#this is fandom i n general yeah but i'm saying it's d2 for a specific reason

[telestoapologist]

destiny 2 fans when a character they don’t like has flaws like every other character in the game

[haldenlith]

M, N, S?

You managed to pick all the long form options for me, so this is going to be a little bit of a long answer-post. lol

M: Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

Despite having my now three fandom sons that I adore (Zevran, Crow, and now Astarion), this is actually tough, since each of those three men have their own respective problems that I'm not sure I'd put up with in real life if I knew men like them. Such is the catch of liking morally grey characters (well, minus Crow I guess).

I suppose I could choose from outside of that pool, but oh there's so many options to sift through... I'm tempted to say Isabela from Dragon Age 2, but I feel like, unless we're good friends, she'd sell me out for a goddamn klondike bar. Though, the inverse is that she'd sell everyone else out for me, because she seemed very much a "ride or die" friend once she's actually on your side.

I guess I'll just say Crow. He's the safest option, since I feel like his issues are much easier to deal with when he's plucked out of the D2 universe. He's still hella reckless trouble, but at least I would know he'd always have my back, and I wouldn't have to worry about getting a "hey I murdered someone... maybe a lot of someones" phone call. (*stares at Astarion, Zevran, and Isabela...*)

N: Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

I'm going to go for "in general" rather than specifics since, thinking about it, these could apply to all the things I've dipped my toes into.

Heteroplatonic relationships. Men and women can co-exist in a friendly manner. There doesn't always have to be a romance. This is honestly aimed at writers of media and not at the fandoms (because in fandom, you can do whatever the fuck you want, you're writing for yourself). For example, I was watching Across the Spiderverse with a friend and, even though we both knew why they're a thing, we just kinda went "you know, Miles and Gwen could just be friends... do we really have to have a romantic subplot here?" (This said, it is a little exhausting in fandom to constantly see that two characters can't exist in a space without being IN WUUUUUV. *stares wearily at the Heartsteel fandom* ... Yeah, as someone that imagines the boys as all just being found-family-friends, I'm not going over there. There is nothing for me there.)

Now this one IS a fandom one: BE FUCKING NORMAL. It is so tiring seeing people harassing other people over absolutely stupid and trivial shit. It is even worse when the fandom turns that brand of crazy on the people behind the media (*motions to people being weird to Neil Newbon, for example*). I know this is a tall ask that will never come to be, but... it's why I live in the walls and don't really interact with much.

Of course, when I'm put on the spot, I can't think of things. Um, scraping my brain for a third item... I guess I'd like to see LESS reducing characters to being "uwu softboy"? (I don't know if women characters get this very often, since I mostly only interact with men character fandoms and when I do read stuff with chicks, I generally don't see this.) It is a bit... tiring. Like, again, you can write whatever you want, but I feel like... if you need to sand the edges off of a character and change them to like them, did you really ever actually like that character? Or did you just like the idea of the character? I feel like, at that point, just make an OC based on them. You've basically done most of the steps to get there.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

S: Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

Hmm, I have so many. I'll stick with D2, since you're more of a D2 moot.

A short one: I headcanon, gear wise, that Crow uses the Celestial Nighthawk helm with the Hrafnagud ornament (because it is mentioned that he does sometimes wear a helmet), and uses the Ashen Wings ornament on Hawkmoon. A trivial little headcanon, but there it is. A long(er) one: I guess this isn't entirely a headcanon, since I feel like it's been mostly confirmed in lore, given the frequency of characters going out beyond The Walls and ending up in towns, but I like to think there are many settlements beyond The Walls of The Last City, and I like to think that given enough time and being left alone long enough, the lingering spectre of The Concordat could capitalize on those wayward towns, left to defend themselves largely by themselves (with the exception of getting some help from a passing Hunter or two). It's just too unlike humanity to all agree to hang out in one spot. We aren't like that. We are all too prone to saying, "Fuck you, I'll take my chances forging my own path". Going along with that headcanon, in a tangential sort of commentary note: I do think, if it weren't for all the fuckery going on (the Traveler peacing out off of Earth and going into orbit, for example), keeping people's minds preoccupied, we'd genuinely have a situation of The Vanguard vs Everyone Else, because it seems to me like a lot of humanity isn't too keen on the Guardians anymore. Again, with the idea of the settlements, I imagine they especially aren't keen on them, since they could be made up of people exiled from The Last City, and people who feel left behind. Hell, we saw the sentiment in Season of the Splicer. Lakshmi wouldn't have been able to drum up that much support if it weren't for people feeling that way just a little bit. Actually, going back even further, we see that sentiment with Suraya prior to her joining up.

I guess, thinking about it, you could say my headcanon is that the real situation in the D2 Universe is that while The Vanguard and the Guardians are fighting for humanity, a pretty decent chunk of humanity has zero interest in fighting for them. Does this count as a headcanon? I don't know.

On a rambly OC sidenote: that was the entire idea behind the AU of Ardwynn being all "king of thieves bandit" living outside of The Last City, because he's such a hero "I want to help people" kind of guy. He'd look at everyone living outside and at The Last City, and at what Guardians are, and aren't, doing, and would decide to find a way to help people. Honestly, if it wasn't for Shaxx hanging out in The Tower, helping the Vanguard, Ardwynn probably would throw his lot in with The Concordat.