#these guys above have the best and most accurate translation

[itachanta]

"Don't cry, Meryl".

One of my favorite scenes from Trigun Maximum

Scans & translation by @trigun-manga-overhaul

[kalkori]

ok regretevator fandom i know its "canon" that fleshcousins are only sentient and not sapient but when you look at the dialogue of fleshcousins it seems to say the opposite.

fleshcousins can and will react to being referred to negatively

not only in this instance with gnarpy does fleshcousin argue with gnarpy, it also emphasizes words like how someone irritated would. like hello?

chat fleshcousin literally tells lampert to kill himself after being insulted. there is no conversation elsewhere where fleshcousin gets told to kill itself to learn this. also before the threat it tries to insult lampert. thats not a parrot thats a very insulted and very salty creature.

in the first interaction with spud, the fleshcousin seems to be talking to itself and then appears to get irritated when spud is like "wow i could have ended up like you guys"

in the second interaction with spud, it seems to actually correct him and then, to me, appears to do its equivalent of an irritated grunt when spud is like "you're just like a personal diary!!"

the above is more tangentially related but fleshcousin seems to not only be genuinely irritated by unpleasant's existence, but then proceeds to also use language of others that it has learned. i find it interesting that specifically gnarpy and infected are used here, as gnarpy is the one who has the most irritated dialogue to learn from, and infected is the most related to unpleasant

2. it knows how to communicate discomfort/pain

ok i know this sounds weird but trust me. in most animals that can be trained to use words to communicate, it often takes A WHILE for them to accurately use language to mention pain. normally they learn stuff for things like food first.

for this one, the second and third line are my focus. the first one is pretty clear in the distaste for the snowball. however, the third line reveals not only a negative reaction, but trying to joke about it. "kb what is the joke" well you see my non-fleshcousin-brained friend, the joke is [as best translated as possible] "is it already winter?"

the flash beacon is what we're really here for though. not only can it associate bright, painful light to something it already knows, it A: communicates that it hurts and B: is able to recognize that you control it and asks you to stop hurting it

the reason why that is Huge is that most animals don't as for you to stop. they either run away or fight. when they ask for things to stop, most commonly its with another animal in the same species with their (body) language.

fleshcousin asks for you to stop in YOUR language!! thats huge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

3. fleshcousins can recollect people and inform others about them‚ and can potentially observe other peoples relationships

first off, fleshcousin tells mark that wallter misses him. [also, it appears it finds it funny that mark censors itself but that might just be me]

in this one, fleshcousin tells wallter that mark misses him and just how much he does, as well!!!! like hello thats crazy!!

this one has fleshcousin describe its own relationship with bive and scary mike, which honestly makes me want to bawl my eyes out. like it calls her and mike friends. i literally will cry forever about this

but the most interesting thing fleshcousin mentions multiple times...

IS HOW OFTEN IT MENTIONS FOLLY, AND SOMETIMES MIMICS HER?!

the last one under petal cone references folly's laugh

this one might be a stretch but i think this idle is referencing folly's forest, the "barn" being the forest and "the wrongs" referencing how closely related folly's deal is to malice

when you look at its folly interactions it seems VERY interested in folly

we're mentioning the farm again

we're just straight up describing folly here. hello!!

now listen any other time i'd call it a stretch but its talking to wallter, who it knows the relationships of. folly is heavily associated with that gigantic tree. pillows are associated with sleep. this has to be at least a red herring. like. chat.

theres more but this is already getting too long. chat fleshcousins are sapient if you look at the actual writing, whether intended or not!!

[mynameisjag]

I wish I could continue this, but I can not seem to get into Guy Gardeners head enough to accurately write him. So I'm going to post this, maybe someone can pick this up and do a better job then me.

It is a saddening fact that he has become accustomed to seeing children in a position of needing help beyond that of just saving from an incident.

But that was part of the job and Guy was here to make sure that the child they had just rescued got the help they needed.

Another government cover up, more crazy “scientists”, and a possible war hanging above their heads…just another Tuesday then.

Danny Fenton, vigilante name Danny Phantom, the files that Batman had passed to him had everything he needed to know about the kid.

It didn’t look good.

It never did.

Currently said kid was curled up in a chair with his knees pulled up to his chin and glaring at him like the whole situation was his fault.

“You want anything to eat?”

The glare grew harsher but a rumble from the teens stomach lessened the effect.

“You want some burgers? Think they’re doing a special with milkshakes too in the cafeteria.”

“I don’t want to see anyone.”

Teen translation: I don’t want anyone staring at me.

“Fine with me, I’m still going to go get a plate, if you want anything, best to say it now.”

“…can I get a few burgers and a milkshake?”

“Sure, what flavor shake?”

“…chocolate…kiwi…”

He has seen Flash choke down weirder combinations, best to get double of everything, growing teens, especially powered teens, needed the calories.

Guy just gave a slight nod before handing over a clipboard, “Here, emotions suck, talking sucks, sometimes it’s easier to write what you mean. I’m going to get our grub, you write down whatever.”

“Whatever?”

“What you feel, what you thinking, questions you can’t ask out loud, hell, doodle if you want.’

Leaving for a few minutes would give the kid space to think if he wanted write anything and feel like some stranger wasn’t hovering over him. Maybe getting some food in him, they could introduce each other more properly on better footing.

Explaining to someone that they were going into foster care…well…it never got easier...no matter how many times he has seen it…no matter of it was for the best…it was hard to tell a child they couldn’t go back to the only place they’ve ever known.

Most kids understood that they were in a bad situation but would always down play it, excuse everything their parents did to them, find reasoning that somehow they were at fault and not the ones that were supposed to care for them.

This was going to be one of those cases…

He had a list to go over, get the kid settled, look over available fosters…see about possible adoption…older kids were harder to get fostered…but with Danny’s biology, it might be best to look away from Earth and more into the galaxy.

From the reports, it seemed like his biology might have been considerably slowed down, which would make him incredibly young to long living beings. Might have to look into colder environments, notify any foster about health issues, behavioral quirks, there was so much to do.

It would be done, he wasn’t going fail any kid that fell into his care.

Focusing on the kid also helped with that tiny left over tinge of red that wanted to get his hands on the people responsible for the whole situation.

Instead, Guy took a deep breath, grabbed a tray and started loading it up.

Feed Danny, get him situated, look into fosters…do not think about the exact details of what the former parents did, instead focus on what can be done to help and heal.

He wills himself calmer and grabs two milkshakes, shrugs and grabs one of the weird flavors for himself to try and adds it to the tray.

[kaiowut99]

A Special Announcement~ | Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V Tag Force Special Re-Translation Project!

I've been itching to get around to posting about this for a few months now, but wanted to wait until I'd worked on enough for it, but also had the idea to create an announcement trailer to go with it for added good measure--after recording and editing clips for a couple weeks and leveling the audio last night, heremst we are! (For some clips, I forgot to turn off the PPSSPP emulator's DevMenu option so that shows up in the top-left, buuut I didn't feel like re-recording those, lmao.)

Details worth reading below the cut here, but tl;dr work has been in progress for over a year in between things, work will continue to be in progress for a while, and the release will happen when everything's ready, but stay tuned, fun's getting started etc etc~

So, I'm sure most of us are familiar with the as-yet-unlocalized-by-Konami TFSP, the seventh and last entry in the Tag Force series on the PSP that came out early in ARC-V's run (featuring the first five series which was a cool first), as well as the current translations out there originally worked on by the guys at XenoTranslations (omarrrio and ScrewTheRules/ClickClaxer01 at GBATemp handling the card and story/etc translations, respectively) and how there are... some issues with what's out there. Everything from the DM story mode being loaded with YGOTAS references (no shade to YGOTAS and much respect to LK/Martin for his ongoing work on it still making me laugh sometimes, ofc) to the off-the-cuff edginess of 2014-2015-era internet culture and the problematic (in some cases, derogatory) language that permeated it--though to its credit, some parts do have some level of translation attempted, but taken as a whole, it can definitely turn people off from giving the game a try and seeing what it brings to the table (which is still a good amount despite the corners Konami cut here/there compared to prior TF games).

I actually did attempt a translation of my own back in 2015 (if you've been following me for a long time, you might remember it lol), tackling the GX story text starting with Judai's heart events, but eventually put it on the backburner as I focused more on my GX subbing work and beginning to finalize everything (which I'm still doing). Sometime in 2022, a friend over on NeoArkCradle (the "anonymous YGO fan" in the opening screen) was poring over the story text and patching it up the best he could to remove the references and inaccuracies with more coherent work, and after a while of seeing what he was working with in the Discord, I was a bit blown away by just how inaccurate much of it was--so alongside him, and using the better tools available since then (including some really awesome work from both nzxth2 [who did a proper re-translation of 5D's TF6 not too long ago and was kind enough to release his tools for it] and our coding helper Xan1242 who we eventually reached out to for some help), I decided to *cracks knuckles* get involved and help give everything a more accurate and professional translation, much like I do with my GX subs, working directly off the Japanese text and files. I've been taking cracks at everything in between the GX episodes I've been finalizing going back to at least last January (and I'd used my little hiatus after finalizing GX Season 2's subs to really get at some other stuff throughout the game), starting with re-translating DM's story text but also properly translating other aspects of the game, from the character names (using the original Japanese names, including those of the TF-exclusive characters, partly since Konami made a whole mess of them in English TF1-5), in-duel dialogue, pack descriptions, and more to images with Japanese text (such as localizing the in-duel cut-in onomatopoeia as you see in the video above, or other little images throughout) using some Photoshop skills I've picked up. And it's been a joint effort, as said NAC friend and I have been bouncing off how we'd like to see this go between us to stay on the same page and all, while also checking with other translators there for second/third opinions as needed.

Our plan is to release two versions of a translation--one which uses the OCG [translated] card names in Story Mode, in-duel, and other text but not in the game's card system (mainly to deal with story-relevant notes like Osiris vs Slifer with the Gods or things like not-Utopia Hope being symbolic between Yuma and Astral, akin to how I do my GX subs), and one which uses the TCG card names in everything (like how the official subs go about it). While we're mostly working with the Japanese game files due to how the Xeno team went about decoding everything, we'll be using the card-system-related files from the fixed ISO provided by FLSGaming which fixed some issues that had been present there. And Xan has helped us with a plugin that will be used to apply our translations to the system files that were hard to edit otherwise (things like the character and recipe names, as well as the pack names pulled from for the Card Description screen), but more on how that'll work once this is ready for release, lol. At some point, I'd like to also look at HDifying textures and things, but that's definitely a bonus-level thing for after the main work here is done.

SO.

Currently, Story-Mode-wise, I've gone through everything up to Yusei's events--so Dark Yugi/Kaiba/Jounouchi/Ishizu/Mai in DM, Judai/Manjoume/Asuka/Misawa/Ryou in GX, and Yusei in 5D's have been fully retranslated, though I took initial cracks at Yuma and Yuya's events to get content for this video lol (I've also been intentionally holding off on as much ZEXAL as I can until I've properly watched the whole show so I have context). I haven't tackled overworld text yet, though (like pre-duel or the tournament-related text, which is all in the same file as all the story text). I've also been handling the in-duel dialogue as I go through the character stories, so also just up to Yusei, though I did take initial cracks at Aki's, Yuma and Shark's, and Yuya and Yuzu's for the video.

Other things tackled that were sprinkled into the video, along with some other notes:

Pack names and descriptions have been retranslated, though the descriptions may see minor edits closer to release for a little variety between worlds given the different characters at the shop. Character recipe names were also retranslated, with Yugipedia's translations for them used as an occasional second opinion, though ones based on pack names had to be abbreviated in spots.

Menu text, from the Options to Help screens and stuff in between, has been retranslated, as have in-duel text strings (so, you'll see a full "Activate Effect" instead of "Activate" or "Switch to Attack/Defense Position" instead of "Switch to ATK/DEF Position", etc--also fixed the "BATTELE PHASE" graphic typo, and NAC friend created a new translation for the "Turn Change" graphic for accuracy since ENG TF1-5 made that into "Next Player's Turn").

Database stuff, such as the Sound Test, Tutorials, Duel Missions, etc., have been retranslated closer to the Japanese text; originally I retranslated the Tutorial text via hex editor, with compromises done on quite a bit of it due to the space limits, but as Xan recently updated a text extractor tool of theirs to more cleanly pull out and reinsert that text, I've been going through and fleshing out those translations more (on my commutes to/from work mostly, to be productive lol).

As mentioned, I've been localizing/translating Japanese-text images throughout the game as I come across them, like with the in-duel onomatopoeia that come up during cut-ins or images in the shop/duel/etc screens using Japanese text, to make sure the game is fully translated.

The series logos, used during the title sequence and in the Series Select screens, were updated with translated fan edits shared on Deviantart (which we'll credit in the final release) for DM and GX, while the 5D's-ARC-V logos were edited to enlarge the "Yu-Gi-Oh!" text on them that was pretty hard to see originally.

The game's original opening sequence starts on an anti-piracy message before going into the Konami logo and then a "From Yu-Gi-Oh!..." screen before the opening animation for each series logo--the original team decided to use the first image to vent their frustration at Konami for not localizing this game, and while that's valid (to some extent), we thought we'd use the opportunity to dedicate this project to Kazuki Takahashi for inspiring our love for YGO and the place it's had in our hearts for all these years.

We'll be updating the names of cards that had TCG releases after the original patch was worked on/updated by FLSG to those corresponding names.

Xan has been working on many UI fixes for us to apply with this, among them 3-line dialogue box text as is used in the ENG TF1-5 games--once implemented for TFSP, I'll be going over everything to make full use of that extra space where needed, so things might not look as they do in the video by then.

Character bios will be worked on after I've done the story stuff, though I've taken initial cracks at it for Yuma and Yuya's bios for the video, along with translating the location/affiliation names ("Domino High School," "Satellite," etc).

Currently no release date is planned, as I'm working on this between my GX-finalizing work and actual IRL work, though we'll see how later this year looks as more work gets done--but as noted in the video, all things being equal, it will be released when everything is ready. I'll try to post regular updates or rambles now that this announcement's been made, lol, but do try not to constantly check in on a release date. 🙏🏽

All that said, I think that covers just about everything I wanted to put out there with this, lol. It's been fun to work on this so far and getting to see what I've re-translated in-game is definitely neat; looking forward to us being able to release everything when ready.

Stay tuned for more; the fun's just getting started!

[julianalvarez9]

miscommunication, pt. 2 / christian pulisic

summary: the silent treatment continues. two certain players try to bring you back to your senses, but you’re still not convinced. maybe you need to talk to certain american to clear it all to you.

author's note: pleasantly surprised at the positive reaction part 1 had! one last part left, this one is kinda enzo x reader centered but we'll get the talk next!!

warnings: the translation is not word-for word accurate, i tried to make it make sense in both languages so sorry if it confuses you kajskaj

word count: 1.1k

“what happened here?” was all you could mutter up. enzo hadn’t quite catched upon what you had perceived, so once you elbowed and reprimanded him for continuing to giggle at whatever media was still ongoing on his phone, he questioned the guys too. “you should ask your boyfriend here” said mason, staring down at christian. without saying another word, not even waiting to hear what his american friend had to say, he picked his stuff, ready to go home after the training journey had ended.

safe to say that things between christian and you got quite… difficult, after that afternoon. 

in fact, they were worse than they had ever been. he was, without a doubt in mind, evading you every chance he got, making it difficult to fulfill your job, which was taking photographs of everybody on the team, and certainly, the one player everyone wanted to see: the one that wore the number 10 on the field.

you had tried to talk to mason about what he meant when he referred to christian as 'your boyfriend', thinking that maybe he was mad with you for not denying it, but he just laughed it off. above all, mason was a good guy, so he gave you an apology for making you feel uncomfortable with the joke. the truth was, that the quip hadn’t pissed you off, quite the opposite indeed. instead, it was the american's reaction that made you angry. or maybe, his lack of.

two months had passed and you still didn't know for sure what you had done to make christian resent you that much, since he didn’t dare to speak to you. the most difficult part about losing a best friend so suddenly and without a warning was that you missed your jokes, your coffee talks, him hiding in your office when he wanted to avoid the coach on a special hard day at training. you started doubting every move or thing you said before the fallout. had he noticed how you looked at him? it’s certainly different from how you saw his teammates. had he noticed it too? had mason joked about it because he knew?

“¿cómo están saliendo las fotos?” (how are the pics turning out?) asked enzo, in a clear attempt at putting a smile on your face. today was being particularly hard, and due to this, you were zoning out too much, not concentrating enough on the task at hand: film little snippets of training to make a little video for the team’s socials. you only nodded, not changing the seriousness in your face, and it wasn’t appreciated by the argentinian that his powers of making you laugh clearly weren’t doing the job today.

"¿qué pasa entre ustedes dos?" (what’s going on between you two?) he insisted, having to jog a bit to catch you since you had continued your path while he stayed behind. you didn’t understand who he meant, or tried not to assume, so he tilted his head signaling at the american player that was just coming into the training pitch after changing on the lockers. you tried to dissipate his question, shooting another one at him. "nada, por qué?" (nothing, why?)

he just laughed, like you had said the funniest joke, and you furrowed your brows in confusion at his reaction. he explained, shrugging his shoulders while doing so. "no parece ‘nada’. cada vez que me acerco a vos, siento que quiere arrancarme la cabeza" (doesn’t seem like ‘nothing’. every time i get close to you, i feel like he wants to take my head off).

you nervously laughed, shaking off his assumption. "estás viendo cosas. no me quiere de esa forma" (you’re seeing things. he doesn’t like me like that). enzo raised his brows in question, like he knew something you didn’t. "yo le preguntaría" (i’d ask him). you were now walking off the pitch, having enough content to edit for the video. kepa, one of the first players that had reached up to you when you arrived at chelsea all those years ago, was listening to the exchange and wanted to contribute his two cents to the cause. pointing to enzo, he said "tiene un punto" (he’s got a point), and you huffed at his remark. "vos también?" (you too?).

smiling, the goalkeeper raised his hands, trying to hide the mischief that was dancing on his features away from your interrogative eyes. "yo le preguntaría si fuera tú" (i'd ask him if i was you). enzo kept pushing you too, knowing that you just needed a bit of courage before confronting the american player. "tenés que hablar con él, aclarar las cosas. no pueden seguir así" (you have to talk to him, clear shit out. you two can’t keep going like this). feeling like the two chelsea players were blaming you for the fallout didn't quite feel right to you, knowing that you weren't at fault for whatever shit that was going on in christian's head. angrily, you spoke. "no le debo nada. no fuimos nada nunca. aparte, por qué yo? por qué no puede hablar él?" (i don't owe him nothing. we never were a thing. also, why me? why can't he speak?).

kepa, who thought that at least one of the two was coming to his senses, rubbed his hands on his face, trying to shake the frustration away. "you better than anyone should know he never talks about his feelings". enzo looked at him like the goalscorer had said something horrifying. pointing at him, he asked you, "¿qué dijo?" (what did he say?). you only giggled, knowing that you had been in charge of teaching enzo the basics of english, and that's why you two had gotten so close since he had arrived to the club: he was better now, the language barrier not as strong as before, but clearly still present. "deberías entender esa frase, otherwise i'm doing a shit job" (you should understand that sentence).

christian clenched his fists while seeing the interaction, even if he was far away and couldn't tell what you two were saying: seeing you smile like you did when you were with enzo, brighter and louder than you ever did with him, made him furious. he was aware of kepa’s presence in the conversation, but the difference in your behavior with the two guys was enough proof for him that there was something different between you and the argentinian player.

mason had told him that this couldn’t go on any longer, and even if he never wanted to agree with his fellow teammate, he knew he needed to do it. and if he wanted to understand why he felt the way he did, christian needed to talk to you about it.

still doubtful, he made his way across the pitch to the three of you, where you still were all joking around, clearly blocking the way back to the lockers. since christian hadn’t even looked your way lately, you thought that you were in his way, and hurried the boys to get out of his path. “that’s not what i’m here for” he said, awkwardly moving his weight from one foot to the other, clearly nervous. “can we talk? please?” he tried again, in a low tone, trying to avoid the other two players from hearing, even if they had given you two a bit of space since his arrival. enzo was looking attentively at the exchange, wanting to make sure you were alright with the interaction. you nodded, part to answer to what christian had asked you, and part to assure the argentinian that you were okay with this.

[inventedfangirling]

BEST of BL's in 2023 [Thai edition]

(more accurately my favourites from 2023, so that i have something to show for the 100s of hours i spent watching them lmao)

I Feel You Linger In The Air - Head & Shoulders above (almost) every single piece of queer media i've ever watched. Khun Yai and Jom will be forever icons. That drunk poem confession will NEVER be topped. Also LESBIANS AHHHHHH also the way the show explored intimacy AHHH just end meeee

2. Moonlight Chicken - Aof strikes again. Gave me Uncle Jim, Heart, Li Ming and my baby boy Gaipa- the music, the cinematography, the writing, the found fckin family - i will recommend it to EVERY one on the planet if i could.

3. Be My Favourite- I did not expect to enjoy this show as much as i did. I loved what they were tryna say. I LOVED the queer undertones in EVERYTHING. if not for the asexual erasure and Not being an absolute asshole this would have been quite the perfect show. And man is Gawin so darn sculpted perfection, LOOK AT THAT FACE, how to not admire!? Also Pearmai my beloved. AND THAT POEM in episode 11 ARGHHH

4. Bed Friend - I know this was a polarizing series in a lot of ways and I agree to some of the complaints raised BUTTTTTT NET MY FRENZ NET! How am i supposed to not melt into a complete puddle watching King pretend to not be absolutely in love with Uea, and treating him like the babygirl he is, when he looks like THAT. I'm but a mere mortal.

5. La Pluie - I kinda liked the show and disliked it in equal amounts. Saengtai annoyed me quite a LOT towards the end BUT his brother Sangtien - Suar Kritsanaphong had me in the palm of his hand. Him and his kiss with Lomfon is etched firmly in my brain. It HAD to be on this list.

6. Only Friends - Gawd. The Promise. The Promise of it all. Thats what maddens me THE MOST. There was just SO MUCH that they could have done. Even if they stuck with a lot of their similar choices i would have still put it higher up on the list if they hadn't undone all the good work they did in the final episode. I couldnt even bring myself to rewatch anything from this one cos of how disappointingly it ended. That being said - FirstKhao KILLED it as usual, i CANNOT wait for their next one, BOSTON deserved better and my MVP- Mark Pakin AHHH i NEED him on EVERY SHOW EVER but also in ways concerning to me GAWD WHAT A TALENT AND WHAT A FACE.

7. Laws of Attraction - Charn you guys. Charn and his utterly deranged expressions and his even more deranged ex. And ofc everything else the show offered. The drama. The mystery. The family. The romance. THE LESBIANS!!!!? Few things not to love. Especially the finale with all the domestic husbanding going on. Precious af.

8. Hidden Agenda - Far too much nonsensical plotlessness going on here for this to claim this position BUT i'm just a girl watching Joong swoon over his man and losing it in the corridor and proceeding to do that myself cos man he's so damn good in these kinda scenes. I think he'd be good in more serious ones too but I would much prefer it if it was with somebody who could offer more than Dunk (no shade he very cute himself)

POTENTIAL FAVS

The following is a list of shows i loved/liked it a LOT but still watching/running so I can't fully judge

(in no particular order except the first one cos who am i to put an aof show not at the top of any list)

Last Twilight [BEST THING EVER I AM WHOLLY AND IRRETRIEVABLY IN LOVE IM GONNA REWATCH IT LIKE ITS MY JOB PLS I NEED IT TO STICK THE LANDING SO BAD]

Love in Translation - episode 4 what a beauty, one of my fav episodes of any BL in 2023 ever- just LOVED the whole fake date thing - it was EVERYTHING

Wedding Plan - Leads are cute. Lesbians are cuter. Made me laugh. Also CUTENESS hello

Night Dream - Who doesn't love a long unrequited but actually totally requited love story?

The Sign - nothing i can ever say is gonna be enough to encompass just how mind-blowing this series is from concept to execution to CGI to costumes to the gorgeous leads with fckin electric chemistry AND the PINING and the will they won't they arhhhh- TOP TIER STUFF

Cooking Crush - i went into this with minimal expectations, the trailer didnt do much for me BUT oh my gawd i had SO MUCH FUN with each episode, i laughed SO much and i am very much looking forward to the rest of it

Cherry Magic - TayNew back again together. Karan and his gorgeous existence. Loved the og. The trope where one believes they are hard to love & someone who loves them like it’s breathing- its literally made for this show and i am SUPER excited where it goes. PLS PLS PLS let them keep the aroace character aroace PLEASE!?!?!?

[theopfan]

So I just read chapter 418 and I noticed something off (?) with the translation in Spanish given the fact that I saw the English scans and spoilers a couple of days before the official release, now that I have read both the official ones I noticed something that doesn't really line up between the two versions and decided to share it here for whoever is interested!

It's under the cut so people don't get spoiled (and because it's long as hell), the screenshots are taken directly from the MangaPlus website, so it's not a fan translation. However, I did translate with the best of my abilities the dialogues written below the screenshot from Spanish to English so people reading this would understand them.

[Originally posted the 31st of March, I edited some tags]

Okay, so it's about this page in particular, where in English, the person talking with Kotaro (most likely AFO) is asking about someone's Quirk, heavily implied that it's Tenko's since he's talking to Kotaro, why wouldn't he ask about his son if in the previous page they were talking as if they knew each other previously? Anyways, here's the page, where I circled the two dialogues that I found different while underlining that the person talking to Kotaro wanted to know about the other person's Quirk, that apparently hasn't manifested yet.

Well, in Spanish the page goes like this, which I'll translate here with the best of my abilities to make it as accurate as I can on the circled dialogues and the underlined, which in this case has the person talking to Kotaro asking about their own Quirk.

Please have in mind that English is not my first language, I did this translation as accurately as I could given my own knowledge while also adding other ways that the dialogues could be interpreted as, and I tried not to make any mistakes while writing them.

Non bubbled words: What is this memory?

Kotaro: I see. It won't be easy, but...

[Note: And here comes the difficult part for me to translate, because these two dialogues could go differently depending on how it's translated to English. I did a couple of takes with different options just in case.]

Mystery person: And what will happen to/with my Quirk? [Note: Both versions could be accurate]

Kotaro: It still isn't/hasn't... [Note: Both versions could be accurate]

-Other version in which 'Eso' is translated to 'That':

Mystery person: And what will happen to/with my Quirk?

Kotaro: That still isn't/hasn't... [Note: Both versions could be accurate]

[Note: The dialogue above is what made me want to make this post in the first place.]

Non bubbled words: I don't know

Izuku: It's not Tenko's

Non bubbled words: Who is this guy? [Note: I want to point out that the word 'tipo' is sometimes used to talk about a male person in an informal way, the translators could have perfectly put '¿Quién es esta persona?' = 'Who is this person?' but for some unknown reason chose not to.]

The difference between the two versions confused me, because I don't understand why the English one talks about what could potentially be Tenko's Quirk while the Spanish one talks about this other mysterious person's interest in their own Quirk.

Their dialogue could imply that the person is asking what will happen to their Quirk because of something, something that Kotaro could apparently know but doesn't yet. These are my own thoughts though, and I don't know how true they might be officially.

I don't know how relevant this could be to the following chapters, or why they chose to translate it/word it this way, but I thought I would point it out in case someone wanted to know.

Again, I translated the Spanish into English as best as I could so people reading this would understand why I thought it was strange, I don't know if this has happened in other languages as well.

If you read this whole thing, thanks for staying! Have a good day/afternoon/night!

[purplekoop]

@daylightcommand3 Explaining this in its own post because it's very much its own topic separate from the other figures

I actually don't remember any official life-sized Bastion statue (there were official life-sized statues made for stuff like cons and such, just not one of Bastion), but what I was referring to in that last post was, as far as I'm concerned, the "white whale" of Overwatch figure collecting.

The incredible, the elusive, and the unauthorized:

DX9 Freeman

A fully articulated and transforming translation of bird-loving bot into roughly 1/12th scale figure form, this is a godly Bastion figure.

It comes with everything you'd expect and hope for besides maybe an alternative welding hand. There's a little plastic Ganymede, and even treads and a cannon to you can swap out the gatling gun and legs for to replicate their Tank configuration, though now it'd be more accurate to just swap the legs for Assault mode and swap the cannon for Artillery mode, which like. the design was accidentally future proofed for the OW2 rework, I just find that neat.

Aside from the tank parts though, the transformation is completely legit. You bend the legs to form the stand, fold up the arms, retract the head, and swivel the torso around and pull down the back cannon to get it into turret form, just like the in-game animation. It's a testament to both the exceptional amount of thought and effort put into the character's original design, and the engineering required to make it into a functional model.

So... what's the catch. Obviously the perfect Bastion figure doesn't come without a catch, right?

Well. Notice how I called this figure "DX9 Freeman". Why isn't it just called... y'know, Bastion?

You might've been able to deduce by this point that this figure is in fact: Unofficial. DX9 is, from what I can gather, a Chinese company that specializes in making high-quality unofficial transforming figures for stuff like Transformers. Naturally, when a mega popular and relevant new game comes out with an iconic transforming robot, they decided to make this figure.

And this was back in 2017 or so, well before the Hasbro line, with I think the only thing out by then being maybe the Tracer Figma. It was slim pickings if you wanted an Overwatch guy on your shelf back then, so "Freeman" here caught on. Even when other figures started rolling in, there were no official figures of Bastion. There was a Lego set and an above-average Funko Pop in terms of both looks and size, but nothing else would just about perfectly fit in line with the proper action figures.

Sadly though, it was a spark short-lived, as it is basically impossible to find the figure now. The direct site to find it has been out of stock for years, and I doubt many people who already have one are willing to part with theirs for cheap, if at all.

So yeah. This is by far the best but most elusive Overwatch figure out there as far as I'd say. It's a basically perfect recreation of the character (save for a flat paint job, if you wanna be picky), but by nature of being an unlicensed figure from 6 years ago now, jesus christ, it didn't stick around for long and is nearly impossible to come across today, and even if you miraculously somehow find a secondhand seller today, I have a feeling it ain't gonna be cheap.

If I could magically wish for any mundane object that wouldn't technically benefit my life in any drastic way, it'd be one of these. Bastion's one of my favorite designs in a game full of fantastic character designs, so having a big ol' unit of a figure that offers a physical way to showcase the coolest part of that design with the game-accurate transforming feature would be... more personally exciting than I'm willing to admit.

Anyways yeah, full breakdown of every figure line and what characters are in which coming soon. Wanted to clear up Bastion first anyways, both because it's such a cool figure and also such a specific asterisk that's worth bringing up but not totally fair to include in a breakdown of official figures that are more easily and consistently available for most people without getting lucky.

[local-diavolo-anon]

Jeff The Killer Headcanons!

aaaand it's time for another boy :D

(note: a good portions of my headcanons come from this fanfiction here, which is to my opinion one of, if not the best fanfiction/sequel to Jeff's original story, so i suggest everyone who likes the character to read it! i think it's only in italian, but use a translator if you can, because it deserves a lot!)

Physical appearence:

I think he looks roughly like what the stories describe him as, but those are, rather than actual descriptions of what he looks like, more like what the terrified people who had seen him remember him as

So compared to what most people think, he does not miss his his cheeks, lips or eyelids; he is insane not stupid, and knows well that missing those would make his life way more difficult on the daily

His eyelids are just partially missing because he pretty much burned alive, so his eyes dannot close completely unless he scrunches them shut

He doesn't sleep, at all.

He lays there emotionless for some time and just rests a bit

His cheeks are, again, not missing, his scars are two linear cuts that run through them

Unless he opens his mouth you cannot see inside, or his teeth

Except on his left side, following the remake creepypasta he has a scar that trails up his face there, and he do miss a small portion of his cheek there, barely enough to see a lil peek of his molars

(If you point it out he would act dramatic like a victorian woman whom somekne just told her ankles are showing)

He is tall, around 1.86 meters tall (6'1" i think), and rather lanky

He isn't skinny, however; he has a good amount of muscles there, he just looks like a street pole

His shoe size is 47 EU, which is roughly a 13US and a 12.5UK (men size) which means this guy has boats for feet

His hair are... shit, to put it nicely. They feel like horsehair to the touch, and are rather dry, meaning they will just become spikes if you try to use gel on them

He keeps them long most of the time because that way you cannot see the bald patch he has on the left side of his forehead, that like his scar was caused by being shot in the face with a signal rocket (i cannot find a better name for it, sorry)

He always had light blue eyes, but they look paler now since his skin is also pale and ruined, his left eye also is partially blind

Like in the story i linked above, he has full control over most of his body and can totally use his own muscles to stop a blade or partially a bullet from causing major wounds

This is why his body is covered in scars that should have been caused by deadly hits, like multiple bullet wounds, stab wounds and even an electric scar (that one is on his back)

He also has that funny, funny trick of asking someone to check his pulse and then stop his own heart for a little and watch whoever was his target freak the fuck out

He can run for a long time without getting tired, of course he has his limit, but it's definitely longer than a normal person or athlete

He has long fingers, and his hands look a bit like a raccoon's in terms of finger shape

Trivia headcanons:

He is a smug bastard and will haunt whoever he is close enough with

Mostly for fun, with little malicious intent behind other than annoying and/or causing some chaos

He is not a noisy or loud person himself, but can be if prompted

By himself he is irritatingly smug at the worst

While he is smart and mostly rational, upholding a very accurate ability to predict how others will act and what they will do after studying them for long enough, he is an impulsive asshole who can and will lash out given the right circumstances

And he will be maniacal about it

Following the story i linked, while he dies at the end there, if we say he does not then i like to think Zenith does not fully disappear, but does not maintain control over him, and remains kind of like a ghost of sorts following him around and bothering him every once in a while

He will talk out loud to them without any filter and does not care people cannot see or hear them, everyone knows he is insane already so upholding that label does him no wrong

When i say talk i mean he occasionally ask them for tips on things he is too impulsive to deal with normally, or simply bicker/fight with them if they are annoying him too much

He carries with him an unreal amount of knives, and embodies the trope of a person being asked to give all their weapons and they start taking out more and more weapons from increasingly unlikely and bizzare places

The more visible one is a large knife he carries in a leather slipcover that is attached to his belt

But he has a few thinner ones straped to his left forearm, a hunting knife straped to his right arm, another two to his legs (respectively thigh and ankle), several ones straped to his chest under his hoodie, which is oversized for exactly this reason, smaller one hidden in his right boot, and to end it, a miniature switchblade he braided into his hair

Yeah he does not like walking around weaponless lmao

On the other hand, he has absolutely no idea of how to operate a gun, so giving him one makes him potentially more dangerous than leaving him with 10+ knives

He likes to hunt down eyeless jack in the forest to bother him about things

Nothing in particular, but sometimes he feels lonely and the oversized demon is a good company when you just want to sit somewhere in the forest and look at the sky

Because of how he operates, he is rather skilled in stuff like free climing and parkour, 90% self taught and 100% aimed at running away whenever anyone spots him

He left cops eating dirt several times because of said skills paired with his fill control over his body functions

Despite what it looks like, overall he is not a too bad of a person to be around if he tolerates you

i probably forgot something but this is in my drafts since a few days and tomorrow i will travel away for a few days so i won't be able to publish it anymore Q-Q

[the-land-of-eternal-winter-novel]

The Land of Eternal Winter - Political Compass 9×9 - ultimate character sheet + worldbuilding masterpost

Auth-Left

Including actual communists but generally just working class people and their adjacent labour unions, political parties etc

Center-Left

Including again, mostly working class people (regardless of political affiliation), people who are "progressive" by the standards of this society or otherwise people who view the revolutions in a positive light although they themselves would not join

Lib-left

Including actual anarchists as well as, again, people who would be considered "liberal" by the standards of that society, as well as those who prioritise their personal freedom etc

Auth-Center

Comprised of people who are power hungry for the most part, as well as others who are opposed to the current regime for whatever other reason

Centrist

People who genuinely want nothing to do with all of this, and are mostly concerned with their personal affairs, in this context used as synonym for apolitical

Lib-Center

People mostly concerned about personal freedom etc rather than any specific political affiliation, including various villagers (who would be conservative from a cultural lens)

Auth-Right

Including actual imperialists but mostly just traditionalists and the older generations of monarchists, people more concerned with justice and order than peace

Center-Right

Again, mostly monarchists and conservatives, more or less comprising the majority/ status quo of this society

Lib-right

People who value freedom, peace, etc more than order, justice etc, in the case of the monarchs: particularly lenient in their rule, this side also includes republicans (in the anti-monarchist/ presidency sense)

Edit:

Note:

The numerals indicate how proemiment a character actually is in the story

I = main cast

II = supporting character

III = episodic character

IV = background character

End of note

DISCLAIMER

I do not pretend this is a very accurate representation of an actual political compass, I mostly use it as a neat little character template because it's one I've been using for a long time

The society in which these characters live is largely very conservative, so even the left wingers are not as left as they would normally be, or the progressives as progressive as irl, etc. See: Overton window

I have indeed conflated right wing with conservative and left wing with progressive in some cases (otherwise the characters would not be so political, instead being in some way or another "against the grain" and thus falling in the category of "they care more about their personal freedoms"), and also the authority-liberty axis is used in a government sense with some (ostensibly political) characters, but in a personal (how lenient or inscrutable of a person they are etc) with less political characters.

I would also like to add that I tried my best with the names (personal names, surnames, toponyms etc), but I know I might have made some mistakes. If you know the language in which any of those names are written and it makes you cringe, feel free to critique them, but also offering some alternatives, because otherwise I cannot change them for the better. (On the other hand all country names are equally "cringe" translating literally to stuff like Frozenland, Mistland, Springland etc, so I'm not being disrespectful to any country in particular).

End of disclaimer

________

I worked about 2 months on this, with a total of 81 panels, and almost 100 characters illustrated

I personally am very satisfied with the end result and how far I've come both regarding my drawing and my writing skills. I really hope you guys enjoy it too and that the lore, presented in this format, will make you interested in my novel. Currently I've only written draft 1, but I'm working on wprldbuilding and outlining for draft 2, as illustrated (badum tss) above.

Thank you for reading!

[thetraingotsetonfireonmidnight]

🚨!!POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD!!🚨

Hi, I was wondering if I could request headcanons about fem!reader reacting to Bakugou’s death. Like she’s there fighting with him and he dies in her arms?? And the reader just absolutely wipes the floor with the villains that killed him??? If not that’s totally fine 😁😁. Thank you and have a good day x

I most certainly can do that for you ;) have a great day anon!

Warnings: Character death, blood and injury, admittedly so overpowered y/n, manga spoilers (not completely accurate to canon! Added more villains)

𝔅𝔞𝔨𝔲𝔤𝔬𝔲 𝔇𝔶𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔦𝔫 𝔣𝔢𝔪!𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯'𝔰 𝔄𝔯𝔪𝔰 (there's no mentions of the readers gender though so honestly anyone can read this)

It all happened so fast you couldn't think.

You knew you should've told Bakugou to stay back.

Half of his face was torn, blood tricking down his face.

One of his gauntlets were completely destroyed and his arm was crushed. It dangled at his side awkwardly.

He should've stayed down. He should've waited for Deku to get there. He should've given up and accepted his failure.

Had it been anybody else, they would have thrown in the towel. It was suicide to keep fighting under such harsh conditions.

But it hadn’t been anybody else, it had been Bakugou...

And Bakugou never accepted defeat. He had sworn once that he would rather die than lose, and those words would become true.

Despite your screams for him to stop, he continued to fight Shigaraki.

He jumped after him, dodging his attacks and attacking him whenever he saw an opening.

For someone who was barely clinging onto life, he was doing well,

but his luck soon ran out once Shigaraki landed a hit on his heart.

And as his body flew back from impact, his head weakingly falling to the side after he hit the ground, and his All Might card fell out of his pocket and landed next to his head...

Everyone knew his fate had been sealed.

You ran over to him, propping his head up in your lap.

Your costume had small rip and tears, your own blood seeping out of the many wounds that were scattered across your body.

You wiped some blood off of his face, your tears taking its place as you wept.

You begged him to come back, you pleaded for him to get back up because you couldn't go on without him. You refused to believe that you'd have to go on in life without him. All of the promises he made, the doings he claimed he'd do the second he'd graduate...did they mean nothing now? Had it been all in vain? Had he wasted his breath?

For a moment– a small moment– you could've sworn you saw Katsuki look at you. His eyes held life behind them in that small moment. He looked at you. His mouth opened, as if he were trying to say something.

You leaned in closer, hoping to be able to translate his distorted whispers.

But then the moment ended, and his eyes went back to stare at the heavens above.

Best Jeanist confirming that there had been no pulse was the final nail in the coffin.

He had died, and you didn't even get to know what his last words to you were.

Your whole world crumbled right there and then.

This wasn't the way it was supposed to end.

The man who declared so loudly that he would become number one had been killed before he had been able to graduate.

His dream had been stolen from him, and if the six year old Katsuki knew that his story would end here, he would've thrown away that unsigned All Might card right there and then.

Anger bubbled in your chest.

You weren't thinking. All you knew was that you were in pain. Everything hurt and you wanted it to end.

Acting off of instinct, you stood up.

Running past the big three, you used your quirk to land blows on the villains that surrounded you.

You saw red, as you zeroed in one villain. One punch after another, blood stained your fist.

You didn't even know if the guy was still alive, and a part of you didn't care-

Because the second you felt another villain hit you, you completely forgot about the lifeless body underneath you

Like flies, you picked them off one by one.

And when you got to Shigaraki, you gave it your everything.

He taunted you the whole way,

"It didn't have to be this way. I made it clear I wanted Midoryia, not him. I'm not going to continue to waste my energy on weaklings like you."

The rage inside you burned brighter with every word he spoke. He wasn't even fighting you properly, dismissing you completely as if you weren't worth his time.

You hated it.

You continued to fight your hardest because God damn it, he was going to see you.

He couldn't destroy your life and then not acknowledge you. You had to give him hell. He had to pay.

As you went to launch yourself at him again, you felt a hand on your shoulder.

You looked over to see

"Deku?"

He had made it.

He was late.

A part of you wanted to yell at him. To put the blame on him because if he had gotten here sooner, Bakugou would still be by your side.

But as you opened your mouth to yell, you noticed him

His hair was messy, his suit tattered.

And his eyes...you never thought you'd see them be so devoid of life.

It reminded you that Deku was hurting, just like you were.

You and Deku had never been too close, nor were you two similar in anyway.

But in that moment, your differences were forgotten, because you both had one goal in mind:

Give Shigaraki the whooping of a lifetime.

[ratsoh-writes]

I’m looking at some of my old posts and have realized that a lot of the character descriptions aren’t very accurate with how I write the characters now. So I’ll be be redoing each skeledudes general personality description (and job description) and reblogging this post each day until I have all of them ;)

Sans: He’s our typical lazy and punny guy! Sans is a real people’s man and has friends and connections all over. Despite finding across as a charismatic extrovert, he’s actually very introverted and enjoys his friends in controlled doses. Sans is a playful prankster at heart. His favorite reactions from his victims is the face of blank confusion as they witness his quiet little acts of chaos. Sans is a very guarded monster who doesn’t typically show a lot of emotion beyond surface level. It takes a long time to earn enough trust for him to open up. A long long time. Sans is also a scholar at heart. The only time you’ll ever see him truly work is when something is interesting enough for him to feel passionate about

His job is a nuclear engineer! Sans is researching ways to combine nuclear energy with magic to make safer and cleaner energy sources

Papyrus: he’s the true definition of an optimist. Papyrus can always see the best in any person or situation. Because of this, people may think that he’s naive. He isn’t, he just stays strong to his ideals and is stubborn enough to ignore any criticism. Papyrus lives for seeing his friends and family succeed. In fact, he’s at his happiest when he makes others happy. This makes him the ultimate cheerleader friend. Pair that with a very empathetic and observant personality, and you have a guy who can get along with almost anyone. However, his passion is also his greatest flaw. When papyrus gets really into something, he sometimes doesn’t see the risks involved and will continue on to that goal regardless. He’s impulsive

For his job, he owns an escape room! It’s actually several different rooms: a large main room, four smaller surrounding ones, the lobby, and a medium room for parties. The puzzles and themes of the rooms change every other month

Star (underswap sans): he’s an adorable positive energy ball of PURE EVIL. Ok ok, not true evil of course, but Star is a manipulative little imp. He goes by the rule of: “if you won’t treat me like an adult, then I’m going to take advantage of it.” He’s definitely not above using his looks to get what he wants. With his friends, Star is easygoing and playful. He loves to tease and flirt and prefers friends who can keep up with him. He’s also a bit of a scatterbrain and has a bad habit of taking on more than he can chew. Star is a wonderful motivator but has issues with being too pushy if he feels like his friend isn’t progressing fast enough.

His job is in the police force as a detective and SAR (search and rescue). His main priority is finding missing persons and taking out human trafficking rinks

Honey (underswap papyrus): honey is a total sweetheart. He can be pretty shy and anxious when you first meet him, but if you’re nice, he’s quick to latch on and adopt you into his friend group. When he’s comfortable, he’s a very chill and playful guy. He has a raging motherly streak and doesn’t realize sometimes that he’s nagging. Honey is a romantic at heart and just wants someone he can be sappy with. He does get very clingy since he assumes that most people are only around him because of Star. Don’t mess with his kitchen. He’s a total nerd and will happily fixate on almost any fandom with his friends

His job is an online translator. He mostly does written legal documents but also sometimes acts at the translator for zoom meetings. Honey prefers to work from home

[mayihavethisdanse]

“What is this, the Dark Ages?”

Or, Arthurian themes and allusions in the Brotherhood of Steel mythos as seen in Fallout 4. (But that’s a lot of words.)

Yep. We're doing this. 

First, some obligatory caveats: there is no single Arthurian canon, just 1500 years of assorted fanfic based on the whims of whoever was writing at the time. For this extremely highbrow Tumblr meta, I have ignored most of it and drawn on my favorites. Also Wikipedia.

Also, I am not an expert in Arthurian literature (or Fallout lore, come to that), and I preemptively beg the pardon of anyone who is.

Finally, in no way am I claiming that all these parallels and thematic echoes are deliberate or even significant. In fact, I'd break it down into:

Clearly deliberate allusions, whether in or out of universe;

Probably coincidence, but could be someone deliberately capitalizing on a coincidental similarity;

Almost certainly coincidence, but fun to speculate about; annnnd

Blatant Monty Python references. (Because of course there are.)

I'll start with the big one.

Arthur Maxson, boy king and unifier

(source)

So across all the retellings and variations of King Arthur’s life story, there are a few consistent elements, particularly in his early life and rise to power. Some of these threads are echoed in the Fallout universe, specifically (and unsurprisingly) in the person of Arthur Maxson.

Both the legendary King Arthur and Arthur Maxson were born with a claim to power lying in their ancestry, both were fostered away from their families, and both proved themselves in combat at a young age. 

King Arthur united the warring kingdoms of Britain into a single entity, making them stronger against outsiders and receiving general admiration and acclaim. Arthur Maxson united the divided factions of the BoS after the events of Fallout 3 and is held in similarly high regard by his men.

The name Prydwen is a reference to the ship of the original King Arthur. Presumably, Arthur Maxson (or someone in the BoS who anticipated his promotion) christened the airship in a deliberate homage to the Arthurian myth.

King Arthur is associated with his legendary sword. I think it’s notable that Maxson’s legend is associated with a bladed weapon, too. ("He killed a DEATHCLAW with a COMBAT KNIFE!”)

Probably coincidence, but fun: the historical emperor Magnus Maximus, who pops up a lot in early Arthurian legend, was known in Welsh as... Macsen. (⌐■_■)

Round Table, but make it dieselpunk

(Continued under the cut.)

Moving away from obvious allusions and into some looser parallels:

Like the Round Table, the Brotherhood is an exclusive knightly order with its leader being the one able to open it up to his chosen few.

Like the Round Table, the BoS sees itself as defending human civilization against forces of chaos. (I’ll touch on their tech-hoarding tendencies when I get to the Grail stuff.) This idea of civilization in the face of chaos goes back to the BoS’s founding, even though the level of isolationism we see in most of the Fallout franchise is not exactly what founder Roger Maxson had in mind: “Notably, Maxson's ultimate intention was to establish the Brotherhood as an organization that works closely with people outside of the Brotherhood, as guardians of civilizations, not its gatekeepers.” (source) In a lot of ways, Arthur Maxson represents a return to his ancestor’s original ideals.

Renegade knights? Internal politics? Traitors within? We gotchu.

In both the medieval legends and in all chapters of the BoS we’ve seen, there’s a big focus on bloodlines (ew). Ironically, it’s probably Arthur Maxson’s unquestionable ancestry that allows him to be more progressive than either of his East Coast predecessors when it comes to boosting Brotherhood numbers by recruitment (even though you can still see a clear division between “born Brotherhood” and recruited soldiers, but that’s a topic for another day). Maxson sees himself as an Elder who "cares for the people"—however misguided and patronizing that attitude might be—and whatever else you might say about the guy, you can't say he doesn't believe he has a duty. Which brings us to…

Know Your Enemy: Danse as Gawain

Before I start this section, an acknowledgement of authorial bias:

Gawain, as portrayed in the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is my very favorite of King Arthur’s knights. (Other stories aren't always as flattering, but like I said at the outset: I'm sticking to the ones I like.)

That poem is my very favorite piece of medieval Arthurian literature. In this section, I'll refer to the modern English translation by Simon Armitage.

...that’s it, I have no other biases to disclose. 

What? 👀

(Art: Clive Hicks-Jenkins)

All right. So in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, you’ve got this himbo loyal knight of Arthur’s who finds himself caught up in... you know what, let me just paste in the Wikipedia summary. (The Toast, RIP, also did a pretty entertaining and more-or-less accurate recap.)

It describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain of the appointed time. In his struggles to keep his bargain, Gawain demonstrates chivalry and loyalty until his honour is called into question by a test involving the lord and the lady of the castle where he is a guest.

Don’t worry too much about the plot details, though; for this post, I’m more interested in the thematic parallels. The Green Knight story is full of contrasts: order vs. chaos, civilization vs. wilderness, mortal man vs. Other... but let’s start with Gawain himself. 

Some stuff to know about Gawain:

He was "as good as the purest gold, devoid of vices but virtuous and loyal". Gawain took his principles more seriously even than the rest of Arthur’s knights, not out of pride but out of humility: "I would rather drop dead than default from duty," he says. 

He’s faithful and honorable and never even tempted to betray an oath, even when offered every variety of seduction and riches, except for a single moment of weakness in a desperate desire not to be executed for random shit by powerful forces for reasons he doesn't understand.  

Even though he doesn’t really understand why he needs to die, he sticks to his oath. Gawain's one weakness is a moment of desperate, private, human desire for survival. He'll submit to the headsman’s axe if he has to, but he'd still rather live. 

Above all, Gawain is the ideal of a human man: he might be the bravest and loyal man there is, but he’s still fundamentally human.

You can probably see where I'm going with this.

A few more fun facts about Gawain that resonate with Paladin Danse’s story:

He’s got a bunch of really shitty brothers. (No comment.)

Gawain (SPOILERS!) doesn't actually end up beheaded, but he does willingly kneel for his execution and gets a cut on the throat as a reminder of his sin. And, uh, Danse can also get his throat cut! It doesn’t end as nicely but it’s, you know, a thing that can happen.

Gawain might be a really good guy, and he tries really hard to be one, but in the end he’s nothing more than that: there’s nothing supernatural about him, he has no special powers beyond his own principles and devotion. He’s just a dude doing his Best. 

Wait, why not Danselot?

Oh, that guy? Here’s the thing.

Lancelot personifies the continental ideals of courtly love that became popular in the High Middle Ages. Central to his story is the prioritization of personal relationships and romantic feelings in a way that you don’t really see in Gawain's, at least in the Green Knight tale. (Later stories hook Gawain up with an extremely delightful lady, but even that is a different flavor of romance than Lancelot's and has more to do with Gawain honoring his word and his egalitarian treatment of women (hell yeah). In the poem, Gawain is impressed by Bertilak's wife but resists her temptation; in fact, the biggest risk is not that he'll yield to her advances but that he'll be discourteous to her, i.e., violate his principles and cause dishonor to his king and his host.)

Lancelot is driven by passions over principles in a way that Gawain never really is (at least in the stories I’m talking about; later writers have committed character assassination to various degrees). Yes, you could argue that both Gawain and Lancelot betray their oaths, but Lancelot’s betrayal is never, um, blind. He knows what he’s doing and makes a deliberate choice to prioritize his love for the queen over his love for the king. It doesn’t make him a bad guy—he too is an ideal knight with one fatal flaw—but his character isn’t as comparable to Paladin Danse. 

Yeah, Gawain is (in most stories) a prince and a kinsman of Arthur’s, but he’s ultimately a native boy who doesn’t break the mold of a Knight of the Round Table. Likewise, Danse is portrayed as competent and valuable to the BoS, but not exceptional or breaking the mold of what a BoS soldier should be: he simply represents the ideal. Meanwhile, Lancelot is a foreign prince who was marked from childhood as special and fancy, and his storyline goes alllll over the place. (Much like this post.)

For example, Lancelot goes to absolutely absurd extremes to prove his devotion for no other reason than to prove it. (“I’ll do any useless humiliating thing you want. I’ll betray every oath except the one I made to you. That’s what love is!”) Gawain would never. Danse would never.

Ultimately, Gawain's tests are of his character and not of his love. And like Gawain, Danse’s devotion is to service and his principles, not to another person—even Arthur Maxson.

All that said, there are some similarities: both are beloved by Arthur, both are held up as the ideal of what a knight should be. And even if their fatal flaws are different, both make the point that no matter how good and brave and loyal they might be, no human being can be perfect. 

(Except Galahad. Who is, as a result, very boring.) 

I’ll conclude this section with a quote from someone else’s take on the Greek Knight poem:

I like Gawain. He’s not perfect, but he’s trying his best which is all any of us can do. He’s not like the other knights in the Arthurian legends who occasionally ‘accidentally’ kill women on their little adventures and then feel hard done by when they have to deal with the consequences of that. Gawain holds himself to a high standard – higher, it seems, than Arthur and his knights hold him to considering how hard they laugh when Gawain tells them how bad he feels about the whole thing.

I think Gawain is very relatable in this story. We all want to be better than we actually are.

And that, more than anything else, is Danse.

The Grail myth

What’s that? Lost relics of power? Better send some large armed men after ‘em!

The parallels to the BoS’s tech-hoarding ways are obvious enough that the games themselves lampshade them (albeit by way of Monty Python). But it also ties into the larger themes of “purity” versus “corruption” and the BoS’s self-image as a bastion between civilization and chaos. (See Maxson's line in response to the Sole Survivor’s quip about the Dark Ages: “Judging from the state of the world, it wouldn't be a stretch to say we're living in that era again.”)

But the ultimate futility of the Grail mission is also worthy of note. The BoS might want the power of prewar tech on their side, but they’re no more to be trusted with it than any other group of human beings. No matter how they try, the “corruption” of humanity can’t be overcome as long as they’re striving to harness power for their own ends. You can only achieve power by surrendering control of it.

The death of Arthur

The nature of gameplay being what it is, it's not guaranteed that the Arthur figure will be fatally betrayed, bringing Camelot down with him—but it's not unlikely, either.

Awkward.

Some final spitballing:

Outside the Brotherhood, there are some fun parallels of the Arthur myth with the rest of Fallout 4. Betrayal by one’s own son, for example.

The key difference between the BoS and the legendary Round Table: King Arthur’s knights, for all their flaws and human weaknesses, are usually presented as unambiguous Good Guys. The BoS is... a little more ambiguous...

...but damn if they don’t think they're the good guys. 

A-ad victoriam, fellas!

[unlikelywrestlingfan]

I have never watched NJPW, but I am learning and had many thoughts on the BoSJ press conference it was delightful:

Hiromu Takahashi starting a speech when he was just supposed to pose and then sit XD

There are sunflowers on his back

Hiromu Takahashi - gives long and passionate speech and performs a song. YOH - “Hi. I am going to do my best. ✌”

Ryusuke Taiguchi - looks like a distinguished old man but he is talking about his butt so I believe my guess of “looks normal is insane” is pretty accurate

I am OBSESSED with watching the other competitors reacting as people.  speak. YOH looked like he was trying not to laugh at Taiguchi

YOH - I was not expecting his voice to be that deep. His epithet and the way he says it makes him sound like a Kamen Rider character (complimentary) but he too serious for that hmmmmm. I am intrigued.

Clark Connors - was SHOOK when be started speaking Japanese. Had very sweet things to say about the fans, which goes against the vibes he was giving me, but noice noice.

Kanemaru - he talked about Taiguchi’s butt, for some reason, and YOH looked like he was desperately trying not to laugh XD

Taiji Ishimori - went through a list of competitors by name or epithet and I was following along till he got to “wrench guy.” Seems v intense. Wants to break everything, I’m here for it.

SHO - Also says literally almost nothing aldkfja ldsk f I saw something earlier that implied he and YOH used to be a team?? (Edit after a google - oh Roppongi 3K! Rocky Romero managed them. Seems like they had a breakup? which is so sad because they have matching names.)

Ace Austin - His sunglasses are everything. He looks like a combo of an anime cosplayer and a Gambit (X-Men) cosplayer. Watching him (as far as I know, couldn’t find out for sure when I googled) not understand anything that’s being said so really cashing in his facial reactions when Clark Connors was talking was delightful. I skimmed the results of BoSJ night 1 and apparently he cut the webbing of someone’s fingers with a playing card, which is EXACTLY what I would expect from a person from Impact (affectionate). No idea how to feel about this guy. WHAT IS THE STICK FOR? IS IT A POOL CUE? A POINTER STICK? A STABBY BOI?

Distracted by YOH in the background - he either looks like he’s going to laugh or like he’s #so above it all lol. He’s like actively avoiding making eye contact with the camera. He is nodding.

They are translating Austin’s speech now. He nommed his card, which seems t obe a thing for him. Then he stuck it back in his sleeve. Does he have a special compartment for that?

Alex Zayne - this man looks like an action anime vampire. I’ve never seen Helsing but that one.The only part of his outfit that is not red is his tie and his gages. I love the angle he’s doing with not being signed, creative! I am fascinated by his hair but v put off by “sauce.” You do you tho, man!

Franciso Akira - Ah, the Italian. YOU’RE 22? HE’S YOUNGER THAN ME. I just realized that either Ace Austin’s hair is black in the middle or it’s the lighting (he and YOH are seated right behind the podium, so you can see their reactions the most). WAIT THIS DUDE JUST SAID HE WANTS TO BURN EL DESPERADO’S MASK BRO THAT’S NOT COOL. WE DO NOT TOUCH THE MASKS.

The subtitles went away where did they go???? Oh wait they repeated the question in English nvm

Clark Connors is talking, and Hiromu’s head is at the bottom of the screen. He’s just vibing. I want to boop his nose.

Okay, time for B Block! A Block is leaving. Ace Austin knocked over his title display thing by accident and didn’t pick it back up. #heeltactics

*deep sigh* Okay so I watched and typed out all of B Block, with lots of detail and fun, but Tumblr glitched and didn’t save it. I’m v mad but can’t recover it. Gonna recreate as much as I can...

They are doing their entrances. Master Wato’s pose is so fun. Despy El Desperado walks so jauntily. And that jaunty bow! Yuta getting up to help when someone fell!! And Titan and El Desperado!! El Phantasmo, I’ve only known you for about 20 seconds, but you already exude a-hole energy. And now he’s on the floor. 

Master Wato - Rip the mic not being on XD. He seems v intense, I’m here for it. You go, Classical Musician Anime Character Guy XD

Robbie Eagles - HIS SUIT IS ALL VELVETY THIS ADDS TO MY HE IS A MEMBER OF GREEN DAY OR FALL OUT BOY THAT BECAME A WRESTLER CLAIM. Whoever put Yuta right behind the podium, meaning we can see all his reactions, ily. 

Titan - Oh really sweet speech!! I like him!! Also his mask is v shiney

BUSHI - he’s Naito’s wrasslin’ husband, right? Oh, happy 15th career annivesary, sir!

Douki - OOOOO his ponytail!!! I like his mask too.

El Desperado -  Dude, he was so calm and then continued to be calm as he ROASTED Master Wato. Now he’s roasting someone else but I’m not sure who - now Douki is standing up THEY ARE BUTTING HEADS (yes I did go back to watch Yuta’s reaction he put his hands up all cute like “I’m not part of this” and smiled). Someone was saying, “slap him, Douki!” but I couldn’t tell who. OOO HE BROKE OUT A PUN. Is El Desperado always this mean?? Does Douki have this coming?? What is the beef????

El Lindaman - I got jumpscared by his sudden yell XD. “Have a GLEAT time,” the poses, the passion. This man is a tokusatsu character (affectionate). Ooooo a rejected underdog story? I’m a sucker for those!

Wheeler Yuta - He mentioned his new dads!! Also 😍😍😍😍😍😍

TJP - What does he have? A mask. YOU STOLE IT? YOU WANT TO STEAL ALL THEIR MASKS??? NOT COOL!! Also he started with “I’m not gonna thank anybody” and Yoots’ reaction XD. Wait this guy’s beaten Kota? Dang (also Kota :((((( I hope he’s okay)

El Phantasmo - Does he ever stop talking? Can he please stop talking??? He never had a chance with me because he’s friends with Jay White but WOW (as usual my hate is for the characters not the people who play them #disclaimer)

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona. 

[phoenixyfriend]

I’ve been trying to figure out the best obi wan ship. They all have one slightly problematic thing this way or that. I’ve landed on the idea of obi wan and an equal is pretty top tier. But then I saw a picture of Coran from voltron. Coran and Obiwan might be a disaster but also both are dad shaped, both are bad ass, both are ginger, both have an accent. I think it could work. But another part of me is like Coran is just obi and jarjar mashed together. At the very least they hooked up.

Hey I just had restaurant ramen and Starbucks and actually feel like a human being so let's do something unnecessary but funny. I'm taking this as a challenge, anon.

Also IMO Coran has more in common with C3P0 than with JarJar

So obviously, both of these happen in Big Space, but the difference appears to be density. We see about the same complexity of culture and species interactions, but Voltron covers more galaxies. It's vaguely implied that Earth, at least, is the only planet with sapient life in the Milky Way.

I think the way I want to play this out, culturally, is that the Voltron area of the universe covers a much wider, but much more sparsely populated area, while the SW-verse is just the one very densely populated (in part because apparently humans just went Literally Everywhere) galaxy, where they didn't necessarily bother with developing the tech to go to other galaxies (except Rishi, which only sort of counts) because they haven't really even charted out their own yet. It was never contacted by the Voltron side of things because [checks notecards full of excuses] it's really far away from Altea and all that, and the Force shielded the galaxy from Galra interests because Reasons.

All this to say that the two franchises didn't interact until after the Voltron plotline was already over. We'll say it went mostly canon, except Allura survived because uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuck that.

We'll say that this is mid-TCW, you know, before Obi-Wan is a bundle of repressed traumas and bad coping mechanisms that's lost almost everyone he's ever loved to the dark side through death or corruption. He's still (mostly) okay! Anakin's not dark (or at least, not as dark as he could be; Obi-Wan doesn't know about the Tuskens), and Ahsoka's still in good standing and most people are alive and--and okay the army is a massive ethical violation he hates with his very soul and he misses Qui-Gon and Anakin's keeping secrets and pulling away from him every day but He's Fine, Guys.

He's Fine.

In comes a ship from not Wild Space, but beyond that. Intergalactic visitors, from the direction of the deeply concerning Force bullshit they felt a few years ago. Translation tech is decent enough on both sides that they get to talking pretty quickly. The explorer is actually a member of the Blade of Marmora, who gets the absolute most basic info (approximately this many inhabited planets, approximately this many trillions of sapients in the recorded galaxy, basic structure of the government for the past however many years, most recent conflict, etc.)

BoM person is like "cool, okay so you guys are really well set-up so I'm just gonna head back and kick this up a few rungs of the coalition ladder because this is way above my paygrade, I'll make sure you get some diplomats who can maybe help out with the whole galactic civil war situation as neutral parties."

The Voltron Coalition does send a diplomat! They, uh, also send Coran, who isn't technically a diplomat, but he's high-level.

The thing is, okay, that Coran is mostly just... passably competent at things. He's a jack of all trades, master of none type. He knows a lot of things, actually, but his practical knowledge in high pressure situations tends to be up in the air. He knows how to fix the Castle Ship and various technologies, but all of that info is ten thousand years out of date. He was a competent fighter at one point but these days his back gives out. He's very knowledgeable regarding intergalactic politics but, again, that information is ten thousand years out of date. He's also a little prone to social gaffs in dicey situations (e.g. the inciting incident in the Voltron Show episode where he misses the single day with clear skies), but puts in so much goddamn effort to make things happen.

In this manner, he's like a warped mirror of what Obi-Wan is and could be.

THAT SAID

Coran is actually really good with teenagers, and specifically with training them.

And Obi-Wan... isn't.

Obi-Wan's snarky and snippy and sassy, and he's decent enough at teaching and he's great at being a jokey friend and all, but he's not necessarily very good at emotions. And unfortunately for Obi-Wan, the teenagers he spends the most time with are Really Full Of Emotions. He tries, bless him, but he's just... he doesn't respond well to emotional conversations at the best of times.

His son-figure saying "You're like a father to me" leads to a response of... radio silence. Guys. That's not the mark of a man who knows how to talk about his feelings with the people he cares about.

In swans Coran with the various other diplomatic envoys of the visiting extragalactic community. The entire situation is really leading to a lull in the war because nobody wants to risk pissing off this clearly well-funded, well-powered third party. As a result, many of the High Generals can interact with the envoys, even if they spend quite a bit of time eyeing the Separatist representatives on the other side of the room, because clearly Everyone Needs A Seat At This Table.

It's a very tense situation.

Obviously, Coran is exactly the weird uncle that goes around telling plausibly-exaggerated stories about Weblums and Yalmors and Balmeras. I'm going to say at least one former Paladin is there, maybe Hunk. Hunk's fun, and also very willing to help Coran make friends and seem Amicable instead of Distant by correcting some of the exaggerations. There's a nice, calm atmosphere in a bubble around Coran and his nonsense, and it's a weird situation but arguably just... you know. It's good. He's good at making people feel safe around him.

Cue the hissed argument between Skywalker and Kenobi. The actual cause of said argument isn't important, just the fact that, in a dark corner where they're less likely to cause a PR issue, Anakin and Obi-Wan are having it out. Anakin's maybe twenty, still a lanky ragebaby, all that fun stuff. Obi-Wan is a the endpoint of every too-young brotherdad. He's thirty-six but feels like he's sixty-three. He's tired, but trying so damn hard to still connect with Anakin and just--just--

Obi-Wan gives himself a few minutes to calm down before following Anakin. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, really, but he has to mend the bridge before it frays even more than it already has. If Anakin goes to Palpatine for advice again, he's going to... do something. Obi-Wan isn't sure what, but he just has to fix this.

What he finds is... well, Anakin did end up going to vent to a man of an earlier generation who acts like a slightly eccentric older relative, but it's not Palpatine for once.

The goofy, slightly abrasive but mostly charming, brightly-colored representative of the Voltron Coalition is standing in the little balcony that Anakin's made it to, listening as Obi-Wan's recently-knighted padawan vents. The man nods and makes noises at the appropriate times, and then asks questions that are... maybe a little too accurate.

"You said that you view him as a father, that he raised you after you left your mother."

"Well, yeah, but he doesn't think I'm ready, or--"

"No parent ever does."

"...my mom thought I was ready to become a Jedi."

"I can't speak for your mother," the representative says, "but the princess of my people, Allura... I half-raised that girl from the beginning, and after the destruction of Altea, we were all the other had left. I watched her lead battles and bring life to planets, trying to rebuild a universe out of the ashes of what we'd left behind... I saw the evidence with my own eyes, and I still, every time, I worried for her."

"Why?"

"I worried that she'd be hurt, that she wasn't ready, that she'd make a decision she regretted. Often, she did, and I had to help her back up, and while she's always come back, stronger than before... she is the closest thing I have ever had to a daughter, and I will always worry for her. Every parent does. Do you think, perhaps, that your own Jedi Master, that you consider a father, may worry because he looks at you like a son? That it's not that he doesn't trust you, but that he doesn't trust the world around you?"

Obi-Wan feels his heart in his throat.

The conversation continues in that vein. While Obi-Wan can't say he likes the fact that this stranger is putting words in his mouth, if only as hypotheticals, he can't deny that there's a part of him that relaxes as Anakin does, as every frustrated fresh-knight question gets a measured elderly-steward response that's angled to consider the interpretation that favors Anakin and Obi-Wan in equal measure. Every word encourages Anakin to talk things out and lay boundaries and express his frustrations to Obi-Wan in the plainest words possible.

There's a story in there, more than one. The representative tends to go off on tangents, ones that Anakin sometimes finds interesting and sometimes just resigns himself to. Mostly, though, it goes well, and Obi-Wan... well, he's always been 'a nosy little bastard,' according to quite a few people.

(In his defense, the terms they'd used about Quinlan's 'investigative personality' had been quite a bit stronger.)

He eavesdrops to the end, and Anakin doesn't notice at all. Obi-Wan's not sure if he should try to address Anakin's lack of awareness of the world around him. He's not technically Anakin's master anymore. The comment may be taken as a criticism of his worth and capability, rather than a sincere desire to see his padawan not die.

He approaches the representative instead. He intends to introduce himself. Instead, the first words that tumble out of his mouth are:

"How do you do it?"

The man--older than he looks from a distance, more wrinkles than the bright hair would suggest, but not quite elderly yet--turns and lifts a brow. "Hm?"

"I'm sorry, I'm--" Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The young man you were just talking to is my former padawan, er, my former apprentice. I've been finding it harder and harder to speak with him over the past few years, and it seems that every interaction we have leads to an argument. How do you... manage that? I can't get him to listen to me at all."

"Ah, teenagers," the man sighs.

"He's twenty."

The representative pauses, and turns to him. "Are you the one he says raised him? The father?"

"Well... yes, I suppose that's one way to phrase it," Obi-Wan says, eyes darting to the side. He doesn't know how to explain the whole attachment situation to someone who barely knows what a Jedi is. He has even less of an idea of how to explain his own broken ability to speak of emotion, the parts of his mind that Bant clucks over and attributes to his own complicated relationship with Qui-Gon. "I had custody as his primary guardian from ages nine to nineteen and was the primary individual for handling his schooling, health, and general upbringing."

"That sounds to me like a very convoluted way of saying you were his father in all but name."

Obi-Wan grimaces. "I'm not exactly old enough to be his father, and I wasn't exactly the person he was supposed to learn from; I was the... back-up option."

"It seems he cares for you very much."

"He didn't have much of a choice," Obi-Wan says, with the kind of helpless smile and awkward shrug he's long gotten used to sharing with people when they ask. "And I assure you he'd have been happier with the man that was meant to teach him."

"I'd say that the 'would have' in this situation is much less important than what is," the representative says. Obi-Wan probably should have paid more attention to his name. "I wasn't in a position to define my relation to Allura or her father in the way that truly suited our situation, by... oh, tradition, social norms, public relations, take your pick. I was a very well-regarded official, of course, but I wasn't royalty, not even nobility, and I certainly wasn't wasn't legally or publicly part of the family. But for all the limitations there, I was still able to find ways to tell her and her family what they meant to me, and they in return. Your apprentice cares for you very much, and I'm sure you care back, but I'd hazard quite the guess that you've no idea how to tell him that."

"I... I shouldn't," Obi-Wan says. "I'm fond of him, of course, but I've no wish to smother him, and to simply say it would be undignified. I imagine he'd laugh in my face."

The representative raises one eyebrow and takes a sip of his drink.

"Master Kenobi," he says carefully. "Might I suggest you go find your young man, tell him you love him, and perhaps give him a hug?"

Obi-Wan's face flares red. It's been years since anyone short of Yoda has spoken to him like that.

"I'm not a child," he sniffs, trying to angle enough away that the blush isn't as noticeable. He's damnably prone to such things. "You're not that much older than me."

The man laughs, and Obi-Wan lifts his glass to his lips in a futile attempt to hid the embarrassment a little more. "Oh, not counting the stasis, I've well reached the age of six hundred and twenty-four, my boy!"

Obi-Wan chokes on his drink.

The man laughs a little more, but thumps him on the back until he's breathing normally again.

"Yes, most of the humans I've told have had quite the reaction!" the representative assures him. "But yes, even with the times adjusted to what any given local year is, I am significantly longer-lived than most species."

"No kidding," Obi-Wan manages. He wipes at his mouth with the back of his hand and looks over at the representative. He takes in the wrinkles and bright eyes, and says, "Well, I must say you look very well for a near-human of such an age. I can only name one person in that category that has managed better, and I haven't seen her since I was a child."

"I shall take that as the compliment it's intended to be," the representative says, twisting the edge of his mustache and beaming.

The man is... well, goofy, really, and quite a bit older than Obi-Wan had thought, but he's quite the charmer. Obi-Wan faintly compares him to a few different people in the back of his mind, but nothing quite fits. For all that the man is quite the jokester and--going by some things he'd seen from the corner of his eye in the main party--a master of physical comedy, the representative is actually more competent than he looks, and for all his visible age, not bad to look at. He is also, seemingly, an expert in dealing with teenagers and young adults, something Obi-Wan himself is... decidedly not.

He really should go speak with Anakin.

And there's a war to fight.

He doesn't really have much time, even with the recent lull.

He's in no place to be looking at the clean-shaven jaw and wondering what it would feel like under his lips, or to let himself consider whether this man would be the kind to have an hours-long discussion as to the narrative forms common in other galaxies, and whether they have anything paralleled to those in Obi-Wan's own, or if this man would show the same enthusiasm over teas that he'd shown over the hors d'oeuvres inside.

He should... really go find Anakin.

"I suppose it's time to find my padawan," he says, more to fill the air than anything. "Er... thank you, both for speaking with him, and for speaking with me."

"Not a problem at all, Master Kenobi!" the representative says, and Obi-Wan realizes that there's one last thing he may have... forgotten.

"This is terribly embarrassing, but I don't believe I caught your name?" Obi-Wan says.

"Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, at your service!" the man says, with a sweeping bow. "As you can imagine, most simply call me Coran."

"Then I insist you call me Obi-Wan," he says, and before he can stop himself, "Might I bother you with an invitation to a shared tea time? You seem a knowledgeable fellow, and I'd appreciate the chance to... eh, pick your brain, shall we say."

It's not the smoothest come on he's ever put out there, or the most easily interpreted, but... well. Perhaps it's for the best. He's rather often found his tastes going in irresponsible directions, and it'll be much easier to brush this off without diplomatic incident if there's room for Coran to politely ignore the less platonic options.

Obi-Wan hopes he doesn't.

It's very selfish of him, but a dalliance with an older gentleman... well. He does, perhaps, make such irresponsible decisions, even now.

"I do believe I'd enjoy such a thing!" Coran enthuses, grabbing Obi-Wan's hand and shaking it in large, effusive movements.

Oh, this is a terrible idea, Obi-Wan thinks, even as he exchanges comm numbers and says goodbye.

Still.

He likes the idea of having at least a little fun, sedate or less so, while they have some time to themselves.