#i find them to be like...compelling characters

[destinysbounty]

On the topic of mergeswap AUs, most of the ninja could be shuffled around to different Merge scenarios with equally compelling results, but I maintain that by far the most *interesting* swap would be Lloyd-Zane. That is to say, Lloyd gets put in the coma pod while Zane is left alone in the monastery.

Out of all the post-Merge scenarios, I think Lloyd would most severely be fucked up by completely sleeping through it - he wakes up to find that not only is the world different, but his friends have spent *years* struggling to survive without his help. He's supposed to be their leader, their guide, the chosen savior of prophecy. It's his job to look out for them, isn't it? But he wasn't there. The world fell apart, his team is in shambles, and everyone has suffered innumerable traumas as a result...and he wasn't there for any of it. Knowing Lloyd, the self-imposed guilt would absolutely eat him alive. Also, once again he is chronologically displaced - before it was the age of his mind and body being mismatched, and now he is once again missing several years of his life.

(Also I think it's funny if we put Lloyd in Zane's pod specifically, especially if he's still the Conduit. Because that means he woke up, immediately jumped into the fight against Imperium, and then like 10 minutes later volunteered to take on life-changing god powers from some random talking dragon. All without any context for anything that is going on whatsoever.)

As for Zane...god, where do I even start.

So, putting Zane in the monastery is fascinating for a number of reasons.

Out of everyone on the team, the ones who consistently cope with isolation the worst are Cole and Zane. That's not to say the others enjoy it, per se, but they're all at least able to lock in and get shit done as needed, trauma be damned. But Cole is very community-oriented and comes a bit unglued in the absence of a community to rely on (DotD, s10), and Zane...oh boy.

Zane is usually the one to die, so he is rarely put in a position of grieving the others. His only instances of mourning the absenceof a loved one are:

His father, which happened off-screen so we don't know how he handled that initially (he seems to be okay in s3, but knowing Zane he probably just repressed the feeling and moved on)

Nya in Seabound, which he was so ill-equipped to deal with that he turned off his emotions entirely

Pixal in DR, where he was so unable to handle her absence that he straight up stapled a photo of her to a broom and started talking to it. Also with Kai getting lost in superhell, which we don't really see him grieving over but also we don't see much of that from anyone so uhhh I'm choosing to ignore that for now.

Picture it. Zane, alone in the monastery, with none of his friends around and no way of knowing what happened to them. All he can do is sit and hold vigil in the hopes that they will eventually come back (something something Echo Zane lighthouse parallels). I'm not saying Zane would start taping his friends' photos to random appliances by the end of week 1 and cry over his tenth ice sculpture of Pix by week 2, but uhhhh....actually no that's exactly what I'm saying. Provided he doesn't miraculously find a way to get himself killed while chilling in the monastery, I give him like 6 months before his sanity completely unravels.

Another reason for swapping Zane into Lloyd's spot is that whoever is in the monastery at the start of DR also gets to be the mentor to the new ninja. And that puts Zane in a *very* interesting position.

Zane is, on both a meta and narrative level, a support character. He's your medic, your backup, your HQ, and he can even be your damsel in distress. He's not really a leader by nature, and it is rare for him to take charge or assume a position of authority unless the situation demands it of him. He's generally content to sit back and let everyone else take charge - he let Cole take the lead during the prison break in s4, he's one of the only ones not to express pushback when Lloyd officially becomes the leader, etc.

It's actually a bit odd how rare it is for him to lead, bc it feels like everyone else has way more instances of flexing their leadership skills. Off the top of my head, i can think of exactly three occasions where Zane assumes a position of authority:

For about 10 mins in s5, which ends in him glitching out and talking backwards

In s14 when he became Captain Zane, but that was mostly for comedic effect, and authority goes back to Lloyd and Nya once the situation actually gets serious

In s11 when he became Ice Emperor, but he had to be magically corrupted, mind-wiped, AND gaslit in order for that to even happen.

(You could argue he took charge during the Snake Jaguar incident, but he didn’t take charge of the whole team and also it didn't end well.)

All this to say, Zane doesn't have a positive track record with being in charge. Probably even worse, now that he has all that Ice Emperor baggage to deal with.

So what do you do with a character like that? Naturally, you give him a gaggle of wide-eyed children to look after and tell him to teach them how to be ninja. Lloyd was already hesitant to be their master in canon, but Zane would be even worse.

Furthermore, Zane, uh...doesn't really have many friends outside of the ninja (aside from his falcon, who hasnt existed in the show for years). Cole has the Upply and the Finders, Nya is close to Ronin and became good friends with Bentho, Kai has Skylor and Wyldfyre, Lloyd had the resistance and Akita and now the next-gen kids, Jay started an entire cult in Prime Empire and also seems to be on good terms with Unagami, and even Wu is close to Faith...but who does Zane have outside of the team? Vex, maybe? Possibly Borg, even though that relationship isn't explored onscreen? Sally, who gets one whole episode spotlighting her and Zane before vanishing into obscurity?

This even continues in DR, too. Theres a new cast of characters to befriend and connect with, many of whom share a lot in common with Zane, but he doesn't really interact at length with anyone but his old friends and Frohickey.

True, a lot of that can be blamed on Zane's gradual narrative dehumanization depriving him of meaningful personal connections, but in-universe you could also attribute that to his self worth. Zane is so wrapped up in his belief that he exists to serve and protect, and he is so strongly devoted to the ninja that he can be a bit one-track-minded about it. He loves his family so much that he doesn't have time to care for anyone else in the same way. They are his world, his everything, his life's purpose...without them, he is nothing. Can you say "codependent"?

But now, he's alone in the monastery. He doesn't know if his friends are alive. All he can do is sit and pray and hope they come back to him. And after years of waiting, he crosses paths not with his family, but with two new kids. They want him to teach them to be ninja. But Zane is too afraid - afraid of leaving his post, afraid that being in charge will bring out his inner Ice Emperor...afraid of betraying his family by finding a new one.

He does agree to help them in the end, if only because he exists to protect and they need protection. But the whole time, he is afraid, and anxious, and painfully unsure of himself. But just as he teaches them how to be strong, how to fight, how to be brave and kind and selfless...they teach him how to believe in himself. How to reclaim his sense of identity. How to stand on his own without his friends, and how to make new ones. How to live for his loved ones, rather than dying for them.

(And yeah, okay, a small part of it this is definitely spite for the way he's been unilaterally snubbed by DR canon. I won't deny that)

Personally, if I were to write a mergeswap AU that's probably the direction I'd take. But then again, I might just be on some next-level copium and desperately trying to make Zane actually relevant to DR in some meager way

[orange-sora]

One of the things that I really like about MXTX's work is the way she writes love. The characters love each other because of their qualities, personalities, values, interactions, shared experiences, understanding, kindness and support towards each other. And sure because of attraction. But love hasn't much to do with sexuality. In fact, assumed sexuality of the other is the reason why characters hesitate to express their love. And isn't that interesting? While sexuality obviously matters, it's independent of love.

This is also something I find lacking in a lot of straight romances. He's a man, she's a woman, what else could there be between them but romantic love? Umm... many things actually. They can be best friends, acquaintances, rivals who dislike each other, colleagues who are just being polite, people who experienced the same unfortunate incident and so get it, people who just respect each other's skill/talent, found siblings, team members, people who tolerate each other because of common friends/relatives, people who only talk to each other about a singular shared interest, online friends who don't even know each other's real names, etc.

In real life, relationship between people goes beyond gender and sexuality. Sexuality is often used in straight romances to explain love. I have never understood it. To me sexuality can cause attraction but it doesn't necessarily lead to love. She's pretty but doesn't know it, he's hot and remembers a thing about her, they met again and again is not enough of a reason.

Love is borne out of aspects beyond that. I think MXTX does a good job of establishing conditions that lead to love, compatibility, devotion, and respect. She also does well in creating characters deep enough that they are human before men*. That's why even platonic/familial relationships are convincing in her works.

This is also why, in my experience, usually LGBTQ+ romances are better written than straight ones. Authors have to work hard to get to know their own characters. When love is not a convenient result of gender, sexuality or attraction, it has to be explored as a shared human experience. And that's when it's compelling. When love is about innate humanity rather than "because author said so."

*(men (as gender identity) bec most characters in her works are men and well it's BL and this post mostly focuses on romantic love).

[bunbunlapin]

🎪🎟️MDNI! 18+ No Minors!🎟️🎪 “Life’s a stage… but death? That’s when the real show begins!”

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[blazinginsquids]

The symbolism of Jackie’s ear

Shauna eating Jackie's ear is the first case of cannibalism leading to many more. Because Yellowjackets was inspired by Twin Peaks, a Lynch work, I believe the choice of ear was inspired by another Lynch work, Blue Velvet, and that the ears in both works symbolize the same thing.

The ear is a hole in the side of your head. If you were to drill straight through, it would lead to your brain, or in a more metaphorical sense, your mind. Ears also represent listening , listening sometimes being a substitute word for understanding.

In Blue Velvet, Jeffrey finds an ear. His curiosity leads him to an underworld of prostitution, gangsters, kidnapping, drugs, etc. Jeffrey questions why the world is cruel, and as he reflects on the world, discovers darkness within himself he's unsure how to reconcile with.

Shauna is struggling to cope with Jackie's death. She imagines Jackie saying things like "[Food] is not what you're hungry for". As she spirals deeper, she knocks Jackie over, making her ear fall off. A sharp reminder of Jackie's lifeless state, something she's trying to escape.

Shauna eating Jackie's ear was something she felt compelled to do, an instinct she was trying to fight before she could no longer hold back. As much as I adore the JackieShauna of it all, we will think about this as Shauna trying to fight against something that is in her nature.

I'm not trying to argue cannibalism is human nature. I do think a need to feel in control is. Shauna feels a desire to dominate others because being "under" them has caused her to suffer. This is due to her own inaction, she misconstrues action with power, and inaction with lack of.

She needs to "dominate" Jackie. Shauna also wants to honor Jackie (As said by the writers). So she eats her. Honoring her by putting her to good use (Feeding herself when they lack food), and consuming her, turning Jackie into an extension of herself as opposed to vice versa, the way she felt when Jackie was alive.

In the wilderness, the Yellowjackets are socially regressing. They are desensitized to violence. While this allows them to survive, it also unlocks parts of themselves only repressed because in society there's few chances of exposing them, so they aren't equipped to deal with them when revealed.

Ears symbolize a part of ourselves we were previously ignorant to, but discover within the environment around us. In Blue Velvet, this was the criminal underworld hiding behind the standard of suburban life. In Yellowjackets, it’s animalistic nature hiding behind social structure.

So when I say ears represent our mind and understanding, I mean the use of ears as a catalyst to a path that leads characters to uncover what's been in their minds, or themselves, the whole time.

[goldensunset]

been trying to find a way to word this for a while but. in my opinion (aka this is just me rambling so don't fight me) a principle of really good writing is mastering the art of narrative threats, and what you actually want them to mean. if you put your characters in danger, you gotta ask yourself- do i want the audience to be merely curious, or actually afraid?

curious- it’s obvious that the storyteller is almost certainly not going to deliver on this threat. of course the main character in this children’s show will not die halfway through season one. of course they’re going to get that important thing back. the story wouldn’t work otherwise. so the question becomes not what, but how? is our hero going to successfully convince their enemy to change their mind? perhaps the shy side character is going to suddenly show a side of themselves they never have before and come up with a brilliant plan?

'fake' danger like this falls flat when the writer is trying so hard to legitimately get you scared but any observant viewer with an understanding of solid narrative structure knows a tragedy wouldn't work here. this type of situation is best executed as less like a threat and more like author and audience watching the scene together going oooh i can’t wait to see them get out of this somehow! like idk. it doesn't have to be about fear it can be about fun or tension or epicness! it's gonna be so cool to see them solve this puzzle and get out of this trap!

afraid- the storyteller very well could deliver on this threat! it would make perfect narrative sense for this important secondary character to die during this season finale, it would make it so much more fascinating to lose the thing everyone's hope was riding on here, it would be thematically fitting if these guys could never go home, etc. and the story as a whole has been serious enough- whether outright or implied- for a tragedy like this to fit in. so you get people going oh snap this could very well happen the danger is absolutely real.

imo it's best when you don't make it too obvious- it really could go one way or another. they might get out of that scrape fine but also if they didn't we can still imagine a working story. when the audience can foresee two different possible narrative directions and both are equally compelling and satisfying in their own way, and they therefore don't have a clue which way it could go? that's the good stuff. that's when the crazy anxiety and tension starts

(obvious disclaimer that you have free will etc etc you can do whatever you want in stories, including delivering on seemingly weak threats to catch the audience off guard. but that's shock factor. which is something different from what i mean by a threat, or rising tension. but you have to really really know what you’re doing if you go for that, otherwise it feels frustrating and unsatisfying

like from my own experience. if a character gets killed off at a weird time it's so offputting that i will be distracted just waiting for the part where they magically come back, just waiting for the story to make sense. and whether it comes or not, it's hard for me to pay anything that's actually happening at that point. unless what happens then is the story appropriately dealing with the emotional aftermath. so like if you don't give people time to prepare at least give them time to heal)

the reason i like say all this is that a well done threat is what's going to evoke the most emotion out of me. if a character is actively dying i am going to shed the most tears if i am willing to believe they will actually die and stay dead. or even if they do come back, that the writing is good enough for this event to still have material or psychological consequences for the foreseeable future. if all hope seems lost in a narratively appropriate moment i can feel the weight of everything on me just as much as the characters do. otherwise it's like hmmm so melodramatic but we all know where this is going nowhere so it feels cheap. i love serious emotions and danger but you have to use all that correctly or else it weakens itself!

[baldursghaik]

what is so good about the launch day version??

A lot of small (mostly) changes, but they are impactful, to me at least.

An incomplete list, if anyone would like to add to it, please feel free to do so:

Gortash's letters to Franc Peartree (small and easily missable, but such delicious Gortash material that added a lot of complexity and charm to his character)

A complete visual overhaul of the Emperor's conversation with Ansur in the Wyrmway (this one is downright offensive because it completely changes the mood of the scene, and larian makes it blatantly clear they don't trust their fanbase to read nuance)

The dream visitor is significantly less chatty/talkative since launch day (anecdotal, but this has been mine and other people's experience, so I feel confident enough to list it)

Cut flirty dialogue between Wyll, Lae'zel, and Shadowheart

So much cut or rearranged dialogue. A lot of characters have had their coarsest edges sanded down in a way that many find to be unpalatable

Minthara. Good god where to even start. I fully disagree with larian's decision to allow you to bonk her and have her show up at Moonrise. There's also things added in the latest patch that I know got the diehard minthy fans (justifiably) riled up

This is anecdotal, but it feels like companions are MUCH easier to romance now. On my current Wyll run, every single companion was champing at the bit to sleep with him during the tiefling party, even though I'd made it a point to not speak to half of them beyond their recruitment.

They made changes to Astarion's ascended ending and the way the PC reacts to it, to soften the blow for players that were uncomfortable with... making evil decisions??? Larian, why. To be fair, this would not be present in the launch day version of the game, but I still find it to be worth listing

The Emperor now uses a blanket in its romance scene. This is also small and genuinely not impactful, but it irks me all the same. In fact there's a slew of small Emperor changes that aren't enough to be upset about, but bother me because there was no good reason to change them

A meaningful Emperor thing they DID change though: its comment that it will simply mind wipe anyone that walked in on it and the PC sleeping together. This was a shamefully lazy way of getting out of dealing with that, not to mention it's a blatantly fucked up and evil thing to say, and the PC has zero recourse to point that out

The way the game looks, and I'll confess up front that this one is a double edged sword. Larian made a lot of changes to how things are rendered in, so a lot of textures are much more "crunchy" and stiff looking now. On one hand, this is tremendously beneficial for people with lower end machines that struggled to run the game efficiently. I don't think this is a bad thing. On the other, my machine has never had trouble running the game, so for me the latest patches are a graphical downgrade for no good reason. I wish Larian would have offered this as something you could opt in to

Related to the last point, this is so nitpicky but I don't care--look what they did to the default camp shirt! WHY HAS NO ONE RELEASED A MOD TO REVERT THIS, IT DRIVES ME UP THE FUCKING WALL--

There's a lot more I'm sure, but those were the ones I could drum up off the top of my head. I will admit, most of my preference is born from having played and beaten the game before patch 1 dropped, but I do really like the rougher edges that were present before Larian sanded them down.

Larian has a long history of caving to fan preference, and I think it's really shooting the studio in the foot. They keep demonstrating that they don't trust their fans to engage with compelling and deeply nuanced stories without eventually simplifying them, or shaving off the things that make larian's brand of storytelling truly shine.

[thhouseofblack]

also, I feel like i have to clarify this but – I don't hate Achilles? 😭

Far from it, I find him to be a very compelling and complex character, one I enjoy writing too – whether that be in his own, or with Patroclus, Deidamia, Neoptolemus or Antilochus.

My main qualm (or the rant I went on a few days ago) is primarily that I don't like the double standard people use when talking about Achilles and Agamemnon.

The comparisons and parallels between these two characters are to be expected considering their feud is what sets of the iliad to begin with, and I enjoy exploring their characters in that regard (much as I do with any other), but to say or support that Achilles is better than Agamemnon is not substantive at all and is incredibly irritating considering the textual evidence that we have at hand.

Both these characters are incredibly morally gray, with aspects of their personality that are good and bad, but that's what makes them such interesting characters.

[a-heart-of-kyber]

If you dislike Peter Bishop for being manipulated/sa'd and not always being great to his formerly abusive 'father' you may want to reevaluate your stance on the matter 😅.

[logicpng]

so that update huh

[ Description in ALT ]

[wardensantoineandevka]

the fact that people keep interpreting the word "consequences" to be exactly and only "punishment" and knee-jerk responding to it with "why do you want my precious Bells Hells pookies punished" frankly says a lot about more about you than it does about those who feel that C3 as a narrative never followed through on consequences for anything

this is ESPECIALLY evident when it is remembered that we're all talking about a story and doing narrative analysis and media critique here, yes, all of us, even the casual commentaries, debriefs and post-mortems of the campaign is analysis. consequences. narrative follow through. the consequential story beat that carries the weight and concluded a prior set up. results, negative or positive or neutral, that are incurred as a consequence of what happened before. a continuity of narrative logic. actions that result in the expected and prior established weight and outcome. feeling like things consistently matter and affect things meaningfully on various levels, including the personal.

[shukenzu]

ough.... ough you're right....his character really does only revolve around kou, and i fear it might be something reoccurring in this series. take nene for example; while she doesn't revolve around hanako almost at all and actually gets arcs of her own, we don't know much about her as a person. like, what shes like out of her regular friend group. hell, what is her relationship with her parents, something we do get to see from mitsuba. we generally know a lot of the important aspects of characters, but its the little things which add so much to their characters that go missing. this is why i find it hard to care for mitsuba, while i genuinely cared for sousuke, because despite appearing for a total of three chapters, sousuke is a person with a compelling backstory, motivation and will of his own. he feels like a person. mitsuba, on the other hand, is written as a character to revolve around kou, as one of the reasons he re-emerges is because of kous codependency on him and if i recall correctly, tsukasas motivation to screw up kou (might be wrong on this because i genuinely dont remember if this is stated or not). hes here to do exactly what u said, revolve around kou, and teach him to let go of what he can't truly save. that fate is inevitable, and if you chase after changing it, you will actively cause it to happen.

so, in a way, mitsuba is here to more so serve a purpose, and while he can be a very interesting character, ultimately hes tied to kou so he can show his progress as a person and his beliefs and complexes, or rather lack of. mitsuba himself is extremely codependent on kou, always coming back to him for help, and really the only time we see him interact one on one with another person who isnt kou, is with nene, and that conversation is really only based on her. again, this is done on purpose, to show that mitsuba doesn't really have an identity of his own, and is there to progress character development rather than expand on his own.

tl;dr, mitsuba is not written to be a person, but a character who is tied to his counterpart as part of kous development. hes written to be a shell of his former self, a character who is codependent to his counterpart who is ultimately chasing him for something he(kou) cant achieve. ill be honest, people only really see him for his personality, and a few interactions with kou, which leads to all of the hype around him. but again, as you said, they dont talk about mitsukou or mitsuba as characters, they talk about them as counterparts, which is sadly what they were meant to be seen as. there is very little to mitsuba as someone outside of his relationship with kou, because hes written as a goal to be achieved, not a person. okay ive been spitballing enough, im writing a full analysis about this which i plan to release eventually but is sadly being delayed a bit as people definitely did not like the idea of me writing an analysis about their favs flaws.... hopefully i will still release it, so keep in touch incase youre interested in reading it. if u need help with defending your views towards these two, ill be here to help <3

Am I the only one that like...doesn't gaf about Mitsuba?...

Like- I don't hate him but I don't get the hype ig? Idk he's extremely boring and one sided character to me- his whole character revolves around Kou and he gets almost no relevant time unless it's with Kou- idk it makes him really boring and honestly I find it hard to find him interesting when the ONLY interesting thing about him is his relationship with Kou...

And honestly I find it hard to care when he "dies" like- ofc I feel bad but idk it's become repetitive and lost it's impact awhile ago.

I wish he got more character development and time WITHOUT Kou and I really wish the manga explored his other relationships more.

Idk ig I just don't get the hype- ya he can be relatable in some aspects but idk- ig Mitsuba just isn't for me bc I've never been able to hop on the love train with him

[justafewberries]

effie is a more interesting character because she doesn’t rebel

[untitledgoosegay]

re last reblog I do see fanfic culture pushing/replicating a certain model of "what trauma looks like," "how trauma works"

this is a problem across all areas of society obviously, but transformative works are, well, transformative. they're about crafting and modifying narratives where the fan-creator sees a flaw or a lack -- often for the better! don't get me wrong, I've done my fair share of "I take a hammer and I fix the canon," it's the main thing that gets my creative gears spinning -- but what happens when that "flaw" is simply a narrative not conforming to popular expectations?

some people just don't get PTSD from events that sound obviously traumatic. they're not masking, and they're not coping; they just straight-up didn't get the permanently-locked stress-response that defines PTSD. they walk away from a horrible experience going "well, that sucked, but it's over now." some people do get PTSD from events most people wouldn't find traumatic. we don't really know why some people get PTSD and others don't. but fandom has an idea of events that must be traumatizing, of a "correct" way to portray trauma. you see the problems with this lack of understanding in e.g. fans pressuring the devs of Baldur's Gate 3 to add dialogue where the player character badgers Halsin about his own feelings on his abuse -- because he must be traumatized, and his trauma must fit a certain mold and presentation of sexual trauma, under the mistaken impression that anything outside that narrow window is somehow "wrong" and disrespectful or even harmful to survivors.

take, for another example, the very common trope of a traumatized character who hates touch or sex "learning" to like touch or sex as a part of their healing process. certainly that can be healing for some people; other people will never like, or want, touch or sex, because of trauma or because they just don't. the assumption that someone who doesn't want sex or doesn't like to be touched must be traumatized, must be suffering from this perceived lack, is seriously harmful -- to asexual people, to people with sensory issues around touch, and to people for whom healing from trauma means freedom to refuse sex or touch.

and there's a secondary trope, one that's slightly more thoughtful but ultimately repeats the problem -- that once someone has learned that their boundaries will be respected, they'll feel it's safe to soften those boundaries. once they feel safe refusing touch or sex, they'll feel comfortable allowing it on their own terms. but many people don't, and many people won't! many people will simply never want to be touched, and never want sex, and they are not suffering or broken or lacking because of it. the idea that proving you'll respect someone's boundaries entitles you to test those boundaries -- the paradox is obvious, and yet this is something i've seen hurt (re-traumatize) people i care for.

people are imperfect victims. people don't heal in the ways you expect. many people have positive memories of their abuse, of their abusers. many people hurt others in the course of their trauma, in ways that can't easily be unpacked in a 5k oneshot. very few narratives of trauma and recovery actually fit the ones put forward by popular children's media and romance novels -- which are the ones I most see replicated in fandom spaces, because they provide the clearest narrative and easiest catharsis, and so they're easy and soothing to reach for.

that's not necessarily a bad thing! i am not immune to goopy romance tropes. i am not immune to teary catharsis. not every fic has to grapple with ugly realities. but there's a problem when these narratives become predominant, when people think they're accurate and realistic depictions of trauma, when the truth of trauma is unpleasant and uncomfortable, and doesn't fit any single narrative, let alone one of comforting catharsis

[pharawee]

What really gets me about PeteKenta this week (and by that I mean that it causes me emotional damage), much more so than in the episode before (or in the whole of season 1 even though the seeds were already there) is how emotionally careless Pete acts towards Kenta (and the mission against Tony but maybe that's for my PeteChrisWay post). And it's all such a mess -- their shared past, their individual traumas, their current preoccupation with second chances -- that I can't even blame Pete, even if I'm fully on Kenta's side here.

Pete treats (and, let's be honest here, this isn't even the first or fifth time) Kenta as an afterthought. I know he means well and that he's driven by trying to make amends for something that was never even his fault to begin with. I also understand that with the way things are right now in canon, his feelings for Kenta were always platonic (even though that makes the one kiss they shared kind of questionable in retrospect because at the very least he was acting very inquisitive, inviting even) which is fair enough. I wish they'd kept the whole "the one that got away" angle because it feels so much more realistic to me than the revelation that all this time Pete was himself secretly pining after Way.

(adding a sprinkle of gifs to this post because clearly I'm not suffering enough already)

The secret pining COULD however at least partially explain why Pete never put a stop to Kenta's one-sided pining either. Because he must always have known. He can repeat the "he thinks of me as a brother" line a hundred times, but he's a telepath. Kenta and he kissed, and every time they've since met and touched, Kenta's thoughts are very obviously all but screaming his longing at him.

And yet Pete has never said anything -- either to spare Kenta's feelings or (judging by how he handled his secret crush on Way) because he found the situation to be overwhelming. Again, I don't blame Pete in the slightest, it's not like he had an emotionally healthy childhood to learn how to approach these things. I don't even blame him for the third possibility: that Kenta's crush is a very useful thing for him to keep around, especially since in the past it's kept him out of Tony's reach (plus, feeling wanted when your own love is unrequited probably feels very nice too).

There's no way Kenta would have let him leave over and over again if it wasn't for his feelings (and remember, Kenta never extended the same courtesy to any of his other brothers until much later). Unrequited or not, not addressing the elephant in the room left Kenta in limbo for years. He's kidnapped children for Tony, probably even killed for Tony, yet as soon as Pete starts leaning into Kenta's longing for him, Kenta can't bring himself to stop Pete (much less harm him or rat him out to Tony) -- which is a really convenient secret weapon to have in a fight against someone as ruthless and powerful as Tony. It's not even deliberate manipulation but pure self-preservation. Babe and Jeff and Charlie and Way have all learned to survive on less than that. It's about time we see the damage that Tony caused in Pete.

And not only that. I think now we also get to see that Pete doesn't know or understand Kenta nearly as well enough as he believes. He literally asks the go-it-alone guy to not go it alone when that's kind of his whole thing (not to mention that OF COURSE Kenta will do the thing for him and not care for the consequences -- it's all he knows to do to earn appreciation). He's essentially leaving Kenta on stand-by, not like the brother he claims to be, but like a thing he can just pick back up whenever it's most convenient for him. And he deals out praise to Kim while openly reprimanding Kenta in the next sentence -- which ironically is such a Tony thing to do because it keeps Kenta small and loyal.

Pete is so willfully blind towards Kenta's feelings and to who Kenta is as a person that it makes him look like a total dick here. And the thing is, his defence doesn't even hold up: you wouldn't treat your brother like that either, someone you claim you share a bond with. Hell, if Pete treated Kim that way -- someone who's only marginally involved -- Kim would surely let him have a piece of his mind. But Kenta has learned to suffer in silence so why bother changing the status quo (and never mind that the status quo was Tony)?

As things are right now, Pete's allowed to have priorities (currently these priorities lie with neglecting everyone's safety by dicking down Chris on every imaginable surface in his condo while not even using a secure password on his private computer) while all Kenta is allowed to do (all that he KNOWS to do) is switch masters from Tony to... what? a very absent Pete?

I'll always love PeteKenta, and I'll always love the could-have-beens from Pit Babe Season 1, but with how things are playing out right now I either need Kim to put Pete in his place (good) or Kenta to walk away and leave Pete on read (even better).

[solarspore]

I know this was (mostly) a joke, but having given it some more thought, I think it actually does help explain why Falseren is so compelling to me, romantically and otherwise.

“Hetbait” ships, in my opinion, are on a similar wavelength to the types of queer ships that get mega popular in fandoms, in the sense that the pair has strong emotional energy together, often more than with their designated canon love interests. You don’t see that kind of effort put into a lot of F/M relationships in media BECAUSE you can just throw them into a romance if you want to. With queer ships, a lot of the time you’ve got executives meddling, so writers are forced to find ways to show that the characters are in love WITHOUT a kiss or outright saying it.

Writing quality isn’t necessarily a factor with False and Ren for obvious reasons, but they still have a close friendship, both as characters and CCs, so their relationship, however you choose to write it, has a very solid foundation. If you look at the most popular non-canon ships in a fandom, chances are they’re canonically friends who spend a lot of time together. Hermitcraft itself is a good example: Scarian, Grumbo, Rendoc, Gempearl, Convex, etc. You can pull out tons of fun and compelling moments for any of these pairs because they’re always doing stuff together and like hanging out, which makes them interesting for fans to watch and write about.

Exceptions exist to the canon friends idea (enemies to lovers, anyone?), but it’s more rare to find popular non-canon F/M ships partially because so often media just doesn’t want to devote a good amount of time to a man and a woman interacting platonically. Ironically, this makes writers shoot themselves in the foot when they ARE writing a romance, since you can’t write a believable romance if you can’t make me believe that they’re drawn to each other for whatever reason first, and a staggering amount of canon F/M ships fail to do that.

TL;DR: Men and women being friends can be interesting and even make a romance between them more compelling if you’re so inclined? Who would have thought.

hetbait ❤️

Roy and Riza from Fullmetal Alchemist

“The Colonel always calls me ‘Riza’ when we’re alone together.”

Colleagues, partners, together in the future, but not explicitly romantic together.

Twelfth Doctor and Clara from Doctor Who

"Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?"

Out of universe information point to them as romantic but not explicitly romantic in canon (although that is debatable).

Laios and Marcille from Dungeon Meshi

"It puts me at ease when I see you with a smile on your face, Marcille. So I want to do whatever I can to keep you smiling..."

Fellow party members to friends to advisor + king dynamic. Dynamic up to interpretation. Succubus scene can be interpreted as either nonromantic, romantic with denial, or something else entirely.

Chiba and Hayami from Assassination Classroom

"As for your second blade…that will be me."

Friends, partners, colleagues in the future, but no romantic attraction was observed by their AI friend. Went on a few dates where they didn't speak much.

False and Ren from Hermitcraft

"I cannot think of a more worthy winner."

They're just friends, don't worry about it.

[goatvaxing]

family majeure