#words in answer

[wordsandrobots]

What are your thoughts on the relationship between Mineva and Haman and whether or not Haman cared for her beyond being a political puppet? SRW V put forth the idea that Haman may have had some genuine care for her and leaves Mineva with a lot of conflicting feelings on who was essentially family to her

Hmm.

So I was struck when I was rewatching Zeta episodes for the analysis of Haman that one of the first things she says about Mineva that isn't official-speak is calling the seven year old puppet-queen a coward.

I don't think there's any question that Zeta shows Mineva holding affection for Haman. It's very clear she is by far the most trusted figure in her life. But we are also told, almost immediately, that Haman has little sympathy for her over what is a fairly natural response to violence breaking out among the adults surrounding her. Later, Mineva says that Char understands her better than anyone else, which is interesting and ironic, but also points to her dependence on Haman having its limits.

Nevertheless, Mineva goes out of her way to defy Haman's instructions in order to return to the battlefield and share a warning when things spiral out of control. And Haman is surprised, evidently not for the first time, by the child's perceptiveness. So their relationship is not as simple as Mineva dancing to a tune set by her guardian. She has her own will and desires, and if those are a problem for Haman, there's no sense that she is overly restrictive of Mineva beyond what would be expected of the girl's position (etiquette, public relations, towing the party line - honestly, Char's reaction is at once valid and wildly naive).

Indeed, I think it's important to bear in mind that Haman's style of leadership is just generally quite publicly pleasant to those around her. I don't mean she never raises her voice or gets sharp, but rather that she has a very firm, very level, very confident persona that doesn't ever descend into you have failed me for the last time type excesses. She might brainwash and manipulate people on her side, but she doesn't get directly abusive to their faces (unless they prove themselves her enemy, at which point all bets are off). One of the reasons the break in Dakar works so well is because Judau scares her enough to drop the act and barrel furiously through her guards.

It's not really a surprise, in context, that Haman would be relatively kind to Mineva. That's the smart choice, especially since it is vitally important she control someone who, though young, outranks her. Mineva can simply decide to go off with a bunch of random kids, or move around on her own, or send Haman a bowl of (presumably expensive) fresh fruit as a gift, and there's not a lot anyone can do to contradict her. If there were, the entire underpinning of Neo Zeon society would collapse. You don't get to argue with the monarchy.

Under these conditions, it's also not a surprise Haman would swap the real Mineva out for a more pliable double when she needs to start making big moves (checking the Wiki, it asserts that Char took her away after the Gyps incident, but I don't think that's necessarily the implication from the end of ZZ - certainly it's never stated outright why Haman replaces her and the double must have been prepared ahead of time). We really have extremely little material where the real Mineva is interacting with Haman. Everything in Gundam ZZ has to be assumed to be the double, who we know doesn't believe Haman cares about her. We can additionally assume Haman preserving the double's safety is about maintaining the illusion, because if she doesn't, her authority is in jeopardy. She's already got Glemy true-Scotsmanning his way into a Zeon schism; she can't afford to lose her status as regent because it looks like she lost the queen.

So where does that leave Haman's feelings towards the real Mineva?

In my opinion, we're given too many reasons to read Haman's actions as cynical to attribute any of them to genuine affection. Haman is defined by her loneliness and there's nothing in their interactions to suggest Mineva does anything to ease that. I don't see how she could, given she is so thoroughly embedded in the structure Haman is subverting. Mineva is a figure, first and foremost, her actual personality and feelings secondary to her status as the thing to be controlled in order to achieve a certain result.

I think Hamann is presented as showing genuine care for Mineva, but the implied motivations are always self-serving and based on what would make life easiest. Quite often, the best means of getting what you want is to be nice about it.

And that would surely still leave Mineva with a lot of complicated feelings to work through. Heck, one of the things I would genuinely love to see as a UC spin-off (even though I think the franchise is massively over-saturated with tUC spin-offs) would be a follow-up focused on Mineva and her double getting to have a conversation about Haman. We never found out what happened to that other girl and it feels like a big missed opportunity.

Anyway, those are all the thoughts I currently have. Thanks for the ask!

[thatsbelievable]

[night-orchids]

the fact that you can see the exact moment tears appear in his eyes

[akanemnon]

We didn't even get an answer, and we never will (at least it's not determination)

FIRST - PREVIOUS - NEXT

MASTERPOST (for the full series / FAQ / reference sheets)

[savanir]

You shouldn't summon a Ghost King

Danny had felt the weird tug to the entirety of himself and instantly knew he was finally actually getting summoned for the first time. 

He'd winced through the whole process, knowing he should have listened to Clockwork and changed the requirements now that he was Ghost King... but even though Clockwork had seemed pretty serious about it, it just... kept slipping Danny's mind.  Listen, it's not that he didn't want to! executive dysfunction is a bitch alright, and it sounded like boring ghost paper work.

And it's been like... months now, maybe even a full year, maybe even longer. People don't really summon the Ghost King apparently, and Danny has been busy! He has school, he's trying really hard to get his grades back up. At some point he just completely forgot about it. 

He's really regretting not taking it as seriously as he probably should have now that he's randomly on top of a skyscraper in some massive city he doesn't recognise. And the city is... for a lack of better words, on fire. 

He can feel the suffering he can hear the screams, there is pain, chaos and fear all around him. Like a physical force pressing down on him.

The sickening part of it all is that he feels stronger than ever like someone injected him with 50 energy drinks directly into his veins but at the same time his stomach is recoiling violently, extreme jitters but not in a good way, absolutely nauseous. 

He's not really listening to whatever is going on directly around him on that roof, that's all far in the distance somehow, maybe he's disociating, maybe something else other ghost thing is going on, but Danny is just floating there in full king regalia. 

All he cares about it is snatching the weird creepy looking grimoire and getting some answers. 

And answers he gets because its very clearly stated in there that the Ghost King (Pariah Dark) wants a tribute to himself. Whomever deigns to summon him must prove willingness to his cause. Aka the whole conquering and genocide and tyranny thing. 

Over five hundred deaths would probably do but over a thousand was preferred, even more was obviously even better. That would show dedication and earn favour and- blah blah blah. 

Danny thinks he's going to throw up. 

It doesn't help that that's when the heroes show up and Danny is very clearly the big bad in this scenario even if it was completely unintentional.

Maybe they'll let him explain? Oh shit, that one looks so upset they're crying- maybe he can just go invisible instead...

This might be the worst night of his life. 

[sakuravalelp]

Phantom letters - DPXDC PROMPT

The bats wake up one day to the internet going crazy; people around the world were getting letters from they're diseased loved ones. The reactions are mixed, from people being outraged for the "prank" to people crying in melancholy at getting closure.

All the letters have something in common: They're closed with a green sealing wax that had an stylize DP and the name Phantom beneath it. Posts about the cards were using the # Phantom Letters.

The bats are discussing the viral posts in the cave when Alfred comes holding a basket filled with letters, announcing they were left at the doors. The letters had the sealing wax that they recognize from the posts. Checking the cameras they can see how they glitch before the basket appears.

Alfred starts to distribute the letters that had only one destinatary. Letters from each Thomas and Martha to both Bruce and Alfred. Letters from each John and Mary to Dick. A letter from Catherine to Jason. A letter from the Drake's to Tim, and another one to Bruce.

Once they had calmed down enough from the shock, Alfred proceeded to read the shared recipients. From Thomas and Martha to "The grandchildren we never got to meet." From John and Mary to "the family that took our little Robin in." Letters from Catherine to "My little boys family." The letters were directed to people the deceased didn't get to meet.

As much as the mere existence of the letters tugged at their hearts, they decided to not read them until they verified that the handwriting actually belong to the ones it claimed. They checked each letter, and in the end confirmed the letters were in fact from they're lost love ones.

After much discussion, each person makes the decision to read they're own letters later in private, and they proceed to read the ones that shared recipients out loud. The letter mentioned specifics like names and events that the deceased shouldn't have been able to know, including they're vigilante abilities, which had them pause each time to panic a bit. But what was more interested were certain pieces of the letters that mentioned a Prince Phantom.

"Prince Phantom said to don't mention things past our death, but it wasn't a command, so we're hoping this won't be much of a problem." - John and Mary

"I still can't believe Prince Phantom is letting us do this, but I'm so glad." - Catherine

It finally paints the mystery in a more concerning light when at the end of Thomas and Martha's letter there is a call for help.

"We're sorry for ending the letter on a serious tone, but seeing the kind of job you all get involved in, we wanted to ask: Could you please help Prince Phantom? Phantom had asked us to not give information about this, but he's so young, and has already been hurt so much. Please, check on Amity Park, Illinois."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Meanwhile, team Phantom has decided that they needed to get the news about the GIW out of Amity and ask for help. Two problems:

the GIW blocks any technological attempt made.

People might be afraid to learn that ghosts exist and side with the GIW.

As a way to deal with the public image, Phantom opens a possibility that the death have never had:

"All afterlives are open to write letters to their love ones that are still alive today. Nothing that includes threats, and don't go talking about the anti-ecto acts or Amity Park yet, we're trying to ease people into our existence first. Also, I know you all check on your love ones when the veil is thin, but please keep the things you shouldn't know out of the letters if possible. If you want your letter to be sent in the first batch, make sure to deliver your letter before the week ends."

Letters are a good way to reconnect people with the death, they aren't digital, and the GIW won't be able to intercept letters if they're send through inter-dimensional portals. Two birds in one shot.

[sentientsky]

on preemptive grief. on bracing for impact. on looking towards the horizon line and flinching

Rayne Fisher-Quann, “home for the holidays: an essay (sort of) about grief (sort of)” // me // David Levithan // The Crane Wives, “Black Hole Fantasy” // me (again)

[softwaring]

reblog for larger polling please 🖤

[wordsandrobots]

So I've never seen anyone badmouth Gaelio as often as you, besides the ones that rightfully complain that he shouldn't have come back. Not that I wholly disagree, but what are your reasons?

Oh, anon. No, no, no. No, you have to understand, I *adore* Gaelio. He's perfect, vengeance arc and all. He is my absolute favourite chew toy. I wouldn't have spent so long writing fanfic focused on what happens to him, mentally speaking, post-canon if I didn't love the obnoxious lavender-tousled prick to death.

Gaelio Bauduin is a man fucked over by his social position, a sweet kid scarred by having been born into an aristocracy, who nevertheless retains enough of a moral compass to change for the better. He learns. He grows. He cares for those closest to him with an earnestness that belies his snobbish, flippant attitude. He genuinely, uncomplicatedly commits to justice and loyalty in ways his upbringing ought by rights to have beaten out of him.

He is additionally the single biggest reason the story ends as badly as it does, on account of being the most hideously self-absorbed dipstick on the face of the solar system.

(Second most hideously self-absorbed, we do have to factor in Iok.)

In another story, Gaelio's gradual dawning realisation that the attitudes he was taught are bullshit would be a process of redemption. His experiences with Ein, his compassion towards Carta, his vitriolic semi-mentor/semi-friend relationship with Julieta, his apology to Mikazuki -- these are the markers of someone learning to be a better person. In another story, he'd be learning to be a hero.

But in this story, his slow personal journey isn't what's important. What matters is how it interacts with a world too cynical to run on heroic narratives. Elion uses him as a political wedge. Tekkadan do not give a rat's arse about what he thinks. McGillis allows no room for an epiphany concerning their friendship until it is far, far too late. In imagining the scales had fallen from his eyes, he railroaded himself into the biggest screw-up of his life.

It's not completely his fault. As I said, he's used and rejected by others, and McGillis did have a damn good go at murdering him. But if he had been slightly more open-minded, slightly more willing to put his money where his mouth was when it came to his disapproval of Gjallarhorn's actions, and slightly less prone to making everything about his feelings -- well maybe he wouldn't have ended a broken, wistful shell of his former self, voluntarily disabling himself and regretting everything he didn't understand.

It's *beautiful*. Seriously. The tenor of your question leads me to believe I should restate my opinion that Iron-Blooded Orphans is a near-perfectly executed tragedy. When I say Gaelio is 'Always Wrong (TM)', I mean that is the part he plays in the tale. The man who makes every possible mistake he could in the course of getting exactly what he thought he wanted. It's a narrative role and he is a fantastic way of filling it because unlike Iok (who exists entirely as a hate-sink), Gaelio *does* have redeeming characteristics. He's loyal and principled. Passionate and determined. Able to adjust his world-view based on his experiences. Ultimately capable of swallowing his pride and admitting he was wrong.

And it doesn't matter one single jot. Things still end in flames, not just in spite of his attempts to do right by those he accidentally doomed but because of those actions.

Also he's a melodramatic brat who canonically used to flirt using Norse mythology, repeatedly injured people on his own side by mistake, got his arse handed to him by children (again, repeatedly), adopted the most on-theme moniker he could while wearing a doofy mask for months on end, and spent Season 1 with a crush on the world's least-hinged cop-brained class-traitor. I denigrate his character in precise proportion to which it is presented as lamentable.

Anyway, to lay off the verbosity for a minute, please also understand that if my opinion on a character is negative in the sense of 'I think the writers fucked this up', I'm unlikely to spend much time creatively cussing them out. For instance, to pick another Gundam example, I don't enjoy Shinn from SEED:Destiny. I get what the writing is going for with him and I think it's a neat plot concept, but I find the actual result grating. It's the same for a lot of the cast. Overall, I just don't rate that show very highly. So I don't talk about it, and I don't expend effort to dig into narrative roles, how characters come across, what that means for other parts of the story, etc. To put it bluntly, it's not worth my time, especially when there are people who *do* like SEED and don't need me raining on their parade.

But I enjoy watching Gaelio and that's exactly why I bad-mouth him. It's more than a passing joke; it's part and parcel of what I love about how Gaelio is implemented, that he's that much of an aristocratic nitwit, and that even when he's making moves towards the broadly 'good' end of the moral spectrum, he's still got a deeply hierarchical attitude. This is a man who, in the middle of quite understandably wanting to get back at somebody who tried to assassinate him, reflects on enjoying being in the heat of battle again after having just beaten-up/killed a bunch of workers trying to break free of colonial rule. There is a *lot* you can dig into about what (and who) Gaelio sees as important and how his attitudes are a perpetual work-in-progress, constrained both by his assumptions and by the alliances he has to make in order to pursue his revenge.

It's well executed, as I said, and I happen to find it extremely compelling. Certainly more so than if he hadn't been resurrected because the show-runners liked his voice actor's performance.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Out of sight, out of - wait.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[parisoonic]

'We go together!' 🤝

[eroticcannibal]

I'm still fascinated by the anti-sex people I saw on reddit and still so mad they wouldn't actually explain their stance to me like yes I disagree but I want to understand the specifics about like. What *exactly* is it about having sex that *requires* you dehumanise your partner. Why is this unavoidable. How does it work. What is making that happen. And instead they're just like "but your comment history says you were raped surely you should understand that sex is bad if you were raped" NO ENGAGE WITH MY QUESTION AHHHH I WANT TO PICKLE YOUR BRAINS PLEASE ENGAGE IN INTELLECTUAL FUCKERY WITH ME IM BEGGING

[gokuisahimbo]

And it felt like meeting the whole world.

Alt version, combined the layers!

[inkprilled]

Hope wins every time the sun peaks over the horizon after a long dark night, it softens the day and baths the ground, it warms the air and we breath easier and maybe our souls uncurl a little from that protective crouch we've grown used to, maybe we let our limbs loosen, maybe we let hope sink into our skin, maybe we let it melt our misery from within.

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

Is there a lore reason vampire fiddleford wears stereotypical vampire clothes or is he just Silly Like That /genq /pos

Yes, lore reason!!! That actually probably won't come up in the comic, so I'll answer it here!!

Fidds was actually wearing it for a vampire "meeting"!! Yess, he has been a vampire for a while, and he doesn't particularly like it, but he has to participate in vampire culture 🙏 And y'know, you have to dress up for those things. Stan just caught him at a bad time, he usually doesn't wear stuff like that!!!

So when he said costume party, it wasn't that much of a lie, who would've figured!!