#while all being brooding and having all these repressed feelings

[icegoddessrukia]

I'm not sure if this will make sense to anyone but the relationship dynamics between Anakin and Obi-Wan, Sam and Dean Winchester, and Smallville's Clark Kent and Lex Luthor have some major parallels

[an-exasperated-hades-kid]

So I've been seeing a lot of will solace hate, and I'm here to defend my son.

First of all, he's not a toxic person at all he's a human who can mess up at times and be unintentionally rude, like in that one scene boo where he says

‘Oh, please.’ Will sounded unusually angry. ‘Nobody at Camp Half-Blood ever pushed you away. You have friends – or at least people who would like to be your friend. You pushed yourself away. If you’d get your head out of that brooding cloud of yours for once –

^ that is rude but he didn't have bad intentions because according to him nico wasn't scary and the people that he hung out with - Lou Ellen and Cecil- didn't think that nico was scary either as they were both friendly towards him when they met him at the Roman camping area outside chb so while his delivery wasn't good he meant no harm and he also helped nico realize that not everyone hates him and then there are a few jokes that he made that people consider toxic or offensive but nico was never offended or sad about these jokes he only rolled his eyes and acted exasperated so he knew will meant no harm .

Will is canonically described as a laid-back and calm person, but he is also stubborn when it comes to certain things like medical related things which is understandable since he can feel everything physically wrong with a person by just touching them and is persistent that they don't die and Take care of themselves which is understandable since he saw majority of his siblings die and doesn't want more ppl to die .

Will is actually quite a complex character he's calm and laid back but he's stubborn and strict when he needs to be he's supportive and loving to nico but since he's a kid he struggles with being understanding sometimes hence why he asks persephone for advice on how to be there for nico properly showing that he's mature enough to ask for help . He's also someone represses his emotions because he thinks that as head counselor, he has to be a perfect example, and he told this apollo in the 1st toa book. He's also pretty insecure about his abilities, as shown in boo

Evidence:

You did,’ confirmed Nico. ‘But it was the way you did it. You made it clear that you wanted me around. You said you wanted me to come to the infirmary and help, because … because you could use a “friendly face”.’

‘It was true. And you did help.’

‘You brought me closer instead of rejecting me,’ Nico said, his voice cracking. ‘I’d never been called a friendly face. Ever. You made me rethink everything – my place in camp, my crush on Percy, my future. It took you scolding me like you were the camp director to make me realize that I was … wanted.

___

But with Nico … It’s hard, Persephone. I want the best for him, and he seems to disappear into his darkness, like he’s hiding in a place where he doesn’t want my light.’

‘Then why not offer him your darkness

_____

Nico sighed in exasperation. He hated working with other people. They were always cramping his style, making him uncomfortable. And Will Solace … Nico revised his impression of the son of Apollo. He’d always thought of Will as easygoing and laid back. Apparently, he could also be stubborn and aggravating

_______________________________________

In conclusion will isn't toxic and he isn't perfect and if I'm wrong about something please point it out cause I haven't read the books in a while and if I missed something please point it out and I'm sorry for the typos I wrote this without wearing my glasses as 3 am after studying for a test

[orphiclovers]

I think the most notable bit of character insight on Yoo Joonghyuk that Yoo Mia SS provides is how much the apocalypse did not change him at all.

It's one of those Big Themes orv has, and simply brilliant writing. Y'know how they kept beating us over the head with the concept of 'the people who find it easiest to adapt in a ruined world are those who could not adapt to real life?'. That applies to YJH too, and even more than other characters. But it's hard to notice on a casual main story read because genre conventions and his character archetype tell us not to look deeper, that he is just a basic brooding power fantasy manhwa protagonist, even when he's really not.

So the audience writes off his quirks because it's expected of his brooding hero archetype and the other apocalypse survivors write off his quirks because everyone who has gotten this far is a little nuts and also they have bigger problems.

But when Yoo Joonghyuk acts exactly like he does during the apocalypse in a pre-scenario world where there's no convienient explanation it's really clear that he is different and he just comes off as...off.

His silence during conversations is no longer mysterious and cool but just weird and a failure to read social cues. His 'glare' is frightening and people don't like when he makes eye contact with them. His manner of speech is off-putting. His blank emotionless face is not stoic repressed hero-esque but ""rude"" etc etc. Every single mainstream society conforming person can tell there's something off about him so they avoid him. And YJH doesn't know how to communicate so he ends up totally friendless (save for a literal mafia boss and a crazy time-traveling teenage girl - and only them, because they don't fit well into society either.)

Umm where was I. So, but I don't know how much effect all of that has on World of Zero. Firstly, because between Yoo Mia side story and World of Zero there are 3-4 years of '?????' where afaik we have no idea what Yoo Joonghyuk was doing. He stopped being a gamer at some point but also got rich at the same time (doing what?) and bought the house he daydreamed about and also became a total shut-in who 'doesn't go outside often'. I have fanfic-y theories but nothing canon.

Onto the second part of the ask.

With World of Zero era joongdok I feel like there's a lot of writers out there who have made their own versions that are better than anything I could come up with so I hope you wont be disapointed. That being said I do have some thoughts.

Speaking of fanfic, here is mine under read more lol.

I think it's super that Kim Dokja gains the power of an omnipotent god and the very first thing he does is devote his time to Yoo Joonghyuk's happiness and safety. The whole reason he became OD was because of his massive guilt complex about YJH, so it makes sense that he would try to atone.

Zero starts off mistrusting him but gradually KDJ proves himself as having Zero's best interests at heart 100% of the time. DKOS is YJH's guardian angel. And then KDJ stays watching over him even after the scenarios were over, seeing him go through boring life milestones, happy as long as YJH is happy, for seemingly no reason.

So it's no wonder Yoo Jooghyuk fell in love.

He might not know Salvation's real name or appearance or anything about him but he wants to get to know him, this person who has saved him so many times while asking nothing in return. It doesn't matter that he's a constellation because he is good, Yoo Joonghyuk knows. He confesses all of this to Salvation, looking up at the sky with eyes sparkling with life and passion.

Salvation lets him down gently, for what it's worth, but rejection is still rejection and it hurts.

In the following weeks, as he goes through the motions and pretends nothing happened, he continues to feel the gaze of Salvation on his back, but the constellation stays mercifully silent. Yoo Joonghyuk does not want to know if it's pity he's looking at him with. Even heartbreak heals, of course. Months pass, then years. Lee Seolhwa was a dependable companion to him during the scenarios and stays a steadying presence in the world after. They're compatable. She is someone with who he could see himself growing old.

Salvation told him to 'be free, to fall in love with someone who could be with him, to not waste his time chasing after a dream, to live his life to the fullest'

He knows about his attribute of course, just like he knows everything about Yoo Joonghyuk.

Yoo Joonghyuk sees no point in lying. He tells Lee Seolhwa everything. How due to his attribute he will grown old and die while the rest of them stay youthful as ever, how he doesn't remember his childhood or know his parents. His hopes and dreams, how he yearns to learn his origins. About the first scenario, about the constellation who would have been his sponsor, whom he loves.

Then he asks to marry her. She says yes.

Salvation is the first person Yoo Joonghyuk tells. He's happy for him, of course, says he always knew there was a spark between them.

They live a long 50 years together.

When Yoo Joonghyuk's hair started turning more salt than pepper, he told Lee Seolhwa that he wouldn't hold her. She laughed, stroked his head and said that she might not look it but she is two years older than him, that she vowed to be by his side till death did them apart and she will not break that promise.

When his time comes and he knows he has to leave, he tries to explain himself to Lee Seolhwa at least, if not the rest of his old companions. But he needn't have bothered. Before he could start, she took his hands in hers and smiled wistfully. She told him she always knew this day would come. That his heart has always belonged to someone else. She's thankful for the time he has given her anyway and that she could not have asked for a better husband. She sheads a few tears and Yoo Joonghyuk does too, but he leaves their house with a sense of purpose and a lightness in his heart he has not felt once since the day he beat the final scenario.

And then he accepts the sponsorship contract with Salvation.

... .. Sooo, that's how I think round zero went.

[randoimago]

I dowloaded the aasimar mod to my Baldurs Gate and I just want !!! More winged beauties is this game ;;; how would Gale, Astarion and Halsin react to meeting the reader who is an aasimar? Maybe they’re the first the guys have ever seen!

Meeting an Aasimar For the First Time

Fandom: Baldur's Gate 3

Character(s): Astarion, Gale, Halsin

Type of Request: Headcanons

Note(s): Hopefully there's some patch in the future or expansion that adds more races and subclasses to the game. I mean, there's goblins, Shadar-Kai, and Deva NPCS. Why can't we play as those too 😖

Also, while I love the idea of Aasimar, I can just imagine the angst/comfort with a Fallen Aasimar. Maybe that's just cause I'm a SadoMasochist tho

Astarion

Oh he is so fascinated when he meets you. Thinks your wings are a bit much (if reader is a fallen Aasimar with the featherless wings then Astarion will probably comment about "There's enough brooding without you one upping me").

Debates rather to ask you for a feather. The only reason he debates it is because he doesn't want to take a piece of you away, he's had that happen to himself enough times that he doesn't want to do it to others.

I will say that Astarion probably would either get along the most or avoid a Fallen Aasimar the most just because the darkness those Aasimar carry reminds him too much of himself and his past. While it would be good to talk to someone that might have an idea of the level of trauma he has, he also would rather repress it all and act like he's fine instead.

Gale

He finds you fascinating. Of course he knows what Aasimars are and it does make him feel a bit bittersweet. I mean, here you are, a champion of the gods. And yet he can't even get a message from his own.

If you are an Aasimar with feathered wings then he'd love to have a few (maybe after you've molted or if you're willing to just part with some) to add some new quills to help him with his writing and transcribing spell scrolls in his book.

Now if you're a fallen Aasimar, that just makes him more curious. He's probably heard an unreliable telling of the fallen ones from Mystra so he'd want to hear more about your story. Maybe you both can both lament about losing your connections to your deities as well as help build each other back up because who needs those asshole gods anyway.

Halsin

Halsin has probably heard of Aasimar but has never had the pleasure of meeting one before. He finds you to be beyond beautiful. Might chuckle and make a comment about being under-dressed while in your presence.

He would love to sit down with you and learn more about what it's like to be a champion of the gods. Of course, if you're a fallen Aasimar then he can only imagine the weight and burdens you must carry, ones that he'd gladly help you carry so you don't feel so alone.

Should your wings need grooming and you trust Halsin enough, then he'd like to help. He's befriended (and sometimes bedded) quite a few winged friends that he'd be gentle and delicate with helping you take care of your wings.

Taglist:

@reo-the-leo @unhelpfulnpc

[cringefailvox]

where would alastor fit into the staticbelle au, :0 ?

staticbelle au

OKAY IT REALLY DEPENDS BC!! we still don't know exactly why alastor is at the hotel! it could be because he's there on orders from someone else, or he's there to entertain himself, or to manipulate charlie for reasons unknown, or something else entirely—and the reason will really impact whether or not he'd choose to try and get involved with charlie if she was already supported by vox. a lot of his sway over the hotel comes from the fact that it was crumbling into disrepair when he arrived and he fairy godmother'd it into a somewhat functional project, therefore winning him a ton of emotional brownie points with charlie, but he wouldn't have that opportunity at all here because i really don't think there's anything he could offer charlie that vox isn't already providing (or wouldn't be willing to START providing if it meant spiting alastor).

however. presuming instead that alastor is not at the hotel to protect or look after charlie, or help her project succeed (since these would already be satisfied by vox), it'd be fascinating if instead alastor comes back after seven years and immediately antagonizes vox into losing his shit and making charlie go "ooookay! i'm gonna have to put my therapy techniques in action because vox is clearly not over his situationship." and that's how her and alastor meet. i think she knows about the alastor thing but hadn't really seen what the problem was before he came back; everyone in hell has enemies after all, and a little healthy rivalry never hurt anyone, but seeing it in action is totally different. after the third time vox plunges the city into darkness because alastor called him an insecure freak on air she's like umm. we might need to talk about this.

she's super worried about vox because she's never seen him this upset about anything before. vox is relapsing hard into his paranoid-obsessive shit that he'd worked on really hard in the seven years alastor has been away, and now it's all rushing back and threatening to ruin everything he's built—but also, his sorta girlfriend princess independent contractor person (???) is now insisting he try to "make amends" and "practice healthy emotional regulation" and "please stop brooding over your pit of sharks with a bottle of tequila i'm really nervous about you falling in and electrocuting yourself even though i know you're waterproof, come watch a movie with me instead?" and he can't decide whether he resents it or appreciates it (both. it's both).

maybe having charlie around to redirect him and encourage healthier outlets for his anger, unlike how val and vel normally handle his radio demon bullshit, DOES actually get him to calm down a little bit. maybe even enough to reluctantly agree to supervised counseling sessions with alastor, because fucking dammit charlie has gone behind his back to talk to al about repairing their broken friendship and he was so excited, vox, you should've seen him, he practically insisted on having me arrange a meeting, i think he really regrets how things ended between you two and wants to do better, please just give it a chance?? cue the worst couple's counseling session in the universe with vox stiff as a board and shaking with repressed rage in his seat while alastor sips tea demurely across from him and asks oh-so-politely how him and charlie met, and isn't this such a charming little affair, and ooh, redemption? how interesting! charlie is eating this the fuck up, overjoyed at the thought of meeting TWO overlords interested in her plan while vox can't do anything about it but seethe and fantasize about shooting alastor in the face when charlie's back is turned.

this actually sort of turns into vox feeling protective over charlie completely without meaning to, because he knows alastor isn't being genuine, he knows he has ill intentions, and vox has invested too much time and energy and honest commitment into both charlie and her dreams to let fucking alastor destroy it all by taking advantage of her desperate need for validation. only vox gets to capitalize on her daddy issues, dammit. but there's real affection there too, reluctant and uncomfortable as he is with its existence, and it's making it extremely difficult for him to handle alastor's Everything without betraying the fact that he's become emotionally compromised and isn't just looking out for his business interests.

charlie, meanwhile, thinks she's going to get to kill two birds with one stone here: she can help vox get over / assuage a broken relationship that's clearly causing him a lot of distress, and she can rope another influential overlord into endorsing her project, which prods the door open that much further for her to enact real change in hell. but alastor isn't the same kind of monster as vox, and she might be a little in over her head this time—because she just can't stop herself from having faith in people's better natures, even when every indication is pointing the other way. it's a kind of earnest and willful naivete that's like blood in the water to people like alastor and vox. at least she knows—she hopes—vox would hesitate now. she can't really say the same for al. either way, she's going to keep trying, and it's really a race between charlie's ability to infect people with soft mushy friendship emotions by double-bluffing their manipulative plots and alastor's ability to pry people open like clamshells and inflict horrifyingly intimate betrayals on them.

(hint: charlie always wins the long-game. there's only so many times you can sarcastically banter about your feelings over scones with your archrival and your girlfriend supervising before you start actually making breakthroughs and unwillingly understanding each other. charlie has weaponized "ironically committing to the bit too hard" in her favor and it works everyyy time)

[co-mixed]

Daredevil by Chip Zdarsky Pt.1

It's not easy to sum up a run like this. Nah, it's actually pretty impossible. It's a long road with so much going on with so many faces, you have to record every single one of your thoughts. So I’m gonna go character by character, taking every arc and dissecting it. 

I have, in fact done it a while ago, right after I finished the run, but it took me some time to post it. And I wanted to make it feel more like a review but that didn't quite work out, so here it is, my essay or analysis of some of the character arcs in this run. Spoilers ahead too!

Zdarsky’s run finds Matt right after the short rehab series. And I have to talk about that a little: the truck that kicked Daredevil out of the game, poetically replaying his childhood accident, left him dealing with all the old injuries. In DD’s line of work, those tend to pile up. So the few issues were a short detour into Matt’s identity crisis as he was about to give up and had to seek help from his fellow Defenders. It was a very recovery-focused story with flashbacks and the fears that haunted him. For a man without fear, he sure has plenty of nightmare scenarios so questioning and reevaluating this status is a constant process for him. This idea circles philosophy but to me, it just reminds again and again of how much Matt Murdock depends on the way people see him. 

When Zdarsky’s run starts, Matt is already going out at night and throwing his clubs around. But he’s not exactly living his previous life anymore. Here, the status quo is fully restored after Waid’s detour and the brooding hero on the roofs in the rain is back. Well, almost back. He can’t fully heal his body or his mind so he ends up accidentally killing a man. And then Zdarsky finally pushes Daredevil into the trap that's been sprung for him ever since he killed Bullseye. At the time, I was a bit disappointed that Waid allowed Matt to walk away into a new life, never having to deal with emotional repercussions. It felt to me like he was repressing that event so hard, his entire personality had changed. While the run was good, it felt like a bizarrely loud cry for help. I felt like that was not Matt, at least not the ever-guilty martyr we all know. 

But now, here, he gets a chance to live through this hell. The beautiful part, in terms of narrative, is that Daredevil right away becomes erratic and paranoid: he goes digging through his enemy list, convinced that someone had set him up. And he fools you easily. Despite him being off his game I truly thought there was a Fisk handprint or just The Hand behind it. But you know what? No. It was just an accident. Probably caused by Matt's lack of trust in Daredevil or his not being at 100%. 

DD gets so bad, he actually ends up getting a talking to from none other than Spider-Man. Aside from the usual suspects that is. Which, think about it, all heroes have gone through trauma at one point. But compared to a spiraling Daredevil they still seem very together. Granted it's his book so the main drama has to come from him.

There’s a moment when he’s in a room with Jessica, Luke, and Danny, and he calls them all murderers, quickly correcting the ‘you’ to ‘we’. It’s like a new light in which he sees the whole superhero game: like he thought they were truly above the law because they made no mistakes. So yeah, after all these years he saw for the first time how flawed each one of them truly is. 

What he refuses to see is that they are all working through that, not dividing the world into the good and bad. Meanwhile, Matt has Daredevil on a pedestal as someone who must never allow the line to become blurry.  

Matt's disturbing as hell. And yeah, have to admit I like him more when everything is awful, simply because he always knows how to make things worse.

For a brief time, Matt hides the costume in his closet and works as a parole officer. But it turns out he is actually terrible at compartmentalizing and he's even worse at self-inflicted penance. 

I believe the culmination of his incompetence in life is an affair with a married woman. Married to a mob boss’s son. It's truly classic Matt Murdock at this point - got no one to cheat on, well, at least she does. He is Exupery’s drunkard and he's brilliant at that. He wakes up next to Mindy thinking about the terrible sin he’s committing. Gotta give her credit though, she gave him a piece of hell for making it about himself. 

And then his circle of violence as he calls it (courtesy of late Vanessa Fisk), pulls him back in again. 

He has doubts and fears about putting on the costume again and we'll, it's hard to blame him. But he still lives in Fisk’s city and the city is getting worse every day. 

When Matt came face to face with The Purple Man, he said that the thing he fears the most is hearing all the tragedy and doing nothing. Zdarsky just puts him in this reality and Matt's got no other choice than to put on the mask. Before he fully embraces it, he trains with Elektra. Did he break up with Mindy? No, of course not. He just ghosted her until she needed help. The good ol' Matt. 

But with Elektra, this time it's different (not really - she has her own plan as she always does.)  I have to admit, the more they get together the more I realize one thing - Matt really can't break up with women. They have to die, otherwise he’ll be hung up on them for years. Elektra is the love of his life no less than Karen was. She just came back from the dead, unlike Karen, and I’m pretty sure deep inside Matt thinks it's for him. Plus, she knows his identity which makes it so much easier. And she's deadly which makes her so less killable. 

But most importantly Matt’s obsessed with Elektra because she's from his past and he’s notoriously bad at moving on from his past (see Exupery's drunkard again). Here’s why I kind of root for them: I do like the adversary/lover connection they have and they exist in the same world. Can they make it work? I doubt it. 

Before I get too deep into more of Matt's disastrous relationships (and believe me you, there is more) I should refocus on the arc.

We got Matt running from the law while making adjustments so he could represent that same law. And he has an interesting new addition to the cast in the form of detective Cole North. I’m gonna talk about him later since he's one of the narrators in the run. But North is hell-bent on holding vigilantes accountable and Daredevil is his idée fixe just as he is for Fisk. 

Daredevil manages to sway North by saving his life as corrupted cops attempt to kill him and that leads to three interesting events.

One - his parolee learns that he is Daredevil. And his parolee is none other than the brother of the man he accidentally killed. 

Two - North starts seeing him as a protector rather than a criminal. But he still wants to hold him accountable. 

Three - it sets the tone for the rest of the run, showing the cracks and imperfections of the US criminal justice system.

Either way, that day Matt goes free. And when he puts on a costume again, he is convinced that now he's gonna act smart (because Elektra told him to gather information before leaping into action, duh. All that education and you couldn't figure it out on your own…) It's also a different costume and Matt even convinces everyone who’d listen and a couple people who won't, that he is now a new and improved hero who is not Daredevil at all. Yes, he actually believes it and I think it's still his desire to wash his hands off of everything connected to the accident. He thinks he sees things clearly now but it feels like he's never been more blind. Yet somehow, he will be. 

This repetitiveness becomes very noticeable when you read through run after run. It’s a very clear pattern that Matt goes through: every time something changes he makes the decision. This time… this time… this time… and it always comes back to the same conclusion. 

He immediately gets duped by Elektra into stealing money from the bad guys, of which she pocketed some. And then the bad guys rain Inferno upon Hell’s Kitchen. 

That's a fun little event during which another one of Matt's exes, Typhoid Mary, reappears: prior to that she's been therapied into a nice nun who's been helping Matt whenever he ended up in church. The first time I saw her I thought “Oh no, he's not gonna sleep with a nun…” but then, he already had. Uhm, anyway, the nice uplifting moment was the people of the neighborhood dressing up as Daredevil, turning him into a symbol. They'd been doing it for a while and some had been moderately successful too. But when the battle was won, one of them died in Matt's arms, so he turned himself in as Daredevil. 

Now that's the thing, that's where the main idea of this run starts really growing. And not because Daredevil goes to prison or refuses to fight for his freedom, but because of what's awaiting him there. It's not the superpowered villains, it's all the people he’s been sending there for years. It's such a simple thing - to take these “street level” bad guys, put them face to face with Daredevil, and tell their stories. 

Daredevil in jail is a stupid idea. Smart from the narrative point of view yet stupid for him as a person on many levels. First of all, he is doing it out of misguided loyalty to the law. He's still a lawyer after all. He's also religious but he kind of sorted that out for himself already. He says he wants to show everyone how even superheroes have to be held accountable if they step out of line. 

He wants to feel good about himself and again, a part of me thinks he wants to feel like he's better than the others: he loves that moral high ground, and whenever it shakes underneath his feet, everything around him falls apart. Mostly because he destroys it, but he doesn't focus on that. 

Cole, Kirsten (yeah, she's back too), and Foggy, they all tell him he's wrong. And they are absolutely correct too. He wants to be an example, sure, but he really needs people to see him the way they did before. It's not about his guilt, he's been forgiven in fact. 

The one big regret I have is that this run and this prison time didn't give him more therapy. Because the therapist calling him out on his usual BS was incredible. And she, along with another inmate reminded him that he's fooling himself and trying to fool others. All that makes more sense considering he still hides his identity, so whenever he chooses to leave, his crime and his time won't affect anything. None of that will ruin his life. 

The way the story leads to this social or rather political issue, it's very organic. It's something he’s been dealing with for years as both his personas: the revolving door between a police station and the streets, the poverty and desire for a better life that lead to crime, the mean streets. He's the perfect hero for this story and his flaws are most vivid here. He had both put people in jail and kept them out of it, he'd been a mayor, and he’d been accused and stood trial. But all of that he had been doing from his high horse.  

The truth in that story is grim and realistic - prison isn't helping reform anyone and only serves billionaires in their quest for more wealth. 

As Daredevil discovers that and makes a deal with the FBI, he gets released. And once again, he wants to go for that one big win. He always falls into that same trap, he always attempts to stand alone or with friends and win everything, save everyone at once. He’ll keep trying to, all the way to The Fist saga. 

But to get there, he needs to step over one considerable obstacle.

Wilson Fisk

Like I said, Daredevil and the rest live in Fisk’s city. He is still the mayor and he is going after all vigilantes and I mean all, including the Avengers. But that’s just a part of it. Fisk has an interesting story as he decides to move from the underworld politics to the real thing. He makes a decision, he retires the title of Kingpin of crime, but he forgets the one crucial part – he can’t retire his persona. He will go on to the next level with his hands still soaked in blood. And that’s something he shares with Matt: where Matt needs to be absolved, all Fisk needs is to just turn around and pretend he’s done nothing wrong.

The ironic detail is, he’s so used to doing his dirty work himself, he finds it impossible to fit in with polished high-class criminals. Politics seems like a natural next step for him but somehow the shadow games turn out to be more than he can chew. Thus the Big Bads of this run are Stromwyns - the richest people in New York. They pull the strings and even Fisk struggles with that idea. 

In all this, he has a few defining moments:

He wages war on superheroes, including mutants, which leads to X-Men Devil’s Reign

He goes to fight on the ground during Inferno (which was organized as you might have guessed or known already, by the Stromyns).

He kills Mike Murdock thinking he’s Matt Murdock. 

Oh, right I forgot to mention that Mike’s back. And he is seemingly real now, has his own arc, although still can’t escape the title of a spare Matt Murdock. 

Anyway, back to Fisk. Of course, when the time comes for reelection, Fisk wants not just to run but to guarantee his victory, which is not surprising at all. I mean take a criminal who gets a fraction of power, would they ever let go of it? In this regard, Fisk is your classic villain. And just like every other villain, he decides to cheat and use The Purple Man’s power to sway the voters. All of that leads to his ruin and retirement.

But not before he marries Typhoid Mary. Can’t call the ceremony lovely really because they both creep me out and I’d like them or at least Fisk to pay for his crimes. It’s not just the fact that he never does or it never sticks, it’s that later he’s received diplomatic immunity from Krakoa, and sure, he helped them during Fall of X and the drama with Orchis. But it’s still the same damn Kingpin. That hasn’t changed and he will return to make everybody’s life hell again. 

Why? He’s absolutely evil and we see that in a panel during Devil’s Reign. There’s no non-evil or non self-serving for him. 

Yeah, Fisk and Mary rowed off into the sunset but not before Fisk killed Mike. And really, that’s another opportunity missed by Matt. Could’ve played around scaring him in both his personas instead of going after him right away and revealing his existence. But I get it, he had other engagements including his actual engagement to a woman we all know all too well. 

I ran out of the images limit, so there is a Part Two.

[padme-amitabha]

I read your opinions on Ahsoka and while I like her I agree, I think her fandom is making me dislike her, the final straw for me was reading takes that Ahsoka was Anakin's child more than Luke ever was because he spend more time with her than with Luke despite Anakin ALWAYS aknowledged Luke as his son, I mean remember the iconic "I'm your father" scene? And how after that he always called Luke in his mind as "my son"? Anakin may had not raised Luke, but he always loved his son, ever since Padmé told him that she was pregnant he considered his baby a blessing and the happiest moment of his life, so no wonder those feelings resurfaced when he found out that Luke lived between ANH and ESB, I mean, he came to the Light for him! His baby boy. I even read a Youtube comment saying that when Anakin said Luke before dying "Tell your sister...you were right..." now it refered to Ahsoka when those words were for Leia! Yes, we know Leia sees Bail as her father and has zero connection with Anakin, but even so, those final words were for her. Canonically Anakin saw Ahsoka as much a younger sister, he always refered Luke as his son and Leia as Luke's sister and thus, his daughter. I dislike reading how people are trying to server Anakin from his family (from Padmé to now Luke and Leia) to place Ahsoka in the picture, guys, you can have both! (sorry for the rant)

I totally get it. My issue with her character mainly started from the fact that she is shoehorned into anything that involves the skywalkers. Imagine if she was in the movies, I would think her arc would be very redundant in the PT because we are closely following the Jedi masters and council as well as politicians as they are central to the plot and conflict. The fact that she wasn't in it establishes she is an afterthought. And I think she wouldn't have been so bad if she was a character with a standalone arc and story but now she's just everywhere and I disliked her introduction as Anakin's padawan because the PT establishes Anakin is quite young and flawed and its his journey we are exploring from little Ani to Darth Vader throughout the six films. He is allowed to be an innocent kid, brooding emotional teenager and also a hero. He is the Chosen One but not once is he a Gary Stu, in fact he goes through phases that annoys other characters like Obi Wan. He isn't overpowered either because we see him suffer two huge defeats in the films. He makes mistakes and the wrong choices and can be selfish at times, and other times he tries to be a good padawan and follow the rules and sometimes he disregards them, he lets others boss him around too, he is scared but wants to be a good father and husband etc etc. you get the idea. He's not perfect and that's the point and I think Hayden nails the repressed monk persona. The only reason Ahsoka was introduced was part of "fixing" Anakin's character and to make him more fun but it seems so unbelievable the council would assign someone like Anakin with an impressionable youngling (who is strangely rebellious despite having the same upbringing as the rest?). I just don't see Anakin as being a big brother to anyone or bantering with kids when he seemed understandably awkward and reserved. Also, Ahsoka's thick plot armor and her continuously inflated significance just confirms how much of a creator's pet she was and her whole character (especially when she's interacting with Anakin) feels very fanficy and the fact that she has almost zero flaws and she takes over the roles of every other important person in Anakin's life in the original story. I try not to pay attention to Filoni's pet because it just feels like pure wish fulfillment for him at this point. We could just have more of other cool female jedi like Shaak Ti, Depa, Aayla, or Yaddle as they were preexisting characters and weren't dependent on the Skywalkers for their arc - because I doubt Ahsoka would have been popular at all if she wasn't Anakin's padawan or acting like an Anakin wannabe (and getting away with it almost always while Anakin the CO was given no special treatment). At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if Ahsoka is revealed to be the new chosen one or she's some insanely overpowered demigod lol. And I mean I guess her fans like her for many reasons but she just feels like a Mary Sue to me like you know a character is doomed when a creator admits he's too attached to the character for anything drastic and openly shows favoritism. Let's be honest she is kind of a nepo baby and acts like one too in the SWU. I guess some people are just seeing her as one now but I always thought she would be a Mary Sue because even the emotional moments she has and the few hardships or "deep" moments she gets is just by interacting with the Skywalkers or just dealing with things everyone else is going through. So I don't really feel the emotional value if she tells Luke he is like her father when literally anyone else who knew him could have said that. At least characters like Boba don't rely on mentioning Anakin in everything they appear in. I don't think her arc would even be well developed if she was detached from the existing prequel characters so it's like she just reinforces the same emotions we should feel except she's supposed to be fun and badass so the audience and her fans would empathize with the events more.

Like do people even really like her screentime in Rebels except from her fight with Anakin? And that scene's so memorable because it's with Anakin, a much more realistic and developed character. It's really Anakin who carries the scene and the emotional impact. Replace Ahsoka with any other padawan and it seems like she has no inherent value. She only seems to shine in moments she is interacting with PT era characters due to the backstory and flashbacks and the rest of the time she's just a token strong female jedi character. What is Ahsoka when she is not breaking Jedi rules constantly like she's special or getting in Anakin's business or running into other characters and reminiscing about the past? I could watch a standalone show on Anakin, Padme, Obi Wan, Qui Gon, Yoda or even Dooku just in their solo adventures because they bring a slightly new perspective to the SWU and there's some room for individuality. I could be wrong maybe they explored some of her personal ambitions than being a Jedi and making Anakin proud but I'm really not interested when her role is just so interchangeable. Even Padme has an entire movie around her (TPM) where we see more about her. Despite being Anakin's love interest, we can see how she is a main character and can carry a film without any romance with Anakin. Same with Obi-Wan. He had an entire movie solving mysteries and plots while Anakin and Padme were romancing. That's why they should be the main prequel trio because its always been two force sensitives and a non-force sensitive member. Just like Han, Padme brings a new perspective and skills in the team.

I wouldn't be too bothered about such claims as they always existed. Ahsoka is closer to Anakin than Obi Wan, Padme, Leia and now more than Luke. It's sad and funny how far Filoni will bend space and time to make room for the OC. As far as I'm concerned, she doesn't exist.

This channel has some good videos on her and I highly recommend these: part 1 and part 2

[whatsaudreythinkingabout]

Idk if u d0 r0mantic headcanons but… Dating Matthew Patel headcanons

I haven’t done romantic headcanons before (at least in terms of “x reader” stuff) but I’ll give it my best shot!

Quick disclaimer: I am a lesbian who is very much not attracted to men, so I’m approaching this from a purely objective standpoint just to get a better idea of how I interpret his personality & overall approach to relationships (& it’ll also help me flesh out my MattLee headcanons so I can get a clearer idea of their dynamic in my head)

So anyway:

Dating Matthew Patel

As I mentioned in my previous post about Matt (which you can find in the tags), after what happened with Ramona he became hesitant to pursue another romantic relationship because he figured it would only end badly, so he started to play up the whole “mysterious brooding loner” schtick so people would leave him alone. Unfortunately, this only attracted him more attention because 1. he was trying way too hard so it just made him come off as overdramatic and 2. there was a select group of girls in his grade who thought he was secretly a vampire and took him rebuffing their advances as “playing hard to get” (yeah this all technically takes place before Twilight [and by extension the vampire craze] comes out but it’s my headcanon & I’m allowed to have a little fun).

If he did catch feelings for someone, he’d probably start out repressing them pretty heavily like the angsty little bitch he is. He talks a pretty big game for someone who claims they’re so slick, but when the time comes to actually tell someone how he feels he shuts down & it would probably take him a while to work up the nerve to confess.

Either that, or he’d come in overconfident with some kind of ridiculous pick-up line, then cringe at himself on the inside whenever he inevitably crashes and burns.

However, once he does finally feel comfortable enough with a partner, he would be completely and utterly OBSESSED. This man is first and foremost a theatre kid, so he is dramatic as fuck and not afraid to show it. Expect a lot of big, flashy, over-the-top romantic gestures; gifts, food (I do HC him to be a good cook), nice dates, fully-choreographed musical numbers—you name it.

It’s been said that the difference between being in love with a hero vs. a villain is that a hero would sacrifice you to save the world, but a villain would sacrifice the world to save you. Matt might be more of an edgelord than a true villain (no matter how much he claims he’s totally evil, yeah sure you are), but regardless he would burn the entire world down if it meant the person he loved would be warm.

It’s also been demonstrated that for all his big talk he has a pretty fragile ego, so he’d fall apart at the slightest indication that you were mad at him. Just totally pathetic (/affectionate) malewife guyfailure energy

Overall he acts all doom & gloom on the outside but when he does love someone, he’d both die and kill for them

honestly that’s about all i got for right now. i might come up with more later but it’s a lot easier for me to do these types of things for female characters bc women

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

what do you think megumi feels about his biological mother? she didn’t just up and leave like toji so it’s not like he hates her but he also never met her. he’s shown to be very independent from a young age but we also see that it’s not exactly natural for kids his age to not care one bit where his parents went. imo, he’s probably repressing any sort of feelings he has towards either of his parents bc it’s easier to just not deal with them.

id also like to see how megumi’s mother would react to her husband selling off their child. like she’s the one person toji fully devoted himself to and a part of that would probably include at the very least telling her small snippets of his family. she probably knew just how horrible the zenin were and then she meets her husband in the after life and learns that he not only stopped actively caring for megumi after her death but that he also would leave their son alone with random women for days at a time and add on top of that literally selling their son to his super abusive family. idc just how strong or prepared toji is, nothing could save him from her wrath.

also a very self indulgent headcannon that if megumi ever met his mother and got to know her, he’d be a huge momma’s boy. like an absolute menace to toji, a scary antisocial brooding guy to his friends and colleagues but with his mother he’s a perfect little angel who can do no wrong.

He has absolutely no idea who she is and doesn’t really think about her.

He doesn’t remember his dad all that much, let alone whether he ever mentioned his mom. He doesn't necessarily remember being with his dad, but he remembers remembering it, if that makes sense? He has some idea how he was living, and he remembers Tsumiki and her mom just being one in a long line of people his dad would barnacle onto for a brief period of time to bleed dry and move on. He thinks that Tsumiki's the first one that actually liked him. He just remembers being vaguely uncomfortable and afraid whenever his dad left him with those women.

His impression of his dad isn't "had overwhelming and devoted love for his mother." Megumi thinks that his mom was just another one of those women who would use his dad while his dad used her. His dad wanted to have a kid so he could sell him like a specially bred horse. He knocked up some random woman to do it, who probably never wanted Megumi to begin with, and the most notable thing about her is that she managed to saddle Toji with caring for megumi long term and get out herself. He doesn't know she died. He thinks she just didn't give a shit about him and left him with someone who she knew wouldn't take care of him. She's probably still alive out there and just... not caring about him.

That being said, Megumi's mother loved him with her whole heart and would kick toji's ass for selling him to the Zenin.

In whatever jujutsu afterlife there is, she smacked him senseless and gave him the cold shoulder for ages. that was her little boy and Toji fucking SOLD him? bitch. She adores Tsumiki and has become infuriatingly fond of Gojo over the years, who she considers a "nice young man" for saving her boy from the zenin. he was on thin fucking ice for a while at the start, but over the years, he's shown he really cares about her son.

Megumi would be a mama's boy you're absolutely right. He's a menace to his dad but he's very well behaved for his mom. Toji's like "he's going through some kind of rebellious phase" and she's like "psshhh no he isn't." and she's right. it's not a phase. megumi's just like that.

[rosalysaoirse]

If you're taking prompts, I've got a jealousy prompt for you (for Lokane): “name. i love you. only you. don’t forget that”

I wasn't accepting prompts, but then I thought, I haven't written for Lokane in over year, might as well give it a try. I actually had fun. Thank you so much for the prompt!! 💙💙

Based on a WIP. This would probably take place some time after the fic would have finished, maybe. Slight angst.

...

Laughter. The clinking of goblets and excited voices travelling around the large hall. A swirl of vivid colours decorate the centre; gleaming metal armours and shining silks, comingling in a dance of celebration. There’s music too; passionate beats and arousing notes. Everyone was enjoying themselves.

All but Loki. He too was attired the same, in his ceremonial armour at Thor’s behest. But he situated himself in a lone corner, staring into the crowd with a glower. More specifically at the dancing figures of his lover and the newly crowned king.

It’s loud, boisterous. It wasn’t as annoying earlier in the evening. Now it grates at him, bit by bit. The sounds, accompanied by the tapping of shoes on the polished floor, and Jane, smiling at Thor, laughing at something he said. He thinks his teeth might break with the force he’s clenching his jaw.

The song ends, and they part, Jane disappearing in the crowd with her small stature while Thor stands there an imposing figure. Loki glares at the back of his head.

It seems silly, being jealous of such a thing. They were just dancing. But a small part of him, that he never quite managed to subdue, reminds him that they used to be together. He thought that he was over it, but sometimes he fears his fancies and fantasies would remain just that and she’d leave him.

(You’re brooding, she’d say. He’d deflect with a quip.)

“I wondered where you were. What are you doing here?” Ah, there she is.

“I was counting how many goblets of mead Thor has drunk.” He doesn’t look at her yet, though he feels her come to hover at his left side. He folds his hands behind his back, repressing the urge to touch her.

Jane hums, clearly unbelieving, but Loki is a little angered. At her, himself… the doubts festering into a tight coil of despair. Why does he spiral into this misery?

“Loki.” That tone. Knowing. It vexes him. He can’t hide anything from her; the phantom specks of Aether still interwoven in her essence. “Would you tell me what’s bothering you?”

“Nothing. I just don’t want to deal with a drunken Thor.”

She moves to stand before him and he can’t avoid looking at her anymore. “And that’s why you’re brooding here?” She says with a little grin and he sighs. She grabs his hands, prying them apart and wraps them around her waist. “Why don’t you dance with me instead of sulking?”

“I’m not sulking.”

She tilts her head closer. “So you weren’t jealous?”

“No.”

He’s looking over her shoulder, but sees her frown in his peripheral. She cups his neck, her thumbs on his jawline, making him face her properly.

“Hey, what happened?”

His lips press into a thin line. He looks at her, ready to deny, but the worry in her eyes halts him. He steels himself, even as his ears turn hot.

“You were dancing with him.” She shakes her head imperceptibly, confused. “And talking to him. And laughing. You were together once.”

“And you think I could leave you for him?”

He stays silent, unwilling to lend actual words to his doubts.

“Damn, Loki. Look at me.” He looks. There’s a subtle flame in her eyes now. One that he could never sway from. It fuels her resolve, anchoring him. “I love you. Only you. Don’t forget that.”

And he breathes. It’s like… like he just needed to hear that. To brush away baseless worries and phantom fears.

(Sometimes celestial bodies encounter other objects. But orbits remain, gravity inevitable.)

She presses herself to him, face buried against his chest. His arms tighten around her; he finally lets himself feel her. They stand like that for a moment, hidden behind the golden pillars, ignoring the celebrations, the music, everything else.

Then she slowly pulls away, the smile returning to her face. “Now will you dance with me?” She asks, already tugging at his hands, dragging him with her. He follows, suddenly excited.

He takes her hands in his, the rhythm of the current song guiding him along. Bright eyes, hair half-up, flowing emerald green skirts and a radiant smile adorning her face – she is exactly how he’d imagined she’d be on his arm. She laughs as he spins her, her dress blooming around her figure like an exuberant flower. A matching smile appears on his face. He should’ve just done this from the start.

But no matter. He has all night with her.

[choctalksalot]

i think homestuck is pretty neat because all of the kids (and trolls, im using kids loosely) have this way of introducing themselves where they project an image of who they are/who they want to be, while also having a certain degree of self awareness on how much they actually embody that image. and under all of that a whole different version of themselves that they Actually Are that is usually a thousand times more lame, and more interesting because they're just kids. just a bunch of video gaming nerds. but by being those things, they're people, with flaws in places they may not expect and parts of themselves they misinterpret

so even on the things that they're self aware about, oftentimes they're also wrong about it to some degree, either by playing it up, brooding in in their flaws "i can't fix myself i am #brocken" style or closing their eyes to an underlying problem, sometimes being completely aware of it but burying it regardless

just. god !! it's so chewy. it's the basics of how any reasonably intelligent people would act and interact, i've seen it in media so many times, but there's something about how self-aware all of the kids are, how that awareness is still flawed, and how it reflects in all of their interactions that just Gets me so hard.

it might have something to do with how homestuck itself is a game about growing up. maybe it's how the narration itself embeds into the kids' perspectives and how it literally laser-shoots the image they each want to project into your head first through a mode of storytelling that is usually regarded as Correct And Trustworthy, then you get to pick and peel back each of the things they said. hold it up against their actions. the things their friends say, the things they themselves later admit, and it's still never a complete picture. nothing presented comes from a completely reliable narrator. not the characters, not even the narration itself. you have to break them down and deduce and discuss and still never have the full picture, there is always more to think about, there are always more layers to see.

they're all different degrees of aware in their self-perception and that awareness itself has different degrees of accuracy. sometimes that awareness is muddled through a separate perception of them through their ideals. it changes as they change. they understand, they repress, they dramatize and downplay and are so erringly knowing of themselves, it feels so real amongst all the utter bullshit that is homestuck itself. absolutely bonkers. real person-y thing that exists in every character everywhere to some extent but i've never been so aware of it

is layered. onion of mental illness. and when you look at them again you still see just a bunch of kids who played a game together. i think that's pretty neat

[linkspooky]

If Nanako and Nobara were to meet/interact in your fics (meaning if you were to write it, not that you need to/it’s gonna happen since it’s your story and all), how would you write their interactions?

Would they instantly click with each other? Or would they at first be hostile? Would they be best buddies?

I have a lot of thoughts on how Nobara and Nanako might interact, I will try to present them in a semi-coherent fashion, nonny.

First, Nobara is shown to form deep friendships with other girls. Her chemistry when interacting with Maki is instant. Her entire desire to go into the city in the first place is to see Saori again, plus the bullying of Saori made her hate the countryside. She had a longtime friendship with a girl at her school who had a much more timid demeanor than her so it's not like Nobara is catty or rude to other girls.

That being said, I have noticed two things one Nobara does not tend to get along with people who are too similiar to her. Maki when Nobara meets her is a lot calmer and more mature then Jujutsu Kaisen Zero Maki who had the same kind of brash attitude. In fact Maki and Nobara are similiar on the surface but I would say Nobara is high emotion and Maki spends most of her time repressing her real feelings. If you want a truly loud and abrasive person Nobara interacts with, then that's Mai, and the two of them don't get along because they are almost too similiar so they butt heads.

Nobara also is a bit of a self righteous person, she is choosey of the people she wants to be friends with, or sympathizes with. The fact that Nanako is a curse user who has hurt innocent people is something Nobara would look down upon slash disapprove of, and Nobara doesn't really care that much about whether or not Nanako has sympathetic reasons or circumstances.

Nanako is essentially someone stuck in the cycle of cursing the fortunate, because one her trauma is that bad, and two the man who raised her Geto gave her a convenient scapegoat in non-sorcerers to blame for what happened to her.

I imagine because of these reasons they would at first be hostile. Ironically, I think Mai would get along with both NanaMimiko because she hates being a sorcerer so she wouldn't see them as curse users. Despite being alligned with Geto's family, they are in every other way normal teenage girls. Nobara however, cannot see that yet so if they were to interact I think Nobara would have to learn to see the world in a more complex way.

When Nanako was being harmed by non-sorcers, she killed Non-Sorcerers to try to be strong, and protect the only family she knew in Mimiko and Geto. She's not in that situation anymore, her and Nanako are alone, and they are also Nobara's exact same age but they have lived a different more unfortunate life. Nobara post character development, would be able to use that strong sense of righteousness she has in a more balanced way, to realize the world did something wrong to Nanako and that's why she's acting that way but she can still grow into a better person.

I think just like Mai if Nobara could let go of her pre-conceptions she'd realize that Nanako is just a normal teenage girl, and one extremely similiar to her. Then, I think whatever fighting they would have would just be kind of razzing between friends. One thing is I think Nobara kind of enjoys being loud, pushing people around, Nanako is that exact same person towards Mimiko. So, them doing that at each other, they'd basically get to be their loud, bossy selves, but without fear of stepping all over someone else's feelings because if Nobara or Nanako have their feelings hurt they will just loudly tell you. I think it would be fun to have Nobara have a friend who is equally as loud, and extroverted as she is, because while I see Nobara and Mai as similiar, Mai is actually putting on a fake bad girl act and is extremely introverted and sulky. Nobara could say one wrong thing to her and Mai would like, brood about it all day. Whereas if Nobara says something wrong to Nanako, it immediately turns into a fist fight, and then they get over it and go eat crepes together. It'd also be good for Nanako too, because Mimiko is already trying to make friends outside of their family and Nanako needs to work on developing an identity seperate from Mimiko too.

Also, my ideal ending for my alternate universe fic is that if Jujutsu High is still standing by the end of the story, Junpei, Nanako and Mimiko will all find their way back to Jujutsu High and be attending as students in a reformed Jujutsu World.

[autistic-robin]

dynamics i would sell my soul to see in s5:

1. platonic madwheeler.

aside from the fact that these two are literally two sides of the same coin, i think their onscreen chemistry is a delight. they have so much in common and i feel like their repression issues are so similar. if they had one single heart-to-heart about max’s feelings for lucas you can bet your ass she’d help mike realize he’s in love with will. also— max’s perceptiveness (being in tune with/intuitively understanding other people) would really help mike beat the oblivious brain-full-of-rocks allegations. also i need them together for comedic reasons.

2. robin and jonathan + steve and argyle (with nancy supervising)

robin and jonathan’s dynamic has yet to be explored but they’re so similar that i feel like they would either be best friends or literally a hair away from ripping each other’s throats out and i need to see this onscreen for my mental stability. they’ve both got that lone-wolf, nobody-understands-me vibe and they also share the same class struggles that nancy can’t relate to or understand— i feel like even if they were enemies at first (you can’t be the dark brooding mousy-haired town pariah, that’s MY ROLE) they would warm up to each other super quickly. they’re also both really On It in terms of understanding situations/investigating shit, so. platonic dream team.

steve and argyle are also characters who’ve never been introduced and i feel like they would immediately love each other lol. they’re both himbos, both have strange homoerotic undertones in their scenes with jonathan, and they both toss their personal lives aside to be there for their friends. they also end up helping in unexpected, often unintentional ways, which is sexy of them. i feel like they would annoy the shit out of jonathan and robin and i want to see that play out. preferably while nancy glares at all of them like an exasperated mom.

3. platonic henderhop.

no thoughts just vibes with these two. all their little moments (“she’s our friend and she’s crazy!”; “teeth” *touches dustin’s teeth*; the scene in s3 where they reunite in starcourt) are precious and i wish their dynamic was more heavily explored. since they both recently lost their best friends (eddie and max) & both have survivor’s guilt, i feel like they should get a scene together talking through that pain. maybe reassuring each other that they aren’t to blame for any of it. idk man they make me emotional.

4. unhealthily codependent qpr stobin.

we simply did not get enough of them in season 4. st*ncy revival took up a good chunk of screentime that could have been dedicated to focusing on steve and robin’s friendship and i am and always will be furious about that. i think to rectify this they should make steve and robin attatched at the hip in s5. fiercely protective of one another in the way they should have been in s4, fighting tooth and nail back-to-back, saving one another. i just feel like steve’s arc needs to be about the platonic love he’s found after leaving tommy and carol in s1, and giving these two the attention they deserve would be a great way to show that to the audience.

5. joyce-hopper-murray polycule.

need i say more.

6. stonathan.

give them closure god damn it. let them talk everything out. maybe even give them a few questionable scenes like the ronance ones in s4… just. heavy implication. it’s what they deserve.

7. will and max.

platonic will and max are to platonic mike and el, which is why i feel like this duo would be unstoppable together. soft gentle secret badass + hard-edged fiery secret softie? that’s a five-star dynamic right there. they would kick ass together, they would bully mike together, they would fight the patriarchy together and i really believe that. also the fact that they’ve both been face-to-face with vecna and really experienced the horrors of the upside down could give them a deep understanding of one another and i think that’s something that deserves to be explored— especially since they’re also both abuse victims.

8. platonic elmike.

i want them to break up amicably and gently and lovingly. i want el offering mike the non-judgemental acceptance he desperately needs. i want mike apologizing profusely to el, and finally being able to love her without the hero-worship once he realizes he only loves her platonically. i want their connection to only be elevated and deepened by this understanding and closure. also i want el to softlaunch byler. that is all.

9. lucas and steve.

their mom stances are the same. steve came to lucas’ basketball games. they are both himbos. please give them screentime and further establish lucas as an important part of steve’s found family PLEASE!!!

10. nancy and mike.

what happened to their i-hate-you-but-i-would-kill-for-you sibling bond in s1? what happened to “no more secrets”? all i want is for nancy and mike to have a meaningful, in-depth conversation about their home lives, and hiding things, and not being able to love people the way they want to. and being scared to death of losing the people they do love. i want mike reassuring nancy that barb didn’t die because of her, and i want nancy reassuring mike that he won’t lose will. i also want them to glare pointedly at their dad together.

12. steve and el.

this dynamic is really unexplored and i feel like these two are paralleled so often that it would be criminal not to see them interact. a possible scenario i’d love to see: el post-finale going to steve for romantic advice (because that’s what all the kids do throughout the show) and confessing that mike hasn’t been able to tell her he loves her. steve assuring her that it’s okay, but that she should focus on being independent. that sometimes friendship and family can matter even more than a romantic relationship. that sometimes, people we think we love romantically are actually just people we really care about. and that being their friend instead of their partner doesn’t weaken that bond at all. and then el looking pensive, thanking him, and then immediately asking how he got his hair to grow out so long.

[phoenixyfriend]

When Obi-Wan gets to AotC, there's also about two dozen Anakin clones on-site. They're all girls because... IDK Anakin is trans. They have a hive mind and are developmentally a few years younger than Anakin himself.

It's incredibly unsettling to Obi-Wan.

It's almost definitely a "fuck with Anakin's already fragile mental health" ploy by Palpatine, along with a "what if Jedi Black Widows, for me, a Sith Lord. Wouldn't that be neat? That would be neat."

Anakin is torn between "this freaks me out" and "GANG OF BABY SISTERS LET'S GOOOOOOO."

(I just finished reading Like Real People Do by glimmerglanger, so this is definitely inspired by that and the obligatory 'lay back in bed and daydream variations on plot points of that fic you just really enjoyed,' and also a little by Same Heart, Same Blood by loosingletters.)

They're physically like 14-16 on average, and Anakin's vibrating out of his skin with a million conflicting emotions, but when he tells Padme she's just like "oh, you have a handmaiden gang!"

I told this to @willowcrowned and she suggested:

Once Anakin decides to repress the part of him that’s weirded out and just regard them as baby sisters he gets. A little strange about it The first time one of them dies he may or may not slaughter every person he can [in response to Padme's comment] Anakin starts worrying that he needs to get them cool matching outfits

I also chatted about it with @firebirdeternal and they said:

Gang of Unsettling Smol Siblings is exactly the Karma that Anakin deserves

Do you think the Clones have a kind of Collective Name that they use at first that eventually just kind of morphs into a new last name? Skysisters or something? Like Palpatine was trying to be clever and name them like the Nightsisters.

I initially went with "functionally one person" hive-mind but I'm torn.

I think maybe they're BASICALLY one person on Kamino but drift into Separate Consciousness once they're far enough apart physically that their minds don't blend from proximity anymore.

Then they start Dating (like half of them are dating Fett clones because they grew up with these dudes, it's like childhood friends romance), and Anakin loses his mind about Protecting Them and They're Too Young.

Padme: You're nineteen and we just got married, they can date. Anakin: THEY'RE EIGHT. Padme: And the Fett clones are ten and dying for us in the field. Get them rights before you panic about their love lives.

Firebird:

it could be worse, one of them could imprint on Obi-Wan. "Anakin I promise I won't yell at you for the next five stupid things you do if you can figure out a way to stop this baby from having a crush on me" (I like the idea of Obi-wan bargaining not with "I won't be mad at you ever" because they Both Know That's Not True, and instead haggling with specific allowances. Like he's handing out Stupidity Coupons)

Please imagine Mace and Obi-Wan's personal responses to the idea of suddenly having to deal with not one, not two, but OVER TWENTY SKYWALKERS.

Plo is delighted to take one off their hands.

So is Yoda.

Willow:

Mace is like. okay suicide isn’t the Jedi way but on the other hand. i physically cannot deal with this Yoda: a skywalker, you say? one who is tall enough to reach the top shelf, you say? such a skywalker, bring me

Anakin would be given at least one because fuck you, suffer with us, but he's still a padawan so Ugh, fine, no.

I want to say one stays on Coruscant to hang out with the Guard, and ends up half-adopted by Padme. She keeps dressing up the Aniclone left with her in handmaiden outfits and sending selfies to Anakin.

"Hanging out with the little SiL!"

Anakin has so many issues about WHEN his genetic material was acquired.

And there's some confusion from the Fett clones about how much of a hive mind is normal for Jedi. They are confused that the answer is basically none, and "this is WHY nobody clones a Jedi"

ONE OF THEM STEALS BOBA FROM THE ARENA ON GEONOSIS.

Firebird:

"I have followed in our progenitor's footsteps and acquired a sibling." holds up a struggling Boba "He bites."

Willow:

Ooooo okay so if they have a sort of hive mind then they probably don’t have names other than their designations on Kamino right BUT When they SEPARATE The one that picks Boba up on Geonosis gets a name specifically for that. Okay what if the one Padmé picks up gets some variant on ‘pretty’ because she’s always being dressed up BELLE Maybe Yoda’s Ani has a name that means thief? Because obviously Yoda is using Anakin to steal sweets

So, to make the timeline work...

I don't think anyone would give Anakin one of his sisters until after he's knighted at least.

So obviously when they're doing initial placements none of the sisters go to him or Obi-Wan.

Once he's knighted, of course they're already all placed with someone, and Anakin instead gets Ahsoka. He loves Ahsoka. She is also a little sister. He said so.

At some point afterwards, one of the sisters is left without a place because the Master that was in charge of her died in the field battle.

That sister then gets placed with Obi-Wan, because he's already mostly-successfully raised one Skywalker, so he can do it again.

Anakin gets to hang out with her basically all the time.

Ahsoka is very very jealous of this girl stealing Anakin's attention.

Anakin is oblivious to the rivalry.

He asks Barriss to look after them while he's discussing Adult War Things with Luminara and Obi-Wan, and Barriss gets an eye into This Mess, which is quickly colored by Ahsoka growing a puppy crush on the lovely Miss Offee herself.

Firebird:

Ahsoka: Ah yes, my nemesis. Anisister: Ah yes, my new older sister whom I want to impress so bad.

"I will impress her by being Stoic and Competent" "Oh my god she must think she's so much better than me what a bitch"

Anakin is oblivious to most things to be fair Anakin: Laser focused precision fighting machine who can read the tiniest body movements and predict your moves seconds in advance, who also cannot understand even the most basic social nuance. I was originally writing this as to Dunk on Anakin but then I made myself sad, because none of those things are really his fault.

So you know that post about like, Sasuke and Brooding, specifically in the context of "Brooding" as it's used to refer to Nesting Chickens? Grouchy and protective and sitting on a tennis ball trying to hatch it because they're just. "These are my Babies." Anakin Broods. Baby sisters. Must protecc. "I'm actually fine and extremely deadly in combat." "MUST PROTECT."

Bad Guy: [catches Ahsoka in a Trap] Aniclone: Must rescue sister! Aniclone: [fights, is not winning fight, gets ouched] Ahsoka tearing her way out of Trap: I lived bitch. Also: stay the fuck away from her. [murders so hard]

Ahsoka catches the Protective Older Sib feels by the traditional method: "Hey, only I'm allowed to be mean to them."

Willow:

Oh Anakin has no clue what’s going on. He walks in on Ahsoka glaring at the Ani and is like!!! Little sisters!!! Bonding!!! When Ahsoka was about three seconds away from tossing her out of the airlock. Ahsoka mistakenly assumes that Barriss has a crush on the Ani, and gets even MORE jealous.

Obi-Wan is like oh god. I can’t take care of an Anakin going through puberty again. He’s great with periods and other stuff because he read about a billion books. He is TERRIBLE with everything else, as he was the first time.

Barriss is like???? YOU'RE BOTH CHILDREN, PLEASE CALM DOWN, I HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN DATING ANYONE, LET ALONE SOMEONE YOUR AGE.

IDK how old Obi-Wan's Aniclone is, probably physically the same age as Ahsoka?

Per @atagotiak on discord:

Also something something, similarities btw Anakin and Obi-Wan where like. "Am I a parent? That seems uncomfortable, I'm too young to be a dad to a kid this age, I mean I'm cool with being a mentor/caretaker but..."

Obi-Wan can't even sidestep parenthood this time.

"Is Anakin basically your dad?" "Uhhhhhh" [Muffled discussion] "So Obi-Wan is your dad." "Okay!" "WAIT NO I DIDN'T AGREE TO THIS"

Ahsoka: She's stealing my brother, that BITCH. Obi-Wan's Aniclone: new sister new sister new sister gotta make a good impression

Firebird:

I feel like the Sister Squad would make very effective interstellar espionage agents Even like, kind of by accident. They just get encouraged to branch out in their interests and figure out what they want to do with their lives and end up all over the dang place, and since they're all pretty dang competent they tend to gravitate towards Important Positions wherever they end up. Except for one sister who just retires to raise Space Sheep.

I like that in this AU Palpatine is just like "I will create an army of Loyal Murderers who will obey my every whim and also be a big psychological lever on my Other Pet Murderer," and then they all just Baby Duckling imprint on the first Jedi to be nice to them instead and he has to just be like "Wait no not like that."

AND one of them Steals Boba

I want Obi-Wan's Aniclone to start dating Fives. All the sisters judge her for it, because he's a Goof. A very competent, ARC Trooper goof! But a goof.

Not as goofy as Anakin, though.

Firebird:

Who expects a clone of Anakin Skywalker to not make questionable lifelong romantic choices impulsively?

[idabbleincrazy]

Damage (A Missing Scenes Ficlet)

Chapter One: Scarred

Fandom: Angel (Buffyverse)

Rating: M

Pairing: Spangel (implied)

Word Count: 1453

Warnings: angst, some teasing, missing scene fic, ep 5x11, two repressed idiot vampires who just won't admit they want each other 🙄

Summary: Angel gives in to his repressed feelings, sort of, and offers Spike an alternative to staying in the medlab while he heals.

A/N: this will be a two part piece, with smut of some kind in the second.

Spike stared down at his useless hands as the lull in their conversation drew out, unsure of what to say in the light of this temporary truce they seemed to be in. He’d expected Angel to start pestering him to get dressed and out of the building. He’d expected vitriol spewed at him, another attempt to make him see he was unwanted here, to leave and stay gone. He hadn’t expected Angel to actually make an attempt at comfort, hadn’t expected his quiet words of understanding, the acceptance and agreement. Their masks of hatred had slipped, and he didn’t quite know how to take that next step.

Angel watched Spike’s bowed head, his mind swirling with thoughts he wished he could banish. Images of that filthy factory basement flashed through his mind, Spike’s detached arms thrown carelessly across a cluttered worktable, his Childe drugged and bleeding out, chained up and defenseless as Dana loomed over him, ready to hack him to dust. He’d almost lost him. He’d pushed him away to keep him safe, and yet he still almost lost him. He should have known better. He should have known Spike, his Will, would continue to be obstinate, would be unable to completely ignore the soul crying out within him, and would ultimately end up playing the hero yet again. It was foolish to try to send him away, to pretend to ignore what would always exist between them.

He’d smelt the anger, fear, and underlying arousal that had wafted off his Childe last week when he’d saved him from the Silminth demon. He had even given in to his intense loneliness and tempted Spike to stay, uncertain of where he’d wanted it to lead if the blonde had acquiesced. He just knew that, after all those hauntingly real dreams, after being pulled from that final fantasy of peace, he’d opened his eyes to find Spike looming over him and the smell of male desire in the air, and he just wanted to hold the blonde, to be held in return. He’d wanted comfort, and company, he wanted to give in and keep his Childe by his side, where he belonged.

And, now, the hospital room reeked of guilt, pain, and sadness, mostly wafting off of Spike, but some of it his own, too. They had been innocent victims themselves, once. Hell, William had been innocent enough, for a vampire, before Angelus had molded him into the perfect predator. Until he had made him into a vicious companion who needed him more than his own Sire. He had made William, the soft, sweet poet, into William the Bloody, and by default, Spike, once his attentions had begun to wane, sparking the young vampire’s reinvention of himself. Just as Darla had twisted and freed the demon within him, he had done the same to Spike, pushing him to new heights of depravity and cruelty. And, now, they were both paying the price for the monstrous things they’d done.

He pushed aside his brooding thoughts, always time for that later, and broke the drawn-out silence with the one thought he knew would perk Spike up some. He needed the younger vampire in at least somewhat better spirits than he currently was if Angel were to accomplish what he'd come down here for.

“You know, there was an awful lot of arousal wafting off that Andrew kid back in the conference room, you sure nothing happened between you two?”

“Jealous, Peaches?” Spike smirked halfheartedly up at Angel, wary of where this conversation was headed, but touched somewhat that his Grandsire had been paying enough attention to even notice. “Kid’s harmless enough these days, he’s jus’ got a bit of a fangirl in ‘im, ‘s all. Reckon the bloke’s always needed someone to idolize, an’ I just happened to be the closest one around for him to imprint on after the last one went south of cheese. That Warren bastard fucked with his head for a bit, as did The First. Think he’s stayed on with Giles and company in hopes of makin’ up for the damage he helped cause the last couple years.”

“Not so different from you, then,” Angel teased, grinning.

“You take that back!” Spike shuddered at the thought and glared up at Angel, lips pouting and rather spoiling the fearsome look he was aiming for. “I was never that pathetic, mate, don’t you ever-”

“Calm down, Spike, before you rip your stitches.” Angel firmly grasped Spike’s arms to stop his angered gesticulating, slowly setting his useless hands back in his lap. “I was only kidding, I wasn’t trying to upset you...this time.”

“Yeah, alright. ‘Sides, Andrew’s seeming li’l crush must not be as big as all that anymore, blighter didn’t come visit ‘fore he flitted back across the pond.”

“Uh, sorry?”

“Bloody hell, don’t be! I’m not. Little brat got right annoying most the time, never knew how to shut up...well, you saw, all that blatherin’ on, comparing us all to Vulcans and Hobbits and all that rot.”

Angel bit his tongue to keep from pointing out how Andrew wasn’t the only one with the tendency to talk too much; Spike’s arms would still take another few hours to heal enough for the stitches to become unnecessary, the nerves in his hands longer still, and he really didn’t want the younger vampire to risk making it worse. Leaning over Spike like this, he felt the strong urge to kiss the petulant vampire, to move those last few inches and press his lips to the blonde’s pouting ones. Clearing his throat, he straightened up, gearing himself up to broach the other matter he'd come to address.

"Look, the doctor spoke to me earlier, they wanna keep you overnight, for observation." Spike's eyes widened, half in anger, half in fear, and Angel held up a hand in placation as he opened his mouth to speak. "I tried to tell him you wouldn't agree to it, but he insisted on keeping you monitored, so I pulled rank, made him come to a compromise."

"More bloody compromises. So, what's it to be then?"

Angel hesitated, mentally kicking himself for putting them in this position in the first place. He knew Spike wasn't going to be very happy with either option, he just had to make one sound marginally worse than the other.

"Well?"

"You either stay here, hooked up to all these machines, staff poking their heads in on you every couple hours…or, you stay up at the penthouse for the night. You can stay in the guest room, and, hey, at least the blood will be better than here; none of that chemical taste."

"Christ, you sure you can't just have one o' your lackeys drive me home and pretend you kept me locked up?"

"No, Spike." Angel looked away, mumbling and rubbing the back of his neck. "Besides, they're not the only ones who wanna make sure you heal right."

Spike's eyes widened fractionally, the soft haze of the pain medication leaving him unsure if he'd really heard Angel correctly, or if he was just hearing what he wanted to hear. Sighing, he shuffled closer to the edge of the hospital bed and swung his legs over the side, cursing his misfortune as his fingers failed to keep their grasp on the blanket.

"Fine, then. Mind handing me my clothes? This gown ain't closed at the back, an' I don't much feel like flashin' my arse to the night staff."

"Um, they had to cut off your clothes while you were passed out, for the surgery. I've already got you some new ones upstairs."

Spike cursed again.

"Son of a - tell me they didn't fuck with my jacket!"

"No, no, your duster's safe. Your boots, too. Here," Angel shrugged off his own jacket and handed it to Spike, who, after a bit of struggle, pulled it on over the hospital gown. "Come on, then."

Angel helped Spike up from the bed, holding tightly to his arm as he fought against the numbing effects of the drugs they’d pumped into him. Once he was standing firmly on his own, he shrugged Angel’s hand off, wanting but not wanting to want the feel of the brunette’s touch on him, and slightly embarrassed to be needing his help at all.

Angel led Spike through the medical level, biting back a groan and tamping down the flare of arousal that spread through him at the sight of Spike's pale, lean, legs and bare feet as they made their way up to the penthouse. God, it was going to be a long night, but at least he'd be able to keep a close eye on his injured Childe.

~~~~

All Things Spike: @leatafanfiction @captain-peroxid3

[atwas-gaming]

You're onto something here. A person can't feel the feelings of others when they can't feel their own feelings. And Sonic is notorious for his repression.

We also see low empathy in SA2, when Sonic walks in on Shadow's brooding and starts making jokes; and at least twice in Frontiers: once when he can't understand why Amy's so focused on the koco's plight, and again when Tails has to snap before Sonic realizes his little brother's been slowly torturing himself for a very long time.

Sonic has a very dangerous lifestyle. Hero-ing is a very dangerous lifestyle. And of course, his friends are heroes, too. I don't think Sonic is low empathy by nature. He might be, but I'm more inclined to think that the reason he doesn't reminisce and get sentimental and what-not is because he can't afford to. He probably realized long ago that thinking about either the past or the future is too distracting, preventing him from focusing on the tasks in the present.

This makes for a good hero, and I'm not saying Sonic's not a good person, but it's also given him some glaring personality flaws, such as impatience (because boredom means you're alone with your thoughts and feelings, which would be almost unbearable for someone like Sonic) and vanity (because he has to focus on his good points to the exclusion of his bad points in order to stay focused on the present).

Interestingly enough, while Sonic may be low empathy (unable to feel the feelings of others), he is also incredibly compassionate, caring, and loving. His entire focus (except for his chili dogs XD ) is the well-being of others. We see this a lot with Sonic and Chip.

(I especially love the Holoska scene. Sonic notices immediately when Chip starts fading.)

We see this in Chao in Space.

We see this in Adventure when he calls Amy "a pain" and then immediately runs into Twinkle Park after her. And we see it in Black Knight when he stops to help what he thinks is a lost little girl, as well as all the missions where he has to give gold to the villagers.

He doesn't feel what others feel, because he doesn't ever stop to consider his own feelings at any point in time. He can't. He can't afford to. He has to conserve both time and energy to saving others. "This person needs help, so I'm going to help them." Or maybe, "There's a really bad person here doing really bad things, I have the ability to stop them, so it must be my job to stope them." That's it, that's as far as it goes. Even if it means potentially killing himself in the process.

So yeah, I think Sonic is low empathy. That doesn't mean he doesn't care. He's the kind of guy that forgets the little stuff, because little things don't matter so much to him, because he can't afford to get sentimental. But he cares about the big stuff.

Ah! I almost forgot- Murder of Sonic is a great example! He forgot Amy's birthday cake, and it bugged him like crazy, because Amy's his friend and the birthday cake was his job and he cares about both Amy and about doing his job. And with Espio, we see Sonic teasing Espio repeatedly about the dart, until Espio continues apologizing sincerely, at which point Sonic (presumably) becomes uncomfortable and basically tells him to forget it.

this scene is literally the perfect demonstration of sonic's low empathy and i'm going to do my best to try and explain why

let's start with some definitions: empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. this is different from sympathy, which are feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune, and is often confused with compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering

now, to break down the scene:

sonic: "amy, you better not be tricking me into the water again."

amy: "no trick, sonic. trust me. you're gonna love it. okay, open them! ta-da!" [she presents the palm tree]

sonic: "you got me... the palm tree? so it is a trick."

amy: "no, sonic, it's not a trick."

here is where sonic's low empathy begins to present itself. he's confused about the gift because there's nothing necessarily gift-like about the tree that stands out to him. he takes the gift literally, and proceeds to tell amy that he already has a palm tree, gesturing to a few nearby. he isn't able to pick up on why amy feels that the tree is so important, demonstrating a lack of cognitive empathy (knowing how the other person feels and what they might be thinking)

amy: "the gift isn't just the tree. it's all the memories we've made around that tree."

in an effort to try and help sonic understand the significance of the tree, they all share a fond memory that happened there.

amy: "yeah, really good times. right, sonic?"

sonic: "come on, guys, don't you think you're all being a little too... i don't know... sentimental? look, i get it. tree. friendship. memories..."

what sonic is now showing here is a lack of affective empathy (being able to read and feel other people's emotions). he is not trying to be insensitive here, rather, it's just that he genuinely can't understand why they feel so strongly about this one tree

this next bit isn't about the clip but it's something i wanted to point out in relation to it:

sonic wasn't able to understand the significance of the tree until thorn had bluntly asked him what he knew about togetherness. it took him being in a position where he had to question his understanding of the word to realize that it was the tree bound them all together

it's important to note that he didn't have this realization as a result of the feelings of others, but as a result of his own personal reflection. this is because of his low empathy

hope this helps ✌️