#obviously sometimes characters are like that and it's well-elaborated why. but also it's boring

[normalbrothers]

besides this rarely being true for the characters it's applied to, i think another annoying, but also frankly tragic aspect of the 'x is the biggest victim with no agency ever and they are so pure and never did anything wrong, etc' is that it ends up diminishing their good qualities as well. someone being capable of graciousness, kindness and care and choosing to be so (and sometimes in the face of great adversity and personal hurt) is more remarkable to me than them just being "good" because they are supposedly constantly abused into a state of wilting passivity

[ihatetaxes99]

Alrighty, fun theory time: What if Neito Monoma was actually brain-damaged?

I swear, this isn't a joke post, this is a genuine headcanon/theory I like to consider that possibly explains the... Sharp shift in his behaviour. Of course, it obviously isn't actually canon, I don't think anyone would believe that for a second, but it's an idea I like to ruminate upon. That said, time to elaborate:

It's no secret that when the character of Neito Monoma was introduced during the Sports Festival story arc of the Boku No Hero manga, he was rather different from his later portrayals.

Unless I'm forgetting something, this was the first proper panel introducing Monoma in the series:

As you can see, there were some... Changes later on down the line:

Anyone can tell that something happened here. Anyone who has a basic knowledge of the manga is aware that this second image is not an outlier. Monoma has been consistently portrayed as arrogant, over-the-top and borderline mentally unwell. There's clearly something wrong with this boy, this isn't just a kid being energetic.

Monoma in his initial appearance was clearly a bit underhanded, yes. He was a schemer, a trickster, almost like the heroes' version of Mr. Compress (I had to fit a reference to my G in there somehow) in how he relies on subterfuge and deception over raw strength; None of this translates to the psychopathic brat he became as early as the Training Camp arc. The question is, what happened to cause this? I mean, yeah, there are a few pretty good guesses as to why his personality was retconned out-of-universe (I've always taken an interest in the theory that his insanity was turned up to make Kendo's behaviour towards him seem more justified, somehow, and have her come off as less unlikeable, though there is also the popular theory that Bakugo's popularity had a hand in things as well, which I won't get into here), but that's boring. I am an Autist, and what I want is an in-universe explanation to use as my personal headcanon.

And so, we come to this delightful little panel:

Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) refers to a form of brain injury brought about by physical trauma or other damage caused sometime after birth, as opposed to genetic brain damage. As listed by the Scottish Acquired Brain Injury Network, symptoms of ABI can include:

Reduced motivation.

Reduced ability to initiate activity.

Reduced motivation.

Reduced empathy.

Emotional Lability

Reduced impulse control (i.e. reduced ability to control expression of emotions and behaviour).

Agitation.

Aggressive behaviour.

Impaired judgement.

Socially inappropriate behaviour.

Sexually disinhibited behaviour.

Reduced insight/awareness of the consequences of brain injury and its impact.

Obviously, not all of these symptoms are relevant to Monoma's case, but some - such as emotional lability, reduced impulse control, agitation, aggressive behaviour, impaired judgement and socially inappropriate behaviour - sound very familiar.

In short, it's proven that physical trauma to the head can very much influence and alter a person's personality, resulting in instability. And as we can see from the image, Bakugo very nearly blew Monoma's head off during the climax of the chariot battle. The way that his head snaps back is clearly indicative of receiving some sort of sharp blow.

And that is where the basis of my theory is formed. Neito Monoma starts out his UA career as a somewhat ambitious and devious, but intelligent and well put-together kid. Then, during the Sports Festival, he receives a severe blow to the head from Bakugo. Given the nature of UA's training regiment, it's even possible that he would sustain more injuries off-panel between the end of the Festival and his next appearance at the Training Camp, possibly even developing the situation into Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. And that's not even considering all of the times Kendo has been seen striking him hard enough to knock him out cold. We're also well aware of how lax UA is in regards to their medical care, with a kiss from Recovery Girl and a few days' rest typically being seen as the best way to deal with incidents. In this environment, Monoma's head trauma would go on to manifest itself in more and more personality defects, transforming him over time as his intellectual capabilities were diminished and his aggressive and socially unaware behaviour grew more and more pronounced. It puts a tragic spin on what is essentially a mishandled joke character, holding the lens to UA's negligent behaviour that the manga barely touched in any real depth.

Of course, as I said, obviously none of this is the case. Monoma was rewritten to be a joke after the Sports Festival and that is the long and short of it. There isn't really anything deeper going on there, not intentionally at least. But I like to dream. And I've really grown rather fond of this little headcanon.

[year2000electronics]

Hi, just being curious, what do you think is the greatest difficulty you’ve faced carrying out the storyline in your ask blogs (aside from potential burnout)?

Is there any time where the asks were not going towards the direction where you’d want them to go, and how did you steer the story back on track?

Do you have any techniques giving out clues or keeping the pace of the ask blog?

[sorry these are a lot. Of questions. It’s just, it’s amazing how you are able to run multiple successful askblogs, and I’m curious how you did it]

OOOH THESE ARE SOME INTERESTING QUESTIONS! really pickin at my old noggin here...

id say probably the most difficult part is like... ok through my tenure ive obviously had some physically taxing moments, moments of people being way too mean, people being way too NICE, people complaining that every single member of a giant ensemble cast doesnt get the exact same amount of screentime etc etc, but id honestly say the hardest part is just. making the medium Work. when i run an ask blog like this, im basically asking people to drive the story forward with no promise of whether their choices even like. Matter. if youre not tethered enough to your asks, it can feel like youre just asking people to put a coin in the slot and letting the story play for another page. you have to play this balancing act of wanting to tell the story you want to tell while also needing peoples' help to get there. thats why an engaging story and endearing characters are so important. i wound up telling people here on my main that y2k would end with a good ending specifically because i got people concerned i genuinely would end it with a Bad End, but still even knowing that people would tune in. so its like. i always have to make sure its Engaging enough. for people to be willing to play this game with me at all. the hardest part of fishing is getting the fish to bite yk.

2. YES ALL THE TIME LOLLLL a lot of the time i will end up either picking an ask from before the topic came up and answer that one, or plant my own decoy ask. basically jingling keys at people HJSSKHASGK. but sometimes even that doesnt work! benrey in y2k has a very touchy complex about his helmet specifically because I DIDNT HAVE SPRITES WITH HIS HAIR. and i thought that his hair was kinda boring compared to what people were probably expecting (its very short and simple i draw his hair like bootleg barney) so i ended up having to answer that little thread by having an explosion and then presenting my own resolution (gordon calm him down :)) i like to think ive gotten better at key jingling though haha. usually the two types of key jingling topics i find work best are either little plot teases or a 'now back to what we were doing' ask, but if you dont want things to advance quite yet, i usually use questions that will elaborate on a character trait or introduce a new character fact

3. dont be me. /j ok actually the thing about this specific medium is like. people will send me asks guessing my twists WAAAAY early on but the thing is i can just. choose not to answer them. hehe. id personally pay attention to how often people are guessing your twists though because like. its BOUND to happen if you lay out clues some people will pick up on them. if theres not a lot of people guessing, then you can lean more into the big sting reveals of like 'NOOOOBODY EXPECTED THIS' but when a lot of people have guessed the twist, i usually make sure to present it in a way that doesnt imply that there was nobody on the right trail or that people got bamboozled. as for the clues themselves. well im about to figure that out myself again! i have some clues i need to lay in bmfe!! dont get discouraged if people pick up on what you thought was really subtle, cos like. literal day 1 of episode 3 someone literally made a powerpoint saying 'LEADING LIGHT IS BACK' and i was like ok i was just on my first crumb DAMN. as for pacing, it doesnt matter if you get the blog done in one month or one year- what does matter is PLANNING. if you know what your goal is, what your landmarks and checkpoints are, youll be able to stagger stuff successfully no matter the length. some of the best-recieved parts of y2kvr were parts i went into the session going 'this is my goal for today' for. the goals dont even have to big, it could even be something as small as like 'get from place a to place b'

SORRY THIS GOT LONG but ty for the question! reflecting on my process is interesting :]

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

-Reservoir Dogs (Movie) - Movie Night! I probably don't need to elaborate on why this is a pretty solid movie. Good setup, the timeline works well, it's snappy in the way it introduces characters then flashbacks to the backstories, there's good interpersonal drama in the group, ect ect. It's also interesting to see a movie set in so few locations, the small budget required the full use of a single setting and a focus on dialogue. I can't say I find any of the characters or ideas compelling outside of the context of this story (Though I do find the acting of Mr White and Mr Pink to be quite enjoyable), but they work great as the bottle episode/short story style tale of an enjoyable and memorable flick. Not my favorite Tarantino Film, but worth the watch for anyone who enjoys these kinds of movies.

- How to Refuse the Route (Webcomic) - Self indulgent Trapped in an Otome game webcomic I've been keeping up with, this ones a BL in which the MC is reincarnated as a young child in what will someday become a Otome game plot and chooses to avoid the bad endings by avoiding any ending and resolutely avoiding any romance or interaction with the game characters, which obviously fails pretty early on. This ones pretty cute, I like the art and the "possessive in the way introverts are with their one outgoing friend" love interest, I think the plot moves at a pretty good pace, and the magic school setting is one I like even if it's overused. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone outside of the slow-burn isekai shonen ai pipeline though, there's almost no memorable characters outside the duo (and no women basically at all), the magic system isn't super well defined or focused on, and the protagonist, while likable enough, can sometimes be frustratingly dense in regard to these future prophesies he's given. Still it's cute to see a childhood friends to lovers story in this setting with a vaguely knight + wizard couple, for aesthetics alone it earns points.

- Captain Ron (Movie) - Movie Night Part 2. I did not so much choose this one as I was subjected to it when my Kurt Russell loving friend found it on Tubi after watching Reservoir Dogs and went "We're watching this now". Would I have ever watched it on my own? No. Did I think it was good anyway? Also No. Technically I had fun watching it as it was nice to rip on it with my friend but content wise Captain Ron is a mediocre to bad early 90's "Family movie" about a normal family employing wacky Captain Kurt Russell to pilot their newly acquired boat around while hi-jinks ensue. It did have a few funny moments either of the ironically bad sort (Kurt Russell's awful accent) or the actually kind of funny sort (Giving a lift to gun wielding foreign revolutionaries who then casually hang out with the family on the boat) but it really dragged in the latter half and overall wasn't interesting enough for me to label it as a good good movie or a good bad movie. Mostly boring and predictable with unmemorable characters but fairly unoffensive overall - There are far better Kurt Russell movies you could watch instead of this.

- Dungeon Meshi (Anime) - Almost done with the first season, will probably read the manga as the anime seems to be leaving out some cute jokes and world building that I would be interested in seeing. It's been great so far as I expected, likable weirdos in a well thought out and interesting setting with a well paced plot. Plus monsters!

- Community (TV) - Despite being a comedy sitcom fan I'd never actually watched this. So far I do see why it got so big, the dialogue is so witty and fun, the jokes are good, and while the cast is a bit intentionally unlikable right now they do play off eachother well. Looking forward to actually liking these guys (Outside of Abed who's already very charming).

- The Witch of Mercury (Anime) - Making my way through fairly slowly so nothing new to report. The girl's are cute together, I'm starting to get into it.

-Mashle: Magic and Muscles (Anime) - Caught up with the anime. My sister and I mostly watched this as the premise sounded funny and the OP was banging. I do think they managed to get some good comedy out of "guy who doesn't have magic goes to magic school and gets by by punching things super hard", though it did start to wear with time. It was also genuinely funny how much they got away with just ripping off Harry Potter - like the school is just Hogwarts with Hogwarts houses, they play a game that's just quidditch, they go to the same wand shop, Dumbledore is there, it's literally just Harry potter that's hilarious please keep stealing from JK fuck her. The cast is likable enough but also largely just tropes rather than engaging characters, though Mash as a protagonist is fine. The animation and plot are passable but generic and the evil organization is largely uninteresting making the 2nd half drag whenever they show up. I can't say any of the ideas or story beats are original or executed very well here, it's mostly just the absurd comedy that makes it likable, and even then it's usually more chuckle worthy than laugh out loud funny. I did have fun with it overall though as a few of the moments were pretty memorable and it was overall just pleasant.

- One Piece (Anime/TV) - Still doing the rewatch of the live action while keeping up with the new episodes. I plan on reading the manga (Colorized) in full, though I haven't made a lot of progress due to some unexpected health issues. Luffy is super cute in the new episodes. The live action is still pretty solid, though on the rewatch I did start to question why ARLONG of all people needs a map to the Grand Line. Like Arlong, buddy, you're FROM the Grand Line. Did you just forget? Did your whole crew forget? Are you only staying in the East Blue as you all got lost? I guess they have more in common with Zoro then I'd assumed.

- Genshin Impact (Video Game) - So incredibly, when I rolled to get Alhaithem, I was disappointed to get a 2nd Kequing - Only to immediately get Alhaithem moments later. Two 5 stars, unbelievable. I also got a maxed out Bennet, a couple Thomas and Sethos, and surprisingly Heizo? Didn't know you could get unrelated 4 stars on the Event banners. I finished Sumeru's main quest and will be exploring the desert a bit before heading to Fountain.

Listening To: Hope by Akano, Tounges & Teeth and Metaphor by The Crane Wives, HateKiller by WON, Dream Girl Evil by Florence + The Machine, The Red Means I Love You by Madds Buckley, Promiseland by MIKA, All the Boys by Panic! At The Disco, Bonjour Au Revoir by Joyce Jonathan, Fences by Paramore, Little Numbers by Boy, Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA, Song of the Dead by Kana-Boon.

[guardiandae]

Tagged by the wonderful @rayadraws!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 70

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

710,529

3. What fandoms do you write for?

One Punch Man, Marvel. Formerly BTVS.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

" - 2,391 kudos "Natural" - 2,448 kudos "5+7" - 3,341 kudos "Milkyway" - 4,601 kudos "Salvaged" - 6,567

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Oh yes! But i have a habit that tends to backfire on me... I'll respond to all comments for a while and then after a couple weeks I'll stop responding because I want to finish a chapter first.... this is fine except sometimes by the time I let myself respond to all those old comments it's been like.... 5 years. LOL. But I really do like to reply to every single one.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Distance Between Us

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Sugar & Spice

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Lmfao. Surprisingly rarely! I've maybe gotten two actual hate comments on my more spicy account. I've gotten more hate comments for making Saitama transmasc, but not by much. But like... I didn't make him transmasc anyway, it just happened. But yeah if people are whiny little bitches and I just roast them and then delete their comment because that doesn't fly for me, especially the transphobic weirdos.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Hell yeah. Ummm I like it when the weiners touch 👉👈

Actually lemme see. On my main account, my top tags are kind of all over the place. Mainly fluffy stuff, dirty talk. On my secret second account we'll get better results.... Watersports/Urination - obviously. Anal sex - duh, but boring. Dubious consent - spicy. Felching - MM. 🙏 Male lactation - MILK. HIM. 💦

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Only "Now Recruiting", which still gets a lot of love tbh. It's about the Avengers trying to recruit Saitama, which isn't too crazy. Fun though!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

WOOF. I hope not. The sites that scrape fics are scary.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Oh yeah 💜 I love my international fans, and I always say yes when someone asks to translate. I just ask that they remember to link up with mine!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

My memory is bad but I really don't think so. I don't play well with others >.< Also why I have turned down RP requests every time.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Wade/Nate. It might have hibernated for years, but it came back with a vengeance when it came back. But any ship I've written for, it's gotta be a hyperfixation for me, so I promise I love them all.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

[Redacted]. But I'm not sure it's that I never will - it's that I think I overshot my ending and I actually need to hack it back a little and just end the fic. The way I kept going, it would've added another small arc to the fic that made it end on a sad note. And That, I'd probably never finish. The fic is old enough though that even thinking about opening it up to do that makes me cringe.

Secondary: Salvaged. But don't panic! It's not that I'll never finish it, it's that I will but still not any time soon. ;; It'll be a lot of work to open it up again and finish it. I wanna finish some other projects first, including new ones (oops). But I don't feel 'cringe' about opening it again. Just a loooottt of files to sift through.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm told my dialogue is amazing. I think it's because I enjoy practicing the lines, over and over again, and pacing everything out to make sure it sounds like something the character would actually say, and somewhat flow in real time.

I'm also quite lucky at being able to have details fall into place in really interesting ways. So that thing that seems elaborately planned out, who knows, lol. It's sort of half elaborately planned and half happy coincidence.

People also tell me that I manage to capture their imagination and especially their emotions. 🫶

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Finishing. Haha. I'll either catch stage fright if something gets really popular (especially if there's a sex scene, oop) or I'll get bogged down with things needing to be perfect, or a secret third thing - I get really attached and don't want to end the AU because then I worry I'll forget it exists.

Memory problems. Returning to a fic is harder because even after a month I don't remember what happened. And if I'm going without writing for any period of time I feel like I forget who I am as a writer completely. Sometimes I really can't understand who wrote a fic of mine, because it doesn't feel like it was me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Ummmmm I do this very sparingly because I know that google translate is very flawed and I'm not fluent in any other language. Sometimes a little bit of french or spanish has been appropriate for a Deadpool fic, but not full dialogue.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Buffy The Vampire Slayer <3 I didn't include that in my fic count tho.... I don't dare go back to That Place, even just to look (FF.net)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I'm gonna have to break it up by ship otherwise this ain't even fair--

"Hello, Handsome" - Cablepool - it's just soooo creative and fun! and COMPLETE! "5+7" - Genosai - another really fun one, emotional ups and downs but ultimately soooo fluffy and nice and one of those fics that changed my life. Almost done! "Yours" - Skirth/Agony - a rare f/f pairing but I really enjoyed writing them <333 COMPLETE "Milkyway" - Eddie/Symbiote - can something be a fluffy family fic AND really dirty filthy kinky at the same time? Apparently, somehow. COMPLETE.

Tagging @aeriamamaduck @pohjanneito and @theomnicode!