily always stay to be your friend anymore and how much it can hurt. I also learned what my limits are, and what punishment I get if I don’t listen to my own mind and rest when I have to.

It was a year, guys.

Now, onto the third Majsasaurus Year. Cheers!

And those of you, who supported me when I needed it – thank you and I love you.

#majsasaurus

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overthinkingkdrama · 5 years ago

Note

What's your top 10 all-time favourite korean dramas? :)

I don’t know what it is about “top 10″ that makes it so difficult. Top 20 would be easier. Top 5 would also be easier. Trying to figure out the order that these went in caused me more anxiety than I feel they should have, lol. My top 10 shuffles about 3 times a year, but usually consists of the same basic titles. Please keep in mind, that my “favorite” dramas of all time and the dramas I think are objectively the “best” I’ve seen have some overlap but are not necessarily the same thing.

As of September the 5th 2019 at...*looks at watch* 5:21pm in ascending order my top 10 dramas are:

10. Queen In Hyun’s Man

This is probably the single drama I’ve rewatched the most. It’s also a killer gateway drug if you’re looking to start a friend on dramas. The 45 minute episodes make it extra binge-able. There a few plot missteps and the historical plot isn’t always the most engaging aspect of the drama. However, this time-travel romance hinges a very cute central couple and a hyper-competent male lead who is very easy to root for. It also has, IMO, one of the all time great finales in Kdramas. A rare commodity.

9. Go Back Couple

I have a certain weakness for stories about estranged couples falling back in love, and this drama (which is a fairly recent entrant into the top 10) does it better than most. I think it’s the way it takes two mature characters with a lot of--often painful--history together and puts them back in a time when a few choices could have made them into very different people. I think more than anything the themes of forgiveness, self-acceptance and maturity are what made this drama truly exceptional. Also, if a drama manages to make me both ugly cry on more than one occasion as well as burst into fits of hysterical laughter I feel like it’s bested me and my stony heart and that should be acknowledged. Well played, show.

8. Coffee Prince

There’s a reason that virtually all cross-dressing romances get compared (usually unfavorably) to Coffee Prince. This drama does practically everything right from giving us a female lead who could be plausibly taken for a male to addressing questions sexuality in a (for that time and even now) daring and revolutionary manner, it’s just an exceptional show and incredibly well and thoughtfully written. The only reason that it isn’t higher on the list is because I personally don’t really care for much of the secondary couple’s arc.

7. Secret Love Affair

This drama may be divisive largely because of the themes of adultery and, for certain folks, the age gap between the leads. I don’t blame anyone for not enjoying those themes, or if they felt the drama was somewhat slow or austere. For me this is nearly a pitch perfect handling of the subject matter with a cinematic quality and intensity that is hard to find in any television, nonetheless Kdramas. The last 3-4 slots on this list tend to rotate quite a bit. For the time being piano-sex-drama wins it’s place.

6. School 2013

The fact that this drama has remained one of my uncontested favorites through the years, despite my growing aversion to high school dramas says something. It goes beyond Lee Jong Suk and Kim Woo Bin’s thugs-in-love. I cared about virtually every member of this cast, the adults and the kids. The drama just has a lot of heart, and doesn’t shy away from difficult subject matter. And yes, it’s very very gay.

5. Scarlet Heart Ryeo

There was a time when I was too self-conscious to put this drama in my top 10, and I’ve realized since then that that’s silly. Yeah, it’s super tragic. Yes, it’s even problematic is some regards. But no drama that has occupied so many of my thoughts, so many words of fan fiction, so many tears, so many meta posts and girlish meltdowns when the leads so much as talk to each other even 3 years on should rank any lower than my top five. I am and probably always will be emotionally compromised SHR trash.

4. The Master's Sun

Of my flawed favorites, this one might be one of the cheesiest and most flawed. But I just love ghosts and love stories with ghosts in them. I love silly cheesy Kdrama romcoms that turn into angsty melos half way through. Gong Hyo Jin and So Ji Sub could have sold this show to me on comedy and chemistry alone. They are OTP goals. Even if the drama is about one episode too long and there’s a bunch of stuff about the fantasy that doesn’t make any sense, I’m not even sorry. I love this damn show.

3. Reply 1988

This drama basically singlehandedly set off all my love for Korean 80′s nostalgia, slice-of-life dramas, and a whole slew of actors I will follow until I die. I’ve recently rewatched this, and even though I loved it when I first watched it I love, and furthermore respect the writing in this drama even more now. It’s just so exceptional in so many aspects. I think the biggest part being the character development and the subtlety and care that went into every single one of the character relationships that grew throughout the show. More than being romantic, it’s just such a good show about family.

2. Hello Monster

Pretty much from the first time I watched it, which was as it was airing, until this last year Hello Monster aka I Remember You was my undisputed favorite drama. It includes so many of my favorite elements. It’s a really compelling murder mystery, it boasts a whole bunch of my favorite actors giving incredible performances, it executed admirably on themes of abuse and trauma and psychopathy. The only thing that has ever really come close to pushing the same types of buttons is The Smile Has Left Your Eyes also starring Seo In Guk. But...Idk, I’m much more aware of it’s flaws now that I’ve watched thousands more episodes of dramas and seen it like 3+ times, but I still love it to death. Hehe

1. My Mister

I’ve written a review and several pieces of meta about My Mister already. So I’d direct you to check out those reviews if you’re interested in why exactly this drama is so good. I don’t want to belabor the point I’ve already made better elsewhere. But I will say, I had no expectations for this drama going in and I was surprised as hell that it grabbed me the way it did. Surprised and grateful. This drama is about as close to perfect as you’re likely to find. It delivers on every element of story, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The biggest tragedy right now is that DramaFever no longer exists, because thinking about this list I want to watch it again right this moment. [UPDATE from 2020: it’s on Viki and Netflix now! Happy watching!]

What are your top 10 favorite dramas? I’d love to hear them. Plus always looking for good recs. I hope you enjoyed my list.

Jona

#answered #top 10 lists #top 10 #queen in hyun's man #go back couple #coffee prince #secret love affair #school 2013 #scarlet heart ryeo #masters sun #reply 1988 #hello monster #i remember you #my mister

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schrijverr · 5 years ago

Text

Meeting at the Manor

The Justice League has a meeting at the Wayne Manor, but it’s interupted when the batboys have a fight upstairs and Bruce has to intervene.

On AO3

Ships: none

Warnings: none, not really

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The Tower will be unavailable for our next meeting. We will need another place for it to take place, any suggestions?” Superman said.

A murmur went through the League, most didn’t have a place and no one really wanted to go to a boring meeting, so they saw this as a good opportunity to skip. Batman noticed what was going on and glared as he grudgingly said: “If there is no other way we can use the manor.”

An excited ripple went through the group, everyone knew Batmans strict no Meta-Humans in Gotham policy. Batman noticed their thought train as well and snapped: “Meetings are vital to success, but I do not enjoy inviting you to my city. You will arrive for the meeting and leave right after, anyone who stays longer than necessary will be chased out” a pause, “with violence.”

Most swallowed, but Superman just grinned and said: “Thank you, Batman.”

Batman grunted in acknowledgement, but that was it. He was then quick to leave the meeting, a small thunder cloud still above his head.

Superman watched him leave and shook his head, Bruce would never not be anti-social.

They arrived in the Batcave and marveled at the gigantic dinosaur and penny, but they didn’t have time to look at more stuff, because soon there were clothes in their faces. Batman stood in the middle and lights went out. He said: “Put those on, lets go upstairs.”

They looked to the clothes in their hands, they were normal civilian clothes. They looked at each other before shrugging and putting them on. They followed Batman upstairs, all tried to see as much of the Batcave as possible, but the lights were out and the walk was short. Batman wanted to keep his secrets.

They entered the Manor and looked in awe, technically they knew Batman was Bruce Wayne and a billionaire, but this made it a bit more real, even seeing Batman without cowl in a suit was weird even though there were tons of pictures of him in a suit and without a cowl. He led them through a few halls to a big dining hall. They weren’t dining, but it served their purpose. They took place at the table and Superman started the meeting.

They were 30 minutes in and it was a normal meeting so far. People had gotten over their awe and were now participating in the meeting and the strangest thing that had happened was a butler who had brought them some refreshments, to whom Batman had, honest to God, smiled as he thanked him.

They had just reached the 40 minutes mark when it happened. A scream was heard from upstairs, followed by someone yelling: “Demon Spawn, I swear I am this close.”

There was a muffled reply and then bullet shots echoed through the hall. Multiple Members had sprung up from their chairs, ready to help. But Batman held his hand up as he sighed. He seemed to have aged a couple of years in the last few seconds. He cocked his head and listened again, the League listened with him. Another voice yelled: “Jason, we talked about shooting siblings!”

The first voice yelled back: “He started it, besides it were rubber bullets, don’t get your panties in a twist, Dick.”

A younger, but offended voice could now be heard as well: “I did not start this, Todd. I just came into your room, you should have paid attention, then you wouldn’t have been scared.”

No one, but Superman could hear the tired voice saying: “He does have a point, Jason.”

But all could hear the reply: “Don’t get involved, replacement!”

The second voice, who had been called Dick, said: “Guys, keep it down. We promised B.”

“I don’t give a shit!”

It was quiet for a few moments after that. Everyone turned to Batman who just put his head in his hands and said: “Just don’t.”

Most were thorn between curiosity and giving Batman privacy, but before they could make a decision on which to act when an explosion was heard. Batman looked ready to murder someone when he suddenly stood up from his chair and marched to the door. He threw it open, on the other side was a gigantic stair case. He yelled: “Boys, come right here and tell me what the fuck is going on!”

Most shared a few looks before looking at the spectacle that was unfolding in front of them. They could hear running and then four black haired boys appeared on top of the staircase. The smallest and the one with a white streak in his hair were covered in residue of an explosion, all were looking a bit guilty.

The youngest said: “Todd started it, father.”

Immediately the other explosion kid, who they assumed was Todd, gaped at the smaller one and exclaimed: “I didn’t start shit, you were to one sneaking around, Demon Spawn!”

Batman sighed again and the League would feel sorry for him if it weren’t for the sudden appearance of children who had called Batman father and all looked very similar to Bruce. I mean, they knew, but it’s hadn’t really sunk in that Bruce Wayne WAS Batman and what that meant child-wise. Batman tiredly said: “Jason we talked about using violence in arguments and property destruction. Damian, why were you Jasons room?”

The youngest, now identified as Damian looked away. A zombie like kid put up his hand and said: “If you know can we go?”

Batman nodded and the kid opened his mouth. Instantly he was taken down by the two guilty parties, Batman started waked towards to tear them apart, but the oldest was quicker. He started to pull Damian off and while he was doing that Batman had time to free the zombie kid from Jason. He asked: “What were you going to say, Tim?” while he glared at Damian and Jason.

Both just shrugged and looked away. That scared Flash and Green Lantern a lot, because who could be nonchalant under the Batglare?

The zombie kid, or Tim as Batman had called him, said: “Damian was looking for some soft stuff for his new kittens and scared Jason, who reacted. Oh and speaking about proper destruction. How much did you value the painting with the three dogs running in the fields?”

Batman rubbed his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked at the two who had been fighting with a calculating look. He then said with a hint of finality: “You two have to clean the Batcave, together. And the hallway.”

Both squawked and started to protest, but it only angered Batman more. He said: “Dick, get handcuffs. They are doing this very much together.”

The oldest smiled wickedly and grabbed handcuffs from the back of his belt. Batman gave him a look and he shrugged: “I almost have to go to work.”

Batman excepted that and cuffed the two protesting boys together. He gave them a stern look and said: “I’ll know.”

Both boys swallowed. Batman turned around and walked back to the dining room. They could see the oldest laughing at his brothers before the two shared a look and jumped him together, then the door closed. Batman shook his head and said: “Sorry about that. I hoped that all could find something to do, but of course those four had to stay behind.”

It was quiet then Flash yelled: “Wait, there are more!”

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sobdasha · 5 years ago

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some (very long) Hiro metas and a Kisa-n-Tohru tangent

seeing the "Hiro is a brat!" "Hiro just has trauma!" debate has made me ponder…

Like, not to compare trauma and argue who had what worse and invalidate suffering, but my immediate reaction was kind of, "Wait, what? I mean, okay, I guess Hiro did just have some trauma re: Kisa, but like, overall…???"

So it's time for some scrutiny!

I’mma talk myself through this in a post.

Here we have Hiro. He's a Souma, which is pretty damn traumatic in its own right, and possessed by a Zodiac spirit, which is even worse. He's part of an elite inner circle, privileged with status and wealth; but on the flip side, there's still people in the family who look down on the Zodiac, and Hiro's looking at a future of isolation (afraid of looking like a monster, afraid to betray the family secret, not properly free to pick his own job, may or may not be able to live outside the estate, love life is gonna be a disaster when puberty hits). And Akito, whom the possessed part of him loves deeply and desperately, tends to weaponize his own love and withhold it when someone displeases him, or turn hurtful when someone needs punishment.

Okay, so that's bad. But Hiro shares that with all of the Zodiac members, that's just the baseline trauma, and there's some compounding issues at play that Hiro lacks:

- Hiro, as the Sheep, isn't especially hated. Kyou, for instance, has a bad attitude that's partly due to the entire clan ragging on him for being a horrible abomination of a monster, comparing him unfavorably to Idealized Yuki, and telling him he's gonna be locked up in a one-room house on the estate to suffer out his life--and that's not even counting how being the Cat affected how his immediate family treated him. Haru, as the Ox, got ~harmlessly teased~ about being a big dumb slow stupid ox by the family so much that he started flipping over to a Black personality to violently vent his feelings.

- Hiro's family life is, as far as I can tell, actually ideal. His parents didn't reject him (Momiji, Kyou re: his sperm donor, Rin), split up over him (I suspect this is what happened for Kagura, because her parents argued a lot when she was young, and I wonder about the fact that Ritsu's dad isn't at the onsen? And there's no mention of Kisa's dad? But then again, we're told repeatedly that Yuki and Ayame have a father and he lives in the same house as their mother and I've never seen proof of this man's existence), be coolly indifferent to him (Ayame after Yuki was born and he got off the hook but honestly I think that was a blessing to him, Yuki, Hatori), or get extremely overprotective (Kyou re: his mom, I'd argue this is partly why Ritsu's mom is so stressed out, and also I'd argue this may be why Kisa's mom hits her limit). In fact, Hiro's the only one who we can definitely say has two parents, who live together, and have a good relationship, and actively enjoy nurturing their child. Also Satsuki's completely adorkable. (This puts strain on Hiro in other ways, lol, but at least he shares that feeling with his dad.)

- Hiro, as the Sheep, probably doesn't particularly stand out. I'm guessing his hair color isn't particularly notable? So he probably hasn't been singled out for teasing from people who don't even know about the curse, like Kyou and Haru and Kisa. (No one's not-thirsty enough to have teased Ayame or Yuki for their looks, I'm pretty sure, and Momiji can pull the biracial card, even if that wouldn't stop people, and went to international school, where people probably found other ways to pick on you.)

So where, for Hiro, does his particular extremely combative, condescending, scathing, sarcastic attitude come from?

That's not to say none of those things above could be factors. It's extremely possible that the family found dumb things to say to him because, y'know, clearly it's impossible to hurt a kid's feelings if you're arrogant enough about it. And like Kyouko says, you can't really judge someone's family situation based on their behavior, and vice versa. I'd expect Hiro to be super well-adjusted, coming from a loving nuclear family, but kids are people and they will turn out how they turn out both because of and in spite of how they're raised. And maybe Hiro's experienced some bullying about whatever, and his instant sharp-tongued retorts became the default in response to that. Hiro didn't tell us any of this, but who knows!

Or maybe Hiro's difficult phase is just a phase. Maybe that's how all his classmates talk to each other?? I can easily see that being a thing, especially with boys, both friendly with friends or aggressive with people you want to treat badly, and maybe Hiro's so much in the habit of it that he doesn't think first (and doesn't care enough about Tohru and her feelings to exercise a little self-control). Like this post that points out how it's a Definite Thing that part of Hiro's lording-little-brat arrogance is because he's in his final year of elementary school and he's everyone's senpai and that sort of thing is indulged because adults know he'll get cruelly humbled next year when he's a baby kouhai.

But I think maybe, what's most relevant with Hiro, is that because of his lack of obvious outside factors to fight against for personal growth, his growing pains as a character are internal. He's fighting against himself. AKA, it's only logical that he's a tiny little shit and his character arc is about growing into someone who isn't a jerkface. Which can be just as difficult and traumatic as standing up to your parents, or Akito, or society, or your classmates. Hiro has to assert himself against himself, and himself won't punch him in the face or lock him in his room but it's so easy to just put the blame elsewhere and let himself get away with it and give him a pass and stop trying to improve.

Now I wanna analyze the timeline!

Aside from a few select Zodiac members, Akito hasn't really done anything super terrible that we've heard about until Hiro's in 3rd grade. That's when Hatori and Kana ask to get married, and Hatori gets injured. Akito has been a jerk before, and Akito is very clearly in favor of a hierarchy that puts God at the top getting all the love. But Shigure and Ayame have talked about their sexcapades with no issue, and Kagura's always going on about her undying love for and future marriage with Kyou, and this is the first incident that says those things aren't allowed.

Sometime not terribly long after that, Shigure gets kicked out of the Main House. This ramps up Akito's hatred of women, though Hiro wouldn't know the betrayal behind it and might not have a clue about Akito's vendetta.

Right about the time Hiro starts 6th grade, he feels compelled to tell Akito that he has feelings for Kisa. (I'm pulling this from the Collector's Edition timeline. In the actual story I keep seeing the English being like "I always thought Hiro hated me / I thought Hiro hated me for a long time" with Kisa then immediately turning around and saying "We were bffs all through my elementary school years / Hiro always played with me until this year", so I heavily suspect the translators keep getting a modifier in the wrong place or something because wtf.) Akito kicks Kisa's ass and Kisa takes two weeks to heal. (This isn't Akito's fault. It's also not Kisa's fault, obviously, because Hiro didn't even tell her yet that he liked her. So that means it's all Hiro's fault.) Hiro's horrified, because he could have had an idea this would be bad but he probably didn't expect it to all be taken out on Kisa. After all, Hatori got hurt, not Kana, and Rin hasn't been pushed out a window yet.

Hiro abruptly cuts off his interaction with Kisa, to protect her from getting punished by Akito again. Kisa goes back to 7th grade, where she's just transitioned from Top Of The Heap Senpai and Just A Child So We Can Let Things Slide to Lowly Kouhai Who Needs To Learn Proper Social Behaviors, and she's being bullied, and her bff won't talk to her, and her Talking Things Out skills are having zero effect, so she just stops talking, and now her mom is upset, and then she starts skipping school, and now her mom is really upset. And Hiro was probably unaware of a lot of this, until it got really bad several months in, since he stopped seeing his bff.

And Hiro's agonizing and worrying about it, when suddenly Tohru swoops in and magically saves the day, bringing hope where there was none and erasing suffering, right when Hiro was probably nerving himself up to try to help somehow without bringing Akito's wrath back down on Kisa.

Oh I wanna have a tangent about Kisa!

Timeline again, but from Kisa's point of view:

Kisa and Hiro are only a year apart, so they've always been super close. Hiro is her bff.

Now Kisa is starting 7th grade.

Kisa does something Bad. It's not clear what, but it's Bad Enough to make Akito hate her and also seriously beat her up, so that's Pretty Bad.

Actually it's Really Very Bad, because after that Hiro hates her too.

Anyway Kisa's starting 7th grade! Yay! New school, new girls, new pressures. In my personal experience, middle school is when girls are at their nastiest (after they hit high school, they start to chill out. Obviously you still get jerks, because people, but there was a little more "live and let live" attitude), so I always assume this is part of the problem. Kisa's classmates start to bully her. Kisa tries out her conflict resolution skills, like the adult she's expected to be becoming, and it only causes the situation to escalate. Her self-esteem has already had the crap kicked out of it, and hasn't healed in 2+ weeks. Her bff hates her and won't talk to her.

And then Kisa just gives up without telling anyone why.

Tohru's got a very valid point, that it's hard to talk about the things that actually bother you. It's hard to ask for help. I can complain all day long about little things, but I can't put big issues into words without spontaneously bawling? Which is really fricken embarrassing???

But I think the reason Tohru strikes such a chord with Kisa, and is able to instantly win her over, is because she talks with such quiet feeling about being scared her mom wouldn't love her anymore. Because that feeling was very, very real for Tohru--grounded in the fact that Kyouko actually did abandon her once.

And Kisa recognized that, and realized that Tohru--unlike everyone else--actually got it, because that's exactly what Kisa's feeling. Because Kisa's gotten along with her mother very well all her life, if what we see of her with Hiro is any indication. Except that suddenly Akito hates her. Suddenly Hiro hates her. It's a very real fear, once Kisa's mom starts getting stressed about the not-talking, that Kisa's mom is going to stop loving her just like everyone else is suddenly doing. Because that's literally what's happening to Kisa.

Tohru's not just a warm, loving, accepting, motherly presence. Tohru's someone who can very viscerally relate to Kisa's terror. Of course Kisa clings to her.

Back to Hiro though!

I think we could also stand to apply to Hiro the tried-and-true, "The things you hate most in other people are the things you hate most about yourself," because it is both true in general and a definite thing Fruits Basket does (for a quick example, see Yuki saying he hates dependent people [while Kyou's like "that's you tho"] and Rin hating Yuki [because he's dependent on Haru the way she is guiltly dependent on Haru]).

I went to rewatch the episode to look at all the specific things Hiro says about Tohru and other people, only to realize the obvious flaw that like everything he says is an insult and there's too much there for me to unpack here, so I chose just a few statements that were really specifically phrased (I can't stand people who X).

I can't stand people who let themselves be pushed around so easily

Hiro also talks a couple times about Tohru having no sense of identity or agency, or not having thoughts of her own. So this reveals Hiro's inner struggle with his own complacency. He's got that bond with Akito, he's got a life that's at least partly set in stone already for him, and he's not doing anything to fight it. He didn't hide his feelings for Kisa from Akito, and then when Kisa got hurt Hiro never told her why ("It's my fault because I told Akito I like you and that made him mad, it's nothing you did") and never called Akito out on it (he can't blame Akito but when he talks about it you can tell he also knows he should blame Akito because Hiro can figure out that that was wrong. Maybe because, unlike so many others of the Zodiac, he was raised in a sensible and loving family and he knows that Akito's behavior isn't normal, isn't right, isn't acceptable).

This is probably why, even while using "I'm just a kid" to get away with his behavior, he's so frustrated with not being an adult. Because, to him, an adult wouldn't just let these things happen. He's wrong, on one hand, but on the other hand the maturity that will come with his personal growth will let him be the kind of adult he envisions.

I can't stand inconsiderate people

Hiro knows he's a jerk. He knows his snappy retorts piss people off--he enjoys that. He's super jealous about Tohru and doesn't care about her feelings, and him taking his anger out on Tohru has been hurting Kisa's feelings and that hasn't caused Hiro to check himself yet either.

He knows this, he hates this, he's not ready to deal with it yet and exercise self-control, so he's the niceness police about other people being rude.

(I think it's interesting that, when Hiro starts maturing, even though he still has that tendency to rudeness, there's also a hint that it will one day turn into a frankness that isn't just "a blunt insult is the same as honesty right?" That time when Hiro realizes that Kyou and Tohru have Feelings and he's like "Um, wait, is that okay? Are we just not going to talk about the fact that Kyou is going to be locked up alone in a room for the rest of his life???" He asks the tough questions lol. I won't give him credit for bringing up Tohru's dad issues because he was just doing that to be a dick, there was zero maturity there. In another world, though, he would've been the only other person besides Kyou [who already knew the details] to think to question Tohru about it.)

People who whine about their situation while accepting no responsibility are so irritating

Again...Hiro hates the whole situation that happened with Kisa, and hates his part in it, and didn't do anything to fix it before Tohru came along. And even then, he still hasn't fessed up to Kisa about the real circumstances. He knows he owes Kisa that, and he hasn't taken responsibility yet.

This ties into the complacency issue, but with the added fact that Hiro's said it's shitty and unfair but still is going along with it without trying to stop it. So he's an extra jerk, but he still hasn't stepped up yet.

I think maybe this is why Tohru's speech touches him, even after he just called her out on magical Mary Sue emotional healing powers. He's been nothing but his worst self around Tohru--bad enough that it's not only just Tohru but Kisa he's been upsetting as well--he's been bratty and insulting and pushed Tohru around and stolen her property and treated her like shit and--

And instead of rolling her eyes, or getting fed up and firing back, or any other response that show her low expectations for Hiro…

Tohru just stands there and says it's brave, to admit you have flaws, and that she has faith that he can and will make good on his responsibilities. Even though nothing at all that Hiro's done--and he's very well aware of this--gives any indication that he would even try. Let alone succeed.

The way that Hiro, when people call him a brat, tends to then embrace it and get even brattier--this makes me think he's the kind of kid who lives down to people's expectations, rather than trying to prove them wrong. So when Tohru without hesitation sets the bar high like that, and it pisses Hiro off--

He's gonna show you, stupid woman. You think he's a prince? You're gonna be floored at the kind of prince he'll be.

(Eventually. Much later.)

#sobdasha fic adjacent #fruits basket #me getting ready to hit post: is it too late to go back in a put a sheeple joke in the last section #it's probably to late to squeeze in a sheeple joke #well anyway #Hiro wants to be a stubborn and independent ram #but he's pissed that he acts like a mindless sheep instead

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telesthisia · 5 years ago

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(No reblogs! Make a new post please!)

|| The Basics ||

Name: Zelda of Hyrule Nickname(s): Zel, Zellie, Elle, Ellie Age: 19 Species: Human or well Hylian

|| Personal ||

Religious Belief: The three golden goddess + Hylia but... she’s known as the forgotten goddess in her timeline since certain legends faded away from the public’s knowledge but not at all the royal family’s. Sins: Lust / Greed / Gluttony / Sloth / Pride / Envy / Wrath Virtues: Chastity / Charity / Diligence / Humility / Kindness / Patience /Justice Primary Goals In Life: To create a brighter future for her people for generations on end, leading to the eventually famed Golden Age before the Hero of Time’s downfall... though Hyrule has recovered once she’s born there are still remnants of ruin from that era as such she wants to protect her people as well as make Hyrule safer, while she doesn’t do it within her lifetime because limited lifespan her dream does still come true years later aka LOZ and LOZ 2 don’t be fooled by the plot, Hyrule was in its prime during those games! Languages Known: Hylian Secrets: Well... it’s no secret among her staff but outside the castle, she keeps her poor health (heart condition and undiagnosed rare anemia problem) and near lack of magical stamina a secret since that can put her at a pretty bad disadvantage. She has plenty of enemies, namely those who align themselves with Ganon and the resurrection of him is still possible provided the person is a powerful mage with knowledge of doing that sort of stuff in the first place. And then there’s also court drama she has to worry about but that’s for another long lengthy headcanon post I should have out... soon... ish. Also while obvious with partners and in a meta sense and if you’re super observant but her guise Elle is, in fact, her, the princess of Hyrule so... ye... Quirks: Her birthmark of the Triforce is... certainly unique. But if we’re talking mannerism rather than physical then allow me to just ramble because hoo boy! When nervous or worked up, she often tucks her stray hairs behind her ears, even when she’s not feeling those emotions she’s always fiddling around with it (in her royal wear) often flipping it out of her face or trying to make it look a little neater. She has the Pendant of Courage, a gift from Link and often clutches on it when she feels the need to summon her courage if she’s feeling not that brave, often trying to recall Link’s courage during his many adventures. When using any of her PSI powers she tends to have a nose bleed, as such, she often carries around a handkerchief and tries to cover it up before going off somewhere to stop the bleeding. When laughing, she likes to hold her smile behind her hand... and when yawning she tries to cover her mouth. SHE IS THE WORST COOK TO EVER EXIST holy crap but can make mean cookies. When flirting (more like embarrassed flirting pft) she looks away to the side and twirls her hair around her finger trying to hide her red cheeks. Her romantic out view on life stems from the fact that she was constantly surrounded by death and history and art so there’s morbid beauty in the melancholy... this girl gets excited over Friday the 13th and samhain ok like... there’s a lot to unpack with that. THERE’S MORE BUT I’VE RAMBLED FAR ENOUGH!!! Savvies: Well... she bakes pretty good cookies BUT UH!!! YEAH she’s pretty proficient with her light magic! While she can’t do the amazing things other Zeldas can do because of limitations she’s not someone you would want to mess around with. She’s learned to work around those limitations and has great control over her powers. On top of that, she somehow knows how to use a crossbow so :’) while not the light arrows (she’s too weak to wield a bow) and it was a lucky shot she at least knows enough about how it works to fire it in the first place. She reads a lot, even as a kid she’d sneak off to the library to read the history about Hyrule or read maps and well she’s pretty knowledgable about her nation as a whole! And thanks to sneaking out she knows how to sneak past the guards and knows all of the secret passages in her castle like the back of her hand! Can’t forget her amazing political insight and ability to think outside the box! She has pretty innovative ideas for her times esp when concerning the common folk, but sometimes they don’t always go through because well... nobles.

|| Physical ||

Height: 5′0″ Weight: you never ask a lady her weight! >:0 Scars/Birthmarks: Has a cat scratch scar on her right palm which is also where the triforce is located! Abilities/Powers: Light magic, as the descendant of the mortal goddess she has been blessed with the Light Force. On top of that she’s come from a line of sages and has the Triforce of Wisdom so as you expect she has so much magic. She can heal, bless your weapons, smite away darkness, sense darkness (As a matter of fact she’s pretty sensitive to it and it makes her lowkey sick if it’s too much) and then there’s her PSI abilities which includes clairvoyance and telepathy! And then... her connection to the spirit realm. Restrictions: AHAHAHA SO MUCH, she’s a glass cannon which is why she’s so, so, so easy to kidnap in the first place. She may put up a fight but not for long, as such her tactics are always to make a distraction and then escape. But she has poor stamina and just a poor heart, she can’t really overexert herself without a) causing pain and b) passing the hell out which was common in her younger days. Using magic takes up a lot of stamina as shown in ALTTP esp with the more powerful spells, you need an amazing reserve to cast all of that and sadly while she has good control she doesn’t have good reserves. SOOOOOOO to fix this she always has to take medicine of magic. Mana blockage is a thing that can happen, more often than she’d like to admit which causes pain once again and makes using magic pretty hard. Now onto her telepathy and clairvoyance. While they sound useful there are restrictions on those as well, for one with telepathy while she can contact anyone so long as she finds their signature subconscious she doesn’t have to worry about distance too much so long as they are within her range which is... maybe more than 200 meters? I need to think about the range more because there are certain places where she can reach you and cannot but there’s def a range limit. She tends to get nosebleeds and headaches from using telepathy. Her clairvoyance is where she can see bits of the future, but they are very vague and hard to decipher and there’s always a chance of the future changing or not changing. As for her connection to the spirit realm, pretty much she can see dead people... in her dreams and there’s no way of shutting this power off she’s gotta deal with the horrors that is this realm. Now seeing spirits isn’t anything new in LOZ but contact to the spirit realm is something that’s implied that only royal family members can do... as implied by Zelda’s words in BOTW where she said her mom (or grandma??) could hear the voices of the spirit realm.

|| Favorites ||

Favourite Drink: Rose tea Favourite Pizza Topping: Basil... Favourite Color: Blue! Favourite Music Genre: She pretty much likes slow and relaxing music, piano comes to mind but *kayne shrug* Favourite Book Genre: Romance aHEM as a princess she doesn’t have time to read cheesy romance novels and fantasize about the day where someone riding on a white horse will sweep her off her feet and they ride off into the sunset never having to bear the burden of her heritage and responsibilities hahaha..... but history and folklore. She likes tragic stories that have bittersweet endings. Favourite Movie Genre: Fantasy, tragic tales, suspense, romance flicks Favourite Season: Spring Favourite Butt Type:

Favourite Swear Word: "Goodness me!” Favourite Scent: Forest scent, the fields, that ancient scent you smell when visiting old places, the smell of book pages Favourite Quote: “Time has stopped for me long ago.”

|| Fun Stuff ||

Bottom or Top:

Sings In The Shower: Yes!!! Well... rose soaked bathwater because she’s spoiled stupid by her castle staff and Impa but she’ll hum a tune here and there! Likes Bad Puns: Of course! She has the playfully innocent attitude so puns is right up her alley! Morality: Lawful / Neutral / Chaotic / Good / Gray / Evil Build: Slender / Scrawny / Bony / Fit / Athletic / Herculean / Babyfat / Pudgy / Obese / Other. Favourite Food: APPLES!!! Namely baked apples and more importantly apple strudel! Her nation is famous for having delicious apples that can help cure fatigue and even rise up stamina a bit! She’s very much a follower of “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” esp if that doctor keeps giving her bitter medicines. “Boss�� Theme Music : Excuse me for using a sad track... but... sAD MUSIC HONESTLY SHE’S DEPRESSION PERSONIFIED!! It reflects her hidden melancholy for like everything. I feel like if you have to fight her as a boss it’ll be more of a beautifully sad moment than something epic like that boss fight with puppet zelda which slaps honestly. Their Opinion On The Mun: “Does she thrive on my pain?”

Was tagged by: no one

Tag 15 People: wHO EVER WANTS TO DO THIS

#OK THIS TOOK LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE #because i ramble so much listen i have a lot of headcanons #dash games.#about.

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codenamed-queenie · 6 years ago

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ohhhh i just blew my own mind. consider this: six of crows batfam au. not sure how it'd work but they're fully qualified and the banter would be insane.

You just blew my mind too, anon! 😲

This is a really great idea, and I think we need to get fic writers and artists on this ASAP! I swear not all my headcanons are gonna be this long, but here’s just my take on what this would look like:

Barbara Gordon: She and her father traveled to Gotham to make their fortune after Barbara’s mother passed away, and the family farm went under. A mob boss calling himself the Joker spotted a pair of easy marks and moved in. Barbara’s father was killed, and Barbara herself took a bullet to the leg. She walks with a permanent limp now, and relies on a weighted cane topped with a pair of bat wings.

Vowing revenge on the Joker, Barbara joined a Gotham City gang called the Signals (Bat signal? Eh? Eh? Yeah, I feel like I should come up with a better name…) and quickly rose through the ranks. She always keeps her face hidden behind a masquerade mask, just in case Joker or any of his people might recognize her (he’d know her face, but not her name), and the act itself becomes a local legend. People can’t decide why she hides her face, and it only adds to her mystique. Especially once she starts going by the moniker ‘Oracle’. As in, ‘All-seeing’. Once she was powerful enough amongst Gotham’s criminal community, she formed her own inner circle within the Signals starting with a sharpshooting street kid she recruited and a Suli acrobat she rescued from a brothel.

Jason Todd: A stray kid from the streets of Gotham. He knows his way around a gun, and has a mind almost as sharp as his wit. After falling into heavy debt with Joker’s gang, he resorted to thievery, and even tried to steal Barbara’s cane to earn the money he needed. He almost got away with it too, but Barbara caught him in the act, and offered him a job. Work for her, and the Signals would have his back. Turn down the generous offer, and she’d kill him. Jason, surprisingly, agreed.

Dick Grayson: Grew up in a family of Suli acrobats, performing all over the world. One day, he and his little sister Cassandra were kidnapped from their family’s tent, and sold into slavery in Gotham, far away from their home. Dick went to a brothel, and Cassandra was sold elsewhere. One day, he ran into Barbara on one of her trips to collect protection money from the brothel’s owner, Tony Zucco, and impressed her with his stealth and ability to read people. (Much like Inej’s backstory in SOC) Barbara bought Dick from Zucco, and recruited him into the Signals, giving him the choice to join or walk away freely (deciding that the man had suffered enough.) Dick decided to join up, on the condition that Barbara help him find his little sister. Barbara agreed, and took him on as her right hand man and personal spy. On the streets, he’s known as the Nightwing, a name that earns almost as much fear and respect as ‘Barbara Gordon–the All-seeing Oracle’. Dick has since fallen head-over-heels for her, but Barbara’s only loves are money and revenge. (Or, at least, that’s what she tells herself…)

The trio received a tip on a job from Councilman Dent. A dangerous endeavor involving a highly-addictive drug that can supposedly grant humans ‘meta powers’ like the Grisha, and rescuing the only man who knows how to make it from the clutches of the Al Ghul clan. The man’s name? Bruce Wayne. The score? Thirty Million Dollars. The stakes are high; no one has ever crossed the Al Ghuls and survived. But if they do nothing, the metagene drug will be released on the world–and worst of all, they won’t get paid.

But first, they need to put together a good crew. Barbara’s first choice is

Stephanie Brown: A bright and bubbly Grisha Heartrender (The SOC equivalent of a metahuman with the ability to manipulate the human body at a molecular level) with an enormous love for waffles. (I thought Steph and Nina were way to similar to overlook!) She works for the Signals as a healer and assassin, but relies on the gang for protection. Currently, she’s on the run from the Al Ghuls–vicious Grisha killers who believe that Grisha power needs to be controlled or else wiped off the face of the earth. She had a run-in with one of them, but managed to escape…landing squarely in the Signals’ cross-hairs. Barbara has been hiding her, and the two share a strained relationship. Stephanie only agrees to help on one condition: her friend/partner, Duke Thomas, gets safe passage away from Gotham.

Duke Thomas: Duke wasn’t sure how he ended up in this situation. One moment, he’s living a quiet, normal life, and the next thing he knows, the mob leader Joker is extorting his family for everything they own. After the mobster kills his parents, Duke is left adrift on the streets of Gotham, never a safe place to be when you’re a lone Grisha. He was found and picked up by Stephanie Brown, and together, they do odd jobs for the Signals in exchange for shelter from the other gangs. All he wants is to get out of Gotham, but he’s willing to see one more job through if it means finally escaping this cursed city.

With the two Grisha on board, Barbara, Dick and Jason have one more potential recruit to pick up:

Timothy Drake: As the Signals’ best demolitions expert and chemist, Tim makes a valuable asset. But as the estranged ward of Councilman Dent, he makes even more valuable collateral. After running away from his legal guardian, Tim tried to make it on his own in the streets and alleyways of Gotham. He lasted about a day and a half, before he was cornered by a pack of thugs working for the Joker. Lucky for him, Jason and Dick were both in the neighborhood, and managed to fend off the attackers. They took the younger boy under their wings (after voting on whether or not to take him for everything he owned. Dick voted ‘no’. Jason voted ‘maybe’.) Barbara recognized him immediately, and decided to keep him around. Only so she’d have something on Dent. Not because she developed a soft spot for the wide-eyed little society brat. No. Not at all…

The last member of the crew arrives a bit later, but he proves to be every bit as valuable:

Damian Al Ghul: The heir to the Al Ghul clan, Damian was cast out of the family for showing mercy to a Grisha he’d been hunting in Gotham. Thanks to his quick thinking, Stephanie was able to get away. But when she turned him over to the police, he was unceremoniously thrown in prison. His family stripped him of his assassin rank, and essentially disowned him. But no walls could hold the pint-sized Al Ghul for long, and he escaped with a bitter mission to take revenge on the blonde Grisha. However, he seriously underestimated the people backing her up, and was beaten quickly. Barbara recognized a valuable asset when she saw one–an ‘in’ with the Al Ghuls, if you will–and offered him a deal. Run this one job against his family, and he’d have his pardon and safe passage to anywhere his heart desired.

But unbeknownst to the Signals, they aren’t the only gang after Mr. Wayne and the valuable information he holds. The Black Sirens, the Rogues and the Owl Court are all gunning for the same prize. Plus one more mysterious player…

Just kidding. It’s:

Cassandra Cain-Grayson: Raised in a Suli acrobat troupe, she and her brother Dick were kidnapped and separated. Cassandra was sold to the notorious Al Ghul family, and forced to begin training as one of their assassins. She has been tasked with protecting Bruce Wayne and his secrets with her life. If she can manage to destroy the thieves who are out to steal him, the head of the family, Ra’s Al Ghul, will grant her her freedom. And at last she will be able to seek out her brother and reunite them with their parents…

Aaaand, there you have it! I totally agree with you, anon, that the banter would be absolutely golden. You’d have gems straight out of the book, like:

Barbara: “Stephanie, love, always hit where the mark isn’t looking.”

Tim: “Who’s mark?”

Duke: “You have no finesse! No technique!”

Jason: “Sure I do. I practice the art of ‘pull his shirt over his head and punch till you see blood’.”

Steph [smirking]: “I can hear the change in Barbara’s breathing whenever she looks at you.”

Dick: “You…you can?”

Steph: “Mm-hmm. It catches every time, like she’s never seen you before.”

Jason: “ Usually people don’t start hating each other until a week into the job, but you two have a head start.”

[Steph and Damian glare at each other]

Duke: “She’s going to get us all killed!”

Dick: “Nah. Statistically, she’ll only get some of us killed.”

Barbara: “Who’d deny a poor cripple her cane?”

Damian: “If the cripple is you, then any man with sense.”

Steph: “ If any of you survive, make sure I have an open casket. The world deserves a few more moments with this face.”

Jason: “If the Joker kills us all, I’m going to get Tim’s ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost.”

Barbara: “ I’ll just hire Damian’s ghost to kick your ghost’s ass.”

Damian: “ My ghost won’t associate with your ghost.”

Honestly, this was too fun. Maybe I should write a fic on this??? 🤔

Btw, if any of you haven’t read the book yet, definitely give it a try! You won’t regret it!

#batfam #ask queenie #six of crows #leigh bardugo #batfamily #grishaverse #anon #this was way too fun #i could write this as a fic #if i had more time #to work on my current one #six of crows au

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arsenicpanda · 5 years ago

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M, AD, AF, AK!

Nice choices, I’m going to convert them into number, and then let’s go!

13/M. Has a ship ever broken your heart?

Constantly. There’s a roughly 50% chance that, in a show where at least one person dies, one or both members of my ship will die. It just...it just KEEPS HAPPENING, my god. But a special shout out to Chiaki/Makoto from The Girl Who Leapt Through Time for ripping my heart out and stomping on it even though they both live. Like my HEART, how DARE they.

30/AD. Name a couple of fandoms in which you have no ships.

I generally only actively seek out fandom stuff when I have a ship because searching for gen stuff is pretty futile, but it happens occasionally. Newsies is the only one I can think of off the top of my head; I just want to read about Spot Conlon without shipping him with anyone (canon character or OC, it doesn’t matter), but that, like, never happens. It did happen once though, in the excellent fic In New York about how he joined Tammany Hall and whatnot.

32/AF. Share five must-read fics.

Ok, are we talking across all fandoms or across Riverdale fandom? Fuck it, I’ll do both, with the Riverdale choice that would normally be in the multi-fandom part moved to the Riverdale section.

Multi-Fandom:

1. Ambivalence by DreamScene (Code Geass) - An excellent look at a Shirley Lives AU. It’s dark, it’s interesting, it’s a good character piece, the Lelouch/Shirley interactions are perfect in every way, and its got some nice smut at the end. It’s a little screwy with the timeline, but it’s so good in every other respect that I do not care.

2. Ascendant by Samurai 101 (Naruto) - A very, very interesting Itachi time travel fic with a great and very unique take on time travel in general. It really dives into clan politics and the difference in Itachi as a child and Itachi as an adult. And the looming threat of Madara is so, so great. Every side character is so fleshed out and real, and I love it. Let it be known that I normally don’t like Itachi, but I really like him in this. He’s not some perfect, all-wise ninja god; he’s a fuck up of a teenager and a kid trying his best, and he’s actually relatable.

3. Wanted It To Be a Game by SkylaDoragano (Persona 4) - An excellent role reversal fic with Adachi and Yu (well, more P4 Protagonist than Yu as we know him). It really follows the domino effect of switching their roles out in terms of who lives and who dies and who joins the party in what roles. It’s so interesting to see the domino effects of it all. It really gets into the psychology of different characters, and everyone’s dynamics are fantastic, with a special shout out to Adachi and Saki’s friendship. Seriously, if you like Adachi, this is a must-read.

4. 365 Days of Winter by zauberer_sirin (Durarara!!) - This is the perfect Izaya/Namie fic. Like, their dynamic is so, so on point, and watching them fall in love when they really would rather not is such a delight. I love the monthly format, and I love Izaya’s subtle jealousy, and I love how they never even explicitly confess their feelings. It’s all so them, and I love it.

5. Executive Reform by karanguni (Final Fantasy VII) - It’s a Final Fantasy VII/Pacific Rim mash up that works surprisingly well. It’s such a great gen fic, and the focus on the Shinra executives delights me. Like, Scarlet and Hojo interacting while neither are being crazy? Genius! And it does such a great job of depicting the complicated relationship between Hojo and Sephiroth even though Sephiroth isn’t even an active character. Everyone is so human in this, and I absolutely love it. Tragically, it’s abandoned.

BONUS: Seven Suitors for Shirayuki by Sabrael (Snow White with the Red Hair) - Look, this doesn’t quite make the all-time top five, but I want to plug it here anyway because oh man, guys, this is top-notch slow burn/pining. Like, by the end you are DYING, the burn is so good. It fleshes out minor canon characters very well, and there are some great OCS, but they’re not OCs for the sake of OCs but ones that are truly necessary. And the characterization is on point, and the obiyuki is SO GOOD. Seriously, if you followed my advice about the show and fell into obiyuki hell with me, go read this.

Riverdale (Do you know how hard this was? Narrowing this down? There are so, so many things I want to add but can’t grrr)

1. cut while shaving by areyouabadwolf2 - I’ve made no secret of the fact that this is my all-time favorite Riverdale fic. And in fact, it would normally knock Executive Reform out of its #5 spot. It’s such a great post-season 2 darkfic, just an excellent look at where everyone could go from there. It’s heavy on the Serpents, just the way I like it, and all the relationships are so cool. Like, Jughead & Cheryl friendship? Sign me the fuck up! It’s also SO good at suspense and keeping secrets from its readers, and no one ever talks in a way that makes you go “ah yes, thank you for telling me that even though everyone in the room already knows about it.” And like, the characterization in this is flawless, absolutely flawless, and the Betty/Jughead dynamic is amazing with them as a criminal duo. I just. I love it. Tragically, it seems to be abandoned.

2. The town called Riverdale by satelliteinasupernova - Yeah, you wrote this, so technically it’s redundant for you, but it belongs here, so tough. This is the Riverdale/Princess Tutu mashup that I didn’t know I wanted, and it has an extra dose of eldritch horror. The meta-y goodness is so delicious, and the suspense is fantastic, I was always on the edge of my seat. It’s so great watching Veronica try to figure out this mystery while people around her are either cagey or don’t realize there’s a mystery to solve. There’s such great uncertainty running throughout it,and I highly recommend it.

3. Black Cherry Chutney by lilibug - I love dark!bughead, I love it so goddamn much, and this is a great depiction of it. And like, not just dark!Betty or dark!Jughead but both of them, and it’s such a delight. Like, I absolutely love this Jughead from the word go, and Betty is so great because she is, like in canon, so much more than what she first seems. The bughead dynamic is great, and the smut is fantastic.

4. Fullmetal Riverdale by lnles - This is such a good mashup of Riverdale and Fullmetal Alchemist that I cannot articulate it. Like, it’s not just 1-1 insert Character A into Role A; it really works with the setting and characters of Riverdale to create something new but familiar. It’s working with great pieces, and it does them both justice, which is saying a lot because Fullmetal Alchemist is very, very good. I love the characterization and the hints of what happened in the past and the prose and just everything. It’s not done, but it’s got a regular update schedule, so I’m hoping it gets finished. Go give this some love!

5. Shake, Rattle, and Roll series by TakeAWalkOnTheWildside - Ok, so I’m cheating here by putting in a series, but let me cheat, ok? I’m still amazed that there are so few 1950s AUs for bughead, but I’m really glad we got this series. It’s sexy, it’s fun, it’s period-appropriate, and it’s dramatic too. Like it’s a whole saga of Betty and Jughead getting together and then being together, and it’s so fun. Also, he eats her out on her dining room table in part one, so that’s great.

37/AK. Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?

For my OTP of OTPs, shirlulu, does Everyone Lives count? Because that series does not end well for them. But, ok, other than that, I want to see some mutual pining for them because the idea of Lelouch pining is so goddamn amusing, especially when mixed with perpetually pining Shirley being completely goddamn oblivious. As for bughead, one thing I don’t see enough of (and crave more of) is their friends and family trying to play matchmaker for them but failing spectacularly. Also, more 1950s AUs please.

#asks #satelliteinasupernova #this is loooong but whatever #some deep cuts for non-Riverdale fic I know #fanfiction #I'm not tagging this with fandoms because I have nothing to say about them #but I will say #Riverdale fanfiction #because that is relevant #it was fun to ramble about fic but oh man was it HARD to make some cuts #so many good fics left out!#I feel bad but there's nothing I can do about it #thanks for playing!

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youngjustus · 6 years ago

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I really liked your Bart post, could you make a post about Tim, Kon and Cassie's personalities too?

i’m glad you liked my post! these are probably going to be shorter than my bart response since you’re asking for the other three at once, but

thankfully, i already have this comic vs cartoon meta typed up regarding conner here. there is a lot more i can say about conner in the comics than what i went over in this post, but i think that that’s enough to get a basic feel for who he is. but if you have any specific questions regarding some stuff i did or didn’t bring up in that post, you’re absolutely free to ask more about him.

for tim, the first trait of his that comes to my mind immediately is that he feels immensely guilty about literally everything, even things that couldn’t possibly be his fault. there are a lot, a lot of instances of other characters commenting on or telling him that he’s being too hard on himself!

(titans / young justice: graduation day #2, 2003)

he usually comes off as very serious and/or depressed a lot of times to others because of this - which isn’t to say that he’s never made a joke ever or done anything fun ever, because he has. (and this is also is not me saying that he is the only character ever that struggles with mental health.) he has a very hard time, for a long time, balancing his vigilante and civilian lives, and feels guilty lying to both parties. the most obvious case of this is with his dad and batman; tim feels a more father/son connection with bruce despite his own dad being alive (for a while at least), especially when there are other people who have it way worse than him. in addition, the secret identity thing is a huge plot point of young justice vol. 1, making for interesting trust dynamics between the team, especially with conner!

he’s very much in his own head, worries about everything, and very avoidant when it comes to his own feelings. this is shown in… almost every issue of all 4 volumes of robin, red robin, a lot of young justice issues, teen titans vol. 3, as well as some other misc comics he’s appeared in.

(adventure comics vol. 2 #3, 2009)

he is very lonely for a long time because of his parents being gone so often when he was a kid! this is why he projected so much onto and invested so much time into batman and robin, following their exploits. this is why he cared so much when he saw bruce slipping after jason died.

(robin vol. 4 #11, 1994)

i think it’s really important to remember that he says “look, i never wanted this for myself…” with reference to becoming robin. he makes the conscious decision to help someone because he can.

how i choose to interpret a lonely place of dying is a message of “you’re never really as alone as you perceive yourself to be, and someone always wants you in their life”, and i think that that applies to a lot of tim’s relationships with the other bats and the other members of the core four. he’s very grateful for them and knows in the back of his mind that he’d be worse off without them. (does he always remember this? no, but that’s a different and longer conversation.)

as for something that’s not sad or fake deep as hell, his sense of humour is often times very sarcastic, but can also be self deprecating and there is the occasional pun. he does make a number of pop culture references (but not nearly as many as conner); the one i can remember off the top of my head that always makes me laugh is him referencing elmer fudd from looney tunes (“be vewwy qwuiet! i’m hunting langstroms!”). he’s also usually the one at the end of a series with long inner monologues or speeches about the power of friendship, which i think is equally corny and sweet.

here is a really neat response to a fan letter in the back of an issue of robin, i think vol. 4:

unfortunately, i don’t remember what specific issue this is, but i felt it was worth sharing.

finally, as for cassie, i really love her and i’m honestly really sad that, of the four, she’s the only one who never got an on going solo series; she has two limited series that come to a total of 7 issues. (but i remember them being pretty good actually!)

anyways, the first things we learn about cassie in her debut are that she and her single mom have a rocky relationship, and she is very stubborn and a huge trouble maker.

(wonder woman vol. 2 #105, 1996)

her mom works at a museum as an archeologist and later we find out that her father is zeus. but before we and cassie learn that, cassie does meet him and asks him to grant “[her] fondest wish”, which, like most teenage girls, is to have super powers and work with her heroes.

(wonder woman vol. 2 #122, 1997)

she very intensely hero worships diana and donna (just as tim does with dick, and bart does with barry)! she even goes as far as to wear a black wig in her early days as wonder girl to not only help conceal her identity, but also to look more like the two of them. donna later gives cassie her old red wonder girl costume, which cassie carefully stores away and doesn’t wear because she doesn’t want to “ruin it” (the double entendre!).

cassie is not an amazon, not fully human, and not fully a god, so she, at times, feels out of place in her social circles. being accepted as an honourary amazon, being allowed to be wonder girl, fighting alongside diana and donna, being on the young justice team, being a titan, all means a lot to her - especially considering her relationships with her parents and the fact that she’s an only child.

like the three boys, cassie is very brave, and cares very deeply about everyone and everything! she’s a good leader, being team leader for both young justice and the titans, but, part of just how she is, and part of being a leader, she generally has a very hard time asking for help and coping in a healthy way with negative emotions; see fifty two, wonder girl vol. 1, and a lot of teen titans vol. 3 after issue #34.

(wonder woman vol. 3 #27, 2009)

(wonder girl vol. 2 #1, 2011)

Someone Hug Her More Please

i love that she’s kind of rowdy and that she loves beating up bad guys. she’s enthusiastic, and when she was younger she was very eager to prove herself. she’s very happy to be part of so many amazing things!

(young justice vol. 1 #7, 1999) (this is also why i hate the yj cartoon lol can you spot the tone difference??)

also she has a fucking sick special lasso that’s made of lightning that was gifted to her from ares, and it gets more powerful and intense the angrier she is. I Just Think That’s Neat.

anyways, uhhhh these are kind of abridged responses (i think i actually ended up making these as long as my bart one, whoops), but i hope that my explanations make some sense?? there’s a lot more i could say, but i’ve been working on this and leaving you hanging long enough.

i also hope that with that you can kind of start to see some similarities between them? and see why they’re such good friends? they’re all very grateful to have the people that they have in their lives, all struggle with mental health, all want so badly to do good, all want to be accepted, all have complicated relationships regarding the heroic legacy, etc. i really love them all!

#asks #yj posting #as i was typing this up i was like yeah i know what im talking about #but now that im done and have posted it im like. tf did i just say

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bizarre-dollhouse · 7 years ago

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My Top 10 Favourite Anime (And Why You Should Watch Them)

This is normally something I would put on my main blog, but I wanted to celebrate a follower milestone and also I know this will reach a significantly wider audience on this blog.

Consider this both a list of recommendations and a *get to know me* thing, I guess.

Honourable Mentions:

Bakemonogatari: A really stylized show about a semi vampire helping people with their supernatural afflictions born from emotional issues. The subsequent seasons get a little questionable, but this is definitely a standalone story with great dialogue and visuals. (15 eps)

Shiki: Creepy story about a small town infested with vampires. Really brutal and sick, but it has fascinating themes. The pacing is a bit slow and it has a kind of bad scene towards the end, but the show is 100% worth it. (24 eps)

Cardcaptor Sakura: Because this is mostly aimed at younger viewers, I would only really recommend this show for either magical girl fans, or people who watched the extremely altered dub as a kid. That being said, its a cute, fun show about magic with a likeable cast and surprisingly creative and original ideas, especially towards the latter half. (70 eps)

Jojos Bizarre Adventure 4: Diamond is Unbreakable: Full disclosure, I have not seen the first 3 jojo series, but its not necessary to enjoy this show. This is a super creative and really fun series about superpowered badasses in a strange city fighting each other and trying to solve a murder mystery in the background. Weird, but in the best way. (39 eps)

Kuroshitsuji: Book of Circus: This should be higher on the list, but in truth I would recommend the manga way over the show. But, if you want to watch a supernatural horror/comedy without reading a 138+ chapter manga, OR you were a fan of the original Black Butler seasons and want to see something way better, give this a watch. (10 eps)

*drumroll*

10. Trigun

So Trigun takes place is this old west, yet mysterious science fiction-y world where, through a bunch of complicated scenarios, a pacifist is the most wanted criminal known to man. Due to his status as a “natural disaster,” two insurance workers are tasked with reining him in to save their business. It’s an incredibly charming series, and the protagonist is really likeable. It’s extremely creative, funny, and emotional near the end. I do have some problems with the ending because it almost seems like the final conflict just...solves itself, but that’s a nitpick. The first episode is basically a short film, so give that a watch and see how you feel. (26 eps)

9. Paranoia Agent

This was directed by the late and great Satoshi Kon and has his usual themes about the blurring between fiction, dreams, and reality. It’s about a string of mysterious assaults committed by a kid with a baseball bat, and how these assaults seem to solve the problems of the victims. It’s very arthouse and has a twist that makes me ball my eyes out even though it’s not sad it’s just...odd and overwhelming. It drags a bit near the middle, but if you like kind of surreal stuff that’s also just really good, you have to watch this show. (13 eps)

8. Baby Steps

The amazing thing about this show is that its premise is specifically designed to make me hate it. It’s about a nerdy teenager who starts to play a sport for the sole sake of getting fit and having a more well rounded life style, and also he has a crush on this really popular girl. That sounds fucking awful, but the main character is actually really likeable (he reminds me a lot of Deku from BNHA) and I swear to fucking god every time I thought this show was going to do something awful and cliched with its romantic comedy plot, it doesn’t. The beauty and the geek trope is still there, but all of the bullshit that comes with it is omitted in a way I feel was kind of self-aware. The sports aspect is really good too: it’s well paced and there’s lots of tension even though the show as a whole is really upbeat and pleasant. I had a blast watching it, and if you can make it past the fact that is has god awful animation, give it a watch.

7. Higurashi: When They Cry

Yet another great show with absolute garbage animation. Anyways, this show is about a group of teenagers in a small town who are unknowingly trapped in a time loop. In each loop there’s a bunch of new mysteries, as well as some extremely brutal murders and tortures experienced my the main cast. I’ve seen a number of Western shows (Orphan Black, BBC Sherlock, Lost, Supernatural, etc.) fall apart because the writers want a really clever and intricate mystery to play out, but they don’t want to actually put the time into crafting one, so it’s just a bunch of cliffhangers with no answers or pay off. THIS SHOW SUCCEEDS AT WHAT ALL OF THOSE OTHER SHOWS FAIL AT. While not all of the answers are great (the second season isn’t as good) the original author somehow made the world’s most ludicrously complicated mystery story work, with a lot of it relying on the audience to put all of the pieces together even when the characters can’t. Its very clever in doing that: it makes its audience feel smart. It also has themes that don’t really show up in other horror stories, even though they’re incredibly relevant to fear and violence. Great show, go watch it. (50 eps)

6. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Everyone knows about this show, everyone says it’s great, and everyone’s right. If you’ve been living under a rock for ten years: the show is about two brothers who break an alchemy taboo, which destroys their bodies, They’re on the hunt for something to restore them to normal and along the way they meet like 8990354578579 characters with interesting stories. It’s tightly written and really gripping. It’s fun, but also really dramatic and emotional when it needs to be. My only problems with it are that the ending is reaaaallllly convoluted, and there’s a minor plot point earlier on that gets weirdly dropped, but everyone kinda forgets about those things because the show’s so good. Also the brotherly bond makes me cry. (64 eps)

5. FLCL

I honestly don’t even know where to start with this show because it has the unique property of being the only show I have ever seen that I have literally no problems with. Not even nitpicks. There is nothing wrong with this show; it’s perfect. The only reason it’s not number 1 is because some other shows have more ideas or more fleshed out characters. So this arthouse spastic comedy is about a boy who is disappointed with all of the adults in his life, then some chick hits him in the face with a guitar and giant robots from a secret facility start coming out of his head. It’s fucking wild and has like 30 different aesthetics and I love all of them. It’s the best looking show I’ve ever seen and one of the best directed. It feels like someone read a really weird poem and turned it into a 6 episode show. It’s funny, it’s emotional, it’s cartoony, it’s beautiful, it’s raunchy, it’s poetic, it’s silly, it’s creative, and it’s got strong themes. The wtf visuals, the nonsensical plot, and the amazing soundtrack make an aesthetic experience more than anything. (6 eps)

4. Princess Tutu

I already made a post about this show and why it’s good, which you can check out here, but the gist is it’s a meta fairytale about a duck that turns into a girl to help a storybook prince find his emotions. I used to love stories that were “twists on fairytales” or whatever, but after watching this show I realized that the genre is pretty derivative. This show is so amazing it honestly made me reevaluate an entire genre and come to the conclusion that this is the only member of that genre worth watching. It’s truly creative and well crafted with fantastic characters. (26 eps)

3. Hunter x Hunter (2011)

This show is basically a bunch of creative ideas, unique set pieces, and interesting characters stacked on top of each other in a trench coat disguised as a narrative. It’s about a perky shonen protagonist and a child assassin becoming friends while also trying to become hunters (a position involving vast wealth and adventure). It’s in a modern fantasy setting so literally anything can happen. In one arc they have to play life-or-death dodgeball against robots, and another is an insanely epic tale about the intense evil that people are capable of (feat. a 25 episode climax). I can’t even talk about all of the themes or ideas because there are just too many. Because of it’s wild, sprawling story, it has a lot of ass pulls and retcons, but in the grand scheme of things they don’t really matter. It’s long, but super easy to watch in huge chunks. (148 eps)

2. Neon Genesis Evangelion and The End of Evangelion

The most efficient way to describe this show is to say that it’s the most interesting show ever made. It’s about an apocalyptic future in which emotionally disturbed teenagers must pilot giant bio-machines to fight monsters which are referred to as angels. It’s got deep characters, a creative story, and is probably the most well directed show I’ve ever seen. The ending infamously fell apart due to production problems, so there’s a movie called The End of Evangelion to conclude the story. It’s a very disturbing arthouse movie, so watch out for that, but the show as a whole is moooosssstly more straightforward and fascinating, This is an absolute must watch. (26 eps and 1 movie)

1. Baccano!

Baccano! takes place in 1930s New York, and is about thieves, gangsters, criminals, terrorists, alchemists, and immortals interacting in this nonlinear comedy/action thrill ride. I felt like I was on a rollercoaster while watching this show. It’s the perfect blend of action, comedy, romance, drama, horror, and creative storytelling. It’s fantastic to rewatch since the first episodes barely make any sense without context (but are still an absolute joy to watch). It’s got great characters and it’s a great story. Go watch it. And then watch it again. (13 eps and 3 OVAs)

That’s it for this list! Check out my MAL page for more recommendations if you’re interested and have a great night!

#neon genesis evangelion #hunter x hunter #fmab #higurashi no naku koro ni #trigun #flcl #princess tutu #baby steps #paranoia agent #baccano!#not kuro

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oswednesday · 6 years ago

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dream journal for june 21-22nd 2018

i dreamed like it was a post apoco situation where heaven and hell had like that Last battle while we were having a third world war and hell won and they had like hard reset the timeline or something where hell was just in charge and i was a student in a school and it was lunch time and you had to give up basically a whole weeks worth of food tickets to get a single decentish meal and most people did that

i had an in with the cafe workers to score more bread and while i was in this back like open to the public area me and a like temporary sibling? fellow student (i was like being family hosted by a neofuture islamic family) we saw soliders on the street and one was a human who had survived the wars and his body had been warped by the hell energy and outside was just indie lighting from the early 00s washed out and bright and sunbaked

he took off his mask to show us his fucked up face and told us secrets about the reality of the world we live in as a full demon soilder decended from the sky and grabbed him and seeing the full demon up close put me into a shock? like i woke up in this big nice bed in like the nicest part of the hospital wing in the school complex? like my host family was there and then like the highest ranking woman of the school came to see me with all her spouces and i greeted them all and like in this world like the second, third, fourth, ect spouce had specific greetings to do and one of them was impressed that i even knew these given that im not from around here Wink and my host family was uncomfortable with this like muslims in this timeline had a totally different sort of history about marriage (but the women was also being super sexual charged and there were Kids? in the room) and she made an off hand comment about like you know in A past polygamy was practiced in islam and my host mom was like well its not practised now, like i got the feel from the interaction that polygam was the norm for the world i was in and then everyone cleared out

i eventually met the headmaster dean guy? and i had gotten better and i was back in class (i remember this bit not as well) and by this point in my dream the dude was basically black hat and i was in class and we were learning something like Actual that i wish i could remember there was an actual class happening in my dream and something was happening outside like a BOMB? or something and we were in like after classes activity period and i was excused to go do stuff outside the class room and black hat basically guy joined me as we were going to grab food from the caf that was like heavily gaurded (there were three others with us like the crew from the show but they looked totally different) and he got bounced by this massive girl like a giant kid like ten feet at least tall and i like, got in through cause i knew all the lunch room based secrets at least and before we did i kissed his forehead because he was? sick feeling sick? and i wanted to see his temp and he was all like !!!???? !!!!! push me away and his face was like!! really warm and i was like what up youre not doing well lets get some soup

the others went in, in front of us and it turned out the lunchroom was going to be closed For A While and this was legit the only source of food even for the school staff so we were loading up and i was in The Know the In i left it to the other staff im p sure to get the food while the headmaster looking black hat guy turned into a tiny sphinx cat and started to puke up on top of those fold out chests where they keep the frozen ice cream stuff and i was like oh wow youre really sick hey buddy its okay like petting his wrinkly sphinix body while he puked? like i was being nice to him and it was making him like super sick and we got the food

the others were ahead of us and i used like, an aquired superpower???? to get on ahead of them just like clipped through the fabric of space time and was all like sup have our food and the guy was still a cat like i was holding him in my arms while we grabbed the food and we slipped into a class room that was watching a movie on a huge project that wasnt the one he taught like the teacher in there was flaberghasted but he was like all humanoid again and higher ranking so she wasnt going to say anything and then we started to eat (and i realize like after this dream that like hghgfj we were in a classroom full of likely starving children just eating omg) and the others had gotten me tons of food but the headmaster guy like NOTHING edfgthjk and he was like I Literally Cannot Believe Them and i was all like hey its okay we can share!! and he was all like you dont have to do that youd do that for me??? and then he knew like meta dream that i liked him geninuely and then as we were eating the dream switched

and it was like a different setting like a family of three where one of the family members had died like it was the death aniversary and the youngest child was being chased by these people and a friend of the family had grabbed her and the oldest remaining child was watching and like relieved his friend was there and then he got into this beat em up military green van and drove away and from his dream point of view she was tied up to a checkered board wall and there were knives being thrown at her and they were asking him like the secrets of the demons and he had given them something but wasnt going to tell them everything and then he put one of the pairs gun to his head and he was like something like "The sun will rise in a few moments" and shot himself with like mind powers to pull the trigger in someone elses hand and then it was like a clip cut to the news reporting on the murders on the anniversary of the other murders then i was sitting in the bleechers with a guy with a military from earlier part of my dream that had got me all fucked up wearing a mask and i had made a comment and he was like gasp there is an anonimally detected theres altering timeline stuff in your brain and i was like Anime Heh a little late for that and he was taking off his gas mask and there was a bunch of these dark tendrills like he was pulling his literal face off and that was the skin and stuff and then i woke up

this made me remember my other dream (that i had before the school in the demon world setting where i was selling stuff like a farmers market in a big yard but it was illegal or something? so another group let us all get into their van to make a get away

it was like this big party van and i had left stuff behind but the family we were with wouldnt let me go get it, and then we were like in their house? the family had two parents and kids and my mom and my brothers were there and each family member had these big rooms i felt sure i wasnt suppose to go into and there was this arcade, i saw my mom doing laundry and i felt like i had to sneak around like we werent allowed to leave but also not touch anything, the house went down into the ground and had a lot of exposed wood features a little like the one house my mom had us live in with one of her mega abusive exes

#dream journal

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breastforce · 8 years ago

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Marco is a Trans Girl - The Megapost 2.0

So you’ve likely seen my big post on the theory that Marco Diaz from Star vs The Forces of Evil is a Trans Girl. It was made back in July of 2016 when Season 2 was just starting, and since then a lot of things have changed and we now know a lot more about what’s going on behind the scenes.

This post is meant to be an updated explanation of Trans Girl Marco theory, but now more in line with how things are actually happening. The gist of it being that Marco Diaz is coded as a closeted transgender girl. Expect less theorizing and more meta talk. I’ll be going over all the clues that indicate Marco is trans, as well as how the starcrew came to the desicion as Marco developed as a character.

I can’t give enough thanks to the members of the crew such as @arythusa and @hug-bees, whom have both done as much as they possibly can to communicate with the show’s growing LGBT fanbase, and given us so much insight into what’s going on

Full post below the cut.

Part 1: How it Happened.

“In my experience, almost no character goes into episode 1 totally finished. With such a long writing process, people end up changing and "discovering" more about the characters as they go on.” -Sabrina Cotungo [x]

A lot of aspects in Star Vs developed and matured along Seasons 1 and 2. Alfonso and Ferguson were written out and Janna joined the main cast, Ponyhead, Tom, and Glossaryk were given bigger roles, etc. So it’s pretty clear that Marco wasn’t originally penned as a Trans Girl. For the greater half of Season 1, they were simply a boy that ocassional feminine tendancies, with very few episodes indicating that there was anything else going on.

So what happened?

Well, individual writers and storyboarders have a bit of creative freedom when it comes to cartoon episodes. While they don’t have the ability to set much in stone, they can weave their own interpritations of characters into the outline that they’re given, inserting in small details that can enrich a character.

So while Marco was ‘officially’ a feminine boy, some writers interprited their feminity and general insecurities as indicative of something deeper.

One such example is in Mewberty:

While Star’s under an affliction that causes her to break out in hearts around boys, the writers have Marco not realize that they’re also a ‘boy’ for the first quarter of the episode, and when Marco’s hit over the head with something that would seem to be fairly evident for them, there’s a very noticable pause indicating that it’s something they are (or have just become) self-concious about.

And just to hammer the point home, there’s even a part in the episode where Marco’s outright mistaken to be a girl:

And Marco could have just been left at that.

The episode where I believe things changed though, is St. Olga’s School For Wayward Princesses

Marco disguises themself as a Princess to break help Star break into a boarding school, and the whole thing is completely natural. Marco doesn’t really try at all to be something they’re not - they’re just Marco.

Most media would have somebody suspect that there was something ‘off’ about Marco or constantly bring up how they’re the “odd one out” amongst all the other girls. Instead, Marco’s allowed to simply just be a girl for an episode without any objections from the narrative. Their gender is never made fun of, questioned, second-guessed, or even really brought up at all, even by the villain.

Not to mention the message of the episode - It’s Not Criminal To Be An Individual

It’s all about how there’s no wrong way to be a princess, but since royalty is a very narrow market in the United States, let’s just assume that the actual message is about how there’s no wrong way to be a girl.

And it’s likely no coincidence that Marco’s not only viewed as being no different from any of the other princess but also the keystone of the entire movement.

There’s no wrong way to be a girl, and Marco’s included in that.

I don’t know for sure whether the writer behind this episode, Piero Piluso, conciously wrote Marco with them being transgender in mind, but they wrote Princess Marco as a girl through and through.

And that’s likely when the lightbulbs started going off in the crew.

Season 2 brought in a slew of new writers and cast members, including people who’ve had previous expierience writing LGBT characters such as Giancarlo Volpe, Evon Freeman, Le Tang, Amelia Lorenz, Zach Marcus, Brett Varon, Gina Gress, and the aforementioned Sabrina Cotungo (whom had even tried to get a transgender character into Gravity Falls)

The new batch of writers now all had the existence of Princess Marco influencing their interpritations of Marco, which made it a lot easier for many of them to come to the conclusion that there was something deeper going on, and that this kid was trans.

Thus resulting in a MASSIVE explosion of hints occuring throughout Season 2.

Part 2: Scattered Evidence

“So if and/or when you detect LGBT-friendly themes on this show, it’s most likely there because the creators fought hard to put it there. They did the best they could to get any form of representation over, under or around those censors. They put it there to make a positive change in media.” -Amelia Lorenz [x]

Seaon 2 was where things really staarted to pck up.

Marco’s very first appearance is this:

Alright, they could be a feminine guy, Doesn’t exactly prove anything

They then spend the rest of the episode trapped in a closet that they want to get out of.

Which just so happens to be a Closet of Secrets.

Star even proposes at one point that it might be easier for Marco to just spend the rest of their life in the closet.

And, to top it all off, the writers specifically have Marco spend their entire time in said closet wearing a goddamn skirt.

In Mr. Candle Cares we get Marco outright saying they’d ‘Love to be Queen’.

Red Belt opens up with a dream sequence where Marco’s more shocked to find themselves buried in a suit than dead:

And upon seeing themselves in a suit (which they don’t want!), they’re reminded that they’re unsure of themselves and their future.

And how, to Marco, there’s something holding them down. Something that they’re missing. Something that sets them apart from the rest of the cast (!!!!!!!!).

And this dyphoria Marco’s expieriencing was set off by a suit covered in mewberty hearts.

Calling back to the ‘Boy Hands’ moment above:

Marco fears that they’ll spend their life closeted, that they won’t be able to progress in life because they spent it hiding away, unable to escape being a ‘boy’ just like what happened in Mewberty.

And the dream wasn’t just a one-off thing for Marco:

It’s a regular, recurring nightmare they’ve had to the point where they told Star about it. They’ve been unsettled over the long term, but the show hasn’t shown it, they just let us know in this moment.

Then we get Fetch, where in the last few minutes the writers do an animal-based dysphoria metaphor that puts Cartoon Network to shame.

It is pretty clear that the writers know what they’re doing because that’s legitimately one of the better explanations of what having dysphoria is like that I’ve seen on television: Rather than the dog talking about how they were “born in the wrong body”, they want to be a dog that is just like any other in order to calm their troubled emotions.

The book Star and Marco’s Guide to Mastering Every Dimension hammers down on the trans metaphor even further:

Willoughby is a dog. But in her dimension, dogs aren’t like dogs on Earth. They have very complicated feelings. So she stole my wand to make herself not have those complicated feelings anymore.

This passage can easily be translated to: “Some [women] aren’t like [other women]. They have very complicated feelings. So they [transition] to make themselves not have those complicated feelings anymore.” which is such a simple way of explaining what being trans is like to kids that it wouldn’t feel out of place on Sesame Street.

Not even a minute after the first exchange, we get this:

Which not only hammers in the idea that this is all about gender ever further, since they include a gender reveal that has no other real impact on the story, but if the dog’s in any way symbolic of Marco, then the scene pretty much speaks for itself.

And then in Gift of the Card, Heinous makes her return and the name “Princess Marco” is actually used in the show itself.

And after a season with a bunch of bits and pieces of foreshadowing scattered throughout:

It’s revealed in Nayasya that Marco does in fact have dysphoria, they’re so ashamed of their body that they can’t even look themselves in the mirror:

Marco Diaz covers the mirror when he shows because Marco is ashamed of his own body!

In addition, mirrors and showers are such common motifs in trans narratives that Sense8 had their trans character describe her dysphoria in nearly the same exact way.

“At that age I was really uncomfortable with my body and didn’t like to be naked, especially in front of other boys. But you had to take a shower before you went in the pool, so I would do it but I kept my swimsuit on.”

And the only point where Marco can apparently somewhat stand to look themselves in the mirror?

When they’re dressed like that. Indicating that this isn’t just some Teenaged Body Insecurity but rather dysphoria.

Star and Marco's Guide to Mastering Every Dimension, a canonical side book that fleshes out the lore of the show, also manages to expand on Marco’s thoughts on their stay at St. Olga’s:

I almost died at St. O’s. Twice. The first time was at the hands of some robot guards, and the second time I almost died emotionally in the Solitary Conform-ment Chamber. I did learn that I’d make a great princess. I really wouldn’t say that pink is my color... but I wouldn’t mind wearing a poofy dress every now and then. It’s kinda liberating.

Notice their word choice. Not only do they outright say “I learned I’d make a great princess”, not only indicating that they did infact themselves as a girl in St. Olga’s to a degree rather than simply seeing the whole thing as ‘just a disguise’, but they also call wearing a ‘poofy dress’ to be liberating.

There is a HUGE difference between “a guy enjoys wearing dresses and would like to wear them more often’ and ‘somebody who’s fantasized about being a girl finds a dress they didn’t even chose to wear to be personally liberating’. It’s not simply a matter of Marco wearing a dress, but rather that their attitudes towards it (and everything else) are something that a lot of Trans Women have found relatable.

Part 3: ‘Heinous’

“I can tell you that Daron is open to the idea of LGBT characters but beyond that the situation gets complicated. Also, as a board artist, I don’t have a lot of say in terms of larger story or character arcs, so I’m afraid I can’t comment on future plans.” - Sabrina Cotugno [x]

At this point there’s a number of members in the crew that all view Marco as a trans girl, and are writing her that way, but nobody has the power to make it explicit.

Then comes ‘Heinous’.

This episode pushed this concept to its absolute limit, where the writers for the episode did literally everything they could to get across the message that Marco’s trans and brought the theory to being as canon as they can possibly get at the time. (To the point where people on Reddit who either didn’t follow or dismissed the theory were struggling to figure out what the point of the episode was)

The basics:

Marco is consistently gendered with ‘she’ pronouns throughout the episode and the writers don’t have anybody ever question it

When in her Princess getup, Marco explictly refers to herself as a girl and seems to have a blast despite being blackmailed, to the point where they voluntairly keep on the dress for family game night.

The dialogue from Marco’s parents have loads of double meanings, where they’re talking about finding out about Marco’s interdimensional activities, but deliberately involk the image of somebody who just got outed as being gay or transgender to their parents.

And, most of all, Princess Marco wasn’t just a distant memory that didn’t matter. The episode revealed that Marco secretly kept up the ‘Princess Marco’ persona this whole time, getting royalty checks from merchandise inspired by her.

And to make things even more meta, Marco has apparently ‘influencing the next generation of princesses’ to be true to themselves.

The whole theme of the episode is Marco getting across a hidden message meant to inspire people despite being restricted in what they can say. So Marco says what they’re obliged to say, but phrases it in a way that makes the true message clear to the intended audience. This is essentially how the crew has been handling the theory in of itself.

Part 4 (for now): Conclusions

I’ll continue to update the post with relevant information as we move onto Season 3, so this part of the post will most likely change

The image that is being drawn is that the crew really really really wants to include trans representation within their work, and not only views but are actively writing a character as being transgender, but they can not come out and just say it due to legal reasons.

The crew’s response to the idea of Marco being transgender, as well as the prospects of LGBT representation within the show itself, has been nothing but positive. They’ve been consistently defending it to the point where one of the directors for Season 4 put out an argument as for why Marco being transgender girl is more important than them being a boy.

It’s not certain whether or not Marco will be able to come out and transition to being a girl during the series. The crew has many times expressed frustration about how much of a fight they have to put up to even get hints at LGBT representation past the censors. In the meantime, or in case they ultimately don’t succeed, the staff are deliberately giving trans people something to relate to in Princess Marco, and are doing everything they can to make sure we at least have that.

“I wish I could give a more reassuring or more substantial answer, but little by little people in the industry are trying to change things. The victories seem a bit small for now, but please know that you’re not forgotten.” -Ariel V.H. [x]

#svtfoe #trans marco #marco is trans theory

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canonstitute · 8 years ago

Text

a pup named scooby-doo, ep. 1 (rambling/meta)

(look yes I know I made a blog to talk about cartoons because I can talk about them so much just shut up and let me memorize another 40+ years’ worth of a new canon because KND didn’t ruin me enough)

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo [S01E01] – A Bicycle Built for Boo!

Canon misc.

Coolsville, USA

The Daily Babbler (building parodying Clark Kent’s office Daily Planet)

Scooby Doo Detective Agency - small treehouse/clubhouse with a sign out front with the name next to a white fence. tree is impossibly tall and the actual clubhouse is small and nested at the very top

Some resemblance to Kids Next Door treehouses

not specified (yet?) whose yard the tree’s in if anybody’s (no houses in shot, clear on multiple sides with grass)

Clubhouse has crude rooftop “observatory” in the back with a huge makeshift telescope - trash can base + mounted pipes with lens

COMIX (title)

(“Haunted”) Ferguson estate

Gang gets picture in Daily Babbler

Fatty’s - Malts, Fries, and Burgers

Weirdo Woods - purple and swampy but mostly clear at ground-level (no plants) with some sinister trees; area completely out of view from neighborhood

Plot / Episode misc. [under cut for length]

the first episode is like the day after christmas or maybe the week after bc there’s a wreath on the door and there are christmas lights on Shaggy’s house - but only Shaggy’s house

could be before Christmas instead of after if his family celebrates early, but seems to be implying the Rogers don’t care enough to take the lights down after the holiday in a timely fashion

shaggy is too familiar with Scooby, his “personal alarm clock” when talking about his daily routine (waking up / paper route) for Scooby to have been a recent Christmas present. but if Norville’s had Scooby since they were both babies (toddlers?) as implied in a flashback from the sequel shows’ birthday special, Scooby should be well grown to size even if Shaggy’s only eight or nine here and he’s probably older

Shaggy’s room has monster posters

Dog door much too small for Scooby (probably growth spurt)

Cherry 1959 Star Fire (?) Special

Characters and episode roles established rather immediately, Daphne’s gig > Freddie’s > plot hinges on silent Velma to notice something for progress

Shaggy has a paper route, not much indication in this episode of how old he is. Scooby is older than his later nephew Scrappy was in his appearances but not fully grown yet

Red Herring does seem antagonistic of group and isn’t a tired running gag yet so Daphne does go off on him

Freddie aggressively threatens Red after being taunted

Velma pulling tools out of nowhere. Power sander, metal detector. stays quietly in background and finds bike w/o dialogue and helps others when asked

Fred gets beaten by the bully (run over on bike) only after losing a huge bravado - stood up to Red and sanded Red’s bike but was sheepish finding no evidence it’s stolen

Shaggy reading comic book and not helping afterward; contrast nurses Daphne (dabbing alcohol) and Scooby w/dress and doctor Velma - yes they all have the outfits

Kids are on break from school; plot starts early morning and continues remainder of that day

Weirdo Woods. Purple and swampy but mostly clear foliage-wise with some sinister trees here and there Red Herring’s “Secret Hideout” in Weirdo Woods is, uh, surprisingly close and easy to lose the neighborhood from

Velma speaking is the cue for a clue,random physics / data “genius” gibberish on screen as she types, somehow produces image of bicycle on portable computer

VELMA’S OBSERVATIONAL SKILLS REVEAL TIRE TRACKS ON PREVIOUSLY UNMARKED SIDEWALK

background track (just people singing “Scooby-Doo” and its variants over and over to a specific tune)

hee hee hee Daphne is holding Fred’s shoulders in this scene Velma has a motor skateboard, fast /reckless driver

Shaggy’s so light Scooby-Doo can drag him around by his own leash

Daphne dispenses the Scooby snack

Split-up is lampshaded, Velma goes with ShaggyDoo

………omg Velma and Scooby both dive into Shaggy’s t-shirt (with their heads peeking out the top) to hide from the ghost

Meeting the medium: Shaggy again becomes Scooby/Velma’s hiding place, Daphne is completely dismissive and Fred’s just mildly puzzled as always

“Alien agent from Mars that’s come here to steal bicycles in a plot to take over the world” -- it is absurdly weird for Shaggy to be giving Fred a reality/get-it-together check, i don’t care how young they are

Among Fred’s mentions: martians, spies, Fort Knox, costume, plot to take over the universe

Shaggy is the member of the gang most excited (ecstatic, even) to find all the cash. WNSD I believe had him coming from money if not to the degree of the Blakes, but he’s not unphased by it at all (Daphne is)

Shaggy gets overexcited and says he’s going to buy a million bikes. All kids can be like that but maybe his parents don’t buy him much in the way of toys / indulgences.

One time characters - undercover U.S. treasury department agent (?) Shirly Mcloone, Mr. Conrad - Daily Babbler

Daphne seems to cotton on second (after Velma) & delivers the explanation for the boys so Velma doesn’t have to talk too much. Daph knows money and she’s sharp, that’s for sure

Shaggy watches his friends eat ice cream in broke desolation and actually states he needs a new job now, because apparently his parents aren’t inclined to give their kid a dime for ice cream after solving a federal criminal investigation

The ghost was obviously the only guy besides a last-minute insert so I don’t have much to say about the ending, but can I just say these chase sequences where the characters do Peanuts dances randomly between shots set to episode-specific songs about the monster of the week? They’re fucking bizarre.

#scooby doo #velma dinkley #daphne blake #fred jones #norville rogers #a pup named scooby doo #nonreblog #meta #cartoon meta #canonstitute #cartoons #headcanon #canon #codename: kids next door

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