#whether i factor in my own little headcanons for him or not he’s so just so hhhfnfhfhnf

[kabingo]

like clockwork, aaron is on my mind and i am drawing him like an anime girl

[americankimchi]

Do you have any tips for writing Obi Wan or any meta in mind with his characterizarion?

hmmm sure why not! i'll give a few tips on how i'd write obi-wan. mind you this is how i interpret the character, so ymmv.

i truly do not like it when fics have obi-wan voluntarily leaving the order. like it's so out-of-character for me in my head that the premise of the story + the writing would have to work triple-time to get me to stick around. now if he's been removed from it by an EXTERNAL SOURCE (not the order. i cannot stress this enough: the jedi kicking obi-wan out is so jarring to me i'll leave the fic in an instant) or somehow unable to return to the order for whatever reason, all is well.

not a prodigy, but a genius. obi-wan is an incredibly intelligent person with an absolutely staggering knowledge base in a wide variety of topics, but all that knowledge was earned through blood, sweat, tears, and time. he sat down with his game face on and put in the work. that's also why he makes an excellent teacher: he knows what most students will struggle with because he struggled too, and knows through experience how best to overcome them. i headcanon that it contributes to why he's such a good negotiator: he's really good at stripping down information to the essentials and communicating that information effectively and efficiently to others because of his intense study habits.

humble, but not ignorant of his skills. it's pretty impossible to fully divorce yourself from pride in your achievements, and i don't think it's healthy to not feel any pride at all, so i think obi-wan has a very clear understanding of his skillset and how best to use it. i don't think he'd be ignorant of how good he is at something, especially since the direct consequence of his aptitude led him to being a member of the jedi council. pretty hard to be blind to your strengths when you're being asked for your input on topics that directly draw from that knowledge.

averse to healthcare. listen i enjoy obi-wan whump just as much as the next obi-wan stan (the desire to put him in the cosmic salad spinner comes with the territory, i fear) but as a character who grew up in an environment that deeply cares for the well-being of all, and knowing that you cannot help others unless you yourself first have the ability to do so, i can't really see him ignoring injuries outside of combat scenarios. like on the battlefield he's got more pressing concerns than a pesky little shrapnel wound or five, but once the battle's over?? he might not be first in line to the medics but i can't see him avoiding them entirely. an army without a general is working at a sharp disadvantage and i don't think he'd risk his men by neglecting his physical health in that manner. note that i said 'physical'. make of that what you will :)

duty. obi-wan is the definition of a paladin. he takes an oath and by the force he's going to keep it. train the boy? absolutely, qui-gon. whether or not anakin chooses to respect that training is another matter, but he did definitively get knighted! refuse to kill anakin? listen he's handed vader his own ass to him twice post order 66 and each time he did it he did it nonlethally. that takes skill. that takes dedication. exile yourself to tatooine for 19 years and then decide fuck it, we ball, and die after Once Again Deciding Not To Kill Anakin Skywalker? step aside casper, there's a new friendly ghost in town. every time obi-wan commits to something the man COMMITS. you GOTTA respect that grind.

flirty but in the sense that he's going to match the energy someone brings to the table. like he's a negotiator. he knows how to read people and figure out the Vibes. if he thinks the other person will be 1) 100% receptive and 2) will respond with a delightful wit, why the hell not? obi-wan's highest stat is charisma and he's got expertise in persuasion. whether they're allies or not does not factor into this equation. he can have a little flirtation with morally dubious and potentially hostile characters. as a treat.

this has nothing to do with his character but i firmly believe that he and quinlan vos had at LEAST a fling when they were padawans. there is zero evidence to back this up aside from a few comics where they were being goofy teenagers together but i stand by this. it is an unshakeable aspect of obi-wan to me that has only gotten worse with the kenobi show.

no matter what, no matter how terrible or devastating or downright apocalyptic it gets, obi-wan kenobi will never fall to the dark side. never. it won't be easy, but that is a line he has never, and will never cross. i will not hear any "obi-wan touched the dark side during the theed generator fight" slander. if that was true tell me why the force theme was playing during his moment of triumph!!! Would John Williams Lie To Us Like That?? to our face?????

anyways i could go on forever about obi-wan because he is My Ultimate Blorbo but this post is getting super long so i'll leave it there. hope this helped even a little or at the very least was entertaining for you to read <3

[sweet-as-an-angel]

Just hear me out,

Wild west outlaw König.

That's all ,please and thank you❤️

P.s I love love love your work and you inspire me so much more than words can express,so thank you so much

Wild West Outlaw König Headcanons

Warnings: Outlaw König, König Kills People, Obsessive König, König (DEEP) in Love, Looting, Kidnapping, Implied Smut, Non-Explicit Descriptions of Smut, Dominant König, Submissive König, Mention of Ghost, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Petnames, No Pronouns used for Reader except ‘You.

A/N: Thank you so much for your kind words, my lovely ! Your kind words have touched my heart, and I hope your creative endeavours flourish <3

Man owns a pair of handcuffs and KNOWS how to use them.

Let’s work on the assumption that he kidnapped you.

Perhaps you were already partially romantically involved but your family would never let you marry someone like König, so he stages a robbery and takes you as part of the ransom.

One he has no intention of accepting any payment for because he’s never letting you go.

König’s monstrous proportions make it easy for him to physically overpower aggressors – other bandits, outlaws, authority figures.

However, he does pose something of a hazard to himself because there’s (much) more of him to hit.

Luckily, he’s straight out of a situation the minute it gets sticky – as if he just disappears into thin air.

Just one of the reasons why he’s called the Phantom Outlaw.

Not to be confused with Ghost, who is also an outlaw but never leaves a trace (or a witness), making his reputation far more ghoulish than König’s.

Though, König does excel in the fear factor, his sheer size and notoriety – his trenchcoat and mask the very visage of Death – forcing everyone who sees him to relinquish their goods in exchange for their lives.

Speaking of, König’s ability to swing thousands in cash makes for a happy home life, given how he spends much of his fortune on you.

Clothes, jewels, literature, instruments, automobiles: you name it, you’ve got at least a treasure trove of each.

Even if you try to resist these gifts, König refuses to let up.

“Can’t have my precious little Engel going without, can I ?”

So, in return, you typically handle all the chores, though König insists you don’t have to.

“It’s not like we can hire a maid to do it for us, can we ?” you tell him. “Especially not when there’s a handsome bounty on that even more handsome head of yours.”

Said bounty is what makes it difficult for the two of you to stay in one place for too long.

And whenever you move, you always try to make the house a safe space for König.

Blankets in his favourite chair, his favourite meal on the table for him whenever you know he’s going to have a rough day, a bit of fun before bed, etc.

You can tell whenever he feels really comfortable, because he takes up three quarters of the bed, just sprawled out like a rapidly growing infection.

And you always fit neatly against his side. Or on his chest.

König calls you his “Little bunny” (or “Bun-Bun”) because of how small you look when you’re nuzzled into his chest.

He never takes you, or anything you do, for granted.

You don’t know this (so keep this a secret between you and I) but König watches you when you sleep. More than you’d think.

Truth be told, the outlaw life terrifies him.

Sure, he has the swagger and the notoriety to make off with thousands in gold, jewels, and lavish material items, but, really, his greatest, most prized treasure is you.

There is only one of you. You cannot be bought, or replicated, or found in the wild like an ore of purest diamond.

Simply put, König’s success is entirely down to the fact that he can’t be caught lacking.

If he ever was to, he knows he’d lose you. Whether you’re taken by a stray bullet in a shoot-out or your town’s rangers come to tear you from his cold, lifeless grip, König takes every precaution to circumvent these tragedies by remaining the fastest hand in the west. And the most ruthless.

Even for an outlaw, his kill count is exceedingly high.

And it’s no coincidence that the numbers began to climb after he met you. Fell in love with you.

People who he’s seen giving you lecherous stares, or those he can sense have poor intentions, he’s taken them out the back and absolved the world of their presence.

And, at the end of every excursion, every execution, every haul, the weight of the world falls from König’s shoulders as he comes back to you.

He takes his mask down around you, hangs his hat upon the coat rack. You’re the only person who he shows his face to.

But, whenever you can tell a fragment of the day resides pinned in his mind, shrapnel of his self-inflicted lifestyle, you make sure to service him before bed.

How he likes to be serviced can change on a day-to-day basis. He’s not fussy.

The only thing that changes is whether he wants to be handled by you or if he wants to slam you into the pillows.

Possessive sex <333.

“Tell me you love me,” he rasps into your ear, pinning you to the mattress with his body, making escape an impossibility to you. “Tell me I’m the only one that will ever have you like this,”

As stated previously; he has a pair of handcuffs and knows how to use them.

Or, if they’re too far out of reach and he needs you bound now, he’ll use rope. Or even just his hands.

Eye contact. The whole time.

It’s as if a different person inhabits him when he gets like this; something dark and jagged, no mere demon, possesses his form. And, by extension, yours.

König’s not stopping until you’re full, he’s empty, and he’s confident you’re not leaving the house for the next few days.

But, when König is feeling fragile, he lets you take the lead.

Just lies back while you’re on top of him, calling him your “Good boy”, “my Prince”, “my protector,” – anything that reaffirms that he holds a great deal of importance in your life.

More often than not, he ends up with tears in his eyes.

Nobody has ever been so gentle and loving towards him as you have. And coupled with how you’re taking him slowly, taking the time to make sure you’re hitting all bases and he’s thoroughly loved, sends him over the edge.

Kiss his tears away and his soul leaves his body.

It’s times like these that, more than anything, König wants a simple life. A paroxysmal desire to lead an ordinary existence where the two of you can live together happily, without the threat of being chased out of town every few months.

And, maybe, one day, even have a family together.

Until then, König will continue to dream, to give you a lifestyle of sapphires and gold and every delicacy the human mind can conjure.

And whenever he looks at you before he leaves, he sees his good luck charm, the light at the end of his tunnel. And, most importantly, the embodiment of love itself.

Reblog for more content like this! It helps creators like myself tremendously and it is greatly appreciated :-)

Masterlist Masterlist [Continued] Masterpost Modern Warfare AI Masterlist

AO3 Wattpad

[three-realms-archive]

The Three Realms Archive: Masterlist and Rules!

Welcome to the Three Realms Archive, where you can find stories about the beings that reside in the Three Realms and beyond! Whether it be stories of the Avatars of Sin, the students of Prince Diavolo’s RAD exchange programme, or of the incredible human who became sorcerer under the tutelage of the Wise Sorcerer and Master of the Seven Rulers of the Underworld… You can find their stories here!

Atmospheric introduction aside, welcome to this side blog for writing to do with Obey Me! And Obey Me! Nightbringer. These will most likely be bits and pieces that come to me when they come.

My ideas inbox is currently open (use the ‘Ideas Here!’ tab to send them), but please read the rules below first!!!

This blog is new, so bear with me whilst I work on aesthetics and getting started on writing/uploading some stuff I've written :D

Rules and masterlist under the cut:

Rules and Considerations

Please be kind and respectful to each other!

For personal reasons, this is a non-NSFW blog. Please do not suggest NSFW in the ideas box beyond slightly suggestive - any requests like this will be ignored. I will do my best to place content warnings where I think it's needed.

The ideas inbox is called such because you can be as vague as you want - even a single word. However, it is also called this because they are ideas and - depending on various factors like my schedule, how inspired I am, and how much certain ideas inspire me to write - there is no guarantee I write for every idea, or the same amount for every idea. Thank you for understanding in advance :D

I’m a fairly new OBM player, so if anything I write is contrary to the canon, please let me know and I can add a note or rectify it. Most of these are meant to be “imagine the character in this situation” and my personal interpretation.

Have fun!

Masterlist

🌟Inspired by an ideas inbox request!

Oneshot Fics

Checking In: The House of Lamentation family check into a human-world hotel.

Beware MC, the Kind: Sorcerer MC is gaining a reputation similar to that of their teacher, Solomon the Wise. But for what reasons?

Let's Form an Idol Group: Will Asmo's next attempt at making his brothers into a boy band succeed? (This one has a cute commenting challenge - please check it out!)

Dramatic Drama: Telenovelas can be very emotionally-investing for demons.

🌟A Small, Little Lie: TSL Arranged Marriage! AU. The sentence "I love you" means very different things to the Lord of Masks and his spouse and former-knight, Henry.

Love Me, Or Not: Satan pulls on flower petals, hoping to get the same result you did.

Was Never Your First, After All: A childhood friend visits you and Mammon realises ‘first man’ doesn’t suit him much anymore.

First Dates: A collection of first date thoughts from each Avatar of Sin.

Short Snippets

Ante Up: Mammon finds he's a lot more motivated to win quickly when he's at the casino with you.

The RAD School Play: Ideas about MC’s role in a school play at RAD.

Six Pillows and a Tattered Armchair: An angsty (ref. to Lesson 16) accompaniment to ‘Beel is Pillow’, exploring Belphie’s relationship with sleep in the aftermath of his actions.

The RAD Cheer Squad: 2, 4, 6, 8 - who do we appreciate? … Probably not whoever came up with the RAD Cheer Squad.

What Is Up, Fellow Celestials?: Luke finds this one human really, really cool. MC and Simeon suffer the consequences.

Just Wanting To Be Included: Mammon and Beel post a FabSnap video, but their brother just wants to be included.

Debuting Change: Diavolo invites a special guest to a special occasion.

Just A Study: Solomon tries to convince himself that living with you was just a study. Spoilers for Nightbringer Lesson 40!

Relent: Belphie has a super, super smart plan to get you to cuddle in bed with him.

A Rainy Day Indulgence: Simeon dances with you in the rain, and it reminds him of something.

Headcannons

Unhinged™: A bunch of silly headcanons that could each be their own anime episodes. Chaotic things the OBM! cast have done. Inspired by this post by @leniisreallycool.

Series

Beel is Anything, If You Beel-ieve

A very unserious collection of slice-of-life snippets, where Beel goes on a journey to become as many things as possible.

Beel is Pillow: Beel is pillow.

Beel is Paint: Beel is paint, according to Asmo.

Beel is Anime: Beel is anime, and Levi is not okay with this.

🌟 Scars, Wounds and Minor Inconveniences

A series exploring slice-of-life snapshots of the Obey Me! characters in the aftermath of Lesson 16. Each chapter is made up of two posts: a oneshot centred around one of MC's scars, wounds or minor inconveniences; and a post with the general headcanons inspiring the oneshot. Features references to injury and spoilers for Lesson 16 of OG Obey Me!.

Phantom Pain (Oneshot + Headcannons): Mammon is used to your 'needles-thing' by now. He doesn't mind it. After all, he has his own things he does every now and again.

A Weak Wrist (Oneshot + Headcannons): Your wrist is still weak from the TSL Quiz; so Lucifer doesn’t understand why you trust Leviathan more.

Nightmares (Oneshot + Headcannons): Belphegor relishes you and Beel growing further apart... until he doesn't, when Beel's dreams change.

Splintered Arms and a New Bedtime Routine (Oneshot + Headcannons - Coming Soon!): The angels are confused at the weird routine you and Beel have before bedtime during a sleepover at Purgatory Hall.

Better, Quicker Reflexes (Oneshot + Headcannons - Coming Soon!): Lucifer used to think his form of discipline was effective.

[mamawasatesttube]

core four for the hc ask game! (or if that’s too many, just cassie please) 💜

i will simply do core four as a collective!! ♥

Headcanon A:  realistic

kon is the dog they put in with the cheetahs to keep them from going fucking insane. tim cassie and bart are the cheetahs.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious

they all imprinted on nightwing like ducklings and tim cant decide whether to be smug or mad about it. on the one hand, hell yeah nightwing is the coolest!!! do you wanna join his nightwing fanclub he's president and everyone can have matching t-shirts. on the other hand. guys stop it he's not actually cool i've seen him eat cold pizza off the floor. guys this is cringe. guys that's MY big brother stop stealing him. dick those are MY besties stop stealing them. GUYS...

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends

tim and cassie have to work through their shiny brand-new extreme anxiety complexes around kon and bart being on the field again after their resurrections. bart actually gets a little upset with them both for being overprotective, at one point. (this is canon to an extent in that it is a factor in the koncassie breakup, but i think we can do more with it!)

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own.

they are all in their 20s at this point. the first year she actually got a job, cassie realized she had no idea what she was doing and freaked out and phoned up tim like "HOW DO I FILE TAXES????" and he got so excited to do them for her that it broke through her mild panic because hey. tim? what's wrong with you. he says its just satisfying to see the numbers all line up.

[leliwardens]

reddit source: 1 / 2

Really wanted to throw my own thoughts in on this whole thing before release since it's good talking point. Under the cut because it's long.

I think the OP of the thread is correct, there are a lot of factors that I'm sure lead to this. I really doubt the devs if they had actual choices they would of cut caring over worldstates. Solas's story not being finished is also correct, romance or no he clearly was the hook for the next game.

This all being said, sorry, once they involved The Inquisitor as a returning character that removes the closure for them and their romance. There needs to be attention and car given to that, now that that door is open. And relevant to this specific topic is this post:

...pardon my French but motherfucker what do you MEAN? So, the answer is...not even making it a choice? Epler your own words were "not to invalidate worldstates"! You literally have ONLY an option for a Bull who betrayed The Qun in Veilguard??? Killing him in a romance IS a valid ending, it has a slide and unique dialogue! It's not like a breakup with other LIs, this was built in and is not invalidated now? They could pull some switcheroo ala Leliana I guess for whatever reason and bring him back, but even then the CC says betrayed The Qun, which isn't what he does if you have to kill him, so it's still making it invalid.

And not only that, why would Bull's death matter after this game? It only matters in it because you're literally dealing with his potential partner/friend/coworker that killed him, and he is not notable outside that person, from both a character and player standpoint. Bull is just a Qunari, a good one, but it's not like he's a world leader or established person outside his role in the Inquisition, so his death matters little outside this context.

Not even to mention you literally get this exact set up with Hawke if they romanced Anders and killed him, it's one line but still means something!

Which all of this to me is just saying it doesn't matter.

And to circle back to the other topic in the thread is the returning characters and writing. I think it is bad faith to take those as anything but a joke, but I also think it is in rather poor taste and was kind of shitty to say after the news about limited choices LEAKED, not revealed, LEAKED.

Even in the best case where no one went over the line with anger or yelling or death threats (not sure if these actually happened, just a hypothetical), why would they think this would be taken with anything but disappointment? Ik the wider customerbase of any game are ones that don't really engage with fandom just play the game and that's it, but the ones that do engage with the fandom and the game on a deeper level would be the same ones impacted by this decision and see these posts...? I dunno, it rubs me the wrong way. :/

I'm also unsure what joke is to be understood with bringing up Alistair specifically? He's untouchable post-Origins in all but Warden!Alistair in Inquisition. This also really isn't...the norm either? The worst you can do to Leliana is not do her personal quest, you can't even kill her or Zevran in DA2. You can ruin Cullen's life in Inquisition but it's a choice and honestly a "bad/evil" one all things considered.

I welcome returning characters and furthering their arc/story, whether it be happy, tragic, etc. That was a highlight of this franchise. But then I had a thought and checked Here Lies the Abyss and...

Ah well, explains a lot. I think the wrong lessons were taken from the concrit people had about this, presumably Hawke, personally I had no issues but that's me. So I guess the answer to that was still bring back a previous MC and companions just have no influence over them with worldstate choices...?

(And a quick sidebar, anyone can headcanon completely against canon no matter what happens just the same as you can if nothing happens. That's the power of ~imagination~.)

I'm still not sure what the takeaway from any of this was intended to be. I'm for sure keeping the best faith but this was still pretty souring to me overall.

I've gone into detail about many other aspects of this general situation so I'll cut it off here to avoid repeating myself.

[cluescorner]

Little Bits I got from the hangout (Spoilers for Kaeya’s Hangout)

-------------------

Things in parentheses are my own thoughts rather than canon stuff. 

- Kaeya is a very kind person at his core. Both to those he loves and total strangers. 

- So many people love Kaeya. From the staff at the Winery to the KoF to the citizenry of Mond to mild acquaintances to total strangers, Kaeya is truly loved by those around him. 

- The KoF are all co-parenting Klee together, though they disagree a bit on exactly HOW to parent her. 

- Kaeya is a great schemer but he TERRIBLE at coming up with fake names (Albert Rich...really?)

- Kaeya was a very shy child while Diluc was rambunctious. Diluc would get them into trouble and Kaeya would go along with whatever Diluc wanted. (I hope that we get a bit more of their dynamic when they were younger explored and that we see more of what Diluc did to be a good brother to Kaeya)

- The entire winery loves Kaeya. Not just Adelinde, not just Adelinde and Elzer. Everyone. They watched him grow up into the man he is today and they consider him a member of the family. 

- Adelinde has covered for Diluc and Kaeya’s antics in the past. (probably why she’s so adept at covering for Diluc’s darknight hero stuff.)

- Tunner knew that something bothered young Kaeya, that there was some sort of deep-rooted issue that it’s implied Kaeya never talked to them about. (If Tunner knew, it is very likely that others at the Winery knew that this kid had TRAUMA. My guess is that at some point somebody brought it up to Crepus, who had noticed something similar, and he then asked Kaeya about it. Whether Kaeya confessed at that point...IDK)

- Klee is the cutest thing to ever exist and she loves Kaeya so much (that is not opinion, it is fact). 

- Kaeya sometimes forgets which lie he has told to a person before and uses it twice. Diluc WILL call him out on this, before inevitably capitulating to whatever Kaeya asks. (Standard older sibling behavior, you put up a fuss but ultimately you will do literally anything to make them happy. It’s why I think Diluc is the older of the two, even if Kaeya also has many older sibling traits). 

- Kaeya got sick fairly often as a child, but has grown up to be healthier. Adelinde took good care of him whenever that happened. (Chronically ill Kaeya truthers rise up! Also, he was probably sickly because of a few factors: not having the immune system for Mond’s diseases, probably living in the Abyss, probably having malnutrition, he was abandoned in the MIDDLE OF A STORM, and because winters in Mond are harsh).

- Adelinde knows exactly how Kaeya likes his food.

- Adelinde cares a lot about how maids are supposed to behave, but only on the surface level. If Kaeya can word something correctly, she’ll happily capitulate. 

- Kaeya knows a lot about the winery business. (Supports my personal headcanon that Kaeya was supposed to take over the Winery’s business after Crepus’s death, but then the fight happened). 

- Kaeya loves to act and would consider doing it full-time. He is also apparently very good at it (wow shocker. Boy who was raised as a child-spy and is constantly lying is good at acting.)

- While onstage, Kaeya is allergic to subtlety. (I love this. 10/10, throw off the shackles of destiny and toss a prop into the audience). 

- Kaeya doesn’t like to bask in the glory of the good things he does, sneaking out just as songwriting preparations are getting good (Kaeya is also fairly shy at his core, but the persona he’s formed won’t allow for that). 

- Kaeya is known to be thoughtful and is a good gift-giver. 

- Venti wholeheartedly accepts Kaeya as a child of Mondstadt, considers him a friend, and wants to see him throw off the shackles fate placed upon him. (I actually liked Venti a lot this hangout. We get to see him be silly but also wise, understand how he feels about the whole ‘worshipping Barbatos’ thing, and watch him encourage the creativity of others. Plus, imo this hangout basically confirms that Venti 100% knows about Kaeya’s predicament and more than anything wants to see that Kaeya is happy and cared for in Mondstadt). 

- (Kaeya at least suspects that Venti is Barbatos. The way the english VA acted things was a little too pointed to seem like genuine lack of knowledge about Venti’s identity.)

- Barbara cares about family the most, to the point that she will suggest that over even the worship of Barbatos himself (this is unsurprising, but also very sad considering how rarely she and Jean get to interact as sisters). 

- Diona will sing hymns about fish-related foods and Venti 100% supports singing about that over Barbatos (also unsurprising). 

- Diluc CAN AND WILL kill anyone who harasses his staff (somebody please draw fanart of Diluc fucking bumrushing poor Captain Wu to defend the maids, the image is simultaneously sweet and HILARIOUS). 

[keets-writing-corner]

One thing I noticed is that Lucifer doesn't disassociate when singing, and what's one common factor in his songs? Charlie, so I like to imagine that in these instances he's so focused on her that his depression temporarily takes a back seat because he loves his kid so much that he forgets why he's sad in the first place.

ooh I like your headcanons!

hmm I guess we could look at this a couple of different ways (some of what I'm about to say comes from personal experience which may be different than what some other people experience so idk feel free to agree or disagree with my musings)

So dissociation doesn't [technically] affect your ability to speak, it affects your ability to focus. The way I was talking about it in my analysis was that it nerfed Lucifer's conversation comprehension, with him being unable to follow along the entire time (and consequently either has NO idea what anyone is talking about or only gets half the picture).

The only times Lucifer really fumbles his words is when he gets nervous around Charlie either cuz he's trying to make a good impression

Or when he realizes his depression is biting him in the ass and he just missed crucial pieces of information and cannot bluff his way through the conversation

Although shout out to that one time we caught him realizing he needed to bluff and stumbled a little

But otherwise, he articulates himself perfectly fine, cuz again, dissociation isn't about speaking ability so much as it is about focus. Even in my bouts of dissociation I can verbalize myself just fine for the most part, it's whether or not what I have to say is relevant to the conversation, which uh Lucifer also showed off at some point when he thought Charlie was asking him about the hotel's appearance rather than her actual plan to redeem sinners and comments on the railings. (Or idk there is another interpretation that he was avoiding the subject, maybe it was both he disassociated while Charlie was explaining everything to him but did catch that she wanted to redeem sinners at some point, but didn't quite understand what she was asking until she clarified? he didn't seem surprised when she did clarify so I'm assuming he ended up catching it at least once)

So I'm bringing this up because it ends up being kinda hard to tell whether or not he is or is not disassociating when he sings, cuz the dissociation wouldn't affect the singing at all.

When he's having a sing battle against Alastor, sure he's articulating himself well and presenting his points, but we don't actually know whether or not he's following along what Alastor is saying. Honestly, Lucifer vs Alastor just seemed like 2 territorial chickens yelling at each other trying to be louder than the other one. Maybe Lucifer is catching everything cuz his jealous and rage helped him focus for once, maybe he's not catching everything but he doesn't need to catch everything to know that he doesn't like Alastor and he doesn't need to focus to tell Alastor how much he dislikes him.

But what about the other two songs, "More than Anything" and "Finale"?

He is technically outright having a conversation with Charlie in the first one and in the second one, he seems fully aware of the context of the situation and is focusing more on a lifting spirits role

Well it could be a lot of things I think. I don't think it's that the depression or the sadness took a back seat, that's still present. From my own experiences, it is possible to get yourself to focus in a dissociative episode when the subject matter is something you're passionate about or in Lucifer's case, someone that he loves. We know the dissociation was unfortunately strong enough that it was making him miss out on a lot of things Charlie (aforementioned loved one) was telling him, especially in the beginning.

But looking at "More than Anything" what changed in that scene? He was with Charlie the entire episode but that was the first scene where he really managed to hold a conversation. I think it was a combination of: Okay his baby girl is there and she NEEDS him, and he opens up as to why he's hesitant about her plan. He's not explicit with the mention of his trauma, but trauma does make someone more alert. I'd also like to give a special shout out to @in-fair-verona-we-set-our-scene who made these lovely tags on my analysis post

Specifically, I want to talk about that they mention that Lucifer is being a lot more genuine in his song with Charlie, aka he's not masking. He's not trying to hide or bluff how he's doing. He's not putting on a show, he's not being goofy or larger than life, he's being genuine and his genuine self is tired, sad and resigned. Let me tell you, my dissociation is 100% worse when I'm masking.

I think in "More Than Anything" a mix of things are going on, he's not needing to mask for a minute which boosts the focus, he's opening up about trauma and it's being gently received which boosts focus, and he's talking to someone he loves about something he was once passionate about which boosts focus. So ye! It could entirely be that in that song he was not dissociating!

As far as "Finale" I legitimately can't really tell whether or not he is? He's not really having a conversation with anyone, he's just trying to uplift his daughter, and again, in my experiences, dissociation doesn't necessarily nerf your ability to speak. We also know that he knows how to put on a show even in the depths of the dissociation like in "Hell's Greatest Dad" soooo as for that song... -shrug-?????

There is an element here that we have to take into account. Hazbin Hotel is a traditional musical, so we must look at a theater saying, "When the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing." Which is more or less what happened in all the songs Lucifer was a part in, so there's definitely some meta technical things going on in that a song wouldn't be very dramatic if the person singing it was dissociating the whole time? I mean I guess it could be done, I've just never seen it? Usually the musical number has to be clear in its purpose. The protagonist of Dear Even Hansen can sing just fine when any other speaking parts he fumbles with his words a lot.

AAAAAAALLL of this to say: Does Lucifer stop disassociating when he sings? -shrugs- I think it really depends on the context, but I wouldn't at all be surprised cuz high emotion can lead to greater focus in a moment. Although it's really cute to think that he doesn't dissociate cuz singing with Charlie is just that much of a boost for him cuz he loves his wittle girl

[winterweary]

How does aging work in Obey Me?

This is my personal headcanon for how aging works in the Devildom and Celestial Realm.

When an angel or demon is "born" they don't have an initial humanoid form. They start as an amorphous ball of light or darkness (I SWEAR I read this in a Devilgram but I also could have totally made that up). As these spirits gain a sense of self and identity, they eventually take a shape that pleases them, most often humanoid. This shift from light or darkness into a solid figure is considered their 'birth'. This is why Beel and Belphie being considered twins is unusual. It's not rare for spirits to exist at the same time but it is rare to transition into physical form together at the same moment.

Age from that point on is not based on the passage of time but rather how developed their power is. More powerful demons often gain control over their power more quickly, and so spend very little time appearing as children. The growth from child to adolescent may take decades of Earth time or centuries depending on a number of factors. This is also why the brothers refer to themselves as older or younger, despite the fact that their ranking is primarily power based.

When Angels or Demons reach a certain outward age, they usually choose to linger where they feel most physically comfortable, whether that means the vibe they give off, physical characteristics and abilities, or the age at which they feel the most attractive or imposing.

For example, Lucifer chooses an older visage than his brothers for several reasons. One, he is older than them in the sense his spirit has existed longer. Two, it makes him feel more refined and at the right moments, imposing. Three, he likes to make sure his brothers note how many grey hairs they've given him.

This also explains how Satan's birth worked. When he split from Lucifer and fell with him, he went through several changes very quickly. Even though he was a new spirit, he carried with him an echo of Lucifer's power and experience which enabled him to gain control very quickly and take on his chosen form. If you want for fun HC moments however, you can believe like I do that his first couple months in the castle with the brothers were spent shifting from different ages without much control as he struggled to get a handle on existing. They would be reading a pouty baby Satan stories one night then dealing with a full grown tantrum the next.

I like this theory because it solves several narrative problems for me:

1.The issue of how time passes. I already believe that time passes differently in the spiritual realms than on Earth, but this method of 'aging' allows for some leeway in how we interpret ages and times in the story. Us going back in time in Nightbringing and finding brothers who take the same form makes sense if their physical form isn't entirely based on the passage of time.

2. It makes their birth order relevant in both terms of power and how they as spiritual beings interpret their ages.

3. It gives you an excuse to write all sorts of fics where the boys are kiddos and Lucifer or Mammon (or any bigger bro) is taking care of them. Or excuse to write Satan as a kiddo even if he was considered 'full grown' at birth. That's just plain fun.

4. It explains Luke. He's still learning how to develop his powers, which is why his been trusted to Simeon. As he continues to expand his capabilities, he'll eventually be able to age out of his current childlike form, but it's a passage that may take a long time.

5. It gives you freedom to interpret timeline without getting lost in details.

ANYWAY these are just my thoughts based on hints in the narrative and my own personal theories.

[st-danger]

Happy your surgery went well, Saint! And a little selfishly excited to see how completely unhinged a Saint on weed AND narcotics is. You write kinks that would usually be a hard pass for me, but I always finish them thinking “what the fuck” while simultaneously propping up a wet floor sign and calling for a cleanup on aisle me.

Do you have any unhinged thoughts to share on Dew getting rimmed to within an inch of his life?

OH I HAVE LOTS OF THOUGHTS ABOUT DEW GETTING RIMMED. Firstly...

Surgery went very well, the easiest, most positive surgical experience I've ever had (and I've had a handful of surgeries, so this was a treat). Thank you for the well wishes!

If you see this, I'm super curious as to what those kinks are? If it's stuff like piss, I think that's a kink that's layered, if that makes sense. For some people, it's the fluid itself, but the psychological aspect, whether it's release or embarrassment... kinks are interesting things to explore.

AND YEAH DEW RIMMING LET'S FUCKING GO I'M TOASTED ON THESE PAIN MEDS RIGHT NOW.

It's always been my personal headcanon that Dew loves the way it feels but it makes him feel vulnerable in a way that he struggles with, and the struggle itself is a strange turn-on, too. But I also think that varies a little with who's eating him.

Also- regardless of how good it feels, the mental anguish of it, the misery, makes him struggle to stay hard the whole time. It may feel amazing, his body might l o v e it, but it's difficult to get out of his own head. He's fine rimming others, but when it's his turn...

Swiss and Dew have a very power play heavy dynamic. The purpose of Swiss demanding Dew present himself and spread his own cheeks open for Swiss is to cause pleasure, obviously, but to really lay into the shame factor. Continue to make him feel exposed and nervous, put him in a position where he feels like he can't hide. Talk to him about it and let him know what a pretty hole he has, while Dew pushes his face into the bed to hide his blush while Swiss makes a big deal of it.

Aether, though they do play rough sometimes, Aether is the only one Dew tells he loves them regularly. He loves all of his pack mates, but him and Aether are bonded in a really unique way. And Aether will take him on his back, fold his legs up, and eat him slow and sloppy and lets Dew cry it out without calling him on it. Just a long, flat tongue lapping over, twitching against the stimulation. Licking him without worrying if Dew's cock is hard or not. Just for the sake of making him shiver and blush and beg Aether for...more? Less? It renders him a little insensate.

Rain demands Dew sit on his face for it, digging his fingers into Dew's cheeks just this side of painful, and listens to the shocked gasps while he tongues him. Rain wants to make him feel good, but he likes the overwhelm it brings Dew. Nobody is actually possessive, but it's Rain's goal to make Dew feel useless and owned by him. After all- Rain's underneath him. Dew could clamber off whenever he wants, right? Nothing's stopping him. He's shaking and scrubbing his hands over his chest and whining that Rain's mouth is too much, it feels so good but Rain, oh, he can't. He can't push his tongue in like that, he can't-

And yet.

[penig]

a question of power, Pt 1

"Hastur was a Duke of Hell. Crowley wasn't even a local counsellor." Good Omens, the Book, 1990, p. 186 of my (apparently 1st edition, 1st printing, sweet; too bad the dust jacket's so torn up) hardback copy.

This is probably the only definitive statement concerning Crowley and Aziraphale's power levels we will ever get. Between Gaiman and Pratchett's cavalier attitude toward worldbuilding and the ineffable accounting of supernatural powers that human minds can't properly conceive, we're on our own quantifying this stuff. Certainly anything we figure out now may be confirmed or contradicted or cast in an entirely new light when we finally have the entire story in front of us.

Will this stop us from trying before we get all the data in hand? No, of course not.

Personally, I only care insofar as it relates to characterization, but to some people it matters a lot. And Crowley looks a lot more powerful than a local counsellor, on the face of it, in the video adaptation. (Which is where the "Crowley was Raphael" headcanon comes from. Personally, I despise that headcanon, but you do you.) Whereas Aziraphale often comes across as barely powerful at all, and reluctant to use what power he has.

This is unsatisfactory for those of us who want equality between partners. And we want to be satisfied with the story, don't we? So let's look at what we've got and examine the ways we can justify seeing them as equals, and where that gets us.

First, and most obviously: Crowley can stop time. That seems really powerful, and we don't see anyone else do it - which doesn't mean nobody else can. The way we see it used, however, implies that it's not something other angels and demons are accustomed to. Crowley stops time as Satan comes up through the ground, even though Satan is presumably more powerful than he and Aziraphale put together by several factors. So either he expects Satan not to notice it's happening, or he expects the effect to stop when Satan notices and acts to end it. Crowley also stops time when they swap bodies and checks to see whether anyone's looking, the implication being that it's not a showy power, that unless someone in the know is looking straight at the phenomenon, they aren't likely to notice it.

What if stopping time is a specialist skill? What if it's a power routinely used only by starmakers? In fact -

In the S2E1 teaser, we see Crowley crank up the new nebula to start it running. What if what he's doing there is not just powering the nebula itself, but initiating time in that area of space, to give all the processes the room they need to happen? What if that's his role, or part of his role, among starmakers - not building stars, directly, but starting time for them, or switching them over from the outside-of-time angelic workshop to the material plane where time runs? What if he's one of the few angels ever made who ever learned that skill? And what if, being the curious heedless little bugger he is, he extrapolated from that skill and taught himself how to do the reverse, and stop time in a localized area?

That's a lot of what ifs, but it would also explain a lot, reasonably parsimoniously, including the question of why nobody else is hanging around the nebula ready to hold the scroll for him and he has to call in Aziraphale to lend a hand. Everybody else had finished up their part of the job, and gone home. I am open to other suggestions, but I quite like this one.

Second, in the second series he easily accesses a file which should only be available to thrones, dominions, or above. When the archivist goggles at him he shrugs it off - he used to work with those guys, and they never change their passwords. But why did he have their passwords? Was he their supervisor? Was he a higher rank and security clearance? This, and Saroquel's recognition of him, are the best evidence the Raphael people have gotten to date.

Okay, sure if that floats your boat - but I've worked in a lot of offices. I've never had a supervisor who was any good at system security (or the work itself, not the work I was doing). Even when I was temping, I generally knew more passwords than the boss did. In my offices, the person who knew all the passwords was the snoopy little clerk who a) had legitimate reasons to get into everybody's workstations, b) read over people's shoulders, and c) liked to know what was going on and be one up on everybody else, including playing pranks on them. What's more likely, that somebody put Crowley in charge of other angels, or that his coworkers were the kinds of people who set passwords like "password" and Crowley was a nosy bastard? I rest my case.

Third, he drove the Bentley through hellfire and on to Tadfield, still burning - but we know, because God said so directly in the show, and the authors implied it in the book, that this is because Crowley had developed what, for a demon, was basically a superpower: he could imagine things, including that he and his car were getting through the fire, and shape the world with it. If we adopt the popular fanon that the Bentley is sentient and supernatural in itself (possibly as a result of prolonged contact with Crowley and Aziraphale) he even had help there. It's a power that doesn't originate with his demonic nature, but with his acclimatization to Earth.

Fourth, he can detect things that are obscure to others, including to Aziraphale. He "smells" when the hellhound finds the Antichrist. He can tell when someone's looking. He clearly has finely-honed senses. The only other character who seems able to do anything unusual with the sense of smell is (of all angels!) Sandalphon, who can "smell evil" in the bookshop, but apparently can't tell the lingering scent of a demon who sat all night in the space drinking from Jeffery Archer books. This seems more subtle than we are accustomed to think of power, and it may in fact have been developed out of relative helplessness, a skill honed by hypervigilance, rather than an innate trait. Or it could be innate and individual, or tied to the type of angel he originally was, or related to his beast aspect - we simply don't have enough information on the point.

All the other powers we see him use - shapeshifting, size change, transformation of objects, passing unnoticed, influencing living people (and plants, and rats, and cars), transportation along the telephone lines, mending his car - are things that seem to be routinely available to angels and demons of all ranks. He calls fire to sign the invoice for the Antichrist, but it's a modest amount of fire compared to what Hastur lights a cigarette with, and seems to hurt him. Driving 70 miles per hour in central London must involve superhuman reflexes and a capacity to clear people and cars out of his way. It's all treated in story, and can easily be assumed by the reader, as bog-standard demonic factory settings that anyone can do.

This is probably as long as anybody wants to read through, so I'll have to make another post about Aziraphale and the relative power levels between them.

[siblingskissing]

B, D, F, I, J, K, P, and V for Jason? 🥺 sorry for the weird request but im totally obsessed with him lmao

Never apologize for being weird my friend! I'm assuming this is for Jason Carver, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me!

Jason Carver NSFW Alphabet Headcanons

Link To The List

B- Body Part

Jason is definitely a thigh guy- He loves gripping and stroking up people's thighs and massaging the skin. He loves when they wrap around him- whether he's carrying someone or their on top of him- he likes the pressure

For his own body- he loves his muscles. He works hard for them, spends hours training and working out so he admired what he's worked for. He's not a body builder type but the muscle he had is admirable in his eyes.

D- Dirty Secret

This guy is a bit of a pervert. he preaches about values and thinks dark kinks are too far but during practices he sometimes has to leave to relieve himself. Something about aggressive and assertive attitudes mixed with visuals of the cheerleaders practicing... he's making bathroom trips like it's nobodies business.

F- Favorite Position

he's pretty basic- he loves Missionary. Something about being able to hold his partner while kissing and making eye contact is appealing to him. If he's feeling particularly adventurous he'll let his partners ride him, he doesn't enjoy doggy as much but he'll do it to make his partner happy.

I- Intimacy

This guy is the dorkiest romantic out there- rambling "I love you"s while he's thrusting and cumming with his partner's names on his lips. He's a little lover boy and let's everyone know it. He's gonna hold your hands while you make love (because that's what he calls it- making love) and will make sure your hips are elevated and your body is relaxed

J- Jack Off

I don't think he masturbates often. A lot of his sexual frustrations are often expelled through working out/practice but when he does masturbate he is very particular.

He has to have the entire house empty- he doesn't like his family overhearing them when he gets worked up so he tends to hold back until the door is shut. He will start off usually by looking through a skin mag, or with a face in mind. He lets himself get worked up, running his hand over his stomach slowly before guiding them into his boxers. Often he just gets naked- but sometimes he keeps it all in the dark, lets himself stroke nice and slow, thumb occasionally brushing over the head of his cock and along the vein underneath the head.

If he has more time he'll massage his balls as well, draws his orgasm out nice and slow. If he has to hurry he'll end up rutting against something- the mattress, a pillow, anything soft enough that won't give him carpet burn

K- Kinks

I don't think he's exceptionally kinky- he likes being dominant but not overly so. If he does have any kinks I'd say Breeding, a bit of pain/manhandling, definitely loves to worship his partners. To him sex is mostly for that connection so he doesn't really factor in kinks

P- Pace

He happily spends hours admiring and worshipping his lovers. He hates quickies with a passion, hates the idea that he has to speed past foreplay or kisses. He'd happily take hours just to strip and kiss at his partners body- to make note of every miniscule detail

V- Volume

I don't think he's exceptionally loud- definitely talks a lot but mostly in whispers. His moaning would be louder- getting louder and deeper as he reaches his peak. He mostly tries to listen to his partner but when he feels good it's obvious

[lavoixhumaine]

i remember sitting in front of my laptop internally debating whether it would piss people off that i had Bobby consistently calling Athena “love”. he’s never done that on the show and he never will but this is something that leaks from my own real shit and it comes so naturally to me it bleeds into the writing. i don’t do it on purpose but i don’t hate it and i am not compelled to correct it.

in canon? he’s stupidly in love with his wife. in my fic? he’s even more stupidly in love with his wife in that alternate universe.

this is just something my brain insists would sound so natural if they actually had him do that. just like how i think he would also be the kind of dad that would refer to his child as “honey” whether they’re a girl or a boy.

is this my personal headcanon? yep and i’m perfectly happy with it.

did it piss people off? not enough to tell me. yet.

would i change it if someone did say it pissed them off and it’s too ooc? probably not.

it would surely make me laugh my ass off though. angry people make me laugh now and it does wonders for my blood pressure.

and also as a little side trip, my brain wonders what would happen to Athena and how she feels about Christmas if Bobby did die. in that type of a dark scenario what happens next is such a huge factor but what about Christmas especially? The kids are grown, Michael and David are in another state, the 118 have a new captain and Athena…what happens next?

it’s a hard thought exercise and one i’ve not really been able to process properly for many reasons, both personal and not.

[fengshenjunlang]

Hello, i just wanna ask what do you think of the manhua JC? dont get me wrong but there scenes that i haven't read in the novel that were shown in manhua even briefly. For example, that JC hugging his puppies. While it was outrightly said that he did have dogs that were sent out after WWX came to lotus cove, I don't really think he was that emotionally attached to them considering how fast he changed his mind. Those little panels of things that were probably implied makes a lot JC delulu stans make him more uwu. While i dont think that child JC is that bad, he is a child for one thet throw tantrums. Even teenage JC is redeemable probably since he was not that bad yet, but i just dont get how they justify him being secretly uwu kind etc whatever it is a positive trait because of his innocent? past self. isn't it ironic how WWX said that JC didn't change at all in the 13 years he was dead, implying he is still immature and the same as ever. I also dont get the part where somehow someone who has such personality is becoming likable to many people, changing his character to fit their description. A few others, i dont really remember but im sure ive seen some, who have evidence of their claim that are too weak to support and does not give the whole picture. As someone who likes JC's patheticness, this is so bizarre to me that i dont really want to involve myself in tiktok or twt. sorry for the long rant, have a great day!

Hello there, Anon.

To be honest, I don't particularly pay any attention to mdzs manhua aside from simping its WangXian moments, lol. Like, my only basis is the original, mdzs novel, whereas other adaptations are just entertainment. And for entertainment, obviously I will only focus on WangXian.

So far, among the other adaptations, mdzs manhua is the closest to canon. Even then, there are things that were changed due to various factors, such as to shorten the lengthy original content or to add more humor, which is common in comic, manga, or manhua.

I mean, things about softening the characters in the manhua was not only done toward JC as far as I know. We saw how Lan Qiren being pretty much drawn like a comedic relief. Even Su She moments in the Second Siege was also drawn in quite a funny way, that makes us the readers find it hard to really immerse ourselves in the severity of the incident, in fact.

Is that a good or bad thing? That depends. For entertainment, mdzs manhua is really good, both from content and arts. Just don't take them as canon material or meta material, since there has been changes due to various consideration. And when things change, it's not Original anymore🙃

The fact I have Twitter just to use the username to login on other websites, and the fact that I don't own TikTok at all, makes me unqualified to say things about mdzs fandom on Twitter or TikTok, lol. I'm sorry, Anon. Honestly, aside from Tumblr and Lofter, I don't really engage in mdzs fandom on other platform...?

But characters with pet attribute generally spark more interest with fans. Just like how WangXian and rabbits and Lil Apple are. Canonically, kid-JC is indeed fond of dogs (puppies or adult dogs I don't know).

Though, whether this fondness is a long lasting fondness is a question. Because after Wei Wuxian left YMJ he didn't try to own any dog. Some fans take it as JC being loyal to WWX, like, he was waiting for him to come back, etc. But, another fact is that, if he is still fond of dog but didn't want to own it due to WWX, then why wasn't he the one who give the dog to Jin Ling? Isn't he supposed to be the best Uncle for Jin Ling?

My headcanon is that, the adult JC likes dog, but not particularly fond of it like how other Dog lovers are. It's like how most people are enthusiastic when they saw stray cats, but that's it, most people won't dedicate themselves to adopt them, gave them foods, or help them. Most people just "like" But not fond enough to dedicate their life for pets. And so is Jiang Cheng toward Dogs.

[queensectonia]

for the ask game! still! galacta :]

oho, galacta! now there's a character always ripe for the headcanoning.

my read on galacta relies pretty much entirely on the headcanon that he's a time-displaced SUPER far future kirby, so a lot of the answers for this may end up referring back to that.

1: sexuality headcanon: you know, I have genuinely never thought about this for my galacta. it's never come up. whether he's aroace, or celibate, or just doesn't have the time or inclination for relationships... who knows. he values friendships much more anyway and has a lot of factors that severely dampen his prospects anyway lmao. he's in that classic "doomed to always outlive his partners" bracket because star warriors are immortal and it's not like anyone's going to be able to kill him any time soon. on top of all that, being sealed away in a crystal 99% of the time makes it a little difficult to get to know people, ya dig

2: otp: see above for my own galacta. metagala is always a fun pairing for the fight freak jock solidarity appeal of it all.

3: brotp: metagala is pretty sick here too! especially since I imagine meta knight would respect galacta deeply and even look up to him a bit as The Ultimate Star Warrior.

4: notp: can't say I have one. frankly I don't really have NOTPs at all i don't have time for that shit, i just shrug and carry on

5: first headcanon that pops into my head: in my design briefs for galacta, he's always been the heavily-armed cavalry knight to meta knight's more lightly-equipped footsoldier. even though galacta far outstrips meta knight's abilities in every category, meta knight's combat specialty is speed and finesse as opposed to galacta's sheer overwhelming strength.

this is drawn from the fact that galacta's weapon is a lance, which are never used on foot and require the speed and increased reach of a horse to even work. the lance is therefore a symbol of galacta's power, that he can not only wield it effectively, but treat the damn thing like a sword when he wants to. the lance is also a perfect weapon for him because he can fly, which gives him the exact qualities required for a lance to be effective in the first place.

(actually, the way that the devs literally just treat galacta's lance as a sword as a side effect of him being a meta knight clone is extremely funny. those are two VERY different weapons with completely incompatible wielding styles. lances are piercing weapons, for one thing. trying to use one like a sword essentially turns it into a giant fucking club.)

thank you for attending my weapon categories TEDtalk, i can and will do this again

6: favorite line from this character: oh boy it's the no dialogue club again!

7: one way in which I relate to this character: i, too, hate to be woken up by my alarm clock (meta knight demanding another god damn fight) when i was just trying to fucking sleep

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: nothing really! galacta was designed purely for the cool factor and he continues to carry that off. maybe one day you'll be canon, my good dude

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave? once he gets an actual character i'll get back to you on this one

(my galacta is a very burnt and toasty cinnamon roll. did nothing wrong. extremely tired. just wants the universe to unfuck itself.)

[firstcurse]

General headcanon overview / Canon analysis.

Hey ! So  I  wrote  this  for  important  headcanon  and  characterization  details.  I  wanted  to  make  one  post  to  cover  everything  important  instead  of  having  folks  dig  around  through  multiple  hcs  across  two  of  my  blogs  lmao  so  here  we  go ! 

Straight  to  the  point  I  do  not  interpret  Henry  as  a  remorseless  psychopath  and  I  don't  believe  this  was  canons  intention  one  bit.  He  is  not  “pure  evil”  and  he  was  not  “born  evil.”  To  me  it  is  quite  clear  that  a  lot  of  themes  in  Stranger  Things  are  allegories  for,  and  are  very  much  metaphoric  to  metal  illness  and  neurodiversity,  most  particularly  a  lot  of  themes  in  Stranger  Things  touch  on  the  the  demonization  of  and  abuse  toward  people  with  mental  illness  and  neurodiverse  individuals.  Please  keep  in  mind  Stranger  Things  is  a  period  piece  that  is  taking  place  from  the  50s  through  to  the  80s  and  EARLY  90s.  This  was  a  time  period  particularly  in  AMERICAN  HISTORY  that  was  not  known  for  its  kindness  toward  minority  demographics  and  just  as  it  was  difficult  to  be  lgbt+  or  a  poc,  for  example,  in  these  times,  it  was  also  very  difficult  to  exist  as  a  ND  or  mentally  ill  person  without  experiencing  oppression,  horrific  abuse,  exploitation  and  demonization.

GENERAL:  Ultimately,  to  me  Henry  is  on  the  autism  spectrum.  The  coding  in  his  character  is  VERY  explicit  and  he  resonated  heavily  with  me  as  an  autistic  person  myself,  who  has  experienced  similar  things  as  Henry  and  was  labeled  the  same  way  from  the  same  figures  as  a  child.  Henry  has  literally  described  himself  as  autistic  without  using  the  word  autistic.  Henry  is  very  high  functioning  but  none  the  less  he  was  labelled  as  “broken”  by  his  doctors  and  teachers  because  he  was  born  in  the  40s  and  was  a  young  boy  in  the  50s  where  this  stuff  was  not  understood  or  recognized  (  and  we  are  still  fighting  to  raise  awareness  decades  later.  )  Theres  a  few  other  factors  floating  around  that  make  this  story  true  to  the  horror  genre  and  further  add  to  the  metaphorical  side  of  things  (  Henry’s  psychic  powers,  the  idea  the  Creels  were  living  in  a  haunted  house,  the  concept  of  demonic  possession,  etc  )  but  bringing  things  down  to  basics  Henry  was  a  high  functioning  autistic  boy  living  in  a  time  period  where  kindness  and  understanding  toward  his  neurodiversity  was  not  a  thing  and  he  suffered  tremendously  for  it.

People  will  debate  whether  or  not  Henry  was  abused  or  neglected  by  his  parents  but  its  absolutely  clear  that  he  was.  In  both  flashbacks  from  him  and  Victor,  Henry  is  shown  as  isolated.  The  character  himself  laments  on  being  "alone"  and  makes  claims  that  his  family  were  not  the  good  people  they  pretended  to  be.  He  relates  to  spiders  as  a  child  because  people  approach  them  with  contempt  and  disgust,  and  little  Henry  felt  this  was  the  same  for  him.  There  is  a  reason  a  CHILD  felt  this  way.  Henry's  mother  had  put  in  motion  a  plan  to  institutionalize  Henry  simply  because  he  was  "different."  Different  is  not  code  here  for  ASPD,  its  code  here  for  neurodiversity,  most  likely  autism,  again  given  Henry's  OWN  descriptions  of  himself  and  his  feelings/thoughts  on  the  world.  Henry  also  claims  he  related  to  El  because  of  the  fact  that  she  was  bullied  and  ostracized.  Other  children  thought  of  her  as  "Stupid  and  Clumsy."  She  was  constantly  shown  as  isolated  from  the  other  children  around  her  and  it  was  clear  that  they  did  not  care  much  for  her  company.  (  El  is  also  a  heavily  autistic  coded  character  and  this  has  been  a  topic  of  conversation  in  the  ST  fandom  forever  )  

Henry  is  not  an  unreliable  narrator  here  because  nothing  he  says  is  ever  contradicted  anywhere  by  canon.  Instead  its  all  completely  supported  by  the  things  we’re  shown  in  canon  from  not  just  his  POV  but  from  the  other  character’s  POVs  as  well. After  coming  to  live  in  Hawkins,  Henry  discovered  he  had  unlocked  the  ability  to  read  minds among other remarkable things.  He  then  discovered  his  mother  hated  him  and  he  discovered  she  planned  to  have  him  committed,  where  he  would  be  taken  away  by  a  Doctor  (  Dr.  Brenner  )  and  “fixed.”  Virginia  Creel  was  essentially  an  Autism  Mom  TM  and  explicitly  wanted  to  “cure”  Henry,  something  she  had  already  put  into  motion  by  the  time  of  her  murder.

 This  was  'the'  secret  she  had  been  keeping  from  him  and  this  was  the  final  trigger  for  Henry’s  murderous  rampage.  He  practiced  using  his  psionic  powers  on  small  animals  and  prepared  to  kill  his  mother  and  escape  from  his  family  to  avoid  the  horrors  of  institutionalization  within  a  “psychiatric  hospital,”  as  had  been  planned  for  him. He  did  not  do  that  for  fun  or  because  he  liked  killing  people.

This  perfectly  explains  why  Dr  Brenner  knew  Henry  existed.  Keep  in  mind,  again  this  is  the  late  50s.  Virginia  was  an  upper-middle  class  house  wife.  Her  duty  and  image  as  a  loving  mother  and  wife  would  have  been  held  in  the  highest  esteem.  If  she  was  someone  who  secretly  despised  one  of  her  children  ━  not  only  is  this  particularly  shitty  for  Henry  as  the  child  she  disliked  to  discover  this  ━  but  it  does  in  fact  make  her  a  hypocrite  as  someone  who  would  pretend  otherwise  to  fit  societies  mold  of  “normal”  and  “perfect.”  

Its  also  been  heavily  suggested  the  Virginia  Creel  was  a  cheat,  and  Alice  possibly  isn’t  even  Victor’s  child which I've been over multiple times in depth.  In  the  News  paper  article  detailing  the  Creel  murders,  Alice’s  birthdate  is  listed  as  1944.  This  is  a  year  before  the  end  of  the  war,  before  Victor  returned  home.  Virginia  has  also  been  associated  with  bathtub  symbolism  and  often  draws  parallels  to  Karen  Wheeler.  Bathtubs  often  symbolize  infidelity,  and  immoral  thoughts.  And  we  all  know  that  Karen  was  planning  to  hook  up  with  Billy. 

Henry  used  his  powers  to  “torment”  his  family  by  “showing”  them  their  “real”  selves.  He  was  attempting  to  force  them  to  recognize  they  were  not  “normal”  or  “perfect”  like  they  pretended.  I  don't  think  the  motive  here  is  hard  to  imagine  given  Henry  was  being  shunned  by  others  because  he  was  "abnormal"  and  was  clearly  suffering  psychological  distress  and  self-loathing  over  this.  This  was  his  attempt  to  make  his  family  see  themselves  and  thus  accept  him  more  so  Henry  didn’t  even  resort  directly  to  murder.  Prior  to  the  murders,  Henry  was  nothing  but  a  lonely,  innocent  child.  He  was  unfairly  judged  as  “broken”  and  “wrong”  by  his  family  members  who  themselves  were  actually  not  the  ‘perfect’,  ‘faultless’  people  they  pretended  to  be,  hence  his  accusations  of  hypocrisy  toward  them,  claiming  that  they  were  broken  NOT  him.  

Henry  was  born  different  and  try  as  he  might  he  couldn’t  change  what  made  him  “different.”  Henry  struggled  hiding  his  differences,  something  which  was  expected  of  him,  so  he  grew  disgusted  by  people  like  his  parents  and  sister  who  were  so  obsessed  with  perfection,  conformity  and  this  false  notion  of  “normality,”  particularly  as  they  themselves  didn’t  even  fit  the  mold  they  were  trying  to  project  to  the  world  and  to  force  on  Henry. After  his  attempt  to  escape  failed,  Henry  would  spend  the  next  20  years  of  his  life  kidnapped,  wrongfully  imprisoned  and  suffering  various  kinds  of  abuse,  exploitation  and  dehumanization  at  the  hands  of  Dr.  Brenner’s  project.  Henry  was  as  much  a  victim  as  anyone  else  in  this  situation.  We  are  made  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  was  often  tortured  and  essentially  functioned  as  a  slave  to  the  facility.  Henry,  by  his  own  admission,  suffered  a  life  of  fear  and  cruelty.

ALICE  CREEL:  I'm  adding  this  because  I  can't  decide  if  all  the  extreme  inconsistences  surrounding  Alice  mean  something  in  canon  or  if  it  was  just  laziness  on  the  Duffer  Brother's  behalf  but  for  now:  Alice  was  15  years  old.  (  Despite  being  portrayed  by  a  much  younger  actress  and  thus  appearing  to  have  been  the  same  age  as  Henry  if  not  younger.  A  really  weird  inconsistency.  )  Her  date  of  birth  is  given  on  the  news  paper  clipping  and  she  would  have  been  15  accordingly,  3  years  older  than  Henry,  making  her  Henry's  OLDER  sister,  and  again,  canon  has  seemingly  suggested  Alice  might  have  been  the  product  of  an  affair  given  Victor  claims  he  had  only  been  home  from  the  War  for  14  years. Moreover,  in  the  original  script  there  was  more  emphasis  on  Victor's  neglect  and  Henry's  discomfort  with  the  fact  that  his  father  "always  lies  to  himself."  In  the  canon,  Vecna  refers  to  Victor  as  "blind  and  dumb."  This  all  points  to  something  more  “personal”  going  on  in  the  Creel  house  than  just  Victor  believing  in  "demons".  

But  on  that  note,  even  Victor  believed  the  "demonic  presence"  in  the  house  was  "punishing  them  for  their  sins."  Strange  that  he  would  think  that  way  if  this  was  a  totally  normal  and  innocent  family.  What  sins  is  he  referring  to  here ?  Clearly  something  else  was  going  on  with  the  Creel  family. 

Anyway,  back  to  Alice.  I  imagine  Henry  and  her  to  have  had  a  relationship  best  described  as  an  inverted  parallel  to  Will  and  Jonathan.  Where  Jonathan  was  supportive  of  nurturing  toward  Will,  Alice  was  scornful  and  neglectful  of  Henry.  She  viewed  him  as  a  burden  due  to  his  "differences",  which  she  considered  where  just  him  being  difficult  and  a  "freak."  She  was  very  much  a  normal  teenaged  girl  in  the  50s  who  largely  kept  her  personal  life  a  secret  from  her  parents  in  case  of  disapproval. Henry  tormented  Alice  the  least  of  his  three  family  members  because  he  simply  didn't  understand  Alice's  fears,  insecurities  or  secrets  well  enough  to  prey  on  them  on  a  personal  level.  

A  similar  thing  could  be  said  of  his  mother,  as  Henry's  "torment"  toward  both  his  mother  and  sister  appears  to  be  very  much  in  the  vein  of  only  making  them  “see”  general  phobias  like  bugs  and  spiders,  thus  and  not  near  as  personal  or  potent  as  the  torment  his  father  received  thanks  to  his  PTSD  and  guilt  from  his  actions  in  the  war.  I'm  hoping  we'll  see  more  Alice  in  season  5  to  understand  more  about  her  and  her  possible  dynamic  with  Henry.

THE  MINDFLAYER: To  me,  and  I’m  very  sure  this  was  what  canon  was  suggesting,  the  entity  we  know  as  the  Mindflayer  was  actual  the  “demonic  presence”  that  emerged  within  the  Creel  house  and  Henry  has  really  just  been  a  scapegoat  and  a  medium  for  this  thing  to  connect  with  Hawkins. 

Stay  with  me  here.  The  Mindflayer  exists  within  another  dimension,  but  the  barrier  between  the  human  world  and  the  Mindflayer’s  dimension  is  thin  around  some  places  in  Hawkins,  which  is  why  all  this  bullshit  is  going  on  in  Hawkins  in  the  first  place.  This  is  a  canonlogical  fact.  The  Upside  Down  and  Hawkins  are  connected  and  this  was  true  before  Henry  was  sent  there  and  before  Will  Byers  was  taken  by  the  Demogorgon.  There  is  a  reason  the  Lab  where  Brenner  was  doing  his  experiments  exists  in  the  small  ass-backward  town  of  Hawkins.  From  what  we  can  gather,  the  Creel  house  happened  to  sit  a  top  of  one  of  the  places  where  the  barrier  was  thin.  Canon  seems  to  show  that  Henry  was  particularly  sensitive  to  and  susceptible  to  the  presence  and  influence  of  the  Mindflayer  due  to  his  psychic  abilities.  Henry  once  believed  that  he  was  the  demon  in  the  Creel  house,  but  this  isn’t  entirely  the  case.  Henry  was  the  medium.  This  also  explains  why  Henry's  powers  only  became  so  strong  and  continued  to  multiply  when  he  came  to  live  in  Hawkins,  another  canon  fact.

We  know  that  the  Mindflayer  is  a  malevolent  force  that  amplifies  feelings  of  sadness  and  anger,  which  are  the  emotions  that  it  feeds  on.  Henry  couldn’t  have  been  a  more  perfect  target  because  he  was  a  sad  child,  a  child  who  was  ostracized  from  other  children  and  found  it  difficult  to  fit  in  with  others  and  was  constantly  being  made  to  feel  as  if  he  was  wrong/bad/at  fault.  This  takes  a  psychological  toll  on  a  child  and  almost  always  leads  them  to  acting  out,  even  without  the  existence  of  them  having  insane  psychic  powers.  Henry’s  negative  emotions  however  were  amplified  by  the  presence  of  the  Mindflayer,  which  in  turn  amplified  Henry’s  powers.

Once  again,  this  is  why  Henry’s  abilities  became  so  strong  once  he  and  his  family  had  settled  into  their  new  home  in  Hawkins.  This  is  what  drove  Henry  to  look  into  his  families  minds  and  find  their  “darkest  secrets.”  He  wasn’t  a  twisted  little  demon  who  was  just  sick  like  that,  Henry  is  shown  actually  as  a  sad  and  lonely  kid.  His  spirits  only  brightened  a  little  when  he  found  some  spiders  inside  a  vent  inside  the  house  as  he  recounts  he  has  a  love  of  spiders  and  they  brought  him  comfort  in  a  very  stressful  time  in  his  life.

Henry  then  spent  most  of  his  time  illustrating  the  spiders  while  his  family  fretted  over  the  “evil  presence”  in  the  house,  which  used  Henry’s  powers  to  manifest  itself.  There  is  a  lot  of  evidence  in  cannon  to  point  to  this  being  true.  There  is  a  scene  in  Victor’s  flashback  which  shows  Henry  drawing  with  his  crayons  in  the  living  room  of  the  house  when  the  lights  around  him  begin  to  behave  strangely,  causing  Henry  to  look  confused  and  concerned.  This  was  not  Henry’s  doing  and  it  calls  back  to  scenes  in  season  1  when  something  in  the  upside  down  is  trying  to  get  through  to  our  world. 

This  again  happens  a  second  time  when  Nancy  is  shown  visions  of  Henry’s  childhood.  Henry  is  first  seen  wandering  around  the  Creel  house  as  if  he  is  looking  for  something,  in  this  scene  the  lights  of  the  house  are  also  shown  flashing,  somewhat  resembling  the  scene  in  season  1  where  little  Holly  Wheeler  notices  the  lights  flashing  in  the  Byers  home  and  follows  them  to  their  source.  Curiously,  Henry  is  not  framed  as  the  person  controlling  the  lights  but  rather  as  someone  simply  investigating  their  behavior.  Furthermore,  when  Henry  draws  an  image  of  the  Mindflayer  he  uses  charcoal  in  order  to  accurately  depict  the  creature  as  true  to  life.  How  would  Henry  know  the  Mindflayer  was  cloud-like  and  made  up  of  particles  if  this  was  just  something  out  of  his  imagination  and  nothing  more ?  There  is  so  much  more  going  on  here  and  the  clues  are  everywhere.

There  is  also  the  fact  that  a  12  year  old  boy  in  1959  learned  to,  essentially,  suck  the  “souls”  out  of  his  “victims.”  Like.  How ?  Which  brings  me  to  something  else.  While  Henry’s  method  of  killing  does  seem  to  be  demonically  influenced,  it  makes  sense  to  me  that  a  child  like  Henry  would  seem  to  reason  this  as  a  “valid”  way  to  commit  a  murder.  If  he  is  able  to  basically  “keep”  his  victims  in  some  way,  linking  their  souls  to  himself  and  thus  giving  them  some  type  of  immortality,  it  would  serve  to  ease  his  guilt  somewhat  in  the  fact  that  he  hasn’t  completely  killed  them  in  the  first  place. This  seems  to  be  the  case  as  Henry  explained  to  Eleven  after  the  lab  massacre  that  the  other  numbers  he  "killed"  weren't  really  gone.  

Even  further  we  know  the  Duffer  brothers  took  nearly  direct  reference  from  entities  such  as  IT/deadlights,  the  Thing,  DnD's  Serpent  and  possibly  DnD’s  Elder  brain  to  create  the  Mindflayer  (  look  it  up.  )  These  creatures  are  all  very  thematically  similar  to  the  Mindflayer  we  see  in  the  show.  The  thing  is  a  monstrous  cosmic  mass  that  assimilates  other  creatures  into  itself.  Its  “original”  form  was  spider-like.  

IT/Deadlights  is  an  eldritch  form  of  energy  that  eats  the  souls  and  flesh  of  its  victims  (  It  also  takes  a  spider-like  form  ), 

DnD’s  Elder  brain  is  a  evil  psychic  entity  that  guides  its  community  (  the  mindflayers  )  toward  world  domination.  (  Its  depicted  as  a  huge  brain  that  uses  long  black  vine/tentacles  to  attack  )

The  Serpent  of  DnD  is  said  to  be  connected  to  Vecna  going  back  to  his  human  life,  it  is said  to  be  the  source  of  all  Magic  and  for  some  reason  favours  Vecna  over  all  other  beings.  Its  suggested  here  that  the  MF  may  have  preyed  on  Henry’s  love  of  spiders  to  make  itself  more  friendly  and  appealing  to  him  as  little  Henry  was  driven  to  see  the  spiders  in  the  Creel  house  as  avatars  of  something  divine  and  otherworldly  rather  than  as  simple  animals. 

Vecna,  on  the  other  hand,  is  a  character  that  takes  direct  reference  from  Pinhead,  DnD  Vecna,  Freddy  Kruger  and  possibly  Henry  Bowers  if  his  human  name  is  anything  to  go  on.  Pinhead,  Freddy,  DnD  Vecna  and  Henry  Bowers  are  all  characters  who  “serve”  malevolent  gods/entities  in  their  referenced  canons  and  in  the  case  of  Freddy,  DnD  Vecna  and  Pinhead,  all  of  them  got  their  powers  from  said  entity.  

With  Pinhead  its  the  Levithan.  (  An  abstract  ancient  entity  that  resides  within  "hell"  and  guides  the  Cenobites  through  dreams  and  visions  )  

With  Freddy  its  the  "Dream  Demons"  (  Demonic  entities  that  thrive  on  nightmares  and  have  a  goal  of  merging  the  dream  world  and  waking  world  )  

and  with  DnD  Vecna  its,  again,  The  Serpent  (  a  mysterious  godlike  entity  of  unimaginable  power  that  has  a  close  relationship  with  Vecna. )  

What  inspo  came  from  each  of  these  characters  in  creating  Vecna  is  extremely  clear. Pinhead  was  claimed  to  be  the  biggest  inspo  used  to  create  Vecna.  He  was  a  kind  and  compassionate  human  who  was  severely  traumatized  and  disillusioned  from  humanity  and  "god"  by  ww1.  Pinhead  chooses  to  serve  the  Levithan  because  of  this.  This  is  clearly  referenced  in  Victor  Creel,  and  Henry  being  a  sensitive  young  boy  who  was  deeply  traumatized  by  seeing  his  father’s  memories  of  ww2.  

Freddy  was  a  human  who  became  a  monster  with  the  ability  to  trap  his  victims  within  dreams  with  the  power  of  phantasmagoria  and  kill  them.  This  is  the  inspiration  for  Vecna’s  curse.  (  Note,  I  also  mentioned  the  Dream  demons  goal  was  to  merge  the  dream  and  waking  world.  Like,  come  on.  )  

DnD  Vecna  was  once  a  human,  noted  to  have  had  a  VERY  cruel  mother,  claimed  to  have  been  be  an  evil  woman  who  consorted  with  monsters,  who's  cruelty  shaped  Vecna  into  who  he  is  in  the  DnD  lore.  As  a  human  he  somehow  rose  to  become  one  of  the  greatest  sorcerers  ever  known  (  This was presumably  through  his  pact  with  The  Serpent  ━  theorized  to  be  an  alias  of  the  demon-god  Asmodeus  by  some.  The  Serpent   is  depicted  in  DnD  lore  as  "made  of  cloud  and  lightning  snaking  down  from  the  sky  and  whispering  into  Vecna's  ear,  telling  him  the  secret  of  lichdom." )  and  in  death  eventually  reached  demi-god  status  as  a  lich.  Well  the  inspo  once  again  here  is  clear.   Dustin  described  Vecna  as  Mindflayer’s  5  star  general  for  a  reason.  He  has  never  been  wrong  before,  why  are  we  so  confident  he's  suddenly  wrong  now ?  

Why  would  these  themes  be  continually  repeated  in  Vecna's  conception  and  creation  if  they  aren't  somehow  relevant  to  the  character ? Further,  the  vines  (  The  Mindflayer’s  physical  vehicles  )  were  shown  to  behave  the  same  way  as  they  always  have  before  Henry  was  even  in  the  Upside  Down.  He  cant  be  the  one  actually  controlling  them,  at  least  not  all  the  time,  which  means  there  is  something  else  seemingly  intelligent,  possibly  evil  and  highly  powerful  working  along  side  him. Henry  claims  the  Mindflayer  made  him  Vecna  and  in  the  original  script  this  was  suppose  to  be  more  explicit,  with  the  Vines  having  a  big  part  in  Henry’s  terrifying  transformation.  

The  original  script  details  Henry  being  assailed  by  supernatural  jolts  of  lighting,  which  rip  off  his  clothes  and  burn  his  skin,  followed  by  the  "Vines",  which  began  to  similarly  attack  and  transform  him  into  Vecna. What  creature  do  we  know  who's  body  looks  just  like  a  storm  cloud,  thundering  with  the  same  red  lighting  we  saw  "transforming"  Henry ?  What  creature  do  we  know  has  been  in  the  Upside  Down  before  Henry  and  thus  the  only  one  who  could  be  controlling  the  "Vines" ?  The  Mindflayer.

Now  is  it  possible  that  this  is  somehow  inverted  in  Season  5  and  Henry  is  just  the  guy  behind  it  all  cut  and  dry ?  Sure,  maybe.  But  with  everything  we've  already  seen  in  canon  that  I've  mentioned  here,  this  would  leave  a  big  plot  hole  for  how  any  of  that  shit  was  happening  before  Henry's  arrival  in  the  Upside  Down  for  me  personally. Again, it  seems  as  if  Henry  is  actually  a  medium  for  the  Mindflayer  to  act,  and  a  TOOL  FOR  IT,  rather  than  the  other  way  around.  Until  season  5  shows  otherwise  ( And  I  don’t  think  its  going  to )  I will firmly stick to my analysis and beliefs on this.  

For  a  more  detailed  look  at  the  MF  and  surrounding  elements  click  here.   And  for  a  summary  of  what  the  Mindflayer  is  and  how  it  functions  in  my  headcanons  and  AU  click  here. 

THE  LAB  MASSCARE: There  are  many  reasons  for  why  Henry  killed  the  other  test  subjects  in  the  lab.  This  doesn’t  just  come  in  one  shade.  Survival  is  the  leading  one,  but  behind  this  we  have  the  fact  that  Henry  only  learned  to  harness  his  powers  through  sadness  and  anger,  two  emotions  that  can  be  very  intoxicating,  even  when  utilized  by  someone  who  doesn’t  have  a  life  of  lived  trauma  and  oppression  behind  them  like  Henry  does.  

We  also  have  the  fact  that  Henry  saw  the  other  children  as  enemies,  given  they  viciously  bullied  Eleven  for  no  good  reason  and  he  saw  his  own  childhood  of  ostracization  and  bulling  in  their  interactions  with  her,  which  was  clearly  upsetting  to  him. Ultimately,  Henry  killed  them  because  he  could  not  save  them  and  because  if  he  left  them  alive  they  would  only  be  used  as  weapons  against  him  and  Eleven.  

The  children  in  the  lab  were  not  allies  to  him  and  Eleven,  many  were  extensively  brainwashed  by  Brenner  so  he  was  not  wrong  in  believing  this.  Many  of  them  would  do  anything  to  please  “Papa,”  this  including  beating  and  abusing  Eleven  with  glee,  possibly  to  the  point  of  being  willing  to  kill  her,  and  thus  would  easily  include  using  their  remote  location  abilities  to  track  Henry  and  Eleven  down  if  they  escaped.  It  was  a  worse  outcome  to  leave  the  other  subjects  alive  than  it  was  to  kill  them.  I'm  sorry  to  say  it,  but  this  is  justifiable / excusable  homicide,  not  cold  blooded  murder  for  fun.  

DR.  BRENNER: Henry’s  mercy  on  Brenner  was  mostly  vindictive.  He  wanted  Benner  to  live  knowing  he  had  taken  everything  away  from  him,  that  he  was  powerless  and  that  he  lost  all  the  control  and  oppression  he  had  cruelly  lauded  over  Henry’s  head  for  most  of  his  life.  It  was  really  a  power  move  because  ultimately  Henry’s  relationship  with  Brenner  was/is  a  deeply  fucked  up  one  due  to  years  of  psychological  and  physical  abuse  and  torture.  Ultimately,  he  wanted  Brenner  to  live  and  witness  his  escape,  witness  the  loss  of  everything  he  had  tried  to  build  for  years  and  witness  everything  else  Henry  would  come  to  do  free  of  Brenner’s  imprisonment.  Vecna’s  motives  for  continuing  to  leave  Dr.  Brenner  alive  are  very  much  the  same. I  have  also  written  some  other  thoughts  on  Henry  and  Brenner  here  +  more  thoughts  on  Henry’s  time  in  the  lab  +  powers,  etc.

HENRY  AND  VECNA: Simply  put  Vecna  is  Henry  but  Henry  is  not  Vecna.  Vecna  is  the  result  of  Henry’s  “death,”  as  much  as  he  is  the  result  of  Henry’s  “connection”  with  the  Mindflayer  entity.  

As  previously  discussed,  it  seems  the  Mindflayer  entity  was  always  a  malevolent  force  that  amplifies  and  feeds  on  feelings  of  sadness  and  anger.  This  is  why  Vecna  is  so  warped,  both  physically  and  spiritually.  This  is  why  Max  explains  that  Vecna  can’t  see  anything  within  people  but  hate  and  darkness.  This  connection  with  the  Mindflayer  changed  him  on  a  metaphysical  level.  

Henry’s  body  was  mutated  by  the  unique  constitution  of  the  upside  down  and  his  merger  with  this  entity  to  become  the  wickedly  powerful  creature  that  is  been  dubbed  “Vecna”  by  the  hellfire  kids. By  all  logic,  Henry  should  have  died  after  he  entered  the  Upside  Down,  not  just  by  the  multiple  lightening  strikes  he  apparently  suffered  (  Note  again  these  strikes  of  lightning  were  of  a  supernatural  nature,  they  are  further  manifestations  of  the  MF  but  still,  they  were  not  fucking  around  )  that  horrifically  wounded  him  to  the  point  of  deformity,  but  also  the  fact  he  had  to  have  fallen  from  a  couple  hundred  feet  at  least.  

Somehow  he  didn’t  die.  There  is  no  logical  explanation  as  to  why  “Vecna”  is  or  would  actually  be  “alive”  in  a  normal  sense  given  what  we  were  shown  in  canon.   But  we  have  seen  that  the  Mindflayer  has  the  ability  to  reanimate  creatures  that  have  supposedly  died  as  well  as  literally  create  brand  new  creatures  such  as  the  Spider  Monster  in  season  3.  (  The  Demodogs  in  the  Russian  prison  are  a  good  example  of  some  type  of  reanimation.  )  Its  more  likely  that  Henry  did  “die”  after  he  was  thrown  into  the  Upside  Down,  whether  from  the  supernatural  lightning  his  body  conducted  or  from  hitting  the  ground  from  the  seemingly  endless  height  he  fell  from.  Its  all  thanks  to  the  influence  of  the  Mindflayer  and  his  psychic  link  with  it  that  he  was  ‘revived’.  Meaning  he  was  apparently  able  to  get  up  and  simply  wander  around  the  upside  down  dazed  and  mesmerized  until  he  found  the  Mindflayers  “physical”  body  and  the  two  “linked”  together.

This  also  explains  why  “Vecna”  was  able  to  take  several  head-on  rounds  from  a  shot  gun,  all  the  while  being  set  on  fire,  and  continued  to  live  and  function  through  the  whole  ordeal,  even  after  falling  at  least  a  dozen  feet  out  of  a  window,  to  the  point  that  he  was  able  to  get  up  and  escape  with  little  effort.  There  is  no  logical  explanation  for  any  of  it  other  than  that  Vecna  is,  in  fact,  “undead”  in  some  way. In  his  human  life,  Henry  hoped  to  use  his  powers  to  change  the  world;  to  make  things  better  for  people  like  himself.  

As  Vecna  he  is  opting  for  more  brutality  and  something  much  darker,  likely  a  lot  due  to  his  heavy  corruption  from  the  Mindflayer,  though  he  still  believes  he’s  doing  this  for  a  good  reason,  remembering  his  own  goals,  which  is  Henry’s  remaining  “human”  element  coming  through. Basically,  in  the  story  Vecna  embodies  all  three  major  archetypes  in  the  horror  genre.  He  is  the  killer,  the  monster  and  the  ghost.  This  means  he  is  a  vindictive,  driven,  malevolent  creature  who  is  not  bound  to  human  mortality  but  has  a  hauntingly  tragic  and  human  past.

Vecna  is  vengeful  and  ruthless.  He  kills  with  impunity  not  because  he  likes  killing  but  because  it  brings  him  closer  and  closer  to  his  “goal”  of  “reshaping”  the  world  that  hated,  abused  and  rejected  him.  Vecna  targets  his  victims  for  very  specific  reasons  that  allow  him  to  believe  these  attacks  are  less  murders  and  more  “mercy”  killings.  The  kids  Vecna  targets  are  suicidal.  Its  suggested  they  are  going  to  commit  suicide  which  is  why  Vecna  steps  in  and  "collects"  those  particular  victims.  His  motives  are  for  them  to  join  him  in  getting  revenge  on  the  world  and  society  that  has  given  them  such  pain  that  they  are  literally  heading  toward  killing  themselves  as  Vecna  relates.  I’ve  talked  about  Venca’s  personal  “method/ritual”  of  killing  and  its  “symbolic”  refences  to  his  human  life  and  in  general  here.(broken link)  ( Cw  for  suicide  mentions. ) Currently that link is broken so refer to the following post for now instead. Again CW for Suicide mentions.

Henry  on  the  other  hand  has  a  killer  instinct,  and  will  kill  if  he  has  to,  but  he  is  not  Vecna  and  his  murders  are  almost  always  survival  or  revenge  based.  Henry’s  goals  included  more  typical  anarchy  for  the  sake  of  political  and  systematic  change;  to  bring  about  a  better  quality  of  life  for  oppressed  and  marginalized  individuals  like  himself.  Henry  and  Kali  were  the  same  in  this  regard  and  this  why  I’ll  never  believe  they  weren’t  connected  or  that  they  didn’t  have  a  positive  rapport,  or  that  it  wasn't  extremely  likely  that  Henry  played  a  part  in  Kali’s  escape  from  the  lab.  This  is  at  least  my  personal  headcanon  and  will  remain  that  way  until  canon  tells  me  otherwise.  So  far  though  canon  is  heavily,  heavily  suggesting  this  is  true.  Basically,  Vecna  is  more  a  Samara  Morgan  and  Henry  is  more  a  Magneto,  to  put  it  simply.

  "A  PREDATOR  BUT  FOR  GOOD": Henry’s  speech  to  Eleven  and  his  interest  in  spiders  has  resulted  in  a  lot  of  the  fandoms  insane  misunderstandings  about  Henry’s  character  and  what  his  actual  motives  were  and  what  he  actually  represents.  I’ve  been  over  it  in  a  previous  post  but  to  largely  quote  that  post:  Henry’s  self-label  of  “solitary”  creature  and  his  relation  to  spiders  is  not  suppose  to  clue  us  on  to  some  innate  evil  within  the  character.  Completely  the  opposite  actually.  Henry  has  spent  his  life  only  ever  knowing  scorn,  rejection  and  exile  from  others.  Whether  this  exile  is  imposed  on  him  by  others  or  self-imposed  to  cope  /  feel  safe,  this  is  a  heavy  feature  in  Henry’s  life.  

This  single  feature  made  most  of  the  fandom  convinced  that  Henry’s  interest  in  and  relation  to  spiders  was  scary  and  proof  of  “psychopathy”,  because  they  think  of  spiders  as  scary,  weird  things  that  need  to  be  avoided  or  eradicated;  they're  just  not  viewed  as  living  creatures  worthy  of  respect  or  sympathy  despite  the  fact  they  very  much  are.  Its  very  ironic  that  people  took  this  away  from  Henry’s  speech  as  he  was  actually  explaining  the  opposite. Henry  literally  says  he  relates  to  them  because  they’re  a  misunderstood  creature,  a  creature  that  people  hate  and  only  want  to  exterminate,  and  that  people  have  always  treated  him  the  same  way.  

He  takes  comfort  in  being  able  to  relate  to  something  so  much  and  finds  them  inspiring  as  a  result.  He  draws  strength  from  them.  They  made  him  feel  safe  and  seen.  He  feels  more  empowered  and  less  alone  when  he  thinks  of  them.  Unfortunately,  a  lot  of  people  somehow  boiled  this  down  to  “Spiders  kill  things,  spiders  are  scary,  spiders  are  unrelatable,  spiders  are  emotionless  so  that's  what  Henry  was  trying  to  tell  us  about  himself.”  

Which  all  couldn’t  be  further  from  the  truth. Henry  further  spoke  about  the  experience  and  unending  stress  of  anyone  who  can  not  conform  to  societal  norms,  anyone  who  couldn’t  live  up  to  societies  “expectations”  and  the  restrictive,  unfair  standards  of  what  is  good  and  right  vs  what  isn’t  as  these  standards  DO  NOT  apply  to  everyone.  They  are  largely  unnatural  and  that  it  is  downright  evil  to  try  and  enforce  them  on  everyone  since  it  is  impossible  for  everyone  to  fit  into  the  “mold.”  The  mold  being  heavily  bias  and  flawed  from  the  start.  He  is  saying  that  all  this  nonsense  has  been  made  up  by  evil,  bigoted,  stupid  people  in  power.  He  is  talking  about  the  real  struggle  “othered”  people  face  against  societal  and  systematic  oppression.

He’s  trying  to  say  that  a  spider  is  considered  an  important  part  of  the  natural  ecosystem.  Spiders  fit  this  ecosystem  whether  people  like  it  or  not  and  despite  their  differences  they  have  a  valuable  role  in  brining  order  to  the  natural  world.  He’s  not  saying  he  wants  to  murder  people  because  he  finds  it  funny  and  he’s  a  sadistic  freak;  he's  ensuring  himself  he  belongs  and  he’s  trying  to  illustrate  that  someone  with  powers  like  his  and  Eleven’s  would  be  able  to  fight  and  perhaps  work  toward  dismantling  the  painful,  oppressive  system  that  is  currently  in  place  and  bring  about  balance.  Equality.  If  he  has  to  eat  a  couple  insects  to  do  it  then  so  be  it.  He  directly  specifies  he  wants  to  be  a  predator  BUT  FOR  GOOD  and  that  is  what  his  meaning  was.  

It  was  intended  to  be  the  opposite  of  a  predator  being  seen  as  an  evil,  monstrous  thing.  Henry  straight  up  specified  that  he  had  HEROIC  INTENTIONS,  at  no  NO  POINT  say  he  was  planning  to  kill  innocent  people  because  he  thought  it  was  fun  and  he  enjoys  killing  people.  Oppositely  he  clearly  expressed  he  wanted  to  fight  back  against  systematic  oppression  so  it  really  isn't  a  stretch  to  think  that  the  people  Henry  was  ever  going  to  be  threat  toward  was  bigots  and  oppressors  if  he  was  able  to  escape  the  lab  in  his  human  form.  Kali  is  literally  his  counterpart  character  and  the  two  of  them  directly  reference  each  other.  Vecna,  thematically,  takes  clear  inspiration  from  the  goddess  Kali  of  Mythology  (  The  goddess  of  time,  doomsday,  death  and  change.  )  and  Kali  as  a  character  literally  has  the  same  views  as  Henry  expressed  in  canon.  (  Leftist  and  anarchist  ideologies. )  In conclusion, Vecna / Henry are way more complex than this fandom will let itself believe and its disappointing. Henry isn't a racist or a p*do or a n*zi or any of that other total bullshit this fandom comes out with. He'd hate/fight against people like that.