#this is it this is what gets me martyred out of this fandom

[qilingxiong]

everyone who insists on calling this show a dangai owes me 10 dollars

[jessiesjaded]

i shouldnt be shocked by peoples naivete and yet I am.

[ashthemadwriter-archived]

Baby Boy Darling!

—Your boyfriend turning into a little baby? What are you going to do with him?

Fandom: Bungou Stray Dogs

Pairings: Dazai, Chuuya, Fyodor, Nikolai, Ranpo, Jouno X Fem! Reader

Genre: Fluff, Humor

Format: Drabble

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1.8K

A/n: Mildly rushed but acceptable ig!

↳Osamu Dazai

"You know... I don't think this is a good choice for a bedtime story"

The little infant in your arms looked at you curiously. He wasn't old enough to make any sounds other than crying, but the martyred expression he was wearing and his firm grip on your thumb displayed his intention with no complicacy. Nevertheless, that didn't stop you from putting the suicide manual on the nightstand.

"Now now, don't look at me like that. I'm a good babysitter, and a good babysitter doesn't teach babies ways to kill themselves"

You gently caressed his puffy cheeks. "I'm also a generous babysitter, which is why I don't slap your hand away when you grab my boobs"

His gaze fell on his small chubby hand that was trying to get a hold of your breast. It was a good thing you had a T-shirt on, or with the way he was trying to cup them they would've been bleeding by now.

"I'm sorry honey, I don't think you can hold them anymore. Your hands are just too tiny!"

He whined and pouted in response.

"I know! I'm sad too. C'mon, smile a little for me will you? Smile for your mommy"

If he was still an adult, he would have rolled his eyes and smiled, but he wasn't. He was just a cranky baby who was probably planning your murder in his cute little head.

"Get it? Mommy? I'm your mommy! God you didn't have a sense of humor when you were a child did you? I miss my kind, loving boyfriend"

He looked at you unfazedly.

"Alright, how about I sing you a song? Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you aaaaaaaa— ah!?"

Dazed, you looked down at your baby boyfriend with widened eyes, only to find him staring back at you while his mouth was on your right breast. He was trying to suck on it, but that wasn't easy when it was covered with two layers of clothes, your bra and your T-shirt. Your eyebrows jumped in surprise.

"Wow, you still like the right one better?"

↳Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"So this is the power imbalance they were talking about huh?"

The violet eyed infant stares at you blankly, having a "it won't be this way for long" look in his eyes. You're holding him in front of you while sitting on the edge of the bed, wearing the cheekiest grin you could ever wear.

"No wonder you were so crazy about it. Having somebody wrapped around your finger... feels awesome!"

Still the same bored look.

"giving me the cold shoulder now? I'm just using simple logic to prove my point-which is also what you used to do. I'm saying that from this moment, you're totally and completely dependant on me"

Fyodor tilts his head to the side and gives you a weird look, tempting you to imitate his gesture. A strong feeling is causing you to brag about the current situation and tease him, and you're willingly giving into it.

"Alright. Since I'm the one in charge now, I'm setting a few ground rules. No more acting all workaholicly and staying up until late. No more skipping meals, mister. Im gonna feed you with my special milk, hehehe~ Also, I've got some confessions to make"

It's probably a bad decision to bring these up right now, but you're too captured in the heat of the moment to realize that.

"Ok. I've been trying to tell you this for quite a while. The truth is... I'm pregnant"

The unfazed look is still on.

"Yeah, that was a lie. The real truth is... I was the one who ate all your snacks"

Still no change in his expression.

"...But I assume you already know that. Ugh, keeping secrets from you is such a pain... could you not figure me out for just once?"

Fyodor doesn't seem very eager to respond. He's already very annoyed with how things have turned out and is not really in the mood to joke around. You come to that conclusion when he touches your forearm with his chubby little hand.

"You're gonna activate your ability and kill me, aren't you?"

↳Nikolai Gogol

"Quiz time!!"

Your baby boyfriend whines in annoyance.

"Who's gonna get paid one in his own coin and suffer like I did every time he teased me?"

You flash him a cocky smirk, matched with the way you're looking at him from above as he's lying on the bed. You're standing next to the bed, happier than you could ever be, planning all the steps of your revenge as you trash talk to him.

"That's right. It's no one but youuuuu! Hahahahaha!!"

Nikolai wants to prove to you that he's still strong and nobody can defeat him, but he realizes there's noway he can imply that other by a sulky attitude, which he reluctantly suffices to.

You hold his favorite snack in front of him and shake it, smiling wildly. "Come on darling! Have some! Eh? What are you waiting for? Awwwww! You can't? Then I'll help myself!"

You shoved the entire thing in your mouth and laughed hysterically.

"Nom nom* tastes nom* heavenly! No wonder you never let me have a bite!"

Nikolai is starting to feel a little guilty now. He didn't know that his teasings have made you a spiteful whore.

"You hate babies so much, and now you are one! That's the scariest punishment itself! Can you feel the power of karma? It's a bitch, ain't it? Well, now that you can't talk anymore, I have something to say to you!"

You bend over until there's a small gap between you, pointing at his tiny figure. The bullying attitude is all gone and instead, there's soft glare lying in your eyes.

"I want one of these. Give me one when you get back, Kolya"

You're wrong. This is the scariest punishment.

↳Saigiku Jouno

"Thank you for the meal!"

Jouno is upset. There are many unfortunate things happening for him at the moment. He doesn't like to be a baby. He doesn't want to be unable to do anything other than crying, pooping, eating and sleeping. More importantly, he doesn't want to feel your teeth on his cheeks.

"Mhm, so soft and squishy!" You smile sweetly and look at his puffy cheeks, stained with your bite marks in crimson. "I could just eat you up now, 'giku. You taste so sweet!"

Anyone who hears this would be happy and blush slightly, but Jouno wasn't one of them, as he tilts his head and looks away, having the most adorable pout on his lips.

Grumpy as always.

"C'mon now, it's not that bad! Look on the bright side! Everyone will have to do everything for you since you can't do it yourself"

Jouno tilts his head back, his eyebrows jumped in surprise.

"Right, that wasn't a really good example of the bright side"

Sighing, you lay next to him on the matress, hands traveling through his white locks. His muscles relax a little bit as he gives into your warmth, nuzzling his head in your chest. You hum with a soft beam, inhaling his baby scent.

"You smell very nicely too, 'giku. Don't be too depressed about this. It's not the end of the world. We'll find a way to turn you back eventually. Plus..."

You lightly pat his back, pressing a lingering kiss on his forehead. "I can have you all to myself, since you can't go on any missions and leave me here all alone anymore"

Yeah, Jouno thinks, maybe it's not that awful after all.

↳Ranpo Adogawa

"Ouch! Why you- let go of my hair you aggressive baby!"

Ranpo cries a whine out and pulls your hair harder, leading you to scream back even louder.

"Stop it! What is wrong with you? I dont care how upset you are, I'm not gonna give you any sweets- ow ow ow!! Ranpo- I said let go of my fucking hair you dumbass!"

Your angry shout startles the dark haired baby. It's not just that he's little, you'd never talked like this to him before. Slowly loosening his grip on your hair, he starts sobbing quietly, covering his face with his chubby hands. This breaks your heart.

"Nooo... I'm sorry sweetie! Mommy- Aunty- god I dont even know what I am to you anymore! Whatever- I'm sorry ok? But you can't eat sweets baby boy, you're smart enough to know that, right?"

Smart enough to know that?? Huh!

Ranpo sees right through your little plan. He knows all these little tricks inside out- hell he was the one who taught you all of them; but what pisses him off is how it's working on him even though he knows your true intention.

The smirk you've been holding back shamelessly appears on your face when he wears a serious expression, nodding like someone who's given an important task and is determined to do it carefully and correctly, then points at your boobs.

Your smile instantly fades away.

"Shit. I'm not doing that"

↳Chuuya Nakahara

"Your struggle is hilarious to me"

Baby Chuuya watched you with a threatening glare. He was clearly unhappy about this situation, and you enjoying his frustration was not going to help him at all.

"I know you really need it right now, but honestly, I don't think your little tummy can digest that"

Merely ignoring you, he tried to open the bottle of wine he was struggling to hold with his chubby feet; but every time he pulled, the bottle would slip out of his not so tight grasp. He couldn't use his ability on it, since the bottle would sink into his little body. He couldn't even roll over on the bed, and his so called nanny was laughing instead of helping him.

Forget about all the things he'd been through. This was the true misery.

"Alright. Give me the bottle"

He didn't seem to agree, because he immediately hugged the bottle with all the strength he had, like it was his dearest thing. Your serious expression showed that you weren't going to give up either.

"You give me that bottle mister or you won't get extra milk tonight"

Reluctantly, he opened his arms and you snatched the bottle, putting it somewhere high. When you turned around, you saw him sulking.

"Don't be like that baby, you know you can't drink that right now. I thought you were a reasonable person hmm?"

The cute pout resting on his lips made you giggle and bend down to kiss his cheek. He was still pretty upset, so he looked away from you. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything about the little blush on his face.

You carefully held him up and looked at his tiny figure. His long hair was gone and instead, there were short ginger locks on his head. His bluebell eyes however, hadn't changed one bit, still as gorgeous as ever.

You smiled at him. "You want me to throw you up?"

He looked oblivious. He probably knew what you were talking about, but hadn't figured out whether you were serious or not.

Shaking your head to the side, you tightened your grip on his waist before throwing him up in the air, and catching him before he fell on the ground. He got so excited that he started laughing, letting out adorable baby noises.

"Aww, you like that huh? want me to do it again?"

He blinked.

"Ok! Three, two, one! Whoa!"

Chuuya had jumped higher than this before, but not once did he feel the thrill he was experiencing now. He was having the time of his life, flying in the air with no effort. Every time you threw him up, his mouth got opened wider, wider, and wider,

until vomit came out of it, landing on your chest.

There weren't any throwing and catching after that, since you were too busy looking at the vomit, shocked. But it wasn't him vomiting that caught you off guard, it was the vomit. It wasn't milk, it was wine.

"Ok, we need to talk about your drinking problem when you turn back to an adult"

All rights reserved © 2023 AshTheMadWriter. Please do not copy, repost, translate, or modify my works on any platform.

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[frownyalfred]

Hi!!!! What do you think about the fandoms characterisation of Dicks and Damian’s relationship???

A lot of the fans replace Dick with Bruce in terms of who is Damian’s father. Idek but it gets annoying when it’s all “oh Bruce may be Damian’s father, but dick is his dad”

Thanks <3

I go back and forth on it, tbh. Damian needed a dad, but he was a surprise to Bruce. Dick handled it much better than Bruce did for a while, but Bruce eventually came around (depending on the canon). A lot of siblings raise their younger family members in the absence of a parent, so it makes sense that Damian would be drawn to Dick as a more grounded and sympathetic parental figure. And that Dick would be able to connect with Damian more easily than Bruce, who was still reeling from the shock of finding out Talia lied.

But does that make Dick his dad? I don’t know. It’s kind of like saying older Bruce raising Dick as his ward was his dad. Yes, on paper there’s a parental relationship but — the ages are so off. Bruce was young and Dick wasn’t that much younger than him.

Their relationship was more like an older brother raising a younger one, and that shows a lot in the dynamics between them later in life. Not saying he can’t be a full dad to Dick or that he doesn’t take that role on but — their relationship isn’t as clear cut either.

So yeah, it makes sense to me that Dick could model that same relationship with Damian. Not quite dad, not quite older brother. Still Batman, to Damian’s Robin, just like Bruce was Batman to him.

I guess when it comes to writing it, it depends on how much you want to make 1) Bruce the bad guy for being a bad/absent parent and 2) Dick the sacrificing parent who stepped up while Bruce was gone.

I tried to show in my fic borderline that that relationship isn’t sustainable long term - Dick trying to mollify Damian and Bruce standing to the side awkwardly does everyone a disservice. Dick is not a martyr. He’s a sibling trying his best. But also, sometimes that actually makes things worse, you know? Having a sibling raise the younger kids. It throws off the dynamics in so many families if you’re not careful. If that sibling doesn’t have resources and support, they’ll burn out.

[bloomeng]

I feel like something a lot of people miss when discussing DC canon is context.

(Warning: Mentions of canon sexual assault scenes)

So today I saw a discussion about Alfred's fanon perception versus canon reality. I wouldn't say op was criticizing people for thinking of him as a sweet old man, merely just pointing out that he's canonly not so innocent and it goes unaddressed. He was the one who nudged Tim into the Robin mantle and he was the one who stripped it from him and gave it to Damian without asking. There's a whole plotline about how he had a daughter that he abandoned. He was the one who put up the "soldier" plaque memorial. All of these things are true, however, I don't think it was the writers' intentions to paint a lot (not all) of his actions as negative. In fact, the writing often goes out of its way to paint Alfred as a martyr. That doesn't make his actions right, nor does it mean that someone is wrong for being upset with him, but it also means that people aren't stupid or wrong for interpreting his character as this beacon of virtue. It's also notable that most people are probably more acquainted with his animated and film adaptations where he hasn't done any of the things I've listed.

Context is always important when analyzing media, but it is ESPECIALLY important when discussing DC because of the sheer volume of authors writing for a single character.

This is why there are so many arguements about whether or not Bruce is a bad father. When you have so many authors writing a character for close to a century, you're going to have inconsistencies and their takes on the character will contradict. We can go in circles bringing up issues that prove either side, but it's futile. Everyone is entitled to their feelings towards things that happen in canon, but I don't think it's fair to pass ultimate judgement based on something that was often written by one shitty writer.

Now disregarding DC canon is something the fandom is selectively good at, but the curtesy is not extended evenly. Going back to Alfred for a moment. A legit criticism of the writing is that he abandoned his daughter and that isn't really addressed outside of the issue that introduced it. And I think the reality is that DC often recognizes their mistakes after the fact and isn't equipped to handle the conversations they start so they quietly retcon. Which isn't great, but I also think it's a silent mercy. See not addressing something is bad, but putting out offensive media is more detrimental IN MY OPINION.

This is even more evident when it comes to DC's history with depicting sexual assault. They constantly back themselves into corners. I really appreciated that Gail Simone's Batgirl run retconned the Joker's sexual assault against Barbara. SA is something that is important to talk about but it's also something that needs to be treated with care. What happened to Barbara was not a productive conversation. There were so many gross undertones of the Joker specifically sexually assaulting her. Same with Talia sexually assaulting Bruce. There are very real racist undertones. There is a time and place to discuss male victims and the way male rape victims are written off, but the story is not concerned with having that conversation. So now we’re not only not having that conversation but we’re also stereotyping and villainizing POC women which also has real world consequences.

Now this next part might get me boos from the audience but to me this also extends to Dick and Tarantula. I know a lot of people want DC to acknowledge what happened, but to that I'm like why? Devin Grayson is a notably bad writer when it comes to Dick. There are racist undertones to having Tarantula sexually assault Dick. Devin is literally known for making Dick Roma for fetish reasons. Before this Dick Grayson was a white character, who was already written to be flirty and sexual. These are all important things to consider about the context of the writing. I think it would actually be best if DC did what Gail Simone did with Batgirl. I think it’s unfair to not give these WOC characters the same treatment of understanding when their actions are shitty because of shit authors.

Real world context is vital for understanding these fictional stories. Batman can't kill because that would mean they would have had to be constantly introducing new villains and it would be less child friendly. Robin was introduced to the story because they were trying to market to children. Batman continuing to recruit children is about marketing to kids. The hyper-focus on Dick's romantic life was in part an effort to fight gay allegations. These are all important factors to consider if you're discussing DC critically.

Like realistically yeah it sucks so bad that Alfred and Bruce allowed children to fight crime. But it's also notable to mention that Dick forced Bruce's hand, Bruce was really trying to stop this kid from murdering a man. It was a compromise. Alfred and Dick may have pushed Tim to become Robin but he was already one foot out the door. Damian and Cass were trained by assassins. None of these kids are realistic depictions of children, even if they are relatable. When you read a superhero comic you are suspending a certain level of disbelief and I don't think it's the hot take people think it is to criticize Batman for allowing kids to fight.

Like cool, then we don't have a story. Nothing about superheroes are realistic. Why is this the line we draw in the sand?

I didn't know when to bring this up, so I'm going to awkwardly tack it on at the end. So the "Nothing Butt Nightwing" webcomic... Yeah it looks not good, but a lot of people are calling it out for sexualizing Dick, which once again to me fails to understand the outside context. There is a difference between sexualizing and sexualization of an ethnicity. As I mentioned, for most of Dick's run he was a white character who was written to be flirty. Devin was fetishizing him, but allowing Dick to remain a flirty character is not an act of fetish based sexualization. Personally I think it’s more harmful to get rid of core aspects of his character now that he is canonly Romani. Not to mention that if we address the SA with his character we are now back in this place of stereotyping and bad undertones. So until DC is ready to tell a legitimate story about male SA victims I'd rather the Dick Grayson thing be left silently in the past. I'm so hyper aware that I'm in the minority though. I agree it could be really powerful to have one of those stories be told but consider how harmful it would be to continue to imply these things about WOC.

[coolcatsodalite]

Forgive me for posting something entirely unrelated to dolls but i don't really have a fandom blog so bear with me but-

Look at me. Look me in the eyes. Shanks is not evil. Nor is he purely good. He simply is a pirate. Just like Roger, he will fight and even kill anyone if needed. Listen. He knows something. He didn't go for the One Piece until now because it wasn't time. With Luffy getting close, the time is now. He knows the person who reaches there has to be worthy. He thinks Luffy is worthy. But listen. I'm holding you so gently. You need to listen. Consider. Luffy has to prove he's worthy. He has to fight Shanks. Shanks knows this. Of course he knows this. But he also knows Luffy will not go all out because he cares about him. So he needs Luffy to be angry at him. He needs to hurt Luffy so he doesn't hold back. He needs to see his full and true power and he's sacrificing himself (and others) to get that. Luffy must defeat him. Whether Roger entrusted Shanks with this task or it's self imposed, that is his goal. Shanks isn't evil. He's a pirate and he'll do anything to achieve his goal, which is to make sure Luffy is the king. No matter what it takes. If he has to hurt some people; If Luffy has to hate him. So be it. If we are to take anything from Film:Red it's that Shanks is not afraid to damage his own reputation for [what he thinks is] the greater good. Don't be small minded while watching his actions. Look. Think. There is another path between good and evil.

If i'm wrong, I'm wrong. But what if i'm right? I'm grasping your hands tenderly in mine. Don't look away. I have not been shown a man who does evil deeds. I've been shown a man who was raised by good men and done good. I've been shown a man that protects those weaker than him yet gains nothing in return. A man who doesn't actively seek out conflict or battle, and only attacks after being provoked himself. A man who saves annoying little boys and loses limbs in the process, then gives away his prized possession-his only memento of his beloved Captain- to said annoying little boy, and made him promise to grow up and surpass him. I've been shown a man who drinks and parties because that is what he grew up with and feels most comfortable doing. Yes, evil can rise even while surrounded by only good, but i've not been shown an evil man. I've not even been shown a man jaded and twisted by the injustice around him. I see a man who seems to have decided to live for others and stay alive only as a means to an end. He is not the king. He knows this. But he will make sure the king is worthy. He will make sure the king holds Roger's ideals and strength and everything in between. Even at the cost of himself. Because Roger was his everything, and he'll be damned if anyone but Roger, or the person that most closely resembles him in all ways that matter, is the king.

I believe that Shanks is a pinnacle. A pillar. A martyr, a deity. A BEING. A being that was born only to be sacrificed for this exact reason and this reason alone, and he knows this. And he is ready.

[arkhamjack]

CW for gore and suicidal ideation (TriMax Vol. 7) also Spoiler warning!

EDIT: I am a drama queen and just assume a lot of Trimax readers misinterpreted this scene bc I saw like only two people do it but I’m also using this as an excuse to yap about Vash and Knives’ personalities bc it was super interesting in this volume ok byyeee read on:

Is it just me or is the majority of the fandom under the impression that it was Knives who stabbed Rem?? Because it was actually Vash. Which I think says a lot about their actual personalities vs how the fandom perceives them.

Analysis under the cut!

In classic Nightow fashion, it's hard to figure out wtf is going on and you gotta read over it multiple times, but look:

After the discovery of Tesla, Knives faints and is placed in a little incubator thing or whatever and Vash laments the fact he remained awake to mull over the horrors. From this point on, Knives is not in the picture bc he's busy honk mimimi (which is actually something he employs as a coping mechanism throughout the story... his precious beauty sleep...)

Now, Vash is refusing to eat and lashes out at Rem, expressing his disdain for being stuck on a spaceship with all these nasty humans.

Rem once again tries to get Vash to eat, peeling him a fruit.

Vash lunges for the knife and attempts to stab himself, but Rem stops him.

Vash is locked in a reactive state - he's in shock and acting out. This is where I think ppl miss the mark in interpreting the twins and why Vol. 7 is so important.

Vash can actually be nasty as hell. He ain't all that babygirl. His silly goofy facade is a way of integrating himself into the human world sure - but it's also lying to himself. He's impulsive, stubborn, and dare I say arrogant with his Messianic martyr type shit. (EDIT: I’m being a bit harsh here… I mean yeah he’s the only person on Gunsmoke who’s got a chance against Knives but like getting up in townspeople’s business gets really annoying imo like I understand why he does it but man…that’s why we’ve got Wolfwood bc narrative foil and whatever… anyway)

Knives on the other hand, internalises everything. Though he may appear to be the one who lashes out, and yes of course he's also arrogant, but it's mostly projection. He is in a MAD state of denial. For all his talk of being a superior being, that humans are icky and should all perish, yada yada yada, he actually wishes for love and acceptance - he wants to be safe.

Obviously, his head is too far up his ass to admit it, and he's always too busy tweaking about how annoying Vash is and blaming Rem for everything to actually try and sit down and think of better ways to do things but ANYWAY

(You know who else's head is up their ass? Vash. The twins are actually so alike if you really study them!! Anywayyyy)

That was Knives' whole deal from THE VERY BEGINNING. Knives was the one to cry in relief when Conrad and the crew accepted them, not Vash. Vash was more like "ok cool! life might not be so bad! yipee!" and then Knives had to Big Fall about his internalised plantphobia or whatever etc etc.

I AM GETTING SIDETRACKED !! ok so

The stabbing occurs. Again, hard to tell it's actually occurring bc Nightow, but yeah Vash stabbed Rem. Not Knives! Bro has passed out for a couple days now lol.

More evidence it's Vash - Vash was the one to express feeling suicidal. Knives cannot express anything to save his life bc he's the king of internalisation and deflection and projection lmao. Also yeah he's still eeping.

Oh look! He rises! Completely unaware of the drama that has unfolded! Not that he'd care! He's set on a mission to hurl humanity to the dust bowl of Gunsmoke! Little scamp.

Ok take from all that what you will!

Thanks for reading <3

[fareehaandspaniards]

Miquella is nice

After finishing the DLC, Miquella made me think a lot. Before the DLC, he had a rather… one-sided image, I don't know what else to call it. He was incredibly kind, and we saw references for his connection to St. Trina initially (because we still remember Gwyndolin, who lived as girl. And we know Fromsoftware loves the archetype of the sad feminine young man). Miquella was a victim, was a martyr, and was an incredibly kind soul who prayed for Godwyn and invented a true miracle - the Golden Needle, which can help to hold the rot.

But the DLC absolutely turned his image upside down! And it makes me very sad to see a character's incredible transition and acquisition of a new layer of morality (gray) labeled as "bad writing" and "fuck GRRM he spoiled my baby boyy :(((((".

Today after talking with my spouse (He always helps me realize any fragments of lore. Sometimes I have a hard time understanding the simplest things that everyone has long understood and accepted. Also! Happy birthday to my beloved!), I could only finally understand why everyone is getting so worked up about Michella, even though we've had a scenario similar to his "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions" a long time ago. That was Laurence, everyone's favorite in Bloodborne, and Gwyn (he really wanted good things and it didn't turn out well :/), etc. I'll also remind you that the fandom (in the general sense) of Fromsoftware games is very fond of villains, and that's fine. But for some reason, when Miquella turned out to be not the good guy everyone wanted him to be, no one appreciated it. And I tried to defend him to the last in a discussion with my husband - Miquella sacrificed everything for the "greater good" in his understanding of the word, Miquella went the way of renunciation, Miquella knew how to love and loved his sister, Miquella wanted to correct all the sins of the past.

However, unlike most Fromsoftware villains, Miquella HIDES his atrocities (even from himself). Nashandra, Shabriri, Micolash, anyone - their motives are clear. They have principles, egos, backstories, justifications for wanting to be a destructive factor, some have these reasons built in at birth, some are insane, etc. Miquella, on the other hand, finds followers by Dishonest means, condemns Radahn to suffering for which to end the festival is organized, leaves his sister to die, condemns Mohg to be a puppet in his scheming, and still thinks of himself as a VIRTUE. He believes that the era he is about to found - will be good and bright. And with words of goodness he kills us in battle with Radahn!

Miquella is a golden apple with a very rotten core. We don't know, really, at what point he started to "rot". What's funny is that of the two twins, Malenia was rotten on the outside and he was rotten on the inside.

Miquella's center is in love. He carries self-love everywhere, charming and falling in love with almost everyone. That is why Malenia says, "My brother will keep his promise. He possesses the wisdom, the allure, of a god - he is the most fearsome Empyrean of all." I think he is the type of child who got used to being loved. The problem with this type is that he can become a wonderful person, or he can turn into a monster who will take love and attention at any cost. (My spouse reminded me here of stories of crazed maniacs who kidnapped those they loved and dreamed of a nonexistent future, not realizing the damage they were doing.)

But there are many questions that, perhaps, everyone should answer for themselves?

What vow did Miquella make to Malenia?

In my opinion, Malenia was not charmed by him. I've always wondered WHY she waits for Miquella at the cocoon in the Tree, even though it clearly shows Miquella being stolen???? She knew, she probably knew his plan originally. She had been waiting for his return like a god. But what had he promised? That when he returned, he would cure her of the rot permanently?

When did Miquella begin his "fall"?

There is no denying that Miquella was a good guy. He tried, he tried to help his loved ones. He looked up to Radahn as a child with respect, as the description of Remembrance of a God and Lord says. Miquella was in harmony with his other self, Trina. But what changed him? Failures? The desire to save everyone at once? The desire to be the most loved? To be perfect - a god? I'm inclined to think it was all of those things that corrupted him at once. After all, as a favorite child, he may have been flawed deep inside from the beginning.

Miquella had resurrected Radahn as a young, beautiful warrior, just as he had been before. But Radahn does not utter a single phrase during the battle, and his movements are more automatic. Radahn feels nothing, and it makes me think more and more that he's more like Miquella's wish come true, his hope of having a worthy consort he loved by his side.

Is Radahn a puppet or a future lord?

Nothing has been confirmed. I've also read that Miquella's spell was broken when his rune was split, that's how many NPCs come to their senses and realize everything. But I think his power would be enough to, like a necromancer, control a resurrected one? And honestly, it's unlikely Radahn would have wanted such a fate. He was holding back fate itself, the stars, so that what did happen to him in the DLC wouldn't happen. Thanks to Miquella, Malenia had turned Caelid into a solid rotten mess and blossomed her divine flower, and left Radahn in an insane state waiting for a noble death at the hands of other warriors. Miquella mutilated him. I don't think Radahn would have appreciated his methods, considering how dedicated he is to warriorship and uprightness, and also honors Godfrey.

What would have happened if the Age of Compassion had happened?

I think it would have been VERY bad. And after a major flourish of life and honoring Miquella, there would have been a decline and another Shattering. Miquella shows himself to be a man who does not tolerate dissent. I think there would have been a flowering of the Inquisition, persecution, murder, and brutal tyranny. And Radahn, most likely, would have simply been "squeezed out" by Miquella and destroyed by his boundless love. Yes, Miquella rejects his love, as @jarognieva correctly pointed out. But he rejected, in my understanding (we need a clear translation from Japanese here), his destined love, i.e., his intended spouse, Trina? Just as Radagon was Marika's spouse. Our Marika is a deity, but she is capable of love - her love for her son, Godwyn, caused her heart to break.

Fandom cancelled Mohg, now he is cancelling Miquella. People don't accept and don't want to comprehend the things that make them change points of view. That's how the witch hunt begins! So stop being shitty and decide for yourself what you think of Miquella before claiming him a "bad written character"

Miquella, as a character, has become an incredible bastard, manipulative and truly evil with a mask of piety. He doesn't go into battle as an honest warrior, he uses others. He "sacrifices" himself by actually sacrificing everyone else. But doesn't that make him MORE interesting?

He's broken a lot of headcanons, but I sincerely hope that the wave of love for him as a VERY gray character will still come! After all, he's a worthy villain archetype! A true evil hidden in a pure soul. How many fanfics, how many musings can be spawned from that. No need to deny him, rather try to accept Miquella for who he is. And don't make it into "good" or "evil". There's a particular aesthetic to how awful Miquella is.

[quaintlyfig]

Having thoughts after reading @dimplyowl's posts about Izzy and Ed and their behaviors.

I mean, I've had these thoughts a lot already. I attempted to express some of them shortly after season 2 aired when folks on twitter would rail against Ed's violent behavior toward Izzy at the same time they vehemently insisted that Izzy had never done anything bad ever to Ed. I tried to craft thoughtful responses on posts of people I thought might be interested in having a conversation and open to maybe understanding a different way of understanding Izzy's behavior. I did this maybe about three or four times, and every time I was 100% completely ignored. No "thanks for sharing your thoughts," no "cool story, bro," no "get fucked." Crickets. Zip, nada, zilch.

This show is silly and serious, goofy and deep, sweet and heavy. And I like exploring both sides - being able to float in the fun and being able to plumb the depths. And I'm in this fandom to do both of those things in a safe community - which I experience in abundance each day and am so grateful for! - not to be re-traumatized by people who are gleeful and militant apologists for emotional abuse. I became very well acquainted with the block and mute buttons around this time, happy to curate my experience.

I freely admit that this is a bit of a ramble and that it won't be flawless, but it feels good to organize my thoughts.

Content note before you continue reading: Author's experience with physical and emotional abuse as it relates to their thoughts regarding Izzy Hands' character and people's dismissal of the gravity of emotional abuse. Not gratuitous, but take care of yourself, and do not continue reading if that may cause you harm. And yes, I've been to lots of therapy, for which I am very grateful! 💜

I was raised by season 1 Izzy Hands.

Filled with rage, virulently jealous, and expertly manipulative. Someone who expected me to meet their every need by existing in their fantasy world where they were the ultimate martyr, and I was the ungrateful piece of shit they bent over backwards for. Gaslighting and crazy-making were literally a part of my everyday existence.

Less frequently, this person was also physically abusive, and I feared this abuse even on the occasions it didn't occur.

Both fucked me up plenty, and I won't play the "abuse olympics" and say one was worse than the other. (And I would imagine that there isn't such a thing as "only" physical abuse - the two are intimately tied together.) I will say that in my *own* experience, which is individual to myself and probably the proportions of each type of abuse, I have found the emotional abuse to be absolutely insidious in the ways it molded my understanding of self, relationships, love, affection, communication, sex, worth, sense of free will, responsibility, and more. I am still unraveling these things even over a decade after I cut all contact with this person.

The scene where Izzy confronts Ed, who is cleaning up his cabin and wearing the pink robe, is one that really sticks out to me.

A decent number of the Izzy-apologist takes I read talked about how Izzy didn't do anything wrong when he told Ed he'd be better off dead than as a "namby pamby in a silk dressing gown pining for his boyfriend." That he only serves Blackbeard and that Edward "had better watch his fucking step." These people said that Ed could have basically let that go like water off a duck's back and never become the Kraken.

We are responsible for our own actions *and* abusers know exactly how to push your buttons, get under your skin, take you down at your knees, and to grind your face into the gravel when you're already down. They know exactly where to stick the proverbial knife to do the swiftest, most lethal damage with the fewest words. They know how to make you feel like less than nothing - that you have NO inherent worth outside of what you do and how you serve them - so that you will bend to their will.

This scene shatters my heart every single time. I think Con and Taika both get their characters so right in every syllable and micro-expression during this exchange.

And whether Izzy's manipulation is conscious or unconscious doesn't matter. Just as there are reasons, but no *excuse* for the way Ed hurts people (or that Stede or the Badmintons, etc, hurt people), there is no *excuse* for the way Izzy abuses Ed (or anyone else).

I also heard people saying that Izzy's threats were empty and Ed should have known that. No, there isn't one single thing about Izzy's threats that were empty. He brought the fucking British to the Revenge and tried to have Stede - the man Ed loves - executed before Ed's eyes.

"Are you really going to lick the king's boots" wasn't about Izzy wanting Ed to be free. Ed felt free and happy with Stede when he could be someone softer and 3-dimensional. Izzy wanted Ed to be licking *his* boots in his every choice and behavior, even if Ed was captain in name. Izzy never served "his captain" - he only ever served the Blackbeard of his fantasies. A caricature that left Ed feeling utterly hollow and contemplating "packing it all in" (which didn't mean "retirement" when he said those words).

I simply don't have time anymore for people who wish to live in their own fantasy world where Izzy is a wholly-innocent victim being preyed upon by the Big Bad Kraken. The Kraken may have been born the night Ed killed his dad, so that part of Ed pre-existed Izzy, but Izzy did say in his own dying words that he fed the darkness in Ed and needed it for himself.

I know some people have a hard time seeing Izzy as a father-type figure to Ed, as David Jenkins has said before. But I can see it perfectly clearly. He's living his life through Ed, wanting him to perform exactly as ordered, to be a two-dimensional figure that satisfies his own need to feel important and needed.

One thing I haven't seen discussed as much that I absolutely recognize in Izzy from my own experience with my abuser is his incredible jealousy of anyone else that gets Ed's attention. He does not want anyone else to be close to Ed. He wants to be the gatekeeper to Blackbeard and the only one to call him Edward. He literally tries to have Stede killed because of how jealous he is. He does not want anyone else to love Ed, and he doesn't want Ed to love anyone else. He is so deeply insecure that he cannot share him at all.

If Ed has a real relationship (of any kind, not just romantic - he and Stede start out as instant BFFs), then he is not capable of performing Izzy's version of Blackbeard and pouring all of his energies into serving Izzy's (obviously very unhealthy) emotional needs. It's a zero sum game. Izzy has to have all of Ed, or he's "lost" the game.

Izzy needs to be to needed so badly that he creates in his mind a Blackbeard/Ed who cannot function without him, and he will do whatever it takes to shove Ed back into the box he needs him in in order to keep his own identity secure. Because if Ed doesn't have to be Blackbeard, that means he doesn't need Izzy, and who is Izzy without Blackbeard? He doesn't have a stable self and so *uses* Ed to prop himself up to feel like "somebody." He has built his own identity around the fantasy of Blackbeard.

Just because someone isn't losing toes doesn't mean abuse isn't happening. Emotional abuse is real. Additionally, perpetrators of violence have often been victims themselves. (This isn't even touching on the fact that they're all pirates.) Ed can be both. These things are messy as fuck. But I will say that Izzy's abuse clearly pre-dated Ed's Kraken-era violence against Izzy by years, at least, if not decades.

I'm genuinely not sure what the perceived merit or gain is in pretending otherwise. And just as Ed is ultimately responsible for his own actions, so is Izzy.

I appreciated Izzy's redemption arc, and I cried when he died. And I think it's ok that Izzy died. And Izzy was a very skilled emotional abuser in season 1. All of those things can be true at the same time.

I know there are a thousand other ways to come at this topic and examine it. I didn't even touch the question of apologies or redemption or any of that. Nor am I going to. This was primarily a personal examination of season 1 Izzy Hands' abusive behavior.

--

Image from Our Flag Means Death Frames on twitter

[writtenicarus]

The Hate On Jegulus Shippers recently

aka, me saying what im sure a lot of us are thinking (please reblog and share xx) love you all

Hi everyone, I'm em. As you probably know if you follow me, I have never sugar-coated my feelings and never given a fuck about speaking on how I feel. Today I'll be addressing the extreme amount of hate us jegulus shippers have been receiving. To clarify, I myself have been a receiver of death threats because I ship this since I was 13, A CHILD. And I will also soon be deleting my responses to all the hateful asks as I don't want my page to be a negative space. So it no longer affects me, but I'd like to speak just incase it has been affecting any other shippers

To begin with @jilyserrr is a big contributor to this hate, and I have no problem naming and shaming. This..creature..seems to be fine with openly telling us to die, so this thing should be okay with me mentioning it! Anyways, a lot of anons have been attacking jegulus shippers too. And to be honest, I don't care, but I know a lot of people are getting frustrated. Because at the end of the day, has it ever occurred to you that we don't give a shit what you have to say? The anons telling us to die and that we're pieces of shit are obviously trolls and as annoying as they are, it can be dealt with.

But unfortunately there seem to be other people who think they're, let's just say, moral heroes that want to involve themselves too. and I'm sorry, but as a sapphic woman I'm going to say this, "but you guys don't write about wlw ships" WE DONT CARE. "you don't represent wlw ships" BECAUSE WE COULDN'T CARE LESS. im sorry, but people are literally afraid to admit it, so i will say it for them. we don't write about that content because, simply, we do not care for it. its not our thing. i love women, big fan of tits don't get me wrong mate, but id rather write about the boys, and guess what that's fine.

we as writers have a right to write whatever we like because it's our creative outlet, and shipperd have the right to enjoy content that makes them happy. because at the end of the day, who cares what you ship? we all deserve to enjoy our favourite characters.

you don't have to play martyr in our ask boxes with your misogynistic claims, because honestly it's a bit embarrassing. im a queer woman. that makes no fucking sense.

in summary, call me whatever you like because quite frankly i do not give a shit, but leave out the death threats and annoying ask boxes because it's not gonna change us. we're not gonna wake up and randomly want to off ourselves and ship every woman together that exists in the fandom. i know we base our fandom on wizards, but this isn't really magic.

oh and by the way, shoving women together because you view them as having less value on their own is misogynistic, not the other way around. thanks!

[sideprince]

I've seen the same post a hundred times now. Sometimes it's a few days old, sometimes it's from years ago, but it's always the same. Some anti posts about how they don't understand how anyone can like Snape because he was so awful, and then there's a long reply that goes something like, "imagine this happens to you, and then this, and then this" to describe Snape's experience. Sometimes there's some James Potter hate thrown in.

Look. You can go through describing a character's entire experience but you don't really need to. Here's the thing that antis don't understand:

For all her faults (and they're big, bigoted ones) Rowling understood a really integral part of the human experience and conveyed it through Snape. Everyone needs love and to feel accepted. It's that simple. Snape became a Death Eater to seek acceptance (Rowling has confirmed this, though I can't remember the source - whoever wants to add it please do), because it was the only way he could find any.

Snape's understanding of morality, like everyone's, is subjective. Some readers understand this and some don't. When faced against a morality that says there is good and bad in the world, everyone makes choices based on their personal experience. Context is everything. Someone who experiences pain and suffering will not see the person inflicting it on them as moral. That's it. 'How can this person be good when they caused me so much suffering?' = human psychology. Most of the people who think 'I'm a bad person and deserve this' have been gaslit and abused into thinking so, because it's not a natural reaction - it's one that has to often be socialized into someone at a young age, exactly because it's not natural. Everyone is the hero of their own story; no one sees themselves as a villain, because they see the valid aspects of their own perspective.

You can write essays on how vulnerable people needing acceptance is what cults and fascists exploit to recruit vulnerable people, or on how the standard anti's un-nuanced reading of Snape both ignores canon and displays a disturbing lack of empathy or compassion, but at its core it just boils down to context. From Snape's perspective he experienced cruelty, therefore the people inflicting it must be cruel. Again, it's that simple. He was a person, like any other, except he was fictional so he wasn't even real. On the flip side is James Potter, who, for all his faults, didn't get to live long enough to get a chance to change and grow unlike Snape, and I think the Snapedom also needs to acknowledge that.

They're fictional characters representing things an author wants to say, not sports teams, not martyrs, and not all good or all bad emblems that define your identity depending on how you feel about them. It's depressing how much time is wasted arguing with bullies and trolls whether from the Marauders fandom or just random antis. I literally can't find more than three blogs to follow without this argument coming across my feed daily. I know the Snapedom is Not OK™ and that's kind why we're all here, and I know that my take is super unpopular but like Snape, I don't care what others think: this fandom has been having the exact same argument for years and nothing has changed. There's fanart and meta and fic and so much content out there appreciating this character, you're not going to change an anti's mind who's deliberately trolling in the tags, so why are you trying? What are you getting out of it? What does it give you? It's exhausting just scrolling past it.

[unforth]

Prefacing this TGCF post with: people can draw and write however they want forever and I support them and this is about my personal view of these characters.

Anyway.

I saw a post today that had Xie Lian singing "when will my life begin" from Tangled and it drove home what really bugs me about a lot of fan casts of Hualian onto popular media (see also my Howl's Moving Castle take). It's this idea that Xie Lian is, well, waiting for his life to begin, and Hua Cheng swoops in and makes it exciting, when this is imo so utterly antithetical, and in fact opposite, to canon.

Xie Lian has lived and lived and lived. He was a prince, he fought in wars, even during his 800 years fallen the whole book is an exercise in showing that he WASN'T just waiting around, he kept doing things the whole time - Fang Xin Guoshi and General Hua and and and. AND he also cultivated to the point of ascending again. Xie Lian is a fucking bad ass idealistic martyr who doesn't know when to quit and at least to me that's the whole point of his character and I love that about and for him so to see him inserted into existing franchise AUs as the wilting flower waiting for a moment to shine is utter character erasure and it makes me insane enough that I'm writing this post about it even though I think I shouldn't and even though I genuinely don't want to rain on anyone's fandom parade. But like. That's not him!

You know who it is?

It's Hua Cheng!

Hong Hong'er lives in Xianle, a kingdom where all this stuff is happening, and he just watches from the sidelines. He's an observer at the parade. He's just some kid. And then he falls (or jumps, or is pushed, you pick your interpretation) and he's caught by literally the coolest guy in the entire kingdom. He's the nobody who gets swept off his feet! And it changes his whole life! Like I think it wouldn't irk me so much to see Xie Lian get typecast that way if Hua Cheng wasn't right there literally living his "I met God and it changed my whole life for the better" fantasy. He seriously deserves to get recognized for this. I get that he's the loud flamboyant one so that makes it seem like he should get cast as a Howl or a Flynn or whoever, but like. He was waiting for his life to begin, and it does, when he meets Xie Lian.

And like. I get that these are kinda competing interpretations that depend on when you look at canon - I'm looking at the original 800 years ago events, others are looking at Hua Cheng coming in 800 years later - but still the "present" in TGCF isn't imo about Xie Lian having waited to be saved, he hasn't been in a hat shop for his whole life boredly making hats, he's never stopped moving and never stopped adventuring and never stopped striving to change the world. Hua Cheng is living out his "you saved me now I save you" fantasies but fundamentally they save each other over and over and over again and that's beautiful and I hate seeing it erased to make Xie Lian into the wilting flower. Like. The one who basically hasn't done anything that whole 800 years is ALSO Hua Cheng. We don't hear about him going off and having idealistic adventures. Everything we know of that he's done was directly related to Xie Lian (ie burning the temples). Other than that he seems to sit around in Ghost City chilling with his ghoulies. So again, finding Xie Lian is what pulls him out of his funk and prompts him to start acting for good, whereas Xie Lian has been acting for good the whole time.

Ugh. I should shut up now, just, I've been in this fandom for four years and this has become such a pet peeve of mine because it reflects such a huge disconnect between how I perceive these characters and how much of the rest of fandom does. And that frustrates me, cause I wish there was more content in line with my perception.

[wraith-caller]

@li-binauje-artisse left this as part of their response to me dissecting Darian's dialog about Rogier, and it encapsulates everything that frustrates me about the way this pair are often interpreted. Not just as a couple/friends, but as individuals. It's indicative of how large chunks of the fandom, in spite of apparently desperately clamoring for complex characters and nuanced storytelling, tend to often ignore those complexities when they discuss anything.

Let's start with Rogier. "Innocent martyr fighting for social justice". It hits the nail right on the head. I see him characterized as any of the following: hating the Golden Order, a rebel, defiant, a revolutionary, 'the good guy', a progressive. But does his story actually bear that out?

No, it doesn't. Here he is, talking about the Golden Order:

The battle art you've learned is of the glintstone family. They were conceived at the great Academy of Raya Lucaria, to the north of this castle. In the past, they obeyed laws which contravened the Golden Order, or so I'm told. Fascinating, isn't it? That the Golden Order was pliable enough to absorb practices that contradicted itself in the past. With the Order broken, twisted, and in need of repair, such adaptability is more important now than ever.

Nowhere in Rogier's dialog does he speak ill of the Golden Order itself. Nowhere does he say he's intent on tearing it down, that it needs to be stopped, that it needs to be erased. He admits it is FLAWED and that it needs REPAIRED. He's not a champion of human rights looking to topple a cruel and violent regime. He admires the Golden Order's pliability, knows it has issues, and seeks to fix it, NOT destroy it. He's an academic with a single-minded obsession, and that obsession is repairing this error. Even his interest in the undead seems less about the undead themselves being oppressed and more about the fact they are a consequence of a broken system(see his lines about the undead committing no offences, that they have simply touched on a flaw and now exist, as opposed to Fia's more blatantly sympathetic perspective that the undead are 'unfairly persecuted' by 'dogmatic brutes'). From his perspective, if we were to simply fix that bug, then everything would be fine again! Nevermind that the Order is founded on violence and genocides, that it is built on a brutal caste system which denies those who don't fit within it their basic rights. His perspective on it has narrowed down to this one issue - which, don't get me wrong, it definitely is an issue needing fixed. But it's like putting a band aid on a paper cut while ignoring all the stab wounds. There are a lot of terrible things at work here, and it's going to take more than one thing to fix any of it.

I'm not saying Rogier is a fervent acolyte, or that it's totally unreasonable to think he may care about some of these other issues, but we don't see any of that, so it gets into headcanon territory to speculate about what he thinks of the GOs other problems. What's LESS up to headcanon is the fact that he is not a defiant person. He's not a rebel. His behavior often displays the OPPOSITE, that he is quite the people pleaser, that he is someone who is not keen on 'rocking the boat' and drawing potentially negative attention to himself. His repeated apologizing to us for things like being paralyzed or getting injured, his willingness to lie to others to avoid upsetting them, his pleasant demeanor in spite of his inner turmoil, and his about face in his cut dreambrew dialog where he switches from resentful to gracious at the drop of a hat are all evidence of this. He is not some free-spirited revolutionary who will proudly defy an oppressive system. Even with the issue of TWLID, he's cautious about sharing his perspective on it, knowing it is an uncommon one that would raise someone's ire. He says we "may find this peculiar" when he tells us he wants to save the dead, not just because of one bad conversation with Darian, but because this is likely an unusual perspective period, among the majority of people, not just the hunters. Otherwise, why would he think WE find it peculiar when we have nothing to do with D, and have said nothing to indicate we hold a similar perspective?

What frustrates me about people taking these traits away from him and making him into some self-assured and confident trailblazer is that it erases a story about someone finally being able to find their spine after a potential lifetime of setting himself aside to please others. He expresses nothing of himself, none of his miseries and griefs, except this one belief that has become so important to him that he's willing to lose someone he once cared about over it. Rogier is not someone who was always bravely defiant. He is someone learning, at the last minute, how to stand up for himself and have the courage to put his foot down. Making him out to be some rebel hero of the underdogs robs him of that, and kind of minimizes a lot of his emotional issues. It also often overlooks his own participation in this oppressive system - not just that he used to likely hunt the dead alongside Darian, but that he encourages us to become Elden Lord and perpetuate the existence of the Golden Order. Maybe we fix this one problem he's invested in solving, but what about all the others that will continue to exist? It's the classic tendency to see morally grey characters in a black and white light because you like them. Rogier is a fan favorite, so he must agree with all of the 'good' perspectives on things, isnt it obvious? Well, no, it isn't, and it'd be cool if people kept insisting otherwise outside the realm of their own headcanon or fanfiction.

Okay, so how about Darian? "The Hater." "Fascist zealot," as @irithylldancer (and let's be real, anyone who has looked at any discussion about Darian at all) has seen him called before. After all, how could anyone hate zombies cursed to live without a soul who enact violence on people without apparent cause? A lot of folks point out that any enemy is like that, and will just attack on sight, but that's just plain not true. Variants of wandering nobles will actually flee from you and beg you to spare them, so it's not like the devs couldn't have thrown a few TWLID with these behaviors in if we were really supposed to think it's just a matter of us terrorizing them.

But that's besides the point anyway. This is about lost nuance in characters. The nuance with Darian is often lost at this: people see the game use the word 'Fundamentalist' and think instantly of the real world group that is referred to with the same term. That is, Christian conservatives who are often quite regressive, with racist/bigoted biases. Sorry folks, but that's not what a Golden Order Fundamentalist is. So what are they?

Law of Regression: The fundamentalists describe the Golden Order through the powers of regression and causality. Regression is the pull of meaning; that all things yearn eternally to converge.

Law of Causality: The fundamentalists describe the Golden Order through the powers of regression and causality. Causality is the pull between meanings; it is the connections that form the relationships of all things.

Golden Order Principia: Prayerbook of the Golden Order fundamentalists. A dense and complex academic treatise that contains the Order's fundamental principles.

Golden Order seal: Fundamentalism is scholarship in all but name.

Is that clear enough? GO Fundamentalists are not "the racist part". They are not "the bigoted part". They are the SCHOLARS. They are devoted to understanding the fundamentals of the Golden Order. This is NOT the same as real world Christian Fundamentalism. The hunters aren't trying to destroy a culture that's foreign to them, or eliminate a racial group, or put down the disabled(though obviously the GO is still horrible and does things like that with their treatment of omen and misbegotten), or 'hunting the dead for sport' like it's just a fun game for them. They're fighting a literal plague, a dangerous curse that undoes death and leaves soulless corpses shambling across the lands, inflicting violence on others. It's not bigotry to think deathroot is a problem. It's not fascism to want to stop an illness from spreading. It's not cruel to want to prevent corpses - who inherently can't consent to anything - from being plucked out of the ground like daisies and forced to shamble around soullessly and suffer existence whether they want to or not. Even Goldmask, in his criticism of the hunters, is not upset with their treatment of TWLID. He's disappointed in their desire to have an evil to defeat, which he doubts is even a possibility. Order Healing says:

The noble Goldmask lamented what had become of the hunters. How easy it is for learning and learnedness to be reduced to the ravings of fanatics; all the good and the great wanted, in their foolishness, was an absolute evil to contend with. Does such a notion exist in the fundamentals of Order?

Goldmask isn't mourning the undead, and he isn't condemning the hunters for their treatment of them. He is saying what the game itself repeatedly says to us through these nuanced stories told with every single character: there is no absolute evil to be found. You can quash this problem of deathroot and its consequences, and there are still a thousand more flaws in this Order because the very nature of rule by man, even when elevated to godhood, is itself flawed, because humans are imperfect creatures. Rogier tells us the undead aren't evil, they simply exist whether they want to or not. The problem is the hunters like Darian are looking for an outside evil to defeat when there isn't one, the call is coming from inside the house, only Darian is too devoted to the Order to admit it. The undead may be violent, they may kill, they may be cursed, but this doesn't make them inherently evil. They only exist through a loophole in the Order, and the hunters deny that such a loophole could exist because the Order must be perfect.

Even with his flawed beliefs, Darian is far from hateful or a fascist. He laments the death of a criminal when we meet him. He tries to deter us from harm. He offers us help by showing us the waygate to Caelid, and asks - not demands - that we take his place in serving Gurranq. He never asks us if we're allied with the Golden Order, never asks us to prove we're ideologically pure or even aligned with him. He eagerly calls us a comrade, and in spite of his disagreement with Rogier, continues helping him with his research. What kind of 'hateful fascist' behavior is that? The only thing he despises are TWLID, and yes, his hatred of them is intense, and it is probably irrational to some degree - it's very unlikely they're as aware and conscious as a normal, non-undead human being would be, and we know they didn't spring up out of the ground because they felt like defying Marika's will. But his hatred is also not baseless. It's not him hearing from the Order that these are his enemies and he must hate them because they are Different. His hatred is a result of witnessing their violence firsthand. The game didn't go out of its way to introduce him mourning a victim of the undead for no reason.

And beyond this, there's a far more personal reason he must preserve the Order, why he must fervently believe they are right about who is accursed and who isn't. He and Devin were completely shunned from every society except the Golden Order. Of course he's attached, of course he's invested. If his options are "Golden Order or nothing", he's going to take the Golden Order, and it's really difficult to blame someone for making a choice like that. If you are rejected from birth by every society except one, you're going to be desperate enough for that acceptance that you'll do anything to keep your place in it. So when met with Rogier's revelation that the Golden Order is wrong about who is cursed and who isn't, doesn't it make perfect sense that Darian doesn't handle it so well?

No this isn't the first time I've ranted about this and it probably won't be the last. I just love these characters too much and hate seeing their rich potential for interesting storytelling reduced to a black-and-white narrative for easy consumption. No aspect of this game includes a simple, straightforward progressive vs regressive, hero vs villain, good guy vs bad guy story, even down to characters as minor as Rogier and Darian.

[alpacahat67]

A Very Detailed Analysis Explaining Why Asrian is Mid

Yes, I've made a shitpost summing up my thoughts on the topic before. However, I regularly get into bi-weekly complaint sessions about this terrible, horrible ship.

I am willing to be burnt at the stake if it means I will be a martyr against Dorian... (I'm joking. This is Tumblr. It's not that serious.)

Under the cut is a lot of words! Be prepared

By the way all of this is Dorian's fault GIVE ME MODERN ARCANA I WILL REWRITE IT

I want to preface this by saying my opinions on the ship come off as very mixed? At least in my head. My problem is obviously more with the fandom than how it's portrayed in the actual game, as you will see. Unfortunately, it's just what happens in fandom. Asra x Julian fits the perfect mold for a potentially popular ship. Two masc-presenting people with a tragic story, yeah cool.

I don't care about people making art or writing about them. I actually think Asra and Julian have an interesting dynamic and I enjoy a lot of their in-game interactions. Here's the thing, and my thesis statement for this post, most of the fanworks surrounding these two that I see in the wild are using the dynamic for the wrong reasons! Furthermore, for Asrian to work out and genuinely last a while, you have to mischaracterize one or both of the characters.

I think that this stems from a misunderstanding of the characters and the circumstances under which their situationship (they didn't have a relationship, I'll get into that soon) sparked. Dorian's pushing of content including the two in a romantic or suggestive context does not help matters.

I think a good example of this was under the original shitpost I made about the topic. I won't put this user on blast because I don't recall their URL, and if you find it do not be mean to them. I had called Asrian one-sided. I do sort of agree now, Asra x Julian is not one-sided. However, one party sure as hell does not reciprocate the feelings as much as the other party does! Here's the thing, Asra and Julian's relationship was born from grief for the death of the apprentice on both sides. However you want to interpret Julian's relationship with the apprentice, it's clear that he had some interest in Asra following their death. But we can see very, very clearly in literally every scene involving Asra speaking to or about Julian, Asra didn't feel the same. Asra loved the apprentice through and through. Asra gave the apprentice half his heart for fuck's sake!

I don't want to say Asra was using Julian, or vice versa. But the other was a distraction from everything going on in their lives, from the apprentice's death to the plague. Hence, situationship. Although I do think there was romantic intention on Julian's end, chances are it fizzled out during the three-year interlude.

It's a very tragic dynamic and I do enjoy it! They drive me INSANE! It's just... a lot of people willfully ignore that. A lot of people ignore that they both have problems they haven't addressed that more than just some kisses will solve, both internally and with one another. And when you ignore that...

...You mischaracterize them. Haha, like my segue? Unfortunately, the best ending for those two is in Muriel's route. Which, as far as we know, the two didn't... ever seriously sit down and have a talk. Which is what they need to do. In order for those two to work out, they need to have a serious, long talk about where they went wrong in the past and what they can do to do better.

Do you wanna know something about those two characters? NEITHER OF THEM WOULD BE WILLING TO HAVE THAT DISCUSSION! Furthermore, their personalities in a lot of media I see (cough cough mostly from Dorian) are completely wrong! I love a morally gray character very much, people tend to erase that from Asra and only make him mischievous if not straight-up an asshole, or very cute and loving, as if the point of morally grey isn't a very confusing middle. I mostly see Julian being characterized as pathetic. Yes, he is my pathetic little wet cat sometimes, but he is smart. He's a doctor. Not only that, he was a battlefield medic at what we can only assume is a pretty young age. Julian has issues but he can handle himself.

I have a lot more I can say on the topic. In short, a doomed relationship where they just have to come to terms with the fact that it wasn't the right time or the right person is much more interesting to read than a perfect one where you get your happy ending. I understand the appeal, but if you want to write them being cute and happy together, I implore you to just... make an au. That is not fixing itself. They both need to be medicated.

[hsvh-hp]

what drarry fics would you recommend that are very in character?

Before I get into it, I’d just like to say that I started working on a fic rec sideblog last month. The posting schedule doesn’t kick in until April, so it’s blank at the moment. But, it’s there, if you’re interested in giving it a follow!

Anyway, two caveats about this: one, I read a lot of drarry fic and have a bit of a poor memory, and two, I'm not certain that what I consider in-character to be the majority consensus of the drarry fandom (for example, I don't like down and out Draco, soft Draco, Draco hating either of his parents, or Harry being overly judgmental or unforgiving (though that's not to say I haven't read those tropes and enjoyed them)).

In general, any fics from my ao3 bookmarks will meet my bar on being in-character, since I tend to hit the back button if I start asking myself, 'who are these people?'. I took a cruise through my bookmarks in spirit of the ask though, and I'll post a list below the cut of fics that stick out in my memory as having some of my favourite characterizations:

Twelve Months by dysonrules (14,840 words)

Hermione buys Harry a journal and he ends up using it to record his DEEP THOUGHTS. Not surprisingly, those tend to mostly involve Draco Malfoy.

This one cracked me up. Since it's written in journal form, we get Harry's running internal monologue about his life. And a lot of Draco, because of course we do. I also always enjoy a Draco who actually is up to something, but it’s for a good cause.

The Gentlewizard Club by Sophie_French (28,129 words)

Draco wants what Draco wants. And if he has to snuggle up to Harry to get it, well, surely, Draco can handle that. Problem is, not sure Harry can.

This fic starts with Draco and Harry as both friends and Auror partners. As friends, the high point of every day for Draco is when he gets to read (oft-times aloud, and dramatically so) Harry's fan mail as it's delivered to their office. As Auror partners, Draco is barred in writing their field reports because he sucks at it. He's very happy to put that work onto Harry, and Harry is happy to do it (because he's pining hard, okay?).

That Draco and Harry are Auror partners isn't actually important in this fic (although the sequel has a case that they tackle). Harry gets a letter about having been admitted into a club that Draco really, really, really wants to join, and he begs Harry to sponsor his admittance. Harry can't say no to him, therefore, commence operation fake relationship for a weekend getaway. I love the balance in Harry trying to give Draco what he wants while fearing that what he wants will only hurt him.

Martyred by dothechachaslide (82,004 words)

Harry Potter only wants one thing: to take care of the people he loves. After Teddy’s abrupt departure from his role as Andromeda’s caretaker, Harry decides it’s finally time to step up and handle the job himself. Castoff Manor, an old Black family estate, has never seemed as sinister as the stories make it sound, but it’s there that Harry stumbles upon ghosts, haunting family secrets, and a familiar, snarky blond gardener hell-bent on chasing him out. Maybe if Harry sticks around long enough, he’ll finally learn why all of Andromeda’s previous caretakers have fled without looking back.

Harry and Draco are in their fifties, in this fic. The summary about sums up Harry's characterization: he takes care of the people he loves, and a mystery at hand draws him obsessively in. As for Draco, I would consider him post-redemption. He took the consequences handed down to him after the war seriously, and has grown so used to the Muggle world that he lives there as comfortably as the magical world. He tends the garden at Castoff Manor to prevent anyone else being harmed in the role (part of the fic's mystery), and tutors Squibs in the nearby village.

One small detail that I love about Draco is how every time he gets uncomfortable, he hops on his bike and runs away. It's one of those things that, despite the rather far-flung future from the canon years, it's so absolutely in-character across time and space for him. He's changed so much, but there's still this degree of pettiness and cowardice deep down inside. It's just expressed in a less harmful way than it used to be.

Lethe by QueenieJinny (70,885 words)

A new form of vanishing sickness is sweeping across Britain. Healers Harry Potter and Hermione Granger are on the case. When Draco Malfoy is admitted to the isolation ward, Harry never imagines falling in love with him will be the easiest thing he’s ever done – and watching him fade away to nothing will be the hardest.

Like above, Harry again takes care of the people he loves and cannot resist a mystery to solve. He's a Healer in this fic, a line of work that suits him well for his compassion, and Draco ends up his patient. Draco is on the difficult end of the spectrum as far as patients go (are you surprised?). Watching their Healer-patient power dynamic swing toward equilibrium is wonderful. They fall in love, Draco comes to terms with his (temporary) mortality, and Harry goes as far as he possibly can for Draco after he's gone: finding a way to rescue him from where the vanishing sickness took him.

Draco Malfoy, Bloodsucking Fiend by Kbrick (23,198 words)

There are two things that Draco’s Auror partner, Harry Potter, must never know about him. One is that he’s a vampire. The other is that he’s been completely, pathetically, head-over-heels in love with Harry for years. But when the duo is trapped inside an old shop on Diagon Alley with no means of escape, Draco finds himself fiending for blood and unable to put even a modicum of distance between himself and the man he can’t stop lusting after.

There are 3 of Kbrick's fics on this list, and I could have honestly added more. All of her fics that I haven't gotten to yet are on my to-read list. I just love the way she writes Draco and Harry, okay?? I'm a big baby when it comes to angst and hurt/comfort (more on that further down), but I absolutely trust her to put the boys in a blender on the highest setting that I can personally handle.

Anyway, this fic in particular, I'm all about that pining and the feeling of a countdown being on. Draco is resisting on two fronts: his feelings for Harry and his need as a vampire to feed. Harry is perfectly balanced in his obliviousness and perception.

You See Through My Disguise by aibidil (9,666 words)

Bellatrix's knife flew across the room, but Harry leaped, pushing Dobby and Griphook to safety but stranding himself at Malfoy Manor. Now he and Draco are locked in the cellar with Wormtail's corpse and a rat, waiting for Voldemort to return and decide their fate.

The premise is on the tin. As for their characterizations, Harry and Draco are on a countdown to sort themselves out enough to make an escape from the dungeon at Malfoy Manor during the war. They can't help but poke at each other, so the fic is a compelling balance of ego and necessity.

Criminal by The_Sinking_Ship (83,497 words)

Things were going just fine for Draco Malfoy. He successfully conned and counted cards across Europe and America, amassing a small fortune, along with a lengthy rap sheet. That was until he made the grave mistake of returning to England for a high stakes card game and got himself caught – by Harry Potter no less. Now, Draco is stuck in England under Auror Potter’s guard with no friends, no distractions, and no escape. How the hell will he pass the time? And since when did Potter get so bloody fit?

I'd had this fic on my to-read list for ages before seeing it on a rec list for morally grey Draco. That's my favourite kind of Draco, so I decided to jump this one to the top. Also, like I said about Kbrick above, The_Sinking_Ship is another writer with whom I've either enjoyed everything I've read (recs within recs: Never Mind the Bullocks, Dwelling on Dreams, and Chasing Dragons) or I've simply yet to get to the rest of their work.

For this fic specifically, Draco's done the best he can with the shit situation his life was in post-war, and he's a lion in a cage when he gets legally stuck in England. He and Harry meet for check-ins, and the chemistry goes from there. Draco has some self-harm tendencies, and his want for Harry ends up (temporarily) going that way for him. Harry's in a rut in his life as an Auror. I love fics where he goes into the force and then becomes disillusioned with it. That feels very in-character for Harry, to me.

AITA for being "obsessed" with my childhood nemesis? by RainstormRadish (4,289 words)

Alrakis I [24M] attended a small boarding school in the UK. There was a boy in my year, a couple of months younger than me, and he became my nemesis after we developed an intense rivalry. My friend [25F] told me recently that our dynamic was "weird back then" and that "it’s even weirder" that I still think about him today. She argued that I talk about him all the time, but I believe the amount I talk about him is reasonable. AITA? prongymcprongface i completely get what you mean. i had a nemesis (like a school one, separate to my other nemesis) and we had a dynamic super similar to what you are describing. having a nemesis is a very cool and normal thing dw about it. NTA In which Draco asks the internet if he's being reasonable. Only one commenter is sympathetic. They start talking.

Draco and Harry cross paths on Reddit. Everyone else in the AITA thread thinks Draco (the OP) is absolutely nuts for his 'nemesis' situation. Except one, because of course that one person had a similar situation and it was totally normal, don't worry about it. I'm aware I basically just repeated the summary, but it says it all, really!

Rookie Moves by peu_a_peu (75,328 words)

Aurors Potter and Malfoy crack the case.

More Auror partners with a Draco that is unhinged. Tbh, I am very fussy on Auror Draco fics. I don't see Draco as someone to subject himself to much pain and suffering (like in fics where it's emphasized that he was subject to much bullying/pranks/etc during training, and he persevered regardless). He's too hedonistic, and I don't particularly think that the war would have warmed him to the Ministry or the means it possesses of authoritarian force. Fool me once, and all that.

In this fic, each chapter covers a job or case that Draco and Harry embark upon. It's meant to be funny, and holy shit is it ever. These two are such dumb cops. Even with the genre shift from serious to goofy, they get the work done. It's been long enough now since I read it that I can't remember specifically, but I feel that sometimes Draco and Harry being disasters helped them solve their cases. The other fics in the series Rookie Moves belongs to are 100% reading through as well. I cried happy tears in the end.

Timeshare by astolat (14,156 words)

“It’s not for long,” Hermione said. “By the time we get back to Hogwarts, the Unfettering Brew will be ready.” “Listen to you!” Ron said. “He’s got to get through a month with the Dursleys and a month at Malfoy Manor. With Draco Malfoy.” “Yeah, thanks,” Harry said, because he hadn’t just spent the last week contemplating just how much more horrible his summer holidays were about to be than they’d ever been before.

This fic has wonderful fuck/fight dynamics between the boys. I also like fics where the writer isn't afraid to let Draco be flawed with bigotry. Things like that he cannot fathom 'Potter's Muggles' talking to him and that he whinges the entire month he's at the Dursleys' house that it's too small, and the food isn't up to par, etc. As for Harry, he wants Draco despite all this, as well as despite how uncomfortable his month at the manor with Lucius and Narcissa is. I love when Harry is allowed to be flawed in that way.

Hey, Potter by SunseticMonster (16,024 words)

Harry returns to Hogwarts for his 8th year, determined not to let Malfoy get to him. But when the snarky teasing starts up again, Harry finds that returning the jibes with compliments has a far more interesting outcome.

This fic explores something that I've always headcanoned about how Draco and Harry got along throughout the canon books. We never see them have a single good or even neutral interaction (rather than Draco's part in their Madam Malkin's meet). They're always going at each other with their claws and teeth out, taking everything the other does in the most bad-faith interpretation. So, what happens when Harry starts killing Draco with kindness? I personally believe that if Harry did as such in the canon books, he would have very easily won Draco over.

Lumos by birdsofshore (41,476 words)

Harry never expected to spend eighth year listening to Draco Malfoy wanking.

I love eighth-year fics where Draco doesn't return to Hogwarts with his chin down and shoulders hunched. It doesn't feel in-character to me; he'd feel just as free as anyone else post-war, and I can't see him even hiding his relief and happiness for it to be over for the sensibilities of the other survivors. On top of that, Draco coming back to Hogwarts and immediately pushing Harry's buttons? 100% him. Harry playing into it every time? Also 100%.

A Convenient Impracticality by firethesound (38,540 words)

Somehow Harry ends up agreeing to a fake relationship with his ex-nemesis-turned-friendly-acquaintance-with-benefits, except for some reason it involves an awful lot of actual dating and, sadly, not much sex. Confused? Harry is too, but when has anything with Draco Malfoy ever been as straightforward as it seems?

More fake relationships! Harry and Draco fucking but not being sure what they are or what the other feels in return is so my jam. I can see both of them being attracted enough to each other to land in bed together, but the intimacy is more hard-earned because of their history. It's all the more satisfying once they figure it out.

Who we are in the shadows by Quicksilvermaid (99,714 words)

What happens when you’re forced to become the very thing you despise? Ex-Auror Harry Potter, tossed out of the Ministry for something he had no control over, has been looking for a way back to his former life. When he comes across Draco Malfoy in the criminal underbelly of Wizarding London and in need of protection, Harry figures bringing him in to face the Ministry's justice is his ticket back to everything he's lost. But nothing is exactly as it seems. Not even Harry himself. And as he gets drawn further and further into Malfoy's world of honour and deception he finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew—about his childhood nemesis, the Ministry job he misses so much, and most of all, about himself. What happens when you’re forced to see that you were wrong?

I wrote up above about loving a Draco who's up to something, and it's for a good cause. This fic takes that notion and turns it up to like, 15 at minimum. Draco's an investigative journalist, and he's going after some very dangerous people. He needs muscle, enter security agent Harry who's still adjusting to life as a werewolf. Harry tags along out of (hired) necessity on Draco's job, and they are a team not to be reckoned with. On top of their chemistry, this fic left me gasping for breath. Folks who've read it before will know what I mean when I say my heart was pounding out of my chest during the tunnel scene.

Star Quality by who_la_hoop (118,607 words)

Two years after the war, and Harry’s content with his life. OK, so it’s a little annoying that he keeps winning Witch Weekly’s Most Eligible Bachelor award, and he’s really not looking forward to the unveiling of an enormous gold statue of himself, but he loves his friends, and he loves being an Auror. And if he yearns for something more, something he can barely bring himself to think about, well, he’ll probably get over it. No one’s happy all the time, are they? But then everything changes, and Harry’s thrown into a new and dazzling world he’s not sure he can actually escape from. And as time goes on, he starts to wonder: does he actually want to?

Draco and Harry end up in such a wonderfully ridiculous situation in this fic. Harry wakes up in an alternate (Muggle) universe where Draco is a pop star. The Draco of his universe has come along with him, and he's a total shit about helping Harry get them back home. Harry's grumpy, Draco's having a blast. It's fun. It's them.

The Day Before the Wedding by Kbrick (39,419 words)

Harry's getting married to Ginny tomorrow. The problem is that he can't seem to get beyond today.

Time loops and Kbrick, my beloved (Turning Leaves is another excellent fic of hers with this trope). The summary says it all for the premise. Like Star Quality above, Draco is 'in the know' with Harry (though he doesn't tell Harry right away lmao). Harry makes some Realizations in the time loop. Seeing as it's a Drarry fic and Harry was meant to get married to Ginny, I'm sure it's quite plain as to what that might be.

Bad Habits by No_One_Special_01289 (70,509 words)

Circles can be tiring. They have no end. But sometimes, the path is set for a reason, as anything outside the circle is even worse than what's within. Harry is running in circles with Draco Malfoy, and no matter how hard he tries, he can't escape.

Another fuck/fight kind of Drarry fic. This one takes place through OOTP, HBP, and DH canon, as if Draco and Harry had a secret sexual relationship throughout. I love how they come together like two accelerated particles, only to scatter to lick their wounds or attempt to process just what the hell is going on. It has the explosiveness that I love to see in Hogwarts-era Drarry fics when the war is on and they remain on opposing sides through to the end of it.

Dwelling by aideomai (83,382 words)

Curses, James and Lily Potter ride again, several Ministry balls, a teenage Summer of Love, a grim young adult dystopian winter, a few different Draco Malfoys, secrets and the problems re: not having any, alternate lives, impossible lives, real lives, allusions to Dirty Dancing, and just because it's not called the Mirror of Erised doesn't mean you shouldn't know better.

Listen: I bawled. I'm going to try to say this without spoiling the big twist. The fic nails how Harry and Draco tick together twice. Whether it's in a No Voldemort AU or a canon post-war era, these two cannot stay away from each other. I love the solution Harry and Draco reach at the end of the fic - the only way they can fathom any sort of resolution for what happened to them, despite how turbulent their waters remain.

Lovesick by corvuscrowned (7,688 words)

People keep spiking Auror Harry Potter with love potions. Healer Draco Malfoy keeps having to pick up the pieces. But it's getting harder and harder for Draco to watch Harry fall in love with everyone except for him.

corvuscrowned is another writer I put in the same category as Kbrick and The_Sinking_Ship. I've either read their fics and loved them, or just haven't got to the rest yet. What can I say? I love a slow burn. For more excellent fics from corvuscrowned, I will also humbly offer Loverboys (their first fic I read, which blew me away) and Seeker's High for your future reading consideration.

For this fic, the premise is on the tin, and crow executes it perfectly for characterization. I love their Harry in general, how he has his own complexes and the Harry POV isn't just Harry witnessing Draco's character. This fic is Draco POV, and Harry under a love potion is great. So is Draco's pining. They're perfect.

The Matchmaker's Spell by Kbrick (20,859 words)

Thanks to a spell cast over all of wizarding Britain, Draco is forced to marry Harry Potter, who still hates him. But Draco refuses to live a cold, sexless existence, choosing to fill the emptiness in his life and his bed with a parade of lovers. And while Harry may not be able to stand Draco, he despises seeing him with anyone else.

Remember earlier when I said that I trust Kbrick to put the boys in a blender at the exact intensity I could personally handle? This fic is right on the precipice of that. It's so angsty and dark. Draco and Harry are forced to marry, and their journey is so turbulent. Draco cuckolds Harry to push his buttons, and at one point their marriage goes well for a little while before shit happens and they're back on the rocks. They almost had it! We saw a glimpse of their potential!! Also, Draco's lovers keep mysteriously dying? That's sure weird and coincidental. The last scene in the fic made me gasp out loud.

Salt on the Western Wind by Saras_Girl (60,549 words)

When the war isn’t quite as over as it first appears, a guilt-ridden Harry is sent to a mysterious safe-house. Among sandwiches, insomnia, and Mills & Boon, he discovers something quite unexpected.

This fic starts up right after the Battle of Hogwarts, where Narcissa demands the trio take Draco into forced hiding with them. This leads to Draco and Harry being accidentally bonded. Oops! I don't think I have to make the case for how well Saras_Girl characterizes the boys, but I think this one is my favourite so far of the ones I've read (also, obligatory Turn and All Life is Yours to Miss mentions here).

Recalibrate by Saras_Girl (20,921 words)

Sometimes, you need to step back and think about things from a new perspective. Other times, you’ve just got to open your eyes to what you needed all along.

Yay, more eighth year! I read this one a looong time ago, but I still remember reading this and thinking 'oh, this is so them' at so many points. I am overdue for a reread.

Actually, that's probably true of all of these, lol. I should reread them and give them their own post/shower of love on that rec blog I mentioned.

This list took a couple days to compile. I could never make a wholly comprehensive one, but I believe I answered your question, anon. 🤪

[autisticlancemcclain]

Jackie supports the lion swap? How dare you!

Okay SO. This is not the first time I’ve gotten an ask or a comment like this, and I’m fully aware it’s a joke (or at least I think), but I also know that it is kind of a controversial topic on here! And I’ve already written an essay in the topic, but I have some more thoughts I’d like to dive into.

I used to be team Blue Paladin Lance, and hardcore on that team, too. If you look at some of my old fics, you’ll see that. However since I am a contrary person by nature, I started to notice that Red Paladin Lance was way less liked, and so I started to like it more. I really grew fond of the dynamic Keith and Lance got to have as co-leaders, both because it was homoerotic as hell and because the symbolism was fun to explore, but klance is not the main reason I started to care so deeply for the lion change — it was actually Shiro and Allura.

I’m going to start with Shiro, because he’s one of the most fascinating characters in VLD, if not underdeveloped. Part of that fascination for me is that he probably has the most arcs and opportunities for character growth and development in the show, and yet somehow he’s the flattest. He’s portrayed as very one-dimensional in a lot of fic — he tends to be less of a character and more of a role. He’s the Space Dad, or the older brother, or the cool teacher, or the kind and wise friend, or even the stoic Black Paladin. He is loved, I think, but the role he plays is loved, not quite the person he is. And that makes sense, because that is exactly how he’s portrayed in canon.

To Keith, Shiro is “like a brother to [him]”, but what do we see of that dynamic? The show has a clear sense of how a brother acts, that’s a good chunk of Pidge’s character. We barely even know Matt, but Pidge carries herself in such a way that it’s clear when her brother shines through her. And yet even though Shiro also goes missing, twice even, Shiro does not shine through his brother. Keith’s impulses are his own, developed from general abandonment issues rather than Shiro’s specific absence. Shiro’s absence becomes less of Shiro’s absence and more of an absence of a beloved leader figure, kind of a martyr, a “Shiro would have wanted you to carry on”. It is really hard for us as a fandom to use Shiro’s disappearance as anything but a plot device, because that’s all it felt like! We have occasional moments with Shiro, enough to care about him in some way, but as a figure, not as a person. Someone pointed it out on one of my fics and I agree wholeheartedly — Shiro is not shown with any flaws, and that makes it really hard to love him, because you don’t really get the pleasure of defending him, of seeing his motivations, his reasons. Not until the very end, at least.

This is, in all honesty, likely just poor writing. Shiro’s character was honestly just sidelined to a role, because he is really not that present in the show. But I am going to work with the benefit of the doubt, and see if I can use the lion change to explain why we all kind of love Shiro anyway, despite the fact that he’s flat as hell.

Shiro isn’t the Black Paladin. He never was. He flew the Black Lion, yes, and he flew her well — but he was never her Chosen. He couldn’t have been. From the very beginning, the Black Lion was in mourning; she was in no space to choose a new paladin. She accepted Shiro, and she loved him, but he did not fall into her as much as he fell into the role she provided for him. He piloted the Black Lion, but he was not her Paladin. This is made obvious in two ways: in that he never got her bayard, and that from the very beginning, he set up a replacement for himself.

Doesn’t that strike anyone else as odd? I haven’t seen the show in five years, and I don’t plan on rewatching, but I do remember that every moment with Shiro almost had this underlying tension. The closest thing I have to canon off the top of my head is the Handbook (which I had to stop reading because they did everyone SO dirty there, even though some of it was honestly pretty funny), which was released in S2, and even that incredibly early canon talked about Keith replacing Shiro!

From the very beginning, Shiro was planning an out to his role. He knew it was not meant for him. He did the role well, but it was not his to do.

Aside from those two reasons, Shiro also…can’t be the Black Paladin. He can’t be that and himself, I mean. This part is a little more complicated, so I’m going to borrow some of my own tags from some awesome fanart I saw:

I really do think Shiro is defined by his humanity (as is heavily implied by his illness — this is a character who is completely and totally bound to his mortality. Of all the other characters, he is the one most familiar with death, so he is the one who is most intimate with the raw fear of being human. But more on that later), but it’s my last comment that I want to focus on — “he is DEFINED by his his humanity…even as his greatest asset is the part of him that is not human”.

Every second that Shiro is leader of Voltron, he is the Champion. That can literally be his only goal — he is the head of the fight against Zarkon and the Empire. Either Shiro comes out the Champion, or Zarkon does. Either Shiro has to grit his teeth and fight off the flashbacks and the fear and the pain and use the one thing that forces him to reconcile with the fact that he had his entire personhood stripped away (his arm, his Galra arm, one of their biggest advantages as a team; his connection to Zarkon through Black, something that can only help the war effort at a direct cost to him; everything he does in this war is shoving him right back into that Arena again and again and again), or Zarkon wins. Every second Shiro pilots Black, every time he plays her paladin, he has to be who the Empire made him to be. He has to be the Champion. Once again he is not Takashi Shirogane, the person, the astronaut, the man, he is the Role. He is the Space Dad he is the Pilot of the Black Lion he is the Champion. For every second he is in that lion he is stripping away himself.

Obviously, that is something that was never sustainable. On this argument alone, Shiro was going to waste away eventually. There was always going to be a point where Shiro was not going to be able to be the Champion anymore. There was always, from the very way the dynamic was set up, going to have to be a lion switch. Now, interestingly enough, there could have been a really easy fix to this: Black Paladin Allura. She’s already a born and raised leader, already shown her immense competence, already someone the rest of the paladins follow. With her at the helm, nothing else would have to change, right?

Well, maybe. We’ll never know. One part of that is absolutely true — Allura should have been a paladin from the very beginning. Her quintessence is canonically closest to the entirety of Voltron (something that bears its own essay,; the relationship between all six of the paladins and Voltron is wrought with heavy symbolism), she is the most highly trained, she is smart, and she actually wants to be out on the field. She should have been in that armour from day one.

But Allura cannot be the Black Paladin. Allura cannot handle other’s sacrifice.

Of course this is a complicated subject. Should a leader sit back and let her crew sacrifice themselves instead of her? Must she hold herself in higher regard, convince herself she’s more important? Of course not! Teams, especially Voltron, are built with assets. While not everyone might be ‘equal’ in the traditional sense, they are all integral, and expecting sacrifices is not the stance I am trying to take here. But the point of a team, especially a team so small and vital as Voltron, is that everyone is willing to be the sacrifice, as they have to be, and Allura simply can’t handle that. She shows us this from the beginning, when she disguises herself as Galra and is taken in place of anyone on the team she barely knows, and again in Oriande with the White Lion, and finally in the piece of shit canon ending. Allura has to be the sacrifice. Every time.

And how could she not be? The last time she spared herself of sacrifice, she lost her entire people. The last time she let others sacrifice themselves for her, she was left alone, to shoulder a war bigger and greater than she could ever handle. Allura is painfully familiar with the agony of being the survivor, and she cannot do that again. She cannot and will not put herself through that again. As the Black Paladin, she would have to let her team make sacrifices — she would have to let them have their own agency, their own decisions; she would have to let them choose to get hurt and choose to do risky things and analyse and react and act. As leader she would have to trust her team to put themselves in harm’s way, and not only that, but she would have to authorize them to do so.

Like Shiro cannot last as the Champion, Allura cannot last as the Survivor. Shiro cannot even last in Voltron, and it is foolish to keep Allura out of it. A lion change is absolutely necessary for the show to move forward, for the war to move forward. The initial team was doomed to fail.

How would it change, then? What would fit? I know I’ve said my piece. I know who I think would fit where. But since I’ve been comparing character arcs to their roles as paladins, I’d like to keep doing that — what about Keith makes me so sure that he’s the true Black Paladin?

I’ll show you with process of elimination. I know Black Paladin Lance is a favourite, and I can see why. Lance has many leadership qualities, is a good tactician, and cares deeply. However, aside from his desire for power making him less suitable for the role, Lance functions best as support, despite how much he hates it. He is the one who knows how to pick up the pieces of a broken situation. He is an excellent guide, which makes him an unbelievably valuable second. He is adaptable, so he can fill in for many different roles. He can step in for leader when necessary, but putting him in Black would encourage a more active role for him; would force him to anticipate and plan for specific outcomes rather than his strength as one who analyses any outcome as it arises and works within it then. Lance could be the Black Paladin, yes, but taking him from the body and placing him in the head would be a fool’s choice. It would be crippling to Voltron, to put the jack of all trades as a master of one. Lance’s arc is all about learning to love and trust himself as he is, as the seventh wheel. Not to put him in charge of the vehicle.

Well, what about Hunk? Hunk is incredibly intelligent and analytical. He probably could lead Voltron, and did in several occasions. But Hunk’s arc is interesting because it was handled so early in the show. Unlike the rest of the team, Hunk’s arcs were solved largely in the first season. His biggest flaws were his distrust of people and, literally, his inability to fly. He could not take his feet off the ground. He was so untrusting that he could not manage to take a step forward. However his bonding with Yellow and trust with the team and their subsequent and returned trust resolved these issues, more or less, which is probably why Hunk was treated more and more like a side character the longer VLD went on. Hunk didn’t need the role of Black Paladin because he had settled into the Yellow Paladin in a way that was sustainable.

Pidge is in a similar boat. Her arc, primarily, has been about finding her family. Voltron was almost second priority for her, or at least not her only first priority. And understandably so! As the youngest she was afforded with that lenience. Her growth was about growing into her own pain, about becoming her own person alongside what she had become in the absence of her brother. As the Black Paladin, she would no longer have the space to prioritize her search for her family alongside Voltron, so her position as Black Paladin would be unstable. She is best suited in Green, where she can focus on several things at once.

That really only leaves Keith. In many ways it comes full circle — the Black Lion healing from her grief by choosing the man who ran from his Galran heritage and his power as a leader, rather than the man who chose nationalism and power over anything else. Keith is Zarkon’s direct opposite, and as such is the other side of the same coin, the one who is truly Black’s Chosen. We know this because Keith is the one who wields the Black Bayard, and Keith is, from the very beginning, the one the rest of the team chooses to follow — I ask you whether it was for Shiro that the three other humans ran off to chase in the desert, or Keith? Who was it that Lance could not leave alone? Who was it that piqued Hunk’s curiousity? Who was it that challenged Pidge to choose Voltron, rather than the search for her family?

That covers Black Paladin Keith. But what about Red Paladin Lance? I’ve established already why he cannot be the Black Paladin, but why did he have to move from Blue? For that, I bring you another few slices from early, S2 and previous canon:

“I thought what we had was special!” “Seventh wheel, if you count the Alteans.” More than once, Lance laments over being forgotten. He struggles with feeling like anything but the extra, the unnecessary. Whether or not Blue Chose him is irrelevant — he does not feel Chosen by her. The Pilot of the Blue Lion position for Lance is as unsustainable as the Pilot of the Black Lion position for Shiro — Lance does not trust it. He doesn’t trust himself in the role, and doesn’t trust Blue in having chosen it for him. Obviously, this is not the role for him.

But Red? Keith’s Red Paladin, at least? Yes, he struggles with feeling like Keith’s second, but that is literally his arc. Lance’s development is about becoming his own person despite his own misgivings about being second-best. His role as the Red Paladin is the fulfilling of his arc, and is thus the best Lion for him, the Chosen. And Red did Choose him, mind you. There was an adjustment period, of course there was, but Red did more than let Lance pilot her. She opened up new possibilities for Lance — think the broadsword — that he could not see. Red saw his potential and revelled in it. She Chose him.

Lastly — and this turned out to be less relevant to the essay than I expected, but I do want to go over it a tad — is Shiro’s tie to humanity. I mentioned two important points: Shiro’s connection to mortality makes him the most intimate with his humanity out of all the characters, and he is undoubtedly the flattest character of them all. That is, if you don’t consider his clone to be part of his character.

But I’m begging you to reconsider. Reconsider, perhaps, who the clone is — Haggar had pure access to Shiro for a year, you remember. His thoughts, his dreams, his mannerisms, his priorities, his body. Even him at his most human, his most deranged, his most scared. She had Shiro then. She had Shiro when he had nothing to look forward to. She had Shiro when he hurt his crew to make sure they would live, at direct cost to himself.

She stripped him of his humanity — his connection to his own mortality. She took his illness from him. And who, then, did she return to the team? Who was clone? Shiro, mostly. The clone was happy to play with the team. The clone was clever. The clone believed, fully, that he was Shiro, only he was angrier and meaner, a little, and less capable of shoving down his own pain. Shiro, stripped of his tie to humanity and mortality, stripped of his compulsive need to be strained and stressed and the one everyone else can rely on, the Role rather than the Person, is emotional. He has flaws and outbursts. He can’t manage his own pain. He is is cruelest to the one person on the team — Lance — who canonically reminds him closest of himself.

Shiro, in the purest form that Haggar can make him, is flawed and self-hating. That is where our love for him comes. Not the man who pushes himself down at the same time as he sacrifices his personality to be someone for others, but the man who is struggling and can’t keep it locked down. That’s where it comes from.

Anyways. Like with my other essay, I’ll admit that this analysis is probably reading into this. The writing of VLD was flawed, at best, but regardless, I think the lion change is a rich amalgamation of the characters and who they really are.