#we're perfectly aligned with canon

[daily-spinner]

Chapter 223: Cockroaches

[touchlikethesun]

one of the slogans i see often from antis, and especially since getting into danmei and back into BL generally, is the phrase "get help" being applied to people that are into harder kinks or "toxic"/"problematic" dynamics, and this bothers me quite a bit because... like why do you think those people are into that? whether consciously or not, most people are seeking comfort and catharsis thru media, and the excessive media consumption common in bl spaces especially belies a form of self soothing. while it's not a perfect solution, a lot of people in bl/danmei fandom spaces are trying to help themselves cope with trauma, and just because person A copes by reading thousands of pages of brief hand touches and lingering gazes and purple prose about capital 'D' Devotion, and person B copes by reading about taboos power imbalances and intense sexual acts and dangerous emotions (funnily enough i've found devotion is common to both 'sides' as it were), does not mean that person A and person B aren't engaging in the same fundamental behaviour

i do think there can be an issue if people are to forceful trying to push their taste on to others (altho i will say this goes both ways), and the moment you start being weird towards real people in real life then that is definitely a problem, but the condescending and dismissive "get help" towards people that are just expressing their tastes in fiction in spaces dedicated to just that i feel is unhelpful, unnecessary and frankly ignorant to the complexities of our fellow humans' inner lives

[therainscene]

I heard you were having doubts about will having powers so what do you think about the theory right now/gen

Hi anon! Thanks for calling me out on that, I've been itching for an excuse to talk about this.

Here's the thing: while the version of the powers theory I wrote up for tumblr does tie neatly into Byler, the original version was a replacement for Byler, dreamed up in my anti-Byler days. If Will wasn't going to get the romance he desperately wanted, I reasoned, then at the very least he deserved to be a cool gay wizard.

But now that I'm feeling secure in Byler endgame and have reassessed the canon, I no longer think it's necessary for him to have powers:

First and most importantly: getting rid of powers doesn't mean we're getting rid of the supernatural aspect of his queer coming-of-age story; his connection to the Mind Flayer is perfectly capable of handling that by itself.

Second: there's a nice symmetry between Will and El -- she's connected to Henry through the lab and her powers; he's connected to Vecna through the Upside Down and the Mind Flayer. Do we really need to upset this balance by giving Will redundant new abilities? Why not just develop the abilities we already know he has?

Third: there's a lack of foreshadowing. Whatever makes Will supernaturally special rarely aligns with the visual language the show uses for powers -- flickering lights, nosebleeds, etc. (Sure, there's some weirdness with the lights in S1, but we don't have confirmation of who/what caused them. And while we sometimes see lights flicker when his neck tingles, I think what's really being foreshadowed there is that someone else with powers is behind the MF.) Instead, Will is always associated with dimensional fuckery -- slipping into the Upside Down, sensing the Mind Flayer, time weirdness.

Powers do pair nicely with his wizard persona... but so does the supernatural knowledge afforded to him by the MF. And that's the angle hinted at when he's in his Will the Wise costume, as seen above. (I've talked about Will's knowledge motif before; it's like the polar opposite of my powers theory in terms of notes but I think it's a much better Byler analysis.)

Finally... revealing Will's powers and Mike's queerness in the same season would imply (whether intentionally or not) that Mr. I-Have-No-Self-Worth-Unless-I'm-Superman's-Boyfriend is only interested in Will for his powers. That's not a good fit for his character arc. What works much better is if Will is dealing with something terrifyingly different from El that would have negative consequences for Mike if he got involved... but which he chooses to risk anyway out of love for Will.

So yeah. While I'm still open to exploring ways in which powers might tie into whatever Will and the Mind Flayer have going on -- they definitely tie into whatever Henry and the Mind Flayer have going on, after all -- I'm not a Will has Powers truther anymore lol.

Right now my theory is that what we're really looking at is a time travel story, and maybe Will's connection to the MF is some sort of temporal scar from the events of S5.

[rey-jake-therapist]

Sorry, I have to get this off my chest because I'm starting to see trend on x.

One thing that kind of baffles me is when I see Haladriel shippers who like to ship Halbrand and Galadriel like they were together in S1, which is perfectly fine... except, the part that I'm raising my eyebrow at is when they turn around and condemn the fellow shippers who accept that Sauron and Halbrand are the same person, and enjoy the added layer of complexity and darkness to their relationship. Like, ok you like extra vanilla and cream in your coffee while I like mine to have more expresso. No issue with that... except they often like to make it an issue when they come across anyone/thing that explores Saurondriel or fangirls over it. It's rly weird and smells too familiar to those puritans who preach that Haladriel (Sauron included) shouldn't be shipped because they take Sauron as a black and white villain.

Essentially, they treat Halbrand like he was never Sauron in disguise, and I'm like, okay sis, you do you. Whatever floats your boat. But please don't act morally superior over it because that makes you no different than the same purists that sht on anything that's doesn't align to traditional Chris/tian values, and nor does it make you better than the lorebros who insist that Galadriel cannot ever love/marry anyone else after Celeborn because she's an elf. But you know, I don't like to engage with discourse so I just stay in my lane and am humbly grateful we're still on the same coin, just different sides I guess. Until they start to side with the puritans and/lorebros as a copout and/or to feel better about themselves. Very peculiar.

I never came across those shippers so far, but I agree it's very... strange? And a denial of canon I'd say even, because the fact is wether they want it or not, Halbrand = Sauron.

Maybe there are people who used to ship Halbrand and Galadriel before it was revealed that Halbrand was Sauron, and were very disappointed at the end? It's a pity if that's the reason, but doing some mental gymnastics to separate Halbrand from Sauron entirely is... certainly a choice.

I mean, as Halbrand was probably the closest we saw Sauron to be what he used to be before Morgoth corrupted him, aka Mairon, but even then, Sauron was never far away. It's not as if Sauron had parasited Halbrand or something. They're literally the same person, and at no point did the show tell us otherwise.

It kinda reminds me of other ships involving a villain, where shippers seem to feel bad about shipping the protagonist with the bad guy who does all these terrible things, so they turn the narrative upside down and literally invent non canon "facts" that make the villain a anti hero, a victim who's not responsible for his actions, and yell at those who choose to see him as he really is, aka... a complex character, who still has a glimpse of goodness in him but still chooses evil anyway.

As much as I'm annoyed when people strip of a villain of what makes them complex to reduce them to a two-dimensional carboard cut-out villain (like I often see Sauron reduced to on Tumblr), it's equally annoying when the contrary happens. What makes characters such as Sauron, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, the Darkling etc. interesting, fascinating even, IS that they're complex, and thus sometimes sympathetic. And shipping a protagonist with such a character is way more fun, imho, than shipping said character only with the best version of themselves.

[egg-emperor]

do you think Eggman actually wants to kill/torture sonic? The sonic channel says in eggmans bio that he doesn’t hate sonic deep down in his heart, does Eggman have morals??

That's what the Sonic Channel bio says with Google translate, which is the most unreliable form of translation and in this case very inaccurate for Eggman's character. I rely more on DeepL but it's having trouble with this, it just says "deep down he hates him" lol

But in more reliable translation it doesn't seem to state that he doesn't actually hate him, which I think is an important distinction to make. Here's an example of a human translation of that part, which is always better than a machine one:

"Tender" doesn't feel like a fitting word at all though. This is the absolute closest you've ever got to him being somewhat... affectionate?... towards Sonic in a genuine way in the games, I suppose:

I mean, he's saying he finds him admirable. And it's funny because this is as he's attempting to blow him up to kill him and really thinks he's succeeded this time. I guess you can say that's kind of affectionate in his own twisted way by declaring it in his send-off, that works lol

Now in his Origins bio, they're very clearly referring to this same aspect in that bio but with a huge rephrasing that feels muuuch more fitting than "tender":

You can tell because it's beat for beat with the whole "he wants to defeat Sonic, but deep down-" phrasing

In this case, kinship clearly refers to the feeling of "a sharing of characteristics/other similarities." (Not the other way in being related in a familial sense, no way in hell lol) This is a massive improvement, absolutely PERFECT phrasing Imo.

This makes a lot more sense because it has game evidence. I look at what's in the games to support any outside word. If there isn't any, I don't accept it, canon is what's in the source media/text, any word outside has to be at least heavily supported by/align with it.

This scene specifically has him explain his feelings on Sonic in his own words perfectly. You're not gonna get it from a better place than the horse's mouth. It also shows where I feel the "kinship" is:

It reaffirms that he absolutely does hate him and makes sure to specifically heavily emphasize it. You can hear it in his voice and it's not just in his words, he shows it in his actions, his dislike and threats aren't empty as he tries to outright hurt and kill Sonic all the time.

But it also shines more light on the way that he can also have respect for him, similarly to the way that he called him his admirable adversary in SA2. He can acknowledge that he has talent and admirable tenacity without liking him.

These are closest to "tender" they've gotten with him towards Sonic in canon if we're going to try assign anything to that at all. But again, I feel the rephrasing of it being him feeling a kinship is a lot more accurate with all things considered.

It fits perfectly because Eggman is exactly the same. He also has raw talent with his genius IQ and his creations and plans and tenacity to keep trying and never give up on his goals.

They've always been like two sides of the same coin, drastic opposites of traits in some aspects but also very similar in others, such as tenacity and skill level. This is what makes them perfect narrative foils to each other.

It shows they're a match in battle. Proves he's smart too in recognizing it, if he wasn't he wouldn't stand a chance against Sonic but instead he puts up the greatest fight of all villains and the one that still lives to fight again and again.

I talked a bit more about how even the way that they're opposites in themes yet can have an interesting overlap into almost similarities in the way they go about it at the same time in this post, which I feel is also worth mentioning.

Sage recognizes and praises Eggman's tenacity in the next cutscene they're together after he specifically mentions and praises Sonic for his, so she notices similarity between them too:

So to sum up my stance- the idea of it being "tenderness" on Eggman's part feels inaccurate too, unless you're saying it's like, the closest he can get in his own twisted way then sure lol. But it certainly isn't in the way that fits the genuine definition with the ways he's actually shown to feel and think about him.

I feel the words kinship and respect are the most accurate descriptors by definition though. He does indeed feel those towards him but he absolutely hates his guts at the same time. And that's what makes that Frontiers scene so good for summing it up so perfectly. I think it really is that simple at its core.

And he absolutely does hate him and makes it very clear constantly in the games, as recently as Frontiers, so it hasn't changed at all over time either. He's been very violent and shown eagerness and attempt various kinds of graphic injury and death to Sonic and often attempts to act on those threats.

He has taken great delight in Sonic seemingly meeting his demise twice, so it doesn't get any more blatant than that:

He has also been very unenthused and expressed disappointment when he survives his attempts to kill him multiple times:

Lol

And no, Eggman doesn't have any known good morals that ever limit him from doing anything bad and harmful in the games. His only limit is what results in the world he wants to rule being completely destroyed so he can no longer rule it, also the only reason he teams up to save the world, besides to save himself too of course.

Case in point- Eggman saying that he doesn't want to destroy the planet completely:

Yet also showing little care for the state of it when the damage is done, as long as there's still enough for him to conquer:

Sums it up because this is within the same game too, though there are many examples of this throughout the series. Where he'll cause mass amounts of destruction to get what he wants but if another bad guy threatens to completely destroy it to the point it ceases to exist so he can't rule it and of course puts him in danger, he'll team up to stop it.

He also tries to kill Sonic and co all the time, even characters as young as 8 and 6 and has no hesitation or remorse. Sage also hasn't changed this at all, as Dream Team is canon and takes place after Frontiers.

So if he doesn't have good moral standards that stop him from targeting actual children then yeah, makes sense for him to not have them anywhere else either. You can't really stoop any lower.

Which is why I think the concept of him torturing Sonic in Forces makes a lot of sense too. There's never been anything to say he wouldn't. Certainly not any moral limits. I can imagine he'd jump at the chance to torture Sonic in at least some way when he gets his hands on him for that long.

Eggman's character when broken down to its essentials are very simple. Hating Sonic is one of them. But his feelings and actions in how he actually goes about them are a lot more complex and complicated. In the way he's still able to recognize his ability and give him credit where it's due and have respect for him from a formidable adversary standpoint.

The man's got a point

Simple when it comes to his core traits, personality, and motives. Can be much more complex and complicated in his feelings and actions. That's what gives him such compelling depth to me. He's super interesting to analyze and it's so much more fun and eye opening when viewing his character with this nuance. He's not to be oversimplified or overcomplicated.

I like Eggman's dynamic with Sonic because it's not simplistic in the "he hates him so much he can't recognize and respect any of his abilities/skills" nor "he can recognize and respect any of his abilities/skills, so that means he doesn't really hate him". It's more complex and nuanced than that and I like it.

It shows he's smart when he can recognize and respect Sonic's skills so he can stand a chance against him. It also benefits him by proving his intelligence and strength in being able to continue to challenge him after all this time, so it's a way for him to take pride in it too.

If he denied them, it would also make himself look weak for being able to defeat him but he's far from it. If Sonic wasn't as strong and skilled as he is, Eggman would easily be able to take over the world. He proved it in Forces, if it wasn't for Sonic it would've been a permanent victory.

Having a powerful enemy proves he's a powerful threat. Having what it takes to take on a guy who's been able to kill beings of god-like power says a lot about his own too, so acknowledging it benefits himself in multiple ways and that's always an important factor when it comes to him lol

The Sonic Channel commentary at the end of this Sonic and Eggman cover story describes Eggman's feelings on Sonic and their roles in each other's lives perfectly (excerpt from the "what really entertains him" section):

I also like how it notes that Eggman can enjoy the thrill of the battles as he is seen having as great of a time with it as often as he can be fueled by rage during them. Just like Sonic can too, another of their similarities there 💜

[dreams-are-paper-thin]

There's a great disturbance in the fandom about whether Sabine is Force-sensitive or not. So let's take a look from the beginning.

In A New Hope, Obi-Wan explains the Force as:

It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.

And according to George Lucas himself:

In Rebels, Kanan uses Obi-Wan's explanation for the Force more than once. There's an important conversation in Trials of the Darksaber, which is related to this and to Sabine.

Hera: Or maybe because she doesn't have the Force, you don't believe she can do this?

Kanan: No. The Force resides in all living things. But you have to be open to it. Sabine is blocked. Her mind is conflicted. She's so expressive and yet so tightly wound. She's so...

Hera: Mandalorian.

Kanan: Very.

Kanan never says Sabine doesn't have the Force. On the contrary, Hera says she doesn't have it and Kanan says no. What Kanan says implies that Sabine does have it, she's just not open enough to wield it.

Keep those quotes in mind for later.

Now, we have to address the Bantha in the room: the midichrolians. We're introduced to this concept in the prequels trilogy, I believe. It serves as a more technical explanation of the Force. The SW fandom wiki offers this definition:

Again, the midichrolians are in all living organisms because the Force resides in all living things.

As far as the movies go, we don't know how high the M-count has to be for someone to be able to wield the Force. We just know Anakin has a count of over 20.000 and that it's a very high number, so he's very strong in the Force.

We can assume that the higher the midichrolians, the more aptitude the user has in the Force.

I'm guessing Sabine has a low M-count, thus limited abilities in the Force because of this line in episode 2 of Ahsoka:

Huyang: I have know many padawns over the centuries, and I can safely say your aptitude in the Force would fall short of them all.

Some people interpreted this line as "Sabine isn't Force-sensitive at all." What I understand from that line is that Sabine sucks at using the Force.

Either way, midichrolians haven't even been mentioned in the show, but I've seen people talk about it regardless. I find most discussion of this kinda pointless because there's not much to go on, so we can only speculate.

Moving on. In episode 3, Ahsoka trains Sabine blindly so she has to rely on the Force to see. I think a lot of people missed that Sabine did, in fact, use the Force in that scene. Watch carefully.

2:16. After Sabine has grown impatient for not succeeding, she finally manages to sense Ahsoka's presence (she still couldn't see and Ahsoka didn't touch Sabine) and fight a little, until Ahsoka stomps on her foot and Sabine falls to the floor.

Ahsoka: Anger and frustration are quick to give power. But they also unbalance you.

Why would Ahsoka say that in the first place if Sabine hadn't used the dark side of the Force? She probably struggles with the light side because it's so different from what she's used to as a mandalorian. It's more aligned to her nature.

Later in the same episode, this conversation takes place:

Sabine: I can't use the Force. I don't feel it. Not like you do.

Ahsoka: The Force resides in all living things. Even you.

Sabine: If that's true, then why doesn't everyone use it?

Ahsoka: Talent is a factor. But training and focus are what truly define someone's success. Not everyone can handle the type of discipline it takes to master the ways of the Force.

This fits perfectly with Obi-Wan's quote and what George Lucas said in the interview. This is consistent within the Star Wars universe and Dave Filoni's previous work.

It does not break the canon, it does not retcon anything. We simply hadn't seen before someone training to use the Force and struggle so much with it.

And to me, that is far more interesting than having every single main character being just overly and naturally competent with the Force. You don't have to be the Chosen One to use the Force, you just have to have enough determination to put in the work.

Back to Ahsoka. In episode 4 (the latest episode that's come out since I'm writing this) Sabine manages to do a very slight Force push during her duel with Shin. I know many people will disagree with me, but just watch the scene again.

1:22. Shin disarms Sabine and knocks her to the ground. Sabine extends her hand and Shin is slightly pushed back. Her arm falls down, her head turns to the side.

I've seen multiple people say Shin did this in anticipation (when has anyone everyone done that?) and that Sabine didn't Force push her. But the thing is, there's a Force push sound effect. Listen closely. It's faint and short, but it's definetely there.

I think Shin's line also confused a lot of people.

Shin: You have no power.

This is not "Sabine tried to use the Force and failed and Shin reiterates it." Again, there's a Force sound effect. That should be proof enough that she's somewhat connecting to the Force. They wouldn't put it there if she wasn't using the Force.

I think Shin and Baylan, as sith/dark jedi or whatever they are, see the Force only as a means to power. That's what Baylan is seeking with all this anyway: power.

Someone with low Force-sensitivity like Sabine would seem totally powerless to them. Everyone has been telling Sabine she's not good enough for it (Huyang, Shin, even Sabine herself.)

So, you can totally disagree with me on this, but I personally interpreted that line as Shin telling Sabine to quit while she's ahead. If she'll never be as powerful as the rest of them, why even bother to try? But Sabine, as the stubborn mandalorian she is, still continues to try.

I think Dave Filoni is painting a very clear picture: Sabine can indeed use the Force, but she's not naturally skilled at it. I think she might still have some sort of block from it, like Kanan said. The show seems to be slowly building up to her wielding the Force more succesfully, though. Starting small, one step at a time.

With Sabine's decision (she didn't have much choice, if you ask me) near the end of episode 4, I do wonder if Sabine will be a dark side user. Shin and Baylan use the dark side but they don't seem to be consumed by it. We'll just have to wait and see.

I understand that people think that Sabine being Force-sensitive diminishes her character, but so far I don't think that's the case. She still uses her blasters and some mandalorian tricks up her sleeve. This just adds another layer to her character. Natasha Liu Bordizzo said in an interview somewhere that Sabine changes fighting styles frequently, and I think we'll see more of that soon.

As long as Sabine stays true to her mandalorian ways, I'm fine with it. How cool would it be to have a mandalorian-jedi in the mandoverse? Sabine has been kind of disconnected to her mandalorian heritage for a long time now, and I'm sure she won't be a regular Jedi, if a Jedi at all. She's a special breed, one of a kind. Who knows, maybe she'll help to bring balance to the Force after all.

If Bo-Katan can walk both worlds, then so can Sabine.

[sarnai4]

Friends or Rivals?

I've seen some posts and pins about Dagur and Eret interacting. I have two very conflicting ideas about their dynamic, but they're dependent on whether we're talking about in-canon or an au. In-canon, I don't think they'd get along. I believe Eret wouldn't like how out there Dagur's personality is and he'd always be a little worried the Berserker's going to hurt the Berkians in some way. The few times he's not doing anything obviously dangerous, I just don't think Eret's more calm personality would mesh well with Dagur's easily excitable one. For Dagur's side, I think he'd be upset that Eret got to be there with the Berkians for so many difficult times, but he wasn't. I could see him getting very jealous about that (doesn't help that he wasn't even at the HIccstrid wedding) and feeling like Eret is trying to replace him. I also think that they wouldn't want the Berkians to know how much they disliked each other since that would make things awkward. So, they just play nice until someone's back is turned. This pin from Rocio Rojas perfectly illustrates my thoughts.

The other option is if we go to an au where Dagur could've been around the Berkians during the events of the movies. Then I think they'd actually be good friends. Dagur's the only one of the group who knows how it is to go from being bad to good. I always thought Eret turned good really quickly, but having Dagur there with him could show some of the changes that would have to be made as someone tries to become a better person. It's not quite a mentor dynamic I'm looking for, but I could see Dagur being good at offering some support for another Viking he saw who was looking to change his life. In turn, I think Eret would appreciate that someone was trying to make him feel welcome and is willing to talk to him about some of the psychological sides of an alignment shift. It could make it easier too for Eret to blend into the friend group since there's already someone there who understands what it's like to be with the Hunters. Heck, they could even share stories. I think they'd be cute as redeemed buddies.

[vernanonix]

Pinning down The Amelia Project Season 5 Date

Ok, back on my BS here. I'm working on trying to narrow down when the present day scenes of season 5 of The Amelia Project takes place. I have vague ideas of some early season timing but there's some hand-wavey bits. Here's what I have so far, which I'm sure perfectly aligned with everything Pip and Oystein has planned, right?

2012

February 14, 2012 - Julia Thorpe fakes her death and joins The Amelia Project as Alvina Wright

Alvina mentions in 12 Deaths Day 1 she joined in 2012

Alvina mentions in Episode 24 that it’s her 5 year anniversary with TAP

2013

Approx Late Feb-March 2013 - Alvina learns The Interviewer’s middle name is Arthur

Epilogue of Episode 42 - Overture takes place “just over a year” after Alvina joined TAP

2017

February 14, 2017 - Episode 24 - Phil and Amber

Alvina mentions it’s her 5 year anniversary since joining TAP

2018

Approx. January 2018 - Episode 11 - Tara and Lily

Arthur, Alvina, Joey, and Salvatore saw Pitch Perfect 3 the night of the Buckingham heist. PP3 premiered on Nov 30, 2017 and likely ran for 60 days in theaters. December is also very busy for TAP so they likely couldn’t see it until January. 

2020

The Lockdown Tapes. (Debatably non-canon)

COVID-19 🙁

2021

Approx. Early to Mid 2021 - All present day scenes of Seasons 4 and 5

Alvina has been stated to be with the company 9 years in both Episode 43 - Faith and Episode 56 - Curtain

All of Season 4 takes place over the course of one month, as stated by Alvina in Episode 56 - Curtain

“I haven't had a glass of Veuve Cliquout since our first evening here. At the opera with Amelia. Watching you prancing around in that silly suit…Feels like more than a month ago doesn't it?”

All of Season 5 takes place over the course of one night as Kozlowski and The Interviewer share their stories with Jackie/Mia and Alvina respectively

We can narrow this down a little further looking at some weather data. In Episode 56 - Curtain, they mention that it's a warm evening in Paris. That means we're probably in the Summer.

We also know that, in Scotland, Jackie and Mia are absolutely freezing. I figure they're probably around Cairngorms National Park and I ended up with this weather data.

Alvina also references turning 30 "next November," though it's not really relevant and I just came upon that info. But anyway, I'm thinking our best bet is either Late May to Early June or, more likely, I think, late September 2021. This would put the events of Season 4 over the course of September. I haven't tried to check the timeframe for season 3 but the Panaragua adventures were likely in August then.

[gralunaisland]

It's practically canon that Juvia raped Gray, it perfectly aligns with her character!

TW: r*pe

juva is a r*pist

It really devastating to think about, but, unfortunately for Gray, you're absolutely right, my friend. juvia really did try to r*pe him.

It is one of the most despicable things juvia has ever done, and yet it is written off as a joke, as is almost everything that juvia does. This one is on a whole other level of evil, though, that is completely inexcusable no matter how you look at it. I hope the Pros would at the very least agree with me on this, but I feel some are in denial about it.

For those who don't remember what we're talking about, it was during the short Avatar arc after the disbanding of Fairy Tail. juvia, who got her own useless behind sick by moping about when Gray disappeared, proudly stated to Lucy and Wendy that she had tried on multiple occasions to sleep with Gray. It's not really specified whether she meant literal sleeping or sleeping with him as in actual sex, but from Lucy's and Wendy's flustered reactions of trying to get her to stop elaborating, I think it's pretty clear she meant sex. (And really, juvia has no shame. she's literally talking about this in front of a small child, a minor, Wendy. she really doesn't care about anyone but herself).

[And even if she just meant sleeping, that is still such an invasion of privacy and personal space. Your bed is a vulnerable place, one where you are in your most vulnerable state of unconsciousness, and yet juvia wanted to intrude on that despite Gray's protests. No doubt juvia would touch him without his consent as well; can you really imagine juvia sleeping in the same bed as Gray and not glomping onto him and touching him all over? (We've already seen that juvia is completely fine with touching Gray any time she pleases, whether it's her acting as his chair without his knowledge or her refusing to let go of his hand after their Unison Raid, so this assumption is no leap in logic.) That non-consensual "cuddling" would definitely be sexual harassment at the very least.]

Anyway, juvia told them that she was unable to because Gray kicked her out of his bed multiple times, and that means she tried multiple times to have her way with him without his consent. It just shows how insane she is to think that this behavior is one, acceptable, and two, actually going to win over her beloved's heart. This is one of the best examples of juvia's wickedness as well.

A disgruntled Pro might say, "Well, it's not like she followed through with sleeping with him! she says so herself that she was rejected, so she's not r*pey and she does care about consent!"

To that, I say this: Is continually trying to sleep with someone who said no already really showing that you care about consent, and that the only reason why you haven't slept with them yet is because that victim is strong enough to physically refuse you?

No.

You do not care about consent if you do that, and therefore, you are a r*pist. Even if you fail to r*pe someone, if you attempted to, you are just as bad as someone who was able to.

And how many times should Gray have to lay down boundaries and say no? Once. But juvia shows she does not care about him or his feelings. she just wants him to herself even if he doesn't consent.

Gray even tells Makao that he didn't even want to live with juvia in the first place, that she barged in and refused to leave. How does anyone excuse that behavior?? Clearly, no matter what it is, juvia could not care less about Gray's consent or agreement.

Edit: I didn't even notice but a chunk of the post was deleted when I posted this sooo thanks tumblr. I guess I'll paraphrase.

I just said how juvia is always given a free pass just because she's a "cute girl", and so no one actually cares when she acts like a r*pist. Thing is, just switch the situation around, where a man intrudes on a woman's home and refuses to leave and tries several times to sleep with her, and no one would stand for it. But it's okay for Gray to be abused because juvia is a woman?? I don't believe that for one moment. We have got to get rid of this double standard, guys. Abuse is abuse.

Anyway, even though it's a very disheartening and disgusting topic to think about, thank you @arielfan1956 for bringing it up (and thank you for your patience) because it's important to talk about these things. Beyond just a nasty, toxic ship, gr///via helps to harm people and society in real life by normalizing, fetishizing, and praising juvia's absolutely horrendous behavior, and no one needs r*pe and sexual harassment normalized.

[doverstar]

I honestly feel like Azula was just as much of a victim of abuse by Ozai as Zuko was. If you read into the comics and their family history, there's clear signs Ozai wasn't any better to Azula, even if she didn't take the brunt of Ozai's abuse.

Are we asking for my thoughts? I'll give my thoughts.

I do consider the comics canon, at least for ATLA. Ozai does not have empathy or affection for anyone. Ozai does not value human life. Ozai values power, and because Azula is powerful, she's useful, and therefore valuable. We can absolutely say Azula is a victim of Ozai's abuse. That's true. But that doesn't excuse Azula's own behavior. Hurt people hurt people, yes, but it was wrong for Ozai to hurt Azula and it was wrong for Azula to hurt others. Azula liked inflicting pain on others. When Ursa said "What is wrong with that child?" it was a genuine reaction to seeing things she herself couldn't imagine feeling or doing. In a child. Her child. Azula is manipulative, violent, selfish, and she did wrong things intentionally and she would do them again. She subscribed to her father's philosophy - power takes priority. She had an end for everything she did, and the means could have looked like anything. Just watching out for Zuko! Just trying to get advice from Ty Lee! Just commiserating on Ember Island! All of it was calculated. Azula may have genuinely thought her mother hated her or feared her or considered her a monster, but she still used that knowledge to her advantage. She herself thinks she's a monster, and she's cool with that. She can say her mother's opinion hurt, and maybe it sort of does? But she still uses it. If the group needed her to relate to them in order to stay bound to her, she'd say what needed to be said. Azula is crazy. Azula did need to go down. Azula was a villain. That was a conscious writing choice and people love to ignore it. Those things are all true of her. They are! And - she was born to and grew up under an absolute psychopath who thought he was destined to become a god. And - her mother said things out loud, in front of her, that made Azula believe Ursa thought she was a monster. Azula, like Ozai, did not experience or understand love. He was contemptuous of it, but she was afraid of it. You can't strategize or plan for something you don't understand. Even when she's seeing hallucinations of her mom in a mirror or a pond, Ursa is only talking about love and being compassionate. That's terrifying to Azula. Azula's not hallucinating that Ozai is coming to beat her, and she's not hallucinating that he's telling her he's disappointed in her. She's seeing visions of someone she never understood or was close to telling her they love her, and they're worried about her, and they think she's confused. That's what scares Azula. Ozai was abusive, but canonically we're shown that he was abusive in the way he manipulated Azula. When she confronted Ozai in the original ATLA, talking back to him, she was not scared of him. She was whining at him. She understands Ozai - she agrees with Ozai. They're perfectly matched. And when he tells her to silence herself, she doesn't. When he warns her again, she is quiet, but she's scowling. She's not Pacifica Northwest getting bell-jangled at. She's just mad she lost her cool. Azula was the one who wanted the world to burn. She came up with that idea! She wanted power, she wanted perfection, and she never showed any canon sign that Ursa's way was the one that intrigued her. Zuko took after Ursa. Zuko chose love. Azula chose power, and she completely destroyed herself. Ozai's hand was in it, but Azula's choices were very much her own. Do you think she didn't have the brains, skill, and talent to get herself aligned with the right side way faster than Zuko could have? If Ursa had turned her compassion more fully onto Azula, instead of letting her daughter remind her of the Fire Lord, maybe something could have been different. If Ozai ever showed genuine care for Azula (for anyone), maybe something could have been different.

Hopefully Azula's story in-canon ends well. Hopefully, after being defeated and escaping custody, she will learn what she's missing, and someone will help her understand that power isn't everything, and love is worth it. I think that's how it'll go!

[bg3fandomcritical-active]

The amount of puritanical narratives coming out of discourse is really frightening from a "what will fandoms look like in the future" sort of way. Since when is fandom about gatekeeping, bullying, and not leaving a space that involves a conversation you don't agree with? Where are we headed if people can't enjoy certain content without others making them feel guilty for it?

It worries me that people spend so much time hating what others enjoy and psychoanalysing situations/others for a *video game*. I've been around fandom for decades and never seen it so bad.. there is so much queerphobic, cishet, patriarchal nonsense coming out of this too, I really don't understand?

Fandom has always had its separate corners where people go to discuss rarepairs / unpopular opinions to find others who cared similarly, but I can't read anything around most BG3 tags without people shitting on each other or because their opinions don't perfectly align with their own. It gets depressing af being on popular fan artists pages seeing it too, when did this get normalised?

There is so much being misinterpreted about the game in general too.. a game that is literally about the narrative you've personally curated and what you've created to the story you wanted.. which means it will never match what someone else has taken from it.. 'are we playing the same game' arguments baffle me because no matter what, we all have our own narratives, and things might be canon and some things are hc, but let people enjoy what they want and what they've taken from a situation/story?

Also.. of the people who sit and say AA behaviours are abusive (which again, is narrative based - even endgame reunion content is literally what you choose about the conversation) - if it is consensual to the situation, if the player has decided it's done the route of it being like a d&d vampire bride (canon or not, open to interpretation), if the Tav/Durge agrees to the situation and that's how the player has decided it - leave them alone? It's none of your business? I feel like every conversation is one foot away from being kink-shaming and I'm seriously confused. I would've never sit shitting on a character I didn't like for months on end, and I don't enjoy AA to begin with - but I wouldn't be out trying to piss on AA stans either.

Are we headed towards a culture of content and media that's strictly about morally good decisions and expecting content to only have morally positive circumstances and tell us that life is meant to reflect that to a T? I'd be bored af with games / movies / etc if that's where we're headed cause jfc, what's the point? For me it's about escapism and seeing how even morally grey situations/decisions have merit and sometimes that means siding with some dark shit because it's just interesting to see the dynamic, not because I'm going to walk outside and do the same shit - if I have to sit and play games that are only about puritanical narratives I'm going to throw up.

.

[tleeaves]

Fanfic tropes

Thank you for the tag, @writing-for-life! It took me so long to get around to this.

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

• -10 -> very dissuaded

• 0 - don't care either way

• 10 -> very enticed

• nope -> if it's a hard no and you'd never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you'd insta click out of the fic if it wasn't tagged

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it's conditional.

Age Gap: -6 It very much depends on the kind of age gap we're talking about, though I get uncomfortable when it's about teenage characters more than one year apart. As two adults? Perfectly fine, so long as you're not counting an 18/19 year old as an adult in the dynamic with some 30 year old, sorry. There's a level.

Codependency: -5 Tends to make me uncomfortable. The real-life experience of it has soured a lot of romanticism that goes on around it for me. As before, there are levels and lines associated with it. Depends. But generally, I don't like it. There are healthier ways to write about people who don't want to lose each other.

Enemies to lovers: 10 ...shut up. So what if it's my favourite trope SO WHAT? When done right, it is just beautiful, wonderful, delicious, fantastic. I tend to write enemies to lovers adjacent tropes in a lot of my works. I'm obsessed with the kind of chemistry it creates, the tension, the drama. Of course, there's also a healthy way to do it, and then downright red flag type toxicity. Be careful.

Enemies With Benefits: 4 Can be a delicious slice of drama and spice when done right.

Fake Dating/Relationship: 5 I didn't care much for it for a while, but it's grown on me. When done well, it is almost as fun as enemies to lovers.

Found Family: 7 Really enjoy this trope, though it tends to get repetitive in ways its done. My favourites are from canon really and not fanfic, but I won't click away if I see it in the tags - most likely I'd be curious to see how the author chose to do it.

Friends to Lovers: 0 Don't really care. Don't love it or hate it. Sort of bland, depending on how you write it.

Friends with Benefits: 0 Also don't care much for it but I'm not dissuaded or encouraged necessarily.

Hurt/Comfort: 3 It depends. I like writing hurt/comfort but it's always a coin toss when it's in fanfic. I more like writing angst and comforting scenes than I do reading them, weirdly.

Love Triangle: -4 I'm so tired of it because one character is always clearly the better option (to me) and it's frustrating either watching the character in the middle be an idiot who can't decide over what should be an easy choice or pick the wrong love interest entirely. And then if it's a proper triangle where someone likes someone else? Boring and frustrating. Have a threesome about it.

Mistaken/Hidden Identity: 10 Fucking delicious. Give me more. I want more fics with this.

Monster Fu... Relationship: 0 Don't care much, I don't really have cause to come across anything with it?? None of my fandoms really have monster characters to fuck so... unless you count werewolves? Kinda feels too much like bestiality there, sorry. If it's human/animal-aligned then it's more of a "nope" if it goes into sexual territory.

Obsession, Possessiveness, etc.: -10 NOPE. I'M GONE. I'M OUT. I can give some fics passes if it's a more low-key, but it very rarely is.

Opposites (like grumpy x sunshine, etc): 1 Depends. I like opposites, but it's difficult to make it feel believable in fanfic sometimes. Cute in theory. Execution tends to be a bit off. Plus, I don't like it when it's too surface-level sunshine and grumpy etc.

Poly: 0 Also depends. I don't care too much. If I think the dynamic of characters is good, I'm completely fine with it and will even enjoy it. Rare though. I haven't seen a lot of these.

Pregnancy: -5 BUT it also depends. Highly conditional. Highly. I need it done well and without cliches.

Second Chance: 5 I actually quite like this when the circumstances are good e.g. a lot of time has passed and whatever incident that took them apart was not too bad, or genuine changes have occurred, or there was a misunderstanding etc.

Sex to Feelings: 2 Kinda tasty, not gonna lie. I don't mind it.

Slowburn: 10 TAKE MY MONEY. SLOWBURNS FOR THE WIN. THIS IS CRUCIAL. ESPECIALLY WITH ENEMIES TO LOVERS OR RIVALS TO LOVERS, IF IT'S NOT SLOWBURN WTF ARE YOU DOING.

Soulmates: -10 Bye. See you on the other side of the delulu spectrum.

Tagging: @faithfromanewperspective, @ibrushmyteeth-donttellanyone, @zoyalannister, @manawari, @stabbydragon, @sourlemons262, @griddle-cakes. Tagged you either because I know you're a fanfic writer or because I think you'd enjoy this (or both). No pressure to do it though, loves <3

[your-neighbor-in-the-northblue]

Blindsighted ↠ Usopp x Assassin!Reader

➼ Word Count » 0.7k ➼ Warnings » None ➼ Genre » Angst, Major Character Death (non-canon)

"Hey, wait up!" Usopp called out, rushing to catch up with you as you stalked along the coast of the island you all had stopped on. "How's your arm doing? You took quite the hit back there."

"It's fine."

"It didn't look fine," he continued, crossing his arms in concern as he slowly made his way closer to where you stood. "You outta check in with Chopper, it's bleeding b──"

"I'm fine, Usopp." You repeated, sterner this time as you took your gaze away from the water and up toward him.

He was quiet for a minute before he released an audible sigh, "Why won't you let any of us help you? Any time you're hurt, you just push us away! We're only trying to help ── I'm trying to help!"

"I don't want your help." You snapped, wincing a bit as the blood began dripping down your arm a bit faster now that your heart was racing. "I'm fine… I just- I just want to be alone right now."

"Can you please just tell me what happened back at the bar?" Usopp begged, taking small steps forward, "I'm worried about you."

Your hands moved up to grip your shoulders. The atmosphere aligned perfectly with all the thoughts that raced through your mind ── too perfectly. The light rain teased at your skin, beckoning you to do what you knew you had to, reminding you that he was only human. The dark sky taunted you, whispering one word after the other about how this was the best possible time. Your relationship with Usopp wasn't ever supposed to get this deep. You weren't ever supposed to feel so strongly for him, and it pissed you off that you did.

The moment you met him, you knew he'd be an issue. Every lie he ever told piled higher and higher till you could hardly see the top. There were times you couldn't tell if you even knew the real him, and here he was, worrying about you. You doubted that it was another one of his tales, but it hurt to think of it in any other light ── it hurt to think that there was more because it never should have gotten this far.

The longer you stayed with the crew, the more you began to notice the little aspects of his personality that had managed to stick with you. From the little accessories you spontaneously added to your outfits down to his expressive hand movements.

"Why did you follow me out here?" You turned to face him as you said it. So what if you got injured in a bar? A few more drinks and everything would've been fine. You were so incredibly close to the one goal you had, and you wished it had followed even half of how you planned for it to go.

"Why wouldn't I have followed you out here? You're my friend, AND you're bleeding."

"Please, leave," You begged. A tear was beginning to form in the corners of your eyes. Here it was, this was it. This was where it all came to an end.

"No, no, I'm not leaving you," He argued, "What do I have to do to get you to believe that someone would be there for you."

You didn't answer him. You didn't think you could. You just stood staring down at your reflection in the water sorrowfully, nodding toward a figure in the trees as you looked back at your long-nosed friend.

"I was hoping I'd be able to get you more drunk before this happened," The confused glint in his eyes wasn't lost on you, but it didn't stop you from rummaging around in your pocket, "Goodbye, Usopp."

You aimed your gun toward him swiftly, your cold eyes giving nothing away, as you shot him in his forehead. It stung horribly, but if you hadn’t gotten a hold of one of the Strawhats bounties, it would’ve been your body hitting the floor. An eye for a lie, but as you moved away from his corpse, it didn't feel half as justified as you'd originally intended it to be.

[vintage-bentley]

Omg! A radfem Good Omens fan! Finally a sane person in this fandom LMAO it feels a bit lonely to be honest. I have a few things to say (it's a bit long, sorry):

First, thank you for answering to that comment in your askbox so clearly! It's so funny reading "queer" people being shocked that we watch Good Omens. Like, we're gay AF and the show is gay AF. Plus, if radfems didn't watch shows/movies with the same worldview as them, they wouldn't watch anything at all.

I absolutely agree on the blind adoration for the actors. I mean, those guys are fifty and are clearly jumping on the "woke" train (don't really like the word "woke", but you get me) to get a positive image. But at the end of the day, they're just fifty year old men and I'm sure they have done or supported nasty shit too, like basically any man in the world. Thank you for mentionning Sheen's partner being so young and thank you to the radfem who explained David Tenant had a friend actor doing creepy things on set and he used to joke about it. Those two news are absolutely the least shocking news ever. I can't stand the way most girls and women easily fall the feminist, woke nice guy persona and get their hopes up only to learn that yeah, those people are still men. They are no exceptions.

Plus, I also think that the writer of the show is glorified to no end. I mean, he's a good writer, but it's too much LMAO. I agree with the bit about changing God to a woman being void of any meaning and I would like to add that God wasn't a woman in the book, the writer changed it for the show (likely to appear more feminist to the viewers).

Lastly, I wanted to ask you questions:

Did you notice that the most popular fics on ao3 for the Aziracrow ship contain at least one of the two characters having a vulva? If yes, what do you think of it? (Personally, it was shocking to me. I had just finished the show, went to ao3, started reading a fic and... omg skslsks It's so prevalent, too... Thank god we can filters tags nowadays.)

2. What do you think of people who use she/her pronouns for Azi and/or Crowley on twitter? (Again, it was shocking to me given there was nothing indicating that in the show. They're creatures in the bodies of men, and are seen are men by anyone. It makes absolutely no sense to me, and it feels forced AF.

(All in all, I think the fandom thinks the show is more woke than it actually is, because no one who isn't following the writer on tumblr would think "oh yes, those characters are definitely going by she/her and have vulvas". People are allowed to write what they want on ao3 and on twitter, I just think it's insane how prevalent it is in the fandom. But well, I suppose most people in the fandom are Gen Z...)

I'm stopping there. Thank you for reading all of this!

I’m so sorry it took me so long to respond to this! 💕 but thank you for sending this!!

I see that sort of shock from “queers” often regarding shows with canonical gender identity having characters. I remember there being a post about OFMD that said “how are terfs watching this when there’s a nonbinary character?”, as if we combust on the spot if a character has a gender identity 😂

This attitude of “how can you watch something you don’t entirely agree with” says quite a lot about the “queer community” and their cult mentality. They can’t seem to wrap their minds around the idea of watching something and being critical of certain parts…because they seem to only want to watch or read things that perfectly align with their views (or that they can interpret to perfectly align with their views, as they’ve done with GO). Just look at how they act about reading/watching “terf” perspectives. “Don’t even look at terf blogs! It’s dangerous and they’re bad, just trust me!”.

They’re so used to this idea that everything they look at must be in agreement with their views, that I guess they just assume everyone else feels the same way.

And yeah, if radfems (I consider myself just adjacent, but I’m using the term broadly here) wanted to follow that line of thinking, we’d be shit out of luck. Misogyny is everywhere, seeping into the writing of every female character. And because radical feminism is so vast in the topics it covers, it would be hard to find something that agrees with every single position.

I hate the blind adoration for the actors and for Neil. Yeah, the actors are fun personalities to follow and watch in interviews, yeah Neil says some funny stuff on tumblr sometimes. But ultimately they’re all men, they’re all celebrities, and those two things rarely go well together without some sort of issue.

People treat Neil in particular like some kind of god because he validates their gender headcanons, and somehow can’t see that he’s just trying to string them along for clout. And I’m pretty sure there was something about writing a female child character in a really creepy way (snow glass apples?), but nobody cares because oooo he said trans rights!!

God was definitely made into a woman in the show for easy feminist points. And it’s disappointing because it would be so interesting to actually do something with that concept. The easiest thing to do would be swap the roles of Eve and Adam. But he couldn’t even be bothered to do that.

As for your questions…

1. Yeah, I’ve noticed and it drives me crazy. To me it reeks of homophobia. It seems as though these writers are taking the first opportunity they can to make a gay couple straight, and to assert their belief that heterosexual intercourse is superior to homosexual intercourse.

2. The she/her pronoun usage has gotten especially bad after season 2, and I think it’s really annoying lol. It seems like a way to cope with the fact that Aziraphale and Crowley were pretty clearly men the whole time, with Aziraphale even referring to Crowley as a man in the 40’s scene.

Again it reeks of homophobia to me because people seem so, so eager to take this gay couple and make them seem straight. Just let them be men in love.

It also reeks of sexism because often the she/her pronouns go to Crowley when he isn’t like, the pinnacle of masculinity. All it takes is for him to have longer hair than usual and suddenly everyone’s going “omg she’s so pretty!!!” It feels very performative (come on. Nobody actually thinks Crowley is a pretty lady. It reminds me of the people who comment on ugly TIM selfies like “omg slay queen!! You’re so beautiful!!” Because they know it’s expected of them to validate male feelings). And it’s concerning that people can’t seem to accept that having long hair doesn’t mean Crowley’s a woman.

The fandom absolutely thinks the show is more “woke” for lack of better term, than it is. They’ve built up a bunch of headcanons in their minds, and because Neil has okayed the headcanons, they’ve deluded themselves into believing it’s canon. But the truth is that there’s no explicit mention of angels and demons being nonbinary. The “sexless” line in the book is vague enough that it seems to be interpreted differently depending on who you talk to, yet the fandom has decided it means celestials don’t have genitalia (yet somehow have every other sex characteristic?).

The average viewer is not going to watch this show and go “ohhh, I see, they’re both nonbinary and this is a super queer show!”. They’re going to watch it and see two men in love. Which is amazing! It’s upsetting to me that the fandom has decided that two men in love isn’t enough. Unfortunately I think what’s happened is that it’s a bunch of straight women who got bored of fetishising gay men, and have now moved on to romanticising this idea of being as Queer and Different and Quirky as possible.

[birdsareblooming]

Hello! I was wondering if you could share a bit more about your theory that Sonic was created by the Chaos Emeralds? If you don't want to, then ignore this ask

Thank you and I hope you have a good day!

it's more of a supported headcanon and the support is a very big and long theory that's as thick as my fat cock so it would take forever to write and i have to write like. collage papers rn but once i have the drive I'll totally do it

but like, sega is obviously very particular about sonic's backstory, like him ever having one, which is why the movies were cucked in one big way, either because they have something in mind or they don't and because he's a figurehead of their company they'd rather he just not. the void of a backstory has been filled in other canons ((nephew of a knight, best friend with the princess (satam), one of three triplets from the queen who had to be given up during a takeover (underground), idk what the fuck (archie)) but not all. honestly the closest to the game modern canon we get also give him nothing, like X, boom, etc. Either because that idea of sega holding back on a backstory was already in place or they just didn't feel like it idk.

This leaves room for headcanon and theory, or mostly a mix of the two. I think it's impossible to make a theory of sonic's backstory in gamecanon because we're given so little, so we use the stuff we can barely find and use and create supported headcanons like I did.

for me it just. makes the most sense if sonic just spawned.

he's both just like everyone else while also being something completely different just because of how he is. his spirit and soul are different if that makes sense. his beliefs, power set, and being align almost perfectly with the chaos emeralds themselves. Everything sonic believes in is based on freedom, to the point of not killing people so that they can change. and what is freedom if not chaos?

ever-changing, ungovernable, unpredictable, freedom and chaos are almost synonyms. the universe especially in sonic is just organized chaos.

Sonic himself represents freedom, in his beliefs and lifestyle, not exactly that he's fully free in every sense, but he fights for freedom and therefore fights against order, he fights for chaos and life.

Either this makes him the perfect user of the chaos emeralds (which part of the theory i mentioned above goes into) or something from them almost directly. i think as their nature the chaos emeralds create life around them just in general, but it's possible sonic was something they just. did.

i cant exactly say on a whim, there are prophetic drawings and statues of him on angel island, either from the echidnas or the ancients themselves, and the chaos emeralds due have some time fukcery about them so maybe they were showing off their favorite boy.

again a huge part of this headcanon hinges on a theory that may take an entire day to research, write out and put together, so im rambling but like. yeah.

[devout-of-the-elder-scrolls]

Morality and Daedric Princes

I wanna start this post for anybody who isn't aware of my blog that I believe the Daedric Princes are generally either misrepresented or only represented from one side of the debate within TES canon (that they are more than just evil, cruel, dastardly beings that want humanity to suffer). I do not take TES canon lore to be infallible worship canon. This post also comes from my own personal perspective and experience with these wonderful beings, so... UPG.

So, in my experience, the Princes as a whole are, as I can understand them as a human, morally grey. They both do and don't agree with the morals of us humans. (Note, this doesn't mean a human perspective is inherently the right one, that's centering on myself which isn't right for Godly worship and interaction. It's just the best way I can think to describe them to others.)

While the Nine Divines seem to align much more to human morals in TES lore (which may also be a misrepresentation of them), the Princes do not. For example, to a Prince, baneful magic, a common hot topic within Witch spaces, is perfectly valid and accepted in the eyes of a Prince.

In my experience, and in my knowledge, many Princes focus more on individuality and personal power. Unlike a Nine Divine who focus more on community, a Prince will tell you "You're the center of your own universe. Fucking act like it."

So, should a baneful spell be in your sphere? You feel you've been wronged heavily enough you want to perform it and maybe even curse that who wronged you? A Prince would entirely encourage it, even if some humans absolutely wouldn't.

This isn't to say either that they are necessarily good or evil. Every single god can be both, even the Nine Divines and the Tribunal, even gods outside of pop culture worship. They're all so beautifully and wonderfully multifaceted, afterall.

Boethiah can just as much tear you down as She can build you up. He'll break you into pieces so you know exactly how to piece yourself back together again in a crisis. But He'll stand by you the entire time you're piecing yourself back up.

Molag Bal, who within TES canon is perhaps the worst of the fuckin' worst (not necessarily in my worship but this isn't the post for that), takes you and makes you strong. It might be brutal and difficult, but you are made it in the end.

Even Azura, who within TES lore is generally kind (except for in one singular Arena questline where She asks you to kill someone), can be quite harsh and tough love-y. She'll give you the cold shoulder until you can learn to cry to Her in which She'll embrace you with all of Her love.

All of that seems cruel, but it's done with a good reason, and that's, in my perspective, pretty morally grey, when we're talking about a god.

If you can't handle a god doing tough love and being a bit brutal with you, then the Princes maybe aren't for you. But that's the best way I can think to explain how the Princes are morally grey. They do things that us humans might call cruel or unfair, but it's done with a good goal in the end, that if you're the right person for that kind of love, makes it worth it.

(I'm unsure if I made my point well in this post, but let's get to hoping!)