#when you limit a character to one role that you want especially from canon it's like you're not really understanding that character

[epickiya722]

Actually, thinking about it...

It's something that some of the fandom refutes the idea of Gojo being a "dad" and one of the reasons being his age and/or just how he behaves.

But then that makes no sense to me because dads can be total goofs like Gojo, you know doing silly things with their kids and...

I have yet to see anyone shut down the idea of Nanami being "like a dad".

"But, Kiya, he is like a dad!"

True, but let's not act as if other family members don't act like Nanami, too, especially if they have to take up the "parent role".

He's more serious than Gojo, but that doesn't mean serious = parent. I can be serious with my siblings as I am the oldest. So if Gojo is the "silly big brother", Nanami can't be the "serious big brother"?

Nanami is also younger than Gojo. So to even bring up Gojo's age as a way to disagree with the Dad-jo agenda seems pretty... useless if you're a person who sees Nanami like a dad.

Mind you, Gojo is the eldest out of the Past Arc students. (Gojo, Geto, Nanami, Haibara, Ieiri and yes, I am also including Ijichi.) He would have just turned 13 and Nanami would have been 12 when Megumi was born.

Personally, I don't care if you see Gojo as a dad, uncle, brother, cousin - figure to any of the kids or just their teacher. Same goes for Nanami.

It just seems unfair to both characters, I guess, to be like "hey, he can't be like this and the other has to be like this".

Like, who said that person has to exhibit those specific traits to be in a role?

To me, at the end of the day, both Gojo and Nanami are mentors who also allow the students to feel what it is like to have some adult figure in their life who does care and protect them.

[hunter470]

My 9-1-1 RANT

Ok, I don’t normally do these types of posts, but I can’t move on until I get some things out. These are just my thoughts about the latest episodes of 9-1-1 as well as overall comments on the Buck/Tommy relationship. These opinions are mine and are based on the countless hours of TV I’ve watched in my 54 years on this planet, as well as my knowledge of writing and how Hollywood operates. I’m not confirming that any of this is true or are the real intentions of anyone involved with the show. Just my opinions. So, you can agree with me or not. I’m not trying to persuade anyone in any way. Also, I’m not going to get into endless arguments about my opinions but feel free to comment if you want, I just don’t promise I’ll reply. 

Ok, here we go. Sorry it’s so long. Like I said earlier, I just needed to get it out. So many wasted opportunities.

If you think TM cares what the fans want, you’re seriously kidding yourself. If he did, Buddie would have been canon a long time ago. The only thing he cares about is ratings and his vision for the show, which can change at a moment’s notice with no rhyme or reason as we’ve seen. 

Although I loved Buck and Tommy together, I knew the show wouldn’t do their story justice. So, no matter what TM or OS have said, the bi story was only to garner publicity, draw in new viewers, and increase ratings especially with the show moving to a new network. There was no altruistic reason behind it so don’t kid yourself. They knew there was an audience for the story because of all the Buddie shippers. Just remember, it’s called show business, not show friends for a reason.

Do you think OS really cares about bi representation? Based on his latest comments and non-apology it’s obvious he only cares about getting the stories that garner him the most screen time and press. Seriously, read his latest interviews. He’s excited to get to have fun now. So, congrats OS, Buck gets to F around. Just shows how most, if not all, actors are ego driven no matter what they say. Sorry not sorry.

TM has commented that he doesn’t owe anyone anything. In fact, I recall him saying to Buddie fans if they don’t like it, read fanfiction. If that didn’t clue you in, then you weren’t reading the room. Kinda reminds me of another show runner…for those who watched H50 you know who I’m talking about. That’s why I don’t get heavily invested in these shows. I’ll watch but I never expect anything I like to last…especially if it has to do with gay relationships.

It says a lot that the show remained completely silent about the bullying and death threats Lou received just for playing a role he was happy to play. Again, they really didn’t care because they knew he wasn’t going to be there after episode six. What a great message for all the bullies…just keep bullying and you’ll get what you want. 

Again, reread OS’s interviews. He was doing the Hollywood double speak. Says just enough to keep you hooked with hope to get you to watch even when he knew all along it wasn’t lasting. It really was as clear as day if you go back and read what he said. 

Also, if you thought Buck was going to get into a meaningful long-term relationship, then you didn’t watch the video from the You Tuber “Call Me Chato” that TM posted on his Facebook. The video was all about characters and how they should always stay fundamentally the same with minimal development - I’m paraphrasing. However, Buck is the golden retriever, heart so big it gets broken, character who will remain on a hamster wheel and unlucky in love because that’s who he is. If he changes too much it shifts the dynamic, which only happens if the show was ending. 

If you thought the writers would do justice to a bisexual story, then you haven’t been watching the show closely. There’s been minimal Buck/Tommy relationship development on screen. Taylor got more. Viewers were lucky to get crumbs in the limited screen time Buck and Tommy got. Then, a breakup out of left field? One minute Buck is saying Tommy is it for him and he wants him to move in, and then it’s over? If he truly felt deeply for Tommy, why not fight to keep him? Why give up so easily and let him walk away? What’s the point? Also, to end it on a terrible stereotype is yet another clue. Horrible writing and another sign that TM and OS had zero investment in the relationship. The whole break up was rushed and made no sense. Essentially, it was just used to draw people in and to get Buck single and sleeping around again because that’s who he is. I for one won’t care for any of Buck’s future relationships. I mean, why would I when they never last. 

Also, writers that give you a 66-year-old police sergeant and a 10 y/o boy landing a heavily damaged plane on an active freeway in LA with no prior training, and sorry playing video game flight simulators is not training, is some Sharknado level writing, which is not a compliment. Oh, and that whole story was truly the shows “jumping the shark” moment. If you don’t know what the term “jumping the shark” means, look it up and try to tell me I’m wrong. 

Not having Tommy involved in the three part premier episodes, other than a few minutes at a birthday party, was so obvious as to the show’s intent. I mean, the fake captain from Hotshots got more screen time. 

They claim they wanted someone for Buck that was connected to him and the 118 and then you don’t use the character at all. You wanted Buck off the hamster wheel? What a crock! Such a wasted opportunity.

Since it’s been confirmed episode 6 was filmed before 5, Tim’s just playing god with peoples’ feelings and crushing their hearts at this point. I mean, how do you have such a great episode (5) and a wonderful speech by Josh (6) just to break them up? Plus, having Tommy break up after six months? That man was all in, which was obvious in episode 5.

Guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that’s how TM would handle things after that horrible Tarlos breakup. At least on Lone Star we knew Rafa (Carlos) was a main cast member so there was hope. Lou was a guest star so it seems kinda final based on his interviews. Again, what was the point? They could have had Buck's bi revelation be with a random character. So, building up the Buck/Tommy relationship just to take it away was to inflict the most pain. Good job. 

Do I think the show will make Buddie canon? Who knows…one thing I do know is I wouldn’t trust them if they did. Also, even if Tommy somehow returns, I don’t trust TM with anything related to this story. Sure, hope he’s happy with ruining the show for so many people. Again, like another show runner I mentioned in item 4 above. Honestly, I can’t believe the Buddie fans have stayed for so long. That’s commitment, I guess. 

Do I think Lou should go back to 9-1-1? Hell no! He was screwed over by both TM and OS. Prove it to me otherwise. However, it’s up to him and of course, he loves acting so I wouldn’t blame him.

Finally, even though I’ve watched the show since the beginning, it no longer brings me joy. There are too many other TV shows to stick with one I no longer enjoy. So yes, I’m announcing my departure, and I don’t give an F what OS, you, or anyone else thinks about it. Not that any of this matters any way…

[linkspooky]

So I was genuinely surprised last week when we were finally shown Megumi's mental state inside Sukuna and he was predictably at his lowest point ever, and instead of sympathy from the fans most of the responses on twitter I saw were people mocking him.

Which I am going to assume comes from a misunderstanding as his character. You see Megumi doesn't fit into the role of the black haired supporting protagonist / rival well. He's not Sasuke, he's not Uryu Ishida, he's not Yuno but he's not meant to be a rival or even a typical shonen character who's progress is only measured by a series of power ups. Megumi is perhaps one of the most subtly written characters in the manga, and perhaps he's hard to sympathize with because he doesn't fit into easy to udnerstand shonen tropes. Which is why I will try to explain his arc below and why Jujutsu Kaisen does it like no other manga currently running.

1. Meet Potential Man

Let me introduce you to the worst meme on twitter.

Megumi's inability to live up to his potential to reach his full power as a sorcerer is probably his biggest flaw, one that is rightfully called out by the narrative again and again, but apparently an intentionally written character flaw is bad writing.

It's covered in Gojo's "Swing for the fences" speech.

Gojo notices Megumi bunt in the baseball game and decides to confront him about it later. He highlights that while bunting is alright in baseball, and it's good to sacrifice yourself so your teammates can advance in a team sport that being a sorcerer is a solo sport. No matter what Megumi is going to reach a point where he's forced to fight alone, and instead of trying to push himself to be as strong as he can be he intentionally limits himself to cooperate with the sorcerers around him.

Basically, the opposite of Gojo who literally cannot fight with other sorcerers because he won't be able to fight at full strength as they just get in the way.

It's not just that Megumi can't use the ten shadows to its full potential, something pointed out by Sukuna, and then later again by Gojo, it's also that he always prioritizes either the group or someone else above himself when trying to decide how to act. Megumi is a semi-decent strategist so this is not necessarily a bad thing, but because of Megumi's tendency to care more about trying to live up to other people's expectations towards him, and what other people need of him rather than his own needs he doesn't have the attitude necessary for sorcery, especially since the strongest sorcerers don't take others into account at all and act like living calamities.

Megumi doesn't look at himself, he looks at the people around him. He judges himself based on what the people around him want from him, not what he wants. This is going to be a continual theme in his arc.

Sukuna is a living calamity, the definition of the attitude a strong sorcerer has, Gojo Satoru wields sorcerery only for himself, and is a sorcerer because he finds exorcising curses and using his god given talents to be fun for him.

Megumi's reason for fighting, his self worth, are all much, much less than the strongest characters in this series which is why he continually fails to live up to his potential. It's not because Gege is not good at writing or Megumi is a disappointing character, but rather he's been written as someone with tremendous potential under the pressure to live up to that potential but who continually fails to do so. Megumi's low self-esteem, low self-worth, and lack of self-identity explains both his failure to progress as a sorcerer something that requires selfishness and self-identity to reach greater heights in, but also his tendency to pick the suicide option with Mahoraga because Megumi genuinely believes compared to the others even just his classmates his life is simply worth less.

So potential man, is an intentionally written character flaw already called out in canon. The more interesting question is why does Megumi fail to live up to his potential.

2. Meet The Original Potential Man

So, I said that Megumi is not like a lot of characters in Shonen Jump but that doesn't mean he's entirely unique. To help explain Megumi's inability to live up to his potential I thought it would be helpful to compare him to a character he's clearly inspired by.

Killua Zoldyck, is the deuteragonist of a manga called hunter x hunter. You may have heard of it, Gege certainly has. Killua is born into a family of assassins who all have supernatural powers. The assassins inflict incredibly harsh training on their children from birth in order to raise them into assassins because their potential as assassins is all that matters. They also start with a "Z".

Killua is apparently the most talented Zen'in... I mean Zoldyck of this generation, though he's still young so he's weaker than his father and brother he's expected to easily surpass them one. Which is why Killua's family has already decided for him that he's going to be the next one to take over the family, Killua's opinion doesn't matter. Illumi and Silva are both setting him up for success by forcing their "help" upon him. Several other members of the family even point out that Killua probably doesn't have the attitude to be the head of the family, but what does it matter when he's got such great talent?

Killua is a complicated victim. He's a victim of many things, familial abuse is the most obvious one because the Zoldyck have a nasty habit of torturing their children, but the less obvious one is grooming. Not in a sexual sense, but rather the adults in Killua's life have decided to use their authority over him to manipulate him into becoming what they want him to be - the next head of the family.

What's insidious about this is the Zoldyck's don't just torture or beat Killua into submission, they will use any tool in their arsenal, familial love, emotional blackmail, threats, all to undermine Killua's agency and choices in order to make him not only do what they want to do but make him think he has to grow into the person they want him to.

Grooming not in a sexual sense, but definitely in a psychological sense, an adult using their authority as an adult over a child and their maturity to manipulate that child into becoming what they want them to be instead of letting that child grow naturally. When it's used in a sexual sense it's when an adult establishes a connection with a minor, and then uses that connection in the long-term to manipulate them into having a relationship and lower the child's inhibition. Think of that, but without the sexual part - an adult using their relationship with a child often in a long-term manipulation to lower the child's inhibitions and make them more malleable and raise them to do what you want them to do.

Killua has not been sexually groomed, but he has been groomed by both his parents and his brother to make him more suggestible to becoming the family head which is something he explicitly does not want to do. Not only did Killua's family only raise him for the purpose of becoming an assassin and taking over the family one day (raising him as a child into an adult, his emotional maturity, his health and well being are all secondary priorities to what Killua can do for his family) they also manipulate him into thinking he has no choice other than being an assassin.

Killua is a kid put through extremely harsh training from a young age, to do a horrible job that is being an assassin that doesn't let him make normal friends or have a normal life. On top of the physical abuse he's already endured, whenever he expresses a desire to do something else in his life, his parents send Illumi to emotionally manipulate him into thinking that not only is he a natural born killer, and therefore a bad person who deserves all the abuse he's been put through, to further convince him that his only path forward is to be an assassin.

Killua is a character who has a lot of power, but little agency. Agency, in fiction is the ability a character has to take action and make decisions for themselves. Despite Killua starting as a more powerful and more savvy character than Gon, he has little agency and is often very passive. He doesn't act, he reacts. Even running away from his family is a reaction. We don't really see what he wants in life, we just know that he looked at his family and went "NOT THAT". However, his entire identity is still formed in response to his family's abuse. Even when he gets farther away from them, Killua doesn't really do what he wants, he does what Gon wants, and follows around Gon.

However, it's very understandable why Killua doesn't act with a lot of agency, when Killua does try to make decisions his family always shows up to undermine him and make another attempt to emotionally manipulate him into doing what they want. It's not always Illumi showing up to spook him. Silva pretends to be a loving dad for five minutes and has a heart to heart conversation with his son, and lets his son go adventuring with his friends but that too is a manipulation. He only did so to make sure Killua would eventually come back, by giving Killua more positive memories that would make it harder to make the decision to leave the family.

With the extent that Killua's family goes to sabotage any decision he makes, it's no wonder Killua is so passive and afraid to make his own decisions. It's almost like a character flaw he's gotta work on.

Now here's where I'm going to blow your minds. Megumi is an incredibly similar character to Killua, they are both the victims of longterm grooming however people don't like to acknowledge Megumi's victimhood. That's because in Killua's case, his abuser looks and acts like this.

Killua's abuser Illumi is a creepy guy who looks like the girl from the grudge, telling him he's not allowed to make friends and giving off such rancid vibes that he's obviously a bad guy. Whereas, Megumi's groomer this this guy.

Gojo Satoru who is one of the most popular characters in the series, and who also gives speeches about how he wants to let children be able to live out their youths, which is why it's hard for the fandom to see that he has taken advantage of Megumi and stolen his youth away from him pretty much the same way that Silva / Illumi has for Killua.

Megumi, like Killua has no choice in who he wants to be when he grows up, or what kind of person he wants to grow into. Megumi, like Killua has been groomed for a young age and forced into an incredibly dangerous and life threatening job that he does not want to do, that denies him the chance of a normal life, and that does not really allow him to make many friends. Megumi is railroaded onto this path, not by his choice, but by Toji's choice, and later Gojo's choice... because he has potential. Megumi like Killua cannot leave his family and stop being a sorcerer, otherwise his little sister who is the only family member he cares about will be hurt.

Gojo doesn't show up with an evil aura looking like the grudge girl and telling Megumi that he doesn't have the right to make friends, and that he's inherently evil and a puppet that only exists to kill people though so it's harder to tell that Megumi is a victim of the same kind of grooming that has hurt Killua so thoroughly.

This is what I mean when I say a lot of Megumi's characterization flies over your head because his victimization is written really subtly. Gojo does the same thing that Illumi / Silva does to Killua, he may seem like a stand up guy compared to those two but Megumi has about as much choice about what he can do with his life that Killua has.

Not all grooming is Illumi showing up with his spooky eyes to intimidate and coerce Killua into submission. Silva shows up to give Killua the first fatherly talk he had in his life, and lets him go from the mansion.... not because he realized he was wrong for restricting Killua's life choices and giving him no choice but to become heir.

No, it was a ploy to guilt trip him into coming back because he knew if he held Killua there by force he'd just run away the next chance he got. Fear and intimidation wasn't working at keeping Killua in line, so they switched to love instead.

Gojo can encourage Megumi to make friends, let him hang out and spend time with Itadori, even honor his wish to save Itadori and in the end still be manipulating him into becoming a sorcerer and not letting Megumi choose what he wants to do with his life. Gojo just prefers the carrot to the stick.

This is something the databooks confirm, that Gojo hunts prospects like Yuta, Yuji and Megumi not out of the goodness of his heart, but because they are talented students he can recruit to his cause with the added bonus that by appearing as their savior, they "owe" him.

Megumi is also a character lacking in agency, he is someone who's had no agency his entire life and what little agency he did have was stolen away from him by the adults in his life.

Let's analyze Megumi's situation for a second. As soon as Megumama dies, Toji gives up on the idea of fatherhood entirely, and decides to sell his son, literally, like in the sense of human trafficking to be raised by the highly abusive Zen'in Clan.

However, before the deal could be completed his father died in the middle of a mission. Megumi apparently saw his father so little that he didn't recognize him on coming face to face with him years alter, which says a lot about what kind of role Toji played in Megumi's life before he was outright abandoned.

Not only does Megumi believe his father just left him to run away with his new wife (Megumi's stepmother and the mother of Tsumiki) but now he and Tsumiki had to live together in a household without supervision for an indeterminate amount of time and watch their money slowly run out.

When it looks like they're about to start starving, Gojo Satoru shows up to save the day.... or not.

Gojo seems like he's offering Megumi a choice, but it's a loaded one. There's no choice in this scenario where Megumi gets to be a normal kid. The option of calling social services so this orphaned child does not starve doesn't occur to him.

Megumi's options are a) go to the Zen'in Clan and be a sorcerer where Tsumiki will be abused, or b) be a sorcerer under me where Tsumiki will be safe. The unspoken part is that if Megumi rejects his offer not only will he just let the Zen'in Take him, he'll also probably just let Megumi starve. Megumi the uh six or so year old child at this point has to sign away the rest of his life as a sorcerer, and work in order to earn money to eat.

No adult is taking care of Megumi, no one is raising him, even the food and shelter Megumi is given comes with a price tag that he has to pay back by being a Jujutsu Sorcerer and attending Jujutsu High as a teenager. Gojo even kind of subtly uses Tsumiki as a hostage to get Megumi to join with his agenda, because his offer isn't really much better than the Zen'ins but he needs Megumi on his side because he needs to raise kids to be future allies to his political agenda.

At the tender age of six Megumi signed his life away to be a sorcerer and he hasn't looked back since. Considering his severe behavioral problems getting into fights constantly at school, I think it's safe to say Megumi is about as reluctant to be a sorcerer as Killua is an assassin.

Honestly, if Megumi had phrased it like this:

"I'm so tired of being a sorcerer, I just want to be a kid."

Megumi would have a lot more fans, and Gojo would have a lot of explaining to do, but I think the brilliance of Megumi's grooming is that it's not really as blatant as Killua's. Megumi doesn't talk out loud about how he wants to be a normal kid, he's just angry at the whole world, and prone to fits of violence because he's mentall unwell.

Another way in which he parallels Killua, by the way.

Megumi does not talk about his lost childhood out loud. Instead of knowing his thoughts on the matter, instead we are shown his behavior, the effects of having his childhood taken away from him and how unstable it makes him and left to ponder as the audience what Megumi himself thinks of this.

The same way that Illumi steals all of Killua's agency away, robbing him of the chance to be anything other than what the Zoldycks want him to be, so to does Gojo. It's just instead of Gojo using the stick, he uses the carrot. He is Megumi's benefactor, he's the savior, for whose help Megumi owes him, sort of like repaying a loan with interest.

Gojo tries to shape Megumi into Gojo Satoru 2.0. Or maybe a second Geto. That's more likely as it's Geto defection which inspires Gojo to go looking for him after neglecting to do anything about Megumi until a year after finding out about his existence. Gojo says that Megumi is going to have to work hard or else he'll be left behind, just days after Geto had left him behind. Megumi is helped by Gojo, he is protected from the clans by Gojo, he has been taken on missions alongside Gojo his entire life, Maki even refers to Megumi as a treasure that was raised carefully by him.

Gojo invests a lot of time and effort into Megumi and because of that Megumi is expected to "perform." However, he doesn't.

That's the thing, Megumi is supposed to be either Gojo or Geto 2.0 but he just can't be. THe reason why again is Agency. If Killua is limited because of his inability to decide for himself, then so to is Megumi b/c Nen and Cursed Technique Development both depend on things like imagination, ego and self-image to raise them up to their full potential.

However, Gojo has shot himself in the foot with regards to Megumi. Becoming a Jujutsu Sorcerer requires a strong identity, but Gojo by sabotaging Megumi's agency and ability to decide for himself every step of the way has robbed Megumi of the chance to form that strong identity.

Megumi, just like Killua has no sense of self and instead both judges himself according to others, how he meets their expectations, how he measures up to them - he also glorifies others while constantly putting himself down.

Megumi doesn't give speeches about how Yuji is like pure light, but he also refuses to let Yuji out of his sight post Shibuya, and even says it'd be better to be killed by Sukuna alongside Yuji if Sukuna does take over.

In the Chimera Ant Arc Killua defines all of his self-worth around being useful to Gon, and beats himself up for not being able to measure up to him - because Killua has no sense of self his selfhood has always been undermined by his family who wanted to make him more suggestible to what they wanted.

Megumi is flippant with his own life and very willing to lay down his life for another's sake, because Megumi has very little agency in his life and has been taught by both Gojo and his circumstances that he himself and what he wants does not matter. Megumi doesn't fight fate, and fight for what he wants because he's already been shot in the kneecaps by both Toji's abandonment, and Gojo Satoru, and he's having a difficult time just trying to stand with bullets in his knees.

Maybe, the reason Megumi is so willing to risk his life to summon Mahoraga and sacrifice himself if he thinks it will help his allies is because Megumi has been forced into a job where he's gonig to be expected to sacrifice his life for the greater good since the tender age of six years old and therefore everything in life has conspired to tell him his life is worth less than others.

Yuji isn't the first person in story to think of himself as a cog, that's Megumi. He doesn't even need Shibuya to beat him down to accept the cog mindset, Megumi is already there at the beginning of the story.

I think a lot of misunderstanding of Megumi's character comes from the fact that his grooming is more subtle and insidious, and not as blatant as Killua's, and also that it's done by a character well-liked by the fandom. However, if Megumi has all the same symptoms of Killua then it's logical to deduce that they share the same trauma

Even Megumi's summoning of Mahoraga has a tie to Killua.

There's a pattern of KIllua running away from stronger opponent that's established in HXH that's eventually revealed to be because of a needle that Illumi inserted directly into Killua's brain to mind control him to run if he faced someone that was too much of a threat.

Obviously, that's just continuing the metaphor of the fact that Killua isn't able to believe in himself to face people who are stronger, because Illumi has been constantly putting him down his entire life.

Isn't this essentially what Megumi does as well?

When Megumi is faced with an opponent that's too strong or a hopeless situation, instead of running like Killua he summons Mahoraga. He does this because he doesn't believe in his ability to surpass his limits and fight, because he doesn't believe in himself or his own potential.

When is actually able to think more freely and picture a version of himself who can surpass his limits and who can do these things - these are the moments he is shown to grow.

Megumi however, for the most part isn't free. He can't think of himself as free and he can't free himself, because not only does he still have no choice about what he wants to do with his life (even if he becomes the msot powerful sorcerer in the world Gojo won't let him quit, he's gotta pay off those student loans), but he's also internalized the idea that he's not free. Not only has Gojo raised him to be a cog, Megumi has also accepted the fact that he is a cog and what he wants does not matter - the most he can do is hope that his actions will protect the people he loves and give them a little bit of happiness.

Megumi doesn't need a needle in his brain to control him and make him run away from fights and more obedient, because Megumi has already done all of that to himself with the toxic and self-harming ideas he's internalized.

Megumi and Killua having given up on themselves, try to make others happy, the same people they put on pedestals in order to make themselves feel even worse in comparison.

However, from this point Megumi and Killuas arcs go in opposite directions. You see after the Chimera Ant Arc when Killua hits his lowest point and his codependent friendship with Gon is exposed for what it is, Killua returns home in order to try and rescue his sister Alluka who is probably the reason he ran away in the first place.

Alluka and Tsumiki are both at the start of the story taken away from Killua and Megumi respectively, and with them the only genuine familial affection they ever enjoyed in their lives is taken too.

However, Alluka and Tsumiki are inversions. Alluka finds her freedom and agency, and Killua is able to reform his connection with his sister by accepting both pats of her, Alluka and Nanika. Afterwards the two of them finally leave their family home together and go off on a journey together.

If Alluka finds her personhood, Tsumiki remains a plot device. She never awakens from her coma, she's possessed instead and then murdered.

Now, here is where I point out how unfair the audience is being to Megumi. If you're a hunter x hunter fan remember all the character development that Killua gained by reforging his relationship with Alluka, how much confidence it gave him to connect to the one person who's even unconditionally loved him as a family member.

Now imagine that Alluka is brutally butchered right in front of him, and Killua has a first person point of view, because somehow in this scenario Illumi used a needle to mind control him into killing Alluka.

Do you really think Killua would be able to stand after that?

Sukuna is really just the last in line of a long line of people who've stolen Megumi's agency away from him, in order to benefit themselves. Sukuna even saw the same "potential" in Megumi that Gojo did.

Sukuna physically posessing Megumi's body, is just what both the Zen'in Clan, and Gojo Satoru have been trying to do to him in the most literal way possible. Gojo wants to remake Megumi into Gojo Satoru 2.0 with no regards to who Megumi is as a person, what Megumi's wants and needs are. No he just wants to raise someone as strong as him and pass the burden of protecting society onto Megumi, this starving orphan Gojo decided to exploit.

People have always used Megumi as a puppet for their own agenda, Naobito wanted to make him the head of the Zen'in Clan because he had the technique, Gojo wanted him to become the next strongest sorcerer / Gojo Satoru and also to replace the elders with Gojo's political agenda. They all want Megumi's "potential" for themselves to use to their own ends. Sukuna just takes what Gojo did one step further by literally stealing Megumi's body away from him and using him as a literal puppet instead of a metaphorical one. Gojo took Megumi's childhood by making him work as a sorcerer, Sukuna kills the physical embodiment of Megumi's childhood innocence by murdering Tsumiki, the only thing Megumi had in his life besides being a sorcerer, his only family, the only person he grew up with in his childhood years, the only person who loved him for who he was.

Megumi coped with what Gojo did to him the same way Killua did, by building himself around his use to others, and by building his identity around protecting others but now that's all gone. Tsumiki is gone, Megumi is trying to kill his friends, and he's already butchered Gojo Satoru.

Yet the fans are surprised that Megumi doesn't immediately get back on his feet.

However, and this my slightly optimistic ending to the post. Perhaps, Megumi is going the complete opposite of Killua, because what Megumi needed to learn was not to grow strong and confident enough to protect his sister but to learn to fight for himself.

At this point Megumi has nothing else left. It's sink of swim. He either develops a strong enough identity to regain control of his body and push Sukuna out, or he loses and the anti-Sukuna team will just have to resort to killing Megumi along with Sukuna.

Even in that case.

Megumi not being saved by Yuji is a good thing.

Because a victim who gets rescued by a hero still has no agency.

Megumi told Yuji that he needs to start by "saving me."

However, it might just be the opposite. Before Megumi can save anyone else, before he can become a protector, he has to find his own power and save himself. He has to both accept thathe's someone worthy of salvation, and at the same time he can't just passively accept the hand that Yuji's offered to him he has to actively be the one to break free of Sukuna and save himself.

Megumi can't become the strongest sorcerer by becoming the next Gojo Satoru or being what Gojo or Sukuna wants him to be. THe only way Megumi can become the strongest, is by being himself.

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

Um, hi! Regarding that other anonymous asker wondering about the comic's enjoyability, I actually WAS one of the people who voted "I've never watched the show but I do read the comic" in that poll; all my prior knowledge about Steven Universe was from passive osmosis. I don't know anyone personally who likes it either, my baseline is limited to, like, the premise and 'hey I think that one's a major character?' every now and then (this was most recently Lapis Lazuli. Peridot I'm prettttty sure is canon, but I didn't recognise her right off. Betting that Sea Glass isn't. No clue about Jasper).

So if it's of any help, from my experience I do think that your comic is fairly accessible to folks outwith the Steven Universe fandom! I read long-form fanfiction for media I know nothing about on a regular basis, and it does a good job of explaining the core concepts required for the plot to hold water; it makes it much harder to spot foreshadowing that I feel may have been more obvious to experienced readers (e.g. I didn't get anywhere near working out Earl's issue because I didn't know that A. White Diamond could do mind control, or B. what societal role Pearl-class gems (is that the term?) hold relative to the Diamonds), but the actual narrative itself holds up well so long as you're willing to put the thought in. Actively following your blog helps a bit too, I've gotten extra context clues from the FAQ and asks you've answered.

My one warning would be that reading a long-form story for a fandom you don't know is a very different experience. The best way I could describe it is akin to reading Arthurian stories or folkloric retellings without studying the source material: while the main narrative is comprehensible, you become distinctly aware that certain parts are name-checking their original culture in a way that the author expects to be apparent but isn't, not to you. I spend a lot of time faintly baffled when I'm not cross-referencing between multiple fics for commonalities to reverse-engineer (also do that regularly, would recommend), which is fine! It's fun! Might not be for everyone, though.

I just want you to know I love this ask, and I was enraptured reading this. It's a very cool insight! Especially as someone with the exact opposite reading philosophy, this is extremely valuable.

It's neat to also get a confirmation about the fact that a lot of over-the-top stuff that was meant to echo the original show might not get pinged by those who aren't familiar with the original. Though to be fair, people didn't quite pick up on what was happening with Earl even when they knew what White Diamond's powers were.

I also find it hilarious to realize that Jasper might not be a recognizable original-show character to most outsiders. DEMOTED!

[notomys-mordax-blog]

Part 2: Neve Gallus and the Shadow Dragons

Overall: 7/10

Important things first. I absolutely love Neve's design. Her casual outfit with the IDGAF unbuttoned shirt is 10/10. She's both very fashion-forward and feminine, but doesn't look soft. It's neat. The only real critique I have here is that I don't like how most of her face is hidden by her hat. While this felt like an intentional choice, I think it detracted more than it added to her vibes. 

Speaking of vibes, Neve's vibes are impeccable. She's a classic hardboiled detective solving mysteries and putting anything resembling a feeling in a box where it can't hurt her. They really leaned into the film-noir vibes with her voice direction with mixed results. Sometimes it's really effective, but other times it's stilted, especially next to characters who haven't been pulled out of a crime procedural. Overall, I really enjoyed her bit, but I can understand where critique about her voice direction comes from.

Despite her serious allergy to admitting her emotions, you can see how deeply she cares about the people around her by her actions. This worked really well in her interactions with the companions, but was a little bit more uneven when it came to Rook. I really liked seeing the social activities around the Lighthouse, but it was disappointing that Rook wasn't really directly involved in any of them. As a result they felt like an outsider (or like the Boss that people don't want to get too close to).

You could also see this with Neve herself. She liked to give the other characters small, practical advice and support for their problems, but didn't really seem to give Rook (who frankly, has more serious problems than a lot of his companions) the same treatment. I think this is really an area where the writing would have benefited from the addition of some barks and greetings to help link the "relationship-level-up" scenes and make it feel more like the characters are slowly getting to know each other, versus have an uneven sort of ladder where the relationship moves in jumps and starts.

This unfortunately also extends to her romance. I am the kind of person who really enjoys NPC romances. It not only makes me feel like the characters have more agency, but it is often a two-cakes scenario when it comes to interesting ships. The gender inversion of the detective x femme fatale of the pairing between Neve and Lucanis is really interesting, and they both use acts of service as their love language. Unfortunately, while the two of them have a lot of chemistry with each other, their chemistry with the player character is pretty flat. Lucanis's romance suffers more, in my opinion, because the content is so much sparser, but I also felt it with Neve.  My poor head canons need to do a lot of heavy lifting to make the Veilguard relationships work. 

Neve's role in the story is twofold. She helps provide a number of useful connections in Northern Thedas (Harding also plays this role). Additionally, she's our guide to Minrathous. For a Rook who does not have a Shadow Dragons origin, she's responsible for convincing the player that the city is worthy of saving. Personally I feel like the narrative emphasized how hopeless the whole situation in Dock Town a bit too much. I would have liked the narrative to give approximately 15% more weight to scenes like Hal and his fish-stand to show that Dock Town had good people and was worth trying to salvage.

Admittedly, I'm also pretty disappointed that we finally get to see THE BIGGEST AND MOST MAGICAL CITY IN THEDAS, but are limited to just exploring Dock Town which feels like a pretty generic fantasy dock town. I feel like this was a big missed opportunity. Frankly I would have preferred if Veilguard was set entirely in one city and we had the chance to really explore that one location. 

Neve is one of two characters who can become hardened. This is done not through her personal quest, but through an early-game decision to choose which of two cities to protect from a blighted dragon attack. Thematically I like how the game is moving away from good versus evil choices. One of the major themes the story was trying to tell was that there are sometimes no "good" choices. There are some interesting parallels between Solas and Rook and the themes of regret. What I found awkward here was that there really wasn't justification for why Rook played such a key role in the defence of the city (and subsequently why people outside of Neve/Lucanis blamed Rook for what happened). I also think that the narrative could have done a smoother job explaining that with Minrathous, the problem was not in the defence of the city, so much as it was the political implications. I think this choice would have felt more interesting if they worded it more explicitly to be a choice between protecting the civilians in a city from the immediate brutality of the dragon attack (Treviso) versus protecting the civilians in a city from the long-term brutality of an oppressive political regime (Minrathous). 

As a slight aside, I did feel like it was kind of goofy that Neve, who is a well-known public figure, could just waltz into a venatori gathering. 

Her personal quest is a paint by numbers affair. You help her with a case that spirals into a confrontation with her nemesis, a venatori mage. She needs to be guided through choosing to leverage the help of a shady organization, or crack the case through legitimate channels. It folded in nicely with the main story, but did illustrate the problems with the venatori as one of the main groups of villains.

Part of me almost wishes that the outcome of Neve's personal quest would depend on whether or not she was hardened, versus something that you explicitly chose. I feel like hardening Neve had much fewer implications on the story than hardening Lucanis, and I would have liked to see some story changes. 

The Shadow Dragons

I really liked the idea of the Shadow Dragons. I think they were probably my favorite of the factions. It was really brutal to see what happened to them if you chose to save Treviso over Minrathous. I also feel like their existence could have gone a long way in explaining why the culture of Tevinter was so different from what we might've expected given how it was depicted in the games based in Southern Thedas. Throw in a few lines about how attitudes of slavery in Tevinter have been shifting over the last 10 years due to changes in policy from Dorian and Mae, underground movements like the Shadow dragons and maybe, for bonus points, a certain elf who has been cutting his way through slavers. 

Not including Fenris in the Shadow Dragons really does feel like a missed opportunity. Quantum characters are one of the general design problems with the Dragon Age games. Getting to see cameos of characters from previous entries into the series is a lot of fun, and something that the series wants to do. Unfortunately, because of the complexities that would arise from the different configurations in people's worlds, these cameos either have to be super shallow so an NPC can be easily slotted in -- or people's previous canon need to be handwaved a-la Leliana-lyrium-ghost. Personally, I'd prefer half-assed explanations about why a character who should have been dead (or otherwise incapacitated) is back in action, but that's not really a good solution either. Frankly I think returning characters end up creating a sort of damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation. 

Back to the Shadow Dragons. I liked them! I think my only quibble is that the Viper being the Black Divine was a weird narrative choice. I'm not complete with my save-mintrathous playthrough, so this might end up coming up more in the future, but thus-far, this revelation has been treated like a fun Easter egg. I also thought it was kind of funny (derogatory) that the ventatori who captured him didn't think to unmask the mysterious masked leader of the rebellion. I think the reason they didn't was because the narrative didn't want to deal with the fallout ... which is kinda lame. 

Another intrusive thought I had whenever I saw him was that there is a whole masked empire in the south, and whether or not people thought that the Viper was from Orlais. This is a dumb thought, but it is one that I couldn't help but think.

How I would fix it: 

Neve's storylines are folded into the main story much closer than Harding's. This means that resolving them would require addressing some of the deeper flaws in Veilguard's narrative. Despite my desire to write multi-thousand word essays analyzing the flaws of the game, I did ultimately enjoy playing it and would describe the experience as being a mostly fun romp with likeable characters and an interesting story that sometimes flubs the execution. I ran across a post describing DAV as one of the most polished unfinished games they've ever played, and this really resonated with me. 

The Venatori (and Antaam) were one-note villains with the same pedigree as Corypheus. Note how I didn't name a specific Venatori. Aelia, who was the main antagonist of Neve's route, didn't really have much going on besides "evil venatori blood mage". While I don't think we need to make the pro-slavery nationalists sympathetic, I do feel like they would be more effective villains if it was more clear what their goals would actually look like for the people on the ground. As an aside, my eye twitched a little bit every time the phrase artifact or ritual was used. This felt like a huge opportunity to add a little bit of flavor into the stew. I don't think we need major lore reveals, but what seems more interesting: "We've got to stop the Venatori from using an artifact to complete a ritual" or "We've got to stop the Venatori from using the Chalice of Lost Souls from making legwarmers soul weave"? 

Not specifying what the ritual or artifact was really made it clear that these things were just MacGuffins, and doesn't give the player any idea about why the Venatori are evil. While I think the scenes in Arlathan were they tortured animals while sitting on human chairs, it at least gave some specificity to their evil. 

The Tevinter presented in Veilguard doesn't really reflect how the Empire was presented in the previous games.  If the narrative choice to downplay racism and slavery was done because the creative team no longer felt interested in those themes or equipped to write them a statement should have been made to this effect. Regardless, the in-game cultural shift would be much less jarring for a returning player if some in-universe explanation had been provided. In the previous section I discussed a few different factors that may have shifted the attitude of the general population in Tevinter. This would help show the player that the Tevinter they've heard about isn't really representative of what the "average" Tevinter citizen is like. I think this could be accomplished really smoothly with a banter between Neve and Harding. Harding is surprised to see that the elves are treated more poorly in the South than in Tevinter. She can talk about the horrific blood orgies she's heard about. Neve can bring up that the average Tevinter citizen is horrified that the Danariuses of their country are how other nations perceive them. Additionally, this would help give the player a better idea of what the stakes for allowing the Ventori to get a foothold in Minrathous would be. It's the cultural traditionalists of Tevinter who want to go back to blood orgies. 

My making the Venatori more compelling villains, I think you'd end up fixing 70% of the problems with Neve's story. 

In terms of the other 30%  percent, this is really where you feel the pain of removing the small ways the player can interact with the companions. Even though walking up to the companion and overhearing "hey Rook" is narratively identical to needing to press x to initiate the same "hey rook" conversation, it feels different from a gameplay perspective. Adding this back in would help make it feel like Rook was actually talking to his companions. I would also have really liked to involve Rook into the slice-of-life activities at the Lighthouse! Let the player decide if Rook would be interested in joining a book club, or explore what kind of cook Rook would be. I think this would help the feeling that Rook is a weird boss who listens in on people's conversations. 

In Conclusion: 

I like Neve a lot and think that the idea of a detective procedural set in Thedas has a lot of potential. I really liked her interactions with the other characters (especially Bellara!) and enjoyed watching her slowly warm up to the party. It's just a bit of a shame that I didn't get the same sense of slowly building friendship from the player-character. 

As an aside, Tevinter Nights definitely enhances the experience of playing Veilguard. In addition to providing introductions for most of the companions, it also introduces a lot of important NPCS, this is where you see Neve first confront Aelia.  

As another aside, I'm tired of games with end-of-the-world stakes. DA2 is probably my favorite entry into the series, and it has a much smaller scale than the other games. I really would have enjoyed a game consisting of helping Neve unravel mysteries in Minrathous and think that narratively, that sort of story is much easier to tell in a satisfying way.

So those are my thoughts on Neve. I would drink whisky with her while we speculated on who the Viper actually was, but first we need to do something about those Venatori (explain what the heck the cult actually wants).

[infiniterealms]

Infinite Realms: A Danny Phantom Remix Event

Remixing time!

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to announce that the time for remixing is upon us!

The initial twelve fics will be posted over the next day or so, and I will add them to this pinned post as they're up.

What is a Remix?

Have you ever read an amazing fic and wanted to have a go at it yourself, but felt too shy or like you’d be doing something wrong? Have you ever seen the Two Cakes comic and wistfully remembered a oneshot someone wrote that you wish you could continue? Do you want to show an author you love their work to the point of your own creation, but you don’t know how to make fanart?

This is your opportunity to give something new a try!

When you remix a fanfiction, you write a piece based directly off the fic. There are many ways to do this, and the ones accepted in this event are as follows.

POV Flip - Retelling the same events from a different character's point of view.

Role Reversal - Swapping the roles of two key characters. An example would be remixing a fic where Valerie hunts Danny, by turning Valerie into the hunted and Danny into the hunter in your version.

Sequel/Prequel - The events leading up to or following the fic. This should overlap with either the first or last scene of the original.

Genre Change - Changing the fic to a different genre. An example could be changing a modern day canon setting to medieval fantasy or to a space opera.

For Want of a Nail - One small detail at the beginning of fic is changed, causing things to happen differently.

One Crucial Detail - Focus on what you think is the most important detail of the fic for a character’s point of view, and let everything else fall away.

Guidelines for Remixing

There are no sign ups or restrictions on who can participate. All skill levels are welcome!

For this event, we will be doing gen fics only. This is to create a space where everyone can enjoy the pieces regardless of shipping preferences. Potential future iterations of this event may include a shipping option.

Other types of remixes are okay if the author of the oneshot specifies that in their fic description.

Three things cannot be changed - who the characters are, the basic setting, and the basic plot.

Please keep your pieces rated T and under, and use all appropriate trigger warnings.

No direct plagiarism - you need to write things in your own words for the fic to be included in the collection. It’s okay to quote some dialogue or a key sentence or two, especially if you’re writing overlapping scenes, but your fic should mostly be your own words.

In the spirit of the event, crossovers should be avoided unless the author specifically states on their fic that they would be okay with them. In future years we may introduce a crossover category, but for now, avoiding crossovers makes your pieces more accessible to everyone in the fandom.

This event is designed for writers. However, if artists wish to participate, then they can also feel free to do so. Pictures will be reblogged to the @infiniterealms tumblr, and should follow the same posting requirements as written fics (listed later in this post).

There is no limit to how many pieces anyone writes.

There are no word count restrictions.

The event officially ends on the last day of February, but I hope you all enjoy learning more about remixing thanks to this event and maybe give it a try again in the future!

Posting Requirements

To have your remix featured on this blog and/or included in the ao3 collection, please...

...for tumblr posts

Mention the @infiniterealms blog

Use the hashtags Infinite Realms and Danny Phantom

@ the author of the original piece

Link the original piece at the start of your post

...for ao3 uploads

Tag your fic with Infinite Realms

Add your fic to the Infinite Realms Remix 2025 collection at this link

When uploading your fic, tick the checkbox that says "This work is a remix, a translation, a podfic, or was inspired by another work" and fill in the relevant information

Initial Fics to Remix

Will be updated as they're posted! All 12 should be up by the end of February 1st, so watch this space.

On the Line by @lexiepiper

Bitter and Heavy Truths by @haleswallows

Touring Babel by @princessfanonanona

LOST! do not approach, may bite by @lavendarlily

down and down and down we go by @camels-pen

Time and Time and Time Again by @coyotecrackers

First Contact by @hannahmanderr

Foreworn by @jackdraw-spwrite

nervous by @five-rivers

oh, mental breakdown, we're really in it now 😔 by @oofouchstovehot

Please check the notes on the fics before you remix them, as some authors have also stated a few preferences. Thank you!

[hello-nichya-here]

Got a question for you.

When making NSFW fanart, why are some characters considered "loli characters" while others aren't, despite being in a similar age group?

Example: Toph Bei Fong is routinely seen as a loli character. There are a select few works that go out of their way to specifically depict her as an adult, but anything that tries to stay on model with the show is usually labeled as loli art. Some people are even hesitant to draw NSFW of her because of this.

Meanwhile, Azula is rarely ever viewed as a loli character, despite being only, like, two years older than Toph. Even if the art is on model, most people tend to see her as safe to make NSFW fanart for (other than terminally online antis, but they don't count).

Raven from Teen Titans is another character who has pretty much never been considered a loli character despite being obviously underage (as evidenced from the title of her show). I don't even think the early Zone animations were tagged as "loli" except maybe the Slade one.

What is the difference between a character like Toph and a character like Azula or Raven that causes this almost subconscious distinction in people's brains?

From what I've seen, especially in american fandoms, it's because of one (or more) of options bellow:

1 - Toph is shorter and short equals child. It's literally why you got people calling Rebecca from Edgerunners a loli, when she's clearly an adult.

2 - Toph is canonically the younger, and you can tell just by looking at her, therefore she's the undeniably "off limits" one by that weird double-standard of "Sexualizing underage characters it's fine, it's just fiction - except when I'm not into it, then it's creepy/pedophilia"

3 - Americans are weird about age, especially about at what point exactly someone stops being considered a child and becomes a teen - hence some zutarians pretending the age gap of their ship is not exactly the same as Kataangs just because both Zuko and Katara have "teen" in their age, but Aang doesn't, therefore he's a toddler while Katara and Zuko are adults since they MUST be more mature due to their age. What is splitting hairs for any reasonable person is VERY strong, clear distinction to them. Toph's age doesn't end in "teen", therefore she's off limits.

4 - Toph is disabled and therefore must be infantilized "for her own good". Ironic considering that was how her parents treated her and it pushed her to running away.

5 - Grey Delisle, Azula's voice actress and inspiration for her design, CONSTANTLY makes super nsfw jokes about her characters (including Azula fucking Zuko), and has been very open about having worked as narrator for porn promos, a stripper, and even a failed dominatrix that cried after making a guy bleed a little. She shared the story about the time her and a friend were paid by a rando to pee in a cup and pour it over him. Pretty much anyone that knows anything about Grey will take one look at Azula and go "Fair game"

6 - The fandom tends to misrepresent the characters. Katara gets reduced to just "mom friend", taking the adultification she goes through in the show at face vallue and not as something that is meant to be deconstructed, even though it happens on screen. Same about Azula being seen as this manipulative, immoral WOMAN (because a lot of people legit don't know she's younger than Zuko) that surely MUST be a natural seductress, even if she canonically cannot flirt to save her life. Or Ty Lee sleeping around with any guy for attention, when we literally see that she freaks out and runs when guys pursue her too aggressively, or are rude, or want to fight over her, or expect literally anything beyond just casual flirting, not sex. "Mother", "femme fatale" and "slut" are adult roles, "bratty, stubborn, loud and aggressive" (which is not all there is to Toph) are largely seen as signs of immaturity, particularly in girls (especially tomboy-ish ones). There's the assumption that they'll "grow out of it", so if they still act the same, that's immaturity, not just her personality.

7 - The show itself gave us lots of Azula and Ty Lee fanservice, and some for Katara as well. Both Mai was heavily implied to have had sex with Zuko, and the show didn't even try to be subtle about the fact that Suki and Sokka got it on. Toph didn't really get the same treatment, so a lot of the fandom just has that instinctive "It's okay to sexualize THESE characters, but not that one" response.

As for Raven, while a lot of us were introduced to character by the 2003 show, there are many incarnations of her in literal decades of comics in which she's clearly drawn as an adult despite being a "teen" - and to tie in with point 6, in the show, she was the character constantly judging the others when they were acting immature or even just having fun at an inconvenient time, so she looks like one of the more "mature" people in the team, when she's just grumpy and literally can't get too invested in anything otherwise the world might fucking end. And much like Grey, the voice actress, Tara Strong, LOVES making dirty jokes about her characters.

[remusawoooo]

anon here, excited to read the essay! i asked you because i really like your takes and i see people in the more canon-adjacent parts of the marauders fanbase to complain about the extremes of the fanon one, though personally ive never really seen anything Too extreme, tho thats probably just tantamount to how well i curate my spaces i suppose (ive seen people say that fanon makes remus really “alpha” or makes sirius “bimbofied” and while ive seen hints of those extremes here and there, mostly it looks like it varies from person to person. ive just seen remus be more assertive than he probably is in canon, or sirius being more dramatic and “fem” than he probably is in canon). from what i know people like exaggerating events (the prank, etc.) or shifting some personality traits, but i dont really think thats a bad thing - i personally enjoy it. as long as they dont completely turn characters into stereotypes (though its a pitfall of every fandom, i fear), then whatever its just camp.

people are allowed to criticize stuff like that though, not taking that away from anyone, i personally just dont really care enough to be totally accurate esp since this hyperfix is kind of the bottom of the barrel for me LMAO. but i ask mostly bc im just curious to see what other peoples opinions are, and bc i think - especially in a fanbase like this - that its incredibly important to be at least a little critical with your media experience and reflect on it. saying “oh fuck canon we’re just having fun” is fine and all, i dont think anyone is stopping you, i think the personalities people have made up for characters that have zero screen time are super fun and the little ships are not everyones tea but like its fine. but even still, people should be way more aware of what characters theyre dealing with and from what franchise, and like reflect on any biases you may have. if youre making shit up for a random DE character, or retconning some sutff, okay, whatever, but be sure to not defend or like suddenly turn to really weird rhetoric. idk i think its the bare minimum in a fanbase like this

i definitely rambled way too much here, super sorry op! i hope this doesnt bother you, feel free to reply or feel free to not. i just really like hearing peoples thoughts on things, and i like your takes and your blog so i hope i didnt catch you by surprise. i really am just an outsider trying to look in LOL

hello anon, I'm sorry I lost your ask. I was writing on my laptop and saved the draft (but apparently had to press on alt, and didn't do it) so I basically lost your question and half of my initial response. Ty for sending in another ask!! Not a bother at all, i find this very lovely :D 

I was mortified to find that someone who isn't really a part of the fandom was perceiving me while I was complaining about fictional characters ahahaha. still, thank you for validating me and asking my thoughts on the mischaracterization of marauders!! I do talk about it daily, unfortunately, and without any prompt too. I'll try to gather all my thoughts here. I don't necessarily come across fanon as much as I did when I reentered the fandom and honestly, I can not be more with you about curating your space !! at the end of the day, I am just here to have fun, and really, pointing out these issues is not a good time at all! But I do post a lot about these, I can't be bothered to bottle up any thoughts lol.

I think the major issue I have with current interpretations is the underlying bigotry that comes along with it. There is a lot of unchecked problematic content that doesn't sit right with me.

Flanderizing characters in fandom interpretations is not limited to marauders fandom obviously. any popular media will face this because so many of us want to interact with one character so their traits are simplified for easier consumption and to find a common ground. this is also not limited to new marauders fandom. even in the older era, leather jacket-wearing, motorbike-driving quintessential bad boy siruis was a thing. so I won't nitpick on silly simplifications.

I just want to say that this isn't about me wanting everyone to have the same interpretations as I do about the canon. I follow so many lovely people and I don't agree with all of their posts. But, we all just simply share the love for these characters in the text and form an imaginary community. So, if we were to remove all the issues I will mention, it is still very well possible to have different personal takes.

Here are some of my issues:

Queerness, Gender roles, and misogyny:

My biggest problem is the representations of queer relationships. the fandom packages these couples in a strange and obvious heteronormative mold where the individuals fit into male and female gender roles. mlm and wlw are now an “f/m”* stereotype and characterization gets affected by the ships. Heterosexual relationships shouldn't have these limitations either, anyway. There is no one way to be a woman or a man. With queer relationships in particular, we have reclaimed the word queer now but it was used to describe the unconventional weirdness in the relationship. We didn't fit into the normal portrayal of a loving relationship. So, it really bothers me, even in fiction, that queer ships are popularly consumed in a way that represents a traditional template. (*this is not about gender itself but the gender roles! f/m can very well be queer!). 

Let's take the biggest victim in this fandom: sirius.

Sirius’ portrayal concerning his gender and sexuality has heavily changed his characterization in the fanon. We have a character who is popularly headcanonned as trans and is it a coincidence that all their traits have changed from the og material? Sirius is suddenly vain, whiny, and dumb. Canon doesn't suggest this interpretation, it has to have stemmed from somewhere. It's the implicit bias. Sirius becomes a caricature of what a woman “should be”. When we focus on sexuality, there is the suddenly short twink sirius who has the same new traits- proving the point of fulfilling gender roles. These characteristics are a stand-in for the “female” role of the traditional relationship and it becomes more clear in the example of new age wolfstar. Remus is now the big alpha stoic manly man- the obvious stand-in for the “male” role. I could go on, it is apparent in the way you can see remus becomes a caretaker and sirius is taken care of.

The point I am trying to make is not to discourage gender/sexuality hc. I love them, keep them coming. But, why is female sirius not tall suddenly? It is not inherently bad at all to have a feminine and masculine pairing! But why do we need to change the constitutions of these characters to consume their relationship?

I'll keep dropping disclaimers because I hate being misinterpreted: I don't obviously mean every single person is doing this or that doing one of the things means doing the other too. 

Race:

It is related to the point above. I was personally so excited to see the popular desi james hc. Even in fanon, I have never seen such a prevalent and encouraged brown rep, it was quite sweet to come back to that. But the problem is the change of characteristics that comes with race hc. Desi james is also a manly dude who is big and buff as opposed to the white petite and delicate regulus within jegulus ship. The melanin is directly proportional to the manliness here. 

This is a propagation of race stereotypes. Maybe jegulus was a bad example because usually there are seen as blank templates. I will raise the argument that this can't be all we can come up with for blank canvases then. Either way, my point about race still stands when you repeatedly design interracial queer relationships so they fall into heteronormative roles. Anyway, same issue with wolfstar when there is a brown remus.

Canon, JKR, and hypocrisy:

Refusing to engage with source material is funny when we are picking characters out of it. the interpretations of the characters will be from their book. otherwise, they are just original characters with the same name. you can add onto the traits and a lot of the time fandom comes to a consensus regarding a few things! This is common in every fandom but I don't think I have seen such reluctance to not only critically engage with media but also shame others who do. We are surely in special circumstances with this fandom but I really do think jkr and how we navigate the fanon should be two different things.

Most of us don't condone jkr or even remotely agree with any nonsense she spews on the daily. Most of us can see the problematic nature of even consuming this media and staying in this fandom. It is one of the reasons I even left the fandom. Most of us are simply doing our best to engage carefully while distancing ourselves from her. So, it is quite laughable when some love to take the moral high ground for rejecting canon while still engaging with the same characters. (the rejection of canon in question being sirius’ height, lol)

(Sirius' height is quite a polarising fact apparently. Unfortunately, the point about height is also discussed so disingenuously. When I talk about sirius’ height, it is not really about him being 6 or 7 feet. It will not really impact my life. It is about what it represents. He is bimbofied as he becomes short. It's an issue of "WHY" again.)

Of course, this isn't an accusation of intentional bigotry from everyone here. The problem with this fandom is that the people in it tell themselves that it is progressive and to run away from the problematic creator as much as possible. We are not progressive if all we do is co-opt queer and racially diverse identities on such a superficial level. The bias manifests in subtle forms. I just wish we check ourselves from time to time, that's all. 

There is a lot of hostility when we try to discuss issues in the fanon. Things are interpreted in the most misguided way to just win the argument. Like I said in the beginning, we all just want to have a good time. That also means creating a welcoming space for vulnerable groups (especially when the same identities are used to pat yourselves on the backs for inclusivity points). I didn't even cover everything btw, I just wrote about the issues that concern me. queer and poc also partake in biased representations, I also probably have some biases that I didn't identify yet. I just think it would be super neat if everyone tried to make an effort to unlearn and engage with media without hurting anyone. 

I have other issues but they are all just super subjective opinions and smth I can ignore when others do. ex: I really don't like giving tragic backstories to bigots in the story. Not every supremacist loser has a trauma that forced them into oppressing people! There is also "tropeyfication" of all major ships. Just an overall issue in the reading world I think, though.

Anon, I didn't mean to make it preachy in any way btw. You probably asked for a silly little rant and I went full lecture mode, so I apologize for the tone shift!! I mentioned these because every other issue can be brought down to these imo. Like you said, I also don't have any fixation on everything being canon-compliant. I only complain by asking about the thought process behind certain kinds of changes, if that makes sense! I hope this wasn't a drag really and you can see where I am coming from. If I misspoke anywhere, pls lmk. Thanks for sharing your opinions too!!

This is a long long rant, anyone who read everything, you are wonderful and patient. Thank you for taking the time. This huge post and the content can make you think, “who cares this much?” or “it's not that serious” and yaa it really isn't that serious. The characters aren't real but we all are. the identities projected are real. so, it does matter to talk about this.

Everything said this is a fun place to be once you find your own corner in the playground.

[stelladess]

I kind of hate the "Firefly or March jealous of the other"/competing stuff.

Because it just... does not match with how the characters actually interact when they meet each other in game.

It feels like it is just trying to slot people into usual ship roles when that does not fit the characters.

March and Firefly get along very well, which at first felt odd to me but looking back on various events and side quests I actually think it makes sense. March initially has a very black and white world view of good guys and bad guys. But she has gradually expanded it, from the slow burn growing friendship Stelle and March has with Silver Wolf over multiple events and side quests to just, seeing more morally complex situations March has grown to understand things are not as clear cut as she once thought I think. So she was more open to the idea that Firefly might not be a bad person then she would have been had she met her back before the Luofu arc for example.

And once the initial hurdle of "she is a stellaron hunter" is overcome, March and Firefly have a lot of things in common, and common interests. It makes sense they would hit it off right away. Most of the plot of the bird event is just Stelle, Wolfie, March and Firefly gaming together. Especially Stelle and Wolfie... (also on Firefly´s end she seems to idolize the nameless to some extent and seems to kind of wish she could have been one, it is kind of cute and fun how she just copied word for word how March introduced herself during the talent show because she had clearly not thought of her own answer)

Which gets me to another thing, I think people seriously flanderize how much Firefly is into the trailblazer. It is very heavily implied that she is but it is not exactly the core focus of her character in game. Marketing I do not care for but even then it is more with outsourced stuff that is in the spotlight, with the stuff on the youtube channel mostly focusing on her background and her identity as Sam.

Firefly´s life does not revolve around the trailblazer, she has a lot of other people she cares about too and also other concerns and goals then just the people she likes.

And March... there is even less suggesting she is even into the trailblazer romantically, there is a lot you can read as that but you can also just read them as being close friends or more sibling like. Which is probably on purpose, gacha games tend to want to avoid ever directly canonizing any romantic feelings.

I think the bird event is also kind of telling, most of it is Stelle and Wolfie hanging out because they are the ones most into the game. March and Firefly both get into the game too and the reason they disappear for part of the story is they wanna practice the game more while Stelle and Wolfie wanna experiment more with what the limits and scope of the game is as opposed to just practicing the basics.

Basically, these characters are driven by other interests then just romantic feelings, and it feels kind of silly to flanderize what is actually a fairly minor aspect of a character into their whole thing and I do not like it.

Also the bird event was peak.

[effypcfcwrites]

The Owl House

(Originally posted on my personal Facebook dated April 25, 2023)

This is probably the first time I'll be posting a detailed review of a piece of media that I like, so witness me sing all of my praises for this animated series from the House of Mouse, because wow, I've never been so invested in a Disney show after rewatching Gravity Falls.

For those unfamiliar, The Owl House revolves around Luz Noceda, a teenage girl who stumbles upon a portal to an alternate world called The Boiling Isles, meets a witch named Eda Clawthorne, learns magic under her tutelage and eventually enrolls in Hexside, a magic school where she makes many friends and goes on multiple adventures.

I binged this whole show in a span of weeks and even stayed up all night on my day off to finish it up to Season 3, the first 2 Seasons being on Disney+ and the latter on Disney Channel's YouTube page.

Simply put, I love it so much! I love how it reminds me of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, and, dare I say, Harry Potter, which it even poked fun at, at times. Well-deserved, considering J.K. Rowling’s transphobic views and HP’s underlying anti-Semitic undertones.

I loved the pop culture references to Thor: Ragnarok, Howl's Moving Castle, Metal Gear Solid, and even Hades, among many others! I thought those were very clever and funny, and just a treat for fellow nerds, geeks, and fans of fantasy stories, anime, and video games.

I love the LGBTQ+ representation all throughout the show, which was such a bold move considering Disney’s iffy stance on the subject. None of them were antagonized for it, and it was treated as something normalized in both the Human and Demon Realms. The show featured 2 gay dads, non-binary and aromantic-asexual characters, and one of the internet’s favorite sapphic/WLW couples Lumity, which is the ship consisting of canonically bisexual Luz and implied lesbian Amity Blight, whose rivals-to-friends-to-lovers relationship was just so wholesome, so natural, and very healthy, considering they're both teenagers. Suprisingly, there was very little melodrama, not once were they petty towards one another whenever either party did something wrong, and they never got tired of showing affection towards each other. I found myself shamelessly gushing over how cute, adorable, and supportive they were together, and tearing up a lot during key moments of their relationship, especially when they both found themselves in dire straits as the story progressed.

I love the writing and the character development of them all! None of them felt static, they all grew throughout the series, maturing, getting better, and healing from their own insecurities, trauma, and guilt. The humor and comedic timing was a nice touch, and I was really taken aback by how S2 ended on such a dark cliffhanger with all stakes raised to the roof, similar to A:TLA S2 and The Empire Strikes Back, as mentioned earlier. That season wasn’t afraid to have such a grim ending, with such a great payoff by the end of S3 which is worth celebrating.

I love the animation and art style, which blended colorful and whimsical with eerie and ominous in just the right amounts. As a sucker for animated movies and series such as Adventure Time, The Prince of Egypt, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it was just such a delight watching it.

I love the overarching message of the show, which is to be truly yourself, to embrace your quirks, and never to limit yourself and your potential based on what the majority of society and the powers-that-be expect from you. All throughout, you’ll find the characters challenging pre-established norms and roles, and it’s just so satisfying seeing them all win.

11/10 top-tier show. Don’t @ me, it’s hard for me to find something I disliked about the series. It's definitely a must-watch, especially if you're sick and tired of all the bleak nihilism of modern adult animation, and you just want to baby your inner child and escape to a whimsical fantasy world with characters you can all relate to. Betting my bottom peso you'll all be hooked, like I was.

[duckprintspress]

Created Work’s Round-Up: December 2024

Duck Prints Press’s monthly “created works round-ups” are our opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all. Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Check out what they’ve shared with us this month…

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Biscuits Lefevre-Utiles, Flirt: a Master Copy by Andi Rigby / @andi-sketchbook

art || dragon age: the veilguard || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || complete

TUMBLR

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Not the Hero by chamel / @cha-melodius

fiction || red, white & royal blue || m/m || alex claremont-diaz/henry fox-mountchristen-windsor || explicit || no major warnings apply || 60,917 || complete

summary: When Alex agreed to take a job doing stunts for a movie directed by his ex, all he wanted was to make it out in one piece. After a rocky start, they figure out a way to work together again, but that new equilibrium is tested when the film’s lead actor goes missing and Alex finds himself thrown into a world of secrets, blackmail, and people actually trying to kill him. Saving Henry’s movie just might be his most dangerous stunt yet, but can he play the hero, or is he destined to be the fall guy?

other tags: Alternate Universe—Hollywood, Action & Romance, Hurt/Comfort, Exes to Lovers, Minor Injuries, Explicit Sexual Content

TUMBLR - AO3

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With Laughter by deansmultitudes / @deansmultitudes

fiction || supernatural || no ships || mature || creator choses not to use warnings || 1,291 || complete

summary: Sam receives a distressed call from Jody, begging him for help.

other tags: minor character death, gore, dark, canon universe, post-canon

AO3

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I Love You Heart and Mind by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || m/m || logan/patton || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 8,341 || work in progress

summary: Patton and Logan, Morality and Logic, the Heart and the Mind, were just… well. Sometimes they were peanut butter and jelly, caramel and salt, dark chocolate and strawberries. Sometimes, they were a bit like oil and water. And then there were the times they were little more than gasoline and fire.

Still, there was no-one else in the Mindscape who held a bigger piece of Patton's, well, heart. And his mind.

Logan knew his limitations. He knew the boundaries of his role and he knew what happened when his… demeanor crossed those boundaries. He knew how to handle it. What he didn't know was how to handle his growing difficulty keeping it all under control.

Especially around Patton.

TUMBLR - AO3

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Try, Try, TRY Again by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || m/m || remy/patton || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 3,173 || complete

summary: Patton and Remy have been tasked by T.H.O.M.A.S. to recruit a rival time agency's best new field agent.

And they can't escape this day until they do.

other tags: Time travel, time loops

TUMBLR - AO3

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Go Back. Move On. Repeat. by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || m/m || logan/virgil || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 4,487 || complete

summary: Logan would do anything to fix the mistakes of the past. Anything to bring Virgil a peaceful night's sleep. Anything to take away the pain.

Anything

other tags: Canonverse, time travel and time loops

TUMBLR - AO3

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Morning Glories and Jade Slippers by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || m/m, poly (one gender: male) || logan/remus, logan/remus/janus || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 2,691 || complete

summary: Janus was truly, utterly, madly, ludicrously in love with his best friend. And he would tell him. He would. Honestly. Maybe after graduation.

Okay, perhaps after they open the flower shop. Well… maybe once business picks up.

Fine. Yes, he'll definitely tell him when Logan's no longer, you know, actively dating another man.

Okay, well… maybe he'll confess if Logan and Remus ever get divorced?

AKA: Janus is about to find out Hanahaki waits for no man.

other tags: Human AU, Hanahaki

TUMBLR - AO3

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Learn to Fly Again by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 1,678 || complete

other tags: Winged AU, Canonverse (with wings!)

TUMBLR - AO3

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A Moment's Peace by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 1,822 || complete

summary: Logan finds himself on an uninhabited island.

Well, he thought it was uninhabited.

other tags: space AU, shore leave

TUMBLR - AO3

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Taking Care of You by edupunkn00b (E.D. Punk) / @edupunkn00b

fiction || sanders sides || m/m || patton/virgil || mature || no major warnings apply || 3,806 || complete

summary: Taking care of your love starts looking a little different when vampirism and magic get added to the mix.

other tags: vampire AU, magic AU

TUMBLR - AO3

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Prince Hollywood and the Silver Serpent by edupunkn00b (ED Punk) / @edupunkn00b (e.d. punk)

fiction || sanders sides || m/m || roman/janus || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 5,147 || complete

summary: Prince Hollywood's world is shaken when he learns just how much he misunderstood about his arch-nemesis' true motivations.

other tags: Superhero/supervillain AU

TUMBLR - AO3

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This New Day by enchantedsleeper / @iffeelscouldkill

fiction || questionable content || platonic or familial || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 6,548 || complete

summary: In which Winslow pushes himself out of his comfort zone, goes to a house party, experiments with Drinkr, and grapples with the dystopian nature of AI embodiment - all in one night.

other tags: Experimenting With Alcohol (the virtual version at least), Drunkenness, Social Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Dissociation, the inherent dystopianism of AI personhood

AO3

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Ghost Lights by S. J. Ralston / @mindfulwrath

fiction || original work || platonic or familial, f/f || teen & up || graphic depictions of violence || 4,383 || complete

summary: Isadora Valentin catches ghosts in bottles, but when a young woman comes asking to get her mother back, Isa might get more than she bargained for.

other tags: Noir, fantasy, grief, ghosts, death of a sibling, death of a parent

TUMBLR - LINK

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Mosaic Haiku, Chapter 15 (poetry), 3 paintings (Ch. 4) and 3 drawings (Ch. 9 and 13) by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

poetry and art || the magicians (lev grossman, syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || general audiences || creator choses not to use warnings || 420 || work in progress

summary: Mosaic Haiku is an ongoing project including poetry and art celebrating the Mosaic lives of Eliot Waugh and Quentin Coldwater in The Magicians Season 3, Episode 5, "A Life in the Day." For the Warm Up fanworks challege hosted by Magicians Fanworks Extravaganza (https://www.tumblr.com/magiciansfanworksextravaganza/769457597745119233/warm-up-master-list-and-wrap-up?source=share), I created the new Chapter 15 and six new pieces of art (see the start of the fic on AO3 for a more specific list): three watercolor paintings for Chapter 4, two drawings for Chapter 9, and one drawing for Chapter 13. The paintings include moments such as their first kiss and the beginning of their quest together, while the drawings include Eliot tucking in Quentin and their son Teddy, Quentin crowning Eliot, and the two of them laughing together in their golden years.

other tags: Haiku, Poetry, Mosaic, Beauty Of All Life, Episode: s03e05 A Life in the Day, Mosaic Timeline (The Magicians: A Life in the Day), Watercolors, Drawings

TUMBLR - AO3 - INSTAGRAM - LINK

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Bad Girls by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

fiction || the magicians (lev grossman, syfy) || f/f || margon hanson/alice quinn || mature || creator choses not to use warnings || 999 || complete

summary: Margo's feelings for Alice heat up.

Alice goes up in flames.

Margo really likes bad girls.

other tags: Canonical Character Death, Niffin Alice Quinn (The Magicians), Fillory (The Magicians), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

TUMBLR - AO3

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Going South, Chapters 3-7, 9, 11 (Ch. 7 is art) by EliotQueliot / @eliotqueliot

fic and art || the magicians (lev grossman, syfy) || m/m || quentin coldwater/eliot waugh || explicit || creator choses not to use warnings || 35,184 || work in progress

summary: Eliot goes to Brakebills South with Quentin.

The two are a perfect team in Silence.

They communicate less well once they can talk.

Oh, and those camp beds are way too small for Eliot.

Chapters 7 (art--Queliot foxes), 9 (flash fic--Queliot foxes #1), and 11 (flash fic--Queliot foxes #2) were created for Warm Up, a micro Magicians fanworks challenge hosted by Magicians Fanworks Extravaganza, https://www.tumblr.com/magiciansfanworksextravaganza/769457597745119233/warm-up-master-list-and-wrap-up?source=share

other tags: Brakebills (The Magicians), Antarctica, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Snow, Foxes, Geese, Episode: s01e07 The Mayakovsky Circumstance, Magic, Nonverbal Communication, Lack of Communication, Past Child Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Sharing a Bed, Shapeshifting, Oral Sex, Hand Jobs, Rimming, Eliot Waugh's Canonically Huge Dick

TUMBLR - AO3 - INSTAGRAM

[davekat-sucks]

Alright I’m back to ask you the opposite of a question I once asked..

Using morals and actions who is the WORST character in the Epilogues/HS^2?

Dave and Karkat because they are the most NOTHINGBURGERS. They don't do anything and just be the gay couple. Even with shit active like war or meta battle between Ult Dirk vs Alt Calliope, they are not in the active front. It's mostly the females like Rose, Roxy, Kanaya, Jade, Jane, etc. are the only ones active with the only few like John and Jake being an exception that are part of the main cast. Dave and Karkat are not doing shit or anything. Dave especially because he doesn't want to use his godtier powers. Why even have something as fucking OP as TIME POWERS if you are reluctant to use them by the end? At this point, he might as well not have become godtier and not have powers at all by the end of the webcomic if he's not going to do anything with it. Dave is a useless, washed out Soundcloud rapper. His rhymes are shit and he only had his friends around to boost his ego on thinking he was the cool guy when he's nothing without them. Why have other Ancestors like the Signless if Karkat won't follow the footsteps in taking the lead and taking down the bitch Condesce who started it all? Like they play up he had to HIDE his blood and can never go out because of it. But now that he's on Earth C, why isn't he active going out more? Is Earth C that boring? Is it because Dave limits him when he goes out? The other Ancestors might as well not be necessary or needed if some don't really follow through or give up their roles for shitty reasons like subversion bullshit. Karkat wasn't even the true leader of the troll session when it was Aradia who planned out every fucking thing. From the game being found, her being god tier, and trying to continue the timeline. He was never special and played along like a retard. He's even more bossed around than fucking JOHN EGBERT. And he's a freaking BREATH Player. Yet freedom don't mean shit to the aspect. Blood aspect is useless and not known what it could do. By the off chance that we do learn something in Beyond Canon, it will be underwhelming because Karkat has not done anything special in Epilogues to 2/Beyond Canon that would justify he could tap into his abilities or find a cheat way for him to get godtier powers. Plus, him wearing red sweater now, Karkat unironically has become Kankri, the very same person he hates.

[komilys]

Hello hello can I bug you about lore/story for your Selfship with Yuki and the other Sohmas? I saw you have Akito as your big sister and she's my daughter so I'd love to know about your self insert!!! If you're up to share!!!!

when i first got this ask i did write out a response in one of my writing applications, but then halloween happened and my computer broke and i lost my writing lol (still on a mission to get it back!) and then i got sad and gave up but i’m no longer sad! tysm sooo much for bugging me about them i love yuki and akito deeply <3

akito is my big sister! that’s so interesting u have her as your daughter, i would love to know if you have any lore :D

i think a fun little thing that doesn’t really play a huge role is that i’m only half-siblings with akito, i have no reasoning for doing this other than being able to explain my appearance differences from most of the other characters AND mostly, honestly, just because i thought it’d be really funny if ren was so petty over akira loving his daughter that she was like “i’ll get a new man! that’ll show him to cherish me!” and you know what? it is kinda funny to me still. even funnier that she got pregnant and decided to go through with the pregnancy out of spite, only for it to be born female, again, and akira fully accept the child as his own. i think this also kind of makes ren hate kyi differently than akito because she does like… hate her children. loathes them.

edit right before posting: ​a little tidbit i didn’t add in earlier but kyi is really hated by the sohma maid (the main one; i believe she’s nameless), which is mostly just fueled that she views kyi as not really important, just an extension of ren being a hindrance to the sohmas. also, because akira wasn’t alive long enough to significantly impact kyi directly, i don’t talk about him a lot, but i can imagine his vague treatment of kyi as a kind of second/extra-to-akito, did influence the maids/caretakers treatment of him after he passed.

but enough about ren hating her kids! (in the original writing i think i went more into it but i can’t remember, rip all my writing) let’s talk about akito and i!!!! my favourite codependent siblings!!!!

i don’t think it’s much of a surprise, especially given akito if you’ve watched the show, and kyi is pretty similar in some aspects. i dont’t believe the original manga nor either version of the show gave a ton of insight into akito’s childhood (we don’t even have a confirmed age, but i go off of around 3-4 year difference, i’m the same as the main three). honestly i need to work out the timeline better, because it’s a little wonky with canon only having a vague timeline of events. BUT a few key things i do want to work in to whenever i more or less solidfy lore!!:

kyi and yuki do meet and become friends around the first time akito and yuki meet (this was likely done on akito’s wishes, rather than kyi’s caretakers). kyi is also the one who pulls away from yuki later on, haven’t completely figured out why but i know it has to do with some bit of ren’s interference, which plays into a later bit between ren and kyi after the new year’s episode in s2. over the course of what the manga covers, yuki and i aren’t really explicitly together, in comparison to yuchi in canon, it’s more so just very apparent the two have feelings for each other but given that they’re both just starting to kind of come to terms with it and you know. adjusting to everything in their lives lol, though they are definitely together a little later on.

(there’s a lot more to our relationship i swear i just don’t want to this to turn too long 😭)

akito and kyi are like… by normal standards, at least… kind of really isolated from the outside world as children? the sohma complex is so large it was easy to stay inside, and i hc that they were actually homeschooled! and especially considering their social circles were very limited, with akito’s essentially being the zodiacs and the caretakers around the complex, and kyi’s being about a fraction of that. this changes as they grow up, obviously, but it lasts an unfortunate while. (no wonder these guys are so reliant on each other LOL, they literally have no one else). jokes aside, they do really care for each other, and akito does really love his younger sibling, but it’s also by no means the most healthiest relationship; kyi still bites his tongue and plays into akito’s god complex and inadvertantly encourages her destructive nature (think of how kureno chooses to stay despite it being worse for her).

oh my GOD i stole kureno’s storyline. (real, live reaction as i’m typing this at 3:03 am)

because as i’m typing this out you can basically just roughly imagine kureno’s bits in s2 and go hey!!! that’s kind of you?! both are officially introduced during the beach vacation arc, are somewhat unfamiliar with being outside of the estate and are constantly by akito’s side and accidentally encourage her abuse of the zodiacs by staying by her side and keeping quiet, AND their major breakaway from akito is a result of a future romantic partner. OHHH MY GOD I STOLE KURENO’S LIFE. OH YMGODnno.wait i can work with this. (i don’t really care either way i’m not a stickler for things like creating mary sue oc/self-inserts and etc.)

kureno, babes, i’m so sorry i stole your character </3

[sushisocks]

after reading ur post i have now decided i want people to talk about darragh macguire like they do bessie and annabelle. giving him a character even though he passed before the story.

YES THANK YOU!!!!!

Idk maybe I'm the bitch who thinks too hard about this, but the fact that Darragh is named AT ALL says a LOT about how integral he is to Sean's character. Like, not even John has named parents! People make a joke out of how often Sean mentions his father, but FUCK man, Darragh absolutely does deserve to be understood and talked about in the same vein as Bessie and Annabelle.

And like, shit, maybe I am projecting a little bit here. I am extremely fortunate in that I am very close with my mother, she's one of my favorite people in the whole world, and the idea alone of not having her in my life is soul-crushing, even if it is an inevitability. Knowing that Darragh clearly was a good father, and that Sean loved - and still loves - him dearly, hits close to home for me, and it's heart wrenching to realize Sean probably was still rather young when he lost Darragh.

I talk about my family all the time, parents and siblings especially as I love them a lot and I love gushing about them, and I really can NOT blame Sean for doing the same, especially about a man whose memory he's trying to preserve.

I'm sure that part of why Darragh isn't discussed as much is because 1. Sean isn't taken as seriously in general, fanon or canon, and 2. Sean's role in the game is limited, he can be easy to miss if you're not paying him attention. BUT that doesn't mean Darragh doesn't DESERVE to be discussed, because honestly, there's a LOT of backstory there. Darragh has like an actual fleshed out background that we can infer from the newspaper clipping of him, and which gives us even MORE to understand Sean by.

Obviously there's an aspect here about like. Sean isn't as popular in the fandom as certain other characters, so of course people aren't actually thinking and analyzing his goddamn father. And while I'd LOVE for more people to discuss Darragh, that's okay. Because I will! I will yell into the void if I must, this man deserves someone talking about him!!! Darragh MacGuire you were the best father in the entire franchise and you never even had any screentime </3

[agerefandom]

10 Favourite Regression Dynamics

I’ve made lists of some characters I headcanon as regressors, and characters I headcanon as caregivers: and I love a good ‘character and reader’ dynamic, but here are some canon dynamics that I LOVE to add age regression to! 

Important note: these aren’t necessarily romantic ‘ships’ and they might not be healthy age regression dynamics but they’re dynamics I find it rewarding to write about! 

1. regressor!Will and caregiver!Hannibal (NBC Hannibal) 

Starting strong with a regression dynamic that is not healthy but it is such an interesting thing to add to their existing codependence! Will gives me such agere vibes and Hannibal’s existing trauma around his big brother history make this such an interesting dynamic to explore. It definitely tilts the power balance faaaar in the direction of someone who will take the opportunity to do terrible things with it, but that’s basically what you’re signing up for with any story about Hannibal Lecter. 

2. regressor!Jack and caregiver!Bitty (Check Please!) 

No one exudes stronger caregiver vibes than Bitty: I’m definitely a supporter of this as a double-flip pairing (with both regressing and caregiving) but I want the sad hockey man to get cuddles, goshdarnit, and you know that Bitty would just be the sweetest most thoughtful caregiver and I just gah they’re already such a good pairing with such canonically developed communication as a couple and I would love to see that skill applied to something as vulnerable as regression 

 3. regressor!Harry and caregiver!Sirius (Harry Potter) 

If anyone deserves a chance at a second childhood, it’s Harry Potter. And I think that when he connected with Sirius as a young teen, he really saw that possibility. I think it would be so sweet to see Sirius actually able to give Harry that full parenting: both at the age he is now, and all the ages that he missed. I just strongly feel like Harry is a regressor, and as much as I like writing him with peers supporting him, I feel like he deserves a real parent figure who can support him in that role in and out of regression, especially in his teen years. 

4. regressor!Jon and caregiver!avatars (Magnus Archives) 

Okay, this is more of a whump thing than a good dynamic, but I just want to see little!Jon dealing with avatars when they’re being nice to him, and it’s like 90% manipulation but it’s also a bunch of monsters being sweet and you can kind of read it as genuine if you squint. I’ve got a vision and it includes literally any of the not-quite-human characters of the Magnus Archives, ranging from the mostly-sweet (End!Gerry) to the completely-terrifying (Bouchard). 

5. regressor!Tony, caregiver!Pepper (Marvel) 

This is the first pairing that ever made me run to write regression fanfiction, and I do believe that I would not be an agere writer without them. Ironically, I’ve never finished and published any of my fics about them, but they have my whole heart. Taking Tony’s earlier unthinking dependence on Pepper and bringing it back in a healthy way, with limits and negotiation and emotional vulnerability, showing how much they’ve grown as a couple? Yes please!! 

6. regressor!Cullens, caregivers!Carlisle and Esme (Twilight)

I am such! a! sucker! for immortal beings finding a way to reclaim the concept of time and childhood. Carlisle and Esme canonically find a lot of value in being parents, and considering that they’re such a range of ages, I think that regression is a neat way to create that dynamic, and I just like big groups of regressors in a family and it scratches all of those interests in one!! 

7. regressor!Morty, flip!Rick (Rick and Morty) 

It’s the toxicity for me!!! I make no claims that this would be a good thing, but also I enjoy writing about the things that trigger Rick’s ‘oh shit I have feelings’ mode and you can’t tell me that regression would not key into that, both in his own experiences as a flip and then having to face it as part of Morty’s trauma. And Morty simultaneously trying to get away into independence but getting drawn back by Rick’s kindness in this single circumstance ties into all of the terrible themes of the show. 

8. regressor/caregiver flips Dean and Sam (Supernatural) 

Speaking of codependence, I cannot choose which of these boys is more symbolically resonant to have as a regressor, and both of them certainly have enough trauma to make it a viable coping mechanism. I think they have the art of balancing each other down to an art: especially in the early seasons, you can really see that process in the way they take turns being the Angry one. Writing about that balance in the context of regression is an interesting concept, and then the way that Dean relates to caregiving versus needing care, and Sam’s desperation to be the reliable one... it’s just a lot of tasty angst to play with alongside the sweet opportunity for a childhood without the war they were raised to fight. 

9. regressor!Erik, caregiver!Christine (Phantom of the Opera) 

Okay, this one is like ninety percent for the aesthetics, because you do need to do some handwaving over canon to make it fluffy. But Erik needs reparenting, and flipping the relationship from the original dynamic with Erik as a kind of father-figure is a nice way to reclaim the story from the original gothic maiden themes. 

10. regressor!Dave, caregiver!Roxy (Homestuck)

All hail my Ride Or Die regression dynamic!!! It’s basically canon and I stand by that! Dave called her mom and said that it feels nice to think of her as a mom because he had such a mixed experience with his own parental figure. And she’s got her own complicated feelings about parenthood and guardianship, but says that she likes it when Dave calls her mom, and it all just makes me very happy.  

This has been my TEDtalk on my favourite regression dynamics!! Thank you for coming!! 

[problems-exe]

Back again not following the character limit to ask YOU about pj and lux for the character opinion thang

This is going to be long, but I'm sure you expected that. I will say, some of my answers will probably be very similar to yours LMAO

Paperjam

First Impression:

I remember thinking their design was so cool, and immediately doing everything I could to research into the character. Sadly, I was 11, and didn't realize Tumblr would be the best place to do that so I saw some very not canon content of them on YouTube, but somehow got attached anyway.

Impression Now:

I'm still just as attached to PJ as I was when I was kid, even more so now with the knowledge of what PJ is actually like in canon. I love the little guy; he's such an angst-filled little shit. Tied with Lux in the top spot of being my favorite UTMV character.

Favorite Moment:

Struggled to answer this because there are so many good posts with him that it's hard to choose from. Ultimately, I'd probably have to choose the entire roleplay between @/7goodangel and @/cereusblue of how PJ and Omni met. It's really cute and really well written and it shows off both of their characters so well.

Idea For A Story:

There are so many I could write here, to just stick to one, any story with PJ being a parent is so awesome and cool. I want to see more of that!!! PJ being determined to raise his kid/kids better than how he was raised? That would be so cool to see. Make this guy a parent!!! He has a canon kid!!!! Include him in more stuff!!!!!

Unpopular Opinion:

Stealing what you wrote for this because I agree wholeheartedly. I do not personally like the concept of PJ and Fresh being a couple. It makes me wildly uncomfortable. I think their dynamic works much better as friends or with Fresh taking on an uncle role! That's just my opinion though. People are free to disagree.

Favorite Relationship:

Platonic: PJ with any of his siblings tbh. Especially PJ as a big sibling. It is something I enjoy seeing very much. PJ is just so sibling coded, guys. It's like he was meant to have one. Or multiple. Trust.

Romantic: I don't want to repeat myself too much, so I'll answer for one ship I really like with PJ and put the other in Lux's answers. I adore OmniPJ. The two of them are so cute, and I am obsessed with their dynamic. Starts sobbing thinking about them. They are so!!! It's definitely my favorite canon ship within the fandom. They are insanely underrated it makes me so sad. Omni is often disregarded, which SUCKS!!!!! They should not be separated!!!!!!!!!

Favorite Headcanon:

I think my favorite PJ headcanon is that he can purr. He is so creature coded to me and I love the idea. Guy that is bad at expressing himself and his subconscious gives away how he's feeling through purring. It's a really cute concept to me.

Lux

First Impression:

I think my first impression of her was that she was pretty but not super interesting. I enjoyed her from afar. I thought it was neat to see a fairly popular girl ship kid, given how male-dominated the characters in the fandom are.

Impression Now:

My baby darling angel girl, I love her so so much. She is the moon, stars, and sun in the sky. She is everything. She's my favorite character in the UTMV fandom, and I think she is severely underrated. I would die and kill for her.

I'm so normal about her can you tell

Favorite Moment:

I generally try to ignore a lot of her canon content because most of it is just silly or weird, but there is one moment I like from her original comic. I think the moment when she was a baby and fed jam to help calm her down was cute. That's like. Pretty much the only thing I can remember having a soft spot for in that comic.

Idea For A Story:

There is so much unused potential with this girlie it's insane. I could ramble about a lot here but I'll just mention one story concept I particularly enjoy. Anything with Lux becoming corrupted like Nightmare is so fun to mess with to me. The symbism and angst go crazyyyy.

Unpopular Opinion:

Repeating one of your points, but I cannot imagine Lux dating a man ever. That girl is a lesbian, and nothing you could say to me would convince me otherwise. No hate towards people who ship her with men, of course; it's just something I personally am not a fan of. As far as I'm aware she was never given a canon sexuality, so it doesn't really matter at the end of the day, but she will always be a lesbian in my eyes.

Favorite Relationship:

Platonic: I blame @/bluepr1ntyy for this, but the dynamic between her and Raven is everything to me. They have literally never interacted in any canon setting but I do not care they are canon best friends to me.

Romantic: Man. I wonder. Yeah, it's FireColor/PJ and Lux. They are. So important to me. The painter and the poet. They are eachother's muses. I just love the idea of them together so so much. They are so in love guys, trust. Also adore her with Omni. They are literally so cute. And the three of them together? That is everything to me.

Favorite Headcanon:

My favorite headcanon is that she likes baking. I really adore the idea of her making pastries for her loved ones, for events, for anything she can make an excuse to bake for. The idea is just so soft and sweet to me. It's just, ugh, I love it so much.