#who i just called variations of ‘baby’ nd ‘child’ bc why not

[xxlady-lunaxx]

When Tanjiro found out sanemi had a child he made a comment along the lines of “what type of woman likes a man like that” but when he found out it was shinobu’s sister he instantly regretted his comment

what the fuck i’ve been thinking abt sanekana all day HWO DID YOU KNOW hmmghghghdv guys kanae’s dead js bc i can

Tanjiro looked like a child found guilty of taking the cookies when Shinobu popped up almost on cue, holding a small child in her arms. Sanemi instantly smiled at her, taking the baby and turning to Tanjiro with a malicious glint in his eye.

“Hi, little one,” Sanemi murmured to the little bundle in his arms, offering his hand which was instantly pulled down by little tiny ones. “We were just talking about you.”

“Oh, Kamado-san?” Shinobu said, glancing at him.

“…Hello, Kocho-san,” Tanjiro mumbled, casting his eyes down.

“Hello. What were you two talking about?” Shinobu asked curiously, swatting away Sanemi’s hand as the baby attempted to eat his fingers.

“Coincidentally, we were talking about you. Or, well, Kanae,” Sanemi hummed. He moved from Shinobu’s reach, letting the child continue to create a mess of his hand.

“Ah, yes,” Tanjiro agreed quickly. “But I should be going now…”

“No, no, stay,” Sanemi insisted. “You wanted to know about my daughter, right? And her mother?”

Tanjiro bit his lip, nodding slowly. “Uhm. Yes.”

Shinobu smiled gently. “My older sister was the mother.” She gave Sanemi a brief, but furious glare, before turning back to Tanjiro. “Why did you ask?”

“He was questioning Kanae’s… ah, taste,” Sanemi said, rolling his eyes. He booped his daughter’s nose and she smiled widely. “I don’t think he believed she did this willingly.”

Shinobu frowned. As much as she had… disliked Kanae and Sanemi’s relationship, he could count on her on being on his side. After all, she trusted Kanae’s decisions and eventually had grown to trust Sanemi as well.

“Kanae knew what she was doing, I believe,” Shinobu said to Tanjiro, who was turning very red at the moment. “Shinazugawa-san was very kind to her. He can be, when he wants to.”

Tanjiro spluttered. “Yes, I apologize, I’m sorry,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean that… I didn’t know it was her, before…”

Shinobu hummed. “If it had been without mutual agreement, Shinazugawa would not be standing here right now.”

Sanemi sighed. “No, I wouldn’t,” he agreed.

“Yes, I’m sorry-“ Tanjiro mumbled. He bowed deeply, chanting out apologies until Shinobu waved him off. When he left, she turned to Sanemi, giving him an irritated look.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

Sanemi shrugged. “He started it.”

“You idiot.”

[flowisk]

hey i'm here to talk about claptrap again. i love him. anyway what i wanted to ask is why so many people in fandom infantilize him so much? (i once saw someone said "claptrap don't swear you're a baby!") like :/? i mean he.. often talks about mature stuff, but idk (i actually know, that's because he is autistic but still)

man i know i had some debates with myself at first with claptrap, bc like, he’s like, 7 (prob 8 now?) and robot age is weird (and i was interested in the thought of ‘upsettingly mature kids’) but. I don’t see much critical thought/actual debate about that aspect of his character. I had a debate with myself early on bc it’s like… I was mostly thinking about robot ages/how they would line up in comparison to human ones.

Anyway, it seems to me he is definitely intended to be an adult (you wouldn’t make the kind of fucked up sex + booze jokes we get about claptrap otherwise) +  (interestingly, we have a section of Claptastic Voyage that is sort of devoted to his ‘childhood’ and earliest memories, which is just…. super interesting development wise). He’s older than LB and Gortys too, and is the oldest robot we know in series. Actually, since Gortys’ age is confusing (’older than she looks’), I think LB might be the youngest of prominent robots in the series. So if we were going to talk about the robots based on age alone, LB is the ‘babiest’ but isn’t the kind of character who gets infantilized even though I have read some interesting nd meta on him too. (I think this is personally interesting as someone who loves LB tho… Loader bots probably don’t get to live very long and develop, and that’s part of why their ranks have been cut down in the past by Hyperion - that’s another topic for another day)

I feel people really infantilize Claptrap… no matter what you can’t really view him as a baby, and we kind of get two variations of Claptrap… either he’s a baby or he’s annoying and not worth attention. Tbqh I’m happy when people say ‘anything’ positive about him but there’s a lot of… infantilization and… underestimation? of Claptrap as a character, or just… assumptions the dude is happy with whatever when he has clear topics he’s irritated about. Like, even less than an infant, I sometimes feel people go the (bad bastion meta) route and treat him like a dog… Like there’ll be posts about how Claptraps could be great support for people. Like support animals. and it’s like… well. Claptraps are people so… that’s super uncomfortable.

I do feel Claptrap actively has some kind of insecurities as someone who… doesn’t have many close figures in his life. So in BLTPS, with a younger Claptrap, we kind of get some maternal moments with Athena or Janey (even tho he’ll also call Athena hot) bc like… Claptrap doesn’t have people in his life, and is I guess, comparatively younger than them. We also definitely get this abusive parental lean to his relationship with Jack because there’s a few comments about Jack being his dad or Jack referring to himself as Claptrap’s ‘daddy’ and belittling him. None of this makes him younger (Angel is belittled by Jack and treated as a child despite being a young adult), but I do wonder if Claptrap seeking out comforting/nurturing relationships makes him more prone to infantilization… Think there’s a high chance of that being true. He seeks out a parental attention he lacked in his development, which is, something he does as a mentally ill adult in canon I think. (since claptrap has other things going on aside from being autistic there too… definitely a big recurrent theme of neglect in claptrap’s life)I think probably, there’s an in-game issue with infantilizing Claptrap too, and that heavily contributes to it… the game itself does some… hm. kind of weird childish imagery with claptrap at times and… I think it’s because borderlands as a series doesn’t take him too seriously tbqh ._. So even in canon, we sometimes get the… ‘these traits = childish’. So I guess it’s ultimately a combination of … people don’t think very in depth about Claptrap + take some elements at surface value + the game handles him a bit unevenly sometimes.also thanks to @necromin who helped me w some thoughts + contributed some.