#very explicitly not ship art because of this. just so you guys are aware <3

[acetheabnormal]

It's really late but I'm posting this NOWWW !! Slime rancher misclick duo because it's silly

Slime is basically just a nuisance that won't leave Mariana alone, and the little bastard just rolls around his ranch eating all his veggies. Mariana does everything he can to deter Slime but no matter how many times he tosses him into the slime sea, he always comes back somehow...

[strawberrycamel]

Fic Writer Review

tagged by: @aj-itated <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 30!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 46,254 words

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? based on my Ao3 and my old ff.net account: 3 - Fairy Tail, BNHA, DP (though I haven't written for Fairy Tail or bnha in years)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? in order, that would be How to Take Out a Ghost by TooFineFoley, Bad Luck Tuck: The Sequel, ignorance is your new best friend, What Could Have Been, and, surprisingly, A Connoisseur of Fine Art (all DP or DP crossover fics)

5. Which of your fic do you want more attention for? both they're siblings, your honor and Big Boy Tucker. i can't choose, they both need love

6. Do you respond to comments, why or why not? i used to respond to them as often as I could at the start, but i kinda slacked off sometime around the beginning of summer classes. I used to respond to them because they made me really happy and i wanted to let the commenters know I did actually read it and am very grateful for their comments, but after a while it became... idk, draining? I felt bad about leaving the same response to each commenter and got caught up in my own head so I just kinda,, stopped all together. I wanna start responding again at some point, but uh, probably not anytime soon.

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

oh definitely One More Time; I think that's the only fic I've written without some kind of happy ending (anything in the Not Your Son series doesn't count since it's not finished yet :3) and I can't tell you how much it pained me not to make it happy. Don't get me wrong, I loved writing that for going angst week but hole-y shit did it fuck me up

8. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you’ve written? I do write crossovers! The craziest, I think, is my Strange vs. Work: Wife Swap AU, it's not done because I'm seriously stumped for it right now, but it's essentially a DP Marvel crossover where Clockwork and Dr. Strange are forced by a TV host ghost to switch bodies and mentor the other person's 'apprentice'. Peter and Danny have to help them get adjusted to their new environments/bodies and they all have to figure out how to turn things back to normal. This whole series is meant to be based off the show 'Wife Swap'. I have fun making Stephen suffer >:)

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic? not that i can remember? like i think it was more grammar and dialogue punctuation nitpicking on my old ff.net fics, never hate

10. Do you write smut? if so what kind? not really, but i have a singular wip that im working on that's definitely spicy

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? nope

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? no? (i was working on something a while ago but we havent finished so, I'm going with no)

13. What’s your all time favorite ship? i don't think I really have one. Usually I just read whichever fics have cool summaries or tags and just dive right in, ships be damned. Lately I've been reading a few TimKon fics and I've been thinking about Dark Ages, UFS, and Gray Ghost stuff a lot over the summer

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? oh, oh god. I'm going to say it and I'm going to feel real shitty about it because it's such a good fucking concept, but I can't bring myself to write anything more than what I already have written and all the notes I just randomly add onto it every once in a while. It even has a title: "Ectoplasmic Pudding".

It's a DP DC crossover fic wip and the plot is about Danny being called by Batman to help with a kidnapping case he suspects to involve ghosts; he needs Danny's expertise and help to capture the ghost. Danny agrees and he meets Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson) on the roof of the police station (after dropping face first onto it because he got blinded by the bat signal). They go by Batmobile and arrive at the scene of the crime where Danny confirms a ghost is involved. A bunch of different scenes of Danny and Robin having a blast while Batman's trying his best to stay on task and then, eventually, they find a warehouse where the box ghost is interrogating a bored looking Mr. Trand, the victim, about some fancy box commissioned by Vlad.

Danny figures out this guy is Bertrand in disguise and since Bertrand's essentially on vacation, they both agree to lie about how they know each other. And then I got stuck around here, but I imagine it just ends up being a series of dumb events where Batman, Robin, and Danny have to 'protect' Bertrand until they catch Boxy and throw him back into the Ghost Zone while the disguised ghost tries to make the most of the rest of his vacation.

Batman and Robin definitely don't believe whatever lie Danny came up with to explain how he knows Mr. Trand, but they go along with it until it's revealed in probably the worst way possible and leads to both of them trying to take the former kidnapping victim to the GIW while also trying to keep Danny from stopping them and barely listening to a word he says (maybe they think he's being threatened somehow or being controlled or smth, idk). Absolutely no clue how that whole fight goes, but in the end Danny kicks Box Ghost into the Zone and Bertrand is told very explicitly never to bring Spectra to Gotham.

15. What are your writing strengths? evoking emotion in my writing? yeah i'm going with that

16. What are your writing weaknesses? planning out plot ahead of time. I can write outlines and write a bunch of notes about what i want to include, that's not the problem. My problem is that all my motivation to write just drains away the moment I have a somewhat concrete plot planned out for a fic- this applies to one-shots and longfics exactly the same. And past that, sometimes I'll make one change to the planned plot and feel like tossing the whole thing out the window and going freehand without the 'constraints' of an outline or anything ..........

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? try not to offend anybody? like, look at good examples of how others have done it and do a lot of research and stuff. Also, be aware that not everything will translate perfectly from the original language you wrote the fic in and whatever language you're translating it to.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Fairy Tail

19. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? Hellbent. A few others come close, but I seriously cannot express the joy i felt writing that first chapter (and when I'm done my minibang fic, I literally cannot wait to get back to it)

20. What fic are you most proud of? that's a tough one, there are a bunch i fucking adore but i think it's tied between The Big Dipper and ignorance is your new best friend

Tagging: @guardianrex, @shinygoldstar, @cleanlenins, @princessfanonanona, and @ghost-pasta!

[princepondincherry]

Wish RWBY was better? Try ATLA

To start: Yes, I’m aware ATLA and even LoK probably have much larger fandoms than RWBY already. I think they also have more content and were produced with a larger budget, which means we have to give RWBY some slack. It doesn’t mean criticism isn’t valid.

Since Avatar came out on Netflix, I watched both shows, and I can’t help drawing parallels with RWBY since they’re both animated shows I’ve loved about badass kids/teens with magic powers. And Avatar is SO MUCH better. For instance, inter-party conflict. The Gaang argue ALL THE TIME, and it’s just presented as the normal state of affairs, not some dramatic, crazy detail when one sibling has a slight disagreement with the other sibling. And as much flak as the Mako relationship drama gets in Legend of Korra, at least it had substance to it. We still don’t really know what the problem is with Ren and Nora. Oh, and The Last Airbender handled an unwanted kiss forced on someone who didn’t think it was the right time for romance SO MUCH better, with an immediate, “I SAID I was confused!” and the instigator having a scene right after where they called themselves an idiot, instead of the Renora kiss being presented as romantic or something.

Now I kinda want to write a list of things I feel Avatar does better. There’s a poorly-argued word vomit below the cut:

- The dead mother thing--Salem mentions Summer once with no details, and Ruby completely breaks down? What? Like, grief is fine, but this has literally no foreshadowing since the songs don’t count as full canon, and it made no sense given Ruby’s established (ha) character and the situation. Katara would have flown into a rage, and it would have been so much better.

- Arguments with adults on your side--Pakku was set up as an asshole teacher from the start, and he when confronted with the consequences of his misogyny, he changed his ways for the better. Zuko arguing with Iroh is never intended to have Zuko be in the right. Korra argues with Tenzin all the time, and usually they’re both right, but have to come to a better understanding of each other’s perspective that helps them grow as people. In fact, this conflict drives a lot of the story for the first two books of LoK. Unfortunately, RWBY seems incapable of this sort of nuance. Qrow is just drunk until he isn’t, but then later gets Clover killed, and Ozpin is supposedly just awful.

- Arguments with adults who should be on your side but aren’t--Long Feng SHOULD be on the same side as the heroes, defending the Earth Kingdom, but he isn’t for pretty stupid reasons. But, unlike Ironwood shooting people like a maniac, Long Feng is against the heroes for stupid reasons that (mostly) make sense in-universe: he wants to remain in power. (I still don’t understand why he didn’t just quietly explain that he had the real power in the city, not the king, and shuffle the kids off to whoever was running the military defenses that allowed him to pretend there was no war. I guess he thought if he just gave them the cold shoulder long enough, they’d go away?) Whatever problems there were with Long Feng’s storyline, at least he was consistently written as a bad guy. In contrast, Ironwood is inconsistently written as a good guy who has all the trappings of a tyrant but doesn’t act like it AT ALL, except when he occasionally does something extreme like shoot Oscar. He’s written (I guess unintentionally?) as a subversion of the military tyrant, except when he suddenly acts like one again. It’s like they were shooting for a Tarrlok (sketchy government official who’s both bad for the obvious reasons AND worse than he appears beneath the surface, even though he often works for the side of good) but actually wrote Suyin (someone who could easily be a totalitarian dictator, but decided not to be because of her moral principles, and is actually nice), except occasionally she attacks her allies for disagreeing with her.

- Costume design--I loved Ruby’s, Weiss’s, Ozpin’s, Qrow’s, and a few other original costumes, and Ruby’s had some very solid costumes. However, Volume 7 was terrible. The animation looked weird on Weiss’s braid, Jaune’s hair was awful, and a bunch of them weren’t really dressed for the weather. In contrast, the Avatar characters change outfits whenever it’s appropriate. You know, like real people. (If this is a “3D animation makes outfit changes harder than 2D animation” thing, then maybe 2D animation is just a superior art form when you’re on a budget.)

- Consistent power levels--Katara starts weak and gets stronger. Aang starts as only an airbender and consistently gets better at everything else. Toph invents metalbending and gradually gets more proficient with it. In contrast, RWBY’s Volume 1-3 feats are often better than their later feats, and Aura strength blatantly depends on plot. Yang’s gotten *slightly* better at fighting, Weiss learned a new skill and promptly got her butt kicked by focusing on it too much, Ruby supposedly learned hand-to-hand combat but really just did a headbutt, and RWBY SOMEHOW beat the most premiere team in Atlas after training with them for a few weeks. Sure, Toph, Katara, Azula, Aang, and Sokka are all ridiculous prodigies, but they’re established as such from the beginning. Katara still loses soundly to Pakku before he trains her. (Despite the memes about her kicking the ass of the patriarchy, he’s obviously going easy on her and still crushes her.) Aang gets beaten by Ozai without his OP special ability. Azula gets beaten easily the one time we see her go up against an adult (Iroh, on the ship in the beginning of book 2). And Toph is more like Pyrrha than anyone on Team RWBY. Honestly, this is one of my weaker points, but I still stand by the fact that the Avatar kids’ victories felt much more earned.

- Bad Fights--Yes, I know, heresy. I actually think the best of RWBY’s fights (RWBY vs. Torchwick’s mech, Ozpin vs. Cinder, Pyrrha vs. Cinder, RWBY vs. the Nevermore, Qrow vs. Tyrian) are somewhat more exciting, visually interesting, and (sometimes) emotionally charged than even the best of Avatar’s fights (Aang vs. Ozai, Zuko vs. Azula, Kya vs. Zaheer, Korra vs. Zaheer, Tenzin and his siblings vs. Red Lotus, Suyin vs. Kuvira). But my actual point is that RWBY’s bad fights are BAD, whereas I can’t even think of what the worst Avatar fights are. Sokka vs. Zuko in episode 1 was pretty bad, but that was more of a gag than a fight. Umm...Big Glowy Korra vs. Unavaatu was kinda cheesy, but I still liked it. Meelo fartbending vs. the Equalists? Idk. Meanwhile, RWBY has the Scuffle of Haven, that time Ilia seriously hurt Sun somehow, Qrow vs. Tyrian vs. Clover (visually impressive, but made NO FUCKING SENSE), Oscar landing a massively-telegraphed blow on Neo...well, okay. Maybe there weren’t that many awful fights. I still think I came away from more RWBY fights disappointed, but I can’t really argue my case very well.

- LGBT representation, normalized to the time period--Yes, Korrasami never got past handholding in the finale, but somehow Yang and Blake haven’t either? Even though it’s 2020? Actually, this is a symptom of a larger problem:

- Romantic relationships being ignored--Why won’t RWBY explicitly confirm anything? The RWBY cast are closer in age to the LoK cast than the ATLA cast, but it feels the other way around. Kataang was both heavily present in ATLA the whole time and by no means taking over the plot. And, okay, there was Jaune/Pyrrha, but she’s dead now, so the most-developed ship is Renora. Who held hands, then didn’t talk about their relationship at all for a full volume, and then had a nonconsensual kiss handled worse than the Kataang kiss in Ember Island Players. I’m glad there haven’t been any Romantic Plot Tumors in RWBY, but something would be nice. Or just don’t bring it up at all if you’re never going to develop the relationships.

- Sibling relationships--Yang and Ruby were great as sisters in the early volumes, but lately it’s just been Yang deciding to yoke herself to Ruby’s judgement, until suddenly she’s not anymore. I feel like they barely talked in Volume 7.

- Villains--If Salem wants to kill everyone and collect the Relics, why hasn’t she? She’s invincible! Ozai at least was still human, but he left to handle things himself as soon as he got a power-up. More vaguely, I just find Avatar’s villains more interesting than RWBY’s most of the time.

I’m aware that some/most of these are unfair. It’s more intended as an incoherent rambling to get my views out of my head than as any sort of persuasive argument.

[raeynbowboi]

The Other Ships in My Fleet

So, I’ve already made a post talking about how I feel about certain ships in My Hero Academia, and another post about some of my other fandoms. Both posts got a lot of likes and reblogs, so I figured I’d talk about my ships from other fandoms. If this post also gets a lot of positive feedback, I’ll consider starting a second page to post my fan content for all of my fandoms, while still maintaining this one almost exclusively for My Hero Academia and Kiribaku specifically.

Klance (Keith x Lance) Voltron: Legendary Defender

I’m fully aware that this ship is probably not going to happen, but it’s really the only ship in the series that speaks to me. I will not lie, I am a big fan of dark and moody dating happy-go-lucky, and the rivals to friends to lovers element is just icing on the cake. It’s only further helped by Lance being Keith’s second-in-command. They help each other grow, and the trust that forms between them is cute and endearing. They also shared a major element to their characters. Both of them feel out of place, Keith because of his Galra heritage, and Lance because he doesn’t have a niche role.

Rabies/Rae x BB (Raven x Beast Boy) Teen Titans (2003)

While there wasn’t a lot of shipping fodder for these two in the 2003 iteration, the two are a canon couple in most versions of the teen titans, having been married in the comics (more than once, I think) so this is sort of a unique ship in that I ship it across every version of the two characters. Sporting a snarky moody goth and a lovable goofball, their dynamic was like that of an old married couple, or a moody teenager and her annoying little brother. Still, the two were good friends, and even though their personalities were polar opposites of each other, they had a lot of quiet, emotional moments together in the series. Whether you want to read them as friends or potential lovers, I think it’s hard to deny that there was a genuinely nice bond between the pair.

Garnet/Rupphire (Ruby x Sapphire) Steven Universe

As the show’s literal physical manifestation of love and a perfect relationship, it’s hard not to like the relationship between these two adorable lesbians. With the show sometimes being edited to remove the queer elements, it’s absolutely hysterical that they had the two get married in an episode very important to the plot, and put Ruby in the dress so that absolutely nobody could misinterpret her as a male. Editing it would only confuse viewers as to why everybody is in wedding attire, thus taking a very satisfying stance against censors and bigotry. Garnet also marks a first in children’s programming as the first same-sex wedding in a children’s animated show, at least as far as I’m aware.

Pearl x Mystery Girl Steven Unieverse

Although only featured in a single episode and having no dialogue, Mystery Girl (possibly named Sabina) is a very important element to Pearl’s character, being her first step toward moving on from Rose Quartz. There were fans that hoped that Mystery Girl would come back, but even if she doesn’t, she’s still important to Pearl’s character development.

Amedot (Amethyst x Peridot) Steven Universe

I know a lot of people prefer Lapidot, but frankly I find Lapis too selfish and cold-hearted to be ready for a relationship as she currently stands. I find Amethyst to be a better fit for Peridot, since they both share issues with their height. That, and the way the show frames them has romantic comedy tropes interwoven into their scenes. But even if they’re just friends, Amethyst’s approval means so much to Peridot.

Stevonnie (Steven Universe x Connie Maheswaren) Steven Universe

I’m not usually a fan of lead boy dates lead girl ships, as they tend to be very poorly done, and many feel forced, or are just boring and predictable. However, the bond between these two feels very genuine. They don’t feel like a lead boy and lead girl forced into a relationship at all. They come together very naturally, and the show takes its time to build their friendship up slowly. The show remembers that they’re kids first, friends second, jam buds third, and love interests last.

Tomstar (Tom Lucitor x Star Butterfly) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

Considering the show’s themes of monsters, racism, and not judging evil at face value, this ship serves as the most thematically poignant to the narrative that the show is setting up. It also makes Star a stronger parallel to her “evil” great great something grandmother, Eclipsa. Both are monster sympathizers with monster boyfriends. While the blood moon bonds complicate things, I see this ship as the most relevant to the themes and messages the show seems to want to send.

Tomco (Tom Lucitor x Marco Diaz) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

More of a joke/crack ship, I know it’s unlikely, but the entire episode of Friendenemies had romantic comedy written all over it. Between the literal in-universe break-up song to the show’s promotional art being inspired by dime store pulp romance novels fuel the fire that keeps this ship afloat.

Bumblebee/Bumbleby (Blake Belladonna x Yang Xiao Long) RWBY

Partners, teammates, and close friends, the ship really took off starting in season 2 during the episode “Burning the Candle”, as Blake spiraled into self-destructive habits due to obsessing over her problems. Nobody is able to get through to her until Yang comes in to talk to her. She doesn’t lecture her or beg her to stop. She instead forms a bridge of trust by first opening up about a similar situation she’s been in, and how she knows first hand that this sort of spiraling can only have negative impacts. They are shown to be parallels, as both girls are negatively effected by a loved one no longer in their life, and the trust issues that spring from that loved one’s actions. Yang was abandoned by her mother, a problem which she mentions Blake repeated. For Blake, it was the uncertainty of trusting someone’s character, and being afraid of someone slowly turning into someone else. She explicitly states in season 3 that her ex started off a nice guy, like Yang. The first time he hurt someone, there was a reason. There was always an excuse. Until eventually, she became the pardoner. The one excusing his actions. And, she expresses the fear that Yang could be following a similar path. Both girls have been hurt by someone in the past, and both girls are afraid of being hurt the same way again, and inadvertently hurt each other the same way as someone else has. It’s also known that RWBY characters tend to represent or be based on fairy tale characters. Yang is Goldilocks, and Blake is Beauty from Beauty and the Beast. However, based on the lyrics from Red Like Roses “Black the Beast descends from shadows, Yellow Beauty burns gold”, there seems to be an implication that Yang is the Beauty to Blake’s Beast. This is interestingly supported by Blake’s name. Blake is a Celtic name meaning both Black and White, and Belladonna literally means Beautiful Woman in Italian, but is also the name of a very poisonous plant often mistaken for the harmless blueberry. The duality of her name could be pointing to how she plays the dual role of both Beauty and Beast.

Seamonkeys (Sun Wukong x Neptune Vasilias) RWBY

A bit more of a crack ship, these two lovable idiots are far less likely to be canon, but since Sun is Yang’s main competition for Blake’s heart, I have no problem shipping him off elsewhere with his goofy best friend. Although they act more like usual best friends in the canon show, their relationship does have a much gayer tone in the less canon comedy show RWBY Chibi, where Neptune almost seems to act like a jealous clingy girlfriend a lot of the times. I doubt the ship would ever sail, but I mostly ship it because they’re cute together. Although, with season 6 just starting, I got the vibe that Sun was stepping aside to let Bumblebee sail uninhibited. Sun doesn’t really have a third popular ship, it’s just Black Sun and Seamonkeys, so this ship may be gaining validity in the future.

Gumlee (Marshall Lee x Prince Gumball) Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake

The male counterpart to Bubbline (Princess Bubblegum x Marceline), there’s no real difference between the two pairs other than their genders, and Gumball preferring baking while Bubblegum prefers science. Because they are effectively just gender-swapped clones of the canon ship, anything canonical between the girls is also technically canon with these two. It’s not that I don’t like Bubbline, but when given the choice between gay or lesbian versions of a couple, I’m going to be naturally inclined to lean toward the gay version.

Sasunaru/Narusasu (Sasuke Uchiha x Naruto Uzumaki) Naruto

Maybe there’s a cultural aspect I’m unaware of, but it’s a bit of a running gag in the Naruto fanbase at this point that Naruto is obsessed with Sasuke. So much so that he seems to care about him way beyond normal friendship. With how much these two obsess over one another, it’s no surprise why this became such a popular pairing. Their dynamic even dwarfed Hinata’s heartfelt confession of her love during the Pain Invasion Arc, because as soon as that ended, did Naruto go talk to Hinata? No, he immediately started thinking about Sasuke. Hinata definitely got the shaft in part II, which is a shame because I really loved her character.

Bob and Linda Belcher Bob’s Burgers

More of an honorable mention than a full on ship, I wanted to highlight them as one of adult animation’s only married couples that actually still like each other. In the wake of the popularity of the Simpsons, and the cementing of the genre with Family Guy, the stock dynamic of idiot husband and enraged but supportive wife became a recurring trope. Before long, every single animated sitcom-esque family fell into this very annoying cliche. So, finding a couple in adult animation that are not only married but still manage to show they love each other is amazing. Their marriage isn’t on the rocks, they find time to at least try and be romantic, and even when they have bets or are on opposing sides of something, the show never forgets that these two love each other at the end of the day.

Captain Swan (Killian “Hook” Jones x Emma Swan) Once Upon A Time

This relationship between Captain Hook and the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming might sound odd on paper, but this couple is by far one of the healthiest relationships in the series. Both Hook and Emma come from broken lives, and together build themselves up to something stronger. In a melodrama surrounding fairy tales, both characters are surprisingly grounded, realistic, and skeptical cynics, a very stark contrast from the usual wide-eyed lovey-dovey couples Disney is known for. Emma’s tendency to put up walls and Killian’s tendency to always put himself first are both slowly broken down over time as Killian tries to tear down Emma’s walls and get to know her while she works on building a foundation of trust between them. The pairing feels very organic, and they definitely feel like the most realistic couple in the series as they both take turns stumbling and working toward being good for each other.

Rumbelle (Rumplestiltskin x Belle) Once Upon A Time

In the early seasons, this couple was beautiful to watch. I truly loved their chemistry and dynamic, as both of them were given such strong characteristics without simplifying either of them. However, as the show went on, it started to lose that power. The couple started to feel toxic as Belle kept waiting for Rumple to change, and he kept on lying and lying. It even reached a stopping point. A perfect one. Rumple was redeemed. He was a good man again. He could be the man Belle deserved. But instead, he slipped right back into his old ways. It was then that I fell off the band wagon for this ship. I loved it once, until I got sick of watching him hurt her over and over.

Daenerys Targaryen x Khal Drogo Game of Thrones

Although together only for a short while, this power couple won audiences over very quickly, as Drogo’s gruff but passionate affection mixed with Danny’s growing confidence and rise to power made these two iconic.

Renly Baratheon x Ser Loras Tyrell Game of Thrones

Another short-lived relationship, the remarkable thing is that Renly was literally the only character vying for the throne with fully good intentions for the realm. He was concerned with the needs of the people, and was the only morally good candidate in the War of Five Kings. Sadly, the ydidn’t get much screen time, but they were still a strong couple.

Peraltiago (Jake Peralta x Amy Santiago) Brooklyn 99

A rare exception to the don’t force the leads to date rule, the show let them form a bond over time that went from a friendly childish rivalry to a friendly dating rivalry. While each character experiences change and growth, it is not at the expense of their personalities, and the progression feels like it was meant to happen.

[airagorncharda]

I finally watched Voltron, and quite liked it! My review of the show, and also the fandom, is below:

So, the show is right up my alley, I liked the animation and characters a lot, and I’m very very pleased with the effort the writers have gone to to include a multitude of representation, especially considering it’s a remake of a show that had extremely bland character designs! Genuinely I ended up really caring about the characters and I’m excited for the last season.

So my feelings on the show are, like, 70% positive! 

That being said, I definitely have some--

°˖ ✧ Complaints about the show itself!   ✧˖ ° 

Characterization:

Mainly, that the characters were basically 2d characters until like season 6. Five seasons is a long time to wait before giving anybody character development, guys. Or even, like, character TRAITS outside of their base trope. 

Hunk is a big guy / the fat comic relief character, so his character traits involved eating, cooking, vomiting, and being a coward, and the jokes about him were all about him being fat. Oh, also he’s the “stable” one of the group. This is a complaint on multiple levels, since it’s fatphobic and obnoxious, but it’s also obvious and two dimensional character design.

And all the characters were like that, basically. 

Allura was arguably less so than the paladins, but only to a point. When Matt showed up, he was more 3d in the first like 2 minutes of screen time than the entire main cast had so far displayed in multiple seasons, because all of his character traits weren’t instantly predictable. Side characters tended to be more interesting and less predictable than main ones, which was just kind of weird.

Shiro and Adam:

I honestly just wish that the writers had been allowed to make their relationship more explicitly romantic, and thus make their breakup more explicitly a breakup. Instead it was kind of vague, which I understand wasn’t the writer’s faults, but it still felt a little weird.

Lotor:

I just feel like they slightly mishandled the end of his arc. I wish they’d either made him more clearly 100% wrong, or else more clearly explained why he wasn’t 100% wrong, which brings my to my last one:

“Galra need Quintessence!!” ft Lotor

This is my main complaint about the show (at least 20% of my frustration with the show is this one thing), because.....

Why?

Why do they need it? Did I miss a line where it’s literally ever explained why the galra NEED quintessence? Or even WANT it, as an empire? We know why Zarkan needed it, and why individuals need it (it’s immortality juice with drawbacks they don’t care about) but I never got the impression that the entire galran empire is immortal-- and even if they are, then they shouldn’t be. “Help us maintain our immortality at any means necessary!” should have been answered with “No.” followed by “Learn to deal with your mortality like everyone else.”

Literally, Lotor was like “We just need unlimited quintessence, and then the galra will do whatever we want!” and nobody in the entire cast was like “cool, we’re on board so far, but like, what exactly do you need it for?”

I still don’t understand what it was all for.

°˖ ✧ Complaints about the fandom! ✧˖ °

I feel like I’m kicking a hornets nest by even bringing this shit up, because:

This fandom is goddamn cursed:

Nobody in this fandom seems able to agree on the character’s characterization, I suspect largely because they barely had any for 5 seasons. Instead of saying “these are my headcanons” and letting it go, though, I keep seeing people being adamant that their headcanons are canon and anybody who disagrees is wrong / bad.

People in this fandom appear to be largely unable to stay in their own spheres of interest and let other people enjoy other interests. Every tag is full of negativity.

I think it’s a really bad sign when most of the best artists and writers in the fandom try to keep away from the fandom, and a lot of people have been deterred from watching the show at all because the fandom is so apeshit.

I’ve seen people being called a lot of names, told they should die, and called pedophiles based on which adult characters they ship with each other. It’s been a wild ride and I only dipped my toes into this fandom. I’m not planning on going much deeper.

K/l/a/n/c/e is a plague:

Let me be absolutely clear, I am not talking about the ship. The ship is fine, I can see why people like it, I have no problem with it. 

The problem is the shippers that it is impossible to avoid.

There doesn’t appear to be a single tag I can go into that doesn’t contain meta about this ship being canon. People who ship this ship are the worst perpetrators of my previous point (they’re the ones I’ve seen saying all that shit), and they flood other tags with negativity, and meta about their own ship. 

I’ve never been more tempted to refer to someone’s ship as their agenda, either. The only thing that seems to matter to them is whether or not it’s canon, which is... wild... because that’s really not the point of shipping? And because it’s not canon. Sorry, but there’s only one season left, and they haven’t laid any groundwork for it. Also neither of them is the canonically mlm character, and I doubt they’re going to turn this show into one with 3 main mlm characters within the last season.

And yet.

When I say there isn’t a single tag I can go into that doesn’t contain meta about this ship being canon, btw, I’m not exaggerating. I went into the Allura tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The Shiro tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The Allurance tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The Lotor tag. Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. The fucking "Garfle Warfle Snick" tag! Meta about how k/ance is “canon”. “Adam Voltron” tag??? Fucking meta about how k/ance is “canon”.

And even when it’s not meta, and it’s just comics or art or fanfic ideas, the thing that frustrates me is that it’s constantly things like “What if Lance [does something Shiro already did @ Keith] @ Keith!” and “What if Keith [does something Allura already did @ Lance] @ Lance!” and “What if Keith and Lance [did a thing two other characters have already done]!” with zero self awareness that their AU has already happened in the literal show, just with different character combinations than they’re interested in. They seem to only care about those two characters, and only care about them in relation to each other, and it’s exhausting.

Allura:

1) People who draw Allura looking less black than she does in the show are cowards. It doesn’t happen often but it does happen and it’s Bad.

2) People who are baffled by the concept of Allura and Lance having a relationship, and spend lots of effort trying to convince people that they’re friends or that the possibly canon endgame of them dating “came out of nowhere” and “doesn’t make sense” etc. 

You’re racist and we can see you.

Shiro and (mostly) Adam:

The people who decided that Adam was Shiro’s love interest after Adam was introduced in a flashback in which he broke up with Shiro (as far as I can tell they were mostly k/ance shippers who were excited to have a “gotcha” @ sh.eith shippers) and then lost their absolute minds when Adam died... exhaust me.

The people who are calling Adam’s death “bury your gays” and “queerbaiting”.................. exhaust me a lot. The context of Adam’s death is not what either of those terms mean.

I understand that it hurts when queer characters die, because so many queer characters historically have died. That doesn’t mean every single time queer characters die is automatically homophobia. This show did not kill all their queer characters, and it didn’t even kill it’s MAIN queer character, OR kill the main queer character’s love interest (because that’s never what Adam was presented as or meant to be). And Shiro IS a queer character. He’s not being baited, he’s still queer even when Adam isn’t present. Newsflash, Adam’s purpose as a character was to convey canonically that Shiro’s been queer the entire goddamn time.

I don’t necessarily like that they chose to kill him, but I don’t think the context was homophobic. He died in a war, along with many other people. 

And furthermore, who did you want them to kill? They needed to kill at least one existing character from one of the main cast’s backgrounds for narrative reasons. The options they had, because of how much effort they’ve put into filling this show with representation, were:

Characters of color

Pidge’s mom

That’s... literally it. Characters or color and women (especially older women), btw, are also constantly killed off in media the same way queer characters are, to further other character’s narratives. This is what happens when the cast is primarily rep for marginalized people and the story involves war. Characters die. And when the only characters that exist are from marginalized demographics, the choices about who dies are never going to feel good. That doesn’t make them based in bigotry, or even necessarily bad choices, just because they hurt. 

°˖ ✧ Conclusions! ✧˖ °

Fun show with a few frustrating elements and a cursed as Fuck fandom.

[royal-dragonslayer-ornstein]

Ornstein because why not haha.

How I feel about this character

Originally I only saw Ornstein as a really cool boss with a nice background. That’s about it, I didn’t really go into much thought with him being the last of the Four, the feeling of melancholy the lore about him gives, none of that. It wasn’t until I started RPing as him that I tried to learn more about him. One year later with some of the experimental and at times a little embarrassing threads done I really began to dwelve into his psyche, the idea of the character, my personal vision of him. Just how rad it is that he is a dragonslayer, the fantastic design of his armor, that odd feeling of mystique around him...

Like, there’s no point in denying it, I am super fond of Ornstein now. He plays a pretty big role in my life nowadays because he’s the catalyst through which I interact with all of you. It feels a bit odd to say this about a fictional character, but he really is the reason I have met so many of you, and what allows me to enjoy this hobby of writing with other writers. Because of this, I probably “overvalue” the character, so to speak.

It’s funny- I am at a point where I rarely feel insecure about my writing, something that did happen before. Of course, I am aware of my imperfections and I try to improve every day, but I am just so happy with this blog that I don’t even care if I don’t do things perfectly. And that is so difficult to achieve with anything, with art, sports, any discipline that requires effort.

Anyways- back to Ornstein.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

ALL of this blog’s ships. I actively try to stop me from shipping but I cannot help it, I love them all. I’m shipping trash.

That being said, separating the videogame character from my own personal version of him- I never really thought about his romantic relationships. He strikes me as the kind of guy who is a loner because of his job, really.

My non romantic OTP for this character

All the Four Knights. Ornstein and Gough, dragonslaying bros. Ornstein and Ciaran being really nice and trusting with each other the way the cannot be in their jobs. Ornstein and Artorias being the best of friendly rivals and oh my God having “Road to El Dorado” style interactions when they were younger.

And of course, Ornstein being a captain his knights look up to, while he also does his best to help them. Ornstein being really fond of Gwyn’s children. A younger Ornstein seeing Gwyn’s Firstborn as a master and brother he never had.

And don’t even get me started on Gwyn. I just realized that I have never RPed a thread with a Gwyn roleplayer and that baffles me so much. That man is like, the very center of Ornstein’s life holy shit.

My unpopular opinion about this character

With the latest information that Ornstein left Anor Londo to look for the Nameless King, and the apparent(and I say apparent because it might very well not be true, it’s not explicitly stated) implication that the Ornstein fought in DS1 was an illusion, this isn’t so unpopular, but...

One thing I didn’t like back when DS3 wasn’t out is how many people considered Ornstein to be a pushover compared to certain characters(the other Knights of Gwyn for example) because of his DS 1 boss fight mechanics. First of all, a boss fight should not indicate an enemy’s abilities. I don’t think it’s fair to consider Ornstein’s performance there a perfect indication of his speed and strength, since he was purposely made slower than some bosses(reacting, starting to attack) so that the player would stand a chance against two bosses. Plus certain areas being accessed later does not necessarily mean they have stronger bosses lore-wise.

Add to that the fact that I headcanon that fight as being against an illusion(at least Ornstein), and I don’t think we have fought the real Ornstein at his best. But then again, that could just be me being biased because he is my muse.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I feel bad for saying this because there are so many other characters who get less love and definitely deserve at least a few more references(like Ciaran!) However, I cannot lie.

I really, really want to know just what happened to Ornstein. Where he is right now. Is he dead? Alive? Somewhere inbetween? What happened between him and the Nameless King? With every game, his fate seems more unclear.

This is just me being hopeful without reason(since, as far as I am aware, there is no more content planned for Dark Souls 3)... but I feel like there’s some unused lore about him. Something about him just feels... important, I don’t know. There’s like this odd attention to him, even if he is just a secondary character.

[ask-protoheroes]

mun-birthday answers

Aaand here we are! I was supposed to get done with this sooner, but got caught up losing it with the most amazing gifts, a couple of which I have reblogged here too because they need to be seen. I had a great birthday and was sucessfully killed with overjoy by my friends!

Before we get started, just letting you know I’m sorry there was still no update this weekend- last week was finally my last exams week for now until next month, but was busy with birthday stuff and prioritized working on commissions. I’ll try to get the blog back to activity this saturday! Thanks for being patient!

Now for the munday asks!

And we’re off to a great start!

(p.s. there’s Katsuyami hcs under the cut so you might want to check that out!)

@memeidoriya @iskraeon @heyaboomyo

Thank YOU so much for supporting my blog!! Every little feedback tells me I'm doing my job entertaining whoever takes interest in this blog! Knowing some people will feel happy going through my art makes me so accomplished-- so thank you so much for taking the time to send me nice messages!! It means a lot! ; w ; I don’t answer anon messages like this but they’re really appreciated!!

@gensokyodreamer

Thank you so much, fam!! I'm from São Paulo, Brazil! Japanese brazilian, full asian, born in Brazil, spent a chunk of my childhood in Japan. Obrigado pelo apoio! <3

Thank you so much, anon! Story time! To sum it up, around july-august I was so hooked up in BNHA it amused me. It was the first time in a big while I was so hooked up in something, thinking and talking about it constantly and producing content for it. I stumbled upon the BNHA ask blog community on tumblr and started thinking it'd be super fun if I made my own-- and how even more fun it'd be it I made it with a slow burning plot and character/relationship development. I used to be a big Deadpool fanboy (hence my previous handle, deads-on) and the ship spideypool, and those familiar with it must be aware of ask-spiderpool -- hands down the greatest ask blog out there. The way the blog had a plot and the very gradual building up of a relationship was my big inspiration to how I wanted to run an ask blog. So at first I though of going for Katsudeku since it was my big time OTP-- but since the story was still in development and so was their relationship, which is one that must be worked with care if you want to go towards healing, I thought it'd be too great a responsibility and tried to think of an alternative. Like an alternative universe, which would give me room to develop them on my own pace. I was already familiar with the prototypes from the manga extras and a few fanart I've seen around, so I though-- why not? And as I mulled over whether or not it was a good idea - since I was never a punctual artist and I might've been putting too much expectations on it - I developed a bunch of headcanons about them at the same time and grew a bit attached to them. One day I started doodling Yami, which later would become the early reference sheet I posted of them, and drawing things is one of the easiest routes to grow attached to them. So long story short, I gave in to the idea when I was in a two weeks break from school to recover from a small lung surgery, and here we are now!

Now for some asks from the ask memes!

👅 which muse is the kinkiest 

I got three of these. I wonder why.

In this SFW blog, where they're just awkward teens still with a long way working out their relationship, it probably won't be addressed, at least not explicitly.  Specially with Yami, who for as of now is just too awkward and self conscious to dare thinking about his own sexuality. But outside of the blog, it's easily Katsuki. That is one crazy bastard. But these headcanons don't belong in this family friendly blog, go bother me on @sonreiv if you want to hear more. Moving on!

🌱 which muse is the most gullible 

Surprisingly so - or maybe not - it's Katsuki. He rarely sees harm in people, aside from having his own personal beefs for superficial reasons. He doesn't realize how harmful he can be either. Now that doesn't mean he trusts anyone easily - quite on the contrary. He's just bought easily by compliments and praise, and assumes everyone will like him. Yami on the other hand grew up with a very codependent and quite manipulative best friend, so he's definitely more socially wary.

💎 which muse is the biggest drama queen 

Again, it's Katsuki. If he's upset about the smallest thing, he makes sure it's more than clear. It's not like he easily gets deeply upset-- he'll just react loud and exaggerated because his pain must be noticed... by Yami. He'll whine and complain to him until Yami validates his feelings. He'll also easily take minor things as personal offenses if Yami's involved, like if that damn half and half insists on putting more food on his plate. That shit's suspicious! Why'd he do that? I'm your BFF! Here, eat this. Shit like that. Yami's a lot more introspective and reserved about his feelings.

👍 which muse would you most likely get along with 

I'm going to say both! Socially wise, in a group of friends I'm a lot like Katsuki. I get along well with people as stupid as me so we could be dudebros. Yami's not that hard to befriend (provided you put up with Katsuki's possessive ass) either despite his initial social awkwardness, and if you get comfy with him he's actually pretty sassy, and we share the same existential anguish!

🐢 which muse always runs late 

Both are very punctual with school commitment! Yami will be punctual with both school and friend meetings. Katsuki will show up first if he's hanging with Yami, but he’s the one most likely to come up with shitty excuses if he’s running late. On weekends Yami tends to get up late, though.

2. What is your favorite ship (be it romantic or otherwise) with your character? 

Obviously Katsuyami. But if I'm to choose another ship-- I love PROT4 so much. As in, a poly ship with Katsuki, canon!Katsuki, Yamikumo and Deku. That is my absolute shit. I love any combinations between the four of them to be honest. Honorable mention goes to Katsuyamiyuu which is my proto OT3 right after these four.

 8. What is your favorite random headcanon? 

This is kind of a spoiler since I still plan to address it on the blog, but here we go.

As kids, Katsuki and Yami would often play heroes and villains. Katsuki would more often than not have poor Yami be either the villain or a sidekick. When it was just the two of them, though, Katsuki would ask him to be the damsel in distress. Yami would complain he could be a civilian in danger without having to be the damsel, but Katsuki would talk him into it because it "looked cooler". He'd even put a flower in Yami's hair for realism. Then after Katsuki's done beating up the bad guys and rescuing him, he'd demand a kiss on the cheek, to which Yami complied.

Katsuki still brings it up like it happened yesterday, and Yami wants to die every time.

Well! That’s it for now! Thanks everyone who took interest and for sticking with me up until now! I hope to continue entertaining you with this blog!

Next saturday, hopefully, a new update with Yami and some interesting dreams.

[coshayphinelove]

just some thinky thoughts after i wrote a tag essay that got way bigger than the tags.  feel free to read if you want, but forewarning... i have more questions after writing than before so..

so before i start anything i’d like to clarify that i love ob.  most of my issues with it are bc i got my hopes too high and held the creators to the standards i hold myself, which is not fair in art.  also, i’m only talking about the ob team and the characters, not the fans.  don’t get all in a twist, this is just me... thinkin.

so ep 5 was great.  2013 me would have loved it.  but 2017 me is like.. hard into communication and explicitly labelled representation.  and cophine is neither of those things.  like... i can understand that there’s not enough time to linger on stuff the way i would want to.  i get it.  but like... there was enough time to linger on alison.  for five seasons.  the first time she ever did anything main plot-moving was this season, she was always almost completely seperate.  she got flashbacks out the wazoo to explain her entire life story.  we met her mom.  her monitor is redeemed.  

i just am very unhappy with the doling of screen time.  like... it’s not even about shipping anymore.  it’s about plot holes and i am genuinely confused about the story at this point.  like delphine and donnie are easily comparable characters.  donnie monitored alison for close to a decade.  lied to her for a decade.  once he found out about the clones started doing things without alison’s knowledge or consent.  he is forgiven.  almost immediately.  for everything. 

delphine lasted as a monitor about... a month?  she was so bad at lying that cosima caught her.  she immediately came clean.  then in the flashback begged cosima to believe that she would always protect her.  and yet?  the conflict surrounding delphine for the entire show is ~is she good or bad???~.  and at every turn she is keeping that promise while making and keeping other promises.  and everybody, including her love interest keeps throwing her mistakes in her face.

donnie gets side plots and new dynamics to explore.  delphine has to have all of her characterization as a subset of cosima’s screen time.  donnie gets a seat at the bubbles table, delphine does not.  she has to leave and get shot (a whole different rant of equal length).

on another note, alison and cosima are also easily comparable characters: side characters used to provide info for sarah to react to.  cosima’s safety is always at risk, she’s been boiled down to her love interest for several plots, and she doesn’t ever get to acknowledge her Very Obvious PTSD and abandonment issues.  alison has low stakes conflict (up until this season, but that’s already over), she is never boiled down to donnie’s wife, and we got to watch her parse through her issues in s2 in great detail.  

like even the flashbacks.  like alison got half her episode told in flashbacks and it was gorgeous.  i by no means wanted that when there’s so much going on but i thought we would get at least a little more.  

we met alison’s parent.  we hear about her in a natural and very not forced way.  cosima gets one very long line about her family very late in the game in a clunky and almost pointless way.  (like... why was it in there?  what purpose did it serve?)

i think the problem is subtext.  everybody is always talking about the subtext.  but the problem is there are several issues that the writer’s address almost explicitly.  like alison’s drinking problem.  we learned all about that and we cheered for her when she went to rehab and we we sad when she relapsed. with cosima it’s.... two instances of smash cuts of bad memories and her reacting to them.  ......*gestures with flailing arms* ISN’T THAT ALSO IMPORTANT???  

like.  i’m going to keep talking about delphine but.. that’s just where my head is rn..

but from s1 to s2 her arc was learning what her role would be in clone club and then how to do that.  and she made some big huge strides there.  and then she comes back for s3 and it’s gone.  she’s just.. not doing that anymore?  like they took the time to film her telling cosima immediately after she messed up that she had, in fact, messed up.  and then, what, a few days later she Can’t Tell Cosima Anything Anymore?  and don’t get on me about screen time here.  it could’ve been like.. 2 more lines.  “it’s not safe, they’ll hurt you.”  “b-but delphine??” “i’m sorry.”  LIKE?  they just wanted the drama of cosima not knowing.   which i can see wanting, but it didn’t end up working.  because then you had scenes showing delphine doing things for clone club.  so then... it was just.... confusing?  and imo drawn out for too long.  

but even to this day I, a delphine stan, am still kind of iffy.  she literally made an ultimatum (promise me, everyone.  you will never make an ultimatum in your romantic/sexual/platonic relationships.  that’s a manipulation tactic that a lot of abusers use.  slippery slope please don’t do it.)(i’m also not saying that delphine is an abuser or that you’re an abuser but just.. it’s a thing to be careful of.)  

“accept our toxic relationship as is or leave.”

IN WHAT WORLD IS THAT OKAY??? like i get the sentiment behind it.  like she was saying, ‘hey cosima i know i’ve been bad but like you don’t have to stay if you don’t want.  i’ll stop kissing you and everything.’  but then....  have her say that?  everything delphine ever says to cosima is wrapped in 3 levels of subtext.  or alternatively, cut the kissies in half and let them have a few lines about a new promise or something.  idk if that’s just her being extra or if that’s just.... the writers.

bc the creators... bless them.. they’re trying.  but when it comes down to it they were predominantly straight men.  and they did add tatiana as an executive producer which is like.. the head idea guy who tell the writers what to write.  which was awesome!  but like.. she’s straight (as far as we know).  so like.. i really don’t want to pull the sexuality card here.  but i think i am.  

bc it’s one thing if you don’t give romantic, mental health, or communication plot lines very much time.  it’s another if you give a straight couple plenty and a wlw couple scraps.  it’s one thing if the straight couple gets to delve into things multiple times and the wlw couple gets ten seconds before the plot needs to keep going.

i get that the cosima-centric ep was very plot heavy, stuff was happening, i get it.  but like... if you cared about giving good rep as much as you claim you do wouldn’t you... re-structure so that they have more than 10 seconds?  wouldn’t you sacrifice some of that oh so dearly beloved body horror to let them just... talk for a hot sec?  or let them be in the same room?

i know it’s hard work.  the longest original work i’ve ever finished is a 30 page script.  and even then it’s a lot of ‘is this dialogue working?’  ‘would that character say that?’ ‘that’s a plot hole’  ‘wait where is he going again?’  i get that there’s a lot to keep track of so like... knowing who cosima’s parents are wasn’t on a post-it note on the beat board.  but i just...  one of the questions i always ask myself is ‘is this healthy?’  so like... i always make sure that if the dynamic isn’t then i either address it somewhere else or change it so it is.

i don’t think they were asking themselves that.

bc straight guys are used to power balances in their relationships.  they’re used to ultimatums.  whether it’s in their life or in fiction, that’s what they see.  and they’re socialized to see that as normal.  so when they’re made aware that the media they’re making is feminist/progressive, these guys seemed like they did research and tried to make it more so.  but... they missed the mark.  bc straight men will never know what it’s like to be a wlw or a woman.  that’s just how it works.

and then.. like... they were so hyperaware of the fans and what they wanted.  and i think the thing they understood the best was that they wanted cophine kisses.  bc a lot of ppl wanted that and like...ppl who are cophine critical sometimes also want cophine kisses.  so that’s the loudest thing they heard/saw. and instead of doing the emotional work and the plot work they thought every scene had to have kisses.

and they also knew that they could always fill in the gaps at panels.  WHICH.  not canon if you say it at a panel y’all.  they knew the fans would spread their patches all over the place.  so instead of doing the work and explicitly taking a stand they just.. let people ask them questions so they knew what people were wondering about and then...... answered.

i don’t think they did any of this maliciously but like.. the whole drama surrounding sarah’s sexuality, the great debate of whether it was problematic or not.  like... knowing now that they didn’t intend it to come off as her lashing out and having a mental breakdown helps, but.... that’s still what it looked like at first glance.  and if i’m just a DVR viewer who doesn’t meticulously stalk everything ob online, i wouldn’t know that.  and they do that with delphine’s intentions a lot.  they do it with sexuality a lot.  they do it with gender a lot.  and it’s like.... it’s representation but... label-less to the masses.  like my dad was in the room when sarah was kissing a girl and he made some snide comment about it.  and it’s like... they were just too aware of fans that they gave them what they wanted (sarah kissing a girl/cophine kisses) without thinking about if was the healthy thing for the moment.  they didn’t think about the ramifications.

and it’s just so frustrating.  bc i love this show, i do.  there’s so much to talk about and so many themes and allegories and cool stuff.  but they just... do a lot of stuff that..... really grinds my gears.  like this isn’t even a comprehensive list.

[moonisneveralone]

Okay guys I really stopped watching for a while. For three weeks I couldn't take it. I think I didn't bother watching when 2B started, but BOY DID THEY TURN IT AROUND. These last episodes were fire. The characters really got to shine. Let's start with my underapreciated fave Maia. Cause remember how 2A treated her? With seemingly nobody caring for her? Well Luke confronted the Seele Queen, made her beta and she really asserted herself. She's valuable to her friends and her pack a well deserved season regular. Artists? Don't forget her in your art. Izzy. I really did not like her yin fen stiryline, but she came back tougher and more loving than ever. Her heart is still one of her biggest qualities and it's been so beautiful to watch her grow from her addiction. Simon my poor baby. He's really been through it. And he's now really aware that being a daylighter isn't only a blessing. He really deserved some happiness and it was nice to see him and Maia two very complicated people with complicated lives try and work out a way to be together. The seelie queen truly ruins all. Luke beautiful alpha Luke. He also really went through it this season, but it brought him and Maia closer. He's on top of dynamics changing out of necessity, but also out of what is right. He's established his loyalties to the downworld again and seems to be implementing new rules to ensure the survival of the downworld. He's really become a loyal, loving and even quite patient leader. It was so nice to see him happy and tipsy. And Fuck you ollie for ruining that and apparently continuing to in season 3. Alec. He went through such a growth. Especially with the last episode and seeing how far the Circle infiltrated the Clace the presence of a character like Alec is so welcome. Of course Izzy too, but Alec is the head of the Institute who's explicitly tried to build relationships between the Institute an the downworld leaders. To restore the peace and ensure nothing like that can be repeated it's important that the Clace follows suit. And despite what we said all these last weeks fighting the downworld and valentine at once would have been impossible. Alec was in an impossible situation but every single downworlder still had the right to feel betrayed, because they weren't given a chance to protect themselves or to choose what to do. We've also seen what one Seelie could do with revenge in mind a downworlder revolt was a big risk. Alec made a complicated decision and in this case luckily it turned out alright. But I think he's learned that with their responsibilities honesty is important and effort as he once said himself. Magnus really went through the wringer this season. With the body swap and the resulting trauma. I understand he clutched at the one thing that was true. The one thing that was pure and honest. Alec's honesty was important to him, because he had showed him he weaknesses and Alec had accepted them. So if he could lie to him about one thing was he lying about everything else? And it wasn't just one enemy it was Valentine, the reason he got tortured, the one who had killed his people who Magnus swore to protect and somehow everytime he thought it had been over things got worse. The sword was honestly just the final straw and Magnus put his walls up hard. He's got such a soft spot for Alec though it's beautiful and Alec is working hard to be deserving. Just as Magnus is letting Alec in trying hard to be open. Malecs last kiss was so soft and beautiful. It was full of promises to put in the effort needed to make it work and it was so intimate. All in all I think the reason why it got better is that in part they definitely listened to fandom complaints. As a creator feedback is important. You can't always account for everything so listening to what your viewers want can be inspiring and helpful. The other thing is that they took the time pressure out. 2A was so fast every episode spanning about a day our even only a couple of hours. That takes a lot of development away. 2B was much slower allowing for complicated themes to be discussed and handled well. At the moment Malec is my favourite canon ship, in how Harry and Matt play them, how they're written and in the way they are being developed. It's been really nice to watch. I didn't have much to say about clary and jace but if anyone wants to add they can.

[radishsnakes-moved]

1) Ah yes, I understand what you're trying to say with how hetero couples are always made to be explicitly romantic with love confessions, kissing and such, while with gay couples it's always just subtext and 'up to interpretation', but then again, that's sadly the world we live in. Gundam series are targeted first and foremost at boys/men and we know that the majority of them are straight, therefore straight romances are something they would identify with, while gay romances are something that

2) would most likely make them feel uncomfortable, because, that's unfortunately the way things are and I'm sure the writers of Gundam series are aware of that and make their series in a way so that they'd not chase away their potential target audience. That's why they can't or don't want to make their hinted gay ships explicitly canon. But I think the on-screen validation of shinoyama is a step in the right direction and I hope they'll follow through in any potential future Gundam installments.

3) To me the deal with gay Gundam ships is clear - if two guys have a very close, strong relationship with each other, if they're constantly shown together in the official arts and other official materials, if they're paired up in OPs/EDs and if none of them has an official canon ENDGAME female love interest, then it's safe to assume they're a gay Gundam couple. The list is currently not that long (Trowa/Quatre, Dearka/Yzak, Aston/Takaki and Shino/Yamagi), but it's better than nothing. I would

4) defend those ships and prove their 'canonity' till the end of time and longer if needed. As for the innovades, them being 'some form of nonbinary' is not really a headcanon, but canon reality, I guess, as that's exactly what the official materials (supposedly) say, that they're gender-neutral/agender, but the confusing thing is, it's never really explained what it means in practice or from purely technical point of view (ex. how their bodies are built, how they identify), so I'm not sure if

5) our real-life categories and labels would actually apply to people who are artificially made according to their creators' visions and wishes and to whom a body could be just a replaceable container. As for the movies, the 'A Wakening of the Trailblazer' has raised some extreme reactions to say the least (it's either you love it or hate it and nothing in between), but I'd still recommend you watch it and make an opinion for yourself, as it's a direct canon epilogue that addresses some of the

6) issues hinted at in the main series (ex. the 'dialogues yet to come' thing). There's more information about Tieria too. OK, I guess that's it. I'll try not to bother you anymore. :) PS. I forgot about Lockon/Tieria in that shortlist. I'm such a fail.

Ah, I see where you’re coming from with this. I guess we all have our different interpretations of canonness, and that’s fine! I definitely agree with the whole target audience thing; this being a shounen/seinen series definitely hinders its progress to having more canon gay couples. But yeah, ShinoYama is definitely the closest we’ve gotten to my definition of canon and it’s absolutely a step in the right direction.