#tldr she's not a bad character or person or even friend she's just young and has some growing to do still

[storybook-with-a-hug]

Fix-It Miraculously: Analyzing Alya (Season 1 focus)

So, with the next chapter in my story being another of the OC chapters, it gives me a chance to explore the supporting cast more. Though over-all the chapter is going to be Adrien-centric, one of the things I’m doing in it is exploring his relationships with other people besides Marinette. Particularly, this chapter is going to focus rather heavily on the budding friendship between him and Alya on both sides of his mask. To do so, though, I figured I’d take the chance to expand a bit more on my take on Alya and who she is as a character in the start of the series.

So I don’t think anyone would call it a stretch to say Alya is a very passionate person. She’s the sort to throw herself head-long and completely into every new theory she comes up with an exuberance that is quite admirable. She is fiercely loyal and always wants to do the right thing, even if she doesn’t always go about it in the best way. 

However, the problems of her character are so intrinsically linked to the best parts of her character that it’s more to say she takes her best qualities too far and hasn’t yet learned how to temper herself to an appropriate reaction. Which is not to say she’s strictly in the wrong or that she’s a bad character/friend/person, just that she’s a young teen (13 in my story, probably 14 in canon, but this is an analysis for my story specifically so I’m making her 13) who still has a lot to learn. 

As such, Alya has three glaring problems that over the course of this story she will learn to address. Her primary problem, which isn’t even so much of a “her” thing as it is an age/experience thing, is that she tends to jump to conclusions too quickly and then once she’s latched on she has a lot of problems letting go. This was her big problem with the “Chloe is Ladybug” theory in Lady WiFi, she made a conclusion and then set out to make her proof match her theory and disregarded everything that countered her foregone conclusion instead of letting the facts prove of disprove the hypothesis. If she had taken the time to step back and examine her facts, or listen to the advice of those around her, she never would have gotten herself in that situation. And while getting getting suspended and proven thoroughly wrong was a bit of a nasty wake-up call for her, she hasn’t quite learned her lesson yet. 

She jumped to conclusions again in Pharaoh, where she (rightfully) believed Ladybug was a student in her grade in her school and then (wrongfully) changed her mind to believe that Ladybug was an ancient Egyptian demi-goddess that’s thousands of years old. Now, beyond the fact that in the canon episode Alya apparently found the book, researched what schools used it and how many girls were in their school year, went all the way to Marinette’s house, and then all the way to the Louvre and spent all that time looking at the scroll without ever once even bothering to open the front cover of the book and see Marinette’s name written in it, the fact that she so easily believed this lie makes me think it has something to do with the quantum masking that protects their identities. That’s why in my rewrite of the episode I had Chat Noir start to fall for it before Ladybug reminded him of the facts and knocked him out of it. It’s also for this reason that I had Alya mistakenly believe that Chat Noir was the Fairy King of Cats after he started dropping names related to such. 

So, while she hasn’t completely learned her lesson yet, the first steps have been taken. She still has a ways to go on this point, this problem won’t start really being fixed until season 3-4 where she starts settling down out of fangirl mode and actually taking her journaling more seriously. By that point, she’ll be 14-15, have been a hero on the front lines of this war herself, and had suffered a few more wake-up calls that each move her a little further in the direction of a mature young woman who is competent at her job. 

Next real problem, which is also in great part due to her age, is Alya’s inability to get out of her own head. I don’t mean that in a mean way, but children are horrible at seeing the big picture and truly empathizing with those around them. They lack the experience and they lack the basic brain development that lets them get out of their own head and really understand other people and the consequences to their actions. Alya’s still very much in that place where she goes “well, I can do it with no problem, so you should be able to as well!” Especially where Marinette is concerned. She can talk to Adrien easily, so Marinette should also be fine doing so. She comes from a large supportive and loving family who like any family that has many siblings is full of teasing and banter and she’s fine with it, so Marinette should have no problem with her making fun of her either. She doesn’t know of any commitments to Marinette’s time, so therefore Marinette can’t possibly be busy and if she says she is it’s only with sleeping. 

The problem is that, in my story especially, Marinette’s past is that of a bullied child. And just like how Alya can’t get out of her own head to realize her and Marinette’s situations are different, children have a hard time getting out of their own heads to realize the long-term damage they’re doing to their target by bullying them. And as such, otherwise nice children can be downright cruel and torturous towards their target when swept up in the mob mentality and given basically a green light to do whatever they want to someone. Marinette is a very strong girl to be able to pull through something like that with an intact sense of right and wrong and a disposition of STILL wanting to help people. It’s why she was chosen as Ladybug, a hero to save the whole world from a megalomaniac. But it also means she’s not equipped to take friendly teasing. She is desperate to keep that one friend that she’s gotten after being alone for so long, so she’s not going to stand up for herself and tell Alya off for saying hurtful things, but for a self-esteem as fragile as Marinette’s is at the start of the series that doesn’t mean those sorts of things aren’t still counterproductive. 

Now, don’t get me wrong: in no way is Alya trying to be mean to Marinette or reaffirm the kinds of harsh words her bullies used. But Alya doesn’t strike me as someone who’s been the target of long-term bullying before, given how confident and brazen she is. She doesn’t have a frame of reference for understanding the sorts of things Marinette faced while she was growing up or how her words cold be misconstrued. To Alya, she’s just being playful and treating Marinette as part of her family. To Alya, Marinette is as good as another sister, with all the love and bickering that goes along with it. But Marinette is an only child and didn’t grow up with sibling banter, so being treated like that doesn’t hold the same emotions for her that it does for Alya. Not yet at least. 

This is further proven by the fact that in season 1, Marinette doesn’t ever really sass Alya back. She complains about Alya a few times behind her back to various individuals, but she’s not yet comfortable enough with the friendship to be snarky or put Alya in her place when Alya throws out a few lines like that making fun of Marinette over something. At this point in their relationship, Marinette is just taking it like a victim, and Alya doesn’t have the knowhow to be able to recognize this behaviour and alter her own. 

And this sort of leads into her third main flaw: disregarding others personal boundaries. Alya is almost notorious for not listening when people tell her “no” and pushing on anyway because she wants something. Be that to quell her insatiable curiosity about something or seeing her best friend achieve her happily ever after with the boy of her dreams. When Alya wants something, she is relentless and nothing anyone else has to say or think on the matter means anything to her. 

Ladybug’s life could be in danger because her identity was publicly revealed? Don’t care, I wanna know the answer to the secret so let’s all get excited together about figuring it out! Marinette’s on the verge of a panic attack, freaking out and spiralling because she’s not ready to take that next step in her relationship with Adrien yet? Don’t care, I wanna see my ship sail because it’s fun to get swept up in the drama of it all just like a real-life romcom so I’m gonna force it anyway! An akuma’s attacking and going near it could endanger her life and make Ladybug and Chat Noir’s job all the harder because they’re having to protect the kid that keeps running on to the battle field? Don’t care, I wanna live my dream and enjoy the excitement of seeing real lives superheroes fighting a real life supervillain and get loads of views on my blog while doing so! Marinette is being extremely insistent about a prior engagement that she’s trying very hard to keep secret? Don’t care, I wanna see my ship sail and any prior engagement is either a flat out lie or I demand to know all the deets because my best friend isn’t allowed to have anything in her life that is personal and private and I’m not intimately part of!

Admittedly, most of these sorts of problems stem from an honest desire in Alya to help out and make a difference in the world, mixed with her black-and-white morality and inability to get out of her own head, as well as her boundless thirst for knowledge about everything and anything that interests her. And while all of it (save perhaps the morality bit, but again, she’s still a child and kids tend to have trouble seeing the shades of gray between) it can be problematic at the levels she takes it to. 

Do people occasionally need a push to get them to take the actions they really and truly desire to make their lives better? Sometimes, yes. But those pushes have to be situational and you have to be willing to listen to the person you’re giving a push to in order to understand if they really need a push or if they just need time. When Marinette was having troubles getting up the guts to actually hand Adrien his birthday present? Yeah, giving Marinette a bit of a push to get her actually out there and talking to the boy was the right call. Perhaps going out with her and helping lead the conversation might have made it easier on Marinette and actually guaranteed he got the gift, but she believed Marinette could do it on her own. Encouraging Marinette to stand up to Chloe in the Origins episode? Definitely okay, as Marinette more just needed to be assured that she wouldn’t be abandoned completely for putting her foot down than actually be pushed to stand up for herself as Alya more let Marinette take the lead and just followed her cues and gave her unwavering support in taking her chair back. Pressing the call button on Marinette’s phone when the girl is insisting she’s not ready to ask Adrien out yet and can’t read aloud the script she wrote her without even giving her the chance to read it over and prepare at all? Not cool. Dragging Marinette away from an actual job she’s supposed to be doing (babysitting Manon) in order to go out and stalk Adrien at his place of work? Again, not cool. 

But for Alya to start learning her lesson about how much is okay to push and when, people really have to start putting their foot down and refusing to budge and pointing out Alya’s bad behaviour for what it is. And unfortunately, Marinette really isn’t the sort of person who is able to do that short of being pushed too far and blowing up with her lashing out. Alya’s gonna need someone else to teach her what is and is not okay as far as pushing other people to get her way, and someone other than Alya is going to have to be the one to be there for Marinette to let her know it’s alright to tell Alya to back off sometimes when she’s getting too pushy about things. Thankfully there’s an entire girlsquad to choose from, but friendships between the squad have to develop a bit more before something like that can start really taking affect. 

So, basically in conclusion, while Alya may be a wonderful person on her own and even a pretty good friend, I don’t really think she’s the best friend a girl like Marinette needs. At least, not so early in their respective character arcs. With a bit of growth on both ends, they could develop into something closer to what each of them requires. Or they could diverge into a state of merely being friends instead of best friends as they each find other things to fill their time and other relationships to complete themselves with. 

So then what other things are there for Alya? Well, most blatantly for anyone who’s seen canon is her relationship with Nino. I don’t know about most of you, but I recall when my friends first started dating, that first relationship they had seemed to consume like 90% of their mental capacity. Their dates, what it was like to kiss, how fast should they be moving, that one funny thing he said last week that they just have to share, etc. Dating Nino would be a very easy and convenient way to distract Alya away from Marinette and give the other girl a chance to grow and develop. 

Another, rather obvious option, is to expand her social circle to include their other friends. The girlsquad already exists. It is there and waiting for the opportunity to interact. Mixing Alya with the others so that Alya can learn boundaries and such with characters that have more self-esteem like Alix or Rose who aren’t afraid to speak their minds and feelings to Alya over how she’s behaving towards them would be a good way to start her on the process of personal growth without leaving everything on Marinette’s shoulders to initiate. It would also let Marinette see that just because you’re friends you can still speak up for yourself without ruining everything, and that real friends won’t hold it against you or abandon you for doing so. It would let her see and know that such things are okay and she could then follow their examples to start building up some boundaries of her own that are then respected. 

Alternately, there’s also fulfilling parts of Alya’s desires in order to keep her distracted somewhat form other parts which is sort of what I start doing in this upcoming chapter using AdriChat. While Adrien Agreste (TM) had to grow up dealing with everything that was involved in being Adrien Agreste (TM) (*cough*Gabriel*cough*), he also grew up with having Chloe as his one and only friend. He’s shown as Chat Noir that he knows how to throw down in a verbal spar, and being poster boy for the Gabriel Brand I’d be very surprised if he was also not coached on how to talk to reporters and give an endless non-answers to any number of inane questions. So as Chat Noir, having successfully pulled the wool over Alya’s eyes and making her believe he was King of the Cat Fairies, he approaches her again for assistance in his investigations into the identity of Papillon. Now Alya, being Alya, as soon as she decided that Chat Noir was a character from Celtic Mythology, of course then went and looked up everything there was to know about dealing with fairies. Including rules of conduct and warnings about behaviour.

So when Chat Noir hands her all his combined data that he’s collected so far, requesting her to help him compile it all and to store it safely, but on the condition that she not tell anyone, she is both excited enough for the opportunity as well as scared enough about not offending him that she doesn’t dare refuse. I mean, gifts from fae are never what they seem and the rules of the contract are to be followed to the letter or else horrible consequences can occur. As much as she wants this, she can’t go blabbing and spreading the information around, it’s also filled with people’s personal experiences at their lowest moments and as much as she’s nosy, she does still seem like she WANTS to be respectful of others and be a good person. So now she’s his junior detective/sidekick and ripe for a friendship to blossom between the two. After all, they have so much in common, it’s shocking they’re not shown more in the show as being friends. They’re both huge geeks about superheroes, both huge Ladybug fans, both brand new students at the school, etc. 

[m4rs-ex3]

people always make silly little lists of characters' crimes which i love but i'm gonna do smth a lillllll different

tdp character trauma log 🫶✨

callum

lost his father at a Baby age (the perfect age actually; young enough to be very emotional and impressionable but old enough to have to process it)

was thrown into a drastically different + high-key terrifying environment at Baby Age

lost his mother--his comfort person, his only connection to his og life (besides amaya), and also just an amazing individual--leaving him alone in said environment

was constantly belittled for being bad at the thing he never asked to be

lost his stepfather aka his only parent left and experienced an array of regret over what he didn't do while harrow was alive

almost watched his little brother down/freeze to death

was betrayed by his childhood friend

endured a severe dark magic sickness + traumatizing fever dream

almost choked to death

watched his whole world jump off of the highest point in the world

almost died plummeting off of the highest point in the world

was abandoned by Love of His Life for several depressed years

was literally fucking possessed

was taxed with the decision between becoming a vessel for the most dangerous individual in the world to destroy everything and hurt everyone he loves OR essentially ending his life (a conclusion he himself had to come to)

was under the impression that Love of His Life was dead (and he never got to tell her what he wanted to)

almost died pt 3

almost died pt 4-5

bound and brutally beaten + electrocuted (?)

watched the most important person in the world to him mercilessly tortured within an inch of her life

almost lost her AGAIN and had to destroy his entire moral compass in order to save her

tortured

almost died 6: choked pt 2

rayla

where do i begin

well first off grew up in the silvergrove and hey moonshadow elves i love ya but oh dear god -promotes "strength" and stoicism over discussing your feelings and admitting to your weaknesses -so bound (literally) by duty and oaths that faltering results in either being good as dead or dead as dead -ETC

equipped with a debilitating phobia of water--a fear most would see as bizarre and silly and exceptionally irrational--in a culture that as previously mentioned shuns fear to all hell

was left by her parents and (despite them having a perfectly good reason) never really healed

almost drowned which was not helped by the phobia

almost ravaged by an ancient vampire

an ASSASSIN who has to KILL PEOPLE but is a WHOLESOME SWEETHEART

haunted by her "constant" mistakes; her strengths get wholly overshadowed by her weaknesses

told by the father figure she revered that she is a stupid baby useless idiot (roughly)

was flatly told by Father Figure he expected to kill her (to which she's just like "fr prolly" good god girl you are fucked)

had to not only sit and listen to, but conform to horrid stereotypes she's been haunted by since she was a kid

nearly slowly lost a hand (and just straight up accepted like ik this isn't the point but i feel the need to address when she does some insanely broken shit)

saw a person wither to dust before her eyes i feel like we forget about this

almost died like pt 4 ish i literally cannot keep track what counts and whats too minor a near death experience and why do i have to ask these questions

watched the love of her life (shut up harry styles) suffocate in his sleep in her arms

almost died pt 5-8 ?

i once again don't even know where to begin this time with her ghosting. linking this post again but tldr she didn't do anything wrong, she believed she did, her society not only confirmed these suspicions but god they pinned her with so much more, and she was told that actually no and what the fuck is she supposed to do with that u just told her everything she knows is wrong and that she actually has worth and she is not keen on that mindset

almost died 9? i include this one bc soulfangs are terrifying

cooly came to the conclusion that she deserved to die for her parents mistakes (and fully intended on doing so)

almost died jumping off the highest point in the world

suffered from persistent nightmares

almost drowned (the phobia once again did not help)

was nearly killed by the dead former co-workers she feels responsible for killing

forced herself to leave behind Love of Her Life and if you don't think that was the hardest fucking thing in the world for her

spent two, miserable years alone, getting beaten down again and again (mentally and physically,) plagued by her vendetta, haunted by all she lost, never knowing comfort, never knowing love, and probably so much worse that we don't even know woohoo!

thought that, after years of painful wondering, the parents she desperately wanted back were killed right in front of her

almost died pt who even fucking knows

almost died

almost died

almost died

almost died

almost died

was absolutely fucking brutally tortured (within an inch of her life) 😚✌🌸✨✨

almost died horrendously (she rlly couldnt catch a break that day)

had to choose between pushing her trauma to the absolute limit or hating herself for not protecting her friends

almost died

ez

motherless

couldn't make friends (for a reason no one would believe)

that's why yo [daddy] dead. dead as hell. what shoes [he] got on what shoes [he] got on in [his] casket

almost drowned/froze

had the pressure of surviving as an orphan ANDD being a fucking king forced upon him at the same time

felt responsible for thousands of lives

was imprisoned

was almost motherfucking impaled by scary adult

all that? yea he was like 10

therefore

grew up weird like his brother and rayla

probably almost died a lot of times

imprisoned again & was threatened and bared witness to his brother + his closest friend tortured (+ almost murdered)

almost murdered by someone he once trusted

prolly a lot more idk i was gonna include soren n claudia but i am so fucking exhausted THESE KIDS ARE SO FUCKED OML 😭😭

[runawaymun]

if you don't mind me asking, what's wrong with kataang? i haven't watched avatar but i know the plot through osmosis, and wanted to hear your thoughts on that

Ah okay! Let me try to explain...

Caveat 1: this will probably be a bit rambly Caveat 2: it has been a long time since I watched either At:LA or TLoK, but I have watched it both as a kid (teenager, really) and as an adult multiple times.

My problems with kataang is kind of split into two categories: problems with the ship based off of who they are as characters from a writing/themes/narrative arc/messaging standpoint, and problems presented by how the creators of At:LA and TLoK - Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konieztko (not Aaron Ehasz you're doing amazing sweetie) treat the characters and seem to think about the characters, based off of choices that they made in the telling of the story, especially how the characters are treated in their endgame scenario in TLoK (which, notably, Aaron Ehasz didn't write for due to creative differences).

TLDR: IMO Kataang ruins the character arcs, they're bad for each other, and the writers did a disservice to Katara in favorite of their pet meow meow -- which hurt both character arcs and legacies, ultimately.

My chief issue is that Katara and Aang are bad for each other, romantically. They bring out the worst in each other. They're bad at holding healthy boundaries, bad at communicating, and the ship itself is very unbalanced. And I wouldn't have a problem with this if it was recognized by the narrative or the shippers, but the narrative treats them as a great love story when really it's anything but. I won't get into age differences -- because by the time they marry a two-year age difference is very negligible and I don't really think it's a good argument against the ship (even if I do think that shipping a 12 year old boy with a 14 year old girl is insane like what 14 year old girl WANTS to date a 12 year old boy. 12 year old boys are gross haha <3) -- but let's talk about it from a thematic and character growth standpoint.

Aang's arc is fundamentally about not running away from his problems, and learning to step into his role as the Avatar. He struggles with responsibility, struggles with emotional regulation, and struggles in the tension between being very much a 12-13yo kid, and being the Avatar, who has to save the world. His arc is beautiful. It's done SO WELL. And he manages to stay true to himself and I love that for him.

Katara's arc IMO is fundamentally about learning to fight for herself, and not just for others. Katara is very maternal. She has had to grow up extremely quickly in the face of losing both parents at a young age, and understanding that she has to live in constant fear of being murdered for her waterbending abilities. She constantly has to stand up for herself, and has a bad habit of suppressing difficult feelings in lieu of helping others work through theirs. This culminates in Katara taking several seasons (iirc) to actually properly talk to someone about her grief and the burden she is carrying, and to learn to set healthy boundaries -- to help her friends and to grow into a strong warrior and work on herself.

The problem here is that the narrative, over and over, forces Katara to emotionally regulate Aang, and this is never really addressed. They have really poor boundaries and she's always mothering him -- Aang is not a partner for her. He doesn't often reciprocate the same level of support that she gives to him -- mostly because he is twelve. Katara, narratively, acts like a crutch for Aang to lean on. Aang actively holds Katara back from setting healthy boundaries and growing into her own person.

They have an emotionally imbalanced relationship, and again -- Michael and Bryan really don't ever try to rectify this, and I think also they're just really bad at writing romance idk. Because over and over Aang makes passes at Katara, and Katara never really expresses interest. That could be down to Katara being bad at expressing her emotions, but it really doesn't feel like it. The last straw for me -- from a narrative standpoint, is the episode where Aang confesses his feelings to Katara, Katara literally says "I don't know how to feel. I'm confused." And Aang, without asking, decides that this is the perfect moment to kiss her.

Which, fine. They're kids. Kids make mistakes. They don't do things perfectly. I'm fine with characters making mistakes. But for a kids' show that's pretty intent on helping us all learn good life lessons -- this is never addressed. Katara is never given the chance to say "Hey, I didn't appreciate that." Aang never is made to apologize for crossing a boundary. It's treated as just a big stepping stone toward their incredibly forced romantic arc. And I hate hate hate when stories tell boys that the appropriate response to a girl asking for space to sort out her feelings/being unsure is to oh, just kiss her, to help her figure it out! instead of, I don't know, let her make up her own mind and give her space. "I don't know" is not fucking consent, and they shouldn't treat it like it is. Especially not in a kids' show.

Which-- yeah, that kind of leads well into my second problem with Kataang - which is how the creators of the show treat it. To them, Kataang is endgame, it is in the "DNA of the show" as one put it. Which is very weird to me because it is so, so poorly done, and the writers really seem to care so little for Katara. Why do I think this? Because of how they choose to treat Katara in TLoK.

Katara, in her 80s in TLoK, is relegated to a healer and teacher. She's insignificant to the story when characters like Zuko and Toph get much cooler entrances and scenes. She's stuck being a passive bystander to a war (Katara would never.) She's stuck being a healer (Which, sure, she is. But so much of At:LA she chafed at being put in that box! She's also a fighter, goddamnit!) -- and some people have tried to say "well what do you want an 80 year woman to do?" and I don't! fucking! buy it! Characters in At:LA were badass fighters well into their 80s, like Hama (the fearsome bloodbender), Pakku (the Waterbender), Iroh (y'know...), and most notably, Bumi, who is 112 fucking years old. Don't give me "80 year old Katara sits on her ass at home while the men go out and do things and Zuko, at the same age, is literally riding around the world on fucking dragonback." I won't have it. It's Katara slander, I tell you! Let that old woman be a badass!!!

And the writers even go so far as to erase her from her kids' lives! They never talk about her!!! It is always about Aang! Always Aang! And you just get the impression that Katara dropped absolutely everything to be "The Avatar's wife" and SHE DESERVED BETTER RAUDGAHSGH

She doesn't! even! get! an honorary statue! On the very island on which she should! be a war hero! Aang does! Toph does! Zuko does! EVEN SOKKA DOES. The ENTIRE Gaang gets a statue, except Katara. That is a deliberate art choice! WHY did they leave her out?

They absolutely destroyed her ENTIRE At:LA arc in TLoK, and I am honestly not even surprised because the writers have said outright that Aang is a self insert character, and that Kataang is "that childhood romance that we both wanted as kids". Katara, in their brains -- and idk maybe this is unjust-- but she seems to be just the amalgamation of those 14 year old girls that wouldn't give them the time of day when they were snotty twelve year olds, except they're writing the story so of course Aang gets the girl.

Anyway, this doesn't even go into how there are infinitely better choices for Katara, and how Aang's arc is worsened by having a romantic subplot, and etc. etc. I could go on forever about how much I dislike Kataang from a narrative standpoint.

Literally my first thought when I heard they left the Netflix show "due to creative differences" was: "Oh my god, is it because there's no kataang???" and now that there's confirmed to be no kataang and that they may be going a zutara route instead, I'm convinced that's why.

Because it's "in the DNA of the show, you see" they have broken with cocreators before over their pet self insert ship and the narrative treatment of Katara (Aaron Ehasz), and I don't see any reason why they'd change.

alkdasdlkgh anyway. God. Thanks for the ask! Sorry about the really long anti kataang rant aslkdgh. This got kind of aggressive but I do feel very strongly about the treatment of Katara. My girl deserved so much better.

[bibibbon]

Hey, it's the Yuuta critical Anon.

I was angry when I first saw partial glimpses of the leaks (they were a nasty shock when I first woke up yesterday so sorry if the first ask came out kind of nonsensical.)

However I have since learnt more and I do have to give Yuuta credit for him (and Yuuji) being the only ones alive to consider Gojo's personhood in the series and what he had to deal with as 'the strongest.'

Even Shoko, who is meant to be Gojo's bestie right alongside Geto, has no issues using Kenjaku's technique on Gojo so the sorcerers can continue using Gojo's body as a weapon.

I had thought that Gojo, Geto and Shoko were meant to mirror the Yuuji, Megumi and Nobara friend group but this throws that into doubt and makes her look awful. As I could see Megumi and Nobara vehemently objecting if Yuuji was in Gojo's place here.

Narratively? What does this creative choice add? Nothing. But it detracts everything.

Look at the fandom.

No one is talking of Yuuji's progress anymore or his fight against Sukuna. But not even the story is giving it focus anymore so I cant blame them.

Additionally, it just makes 99% of the cast (really everyone bar Yuuji who wasn't there or Yuuta who objected initially) look cold, bad and or in Gojo's case plain sad. Gojo apparently knowing he would lose / die all along is so OOC considering his previous arrogance and a retcon considering how Mahoraga carried Sukuna in thier fight. But that reasoning is there so the rest the cast do not look worse by adding consent issues into the moral mess of the body snatching because 'Gojo agreed to this if he died.'

TLDR - Tell me if I have my tin foil hat on here, but this feels like Gege dunking on the Gojo fans in the cruelest way while Yuuji gets robbed of the focus he deserves (as the MC!) Especially considering all the progress he has made fighting against Sukuna.

Hi again yuta anon 👋

I found your ask really interesting to be honest because I somewhat agreed with it.

I like the fact yuta consistently acknowledges Gojo and what society has put him through but I really don't like the whole him taking over gojos body after gojos death type of thing. I just hated it. I can see what gege was trying to do but it was horrible wiring decision and I will stick by that opinion especially when he could of done many more things like have kenjaku come back in gojos body and have yuta take Getos CT which I think would of been two very interesting ways to enrich the parallels and contrasts within the series.

To be honest I find it really interesting how gege chooses to portray shoko and her character. I wouldn't call her flimsy but I definitely think that her and Gojo have a horribly strained relationship that fell apart slowly after geto left Jujutsu tech. She does care for him as seen in the chapter before his unsealing and heck even during Gojo Vs sukuna battle she was shown to be smoking a ton of cigarettes and seriously panicking over him. However, shoko like everyone else does seem to see gojos strength more than the real person. Her not saying anything makes sense but just because she didn't say anything doesn't mean that she doesn't care for him. She also at the beginning didn't believe he would die and I don't think we should forget that has been dealing with dead bodies for a long time and since a young age. Shoko just never got to show grief in a traditional sense and is also currently surrounded by other comrades dead and injured bodies. I do however see your point and honestly wish that akutami gave us more of shoko before having moments like this.

Gojo, geto and shoko are indeed supposed to be a parallel of yuji, megumi and nobara. I see and honestly can't help but agree with it considering that megumi and nobara would never agree to yujis body being used like that. Heck I don't think any of them would agree to eachothers bodies being used like that. However, the trio is supposed to contrast the other. Shoko, Gojo and geto genuinely fell apart and gege did highlight some of shokos insecurities of her feeling left out in that trio. This could be interpreted as a gege trying to contrast the two trios🤷‍♀️. Honestly I can't say much about our current trio considering that I want nobara back and that she should of came back but oh well gege.

In all respects I hate the current narrative choice that gege took by bringing back Gojo in such a way and I stand by the fact that he should of stayed dead next to Getos body or that he is possessed by kenjaku and ends up dead next to kenjaku. Also this narrative choice really took away from the true focus of things which I supposed to be MEGUMI AND ITADORI. I swear we didn't get the yuji revelation not too long ago but everyone has seemingly forgotten about it and it's disappointing. I would of liked more focus on yuji and build up considering that I had some trouble with the way his power was revealed and I would of enjoyed some little build ups and hints (I do admit that the series did have some of them but I would of still enjoyed more of them). Then there is megumi, we haven't seen the poor quy since 251 (I think) where he was genuinely crying and telling yuji to give up on him or that he doesn't care anymore. Well we know that now megumi has gone through a lot more and I honestly don't know what gege is going to do with him because it's not looking like he is going to have a good ending. (Megumi deserves better, the hate he gets for simply crying is insane)

I wouldn't call it a RETCON in all honesty I feel like Gojo could of beaten sukuna if sukuna wasn't using mahoraga but him using mahoraga does change a lot of things and considering how easily (well not easily) Gojo was taken down in shibuya by kenjaku that would of put a lot of the cast (whom initially put all of their faith and trust into what they believed to be an unbreakable beacon of power) have some concerns about what they should do if Gojo was to be taken down and killed. Its an unfortunate circumstance but it makes sense. Also this is my opinion but I believe that Gojo wasn't that willing to agree but simply agreed for the sake of his students and giving them a proper chance considering that he was expecting shoko to decline the suggestion.

Tldr: I really don't think you have a tin hat on anon and this could be seen as gege genuinely dunking on Gojo in a horrible way. In all honesty Iam not a huge hater for authors who hate on their characters as long as they do it properly aka properly make the character suffer in a narrative way instead of pulling some bs like this. Also I used to enjoy how gege wrote yujis character at the beginning but Iam honestly developing doubts considering geges writing choices.

[slotmachines-fearofgod]

hi! just have read your fic with cody&soka bonding dynamic(and planning to read more ur stuff), and do im interested, have you any h/c or any thoughts on how canon could represents cody/ahsoka in some arc/case /etc or even other SW's characters you inetersted in

in general, just wanna to hear you and your thoughts, no rules or restrictions . thanks a lot for the things you have done to fandom

with the best wishes, your reader

oh man that's a good question and i have a long answer so here goes:

so cody and ahsoka never actually interact in canon (devastating), however we do see some similarities in their bonds with the people around them. for instance, they're both close with rex (confirmed by rebels and dave filoni in cody's case) and have earned his close confidence and trust. they both look to obi-wan as sort of a pillar of what a jedi should be (confirmed by bad batch season 2 & literally all of clone wars) and they're comfortable within the bounds of their respective relationships with obi-wan. i think, if there ever were an arc in which they got to be together/cody got actual screen time, it would realistically look close to what rex and ahsoka's relationship looks like.

things we canonically know about cody:

he and obi-wan were very close friends due to needing to spend most days together

he and rex were close due to their command positions and assumed training together

he feels comfortable giving up his command to a different person so long as he finds them experienced and ambitious enough to take on the challenge

the last thing he wants is to fight in a war

so obviously a very short list. ahsoka's would be much longer, which is why i'm not writing it, but from a character standpoint that already gives us a pretty solid platform on which to start. cody isn't lenient, ahsoka isn't used to people letting her mess around (too much) so they'd work well together in a battle/training environment. cody isn't so insecure that he feels as though he NEEDS to be in control, and even verbally hands the reins over to rex in the initial domino/rishi moon episode, whereas Ahsoka's character arc is about learning to take control and become confident in her abilities. that gives us a good in for chemistry, as cody is a strategist and can read people fairly accurately. he wouldn't feel threatened by ahsoka because he knows that any command position she assumed would still defer to his station. so now cody is at ease around her. but what makes ahsoka be at ease around him?

my big argument for that one is the aforementioned relationships with rex and obi-wan. these are two people that ahsoka trusts and holds very close, and thus seeing someone else earn the same level of respect as her would automatically lower her hackles so to speak. she knows obi-wan or rex would warn her off if cody was a real danger to her, and she trusts their judgement of character, so upon being introduced to the guy who's obi-wan's closest friend outside of the jedi and rex's Brother (capital B brother because he has a lot of brothers but not a lot of Brothers), she'd probably be eager to meet him. Ahsoka is very excitable in the series because she's a young girl, and it's only in the later seasons that she stops being as excited to meet new people and go new places.

TLDR: the ties to obi-wan and rex would lend ahsoka to viewing cody favorably, whereas ahsoka's discipline and dedication to peace/the jedi order would lower cody's defenses enough to let her in

[mizukagami-takamagahara]

I don't have a perfect grasp on Jubei as a character yet (haven't even started a proper character study of him) but I was thinking about him the other day, and his role as a father. People like to talk/debate/joke about him being a good or bad parent, and I get that's its own conversation, but it got me thinking.

I ended up, uh, rambling here, so TLDR;

I think Jubei's decision to start taking in kids like Ragna, Luna and Sena was inspired by a lot of complicated feelings, including

Every time he leaves, thinking the kids will be safe, things go to shit- he's guilty for that and doesn't want to make the same mistake again. (Kokonoe clearly hated her childhood, he left the kids with Celica and then the Church Incident happened)

Ragna looks so much like 'Bloodedge,' there may have been a sense of closeness/familiarity there, and a desire to not leave his friend behind a second time- especially to face certain death again (Bloodedge v. Black Beast, kid Ragna v. Terumi)

Ragna's desire to hunt down and kill Terumi could also bring back memories of Tomonori, who Jubei let chase Terumi despite knowing he couldn't win- and surprise, surprise, Tomonori died. Could Jubei let another person make the same mistake??? Let a fucking kid do it?

Jubei never really agrees to be a father or a parent to these kids, and doesn't see himself as one. He agrees to be their teacher until they're strong enough to take care of themselves, because they have no one else.

Wow even my TLDRs are too fuckin' long

As for the theory/rant in its entirety, which may just repeat the same points in more words;

I'd argue that Jubei hasn't wanted to be a father since Kokonoe. I haven't been able to read the parts of Phase Shift where he and Nine are together, so I don't know how he felt about having a child on the way. But as I understand it, he didn't leave her until he was being framed as a terrorist, being hunted down, at risk of being executed/assassinated.

He left Kokonoe behind in hopes she would be safer without him. Ultimately that may not have been the best choice, but it was a reasonable choice for a man who would have to spend the rest of his life on the run. And since then, I don't think he's ever seen himself as a father.

He got involved in Ragna's life first when he rescued the sibling trio from the lab where they were being held. We don't know a hell of a lot about that story either, but it seems like he had zero intention of raising any of them. He brings them to Celica, where he thinks they'll be safe and he can fully trust that they'll be loved. He views Celica as capable of being a parent, but he knows he himself isn't. He's a wanderer, a warrior, he can't provide the kids the life they deserve. So, again, he leaves them behind, where he thinks they can have a better life.

But he's wrong. He's so, so wrong. After the attack on the church, Jubei's only remaining family is dead, and everything Ragna had is also gone, assumed dead. Jubei walked away once and hurt his daughter, he walked away twice and lives were lost.

I think his choice to take Ragna in, after that, was a complicated one. I don't think Jubei ever saw it as adoption. I'd argue that Jubei and Ragna are undoubtedly a family, but I don't think Jubei would call it that openly, and I definitely don't think he was looking at it like that at the start.

I think, for Jubei, it was the only choice left after his neglect had caused so much pain.

And I think, knowing Terumi was at the heart of it again, seeing Ragna's hatred and desire for revenge, I think maybe Jubei thought of Tomonori. The brother he lost because he let him chase Terumi alone. Maybe that circled back, as another person his inaction/abandonment had left to die. How could he walk away again? Let another person charge unprepared into a fight against Terumi? Let a kid do it?

And I find it pretty hard to believe that, looking at young Ragna, Jubei didn't see his old friend. Bloodedge. Someone who changed his life, someone he held onto the memory of years after the short time they knew each other. Someone who also 'died' (as far as Jubei knows) because Jubei left him behind- even if he was asked to, even if they agreed upon it, even if it was for the best.

And even then, Jubei never considers himself a father. He doesn't let or encourage Ragna to call him 'dad', even though it's clear he loves him like a son. He doesn't see himself as a father. He agreed to be a (combat) teacher. That's what Ragna wanted and (in Jubei's eyes) needed at the time. It's what Luna and Sena would later need of him. Jubei has been a warrior all his life- he can be a teacher. But I don't think he thinks he could be a father, and I don't think he would ever agree to be one if asked. Not since he lost Kokonoe.

[janiedean]

25th hour and city of thieves I never read the book so why did you compare them to jaime jon and ygritte

eeeeh it's been years since I dealt with either and god why do I even have to admit benioff can write when he wants to but anyway

25th hour has nothing to do with asoiaf it's just a really good script and it turned into a really good movie

the thing with city of thieves is... okay tldr the basic plot is two russian men (lev and kolya) are taken prisoner during the leningrad siege and are promised freedom if they manage to find eggs to bake a birthday cake for the daughter of the guy who arrested them (obv hard to find during a siege where everyone was dying of hunger), they go around trying to find the eggs, at some point they go out of town in this mansion where they supposedly had a bunch of chickens and it turns out that the mansion is full of girls who were kept there as nazi prisoners for you can imagine which reasons, they team up with the local partisans to save them, the partisans include a young girl named vika who is v good at warfare and eventually falls in love with lev, blah blah blah not spoiling things but at the end they have to separate then *she* finds him post-war bringing eggs, he tells her they can make an omelette and she replies she can't cook, that was your basic plot thing is, lev is a 17yo bucket of walking angst who has Issues because his father was arrested and deported by the government because he was too much of a free thinker for them and jewish, bad combination when it comes to stalin government (as far as I recall), doesn't really want to admit that he might be dead-dead at least in the beginning, doesn't talk too much and isn't too social, also being jewish he already felt singled out and like he had to mix/blend/be better than his father or smth like that kolya was taken prisoner for being a deserter, doesn't appreciate authority all that much, cracks bad jokes all the time and irritates lev bc he doesn't take shit seriously except when he gets serious when it comes to saving the girls used as unwilling prostitutes, if I don't recall wrong he was extremely attractive/charming vika basically was going guerrilla stuff, was a better shot than them, went at lev every other moment like I know way mroe than you about stuff (which she did btw), was the one pursuing him more actively and I don't remember if she was a redhead or not but like... the personality fit the bill now like idk if it was obvious from my bad summary and ofc there were differences (like for one kolya had a nice active sex life with a bunch of female friends instead of yknow toxic rship with his twin) but when it comes to character archetypes/personalities lev and jon were pretty much the same deal from the teenage angst to the daddy issues to needing to keep the family name honorable, jaime and kolya had a good 70% of basic traits in common and vika and ygritte were the exact same type including the romance where they make the first move and not being stereotypical feminine which is why idg why the fuck benioff managed to write a book with three main chars that are the exact same archetypes as jon jaime and ygritte with the obvious differences and then completely fucking up adapting jon/jaime in the series because if he could write city of thieves there is absolutely no way he actually misread the og characters nor didn't realize what they were there for so...................... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ idk and I guess I never will but if I wrote an asoiaf au of city of thieves with that recast no one would bat an eyelid, I compared them because they're the same tropes obv written different and in another context but it was so glaringly obvious I'm still asking myself wtf went wrong there almost ten years later

anyway as much as it pains me to say city of thieves was actually a pretty good book so like idk if anyone feels like obtaining it through whichever mean they find most ethical when it comes to maybe or not financing benioff it's not a waste of your time

[softpine]

i mean, elaine was also there when that women committed suicide. and obviously jada is affected the most by her mother’s death (and not preventing that other women’s death), but they all saw her mom die in a car crash at a very young age iirc. now, i know this is a story where we have characters who see dead ppl all the time, but like damn.

i get what anon meant kinda, so don’t wanna claim they said that in bad faith. nor do a wanna pit the gangs traumas against each other. but also idk the phrasing “she doesn’t have anything bad going on” is weird/lacks depth to me; yes elaine is the most immature and she’s been through less, but also she’s still impacted like everyone else from the shit she’s been through. if anything i’d argue she’s partly like that not from innocence but because of trauma.

like part of her and stevie’s friendship is built on the trauma that they probably feel like no one else will understand besides the 4 of them. so while i don’t agree with her, i understand why she said stevie is her problem.

and i’m saying this a someone whose least favorite character in the gang is probably elaine, and who agreed with austin through 90% of that argument until the end. also, i repeat, i’m not trying to bicker with anon as a fellow frozen pines enjoyer 🤝 i hope i didn’t misread yours or anon’s points.

tldr; idrc that that anon doesn’t like elaine, but yeah their reasoning could’ve been way better (also u don’t have to post this if u rather move on from the convo)

okay yeah i have to answer this because i 100% agree. me when i have no trauma 🤪

originally i had written a paragraph about how the bar for being considered "traumatized" in frozen pines is extremely high by comparison, so even though she isn't being re-traumatized every day, she's still been through hardships. if we plopped her in an ordinary teen story, elaine might actually be the one who has seen the most shit. but i erased it because.. idk. it feels icky to say that there's a certain amount of trauma a person must experience before they're allowed to act a certain way / be forgiven for the way they act. but let's talk about it, because you're exactly right that part of the way elaine acts is a trauma response.

there was a huge time skip after aileen died, so we don't know exactly how elaine dealt with the aftermath, but we do know this:

elaine's only goal was to cheer jada up, so she didn't get into her own feelings about aileen's death, she just wanted jada to know that she's not the only one haunted by the memory. their friend group is bonded by this memory that no one else understands – hell, even the girls don't understand what happened that day. only asa knows the truth. so they're bonded in uncertainty too.

when austin fails to show up to a date on time, elaine thinks: "What if he got in an accident? Did he forget his seatbelt again? Oh, God, I told him! He’s dying in a ditch somewhere and I’m sitting here all annoyed at him!" and when she visits austin's house for the first time, she realizes he lives right next to the train tracks where aileen died, and thinks, "I wish he didn’t live so close to the train…" (btw he lives VERY close to the train, so elaine has to hear it outside his window every time she spends the night)

it's been years, but aileen's death is still at the forefront of elaine's mind. it also shows that she turns that trauma into worry for other people. we've never seen her worry about her own safety in this way, even after she starts driving.

after she witnesses the woman die from jumping off the bridge, austin gives her a bunch of advice for how to survive a big fall, which comforts her a lot, but she's horrified to learn that austin has also jumped off that bridge for fun. it's one of the only times we've seen her be truly pissed off, and it's because the fear of losing austin in that way terrifies her. she can't believe he's being so casual about it (and cocky, honestly. he says: "It was sick. I didn't break anything. [...] You could do it too if you practiced.") again, elaine doesn't find it distressing to imagine herself in a dangerous situation, but as soon as she imagines someone she cares about doing it, she panics.

no doubt about it, elaine lacks awareness when talking about gruesome deaths with other people. while stevie makes jokes about her trauma, jada avoids the subject like the plague, asa channels his trauma into helping ghosts... elaine overshares and downplays death. she's interested in true crime because she's already seen the horrors of death and now she just wants to understand the why and how of it (she even says: "Death isn't so scary when you understand the science behind it.") she doesn't believe in religion, she's not spiritual, and she doesn't believe in ghosts. all she can do is cling onto the physical effects of dying and everything that she can learn from it. the way she's able to cope with the things she's seen is by treating it like something that happened to someone else, far away from her. can this be insensitive? yes, absolutely. but this is something she can definitely learn from and change. again, she's only 17... she's gonna have some wacky views about mortality.

so that's what we know so far about elaine's trauma and how it changes her behavior. but without spoiling anything.... in a short time, you're about to see the effects of her trauma in a big way, so it's good to put this out as a refresher!

[closet-of-bones]

So I had a realisation today. AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO FEEL ABOUT IT! Just hear me out if you've nothing else to do. Personal rant ahead, funny story tho. I think it's interesting?

TLDR: my love of Sun & Moon might have been written in the stars??? Destiny?????

So a little fun fact about me! I am a big fan of Sun & Moon. I'm a fan of the FNaF series as a whole and have dedicated a lot of my life to it but my love for the Daycare Attendant is just something else. I really like them. They are the kinds of characters that I love in every sense.

Another thing I am REALLY into?? Fairies. I'm not completely sure why but my obsession with the fae is a big one. My first ever hyperfixation was fairies. I'm actually in the middle of building a fairy garden irl with glowing fairy houses, hidden lore...the whole she-bANG! ✨️

Growing up I had a MASSIVE collection of Rainbow Magic fairy books. Literally hundreds of them. I loved having them read to me as a very small child and when I grew up to being a kid big enough that my family stopped reading books to me I loved coming home from school to curl up in my room and read them to myself. Over and over again. All of them in order. I loved imagining myself into the stories as if I were a third of the main cast. I love writing stories and making little worlds up now probably because of this obsession I had.

Today I got curious about something. I was having a conversation with someone and somehow Jack Frost (the main bad guy in the book series) came up. It had been a long time since I'd last seen an image of him so I looked the guy up.

And quite literally mid-conversation, whilst studying the guy absently and still talking to my friend, I paused. I knew exactly what I was looking at, I'd seen the guy MANY times before and was very familiar with him, but something just seemed different this time. A very strange sense of familiarity I hadn't felt before was nagging at me from the back of my mind.

And then it clicked. Suddenly it all made a little more sense.

Just take a moment to look at this silly guy if you havent before.

There he is. The silly little guy in all of his comically villainous glory. Does he remind you of anyone in any way? Even a little bit??

Is there a sense of familiarity here?

It's them. That strange familiarity that was playing in the back of my head upon seeing him again.

IT'S THEM!

And somehow it makes even more sense if you know anything about his character I swear

They are almost built to be exactly what I would like. What I have liked since I was young. It must have been destiny that I would become obsessed with these characters right?! Genuinely, I thought I just liked jesters. I thought I just liked the Jekyll and Hyde dynamic. The opposites. The pairs?? Whatever you want to call them. I thought that was my attraction to Sun & Moon. And it is! But there's something else. It's been deep rooted into me.

The designs. The similarities. It's been burned into my brain from a time long gone. All this time!

And I had no idea. Until today lmao. It doesn't change anything of course, I still love them. In fact I love them even more now. But it's just so interesting to me-!

It's like I've been doing a character study on myself. Discovering how my own brain works. I can't stop thinking about it.

I think I have a type. And it's quirky, bouncy little trickster guys with silly goals, blue colours and something spiky around their faces.

. . .

Okay so...rant over! 👏 I need to lie down ＼( _ _);

[hyunsoolgc]

(    >    Hello, it’s Sera ( @lgcseojin ) and I would like to introduce you to aspiring actor, Lee Hyunsoo! With him, I would love to fill in the gaps with people I have not yet gotten the chance to thread/plot with; especially if you think that he could have an interaction with your muse! He’s a bit of an interesting character with quite a few eccentricities, so please feel free to check out the TLDR about him below! I don’t have a twt but you can reach me on discord if you ask for it. If you're interested in plotting, shoot me a message or like ♡ this post and I will get back to you if I can think of something!  )

>    𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒆  /  𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒓  /  𝒑𝒍𝒐𝒕𝒔

BACKGROUND !!

Came into this cursed world February 2nd, 2002 (020202).

Born in Seongnam. But they lived in Honolulu for about 5 years until he was 9 or 10 years old before moving back. Mother had a bit of a breakdown and decided their old house was cursed after Hyunsoo fell and broke his arm. She had a mansion commissioned that took years to build.

His mother, Hwang Jiyoon, is a traditional Korean (Pansori) singer, and his father, Lee Minjae, is a renowned piano prodigy and the only member of his family who he feels has been kind to him.

Has an older brother that’s a professional composer and violinist who he's been at odds with since childhood ( mother's doing ) and a younger sister that’s interested in studying fashion.

He often feels like the forgotten middle child.

His parents ( okay, well mostly mom ) pushed him to sing & play piano from a young age and he just ran with it after a while to passively please them.

In middle school he "rebelled" by joining a youth baseball team, despite having no previous interest in sports. Ended up quitting when high school came around but continued to idly go to batting ranges or played soccer with his few friends.

Went to Hanlim out of obligation to his parents but ended up not minding it ( especially since he ended up meeting some friends there! ), and it was a lot better than just being forced to do piano recitals.

However, he was bullied pretty badly by this one group of guys ( specifically one of them ) and kind of hasn't recovered from how traumatic all of it was. It changed him a fair amount and someone who was more meek and generous became closed off and aloof.

To top it off, his mother is a... pretty horrible person. Kids with narcissistic mothers, please stand up.

OTHER STUFF & PERSONALITY !!

Thinks he doesn’t deserve to be an actor because he’s convinced his parents used their money to help him get into the company. ( Despite it not being true. )

As of January 2024 he has repaired his relationship with his brother and gone no contact with his mother after an especially bad fight during chuseok.

Major imposter syndrome alert.

Often buys things for his friends without much question; however, he keeps a very detailed list of those who owe him and how much. ( Does he expect them to pay him back? Nah, but it's funny to pull up randomly. )

Although he puts on more of an act "on stage", he finds value in being sincere in who he is and not changing his personality, even if he comes across as a bit cold and awkward at first.

Has a difficult time making friends and being social but he is trying his best.

Aquarius sun, Libra moon, Pisces rising

Looks like a cinnamon roll, is probably one. He seems warm and approachable because of his appearance but is actually quite composed and polite.

Tends to be more stoic (in a soft way) but the more you get to know him, the more talkative he becomes.

That being said, he has the tendency to "fact attack". He is very honest with his opinions though not necessarily about his feelings or other things.

Pretty noncommittal as in, fickle and not interested in relationships over his career. Has had a few somes than an actual relationship.

When he’s not doing schedules, he’s playing video games, especially on the computer he built and customized himself. Obsessed ( and I mean obsessed ) with video games in general. Good luck trying to get him away from Elden Ring, he's still on that train.

If he wasn’t aiming to be an actor, he would be in a field that deals with computer science and technology.

A notable and open fan of multiple girl groups; especially Twice and Oh My Girl. Crystallis and Fabula, too, obviously. He didn't forget about the boy groups either. He is something of an idol connoisseur.

He did not know how to dance when he was accepted into the company.

Claims he intends to friend-zone his fans. ( And everyone else, probably. )

Still not comfortable with some of the stuff celebs have to do. He doesn’t seem to like acting so close to actual strangers, and the crowding some fans do make him pretty anxious. However, he's good at acting cute.

Believes aliens and ghosts are real.

His favorite fanservice is making finger hearts in creative and strange ways.

His acting idols are Kang Haneul, Do Kyungsoo and Seo Inguk.

Has a panic disorder and will often self-isolate when things are not going well.

Wears glasses and can’t see that well without them. He can technically afford Lasik but he thinks the glasses give him a certain charm.

Afraid of heights; will basically physically shut down and cry if he has to go up somewhere too high.

Certified lover of cats. He wants to adopt a kitten when he gets his own place. UPDATE: He has adopted a 14 year old cat named Cocoa Bean.

[spectral-kitkat]

the "severus versus james" debate kills my joy. why can't both ""sides"" just admit they were all morally questionable as teenagers/(very) young adults? but nooooooo, they're still discussing AD NAUSEAM who was worse and who was better. yeah, it's fun to analyze and discuss characters and their morality and all that, but it has been literally years! surely all that had to be said has been said already! not to mention that both ""sides"" are equally annoying and often wrong: equally willing to disregard "canon" for their own benefit and utterly incapable of being unbiased. there is NOT an true/real/truly objective answer to that question within the books, no matter how much people seems to think there is! if anything, the authorial intent was for us to like (or at the very least understand/empathize with) BOTH. just like harry, who is the narrative's focus and (arguably) its moral compass, at the end of the books. after all, he names his children after both (and wouldn't it have been hilarious if the child's name had been james severus? ((i'd cry) i wonder if people would have then fought that it should have been severus james instead). a lot/most of our opinions about these two characters are entirely dependent on how we have PERSONALLY interpreted what we've read through the lens of our personal preferences/morals/values.

tldr; there is no objectivity in the severus versus james debate and i'm tired of (some many) people pretending there is!

it was so good to take all of that out of my chest! 😬😬😬

anyways: what are some of your marauders hcs?? and, what are your thoughts on regulus?

Sometimes ranting helps 😂😂 even if it is about fictional characters

The whole thing between the Marauders and Snape has been so blown out of proportion by the fandom that so much canon lore/story has been overlooked cause they want it to boil down to “1 side good, 1 side bad”. They forget that characters aren’t just 1 dimensional and can actually have complex story arcs…

Some of my marauders headcanons?

• Lately the big one I have is that some time in the summer before 5th year Remus has a particular bad moon and he comes back to Hogwarts with his cane. He uses one as an adult so it isn’t far fetched to think he might’ve had one in school. I feel like he probably didn’t like using it all that much as a teenager since he thought it was just yet another thing that singled him out.

• I also hc that in 6th year James tells Lily he’s giving up. He can see that he’s made her uncomfortable and that the whole thing with Snape (the ‘mudblood’ incident in SWM) has made him realise he would much rather have her in his life as a friend then not at all. This gives Lily an entire year to get to know him properly before SHE asks HIM out in 7th year

• Peter being the Wizard Chess God of the friend group is another one. I feel like it adds the aspect that he has always been really clever at predicting moves and shows that he is quite the schemer. The marauders (and Gryffindor tower) have a rule that when playing ‘winner-stays-on’ chess, Peter is only allowed 3 back to back games.

My thoughts on Regulus:

I love him! He is my second favourite character in HP behind Remus. The perfect son who eventually turns traitor to his family. He risks everything for his friendship with his house-elf and I can honestly see him joining S.P.E.W if he was still alive during Harry’s years at Hogwarts 😂. For a guy who only got like what maybe a 5 minute mention in the book he managed to stand out in such an amazing way!

I actually based my ipad case off him:

The latin stands for: ‘the stars incline us, they do not bind us’

Which i think just perfectly sums up Regulus in 1 phrase! His whole life the stars (his family - all named after stars) have constantly drilled into his head what it means to be a pureblood and what side he should be on in the upcoming war but when it comes down to it none of those lessons or his upbringing mattered as long as he did what was right!

He is such an interesting character even though he was only a minor one

[naquey]

Let's Talk: Fanfiction Tropes

The girl who brings a book to a concert

I believe this was very popular when there was One Direction fanfiction. Don't be afraid to correct me if I'm wrong. I've been writing fanfiction and in fandoms since I was in fifth grade. And I've not experienced enough to know the detailed history of certain things. But this was a very prominent trope when I was growing up.

In my opinion, it was the predecessor to "I'm not like other girls," but more so in the way of saying "I'm not like other fans," I feel this was mainly written around ages 11-12 when young kids first get into fanfiction. Now, inherently, there is nothing wrong with the trope if you like writing it. There is nothing wrong with any tropes, if I'm being honest. Still, I feel the need to talk about this because not only do I enjoy reading celebrity romances, but I'm not only writing a one-shot of one but also thinking about Starstruck. The Disney movie from the 2010's era. Back when Disney was at its peak, but that's another conversation for another time.

Logistically, a girl bringing a book to a concert, or anyone for that matter, sounds ridiculous. Concerts are loud and dark. Depending on the venue, you are sitting or standing, and the singer or band on the stage is the main form of entertainment. Most of the time, the MC doesn't want to be there and is dragged by their sister or friend because of an unknown circumstance. Either their parents made the sibling take them, or the person they originally intended to go with canceled at the last minute. Although I have only ever been to a single concert in my twenty years of living, concerts aren't the best place to read a book.

Now, I get it. I'm taking all the whimsy and fun out of the idea. Among the sea of adoring fans, the one person who isn't paying attention and doesn't want to be there is singled out by the artist or band. Or this is just a quirky way of showing a character doesn't care. But it would either be a venue with very dim lighting, or they would be bringing a book light. If they were standing, craning their neck for a couple of hours would be absolutely horrid, but if they were sitting, it still wouldn't be ideal.

"It's not that deep," Yeah? Well, cool, I know it isn't. But the fact of the matter is that I want to understand the why and the how. Don't get me wrong, we all want to be noticed by our favorite celebrity (maybe not in this era, but still). I never liked the whole idea of a character bringing a book to a concert venue because they wouldn't be able to read it. Essentially, the book is just a prop that separates the MC from everyone else. The MC usually secretly likes the music and wants to hide it from everyone because it's not "cool."

Starstruck does this trope differently, but it follows the same beats. Jessica Olsen and her family go to Cali to visit their grandmother, and her younger sister is absolutely obsessed with Christopher Wilde. She finds out where he's going and who he's dating, and the sister tries to score a date with him at the nightclub for teens. (I can only assume it's for teens.) Christopher is told he can't look bad in tabloids anymore because his career is growing, so he sneaks out and runs right into Jessica, injuring her nose when he opens the door. He thinks she's one of his fans and bribes her not to tell anyone; in the process, he takes her to his house and drives his friend's car from the club so he doesn't get caught.

There is no book, but that's not the point. Jessica doesn't care about Christopher Wilde and even says that to his face. In his subconscious, he realizes she sees him differently than most of his fans do. He has to take Jessica home, and unfortunately, the paparazzi follow him there, leading him to spend the night hoping they go away. (This isn't the movie's end, but I think you should watch it. Yes, it is a DCOM, and Disney is being absolutely disgusting right now, but pirate it, pls, and thx.)

TLDR: A celebrity meets a cute girl who thinks he's overrated, and they end up falling for each other.

I'll be honest. I really like this trope. I like the idea of opposites attracting and being picked out of a crowd. But I swear, the MC almost always is a girl who doesn't like girly things. And no, girls do not have to like girly things to be well... a girl. But it screams, "I'm not like other girls," in a way that puts down people who may be fans of the artist or band. And, like, yeah, this could be a 12-year-old's first look at fanfic about Harry Styles or whatever, and that's okay! It's not a bad thing! I could be reaching and looking into things too much, but it feels like a way to put girls and women down by othering them.

I'll let women decide if it's misogynistic or not because I, as a man, am not going to decide that for them. I can't tell them what is shitting on women and what isn't. And this entire rant could be me overreaching or overreacting, but if anything, it's food for thought. I'm open to discussing this topic, however silly it may be. I like dissecting tropes and getting to the root of things.

[henbytheshore]

Shane for bingo!

Character Opinion Bingo

Shane From Stardew Valley

I am the most normal person about him ever :)))

In all serious though, Shane is my scrunkly, the wet pathetic man that I adore in my little farming game and fandom is so mean to him sometimes ;3;

I'm about to ramble ;3;

For a TLDR: Shane suffers from bad depression and clearly self-medicates through alcohol; he's very rude when you start talking to him, but as you befriend him, he softens up to you and realises you genuinely do want to be friends with him (or marry him as he is a dateable NPC).

A lot of people give him so much flack, and are always spouting the whole "you can't fix him" rhetoric

And it's like

Yeah I'm not trying to fix anyone??

I'll try and keep it as spoiler free possible, but during the cutscenes you get as you befriend Shane, you see a lot of it is Shane taking the steps to help himself get better through therapy and trying to cut down on his drinking. Your character doesn't force them to do that, your character is just there helping them though. One of his lines is literally him saying he realises he has people here that really do care for him. You're not fixing him you're showing him he has support, even when he's his absolute lowest point.

And I think a lot of people don't seem to understand that, nor do they understand depression and addiction.

Like a big complaint is his room is messy and that he still drinks after his events.

Yeah; depressed people tend to have messy rooms and are more unkempt because we're depressed and don't see a fucking point in keeping things organised. And yeah I also wish there were less lines about him drinking BUT addiction just doesn't magically go away and considering how bad it was it would probably kill him if he just stopped cold turkey u_u

He's a weirdo, he's kinda gross, but I love him because he's weird and he's gross T~T

His character is abrasive at first because you're a new random person in town and he's depressed; depressed people don't tend to let new people in super quickly, even close people, for numerous reasons. But like when you become his friend it's shown he's just a fucking marshmallow ;3;

at least i think he's a marshmallow ;3;

One of his cutscenes after he cuts down his drinking is him using that money to get his Goddaughter/Niece, Jas, a pair of Bunny Jewel Slippers which are literally stated to be expensive - the first thing he does is literally give a gift to his young niece, she's the first person he thought of ;3;

And he has chickens! He loves them, he's just a soft, squishy, silly chicken man and I love him ;3;

[wixhing0nastar]

I’ve headcanoned for a little while now that Luz has undiagnosed BPD and this latest episode really solidified that thought for me.

(Spoilers and lots of mental health talk below)

TLDR: Luz exhibits enough BPD symptoms to in theory get diagnosed, without falling into harmful stereotypes. Which is really cool in a world where BPD is currently so heavily stigmatized.

I’m going to steal a definition for BPD from NAMI, because I’ve found a lot of people misunderstand what BPD is and assume it’s just someone being uncontrollably angry when it’s a whole lot more than that.

“Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a condition characterized by difficulties regulating emotion. This means that people who experience BPD feel emotions intensely and for extended periods of time, and it is harder for them to return to a stable baseline after an emotionally triggering event.”

(Note it doesn’t say that these feelings come out of nowhere, just that you have trouble regulating them).

Additionally, BPD’s kinda baseline driving force (especially in social settings) is a severe fear of abandonment by the people closest to you (source: my therapist, who diagnosed and is treating my BPD currently).

Looking at the diagnostic criteria, some of them would be hard to prove given we can’t really get inside Luz’s head (like splitting for example) but others are pretty blatant in the show. For example:

Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment by friends and family.

Luz has a habit of going way above and beyond to try to keep the people in her life happy with her, sometimes even to the detriment of her own health (and often making things worse in her attempts).

Examples: Hosting the Midnight Conjuring for Gus and Willow even though Eda had said no (106). Agreeing to stay in the human realm with her mom even though the thought makes her miserable (210). Not telling Amity that she attacked the Abomitron because she was scared Amity would get upset (214).

Distorted and unstable self-image, which affects moods, values, opinions, goals and relationships.

This one’s a little harder to point to in the show but feels like such an important part of Luz’s character at the same time.

I think the best example of this is in Separate Tides. We see Luz blaming herself for what happened to Eda (and Lilith) and acting out because of it. We also see this very prominently in Hunting Palismen where Luz’s inner turmoil is revealed to be bad enough she can’t even get a palismen to bond with her because she doesn't know who she is deep down yet.

Impulsive behaviors that can have dangerous outcomes

Luz literally ran away from home to live with a total stranger (love you Eda) in another realm that’s so dangerous basically everything tries to kill you.

Like there are plenty of examples throughout the show but it’s also the entire premise.

Periods of intense depressed mood, irritability or anxiety lasting a few hours to a few days.

Another one that’s relevant during Separate Tides, but also something that’s been clued at during the flashbacks during season 2B (specifically her misremembering things in Follies at the Coven Day Parade and in Edge of the World and somehow twisting them into something worse than what happened... something that usually happens when you’ve been overthinking and panicking about something for an extended period of time).

Inappropriate, intense or uncontrollable anger—often followed by shame and guilt.

This is something that we’ve only really seen twice in the show, the first time directed towards Lilith during Young Blood, Old Souls, and the second time just this last episode directed towards Eda (and then the coven scouts).

We don’t see Luz get angry often, but when we do it tends to be very explosive and intense and, in all honesty, throw her judgement completely out of wack (eg: intentionally getting herself arrested, attacking Eda).

And while the following are hard to prove without really getting to deep dive into Luz’s thoughts, they definitely feel like they could be relevant.

Unstable personal relationships that alternate between idealization (“I’m so in love!”) and devaluation (“I hate her”). This is also sometimes known as "splitting."

This one I wasn't sure if Luz experienced (you don’t need to have all of these symptoms to have BPD, only 5 out of the 9 total) but the way she flipped on Eda due to Eda’s perceived betrayal and then flipped back so rapidly when things got hairy during O Titan, Where Art Thou has me reconsidering.

This one can be pretty easy to mask if you aren’t broadcasting the changes so it’s a little harder to track.

Chronic feelings of boredom or emptiness.

This one I can’t think of any particular moment that’s shown that confirms Luz experiences this, however (getting personal for a second) this is one of my symptoms and I tend to try to deal with the inner emptiness feeling by trying to help other people with their problems, something that Luz does constantly while blatantly ignoring her own problems (basically the entire premise of Reaching Out).

Dissociative feelings—disconnecting from your thoughts or sense of identity or “out of body” type of feelings—and stress-related paranoid thoughts. Severe cases of stress can also lead to brief psychotic episodes.

Again, can’t really prove that Luz is dissociating during these scenes but Luz does tend to shut down and/or develop the thousand-yard-stare directly after experiencing some sort of trauma (the final scene of Agony of a Witch, most of her scenes in Reaching Out after talking to Amity about her father, the end of Hollow Mind/start of Edge of the World when she’s trying to process what happened in Belos’ mind).

It would also make a lot of sense why Luz has started to experience symptoms more and more throughout Season 2. Firstly because she’s been in a lot more situations that would trigger her BPD lately, but also because at 14 she’s right at the age where symptoms can start manifesting.

And honestly, I really love the idea of Luz having BPD because she’s such a great representation of what living with BPD is like for me and (most importantly) would be wonderful rep because for once it would mean seeing someone with BPD portrayed in media without them just being an angry, abusive narcissist like most shows would do... she’s not villainized for her symptoms, only held accountable and helped through it and that’s groundbreaking with the way BPD is seen currently.

[sparkxii-callout]

Warning post for @/spotlightmeyroplex on tumblr (previously @/sparkxii), aka Haley / Hatch

Content warnings: Racism, misgendering, ableism, and death threats sent to and wishing harm upon minors

TLDR: Haley participated in a discussion about racefaking when he is white, and then, when a black person was made uncomfortable by it, she made the black person out to be the aggressor and played victim while misgendering the black person in the process. He has allegedly sent death threats to those as young as 14, openly wished harm upon the children that she harassed, and used an ableist term to describe a DID system that he didn’t like. After being called out for all of this, she left Twitter and became more active here to run away from all of this. He also caused a non-white person to be harassed for months because she (a white person) accused him of racism, because Haley assumed that their non-white original characters were 1) all aliens 2) all evil; an incredibly racist assumption.

(If reblogging this, keep in mind that Haley uses he/she pronouns. I will not tolerate misgendering on my post. I do not condone harassment or death threats, either.)

Haley is a tumblr user who moved here from Twitter due to being called out for her actions. In this post, I will detail what it is he is trying to hide and run away from. A lot of this information will be taken from Marnie (@/wnderhoy on Twitter), who created the original post on her behavior.

Haley, during her Twitter days, had a main account and a private account that he let mutuals follow. On her private, she made a post about how he was uncomfortable with a black person who called him out on her inserting herself into a discussion about racefaking when he is white. She then proceeded to make this post on her private account, advising that people not follow the black person in question.

(Transcript: “This user makes me uncomfortable I wish so many of my friends weren’t mutuals w him I know it’s selfish but this is embarrassing 😭” “This was the one who told someone to call me out btw. Don’t put faer on my tee el” “Not to be eye for an eye petty but love told everyone I was racist and I sent death threats to kids. If you wanna be around him idgaf just don’t be around faer while around me”)

The black person in question never told anyone to call him out, and only told someone about faer personal experience with Haley, and an anonymous source alleging that she sent death threats to a 14-year-old. Fae didn’t even allege that Haley was antiblack, but Haley, as a white person, used her platform to make the people following him think that the black person was a bad person for being uncomfortable with the fact that he involves himself in a discussion that she had no place in. Haley never even recognized that he was wrong.

Proof of him saying that Haley isn’t antiblack:

You may have noticed that I changed the pronouns used for the transcript, and that is because Haley misgendered the person, as well, in his eagerness to paint the black person as the bad guy. The person’s pronouns were in his bio.

After all of this came to light, Haley resorted to self-victimization:

(Transcript: “This is making me sick. Someone leaked my priv and now I look like some huge evil.” “I think I just need to leave the website in general. This is unhealthy for me.”)

The creator of the original post also got this DM:

(Transcript: “Hi, I’d like to remain anonymous but when I first met Haley he was in the middle of the drama with that Link account. I can’t provide screenshots but he admitted at the time for telling the account owner to die as well as other people that shipped Link and Zelda. He is aware but changed the narrative. Just figured you should know if that is brought up.” “I cleaned up my main account and most of the older tweets are gone and sadly that was caught in them.”)

While in drama with another user (@/GRIMSLEYSEX_), who is a DID system, Haley stated that it had ‘multiple personalities’ (an outdated and ableist way to refer to someone with DID), and stated that she wanted to see xem in pain multiple times throughout, even stating that he enjoyed seeing it in pain. He even called the user a masochist, which is a sexual term, while the user was a child. She participated in harassment of the user in question. While what the user was accused of doing was abhorrent, that is no excuse for ableism, sexualizing a child and saying that you liked seeing a child in pain.

Unfortunately, much of the proof of these wrongdoings has been lost after Haley deleted lots of posts, deactivated her Twitter account and moved to tumblr to escape his past, which he did after being called out. This may or may not have been on purpose. However, if you do things such as search up ‘sparkxiiii Nox’ (‘Nox’ being the name that the user that Haley harassed and wished harm upon), you will see people participating in a discussion about the user who deleted all of her Tweets, with the person with deleted Tweets being the one accusing Nox of being awful, which is, at least, evidence of Haley’s hatred for it and his participation in the drama.

(Transcription: “Nop, I have asked from the very start. And if the victims don’t owe me anything then the thread stays. As long as I get evidence of the behavior that Nox is horrible. Otherwise. Saying you have evidence and not show me just shows you have none at all.”)

Here’s that TLDR again: Haley participated in a discussion about racefaking when he is white, and then, when a black person was made uncomfortable by it, she made the black person out to be the aggressor and played victim while misgendering the black person in the process. He has allegedly sent death threats to those as young as 14, openly wished harm upon the children that she harassed, and used an ableist term to describe a DID system that he didn’t like. After being called out for all of this, she left Twitter and became more active here to run away from all of this.

Haley moved to tumblr to get away from these past actions and to, once again, have a platform of people who don’t know that he is the type to do any of these things. I do not condone harassment, death threats or wishing harm upon Haley (let’s not stoop to his level), but I do condone reblogging this post and warning others of her past actions as to make sure that he will not be successful in running away from them.

Thank you for your time.

Edit #1: I have gotten permission to add a testimony from another user about Haley’s racism.

“I'm mixed almost equally German and Native American, and I'm writing a book involving the experiences of characters from mixed families/of different cultures interacting. Sparkxii took a joke I made (pointing out that people with blue eyes are a statistical minority, which is... Scientifically true and was ironic to the conversation) completely out of context and began calling me racist and accused me of romanticizing Naziism.

Sparkxii then combed through my blog, saw that I have non-white characters in my books, and... Accused me of being racist for the fact that they existed, because, according to them, someone would ONLY write a book with poc in it because they wanted to make poc the "bad guys". Their logic and tantrum revolved around their assumption that everyone thinks poc are evil.

Sparkxii assumed that I made the "humanoid aliens" (they aren't aliens, they're all humans) ALL POC and that the "aliens" were ALL EVIL and trying to ravage the human race which MUST BE ALL WHITE....... Yeah. Basically he proved how profoundly racist he was by seeing a bunch of non-white book characters and immediately reading them as evil aliens.”

He further elaborated in DMs that “there was a solid several months after it happened where I couldn't log into Tumblr because there were just THAT many messages telling me to kill myself or calling me a Nazi/kkk member.. Which is, above all else, incredibly ironic for a blonde/blue eyed person to accuse a mixed person of.”

Edit #2: As-of March 6th, sparkxii was suspended by tumblr staff (likely for her continuous suicide baiting). As-of March 15th, Haley is back on tumblr under @/spotlightmetroplex.

This is this account’s pinned as of March 19th (proof of them being the same person):

(Transcript: “(Red pin emoji) Pinned. Was spark.xii got termed via stalkers + attempting to get account back ect ect + no big changes + asks and submissions off permanently + this is just a passive temp.”)

[edelegs]

so I have a very specific interpretation of the Edelgard/Hubert dynamic that I don’t think is particularly common, but I feel is worth sharing. This is largely because some people end up diminishing the importance of this relationship when pairing each of them with other people. It’s disappointing because I personally prefer these external ships (namely Edeleth and Ferdibert, for reasons I will make clear) but often see either Edelgard or Hubert reduced to some jealous, cuckoled cockblock in them. Honestly, that’s just . . . boring. 

(Long post under the cut)

TLDR: Edelbert is fascinating because it can be argued that Hubert’s feelings are born from guilt and shame rather than romantic love. This dynamic is unhealthy but deeply interesting, and it deserves to not be diminished in fan interpretations of these characters. 

Something that makes Edelgard so compelling is the fact that she’s full of contradictions. She can’t stand people/creatures with more power than humanly possible, yet she must use her own superhuman power and cooperate with what she despises to achieve her end goal. More specific to Edelbert, this end goal is equality, yet Edelgard is not allowed to be equal to anyone. She is a detached, untouchable princess who needs to learn how to meet her friends where they stand. It is through her connection to Byleth and to the other Black Eagles where she learns how to adapt her ideals to work in reality - and to be human. 

Unintentionally, Hubert does the opposite of this. His devotion to Edelgard began as an inherited role and evolved into something he does out of personal conviction. Either way, he is putting her on a pedestal and addressing her as a vassal rather than as a friend. Many of his supports with others involve him comparing them to Edelgard and telling them they’ll never reach her level. He takes it as his personal mission to protect her from those “unworthy” of talking to her. I don’t think this is intended to be selfish or malicious. I think that because of his role as her vassal and his failure to protect her from the Hresvelg experiments, he takes on this absolute devotion and prescribes it upon everyone else. 

Their relationship is unbalanced as a result. Edelgard makes constant reference to “fighting alone” and being prepared to end up isolated and maligned. The line “the solitary reign of Edelgard has come to an end” in her S-support is particularly telling. While she clearly views Hubert as someone important to her, she does not seem to view him as someone she can be fully open with. Hubert’s constant addressing of her as “Lady Edelgard” implies that he would not take the opportunity to call her “El” if it was presented to him. Edelgard and Hubert are both so caught up in the weight and scope of their revolution that they begin to enable each other’s bad tendencies. Hubert doesn’t dare challenge her, because he thinks of her as untouchable, and this devotion allows Edelgard to take him for granted. It is not a healthy relationship. I don’t think this is a particularly hot take. Their external supports are crucial for shifting these patterns of thought and allowing these characters to grow. 

What I think may be unpopular is this: I don’t think Hubert’s feelings for Edelgard are actually romantic. 

(For context, I am aro and just really hate m/f friends getting shoved together romantically. It may be easy to dismiss my thoughts as just me being bitter that we can’t have a m/f friend pair without one of them catching feelings but allow me to argue my point.) 

Hubert was assigned to Edelgard at a young age and told it was his house’s sacred duty to serve the Hresvelg family. He loathes his father for his involvement in the Insurrection of the Seven, which happened when he was ten. It goes without saying that this largely shapes his devotion to Edelgard. I would even say these events traumatized him to some degree. He mentions this in their A support, where he declares that his loyalty has been to her alone since she returned from the Kingdom. The path that these two share is informed and shaped by trauma - what Edelgard went through and Hubert’s powerlessness to stop it. More critically, these events radicalized them both and created the “shared vision” mentioned in his B support with Dorothea. 

That particular support jumps out to me. When I first played the game, I felt unbelievably validated by it. Hubert denies accusations of unrequited love in an edgily self-aware way (the line ”do I really look like the kind of drooling simpleton to have that kind of motivation?” made me literally cheer) and goes on to describe their relationship as walking the same path. He then highlights the qualities he feels towards Edelgard (gratitude, respect, awe, empathy, trust, and hope). None of these require romantic attraction. Dorothea then goes on to say that “loving another is really about wanting to be loved . . . I’m pretty sure that’s different from how things are with you and Edie”. This scene spoke a lot to my own experiences - my feelings for my best friend largely echo Hubert’s (though way less dramatic, of course) and I found the form of deep platonic love I feel for her reflected in that conversation. The acknowledgement on Dorothea’s part that it was different from romantic love (whether or not she truly believes it) is what blew me away. This is honestly one of the few times where a piece of media made me feel seen which makes me forever mad about the Edelbert A support.Though it could be argued that he’s just closed-off and could easily pull off lying about it, I know those feelings well. Others might see this as definitive proof of Hubert’s unrequited love for Edelgard, but I just can’t and I wanted to articulate this perspective because it means so much to me. Close, all-consuming, and important relationships can be platonic. 

I know better than to claim that the confession scene never happened. It is interesting to evaluate because it shows Edelgard finally calling attention to Hubert’s unknowing perpetuation of the gap between them. When Hubert states his feelings plainly, he is as composed as ever. Edelgard blushes and states that “you never cease to surprise me”. Hubert laughs this off, and that’s the end of that. It clearly is supposed to be a genuine love confession, but I think it’s more interesting to consider a man with only one real close friend misinterpreting his blind devotion towards her as love because he doesn’t really know what it is. I think it adds to the kind of fucked-up nature of their relationship (is it love or obsession? How is he supposed to know if a connection borne from trauma stems from love or guilt?). It also speaks to how difficult it is to identify romantic feelings when you’ve never truly felt them. 

That being said, I actually do ship Hubert with other people. I love Ferdibert because their personality clashes create a sense of mutual growth that helps Hubert learn to openly challenge Edelgard rather than subvert orders he disagrees with and it’s honestly just really funny. I also love Hubernie because the idea of a terrifying man and a girl who’s scared of everything learning to meet each other halfway shows similar character growth. I just think that for many years, Hubert’s devotion to Edelgard gave him a really fucked up understanding of human relationships, both romantic and platonic. There’s a tendency to erase the weight and importance of the Edelbert dynamic when both are shipped with other people as well as a great opportunity to show that strong platonic relationships can and should be perceived as equal to romantic ones. I have read so many Ferdibert things that suggest that their love is all-encompassing and Makes Them Whole. Wouldn’t it be more in-character to explore how they navigate the web of relationships in their lives? I love the Black Eagles’ interpersonal relationships so much and each one shapes the characters more and more. I’d love to see that reflected in ways that center platonic relationships!