#THEY ARE THEIR OWN STORY

[dekusleftsock]

Toga Himiko - To want a savior

When we think of Himiko, we often come to the conclusion that she is a girl of tragedy. Someone who has repeatedly been rejected by the society around her, and turning her into a “real villain”.

But have we stopped to think that Toga has already chosen to be saved? Let’s talk: the mind and choices to Himiko.

What is a hero?

Now, I’ve kinda talked about being a hero a lot. But I wanna ask the question, what does being a hero mean to Himiko?

Lets go back to our first introduction to Toga, why did she join the league?

Horikoshi often describes Stain as a “dark hero” or vigilante over an actual villain, making Himiko’s inspiration feel out of place (im not completely sure on this, I think he did? If I’m wrong sorry!! Working off of a vague memory I read of an interview). Stain has always had a motive, and that motive is to rid the world of “bad” and “corrupt” heroes. In stains belief system, a Hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice everything for the safety of others. Things like monetary pay or an egocentric Justice, things that Iida or Ochako have as reasons to be heroes at the beginning of mha, are villainess things in his mind. (Stain also questions the ideas and boundaries of what “true villainy” is because, to be honest, it’s a pretty relative term. It depends on your morals and ethics over anything else, and that kinda gets muddled and fuzzy the bigger the group. Also, are villains and criminals different? Like aoyama?)

So what does this mean for Himiko? Well, we don’t really know. We’re working off scraps, a vague idea of “being free”. Maybe she believes that fulfilling stains ideas will somehow bring this freedom, because she will only be around “true heroes”.

What we do know, is that she sees Izuku’s sacrifices with his beat up body, and Ochako’s impressive tenacity and empathy for others, and she adores it. She LOVES THAT SHIT. Of course, she could also just be attracted to Dekus blood or Ochakos life, but I think it’s more than that. Other than age, there’s no one in the league or general villains (that we know of) that she has developed these admirations or crushes on. She loves the league, but she certainly doesn’t admire them.

But she does admire Ochako and Izuku.

She “chose” two hero students specifically. Two students that have repeatedly proven themselves for their heroics. They are the ideal heroes in Stains eyes, because they repeatedly sacrifice.

Because Toga Himiko, would like to have someone who would sacrifice for her.

Do you want kill me too?

Himiko doesn’t hate heroes. She never has. Heroes have never been considered to her as a direct issue. Everyone else in the league was somehow done wrong by a hero, one way or another. Usually, this wrongness is then taken in as a vulnerability for someone else (like afo) to nurture into a festering hatred. Shigaraki and Dabi both experienced this, and spinner simply followed in Shigaraki’s footsteps after the (poorly written) fantasy racism that he experienced. (I refuse to just say racism, because it’s not at all an accurate portrayal of how racism works and it will continue to NEVER BE an accurate portrayal. Ever. I want to make that clear)

Himiko, however, has had an indirect grooming to some extent. This puts her in an interesting place of vulnerability; one that afo exploits and Ochako ignores.

Going all the way back to 289, this chapter encompasses two things: Himiko’s crush and Himiko’s hope.

Her crush, not understanding of what she’s saying or asking, is obviously confused by this inadvertent confession. Ochako doesn’t realize until 348’s “unrequited love” chapter what this whole scene meant to Himiko.

Because, not only is this her direct confession, but an inadvertent call for saving. Of course, Himiko’s idea of being saved by Ochako, and Ochako’s idea of saving Himiko, would be very contradictory.

But it’s still there.

This is Ochako’s chance.

And she BLEW IT!

And god, she knew it. She knows that’s what this is, that’s what this realization was.

Because Ochako is supposed to be the hero that makes other people smile, not to be the one smiling.

Her thinking of Himiko during her speech? That was Ochako realizing her call for help.

Thinking of Himiko after her confession to Izuku? She realized that it was, not only a call for help directed at Izuku, but that her previous interaction was a confession.

The real Himiko Toga

So, that begs the question hero, who is the real Himiko Toga?

I don’t think this is about not loving someone. Himiko does love people, she only wanted to “become” Jin when she desperately needed to be. Because Jin loved Shigaraki and Dabi, Jin loved Toga Himiko.

And that’s something that she can’t do right now. She can’t love shigaraki, she can’t love afo, she can’t even love dabi, the man who gifted her that vile of blood. She can’t even love herself because of it.

That is, if love is the only factor here.

She can still love Dabi or Shigaraki, she can still admire afo, but that doesn’t mean she admires their hatred or loves their destruction. Jin loved people, he loved the life he built in the league. Himiko admired that happiness, she loved and cared for him. Thats why she can use his quirk but no one else’s.

What if, she needs to both love and admire someone? What if she never loved Izuku, but admired his heroics, like Ochako?

The scene that ochako thinks of here is actually Himiko calling out Ochako directly on loving someone.

This is about their shared crush, but was that crush ever real? Did it ever even matter? Is it just about their first interaction, Ochako’s obsessive rumination over this one interaction? Is this a callback to “ever since I met you, I just couldn’t stop thinking about you”?

What if it’s all of those things? It’s not so far fetched to believe that Ochako needs to use her thoughts, her love, and her admiration to save Himiko.

Because this is Ochako and Himiko’s acceptance of their crushes, heartbreaks, and admirations. Admiration and love get so muddled over time. There is a difference, especially when that admiration only holds you back, like in Ochako’s case, like in Himiko’s case. But they’re still apart of the same concepts.

Himiko’s love also isn’t just romantic, it’s familial or platonic. She’s rough around the edges, but the Himiko that went to Ochako to see if she would be saved is still there. And that’s why she’s not letting her go anymore.

Because Himiko Toga, the real one, still wants to be saved.

[aholefilledwithtwigs]

I once had a landlord offhandedly mention that his mother had set this house on fire before. He and his wife lived on the first floor, and i rented the third.

Apparently his mom didn’t like his wife. So she set their house on fire. The house i was living in.

He assured me that everything was fine now and that this was years ago, just kinda laughed, smiled, and said ‘You know how moms are’

Yes. I know how moms are. I know how fucked up moms are as well. I have known many fucked up moms and fellow children of fucked up moms.

Attempted murder through arson is not typical mom behavior, even for a fucked up abusive mom

Oh, and his mother lived next door 🙃

[gentil-minou]

Everytime I see posts like this I get filled with such profound sadness

Cause you know who has the same brainrot as you? The same unhinged feelings as you after you've read the fic? The person who always wants to scream about the fic with you?

THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT

I never used to leave comments but since I got into the habit of commenting on everything i enjoy it's been incredible. Especially when the author gets back to me about it and we get to have a discussion of what other ideas they had. One writer replied to my comment with a 5 paragraph essay detailing the Floorplan of the building the characters lived in and it was incredible

Anyways this is all to say that if you find a fic that just makes you want to scream from the rooftops, leave a comment saying that to the author and maybe they will join you and you can scream incoherently together

[crowkip]

yeehaw, baby!

[malewifesband]

you guys are so fucking annoying so this post is my favorite canon comic now. shut the fuck up

[quibbs]

just had SO much fun with the fallout tv show... i love you missus okey dokey

[softwaring]

[c-rowlesdraws]

Ratatouille would have been a better and potentially much more interesting story if Remy had partnered with Collette instead of Linguini. Two underdogs with talent and passion forced to maintain a dangerous ruse. Fiercely independent Collette giving up temporary control of her body to a creature who, despite the insanity of a rat wanting to cook professionally, she can relate to on a personal level and who she does want to teach. The inner conflict of wondering if Remy’s growing talents are eclipsing her own, if the praise their food is earning belongs more to him than to her. Her guilt over feeling resentment and jealousy towards this little guy who wouldn’t have a hope of realizing his talents if not for her trust and protection. Both of them unraveling the mystery of that sweet but bumbling kitchen boy with the obvious crush on Collette being Gusteau’s secret son, and working together to thwart the new evil owner’s plans to stop Linguini from claiming his birthright. The message of the movie not being this weird, almost smug “some people are born with talent, some people aren’t, and that’s how being a ~great artist~ works”, but something more like, “if you have a dream, you deserve to pursue it, and be supported and encouraged in your pursuit of it, even if other people tell you that, because of some intrinsic aspect of yourself or the circumstances you were born in (like being a human woman in the restaurant industry, or being a literal rat), you have no place pursuing this dream. Also, raw talent can only get you so far, and skill and passion existing in the right balance is key.” I’ve been thinking about this for seventeen years. I’m breaking my silence

[chloesimaginationthings]

The Afton kids deserved better in FNAF..

[canisalbus]

✦ They said you were a bright child ✦

[ruporas]

trigunned the hades or hadesed the trigun (id in alt)

[a-wisebear]

oh i love leaving comments on ao3, you gave me pretty words and i give you my little words, oh i loved it, oh i have to tell you i loved it, ohhh do you know which was my favourite part? i'm gonna tell you, also it was a wonderful job and and and

[polygonal-trees]

Transformers One isn't changing the established lore y'all because there is no established lore

[seventeendeer]

ppl are too quick to point to laios' disability as the reason his friends think he's a freak sometimes. so many instances of laios getting yelled at are, in my eyes, a case of "this guy had to emotionally mature very early in order to be there for his little sister" combined with "much older friends who never had to learn to manage their own emotions to the same degree"

a lot of the time he's right about needing to be more direct/deal with things in a way that may seem scary/needing to put your gut reaction aside. he tries not to make his friends uncomfortable and he puts up with a lot because he's trying to keep the peace, but he also pushes the others out of their comfort zones purposefully to try to get them to think more constructively. everyone else in the party is prone to acting on their gut instincts and avoiding uncomfortable situations even when facing them head-on is very much necessary. part of what makes laios such a great leader is the fact that he knows from experience how to put his own feelings aside to help someone else grow.

yes, he does make a lot of social blunders by accident and he does struggle to connect with others, but not all of his positive influence on others is accidental or "despite" making people uncomfortable. a lot of the time, I think it's clear he knows exactly what he's doing and he's trying to help the people around him process emotions in a healthy way as they all go through some truly harrowing shit. all the main characters support each other as well as they can with their unique emotional skillsets. laios' skillset just happens to be "gently talk child into eating her vegetables"

[aethersea]

another thing fantasy writers should keep track of is how much of their worldbuilding is aesthetic-based. it's not unlike the sci-fi hardness scale, which measures how closely a story holds to known, real principles of science. The Martian is extremely hard sci-fi, with nearly every detail being grounded in realistic fact as we know it; Star Trek is extremely soft sci-fi, with a vaguely plausible "space travel and no resource scarcity" premise used as a foundation for the wildest ideas the writers' room could come up with. and much as Star Trek fuckin rules, there's nothing wrong with aesthetic-based fantasy worldbuilding!

(sidenote we're not calling this 'soft fantasy' bc there's already a hard/soft divide in fantasy: hard magic follows consistent rules, like "earthbenders can always and only bend earth", and soft magic follows vague rules that often just ~feel right~, like the Force. this frankly kinda maps, but I'm not talking about just the magic, I'm talking about the worldbuilding as a whole.

actually for the purposes of this post we're calling it grounded vs airy fantasy, bc that's succinct and sounds cool.)

a great example of grounded fantasy is Dungeon Meshi: the dungeon ecosystem is meticulously thought out, the plot is driven by the very realistic need to eat well while adventuring, the story touches on both social and psychological effects of the whole 'no one dies forever down here' situation, the list goes on. the worldbuilding wants to be engaged with on a mechanical level and it rewards that engagement.

deliberately airy fantasy is less common, because in a funny way it's much harder to do. people tend to like explanations. it takes skill to pull off "the world is this way because I said so." Narnia manages: these kids fall into a magic world through the back of a wardrobe, befriend talking beavers who drink tea, get weapons from Santa Claus, dance with Bacchus and his maenads, and sail to the edge of the world, without ever breaking suspension of disbelief. it works because every new thing that happens fits the vibes. it's all just vibes! engaging with the worldbuilding on a mechanical level wouldn't just be futile, it'd be missing the point entirely.

the reason I started off calling this aesthetic-based is that an airy story will usually lean hard on an existing aesthetic, ideally one that's widely known by the target audience. Lewis was drawing on fables, fairy tales, myths, children's stories, and the vague idea of ~medieval europe~ that is to this day our most generic fantasy setting. when a prince falls in love with a fallen star, when there are giants who welcome lost children warmly and fatten them up for the feast, it all fits because these are things we'd expect to find in this story. none of this jars against what we've already seen.

and the point of it is to be wondrous and whimsical, to set the tone for the story Lewis wants to tell. and it does a great job! the airy worldbuilding serves the purposes of the story, and it's no less elegant than Ryōko Kui's elaborately grounded dungeon. neither kind of worldbuilding is better than the other.

however.

you do have to know which one you're doing.

the whole reason I'm writing this is that I saw yet another long, entertaining post dragging GRRM for absolute filth. asoiaf is a fun one because on some axes it's pretty grounded (political fuck-around-and-find-out, rumors spread farther than fact, fastest way to lose a war is to let your people starve, etc), but on others it's entirely airy (some people have magic Just Cause, the various peoples are each based on an aesthetic/stereotype/cliché with no real thought to how they influence each other as neighbors, the super-long seasons have no effect on ecology, etc).

and again! none of this is actually bad! (well ok some of those stereotypes are quite bigoted. but other than that this isn't bad.) there's nothing wrong with the season thing being there to highlight how the nobles are focused on short-sighted wars for power instead of storing up resources for the extremely dangerous and inevitable winter, that's a nice allegory, and the looming threat of many harsh years set the narrative tone. and you can always mix and match airy and grounded worldbuilding – everyone does it, frankly it's a necessity, because sooner or later the answer to every worldbuilding question is "because the author wanted it to be that way." the only completely grounded writing is nonfiction.

the problem is when you pretend that your entirely airy worldbuilding is actually super duper grounded. like, for instance, claiming that your vibes-based depiction of Medieval Europe (Gritty Edition) is completely historical, and then never even showing anyone spinning. or sniffing dismissively at Tolkien for not detailing Aragorn's tax policy, and then never addressing how a pre-industrial grain-based agricultural society is going years without harvesting any crops. (stored grain goes bad! you can't even mouse-proof your silos, how are you going to deal with mold?) and the list goes on.

the man went up on national television and invited us to engage with his worldbuilding mechanically, and then if you actually do that, it shatters like spun sugar under the pressure. doesn't he realize that's not the part of the story that's load-bearing! he should've directed our focus to the political machinations and extensive trope deconstruction, not the handwavey bit.

point is, as a fantasy writer there will always be some amount of your worldbuilding that boils down to 'because I said so,' and there's nothing wrong with that. nor is there anything wrong with making that your whole thing – airy worldbuilding can be beautiful and inspiring. but you have to be aware of what you're doing, because if you ask your readers to engage with the worldbuilding in gritty mechanical detail, you had better have some actual mechanics to show them.

[gaddaboutgriffon]

Future Son????

It has been a while since I have done an original prompt. So DCxDP prompt #2

Danny gets into a fight with Impulse/Bart about Bart changing the timeline messing things up for Danny and effectively erasing his family, because the change made it so Maddie and Jack never got together. But because of Clockwork sending him on a mission to the past while Bart changed the timeline and the medallion Dan had phased into Danny he remembers the old timeline. Also he has access to his powers but for some reason can’t change into ghost form.

This fight happens in front of the rest of the young justice team. And Nightwing was coming there to teach a training lesson and over hears half of what Danny is shouting.

From Dick’s point of view there is a black haired, blue eyed kid with powers that are suspiciously like a Tamuraneans, yelling at Bart about losing his family because his parents never got together. Also Dick and Kori had recently broken up. (Feel free to make up a reason.)

Due to a misunderstanding Dick is going to help his time displaced “son” adjust to the new reality.

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