#this is what a homoerotic situation does to a person

[bloodstained-ballgowns]

i thought spyfall was awesome when it aired, and tbh it's still awesome now. 'doctor who does james bond' could be super cringe and at points it sort of is, but on the whole they nail the suspense, the score, the double-agent theme.

having prescient knowledge about the master reveal has me practically rubbing my hands together with glee - the look on his face when he sees the tardis. "say hello to the doctor." the smile and look down when she storms past to 'look around the gaff': he's planning to ‘kill’ her (‘kill’ being the operative word since he would never actually let her die) and you can still see the affection. his slow steer of her investigation, her trusting obliviousness. "the only person with an open mind about all this...don't worry, i'll call him ☺️” "send us your location. kisses!" "we text :)!" - girl little do you know you are talking about your psychosexual homoerotic on and off (mostly off) bestie!!!!

love to see jodie in a suit and the bike chase car chase plane chase is pretty well executed. unlike the bbc to broadcast episodes with sex scenes ("kneel" "how else would i get your attention?") before the watershed but i can't help but support. the four knocks/double heartbeat as their morse code message........... i actually can't cope i've decided

“MI6 has never countenanced the possibility of extraterrestrial life” guys come on now this is ridiculous where were you all when black cubes took over the planet and tried to kill you all where were you when missy turned your dead into cybermen where were you when

nice presentation of the fam's resourcefulness when grappling with the eternal 'we're international criminals and the doctor is nowhere to be found what the fuck do we do' question (the beginnings of the doctorification of yaz specifically is strong here). finally realising how much the doctor has really kept from them and the shitty situation that leaves them in - asking 'what would the doctor do?' without knowing why the doctor would do that, because she hasn't truly let them know her any deeper than 'socially awkward supersmart space auntie' (contrasting to, say, clara, who was so exemplary at the wwtdd question exactly because she knew everything about him). i take the doctor/companion conflict wherever i can even if it's crumbs.

[evilminji]

My WIP fairy hates me. But like... in that homoerotic Nemesis sorta way, I swear.

Cease an desist, woman! (I scream into the void, knowing damn well she, being my own brain, SHAN'T.)

Cause NOW? Now I CAN NOT stop Pondering, with a Capitol P, the life of a Sentient Quirk. The trials and tribulations. The indignities and sufferings. Countless micro-aggression and out right dismissal of sentience. The reduction to the EXTENSION of another.

You are not a person.

You are JUST a Quirk.

An organ that "thinks" itself separate, in the way knees spasm when struck just so. The child you are attached to just needs to get better CONTROL of you. Your words and actions are actually THEIRS. You are simultaneously an unruly animal and strange adult, not allowed near other peoples children.

Why are you trying to follow this four year old into their school? Why are you SITTING out side a pre-school? Are you stalking that child?

You are a grown adult. Connected to a random Japanese child.

The child is expected to "control" you.

Punished if they do not.

No one is listen to EITHER of you, as you try to explain the situation. The child is upset, scared, and does not have the emotional maturity to understand why you are not to blame. All they can understand is that you appeared and everything became stressful and "bad". They started getting punished. Have to share their room now.

Do you even have rights? If you get hurt, get MAIMED, what will happen to you? Can you hold a job? Own land? Open a bank account? Fuck it! Can you have a RELATIONSHIP?

If you went out RIGHT NOW and punched a purse thief, would the FOUR YEAR OLD be arrested?

If the kid grows up, becomes a hero, and you do secretarial work... does his license cover you? If YOU wanted to become a Hero, would he be your hero partner? Could he technically sit in a corner and let you work?

If no one could TELL, over an internet connection, then surely that should prove SOMETHING? Right?

And! The question NO ONE ever seems to ask!

Could..... could you LEAVE? Do people have the right to force you back? If you don't WANT to be some kid's Quirk? You're sentient. If, unlike Dark Shadow, you are not PHYSICALLY connected, but tethered by distance?

Could. You. Leave?

Just "Allright, I'm out. The way you're all treating me is unacceptable. See ya never." And walk out the door? You'd be able to gain distance as the kid grew older. As long as you hid? You be homeless, without papers, but free.

A sentient Quirk means free will. Means you don't HAVE to do shit. It's like being born with a twin, not a slave. And that Twin does NOT have to put up with your bullshit. YOU are the one asking THEM to work with you, after all.

This? Of course, ALSO just ABSOLUTELY BEGS the question? What if that four year old grew up to be a BASTARD? Just... NO self reflection or empathy. Everything is everyone else's fault, always. And they want a NEW Quirk. One that won't question them.

So they sell theirs, buy a new one. Probably die off screen trying to throw it around.

What happens to you THEN? Pain, obviously. Like... massive, massive amounts of pain. You ARE a Quirk. You're being ripped out by your metaphorical roots. By the NERVE ENDINGS. But? Do you... for lack of a better word, "reset"?

Are you back infront of "your" person? Or do you stay, safely, where you are? Both would be fascinating, honestly. Because I imagine All for One? Does NOT get sentient quirks often. If at all.

They'd sooner kill themselves.

After all, if your choice is "kill yourself and your beloved twin" or "be ripped apart and watch them die horribly, then be used to go against everything you both stood for"? You weep and promise to make it fast.

Then you make it fast.

It's... really annoying, I'd imagine, for All for One. It's not necessarily that he WANTS a sentient Quirk. But they are INTERESTING. And he likes interesting.

He also likes owning things that can't leave. Ever.

So of course he'll poke and prod at the Quirk. It will inevitably be a nightmare, either way. Because EVERY Sentient Quirk has some degree of communication aspect to it. Just because the original holder never figured it out, doesn't mean HE can't.

And while your range may now be much, MUCH bigger? Because the fucker is strong as hell? How useful is that... if he can talk to you when ever HE feels like it? Day or night. 24/7.

And that's assuming you don't reset. God help you if you reset. Because THEN your STANDING infront of, most likely, pre-face-smash All for One. Who's looking at you like he just won a Mildly Interesting Prize and you would PREFER HE NOT. But what are you gonna do?

Walk out again?

You think THAT'S an option here?!

I mean... you can and do TRY. But, obviously not. So like? Fuck ™.

THEN the question becomes? Would YOU go to Tarturaus. Are you a hostage? Or an accomplice? You have the same level of power and authority as a cat, deliberately knocking pages of tables and cups to the floor, but... like? Oooooh~ oh yeah! THATS gonna slow him down! His empire crumbles beneath the sheer MIGHT of your petty inconveniences!

*trips the doctor again*

Fffffuck you.

[rambyol]

Analysis: The ‘Stab’ 🔪

With the Deadpool & Wolverine car 'fight' scene currently trending, I thought it would be a good chance to share how homoerotic subtext plays into the final fight scene between Bruce and Joker.

"He's penetrated him." - Bryan Fuller, in reference to Hannibal Lecter & Will Graham's fight in the Season 2 finale.

1) Positioning | Placement

In the above image, which takes place after Bruce resuscitates the Joker, we can see that Bruce is straddling Joker. They’re situated this way for a good few minutes, and this position is very intimate especially with Bruce’s hands positioned directly on Jokers chest, and those hands stay there right up until the end of the scene.

Now, one would argue that the only reason for the characters to be placed this way is because they were in the middle of a fight and being on top of an opponent gives you an advantage, and when Joker is unconscious, it makes sense for Bruce to resuscitate him from directly above which is the point from where he’ll be able to put more force into Jokers chest. And I agree that this makes sense for the fight choreography and scene.

However, it can’t be the only reason for why they’re positioned like that. Remember, once Joker gains consciousness and becomes fully aware of his surroundings, he makes no move to push, shove, or fight Bruce off. Perhaps he’s given up, since before he fell unconscious he freely invited Bruce to hurt him, and we will return to this later. Regardless of why he doesn’t move Bruce off of him, it’s evident through his lack of protest against Bruce above him that we can safely assume it, at the very least, that Joker doesn’t mind Bruce is sitting that way.

Consider this also, we recognise that from a combat perspective, if you manage to get on top of an opponent your main goal is to keep that position and how do you do that? You press against them, using virtually all of your body weight. So yes, despite the animation, Bruce isn’t just casually sat straddling the Joker here, they are pressed together, even after Joker wakes up.

2) The ‘Stab’, The Groan, & The Lingering

Have a look at the first image. Here, Bruce is admitting to the fact that he did have fun with John, a response we know that Joker wanted to hear because the alternative choice (where Bruce wishes they’d never met) leads Joker to respond with, “You say the cruelest things Bruce, But I know you don’t mean them.” So when you pick the ‘good’ option, you know for a fact that the feeling between them is mutual—

And that’s when we get to the ‘stab’.

Fullers quote (See top of page) was in reference to Hannibal; (I’m paraphrasing here) Where Hannibal Lecter stabbing Will Graham is meant to symbolise sexual penetration. I mean the term isn’t specifically sexual, he does literally penetrate him. But what does this have to do with Telltale Batjokes? Well, Will Graham getting stabbed is a turning point/transformative moment for the character, from that point forward there’s a change and something has shifted emotionally and mentally in the character. You’ll have to watch the show for yourself, but trust that it’s not necessarily a moment that’s shocking because a person was stabbed but shocking because the scene is so intimate.

Joker stabs Bruce after he hears what he wanted to, that Bruce did enjoy their time together. So when Joker ‘stabs’ him, it’s not a malicious act but a lustful one. Directly after, Joker says, “I hope you’ll look at that scar and remember those good times.” What else, could one put on anothers body, so that when the recipient looks at it, they’d be reminded of their ‘physical altercation’ with the other?

…well...a hickey. Or really any mark.

Still not convinced this has sexual undertones? Good, cause I’m not done.

When Bruce is stabbed, the scene shifts to an interesting angle. (See above) Joker is staring directly at Bruce as he stabs him, mainly to throw him off so it comes as a surprise but if you watch the scene, Bruce groans in pain for a prolonged period of time and we get a close up of his face where he turns his head and opens his mouth, which draws out the sound more. Groaning can be interpreted as a sound made out of pleasure, release of tension, etc.,

Throughout this series, we’ve seen him be stabbed, but he’s never had a reaction like this. It’s usually a short hiss of pain or a small groan. Here, it’s so prolonged and Bruce makes ZERO attempt to stop this, he doesn’t fight back or even grab for the knife, or Joker’s hand. In fact, in the clip, he briefly reaches towards Joker.

Remember when I said we’d return to Joker inviting Bruce to hit him earlier? Well here’s that:

3) Joker - Deriving pleasure from violence

There’s an emphasis on Joker observing Bruce’s pained expression, and with what we know about Joker being drawn to violence in addition to how he’s very sadistic as a villain, a quality that was always present in him when we recall how ‘excited’ he gets by violence or specifically, people fighting, being in pain, and so on.

It’s important to understand that even as John, he always had an affinity for violence. Especially when Bruce is a part of it; We see it at the Stack Deck where he records the fight between Bruce and Willy, The Pacts Hideout where he laughs gleefully at Bruce beating up the henchman (if you choose it), and most notably, recording the fight between Bruce and Catwoman!

Why is that important? Because Bruce & Catwoman are a binary opposition to John and Harley, and their fight scene at Riddler's hideout is perceived as flirtatious to John. At Café Triste, John admits that the fight between Bruce and Catwoman got his “pulse pounding”. In other words, it turned him on.

John is always caught off guard by physical affection, like when Harley kisses him on the cheek after she gets the phalanx key or hugs him after the interrogation with Bruce, despite wanting her attention. It’s not that he doesn’t like it, it’s that instead of physical affection, he arguably prefers physical violence. But only when he can observe/control it.

So my point is, during the 'stab', Joker is watching Bruce's reactions intently because it's arguably pleasurable for him. And Bruce who is at the very least somewhat aware that Joker likes seeing others in pain, makes no attempt to suppress his own but instead 'sit' in it for a moment until he physically can't sit up anymore.

Before I conclude this , I just wanted to mention how the game takes its time to focus on physical contact between Bruce and John on multiple occasions.

Honourable mentions:

A) Bridge Scene

B) Sad/Drunk John

C) Convincing Tiffany

D) The Pinky Swear

(Ending on the iconic one)

Ultimately, this fight scene isn't just one with sexual undertones but also an amalgamation of built up tension which was created over time through subtle physical contact between Bruce and John throughout the game which was finally released.

The End.

【 Any additional info or notes I add on to this will be indicated in pink text 】

[neinofthem]

caleb in tm9 reunited refusing to mention essek or contact essek or acknowledge essek’s existence as a person out there in the world is so fucking funny. like why would he do that. does he like… think the nein will be mad at him? they’re like oh hey caleb you’re homoerotic besties with a powerful wizard do you want to call him up to get us out of this dangerous situation and caleb is just like 😐 he’s probably busy. caleb ‘refuses to learn sending’ widogast once again a paragon of interpersonal connection. like. guy. come on. they’re not going to bully you for getting elf dick. what exactly does caleb think that he’s, like, accomplishing here? god he’s fucking weird.

[happysparklingshadows]

𝚂𝚑𝚊𝚞𝚗𝚊 𝚂𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚖𝚎𝚗 + 𝚈𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙰𝚕𝚙𝚑𝚊𝚋𝚎𝚝 (’96)

Warnings: Gore, Smut, homoerotic teenage friendship, and mature themes. 

Notes: She is so babygirl it makes me hurt   🥺 @zhivaxo​

                            *.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get?

Shauna is someone who is entirely an act of service person. She will do anything for someone she loves, do your homework, drive you anywhere, and always be there to do things you don’t want to do. Shauna likes to work hard for you, so you never have to lift another finger in your life again. Shauna isn’t good with her words, but how she touches you screams all her thoughts to you. She is very intense sexually by holding/grabbing you with a firm grip or kissing you like she is devouring you whole. 

Blood: How messy are they willing to get regarding their darling?

Very. Blood isn’t much of a question for Shauna or you. Shauna is very skilled at masking her darkness and hiding the darker desires she wishes to tell you. You see the grimaces when she draws a knife to the neck of one of the girls during a hunting accident. Shauna, slowly losing her mind from starvation and cabin fever, will start whispering to you what she wants to do sometimes. 

“Shauna? Are you still up?” You whisper to her softly, her arms still wrapped around your waist protectively. 

“Yes. What?”

“Baby, I-I,” you whisper as you stare into the darkness of the attic. You felt a shiver go down your spine from the wind and the way Shauna’s fingers grip your flesh. Forming small sore spots in your soft skin. “I am still messed up that we ate-“ 

“Bunny, please stop talking.” Shauna sighs softly, her nose nudges the back of your ear, and her breath hits your hair. “It was us three, you know. It was always me, you, and Jackie. But Jackie died. And Jackie feeds us. We might survive. You are fed, and that is all I can think about right now, okay.” 

“Okay, sorry. Hold me.” You say and cuddle into her, deciding not to think about it like her. 

Cruelty: How would they treat their darling once abducted? Would they mock them?

Shauna would not kidnap her partner, and it would be more of an installed Stockholm Syndrome from the years out in the wilderness. Shauna is the butcher. Shauna is why you were FED and would have died without her. You could not leave her from the guilt of her being your protector when you came back to civilization. I think the only way Shauna Shipmen would realistically kidnap someone would be if she married them and kept them in the house with her. But honestly, I think this would just be a toxic situation that y’all go to couples therapy. It would solve over time because Shauna does have a heart and knows deep down knows that she is fucked up in a lot of ways, so she is somewhat chill even though she still would like it if you were in the house. Shauna would honestly treat you like she treats Jeff, but with less secrecy about the woods, it looks more like you two don’t talk about it instead of trying to hide what happened. Shauna does love you and doesn’t like to upset you, but because y’all are not new to each other, she is like, “You’ll get over it.”. 

Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will?

I fully believe that Shauna would force-feed you meat. You were heartbroken to eat your friend and couldn’t do it; you would rather starve. Shauna would not take that, and neither does the Yellowjackets. Shauna would push the food in your mouth and then put her strong veiny hand over your mouth. She would stare you down as you chew the food she served; she wouldn’t let go of your face until you were fed enough. Shauna lost Jackie, and she will not lose her other best friend (that being you <3). 

Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling?

I would say Shauna is guarded and the more quiet partner. She likes being a support for a more outgoing personality, and she likes to protect that person with everything she has. Shauna will side with opinions she disagrees with, fight anyone you ask, and just be the best support in your life. However, Vulnerability is something Shauna doesn’t like, and she doesn’t like exposing those parts of herself. She is the type to cry in private because she doesn’t want to be seen crying. So Shauna doesn’t expose her inner thoughts and feelings, it feels unnatural for Shauna in some ways, and she gets cagey when pushed too far. 

However, there are points where she is forced to be vulnerable because of the crash and Jackie’s death, affecting both for how close you both were to Jackie. Shauna doesn’t cry; when she does, it is like an explosion, just like her rage and fear; it just boils out of her. She is very passionate and emotional when she is exposed in that way. You always make sure to be extra gentle to her by holding and crying. 

Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back?

Shauna would fight harder. Shauna is a fighter through and through, and if she thinks you are leaving her, that is her only line of defense. She started little fights, maybe even big ones, and then she would pull you in with her big brown eyes again. She doesn’t like how it feels when you pull away or disagree; you two were bff girlfriend soulmates that are supposed to agree on everything 🙄

“STOP FIGHTING ME!” Shauna yells at you as she grips your wrists. She holds the butcher's knife in her other hand, trying to teach you how to cut up a body correctly. 

“Shauna, stop it-” 

“No, you need to learn this! You need to do a job here that isn’t picking berries; people will start to notice.” 

“Shauna, It’s Annie. I can’t do this-” 

“You have to be fed. We all need to be fed. Shut up, and do this.” Shauna hisses at you and pulls you in, forcing you to follow her hands as she slices into the flesh of your friend. 

Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape?

Shauna doesn’t play a game with you, but she does toy with you a lot. She likes to see how your eyes widen when the tip of her knife is on your throat; she likes to bite your flesh harder than needed so that you bruise a deep purple and green, and she likes to remind you who is in power in your relationship. In some moments in the wilderness, Shauna does become aggressive, and sometimes she comes to become that way from someone coming too close to her, making her jealous. 

Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them?

The worst experience with Shauna would be her not communicating her feelings of monogamy and blurring the lines between jealous play and boarding on cheating. Shauna kind of likes the feeling of other people lusting after you, she knows it makes you feel sexy, and it makes her want to claim you over and over and over again. But I feel like this type of playing in a relationship will end up with a few situations of actual jealousy and redefining the lines in the sand for you two to be fun. I feel like Shauna might go too far and kiss someone else infront of you as you two are partying, you might be dancing with someone dirtily, and she would play off of it and kiss a girl close to her. It would be a toxic moment, a Toxic cycle of overwhelming feelings. 

Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling?

Shauna sees you two living in Rhode Island while she goes to Brown and you two living out the late ‘90s lesbian dream in a city (mainly because y’all are from a small town and thinking moving to the city will fix the homophobia). Shauna wants to get roots with you and see what happens with your future. She sees a future with you and doesn't think she won't be with you in the upcoming years, but she doesn't necessarily plan on anything specific, like proposing or starting a family. She is mainly focused on you and her future and setting that up. She's just trying to get through the wilderness, though.

Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope?

Shauna wants you to have your own life and doesn’t mind you talking or being friends with other people. She even encourages times when you have girl nights with your friends without her (Not her friends) and lets you do your thing most of the time. She gets jealous when people flirt with you, with or without you knowing, but most importantly, if the spotlight in your life moves away from her. Shauna will end it if it’s another girl, friends, school, work, family. She doesn’t give a fuck. 

So when Shauna Shipmen is jealous, it's a beast. She doesn’t cope. Shauna's motherfucking Shipmen lashes out by punching whoever threatens her relationship, she will start fights, and she will fucking pull hair and earrings out if it came down to it. Shauna will make it your problem, and she will punish you in many different ways for this.  Shauna will say cruel words to whoever is taking your attention, and sometimes you are collateral damage that pushes you further away.

Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling?

BFF girlfriend soulmates. Shauna and Jackie, there was a power imbalance, with Jackie being the more dominant one of the two, but with you, Shauna is dominant. She subtly controls you in the gaze of being a friend and correcting you to make others like you more. But she just wants to have that power over you. However, Shauna doesn’t rub it into your face because it just strokes her ego, and you seem to enjoy it when she tells you how to do things like skinning deer or dancing. 

Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling?

You, Jackie, and Shauna have been friends since pre-k. You and Shauna follow Jackie around and hype her up every chance, forming a closeness that you and Shauna never had with Jackie. As you enter middle school, you and Shauna devise a perfect idea because Jackie started dating Jeff and talking about how good it feels to kiss someone. You two decided that you should practice kissing before you started dating boys, and you two did it every time you had a sleepover. Over time, things started no longer about “Practicing”; instead, it was just excitement from lusting after each other. Kisses became makes outs, make-outs became heavy petting under the covers, and then they became something more. 

Shauna’s plush lips gently peck at the side of your cheek as you rest on Jackie’s bedroom floor. Jackie always sent you two on the floor at her sleepovers. It used to be annoying, but now that you and Shauna have used your space away from Jackie. 

Shauna’s hand runs down your side, her finger pressing onto the soft edges of your waist, adoring your body's curves. She pulls her face away from your cheek to look down into your eyes. Her soft, puppy brown eyes look down at you with heat and passion. 

She whispers as another hand delicately touches your throat to keep you looking into her eyes. “I don’t want ‘this’ to be practiced anymore.” 

Her other hand slides under your pajama bottoms and underwear, grazing your clit with her long finger. Your breath hitches in your throat as you panic to stay quiet, as jackies soft snores can be heard from across the room. 

“I don’t either.” You whimper. 

Shauna smirks as she drives in to kiss you in a devouring kiss, her fingers easing into you with two of her wide and long fingers. Your legs open and wrap around her waist. You struggle not to moan into her lips as she keeps kissing you with force.

“You’re mine. I would never let you date some guy.” Shauna hotly whispers to you as she comes to kiss your neck. Leaving little love bites on your jaw, you muffle an ecstasy groan in your palm. 

Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from how they act around everyone else?

No, because she is brutally honest about herself and her feelings in her guarded way. IF Shauna doesn’t want to do something, she will, you know, and not do it. She doesn’t fake anything for anyone. She just acts herself because she was blessed with the confidence to be Shauna simply. And Shauna doesn’t mask her ways or how she acts because she is not changing that. 

Naughty: How would they punish their darling?

When Shauna is unhappy with you or punishing you for something in the relationship, you will know because she will make it your problem. She is an immature 18-year-old and will give you the silent treatment, but it would be more like she would ice you out and ignore your whole presence. Shauna would move her sleeping bag away a few feet, just enough for you to notice she moved away from you but not enough for you to say anything without sounding crazy. Shauna is not above spanking or tying you up somewhere to make a point if you have been naughty, even before the crash and in the wilderness. 

Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling?

Not at all oppressive. Shauna wants you to be your person, and she likes that about you; she doesn’t want to be a dictator over your life. Shauna likes to have her own space, and a very healthy part of your relationship is that there is space to be your person, unlike the relationship with Jackie. 

Patience: How patient are they with their darling?

Shauna is 50/50 and is okay one day and not the other. Shauna’s patience runs thin most of the time, but she tries her hardest not to be a bitch about it. She gives space as much as she can but is very proactive, so she has a tough time with it. 

Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on?

No. Shauna would make you Jackie 2.0 and eat you to make you a part of her. You can’t ever die if you are inside her, where you're supposed to be. 

Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go?

Shauna would never feel guilty for keeping you with her through manipulation  and pressure. She simply does not give a fuck because she is getting what she wants, and she doesn’t do anything to you that she thinks is wrong. She treats you like the only person that fucking matters, but that doesn’t mean she is perfect and wouldn’t use that info against you in a fight. 

Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)?

Jackie’s death. 

Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves?

Shauna won’t stand it and would do anything to stop it. She would break fucking door if she had to. She would force-feed you if she had to. She would fucking kill anyone she had to. She would do anything for you because you are the only reason she is going. However, Comforting isn’t Shauna’s forte; she doesn’t always succeed when she tries to comfort you when you cry. She just holds you, gets quiet, and hopes that whatever power there is is enough. That she is enough. 

Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic Yandere?

Shauna is very much POLY and/or OPEN! I think she doesn’t might other people having you in some way, but she doesn’t want that spotlight taken away. She wants to be your world but wants you to have your own. She is still only a teenager, so she just goes with the traditional monogamy thing but sometimes talks about how ridiculous some people are about relationship rules. 

Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape?

Sex and companionship. However, you better never come back because trust is broken, and Shauna would not be good to you at all and would become a fucking monster, yandere. Like kill everyone and lock them in the attic if you try to do shit again and exploit the vulnerable. 

Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling?

No, intentionally at all. Shauna gets a little rough with her words, hands, and rope. She doesn’t mean it, but she leaves marks on you. 

Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over?

Do anything for them. Shauna would revere you and would make you her whole world. You stain everything for her, and she wants the same. Like a red marker on a notebook bleeding through every page, it is marked by you. 

Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap?

Shauna would never snap if you two were friends that turned into lovers. She would be silent and wouldn’t think about her actions if there were a moment she would snap. And in all honesty, there is no telling what she is capable of doing. 

Zenith: Would they ever break their darling?

Yes, over the years, with the SS and homoerotic friendship turned intense first relationship. But Shauna wouldn’t break your brain because she loves how you are wholeheartedly. She just kind of trains you with Pavlov's dog trick and love. She wants you to be you still; she just wants to own you. 

Yandere Level

3/10 (She is intense and overbearing, but she isn’t scary or threatening with expressing the more intense things.)

Freedom Level

10/10 (Girl, you are free, and you are your own person, YAY!)

Lottie ✿   Taissa ✿

[vampiric-fangirl]

i feel like i've talked way too much about how i think lute feels about vaggie while not really touching on how i think vaggie feels about lute...this post is going to be an attempt to fix that*

*this actually ended up being a lot about lute too. pretty much just a whole thing about their relationship before vaggie got kicked out of heaven with a slight focus on vaggie. sorry

putting it under the cut because this one got away from me

ok so it's fairly obvious in canon that, in the present, she views lute with a sort of...passive disdain. she hates her, but she also doesn't really care. she probably doesn't think about lute very much at all, to be honest. and if she does, she moves on pretty quick once charlie gives her a little kiss (or something cute and gay like that). she doesn't obsess over getting revenge, but as we can see, if she is attacked first, she won't hesitate to fight back. 

back when she was an exorcist she probably cared significantly more. not as much as lute eventually did, i think, but more than she does in the present. i think she kind of...attached herself to lute, in a way. like she does with charlie, but in a simultaneously more healthy and less healthy. (less attached, but attached to a much worse person). and here's where our lack of exorcist lore gets annoying. like, seriously - we know SO little! we don't even know if the exorcists are heavenborn or not. i really hope this is one of those situations where it's being intentionally held back and not just disregarded because we just...we know NOTHING about the exorcists!!! practically everyone has a wildly different headcanon. 

this makes it really hard to guess what lute and vaggie's relationship was like before vaggie got left in hell. was lute made to be the lieutenant? did she have to work for the position? were lute and vaggie made/did they arrive in heaven around the same time, or is lute several years vaggie's senior? is VAGGIE several years lute's senior? if they were made, were they made as babies that grew up together - or even separately - or as adults? were they hatched from eggs?!? is lieutenant a position other exorcists can challenge lute for? was vaggie an outcast amongst the exorcists? was lute an outcast? were they both outcasts? was lute popular? were people jealous of lute? are the stripes on exorcist wings significant? is heaven (or even just lute herself) homophobic? the answers to all (most) of these questions would affect the likely nature of lute and vaggie's relationship significantly. but we have the answer to none of them, so we're just left with extremely vague speculation. arghhh

sadly none of these questions are probably going to be answered anytime soon because i hear season 2 is going to focus on stuff like alastor's backstory and vox is going to be the main villain. there's also probably going to be a bunch of angel dust and valentino stuff too, so there probably won't be a lot of time left over for exorcist/fallenwings lore. my only solace is that "more time will be spent in heaven", although most stuff done there will probably be directly related to the plot. i heard rumors about there possibly being a big lute solo, though, so i am crossing my fingers for that.

sorry i got really sidetracked there. anyway, anything beyond “attached herself to lute” is speculative. pure headcanon. which is, sadly, what the rest of this post is going to be. r.i.p my analyst heart

personally, i like to believe they were brought in to heaven around the same time (and that exorcists are winners with their personal memories erased), and that they formed an early bond as the ones who were most dedicated to training. vaggie because she wanted to prove her worth, and lute for the same reason and also because of her dedication to the cause itself. they probably had extremely homoerotic wrestling matches.

vaggie probably simultaneously admired lute’s dedication and strength and feared her passion and lethality. lute was probably intense from the beginning, even if she didn't start out as the violent extremist would later become. in the cold, unforgiving environment that was the exorcist army, lute would be the closest thing to a friend she had, though - so she latched on, like a planet orbiting a sun to avoid the freezing emptiness of space, even though it burns to stay so close to the scorching hot sun. sorry that was a really cheesy metaphor.

anyway, as her doubts about the extermination increase, she drifts away from lute. as lute’s belief in the exterminations increases (as she becomes increasingly radicalized by adam and her own guilt and doubts that she must bury), she drifts away from vaggie. they disagree on more and more things, and the atmosphere between them gets more and more tense. eventually, vaggie breaks up with lute, terrified of the change she is seeing in her and hating herself for not going through that change herself and having doubts and just all around extremely conflicted. after this, vaggie stays away from the other exorcists in general, strengthening her doubts through the power of not having the “goodness” of the cause shoved in her face 24/7. lute gets attached to adam (horrible for her mental health), strengthening her conviction. she becomes his lieutenant.*

*i think the position of lieutenant is one that has to be fought for, and is earned by challenging and beating the current lieutenant in a duel

a rivalry begins between them. lute hates vaggie for getting weaker and weaker, less committed to the cause, and worst of all for breaking up with her. vaggie just wants lute to leave her alone. she simultaneously believes that she is too good for lute and that lute is too good for her, both ideologies clashing and adding to her strong cognitive dissonance. they hardly train together now, and when they do, it's brutal - the average onlooker would assume it's a fight to the death.

it all comes to a head at the next extermination. beforehand, lute gives vaggie a warning. a warning that if she fucks up, she'll catch her, and punish her. vaggie, who is more uncertain of the cause and wary of lute than ever, tells her to calm down. she’ll do her job.

she doesn't do her job. she spares a child, and lute catches her doing so - as promised. and, in a fit of rage directed at vaggie (but fundamentally rooted in anger and frustration at herself for letting herself fall so far to the point where she sees someone as good and kind as vaggie as the enemy and hating that feeling and therefore hating vaggie for causing it), she mutilates her. (maybe also part of the reason she does it is to prove her loyalty to adam, maybe partially to herself? like, as a twisted way to prove that she’s over vaggie, and that adam is her everything now.) she takes her eye and her wings and her halo, she tosses her to the ground like carrion.

vaggie feels betrayed, to an extent, but also kind of expected this and mostly blames herself. she doesn't regret sparing the child, but she laments that she has been cursed with a conscience - that she’s a defect, a failure. only later, by spending time with charlie, will she become convinced that she was the one in the right.

for the first few months after her fall from grace, vaggie won't be able to help but miss lute, her absence like a void in her heart. it's an empty type of longing, one she knows is unjustified, but she can't stop herself from wishing she was back in heaven sometimes. from the moment she was “born” to the moment she was abandoned, that was her home, no matter how horrible and gruesome it was - and lute was always there with her, for better or for worse.

eventually, with charlie's help, she heals and begins to see heaven’s atrocities for what they are: atrocities. and after falling in love with charlie, and finding a new home in hell, she reaches her present state: a passive disdain, occasionally haunted by memories of lute and heaven.

oh my god i just wrote 1,300+ words of hazbin hotel theory/analysis

[milfjagger]

one thing about the “cannibalism as a metaphor for love/desire” spike on this website is that there really aren’t that many examples of this trope. you can say it all goes back to hannibal but that is fundamentally not how hannibal lecter operates - he doesn’t care about the people he kills and eats even a little bit and he says as much in the show. in the terror, most of the heroes literally do NOT resort to cannibalism - even though james begs francis to use his body after he dies (selfless love?), francis (as well as the other men) cannot bear to do it and bury him instead. goodsir, probably the most saint/martyr coded character, also refuses to eat human flesh and even weaponises his own body against those who do, killing himself and the perpetrators of cannibalism rather than continue living like that. and no matter how you look at it, hickey does not kill and eat gibson (or anyone else for that matter) because he loves them. he is literally asserting dominance in a survival situation to avoid becoming a victim himself.

yellowjackets is complicated because of the specific homoerotic nature of the relationship between shauna and jackie, and you could argue there’s a certain seduction that happens when jackie’s corpse is “talking” to shauna. the frenzied scene when the girls eat jackie is portrayed as some kind of dark force taking them and there are a lot of emotions tied up in it but it’s not straightforwardly “they love jackie and jackie loved them and would want them to live”. ravenous has a similar homoerotic tone and ives’ seduction of boyd into a life of cannibalism could easily be a metaphor for gay desire, but the film also explicitly critiques “manifest destiny” and colonial greed through the lens of physically consuming anyone who stands in your way.

now let’s talk about actual examples of this trope. in raw, cannibalistic desire IS actually combined with the emotions of sex, and the most moving scene in my opinion is the ending in which the dad reveals a heavily scarred torso from his wife’s bite marks, indicating that he still loves her in spite of, or maybe because of her nature. in society of the snow, and indeed in actual accounts from the survivors of the andes plane crash, many of the boys who initially hold out from eating the dead are persuaded by the comparison to the eucharist - jesus gave his body so they could have spiritual life, and their friends died so they could have physical life. the dead and consumed are conceptualised as ultimately loving and selfless; if everyone had survived the crash, all of them would have starved to death. and in my personal favourite cannibal movie, bones and all, it’s kind of a mixture of all of the above. the first time maren consciously bites someone with intent to eat them, it’s framed as this sexual awakening (again tied up in gay desire with the way it evokes fear and disgust in others). lee is also presumably bisexual and faces homophobic comments from his family. one of his early experiences with cannibalism was eating his own father (do i need to explain this). there’s so much i could say about maren’s mother and how she is portrayed as an “addict” who physically cannot control her impulses to eat people. and then of course there’s the ending where lee dies and begs maren, who has been denying her true nature for so long, to eat him and have him become part of her forever. because he literally loves her and he wants her to eat well

tldr is that hannibal and the terror aren’t even close to portraying cannibalism as love and idk what you guys are talking about half the time

[noblessenoir]

so as much as i hate the francis ford coppola adaptation of dracula setting a precedent for making mina into dracula's reincarnated lover, i do admit that there is merit in the defense that this at least gives dracula a personal attachment to a member of the human cast

because as it stands in the book, dracula initially targets lucy for seemingly no reason, not realizing that she and his first english victim, jonathan, are even connected. and because it's all just a coincidence, it's less satisfying for the audience

but i argue that there's a better way to give dracula a personal connection to the human cast without compromising mina's character: make dracula obsessed with jonathan instead

it makes sense, jonathan is his first new victim in transylvania, jonathan is his first point of contact with this new world he seeks to invade, and because we know that dracula has been intercepting his letters, this means he knows about jonathan's personal life and the people he cares about

so here's how i would do it in a hypothetical dracula adaptation:

when dracula leaves for london, he does so specifically to target mina because he knows who she is and where she lives from jonathan's letters to her. maybe he even taunts jonathan over this, which is what drives jonathan to make his final desperate escape from the castle to try to somehow warn mina in time. then i would fudge the timeline a bit so that by the time dracula gets to london, mina has just left for transylvania to find jonathan after receiving the letter from the abbey where he has been recovering. but then, dracula remembers other details from jonathan and mina's correspondence; he remembers the passages about beautiful, innocent, beloved lucy westenra, and decides that if he cannot have mina, he will have her instead

this could be a great source of angst for both jonathan and mina if they ever figure out this connection, and it could even sow seeds of discord within the group—after all, this means that jonathan and mina are indirectly responsible for the death of someone who arthur, quincey, and seward all loved. but also, this makes dracula's later attack on mina much more personal. he's not just doing it because she is one of the biggest threats in the human cast, he's also doing it because she was his target all along, and lucy was just a tragic consolation prize

all of this could also add a homoerotic element to the story between dracula and jonathan. much has already been said about dracula's status as a sex symbol in pop culture and how sex is a big theme of the original novel. and as it stands, there are already parts of the book that make dracula's obsession with jonathan seem romantically charged. especially in the early chapters in transylvania, dracula almost seems to be setting up a beauty and the beast situation between him and jonathan, trying to charm him while keeping him prisoner. and then later in the story, dracula targeting mina can be played as jealousy for her relationship with jonathan. and of course, there's this infamous passage from early the novel where dracula stops his brides from feasting on jonathan:

so yes, i think francis ford coppola had the right idea to give dracula a more personal connection to a member of the human cast, he just chose the wrong one

[rainbowchaox]

Yashiki and Mashita: Canon Moments Part 1

I wanted to delve more into analyzing canon to explain why Yashiki and Mashita are canon. Even if they are not outright said. This will be a multi-part essay going over the main two Death Mark games with an eye looking for gay subtext or just pointing out moments that can be conveyed as homoerotic/homoromantic. This will also have my personal bias thrown in so don’t expect it to be 100% by the books. My analysis on certain scenes will be my point of view (and people will disagree with some if not most of my takes. The best thing about how complicated both Mashita and Yashiki are is the various ways at looking at their characterization)

We start with Death Mark 1 where we get introduced to the basic premise. Yashiki and the Mark Bearers are cursed by spirits and have to confront said spirits in order to break the curse so they can live. What is so apparent about our protagonist Yashiki is his inner monologue is full of senses and sensations. From the start he is on his own wavelength how he sees the world. As his inner monologue goes into great details describing the scenes in front of him. Even if he wishes he could ignore the more grisly sights in front of him. This gives us a character that may not have the best social skills or understand how social cues work but he does understand people. He can learn how ones tick with only a couple hours with the hour. It’s this aspect why he and Mashita work so well.

The first character Yashiki meets that is alive is Mary. She seems to be benign and polite. And she puts Yashiki at ease despite the horrible situation Yashiki finds himself in. Not knowing who he is and having no memory either. She at the start is almost an angelic figure who Yashiki looks to for guidance. Only by the end of the game do we find out her true nature and that is malice. She has always been a devil pretending to be an angel. Compare her to Mashita. Mashita hides his good heart under his mask of sarcasm and rudeness. Mary and Mashita are foils to each other at least about their relationship to Yashiki.

From the start when we are introduced to Mary. There’s always been dependence from Yashiki. Yashiki has no clue who he is nor what his name is. He is scared and needs questions answered. And Mary just so happened to be there to answer said questions. He looks at her for what he needs to know. He listens to her and follows her orders. Not realizing he is being manipulated. He doesn’t realize he is nothing but a toy to her until Mary secrets can’t be hidden any longer. Meanwhile Mashita knows he is talented even if he acts otherwise. Mashita trusts him enough to consider him fit to be his partner. He knows Yashiki is his equal. Mary manipulates and takes advantage of Yashiki while Mashita uplifts Yashiki and praises his talents.

Yashiki even at the start is hesitating when deciding to trust Mary. He even says word for word “I decided to trust you”. His intuition is screaming at him to not trust her but he currently has no choice. Yashiki meanwhile didn’t hesitate trusting Mashita fully after meeting him. Even the way Mashita was introduced was very suspicious. Their trust grows naturally. And their trust is stronger for it. Yashiki doesn’t have to say he trusts Mashita for us to know he does. Mashita and Yashiki have a special relationship. Mashita even with his rough mouth cares immensely for Yashiki. So much so that he comes back to save Yashiki numerous times even if he puts himself in danger. He cares so much.

A trait that shows why Yashiki is so suitable for Mashita as a prospective partner (Romantic or not) is shown when Yashiki is introduced to Moe and Tsukasa. Yashiki pays attention to people's expressions and is overall pretty empathetic as a person. Even if he lacks social skills to take full advantage of this skill. The people he meets he knows them well. Even if a moment prior they were strangers. This is how Yashiki clearly sees the good in Mashita so quickly.

The first spirit we are introduced to in Death Mark is Hanahiko whose story we quickly learn is tragic. He was abused for being different and liking feminine things. Whether you see his story more being a transgender allegory or just him being different in terms of not following gender norms. He is Other and was hurt for it. And in Death Mark 2, The first spirit is Hanako of the toilet. Who was in love with her female friend. Both have clear queer themes and I personally do think this says a lot about Yashiki's suspected homosexuality. He does not live in a time where he can comfortably be who he is. People get seriously hurt when they stray from what is considered “normal”. I do think these spirits being part of Yashiki's journey does imply that he is not heterosexual.

When Mashita is first introduced to Yashiki, He looks over to Yashiki and snorts. He already figured out Yashiki. And knows that Yashiki is someone he can trust. Which is why he softens entering the car. Yashiki is worried about how Mashita was just lurking around in a basement suspiciously. It’s not just Mashita that gets Yashiki. And likes what he sees. It took one car ride for Yashiki to understand and trust him. He even says “Some people naturally put others on guard and even if there’s no particular ill will between them that’s the sort of person Mashita is”. He already knows Mashita so well.

Mashita with his brusque attitude also gets under Yashiki's skin in a good way. Yashiki can’t help but pay attention to him. Mashita has a strange charisma despite his rough attitude. It makes it hard for anyone to ignore him. Yashiki even says “I wasn’t planning on keeping a constant eye on him, but he is making it very hard not too”. Mashita is charming in his own way.

Mashita then answered a question that Yashiki had before he could even ask. Mashita knows Yashiki by now. Mashita is naturally gifted at reading people as part of his talents as an ex-detective. Also when Mashita showed he was also marked, he proclaimed it was OUR problem. He already considered himself part of Yashiki’s team from the start. Mashita has always been loyal.

And there’s a continuing trend of Yashiki noticing how Mashita feels by his expressions. When Mashita read the god awful principal wrote. Yashiki already knows Mashita isn’t happy because “That's what he says but he is not smiling at all. His eyes simmer with a quiet anger”. Yashiki pays so much attention to Mashita. So much he immediately clicks that he is suffering the Mark effects when he is.

Yashiki canonically grabbed Mashita wrist to chase after the rabbit inside H elementary. He wants to make sure Mashita is healthy and safe. He by then was already so attached. After Hanahiko was dealt with when Mashita learned that Yashiki still had the Mark he was concerned. And it’s hinted to be the primary reason he stayed for chapter 2. He was worried about Yashiki. Even if he had other reasons to investigate as well.

Mashita to me is personally written as a gay man. Especially how he explains the last bit of information about Hanahiko. “How his mother understood her son”. Despite his rough personality he empathized with the son not being accepted by others for being different. And being hurt by someone that should have protected him not punished him.

In chapter 2, Mashita stays, which surprises even Yashiki. Mary asked Mashita to stay but Yashiki doesn’t realize how important he is to Mashita and is confused why he did. For all his bad attitude Mashita didn’t want Yashiki to be alone. Also sorry but “Mashita got a bad mouth like usual” is very gay and flirty.

Something I noted during this chapter is that Masao Kimura the suicidal man Yashiki and company meet in the first after he calms down tells Yashiki that they should go out for drinks sometime before dying to Shimi-O. What’s interesting is the same chapter at the end Mashita tells Yashiki he would buy him a drink once he survives the Mark business. (Sure that he will find a way to survive. His belief never wavers and they eventually do have that drink)

The fact is even if you don’t bring Mashita along to investigate the forest. He comes to the forest (unmarked at this point) out of his own volition. His own desire to protect Yashiki. He willingly gets marked again in order to save Yashiki. He put his life yet again in danger to save a man he met only a day ago. This isn’t to say that Yashiki is any better. He defends Mashita words in his inner monologue by saying “Mashita didn’t mean it like that. You can only be blunt discussing this”. He is so quick to defend Mashita words.

This chapter is also the first time Mashita pushes a gun onto Yashiki. Which continues onto this series can be seen as a metaphor for Yashiki and Mashita relationship with their homosexuality. Mashita being the more confident in his sexuality the one giving the gun to Yashiki the one more shy and reserved with his sexuality. When Yashiki says he doesn’t know how to shoot a gun. Mashita immediately says “Well, whatever, if I’m there just leave the shooting to me” Mashita is already making himself into someone Yashiki can depend on.

After Shimi-O is solved, Mashita decides to tell Yashiki that he is leaving in the morning as well. Despite what he says I don’t think he is leaving because he doesn’t want to get hurt. Mashita is reckless as a person when it comes to his safety. He mainly decides to leave because he doesn’t want to be a burden that will cause more harm staying than leaving. He can’t do anything more for Yashiki. So he has to leave. And we do know how affected Yashiki is hearing that Mashita is leaving him. What can we say to Mashita is, changed your mind? You’re abandoning me? And I’ll miss you. Mashita reacts a bit flustered if you chose the last two. He either calls you bitter or a creep.

Even when Mashita is lying about his reasons he is leaving. He clenches his fist and really doesn’t want to leave Yashiki to struggle against spirits by himself. But he isn’t an idiot and knows he would become a burden for Yashiki to carry if he overstayed his welcome. He is actually one of the few companions that fully say farewell. Mashita then says “If you manage to escape your death I’ll buy you a drink sometime”. Mashita wants to stay in Yashiki life. And has full trust that eventually Yashiki will overcome The Mark and survive.

It’s canon that off screen they went out for drinks. Mashita did promise him he would buy him a drink after Yashiki survives the whole Mark business. This is the first inclination that they spend time together out of the cases. They actually like each other's company. It’s canon that Yashiki is closest to Mashita and Daimon. In chapter 6, Mashita admits he wants Yashiki to join him in being a private detective. Yashiki is talented and skillful when it comes to spiritual matters. Mashita already knows how good Yashiki is. Even if Yashiki's bad self esteem doesn’t let him see that fact himself.

Mashita comes in annoyed and complains about Yashiki telling Yasuoka about his office. Now he is drowning in spiritual requests even if Yashiki told Yasuoka in order to help Mashita with his new career. They bicker like an old married couple. Yashiki by now knows Mashita scarily well and even comments “Did he just hesitate? Mashita?” Because he knows Mashita never hesitates without cause. Mashita always is impulsive whenever he has a goal to achieve.

Mashita then stares right at Yashiki and tells him to take responsibility. Very normal heterosexual behavior from our grumpy detective. I will say this chapter setting is a love hotel in the red light district. This lends more credence to Yashiki being implied he is gay. As it’s normal for gay men to have their trysts in such hotels out of the public eye. A point I will go back later on, but Mashita (which is implied to be more comfortable with his sexuality) is bringing Yashiki to a love hotel of all things. Mashita is the one ordering Yashiki to investigate. Mashita is the one that is telling him to explore.

Yashiki even in his inner monologue says “This isn’t going to do anything good for my reputation” which to be fair in context is more about the fact he is an old single man in the middle of the red light district. But if looked at an angle where Yashiki is a gay man. This could mean he is scared of others finding out his true sexuality and his reputation suffering for it.

I will also note that Hiroo and Daimon along with Yashiki and Mashita are there at the start of the case. The four of them are waiting outside the love hotel. Daimon and Hiroo who is practically outright stated in Death Mark 2 to be a couple. And Yashiki and Mashita who are heavily implied they are together. The two canon “couples” are standing in front of a love hotel.

Speaking of, the whole CG in the dirty smoking area has Yashiki pay too much attention to Mashita smoking. The amount of attention Mashita receives in his inner monologue is concerning. I will also note that the way the CG is drawn is that the two men are closer physically to Yashiki. Showing that there’s a level of emotional distance between Hiroo and Yashiki. We later know that Daimon and Mashita are the two mark bearers closer to Yashiki. This shows that Yashiki is more distant in general with women. Yashiki in general is closer to men than women. And the relationships with men are much more emotionally close than the likes of those he has with women.

Yashiki shows again that he knows how Mashita ticks. He bluntly says that “He like that to everyone. He didn’t mean anything by it”. He defends Mashita to Hiroo who was rightfully angry by his rudeness. Not realizing that it’s clear that Mashita treats himself differently. Mashita is more kind when it comes to him. Yashiki doesn’t realize how special he is to Mashita though.

And later on in the chapter, when Mashita comes back to help. Mashita and Yashiki enter the love hotel. Almost like they are a couple looking somewhere to stay the night. Mashita treats Yashiki gently in his own way and says “Calm down. Take a deep breath” when Yashiki rightfully had a panic attack because of the horrors. Mashita made Yashiki listen to him and calm down. When possessed shou gets to the scene, Mashita shows how good he is again. Mashita shows he is always there to protect Yashiki. By the end of the chapter, Mashita literally saves Yashiki from falling to his death. Mashita is so worried and angry and he says “Idiot…Try putting yourself into my shoes”. Mashita cares so much about Yashiki. No one can say otherwise.

Mashita again shows how much he pays attention and demands he be the one that will drive. Rudely pointing out that Yashiki's hands are still shaking. They are also each other's foils. Mashita believes the dead shouldn’t interfere with the living and Yashiki to his core is sympathetic to both spirits and the living. This has been my first part of the essay. The second half will be death mark 2.

[starrylayle]

been thinking abt how the marauders era relationships would pan out in every universe and here are my thoughts!!

Wolfstar — lowkey controversial but I don’t think they’re soulmates — they’re more, kinda-wrong person, right time. I think they’d only end up together when things go to shit. Which is part of why I love them so much and why I love them in the canon universe. James and Lily are dead, Peter is a traitor, remus is unemployed and sirius….poor sirius. So yeah, They’re just two fucked up lads trying their best to love despite the world being against them. In universes where they don’t fall in love, can imagine they think the other’s a little off-putting or perhaps no really strong emotions. I think that’s why their connection in the canon universe is so special to me, because I just don’t think they’re relationship would be as prominent if circumstances were different (in other universes).

Prongsfoot — they’re literally soulmates. In every fucking universe. Sometimes, it’s platonic (tho never strictly), sometimes, romantic, sometimes an intense sexual bond as enemies?? Either way they’re always a little bit in love with each other. I do hc James as straight in the canon universe but yeah they definitely made out. And in other universes where James is queer they’re having the time of their lives. Anyways so yeah. Soulmates in every universe.

Jily — Love Jily! I see them as a first love situation. Some universes (like the main one) their love becomes immortalised. However, in others, maybe they move on and find other people, but since they were each other’s first love they always have a special place in their heart for each other <33

Jegulus — …………………………………………………………..

Prongstail — always doomed in the long run. Kinda childhood friends to lovers to ……. . A bit of unrequitedness because I don’t think James could ever love Peter enough. And in every universe Peter always has an inferiority complex and bottled resentment. They’re relationship rarely ends well.

Snily — ooh this is an interesting one. Similar to prongsfoot, I think they’re also a kind of doomed childhood-friend-to-lovers. Except I think that in the universes where Sev does not end being a bigot, they could probably date for a bit. They wouldn’t last tho and would remain as friends. In one universe Lily is an out and proud Lesbian and Sev is a closeted t-girl and they date for a bit but eventually decide to become friends (Lily still supports transfem!Sev in her transition tho). Canon universe tho,,, Sev had a crush on her and maybe Lily did too, but fifth year and James lol.

Nobleflower — ooooh love me some sapphic friends-to-star-crossed-lovers! I feel like in every universe they’d be on opposing sides, depending on circumstance.

Marylene — Friends to lovers, right person wrong time in the canon universe, but in other universes they’re thriving. They still would have had some sort of codependent, homoerotic friendship leading up to it lmaoo.

Dorlene — I like to think they’re always rivals in some context. Sometimes it leads to a fiery relationship, and sometimes it’s just aggressive sexual tension while they’re on opposing fields.

Jeverus — oooh people hate this but. Toxic rivals/enemies to lovers. Sometimes it works out, most of the time it doesn’t. The hate they hold for each is very strong but so is the sex

anyways this was fun!! Lemme know what u guys agree/disagree with! Maybe I’ll do a part 2 lol.

[allgremlinart]

haiiiiii friend can you explain jianzhu to me I keep seeing you post about them and I’m nosy and wanna know (<- stopped watching atla bc I realized zutara was never gonna be canon)

also jetko. can you explain jetko too (I’m thinking they’re more on the ghostbat spectrum where it’s like. intense friendship that left both emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives)

TEEHEE HEEHE HEE <- me when I get the opportunity to explain/infodump cross-fandom stuff to mutuals

ok so Jianzhu... ahhh Jianzhu... ((SPOILERS for anyone reading the Kyoshi novels))

This is Jianzhu and also like... probably one of maybe 4 canon images/art there is of him... he's not from the original cartoon he's from the Avatar Kyoshi spin-off novels that take place abt 400 yrs before the events of the show (idk how much you know abt atla lore from osmosis so this might get a little tedious? I'm just gonna explain as succinctly as possible.)

To be brief, he's a cunty old man. But unlike when I call, say, Minhkhoa a cunty old man it's not really loving ... its more like... I love to hate him. He's a REALLY good villain.

He's a politician. He made 500 people dig their own graves and then buried them alive. He beheaded his friend of like 20+ years. He drugs and kidnaps teenagers. etc. It's great.

His whole character arc is like... He's in control. You start off the book and he is very clearly in control, and he knows what he's doing, and he even sounds halfway reasonable sometimes but over the course of the novel he gets more and more desperate to grab hold of a situation that spirals wildly away from him and you get to watch it happen. His justifications for his actions get crazier, he gets sloppier and sloppier with his murders....

OH also you know how sometimes people think Bruce is some callous asshole who was only using his adoptive son who worshipped him as a weapon, and when he died he quickly sought to replace him without remorse ? Yeah he's like that but. Like actually this time. His dead adoptive son also then comes back after eating an eyeball in the spirit world (idk) and kills him by pressing a pebble through his sternum so. More successful than Jason at patricide I'd say. Look there's a lot I didn't cover, here's his wiki.

ok Jetko... ah... the ancient yaoi..

Important required reading before I explain this ship is this post. What you have to understand about Zuko is that for basically like... 40 episodes the only person he shares significant screen time with is his uncle so when him and Jet met in s2 and had a decent 3 episodes worth of interactions ... it was enough, lets just say that.

The basic Jetko timeline is they meet on a ferry while Zuko and his Uncle are disguised as refugees and they steal food together -> Jet tries to get Zuko (who he only ever knows as "Li") to join his emo band gang which Zuko refuses -> Jet sees Uncle Warcrimes heating his tea and correctly deduces that they are firebenders (ie not who they say they are; the enemy) -> Zuko and his Uncle work in a tea shop while Jet stalks them and steals things from their house and watches them from behind clotheslines (yeah) -> Jet confronts them in the teashop, sword fight, Jet gets arrested and brainwashed by the secret police (yeah) -> Jet dies under a lake which Zuko only finds out about a season later.

So they never had the 4 years of intense homoerotic cohabitation that ghostbat had,.. their chemistry and potential are pretty much instigated by a few of Jet's weird intense lines, such as "As soon as I saw your scar I knew exactly who you were - you're an outcast, like me." And the crux of the ship is like.. Jet both does and doesn't know who Zuko is.

He knows he is also angry and restless, like himself - he knows he is running from his past, like himself - and he knows he is going to Ba Sing Se to create a new identity. These things are all true, for both of them; what Jet doesn't know is that Zuko is from the imperialist nation that brutally murdered his parents and invaded his home and he incorrectly assumes that the anger he recognizes in Zuko stems from the same need to enact violence on those who have taken everything from him.

So I guess the "thought you were exactly like me but then I found out you're not which enrages and humiliates me so know I'm going to beat the shit out of you" thing from BTK no. 6 is something they share with ghostbat but.. Jet's anger is probably a little more justified than Minhkhoa's lol...

In conclusion it's your basic "doomed relationship/they work great together but that doesn't fix anything" ship premise. It used to be more popular back in the day... pretty sure I owe my life to maybe 3 different Taiwanese/Chinese doujin artists from 2009... yeah that's the gist of it.

[metaltangodiva]

what are your thoughts on the different 'versions' of Krauser as well his various dynamics with Leon? Also do you have any advice for like...not being afraid to add your own interpretations and spins to characters? Like i think i care way too much about what people would think, so i'm a but scared to start posting anything, but at the same time I'd love to add to the fic collection lol

Hello hello~!

I wanna preface this quickly by saying I'm fucking unable to summarize anything, lmao. This turned out to be TWO ESSAYS.

I'll start by replying to the second question, because I sorta realized, about halfway through the answer, that I was writing a fucking essay on Metaltango and I didn't wanna overlook the second point of your message. Because it's super important to me, as a writer (amateur/hobbyist, but writer nonetheless) that people who want to write can do it.

And my suggestion is super easy: do it. Write the thing.

I know it's hard, I went through it too. It's hard to not compare yourself to other people, to go and think "man, they're not gonna like how I portray them". When I started writing "Normal", that was my worry. I was taking these badass, gun-toting, zombie-killing, masculine characters and putting them into a situation that's not only opposite to that, but pretty damn taboo in general. I've had Comments™. But whatever.

And what I tell people, when they say they're worried about how their stories are gonna be received, maybe because it takes a weird non-canon spin, or they feel their tropes are overdone, is:

Do it anyways. There's only you to craft that story you wanna see the way you want it; no one else can do it the exact same, even with the same prompts, the same tropes, the same characters. Everyone views things differently, and I think it's an amazing thing when it comes to art, well... almost everything, honestly. A saying that goes in a Discord server I hang out on is "there's nothing original anymore", but not in a bad way at all — so many works have the same themes, and yet they all still stand out somehow.

I might not the audience. This guy next to me might be, though! Or who knows, maybe *I* am the audience!

But you don't know any of this until you write it. Do it.

OKAY SO I GUESS THAT WAS PART ONE, lol.

SO LET'S GOO FOR PART TWO!

My thoughts on the different versions: I love them! Each version and each game brings something new to the table. I got started with RE4 (VR) — I liked how *aggressively homoerotic* that knife fight was.

Since it was my entry point to RE as a whole, I was curious as to *who* Krauser was, what was his relation to Leon, what happened between them, so on, so forth. Probably what a lot of people went through before Darkside Chronicles became a thing. His obsession for Leon and especially the *passion* behind it. Surely what happened between them was personal!

Then I heard of Darkside Chronicles and I had to play it for myself. So I did. And I was positively surprised when I saw Krauser as he was back around 2002. Gruff, rough around the edges, but just as snarky as Leon — and I love snarky characters. I felt their humor meshed so well. The "boy scout" exchange has lived rent-free in my head since I heard it. Same with the shared water bottle/indirect kiss. The snake/butterfly. Krauser starting as kinda dismissive of Leon, but quickly wisening up about it and treating him as an equal (and I feel it's more than that). And this became what I really wanted to see between them on the long run, hence why I started writing the AU "Normal" takes place in. They were such a good team, in spite of Krauser's wildly varying emotions.

Then RE4R came out, and it introduced them in a mentor/trainee relationship and I love that too. It's a whole different dynamic; Krauser's more serious but still does not shut up, Leon is still a smart mouth — I guess they clashed a lot overall and Leon can probably thank Krauser for all the extra push-ups and laps that gave him this *chef kiss* physique... but Krauser has a soft side to him. The guy really cared for his men, but as an instructor, as a soldier, as a superior and also as a human, probably couldn't voice it all too well. I cried when Leon picked up Krauser's knife, kneeled next to him and Krauser told him he was proud of him. That he had trained him well. It's a dynamic I wish I could capture well enough to put in words, but my real-life experience with anything army-related is nonexistent (well, so is my ageplay/military/"life as a couple" experience with "Normal", lol) and I feel I'd have a harder time with portraying it how I want to. So... I'm eventually gonna do it, outside of oneshots.

TLDR: Give me all the Krausers. They all bring something to the table <3

[sauntervaguelydown]

Ship Manifesto. Possibly.

since I'm fixated on Might Guy right now I've been thinking a lot about how his relationship to Kakashi is presented at first vs what it's eventually revealed to be.

First of all. His entrance. My GOD what is he doing, why is he posing like that, who is he < an audience member may ask. Well he's Might fucking Guy. We learn from him directly in his first appearance that despite his goofy shit, he's got a match record against Kakashi that is almost even split, with Guy actually one point in the lead. Okay. Then when they're both on screen together for the first time, Kakashi does that thing where he lets Guy deliver a whole impassioned promise about rivalry, the kind of thing you expect from this genre, then hits him with the "Hm? What? I wasn't listening." So it seems like this is really one-sided, and maybe Kakashi doesn't like him that much.

And then you get a little blip of Kakashi's internal monologue, where he compares Sakura and Ino to himself and Kakashi, in the sense that rivalry can make you do some wild things. Intriguing. Ambiguous. Okay.

you're really gonna compare yourself to the homoerotic wonder duo, the girl who just slapped her estranged childhood friend in a thunderdome cage match rather than dare to hurt her. That's interesting. I'm probably reading too much into it.

You see the two of them hanging out as adults, in a flashback--god knows what they were doing, I'd LOVE to know--when Kakashi points Rock Lee out to Guy for the first time. "He reminds me of you." It's a little teasing, obviously fond, and critically, confirms that they knew each other as kids.

Sidebar: Kakashi acts like a remarkably well-adjusted adult ninja in all the first two arcs of the manga. He's hanging out with coworkers who might be friends, chatting, chilling. I have to assume this is Early Installment Weirdness, just like him saying he was made chunin at age 6, which is fucking impossible. However, both things are technically canon. So yeah, Kakashi has work friends.

The next thing you learn about them is that Kakashi knows Guy's forbidden technique, and really does not approve of Guy sharing it with a kid. He gives the most cutting "I'm disappointed in you" delivery. Ironically this tells us something different about their situation--Kakashi has enough respect for Guy that something like this would upset him, and he's willing to say it. He expected better.

(Why does it upset him? Well. It's a suicide technique. We'll find out later how this might be A Sore Spot.)

Guy comes back at him with the "stay in your lane" reply, which is more what you'd expect. But notably, he's saying "you don't know anything about what my student is going through". Hm. Okay. Sore spot? Maybe Kakashi knew him as a kid, but they clearly weren't sharing burdens...

You get a bit more familiar banter in the first mode (patented Kakashi brush off) throughout the next arc, and that's where it seems to sit for a long time. If you look at fanfic from this era, it very much takes the tone of "Guy cares more about their relationship than Kakashi does". It very much characterizes them as another set of Rivals in this setting where we have several other examples--Ino & Sakura, Lee & Neji, Sasuke & Naruto... you get the picture. They are people who work together well, who are competitive and driven by their shared competition, but who are not... warm to each other.

When Kakashi is talking Sasuke out of defecting for revenge (nice try) he says that he's already lost everyone who was important to him, so it would be impossible for Sasuke to kill them. (Luckily, he says, I have had the chance to find new important people. Like you.) That's our first bit of personal information, and interestingly, it seems to exclude Guy. Now maybe he was trying to make a point without getting too into wishywashy details. Maybe he doesn't really like Guy that much after all.

And then. AND THEN. The backstory starts to come out.

So here's the thing. A lot of the content that I genuinely enjoy is anime-only. You can call it filler, but I mean that in a nonjudgemental way. The writers of the tv show seem like they cared about and were fond of Guy, and they gave him some great little character beats--like in the 2nd Chunin Exam arc, where he explains to Lee how manipulating the flow of battle works.

When they were clearly in cost-cutting emergency zone, they still gave Kakashi a spotlight episode (which comes out as almost poetic due to the slow pace) in which we get to see him in school, and there's Guy! He's making proclamations of love eternal destiny! How charming. In another filler episode with more budget, they show Kakashi in the brief period before Rin died and after Obito disappeared, and Guy is there! They're fighting together! Their values clash, because Guy always throws himself at a challenge and Kakashi is terrified of losing people.

I could go on talking about the connection the anime gives them through their dads--that is, Kakashi's lack of (famous, heroic, disgraced) father, and the way that he seems compelled by Guy's relationship to his (living, proud, loser) father. I could talk about Kakashi intervening to rescue Guy from bullies. I could talk about this shit all day. But I won't. We got things to do. The point is, I find the Ino connection especially on point vis a vis "this kid I once had to protect is now my equal".

The anime (I think only the anime) adds this interesting subplot where Guy is actively trying to look out for Kakashi while Kakashi goes through some real lifeshaking bullshit back to back. It's sweet that the writers looked at Kakashi and said "He needs an advocate, let's give him one". Guy is going to bat with the Hokage, trying to get himself into Anbu to support Kakashi, and when that doesn't work, he's trying to get Kakashi out. He's catching Kakashi on the battlefield when a PTSD episode knocks him down and leaves him vulnerable. It's really... it's really moving, how much he cares about this guy who rebuffs his attention 90% of the time. He knows that Kakashi needs help, and no one else is helping him. How can you not be moved by that?

There's a potent episode in the anime where Kakashi (and Itachi!) shadow Guy and his team on a joint mission, as Anbu. Guy and his team sit in the sunlight eating hot pot, while Kakashi & Itachi sit in the tree above eating ration pills. I'm not even sure why I mention this, it's just such a good example of how the filler material can enrich the characters and setting. And it's part of this whole complex of Guy coming to understand and wanting to do something about Kakashi's situation.

The comparison to Sakura and Ino takes on a new resonance when you look at it through the lens of this new information. They were childhood friends. They were estranged. And now, as adults, they are becoming friends again.

This is, to me, what I mean when I say the anime makes it such a compelling, unignorable romance. From the passionate entreaties of a seven year old ("Do you want to spend the springtime of your youth with me?") to the young man bowing on the floor of the hokage tower demanding someone spare his friend's soul, this man is not only a good friend but a devoted one.

So, then there's the manga. I've been having a little trouble parsing what's Kishimono and what's the anime writing team, because of the way it's woven together. When I look at only the stuff I know is in the manga, you get this:

The night of the Nine Tailed Fox, they were walking around together at the festival arguing about challenges. I love that, and what it tells us about their relationship. They're already hanging out as teenagers, while Kakashi is up to normal shit, doing their usual shtick. Kakashi calls himself your rival? Really? Hm. In the period after two Kakashi's of most devastating losses, Guy is around.

The childhood connection there is very... ambiguous. It's a given that Kakashi knew him when he was still struggling--or at least knew of him. When we see what might be Guy's first challenge to Kakashi, he's got his headband on straight, so it's before Obito.

They're not really friends yet, but they're going to be.

Here's what I think.

When adult Kakashi is telling Sasuke about revenge, and loss, and moving forward--in his laconic way--it echoes some of what becomes the core of Kakashi's endgame showdown with Obito. Grief is natural, but you can't stop the world and live inside your grief. You have to allow yourself to love again, even though it hurts, even though you will keep losing people as long as you are alive, because loving is the only cure for grief. Kakashi is a badly adjusted person who finally started healing from his own compound emotional fractures when he allowed himself to care for the people in his life again, despite the risks.

He has found new people to care about. He's pressed forward, whether he likes it or not, and now there are new and wonderful people for him to worry about losing. That's his students, obviously. And I think that might include Guy.

ANYWAY THANKS FOR READING

[lollytea]

Given that Hunter was introduced to anime in the Human Realm (canon), what do you think some of his favourites would be? Any he wouldn't like as much?

Astro Boy

Voltron Defender of the Universe (the 80s one. He eats it up. Its his cocomelon)

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Gus also enjoys Sci-fi type stuff so this is what they watch together <333

Sailor Moon/Cardcaptor Sakura/Whatever other cute wholesome power of friendship magical girl animes that you can think of. I just believe he loves Magical Girls. That is a headcanon that is attached to my brain like a leech.

Pokemon. He loves cute little creechurs, they're silly and they remind him of palismen <33

I imagine that he really enjoys sports anime. Especially the ones with intense homoerotic friendships. He loves Haikyu and Free, god bless. If you dare to open your mouth during Yuri on Ice, he will kill you.

As a guy who is a bit awkward, passionate about his interests, a little bit on the gnc side, and into making clothes, I think he'd like Princess Jellyfish.

I think when it comes to anime he WOULDN'T like, I think maybe....slice of life shojo high school stuff. Ones that are deeply rooted in experiences that Hunter cannot connect to. Not that he hates that stuff. He just struggles to relate. Also, as introspective, sensitive and emotionally mature as I imagine Hunter to be, I also think that his attention span cannot be held by a show that focuses on feelings/romance alone. Bro is like "I want SPACESHIPS!! I want SPORT!!! I want POKEMON!!!" There's gotta be some exciting angle to keep him entertained.

Something I'm a little unsure of is what Hunter's relationship is with gore/horror/edgy type stuff. Because we know he was a fan of Ruler's Reach, which was written by an edgelord 8 year old and was packed with gratuitous violence. Considering he was not only a teenage boy (who tend to gravitate towards depictions violence because of societal influence) but a child soldier who was unnervingly desensitized to brutality, it does make a lot of sense. Ruler's Reach also seemed to be something of a masculine power fantasy written by one boy who felt small and powerless in his own life, which connected with a boy who felt similarly. King wanted to be feared, Hunter wanted to be respected.

However, this was during the time that Hunter was trapped in a very bleak situation, one that he didn't even fully understand was bleak. And he coped by hyperfixating on a book that normalized the cruelty.

But what I wonder is, would he still feel the same way about that book now, after everything? He's been woken up to how horrific his life was until this point. He's aware of the atrocities and he's deeply uncomfortable with all of it. Things are drastically different now. Hunter is drastically different.

Personally, I think Ruler's Reach was something that comforted him when he needed it. But as he changes as a person, its just not his taste anymore.

Hunter can certainly stomach gore and violence. He's seen more disturbing sights than anything an anime can show him. But I don't think he actively seeks it out. I imagine that he prefers stuff that's lighthearted. Not that he doesn't enjoy tension/excitement/high stakes. Just not the kind of stuff that will make him extremely upset.

Like Fullmetal Alchemist for example. Absolutely amazing anime, but not something Hunter would enjoy sitting through. It's good to have fiction that makes you feel something deep in your core, the way FMA does to people. But Hunter has experienced enough real life trauma and existential horror for a lifetime. He's felt enough!!! He doesn't need to see that weird fucking dog!!!!! Leave him alone!!!!!

So ya in summary, I think he likes fun, semi-lighthearted stuff. But he doesn't really wanna watch anything that's gonna make him sit in the shower for over an hour and rethink everything. He is already mentally exhausted. He once learned made of a dead guy's bones, that's enough for him.

[jellybeanium124]

ok hear me out I noticed something.

Izzy's opinion on Stede changes quite drastically between episode 2 and 3. When he first meets Stede and Stede's like "I believe we have dibs on those men!" Izzy is smiling slightly.

He's got a little upward quirk breaking through his expressions. He's enjoying himself! Stede is weird and new and entertaining, and as of this moment he has no reason not to go theater kid v. theater kid and just have fun with Stede about it. Stede is also definitely having fun too!

Things change slightly when Stede gets his knife to Izzy's face.

Izzy goes into Serious Mode here, not knowing yet that this isn't a situation where Stede would go into Serious Mode. I don't think Izzy thinks Stede'll kill him, probably, but everyone is saying he's insane.

But then, at the end, after Stede's knife is away from his face and nobody dies, his smug little smile returns.

At the very end of the episode he is staring so blankly at the Revenge for a long time. I just think that's funny.

Literally 0 thoughts running around his skull rn lmao

Anyways, in episode 3, Izzy goes from finding Stede mildly entertaining, to disliking him.

Their interaction starts off with Izzy being a dramatic theater kid again, but he's a bit more riled up because he hates Spanish Jackie's (and for another reason I explain later). Stede goes: "ugh, you again!" because he's busy being onto the next thing. Stede generally is super mad at Izzy and frankly it's kind of out of nowhere. Guess he's pissed off about the nose juice or his second white outfit being destroyed? There's still an element of playfulness there around Stede mentioning the hostage and a little bit of that two-theater-kids-playing energy. But, in the end, they hate each other more after this second interaction. Izzy doesn't like being called names (compared to the ~relative~ respect he got in their first encounter) and Stede refusing to see Ed is disrespectful in his eyes.

Now for the million dollar question: why? What made Stede go from entertaining to obnoxious in Izzy's mind?

I'm not 100% sure, but I'd wager a guess that it's Ed. Izzy finds Stede entertaining and reports back his encounter (probably definitely edited a bit to put him in a better light) and now Ed finds Stede interesting. And Izzy knows that's a battle he can't win. I don't think Izzy is interested in the same way that Ed is (Ed has a crush), I think Izzy wants a homoerotic rivalry he doesn't realize is homoerotic.

And he does get it to some degree. The "Muse Why Have You Forsaken Me" scene is some of the gayest theater kid shit I've ever seen. But in the end Stede doesn't care about Izzy, doesn't see him as a nemesis. Izzy is very personally invested in hating Stede, and he's pissed off that Stede doesn't have the same level of investment in being enemies. Because of Ed. Because Stede is way more interested in Ed. Izzy and Stede can't have their own thing without him. Once again, Izzy's angry that Stede isn't conforming to the way he thinks they should be. Nemeses are deeply personal, and Stede doesn't care.

So, in the end, It's ✨jealously✨ babey

[pinkeoni]

Byler & Possession Plots

Reading the show through more of Men, Women & Chainsaws

When talking about occult horror in her book Men, Women and Chainsaws, Carol J. Clover writes—

"On the face of it, the occult film is the most "female" of horror genres, telling as it is regularly does tales of women or girls in the grip of the supernatural. But behind the female "cover" is always the story of a man in crisis."

One of the examples that Clover provides is also one of the most popular possession stories— William Peter Blatty's novel and William Friedkin's film The Exorcist. Little Regan Macneil may have been the one possessed, but as the title suggests, the story is really about a man, the exorcist.

I do believe that season twos possession plot does a little more for the possessed than the examples Clover gives in her book, it is interesting that it does follow a similar formula to other possession plots, in that while the story is definitely about the possessed, it's also about the male character that sticks by their side.

So using Clover's book as a guide, I wanted to look again at season two's possession plot and see what it's saying for both Will and Mike's story, how it aligns with other possession stories, how it improves upon them, how it falls into similar pitfalls, and what is reveals about Byler.

The show does do a little better than other possession plots in that it does focus on the perspective of the possessed, Will, and how all of this is affecting him personally. We hear a little bit from Regan in The Exorcist, although the focus is centered much more on how her possession is affecting her mother and of course, her exorcist. The story centers around her, but it’s not really hers. Will’s possession feels a lot more like his story.

As for Mike, he starts the season grieving the loss of El and likely feeling guilt for her “death.” She “died” saving Mike, and Mike was unable to save her. There's a strong theme of heroism at play here. Mike (innocently) put the expectation onto El that she was a superhero. Mike's idea of heroism relates to the ability to perform impossible "Yoda" like tasks, such as lifting objects and killing monsters with your mind. As such, Mike doesn't recognize his own heroism, such as bringing El in and showing her kindness and friendship. This insecurity is later confirmed in season 4.

Mike's story doesn't really start rolling until he goes to check on Will. There, he's able to find purpose and finds his own way to be a hero. maybe without realizing it, he is able to save someone. Mike was there to help Will by offering emotional support, as well as aid him in finding some agency in the situation.

The possession for this season along with the El/Mike/Will triangle reminds me of a film that Clover discusses called Witchboard but with a few key differences. In the film, a woman named Linda is possessed by a spirit after messing with a Ouija Board she got from her ex Brandon, leading Linda’s boyfriend Jim to find a way to free her. The film ends with Jim and Linda getting married.

Similar to The Exorcist, Linda is the possessed person but the story isn’t really hers, it’s about Jim and his arc to becoming a more emotionally open boyfriend. In fact, the emotional core of the film is actually between Jim and his relationship to Brandon, whom Jim reveals is actually an old childhood friend until they had a falling out. Clover notes a particularly homoerotically charged scene in a motel room where Jim and Brandon are able to talk out some of their feelings.

While the possessed person is now Will, the character split is the same. El is not a passive character at all, but her story is still almost entirely split from the boys. She starts off the season missing Mike, but similar to Mike, she chooses to leave him, and her story really kicks off when she seeks out Mama and Kali. Both of them may have started the season thinking about the other, yet they choose to take their stories in different directions.

So maybe that’s why the end of the season feels like the end of Witchboard, which Clover described as the film's “pale, heterosexual ending” where Jim and Linda get married. The season ends with El and Mike at the Snow Ball, which to be fair is set up enough— this is making good on the promise that Mike made to El in the last season. But Will, who has spent most of the season by Mike’s side, is left entirely to the wayside. He gets his own dance partner, but it’s a nameless character who calls him his mean nickname. Mike gets to dance with El, Lucas gets his dance with Max, and Dustin discovers some self confidence when he dances with Nancy. Every ending feels like something that was someone built up— except for Will’s. Will didn’t show any interest in Snow Ball girl before, or any girl at all. It feels unsatisfactory.

Similar to other possession plots, it does fall into the similar pitfall where during most of the last third of the season, Will is barely even there at all. He spends most of his time asleep, and when he is awake— similar to Regan in the last bit of The Exorcist— he’s no longer Will.

And maybe that’s why the shed scene feels so hard hitting. Mike reminds Will of a moment where Will had agency, when he chose to be Mike’s friend. And as a result, he’s able to break through.

To me, that moment feels more like a culmination of both of their arcs for this season, way less than the Snow Ball ending. Mike takes action and calls out to Will, and in an act of agency, Will answers.

There's more interesting stuff from the chapter that I decided not to include here, and I honestly suggest that you go read the book yourself. It's super interesting and highly informative.

Oh, and happy Day 3 of Bylerween 🎃 @bylerween2023