#they both have the Sibling Experience™

[madredhattie]

Like I can’t blame either of them, Rika does have that effect on people, but I’m deeply entertained by Ingo being willing to argue about the superior battle facility and why it’s the Battle Subway

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Oh no. Sir I believe I'm going to need you to explain that Dragon Age 2 opinion, that is a BLAZING hot take

I really don't think it is. Although of course all of this is personal opinion, not some sort of divine proclamation on high about which video games people are allowed to prefer, so take please it in the spirit it is offered.

Origins is a worldbuilding walking tour as much about explaining its own in-universe lore and fantasy history as it is about either its characters or the actual story that is happening in the game. It's a cool world! With some great lore! But also it is built entirely around Generic Fantasy Plot Structure #1 and never particularly seems interested in innovating, or surprising the player. On top of which, a lot of its setting and lore is pretty weakly sketched and doesn't really get developed into something either visually or narratively compelling until it gets built out in later games.

And while Inquisition has some genuinely fantastic characters, everything else about the game suffers very badly from the plague of BioWare Magic™, i.e. the production was an absolute mess up until the last minute when five hundred extremely overworked and underpaid creative geniuses somehow managed to wring a functional experience out of the trainwreck. It was made with fucking Frostbite of all things, jesus christ, it's holding together with spit and duct tape.

Now, Dragon Age 2 shares a bunch of the problems of Origins and Inquisition. It too bears the hallmarks of "our executives couldn't plan a healthy game production cycle if their lives depended on it" with a lot of unfinished content, half-assed sidequests and a truly frustrating over-reliance on a combat system that isn't half as engaging to use as it needed to be.

But Dragon Age 2 also has something neither of its siblings could ever even hope to match: an actual compelling protagonist.

Like, listen, I know people adore their headcanons about their Wardens and Inquisitors, and it has made for some truly amazing fanworks, but Hawke is literally the only actual character out of all of them. Hawke has conflicts, problems, needs and drives that actually inform and push the story forward, they have a family and a history and a reason to give a sh** about the central conflict of the narrative.

In Origins and Inquisition both, your character becomes the main character of the story entirely because of fate and random chance. You are the Chosen One and you are the only one who can Save The World because you're the last of the super special elite fantasy Hero Squad, or because you got some green magic stuck in your hand by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Because the character is a complete blank slate onto which the player is expected to project themselves, random chance and circumstance are the only tools the plot can use to position them as main characters. There is no character to drive them to it.

In Dragon Age 2, Hawke becomes the champion because they're trying to build a new life for their family in Kirkwall, and end up embroiled in the chaos and politics that befall the city as a natural consequence of living in it and dealing with the conditions of it. Hawke and their family's needs and wants drive their actions, and push them to engage in endeavors that influence the course of history. They have agency (in the conceit of the narrative, at least) over how their life turns out, they make choices that have consequences, rather than being dictated into the position of Main Character by a literal looming apocalypse that permits no other course of action.

And I'm not about to sit here and claim that Dragon Age 2's story is perfect or that every character is a masterpiece or that every plotline is amazing. No, there's plenty of scuff and jank and things that have aged poorly and unresolved plot threads and all the rest of it.

And I am definitely not forgetting the godsdamned DLC where BioWare threw it all overboard by inventing a Special Bloodline Plot where oops it turns out Hawke actually IS a special chosen one specially chosen by a special fate to have a special role in Saving The World because they're special because of fate and destiny and blah blah, I still think that was phenomenally stupid (especially when Corypheus wasn't even Hawke's goddamn main villain to deal with what was any of this supposed to add to their character ffs BioWare)

But even with all its problems, the simple fact that Hawke is a character you can give a shit about independent of your own projection as a player - the fact that Hawke isn't just an empty bland blank slate with no personality, no traits, no wants or needs or drives - that has made Dragon Age 2 infinitely more memorable to me than either Origins and Inquisition. I think about it to this day. I think about Hawke to this day. I care about what happens to the character in a way that I just simply could never bring myself to do with either my Wardens or my Inquisitors.

[kyouka-supremacy]

This is random, but here's a list of things that aren't technically canon but make official sskk lore to me:

Akutagawa is a trans gay man

Atsushi is bisexual

Akutagawa fell when Atsushi told him “In my opinion, Dazai-san recognized you a long time ago”. Atsushi fell the instant Akutagawa died for him, because that's the first time he started considering him human (the fell first / harder of this thread).

When Dazai told Akutagawa “you know the reason yourself, don't you?”, the implied reason both of them knew about is that Akutagawa loves Atsushi.

Akutagawa is / was romantically in love with Dazai

In his free time, Atsushi reads and often visits the public library (this is canon, but stretching and reiterating)

In his free time Akutagawa sews. He doesn't like reading.

In chapter 87 it was specifically Atsushi to land the blow that killed Fukuchi (and not Akutagawa) because Akutagawa was still holding to his promise not to kill

Atsushi can cook (and he's getting better at it!), Akutagawa mostly can't

Akutagawa has autism and adhd and eating disorders

Akutagawa and Gin live together

Akutagawa is very protective of Gin. He insists that nobody has to know they're siblings, not even in the pm

Atsushi is the big spoon, c'mon guys

Atsushi prefers coffee over tea, Akutagawa only drinks tea

Akutagawa can't cry (disproved in canon)

To their own surprise, Akutagawa is way more willing to touch and cuddle than Atsushi is. Atsushi really isn't used to physical touch, and it takes him a long time to adjust.

Dazai intentionally set sskk up to be the new generation of double black, but didn't predict they would have ended up together.

Atsushi is pretty selfish actually. Way more than Akutagawa anyway.

If they could have grown in normal circumstances, both of them would actually be quite confident people.

Akutagawa's disease was directly caused by Dazai's physical abuse (half canon? I mean he doesn't have it in Beast)

Akutagawa can't hold his alcohol (canon). Atsushi literally can't get drunk (tiger regenerative abilities).

Atsushi sleeps 10pm-6am, (canonly inherited from when he lived at the orphanage, but I shifted it of an hour because like. C'mon. I don't want to curse this guy to wake every day of his already miserable life at 5am). He is the early bird™

Akutagawa sleeps 5am-11am or later (I know it's technically 3am-5am but man I don't want to curse this guy to sleep for two (2) hours every day of his already miserable life). He is the night owl™. I like to think he'd be a sleepyhead once he's found a place he can *finally* feel safe in, which is something he never had, but y'know. Generally this.

Either way, both of them are insanely light sleepers

Excluding external conditioning, Atsushi and Akutagawa are perfectly equal in (overall, not physical) strength. However, Atsushi prevails over Akutagawa in canon because of the effect All Men Are Equal has on him. The same goes for Akutagawa in Beast.

When they're alone together, Akutagawa does most of the talk; which is still not an exceptionally big amount, but still more than Atsushi, who acts strikingly different in comparison to the usual overchatter and chaotic rambler he is with other people.

After they get together, Akutagawa keeps calling Atsushi “Jinko”, while Atsushi will probably shift to calling Akutagawa “Ryuunosuke” at some point. I don't see either of them using pet names.

Atsushi's love language is words of affirmation, Akutagawa's is acts of service.

Both of them highly dislike pda. They try to keep their relationship secret as much as possible.

Atsushi would have been very non overprotective / laid back if it hadn't been for The Incident (Akutagawa dying in front of his eyes). Now he has an hard time leaving Akutagawa alone.

Neither of them have any dating experience

[mrslectermoriarty]

Headcanon Series #15

Okay, I need some IceMav!daughter stuff or I'm gonna burst!

I imagine a one-night-stand accident or a deceased mother of the girl and Tom/Pete got custody. (sth like that, the point is they’re a single parent)

Now, when they move in together (after cutting the crap and finally hooking up, developing a relationship) the little girl grows up with at first one, then two fathers.

Mav is Pops and Ice is Papa. East-European Tom Kazansky absolutely gets the ‘Papa’ title.

She learns the cooking from Mav because he had to make his own food pretty early on in his life (rough childhood, you know the drill)

(based on a Bruce Wayne Headcanon I can’t find anymore) Ice can’t cook at all. He can set a kitchen on fire with only a wooden spoon and cold water. The only thing he actually can do is an excellent bbq, which he becomes famous for. Ice teaches his daughter all the tricks and when she gets older, and Ice is maybe too exhausted after a day of work or sth, she’ll fire up the grill and provide amazing food for everyone around.

Also, Ice spent his childhood baking with his mother and her mother whenever they met, so the kid learns baking from him.

Mav teaches her how to fix cars and motorcycles. His hyperfixation kinda catches her too and they spend many weekends in the garage.

I am utterly obsessed with with this fanfiction and needed to implement it into this - Ice reads really weird bedtime stories, but she loves every single one of them.

Of course she grows up with Bradley (they’re around the same age, idc who’s older) and the adults around them like to refer to them as the chaos cousins. When Mav and Ice take Bradley in after Carole dies, they become the chaos siblings.

Bradley loves his sister and is super protective of her when they are in their teens. When she got cruelly dumped by her boyfriend in her first year of high school, Bradley stormed into the guys’ classroom and broke his nose. The principal had to call his parents, so Tom interrupted an important meeting and showed up in uniform at school to get his kid. The principal was kinda intimidated because of course Tom put on his Iceman™ look and stared the guy down, so Bradley ended up being expelled for only the rest of the day. (I think I need to write something separate about this)

Let’s take a closer look at the whole custody situation: Mav made Ice his emergency Contact and vice versa. Obvious. In the eyes of the Navy they are ‘best friends’ and brothers in arms; it’s not an uncommon thing to do so. Concerning the kids; they’re always both listed as emergency contacts for the kids. In a scenario where Tom has a daughter, they always argue “we both have a kid, we’re basically brothers, the kids are grew up together; they’re like cousins - we’re a family in the Navy, we look out for each other.” In a scenario where Mav has a daughter, he answers to that question with “Ice is like a brother to me; we’re best friends. He knows the kid(s). I can’t always respond, so I need another person to watch over the kid(s). He was the first to agree to that.” (I don’t know if this makes sense)

Regarding Bradley being an overprotective sibling; that girl doesn’t actually need any protection - after all, both her fathers are Navy legends and well respected and feared men in the military. She can stand her ground pretty well.

The flyboys often joke around if she actually might be a genetic experiment where they took Pete’s and Ton’s DNA to create the ultimate soldier because she inherits significant parts of both their personalities. She gets Mav’s recklessness and Ice’s strategic thinking, so everything she does, however stupid it might look, she does on purpose. She also got both their stubbornness. They all agree; if she ever starts a career in the Navy, she’s gonna be a nightmare for her superiors.

She starts a career in the Navy. Of course she had the chance to do something else, but she grew up surrounded by people being very passionate about their jobs and they just kinda naturally dragged her into it. Her military education looks something like this, I found it and almost died of laughter because this is kinda exactly how I imagined it, this is a piece of art!

She’s just as protective of her brother as he is over her and that’s why she hates Jake in the beginning. Sure, they’re now adults, but Bradley has such an unhealthy relationship with that guy, on and off and back on; then they’re fucking in a closet, the next minute they shout at each other over training exercises - she doesn’t get why Bradley keeps crawling back to that guy. After the Uranium-Mission (Ice lives, Mav doesn’t have the fight with Bradley) she starts appreciating the guy a little more because for one, he saved her father and brother, second, now that both men are more mature than ever and develope an actual relationship, she can see parallels in them to her fathers and she gets why they can’t keep away from each other. (Also don’t know if this makes sense)

Both her fathers walk her down the aisle on her wedding day, she insists on that.

Please expand if you have additions! <3

[kiriekonamistan]

Y'wanna know what I want to see in Sonic fandom? I wanna to see more characters interact with the Master Emerald; and by extension Tikal.

yeah, I know both she and Chaos ascended at the end of SA1 but I need more wholesome Sonic content and I like Tikal.

I WANT TO SEE

•Rouge stealing the M.E not just because she's a jewel thief but because she wants Tikal to experience what a 'Club' is, so she installs the M.E. as a sort of light-fixture in Club Rouge for a night or two until Knuckles can get it back

•Silver winds up accidentally traveling TOO FAR into the past and meets Tikal

•Silver and Tikal bonding over a mutual interest in plants (Tikal would need to know about medicine as a priestess and Silver just loves plants)

•Sonic taking trips up to Angel Island to describe the latest adventure to his ghost buddy

•(This one's based on a few of my headcanons) Shadow's body generates Chaos Energy similar to how the M.E. does, so Tikal realizes she can sneak away from Angel Island as long as she has her spirit connected to Shadow. He doesn't feel any different or even realize she's a ghost/or following him until he starts seeing the same Echidna girl everywhere

•Shadow and her having a conversation about ancient weapons and how modern technology has improved the simple arrow™ into the Gun™. Basically he teaches her how to shoot a gun and the mechanics of firearms while she teaches him how to fight like a traditional Echidna Warrior. (Does Knuckles know? Is he jealous? I dunno, I'm not gonna write a fic about any of this. You do it. If you like the material you use it, I'd love to read about ALL of this!)

•Silver (while in the past) tells Tikal stories about his friends' adventures which lead to the murals seen in the games. He doesn't know he was the cause for those prophecies until WAY later.

•Amy struggling to make recipes Tikal taught her. She's trying to make traditional Knuckles Clan food for Knuckles to enjoy.

•Knuckles and Tikal just vibing together on Angel Island. Maybe taking care of the chao together.

And of course,

•Tikal has gossip on EVERYONE because she's such a reliable person and so easy to talk/open up to. She doesn't use this information for evil though, she's a good person after all. Sometimes after a bad fight between two people she'll use what she knows about them to encourage them to fix whatever went wrong.

Sonic and Shadow not agreeing on how to deal with Eggman? Tikal's got a fix for that. Amy and Knuckles having a sibling argument? Tikal can help. Cream and Vanilla are (politely) disagreeing with each other on whether or not Cream should be allowed to go on the next Big Adventure? Tikal has calm advise and wisdom to share.

Give me some slice-of-life Tikal the Echidna content and my life is yours!!!

[unclefathersantateddy]

what are your thoughts on teddy's relationship with his family and how they were abusive? what about his younger sister?? and his relationship with his ex wife where he was also abused by her 🤔 how do you think these affected his personality and relationships. sorry this is an English essay ass prompt but im genuinely curious lmao i love analyzing family history (obvs)

Light coming in with the big gun from the get-go!!! Hahaha thank you for a great question!!!

So from what we know about Teddy's mom, she's a bit of a Wild Card™. Likes to do what she wants, when she wants, isn't exactly your traditional grandma.

But given the majority of people become docile with age (rather than more adventurous), it stands to reason /why/ she waited until retirement to do all the things she enjoyed? Could that be why her and Teddy's dad always used to argue?

Teddy's age places his parents as either dating or hooking up around the 70s/80s. Assuming they've never left the US, this wasn't exactly a pinnacle time for women's rights.

So we have an oppressive timestamp, a turbulent relationship, and then an extinction burst (Teddy's mom doing ALL her interests in retirement) post-breakup.

These factors together connote that teddy's father may have been restrictive/disapproving of teddy's mother's interests, hobbies, passions - or may be indicative of teddy's father's disdain/nonchalance towards his wife in general. (I'm assuming they were married because 'merica). Which would be an apt representation of Boomer relationships, the whole "can't live with them, can't live without them" (totally healthy /s).

But on the flipside to a potentially controlling father, his mom IS a wild card lol. If she's still up to mad shit in retirement, WHAT was she into in her prime?? Was she Fully Unhinged™? Given her, "muchness" (for lack of better words), it stands to reason it may transfer as "feisty" or "fiery" during arguments with teddy's dad, so whilst his dad may have been authoritarian, his mom may have been inflammatory and antagonistic.

As for his sister GIVE HER SOME GD SCREEN TIME!!!!!!! WHO ARE DANA AND DAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna see if she's exactly like Teddy or if she's his antithesis, are they both so interested in learning about the lives of every stranger they meet? That's beautiful bro. I hope so. I both want her to be an almost identical twin to teddy, and to look exactly like her bf Dan (like the Van Houtens in the Simpsons). I think I want Dana to have the spunkiness that teddy lacks. I love the "anxious older sibling, feral younger sibling" dynamics, like what Tina and Louise have. I want an episode where Teddy's in therapy talking to Dr Marjorie about his childhood whilst Dana's out back wrestling a bar fly for his teeth or smn. Same trauma but dealt with in VERY different ways. I need it!!!!!!!!! I deserve this!!!!!!!!! LOL.

Moving onto Denise, FUCK Denise. Fuck any single individual that makes you feel like you have to change your core sense of self in order to feel accepted and/or loved. You KNOW she's that slimy level of manipulative that easily gets her own way in every situation. The type that rarely gets called up but if you call them up everyone else around will take their side. The GOOD manipulators. Real piece of shit types. The type to push you so far into a corner you come out crazy. So crazy noone believes you and they all side with the charismatic one. (These people boil my soul into an angry black jus, I become one of the 4 biles). IIRC we don't even get a full line from her, I'm pretty sure she only says "teddy?" (But please correct me if that's false), but that's still enough to solidify her as a shithouse in my mind. Questioning his name like don't pretend you don't know or recognise him you shitcunt, he gave you so much of his life. Eat a dick.

As negative as all these experiences are, I do think they shaped teddy for the better! I mean, he is a lil anxious and awkward and doesn't have the best self-esteem/confidence. BUT, he's incredibly emotionally intelligent for an old white guy. He's SO full of love, for EVERYONE. Every single person he comes across or meets (as exampled by S12E4 Driving Big Dummy), he fundamentally enjoys experiencing. They're not just people to chat to, they are experiences to be had. They are characters you've never heard of to stories you've never read. His approach to people is polar opposite to how most of us perceive other people, most of us are like Bob, he doesn't /hate/ people, but he doesn't /like/ them either. Teddy DOES like other people, he REALLY likes other people, he put the work into his trauma so it didn't taint the rest of him. I'm not gonna speak on behalf of everyone with PTSD but I know for a lot of us we fester on our trauma and victimise ourselves, often resulting in self- alienation and isolation, teddy shows no sign of that. S8E5 Thanks-Hoarding picks up on teddy being a handyman so he can "fix" his parents relationship (simplifying), but it doesn't address the fact he is CONSTANTLY putting himself out there. Handymen are a word-of-mouth trade, to be a successful handyman you HAVE to put yourself out there. To meet new people is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable with PTSD is like a rabbit exposing its belly to an owl yknow? Throughout the entire show we see teddy consistently putting the work in. Into every part of his life, he's making the effort to improve his life. I know healthcare in the US is a privilege that only the capitalists can afford, but it is so refreshing to see an American go to therapy instead of just complaining about how much they need therapy lol (no judgment, again I appreciate it's a nigh impossible situation to escape).

Thank you for the incredibly stimulating question, light!! (Sorry if I didn't answer all the questions fully! Will edit or update later!🤍)

[pancakehauses]

Hello :) I hope you don’t mind me coming into your ask box when we haven’t been mutuals that long. I just wanted to say hi, talk a bit about Lizzy Parker’s performance which I got to see on Friday, and commiserate on the Next to Normal Broadway fan castings if that’s alright with you. 

I have now seen both Lizzy and Eleanor perform and while I loved them both for different reasons Eleanor is The Natalie™ for me. They both have incredible voices and Lizzy’s has a depth to it which I really love.

(I’m not quite sure the best way to format the differences between their performances so I’m just gonna go with a list explaining their dynamics with the different characters. Also for the sake of ease I’ll refer to Eleanor’s Natalie as E!Natalie and Lizzy’s as L!Natalie.)

Relationship with Henry

I think L!Natalie starts off much more in love with Henry than E!Natalie. She’s a young girl trying to joyfully experience her first love whereas E!Natalie almost seems to develop a crush on him against her will, a little warier of love given her parents’ relationship. When they are fighting during ‘Why Stay/A Promise’ E!Natalie feels as though she wants him to leave to protect herself from yet another relationship wherein she can’t be enough whereas L!Natalie wants him to leave to protect him from her father’s fate. 

Relationship with Dan

E!Natalie’s yell of ‘She trusts you!’ when she realises Dan is going to sign on for Diana to do ECT still rings in my head now. She feels more personally betrayed by his decision which fuels her anger whereas L!Natalie feels more scared. E!Natalie has coped very similarly to Dan by deeply repressing her needs and emotions. L!Natalie’s emotions seem to sit a lot closer to the surface and so her sadness and anger and love reveals themselves more easily, whereas E!Natalie is far more exhausted and has pushed her feelings down for so long that when she does express them they are at full force. E!Natalie’s ‘Light’ was a demonstration of strength and an imitation of what she has seen her father do growing up. For L!Natalie it seemed to come from a place of youthful hope, a surety in herself she has developed from Henry’s reassurances and her reconciliation with her mother.  

Relationship with Gabe

Obviously they don’t interact much, but while I thought I’d find Jack W and Lizzy more convincing siblings because they’re both brunettes, Eleanor and Jack look more siblings like to me. They both have quite fine features and Lizzy looks a bit older than Jack which breaks the immersion of her being the younger sister a bit imo. L!Natalie’s reaction to when Gabe touches her hand is quite obvious, and E!Natalie’s is more subtle. 

Relationship with Diana

Now for the big one. E!Natalie comes across as more resentful towards Diana, with the understanding they share during ‘Maybe’ feeling like an elastic band that’s finally snapped. L!Natalie seems more upset and confused by her. Their ‘Maybe’ is more like two people truly seeing one another for the first time, and realising they have more in common than they thought. When L!Natalie is arguing about going ‘crazy’ with Henry, it’s this sudden realisation she’s having that she could turn out just like Diana, whereas E!Natalie is finally expressing this longtime, deeply held fear she’s had. E!Natalie’s humour is also much dryer and similar to Diana’s, whereas L!Natalie’s has more of a lightheartness to it. 

Ultimately they are both very talented actors and I’d love to see them in more stuff. 

As for the Broadway N2N fan castings I’m glad someone else is as annoyed (for lack of a better word) as I am. I’m not sure what rumours you’ve seen (I’m literally checking TikTok, the theatreboard and Broadway World forums, and even Reddit regularly to get any hints at what might be going on). They all seem to be confident in a transfer but mostly arguing about whether it will be 2025 or 2026. Personally I hope it’s 2025 cause I’m not sure if I can wait until 2026. Caissie obviously transfers and Jack Wolfe seems plausible? Obviously he’s won a bunch of awards for it so that would seem like the move but what do I know? I saw people saying that Jamie Parker isn’t doing Benjamin Button because he’s doing the transfer and while I’d love that to be true I’m not sure how much I believe it. I haven’t seen any mumblings about Eleanor at all which terrifies me cause I need the family to stay together and them all to get a shot at the Tonys after they were robbed at the Oliviers. 

Along with the Lizzy McAlpine fan casting the Aaron Tveit as Dan casting also really bothers me. I don’t think he’s right for the role at all and after seeing the wonderful stage chemistry that Jamie and Caissie have developed, I just can’t imagine her alongside another actor. 

My kind of unrelated thought is that I need to see Eleanor and Jack W play siblings that actually actively interact in something else at some point (preferably a TV show or film so I can watch it forever). I so think they’d pull off a regency era/royalty story, but alternatively I would love to see them in a horror film. 

Anyway, I hope you’re having a great day! (And apologies for how long this is!)

Oh my god this was the best surprise to find in my ask box. Truly, I am always happy to talk about this show (though you are able to articulate character choices waaay better than I can). So thank you so much for this.

As someone who has seen the show six times but never caught Lizzy, I am so grateful for this breakdown. And I feel like you articulated Eleanor's portrayal so perfectly which makes the portrayal differences so clear to me, even without me ever seeing Lizzy. Honestly, think I need to do a Lizzy audio listen-through with this in front of me. Will give me such a good sense of what she's doing.

Also, I was so curious about Lizzy potentially feeling older than him on stage, just cause I could see that happening. So I'm glad you mentioned that.

Regarding the transfer, we are the same. I am also checking theatreboard and BWW forums basically daily for any updates. Based on rumors and Jack saying in multiple interviews that he's "clinging on to the ankles of N2N as long as can" (or something along those lines), it does feel quite likely he'll do a transfer. (Though my paranoia can't help but be like, you know he could be 30 by the time a transfer happens. Playing an 18 year old. Which feels weird even though he has the face to pull it off lol). Yeah, very few rumors on Eleanor and I feel like the Jamie was stuff was just speculation based on the BB casting and not based on anything credible. But I don't know, I still hold out hope that they would take the whole family as a unit.

And lol at you seeing the same fancasting tweet I did. I really don't think Tveit could pull of the Dan this production needs and it feels almost insulting to Jamie to suggest it? Even though I know the people that say Tveit probably have never watched any of N2N UK. So I try to remind myself that.

[anonymous-gambito]

Just finished watching but I refuse to say anything smart about Revolutionary Girl Utena since all that I've gathered and analysed has probably already been said before countless times in the last two decades and a half, so I'll just share some of my mostly unhinged reactions instead (not all in order):

- "What's with the egg cracking" "I should tell future kids this was the trans agenda"

- *Yelling* "I'VE GOT THE POWER OF GOD AND ANIME ON MY SIDE!"

- " 'Yeah I like guys. For instance, i like that one idealized guy I made up in my head' – said no baby lesbian ever" (sarcasm)

- "Thanks for all the trigger warning folks :)" "My biggest trigger was actually seeing cats be mistreated so RIP me I guess haha" (I went to Does The Dog Die as soon as I saw the cat this is a joke ppl no one overthink this pls)

- "When people told me there'd be incest in this I didn't realize it'd be the only sibling flavor on the menu"

- "That Black Rose stuff sounds like bad news but it's giving ppl cool outfits so..."

- "If I had a penny for every pink haired character who fantasized about that creepy dude looking like a young little twink I'd have two pennies, which isn't a lot but–"

- "When dudes peaked in highschool so they just decided to never leave"

- "I thought my first Ikuhara anime would have desensitized me to all other Ikuhara anime but in retrospective the butt stuff was a much easier metaphor to understand"

- "Are you really trying to go for both the brother and the sister???" (Things I have somehow said more than once while watching this)

- "Is that guy for real???" *Is actually legitimately doubting that guy's existence*

- "Spree of vehicular manslaughter (allegory) (allegory for other kinds of crime even)"

- " 'Daddy Long legs'? You mean, like, the book??? You mean the book or that anime adaptation where the age gap is actually creepier? Because the art style and the fashion in that thing was cool af but damn was it uncomfortable" "Anyways don't fucking call him that I might throw up"

- "They care more about the dress code than about all this child grooming going around so this is basically like ur average school"

- "He was LEADING HER ON! *hits table* I KNEW IT! He's been manipulative since the beginning so of course I suspected that he was encouraging his sister's feelings so he could have control over her and–" *keeps rambling*

- "This is the future the 'abstinence only sex ed' crowd want. Just look at them! They don't even see the red flags!"

- "My face is gonna get stuck in that cringe"

- *Starts biting table* "Hitting isn't dramatic enough for this anymore"

- "I'm getting all kinds of deja vu about that reveal, like I've seen it years before and had just forgotten about it until now" "which is surely annoying me because I did NOT sign up to be part of this show's narrative themes FUCK this immersive experience bullshit"

- "Intricate Rituals™" "Okay I'm just surprised I hadn't said that one before, considering..."

- "...Suddenly all that slapping around has gained a lot more narrative significance..."

[thekatebridgerton]

Genderbend Edwina AU though? Edward Sharma beats the everlasting shit out of Anthony for sucking on his big sister’s boobs with the mallet of death and has to be restraint by the entire Bridgerton clan and Danbury… Mary is gently checking up on Kate and gives her shoe (chapal ) to her son to hit Anthony with.

Let me tell you something about Eddie Sharma. People think that he's not prone to violence just because he's a scholar just out of university and who likes Philosophy and Opera. But lay one scandalous hand on his older sister and he will punch the living daylights out of you. Even tho Kate can take care of herself, Edward will feel so much better hitting Anthony this ain't for Kate, this is for him.

I like to think that people see the Sharma siblings as one would see Caroline and Charles Bingley. Where the brother is this happy golden retriever and the sister is a major mean girl. So naturally everyone misunderstands that Edward Sharma is a harmless cutie. But nope, he's just had no reason to ever get violent with someone, because everybody likes him.

Until Anthony compromises his sister.

I can imagine imagine Mary in her most Indian mama voice saying ' Son don't hit him with the mallet '

'mother stay out of this I'm going to kill him'

And Mary be like 'yes, yes, but our ancestors wouldn't want you to kill him with a mallet, have my chapal, do it the Indian way'

And there goes Eddie chasing Anthony down with the weaponized Indian parent shoe ™ which is both a close range weapon and an excellent throwing weapon. Since Anthony is neither from any part of Asia or Latin America, he would have cero experience dodging the concentrated attack of the weaponized parental shoe and would subsequently end up being badly beaten .

Kate would not try to help Anthony out of self preservation. But she'd probably try to explain the situation afterwards to her brother and send Anthony some ointment for the bruises behind Edwards back.

[shirecorn]

I find it incredibly funny that we both tuned out of fim after the comic book episode. Understandable experience I suppose.

Sunset shimmer in Equestria Girls is a wild ride. Ngl one of my favorite characters but she has So. Many. Different. Forms. It’s ridiculous. Regular unicorn, Demon form, Phoenix form, regular magical girl to horse girl form(?), daydream shimmer form, element of harmony form, too many forms. If you ever draw her it will be fun to see what aspect(s) you draw from.

I love your art style! It’s very pretty! I was drawn to your blog cause I saw your redesigns of the alicorns. Inspired how they are larger then life. I then spent over an hour hour scrolling through your speculative biology stuff. Your art has a great flow too it, and you have great concepts that kept me wanting more.

I was still a teenager when Power Ponies aired but my siblings and I all sort of looked at each other and said "this show is too different from what we started watching and has become something we don't enjoy anymore" and just stopped right there.

That episode really felt less like a story to be told and more like Content™. Like the current showrunners didn't have anything to say, they just needed the characters to move around on the screen so they threw something together using buzzword salad of what media was getting views at the time.

Today, there's a distinct difference between season 1-2 and the show that follows. There's less singing and less meta-plot. It's more episodic, and feels more "plot of the day" and characters only change and grow from the beginning of the episode to the end. It doesn't feel like it stacks.

But that's ok! Especially for me picking and choosing which episodes to watch. I rally don't feel like I'm missing anything when I see a description for "the ponies are in go-karts in this one" and decide to skip it.

---

Damn sunset shimmer how come your mom lets you have so many merchandise variants forms? I will probably only watch one ep with her because equestria girls doesnt interest me

---

Thank you! I really like my style as well!! I am especially proud of how well it works in quick sketches so I can get a lot of ideas out in a short amount of time.

I need to make new posts with stuff I have in my head, like mermaid singing mechanics (oh its almost mermay!) and the super fun connection I have between unicorn and kelpies. Oh you're gonna love it. Just wait 2 months to a year for me to get around to it lol

[dreamingwithmyadhd]

Howl Pendragon, Touya Todoroki, Natsuo Todoroki, Toshinori Yagi

I'm writing this at 4:21 in the morning i haven't slept in 34 hours

Here are some headcanons i have for some of my favorite fictional men.

Howl Pendragon

He really enjoys peaches even if they aren't native to Wales. He will have them imported for both himself and for any lady he has his eyes on.

He knows how to sing, however he doesn't believe he can equate his singing skills with his physical features so he doesn't focus on that

He is incredibly stingy with skincare routines. He invented skincare. I mean he takes care of every pimple, clears every pore, clears dead skin and makes his face smooth as a child

He is around 25 but as a child he was mistaken to be two years older and skipped two birthdays by accident.

He loves to read confusing poems and daydream about who they were written for, if written for anyone.

Touya Todoroki/Dabi

He hates all seafood not just fish. everything but scallops, which can be hard to get

he suffers from old man cramps™ in his knees and back, resulting in him debating to get a walker or mobility aid

hes too proud to admit when he is injured, and fell into the stigma that a, men dont cry and b, if men cry it means that they are weak and undeserving of praise.

He eats mostly with his canines. His front teeth are too sensitive for him to enjoy eating with again, so stabbing, tearing and ripping are done by his canines and molars.

He is actually very pleasant to be around when he isnt spewing about being a failed project of endeavor and wishing to hold the ashes of his father's eyeball or some gross body part

Natsuo Todoroki

He is a sweet guy, and helps with homework more often than not.

He prefers his older sibling Fuyumi over anyone else in the family, and sees her as a confidant, not just a sister or another person but a confidant.

He plays rugby in the summer and football and swim during the winter, on top of that maintaining a good GPA and family relations. Well maybe not good family relations.

He suffers from very poor anger management issues however he went to therapy after Touya's "death" and found ways to cope with it and heal better.

He can easily eat himself into a food coma after thousands of calories are simply swallowed like they're nothing.

Toshinori Yagi:

Give him a gift and he will cry. the man is so sensitive in his older years

He really enjoys when people call him toshinori because it measn they dont value him just for all might or his strength, but as a person

He visits memorials of people he feels he failed or has lost over the years and it gives him comfort that they arent in pain anymore. He looked for years to find the past users of One for All and he can spend hours at their graves to honor them

He cant cook. At all. When he was in america he learned how to grill a mean steak but besides that he cant cook much of anything and along with his stomach being well gone, he usually has smoothies and lighter foods.

He WILL go on tangents about america if you bring that up. He loves teaching his students (sometimes false) things about his experience in america. sometimes he switches over to english when hes recounting things he did and his students have to remind him they dont speak it as well as he does, nor do they know the old man slang he uses in his english

[kyouka-supremacy]

i wanna hear your thoughts about black lizard <3

S U R E. I love the Black Lizards so much, in my mind they really are the closest to family the pm has. You have these two very dysfunctional traumatized kids made of:

Gin we don't know much about except that they grew up in the mafia and have a brother who literally doesn't know how to express any emotion that isn't raw primordial rage

Tachihara who like. Where do I even start, since childhood had major younger sibling complex™ that evolved into trauma when said brother died in war making him also develop major revenge complex™, was dysfunctional to the point of becoming a thug to cope with his complexes, got caught and recluted by the fucking police that on top of likely body modifications assigned him to be a spy at (makes some very quick calculations) 16, apparently, to the major criminal and most dangerous organization of Yokohama

They both found themselves working in the mafia under pretty similar circumstances, two (by the looks of it) non ability users yet nonetheless exceptionally skilled mafiosi which allowed them to climb the ranks of the pm pretty quickly. Their similar positions and complementary skills made them perfect fit to take part of an accurately schemed, all-comprehensive team that could carry out both long range attacks (Tachihara) and close range assassinations (Gin), accompanied by someone who could fill in anything the other two missed– a pm veteran, powerful ability user with enough experience to handle any escalation, and also pass on his experience to train the next generation of pm high ranks. That's how the Black Lizard was born, a team set up with clinical precision, the perfect cold expression of what the pm is like under Mori. But it was never accounted to be a family! In fact, it probably started off on a rocky start, because what else would you expect by putting together two teens - let's say the Black Lizard was formed about three years after Tachihara joined the pm and one year before the current events, so when both Gin and Tachihara were 18 - who their entire lives never experienced a single interpersonal interaction that wasn't conflictual. Still, somewhat held back from exploding into extreme conflictual outburst by their intimidating senior (who very conveniently is also proficient in handling dysfunctional teens), Gin and Tachihara kind of… Start getting each other. Or at least, start thinking they do. And soon enough their shared experiences and feelings bring them closer than they ever felt with anyone else. Because they're both like, this guy gets it!! They get what it feels like having an older brother that is so distant from you you can't seem to connect with in anyway. They get what it means having to toughen up so to not give any chance to the world to hurt you, what it feels like to hide your soft core. Even despite neither of them being aware of the other's secret identity, that's another thing they have in common and probably got them even closer. I've talked about it before but to me Gin and Tachihara became to each other the brother they always wanted but never had- someone you could take jabs with, share inside jokes, playfully send death threats to - overall, just the warm, genuine and fun feeling of siblinghood compared to the stiff and distant relationship with their older brothers that has hurt them a lot in the past (about that, at this point I truly fail to interpret the Black Lizard scene in chapter 5 any other way. “You're two minutes late” “Creepy ol' Gin's even later than me” “Ever the freak, ain'cha” “Enough, you imbeciles! Or would you prefer to be listed among the casualties?”: in no world the whole conversation between the three of them doesn't sound family-like. I can swear to you the Gin / Tachihara interaction is just the average siblings experience.)

They're so family!!!! They're so family, they make me cry. Chaotic siblings and their exasperated grandpa who loves them very much. The father figure neither of them ever had!! (I mean, Gin never had. Tachihara we can't exactly say, but if anything the little flashback of his family in chapter 73 doesn't look good). I think so much about Hirotsu and Gin specifically, Hirotsu taking Gin under his wing, Gin genuinely holding affection towards him to the point she'd even show herself more vulnerable to him and sincerely treat him as a father; in my headcanon, Hirotsu is the only person in the pm and thus the entirety of Yokohama to know Gin is a girl other than Ryuunosuke, Mori and Kouyou (and Verlaine? How are they related again?).

Idk, in my mind deep deep down Gin is a little more hopeful (or naïve, depends on how you want to see it) compared to Ryuunosuke; not that she trusts people (she doesn't), but she does believe some, very little people can actually be… Good, and well intentioned, which is a low standard but still better than Ryuunosuke believing all people are fundamentally always selfishly fighting for survival and the sorts (actually, I think Ryuunosuke is the exact reason Gin doesn't believe that, because knowing him taught her that even the most ruthless, heartless of people can still hold affection and dedication– and I'm talking about his devotion and utter love for her).

I digress, but you see how they're really this little family. They'd go on family trips and have card games and stay late at night to work on their plan for their next mission and Hirotsu would narrate exaggerated gangster stories to a Tachihara with sparkling eyes and Tachihara would make sure to cook for everyone and make a little more for Ryuunosuke too because one night Gin confessed to him she worries about how little he eats. They're family.

Except they're not. except Gin has her secrets and Tachihara has his secrets and Hirotsu has his secrets nobody can share with the others. And Gin and Tachihara are young and passionate and living the moment, are happy and satisfied with how their lives are now, whereas Hirotsu is highly perceptive and thanks to his sixth sense given from being a pm veteran he can read the signs and he just… Knows something's up with all of them, knows the good times won't last much longer; and yet can't bring himself to voice it because he loves his new subordinates / kids too much and really can't ruin their fleeting happiness, the first time in their lives they feel, more or less consciously, like they finally found a place for them. So it's all so bittersweet and tragic, you see what I mean???

Btw, Gin really doesn't have the slightest idea that Tachihara is a spy. Like, even worse than that, when she'll found out she'll first go through severe denial. She's going to hate him for that, like she never hated anyone before. And Tachihara is going to be so obviously heartbroken!! And it's so sad, because both of them are doomed to lose the closest brothers they ever had– in Tachihara's case, for the second time. It's so tragic.

Chapter 77… Man, chapter 77. Black Lizard is THE pm family, seriously. Just- I don't even know how to describe it: the warm and domestic and familiar feeling to the scene, the image of a family coming together again after having surpassed an hard time, Gin with her guard completely down and so serene, comfortable, ecstatic from the relief that despite all that happened all of them are safe and sound, and nothing else matters. The way Gin and Hirotsu cackle when Tachihara asks them if he's suited for the mafia. For Gin, the idea he isn't is absurd, insane– that's how Tachihara has always been, her mafioso coworker, her partner, friend, brother. For Hirotsu, it's the confirmation of that something is off he's already sensed so many other times; yet, he wants to reassure Tachihara, like a father would do to his son; he wants to keep the family together a little longer, as long as possible, cherish those last little serene moments where they can still be a family. And it's such a gentle, heartbreaking scene, the bittersweet knowledge that Tachihara knows that's the last time the Black Lizard can still be a family, Hirotsu who probably took a good guess on that, Gin being completely oblivious to it. How the image of the wounded bodies of Gin and Hirotsu - his wounds - is going to hunt Tachihara forever. I just love the Black Lizard so much!!! The tragic family who was brought together for one year which is alos probably going to be the only year of happiness the three of them will experience their entire lives which will change all of them profoundly to the point no one will ever be the same after breaking apart really does it for me (╥﹏╥)

[somnimouse]

An Analysis of Ryu’s Route in “NO, THANK YOU!!!”

I originally posted this to Twitter as a thread, but I’m going to post it as a whole analysis here.

For a lot of NTY!!! players, Ryu is a difficult character to understand. "Does he even feel anything for Haru?" many people ask. "There is no chemistry!" 

There is actually a lot of it! Ryu feels quite a lot for Haru, too, but because of the nature of his character, his love is shown implicitly through careful actions in his route. For those who are confused, I’ve got an analysis that breaks down Ryu’s backstory and personality, his route themes, and his significance to Haru’s overall character and the game as a whole.

Warning: If you haven’t played Ryu’s route, this contains spoilers. The analysis also has references to CSA.

I. Backstory and Personality

There are a number of very important aspects to consider when understanding Ryu. The main one is that this man has Extreme Trust Issues(TM) and is this damn close to imploding from all of the misfortune in his life.

According to the sourcebook and implied in his POV flashback in-game, at the age of 13, Ryu was groomed and manipulated by his older female cousin, and he witnessed his uncle perving on his little sister, who was only 8 at that time. His trust in the world was shattered and his personality subsequently suffered. He developed an obsession with cleanliness and a mild form of gynophobia.

After he moved out with his sister at 15, Ryu then had to experience losing Ai at 21. He went to the police and they didn't even file a missing persons report. Who the hell can this man trust? Nobody, he's learned. He’s lost all his loved ones and he’s alone under the world’s foot. Ryu's been through so much hurt, it's no wonder he's a bit of an asshole.

His entire life was dedicated to protecting his sister, and she was his reason for living. Hell, Ai is his reason for living. The only reason he works under Kouichi in the first place is to figure out where she is.

The sad thing is, Ryu only trusts Kouichi to a degree. He believes that the world operates on “fuck yours, got mine” philosophy.

That is more than a decade’s worth of trauma for him. To survive in an awful world like this, Ryu has to put up walls around his heart and won’t let anyone in his world.

But that's not all there is to him. When Haru says, "Ryu might even be kinder than Hiroshi," he's right. Deep down, Ryu is a very compassionate individual who does everything he can to help those who are vulnerable, especially children and CSA victims. While he won't jump in head-first without knowing the full story, he'll always find a way to do something.

Case in point: the Igarashi siblings' case. Ryu, as a CSA victim himself, is quick to correct Kouichi and say it's "sexual abuse" and not "Sorato having a relationship with his mother," and is the only love interest to actually help Rikuto and Sorato successfully.

While I'll be mentioning Yufumi later, you can especially see Ryu's soft side with Hiroyuki and Ren. Both men are still green around the gills and wear their hearts on their sleeves, but Hiroyuki is naive while Ren is incredibly jaded from his own sexual and physical trauma (mentioned in the sourcebook). Ryu has gone as far as to house Hiroyuki back when the guy was 19 and teach him everything from cooking and house upkeep, and will always make sure Hiroyuki's okay at work. He is just as nurturing with Ren, who idolizes him for his competence and coldness.

Hiroyuki, who sees the good in others, views Ryu as a strict but kind man who's much like a mom. Ren, who distrusts everyone, sees Ryu's ruthlessness and cunning intelligence. Ryu's route showcases both of their viewpoints, but whose interpretation of Ryu is right?

As it turns out, neither of them are correct. Haru is the only person who sees Ryu for who he is: incredibly stubborn, reactive, petty, thoughtful, sweet and in a lot of pain. He learns this by doing what no one's ever dared to do: worm his way into Ryu's heart.

If you compare everyone's routes, you'll notice that Haru treats Ryu differently compared to how he treats Hiroyuki, Maki and Kouichi. Haru is much gentler in Ryu's route, (almost) always asks for his vocal consent, never uses his killer face on him, and always has him in mind during their interactions.

Now, Ryu's been suspicious of Haru since the very beginning, and it doesn't help that he hates stupid people. However, Haru's heart is undeniably in the right place, and Ryu is not blind. As the route progresses, he begins to care for Haru and eventually falls in love with him.

“But wait!” you might say. “How do you know he even loves Haru?”

And to that, I say, “Look closely!”

There are three main themes that are present in Ryu's route that showcase how Ryu's feelings change toward Haru from dislike to love:

a place to call home;

freedom;

the dichotomy of love and trust.

I will be splitting the next section into these three themes Haru and Ryu connect emotionally on.

IIA. A Place to Call Home, and a Child of Love

From the day he was born, the "amnesiac" who came to sótano was simply a broken toy of his father's, and has nothing to his name. No family, no home, nothing. He doesn't even have a name... until Ryu gives him one: "Haru."

By the time Chapter 3 rolls around, Haru has sótano as his newfound family, but he finds another one in Ryu's apartment. That is where he eats the Japanese home-cooked meals he's always wished to eat (via sourcebook), does the chores he's always wanted to do, and gets a slice of a normal life.

Ryu knows what a happy home looks like. Although he mentions that his mother "wasn't perfect," she was kind. Both his mother and father, according to the setting sourcebook, were very much in love and raised both Ryu and Ai with utmost love and care.

He no longer has this. Now, he's content with being alone because he can no longer trust anyone, but, while watching Haru react with joy over doing ordinary things like washing dishes, cutting burdock root and eating his food, Ryu gains a bit of insight into what Haru grew up without.

Enter Yufumi, the neglected and abused child who lives next door to Haru. She, too, does not truly have a place to call home because her mother views her as a burden. She's never had a home-cooked meal from a mother, been praised, or given any clothes.

Furthermore, Eyebrows, too, never had a home. He was a stray kitten who was about to become crow food had Haru not saved him. Two people (and one cat) who have never known what a stable, loving home felt like. And they all found home with Ryu.

So they form a somewhat patchwork family of a husband (Haru), a wife (Ryu, according to Haru's own words), and two children (Yufumi and Eyebrows). But what does is the significance of this to Ryu?

I'd like to take your attention to the matsuri scene for this one. Prior to them going to the festival, Ryu watches Haru and Yufumi tinker around on the piano. The soft gaze Haru catches from him makes it clear Ryu is thinking back to the days when it was just him and his sister, Ai.

However, the matsuri scene also shows something else. 

Recall Ryu's POV prior to the Bad End/Good End branch. Ryu was taken to a jazz restaurant by his parents and fell in love with the piano there at the age of 5. The sourcebook elaborates on this and explains that his parents did it on their anniversary date. Ryu, as a child, hand-in-hand inside the restaurant with his parents, and immediately being taken in by the sights and sounds. Does this sound familiar?

This is a parallel to the matsuri scene with Haru, Ryu and Yufumi. It's six-year-old Yufumi's first time seeing fireworks, and she gets to see them on a “date” between Haru and Ryu, who first met in a jazz bar. She is not only symbolic of Ryu’s happy childhood with his parents, but also of the foundation of love and care Haru and Ryu build together. Yufumi grows out of her shell and comfortably voices what she wants, and is visibly excited and happy under their parenting. In other words, the route pushes her solidly as their love child.

Now, when Ryu gently scolds Haru about being more excited than the children, Haru tells him to enjoy himself while he's here. The matsuri scene is also important because that is when Haru starts to plant the seed of doubt in Ryu's head and really, really tries to convince him to adopt Yufumi for both of their sakes. He knows how lonely Ryu is and how safe Yufumi would be with him, so why not raise her?

And what does Ryu do by the end of the route, thanks to Haru? Adopts Yufumi and Eyebrows because the cat is also a part of the family. I should point out that, without Haru’s influence, Ryu doesn't adopt Yufumi or Eyebrows, and the latter two are separated in other routes.

The thing is... in the epilogue, it's revealed that Ryu extends that offer of being a family to Haru, too, in the form of keeping the last coupon. That coupon represents the promise to bind them together, the one that will make Haru come home to him in the future because he never breaks his promises. The reason Ryu is willing to do that for Haru, of all people, is because Haru did what no one else could: set him free and show him unconditional love in spite of everything.

IIB. Freedom

Freedom is a major theme of Ryu's route and character, and it's one of the aspects that fosters the romance between him and Haru as well. Ryu, by nature, is tightly wound and controlled in every way you can think of: physically, sexually, emotionally, verbally, etc. 

Ryu does not enjoy life because he's shackled himself to his goals. He takes things for granted because nothing in the world is worth more to him than his sister. He does not know what he has until he loses it, and it takes Haru's presence in his life for him to understand that. Haru saving Ryu and freeing him from his shackles is represented by foreshadowing in a physical example: Haru unlocking Ryu's zip-ties in the garage scene in Chapter 2. 

"What are we going to do?" "Beats me." "Um... I have a proposal."

This humorous scene actually mirrors the reveal in the final chapter, after Ryu finally sees what happened to his sister.

Ryu, who's broken down and cries in anguish, does not know what to do and begs Haru to kill everyone. He's at his weakest and he has no way out. It's clear he's given up on life and wants the world to burn, knowing that his sister is in that state and would be better off dead.

Haru refuses. With gentle but honest coaxing, he shows Ryu that there is a way out of the darkness and that he still has something to live for: Yufumi. He gives Ryu a reason to stay alive and start all over again, and to stop clinging to the past that will never return. With that, Haru frees Ryu from 17 years' worth of self-sacrifice. He's free to play piano as much as he want again. He can take care of Yufumi like he's always wanted to. Ryu can't get any of the time he lost back... but Haru gives him a miracle.

(This is a direct nod to the conversation Ryu has with Ren, too, about how lost time cannot be brought back in any way.)

To Ryu, who's been single-mindedly pursuing the impossible, this is essentially giving him a second chance at life. It's not only Ryu who's given freedom, either. Yufumi, as well, is given a second chance at life when Haru gives her a similar talk about whether or not she wants to wait for her mom or move on. Thanks to him, Yufumi lets go and is able to move on, just like Ryu, and is able to walk toward goals she wants the most. The fact that Haru is able to do that for them solidifies Ryu's love for him, and that is why he holds onto that last coupon. Because Haru never breaks his promises, he's certain he'll come home. In true tsundere fashion, Ryu frames it as, "I'll allow you to come back to me."

"But Somni!” you interject. “Are you sure Ryu loves Haru? What if he just respects him?"

There are certain things Ryu does for Haru that he does for absolutely no one else, not even his own flesh and blood. Remember that he has his heart encased in an icy prison and lets no one see who he really is. Not only is Haru the only person who gets to see Ryu's foul temper and lack of composure, he's also the only one who gets to see Ryu's playful side.

There are various times throughout the route in which Ryu pranks and toys with Haru, but the cutest one involves the dustcloth. The dustcloth represents Ryu's affection, much like one would see from a noblewoman when she gives it to a knight vying for her hand. Ryu could have simply made the phone holder and be done with it, but he went the extra mile to make a gag gift. And that was done to poke fun at Haru and have him go from excited to dismayed. Unfortunately, Haru is dense as hell, so the prank flies over his head and Ryu has to give him his real gift.

Make no mistake, though—the important thing is not the phone case, but the dustcloth, the proof of Ryu’s affection.

The thing is, Haru also receives the phone case in the Ballad of a Killer ending, but he does not receive the dustcloth. The major difference in this branch is whether or not Haru proves that Ryu was right to fall in love with him.

IIC. The Dichotomy of Love and Trust

Love and trust are not mutually inclusive in Ryu's route. There is a huge difference between loving someone and trusting them, and while his own feelings can’t be controlled, earning Ryu's trust is how he allows himself to fall in love with Haru in the first place.

The key to Ryu's Good Ending is ensuring that Haru never, ever goes back on his word. Not getting handsy with Ryu in the shower shows Ryu that he was never serious about the coupons, so he has no reason to trust him. Refusing to go home when Ryu uses a coupon seals it completely and Haru has to pay for his betrayal with his life. You cannot toy with the feelings of a man with Extreme Trust Issues(TM) and expect to get away with it.

Ryu was already falling for Haru, showing concern when Haru put himself in danger and musing about the fun Haru must have had while laying out the yukata set he bought for Yufumi. He was beginning to trust Haru, too... until, in the Ballad End, the fucker broke his promise and did not obey the coupon. By doing that, Haru unintentionally reinforces Ryu's view of the world: trust no one. He was a fool for loving him in the first place. So Ryu ends up using Haru's feelings again him and tricks him into killing Mimasaka and being fatally injured in the process.

Even then, Ryu can't bring himself to shoot Haru. He still loves him even though Haru screams out the most vile things about his sister to enrage him and drop his guard. It's an incredibly heartbreaking ending because Ryu takes what he has for granted again and will never get that love back.

Here's the kicker: Ryu set that trap for Haru in advance. Whether or not he decides to utilize it depends entirely on Haru's choice to obey or disobey. In the Good Ending’s path, Haru realizes the Mimasaka thing was probably a trap and isn't even disappointed, and Ryu does not pursue it.

Slowly, Haru begins to earn more of Ryu's trust, even though there's a limit. The tipping point happens prior to their last H-scene together, when Ryu sees Haru napping and tucks him in, and lets him hear what his true feelings sound like through the piano.

In the OST, the song Ryu plays is titled "Passion," which shows how much fire and life he's keeping inside of him. This is something he doesn't allow anyone to listen to or touch because that can be easily taken away from him like everything else. He doesn’t even play this kind of jazz for patrons in the bar. The sourcebook notes that Ryu plays with all his might like this once or twice a month, when everyone else has gone home. However, he doesn't wake Haru or kick him out, but lets him sleep and listen. Haru understands the significance immediately and sees him for who he truly is.

Now, a lot of people would say their second-last H-scene is one that holds the most emotional value, but I'd actually argue that their last H-scene, the one after this piano scene, showcases all of Ryu's feelings for Haru out in the open.  For this H-scene, I want to point to Lee's VA comments for Ryu. He mentions that Ryu's true feelings show themselves a little in this H-scene, which made recording for the route climax a lot easier. I also want to mention that Ryu's CSA experience is also vital here.

Ryu is a person who needs to be in control to feel safe because he can't trust anyone else to take the lead. The sourcebook reveals he doesn't even masturbate because, to him, that's a moral failing signifying a lack of control, which nods to his past.

The last H-scene he has with Haru is the first in which he has control over what happens (at least, for now). Haru pulls back at the lack of reciprocity, pouts, and whines about his feelings being hurt, which actually makes Ryu pause.

"If you want to have sex with me, make me want it."

Ryu does not want sex, ever. He's a traumatized, sex-negative asexual, has no interest in anyone, and would rather go through life without any of that dirty shit.  Plus, we've learned from the second-last H-scene that sex acts without emotion actually bore Haru. Even so, Ryu wants to do it with him, who he loves and trusts. But how does he show it?

He gives Haru something he's never, ever given anyone in his life: his first kiss.

And not just any kiss—he practically eats Haru's face (although he absolutely sucks at it) and it makes Haru so happy, it gets him raring to go right away.

"But Somni,” you say. “It's just a kiss! It’s not that big of a deal!"

The thing is, this is coming from someone who won't even masturbate. Ryu shows major resistance when Haru asks him to touch himself. The kiss he gives him is something within his control but also comes from a place he allows no one to look. Ryu has never done this to anyone in his life because he's never felt anything this deeply before until Haru came along in his life. This kiss holds major, major significance in that he's showing how much he wants Haru and love him.

Allowing Ryu to initiate the first move during sex is cathartic. He gets to move things on his terms without being forced against his will, and, as the scene progresses, Ryu begins to want more of Haru and actively voices it. Major trust is required for that.

However, that's the limit for Ryu's because, above all else, he has one goal in mind: to find his sister. He's more than willing to aim a gun at Haru, the man he loves, to get what he wants. The power of compartmentalization is really something.

III. True Love

But then Haru fulfills his promise and shows him the truth. And then Ryu loses it. He crumbles. He's lost everything and is at his most vulnerable, with his broken heart out in the open. There's no point in anything anymore. But, when Ryu is at his weakest, Haru saves his heart. Haru protects him and sets him free with the coupons and the reminder that Yufumi is waiting for him. He was there when Ryu needed him most.

Everyone else in Ryu's life broke his trust and abandoned him, but Haru didn't. And that finally proves to Ryu that, yes, he trusts Haru and was right to fall in love with him and let him into his life. That is why Ryu, seeing the last coupon flutter before his eyes, holds onto it. He wants to see Haru again and have him come home to him.

I want to draw attention to the fact that the very last CG is Haru through Ryu's eyes. His gentle, happy smile is shown through both that and described through Ryu's inner dialogue. Haru never breaks his promises, and the coupon becomes a chain that binds them together forever.

Ryu's lost so much over the years. He lost his parents when he was 10. He lost his innocence at 13. He lost his sister at 21. He lost her all over again at 27. But he also got a family and his life back, thanks to Haru, and Ryu doesn't want to lose him, either. For so many years, Ryu's suffered alone in silence, and in just two months, Haru, that wonderful windstorm of a man, barged into his heart and changed him for the better. Ryu gave him everything he ever wanted, too.

While Ryu's love isn't traditionally flirty like Hiroyuki's, tension-charged as Maki's, or exciting like Kouichi's, it's romantic all the same, and it comes from deep down in the soul. Their love reflects the quiet, everyday love between two people who have been married for many years. He and Haru changed each other's lives for the better, and it's not just their lives, either.

Remember Yufumi and Eyebrows. Because of that love between Haru and Ryu, both Yufumi and Eyebrows have a home and will no longer be mistreated, hungry, filthy and neglected. Haru's and Ryu's love creates a nurturing environment that allows their children to grow and flourish.

Haru himself also gains the most in Ryu's route compared to the other routes. He gets not only an identity, but the milestones he believes he’ll never have are achieved, too: what it's like to be married (with Ryu), being a father (of Yufumi and Eyebrows), having his first home-cooked Japanese meal made with love, etc.. Ryu, so vibrant and full of life underneath that coldness, is a joy for Haru to unwrap over and over again, and how he manages to surprise him one last time by being willing to wait for him to come home solidifies Haru's love for him, too. Haru's so in love with Ryu physically, mentally, sexually and emotionally, he literally does not think about him without simping at some point, and when he finally sees the fire inside him, Haru's all too happy to be consumed by it and even shows jealousy toward his own dick because it gets to be inside Ryu.

Their love is slow-burning and full of meaning and significance, and the impact it has on them and everyone around them is undeniable. The writing in Ryu’s route is so full of clues, metaphors and foreshadowing, it's the gift that keeps giving.

Love does not have to be showy. Love does not have to be explicit. Love is a choice, a conscious effort one makes to the person they care about the most, and when it comes from a jaded individual who keeps their emotions under lock and key, it means the world. Ryu’s love for Haru is clearly showcased in his actions and the route’s intertwining of their themes, and their chemistry together is solid.

[schrodingersinteraction]

So I've been catching up on High Class Homos...

and was reminded of a particular plot point/character appearance choice that doesn't make the most sense to me, especially in the vaguely historical/fantasy setting of the story. (For context, I'm coming at this as someone who knows a lot about historical costuming, but by no means on a professional or even academic level, this is mostly just stuff I've absorbed over the years engaging with it as a hobby. I know that this series is not intended to be 100% historically accurate, and by no means take this as a serious critique of the work as a whole. I had just been texting my sibling about this yet again and realized I had a lot of thoughts about it)

So. The part that caught my attention was this

Spoiler Alert from this point forward.

This is Odette. She works as a maid in the castle and we care about her cause she and a princess in said castle are a couple of Useless Lesbians™. But a part of her backstory is that she hasn't always been a maid, no, she used to live in fairly remote village where she foraged and communed with the animals and all that jazz. And when she was romping about the woods, she looked like this.

Long, flowing, luscious locks that apparently were never put up or braided? As someone with about this length hair, probably longer, I can tell you that you do not necessarily want it down and in your way, *especially* outside where it can act as a net to catch various leaves, twigs, branches, bugs, etc.

And apparently no one at the castle thought of braiding it either when she goes to work in the kitchen, because part of her backstory is that she *had to cut her hair* (this connection to her past life and all that, I can understand the metaphorical authorial intent) in order to work safely in the kitchen.

Now, this has been a thing in history. Working class people, often young girls, have had to crop their hair pretty short in order to do certain work and keep themselves safe, among other reasons. However, if it was for work, this work took place factories, right at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, in order to not have their hair caught in fast-moving, definitely not OSHA compliant machinery.

The general understanding I have of this world is it's pre-Industrial Revolution, with a touch of fantasy to have things such as magically assisted gender transitions (which I genuinely love). Obviously there's a lot of various anachronisms here that I'm willing to suspend my disbelief about! This, however, not so much. And I was trying to figure out why and as far as I can tell it's because it's so central to her character arc/backstory, and there's a lot of other explanations that could've led to the same result - she used to have long hair, and now she has short hair. (It could be a personal choice to indicate her change of environment, part of her overall character arc as she plays around with presentation and becoming more comfortable with her queerness, she prefers how it feels, there's a lot of options) But the implication that long hair would be so much of hindrance in pre-Industrial kitchen is not really a thing.

Long hair is not that much harder to take care of and keep clean and out of the way. If anything, I'd argue it's easier with the level of technology they are implied to have access to. It can be braided and pinned up and fully covered by a headscarf, brushed out every day to minimize tangles/dirt/grease, all of this keeping it clean without necessarily needing to wash it every day. (Access to running/clean water and enough of it to wash regularly was very much a luxury for a lot of history and I got the vibe it was here too?) And I know this both from various historical sources (people have had long hair in a lot of different jobs at a lot of different points in time), and from personal experience!

There's a lot more specific anachronisms I could get into, but this was the main one that stuck out to me. Overall I have a lot of fun reading the series, I'm also just a wee history nerd and I don't always know when that will completely take over.

[starrbar]

Ships and kinks don't actually reveal how deeply one can enjoy or appreciate a story

I noticed that lately I have this small paranoia in my head that goes kind of like this: "I just experienced an amazing, deep, or wholesome thing. If I start shipping or sexualizing the characters this soon, that will make it look like I never cared about the story or characters or nuances or lessons etc. It'll be like I was only looking for wank material and never appreciated the truly great stuff about it."

And that's not true. It's never true in my case. And though I don't condemn people who may genuinely only care about the ships of a particular media they like, I personally DO care about the whole packages and I analyze media extensively, so I really don't want people to think that of me.

I haven't seen a lot of claims of specifically this, but I have seen sort of adjacent claims about proshippers. Usually goes something like, "It's really Concerning™ that proshippers can't recognize red flags of a predator / don't understand sibling love", as if their ships indicate the ultimate limit of their capacity to comprehend anything. And that's just ungodly wrong. It's almost awkward to see comments like that because it's so bizarrely illogical.

I remember one time, I had expressed the opinion that one of my favorite stories, while it did not contain any plots about incest or pedophilia, was so well-written that it would have handled those topics with grace and care if it had decided to include them. And someone accused me of "PURELY seeing it as sexual and getting off to it" as if I hadn't literally centered my comment on the capabilities of the writers, and had even said that I preferred the relationship as it is in canon. Nowhere in my comment had I even mentioned finding the ship hot or wanting it to be canon. I demonstrated that I was able to appreciate the canon material while shipping a problematic non-canon ship on the side, and people still chose not to see that.

And it's actually one of the most frustrating experiences I've ever had with antis. If someone makes a shit claim to start the conversation, it's annoying, sure. But if someone purposely ignores or rewrites what I JUST SAID in order to make a shit claim, that makes my blood boil tenfold.

Couple example stories for me are Omori and Arcane, two very deep, meaningful stories with some very wholesome scenes too... which also happen to have problematic fanon ships that I enjoy exploring both for analysis reasons AND for horny reasons.

And I've seen people get genuine backlash for enjoying the wholesome side of a story purely for sfw E-rated reasons while also enjoying a creepy ship in a completely different space, in a completely different context. Or even just not caring if other people enjoy those things. "How dare you draw a child while being a proshipper!? You must be a creep!" a la this incident.

And now that I think about it, one reason someone may only see me horny-posting about something is because frankly those types of posts are easier to finish writing than a full essay about my intricate feelings about a plot. But then I find it embarrassing that I frequently fail to publish those essays because they would at least serve as proof that there's more to my enjoyment than just "sibling ship hawt".

Another reason is that I do manage to get those essay thoughts out, but unfiltered and ungrammar'd, to my friends. In servers or in DMs. Where I can express myself frantically and unpolished and still be fully understood. And if I say something that could be taken badly, I can just explain myself further instead of risking a sea of harassment BEFORE I have the chance to clarify something weird I said while jittering in my seat and flailing in excitement. With published essays about complex topics, I have to be VERY CAREFUL with my wording and quadruple-billion-check my posts, because I am aware that the internet gets enraged if you mention a thing and then don't give 20 disclaimers about every other possible interpretation of that thing.

Anyways.

Regardless of my probably unnecessary paranoia, I still recognize that everyone has a different reason for enjoying something. Everyone gets something different out of a positive experience. And it's not my job to judge and dictate which reasons are good and allowed and respectable. If something brings you joy, who am I to take that away from you?

Regardless if you enjoyed a show because of its plot or because of its "plot", there's nothing wrong about it. There's nothing gross or insulting about the way you enjoy things.

Keep being you and doing things you love!

[hms-tardimpala]

For FFWF, I'm sending a question bomb back to you, friend <3 Soooo how is it going along with breaking in that ship tag? Care to tell us about them, like what sort of characters they are and what their dynamic is?

Or if you would rather talk about your experience with rarepair ships in general I would be interested in that too <3

I'm so happy to get this ask! Heads-up: it might get long.

So I'm not breaking in a ship tag, what I said yesterday was that I was writing for a small ship and, as a reader, I had found no fics for some pairings I were looking for. Your ask might change that however, but I'll say more about this a little lower...

I can tell you about the small ship I'm writing for currently! I'm entering Know No Shame mode so here it is: it's Alan Grant/Billy Brennan from Jurassic Park 3.

Yes, of all things. I'm the first who's surprised. This time around I'm seeing something in them that I want to explore. I think you of all my writer friends can appreciate a teacher/student dynamic best. They're two brilliant scientists (Billy has to be to be Grant's dig site manager) in the hot Montana badlands, they act sort of like a married couple in the movie (they're a package deal), Grant has a history of dating younger paleontologists and Billy is his very devoted easygoing assistant that acts as an intermediary for his misanthropic professor.

There's potential for: hero worship, We Shouldn't Do This™ angst, establishing a healthy relationship despite status and age gap, and I've never written a student character, especially one who has to finish a PhD after he's been traumatized by the animals he was studying, so that's interesting.

Like, the movie isn't much, but it gives me just enough to want to write a study of their relationship during and post-canon.

And now I realize that both fics I'm currently writing are about fixing an established relationship after a big falling-out (partly, at least). Well, well.

Now, for my experience of rarepairs. I mostly read (and write, so far) in big to huge fandoms and I'm generally into the main ship (which is why I see Billy/Alan as a rarepair, although you might think that with 181 fics, they're not in this category). But sometimes (often, actually) I get interested in a media that has a very small fandom and I happen to ship characters that very few people seem to be interested in.

When that happens, I end up reading as many fics about that ship as I can find, and I really make sure to kudo and comment to thank the author. Fandom is never more a community than when it comes to rarepairs.

As a writer, so far I'm enjoying the experience. I feel more free because virtually nobody is watching and I can really write the thing for me, and me only. That's such a pleasure! It's really just me and my notepad, that feels great. I feel like a kid!

And about breaking in a ship tag... One of the ships I failed to find fics for the other day is Juan Borgia/Christoforo Castanea, or really Juan Borgia/any man for the show Borgia. Christoforo in himself is a tiny and unimportant character, but I'm seeing some gay subtext around Juan Borgia, and I can't believe I'm the only one! There's something about the desperate way he kisses men on the mouth especially his brother that I want studied!

Your ask inspired me, and I now have a couple of interesting ideas to explore the character's possible homosexuality/bisexuality in a fic. That would include writing about him and Christoforo and him and his brother, so I would functionally be breaking in two ship tags: Juan Borgia/Christoforo Castanea and Juan Borgia/Cesare Borgia (because Juan is an ugly duckling but he deserves to be invited to the sibling fuckfest).

Thank you so much for asking me this, Nara, I loved talking about it. And thank you for the inspiration, I'm now going to let these ideas simmer. I love you <3