#this entirely contradicts other headcanons I have about these two but that’s okay I have two hands I can hold both of them 😊

[the-bi-space-ace]

I'm back on my Echo and Crosshair bullshit and none of you can stop me.

I think Crosshair has never felt such an urge to yap at someone before Echo showed up. He is so confused by it, just as much as Hunter, Wrecker, and Tech are, but the moment Echo joins them and spends daily life with them all he wants to do is talk. He follows Echo around at night after missions, chatting, without even realizing it. He tells stories, updates him on their first ever missions, actually shares random thoughts that pass through his mind. The moment they're back on the Marauder and done for the day he just can't stop himself. He tries, oh boy he tries. He has to straight up cover his mouth with his hand sometimes because whatever is happening to him is unbelievably embarrassing. And Echo has no idea this is out of the ordinary. He just assumes this is how Crosshair is. He is near silent around anyone outside of the squad, only opening his mouth to say something snarky, and when they're alone he lets all of those pent up words out. Echo just lets it happen. And he's happy to have someone to distract him.

Hunter, in particular, is perplexed. This simple, snarky, quiet man he's known forever is sitting on his bunk wide eyed telling Echo his like fifth fucking story and Echo is just nodding along, interjecting where it fits, and is none the wiser that this is not typical Crosshair behavior.

Hunter: what the fuck is happening? Tech: *looks where Hunter is staring* Ah, yes, I believe this is what they call 'making a new friend.' It makes sense that you'd have no idea what that's like since we do not have any other friends. *walks off* Hunter: >:(

The image of Crosshair being so pissed about wanting to yap is so funny to me. He has this battle inside himself like why do I want to talk to him so much this is so humiliating I can't believe this is happening to me what is going on and Echo is just like cool I am making new friends isn't this wonderful? All my new friends want to talk to me :)

Cross starts to mellow out after they get used to Echo being around all the time and soon they start switching off who is quietly sitting and listening while the other chats without pause or breaks.

[codegeassfacts]

C.C. x Lelouch Side Material and Statements post R2 //Canon

I'm making this article in order to have a full article about everything canon about C.C., because I found an article about them which was mixing canon release like character poem and profile and non canon ones like novels or editors article from magazines, which led a lot of people to be confused or mislead about C.C.. In this article you'll only find canon material, which means, no content from the magazines like Newtype, megami, Animage or Animedia, as those are text made up by editors or novelist, they don't come from the staff; unless of course, those are interviews, or staff release content (Like the Newtype booklet from 2008 which came with the Newtype but was filled with staff information/comments) Same for novels, for Code Geass, novels aren't canon, they are made up and more like headcanons and interpretation from the author who wrote thoseas as confirmed by Mamoru Isawa (Code Geass novels authors) and Goro Taniguchi (Code Geass anime director) in a discussion they had at tht end of one of the first novels.) Anything that's not from the staff is made up (that's why a lot of novels contradict each other and even canonical event from the show)

Those are canonical release that you can use to understand what C.C. was about in canon OG (and some elements about her relationship with Lelouch) Enjoy !

(I only added the during R2 and post R2 release, as they are those which holds most the answers about C.C.)

******************************

So For C.C. We have her R2 character Song, Connect, which is a lovely song i'd advice anyone to listen :

CODE GEASS Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 Sound Episode 1 CONNECT / YUKANA

You can’t see ahead, you can’t read tomorrow Your face from the side looks distressed Searching for the answer, your heart is withering You hide your weakness, too It’s okay even if you cry softly Remove your mask of bravado Because on a night with only the two of us, I’ll accept you You’re not alone

I’m embracing you with my heart Spreading my wings that envelop you Even when the times are good, even when it’s not so I’m by your side Everything is cold to you And the dark night seems to be endless Nevertheless, because the beginning will take place, I’m always watching you

Because even when we’re able to understand or oppose each other I’m supporting you I’ll promise you, you may believe in me Our encounter was inevitable You softly and tenderly Wiped away my teardrops Because your clumsy fingers are warm

I’m not alone If you would overtake yesterday’s dream And stand still somewhere Then close your eyes and feel me I’m by your side

Because even if the season when the two of us Will be walking on separate paths comes someday I’ll become the wind connecting the remote starry sky It’s okay even if you cry softly Remove your mask of bravado Because on a night with only the two of us, I’ll accept you

You’re not alone I’m embracing you with my heart Spreading my wings that envelop you Even when the times are good, even when it’s not so I’m by your side

Everything is cold to you And the dark night seems to be endless Nevertheless, because the beginning will take place, I’m always watching you

Note : This song is lovely and filled with tenderness and care for Lelouch, I think it fits perfectly her feelings toward the end, where she was finally there to comfort him; She can see his suffering and wants to watch over him, it's a more positive view of what she feels when it comes to his pain that of her poem, which holds a certain darkness. I think Yukana's statement about C.C.'s feelings being akin to those of a goddess could fit, but seiyuu's views aren't canon material so it's up to interpretation (especially since we have no canon answer about her feelings)

****************************** C.C.'s regret message from the Code Geass Complete Best.

Waga Routashi Aku no Hana (My Beautifully Elegant Flower of Evil)

From the entire beginning, I should have warned you. That the power of the king would isolate you. You will lose your friends, become different from your childhood friend, and you will be betrayed by your subordinates.

Your parents will vanish from your sight, your siblings will disappear like dew.

Yes, it's terribly burdensome. And pitiful.

Now, your sole companion is solitude. There is nobody who will embrace you, who has been smeared in blood. Rocks have been pelted at you by many, and as retribution, you trampled over them. At that time, nobody noticed that the shriek that was secretly welling up inside your heart.

Yes, it's pitiful. Seeing that visage, my wounds often throbbed. Now, I think you to be dear because you are miserable. As the pain kept stabbing your tender heart, why does this feeling of solitude gradually heal?

The whole world is pelting rocks at you, showering you with insults. That is something the I have experienced from this world.

Without realizing, you have shared me in my solitude. Without knowing, you shouldered my sins.

It's as if you are a poisonous amaryllis blooming from the ground. Only I know of its elegence.

Note : C.C.'s character poem is actually quite dark, she talks about Lelouch's burden and explains how, while he was shouldering more and more pain, she was slowly healing, she even came to say that seeing him in pain had her growing more attached to him;

Not to say that C.C. Is some kind of sadistic, but we get the feeling that most of all, her solitude and her past trauma are what burdened C.C. the most, with Lelouch having to deal with the same misery, she was able to heal, as if he was taking this misery instead. I know some C.C. fans weren't happy about her poem and the undertones of it, it's more obvious in japanese but it implies strongly that C.C. used Lelouch to achieve happiness. I personally absolutely love this poem, because It's a very sad, and yet incredibly elegant poem, like C.C. and I think it fits her perfectly.

************************

Code Geass picture drama Turn 9.34

While Lelouch, C.C. and Kallen conduct a mission in China, and Lelouch gets fed up as ending up cross dressing as a woman, C.C. ends up showing a bit of envy at the thought of how fun the school crossdressing festival and activies looked, and Lelouch tell her when they get everything back, if she wants to be a student, she'll be able to experiment this life (The whole thing end up in classical Lelouch/C.C. banter with her planning to open a pizza club and having Lelouch as the vice president)

Note : While it echoes Turn 9 and Lelouch asking Kallen to get back to Ashford with him, it's still quite different, since Lelouch doesn't ask for C.C. to come but he notices she is interested and he reacts in telling her she'll be able to do those things she wants to do if she wants to. He basically shows he cares in a very Lelouch way, and we still get a nice banter between them so it definitely belonged there.

You can watch it here

Code Geass picture Drama Turn 22.05

You can watch it here

This picture drama happens right before Turn 22 and allows a talk between Cecile and C.C. where they talk about their aspirations, past and about their relationship with Lelouch and Suzaku ; It's actually pretty interesting for C.C. since Cecile actually asks her if she loves Lelouch and she doesn't seem to know (In Turn 24 she'll give a very similar answer to Kallen); It's very interesting to have this talk between those two older ladies who have been watching over the boys from their side during the show.

My own analysis : For C.C.s feelings I think it fits the major theme of her character, Lelouch made her feel human again through a contract which became a promise, so she certainly has an hard time figuring out what Lelouch is to her, even though he is special. We have to remember this woman lived for hundred of years and her views of feelings and love in general might very well different of the one of those who lived only for a few years compared to her.

******************************

NT Booklet : The only content of interest about C.C. and Lelouch is in the Turn 24 corner and about this picture drama, the staff talk about how they thought it would be nice to have C.C. in a long gown playing lyre; They also say that C.C.'s role was to watch over Lelouch till the end (The rest is about Schneizel, his world and Suzaku and C.C. believing in Lelouch's world)

**************************

And Last but not least, C.C.'s various official profile :

CC profile on Geass*net (Geassnet was a website available through cellphone only in japan it was run by the staff and had a fee of 300 yen/month to access to it) You can see those profile being refered in various forums, community, or in wikipedia (there were picture of the various profile but photobucket didn't kept them because this website really suck)

"Knowing that Lelouch does not hate her for giving him the Geass, she is now able to show her true feelings. With the realization of "Zero Requiem", her time with Lelouch, who was able to forgive and accept her, came to an end, but the memories created with him has, without doubt, saved her from eternal loneliness."

C.C. Profile on the Code Geass R2 Complete Official Guidebook :

"After she found the orphan child of Marianne, and because of what happened with Mao, C.C. chose to not give geass to the young Lelouch and to watch as he grows, but she was captured by Bartley. When C.C. found Lelouch in Shinjuku, she gave him Geass to save him from a dire situation. To Lelouch, who was devoted to fight for his desire and got intoxicated by the power of Geass, C.C. declared, "You and I are accomplices" ; It is a self-defense measure born from her experience with Mao. Surprisingly, Lelouch kept respecting the position of an accomplice.

While she is entrusted to be a body-double and negotiator, he never asked for her to be a mother-figure or a lover; It is thanks to Lelouch that C.C. was able to be considered an equal for the first time as a partner.

Lelouch, who promised to fulfill her wish despite the unfair conditions, became a special existence to C.C.; When C.C. was trying to protect him in exchange for her life, Lelouch hoped for her to live and repeatedly said “I will surely make you smile!”. To answer those feelings, C.C. sealed her code and resisted Charles. She chose to believe in Lelouch.

Her trust wasn't betrayed. Even when she lost her memory, Lelouch did not stop being kind [to her], and when he launched into battle resolved to kill his beloved sister if it came to it, he did not utter a single word of hatred.

This is probably why C.C. has found the resolve to live for a long time. "Hurry up and go. Then come back. You're going to make me smile, aren't you?" As C.C.'s words suggest, what she received from the partner she finally met after hundreds of years, was a powerful "promise"."

***Note: The major theme behind C.C.'s story appears to be the evolution of a contract between witch and human to a promise between two human beings. In another one of those Code Geass ironies, C.C. became human by choosing to keep her immortality.

** All the translations were made by Galvea, Lixiangxing, Blottyparchment, Koshimizu, Roon, Lie, i only double checked since I owned the material (Those translators are part of those who worked hard to translate most of the material which was available during and after the Anime airing; You can find a lot of discussion about those over the internet on Gamefaqs/Livejournal/Animesuki if you want to triple check.)

Main source

Note : I know some part of her profile launched some riot in 2ch back in the Geass airing days (a lof of side material did actually.) but I think it eventually fits the show, even though everything wasn't crystal clear, especially when it comes to C.C., who suffered a lack of screentime in R2 (especially compared to season 1) While I was first a Lelouch x C.C. shipper during my airing days watch, I found myself not shipping them much as a romance (I still very much enjoy their relationship, but I have a different view of it now) when I rewatched it years later, it just felt different from what I thought i had seen at first, so I can now say I understand those profile and informations better and am not really surprised. Above all relationship matter, the fact Lelouch forgave C.C. and never hold any grudge against her has probably saved her from her loneleliness, and to be treated as a human being again, with this powerful promise, has certainly done wonder to her.

I would have loved a sequel with C.C. wandering around the world and discovering more of her humanity. There were so many great things to do with such a character within the canon timeline, but sometimes I think they created a character way too complicated to write and that's why they never were able to actually use her to her full potential.

As a Bonus I'd like to add this short snippet of Yukana's blog (C.C.'s seiyuu) that she wrote after the end of R2.

It surprised me that so many would ask me what C.C.'s real name is. I'm happy that so many are interested to know. I'm sorry! Taniguchi has cast a geass upon me... C.C.'s name is... Au..Au.. (it's a cute sound she often write on her blog) Eh? What was it? My apologies! I've forgotten! >_< That's how it's become. I think I'll cherish this name until the day I (C.C.) meet someone who I really want him to call me by the real name

I thought that while the whole thing was incredibly cute (at the same time, Yukana is), the last line was even sweeter. That's about it for C.C., Hope her fans enjoyed.

[turbo-tsundere]

do u wanna talk about. gonta <3

give me ur small headcanons about gonta :3 the little details that u imagine about him!

Ah, I'm okay with stewing in my own thoughts, since I know headcanons are very personalized things that others might not be too interested in xD But since you're asking, I'll happily share some. Thank you! <3

I'll try to stick to what I consider pure headcanons - some serious, some unhinged - but I'll mix in some theories/interpretations/speculations or inferred stuff too (to me these are distinct from headcanons, which are made up). Anyway.

Gonta's not wearing shoes, because it's uncomfortable, if not painful for him to use those, and he's not aware orthophedic shoes or foot orthoses are a thing. This is kinda based on my own specific experience (due to my condition I'm advised to walk barefoot or only wear special shoes, anything else, esp flat and soft ones, causes my spine to hurt and affect mobility), but living barefoot influences posture, musculature and gait - and modern shoes *supposedly* can weaken our joints and muscles, or lead to contusion if badly fitted - they affect entire posture, so I imagine finding ones that'd be comfortable long-term would be very difficult for Gonta given how he's fully adapted to live without them.

His hair doesn't make sense to me in-universe. Shouldn't it be cut the moment he was rescued? No specific headcanon here, but I wonder if there's a story behind it. Was Gonta afraid of scissors? Is he simply embracing his wild-child origin? Is this a sensory issue? Or is this some proof of neglect on the side of his parents? Or maybe it's really just unruly like that...

I imagine Gokuhara residence to be built in traditional Japanese style. No reason other than to contrast Sonia's implied European princess castle style and Byakuya's modern corporate background. It's prolly not, given Gonta emulates the british gentleman stereotype, but if I were to include it in a hypothetical fic, I'd explain the contradiction with historic Anglo-Japanese style and mutual cultural fascination between the two countries, and depict his family home interior as mix of both styles.

Gonta's tie is made from golden orb weaver spider silk, and thus extremely expensive!

If Gonta wasn't lost in the forest, I like to imagine entomology would become his childhood hobby, while his actual ultimate would end up being something more, hm... conventionally and imposingly "serious" and "impressive", even if still somewhat adjacent to his initial passion. Perhaps neurobiology? Some type of bio-engineering? Dunno, but... He's incredibly academically smart. He learns so fast. Got lost for 10 years, still caught up to others, and by Hope's Peak rules, he'd have to already be in normal highschool to be able to get enrolled. This guy basically speed-runs 10 years worth of education and social adaptation in what I imagine would be 1-3 years tops. So imagine what could've happened if his education wasn't interrupted. What if he moved on (or was perhaps pressured by his family, bc prestige prestige legacy reputation prestige) to some other, "bigger" things? And what he'd be like, personality wise? Would he be... a bit mean, just like his parents? Or still sweet but broken, just in a different way? Maybe he'd be more outwardly cold and cynical, more indoctrinated into the whole Gokuhara mentality, but secretly unhappy about it... Definitely just as concerned about how others see him as he is now, but with a different undertone to it. I think about "Gonta who never was lost" AU quite a bit... (insert multiverse AU where both versions of Gonta meet each other, and see something they'd wish to achieve or lost in one another.)

Gonta's favourite music genre is heavy metal. No reason for this other than his side-interests are often surprising and it'd be really funny.

[ENG localisation assumption/theory] Gonta's much more eloquent in writing than he is when speaking. Reasons being, that in canon, unless he doesn't know a particular terminology, or misses subtext, he actually doesn't have trouble understanding anything people are trying to say, and even though his speech is broken, it's still packed with meaning and communicates clearly. Plus he wrote a book in DR:S, and said something about making it easy and basic for those who'd like to learn about bugs. Aka his passive vs active vocabulary imo has a gap. That's very common for non-native speakers, and could easily be his case given his situation. Tbh I love thinking about his relationship with language, and I don't begrudge localisation like many people do, even though I always stick to original voice-acting, so JP in this case. Learning or re-learning language isn't a linear process, and there can be a lot of unevenness and fluctuation between reading vs listening vs speaking vs writing, or even understanding vs pronunciation skills. Gonta's language skills seem uneven, too, as his longer sentences tend to be less broken than his short ones (my translator friend had interesting doylist opinion about it to my watsonian one), and imo that's cool show-don't-tell indication he's in process of learning. Oh, and realistically, I think he'd have to learn speech from scratch, like Marcos Rodríguez Pantoja did, which I think is the closest real-world example of Gonta's situation.

Gonta's secretly like Goku or Superman, a member of a super-strong alien race who, when he was an infant, was sent to Earth in a tiny space-pod. But due to his severe self-esteem issues he never realized this about himself. I mean, look at the guy, he even has an aura around him at one point. Also GON-ta and GOKU-hara? That's two shonen references within the big JoJo one.

Alternatively, Gonta is one of Rantaro's missing sisters, except now it's a brother (I can't get over how Rantaro's locks seem like short version of Gonta's hairstyle. Both are green haired rich kids too. Hmmm. Suspicious!)

(tbh I don't seriously subscribe to these two origin headcanons, but I DO find them amusing)

I don't really have settled on anything here, but it always fascinated me that Gonta speaks in third person. Why would he do that at his age, when he wants to be a respectable gentleman? Either way, sometimes I wonder if this isn't a form of distancing himself from... himself. Another expression of how little he values himself. After all, talking in third person, culturally, isn't always to appear cute, but also to show humility, selflessness, or distance from one's own ego. What if in his thoughts, he talks to himself in second person? What if he berates himself the way he was berated by others? To further dissociate, to further de-personalise himself. Not sure. But it does make me think, and I'd be tempted to include that motive somewhere.

Like with shoes, this is just me projecting due to my own conditions and experiences, but what if Gonta needs to wear glasses not because of short- or farsightedness, or for pure fashion, but due to mild binocular vision dysfunction? He does look slightly lazy-eyed in some sprites (left eye). Frankly, it's definitely just drawing imperfection, but hey, it's interesting to speculate about such things.

Gonta's reaction to receiving a sweater during FTE ("It brings bad memory"), his sleeping habits, and particular choice of underwear make me speculate whether he has difficulty wearing clothes. Maybe he even hated them at first. In my mind, there's this scene where he's recently rescued, still unable to speak much - he's forced to wear a sweater and things turn upsetting to both him, and the person who attempted to put it on him. Perhaps his mom? Maybe Gonta panics, thinking he'd be restrained, or hating the sensation of scratchy wool on his skin. Or maybe he was snuck up on. He ends up accidentally hitting, or pushing his parent (likely for him, remember the instances with Shuichi almost falling off stairs in FTE, being accidentally pushed onto bed in LH, or knocked out by being run into in Ch2? OMG AND YEETING POOR KIIBO TOO. Gonta has very consistent pattern of getting physically reckless when emotionally agitated). He feels so, so ashamed and heart-broken, when he realises she just wanted to take care of him in her own way. Things sour, and he ends up being looked down upon as feral or uncivilized. Dunno. But that's my headcanon for what this "bad memory" could be. I'd certainly write a scene like that for him, for that delicious angst.

Likewise, I don't imagine retrieving Gonta from the forest as some peaceful and idyllic reunion. It's hard for me to think it wouldn't feel scary, if not traumatic, depending on who would've found him and what methods they used to capture Gonta… or at least deeply confusing and alienating, even if seeing his parents again would make him happy (but would they provide the care and compassion he'd really need at this vulnerable time?). The forest was his home and the whole world at this point, for pretty much the entirety of his conscious memory. And then he's just brought back, and has to accept this is his life from now on, because everyone else acts like it should be. As human, this is where he belongs, doesn't he? And he just rolls with it. Maybe the wrongness of it doesn't even dawn on him, but the impact is there. Again, thinking about the Pantoja case.

I really love how Gonta makes references to FMA or Layton etc., or talks how he enjoyed spy novels, or comedies, and then goes 'oh, gentlemen should do this, or that!" based on those. To me that's a sign that he's mostly left to his own devices, when it comes to learning about social norms. He's trying to self-teach from where he possibly can, and ends up using insufficient or misguided means, in this case, fiction that he enjoys. It's one of the few sources of knowledge that wouldn't make him feel inadequate, so I wouldn't be surprised if he gravitated towards it. Extremely realistic imo, but also sad, as it might subtly imply parental negligence.

My headcanon/theory for DR:S is that Gonta's life is a bit better in this universe. Maybe his family doesn't treat him as badly or perhaps distance and boarding at Hope's Peak helps. But it stands out to me that he doesn't talk all that much about becoming a gentleman there, mostly about bugs. Barely calls himself stupid, too (I remember only one particular event when he does that).

I think that's more than enough. Thank you again!

[randomseacucumber]

Okay, fine. Trans girl Ralsei manifesto.

So, the thing about Ralsei is that she is the Prince of Darkness from the Prophecy. This is the first thing we learn about her; that she is the Prince, and that she has spent her entire life alone, waiting for the heroes of the Prophecy. She introduces herself as the Prince, and tells Kris and Susie about the Prophecy, and their roles in it, before she even tells them her own name. This introduction scene serves primarily as exposition, but it also tells us some very crucial things about Ralsei. Primarily, her entire life is the Prophecy. And therefore, her entire identity is that of the Prince.

And identity and freedom are huge themes in Deltarune. We see it with all of the characters. Kris struggles with being possessed by the SOUL, their autonomy stripped away from them, and as the only human in Hometown, they feel out of place, specifically in the context of their family. Susie struggles against the labels others impose upon her, and her character journey revolves around finding purpose and acceptance.

And Ralsei canonically has some of these same issues. As previously stated, her entire life revolves around the Prophecy, to the extent that she doesn't know how to be a person. In Chapter Two, she tells Kris that she doesn't know what being 'Ralsei-like' really means. She consistently puts herself down, and offers herself as a literal stepping stool for Kris and Susie. In Chapter One, she says something along the lines of 'Darkners can only find purpose and happiness from helping Lightners.' This line in particular really stood out to me when I first played the game, because of how wrong it seemed. And it is wrong! And it does a great job of showing how Ralsei views the world and her place in it!

Her entire existence is the Prophecy. Her entire identity is that of the Prince. And by the nature of the prophecies, she is not allowed autonomy. In fact, the fact that Deltarune's plot revolves around a prophecy further emphasizes the themes of freedom and identity.

Where this ties into Ralsei being trans is that acknowledging her gender is something she would have to choose. It's something that would place her in conflict with the Prophecy, because she would be rejecting the gendered nature of her role in it. And her finally accepting her gender would be a really good moment for her character arc, because it would be a huge example of her making an autonomous choice.

Furthermore, in some ways, Deltarune is already kind of a trans narrative. Identity and freedom are themes that tie in well to the trans experience, and the queer experience in general, and some of Kris's struggles can be viewed through this lens, and not just because they are non-binary. They feel alienated from everyone around them, as well as likely from their own body. The way people view them is not who they really are (because they are being possessed, and therefore are having their actions controlled, which is not a standard queer experience, but the point stands).

I don't necessarily know if this subtext was intentional, but I like to overthink, and it ties in really well with Ralsei being trans. And this also isn't to say that Ralsei is even supposed to be read this way. It would be awesome if this headcanon of mine was correct, but I frankly don't expect it to be, and maybe there will be something next chapter that completely contradicts everything I just said.

However, at the same time, there is evidence in the game itself that suggests that Ralsei may feel comfortable with femininity and prefer being perceived that way. When you equip her with the White Ribbon, she asks if she looks cute. When Tenna introduces the team at the start of the game show in Chapter Three, she curtsies. In Chapter Two, when Susie steals her glasses, you can see that she seems to be wearing makeup. All of these things are generally considered exclusively feminine, and would generally be played as a joke if a male character did them in a lesser piece of media. And of course, none of these things necessarily exclusively mean that Ralsei is transfem. But with how thematically cohesive Ralsei being a trans girl would be, I do find them interesting.

Anyway, this might all be nothing. I've never posted meta before (does this count as meta?) because it's scary and I don't want to accidentally start a fight, but I've been thinking about this for, uh, a while, and only like two people are probably going to see it. So. Thoughts on trans girl Ralsei. I hope they make sense. I do have thoughts on Susie and gender as well, but they're still not in a coherent form at all, so I probably won’t post them super soon.

[ineffablelara]

Series Loki, Avengers Loki and the "real Loki"

Okay so, I've been wanting to write about this for a while now, I always see people talking about how much they love series Loki because that's where he's most comfortable with himself— and I agree, I love him too and I think it's great that he learned to accept more some aspects of himself and got more comfortable with showing vulnerability to others as well as allowing himself to make meaningful connections with the people around him

BUT

Saying that Avengers Loki is not the real Loki just tells me you don't really understand Loki as a character at all

I'm part of the few people who don't entirely buy into the headcanon that Loki was brutally tortured by Thanos in the 1 year gap between Thor and Avengers, I think he did went to very bad places but it doesn't make sense to me that Thanos would break physically and mentally the man he was sending to lead an army on a different planet to get him an infinity stone, I believe he had to fight for his life after his fall and Thanos probably submitted him to a very rigorous training like he did with his daughters (yes, one could argue that that was tortue but let's be fr, it's on a whole different level)

Anyway, my point is: Loki didn't attack Earth against his will, he was angry and hurt, feeling betrayed by his family and dealing with an identity crisis, he was livid, he went through hell after his fall and now he had a chance to cause some trouble for Thor and Odin and he was going to take it

I don't believe Loki really cared about Thanos' philosophy and the whole "freedom is a lie" thing, he was parroting what Thanos told him to cause some dramatic effect but I don't believe, not even for a second that he gave two fucks about it, again, he wanted to make trouble and to cause damage, he wanted to hurt Thor and Odin bc he felt hurt, he didn't care that innocent people were going to die, he didn't even think about them, he just wanted to channel his anger and to piss off his family, and ykw?

That's the real Loki

Because Loki is not some perfect little angel who was forced to do bad things against his will in order to survive, Loki is a vengeful God, a being of chaos, a master of magic and sometimes... an asshole

Sorry, he's not the little baby we all like to pretend he is sometimes, yes there's lots of pain and shame and sadness inside his heart but that doesn't erase the fact that there's some ugly parts in his personality, that's what makes him so complex in my opinion, he's not necessarily evil but he's also not necessarily an innocent baby either, he said it himself:

Believe it or not, that applies to him too!

Avengers' Loki shows us the "ugly" parts of himself—parts many would prefer to ignore. But sorry to break it to you: that was the real Loki too.

Some might argue that the whole "God of Mischief" persona was merely a facade to hide his vulnerable, weak self, but I disagree. I believe Loki did use his title to build walls around himself and keep others at a distance to some extent. However, things aren’t just black and white—Loki is the God of Mischief, whether people like it or not and that means he thrives in chaos sometimes

I mean, he even tells Mobius, "Sometimes our emotions get the better of us," when talking about the New York attack. I know some people don't like that scene because it contradicts their headcanon of Loki being tortured and forced to go to Earth, but personally, I love it. I never liked the idea of Loki having so little agency in Avengers. And yes, I know the Mind Stone was influencing him, but that’s the key—it was influencing, not controlling

I think what I’m trying to say is this: some people don’t truly understand who Loki is. They’ve created a version of him in their minds and reject anything that contradicts it. Refusing to acknowledge the darkness within him only proves that you don’t fully appreciate him. You can love series Loki and say that it's the more mentally healthy version of the character, but please don’t claim that Avengers Loki is his worst version—or that it’s not the real him.

Maybe I'm being annoying but it just hurts every time I see posts trashing him and saying that he's the worst Loki ever, to me that's one of the most fascinating depictions of him precisely because we see how malicious, cunning and calculating he can be, he has so much range and I genuinely feel sorry for all the people who can't appreciate that

[ryo-apologist]

Feathers and Ashes

Shigaraki Tomura x Reader x Keigo Takami

CW: Spoilers, but at this point, they aren't new. This isn't really headcanons or a story, just my thoughts on it. Depictions of toxic relationships.

AN: Okay. hear me out here- HEAR ME OUT. It's always Shigadabi this, Hotwings that, which yes. They are elite. They are delicious. But there's a whole market being missed on Shigahawks. Dusty feathers if you will. All I know is I want to be between them and no one is letting me without letting Dabi in too.

~Darling XOXO

☾ It doesn't matter what side of the war you're on. Not anymore. When entangled with a hero bred from a society crumbling beneath the weight of their owns sins of the very idea of heroism and the villain aiming to destroy it all with a simply touch of his fingers and leave it in smokey ruins, you don't get an opinion.

☾ Maybe you do, but it's biased. Hawks wants to preach that he's a hero, he's one of the good guys, but Keigo can't even believe that himself.

☾ How can he when he has the blood of someone who saw him as an ally still warm on his palms, seeping through his gloves and tainting his very soul. The one still flickering with the hope he had as a child.

☾ Hawks and Keigo are such interesting characters. I say 'and' because I personally view them as two different entities. Not in a split personality way, not, but as in Hawks is a mask that Keigo wears to protect his fragile little heart so no one can touch it. And if we chose to delve into his entire character, he's full of so much gray morality, truly I could write an essay on him and his entire motivations and how he's so much more than what the fandom devolves him too.

☾ Shigaraki Tomura on the other end of the spectrum is an individual so tainted and rocked by a past soaked in trauma thats never been addressed in a proper way that he's blind to positions that even slightly challenge his own. His rivalry with Stain back in season one (two? Idk it's been awhile.) set his character, and thus development, up in the way that told the audience he didn't like challenges to his authority in any way. The following fight against Overhaul confirmed this. There's a difference between the way he was characterized as childish, which he is, and the way his reactions played out to these challenges. With Overhaul, this entire thing showed that above all else, Shigaraki is strategic. He's incredibly intelligent when it comes to battle IQ and war fronts and has proven it. (Not with the USJ incident, but liken that to starting a game. You never know how to play first round, but play around a bit and learn the controls a bit better and you get better.)

☾ Now, why do I say all of this in a post about a threesome with crust one and two?

☾ It's important to know why I find this dynamic so interesting because these two as individual characters are interesting, but look at their parallels.

☾ We have two children, surrounded by broken homes, that need a way out. Their quirks give them that ability, but at what cost? The cost of gathering the attention of adults who know right from wrong, taking them in and indoctrinating them in all the wrong things while encouraging enforcing propaganda about ideologies that directly contradicted what they were preaching.

☾ Neither side is truthfully right, argue with the wall about that (I'm not saying they're justified in how they're handling the war, do not get me wrong about that), but Keigo and Tomura will be damned before giving up their spot in the war, and that is something so fun to play with.

☾ Alright, back to the fun stuff you clicked read more for.

☾ Your opinion? Doesn't matter. In fact, I would avoid that topic entirely between them. Hawks is willing to kill for what he believes in, may Jin rest in peace, but so is Shigaraki evidently.

☾ Keigo and Tomura, however, are willing to set aside their ideologies.

☾ Do not get the idea that this is a healthy relationship by any means. No. I do not believe that even in his darkest depths Shigaraki is capable of anything moderately healthy. In the same vein, I don't think Hawks is either. It's not feasible with their lifestyles, it's not feasible with their missions, it's not feasible with their characters.

☾ Shigaraki is infamously territorial and possessive. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. He wants what he claims is his, and he wants it now. He has the power to do so, he has the will, he will get what he wants.

☾ The only way I can see this happening is this: Hawks takes up a secret lover, how this happens is hard to say- pick your poison, I personally love them being a villain playing undercover hero and getting close, but that's me- and Shigaraki catches wind of this. Let's say we run with that idea, of the sweetheart being a villain of their own right, then they aren't affiliated with the league. Or maybe they are, I don't know. But Hawks and his villain sweetheart are running around, the former believing this is a villain trying to make a change and Keigo wants to help them, if a bit weary.

☾ And Shigaraki notices. Nothing big like the number two playing around with a villain goes on in the underground without him knowing. So he knows, and he doesn't know what the villain sweetheart is going after, but he wants in. He doesn't want anything opposing his rise to power, especially not some half-baked jack-off that thinks Hawks will save them.

☾ But then he meets them and maybe they aren't as bad as he hastily decided. He still doesn't like them, but he isn't going to dust them right away. They chat. Maybe they're threatened to fall under the League, or maybe they're willing to team up in exchange for something. Drugs, money, fire power, hard to say.

☾ But villain sweetheart refuses to give this up. Dabi fucked up with Hawks, he pulled the trigger pin far too early. But them? They have it locked down. Hawks is learning. It's subliminal, it's conditioning, it's something so small that Hawks only picks up on it when something in his routine changes to accommodate and by then it's too late.

☾ I think Hawks is honestly too smart for anything big, honestly he's probably too smart for any sort of manipulation.

☾ For the most part.

☾ Oh you thought I'd leave it at that? No. Think about the Dabi situation. He's down, he's vulnerable, he's been outed and now he's hated by the country. Hawks is dead. Keigo is yearning for something to grasp onto, to hold that won't crumble between his fingers like his hero career currently is.

☾ Now is the moment to strike. You have villain sweetheart offering up information about a mafia group they don't like, giving their information the benefit of the doubt and giving them the title of 'useable'. Not trustworthy, but the heroes take their plea for redemption with some merit.

☾ And Keigo clings to them the moment they offer any sort of apology, fake or not, for what happened, because it's an acknowledgement that he was wronged in some way shape or form.

☾ He's weary of being hurt again, but should villain sweetheart capitalize on this? Work their way deep into his shuddering and quivering heart and take post there? Manipulate the situation so that his focus shifts from hero politics to them?

☾ And then they team with Shigaraki?

☾ Keigo, not Hawks (Hawks is dead. He will remain that way. Keigo is running the show even if he's running it off a cliff), can be considered a guard dog. He's not trusted, fuck no, not at all, but he's defense. He's not trusted as offense, but canon fodder? Absolutely.

☾ If his villain sweetheart needs him, he's there.

☾ Shigaraki isn't happy, but he's too interested in villain sweetheart to let go. So what's the obvious solution?

☾ There isn't a good one. Hawks is, at this point, enamored in a relationship so dependent it's hilarious. He can't let go and he can't be alone, not again. He's done it as a child, he's done it as a hero, and he's hated it. he can't be alone. He can't, he can't, he can't.

☾ But there's a new toy in the toybox, a new piece on the board, and Shigaraki wants it. He needs it, no matter how useless it'll turn out to be. It's a piece the other side doesn't have. An uncontrolled, unpredictable, undocumented variable.

☾ To a degree, he knows what the heroes will do. He knows him and Deku will fight. He knows that. They, admittedly, know he'll do whatever it takes. They know he's going after their foundation built off of All Might and anything, especially Deku, to take it down and he's willing to take quirks to do so.

☾ But this new piece? No one knows what they want. They don't know who they're going after. They don't know what is driving them. And that, in a war, is dangerous. It can make or break either side.

☾ And Tomura Shigaraki wants them.

☾ Keigo has been proven as a non-threat to him. He's not dangerous anymore. He's been disarmed once, he has a blatant weakness to which they can exploit. So if he wants to cling to this variable then so be it. It's not on his radar.

☾ Anything Hawks can do to him, he can combat with his own quirk. He's not worried.

☾ Keigo is terrified. His quirk? We need to be so real. It's cool, yes, helpful, absolutely, but in the grand scheme? Not that combat oriented. He can't beat any of the big bad villain players unless their own quirk isn't combat based. Like Twice. Toga, I feel they are pretty evenly matched and will come down to something like swordsmanship and training. Dabi and Shigaraki? Not a chance. I hate to say it, I'm a Hawks baby fr, but being a Hawks person means I can admit he's only all that and a bag of chips because the commission pushed his image to be that.

☾ Anyway, Keigo? Terrified of losing his sweetheart. He's following them no matter what just trying to garner where they want to take this and how.

☾ So, where are we now?

☾ Keigo, with his hero persona long dead, is clinging to a villain who's using this to their advantage all while said villain is behind the scenes, working with one of the biggest players on the board currently. Said big player thinks this new piece is little more than a morsel of advantage over the other side, but this new piece has taken what is essential a bishop or knight (a piece that you never really think about until you're pinned by them) from the other side and converted them.

☾ Shigaraki is willing to ignore Hawks, but Keigo isn't willing to do the same. It's too risky for him, so he's right back where he swore he'd never go again into the lion's den.

☾ So it's a stalemate. Shigaraki isn't willing to let go, but neither is Keigo.

☾ It's a dynamic that is endlessly interesting to me and something I feel the fandom can explore. Dabi adds spice, but it's been beaten in every way with Shigaraki and Hawks and all three together. But he's got his share, Dabi's kicked to the curb for now. Let's explore these two as one pairing, because their dynamics are endlessly interesting with their parallels and their characters.

☾ I'm getting rambly so I'll end it there. I'm sure I'll write so much more about what I'm dubbing dusty feathers because I love them so much individually and can only imagine them as a pair.

[hyperfixingfr]

I just saw this post and it reminded me of something I have yet to say

This is literally what this fandom does with Hoagie's implied queerness, Kuki's implied masking (aka; her overly upbeat behavior being a front) and Wally's implied autism/neurodivergency. I could go on about the first two but I sort of wanna focus on the last one especially because it takes a bigot or an obtuse person to deny it.

Look, I get it. "Respect other headcanons" and all. But is it a headcanon if it directly contradicts canon? Yeah, okay, it's not directly STATED that he's autistic. He doesn't look at the screen and say, "I'm autistic". And you know what? I don't even think it was intentional. I don't think Warburton was actively thinking "I want to write an autistic character" when writing Wally. But the truth is, autistic people have always existed, whether they were diagnosed or not. Warburton most likely used reference of his own experience with certain people in his life for Wally, and happened to use autistics he had met as a base. You can see it in Hoagie too, but it's not as prominent nor the center of this discussion.

Tell me, if you saw somebody confirm, whether through words or actions, that they fit the criteria EXACTLY for a specific disorder, disability, or illness, would you try to claim that it could just be coincidental? Any sensible person would say "no". If you fit all of the official criteria for anything, you are automatically that thing. You can deny it but it doesn't make it any less true. The entire point of a diagnosis/medical terminology is to give a name to somebody's experiencing of a specific set of conditions. When somebody experiences these specific sets of conditions, it means they have whatever they end up calling it. It's pretty simple.

The reason why I bring this up? Wally can be diagnosed using the official DSM-5 criteria. Yes, through the show. Think about it; we see Wally acting naturally. They don't know a "camera" exists that is watching them. Throughout the entire show, Wally ticks off criteria after criteria for autism. Not only does he meet every single criteria, and demonstrates himself meeting the criteria far more than once for each criteria, but he also happens to exhibit commonly observed behaviors of autistic individuals, such as meltdowns, trouble with school, and aggression when confused or upset. It's not him just barely making the mark, he has at least 3 different instances of him meeting the criteria for autism for each individual criteria. By definition, he IS autistic. This is objective. He is factually autistic, whether or not anybody said so. And if you have experience in the field of psychology or mentally disabled understanding, this won't surprise you in the slightest. As somebody who knows a lot about abnormal psychology, this stuck out to me immediately when I first watched the show. He almost acts stereotypical at times, and some instances of him meeting the criteria feel so intense that you really can't argue logically that he may be neurotypical.

He is factually, indisputably, without a doubt, autistic. He fits the criteria for ADHD as well, but people usually don't deny that one. I do see a lot of people trying to convince themselves that he ISN'T autistic, though. Normally I respect headcanons, but that isn't a headcanon. If you believe he's neurotypical, you aren't giving him a headcanon. You're denying actual facts. Whether you're denying psychology and what we know about autism, or if you're just denying his sole case, it doesn't matter. You are objectively incorrect if you think he's neurotypical and the only way I can describe why I know this is by telling you to try arguing that the sun doesn't emit light and see for yourself the way that saying something false over and over again doesn't make it true. The sun is going to emit light whether you agree with that or not, and the same applies to this kid being autistic. There is literally no reason for you to feel so strongly about this that you want to claim he's neurotypical, unless you're incredibly dense... Or ableist. It's a fact, not a headcanon.

[bucksdaffy]

'buck wasn't jealous that tommy was stealing his best friend from him. he was jealous because it was eddie who got tommy's attention and not him.' yes but he Thought he was jealous of tommy stealing his best friend. just like he thought he was jealous of eddie being all hot and cool and taking his spot in the fireman calendar. and as for wanting to get to know him better... that seems pretty self evident. buck assuming that maddie was talking about eddie when she called chimney cute, gushing over eddie to maddie to the point where she jokingly asks if it means he's got over abby, skipping down the street when that lady thinks chris is his son, the infamous kitchen scene...

sigh, i really don't get what you're trying to prove here.

although we are watching 7x04 from buck's pov, we don't really sit in his head. we don't get to see his thought process. so we don't know for sure what he thought about the whole situation with eddie and tommy. we can only theorize. you think he thought he was jealous of tommy stealing his best friend? okay. i, for one, think he wasn't quite sure whose attention he was after. i think he wasn't consciously aware of what was going on inside of him and he just went with the flow. but that's the problem – all of this happens inside of him, and as the audience, we have no way of accessing that. so ultimately it doesn't matter what WE think was going on in buck's head. why should it? by the end of the episode it's clear to both buck and the audience what was actually happening with buck all this time. and that's all that actually matters. and because we lack the context, which is buck's inner journey throughout that entire episode, we also have to believe that buck is telling the truth once he realizes that eddie wasn't really a factor in his pursuits. saying he's still confused, when he openly admits it was tommy who he was after is... a choice, considering this is probably the most honest and vulnerable he has been.

when it comes to him being jealous of eddie in 2x01, we don't really have enough of canon proof to question if what he thought was going on was actually the case, because nowhere in canon is it contradicted, as opposed to 7x04 where the bait-and-switch is actually introduced.

and all these little moments you mention... well, again, we're stepping into fanon right now.

when i headcanoned buck as bisexual, i actually considered almost all of these as hints of him being bi. little did i know i was wrong in some areas, because i assumed buck more or less had known about his bisexuality since before s1. but he had not. and because of that all these hints pretty much lost their significance for me.

the thing is you can still interpret all of these moments in a platonic way. buck assuming that maddie was talking about eddie when she called chimney cute? yeah, probably because eddie is conventionally attractive. maddie joking that buck has a boy crush on eddie? yeah, they're siblings and siblings love teasing each other. a random lady assuming chris is buck and eddie's son and buck not correcting her? could have been very well because he didn't feel like explaining to a total stranger how he is not gay. or perhaps he was so confident in his sexuality that he didn't feel the need to correct her. the only scene i have never seen as something that indicated buck is bisexual is the "wanna go for the title" scene that is very famous in buddieland. i have always viewed it as a platonic banter between two friends and nothing else. but i think it's also worth noting i had already stopped shipping buddie at that point.

because of all these scenes i used to think that buck might have had a small crush on eddie in s2. i believed it was largely subdued by his situationship with abby and him being completely oblivious of his attraction to men, and that it naturally died out by the time s3 came around. but now that buck is canonically bisexual i have a hard time believing it again. i don't completely discard the idea, so if the writers confirm it in canon i won't be very surprised. but it is no longer something i consider to be the case at the moment. and neither does canon.

[uhhhitsme]

002: Duke Keane?

002 | Give me a character & I will tell you

How I feel about this character: 

All the people I ship romantically with this character: 

My non-romantic OTP for this character: 

My unpopular opinion about this character: 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

my OTP:

my cross over ship:

a headcanon fact:

one: i am so sorry for the extremely late response. i started writing this yesterday and finished the questions but then my page reloaded and it all got sent to shit and it was 12 am so i just. gave up. two: youre so cool btw thank you for all the lovely comments on my fics :DDDDD three: so hahahahahah i havent watched nmt2. and by extension have not seen killer track. ITS FINE.

HOW I FEEL ABOUT THIS CHARACTER: i desperately need this guy to give me a hug none of you get it. it would actually fix me. like im being so serious right now maybe some of you gay fucks (/lh) want to dick him down i need him to give me the biggest hug in the entire world it would make my entire life so much better. i absolutely adore him with my entire heart---he treats hannah nicely!!!!!!! in the witch in the web!!!!!!!!!!!! he's so freaking sweet to her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! his dynamic with ms. holloway is so cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he desperately wants to do good for the world, to make a change in someones life, to help others, and that sparks so so so much joy i love him so much.

ALL THE PEOPLE I SHIP ROMANTICALLY WITH THIS CHARACTER: well obviously. ms. holloway. THE power couple of all time. wilbur because it would be funny. and. uh. ted. NOT BECAUSE ITS A BUDGET CURTWEN SHIP. WELL YES. A LITTLE. but also because i read two wonderful fics by amythestunarmed (?) (i think) on ao3 that dstroyed me and i desperately am in need for more content their dynamic is so cute.

MY NON ROMANTIC OTP FOR THIS CHARACTER: probably him and rose. i dont know anything about rose but idk i feel like theyd be a fun duo.

MY UNPOPULAR OPINION ABOUT THIS CHARACTER: okay so i dont really get why i see people all the time being like "everyone treats duke as a sidekick!! we need more love for duke!!" like idk man. he seems pretty popular to me. i see a billion trillion analysis posts for him all the time. maybe because im not really that into the hatchetfield fandom i like dont get it but 🤷 i do think he deserves the attention i love him so much the guy ever!!!!!

ONE THING I WISH I WOULD HAPPEN WITH THIS CHARACTER: guys im delusional i genuinely think he and ms. holloway could have a happy ending in miss holloween. i know they wont get it. BUT PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE THEY LOVE EACHOTHER. PLEASE ITS NOT FAIR. PLEASE. IT MAKES ME SO UPSET PLEASE I WILL DO ANYTHING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. JUST LET THEM LOVE EACHOTHER. PLEASE.

MY CROSSOVER SHIP: uhhh i dont neccarily have one but someone should put him with keith swanson for the sillies

HEADCANON: i think ms holloway has a thing about pie??? he doesnt actually like it but he comes to the diner all the time to eat it anyway because homeslice is down BADDDDDD. this might contradict canon but it would be really funny to me if he's shit with animals. or on the flipside. he's TOO good with animals. they follow him around all the time and he doesnt know how to make them go away. modern snow white fr

[itsshellybitch]

New oneshot! Spoilers for the new special under the cut

********

I have long headcanoned that Shelly has had body image issues. Another headcanon of mine is that after the Lorde incident, her girl friends distanced themselves and Kevin remained her only friend. Last night's special officially contradicts those (though I still think that she has body image issues to an extent), so here's my attempt to bridge those two headcanons with canon.

********

Shelly was still getting used to having female friends again.

She had resigned herself to being alone after Kelly and Stacy drifted away. If her two closest girl friends couldn't handle the fact that her dad was Lorde, then how would anyone else? She had burned her bridges with the rest of her peers a long time ago.

She still had Kevin, of course. He was dependable and always tolerated her rants and raves over the years. But there were some things that she just couldn't do with him.

Shelly missed sleepovers. She missed talking about boys and watching chick flicks. She even missed trailing after her friends at the mall while they tried on outfits that she wouldn't be caught dead in.

Shelly had long embraced her loneliness when Melissa transferred in from Middle Park.

She had completely written the girl off at first. As far as she was concerned, she was just as vapid as the rest and yet another girl who was prettier than she was, with her flawless caramel skin, curly hair, and cute, trendy outfits. She already had more friends at school than Shelly had in her entire life.

Shelly had inwardly groaned when Melissa was assigned to be her partner for their history project. The last thing she needed was a reminder of how ugly and alone she truly was.

Despite everything, Shelly found herself liking Melissa. She was naturally friendly and unlike the rest of their grade, she was unaware of her reputation. Before long, they started texting and following each other on social media. Melissa even reintroduced her to Jamie and Mandy, two girls that she hadn't interacted with since the fifth grade. Like everyone else, they were terrified of her, but as the weeks dragged on, they started warming up. Before long, the foursome was eating lunch together and hanging out after school. Saturdays were spent at the mall or the movies.

Of course, there was one drawback...

********

Shelly felt a sense of deja vu as she boredly looked at the sales rack at Forever 16. She didn't enjoy watching Kelly and Stacy shopping for clothes that she would look disgusting in and she didn't enjoy watching her new friends doing the same.

"Shelly, this is so you!" Melissa exclaimed, as she held up a dusty rose crop top.

"Very funny," Shelly muttered. She knew that this friendship was too good to be true. Melissa and her goon squad were clearly setting her up for humiliation.

Confusion clouded Melissa's face. "That color would look amazing on you! What's your deal?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't exactly have the body to wear something like that!" Shelly spat.

Her friends exchanged incredulous glances.

"I've seen you in the locker room. You have an awesome stomach, Shelly!" Jamie exclaimed. "Not-not like I was looking or anything," she stammered, wilting under Shelly's death glare."

"Yeah, show it off!" Melissa encouraged.

"Shut up, one person already called me fat!" Shelly grumbled. "I'm not falling for it!"

"Who? Who called you fat?" Mandy questioned.

Shelly wasn't about to tell them that it was her dad. Even if the insult was inadvertent, it still hurt like hell. "Just some guy from North Park, okay! I fucked him up and now he has to eat through a straw," she lied.

Melissa patted her shoulder. "Fuck that guy. He doesn't know what he's talking about. You would look so hot in this too." She thrust a lacy white cropped tank into Shelly's hands.

Shelly narrowed her eyes at the girls, scanning for ridicule, but she found nothing but sincerity radiating from her new friends.

Melissa grinned devilishly. "And it would totally piss your dad off."

Shelly examined the top. It was kind of cute...

"Okay, I'll try it," she sighed.

[nekole-doodles]

Okay, okay, okay, these are the things I've been constantly considering while trying to build my own interpretation of the C! DSMP world, and I have a lot of contradicting and conflicted ideas, but here's some of my thoughts(warning, this is a ramble):

1. In terms of time, I have considered stretching it out so the entirety of DSMP takes place in about the span of 10 years, but I didn't like the idea of stretching out the timeline too much or dramatically aging up(like making C! Wilbur older than 30) or aging down(like making Tommy and Tubbo 9 during L'manberg) characters, so I only made some minor changes to make the timeline fit the lore better without having to extend it too much. L'manberg started when Tommy and Tubbo were 13-14(I thought about 9 or 11 but only use that for extra plot drama in other AUs using canon lore), the L'manberg Revolution(started when Tommy was almost 15) and Pogtopia/Manberg lasted a few months longer than originally, and Fundy is a kind of shapeshifter(limited to only fox traits though) so his aging is different to humans and most hybrids. He either manifested into existence already around 14-18 or ages much quicker than humans in his pre-adult stage(he ages normally once he's physically 18). Tommy's 2nd Exile is also longer, lasting up to a year probably, so this would be while Tommy was around 16.

2. I have been debating with myself about if I should make the server more populated for extra effect during the wars(because yeah, the whole massacre point) or if I should leave it be. I really wanted to limit it to just the server members because L'manberg didn't feel as personal with it being so much more populated, but at the same time I liked the idea of L'manberg having an actual army and Las Nevadas actually being a booming city. So, to compromise, early L'manberg(before the Revolution) only consisted of the server members, but once the Revolution began, more people were allowed to join to help with the fighting and supplies. It still only had a population of under a thousand though and wasn't that crowded. Most of the background citizens were either extra soldiers or were working to gather resources for the Revolution. Then, once L'manberg became Manberg under Schlatt's control and the walls were torn down, people flooded into Manberg and the population increased to a few or several thousand and became more developed. Another thing I wanted to add was, of course, Las Nevadas's population, which would be at least 10k since it would feel weird to keep an entertainment country like that mostly empty. However, around C! Quackity's first finale(before the multiverse finale stream), the city became more or less abandoned. Overall, DSMP isn't as populated as our world, partially because in my headcanons, DSMP is more like an island or a relatively small continent than an entire world.

3. Elaborating on how DSMP related to the rest of the world, it can go three ways depending on which of my interpretations of C! DSMP we're talking about. The first one, which is where the population in DSMP is how I described above, it's basically just a continent people can choose to travel to but was likely recently discovered, hence why there wasn't much civilization. Concept two, which would be where the population stays relatively the same to original DSMP(possibly besides a few dozen more people), it was an island or series of islands entirely created by DreamXD far away from any other land for a sort of social experiment or game for XD as entertainment. XD created Dream to act as the host of this "game" and to invite "players", then interact with them to make something entertaining. DSMP is protected from uninvited outsiders through conflicting currents to avoid drifters, an island border(which is basically the Minecraft world border) that only allows registered "players" to enter, and thick fog to prevent outsiders from spotting the island. In this interpretation, the outside world is largely like our world, maybe even with the same continents, countries, and cities. And finally, the third interpretation is that each server is actually just it's own piece of land in the world isolated from each other. These servers could either all exist in a single planet or are a part of a never ending world(like infinite world generation).

Anyway, I'm not getting into the world building of magic and how Minecraft mechanics translate into DSMP because that would take way too long, and I also won't get into my character designs and the reasoning behind it because not only would that also take too long, but it's already been shared and discussed a thousand times before.

one of the things i love the most about dsmp is the fact that no one has the same version of it. the most obvious example is which streamer's POV you watched, but it goes way beyond that because mcrp requires a level of suspension of disbelief and also of filling in the gaps, fleshening things out, in order to make it usable for fancontent.

for example, the fact that apart from the minecraft skin there is no actual guideline for how to see the characters, hence the dsmp creaturification of fan designs we've been over a million times. but it's not just that!!

the fandom also has so many different relations to time in the dsmp. some take the canon timeline but then you run into problems like c!fundy's age — so then either he's actually a 20 year old that c!wilbur adopted and treats like a baby, or perhaps fox hybrids have a very abrupt exponential growth spurt, or perhaps l'manberg wasn't a few months but a few years!

and then this brings into question the matter of scale — how populated is the server? is it truly only the actual streamers/characters, and so when we talk about a "war" do we really just mean like 10 people fighting each other with swords? or perhaps there's a couple dozen, unnamed, background characters? and i've seen people increase the scale even more! make l'manberg a real, albeit obviously small and budding, country-city of a few hundred inhabitants, that perhaps grows into a lifesize scale fortified city during new l'manberg.

and then everything takes on such a different tone. if theres 30 people on the server, the final control room was a betrayal and destruction of friendships, november 16th was the grief and anger for a friend and the symbolic destruction of the country, and doomsday was another symbolic show of whose alliances everyone values, and the weariness of having to rebuild it. if there's a few thousand people? all of those were massacres.

how can we even be talking about the same characters when for some of us the worst they've done is blow up some houses with no cost of lives, and for others they have razed to the ground actual nations? depending on how you read it and how much you flesh it out, dsmp is either mainly about symbols and interpersonal relationships, or it can be some game of thrones shit. it's completely fucking mental. i'm so in love with it

[quibbs126]

Ik you've been made a headcanon about Dark Choco Cookie and Peach Cookie. Somewhere in the Cookie Run comic, Dark Choco Cookie actually falls in love with Peach Cookie. So, what if there's a fanchild of them? Do you mind making their fan child? If not it's fine ^^

So like I’ve alluded to in my other posts today, my headcanon for Peach and Dark Choco were VERY different and probably not so viable here, but let’s say this is just the comic universe or something, and here’s Dark Plum Cookie

Honestly after reading some of the comics, I’ve come around to this ship quite a bit. But unfortunately it contradicts my old headcanons for them (okay I should probably actually explain what those headcanons were. Basically at some point someone made a thing saying that General Jujube could be Dark Choco’s other parent, and it basically made me spiral into a rabbit hole. And since I know Jujube is at least implied to be Peach’s father, that’d make the two of them half siblings, so Dark Choco was basically like Peach’s older brother. Also that Peach was a teenager), and it’s hard to really start shipping them without dealing with my old headcanons, as it’d make it look far worse than it is, and of which I do not endorse. But I like this new ship too, so I’m just debating making my old headcanons into like, an au or something where Jujube is Dark Choco’s second parent, although I kind of already do that, since my real headcanon is that Dark Choco only has one parent. But maybe having both of those coexisting is a bad look…All right, maybe I can just scrap the first headcanons, like I did with Dark Cacao and the North and South Dragons. And also make Peach older, since I know I’m just bad at guessing ages (for example, I thought Rayla from Dragon Prince was in her early 20s when she was 15). She’s probably in her early 20s

Anyways, sorry for the weird tangent, let’s get onto the actual fankid, yeah?

So I chose the name Dark Plum because I wanted a fruit similar to peaches, but dark in color. The only one I could find was plums. Unfortunately, there is already a Plum Cookie, so I added the “Dark” to indicate I was basing him off the darker and more purple ones. I mainly based him off the black splendor plum, which has this red flesh on the inside

Black splendor plum:

So for his design, I wanted to go with a dark purple to be some sort of middle ground between the black and peach colors, and after seeing some dark plums with red flesh, I made his secondary color red. I think I was originally going to give him purple eyes like his grandfather, but I ended up making them red so they’d stand out more. I kind of ended up using Plum Cookie as a reference for his hair, since they’re both made of the same thing. I was going to put the red on the same places as Plum’s yellow, but I thought it looked better on the ends. I’m not entirely sure what it looks like not flowing. I wasn’t really sure what to do for his outfit, or his weapon for that matter. Originally I was debating giving him a sword or a staff, since I wasn’t sure which parent to lean more towards. I was debating a spear but I didn’t really want to since I’ve already made 3 of these with spears. I mean I still kind of ended up doing that, but it’s double sided so it’s fine. It’s supposed to be more staff like. With his outfit I sort of just ended up using the Dark Cacao Kingdom for references like normal. I had asked my friend for advice on his outfit and she had a suggestion, she just didn’t know how to translate it into English, so I just stuck with this. She said it looked good

Anyways, on to him himself. …I am just now realizing I spent so much time on his design I neglected his personality and character. Well what I do have is that unlike what the image may convey, he’s not a super serious warrior, he’s just in the middle of a fight. I mean yes, he takes fighting seriously, but he can be a bit prideful and confident in his fighting abilities and think he’s cool. He is a good fighter but he sometimes lets it get to his head. Also he tends to be a bit chaotic

I like to imagine Plum being like his godfather or babysitter or something, just so that we can have Plum and Dark Plum regularly interacting. I feel like if time travel shenanigans were to happen, Plum and Dark Plum would meet, and Plum would think he’s like his evil/shadow alternate universe self, only for him to instead be Peach’s son, along with Dark Choco. I feel like something like this could happen in the comics, they are a little insane

But uh, yeah, I think that’s all I have on him, I hope you like him!

[sweetmage]

VIOLENCE ASK: Number 12 🥺

Thank you for your ask! :D

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Probably predictable coming from me but these guys for sure! (I was inspired by your choice of emoji lol)

Sebastian

I certainly get why a lot of people might hate Sebastian and feel uncomfortable about his stances and behaviors and I'm certainly not here to say that isn't valid. However, a lot of other "critiques" of him come from people who either have never taken him with them or who have misunderstood his character. His internal struggle with himself goes much further than just Prince vs. Brother and I think he is a very compelling character, albeit unfortunately underrealized. Perhaps this is cheating but I would like to attach some other people’s meta that dives into his character’s nuances and motivations much better than I could! On how Sebastian’s performative adherence to chantry propaganda conflicts with genuine values and actions. On how Sebastian victim-blames himself and has used some parts of his faith as a bandage for his unaddressed trauma. Oh Sebastian’s admiration of the wardens, his love of violence, and his desires for cut and try good vs evil conflicts (it is hard to sum this one up, I recommend just reading it for whoever is interested)

As for more of my own thoughts, I genuinely find him to fascinating. He is a walking contradiction in every regard and he is as impulse as he is uncertain about everything (those two traits playing off of each other frequently). He is a victim of abuse, neglect, and abandonment who latches on strongly to people and ideals that give him purpose and make him feel useful and like he belongs, he performs to fit those roles even if they go against his nature. He is genuinely kind and thoughtful though kind and thoughtful don't always go hand and hand with the Chantry's definition of good and virtuous. I think he is genuinely funny, he has about as much snark and sass as the rest of the crew if you actually take the time to listen to him. He treats Merrill with kindness and respect and is open to civil discussions about her faith and way of life which is more than can be said about some of my other faves. More of a headcanon but think there is a very delicious and angsty tragedy to the Last Straw if you play a mage and support Anders (which I always do, of course). I wrote a little about that here and drew a comic about it here if you are so inclined to read it! None of this is to say that I agree with or condone his actions, I certainly do not. I will always be pro-mage and, performative or not, many of his actions and statements against mages as a whole and characters who are mages are entirely inexcusable. I also want to clarify that I do not think his faith is ENTIRELY performative or fake, I think he genuinely believes and receives comfort from his faith, but is the actions he takes because of it (conscious or subconscious) that do not align with the ways he conducts himself otherwise and I think he has a lot to sort or morality wise and a lot of impulses to deal with. But it's okay, I can fix him :)

Tamlen

Embarrassingly I do not have nearly as much to say about Tamlen lol. He is just my favorite of the origin companions and his story really really punched me straight in the gut and then much later punched me straight in the gut again. I think he is very sweet and goofy was written realistically in a way that he felt like a real friend I might have had when I was younger. I know a lot of people like him and think of him fondly, but I would love to see more fanart of him and stuff. I would love to shoutout this beautifully drawn and absolutely heartbreaking comic about him that I keep coming back to. Also I will be obnoxious and self-promote my bittersweet AU and series of artworks I have in which he survives and recovers... but at a price!

[hekateinhell]

I sometimes wonder how the Armand/Daniel power dynamic works in tandem with the fact that Daniel is nearly twice his mortal age. Running with the idea that one's impulses/emotional regulation remain similar to the cognitive control of the age that a vampire was turned at, I think about Armand and his Coven Master Freakishness contending with the fact that at 500-something years old, he still wants his boyfriend to baby him. Pre-bedtime thoughts.

Gosh, I think about this all the time! Armand's power dynamics are my bread and butter (I don't make a lot but it's good, honest work).

Because yes — if we go with the theory that at the biological level, vampire brains simply cannot mature past the point that they were turned — it opens up this entire minefield of contradictions. I usually draw on Lestat for comparison and inspiration when it comes to this sort of Armand meta, just because we hear so much from Lestat's perspective and he is the closest to Armand's mortal age within their little cohort.

But enough about Lestat.

Devil's Minion (being only what, thirty six pages? it's unbelievable) leaves a lot of room for headcanons and various interpretations of what happened when. For the most part, I just don't see Daniel and Armand's big fights and Daniel running away from Night Island until much closer to QotD era (~2 years or so).

What I always noticed is how much more direct Armand seems to be with Daniel than Marius was with him. He cries openly! He expresses his emotions! He doesn't beat him bloody because he doesn't know what else to do with himself! (Because Armand totally and easily could've). It's not great but he's trying! Was Armand better than Marius? In some ways, yes. Was he worse? Also yes, in some ways. This is a whole other conversation though RIP.

Thinking about Armand's ability (or inability) to self-regulate and how much closer he allows (or is unable to keep) his authentic emotions from bubbling to the surface... it's a very raw and youthful trait! And perhaps it's a testament to how close he feels to Daniel, and how affected he is by their arguments and the discord in the relationship.

I wanted to be somewhat saccharine here and instead I'm rambling on, but I also do like to consider what their day-to-day life as a long-term couple would've looked prior to 1984-1985 (when Daniel really started deteriorating and then ran away for the final time).

What did it look like when maybe Daniel made a joke that Armand took the wrong way and then brooded about it or some similar scenario? Because even if he could read Daniel's mind, he couldn't reconcile the intention with the words that came out of his mouth. I wonder if Daniel ever straight up told him, "Babe, I can't read your mind, you have to communicate better than this." And Armand is just shocked that someone can acknowledge where he's at emotionally and guide him in the right direction.

There's a lot of things to factor in here, including what Daniel's own brain development would've looked like due to the lifestyle they lived, but I think either way, he would have definitely had the advantage over Armand in that sense at least.

And how does a perpetually seventeen year old, ferocious vampire tell his boyfriend he just wants a cuddle and a kiss and the reassurance that — for this night at least — everything's okay and he's not going to walk out on him? Probably wallows in passive-aggressive silence and hopes Daniel shows him affection first. Indulges the feeling for a few minutes (because he feels safe enough to do so) before he snaps back into his caregiver/pest role and being the far older and more powerful of the two.

[murderbot-moodboard]

I completely support this sentiment. This is a legitimate concern, and as someone who's openly enthusiastic about the show I think it's especially important for me to acknowledge that concern. I love the current Murderbot fandom because it has such a variety of creative fanart and compelling fan fiction takes.

And I think the fandom already proves that it's possible to enjoy multiple takes on the characters' appearances and on events that happened outside—or even inside—book canon. So what I hope will happen is that we can continue enjoying show-canon and book-canon/non-show-canon side by side. I plan to continue reblogging people's non-show-canon (still workshopping that description lol) fanart, fanfic, and meta discussions, even though there will also definitely be upticks of show-canon content as the season 1 episodes get released.

I've alluded to this in the New Tideland Discord but I'd like to expand on it here: superhero comic book fandoms handle this in a way that I think we could emulate. When you just have books turned into a movie or TV show, that's just two sources of canon, so I think it's easier for people to fall into the reductive approach of viewing the movie/show as the "new canon" which rewrites or erases book canon.

But many popular superhero fandoms have several runs of comics which both comply with and contradict aspects of each other's canon, plus multiple TV shows and movies which also contradict each other and the comics to some degree. (Just in movies alone, there have been three Peter Parker as Spiderman origin stories in live action, plus the version from the Spiderverse movies which partly-but-not-entirely complies with the Tobey Maguire Spiderman story.) Basically, it's almost impossible to identify a single canon that's "more canon" than the others, and it's up to fans to personally decide which interpretations of events they want to accept into their own headcanon.

I personally think we can treat the Murderbot fandom in a similar way. The books and the TV show are their own separate-but-partially-overlapping canons. As fans assembling our own headcanons, we can like one interpretation better than the other, or like both as separate takes in the fandom multiverse, or mentally merge parts of the two and maybe our own headcanons to make a new Frankenheadcanon. A headcanon doesn't even have to completely agree with either canon. All of these are legitimate ways to enjoy fandom as a fan.

And I think, as long as most of us try to respect other people's right to enjoy the fandom differently than we do, we can maintain a fandom that's welcoming to the most people possible. Being annoyed by other people's fandom takes is (unfortunately) a normal fandom experience. You don't need a rational reason for not finding someone's fanart or fanfic to your taste, or even for feeling like it gets on your nerves; we humans are irrational and emotional and have different preferences, and that's okay! My personal approach is to either block or just ignore people whose takes annoy me for completely irrational or preference reasons, people whose takes are objectively incorrect but I can't address them calmly, people who seem to be caught up in their own emotions and venting, and people who are hating on other takes or other people in the fandom (I'm most likely to block this last category). It makes my own fandom experience a lot better, and I don't have to worry about having an overly hurtful reaction to another fan who's engaging with fandom on their own terms, and who may be going through irl stuff I can't see.

I've rambled on enough, but TL;DR, I think it's entirely possible to have a fandom that's respectful of all fan interpretations and doesn't overly encourage people who aren't respectful. And regardless of what anyone else does, I'm going to do my best to support that outcome. Peace and love on planet earth, y'all! ✌️🦾

It’s hard to articulate but it’s not that I want to gatekeep The Murderbot Diaries, it’s that the content and culture we currently have is so fun and creative with everyone having wildly different takes on Murderbot and Co, how the feed can be visualized, how ART can be personified, how the humans look, etc.

I worry that we’ll lose that to the “official” way things look. That the show will be the new default. That all this fun, unique content will fizzle out and be squashed under what appears to be official ruling on things. That the show will act as a final trump card on discussions and interpretations. That suddenly everyone looks the same, dresses the same, acts the same as how the show does things. That people stop creating and sharing and god forbid even imagining because the show set things in stone. I’ve seen it happen with other books that got adapted but there’s something that hurts more about the thought of it happening here because there’s something special about TMBD and just how little descriptors there are and how much room artists get to play. I’m talking fanfic too. There are so many cool ganaka pit, governor module, and different POV interpretations.

I’m begging you, if you create for the fandom at all don’t succumb to the idea that the show is the final version. It’s NOT. It’s just a different person’s interpretation, just like yours is. It’s another fanwork. PLEASE keep imagining and creating and sharing. Tag me and I’ll reblog it fifty times if I need to! Just don’t stop

[kurokoros]

As we are talking about Steve's character rn, I completely agree with anything you said so far. To add to the whole s3/s4 treatment, I just hate the whole "babygirlyfication" by the fandom because of how s3/s4 was written. Like if I hear the word babygirl one more time. I think what annoys me the most about it is that in Steve's case, babygirl=stupid himbo loser, and ughh, I just hate it so much. Yes he wore that dumb sailor outfit but he hated it every second he had to be in it, but the fandom overlooks that completely and decided yeah Steve loves to dress feminine and all (mostly to pair him up with other characters like Eddie and to subject him into weird ship dynamics where he's like the submissive partner). I swear, ever since s3 people think Steve is so helpless in everything, they also act like he's a super virgin who just can't get anyone, which contradicts s1/s2 Steve. I mean, okay, he could have had a funk in s3 bc of Nancy, but the show over exaggerated it to a point it was so ooc. I think the scene I hated the most in s3 is his last one, where he needed Robin to get him the job at FV because apparently he hadn't seen any movie prior to this day (despite being a huge Tom Cruise fan). It's so annoying really because they simplified him so much. He could be such a great character with depth, but nope. And the fandom perpetuates this by making him the dumb babygirl his entire personality. You're literally one of the few people trying to pick up after s2 and develop him in a way that makes more sense than what the show did.

Other characters the show did dirty after s2 are Hopper (bc what was up with him in s3 like it was actually scary), Joyce, Mike, Jonathan (well actually he got fucked over by being Nancy's accessory since s2) and partially Dustin esp in s4. The writers needed a department that overlooks character contingency because those are not the same ones we watched in s1/s2. I love Stranger Things, I do, but my god, the wasted character potential sometimes keeps me up at night. I'm not a talented writer, I try my best, but even I would have come up with better storylines or at least make sure they stay the same characters.

The whole "babygirl Steve" thing makes me want to eat glass. Like, I get mad when I think about how they went the himbo route with Steve instead of continuing the "jerk with a heart of gold" characterization they had going for two seasons, and to see the fandom just constantly make "babygirl Steve!" jokes irritates the hell out of me. I don't want to be that bitch who says you aren't allowed to headcanon characters certain ways, or you aren't allowed to project on characters, but damn some of the Steve stans genuinely make me question whether or not they actually like him in the first place. Like... Steve is a masculine guy! But people saw that he has a haircare routine and cares about hygiene and decided that makes him feminine to fit a queer stereotype so they can ship him with the two most mediocre white boys the show could offer.

And it really is super fucking weird that S3 "babygirl" Steve is portrayed as less intelligent and more pathetic than he was in S1/2. It's infantilizing. And the sailor suit makes it worse. If I could change one thing about ST I would get rid of that stupid fucking sailor suit. The show really did just make Steve seem pathetic in S3, and it was done in a way that I just don't understand why anyone who actually likes Steve would enjoy what they did.

Along with the "Steve can't get a job on his own" (which doesn't make sense if he was apparently a trained lifeguard. this man would have actual references aside from his mother if that was the case) thing, I have a bone to pick with the recurring gag of "Steve doesn't get pop culture references". Like??? Steve was a popular kid in school??? He would know movies (if only because movies are a super common date activity and there's a theater in Hawkins).

I refuse to acknowledge S3-4 as canon in any of my fics because of how much I despise the way canon botched most of the characters. There was so much potential there, and instead they just made Steve a loser with no charm. The Duffers for sure need someone in charge of characters. And plot. And worldbuilding. And overall consistency.

Basically, the Duffers need to hire actually good writers and just stick to directing.