#anyways real talk tho my whole reason of writing this is to get people to redo really dramatic christian paintings as vashwood

[huginsmemory]

Trigun and the 'Bride of Christ'

An additional thought that popped up after my previous post about Triguns heavy themes of Christianity (a somewhat? Part 2?). In this I look at the Vash and Wolfwoods relationship, their opposing views and how that relates to the Christian term 'the bride of christ'. During this I specifically discuss a large spoiler for the series/manga, so readers beware!

I was chatting with some lovely folks on the Vashwood discord server (if you wish to join, click this link!) about Wolfwoods death, and the way it's, well, wedding themed. The wedding themes include the confetti, the way Wolfwoods passing occurs in front of a church, the ringing of the church bell, and the bottle of liquor they share is labelled 'BRIDE' with a cross on it.

All the items come together in a definite way that resembles, in some terrible fashion, the festivities for a wedding. Hell, even after Vash buries Wolfwood, he makes tons of dishes of food, and Livio and him basically have a feast, another thing one does at weddings.

The 'Bride of Christ'

What particularly caught my eye was the bottle with the word bride on it, with a cross. Multiple times within the new testament, the body of the church is referred to as the 'Bride of Christ'. As I've previously mentioned, Vash is regularly set up as a Christ-like figure; his actions and his philosophical values align with a Christian perspective, in his belief in unconditional love and forgiveness (ie, the blank ticket). As well, as that Wolfwood is a Christian preist, this literally makes him a 'bride of Christ'. In a sense, where in the story Vash is pitched as a Christ-like figure, this means that Wolfwood could be interpreted as the 'bride of Vash'. This especially so considering the contextual clues that hint towards a wedding - confetti, church, and church bells.

Acceptance of Christian philosophy

Further adding to this, is that although Wolfwood was a priest, he did not fully ascribe to Vash's view. In fact, the two of them are foils, their beliefs similar- both coming from love and a need to protect, but differing in Vash ascribing to unconditional love and forgiveness, while Wolfwood refuting that such a position can be practically taken (this is, well, I would say a simplified take on their beliefs but thats a different post for a different day). However, by this point in the story, the both of them have very deeply impacted each other. In fact, this is set almost immediately after Wolfwood saves Vash from Knives, which is the the moment where Vash openly forgives Wolfwood and Wolfwood begins his acceptance of Vash's philosophical views; in that specific moment, he accepts his own absolution (explained further in my previous post).

It is exactly in Wolfwoods fight against Chapel and Livio, that Wolfwood fully (or mostly so) accepts Vash's philosophical views, expanding to accept a blank ticket/unconditional love for others. This is seen as he repeatedly chooses not to kill Chapel's hired guns, and even sharply pleading Livio to spare one of them. Indeed, previously at Vash's request, he'll shoot to injure, but he's not really shown to be particularly worried about the bandits, versus here he is actively choosing to minimize harm; exactly like we've seen Vash do, over and over and over again throughout the series. As well, the hired guns literally try to target the orphanage when they've clearly lost, and also kill one of their own when Wolfwood brings him back, telling him that they've just upped their pay- showing that they're not particularly 'redeemable' hired guns that are likely to repent and become good people. And yet, Wolfwood still chooses to try and save them.

He also specifically goes out of his way to not kill Livio, even though killing Livio would severely even out the playing field, and Wolfwood would likely not have likely died as a result. And Wolfwood makes that decision, again and again and again, only focusing on killing Chapel, and Chapel only, since he's the one that is threatening the orphans.

While Wolfwood fights, Chapel derides him on Vash's views, and how Wolfwood has picked them up. Wolfwood, close to death, reviews his relationship with Vash and Vash's philosophy, and refutes the ideology that Chapel believes in, and that he himself has lived under, that they need to kill to survive, (or to save lives) and that Vash's belief in forgiveness and unconditional love is foolish.

It culminates in Wolfwood declaring that he believes in Vash, in his principles, and standing back up to continue to fight, having accepted Vash's Christian philosophy. Interestingly, it's also Christian leaning terminology he uses; both in that he followed Vash, much like one follows the the teachings of Christ, and that he believes in the Vash's ability to change to world with his philosophy, in the same way Christians believe in Jesus's ability to save the world through the gospel.

In summary, Wolfwood chooses to accept and even says he believes in Vash's philosophical views, thereby choosing to accept the possibility of forgiveness and unconditional love, both for himself, as is shown when he saves Vash from Knives, but also for others, and especially with Livio during the scene up to his death. This full acceptance and belief in a Christian/Vash's perspective would then also show that Wolfwood has fully accepted to be the 'bride of Christ', making him not only via contextual cues a 'bride' of Vash, but also within a Christian theological sense a bride of Vash as well.

In conclusion, (ie, TLDR) Wolfwoods death is wedding themed, with confetti, a church, church bells, and a bottle with the label BRIDE with a cross on it. The church is within the Bible called the 'bride of Christ'; as Vash is a christ-figure, and Wolfwood is a priest, this would make Wolfwood Vash's bride. As well, it is just previous to Wolfwood death scene that Wolfwood has accepted Vash's Christian philosophies, signalling his acceptance as the 'bride of Christ/Vash', further perpetuating the wedding theme.

TTLDR: Vash and Wolfwood are married yup 👍

[daydream-believin]

a real stand up guy ba dum tss

summary: you get stood up by an internet man. douxie, your waiter and secret admirer, remedies that jackass’s mistake.

warnings: uh. swearing, alcohol, i’m too lazy to proof, the yooj. oh and doux doesn’t know how to handle this crush without getting slightly into stalker territory sorry. its a red flag but i think its cute. you may not think its cute.

a/n: tumblr was glitching while i tried to post this so idk how many paragraphs i accidentally erased. i mean i tried my best to make that number 0. but anyways if something is off let me know. the challenge for this one is that im not allowed to use italics. which you should know was very hard for me agshjfkgjdjh

taglist: @moppetwithamanbun @alovesongshewrote @blixeon @prismarts @fantasyiswaybetterthanreality @ukuleles-and-roses

okay quick psa i know it’s been years so if you want off the taglist just hmu. also if you were on the taglist and got taken off thats bc tumblr says you don’t exist anymore

uh this was a request. i’m not doing requests tho dont think that. looking back yeah that ask if from march 2022 and this doesn’t even match up to what you asked 😂 im so sorry @rose-writes-shit

you took a peek at your watch. 7:34 o’ clock. letting your head fall into the open palm of your propped up hand, you sighed.

coffee meets bagel boy was supposed to have met you at 7:00.

of fucking course. you let your plucky pink-haired coworker convince you to download a fucking dating app and make a profile, just for the only guy who had actually been interested enough in you to ask you on a real date to stand you up. makes sense.

it’s not like you’ve ever had luck with these kind of things. it’s not like you’ve ever had luck period. your kind might be the black cat of humans.

you’ve spent way too long eating the free bread at a mr. benoit’s of all places. it was the “classiest” establishment in the certain suburban hellscape of california you inhabited, albeit. you took in the scenery for the millionth time that night with a renewed sense of disgust. at least now you had a legitimate reason to hate this place.

your waiter slinked over, and you could tell he felt bad for you with the awkward shuffling gait to the pity grimace on his face.

“so, uh, perhaps more bread?”

you rolled your face towards him, arbitrarily throwing animosity his way with your dead eyes, just because he was there. but soon your compulsive desire to be the funniest pathetic wretch in the room won out.

“i’m considering burning this whole place down right now, actually,” you joked.

he grit his teeth, sucking in a breath, “could i perhaps convince you to do that on a night i’m not closing, instead? tomorrow is my least favorite coworker’s turn, for your consideration,”

“hmm,” you pretended to think, “i’ll take your suggestion then, it’s only kind,”

“thank you for your generosity,” he grinned, “now, are you still waiting for someone or?”

-

douxie had been watching you for over half an hour now. not creepily. he swears. he just got a little excited when he saw you come into the restaurant is all.

anddd maybe he might have badgered the host into giving you one of his tables. but again, he was just excited. he’s been looking for an excuse to talk to you for the past three months, after all. forgive him for jumping on the opportunity.

he maybe fancied you. just a wee bit. perhaps a rather large bit. or at least, the version of you he’s cooked up in his head from the way he sees you interact with people at house parties and the things he’s heard from zoe.

but he’s sure he’ll love you. as soon as he gets to know who you actually are. which, hopefully, is about to be sooner rather than later.

he did not anticipate this situation, however. whatever benevolent deity blessed him on this night decided to throw a jar of pickled herring in with the otherwise yummy pastry filled gift basket they left for him.

not long after you arrived at 6:56 pm, not that he marked the time you came in or anything he just happened to glance at the clock around that time, he watched you, how they say, deflate. your demeanor shifted from antsy to sad to downright annoyed.

you were dressed nicely. not fancy, not pretending like this wasn’t a benoit’s. but nice. orderly. like you wanted to make a good impression on whoever it was you were expecting to meet. so either a date, or mayhaps a job interview.

not that you didn’t look nice or orderly on other days. you just weren’t in your hex tech uniform shirt. or in the incredibly casual clothes you wore when he saw you around. you were just. clearly cleaned-up, is all.

whoever it was, it was obvious that they were not coming. doux applauded you for being patient enough to wait this long, but again, they obviously weren’t coming. which, if it was a date, was good for him, but bad for you. very bad for you.

and honestly who does this person think they are? letting you down like this? horrible. disgraceful. this person was a grade A jerk-off. they have to be dead from the neck up to leave you waiting here like this, publicly embarrassing you as you sat at a table set for two all alone at one of the busiest restaurants in town. shame on them.

he was glad you seemed to be in the joking mood, however. and about arson, too. oh, he’s always had a soft spot for arsonists.

he hoped you’ll forgive him for having to do his job. if it was up to him, he’d give you all the bread in the pantry just so you wouldn’t leave. but alas, he had to deal the killing blow.

“now, are you still waiting for someone, or?”

your eyes drifted downward to the empty wineglass in your hand as you swirled it sarcastically as if it were still full.

you sighed, “yeah, no, it’s clear he doesn’t plan on showing,” you looked back up at him ruefully, “i’ll order now. i shouldn’t have waited this long for an internet man, anyway, huh? could’ve made it less pathetic.”

“i don’t think there’s a way to make these things any ‘more’ or ‘less’ pathetic,” he began taking out his notepad, ready to write, “because i wouldn’t call it pathetic at all. getting stood up is a thing that’s done to you, not because of who you are, but because of who someone else chooses to be… unless you stole this guy’s car or something. then it’s your fault.”

you laughed. genuinely.

“no, no, it’s a first date. i haven’t known this guy long enough to steal his car yet. but thanks… that’s. a better outlook than mine. kinder,” you apologized, “… uh, can i have like, the cheapest bottle of white wine you’ve got back there? the whole thing this time.”

“i take it back. that definitely made it pathetic.”

while you shared a laugh, douxie mentally congratulated himself. you had just given him the information that a) you were single and b) you were into men. a good day to be a charming single man, then. he had a chance.

“so are you ordering any real food as well? or did you plan on just having wine and bread for dinner? have to say, i don’t think that’s wise, love.”

“well i suppose i gotta, since, i’ve, uh, eaten three baskets of complimentary bread,” you stumbled over your words for a second there, “and i’m sure it’d make the manager mad if it didn’t, right?”

“right you are. he’s uh,” douxie lowered his voice, “he’salreadybeenonmydickaboutyou so yeah, you gotta. plus i’m just— you should eat something, yeah.”

you awkwardly turned your attention to the menu as you did that thing where you hold it and pretend to look over the menu as you order like you forgot or something, “the duck confit sounds good for tonight, i think,”

douxie snorted.

“no, no, that wasn’t a joke,” you shook your head, smiling fondly, “i actually just like duck, i promise. no sarcasm. i do understand the irony though. i get it.”

he didn’t completely believe you, “well then, one order of duck confit, coming right up. be back shortly, love.”

doux grabbed the breadbasket on his way out.

when he glanced back to throw you a short and unnoticeable but longing stare, as he paused in the kitchen doorway, you were fidgeting with the flowers on the table. he should get that order in now.

-

when your waiter came back with food, he placed two plates down on the table. you looked at him like he had suddenly grown a second head as he took the other seat as well.

“what are you—“

“i called in a favor with the owner. i’m still working but, i’ve got a bit of free time now. if you don’t mind me joining you,”

you shook your head in astonishment.

“not at all,” you smiled, still absolutely flabbergasted that this man would do something like this for you, “you’re douxie, right? zoe’s mentioned you a lot.”

“oH—,” he coughed, “oh, uh, she has?“

“yeah,”

he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, “only good things, i pray?”

“oh, sure. sure. good things,” you took a demure little sip of your glass to torture him with the pause implying the contrary.

he swallowed audibly. nervous, then. what dirt did zoe have on him. you watched as he awkwardly shoved up the sleeves of his shirt, perhaps feeling a bit warm now. it was cute.

you’d be sure to ask zoe all about him later. how could you not. this was the most interesting thing to happen all year. and it’s december.

you racked your brain for what you knew of this guy for conversation topics.

“you’re in zoe’s band, right? the lead guitarist.”

his face lit up at the mention of it, “oh, yes. you’ve seen us?”

“once or twice, i believe.”

it wasn’t really your thing, live music. you mostly hung around the back of the bar when you got dragged to shows. you liked loud, sometimes. just not often. it really depended on how your brain was feeling that day.

“well, you’ve gotta come to the next gig, then, at least. i’m sure zoe’s already invited you?” you nodded. “the venue’s holding a wee little music festival, it’s going to be nuclear,”

“ah, that’s fun,” you smiled. that sounded like hell but now that two very enthusiastic wizards have invited you, you don’t have the heart to weasel your way out of it. you’ll bring the “XTREME” ear plugs.

“but yeah, the bands great. i love that i get to play with my mates now. a team that works as well together as we do is rare, so i really appreciate them.”

“speaking of,”

doux hummed inquisitively.

“what’s going on with zoe and that new girly y’all’ve got on the drums?”

“oh,” he paused to take a sip, narrowing his eyes mischievously, “they’re boning.”

you clasped your hands together excitedly, “thank you! you’ve just won me a betting pool.”

he almost had to spit the wine back into his glass,“hhhh. how many?”

“oh, just the entirety of the hex tech arcadia staff.”

“i’m not sure she’ll be happy to hear that.”

“which is why you won’t tell her, mr. casperan,” you placed your hand over his with a cheshire cat grin.

well, he couldn’t argue with that.

dinner progressed. alas, you can’t say you lingered as long as you wanted to on conversation. you were kinda rushing things because you felt a little guilty doux was getting someone to cover for him while you had your little date. was this a date. it had to be. as mentioned, he’s going out of his way for this, and you can’t imagine he’d go through all this trouble because he wasn’t interested in you. but then again, you couldn’t believe he was interested in you either.

“do you like cryptozoology?” douxie tried his best to ask nonchalantly while he scratched the bridge of his nose to look a little less interested. he was feeling a bit energized since talking about the band. you had been paying attention to him like he’d been paying attention to you, if only in passing.

“a tad more than the average californian wizard, why?”

“well, later this weekend, i’ve got a job exterminating a goblin infestation in the next town over,”

“snelling?”

“yeah, snelling. the guy i was partnering with told me he was backing out this morning, so now i’ll be going it alone. and im sure you know how fighting goblins alone usually goes.”

“makes it easier for them to gang up on you, yes.”

“see, that’s why i’m asking if you’d be interesting in taking his place?”

“well, i’ve got the weekend off and nothing to do,” he knew that, he got the hex tech schedule from zoe every week(to know how to schedule band practice. and, if he also took a peak at your schedule, it was purely accidental. yeah.), “so, i don’t see why not.”

doux grinned, both relieved he wouldn’t be fighting goblins alone, and feeling clever that he found an excuse to spend more time with you, “perfect, i’ll text you the details? but, oh, i don’t have your number do i?”

you were about to ask why he couldn’t just tell you in person right now, but he said that soo hammy. it took .01 seconds to understand what he was doing. you snorted.

“okay, okay, here,” you held out your hand and he gladly placed his unlocked phone in your hand. you made the contact and sent yourself a text of the first emoji he had in his recents, which happened to be🫀. ah, a goth romantic. you gave him back his phone.

“perfect. thank you, love.” he tucked the phone into his chest dramatically before placing in back into his pocket.

you rolled your eyes fondly, “you know, goblin smashing isn’t exactly my idea of the perfect second date, you might have to turn up the charm.”

“oh, i’m sure i’ll make it worth your while,” he let his head fall into his palm propped up on the table, gaze going soft, “so was this a perfect first date, then?”

you laughed, “hardly. all things considered. but—“

“but?”

“but i’m glad it happened this way. i’ve had a good time, mr. casperan.”

he grinned in agreement, “me too.”

you put your hand on top of the one he left resting on the table, and he took the opportunity to take that hand and gently lay a kiss to the top of your knuckles. he lingered for a moment, eyes shut tight to take in the tenderness of the moment.

alas, he has to go back to work now.

doux pulled out your chair and helped you to your feet. you thanked him as he started stacking the dishes.

“should i—?”

“no, god no,” he chuffed, “i’m the waiter, remember? i work here.”

“oh yeah.”

that reminded you. you shuffled for your wallet, but he stopped you.

“i’m paying for dinner, love. go enjoy the rest of your evening, i’ll text you after i close.”

“you sure?” it didn’t really sit right with you, considering he probably took a pay cut by not working the whole time you were on this little “date.”

“well,” he paused, and placed the dishes back onto the table for time being, “you could leave me a tip, if you know what i mean. just a teeny thing—“

“c’mere,” you snickered as you pulled him down by the lapels to kiss him.

chaste, just a peck. but perfect and sweet all the same.

when you pulled back, you watched as douxie held his eyes closed for just a moment longer than he need to before letting that blinding all encompassing smile bloom across his face.

“well then, a very goodnight to you, y/n l/n.”

[gramarye]

really really long post where i just talk about johan from yugioh gx thank you

im thinking about johan tonight bc i was drawing him and i wanna talk abt him. bear with me. I REALLY LIKE JOHAN . TO START THIS OFF WITH i have an official licensed johan "WHERE AM I" shirt and i adore it its really funny also i used to have like a johan pin i bought from a german anime store and it was like 8 euros but i shipped it off to my friend who is really really crazy about johan

^johan where am i shirt

anyway johan. jessejohan. i like johan so much believe me he is my nordic scandinavian brethen i just think his writing has issues mainly that he has like no real relationships outside judai and like. i know as a gay person -- i am literally a lesbian In A Lesbian Relationship In Real Life -- that characters will become more likeable when they're queer coded bcuz its Different and its relatable. however i think his writing is kind of really weak and i quote this thing my friend said in 2022 like a lot

HARD TRUTHS TO SWALLOW jesse is a beautiful damsel in distress and his personality outside jaden and crystal beasts is kind of nothing. i love him tho

but the most offensive thing abt it writing wise is like in season 4 when they duel against trueman sorry it was fujiwara. okay i was rewatching gx ages ago and my ex was watching it with me and it was her first time seeing it and shes a literature major and when the whole. "what is the darkness in johan's heart" scene, AFTER IT WAS ESTABLISHED EVERYONE, EVERY STUDENT INCLUDING MANJOUME SHO ASUKA O'BRIEN ETCETC has darkness in their hearts,

my ex goes "if they reveal that he has no darkness in his heart because hes such a special boy im going to be so fucking mad because hes already a mary sue" (HER WORDS NOT MINE she was so mad about johan its funny.) AND THEN THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY DO

like he is literally too perfect. his only flaw is his one (1) time thing about getting lost which is never really brought up again (also its more of an endearing haha funny thing and yes i like it i have a shirt referencing that scene.) and the fact that.. he gets taken over i guess.

i do think the switch around where they bamboozle fujiwara is really funny. it is a funny scene i just wish they literally didn't do it at the cost of "johan is a perfect person without any mental weaknesses when literally every single other character has some flaws" I DONT GET IT!!!

maybe he can just photosynthesize his worries into strength i dont know. does anyone remember that meme

but really like WHAT IS JOHAN WITHOUT JUDAI!!!! why is he literally perfect and above other characters also. why could they not give him any darkness like What possible reason does that serve except me think he is BORING!!!! i do like johan btw as i said i really do. i just think his writing kinda sucks and people are way too nice on johan because he is queer coded but the fact is his writing is really weak. this isnt exclusive to johan ok i also dislike some aspects of jadens writing and asukas and so forth (naming characters i really like to prove my point) I AM CRITICAL this is just. about johan. ok.

and this brings me to the weirdo youtube essayists who only care about s3 and think its the peak of gx and yugioh in general and also. ONE SUCH YOUTUBER. WHO SAID IT IS "HOMOPHOBIC" THAT JESSE IS SOUTHERN IN THE DUB WHICH. WHAT?

you think all southern people all homophobic??? im sorry but i know so many goddamn queer people in thhe south. are you out of your mind. please blow up. LET HIM BE A GAY TEXAN you are just showing your own prejudice literally why did so many gx fans eat up "umm it was homophobic of 4kids to make him southern" they give like everyone accents. he has cowboy boots in his design. its not homophobia hes just southern and southern gay people exist. watch brokeback mountain or something

anway

i think johan is a much more interesting character if you incorporate his manga counterpart into it. like combine him with his anime self and it'd be really fun. his bug enthusiasm in the manga is fun like he has an actual hobby and personality. ADHD bug king

also i think personally they should lean into him being scandinavian more. ITS FUNNY. i think he should try to feed manjoume blodplättar because he looks anemic. he should open a can of surströmming around asuka (canonically very much hates food with strong smells) and she gets so upset she has to like leave the building entirely. she should get into a cultural dispute with o'brien because he thinks carola's swedish cover of mickey is better than toni basil's original

i think this and like. septembers mikrofonkåt is what he should listen to. swedish pop baby

anyway. i like johan i just think Some of his fans are insane and thats why i need to take him down a peg every now and then . in a loving bully way. also hes very gender to me dont worry about it. also TWO different people have said some variation of the "fuck danganronpa and its fans i hope komaeda marries a woman" post about him to me in different years which is so funny.

anyway yes i love jessejohan. send post

[ravenkinnie]

what r ur thoughts about mel in general

mel is so mother, not in a bland girlboss way that people assign female characters they don't actually care about but don't want to be sexist but in a way that I imagine she could inflict emotional violence on me I would think about for decades and also in a gay way because she serves ultimate cunt. I don't like the two ends of the spectrum she gets though, it's either people thinking she is only an evil capitalist manipulator (she is a capitalist but let's not talk about arcanes class worldbuilding issues again lmao) or that she only ever had pure intentions - she did manipulate jayce, she absolutely did work her charm and found cracks in him she could dig her fingers in to make him work the way she wanted and THEN realised she genuinely cares for him. and I love that, I love that she likes a man who is stupider than her and then gets charmed by how earnest he is in his dumbassery

mels issue is fandom is that she's a black woman and people are racist djdjdjkdk and she's attached to a storyline and a man that is largely taken over in fandom landscape by a slash ship so she's always gonna lose, the fact that meljay is a rareship slays me dhsjjs and also her storyline starts kind of late in the season, like it doesn't really kick off until ambessa shows up and by then you have viktor committing unethical experiments and dying and the whole zaun storyline unfolding and everything surrounding jinx-silco-vi triangle is just so enrapturing in its insanity mel stood no chance

but ngl her storyline with ambessa has me gagged, I like gasped when ambessa went BECAUSE YOU WEAKENED ME like the way mel this whole time thought she just didn't live up to ambessas standard and then the realisation that ambessa felt like mel was putting her up to a standard she couldn't live up to and didn't want to accept and that the values she thought she couldn't embody that ambessa did are the reason she was exiled aaaaaaaaa. I hope they get more spotlight next season and noxus becomes more relevant because you see a set number of ways mother daughter relationships are portrayed in media and its rare that there's this sort of violence and strong mindedness present in them the way it often is in father son relationships. I love that mels arc is her rejecting her motherland and their values and building something for herself (like her taking off her family ring and voting for jayces peace treaty even tho the treaty was fucking stupid... jayce is real for that dumb idea just so we could get mels cunt moment and silcos mother coded sophies choice arc)

also there's mels brother who we don't know much about, we know that he was important to mel because duh he's her brother but also she looked up to him in some way. but because arcane moves so fast with its plot she doesn't even get a moment to grieve him

I don't write mel fics a lot tho, just because mel is somewhat smarter than me and that becomes an issue when she has to be written by me, a dumbass. and i cant combat that unlike with another character like with silco who is somewhat smarter than me but he is also extremely delusional and I can balance these out to make it work. acc maybe I need to figure out how to make her more delusional

anyways while I'm here here are mel fic recs: family study this mel/silco fic is one of my favorite arcane fics ever caitmel from linka my fellow Caitlyn Fucks warrior elora/mel that eats character study through being gagged over mels hair insane

[cangrellesteponme]

Genuine question after reading the mey-rin essay (which I love btw, the way you wrote it? Immaculate): do you think the writing of women in Kuro could improve if they had more focus? Like, with Lizzie i personally did a whole 180° on how I feel about her once her past was more shown during book of Atlantic. Mey-rin I already loved her and after her own "focus" my love for her increased even more, it felt like reading something more real other than just a stereotype or a trope. I feel like they would all be more enjoyable (tho I'm biased because I love them) if they had more time to shine. *pls Yana, Ran Map focus one day, I would love to know more*

hi anon, first of all thank you, i’m glad you liked the essay :))

short answer: yeah, no. focus is not inherently redeeming.

so, we all clear on my take ? good, good. let’s get into a bit more detail. (and into some proper capitalisation)

Now, focus is great and all, but there has to be a reason the new information we get is interesting. In the cases of Lizzy and Mey-Rin, it kind of is the same phenomenon: now that we have more of this background information, it recontextualises aspects of the character we might not have cared for before, and we gain a renewed appreciation for a character we understand better. This works well, and kind of is a requirement, because they both got very rocky starts. We’re turning elements readers have identified as “bad” into parts of a more complex, “justified” whole.

However, I’m going to be very honest here, I think it’s stupid and doesn’t change the fact that the writing of women in Kuro is fucking horrendous.

It’s great for Mey-Rin: it doesn’t necessarily detach itself from previous characterisation and actually strengthens it (hence the feeling of it turning the stereotype more real), and causes no real change in the character. On top of that, the timing is perfect: right before a demonstration of pure loyalty, Yana shoves a big, red “THIS CHARACTER IS THE WAY THEY ARE FOR THIS REASON” sign, which associates the recontextualised elements with a virtue readers will absolutely love. All in all, absolute banger (with a few problems), let’s not write another essay.

But what the fuck was that with Lizzy? Don’t get me wrong here, I love writing about how awful gender is sometimes, but did we really need to do it… like that? In case what I mean isn’t clear, let’s do a quick recap. This very normal child with normal child behaviour (being girly, childish, emotional, and lowkey annoying, in a normal kid way) was very strongly hated (and. well. mocked by the narrative) for those traits, and her turning point is…? Let me check my notes. Ah, yes, the turning point is that Lizzy behaving like a girl is okay not because it just fucking is, but because it’s actually all a lie and deep down she’s a strong warrior who’s just acting like that because she was told to. Obviously you can’t just be both, silly! And yeah there’s more nuance to that, but I’m not writing a Lizzy essay, for a plethora of reasons. What bothers me is that the readers’ enjoyment of the character is dependent on the denial of her previous femininity, and it’s not just an unexpected effect – it’s how it’s written.

(and, sidenote: as a lizzy enjoyer i kind of hate the fandom’s general perception of her? at least with mey-rin it truly improved with time, but with lizzy… people still think of her the exact same way, they just spend a lot of time talking about how much they enjoy the “cooler” parts of her, instead of spending time shitting on the rest of it. anyway, no lizzy essay, i should keep my takes to myself before i end up in trouble!!)

So, based on those two examples: no, focus is not enough to let Yana show that she’s always been capable of writing women.

And as much as I love Ran Mao (which is a lot) I think I will have to deeply sigh at every single aspect of her character if we get more detail. I’ll take it, because I love her, but I will be even more acerbic in my criticisms. Because focus won’t fix her. If you pull a magnifying glass on shit it’s still shit. And the writing of women in Kuro is, in fact, very shitty.

so, anon, i hope my answer is at least interesting? obviously if yana somehow puts her head on straight and starts writing ran mao well i will be here for it but the odds are… not in our favour. as for the other women… well i’d love to see more of lady midford, but that seems unlikely, and i’m always here for more grelle, and her writing is… a complicated issue other people explain way better than i do. so yeah.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for taking a 13 year old away from the corporation that’s been keeping her in a coma?

(AU/rewrite of canon)

I, (27, m) work for a secret organization that specializes in experimenting and containing anomalous things. They keep everything from the public so regular people don’t know about the anomalies either.

Anyways the story starts around last year after Christmas, I was talking to one of my co workers about how Santa does come into my house and he’s definitely real while my co worker tried to explain how I needed to call the cops (which I did it was not Santa). Then Santa runs by us and immediately I check it out only to find out that this ‘Santa’ was very recently created by one of the anomalous entities we house.

We’ll call her S, (13, F). S is capable of manipulating reality. Kinda like a witch or wizard. Realizing the similarities to her and a witch I made her a spell book and gave it to her in hopes she’d be able to have better control of her abilities if she were to write them down.

Unfortunately I never knew if this ended up working bc H, (31, M) put her into a coma under the organizations orders.

It should be noted that when this happened, H was a cyborg and the organization literally coded him to listen to the organizations orders. I fixed this not even a month later after S becoming comatose tho so we’re good on that.

Anyways cut to now, S was woken up by a researcher for unrelated reasons which accidentally lead into a site wide containment breach of almost every entity in the site because another guy really wants to kill her (don’t worry everyone was working to stop him during this)

S managed to get the guy trying to hurt her into a containment cell because she’s awesome like that but in the process accidentally summoned a dragon. So I went to help her handle that and kinda just told the dragon to die and it did. It disintegrated on the spot. So I go to make sure S is ok when another researcher shows up and injects her with something to make her pass out bc I guess they wanted to make her comatose again which is bullshit.

I manage to get to her first and in my panic I teleport her into this library place which is actually a zone in between worlds that’s controlled by another group that’s against the organization and wants all anomalies to either be known about or be let into society.

I immediately take S into a medical sector and explain the whole situation. As I’m typing this she’s very happily living over in the library with H (bc he’s staying there due to the whole mind control thing)

Anyways where I might be the asshole is that everyone over in the organization (except for a few) is super pissed at me for not telling them where she is. They keep saying she has the capacity to end the world which, sure, but also she is 13 and they put her into a coma

I don’t think I’m the asshole here but maybe I am who knows

[linkspooky]

Got any fac superhero comic villain that isn’t Batman villains?

I mean… let’s be real here tho, most interesting and well written villains do mostly be from Batman.

But I am curious if you have any fav villains out side from Batman’s?

Okay, so the reason I primarily talk about batman and Teen Titans is they're primarily what I've read. I actually like villains from other rogue's galleries, flashes is good, superman's is good, but the thing is... I've read every Teen Titans comic ever so here we go.

3. Deathstroke.

One time I heard someone refer to deathstroke as the "Anti-Teen Dad" and no phrase has better captured his character. Deathstroke doesn't work as a batman villain, he doesn't work as an arrow villain, he is at his best as a Teen Titans villain because Deathstroke is someone actively harmful to children.

He represents the uncaring and horrible adults in the world these teenage heroes face as they are growing up, there's a reason Deathstroke's biggest arc is basically grooming and destroying any chance Terra had to be a good person (and other gross stuff but it's triggering I don't want to talk about it), there's a reason Slade's backstory by Wolfram is that he basically destroyed his family's lives, let one son die, let the other son's throat get slit, abandoned the third. He is the ANTI-TEEN DAD!

Christopher Priest who wrote the character's rebirth run put Slade's character into words better than I ever could.

I often had to fight City Hall and repeat, ad nauseum, that Deathstroke is a villain. In the first issue, Slade kills a bear in order to save his son. Then he goes back and kills the bear’s cubs because, to his thinking, it would be cruel to leave them without a mother. That is Deathstroke. But I had to fight to get that in because of concerns over the character’s likeability. This was the unfun part about writing this character, a guy who should have an even sharper edge than Wolverine. Please write this down someplace for future reference: Deathstroke is an ass.

I wrote this in my Joker analysis too, there's nothing good or redeemable about Joker, but he still has an extremely important role in the story because he represents the death that Batman is fighting against in the world, so for Dick Grayson who is trying to grow up and help all of his friends grow too, he's the perfect counter and opposite someone who not only destroys his kid's lives but targets other children too. "Please write this down someplace for future reference: Deathstroke is an ass." Any attempts to make Deathstroke more honorable and more honorable just kind of fall flat, his name is DEATHSTROKE, he represents the force of uncaring death and danger in the world that's utterly hostile to teens and these kids have to deal with.

2. Blackfire.

I talk about Blackfire's character more in depth here, but her character works best if you consider her the "Red Hood" to Starfire's "Nightwing." Her character itself starts out as just kind of an evil sister who is one dimmensionally obsessed with killing and hated Starfire and was jealous all her life. The wicked sister to Starfire's Cinderella. However, she gets a lot more depth over the story.

I don't want to undermine how much Blackfire did in fact commit sibling abuse on Starfire, but there's a really good "Generational Abuse" storyline in both Starfire and Blackfire. I think a lot of people want to talk about the cycle of abuse in storylines but don't want to really read stories where characters who are abuse victims end up perpetuating abuse which like... how do you guys think the cycle of abuse happens then? Anyway, Blackfire's extremely messy especially since there's really bad shit she does in her early writing when she's more one dimmensional.

HOWEVER! Literally everyone complains about "I hate how in every marvel movie, the villain is just evil version of the main character" Blackfire subverts that whole trope in fantastic and brilliant ways. The story allows Blackfire to be right, and have a point of view outside of Starfire's that's equally as valid. Blackfire has an entirely different take on her childhood because she was neglected horribly by her parents. She says the true source of the abuse in their family was her parents and she's right. She advocates for stronger leadership in Tamaran because her parents are wishy washy and can't defend their own parents and she's right there again. In later versions of her character, Blackfire's bloodthirstiness and warlike personality didn't come out of nowhere, it's a survival mechanism that evolved out of necessity to survive and she's not conquering the planet for her vanity or ego she genuinely thinks she'll be a better leader. Honestly, a more three diemmnsional Blackfire is just more interesting because evil big sisters are just boring.

1. Terra.

Have I ever told you I love Judas Contract? I love Judas Contract. Of course there's a little bit of weird writing in Terra's character, where she's clearly a grooming victim, and also an abuse victim by her parents and a teenage runaway who's genuinely had a hard life and the writers go (no, just ignore all of that she was just born a sociopath, we aren't shaped by our traumatic experiences at all don't be silly).

However, SUBTEXT is a thing, even if the intention was to just write Terra as a flat sociopath the subtext is there that she is a really complex victim. Terra's entire character revolves around the fact she is a victim, but she's not an innoecnt person either. Her being groomed by Slade doesn't absolve her of all responsibility for her actions.

TERRA IS THE ULTIMATE BAD VICTIM IN COMICS, her entire character revolves around the fact that she was abused, and was not a perfect selfless angel about it, she didn't feel like helping other people, she hated the heroes around her because of how good and selfless they are when she wasn't, and yet she's still sympathetic. IT's a tragedy that she died, because human beings especially children no matter how amoral they may be or what their actions were don't really deserve to suffer to the extent Terra has. Terra's entire character revolves around the fact she self destructs. I believe there could be an arc where Terra was saved, or at least given a chance to be her own person outside of SLade, but the whole part of the Judas Contract is that the Titans as well meaning as they were just COULDN'T get to Terra in time b/c she didn't fit into their neat little boxes of what victims should look like. I don't think Terra is a bad person so much as, she never really got the chance to be her own person outside of the horrible tragedy that rocked her life because she died too soon. That's another thing, it's ALWAYS tragic when a child dies, especially since you can generally still reach those children at that age and when you cut off their future like that you cut off any chance they had to grow up. Like there's a lot of TERRA BROUGHT IT ON HERSELF, SHE DIDN'T WANT TO GET BETTER, like chill out dude she's sixteen. Anyway, Terra is my favorite comic book character of all time she's a bitch and I love her.

[theintrovertbean]

okay okay so, this is my first time asking I'm kinda nervous although i don't have a reason to be but yk still. Anyway, can you write Nadia x MC who has mommy issues?? Like how Nadia will react when she first finds out about this and how she handles it? Yk comfort mc and so on. I hope it's not confusing.

Hi, Anon! Welcome to the world of asks! It feels quite nice that you sent me your first ask, so thank you! And do not worry! It's not confusing at all.

Mommy issues manifest differently in different people, so I just went with some of the stuff that I'm more familiar with.

Nadia is mommy, so we know that she could definitely take good care of an MC with mommy issues.

I hope that it's good enough. Enjoy!

Ohh, and Merry Christmas, babes! I hope you're all getting a real-life Nadia.

Nadia x MC with mommy issues

First, Nadia is worried. She is afraid that people might find a way to use MC. Whenever MC makes a new friend, Nadia would be very suspicious of them at first, and she'd want to make sure they only have the best intentions. Anyone who hurts MC will be scolded by the Countess of Vesuvia. Ohh, she's protective. Very, very protective, and it makes MC feel amazing to be so cared for.

Nadia asks a lot of questions at first. She wants to make sure she fully understands MC's situation. No pressure, tho. In the meantime, MC gets backrubs.

She noticed that there might be something going on at the very beginning. Nadia is a countess and a princess. People are naturally a little tense around her, but MC seemed more nervous than others. Still, she wouldn't have guessed that MC is nervous around women because of their mommy issues. Nadia does anything and everything in her power to make MC feel at ease around her, and she has no intention of scaring them. It might take some work, but for MC, Nadia is willing to put in the effort.

Sometimes it might be a little hard for MC to open up about their emotions. But Nadia is kind, gentle, and infinitely patient. She would never pressure MC into doing things or talking about stuff they don't want to, but she lets them know that she is always there for them. She makes them feel safe, comfortable and cared for. Nadia always tells MC they're good enough because they are good enough.

Nadia doesn't mind taking on a more nurturing role in the relationship. She's naturally dominant in every aspect, so being a bit of a mommy would be easy for her. She's caring and kind, nurturing like a mother. MC would never feel neglected ever again. Anything they want, they only need to ask her, and it's already theirs. Nadia would fulfill their every desire.

I headcanon that Nadia might have some mommy issues too. Nasrin is a Queen and a mother of seven children, so she couldn't spend as much time with Nadia and her siblings as the whole family wanted. This may have led to Nadia developing a tendency to be possessive in romantic relationships. It's very hard for her to be away from MC, and she seeks their attention as often as possible.

If MC is more on the clingy side like Nadia, it leads to the most wonderful cuddles at the end of every single day. They are both dying to spend every moment together, and when they are finally alone, they are inseparable.

Nadia would absolutely call MC "baby" in private.

And we already know that she loves being called "mommy."

[ardynsflower]

Hello! I hope you're having an amazing day today!

I've been absolutely feral over Bayonetta and there isn't enough content of Bayo x fem!readers... anywhere🥲 So you can imagine how stoked I was when I came across your account!

l've got a request if it's alright (I hope this is the proper way to ask)! May I request a Gomez and Morticia type of dynamic with shorter reader (I'm 5'2") that's just completely in love with her wife Bayonetta. You can choose if it will be a scenario or a head cannon l'm fine with either! I can imagine reader being some kind of artist (maybe a fashion designer that loves to make outfits for Bayo!!!). Do you write smut? If not that's totally fine! If you do tho feel free to add if you’re up for it!

Thank you and no rush if you decide to take up the request and Thank you anyway if you choose not to! I know how busy lives can be and as an artist I can understand the pressure of making something for others :) Have fun! Thanks again!

Awh dear, first, thank you and I hope you’re having an amazing day as well, AND YES FR THERE ISN’T ENOUGH BAYO X FEM!READER EVEN THO SHE GAY AS (the gates of) HELL..Anyways, I’d love to write that, morticia and gomez are one of the best couples fr their dynamic is just so adorable and i can’t get over it. Let’s use bayo’s Google height for this one and the reader your 5’2, but tbh anyone can read this just don’t read the "love for your short wife" part/s lol. (I myself am a 5’7.) Feel more free than ever to send more requests, bayo lovers here. Ps: sorry for that long ass message and I’ll change some things with the fact that she’s a witch from the Umbra. Sorry, tell me if you want it to change.

———

-First, let’s talk about some importants things.

-Bayo is 5’8, and you being short as hell for her makes the vibe more clearer, you’re her Gomez and she’s your Morticia, ofc. Also, Bayo showed to be obviously more darker than Jeanne, so I’ll take the liberty to use Gomez and Morticia’s real over all strange but romantic couple type.

-Whenever you both are together in your black, elegant and kind of special house or just in general, the romantic and creepy (as Jeanne describe it sometimes..) couple quotes are a whole thing. You both can’t live a day without giving the other red/black roses and tell them something like, "Amor, I’ll make/get you the most prettiest dark dress just so you can be as dead and pretty as you are to me." (Romantic for you guys hello remember it? You both are kind of trash here.)

-You can’t stop gently kissing her hands or kiss her at all. You can’t let one without the other.

-Going to the point where you’re an artist, well, this is one of the reasons why bayo fell in love. Your (mostly) black and dark red dress or just outfits in general were so pretty, she loved your passion and seeing you being more passionate as well. Now she is kind of premium member one, lol, you always at least make her one dress every two-three weeks. Got more passion for her tho.

-I’m not gonna get too into it, but when it comes to the bed, Bayo’s ofc a top. But sometimes she’ll let you do what you wanna do, but not too much<3 she keeps her role. And by going, romanticism will never stop. Rose’s, wine, cozy and gloomy kind of lighting…It’s just perfect for you. As your couple is perfect.

-She is more of a black cat than you, but you both works as well as black and grey kitty’s. (Didn’t wanted to put white cat. It’s Jeanne, lol.)

-concerning about being out of the house, she always have an arm on your hips and romantic behavior with her. As well as you. Sometimes people like Jeanne, Luka and blah blah blah can thought of something like, "It’s looks fucked up but- It’s cute tho." and everything that goes on. They’re understandably kind of scared whenever you guys are too trash for them, lol. More Luka than Jeanne tbh.

———

It’s so short and rushed omg I’m sorry BUT MY DAD IS COMING TO SEE ME SO I HAVE TO PREPARE, YK, ANYWAYS BYE BYE HOPE YOU LIKED THAT ILL RE DO IT IF NOT !! Bye ily<3

[ev1llesb1an]

Documentation of my comphet throughout the years 🧍‍♀️

Okay so I thought it’d be funny to talk abt my most intense male fixation eras as a lesbian (idk i’m just shitposting into the void again) judge me all u want (it is probably needed) but i need ppl to understand the real me 🙏

IT CROPPED HALF HIS FACE OUT but i just realised if you aren’t british ur gonna have no idea who he is anyone (he’s lachlan white from emmerdale) omg this was an ERA everyone around me thought i was going insane (i was) but like they just didn’t get it he slayed so hard at a level that will never be reached (literally) also tom atkinson on sex education was like a full circle moment for me omg but anyways i was like 11-12 here these were literally my formative years this changed me FOREVER don’t judge he slayed omg

THIS okay so u can’t even blame me for this one it’s just correct. yes he’s like walking masculinity stereotype BUT he also had depth and was interesting 😌 the fanfics were SO GOOD this is when i really got into fanfiction and accidentally read smut where someone get pregnant in the hunger games 🧍‍♀️i read this one fic that was like x reader AND THEY STRAIGHT UP BOTH DIED but anyways. i read fanfics abt literally everyone thg character (read abt women and convinced myself i was still straight lmfao) but he was the stand out for me. i recently revisited this era and the fics ppl write on ao3 r INSANE omg like what is wrong with u ppl ( i say this lovingly but also wtf )

OMGOMGOMG BEST ERA OF MY LIFE u actually don’t understand u just had to be there. a solid percentage of my brain even to this day is made up of this man. this is like the stupidest thing ever but when i was like 14 i would just mirror his personality (and tone down the arsehole part obvs) so that i could get more talkative AND IT ACTUALLY WORKED nobody in the whole world will ever understand how much he means to me (i don’t rly understand it myself tbh) and ik ppl literally fuckinf despise him but i will not tolerate the dandy mott slander bc he is literally part of my core identity atp i revisit him every few months just to fully reconnect with my inner being. did anyone read Companion? that shit was crazy also i wrote a fic abt him on wattpad and people actually READ IT so anyways best era of my life it truly never got better i rly hit me peak (i had 0 friends) the few friends i had literally told me i talked abt him too much and it made them like me less 💀

this was arguably my most chill era like yea i was pretty obsessive but with marvel it’s so normalised to be so intense abt everything i kinda just fit right in. there’s too much professor fanfiction r u ppl okay 🧍‍♀️ also more actor fanfiction than i have ever seen for any other man in my LIFE but the capitalism went hard during this era the fluff was so good. arguably my most comforting era? idk i can’t rly explain that one

okay so these two r kinda completely different but also (for obvious reasons) the exact same. gotham was my most openly gay era and for that i will forever be grateful HOWEVER the kristen kringle haters were doing WAY TOO MUCH like she’s already dead why u doing her like that constantly (u will see this sentiment echoed later abt someone else hmmm i wonder who) but yea and then YES i was a paul dano lesbian (literally wasn’t out as lesbian at this point lmao) honestly this is probably the era my friends hated the most they would either awkwardly pretend to agree/care abt the shit i was saying or straight up tell me i was delusional 💀 my friends even now still call it my worst era but i LOVED IT kinda solidified my position at the bottom of the hellish secondary school hierarchy but i still had a good time. the paul dani riddler fanfics r next level tho the way ppl would just post STALKER fics constantly with like zero warnings and it was never labelled as yandere 🧍‍♀️i also got in an argument with a writer on wattpad bc they made the riddler and the oc have like a 6 year age gap and they met when she was 10 and he was like 16 💀 other than that good vibes all round

tbh this era was pretty brief i can’t fully explain what happened here like the vibes were immaculate but also insane WHY IS THERE SM YANDERE FANFIC peter parker is so nice but then in fanfics it’s like 👹 but i rly like spider-man HOWEVER this then led me to my final destination on the comphet journey…

omg were finally at the final stop the peak of comphet ( i came out as lesbian within this era ) arguably not my finest hour bc i swore i would never watch criminal minds bc the number of seasons is WAY TOO MUCH but here we are i watched it bc i read too much fanfic abt this man. i have lots of criticism for the fandom but he in himself is acc a rly good character. this was supposed to be like my ethical era but he’s acc killed like a bunch of ppl and thomas gibson is MESSY (don’t cancel me pls i say that lovingly 🫶) the haley hotchner misogyny nearly killed me off i don’t think i’ve ever been so miserable in a fandom and the fanfics kinda take feminism back a few hundred years but pretty good besides that

anyways there is my brainrot i hope the two (at most) ppl who will read this enjoyed 🫶 LETS GO LESBIANS LETS GO im gonna say i posted this in honour of international lesbian day even tho that was several days ago

[damn-it-a-hogwarts-legacy-blog]

Omg thank you for answering my ask! 😭🩷

To be honest, as much as I don't want the notion that Ominis died alone in the 1920's (or worse, probably killed), I also have the morbid curiosity to actually know what happened to him; canon-compliant wise. I mean, I could understand why the developers said he died just before Tom Riddle was born. It was out of convenience for the actual HP plot, that Voldemort truly was the last Gaunt out there. I think that's lazy writing but what's worse than that is the fact that Ominis seems like a character that was made to "fill in the blanks" of other people's stories. And that hurt me more than anything.

I suppose this is the reason why I'm personally as invested in the whole Gaunt family line as you are. It's either I'm in denial that what we know about his fate is truly what it is, or there's definitely something more to this. I believe there is a reason why Ominis is blind in the whole HL lore. If Avalanche decides to continue this game into a franchise, it would be extremely wise on their part if they dig super deep into all the characters' background — especially Ominis' and Sebastian's. There's too much plot holes in this that I can't imagine the developers leaving unexplored.

As a lot of people say, having the Gaunt Manor scrapped in the storyline was a bad decision because Ominis' character is such a goldmine for all of us. Just my ramblings I'm so sorry for spamming you 😖

I'm extremely happy to talk to you about all of this—no need to apologize, thank you for the second ask!! 💚

Yeah, the fact that Ominis even exists surprises me, given how much thought they put into adhering to canon. They were so careful with so many details that I also simply can't accept something wild doesn't happen with this boy in one way or another. Unless I missed a social media post, I don't think the devs have ever explicitly said he dies before Tom Riddle and it's purely extrapolation based on book canon? I'm very bad at keeping up with social media tho so if an official source did explicitly say it somewhere please let me know haha.

He definitely feels like a character that was just made to fill in gaps for other characters for sure, but it makes me happy that, as an NPC, he's second only to Sebastian in terms of fandom popularity. But I can understand why it would hurt anyway. I've definitely felt that with other characters in other fandoms and it's not fun.

I'll be real, I have been participating in fandoms for a very long time and I have a strong track record of being head over heels for the characters that audiences aren't supposed to get attached to (villains, unpopular characters, narratively insignificant characters, characters who die... usually all of the above...). Eventually, I learned that canon could make me sad and dampen my enjoyment, which has happened a couple times until I actually left those fandoms because I was too sad, or I could just say "well nuts to that, I don't like this one thing, so I'm doing my own thing." I absolutely understand the need to hold onto that canon compliance tho, I certainly used to be in your position with this kind of thing. And if more focus on canon compliance is what makes you happy, absolutely go for it—we all need to approach the source material in the way that makes us happiest. Fandom should be about having fun, after all :)

For me, I enjoy the mental exercise of remaining as canon-compliant as possible while also filling in the gaps with whatever I want. Like oh, canon very clearly implies Ominis died in/before the 1920s? Well to that I say "everyone else in-universe merely thinks he died and he's actually living a very happy, quiet life in the countryside with his spouse and kids because it makes me happy" lol.

Thank you again for the ask! I love getting to yammer endlessly about stuff like this with others and I adore getting to hear others' perspectives on this stuff. My inbox is always open for convos like this 💚

[whatisthismandoinghere]

@rose-of-pollux mentioned that if I had a rant about Walter Hobson I should post it and since I just watched “No Names Please” here it is, enjoy 😂

Side note: obviously this isn’t something that would’ve ever actually happened, the U.S. was real careful about stuff like this (this episode irks my dad so much for said reasons 😂) however I will admit it’s a fun plot to play with, no matter how unrealistic

First off this man is so bloody dramatic about his ankle. “I tHiNk It’S bRoKeN iN aBoUt ThReE pLaCeS” no it’s not, you’re fine. Unfortunately I think you’ll live. Rub some dirt on it and walk it off.

The way he’s so snarky and the tone he has when he says “there’s a war going on you know.” Like really?? I loved how Hogan and Newkirk responded though 😂 but honestly have you not figured out at this point that these people are trying to help you? And that’s how you decide to speak to them?? He treats them like they’re stupid and acts like such a blowhard who knows everything about everything and it only gets worse from here.

The way he acts so shocked that there’s “a limey and a yankee?” Like yes I realize you’re in the middle of Germany but as you so kindly mentioned before there is a war going on and England and America happen to be allies if you haven’t noticed O Mr. Wise One.

When he starts running his mouth about flying and how if they had stayed in formation this never would’ve happened UGH HE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE THE DECENCY TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THE MEN THAT JUST DIED. These brave young souls that were serving their country and all he’s worried about is himself and about how he thinks they should’ve done things differently (cuz his is the only opinion that really matters). Step aside everyone, the expert is here and is so gracious as to tell us how these boys should fly a plane. The satisfaction I felt when Kinch was just like “who’s the expert” and “he sure got smart awful fast” man was so unimpressed and rightfully so.

In the tunnels you can obviously see there’s a lot going on. These guys run a pretty tight ship and they got things to do but you got Hobson out here constantly trying to talk to Hogan when he’s clearly in the middle of something. Absolutely love how Hogan just flat out ignored him until he was done 😂 Hobson is just completely oblivious tho and is totally unaware that the world does not revolve around him

The fact that Hobson even had the audacity to mention writing an article on their whole operation in the first place. THERE IS A WAR GOING ON, HAVE YOU EVER HEARD THE PHRASE LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS how stupid is this man?? And when Hogan very plainly explains to him “hey you absolutely cannot do that” he starts to argue with him! He just has no understanding of the consequences of putting this out in the public. These guys have a very good chance of ending up dead if Hobson pulls this stunt and it just blows my mind that he can’t grasp this. How do you think war works pally?? BUT THEN HE GOES AND DOES IT ANYWAY right cuz leaving out the names will make it okay. This man’s complete disregard for anyone but himself is truly amazing. Selfish, arrogant, ignorant, and being a know-it-all is not a good combination of traits to have

And then we just never hear about him for the rest of the episode?? Which is a pretty good chunk?? There had to be consequences for this man, I really wish they would’ve at least brought it up at the end, I need to know if Hobson got what he deserved! I mean surely he did but still the people want answers and vengeance

[hyunjinspark]

Jade, my love, I don't even know where to start… But let's say I get it now, why you had to make sure and were trying to post the most perfect version of this chapter. What I was expecting for this chapter wasn't what I thought it'd be, but it was so much more and even better than whatever I was imagining and theorizing it to be. I came with the mentality that it was going to be such a sad chapter, when you posted the snippet for this chapter in my mind I was like “OMG, she is going back to Daejon, he will go to get her back, or maybe he's going show at her doorstep”, I'm happy with the outcome and how you executed it, but a bit sad 'cus I was excited to the possibility of having the townsfolk back in the story. Like, my bias is Minho, so logically in almost every SKZ fan fiction he's my favorite character no matter what, but in this series for obvious reasons, he isn't. I have missed him so badly for a while now in this story.

Anyway, cannot wait for when you'll bring the Daejon people back into the story.

Back to the topic at hand, this part felt so magical even with the present somber tone and coloring the story has. I love how you have made a tangible correlation between the emotions and feelings of both main characters with the seasons: summer was so warm and a fairytale-like dream and Hyunjin and YN felt just like that, a dream, and then we have autumn and winter, being just a constant feeling of dread and sadness until this point in the story. Then you came and changed the game completely and made winter warm. This chapter is just proof that your writing is just art in words.

I was just so pleased to read about Hyunjin taking this “fuck-this-all” position, he, now, knows what it is to lose YN somehow. So him rushing back to her at the lowest moment of her life was so fucking good to read. Just a few words and his mannerisms gave him away how fucking much he dreads to lose her. A great part of this part, you can just feel how distressed he is, even from her perspective. And loved the banter, her petty responses to him, she, trying to reply to him like the baddest bitch way known to man (even tho, we know she's just a cutie patootie). That was something I was hoping you could put in this story. Like, we have as a reference that you can do just that (Only Fools, I'm talking about you). Here, as well, they're just two fools in love. Something I adored so much in this chapter was my cute little YN, she's a character and a girl that we could select to have a personality. I would choose hers in a heartbeat. I know it sounds ridiculous, but at some point, she was just so pure, I think that's the word to describe her. Likewise, I just couldn't imagine her feeling sad. Despite that the feeling has always been in the back of the story, the whole setting even back in Daejon, with all the magic and beautiful landscapes and the happiness, the angst was there.

Talking about Hyunjin, again, my pretty boy, you deemed yourself this chapter. My pretty boy is just the definition of love. I just love him so much, even when he has frustrated the shit out of me in this series. Everything he said and did in this part is just so memorable. There are so many things I would want to point out about him, but that would mean I'll write a whole-ass essay, but it would take me an entire month to write it with my B-something-knockoff English. However, I just wanted to say that this Hyunjin is the best Hyunjin ever written, no Hyunjin ever could beat this fictional Hyunjin (well maybe another of yours). He's just comparable to the real one. I don't know how you managed to create a character so similar to what I've always imagined irl Hyunjin to be. He's just such a passionate and gorgeous boy, and his soul and words are one of the closest things to the perfect man (I mean, all of the kids are). As always, I'll patiently wait for the next part. You don't know how conflicted I feel thinking that the end is getting closer, but at the same time, I just want to see my Hyunyn being happy and the couple they deserve to be, just two people in love with each other. This couple is just perfect for each other. I'll go back to re-read this part as soon as possible. Love you, Jade, so much, for this story, and for sharing your art with us. I think this was just a vomit of words but I’m still so star struck and all over the place by the end of the chapter.

my love, this review made my week so much better. thank you. i love that you took out the time to tell me all your thoughts. it was a treat to read.

im glad it wasn’t what you expected and awh i miss the townsfolk too :( it does make sense haha, minho will be a part of the story soon don’t fret !

your words are so beautiful too honestly, even in this review. i love associating the story with seasons, its such a natural way to tell the emotion and it flows so well. im also so glad you like yn so much, and your words about hyunjin make me so happy 🥺 writing his character is one of my favorite things to do and to know that you appreciate him so much is a pleasure <33

love you ! and right back at you, i feel starstruck reading this review haha.

[perexcri]

Chester!! I love him!!! And it’s funny that he’s so ornery since the dog who was Chester was apparently a bratty dog. Also the fact that the donkey doesn’t seem to like being called a donkey, maybe it was cursed into one lmaodjdjfiejd

I’m so happy that they’re finally on their way! I love that Will’s clients adore him so much that they’re willing to help him, and I Love that the guard and the physician (reminds me of Gaius a lil bit ejdjdjxj) were basically like, if u wanna overthrow the king maybe Please??

The whole gathering supplies part reminds me of playing the Oregon Trail, just that sort of calm puzzling out what you need vibe. Ejfjffj maybe I’m just weird tho lmao.

“I have nothing to offer them. I can’t give anything of myself if I’m empty, and this place has done nothing but hollow me out.” Oh man Mike is too too real. Ofc this sort of Does open up the opportunity if, after they’ve gone away and healed for like five ten however many years, they could Then return and rescue the kingdom from the King’s tyranny, but even if they don’t they’re so valid and real and that’s why there’s a million older brothers anyway

Also! “You’re forsaking your entire kingdom and its people because of love?”

“Can you think of a better reason?” Screaming crying passed out on the floor.

I want to staple this fic to the inside of my brain and have it on a replay loop forever😌

Me anytime I see that you’ve posted:

I hope you had a lovely day!!

HAHAHAH no Vee i'm accepting your headcanon that Chester was the dog from the show magically turned into a donkey. that is law as far as this fic is concerned now *slams gavel on desk*

everybody just loves our Will 🥺 (except the king ofc, but does he really count?). and the physician was absolutely serving Gaius vibes. i feel like if you've watched Merlin (like you, because you have taste), it's really easy to see where i'm drawing inspiration from it heheheh

the physician and guard both calmly being like "Mike would you please just overthrow the king for us 🥺👉🏻👈🏻 pretty please?" only for Mike to say "I Am Too Busy With My Boyfriend, And We Are Moving To A Timeshare On The New England Coast To Grow Old Together" asljlkjf cherryisgone was right: he really did become a cottagecore male wife ajkldsjalad

you are not weird!! i am probably the weird one for having never played Oregon Trail before 🙃 (does watching the starkid musical count lol). the closest thing i can think of from what i've dealt with before is stardew valley. have you ever played it?? tbh merlin was a big inspiration for this fic, but stardew lowkey was too 😩 (if you've played it, then some of the plants i mention probably sound. um. familiar. i couldn't think of any on my own so just used stardew valley seasonal plants to put in this story hjkkljkjl)

you are mighty perceptive Vee - a million glowing flowers to you 💐i lowkey put that in there on the off-chance i Someday want to write about them returning, but tbh, i'm liking the vibes of it right now. i just want them to get away and heal, so, you are also right: that's why Mike has all those older brothers. they can deal with this right lol

again: Mike saying "thoughts and prayers, citadel. i've got things to do and a boyfriend to kiss, but i hope you get better soon 😔🙏🏻" he finally has a chance to run away (smalltown boy i am looking at you) and he is going to take it for all it's worth

Vee i say this literally every time we talk on here but i am. so glad you like this story alkjfdsklajl like it means the world to me. seriously. just be warned because i will keep saying this in these little messages of ours (though there are only two chapters left, so!!)

I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW THE ICONIC ELMO PIC T_T time for me to retaliate

i hope your day was lovely as well, and i am wishing you an even lovlier day for today!! :] 💜💜💜

me anytime i see you've sent me an ask:

[woman-with-no-name]

Ok, first of all, how have I not noticed you're writing for RDR2? I think I must read some of the Dutch and or Arthur stuff (and hope I won't fall in love that much because I don't know if I could handle yet another crush). But as for now I don't really have a crush on someone in the game.

I mean Arthur is hot and everything but since I play his character he's "me", so I don't think about gushing on him too much. Now then there's Dutch. He's real nice and a great character and everything but I someone can't really get "warm" with him if you know what I mean XD. (Also another reason might be is that my heart already fully belongs to another certain outlaw boss who's wearing black #youknow)

-

Secondly (and main reason I planted this ask, until I got distracted my your masterlist and then RDR2 XD), I just wanted to say I watched Scarface yesterday , so if you wanna talk about it go on XD. I can't even say why I watched it, somehow because of you and otherwise also as inspo for a new Mafia AU. (Which I funnily want to write because of RDR2 - even tho it's not a Red Dead FF.)

Haha yes! I'm glad you noticed. I shortened my masterlist because it was getting a bit long and I didn't want to bombard everyone with it when they get on my profile because I post, and reblog for many different fandoms. I used to write for Dutch in particular a lot! Hopefully I will soon- ish get back into it because I miss it a lot, and I have some ideas that have been lingering with me for a long time. He's my biggest crush in that whole game 🖤, so I totally understand what you mean when you say that it feels like Arthur is you. Maybe that's why I ship him with Dutch too xD #iknow hehe. I also have a thing for (bad, but not actually) cowboys wearing black 😏 AAA! Scarface! YES! I watched that movie like a hundred times alone, and I always annoy the people around me if i quote it when i'm not alone xD Sooo, yeah, I really like Scarface haha. Al Pacino is one of my favorite actors, and I truly like every role he has had, he brings a dash of himself in every part and I think that's beautiful. Scarface is probably my favourite because of the setting, and the brutality of some scenes. But there's also a lot of love, misfortune, and big misunderstandings in that movie. I also believe that Tony is not the only "bad" guy in it. (I have already written a take on that somewhere i just have to find it.) He just flew too close to the sun... I would love to hear your thoughts about it! If you are searching for a MafiaAU inspo maybe I can suggest some other movies too :D (and also, I mean, you can't really go wrong with the Godfather 😉)

Anyways, thank you for sending in this ask! 💟I'm always down to talk. 🤗

[sepyana]

Jjba Stardust Crusaders Ep. 45 - FINALE Thoughts

God. Fuck.

Under the cut.

Ep. 45

This is the least insane episode of the four we have.

So, the episode starts with Polnareff and Dio. The whole sequence is just Dio toying with him. He could have killed him 100 times over. Dio's ego is actively making things harder for himself.

I love the crew bring absolutely horrified and jumping out of the window. The sun is setting so they don't have much time.

Joseph's plan of hiding till dawn makes sense to me. Polnareff and Kakyoin object though, I get why. They both have been used by Dio, Polnareff saw Advol and Iggy get murdered in front of him.

The group splits in two, though we end up mostly focusing on Kakyoin and Joseph. The chase sequence is nice. All the info they get is about the physical stand, unfortunately.

Ep. 46

Kakyoin has a plan to find out Dio's ability.

The episode starts with with a childhood flashback and yeah... I pretty much accepted he was gonna die at this point. You know how it is with jjba.

Really interesting flashback. It confirms me saying he was a lonely kid as true. He feels alone because no one can see Hierophant Green. "How can they understand me if they cant even see the real me." He thinks of his stand as a part of him from a young age. A stand is a part of one's soul. In a way, his stand is the reason why he feels so alone but also his companion. I was under the impression having a stand was something that runs in the family. I thought at least his family could understand but we never learn if that was the case (most likely not). Also, how rare is a stand anyway? 2%, 0.01%? Makes you think.

Our crew were people with stands, I imagine this was the first time he could connect with people.

Kakyoin's plan is to make Hierophant invisible, surround the area with tendrils to hopefully detect Dio's stand. It goes so horribly wrong.

This entire section is me talking about Kakyoin's death and it's so long. just skip it if you don't wanna hear all that. I had fun puking my thoughts straight into paper (keyboard?? Screen?) tho.

There is heroic and everything and then in a split second Kakyoin crashes to a water dam nearby with half of his stomach gone. Not showing the World at first was a great choice imo. Just shows how horrifying this stand is to our characters.

This scene is fucking heartbreaking. He has pretty much accepted he was gonna die, thinking about his family. He uses his last breath to help the Joestars. Despite being a crybaby, I don't cry watching tv shows all that much. This one got me tho, I'm getting really sad just writing.

When you kill of a character you destroy any potential plots and writing you can have with them in the future for one single gut punch (sorry). When you are writing it's measuring a characters potential vs the impact of their death.

I can't say if he would fit well into later parts because I haven't watched them yet. What I can say is, Kakyoin got what he wanted, friends. He is still not mature yet, he is 17 for fucks sake, but him finding friends for once and not feeling lonely anymore was his main storyline.

I can understand why he was killed. I do this was a good choice for his character, compared to making him an minor side character for the later parts. His death is done really well. Only thing I would change is the music. It's a bit corny imo.

And you can't deny his death wasn't in vain. There was no way in hell's chance Jotaro would have beaten Dio otherwise. He plays a huge part in Dio's demise. They could have gone for a a vain death, Kakyoin is the closest we have to an heroic archetype. They could have gone for a tragic death instead because of this. I'm glad they didn't. It's not like unfair deaths couldn't be done well (They could be even better than the standard sacrifice when done well), it's just that I'm tired of seeing heroic characters die unfairly all the time nowadays.

I personally am a big fan characters who had their character arc already be a part of later parts as a supporting character. Either having a different storyline or being a source of stability. I was hoping Kak would have that instead but Jotaro fills that quota better than he does. You could have both as a duo if you felt like it though.

All of this is also why I didn't like Advol's death all that much. At least that's why I think I don't like it. I like Advol almost as much as Kakyoin but his death left me frustrated more than anything. His character was underutilized here, so killing him off seems bizarre to me. He still has a lot of potential.

His death is done so much worse too. No time to grieve, no one outside of Polnareff mentions him. He dies really early into the episode too. We don't even get to hear his thoughts like we do with Kak. He just sacrifices himself for Polnareff, again. That's not a great send off for a character. Polnareff being saved by others was established multiple times. Literary every Crusader has saved him at some point. Iggy sacrifices himself for him later too. So, I have to ask, what's the point of killing Advol then 💀?? I don't understand and I would love to read people's opinions on this when I get the chance.

Okay death talk over.

Oh yeah, there was the rest of the episode.

Joseph also fucking dies but not really. Before he dies he reminds us hamon exists for a second. Makes sure to tell Jotaro Kakyoin's find.

I would like to point out how Dio kills the cat for shits and giggles. This is such a huge contrast to Kars that it's cracking me up.

Love that Jotaro gets more and more pissed off every time Dio spurts out someone's name.

The episode ends with the meme. I thought the meme would hamper my enjoyment but the Jotaro vs Dio is just kinda silly like that. I found it pretty funny personally. Not sure if that was the intended vibe.

Ep. 47

Dio opening?? Di o opneing? das so cooll

I've been replaying the za warudo sound effect for an hour now someone help me

Here comes the big plot twist, Dio and Jotaro have the SAME STAND. I love this reveal, I'll be honest. My one complaint would be that it could have been better if it was lightly hinted before. Otherwise though, I love it when characters realize their actual power. I also love characters with time powers and I already like Jotaro a lot, I fully support this.

It was so satisfying seeing Jotaro trick Dio and punch thru his stomach. Get karma'd shithead.

Oh, Polnareff. I forgot he was here.

I love the shot of Dio just zapping to Jotaro when he sees him move. Some looney toon ass bit.

Using Star Platinum to stop his own heartbeat was definitely one of the boldest things he has done.

Zero context gif

And then. And then just as he was about to die he sucks away Joseph's blood to revive himself. And that gives him a just awful hairdo.

I have no idea what they were going for with this. He is so ugly holy shit. Kill him with fire.

Ep. 48

It's mostly the same stuff as episode 47. The steamroller was pretty funny.

"You've done one mistake, Dio. You pissed me off." Who thought of this line it's awful.

Joseph gets revived wit Dio's blood. I live how Jotaro was basically saying how painful this journey was and that he could at least get one thing positive.

I'll be honest if my grampa did this to me I would have straight up killed him again.

Holly is fine and well. The Joestars and Polnareff part ways. Poor Polnareff tho, he was the closest to both Advol and Kakyoin.

The part 3 ends.

------------

We still not done!! There is still the OVA. It differs a lot from both the manga and the anime in a lot of ways so I thought it deserved it's own section.

OVA 11

They merged the coffin scene and Advol's death together. So instead of some goon Dio kills Advol. I like this better compared to the anime/manga but not by much.

Aaaah poor Iggy.

They don't bother with Vanilla Ice being a vampire, which I like.

Instead of having the whole group chat on the roof they get naturally separated instead. Jotaro and Joseph come across Dio. When Joseph tells Jotaro to run away he answers "You want me to run away now?" echoing Polnareff and Kakyoin's statements in the anime.

And then Dio throws Jotaro off the building with The World. As much as I like the sound design of the anime, I actually love how they didn't add any sound to his stand here.

Joseph gets saved from death by Kakyoin. He uses one of the tendrils to save Joseph and then uses emerald splash to make the dome of the building crash on Dio. It's actually a pretty cool sequence just watch it.

So that's how the gang gets separated. I like it more than the anime if I'm being honest.

OVA 12

This is the episode most faithful to the manga of the three.

The comments tell me Satoshi Kon was one of the directors in this. I am too lazy to confirm but it does have a similar style to his works. I'm really glad for that honestly. I've always loved Satoshi Kon.

I like the detail of Kakyoin saying maybe his power was teleporting, and Joseph telling him not to draw conclusions.

Emerald splash is a lot more intimidating in the OVA. I'm not sure which one I prefer. I do like the sound design of it in the anime.

In the OVA, Dio doesn't attack him right away. Dio says he shouldn't hasten his death, and that he is talented and just join him instead. Anime Dio doesn't bother with all that. He is just like "You wanna see The World do bad?? There you fucking go fool." and then kills him. While I do like what Kak says to Dio, I like the anime version of this wayy more.

OVA 13

I could go on about all the differences and what I like but just watch it tbh. They throw around cars and towers it's amazing.

I love the art style of the OVA just as much as the manga/anime. It's voice acting and soundtrack are not the best. The animation has some issues but it's fun. Also free to watch on Youtube.

ANNND We are done. This was a wild ride. I'm glad I watched it though. I can't wait to watch part 4.

I probably won't write as much for part 4 because it takes a long time. Maybe go 8 episode per post. I haven't figured it out yet. I might not even journal anything for it depending on how things go.