#and does not limit himself in terms of expression

[blue-ink-scribbles]

More clothing practice, of an outfit Phi would absolutely wear. Also some pencil sketches (gasp!) of some paper masks.

[starsthatlinethesky]

What’s so fucking ironic about Jimmy in mouthwashing, is when he’s pitching a fit to Anya about having to do FIVE tasks around the ship when she asks for help with Curly’s medication and literally nobody actually ASKED him to do those things, there all pretty much self-imposed tasks.

Like an ACTUAL Captain would do these things with almost no complaint as he understands that they benefit not only himself but the safety and wellbeing of the crew.

But Jimmy can only see the rest of the crew as burdens and he is the sole person managing to keep this ship together with what he’s been given to work with. When that is so NOT the case.

Anya was most likely putting in so much work into keeping Curly alive, which in itself is a miracle seeing that state that he was in and the limited resources that the had. She had to find a way to provide nutrition, prevent infection and bleeding and somehow perform four amputations with what was most likely limited training from Pony Express. All while being PREGNANT.

Daisuke and Swansea were most likely the only thing keeping that ship running and preventing any further mechanical failures that could have put them all at further risk. As well as most likely actively looking for solutions to try and get parts of the ship running again.

And asking Daisuke to go in to the damaged vent when he KNEW it would do more harm than good to, was a risk that a captain would not take. And no, he wasn’t concerned about Anya when he asked Daisuke to go into the vent and I could argue that he wasn’t all that concerned about Curly either.

The only thing that he was concerned with was the fact that he had lost control of the situation and that Anya wasn’t being subservient to him and his demands.

Also the fact that he used the alcohol disinfectant to make that drink from Swansea also proved how little he thinks through his actions and the long term consequences. If he hadn’t of used it for the drink, it’s likely that it could have been used as a disinfectant for Daisuke’s wounds and could have also been rationed for other wounds the crew obtains as well.

But Jimmy can’t see the big picture, all Jimmy can see is all the messes and problems in the ship. That he CREATED. But he takes no responsibility for them as he can only think of what Jimmy wants and not how what he says or does impacts anyone else.

It’s just goes to show that Jimmy, is and has probably always been someone who wants the title and authority of a position like ‘Captain’ but he can’t handle any of the duties that come with it.

[m00nkeiki]

Remember in those romance books where the male main character growls "touch her and die." How would you feel about the monster trio (and Law) saying "touch her and die" but they growl while they say it?

H0i!!! Congrats on being my first anon!  This was really fun to think about! I will be honest, I barely dip my toes in romance books, buuut I do love me some protective blorbos who care for you lots!  I feel like in terms of playing the trope straight, it would definitely fit Luffy and Zoro. Meanwhile, Sanji and Law would word and say it differently, but they’ll still have the grit in the voice and say the classic phrase in a manner that fits them. Hence, I’ve varied the scenarios and dialogue a bit to match each character, but made sure they work in the vein of the trope~

Request: Touch Her and Die Featuring: Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Law; Fem Reader Content Warning: mildly violent diction, implied kidnapping/capture in Luffy's and Law's section (but can be interpretated otherwise), stalking/harassment in Sanji’s section (but he saves you dw).

Luffy

I think he would definitely say this with so much earnestness. Luffy cares for his loved ones so much that he would always rush to violence if there was the prospect of them getting hurt. If he holds these feelings for the friends he cares and cherishes for, imagine what he’d do for a lover.

Despite his brash mind, Luffy does not take the concept of death lightly: after all, it’s not in his nature to easily take a life as he prefers to disarm then defeat an opponent. Hence, if it meant protecting you, it would mean having to forgo his usual rule.

Before Luffy comes to your rescue, all hope seemed lost, as if you could have been swallowed in a pool of despair and darkness. Then, like daybreak, the Straw Hat Pirate arrives. He kneels down on you, to check if you’re okay. His expression is a blank kind of warmth, the one where he is trying to hold his emotions back to focus on ensuring your safety. You’ll know he’ll smile when the coast is clear and everyone is alright. No, not now. Not when you’re vulnerable like this.

After reassuring himself that you were safe, you could see how his usually bright wide eyes tense up, as if his irises are a blank dot in each of eyes. 

Then he turns his head to his opponent, marching forward as a humming grrrr emanates from his lungs. Luffy grits his teeth, his hands forming into fists that were sure to land a painfully harsh blow.

“You bastard.”

Luffy was trembling; not out of fear, but the forewarning that he could burst into a pour of punches that would break every bone in one’s body. The moment he speaks and growls, it’s gritty and low, a looming punishment for the enemy who could have hurt you.

“Touch her, and die.”

Zoro

He’s not training to be the greatest swordsman only because swordsmandry is his passion, but also because he wants to protect the friends who were precious to him, especially you. If he failed that promise, he would beat himself down for it. But Zoro cannot afford to fall into this pitfall. No, he’s got to keep training, keep fighting, keep pushing. If he reaches his limits, he’ll crack them open and surpass them. 

Even if he was well aware you too were a capable fighter, Zoro cannot help but have this little voice inside of him: what if he was too late? Thus, he promises that he will be there to shield you with his sword.

So when you were about to be the victim to an enemy’s lethal blow. Swift like the wind, Zoro deflects the incoming attack, glancing back to ensure you were alright. After creating a forceful X with his katanas as the enemy backs off, Zoro brandishes them, steel sharpening against steel to create a menacing threat.

Zoro is a demon: the kind you are grateful that you were his ally, friend, lover—instead of an fiend who would shed no mercy or forgiveness. You trusted that he was strong enough, that he would protect you at all costs even if the ends turn out ghastly and gory. 

One you heeded Zoro's yell to focus on getting to safety, you watched from afar to see him turn into the feared swordsman, the way he lets out a ghastly snarl as he became like a tiger, swords as claws about to prance.

“Oi, touch her…”

And in the next moment, he brandishes two of his katanas, a pierce of red from his open eye glaring into the person who dared hurt you. Growling like an oni boiling with fury, Zoro was determined to slash and slice the enemy who, if he had not come in the right moment, could have ended your life.

“and die.”

Sanji

Sanji will never stand for anyone laying a finger on his beloved. He always believed in kindness, to treat others right and to have empathy when they make difficult choices. But there were some acts that were simply unforgivable—especially if they were targeting you.

The blond cook, who always promised to safeguard you from all harms through the power of his martial kicks, sighted you one day as you were chased by a lecherous man. With the way you had forced your pace and let out anxious breaths, he could not stand for this. Nobody deserved this horrifying experience, for the lack of respect that came with stalking and harassment was disgusting in Sanji’s eyes, with the way his curled eyebrows furrowed. 

A knight in a tailored suit, Sanji dashes to your aid, running in kicks as he apprehends your stalker: It was one of the rare times he uses his hands as a threat—the way he grips the shoulder of your harasser, squeezing them tight as if he were to crack and break their flesh open. If not, he’ll kick upwards with his powerful legs to split their body in vertical halves.

At this moment, Sanji wishes he could instead rush past and hold you tight, to protect you from such cruelty of the world and whisper affirmations of safety. But first, he’s going to give your stalker an admonish.

“You shitty asshole. How dare you try to touch her…”

Sanji spat, with his voice evolving into a dark gritty tone as if he had smoked a hundred cigarettes beforehand. His grip tightening, you know he’ll keep his promise as your guardian and lover, and to the person who harassed you, a painful kickdown.

“And if you take one step further, you die.”

Law

Law has always been protective of you. He cares for you and your individual, and if you are adjacent to any kind of danger he will worry gravely. Law feels the utmost responsibility to keep you safe, because if there was even the slightest scratch on you, or a sense of unforgotten horror in your eyes, he will never forgive himself.

He also does not say the word “die” lightly. Following a doctor’s code, all life is sacred, and even with his callous streak when it comes to tormenting enemies, Law does not have it in him to kill. But when push comes to shove, when his loved one is in danger… Law may have to break that personal code.

Before anything, he has to prioritize saving you first. Once you hear him yell “Room!” then “Shambles!” you find yourself swiftly teleported to Law’s side, and you see how he was straining himself in his stance: the inked fingers of his right hand curled, the dark circles growing larger around his eyes… He’ll exhaust himself first before anything can happen to you.

Then he faces his opponent, the one who could have hurt you if Law was even a second late. Before the confrontation, Law tells you to get away from the battle before things get ugly. 

Law enjoys playing and messing around with his opponents, but not this time. Grabbing the hilt of Kikoku and ready to unsheathe it at any moment, Law gives the enemy an ultimatum.

“I’ll give you a choice. You can walk away right now, and I won’t mess with you.”

Then, his golden eyes seem to flash, a premonition of what will come if his advice is not followed.

“But if you are still thinking about touching her, even in the slightest…”

Then with a growl, he affirms: 

“then die.”

~~~

I hope you enjoyed anon! Until then—see ya!

For more works: First hug from the Monster Trio First hug from Ace, Sabo, and Law

[harmonyofthesea]

LADS MEN with an autistic s/o!!

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

xavier, zayne, rafayel & sylus

Suprisingly knows a lot about it! Goes as far as to be aware of the whole ‘masking’ process.

Generally speaking, he’s a free weighted blanket. Will go out of his way to make sure he’s wearing clothing without that texture when cuddling. 

His whole home is pretty much an autism safe space already. No overhead lighting. Everywhere is soft and quiet. 

Not being the most expressive man out there, he definitely empathises and understands if you do the same thing. Especially if going nonverbal/are overwhelmed. Will print out a bunch of those communication cards, might even use some of them himself.

Sometimes is taken aback by sudden moments of hyperfocus, silently observing with interest as your attention span for this one thing is seemingly unbreakable.

Personally prefers the straight-to-the-point conversations. 

If you get tired a lot, especially from socialisation, he will definitely encourage nap times after work.

Immediately asks what he can do to support you. As a doctor, he’s very much used to the medical approach and may be more focused on how it negatively impairs your life. Though, he’s quick to change his perspective.

The more he does independent research as well as the input from you, the more he resonates with a lot of the traits. Personally, I see a lot of autistic traits such as social awkwardness, hyperfixations etc. (though important to acknowledge there are social factors as to why he’s so ‘cold’) in him and let’s be real- he’s probably at one point been told by someone he’s autistic. Hadn’t really looked into it until you came along.

Personally I think that Zayne is such a good doctor in the story is because he empathises with his patients on a much deeper level, but isn’t really good at expressing it externally (hence the ‘coldness’)- something which i’ve found through experience seems to correlate with a lot of autistic peoples’ experiences

He probably knows a few good pediatricians, occupational therapists and asks for recommendations regarding accommodations for you. Your experiences also encourage him to bring more awareness to sensory-friendly spaces within the hospital for patients.

Will get butterflies in his stomach listening to you infodump about your latest fixation, noting the way your eyes have that light in them and you speak with such passion about it. 

“Hey, I’M the one who’s artistic!”

Completely misinterprets it at first, but immediately realises his mistake once you repeated yourself. Being in the art space, he’s come across a few artists who had communicated about their experience within their work. Even with his limited knowledge, he’s eager to find out more. Maybe even be an inspiration for another piece. Referring to overstimulation as a tsunami makes him understand it better. Talk to him about autism in fishy terms please.

If there’s a certain texture you like, he’d incorporate it into his pieces upon the pretense of ‘being innovative’ within his art. 

Prepares an allocated room for your sensory accommodations. If you need white noise, the beach waves are just an added bonus. 

If you tend to speak in a blunt/matter-of-fact manner, he finds it very endearing and easier to tease you. Though, it can take him off guard sometimes depending on what you say.

Unconsciously picks up some of your stims. If you flap your hands around as a stim, he WILL call you a fish. Might also ask if you’re doing a mating ritual. Though, only if he’s sure that you’re in a mood for his comments.

Changes some of the ways he communicates to you so it’s more straight-forward/doesn’t rely on social cues.

You had best believe that this man would immediately provide a room in his base specifically catered toward your sensory needs. Essentially, it’s a personalised panic room. Here are the requirements he gave Luke and Kieran to organise:

A/C and Heating are completely adjustable

Dim/Gentle lighting

Couches, Beds, Beanbags

Weighted Blankets, Plushies

Soundproof Panelling

Shelves to store items regarding special interests

ALWAYS HAVE ADDITIONAL SET OF HEADPHONES!

Drawers for fidgets.

The twins, although their lore is quite limited, feel to me like they have ADHD. Otherwise, Sylus has a little bit of knowledge regarding some traits as they often overlap. Nonetheless, he will happily listen and have Mephisto take notes.

Finds the different thinking process a very valuable tool in his field of work. Sometimes you’d pick up on some random detail that not even Mephisto could recognise and he’d just smile to himself.

He empathises a lot with being the target of social outcasting, and if it does occur to you his heart will practically shatter. Resonates with you on a deeper level.

[woncheolisms]

L&DS BOYS - LOVE LANGUAGES

content warnings: fem!reader, fluff, sfw headcanons

XAVIER - PHYSICAL TOUCH

Xavier knows he is smart, and witty enough. But when things get a little too real, he finds it hard to express himself.

And the feelings he has for you are the most genuine ones he has felt in his long, long life.

While he might not be someone who can wax poetic about his affection for you, he shows it in other ways, and physical touch in his favorite way to get his feelings across.

When you walk next to each other, he sticks close, arm brushing against yours. Occasionally, the back of his hand makes contact with your own. It's almost as if the tension builds and builds, until he finally connects your fingers, either intertwining your hands together or linking his pinkie with yours. No words leave his mouth. His touch says enough.

If the train is too crowded, he will pull you closer to him with a firm touch on the small of your back, making sure you don’t receive any unwanted bumps from strangers.

For a few weeks in your relationship, he developed a strange habit of pinching your cheeks and lightly pulling on them. You let him do it, knowing he would eventually move on and find some other part of you to focus on. Though the action did make your face heat up.

Another weird hyperfixation he has is nibbling at your fingertips absentmindedly. He plays with them often, but when he is distracted by a movie you two are watching, he will bite at them every so often. Sometimes, he is so focused on the screen that you doubt he even realizes what he is doing.

(He realizes. He just thinks every part of you deserves love. Don’t question it. It makes sense in his head.)

Cuddling with him is the perfect gift for your senses, stimulating you wonderfully.

Small nips on your skin, little lingering touches. He traces your skin with eager yet gentle hands, as if trying to memorize every curve and dip.

He buries his face in your neck and breathes in deep, and in that moment, bodies tangled with each other and the sheets, vulnerable and open, he will whisper, “I love you”.

It’s an affirmation more than a revelation, since his actions up until this point have all shown you that he really, truly does love you. So you whisper it back, trying to pour all your love into it, before slotting your lips together and using physical touch to convey your feelings right back.

RAFAYEL - WORDS OF AFFIRMATION

Rafayel is, in the simplest of terms, a yapper.

This man could talk for hours if you don’t stop him. About his art, about the meaning of life, about his experiences. He can express so much while also having an impeccable talent of being completely vague. Sometimes, you don’t even understand the things he says. And you’ve given up trying to decipher his every word.

But when Rafayel is talking about you, he makes himself abundantly clear. There’s no ambiguity about it; he loves you. And he will say it a million different times in a million different ways. Whether it be a bold declaration of how much his heart yearns for you, or endless teasing that is meant to rile you up and get a reaction out of you.

“I don’t think your talent lies in art, babe. It’s a good thing you’re a walking art piece yourself. No wonder I’m in love with you.”

“You’re leaving so soon? But I don’t think I’ve admired you enough for today. Don’t leave me!”

I’m impressed, Miss Bodyguard. You’re talented, and easy on the eyes. No wonder you captivated me from that very first day we met.”

Expect to wake up with a lot of voice notes on your phone. Minutes long. Sometimes rambling, sometimes actual ideas for new pieces that he wants to run by you. You better reply to all of them individually.

When you cuddle at night, you can talk for hours. No topic on earth is off limits with him. He will lay you down on a blanket on the beach, and as you watch the stars, he will tell you stories from olden times about star crossed lovers and tragic fairy tales. And he will turn to you, tell you how beautiful you are, how ardently he loves you, how he will never forget any moment he spends with you.

It’s almost like you can tell the exact moment he falls in love with you. Because he tells you. He never stops telling you. He voices his fears of you leaving him, he makes you promise you will never go away. He is clingy and he is whiny, and he is so endearing.

It’s hard to dismiss him when he is so loud about his love. And it’s hard to not fall for him just as he falls for you.

ZAYNE - ACTS OF SERVICE

This is an indisputable fact. Dr Zayne shows his love through acts of service.

He is intensely aware of your needs, and is miles ahead of you in determining what you require at any given moment.

It’s his way of showing you that he cares. He worries for you, and born from that worry is the urge to take care of you.

If you have had a long day, you will come home to a text from him saying he has ordered takeout and it will arrive at your house shortly, since he knows you are too exhausted to cook anything. It is always something different, but it is always food that he knows you enjoy. He will mix it with some healthy options too.

If you ever crash at his place, you will wake up to a tall glass of water and two aspirin on the side table, along with a note in his neat handwriting telling you that there is fresh cooked breakfast in the oven (he made it before he left for work).

Once you two are in a steady relationship, he keeps his house stocked with products you use. A spare shampoo and conditioner, toothbrush, a bathrobe of your size, a hair brush, you name it.

When you mumble something about the hand cream in your purse that is nearly running out, you will find a brand new tube next time you open the purse, and there is no need to even ask. You know Zayne put it there.

He is intensely observant. Even after knowing him for so long, it catches you off guard. He knows which of your clothes need to be dry cleaned and which ones are good for the washing machine. He knows which scents you use. Which products are harsher on your skin. He knows that contacts irritate your eyes after long hours of wearing them, so he keeps a small bottle of eye drops in your side table for that very purpose.

He scolds you for neglecting yourself, and he won’t hold back the harsh tone if he thinks your behavior is particularly destructive. To him, the best way to show love is to make sure your beloved is living the best life they can.

It is the littlest things, the tiniest details. And it shocks you, even after so long.

[mutantg1rl]

Ok time to queen out again….here’s some more sub!thunderbolts headcannons because people seemed to like the bob one!. Two characters, Bucky, and Walker. We’ll do the others after this post 😽 (if you guys want me to write some sub!bob shit lmk. I’m very down to express my interpretation on the concept.)

Sub! Bucky nsfw

____________________________________________

-gives service top and pillow princess simultaneously

-like if you want him to get up and fuck you while you call the shots he’s totally down.

-but he’s also ok with you getting on top of him and exploring his body

-bro is highkey down for anything tbh

-sub!Bucky doesn’t whimper. he groans and kind of growls

-the hottest thing ever by the way. A guttural groan will fly from his throat while you guys are fucking and you’re making him feel so good

- I think pre-therapy Bucky doesn’t like gags or restraints or anything in bed because it kind of makes him regress to the times hydra treated him like a monster and tortured him.

-therefore, if you incorporate impact play with pre-therapy sub!bucky he’s fine with it because his body is very durable, it’s just that he doesn’t like the vibe of the restraints and gags. I think it makes him panic

-however, post-therapy Bucky is a little more willing. He’s ok with fluffy handcuffs, underwear as a gag, even blindfolds. As long as you guys have a safe word (obviously) and you’re always touching him and reminding him of your presence, he’s ok

-speaking of durable body, he can last so many rounds. Like SO many rounds. He can go as long as you want to. Civil war Bucky had more stamina so I think he goes for longer, but healed Bucky prefers to be loved and not worn out by sex

-missionary lover

-even as a sub he still calls you cute pet names. Very close relationship with the word “doll”. Uses it quite a lot and I DIE by that

-“doll please, don’t tease me too much” , “baby, go slow”

- likes when you leave hickeys on him. I think he hasn’t had that being done to him so long so it’s a new feeling when he’s having it done again for the first time in years. He likes walking into Valentina’s office with red marks on his neck.

- in terms of size I feel like he’s perfect size and length, 11 inches, thick and girthy 😍

-ok just kidding, I think he’s 5-6 inches, perfectly shaped. I don’t think it curves or anything. It hits your spots just right

-unlike Bob, it’s not easy to rile Bucky up. I think he has very good self control. But….if you wear tight or revealing clothes that show your breasts, or butt he can’t help but drool. He’s looking at you and saying #needthat

-low sex drive kind of, he’s not on go at all times but when he’s on? He’s on babes

Sub!Walker NSFW

————————————————————————

-Bratty sub (honestly gives “bratty sub that turns the tables and doms the dom but these are sub headcannons so that’s a story for another time)

-so fucking rude, and you always have to put him in his place but he loves it

-I honestly think walker gets off on punishment.

-he’s always on punishment

-I think he likes some of the hard stuff. Not too extreme, but I think he likes spankings, and even chastity

-however, John does suffer from PTSD, so you do have to be careful with the way you treat him, especially what you say to him during sexy time

-I think post CATWS, he’s a bit better, but not noticeably.

-he doesn’t want you to go easy on him because walker thinks he can handle any and everything and part of me thinks walker ignores the fact that he is human with mental limitations. Him subbing for you is him realizing that he doesn’t have to go so hard and that the pain he enjoys putting himself through can have pleasure behind it in some scenarios.

-I think he likes a bit of degradation but he is insecure so be careful with how far you take it.

-he doesn’t mind the “you’re a slut”, “you’ve been a bad boy” , “you’re such a little pervert” kind of thing. Lives for it actually

-highkey fucks with being tied up, but in restraints that aren’t taunting him to figure out how to escape them. He needs restraints that he knows he can get out of if need be or else he’ll be triggered

-loves to disobey you and talk smack. Loves dirty talking too. “Fuck you’re so wet”, type of talking. “I’m gonna fill you up”

-literally melts in your hands like putty when you’re making him cum. His little tuff facade fades away immediately after he busts one. Making him cum is his attitude adjustment because he acts so much less like a dickhead the more you make him cum

-he’s always on the go, being a soldier, and fighting that he hasn’t had sex in a little while. Imagine that and you tying him up and edging him for a little bit? Oh yes, he’s wet asf!!!!

-hes a groaner, but also a silent whimperer. He tries to hide his sounds and how good you make him feel because he doesn’t wanna give you the satisfaction but sometimes he can’t help it

-hates begging. He’s a very prideful sub. The “he’s saying he hates you but his body says can you fuck me” trope. (I kind of think he’s into dubcon??? Just a bit.)

-you can get him to beg though. Edge him for three hours and he’s yours. This is really how you break him down

-another one with stamina for days. DAYS I tell you, he has all that pent up lust inside of him so imagine his first time in a while since his divorce.

-milk him like a cow!! He loves it. And part of me feels like the super soldier serum makes his recovery time like- nothing. so he can cum like 70 times. Basically as much as you want him to😝

[milksnake-tea]

━━ welcome, rover .

Waking up in a foreign world with no memories and hostile natives isn't what it's made out to be, especially when you have a sassy voice telling you to jump off a cliff.

self aware!wuthering waves au (kinda.)

contains: male!rover, elements of sagau, ooc!chixia, canon divergence, based off of beta wuwa

wc: 2.2k

a/n: i wrote this on the plane while having motion sickness so uh sorry if it's bad but i had a vision... this is based on the old version of wuwa btw !! where everyone was kinda hostile towards rover so that's why chixias more antagonistic bc i heard she was kinda mean in the og... rover might be ooc too bc honestly my experience w wuwa is... limited due to the lagging but i hope i did him decently enough !! if he doesn't have sass that's uhm. that's my bad. anyways self aware beams your wuwa

When Rover awoke on that new world, the first thing he'd seen was a heated glare.

Alright, maybe “glare” wasn't the right word. It was moreso wariness, or distrust. Narrowed eyes, hostile and defensive body language, and hands hovering above where he assumed was their weapons holster - it was obvious that to the locals, he was an unwelcomed guest.

He'd barely regained enough consciousness to comprehend the language - their words were twisted, alien, yet he could somehow still understand them - before he was barraged with an onslaught of interrogations: Who was he? Why was he here? What were his intentions? Why was he alone?

And of course, when faced with all of these questions, his recently wiped mind went blank - that tends to happen when you have amnesia. Unfortunately for him, that answer wasn't exactly satisfactory. It was painfully obvious from their expressions that no one believed him when he explained that he didn't remember anything, not even his own name.

The redhead was the most aggressive - Rover was sure she would've already started getting physical had her companion, a darker-haired woman dressed in blue, not kept her in line. While the others weren't exactly kind to him, they still remained civil… or at least, as civil as they were willing to be.

In the end, the third woman, this one with sharp eyes and presumably the medic of the group, managed to convince the other two that Rover was telling the truth after a brief examination. It was then, and only then that the interrogations stopped, and Rover could finally have some time to himself as the three women discussed what to do with him.

As the details of their conversation faded into the background (he heard a lot of fancy terms that he wasn't familiar with), Rover decided to take a look around.

He'd landed in the middle of a forest, which didn't strike him quite right - out of everything, the one thing he clearly remembered was being underwater. But as he surveyed his surroundings, only looming cliffs, thin trees and swaying grass greeted him.

He winced, his head throbbing suddenly. A stabbing sensation struck through his head like a bullet, and then there was warmth, spreading through his body like sunlight.

“..ey. Hey!”

Rover blinked. The redhead planted her hands on her hips, irritation evident from her scowl.

“We’ve decided what to do with you,” the woman in blue said softly, holding an arm in front of the redhead to calm her.

Rover tilted his head innocently, prompting her to continue.

“We'll take you to the city,” explained the medic. Her voice was just as frigid as her gaze. “There, the officials will examine and determine whether or not you're a threat.”

“I’m-” Rover started, but caught himself. “Okay.”

The medic nodded, then bent down on her knees. Noticing her outstretched hand, Rover realized she was offering to help him up.

He stumbled as she pulled him to his feet. His legs felt like jelly, pins and needles pricking at him as they slowly woke up. For a second, he'd thought he'd fall over.

But then the warmth came again, and this time, with a voice.

“Steady. Easy does it.”

Sudden strength surged into his legs, and he stabilized himself, the pins and needles fading away.

“There you go.”

He looked up as if expecting someone to be there, but predictably, all that met him was a vast blue sky.

“Are you looking for me?” He heard the voice laugh, a clear, bell-like sound. “Maybe do that later, you're making yourself look funny.”

With a start, he realized that the voice was right. The three women were giving him weird looks, and his hand was still intertwined with the medic’s.

Hastily, he yanked his hand away, a sheepish chuckle escaping him as he rubbed the back of his neck. The redhead scoffed.

“Yangyang, this guy’s got a screw loose or something…” she muttered to the woman dressed in blue. Yangyang sighed in agreement, turning on her heel and walking away.

“Bear with it for a bit, Chixia,” she replied. “We'll drop him off at the City Hall, and they'll take it from there.”

Chixia didn't look happy with that, but she relented nevertheless.

“Wow.”

Rover flinched as the voice spoke again, this time closer to his ear.

“They do not like you at all, do they?”

Obviously not, Rover thought incredulously, but can you blame them?

He'd noticed it a while ago - the three were clearly on edge. Something was going on on this planet, something bad. Having an unpredictable factor such as him probably wasn't helping.

“Good point.”

So you can hear my thoughts. Rover huffed as he pulled himself up a cliff, vines scratching at his arms. The route the locals had decided to take wasn't a kind one.

“Well, yeah. How else are we supposed to have our super-secret confidential shittalking sessions?”

Rover paused. What?

“Don't worry about it.”

No, what'd you say-

“I said don't worry about it. Now keep climbing, they're leaving you behind.”

Easy for you to say, Rover thought indignantly, but did as the voice said nevertheless. He quickly caught up to the group, the medic raising a brow as he fell into step beside her. Thankfully, she didn't say anything and only kept her gaze straight ahead.

“Hey, I'm not the one who's being marched to officials for an inspection. And I don't have a reputation I need to maintain.”

Rover hated to admit it, but the voice had a point.

What are you, anyway? He walked past a small pond filled with fish. His hands twitched with the urge to jump in and grab some, but his first impressions were already bad enough as is.

“I'm God, actually.”

Rover deadpanned, unimpressed.

“Jeez, tough crowd.” The voice shifted, moving from his right to his left ear. “But seriously though, I'm human, just like you.”

If you were, I'd be able to see you.

“Fair enough,” the voice mused. “But I really am human. I just… happened to wake up invisible and connected to you.”

Rover grunted as he vaulted over yet another cliff. Very convincing.

“Says you.” He could practically hear them rolling their eyes. “At least I remember what my name is.”

That one hurt more than Rover would've liked to admit.

“...Sorry.” Quieter now, almost meek. “That was out of line.”

Rover closed his eyes briefly, breathing in as subtly as he could before opening them again.

It's fine. You didn't say anything false.

“It was still insensitive.”

Rover sped up. It happens to the best of us.

The voice went quiet, leaving Rover to the slight howl of the wind and the sound of boots crunching against sand. But they hadn't left entirely, no - Rover could feel a presence to his left, subtle but impossible to ignore.

“So you don't remember your name, huh?” Chixia said suddenly.

“No,” Rover muttered.

“Guess that just means we'll have to give you one. Or I could just keep calling you ‘Weirdo’ in my head.”

Rover’s eye twitched. “Let's not.”

Chixia grinned back at him, but the smile didn't ease his nerves at all - on the contrary, it made them worse.

“Why not? I think it's pretty fitting.”

“Chixia,” Yangyang warned, which Rover was grateful for. Had he retaliated, things wouldn't have ended well for him.

Chixia shrugged, crossing her arms behind her head as she sauntered off.

“I must apologize for her.” Yangyang turned to him. To his surprise, she seemed genuine. “Chixia usually isn't that rude, it's just that, well…”

She trailed off, uncertain on how to continue. Rover shook his head.

“It's fine,” he assured. “I can tell that you're all anxious.”

Yangyang’s shoulders slumped. “Is it that obvious? But… yes, you're right. Life hasn't exactly been calm as of late, with Tacet Fields appearing left and right.”

“Tacet Fields?” Rover repeated, tilting his head.

“It's easier to demonstrate than to explain,” the medic cut in, stepping forward as the cliffs and trees opened up. Rover followed her gaze to a darkened field, corrupted by dark matter and with a star-shapped scar at the center.

Abyss-like creatures prowled the corrupted zone, covered in dark armor, scales, and/or fur. They spoke to one another in gargled gibberish with voices that sent chills down Rover's spine.

“Those are Tacet Discords,” Yangyang explained. “They’re born from the distorted frequencies that result from the Tacet Field.”

“Ew.”

Welcome back, Rover greeted, to which the voice didn't respond.

“They're ugly,” they commented instead, scrutinizing the Tacet Discords one by one. Rover silently agreed. “But there's a few pretty ones I can see, like that wolf.”

Rover stared at said wolf's sharp canines and ravenous glare. Pretty… isn't what I would call them, but suit yourself.

“There’s a whole swarm of them out there,” Chixia observed, breaking through their conversation. She stretched her arms as if preparing for battle. “Can't get to the city without getting through them first.”

“Hm…” Yangyang contemplated to herself, before looking up at Rover. “Say, uhm…”

She hesitated, not knowing what to call him.

“Rover.”

His mouth moved on its own as his voice mixed with the voice's. Yangyang blinked, startled.

“I… I thought you didn't remember your name.”

“I don't,” Rover spoke without meaning to, like a puppet on strings. “It just… came to mind.”

Yangyang didn't look convinced, but she let it go.

“Alright, then, Rover, do you know how to fight?”

The feeling of being puppeteered left him as the voice became separate once more.

“Yes,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady.

What the hell was that?

Yangyang smiled. “Good, because we'll need to clear that Tacet Field before reaching the city.”

He nodded, understanding the implications. “I'll do my best to fight alongside you.”

“I don't know what that was,” the voice replied, and sure enough, they too sounded unsure. “I just did what the system told me to.”

The system? Rover questioned, but received no answer.

Rover heard a pistol click behind him as Chixia readied herself. “Don't try anything funny,.”

“I won't.” Operating on instinct, Rover drew a blade of his own. Chixia chuckled.

“We'll see about that.”

One by one, the group jumped off the cliff, deploying a glider so as to land safely below. Rover was the last to go. As his feet skidded at the edge of the cliff, sending pebbles flying down, unease swirled in his gut.

“Hey,” the voice said gently. “Don't worry. I'll help you out.”

What… Rover furrowed his brows, frustrated at how little he knew. What are you?

“Like I said, I'm just another person who ended up stranded here. I have a feeling we're going to be stuck together for a while, so I suggest you get used to me.”

Then, Rover sighed, at least give me a name. You said you remembered yours.

The voice paused.

“[Name],” it finally said, the name foreign to Rover's ears. “That's my name.”

“[Name],” he murmured, feeling it roll off his tongue. “We should get going, the others are waiting. You said you'd help me, right?”

“Yep. Just jump off the cliff and extend your left hand up to glide.”

Rover paused. Aren't these called intrusive thoughts?

“Just do it.”

Taking a deep breath, Rover looked down at the jump before him nervously. Closing his eyes and mentally praying to whatever god was listening that he wouldn't end up a black puddle on the forest floor, he lept.

Mechanical wings unfolded above him in a series of clicks and whirrs, a handle extending down for him to grab onto like his life depended on it. Peeking open his eyes, he let out a sigh of relief, feeling a small breeze brush against his face.

“See?” Although not obvious, relief bled into [Name]’s words as Rover landed safely on his feet. “You can trust me.”

A small smile slipped onto Rover's face, the first since he'd woken up.

“I guess I can.”

The glider folded in on itself, replaced by his blade as he joined the others.

“Took you long enough,” Chixia commented, but for the first time, it wasn't with ill intent.

“Sorry,” Rover replied. “But I'm here now.”

“Enough chitchat,” Yangyang called up ahead. “They've noticed us.”

Sure enough, the Tacet Discords were turning towards them, snarls twisting where he assumed their mouths were. The corruption worsened, dark energy forming in black smoke.

“Let's see what you're made of, Rover,” said Chixia, expertly spinning her pistols. Yangyang had already drawn her sword, and Baizhi, the medic, had summoned a pearly dragon-like creature to fight alongside her. [Name] didn't say anything, but he could feel their energy beginning to seep into his muscles, ready to aid him in battle.

Rover pointed his blade towards the Tacet Discords.

“Let's go.”

reblogs w comments are appreciated !!

tags: @sh0jun, @themoderatelyawesomeninja, @xphantasmagoriax, @rainswept, @lucensei

@akutasoda , @naraven , @scribs-dibs

[northopalshore]

Kim Namjoon's

Midheaven Persona Chart

₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ ⊹ .₊๋‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑

Since we have his confirmed birth time, I thought I'll take a look at his Midheaven persona chart just out of curiosity. My intention isn't really to probe him though. He's been through quite the shift up till now & I'm curious about how his future may look like (if there will be any changes to his career). I'll only pay attention to houses with planets/asteroids that I've added as well as some aspects I think are interesting.

northopalshores' masterlist| celebrities masterlist| union persona chart masterlist

Gemini °8 Scorpio rising

Namjoon has gone through a lot of changes and has had a lot of responsibility thrown onto him. Though people think that he is smart and calculating, he has also made himself work twice as hard to get that approval due to that Scorpio influence. Some may protest and say that it's a part of his strong, and powerful presence (which isn't wrong since this is how he is perceived through his reputation ergo career). It also means this is the person he has to adapt into to be seen in his career. I think his sex appeal definitely shines through, and as I've mentioned in my rising sign post in the MC PC, they will always be criticized by the people around them (in their industry). That's has been the case for him as well.

Ascendant Trine Sun

Though he can be seen with a heavy aura and a busy presence, he is also good at blending in with the people around him. Providing both entertainment and light-hearted energy whilst still maintaining that professionalism to him. In the past, it was most evident when he was with BTS. He had fun accordingly but he likely had to switch between fun and serious a lot (though it has been or at least seemed quite effortless for him to do so). Could be second nature by now?

Ascendant square Saturn

A part of him may find it difficult to maintain that "sharp leader/immoveable object" character that he puts so much pride on (and people may place a lot of importance into that part of him specifically). Though he likes to be seen as smart (Ascendant semi sextile Moon), it may limit himself in terms of expression at times; feeling like he constantly needs to lock in to achieve something (Mercury in Scorpio in the 6th house).

Ascendant square Chiron

Chiron is in the 5th house. This front or responsibility limits his creativity and self-expression i.e what is expected of him as Kim Namjoon (RM) of BTS and fans associate him with limits his freedom of expression. Though it could also mean people thinking "someone like him shouldn't do this or doesn't fit that yadayada" in both good and bad light.

2nd House

Moon in Cancer °10 Capricorn

His own security may lay within his relevance & financial success (stability). People will see how much he doesn't play around when it comes to his work and his business especially when it involves other people (collaborators).

Moon Trine Mercury

People find him to be incredibly trustworthy. It's like he has control over everything in his career (which makes sense since he assumes the leader position in BTS). Going forward, I think this will still remain with him. People just find it easy to trust whatever he's saying or take him seriously when he's working. I'm not sure if that translates similarly when he's going at his personal life however. Seems more like an alter ego considering this is his MC PC.

Boda in Cancer ° 13 Aries

Married to the money I suppose. There's really a stark contrast between him and Jungkook. Though both are hard workers, you can tell that JK is looking for something more/else that is fullfiling. It's the experiences that gets him going, while for Namjoon, it's some sort of structure or legacy. To prove himself & establish his worth. (Boda conjuncting Moon). In the future, when he does settle down, his marriage life will be a stable support system for him and people can see that. He gets more emotional around his partner, and rather clingy? Is he usually like that? I can't imagine.

Moon square Groom

Ah, makes sense. He did mention before somewhere about his thoughts regarding marriage and conformity, conforming to a life of traditional values and beliefs may not be something that truly reflects himself. If you watch the music video for "Come back to Me" you can see that internal conflict/dichotomy that lies between his need for self discovery, and authenticity and the expectations that society has om people his age or what may have been something he believed in in the past.

3rd House

Mars in Cancer ° 26 Taurus

His words are comforting to most people that he encounters especially in a professional (public) sense. Among the other members, he is seen as a secure force that people must go through before the rest, also because of his confident and inviting energy. There is weight to his words and what he says is usually sincere. He tries to "reach" people with his words, often expressing his true feelings and frustrations. This is something that will never change about him. There may be a tendency to overshare with people even if he doesn't mean to. "I get caught up in the moment" type of thing.

IC °15 Gemini

He seems to have a very sibling-like relationship with all of the members, at least from the clips I've seen here and there. People see them as loud , mixed yet entertaining family. People may assume his home life is never boring.

5th house

Chiron in Virgo ° 17 Leo

He has received much criticism for his creations, his work and his art. Though it also means he is his biggest critic. The type of art that he wishes to express personally isn't really on par with the what is usually expected from a k-pop artist; it's more adjacent to that of what western indie creators produce somewhere along the lines of Tyler the creator or Frank Ocean than say whatever is currently (mostly) popular in the Korean entertainment industry. He may had to sacrifice a lot of his personal creativity to achieve success with BTS. Though to the people that connect with him, they'll fin that his art has the ability to speak to the soul & the ego. He is naturally a confrontational person, but the person he confronts is himself.

Briede in Virgo ° 27 Gemini

His partner is seen as someone very smart and even cunning. They have a big, personality that is almost impossible to miss wherever they go! They are also very funny and people will likely think of them rather fondly. They help him let loose and connect with that inner fire and curiosity that lies within him. They may have him on a bit of a leash too lmao. In the future, they are likely to grace his social media often and their presence is loud. No hiding, they might even take control of his posts (sometimes). Briede also sextile Mars & Pluto; so there's that.

Sun in Libra °5 Leo

His personality is very attractive to a lot of people. He is seen and known as a very charming and well-mannered individual throughout his career. He is very passionate and very charismatic too, it just looks like it's never a dull moment with him around as he knows how to adjust himself according to the situation.

6th house Stellium

Mercury in Scorpio °1 Aries

People tend to have a very contrived and polarizing opinion of him. While some people love him, and swear by his every Moe there are still people that disrespect and hate him for his actions and influence. MC PC Mercury in Scorpios tend to Garner more hate easily especially when it comes to haters or people that just don't seem to like them for one reason or another. That being either jealousy or just a deep hatered for what they are and how they act. He himself is a big victim of gossip and headlines. People may quote him (both in good light and bad). His fans may aggressively protect him while haters bash him. Jungkook also has Mercury in Scorpio, you can also see that play in evidently in his chart. There is a lot of expectation that people place upon him, as a icon and a trailblazer.

Juno in Scorpio °9 Sagittarius

He is most patented or tied to his rap, and his .. man it sounds rather repetitive but it's true. His lead role in BTS, Rap Monster, his high IQ, his his infamous switch from Rap Monster to RM (real me) everything just encapsulates his essence and personal brand. His boldness, his skepticism on religion and morality, his love for knowledge and understanding of people. His friendliness, his friendliness his stubbornness, and intensity— this is the publically known person known as Kim Namjoon™.

Venus in Scorpio °14 Taurus

Namjoon is loved for his strong, masculine but also romantic personality that is subsequently imbedded within his stage and online presence. He seems to be a walking contradiction at times. He's tall, and masculine and provocative through his songs and the lyrics he writes himself. He's intelligent and witty, but at the same time he is very clumsy and goofy. People love that about him. It makes him more charismatic and charming, and manly in a "non threatening" way. It makes him more human and therefore more approachable.

Jupiter in Scorpio °14 Taurus

I can say with confidence that people most respect him for this work and his brand as the Namjoon or RM from BTS. He is the person who holds responsibility for his band mates in both protecting and leading them, helping shape their brand identity in the first place. He has a lot of influence within the entertainment industry itself due to his work ethic and flow/ energy when it comes to his rap and stage presence. I did mention before in my Jupiter in the MC persona chart post as an example that he coined the term "Namjooning" you can read it here (check both Jupiter in Scorpio & Taurus)

Jupiter Conjunct Venus

This aspect honestly enhances his likeability, and simultaneously his appeal to other people. People think he's pleasant to be around, and that he is incredibly entertaining and chill once you get to know him. He's the type of person that can make you feel safe and accepted, or treat you like a regular person regardless of his own image or status. He is kind, compassionate and relatable.

North Node in Scorpio °15 Gemini

If you ask anyone that knows him, his fans or even the general public, most will say that he is born to create a dissonance, a change, to encourage deep reflection within his art and what he puts out into the world. He is more than RM, and more than the stereotypical "idol" image that has been the norm of the industry itself. Born to be different. Born to question, born to rebel with a cause. Give James Dean a run for his money. Make people think an question, invokes deeper feelings within his circle and his fans.

Fama in Scorpio °17 Leo

He is most known for that same chokehold he has the brooding RM! I know it sounds pretty repetitive, but when you think of "RM" what comes to mind? Think of him in a professional light and how he moves people or influences people through his career on a grand scale i.e his public image. That's exactly what he is most famous for. Known for his wits and depth, and also his stance on morality. Considering his Mercury placement is also in Scorpio, it makes sense. rawr, so seggy

Pluto in Scorpio °26 Taurus

His image is something that defies what people would cage someone like him into. Though he enjoys playing along with fun or when it comes to keeping up with his professional self and contracts he must abide by (this comeback has this theme and etc.) He makes a conscious effort to supercede whatever crappy stereotype fans or the media would typecast him into, escaping répétition and work with no meaning. No connection. He likely has a different work ethic and has a steak of rebellion under his belt. He is the type that will genuinely say "this is crap" when he needs to. Not only for himself but for the entire direction of the production in the first place. He can't work without some may see him doing too much however, but they will know that he puts his all into his work. It's not a game to him. This is his livelihood. I can see him getting high on his live if he could lmao. Though, mayhaps it's about the same as smoking just less devastating to his career.

7th house

Great Attractor in Sagittarius ° 13 Aries

People will assume he has many friends and close connections (especially male friends since Aries tends to have that effect, think of the the great Attractor like Mars when combined with Aries it's pulling in a lot of energy). He may impact find it easier to blend in with masculine people who are open minded and a little bit rebellious. Mayhaps he blends well with Hongdae guys lmao. Foreign fans, foreign coworkers, he works best when he doesn't have a leash on his neck.

8th house

Neptune retrograde in Capricorn °20 Scorpio

Fans, people that know him on a grander scale, tends to buy into this big scary leader persona that he himself does embody (especially on stage), people may romanticize and even idealize that version of him. That scary (sexy) part of him the most.

Uranus retrograde in Capricorn ° 22 Capricorn

His individuality shines when he's in control, but even then it's kept private and professional. Like he's living for someone or something else. A purpose that isn't necessarily his own. People may overlook his strengths a lot of the time only because it's what they expect him to act like or be.

9th house

No Planets or Asteroids (out of the ones I've added).

10th House

Starr retrograde in Aquarius °27 Gemini

It took time for people to see his brilliance and his own genius when it comes to composing & his writing (lyricism). Either thinking he was crazy or an underappreciated gem.

Saturn retrograde in Pisces °7 Libra

It did take a long time for his efforts i.e the band to be noticed and respected in the industry. A lot of time, money and effort and you could even argue that they have put their entire soul into what they do. Being recognized took years of teamwork and effort but that has paid off in it's own way. Their legacy will last even longer now. Whether as a fond memory or as a piece of kpop/ entertainment history.

Grand trine (Moon, Jupiter/Venus, Saturn)

Namjoon is not going anywhere. His effect, his impact on the kpop industry and the people that he has collaborated with artistically will be here and remain known for a very long time. Though there is much pressure placed upon him, he has enough strength, patience, talent and understanding within himself is sufficient to keep him on his feet. He is a proud man, and that is reflected outward even if he isn't always in the best condition. He is in all context, resilient. Bulletproof even. As bulletproof as a man can be after all thoese shots aimed at him.

11th House

Groom retrograde in Aries °13 Aries

He may be more relaxed after marriage (if that is something he'll pursue in the future) or once settled with someone he can commit to, be with in the long-run . Groom semi sextiles Venus & Jupiter but squares moon. Though there is an appeal he finds in love and relationships, that vulnerability isn't something he feels he can give up so easily just because he is expected to. Mayhaps, it's the freedom he was depraved of considering he had to be responsible over others for well over a decade. He wants to be himself, to be free and curious more.

12th House

Lilith in Taurus °19 Libra

Namjoon is quite the repressed rebel. Deep down, there is a part of him that desires to break whatever vision that people have built around him (or one that he has built for himself). He carries a lot of emotional baggage that he has likely made public knowledge to some degree since this is his MC persona chart we're discussing. There is hesitation when it comes to expressing that rebellious side of him publically though (at least not fully). People often put a lot of hope and trust onto him that he may find rather burdensome or troubling. People's assumptions of him tend to get the better of him too. Other than that, there could be some repressed sexuality here (he is naturally a very explicit person, but may keep that to himself). Perhaps I'll look at some of his other charts in the future can't say that's a promise though.

˚₊‧꒰ა paid readings available ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

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@northopalshore

@northopalshore celebrity midheaven persona chart 2025 all rights reserved.

[evermarch]

hey! you said you had more to say on asterid and im so curious about your thoughts. I wonder what you think about how she might represent the progression of submission (from implicit, to anxious when she bans the hanging tree song, to silence when burdock dies). Just feel like you might have some interesting words on this.

i’m still processing all my *thoughts and feelings* so this may be a bit half-baked, but i think asterid is a fascinating case study in implicit submission. because she doesn’t start that way. and most importantly, she doesn’t end that way.

asterid can be analyzed by considering hume’s doctrine of implicit submission from his “of the first principles of government” essay iv, which says that while “force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion.” hume extends the “opinion,” which can be understood to mean ideology (maybe not the best word idk), into two categories—opinion of interest and opinion of right. the former involves the idea that government in general is a good thing, and also this government isn’t really worse than any other conceivable form. opinion of right can be further divided into the right to power and the right to property.

right to property is somewhat self-explanatory, so we can look next at the right to power. that is largely about how a government in power gains a lot of its power from the idea that it (and by extension, the people in power) has always had power, so it will, and thus should, continue to have power. this concept is much like the heavensbees in the capitol—snow himself disdains but cannot refute the notion that the heavensbees embody panem, because the heavensbees have always embodied panem, and thus maintain the right to wealth and the sprawling mansions and the endless libraries. he tolerates it, largely because he, too, is among this class. he implicitly submits.

asterid, likewise, is among the privileged within her community. the “government” which affects her day-to-day life is, yes, the capitol, but more so its extension of the peacekeepers and the mayor in district 12. she doesn’t engage with the capitol citizens or its rulers, but she does engage with the peacekeepers that require her family to place a banner in the window and the mayor who reads the treaty of treason at the reaping.

asterid should subscribe to the “opinions” of government more than most—she certainly should have an opinion of interest, because, she is decently fed, has friends, and not the worst life. yes, she’s in the reaping, but so is everyone tangible in her world, and she’s in the bowl less than most. there’s no real reason for her to be able dream up a better system, or necessarily to want to.

as far as opinion of right, the government owns the property (see katniss and snow’s conversation in the study in cf, where she says “he has no right, but ultimately every right,” to occupy her home). but asterid has all the access she needs. and with the right to power, the capitol has always had power, true, but so has she—it’s understood through the physical features that the merchant class shares (blonde hair, blue eyes), which differs tremendously from the seam (lower class) people, that the privileged, “powerful” class in district 12 have always been afforded proximity to the government’s right to power and the benefits therein.

but asterid doesn’t. she, much like plutarch, rejects the submission which should come easier to her than to most of the people of district 12. why? because of the three limitations on the opinions which empower government—“self interest, fear, and affection.” hume emphasizes that these limitations don’t overthrow a government on their own; they require a lot of people to reject and/or utilize them accordingly. that said, an individual’s expression of any of the limitations can extend somewhat far in terms of their own autonomy.

asterid, of course, fears the government, and protects her self-interest (her life as described above). she doesn’t run from the reaping. she doesn’t step too far out of line, as far as we know. but she does wield her affection as a healer as a means of force. she treats those in the seam and takes no payment for her services. she falls in love with a man from the lower class and rejects the relatively comfortable life to which she was born entitled. in doing so, she sacrifices the right to extend such comfort to the future children she may have had with otho mellark. these actions are inherent objections to the stratification of the classes of district 12. in other words, our girl is a class traitor, and she commits.

however, embracing these limitations only goes so far. her fear for her family’s safety takes over when she bans the hanging tree, and when she silences katniss’ defiant speech at home. when her husband dies, asterid’s affection turns against her. she enters a catatonic state which endangers the life of her children. had she fallen in love with a man from town, she may have still gone into a catatonic state, but she would have the resources to treat herself and go on. because of her small acts of opposition, otherwise insignificant to the government and its power, she lost the privileges of her prior proximity to the government’s right to power. so, she implicitly submits.

but that’s not true anymore once her daughter comes back from the games. she returns to treating people with no payment. she’s in more danger than ever before, and yet, she brings gale to her home in the middle of the night. after that, she risks prim’s safety by allowing her to aid the steady stream of beaten bodies which arrive on her doorstep. she begins to envision a better world—in district 13, she does her part to help the rebellion. she models the same behavior for her impressionable little girl. a child best known for following in her mother’s footsteps in appearance and in behavior. a daughter whose life is blown to pieces because she, like her mother, refuses to submit.

while it’s true that asterid suffered far more from her small acts of defiance than was proportional, and certainly far more than she gained, i think that she stands as a extension to hume’s assertion that the limitations on the opinions of government can only achieve so much. his example is in collective action, like the rebels fighting the war. it’s true that asterid did not participate in destroying an arena or shooting a gun. but without her affection for a seam boy overtaking her fear and self-interest, we would never have had katniss. without her demonstration of love across stratified lines, katniss would not have prim to protect, or, if she did, a will to do so. without her healing, katniss would never have known how to save peeta (or herself) in the arena, and panem would have never seen the trick with the berries.

through her little acts of defiance, her incidental rejections of submission, asterid birthed a revolution.

[frankingsteinery]

i want to preface this with this is all courtesy of @dykensteinery's genius and not my own, i am merely putting his ideas into words for her!!!

so charlie brought to my attention that this quote from frankenstein, where victor refers to clerval as essentially his "other half":

“I agree with you,” replied the stranger; “we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures. I once had a friend, the most noble of human creatures, and am entitled, therefore, to judge respecting friendship."

was an allusion to plato's symposium. in the symposium, aristophanes presents a mythological account of human origins: that humans were once spherical beings—complete wholes—until they were split in two by zeus. ever since, each human being has wandered the world searching for their missing "other half." this myth explains not only the drive for romantic love but the deeper longing for union, for completion, for the return to an original state of wholeness. specifically, it was an allusion to this line (any quotes pulled from the symposium are from percy shelley's translation):

"From this period, mutual Love has naturally existed in human beings; that reconciler and bond of union of their original nature, which seeks to make two, one, and to heal the divided nature of man. Every one of us is thus the half of what may be properly termed a man…the imperfect portion of an entire whole, perpetually necessitated to seek the half belonging to him.”

considering this line is present in the 1831 edition but not the 1818 edition, after percy's death, during a time where his works were being edited and published by mary posthumously in 1826 and forward, it feels like a much more deliberate allusion. furthermore, i don’t think it’s reaching to say this revision, this framing of love as something that completes a person, was colored by that loss.

it's crucial, also, that aristophanes’ speech does not limit this yearning for your "other half" to heterosexual couples but rather includes and legitimizes same-sex love, particularly between men, as a natural expression of a desire for one’s “own kind":

“Those who are a section of what in the beginning was entirely male seek the society of males…When they arrive at manhood they still only associate with those of their own sex; and they never engage in marriage and the propagation of the species from sensual desire but only in obedience to the laws…Such as I have described is ever an affectionate lover and a faithful friend, delighting in that which is in conformity with his own nature…Whenever, therefore, any such as I have described are impetuously struck, through the sentiment of their former union, with love and desire and the want of community, they are ever unwilling to be divided even for a moment.”

looking at this within the context of frankenstein, to me, this invites further reflection on a queer reading of the novel. the language of this passage—and others like it—have homoromantic subtext, especially when looking at it through this context. aristophanes describes those descended from the original male-male whole who pursue other men as “affectionate lover[s] and faithful friend[s]," which finds obvious parallels in the language mary uses to describe victor's idealization of clerval: victor constantly refers to him as noble, pure, good, better than himself. the language of friendship in the 18th and 19th century was often emotionally demonstrative in ways we don't see now, yes—but here, in light of the aristophanic frame, it rings a little different.

so basically? clervalstein real

[skeletonh0e]

Okay this one is for Fresh only because he's my favorite- How would he react and feel about someone really close to him offering up their soul for him to feed on, as long as he's gentle about it and doesn't take too much of course? Gender neutral reader, queerplatonic. :>

This is a very sweet idea lol, I'm still new to writing queer platonic relationships so hopefully I did a good job here, I'm always open to feed back. The term "partner" is used but again entirely in a qp context

A Sweet Treat (Fresh Sans x Reader)

Tbh? I 100% see this happening as Fresh jokingly suggesting this and this getting a hell of a whiplash when you agree

Even more so when you're not bluffing, literally offering your soul to him

He did not think he would get this far

And like.....you're sure?

Listen, listen, I've mentioned this before...but Fresh is lowkey pretty paranoid deep down. Thus he takes trust very seriously, combine that with SOULS being a big deal in monster culture + on top of you being someone close in his life in general

He's touched that you trust him that much and depending on the nature of your relationship he might realize that if the roles were reversed....he trusts you that much too. He can't fully express it cuz emotions are not his strong suit in any situation or any relationship but he's noticeably quiet for a few solid moments

He's playful when he goes to take your soul, obviously heeding the warning of "be gentle" but like even if you didn't say that he does it like...almost instinctively

He's never been a protective person with anyone to begin with, so it's a bit of an odd whiplash that he's surprisingly like that now, with a firm but not too harsh grip on your soul. He'll crack a joke, make one last offer for you to tap out before actually feeding

Admires it for a moment, probably keeps your body physically close as well, probably sitting on his lap or at least leaning against him nearby. Fresh knows what he's doing, he's a parasite, he's done this before with far less willing prey and he's keeping himself in control (the only reason he'd be out of it is if he's starving thus feral hungry but that's not relevant here), but always double checking for when too much is too much.

Then he starts to feed.

And I'll be real

It probably don't feel too good.

It's not super painful, Fresh is being too careful and deliberate for that to happen, but unless there's some form of masochism it's not gonna be pleasant. I'd compare it to having your blood drawn though on a more spiritual level. A sharp sting at first followed by a draining sensation.

The moment you want to tap out, he'll comply and even then he's not daring to test the limits here. Your body completely relaxed against his as your soul is quite literally in his hands and in his mouth. The moment he suspects that enough is enough, your soul is returned to it's rightful place.

You're just kinda tired afterwards, not sore or hurt thanks to Fresh taking a level of tender care with it all but tired. You're gonna need a nap at least, if not several hours of proper sleep.

"You good broski?"

He'll haul you off and fully content to cuddle afterwards if that's the vibe you're fitting. Weirdly enough after the fact while he is literally refreshed (ha pun), he just seems to be a particular warm fuzzy mood. Dumbass jokes and quips never go away, they never do, but that constant fear he has? It suddenly died down a lot.

Again, the entire thing just solidified that he could trust you of all people which is really saying something given Fresh's stance is that he can't due to the nature of what he is. A parasite. Even those that like him seem to believe that he deserves to be snuffed out, avoided or are secretly terrified of him

Not you though.

Clearly this can't be a frequent thing, honestly you probably shouldn't have let him do it once let alone more than twice and it's questionable how fast souls can recover from it if at all. But you feel fine the next day after plenty of rest so make of that what you will. How willing Fresh is to keep rolling the dice is unclear.

Literally gonna call you a snacc tho because funny ha ha jokes aside he ain't wrong. But at least you're his favorite snacc right?

[sequence-trotter]

With Sunday's drip marketing, one reaction I've seen is surprise that he's still on his same path toward the same goal of paradise.

But of course he is! HSR patch 2.2 Penacony is a long string of scenes where Sunday is like "debate me, please debate me, I feel a little bit like I'm going crazy here, how are none of you seeing what I'm seeing, someone please debate me." He sees a cold and uncaring logic to the world and desperately wants to be wrong about his conclusions.

And no one debated him. They overpowered him and broke his illusion via power rangers distress call and "severed [his] Path with their hands," as he put it, but no one really debated him in good faith on the terms he set. Of course he hasn't changed! No one was even faintly capable of articulating an alternate position!

unacceptably long-ass boring post incoming. if you click the read more you have only yourself to blame. i had to put in subheadings for navigability this post is a MESS

(authors note: in an absolutely embarrassing travesty i managed to hit the picture limit per post so this will be a post in multiple parts. this part covers Sunday's goals and Robin's initial response. A follow-up post will cover Firefly and the Astral Express's response, as well as the final confrontation and what this all means)

(double note: due to post length limitations this ended up being three reblogs long. completed version here.)

(A note before we set off: I do not think the HSR writers are very good, or more charitably, I think the constraints under which HSR is made pretty much preclude it having a thematically satisfying narrative. Not the least of these constraints is the obvious fear around having anyone playable be "too bad," which is why Blade was introduced as an implacable force of ancient vengeance for crimes unutterable, and now he's your 35-year-old coworker who jokes about killing himself. Everything I'm saying here is just interpretation, and it will certainly not be the game's take, since the game's moral reasoning doesn't seem to extend very far beyond "the Astral Express is good guys :)". Accordingly, please take this in an appropriate spirit, as someone looking for griminess and nuance in a game with a distinct deficit of either and an extreme unwillingness to treat its most interesting concepts as anything more than set dressing or very loosely-implied subtext.)

So to start you gotta ask, what is Sunday so mad about? Why does he demand that you debate him?

I. Sunday's Goals: "A Paradise Exclusive to Us Human Beings"

In his own words, what Sunday is fighting against is the fact that the world runs on predation and violence. Order is the enemy not of Chaos, but of Nature, and natural selection.

For Sunday, the problem is not merely that bad things happen in the world, or that the weak suffer. The problem is that the world is cruel in its design. The logic of survival is cruel. The extent of the problem is not just the dove dying to predators, though that is a huge part of it. It's the average worker, required to work at drudgery or worse, usually for the benefit of another, and always under possible threat of deprivation and death, because the nature of the world is that you must work or hurt or exploit or kill to survive. It's the man who sold his children into slavery for the chance at a better life, but more importantly it's those children, an afterthought in the end even to their father.

It's not just the suffering alone that he is responding to, either. In suffering and deprivation, Sunday sees a loss of control and choice. that necessarily entails a loss of dignity and meaning. Both the Astral Express and Firefly object that people should have the right to choose, but Sunday simply responds that they have no greater ability to choose under the status quo. To Sunday, a man who lives in a literal dream world, a life lived struggling for better things might be noble, but it is unequivocally not as dignified or happy as one lived in bliss.

This is part of why he's so fixated on the idea of weakness. Sunday perceives a distinct difference between people who believe their struggles give their lives meaning, and people who do not feel themselves to be free in the first place and thus find no greater meaning in their struggles. He clearly sees the second group as weak (a term he uses without judgment), and unable to fully express and experience their human dignity as a consequence of their position.

Sunday sees the history of Penacony as essentially recapitulating this struggle over and over. Hanunue frees the prisoners, but can neither secure Penacony's permanent freedom nor give the former prisoners full and dignified lives. Then Hanunue dies, and Sunday's sort of intriguingly ambivalent in how he portrays the Harmony taking over. It's actually kind of inspiring and humanist! This is a guy who's still deeply invested in Harmony's ideals.

But of course, we don't need a direct critique from Sunday to know how the Harmony has failed Penacony. We've seen it with our own eyes over and over. Do we need Sunday to tell it to us again when we've already spent our time with Chadwick, and Cocona, and Tizocic II? We have already seen over and over and over again in Penacony how systemic constraints and problems drive people who could have lived bright lives down dark paths, even in the Dreamscape.

Most intriguing is the third act, ostensibly the future, in which Ena arises and then is cast down because the people reject THEIR paradise in which THEY control and define all things. This could kind of be a jump to the past...except that Ena's previous "death" was due to absorption by Xipe during THEIR ascension, not because the people cast THEM down. The only event it appears to bear any resemblance to is...well, you beating Sunday in a few missions' time, because you reject his paradise since it's all in his control. Weird!

Back to the main matter, Sunday believes that true human dignity and flourishing requires not just freedom from outside control by otherss, but freedom from suffering and privation. He sees the weak (in his thinking, people spiritually unable to rise above suffering) as people unable to fully express themselves, who deserve the dignity of a life free of suffering or bitter choices. He spells this all out quite plainly in his opening lines to you when you arrive at the grand theater:

So we know what Sunday wants. And we know his answer to it: the Sweetdream Paradise (as I will be calling it here because I think it's funny and also because the sweet/bitter dichotomy is a huge part of Penacony thematically). He will use the power of Xipe's Emanator (Dominicus, the Harmonious Choir), and the remains of Ena (unclear if these are like, conceptual or metaphysical or what) to become something new (context implies possibly a new Aeon of Philosophy) that will enable everyone to sleep forever, entering a Penacony-esque dream in which nothing bad can truly happen, sustained by whatever new thing Sunday becomes. Everyone will be experiencing life through dreams while Sunday is the only thing awake in the real world, but that won't matter anyways because the dream will be basically the only thing that exists, without even Aeons interfering. It would be a truly human paradise. (One interesting little note here is that Sunday seems to quite clearly resent the Aeons for standing above humans and for offering no true solace to the suffering. No Aeons No Masters)

(I know I said above I think Sunday may have been becoming the Aeon of Philosophy and he says here his intent is not to become an Aeon. But the enemy description is pretty clear that Order and Harmony are forming the shell of an egg for a new god and the enemy is called "[Embryo of Philosophy] Sunday" I think it's pretty fitting both for his Icarian plan and the narrative role of Aeons that he was on the brink of accidentally becoming one, and probably having his original goal and his humanity subsumed into the nascent Aeon's Path. To me that seems an equally fitting ending for his hubris.)

What's really interesting to me about the Sweetdream Paradise is that the game goes out of its way, before it begins, to make it seem like a viable alternative path.

Such a dream could never be stable! Well, with a Stellaron and an Aeon (and idk, an Aeon's metaphysical corpse), all things are possible, so jot that down. You just want to set up a totalitarian regime under your dead God! No, LOL, I also hate God! Did you miss the whole dungeon before this about how much people hate God, and how much I in particular resent God for allowing suffering and human weakness? People will have no freedom of choice! People are free to make whatever choices they like in the Sweetdream Paradise, they just won't ever face bitter consequences as a result. Sorry I'm removing their freedom to [checks notes] sell their soul to the literal devil (hi Jade!) for short-term gain and guaranteed long-term suffering. I'd hate to lose that! People won't be real! Okay, well, Penacony seems to count as plenty real, and it's literally the same thing. Hell, Black Swan is literally a memetic entity who exists only in your perception! But she counts as real. So clearly we're just haggling along some kind of continuum of real-fake here, there's no hard line like people want to say there is.

The implicit purpose of all this setup is to force a true philosophical debate about the suffering of the "weak," the way the status quo demands and accepts this, and whether it can be justified or redeemed by freedom or choice. The other, more common approach would be to use practical limitations as a narrative eject button, e.g. "well, we've learned your Sweetdream will inevitably collapse anyways due to Stellaron Reasons, so even though your purpose was noble and our stance on it is still ambiguous, we have to stop you." I thought this was neat on HYV's part, because I think that other approach sucks. Call it the Legend of Korra approach, if you like: a plotline comes too close to criticizing the power fantasy underlying this particular type of genre narrative, so it's time to "fix" it by revealing the villain as comically evil and actually totally insincere.

So here's Sunday's position: suffering is not just bad but inimical to the truest possible human dignity, and if we can abolish it by means of totalitarian magic god ritual we ought to. How do our heroes respond?

II. Robin – "Which Aeon Can Make Our Dreams Come True?"

Well, first up is Robin, who responds so poorly I honestly felt like the writing was unsubtly overcorrecting for Sunday's position's inherent unpopularity (no one really likes totalitarian philosopher kings and gamers hate being controlled, Gamers Rise Up). She's like, "I get that people feel like they achieve some essential happiness or dignity here, but the big problem with Penacony is that it's FAKE and it's TOO TEMPORARY" and Sunday gets to just sit there and be like "yeah hmmm sure would be nice if someone could answer those problems easily by making the Dreamscape the literal only thing in the world and therefore the realest thing there is and also permanent."

Then Robin makes a hard left turn into completely wild arguments and is like "and that man suffering from a terrible illness who lost everything should have to be suffering in the real world because idk maybe they could have fixed his disease? I'm not like a doctor or anything but they say doctors are real good these days."

Completely deranged argument. Though honestly I kind of love this version of Robin and wish they'd go all the way with her. She's a girlboss bootstraps libertarian pop star let her live that truth.

Anyways here's where Sunday and Robin have their direct argument.

Humans deserve a chance to fly, says Robin. Okay, says Sunday, well we live here in the real world where vast billions of people never will. It's all great and cool for the anime protagonists and pop stars of the world to talk about self-determination and the human right to make your own meaning, but the rest of us live every day in a world where the powerful determine the future.

That last line of Robin's is so funny to me. "If that were true, then only the powerful would have the right to determine the future." BINGO, QUEEN! YOU GOT IT! That's the world you live in! Not one where everyone flies!

When you say "Birds belong in the sky, even if they can't fly," what you mean is "I see the death and suffering of others as acceptable and even necessary to give my life meaning." You can't have one without the other. This is what Sunday objects to.

What's interesting about this is both Sunday and Robin are actually slipping in their attachment to the Harmony. Robin credits her failure to sing to her own weakening faith in the Harmony, and Sunday later claims it was actually due to him and his attachment to Order (and also the whole Oak family's like psychic hive mind of evil under Gopher Wood). But here, Robin is like "Well, the Harmony says we should care for the weak." She doesn't exactly claim the statement for herself. And she shares Sunday's fears that the Harmony is incapable of creating the kind of paradise they both dream of.

So here we are right at the start of Sunday introducing his beliefs, and Robin's responses not only have been kind of weirdly un-nuanced in a way that makes her side look bad (I just can't get over her saying that dude who lost everything in war should have chosen expensive and painful rehabilitation as a moral matter. Robin what are you talking about), but she clearly is sympathetic to Sunday's concerns and is openly asking him what his conclusions mean they should do.

Of course, HSR 2.2 ignored Robin for no discernible reason, so we will be denied any further development of this discourse between the siblings. But Robin will return in the final battle, and when she does, she will both reveal that she is not thinking in the Harmony's terms, and that she has only practical objections to Sunday's course of action, rather than what he really wants: a different and more compelling logic to replace his own.

[yesimwriting]

there's something about bestfriend!felix who has never had to restrain himself when it comes to feelings, who can't stand letting that much feeling just sit inside of him with nowhere to go.

he learns to hold it all in because feeling that deeply attached to one person isn't something he's used to, so it's a little confusing and hard to label, and maybe he's a little prone to commitment issues. but the main thing that keeps him from saying anything is the importance of the bond the two of you have created.

it's a kind of connection he's never had before, a trust and understanding that he's extremely protective of. so he doesn't say anything.

so he compromises with himself, allowing his affection to bleed into your friendship as much as the confines of a platonic relationship will allow. part of it is to satiate the need to be closer to you, and the rest of it is because he doesn't want anyone to think you're not his.

he's never been one to share, so he makes it as clear as he can that you're off limits.

when the two of you go out, he's even touchier than usual. some of it's the drinking and atmosphere, but most of it is because he can. you're close enough to leave giggly kisses against each other other's cheeks, hands, shoulders, necks. whatever's easiest to reach. he'll pull an arm around you to guide you through a crowded bar because you'll let him without hesitation.

and if felix catton constantly being all over you isn't enough to ward off every guy at oxford, he has nothing against appearing at your side and placing a hand around your waist. it doesn't matter if the guy is in the middle of a sentence or if you're saying something, you'll stop everything to immediately greet felix.

it's a subtle possessiveness that extends beyond just nights out. if you two are studying in the library with a group of friends, you're sitting next to him. if you're out to dinner with a group, he's mentioning inside jokes and topics of conversation that he knows you're interest in to make sure that he's your favorite.

if felix can't be your boyfriend, he's going to be your favorite person. he's not your friend, he's your best friend. a title that he makes sure to emphasize constantly. if you introduce him to someone as your friend, he's quick to teasingly correct you. thought i was your best friend.

he also uses the term to justify any hints of jealousy, and to get his way. if you're spending more time with a different friend (girl, boy, it doesn't matter), he's pouting a little when you finally do see him. if you notice and start expressing concern, he'll admit to it. "surprised you had time to notice anything about me." and when you're, rightfully, confused, he continues, "you're spending all your time with them, and i'm supposed to be your best friend."

sometimes, if its gone on for a significant amount of time, he'll start to think that maybe he's actually mad at you. it isn't fair, but felix can't help it. he'll do anything for you, and you're replacing him with someone that can't care about you the way he does.

but then you'll look at him, all wide eyed and exuding genuine shock at the thought of felix ever not being your best friend. you'll coddle him as much as he'll let you. he'll try to put up a hard exterior, but he's melting and letting it go almost immediately.

----

a short blurb to tide you all over and help me think through a request bc i wanted to finish writing it today but had to do a ton of homework instead <3

almost didn't post this bc the purpose of it was for me to work on characterization in a low stakes way after using up all of my mental but then decided why not!

a fuller, better developed version of this is coming soon 😭

taglist; @vader-is-hot @spiritofbuddha @getosangie @freyafriggafrey @ilovehyperfixating @aryiannarae @willowpains

[casscainmainly]

can you dive more into bruce’s dislike of cass’ femininity?

Sure!! To preface this, gender and Cass is a really nuanced topic that has a lot of interpretations, all equally valid. This is just my own interpretation, and is mainly situated in early Batgirl (2000). I also recommend reading my gender and sexuality posts for Cass' persepctive on her relationship with gender. But since I've gotten a couple questions about it, I'll cover specifically Bruce's evolving opinions on Cass' gender here.

Beginning

From Batgirl #1, Puckett establishes Bruce's view of Cass: she is like him. Both Barbara and Bruce (and Cass herself) acknowledge this, and it allows Bruce to understand Cass in a way Babs doesn't. This isn't gendered yet, but the seed (that Horrocks will pull on) is there - Bruce closely associates Cass with himself, meaning he focuses on the ways they're similar and ignores the ways they're different.

This similarity is comforting not just for Bruce, but for Cass as well. They are equals - they have similar fighting abilities, philosophies against killing, ways of expressing themselves, etc. She doesn't have to hold back, not with him. Both of them wanted her to be 'like him'.

Bruce does not want Cass being taken "away from [him]". "You want me to think she's like you," he tells David Cain in #5. His biggest fear is Cass being like someone else, and not like him.

The Threat of Stephanie Brown

This recurring motto - 'you're not like them, you're like me' - crops up again when Bruce talks about Stephanie in #38. I've discussed how this makes Cass think she lacks something in femininity, but for Bruce this is him drawing a line between Steph and Cass. Steph is a 'girl', treated like one by Bruce: incompetent, not to be taken seriously, belittled. But because Cass is 'like Bruce,' she can "never" be like Stephanie. Cass being like Stephanie challenges not only Bruce's views of both women, but also his own highly cherished belief that him and Cass are the same.

Steph's feminine presence threatens Bruce and Cass' relationship, kicking off a series of issues where Bruce desperately tries to suppress Cass' gender and sexuality.

Vacation

When Cass encounters Tai'Darshan (a boy love interest) and lets him go, Bruce agrees to send Babs and Cass on a vacation. His motivations are extremely murky: Babs implies it was a set-up to get Cass into action again (justified by a panel of Bruce evilly smirking), but a panel right after has Bruce looking sad:

From #40: "You don't really give a damn about Cassandra, do you?" The juxtaposition between these two panels - one with Bruce (sans mask) smirking, and the other with Batman brooding - suggests he does care about Cass, but he struggles with how. For the first time he's realising that Cass isn't like him, that she's a girl with all that girlhood entails, and it frightens him. The cowl (Batgirl) allows him to ignore what's underneath, but Cass is coming through more and more.

But when Babs mentions Kon, the struggle goes out the window.

Thi anger is funny in a girldad way, but it goes to show how much he cannot stand the thought of Cass exploring her sexuality. It's not just that he doesn't want his little girl to date - it's that somehow, Cass embodying her girlhood will separate her from him forever.

Loss

Babs explicitly points out Bruce's feelings in #42. Though she couches it in non-gendered terms ("school, a job"), it's no coincidence that it's specifically a gendered thing - "falling in love" (with a boy, Kon and/or Tai) - that Bruce is reacting to. So far Bruce has threatened Cass away from Stephanie (her first female friend), Tai/Kon (love interests), and has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction in Babs (Cass' mother figure). He tries to limit any relationships that allow Cass either feminine solidarity or expressions of her femininity.

Bruce sees girl!Cass as fundamentally opposed to Batgirl!Cass. Batgirl is like him - Cass is not. She's "distracted. Unfocused. Unreliable..." That last adjective is super interesting, because it frames Cass' explorations of gender as an insult against him. Cass becoming more girl-like is making her "unreliable" to Bruce, making her harder to trust.

"If you've got better things to do than being Batgirl, Cass, just say so." This can be read as an ultimatum, but also as a genuine question. He's asking if she wants to be like him (Batgirl), or go her own way (Cass). When she picks Batgirl, he tells her "no more trips to Kansas." To be like him, she must give up her explorations of gender/sexuality.

Firing

In the aftermath of a trip to Tai's hometown (during which he dies), Cass grows increasingly distant to Bruce.

Bruce finally realises that Cass is not like him - that her differences, most vitally expressed in her girlhood, means she needs something different from him. "She no longer tells us what she's doing..." Bruce still associates Cass exploring her gender as disloyalty to him and his symbol, but this time he acknowledges that maybe that disloyalty is a good thing.

Then we have maybe the most interesting part:

Bruce's "I wouldn't know" is a response to Babs' second dialogue, but it's interesting to read his words as also a response to the first. Because Bruce wouldn't know what it's like to give into hormones, to "have sex, take wild risks, misbehave". Of course he's had sex, but his life is so consumed by his mission that Bruce has limited opportunities to explore his gender. In a way, Bruce's repression of Cass' femininity reflects his repression of his own gender exploration.

The Fight

In #50, Cass and Bruce get into a fight, during which Babs questions whether Cass is trying to "kill" or "kiss" Bruce. In the broader context of their gender struggles, this fight is the culmination of Cass and Bruce figuring out their gender expressions and sexualities. I'm reading this not as a romantic kiss, but as a symbol of sexual release - of defying sexual and gendered repression.

Bruce finally explicitly asks Cass who's she loyal to, and Cass points to the Bat. For Bruce, this choice symbolises that Cass is still loyal to Batgirl/Batman, but also her own person; he finally understands how Cass is like him, but also unlike him, and that her (gender) difference doesn't make her any less able to wear the symbol.

This fight is often analysed from Cass' perspective, but it was clearly important to Bruce, too. It was the turning point in his treatment and understanding of Cass - after this point, their relationship never hits the same lows again, and Bruce starts treating her like her own person (cultiminating in the Batgirl (2008) adoption). In Gabrych's run, Bruce leaves Cass alone and doesn't stop her from searching for Shiva, a huge difference from the way he previously handled her feminine relationships and soul-searching.

Ending

So I guess to say Bruce hated Cass' femininity (which I wrote in a previous post) is an oversimplification; it's not purely misogyny (though that was a part of it), but his longing for her to be exactly like him that caused him to try to repress her gender/sexuality. Her femininity was a marker of difference, a sign she was not completely subsumed in him and his symbol. However, Horrocks' run also shows how Bruce changes and grows, learning to accept Cass as his wonderful daughter.

I hope that answers your question!!

[hots0s]

pairing: muzan x gn!reader

summary: honestly folks no plot or build up lmfao he’s just rlly hot and there is an unfortunate lack of gn/masc reader. i imagine with his limited time as a human, and a miserable one at that, he’d be eager to experience any sort of enjoyment, so… also reader has a dick so that’s fun!

cw: NSFW. no plot, sub!muzan, human!muzan, ‘hate’ sex, degradation…

this is absolutely not allowed.

you thank the god’s above that you’re in complete privacy the more you curl your fingers, lord muzan’s voice keening down the hallways, his delight on display for the world. your arm is starting to hurt— the man had been as taut as a bow before all this— but he’s almost ready for you. despite the soreness and muscle burn you could honestly do this for another hour you’re enjoying it that much. lord muzan, however, is not nearly well versed in patience as you are. he grumbles and pouts, rolling his hips onto your hand, bleary eyed and quivering with need. despite his condition he’d ordered that you not treat him like he’s frail and you remind yourself of that as you slap his inner thigh, eliciting a meek cry from his lordship.

“relax, my lord. you’re going to hurt yourself,” you say, watching the welt you’d left immediately darken on his smooth, porcelain skin. he groans as you deepen your reach inside him and press down on his stomach, arching his back and tossing his head to the side, panting open mouthed into the futon. you can’t see his exact expression under the shadows and tousled raven hair sticking to his forehead, in bundles of ribbons framing his complexion, but what you can see is his desire for carnal pleasure. lord muzan was ill and didn’t have the privilege of time or the luxury of choice. you had come to him with the offer, after all, and he’d leapt at the opportunity to forget his troubles for one night.

“if we do this, my lord,” you’d said into his ear, biting back a smile at the way he’d shivered and gasped under you as you slowly pushed him onto his back, trapping him underneath you and daring him to protest. “we’ll be doing it on my terms.”

he’d been rigid with the shock and possibly fear. had anyone ever treated him this way? had he ever been told what to do? you thought for a moment that you’d overstepped. you were only here to serve, that was all, to alert the doctor if something went wrong and to follow his every flight of fancy to the best of your ability. suddenly you’d felt silly, but before you could take it back you’d felt him nod against your shoulder, a single clumsy dip of the chin .

“yes.” he’d whispered.

he’d grabbed at you then the way he grabs at you now, a sense of urgency behind his touch, desperation surfacing. “i want it, i…” he moans loudly, throwing his arm over his ruddy face. “oh, enough… i’m ready!”

you continue spearing your fingers into him, spreading them as far apart as you can, over and over as you scrutinise him. you’re unsure if he is fully prepared or if he’s just that wanton. he looks at you from under his bicep and must see how indecisive you are for his already strained expression twists into one of despair, like he’ll start crying if you don’t give him what he wants. lord muzan understands that he doesn’t have the final say here, that he will do nothing but lay there and take it when you give it, if it’s even to be had at all. it’s upsetting him almost as much as it’s arousing him.

even as you make the decision to stop teasing you draw it out for another minute just to watch him genuinely tear up as he re-realises his utter lack of control over the situation, turning his face away once more with the shame of it all, fisting his hands in the futon to stop himself from reaching for his erection. you can bet he’s wishing he were not so weak, so maybe he could flip you over or forcibly pull you on top of him. realistically he knows that it’s wiser to be safe rather than sorry. he does need gentling, no matter what he has to say about it. he was sickly and that was that. unluckily for him his reality is not so forgiving and he can do nothing but simply lay there, eyes fluttering and toes curling, least he completely tire himself out and end the fun before it truly begins. he’s unpleasant enough that he’s acting like being serviced burdens him. he’s a nasty, spiteful, arrogant little man— it’s a lot of fun to grab him and handle him how you please, to listen to him stutter and pretend he doesn’t like how disrespectful you can be to him. it gets you off to put smart mouthed, cocky pricks like him in their rightful place— and he had been a nightmare for you before you’d seduced him. it was nice to watch him squirm.

he leans up on shaky elbows as you finally get on with it and tug his lower half onto your lap, his backside flush against your crotch. he licks his lips in anticipation, looking up at you behind his lashes, stuck together in wet tufts. he’s devine. you had heard that when you met the devil that it would be beauty unlike you’d ever seen. you slide your hand up his thigh, the once white canvas of his skin littered in your affections, using your other to position yourself at his raw entrance. “shall we use our manners?” you murmur, transfixed by the view.

he shudders and bares his teeth as if he had fangs to show, defiant as ever. “you would subject me… to further torment? know your place.”

“i deeply envy you for thinking this to be torment… you spoiled, wretched thing. i know my place, muzan-sama. matter of fact, i have a spot waiting to be filled right now, if only his lordship would behave himself and do as he’s bid.”

he clenches his fists in anger and attempts to slow his ragged breathing, his infamous temper rearing it’s head. “i am not some… whore that you can order about. you worthless commoner...”

“you really do want me to treat you roughly, don’t you?” you laugh. he splutters to form some feeble excuse or insult you care not for. he gasps and is effectively silenced as you let yourself breach him, just a small bit. not nearly enough to satisfy but enough to burn a virgin like himself.

“you have no discipline. it’s no surprise. that’s a little taste of what you want, muzan-sama. i’ve serviced you well, so i’ll tell you just this once more… to be polite to me.”

you wonder if he’s hearing you at all as he bites his lip to restrain himself, craning his neck to gawk at where you’re connected, like he can’t believe what he’s seeing. you’ve got him hook, line and sinker. “uh…”

“i’ve been good to you. so you’ll be good for me, won’t you? does his lordship find these terms agreeable? or shall we stop so i can show him what happens to ungrateful brats like himself?”

“you… you scourge…” he whimpers, falling back onto the futon, weak as a lamb. “fine. will you just… ugh… please?”

“better,” you purr. what goes around comes around and you are determined to teach him this, so you reward him and slowly push in. his jaw drops as you do, his eyes squeezing shut. you barely stop yourself from cursing at the heat of his insides— it’s like hot iron, no doubt an effect of his own fever and sickness. when you’re finally fully sheathed inside him you grip onto his hips hard enough to bruise, hunched over him and taking a deep breath as to not lose yourself to this insidious pleasure. you’ve fucked a few people before him and not once did it feel this good. you need a second.

you’re kissing him before you can think better of it. at first he wrenches his head away but you insist, you follow him and he has nowhere to go. he has to give up the play, allowing you to lick into his mouth with a groan. he submits and embraces it, letting you ravage the kiss and have your fun. it’s easy to let everything else fall away and inevitably he does start to writhe, panting and whining like a dog, bucking impatiently. you don’t begrudge him for his unbecoming behaviour— frankly you’re just happy he didn’t bite you. feeling like you can move without orgasming humiliatingly early after all your talk, you plant your forearms on either side of his head and get serious. it takes all your focus and you can kiss him no longer, the two of you only moaning into each other’s mouths as you thrust into him, staring into each others eyes.

you’re holding back. he had told you to not treat him like glass and everything in you is compelling you to go faster, harder— but you know it would be too much. muzan is practically sobbing under you from this alone, having taken hold of your arms to ground himself, his nails digging into your tender flesh. whilst he’s not as fragile as you thought he’d be his condition doesn’t exactly leave room for how rough you’d like to be with him. he can’t even keep his legs around your waist and the man can barely walk on a regular day— there’s no way he could handle the brutal fucking you want to give him, no matter how much he deserves it.

still, slow does not equal gentle.

you intently watch his expression as you snap your hips into him, each thrust jerking his entire body, eliciting sharp cries. he looks like he’s in pain despite all else telling you otherwise and before you know it he’s been shoved halfway off the futon and onto the hard flooring. that will not do for his lordship and you have to stop to his utter dismay. “no, no,” he begs. “keep… please, please don’t, i’m—“

“enough of that,” you hush him and he whines as you situate yourself back onto the soft mat, guiding him back into position. you’re his caretaker before anything else so you ensure he’s comfortable before continuing and you decide that you want him on his side. his back could probably benefit from a break anyway. nothing is stopping you, least of all him, so you keep him where you want him, hoisting his dangly leg over your shoulder and pushing back inside him without flair. it’s possible this is a better angle than the previous, his hairless chest and nipples peaking out of his bed clothes, skin slick under the faint rays of moonlight. he’s entirely pliant now and buries the sounds he’s making into the mattress, clawing weakly at it. you fuck him nice and steady, sweat dripping off your chin. his dick is rock solid where it lay between his thighs, ruddy and wet with neglect. you wonder if you’re fucking him that good that he’s forgotten about it all together. if the way he shouts when you play with it has anything to say about that he most absolutely did.

“yes, yes, yes…” he chants between gasps of your name, his entire being gaining a frantic edge to it. “keep… yes, keep doing that— yes!”

“muzan-sama, someone will hear…!” you laugh breathlessly under his increasingly frenzied yelling, feeling embarrassed at the mere idea of someone rushing in to his aid only to stumble upon this scene. you’re still delighted that he’s become so vocal, thanks to you. muzan’s hand shoots out to grip your wrist and his insides tighten like a vice around you, so abrupt and unexpected it proves too much and it’s your turn to be way too loud for this hour of the night as you snowball into what might just be the best orgasm of your life. you grunt and swear as it seems to go on and on, draining you for everything you’ve got. if muzan struggles to get around on a good day he was going to be royally screwed tomorrow. his release has him dead silent, his pretty eyes rolled back into his head in rapture. a near scream comes out of him as he snaps out of it and quickly comes down from the peak of ecstasy, his body rattling in the aftermath. he gawps up at you like you hung the moon and stars in the sky, cheeks tear streaked and awe etched in his features. you’re still not finished, you have another few thrusts in you and he encourages you with his body, through the steadily increasing overstimulation. muzan gave himself to you and demands the same in return, doing what little he can to coax every drop of pleasure out of you, to take it all for himself. he can be a right little incubus when he wants to be.

“you must… stay with me,” he tells you after you collapse on top of him, voice hoarse. you hum your agreement into his neck and lazily lavish on it, sucking on it like a leech, listening to him hiss and keen. whether he’d wanted you to stay or not you would have been laying with him for at least five recovery minutes anyway. you’re still inside of that hot inferno and when you make an attempt to pull out he sucks in a sharp breath and latches onto you so tight it startles you. “no. stay, just… just a little longer.”

muzan certainly doesn’t have to beg or convince you. you settle back between his legs and go back to marking him up, feeling how he softly sighs and sags in sheer relief underneath you. your duties, your family and the entire village has completely left your thoughts. making muzan happy is all that matters to you in this singular moment. he’s the worst of the worst, in every capacity… and it doesn’t bother you at all.

“i’ll stay until sunrise, if his lord asks it of me.” you admit.

muzan wraps his arms around your shoulders and cards his trembling fingers through your hair, pulling you up to face him. he’s smiling at you for the first time and his touch cannot be described as anything other than possessive. “you will, then.”

he kisses you this time, all teeth.

yes, you think— you will.

[hueghost]

Crazy Shapiro analysis???

Shapiro’s entire emotional world seems to orbit around Vinnie. He’s not just friends with him but he constantly seeks Vinnie’s approval. He defers to him in almost every situation, and expresses an almost obsessive loyalty. His frequent “I love you” remarks, physical closeness, and visible emotional vulnerability around Vinnie contrast sharply with his shallow or chaotic relationships with women. It’s not just admiration, it borders on unspoken romantic or emotional yearning towards him.

His sexual relationships with Eva and Rozzie are messy, impulsive, and detached. They feel more like attempts to prove something—to Vinnie, to the gang, maybe even to himself—than sincere romantic or emotional connections. He doesn’t seem to pursue women on his own terms. It’s usually when they’re emotionally available or convenient, and there’s a hollowness to how those moments play out. The affair with Rozzie, Vinnie’s gf, might not be about her at all—but about getting a reaction out of Vinnie. It’s painful, self-destructive, and possibly a way of saying: “I want to matter to you this much.”

Shapiro initially doesn’t want Eva because she’s fat—which could be surface-level misogyny or deeper internal discomfort with women in general. Vinnie, though, talks about her as a prize, a conquest. And he pushes Shapiro into sleeping with her, not because he thinks they’ll get along, but because it’ll be funny or prove something. The dare escalating from $5 to $5.50 is laughably petty, but it means that Shapiro doesn’t care about the money. He gives in the second Vinnie tweaks the offer, because it’s Vinnie doing the daring. It’s not about Eva, it’s about Shapiro constantly needing to prove he’s “one of the guys.” He can do what Vinnie tells him to, he’s not different. But he is different. He doesn’t desire women the way Vinnie does and he knows this, but uses it as leverage against Shapiro, not compassion.

Shapiro is physically affectionate, sometimes inappropriately so, especially toward Vinnie. His behavior is more tactile and emotionally intense than that of his peers. Remember, this is a 1950s New York gang environment and would never allow open queerness, so any same-gender affection would have to be channeled through coded behavior like teasing, bromance dynamics, exaggerated “jokes” that aren’t quite jokes. In this context, Shapiro’s behavior feels like it’s pushing the limits of what he can get away with—longing expressed through brotherhood, proximity, and humor. He likely has no real attraction to women, but uses them as props in his pursuit of male validation, is desperate for Vinnie’s love, even if it can’t be romantic—he wants closeness, approval, just really anything. He’s unable to assert his own desires, because he doesn’t know what those are in a world that hasn’t allowed him to explore them, is painfully loyal, even to people who manipulate him because being needed, even conditionally, is better than being alone.

This is a textbook example of repressed queer people longing playing out under social and cultural constraints, being set in the hypermasculine, deeply homophobic world of 1950s Brooklyn—perfectly captures that tension without needing to spell it out. The scene where some of the queer Stompers’ gang members are kissing in private but acting straight in public speaks volumes because in their world, queerness exists, but only in the shadows. The fact that Vinnie doesn’t seem to care shows that he’s not aggressively homophobic but he may be indifferent or even tolerant in a “don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of way. But still, the rules of masculinity are unspoken and rigid like “You can be gay, but don’t be soft. Don’t disrupt the masculine hierarchy. Don’t flirt with the leader.” So even if he accepts queerness on some level, there’s a difference between tolerating it in others and being the subject of queer desire himself.

Vinnie doesn’t hate Shapiro. He might even care about him in a distant, possessive way. But he treats him more like a pet than a friend because he lets Shapiro orbit him emotionally. He dangles validation just enough to keep Shapiro close, tests his loyalty constantly through humiliation, manipulation, or dares. And he’s fully aware that Shapiro will do anything to stay in his favor. It’s classic toxic masculinity. Vinnie’s not outwardly cruel (except for a few times), but he doesn’t respect Shapiro as an equal. He uses him as a tool for control and a mirror to his own ego.

Vinnie uses Shapiro for entertainment and control, and Shapiro goes along with it because he wants love, loyalty, and to feel like he belongs. His actions around women aren’t driven by desire but by a need to “pass” and survive. And Vinnie—though tolerant of queerness in others—is unwilling or unable to acknowledge Shapiro’s feelings, instead redirecting him with humiliation and dares masked as “fun.” This is what makes Shapiro tragic. He’s not just comic relief. He’s a young queer-coded man caught in a suffocating system, clinging to the only person who gives him scraps of attention while losing himself in the process.

Remember the beginning of the movie where Shapiro is sitting afar from the hookers while Vinnie is doing all the negotiating and convincing? Despite it being Shapiro’s idea first by saying he wanted to “pick up girls that night”, it feels like he’s trying to sound confident, like he’s echoing what a “normal” guy in his circle should be saying. It’s posturing, not desire. He’s saying it for Vinnie’s benefit, probably to prove he’s just as “manly” or cool. He spots the women, signals for drinks but makes no actual move. He lets the idea hang there without commitment. This is classic behavior for someone who is trying to perform heterosexual interest but doesn’t have the emotional or sexual drive to back it up. That’s not just social awkwardness, it reads as internal conflict. And he only goes through with it because Vinnie wants him to, which reflects the emotional dynamic. Shapiro does things not because he wants to, but because Vinnie does. Shapiro knows he can’t be out, even in a “tolerant” environment. Is desperately in love with someone emotionally unavailable—someone he can’t have. He sees that Vinnie is tolerant of others, but can’t bring himself to risk rejection by being fully open about his feelings. He might be a repressed queer man or at the very least, someone performing heterosexuality to gain approval.

Vinnie’s judgment of the women as “low” adds a layer of pressure. Suddenly Shapiro’s attempt to impress him backfires, he’s made the “wrong” choice. This likely triggers his deep-seated insecurity as he’s trying to impress someone who can’t be impressed in the way he needs. Vinnie then takes control and starts doing the talking, coaxing Shapiro to follow through, almost like a test of masculinity. While he engages, Shapiro lingers from afar. He wants Vinnie to think he’s confident and masculine, but in practice, he freezes. It’s not necessarily shyness, he’s very extroverted. It’s the lack of interest, conflict, and discomfort. His body language says everything that “It’s not what I want, but I have to do it.” That physical distance mirrors the emotional distance between who he pretends to be and who he really is.

Shapiro’s a young man navigating a rigid system of masculinity, trying desperately to pass as straight, cool, and sexually assertive. He knows that being different like being soft, unsure, or affectionate toward another man, puts him at risk, even in a gang where queerness exists privately. But he’s also not attracted to women in any convincing way because his pursuit of them is only ever filtered through his relationship with Vinnie. He wants to be seen as worthy of Vinnie’s friendship and approval like using women as social tools, not romantic partners, can’t fully admit his feelings, even though they’re obvious in how much he stares, clings, and emotionally prioritizes Vinnie.

He’s as a tragically submissive, emotionally abused queer-coded character whose loyalty is constantly manipulated by Vinnie. And what’s heartbreaking is that he seems aware that he’s doing things he doesn’t want to do, but he does them anyway for the one person’s approval he desperately craves. He eventually does sleep with the prostitute, but only after Vinnie has done all the negotiating. Shapiro shows zero initiative himself. He never flirts or engages beyond the minimum effort. It’s not attraction, it’s obligation. “I guess I have to prove I’m not weird. I have to keep up the act.” And Vinnie isn’t even watching when it happens, which makes it even sadder because Shapiro is performing for someone who’s not even paying attention. This is an emotionally confused man, pressured into heteronormative performance, not because he wants the experience, but because he thinks it will keep his place in the gang and his bond with Vinnie intact.

Also, Vinnie probably does know. He’s not stupid because in the movie, he’s portrayed as very observant (and also manipulative). He sees Shapiro constantly touching him, watching him, doing everything to stay close. And he doesn’t lash out, which is interesting. In the 1950s, a man “grabbing” another man, playing with his hair, or hugging him for too long could easily provoke violence or odd stares. Instead, Vinnie firmly sets boundaries. He moves Shapiro’s hands off him, tells him to back off, reasserts his dominance. This could be his way of saying “I know. I don’t hate you for it. But I can’t give you what you want.” Which is deeply tragic but realistic. It’s a quiet rejection that preserves the friendship while keeping emotional distance. Vinnie likely knows and respects him in his own guarded way but also makes it clear “You can love me, but I can’t love you back.”

If Shapiro were to openly confess or cross a line, it might end things completely. Only then, he could stay close by pretending. Even if Vinnie is okay with queerness, Shapiro may not be. He might feel shame or confusion especially in a world that’s toxically tells him masculinity is everything (instead of a positive masculinity). He knows Vinnie isn’t interested, but he can’t stop feeling it. So he hangs around, hoping for crumbs of affection. Like the rest of the queer Stompers members, he “acts straight” in public. It’s not just social camouflage but survival.

Ralph Bakshi is known for pushing boundaries with his characters whether racially, sexually, and psychologically. He’s portrayed complex and marginalized figures in other works like Heavy Traffic and American Pop, and he’s definitely not afraid to include queer-coded characters in unconventional ways. Shapiro might not be an “out” character because the 1950s setting wouldn’t allow it but Bakshi knows that repression, confusion, and queerness existed long before open representation. So, it’s entirely possible, and very likely intentional, that Shapiro is written as a repressed or questioning queer man. That repression becomes part of his emotional unraveling. He doesn’t know how to exist in his world as someone soft, affectionate, or vulnerable, let alone queer. So his love becomes something destructive, desperate, and confusing.

Crazy Shapiro might be one of Bakshi’s more tragic queer-coded characters as he’s caught between the world’s expectations of what a man should be, masculinity, violence, and his own aching need for love and connection, especially from Vinnie. Whether it’s romantic or not, his attachment is emotionally charged and painfully real. In a hypermasculine, homophobic 1950s gang culture, that kind of unspoken queerness is exactly the kind of thing that would drive someone to the edge. Crazy Shapiro is a layered, tragic character because he’s emotionally raw, desperate for love, possibly queer, and stuck in a world that doesn’t give him the language or safety to understand himself. It’s sad but human, and for a 1982 film, it’s incredibly progressive and heartbreaking for its time. Ralph Bakshi definitely knew what he was doing.