#two incredibly traumatized fish boys

[cupophrogs]

Uh sillies

Refs!

[helluva-shit-show]

I swear I don't hate the show, I don't even hate any of the ladies above, not even Stella, it's just insanely unfair how the women get treated in Helluva.

And no, I don't need the creators of any given media to hold my hand and walk me through every tiny choice made by every character in said media.

Of course I can infer that Stella grew up in the same pre-determined mold Stolas was forced into. Of course I can infer that she learned tantrum behavior and violence probably got her what she wanted so her royal parents didn't have to hear it.

I can infer that Barbie self harms bc a tiny thin scar doesn't form a perfect circle around your forearm by accident, and an "X" doesn't perfectly cross out a tattoo that probably causes you great trauma to look at every day, on accident. Her tail scars are deeply concerning and saddening to think about, bc again, why do they PERFECTLY match her twin brother's natural markings? I can infer that his actions, intentional or not, deeply traumatized her, and her response was to remove a piece of herself that reminded her of him. It's dark, it's mature, it's compelling and it makes sense. The issue is, it will probably never be touched on.

I adore Millie, I adored her before season two was even announced. To the contrary, I actually don't care if she ever gets a deep deep dive at her backstory. There have been PLENTY of male characters across all kinds of media that are simply psychotic little murder gremlins, and no one ever bats an eye at it. I adore her as the murder gremlin queen she is. But as she's main cast, it's incredibly unfair by comparison how she gets utilized and how she doesn't. One minute she can take down a 60 meter tall fish monster single handedly, the next minute, because the plot wants this to be about the bois, a single hit breaks her arm to the point that BONE IS PIERCING THROUGH HER SKIN, and she just happens to get thrown directly into the world's MOST CONVENIENTLY PLACED AND ARMED bear-trap ever. It doesn't snag her face, her hair, or her hand or arm or torso or back, she falls just perfectly that her leg is just perfectly in its jaws. No arteries got caught? There's not an excess of blood, she's by the show's own dialogue, "fine." But she's benched for the rest of the episode.

And maybe it wouldn't be so bad from the critical eye if the excuse given for it wasn't SO hollow. "Helluva is more male focused and Hazbin is more female focused." Ma'am. Who do you think you're fooling out here. Angel Dust and Alastor built the HH fandom. Do you expect me to believe Mimzy or Niffty are going to be treated any better than the Helluva gals? Mimzy is literally already on the wiki as a "minor character".

It's truly ok to focus your story on males. There is literally a whole genre of anime focused on mostly male stories. But if someone, or a lot of someones, feel your female cast is lacking in substance, I find it insulting to dismiss them and say they're misreading the media and nitpicking. They care about the show, YOUR show, they care about YOUR characters, if you can remember back when you were a smaller creator HERE on tumblr, ppl love when you ask them about their OCs. And you don't have to spit out a quick bs backstory to your character if you haven't given it much thought, that's not what anyone is asking for. (Cough, Unhappy Campers, COUGH).

Idk how to wrap this critique up, so I'm just gonna say, Moxxie's mom is too badass to be Mrs. Knofirstname Knolastname. 🤡

[asmolguy]

Gonna make a list of characters that are so painfully little coded everything in my brain just goes “baby” whenever I watch them. Plus one caregiver. (And one real dude which feels kinda rude since he’s just like. A guy. Living his life. So you can ignore that one. But I wanted to point it out.)

Lloyd from Lego ninjago. Dude. Canon family trauma + canon forced to end his childhood early. Prime agere material. There are so many good fics of little Lloyd just littling. He’s tiny boi. So baby. So perfect.

Cole from Lego ninjago. He is. So caregiver built. I think it hurts to watch sometimes. So gentle so sweet. Get this man a child or a little or something to care for I swear. He just needs to parent. It’s in his blood and carved into his bones.

Branch from trolls. Ya’ll did you watch movie 3? The family trauma times two. The way he uses a pacifier to lock in. Someone was straight up weaving that into the fabric of his being as a character. He’s not little coded he’s little written. Plus in the show he has a little stuffie named Croco and I love that for him. There’s also some good agere Branch fics, but not enough. I need more. Pwease. He is so smol and so grumpy just everyone write him as the baby boi he deserves to be I beg.

Spider-Man but specifically for ultimate Spider-Man (btw if anyone’s looking for good regression shows and you fall around like 5-10 it’s a very good show because it’s long and has a good mix of humor and that show is my jam dude when I’m big and little). But anyone. Ultimate Spider-Mans Spider-Man is so stressed all of the time. He is just a teen. And he’s handling so many unruly teens. And in the later seasons when he’s handling the entirety of shield while being worried about nova. Give the boy a break and let someone take care of him. He’s both little and caregiver coded btw. I adore the fics where everyone calls him daddy longlegs because that is straight up what the last season is. Just him being a father to all these troubled ass powered teenagers while being so troubled himself. But then he’s also so little. He pouts and needs so much love and he’s scared all of the time and he is traumatized and then that one ep where that got turned into those weird chibi things the show tried to convince us were children I want to believe awakened something in him and he is now little sometimes.

Ian Hecox. Listen. I am aware that he is just a dude. Like a real guy. Who cannot be coded because he just exists. But I see. So much of myself in him. It kind of makes a part of my heart hurt that no one like every really seriously criticizes his more childish behavior (even for the bit on a YouTube video) because it makes me feel better about the small ways I slip in public or with my friends sometimes. There’s literally “everyone babying Ian hecox” comps online. His habit of saying scawed or newvous is unironically a blessing and curse since now all my friends who also watch Smosh do it so it’s not weird if I do it but then sometimes I have to pause and be like “is this for the bit or am I slipping right now. Both? Neither?” That one tntl (#91) where they did the blind pairs (btw one of the funniest ones ever in my opinion absolute hall of famer, the fish one, burning the pool, m’lei, all incredible bits. It’s like. The video I show people to try to get them into Smosh.) and Ian puts on overalls and walks out with an Elmo and is like “I’m five” and then after the bit is over he stays in character and when he’s like “elmo…” and damien is like “yeah bud I made sure to miss him with the spit” and then Ian drags the toy through he spit and everyone in the room is just like “aww man” like everyone is truly just like Ian dude you got your stuffed animal wet. Also Anthony being able to fully pick Ian up and carry him multiple ways. If you watch the behind the scenes for the my best friend is dead video Anthony 1. Is pumped to pick Ian up. 2. Does a baby cradle with Ian more than successfully. 3. Says “I got you bud” when Ian gets nervous and Ian goes “ok” in this tiny little voice and instantly relaxes. 4. When Anthony puts Ian down Ian follows him making grabby hands and says “I want uppies”. More little Ian caregiver Anthony fics when. Except not really because again don’t really want to put any of this on real people just doing comedic bits that I happen to feel in my soul a bit too much.

And finally, Max thunderman. I mean. Just watch the show. The pouts. The frequent fake sobbing and sniffling. The fact that he needs a childhood back after Phoebe was put on a pedestal. Someone give me soft thundertwins fic where max is a little and Phoebe is a cargegiver please I need it. And I am. So bad at writing. I would love you forever and ever if you did.

[occasionallyprosie]

"A Warrior's Blade"

Link was eight when he met the spirit of the Master Sword. Fi still remembered the last time too-small hands held her... She swore she would not let this one fail and die too. She would teach him to be an unstoppable force. Only... maybe a traumatized sword who was taught that emotions were useless and that all dangers were to be eliminated wasn't the best option to raise a child told from a young age he would be tasked with protecting the goddesses bloodline.

Febuwhump 2024 | Alt Prompt 4: Human Weapon

Read on AO3

Warnings: Mild cursing

Link was eight years old when he found his uncle guardian bleeding out in the sewers, was given a sword and shield far too big for his arm and hand, and told to save the princess.

Link was eight years old when he met Fi, the kind spirit of the Master Sword, who took one look at him and promised him that she would ensure that he will be strong enough to kill Ganon and save the princess. That promise was everything to Link, Zelda had asked him in a dream to save her and he had to, he had to. Something in his blood thrummed and he knew that it was his duty to protect the girl, even if she was two years his senior. Fi would tell him that she couldn't do that, however, unless he reforged her. She was weakened, her metal rusted and dull from centuries left soaked in the blood of her last wielder.

Fi told him about the boy who wielded her before, that he had died, how Ganon had crushed the boy, how his tusks had tore open the boy's stomach, how Fi had been driven into his chest and pierced his heart. Fi explained in graphic detail, and Link asked if the same would happen to him.

"If it does, would you still try and fight him?"

Link had nodded. "I would... I have to. Nobody else will."

"Then as long as you do as I tell you, then no, it won't."

Link was ten when his anger got Din captured and Fi told him to never let himself get emotional during battle.

He was ten when he met a dodongo that didn't immediately try to kill him, it was young and nice and Link thought it was a friend. Fi reminded him that monsters were monsters. Despite the way Dimitri the dodongo begged, Link killed it.

He was eleven when he let his guard down and had a bit of fun with Sir Raven, only for an attack to strike and he was caught off guard enough that Roperi was almost hurt. Fi told him to never let his guard down.

He was fourteen when he was wrecked on an island, met Marin, fell in love with her and lost her when he woke the Wind Fish. After he told Fi, she told him that emotions like that would only be a detriment and he shouldn't allow it to happen again.

He was fifteen when Fi told him he was doing well, right after he killed Octavo--who had begged for clemency and insisted he had tried to kill Ganon--without an ounce of remorse or hesitation, just a notice that Octavo was a threat and he eliminated him.

Link was nineteen when he met the heroes of times past and future.

Fi hadn't said much the past four years, she only spoke three times and it was, in moments of weakness, to remind him to keep his emotions in check, never to let his guard down, and to eliminate whatever threats he was met with, even if it didn't act like other threats.

He almost killed the other heroes on sight when he ran into the group of highly armed men, especially the one with thick darkness around him, but Fi had stopped him with a word. They were heroes, her other masters, he was to never do them harm.

Twilight was a bit concerned.

Since this whole time travel thing started, he had gotten to know his fellow heroes. He got to know Wild, who he would see again even when this all ended. He even got to meet the hero of time, his predecessor and ancestor.

It was incredible, and sure, some of the heroes weren't... what he would've expected as heroes. A pompous knight, a soft and kindhearted woodcarver, two literal children who also were the ones most prone to cursing, and an almost child who was incredibly paranoid and definitely scared of blood.

But the oddest one was the cold and quiet adventuring veteran. Just overall, Legend was sharp, dismissive, and incredibly distant. He didn't talk with them, didn't get to know them beyond their names and skill sets, didn't seem to care at all. He never let his guard down, even in inns or the castle, Warriors had tried to tease him for it all but Legend's quick response was a far sharper jab that necessary for the tease Warriors had given. Wind would try to chat with him, and Legend seemed to listen, but he never actually engaged in conversation.

At least, at first that's how it was. As time went on, Twilight learned that Warriors was so obsessed with his appearance out of a fear of being judged and looked down on, of being unworthy of his station and not as 'noble' as he was expected to be. He learned that Sky could be a vicious fighter and protector, he was the first one to step up and face off a horde of monsters alone. Wind and Four were both incredibly emotionally intelligent, Wind was also very good at calculating their location and once he had a map he could get them anywhere, then Four was just intelligent on the overall, he would provide rationale and the pragmatic approach. Then Hyrule turned out to be a total powerhouse with his magic, and his fear of blood stemmed from a curse being placed on his own blood, he was also the only one who willingly stuffed his hand into a gaping wound to slow the bleeding.

Legend took the longest to figure out. Slowly, even slower than Hyrule who won their unofficial bet of "most paranoid", Legend relaxed around them. He eventually would tease Warriors, throw insults as easily as he turned on his heel, which turned out to be very quickly because he ended up telling them about how he had been a dancer for a bit! He told them a few stories rather unrelated to his quests, talked about people they reminded him of. Twilight could see Legend grow protective over Hyrule and Wind, watched him almost turn to Sky in search of approval.

It was odd, how much his personality just changed.

Then after a particularly bad battle, it flipped again.

Twilight took some time to get all the details. Legend had been fighting with Wild when a monster--nobody could agree on what, a daira, moblin, or lizalfos--had tried to attack Legend. Legend had been distracted by Wind's yelp when he barely dodged a flaming ball sent by a Wizzrobe, and Wild shoved him out of the way. Wild was fine now, but he had needed a fairy.

Twilight didn't know what it was, but Legend hadn't let go of his sword, staring down at it with a small frown, eyebrows knit, and pain in his eyes. Then it was like a switch was flipped and his expression mellowed out and went blank.

It had been two weeks since, and Legend hadn't let his guard down once, he hadn't indulged Wind with stories, hadn't chided Wild gently over his form, hadn't argued jokingly with Warriors, he was just cold and sharp all over again.

Twilight was worried. What caused the... relapse?

They found the Shadow.

After a long battle with a lot of running, Legend managed to get the Shadow at the other end of his blade. Hyrule and Wild behind him and moving quickly to join him. The rest were either injured or stayed behind with the injured, and were hallways or rooms behind them.

Legend moved to kill.

"Wait!" The Shadow--a Dark Link--exclaimed. "You wouldn't want to do that."

Legend did pause, only because he sensed dark magic flare behind him and a brief glance showed Wild stumbling back.

"Kill me and I kill them both."

Hyrule yelped as Wild--eyes blazing black--lunged at the other hero. The traveler barely deflected the first attack.

"Champion! Snap out of it!"

Legend internally cursed. The Shadow was still at his mercy, his sword at his throat, but he could feel the magic in the room. He may be fast with a blade, but the Shadow would have plenty of time to snap the cords that kept Wild alive, dark magic was powerful like that. It only really required intent once the power backed it up.

If he made on wrong move, Wild would be dead. But if he didn't move, Hyrule would die.

Except, the Shadow was a threat, it was the threat and the entire timeline hung in the balance. He had to kill it.

The Shadow grinned at him, its face uncannily like Wind's at the moment. "Let me go, and I'll let them live."

In a moment of weakness, Legend found himself saying, "Let them go permanently, and we can have this fight to ourselves another day."

He wasn't supposed to spare the enemy, under any circumstances with the sole exception of the goddess' blood being in the balance. He served the goddess, he protected her daughters, he didn't spare the greatest threat Hyrule has yet faced for the sake of some of her heroes.

But... he didn't want them to get hurt.

"Only you?" The Shadow countered.

"Wild, please!" Hyrule begged. Legend knew Wild would win their spars on a normal day, if Hyrule was holding back and Wild wasn't, there was no doubt of who would win.

Then everything froze.

"Have you forgotten what I have taught you?" Fi questioned, crystalline face somehow conveying her disappointment.

"F-Fi--"

"Have you forgotten to turn off your heart, this is not you." She shook her head. "I see you changing from how I've designed you."

Link clenched his jaw, staring at the immobile form of the Shadow.

"Have you forgotten your purpose? Let me remind you."

Memories slammed into his mind, the dozen times he went against Fi's guidance and how every single time it failed. His battles with Ganon, with Veran and Onyx, with Agahnim and Yuga, the Wind Fish, Lady Maud, Octavo-- His duty was protecting Hyrule, the goddesses bloodline, and her people. Not some heroes.

"Don’t forget that you’re a hero of a very special kind," Fi warned him. "You are the legendary hero, the greatest of them all. Don’t disappoint me."

Link didn't respond. When time clicked back into place, he met those eyes but heard Hyrule begging Wild to come back, to snap out of it.

He's still a threat until he's dead, Fi reminded him. Finish it.

No. "Only me," Legend told the Shadow.

No?

He would not let the other heroes be killed. Not on his watch.

"Not even that sword?" The Shadow challenged.

"No other spirit or soul will interfere in our fight--From either side. Deal?"

The Shadow grinned. "Deal."

Legend lowered his blade and The Shadow ran. Wild fell like a puppet with his strings cut.

He felt Fi pulse. She was upset.

He resigned himself to burned hands until the quest was over.

"That was reckless."

I know.

"You were too sentimental."

Yes.

"That is not a teaching of mine." Fi hovered before him, he had slipped away from the group in the aftermath at Fi's order and she stood there to lecture him. Like every other time he screwed up and wasn't her perfect little hero. "You've grown too soft, your dead friends will attest."

"They--"

"Put your emotions aside," she snapped. "You’re the legend, meant to teach the rest! I don’t know where I went wrong, but I warned you."

"You wanted me to get them killed!" He argued.

"In time, they'll all be gone."

"But this way I can fight him!"

"You need to learn your place."

"I can kill him without anyone else interfering!"

"Without me you won't be able to."

"I will keep my word. A fight alone and I'll win," he insisted.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You forget. You are mine."

He froze. Her crystal cracked as she drew close, no longer hiding herself.

"Listen close. In this fight, you will not disappoint me. You won't waste the time I've spent molding and designing you into a proper hero. Consider this my final warning."

He looked down, clenching his hand into a fist. "You don't own me."

She startled.

"Why are you surprised? We are the same. Used, broken, and doing our best, but unlike you, every time I screw up, I fix it myself while you put it on a child to mend."

"You’ll be killed."

"Get out of my head now."

"There is a 0% chance you'll succeed."

"I'll control my own life."

She floated back. "What a waste of energy spent."

"At least I'm out here fighting for my goddess," he retorted. "While you forged someone else into the weapon."

"Since you claim you’re so much better, why have I saved your life time and time again?"

"Leave me alone!"

They both went silent, Legend panting and shaking. He didn't know what he was doing, he didn't, but all he knew was that... damnit, he just wanted to be himself. He had that for a while there, he hadn't realized it at the time but then he realized he had been happy... He just wanted that, but he didn't want to lose Fi.

"One day, you'll hear what I'm saying. One day, you may understand. One day... but not today, for after all you’re still human."

Legend flinched, then he forced out a shaky, "Leave."

She did not respond for a long moment. "Yes, Master."

She disappeared into her sword. Legend could feel her spirit go dormant.

He closed his eyes, dropped the blade, and released a shaky breath... He just wanted to be himself with these heroes, he wanted to know them, to protect them... so why did it suddenly feel like nothing mattered at all? Not the heroes, not their safety, nor who he was.

Why was he so broken?

Event Masterlist

[loveofbots]

Hi!! :) What's a MerMax (hehe) like? Is he migratory? Does he eat fish or is he an herbivore? Does he like coral reefs? Does he prefer warmer or colder waters? Are those impressive finials of his a helmet or are they like fins? Is Max part of a social group of mers or is he solitary?

So interestingly enough I kinda headcanon merMax (hehe) as a mink whale/fin whale hybrid. They’re opportunistic carnivores meaning they don’t actively hunt, but he does migrate to different feeding territories. Maximus mostly munches on crustaceans or slow moving fish, tuna or grouper however is his favourite treat. So like a summer/winter type thing. He can withstand really cold waters and prefers it, he can’t stand tropical waters. Reef aren’t great for him :(( so many sharp corals/rocks to scratch himself on. He’d much rather find a nice sandbar to lay on or a small alcove in a bay or something to make his home. He’s a BEEG BOI so he needs lots of space to stretch out.

His finials are fins!! Much like how I imagine Ratchet’s chevron or Cyclonus’s horns, they are very much part of his body. They’re hardened dorsal fins with only a little bit of flexibility, and are ornamental. They’re for mating display Lmao. He doesn’t have a pod after he leaves the academy and is Traumatized(TM) by killer whale Overlord.

After that he travels alone, but frequently visits the bay that the Lost Lighter’s inhabit. He sees rung for therapy dw 💙 If he does get a pod it’s definitely the moon polycule from MTMTE/Lost Light

Other facts about MerMax:

He has two large dorsal fins on his back, mimicking his treads in idw.

max is actually capable of incredibly fast and sustained speeds in the water. Nothing close to speedsters, but for his size it’s greatly impressive.

Max yearns to find a partner and have pups some day, but he won’t do it with a war still waging on. So he keeps it in the back of his mind.

[crookedfandomquill]

"Hotel King" Rewatch: Episode 1

Let’s address the elephant in the room: if I had a dollar for every time Lee Dong Wook and Lee Da Hae played love interests in a fake-out incest plotline…

Tragic backstories are like blood in the water and I am a hungry-ass shark

I’m sorry but his name being Jayden will never not be funny to me. I am from the American South and I know multiple Jaydens, all of whom are polo-wearing white boys ages 5 to 26 whose moms sell knock-off essential oils out of the backs of their minivans. I can’t take the name seriously in this context

“Is this heaven?” Oh honey no it really isn’t

Ah and the gaslighting begins. I’m remembering now that the main character in this drama is one of the more traumatized ones I’ve come across

Mmm yeah this is a good look for LDW. Not my absolute favorite (*cough* Soo Yeol *cough*) but objectively spiffy nonetheless

You know what, that party was so painfully lame that Chairman Ah saved it by falling to his death in the middle of it

Say what you will about the balls-to-the-wall plots of melodramas, but more often than not they deliver really incredible character writing. 30 minutes into the show you already know so much about Jae Won: he’s cold and full of anger, but he’s also idealistic and a bit naive (he genuinely thought Chairman Ah would acknowledge him and beg forgiveness if he just confronted him). He’s competent and driven but also completely beholden to his abusive father figure. He’s a man of few words and fewer platitudes, and the only thing sharper than the lines of his suit is his business acumen. Going back through the journey of getting to know the characters is my favorite part of any rewatch

Meanwhile, Mo Ne be sneakin’ (badly)

Gosh, imagine your beloved father has died and you make your grand return to the country by crab-walking in public, committing widespread property damage, and braining somebody with a large frozen fish 

Oh look, it’s the manager who CARRIES A HORSE WHIP??? Look, she knows her aesthetic and she’s rocking it. And no patience for guests creeping on the maids, I can’t not stan

Alright, but the fact that our lead couple starts out with him thinking she’s his secret half-sister/rival for his inheritance, and her thinking he killed her dad? It’s the messed up, angsty, weird, character-driven stuff that dreams are made of (mine, at least) 

Mo Ne really said “I want lots of money and zero responsibility” and let me tell you I felt that in my broke 20-something soul

Very strong soundtrack on this drama tbh, even if it does get repetitive after a while

Overall rewatch thoughts: I’m a ho for intrigue and this drama has so much of it, no wonder I binged the whole thing in about two days the first time around. The acting is as good as I remembered it, the secondary characters are so promising just from the first episode, and the vice chairman really makes my skin crawl. Knowing all the insane twists and turns the story takes just makes the rewatch extra fun. Safe to say that I have been thoroughly dragged back into Hotel King!

[cokowiii]

Sorry I keep on asking questions (I’m just very invested) I noticed that the boys reactions are pretty spot on in the show to stress. Leo cracks every joke possible ,at Mikeys expense.Raph had a mixture of anger and panic he outwardly is disappointed at Mikey inwardly but mostly at himself. Donnie is rational but incredibly blunt labs straight to the point with Mikey. Funnily enough in almost every scene Mikey is always looking away or facing away from his brothers. Hiding under a blanket when Raph yelled, covering his eyes when he watches a smoking psa Almost never ever looking at Donnie when he’s caught or talked with vaping as a subject. Heck even with Raph holding him he never showed resistance or struggle he goes limp with puppie eyes. Thing about Mikey though his responses to a bad situation is usually wayyy more in your face.His facial expressions-are way more exaggerated, often head on like with Dr.Delicate touch or just in general as when he wore Donnies suit to protect him he shows disappointment then used it as a way to bouch around, at the library he turns becomes an unstoppable king commanding respect .Heck even when he’s scared he jumps up and goes into his shell. He’s a very open book and everyone in the room will know how he feels. The only times where he’s showed any kind of quiet avoidance is in two episodes I’d I remember correctly. The first is when Leo is making sure Mikey doesn’t tell on them and after he was traumatized by his fish sister and his father were he simply goes “I don’t know how to feel anymore.” and after disappointing his father and embracing the “Hamato way” completely. And albeit he still has his moments where he is still outwardly emotional. It seems like the moments were Mikey goes full on avoidance is when he thinks he’s wrong. Important on the when HE thinks he’s wrong in the episode “Pizza Puffs” he keeps eating poisonous food. Oh he is dead wrong and Raph is definitely angry but Mikey doesn’t care. He keeps eating for the whole episode against Raph’s wishes. He could be because he didn’t think it was a big deal or because his brothers were also doing it with him. But he is not avoidant at all. But here nope he barely wants to even look at his brothers. In the last panel he faces away when getting the vapes he does not run he stays there grabs the vapes and gives them to his brothers staring every where but them.The only moment we’re Mikey looks at anyone is Donnie when he argue he can quit until Donnie says “that’s what addicts say” then he turns around bent over arm over his head. His brothers just see his back the whole time. But we can see his face it’s a little annoyed but softens into this scared but almost embarrassed expression. I suspect since there one time use those cartridges were empty other than the one Mikey handed over he was current consuming. I do not think Mikey is guilty over vaping, I think he’s guilty over making his family angry. For the first time everyone is upset at him no body’s on his side. Normally only Splinter or Raphs angry. Splinter usually is just nagging or insulting him it’s as a group with his brothers, Miley’s a teen he probably doesn’t care what his dad thinks. Raph yells it’s hard as a group (once again others are also being screamed at he’s not alone) or it’s more like soft discipline when it’s specifically him to protect him as the youngest. He probably gets off easy most cases with his family. Now everyone upset no one is neutral or on his side. He is the one who’s wrong. Expect Mikey doesn’t feel he’s wrong for Vaping but he seems to hate being villianized. The others of course think this is probably the most proper reaction after all vapes are bad and smoking is irresponsible. Similar to the “Purple game” episode the boys will just reacted the way the Internet told the too to help Donnie, was it helpful really no. The show suggests the thing off screen he goes into a new game to get addicted again. They are teenagers, not doctors. They want to help but they have no clue how too. So they simply do what they think they should do. (1/2)

Okay this was really super long and Im at such a loss for words. I promise i read all of this im just in awe rn. Never EVER have I had someone analyse something ive drawn so fucking well. Like u used references and shit. Fucking amazing homie. Rant all you all caus eI love reading this shit!

You point out stuff i didnt even really think about like how i draw the expresions and how i have them reacting. Homie my head is so fucking empty when i make these comics but reading yall type up stuff like this makes it look like i have huge brain. PLEASE READ THIS ASK CAUSE ITS HONESTLY AMAZIN TO READ! also stalk away dude im loving these asks.

[ygtahoy]

Ok so number 24 of the oc ask game, here we go. I'm gonna put this under a read more because it got away a bit at the end.

[24] How hard it is for them to not allow their emotions to cloud their judgement?

Depending on the emotion it can be easy or impossible. She's pretty good at not letting anger cloud her judgement, and she's very good at not letting love cloud her judgement although that is mostly because of the long part of this question.

So, the long part.

Fear.

She cannot stop her fears from controlling her. She isn't afraid of much, but what she is afraid of she cannot handle well or on her own really.

Fear is why she doesn't tell Duncan that even after Raymond adopted them she didn't stop loving him romantically she just hid it. Because if he found out and rejected her it would break her heart which could either make her snap and go evil mode or kill her from literally breaking her heart. Spoiler alert it kills her anyway just in an incredibly slow and agonizing wasting away kinda way because to him they're siblings. That's not till a few years after the events of the game though.

It's why after she got out of jail she didn't go back. She was terrified that Raymond and Duncan wouldn't want her. That Raymond would think taking her in was a waste and a mistake. That Duncan wouldn't forgive her for not coming back when she said she would. For being a failure to them, and worse them just shutting her out of their lives completely.

So she ran away, and she kept making excuses for why she couldn't go back.

First she had to make herself a person again after what her stint in jail had made her into.

Then she needed a bachelors so she would have a degree...but a bachelors isn't that impressive she almost had that before she left so she may as well get a Masters.

Then the squid incident happened and she had a whole new layer of fear about how they would react if she went back because now they're not even family. Now she's died then was in a coma for 2 months, now her arm is basically held on by magic and science. Now her blood is grape purple. Now she has to somehow figure out how to have a firstborn child that she has to give to Fry because that's how her magic and his weird desperate blood magic was able to have enough power to work considering he didn't know what he was doing.

So obviously JUST a Masters degree isn't enough to go back and cover up all of that. She HAS to get a PHD now. Then she has to wait for the actual diploma before she can go but uh oh whoops Raymond called her before it came in and now she has to go to Hong Kong!

And if there's one thing she's more afraid of than being rejected by Raymond and Duncan it's anything happening to them that she could have prevented. It would have been fine if she didn't know but once she does the fear of something happening to them out weighed the fear of being thrown away.

Now the next bit is getting again into not canon my friend and I went oo neat setting! But! What if..... about. So how her version of the game goes can go two ways depending on how much of Duncans anger she feels like dealing with when they get to the locked harbour gate right at the start. (Although no matter which way she choses it ends the same anyway with them getting picked up and brought to Tidal Moon that first night. It mostly just determines whether Carter lives or if Duncan and Reina both get traumatized)

If she doesn't wanna deal with his anger at some of her revelations and goes along with the intro to the game then when they get told they'll be staying on a boat she would already be reacting poorly and letting her fear cloud her judgement because boy is she rightfully terrified of boats. More specifically fishing boats, which the bolthole very much is.

She's trying very hard to convince everyone not to stick her on a boat. She has no shame, no pride, nothing she does not want to go on a boat, she is terrified and showing it, and only the fact that she knows she has to keep it together for Duncan keeps her from having a full blown panic attack in front of Kindley Cheng and everyone there at the thought of having to go on a boat.

So she wouldn't even be able to set foot on that boat of her own free will. The second she even sees the bolt hole and her mind isn't there. She's reliving the squid incident and her mind is underwater with the darkness closes in as she relives dying under the water from her injuries and lack of oxygen.

So she crumples on the dock leading to the boat because her brain is basically telling her body that she's dead again. Now whether the others have a chance to see this on their own before her magic starts going haywire and the first uncontrolled appearance of Nancy.

Nancy at this point being basically all of Reinas blood coming outside her body in a weird blood overlay of her eventual future daughter that pilots Reinas body like an exosuit. Nancy naturally has no conciousness or control because she doesn't exist at this point she is just something that magic has forced to be something that will be but won't be for an unknown amount of time. What she does have is a magical compulsion to protect Reina from any and all harm to Reinas life because Reina needs to be for Nancy to be. Nancy can be controlled by a magic using Bernard like Fry or in Hong Kongs case Jean-Pierre because she was created by Bernard blood magic.

So Reina is now completely unconscious on the verge of dying again and Nancy is up and running the show and just wailing on everything around. Nancy even being around is giving off the magical equivalent of the bat signal just a giant bright fuckoff signal for anyone who has the ability to see it.

They get rescued by Tidal Moon but again because of her fear, and her not being able to keep her fear from controlling her that situation got so much worse than it should have been. I'm summing it up at this point because describing more about that situation and how she lets her fear run the show is basically me just rewriting the game from her non canonical setting.

[adina123]

The reason for season 1 jimmy hating salmon headcannon

In there childhood Lizzie was very overprotective towards jimmy 

Which was understandable because he was always trying to do stuff that wasn’t safe for him to do 

like eating stuff that where not edible or trying to befriend hostile sea creatures like sharks piranhas and salmon the last one being the newest threatening creature that causes the most life changing accident of the two siblings lives

It happened one day while he was playing Lizzie had left him Alone for only a second when he saw a friendly looking salmon he went to go pet it or strike up a conversation with one of his new neighbors depending on how intelligent the salmon where

 But as soon as jimmy approached the harmless looking fish he quickly discovered that it was very much not harmless the salmon lunged at him and attacked 

just as the salmon attacked Lizzie returned just in time to witness the fish clamp it’s jaws on one of his body parts

the injury was not lethal and was easily  taken care of but the encounter was incredibly traumatizing for jimmy and from that moment on he could not even look at A salmon with out being triggered 

unfortunately there home was soon completely taken over by the salmon they where everywhere jimmy couldn’t even look out the window with out seeing a salmon 

Before Jimmy hatched Lizzie promised she would protect him no matter what so decided to head towards the direction the salmon came from 

She said she would drive them from the place they called home for thousands of years and return home but she didn’t return and jimmy stayed in there house to afraid to even look out side just waiting for his sister for hundreds of years he lived in fear 

Until till one day he snapped his fear turned to rage the salmon where why his sister left why he had nightmares and why he was living in constant fear he decided to follow his sister to the surface killing as many salmon as he could along the way and so even when he reached the shore and forgot his past he still had the trauma and rage that came with those lost memories 

but also he still had those feelings from when he was happy little boy with out a trouble in the ocean before his life fell apart around him he still had his love for his sister and while it was hazy and muted it was still there

[hag-o-hags]

So please do not judge the state of the tanks, nobody was prepared for this, but mom decided she wanted a stock tank pond a la Alexis Nikole, but uh. May have jumped the gun on fish.

Tanks were half off and I was PLANNING on setting up a flora tank (to maybe get my lunatic cat to stop traumatizing the gourami in the established tank???)

but now I'm storing too many goldfish in too small a tank and oh BOY have I had fun getting a crash course in aquarium keeping. (just kidding it's been incredibly confusing and distressing. fishtressing. you know.)

so tank ONE is having a bacterial bloom and is cycling and in water quality monitoring, and tank TWO is the newer tank that is also under treatment but was started with some water from mom's established tank, and once tank one is more balanced the fish will get split between the two. Which is still too many fish but I think I might die if I have to set up a THIRD tank idk.

The best most important fact I've learned through all of this is that there's two types of bacteria that grow in tanks: the slower multiplying autotrophic bacteria that are anaerobic and help to maintain the tank ecosystem, and the faster multiplying heterotrophic bacteria that are aerobic and therefore reduce the O2 levels in the tank but also MULTIPLY EVEN FASTER if you aerate the water so the ding dang fish can breathe.

Behold, the tank while not backlit to fuck (and a bunch of fish who are really sick of these goddamn abductions)

The cat, however, approves of all of this nonsense.

[angelbunny-arts]

In there childhood Lizzie was very overprotective towards jimmy 

Which was understandable because he was always trying to do stuff that wasn’t safe for him to do 

like eating stuff that where not edible or trying to befriend hostile sea creatures like sharks piranhas and salmon the last one being the newest threatening creature that causes the most life changing accident of the two siblings lives

It happened one day while he was playing Lizzie had left him Alone for only a second when he saw a friendly looking salmon he went to go pet it or strike up a conversation with one of his new neighbors depending on how intelligent the salmon where

 But as soon as jimmy approached the harmless looking fish he quickly discovered that it was very much not harmless the salmon lunged at him and attacked 

just as the salmon attacked Lizzie returned just in time to witness the fish clamp it’s jaws on one of his body parts

the injury was not lethal and was easily  taken care of but the encounter was incredibly traumatizing for jimmy and from that moment on he could not even look at A salmon with out being triggered 

unfortunately there home was soon completely taken over by the salmon they where everywhere jimmy couldn’t even look out the window with out seeing a salmon 

Before Jimmy hatched Lizzie promised she would protect him no matter what so decided to head towards the direction the salmon came from 

She said she would drive them from the place they called home for thousands of years and return home but she didn’t return and jimmy stayed in there house to afraid to even look out side just waiting for his sister for hundreds of years he lived in fear 

Until till one day he snapped his fear turned to rage the salmon where why his sister left why he had nightmares and why he was living in constant fear he decided to follow his sister to the surface killing as many salmon as he could along the way and so even when he reached the shore and forgot his past he still had the trauma and rage that came with those lost memories 

but also he still had those feelings from when he was happy little boy with out a trouble in the ocean before his life fell apart around him he still had his love for his sister and while it was hazy and muted it was still there

this is, and i mean this in the best way possible, an entire fanfic. everyone come look at this i mean you could write a oneshot off of this:0

[the-hipster-nugget]

In there childhood Lizzie was very overprotective towards jimmy 

Which was understandable because he was always trying to do stuff that wasn’t safe for him to do 

like eating stuff that where not edible or trying to befriend hostile sea creatures like sharks piranhas and salmon the last one being the newest threatening creature that causes the most life changing accident of the two siblings lives

It happened one day while he was playing Lizzie had left him Alone for only a second when he saw a friendly looking salmon he went to go pet it or strike up a conversation with one of his new neighbors depending on how intelligent the salmon where

 But as soon as jimmy approached the harmless looking fish he quickly discovered that it was very much not harmless the salmon lunged at him and attacked 

just as the salmon attacked Lizzie returned just in time to witness the fish clamp it’s jaws on one of his body parts

the injury was not lethal and was easily  taken care of but the encounter was incredibly traumatizing for jimmy and from that moment on he could not even look at A salmon with out being triggered 

unfortunately there home was soon completely taken over by the salmon they where everywhere jimmy couldn’t even look out the window with out seeing a salmon 

Before Jimmy hatched Lizzie promised she would protect him no matter what so decided to head towards the direction the salmon came from 

She said she would drive them from the place they called home for thousands of years and return home but she didn’t return and jimmy stayed in there house to afraid to even look out side just waiting for his sister for hundreds of years he lived in fear 

Until till one day he snapped his fear turned to rage the salmon where why his sister left why he had nightmares and why he was living in constant fear he decided to follow his sister to the surface killing as many salmon as he could along the way and so even when he reached the shore and forgot his past he still had the trauma and rage that came with those lost memories 

but also he still had those feelings from when he was happy little boy with out a trouble in the ocean before his life fell apart around him he still had his love for his sister and while it was hazy and muted it was still there

🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

THE LIZZIE AND JIMMY SIBLING DYNAMIC IS WHAT I LIVE FOR THEY ARE SO PROTECTIVE OVER EACH OTHER I WAS LITERALLY JUST TALKING ABOUT THIS TO SOMEONE

Those two would die and kill for each other I swear on it. It’s really sad the way they drift apart and didn’t even know they were related until a while into their adulthood, forgetting completely about how much they used to care about each other. Lizzie’s letter to him :(( my dear brother

[luvvs-1820]

In there childhood Lizzie was very overprotective towards jimmy 

Which was understandable because he was always trying to do stuff that wasn’t safe for him to do 

like eating stuff that where not edible or trying to befriend hostile sea creatures like sharks piranhas and salmon the last one being the newest threatening creature that causes the most life changing accident of the two siblings lives

It happened one day while he was playing Lizzie had left him Alone for only a second when he saw a friendly looking salmon he went to go pet it or strike up a conversation with one of his new neighbors depending on how intelligent the salmon where

 But as soon as jimmy approached the harmless looking fish he quickly discovered that it was very much not harmless the salmon lunged at him and attacked 

just as the salmon attacked Lizzie returned just in time to witness the fish clamp it’s jaws on one of his body parts

the injury was not lethal and was easily  taken care of but the encounter was incredibly traumatizing for jimmy and from that moment on he could not even look at A salmon with out being triggered 

unfortunately there home was soon completely taken over by the salmon they where everywhere jimmy couldn’t even look out the window with out seeing a salmon 

Before Jimmy hatched Lizzie promised she would protect him no matter what so decided to head towards the direction the salmon came from 

She said she would drive them from the place they called home for thousands of years and return home but she didn’t return and jimmy stayed in there house to afraid to even look out side just waiting for his sister for hundreds of years he lived in fear 

Until till one day he snapped his fear turned to rage the salmon where why his sister left why he had nightmares and why he was living in constant fear he decided to follow his sister to the surface killing as many salmon as he could along the way and so even when he reached the shore and forgot his past he still had the trauma and rage that came with those lost memories 

but also he still had those feelings from when he was happy little boy with out a trouble in the ocean before his life fell apart around him he still had his love for his sister and while it was hazy and muted it was still there

:cry:

[fantasykiri5]

In there childhood Lizzie was very overprotective towards jimmy 

Which was understandable because he was always trying to do stuff that wasn’t safe for him to do 

like eating stuff that where not edible or trying to befriend hostile sea creatures like sharks piranhas and salmon the last one being the newest threatening creature that causes the most life changing accident of the two siblings lives

It happened one day while he was playing Lizzie had left him Alone for only a second when he saw a friendly looking salmon he went to go pet it or strike up a conversation with one of his new neighbors depending on how intelligent the salmon where

 But as soon as jimmy approached the harmless looking fish he quickly discovered that it was very much not harmless the salmon lunged at him and attacked 

just as the salmon attacked Lizzie returned just in time to witness the fish clamp it’s jaws on one of his body parts

the injury was not lethal and was easily  taken care of but the encounter was incredibly traumatizing for jimmy and from that moment on he could not even look at A salmon with out being triggered 

unfortunately there home was soon completely taken over by the salmon they where everywhere jimmy couldn’t even look out the window with out seeing a salmon 

Before Jimmy hatched Lizzie promised she would protect him no matter what so decided to head towards the direction the salmon came from 

She said she would drive them from the place they called home for thousands of years and return home but she didn’t return and jimmy stayed in there house to afraid to even look out side just waiting for his sister for hundreds of years he lived in fear 

Until till one day he snapped his fear turned to rage the salmon where why his sister left why he had nightmares and why he was living in constant fear he decided to follow his sister to the surface killing as many salmon as he could along the way and so even when he reached the shore and forgot his past he still had the trauma and rage that came with those lost memories 

but also he still had those feelings from when he was happy little boy with out a trouble in the ocean before his life fell apart around him he still had his love for his sister and while it was hazy and muted it was still there

Heartbreaking. I love it

[jockpoetry]

supernatural sees women as a tool for development and strengthening of narratives/motivation and dean sees his body as a tool. is that anything?

When I saw this ask I really made the 🥴in real life. So, yeah anon, I do think there’s something to this.

Quick Disclaimer before I actually launch into my thoughts™: A lot of my read of Dean stems from my experience as both an oldest daughter and a transman. Being the oldest daughter was an experience I lived for many years, but I am also a man. I wasn’t raised as a man, I wasn’t socialized as a man, and even though once I came out upon reflection my masculinity was obviously there. Like I was a man™ before I knew I was a man. Even when I actively tied my identity to femininity for a long time! A lot of my prideful moments were based around statements like: “I was the only girl who (fill in the blank).” 

So I am just putting that out there before I launch into my spiel about Dean/Gender/Tool because they all interlock for me. 

I am also going to apologize in advance because I know this has fully gone off the rails and I’m not even done writing it yet. If this is incomprehensible ! Well, happens to the best of us.

First off, most importantly I guess before we discuss womanhood and Dean and the way both are utilized on the show I need to say that I personally don’t subscribe the whole Dean is female coded thing. 

It’s a read I can absolutely understand. But for me..he’s not. 

He’s a hypermasculine man to the point that when (and because he is written as a punchline, as the stupid™ brother, as the whore™, as the mother/father™, as daddy’s blunt instrument™, etc) Dean deviates from the pre-accepted definition of hypermasculine it’s Wrong. 

It’s Instantly Feminine. 

I think the internet has made the world very black and white, or blue and pink maybe. This point, I think, colors a lot of these discussions. Dean cooks, he cleans and so therefor he’s female coded. When that really just feeds back into the whole toxic masculinity loop. You can’t be masculine and cook and clean and cry. That’s for feminine people only. 

I get the argument! I do, I just think that Dean’s actions are not inherently feminine, it’s just in the vacuum of Female and in the Absence of Traditional Masculinity it makes sense to assign him female coded and move on.

IN FACT the way that Dean is the action hero of the show, the Masculine™ one on the show - but he cries, and he rages, and he cooks (Again and Again) and cleans (Again and Again). The fact he’s macho and confident but he has so little self esteem. Is frankly insane to me. You have this blaze of glory character who is so depressed that they have him kill himself. Twice. In explicitly “I hate myself, I hate hearing all the things I hate about myself, I want to destroy myself” ways. 

On just a regular ol’ network show that is just ungodly bad at times. They let their Male Hero cry - all the time (if I linked every example of this the essay would be...longer than it already is, but just take my word for it). Dean tears up and grieves and shows more than just Angry Horny Violent™ (he shows plenty of that, don’t get me wrong) but he’s Emotional (Again and Again and Again). In many different ways!

I mean, beyond even just tearing up, they make their Male Hero™ face sexual violence in pretty, uniquely horrifying - and queer! - ways.

Let’s make it clear, they did a lot of this unintentionally. 

Or they do it as a joke. 

Off of dean for a moment to say women are plot devices in this show. I could probably count on one hand female characters who have sincere depth to them that have roles outside of progressing plot, filling a filler episode, and who are still alive. Like even characters such as Charlie who are wholly developed, and interesting, are only remembered/mentioned/utilized to progress plots or fill an episode out - and then she dies. For pain™ for plot™ for no other reason than to traumatize a character. 

Which let’s also make it clear Dean’s trauma is also only used as a plot device (as is Sam’s but in a different way, and Cas’ trauma is a whole other barrel of fish we’re not gonna dive into right now). Like wholesale full stop they don’t actually care about what happened to him. Unless it’s relevant in an episode. 

Oh that boys home he was left at when he was 16 for months? Sure we’ll sprinkle that in in the back half of the series. Oh he was covered in bruises and said it was from a hunt (when it’s clear contextually they were from his father but saying the fantastical but true is easier than saying the uncomfortable but true). As Dean says though the story became the story, he was sixteen. He just went along with what John said.

We only see Dean ever truly rage at John, by the way, when either Dean is dead (when he’s between life and death and he rages at John, right before John “apologizes” for traumatizing him, for putting too much on Dean’s shoulders, and fucking dying) or John is dead (the Djinn episode where Dean is straight™ and John is dead™ and he goes to his grave and just yells and rages like he should have to his father in the real world).

Dean’s trauma from being both tortured and torturer in hell? Yeah, we don’t talk about that after it’s Relevant™. Even though it’s clear - especially in the demon!dean, mark of cain era, all those years later - Alastair still has his hooks inside of Dean. I stopped watching originally after s8 ended. I was fed up with the show, and with this whole renaissance I’ve been doing a rewatch and I’m into season twelve now and it really has never come up again. 

Even when he had the mark of cain and he was tasked with questioning and accused of torturing it was “the mark has changed you” and not “you were victim and victimizer in hell for forty years, which is longer than you’ve been alive on earth” (and, was about as long as he wound up living. Which is desperately sad.

Because we talk about Sam’s desire for a “normal” life but, Dean wanted out too. He was tired in the first few seasons of this show, he never had a chance to taste freedom (we don’t count the boys home, because that was a different kind of regimented life, and it was a false freedom) the way that Sam did in Flagstaff with Bones or at Stanford with Jessica. Love for Dean is sacrificing, it’s putting himself/his happiness/his well-being last.

Because Dean only knows love in the context of violence (like all of these fun examples, for starters) is a phrase that I’ve said a lot both in private chats and on here, and I absolutely think it goes to him being a tool (a blunt instrument, a plot device, so both textually and metatextually) instead of a person. Which Cas sees Dean’s shame/guilt and sees that side of Dean because he touched his soul, and saw more than just the Righteous™ man, more than just the tool, he saw A good man, not a machine. 

On the other side though you have how “bad guys” view Dean: Desperate, Sloppy, Needy, Dean’s hole (Again), which is again so wildly counterintuitive to the story of a Macho Man Hero™. You’re using vocabulary that is both queering him and feminizing (and I know this a meme format, but sincerely it is done in a derogatory way it is feminizing. It’s breaking him down to bare parts, to a sloppy hole). 

My whole rewatch I have been absolutely fascinated by how identity and free will is utilized/conceptualized on this show. Castiel has been my main focus, but Dean and how he is framed by himself and others is...fascinating - and frustrating. The writers inconsistency lends itself not only to this unintentionally queer character, but also one that again is incredibly easily read as a non-traditionally masculine character.

As a feminine character.

This show has so few female characters that of course it had to foist the roles/behaviors/plots that a female character might have onto a male character. Which I think is part of why reading Dean as trans (either transmasc, or transfemme) is so easily done like.   

Half of these are shit posts, but you can find trans allegories/textual evidence in this show again, again, again, again, and again. And this is unintentional, they don’t want you to look at Dean and see woman, former future or present. Like a lot of these I’m sure are punchlines for them, because women/queer folk are punchlines to them. 

Sometimes the only women in an episode are random witnesses who get two sentences of dialogue, and then the main guest character is a man. Who flirts with Dean, and Dean is receptive to it. 

They paint themselves into a corner, there are female Rabbi. So easily could Aaron have been a woman instead of a man, but they made the choice to play up the HaHa Dean & Men card. 

Because, again, Dean has filled the slot of Woman™ of Female Lead™ and the flirting would’ve been straight if Dean was a woman. It’s a plot device, they needed to have the guest character be disarming, be cute, make the main character flustered. 

It’s just the main character is a man, because they’re allergic to women. But they still need those female plots, tools of femininity, to move their show forward. I mean I am a big subscriber to transmasc Jo (no idea if anyone else is with me on this one, but let me explain). Jo is in love with Dean (concept) not Dean (actuality). Which, we’ve all had our eggs cracked by someone like that. We were in love with them until we realized we just wanted to be them.

He loved her like a little sister, she loved him like a lost idol. He’s a golden calf and she dies for him, because she believed in him, she was the original character dashed at the altar of the Winchesters. 

I fully believe if she had lived and if this show had a crumb of actual good writing Jo could have been a deeply compelling transmasc character. But I also think she’s a fascinating inversion of Dean. Dean is a Masculine Character who subverts Toxic Masculinity, Jo is a Tomboy™ she’s not your (if you take it straight, literally and metaphorically) average female love interest. She’s angry, she’s not soft at all, all edges and corners and thorns. She isn’t helpless, she’s stubborn but not in a “you’re going to get punished for this” way. She’s right when she’s stubborn. She’s helpful, she’s a martyr. 

I could do a whole other essay just on Jo (and Ellen, and Ash, what a fucking trio!) but needless to say Jo was one of the first...plot device feminine tools sacrificed to this show. She was a regular, she was unique, she was an engaging character, and she still died (to progress the plot? no. for man pain? yeah, for like three episodes maybe, and then it’s forgotten just like the rest of Dean’s trauma, as we mentioned above). 

Dean and Women and Love is a very interesting tool used too because. Boy they sure try to make Dean love women and it fails in small ways, and in big, meaningless, failed het domesticity (again) ways. Not to mention whatever Lust (in the form of a woman) having no effect upon him, when they could have used that moment to assert his Masculinity and Heterosexuality. He behaved normally? And...also...whatever the fuck the Adios thing was!

Like they have these opportunities to make him Traditionally (toxically) Masculine, but make the choice to...not? To soften him. Because it’s a tool. He’s their female lead, textually he had to take on the role of mother(/father) to Sam, but...I mean this is a million miles long already. I know, but we absolutely can’t not talk about his Paternal/Maternal behaviors. (Which appear again and again again and again, outside of his relationship with Sam even/especially). He’s the mother hen, sage, safety net, beacon, home to so many side characters they meet.

I mean in many ways Jody is also a Dean comparison. Lost her family. Found a new family. She is non-traditionally feminine, but easily flustered and Silly™ (let’s just drop the entire sex talk over family dinner scene with Alex and the boys and looking to them for help, even though she was already a mother, and she’s a cop, and a hunter and this confident no nonsense individual.... She’s not). We are meant to see her as this hard ass, but she makes extra food for the boys to take back to the bunker. She’s deadly in a fight, but also still easily overwhelmed and put into damsel mode, and she cares so much even in the face of adversity.

It’s also fun to see how Jo | Jody are reflections of Dean at different points of his life. Younger, cocky | Older, settled.

Even when the text tries to tell us that he’s not.

When it reminds us that he’s violent. That he is his father, even if he says that Sam is more like John (which was reflexive, which was angry because of Adam and how Sam was behaving like Dean in that episode, and yes there are parallels to be drawn between Sam and John, the show barely dives into them). Instead we’re told that Dean is John (Again and  Again and Again and Again). 

So intensely that a fanfictionalized version of the Winchester Gospels makes it an entire fucking musical number. 

And yet, despite the texts insistence to make Dean Macho Man Father Reborn™ We get this Dean who is silly (and directly compared/contrasted to the female character in this scene), soft, in heels, nagging, and... Sully (you know Sam’s imaginary friend who has the same Haircut Dean has, who is a softer, shorter, friendlier, campier, version of Dean who was a replacement For Dean until the real one let Sam back in? That? Sully?) it’s hard to take them seriously. 

Hell, even when he was A DEMON? What did they do? They had him sing off-key drunken karaoke, they had him doing this ! Like that’s your hero, unhinged, free to be as bad as he could be, and you put him in a cowboy hat in a romance with the king of hell. 

The Female Lead, everyone. Who’s biggest betrayal(s) comes at the hands of his love interest (again, a man even though it was an angel who could’ve taken any vessel! who could’ve been recast, who canonically dies admitting his love to Dean - that one), who he tries so hard to be loyal to. 

The contradictions of his character are laughable. He is so emotional, but if he is engaged about his emotions? He shuts down, or he’s exasperated about being asked about them. It really is Female Lead/Only Here For The Plot disease, because everything is more important than him. How’s he doing? Doesn’t matter outside of the context of how x character is doing or that y character is dead. Or his emotions only matter if they’re done in penance. 

They also really do frame him as Pretty Boy™ in a violent way, or in a derogatory manner. They’ll give us homoerotic shots like this or these and never really acknowledge how these are gay shots. Sorry the gun scene is a a straight up sex scene, the beer sip spilling out over his mouth is oral, the scene where Cas fills up Dean’s glass with whisky is also a sex scene, they do this shit on purpose but accidentally queer it up. If Dean was a woman these scenes wouldn’t even matter. They’d be passing moments, but because he is not just a man but A Man™ they’re insane to see.

Not to mention all of these scenes and all the ones I haven’t linked where Dean dresses up. He performs masculinity, but he performs femininity too. He’s a plot device that is slotted in to whatever role they need. He’s Super Straight Butch Man™ but coaches the lesbian on how to successfully flirt with a man. He’s Action Hero™ who sits through a montage with the same lesbian and yays and nays her outfits, and enjoys himself.

Fuck he loves dressing up, he feels better in these costumes because performing a character is easier than being himself. Because who is Dean? He’s a tool, both textually and metatextually. It is exactly how the women and because of the women on the show that Dean is the way that he is. If there was a more steady female presence Dean would not be half as much of a plot device or half as camp/gay/feminine/non-traditionally masculine/queer coded as he is. 

In conclusion....

[algumaideia]

Tyson isn’t dumb

Tyson is one of my favorite characters in the Riordanverse, I loved him since his first appearance, he was so sweet and kind. And I really dislike the way he was treated by the books and sometimes by the fandom. So, this post is kind of my love letter to him.

Tyson is a guy who passed through a lot of stuff. He was homeless and orphan, as far as we know the first time he received a formal education was when he attended the same school Percy was going. He was attacked by monsters that lived nearby and had no friends. When he got to camp half-blood he was mocked, avoided and excluded. The only two people who were nice to him were Percy and Beckendorf, and Percy felt ashamed for being related to Tyson (I think this was the only time I got mad with Percy). He passed through a life/death situation, his own kind said he wasn’t a good cyclops, he saw his childhood hero disappoint him, he fought wars, he felt devalued by his father during the fights in the Last Olympian, he lost Beckendorf the first person to be nice to him in camp half-blood, he saw his brother, his first (and for some time only) friend disappear and for months had no information about him. Tyson suffered a lot, for a long time he had no one to offer kindness, love, and affection to him.

He could be an angry, spiteful, full of hatred and revenge person, but he is not and that’s why I like him so much. Tyson is an easygoing, happy, kind, gentle, compassionate, nice, and loving being. He has a strong sense of right and wrong. And the thing is that he chooses every time to be like that. People, Tyson tries hard like no one else in the series to be the best version of himself every time. He is always kind and gentle, he is always trying to do not let his negative emotions affect how he interacts with people, I think the only time he did so was if Briares disappointed him. He passed through horrible experiences, but he continues to be amazed and feel delight by life. He is capable of feeling genuine joy by the little things. And this is so amazing. The strength he has to do that all time is something so incredible.

Now let’s talk about the post’s title, Tyson isn’t dumb.

You know he remembers me a lot of Kronk, they are both seemed as not intelligent by people because they are happy, easygoing, kind and gentle. Which is so unfair because Kronk has an incredible memory, an amazing knowledge about nature, can speak squirrel and is really good at multitasking. Anyway, I’ll analyze the reason why Tyson is seen as dumb by Percy, the other character, the fandom and why they are wrong.

He uses simple words. And again, Tyson grew up in the streets and he only had one year of formal educations. Of course, he is not going to have a large vocabulary. Other thing is when he calls Chiron pony and says fish pony. Let’s try to see this by his perspective: Tyson was mistreated by Annabeth, then saw his first and only friend be attacked by a monster and be in mortal danger. It was a difficult situation and now he is in a place where he isn’t really welcomed. But then he sees something that he really likes, a pony! He gets really happy, yes there is a human body connected to the body, but he doesn’t care about the human part. What he likes are ponies. The guy says he is a centaur, but who cares about it? Not Tyson. He likes ponies, and in front of him there is a pony. A light in the end of the dark tunnel. It wasn’t him being dumb, he was just trying to feel better and therefore focusing in what makes him feel better.

 A not good understanding of social situations. Tyson didn’t understand that people were mocking him in Sea of Monsters. And you know why? It is because Tyson has an intellectual disability. This isn’t a headcanon. Tyson acts more like a neurodivergent person than Percy. It is not him being childish or naive, it is his intellectual disability. It is not a flaw. It is not his fault, what happens is that the people around him do not offer any support with this symptom of his disability. He has a problem about reading social situations, everyone knows what but no one tries to explain things to him or help him understand what is happening. 

Peanut butter. It is interesting that Tyson chose that as his war cry. Because again he has the ability to feel joy and be amazed by little things. So he is at his really bad situation, a war, such a horrible experience to anyone, and he decides that his war cry will be a good thing, something that makes him feel happy. If you people can realize that Leo uses jokes as a coping mechanism, why can’t you see that Tyson does the same? When he is experiencing a terrible situation instead of feeling bad and miserable he decides to focus and little and simple things that make him feel happy.

His appearance. Tyson isn’t good-looking, a lot of times is seen wearing not appropriate clothes and with his mouth dirty of food. And yeah of course he is like that, he grew up in the streets!!! Do you think he had someone to taught him good manners? To taught him about fashion? The boy learned basically everything by himself.

His childish personality and “simple” way he sees the world. First Tyson is a child, he is a really young cyclops, he is younger than Percy. Second, he has a strong sense of right and wrong, which is common trait in autistic people, and just because he continued with a strong moral view of the world through the series it doesn’t mean he can’t understand the complexity of the situations. Other thing is how he plays a lot or is happy all the time. Again, he isn’t good reading social situation, it is not his fault if he wants to be happy whenever he can, and it happens that a people are feeling bad when he does that. He is always super cheerful when he talks and for some reason this is seem as a lack of intelligence. Why the boy being excited to do things he likes is seem as flaw? 

Can we talk about how he is written as a burden to Percy sometimes? How the text tells us how difficult it is to Percy to have an intellectual disabled brother, how that makes his life harder. Or how he is used as a comic relief? The traits that makes him neurodivergent are always being used as a joke. 

You know I dislike so much how it is always a surprise to everyone the fact that he is smart, he understands the gravity of the situations, it makes me so mad. Just because he is happy and appreciates little things people assume all the time that he isn’t smart.

Tyson deserves more love and respect. He is a sweetheart like no one in the series not because he is dumb, or didn’t pass through traumatic experiences, but because he chooses to be.

Unfortunately, I’m not very good with writing texts, so I wasn’t able to live up to Tyson.

Best regards,

Me.

Ps. There are people who talk about how bad it is that Annabeth diminishes Percy intelligence all the time, but where are the people acknowledging that Ella only sees Tyson as a strong and cute guy? She also seems to see him as not smart like everyone else. It is so sad.