#(and how I feel about said bit if it does become one)

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

You know, if I have to read another take or fic that treats Ed ordering that racist French captain skinned with the snail fork as proof of Ed's anger issues, or, somehow bizarrely commonly, has Stede talk down to him about it, I'm gonna lose it. Both Ed and Stede indirectly cause some pretty major violence in s1e5, but only Ed's seems to be proof of a violent nature. Strange.

And I'm honestly a bit tired of talking around this, because when you look at what some portions of this fandom can excuse and what they can't, it becomes very obvious how this is really just a racism problem. I mean, in this episode:

Ed responds to racist abuse by ordering the French captain killed. It's in the context of him having already given the captain a chance to back the fuck off ("what's that supposed to mean," said very calmly considering we all know what "your kind" means), has to visibly hype himself up to start yelling, and is responding to being called a donkey. It's vile and Ed deserves to be upset, not to mention he knows he can't just let that slide when senior crew members like Fang are right there watching. Ed is visibly upset and shaken by this whole situation and what he thinks it says about him as a person.

Stede, upon learning that the party guests were cruel to Ed (in a passive-aggressive but undoubtedly racist way), is angry on his behalf, and also wants to retaliate, just as Ed did earlier. It's sweet that he's defending Ed, but this is surely also personal for Stede, who felt mocked and belittled earlier and has had to deal with a lifetime of that. We see the results of Stede's playing the crowd here, with the boat burning in the background and the screams of people jumping out into the open sea, and Stede is also visibly pretty stoked about the whole thing.

There's no way around it, I think: we have been conditioned to think it's morally superior for someone to "turn the other cheek" and "be the bigger person" in the face of racist abuse, and Ed doesn't do that, so that's why this is still such a big issue for some people. When Ed gets upset again at the party, unlike earlier when Stede was put off by Ed ordering the captain skinned, Stede validates his feelings and is the one to respond, and that's the difference in reactions, I think. In the second case, Stede has validated Ed's anger and pain - Ed's feelings have gotten White Permission to exist.

OFMD does something really very unusual in the current media landscape, and that's how it treats racism in itself as violence. It doesn't expect characters to look away, turn the other cheek, or try to make amends with racists when they're cruel to them. And the only problem here wrt Ed is that some viewers of the show, bringing in the biases of the society we live in, will get uncomfortable when Ed acts in accordance with the show's philosophy - it doesn't matter that Stede is much more gleeful about being the one to respond in a similar situation, it matters that Ed is brown, and we therefore expect him to have to put up racist abuse. The show doesn't ask us to pass judgment on Ed in this episode, and I think that if you're automatically more inclined to believe Stede's actions more "reasonable" and "justified" than Ed's, you just might need to unpack that.

[rascalentertainments]

Wish Granted Magic System ✨✨✨

Given that we're two chapters away from the halfway point of the story, its about to time I delve into the magic system of this AU.

So magic in this AU is powered through emotion. The more a person feels a certain emotion, the more it affects the magic they use daily. Let's start off with...

Magnifico and Amaya's Magic: 🐺🐍✨

Both of them have studied magic for years, together and apart. However, they still developed their own techniques to use it.

• Magnifico's magic is fueled by negativity and hate. (its a bit obvious, lol) He's been searching for a way to have ultimate power for years. And each time he's failed, that disappointment has fueled him. The angrier he is towards somebody or someone, the stronger it is. He learned to harness and control magic since his early 20's, and while it was substantial for the time, his desire to have more kept growing and growing until it became impossible to ignore. So much so that when he destroys his own home by accident, he's completely blind to his own destruction and blames the books for not giving him enough information. So he turns to dark magic.

•Dark magic gave Mags the boost he needed, but its still not enough. The more he becomes paranoid losing his power, and the more he gained power, he became more spiteful towards non-magic users. As Magnifico got older, his powers were solely used selfishly, under the guise of it helping others to get whatcha wants. Mags' magic is incredibly destructive when its not controlled, which is why Amaya keeps him in check. He could easily kill anyone with a snap of his fingers, or crushing a person's wish. He completely ignores the face that its slowly making him sick as well.

•Mags' magic specifically works well in deception, especially when it comes to stealing people's wishes, which is the polar opposite of Star's magic. And Star's magic terrifies him in a way. Mags uses magic on these performances during the Wish ceremonies to deceive people into thinking giving their wishes to him is a great thing. Its kind of like a parlor trick to hide the truth. However, mo matter how much he magic uses, its nothing compared to a star's. In fact, when Asha's father details his perceived connection to the stars, and how he feels they give him the power and inspiration to help others in his life, that's when the king got the idea to catch the magic of a star itself. He could finally achieve ultimate power! But he had to get rid of that damn philosopher first and make it look like an accident....

•Amaya's magic works with manipulation, both mental and physical. While she doesn't use her powers to the extent of her husband, she does aid him through the use of her potions. As a shout-out to Yzma, she keeps a collection of various potions in a large cabinet, and uses them when creating concoctions to give him the power boost to take a star from the skies. The other kinds deal with changing one living thing into another. Most of them were also animal experimentations, either to change unsavoury animals into ones she desired, or even changing their natural habits an entirely animal's, making said animal like other creatures.

• The Queen has always used her words of persuasion to get what she wanted. In most cases, she used her magic to make her words influence the minds of others. Amaya uses this to put the people at ease when they asked too many questions or started to worry about their wishes. She even used this on visiting royals from other countries, so that they didn't see or hear anything connected to the people's misfortune or rumors of the two being evil. This is why she was able to get into Star's head in chapter 6. She paid close attention to the pair's behavior around each other, and seeing part of herself and Magnifico in the two wanting to protect each other, she turned it against him. Adding a little bit of magic to it, he was completely influenced by her words.

•Amaya has used magic on Sabor, but not to harm him. (Sometimes she did heal him if he was sick or injured) Only so she could use him as a sort of watchdog, keeping an eye on any suspicious activity or possible traitors. (Which Sabor fully accepted) She created the "Sight Beyond Sight" type of spell so she could see what Sabor sees when he returns. This is how she trusted him to find the Hamlet without raising suspicion.

Star/Cosmo's magic 🌟😁

This fun ball of energy is indeed powerful, just as Magnifico feared, but he can't exactly do everything he wants. He has limits, which is mostly by his own imagination and a dash of classic Disney magic.

• Star's magic is fueled by all his emotions, but mostly joy. It can change depending on his emotions. When he's happy, all his magic reflects it. Joyful magic works on Disney classic energy, so talking animals, moving furniture, shape shifting into various creatures and even his human form are all homages to the past films. He can't turn into different people, so this form he usually is in is it. Mostly because he's had a wish to be a human on Earth for so long, he just took his astral look and applied human characteristics to it. Its also rear unusual for a star nomad to get attached to one place instead moving from place to place. As for other emotions, he feels them like the fairies from Peter Pan: one at a time. When he's sad, he's miserable. When he's angry, its absolute fury. But the longer he stays on Earth, they start to get more complex dealing with humans, since we can feel several emotions at once. Which is also why its a slow process for him to realize his love for Asha is different from his love for Earth.

•Like the rest of the star nomads, he has flight and its powered by thinking happy thoughts. That's incredibly easy for him, so it's why he can fly so high and quickly. However, he starts to slow down after Magnifico stabs him and takes a little of his power in chapter 7. He's only just a little faster than a human, and it kind of bothers him not being able to move as quickly. And he starts getting used to walking, which is unusual for a star nomad to do instead of flying.

• Star's shapeshifting can be done as long as he can clearly think of the animal he wants. He's seen animals from all over the world, but the catch is that he can't perfectly replicate one. He's always yellow with a white tuft of hair so he doesn't blend in with other animals. Plus Star can add or exaggerate different features as well. He can't turn into extinct animals like dinosaurs because he's never seen them.

There will be another post explaining more about the star nomads and how their different from "royal stars". It'll also come up later to explain why Star isn't a prince like most other Disney male leads. Its really the only insecurity he has.

And more art is coming, plus the Royal redesigns! Then I'll get started on chapter 9. 😉

Thanks for reading!

@oh-shtars @signed-sapphire @chillwildwave @your-ne1ghbor

@tumblingdownthefoxden @ishadow246 @annymation @kenihewa

@natsuki208 @uva124 @cocoapowderpictures @emptyblog7

[jjs-brainrot]

BTR and Mayonaka Punch are animes that lose part of their meaning if the girls were not gay for each other. I thought Masaki kissed Live when she caught her. I also thought they were going to kiss after the credits, but even without a kiss, the show managed to convey how much Live and Masaki meant to each other. You can't watch it and not think they have feelings for each other.

I'd also throw in VTuber Legend, Girls Band Cry and Symphogear in that ring as well but 100% agreed.

Live is simping hard for Masaki with the whole specifically wanting to suck her blood to the point she becomes a desperate mess being multiple euphemisms in one. Masaki in turn finally seeing Live as an incredibly important person to her as she's basically the first who seems to actually like her regardless of what she does instead of just tolerating her until she messes up.

Meanwhile Bocchi has gay failgirl energy to the max, complete with fantasies of girls and outright blacking out with an application for her band being in the school festival because she overheard girls talking about how they'd fall for a rocker. And of course Kita crushing hard for Ryo but then falling for Bocchi the more she got to know her.

There's a lot that could be said about subtext vs text when it comes to queer characters and how subtext tends to leave a bit too much wiggle room for interpretation and how there's never really enough works with textually queer characters being represented.

But in general, I feel the type of person that tries to wiggle out of the idea that a character isn't queer despite all the subtext pointing them as such is usually the type to get angry if the character is textually queer (thinking of the people who got angry at ILTV after Rae talks about how she is in fact a Lesbian).

For my part, the idea that characters can only be in love if they make big romantic gestures like kissing just always feels backwards to me.

Maybe it's my aroness talking but it feels like that's just for reaffirmation of one's love rather than the requirement of being in love. Maybe I'm also just hyped up on how good genre dissections How Do We Relationship and Yuri is My Job are about relationships that "x romantic gesture needs to be there for them to actually be in love" feels a bit trite to me.

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere Husk please

The request for a Sinner darling was pretty much the plot I had for his concept... so I hope it's okay I combined the two :(? It would make more sense than me repeating myself.

@okchijt helped me out with this to make sure I got the character right and filled this with good ideas ^^

Yandere! Husker Concept

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Obsession, Overprotective/Possessive behavior, Stalking, Drinking, Trauma, Emotional Manipulation, Clingy behavior, Murder briefly mentioned, Blood mention, Biting mention but not done, Scenting, Dubious relationship.

For how moody Husk is most of the time, I imagine he'd care for his obsession very much.

It's said he lost the ability to love long ago... which he no doubt believes to be true for a long time.

Even when his obsession begins Husk would still be in denial of the idea.

There's no way he's feeling love towards another sinner here.

Yet here he is, worrying for you more than any other.

His obsession would be the most likely to occur with someone who's in the hotel.

So another sinner employed to help out the hotel or looking for redemption.

For the most part, Husk tends to stay out of the way and observe.

Most of his behavior is obviously cat-like.

Which means he'd keep his distance and watch you... just to see how you behave and what you're planning.

Husk's obsession is slow... gradual.

It's not like other yanderes who feel an immediate spark only for it to grow.

He watches you for a bit... Then slowly talks to you over a drink, then you become close.

His mood can put people off.

He's always drinking, always grumpy, apathetic, and gruff...

Yet he really does like to listen to people and help.

In that case... I can imagine one of your bonding times is opening up over a drink.

Maybe you're anxious about the hotel or some other thing.

The cat's good at listening... soothing your nerves with a drink and advice.

You'd swear he's the hotel's therapist more than the bartender.

However...

A good drink certainly would start a bond between you two.

Observant and empathetic... Husk would care for you once he shows some interest.

It's certainly not romantic immediately to him...

But it is a curiosity.

He's patient with you and often knows if you lie to him.

Which at first is revealed by something innocent... like you trying to hide some problem you have.

Yet that ability can turn sinister later on... like if he feels you're lying to him about something to distance yourself from him.

Husk is said to be sweet and protective of those he likes.

Naturally, as a fellow sinner in the hotel, Husk often keeps track of you.

He looks forward to sharing a drink with you or playing a game of cards.

You don't even have to trauma dump on him, he enjoys your casual conversation in his normally dull day.

He doesn't even realize he enjoys your company so much until someone, maybe Angel, points out he's purring when he sees you.

This would probably occur within a couple months.

You two often chat as you work and get along pretty well.

Better than he thought apparently if he's purring when he sees you.

He can't seem to help it...

You just stir something in him... It's familiar but... it can't be anything serious....

Husk is a subtle yandere for a couple reasons.

One reason is he's in denial of being in love for a long portion of his obsession.

He often tries to rationalize with himself that he just sees you platonically.

That he's just a shoulder to cry on....

Another reason is this... Even after he comes to the conclusion he does love you...

There's Alastor.

Husk's soul is still owned by Alastor, the radio demon is his master.

He can't show his love for you much as he fears Alastor will pick up on it.

The last thing Husk needs is causing you more stress because Alastor needs leverage against him.

Such a thought forces him to keep his obsession over you out of sight.

Both out of shame and fear.

Doesn't stop him from accidentally dropping hints, though.

When you two talk in private, or even in public and he lets his guard down too much, you can hear Husk purring around you.

He denies it the whole time, of course.

When alone, Husk tends to be more affectionate once he accepts he's in love.

However, he excuses it to try not to give himself away.

For example, if you're having a stressful day, he may hug you and start purring.

When you question him, he claims he's just trying to get you comfortable.

After all, did you know a cat's purr supposedly eases the mind?

In reality... He's trying to excuse his urge to touch you... just to keep up his facade.

So you'd just keep venting while he nuzzles into you to "cheer you up".

Apparently....

Husk is limited in his obsession.

Kidnapping and physical isolation would draw too much attention.

Alastor would definitely find out then.

Although... Emotional dependency and social isolation?

He can make that work.

In fact, making his darling dependent on him is core to his yandere tendencies.

It's easy since you already come to him for help anyways.

He wants to be the only one you're vulnerable around.

Husk wants you to seek him out for help, comfort, and company.

Perhaps even love eventually.

Making you dependent on him makes you his... Yet keeps Alastor out of it.

... Hopefully....

Because you vent to him, Husk knows nearly everything about you.

More than you know yourself sometimes.

While such secrets and info would be great blackmail... Husk wouldn't want to ruin your trust.

Instead he uses it to his advantage, a way to gain your favor.

He'd use the info he gained to help you.

He knows what you like, what you hate, what situations make you uncomfortable...

He's always around and ready to tug you out of a situation you hate.

He acts like such a caring friend, he's even protective of you.

Husk may actually leave his post at the bar to follow you and check on you.

He does some stalking but has to make it subtle.

If someone was messing with you or hurting you, Husk is quick to step in.

Considering how he handled those Loan Sharks in the show...

Safe to say you're in mostly good hands.

The only time he'd murder is if your life is in danger.

In that case... Surely you can ignore the blood in his fur?

Not like it's very new to you, though....

Hell's violent... Which is another reason Husk hates you wandering off alone.

While Husk is subtle... I can see him scenting his darling in secret as he nuzzles and purrs.

He may even be into biting you... leaving marks to show you're his...

Yet since he has to be subtle, he reigns in such urges.

Overall, Husk is a subtle protective yet possessive yandere who would make his obsession vulnerable and dependent on him.

This way, you're kept safe and cared for...

All his... even if you don't know it yet.

[triannel]

HI!!! I adore how you write bill, an my own birthday is tomorrow an im ✨Terrified✨✨,, n was wondering ifff. You could do a sorta angst-fluff where its the readers birthday, but every single one of his birthdays has been awful. And like, now that bills here with the reader he feels like maybe he wont have to Just survive his birthday? That even with his god awful family, it might be ok. Like yeah the meds help, but it doesnt fix anything if the people youre with are why youre fucked yknow? IDK and maybe bill decides to take it upon himself to remove the readers family😋 cant be a neglected middle child w all the responsibilities of the eldest if youre an orphan/J AN I DONT MIND HOW CLOSE YOU STAY TO THIS I LOVE YOUR WRITING ANYWAYS!!

(,,,o n also the reader maybe be a grungey scene kid kinda guy? Lots of piercings, an is more feminine than his parents think he should be, especially as a trans guy, So thats smth. Love bones n bugs and shinies an is like if a dog n crow were a guy,, n supr srry if this is a bad req!! Im jus excited cus i love bill, and im also stressy out cus of my burthdayy >_<“) SO NO PRESSURE TO RESPOND ESPECIALLY IF THIS IS TOO LONG OR ANYTHIMG!!!/gen

-🌙

Hello and Happy Birthday 🌙 anon! I've managed to whip this up and I hope it gives you at least some sort of comfort for today. I really do hope you're situation gets better soon, take care of yourself and have a great day! (Also, don't worry, I never really do mind long asks.)

BirthDate

Oneshot | Bill Cipher x Reader | Fluff/Comfort?

Warnings: Mention of Death, Implied Abuse, Implied Trauma, Implied Bad Birthdays, Bill Cipher lol

Quickly stepping upstairs, you lock yourself in your bedroom, blocking all the noise emenating from downstairs. Exhaling, you drop to your bed, letting yourself relax into comfort of the soft mattress and fluffy pillows.

Only needing rest by this point, you close your eyes. Wanting nothing more than to leave this place behind.

"WHOA, DIDN'T EXPECT TO SEE YOU SO EARLY!" A voice suddenly spoke, booming loudly for you to hear.

Ah yes, there he is. You can't exactly say he's your best pal, but right this moment, you truly do feel more at ease with him than being back there.

"It's honestly been a long day so..." You shrugged for a moment before continuing, "Does it bother you?" You ask, giving a lighthearted smile.

"NOT AT ALL, I WOULDN'T BLAME ANYONE BY WANTING TO MEET YOURS TRULY," he spoke, blinking slowly in a dramatic way to show off his 'impressive looks'.

You chuckle slightly, shaking your head, "I mean, I don't think I'm exactly the one to choose to be here..." speaking your thought aloud just to perhaps tease him a little as you glance at him for a moment before slightly chuckling once more.

You never really did know how you even get to meet him to be honest, he somewhat always manages to show up in your dreams, so overtime you guessed that he might be the one approaching you...That, or it might be because of something else entirely.

For a moment, you thought you saw him become nervous for a second, but maybe it didn't happen at all as you only saw it for less than a second.

"WELL, JUST WANTED TO CHECK HOW YOU'RE DEALING WITH KNOWING YOU'RE ONE YEAR CLOSER TO YOUR DEATH," he flatly said, in a weird, eerie way. He always did love being weird so this type of behaviour wouldn't be uncommon by this point.

"Right... Well, what's the agenda for this time then? Or are you busy?" You ask, avoiding your 'birthday' in question. You'd much rather not talk about your birthday at all to be honest. Not a single one ever went well...

Adjusting his bowtie, he started to speak, "WELL..."

Snapping his fingers, your surroundings completely change.

The rest of your 'dream' went on a relatively good note. Having a cup of tea, playing chess, you both did the usual activities you both would do when meeting in your subconscious mind. But the only thing is that, he seemed to be more...well a bit more charming and noticeably, but only slightly more open to your suggestions on what else to spend time on.

He'd usually take the wheel and drag you through any activity he wants, but this time though, this time he was a bit more...considerate.

Now playing a board game with him, you take the dice and roll it. Getting one, Bill chuckles slightly at your misfortune for a second before taking the dice from you.

He might be treating you like this because it's your birthday, but you'd doubt it... Well at least for now-

"EY, IT'S YOUR TURN TOOTS," he snapped his finger a few times in front of your face.

Chuckling, you mutter an apology before taking the dice. Rolling it in your hands, you then let it go. As the dice lands on the floor, it lands on a six, letting you be the winner for the match.

"Yess, I won!" You raise your arms, smiling back at him.

"CHECK AGAIN." Bill spoke, pointing at your piece. Looking down at the board, you see a newly added tile in front of your piece, moving the finish line out of reach. You raise your eyebrow, giving him the side eye.

"WHAT? I DON'T MAKE THE RULES," he raised his shoulders, smiling mischievously with his eye.

Shaking your head, you chuckled at his silly banter while giving him the dice for his turn.

It's unexpected but, this dorito triangle man truly has made a significance on making your birthday much more bearable. Be it his choice to do it or not, you're honestly just glad to at least have some semblance of joy sprout on this day.

I haven't been able to post for a week because unfortunately I became rlly busy at the moment and it isn't helping that I do tend to procrastinate at times. I'll post more regularly later, but for now at least, I'll post this here. Once again, happy birthday 🌙 anon!

[autisticalastor]

analog black vinyl spinning

Pairing: Lucifer/Alastor

Rating: G

Tags: Fluff, First Date, Demiromantic Ace Alastor, Lucifer is a nervous wreck fr, Cameos from everyone!

A/N: Finally got out the next piece of my Radioapple series! I have big plans for this now, by the way, with lots more coming! Title for this one comes from Old School Love by Lupe Fiasco!

Lucifer watches patiently as he waits for Alastor to wake up. He’s already been up himself for about an hour now, and he’d be lying if he said the only reason he was even able to get any sleep at all last night wasn’t because Alastor was there, curling up into Lucifer’s wings and playing jazz through the radio, occasionally even indulging him in a bit of pillow talk. Something about falling into what’s become their usual rhythm for ending the day actually had helped him wind down, despite what he knew was coming in the morning.

As he waits for Alastor to wake up, Lucifer finds his mind whirling through a million possibilities for how this conversation could go. What if he gets upset? What if he shuts off completely? What if I’ve been misreading every sign I think I’ve been seeing? What if he goes back to hating me?

The only thing that manages to pull him from his thoughts is Alastor finally waking. The steady ebb and flow of radio static slowly quieting completely, the little ear twitch that shows he’s alert if nothing else does, one glowing red eye just barely cracking open to see if he can get away with pretending to be asleep for a while. He’s adorable.

Lucifer smiles softly. “Good morning.”

Alastor hides his face in Lucifer’s feathers, grumbling a bit. “What time is it?”

“You don’t have to be up yet if you don’t want to.”

“Good.”

“Uh, if you are gonna be awake, though, there’s… something I wanted to talk to you about.”

One of Alastor’s ears flicks, but he doesn’t say anything back. Lucifer rests a hand next to one of Alastor’s. It’s close enough, he’s sure they’d be touching if one of them so much as breathed too sharply, but still not actually touching. Yet.

Lucifer generally tries his best to let Alastor take the lead on things. He doesn’t ever want to push too far and screw everything up, but sometimes all the waiting feels more like hell than, well, actually being in Hell. If things were fully in Alastor’s hands, Lucifer’s pretty sure they wouldn’t even have made it this far. As is, they still hadn’t progressed to dropping the “hands off” rule, but they’d definitely made progress, seeing as Alastor has recently stopped pulling away when Lucifer does try to get a little more in his space.

Even now, Alastor is looking at Lucifer curiously, ears cocked like a somewhat perplexed animal. But he hasn’t pulled his hand away. Progress.

“What is it? You look like you’re going to ask me something I won’t want to answer.”

“Um, well—” Lucifer’s face flushes golden and he looks away, suddenly feeling too much like he put himself on the spot. Somehow, avoiding eye contact still doesn’t stop him stumbling over his words. “I, uh— It’s just that— I think— Well, I think we’ve gotten fairly, um, close over the past few months and, uh, I just— I wanted to see if maybe you’d um—” his voice lowers, as if saying it more quietly will somehow make this less daunting— “wanna go out with me sometime?”

Keep Reading

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Leave wildlife alone. He probably bites.

 [First] Prev <–-> Next

[liquidstar]

a friend who'd wait :)

[jwooyoung]

hi everyone I miss you 🥺

[rawliverandgoronspice]

just realized I don't have one, not two, but *three* extremely dramatic moments in the animatic where ganondorf stands up and he's tall

[welcometogrouchland]

Something something Hunter and Willow both trying to outrun past identities that were assigned to them against their will something something in attempting to subvert it they become a shadow imitation of that identity, harkening back to it via it's absence, never truly able to escape it if they continue to define themselves in opposition to it. This also kinda happens to Luz btw

[c0rpsedemon]

fate is, for the most part, a good arthurian adaptation, but somehow fgo manages to be so godawful when it comes to everything round table that it single-handedly manages to cancel that out and make fate as a whole a kinda bad adaptation

[sparklestheunicorn]

The cruellest thing erika johansen did to kelsea glynn was change her face.

[mrfoox]

.... I feel bad bc my friend is sad ) :

[longagoitwastuesday]

I know Mai is sort of like the typical "kind of a bitch" female character that often has a lot of sexist tropes playing around, but for some reason... I actually like her?

[lgbtlunaverse]

I've seen a good number of people ask a question along the lines of "why do characters like Falin and hate Laios when they're so similar?" and i've also seen good analysis on the differences in how the touden siblings carry themselves that would, despite their shared traits, make a person gravitate to one more than the other.

But i feel like we've overseen one very central thing here.

People don't like Falin

Like... the average person in dungeon meshi doesn't like Falin. She was deeply ostrasized by her home village, in magic school she had zero friends before Marcille and the others generally saw her as strange and a bit offputting.

Characters like Namari and Chilchuck like her well enough but not necessarily more than any other member of their party, including Laios. Neither Kabru nor his party think much of her. The canaries don't give a fuck about her. Toshiro's retainers don't see her as anything else than the weird foreign girl their boss has a crush on.

The reason we think everyone loves Falin is because, despite all the indifferent side characters, the 2 most important and central characters of the story are Laios and Marcille. Who are NOT representative of the average attitudes to Falin! But necromancy georg number 1 and 2 are our main eyes into the story and they love Falin so much that it colours our perspective of the whole world.

The only side character who qualifies as liking Falin and not Laios is Toshiro (at least at first, as he ends the story on much better terms with Laios) and that says a lot about his character, with him drifting to the quiet Falin precisely because of her oddness but being both uncomfortable with and deeply jealous of Laios' much more open expression of that oddness. Because he's a repressed guy from a culture where etiquette is incredibly important.

But like I said, that's a specific aspect of him, not to the world at large.

Because there's also people that click more with laios than with Falin.

Kabru, for one, who is initially distrustful of laios but clearly also deeply fascinated by him and drawn to him.

Minor spoilers, and you don't have to read too deeply into this, because I don't think Kabru particularly dislikes Falin or anything. But it's interesting that when he talks about his distrust of the toudens in ch.32 he's talking about them both. But his big friendship declaration in chapter 76 is aimed squarely at Laios, he doesn't say "you and your sister" he says "you"

And Senshi!! He instantly clicks with Laios, well before he does so with anyone else in the party– who he also becomes friends with, it just takes a bit longer– specifically because they bond over their shared special interest in monsters!! Senshi is kind towards Falin and cares for her wellbeing, but he also... doesn't know her. The reason he is even here, helping to save her, is because he and Laios bonded over monsters and he wants to help his new friends out!

Of course, the theme of neurodivergent isolation is very present in Laios' story. I'm not denying that. He does turn people off, without meaning to and unable to fully understand why! But so does Falin. And just like there are people who like her despite of or even because of those traits, there are people who do the same with him.

In conclusion: "Average person loves Falin and hates Laios" factoid actually statistical error. Average person is neutral on both Falin and Laios. Georcille, Laiorg and Geoshiro, who live in the dungeon and think over 10,000 Falin-loving thoughts a day, are statistical outliers adn should not have been counted.