#I don't actually know how to write relationship development so uh

[mariclerc]

hey!... can you write a Charles × horner reader.. where the reader has a crush on since they met.... but Charles doesn't like her very much cuz he thinks she's a nepo baby... but the reader still tries to win his heart.... but one day after a bad race he lashed out on her.... breaking her heart.... later he realizes he also has fellings for her...then ask the reader for forgiveness and a second chance (pls make it a happy ending)... thank you ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for this request! It took me a little while to try to develop it, I hope you like it!! 💗💗

Second chance spark | cl16

Summary: where Charles thinks you're a nepo baby just because of your last name. Warnings: a little angst, horner!reader, christian being an asshole and fluffy fluff.

a/n: let me know if you want a part two!!

Part 2

The paddock of the Spanish Grand Prix is in big move, thousands of people moving from one place to another and there you find yourself, outside of the Red Bull hospitality talking to several of the girls on the team. This is what your life has become, practically, since being the daughter of Christian Horner you can walk around the hospitality and the paddock as many times as you like during the year.

Most people believe that you only walk around the paddock because it is a case of "nepotism", but in reality you are working very hard to be an engineer and earn a place in motorsport and that's why you find yourself doing internships at Red Bull. Also, your relationship with your father is not the best, so it is always a constant argument, but, even if you try not to give it so much importance, it always hurts.

“Oh god girls, look who's coming!” You say excitedly, Charles was walking through the paddock, to you he always looked like an angel, you blush slightly.

Mara, one of the Red Bull pr girls spoke. “Leclerc? Are you trying to charm the competition's sponsors I see.” she jokes and you blush a little.

You rolled your eyes. “Don't be ridiculous, he probably doesn't even know I'm here.” You say and a silence is present between the three of you. “I'm going to say hi.” You say determined.

Lila rise up an eyebrow. “Careful y/n. You don't want to spook the red prince.”

“Oh, please. Like he'd give me the time of the day.” you scoff.

You excuse yourself and stride confidently towards Charles. He notices your approach and his expression becomes guarded.

You've liked Charles since he debuted in the F4 European series, you always thought he was someone quite nice and talented... Besides of being cute, of course, but nothing ever happened between you, you were simply acquaintances. But now since you are always in the paddock you see him every single day and those feelings that you thought were already buried, were reborn with much more strength.

“Hello y/n. Didn't expect to see you here!” he smiles shyly.

“Well, I just came to say hi, a little greeting doesn't go amiss, don't you think?” you say shyly with a soft voice. “Are you nervous about the race?” you asked shyly.

“Yeah, uh, a little bit... But let's see how it goes.” he says trying to avoid your gaze.

“Well, you have a good shot, maybe you can achieve a podium finish.” You say and he looks at you surprised.

“You actually follow the races?” he asks.

You feign offense. “Of course I do, I'm trying to be an engineer! I may not be out there on the track like you and the boys, but I appreciate a good driver when I see one.” you smile brightly.

Charles looks at you for a long moment, a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

“Just make sure you're cheering for the right team on race day in the future.” he says teasingly.

“We'll see about that, Leclerc.” you two share a comfortable silence for a moment. You take a deep breath. “Well, I'll leave you alone, I have to go. But good luck in the race, yeah?” You say with a small smile.

“Sure, see you later! And thanks!” he smiles too.

You smiled back and turned to leave, a triumphant glint in your eyes. Charles watches you go, a genuine smile gracing his features. His heart is probably beginning to soften to let you into it.

***

“Is seriously? You talked to him and he didn't think you were a little innocent girl?” Christian said sitting in his chair in the office.

You were at the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes, you had gone to see some engineers and work with them since you are doing your engineer internship at Red Bull and they have been very generous to you, teaching you everything they know, what you didn't realize was that your father was going to need you to have a talk. Such talks never end well, let's put it that way.

“Well, no... But I think he was being nice.” you say quietly. “I just wanted to wish him good luck, that's all... Just a little greeting... it's not a big deal.”

“You know? It's amazing that you're so stupid and dumb.” He says getting up from his chair. “And also by talking to the enemy, you don't really learn, don't you?” he asked sharply.

He never misses the opportunity to speak badly about you on any occasion, he simply doesn't care about your feelings, he is only interested in the job, winning and that's it. As if that were more important than your well-being as his daughter.

You take a deep breath. “Then let me finish my internship in another team.” you said and he looked at you. “I think it would be better for both you and me. Don't you think?” you said in a whisper.

“What? You really want to finish your silly and stupid internship at Ferrari, right? To be after a man who doesn't give you attention, is it serious?” he says sarcastically, that wasn't your idea but since he puts it on the table it doesn't sound too bad... “How ungrateful you are, to waste the fact that I gave you the opportunity to do the internship here.”

“And it was the only thing you did.” you murmured. “Because, as far as I remember, you haven't done anything else.”

“What did you say, huh? You little bitch.” He said, raising his voice towards you.

“What you fucking heard! Do you think it's not difficult to be under your shadow every day? How tiring it is to have everyone tell you that you are a child of nepotism just because all you did was get me the internship here! And you know that I had to sacrifice many things to get here.” you said in screams, taking everything out of you, all the years of abuse and so on. “And don't come pretending to be a saint because we both know you're not.”

You leave his office and everyone looks at you, but you don't care, you couldn't allow your father to call you names and spoke to you in a not very nice way. Your tears blur your vision as you leave the factory and you run to your car, you feel as if you no longer have a weight on your shoulders, but at the same time you are afraid of what may happen later between the two of you.

***

A couple of weeks later, the Austrian Grand Prix is a blur of disappointment, specially for Charles, since he finished a distant third, strategy blunders costing him a shot at the win against Max. The Red Bull Hospitality is abuzz with post-race celebration, a stark contrast to the muted atmosphere in the Ferrari hospitality across the way.

You stand awkwardly near the doorway, your presence a silent question in the room. Charles sits alone, staring into the bottom of an empty beer glass, his face an iron mask of frustration. A knot of worry tightens in your stomach, that's not the Charles you know, always so cheerful and lively despite everything. It's another version of him, darker and more mysterious.

“Charles?” you asked softly.

He looks up, surprise flickering across his features before hardening back into a grimace.

“What are you doing here?” he said sharply.

“I...I just wanted to see if you were alright.” You say shyly.

His harsh tone stings, cutting through the fragile connection the two of you would built.

“Look y/n, I appreciate the concern, but I need to be alone.” he said sharply.

“But-” hurt creeps into your voice.

He interrupts with his voice rising. “No buts! Don't you get it? This is my job, my life! And today, I failed.”

Tears are pricking at your eyes. “I know it hurts, Charles, but you can't let it consume you.”

He stands abruptly, knocking his chair over with a clatter. “Easy for you to say! You don't have the pressure, the expectations hanging over your head like a damn guillotine! You have everything on a silver platter whenever and however you want!” he say furiously.

His words are a punch to the gut. The simmering tension between you and your father explodes in your mind.

“You think I don't know the pressure? Do you have any idea what it's like living under my father's shadow? To be constantly judged, to have every decision questioned?” you say with a shaking voice.

Charles stares at you, his anger momentarily eclipsed by surprise.

“I may not be a driver, but I understand this world, Charles... I understand the pressure.” You say as tears form in your eyes.

Your vulnerability hangs heavy in the air. Shame washes over Charles, realizing the depth of his lashing out.

“Y/n, I...” he said with a soft voice.

He reaches out, but you flinches back, a wall of hurt suddenly separating the both of you.

You take a shaky breath. “I think I should go.” you sigh tiredly. “Nice talk.”

You turn towards the door, your heart heavy with a mixture of disappointment and a newfound understanding of the burdens that the both of you share. You run out there with tears running down your cheeks, nothing could have been worse after what happened with your father, but now you lost a person you cared about despite everything.

***

The Italian Grand Prix is in full swing after the summer break. Mechanics scurry around the gleaming red Ferrari, the air thick with pre-race tension. Charles, however, finds himself distracted. He steals constant glances towards the Red Bull garage across the pit lane, searching for a familiar face.

He spots you, standing by Christian, your interaction is tense, your father screams at you while you just only nod at his words while holding a few tears in your shy eyes. A pang of fury shoots through Charles, followed by a wave of regret. His outburst in Austria hangs heavy in the air, a barrier he needs to break. He, despite everything, is moderately informed about what happened between you and your father thanks to Max, and it hurts him not to have approached you much sooner.

The pit lane opens to finally start the grand prix, snapping Charles back to reality. He throws on his helmet, a steely resolve replacing his earlier anxiety.

***

Charles finishes a strong second, the podium it's a little bit bittersweet. He emerges from the car, the cheers of the tifosi a distant echo. All he can think about is you.

He finds you in the Red Bull hospitality, a hesitant knock on the door of your office, announcing his arrival. The room falls silent as he enters.

You stand by the window, your back towards him. Your posture is stiff, but Charles can sense the tremor in your shoulders.

“Y/n?” he say quietly.

You turn slowly, your eyes guarded. The hurt in your gaze is a mirror to his own regret.

“Charles...” you say softly.

There's an awkward silence, the air thick with unspoken words. Charles takes a deep breath.

“I can't apologize enough for Austria. I... I was a complete idiot.” he says.

“Words don't erase the hurt, Charles.” you say in a low voice.

He takes a step closer. “I know. But I wanted you to know... these past few weeks, all I could think about was your words. About the pressure, about being judged... You opened my eyes to a side of you I never knew existed.” He reaches out, hesitantly offering his hand. “And in doing so, I realized... how much I care about you.”

You stare at his hand, then back at his face. A flicker of vulnerability crosses your features before you speak.

“You can't just say things like that, Charles. Not after everything.”

“I know, but I have to try. Because the alternative... the alternative is losing you completely.” says sincerely. He sees a flicker of emotion in your eyes, a flicker that speaks of hope.

“This won't be easy, Charles. My father... Things haven't been so smooth lately between him and I.”

“I know. But maybe, just maybe, we can face it together... Like you said, we both understand this world, the pressure. Maybe we can be each other's support system, not just through wins and losses, but through everything else.” he say softly.

A small smile tugs at the corner of your lips. You look at him, a question in your eyes.

“So, what are you saying?” you asked him.

Charles takes a chance, the weight of his feelings pulling him forward. He steps closer, your faces inches apart.

“I'm saying that... give me another chance, please. A chance to prove that I can be the man you deserve.” he whispers. “Please, if you want, I beg you on my knees... I'll do anything, but please give me a chance.”

The air crackles with unspoken emotions. You lean in, closing the distance between the both of you. At first, the kiss is hesitant and at the same time soft and slow, then deepens, a promise unspoken but understood.

Pulling away, Charles searches your soft eyes.

“Is that a yes?” he smiled while blushing.

You smile softly, a genuine smile that reaches your eyes.

“Maybe... How about we can do something casual between us, not business related, just to get to know each other better?” you say shyly.

A grin spreads across Charles' face, relief washing over him like a victory lap. “It's a deal darling.” you giggled.

He leans in for another kiss, the roar of the engines and the crowd outside a distant echo of the race that's just begun – the race for your hearts.

***

The air crackles with a different kind of tension now. You and Charles break apart from your long awaited kiss, foreheads resting against each other. Relief, hope, and a spark of defiance dance in your eyes.

“We should probably get going before someone sees us, don't you think?” you whisper shyly.

Charles nods, a playful smile tugging at his lips. He reaches for the door, ready to usher you out, but it swings open before he can touch it.

Standing in the doorway is Christian, his face a thundercloud. The celebratory atmosphere in the room evaporates, replaced with a chilling silence.

“Y/n! My office. Now.” he says with a strong and demanding voice.

You flinch, your body tensing and shaking at your father's tone, but Charles steps forward, his stance protective.

“Actually, she's not going anywhere Horner.” Charles says calmly.

Christian's gaze snaps to him, fury replacing the icy anger. “And who are you to tell me what to do in my own hospitality suite, Leclerc?” he scoffs.

“Someone who cares about her, a concept you seem to have forgotten.” Charles says with a hard and firm voice.

The room collectively gasps. You reaches out a hand to touch Charles' arm, a silent plea for caution. But Charles shakes you off gently, his green eyes boring into Christian's.

“You judge her, belittle her, just because of your own insecurities. You push her away with every harsh word and raised eyebrow.” Charles says defending you, maybe you and him weren't that close, but probably Max told him about what happened between you and Christian.

Christian lunges forward, his hand raised in a threatening gesture. But Charles doesn't back down, he catches Christian's wrist mid-air, his grip surprisingly strong.

“Don't. Even. Think. About. Touching. Her.” Charles says in a low, dangerous voice. “And if you do, you'll deal with me, is that clear?”

Christian throws Charles a withering look before turning and storming out of the room. The silence that follows is deafening. No one had ever spoken to your father that way, not even Max or Jos, but the fact that Charles was the first to do it was something... Shocking, especially for you.

You let out a shaky breath, your gaze flickering between the slammed door and Charles. “I... Charles.” you say in a shaky whisper.

He whispers back. “Don't apologize, you did nothing wrong sweetie.” he takes your hand in his. “He's such a jerk.” He pulls you towards the door, a newfound determination in his eyes. “We're leaving, now. We can deal with your father later, together, okay?” he says.

You hesitate for a moment, then you nodded in agreement, as you walk out of the Red Bull hospitality, heads turn and whispers follow. But you don't care anymore, you have each other, and that's all that matters.

You two step out into the cool evening air, the roar of the Italian crowd a distant hum. Your hands are intertwined, a silent promise against the warm setting sun.

You two may have a long road ahead, filled with challenges and disapproval, but you'll face it together, a united front against the storm.

“Thank you... For what you did in there.” You say softly, he smiles and brings your hand to his lips to place a kiss on the back of your hand.

“It's nothing ma belle, I know I may not know the whole story since the begging, but I'm willing to help you.” he says the same in a whisper.

“I just want to know... Who told you about it?” you asked softly.

“Max told me.” He says and you laugh.

“I thought so! It doesn't bother me that he did it anyway.” you say and let out a giggle while you shake your head. “I think it's something you deserved to know.”

He smiles at you tenderly. “How about we forget this mess with your father with a good pizza, huh?” he says softly.

“And where would we go?” you shyly asked him.

“We can go to my hotel room... Unless you don't want to, I know it would be awkward but... I don't know, ugh.” He said and started babbling, you smiled seeing him like that, it seemed like the cutest thing of all, seeing him nervous about doing something simple with you.

You smiled and placed a soft kiss on his jaw. “I would love to eat pizza with you in your hotel room Charlie.” you say softly. “So it's a date?”

“It's a date.” He says softly as he kisses the tip of your nose and you giggle. “A date between Ferrari's golden boy and the red bull girl.” he says in a whisper while letting out a giggle.

You smiled tenderly. “You couldn't have said it better.” You whispered back.

To think that a couple of months ago you had not imagined that situation, to see Charles against your father and defending you like a true gentleman, but here you two were. Maybe at the beginning not everything was rosy or he simply didn't tolerate you at all due to false "nepotism" status around you, but you both understand how difficult and complicated this world is, maybe with different perspectives, but you two are there to support each other in the ups and downs.

[potatobugxo]

I saw that you write for Hazbin Hotel, and i thought maybe you could write Velvette daiting Carmillas youngest daughter! reader???

sure thing <3 this turned out way longer than i thought it would hehe

warnings: death threats(?) (carmilla threatens velvette lol)

❣️velvette x carmilla's youngest daughter!reader hcs❣️

-uh oh -you met velvette at one of the overlord meetings. she usually comes in place of vox and valentino and always has more than enough to say about her thoughts on whatever matter carmilla has gathered the other overlords about -you usually sit beside your mother and don't speak much unless necessary -the first time velvette attended one of the meetings you were just... awestruck -her confidence and sass enticed you even if she was throwing absolute shade at your mother lol -velvette isn't stupid, she caught on to you staring at her and would make her rounds around the table just to get dangerously close to your chair and subtly flirt with you -carmilla was NOT having it and dismissed the meeting early before she ripped velvette's head from her shoulders -too late though you were in love teehee -your mother warned you how dangerous the V's were and why not to get involved with them under any circumstance -so being the sheltered demon you are you didn't try to reach out to velvette in any way

-but don't worry she reached out to you <3 -you had caught her eye as well, the polite well mannered thing you were and the way you blushed whenever she spoke to you was just too adorable not to pursue you -velvette finds you on social media and immediately begins chatting with you -at first her pursuing you is mainly to get under carmilla's skin as an act of spite and powerplay, however when she gets to know you more she, dare she admit it, develops feelings for you -velvette knows the other two vees are morons so she doesn't let you get involved with them -likes to keep her precious lil diamond away from the problematic moth and tv thank you very much -will buy you every article of clothing in pentagram city if you so wish for it, her treat even though she knows damn well you can afford to pay for your own stuff she just likes to spoil you <3

-you're her lil princess okay she's obsessed with you <33

-you actually do a pretty good job of keeping your relationship secret from carmilla at least for a time

-but we all know velvette is a social media junkie, and there was no way she WASN'T going to share you and her being adorable on her page

-when velvette's selfies of the two of you reach carmilla's feed (if she even buys into social media??) well you're gonna have a very angry momma on your hands -she's seething with rage aimed toward velvette, not you, as she's convinced velvette manipulated you into this

-but you reassure her that spending time with velvette makes you happy, you're a full grown adult you can make your own decisions -meanwhile velvette is just smirking with pride at carmilla from behind you lmaoo -once carmilla begrudgingly accepts your relationship, she warns velvette that if she ever broke your heart she'd tear out hers

[khaire-traveler]

Hi! I uh, I'm having a struggle here. I understand that the Gods are not their myths, but also like... is that just for personalities? What about their relationships to each other? What if X isn't married to X. What about the creation? Parents and children? Like how far does the "Gods are not their myths" go? What myths are true vs just a story?

Like from my experience with like, Hera and Dionysus it *seems* like their spouses are the same as the myths but also I've never personally interacted with Zeus or Ariadne one on one, yknow? Also thats a weird ass question to ask. Am I just overthinking or is this something other people struggle with? I ofc believe that in terms of personality, the Gods don't act like their myths. I mean, I work with Hera, who is so cold and vindictive in the myths but is actually kind and motherly to me personally.

I don't want to doubt the Gods (and I'm kinda not, I'm more doubting the humans writing about them?? Kinda??) but I'm just... how much is Myth and how much isn't? Does that make sense?

Khaire! This is a fantastic question, and one you get to decide for yourself. c:

What do you feel is the truth? How much of myth do you choose to believe? And at what point does it become overthinking? At what point is the answer more about the unknowable nature of what a god is and their relationships to one another? What things are left entirely to the fact that we simply don't know and that's actually ok?

Myths are a fantastic guideline. They reveal to us how the ancients likely viewed certain life lessons, deities, and even how they may have worshipped. However, how much of a myth we take to heart is up to us, ultimately. You are right to doubt the stories that we're told, but to what extent do you wish to doubt? Are you overthinking things at any point, in your opinion? Are there some things that you can simply shrug off for now? Myths are not the entire basis of worship in ancient Greece, so while some things, such as family relations, are confirmed in myths, it's also important to acknowledge that 1. myths often contradict each other, depending on where they're from, and 2. things like epithets and recorded festivals tells us how the gods were worshipped outside of myth and how they were viewed. As I said, myth isn't the entire basis of this religion; myth was more of a guideline for knowledge that was heavily based on the culture and location at the time (which is why there are different social rules, symbolism, and similar in them).

Another important thing to consider is the role of symbolism in myths which is something that's pretty difficult to discern in the modern times. What things were exaggerated to make a point to the audience? What lessons does this myth teach, and how was someone meant to learn from it? Myths of a god's wrath, as an example, likely bolstered the message that the gods were to be respected, not trifled with. Also, maybe reaching out to your deities and asking them to make these topics clear to you. How do they want you to worship them, with the knowledge that myths are often stories meant to teach something? Remembering, too, that the gods were often worshipped with their relationships to each other for hundreds of years (with some differences based on location and such) is also important, so even if they didn't have those relationships with one another in a human sense, what harm would it do to continue that ancient tradition? Keep in mind that these types of aspects of worship are also linked with respecting the culture of ancient Greece as we go about our practices, which I, personally, think is important to take into consideration. I think of it as paying homage to the ancient Greeks, in a way.

This is the conclusion I've come to in my own practice, as it's a question I've asked many times as well. You're absolutely not the only one asking these things, and doubt is a good thing! It helps us develop our beliefs further and seek more knowledge. Doubt makes us curious, and curiosity feeds learning; don't feel bad for that, it's entirely natural! c: Hope this helps! Take care, and I wish you the best of luck on your journey ahead. 🧡

[luciaintheskyainthi]

Hi just curious if you have plans with the Super family?

Like does we have a chance to see Peter knows about the Super and bats relationship in each member?

I didn't really know if all bats members are pair with one but from the " Peter in Gotham" Fics most of them from what I accounter have a saying that " Oh, Jason finally have a meta partner! Unlike us who have supers partners for a long time!"

I know about the Supersons the paring of Damian and John, such as the Duo who that brings me to the DC fandom but also the only thing know about DC. The others are like watching what the fic to get the bits and pieces of what happened in the cannon events. ( Like the story that Jason have just shocks me when I pictured all of them. )

Also the frist time in fact starting to get to know more about Jason is through your Fics. The small stuff like Dog, the fact that the scars that I belive he have after getting open up after his dead (forgive me I have forget about what the process was called to open up a cropse) just a HC in the fandom.

Forgive me ramble all of this just write anything just come to mind.

Also have a great day ❤️

So if we're going with the 'Bats have supers' trope, Bizzarro served that function for Jason in the RHATO (rebirth) comics. Though he doesn't act/speak in complete opposites like the traditional Bizzarro because something something he's a clone (it's not actually explained why... but also, if the OG Bizzarro does speak like Biz, then my retort is... nuh-uh). I really enjoyed his character, especially with Jason, and there were plans to have him appear at some point, but not sure if it'll fit based on how the plot's developed... we'll see.

I don't have significant plans for any Supers to appear any time soon: the cast is big enough with just the Bats honestly. That isn't to say that I won't be adding characters from outside of Gotham though!!

[coraniaid]

buffy/angel

I think Buffy's relationship with Angel is a hugely important part of her character and something which is vital to understanding all of her future romantic relationships. Yeah, maybe Boreanaz isn't the world's best actor (or second best, or third best, or ...) but Angel's hardly the only character in the first couple of seasons whose actor could be doing a better job and at a certain point all of the clowning on him starts to feel a bit tedious. I honestly kind of hate the way some fans of other ships will try to handwave away the importance of this relationship and pretend that Buffy wasn't ever really in love with Angel or that she'd be fundamentally the same person if she'd never met him. It just feels like a total refusal to engage with what is actually happening on screen.

That said: I don't ship it, no.

1) Why don't you ship it?

For me there are three main issues.

First, there's a bit of a pacing issue. The late Season 1 dynamic -- Buffy is attracted to Angel but conflicted about the fact he's a vampire and they definitely aren't dating as such -- is pretty good, I think, if not anything groundbreaking. As Xander says early on, Angel is "a very attractive man". He's a mysterious older guy who shows up now and then whenever there's danger and he's very pretty and brooding and troubled and he gives Buffy his leather jacket when she's cold and tells her to keep it because it "looks better on you". Buffy is into him. I get it.

That's how we start Season 2, too. In When She Was Bad Buffy tells Angel "there is no us" and claims she didn't spend the summer "mooning over" him, but we also see that she missed him and she tries and fails to tell him that. In Reptile Boy Buffy admits to Willow that she's been dreaming about Angel a lot but insists that "the vampire thing" means she can't have a relationship with him; Willow later gets angry with Angel on Buffy's behalf and asks him why he can't make time for a cup of coffee.

But by What's My Line?, just four episodes later, Buffy and Angel are definitely dating (he takes her to the ice rink, she claims that Spike has crossed a line because "nobody messes with my boyfriend"). So that gives the show just three episodes to go from "Buffy is attracted to Angel but they aren't in any sort of relationship" to "wait, yes they are" and I'm not sure it manages it. (Especially because the question of their relationship doesn't even really come up in The Dark Age.)

Are they already dating in Halloween, when Buffy dresses up to impress Angel and he tells her she's "not like other girls"? Are they dating in Lie To Me, when Angel seems jealous of Buffy's newly arrived ex-crush Ford and Buffy tells Angel she loves him but doesn't know if she trusts him? This isn't a rhetorical question: I genuinely don't know. In the same episode Ford asks Buffy if Angel is her boyfriend and her reply is "No. Uh, yeah. Maybe." before she asks for a break from "the tough questions". The show needs Buffy and Angel to get together, for Surprise and Innocence and everything that follows, but it feels like large parts of their developing relationship must be happening entirely off-screen.

That ties into my second problem, which is ... well, I'm not sure the show is actually very good at writing this sort of romance plot? It's a teen supernatural drama set in a high school, so all these rituals of first dates and crushes and saying "I love you" for the first time and putting labels like "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" to things are hugely important to the characters, but I don't think they really matter to the writers much at all. And more broadly I don't think I really share the writers sense of what is and what isn't romantic. (As I've said before, the Riley stuff in Season 4 explicitly shows us what the writers think a healthy relationship for Buffy looks like and it's kind of awful?) The speech Angel gives Buffy in Halloween about she's not like other girls (because said girls were uniformly "dull, simpering morons" who he "hated") is obviously meant to be romantic, but ... uh. Yikes.

And it certainly doesn't help that a year and half later Angel will give Buffy the "not like other girls" speech again and describe a completely different set of girls who he finds boring and hateful. (A scene that is, again, portrayed in a way I really don't understand.) For that matter, it doesn't help that in Becoming (Part 1) we get a slight retcon when we see that Angel didn't actually meet Buffy for the first time in Welcome To The Hellmouth ("truth is, I thought you'd be taller") but actually ... well. Was driven past her school in a dark car with tinted windows to check her out while she was a fifteen year old high school student. (In context, I want to believe that this is a deliberate choice on the writers part to make us feel uneasy about the basis of the relationship -- just like the choice in I Only Have Eyes For You to parallel it to a relationship between a teenager and his adult teacher -- but in practice I'm not so sure! The Becoming flashback gets brought up again in Season 3 but the framing when it does seems to suggest it's a lot more romantic than I ever took it as being.)

I find it easy to believe Buffy would be attracted to Angel. I find it easy to believe she is (was) in love with him and that the fact she was forced to send him to hell still haunts her years later. I just don't really think the show does a good job of showing how she goes from being attracted to him and "mooning after" him to being in love with him and not even noticing when he vamps out. I think the viewer just needs to do too much of the work. (Maybe this is something where the show suffers from being watched on DVD or steaming services on demand rather than at most one episode per week. In real time, over a month passed between Reptile Boy and What's My Line? which is plenty of time for the audience's imagination to fill in some of the gaps. On my last season-long rewatch I think I watched the three intervening episodes over the course of two evenings.)

And this ties into my third problem, which is that while I believe her relationship with Angel is hugely important to Buffy it never really feels like Buffy means that much to Angel. And maybe that is on Boreanaz's acting, at least a little bit. Maybe a better actor would have done better in the role. I'm not sure they would have been able to do much with the material they were given, but it might have helped.

But it's also down to the writing. Both in Buffy -- when, because Buffy is the main character, we don't really get to see Angel's side of things at all -- but mostly because of how Angel is written in Angel. There was a very deliberate choice on the part of the Angel writers (specifically Greenwalt, I think?) to play up Angel's past relationship with Darla in a way that reframes his relationship with Buffy. And while I understand that decision from a writing point of view -- the show needs to give Angel's character more depth, it doesn't want to live forever in the shadow of its parent show, SMG can't keep making cameo appearances -- and I do really like Darla as a character, it does a huge disservice to Buffy.

Because the retcon means that, while Angel is the hugely important figure in Buffy's life and always will be, to Angel Buffy is ... just a teenage girl he saw one day who reminded him of his old lover Darla. Darla is to Angel what Angel is to Buffy. It doesn't sit at all well with either of those "not like other girls" speeches he gave her. We know now that Angel met somebody "exciting" centuries before Buffy was even born. We surely don't believe Angel when he tells Buffy he's been with "hundreds" of girls like Faith but Buffy is the only woman he's ever loved. There's just this fundamental asymmetry there that makes it really hard to be emotionally invested in the ship. (To be clear: the problem isn't that Buffy isn't the first person Angel's loved, it's that so much of their relationship on her show involves him repeatedly telling her that she was, only for it to be later revealed that this can't be true. It makes him fundamentally dishonest in a way I don't think he was originally written to be.)

2) What would have made you ship it?

Hand on heart I'm not sure anything could have made me ship it as such.

Maybe there's some version of Buffy in which Angel never left for LA and we didn't get those 1996 flashbacks in Becoming and Season 3 really played up Angel's time in hell and had him more slowly rebuild his strength and memories before starting to think about a relationship with Buffy again that I'd have got more invested in. Maybe if Angel had stayed in hell for longer, and only come back in Season 4 (and Buffy could have been hiding him not just from her friends but from the Initiative). But I don't really think so.

Season 2 of Buffy is really good -- maybe the show's best, honestly -- and a huge part of that is the whole Angel-losing-his-soul side of things. I wouldn't want to change that. But once you've gone through that arc, once you've done the "Buffy sleeps with a guy she likes and afterwards it like he's a whole new person and she never really knew him at all" metaphor, I don't think you can go back to the status quo.

3) Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

As I said above, I think it's a hugely important relationship for Buffy and I'm a little suspicious of people who try to pretend it isn't. I don't hate it: I just find it a little underwhelming in execution. Angel and Buffy do have some nice moments together before he loses his soul. I don't dislike Amends as much as some people do, and I think Buffy's speech to Angel about the importance of fighting day after day and never giving up is good. I like the fact Angel comes back to Sunnydale after Joyce dies to check in on Buffy. I even like his cameo in the finale. It's a bit perfunctory, sure, and there's more than a bit of the deus ex machina about the whole magical amulet thing, but it wouldn't have felt right to Buffy's story for him not to be there.

(She should have asked how Cordelia was doing while they were catching up though. Make him lie to her once more for old time's sake.)

[violettimeaya]

I don't know if is just me but... Behind all fun things Gon and Killua does, ther relationship is actually really damn sad. Is a long yap.

They are eachother first friends so they experimenting on each other, while both of them have have greater emotional intelegece the others kids in this universe would have. They bonded over isolation and loneness they both had. Yes Killua had Canary and Alluka, Gon had Noko, Mito, his grandmother and the womans that he dated with. Do you kinda see the pattern? The good times they spend bonding and learning bonds was always with woman's. Maybe is not as strong for Killua's case since there's is a lot of influence of his parents and brothers - but this one is mostly negative, while in retrospect he acts like regular kid with Alluka and Canary. But to even make the circle smaller - with people around ther age, there where only woman. Shood out to any Canary/Killua and Gon/Noko shippers, Killugon fans shoud accept and ambrace u all (and I'm obbsesed about Killugon)

Back to boys, they also bounded quickly creating alliance and having nodge of rivalry in it too. I kinda see it as two kids that where bullied finally notice each other and relate to eachother pain. First time in ther life. Probably so rapid because of ther age, but I think gender is important in it too. Where they doomed from the start because of that? I don't really know. They start to drive eachother, Gon knowing would never find his dad without Killua. Killua just aprecatioing that Gon is his friend and he never is bored - yet he lacks greater goal.

They somewhat projected each other in chimera ants with Killua having way better arc while Gon seems so incomplete. And I mean it. It was rushed with Pittou fight with only few highlights, the contions for transformation was kinda out of ass, AND FUCKING KITE. We need to headcanon to understand how much Gon romatices Kite since TOGASHI GIVES US ALMOST NOTHING AND EXPECT US TO UNDERSTAND GON'S PAIN. We can say "Oh is his first exposure to greef" well is pretty badly written let me tell you.

1. Not enough Kite, he should be exposed as much as Ging in the background if you want his death make important.

2. Gon is more emotionally mature than people think so, and i think his rage could be slight character assassination of his since the build up is way to drasticall. If we had more hits, Gon talking more about Kite to Killua to tell him what inspire him. It was so missed out.

Ignoring the bad writing of Hunter x Hunter the thing you probably imagined when i said that ther bond is sad is - them separating. Is that only bad things that happened to them? Not really, i think Togashi could explore more that they have problems but... Shonen manga isn't about creating good bonds but guys getting stronger and better. Maybe if Gon acually died the ending would be better contrition wise - and trust me it hurts me to say that I want my favorite child to die out of his mistake. But Allukas revival makes it pointless to, uh is so painful. Let's go back to separation, because it reminds me of like how a friend moves out kinda situation, shit changed so bad off screen that both of them decided to leave eachother alone - did we ever got this convo? I think not! GON AND KILLUA DONT TALK ABOUT IMPORTANT THINGS THAT'S WHY IS SO SAD TO ME. I just want them to sit down and have heart to heart covo like "you are the light scene". Fuck geting stronger physically, I want psychological development among them. BUT NO WE HAVE TO HEADCANON, HXH COMUNTY IS CARRYING SO HARD IS UNREAL.

I ended up feeling more pissed out than sad. I am huge Killugon shipper yet I fucking hate and love Hunter x Hunter - so that's how passion feels right?

[sweetlikehoneystingslikeabee]

oooooh this is kind of a blast from the past but i just remembered your answer about if edward ended up in the position of having to look after a baby— which i loved— but what do you think he’d be like as an actual dad? like, where would he have to be with his partner to consider it and what would have to happen for him to be okay with it? what do you think would appeal to them about it? (and answer with whichever eddies you want, you write them all great!)

"Dad Bods and Question Marks" - Riddler Party X Reader

I gotta do it to 'em. This is the other ask being referred to if anyone hasn't seen it yet! Keep in mind reader is gender neutral as one does not have to be a woman to get pregnant as well as adoption being an option for those who cannot. And with appeal I also included kind of strengths and weaknesses as dads.

TW: Child abuse (mentioned, not done by riddlers), suggestive content (kink mention), necropsy mention, controlling behavior, child death mention (not the baby, background lore),

Gotham

Needs to be in a long-term (5+ years at least) relationship and preferably married. A specific, incredibly high amount of money in the bank for them and for you if anything happens. It's rather like a laundry list of both big and small criteria that has to be met before the baby process can start. He insists it's absolutely for the baby and not just because he's a little... anxious.

Truthfully, he does want a baby with you. The idea of his genius mixed with all the things he adores about you? You couldn't make a more perfect person if you tried! That's the appeal for him. It's just. Well. You know his issues at this point. Not to mention the people who want to kill him at any time in the week. Those are things to worry about and have plan b, c AND d, in the off chance things go a little sideways. But he will! Because yes, he wants a family with you.

He's so incredibly awkward as a dad at first. The baby and toddler ages are the easy part for him. You take care of their basic needs and educate them in languages and colors. Edward has several very large piles of flashcards he's made to be optimal in teaching a child how to learn. Pre-teen to teen? Ehhhh- Eventually he realizes this is where he gets to share his incredibly macabre interests and hobbies with them. Whether or not YOU like this is a very different topic but hey uh. Hope you don't mind discussions about how the extracurricular necropsy on a fetal pig went at the dinner table.

His issue is that he puts the tiny human you two have made on a pretty intense pedestal. Really, it's because he would move the earth and stars for them. They're just so intelligent. So beautiful. So perfect at every little thing they do- to the point that they very likely will develop anxiety of not meeting those standards even when he's not pushing them. Whoops!

60s

The only one who actively was planning on having a baby with you start to finish, possibly before it even entered your head! Maybe some of it is the time he grew up in. Perhaps it's because he doesn't have the level of father-related trauma some of the other riddlers have... For him, a family with a baby just makes sense! And... well. The two of you certainly are your own little family now, aren't you?

He would have to think about retirement.

That might make you pause. He'll simply shrug. What? He can't be there as a father if he's constantly getting arrested and thrown in Gotham jail, can he? It's not an easy decision to make, no but... He wasn't planning on still asking Batman riddles when he's old and gray anyway. He'll still get up to antics... just... different ones.

Once everything is settled and he gets to be a Dad with a totally legitimate riddle-based business that does NOT con people out of their money and is completely above board, it's great. He is the best dad. The circus, the movie theater, make believe tea parties? He is IN IT- Why, yes, dear, he will take two sugars- The most appealing thing to him is watching the wonder that glances over his child's eyes as he gets to do fun things in the world with them.

Sometimes he's a bit too playful and not serious enough. He's not avoiding discipline or anything like that. But sometimes a child needs the guy who goes to PTA meetings and is seen as a real adult by their peers. It's a little hard to get taken seriously in those instances when you used to run around in spandex and your attitude is about the same.

Bonus: When they're an infant, he does a low crooning while rocking them that makes your heart melt.

Capullo

Says no outright. No. N-O- What are babies? Little parasites that either grow inside of you or someone else for nine months and then you're the one responsible for them until they're legally an adult! They puke on you, urinate and defecate on you and you get NO sleep- When you point out he doesn't get sleep anyways with how he works, he huffs that it's not the POINT.

Either A) Accidental pregnancy or child from another relationship or B) It would have to be something his partner has been dreaming of. Something with a lot of discussion on the pros and cons. His past trauma, for one. But it's important to you so- he uses this as an in for extra instances of unprotected sex... even if that's not how the baby is getting here. Can you blame him? If there was ever a time for a kink like that, now would be it.

He insists there is no appeal of a child for reasons stated previously. The real appeal for him ends up being the genuine warmth and love. He will act INCREDIBLY put out the first time they get sick and only want to lay on him. Disgusting. But he has an arm around them as he holds them to his body and refuses to hand them off as the family goes to the doctor. They chose him to hug when they felt poorly. That means something. Absolutely is the dad that gets his panties in a twist when they're kid isn't feeling like a hug.

His biggest problem is that he can be such an insufferable twit and he doesn't know how to turn it off. He's a narcissist with an ego. He says things that are callous and hurtful even when he doesn't mean it. Sometimes his child will wonder if he even likes them which ends up in a HUGE blowout fight at some point that you have to step back and let Edward hash it out with the kid. Lots of tears from the child and him holding them in a vice-grip as he tells them over and over how much he loves them.

BTAS

He's surprisingly neutral about the whole thing. If you'd never had children, he would be absolutely fine. Now that you've mentioned it... Hm. An offspring would certainly be one way to impart his legacy onto the world. One that he wouldn't allow to be marred like others he tried to make for himself. In his mind this is the big "thing" of having a child, but in the sense that he wants them to be well-off in their own way and not like a nepotism baby or a child you have for the sake of a name/having one.

He wants everything to be built and child-proofed before a baby is brought into the home/world. He has far too much work that is either very important or too dangerous for a little one to have access to. Plus he can certainly build things better than half the devices on the market and make them safe to his specifications, like a cradle with a solid base but the bed does a soft swaying that can also be turned off. Also plays ocean sounds.

He loves building things for the child and tinkering with them at his side as they get older. Who needs STEM summer camp with him around? This kid is going to know programming and hardware backwards and forwards by the time they get to high school. The amount of scholarships alone they're going to get is so obscene they could go to any college in the country or even internationally should they so choose.

Honestly? He doesn't really have one specific thing that's a problem with him as a father. Sometimes his expectations are too intense and he would be pretty upset if his child ended up going onto a life path he didn't think was good enough for them. Sometimes his words are too biting and he can be incredibly condescending. He lets his goons handle schoolyard bullies in an incredibly disproportional way...

Telltale games

I actually have had a whole ask based on how he would react if a reader told him they were pregnant! Accidental pregnancy or child from a previous relationship would likely be the only ways he'd actively agree to having a child given his age and trust issues. It takes him time to come around.

His way of "agreeing" to have a child as mentioned in the previous ask is that he becomes really controlling about everything. The house (yes, the house) is in both of your names as is a special banking account. A safety deposit box with documents clearing you of any and all involvement in his endeavors as well as enough blackmail to buy you a get out of jail free card should you ever need it. You don't get a say in any of it, just a key and a listed regiment.

The appeal of a child ultimately is it gives him a sense of normalcy that he feels was otherwise robbed from him. Sure, he was already going down a path that kept him away from that before but... He doesn't mind the 2am feedings with a baby warm and babbling on his chest. Kissing their forehead and sighing in that new baby smell. Later on, he gets to cook family dinners and tell someone to do their homework. He gets to read bed time stories.

His biggest fault is that he's the most paranoid man you've ever met. Granted, he has reason to be. His child knows how to use a panic room with a special code. There will be multiple instances where you're going to have to tell him that moving isn't necessary, you aren't being stalked by any faceless corporate entities. The person he threatened to stay away from the baby was the mailman. It was actually the fifth mailman he's scared away, they've now stopped sending them. If it wasn't for you, that kid is going to end up a ball of neurotic anxiety.

Arkham games

"Only if you're doing the primary care taking and it doesn't get in the way-" Is what he says. Honestly, it's more of a dry joke but when you agree, he's stopped what he's doing, pulled his goggles off and is giving you The Look. It's a look you're familiar with. The one that implies you've had a sudden lobotomy or other mental incapacitation. "You can't be serious."

When you explain that you are, in fact, serious, he calls you an idiot. Why would you want a child with him of all people? and then to say you'd take care of it alone... as if he'd allow that sincerely. When you mention his good traits and butter him up a little? eh... okay. PERHAPS... he could see why you would choose him as the ideal mate for offspring- even if they come "store-bought." If you do adopt, you have to tell him that's not a funny joke to say in front of people.

It doesn't really have an appeal, in his mind. It's a child, you raise it and maybe hope it doesn't come to hate you. in truth, most of his rewarding moments with his child is cutting off the cycle of abuse he was raised with. Seeing them smile for him and ask for help with their homework. To come to him with their troubles, even when they've made a mistake. They seek his affection without fear of his hands. Getting to help them win first place in the science fair. It's not cheating if they did most of the work he just... helped with the blue prints!

The explosive fury is the part he struggles with the most as a father- the gut reactions and instincts that had been beaten into him. He ends up learning that when he feels that anger surging up inside of him, he needs to leave the room. His voice rises and he stops- Gets up and leaves to cool off. He and his partner would have to have a long child-friendly conversation about it with their child at some point. That it's not them it's... a lot of things that happened when Dad was a kid. Plus.... sometimes he might let them think cheating is ok.

Batman 2022/Nashton

You are presented with a monologue of why you shouldn't have a kid, actually. His absolutely HORRENDOUS experience with other children growing up in an orphanage, everything from them bullying him in fucked up ways most people would never understand to finding them dead in the winter. Do you know how expensive it is to have a baby? He does, crunching numbers used to be all he did! Oh, oh!! and not to mention!! how he did an act of domestic terrorism and is still really fucked up as a human being and destroys EVERYTHING he touches!!!

He would need so much reassurance that he is not going to fuck anything up. That he's going to be able to care for this child and that you'll do it together as a team. That the reason you even want a baby is because you love him and want to see his good traits passed on into the world. Similarly to Capullo, ironically enough... Nashton does take his acceptance of this to a specific physical degree verging on nasty dog. Lets just say Edward is very determined for you to get that baby.

His appeal of having a baby is the same as Telltale which is the feeling of normalcy- with a variation that's him getting to experience normal childhood through his own kid. Trippy. Getting excited about their first word or first steps instead of it going completely unnoticed. Things like watching a scary movie with them and they ask to sleep with the two of you. There are a startling amount of moments where he realizes a bunch of these nice good things are average parts of being a kid and getting really emotional about them.

Can you say "helicopter parent"? Doesn't want them to leave his sight, ever. Doesn't sleep well for the first two weeks because he wants to stand there and just. Watch the baby breath and sleep because he's terrified of SIDS. He's practically going to stalk his own child. As they get to school age, he's going to have a tracker on their phone and in their backpack. A conversation will have to happen about it at some point and no one is going to be happy about it...

BTAA

Here's a moment of my personal, totally not canon hcs about BTAA riddler's childhood: grew up with practically nothing, a mom constantly working for the fact his bum dad wouldn't get any real work. What dad would do was cons. Clever, but not the most intelligent or complex gimmicks that would sucker people into handing over their money. Edward spent a lot of time reading books or watching documentaries. It was all their old TV would really play. PBS-type channels. His more distinct memories of his mother were the sculptures she would make at the Gotham Community Center in her spare time which is lowkey why he's obsessed with being an "artiste" of crime.

WHICH BRINGS US TO- HE'S TOO BUSY TO HAVE A KID- That's what he tells you. He's an artist! He has to impress and educate the masses of Gotham and you expect him to put all that on HOLD for a CHILD? The whole world is melting and you want to bring a kid into that? You want to hand him a kid to entertain for a couple of hours, hype up on sugar and give back? That's fine! A spawn of his own, though?

"But Eddie..." And he's glancing at you with a scowl. If the baby is already a situation that is happening like custody being passed over or the like... EUGH. He's going to throw such a fit about it but he can't really... He's not going to put you two on the streets for it. Miss Tuesday, overhearing this, states a reminder that she is not a babysitter and she will not change diapers. Riddler tells her to be quiet. Well he can figure this out. How hard can it be?

His "idea" of the appeal is to have a protege to mold in his image from the START. Truthfully, he gets a little bit of a dad bod during the baby phase and evolves as a person beyond his constant need for validation. Like, it's still there, but not as bad. Who cares if he doesn't have the biggest file in Batman's computer? His kid got all A's, won several competitions at school and is already hustling the morons in their class with overpriced candy. And he will commit to the bit to embarrass the shit out of them. Imagine John Leguizamo riddler car with the top down blasting "If I was a Rich Girl" by gwen stefani blasting while he wears his aviators kind of intentionally embarrassing. It's an art form.

The thing he's bad at as a dad? The fucking DRAMATICS. He can take an argument from 0-100 fast which can be emotionally confusing for a child and a powder keg to a later teenager. And he doesn't care. He will scream the house down with his kid. And with it being his kid? They get the kind of loud you slowly edge out of the room from if you can.

[the-invisibility-bloke]

001: Sebinis!

Always. <3

-

001 | send me a ship and I will tell you:

when I started shipping it if I did: March 2023, while still on my first playthrough. My partners and I were joking about who would top, Ominis or Sebastian, ​and decided to see what AO3 had to say about it. The rest is history. :D

my thoughts: AAAAAAAAAAAAA. I mean. I met so many wonderful friends because of them. This ship will be in my heart forever. They have an incredible setup, the sweet boy trying to leave his dark family behind, and the orphan who tumbles into the dark with good intentions. They're gold standard shipping material.

What makes me happy about them: THEY'RE CUTE AS SHIT. The way Sebastian teases him,​ they way they so obviously care about each other to the point that Ominis is the only one whose opinion Sebastian actually respects. They've been best friends since childhood and that makes the break of their bond that much more traumatic. DELICIOUS.

What makes me sad about them: ​​The catacombs. :( Sebastian's general assholery and how deeply it wounds Ominis. No matter what happens post-canon, their relationship is permanently damaged. Sebastian is just too self-absorbed in the end, and that's what makes a good ship, but damn it hurts.

things done in fanfic that annoys me: Happy to share in DMs, but I'll refrain from ​answering here; I don't want to any​one to stop writing what they love.

things I look for in fanfic:​ I love the trope that their relationship starts developing before canon, because that makes it angstier when they fall apart. I also love them coming together at some point after canon, when they've drifted apart, and they have to sort of rebuild from scratch. Drarry vibes. But generally canon compliant... and little to no MC involvement, haha.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:​ My HC of Garreth would be perfect for Ominis, a far better partner than Sebastian, let's be honest. XD And, uh... Marvolo, I suppose, but I don't think that's a very healthy match. ;) SEBASTIAN DOESN'T DESERVE ANYONE.

My happily ever after for them:​ They recover after canon events, build a relationship together, get married, and Ominis takes Sebastian's name which is why he doesn't show up in the Gaunt family tree. :) :) :)

who is the big spoon/little spoon:​ I think they switch up, Ominis is canonically a bit taller I think? (Or is that fanon? I actually wrote him shorter so who knows.) But I do HC him as more of a bottom and thus a lil' spoon.

what is their favorite non-sexual activity:​ MISCHIEF. Hijinks with Anne. At least, before everything went to shit. Pranks and silliness and practicing spells in the Undercroft, exploring the areas of Feldcroft. Probably reading together too, Sebastian's a giant bookworm and you can see parts of the game where they're just sitting together reading, it's adorable.

[mamawasatesttube]

I don't know that much about superboy so forgive me if this is a silly question but what's the deal with Magdalene Visaggio?

not a silly question, dw!! if you haven't read many kon comics it probably doesn't look particularly noteworthy but OOF. OOF.

the tl;dr of it: despite being paid to write him once, she also hasn't read kon comics and it really, really, really shows. i'm talking geoff johns levels of flagrant disregard for the existing character - maybe even worse than geoff? which i say only because i know geoff did read sb94 even if he didn't act like it. but that's off topic; this isn't a geoff hatepost. this is a magdalene hate post.

under a cut for length, lets goooo!

so we start out with her canonizing supermartian. already off on the wrong foot - that's a ship out of yja the tv show which is a completely separate continuity from main comics and a completely different kon than main continuity kon. despite supposedly knowing that, she still shoves them into a relationship in main continuity, despite them never having actually interacted on page in main continuity.

she then goes on to characterize kon as angry and entitled and uncaring, and also in high school again. not only does she directly contradict all of his preboot existing characterization (which is important because kon-el never got reset during flashpoint - he was in another universe and thus dodged that bullet. current kon-el is canonically the same kon-el as pre-flashpoint/postcrisis kon-el.), but also she directly contradicts both young justice (2019) and superboy: man of tomorrow, which are in current continuity, leading one to really wonder if she has read a single comic kon appeared in at all. it's also worth noting that the asshole with anger issues characterization is, once again, much truer to the young justice animated tv show than any comic kon.

also worth noting is that the infamous red hair dye streak? well, uh...

yeah..............

on her twitter, she once said something about kon-el not being a good name because it's "still a name someone else gave him", called him "the jason todd of the superfamily", and insisted that the meaning of a trans narrative is "burning down your life and reevaluating your place within it":

kon-el is a name gifted to him to signify his acceptance into his family (superboy (1994) #59) and he was so overjoyed to receive it that he cried. overall, the superfam are very supportive and loving, and introducing strife just to make him run off and live with jinny hex instead of them just because she thinks one can't transition and retain previous relationships is... not it, lol.

her pitch also contained some outrageously egregious christianity bullshit, like villains named "saint", "shepherd", and "savior", as well as direct comparisons between clark and jesus christ. this is... sorry i really just have to say this is Fucking Cringe. i guess the more polite way to put it would be "incredible gauche" (considering the jewish origins of the superfam) but i just can't call it anything else. This Fucking Sucks Dude. i won't even get into the weirdness about genetic bullshit she leans into by introducing kon's "brother" who's also part luthor, part superman, but "luthor-dominant" (lol?) (do you know how genes work even a little bit).

she has quoted the one panel from reign of the supermen where kon says "don't ever call me superboy" a few times, claiming it's the first thing he ever said and no one listened. to me this essentially reads as her going "i've read one of his appearances and i would like to throw out the like 200 issues of character development he had since then in favor of making him my own self-insert to explore MY transition and religious trauma".

basically she doesn't seem to know how to write a story that's not about herself. as a trans person with a positive relationship with my given name (because as a first-gen kid of two diasporic immigrants, it provides an important tie to my family's cultures, to me) and with trans friends who involved their parents in picking new names and so on and so forth, i honestly find it very reductive and white to insist there's only one trans narrative and only one good way for trans characters to be named. i also find her putting her own christian religious trauma into a superfam story off-putting and . well. fucking cringe. i understand and respect that that is her story, but it sure ain't universal and i won't be able to respect her as a writer until it becomes clear she gets that.

[rosorbus]

my thoughts on evangelion 3.0+1.0

(as someone who only recently finished it)

as much as i loved shin eva, something about it didn't sit right with me. i've been doing a lot of reflection lately, and i think i've sort of unpacked it?

theres a lot of incoherent rambling here i think but i don't care, i'm not editing shit

spoilers for the rebuilds, don't read if you haven't seen them.

to start, i think it was a- no, not excellent, uh ... it was a satisfactory conclusion to most? i liked it, cried my eyes out obviously.

shinji's character got a great conclusion. i don't think that's a hot take by any means. seeing him actually talking to his father, having a real conversation with gendou, and in turn making that character, who'd probably felt like a walking plot device beforehand, human? that's powerful shit.

↓ please excuse my pathetic whining below

but... oh, mari. she was definitely a fun character, if not a little shallow and fanservicey. her presence never really bothered me though, not until shinji ended up with ...her??

that final scene genuinely shocked me. i guess i sort of get the idea?? like, his only other romantic options were the following:

A: Rei Ayanami

a clone of his dead mother that barely understands the concept of being human, and whose care for him clearly, at least to me, stems from her practically being his family.

B: Asuka Langley Shikinami

an angry redheaded girl who, unlike her version in the original series, is also a clone. this one's backstory is much more shrouded in mystery, but regardless, she's violent asf with shinji, tried to force feed him, etc. as far as we know, she no longer has feelings for him after the 14-year timeskip and is implied to be in a relationship with kensuke.

C: Kaworu Nagisa

(we'll get to him in a minute)

A and B... not great options. A is a weird dynamic, and they give off a sibling vibe to me anyway. B is jusy plain fucked. i've never thought asuka and shinji's relationship was remotely healthy, not with soryuu OR shikinami.

but did the writing team just forget about C? i understand it was established towards the end that kaworu didn't truly understand shinji's happiness, but ...that doesn't fit with the relationship i saw, at least.

to me, yeah, he fucked up a couple times. his existence ended up causing more pain to shinji but this was through no fault of his own.

"all he wanted was for shinji to live and be happy."

kaworu realizing that maybe it was not just a selfless act, that maybe it was also for himself, and acknowledging that, is absolutely character development. in exchange for becoming human, he acknowledged his own flaws.

and that is beautiful to me.

so why am i weirded out by shinji ending up with mari, you ask?

it's because she does not have depth as a character.

she feels so utterly flat to me, and that is not a dig at her, i'm not a mari hater by any means, but OH MY GOD. how do you just end like that? with this one person who doesn't feel like a real person?

and it's not like i'm mad about it because she's new, hell no. it's because she has no flaws. she feels like this perfect shell of a character to me. and maybe that's the point? i have no idea. i have no idea what was going through anno's head when he was cooking up this film.

again, to clarify, i still LOVED the movie. but mari becoming important is weird. kaworu was right there and they just kinda ??? tossed him aside ???

to me at least, it should've been him, or shinji's love life should've been left up to interpretation. mari didn't earn that ending.

(this is the only real criticism i have about the movie btw it was fine)

[pluckyredhead]

Did I just read your Super Sons primer from 2020 at 3 am on a Monday morning because I'm having a real normal one? Maybe?! I'm wondering how you feel about how they and their relationship has developed since then. IMO it's... Pretty bleak. 😩

I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT IT. (Also here's the primer for anyone who missed it.)

So I will say that 95% of everything Jon has been in since he got aged up has been hot garbage, but I do think the exception is when Damian is around. But let's take it from the top!

First of all, I don't necessarily think they should de-age him again. Generally speaking I think it's better storytelling to focus on fixing things moving forward, rather than undoing things moving back. Sure, if DC came up with some big cosmic event that reset Jon to 11, I certainly wouldn't complain, but I'd rather see them, uh...do literally anything with Teen Jon that doesn't suck.

But yeah, aging Jon up to begin with still makes me livid because:

I want my baby to have had a childhood.

It's fully character assassination for Lois and Clark. They would NEVER let their 11-year-old go to outer space with a supervillain. Lois would NEVER just abandon him out there, and Clark would NEVER respond with "Well, I'm sure he's fine, wanna have marathon sex?" I honestly have no idea what Bendis or his editor were thinking.

They have not done a single interesting with him since!!!

Putting this behind a cut because it got LONG. Also spoilers for Beast World in there.

I've said this before, but I have to assume that Bendis wanted to age Jon up because he wanted to write a Legion book. But he also in his wisdom decided to bring Kon back into continuity at exactly the same time, which means we have two nearly identical Superboys that DC didn't and still doesn't know what to do with. Kon clearly couldn't have joined the LOSH because he already had a team, but you know what Super teen was available, and not 11, and who has a history with the Legion that goes back almost as long as Clark's? KARA. But I will save that rant for another day.

And honestly, Kara dodged a bullet, because that Legion book was unreadable. Bendis at his most Bendis-y wall of text interrupt-y conversations and no plot. If I give Tom Taylor any credit it's that the second he got his hands on Jon, he torpedoed Jon/Imra as a ship. GOOD.

And when the LOSH book finally went out with a whimper (that JLA/LOSH miniseries! what was that!!!), we entered the Taylor Era. Taylor's quirks are less stylistic and more narrative than Bendis's. You can spot Bendisian dialogue at twenty paces, but a Taylor comic tips its hand when it sets up a really interesting premise or a really high stakes threat and then immediately undercuts it with a little wet fart noise of nothing. To wit:

Jon's starting college! This will be an interesting challenge for him to readjust to normal life after six years in a torture-volcano and an indeterminate amount of time in the future, and also considering he never graduated from sixth grade. I wonder what will - oh no he dropped out after three pages. (He has done NOTHING in his civilian identity since, btw. I guess he's too busy hovering just behind Dick at all times to work on his GED or whatever.)

Jon is going to confront Ultraman! Finally the comics will have to engage with all the trauma he must have - oh no Ultraman's dead.

Jon is trapped in the Injustice Universe! This is a really dangerous universe that might make him question everything he knows about - oh he just lectured everyone and flounced off home.

Beast World is a perfect example. Taylor seems to think that having a hero effortlessly solve a problem makes them look badass, but it's actually the effort that makes them look badass. So like, we spent five months keeping the Kryptonians and other A-class heroes away from the spores because the spores are attracted to power and if a Super got spore'd everyone would be in big trouble...but then in the last issue, they just have Jon fly up to everyone with a spore in them, wait for the spore to jump at him, and catch it? That doesn't make the Titans look smart or Jon look tough. It makes all of them look like idiots because it it was that easy, why didn't they do that in the first place?

On top of that, Taylor doesn't ever really earn relationships. Jon and Jay is the obvious one. Jay has no personality. There's no chemistry between the two characters. Jon might as well be dating a cardboard cutout labeled "Proof of Queerness." (Or "Bernard." Ahem.) But we're supposed to be like, yes, give Tom Taylor a GLAAD award for using queer characters as props, when he's going to turn around and kiss Chuck Dixon's ass on social for being homophobic about Jon? UGH.

Honestly worse for me though is the Jon and Dick relationship. Because Taylor is writing both characters, we're supposed to believe that there's this close mentor-mentee bond there? I don't think they EVER interacted before the Taylor era. (And don't even look at me with that retconned-in scene of Dick finding lost baby Jon. You're telling me that Superman, with his X-ray and telescopic vision, needs to call Bruce and Dick for help finding his own son? Fuck off.)

Anyway it all combines to make basically every Jon appearance for the past three years profoundly unsatisfying. Even the stuff that isn't by Taylor never goes anywhere. Remember when he was jealous of the Super Twins for two panels? And then everyone forgot about it forever? SIGH.

HOWEVER.

However.

If there is one thing that Bendis and Taylor and every other writer got right, it's that Jon is crazy bonkers in love with Damian always and forever. Jon has been written like shit since 2019, but he has also not wavered in his devotion for even one single solitary second.

THE EVIDENCE:

This is the first thing Jon does when he gets back to Earth:

He then tells Damian he's contemplating not joining the Legion because he'll have to leave Damian behind. Damian tells him to go and then come get him if it's cool.

Turns out the Legion is cool. Jon comes and gets Damian. The Legion isn't happy about it and Jon threatens to leave if Damian can't stay, while gazing adoringly at Damian's unconscious body cradled in his arms:

Eventually LOSH is canceled and Jon comes home and starts following Damian around by listening for his heartbeat. LIKE PALS DO!

Then Damian gives him a pep talk!

Then there's this ABSOLUTE CUDDLE:

The way Damian nuzzles into Jon's shoulder! Can you even stand it!

And then there's this:

The climax of Son of Kal-El, btw, is one of the several times Jon is saved by Damian and confides in Damian and turns to Damian for comfort or advice...and Jay is just sort of standing there off to the side. I am fully aware I have ship goggles on but the degree of emotional investment Jon has in these relationships is not the same.

Then they had a special issue teamup:

Then we got Dark Crisis, and I actually love this interaction between them, because they are very different people with very different upbringings and this feels extremely in character to me for how they would both handle the loss of their fathers:

But even when they disagree, they still instantly support each other. Jon comes back with information? Damian makes a plan:

Also, we got the 2022 Pride issue where Jon, Jay, and Damian go to Pride together. I know that story is...contentious...but leave me here with Damian sulking while Jon and Jay kiss, okay?

Then we get Adventures of Superman, which is objectively awful, but Jon does spend his whole time in the Injustice universe thinking about Damian like the seagulls in Finding Nemo saying "Mine? Mine? Mine?"

This whole arc is truly hilarious. Jon finds out that Damian accidentally killed Dick and his response is to a) go find Batman and yell at him for not supporting Damian enough for accidentally killing Dick, and then b) go find Damian to be like "Wow, that must have been really hard for you (accidentally killing Dick)." There's being ride or die for your BFF, and then there's whatever the fuck Jon has going on.

(Meanwhile there's an incredibly uncomfortable scene with him and Injustice Jay where Jay "tests" him by trying to get Jon to cheat on regular Jay. So. That happens.)

And then just this past month we got Nightwing #110, where we learn that Jon is still listening to Damian's heart:

He completely freaks out watching Damian in danger, and immediately intervenes when it looks like Damian is about to kill someone because he knows what matters the most to Damian. Also, this happens:

YOU WIN THIS ONE, TAYLOR.

AND THEN THEY BICKER I LOVE IT WHEN THEY BICKER:

AND THEN DAMIAN LETS HIMSELF BE VULNERABLE BY ASKING JON IF HE HURT ANYONE WHILE HE WAS A KITTY, AND JON GIVES YET ANOTHER SPEECH ABOUT HOW DAMIAN HAS NEVER DONE ANYTHING WRONG EVER, IN HIS LIFE, AND DAMIAN STAGGERS OFF, LEANING ON JON.

This isn't even getting into the Trinity backup stories in Wonder Woman, which, like...Tom King is not valid but Jon and Damian are such an old married couple in them? It's truly incredible?

It took me like 45 minutes to parse Jon's line here as the general 'you" and not specifically Jon saying Damian wasn't straight. But like..."That's for straight people, which has nothing to do with us" is a hell of a thing to say, Jonathan.

I ALSO haven't even talked about DCeased because it's a different universe, but! Jon sitting with Damian while he dies??? MY HEART.

IN CONCLUSION:

Yes, they should never have aged up Jon.

Yes, most of his appearances since have been terrible and bland.

But OH BOY, do he and Damian remain in love.

[hopefull-mindset]

I've started reading The Great Gatsby (I've fallen into the reading classical literature trap 😔. I really need to finish Crime and Punishment.)

Anyhow I think it's really interesting how Asagiri chose to characterize many of the people in BSD. Especially after learning that irl Fitzgerald was more of a cynical person (at least towards the end of his life) than his animated counterpart. And it made me think of all the other characters of the show and how their characterized.

What was Asagiri's purpose as he came together with these characters? Why'd he have some characters act as their irl counterparts while others act more like the characters they wrote or people in their lives?

These aren't really questions that I wanted the answers to they were moreso just thoughts that I had. I'd love to have a peek into this man's mind and how it works

I think a lot of us have fallen into that trap LMAO. This is my favorite topic though. I could talk about this forever because Kafka Asagiri is an interesting person who has integrated a lot of literature into this one series. I don't know what goes on in this man’s mind and I know these aren't literal questions, but I am interested in sharing what I know!

As you've pointed out, some characters do act more like the people in these works written by them than the actual people. BSD isn't purely just taking these authors, their relationships, and then implementing them just like that. it also takes these authors’ literary personas, their impact socially, and their works to make them into who they are. Asagiri is doing this because it makes it more interesting, but also imagine writing about this authors where most of them lived depressing lives with qualities that don’t make uh, the type of story you want to tell.

I’m impressed with how creative he is.

I’m trying to limit myself on how much I should talk about this, but I fear that I’ll leave out important bits about how Asagiri incorporates these people into the work. I’m also just jittering and excited. Like I almost forgot to bring up the fact the reason BSD has a war narrative is because it takes Japanese authors from Meiji to Shōwa era, so about the time Western influence kicked in, forcing them to modernize and keep up with the rest of the world during what is a fairly short time for huge development like this, to post-war Japan where, you know, the Occupation of Japan is happening and they have to intake the traumatic repercussions of everything before that.

This can make The Great War functionally WW2, but obviously not a one to one match. I’m not a historian or anything, but this should come to mind for anyone who’s in the know about some Japanese history. Now that I’m bringing it up though, Mori’s attitude during the flashback with Yosano is put into context because he pretty much says himself that he needs his country to realize that they keep up with the rest of the world and that the battlefield is changing, and real life Japan did not care about how they did that.

With N, Chuuya, and Stormbringer too. I’m almost hesitant to bring this up because it’s so serious, but yes, Japan did do lethal human experimentation for that same purpose to keep up with the rest of the world and prove themselves.

Ahh, I went off track. Sorry, we were talking about how Asagiri writes characters, right? There is a lot of crossover between the real authors and their writing, so it’s sorta hard to tell with people like Dazai where the work influence ends and the the real person begins.

For me currently in my classic lit research period, I’m almost upset at myself for barley reading anything by Ryuunosuke Akutagawa because he’s my favorite character. I’ve just been so caught up doing my Oda Sakunosuke essay that I don’t have too much time for other authors. I’ve also picked up “The Similitude of Blossoms: A Critical Biography of Izumi Kyōka” recently (and A New Hamlet by Osamu Dazai, but that’s not important).

Ah, how much should I talk about.… hmm… how about Chuuya as an example of Literary Voice vs Real Person…. Lucy Montgomery and Edgar Allen Poe for Social Impact (for Japan specifically)…. and then.. Oh whatever, I’ll figure it out. One day I’ll talk about Kyouka, but not now. I’d feel ill prepared.

If you’ve ever read a poem by Chuuya Nakahara, taken in the emotion and deep feeling, and then found any fun facts about his interactions with other authors, there’s a huge contrast between those two modes that can be jarring. Im sure you can tell how that carries over to BSD. I’m impressed by how Asagiri is able to balance both the brash attitude of Chuuya and the inner literary voice that voices the emotion and care he has in him.

Edgar Allen Poe is slightly more obvious than Lucy’s influence (or maybe it’s Lucy’s, ah it depends), but both pop out at you when it’s pointed out. He was one of the first American authors to be introduced to Japan and fairly popular, but mainly we would point to Edogawa Ranpo as the most blatantly influenced by him and who his name is quite literally attached to. While Lucy Montgomery isn’t attached to anyone in particular, Anne of The Green Gables was wildly distributed in Japan when there were few english children books and became a hit.

There’s a television series too if you search for it. Any redhead, pigtail-braided girl you see in some Japanese media is because of her! It’s probably why these two have the most presence in the story currently compared to other members of the Guild and work with the Agency at times.

There are times when Asagiri will use influences outside of the author’s own catalog to create them, some literary like Albert Camus’s The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus (in writing characters like Dazai or Fyodor, I could make a post about that), and some just of his own anime/manga interests in other series like Jojo, Cowboy Bebop, Black Lagoon, etc. if you’re familiar.

I’d feel bad if I don’t at least show one example of this so, how about an Odasaku example with The Long Goodbye by Reymond Chandler? I was going to avoid talking about him until the essay, but I can’t help myself. Many have pointed out these parallels before, but Asagiri did point it to be his favorite book last year in an interview.

If you’ve noticed that the presentation for Dark Era in the anime comes off like a Noir film just like how Untold Origins came off like a black and white samurai film, good job! The Long Goodbye is a Noir novel about a detective named Phillip Marlowe who is unable to let go of a case involving a friend that was accused of murdering his own wife, but supposedly commits suicide and confesses to it before Marlowe is able to leave custody. By the end of the book, he uncovers the real perpetuator (a past lover of Terry Lennox’s before he was ever called by that name) and finds out where Lennox really is by poking into the story of where the message he got was sent.

He comes in with a new look and identity, and he asks if it’s too early for a gimlet. They say their last few words to each other, Marlowe flipping back and forth from acknowledging him as Terry Lennox and as a person he never knew, and then Marlowe tells him that “he’s not here anymore”. Marlowe had already told him goodbye when it was sad and lonely, so Lennox does the same here. That ends that mutual, long goodbye and he never sees Lennox again.

The immediate response I’ve see about this is how it parallels the relationship between Dazai and Odasaku. In The Day I Picked Up Dazai, just like how Marlowe brings him to his home to clean him up and meet up at the same bar for the next few months of their friendship, Odasaku also does so with Dazai and drinks a Gimlet for reasons he doesn’t know. In reality, Gimlets are a representation of the friendship between Marlowe and Lennox as it’s Lennox’s favorite drink. It makes it a little painful when Marlowe ignores him when he ask to go get a gimlet at that same bar they always went.

BEAST is more hyper specific about it by having Dazai ask the same question that Lennox asks when he gets smoked out and Odasaku asking for a gimlet with no bitters, which is specifically how Lennox takes it. Odasaku does not drink the gimlet at all though, showing that there is not friendship to start or accept or say goodbye to, as Lennox does ask Marlowe to drink a Gimlet to say goodbye to him in the letter. Just like TDIPUD is like their beginning, BEAST is their ending without ending because BEAST Dazai is not the same person he was friends with.

Odasaku fulfills being a detective and Dazai is the tragic friend with a past he doesn’t say anything about. Great. Now what I think people are missing when they entirely focus on Odasaku and Dazai when they talk about Lennox and Marlowe is that Lennox is narratively also Andre Gide.

If we were to split Lennox into three people just like his three identities, this is what it would look like:

The Friend: You help him out and don’t judge for his faults, in turn you go out to a bar with each other. It’s uneasy, but it’s worth a lot to the both of you. Eventually you have to part ways in death. (Dazai & Terry Lennox)

The Unknown: Is he someone you know? He acts like it, but he looks nothing like what you’ve encounter before. Maybe in some world you were, but that’s not now and it’s too late for this goodbye to be playing out. You let it happened though and you never see him again when he walks out that door. (BEAST Dazai & “Señor Maioranos”)

The Soldier: The past is right around the corner and its come to bite you in the ass. White hair and war memories haunting him with a scar as a reminder, he’s a reflection of you but maybe not. Who knows? (Andre Gide & “Paul Marston.”)

The initials “P.M.” of both his past name and Phillip Marlowe’s is meant to clue in how Eileen (the past lover) is connected to Lennox by her thinking of Marlowe as her past lover as she attempts to seduce him in some trance. What I’m trying to note here though is that you can take this as Lennox being another reflection of himself. It’s easy to do that reading for both Dazai and Gide as they’re both his foils and are purposely similar, but Gide aligns more with this past identity than Dazai does and retains his white hair.

Uhhh, wasn't planning to make a mini-analysis in the middle of my talking but okay. I'm leaving it off there. I went blank a lot while writing because I didn’t know what I wanted to comment on. There's too much to say about this large cast. I have way more literary fun facts and ideas to say, but nah.

[inupenka]

Uh, ma'am, we are going to need more information on your omegaverse original work for uh... [checks notes] science.

(PSA: assistant answering here, not pia, just so there's no confusion haha)

I had to blink twice when pia sent me a screenshot of this ask in discord this morning-- thank you so much for the interest;;;

funnily enough, the story in itself was an idea of mine, the self-assigned assistant friend. I had introduced it to pia in dm's a few months back and she became obsessed and started drawing lots of amazing artworks while listening to my ramblings and giving me input to help my brain developing it further. I'm a bit timid nowadays to share my stories, characters, writing, etc. online - so pia shares all of the artworks she creates for them on twitter and bluesky crediting me as the anonymous friend. She also shares my ramblings with my name censored out with friends of hers to push the agenda of our churchboys as well, which I find very cute and still suprises me how much she seems to enjoy the story / characters, really. (Also, I might add, she obviously only does all of that with my consent everytime and double-checks with me to ensure nothing makes me uncomfy!) But yeah, back to the question at hand in regards to the story/omegaverse in itself:

It's a polycule with three alphas and one omega that grew up together in a small religious town and officially met due to the sunday sermons their families always dragged them to. I came up with a set of different rules (like alot of people creating omegaverse's do) and based my omegaverse very closely to our current real-life, even down to different sets of sex parts that felt would make a bit more sense biologically haha

We also have 4 secondary sexes - Alpha, Omega, Beta (active & inactive ones) as well as Delta. So... there's that too. (though explaining the differences in detail would definitely derail this answer too much) Considering it's playing in our world, there's homophobia as well of course. And alpha women & omega men are both considered "devils bait" by more conservative parts of Christianity ie. Which will bring Jamie, the omega, a bit into a predicament at parts, but ironically he's the most free-spirited one of the bunch, because he got unleashed by his families demands and expectations the earliest, while the three Alphas (Robin, Noah and Lukas) still struggle under the leash their family puts them under. With Robin definitely having the hardest time in that regard.

Also, while Noah is bisexual and Robin and Jamie are both homosexual - Lukas is actually asexual. I don't think we get to see asexual folks alot in omegaverses, but as an asexual myself I wanted to explore it a bit further. There's honestly... alot at this point... I really don't know where to start or how to condense it better, really. But if you're curious about more specific details of their stories or rules or something just lemme know and I'll pull up my armsleeves to elaborate haha

all in all its a polycule childhood friends to lovers story that majorly explores how pressure of society, religion and family can strain relationships and make life's of people harder than they need to be; but how - in the end - love persists anyways.

[polyhexian]

Just saw your recent Darius posts and you've managed to put into words exactly how I feel about him. There is clear evidence of his heel turn in canon, and by the end of the series it is very apparent just how much he cares about Hunter. But before that he was Not Nice, he actively contriubuted to the heavy isolation that Hunter was under. You already described why the head chop scene was not as cute as it appeared at face value, but giving him a scroll and telling him to make connectins outside the castle was So Dangerous. He told a kid who was being violently abused to blatantly disgregard his abusers rules.

To be clear I do like Darius' character, he's screwed up badly and made phenominally bad choices, but so did Lilith, so did Gwen. Owl house is good about showing characters making bad mistakes and showing the steps they made to come back from them. With Darius I was looking forward to seeing the development of his and Hunter's bond, to show how damaging Darius' prior bevatior was and showing Darius working hard to make up for it. But then the show just kind of...didn't.

Again, I like Darius' character a lot, but I feel a ball was dropped when it came to writing his and Hunter's relationship.

I agree. Like I know I come across as a hate but I've written! Hundreds of thousands of words! At this point! About Darius and Darius self driven redemption and absolution! I am deeply invested in him! I write Lilith with similar baggage! And I write a WILDLY specific Raine! I'm not a hater. I love Darius. I just also love him knowing his a mean piece of shit who has some extremely serious flaws and actions he needs to apologize and make up for.

Darius and hunters relationship is such an odd one. Most major issues like this are because of season 3 getting shortened, like hunter didn't get his arc finished. Like he basically WAS done, he escaped and we were seeing him bloom away from that control. But then they decided to have the whole possession thing which ITSELF I think was fine and even like a sick ass scene. But also. That starts an entirely new era in his arc. Escaping his abuser did not end his trauma; abusers often reenter your life, or even when dead that trauma can well up within you and poison you later. And I like flapjacks death for FLAPJACKS character arc. But for hunter at that point it becomes messy because. That's the end of that arc basically. They try to... Do something? In for the future with Willow but. That's nothing tbh. We finish with hunter still retraumatized and paranoid and grieving with no... Like... Actually processing it? No end to that arc. So as much as I actually DO like the possession scene- if they couldnt finish that plotline, I don't think they should have started it.

But Darius and hunter??? That's season 2. And Darius was always going to be a puppet until the collector was turned and likely Belos defeated even with a full season. So even with that full season we probably wouldn't have had any more Darius and hunter interactions at all. Like again, the timeline immediately after labyrinth runners with hunter is a little unclear, and I think he was staying with Darius but ????? Who knows dude they don't even say. So like. Season 2 they had all the time they needed to plan out the arc of that relationship and ALSO it was never going to have any more meaningful screentime, so. Uh. Uh? The hell was that

[rainyraisin]

you should rant about your non tmnt related characters/OCs (if you got any) :3

You say this as if I have developed any of my OCs since I got into TMNT/j

I do actually have a decent amount of characters I've been working on for like over a year now but the really annoying thing is they're for a game @aaronymous999 and I are making 😭😭 so whilst I could talk about them it would be very very boring bc I can probably say about 5 non-spoilery things about each of the characters I'm allowed to talk about lmao- but!!! May as well :3 (cutting this bc this is gonna be hella long)

One of the two protagonists you can pick from is Èmile Dion! He's 27 and a bi cis male (ew cis people/j). He's also French Canadian, and he is a lil bit of a con artist. He made a living off of it whilst he was on his own. Silly little street rat man. He's a little naive when it comes to people he trusts or loves, which is ultimately his down-fall (theres so many endings where this cooks him lol and its the whole reason his route happens), but otherwise he's pretty street smart. He's a lil cutie patootie and I love him 💖 We haven't decided on the character relationship chart yet since not all the characters are fully developed but I think he'd get along with Esi (team TEO), Eun-Jae (team TEO), and Renata (team COC). He'd only really be around Renata most of the time though as he's COC, and both she and Eun-Jae are pretty hard to get through to lmao, he's not really one for giving in though.

(Please excuse the old art throughout this post, only Eun-Jae and Heaven have had recent art, even though almost all of them have been designed for ages)

Talking about Heaven next bc even tho it would make more sense to talk about the participants and then him or him then the participants. Uh. This is my post.

Heaven is one of the hosts! He's 17, mixed race (Filipino, Chilean, Taiwanise) and a pan ace cis male. He works for COC and has been with them a very long time. I can't say too much past that bc spoilers but he's very energetic, a silly guy! He's prone to mood shifts and kinda has anger issues but you wouldn't know it by looking at him. He knows when to be serious despite his naivety and general demeanour.

Renata is 26, Hispanic (havent decided where shes from yet), and a lesbian cis woman. I cant really talk about Renata much bc she just. Doesnt have that much planned for her yet but she's neat!!!!!! Scene girl!!! She was actually the first character I designed out of all the participants, as her design was meant to be used for something else in the game but I loved it so much she became one of the main characters lmao- honestly she probably does have lore I can talk about but I keep forgetting to write stuff that Aaron and I talk about on call down 😭😭 the only stuff that I could talk about is spoilers... cries. I can mention that she's morally grey ig? Each team has 2 characters that are morally grey, morally good and morally bad however this doesn't fully dictate their actions, it's just kind of a template for their character. Characters who we put under morally good can still do fucked up shit and the reverse is also true, its just that the morally grey ones are more of a toss up than the others.

Anyway look at my daughter

Zedekiah is the last of the COC participants I made!!!! He again doesn't have much planned for him, but look at how neat he is!!! Honestly he might get redesigned. Again. But this is him for now!!! His hair is fun to draw :3

EUN-JAE IS NEXT!!!!!! TEO TIME!!!! She's very silly (I say despite her being one of the more serious characters). She's 23 and Korean! Her identity isn't really something she's thought over, and if she has well, she isn't going to tell anyone anyway. I wish I could yap about her mode but spoilers... cries...

AMMON HATCH!!!!! HE'S 20, GREEK AND RELIGIOUSLY TRAUMATISED AS HELL!!!!! PROBABLY QUEER IDK WAIT TILL THE GAME COMES OUT. WHAT A CREATURE <3 killing him. I don't rlly like this drawing of him icl so have his original sketch too

AND ESI GRACE!!!!! SHES 19, GHANAN AND A CREATURE AS WELL <3 She and Ammon are definetly friends I think they'd stick together and try their best to drag Eun-Jae into their silliness. If Esi wasn't around TEO would rip each other apart (well, earlier at least. They'll probably do it anyway despite her presence).

I dont like her digital drawing so have her original sketch <3

Talking about this guy last bc I havent drawn him in a year and I hate the one piece of art of him I have- River! He's 24, British and Japanese, and pan :3 He's sort of an assistant to Heaven ig? He helps with all the simpler stuff along with TEO's assistant, Malachi, mostly stuff regarding the participants and not the big things that Heaven and Ophelia have to worry about. He sees Heaven as more of a little brother than anything, which makes the power dynamic kinda goofy, but he deals with it. I'll redraw him soon but have this god awful sketch for now-

That's all the characters that I'm allowed to talk about 😭😭😭 there are MANY more but their simple existence is massive spoilers so. You'll see them one day. THANK YOU FOR THE ASK DIB‼️‼️‼️🥺🥺🥺💖💖🌸🌸🌸

[fangxin-guoshi]

Banana fish re-review ~

I did a rewatch of banana fish and oh my God I forgot how good this series was. Considering the original manga came out in the 80's in JAPAN, it was SO ahead of its time. One of the best depictions of gay characters I've ever seen in Japanese media, even by today's standards.

Some more silly thoughts:

Like yoshida just casually dropped a manga with an insanely progressive take on the bl genre by showing a complex queer interracial relationship with incredibly well-written characters. Honestly the fact that ash and eiji's relationship wasn't explicitly defined as romantic is a plus imo. Not being able to rely on obvious romantic gestures like kissing, hand-holding, romantic confessions, etc. actually forces the writer to develop their relationship without that crutch to lean on. That's why ash and eiji's relationship is so good, because it doesn't rely on surface-level romance to get across the fact that they love each other and instead use subtlety and little nuances in their interactions. It's obvious from the subtext and how much they're shown to care for each other.

Not to mention the great depiction of black characters (I know portraying black characters non-offensively is like, the bare minimum, but may I remind you this is the EIGHTIES in JAPAN, and there are so many CURRENT animes that have an issue with it).

I mean yea does it have its flaws? Sure. Ash's admittedly very lame "lynx" title that comes with many wildcat metaphors, eiji being a bit passive in the first half, sort of cringe portrayal of America, etc. but my God the way she handles the trauma and character dynamics is incredible.

Ok so I did have a uh... Not really a criticism but something that I noticed that got me thinking. I feel like some shows use dark subject matter as a bit of an easy way to evoke an emotional reaction from the audience. Sometimes authors give characters horrible backstories as a way to make the audience THINK the character is complex and interesting but in reality it's a bit of a lazy writing tactic. Low effort high reward kind of thing. Banana fish obviously does have brutal subject matter and ash is really put through the ringer, but I love that yoshida doesn't let that become the axis of his character. He has trauma that greatly impacts him, but he's also super developed on his own apart from that. When I think about Ash's character, I don't immediately think about the traumatic backstory parts. The balance between how significantly the trauma affects him vs making sure that's not the ONLY part of his character is extremely well-executed.

Scenes that stuck out to me (not including asheiji ones bc it goes without saying theyre all amazing)

- the interrogator playing Ash's tapes after being arrested ("later, movie star" was the most brutal line ever omg)

- max burning the photos of ash (underrated moment this was SO good),

- any and all interactions between sing and blanca (they're such an unlikely duo peak comedy right there)

- the convo between sing and yut lung in the last episode

- ash stabbing the guy in the dick with a fork

- callback to ^^^, ash stabbing the banana with a fork

- Ash's breakdown in front of dino (ep 19 I believe)

- the entirety of ash escaping from the "mental hospital" and then having to go rescue ibe and max lmaooo

- ash brutally murdering Abraham(?, the redhead guy) by blowing abt a thousand holes in him w a machine gun as payback for shorter

- ash shooting shorter

- running joke of max being Ash's dad

- everyone constantly manhandling yut lung by yanking on his hair (dude get a haircut)

- ash immediately going to shoot himself no hesitation after yut lung told him he wouldn't hurt eiji if he did so (technically asheiji but I'm keeping it since this was a yut lung and ash scene)

- "what does this picture look like?" "Your wife"

- eiji's cute stupid little outfit he wore when he went to go find shorter in Chinatown

I also have a confession:

I LOVE yut lung. Him being paralleled with ash, but instead of finding love he let hate consume him because he had no one unlike ash who had eiji was just devastating but in a good way.

So yea those are my messy thoughts after finishing it. I'd argue that it was probably one of the best pieces of queer media to exist at the time. In the world. And one of my personal favorite pieces of queer media ever.