#they want all watchers to have the same opinions or put themselves in the characters shoes but they refuse to see where the watchers opinion

[petratherrock]

Anime-onlys being mad at character(s) because they've got limited info about said character(s) and the character(s) did something wrong to another character or simply not being in the same wavelength with the characters they like more onscreen :

Manga readers who have read the manga many times for years before the anime release, have had discussions and lots of analysis, have had more contents about the characters and now can read nuances behind the characters actions :

I'm gonna kill you 😠

[isnt-it-pretty]

Thank you for spreading the Tighnari-caring-for-Cyno agenda I am so so tired of every ship with 2 (or more) characters of different skin tones having the darker one turned into the "big strong but goofy himbo protector one" and the lighter into the "small weak uwu but smart damsel one". And most people don't even notice the racist undertones they just think it's a common fanfic trope and totally acceptable and it drives me up the walls because if you try and bring it up you're "overthinking" and "It's just fic"... I get that but it's almost every fic in almost every interracial ship in almost every fandom I've ever been in and...I'm tired

I don't think that liking the dynamic is inherently racist (which I know you aren't stating it is! I just want people to know I'm not calling them racist over a ship), but it is telling when every similar ship has the same dynamic. It definitely isn't malicious, but, you know, internalized biases. It's something worth exploring because we all have them; I'm certainly not immune to them. The fact Cyno is often depicted as less intelligent than Tighnari is definitely something people should question, though, because racism and colourism play a massive role in perceived intelligence. I made a post on it that people can read here if they haven't already. That said, I'm also white, so I can't exactly speak to racial biases the way a BIPOC can, and I always welcome their voices and opinions on the topic.

As for my agenda of Tighnari taking care of Cyno, I'm really passionate about it (probably too passionate). We see how much pressure Cyno is constantly under. He even says that he has to weigh every choice he makes carefully because of the consequences. When Nilou asks if he's happy, he dodges the question and says it doesn't matter. Tighnari says he looks lonely.

I think people like that need somebody to take care of them. They need somebody to put a hand on their shoulder and tell them to stop running themselves into the ground, because Cyno will go until he breaks (looking at his story quest, where he takes down 300 people in four days after losing somebody very important to him and just doesn't talk about it.) He deserves to be loved, and he deserves to be vulnerable and hurt. He is allowed and should show weakness sometimes. He should be held and wrapped in blankets, or bathed, or comforted, or whatever, instead of always being the strong, comforting presence. It's okay to be that, but he deserves some vulnerability, too.

It's why all my fics focus on Hurt!Cyno, and why my other secret agenda is that a lot of people love him. I refuse to write a BIPOC who everybody is threatened by and dislikes. I strongly headcanon that he's adored by the matra and has close friends like Tighnari and Kaveh. The other forest watchers may be wary of him, but they ultimately like him and welcome him to Gandharva Ville.

I want to balance the scales a little instead of always having Cyno comfort Tighnari. I want it to be the other way around, because it's okay to be vulnerable. I also love every fic where Cyno is injured or sick and goes to Tighnari because Tighnari is his safe person, and I endlessly wish there was more of them.

(I just want to reiterate that writing Tighnari as vulnerable/hurt, and Cyno as protective doesn't make anybody a bad person, or racist, or homophobic, or whatever, but it might be worth trying out dynamics different from the mainstream! You might find that you enjoy them.)

Hopefully, this response makes sense! I'm a little scattered today, so I can never tell. Thank you so much for the ask; I really appreciate it, and I'm glad you find my headcanons refreshing ❤❤❤

[monstermaster13]

Werebelushi:

You know, I hate when some people think a different opinion equals 'rude/butt-hurt', it's like they think that opinions are an alien concept or something. Like this one idiot. Who said 'All you ever do is complain about TF content you don't like, I have seen it flood the search results and you don't contribute anything than complaining about stuff you don't like and post passive aggressive comments, I mean why hate a Goodra TF just because it's a suit transformation for crying out loud, it's comments like that I cannot stand and I can't understand why people like that can't keep their opinions to themselves especially if they don't have anything remotely constructive to say about it.' Wow, someone give this penis-headed moron a dictionary so they can look up what hypocrisy means. You're complaining about Nathan's opinion in which he stated he clearly did like the piece but was put off by it by a fucking suit trigger of all things? You are such a Karen. I suppose you are going to complain to the manager about that, aren't you? Oh really, my rants get the attention of the search results every day, huh? And who the hell is doing that? Your friends, your watchers, the artist who did that picture? Or is it you? Yes, you admit that you see my rants pop up in the search engine so clearly you must be stalking me. Look I don't need another creepy stalker, I have plenty already. Also oh how I wish I was that lucky to have more than 10,000 people watching me or Nathan's account. 100,000 or more view counts? Oh how I wish I had that much oh well, I guess Nathan will have settle for the 'measely' 479.9K pageviews he actually has then. By the way that was sarcasm.

Look I don't hate all transformation content, I just don't like unhappy transformations and also weight gain that fetishizes someone for being fat and also stereotypes and clowns among other things, I don't like MC, which unfortunately the majority of character TFs and some animal TFs do have in them, and I wish they didn't. If I want to be a character I like, can't I at least keep my own personality and memories? Oh and maybe you should have followed your own advice and kept your shit-takes to yourself because you aren't very convincing. Oh I contribute alright, I do things other than this show you know, I am part of the same hero team as Mel and Nathan and I go on adventures with them, I even teamed up with Corey and Oats more than once, I do positive reviews too, it's just my producers sometimes get sadistic moods and make me suffer through shit like what that phoenix always does. I get nice stuff to review sometimes, but nobody ever pays attention to them. Also, the 'keep opinions to yourself' mentality needs to die because I am sick of it, look I don't like those Pokemon TF stories that have 'oh you can't talk in English only Poke-speak' because it makes me want to scream at the authors 'HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF MYSTERY DUNGEON BEFORE OR AT ALL?' and I don't like some Pokemon TFs that have the slavery allegory and I don't like the 'humans are evil' trope, look almost every environmental special since the 80s has done that and it is really annoying. I don't like world domination as a cliche because it is overdone and also flawed, let's just say there are some monsters who have had some serious flaws in their domination plans (e.g if you're a monster in a scenario based on American politics, wouldn't you essentially just be taking over America instead of the entire world in general because other countries have different politicial systems). If you cannot handle an opinion maybe you should go back to crying yourself to sleep. If you're saying all reviews of something need to be positive or contribute in anyway, you are an idiot. Imagine if someone gave an overly positive review of some of the worst movies ever made, ones so bad they didn't even get one single Golden Raspberry award, if that happened i'd be thinking that this is a Twilight Zone episode or something or that i'm on another planet. Not every review has to be positive, if you don't like something that is fine, everyone has the right to their opinion and that includes me. Look I got death-threats from members of the Changed fanbase just because I did not like that game, Mel got berated just because she said she doesn't like Skyrim or Fire Emblem by someone who claimed he 'understood' opinions only to bitch about her to his friends, i've been though that it all.

[theessayproject]

Crucial Messages: Messages to the LGBTQ+IA Community

Messages in media are crucial to a show’s especially messages directed at specific audiences. There are many great and not so great messages towards the LGBTQ+IA community specifically due to the nature of the topic and content that these shows may offer. Looking into a few specifics, we get to learn the actuality of what the message is without the message even being portrayed.

Speaking specifics, Netflix has since gotten the rights to a popular WebToon comic by a renowned author; Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper. The show takes viewers through the eyes of a teen boy, Charlie Spring, and how he’s navigating his life at school being an openly gay character. We get to see through the eyes of not only Charlie but his friends as well. The show in my opinion is very educational and with a new season arriving later this year, it’s one of Netflix’s highly anticipated shows with a major audience.

A bit of backstory to this and how it came to be is, Alice Oseman wrote the series back when she was 22, she is now 29 with a massive fanbase and plays a huge role in the production of the show because she wants the show to be done the correct way, unlike a few shows with queer characters in the past that have altered the storylines. Heartstopper itself has multiple characters who make up the LGBTQ+IA spectrum we see today. The show and book itself prove the same messages of being who you are and being fully transparent with the people you love along with the normalization of queer relationships.

In the article that is presented in this essay, it discusses the many topics that are discussed in the show and the way it has changed the outlook on the community along with the outlook of Gen-Z xommunities. Penni Russon goes into full depth in detail about the messages and puts on the take of how widely received they were by watchers all over the world.

Russon puts two topics to light in the article; Queer Joy and Normalizing Queer Love. Two topics that make up a good chunk of the two seasons currently out on Netflix, these two topics can go for any of the characters presented as they all see themselves different from each other. To make it easier, I’ve chosen to focus on a few characters specific to the show; Charlie Spring and Elle Argent for Queer Joy, and Issac Henderson on Normalizing Queer Love.

Starting with Queer Joy, it’s an emotion defined in the article as “as a positive feeling we get from encountering signs of progress in gender equality and gender diversity” (Russon, para.8). These two characters experience their moments on screen in both season 1 and 2 in their own respective ways. Charlie’s experience is gained from the meeting of Nick Nelson in the beginning of the show and how Charlie is harboring a crush against his ‘friend’, while Elle’s experience comes in season two when Tao Xu asks them out on a date. Theres two processes in these two as Charlie has been out as gay in school for a while, and Elle has just recently transitioned to be a woman. The joy viewers felt when seeing these two moments created a moment of being represented and not being judged for being who they are and how they think. Russon also mentions how this show had reminded her of her own children stating “Charlie’s queer and quirky friendship group reminds me of the young people who trail in and out of my house on a regular basis.” (Russon, para.26). The show has not only opened the eyes for Russon but for many parents with openly queer children as well, bringing together that aspect for them as well.

The second topic, Normalizing Queer Love is shown throughout the show in many ways. In season two there's a moment for one of the characters; Issac Henderson, where he strikes a friendship with a boy on the paris trip named James McEwan and throughout the storyline of Issac we see him learn that he had started questioning his sexuality in the show. Quaintly after the friendship with James happens, a little later in the show we see that Issac had accompanied Charlie, Nick, and Tao to go see Elle’s friends exhibit and we see a moment with another character explaining their sexuality on the art project that was being presented and we can see a visible shift with Issac as he’s listening to the description given and after that moment he starts researching about being on the asexual spectrum. It’s a moment that is so significant because it showcases significant growth of Issac and who he is as a person and it showcases that finding out later in life that you may identify as something else is completely okay. It’s normalizing that as a person, when you grow and change, so does the way your brain thinks and the way your own sexuality may evolve. When this moment happened on screen for the majority of people it gained traction to the point where many more people started to see that coming out later in life on social media saying that the show itself helped people learn more about themselves and better themselves.

Using the material we were given in class, we read an article on Julia Serano’s work about debunking the argument that trans women are not women. Serano’s work aligns with a moment in the first season of the show with Elle starting the new school year at an all girls school rather than the all boys school she used to go to with Charlie, Tao, and Issac. Prior to Elle switching schools, there’s a moment mentioned where Elle has lunch with two of her new friends and she explains that the treatment at the all boys school had rules that she didn’t want to follow as a result of her being a trans woman. It’s something pretty common in the schools in the UK, where there are rules about hair length as well as mannerisms for gendered schools. Elle mentioned specifically about how she felt more accepted in the all girls school socially as she had an issue about her identity at the all boys school. When reading Serano’s article it can been seen with the intention on how people don’t see trans people regardless of what transition they made as what they were biologically born as. Serano mentions how it’s harder for society to see trans women as women point blank period, whereas in the show Elle’s transition didn’t seem to stop her friends from looking at her any differently. A quote was mentions saying that Elle was probably happier and safer at the all girls school which shows that the only reason why society sees trans people as not what they are is because they aren’t fully concerned for the safety of them.

In other light, Heartstopper has created a way for people to come out more comfortably with friends and families. In a BBC article written by Emma Saunders, she states that it has helped a woman in her 40s come out with her stating “There was probably a part of me that always knew but didn't really know how to label it because there weren't any people talking about bisexuality when I was growing up,” (Saunders, para 9), and it’s true in the article Saunders mentions how there wasn’t representation like what Heartstopper was showing and how everything prior to the 2010s was very hush hush and not very spoken about. Through the article Saunders does small interviews with people who identify in the Gen X category and late Millennial category about Heartstopper and what was said had been pretty consistent. These people are saying how important it is for representation and how important it is for younger audiences to know about the LGBTQ+IA community, because they didn’t have that kind of representation with shows released in their times. It’s so important not only for us as Gen Z to have this representation but for the older generations as well as they were always told that being queer wasn’t okay or that it wasn’t normal, representation starts with one person and with one idea and the way Alice Oseman is single handedly paving the road for other queer authors as well as other queer actors and queer people is astounding.

Heartstopper has created a whole new generation of what is to be expected from a show with queer characters. It launched other shows like Young Royals and Red, White, and Blue into what they are today because of the way media is changing. Changing the narrative of media for better as the representation is not only with the queer community, but with gender and race communities as well. The messages in this show is one of the many reasons why it draws more and more of an audience daily. It helps those who are looking to come out to their families and or friends and it helps those on the receiving end of when their friends and or family members decide to come out to them. This show is one of the many to be watched over as well as cherished for years to come as it shows so many paths and the way these characters interact. As many wait for the release of season 3, many more are watching and talking about the two seasons that have already been released.

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH spoilers under the cut

This death appears in Batch 2 of Stone Ocean.

In this post, I will compare their death in the anime to the manga.

This is, as well, a scene I didn't really remember. I recalled F.F fighting to tell Jolyne White Snake's identity, but thankfully, in both the manga and the anime, they were able to say goodbye.

The scene is the exact same, but I enjoy this translation more. (It looks as though Netflix's subtitles aren't the best... are they?)

Let's compare this to the anime's English translation.

F.F.'s dialogue in the anime only mentions "having a chance to say goodbye". It does not mention their fear of forgetting how to say it, or that they should say it.

It even goes against that by claiming that F.F. is glad to have found the "strength" and "courage" to do it. This is not what the manga implies.

F.F.'s entire arc was based on craving their own intelligence. Earlier in the episode, Annasui insulted their existence. In the episode leading up to their death, F.F. analysed their own experience and realised that a facet of having intelligence was the ability to make memories. This is what matters the most to them. In the manga, when they die, they relish in the fact that they were able to leave as a being with something akin to a soul - as they say, proof that they were alive. It's not about how they feel about their friends. They already know their feelings; what they didn't know for sure was whether they were their equal. F.F. didn't want "enough time to say goodbye". They wanted to be intelligent enough to have the ability to say it, when they should say it.

There are also slight differences in the way they talk about Annasui.

I don't think the text itself is different in nature. What is different, in my opinion, is the lack of emphasis in the anime. Not only does the manga make it clearer that F.F. used Annasui's intelligence and strength to cure his wounds, when the anime isn't all that obvious about that (it sort of implies that they left his intelligence and potent life force intact instead), but it also emphasises on what F.F. cares about. They never enjoyed Annasui's company. They probably don't "like" him, however they experience that feeling. However, they have respect for his inherent intelligence as a live being. In the manga, they want Jolyne to let him know expressively that it was his intelligence, his strength they used, because those are things F.F. consider important about themselves, and that they respect about Annasui regardless of his personality.

F.F. is a lovely character. I'd have to reread the manga in full to compare the amount of care that was put into their character in the manga compared to the anime, but generally speaking, the anime is very accurate to the manga. F.F. is very interesting and endearing, and I have always been upset that they had to go. I hope anime-only watchers see the depth of their character as well.

[yikesevenworse]

JJ’s very obvious character traits, the ones that define him most are his habits of impulsivity, his loyalty and being hot-headed.

Since these are given I won’t go into much detail but the loyalty part is very interesting as it technically would be considered his ‘fatal flaw.’

A fatal flaw in media, especially film, means what will eventually be the downfall or death in what could be considered a noble way. Most of JJ’s entire storyline is him sticking by his friends despite his own home issues or how angry he is at them. His hot-headed behavior may sometimes be taken out on his friends, it never overpowers his loyalty to them.

More of his under appreciated or not as thought of traits is that he is an emotional character and a very physical one. JJ seeks out comfort in physical touch in pretty much every single episode in both seasons. JJ struggles with anger but he also struggles with anxiety (chest holding, poking at his friends dangerous habits, etc.), and the inability to cope. We see him smoking and drinking quiet often in the first season and it’s most likely a mechanism to forget the abuse he endured from his father/ parents as a child. JJ seeks out the physical affection he did not receive as a child which make me able to confidently say that it’s his main love language. I’d say his secondary is maybe words of affirmation or quality time.

Despite JJ constantly seeking physical touch he flinches quite a few times when anyone approaches him. This is a conditional response which means it is assumed that JJ’s dad has abused him since childhood and the situation never mended. Since JJ does allow his father to hug him it can be interpreted that he wishes for a better relationship and although he endured Luke’s abuse he does love him (as victims often do love their abuses- especially when they are parents).

In my opinion, JJ is the glue of the group. I think John B is mistakenly put in this role as the pogues were always at his house, on his boat, etc. but when John B ‘died’ they stuck together. Now, had the time been longer it could be different but since their friendship held up I would say JJ is the glue. JJ’s brotherly love with John B, his very obvious adoration for Pope and his familial relationship with Kiara holds them together. JJ has an amazing connection with everybody in the group. Without him I’m sure they’d still be friends, but he pushes the ‘not friends, family’ narrative that solidifies that claim.

Some may say that JJ is an anti-hero but in actuality, he portrays every trait of a hero: loyalty, bravery, helpfulness, willing to sacrifice. JJ is all of these these, maybe a little morally ambiguous but he fits a hero category over anti-hero. His bravery & loyalty has overpowered his fear in every dangerous situation.

JJ & John B- the two of them have a very brotherly bond although they do throw each other around a lot. They’re both very physical when they argue with each other which is something I found strange on John B’s part since the pogues do know about JJ’s abusive father. Nonetheless, there isn’t much to say about their relationship because it’s easy to understand that they care for each other and see each other as brothers.

JJ & Kiara- In both seasons I didn’t think Kiara cared too much for JJ and thought they were more of in the same friend group than friends themselves. They do often berate each other and I had always seen this relationship as sibling banter but it can be interpreted any way the watcher wants. Season 2 did solidify them as best friends for me and I think it would be an interesting relationship to see. I do not, however, think that they are very compatible in a dating sense as Kiara can be overly nagging and it would build up a clash with JJ’s impulsive behavior.

JJ & Pope- In my opinion these two have the most interesting dynamic as JJ and Pope are opposites in almost every way. They have the most ambiguous connection I think. JJ is extremely protective of Pope and has shown this multiple times in both seasons- taking the fall for Pope, his reaction to Pope having the nearly fatal allergic reaction, being angry when Pope is hurt by the kooks, etc. I would at the least say they have the best duo bond of the pogues, since it is canon that JJ would do anything for Pope. JJ thinks very highly of Pope and even cares about his education- something the rest of the pogues don’t seem to mind overlooking. This type of protectiveness and devotion seems more of romantic coding than any of his other relationships.

If anyone wants me to go into more detail about anything, please let me know and I’d be happy to! Hope this was helpful.

(Pope’s character analysis and then a deeper dive into JJPope will come later!)

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

I find it really intriguing how the ATLA writers could have gone a “brotherly love” route with Zuko and Aang, but they never did. Even in LOK, the only thing that I remember Iroh saying about their relationship was that they canonically became the best of friends and that Zuko knew Aang better than anyone, even more than Katara and their children. I find the direction of their relationship a contrast to how often the bond between the male protagonist and the male antagonist that are spiritually linked in other media is reduced to “they were like brothers” and put aside for the respective heterosexual romances of the leads, even though the relationships between the leads often have homoerotic subtext and can be interpreted through a queer lens. I guess what I’m wondering is: would you classify Zuko and Aang’s relationship as brotherly? Do you support interpretations where their relationship is viewed as brotherly? And finally (I’m sorry for all of the questions): why do you think the ATLA writers - who seem to mostly be composed of cishet men - never took the “brotherly love” route and left the nature of their relationship ambiguous?

This ask has been in my inbox for a Hot Minute 💀 my apologies, my friend. And since I haven’t seen LOK, I won’t try to speak on the front. Before I continue, though, @likealittleheartbeat has an AMAZING analysis here about the interpretation of Aang and Zuko’s relationship through a queer-platonic lens that I found to be an incredible read and arguably could answer this ask on its own, lol!

I guess the general “issue” that must be addressed to answer these questions is simply how we define brotherly. That “we” can be divided into the viewers and the writers, only adding another layer of complexity. Because the reality is that we can’t jump into the creators minds and see exactly how they intended Zuko and Aang’s relationship to be interpreted. We can make deductions, e.g. the existence of Kataang and Maiko suggests Zuko and Aang were not intended to have a romantic relationship within canon (duh, lol). In fact, you could even add another division to the “we” - the writers, the viewers, and the characters themselves (i.e. interpretation through the cultural lenses that inspired the show).

All of this is to say that there is not going to be one agreed-upon definition of “brotherly,” lol! Since you seem to be asking for my personal opinions, I’ll go with my personal definition. If anyone has differing thoughts in response to these questions, please feel free to add them in a comment or rb! I think there’s a lot to explore here and my sole opinion is Not the be-all and end-all, lmao.

So, what is my personal definition of “brotherly”? I’m not going to try to make a formal definition, lol, but the gist of my interpretation is a platonic relationship akin to that of siblings. To me, there is a difference between having a “brotherly relationship” with someone versus a “friendship” (I almost used “friendly relationship” but that didn’t feel right jskdfhakdls). I think these two can overlap and/or be the same, but - for example - I have friends who I would say without hesitation that I am incredibly close with, but I also would not classify that friendship as “sisterly.” (Again, these are strictly my personal thoughts, and I encourage further discussion in comments/rbs!)

I’ll take your questions one at a time:

Would you classify Zuko and Aang’s relationship as brotherly?

Personally? Probably not. To me, there is a sense of superficiality associated with the term “brotherly” that in my eyes can be reductive to platonic relationships between men (can be, not always lol). I think with Zuko and Aang, the relationship just runs much deeper than “brotherly” can connote. For one, they are the primary narrative foils of the show! The only relationship that comes close to theirs in terms of narrative significance is Kataang (which is a very different dichotomy, btw, I’m not trying to compare them lol). We have numerous episodes dedicated to the parallels between Aang and Zuko, including but not limited to “The Storm” and “The Avatar and the Fire Lord.” I mean, this is an actual quote from the latter episode:

Do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?

We see variants of this line and the notion of friendship itself associated throughout that episode explicitly with Roku and Sozin, Roku and Gyatso, and of course the Gaang at the end, but implicitly we also know it’s about Aang and Zuko, too. Aang says, “Everyone, even the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation, have to be treated like they’re worth giving a chance.” One common take with this line that I’ve seen is interpreting it as foreshadowing for Aang’s decision to spare Ozai - which obviously is a fair assessment - but we cannot also ignore how much it applies to Zuko joining the Gaang. Specifically, Zuko reconciling with Aang.

We all know Aang was the first person to extend friendship to Zuko back in “The Blue Spirit” and tbh, after he saw Appa licking Zuko, you can tell Aang was nearly willing to extend a second chance to Zuko then and there lol. Aang and Zuko’s friendship, them being drawn together, is a relationship that transcends lifetimes, transcends social norms/expectations, transcends a loss greater than anyone can imagine (for Aang) and offers a new opportunity arguably far more than deserved (for Zuko). I think ascribing a qualifier of “brotherly” to their relationship therefore limits this transcendence because of how much their dynamic encompasses.

Do you support interpretations where their relationship is viewed as brotherly?

Of course! One of the reasons I love A:TLA - especially my small corner of the fandom - is how many interpretations that every relationship presents, be it a small “difference” (such as calling Zuko and Aang’s relationship “brotherly”) or a more drastic one (exploring fanon possibilities with rarepairs, let’s go #AangRarepairWeek 😎). So even if this interpretation isn’t one I’m inclined to in the literal sense (i.e. it’s the “brotherly” qualifier I feel I dislike, because I do love platonic Zukaang as much as romantic Zukaang), I absolutely encourage others to make the most of their fandom experience and product/support content that they enjoy!

Why do you think the ATLA writers - who seem to mostly be composed of cishet men - never took the “brotherly love” route and left the nature of their relationship ambiguous?

I will say that we don’t really have any way of knowing the sexualities and gender identities of every single A:TLA writer, lol. I’m not saying they were all queer in some way, of course, but I just want to establish that we don’t and can’t know unless told. If that makes sense 😂

As I mentioned earlier, I have no way of getting inside the writers’ minds to determine their intentions when they were writing Zuko and Aang’s relationship, so all you’re gonna get here are my best guesses lmao! For one, there wasn’t really a need to outright label Zuko and Aang as having a “brotherly” relationship. The existence of Kataang and Maiko again speak for themselves. Most viewers - especially casual watchers - don’t need the show to state “these two only love each other in a brotherly way” to conclude that the relationship was platonic (or rather, was not romantic), especially considering that the show was made in the mid-2000s (i.e. sad but true, most people weren’t watching A:TLA with a queer lens 😔). So I wouldn’t say they left the relationship “ambiguous” so much as there wasn’t need to qualify it further than simply being platonic.

Of course, I do think there is an ambiguity that comes with Aang and Zuko’s relationship, which I love to exploit in my Zukaang fics 😌. Was that ambiguity intentional? Again, I’m inclined to say no. But I can’t speak with certainty and - as I discussed earlier - I truly think Aang and Zuko’s relationship would be limited by being called “brotherly” when their connection runs so deeply and is intertwined so heavily with the spiritual themes of the show. Thus, it’s possible the writers were purposefully emphasizing that spirituality by not labelling them as “brotherly”! But as I said, there’s really no way to be sure.

At the end of the day, I don’t think it matters how someone chooses to label Aang and Zuko’s relationship. I mean, I’m always a little horrified when a person completely overlooks their narrative significance as foils (because I personally can’t imagine dismissing either of their importance to the other), but hey, to each their own. Brotherly, queerplatonic, romantic, and hell, anything in-between - these interpretations are anyone’s for the taking. Have fun with it! 💛

(I hope this at least kind of resembles the answer you were looking for, anon 😂)

[wangxiandecoded]

Episode 10

Previous Episode | Next Episode

(Spoilers for the whole show ahead!)

Going to draw a heart over Wangxian to keep track of every time the camera shows someone third wheeling them from now on.

Wei Ying uses his Binding/Bonding talisman on Xue Yang to show Lan Zhan it’s a dynamic tool that doesn’t deserve to be named “Boring”. Even though there’s a serial killer on the loose, Lan Zhan’s opinions on his inventions matter a lot to him. Standard Wei Ying stuff.

Wangxian’s Mirrors

At this point of the show, I could not believe there was a couple who directly mirrored Wangxian. And surprise! They were two men who dressed in black and white and came together for their common vision exactly like Wangxian did. Wei Ying cannot help but connect the dots and Lan Zhan is already aware of their eminence.

Xue Yang Fancies The Yiling Laozu 

Xue Yang’s introduction makes the story take a darker turn but also a gayer one. The homoerotic subtext between him and Wei Ying literally jumps out of the screen.  

(This episode had a lot of moments that were just begging for alternate dialogues to be written. I just wanted to have fun with the subtext that’s already present.)  

Wei Ying doesn’t want Lan Zhan to waste his precious breath interrogating the bad guy. He protectively steps up (something he does quite a lot) and puts some distance between the both of them.

But he wants Lan Zhan to hold his sword while he does that.. and if that act wasn’t necessarily considered to be intimate or romantic before, it just became that after Lan Zhan refused to do it in front of everyone.

Wei Ying has uttered many conspicuously gay things on the show but most of them are with reference to Lan Zhan. Therefore, this is possibly the gayest dialogue he has ever said in a strictly non-Lan Zhan context.

His tone is all, “Honey, you've been existing for 5 minutes, I'm the queerest person the cultivation world has seen in a millennium. You think frisking a guy is going to make me feel scandalized?” This is nuts to me because Xue Yang is arguably the most blatantly coded gay character on the show.. and here is Wei Ying all but saying he can outgay him. That he shouldn’t come after his job. And Lan Zhan just looks like..

It is curious how Lan Zhan says no to something that would require Wei Ying to go near Xue Yang again.

We get it, Lan Zhan. It was hard to see your guy giving attention to someone who wasn’t you.

When Lan Zhan is unsure what's happening back home, the first person his eyes seek is Wei Ying, his source of strength and reassurance.

SongXiao Help WangXian Fall Deeper In Love

Wei Ying is euphoric to meet another pair of Soulmates™. (The same kind of glee that queer people feel when they meet a celebrity queer couple.) His relationship with Lan Zhan just gained supreme validation and a boost to the power of infinity!

He sees everything he has with Lan Zhan reflected in SongXiao’s relationship. He admires them and is delighted that people like them who aren’t concerned with clan drama can walk the wider path of justice, and also lead successful, honourable lives. He looks to Lan Zhan for confirmation but Lan Zhan doesn’t seem too eager to publicize the super sweet promise they made at the lantern ceremony or the fact that he’s been secretly enjoying Wei Ying’s companionship on this expedition. And let’s be honest, it would’ve been more shocking if Lan Zhan did confirm any of that here.

Cheer up, Wei Ying! Lan Zhan will get plenty more opportunities to prove his love for you and he'll ace every single one of them.

No one asked for this but thank you NHS for declaring your ideal type is beautiful gentlemen who fight crime together and unapologetically go their own way.

The parallels between the two pairs write themselves. More importantly, it is while watching SongXiao leave together that Lan Zhan stumbles onto an epiphany.

This is such an underrated moment in the show. The sorrowful music and slow-motion shot of Lan Zhan looking at Wei Ying with vulnerability all over his face once again drives it home that Wei Ying is The One for him, and he is his. He was already getting tired of denying that Wei Ying is his soulmate in every sense there is, and he feels his pain and sadness in this moment. It is enough for Jiang Cheng to feel sorry for him and move on but not for Lan Zhan who feels all that his soulmate feels. 

It is overwhelming and brand new information to Lan Zhan himself that he can feel it because Wei Ying is not in impending danger right now, so this need he feels to protect him and be there for him can only mean that he loves him beyond the shadow of a doubt. Wei Ying seems upset thinking about his mother and Lan Zhan gets it, without Wei Ying having uttered a word the whole time. His face shows a kind of defeat in this scene; he surrenders to everything he has known and felt for some time now : He's in love with Wei Ying and would tear down the universe without a second thought if it means it would rid him of his unhappiness. And he isn't able to do that in this moment. But thanks to Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen, he’s found comfort in the truth they have each other at the end of the day, even if they have nothing left in this world. He cannot give back to Wei Ying what he has lost but he can accompany him in his sadness, and it will have to be enough. And it is, because Wei Ying can overcome just about everything as long as Lan Zhan walks by his side.

Wei Ying Says Lan Clan Deserves Rights

Wei Ying has many nice things to say about the Lan clan who he found exhausting a few months ago. Love brings about miraculous changes in a person, y’all.

Wei Ying gravitates towards Lan Zhan as if it's second nature to him and it really is.

Jiang Cheng spends a lot of time trying to get Wei Ying to spill the Top Secrets about the Yin Iron and Wei Ying is like, "Sorry, I’m bound by the Soulmate laws to tell you absolutely nothing."

Wei Ying is already embracing the idea of controlling the Yin Iron and people are rightfully getting offended by his suggestion.

What did you expect, Wei Ying? Not everyone is your lifetime confidant to give you the benefit of the doubt and reciprocate it with compassion, trust and open-mindedness.

Wangxian’s Temporary Separation

What was that, Wei Ying? Did we hear you admit that the Gusu Lan roof is softer than the one in Qinghe? Could this have anything to do with a certain law enforcer in Cloud Recesses you fell in love with at first sword fight? 

There is a delicate, bittersweet air to this separation, and even the casual watcher is going to be wondering, “When did I get so invested in Wangxian that WuJi makes me want to cry?”

It's cute how Lan Zhan is like, “Okay, I’ve seen the love of my life for one last time, I’ll quietly take my leave so he doesn’t know I was waiting for him to come back.”

Turns out, "I'll sleep on your roof tonight," is one of the most romantic things we could tell the person we love. Isn't it brilliant that just few seconds ago Wei Ying had said he will take whatever ground he finds as his home for the night, and how utterly beautiful is it to have followed it up with this dialogue? “Lan Zhan, I'll sleep on your roof tonight.” Because the world is big but my home is wherever you are. That’s where I’m happiest, I'll sleep on this rugged roof and walk through thorns if it means I get to be by your side. I won't mind it at all. And how unbelievably romantic is it that Wei Ying makes a philosophical statement about life, which ends up being about Lan Zhan?

Lan Zhan hears the implications in his voice. And he openly yearns to stay behind a little longer and commit to his memory what Wei Ying looks like when he is drunkenly proclaiming his love for him under the moonlight. It is pleasantly surprising that Lan Zhan is willing to express his emotions when he knows he is safe from Wei Ying hearing them, that he doesn't mind telling him goodbye when he thinks Wei Ying won't remember it. 

But the audience can hear his voice and we are going to remember it. How, "Wei Ying, I have to go," is uttered in a cadence so sweet we did not know Lan Zhan was capable of before this. And the choice of words do not simply mean that he’s going to leave, but that he has to, and most certainly not because he wants to. And how it really means, “I’m worried about everything, but especially you, and I'm sorry I have to go. I have to trust that we'll both be okay on this path. Please know that I don't wish to leave you, and forgive me for it. Wei Ying, I love you."

Even their temporary separation hurts so good. If they were meant to be best buddies, this scene wouldn't have been shot so poignantly. But we got used to seeing them together and every frame is designed to dig deeper into your heart and instil the fact that these soulmates are parting, and we don’t know when they’ll see each other again. This is the melancholy of a man who does not wish to be away from his lover but is forced to for the sake of the greater good. Anyone can see that.

The rooftop and moonlit night come as a callback to their first meeting, only Lan Zhan no longer wants to point the tip of his sword at Wei Ying, it gives him far greater satisfaction to place Wei Ying behind his sword.

I haven’t counted the number of times people acknowledge Wangxian’s relationship and/or know that they are inseparable, but it’s safe to say almost every character does that at some point. And some even know how to exploit their weakness, that in order to hurt one of them, the surefire way is to simply aim for the other like Wen Chao does here.

To summarize, Episode 10 saw Lan Zhan showing us his true colors : When he isn’t occupied with being the esteemed, intimidating Lan Wangji, he’s busy being a regular, sweet, romantic guy in love. And Wei Ying did that. He single-handedly exposes the soft side of Lan Zhan that nobody sees to the audience now and the world later on. 

This episode also gave us this : Two soulmates chilling shoulder to shoulder zero feet apart because they’re falling in love.

[mary1andonly]

Hi! I read your recent Brienne & Jaime post & it was very interesting. Just wanted to say I'd love to hear your reasons for Jaime becoming Bran's Hand in the books. It's a theory I only read this week, as it's not discussed much, so curious on your thoughts. I love it myself. Maybe people just think Tyrion is default because of the show? Also, as only a show fan at the moment, I still love Jaime, Brienne & the ship, so luckily D&D didn't ruin them completely :-)

Hi! I'm so glad you enjoyed my post. And I'm really glad D&D failed in throwing away all the hard work GRRM put in in creating those two.

The first time that theory was presented to me, was thanks to this amazing post (maybe it was the same one you also saw?!). And later on, after I re read the books again, I found many hints about that theory being true.

Even though for now you're only a show watcher, you probably have heard or read about how Book!Tyrion is descending into a darker path. And people don't say that lightly. From the moment he brutally raped a slave in ADWD, I knew he wasn't going to have the same sort of ending he got in the show (I only started reading the books after s8 wrapped up). In the show, Tyrion never did anything so horrible and disgusting, he stayed more or less the same character throughout all seasons, and D&D felt comfortable in giving him what we can probably call a happy ending. In the books tho, where Tyrion is slowly but surely following Tywin's footsteps in becoming ruthless, Jaime is going into the opposite direction...(hence why I think D&D simply picked the other Lannister to become Bran's Hand in the show, compared to the books)...

Losing his right hand, his sword hand, put a stop into whoever he was, or what he (and us initially) thought he was: a ruthless warrior. Initially, when he had to deal with the Riverrun situation in AFFC, after he lost his hand, he tried to follow in his father's footsteps, but it's just not something that came easily for him. Book!Jaime's naturally able to be respected and beloved even by kids who are supposed to be his hostages. He's slowly becoming someone who can very well be a respectable political presense...which it's something he NEVER wanted to be.

I've noticed that GRRM likes to tease future events by making his characters claim the opposite. One example I always think about is Bran's "I never fall", right before he went and fell from the Tower (yeah, I know he technically didn't "fell" on his own, he was pushed, but still). And the same thing happens to Jaime, the guy that started his POVs thinking nothing bad could happen to him now that he was going to KL... I've mentioned in my original analysis, that the fact Cersei first asked Jaime to become the Hand barely seconds before Jaime pushed Bran (changing the course of their lives) is something that always got my attention. And in the following books, when Jaime and Cersei got POVs, we saw this happen time and time again: Jaime being asked to be the Hand (by Cersei or others, he was asked to become the Hand a suspiciously amount of times.) and always refusing, because he doesn't think he could be anything but a warrior, because he's not interested in politics and because he doesn't think he could be good at it. Unfortunately for Jaime, GRRM loves to prove his characters wrong, about what they want and what they think of themselves, like Brienne being coinvinced she could never find love or become a mother, Martin wants to prove her wrong. And like it's stated in the post I linked, GRRM thinks the best political figure is the one who doesn't want it, the one that understands the burden that comes with it.

I also think it could be a good thematic finish to Jaime's storyline to end the books by completely redeming himself from his fist villainous act. We, of course, don't know what the state of Westeros could be by the end of ADOS, and what Bran being King could actually mean. But I love the parallel between Jaime as an Hand compared to his own father as an Hand. Where Tywin had to deal with a Mad King, while Jaime could form a cool partnership with someone who wants the best for people.

I'm sorry if this ask turned out to be another long rant. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

I hope this can help you, even just a little bit, and I'd love to also read your opinions on it :D

[hatchetfieldtheories]

Return to Hatchetfield-Town - TGWDLM Part 3

Have I been putting off this part because of sad Bill? Maybe.  Or is it because of all your amazing Ridiculous Hatchetfield Theory submissions? Yeah, you were right the first time.  I just can’t deal with sad Bill.

We left part 2 of the TGWDLM rewatch where the Scooby Gang had turned up at the spooky mansion, which can only go well, and we come back in part 3 as they’ve left the tied up resident bad guy alone with the one person who has a weakness for said bad guy.

Links to previous parts

It’s Ted loving time and I make no apologies for it.

Am I the only one who saw the scene with Ted and Charlotte and immediately got sent back to MAMD’s Joey and Sally?  It’s so good seeing Joey and Jaime acting opposite each other like this again, they both bring the same amount of chaotic brilliance.  

I have no jokes to make for this, I just needed a gif of the “slap” here.  Beautiful.  Iconic.

Here we see a bit of the true Ted, the Ted we see in Time Bastard.  He’s an idiot sure, but its obvious he is actually a hopeless romantic who really cares for Charlotte, underneath an exterior of “sleazeball”. 

When I originally read what happens in Time Bastard I will admit it didn’t really fit with the image I had in my head of Ted.  Ted is first and foremost played for laughs.  He’s selfish and arrogant and funny.  But rewatching TGWDLM, especially with Time Bastard in mind, you do see where Joey let’s Ted’s façade drop.  You see it at a greater extent later when Charlotte dies and Ted goes off on one to Bill.  But you also see it here (I’m sorry Ted fans):

Serious gifs, who is she?

Now. What’s happening in this next little scene? Are we ready for some tin foil hatting?

What do you want Charlotte?

Continuing our theme of characters explaining what they want in clear and certain terms, Charlotte starts praying to God, then Sam wakes up.  Was Sam waiting for everyone else to leave before “waking up” in order to target Charlotte?  Or were Charlotte’s prayers answered by an Eldritch being with the capability to control the Creedy Chorus?  Later Sam says that he “saw god”.  

In Black Friday, Linda attempts to issue in the “birth of a god.”  God is certainly a word the Devil Dolls are happy to attribute to themselves.  Somehow I don’t think it would have mattered if they had gone to a Methodist or Presbyterian church.

Opinion time: Tied Up My Heart is a full on rock bop and deserves way more praise and acclaim. You could have told me this song was from Rock of Ages and I would believed you.

“Don’t you twust me” – serious Wiggly vibes there Sam.

This is kinda catchy Sam!

In part two we briefly discussed when Hidgens became infected, and there is some theories that believe he was infected from the moment he touched the blue brain goo, leading to Show Stopping Number happening.

Charlotte was infected the minute she touched Sam’s brains.  Like Hidgens, it happened slowly, but its very clear it had begun to take root in this song.  Tied Up My Heart is to Charlotte, what Let It Out is to Paul.  They both find themselves dancing without meaning to, they both begin to hear the music.  I’ve mentioned previously that Tied Up My Heart is the only song in which there is an offstage chorus, which would be strange unless for the first time we’re hearing the show as Charlotte is hearing it – she’s beginning to hear the rest of the Hive.

 The only difference between Charlotte and Paul is their wants during these pivotal numbers.  Paul is trying harder to fight the song because his want is to destroy the meteor.  Charlotte isn’t able to fight the song because her want is Sam… and the song is giving her that. 

I think this is the part of the musical where most people pause and proclaim… what the hell am I watching. Which, you know… valid.

Can anyone tell me what foreshadowing is?

Ted just casually predicting the ending of the show.  Take out the head and the whole thing falls down – an historically inaccurate statement in the proceedings of Hatchetfield’s apocalypses.

Exhibit A – Taking out the meteor does not stop the hive.

Exhibit B – Sending a Nuke into the Black and White does not stop Wiggly.

I don’t know what Nerdy Prudes will be about but heads up to the characters – maybe don’t try and destroy the root of the issue as your solution.

Obviously there is a lot of story in Emma and Paul’s discussion here, a lot of which gets unpacked and revisited in Forever and Always, but I’m not really going to delve into the specifics of it here.  My biggest take away from this conversation is that Emma explains her past, and her intentions for the future, but at no point is it ever clear what her want is. 

In a musical where character’s are killed because they want something, is it any wonder Emma is the one who survives at the end?  She doesn’t have any big, ultimate want.  She’s jaded and tired, until the end… when what she wants is for Paul to have survived.

This shows a clear distinction between how Pokey and Wiggly operate (and the others, but we’ll discuss them when we get to Nightmare Time.)  Both of these Bothersome Brothers use wanting as their tool of chaos but in very different ways.

Pokey wants you to want something, in order to tempt you with that in order to destroy you.

Wiggly wants to find holes to fill with exaggerated, artificial echoes of a want.

The new game at Toy Zone – Bop Ted

Does anyone else forget for a bit how amazing Jaime’s voice is and then finds themselves entranced when Join Us and Die happens?  I’m sure there is some lore in this song but I’m far too distracted.

If we refer back to our Violence over Time chart from part two of the rewatch you will see we have now fully arrived at the point where the Hive has stopped trying to just entice everyone with fluffy feelings before murdering them, and are now just resorting to “we’re gonna kill you and it’ll hurt a lot.”

I know there is plenty of discussion regarding whether Hidgens is good or bad, infected or not infected etc – but none of that matters.  What matters is he makes the same crappy puns I make in inappropriate situations and I think that’s beautiful.

“The Charlotte you knew and loved was gone the minute a note came out her mouth.” – Snape’s back with the foreshadowing again.

Hidgens then proceeds to subject our heroes to a very intricate test to find out who is human, and who is the musical Doppleganger (one of the AJ Holmes fans there).  I’ve seen Moana once, and I became obsessed with the bioluminescent crab so I don’t remember any of the other songs apart from Shiny.  This is a problem because the only other song I know from Moana has now become Paul’s version of whatever it is he is singing. I refuse to believe there is any other version of that song.

“Their tactic is to hide amongst us, and as their numbers grow, they become more bold.” – yes Hidgens – we’ve all seen the chart.

Acting Masterclass with Corey Dorris

Bill gets a phone call from Alice, she’s stuck at Hatchetfield High and her girlfriend and the other kids have become singing and dancing zombies.  Is this a prequel to High School Musical?

Its worth noting that Alice has locked herself in the Choir room – Hatchetfield High’s number one place to hide when things are going badly - x

Look what happened Nightmare Time.  

Corey Dorris’ face pulls on every heart string I possess.  Not Your Seed is a fantastic song, with some superb singing by Mariah, but the heart of this song is Corey.  Bill is a broken man from the moment he echoes Alice’s words that Grace Chastity is a Nerdy Prude. And the voice crack!

Small warning here for a very brief discussion about suicide. If you want to skip past scroll to the next gif.

The song is an attempt to bring Bill to the Hive, but I think the plan from the start was to push him to shoot himself. Bill wants his daughter back, he wants her to be a part of his life, but unlike with Charlotte, where Hive!Sam attempts to convince her he’s not really dead and wants her, Hive!Alice uses Bill’s want to break him further and further, swinging between Alice’s love and disdain for her father.  This isn’t an attempt to lay a trap and kill him when he falls in it, it’s a blatant push towards him killing himself.  The Hive only picked up the gun because Paul was there to stop him.

I also find the mirror of this moment to later in Watcher World very fascinating.  We obviously know Pokey and Blinky are brothers, and I wonder if the set up leading Alice to point a gun at Bill in Watcher World is Blinky’s twisted humour, echoing what he knows happened in another timeline.  A horrible joke that would be lost on Bill and Alice in that timeline, but very recognisable to all of us Watchers.

Once again the Hive could have easily killed Paul, but they don’t.  They make a big song and dance (get it?) out of how the guns not good enough to kill him with and then they start singing at him just in time for the army to turn up.  The Hive had no intention of killing Paul yet, though obviously they can’t let him know that.  Paul has been chosen as their Hero.  He’s got work to do.

Hatchetfield High Homework

Just the one this week, I’m currently doing an Ask series where I attempt to make ridiculous sounding Hatchetfield Theories make sense.  You can find them by searching Ridiculous Hatchetfield Theories.  Go and have a look and follow the wonderful people sending them in.

When the rewatch returns, we get our first peep into the world of PEIP.

[silvadour]

Attack on Titan: The End of an Era - Final Chapter Review

Disclaimer: This blog post contains MASSIVE spoilers towards the ending of Attack on Titan as well as the greater series. If you wish not to be spoiled on certain story aspects and character revelations, I kindly suggest reading the manga or waiting for the 2nd half of the Final Season to be released in Winter 2022. Furthermore, if you are not caught up with this and read this post anyway, kindly refrain from spreading information presented here as not to spoil the experience for other readers and watchers that have yet to see the very end of the story.

And now without further ado, let is begin with the blog post.

Well, we’ve reached the endpoint, we arrived at that scenic view. Attack on Titan’s story has finally ended and if I’m being frank with you…I’m satisfied with it.

I have to say it’s always a weird feeling of coming to face the truth that a story you like and have invested many years reading has finally come to an end, there’s just an underlying feeling that you wanna deny the reality of it but you also can’t deny that sense of closure you gain from it either. While the series started way back in the year 2009, I did not get invested in the manga’s story until late 2013 when the anime’s first season finished airing. And my experience with AoT has been a strange one. As a young teen, I was impressed by the action on display so much that I began craving more of it like a crack-headed squirrel; this, in turn, led me to read through internet message boards and forums for possible new information on the stories developments which unsurprisingly led me to find spoilers of later events (particularly the case with Reiner and Bertholdt’s identities) However, even by the time I reached that revelation in the story in the existence of the Coordinate plot element came into play, I was aboard for the dramatic thrill ride ever since. And by the time I was reading it and the story shifted from fighting humanoid monsters to actual humans in the Royal Government/Coup d’etat arc, I started thinking of Attack on Titan as a rather niche series that only a few people could understand even with its ridiculous surge of popularity in the early 2010s, and I never could have anticipated back then on how emotionally attached I would be to this series nor how well it portrays a morally grey story where both participating parties of an ongoing war suffer from the circumstances of their character and nature.

The opening page to the series

As a modern monthly shonen series, I can say that it’s certainly a step above other manga of its type in how it re-frames familiar shonen archetypes in much more grounded and grim settings, and I find that it’s because of that grounded feeling found in its writing and setting that Attack on Titan has garnered such a large following for the elements in the story make themselves easier for audiences to distill themselves in similar situations, the narrative creates a sense of audience inclusivity that allows readers to imagine themselves in situations of survival. However, once I heard the series would end at 139 chapters apart of me was wondering if the series would have enough time to address aspects of established lore and give character arcs a fitting conclusion, and suffice it to say, the series accomplished that though some feelings on them I’m still processing. So knowing this I think it would be best to tackle the ending of Attack on Titan by discussing each of the established themes and characters one at a time, starting with the theme of freedom and liberty.

“To either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain”

Freedom and Liberty:

One of the major recurring themes in the story of AoT is that of the nature of finding true freedom. Freedom as a concept is described as the ability to speak, act or think by one’s own accord; freedom can be individual yet it can also be shared with various individuals. The story always made the best attempts at portraying both the positive and negative aspects of freedom in a morally grey manner. While the idea of wanting to do something of your own will, it all becomes a different story altogether depending on what the actions initiated from that free will end up being. One person’s freedom would naturally come to blows with the freedom of a collective group and trying to determine who is more rightfully just in their expression is never given a clear cut answer, case in point Eren’s yearning to be free of a world where he and his people aren’t demonized or viewed as cattle comes to blows with the antagonists’ (the nation of Marley) yearning to freely put him and the other Subjects of Ymir in their place as the two parties eventually engage in a long-standing war that has spanned for centuries. In an essay by John Stuart Mill, he presents an argument for the nature of human liberty that frames it as a double-edged sword; while it may stand as a tool to defend oneself from oppression and tyranny, it in of itself can be used as a tool to enforce other individuals into compliance and agreement should they not initially comply to certain established schools of thought. The expression of freedom is never displayed in an absolute black and white morality as each of the opposing parties have valid justifications for their expressions of personal freedoms (the nation of Marley’s long history being under the terror of the old Eldian Empire, and the island of Paradis being constantly invaded by Titans from Marley due to their history), rather the expressions freedoms are made due to self-interest.

Zeke describing Marley’s plan of action in order to ensure its future as a world superpower.

This is seen numerous times throughout the series, Ymir (104th Cadet) being used as a scapegoat for the cult that took her in, Erwin’s planned scapegoat execution during the royal government arc to ensure the original monarchy’s total rule over the population within the walls, the world nations following the bandwagon of Eldian discrimination as a political tactic of gaining advantages for the development of their nations through the extortion of the many Eldians around the world. Even with the characters that are standing on the “good” side still hold feelings of seeking self-interest as they are allowed so, solely due to the fact to want and something and act upon is part of their birthright just like any other human; case in point Eren and Historia at their most standout moments before the time-skip which would eventually coalesce with Eren’s meeting of the Founder, Ymir Fritz. This now brings me to the man himself, Eren Yeager.

Eren Yeager/Ymir Fritz:

When I first got into Attack on Titan, my opinion on the writing for Eren, especially in the manga’s early run, landed generally around middling. However, over time as I got further invested in the TV adaptation, I made attempts on doing retrospective rewatches to see whether my opinions on certain aspects of the story had changed; and during this time I found that my opinion of Eren changed to that of a more positive one. Throughout the series I saw this driven teenager coming to terms with his situation as a potential key for his people’s future, learning to quell his anger, as well coming to face the reality of his various failures all to eventually crack under the weight of the expectations he has placed onto himself, finally re-discovering his self-worth through the relationships he’s made with people closest to him only to have his reality crash right into his face when he finally discovers the truth of the world which bruises his idealistic nature.

To many of the fans that have seen Eren’s exploits in the latest season, his change in character might have come as a jarring shift since he has shifted to focus on eradicating the Titans to now eradicating the invaders of his home island. While the shift to different targets might seem like a strange change on the surface, fundamentally, Eren Yeager is still relatively the same character he was initially portrayed as, the only difference is that some of his more notable traits such as his anger, his battle tactics, and self-expression have just been more hardened due to the nature of his and homeland’s circumstances.

Eren is a prime believer of freedom, that any person is entitled to live free without feeling as if their freedoms are being imposed by others, solely on the basis that they were born into the living world. Should someone pose a threat to his freedom, he will not hesitate to steal freedom from others. And from the beginning till the very ending of the series his character writing remains consistent. Eren is a man lashing out against a prejudiced world that views him and his people as pure evil, he lashes not just for the sake of his freedom but for the freedom of those he cares for. However, throughout that lashing and emotional hardening he becomes something different from how he initially perceived himself.

For most of the manga’s final arc, Eren’s detached demeanor he presents onto his friends serves to highlight how he faces his challenges; he is more of a person that suppresses his grief and other vulnerable emotions because he has no choice but to appear strong and move forward when he cries out the world for something he wants, as a person ostracized by the world, his actions are indicative of the world telling him that he is not allowed to be viewed as a human being. His repeated fighting against Marley and the other allied nations can almost be interpreted as a cry for help. And throughout these actions, Eren was always consciously aware of his actions and the consequences that would be brought upon them, but he would never reveal his true feelings until he reached his two final goals, Ymir Fritz and his ultimate fate. When Eren first encountered Ymir Fritz he saw her as the absolute ruler of the Power of the Titans and wished to use her to finally make his true ambitions become a reality, however, during that process Eren realized that Ymir was so much more than a divine being. In his embrace of the Founder and in seeing her past through the Paths realm, Eren came to realize that Ymir was simply a human that much like him was ostracized and forced to harden her emotions out of fear of being further abused for appearing as weak; who trapped herself in ethereal realm due to her misguided understanding of “love” she had for her abuser, Karl Fritz I.

In recognizing her as a human, Eren sets Ymir free to finally act upon her own will for the first time in over 2000 years.

Personally, in this particular moment of Eren embracing Ymir with a hug and telling her the words she always wanted to hear “you are a human being”, I feel as if those words themselves are what Eren wanted to hear from someone who truly understood him and his reasons for going as far as does. Eren fights because he wants to end all fighting in the world, but he doesn’t know any other method besides fighting, much like Ymir, Eren needed someone to free him from himself. I find that Kenny Ackerman’s final words resonate with this scenario very strongly in retrospect: “We humans, are all the same…every last one of us. All of us had to spend our lives drunk on something or else we’d have no cause to keep pushing on. Everyone was a slave to something” (S03E10)

Eren’s “freedom” upon reaching that scenery he foresaw in his future visions.

At the moment of that embrace, Eren was fundamentally just like Ymir, a human child unable to cry due to repressing their emotions, Eren was only able to reach his external and internal goals in the final chapter through his relationship with Mikasa and Armin in their final interactions in which he imparted his freedoms and his dream to the two people he cared about most in the entire world. That being said in his fight for obtaining the ideal freedom for himself and his people, Eren only realized in his very last conversation with Armin that the freedom he sought after wasn’t only his. Armin’s final heart-to-heart made him re-acknowledge that the weight of his dreams for an ideal world shouldn’t be his to bear, even if ended endangering him and his loved ones. By refusing to entrust his dreams onto others, Eren was becoming a slave to his ambitions (in fact his appearance as the Founding Titan portrays him as a marionette), only to be finally set free (and possibly reincarnated as a bird, a common symbol of freedom in literature) by his best friend when he comes to understand him and offer him peace for all he has done for the sake of his people.

In his final meeting, Eren’s true self as the boy who lost all things he cherished in the beginning of the series confides with his best friend Armin on the actions and choices he has made, as well as finally reciprocating Mikasa's feelings of love.

Closing thoughts:

Overall, I find that Eren’s motivations and his character arc met my expectations of how I somewhat imagined the series would end. It didn’t end on a completely misanthropic note, but rather a bittersweet hopeful one. As even though the island of Paradis establishes a new military under Eren’s splinter cell faction, the Yeagerists, there is hope found in Armin carrying out the role that Eren always saw him, a hero and a purveyor of peace, as he, Jean, Connie, Annie, Reiner, and Pieck now taking on the role as ambassadors for the remaining population of Earth, embark to Paradis to begin peace negotiations. Whether the treaty succeeds is left entirely to the reader’s imagination (or Isayama adding more context in the volume edition of this chapter), but what I find truly beautiful about this ending of a series with clearly morally gray divisions, is that the people of those same divisions finally came to the realization that they are simply just people. They are not devils or angels, they are simply just people; not that much different from one another and willing to try and exist in a better tomorrow with each other. And what I love about this ending, even more, is that it finally bookends some goals and declarations that were said in the first half of the series: Eren wanting to eradicate the existence of Titans became a reality, after Eren’s death Armin took responsibility in claim he killed in turn that leads him to be viewed as a hero and purveyor for peace, Eren wrapping his scarf around Mikasa, all of these character declarations coming back in some unique form makes me love this series even more.

Your heart and soul to the cause.

Some may complain that this ending is not that great for it still doesn’t explain certain aspects of the story such as the nature of the Power of the Titans or the identity of Historia’s baby daddy or just general lack of presence in the final arc, but personally, I am content in not receiving a clear answer to some of those aspects, mostly because they either don’t matter or are already narratively complete, plus their open-ended-ness just offers me more chances to think about some aspects of the story and promote discussions around it. And while the use of mental time-travel ala Seers from Game of Thrones that were displayed by Eren’s use of the Attack Titan’ innate ability in the Paths realm, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t unsure or somewhat conflicted by the existence of mental time-travel; especially when time-travel as a narrative concept is INCREDIBLY easy to mess up. However, aside from these minor gripes, these were my overall thoughts towards the ending of Attack on Titan, we have reached the end of the story where Eren, Mikasa, and Armin’s respective character arcs came to a narratively true and satisfying conclusion. This is definitely a notable end of an era in the world of manga and pop culture. And without much left to say, all I can do is offer a salute to the author Hajime Isayama for his dedication to this story.

Thank you, Hajime Isayama.

[monstermaster13]

Werebelushi:

You know, I hate when some people think a different opinion equals 'rude/butt-hurt', it's like they think that opinions are an alien concept or something. Like this one idiot. Who said 'All you ever do is complain about TF content you don't like, I have seen it flood the search results and you don't contribute anything than complaining about stuff you don't like and post passive aggressive comments, I mean why hate a Goodra TF just because it's a suit transformation for crying out loud, it's comments like that I cannot stand and I can't understand why people like that can't keep their opinions to themselves especially if they don't have anything remotely constructive to say about it.' Wow, someone give this penis-headed moron a dictionary so they can look up what hypocrisy means. You're complaining about Nathan's opinion in which he stated he clearly did like the piece but was put off by it by a fucking suit trigger of all things? You are such a Karen. I suppose you are going to complain to the manager about that, aren't you? Oh really, my rants get the attention of the search results every day, huh? And who the hell is doing that? Your friends, your watchers, the artist who did that picture? Or is it you? Yes, you admit that you see my rants pop up in the search engine so clearly you must be stalking me. Look I don't need another creepy stalker, I have plenty already. Also oh how I wish I was that lucky to have more than 10,000 people watching me or Nathan's account. 100,000 or more view counts? Oh how I wish I had that much oh well, I guess Nathan will have settle for the 'measely' 479.9K pageviews he actually has then. By the way that was sarcasm.

Look I don't hate all transformation content, I just don't like unhappy transformations and also weight gain that fetishizes someone for being fat and also stereotypes and clowns among other things, I don't like MC, which unfortunately the majority of character TFs and some animal TFs do have in them, and I wish they didn't. If I want to be a character I like, can't I at least keep my own personality and memories? Oh and maybe you should have followed your own advice and kept your shit-takes to yourself because you aren't very convincing. Oh I contribute alright, I do things other than this show you know, I am part of the same hero team as Mel and Nathan and I go on adventures with them, I even teamed up with Corey and Oats more than once, I do positive reviews too, it's just my producers sometimes get sadistic moods and make me suffer through shit like what that phoenix always does. I get nice stuff to review sometimes, but nobody ever pays attention to them. Also, the 'keep opinions to yourself' mentality needs to die because I am sick of it, look I don't like those Pokemon TF stories that have 'oh you can't talk in English only Poke-speak' because it makes me want to scream at the authors 'HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF MYSTERY DUNGEON BEFORE OR AT ALL?' and I don't like some Pokemon TFs that have the slavery allegory and I don't like the 'humans are evil' trope, look almost every environmental special since the 80s has done that and it is really annoying. I don't like world domination as a cliche because it is overdone and also flawed, let's just say there are some monsters who have had some serious flaws in their domination plans (e.g if you're a monster in a scenario based on American politics, wouldn't you essentially just be taking over America instead of the entire world in general because other countries have different politicial systems). If you cannot handle an opinion maybe you should go back to crying yourself to sleep. If you're saying all reviews of something need to be positive or contribute in anyway, you are an idiot. Imagine if someone gave an overly positive review of some of the worst movies ever made, ones so bad they didn't even get one single Golden Raspberry award, if that happened i'd be thinking that this is a Twilight Zone episode or something or that i'm on another planet. Not every review has to be positive, if you don't like something that is fine, everyone has the right to their opinion and that includes me. Look I got death-threats from members of the Changed fanbase just because I did not like that game, Mel got berated just because she said she doesn't like Skyrim or Fire Emblem by someone who claimed he 'understood' opinions only to bitch about her to his friends, i've been though that it all.

[sny-bylle]

Personal Dark Souls rankings

World Building:

DS1 > DS2 > DS3

Let’s start with an quite obvious one. I agree with many fans that DS3 is more linear, while the other two games allow more exploration. 

What gives DS2 the lower place is the fact that sometimes hidden paths are SO WELL hidden that I actually lost orientation at some point. I couldn’t find the next location or simply couldn’t recognize if a place actually was a dead end or not. That way I really was unsure whether I was making any progression in the game or not. 

DS1 linked the levels perfectly. At the beginning, I immediately tried out all paths from Firelink Shrine. And I had no problems memorizing the several locked / accessible entrances and where they (might) lead.

Soundtracks: 

DS3 > DS1 > DS2

You mainly hear Music played either when you’re in a Boss Battle or at Firelink Shrine / Majula. And while I consider Majula’s Soundtrack better than the Shrines, I can’t say the same about the rest in its game. 

Generally you’re too busy focusing on the boss to pay much attention to the Soundtrack. But in DS3 it happened often enough that I still noticed some bosses’ melodies. First it was at the Cryszal Sage battle, where I thought: Man this music is creepy and intense! Then in the Abyss Watchers battle I thought: Holy sh*t the bell and the violins and the voice! Absolutely badass! These are only a few examples of many times I caught myself focusing more on the soundtrack than the Boss. Yes, it cost me many lives, but it’s worth it! 

DS1 didn’t have many soundtracks I really noticed. But still, after some boss battles I had an earworm. Right while I’m typing this, I have the Gaping Dragon’s soundtrack in my head. 

And DS2... In short: There isn’t a single soundtrack I had really memorized. Majula is the only great exeption. 

Level Design:

DS2 > DS1 > DS3

When I think of it, DS2 generally has he biggest world. And due to this size, so many different locations could fit into the game. We have a great underground “labyrinth”, stormy mountains with Dragons flying around, sand pits, giant castles built at the edge of the ocean, simple forests and don’t get me started on Drangelic Castle. I think from all levels in EVERY Dark Souls game, Drangelic castle has to be my favourite... Okay, next to Anor Londo. 

All places in DS2 are noticeable and memorable in their very own way and I love that! I could never look my fill when I traveled from one location to the other. Even the Gutter has its own uniqueness. I still hate it. 

Now to DS1. It’s lower placed because in my opinion the levels are too bound to the Dark Medieval Fantasy theme. The game mainly consists of Castles, Dungeons, Catacombs, ruins of Castles, evil lairs filled with fire, abandoned Cities, maybe a forest. The only exceptions I can think of right now, are the Crystal Cave and Blighttown. But I think that’s it. 

Now to DS3. I don’t dislike the levels at all. I just think they’re... not quite diverse. Just like DS1, we have our ruins, catacombs, castles, forests, etc. But plus to this, another detail makes almost every location similar to each other: Everything is in ruins. Destroyed. Far past its glory. Abandoned. And full of freaking candles. Again, not that I dislike it. But I feel like so many levels follow the same style. Of course there are some exceptions here and there. Sure, it might have something to do with the lore in DS3. But it is as it is.

Bosses:

DS3 > DS1 > DS2

As I mentioned before, what makes bossfights far more enjoyable for me than in the other games, is the soundtrack. That already is a big plus point for DS3. Apart from that I appreciate the variety of the bosses. With that I don’t only mean the species, but also the sizes. From a group of old men up to one gigantic skeleton. 

Also I think DS3 has the most cutscenes for its bosses. Altogether I feel like most efforts were put into DS3 bosses than in the other games. And the fights themselves are often enjoyable. I can’t think of much that really frustrated me in the game, except the Curse Rotten Greatwood. But again, there I like that you have a different fight mechanic, where you have to hit specific spots to deal damage. Heck, I even like the fight against the Ancient Wyvern, just because the mechanics are different. 

The fights against DS1 bosses was also often fun. Except Bed of Chaos. But here you mainly just have the “beat it until it stops moving” fight. Pretty simple. Not that I complain though, it doesn’t make the fights less enjoyable. 

What I like the most about DS1 bosses, are the bosses themselves. With that I mean their character, their design, and most importantly: Their lore. I already knew Sif’s story before I started to play any Dark Souls just because he got so famous. I like how we have our four main bosses introduced in the beginning cutscene. With Gwyndolin you have the chance to freaking challenge a god. In the DLC you get into the role of the fairytales’ noble knight, who saves the land from evil forces, and who slays the big monster to rescue the pretty princess. Also the fight against Artorias is one of the best fights in the entire series. 

DS2 also has bosses which I like, simply because of their lore. Especially King Vendrick and the Ivory King. But what gives DS2 the last place, is the lacking diversity in the bosses. Many of them are... well... Dudes in Armors. Of course I think of the exceptions, too. And the fact that DS2 has so many bosses. But to put it simple: The number of good and enjoyable bosses is heavenly balanced with the number of frustrating / less memorable ones.

DLCs

DS2 > DS3 > DS1

As I said before: DS2 has a great level design. And the same goes to its DLCs. 

Frozen Eleum Loyce with its clear blue sky and buildings covered in snow is one of the prettiest areas in the series. And I love the idea, where you have the option to search for trapped Knights which will then help you to fight against the final boss. And the bossfight itself is also one of he best in the series. Mainly because of the boss stage itself and the Burnt Ivory King’s epic entrance. 

Heck, I even loved the Frigid Outskirts. I can see what it’s so hated by many fans, but I enjoyed the concept of this great field of snow, where you have to navigate trough the storms and defend yourself against demonic thunder horses. The grim Atmosphere is intense. Okay, I didn’t like the bossfight, but that’s actually the only negative point I have. 

While the other two DLCs weren’t that much fun and eye-candy, I still couldn’t stop exploring every corner of the maps. Especially the Sunken King DLC. Also the bosses were great, too. Even if I got really frustrated at the fight against Elana, I still liked her character design. 

So, in short: The flaws in DS2′s DLCs could be easily overshadowed by all the good aspects.

I actually had to think whether I should put DS3 above DS1 or otherwise. But I decided to rank DS3 higher because of the level design. To be honest, it wasn’t really that much fun to navigate through any DLC maps. The Ringes City looks beautiful though. And I liked that the lore about Gwyn was picked up again. The characters all were great and the fight against Ariandel and Friede was epic in every aspect. 

But from all levels in the series, I felt like the DLCs in DS3 are the least obliging. Yes, Dark Souls is known to be hard, I know that. But here it was just frustrating and disheartening. Usually when I die in Dark Souls, I’m thinking: Okay, next time I got this. I need to pay attention to X so I won’t get killed again. I can make it. Challenge accepted. But here I just was glad when I could bring places behind me. I didn’t feel that much of a sense of accomplishment while I fought my way through. It’s definetely the Lore that carried DS3′s DLC to the second place. Also Lorian was mentioned and had a role. Yes, that is important.

The main reason I placed DS1′s DLC last is the location’s design. Mainly it’s just a brighter, dryer version of Darkroot Garden. On the other hand I liked Oolacile and The Abyss. But especially in Oolacile I didn’t have that much fun either. Mainly because of the enemy type you encountered there. What I really liked though, were the bossfights. Okay, the Sanctuary Guardian and Kalameet were very similar to Monster Hunter battles for me. Manus was fun to fight because dodging his attacks felt really rewarding. Plus you had Sif by your side. But Artorias. Dang, he was hard. And Challenging. I died at least 20 times against him. But i didn’t care, just because the fight against him was so fantastic!

As I said, DS3 and DS1 are very close to each other and DS1 could have easily landed on second place, just because of Artorias. You could actually just consider both of them as second.

_________________________________________________

So, for now this will be it. I have no idea if anyone will ever read this list, or even care about my opinion. But I just felt like talking about anything Dark Souls related. Noone in my real life is interested in Dark Souls at all, so I decided to share my thoughts here.

If you want, you can write why you agree or disagree with my views. If you want, you can even ask for other aspects to rank the three games, but it’s totally up to you.

For those who spent their time reading this: Thank you very much for reading. It’s much appreciated!

[yukiobeyme]

Hi there! Just wondering if you could possibly write hcs for trans Beel or trans Satan? But if you can’t that’s fine.

I am supposed to doing my Civil Engineering HW? Yes.

I am coming back from the dead to answer this? Yes.

Can I talk about Trans!Beel and Trans!Satan all day? God Yes. Please ask me more talk to more about LGBTQIA+ and how it fits in Obey Me!

Thank you so much I hope I do this some justice. I am sorry how it got so long, but I got in the groove for this and I just came up with other ideas

Beel has some implied body issues, mention of top surgery and T-shots

So you more or less got Satan’s coming out story, I could have just written it as a fic and it would have probably been shorter and more concise. But I did add other headcanons as well and accidentally hc how Satan got his everyday outfit.

*Also disclaimer: Satan’s hc focus a lot on Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger being a gateway for him figuring out his identity. I have heard of it and seen both good and bad reviews. I recognize that some bad reviews implied that there are possibly inaccurate stereotypes but was a good starting point to introducing Trans Characters to fiction. I have never read it and can not confirm or deny what the reviews say.

Beelzebub:

From a young age he wondered why and how Belphegor were twins when he was a girl.

It caused a distaste in his mouth but more often than not he pushed it away.

 It wasn’t until the Fall; did he finally act on it.

The first time he was called “sir” his heart almost burst out of his chest

 He immediately told a sleepily Belphegor about it, he figured he wouldn’t remember in the morning

 But boy was he wrong, it turns out Belphegor laid awake after Beel told him that. In the morning they talked about it again. Belphie offered his full support.

Belphie became Beel biggest piece in his support system. Like sure a lot of problems, he said maybe a nap or food would help. But it turns out he was right? (Well for the most part) but whenever Beel felt like everyone hated him and judging him, Belphie would wrap him up in the softest blanket in the house and they would take a nap together. Or when Beel seemed to be angry at everything and hated everyone, Belphie pulled him to the kitchen and made his favorite meal.

Randomly one day Belphie asked about how Beel felt about himself. “Like it doesn’t matter if you pass in someone else’s eyes or not, but do you like how you look?”

That’s when Beelz really got into bodybuilding and weightlifting

While he didn’t necessarily come out to the rest of the brothers, but none of them came out as cis so he wasn’t going to go out of his way and come out as trans

“working your legs naturally helps build more testosterone, so does eating eggs,” it was Satan that told him shyly behind a book if Beelz noticed that Satan was eating more eggs and even doing leg exercising he said nothing

Satan and Beel would have random conversations about gender and identity. Most times Belphie sat in on it. Asking questions or making comments.

Before he got top surgery, he would wear full-body binders, he had a standard black and white, but he also had an orange one. Completely confident to wear them by themselves.

 After top surgery, he showed off (as he should)

Takes pride in his body and the work and effort he put into it. To make it his own.

·         T shots doesn’t help with his appetite at all, the horror that went through the house when the avatar of gluttony appetite almost doubled. After a few weeks, it averaged out to be just a little more than pre-T but the brothers none the less both impressed and mortified

Belphie immediately opened his closet to Beel, like Beel occasionally stole clothes before, but this time Belphie made sure that Beel knew whatever he wanted he could take.

Asmo was definitely down to help Beel with shopping, but he turned him down. Favoring to go with Belphie

Faced little backlash, only some sports watchers had problems with it but were quickly shut down. Though even after all these centuries some people still have problems. But Beel has learned to keep his head high but knows he is allowed to be upset and hurt by their words. But he also knows he can go to any of his brothers for comfort and to regroup.

Beelz doesn’t get the same attention and attraction that Satan does, but he doesn’t mind. Though when he sees younger lgbtqia+ looking in awe at him at the gym, he usually swings by to see if they have any questions or need tips.

Okay, wait hear me out… Definitely created a club specifically for lgbtqia+ to have the gym and exercise together. Whether it was leading a class, he has gotten Asmo to lead a few yoga/ meditations or letting them break out into groups and giving them tips on stance or what exercises could build muscles to help them pass. But most importantly teaches/reminds everyone that their body is their own. That no matter what happened to them, their body is theirs. It can look however they want and even if it doesn’t look perfect, it is still is worthy of love and self-care. “The only opinions that matter is your own, it is your body. Claim and make it your own. No one can take it away from you”

Satan offered to let him borrow Parrotfish, Beel isn’t too interested but Belphie wanted to read it to him.

Overall Beel is confident and comfortable with his body and his identity. On his bad days, he knows he has endless support from Belphie and his other brothers.

 Satan:

You know that feeling when something clicks and its that chilling calm that covers your body? Satan was reading a random book, Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger.

First came out to Asmodeus, because Satan knew Asmo would accept him and help him in whatever way Asmo could.

And of course, Satan was nervous because Asmo couldn’t go to the others not yet. Satan planned it out that Lucifer was on Earth and expected to be there for a week, so Satan had time to execute his plan.

Asmo was worried when Satan came to him all serious. Well, Satan is always serious but this time the nervousness and lack of confidence made Asmodeus sit still and hold his breath. Asmodeus was attentive as Satan slowly stumbled through his prepared speech, which mainly focused on talking about the book he had just finished.

 Asmo didn’t understand until he saw how heartbroken and lost Satan looked. He was frantic in a sense and blurted out something along the lines of, “So, you wish you were a parrotfish?” while it wasn’t necessarily the best thing to say, the laugh it go out of Satan and the uncertainty in his smile was worth it.

Asmodeus took it upon himself to go shopping for Satan, getting him new more masculine clothes.

It was Levi that got Satan’s his first Binder, “A lot of cosplayers wear them, so you should be okay for some light exercising in it”

Soon all the brothers, well except Lucifer knew and the day Lucifer came back, Satan hid and avoided him.

Satan should have known better, but he was still surprised when Lucifer summoned for him

He was terrified.

When he entered the room, he couldn’t meet Lucifer’s eyes. But when he spared the glance, he saw the disappointment in Lucifer’s eye. Satan tried to swallow around the lump in his throat and ignore the burning in his eyes.

“What are you wearing?” Not exactly what Satan thought Lucifer was going to say first. “Was it Asmodeus?” “Ugh” Lucifer shook his head and strolled to his closet and threw the door open and went searching for something. “Ah, there it is,” Lucifer returned with a yellow sweater. “This would be more suiting for you,” Lucifer offered the sweater to Satan.

“You aren’t mad?”

“The only thing I’m relatively mad at is how offensive that outfit is,”

“I might have shoes too, but they might be a little big on you,”

Satan left wearing his new sweater and shoes on, laughing how he had to keep a black undershirt on, and the shoes flopped due to being too big. But he left with a lot of weight off his shoulders and high in spirits.

That sweater is the famous one you still see him wear today. He wonders why Lucifer would have such a bright color and when he asked Lucifer just made a face and rolled his eyes as he replied with “Asmodeus thought I needed to brighten my wardrobe.”

 Satan loves it, its soft and bright. It’s a little too low cut for his liking but an undershirt fixed that problem. And it doesn’t hug his chest and honestly, it’s his favorite piece of clothing

 Parrotfish is a permanent book in his room and he reads it once a year. And has special scenes marked, so he can go back and read certain passages when needed

Once Satan came out to Barbatos and Diavolo they both requested to read the book and met with him for tea to talk about the book and life.

Lucifer even snagged the book for a bit. (He tried to be sneaky about it and Satan pretended not to notice)

 Asmodeus and Mammon is chaotic with their support, it nice and needed but can also be overboard but he knows they do it out of love. Pride is a huge thing at the house and Asmo decided to do a gender reveal party for Satan

Beelzebub, Belphegor and Levi are supportive like they are ready to fight anyone who gives Satan any issues about his gender and gender identity, but they are as obnoxious as Asmo and Mammon. They will sit with him, talk to him, or just quietly listen. Most times they can’t offer help and admit they don’t know what to say other then they are here for him and willing to listen to whatever he needs to talk about.

Lucifer is quiet support. At first, Satan thought he didn’t approve but then Lucifer would make a random statement or ask for clarification that made Satan feel comfortable. Lucifer glared at anyone who even thought about giving Satan a weird look.

Satan’s go to binder color is a light grey and most times it just a crop top rather than a full-body one. Though he has an aqua blue one he wears occasionally. (I have a drawing of this somewhere lmao)

Satan tried to give himself his first haircut but Asmo had to come in and fix up the mess and disaster he created. Sure, his hair was way too short for his liking, but it wasn’t long anymore.

Over the years has learned the different meanings behind the looks he gets, whether it’s in disgust or that longing look that demons that aren’t out give him. He somehow occasionally becomes a dad to other trans! Demons. Whether it's long talks or if it's just quick tips that help him through the years.

Ironically enough, Lucifer is his biggest support or the one he relies on the most during days or moments when Satan feels terrible. Because Lucifer won’t be fussing all over him or beat around the bush about it. Sometimes he will state he too busy to talk but will leave and come back with hot tea and Satan’s favorite biscuits. Lucifer sometimes sends him away to grab his homework and they will just work in silence together. While Satan hates to admit how much he appreciates Lucifer for these moments, it helps a lot.

Last one! The first formal after Satan came out, he realized he didn’t have clothes for it. Out of all the styles and outfits he had gotten nothing formal ever came through. His brothers came through though. Asmo couldn’t convince him on any of his extra formal wear so he went around finding pieces that the other brothers weren’t using. Satan was only missing a jacket, but the outfit looked perfect. When he ran into Lucifer, Lucifer brought him to his room and offered him one of his simpler jackets and touch him how to pin it to tailor the sleeves to a better height.

[hauntedbasementqueen]

TVD: Delena vs. Stelena

So yes, I am a Delena shipper. And yes, this topic is a little old. But so far I have not found anything online that defends Delena for the reasons I ship them, so I am going to write this anyways.

This is three pages long, so be prepared.

Spoiler warning ahead.

I am not going to be defending against accusations, nor am I going to be using factors such as chemistry or attractiveness, although in my opinion both are in favor of Delena. This is only talking about the characters and how Damon, Stefan, and Elena all benefited from Delena being endgame, as well as why I think it was the best choice for the show.

From a screenwriting perspective, Stelena was a good starting relationship for the show. It had intrigue, and some passion, and, most importantly, it was steady enough to give the watchers time to get to know the characters. Stefan was unambiguously the good guy, despite being a vampire, and in the first few seasons the show had not built up enough loyalty to the characters to risk putting the main character with someone as morally grey as Damon.

In terms of the characters themselves, Stelena was also a good starting point for Elena after her parents’ deaths. She was hopeless, and what she needed was a constant, kind presence in her life who had just enough danger and mystery to draw her interest. Stefan gave that to her. For the first few years after her parents death, Elena couldn’t deal with the demands of a relationship with Damon (who, incidentally, had a lot of growing up to do as well). She needed Stefan, who could carry a lot of their relationship himself, rather than her having to take care of or monitor him, giving Elena time to heal and navigate this new supernatural world. And their relationship was… charming. The love there was real (although in my opinion, it was more platonic than romantic-- more on that later), and there was certainly enough drama to keep us engaged. For the beginning of the show, Stelena was good.

Around season three, however, is where it started to sour (and no, I am not talking about the Ripper or any of the other plot devices, only characterization). In the first two seasons, most of the Stelena drama was about them developing their relationship. Elena was figuring out who Stefan was and discovering his secrets. After season three, however, the showriters started to run out of ideas. Stefan’s past had been revealed. There was more to reveal about Stefan, of course, but all of the major things that would impact his relationship with Elena had been used. The ripper storyline had been done. Pretty much any other drama would seem artificial and out of character. Why? Because Stefan and Elena were both such stubbornly loyal people that any sort of betrayal on either of their parts would only seem in character if it relied on miscommunication, which is a subpar plot point at best. In addition, Stefan and Elena had a steady, quiet sort of love rather than the explosive type that viewers tend to want. To put it simply, Stefan and Elena’s relationship was becoming boring. Changing it up was in the best interest for the show.

In terms of characterization, Stelena also needed to end around season three. Elena was mostly healed from her parents’ deaths. She was headstrong, always running into danger, and would do anything to save the people she loved. More than anything, she was self-sacrificing, to the point where that was perhaps her biggest flaw. Stefan was the exact same as her. And that’s why in the beginning, when the stakes were lower, their relationship worked-- they understood each other. But as the stakes got higher each season and every decision was life or death, Elena could not be with someone who was just as self-sacrificing as her, for her own physical health. Stefan loved Elena. And yet he was the kind of person who would be a martyr and give her up, if that’s what she wanted (and he does when she becomes a vampire, saving Matt instead of her). This seems good on paper- until you consider that Elena is so self-sacrificing that oftentimes she tries to turn herself in before she considers all other options. And Stefan is so selfless and so respecting that he doesn’t stop her. 

Take the part about Elena becoming a vampire, for example. Yes, in the end it turned out fine and Matt and Elena were both saved. But Stefan didn’t know that Elena had vampire blood in her system. If she hadn’t, she would be dead. The choice was clearly between Elena and Matt- one of them was going to die. Elena wanted Stefan to choose Matt, so he did (after wasting several idiotic seconds arguing about it, but I digress). If it weren’t for luck, Elena would be dead, and honestly it would have been Stefan’s fault more than anything else. He knows Elena is incredibly, stubbornly self-sacrificing. He should have saved the life of the girl he loves first and then gone back to save her friend, no question. Instead he let Elena die because he was too much of a martyr. Yes, he did regret it later, but I believe that he would probably do it again in a similar situation-- their characters are just too selfless.

Enter Damon. If Damon is anything, it’s selfish. As the seasons go on, he becomes a better person, but when it comes to Elena, it is always, always, whatever is best for Elena first. And that is exactly what Elena needs. She’s grieved for her parents. She can stand on her own now. She doesn’t need someone to be kind, and to prop her up like Stefan did. What she needs is someone who can match her step for step and who can and will stop her when she goes on one of her self-sacrificing rampages (yes, I like Elena too, but you have to admit this is one of her flaws). Damon does that. He gives her the love, and the compassion, but he also gives her the strength of will and the selfishness that counterbalances her own selflessness. Not to mention as Elena grows on the show and becomes more confident, her character grows into more of an adventurous, witty character rather than the damsel in distress type she was in season one. The new Elena fits better with Damon’s adventurous and witty streak than with Stefan’s more steady, dry nature. 

Damon and Elena is also, in my opinion, far more interesting to watch than Stelena, and I think most people would agree. They are more passionate, both in love and in anger, and I personally like their banter far better. They have far more opportunities for angst and plot points, being more different than each other and both of them having grown to be similarly volatile (Damon becoming less volatile, Elena becoming more so). Thus, Delena made the show more interesting without having to force outstandingly interesting plot points or side relationships.

Looking at the show as a whole, I see Stelena as a better platonic relationship, and Delena as a better romantic relationship. Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev have incredible chemistry, no doubt about that (and Pual and Nina have very little-- fight me on that), but in terms of the characters themselves it also makes more sense for Stelena to be platonic. Even when they were together, it reminded me more of a best friend relationship, especially in season two. They loved each other, and they were compassionate, but they were not passionate. There was no real spark between them, because they were too similar. Ideally, partners should have many of the same interests, but they should also complement each other. Best friends, meanwhile, are usually very similar. They don’t complement each other-- they are each other. The way that Damon complements Elena makes him a better romantic partner, while Stefan is an excellent friend to Elena due to their similarities. 

Now that I have covered how Damon and Elena are better off together, I’m going to briefly go over the Caroline aspect of Stefan’s character arc.

From the show’s perspective, putting Stefan with Caroline made the show a million times better. They complement each other, just as Damon and Elena do. Both of them are kind and optimistic, but Caroline is single-minded and driven, while Stefan is more calm. Caroline gives Stefan’s life excitement, and Stefan gives Caroline’s life steadiness. Not to mention from a showrunning perspective, they have excellent banter. I was starting to grow bored with Stefan until he got with Caroline. Caroline’s over the top, wordy dialogue matches really well with Stefan’s more dry, monosyllabic tendencies. 

So to conclude, while Stelena was good at the beginning of the show, in the end Delena was better for all of the characters. And Stefan is not the cheated victim, watching the love of his life with his brother. He found his own epic love. Those who support Stelena, in my opinion, are just pining for the past. Move on.

[wolfwhiteflowers]

My mixed thoughts on Carol and Daryl/Caryl in s11 and the spin-off show.

 I think my thoughts are a bit unpopular or mixed.. Idk. I’m overthinking. I’m really am. LOL  It’s a long ranty post and with some spoilers and speculations! (I’m kinda a hate-watcher but I want or keep hoping for good writing. Oh I’m also more of an ensemble-show/TF fan too. So I'm like yeah u know twd/cheesey-ok-writing but I'm also taking it serious. I want good story telling/writing. Sigh, anyway.)

vvvvvv

 So everybody have these expectations and speculations on the TWD shows and shipping Caryl of s11, Rick movies, spin-off show. I feel like Carylers are all not the same page /different opinions on it. I feel weird and awkward about it. I mean it means people are gonna agree or (majority/petty) disagree with me or not like the idea of what the future will bring. So it means that there will be some fandomwank or debbie downers around. (Idk I’m thinking of the BeIIarke fandom.) It’s like oh well...but we’re all in the same team. Well it's always just gonna be up to me deciding if I like it/trust the writers. Eh it’s just right now it’s a waiting-game on what these shows or future will be like. 

Like recently Kang mentioned Caryl as “platonic friends” (im not sure what she means..like s1-10? but she mentions them as soulmates last year) and NR talking about the Caryl spin-off show that he wanted ages ago. I think all these lil hints on what the Caryl spin-off show will be like, I don’t think they’re gonna spoil it to us and it’s also this story-plot comes after s11. So it’s like they can’t really tell us all what it’s about really. So..idk be hopeful or whatever you wanna do till the show comes. 2023. Caryl on. Fics, pls.

And there’s still s11, the series’s last season that Kang have to work on. I guess I feel I don’t know Kang well yet or trust her. So I think Kang might put a love triangle plot and tropey soapy love story going on with Caryl. Like she might want to play into it. And she might want to tease the fandom with the “will they-won’t they”.  S10c-s11f is 30 episodes that is a lot story needed going on. Eh I don’t want a love triangle plot and I hope Kang does something interesting with Caryl in s11 and make them canon! (I also want Conni3 to be like a Sasha and not  a Beth. I want Conni3 to be her own character and bond with her sister, Kelly.)  So.. it’s gonna be a lot we go through before the spin-off show.

So what I mainly want from “TWD Universe” .. And hoping for is... that I think Gimple had always planned to have these TWD shows & movies be connected like “TWD Universe”. I want the (ship canon) Caryl spin-off show connected to the Rick's story in the movies in some way and Caryl(and others) be in the movie(s) too. The spin-off show could be Caryl looking for Rick (with Lydia and Grimes kids), looking for supporters (idk like FTWD?/Morgan), OR eventually later on they helped Rick before they go be part of the movie(s). Idk just something related to Rick grimes movies. Even though like most Carol fans don't like Rick or don’t want the show to be connected at all to the other shows (and no kids). :\ IMO!

*This here I rant about Carol’s story arc and spin-off show. -Lydia.

Recently I watched s10 finale, it hit me that TWD show is ending next season, s11. Like, it’s the end of seeing Team Family and the Grimes/comic-based story. The s10 finale ep kinda also pointed on what I am feeling lately on TWD show and Caryl spin-off. I actually want to see how s11/TWD/Grimes show goes and ends first. I know Caryl are already TV leads, Maggie returns, comic things and drama are back for one more season, but me as a Caryler, I’m also fan of Carol and Daryl individually. (Well I'm more a Carol stan.) Anyway I'm trying to say that I want to see how Carol's or/and Daryl's story ends in the TWD show with TF. I want it to be good writing and story. Like seeing Carol and Lydia in s10f made me cry because it was so good, but what does it mean in s11 and so on? I'm gonna miss Caryl with TF and ASZ. I’m gonna miss some things of TWD too. Idk what the Caryl spin-off show will be like exactly. Will Lydia and others be there too or ..it's the end for them s11? It's sad to me.

 I want more Carol and Lydia to well.. be like mother and daughter or friends. I think of them as “Carol and mini-Carol.” Why should I be invested in them then if it all ends next season and Carol rides off? Idk I'm like, is it bad writing if Caryl spin-off show just be Caryl road-tripping? Idk what I'm saying. I want Carol's/Daryl's story to be good and in character, in end of s11 and spin-off show. Idk... It's like, writing-wise, is Carol always meant (or it’s in-character for her story?) to then look after Lydia and grow old with TF in ASZ..Or was Carol always meant to leave to go to New Mexico away from TF and on the spin-off show( or it’s just show business?) It's almost like there's two endgames that I want with Caryl in s11 and spin-off show. There's two endings on how Caryl's journey ends with TF AND how they will be like in s11 finale/spin-off. Like there’s Caryl and TF’s story ending and Caryl’s TWD show-arcs ending. And will it be in character and be an interesting story? Sigh idk it’s just a lot of hoping and trusting on these writers, and wondering if I still like the story. A lot of changes to get through. 

 Although, I recently read some comments about Carol and Lydia and thought about s11 and the spin-off show. If Lydia isn’t part of the spin-off show, I think I would be okay, story-wise, if Lydia is always meant to be a plot to end Carol’s (TWD show)arc on TWD show. In the finale, Lydia mentioned that they don’t have to be like a mother and daughter which Carol is probably already thinking of it and had this unlucky past with kids. Lydia said they could be friends. Then Carol told Lydia to find her own path, her own way in life. I think the writers are like wrapping or going over the whole Carol and kids arc since s4. Carol have this long traumatic past with kids. Carol wants to protect her/the kids and it’s like Carol realizes that she can’t always protect them, the kids also have to be their own and survive and it’s a rough life. It’s not all Carol’s fault in a way that if/when they die. If that make sense. So with Carol and Lydia since s9f, I feel they have this different adult-kid storyline than Carol with the other kids. I see it as a Carol and mini-Carol storyline. It’s probably all about Carol and all kids/Lydia storyline too. Later in the s10f, Lydia saved Carol, like Carol saved Lydia in s9f. They’re so like similar, mirrored. I’m really interested in them. I think I would be okay if the writers focus on them in s11, if it’s about Carol’s arc-with-kids ends. She learns to not to feel like a bad mother and letting go of this protecting-kids-thing but try her best to protect them and not blame herself. Learn to see how much she grown and love herself by being around Lydia. So yeah just overthinking on this and it would be nice if the writers go there next season because it’s seems like a in-character (TWD show) arc to end for Carol. (I don’t care about Negan and I don’t want the kids with Negan. :\ I also don’t want Daryl to be friends with Negan. maybe just tolerate him.)

Another thing .. Is idk how the Caryl spin-off show will go for Carol and Daryl. At first I'm like whatever they have fun on their road trip but thinking on it and with TWD, I'm like I don't want the spin-off be like a ‘Mcreedus on the road in their costumes show’. Like that's not what the Caryl spin-off show is right? So like I'm overthinking on it I know I am but really .. Now I’m wondering how this spin-off show really goes with Carol and Daryl and still being in-character. I feel there's gonna be some main motivation or arc in spin-off show. The core storyline and character's core storyline. Idk what it is for Caryl/Carol and Daryl. I think of other shows like this and there are reasons to it. Like all of this, it's really a whole new show and it gotta start with all these usual basics in the show. I think of other shows that might be similar to the spin-off show. Right now I'm thinking Avatar:TLA and Telltale games’ (comic) Michonne or TWD game s3: New Frontier (Clementine and Javier). Lol, yeah random. These are I think traveling stories and the main characters have a motivation or whatever. And it’s a hero’s journey/redemption, finding her lil bro(AJ), or with Michonne it was going through stages of grief in six (?) episodes. So my point is I don't want the spin-off show be pointless and OOC and just Mcreedus riding around with no plot. Ok, it’s still a story about Carol and Daryl. Idk what the show’s arc will be about. Maybe it’s them helping people, them finding peace and learn to love themselves. Maybe to find Rick. Idk. I want Carol and Daryl story be good and ended good. And related to Rick's story....I kinda don't mind if Caryl bring the Grimes kids (and Lydia) along. As long as the story is good to me. So, I just wanna point out that it’s still Carol’s and Daryl’s story going on. 

Another thing with Caryl’s relationship, I'm thinking on what makes sense to me on Caryl's relationship is that if the Caryl spin-off show will be them as already a couple. Then I think Caryl should be canon in 10c or s11 finale or earlier. I think to have a spin-off be separated from main TWD, it will go smoothly to me if they are already a couple in the spin-off show. If they don't then I feel the writers lost their chance and/or baiting shippers. I don't feel like waiting for them to be canon in spin-off show, because it's like previous TWD seasons. I find it tiring and boring and it’s the same as before. If they're confirmed as just friends then I feel that the characters' story is wasted or shorten/OOC. They deserved more in their life. It’s not good writing or story to me. And if one finds a bf or gf like... who wants to see that and I guess we assume it won't last that long because Caryl are the mains. It would be OOC to me and not interesting. Anyway, I hope Caryl are a canon couple in the spin-off show by then. Oh I also think the show would be at least 2 seasons. But you know show business u never know.

Oof high expectations. Caryl on.