#they're different fucking people!!! not everything is like something else!!! god fandom get it together!!

[navree]

Who do you think more similar to Cersei, Alicent or Rhaenyra? Also don't you think that Rhaenyra shares alot of similarities with Aegon iv ?

When it comes to comparing characters from HOTD to characters from the main ASOIAF/GOT universe, I find that nearly any and all possible comparisons are incredibly surface level. Not a lot of people seem to realize that part of what makes GRRM such a good writer is that he's writing his characters as people, not as characters, and that as such everyone has very unique flaws and characteristics and virtues that differentiate them all from each other, just like people in the real world. Nobody's entirely like someone else, especially when put into different circumstances, so comparisons of "this person's like Margaery! this person's like Dany! this person's like Joffrey! this person's like Tyrion! this person's like Ned!" don't really work.

I think both Rhaenyra and Alicent have some similarities to Cersei, but a lot of them are incredibly surface level. The Alicent and Cersei comparisons in particular get my goat, because they're actually quite different characters (and this isn't even touching on show!Cersei, who's basically a completely different character than book!Cersei). They're both queens with a green color aesthetic and they're both protective of their children, but that's really it. Alicent has none of Cersei's internalized misogyny, her paranoia (I'd describe Alicent as extremely cautious, not paranoid, which belies this idea that the fears are unfounded when Alicent's kinda aren't), her narcissism, her inability to admit when she's been wrong, her hedonism and her desire for indulgence, her incapability to see people for who they really are. Like, especially as mothers they're different, Cersei is all but blind to the kind of person Joffrey was, whereas Alicent is very aware of her children's shortcomings and isn't unable to discipline them as need be and get them to fall in line, unlike Cersei. And unlike Cersei, Alicent is a capable administrator and a capable placeholder ruler, like we see during Viserys's infirmity, while Cersei makes an utter mess of everything in the span of, like, a month when she's in charge. While Alicent and Cersei do share a certain sort of ambition, it's still different types, as Alicent is ambitious for her children and the advancement of her family and her line, while Cersei is incredibly personally ambitious and wants power for herself, not for other people in her circle. Alicent doesn't have an answer to Rhaenys's "have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?" line because she hasn't, she's never thought of it and that's not her ultimate desire or anything she particularly wants. Meanwhile, Cersei's first POV chapter literally starts with "She dreamt she sat the Iron Throne, high above them all." because that is precisely what she wants more than anything.

I think Rhaenyra has the most potential to become like Cersei, because the similarities we might see aren't currently present in the person she is right now. But if they follow her F&B arc, then we'll likely see similarities, things like an exacerbation of Rhaenyra's unforgiving nature and her temper getting her to Cersei levels, and her inability to properly administrate and her vindictive are definitely going to come into play and get to a Cersei level, considering that the show does need to follow the eventual arc of Rhaenyra being forced out of King's Landing due to her mismanagement and the anger of the populace. Rhaenyra and Cersei do share a similar chafing at gender roler and the expectations placed upon them as women in Westeros, though there's variation, Rhaenyra wants women to be able to be treated as men, Cersei wants to be a man because she thinks she is exceptional amongst women who all suck (internalized misogyny babes it's a Hell of a drug). And while Rhaenyra also shares personal ambition, like Cersei, the circumstances themselves are different too, since she was actually promised the crown and told she would inherit the throne, while Cersei just Wants Power and sees the crown as the way to get that in the fastest and most efficient way that she can.

I'm not entirely sure how many similarities Rhaenyra and her grandson will ultimately share, because we don't know that much about Aegon IV as a person. He's going to be in the next volume of F&B, and TWOIAF is pretty sparse on characterization (compare what we know about any F&B monarchs to anyone just mentioned in TWOIAF, it's very stark), so all we have is just that he's a glutton and never wanted to deny himself any pleasures. Rhaenyra doesn't necessarily seem to be someone who over indulges, or can't be told no, it's just that she's thoughtless and thinks that she should have stuff without thinking through why, which is different. I think there are some similarities (what I just mentioned, for a start), and I think Aegon and Rhaenyra share that fiery Targaryen temper. But anything more than that, I can't necessarily say with what little we know about Aegon The Unworthy as a person, and I certainly think he's much more of a bastard piece of shit than Rhaenyra.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I think i need to explain why this line makes me go so feral

I think the "fine! I'll kill myself after I kill you" line from nie mingjue in chapter 49 permanently altered my brain chemistry and it has something to do with precisely how i got into the mdzs fandom space in the first place.

I've mentioned it a few times but i started watching the untamed in late 2019 right as it was blowing up everywhere and, likely due to a combination of undiagnosed adhd wrecking my ability to be interested in anything for longer than 4 seconds and me very much not being used to the specific style of acting, especially during fightscenes, i never finished it. The only concrete memory i have of it is seeing wen qing's face and meng ziyi completely short circuiting my little gay brain. I remember more of staring endlessly at pictures of her than I remember of the plot. Press F to pay respects.

Flash forward a few years and a friend recommends me a fic writer for an fma fic (the fic riter in question is metisket) and i like their stlye so much i decide to read other stuf they've written. Here we get to our prime suspect: "the one body problem" a genuinely hilarious fic where jingyi gets posessed by wei wuxian like a year before the plot happens and they become awkward brain buddies. 10/10 i loved it (and still do) even though i remember huasiang showing up in my first reading and I, having fully forgotten his name, had no fucking clue what was going on. (Little did i know...)

Anyway flash forward ANOTHER year and I decide to reread that fic, and then the other untamed fic metisket wrote, a wen qing time travel fix it that's also real fun. And then i'm like. huh. that's fun. wonder if there's anything in their bookmarks.

And then, within 20 days, I had read approximately 350 fics. Many of them 100k+ words. I cannot stress enough how much this CONSUMED my brain's ability to do or think about anything else. I now think back to the early days of getting my adhd diagnosis and insisted that while i had pretty much all other symptoms, I did not get hyperfixations. Lol. Lmao, even.

I am mainly focused on wangxian and the junior quartet becuase they are my baby ducklings and i love them. I do come across some 3zun fics and I think huh... this is interesting. But the 3zun brainrot is LIGHT at this point.

The thing about reading more than 350 fanfics is that at some point you kind of piece the plot of the source material back together backwards. Especially because my favorite genre was time travel fix its, where characters relive the whole plot and like to make allusions to all the ways everything went wrong last time.

Because I'm still squarely in my wangxian + juniors (plus a heavy dosis of yunmeng sibling reconciliation) corner here... the feelings on jin guangyao in my fandom corner are. different from where I'd end up soon after. He is my special little guy though, so I do kind of immediatley develop a fondness for him, and I approach my 3zun and early nieyao thoughts specifcially from the assumption that the widespread opinion is that nie mingjue is a fine good guy and jgy is the evil one (I have not seen the bad nmj takes yet. well... I am seeing DIFFERENT bad nmj takes but they're nice to him. In, like, the wrong way. With no solid undertanding of the inherent tragedy at the heart of him that makes him so blorbo to me. But still.) major reactions to the stairs scene as I see them on twitter are "girlboss! He should've kicked him harder 💅"

And the baby jgy apologist in me goes :/ me no likey. And at this point I am also actively seeking out metas and analysis posts so i'm seeing some better opinions than that and getting a halfway solid graps on the themes. wwx and jgy being foils becomes very obvious to me very quickly. So, with my curent understanding of the plot, I go... you know all you people who are like "god i wish nmj would have killed jgy sooner" it uhh... kinda sounds like he'd have died if he did that. If he'd killed him before meng yao had gone off to spy there is a very big chance they'd have lost the sunshot campaign and most of the main cast would be dead. If he'd killed him at the stairs that's... well that's killing your sworn brother, which by the canon's own admission is a universally reviled crime, and jin guangshan could easily take advantage of this by demanding nmj's head in retribution, since he already wanted to get rid of him anyway. He doesn't give a fuck about a-yao of course but he could pretend well enough that he does. And what leg would nmj have to stand on? The jin clan is canonically both willing and able to slaughter entire clans for the murder or attempted murder of the leader or his family, and nie mingjue is the kinda guy who'd immediately offer himself up if it meant the rest of his clan would be spared.

This combined with jin guangyao specifcally dying for his murder of nie mingjue, with huaisang basically not caring much about everything else he does and wanting to get revenge only for his brother, it gives nieyao a sort of mutual doomed soulmates feel. For either of them, killing the other would spell death for themselves. They either both die or they both live, one cannot live on without the order. That's crunchy. I like it.

The fire palace though? well, on meng yao's part there is a real argument that if he'd let nmj get killed immediatly instead of dragging it out he wouldn't have been able to get wrh alone and distracted enough to assasinate him, so that's one half of the mutual doom coin, and if nmj had killed him during their fight there he's also done for. But after? Right before Xichen intervenes? I had no answer for that yet.

(You know what's coming. I did not)

It is at this point that i realize that if this is gonna keep being A Thing then i need to read the source material before I catch fatal fanon poisoning. Yes, I can piece together the plot and themes from seeing what stays consistent across fics and what are the author's own opinons. But I know just as well that sometimes fanon just agrees on shit that didn't happen and treats it like canon, and I have no way of knowing which is which. So I start reading the novel.

And of course, eventually I get to the empathy sequence. And remember, my "nieyao both live or both die" theory is heavy on my mind at this point, and the only stickler is that nmj could sort of have killed meng yao after the confrontation with wrh, still believing meng yao was actually working for him, and not a spy, and get off... not scott-free, Xichen won't be happy, but it's not gonna cost him his life.

And then I read THIS.

Please Imagine dropping a whole block of pure elemental sodium into water. Except the sodium is this quote and the water is my poor little delicate brain. Not only is my theory right, it is ten times more unhinged than i thought it was.

And considering that Nie Mingjue does not seem like the kind of guy who'd consider something like a life debt to have an expiration date, and because after this he will link himself legally and socially to jin guangyao as family and declare that one among their brotherhood turning against the others is to be met with a painful death, I can no longer read the scene at the stairscase in jinlintai without the impression that he is still planning to die afterwards. Which, if you wanted to make that scene even more painful, this is a very efficient way of losing all your remaining hinges.

I think I'd have gone crazy about this line no matter what context I heard it in, but this one specifically? where I'm already obsessed with idea of nieyao's deaths being connected by the narrative and missing just this one piece and having it confirmed? out loud? from one of the characters himself? It's like giving cocaine to a baby.

[doshiart]

Gallavich Intro

uh huh, thank you @callivich for these encouragement reblogs post, so here we are!

(nick)Name: Doshi

Age: 22

What made you fall in love with Gallavich? I mean… gallavich, they're they. Okay, if serious, I just knew about them but never interested in it and don't remember whether I watched this show before or not. But I seen all of seasons attentively only in November 2023. Then I fell into it entirely and completely.

How long have you been a fan? 3.5 months / since November 2023

Favourite Gallavich moment/scene? oh god, it's hard.. so many really awesome scenes. I want to highlight a few and maybe make a top.

Mickey Watching Over Ian [S04E07] — my s-tier, i love re-watch this scene, i love this song (and i'm so sad that it's been removed from spotify but ok whatever). It's incredibly emotional, that's all. Mickey is so protective, there are so many thoughts on his face. And this silent talk with Svetlana screams very loudly for me. I just like to think that in that moment Mickey is thinking about how much he loves Ian and how glad he is that he's finally here.

"First Time I Felt Anything Since…" [S05E10] — just one more emotional scene before disaster. Really like it and the song is good too.

The Club Kiss [S04E08] — they are so touch starved for each other's. yummy.

"I Gotta Worry. You're My Husband." [S11E04] — it's really sad that this scene was deleted :\

"Rain On Me." [S11E07] — PLEASE they're so domestic and comfort, singing together, what could be better??

idk i just can't stop?? ok i'm quickly pick these important ones for me: "Don't." [S03E12] "Ian. Look At Me." [S04E10] "Sorry I'm Late." [S05E08] The Dock Scene [S07E10] "A lot." [S07E11]

Favourite Shameless character apart from Ian and Mickey? Carl! I actually really love a lot of the characters, but Carl the most. Love his character development, love his sibling bonding with Debbie and how they grew together, as well as his brotherly relationship with his elders. Love his interactions with Mickey and wish there was more. He's so sweet and silly kitty. I also had a crush on Sandy and would have liked to see more of a storyline with Debbie, but eh.

Do you write or draw or make edits? I draw! tag in tumblr / commissions open + other social

Favourite type of Gallavich fics? I'm absolutely in love for AUs! Before gallavich I didn't realize how much I loved the AUs. It's just amazing and this fandom is amazing because there are so many things I want to read, but there are sooooo many. I love multi-chaps and slowburn! Any universe, the main thing is our boys and tension between them!

Most of all I want to mention my love for texting/social media or something like that. I like it when text messages are inserted into the writing.

I prefer fluff, but I have nothing against angst, only if it is hurt/comfort. I love getting different emotions and I love crying too, but I don't like bad endings.

Favourite Gallavich quote? "You're Under My Skin, Man." "What You And I Have Makes Me Free." "Hit My Husband Again, I'll Fucking Kill You." "Don't fucking tell me what's impossible! We're taking care of him here. You, me, us. His fucking family. "Fuck You, Fuck You, And Especially Fuck You!"

Anything else you’d like to share about yourself? I'm a bit of a shy introverted lurker and didn't understand at all how tumblr blogging system worked until that moment, usually I just threw my art and ran away. But now I'm watching how people do their posts (use a queue?? what). And I wasn't completely sure how to blog with drawings without turning it into something personal, but it seems that's the point of blog?

So I'm just getting used to everything and want to stay in the shameless fandom, because it's very nice to be here. You are all very nice people and I have already become attached to y'all.

Apart from anything else, I have a huge obsession. I constantly read something new that comes into my hands, and I have a lot of ideas for new arts. (I might even want to do an edit, but shhh, I'm not sure I'm really mentally ready yet haha).

So yeah, you are truly amazing and I hope to be more active in the fandom! <3

[sapphire-weapon]

Hi! I had a question, how much would you take into the consideration the statements of developers when talking about the analysis’s of video games?

For example, I was having a conversation with someone regarding whether Laura from SH2 was real or just another manifestation. The person that I was talking to agreed with all my analogy but then disregarded it because apparently one developer said she was real. I’ve also had this type of conversation within RE fandom where they constantly bring up developer points rather than reading the text and it is frustrating because there’s no way for me to sort of answer back to a developer statement. I don’t know how VG development work, but surely there’s hundreds of them all working together and many would have different interpretations/opinions, so is it worth just looking at the text than the opinion of one developer?

It depends on:

1. The publisher

2. The studio

3. The person who said it

If it's an indie game, you can pretty much take anyone's word as canon law. Like, SuperGiant Games only has 26 people total working on their games. If literally any dev says anything about Hades, it's as good as the information being in the game itself, because every dev was involved in every stage of production.

If it's something like The Evil Within, which was developed by a Japanese studio (Tango Gameworks) but published by an American publisher (Bethesda), I don't necessarily take Pete Hines's word as law (Bethesda's PR guy) because not only did he not actually work on the game, he doesn't even speak the language of the people who actually did.

If it's something like Final Fantasy VII Remake, and it's Yoshinori Kitase talking, you disregard everything he says because he fucking lies. He lies for sport. He loves lying about his projects. Nomura is honest maybe half the time. Hamaguchi is generally pretty honest.

If it's Resident Evil, the actual literal only person whose word I would take as Word of God is Shinji Mikami -- and that's only for the games up to and including OG RE4. And that's because he was the creative lead in charge of the series from the time of conception (the first RE1 was literally all his idea) through the GameCube release of OG RE4.

Anyone else working on RE? Throw out their opinion. It's garbage. Because there are hundreds and hundreds of people working on those games, and several of them are always in development concurrently, and there's no one central figure overseeing all of it anymore. Directors, producers, developers -- all of them come and go from title to title, with no sense of consistency between them.

RE is too fuckhuge and labyrinthine and does not, at any point, ask or require its player base to look outside of the games to understand what's happening. There are series that do do that. Final Fantasy is one of them. If you don't read the Ultimania or some of the novellas that get released as supplementary material for the games, sometimes huge chunks of the plot will come off as total nonsense. RE doesn't do that.

And so, when these games are being made, the only things that the current development team use to craft the game and the story are the games that came before them. None of them are combing through marketing materials and interviews and manga adaptations and what the fuck ever else. They're looking at the other games.

So, in fact, RE's plot and characters actually make more sense if you ignore literally everything the devs say.

When it comes to RE, if it's not in the games or CGI movies, it's not canon.

Period.

It has to actually be in the games. I should be able to put a game in and find the exact quote a person is talking about. Because if it was that important to know and that universally agreed upon by the bulk of the people working on the game, it would be in the game.

[ihatedean]

Is jojo's bizarre adventure a good first anime? I've only watched Sailor Moon as a kid and maybe Dragon Ball but the art is so gorgeous I'm kinda curious!

people who aren't fans appreciating the art style give me life omg<33 i agree it's stunning ! ! just look at this ! wow ! !

EDIT: WOW OH MY GOD WE'VE ENTERED YAPPING STATE. SORRY. SHORT ANSWER YES IF YOU LIKE MULTIGENERATIONAL FAMILY SAGAS AND THEMES OF FATE AND BLOOD BUT IT'LL TAKE SOME GETTING USED TO. JOJO IS A WEIRD SHOW. ITS WIDELY KNOWN AS THE GAY ANIME FOR A REASON.

but to answer your question,, i'd say it's 50-50? i know a lot of people that aren't anime fans that LOVE jojo. it's a very unique show that doesn't follow the classic formula that other shonen anime follow like DB does, for example- this is either a huge bonus or it completely ruins the experience, because a lot of people compare it to other shows they're already familiar with. there's no better word for it, it's a BIZARRE series. everything is weird, the dialogue, the characters, the setting, the art. the author's writing style is something everyone sort of had to get used to and we love him for making us go through that.

i actually avoided the anime for years because i thought the characters looked gross and the lack of female characters was kind of an issue for me back then (it gets better it gets a lot better you just have to see it through). but it was my boyfriend's first shonen and he begged me for months to watch it together so i said fuck it- i think i made him watch twilight or play danganronpa in exchange.

.....it might not grip you from the start. part 1 is not a lot of people's favorite part. it wasn't mine- after like four or five episodes (of nine ! it's very short !) of being weirded out by it, i realized that i had to stop seeing it as a shonen anime, and instead began to see it as,,, a play,, of sorts. if you watch the first two parts you'll know what i'm talking about. it's drama. once i changed my perspective on it, i completely fell in love ! ! from part 3 onwards it's a lot more like the usual shonen, and i know it's a lot more enjoyable for the average fan, but the first two parts are charming in their own weird little way :)

looking back on it after watching twin peaks, there are a lot of similarities, with the quirky characters and the themes. i only started twin peaks because of a jjba fic inspired by it. if you like twin peaks, i'm certain you'll like jojo.

but this is my spn blog and i assume you like supernatural so. i'll say: don't expect the same focus on relationships that spn puts on the characters, but know that its present in every interaction. where sam and dean hold each other tenderly and talk about how they're the only thing that matters, in jjba you'll have one character looking at the other in a way that's just drawn differently and the fandom will go insane. the supernatural characters are built very very carefully and have a lot of details that fans memorized- jjba characters are just as good but have a lot more space to play with if you want, regarding headcanons and storylines. their lives and thoughts aren't as well documented as sam and dean's is what i'm trying to say lol you'll know what brand of underwear a character likes most but you won't know his birthday. it happens. yes a lot of the fanfic is ooc because there's barely any character to remain inside of.

last but not least. this is a wincest blog. the first six parts of jojo follow six different generations of the same family. this is not minor. there will be daddy and mommy issues, there will be strange family dynamics. the family tree is FUCKED up and when you learn why you'll either drop the show or become sickeningly obsessed with a certain little guy called DIO. yes like THAT dio. there are a lot of musical references. unlike some characters i know, he's canonically bisexual.

anyways WOW do i like this anime. idk what else to say if you need more convincing this is the opening i guess

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here my friend, happy to wish us luck on the upcoming episode, on this very normal day where the 911 PR team absolutely did not choose to unleash chaos. Here I was just hoping to enjoy the conclusion of the cruise disaster saga, especially after last week's heartstopping Bathena performance, but nooooo, I won't even get to enjoy 1 millisecond of satisfaction before I'm gnawing my arm off waiting for next week's episode and an explanation for why Buddie are *waves hand nonsensically at stills* THAT.

Anyway, I know I should remember the mantra about getting our hopes up but I can't help it for tonight, the last two episodes have been so incredibly solid and everything I love about 911 that I can't help but raise the bar from where it was (somewhere around the Earth's core) to something at least knee high. So cheers friend, here's hoping any post episode drinking is optional, not necessary 🍷🍷🍷!!!

Not me hitting post limit before 4:30 in the afternoon 🙄. This has been me for HOURS

Sorry I have fandom shit going on Tumblr, and not a lot of actual work to keep me busy. I think the post limit should be at least 500 posts a day. Just let me be unhinged!! I even scheduled some posts out to different days to avoid this but here we are. 🙃 I need 911 and FHJY to not air on back-to-back days for realsies.

I didn't even catch those stills at first since my app is still not working so I can't actually see my dash so I was just chillin in the d20 tag when I suddenly noticed 911 was trending and decided to check what was up and WHOOOOO BOY! What IS all that?! Why are they like this?! They're killing meeeee!

ANYWAY

That mess is for next week. This cruise disaster arc is ABSOLUTELY a veeeeeerrrry close second to the tsunami arc for me. That one edges it out because we got to see more of everyone on the team doing rescues while this one (DESERVEDLY) focused more on Bobby and Athena, but MAN was it gripping television! I laughed, I cried, I legit clapped and cheered when Buck and Eddie showed up to get Bobby and the little boy, I mourned for Wes the security guard, it was all SO, so, so good. And we got badass Bobby on rescue duty!! Athena taking charge and taking NO shit from anyone! We got the firefam being a FAMILY which includes bickering, tattling, gentle ribbing, and having each other's backs because you know each other better than anyone else. I had a GREAT time.

I know we have been pretty good at keeping our expectations down but for right now, I'm felling a little more confident in the show as a whole to deliver good firefam stuff so I'm raising that bar a little bit. As for Buddie, well. I guess we'll see? I'd be lying if I said I was excited about seeing them dating other people AGAIN, no matter if it's supposed to "set the stage" or whatever for Buddie because I just think going the route we SHOULD have had after the shooting. Getting them both keeping their feelings realizations secret from each other and then having a third party confession come out with Chim/Maddie and Hen each getting one side of it and then accidentally cluing each other in has a better feel for me, especially with the delicious flavor of Eddie still having a gf at the moment. But I'm reserving judgement FOR NOW, on how it could ultimately play out for Buddie. It might be fine in the end with how it all comes together, but I'm not going to "settle" for just being happy if Buck comes out and taking whatever relationship we are given instead of the one that's been built up since season 2. But I'm also not throwing in the towel because we don't know where it's going yet. I'm firmly on the "fine but I'm going to complain the whole time" train at the moment with regards to Buck finally dating a man but for some god-forsaken reason it's not Eddie. (At least we lucked the FUCK out and someone else gave AK a job so we don't have to put up with THAT nonsense again.)

For now, I'm going to revel in the show ABSOLUTELY coming back with a bang and feeling like the 911 and firefam we all know and love and have DEEPLY missed. The difference between this arc and that blimp emergency is LAUGHABLE. Bless Tim for coming back and giving us this incredible arc and really showcasing Angela and Peter and the Bathena relationship. I'm excited to see what's next!

[deadcityhq]

CHARACTER NAME: quentin coldwater CHARACTER FACECLAIM: jason ralph CHARACTER AGE/DOB (if relevant/they're not old af): 27 at time of death june 2nd, 2023 / born july 20th 1995 CHARACTER PRONOUNS/GENDER IDENTITY/SEXUALITY ETC: any pronouns, agender, bisexual/romantic/bit-of-an-idiot CHARACTER FANDOM (if relevant): the magicians OC OR CANON: canon CHARACTER TYPE (for example: werewolf, shadowhunter, warlock, demon etc): magician/warlock/u know,,, magic fuck HOW LONG HAVE THEY BEEN IN NEW YORK/WHY ARE THEY THERE ETC: born and raised in new jersey but moved to new york for school, both the normal kind and then later, magical. he's currently been back for about a week bc yes he was busy in the pre-afterlife yelling about it all, poor penny IMPORTANT CHARACTER INFORMATION TO NOTE AND SHARE (this could be important headcanons for initial plotting, mini bios etc, supporting docs):

growing up, quentin was the kind of kid that often found escape in fictional worlds. this became more intense when he met his lifelong best friend, julia wicker, who in turn introduced him to the fillory and further books. this kicked off quentin's love and fascination with magic, even leading to him leaning sleight-of-hand magic. these books and the world of magic in general continued to be an escape for quentin, especially as he grew older and it began to be a little harder for him to ignore how out of step with the world he felt. escaping into these books was a comfort most days, and a life line on his darkest days-- including his first hospitalisation at 16. quentin longed to find belonging, to have a purpose and meaning in life, and often dreamed of escaping to fillory and finding something greater to commit his life to.

of course, this wasn't possible. so he did what every depressed, escapist kid does: over achieves and gets into a good university and studies literature.

until, somehow, when he was supposed to be interviewing to take his masters at yale, his world changed entirely for a different reason.

discovering that magic was real, and that there was a school for him to go on and study at… it changed quentin's life. meeting the people he did, changed his life. and while not all of it was easy, he still felt like he had a purpose. through every twist and turn: discovering fillory was real, becoming a king, mourning friends, experiencing intense trauma, killing a god, killing another one to free a friend, it was all worth it because, finally, he'd found a path. a purpose. a true calling in life and a place he belonged.

until it killed him.

dying to save his friends, sure, maybe that was a good thing. a worthwhile death. but… in all honesty, quentin was angry when he was met in the afterlife by an old friend trying to convince him to move on and cross over. like, honestly, what the fuck? after all that, after everything--

no fucking way was he going quietly.

he isn't sure how long he fought with those fuckers in the underworld, but he knows it was a long time. he had Things To Say, okay, a case to plead, people to piss off with his non-stop-talking. eventually, some-fucking-how, it actually worked. they got so pissed off with him or rather, penny specifically did, and pointed him to the exit.

now, it's been about a week since his return to earth and 'life' and… it's been a bit weird. sometimes he doesn't feel entirely connected. his magic is a little bit wonky. sometimes explosive, even. and he keeps sleep walking and ending up in graveyards. creepy. but he figures he'll get his shit together eventually. surely everyone is a bit weird coming back from the dead, right? he's pretty determined to find death though and talk it through. yes, just talk. of course. nothing else. maybe he should find his friends first--

THREE AESTHETICS THAT REMIND YOU OF YOUR CHARACTER:

gold painted between cracks in pottery

a broken, chipped tea cup you can't seem to part with

old books with endless annotations

ADMIN ANDY APP.

[bluewinnerangel]

Did you do a predictions list for lt2?? Do i need to scroll down a bit? I loved reading your list for hs3 haha

Didn't yet but now I've slowly been adding to this list. Again I'm just having some fun here and none of this is very serious, but here it is, my LT2 predictions:

Still a lack of pronouns

But loads from a "we"/"us" perspective

Insecurities. Not necessarily about him being insecure, but a song processing and looking at insecurities and uncertainties in a broader sense, very DLIBYH-like.

Return of the (little) black dress

A diss track. Things or people being fake, but not like Fearless, more.. punk? More punk.

“Moon”

Just having a pint with the lads

hella obvious queer anthem. And I mean obvious level: ripped off some pride flyer.

Some fking hippie ass flowery love and peace man dude just relaaaaxxx everything's gonna be fiiineeee bro peace on earth song, which he'll be trying to mask it with some heavier sounds but yeah no lyrics are what they are and they're not hiding from us man we see your make love, not war bs babe keep going

Something about not being seen. Easily applicable to covid isolation times.

"Darling", "love".

One song of which none of his fans, no matter what we think we know about what he's like, what his life is like, what he's about, etc, can figure out. I mean, not even the subject. No clue. Many wildly different interpretations follow and somewhat of a common consensus will arise per corner of his fandom followed by a bunch of "unpopular opinions" and "no but I figured it out"'s and none of them will be right and this mfer will just be crackling in a corner somewhere.

Still being a kid at heart (there's Change already so is that even a prediction I guess not)

Ok fine one sappy love song. Romantic lil shit settled ridiculous us against the world kinda forever we're a team everyone else can fuck off you and me you and me baby you and me byeeee.

Water splashy sound goes splash splash

"love is a drug" analogies, or at the very least a bunch of lines that seem pro substance use.

I think he's still gonna play it safe but lemme dream so much more raw sounds. Unpolished all the way.

And combining the previous 2: something that sounds a LOT like The Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows.

And another one like George Harrison's What Is Life (both lyrically and sonically but with a ✨modern twist✨)

Ok third gamble add Paolo Nutini's Iron Sky as well.

Oh look up at the stars my boy they shine

"This is who we are and together we stand strong" and like idk if is this about your relationship, artists fighting for their rights, the LGBTQ community, your fanbase, or your football club, but imma take it with both hands and cherish it.

ANGER. Just gimme the damn anger Louis pour it out into music please god just. do it.

One that's just fucking clownmusic istg just straight out of Yellow Submarine

Clear continuation of a song on LT1 by reusing a line or a play on it from that song in a new one, that will have the same theme and vibe.

One or more songs that are obviously not a direct response to any songs on FL nope nah most definitely not.

But also one song that responds to NIL bro deadass cut the cameras

"Faith In The Future" will be a line in one of his songs, one that may or may not entirely parallel John Lennon's Mind Games.

something that can be translated to we’re both just little shits really (yeah LT2 can have some of that as well)

"Reflect(ions)", "Mirror"

you're my baby such a good girl/boy. Let's just say it's for Clifford and move on.

H O M E. Always home, away from home, finally never home, home again, home is whenever I'm with you, always in my homey heart. So many options.

Official or alternate album cover (like special edition vinyl or whatever) being the most cryptic ass illuminatispiracy looking assholery? Just? wtf am I looking at? What even is that??? Just get out? Go away? fuck off louis but keep going

And/or some black and white album art / promo shoot / etc.. you know what happened with one of the pieces of fan art used as Spotify backgrounds on the 1yr anniversary of walls, where the art had a rainbow on it but it showed up in black and white on his Spotify? That.

A very fucking beautiful, lovely, honest, smart, perfect punch in the feels album imma cry to forever.

HS3 predictions

[veliseraptor]

yi city time travel aus you say? How do we make the rest of this form in your head? Ask questions about how that goes for everyone else from canon that might show up later is XY could keep his shit together long enough to pull this off? 🍿 👀

my problem with yi city time travel aus thus far has kind of been a combination of (a) deciding which one of the, like, six I've considered I'd want to go with actually trying to write and (b) the difficulty personally of living up to one of my personal favorite yi city fics which happens to be a time travel/time loop au (warning: big ouch). so like. it's less that I don't have thoughts about what I'd do so much as that I have too many thoughts.

well that and the 5 million existing wips I'm constantly struggling to finish, that too, because if I wrote this odds are it'd end up getting long.

one of my favorite things about a yi city time travel au specifically is that...okay, so, one of the functions of a time travel au in fandom generally is that it gives a character the opportunity to Fix Things, right? or at least to try. and generally speaking the character who is trying to Fix Things is probably somewhat involved in the main plot of the thing/invested in a main plot point (or plot points) that they'd like to see go differently.

and I've talked about before how specifically with Xue Yang it's very entertaining to me that that's not at all the case, that Xue Yang could not give less of a fuck about everything else going on around him as long as he gets what he wants. all these large scale injustices and tragedies happening and Xue Yang's here like "yeah yeah massacres and injustices and tragic deaths of important people okay but fuck that I'm just here to make sure I get mine and by that I mean get my Daozhang alive and not hating me." and sure! there are adjacent things that he will do to achieve that goal, incidental benefits that may accrue for other people (reconsidering, for instance, what to do about the Song Lan problem, maybe he doesn't actually need to kill his whole temple), but they're, you know, incidental. collateral damage, as it were! or lack of damage, if you're lucky.

there's something I just kind of love about how deeply Xue Yang doesn't care about all the other stuff that's going on. he's so endearingly myopic about it. he has his interests and that's what matters. I feel like if I wrote this one of the functions of it would be that I would, like...barely allude to canon events happening vaguely in the background, in a way where they were still happening, but maybe differently, but the narrator (Xue Yang, in this case) isn't really paying attention.

(it would have some of the same comedic value to me personally as every time I mention Xue Yang's fond memories of killing Nie Mingjue as, for him, just kind of a fun thing that happened one time. nice memory! moving right along. meanwhile for everyone else Nie Mingjue's death is a major catalyzing event and a very sad thing for a lot of people. one of my personal favorite jokes in if living can be this verse is specifically when Xue Yang is trying to figure out who he might've killed that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian would be upset about and legitimately taking a minute to remember.)

anyway! I actually do think that Xue Yang could...potentially keep it together long enough to pull something off, anyway, if only because when Xue Yang has a project he will go a long, long ways to make it work. when Xue Yang wants something he is a persistence predator about it, for sure. he will follow that idea for hundreds of miles until it drops dead of exhaustion.

and if he has the means to time travel more than once to make multiple attempts at getting it right? god help you, now he gets to experiment.

[alison-anonymous]

I Want to Write a Mikayuu Series

Okay.

So um.

If you're reading this, HELLO. All of you long time ONS fans probably don't know me, but I'm Alison and I'm a hardcore Mikayuu, Mitsunoa, Gureshin, etc shipper. I've been in the ONS fandom for almost a year and dear god. The amount of people telling me that Mikayuu is queerbait is just making me really sad 😅 I'm a writer, and I'm the type of person who honestly feels like the author of a series should have the ability to choose how a story ends without influence of their readers. I mean, if it's their story, then it should be their ending, right? However, I also do have some qualms when it comes to how this "love triangle" between Yu, Mika, and Shinoa is being portrayed. This is entirely my personal opinion, but I feel like Shinoa seems to be forcing herself to love Yu. I honestly don't think she cares for him in a romantic way, but more of a very deep-rooted admiration or even envy that she's trying to convince herself to be romantic love. And Yu has said multiple times that he values Mika's life above his own, that he doesn't know what he would do without him if he were to die again (I mean the fact that he suffered seeing his best friend and potential lover die a first time was definitely scarring enough, PLEASE STOP TORTURING OUR POOR BABIES). And it's basically confirmed by now that when Mika said I love you in the manga, it was in the romantic sense. Even though I wish, I hope, I dream, and I pray that Mikayuu will become canon, I honestly can't say for certain what I think will happen. I think it could sway any way, with Mikayuu becoming canon, Yu and Shinoa becoming canon, or it being one of those ambiguous endings where it's heavily implied but nothing actually happens. And in order to make myself feel better when stuff like this happens, I tend to rewrite the entire story with the ending that I would have liked to see ;)

You're probably wondering where the hell this stranger is going with this. Well, I want to write a book. A series, actually.

One that's inspired by Seraph of the End.

Now, if you're interested in hearing me out, then feel free to keep reading. But if not, continue on with your scrolling, no hard feelings. But if you do, and I really hope that you do, give me a chance to explain.

I want to write a series inspired by Seraph of the End called Bloodsucker (working title, obviously). And this series is going to be a reimagination of ONS with an ending that I would have loved to see in the anime and manga. I plan to have three main characters (please keep in mind that I'm going to have name changes): Yuichiro, Mikaela, and a brand new character, Epic.

Now, I would begin this series a bit before the anime and I'm assuming the manga begins. I'd start with introducing our main three characters as they meet in the orphanage (yes, Epic would be a part of this orphanage as well) and how Epic and Yu try to make moves to run away only to be stopped by Mika and Akane.

I plan to include a scene between Epic and Akane where Epic tries to run out in the middle of the night only to be stopped by Akane, and this is what caused Epic to develop a crush on her (Epic is a girl btw). Then I would begin the whole shit with the vampires and how they set the world on fire and shit, but instead of the apocolypse, I'd make it so that most of the adults died in the fire while the kids were taken alive (because young blood is better and whatnot). This includes our little Hyakuya family. The directors would have tried to trade the kids lives for their own, and due to their selfishness, the vamps killed them and took the kids anyway.

This would begin my first story arc: the prewar.

Epic, Akane, Mika, and Yu would all be living under the vampires at this point along with the rest of the kids in their orphanage. I plan to include lots of moments of bonding that heavily imply Epic loves Akane even though she doesn't know it yet and Mika loves Yu, but Yu is fucking oblivious. The four begin to plot their escape, but while Mika and Akane (yes Akane too) are making deals with the vampires to help out with their family, Epic is constantly finding herself getting dragged along to visit Queen Krul. The pink haired vamp has a soft spot for her for some reason and often tells her that Epic and her family are "special" or sum shit. And she's super confused and semi grossed out. But none of the vamps ever dare to hurt her so she thinks it's fine. Then one day they all plot their escape and it's much more planned out and lengthy and less rushed than it is in the anime. Things almost seem to work out until the vampires stop them

And Mika and Akane DIE.

I know. I'm horrid.

Epic is standing here in shock as she watches the love of her life die before her and Mika BEGS for Yu to take Epic and run while they can. So while in the series only Yu survives, he obeys Mika and both him and Epic survive this. They're found by Guren (a new character I haven't come up with yet lol) and Yu is super protective over Epic, not wanting anyone to take the only piece of his family he has left (he's a fucking mess without Mika let's just be honest) and Guren ends up taking them under his wing.

Now we hit the second arc. Still with me?

The War.

Hold onto your hats everyone because this is where shit is about to get complicated. So I do plan to have a bit of a time skip into the current spot where Yu and Epic are attending school with Guren as their father figure and they've become very close. So close that Yu refuses to work with anyone else but her. They end up getting onto Shinoa Squad (obviously going to be completely different in my version) and they get put onto the battlefield. But here's the catch. Well, two catches.

Yu and Epic do have demon weapons. I do plan to try to incorporate that into this. BUT the backstory is different. I plan to make it so that the vampires obviously see the humans as fies. Insignificant things that are more playthings than threats. And they didn't want to have to deal with killing all of them, so they sent demons in their place to handle it. But the humans were able to form deals or "contracts" with the demons and therefore turned the vampires' own secret weapon against them.

Now, catch no. 2

So, Epic, Mika, and Yu aren't seraphs in this. But they are something else. I'm going to try to explain this as simply as I can, but each of them (besides Mika since he doesn't have a demon) have 3 souls inside their body:

Soul 1 is their current soul, the one that identifies as Mika or Epic or Yu.

Soul 2 is their demon soul, like what Asuramaru is to Yu.

And soul 3 is their archangel soul (I might change that name later on).

So I'm just going to come right out and say it. In this series, Epic is the villain.

Yes.

You read that right.

Epic is the villain. But she doesn't know that she is. These Soul 3s were reincarnated into the current bodies of Mika, Epic, and Ari (and I know that's not exactly how it works but screw logic this is just a fucking concept) from their lives centuries ago.

These souls existed way before vampires existed and Epic (or Essie) was very close friends with Yu (or Aytigin). Aytigin was in love with Haru (Mika) but for one reason or another, they couldn't be together. Essie wanted to do something, willing to do anything to make the two of them happy. So she made a deal that brought the vampires into creation so that Haru and Aytigin could be happy. She was willing to sacrifice everything that they stood for so that the two of them could be in love together.

She had good intentions, but of course Haru and Aytigin were furious because now the vampires were turning against the humans and they all basically died. Until they were reborn respectively, but unknowingly.

Now picking back up in the present, Yu and Epic are fighting in one of the main battles and the two are very confused when the vampires make a very deliberate attempt not to hurt Epic. They're unsure as to why, but Guren tells them not to worry about it.

Suspicious bastard.

Anyway, it's revealed finally that MIKA IS ALIVE

BUT HE'S ALSO DEAD

Yes he is a vampire. And Yu falls in love all over again upon seeing him, and after a bunch of struggling, Epic gets kidnapped. At first she gets strangled by Lacus and then she gets kidnapped by Ferid who doesn't kill her surprisingly.

Oh and uh... Ferid is nice in this. He's still a fucking creep, but he's a lot nicer than he is in the series. I plan to make Queen Krul or whoever I turn her into be the villain.

Anyway, they take Epic back to the vampire palace or whatever and Queen Krul and Epic are reunited! And Krul is the one who reveals to Epic exactly who she, Mika, and Yu are and this is what sparks Epic's fall to insanity.

I mean, she's the killer. She's the one who brought them into this world. She's responsible for every death the vampires cause.

I would go crazy too.

So, she manages to escape (partially thanks to Mika) and the two join Yu and the others again and it's revealed a second time exactly what is going on. And while no one actually blames Epic on the Shinoa Squad, that doesn't stop people like Kureto and even herself from blaming.

And this causes her demon to go haywire.

She begins losing her marbles, almost killing her teammates and trying to kill herself, all while the three begin to experience dreams or visions of their Soul 3s.

While all this shit is going on, there's heavy romance between Mika and Yu because these two lovers just got reunited and FUCK did they have glow ups but yes -

Oh. And there is another spark for Epic, even though she doesn't think she's worthy of love.

Okay. I'm just gonna say it.

Lacus falls in love with Epic. Yes. You read that correctly too.

I plan to make the two of them get trapped together at some point and they have to work together to escape. It's during this time that Epic realizes he's not all that bad and has some form of self control and he realizes that she's the most interesting thing he's ever met in this disgusting and boring life and damn do her eyes look pretty-

But yes. She forms a permanent alliance with him that he jokes about as marriage and they meet on other occassions too, but lol yes.

Anyway, blah blah blah, more fall to insanity, the Soul 3s take over their bodies on multiple occasions and there's a lot of bonding and fighting and Epic and Mika somehow manage to get some of the vampires on the human side.

And in the end, Epic and Yu basically sacifice themselves to save the human race and kill Queen Krul. It's a very rough ending I haven't quite perfected yet, but Yu has a moment like he did with the King of Salt. But though he inflicted a lot of damage, it's not enough. So while the team is worried about him, Epic takes this opportunity to fix her and Essie's mistakes.

She allows both Essie and her demon to take control of her body and dies on the battlefield. Queen Krul is eliminated. Most of the vampires are gone. The humans won.

Horray.

Epic is dead.

Kinda. Yu and Mika take her back home and this is the preview to the last arc where everyone's in the hospital and Epic's in a coma. Mika and Yu barely ever leave her side and it's only when Lacus of all people comes to visit that she fucking wakes up.

Okay. Are you still with me? Now come with me to the final arc.

The Post-War.

No my friend. It doesn't end there. Because Mika and Lacus are still vamps and life still sucks and I drank too much coffee this morning.

No it's not over yet.

So flash forward a couple years and Kureto and Crew are working as the heads of this city. Stuff is being rebuilt, people are settling down in homes, Lacus and some of the other "good" vampires find jobs, and Mika, Yu, and Epic get a house together (in case I didn't mention before, Epic is pansexual. She loved Akane dearly and I plan to include scenes where she sees her in her mind and dreams like Mikayuu so she's never truly gone, but she falls for Lacus too when he's not being a sadistic asshole). Things are going strangely when

BAM. Epic and Yu come up with a cure for vampirism.

How, you may ask? I don't fucking know, I haven't read about it in the manga yet but before we come up with an idea for it, imma say they came up with it through a spell. They share their findings with Guren and soon all vampires are being cured, most notably Mika, Lacus, and even Rene.

BUT and there's always a but, Kureto passes a new law claiming all vampires to be property. That any vampire or previous vampire or even vampire supporter/owner that tries to disobey these new laws is to be killed immediately. Now Epic and Yu are in jeopardy because their ex-vampires are in danger (Epic and Lacus have been hanging out a lot more and he's proven himself to be a decent guy. Contrary to popular belief, I headcanon him as not really knowing what to do when he actually cares about someone since he's been a heartless vamp for so long. So when he turns to Mika and begrudgingly asks him for LOVE ADVICE of all fucking things, Mika is ready to die). So basically, Mika and Lacus end up getting locked up along with the other ex-vamps (including Ferid which was a pain in the ass) and did I forget to mention that there's a proposal?

Oh yeah, Yu proposes to Mika and the blond still has yet to give him an actual answer because poor baby is still having a hard time accepting that Yu can love a "monster" like him.

But anyways, now Epic and Yu are furious and SHINOA SQUAD IS BACK IN BUSINESS. With the help of Guren and Shinya and everyone, they form a sort of rebellion and blah blah blah they manage to get Mika and Lacus and everyone out and blah blah blah they all get separated and Lacus begins to get INSANELY protective of Epic and ends up confessing his feelings to her before he nearly dies and blah blah blah did I forget to mention that I'm making Mitsunnoa and Kimizuki x Yoichi canon and blah blah blah.

Epic kisses Lacus as an instinct. Lacus kisses her again. Mika accepts Yu's proposal then almost dies AGAIN. I kill off some characters for emotional tugs and after a ton of more fighting and revenge and psychological breakings later, Kureto is killed. And Guren (or someone else haven't decided yet) is the new head of their city.

Epic, Mika, and Yu finally let Akane and the kids go. There's a lot of Shinoa Squad bonding but this is a summary so I haven't included much besides the main three. Epic and Lacus becomes canon. Mika and Yu get married. Guren and Shinya get married. Shinoa gets pregnant.

And everyone gets the FUCKING HAPPY ENDING THAT THEY ALL FUCKING DESERVE BECAUSE FUCK

I do plan to be slightly ruthless like the creator and include a lot of heartbreaking scenes, but it's going to be much different than ONS but I still want it to hold on to some core relationships.

I just want them to be happy. And I just want to make other people happy because fuck I JUST WANT TO BE HAPPY

So. Yeah.

That's Bloodsucker...

So my question to you is... if I wrote this shit.

If I sat down and typed about 30 books roughly inspired by Seraph of the End and Mikayuu and Mitsunnoa and shit...

Would anyone read it?

♡ a.a.

[vole-mon-amour]

OTP tag game.

Tagged by @captainjowl. You know for sure than I'm struggling to pick only 10 & fit them in here. But hell, that’s fun, thank you <3

Rules: Choose 10 OTPs BEFORE reading the questions, and then get to answering

1) Harry James Potter & Sirius Orion Black

2) Daniel Le Domas & Grace (Ready or Not 2019)

3) Samuel & Nathan Drake (Uncharted 4)

4) Corvo Attano & The Outsider (+probably Emily Kaldwin; Dishonored series)

5) Steve Grant Rogers & Bucky Buchanan Barnes (Marvel)

6) Tony Edward Stark & Peter Benjamin Parker (Marvel)

7) Handsome Jack & Rhys (Borderlands video game series)

8) Damon Salvatore & Elena Gilbert (TVD Books & a tv show)

9) Batman & Joker (in every universe, really)

10) Adam Jensen x Francis Pritchard (Deus Ex video game series)

1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6?

I believe it didn't hit me before Spider-Man: Homecoming. Civil War was about Steve & Bucky for me, but when I saw that growing up Peter with Tony, their dynamic, chemistry. Tom & Robert are really just like that.

2. Have you ever read a fanfic about 2?

Lmao. I've read like 50% of the tag on AO3, I wrote my own & started a few wips on them. They are amazing. Plus, with that shitty canon? We didn't get enough of them & they deserved better, so it's only logical to save yourself with fanfiction.

3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr screen saver?

I was living with The Outsider icon on my twitter & tumblr. That one is still my Google profile picture I believe. Don't remember about having an icon with the two of them. Also had The Outsider as my lockscreen on my smartphone for a while.

4. If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?

Funny how it fits canon, lmao. Rhys literally tried to erase Jack's AI in TFTBL, so I guess another day on Pandora, nothing new. They torture each other, they kiss each other, they kill other people in the process. It'll be fiiine.

5. Why is 1 so important?

I love them since the first time I met them, which was much more than 10 years ago, I don't even remember when. At some point they were the reason I was waking up & forcing myself to eat just to read more fanfiction & feel something. Even if I was drowning in pain (I was extremely depressed), it was still something. I read every fic I could find at that time. The depression that Harry went through, all these feelings, his love for Sirius. I was living through it, I could relate.

I'm currently drowning in these two again, though in a much healthier & happier state. I see their flaws & I know as much as I can. I see them differently as an adult. They saved me, they keep being my number one, I still consider making a tattoo of Padfoot/Sirius or of both Harry & Sirius together. I have many headcanons, ideas, I write fics about them. They are everything, you see? They were my choice when there was nothing, no one. They are HOME.

6. Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship?

Both. There goes the dynamic of Jack & Rhys: torture, fighting, flirting, a lot of trauma. I'd definitely say that they are wild and comical sometimes, but they are definitely serious. With the Asylum, the mental health issues. There is so much more to it, the complexity of their relationship. The struggle of loving who you probably shouldn't (but hey, when does it work like that?) Thinking about Tettlate's Batman, about Batman: Europa & how Joker was: "You must be crazy, putting me in charge of the plan, letting me decide. Okay, well..."

Nah, they are entertaining, but this is a serious ship.

7. Out of all the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry?

Are you kidding me? They are all the definition of CHEMISTRY. I'd say 5, but then go 2, 6, 7, 8. Come on. I'm not choosing. Most of they are WILD.

9. How many times have you read/watched the 10’s fandom?

The fandom itself? Idk. I found one of my favourite artists through this fandom. If it's about the characters themselves, I played the first game with the DLC from start to beginning, looking around every corner. Spent more than 60 hours in there. Watched a second game (my laptop can't run the game) and the DLC (obviously), since Francis is in the DLC & not in the main game. I have a tag for them on tumblr, I read fanfiction, I tried to write my own. I still follow Elias & want a third game. Elias liked my tweets about Adam and Jensen being an actual couple a few times. I'd say I interacted with all of this a lot? Still do, actually.

10. Which ship has lasted the longest?

5. Best friends since childhood, fought & died for each other, still found their way back to each other. "It would break your Captain's heart, to see what they did to you." That only the MENTION of Steve can pull Bucky out of this brain washing(ed?) state, distract him in the middle of a fight. When Steve died in the comics because of Sharon & Tony sent Natasha to take Steve's shield from Bucky because even Tony knew how much Steve means to Bucky. And Bucky was like: "Oh, I see what he did. Not happening!" Fought Natasha (that is his ex in the comics) & kept going for Steve's sake.

Well, you see the point, I can go on and on.

11. How many times, if ever, has 6 broken up?

They're not actually canon so none? They had a few fights: In Civil war (the comics), in Homecoming (the movie).  That only means that they’ve got history & love each other.

12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8?

As fierce Grace is, they wouldn't stand a chance against Damon & Elena. Those two had to deal with worst thing than brainless stupid zombies. On the other hand, if there were no alive humans to drink their blood... It's either an animal diet that Damon hates so much or I don't know? Still, they're faster & more powerful. Their bodies have advantage of healing the wounds as well.

13. Did 7 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason?

From some people, yeah. Don't tell Athena, don't tell Vaughn, don't tell Fiona. Though Rhys wasn't very subtle about it & Jack just doesn't give a fuck. You will probably end up dead if you disagree or bore him, or if you're useless.

"I can take you to the top, but you gotta know where the top is" & Rhys doesn't tell anybody until Jack makes him the President for like whole 20 minutes lol.

Fiona & Sasha: "This can't be happening." Sure it can, darling.

14. Is 4 still together?

I have a headcanon about The Outsider finding Emily & Corvo after Billie frees him from the Void. He doesn't have anybody & they are his only friends aside from a potential friendship with Billie. And if we don't consider TOTO dlc, they definitely are! The Outsider visits them both when they sleep & takes them to the void sometimes. How could he not?

15. Is 10 canon?

Not really but also sort of? Let's say that they really care about each other in canon, despite Adam pushing Francis away because of his trauma & fear that Megan caused him. :/

16. If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?

Can you imagine wizards fighting extremely powerful vampires? Superheroes with venom in their bodies that make them super strong with people that made a deal with the Devil himself (hi Le Bail)? 5000 y.o. God and his lover that share his powers and an augmented human protecting his tired IT guy? Combine mental health issues to that, Jack and Rhys with Batman and Joker. Corvo & The Outsider would probably slay them all as Corvo and Emily did in both games with entire islands, though it will still be a slaughter anyway.

17. Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?

All the fucking time, lmaooo. I’m not even talking about it.

18. Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond?

I feel like I already did with Steve & Bucky after many Marvel movies (we're not even mentioning Endg*me, I fucking died & was dead for full 4-5 months).

19. Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?

I used to do that a few years back, but not anymore. There is not much content since the trilogy is finished.

20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all forever, which ship would you sink?

1 already went through it & fandom lives, so I'd say maybe 7? Rhys will find a way to bring Jack back & they are both so wild. It’s what happened in canon anyway. Jack kidnapped Lilith & forced her to do Angel's job, so I'd like to see that witch try at first. Jack is an immortal bastard. <3

Now that I think about it, Corvo would also deal with her in seconds as she waits to curse them.

As a conclusion: no one breaks up forever, we're killing the witch.

I tag: @ianmillkovichgallagher​ & @aledbr​

Whoever else wants to join the game, please do.

[nadziejastar]

It's sort of amazing the difference between the fan interpretation of RAX and how they interact in canon. In Days they're super dysfunctional, border on being toxic, and their friendship was unsustainable from the start even if they didn't realize it. In fanon they're a picture perfect family who can never be torn apart. And the KH3 went with the fan interpretation instead of acknowledging any of their issues.

I totally agree. I think the reason is that the fandom tends to be very young. It’s a big reason why Akuroku became so popular, IMO. Young teens tend to misinterpret unhealthy obsession (like Axel’s) as romance and true love. And the Sea-Salt Trio’s dysfunction also was also overlooked in a similar manner.

I gotta be honest. I feel pretty uncomfortable with the general interpretation of the Sea-Salt Trio in this fandom. It’s just so bizarre to me how Roxas and Xion’s friendship with Axel was put on such a pedestal and how his relationship with Isa was pretty much ignored by almost everyone. It’s just…amazingly unrealistic if you think about it. I think it’s a testament to how young the fans are, in general.

Axel’s relationships truly aggravate me, because he was written a LOT differently than Sora or other simplistic characters. I know that the target demographic for Kingdom Hearts is pretty young. And in the end, I think Axel’s character was a victim of that. Nomura tried to write him very authentically at first.

But his characterization was dumbed down to fit in with a largely tween/teen audience and their preferences. I don’t say that to be disparaging to younger fans or anything. But, had KH3 not been a Disney property, and had it been targeted to a slightly older audience, I think Axel and his relationships would have been handled a LOT differently.

I definitely think the Sea-Salt Trio was VERY misunderstood by the fandom. Axel has known Saïx for at least 10 years. Probably more. Even before their backstory was explained, you could tell they have been through hell together in the organization, without anyone else to trust besides each other. Axel was willing to do all of his dirty work. 

Then Axel meets Roxas and Xion. Two kids who—let’s be honest—are about on the level of your average fifth grader. Not a bad thing. They’re just very naive and childlike and he obviously can’t be 100% himself around them. Do people really think Axel is gonna replace his best friend so easily with two kids he’s known for less than a year? Apparently, yes. Let’s look how absurd it is.

Day 75

Inseparable

The Genie we met in Agrabah said he and his friend Al are "inseparable." Axel told us best friends can be inseparable even if they're not always together, but it sounded like he wasn't too sure about it himself. I thought Axel knew everything. Oh well...

At this point, Axel spent quite a while at Castle Oblivion. He hasn’t even gotten to know Roxas that well, and he’s only known Xion for a few days. It’s totally realistic that he’d say he doesn’t have a best friend. He sounds like he knows what it’s like to have a best friend, though. He just doesn’t have one anymore.

Day 96

Roxas: I just…want these days to last forever. Hanging out, the ice cream, the sunsets…

Axel: Nothing lasts forever, man. Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies. But you know, we’ll still have each other…even if things change and we can’t do this anymore.

Roxas: Yeah?

Axel: As long as we remember each other, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?

Roxas: Ha ha, wow, Axel. That sounded ridiculous.

Axel: What? I thought it was pretty deep.

Not even two weeks later, he’s acting all touchy-feely about the time they spend hanging out together. Roxas and Xion make fun of him because even they know they’re not really that close, lol. They hardly know each other at this point. If you read between the lines, you could tell that he was thinking about Saïx here, too.

Friends

Author: Axel

I feel like I’ve been spending more time talking to Roxas and Xion lately than my old friend, Saïx. This has to have been what it was like, friendship.

But if that wasn’t obvious enough, the report clears up all doubt. He WAS thinking about Saïx. The message I got was: Lea and Isa had a very close relationship as humans. They were the ones who were really inseparable. 

Axel misses that and, the more he remembers it, is desperate to fill the void. Every time he mentions “best friends,” it relates back to this. But this concept went “whoosh” over 90% of the fandom’s head. It baffles me. I really just don’t get it. Again, I have to think it’s due to the fact that this series skews really young. 

Day 118

You Changed, Not Me

Author: Axel

Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It’s a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don’t feel like it anymore. It’s strange, but I’m content with just missing what’s gone. I’m not the one who changed. You did.

Anyways. Three weeks later. Axel is very hung up on the past. He sounds like a heartbroken lover (because that’s exactly what he is, if you ask me). The reason Axel spends so much time with Roxas and Xion is because Isa changed.

Day 150

Too Precious to Lose

Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can’t bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it’s our pasts, because that’s all we have to remember the pain of losing something. I don’t remember my past, but the idea of losing the present–Axel or Xion–scares me.

A month later. Axel comes back from Castle Oblivion yet again, and he’s even more nostalgic for the past than last time. I bet Axel’s time at C.O was gonna be featured as a blank period in BBSV2. But whatever. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing his memories of the past.

The reason Axel treasured his memories so much was because it’s all he had left after losing something. OBVIOUSLY it’s because of his relationship with Isa. I mean, duh. It implies a pretty special connection between Axel/Lea and Saïx/Isa for him to feel that way, especially considering how mean Saïx is to him.

I’m not trying to trash Axel’s feelings for Roxas and Xion, either, or make them out to be unimportant. They were important to him, for sure. But they absolutely did not reach Isa’s level of importance to him. No fucking way. Not. Even. Close. Especially not on Day 150. By the end of the story, Axel couldn’t bear to lose Roxas and Xion because they were all he had to fill the void of Isa.

That’s not to say that he didn’t care about them as friends, or that he was just using them. It just means that I don’t think Axel really would want to be “inseparable” with Roxas and Xion once he was mentally and emotionally healthy. He’d want to be friends with them, of course, but not hang out every day like Hayner, Pence, and Olette. He’s not on the same level as Roxas and Xion. And that’s fine.

Terra: Protect the things that matter… Right. My friends matter to me, too. So, I still have things that I have to protect.

To use a comparison, Riku was very important to Terra. I LOVED the connection between them. Other than Lea and Isa, one of the things I was most excited to see in KH3 was Riku and Terra reuniting (yeah…). They had a very special bond. Riku helped comfort Terra when he was down. But. Riku was NOT as important to Terra as Aqua and Ven were. Even if Terra had spent a whole year with Riku, he still wouldn’t be as important to Terra as Aqua and Ven.

Roxas and Xion being portrayed as the most important people to Axel is as ridiculous to me as Riku being portrayed as the most important person to Terra. It would be weird if 99% of the fanart out there depicted Riku as Terra’s best friend and Terra’s reunion with Riku got more spotlight in KH3 than his reunion with Ven and Aqua.

That’s how I feel about the Sea-Salt Trio. I really liked it for what it was in Days. A complex, morally grey friendship between an emotionally damaged adult and two innocent kids. But I really don’t like the overly saccharine, cutesy, cuddly, one-dimensional fandom version of it, where Axel is treated like he’s on the same level as the two teens. It’s a testament to how young the fandom is that people really thought Lea would be “meh” about reuniting with his childhood best friend who’s been possessed for 10 years, and be waaaay more excited about getting to eat ice cream with two teens every day once again. 

Day 172

What’s Love?

On my mission at Beast’s Castle, Xaldin told me about "love” and the special power it has over people. I tried to ask Axel about it, but his explanation didn’t make any sense to me. Every time I ask him about this kind of thing, he tells me I need a heart to understand. It’s like he’s dodging the questions.

Axel tolerates severe emotional abuse from his possessed best friend because he loved him back when he was normal. He copes by with his extremely shitty life by living entirely in the past, through his memories. Hanging out with two kids helps him remember his old life, back when he was happy. God, he was such a fascinating character. Such wasted potential.

Day 193

Best Friends

Xion's awake now. The three of us were gonna go get some ice cream after our mission, but she passed out again, so we had to take her home. I talked with Axel in her room until she woke up. He said the three of us were best friends—inseparable. 

Axel said he had no best friend on Day 75. Now it’s Day 193. That’s only 119 days. That’s less than four months!! He gets in a fight with Saïx, who, once again, says he’s changed. A very sore topic for Axel. Then immediately afterwards, he says these two kids are his best friends.

If I was gonna compare it to real life: Let’s say Lea and Isa were two normal high school kids who were kidnapped and raised in a gang. Axel is a 25/26 year-old former gang member. He’s got blood on his hands. He’s a good person deep down, but he’s seen a lot of shit. Then he meets these two fifth graders. This adult gang member, with tear-drop tats and everything, suddenly starts calling these two fifth graders his best friends. He wants to spend all of his time eatig ice cream and playing Minecraft with them.

If this was real life, would anyone say how cute it is that they are best friends? Two kids who he had to teach the concept of “best friends” to? NO! No, they’d say that’s unhealthy and weird and that the guy needs therapy. Because it IS unhealthy and weird. Perhaps it easier to see that as an adult. Perhaps it’s easier to see it in a romanticized way when you’re young.

The Sea-Salt Trio was, in a way, Axel forcing the label of “best friends” on two kids in an attempt to cope with the heartbreak of his loss of innocence. It did have genuine cuteness and sweetness. Of course it did. Axel was not a predator or anything. Roxas and Xion loved him. Axel loved them. But…it wasn’t as cutesy and wholesome as people make it out to be. At least not from Axel’s end. It wasn’t JUST a cute wholesome trio. 

That’s what made it so good. It was complex and grey. Axel never went against the organization, even though he could have if he really wanted to. It got to the point where he nearly killed both Roxas and Xion, just because he couldn’t bring himself to go against the organization. And the reason he couldn’t go against the organization was because of Saïx. Yes. Axel came thiiiiis close to killing both Roxas and Xion for a sociopath who treated him like shit. Their friendship was very dysfunctional and had a lot of kinks to work out.

Again, I’m not trying to denigrate the bond Axel had with Roxas and Xion. It was still genuine and sweet, in a sad and messed up way. I can still appreciate the cuteness of it.

But I hated the Sea-Salt reunion in KH3. Because it only focused on the most one-dimensional, saccharine and cutesy portrayal of them possible. They didn’t have to talk about anything. It was just instant hugging and ice cream, now they’re best friends forever. Everything played up to the max to manipulate people’s emotions. None of their issues were worked out and they had no better understanding of each other than they did at the end of Days. Honestly, even though Roxas and Xion got the red carpet treatment compared to Isa, the resolution to their trio was just as pathetic as Isa/Lea’s duo. 

[technicallyblakebelladonna]

People who hate Bumbleby because it's "toxic" make no sense? What's toxic? They've both been through great trauma and it's affecting their ability to communicate. Any trauma survivor will tell you that that's a normal symptom of trauma, and doesn't make your relationship with people toxic. Imo they need to shut the heck up, before the incident Blake and Yang were shown to be incredibly close. Trauma can affect your ability to show affection. That doesn't mean they're not close anymore.

ALL OF THIS. god. it’s wHild to me to see people claim that somehow blake and yang’s relationship wasn’t even good/that they weren’t even close to BEGIN WITH, which is just so fucking bhaffling to me. like what the fuck???? how do you get so confused??? blake and yang have always worked excellently together, and that’s not even shippers bias, bc it’s right there in one of the dvd commentaries -- i don’t know which volume/episode and i can’t remember who said it, bc i personally haven’t seen the dvd commentaries, but like, it was outright stated that blake and yang have always worked flawlessly together. it’s only until that v3 finale and onwards that things have been (UNDERSTANDABLY) difficult. because as you said, they’ve both been through a huge amount of trauma.

and the thing that really hits the whole thing home for me (like i mean, there’s a lot to pick from for sure) is the fact that NO ONE ELSE. can say “that night” and have the same understanding that blake and yang do. like even if weiss or ruby we’re to say “that night”, even if they both think about the fall of beacon, their experiences were entirely different. ruby would probably think about penny or pyrrha (both of which i’m sTILL in denial about) and weiss perhaps might think about being forceably taken away from her friends by a father she hates. 

but ONLY yang and blake can say (to each other, as yang did in whichever episode that was -- or to other people while the other person is in the room) “that night” and have a full all-encompassing understanding of the feelings and the emotions that went along with it. like, obviously as v6 has been showing us, they perceive that night differently (also as we’ve been shown in general through v4/5 albeit less explicitly), seeing it as a failure to protect the other, they BOTH still think of the same event. yang, charging in and screaming, getting her arm cut off. blake jumping in front of her, carrying her out while badly injured. (although yang doesn’t remember that bc she was unconscious -- WHICH IS ALL THE MORE REASON WE NEED THIS CONVERSATION)

anyway that was a tangent. but it’s just ... it’s like ...... the certain part of the fandom that thinks that bumbleby is toxic is just like .... completely disregarding everything that we’ve been shown and told in the show thusfar. and it’s just ridiculous because of course things aren’t going to back to the same as before, and that’s a GOOD thing. it can’t! yang lost her arm for blake and blake ran away! those are THINGS that they’re gonna have to work through! and they will. we’ve got four episodes to go, if i’m not mistaken. and even though part of me is SCREAMING that it’s not enough time, i’m back to thinking about the v3 finale and how much changed in like, the 2 episodes at the very end. i mean, ofc things take longer to fix than it takes to break them, but RT has already established a groundwork in the early episodes (the premiere, the apathy-brunswick farm arc, even the adam trailer and the v6 intro) that brings attention to their arc and their need for healing. something big is gonna go down in these last episodes. like i just realized that arryn basically only had One Line this last episode, and she’s already said that blake is gonna have her happiest moment sometime this volume so.... we’re in for it. we’re gonna be in for it. and none of us is gonna be ready, that’s for sure D: