#yes I actually really liked him. I just think he's underdeveloped

[hollowflight-propaganda]

Ngl, I'm pretty excited to revisit arc 3 + Dragonslayer for my series reread because book 11 is the only one of those I've done a proper reread of, and that was 4 years ago

I'm also excited about that because then I can imagine my own complex rewrite for it all :)

[cityofmeliora]

What do you think about Copia’s childhood? I saw your post about Terzo’s, so I started wondering. Where do you think he was raised, who do you think he was raised by, how did it contribute to who he is today?

YESSSSSS YES YES YES YES THIS IS THE ASK I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR RAAAAHHHH–

ok so first, i just wanna be clear that this post isn't gonna include anything about Cardi's twin because i'm still waiting to see what happens next in the lore before i try to write anything involving him.

with that out of the way,

like all my Ghost headcanons, my headcanons about Cardi are built on the foundation that the band Ghost lore is about 1) an evil satanic cult, and 2) a dysfunctional showbiz family from Los Angeles.

basically, i think Cardi had a very lonely childhood. and he has psychological issues caused by a lifetime of Sister Imperator's insane parenting. his anxiety in Rite Here Rite Now, about how being Papa is all he wants to do and all he thinks he could do, SCREAMS of "unethical Hollywood parent who molded her child to be a star" to me.

i do think Sister 'raised' him, or was at least present in his life since he was a child ("You'll always be my little Cardi.") and she just... didn't him she was his mom / Nihil was his dad. (i guess it's quite similar to children of catholic clergy IRL, who are sometimes raised by family but never told about their true parentage, or know the truth and are told to hide it.)

Cardi is autistic, obviously, but i also think his awkwardness is him being socially underdeveloped because he comes from an isolated cult environment. he was a weird satanic homeschool kid who almost never interacted with anyone outside the Ministry, and he was basically left to watch movies and listen to music and play video games all day. i like the idea that Cardi had dance training when he was young, though. that was probably the only time he really got to interact with others. and because he grew up in the Los Angeles area, on the occasions he did get to go out, he was always surrounded by the entertainment industry and people trying to rise to stardom.

anyway, i think this was all somewhat intentional, or at least worked in Sister Imperator's favor, to mold him into a neurotic showbiz baby in service of her evil satanic death cult. (though i don't think he cares about the cult aspect of Ghost at all. he's been in it his whole life because he didn't have a choice and has never known anything else. he really just wants to be a rock star.) growing up without the love of friends + family, Cardi filled that void with games / music / film. so... of course he wanted to be an entertainer when he grew up– that was his only avenue for human connection.

and i think Cardi kinda knew Sister Imperator was giving him special treatment and pulling strings to put him in position to become Papa, though he never understood why.

a major point in my Terzo character analysis post is that he was very ambitious and he loved being an entertainer and a showman, but he was frustrated because he wasn't allowed to express his full potential. i wrote that his mindset was "i know i'm good enough. and i could prove it if they would just let me."

and ever since i wrote that, i can't stop thinking about how Cardi feels the exact same way.

he's super talented. he's worked very hard. he's proud of his accomplishments. he's proven he's capable! but Sister Imperator doesn't respect him. she infantilizes him. she keeps the training wheels on. she doesn't want him to be capable!

Sister Imperator does not allow Cardi to have independent thoughts or make real decisions for himself. she allows him the illusion of autonomy when she needs to, but every time he shows a little bit of awareness of how fucked up his life actually is, she shuts him down to keep him under control. she purposefully hides information from him so he won't know anything she doesn't want him to know. she intrudes on his privacy because his bedroom doesn't have a door.

i think their relationship has been like this his whole life.

you can see examples of this manipulation / obfuscation throughout the Chapters, and you can see a lot of it in Rite Here Rite Now.

first off, the opening narration gives the context / background information that sometime in late 2021, when Cardi was 51 years old, he found out his two bosses are actually his parents, and his mother kept this a secret from both him and his father his whole life. which is. wild. to say the least.

(i think when he found out, he was disappointed by the realization that he got to where he is because he was secretly a nepo baby and not because he was doing a good job on his own.)

moving on. in Rite Here Rite Now, Cardi's main source of stress was that he fully believed his parents were going to murder him and then put his body on display to sell VIP tickets for his successor's concerts. this was genuine fear, and he had a legitimate reason to believe they would do that to him because they actually did that to his three older brothers! and in the later Chapters, Sister Imperator and Mr. Psaltarian were totally fucking with his head and making him think he was going to die!

he asks Sister why he can't continue being Papa for longer –because he doesn't want his parents to kill him when they're done with him– and she just brushes him off and tells him to keep playing his show. then in the Miasma scene, Cardi has a critical moment of awareness and asks what the hell is actually going on in his life and who's in control.

PAPA EMERITUS IV: One thing I do not understand… All these things… here, all of this stuff, and all of these things we're doing, where we go, and when, and to where… Who decides these things? I mean, who's calling the shots?

this is totally fair! he has a right to know this information!

in response, his parents completely avoid answering the question. they shut him down and basically tell him he sounds ungrateful for the life he has.

SISTER IMPERATOR: You waste so much time and energy worrying about what's been and what's next, who's next and whatnot. As with all things in life, it circulates. Everything that has a beginning has an ending. There just has to be an orderly transition.

she never tells him the truth. she just tells him to stop worrying. stop thinking.

they never tell him they're not going to kill him. They Never Tell Him They're Not Going To Kill Him. THEY NEVER TELL HIM THEY'RE NOT GOING TO KILL HIM.

Cardi spends the last third of the movie making peace with the idea that he is going to die soon and his parents will be the ones to kill him. after Respite On The Spitalfields, he seems resigned to his fate. he tells the Nameless Ghouls they're not doing an encore. he says "Fuck it." but Sister Imperator, still explaining nothing, tells him to do the encore and he unenthusiastically gets back on stage.

SISTER IMPERATOR: Even though you don't understand right now, sooner or later, you will know what I'm talking about. Things –events– are unavoidable. Now you go back out there and give them one hell of an encore. And that's all you have to worry about. PAPA EMERITUS IV: Okay. SISTER IMPERATOR: Off you go.

by the beginning of Square Hammer, he decides he is actually happy with the life he has and he's okay with whatever's coming. and he still expects he's going to die... only for them to totally fake him out.

Sister Imperator dies instead. in the letter she leaves him, she tells him, "My son, I'm sorry I could not find it in my heart to tell you about my condition. I was afraid you might lose your sometimes frail concentration." more obfuscation. more infantilization.

at the end of the letter, she promotes him to head of the Clergy. he takes on his new job assignment as Frater Imperator and he seems to think he'll have more power now that Sister Imperator is "not in charge anymore." i'm not so sure about that.

and this isn't even getting into all the other weird shit going on between them in that movie! why was Cardi literally unable to see her wheelchair and medicine until the Spoksonat scene? why couldn't he remember his twin brother who he spent time with as a child? either Cardi is even more mentally unwell than we know, or Sister is messing with his head in even more ways than we know. maybe both. probably both.

i do believe Sister Imperator loves Cardi. that does not negate the fact that she is also manipulative and dishonest and has no respect for him, and that made her a terrible parent. she caused him a lifetime of unnecessary confusion and suffering in furtherance of her goals. yes, he is often childish and irresponsible. but i think the way she treated him didn't allow him to mature on his own.

the worst part about all this? i think he's convinced himself that he loves her, too. (he doesn't actually know how to feel about her. it would be too painful to think about.)

in summary, to me, Cardi's life is like The Truman Show, except it's the bad ending where the producer (Sister Imperator) successfully convinces him to stay in the bubble.

this was supposed to be a headcanons post and it totally turned into an analysis post, but i cannot help it. i just love Cardi so fucking much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I JUST WANT CARDI TO BE SAFE AND HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

btw i think his actual legal given name is Cardinal Copia Imperator. yeah. i believe Sister Imperator actually named him that.

[hugsandchaos]

Follow-up to Halfa Dash AU

Believe it or not, Danny starts to get jealous of Dash. In his eyes, Dash got everything while he got little to nothing. Everyone in town knows Dash’s “secret” and work to hide him from the GIW or prying eyes. Valerie and the Fentons work together with him, and Vlad learned to let go of his anger a long time ago and isn’t in the picture.

When Danny helped in his universe, he was called a menace for accidentally causing property damage in ghost fights, half of which is caused by the other ghost attacking him and the other half is Danny being thrown at buildings or the ground, so he literally has no control over it! Even when he tried! He still tried to help the best he could, but it was never enough for the town.

“I gave all I could for them, and then some, but what did I get? Hunted! Torn open! I didn’t expect anything, not even a thank you!”

When Dash does it, he’s considered a hero, gets pats on the back, that kind of stuff. His fire core in still underdeveloped, but he warms up the area when he’s in ghost form. People love that, unless people are already hot and sweating, but no one lashes out. Danny’s ice core lowers the room temperature, and sometimes his body temperature. No one wants to hold hands that are cold.

As you can tell, Danny is pissed about this. He’s happy Dash doesn’t have to deal with what he did, but he’s still pissed.

As for Sam and Tucker, I have two ideas.

They went along with him to the alternate universe, where none of them existed, and all live and work together to get by and help each other out. There was no way they were leaving him alone.

The alternate Sam and Tucker like Dash. They think he’s a pretty chill guy, and they don’t understand why Danny keeps avoiding him or flinching. A part of Danny feels betrayed by this, even though he knows they’re not the Sam and Tucker he knew.

I think the last straw for Danny would either be Vlad or Lancer.

When Vlad comes into the picture, he’s not just… well, not a fruit loop, but he helps Dash! He helps him with his ghost powers, he teaches him, and Jack, and Maddie! He gives tips and advice on what to expect in the future and how to deal with it, and gives him his number incase he needs him!

Danny’s anger reaches a whole new peak.

If it’s Lancer, then it’s when he figures out that Danny has no parents and is living on his own. When he talks to Danny about this after school, he blows up at him. He goes on a rant about how Lancer thinks that he knows what’s best for him when he doesn’t know the full story. He lets it slip that he’s from another universe and had really bad experiences that made it hard for him to trust people and asks how he can be sure this isn’t a trap of some kind.

Eyes are glowing green, the room is freezing, and Danny’s cussing while trying not to have a mental breakdown and failing. He doesn’t want to be put into any adoption or foster care, especially with some strangers, and he’s determined to not let that happen. If anyone, he’d allow Frostbite to adopt him.

Surprisingly, this Frostbite and the one he first met are very similar and recognize him. It’s as if they’re actually the same! Like the Ghost Zone didn’t change, or at least, the Far Frozen didn’t.

Or maybe I can add the Nightingale Family from the PenPal AU! They’d be the one able to adopt him because he meets them all over again, and they’re some of the few people who are still the same. He knows he can trust them, so when they offer adoption, his answer is yes and a big hug.

I think that eventually, he and Dash might have a rivalry-type friendship. Ish. Danny’s constantly pushing Dash to get better with his skills. Dash likes to challenge him to a sparring match or race. Or maybe it’s like this closer to the start, but Danny’s genuinely mad under the mask. He’ll start to appreciate this Dash sooner or later.

[trashyrosie]

Leona, talking about the fountain as he gives a tour: So, he built it when his son was born-

Yuu: So, he built what is essentially a pretty thing to look at, but he couldn't have used that money towards better things? Like putting an effort into rebuilding the slums?

Grim: Henchhuman-

Vil: Could you be any blunter, potato?

Yuu, crosses arms: What? Oh and this whole "being one with nature" thing and allowing some of the natural resources to go untapped-

Kifaji: It's because we don't want to drain the land of what they have given us-

Yuu: No one said you were draining it. Just think of a more eco-friendly way of handling things. Leona said you guys have the greatest concentration of sunlight, right? Turn that into solar energy. Convert some of the heavy smog machines into ones that run on solar.

Lilia, hums: She might have a point...

Kalim: Wow, Yuu! You're so smart!

Yuu: Thanks. On top of that, it'll create jobs for people, especially those who work in high poverty areas. You guys can still be surrounded by nature without having to sacrifice nature for it. *Sighs* I'm done, sorry for ra-

Leona: Marry me.

Yuu: You get Grim in the process if I do.

Leona: Deal.

Kifaji: My Prince!

#twisted wonderland#twst yuu#yuu homura#lilia vanrouge#twst grim#vil schoenheit#twst kifaji#kalim al asim#leona kingscholar#cloudcalling on the savanna

No but like as an economics student AND a Leona stan hearing about the way they're handling their economy in the Sunset Savanna ... was sure..... Shocking to say the least

I hope I’m not being to forward but your comment has me thinking, as an economics student how do you think they could improve their situation, what policies can they implement, I would love to hear your ideas💡please

...fam. I'm about to yammer. Also this is my favorite question ever

As an economics student and mind you I might come off as abit harsh or even cold but I want to keep things factual. I don't think the game itself even recognizes what a big of a deal it is to purposely not develop the infrastructure. Underdeveloped infrastructure is one of the things that we take in consideration wHEN MEASURING POVERTY. This is what threw me off, in a way it sounded like they were INSISTING on having poverty related issues. AND WE KNOW THE SUNSET SAVANNA HAS PEOPLE LIVING IN POVERTY. The slumps being the biggest proof.

Leona's ideas ARE actually great solutions, he's completely right in my opinion. I just I think a lot of people don't exactly understand what he means when he talks about industrialization.. And I don't blame them. I too thought industrialization is just big factories go brr pollution and that's what the game seems to be sitting up but... I'm about to "um actually 🤓☝"

So, why is industrialization the solution (that AND developing the infrastructure bECAUSE OH MY GOD people don't have basic needs like water in 2024 ..??? I don't even feel the NEED to explain why that's bad at this point oh also the renewable energy idea is just PERFECT chief kiss) .. Now industrialization doesn't mean 100% destroying the environment.. Does it have a bad effect on the environment.. Yes but it doesn't means absolute destruction of the environment especially in this case..

Think about it...if the products they should be producing depend on natural resources as their input..would they really go, is Leona really presenting that they should go and absolutely DESTROY the sources of their inputs.?, even looking at it from a greedy economical perspective it makes no sense. Also industrialization provides ✨job opportunities✨ and this is very important. Job opportunities and providing the people with income "moves" the economy and improves people's living conditions, people now can afford education and health (which we know the people of the slumps have next to no access to, Ruggie's mom died while giving birth to him and it was mentioned there's a lot of crying kids in the slumps that means women in the slumps don't have access to good healthcare for giving birth a common thing found in countries suffering from whaaat? Poverty.) Providing people with an income improves their living condition (no sh*t) and the best way to provide them with that is by providing them with jobes and yOU DO THAT THROUGH INDUSTRIALIZATION (also side not here, governments can GIVE their citizens "monthly allowances or icomes" these amounts are usually small but better than nothing .. My country is doing this as of now and it's for this exact same thing "moving the economy" aka the people selling, buying, getting married reproducing... Basically living)

Another solution I really like is tourism.. Which Leona mentioned.. twice. .. I think? Okay so they don't want to mass produce? Okie dokie. Then lean heavy into the cool epic greenery you got. A lot of countries irl do that actually and it would also provides the people with the needed jobs (I'll never stop shouting about the importance of income and job opportunities)

but this time in the tourism industry.. and the sunset Savanna really can make banks out of this that place is gorgeous and they should use their beliefs and pride in what they've got as a force to move forward not being all like "the circle of life😍"... As a justification for Underdevelopemt. I really adore the tourism solution like personally like it. I actually I'm an average environment enjoyer myself and I don't think we should destroy nature.... But mothers are dying in the slumps and children are getting no food... And we don't even NEED to destroy nature... We simply need to IMPROVE the way the economy is going NOT DESTROY IT AND CHANGE IT.. Just modernize it a bit.. A region in my country is actually doing this. Leaning heavily into the old castles and mud houses we got (we old as heck) modernizing things a bit to make it tourists friendly while also keeping our history (that I love) intact and BOOM tourists destination and more jobs for the people

in conclusion, I love this ask so much thank you so much so much so much for asking.. my field of study + my favorite lion boy. I'm on cloud nine.. Hands down made my night..i think I gave three solutions.. I'm very sorry if I didn't go in more depths or if this isn't what you wanted I'll clearly be more than happy to answer more stuff about this because I'm a giant nerd. Also I should rule the sunset Savanna. Thank you.

[bibibbon]

The Lov deserved better endings

Yeah they did.

I personally think the leauge of villains deserved better arcs in general because realistically if we tried to redeem them with how the war arc played out how would society react? Also how would the leauge themselves react? It's all complicated jumbo and in the end ITS HORI WHO WROTE THEM THAT WAY

like yes they could of been redeemed if hori wrote them to be saved but he didnt. Iam still incredibly pissed at how underdeveloped shigaraki is and his whole goal of being to destroy and not actually developing into "I want to destroy the HPSC/the corrupt society that has caused me and the leauge pain" still pisses me off.

Look I know this is an unpopular opinion but I don't mind someone from the leauge not being able to get saved and dies (but at least make the death well written hori come on man). Personally Iam a sucker for toga dying simply because of the way I have come to associate her character with red spider lilies, blood, cannibalism and pomegranates. Also it just adds to the tragedy of her character which is something I love when it comes to her writing.

On the other hand while I do think depending on the characters arc and actions some (and I mean also hero characters) should face concequences for some of their actions or attone for them. I think that twice, spinner and mustard were pretty redeemable characters.

Shigaraki and Dabi should of been written to be much more complex overall (well this mainly applies to shigaraki, Dabi just got his backstory retconned to make enji look good) and have hints of a redemption or something that still says they have good in them. Like Iam still pissed that we didn't get much of Shigaraki consistency in general and when it comes to Dabi I would of enjoyed hori to give us Dabi in all of his complexity and I mean all of it.

Iam mainly pissed at Dabis ending because why I mean why would you revoke all of his autonomy and agency and leave him stuck all alone, slowly dying and being stuck with his abuser that wants to dance in hell with him but enji doesn't even understand what Dabi has been through in total.

I would of enjoyed more of spinner and shoji's dynamic and I honestly wanted more of spinner in general but dam hori did done and went and ruined him. Like I wanted to see spinner, wanted to see more of the discrimination plot line, wanted to see more of his thoughts on stain and how he would develop out of it/create his own thoughts of what a true hero is. I wanted more development when it came to him and shigaraki because all of it felt out of place in a way. Idk just wasted potential when it came to him.

Don't get me started about kurogiri Iam still sad about his death (it was cruel to just have him die that was just cruel there was so much potential with kurogiri that never got done right)

Honestly would of loved to know more about magne but I would of wanted her to die either way.

I think we should of gotten more of compress and his whole robin hood style. It's a shame I really wanted to see him do stuff like steal from the rich and give to the poor or simply give him more development then him being just there.

[afsosville]

Shen Jiu, if he was actually a competent shizun

My HC for how Shen Jiu is like with kids without trauma/healed trauma and shit: Honestly with a person like Shen Jiu, I can only see his interactions with kids going one of two ways, him being so very fond of them, and ofc, how he's like in canon. Ok look, in the third book under Shen Jiu's character description, it said that Shen Jiu definitely had more reasons to relate to Luo Binghe than to hate him yet he still chose violence for some fucked up reason. So yes, I for one headcanon that when he's in a better place mentally, he would choose to be doting and fiercely protective. We've seen that he's capable of being like that with Ning Yingying (and Qiu Haitang), and it's not outwardly obvious, but we can see it with the way she behaves around Shen Yuan when she thinks that's still Shen Jiu. She definitely acts like a spoiled younger sister/daughter who looks up to her guardian and shows a great amount of trust in him. So just imagine if that was extended to all of his disciples.

No coz if he was spared enough kindness for him to actually want to do better, he would choose the first option and emphasize with LBH instead BECAUSE smn gave HIM a chance and emphasized with HIM. LBH and SJ are parallels, and so whatever happens to SJ, it would be reflected onto LBH.

I am dead. I am so dead. I'm bleeding out so fast and goddammit it HURTS- SJ and LBH's whole story hurts sm.

Anyways-

I kinda like to imagine that when Shen Jiu's heart settles on the fact that maybe, just maybe, bleeding on ppl who didn't cut him and taking his hurt out on LBH is a no good very bad idea, he's going to end up over compensating for his whole fucking childhood and the way he projects on him is completely flipped.

"I'm going to treat you the way I wanted to be treated and ur going to feel loved and safe do you hear me?!?"

"Yes shizun (*＾v＾*)"

Here's the thing, he may be fond of his disciples, but he is still shit at taking care of them. He was robbed of his own childhood, so he doesn't know what normal kids act like in the first place. And he has no idea what the typical stages of development are and he would totally underestimate how dumb kids who didn't grow up like him would be. So yeah, shit at babysitting but loves them anyhow, for the same reason he would hate them in canon. (They remind him too much of himself). Idk, him being bad with kids regardless of trauma is so funny to me.

That moment when it clicks for him that he may not hate them after all: "oh gods these brats actually like…me? Me? Fuck what the hell do I do?! This is why no one should trust me with kids Aghhhhh!! Still think they're brats tho :( but they're my brats >:) "

He'd be like Shifu from Kung Fu Panda as a shizun. He's strict, harsh as hell and shows no mercy when training, coz becoming a cultivator/martial artist is fucking hard and requires alot of discipline anyway. So he really is doing his best to make sure his disciples come out on top. Shen Jiu is a prideful person by nature, it's just that his disciples are his pride. He's always there for them when they need him, and he will make sure that none of his disciples will ever have to go through anything he has. He wants to be the reliable adult that his disciples seek out. (He will never let it be known that he seeks his disciples' approval and validation as much as they seek his.)

Really fucking specific but idgaf. My social teacher brought chocolate bars to class and gave them out one time. After a few moments she asked if everyone was enjoying themselves. After she heard us agree she went on a lesson about slave labour and the production of goods in underdeveloped countries. Shen Jiu. Would do this. Because he’s a madman.

And Binghe. He would still end up a little unhinged. Like sure being under a master that abuses you will fuck you up one way but if you had a guardian who will start genocides and watch cities burn for you… It does things.

Shen Jiu is morally ambiguous as fuck and that rubs off onto his disciples. He is still a terrible role model, but his kids wouldn't trade him for the world:)

Would be the type that gives 5 yr olds knives for birthdays, bc he had a shit ton of them hidden away on his person when he was that age and knew how to use them when he was on the streets.

“What? It's an appropriate gift! The kid needs to have smt to protect herself! Yeah I know she didn’t grow up on the streets so what? No need to rub it in. Ok fine! I’ll teach her then just shut up. Let’s go Yan-er, some people just don’t appreciate the value of giving practical gifts WAIT PUT THAT DOWN-”

Is this lowkey self indulgent? Yes. Do I particularly care? No. I just want my favourite blorbos to be happy, is that too much to ask for? My Roman Empire is that SJ probably could've been a crazy good shizun if he had a chance to heal. If you've read The Hidden Flower, then you know exactly what I mean.

I already made a post with all of the soft BingJiu fics ik. I could literally make another one rn where they're just chilling platonically, or even as an adoptive family bc I have no chill like that and read all the SJ fics there is to read.

It's already summer and all I have going for me is my job rn and I am sooooo close to going through all nearly 400 pages under the SJ tag coz I simply can.

[autisticlancemcclain]

Jackie supports the lion swap? How dare you!

Okay SO. This is not the first time I’ve gotten an ask or a comment like this, and I’m fully aware it’s a joke (or at least I think), but I also know that it is kind of a controversial topic on here! And I’ve already written an essay in the topic, but I have some more thoughts I’d like to dive into.

I used to be team Blue Paladin Lance, and hardcore on that team, too. If you look at some of my old fics, you’ll see that. However since I am a contrary person by nature, I started to notice that Red Paladin Lance was way less liked, and so I started to like it more. I really grew fond of the dynamic Keith and Lance got to have as co-leaders, both because it was homoerotic as hell and because the symbolism was fun to explore, but klance is not the main reason I started to care so deeply for the lion change — it was actually Shiro and Allura.

I’m going to start with Shiro, because he’s one of the most fascinating characters in VLD, if not underdeveloped. Part of that fascination for me is that he probably has the most arcs and opportunities for character growth and development in the show, and yet somehow he’s the flattest. He’s portrayed as very one-dimensional in a lot of fic — he tends to be less of a character and more of a role. He’s the Space Dad, or the older brother, or the cool teacher, or the kind and wise friend, or even the stoic Black Paladin. He is loved, I think, but the role he plays is loved, not quite the person he is. And that makes sense, because that is exactly how he’s portrayed in canon.

To Keith, Shiro is “like a brother to [him]”, but what do we see of that dynamic? The show has a clear sense of how a brother acts, that’s a good chunk of Pidge’s character. We barely even know Matt, but Pidge carries herself in such a way that it’s clear when her brother shines through her. And yet even though Shiro also goes missing, twice even, Shiro does not shine through his brother. Keith’s impulses are his own, developed from general abandonment issues rather than Shiro’s specific absence. Shiro’s absence becomes less of Shiro’s absence and more of an absence of a beloved leader figure, kind of a martyr, a “Shiro would have wanted you to carry on”. It is really hard for us as a fandom to use Shiro’s disappearance as anything but a plot device, because that’s all it felt like! We have occasional moments with Shiro, enough to care about him in some way, but as a figure, not as a person. Someone pointed it out on one of my fics and I agree wholeheartedly — Shiro is not shown with any flaws, and that makes it really hard to love him, because you don’t really get the pleasure of defending him, of seeing his motivations, his reasons. Not until the very end, at least.

This is, in all honesty, likely just poor writing. Shiro’s character was honestly just sidelined to a role, because he is really not that present in the show. But I am going to work with the benefit of the doubt, and see if I can use the lion change to explain why we all kind of love Shiro anyway, despite the fact that he’s flat as hell.

Shiro isn’t the Black Paladin. He never was. He flew the Black Lion, yes, and he flew her well — but he was never her Chosen. He couldn’t have been. From the very beginning, the Black Lion was in mourning; she was in no space to choose a new paladin. She accepted Shiro, and she loved him, but he did not fall into her as much as he fell into the role she provided for him. He piloted the Black Lion, but he was not her Paladin. This is made obvious in two ways: in that he never got her bayard, and that from the very beginning, he set up a replacement for himself.

Doesn’t that strike anyone else as odd? I haven’t seen the show in five years, and I don’t plan on rewatching, but I do remember that every moment with Shiro almost had this underlying tension. The closest thing I have to canon off the top of my head is the Handbook (which I had to stop reading because they did everyone SO dirty there, even though some of it was honestly pretty funny), which was released in S2, and even that incredibly early canon talked about Keith replacing Shiro!

From the very beginning, Shiro was planning an out to his role. He knew it was not meant for him. He did the role well, but it was not his to do.

Aside from those two reasons, Shiro also…can’t be the Black Paladin. He can’t be that and himself, I mean. This part is a little more complicated, so I’m going to borrow some of my own tags from some awesome fanart I saw:

I really do think Shiro is defined by his humanity (as is heavily implied by his illness — this is a character who is completely and totally bound to his mortality. Of all the other characters, he is the one most familiar with death, so he is the one who is most intimate with the raw fear of being human. But more on that later), but it’s my last comment that I want to focus on — “he is DEFINED by his his humanity…even as his greatest asset is the part of him that is not human”.

Every second that Shiro is leader of Voltron, he is the Champion. That can literally be his only goal — he is the head of the fight against Zarkon and the Empire. Either Shiro comes out the Champion, or Zarkon does. Either Shiro has to grit his teeth and fight off the flashbacks and the fear and the pain and use the one thing that forces him to reconcile with the fact that he had his entire personhood stripped away (his arm, his Galra arm, one of their biggest advantages as a team; his connection to Zarkon through Black, something that can only help the war effort at a direct cost to him; everything he does in this war is shoving him right back into that Arena again and again and again), or Zarkon wins. Every second Shiro pilots Black, every time he plays her paladin, he has to be who the Empire made him to be. He has to be the Champion. Once again he is not Takashi Shirogane, the person, the astronaut, the man, he is the Role. He is the Space Dad he is the Pilot of the Black Lion he is the Champion. For every second he is in that lion he is stripping away himself.

Obviously, that is something that was never sustainable. On this argument alone, Shiro was going to waste away eventually. There was always going to be a point where Shiro was not going to be able to be the Champion anymore. There was always, from the very way the dynamic was set up, going to have to be a lion switch. Now, interestingly enough, there could have been a really easy fix to this: Black Paladin Allura. She’s already a born and raised leader, already shown her immense competence, already someone the rest of the paladins follow. With her at the helm, nothing else would have to change, right?

Well, maybe. We’ll never know. One part of that is absolutely true — Allura should have been a paladin from the very beginning. Her quintessence is canonically closest to the entirety of Voltron (something that bears its own essay,; the relationship between all six of the paladins and Voltron is wrought with heavy symbolism), she is the most highly trained, she is smart, and she actually wants to be out on the field. She should have been in that armour from day one.

But Allura cannot be the Black Paladin. Allura cannot handle other’s sacrifice.

Of course this is a complicated subject. Should a leader sit back and let her crew sacrifice themselves instead of her? Must she hold herself in higher regard, convince herself she’s more important? Of course not! Teams, especially Voltron, are built with assets. While not everyone might be ‘equal’ in the traditional sense, they are all integral, and expecting sacrifices is not the stance I am trying to take here. But the point of a team, especially a team so small and vital as Voltron, is that everyone is willing to be the sacrifice, as they have to be, and Allura simply can’t handle that. She shows us this from the beginning, when she disguises herself as Galra and is taken in place of anyone on the team she barely knows, and again in Oriande with the White Lion, and finally in the piece of shit canon ending. Allura has to be the sacrifice. Every time.

And how could she not be? The last time she spared herself of sacrifice, she lost her entire people. The last time she let others sacrifice themselves for her, she was left alone, to shoulder a war bigger and greater than she could ever handle. Allura is painfully familiar with the agony of being the survivor, and she cannot do that again. She cannot and will not put herself through that again. As the Black Paladin, she would have to let her team make sacrifices — she would have to let them have their own agency, their own decisions; she would have to let them choose to get hurt and choose to do risky things and analyse and react and act. As leader she would have to trust her team to put themselves in harm’s way, and not only that, but she would have to authorize them to do so.

Like Shiro cannot last as the Champion, Allura cannot last as the Survivor. Shiro cannot even last in Voltron, and it is foolish to keep Allura out of it. A lion change is absolutely necessary for the show to move forward, for the war to move forward. The initial team was doomed to fail.

How would it change, then? What would fit? I know I’ve said my piece. I know who I think would fit where. But since I’ve been comparing character arcs to their roles as paladins, I’d like to keep doing that — what about Keith makes me so sure that he’s the true Black Paladin?

I’ll show you with process of elimination. I know Black Paladin Lance is a favourite, and I can see why. Lance has many leadership qualities, is a good tactician, and cares deeply. However, aside from his desire for power making him less suitable for the role, Lance functions best as support, despite how much he hates it. He is the one who knows how to pick up the pieces of a broken situation. He is an excellent guide, which makes him an unbelievably valuable second. He is adaptable, so he can fill in for many different roles. He can step in for leader when necessary, but putting him in Black would encourage a more active role for him; would force him to anticipate and plan for specific outcomes rather than his strength as one who analyses any outcome as it arises and works within it then. Lance could be the Black Paladin, yes, but taking him from the body and placing him in the head would be a fool’s choice. It would be crippling to Voltron, to put the jack of all trades as a master of one. Lance’s arc is all about learning to love and trust himself as he is, as the seventh wheel. Not to put him in charge of the vehicle.

Well, what about Hunk? Hunk is incredibly intelligent and analytical. He probably could lead Voltron, and did in several occasions. But Hunk’s arc is interesting because it was handled so early in the show. Unlike the rest of the team, Hunk’s arcs were solved largely in the first season. His biggest flaws were his distrust of people and, literally, his inability to fly. He could not take his feet off the ground. He was so untrusting that he could not manage to take a step forward. However his bonding with Yellow and trust with the team and their subsequent and returned trust resolved these issues, more or less, which is probably why Hunk was treated more and more like a side character the longer VLD went on. Hunk didn’t need the role of Black Paladin because he had settled into the Yellow Paladin in a way that was sustainable.

Pidge is in a similar boat. Her arc, primarily, has been about finding her family. Voltron was almost second priority for her, or at least not her only first priority. And understandably so! As the youngest she was afforded with that lenience. Her growth was about growing into her own pain, about becoming her own person alongside what she had become in the absence of her brother. As the Black Paladin, she would no longer have the space to prioritize her search for her family alongside Voltron, so her position as Black Paladin would be unstable. She is best suited in Green, where she can focus on several things at once.

That really only leaves Keith. In many ways it comes full circle — the Black Lion healing from her grief by choosing the man who ran from his Galran heritage and his power as a leader, rather than the man who chose nationalism and power over anything else. Keith is Zarkon’s direct opposite, and as such is the other side of the same coin, the one who is truly Black’s Chosen. We know this because Keith is the one who wields the Black Bayard, and Keith is, from the very beginning, the one the rest of the team chooses to follow — I ask you whether it was for Shiro that the three other humans ran off to chase in the desert, or Keith? Who was it that Lance could not leave alone? Who was it that piqued Hunk’s curiousity? Who was it that challenged Pidge to choose Voltron, rather than the search for her family?

That covers Black Paladin Keith. But what about Red Paladin Lance? I’ve established already why he cannot be the Black Paladin, but why did he have to move from Blue? For that, I bring you another few slices from early, S2 and previous canon:

“I thought what we had was special!” “Seventh wheel, if you count the Alteans.” More than once, Lance laments over being forgotten. He struggles with feeling like anything but the extra, the unnecessary. Whether or not Blue Chose him is irrelevant — he does not feel Chosen by her. The Pilot of the Blue Lion position for Lance is as unsustainable as the Pilot of the Black Lion position for Shiro — Lance does not trust it. He doesn’t trust himself in the role, and doesn’t trust Blue in having chosen it for him. Obviously, this is not the role for him.

But Red? Keith’s Red Paladin, at least? Yes, he struggles with feeling like Keith’s second, but that is literally his arc. Lance’s development is about becoming his own person despite his own misgivings about being second-best. His role as the Red Paladin is the fulfilling of his arc, and is thus the best Lion for him, the Chosen. And Red did Choose him, mind you. There was an adjustment period, of course there was, but Red did more than let Lance pilot her. She opened up new possibilities for Lance — think the broadsword — that he could not see. Red saw his potential and revelled in it. She Chose him.

Lastly — and this turned out to be less relevant to the essay than I expected, but I do want to go over it a tad — is Shiro’s tie to humanity. I mentioned two important points: Shiro’s connection to mortality makes him the most intimate with his humanity out of all the characters, and he is undoubtedly the flattest character of them all. That is, if you don’t consider his clone to be part of his character.

But I’m begging you to reconsider. Reconsider, perhaps, who the clone is — Haggar had pure access to Shiro for a year, you remember. His thoughts, his dreams, his mannerisms, his priorities, his body. Even him at his most human, his most deranged, his most scared. She had Shiro then. She had Shiro when he had nothing to look forward to. She had Shiro when he hurt his crew to make sure they would live, at direct cost to himself.

She stripped him of his humanity — his connection to his own mortality. She took his illness from him. And who, then, did she return to the team? Who was clone? Shiro, mostly. The clone was happy to play with the team. The clone was clever. The clone believed, fully, that he was Shiro, only he was angrier and meaner, a little, and less capable of shoving down his own pain. Shiro, stripped of his tie to humanity and mortality, stripped of his compulsive need to be strained and stressed and the one everyone else can rely on, the Role rather than the Person, is emotional. He has flaws and outbursts. He can’t manage his own pain. He is is cruelest to the one person on the team — Lance — who canonically reminds him closest of himself.

Shiro, in the purest form that Haggar can make him, is flawed and self-hating. That is where our love for him comes. Not the man who pushes himself down at the same time as he sacrifices his personality to be someone for others, but the man who is struggling and can’t keep it locked down. That’s where it comes from.

Anyways. Like with my other essay, I’ll admit that this analysis is probably reading into this. The writing of VLD was flawed, at best, but regardless, I think the lion change is a rich amalgamation of the characters and who they really are.

[my-pjo-stuff]

For the Great PJO Ask Analysis event: (ask no. 3)

You've got a topic in PJO you'd like for me to analyze?

The way demigods inherit their godly parents powers. Percy has a long list of abilities compared to Annabeth/Clarisse/Beckendorf, etc.

Want to share YOUR analysis of stuff with me and my followers?

Grover Underwood is an incredibly complex character who tends to get forgotten both by the fandom and the author. As satyr, he's got different aging to demigods and while Annabeth and Percy know him well, they don't seem to completely know. He doesn't talk about his family, his relationship with Juniper and is generally used as comic relief. His status as Pan's legacy holder seems underdeveloped as well. Thoughts?

Want to hear my take or shares yours of different characters and aspects of the PJO universe?

The exploration into the realms of Greek mythology is interesting. The Underworld is relatively easy for the trio to get into and for them to escape which seems to contradict the Underworld being a terrifying place with Tartarus, etc.

Nico and Bianca Di Angelo's storyline seems rather complicated and doesn't really explore them as characters. Opinion?

The way demigods inherit their godly parents powers. Percy has a long list of abilities compared to Annabeth/Clarisse/Beckendorf, etc.

Now I'm going to be honest and say that in my opinion there isn't much to analyze? Like, at the start of the series it seemed pretty obvious to me that powers are rather rare to be inherited from godly parents. Instead, it was more like talents that were passed down (Apollo kids being good at archery, Athena kids being smart etc.) For Percy's powers I honestly just assumed it was because he was the MC, and thus obviously had special or cool stuff to make the story interesting. In universe I chalked it up to just being a genetic lottery like irl in which actual powers were like a super recessive gene.

There's always a chance you'll inherit it and it'll show, it's just VERY small. Then as the book went on and more and bigger threats got introduced, as well as more characters being thrown into the mix a classic case of power creep set in. 'Cause you need the new characters to be interesting for the reader to get invested, while also needing to up the stakes from time to time to keep it interesting. Yet at the same time the characters also need to be able to reasonably defeat the enemies. So the most logical way to solve all that is to introduce new powers.

And I honestly there's not much more you can really analyze or explain. It's not really a coincidence that most characters introduced in the first five books didn't have any powers or only relatively weak ones, while those later introduced tend to have them or have them more powerfully.

Grover Underwood is an incredibly complex character who tends to get forgotten both by the fandom and the author (....) Thoughts?

I think Grover is one of the many wasted characters in the PJO books, he specifically having suffered from being treated like a side character despite having the setup of a main one. You already pointed out that Grover is very interesting as a character and has a lot going on- which, in my opinion, would have been better explored for a character if they had been a demigod.

Grover is in this sort of weird position where while yes, his themes are very cool and even relatable, they are not relatable enough. Because who do you think would children (aka, the books target audience) rather read about? The cool human demigods their age who look pretty and do cool stuff? Or the satyr guy who doesn't fit conventional beauty standards and isn't human? Fact is that Grover just isn't really as "attractive" as a character compared to others- he always seemed to take more of a background role supporting other characters. Which yeah, is most definitely a HUGE waste (which I honestly don't think I need to elaborate on further). And I honestly blame the fact that he just isn't pretty enough. Is he ugly? No, but he certainly isn't pretty or very fandomizable. He doesn't really have popular ship options and already gets pushed into the background of the books to make room for Percy and Annabeth. The fact that thus the fandom largely ignores him and he seems to lose importance as the story goes on doesn't seem suprising to me.

The exploration into the realms of Greek mythology is interesting. The Underworld is relatively easy for the trio to get into and for them to escape which seems to contradict the Underworld being a terrifying place with Tartarus, etc.

Again I'll just have to go meta and say, I think it's just the fact that they are in a children's book. It would get pretty boring to just always stay in America/the "human" world with a setting that could offer locations such as the Underworld, Tartarus, Olympus etc. so logically Rick searched for ways and reasons to get characters down there to use them. PJO and HOO being a kids' book series of course meant that he couldn't truly portray places like that as horrifying and dark as they should be, so he had to tone it down to keep it child-friendly. Same goes for the escapes from Tartarus and the Underworld- Rick can't just have his characters die, so he has them come out relatively unscathed. That's personally one of the reasons why I think that PJO would have been much more interesting had it been a young adult or teen series, since it would have allowed darker themes to be explored more thoroughly than they were. 8Some examples being locations like the Underworld, the true dystopia that a world would be where demigods just straight up have no human rights, the systematic issues with CHB ect.) Nico and Bianca Di Angelo's storyline seems rather complicated and doesn't really explore them as characters. Opinion?

I mean Bianca's only major character trait was just "Nico's sister". She was as flat as a piece of paper, died a few chapters after her introduction and really just served as a plot device for Nico's storyline. So I honestly don't think I have to say and go over the exact same talking points as everyone has gone over with her before. Nico on the other hand had some very cool set up where we could explore HIM growing angry with the gods. I mean, Zeus was the one who killed his mother, no? His father (even with good intentions) just straight up erased his and Bianca's memory completely. Bianca ended up dying not only for a god (Artemis) but also indirectly because of the gods (the scrapyard they have and the robot thingy). And Hades just also straight up attempted to semi-kidnap him and train him up to be the Child of Prophecy for what I can only assume to be his own gain. Not to mention the disrespect children of Hades got at camp. Nico is, as much as I see it, one of the characters with the most reasons to be hostile towards the gods. Right up there with Luke and Ethan for what I see. Unfortunately though that was never explored, purely because Rick either A) didn't have the time or B) couldn't have the antagonist look too good. I'm not yet finished with all the books, so there is a chance that the part about the story being overcomplicated could refer to something else- but as of now I gotta assume it's the "he's from ww2, actually!" thing. Which, honestly? To me, it is much less overcomplicated and more underdeveloped. Nico's "time travel" is, when it boils down to it, just a loose excuse for Rick to have another kid of the Big Three there without anyone breaking their vow. We could have had a cool exploration of how demigod life changed over the decades or an interesting arc of feeling displaced in time. Instead, we got none of it because, frankly said- for Nico as a character right now that backstory just frankly isn't important. Nothing would really change for him as a character if we just push away that time travel thing. All we'd need to say is that he and Bianca got their amnesia in an accident and then BOOM. Nothing would change for their characters at all really. We could easily say that Maria was killed by Zeus together with her unborn child to get Hades to curse the oracle and keep the time line in check. So yeah, to me their backstory is more of an excuse to have them here and is severely underutilized and unexplored- and Bianca is just a dumpster fire overall.

[mixterglacia]

THIS IS THE PART WHERE LOGAN BITCHES ABOUT CARTOONS

WARNING: VIVZIEPOP CRITICAL, STOLITZ CRITICAL

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I don't like this show, and I don't pretend to. Full transparency, I'm meaner in this then any before now. This is also slightly more disjointed than normal because I was directly reacting to the episode it's self.

"I swore I wouldn't dwell on the divorce." MAYBE WE SHOULDN'T BE RUSHING THESE THINGS BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE HE'S WAITED TWO DAYS. EVEN IF IT'S BEEN MONTHS IT DOESN'T FEEL LIKE IT.

"I'll hear him and not the voice that says I'm not enough" Oh boo hoo bitch. You've seriously done nothing to convince me to feel bad for this stupid fucking asshole. His writing is full of holes and contradictions. It makes him feel like two different people.

"I'll set us free!" Are you quite sure that means what you think it means you stupid fucking ass.

Framed adoption certificate is a nice touch. Very cute.

Blitz is immediately not coming off how they want. I think they're -trying- to imply he has some deeply buried feelings too, but it comes off as "i didn't want this and i still don't want this, why can't it just be normal hookup shit."

"I'll die alone if this goes wrong!!" You have the emotional depth of a teaspoon and are about as interesting as one. Boo fucking hoo. BAD.

NGL this really made their wealth difference hit home. Why the flying fuck is blitz still bordering on abject poverty dude? You should be able to help him advertise send something IDK man, if you really gave a shit, why aren't you trying to actually help him in a genuine way? I'm sure he wouldn't say no if you slipped a hundred bucks or so into the book every so often. I fucking hate it here.

"Would he want me if he was free?" No. Next question. (You've done very little if anything to prove Blitz actually wants strings attached in this.)

"If he's only here as a prisoner what kind of monster does that make me?" Little late to have this realization but I'll take it. Also can we seriously stop downplaying how awful this is for BLITZ to go through? Stolas is severely over represented in Blitz's own fucking show. Why is Blitz so underdeveloped??? Why, dude? The episodes that mainly focus on him are pretty okay, but once Stolas shows up it's all fucking stupid.

If Blitz rejects him (which he should. Look how fucking anxious he is just THINKING about this.) he could lose his entire way of life. No more apartment, probably gonna get Loona taken away. Probably has to resort to prostitution or return to clowning. Stolas just gets to go about his life of luxury.

Why is Blitz's emotional well being such an after thought in this duet? THIS IS NOT STOLAS' SHOW.

"He showed me that I could choose" ...Dude. You have given no weight to swing that line at us. This isn't much of a choice in the grand scheme of things. Stolas and Stella already had the kid. The marriage never had to last. Not from the impression you've given us. He's a toddler deciding he wants chocolate milk instead of regular. We have never been shown he's actually going to lose anything of real value. He's still a prince. He's still got his money. Like are they trying to have him killed, sure but lets be real he's A PRINCE OF HELL. Assassination attempts are like...Tuesday for him.

GOD THIS SONG IS ASS. I will not allow Blitz to be painted as the bad guy here. Fuck Stolas, and fuck the team for trying to make it seem like we should feel bad for him. They both suck. BUT STOLAS IS OBJECTIVELY IN THE WRONG.

Ah yes, The Helluverse special of "let's yeet a stupid ass joke in the middle of plot, completely derailing anything." it has only been a few seconds and it's already going on for too long. Go learn from Bojack or RvB.

...........This cherub bit is throwing your entire lore off. If these idiots are having to do this shit to get by, why are they acting like heaven bound can do whatever they want in Hazbin? If all you meant by that line is the human souls in heaven, you totally screwed up the message there. Your points are murky at best, and you're contradicting yourself at every turn.

...............Are the cherubs mortal now? Like they're flying and glowing but they have to eat???? Huh? I don't think I've ever realized you're showing they eat a lot, but surely you don't actually have to eat as an angel or demon? Surely it's just a choice???? That's genuinely so fucking stupid???? WHY IS THAT EVEN A THING?

WE DON'T NEED FIVE ANTAGONISTS IN A CHARACTER DRIVEN EPISODE YOU FUCKING IDIOT. YOU ARE LITERALLY RUINING YOUR MAIN PUNCH. YOU ARE TAKING AWAY TIME THAT SHOULD BE USED TO ACTUALLY PROVE BLITZ HAS SOME KIND OF FEELINGS FOR STOLAS. BAD.

Honestly the stuff with these five would have been a fun standalone minisode. NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF ONE OF YOUR SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT EPISODES.

Bloody alleyway was a phenomenal cutaway gag. Points.

You really are not making it sound like Blitz likes this at ALL.

"If someone wants to see you less and less? Big red flag." NOT IN A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP, DUH. He's literally a prince of hell in an affair with a """childhood friend""" who was literally PURCHASED for him. The whole thing is a red flag. Not just this!

You are making it exceedingly clear Blitz's just in it because he think's he'll lose the book. I don't give a rats ass about what micro-development you're going for. You take away time needed for showing that Blitz is conflicted on more than one level to do stupid ass tertiary character shit. YOUR CAST IS OVER BLOATED. BAD.

If you wanted me to feel bad for Stolas, maybe don't show that Blitz has an Angel-esque box of sex toys because he thinks he has to impress him. Stolas should have made it very clear AGES ago that he just wants Blitz. If Blitz is this hung up on needing to impress the damned bird, something very VERY wrong is happening in the bedroom.

If you seriously want us to think Blitz has feelings/cares about Stolas (Not that he HAS to), this sex candle shop would have been a perfect place to do it. "Well, he really likes it when I do this-" "This is his favorite colour." "This is his favorite scent." Blitz clearly knows nothing about Stolas, and both of them are to blame. This relationship is never EVER going to work if they know this little about each other when they've been regularly boning for ages. He should know more about what he likes. "What's the mood!?" "I don't know!" Woof. Full stop. This is never going to work in a real scenario. Womp Womp Move on.

HOW DOES BLITZ NOT KNOW HIS MEASUREMENTS. HOW CAN HE NOT JUST HELL-GOOGLE HIS MEASUREMENTS. STOLAS IS A PUBLIC FIGURE IT WOULD BE KNOWN. HE DOESN'T CARE, ERGO WE DON'T CARE. BAD.

Like he seems to MILDLY know what Stolas likes but this should be WAY clearer. Especially if you want us to think Blitz secretly cares too.

Love Fizz's new outfit. Very cute.

Gonna be real, Fizz and Blitz are seriously adorable. Can Ozzie pick him up too and actually show Blitz what being sexually valued is like? Because clearly he pulled it off with Fizz. Because he clearly enjoys sex and it feels like Stolas is just...using him. Not enjoying him. It's gross and SHOULD feel gross, because it FUCKING IS.

This whole bit with the cherubs makes it feel like we aren't supposed to give a damn about the main plot. That it's just a silly background to TERTIARY CHARACTER NONSENSE. BAD.

So far this confrontation is good as far as the pit of dread it opened in my stomach. I still really don't feel bad for Stolas. I feel bad for blitz. Him begging tore my soul out. It's so obvious how bad this power imbalance has gotten. I refuse to entertain these two any longer. This show needs to GROW UP and get over them, leave it here and I will forgive it.

Stolas should have 100% consulted Blitz before OFFICIALLY PUTTING HIM UNDER OZZIE'S JURISDICTION THAT'S NOT OKAY. Even if he leaves him alone, that can absolutely be weaponized.

"Am I not fucking you good enough?" Doesn't come off as him wanting more. Blitz feels like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the love of the gods stop stringing this POORLY WRITTEN. BADLY RETCONNED. PATHETIC ATTEMPT AT A WELL DONE TOXIC RELATIONSHIP ALONG. BAD. MOVE. THE FUCK. ON.

"I care very deeply and have for a long time" You sure as shit never showed it.

To Those in The Back. ONE GRAND GESTURE DOES NOT FIX A TERRIBLE RELATIONSHIP. This is Mr. Peanutbutter with the library thing. This is Not ROMANTIC. This IS EMBARRASSING.

If he really cared, Blitz would not be living in poverty. If he really cared, he'd make an effort to engage beyond sex. IF HE REALLY CARED HE WOULD HAVE DIVORCED HIS WIFE THE PROPER WAY AND NOT TRAUMATIZED HIS FUCKING DAUGHTER OVER AND OVER AGAIN.

Stolas is a godsawful woobified piece of shit that doesn't have the decency to acknowledge he's the problem, and when he does, has the fucking AUDACITY to behave like a pathetic child. This I was wrong speech is DOGSHIT and has no punch to it because more than half of the episode was TERTIARY CHARACTER BULLSHIT.

Blitz has EVERY RIGHT to see this as a joke. I immediately burst out laughing because YEAH. WHEN HAVE YOU GIVEN HIM ANY IMPRESSION YOU CARED BEYOND GETTING YOUR FREAK ON?

"Thank you for being here for a little while." Oh boo fucking hoo. Get over yourself. "It's just about sex" BECAUSE YOU NEVER MADE IT ANYTHING ELSE YOU FUCKING BOZO.

I am immediately cheering Blitz on in his retort. He's fucking earned it. You're not going to make me feel bad by making them show up in the room from their childhood. Blitz is completely in the right here.

If Stolas really thought so highly of him, he'd be putting in more of an effort. Stolas treats Blitz the way he treats Octavia. Like they're dolls from his childhood. If he wanted to do right by them, he would. He is FUCKING ROYALTY. There is NO reason he can't put in more effort for the people he supposedly loves. You don't love them. You love the idea of them. You can't accept that they aren't the idea in your head. This isn't love. It's abuse.

Fuck you. Blitz has NOTHING to apologize for.

It's like Stolas doesn't seem to think he's the problem. No shit, of course Blitz isn't going to react the way you thought he would. Why are you just THROWING HIM OUT RATHER THAN TALKING TO HIM? BECAUSE YOU DON'T WANT TO ACTUALLY WORK FOR YOUR RELATIONSHIPS YOU STUPID ASS OWL. YOU WANT EVERYTHING TO BE HANDED TO YOU ON A PLATE YOU RICH DUMBASS.

Fuck everyone trying to paint Blitz as the bad guy.

FUCK. YOU.

He's just trying to survive! He has a fucking daughter! A found family! EVERYTHING to lose!

Stolas just gets his fucking feelings hurt. He is the architect of his own undoing. Suck my entire ass. This was easily the worst episode bar none.

The tone was ALL OVER the place, and not in an effective way. The plot moved at a halt and go pace and all the fun bits were BOGGED DOWN by the supposed point of the episode! You can't tell me this shit took all that time, unless you were constantly saying "OOOO YOU KNOW WHAT'D BE COOL/FUNNY?" and shooting your production scheduled in the foot!

The rest of the portraiture being covered up is a very nice touch.

I can't believe you've gotten me to defend BLITZO of all people. But here we are. I guess I'm on his team. (He's an abusive dick, but NO ONE deserves this.)

[wilcze-kudly]

Beifong babies appreciation post

This is gonna be a more self indulgent post. But if you spend any time on my blog, you know how much I adore the Beifong family, particularly Suyin and her children. And you know what I don't see enough appreciation for Suyin's babies, which makes sense, since they're side characters, but here's a lil ramble about them and some reasons why I love them.

Baatar Jr

Actually, I think Baatar is actually a very underutilised character for being Kuvira's supposed right hand man, as well as her fiancé.

He's technically the brains behind Kuvira's collosus, and probably much more.

As damaging as living in his father's shadow was for him, I do find it extremely adorable how he engineered all Baatar Sr's projects, it's really cute!

His loyalty to Kuvira and his love for her is admirable. It's honestly adorable, how much she means to him.

Btw mans stared into Korra's eyes while she threatened him im the Avatar state and laughed. Say what you want about him but he has balls.

The angst surrounding his involvement with Kuvira is absolutely delicious.

Like imagine turning your back on everyone you know and love for one person, only for then to turn on you and try to kill you with upur own creation?

And then everything you've worked for for 3 years is null and void? Gnarly

Also him being under house arrest with the family he betrayed? You could argue he got off really easy, which he did... but goodness gracious the angst.

Huan

I'm like 75% sure that he's a reference to The Dark One, one of Toph's metalbending students, which is actually really fun I love you emo metalbenders.

I always found non combative benders very interesting, especially when they use their bending for things like art, it's very cool.

While I think a Huan's character is made to mock "tortured abstract artists" a bit, he actually isn't terribly caricaturised?

Like... he has a pretty clear ideology and moral compass, and he sticks to his guns, even when threatened. He clearly values personal freedom and freedom of expression, and is willing to stand up for it.

I also love headcanoning that he had a close relationship with Aiwei. Since some of Huan's ideals match up more or less with Red Lotus ideology, which makes me wonder if Aiwei did subtly indoctrinate Suyin's children.

Huan and Ikki's friendship is really cute too lol.

His design is also really cool ngl

Opal

MY BABY AHHH 🧡 honestly my fave female tlok character.

Free her from the heterosexual love interest dimension she deserves so much better lol.

Like, I really dislike Bopal as a ship, and part of it is because of how much of a disservice it does to both characters. But most anti Bopal takes I see are also horrifically anti Opal.

Honestly, Opal just gets a surprisingly large amount of hate in genral? Like why? People call her annoying and a brat/ a knockoff Korra and she's barely done anything lmao

Opal's is very interesting, her journey to independence, her unseen development between B3 and B4, her firece loyalty to her family despite her separation from them

A lot of people criticise her attitude towards Kuvira, but honestly, she was quite rational in her anger? I also think she should have been allowed to hold a grudge against Bolin for longer, like yes he redeemed himswlf somewhat when rescuing her family, but it does feel really shallow and a fast way of tying up a pretty complex storyline.

Her arc reminds me very much of Toph's in atla, which is bittersweet since we see how that ended for Toph.

I love her lil pouty face ahh.

Wei and Wing

Genuinely. Might be my fave underdeveloped side characters.

Avatar has a habit of making very interesting twin duos and these two are no exception.

I really like their strong bond with their mother, they really are the most mamma's boys to ever mamma's boy.

Similarly to Opal, the twins' firece loyalty to their family and city is really sweet, but also there's a lot of potential for angst here. Like, Opal gets to see the world and adventure, but the twins are probably stuck in Zaofu forever.

The twins also are the only ones of their siblings upholding that "Beifong metalbender" archetype that Toph started. I think there is a bit of pressure on them, ad they are the "golden boys" of the family

I'm also a sucker for when benders work together/combine their skills so seeing the twins work together is really sweet.

Also. Gay™️. [Insert longass ramble about weilin lol]

I actually find the small differences in personality between them that we are shown. Where Wei is a bit more snooty and competitive, Wing is very playful and outward with himself. I like picking their differences apart.

Okk.. that's it my ramble for today us over 😭 I love the Beifong babies so much and wish there was more appreciation of them lol

[oceanwithouthermoon]

ok putting my saiki k pony ideas here, mostly so i can maybe draw them someday, but also i put so much thought into these ideas and i want everyone to see them

tried to do EVERY character

kusuo- alicorn, no cutie mark

hides his wings under clothes and pretends he doesnt have them, would rather hide his horn but cant and just pretends he doesnt have much magic instead

why does he not have a cutie mark, you may ask?? because he hasnt accepted his quirks+powers as a part of himself.. his special talent is probably helping people but he thinks he only does that because the magic he has makes him basically obligated (its not true ur just a good person!!)

nobody really calls him out on constantly wearing clothes with so much coverage because they think hes just insecure about being a blank flank so late in life (kinda true, but it defeats the point if everyone KNOWS..)

will he ever get his cutie mark?? um.. i dont know.. maybe ?? definitely not in his high school years

chiyo- unicorn, baking cutie mark but idk what specifically, maybe a heart shaped chocolate like the one she made for kaido

specialty magic for tracking, she was a late bloomer with her cutie mark because she discovered her tracking talent really young and thought that had to do with her special talent for a longgg time

shun- pegasus, black feathers cutie mark

underdeveloped wings (like scootaloo obvi)

convinced hes just a late bloomer but hes almost an adult and still cant fly (never will but he doesnt know that)

gets these cool wing extensions that allow him to glide but still not fly

tells people his cutie mark is his "jet black wings" but its actually writing quills

riki- earth pony, heart shaped ramen bowl cutie mark ?? idfk what his special talent is i just think he has a lotta love in him..

HUGE stallion.. HUGE..

aren- a kirin..

has a huge scar where a cutie mark would be on a pony in the shape of an exclamation point

used to let his anger free when he was a delinquent and when he transferred, he was pretty self deprecating about his control of himself but he actually has a crazy amount of self control..

chisato- pegasus, hammer cutie mark maybe ?

almost made her an earth pony cuz of the brute strength thing but i like this better

got her cutie mark REALLY late because she was absolutely convinced her special talent had to do with food, and when she got it while doing a job she was like "WORKING IS MY SPECIAL TALENT??" but it wasnt about the job, shes just really strong, hardworking, and adaptable

kokomi- zebra, golden heart cutie mark

couldnt decide if she was a crystal pony or a zebra, decided on zebra

her mark LITERALLY seems to glow golden light, it doesnt actually but.. it really seems that way

ik her being a zebra may not sound like it makes sense because zecora got a bunch of NEGATIVE attention, but HEAR me out okok.. this pony au would be in a modern setting with more diversity and people would focus less on her being a zebra and more on her being beautiful and having such a unique pattern..

zecora is the only zebra we see in mlp so theres no reason to think other zebras couldnt have blue hair, esp in the era of saikis mind control (idk how that would tie into this universe cuz ponies already have crazy colors but shhh) so her hair is prob blue with dark and light stripey highlights

mikoto- griffon

ik she might make more sense as a unicorn but her fortune telling strikes me as more of an.. outside magic ?? like.. she was born with the ability, but its not a physical magical power, its like pinkies pinkie sense!!

so yea i like her as a griffon, its unique and i like the idea of her feathers having a unique pattern around her eyes thats akin to gyaru makeup (see: gilda but make it gyaru esque)

and yes she can still be colorful, we see colorful griffons in the late seasons of mlp

metori- a crystal pony, diamond ring cutie mark

tells people thats his cutie mark because its expensive and hes rich as hell but his special talent is actually MAKING jewelry..

i like the idea of him lying about his special talent so i had to think of something that he could say its cuz hes rich.. i kinda wanted his talent to be baking for some reason but i couldnt think of how that would work

reita- earth pony, cutie mark is like a cartoon-like ghost surrounded by a scary purple and black aura

was gonna make his mark something more meaningful but i think its funny if people see it and are immediately scared of him but literally all it means is like he SPEAKS to ghosts, like in the most normal way possible

and same thing as miko, he doesnt need to be a unicorn cuz his powers are different from unicorn magic..

touma- unicorn, magnifying glass over a thought bubble cutie mark

the mark is hard to explain but tell me u get me when i say its because hes got stupidly good detective skills and can tell what people are thinking

jokes around and manages to convince people he has crazy magic and his cutie mark actually means he can read minds but he actually isnt very good at unicorn magic at all

kineshi- is a changeling..

why ?? because he just is!! doesnt it make sense for him to be a creature that feeds off of making other people feel happiness and love ? it totally makes sense

honorable mentions 😛

saikis parents are both earth ponies, and i have no idea what their cutie marks would be but heres some silly ideas: kurumi has a cradle cutie mark (meant to be a mama😋) and kuniharu has a boot and he tells people that it's symbolism for like hard work but people know hes lying and think it means hes a boot licker METAPHORICALLY, which is almost right but.. it means literally

kusuke is an earth pony and his telepathy canceler is probably shaped like a unicorn horn in this universe hehe, and his cutie mark is maybe like a microscope or something ? hes just a mad scientist idk

btw chono in this au would def be like trixie lulamoon if u know what im saying.. he would be a unicorn but his special talent is STAGE magic and his horn doesnt do anything☠️

satou prob has that little hourglass cutie mark thats really common in background characters for animation purposes, idk what his special talent is but that would be really funny

[meta-squash]

I really wonder how much Ian's early "relationships" with older men and all that affected how poorly he reacted to Mickey's sexual assault in 3x06.

The entire night before that morning is obviously a very positive one for both of them, considering the good mood they're both in the next morning, just before.

And then Terry shows up, and we all know what happens.

Later, in 3x09, Ian confronts Mickey at the abandoned building. I still don't fully understand how he doesn't connect the marriage thing with Terry, but he's a dumb kid and he's pissed off so maybe he's just blinded by his feelings.

Anyway, he asks Mickey who he's getting married to, if it's "Angie Zago, or some other piece of trash you screw so you can pretend I don't matter to you." Mickey doesn't really give any sort of response, which is fair on his part because Ian's being kind of an idiot. He gets up and walks away.

But Ian continues, and says, "So that's it, we're over? Your dad beats the shit out of us and you're just gonna get married, no conversation, nothing?" He grabs Mickey, who shoves him and tells him to get the fuck off. His retort, instead of listening to Mickey, is to essentially taunt him with the idea of fag bashing, and even further by saying "You love me and you're gay".

And I think what gets me, more than anything, is Ian's minimizing of what happened to Mickey. Again, maybe he's just being a dumb kid, with an as yet underdeveloped brain doing the usual selfish dumb kid shit. But he just doesn't seem to at all grasp the enormity of it all.

Terry hit him in the face, yes. Terry pulled a gun on him, yes. But he sat there and watched Mickey get raped with blood all over his face and a horrible dead-eyed pain-filled expression.

And I wonder how much his own fucked up relationships affected how he saw all of this. Clearly his own insecurities and judgements meant that he interpreted Mickey attempting to somehow appear/feel "in control" of the situation as him actually liking it or wanting it.

But it's Ian's misinterpretation/misjudgement that fucks everything up, really. If he had seen any of it for what it was, if he had understood what happened in a more clear way, if had expressed some sort of sympathy or understanding or even just awareness of Mickey's suffering, maybe something would have been different. But because he saw it all the way he did, everything except his own feelings about Mickey get minimized.

Terry didn't just "beat the shit out of them", he brutalized and traumatized both of them, especially Mickey. And his obliviousness to Mickey's obvious trauma and hurt in that scene in the warehouse is what fucks them both over. I think the way that Mickey obviously doesn't want to be beating up Ian is really important to the scene, and Mickey in general. He's back where he started, regressing because he has to, but there's this growth there that makes the act of beating up on Ian hurt too.

It's also such a succinct and awful expression of Mickey's complete helplessness in this situation. He's the most trapped out of any of them. Ian has his family to support him; he can tell them what happened or not, but whether or not they know the details they're still going to be there for him. Ian can walk away if he wants to. Ian has the luxury of yelling, of getting mad, of talking back, of being out, of interpreting the serious trauma of rape as just "getting the shit beat out of him". Mickey doesn't have that. Mickey doesn't have anything at this moment. And so Ian goading him, taunting him, accusing him, building up all this pressure that Mickey has no way of expressing or releasing because he has no one else, and he can't talk back, and he can't be out, and he can't brush off what happened to him, it all come to a head with Mickey kicking the shit out of Ian, because there's nothing else he can do.

He's totally trapped because he can't admit his feelings for Ian or admit that he's gay or any of those truths, because he's terrified of his father and he's terrified of what will happen to him (and also to Ian, probably). He can't really explain to Ian what's happening, either. I think he doesn't totally have the words or the ability to talk about it (it's too close, it's too intense, and the trauma is actively happening which makes it really hard to talk about) and I think also Ian wouldn't understand, wouldn't believe it or wouldn't just listen. He'd get involved, and Mickey doesn't want that.

Mickey's unbelievably vulnerable in this moment and he really really doesn't want to be that towards Ian, not when Ian is/was the only good thing and now has this power to hurt him. If Ian got involved, in whatever way, it would confirm Mickey's vulnerability. If Mickey explained what was happening and Ian was still angry, that would be a massive blow. If Ian understood and tried to help, that would be dangerous for both of them, and would also in a way make Mickey feel less in control. Instead, Mickey says nothing because it's impossible to explain, and Ian fucks up, and Mickey's reaction unfortunately makes sense.

And how much of Ian's complete misunderstanding is due to his own fucked up relationship to sex and relationships? How much of it is because he either can't admit or can't even realize that his own experiences are traumatic? How much is him blinded by his own feelings for Mickey and the anger and heartbreak and frustration that comes with being out while Mickey very much isn't? How much is it just Ian being a dumb teenager who doesn't fully understand what's happened? Or refuses to understand, because it's too traumatic?

[chaifootsteps]

I get mad thinking about Vivziepop’s questionable writing or dialogue choices sometimes—and then I just feel sad after because I really wish I could see her shows as something naunced and worthy of thoughtful discussion. I wish I could love these shows wholeheartedly like I use to, and its only the attachment I still hold for her works that keep me sticking around, but man, I feel so disheartened sometimes that I wish I could just let it go and move on already, but its hard.

I don’t see either of her shows being things that are going to be remembered as super amazing or have a fandom passionate about the work like 10 years down the line. I can’t look at her characters and think about their possible motivations or analyze them deeply based on interaction, or just general presence in the story, because there is no depth greater than a pond. With her antagonists she writes them in such a particular way that they serve less as actual characters and more as glorified plot devices and nothing more, and with her protagonists she leaves them as overdeveloped or underdeveloped at the same time.

What am I suppose to take when watching her shows? With Helluva Boss, I can’t tell what I’m suppose to gleam from it. Is the story about relationships and focuses on character interaction and characters more than the plot itself? Its not doing that great of a job at that. Theres no changes in character dynamics, characters dont really interact with one another meaningfully most of the time, and relationships arent explored enough outside of already established ones. Is it about fighting against a system that is rigged against you and standing up against the ones in power? No, it isn’t, because the opression our main characters face isnt relevant enough in the story outside of the ocassional reminder that, yes, Imps are the lowest in the system, yes, imps can be quite literally sold as property and serve as servants and the working force to the ones in power, and, yes, imps face discrimination. (Can you tell the supremacist line pissed me off yet.)

I.M.P—who are all apart of marginalized species in hell—do not talk about these issues they face. Crimson is literally a mafia boss in Greed and he doesn’t seem to have any problems being a imp in power despite the demons working under him being higher in status than he himself is. (Minus the money problems because it doesnt seem actually relevant to anything and isnt brought up afterwards) Why have our main characters be apart of the lower class at all if it isnt actually important to the show. By the end of this show, the hierachy isnt going to change because status quo is god, and the worst case scenario possible is that Blitz gets with Stolas and becomes a prince and lives a life where the same species he’s apart of literally serves under him.

And speaking of status quo, what on earth is season 2 of Hazbin going to even be about if season 1 ends in a literal war between Heaven and Hell? You don’t just change the status quo that drasitically in one season—unless if Hell and Heaven were at war since the start? But it doesnt seem that way. Would Season 2 focus on redemption—but if that’s the case, why make season 1 the war between hell and heaven when season 2 would be more fitted for it instead?

I never thought these shows would be on ‘Breaking Bad’ tier levels of writing, but I thought they were going to at least be something I could walk away from with a clear understanding of what message it wants to tell and how I can interpret it as part of an auidence, but maybe I was wrong to think the stories Medrano writes have something wonderfully insightful to give, and it really hurts to think about.

I know how you feel, Anon. A shame we can't all have just one day to look into the good timeline where Viv's the writer and person we hoped she would be, and these shows are everything we were looking forward to.

[dr-futbol-blog]

The Brotherhood, Pt. 5

We cut to the following day where we find McKay, Allina and Sheppard on an excavation with the others further away. It's not early morning so again, we are missing time from between the two scenes. Maybe Sheppard and McKay discussed it further, maybe they didn't, but here we find Valentino "more on his game". Which is to say, seemingly crashing and burning.

The previous night, McKay accidentally let it slip to her that they are not Atlanteans or descendants of the Ancestors like she had thought, but that they had come from Earth only a little while ago. Or he just straight up told her the truth, never having intended to lead them astray. Either way, it's this discovery that has changed her disposition toward McKay, not anything he did or is doing here.

As mentioned previously, her whole life has been dedicated to the service of the Ancestors and it seems like it was as the representative of Atlantis that she was crushing on McKay, not as an actual human being. Given that she got a version of Best Behaviour Rodney, she doesn't even really know what he is like. And now that it appears these newcomers have just taken on the mantle of the Ancestors undeservingly, she's not as keen on him (she, of course, does not know that Earth is the First World from which the Lanteans had originally come to this galaxy and to where they eventually returned so there is an argument to be made for their rightful inheritance of Atlantis, but that's besides the point).

The mainstream interpretation is that McKay is trying to score now that he thinks Allina wants him, the incorrigible hound dog that he is, and that Sheppard is watching him crash and burn from the background to amuse himself. Sure, Jan. Sure.

He might be failing because he is simply inept at talking to women and doesn't know what he's doing, but alternatively he's failing on purpose. And if he's failing on purpose, there might be any number of reasons for it, starting from the fact that she's an alien from an underdeveloped society, they're on a job that's pretty important and it would be morally dubious to start romancing what is actually pretty close to being an alien priestess, as he himself pointed out just a while ago. To belabour a point, McKay displayed zero interest in this woman the day before when they spent all of it on a dig together. She barely interested him enough to look at her. He had to be told that she has a crush on him. He had to be told what to do about it. It's much more likely that his attempt to engage here was designed to fail, whether on purpose or subconsciously. And looking at the dialogue, on purpose seems to be the name of the game.

McKay has obviously chosen a moment when they have some privacy to initiate this discussion. And Sheppard's presence, to him, seems to count as having privacy. It's either that he wants and prefers for Sheppard to be there, or he does not mind that Sheppard is there. Either way, Sheppard seems real interested in how this is going to go down. He's clearly willing to jump in as needed even if you interpret him as just wanting McKay to strike out because he's being a dick, or what ever the mainstream interpretation is. Fact is, what they're doing on this planet is way too important for Sheppard to be dicking around just 'cause, so it's much more likely he is doing this for an actual reason like to help the man who asked for his help last night.

McKay and Allina are looking over the stones:

Allina: It doesn't look much like a map. I guess I was wrong. McKay: Mm, possibly. Although, um, well, you know, just because you originally thought it was a map doesn't make your initial assumption bad or incorrect. Well, incorrect, yes, but it was a good guess. Allina: I'm sorry? McKay: You're… very, very smart, and, uh… and attractive and whatnot, and, um… You've got a lot of things going for you even when things don't— Allina: Is everything all right? McKay: Everything's great. Everything's really… Why wouldn't it be?

She's pretending like she hadn't been throwing herself at him previously. It's not in response to his approach, it's in response to his accidental confession last night. But the thing is, McKay isn't even hitting on her. He calls her attractive and smart, yes, but that reads a lot more like someone trying to let a person down easy. He tells her, you've got a lot going for you. He is trying to be kind. Yes, he's embarrassed to be doing this because having this kind of conversation is mortifying (and were it not for Sheppard, he wouldn't be doing this; and that's a fact regardless of how you interpret their relationship). He also doesn't actually think she's smart, not in the way that matters. For one, we can compare this with him finding out about Sheppard's Mensa test later. Sheppard being able to solve a puzzle that he couldn't means something to him.

He looks at Sheppard as he's trying to think of what to say to her. To make sure he's not watching him making an ass of himself? Maybe. But he has to look at Sheppard before he can come up with something to tell her. He glances at Sheppard, and then comes up with "You're very very smart, and attractive".

Both are things that Sheppard is, very smart and attractive. John Sheppard has a lot of things going for him. Why do you have to look at your man to be able to come up with something nice to say to a woman? Besides which, they look awfully similar.

And further, we've seen how he behaves around smart women. The smarter they are, the more condescending he is. If he thinks that you are smart, he will try to make you feel dumb because he has poor self-esteem and because intellect has been his battle field. It does not seem like he comes from a wealthy family which means that he has had to fight to earn his place in Academia. He has had to prove that he is the smartest (and hence, that other people are less smart) to get scholarships, to get his foot in the door. He thinks she's smart like a golden retriever, not smart in the sense that she should ever challenge him in any way that matters.

He just does not care about women enough to see them as distinct personalities that might require individual approaches. He's also saying that her initial assumption, that he would be interested in her, was incorrect. He's flattered, sure, but not into her like that.

Sheppard, who has been symbolically between them the whole time, comes to his rescue. He steps in because he can see by the way McKay is using his hand that he is getting agitated which just, again, is a testament to how well he knows him. And Sheppard gets him off the hook by changing the subject:

Sheppard: You're sure we're in the right place? We've almost doubled the size of the dig site, and we haven't found anything yet.

He's not making fun of McKay. He is playing it perfectly straight, like he saw nothing going on, nothing out of the ordinary. It's all business up in here. And McKay seems relieved because figuring things out, trying to solve something is so much more up his alley--and this is also the reason why Sheppard approached him with a question in the first place. He knows engaging McKay's mind is the best way to help him get over his agitation. We see Sheppard do this continuously, consistently, over the seasons. Here, he's not doing it because they're in some kind of trouble, he's doing it out of kindness.

Relevant to what happens next, we see Sheppard look McKay in the eye and wrap his lips around his canteen while holding it in a firm grip. There are so many suggestive shots in this episode.

They discover an entrance leading underground, a hole in the ground, as it were. McKay is mirroring Sheppard in case anyone had any doubt where his physical interest lies.

What they uncovered is supposed to be the "forbidden chamber" to which only brothers (of the Brotherhood) should enter. That also seems awfully suggestive but the killer is McKay's next line:

McKay: So, who wants to go first? Seems sort of like a Sheppard thing.

Going down first seems sort of like a Sheppard thing. Going down first seems like the sort of thing that Sheppard would do.

Now, the thing is, McKay intends no double entendre, he's not making innuendo. He only means to say that Sheppard is the dashing heroic type. He thinks that what ever is down there, Sheppard would be the best and most capable person there to face it first. He's saying that going down a dark hole freaks him out enough that he certainly does not want to go first, and he would feel much better if Sheppard went in first to make sure that there is nothing dangerous down there.

But Sheppard certainly hears a double entendre. You can see it on his face. We have already seen that he appreciates innuendo (cf. Hide and Seek, S01E03), cannot resist the opportunity to turn something into a sexual reference. Jesus Christ, McKay. They were supposed to be being careful, keeping a low profile. Not making jokes about him eating dick right there out in the open.

He appreciates a good dick pun especially because he clearly likes thinking about dicks (I refer you to the time he canonically cannot take his eyes off of a whale dick pic in Echoes, S03E12) but this is awfully bold of McKay. But note that while he looks up at McKay, he doesn't protest, at all. So he likes dick. So he's enthusiastic when going down on a guy. So McKay knows this about him. He'll go down to the forbidden chamber of the brotherhood first but he probably has to bite down on his tongue not to make a more obvious reference in response. There are times for escalating and this isn't it.

Sheppard is on his goddamn knees while this goes down. McKay makes a reference to Sheppard going down first while the man is on his knees in front of him, looks up at him from that position. So that's a thing that actually happened on this show.

Continued in Pt. 6

[bibibbon]

MHA chapter 427

I didn't think the chapter would be that bad but yeah it sucked ngl. 3 chapters left and I have no hope

Ok yep we're gonna start with Izuku and spinner. I guess I was expecting this conversation to be had but it all just felt iffy. Spinner crying out and lashing out was expected but it all feels hypocritical to me like spinner is also a murderer. At this point youre no better than eachother🤷‍♀️. Also the fact that no one tires to stop spinner from causing harm to izuku is low-key insane like?!?! Is it because you knew spinner who was bed ridden and heavily injured can't do it? Or is it because Izuku backed them aside and told them not to do anything as spinner was on the verge of attacking him. Also another point aside but I still don't get the whole shigaraki and spinner relationship I think it's underdeveloped and shigaraki saying his words only to spinner felt really empty. Spinner writing a book about the league to preserve their memories makes sense but glorifying tomura's actions not so much. Also does he even know if Dabi and the others are alive? Does he plan to contact them?

Let's GOOO corrupt hero society literally monetising a traumatic experience . Not sure what I was expecting when the chapter started but this wasn't it like how the hell are you gonna go around and ask the question who was Shigaraki tomura to you when people are probably heavily traumatised by their experiences. All of that felt like those fake and annoying tiktok interviews to be honest.

Overhaul deserves the worst forever yeah I really don't care for overhaul but I guess the ending was okay for him. Now that I think about it the anon that asked a question about enji and overhaul was really onto something because they really had similar endings. I hope that he never actually goes to apologise to Eri in person and that she forgets about him living her life.

Best thing about this chapter was naomasa . Yes Iam bias and every time I seen a naomasa fic with him being a mentor/father figure to izuku they never miss!!

Izuku again lacking intropsection and all might failing as a mentor yeah I cant say i didnt expect it but iam disappointed. Also is it me but did izuku get eye bags? Is horikoshi actually going to explore what izuku is going through or are we forever trapped not knowing? Also what about all might is he bound to a wheelchair like enji? It also seems like izuku and all mights relationship at this point is every much nonexistent

So bk and todoroki have fan girls?!?! The chapter ends in probably one of the worst tropes that I hate which is the whole fan girls thing. The fact that hero society still glorifies heroes is insane and it seems like those are the first years which the fact that hero schools are still having first years makes me head spin. Also shouldn't Izuku have fan girls if we go by the logic of bk and shoto having fangirls?

Really?!?! Is spinner the guy who also went through quirk discrimination calling shoji a "squid". This seems so hypocritical?!?! I also wish that it was both izuku and shoji that went there to meet spinner instead of it being just Izuku. Also shoji just deserves better than this!!

[vulpecular-draconic]

i’ve been thinking about non-otherkin/non-therian alterhuman identities recently and i realized i haven’t really explored that yet in myself. i have a fairly good grasp on my kintypes (for now at least), but i’ve been ignoring or even in denial about some of my other alterhuman identities.

it started yesterday evening (march 26), when i began to officially question whether maned wolves are a kithtype or kintype of mine. i still don’t know, but today, as i was researching about what hearttypes feel like vs what kintypes feel like, i realized that i’ve felt non-kin alterhuman things before now.

first my mind went to cecil palmer from welcome to night vale. i hyperfixated hard on that podcast when i first listened to it last year. i still get unreasonably excited about it, especially about cecil.

i once briefly considered being fictionkin to cecil, but brushed it off immediately — one, because i don’t feel like i am him (which is a pretty tell-tale sign i’m not), and two, because our personalities aren’t similar except for a few surface-level things. i dismissed it as extreme gender envy and tried to ignore it.

but i still felt (and continue to feel) an intense connection to him.

i’ve related very strongly to characters before, and to characters much more similar to me than cecil is. yet even the character i’ve had an intense spinterest on for several years can’t compete with this flavor of feeling. it goes deeper than gender envy (although it does include that). i want to be him. i’m not distressed that i’m not, but i do thoroughly want to, if just for a few hours. that’s not the full feeling, but it’s the facet i can articulate best.

i denied the possibility of being alterhuman in any way about cecil for so long because i was worried that if i decided to call myself fictionkin, i might lose myself in trying to adopt the personality of someone so different from me. (for a long time i didn’t know how widely acknowledged it is that fictionkin don’t have to match the personalities of the canon version of the character.) i didn’t want to consider fictionhearted either, as i was worried taking that first step would be crossing some line.

i think — well, i know, i just like to allow room for uncertainties — that cecil is a hearttype. (kithtype? fictionkith??)

there’s nothing else he could be to me, honestly. hearttype is the closest i can succinctly come to describing this feeling, and by “closest” i mean pretty darn precise.

and now my other revelation: hearthomes.

although i’ve got cecil as a hearttype, i don’t think i’d describe night vale as my hearthome. i’m fond of it, yes, but my chest doesn’t ache with the longing to live there. no, that honor goes to the world of tangled.

i don’t want to get too detailed, as this post is long enough already, so i’ll keep it short:

i’ve wanted to live in the world of tangled/tangled the series since i first watched the show. i don’t have any hearttypes or kintypes from there, not even an oc-kin. but it feels like home.

i’ve been asked what fictional world i’d live in if i had to choose one. i always immediately answer the tangled universe. for all the plot holes and underdeveloped lore, i absolutely love it, and if a portal opened up in my room right now to take me there i’d hardly hesitate. my favorite spot in disney world is that small tangled-themed section, even if it is just relegated to the bathroom area. it’s the closest i’ll ever get to actually being there. it felt bittersweet when i visited. my heart swelled looking at it all, and i think i’ve cried about it, but i don’t have any concrete memories of the latter.

sooo… yeah. i’m ‘hearted to cecil palmer and the tangledverse is my hearthome.

i’ll add these to my intro post soon. i don’t feel like i need a questioning period for these like i do for the maned wolf. they’ve been boiling in the back of my mind for so long that i already just… kinda know.