#and thus i was compelled to write this weird headcanon

[floralcrematorium]

What are some of your most essential hcs for Ukraine? :)

I interact with Hetalia in a weird way because I've noticed most people like characters depending on what nation's history they're interested in, but with me, it's the opposite. If I find a character compelling, I want to look into their history to figure out what events would have shaped them into the person they are. I don't typically write nationverse because figuring out the whole immortality thing hurts my brain and freaks me out, but I'm trying to come around to nationverse.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about Ukrainian history other than Very Basic Stuff, so these headcanons are just how I tend to portray her in my own writing thus far:

• She's fat. That's it! I just wanna see a fat girl thriving, happy, and loved.

• She's perfectly capable of being snarky or backhanded, but it's often disguised as a compliment. It's not very often, but if you're being rude and it's deserved, she'll have you wondering what she meant. SHE STANDS HER GROUND!

• Rather physically strong. Be it from farm labor or maybe even some weights training, this girl could throw you over her shoulder like it's no big deal.

• She's very sentimental. She'll choose to hold onto old items even if they're thoroughly worn because of their sentimental value. For that reason, her house is full of hand-me-downs from ancestors and items from her childhood. Lots of heirloom jewelry.

• Gold jewelry girlie through and through.

• She'll mend things until it's not possible. She's rather handy, actually. She can definitely figure some tech out, but it's not her strong suit. Can definitely figure the mechanics of heavy machinery out.

• While I think she makes friends very easily, she may often feel like she may not matter to them. She worries people don't value her as much as she values them. From this, she's gotten particularly good at being alone and keeping herself occupied, but it gets isolating at times. She deserves a fun night out on the town with the girlies.

• I've realllllly been liking the idea of Hungary x Ukraine recently and their friendship with Liechtenstein. Their trio to me is like. A sapphic couple in their mid thirties - near fourties accidentally adopt this seemingly helpless college aged girl. Hunkraine and their accidentally adopted lesbian, Liechtenstein (plus her older brother, on occasion)

• Poland friendship intrigues me. Hmmmm

• There's mutual jealousy between Kateryna and Natallia. I have a mini comic about this in the works, but I think Kateryna envies Nat's opportunities. Kateryna sacrificed a lot for her younger sister to give her the life she did. She also may have some body image insecurities just due to the way sisters are compared nonstop. Nat envies Kateryna's independence and ability to be so warm and extroverted. Their sisterhood being the only canon sister & sister relationship we have is something I value as an older sibling to someone who reminds me a lot of Natallia.

• Her cooking??? Fantastic.

• Big fan of flowers and flower pressing.

• I will forever and always be a CanUkr stan.

[thegrunkiest]

Lucien Lachance x Antoinetta Marie Headcanons

I have recently been compelled to crawl out of my hole and spread propaganda. Since other WIPs currently hold priority I'm unsure when I will actually write for these ideas, but they refused to leave me alone. Thus, enjoy a self-indulgent thoughtdump on my dumb little rarepair OTP. I am normal about them 🥺

It was an open secret to literally everyone in the Sanctuary that Antoinetta was madly smitten with their Speaker. Everyone including the Speaker himself. He never openly showed any reciprocation, or even any acknowledgement to this attraction beyond a humored look or shake of the head at her antics, or when a Brother or Sister teased about it on occasion. After all, they would reason- it must be a passing fancy, right? She'll get over it.

One day, Lucien catches wind of Antoinetta's little boasts - perhaps the remark about, say, taking Ocheeva's place one day? He thinks that, hmm, a mere Slayer speaks so assuredly! It may be entertaining to test her. He had once used everything in his power to save her life; he'd like to ensure such an investment does not throw her life away from growing arrogance. When he finds time to spare the Speaker plans a personal murder for her to undertake, and accompanies her on the journey to examine her progress. One thing leads to another. Then another. Whatever happened out there, their Brothers and Sisters most certainly noticed they appeared... closer than before when they returned.

However, theirs' is a private affair. It's another open secret, yes, but not one they care to flaunt or tease. Antoinetta might think it would be fun to run her mouth off about it, as she's known to do with most things, but her respect for Lucien prevails over her urge to gossip.

Antoinetta had a strict habit of calling Lucien 'Speaker' to his face, and it took her awhile to break out of it. She knows how dedicated he is in his role and wanted to express her utmost respect of that. He stops her one time and says: "Darling, when it is only us? You need only call me Lucien." Darling? She swoons and nearly faints.

When their schedules allow spare time together, their dates are of two varieties. One is full-blown homicide; the other is a shockingly innocent outing, such as dinner or a walk along the Cyrodiil countryside. There is often overlap between the two. Nothing screams romance to two serial killers like a waltz in the field while covered in blood and guts!

Lucien tends to let Antoinetta choose the occasion or location of their more pleasant trysts. He understands that she had lived a caged life before the Brotherhood, and wants to allow her the freedom to... well... simply live a little. It delights him more than he openly admits to see when she gets struck with wonder or excitement at a new sight or experience.

Antoinetta adores Lucien's robes. They are shockingly comfortable; it carries his weird scent of alchemy reagents and dead things; and it serves as a symbol of what she one day hopes to achieve within the Brotherhood. Yes she's put them on if ever she's awoken before him. Yes he has caught her in the act. She was initially fearful he'd find it disrespectful, but he just shrugged and let her continue. It's not that he found it... dare he say... endearing or anything. No. Not at all (lie). But she wasn't stealing it - not breaking a Tenet - so let her have her fun.

That silver dagger Antoinetta uses was a gift from Lucien. He is a man to put functional gifts in mind. If his lover cannot commit harm with the pretty thing he bought them, what is even the point? He once gifted her a bag of potatoes during a tryst; he was enamored to later watch her bludgeon a man into a coma with it. That was the moment when he subconsciously realized... by Sithis, he thinks he loves this woman.

I had an entire section written for how this ship would be affected by the events of the questline, but I believe it warrants a separate post. Enjoy the general fluff now; save the doomed romance for later 😏

Individual Lucien Lachance Headcanons

[kenobster]

📝🗣️

please i just love u talking abt ur fics

From this ask game.

Ahhhh thanks so much, anon!!! I'm super flattered. :D

I'm still sloooowly working my way through the asks I have in my inbox, but this one luckily had great timing so I'm doing this one before the others. (Though maybe this isn't what you wanted, anon... in which case, my deepest condolences. XD)

🗣️ Talk about your favorite WIP

We are using this question as an excuse to talk about the Vader Mpreg AU, which is, in fact, my favorite AU, but also is convenient for another post I was gonna make today, haha.

For context, there are a few things you should know about me:

I did not watch The Rise of Skywalker until literally three or four weeks ago.

I have never written an mpreg in my life. (It's true that lizard brain craves noncon in a way that compels me to read the occasional mpreg... But while writing my own fic, I do try to keep lizard brain's demands as realistic and in character as humanly possible.)

Perhaps the most important thing to note: lizard brain always wins.

Anyway... this all started when I happened upon the RoS spoiler: "Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter" in the year of 2022. Having not watched the movie, I immediately wondered who the fuck the grandmother is (a question to which my actual RL mother ceaselessly chants "Mommy Mothmama" every time; do not ask me why.) Of course, lizard brain, being lizard brain, immediately headcanoned a dubiously consenting Darth Vader somehow being this elusive grandmother person. (The "somehow" was not important to lizard brain.)

For a year or so, I actually put off watching RoS — in small part because lizard brain didn't want its headcanons to be refuted. Fortunately for lizard brain, I have amazingly supportive friends who informed me that Rey is actually the daughter of a strand (aka a special Force clone) which was cast into the world only to hook up with some unknown female. Unfortunately for my friends, lizard brain realized that this information didn't refute its grandma!Vader headcanons at all. Quite the opposite in fact. 🙄

Thus, began the saga of lizard brain's precious Vader Mpreg AU.

In summary, Palpatine creates a synthetic uterus to host an ordinary clone of himself. Then, he implants the uterus into Vader's abdomen and fucks the shit out of him to get some perverse dark-sided Force magic going. Why, you ask? :) Well, dear anon, in order to transform this regular clone baby into a strand of course, lizard brain replies. :) :) :) To be clear, there is no creation of a vagina nor any other method to give birth. Instead, this strand baby, once ripe for the picking, is simply plucked from Vader's abdomen via c-section, and a newly prepped uterus is inserted in its place. After that, Palpatine repeats this process and all of its trial-and-error glory every nine months for the rest of Vader's life. (But don't worry; Vader will eventually flee to Obi-Wan, who is horrified to find his once-Padawan eight months pregnant.)

Honestly, excepting dubcon/noncon, this actually isn't that weird for me. Lizard brain already possesses a plethora of headcanons in which Palpatine modifies Vader's body. The uterus implanting kinda just feels like an extension of that. (For an example of these headcanons, urinary and intrarectal catheters have been installed into Vader's body, not out of medical necessity, but because it would be inconvenient for Vader to have to pee and poop while dressed in the suit. For another, maybe Palpatine put in a full-blown mechno spine replacement to eliminate bothersome nervous-system functions such as the registration of pain.)

In fact, while this body-modifying headcanoning won't enable live births or lactating breasts (for now.... please don't tempt my lizard brain), it will go beyond the uterus. :) For example... prepping Vader for sex sounds like an incredibly tiresome task, and it's not like anyone else can do it. Vader doesn't have any limbs, after all. Instead, Palpatine wonders, why not have Vader's anus be self-lubricating in way similar to that of a vagina? Why not scifi-gene-splice the shit out of that butt canal? Why the fuck not?

📝Share a snippet of an unposted WIP, with or without context.

I feel like the above AU description is pretty clinical, so I thought it would be fun to bring some emotion back to it via the use of a snippet. So, enjoy the wildly inappropriate noncon of a pregnant male villain:

At some point, he realizes the truth—that it isn't him being fucked into the mattress, face down, ass hooked on his Master's cock. Sidious isn't fucking Darth Vader or even his body. Sidious isn't even fucking Anakin Skywalker. In actuality, Sidious is fucking the uterus. The womb. The fetus. The uncast strand, the unborn infant. In actuality, Sidious is fucking himself. The truth of it has him choking on the respirator, on a dry and tearless sob, because this isn't about him, none of this was ever about him, it's about what Sidious wants, what Sidious likes, what Sidious craves. Vader is only the conduit of this ritual—far less than a pet or even a slave. Once, yes, he may have been an object of Sidious's obsession, and maybe he liked that, maybe he liked the way that Sidious took pride in what was once his greatest creation, in twisting Anakin Skywalker into this charred and rotten beast of a Sith. Because, even loveless, Sidious's pride burns value into Vader's flesh. Makes Vader feel as if he matters, as if he's worth something, as if he can live up to the magnitude of the pressure smothering him from the inside out. Punishment, after all, and pain and strife and sorrow, are their own kind of affection, ideal for the swollen carcass of need festering within his chest, and often better than the shame that blooms with praise.  Right now, as his sphincter clenches around the cock inside him, as the base of his spine shoots overwhelming pleasure upward, as a fetus kicks at its shrinking walls pressed against the mattress, Vader finds that he is being neglected. The absence of Sidious's intimacy leaves his furnace-heart chilly and black and hollow, and he chokes and sobs and chokes and sobs, and the monotonous blue-blue-blue of this bedroom becomes half-blurred and dizzy as a torrent of tears spills from his right eye's still-functioning tear duct. The thrusting crests, and tapers out. Sidious's breathing evens, but Vader's choked sobs just won't die.

I would say I'm sorry, but I am who I am lmao.

[grim-glasses]

Absolutely unhinged Grelliam rambling

(To save time, please assume that each paragraph begins with "in my opinion" because this isn't a meta post, I'm not trying to be like "omg they're endgame and this is Yana's vision" I'm mostly talking about my creative process and the transformative nature of fanworks. My fanworks specifically.

Note: The Tale of Will the Reaper does not exist to me. I Do Not See It.

Not sure if I'm just experiencing Visions or what but I do think that Grelliam could be endgame with quite honestly only very small amounts of character development

I was struggling with writing the ship for a while because I really liked it but as it stands Will and Grell have like 0 chemistry and really REALLY fall into that 2010s-era "sexually inappropriate dumbass x emotionally stunted asshole who beats the shit out of them & we're supposed to find this cute and funny because it's the 2010s" dynamic

So I was really struggling finding a way to like. write that dynamic in a deep, meaningful way. Because in order to do that, you have to take it seriously, I think? You either have to take it seriously and consider them a couple that is uncomfortable with each other or dial it back into something you can work with.

The problem is, as side characters, if you take that away, there's nothing left. Grell is just some weirdo with a crush and Will is. wallpaper.

The only solution, thus, is to develop it. And I finally "solved" Grelliam in a way that works for me.

You seeee, I initially thought Will was The Problem. So naturally, if I crafted some sort of scenario in my head where he changed to accept and reciprocate Grell's feelings, that should fix it, right?

Wrong.

The problem was, I still didn't believe it.

It didn't work for me at all.

Even if you headcanon him as demi, which I do, there's still this strange sense of mismatch, that Grell is over-performing in a way, or perhaps... over-compensating?

I sat with this weird Grelliam mismatch for months trying to come up with some fanfic plots, some ideas, something to compel me, but I really could not find any appeal in a love story where only one person is transformed. It turns Will into a problem and Grell into a solution.

But then I realized that Grell is, in fact, also a problem.

Her feelings and expressions are WAY too over-the-top to be believable or even... genuine. I started thinking about what she said to An right before killing her (in the anime, anyway, bc I've watched that scene more than I've read it)

Also I'm paraphrasing because I'm not about to go look up the scene just to get the quote right in some absolutely unhinged Grelliam ramble

But it was something along the lines of "what use are you to me if you're just another woman?"

Because Angelina hesitated to kill Ciel. Because she showed weakness.

From this and Grell's attraction to Sebastian and Will, I think it's fair to draw the conclusion that it's not aloofness she's attracted to, but resolution, stoicism, drive, immovability. We can guess that she's not lithro, because she was in a reciprocated relationship with An.

It's displays of excess emotion and vulnerability that turn her off.

That being said, I don't think she knows just how deep her feelings for Will go. I think she's counting on him to never, ever break. To never cry, to never bleed, to never smile. I think she feels very safe in that.

That needs to go.

I think, the Inciting Grelliam Incident, the moment that shatters the status quo into a million little pieces on the floor, that changes everything

Is

That

Will needs to show some kind of weakness

And Grell needs to keep loving him anyway

I could keep going but I ran out of steam anyway my point is I can write Grelliam now because I finally have an idea of what I want their fucking dynamic to look like

[heroes-lullaby]

Skyward Sword HC based off of a dream I had:

  Link is a weird kind of sick. As in, when he’s sick, he does things he should not and is too delirious from his ailment to tell between right and wrong.

  You see, the Triforce mistakes sickness as him needing more energy/courage to push on, but it’s entirely unknown to the fact that, as a sick person, you need rest to get better, not power. Thus, a sick Link will often suffer from this more than benefit from it, attempting to do weird and outlandish activities (such as doing extreme stunts on his Loftwing or going exploring in the dark) to satisfy his forced lust for adventure and challenge.

One time, Zelda, Pipit, and all his other friends had to hold him down and force him to sleep because he was determined to go explore more undiscovered parts of the Surface. At 1:30 in the morning.

Usually when his sickness subsides, these whole occurrences are fuzzy to Link, but he apologizes deeply for what his sick self/Triforce does/leads him to do.

Basically what I’m getting at is that the Triforce makes being sick for Link a living pain because it’s literally like “sickness??¿ never heard of her. hey you’re feeling pretty weak so that must mean you need more courage, here we’ll help” and Link just wants to be sick and normal, is that too hard to ask–

((I guess read the tags for a rambling/explanation as to how this came to be))

[panlight]

I don’t actually think Bella wanting nice things but also not wanting gifts is a contradiction from the writer’s standpoint but as a testiment to the fact that she was a neglected child. Not that she would ever acknowledge that’s what she is but her childhood clearly socialized her to be self- reliant and not to rely on others. Edward is in some sense good for her in that regard as she lets go of this a bit but not really.It is infortunate that to the nature of Twilight ( I believe Twilight is a tragedy) she will never process this and transform that self belief as she is a frozen 19 yo mom who is in denial and thinks everything is great. My mom had a very similar childhood ( well worse because she outright experienced abuse) and let me tell you that shit will effect you as a person and the choices you make and the things you believe. Sorry if Im rambling but I just find the topic so interesting

I love reading all these headcanons about Bella's mental state and how her childhood would affect her. People make such compelling metas about this, really delve into the psychology of trauma and neglect and parentification and it's all so sad and interesting.

But I also think that SM did not intend like, any of this. I remember the story SM told about how originally the reason Bella moved in with Charlie was that Phil was her high school principal and it was just too weird to live with him. But early editors thought there was implied sexual abuse there (that Phil made her uncomfortable because he abused her vs just 'omg that's the Principal, weird!') and SM was so horrified that anyone would read that darker implication in her sparkly romance that she changed it to the weirdness of the whole Phil's minor league baseball player and Renee wants to travel with him thing.

I don't think SM wrote Renee as intentionally awful--at least not originally. I think her characterization of Renee got more negative as she has told and retold this story over the last 15 years, possibly influenced by how other people have interpreted her (we know that at one point, SM did read fanfic, because she got frustrated with how people were writing Edward and that's why we have Midnight Sun). But originally? I felt like it was less about "look at what a shitty mom Renee is!" and more a way to say "look at how MATURE Bella is, it totally makes sense for her to get with an 100-year-old teenager!" Renee and Charlie were both supposed to be kind of throw away parents so Bella could have this vampiric adventure with minimal parental influence. But I think--just like the Bella/Jacob relationship--Bella and Charlie's relationship got away from her a bit and developed more than she intended it to, so that just leaves Renee having to be portrayed progressively crappier and crappier. I mean in the first book she's telling Bella not to move out and instantly rushes to the hospital when Bella's hurt and I honestly took the "at least Phil will make sure the bills are paid" as more lighthearted teasing than "Mom is incompetent.' She also comes to Forks in New Moon. But then in Eclipse she's blowing off Bella's graduation because of Phil's broken leg; Breaking Dawn only really deals with Charlie post-wedding; in Life and Death Beau and Charlie speak about her like a baby they have to take care of; and in Midnight Sun we find out she's developed into a narcissist because of a subtle psychic ability that makes everyone sense her mental voice and feel compelled to help her.

Which is all to say that if SM managed to pull off a realistic portrayal of a girl who had to raise herself and is thus uncomfortable with help/gifts from anyone . . . I think it was mostly accidental.

Fandom, as usual, does it better.

And I hope your mom is doing well!

[angels-heap]

Peeping your tags, got any spare Lauren headcanons you could share ˁ˙˟˙ˀ

Oh god, I have enough extremely niche and specific Lauren headcanons bouncing around in my head to write at least two fics, but since I have decided not to write them for Fandom Bullshit Reasons, I’ve been shoving as many of them as possible into The Ghost in You instead.

But without spoiling that fic too much (or making anyone who hasn’t read it feel compelled to do so), here are a few miscellaneous tidbits from my mountains of unused fic notes and outlines:

Lauren worked in the Sector C cafeteria at Black Mesa, and that’s where she met Barney (and eventually Gordon, aka “Ponytail Guy,” the new guy from AnMat who only drank black coffee and never talked to anyone). Barney took Ponytail Guy’s reputation as a challenge, and thus, a beautiful friendship was born.

She liked to dance to old-timey jazz music and also had a bit of a houseplant hoarding problem. Secretly, Barney suspected that the main reason she moved in with him was that his dorm had windows to let in natural light.

Like Barney, Lauren was a huge conspiracy theorist. Unlike Barney, she thought the weird shit going on at Black Mesa was way more interesting than aliens and cryptids. She was able to take advantage of the relative invisibility her service job afforded her to snoop around during her off hours. Maybe she shouldn’t have done that.

Lauren’s behind-the-scenes meddling almost definitely prevented Gordon from being transferred to the Lambda Complex (and possibly disappearing under mysterious and highly classified circumstances) prior to the resonance cascade. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to know if that was a good call or a very, very bad one.

As I mentioned in the tags of this post, Lauren 100% picked up on the subtle homoerotic tension between Barney and Gordon pretty quickly, even though they were both deep in denial. Alas, she ran out of time to encourage them to act on it. Her thoughts on the whole situation ranged from “hilarious” to “kinda hot,” depending on the context.

Case in point: She and Barney once got really drunk together and decided they should both get one “hall pass” to sleep with another person, no questions asked, without it being considered cheating. They wrote their choices down on little pieces of paper and swapped them. Hers was Leonardo DiCaprio. Barney’s was Gordon. He later denied this, but unbeknownst to him, she kept the paper.

Bonus! I managed to find an old outline file for The Ghost in You. Enjoy(?) these snippets of half-written/half-outlined backstory that didn’t make it into the final draft of Chapter 10:

Gordon then proceeded to reveal Lauren’s best-kept open cooking secret to an astonished Barney. (“She just used Lawry’s instead of regular salt in recipes and put it on everything! How did you never pick up on that? You literally shared a kitchen, Barn! She kept the bottle in plain sight!”)

“She was kinda the black sheep of her family,” Barney continued; if he’d noticed his friends’ concern, he chose not to acknowledge it. “She grew up pretty comfortable”—Gordon briefly interrupted with a snort, suggesting that that was an understatement—"but her folks cut her off when she decided she didn’t wanna follow in their footsteps and become a soulless fuckin’ lawyer. She wound up getting a sociology degree at the University of New Mexico because it was the only place she could afford on her own, and…” He trailed off and narrowed his eyes. “Gordon’s makin’ his ‘sociology isn’t a real science’ face, isn’t he?”

[Alyx] also couldn’t help but giggle at Gordon’s absolute disgust for the way Lauren and Barney had shared some kind of cookies called Oreos. (“He’d lick all the cream off and then hand her the soggy cookie part and she’d just pop it into her mouth! It was barbaric!” “Pssh… how is that different from how you and I shared cupcakes at office parties, huh?” “Are you… are you telling me you didn’t scrape the icing off of those with a knife!?...”)  

(Much like the infamous movie theater “handjob seats” in It’s Only Natural, the Oreo anecdote was, unfortunately, based on an insane thing I actually witnessed in my real life.)

So, there you go. You asked for headcanons and you got the ghosts of my abandoned WIPs. I hope this was at least slightly entertaining in some way. And thank you so much for giving me an excuse to ramble about this!

[thegoodomensdumpster]

Can't stop thinking about your Crawleigh drawing, its so compelling. I feel sad for him getting rained on all alone...has he been on earth alone all this time? Will you draw him again? Is there a way to learn more about his story?

OOOOOH you have no idea how delighted I am that I received this ask ! You just enabled me to drop all my Crawleigh feelings out in the open. Thank you so much for that. First of all, for those who might have missed it: here the fanart @yeoldehetalian​ is referring to (yes I’m showing it again because I love Crawleigh he’s so baby)

If you are not aware: Crawleigh was the proto version of both Crowley and Aziraphale in Gaiman’s first draft of what was going to become Good Omens, a little piece of writing called William The Antichrist. After he sent it to Pratchett, the latest made the excellent suggestion to split Crawleigh into the two characters we’ve come to know and love. From memory, here is what we learn about Crawleigh in William The Antichrist: -is baby -not very good at being a demon -waited for the plumber a whole day -didn’t do any evil deeds because he was waiting for the plumber to arrive -the plumber never came and Crawleigh was really put out so he said nothing -saves all the neighbourhood cats from trees they get stuck in -can’t be mean to humans because well they are nice to him so ??? -has been tortured in Hell after the whole Atlantis debacle (which implies that he was the reason Atlantis sunk I guess) -drives a Citroën 2CV -doesn’t seem to really have any magical ability ?  Uh maybe there’s something else but I don’t remember. But you get the idea. He’s baby. In the picture below (yay ! new Crawleigh fanart !) you can see Crawleigh and his entourage of cats. I was conflicted on whether the rescued cats would take a liking to him or if they would be scared of his demonic aura, but I couldn’t bring myself to draw the Bad Cat Ending so, there, new headcanon: all the animals Crawleigh rescues take an immediate liking to him and their presence become an every day life nuisance. Kindness contains the seed of its own destruction lmao)

The boy is gonna trip on the stripped cat, I can tell you that much. ANYWAYYYY.... Here comes the fun part where I dump all my Crawleigh thoughts. More below the cut!

So, considering how GO works with binomes and mirrors, I decided to back engineer WTA by removing the duos. Crawleigh is a mix of Crowley and Aziraphale; there are two other characters that are respectively a mix of Anathema and Newt and a mix of Tracy and Shadwell (not entirely sure what that would entail tbh; so far I’m imagining two female characters, and Anewthema is the most fleshed out. She’d be something like the descendant of both a witch and a witchfinder and would be very conflicted about her heritage, having troubles making sense of magic being a thing when she has raised rationnality to a degree that it has become a dogma. Or something like that. Anyway I think that’s a cool base.) Now about William himself, the Them and the mirrors. I thought, by removing the duos and therefore the mirrors, Crawleigh would end up trying to stop Armageddon all by himself. This means that one of the core themes of GO, the fact that people have to work together and every contribution, as little as it is, is never unsignificant, isn’t really applicable anymore. Because the theme has to be shared by all the protagonists. In GO, Adam can refuse to destroy the world because not only does he like the world, but also because he’s got a whole network of support. So I think, if Crawleigh ends up having to try stopping Armageddon on his own, that should be the link at the very least between him and William (I would have said between him and all the other main characters but let’s be honest: a story where none of the main characters interact together is not very appealing). And thus we get a story that isn’t about relying on support of other people but on doing the right thing and gaining self confidence and loving yourself even when all the odds are stacked against you and you don’t have anyone to really rely on. I would imagine Crawleigh beginning the story as an obedient (tho ultimately useless) demon with little backbone and regrets and no self confidence, and through the pressure of Armageddon, discovering a very strong and very good part of himself that would end up with him saying fuck to Hell and repairing his plumbery all by himself.  As for William, well, he would go along the same way. I don’t think he’d have the Them with him. At least not yet. Maybe he’s a little weird, has trouble making friends. Maybe the other kids at school make fun of him. Maybe there is this group of kids that seem cool but he’s too shy to approach them.  And I imagine after a pep talk from someone ( Anewthema probably ? After all Anathema is the one talking to Adam in GO so it’d be fitting ) William would realize that because his life sucks a little it’s not by destroying the world - a world that he actually loves ! he’s built up a fort in Hogback woods all by himself! he loves nature and animals! - tht it’s gonna get better. He won’t be able to make any friends if there is no one around to make friends with. (This adds the non neglectable bonus of making the Horsemen “friendship” offer all the more tempting to a young boy who has never really had any friends and is aching for it).  So ultimately, Crawleigh and William would be like “yes, I am weird. Yes, I am alone. Yes, it makes me suffer. No, I’m not gonna be a bastard because of it. Maybe it’ll get better, maybe it won’t, but I’m gonna do my darn best to take care of myself even if nobody else will”. So, it’s less cotton candy than GO, but I think it’s a great message to pass along. Self love, self discovery, self confidence, staying true to yourself even in dark times. Also the fact that being alone / single is not necessarily a bad thing, can be a choice and something you can live with very well. Crawleigh and / or another one of the main characters would end up like “I am actually fine like this”. And... that’s pretty much it. There, you’ve got all my thoughts and reasonning about, basically, how I would have decided to write the whole William The Antichrist novel lmao. I’m not gonna write it though. But if anyone feels inspired and want to give it a go based on my ideas, by all means. Feel free to borrow or to contact me if you want to brainstorm more ideas / make a collaboration.  Why not. I’ve got too many Crawleigh feels.

[bbq-hawks-wings]

Really long ask - Part 1: Hi, sorry for this long rant, but I just wanted to vent since I saw this latest story posted on AO3 and I am restraining myself on commenting on their story so I'm just letting my anger out here about it and other issues regarding fan-depiction of Hawks. It's vaguely related to your post on how DabiHawks or Dabi+Hawks stories make it all about Dabi and always made Hawks out to be the one who starts the problems in their relationship or is the one trying to get Dabi's

Content warning: passing mention of r*pe in a fanfiction.

LOOOONG post under the cut.

(Cont.)

Dabi's attentions when it's canon that it's the complete opposite. This latest story that came up in my feed was about Hawks "harassing" Dabi (who apparently has a backstory of r*pe) and Twice helps Dabi works out his feelings. Among the hoards of tags condemning Hawks, they decided to use "Hawks is very uncool in this fic heads up" so that's another one to add to my filters. I think I also have to block the "Dabi Needs a Hug" tags too bc he's always woobified like heck. 

I really want to read stories where Hawks interacts with Twice since they have a bond/drama with each other, but people have been adding Dabi and either making it seem like Hawks has been gaslighting Dabi in their "relationship" or with Twice. I can acknowledge stories where Hawks feels guilty for what he had to do or Twice being anger/betrayed over Hawks' actions since that is actually what happened; but I will not stand for Dabi claiming Hawks took advantage of Twice or Twice and Dabi having feelings for each other with Hawks in the way bc Dabi is a) the one who let Hawks in b) knew Twice is gullible and c) used Twice as bait. Even in the stories that are cute/causal+funny, Hawks is always the one who gets threatened with fire, harsh insults, or guilted into compliance but the seriousness of the first 2 are always brushed off and the third kinda makes me want it that Hawks doesn't have friends bc most people write him as a bad friend who only cares about his own problems (especially the ones that write Hawks like a celebrity/night club person). 

On writing Dabi, his issues always take priority over everything else, his family loves him, and the lov is always chill with him. He's usually written as the fun asshole/caretaker (bc of his big brother status or ablity to cook). Those factors aren't bad by itself, but it's extremely irritating when the writers/artists can give that level of care to Dabi, but just reduce Hawks to a meme who is a workaholic for the government/scared of punishment & not bc he really cares about the people he saves/helps. It's not like I hate the DabiHawks pairing, but the majority of the content (esp the recent ones), are frustrating to read & Hawks' character is usually written in bad out of character extremes. I am really mystified that I'm praying for canon content rather than fanmade most of the time.

Phew! After the back and forth it looks like we got to the end of that! (Or did we?! *Dun dun DUUUUN*) If not, though, feel free to keep the asks rolling. Lol Foxy and I are usually pretty happy to receive as many asks as people want to send even if it takes us a while, individually, to get to it. Now to finally address what you sent.

I find myself in a weird place when it comes to OOC fanfic because on the one hand people can write whatever they want, and I don’t really have a place to criticize them; but also when they blatantly and willingly misinterpret a character so they have grounds to bash on them it also leaves me acutely uncomfortable. I don’t think I’d call it “problematic” as much as a squick? Like, if they’re willing to blow past all the obvious proof to the contrary about their claims of a fictional character just because they hate them, then are they willing to do the same thing to a real person? Usually, those kinds of thoughts are pointlessly extreme, but we know those who unironically and/or unapologeticly call fans of the heroes “bootlickers” so... It’s like, ooc vent fics are also fine; and if you want to rewrite a character to fit the narrative scheme you’ve set up that’s cool as long as its tagged (“ooc [character]” or something) and/or just mention in the a/n that they knowingly and willingly mischaracterized them for the sake of the fic. Just. Don’t. Claim. It’s. Canon.

And speaking of canon, as much as I’m sure Horikoshi knew Hawks and Dabi were going to end up shipped I think it’s obvious that he never was going to canonically write them ending up together, yet here comes the “canon must validate my headcanon” crowd calling him a bad writer because the author had some bigger narrative goal in mind than having two pretty anime boys kissing.

And the worst part to me is, I feel there’s a distinct slice of the DabiHawks crowd missing out on some of the possibilities of this ship by intentionally mischaracterizing them. Like, the aesthetic equal/opposite draw of the ship is phenomenal as it is and I don’t even ship them, but I can see a wide range of possible fics based solely on the principle that they are canonically incompatible!

At the end of the day, Dabi is a dime-a-dozen edgelord - that pain in the butt OC that so many newbie D&D players make that they think is so deep and dark and mature, but is about as cookie-cutter as they come. It’s not that this kind of character is unsalvageable or a hopeless Gary Stu character, just that they don’t often come across as compelling in and of themselves or that they need more than just selfish hatred to carry them through a series. Two kinds of edgelords that can be done well are the “Out of the Ashes” edgelord and “I’ll Pull You Into Hell With Me” edgelord. The first kind recognizes there’s more to life than their sad backstory and getting even and thus choose to aspire to more noble causes - think Joel from The Last of Us. The second recognizes they’re actively doing wrong and come to embrace it - being more concerned with getting what they want than taking the moral high ground - think Frank Castle, aka the Punisher - and even these darker, “unsaveable” kinds of edgelord antiheroes can have redeeming qualities such as meeting and helping a young hopeful and telling them, “I know I’m on the road to hell, so if you want to save yourself you’d better not follow me.”

Dabi actually has what he needs to become the second type right now (assuming he’s Touya) and could even evolve into the first not unlike Kratos from God of War, but that potential can’t be fully recognized until you admit that he’s fundamentally self-centered and a bad person as-is. He may have the tragic backstory complete with justifiable hate at his genuinely abusive father, but rather than using that as fuel to see that never happen to anyone else like it did him - he just wants to get even. He burns people alive, knowing well he’s participating in the same destruction that his father committed to make him what he is now. He doesn’t recognize any of the merits of hero society and is only concerned with burning it to ash. He could use what happened to his family to incite compassion in his heart and take others under his wing, but instead he uses people as a mean to his own ends. He isn’t even proper grimdark - he’s just your run of the mill egotistical megalomaniac with a punk aesthetic.

And that’s still a good character in the grand scheme of things, maybe just not alone! Moreso, it’s a good villain and EVEN BETTER when you put him next to Hawks who is at his core:

Fundamentally Hopepunk!

Hopepunk is about being good and kind as an act of rebellion against a cruel and unfair world no matter how bleak it gets or how badly you’re beaten down. Despite his own cruel past, Hawks still has a heart to help others for no other reason than to help them, he constantly changes the odds to save as many people as he can when he’d be given a pass for letting the cards fall where they will, and not only is his aim to “help others” but to make sure that there’ll never be need for heroes again. He’s an active rebel against the system fighting with kindness and goodness, fervently looking and listening for the next opportunity to do good.

In agreement with you, Hawks and Twice are interesting to explore because while Twice is an optimist looking to make the world a better place, he’s still a step or two removed from Hawks’ worldview because Twice refuses to let go of the “family” he found for himself while Hawks is willing to sacrifice himself for others. That dynamic is so interesting, and it’s what made them so initially compatible and subsequently heartbreaking in canon.

And it’s such a disappointment to see this unwaveringly earnest character reduced to “shitty fratboy” so often. For a lot of people newer to his character I can understand the confusion, but there really isn’t an excuse if you’ve been reading the series, and the possibilities for fics with this canon personality are just so much more interesting to explore, especially with Dabi as his sort-of opposite.

For DabiHawks to work well, you have to recognize that something has to give in either of them. Some of the juiciest, most angsty content is when you have two characters grow close together over commonalities only to be reminded that despite everything else they share, that One Thing will always keep them from truly being able to see eye-to-eye. Either Dabi has to grow past his hatred and relearn compassion and empathy, or Hawks has to lose grip of that hopeful vision he has and fall into despair. Both options are good to explore, but both require the acknowledgement that Dabi’s view of the world is fundamentally bleak and selfish, especially compared to Hawks’. For a supposed revolutionary out to change the world for the better whose a diamond in the rough with a heart of gold, that’s not exactly on-brand; and at the end of the day the issue is that some are unwilling to admit that what they wanted Dabi to be is likely not going to happen and they love that fake version Dabi more than they love what Hawks actually stands for which is why Hawks always gets the shaft in the end.

I still personally hold a bit of a grudge against the DaiHawks ship as a whole purely because, as you said, Dabi always seems to take priority over Hawks instead of letting the two build a dynamic together. Hawks is always the one who has to give, and the torture porn some have made him go through to “make the ship work” is downright disturbing to me. Even at its height DabiHawks content completely flooded the Hawks character tags on Tumblr with some of the same problems that have persisted to this day such as emphasizing their aesthetic as opposed to their dynamic and rampant mischaracterization.

Anyway, that’s my long-winded response. What do you think, @autumn-foxfire?

[gayregis]

what are your feelings about geralt and yennefer? either book or game or netflix or all of them?

books

i agree with most canon*. it’s a good relationship that sapkowski put a lot of effort into developing and writing over the course of all of the short stories and the saga, so i think it tends to get more attention just because the author gave it more attention. i think it’s pretty incredible that geralt and yennefer have this deep relationship without even seeing each other in-person for basically half of the short stories and half of the saga, sapkowski did some interesting things to make that happen, but it ends up working.

i appreciate how geralt and yennefer are two very vulnerable people with issues relating to intimacy and letting others into their life, and they actually aren’t ready to have a relationship before they become more mature and understand what love actually means. imo, their journey to committment is a little too focused on monogamy and looking at relationships through that lense, but that is/was the viewpoint of the author at the time.

the major thing for geralt x yennefer as a ship for me is that i appreciate it in canon, whenever i read their romantic parts i feel it’s sweet, their moments in the end of the last wish, at thanedd, and the end of the assault on stygga castle are really moving and wonderfully written. i like how they speak about each other and feel about each other when they are apart. it’s something i can support and like, i feel a lot of this is tied to them being parents as well but it works overall. 

something i also appreciate about them is how they’re really different from a lot of other m/f relationships. geralt isn’t fucking cruel, he acts like a human being and also has the capacity to apologize and act humble towards yennefer, being kind and caring so much about her feelings and what she wants. yennefer isn’t just a sex toy for geralt, she exists as her own person and is a very strong personality, but also isn’t cruel and doesn’t take him for granted. together, they really do care about one another.

BUT. even though i appreciate it in canon and in all of the parts i have read*. i literally can’t really ever think up my own thoughts or headcanons for them. and the reason for this that they never DO anything together in canon, asides from living together in vengerberg, going to thanedd, and participating in the fight at stygga castle. all they ever do TOGETHER as a couple is stay at home, go to a formal party, or fight for their fucking lives trying to escape the mad torture and grief wrought upon them and their daughter. in the other moments, they are just thinking about each other in loving manners, yearning, if you will, but whenever they are together it’s never an activity with potential for a story.

in my mind i HAVE to compare and contrast yennefer and dandelion and their respective relationships to geralt, just because they’re the two closest adults to him that he has in his life. the issue for me with geryennefer is that it doesn’t have potential like gerlion does. geralt and dandelion do all KINDS of fun, weird things together. mainly they go to festivals and bars, but they also just ride to different cities across the continent and explore, sometimes dandelion accompanies geralt on contracts, sometimes geralt has to meet dandelion in a place significant to him like oxenfurt. dandelion is constantly embroiled in other personal relationship drama. they actually DO a lot of things together, and these different scenarios are really interesting as a fan, because you can just think up unlimited things that they could have potentially done during all of these years. with geralt and yennefer, you can’t really do that because yennefer doesn’t travel, she has a house and a career and is a very esteemed and classy woman. in addition, this is just a personal preference it seems, but i never really get too involved in characters (and thus, ships with those characters in them) that don’t have an element of comic relief to them. geralt and yennefer can be in love, but i don’t know what kind of funny situations they might find themselves in, i don’t know what funny or wacky interactions they might have. and so it’s not all that interesting to me.

similarly, another thing i always compare and contrast geryennefer and gerlion on is that geralt and dandelion are so different. they’re entirely opposites. dandelion is very extroverted, flirty, gets into trouble, and has no issue with vulnerability or intimacy. geralt stays away from people because they despise him, he stays away from drama, and he’s not experienced with intimacy, he is insecure. they have a lot of friction there as two characters interacting with one another because of how different they are and the different lives they have had that influence who they are and who they might know, what they might like to do in a situation. in contrast to this, geralt and yennefer are very similar people. they both have a lot of issues with intimacy and vulnerability that makes them finding each other and developing with each other over the course of the series very compelling and interesting, but boring when you want to think of headcanons or new adventures and interactions for them to have. once they have developed their characters, they will stay developed. unlike with geralt and dandelion, where there will practically always be at the very least a little friction between them because they’re just so fundamentally different.

tl;dr: geralt and yennefer is a compelling and well-developed relationship in canon because sapkowski just poured his entire heart into developing them, they have many endearing moments together and develop their characters together and parallel each other in many ways; however, this means that they’re very similar characters and their goal as a couple is to finally be able to settle down, and that makes them lack potential as a ship to think about as a fan (in relation to thinking of new interactions for them or new situations for them to be in). 

so as a fan who has ships, i have many many headcanons and ideas and fics in-progress (that i will never get around to writing) for gerlion, but basically nothing for geryennefer, which kind of sucks. but i also don’t disregard geryennefer as not canon or something like that, i just think that geralt can have both a boyfriend and a wife because i am disrespectful to sapkowski’s writing of yennefer as a possessive lover and his emphasis on monogamy as the ultimate commitment.

* obviously the shitty things that sapkowski did relating to consent in the last wish and something more (it’s basically canon that sorcerers/esses can hypnotize others into love and sex, but yennefer just chooses not to do this with geralt after the last wish because they Love Each Other Truly or something like this) should be retconned, just as i retcon the fact that geralt slept with barely-legal essi and shani, just as i retcon the off-color comments and jokes that got written for dandelion

games / cdpr

it’s... fine. yennefer got a major personality retcon and a lot of what cdpr says about their relaitonship doesn’t make sense and is pretty cringey, without much depth (apparently, they bonded over making witty puns...?) but it’s also a video game and we finally got to see yennefer and ciri in the witcher games franchise, which is a gift enough of itself, because they’re like, the most important people to geralt. cdpr has this weird infatuation with triss merigold and sexualizes her at every chance they get, her personality is incredibly different from the books, they basically made her really easy to wife up because she’s just very sweet and agrees with everything you say and loves you, so i am just glad that we have another option besides OOC triss. 

but yennefer is also pretty OOC in a lot of parts, she has been rid of all of her character development from the series and even though she makes a lot of sacrifices for ciri, tw3 is incredibly reluctant to call her ciri’s mother, so what was the point of all of this. they also nerfed yennefer incredibly by making her hair salon curls instead of actually naturally curly, stormy hair, so that detracts from her entire character. the fact that she’s working with nilfgaard is just plain laughable and the fact that geralt is ok with this is even more laughable. there’s not even that much ship material between the two in the game and whatever there is is pretty cringey and base with no real depth or intimacy, so i cringe whenever i see a romantic gifset or something of them. it’s yawntown.

netflix

i despise netflix version of them because they’re incredibly boring and basic with pretty much every common major issue with depiction of a m/f relationship on screen: huge age cap between cavill and chalotra which is uncomfortable to watch because chalotra is only a few years older than freya allen who is meant to play ciri, geralt’s daughter..., they jump into romance and sex way too quickly (yennefer receives geralt in the midst of a huge orgy and is very seductive and sweet to him instead of zapping his ass with lightning and threatening to kill him, she also bathes in the same bathtub with him immediately instead of turning invisible to make a fool out of him), consent (geralt’s wish in their adaptation of the last wish wasn’t heard by yennefer, and in the end, he says “my plan worked,” which are three words pretty much no one wants to fucking hear after sex), weird homophobic joke upon meeting (yennefer says jaskier is “just a friend, [she] hope[s],” which is... it’s 2019 guys, come on), they argue for pure drama, geralt is sincerely mean to her (laughs at the idea of her being a mother), their intimate scenes are tasteless, they break up by the end of the series in the adaptation of the bounds of reason because geralt was mean to her... 

there’s so many things i can’t even begin to list them all, but those are a few key ones. geralt is just a purely unpleasant character in netflix so he doesn’t deserve to be in love with anyone, and yennefer is such a basic and boring character with no sincere flaws or uniqueness that i can’t be interested in her at all. and together, they’re every heterosexual relationship that has ever existed.

[poemsfromthealley]

I think the reason I don’t like Simon and Izzy as a couple is them kind of bringing the worst into each other like when they used Rosa against Raphael or Izzy brings on her altruistic egocentrism when she vouches for Simon and equates her addiction to Maia’s lycanthropy or how Simon starts treating Maia in 3b. Also it feels like they retconned some of Izzy’s character traits in order to either make Simon special (3x19) or make them super compatible (3x11)

Hmmm, yeah, anon, that is fair. The show definitely bends Izzy’s characterisation (at will, for any old reason), and this is just my onion but I felt like they had to destroy Simon’s excellent chemistry with Maia somehow to justify the breakup and did a typically heavy-handed job of it.

As for Izzy and Simon using Rosa against Raphael—yeah, it’s not a proud moment for either of them. Raphael tells Izzy about Rosa in what we have to assume is confidence, during their brief stormy affair, and Izzy uses that information to get one over him.

However, Raphael makes a similar barely-veiled threat against Simon’s mother back in early 2A (when he’s trying to make Simon find Camille for him). You can argue that Simon and Izzy are protagonists and we expect them to do better, while Raphael is more of a grey area character and his flexible morals are thus permissible, but he did do that thing with Elaine. So I feel like that could also be Izzy playing Raphael’s own game back at him (and she does later tell him she hopes he knows she’d never have hurt his sister). Still, none of them come out of that looking good.

I do kind of hate that whenever Izzy and Maia have scenes together, it is in some way about Simon, and Izzy spends a lot of them talking down her nose to Maia. It’s doubly weird because we have Izzy and Clary, who have such a nice dynamic between two girls, and Maia gets condescended to constantly by Izzy. Like Izzy doesn’t hide her insecurities and play them off at will! This was a big part of her yin fen storyline and then in 3.11 she’s suddenly always seeking company when she’s feeling low. Excuse you.

That is just Tuesday in the Shadowhunters writers’ room, though. Izzy grows a new personality by the week.

I don’t totally get fandom’s dislike for Simon in 3B? I checked out from most fandom conversations around 3.13 as the season was airing, so I’m sure I missed a lot. His speech to Maia about not taking justice in her own hands with regard to Heidi can be read as pandering to corrupt authority (= the Shadowhunters), but there is also a gentler interpretation. He thinks Maia is a good person and he doesn’t want her to make herself commit murder, even in just vengeance for her pack. Violence always hurts the victim first and foremost, but there’s a cost paid by the inflicting party. This interpretation would require more nuanced writing/acting than Shadowhunters is known for, though, so it’s mostly personal headcanon territory.

That said, I always did prefer Simon and Izzy as friends. Their platonic relationship has always felt more compelling to me than shoving them hastily together in the last episodes.

[theharellan]

@felandaristhorns​ asked: This might be more meta than headcanon (and you may have already said something about it), but I'd love your thoughts on the parallels between Solas killing the mages who tortured and corrupted Wisdom versus Cole sparing and forgiving (with Solas's guidance and encouragement) the templar who imprisoned and forgot the real Cole.

Hm! I think I’ve spoken about it before, although potentially only in private? I remember talking to Joly once about how it, but it was mostly about how I think comparing the two like it’s apples to apples is weird, especially because the post in particular was one sentence and equivocated what I think are two different crimes. I’m going to do my best to put them into context about the ways I think they’re hard to compare before I compare them just to make myself feel better.

Oh, and before I start, these are just my interpretations of the quests and mostly applicable to how I write these characters here and on my multimuse in Cole’s case.

The Templar who killed the human Cole did so out of negligence and cruelty, Cole was (in the fucked up system of Thedas) the Templar’s responsibility and he failed him. The mages who kill Wisdom do so out of ignorance, mostly, having been educated by that same system which taught them that Wisdom wasn’t a person and thus fine to enslave and pervert. These are both bad things, and some action deserves to be taken in either case,* but they aren’t the same crimes.

Not only this, but they serve different narrative purposes. I see the mages as a foils Solas and the situation he’s in, they did something drastic to protect themselves and a lot of them ended up dying as a result. Also, they fail to recognise the personhood in Wisdom just as Solas fails to recognise the personhood in the world he woke up to. Let them die or stop him, his path isn’t divergent like Cole’s, he’s grateful for your help even if he disapproves of you letting them go. Meanwhile, the Templar in Cole’s is more a springboard for how he’s going to develop from here on out. He represents Cole’s investment in the identity he forged for himself, but there aren’t many traits he and the Templar share as there are with Solas and the mages.

So, we have two different situations featuring characters who serve different narrative functions for our companions. Now that I’ve made it clear that they’re different I can try to talk about the similarities.

The first similarity that comes to mind is actually between Solas and Cole if you take the alternate route, where Cole doesn’t forgive. He keeps the anger, lets it change him, he’s more relatable but a little less happy. If you let the mages go, Solas doesn’t forgive them, he keeps that fury. You can feel that anger going into Tevinter Nights, where his fury about how spirits are being treated in Thedas characterises his appearances. Solas has had a body for a while, so it’s not like this anger has changed his nature, more that I think he knows better than he lets on that he gets the pain Cole is going through by letting this stick to him. Encouraging Cole to forgive is a way to keep Cole from going through what he’s gone through. It’s also I think a result of the Veil and its nature, were the world different I think Solas would have preferred a middle ground, as was possible before the creation of the Veil.

I also think there’s something to be said about vengeance not being a healthy path for them. As I said, Solas doesn’t have a divergent path and reacts with gratitude regardless of if you let him go through with it, but I do think that letting him kill the mages imparts a bad lesson for him. Especially if you buy into my “the mages are Solas” interpretation. For the moment it has no repercussions on Solas’ story, but it still may, and personally I think the Inquisitor who showed mercy to mages who did something terrible to protect people they loved would have a better bearing on Solas’ future (assuming you want him in a better place at the end of DA4) than letting them die. For Cole, we aren’t allowed to pursue that path because his story is divergent, and it would be more dialogue to write, more lines to read, more scenes to code, etc. There are hints that it was planned, but likely had to be cut from the development process for the reasons listed above. I do think that if such an option was pursued, it would’ve been bad for Cole.

I guess the final and most compelling parallel I can think of is how Solas and Cole deal with their own grief versus others’. Cole shows compassion to Solas, who has the death of an empire (or rather, its people) sitting on his shoulders, shows compassion to Blackwall, who had ordered the deaths of civilians and allowed the deaths of children. Wanting someone who committed a crime dead isn’t out of the unusual for Cole (he does approve of execution an equal number of times as Solas does. Fun fact.), but oftentimes when dealing with the pain of people whom many would consider monstrous Cole tries to help them move on from their trauma. Not so for the Templar, who may not have lived if Cole had acted alone that day.

Solas is a fair bit colder than Cole, he’s had to make hard decisions in a way similar to the Inquisitor, and people have died as a result. Yet when dealing with Blackwall he ultimately chooses to accept that he’s changed and, if Blackwall is romanced, Solas is glad he’s found some peace with someone who can love the true him. He’s the only member of the initial party who tries to reason with the mage supremacists that broke from the rebellion, and he, too, finds compassion for people who are considered monstrous-- sometimes literally. His compassion is harder than Cole’s, but undeniably there.

Yet when faced with their own trauma and grief, they both turn to rage. Solas is self-admittedly hotheaded and I think well-aware that it’s not good to indulge that side of himself, and while he doesn’t have enough in him to control himself when it comes to the loss of one of his oldest friends (at least not without outside help), he has enough of a grip during Cole’s quest to advocate a softer resolution for his friend. I wish Cole could’ve played a role in Solas’ personal quest as Solas did for Cole to neatly tie up this package, but alas. I could see Cole stopping Solas, I imagine at that point more of him was bleeding through and he was a good deal louder than usual from Cole’s perspective, but that’s getting into speculation.

In short, I think they’re difficult quests to draw parallels between because they serve very different purposes for Solas and Cole, and the crimes featured in them are different morally. Some similarities can be found in questions the quests raise about vengeance and the fact that Solas may be advocating from the perspective of someone who had to go through what Cole is about to go through. Ultimately though I think the most compelling parallel is the way these characters express their grief and how they help their friends’ handle their grief.

* By this I mean I think the mages deserve education and protection, their crime was a result of desperation and I think they deserve compassion. The Templar I think deserved prison or some kind of judgment, although ultimately I choose forgive because I prefer it for Cole’s development and he comes before everything else.

[sarahjtrash]

HIHIHI I LOVE YOUR JURDAN HEADCANONS SO THOROUGHLY AHHHH!!!!! could you write one where jude finds out she's pregnant while exiled and then cardan somehow finds out (maybe through vivi or smthg) thank youuuuuuu

Let the record show that I support that Jude and Cardan never had full blown sex during TWK. However, nonnie, I shall entertain the idea just for you. It’s longer and angstier than expected. Forgive my errors, for I did not spend much time editing. It probably wasn't what you expected, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

-o-0-o-

Jude walked back to the car in a daze, not noting the rain that poured down on her, soaking her skin. She’d had suspicions for a while now, but she was too terrified to explore if she’d been right. 

She’d tried hiding her vomiting from Vivi. Her weird cravings were kept at that, cravings. She’d forgone alcohol for a long a time, so it wasn’t absurd that when Vivi asked, she declined. 

She’d been too afraid to even buy one of those goddamn sticks and take matters into her own hands. 

She’d realized that she was afraid when she dropped Oak off this morning at school. It felt like she already knew her answer, and it was simply an avenue that she never wanted to pursue. When Jude realized how afraid she was, she hated herself for it. Her life seemed to be perpetually dictated by the whims of others.

Thus, with Vivi unaware that Jude had the day off, Jude drove herself to Planned Parenthood to settle matters officially. Walking past anxious teenagers and pregnant mothers, Jude had never felt more uncomfortable. 

She felt like a Queen of Nothing, a no name in a sea of others, leading lives with similar problems.

The receptionist made no faces or judgement on her part, merely collected her name, reason for visit, and other basic information. The doctor had been kind, simply told Jude that her fears were true before handing her a few pamphlets that explained her options. 

Her visit took less than half an hour, but Jude felt as though her life had completely shifted. She didn’t feel the overwhelming joy of motherhood as she unlocked the car. She didn’t feel a need to immediately erase all her mistakes as she turned the ignition. Instead, she felt almost nothing as she sat with the car radio on and watched the rain drizzle down the windshield. 

There was a sick part of her, a sick, vile, and twisted part of her, that wished the car was in a garage, the exhaust pumping its fumes, gently pulling her from this wretched existence.

She just wished, for once in her life, that she didn’t have to be so goddamn alone. 

And, as if the gods of this world had some horrible answer for her, she snapped her head out of her daze as a man attempted to climb in her passenger side. 

Jude knew she was quick, but she acted lightening quick as she threw the car in reverse and floored Vivi’s shitty ass car. The man released a groan, and Jude seized the opportunity to put the car in drive. However, faster than humanly possible, the man already had a hand inside the door and told her to wait. 

His voice clanged through her. It was one that she had not heard since her exile, and she could do nothing as she sat and waited for her husband to climb into the passenger seat. Both of their haggard breathing filled the car as Jude slowly pulled back into her parking spot.  

They resumed mirror positions to what Jude had just been assuming moments earlier. The sweet vocals of the radio filled the space creating an other worldliness to the already strange situation. 

At the same time, she said, “What are you doing here?”, he said, “You don’t know how long I’ve been searching for you.”

They both turned to look at the other. He seemed more inclined to speak at the moment. “Things are not good, Jude dear.”

“Don’t call me that.”

He winced slightly at her defeated tone but persisted none the less. “I knew what Vivi’s car looked like. I was walking across the street, spotted it, and…now I am here.”

Jude didn’t want to analyze the incredible amounts of fallacies and confusions presented in his story, but she still found herself asking, “Aside from what you’re doing among humans in the first place, you thought it would be best to enter the car without saying hello first?”

He scratched behind his ear, and Jude couldn’t help notice how wet and ragged he looked, as though he truly had been wondering the streets hoping to stumble upon her. At least he’d made the effort to wear jeans and a t-shirt. 

“I did say hello, and your name, a handful of times,” he said disturbingly factually, considering all the other atrocities in Jude’s life. “You were not responding, so instead I chose to enter the vehicle.”

Jude mulled over his words. “Well you’re here now.”

Cardan nodded, lost in his own thought, before asking, “Is there a reason you exited an establishment called ‘Planned Parenthood’?”

She felt herself pale, and asked quietly, “Perhaps. Do you know anything about them?”

“I have never heard of such a place before. I assume, though, that it has something to do with parents.”

“In a matter of sorts.”

She wanted to laugh and cry at his simplistic analysis of the world. She so desperately wished that he could hear the irony of his own statements. She shook her head and released a sigh instead. 

“Is Vivi inside?” he asked. 

Jude almost lost it then.

Perhaps it was the depression that had filled her limbs these past few weeks or the loneliness that filled her core moments ago that compelled her to say the next to words.

“Cardan,” she breathed. “I’m pregnant.”

The weight of the past few weeks seemed to lift off Jude’s shoulders and instead chose to settle itself in the space between them.

He nodded as they looked at each other. “And it is mine?”

There was so much doubt and a tiny bit of hope in his voice, that Jude shot him a small, sad smile. “I wish I had the heart to lie to you right now. I have not slept with anyone else. Ever. Not before, but you know that, and certainly not after. I am with child, Cardan. I am with your child.”

He seemed to mull over her words briefly before releasing his own weight to the world. “I am afraid my news in untimely as well. Madoc and Orlagh have joined forces. The Court of Shadows has informed me that they shall attack within the next three days.”

Jude felt his words slide off her like the droplets of the windshield, as though something blocked them from truly reaching her. Like the rain, however, a few of them managed to stay and she felt drowned in unfairness. “Is that what you wished to say?”

He nodded.

“Would it be grounds to end my exile?”

His eyes quickly flicked to her stomach and before coming back to meet hers. “I do not know. I am in need of my queen and former seneschal, for I am woefully unprepared to face an army at the moment.”

The silence filled the space between them as they became consumed by the reality served to them. The world they lived in and the cards there were dealt seemed remarkably unfair, so much so that Jude wanted to cry. She hadn’t in a very long time, but it seemed more than appropriate now.

“I’m tired, Cardan,” she elected to say instead. 

“I suppose even rest on the best bed in Elfhame next to a King wouldn’t solve that, would it?” he asked, wisely. It was in that question that Jude felt understood, almost as if she wasn’t quite so alone in this world. 

“I don’t know if any amount of rest could fix this,” she replied. 

He hummed in agreement as they stared and watched the water fall down around them.

-o-0-o-

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

Dunno if it has been asked yet, but Ms. Joke hc (if you have any) and also my girls Tsu and Yayurozu

sorry this took so long…

Ms. Joke (don’t know much about her so I don’t have much to offer)

- When she was younger, she believed a hero’s number one job was to make people happy, and thought less of those who don’t interact with fans as a result.  While she personally still prioritizes happiness, working close with under-grounders like Shouta helped her gain a new respect for the heroes who work behind the scenes.

- Feels like she owes Shouta for that, thus he’s her chosen victim of teasing.

- Opens every lesson with a meme.  Occasionally, it will be relevant to the topic at hand.

- In addition to hero classes, she teaches speech and debate at Ketsubutsu Academy.  Being able to speak well and form a compelling argument is a skill people in any profession can benefit from.  There’s also a stand-up unit.

Tsuyu

- Arguably one of the most self-confident students in the class, without being delusional like Bakugou or Mineta.  Makes her friends feel more confident just by being around.  If someone is going to a new place and feels unsure for whatever reason, Tsuyu is the go-to person to bring along.  Tsuyu is aware of this, and does her best to predict where and when people will need her support.

- Her bluntness also makes her the person to go to for an objective opinion.  More than once has she mediated an argument and pointed out who was at fault.

- Very close with her family.  She texts her parents almost everyday, and writes letters to her younger siblings because that feels more special.  Her brother claims it’s “lame,” but he reads every one.

- Also keeps up with Selkie and Sirius.  Sirius emails her resources she found online that she thinks will help Tsuyu in her hero studies.  Selkie sends her cute animal videos.

- Know who everyone’s crush is.  She doesn’t say anything, but she knows.

- Since she has experience with younger kids, she’s near the top of the shortlist of Eri’s babysitters, only behind Midoriya and Mirio.  Tsuyu spends a lot of time teaching Eri things, from tying bows, to paper crafts, to cool facts about amphibians.  She’s working on a plan with Aizawa and her parents to set-up a play date with Eri and Tsuyu’s little sister.

- Doesn’t look it, but she’s one of the physically strongest kids in the class.  She can lift Shoji off the ground with just her tongue, and her legs can handle nearly twice that.  She was the dark horse of class 1A’s first arm wrestling tournament.  Everyone fears going up against her in one on one training matches. 

Yaoyorozu

- She’s visited a lot of different places around the world with her parents, and as a result is conversational if not fluent in several languages.  She also has friends the world over, and their support helped get her name in the know of international hero watchers.

- Loves to spoil her friends.  She was raised in an environment where gift-giving was one of the highest ways to show respect and admiration towards someone.  And she has the means, so why not?  The problem is, not everyone is comfortable being showered with expensive gifts.  The dilemma is to only spoil those who are okay with it but leaving those who aren’t out, or not give anything to anyone and feel like she’s not appreciating her companions properly.  Solution: get to know everyone better so she can find out what they like so they don’t feel like she’s just throwing money around.

- Trying to work up her physical strength after focusing so much on her mind and quirk most of her life.  Creating huge weapons won’t do much if she can’t even lift them, let alone know how to use them.  She regularly exchanges body building tips with Midoriya and Kirishima, as well as practice martial arts with Ojiro.

- Kaminari got her into video games, claiming they would help her with her decision making skills and reaction times.  Likes both high-speed, competitive shooters and relaxing, wholesome, farm simulators.  No in between.

- Totally the weird horse girl.  Read every horse girl book she could find.  Had all the tacky decorations.  Still sometimes fantasized about befriending a horse that “can’t be tamed.”  Her family owns a private ranch.  Did dressage until middle school.  Remember the unicorn thing I mentioned in my world headcanon post?  She probably has one.

- Most of the creations she doesn’t need get donated to charities.  Toys and such go to hospitals and orphanages, clothing goes to shelters and disaster relief, weapons get broken-down into their base materials and sent to charitable construction organizations.  There isn’t a law saying she can’t sell the things she makes, but she would feel weird about it.

- Has a playbook full of stuffed animal designs and their chemical makeup.  She had the idea that after saving children from a disaster, she could give them the perfect plushie to help make them feel better.  Some are based on her classmates.

Thanks for the prompt!

[bigskydreaming]

And another thing!

Can we like, just collectively fuck offffffff with this whole ‘the natural opposite to Bruce’s abusive relationship with Jason is Jason having a warm, nurturing relationship with Talia after she adopts a pseudo maternal role with him when she dumps him in the Lazarus Pit’?

This trend has kinda been around forever, but I feel like its been popping up in like, every Jason-centric fic I read lately, and uggggh, dislike. Look, I actually feel no desire to defend Bruce and his parenting, ever. I try and go with AUs and canons like Young Justice where he’s like, Bad At It, but not to the point of the absolutely toxic abusive shit he’s guilty of in various writers’ runs in the comics, but that’s just because I want his kids to have nice things and his kids all at least WANTED Bruce to be a good father at one point. But if your take on Bruce is that he’s abusive despite his best intentions and the best thing for any one of his kids is to move on and get the hell away from him, I’m not gonna argue with you, or try and defend him in the slightest. I will read the fuck out of that, happily.

Until you try and pretend Talia’s not...just as bad?

Like, okay, I have complicated feelings on Talia, mostly because the shared universe nature of comics makes it impossible not to. She’s an extremely nuanced and complex character and has been for decades, which means I really enjoyed her and found her every bit as compelling as Bruce, until....Morrison happened. And I loathe Morrison’s dumbass writing and try and pay it as little heed as possible, so wherever possible, I go with one of the takes or canons or AUs where Bruce and Talia had fully consensual sex and she just never told him about Damian til later, because I will never ever ever excuse the date rape interpretation of Damian’s conception. And I’m fully aware that it was written that way largely BECAUSE Morrison’s a dumbass and most likely didn’t think through the full implications of what he probably just saw as an expedient way to give Bruce a longlost kid he knew nothing about, or how it would throw Talia’s character under the bus. It’s different with Dick and Tarantula, because Catalina didn’t have those decades of prior characterization and attachment, her agenda was pretty clear from not long after she debuted. (Although, we gotta talk about how just like with the aggressive man of color stereotype, the only times comics show a man being raped by a woman, its a woman of color. Pin in that for now).

So I mean, I don’t automatically write off Talia unless we’re dealing with a fic, AU or run in canon that clearly expresses its going with the version of events where she date raped Bruce. I vastly prefer being able to still enjoy her as the compelling equal and foil to Bruce that she was for a long fucking time before that. 

But even with that, the idea that she’s a superior parent to Bruce and a convenient candidate to step into the void he leaves in any of his sons’ lives, let alone Jason, and just...Do Better....umm...how about could we not?

Like, YMMV obviously, but to me the entire point of Talia in the context of her relationship with Bruce has always been she and Bruce are as alike as they are at odds. Selina and Bruce, the appeal of their romantic dynamic is they’re opposites. Talia and Bruce....they have far more in common than they don’t. They have different goals, different lengths they’re willing to go to, they’re not the SAME by any means, but they understand each other in a way few other characters do, because deep down, they always GET why the other one does what they do.

So I mean, I’m not saying Talia is inherently WORSE than Bruce, I’m just arguing that even with all of Bruce’s flaws, she’s usually not any BETTER. Like...its pretty much a lateral move.

Sure, you could easily WRITE Talia as being a loving maternal figure to Jason or Damian or anyone....but just the same as you could write Bruce being a healthy paternal figure to them. The potential is there in either character, depending on what takes in canon you choose to focus on and you clarify where and in what ways you’re diverging from any takes where they both devolve into outright abuse of their kids. Because both definitely have, and thus, you don’t get to just....handwave away any problems with Talia’s character (and parenting) and default to her as this superior parental figure on the basis that hey, she’s not Bruce. 

Like, okay....you want to write Jason moving on from Bruce and rejecting his attempts to reconcile because he’s come to view Bruce as having essentially raised them all to be child soldiers? I WILL TOTALLY BACK YOU ON THAT. I mean, the dude’s memorial to his SON, was a case containing his uniform and a plaque that said A GOOD SOLDIER. Case made, you know? Not one fucking argument from me. Your take is valid, and Jason’s complaint has my full backing.

But here’s the thing....if your fic does NOT significantly diverge from canon prior to Damian’s joining the rest of the Batfam, if it does NOT show Damian having a WILDLY different upbringing than he did in all versions of canon, and by extension, resulting in Damian having at least a somewhat different approach to interactions, worldview, mannerisms and ideology.....

Then no matter what relationship you craft between Jason and Talia, you are STILL swapping out his parental figure - who he resents for raising him as a child soldier - for another parental figure, who LITERALLY RAISED HER KID AS A CHILD SOLDIER.

Like, hellooooooo? Any take where Damian grew up in the League of Assassins without Talia objecting to him being trained with them or getting him the hell out of there, is a take where Talia literally does the exact same thing you’re holding against Bruce on Jason’s behalf. (While, I might add, ignoring that while Tim at least was well into  his teenage years by the time Bruce became his mentor, Dick, Cass and Damian ALL have this child soldier upbringing in common with Jason. It really doesn’t work to single Jason out as the only one who was victimized by their parent in this way).

But okay. Let’s say you’ve got an explanation for Damian’s upbringing or have written that differently. If you’re going with the take that Jason has a connection with Talia now because Talia’s the one who put him in the Pit and either brought him back to life or restored him to full coherency, then almost inevitably (because you COULD do this differently, but I’ve yet to see a take where a writer DOES)....you’re also going with the take that before coming back to Gotham, Jason trained with the League of Assassins, and this is how he was so competent by the time he went up against Bruce and the others, given that he wasn’t nearly as skilled back when he died at age fifteen.

And it really, really, REALLY bugs the fuck out of me that people so rarely spend much time or focus looking critically at Jason’s time with the League of Assassins, and how that contributed to his ideology and methodology as the Red Hood.

And this is a complaint I have both with fics/writers/headcanons that are pro-Jason and anti-Jason. 

Again, don’t get me wrong. I honestly don’t have a problem with Jason’s initial return to Gotham. Like, he can murder the fuck out of every rapist and crime boss he wants, I’ll be in the stands holding the OMG LOOK AT MY BABY, LOOK HOW GOOD AT MURDERING ASSHOLES HE IS sign and doing high kicks up and down the bleachers. 

But ESPECIALLY if your take on Bruce and his raising of Jason is that he was abusive and trained him as a child soldier.....it absolutely IMO does not work to overlook the role the League of Assassins...and by extension Talia....played in shaping the man he was when he first returned to Gotham. 

And they abso-fucking-lutely played a role.

Because Jason is not Bruce, was never going to be Bruce, was always going to clash with Bruce’s ideology in ways even Dick never did, especially when it came to killing. Even before Jason died, it was very well established that they did not see eye to eye there and likely never were going to. It IS part of Jason’s core characterization that he fundamentally disagrees on the subject of killing criminals, the worst of the worst. Whether you think he actually killed Felipe Garzonas before Bruce benched him, or whether you think he didn’t, or that it was an honest accident...this was a hard line they were always going to end up on opposite sides of, and that inevitably was destined to create at least SOME kind of divide in the family.

But thing is, arguing that its okay to kill a serial rapist they have evidence that should convict him, but who keeps getting away with it because of diplomatic immunity and legal loopholes that show how ineffective a corrupt justice system is.....is NOT the same thing as arguing even to kill a murderer in the name of avenging your son that he murdered.....and even THAT is still along way away from.....

tossing eight heads in a duffel bag down onto a table in the middle of a meeting of local crime bosses as an intimidation tactic.

Felipe? That was Jason’s own personal thoughts and morality, his own perspective on right and wrong at work there, 100% him. The Joker? That was a natural, easy to follow extrapolation of those same thoughts and perspective and how they might change and grow as a result of the trauma of what the Joker did to him and how it affected him.

But Jason’s tactics when he first came back to Gotham weren’t either of those things. They were textbook League of Assassins methodology and justification.

And its just fucking WEIRD to discount that when examining his character and how he changed from the Robin he was to the Red Hood he became.

Like, even with varying canon takes, the youngest Bruce took Jason in at has him at about twelve. He wasn’t a trained acrobat like Dick, he was a malnourished street kid with none of the head start on his training that Dick came to Bruce with, already having it under his belt. Everything Jason knew how to do as Robin, the detective work, swinging around Gotham on grappling hooks, various martial arts forms and mastery of weapons....Bruce had to train him in all that from scratch, and that took time. Jason was at the earliest still only like 13 or so when he became Robin. And pretty much every take I’ve ever seen on his death has him at around fifteen when the Joker killed him. That’s two, at most three years of time spent training and being Robin, under Bruce’s tutelage.

Then things split into two takes....some go with the sequence of events where Ra’s or Talia take Jason’s body right after his funeral and put him in the Lazarus Pit, others go with the sequence where he was resurrected on his own, and was found by Ra’s or Talia a year or two later, still largely catatonic, with them putting him in the Pit to heal his mind the rest of the way.

But either way, by the time Jason comes back to Gotham he’s put at around nineteen or twenty, with it usually said that it was five years after his death, and AT LEAST two or three of those years were spent training with the League of Assassins, or with other teachers thanks to Ra’s or Talia’s patronage.

So.....any way you cut it, if you’re going with a take where Jason’s skills post-Robin come from training with the League....he spent at LEAST as much time being trained by them, with their perspective, in their methods, according to their philosophies....as he spent being trained in all that by Bruce.

There is no angle here in which they didn’t play EVERY BIT as much of a role in shaping him as the man he resents for raising him as a child soldier! With it also largely unacknowledged that even WITHOUT the effects of Pit Madness from the Lazarus Pit, you’re talking about a KID, someone who was either fifteen or at most seventeen by the time the League started training him....who is recovering from a trauma the likes of which pretty much nobody can even comprehend. While nursing a massive grudge and resentments born of insecurities and issues that carried over from his fucked up childhood from even BEFORE he met Bruce, and that Bruce absolutely failed in addressing. 

Again, no matter how you look at it, we’re talking about an extremely traumatized and impressionable and suggestible minor, desperate for anything to hold onto, any ideology to grasp hold of, any justification to make sense of all the shit that’s happened to him and where he goes from here, a purpose, a way to move FORWARD.

Like.....I’m all for Jason resenting Bruce raising him as a child soldier. What I DON’T get, is neither him nor anyone writing him in this way displaying the same awareness of the fact that....the League literally raised him to be a child soldier after he was brought back.

Same shit, different generals. That’s it. But again, that’s not an upgrade! That’s not better for Jason! That’s not an improvement over Bruce! It’s literally a lateral move!

And if your take includes ANY aspect of Talia training or overseeing Jason’s training to help him get back at her ex, someone she definitely has issues with at the time, no matter what canon or existing adaptation you’re going with.....you’re talking about someone literally weaponizing a traumatized teenager against her ex.

Ummm. Yeah. We’re just....not gonna call that better for Jason, or healthier for Jason, or in any way, shape or form to JASON’S benefit, okay? Cuz its not. No matter what his issues with Bruce, no matter what your issues with Bruce as a reader or writer, no matter where you fall on the ‘is killing bad people bad, y/n’ spectrum.....it is just deeply WRONG to just generically write Talia as forming a maternal bond with Jason WHILE he’s being trained by the League she holds enormous influence over, even if not as much as her father.....and act like this is the opposite of Bruce and how he failed Jason. Instead of just more of the same.

Like sorry not sorry Talia, but if you actually give a shit about Jason when he comes out of the Pit all traumatized and chock full of issues....you put him in fucking THERAPY, not How To Be An Assassin and REALLY Get Back At Your Dad 101.

And it doesn’t have to be that way, to be clear. You can write Talia taking off with Jason and toddler Damian in the middle of the night, abandoning the League of Assassins to take both of them far away and hide them so Jason can heal and cope and find himself and Damian can grow up not learning how to poison people by age five. You do that, all my objections vanish, THAT is infinitely superior to Bruce’s parenting, and that’s a parental bond with Jason I can happily stan as being for his benefit and to his betterment.

But no fic where he debuts as the Red Hood with years of League training under his belt has that. And this oversight is realllllly starting to get on  my nerves, lol.

Again, from both sides of the Jason camp, pro and anti alike.

Cuz if you’re a Jason fan for any reason, no matter whether you’re in favor of him reconciling or bonding with any or all of the Batfamily or not, why WOULDN’T you want them acknowledging that who he is now and what he’s done as the Red Hood has every bit as much to do with the skills the League gave him and the philosophies the League taught him as it does with what he learned from Bruce? That he was conditioned in these things while in a highly vulnerable point in his life?

And if you’re not a Jason fan, no matter the reason, it is again, STILL a massive oversight not to acknowledge that his actions and agendas as the Red Hood stem from years of being trained as a teenage assassin while in a highly vulnerable and thus suggestible state and with a clear lack of other options or support systems to counter anything they taught him.

Like I said, I’m pro Red Hood, I love Jason, I agreed with him back when he was arguing with Bruce about Felipe Garzonas. Jason’s never targeted anyone but the worst of the worst and he’s always displayed an ability to see reason and back down, he’s not some mindless killing machine. I lean way more towards his philosophies than I do Bruce’s, even if I don’t always agree entirely, and part of my point here is like...this isn’t about judging Jason for his actions or like, ugh, I really like Jason but I think he’d be even better if he was less murder-y, you know, more like Dick.

But like...the rest of my point is that I just honestly don’t see Jason’s actions and professed ideologies as one hundred percent HIS natural perspective, not influenced to an unhealthy degree by others in a position to take advantage of him at more vulnerable times in his life and sway him more to their positions. And THAT’S my problem with how little people reflect on the role the League played in who he became, AND with the insertion of a maternal and nominally supportive bond with Talia that’s written as being superior and more to Jason’s benefit than anything he shared with Bruce.

LOL even when I don’t mean to, like I definitely didn’t when I started this post, I always seem to keep coming back to how alike Dick and Jason and their stories are and how well and how often they parallel each other, because its the exact same issue I have with Dick. They’re just a very easy way to point out certain things about the other.

Like, I’ve talked before about how I think Dick’s aversion to killing, not when others kill but when HE himself is presented with killing as an option - its really just him being terrified of disappointing Bruce and being abandoned by him if he does so, no matter that he’s an adult now. Because I DO agree and always have, that at the very least, Bruce was at times emotionally abusive with Dick and Jason at least, with a strong case to be made for Damian as well. (Tim’s harder to gauge given that most of his time under Bruce’s direct care was at a time when Bruce was overcompensating for all the things he missed with Jason and blamed himself for, and ever since Jason’s return, Tim’s written as being so independent and removed from Bruce’s influence that its more like Bruce rarely has the OPPORTUNITY to fuck things up with Tim to the degree he has with his other sons.)

Sorry. Digression. Point being, like, I do fully agree with the interpretation that Bruce’s rigid moral code and how forceful and insistent he was on imprinting it on Dick, Jason and Damian has at times been emotionally abusive, and I think the effect of that is most clearly demonstrated with Dick, due to the simple fact that Dick has spent more time under Bruce’s care and tutelage than all the others combined. 

So my problem with Dick’s aversion to killing and how its so often hyped up in canon and in fanfics as him being so like Bruce in this regard, or just a Boy Scout, or ‘too good’ or ‘too pure’ to ever kill, at least not without it ‘breaking him’....that’s got nothing to do with me wanting Dick to suddenly go all trigger happy and kill his enemies with no problem. It’s just because.....I don’t think its Dick’s moral code at work there. I think its Bruce’s, and the way Dick’s written sticking to it without any self-analysis of where it came from and WHY he clings to it so rigidly, I view as evidence of conditioning due to how he was raised. With Dick so focused on other areas where he pushed back against Bruce he’s never really realized that how thoroughly Bruce influenced him in this regard flew completely under his radar.

It’s not that I want Dick to kill more, its that I want his choice to kill or not to be based on HIS choices, HIS morality, and not just a kneejerk response to conditioning he’s never recognized as such because who doesn’t have blinders on in regards to parts of our childhoods, you know?

And then circling back to Jason, I went on that tangent to emphasize its the exact same thing there, just in reverse. It’s not even that I DON’T want Jason to kill his enemies, to have the same philosophy or ideology or methods as Bruce or Dick or Tim. It’s that I want his choice to kill or not to be based on HIS morality, as the result of conclusions he came to after having the time and space and distance to separate himself from his various teachers and surroundings and decide for himself just what it is he believes, what choices and instincts are his naturally, organically, and which ones are leftover from his training by the League, drilled in by his instructors - just as he’s taught himself to recognize when his old training and lessons from Bruce are kicking in.

Anyway.

tl;dr - Bruce sucks and is a terrible parent but lolololol unless you’re going well off the beaten path from canon and faaaaaar away from where the League of Assassins can get their hooks in Jason to any degree, like...Talia is not better. Let Jason be Jason, not just a child soldier raised by your general of choice and aimed in the general direction of philosophies you agree with more than their opposite.

[boathazard]

Kazuhira Miller ;)

hey remember when someone sent me this ask months ago and i never answered it bc i was on mobile and it got too long so i was like ‘i’ll finish this when i’m on desktop’ and then i forgot about it? me either but i found this in my drafts today.

1: sexuality headcanon: hella bisexual, like kinsey 3. as far as he’s concerned, women are great, men are also great. that said, i tend to treat mgs in a vaguely historical fiction sort of way because it tries so hard to entrench itself in real-world cold war events. so i tend to write characters from the earlier end of the timeline as having to deal with a lot of homophobia. like, bb would have been active-duty military during the lavender scare (and thus evidently gave a satisfactory answer to the question “do you like girls” even though his answer was probably a confused “uhhh... sure...???” lmao). portable ops took place within a year of stonewall, and the anarchist gay liberation front was going strong in the uk around the time of pw, hilariously. so it makes sense imo for kaz to be fully aware he’s bisexual, but be operating in pretending-to-be-straight mode because guys are hot but one-night stands with them are generally not worth getting arrested and/or assaulted.

while i’ve seen people write kaz as not knowing he was into guys until it happened, i personally find that kind of hard to believe? he strikes me as the sort of person to be very comfortable with and aware of his own sexual desires, both because he has that kind of natural confidence and because he’s already not following what society deems an appropriate sex life. what is being into guys going to do, make him a pervert? too late, he sleeps around and definitely has some kinks. social outcast? already happened. not that he would be open about being bisexual, he has a functional sense of self-preservation, but it’s relatively easy for him to accept that about himself.

also, if you math it out he would have been in college in the mid-60s. do not tell me he did not have hippie friends, try drugs, and probably make out with a couple dudes for the sake of “free love”-- even if he was 100% straight, he’d probably have done it to try it.

but anyway, he obviously is very interested in and pursues women canonically, (and as a bi person myself i really don’t appreciate that being written off as ‘just closeted’), but if put in appropriate historical context it makes sense that he’d go stealth unless he had a compelling reason to put himself in a dangerous situation. also, there’s something thematically appropriate about him having another split identity where neither side wants him.

2: otp: i would die for bbkaz. that said, i multiship kaz more than bb because bb is so generally disinterested in people and it’s hard for me to rationalize people getting his attention in the first place, while it’s easy to get kaz’s attention but hard to keep it.

i love 9 year time gap ocelot and kaz using each other in ways that include sexual favors, obviously, and alternating between using the fact that the other has feelings for bb as a weapon and having a weird kind of kinship over it. iiii don’t ever seee them being soft or loving, though. or even stopping hating each other, mutual tolerance and occasional weird kinship over being into the same dude is the furthest they’re going to get. they’re just fundamentally incompatible human beings in the best possible way. the way ocelot picks up a pencil probably sets kaz’s teeth on edge.

i really, really wish kaz and eva had met because that would have been incredible. what a ship. they flirt nonstop until eva does something to throw kaz off his game enough that he stumbles on his next line of their ~witty banter~ and she just winks and leaves. they have a lot of sex but no one is sure if there are supposed to be feelings here or it’s just a really elaborate game.

i also enjoy kazcecile, although it’s really more correct to say i enjoy him trying really, really hard to sleep with her while she rejects him and calls him out for being the shameless womanizer he is. that dynamic is one of my fave things in the pw tapes ngl, mostly bc imo he comes off as actually having a bit of a crush on her or else really just wanting to impress her and being kinda put out when she doesn’t think he’s cool or suave.

aaaand of course there’s the canon trainwreck that is kaz and nadine’s failed marriage, too, but that’s not a ship so much as a tragedy. esp if it was a failed attempt to have a normal life

3: brotp: …probably also bb, honestly? bb is his best friend and “the only one he really trusts” (thanks paz). if kaz was better at making emotionally deep friendships he might have come out of this whole mess with significantly better mental health.

i was in a jamjar rp game once where him and hitman from dc comics instantly became great friends, does that count.

4: notp: uh, hmm, don’t really have an immediate notp, but i’m generally not down for him and david. my usual squick of ‘age gap way too big’. i can do up to around ten years and then i’m out. daddy kink aint my thing.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head: he cooked and did a lot of meal planning for early msf both bc he enjoys it and because food can be a highly variable expense depending what you make (and so he can adjust when they have more expensive things without telling anyone else budget details and risking morale loss). being kaz, he also planned for optimal daily and weekly nutrition, or really just tried to find the cheapest and most efficent way to get the correct vitamins into their people without completely destroying morale.

within the first month he got burned several times by his assumption that everyone would just eat everything that was put in front of them. because kaz himself was raised in a food shortage and as a result will pretty much never refuse food, people just throwing completely edible food in the garbage because they don’t like the taste was... taxing to his patience. grow the fuck up and eat the spinach, mongoose, it is the only vitamin e you will be getting this week.

6: one way in which I relate to this character: having a childhood full of vicious social rejection sucks ass.

7: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: when he thinks he’s been clever or smooth but he’s really, really not.

8: cinnamon roll or problematic fave? kaz is a really interesting case and a prime example of why this dichotomy doesn’t work, because in the end he does “good” things for pretty evil reasons. but he is definitely not a cinnamon roll at any point in his life, because even at his best he kills people for money, so problematic fave, i guess?