#Rethinking some stuff about their characters...

[084392]

Manny and Duskull with 5 for the ask game?

5. How old is your hero and partner duo?

duskull is about 19-20? i think he stopped bothering keeping track after he died for awhile... but its something he starts acknowledging again sometime after meeting manny. And realizing that his life is still worth something... regardless of whether he's technically dead or not y'know..

manny.... has no idea how old she is... especially after living in the dark future for what would have been years! she doesnt know of any possible birthday, she doesnt know how old she when she was darkrai before getting thrown into the dark future either! so she... doesnt bother...

Technically I'd say possibly a couple hundred but mentally like 25, at most???

[crystalkitty1220]

Welcome back to tumblr! Hope you enjoyed your break

It was very stressful. Ended up failing the marking period for English, but not by as much as I was failing before. Could still pull up the overall grade by the end of the semester.

[thevalleyoftriumph]

followerz who remember my old hollow knight roleswap au are entitled to compensation and an elderly discount 🙏

[multishipper-baby]

Now that I've been thinking about my demons again I remember why I canned the story in the first place, all those years ago. So much mess to sort through...

At least I wrote down the face claims for the characters, since I never bothered drawing them lol (Ryan's is Miles McMillan, although it's subject to change).

[gremlingottoosilly]

I met a guy in the Summer (dilf!Konig x fem!Reader)

Your boyfriend is an asshole. Luckily, his hot dad just returned from deployment. CW and Tags: Cheating, dub-con, size kink, daddy kink, age gap(reader in 20s, Konig is early 40s), Konig is a pervert, slightly obsessive Konig, love(and lust) at first sight, fingering, dom!Konig Word count: 3713 AO3

“Just one more game, babe, don’t be a buzzkill. I don’t want to end at a loss.” You didn’t want to be a buzzkill, of course. You simply wanted to be a good girlfriend, have some domestically cozy date, and for your boyfriend to at least try to put an effort into being with you. It wasn’t much to ask for, really. You hoped so, at least. You didn’t want to be an annoying, nagging girlfriend who only ever waits for another reason to yell at him, but your patience started to run thin. 

You spend the past three hours either listening to his apathetic rambling about the shows he watched – really, you wanted to invest in stuff he liked, but an abnormally large amount of animes he talked about had 1000-year-old girls who looked like they were 10, wearing inappropriate outfits, and you started to raise the alarm. 

You also watched him play – and also listened to his rage quitting and angry voice messages to his team that, honestly, made you slightly anxious. You never liked loud people, people who were so easy to rage about something as silly as some colorful video game with too many characters to look after. 

So, like a good girlfriend would – you wanted to be a good girlfriend, he was such a nice guy before you started dating, and you need something to think about besides the tremendous amount of study work you are doing for college – you decided to go and look for snacks. Maybe bring something for him as well. 

— I’ll find something to eat, alright? 

He didn’t respond at first, so you shook his shoulder. Your boyfriend took off his headphones with annoying look on his face, half-turning to look at you. You gulped, suddenly feeling like a child in front of the principal – not a feeling that you were supposed to feel around your partner, but with him, you somehow constantly felt like you were being judged. 

— Nah, stay here. I don’t want my father to see you. 

— Ah…your father is at home? 

You never heard anyone else being at the house – big house, you must admit, and it’s embarrassing almost how you never thought about his family. He lives with his dad, apparently, and the depth of your relationships can only be judged by the fact you literally didn’t know what his father’s name was. 

— Returned from his fucking deployment. He’d ask too many questions about you. 

— You didn’t tell him about me? 

Ah, now you’re hurt a little bit. You knew it wasn’t anything serious or too committed yet, but you intended to make this work. To try and fix all the problems you can without ending things abruptly. 

— He never asked. Not like he cares too much, but…

An apathetic dad, huh. 

You started to slowly piece together the puzzle that was your boyfriend’s horrible boyfriend skills. Now, you want to meet the man who conceived him and kick him in the nuts for creating such an unlovable human being who somehow captivated your chronically lonely heart. 

— If you don’t want me to come and meet him, I can go home. 

He doesn’t answer because his queue is finally coming to another match – you simply nod, knowing everything you need to. You can grab a little snack for yourself, fuck off to your dorm and rethink your life choices while your roommate is getting pounded by some gruss British bloke with an accent that makes your ears bleed. 

You have dignity, and right now, it has asked you to get some snacks from the kitchen. 

*** Now, the only thing König wanted after returning from deployment was to take as many hot showers as he could, shut his bastard of a son up, and get some delicious food waiting for him in the freezer. He was already home for a few days, but adjusting is always hard when you basically fucking hate living at your own house. Of-fucking-course, his son was watching the house while he was away – and now he can’t even think of a good excuse to set him off to his mother. Too old to do this, and split custody never really worked when not even one part of the relationship wanted to take care of the kid. 

König closes the door of the refrigerator – of course, his son took every good thing that he stashed for himself. With a groan, the colonel fights the urge to finally throw him out of the house – a thing he needed to do a few years ago, just when he celebrated his 18th, but some sentimental part of his heart instead promised to help with finding a place close to the college. No good deed goes unpunished. 

With a groan, he takes a few steps from the fridge – and then he almost stumbles across an angel. 

Scheisse

Now, König never thought of himself as a predator who prefers running after college girls who might as well be his daughters. He never thought of himself as a gut who liked them young – his wife, god forsake her name, was his age when they started dating, and he hardly had any sexual encounters with a person under 25 in the past few years. Well, not like he had any sexual encounters in the past years, but…

The thing is – he never thought he liked girls with wide eyes, pouty faces, and trembling hands who were holding a bag of his cookies that he carefully stashed away from his son. 

You are wearing something cute, a nice skirt and an adorable pink cardigan that looks so cozy and warm and soft, and he fights the urge to grab your skirt and simply lift it, You’re dressed up for a cute coffee date, and König has to double check if he isn’t dreaming and no one has decided to play a prank on him and send him a cute callgirl. 

— Oh! Sorry. It’s yours, isn’t it? 

You give him his cookies back – but not before your fingers fished another salty caramel goodness out of the bag, and you bit it. He looks at your teeth, at your lips, and glimpses of your tongue – god, he is an old, dirty bastard because even his baggy pants aren’t enough to hide his boner. You have no right to look this pretty for a man who hasn’t seen a woman in three months and hasn’t had sex in the past few years. 

You lick the crumbs from your fingers – it’s such a deliberate action that he can’t believe he actually sees it, and it’s not even something from porn he used to like. 

— Ja. You can have it. 

He would give you the code to his bank account if you asked for it. 

— Thank you, sir. I’m…well, I assume if Paul didn’t introduce me to you…I’m his girlfriend. Nice to meet you. 

You lick your lips and take a step back, pressed against the counter. He looks at the sway of your hips, a bit of crumbs on your shirt, and almost brushes it away with his hands. It would be a good excuse to touch your chest – but he can’t be like this, he has to keep his urges under control, or else his son will never forgive him. 

Yeah, like he needs a better reason to throw his useless son from his home. 

— Girlfriend? He never spoke about you. 

You look sad, and he immediately curses under his breath. For a moment, you look too fragile – too real. He can’t handle this look on a woman, especially as pretty and young as you are. You bat your eyelashes, even involuntarily, and he already prepares to give you the keys to his home just so you’d stop with such miserable expressions. He has a spare bedroom. 

He has his bedroom with a bed that would be enough for both of you. 

— Ah. Um. We’re…I guess we’re not at this stage yet. 

— Knowing him, you’ll never be, Schatz. 

You look at him immediately – you’re offended, angry, and sad at the same time. There is a certain stubbornness in your eyes that immediately makes him want to simply scoop you in his arms, lift you, and drag you straight to the altar – and here he thought that his impulses over getting married would be over after his first divorce. 

— What do you mean by this, sir? 

You look uncertain now, he can see this in your eyes – and really, knowing his asshole of a child, he is almost sure that Paul never once got you off, either physically or emotionally. 

Now, König never once considered himself to be a good man. He has killed countless people, overthrown many governments, and made shitty jobs for shitty people way more than saving hostages to help the good guys – and in the romantic field, it’s even worse. Wife, unsatisfied with his controlling tendencies and inability to feel normal love for a human being – and a son who hates him because, in fact, he never once wanted to have a kid. 

He looks at you and sees a pretty young thing, still in college or freshly out of, probably without a stable job and normal social standing – a good girl won’t be with his son if she isn’t stupid or extremely desperate for a relationship. 

The thing is, König is also extremely desperate for another warm body next to his, to feel a woman beside him, to love and obsess over someone – he looks at your pouty lips and shaky hands, at the way you bite the corner of your glossy mouth, and he almost wants to drop you on this very table and fuck you until you’re crying under him. He can’t do just that, of course. It would probably make you extremely uncomfortable and scared, but…well, quite frankly, his son doesn’t deserve you. 

König is. 

— I won’t sugarcoat it, Schatz. My son is a Scheiß Arschloch…fucking asshole, that is. I’m surprised he brought home someone as cute as you. 

You feel embarrassment collecting in your body. Paul’s dad is a…interesting man. 

Tall, broad, very muscular – even his baggy house clothes aren’t really concealing his extremely interesting physique from your eyes. He looks yummy and tasty, and you fight the urge to eye the bulge in his pants because you’re a good girl, you don’t look at your boyfriend’s dad like this. 

König has greying ginger hair, locks already curling slightly at the lack of cutting, and you fight the urge to sit on the counter and get your palm in his scalp, massage his head gently, and pull him closer for a kiss. You feel like a dirty, horrible woman – your boyfriend is in his room, probably enjoying his time on your “date” while you’re lusting over his father. 

Then again, this date already felt like a disaster. This relationship, too. 

— Paul isn’t all that bad, sir. 

“He at least has a nice dick,” you wanted to add but stopped yourself. Paul is tall and somewhat strong – if he weren’t sitting at his computer all day, you would call him even muscular. And he has a nice dick, yes, even though he had no idea how to use it. You liked the idea of laying with him, of spraying your jaw trying to fit all of this in your mouth, but his kinks and his sex skills being directly taken from porn…not really your thing. 

You look at König and wonder if they are similar in all of the places. He is his father, after all. 

König catches your gaze locked on his bulge and smirks. 

God, if he knew his son had such a cute girl, he would ask her to come earlier. He is two weeks off deployment and probably won’t take another long contract for a few months because they just upped his retirement payings, and he can afford to slack off a little bit, only visiting the home base for some training and instructions for rookies. 

He can afford to retire and never worry about money again – but he needs someone to make his days less boring, right? 

You look like a good candidate. 

— I’m sure my son was convincing, but I know him better than anyone. He doesn’t deserve you, Schatz. 

He is shitty at flirting, it’s not his forte – he can flaunt his money, maybe, show you in his wallet and bank account face first. He can just straight up ask you to be his sugar baby and suck his cock instead of doing your studies, but he can’t flirt and manipulate to save his life. Lying isn’t something he is good for, this is why his wife has left. 

— I…not sure we should be having this conversation here. 

You’re a good girl, and it’s infuriating. He knows that having someone in his bed shouldn’t be the end goal for his leave, but he wants you, and by the look on your face, you aren’t opposed to the idea. König doesn’t understand if he likes that you’re so reserved about it or if he wants you to be a bit more slutty – but he captures you in the space between the kitchen counter and presses you with his body. 

— You want to see the bedroom then?

Pushes you so close his knee gets between your legs – it might look involuntary like he didn’t exactly want for it to be placed here, but you aren’t dumb, you know what he wants from you. Like a good fucking girl, you’re too shy to give it to him right about now. God, sometimes he hates being so nice to people around him. 

— Sir, this is very…

He got you caged in his hands, body trapped in his embrace – you jerk your head upwards a little bit, staring at him like a small bird in the hands of a predator. He isn’t a strong man in regard of morals, he doesn’t see anything wrong with fucking his son’s girlfriend – if the girl is up to it. And if she isn’t…well, he better make sure she is. 

— What is it, Schatz? Paul won’t hear us in his headphones.

You know just how wrong it is, and you almost want to escape – his dick grinds on your pelvis through his pants, and you’re horrified to see how big it is. Excited too, of course, he is bigger than your boyfriend ever could be, and you don’t want to be a slut, but, oh well, not like you were in a committed and serious relationship anyway. 

Paul was seeing your friends more than you ever saw them – it’s probably a sign that you should settle for someone older. You did enjoy Lana Del Rey's songs, after all. 

— I don’t want to break his heart. 

— He doesn’t have one. 

You’re lost when he pushes his lips to kiss you over and over again – a surprisingly good kisser, and you give in because it was the first time in forever a kiss made you feel this good. His lips are sending electricity down your spine, you want to moan just from his knee, pushing on the softness of your cunt through that adorable skirt you liked so much – you feel so small like this, so tiny in his hands, you…

God, you feel like a slut, and you like it. 

Soon enough, you answered the kiss, your lips meeting his in a dance that made you feel hot, that made you feel like your boyfriend never could. Never thinking of yourself as someone who can fall so easily into the hands of an older man, now you know that he got you right where he wanted. 

You push your hand on his pants, trying to get the control back – but he stops you, a giant hand enveloping your wrist and pushing you back. With a surprise on your face, König just wants to kiss you all over. God, you’re adorable, and he knows that you deserve way more than being fucked on the rough kitchen counter while your so-called boyfriend is too busy dickriding his friends in some useless online game. 

— Not now, princess. You deserve better than being fucked on the kitchen counter, ja? It can come later. 

“Later” sounds like a promise, and you bite back your moan when he keeps pushing his knee against your cunt, making you throb and clench on nothing. He is such a gentleman, you can’t help but compare him to his son – and his fabulous ability to make you feel dirty after fucking you in the backseat of his car and tossing you to your dorm with your pussy still wet and messy after you didn’t cum. 

You sob, not from sadness, but from pleasure mixed with some weird, unnatural for you emotions – you feel weird, strained here like this, but you hug his neck and whisper something in his ear. Something, dangerously sounding just like “daddy, please” 

König is blushing, and he looks fucking adorable. 

— Daddy, ja? God, you’re dangerous, liebling. Going to get me in trouble with my son later. 

He laughs when he kisses you again, his hand slipping in your panties only to find them completely soaked – he knows you deserve a nice pillow and soft sheets under your body, and he pushes you up so you can hug his waist with your legs. You rely on him like a cute pet, and you’re so perfect in his hands he curses himself for not seeing you before. 

He is going to ruin you for anyone but him. Put so much cum in you, it will make your tummy bulge – make you his precious sugar baby, pay for your dumb college and make you move to his bedroom instead of some shitty dorm you probably share with four other people. 

He can be good for you – but he will ruin you for anyone else, anyone appropriate, every guy your age who clearly doesn’t know how to treat a lady right. 

— So wet for me…such a filthy thing, I didn’t know my son dated a whore. 

— N…not a whore, please…

He kisses you on your forehead, silently apologizing. You feel his crooked, scarred smile, and you push your face up to kiss him – you want to touch him so badly it makes you feel stupid. 

— Sorry, Schatzen. Not a whore, a good girl for her daddy, ja? So nice for me, too fucking young…

— W…we really shouldn’t… — Tshhh, don’t think about it. Thinking will only hurt your pretty dumb head. — I’m not…

— Quiet, little one. Let daddy handle everything.

He kisses you over and over, his fingers playing with your pussy – meaty digits digging in your hole, making you whimper from sudden intrusion. He is big, bigger than anyone else, just two of his fingers are enough to spread you as much as normal cock would, and even though you’re used to taking Paul’s size, you just know that his dad would be much, much bigger. He is going to split you open, and you will love every fucking second. 

It feels so wrong, you still aren’t sure if you want him to touch you like this. 

It feels so right, he is experienced and eager, pushing every button to make you squirm in his grasp. Your orgasm comes embarrassingly quick – maybe because you haven’t gotten off in ages, only miserable masturbation sessions and poor attempts at faking your orgasm made it feel real. Paul never cared enough to actually get you off – but now…

You aren’t ready for him. You squirm in his grasp when the pressure becomes too much, and he soothes you, two fingers still buried in your soaked cunt. You feel so dirty, so wrong right now – you are cumming on the fingers of your boyfriend’s absent father, and you love every second of it. 

Post-orgasm clarity makes you whiny and sobby, and you whimper in his shoulder when he gently lifts you in his hands. God, you’re adorable, and he knows that he just scrambled your brain with that orgasm – it’s good, really, he might just want to keep your pretty head nice and empty for him. Not like you would ever need to think in his presence, the colonel can handle everything in- and out- of bed. 

König holds you close, not allowing you to scramble away no matter how embarrassed you are. You are his precious thing, with a pouty face, and he will do everything in his power to make you squirm on his fingers again and again before he makes you his wife for good. 

So impulsive, maybe this is why his son is such an asshole – taking the worst traits of his father. 

— Don’t cry, Schatzen. You’re okay, it felt good, didn’t it? 

— W…we shouldn’t have. Shit. I’m sorry, it was a m…god, I need to tell Paul. 

— I’ll tell him. 

— No! — I will tell my asshole of a son that you’re my girl now, ja? And then I will take you to the bedroom, so we can fuck. 

— I need to return to my dorm. 

— And then I will dine you properly, okay? Sorry, Liebling, I know I should court you before all of this…but we can afford to go a bit off board, ja? 

He is smiling, so smitten and obsessed over just having you cum on his fingers once – you don’t have the heart to say no. Never did. You’re a good, proper girl, and Paul was never treating you right anyway. You feel dirty, yes, but somehow, it is almost right. 

He peppers your face with kisses, like a dog lapping its tongue all over your skin – you’re so concentrated on the warmth of his strong, seasoned body that you don’t even look in the direction of the doorway to the kitchen. 

Paul, however, looks straight at you, disheartened and shocked. 

— W…what the fuck, dad?! König laughs, kissing you once again – deep, hot, with tongue and loud, sloppy sounds of your mouth pressing into one another. You’re stuck in place, still caged in his arms like a precious little pet you are. 

— She’ll make a good step mom, ja? 

You don’t even register his hands slowly caressing your fingers as if he already tries to check the ring sizes. 

[chase-solidago]

Invasive Species and Xenophobia

Invasive species are complicated! People have a lot of feelings about them, positive and negative. Are plants that move "invaders" "colonizing", "immigrants", "citizens"? What does it mean to kill species that are from somewhere else? What if that species legitimately makes a poor neighbor and causes extinctions in other, native species? This complex, culturally-loaded issue is a foundational issue behind a lot of plant conservation and restoration.

This is a juicy and still actively disputed topic! The Guardian recently had a big article on colonialism in Botany, (tbh her views are dated and reductive, imo) and it’s come up again this week, to much hostility (cw: reddit). Yes, my region's native plant restoration came from literal nazis, but also, the impacts of some invasive species are real, not figments of a racist imagination. How do we balance these issues? What does ethical invasive management look like?

Since it’s such a juicy topic, I wanted to offer a few fun readings to share:

The Native Plant Enthusiasm: Ecological Panacea or Xenophobia?, Gert Gröning and Joachim Wolschke-Bulmahn, 2004, Arnoldia.

THE CLASSIC 20th century German nazis and native plants paper. Made a huge splash when it came out, and you will still encounter people who paint all native plant stuff with this brush. Summary: yeah the nazis loved their native plants and used them as part of their conquering process. Also, the first prairie plantings ever, located in Chicago, were done by a racist probable-nazi for racist reasons, full stop. I’ll let him speak for himself: “The gardens that I created myself shall… be in harmony with their landscape environment and the racial characteristics of its inhabitants. They shall express the spirit of America and therefore shall be free of foreign character as far as possible… the Latin and the Oriental crept and creeps more and more over our land, coming from the South, which is settled by Latin people, and also from other centers of mixed masses of immigrants. The Germanic character of our race, of our cities and settlements was overgrown by foreign character. The Latin spirit has spoiled a lot and still spoils things every day.” - Jens Jensen

Botanical decolonization: rethinking native plants, Tomaz Mastnak, 2014, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space

Rather than viewing native plant plantings as an act of racially-pure occupation, Mastnak positions native plants in California as a decolonization of the sub/urban lawn. Uses a lot of quotations from 16th century English philosopher Francis Bacon, and is heavy on the philosophical musings.

From killing lists to healthy country: Aboriginal approaches to weed control in the Kimberley, Western Australia by Bach et al., 2019, Journal of Environmental Management.

This paper talks through some of the native vs invasive debate, and offers a different perspective on how to approach to plant invasive management based on cultural relations, rather than country of origin or behavior.

Beyond ‘Native V. Alien’: Critiques of the Native/alien Paradigm in the Anthropocene, and Their Implications, Charles R. Warren, 2021, Ethics, Policy, & Environment

DENSE but thorough, if you want to follow the entire history of the native/invasive debate, this has you covered. The most interesting stuff, in my opinion, is the discussion of invasive denialism, IE: the impasse of “You’re just being racist!” Vs “You know nothing about ecology!” I recommend the Discussion, which starts on page 13.

[motorbutcher]

hi i absolutely adore father maria and the comic you made for him is insanely good, the 3d models are unbelievable also please never stop creating

Shiit thank you so much for your kind words, they mean a lot to me 🫂🫂

I also wanna use this ask to share some updates on father maria! There's been a bit of redesigning and rethinking of his character :3

Here we have an update on the most recent redesign! I'm not sure if that'll be it or if I'll add to it, but that's the look as of now. @yaegeram and i have been talking about our prime assets to each other and he helped me with figuring some more stuff out!

Father Maria, as i might've mentioned previously has a really motherly relationship towards pretty much anyone. How he shows it really depends on the person. He's been tasked to be violent towards the reagents, so he IS indeed violent towards them, but for the sake of helping them—at least in his eyes.

Assets also receive his motherly care, which is far more gentle. For example he reduces rig efficiency. At least in other assets (ex-pops and prime assets).

Stun an enemy with Father Maria close; the stun time will get randomly reduced. Affect an asset with the jammer rig; effect reduced. Attack with blind mines, Maria will push them out of the mist. However, Father Maria himself will still get affected by the rigs all the same.

That's how it's looking right now!!

(also, a little drawing of Father Maria and @yaegeram 's oc Volker)

[eddiegettingshot]

most of the time i don’t even think it’s worth engaging with this stuff because it’s stupid and continues to illustrate a lack of understanding about. stories and fiction and such. but like. the new Thing from people who don’t like eddie or buddie or whatever is being like “eddie stans care about a sexuality arc more than anything else! it’s always about eddie’s sexuality! there are other things to explore!” and the thing is that yeah, i’m sure there are people who are only interested in him being gay (which is fine?) and yeah, obviously there are other things. but like. the thing that people forget in a myriad of ways is that eddie is not buck. for a character like eddie, defined by lifelong expectations and repression and a very specific struggle with the idea of Family, the symbolism of his sexuality holds a lot more weight than the just the fact of his attraction to men (in his STORY, not in-universe!). this is not to say that buck can’t or doesn’t have complex feelings about his bisexuality, but insofar as his actual character arc, his coming out doesn’t actually touch much on a lot of the things he’s been reckoning with as a character: what his purpose is, his parental trauma and abandonment issues, his struggle to actually recognize his wants, his pathological need to please. but for eddie, coming out could and would involve a lot of that specific character growth: reckoning with the expectations everyone has always had for him, being able to self-discover, accepting and putting his wants and needs first for once rather than repressing them, rethinking what a family might look like and his place in it, maybe understanding some of his own mistakes, and continuing to be the best version of himself for his son. like yes he will also be into men and into buck specifically but this is all eddie’s specific baggage; his sexuality is a representation of his Whole Self, rather than the repressed self that caused him and the people around him pain. that’s why it’s so important to eddie understanders to see it 🫶🏽

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

Hello, Jojo! I want to ask your input for my writing. I'm writing a TR local fanfic but I still can't quite grasp Baji's personality. At first I thought of him as a wild, unpredictable, and chaotic type of person. Many TR fanfic writers in my country also capture him as a well-meaning yet reckless person who does the most random things at times. I personally have only finished reading the main manga and haven't read the spin off. But seeing pages from bonus story and spin off makes me rethink my initial impression of him, though I still can't explain his personality. He came off as more impulsive than mikey but his child self actually shows more restraint...? Like when he was the one who apologized to Kazutora's father after Mikey kicked him (from some pages I've seen). May I ask for your take on Baji's personality? Thank you in advance 🫶🏻

Ngl I'm not always the best at describing things like this but we'll see how this goes and if it'll make sense. First of all I'd say well meaning but reckless is a really good way to describe Baji, for example he goes along with Kazutora to steal the bike for Mikey, he defends Mikey's street hawke putting himself at risk just because it means a lot to Mikey, he originally plans to fight Kensho alone in the spinoff and he literally stabs himself to take the blame away from Kazutora. All of these moments are him trying to do what's right for his friends, he's very well meaning here but they're also all very reckless, Baji will not hesitate to put himself in danger or even sacrifice himself for his friends. He is definitely a well meaning but reckless guy.

I think all of those moments perfectly show how selfless he is too. Sure he has moments when he wants to be the one to fight a bunch of guys (while he was shopping with Mikey and Draken) but when it comes down to the serious stuff, Baji is always putting others before him. I think another great example of this is how he tries very hard in school to not upset his mother again. He cares very deeply for her and for his friends so he's always putting them first, above his own wants or needs. He even refuses to fight some guys because she told him to not fight in school, which results in him getting hurt because he was trying to not upset her.

He's also a very observant character, something which seems to get a bit ignored or overlooked. We've seen him notice a few times when other character's are upset and give reassurance when others are feeling unsure about something. He seems to pick up on even the smallest changes in behaviour. We've seen this multiple times in the spinoff with both Chifuyu and Ryusei, as well as Kazutora in the main series. Along with this I'd describe him as being caring, he feeds cats, wants to be a vet and help animals, tried to help Emma with her martial arts, visited chuu in the hospital and has been shown to comfort his friends when they need it. Although this side may not come out as often as the others it's definitely there.

One of the main things the spinoff showed us about Baji is how responsible he is too, we got to see him act as a division leader. And although he can be a bit harsh on his members at times he is genuinely a very fair and good leader. He takes responsibility for his division members and puts a lot of effort into holding and attending meetings for his division. And we can also see from how the other first division members treat and respect him just how good of a leader he is. He's also shown to be very responsible in regards to his friends too. He apologises on behalf of Mikey to Kazutora's father, he makes sure Ryusei and Chifuyu doesn't fight in a hospital and takes responsibility for two big things that Ryusei does (these are major major spinoff spoilers though).

And finally we can't forget how chaotic he is, sure he's all these other things but he's also the guy that punches people because he's stressed over exams or tired, uses violence over persuasion and lights fires for fun. Baji is a lot of things but this is definitely one of them too.

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I hear some stuff about writing that doesn’t have believable or meaningful cultural differences when it comes to fantasy settings/cultures, so i want to ask: what exactly makes a culture meaningfully distinct? what differences in a culture make sense, or lack of differences that don’t? just like where do i start with all that it seems complicated

Disclaimer that I am a white american, so like I don't think im an expert on this lol a lot of other people probably have more to add with actual personal experience in seeing their own cultures crop up as bastardized fantasy cultures, possibly mixed up with a few other cultures as well. I am opening this up to my followers! Please add your opinions!

The first thing to note about fantasy culture is that it can be difficult to create a new culture entirely from scratch without taking ideas from real cultures, because of course the only references we have are real world human cultures! So step number one in writing a new cukture is to give yourself some grace, because you're going to end up with some details that might seem similar to any number of real cultures, and that in itself is not inherently a bad thing. It's not appropriative, for example, to write a fantasy culture that has some important dances involving some form of costume with masks. This concept alone can be found in several real cultures around the world because people like to use music and dance and costuming in order to tell stories, some of which even have religious significance.

But if, say, you find yourself directly referencing more specific real like cultural dances in this category, copying their styles and even taking the stories they tell with those dances, you should probably step back and rethink it.

A personal example: there is a dance in the opening chapters of my current story draft. It is an orcish funeral dance, in which a raven-like bird is shown guiding the spirit of the deceased person to the afterlife. Costumes and masks are used in this dance. But I also know that the real life Native American cultures in my own area have raven dances that tell specific stories about a sacred raven figure. So when I design the dance costumes and try to describe the dance in my story, i do my best to avoid copying real life raven dances. Am I perfect at it? Absolutely not. But I am trying.

And it helps to build up your fantasy cultures as whole interconnected things, not just disconnected pieces of things that seem cool or only support one or two plot points and have no other impact.

But I think maybe am diving in a little too deep too quick here, so let me back up.

I interpreted this ask at first about making fantasy cultures distinct from real world cultures, but the other interpretation is making fantasy cultures distinct from each other within their settings. Which is equally important!

For example, while in fantasy it is useful to kinda lump your people groups up as species (elves have elf culture, orcs have orc culture) it is also a good idea to vary them somewhat (elves from location A have a different culture than elves from location B, even though they share the same cultural ancestry and have more in common than they do with orc cultures)

Making these cultures meaningfully distinct, to me, means they feel organic and alive and not like cardboard cutouts reusing the same stock ideas every time. Which is not to say that you can't use the same ideas that are commonly used with things like elves and orcs, but that you should explore deeper and figure out what you personally enjoy about those fantasy folks and then expand on it.

The thing about culture is that it affects every aspect of people's lives. So your fantasy cultures also need to do that!

One common example I see is worldbuilding that has a surface level attempt to make a fantasy world modern and feminist by just having some female deities and putting female characters in leadership roles. But then immediately under the surface they're still using very patriarchal and sexist details that line up with exactly the real world they've grown up in. It's a lack of deeper thought. What does it actually mean for these fictional people to worship a goddess? Why if they're ruled by a matriarchal figure are they still degrading the role of motherhood and treating women as lesser than men? And why does the female protagonist feel like a #feminist not-like-other-girls girlboss from a Twitter thread? (This one is a major pet peeve of mine, can u tell)

Hmm I feel like i am saying an awful lot but I don't know if I have actually answered the question.

Let's go back to "how do I start?" Because I think that is the most important detail, right? Where do you begin to write distinct fantasy cultures that isn't just a list of "well here is some stuff other people do wrong" or "don't copy real world cultures".

Start with two groups of fantasy people. They don't have to be related.

What are their physical traits? Are they human or something else? What environment do they live in? What resources are available to them?

With those resources, what can they make? What do they eat? How do they gather the resources they have access to?

What do they consider to be important? How does thus affect their social structure? Their form of government? Their spiritual beliefs? Do they value wealth? How does that look for them?

You'll want to explore several different cultural topics and connect them back to these central questions. Some important topics are clothing and accessories, transportation, architecture, cuisine, and entertainment.

If your two people groups live in separate environments and/or are different species, it will be easier to create unique distinctions between their cultures. But if they are the same species in the same environment, they may share some cultural foundations and differ more in things like spiritual practices and social structures (like government). The important thing to keep in mind is that the details of their culture will effect every part of their lives, so you need to create consistent rules for how to write them.

Also, people who interact with each other will end up influencing each other in one way or another. How do these two groups interact? What do they trade? Are they allies or enemies? Does either group oppress the other? What does that look like in this case?

And then of course you can repeat this process as much as you like with more groups in your world. And don't be afraid to research real life cultures! You do actually want to know what's common in particular environments. Like for example, what clothing styles are most common in arid environments? How about cold environments? What animals and plants are available as resources in a temperate forest?

I think a lot of us are tired of seeing desert dwelling fantasy people who wear skimpy outfits that would actually give them serious sunburns and heat stroke, for example. Please stop doing that.

I have also seen some newly popular fantasy books that give absolutely zero consideration to what the people in their worlds would actually have access to and know about. Like a woman living in a fantasy desert surrounded by sand and suffering through a near constant drought, with no mention of any other countries with more fertile land, should not be able to easily access any grain based alcohol while complaining of a lack of water rations. She also should not just casually make reference to a "feast day turkey". Girl what turkey. What whiskey. You don't have those things. You live in a place that resembles Tattooine. (Sorry, more pet peeves)

Just put some actual thought into your fictional cultures and be genuinely curious about it! If you're having fun with it, exploring all the options and making it consistently cohesive, it will read fine. Also just have the chutzpah to pull it off. A fantasy world that unapologetically and enthusiastically puts a lamp post in the middle of a forest is better written than one that seems to just copy every common vaguely-old-fashioned-western-europe fantasy setting that has ever been written and never does anything new or fun with it.

Your elves can still be nigh immortal forest people who do archery, your orcs can still be big buff warrior types, but you gotta find a way to make them your own and have some fun with it.

[4urvalidation]

A CASE OF LIMERENCE

PAIRING: oc!character x rafe cameron

SUMMARY:  From the moment she had become a Cameron, Rose opened the doors of her brand new home to her goddaughter and thus creating a cycle that lasted almost a decade. Each year following that one fateful summer, Leni Blythe waited for school to be over so she could pack her bags and jet over to the Outer Banks. Her months spent on the islands have always been one of her most joyful ones, so her decision to spend the entirety of her gap year there wasn’t at all surprising. 

Unfortunately, life had different plans. In a span of only four months the lives of the Cameron family had changed drastically and Leni had no other choice but to rethink her decision. She was just about to buy a train ticket to Paris when Rose called. Leni’s mother was nothing short of dubious: the idea of her daughter living with a family drowning in grief was a terrible idea, but Rose was persistent. It took a bit of convincing -  three whole days to be exact - but it worked. 

Leni was on a plane headed straight to the Outer Banks in such a short time, she completely forgot that two whole summers had gone since she was last there. There was no old friend group to reunite with or an apartment to share with Sarah. Only an empty grief stricken home and a boy her godmother told her to stay away from. 

WARNINGS: Will eventually get pretty smutty; mentions of drinking and drugs, coarse language etc etc.

A/N:  It’s been a while since I’ve written fanfiction (or written anything aside from half-assed short stories and poetry), but I’ve been meaning to get back into writing for a while now and if that’s by creating OBX fanfics so be it! Another very important thing to pay attention to is the following: This is an AU fanfiction of sorts; several themes from the show will be in play such as the whole treasure hunting plot, but it’s incredibly played down. Here they are very normal teens whose drama stems from normal teen stuff. A lot of plot related things that do not match the show’s original plot will be revealed as the story goes along. And finally, this is going to be a mix of SMAU and regular written fanfiction because I couldn’t decide between the two, so I guess why not both ?

⸰ ...MASTERLIST... ⸰

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗮 𝗕𝗹𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗲 - The eighteen year old and somewhat reluctant protagonist of the story. Commonly known by Leni, she only bares good memories of her time spent in the Outer Banks. Her mother and Rose Cameron are best friends or at least were until Leni and her family suddenly decided to move to Germany overnight, uprooting Leni’s entire life and forcing a brand new start. In order to keep some sense of normalcy, her mother - with a very heavy heart - decided to go forth with Rose's proposition and allow Leni to spend her summers in the US.

𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝘀: slight au / enemies to lovers / best friend's brother / she falls first he falls harder

[pikahlua]

Uh oh, it's sleepy grumpy Pika. Y'all know what that means, right?

It means I have no filter for my opinions.

If you're dissatisfied with the way Katsuki's bullying of Izuku is handled in MHA because you expected him to be confronted by someone else about it in some way, it's probably because you are unaware of the difference between bullying and attitudes towards it in Japan versus in your country of origin. I believe everyone would benefit from researching bullying in Japan. They do NOT view it the same way the west does, y'all.

And I guarantee when you learn about it, you're gonna find some stuff that makes you uncomfortable and horrified, because it's gonna take a while for you to get enough information to give context to a lot of the history and attitudes you'll find. AND EVEN THEN, EVEN WHEN YOU HAVE THAT CONTEXT, you're still definitely not going to like it.

However, with any luck, you'll see how MHA's portrayal of Katsuki's bullying is shockingly sympathetic and heartwarming to many people. It's because, from the perspective of a Japanese audience, Izuku was not targeted and bullied by Katsuki in the way we're used to seeing such situations portrayed in the west. Izuku was bullied by everyone. His classmates, his teachers, the pro heroes he encountered, and society in general ALL participated in the bullying of Izuku, because societal pressures to conform in Japan are MASSIVE, and that can often manifest as one form of bullying or another.

Katsuki's bullying is just the one that the story chooses to flesh out. It's the one that Horikoshi develops. Katsuki is the bully that changes his own perspective first and drastically, the one who realizes the greatness in Izuku and accepts that and comes to his side long before the rest of society can catch up. It is largely understood by the Japanese audience that Katsuki in middle school didn't seek Izuku out and follow him home every day to beat him up; Katsuki mostly ignored Izuku until Izuku would do something to remind Katsuki of his insecurities, and so he would lash out. And no one else at let's say Izuku's middle school would understand the true reason why Katsuki would lash out because what he does resembles what all of Izuku's bullies do to him: pressure him to conform. Pre-One For All Izuku stands out as different and constantly tries to rise above his position to become something society decrees he cannot be. Therefore, a significant part of Japanese society will generally approve of attempts to make him conform, even when some of those attempts are harsh and cruel and unreasonable and reactionary. MHA presents a caricature of that in the form of Izuku's middle school.

The fact that Katsuki identifies this toxic behavior in himself later in the story and decides to actively do something to change it IS the radical part. It's the piece that fits into the themes of MHA. It highlights a generally-accepted behavior in society that maybe society should rethink. It's asking for society to reconsider how it pressures people to conform, that sometimes nonconformity is good or at least should be tolerated to some degree. That's why Katsuki's story focuses so much on how his old behavior stems from fear. From the perspective of a "properly-functioning" collectivist society, pressure to conform should be done for the good of everyone in the society, not out of fear and misunderstanding. Katsuki's character arc provides one potential map for others in society to see the light and get to where he does.

And that's to say nothing of how Japan's versions of confrontation or retribution often look different from how they do in the west, that many of the forms of confrontation some people in the western fandom cry out for with regards to Katsuki sound absurd to an audience in the know. The karmic punishments Katsuki endures throughout the story are often overlooked by western readers, and is it any surprise? That readers from some societies--societies that laud nonconformity, tolerate counterculture, openly criticize the systems that be, preach about individual freedom and responsibility and justice and fairness, and watch and make movies and TV shows and other media about how victims of bullies achieve their righteous revenge--often miss how MHA doles out subtle, divine, poetic, karmic consequences for Katsuki's actions? That such readers often don't feel satisfied by MHA's dramatic ironies which serve more to guide Katsuki in a harmonious, productive direction rather than vindictively punish him and rest on its laurels as it laughs at his deserved misfortune? I don't blame anyone for feeling unsatisfied when their own societies have built up their expectations in such ways, but I do hope to draw your attention to it.

Now, does that mean you have to like and accept the Japanese attitudes about bullying? That you have to agree with the framing of pressure to conform as beneficial and productive? That, if you're triggered by the lack of overt condemnation of bullying in the story, you still have to like MHA? That, if you have personal traumatic experiences with Japan's bullying situation, you should shut up about it and accept that it's a good thing? No! In fact, I personally would hope that you don't! I think everyone should always have their perspectives on ANYTHING challenged so they can rethink and improve them, and Japan's attitude towards bullying is no exception! (And MHA actually does that in its own way!)

(And even saying that, I will always acknowledge that my perspective and opinions on this issue are heavily colored by my own experiences in life and the society in which I grew up and the ideas to which I've been exposed. This is and always will be my bias.)

But the question of what's the correct take on bullying is an entirely different beast. The question at hand here is about understanding the story and its characters as presented in MHA. If you don't come at this with a basic acknowledgement of how Katsuki's story reads to a Japanese audience in-context, you're going to be upset about what you see (which is a reasonable reaction). But I think if you're going to read a story, it's only due courtesy to understand the context surrounding its creation before you try to hold it to far-removed, foreign standards. There's a reason literature classes go over the history and context surrounding the older works they study. MHA is a Japanese story written for a Japanese audience. To focus on how it does not adhere to the typical western narrative of a bully's character arc is to miss the point entirely. If you are reading the story outside of Japan in a language other than Japanese, it is being translated so that you can read a Japanese story, not a story from your own culture. It's rude and self-defeating to expect stories from other cultures to suddenly cater to your own.

TL;DR Understanding the social context that informs bullying in MHA just might actually make the story more comprehensible and enjoyable for anyone who dares to learn about it, what do you have to lose?

[geekgirles]

Yugo's Audience with Armand: Moving Past Previous Mistakes

If you think about it, after his sacrifice and his reconciliation with Amalia, his audience with Yugo is the scene that best highlights Armand's character development throughout the season, dare I say, the show. With it, we finally come full circle.

We were first introduced to Armand as he refused to let Joris anywhere near his father, even at the behest of the King of Bonta.

Up until that point, all we knew about him was from Amalia and Eva's retellings, where he was painted as often arguing with his sister, being an extremely difficult person to deal with, and having bad breath. And then we finally meet him and...

Everything they said about him turned out to be nothing but the truth.

But we don't really see the full extent of it until Amalia and Evangelyne pleaded their case regarding Nox to him, when he stubbornly refused to believe his sister, instead assuming her imagination had just gone wild. He didn't even rethink his assessment even when Eva backed Amalia up, which would have still been harsh of him to do—to believe his sister's bodyguard over her just because he has a crush on her—, but it still would have made sense, as Eva is very level-headed and she never would have even entertained the thought of allowing Amalia to joke over something so serious.

That already established Armand as an arrogant and self-righteous prince who believes he is in the right just because of his position as heir apparent and older brother.

We must also keep in mind he actually had ample reason to believe Amalia about Nox's plans. While it's hard to tell the extent of his actions and the repercussions they had on the World of Twelve and his victims before the beginning of the show, the fact remains that Nox had been at large for 200 years. In that time, he probably ravaged countless villages and killed powerful creatures in order to drain their Wakfu. Surely, word must have at least got out about some mad Xelor going around and killing people!

In other words, it wasn't necessarily like Armand didn't have proof that Amalia was telling the truth. At the very least, he must have heard some rumours. And yet, that wasn't enough for him to believe his sister and act accordingly.

Not to mention, Amalia had run away yet came back to warn her people of the upcoming threat. Yet Armand still thought she was making stuff up. Who in their right mind would leave their home only to come back to put everyone on edge over a lie?

One thing is acting spoiled from time to time, and another very different thing is acting sociopathic!

Now, let's compare this to his audience with Yugo when he sought his permission to investigate Sadida ground.

During the time between season 2 and the OVAs, Armand seemed to have developed a deep-seated mistrust of the Eliatropes, most likely caused by Qilby's deceit, and it was only exacerbated when the Eliatrope Goddess introduced herself and made her intentions of controlling the World of Twelve in order to make it safe for her children clear.

It's also worth pointing out that not even Yugo was safe from his scorn, despite being a staunch ally to the Sheran Sharms, and saving his kingdom and the world in several occasions. This I attribute both to the fact that Amalia's feelings for him got in the way of marrying her off (thankfully, he seemed to move on from that mindset in season 4, though he still didn't necessarily approve of Yugo), and the fact that King Oakheart was always so welcoming and trusting of him. Knowing Armand, it really wouldn't be far-fetched to believe he was jealous of Yugo's own relationship with his father.

And yet, when the time came for Yugo to request his help and ask him to place his trust on him, Armand agreed.

This is especially telling of his character development because, unlike in Amalia's case, Armand did have ample reason to distrust the Eliatropes.

It's true, except for Qilby and arguably their goddess, the Eliatropes are a peaceful race, but the Twelvians' experiences with the former two at least justify their unease around them.

Both of them display an alarming lack of empathy towards anyone but themselves or their people. After all, Qilby is responsible for the genocide of the Eliatropes, and all because he was bored and searched stimulation elsewhere because of his divine gift. But at the same time, while he couldn't care less for the World of Twelve and planned to have Rushu and his subjects destroy it right before draining it dry of all Wakfu just to fuel the Zenit, he was equally adamant to have his family and the Eliatrope children with him as he travelled the Krosmoz.

The Eliatrope Goddess, on the other hand, might not have been as outwardly callous as her son, nor capable of even going through with her threats and putting the world leaders in their place, but she is equally uncaring towards anyone who isn't one of her children.

In fact, that was the very reason why she made an enemy out of the Twelvian leaders and they came to resent her presence. Because she chose to override their authority and keep them all under her watch (which, until she revealed herself, had the Twelvians terrorised). But the last nail on the coffin was when she revealed that all that, the Eliaculus, sending the Eliatrope guard to help whenever there was trouble, everything, was solely to ensure her children's safety.

Like mother, like son. Am I right?

Even without saying anything, she made it clear that she cared not for the Twelvians and that the Eliatropes were her priority. And that's without getting into her manic insistence they left the World of Twelve to rot the moment the Nécromes arrived.

Now, there's no denying that most leaders with any significant focus have been revealed to be jerks one way or another (looking at you, Queen Astra, Prince of Brakmar, and the entire Osamodas royal family), but they do have a right to be worried when Eliatrope didn't even bother to hide how, in her eyes, they're second class citizens compared to her own followers.

These first impressions really didn't give much reason for Armand to believe Yugo and to listen to his pleas. However, the most damning evidence of all had to be the fact that the Nécromes appeared with the arrival of the Eliatropes. Between the suspicious timing and the fact that the portal-making race had dealt with traitors before, it sounded very unlikely that both things wouldn't be connected.

And Armand knew this. He was perfectly aware of how suspicious everything was, and he didn't hesitate to let Yugo know. However, he also admitted, several times, in fact, that Yugo had been an ally to the Sadida Kingdom since the beginning. That if both his father and his sister never hesitated to put as much faith and trust in him as they did, then it would only be wise he chose to trust Yugo as well.

A clear contrast to how he refused to listen to Amalia, his own sister, back in season 1, and all because he believed to be always in the right.

Season 4 was Armand's chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the audience, to go from an arrogant, jealous prince to a mature and wise king and brother. And while there are things I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive him for, I do appreciate the character development he went through. As I said at the beginning of the analysis, this scene proves he's come full circle.

[lucifertheanalyzer]

If you reblog this post, please add the "hazbin hotel leaks" tag.

Thank you!

Since whole Roise owning Alastor topic has been popping off, I am going to add my two cents. A24 has copyright posts with leaks in the past so I have put appropriate screenshot of Lucifer on it.

I have no issue with topic of racism or racist characters existing in media. I am shocked that racist Sinners are not common in Hazbin, the closest we get into bigotry is Katie Killroy who is homophobic.

If Rosie is a racist, that is fine. She could be in Hell because of her cannibalism and her racism. I would not be surprised if she visited Human Zoos during her lifetime or owned slaves.

She knows that Alastor has is a man of color because he made a deal with her when he was alive, so her calling Al a 'pet' and 'telling him to rollover or go fetch" can lean into her racism.

As long it is written and viewed by the audience as bad and that Rosie deserves to be stay in Hell. In episode 7, they kind of lean into this with Rosie being a cannibal and the leader of a cannibal town.

The writers need to have characters to show some people cannot be redeemed and are rotten to the core because of their beliefs even if they are nice or helpful like how Rosie let her citizens fight for Charlie in episode eight.

Before I get deep into the dark stuff, the song has a tone issue. The song should not be a showtune with an upbeat instrumental. This is one song that should have dark instrumental to showcase how soul owning is an awful thing. Catchy instrumentals make us forget what the song is about, take Hey Ya! by Outkast. The song is about a complexity in relationships, but the beat is so catchy that you do not catch it, it is straight up mentioned the lyrics. I listened to this song which I was a child, and I did not know what the song was about until I was a teen.

Are fans supposed to be snapping their fingers and doing the twist to a song about the fan favorite being treated like a pet? This franchise needs more darker sounding songs like we are in Hell! give me those dark, deep melodies. Give me Hellfire from Hunchback of Notre Dame.

My issues are that all the writers for Hazbin are my knowledge are white, Alastor and Rosie's character have racist implications, and most importantly, you have to be aware of racist conspiracy theories before adding the element of racism in your stories.

Unlike everyone else, I do not think Rosie owning Alastor's soul is racist or the writers are wearing white hoods when cooking up this episode/song, you have to be carefully when it comes to the topic of racism regardless of your race or/and ethnicity.

In the casting sheet, Roise is said to have the "energy of a Jewish mother". We all know that Alastor was reworked into a mixed Creole man so the show can have a "pass" to have Vodou to be a part of his character. When Alastor was created way back in 2008, he was not a person of color. His demon appearance does not match his human appearance at all either. Demon Al is whitewashed, and he lost his 3b hair texture. Is being whitewashed a punishment for people of color in Viv's hell?! /lhj 😭

Anyway, having a Jewish-coded character in a show based off of a Christan version of Hell who is a cannibal is not it. I have Jewish characters and like a normal person I do research on groups of people that I am not a part of to make sure I am not falling into stereotypes when creating these characters. I read stories about Jewish people being told by strangers or classmates that they will be going to Hell for not believing in Jesus. If I was creating a story set in Hell, Jewish or Jewish-coded characters would not be in my story. Cannot forget that there is a conspiracy theory of Jewish people controlling Black people.

If your writing is such hot trash that a 4channer points it out the racism implications, it is time to close out of the word document, rethink your life choices, and start over again.

Ok, no more real-life stuff, back to the show. This tweet caught my eye. Al and Vel are the only Black Sinners that look human who are evil. Husk has been viewed as Black because Keith David only voices Black characters, but he is a furry. Sera and Emily are Black-coded, but Sera is viewed as Evil by the fandom even though she is just morality gray/thinks the exterminations are for the "greater good". Emily is the only Black coded character who is like a sweet person (because she is just Charlie, but species swapped).

I am fine with Black characters being morality fucked up or evil, but you need a balance. Like in real life, Black people are PEOPLE! We are complex like everyone else

I hope we see another Black sinner who is a good person because if this show ends with all Black characters being evil abusers who or enables abuse done by other characters, the only thing I have to say is holy shit. 😬

Here is a funny meme because why not.

This is one aspect of the leaks I wonder will be changed before release to avoid controversies. How Black characters are treated in media and by the audience has been a HOT topic for a couple of years now.

This is aspect of Hazbin I can be seen being written about negatively in a professional publication that discussions media and ripping the show apart for this or Black media analysis YouTubers who never heard of Hazbin being dumfounded by the song.

Imagine a song about a Jewish-coded woman owning a Mixed Creole man hitting the Billboard Top 100s. 💀 This is going to be a song that wins an award. /lhj

[ticknart]

Mutant Names

I've been reading a lot of X-Men discourse recently because I made a random visit to the Pretty, Fizzy Paradise to see if there was anything new and found a link to @kalinara's tumblr.

In the reading of the of all the X-Stuff, I noticed that a lot of fans writing about X-Men don't use codenames when talking about the characters. For the most part, they use the names that the characters were given by their parents. The characters' birth names.

It's rarely Cyclops; it's Scott. Hank, instead of Beast. Logan more than Wolverine. Even Ororo more often than Storm.

I find this interesting because at some point in my X-Men experience I headcanoned that the mutants chose a new name for themselves and their birth names then become dead.

The headcanon probably comes from the scene in X2 when Magneto meets Pyro and asks, "What's your real name, John?" My headcanon was that the X-Men, all the mutants we meet in the comics, was that they named themselves and killed their birth names.

But that's not true, is it?

Xavier named the original X-Men, didn't he? He decided to infantilize Jean and name Scott after a monster from mythology.

I'm going to have to seriously rethink this headcanon, aren't I?

[thetrialsandtribulationsofeb]

some things that happened on this wee woo show:

- paralleling eddie (buck’s best friend) with abby (his ex-girlfriend) on many occasions

- paralleling shannon (eddie’s late wife) with buck (his best friend) on many occasions (that sequence from 2x17 to 2x18, and eddie’s reaction to shannon’s death vs. buck’s nde with the firetruck, will always haunt me - but it’s not even at the top of the list)

- paralleling tommy (buck’s new gay love interest) with eddie (his best friend)

- paralleling eddie with michael (the officially gay character on the show) a few times

- paralleling abby leaving with eddie leaving in season 8

- paralleling buck and eddie’s life journeys and characters

- paralleling abby and shannon - their “first loves” - life journeys and characters too

bonus:

- paralleling eddie (and chris, kind of) with a dog

i wrote this 3 days before 8x17 aired and forgot to post it, so when i was watching the new episode and noticing all the parallels and callbacks (especially the shannon and abby ones!!!), it was like an out-of-body experience and made me rethink the whole show

because it makes me wonder how much of it is unintentional. like, does this stuff keep happening because tim just has a bad memory and a lack of creativity, so he’s repeating a lot of stuff? and the crew likes to use certain templates while filming? or were they all masterminds all along? is this the universe’s work or human work? probably something in between

‘cause as a creator myself, i can tell from experience that sometimes your artwork can take on its own meaning and take you somewhere you didn’t plan from the beginning, which is a beautiful process. and sometimes you just follow the clues, and what started out as unintentional turns into intentionality. but maybe we’ll never know

i’m just glad i get to witness this show because it scratches my brain with all its parallels and the fuel for analysis. but i also wish the storylines would reach their logical conclusions instead of being infinitely repeated or abandoned. but, idk, season 8 feels very weird in a way that does feel very intentional. it really feels like the writers rewatched all the previous seasons and/or were reading fans’ analyses of the show and the characters

i can attach meaning to pretty much every scene, but i’m still not sure - is this me actually reading the signs, or am i seeing signs where they aren’t? a lot to think about

but for now, i’m at least 90% sure that the “seismic shifts” end with buddie confirmation and some not-so-subtle hinting at their romantic feelings or maybe even a kiss and an alobby reveal. at least, that’s what my level of media literacy tells me. if not, then i don’t know what i’m gonna do with myself, tbh - i don’t really have a plan b :D