#or that because someone ships things they...somehow can't understand characters

[toffeebrews]

I always find myself perplexed by the fact that shipping has become distant from "What If" (mostly on other websites, not Tumblr as much). It's the reason I ship multiple things or why I may present characters as platonic sometimes and romantic others. Some days, I prefer to just see them purely a platonic lense, or perhaps with another character. It feels too limiting to lock myself into one interpretation forever.

[illuminetic]

Some thoughts about Mel King, Kingdon, autism, and sexuality under the cut.

So I can't help but get a little peeved by this because it's personal for me — as an autistic woman who loves sex yet often gets infantilized by people who know me in real life because I'm supposedly so 'cute' and 'pure' — but GOD. I cannot stand when I see comments from people about Mel King being so 'sibling coded' with Langdon. And the thing is, I understand not everyone will ship them, and that's not a problem at all. I have a life outside of the internet so I don't really care in that deep a way lol. And I don't even entirely blame people who say they're like siblings, because Patrick Ball DID said he felt that way about Taylor and that was how he kind of conceptualized the Mel/Langdon relationship to begin with. But at the same time, I just feel like a lot of the 'omg they're so siblings!' chat is based in the belief that Mel can't be sexually desirable to a man who is traditionally handsome in the way Frank Langdon is. Or people are uncomfortable imagining Mel might have sexual desires or a sexual life at all, with Langdon involved or otherwise.

And then also there's this fine line too of some people saying they head-canon Mel as asexual and/or aromantic — and it's like. I'm not necessarily pissed at that or think it's a problem, because we all want representation and project our own traits onto characters to better understand ourselves or draw comfort. And again — I've heard that apparently Taylor Deardon said that's a valid interpretation of the character. And it is! But it's also like. Oh. So we're completely de-sexualizing the autistic girl. Cool. That makes sense — she's a little socially awkward and nerdy so of course she's not interested in sex! And even if she was interested in all that icky stuff her handsome coworker would never be into sex with her omg that would be so weird they're so siblings coded!!

Idk. This is nuanced — because again, if you're asexual I would never want to say it's wrong to conceive of Mel that way. We're all just playing barbies in our heads with our blorbos, I get it. I'm literally projecting my own sexuality onto Mel because I relate to her, so I guess I've actually just entirely talked myself out of being angry at all lol. So to any and all asexuals who headcanon Mel that way, keep doing you.

It's just a personal annoyance for me more than anything to see comments that imply Mel is a non-sexual being, as someone who sees myself in her a lot and also happens to really like sex. I feel like, because of the social cues I miss sometimes, and the way I am at work and in my personal life with friends and stuff — I am constantly fighting against the belief that I'm somehow 'innocent' or 'naive' when it's like. bud. I've literally had the kinkiest sex. I go to a sex club fairly regularly where I have sex with and/or in front of strangers. In fact, I'd argue part of the reason I like sex so much — and particularly kinky sex — is BECAUSE of the autism. I've noticed, from my time being in the community, that the kink world is filled with people on the spectrum lol. Makes sense — kink is all about rules and structure, controlled and safe (yet intense!) physical sensation. All things that attracted me to the lifestyle because I'm autistic, and the straightforwardness and clarity of communication about sex in the kink community felt like such a god-damned relief to me after struggling to have a sex-life out there in the neurotypical world.

Anyway. Long story short I'm just saying it's absolutely Frank who is the vanilla one in the Kingdon relationship. He's been married for years to someone I assume was probably his college girlfriend. 'Kinky' for him is breaking out the fuzzy hand-cuffs for anniversary sex or something, maybe some light spanking thrown in idk.

To end — I need someone to write a fic where the Pitt-crew plays never-have-I-ever during a night out, and Mel gets shit-faced and has to put down all her fingers before anyone else because there's so little she hasn't done. People keep throwing out more and more outrageous things, eyes going saucer-wide, and Mel's ears are burning but also she just keeps putting fingers down, throwing back shots, and raising a scornful eyebrow at anyone who dares to doubt her or make some comment like 'but Mel you don't seem like that type at all!!'

And Frank is. Sitting there quietly vibrating. Horny as hell. Having some thoughts and feelings about the fact that he knows Mel owns a strap now.

[mydogatemymotivation]

I had a thought about Lasan. People tend to agree that Zeb is kind of looked down on or seen as less intelligent by the people around him, despite him obviously being very smart, and I was wondering why that was. I do think there's some underlying xenophobia in the rebellion, even if it's not as rampant, that when someone looks at Zeb they might see him as something 'other' or somehow more animal like and therefore unintelligent. But then why does Zeb so frequently look down on himself as well? Is it just a lack of confidence? Well, I was thinking and I came up with this idea: what if the foundation of knowledge itself is different on Lasan compared to the rest of the galaxy?

So, hear me out, I'm a historian, I love history and there was a history class I was in some time ago that was all about the Aztec, Inca, and Maya, major empires each during their heyday, and in one of the units, we learned about the Mayan calendar and their number system (you don't have to be a mathematician for this, I promise) (I can't do math) (also this whole post is an excuse for me to talk about this cuz I think it's neat).

The Mayans (and by extension most people in Central America) used a completely different number system to do math. They used what's called a vigesimal system, not a decimal system. A decimal system is a Base 10 system: 1's, 10's, 100's.  This is the way we learn math today.

(sorry for the shitty quality. and the. stains. i was snacking on salt an vinegar chips and they spilled. ignore that.)

However a vigesimal system is not Base 10, but Base 20, and this changes the most basic arithmetic. Actually, it flat out changes the way numbers are read.

It seems like Lasan was a fairly isolated planet, there weren't a lot of Lasat seen in the galaxy at large, and Lasan was neutral during the Clone Wars, so it could be that there wasn't a big push to learn how things are done in the rest of the galaxy unless you were specifically planning on leaving Lasan. And since Zeb was in the Honor Guard, I don't imagine he ever even wanted to leave, but rather was forced to. Which means he probably never would've learned the systems that the rest of the galaxy used.

Now, I will say that the decimal system only exists because humans have ten fingers, which is why it called Base 10. And the vigesimal system exists because humans have ten fingers and ten toes, which is why it's called Base 20. Lasat have neither, which means they probably didn't use a vigesimal system; but it also means they probably didn't use a decimal system either. Not unless they imported it. Like I said, I'm not a mathematician, so I'm not even going to try to figure out what a Base 8 or a Base 16 number system looks like, I'm not that good at math.

But imagine, if you will, being forced to step out into a world where you can't even read numbers (I'm going to keep using vigesimal as an example). How would people look at you? Say you're in a foreign market and you're trying to scrape together enough credits to buy food. You look at the characters the rest of the galaxy uses and you have to translate them, so you're stood there staring at this price tag, the guy behind the counter is getting impatient. So you manage to translate the characters into the ones you know and pull out your credits. It's a 2 and an 8. 2x20 is 40 and an 8, is, well, 8. So you try to pay 48 credits for the food. Your new traveling companion clears his throat and tells you that's almost double the price and you really can't afford to lose credits on a translation error. Then you remember, they use tens. So 2x10 is 20. Not 40. Now the shopkeeper's looking at you funny, and your companion is paying the proper price for the food. And you have to just stand there, embarrassed, that you can't even do basic math.

So you get back to your new ship and there's this thing there, it's metal, and it thinks with a system called binary. Which is somehow a language based on a number system that you don't understand. And it's yelling at you. Loudly. And a lot. Would anybody blame you if you tried to punt the little trash can into the sun? If that was your experience day-in, day-out would you offer yourself up when somebody asks for ideas? I wouldn't. And to go through some version of that repeatedly without really being able to explain because first of all, who wants to learn new math just for you, and second of all, this is your second language anyway so how are you supposed to explain new math sufficiently when you have to translate everything in your head first. That would be crushing, and isolating. And some days, maybe it's just easier to be the dumb brute.

As someone who grew up bad at math, all STEM actually, and blonde (which doesn't seem like it'd be a big deal, but people really do treat like you're stupider than everyone else. Far and away NOT the worst hair-based discrimination, but the stereotype does get under your skin eventually) I was genuinely convinced I was stupid. I know now that my brain is wired for arts and humanities and I am NOT stupid. But my inability to do simple math without a calculator is humiliating to this day and I can really empathize with Zeb about feeling like you're lacking something that comes naturally to everyone else. The self-doubt and the self-loathing that come with looking around you and realizing that if you ask for help, you open yourself up to mockery because what's hard for you is basic for everyone else. It sucks. I don't blame Zeb for being so down on himself.

Zeb could've had the best education on Lasan but it truly doesn't matter how quality your education is if everyone around you reads 28 differently than you do. It's not a lack of intelligence, it's a translation error coupled with a lack of grace from the people around you. I'd beat myself up, too.

I'm not saying that I think this is what the writers had intended or anything, in fact, I don't think they thought about Lasan and it's culture all that much, if I'm being honest, but that's a thought for later. I just, I had this idea and wanted to share.

Can you believe this post exists because my dad bought me a mug lol. I collect mugs and my dad found one that has Mayan hieroglyphs carved onto it and he knows that I can understand a handful of glyphs and thought I'd like it. I don't have it yet but it's en route. Anyway, it got me thinking about ancient Maya and I've got kalluzeb brainrot and they collided and made this.

[ihaveopinionsonalotofthings]

The Percabeth hate is ridiculous

When I first found out that people hated percabeth, I thought it was a joke. And then when I went down the rabbit hole of WHY they hate the ship, I had to take an entire day to process all that information because the 'proof' that percabeth is toxic and abusive, is so far fetched, it's not even funny.

I'm not gonna try to convince people to ship percabeth if they don't want to. Everyone is allowed to have ships that they like and dislike. Even if that ship is THE OTP of the fandom. But the thing is, you can dislike a ship just because. You don't need a reason. You don't need to make up reasons. If you want to ship Percy with some other character or if you prefer Percy and Annabeth as friends, you can just do that. You don't need to prove that Annabeth and Percy are horrible for each other.

As I said I'm not trying to push my agenda on people who choose to stick with their (made up) perspective of canon. You can like what you like and hate what you hate. I just need to get this off my chest.

So this is everything I have to say about the, twisted until it no longer resembles canon 'evidence', that 'proves' that Annabeth is evil incarnate, and that percabeth is a horrible ship.

This is probably going to be a very long rant. So hold on tight.

1) The first piece of evidence is the 'name calling'. The fact that Annabeth calls Percy 'seaweed brain' is somehow controversial? I don't understand why. Especially because percy is the first one to call Annabeth 'wise girl', and though the nickname has the word 'wise' in it, it was not a compliment. But everyone just forgot that?

There's also the fact that by the end of the first book, the nicknames have become endearing for them. It's a cute thing they call each other. But apparently it's not cute to the Annabeth haters.

This evidence leaves me with a few questions. Do your friends not have humiliating nicknames for you? Does that mean they hate you? Do you even have friends at all?

2) The second piece of evidence is her 'treatment of rachel'. What about it? Sure, jealousy isn't a healthy emotion. But almost everyone feels it at least once in their life. Annabeth is a teenage girl who was witnessing the guy she liked, the guy she KISSED, hanging around with another girl.

More than that, she was scared that Percy was going to abandon her. Everyone she loved, left her behind. Luke chose Kronos. Thalia chose the hunters. And her father chose the mortal woman who gave him a chance at a normal life that Annabeth couldn't.

That's what she sees. She sees the possibility of Percy abandoning her for Rachel. So she lashes out. She's mean to Percy and Rachel. But it's her that saved Rachel's life in TLO. She's the reason Rachel is still alive. And Annabeth and Rachel do eventually make up and become good friends. I can't believe that we've come full circle from the intense Rachel hate just to hate on Annabeth.

And does no one have anything to say about Percy also feeling jealous over Annabeth with Luke. How come when Percy does it, it's cute, but when it's Annabeth, it's toxic? Annabeth doesn't show similar jealousy with Reyna or Nico because her jealousy wasn't about someone stealing Percy. It was about Percy leaving her behind. Her jealousy wasn't unreasonable. And she got over it and moved on.

3) The third bit of evidence that makes them horrible for each other is their 'codependency'. Why wouldn't they be codependent? After everything they've been through (that I hope I won't have to list out), it would make sense. But even then, they're not even really codependent. They still have their own lives separate from each other. They just choose to stay close to each other because they feel safe together. I would be surprised if they weren't codependent. Why is their codependency, that isn't even really actual codependency, such a big deal.

4) The next evidence is the 'physical abuse'. I can't even with this one. The fact that Annabeth playfully punches Percy in the gut because he was being a clueless idiot in TTC, or the fact that she kicked his shins to get him stop talking in MOA does not mean that she's abusive.

I understand that play fighting isn't everyone's thing. And there's absolutely no need to put up with anything that you don't like. But that doesn't take away from the fact that Rick meant for those instances to be friendly play fighting. Just because you think it's abusive, doesn't make it canon.

And before you ask, 'Well if Percy was the one to hit Annabeth, or if he hit her back, then would you have the same opinion?' Yes. Yes I would. I have male friends that hit me (not seriously, for fun). I hit them back. If I hit them first, I expect them to get even. I don't care. I don't think a little play fighting with friends is unhealthy. But you can. You can care. You're allowed to have boundaries. But I don't care.

5) Now for the big finish. The judo flip scene. This is the only instance where the haters have some basis. But I don't think it's enough. I understand how someone can interpret the scene as an example of abuse. But the intention of the scene is what matters. Annabeth doesn't intend to hurt percy. The scene isn't really about Percy at all. He doesn't care. He laughs at her and starts flirting. He maybe even thinks it's hot. Percy has recognised abuse in Gabe. He doesn't see it in Annabeth.

Annabeth loses control over her emotions and that's what led her to do it. And I know that sounds bad. But the emotion she loses control over isn't anger. It's grief. She's taking out her frustrations. She shouldn't have taken it out on percy. But she did. Because Rick wanted her to. I don't know exactly what he meant for the scene to be. But it's not what people have made it out to be. He definitely didn't mean for this scene, and all the other scenes that Annabeth haters cling onto, to be evidence that Annabeth is toxic and abusive. Because she's not.

I always thought percabeth would be a ship that no one would ever hate. But I'm seeing it happening, and frankly, I don't care that some people don't like the ship. The problem is that they find the need to bring down Annabeth to make it seem like the ship is toxic and abusive and the worst thing to ever exist. And that it's all somehow her fault.

I wish I could forget the time I read someone say, that 'Annabeth calling Percy 'seaweed brain' was her way of self validation because being around percy made her feel smart'. What does that even mean. Just because her fatal flaw is hubris, it doesn't mean that that's all she is. It's laughable how horribly some people have seemed to grasp Annabeth's character. They've made her into something she's not. And don't even get me started on people blaming her for all of Percy's insecurities. She didn't create them. She isn't encouraging them. Percy's insecurities are in his head. I'm pretty sure that's what insecurity means. Why is she at fault.

It hurts to see Annabeth, who is canonically a very well developed character with a lot of depth, being reduced to just her 'evil moments', that are almost always taken out of context. But meanwhile, I haven't heard a single complaint about Percy even though he's done and thought a lot of the same things as Annabeth. Somehow, when Percy does it, it's excusable. But when Annabeth does it, it's unforgivable. But sure, it's not misogyny. It's also not delusion.

[microknifeyuri]

i find it genuinely sad that people only talk about misogyny on the ii fandom when it comes to defending taco but no one goes over the way people treats most of the female characters which is like ACTUALLY misogynistic and the actual issue. i went over taco's thing a lot of times already but i'll also cover it here. like lets see how people treat women on ii briefly.

like have you seen how people treat suitcase. how she's often treated as a kid/constantly forgotten as a person outside of using her as a weapon to villainize a guy that does want to fix things with her. have you seen how little care people put on her. have you seen how they only remember that she exists for suitloon or barely even have anything to comment on her

have you seen people talking about candle outside of her being hot or outside of silvercandle? have you seen how people LITERALLY villainized her because she wanted to take care of herself? have you seen anyone say anything about her on a deep way? have you ever seen people focus on the way working with silver affected her outside of "silver doesn't deserve her"?

have you seen how GENUINELY HORRID people were about cabby winning s3? how they still SOMEHOW made it about silver? how people were incredibly ableist towards her? how they still kept going on how cabby wasn't an actual good person? on how she didn't deserve the win?

have you seen how mic, the character that genuinely has the best writting in the whole show, only gets talked about to completely miss the point of her arc AND ONLY for shipping, completely disregarding her growth as a person? completely forgetting that her story is one of growth and healing?

have you seen how people sexualized test tube to the point where she's only seen as a hot scientist or as a weird gal who's a freak instead of focusing on the fact that she's someone who heavily struggles with mental health and making connections? like people simped a lotttttt for her when she was having a whole breakdown because she was going to lose her friend, and no one really focused fully on those aspects of test tube's character.

have you seen the overall way people treat lightbulb? she's just a shell of her character for the fandom. she's genuinely so so deep and interesting but she got fully downgraded to just nonsense on fanon takes.

have you seen how people treat taco? have you seen someone even focus on her as a character outside of her being a "hot villain"? have you seen anyone actually get what she's going through? have you seen anyone wanting her to get better but also not forgetting what she has done? have you seen anyone actually understand why she can't get a redemption arc on the traditional sense? have you seen anyone not immediately go to defend her when taco herself does not want to be excused, nor does she think she should be? have you seen anyone getting that she's a complex character and that they can still enjoy her without having to excuse her actions? have you seen anyone ACTUALLY getting why taco needs to let go of ii and not make up with the people she hurted? have you seen anyone treating taco on a reasonable way? have you seen anyone treating her as fully capable of doing bad things but also capable of getting better if she really does try? have you seen SOMEONE that actually CARES about taco outside of her being attractive?

my point is. the ii fandom is rooted in misogyny, yes. but it is not because of people preferring other characters or what not. sure there MIGHT be some cases in which that's the thing, but most of times it isn't. the fandom is genuinely overall horrid about women and don't actually focus on them outside of being hot either. like i have once seen someone who genuinely hated candle but simped for her because her violence was hot in ep 17 and like. that's Not Really Good.

and most of the fem characters that aren't deemed hot or don't have anything to hate them for get often ignored (ex. pepper, soap, clover, etc). also don't get me started on how MOST OF THE TIMES THEY JUST HAVE TO give women a familiar relationship with a male character to which they happen to have a positive relationship with on hcs (ex. Candle and Yinyang being hced as mother/sons, Cabby and Yinyang is the same case) which uh. you know. it doesn't really sit right with me

you can think a woman character is hot/attractive and also care about her. you can like a fucked up woman as well while also not justifying her actions, it won't make you a bad person. like personally i really really love microphone and find her attractive but at the same time i genuinely care about her story and how much she's a story about growth and finding yourself, alongside with other people. a lot of the stories of the women charas are ultimately about growth and finding themselves on ii. and i think all of you should be focusing on the depth of a character instead on whether a character is hot or not therefore we can define if they deserve to be treated with decency, like that's ever done anything positive anyway

!! THIS POST IS NOT LOOKING TO CAUSE TACO RELATED DISCOURSE. KEEP THAT SHIT TO YOURSELF. THIS POST WAS MADE AS A FORM OF CRITICISM ON HOW LITTLE PEOPLE ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT FEM CHARACTERS ON II WHILE ACCUSING OTHERS OF MISOGYNY SO DELIBERATELY. IF YOU GET OUT OF TOPIC I'LL BITE YOUR HEAD OFF (NOT A SERIOUS THREAT BUT BY GOD BE DECENT) !!

[siringadev]

I was thinking about why I love Nero so much, and I realized that there is not only something so magnetic and unique about him and his design, but how the core of his whole personality is built on a deep love for Weiss, despite the fact that he is an antihero and does not very good things (first under orders from Shinra, since he is a Deepground soldier, and then out of duress, to summon Omega = to revive Weiss), but all this is out of desperation and love. I do not know any other character inside the FF7 world and beyond, who is so motivated to act out of love as Nero. Even take other iconic pairs of loving brothers (because it is brother's love that is depicted as the strongest in JP games and anime), their motivations were different, and love was secondary.

Take Itachi and Sasuke, for example.

Itachi is stated to have a very strong love for Sasuke, but what he does ultimately causes Sasuke great pain. Yes, Itachi wanted to save him, but at what cost? And his main motive was: to prevent a world war. So, at the cost of his clan's life and Sasuke's mental health, he does something terrible, and I still can't accept it as an act of love. It seems such an unhealthy, twisted form of love, illogical and scary.

And yet, I cried watching those scenes where Itachi reveals the truth, where Sasuke cries, everything is built to squeeze out tears.

Next, Madara and Izuna.

It is stated that he loved Izuna, and loved him even more than Itachi loves Sasuke. And how is this shown and proven? Well, it seems like almost nothing. Madara's main motivation is to become the strongest shinobi, to take control of the world and establish his own order, and thereby establish peace through strict control and then through magical illusions when he became disillusioned with contradictory and rebellious human nature. I understand his motivations, and he is one of the most admired character in Naruto. But what does love have to do with it? Izuna is not even present in his motivation. He simply died and caused Madara's grief, making him cruel and aggressive. And also gave him his eyes. But what besides this?

As for the others, like Lothric-Lorian from Dark souls, their connection was forced by the curse, and their motivation is simply to disobey their superiors. Their essence is nihilism and fatalism. Love is just an accompanying quality.

Not to mention Miquella, who did not show love as a personal emotion, although it seems he should embody universal love. We just can't see his love for Radahn or Godwyn or anyone to the point that we start to wonder if there was love at all? Or if there was love but it wasn't shown? So he is out of the love list.

If we talk about the love of Sephiroth, Cloud and other characters of FF7, they are so far from ultimate love that it does not even occur to me what can be said. Probably, Sephiroth wanted to love, but could not find anyone, suffering from loneliness and his own inability to build healthy relationships, and Cloud had many friends whom he valued, but never found "the one and only", whom he would love completely and unconditionally (which is why ship-wars still rage). It seems that Sephiroth could have become that one and only, considering how much Cloud idolized him, but Sephiroth ruined everything. Yes, Shinra is to blame for this, but partly it is Sephiroth's character, his selfishness and inability to put someone else's feelings above his own. Considering that Nero and Weiss grew up in much worse conditions than Sephiroth, and suffered abuse and pain from Shinra that Sephiroth did not experienced, yet somehow they were able to form the strongest bonds of love with each other and the healthiest relationships with each other (not toxic, not abusive, but built on loyalty, devotion, trust, unity and intimacy).

Sephiroth was so unlucky in love that even his own clones wanted to leave him in the DFFOO, and Weiss even laughed at this, telling Sephiroth that his puppet (Kadaj) cut his strings. And Kadaj, embodying young Sephiroth personality, longed for a family and to find someone who understood and cared for him, and he saw this in the illusionary form of Jenova. Sephiroth could have given him this care and love, but he simply used him as a tool, which hurt Kadaj. As for Weiss, he remembers Nero as the only one who understands him and cares for him, someone without whom he feels incomplete.

"Without Nero, there is no me" - this shows Weiss and Nero's relationship from Weiss' perspective. In DoC, we see their love from Nero's perspective and might have doubted about the reciprocity, but DFFOO shows that Weiss loves Nero as much as Nero loves Weiss.

Each case is unique, and each deserves its own respect and admiration. I simply analyzed one aspect, like love in a character, and came to the conclusion that Nero may be the strongest embodiment of this love at the moment.

[shinidamachu]

Sid, why do you think people think Kagome is “so annoying” and “whiny?” How exactly did she earn this reputation among her (rather dumb) haters.

The world is not kind to 15 years old girls, and what is Kagome, if not the perfect representation of one?

People forgot they can dislike a character just because and then move on. They'd rather grasp at straws to try and justify themselves, that way they can pretend they're being rational about the constant hate they're spreading when, truthfully, they're just being miserable.

Kagome specifically is in even greater disadvantage because her critics are, mostly, people who haven't read the source material and are instead basing their takes on a biased adaptation – which they probably watched ages before developping any critical skills – or people who see her as a threat to their ship and therefore are already prone to hate her.

The first group won't ever bother going out of their way to try and get a better grasp of her character by reading a 558 chapters long manga and the second group won't change their minds either way.

That's why they call her out for using the beads of subjugation even if: it wasn't her idea in the first place, it served to balance her relationship with Inuyasha at the beginning – since he was powerful and violent while she wasn't –, the rosary became a symbol of their bond, it saved Inuyasha a couple of times and he was always more annoyed than hurt by it, not to mention Sunrise blowing it out of proportion compared to the manga.

You never see Inuyasha getting bashed for hitting Shippo every other episode or Sango getting any heat for constantly slapping Miroku, because funnily enough people seem to understand it was just dumb, outdated, slapstick comedy, a courtesy they refuse to extend to Kagome.

That's also the reason they call her “annoying” and “whiny”: Kagome’s most important lesson was that it's okay to have feelings, so naturally they twisted that into a bad thing in order to keep hating on her. It's not about how her character was written, it's about people using of bad faith and deliberately mischaracterizing Kagome to pass their internalized misogyny as valid criticism.

I know part of the issue is that audiences nowadays are under the impression that for a female character to be strong, she can't cry or be feminine, but you don't see anyone hating on Sango even though she does cry and she can be as feminine as Kagome depending on the circunstances and on her mood.

The truth is that Kagome is playing a game she can never win, because the refs have decided they want her to lose before the match even starts.

If she stands up and sets boundaries for herself, she's annoying. If she doesn't, she's a doormat. If she feels jealousy, she's a bitch. If she shows kindness, she's boring. If she fights, she's overpowered. If she doesn't, she's useless. If any other character cries, it's heartbreaking. If she cries, she's whiny.

If she goes back to her own world, she's selfish. If she leaves that world behind to live the life she wants for herself, she's a stupid girl who left her family for a boy. If she does something grand, that's only because she's someone else's reincarnation. If she messes something up, the fault is hers and hers alone. She is, somehow, simultaneously a Mary Sue and a toxic abuser.

I've personally seen people slut shaming her because she got hitted on by Koga. I've personally seen people call her a "pick me" girl. Kagome. A pick me girl. Kagome.

And none of this is fair, because she is the kind of character who does her best to see the good in others, to understand the reasons why they act the way they do and to offer them some grace, but she gets very little of that in return, be it in canon, be it in fandom.

They always hold her up to such an impossible standard, but they completely forget to ask themselves: would the characters I stan be able to match the expectations I set for Kagome? Scratch that: would the characters I stan even be able to deal with things the way Kagome managed to do? Would I? The answer is most likely no, so how about cutting her a slack?

You ask me how did she earn this reputation among her rather dumb haters, my answer is: she didn't. They're just incapable of understanding that if a particular nuanced, well written, female character is not their cup of tea, they can simply ignore her and focus their attention on the characters they do like instead of spreading their baseless, misogynistic takes on the internet.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7410:

Those people are playing with fictional dollies in a corner of the internet where blocking and ignoring has long been a thing. If you're in a position where seeing a pair of fictional drawings kissing will give you psychic damage AND you can't ignore it after rolling your eyes or making an "ew" face (something people often but don't expand on because why bother?), maybe that's your problem, not other peoples', and you should avoid those tags etc, like the rest of us. It's also very telling that people in certain fandoms are totally okay with certain kinds of abusive ships, but simply go after people writing the "wrong" kinds of abusive ship, but as soon as any other kinds of ships are present, they will flip out. They'll yell at someone for shipping the Lannisters, while concurrently reposting fanart of Will bleeding to death where Hannibal, who has a knife in his pocket suggesting he did the deed, is holding him adoringly. Drawing gore is somehow fine, but a ship where the characters are eighteen and nineteen is the devil's spawn, even though both in real life are bad, and on paper, neither character is being harmed. They are concepts, dollies, not real people.

Like, "bad ship" has no meaning - it's become a stupid matter of "my fictional thing is fine, yours crosses the line, even though technically, it's just as bad, or not bad at all" because... It's all. Bloody. Fiction. Yet nobody's going to bat an eyelash if someone watches the Saw movies, or if someone is a horror aficionado and loves horror movies in general, but so many people, especially younger kids, have issues with sexual content in particular. It's just a rebrand of Christian puritanism and moral paranoia. Everything and everyone is a pedo to them. They look at new media through the lens of "I must ensure this show, person, etc isn't a pedo". Yeah, there are creepy people on the internet, some people get off on certain stuff. It doesn't mean everyone who draws an age gap ship is a creep - just like how everyone who likes gore isn't a murderer, even though there are, indeed, people who get off on murder. There are kinks for literally everything. I mean, there's an entire website devoted to celebrity feet for Christ's sakes. But for some reason, nobody ever looks at fictional depictions of non-sexual abuse (or even anything else), and wonders if someone is getting off on that. But a lot of people still are. Nothing is sacred.

If someone is posting graphic content of something in a tag, they should be tagging it. With scenarios like that, MAYBE (emphatically) you could make a case for it being "harmful". But even then, this is the internet. Fandom spaces are not like Club Penguin, they do not have a responsibility to assume the burden of parenting or making someone's individual choices for them or clearing out as soon as a minor is in the space, and there's an inherent knowledge that we all will, at some point, run into things that gross us out because fandom spaces are a melting pot of different ideas.

And you have a right to be grossed out by a lot of stuff. There's a lot of disturbing, weird, icky shit out there. But it's not about harassing the people who make it, who have shown no signs of actually being a bad person. It's about putting the onus on yourself, like an adult, to avoid the content. There's no use in self-harming by seeking stuff out, going into certain tags, etc when there's a high chance you'll see something that squicks you. Because at the end of the day, you are responsible for your own content consumption and browsing, and you are responsible for understanding the risks of being in certain spaces. If someone is unable to understand this, and cannot exercise self-control, they shouldn't be in those spaces, possibly online at all.

Signed, a very, very bone-tired fandomgoer of 40+ years.

[wherethemoonguides]

over the course of the shipping polls, me and a lot of other people have noticed some major issues in the fandom that i honestly believe need to be addressed.

the shipping in the les mis fandom can be incredibly problematic.

what do i mean by this? simple, people are too defensive over their favs or being honest, ship stuff that is straight up illegal (yes it's fiction, but would you really apply some of these ships to real life? No. No you wouldn't). i believe this is a topic that needs to be talked about, hence this post.

to start, i've noticed that especially a lot of the fanbase can get SO incredibly rude about other people's ships winning or putting more effort into winning which? is incredibly unfair and an insane way to behave. i fully understand being disappointed in your fav not making it but the moment it delves onto making subtle hate posts about specific people that’s when you’re taking it too far.

another issue is the fact that a lot of the fandom normalise proshipping. someone needed to say it!

since i've been in the fandom i have seen an unbelievable amount of minor x adult content, incest and a lot of other things. before you say "oh, every fandom has people like that", they do BUT it is too normalised in this fandom? i have NEVER seen anyone talk out about how weird it is for people to be shipping the Thenardier kids (who are all aged under 17) for example, with ANY adult characters (Javert, Montparnasse, the students, members of the Patron-Minette and most of the time this is smut where people do NOT age these characters up! which, even needing to age a character up to ship them is such an insane thing (how do you see a child character and say "they need to be aged up so i can ship them with this adult") because that isn't normal behaviour!!!!

another major issue is that a lot of these characters are reduced down to ships, for example, i could perhaps mention javert and somehow it'll link to valvert and then his character is immediately reduced down to liking valjean or vice versa. same with enjolras and grantaire, ive noticed that grantaire can't be mentioned in a conversation on his own without enjolras being related even though he can be a great character without looking solely at enjoltaire.

i really, really love this fandom but it is so discouraging to interact with it sometimes because of the content i see and how NO ONE else talks about it. maybe it's because i'm younger than most of the fandom and i have a different view on it (im a minor) and for me and others, seeing adults ship children with characters MUCH older than them is so uncomfortable to see!

and yes, tag blocking is a system on tumblr which i use before anyone suggests it, but if you use this feature you'd know it doesn't always work and a lot of these posts/ blogs i've blocked can still appear through other people's reblogs.

i will add, i am NOT saying every single shipper is like this because not everyone is! what i am saying is its a pattern myself and others have started to notice more and more and its honestly really concerning to me. i know that les mis has a lot of different ways people interpret characters, ships, etc, but i really do believe there’s a point where certain things should not be encouraged and it becomes too much and hurtful.

that’s enough for now, i honestly have a lot of thoughts about this topic but… thanks for reading this if anyone did, i'd love to hear others opinions on this because i really do believe this is a subject that NEEDS to be talked about

[geekgirles]

My in-denial, tin foil hat theory back when Phantoms ended and they hinted at the Sanctuary arc being the next thing they would adapt (hence, there were more chances than ever that Wally might come back), but we still didn't know it would be the last season of Young Justice was that, somehow, the writers had been playing the Flinx long game all along.

I can't lie, I 100% am a Teen Titans 2003 truther and those two changed my brain chemistry forever.

However, personal preferences aside, please, let me explain. Because I do have reasons rooted in the narrative to believe this could have been a possible path.

I would like to preface this by saying that I have nothing but mad respect for Spitfire shippers, and I completely understand they would want their own show-original ship to come back rather than a second iteration of the Teen Titans original one. The only reason I am even suggesting they could have gone this path is because, tragically, bringing Spitfite back might have resulted in a mockery of Artemis' own character development since season 2.

Ever since Wally's death, Artemis' personal journey has been marked by tragedy, loss, separation, and learning to cope with it all. The most obvious case being her struggles to move on from losing Wally, but Jade abandoning her family and forcing Artemis to step up as Lian's mother figure also played a key role. And even though she was shown doing so much better in Phantoms, the news of Conner's apparent death threw a wrench to all that.

Which is why I think that suddenly bringing her and Wally back together had he been trapped in the Speed Force and able to return would be such a major disservice to her character. Like, "Yeah, you had to learn to live without the love of your life and to rebuild said life on your own. And you did it! Good job. ...you can have him back now, we put you through the wringer for nothing jk jk."

And then, there's Wally's side in all this.

To be completely honest, I love DC but I'm not nearly as well-versed in its lore and elements as more hardcore fans, so I could be wrong about this. But depending on the source they worked with or even their own artistic licenses, for all we know, Wally could have not aged a day since he entered the Speed Force. While everyone else around him grew up. That could certainly make things awkward. I mean, imagine his reaction upon finding out he's suddenly younger than Dick!

In fact, he doesn't even need to remain the same age for things to change drastically for him in regards to the people in his life. Even if he aged inside the Speed Force, it wouldn't change the fact that he spent over five years away from everything. His life might have been put on hold, but his friends and family moved on.

Artemis had to move on from him and started seeing someone else.

Barbara became wheelchair bound and donned the mantle of Oracle.

Zatanna now has protegés of her own and they all take turns to become Doctor Fate.

Conner and M'gann got married after months thinking he was dead, when in truth, he had been saved by heroes from the future and remained trapped in the Phantom Zone alongside genocidal Kryptonian prisoners...

No matter how you look at it, Wally would not have been able to fit back in as easily as if he'd never left.

Which, added to the Sanctuary plotline, could have been more than enough reason to send him there to learn to cope and heal from his experiences while the rest of the Team grapple with the idea of finally having him back yet... not quite.

How did I manage to somehow include Flinx in all this, you may ask?

Well, ever since season 3, it's been established that all heroes are constantly looking for and trying to help dormant metahumans who'd been kidnapped and experimented on in order to awaken their metagenes. It is a given that many of these people would be sent to the Sanctuary, where Wally could meet them. So, why not Jinx?

I always found it a little annoying that Young Justice's iteration of the Fearsome Five never included her. I mean, I seem to remember they changed Martians' super strength for telekinesis because they didn't want to have too many characters with similar powers, and yet Psimon's team ended up having four members with super strength and no magic user.

Not to mention, they already turned Delphis into an Indian girl with supernaturally coloured hair and eyes with magic powers. Seeing as even the comics retconned Jinx's appearance so she'd resemble her cartoon self more, Young Justice doing the same thing and even re-imagining her as a victim of metahuman trafficking instead of an evil sorceress with no past wouldn't necessarily have been that much of a stretch.

It might have been a welcomed change, even.

So maybe the idea of Wally and Jinx meeting each other at the Sanctuary and growing close over how their lives got turned completely upside down in the blink of an eye could have been a possibility. Or maybe I'm just desperate. All options are equally possible.

I have half the mind to not write a fic about this and focus on my current WIP. But if somebody wants to take a crack at this, by all means...

[bleue-flora]

https://www.tumblr.com/bleue-flora/785394726541082624/httpswwwtumblrcombleue-flora7841984097247559?source=share

i feel like i should clear up some of the confusion i've created. yeah, you'll rarely see an c!inniter outright stating that c!dream is a p3dophile, but that's not what i was talking about. i'm talking about people who push creepy shipper-ish content on c!discduo, but pretend it's not shipper-ish at all. funny thing is i NEVER said the word "c!inniters" in the anon message, but you somehow knew it was abt them and got so defensive. i constantly see c!inniters' designs of c!discduo where c!tommy looks like a prepubescent child (also them calling c!tom "child-sized") and c!dream is like three times taller than him and looks like he's preying on c!tommy. i constantly see c!inniters making edits to songs with obvious romantic/sexual undertones and then saying "that's not a ship" as if that's going to fix anything. i see c!inniters all the time making nasty posts about how c!dream wants to own tommy, to put him in prison, to make him his "trophy", to force him to act like a "little brother" or "protégé" or even a "pet", all under the guise of it being "canon c!dream creepiness". claiming that "all c!inniters would find this bad and would never agree" is pretty stupid - on innnitblr the most popular interpretation of c!discduo is the one where c!dream is obsessed with c!tommy and is his literal stalker. i see takes all the time about c!dream being "delusionally obsessed with c!tommy and wanting to own him", and just because these people claim they don't ship them doesn't normalize their takes or take away the weird creepy subtext from it. i literally remember someone from dreblr recently getting harassed anonymously with questions like "but you do think exile is grooming, right? right??? you're not one of those freaks who denies that c!dream is a creepy stalker and a groomer to c!tommy, right? right??? you know c!dream only wants c!tommy, and to own him, and to torture him for fun" - people in our fandom has this problem of weird views on c!dream and his relationships with other characters, but, this problem is especially acute for c!inniters, which makes sense since c!dream is so important to c!tommy's story and has caused him terrible emotional trauma. some people are downright malicious about it, others just can't accept that their blorbo isn't the center of the universe for everyone, so they buy into the c!dream-is-obsessed-c!tommy interpretation and spread that mess further, it's stupid to deny this problem

the tadca tag was almost entirely c!discduo ship-content, but still, i know a lot of people who got harassed by c!inniters for criticizing the tag. some c!inniters called that tag a warning about the "dark but canon parts of exile", but it was 99% c!dream preying on c!tommy in a psychological horror manner, trying to own c!tommy, being possessive of c!tommy, forcing c!tommy to do weird stuff for him, etc. you guys should understand that not all darkshippers admit to being darkshippers or even acknowledge it inside themselves lmao

i wrote that anonymous message out of bad emotion, so i apologize for causing trouble for you, flora :|

yup... once again reminding me to stay in my lane, because I get frustrated as it is just reading fanfics with that kinda mentality...

I just wanted to add, that to be fair, based on what you said, I assumed and talked about innitors so even if you didn't say it, I kinda did and so anon likely got that assumption from me, even if neither of us were really trying to say all or even the majority of innitors blatantly talk about Dream being some sexual predator. Like you said, it's subtext and not outright said, what we were more or less saying is that there is a widespread majority innitor mindset that Dream is obsessed with Tommy in a creepy way and that is often coupled with sexual predator themes. Like if you make a point to emphasize Tommy as some little kid that Dream is so obsessed with, which is commonplace in the innitor community from art to analysis to fanfiction, than that is kinda automatically implying predator vibes even if not expressed explicitly.

But anyways, my point was, I'm not trying to be the fiction police or judge on morality or whatever, it's not my place and I don't really care, but implying these things are canonical in an way is what really bothers me and where I draw the line. Like despite a popular trope, Quackity and Sam are not discussed and analyzed as canonical saing Dream in prison, and I think it's high time that innitors too learn to separate their dark alternate version of lore from the actual story... hence my suggestion for - t![character]

To anyone wanting some evidence for why Dream isn't obsessed with Tommy, here are some other posts on that - <> <> <>

[l-in-the-light]

Chapter 1134 & 1135 commentary

I know, I know, I'm late to the party, but it's alright, I never aim to be early. LOL. I mean, I prefer to give my thoughts some time to rot flourish, I'm not one of the impulsive reactionists, I guess (can't be one even if tried lol, I roll on nitpicky analysis). With that out of the way... Poll time!!!

You know what to do, looking forward to all the answers :D

My bet is on the clone. It makes sense narrative-wise, right after Egghead and revelation about Vegapunk's clone in same chapter. and It explains also why they look so identical despite, you know, not living together (seperated twins would not sport the same looks, even their beard and hairstyle is the same). And there's a bonus hilarious moment when you realize clone!Shanks went to Five Elders to warn them about a certain pirate... you think of Luffy? Blackbeard? NAH. It's gotta be Buggy.

Think of it, Buggy after encountering a clone of Shanks would know IMMEDIATELY he's not actually Shanks (he grew up with the original one, come on) and also Shanks's clone would feel weirdly unable to do anything to Buggy (because the original Shanks is so fond of him, right? That's how it worked with Seraphim!Boa, she couldn't tell why, but she was so fond of Luffy, listened to his requests and didn't want to harm him). Of course clone!Shanks wouldn't understand the reason and interpret it as "something is really weird about this Buggy pirate, he must be really strong or used some sort of trick, I couldn't do anything to him!" like LOL. Perfection 👍

This shot reminds me somehow of Emet :D The size between robo Franky here and Emet might be really close! Does this make Franky their ship in this scenario? LOL. Was Emet Joyboy's ship?!

Luffy's speech here is quite peculiar. He uses phrases like "ohikaenasutte" and "gozansu" and despite denying it, he DID learn it from someone, but not because he asked to be taught, he's trying to mimic Jimbei's speech! Luffy is even making the exact same pose Jimbei did when he officially asked to join the crew in Wano, with his palm extended like this. Quoting after this helpful tumblr: "it’s a very formal and now-obsolete greeting once used by yakuza and gamblers. you do indeed say it with your palm facing up like this, too, to show deference/inferiority." And this post explains the gozansu, also used by Jimbei.

Even Luffy's answer to "who taught you?" is a reference to Jimbei's answer in Wano.

In the original Jimbei answers with "dareka-san mo" instead of "well met", showing his modesty, perhaps. It literally means just "someone" and it's not really formal. It can also mean "you know who" when spoken about someone else. It also reminds me a little of "daremo" ("no one") form, it just uses "dareka-san" (literally mr. someone) instead of "dare" (who).

The main difference between those two scenes is that Jimbei speaks about himself when using "dareka-san", while Luffy doesn't, he speaks about Jimbei. And when "dareka-san" is used about third person (not yourself) it's often meant sarcastically, as in: "a certain someone got late" or "you-know-who got late" (without naming them, but everyone knows who you're talking about anyway). Of course, I would say Luffy is 100% unaware that it can come out this way, lol. I wonder if Jimbei is aware though or would it become a misunderstanding between them. Anyway, all things considered, I would actually choose to translate "dareka-san mo" as "no one important", which preserves both meanings (Jimbei being modest and Luffy's blunder just because he thought the phrase sounds so cool). When you don't know how to speak politely but try to do it anyway, you can cause more harm than you intended ;)

Does it mean Luffy thinks the way Jimbei speaks is cool and formal, and considers him a good rolemodel? Luffy clearly wishes he could learn some manners, he should just ask Jimbei directly to teach him, aww.

On top of that, this really cracked me up: Luffy refers to Saul per ossan (literally uncle, but can be said to any older person and is often derogatory and/or used for comedy relief), so Luffy is trying to be polite, but ruins the vibe by addressing Saul like a brat would, lol. Saul doesn't seem to mind though and just laughs (does that mean Saul thinks of himself as ossan??). This whole scene really feels like a parallel to Ace trying to learn manners and Makino laughing at him, because he thinks he's more polite with each try, but actually he's only getting worse and worse.

Interesting that Jimbei doesn't have a reaction to this. Is he that aloof that he didn't realize that Luffy is using words he heard him use before? Come on, he must have realized, none of the Strawhats talks in similar fashion. Or is he actually confused and thinks Luffy is mocking him?! Or did he teach Luffy all of that so he's not surprised? But if it was the latter then Luffy would be lying here when saying specifically that no one taught him. And we all know Luffy sucks at lying. Taking into account Luffy's ongoing pattern of imitating people (especially his crewmates), I would say he did it indeed on his very own and poor Jimbei is exposed to it for the first time. For once Luffy didn't do it for laughs, but it might have come out the wrong way, lol.

Take it with grain of salt though, I'm not a translator, just an anthropologist with a basic gist of Japanese language :) but this is how I understand this interaction given the context and Japanese sensitivity to how things are said more than what is said exactly.

Two things here. First, the way Robin speaks of herself, using phrase "watashi nanka". Nanka in Japanese grammar means usually one of three things:

give examples; things like… (basically naming few things in a sentence)

show modesty

make light of; belittling something (if you want to say something like "I don't like karaoke" and communicate your poor opinion of that activity without being direct about it, you can say it like this: "karaoke nanka")

In this particular case, we're left with either option 2 or 3. "They [Strawhats] protect someone like me". I will leave it to your own imagination whether she's belittling herself here or is just being modest, as I think both are possible. Also, often when you're trying to be modest, you downplay your own achievements or value, so you know, it lines up together.

Second thing to notice, is how Robin calls Strawhats her "cherished crewmates" (taisetsu na nakama). It's the third time already she called them this way (first one was in Zou, then Wano, and now here) ever since she initially left the crew all the way back in Water 7. Not even in Enies Lobby she declared herself one of them, just begged them to take her back to the sea again. Still, because this is the third time already, it might mean it's also the last time we hear it... the rule of three.

Seeing how modestly she talks about herself here, she might have thought that she doesn't deserve this second chance she got. Will we finally explore a bit more of Robin's feelings or is that all we'll ever get? I wouldn't mind either option, as this tiny moment is already very satisfying imo.

Yet another clone of Vegapunk? Should we be even surprised at this point? I had a feeling his plan couldn't have been just his sattelites surviving if he claimed confidently "I won't die". I guess if Lilith can connect him to Punk Records (the brain) it will be indeed like he never died? Huh. What is death in OP world indeed... not only that, he will be 20 years younger now ffs!!! Science is nice... when it actually works lol.

So, Lilith aims to build a new lab on Elbaf and Bonney wants to stay behind as well, and they will try to fix Kuma. Do I hear the dreams of Lilith and Bonney becoming new crewmates shatter right now? ;) I'm sorry but I warned you before, they're not the next Strawhats!

Wholesome moment btw, I really hope they will restore Kuma, even if they won't be able to get back his memories (though I would want them to). I don't care how many people complain they don't want this perfect happy ending. I think Kuma deserves happiness, not to die and sacrifice himself after a life full of misery. His whole life was about sacrificing himself like a tragic martyr, allow the guy to finally live a little instead of killing him off, because you think it closes his narrative purpose! (so what, now characters are just devices for plot, not having their own agency?) Think of what kind of message this gives, especially to the kids? And yeah, I know, not many fans actually care that OP is directed to kids as well, heh. But you generally don't want the kids to think life is miserable and everything you do is futile and inevitable, except your own self-sacrifice for your child. That shouldn't be the final message of Kuma's story, simply because it's supporting unhealthy mentality (your self-worth should not be dependant solely on your usefulness towards others). Overcoming that mindset though - now that is definitely a worthy message for the next generations.

And please, I'm tired of people calling Kuma just another Bellemere choosing love over themselves. Tell me at least ONE decision in Kuma's life that didn't inevitably lead to his tragic end, ONE decision that wasn't the result of his internalized martyrship (him thinking he doesn't deserve any better, but at least Bonney does), ONE time he actually did something selfish, only for himself. Triple no? Then no, Kuma didn't live his life, it was instead led by forces beyond his control. Which for me is way too dark of a message for One Piece and that means Kuma's story isn't done yet. We need to overcome that doomed narrative and he needs to find his happiness, the selfish kind, no matter how small that would be. And sure, I might be wrong, we all have been wrong many times about OP before. But that's my opinion, right there.

Walrus School! Or rather library and school, because seems library takes the most space here. The school is actually located in a treehouse like constructions? Pretty awesome! Way to make school look super duper appealing. And so close to the lake where kids can go to on breaks to just let out some steam, play or take a breather. So close to nature. This is like too good, too good, I say.

I wonder if the school has any deeper ties to the Walrus, was he maybe once a teacher here, a founder perhaps?! Not a stretch, considering the owl Bibelot managed the library for centuries?? I said it before I think, but fandom's attitude of not paying any attention to all those animals will bite us all in the ass. They're everywhere, as gods (here and in Wano and Skypiea), as servants in bathhouse (octopuses in Wano), means of transportation (also Wano), and the Zunesha, the special Duck Troops in Alabasta... not to mention, the snails! And Neptunians!

Now, I put all the relevant scenes with Saul together to answer the mystery: did he flee to Elbaf right after Ohara happened? And the answer is apparently: yes. He mentions he fleed here immediately, met Hajrudin, went with him to retrieve the books, then they returned to Elbaf, later Vegapunk visited (leaving his clone in Egghead). And that's how Vegapunk met Saul. He knew that Saul is alive for 20 years!! Plenty of time to tell people about it... for example, Kuzan.

Remember what I said about shaded eyes and it being a visual hint that characters are not telling the truth? It's true that Saul was Kuzan's friend. The lie here is the past tense. He still *is* Kuzan's friend, because he's still alive and Kuzan knows about it. That's why the last words he says to Robin is "Ohara still lives on" (anime has more direct translation of this scene than the manga. which is why I use the screenshot).

While we don't get to hear the reason as to why Saul didn't try to find Robin for all those years, we can already exclude some options from the previous survey. Also, Saul says in chapter 1134 (quote above) "I never thought I would have the privileage of showing you this [the library]". From these words and the fact we have it confirmed now that he stayed all this time on Elbaf and left only to fetch the books, we can conclude that Saul never intended to meet Robin again. Or at least never thought he will meet her. Interesting.

Also thanks everyone for the votes, but also special thanks for those who voted on "he thawed from ice only recently", I thought it would get a zero. Every time I saw a new vote there, I laughed :Dv

Shout out to this lady for knowing how to have fun and play along. You gotta appreciate the good vibe when you see one :D we all deserve this sort of friend in our lives ❤

Brook misses school? I guess at age of 90, you start to miss the weirdest things, huh XD

A friendly reminder that Zoro doesn't know how to play with kids, lol, and perhaps he's also a tad bit too serious. No wonder, as a kid he was almost exclusively doing training. Usopp on the other hand played a lot with kids from his village, or well, at least with the three of his followers.

Apparently, there was a shift in Elbaf's politics. They're no longer a warrior country, they yearn for peace, and they educate kids to be smart and considerate of others, instead of strong and unyielding. The shift seems to be rather recent, thanks to King Harold, the father of Hajrudin and Loki. Seems Hajrudin and his crew didn't get the chance to experience this "peaceful" education themselves, which is why they're the new Giant Pirates, and the last ones, unless something will change.

I bet you anything Loki wants Elbaf to still be a warrior country. Just look at his attitude. "I will beat up any pirate crew you want", "I would get rid of all of them if I were you". I would assume Hajrudin is also fond of the old warrior ways, since he made his own pirate crew, right? But he also apparently helped Saul fetch the books from Ohara, so maybe he was always a bit divided between the two sides of this schism?

I saw many people judge Elbaf really hard. "How could they work together with the villains (the World Government)!!!" Did fans already forget that Iceberg had to cooperate with World Government as well (which means whole Water 7 is allied with Government, because mayor's ties to Government dictate affiliation for the whole town). Iceberg had to do that to guarantee safety and it was a purely political decision, meanwhile Giants are strong and don't have to ally themselves to survive, right? There's probably something more to it.

Btw Ripley has this stripe-like tattoo pattern going all the way from head to her ankles, that looks a lot similar to Kratos's mark from God of War (yeah, that video game). Tekking pointed it out I think, and I thought it's a very interesting observation :D

It's always endearing to see Luffy so happy whenever he's talking about his Gear 5. "It's when I'm the most free!". He always smiles then like his biggest dream has come true.

This is the first time Luffy clearly hears that this is the form of fabled Elbaf warrior, I think. He's even paying attention and seems to like what he hears :)

I gotta say, this is one cool looking library. What's with the cute shrine-like roofs on the top right?? And that little chair next to Bibelot, who is that for?? Looks kinda human-sized! Bibelot doesn't talk with anyone, but was there once a human they talked with, that used to visit them?

Robin's reaction to the library. I love her expression here. "There's no need to despair". Wait, that's not part of Robin's flashback... but damn, it fits here so well.

I'm so glad Robin could meet Saul and hear how proud he's of her. For once I agree with Randy, he lately said in his vid that he thinks Saul's fake-out death was done right and his reunion with Robin is narratively strong (not weak, like many in the fandom seem to think), because it actually adds to the weight of her story instead of taking away from it. For her story to feel closed, we need someone who can connect with her and validate her efforts. I thought about it and concluded that the same applies to Brook and Law, doesn't it? Laboon can't tell Brook how good it is that he survived, but if Yorki survived he could do it for him instead. As for Law, there's still a possibility at least someone from his flashback actually survived. His story for now is so side-tracked and irrelevant to the main storyline that it needs to be connected back to it somehow, and a reunion could be a good opportunity for that. Also, Law simply deserves it too, you know. (they all actually do, but I can understand that not every reunion is needed for the narrative)

Time to go back to Loki for a moment and his mysterious penpal friend. I can't solve the mystery for you (or myself) yet, but I can share my observations (I reread this conversation way too many times in way too many translations and bits of it in original Japanese too lol).

Neither Loki or his friend call each other by actual names (that's right, Mosa never calls him Loki either). Seems despite knowing each other for a while, they might not know each other's names. They both seem to be somewhat immobile or stuck somewhere or at least with looots of free time on their hands and nothing better to do than to call each other often. First thought I had is Doflamingo, he is an immobilized prisoner and his biggest activity is reading newspaper (and perhaps using den den mushi if Magellan left him with one), but he doesn't quite fit this Mosa-kou personality-wise either. Or does he?

They know each other for a long time but could never meet for some reason. That suggests this friend is most likely not located on Elbaf or the thing they talked about, which happened to Mosa-kou's place, would have taken place on Elbaf as well.

His friend seems polite and despite going through some bad experience and being in position that could excuse revenge, he actually doesn't want violent solutions or thinks it would be "going too far". He leaves his enemies alive, but also wants some justice.

Even though this den den mushi seems to be special type and doesn't really reflect the looks of the person on the other side of the call, it's worth noting it has long eyelashes. Most likely suggesting that Mosa-kou could be a female. Might be something or might be nothing, lol.

Mosa-kou, translated officially as Shaggy, can be broken down into two things: kou being the way of addressing someone (nowadays can be used sarcastically, the unofficial translation uses the outdated meaning of "someone noble" which is also worth noting), and mosa is most likely coming from mosa-mosa onomatopeia which fandom claims it means "hairy". But there's a second meaning too: Japanese onomatopoeia "mosamosa", which is the sound effect of plants growing at a rapid pace. If Loki never saw his friend before and only ever called him through den den mushi, it's likely he would give him a nickname based on some sound he heard, right? Just to be able to address him somehow (though we should keep in mind Loki seems to have terrible memory with names). You know who can grow plants (at a rapid pace) just by walking around? Aramaki, the user of mori mori no mi. I'm not sure where this leads, because it's somewhat hilarious to imagine Aramaki speaking so politely, lol. But enjoy the mental image xD

Summing it up: Mosa-kou might be actually a female (maybe kept captive or a runaway from her own destroyed kingdom/home), long time friend of Loki but she might not know he's Loki from Elbaf, really polite and not fond of drastic measures, rather soft-hearted but with a grudge, but also kinda scared. And she has something to do with the mosa-mosa onomatopeia. Those are the possible hints, but not every single one might be correct (especially the female part, I mean, those are literally JUST eyelashes on a den den mushi). No one really from known characters comes to my mind as of now though. If you have any ideas please share :D or wait... it can't be Vivi, right? But she is polite and I'm pretty sure she is bored to tears on Morgans ship, and she went through a tragedy recently, but Vivi is not one to want bloody revenge (despite wanting justice). It could also explain why their identity is anonymous too (princess of Alabasta has to watch out who she reveals herself to, even before the whole Imu business). Just how is the nickname of mosa-kou fitting the picture?!

Let's rewind to mosakou again. I feel like we all got derailed, EVEN the native speakers that contribute to youtube. First, let's try to gather ALL possible meanings. The onomatopeia meaning: 1. hairy, 2. the sound of rapidly growing vegetation, 3. Mosa mosa - dry – dry food like overcooked chicken. 3. a dull person. Wait, one of those is definitely NOT an onomatopeia. Let's dig deeper. Look, someone asked about it on HiNative and this is their answer:

The Japanese phrase 'モサ公' (mosa kou) is a slang term used to describe someone who is perceived as being uncool, nerdy, or socially awkward. It is often used in a light-hearted or teasing manner to poke fun at someone's lack of social skills or fashion sense. Example 1: A group of friends sees a classmate wearing outdated clothes and glasses. They might jokingly say, "Look, it's モサ公!" to tease him about his appearance. Example 2: During a school event, a student gives a long and overly detailed presentation about a topic that no one else is interested in. Afterwards, his classmates might whisper to each other, "He's such a モサ公," to comment on his lack of social awareness. Overall, 'モサ公' is a playful term used to describe someone who is seen as uncool or socially awkward. It is important to note that this term is not meant to be taken seriously and is typically used in a light-hearted and teasing manner among friends or peers.

Now that explains the dull person. It's the type of person who always tries to be proper, acting slightly nobler than thou despite not neccessarily meaning to, which kinda means they have no sense of fun, don't fit into teen trends and are a bit dull, because too serious and old-fashioned in a way. Okay, don't kill me now, but this sounds more and more like Vivi to me. She is serious, she always worried and needed Strawhats to tell her to have some fun, because they can't teleport to Alabasta any faster anyway. Makes sense to me. Which means this possibility can't be just dismissed... LOKI AND VIVI ARE FREAKING BUDDIES??????

It's been pointed out to death, but I will also say it. Loki indeed seems kind, he listened to his friend, got mad for their sake and related to their struggles, even saying (indirectly) that he would definitely help settle the matter for them, and scolds Mosa when he thinks they should be less soft or people will stomp all over them (in Japanese he calls them amai which is naive, pushover). And seems his friend saw right through and thanked him for his kidness and concern, clearly touched a little. They might not be best buddies, but close enough now that Loki's friend knows already what type of person he actually is and that he has a caring heart. That heart, though, seems to be hurt, which is why he gets angry and lashes out when called kind. He doesn't want to be perceived this way, he probably *doesn't want to* act this way, but it's stronger than him, which is why he gets angry. Someone betrayed him or used his kindness against him, and ever since he tries to put up a harsh front. He's very determined with that too, as seen from his last line "just wait and see when I break free from those chains". This isn't a threat to Mosa, no, this is a promise: Loki will show the world he can also be cruel and not kind, in other words: he will get back on whoever betrayed him.

I don't remember who said it (Tekking perhaps?), but I saw the suggestion somewhere that this is all about Lola betraying Loki by not marrying him, but eh, I wonder. Lola doesn't seem to be the kind of person to use someone's kindness like this, unless all of this was just a misunderstanding. Or am I getting Lola's character all wrong? Though I could imagine her leaving Loki in the dust without as much as a direct goodbye (she kinda did the same to Big Mom lol) or only a forwarded message through a third party. I assumed she would only treat Big Mom this way, but it's possible she is just wired this way, a true carefree soul.

Also, who left that den den mushi for Loki? Again, my bet is Hajrudin. Loki is his brother after all, no matter what happened in Elbaf or between them.

Few random observations grouped together here. It's indeed very handy that there's an owl that can gigantify objects in Elbaf, lol. Very convenient, Oda, very convenient indeed. I know he probably has some story reason (he almost never doesn't have one), but it's still quite hilarious right now. I hope we will see Chopper attempting to talk to the owl. Damn, you want my wild guess? I bet no one was able to speak with that owl for centuries and the last person who did was maybe... Joyboy himself? :D that's a very easy way to make me excited: just mention Joyboy, lol.

Why Joyboy in particular? Well, he seems to be connected somehow to minks and Zunesha, right? That suggests some affinity towards animals. Also hints from Wano: 1. the person who talks to Zunesha will lead the world to the dawn (presumed to be Momo. It's based on his conversation with Yamato "Momonosuke, you can talk to the elephant? Then Oden was right, you will be the one to lead the world to the dawn.") 2. Various people waiting for Joyboy (Kozuki Sukiyaki, King, Yamato, presumably Kaido as well). This all kinda suggests that world waits for the return of Joyboy. The whole narrative around it is kinda convoluted though, because story suggests at first that Yamato thinks it's Momo, but later they find out Joyboy is instead Luffy, despite Momo being the one who talks to Zunesha etc. Anyway, I'm getting offtopic, just wanted to explain why animals make me think of Joyboy lol.

That comment from Chopper and Bonney is interesting. "The letters are too big, it's too hard to make out". Some people pointed out those letters might be readable and it's one of the rare moments we see proper writing in OP world. They kinda do look like stylized english letters (I can definitely see the E and O). But you know what I'm thinking? Letters on poneglyphs are also big which can make them... too hard to make out. Hm?! Are you seeing my vision here?? What, you think it's too simple and someone would figure it out already?? Nah, people like to overcomplicate things (and I'm not immune to that either). They don't expect child-like answers. Anyway, I might share in separate post (this here is not the place) me reading two words from poneglyphs (no, not the infamous pandaman in katakana from Alabasta's poneglyph lol), it will not be what you expect though. No ancient languages, no mingled syllabes of Japanese alphabets, no runes. No codes or ciphers. You will actually probably laugh.

Anyway, that book Robin is sitting on. Curious about the title? History of... we can actually make it out, I think. Yep yep. It's most likely four-letter word. Second letter looks very distinct and it can only be a G (look at the rounded shape, no other letters does that this way on the lower half of the letter). The third letter is most likely R. Last letter is most likely A, though we see the least of it so this one and the first one are the most debetable. First letter can also be an A.

Which gives us AGRA. History of AGRA. That's the name of a town where the famous Taj Mahal is located (a heritage that didn't yet inspire any OP location so far). Is it a hint or is it just an easter egg of some kind? (but why would THIS be an easter egg lol) I dunno, but it was funny to guess around just by looking at keyboard letters, LOL. Keep in mind I'm only convinced 100% for the letter G and like 80% for letter R, hahaha. Not sold on A's, we see way too little of them to be sure, and if there's more letters than four, then only GR stays likely.

Also look at the cover of the Archeology book Robin was holding. What's that sign on it? :D looks a lot like the sun symbol we see in so many places in One Piece, like on this collage I made before for my Red Line-All Blue half-baked theory. Pasting the image below for the convenience:

Right? It's even made up of two shapes on the book cover. One looks like crossbones or crossed blades, and the other looks like a cross. And together they look a bit like a compass :D compass would be more fitting for a geographical book than archeology, but oh well. Is that the symbol of the world? Some kind of ancient religion? Symbol of ancient civilisation consisting of two fractions joined together? Did they go separate ways and fought each other in Void Century?

It kinda reminds me of some historical archeology book covers like this one: The Historical Turn in Southeastern Archaeology, the subject in this one is searching for common roots and connecting the vision of the pre-colonial to post-colonial native culture. Like pre-void century state of the world to post-void century's one? :D I remember King Cobra mentioning the difference between pre-void century and post-void century world was huge, so it makes sense some books would exist that try to explain or fill the gaps. Would be definitely one of the books from Ohara's collection. Damn, this all sounds more and more like our anthropology, archeology and history, trying to paint a picture of the past world based on some old preserved documents only 😭 this is too real, Oda.

What, you think I'm crazy making so many assumptions based on one image of book cover Robin was holding? Why not, sometimes you need to be daring not only in OP theories, but also in scientific world, or you might never get any answers or even directions which way to go to get anywhere. The time and other researchers will definitely confirm or deny your hypothesis or even take it further. That is, when the science actually works like it should...

Luffy is really disappointed with Elbaf and you can feel his frustration. This isn't the Elbaf from his dreams lol. I bet a lot of the fandom also feels this way. I kinda like the unexpected twist, it adds to the bigger picture of the world which is indeed changing. Less and less warriors and more businessmen, peace-seekers and political alliances. It's almost like OP world shifts from post-war state towards capitalism.

And we learn that Giants and humans marrying each other is actually possible (we suspected that ever since Lola and Loki, right?). They also can have children. Which makes you think, other races mixing with each other is *also* a possibility. Fishmen and humans, minks and humans, for example. I think we should stop shying away from this thought anymore. It's pretty much confirmed at this point.

Also whoever Ripley's husband is, he sounds like a sulky brat xD that excuse is so lame! What did she like in him?! I guess he really has to be a great warrior if she excuses him lol. Who's your bet on her husband? Chances are, we know him, especially since Ripley calls him young. Is it someone from Shanks crew? Is it Yorki? Many want him to be Scooper Gaban. I don't get the hype about Scooper Gaban tbh. We know literally nothing about that guy, where's all that hype coming from?! Is it just because he was part of Roger's crew? LOL. Anyway, sorry if you expected analysis on who Ripley's mysterious husband-not-husband is, but I think this requires mathematical skills I don't have. We just know he's kinda young and a really strong ex-pirate who can take on Giants in the fight. Maths is my Achilles feet. To narrow down your candidates you need to consider things like age of Ripley, age of Roger Pirates, age of Collin, possible age of Yorki, ages of Shanks crewmates and other candidates, my head is already spinning from simply imagining all the numbers LOL.

I can say this though: they're clearly still not OLD, because the phrase is "they will be the only one to grow old" which suggests they're not yet at that stage, they're just foreseeing it. And I think that actually excludes Roger Pirates, bye bye Scooper Gaban. Shanks crew is definitely a possibility, hypothetically, but it would mean they're not a current crewmate anymore?

Aaaand the rest of the crew has now Elbaf outfits as well :D half of it thanks to Rodo, half of it thanks to Gerd. So it seems Gerd has the same hobby that Rodo has, which is sewing clothes for humans. Match made in hell, those two, lol. She's in seventh heaven here btw and Rodo was as well when we saw him sewing the clothes and doing his roleplaying game. She can claim all she wants how much she despises him, but imagining them on a sewing date is just too perfect.

This page got so much hype, because woooo mysterious ability. Yeah, I get it, I heard it a hundred times already how it must be something related to bandages or tying things (even though we see no knots). I like the idea of calling it mira mira no mi (has a nice ring to it) which is mummy mummy fruit :D

If I should add something from myself here, it's that those bandages are in very specific spots. Are they tightening up on the veins, inspired by this pumping measuring device for blood pressure (you usually do it on the arm like this, and thigh might be because some of the most important arteries are there)? I can imagine how squeezing arm and thigh strongly enough could make someone pass out tbh. I also hate the pumping sensation sooo much of these blood pressure measuring devices lol. Anyway, taken from the mighty internet, like always: Anything that increases pressure on the artery walls can lead to elevated blood pressure. Look at the giant's face, it's so dark, like it's red, which means blood is flowing to his face! When you faint you usually go pale instead. But, your face can go red from increased blood pressure, apparently! And when the brain senses that, it sends an impulse for the body to relax (which is why the Giant falls down, like suddenly weakened) and eventually this can lead to fainting. Hm, but using the bandages like that suggests some kind of medical knowledge from the girl.

For example, I would have not guessed any of that, without googling stuff and you know, I like to google all sorts of things (the more you know :D), like "what condition leads to blood flowing to the face" (high blood pressure) and then "symptoms of high blood pressure" (you get shit tons of results for that, but some list things like "weakening the body" and "even fainting"), then ask "what can cause high blood pressure" (among your results you can get the line i found about artery walls), now time for a bit of imagination and then you feel like you have a "gotcha!" moment. Add some hit-and-miss google asks in-between as well, for the good measure, haha.

The girl also has her face hidden with bandages. She seems kinda impatient and down-to-earth, if not to say, a bit bossy, right? And very serious. That's as far as my first impressions go, lol.

Typo warning. Anyway, hi Stansen! It's so nice he could find a moment to talk and bond with Luffy :D this reminds me how much Oda cares for all of his characters, no matter how insiginifcant they might feel to us, right? I learned to really appreciate it after Oda delivered us the Bartolomeo-Shanks confrontation, which I thought would be ignored for the sake of more important plot.

Just a cute shot of the Strawhats that are on the feast currently. Special call out to Zoro there, drinking on his own instead of socializing, with hs back turned, lol. That reminds me he isn't the most social out of the Strawhats, actually, he's one of the least social crewmates.

Franky, Robin and Chopper stayed at the library with Saul. And we know that trouble is brewing in the castle not far from here (interesting that no one seems to have noticed it with observation haki). Now here's the question: will the God Knights just waltz inside the tavern and ask people politely where Loki is? Lol, if so, that will be a sight. Or will they go straight into battle-mode, noticing the Strawhats? :D oooor... will they join the feast? The girl seems down to earth, but what if she's secretly a glutton too? But can she eat with those bandages on? xD

So this is one of the Elders. I admit I forgot we saw them already in Big Mom's flashback, my bad! He indeed looks like a big mountain, haha. It's interesting he's over 400 years old. That means he's the second generation after the Void Century, right? He must have heard stories... but seriously, what's with that sword in the head?! I admit it's kinda hilarious and fits the Elbaf's vibe, but eh, he didn't have that in Big Mom's flashback yet. Is it related to whatever happened to King Harold, perhaps? Or is it unrelated whatsoever.

Last thoughts. We see the throne's room in the castle. It's empty, but there are some interesting details. The throne itself seems to have been cut at the right shoulder's height. Was this Loki's ax? Or...

Look, isn't it a bit suspicious that God Knights are here? They could have appeared like that before in Elbaf and assassinated King Harold without anyone knowing, and blamed it on Loki. With no witnesses and God Knights pinning the blame on him, he would be in serious disadvantage, especially if people also believe him to be cursed since birth and about to bring the end of the world, you know? Loki would be the perfect scapegoat to pin the murder on. Meanwhile, Government has a long history of betraying their supposed allies as soon as they don't need them anymore or they simply think it's safer this way, or whatever really. And look, the guards don't even know who those God Knights are or how they got into the castle, this is clearly NOT pre-arranged arrival or a common occurence!

The God Knights want to find Loki. Somehow, him being chained is saving his ass for now and other giants not giving out his location "in case you want to free him", are helpful in protecting him, whether it's intentional or not. Yeah, I wonder... do they want to get rid of the last witness of what they did to King Harold? Is that related to Loki's blindfold and special bounty somehow? He didn't actually *see* who did it? Does it make any sense?! I dunno, but I totally dig this option for now. Simply because it seems *fun*. More fun than to imagine God Knights collaborating with Loki to end the world together (why would they even do that? Especially when the Giants are officially Government's allies and consider Loki the enemy of the state?).

As for the magic circle, someone pointed out (I'm so sorry I don't remember who it was anymore) that the letters look a bit like bolded poneglyphs. Yeah, sure, why not. I like how the smoke looks like white flames. I really want to know more about black magic in One Piece. Did they use to have wizards?! Did they once summon a devil?! Gimme some sort of spell, please :D

I hope I entertained those of you who reached the end of this post :3 I can't wait for the spoilers for the new chapter ngl.

[moon-buggg]

Alien au yn pulling this move in the boys bathroom

Srsly tho , i knoww it's nitpicky but I've read a number of alien abduction Stories and for some reason they never talk ab hygiene 😭😭 i remember being specially concerned ab teeth hygine bc they never once talk ab the mc Brushing their teeth but somehow they dont fall off?? Having Said that , it has been ab 2 weeks Time Since yn has been living with the boys right ? , i can't imagine sun would tolerate a dirty "beast" on their ship but also , he doesn't seem at all to want to touch us , does he just ignore it ? Does moon just sprayed us with wáter and called it a day ?? I can imagine the guyz just leaving a Piece of paper in the floor for yn to go to the bathroom but idk if we would want to take a shit In an open corner lol , I'm.going with the assumption that they just figured out the alien bathroom , if i remember correctly it's mostly the same as a human one except , well , proportionate and stuff lol , Since it's only been a few days their teeth Will probs not fall off Yet but plsss sun and moon get us dental care 😭😭 sorry if too much bathroom talk but ive been thinking ab it for a while

No I totally get it lol I've often read a fic and have been left wondering about the logistics of the bathroom situation lmao. It's pretty common in fiction in general to be hand wavey about this kind of nitty-gritty logistical stuff because like, who cares about where the characters are pooping when there's plot that needs to happen?

When it comes to hygiene, I do plan to address it sooner or later, but yeah yn is pretty grubby at the moment. The thing is, it's not really in a way that I think the boys would notice/understand? Nothing on their planet really has hair or anything similar, so they have no frame of reference for what it looks like dirty, so they don't automatically jump to 'we should wash this thing.' (plus like, I don't really want to get into describing yn's hair cause they're meant to be a blank slate and different hair types have different care needs, you know?) They're washing up in the sink as best they can so they don't outright stink, and for now that's enough to not make Sun attempt to wash the alien beast.

Sun and moon are both still operating on the assumption that they're going to dump yn at the next port and leave them to be someone else's problem. Sun is mainly concerned with how he's going to have to super deep clean the whole ship once yn is gone rather than the idea of washing yn. These guys also don't sweat, so their hygiene needs are different than ours.

As for teeth, yeah I mean it's probably not great but there are things that can mediate the negative effects. Like running a cloth over your teeth in place of a toothbrush. Diet also plays a big factor in cavities and such and there's not really much sugar on the ship to rot yn's teeth. So they'll probably be fine. I'm getting handwavey with it because I don't really care about dental hygiene when there's alien slowburn to be writing

And toilet matters too. It'll honestly probably never get addressed in fic cause it's just not fun to write about lol. I imagine that yn sneaks into the bathroom when they can get away from the boys, and the boys are simply choosing not to think about it. Like Sun tried to put down a pad of paper that was, obviously, never used and when he didn't find any 'mess' anywhere else he just chalked it up to alien weirdness.

[nartml]

Naruto is my absolute babyboy, but my fuck, do I hate who he's become in Boruto, and I gotta hold him accountable.

(Like, the naruto antis are ppl I usually scoff at, but damn do they have points about this)

The reason most of us can't stand this show has nothing to do with something as silly as ships (or at least I hope not)(listen, actually, I could talk about how nh's and ss's relationships negatively affect Naruto and Sasuke, but ultimately, it's really not about that)

It's because it messes with both Naruto and Sasuke, their characters and their convictions. How the fuck did 17 year old Sasuke go from hating the system and all it upholds, from understanding that this shit isn't okay, to someone who is essentially a lapdog?? Um, no

And Naruto? Sweetheart, what happened to the promises to both your friends and enemies? Where did your desire to end the cycle of hatred go? Why are you okay with changing fundamentally nothing after promising that you'll turn everything around? Where did your numerous realizations about the faults of Konoha and the Shinobi world and the cycle of hatred go?

Like, I feel as though through the entirety of Naruto, we were constantly beaten over the head with the fact that nothing is okay about the current way of the world, and in the end, the goal was 'become Hokage to turn these things around' ?

And then Boruto comes, and holy shit, nothing has changed and Naruto has entirely forgotten everything his 17 year old's self had seen, promised and decided.

I feel like Boruto just entirely diminishes everything that happened in Shippuden, and that annoys me.

(All this said, I should clarify I have not watched Boruto nor do I intend to. These are just all things I've inferred through seeing clips here and there, and other people's takes on Boruto, so if I'm not getting something right, then oops) (the vast majority of the clips I've seen are sns moments, because somehow we're still getting fed even though they're both married and got kids 💀)

(Antis DNI pretty please)

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

I don't understand Meckett and I don't understand the octopus/pumpkjn appeal. How does it work? sell it to me becaus now i'm curious???

I mean, Mercer/Beckett is a classic Servant/Master dynamic but with murder and a general ruthlessness to both characters which is always a lot of fun to engage with.

I remember first liking them because of that conversation they were evidently in the middle of when Governor Swann is brought in. At some point Beckett says to Mercer something like, 'So you see, Mercer, every man has his price even for that which he didn't expect to sell.' (Very rough paraphrase.)

At the same time, in that scene, Mercer is listening to Beckett and Swann talk while faffing about with that telescope of Beckett's, which is not something he should be doing as a servant but clearly has no compunctions with making use of Beckett's things which means it's something he has long, long been allowed to do.

And I thought it interesting that Mercer was allowed such freedoms and that Beckett and Mercer were evidently having conversations of a somewhat philosophical nature, that Mercer felt comfortable enough to disagree with Beckett - and evidently thought Swann wouldn't have a price when it came to Elizabeth, which is a really interesting insight into Mercer's character, and that Beckett clearly respected Mercer's opinions on these matters.

Later, when Beckett is about to die on the ship, he sees across the battle the ship that Mercer was on switching sides, indicating that Mercer is likely dead, that's when his face hits the 'oh fuck, I'm fucked' look. And I've always loved interpreting that scene as Beckett believing, even to the very end, that somehow Mercer might rescue them. That when Mercer is dead, that is when everything is over.

Fundamentally, their comfort and comradery and the innate trust between them is very well rendered and makes writing them together a lot of fun.

They are murder and blackmail husbands and I love that for them.

----

Mercer and Davy Jones isn't one that I've actually written. I've just enjoyed talking about it with people because it's so fucked up given how Davy Jones kills Mercer - it is so intimate and so vindictive and so brutal.

I know most would see it as revenge for Mercer taking Davy's ship from him, but I love reading it as revenge for some past betrayal or hurt. That Mercer did something, a long time ago, and Davy has never forgiven him for it. And heartbreak is a classic one for that!

We know that Davy is capable of love and deep wells of emotion, while Mercer on the other hand has three (3) emotions and one of them is Murder!!. I think Mercer has a fundamental ruthless coldness to him, on a deep soul level, that doesn't exist in Davy Jones even though Davy is a hard and cruel man.

Not to say that Mercer can't feel things, I think he feels some warmth for Beckett and obviously an absolutely insane bonkers level of loyalty to the man, but I can see him tearing someone's heart out and not even really registering that he is doing it.

So, I think Davy and Mercer had this past situationship of some kind, God knows how or when, but then Mercer is like "alright, I'm done, I'm bored, moving on" and fucks off to old blighty and Davy Jones hasn't seen him since. Cue POTC and the whole fall out from that.

---

Basically, it's something like this:

Beckett: Really? The squid man?

Mercer: Octopus, but yes.

Beckett: Why? Seems unhygenic.

Mercer: I was twenty-five and bored? You and Walpole were all up in each other's wigs, my lord, as a general reminder of past Decisions.

Beckett: We are not relitigating me and Walpole... was it any good?

Mercer: I've had worse.

Beckett then gets weird about it and possessive because Beckett likes possessing everyone and everything in his vicinity and Mercer finds it endearing because he's not ok and the rest is history.

[piracytheorist]

Spy x Family 30 Day Challenge

Day 14: Favourite couple?

what do you mean it's been two weeks since I last posted about this challenge I do what I want

Of course, TwiYor, of course.

One of the things that first caught my attention about them was the balance on the both sides, that they both had ulterior motives to get into their fake marriage. And while Twilight's lies are far deeper and bigger, it's very important to me that it was clear for both of them, from the start, that this would be a marriage of convenience where behind closed doors they could drop any (or most) pretenses and actually be (a little) honest with each other. It's not a case where a criminal takes advantage of an innocent civilian, or a case where deception and seduction took place.

So while yeah, they're both lying to each other and actually keeping deadly, dangerous secrets from each other that could get the other in trouble, their relationship is actually quite balanced and the one thing they don't lie about is their feelings for each other.

Although Twilight is lying to himself about how he feels for her, my dude, how can you be looking at your fake wife like that and still believe that oh it's fine it's just for the mission??

Also, they somehow make miscommunication so fucking funny to me, and that's a feat cause I usually have a distaste for stories that only happen because the characters can't communicate. But somehow this works perfectly for me and has me in hysterics???

I think it's partly to how the differences in the characters are made to clash here. Yor is deeply kind and humble, so she jumps at the opportunity to learn what a "proper date" is like, so she will have something to tell her coworkers when they ask her about her married life. She genuinely believes that the date is for cover and learning purposes, and that Loid is "teaching her all those things"... meanwhile Twilight, meticulous and analytic as he is, starts this whole thing in an effort to cheer Yor up, so while at first he sees her so willing to go on the date, whatever he does ends up with her having a constant scowl on her face. I don't know if I'm biased because I love them together or because it's just that well-made.

And this is just the basis of it. The way they treat each other actually melts my heart. Twilight genuinely respects and relates to Yor sacrificing herself for the sake of raising her brother and the unprecedented honesty he shows with her as a mission asset actually allows him to treat her well. The circumstances of this mission is giving the opportunity for the real man underneath all the masks to shine through, and that's someone who respects Yor for who she is. And Yor is just genuinely kind in general, this fake marriage is one of the most supportive connections she's had in her life, which allows her to build herself up while also being supportive and understanding in return.

In a few words, for both of them, this is the most honest they've had the chance to be with someone else, both getting and giving understanding at the same time. And we're still talking about a spy and an assassin that hide huge parts of their violent lives from the other, so it's amazing that they've accomplished that through a plain but mutually understood contract.

I don't actually ship characters often, I can count on one hand the times I was invested in a fictional relationship. But when I ship, oh boy do I ship. I love them so much.