#but it becomes an issue when talking abt a character as an element or a symbol is perceived as an attack or a reduction of that character

[angelsdean]

there are a few side characters i just find so boring, uncompelling, or only relevant in the era they exist / only enjoy from my personal interpretive lens but if you express any of that some people will act like you've committed a murder. but sometimes a side character is just a side character there to fulfill a specific narrative purpose! and that's fine. like i don't hate any of them, but i also don't particularly care abt them beyond their narrative purpose ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[horizon-verizon]

Do we have confirmation that Rhaenys and Corlys are still getting along for 20 years?I've seen their fans think that the age difference is less now because of the cast and it's one of the things I complain about on the show.

Rhaenys, Corlys and Daemon literally don't age in...30-35 years?Harwin and Criston also look the same, should I perceive that they are closer to Rhaenyra's age or Daemon's? What the hell is Otto's age? Was it still the hand of Jahaerys before Viserys?Did Aemma and Viserys still get married as early teenagers? Because none of them seem to be in their early 20's during the GC.

Alicent and Rhaenyra change to show that they are "adults", I can't even pretend to understand the disaster that is the age difference of the actors who play their children, if they are like 5 years apart, why do those from Alicent look like adults? Rhaenyra certainly looks like Jace and Luke's mother, Alicent could play sister to her children. And even though I love the actors and they did a fantastic job, I don't understand why Laenor and Laena needed three actors to play them and by god I can't begin to guess what the age difference is between them and Rhaenyra

Fans complaining about the age difference could understand, there's certainly an eww factor that can occur when one sees that on screen (I have a friend who was never able to see the time traveler's wife because of the scenes in which he is an adult and she is a child) It's about playing with the chase, but the way that perception is represented in HotD is certainly strange and superfluous,I can't take seriously people who clutch their pearls when not even the producers seem to know what age we're seeing on screen and whether or not it's problematic.

Anon responds to this post.

I didn't feel too bad abt Dameon's aging, bc his hair was shaping his face and telling the stages of his mind as the years went by. Plus the charisma was a good deflector. For me.

Aemma's/younger Rhaenys' casting were issues bc just as young Alicent's age was a clear element to what story the show!writers were writing, it's very important that Aemma/Rhaenys are shown to have been preteens/teens when they married. Espe when bk!alicent was not either of these two's ages ehn they married!

Why? HotD uses Aemma's storyline for Alicent in that Aemma was giving birth too young (form at least 13) and arranged to be married to 16-yr old Viserys at 11. She is the one who's put through terribel reproductive abuse from a terribly young age. Her mother, Daella, married young and died in childbirth the very first time she fell pregnant with Aemma. This provides even more context for how Rhaaenyra has been a victim in this story, bc the fear HotD presents in Rhaenyra of childbirth becomes presents itself, comparatively, as more diluted. Aemma at the 1st episode beside Viserys looks more appropriate in age, so while she is being used for reproductive labor, she also presents as less...mistreated without that knowledge of being too young. Which a lot of tg fans have "forgotten" in their assessments that Alicent "deserves" to have her sosns be heirs bc she was too young in marrying Viserys & was abused by him (something to "make up" for suffering"mindset)...okay, Aemma was also young, spent most of her life pregnant and losing one child after another until she finally dies with Baelon. In this line of thinking, does Aemma not "deserve" to hae her child on the throne, as she "tried" her damndest to "give" Viserys an heir?! And HotD helps this with the whole Alicent taking bk!Rhaenyra's dress moment, posing as if Alicent had anything really to complain about concerning Rhaenyra's actions. Rhaenys chooses 37 yr old Corlys at 16...which means they've been "talking" for before then, we don't know how long but it spells not-good.

In a perfect world, we'd have three separate actors for all of these characters...or at least most. I'd choose: Rhaenyra, Daemon, Viserys, Rhaenys, Laena.

For two actors: Laenor, Aemma, Corlys. (I don't include the black kids [dragon twins, V boys], they were great).

But as it is, I wasn't too weirded out by Daemon, Corlys, Laena, Laenor's castings in terms of age bc of D's hair and the suspension of disbelief that I kinda always employ. because this is also a trend in the industry where you have actors who do not look like their orig counterparts' ages. There were obviously exceptions.

Is it weird that I never had an issue with Aemond? I thought he looked fine enough as a son to Alicent. Aegon, too? I thought Olivia was in her early to mid 30s. 🤷🏽‍♂️ I really was shocked to learn otherwise.

[quenthel]

ok since I started thinking back on my dragon age characters fondly lately I will talk about them at least just this once...

I didnt much develop my Hawke bc what the game gave me felt enough... just went ok yeah shes a bit more masc and tall... thatse it...

I made two wardens but the only one that matters is named Briell Surana. I originally made her an Amell bc I wanted her to be related to Hawke but then i scratched that idea but by then I got married to the blue eyes black hair look I specifically gave her so she kind of looks like default Hawke.

Her whole deal is that she thinks she is the best mage to ever live and she would never succumb to any temptation bc its all a skill issue. Gets mad at Jowan not bc he became a blood mage but bc he was a loser about it. I wanted her to escape the circle bc the Cullen thing creeped me out so badly i couldnt stop thinking abt it and all the implications of how templars treat mages... Tbh I didnt roleplay a lot back then w my choices so she was just making the cookie cutter "best" choices bc I didnt think too much abt the rp element of this game. But then Inqusition came out and I got obsessed w thinking abt what she would be up to and gave her this epic villain arc. Like she would become cruel after being a warden for so long and saving the world without much recognition... she is an elf and a mage and a warden so that probably weighed heavily on her esp since most of her friends either fucked off or forgot about her too... So I had this idea of ok maybe she shows up during that warden questline and she is like a bit out of it. Clearly she is an incredibly powerful mage and she uses blood magic to fight demons with demons but she has no regard for life and she is incredibly reckless. Only cares about Leliana (with whom she has a horrible strained relationship with... like think about what Louis and Lestat have in iwtv lol that type of shit but less intense). She hates Cullen tho and while he is still into her and remembers her fondly that image of her was never truly real and she never was as agreeable as he remembers etc... Her closest friend is like... Sten... and maybe some of the ppl from awakenings lol... ALSO bc I was mad that Morrigan was straight I imagined that she spend a lot of time helping to raise her son... and maybe something happens between them... And honestly I'm more invested in the Inquisiton era of her bc that was one of the first times while playing when i was really like okay... what would SHE do...

[everybody-loves-purdy]

I wish that people who hated Nightheart wouldn’t be so, like,,, hostile about it towards his fans, I guess? Idk I personally relate to him to an significant degree (like I don’t think I’ve ever related this much to a character before ngl) in spite of his flaws. And yet, in saying this (on both tumblr in the past and on other sites), I have been attacked verbally and accused of being somehow misogynistic (uh,,, what? Many of my favorite characters are literally the she-cats, such as Mothwing or Frostpaw or Hollyleaf or Squirrelflight) or even accused of being ‘abusive’ for liking him, which really doesn’t make any sense to me either? He’s not, y’know, Bramblestar or something. This is especially true when it comes to trans headcanons: I personally like to view Nightheart as transmasc like myself because I find a lot of his story elements regarding his name change and identity issues ofc. But,,, whenever I say anything abt this headcanon there’s always some ppl who use it as ammo to accuse me / others of awful stuff. I even got told to unal1ve myself by someone before over this which is,,, not cool. I try not to let this sorta thing get to me but I do feel that it has gotten pretty extreme over this past year and I don’t think it’s okay at all. People can like or dislike whatever characters they want imo (unless we’re talking about, like, Thistleclaw supporters. That’s a bit weird) and they should never ever be sent literal hate or harassment over it. I just kinda want people to chill a bit and maybe consider that there are better ways to discuss any disagreements they may have over the books and not jump straight into being cruel / accusatory towards them, if that makes sense.

I agree, I understand why people may not like Nightheart but it is completely unacceptable for people to be harassing people like that, I’m very sorry you’ve experienced that. I understand people are frustrated about how the female characters around Nightheart have been written in Sky. But that’s a writing issue and not a reflection on Nightheart himself imo, and it is extremely unfair to judge people for liking him. Especially with as you say Nightheart not being problematic in himself.

Of course it’s not excusable to harass people in any kind of character debate such as this but I feel that the Nightheart hate has become extreme in certain areas given how unproblematic the actual character is, if people enjoy the who he is then let people enjoy him. I find him funny, I like Nightheart, and although I can definitely see the issues with how some characters have been presented to suit his narrative more I still like the character.

Obviously this isn’t all Nightheart dislikers I’m talking about, not by any means, but the minority that do harass people like this are just ruining it for everyone.

I do wonder, obviously without reading Shadow myself, if this is inherently an author issue this stems from. In River the world warped around Nightheart much less and the female family members in his life were treated with more consistent and sympathetic characterisation. That was a Cherith book. People after River disliked Nightheary sure but it was more of a “I find him annoying” thing. Sky is where it all went wrong and where I’ve noticed people taking it out on Nightheart for being understandably upset about Sparkpelt’s and Finchlight’s characterisation changes in that book. That book does have much more emphasis on the Firestar thing from characters who are not Nightheart (in River his frustrations were largely self imposed), and the TC female characters act a lot more unreasonable than they usually would in general. That was a Kate book. Meanwhile I have heard that Shadow, another Cherith book, treats his female relatives much more sympathetically again. So I can’t help feel that author bias may be influencing the writing associated with him here? Sorry to go off on a tangent at the end here but it’s just a thought, and one I wonder if could cause a change in fandom perception of Nightheart again once shadow is out.

[didiersdragon]

doing character studies of Kai is always so heart breaking because despite everything, he is quite the tragic character

loosing his parents, loosing his sister, being thrust into something he had no clue about in his adolescence, not becoming the one thing he expected he would've been (and its canon that he has/had repressed emotions that was never explored)

he definitely looks in the mirror and does not recognise who's staring back. he knows who it is. but is it him?

ninjago's protector. the elemental master of fire. a hero. a ninja.

yet something that had given him purpose, now felt like a stranger. but he is more than that, even though he doesn't realise it.

a son. a lover. a student. a brother. a teammate. a friend.

or maybe even those titles that had once came so easily to him felt heavy now. he'd feel so exhausted. so disconnected from what he was. who he was.

him loosing his powers has definitely made him question himself, even after he got them back. because in firemaker, at a time where he believed he had no identity outside of his elemental power, and was struggling due to having lost it, by regaining them it might've even felt like a confirmation of one of his greatest fears.*

honorable mention to this fic by sugarglider-s on being the most perfect kai identity crisis fic I've ever read, highly recommended

everyone talks about this but it still makes u think every now and then

if the next series is going to be abt the same ninja, i -just like everyone else- hope kai gets a season where he explores himself; his identity, his past, his trauma, everything.

*this is only one of my interpretations regarding him loosing his powers though, because firemaker can be interpreted in so many different ways. i really cannot butter it down to just one when there's so many facets to it (that the show could've most definitely explored) this is just one interpretation that reflects his identity issues

[makeste]

I saw this take on twitter about Hana & Kacchan having “reverse parallels” and since they both have apologised to Tenko/Deku (but one was more or less sincere and the other was absolutely sincere) and they said that, while Hana moved away from Tenko, Kacchan ran to catch Deku. There was also more to the thread abt Kacchan & Hana’s differences. They were sorta trying to argue that this is a clue that Hori intends for Bkdk to be sibling-like/brotherly. As a bkdk shipped, I’ve accepted that it makes sense.. cause it’s an established fact that Tenko & Deku parallel each other. Tenko having his own “Kacchan” makes sense. Tho yes I am a little sad since I’ve held a little bit of hope for romantic bkdk becoming canon. I just wanted to ask your opinion if Hana was really meant to foil Kacchan or was it just a reach?

okay so I have a couple responses to this.

1. while it's true that Horikoshi has woven a lot of deliberate parallels between Deku and Tenko's characters, that doesn't mean every single thing about their lives and every single person they interact with is a part of those parallels. which is to say that no, I don't really think Hana and Kacchan are meant to mirror each other in any kind of significant way. Hana's apology to Tenko was under completely different circumstances than Kacchan's apology to Deku; I really don't see any connection between the two situations. you might as well be trying to compare Hana to Endeavor, or Deku, or Hawks, or Aizawa, or any other character who's apologized to anyone over the course of the story.

2. please pardon the forthcoming rant, anon -- and I hope you know that none of this is aimed at you in particular -- but for me personally, this whole obsession with ships becoming canon is one of the most exasperating types of discourse there is. like, don't get me wrong, I totally understand people wanting to see their favorite ships validated by the author, and not to mention there's also the issue of having more LGBTQ+ representation. but speaking as someone whose own orientation (aromantic) has almost no representation in fiction whatsoever, it gets frustrating to see so many people dismiss non-romantic relationships as being an inferior type of ship, to the extent that calling a relationship "sibling-like" is now a commonly-used attack in ship wars. so many people view romance as this completely transformative element, to the point where two characters can literally tick every other box on the intimate personal relationship checklist, and none of it will matter to some people unless they actually confess their love and kiss.

and again, I'm not saying I don't understand it, especially since queerbating is a thing. it's one thing if a writer is genuinely just trying to portray a close friendship, especially in series where romance isn't really a focus. but it's another thing entirely if a writer is deliberately hinting at a romance in a blatant bid to attract a larger queer audience, while all the while having no intention whatsoever of having those hints lead anywhere. the issue, I guess, is that it's not always easy to tell which scenarios are the former, and which are the latter. and of course, you also have people who think that the former is a type of cop-out as well, because the thing is that romance is always viewed as the default. so for a lot of people, allosexual and alloromantic relationships are the only ones that get considered as far as representation goes.

but you know what, I'm just gonna say it; even knowing where people are coming from, it's still discouraging to know that so many people are so dismissive of aro and ace relationships that the thought of a favorite ship not becoming romantic in canon is considered a profound disappointment. and it's even more discouraging that the thought of a rival ship becoming canon is considered such an existential threat to some that they will literally use "oh, they're just like siblings" as an argument against the ship, rather than a point in favor of. because siblings are a downgrade. friendship is a downgrade. any kind of close relationship that isn't inherently romantic or sexual in nature is less important, and that's just how it is.

so yeah, that's kind of a pet peeve, ngl. especially since the truth is I actually do think Bakugou and Deku's relationship is very akin to siblings. and so I do sometimes get weary of not being able to just outright say that without having to first pepper the statement with all kinds of disclaimers so that people don't think I'm invalidating the ship. I feel like I have to walk on eggshells if I ever want to talk about their relationship in terms that I can personally relate to.

but I mean, here's how I look at it. they've known each other since they were small children. they call each other exclusively (or almost exclusively) by childhood nicknames. they have an openness and an unspoken, almost taken-for-granted trust in each other to the point where they'll share closely guarded secrets ("I got my quirk from someone else") and personal vulnerabilities ("why was I the one who ended All Might?") with barely a second's hesitation which they would never share with anyone else. they have a comfortable little bickering type of rapport ("I'm getting stronger"; "well I'll just have to get even stronger then"; "you'll never surpass me"; "we'll see about that") which they can fall into with ease and which looks weird af to outsiders, but is "normal" to them and something they're both grateful to have.

they're so intimately familiar with each other's personality and behaviors that they can predict them with perfect accuracy. they're so in tune with each other that they can whip up elaborate coordinated attacks right on the spot in perfect sync. their admiration for each other is so strong that they each think of the other as being the epitome of winning and saving, respectively. their mental images of each other are so vivid that they subconsciously mimic each other's speech patterns whenever they start falling into a particularly strong Win or Save mindset themselves. they take no small amount of pride in showing off for each other. they go apeshit any time the other is in danger or hurt. and each of them would literally die for the other if it ever came to that.

all of that is already canon. on just about every metric imaginable except for "now kiss", the two of them already have a canon intimacy that rivals just about every other great relationship out there. and so to say that none of it actually counts unless there's an actual love confession involved frankly just boggles me. again, maybe it's because I have no personal vested interest in romance myself, though. I'm literally just not wired that way, and so I'm really not the best person to vent to when it comes to these kinds of concerns.

but look, no matter what happens from here on out, these two care about each other on a very deep and personal level. they're going to continue to be a part of each other's lives no matter what. and each of them, no matter what, will continue to occupy a space in each other's lives that no other person can fill, regardless of how we or Horikoshi or anyone else choose to label and define that space. and so in my book, that's already a win.

anyways, apologies again for the impromptu rant. again, this wasn't particularly directed at you in any way; if anything it's mostly just a generic response to the constant shipping discourse in this and every other fandom, and a more detailed explanation for why I personally don't like to get involved in it. this is just one of the myriad reasons why I try my best to stay very far away from BnHA twitter lol.

[boypussydilf]

If no one's done it for the ask meme yet, can I get a Sumitaba please?

HEH. GORLS. when i saw this ask before i went to sleep i had almost no thoughts on them but then i thought about them. and had thoughts. and then i slept so lets see if i remember the thoughts. automatically going under a readmore bc its abt p5 so i will probably talk for paragraphs

describe their canon relationship/dynamic

i dont think theres much to it besides. futaba is a phantom thief and sumi goes *wakes up* oh fuck i need to be polite to my senpais *runs out into Wait i cant finish that joke. anyway* and futaba goes please for the love of God you don’t need to do that. im not even much older than you. lets be casual and sumi goes Of course futaba-senpai so sorry. I think that’s about it

your ideal/headcanon version of it? how does it differ from how it is in canon & why is this your favorite version? any other alternate versions of it you enjoy?

i think all of my thoughts on sumi & the other thieves are always gonna have an element of “and here’s how they can help sumi gain confidence and express individuality”. i think futaba would be incredibly good for bringing out the Weird Girl in sumire. sumi is a 15 year old girl she’s weird by default but she’s also weird in her own unique way (see: the outfit from the start of that one rank of her confidant) but has not had chances to recognize that and show that. and here’s futaba whos the Weirdest Girl in also her own special specific way, and like, knows nothing But expressing that. futaba has never Suppressed Her Weird Behavior not necessarily as a move of Self-Confidence and Self-Acceptance, she’s been made fun of for being her and she’s still upset about that, but just… this is how she is and she doesn’t know any other way to be. anyway sumire can watch the futaba-machine in action and go Oh maybe sometimes you are just you and you don’t need to act a certain way for the people around you *becomes a creature*

also “they’re the same age” is not, like, automatically a basis for a relationship, but like. they’re the youngest in the group it’s nice for them to be The Same Age. 15 is a bit beyond the phase of life where a 1 year difference is like, a giant gulf, but its still good to have Someone Your Same Exact Age among. all the 16-17 year olds who have adopted them as the collective little sisters.

final notes: whenever i think of them i think about the comic thats them going “im depressed with suicidal tendencies” “IM depressed with suicidal tendencies!!”. also they’re the kind of pair where i like them Romantically as a Ship and also like them as Friends Who Hang Out. both are good. no major preference.

all this is different from canon bc sumi has almost no relationships or dynamics with anyone in canon </3 atlus please let her out

what do you like about their relationship, why is it interesting or enjoyable to you?

i like the above ramble i went on bc i like Weird People and i like Self Acceptance. i like them in general bc they’re both awesome and i love them so u put them in a room together and its like omg TWO little sisters for the price of one!!! also their color schemes & designs look really nice next to each other they look like wonderful candies. so.

what about the individual characters involved? what does this relationship mean to them, what makes it unique among their relationships?

futaba is Working On Intending To Go To School but they haven’t, like. Begun Attending Yet. so the amount of people their age they know is Not A Ton. them having more friends is always a plus. a Peer! someone Their Age! also probably nice to have someone else in the “met futaba outside of the context of their palace” group. having all your trauma and issues put in a nice little showcase gets that part of introductions out of the way neatly but also again would be like. a lot

as for sumi. again. its just The Power Of Self Expression <3 and ALSO having A Friend, A Peer, Someone Your Age.

favorite interaction they have in canon

UMMM i cant think of any interactions they have outside of the stuff i described for their Canon Relationship 😔

favorite interaction they have in your head/a situation you want to put them in

they play video games together. futaba shows sumi their favorite games and they play together, or futaba plays and sumi watches, or sumi plays and futaba watches, or futaba does a let’s play commentary track over the game for just the two of them, or they each hold one side of the same controller and try to play a single player game together.

also im bringing morgana into this equation you know the post abt the couple with a cat but they talk about the cat in very different ways one of them is like “STINKY BASTARD MAN!!!” and the other one goes “NO MEAN TO HIM D:” thats futaba & sumire about morgana

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket,Se03, Ep 8 (part 2)

I finally got my answer on how will kyo’s confession of kyoko will be & how tohru will react. I love the writing, the pacing, the monologue, the dialogue, the facial expressions, tohru’s reaction, kyo’s rejection & tohru’s shock. Even yuki & akito’s involvement! All of it was a chef’s kiss!

I went & watched lots of eps of se01 & 2 & I’m loving all the hints they dropped abt kyo & how his trauma was looming over him all. this. damn. time! Unfortunately, it has reminded me of how much tohru’s own character exploration was diminished in favor of her being the angelic mother & the sohma’s fixer! but moving on & focusing on her shining moment now! I’ll explore her character here with regards of her trauma, real hidden character & future development.

Kyo’s rejection is the best thing that has ever happened to tohru:

(don’t hate me before you read!) XD~ just like you, I’m mad at kyo for hurting tohru & I feel her pain. However, the writer didn’t write this with a sadistic desire to hurt us. Kyo’s rejection is the core of the entire story as it is not only connected to kyo’s trauma, but tohru’s growth & yuki’s emotional involvement with the two, as well as akito’s insecurities. I have explained in my review( part 1) how kyo rejecting tohru was a logical progression of kyo’s trauma, the only possible outcome from his perspective, & the themes tied with such decision. Now, I’ll explain why this rejection is good for tohru in the long run:

1. Showing the hidden ugly side: (The timid, shy, self-sacrificing girl is angry!): Tohru’s entire consciously constructed personality is borrowed from elements in her mom & dad’s life:

She mimicked her dad’s overly polite style to prove that she is indeed his daughter, so her mom won’t be called w*ore & to console her mom, so she wont leave her. She has deep low self-worth issues. I gotta become someone else to be loved.

she has inner fear of bringing shame to her mom’s name, wants to always be the good girl so mom’s get praised for raising her. Thus, hiding ugly aspects such as anger, loud voice & frustration.

She wants to prove that her mom chose right by not neglecting her. wishes to be worth needing & loving for her own self.

All she ever wanted since being a 4 year old child is her mom. No other desire for anything else at all. Since her mom’s death, she’s been lost on what to do, who to be, what to want! then it came to her to stick to her mom’s memory & live for her. Living for a dead person is a self-sacrifice decision. Tohru just didn’t see herself outside of her mom’s influence.  

Ever since meeting kyo, he has been encouraging real aspects of her character: be selfish, complain, cry, get mad, yell, look pathetic, expose unflattering thoughts, show undesirable side, ask for things, no, DEMAND things. She has been reluctantly following his advice & only showing that to him. His confession & inability to accept her love has lead her to show the real hidden tohru behind the “ i’m okay” mask:

The timid, always smiling girl is now showing anger, frustration, stubbornness & determination.

screaming her heart out: “ i don’t believe my mom would say that” stating her opinion in firm voice.

 “even if she did, I have to go against her” the real tohru shows her explosive personality that was buried deep down! it is NOT mom’s life anymore. It is MINE. I decide. I choose. I want. My decisions.

“ why can’t you see that?” argues with him. Tohru, who is soft-spoken & tends to get flustered  when others insist, is now questioning his decision with passion & fierceness!

“ I love you no matter what”. Say what toy want. look at yourself as a monster, a murderer, a loser or a coward. I don’t care what your brain or trauma makes you think. I see the real YOU & it is my decision! I love you ugly & pretty, sad & happy, broken or strong, coward or brave. I take it all & no one is fooling me or changing my mind. I’m my own person & I chose YOU. 

 2. Letting go of attachments: Learning to LIVE:

Tohru’s attachment to her mom isn’t healthy. It’s  toxic as it hinders her from being her own person. To be able to love kyo, she lets go of “ listening to mommy’s words” . Apparently, her mom condemned kyo as unforgivable. Tohru knows the real kyo & doesn’t even care for forgiveness despite her mom’s alleged words. Breaking the toxic bond. She formed a healthier bond with kyo. However, if kyo is unable to accept this love. what would tohru do? die?? kill herself?? kyoko wasn't able to continue to love her husband cuz he died. her reaction was neglecting her daughter & roaming away in utter grief. Tohru mustn’t follow her mom’s example. Not all loved ones leave us out of hate. Some leave each other cuz of death (kyoko/tohru), ( kyoko/ katsuya), Others might leave each other out of current traumatic pain, mental health, emotional hindrance despite loving each other so dearly (kyo/tohru). If kyo despite his immense love to tohru, can’t forgive himself, they won’t be together. tohru can cry, scream, yell, but if he doesn't overcome his issues & come back, tohru gotta let go. She gotta learn to let go & not kill herself over what she cant have.

Kyo, on the opposite, gotta learn to hold on to loved ones! Let go of pain but hold on to real ppl not dead ghosts of the past. He must learn to act on his own desire & need for tohru. Only when he forgives himself, he’ll hold on to her. It is then, that tohru will decide again if she’ll have him or not.

3- Wanting things doesn't mean you WILL have them: (You are enough by yourself- moderation)

tohru wants kyo, the first thing she has ever wanted. However, she won’t  automatically get him just because she now learned to demand things. There are obstacles that can stop that. Tohru must accept kyo’s inability to be with her now & live healthily regardless. This ties to akito as well. She wants the zodicas but she cant have them! Emotional distance separate them. What will akito do if she can’t have what she wants? kill kurno? kill tohtru? kill herself? will this bring the zodiacs back? NO. You are enough by yourself. She needs to let go & learn to accept that love means acceptance between the involved parties, emotional connection isn't enough.

-Realistic depiction of romantic relationship progression: (thro better & worse). EPIC writing!

It is indeed fate that brought tohru back in kyo’s path 4 months after her mom’s death & the they do share a mutual past: kyoko. However, fervor grateful to the author for writing them falling in love together isn’t due to fate, coincidence, mutual past or similar personalities. Kyo consciously avoided tohru while tohru herself struggled to understand kyo initially. The author spend valuable time building their romantic relation based on mundane daily life activities. They themselves don’t quite know when exactly that they fell in love. when they recalled falling in love, we see them cooking together, talking, walking, eating, studying & opening up abt small struggles.

It is genius that the writer will add yet another realistic aspect. While kyo was able to read tohru & approach her when she’s down, this doesn't mean he magically understood her & will forever be on the same page & never ever hurt each other at all. If you fell in love, you are bound to be hurt by the person who loves you back as much as be happy together. It is realistic!!! Adding miscommunication & personality differences enrich the relationship. This relationship isn’t just fluffy & lovey dovey. They have realistic issues that they need to work on by communicating. Even communication  wont solve their quarrel if it isn’t done in the right time & with the right desire to connect.

-The weight & future lessons learned from of “ I’m disappointed in you” for both kyo & tohru:

Right now kyo is too emotional to connect & tohru herself is too emotional to understand his response. Tohru understands his pain but her low self-esteem prevents her from seeing that he is rejecting being loved , not rejecting her. He is not rejecting tohru as a person but rejecting kyo as a person deserving love. Thanks to his “ i’m disappointed in you” which really leaves no room for interpretation from tohru’s perspective. I love that!!!! Kyo isn’t good with words. This has been clear from ep 1, his actions has always been his love language, but now he couples bad words “ i’m disappointed in you” with bad actions: running away. This is a perfect opportunity to build their future relationship on a solid foundation: ( off course I’m not belittling their current emotions, I understand why each is very broken now, but I’m talking abt future learning lessons)

Kyo’s current mistake: While him rejecting tohru is justified by the extreme trauma & is logical from his perspective. This doesn’t mean it isnt’t hurtful to her. He chose hurtful words to push her away mimicking how he pushed her in the true form arc. Perfect example of justified mistake yet still a wrong mistake. Thus, kyo needs to learn the effect of his words, he shouldn’t be punished for the past, for tings her cant control, nor for fate. But he should take responsibilities of the present, of what he actually says & does right now.  He must fix this mistake with tohru. This is a mistake that CAN be fixed. someone that he CAN get back. a mistake he CAN stop repeating.He CAN hold on to her with immense desire yet allow room for her to decide for herself.

Tohru’s current mistake: Seeing herself solely thro being loved by kyo. she cant see that he indeed loves her cuz he rejected her. Rejection in tohru’s mind equal lack of love. Her mom left her, thus her mom didnt love her. This respective is very justified due to her trauma, & it is logical that she reached this conclusion. She isnt in his head, she cant know whats in his heart if his words say sth else. However, having a logical perspective doesn't mean it is right. it is still wrong to solely exist thro what you can see & hear. Real emotions run deeper. We must take things with moderate approach. Tohru needs to have higher self-esteem, to allow room for misunderstanding without completely breaking down. In her future life, she’ll be in lots of situations where ppl could hurt her intentionally or unintentionally. She needs to take things with calmer pace & open the door in her mind for doubt & better judgement. As much as loved ones words hurt, to build a healthy relationship, you must leave room for communication & misunderstanding. Hence, you’ll get closer & closer. 

Side Notes:

 I love tohru’s faulty attachment thro only being loved back exactly as she pictures in her mind. it is so human, so real, & so endearing! Very opposite of se01 & 2 image of her being the wise, device-giving mother with right thing to say & do. Screw that unrealistic image! allow tohru to be real! best ep ever! Hopefully, no more of this tohru!

Kyo’s constant repeat of mistakes is the best character trope done right! so realistic. It is genius that the author used this trope to humanize the demonic cat spirit!! what screams human better than the most annoying human trait: repeating mistakes!!!!  Kyo, my son! it’s time to learn! cant wait to see how the author will do that.

young boy/ adult woman friendship? Was that ever made without  disgusting sexualizion? kyoko isnt much of a mom figure to kyo, she tells me abt a husband, child neglect mistakes, custody! he calls her old hag & pushes her! XD. it is friendship!!

i’m mad they didnt focus on tohru’s face when she screamed at kyo confessing her love.. that's tohru moment. Why pan on yuki? you could’ve showed his reaction after she spoke. The same thing was done when tohru confessed to Isuzu!-_-! loved her angry face tho, it was beautifully drawn, so thanks for that. XD

Yuki is forever the best tohru/kyo shipper & the best tohru-happiness defender. I love how he runs after kyo & yet checks on tohru! I’m curious tho, he didnt hear any of kyo/kyoko confession as he was asleep, only the the “ forgive/not forgive line” so, he’ll be wondering forgive what? tohru’s mom knows kyo? I’m excited on how they’ll put things into context. also, I LOVE YUKI.

I’m forever thankful that everything akito is pushed into next ep. The knife wielding action & akito’s dramatic outbursts would’ve stolen from the emotional weight of kyo’s confession. Kyo’s secret is the core of furuba since ep, 1, the entire dynamics of kyo/tohru/yuki /kyoko/ hat is established based on this ep. Shoving akito, too, would create the same annoying train bullet feeling of momiji’s & tohru’s ep (ep 5 & 6). Emotional scenes pushed together with lesser time for the respective characters to have their well-deserved focus.

This is the most I am attached & satisfied with furuba! it scares me since ep 9 continues the climax. My fears of potential dramatic animation since the knife is there! moreover, akito’s own animation is always over the top. I hope they tone it down to portray her as a human more than a maniac.

Also, I hope they dont drag the climax more than that. What more you can shove in the dramatic raining weather. Tohru/kyo scene here matched the true arc scene bringing back parallel. Now akito/tohru raining scene next ep will match se02, ep10 scene. Now, what will the author do to defuse the climax? Often writing the falling action is harder than the climax itself. Falling action doesnt mean happy times & solving issues. It means dealing with the consequences of the climax. Let’s see what the writer has in store.

Based on the flashbacks, Kyoko didnt have ill feelings with kyo!!!! Until the last time he saw her as a child, she was happy with him. Even when he pushed her, she took it as a childlike behavior. at the accident, she didnt have much time to have any ill feelings. No way she thought he pushed her, no way she thought he could’ve saved her. So if she really recognized him, why would she say “ I wont forgive you”? it doesnt make sense at all. Kyoko doesn't hate kyo!!!! So, either he imagined, which is sth that I’ll hate so much! I spent so much emotions attached to a non existant words! NO. plz! NO!! Other possibility, she said sth else closer to the words! but then again how would we know? I NEED to know! ~ as expected, I’m still attached to this damn line! XD. 

Kyo depressed in the mountains after kyoko’s death was very vaguely referenced in (1) se01, ep24 when kyo talked to kazuma! oh shoot! (2) in se02, sp 2 when kazuma thought back to kyo nearly killing himself in depression before meeting the dad, (3) in se02, ep 9 when kyo trampled on the flower! oof! i love this subtle style of writing! connecting the emotional dots! EPIC!

Various characters throut seasons 1, 2 & 3 noticed the real gentle kyo towards tohru: (1) Isuzu’s “ I hope tohru meets someone like haru, to gently open the door” se02, ep19. (2) Momiji having faith that kyo is the right person for tohru & pushing him, (3) yuki constantly musing over tohru/kyo love & drawing inspiration on wanting “ his own person to love like them” (3) Kisa saying kyo is kind to tohru se3, (4) shigure saying, you are exclusively kind to tohru se02, (5) Airisa saying, when will kyo confess in se01, (6) hana saying, marry my sister in the play & pushing him to not be locked! (7) yuki kicking him for saying “ its not your business” to tohru in kyoto trip, (8) kakeru saying “ kyo’s her boyfriend? “ AA~~~~ the whole cast know & can see his love to her!!! TOHRU! He doesnt hate you! KYO!! the entire cast thinks you DESERVE HER & is KIND! not a monster! Is there an image set of those moments of the cast saying that here in tumblr? kindly mention me to see it! I fear going to the tags & seeing spoilers T_T.

[bloodbenderz]

Can I ask what your season 1 Lok reboot looks like?

this is about 3k words i checked lmfao dont say i didnt warn u

a key part of the whole thing is that korra gets way more perspectives and more experiences representative of like, normal people in republic city bc i think something that really defined what a good avatar aang was was how many people he met and got to know and how he didnt exclusively or even mostly associate w cops and bureaucrats and leaders. so mako and bolin. well first of all their backstories are a little more fleshed out and we get a less black and white view of the “triads” (lol) and mako and bolin’s experiences w them. cuz the show very much does the whole thing of like Criminals Bad but dont worry even tho mako and bolin did commit crimes theyre not Criminals!! so just a little more nuance on the alleged gang problem and the poverty in the city

korra does start out very naive w very black and white ideas (ex. “you guys are CRIMINALS?”) i think a really good way of developing her away from her sheltered naive worldview is putting her in whats clearly an incredibly complicated city w an absolute cesspool of political conflicts, ethnic tensions, the lasting effects of colonization, etc and having her try and understand the needs of “the people” in a more complicated way than “i have to save the good guys from the bad guys” ykwim? and i think the absolute WORST way to do that is what they did. bc we get mako and bolin who could contribute genuinely compelling thematic elements to the story: one parent who was indigenous and one who was from a colonizer background in the decades directly following the end of the war, kids who grew up in poverty apparently without any familial support, and who now are trying to be “respectable” members of society (especially mako). and then most of that is pretty much tossed aside bc asami swoops in w her capitalist dad and her piles of money and the class issue is just never talked about again.

so the way i’d fix all that is like. introducing more, like, normal people. some nonbenders, more workers, more immigrants, etc, to show what daily life is actually like for people. because. we dont know! we dont have any context about whether the nonbender oppression thing is actually an issue bc we dont KNOW any nonbenders with normal lives! and spoiler: the nonbender oppression thing is not an issue. bc it doesnt make historical sense. lok is set 7 decades after the end of the war. that is not by ANY stretch of the imagination long enough to heal from the scars of imperialism, ESPECIALLY not when lok is also set in a settler colonial state. like that fact should have featured PROMINENTLY in the political and social setting! realistically, nonbenders arent an oppressed class, earth and water nation people are, regardless of bending status! as in all settler colonial states, the colonizers and their descendants (in this case fire nation people) retain most of the financial and political capital, leaving the colonized and racialized immigrants (in this case earth kingdom and water tribe people respectively) generally impoverished and politically suppressed. like aside from the fact that theres no way toph would have become a cop, it’s so ridiculous to think that an established privileged class of fire nation colonizers would EVER accept being policed by earthbenders!

imagine how much more nuanced and interesting it would be to set republic city as a remnant of a colonial past still fraught w the violence and tension that colonialism and the associated ideology imposed?? instead of some vague ideas of criminal who wear 1920s outfits and harass shopkeepers think about why extralegal and violent groups like that might form! earth kingdom people trying to push for the reclamation of their land? ethnic groups protecting themselves against corrupt cops? ESPECIALLY w the history that the fire nation has of SPECIFICALLY jailing and killing earthbenders and waterbenders BECAUSE of the potential they have to resist against fire nation imperialism like it just makes no sense at all that earthbenders would be privileged on land that, 70 years ago, they would have been imprisoned on! like these various paramilitary groups falling along these different ideological or ethnic lines, fire nation or earth kingdom or water tribe, pro colonization or anti colonization, pro cop or anti cop, pro immigrant or anti immigrant, and then you juxtapose that w depictions of a govt thats failing to keep this all under control w tenzin trying desperately to keep it together despite the fact that it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the state has no interest in taking the conflicts seriously and would rather just point vague fingers at criminals and gangs? and THEN you bring in korra, who has no idea about any of this and thinks that all its gonna take is kicking some ass every couple days, meeting normal people who offer all kinds of different opinions abt the efficacy of the state and the different violent or nonviolent groups and ideologies clashing in the city and the way all this shit is affecting people’s lives and livelihoods and relationships w other citizens??

theres so much good shit there so many incredible things u could do w that like Where do we go after colonial atrocities? is it possible for a settler colonial state to take revolutionary or indigenous ideas seriously? is liberal reform enough in a state like this? and then all the growth that korra could do going from a simple black and white life about mastering the elements to this messy complicated sociopolitical knot of a city? and all the different kinds of characters u could introduce in this city? like why would u EVER think that the most interesting characters that this story has to offer is a police chief a congressman and a billionaire????

but anyways. that’s what the Setting of my idealized version of lok is. as for the actual plot, it is as follows

it starts out similarly as the show. republic city is MUCH more fraught w political tension and violence and korra knows this but assumes that it’s just a matter of throwing a few gang leaders and corrupt officials in jail. tenzin manages to come see them in the south pole and intends give korra real lessons while he’s there but they receive news of a terrorist attack in republic city only a few days after he gets there so his family has to pack up and leave again.

korra stows away to republic city (katara catches her leaving and gives her blessing im a SUCKER for that moment). she does have a hard time adjusting but she doesn’t do what she did in the show lol the first person she meets in the city is this older woman who works on the docks, directs her to a place where she can eat and gives her a roof to sleep under for the first night. so korra’s first exposure to republic city is just about forming connections w ordinary people like ship workers and a family owned restaurant and people practicing their bending in the park. and by the time she reaches air temple island a day or so later her head is spinning w all this new information and the way that nothing is really what she expected it to be. tenzin gives her his own perspective on everything and pema gives her her own perspective on everything and even those two seem wildly different from all the people she’s already met. and so korra starts to get a kind of outline of the conflicts plaguing the city as extremely complex and a lot more influenced by older ideas of fire nation imperialism and earth kingdom land reclamation than she had any idea about.

mako and bolin are still pro benders but not like. super famous like they are in the show. korra’s picked up a couple friends by now and one of them takes her to a gym where a lot of amateur pro bending (is that an oxymoron? lol) matches happen and thats how she meets mako and bolin and joins their pro bending team. Unfortunately for korra, this gym is run by lin beifong, and also has the distinction of being one of the most notoriously anti settler state organizations in the country. lin beifong is NOT a cop but she runs this gym (and the pro bending league) as a way to offer support to local earth kingdom/water tribe youth, teach self defense skills, a center of community organizing, and sometimes to act as a front to hide revolutionary/combat organizing against the pro fire nation paramilitaries/police force. tenzin is DISTRAUGHT that korra does this and this is where the friction btwn them comes from bc (from tenzin’s perspective) she does things like this without thinking or even fully understanding the context behind them and tenzin will have to deal w the political fallout of the avatar openly aligning herself w a very divisive figure in the community and (from korra’s perspective) tenzin is too unwilling to take sides in a conflict that’s claiming lives and when the state is clearly not taking sufficient steps to protect people well then why the hell shouldnt she align herself w lin beifong, who IS taking steps to protect and support people?

as korra more fully integrates herself into the city and learns more abt how different people think abt everything going on this is where the real exposition abt the equalists begins. they’re a paramilitary group w an ideology thats gaining increasing support among middle/upper class fire nation people, esp nonbenders. on the face theyre abt putting checks on “bender oppression” but really it’s an excuse to persecute and surveil earthbenders waterbenders and airbenders, bc fire nation people have all this leftover fear about benders who arent fire nation Rising Up Against them and these people who r using their Savage Excuse for Bending to terrorize good innocent (fire nation) people. theres all too frequent terrorist attacks that the equalists claim credit for mostly against monuments to earth/water/air nation people and earth/water nation community centers (one like it was the event that forced tenzin back to republic city) but also like the govt doesnt take a lot of these seriously or if they do only a couple people are charged without doing damage to the entire organization

this is also around the time that they meet asami and she becomes part of their friend group. asami likes pro bending but her dad HATES it so she sneaks out to watch matches at lin beifong’s gym (korra says ironically like don’t u know how ~divisive~ that is and asami answers that the only reason its Not divisive is that gyms like beifongs are the only place where nobody recognizes her). and asami alongside korra is also kind of developing a more nuanced perspective on the city that she lives in cuz obviously the only worldview she’s ever been exposed to is her father’s right? and she keeps pushing it off making excuses not to bring mako and bolin and korra around to her house or even not to be seen w them in certain neighborhoods until they call her on it and she’s like Well honestly my dad might do something awful to u! and i dont wanna risk it!

and as time goes on we see more abt asami’s home life like her father’s hyper conservative politics and asami keeps these secrets abt her hobbies and her friends from him but she’s still clearly under his influence and mako bolin and korra r getting increasingly worried abt it cuz like...asami seems to tend to make excuses for him so that she wont have to be drawn into conflict and originally they think its just her being privileged and thats def part of it but the more they find out abt it the more they realize what a tight fucking grip he has on her and the way that like. asami sneaking out once or twice a week is the Only thing she does for herself. and it really starts freaking them out how influential this billionaire is and all the information theyre getting from asami abt what a piece of shit he clearly is. and so that whole plot thing comes about and shows us how deeply embedded these “equalist” ideas are in conservative republic city politics and how much influence theyre actually having in policy making and law enforcement.

asami suffers in the aftermath of this like being forced to truly confront the harm her father is doing both to the city and to herself. and she ends up leaving home when this discovery really breaks. but bc of the deep corruption in govt and police sato isn’t really....dealt with? like this big story breaks and everyones like Oh, My God! Hiroshi Sato Is Funding An Illegal Paramilitary Group! and theres all kinds of inane political discourse about it and he’s arrested but he bails himself out immediately and his finances are examined but he maintains control over them and after a few weeks the gang (bc they Have become close among all this w much less interpersonal drama lol) has to admit that this news story hasnt done what they thought it was going to it hasn’t dealt the equalists a real hit its just given them a very high profile ally

and this is when things really start to ramp up in terms of action like up until now korra’s daily activities are mostly like hanging around in the city w her friends  (which in part entails doing little avatar stuff that people dont feel comfortable going to police with, like Can you help me my ex husband wont pay child support or Please help i got robbed and i really needed that money for rent next month or Help my son keeps skipping school can you talk to him cuz im worried abt him being safe and doing well in school) and pro bending and airbending lessons (which i know ive neglected this part of the story in terms of her whole spiritual/physical conflict but it’s more of a subtle thing like it’s one of tenzin and korra’s more frequent arguments like tenzin says she needs to focus on spirituality and korra asks why she even needs to bc republic city is a sociopolitical problem not a spiritual one) but now the equalist threat seems to really be looming on every level of society like the storyline of equalists preventing pro bending matches happens here and everyones just at a total loss of what to do next. plus increasing and scary rhetoric about tenzin and his family that destroying the last airbenders is necessary to preserving the integrity of the united republic

and so theres the equalist takeover of the city. the people who are mostly resisting this are lin and ragtag group of people who have been resisting colonial rule for a long time (including suyin, who is part of a communist anti colonial community outside the city, because i said so and i think it would be fun), people who have been visiting her gym for years, members of her amateur pro bending league, plus asami and korra and tenzin. korra and tenzin have a sweet moment (bc they do genuinely care abt each other a lot even if their relationship has been marked w a lot of tension and arguing) where tenzin says like you know i think that ive lost focus on the kind of spirituality that might actually help you. korra says what do you mean? and tenzin kind of gestures to where theyre sitting with people buzzing around organizing to take care of innocents and civilians and to fight the equalists and he says this is a kind of spiritual too, isnt it?

and something something plot plot blah blah i havent decided on the details of the plot climax yet but that’s the climax of korra’s character development and what helps her connect w her spiritual side in order to protect the city: the realization that community is its own kind of spirituality. and it kind of represents the real development that i want her to have going from somebody who thinks that the world is divided into criminals and victims and she has to save the victims Into the kind of avatar who understands the people that she’s bound to serve. she becomes an avatar of the people!

and then happy ending lol korra and asami get together lin and tenzin reconcile after years of being at odds the show ends on a hopeful note that the inhabitants of republic city and the united republic as a whole Can move on from the scars of colonialism by reckoning w the remnants of fire nation colonial ideology and reparations to the earth kingdom people whose land this is and destruction of colonial systems that have maintained and enforced colonial violence all these years

[equalseleventhirds]

hi! feel free to ignore this, but i love your posts about annabelle and the major problems/missed opportunities about her in canon, which i COMPLETELY agree with and i’ll often change things in my au fics, but i was wondering if u had any advice for writing her character respectfully in canon compliant works?

ok so i'm only recently home from work and currently eating dinner, so my thoughts are (vague noises), but

i think there's like, two main elements to treating annabelle with respect when writing her: her canon characterization and her identity as a black woman. and while i can talk abt her canon characterization & my reading of her forever, i'm not rly qualified to give in-depth advice on writing a black woman beyond 'do research' and also like, 'don't do these clearly fucked up things'? (i can like, tell u some stuff abt researching to write poc tho, that's... in there. this thing got rly long.) anyway.

first & easiest is writing her with proper consideration given to her canon characterization (prior to the uhhhh end bit that rly reduced her down to someone much simpler than previously established). so often people make annabelle purely villainous, or basically just a mouthpiece for the web with no wishes of her own, or focus on what she can do for/to jon and/or martin (wrt either helping or hurting them this is kinda shitty tbh. like, making her interact with them? yeah! making her entirely story revolve around them and their wants/needs/feelings/story? come on). she's so much more than that!! she is complex!!! she is her own person!!!!!

pay attention to her story arc! her parallels to jon! the bits of personality that we hear! look at the fact that she was terrified of spiders for most of her life (and perhaps still is, even though she now must serve the web). consider her musings on free will, and her wondering if she herself even has any. think about how awful the experiment that made her an avatar must have been, how her unwilling transformation was brought upon her by unethical authority figures using her greatest fear. look at how her childhood may have influenced her, how she may crave attention or feel like she needs to be self-sufficient or resent people who shirk their responsibilities. also she canonically enjoys reading and wants to make television, she is an Artist and also rly smart, write her like that.

also like... ok listen....... supposedly she's amazing at manipulation; use that! i know s5 did a lot of.... not that, but as a child she bit herself to get her sister in trouble! let her play fucking five dimensional chess!! fuck mind control, fuck 'everyone knows she always lies', give her manipulation some gotdamn complexity. or, if you're choosing not to do that, make a reason? like, is she actively trying to change and be more honest? does she feel like it's not worth putting in the effort for what the web wants, when the web does have mind control at its disposal?

the second part of writing annabelle respectfully has to do with her identity as a black woman. i'm not black. i am not qualified to tell you exactly what you should and shouldn't do when writing a black woman (and also no group is a monolith you're gonna have conflicting opinions etc etc).

i am a poc and i spend a lot of time thinking about race in media, and my go-to advice is always to do research. for annabelle, look for experiences and things written by black people, especially black women, especially living in britain (bcos society & politics & things vary in different places). learn history; there's specific history that you should look at, especially when writing horror or about specific topics. for example, there's really awful history wrt black people being unethically experimented on by the medical industry (which canon does not address even tho that's literally annabelle's backstory). there's also, let's face it, a lot about police and police brutality in this show, both with police as major characters and with police/police investigations used to advance plot, and annabelle is a black woman. i've seen fics use police (daisy and basira, or cops in general) as threats against her, and somehow present that as a good thing bcos 'well she's evil'??? i.... listen i'm not black but i know that's fucked up to write.

additionally, and tbh broadly applicable to writing any poc, learn about offensive racial stereotypes and tropes. you have to know about them in order to avoid them. you have to learn why those stereotypes and tropes are racist and offensive, so you can understand what about them is bad and how to avoid them. and tbh, there are awful racist stereotypes in every direction, so you can't just do the opposite of one stereotype you found, or you may wind up falling into another one. imo one of the best ways to do this is to like....... make a fully fleshed-out character who doesn't become a one-dimensional stereotype?

and this was rly just a very longwinded way of saying 'pay attention to canon and do careful research' but yeah, pay attention to canon and do careful research (and be ready to abandon canon when some of those uhhhh racism issues in tma come up? or when earlier characterization is flattened in order to serve someone else's storyline, etc.)

[amour393]

Time for my auto generated year in review lol

I posted 2,038 times in 2021

264 posts created (13%)

1774 posts reblogged (87%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 6.7 posts.

I added 316 tags in 2021

#ninjago - 87 posts

#asks - 54 posts

#amour articulates - 41 posts

#ninjago jay - 26 posts

#jay walker - 22 posts

#ninjago nya - 19 posts

#the great prabk war of 2021 - 17 posts

#ninjago jaya - 17 posts

#ninjago kai - 17 posts

#ninjago headcanons - 16 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#so yeah after i finish rebinging all 15 seasons i will write that and vent on why it is entirely appropriate that jay would say that abt kai

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

no thoughts head empty just druig and makkari

159 notes • Posted 2021-11-06 23:32:01 GMT

#4

Seabound finale spoilers

Sometimes I remember them.

Their faces cross my mind from time to time. I remember times. Places. People.

I remember them.

Sometimes it is the metal ones. The purple one crying into my shoulder. The white one offering me a kind word.

Sometimes it is the black one. I see him laughing. It is late. We should be asleep, but we cannot rest. We are too busy talking. He smiles at me, and I feel a pang of nostalgia.

Sometimes it is the green one. He pranks the red one with me. He comes to me after a nightmare. He bites his lip and tells me about a girl. He wants help. I smile and say that he should be himself. It is so much better than being someone you are not.

Be yourself...

Sometimes I see the red one. I see him quite often. I see him hugging me after a nightmare. I see him offering me the last piece of bread when we were small. I see the strength in which he holds me when he returns from another realm. I see the tears he sheds when we think the green one is gone. I see him smile and ruffle my hair, and I suddenly feel sad.

And sometimes I see the blue one.

He is certainly the most common. I see his stupid grins after he tells a dumb joke. I see the lightning flashing from his hands in passion. I see the way he holds me after we turn back time. I see his scattered freckles and bright eyes and crooked smiles. I see the smiles and I see the tears. I see his hand outstretched with a pin, and I see my own hand receive it with lighthearted joy.

Sometimes I think about them, and they make me smile.

But they will soon be gone. Mortal lives are so fragile. I know better than most.

It does not matter. Mortal lives are short, but the sea?

The sea is forever.

177 notes • Posted 2021-05-01 01:28:53 GMT

#3

*slams hands on table*

WHERE IS MY NINJAGO POWER SWAP

Y'all, if there's anything that has to happen before the end of Ninjago besides Jay and Nya getting married, it's this.

Let's discuss.

Cole getting water an being sO CONFUSED

Like, water and earth are so different. Water, you gotta be neutral, feel the flow, the push and pull. Earth, you gotta stand firm and stand strong. You are in control, you must stand strong if you want to use every powers.

So, Cole is baffled because "IT'S NOT LISTENING!" and Nya being like "You can't force it, you have to submit and guide its flow." "I control it by submitting???? That makes no sense!!!"

So Cole is just lost

Zane getting lightning and continually accidentally short circuiting and frying himself

Jay getting fire and mastering it almost immediately because "hey, this isn't so different from lightning! It's all energy!"

Nya getting ice and mastering it instantly because she's manipulated ice before, now it's just an issue of freezing stuff

She also spends like a day trying to manipulate water because if she can manipulate ice while having water powers then she should be able to manipulate water while having ice right???

Wrong

By the time they switch back she still couldn't figure it out and it drives her insane

OR instead of Cole, Lloyd getting water and s t r u g g l i n g because it's the only element of the six he hasn't had control over at some point or another

Or Lloyd gets earth idc

And yes

That means that Kai

Finally

Becomes the green ninja

And surprise surprise, he loves it

He masters it fairly quickly because sometimes he practices in his room alone because he's a natural

He loves the power, a little too much

We get the same temptation deal that Kai gets in s4

"It's too much, I can't control it!"

At one point he goes to talk to Skylor, since she's the only other person who had experienced Lloyd's power and knows what it's like

They have a nice long chat, mostly consisting of Kai being like "I'm a horrible person, I'm gonna turn evil, please stop me." And Skylor being like "shut up, sit down, and get a hold of yourself. You're stronger than this, and you're gonna beat this. Plus don't worry I'll kick your butt if needed."

I just really love this

We also get some one on one quality time which is nice because so often they're in at least groups of three so it'd be nice to see some rarer duos

Like Zane and Nya

Or Jay and Kai

I need more Jay and Kai bromance

Nya and Cole

Jay and Zane

Lloyd and Cole is honestly an underrated duo

OR NYA GETS LLOYD'S POWERS

KAI IS SALTY

"The ONE chance I have to be the green ninja, Nya gets it? Oh, come on!!"

I could go on about this for 5 hours

A power swap

263 notes • Posted 2021-02-03 23:09:21 GMT

#2

So I have finally finished my epic 15 season Ninjago rewatch, so I'm finally ready to address the scene is s15 episode 15.

The scene I'm talking about is when Jay is about to drown and he says "Think! What would Zane do? Actually, no, think, what would Kai do?"

When the episode aired responses were full of "haha lol Kai dumb tho" and "lol *proceeds to drown* yup kai" and I have a PSA.

Kai isn't dumb.

Jay’s reaction is completely legitimate in this scene, and here’s why:

When you (or Jay, in this case) think of who’s smart on the team, of course Zane is the first to come to mind. So why would Jay say, no, what about Kai?

It’s simple. Zane is an analyst. Kai takes action.

Zane is smart in the way that he can observe an environment and analyze solutions, scenarios, plans, etc. In the s5 episode “Grave Danger” it’s Zane who solves the first puzzle, because he has time to think it through.

Kai, on the other hand, is very impulsive. Impulsiveness isn’t the same as stupidity. Kai thrives in environments and situations where he’s on a time crunch and has limited time and options. In the s4 episode “Versus” he defeats the master of smoke while on his feet and with limited options. He tries something. If it works, great! If it doesn’t, no harm done (probably), try again! 

Kai is a natural leader, and it’s no secret Jay looks up to Kai in tough, time sensitive situations. At the end of “Grave Danger” it’s Jay who asks Kai what he thinks he should do. Kai is best at quickly weighing options to come up with a quick solution, whereas Zane takes more time to come up with a more effective one.

So, in “Nyad,” Jay needs a solution to a problem. His first instinct goes to Zane, like most of us, because he needs someone smart. But he also realizes that he has a few minutes, max, before he’s out of time, and who does he know is good in time sensitive situations?

Kai.

So yeah, it is completely legitimate that Jay tries to put himself in Kai’s shoes, because if someone else was in that situation, I’m sure they would have done the same.

318 notes • Posted 2021-07-23 22:14:11 GMT

#1

we love our “i recognize that the fanon interpretation of this character is not consistent with canon, let alone itself, but on the basis that i enjoy the tropes part of the fanon interpretation i’ll allow it”

541 notes • Posted 2021-11-11 02:46:33 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[honeycombalbedo]

Cryo Visions || Genshin Impact Theory (Part 1)

(This so long I have to separate it into 2-3 partss)

Reason for doing this?? I just really like cryo characters ok

So to begin we have to talk abt why visions are granted

Visions are given to mortals by the god who represents said vision's element. The reasons why they give it to certain mortals can be seen in the vision tales for each character, the character level up gems and what the god's divine ideal is (freedom, contracts, etc).

As a few examples:

Pyro: She's a passionate mf who lives for those who have a passion in battle/adventuring/their craft etc and want to have their names know. You can see that in (basically) EVERYONE she's given a vision to. (I don't know how Diluc fits in but I don't really know abot his story other than the basics)

Geo: He values those who work hard and those he can trust with them.

The issue is, the cryo archon is the only one without a confirmed ideal. Everything else can be seen for the most part.

The gemstone:

"Sorry... to also have you shoulder the grievances of the world."

"Since you could endure my bitter cold, you must have the desire to burn?"

"Then, burn away the old world for me."

The cryo archon, despite now being described as cold and bitter still seems to have a strong heart for those she deems as unfortunate.

Now it's character story time

Diona

People commonly see Diona as entitled and annoying which it kinda shitty tbh

Diona's father, Draft, who she idolises and adores, is an alcoholic. To quote Diona, "When he's drunk, he's like a wild boar rolling about in the mud!"

We also don't know if Diona's mother is present because only Draft is mentioned and when he's drunk he just, isn't there. She has an envy towards wine because it "steals her father away". She's a lonely child who's father is barely there because he pays more attention to alcohol.

Secondly, she's been blessed(or cursed) by a fairy. It's mentioned in one story chapter. It's why every drink she mixes is so good. This kinda hinders her one goal, to destroy the wine industry.

Finally, she got her vision when a 3 day long storm trapped her father outside. The knights couldn't get a search party going due to said storm. Diona was enraged that she may have her father permanently stolen from her, she rushed outside, puddles beneath her feet freezing as she followed her fathers tracks.

Ganyu

Ganyu is forever cursed to walk among and serve mortals who see her as nothing more as a servant, afraid to mention her qilin heritage due to the fear of people out casting her from liyue's society.

Because her countless hours of work, a thousand years goes by in a blink of an eye. Even the smallest of errors will cause her anxiety to grow and become intensely embarrassed by.

A qilin's nature/ideals is to be peaceful and harmless creatures, not to harm a single plant or bug, making Ganyu a vegetarian. Yet, Liyue's foods are incredibly enticing towards her yet she must stop herself from taking part in their delicacies because a lot of it includes meat. Seems trivial but it's one way Ganyu is separated/distanced from Liyue's society. Which is something she doesn't want to be, distanced, an outsider intruding on the locals.

Interestingly, when Ganyu's vision was granted, it was when she offered to be the Liyue Qixing's secretary, a vision had immediately appeared.

Qiqi

Qiqi is dead, she is a zombie.

When she died she was only a child, sent out the look for herbs by an unknown person, she got lost and trapped between the mortal realm and the realm of the adepti.

Adepti and demons alike watched her, all understanding that this was a innocent child who had the misfortune to be caught in something more than a mortal could handle.

While bandaging her leg's wound, she could hear the otherworldy sounds that emanated from where she sat.

She hadn't expected a large crash and to be forever trapped between life and death.

In her last breaths, she was gifted a cryo vision, the adepti couldn't let her die now, so they gave her a part of their strength to keep her alive. She had to be frozen in amber for a few years due to her body being unable to control the adepti's strength.

After a few hundred years, she was discovered, yet still in amber. She was going to be brought to wangsheng to be buried but due to the journey, the seal shattered and she ran away.

She continued her herb gathering duties, even in death, and that's when she met Baizhu, a man interested in immortality. She was taken in by him and became his herb gatherer, and his test subject.

It's offhandedly mentioned in her voice line about Baizhu "I can never remember Dr. Baizhu's face. But I don't mind." Which implies she has no attachment to him whatsoever and wouldn't mind forgetting him. Another thing that implies this, is in one of her stories, the only thing that can cancel orders is a hug from behind and to say something akin to "I love you the most". It's mentioned that when Baizhu does it, it ineffective because it has little sincerity.

Also, this is her vision story

"Qiqi's Vision was given to her in the last moment of her life.

She wanted to stop the clock from turning. She wanted to live happily again.

She feared death. She wanted to live. She missed her family...

These feelings coalesced at last into "ice."

"If only I could freeze time... How wonderful would that be?"

As she thought thus, tears fell from the moribund girl's eyes upon the Vision that had appeared before her.

The mighty and illuminated adepti all acknowledged that this was a legitimate form of "illumination" — the yearning of humanity for bygone days is, after all, a desire to protect the past."

And that's the end of the first part, next one will be about Chongyun and Kaeya, and hopefully a conclusion to this.

[duketectivecomics]

You might've answered this already and I just didn't find it, but one thing that always perplexed me about Duke was how old he was in comparison to the other Batkids. It's obvious he's younger than Dick and Babs, and I pretty sure he's younger than Jason and Cass, and older than Damian, but I cannot tell if he's meant to be Tim and Steph's ages, younger, or older. Could you help me?

You’re all kinds of good here, anon!!! I answered a similar ask abt the Order of Adoption but didn’t dive into specific ages on that post BECAUSE well they didn’t ask lmaooo but ALSO:

Comic ages are very fluid usually! While Years™️ might pass in the canon proper, or while time seems to slow to a crawl, having a character’s age outright stated is something that occurs very rarely for most characters, if at all!

Because it’s always much easier to have a floating age range to work and play around in! It’s easier to keep a character Perpetually 12 or 16 or 25 or mid-40s or- you get the idea. SO, with that in mind. Let’s do our Best to Break Down What Age Duke Might Be Currently A N D how it might interact with the Other Batkids!

(Warning for a Very Long Post, lots of issue citations, and a LOT of comics terminology regarding specific runs/events/continunity. I’m gonna try to keep it as clear/concise as possible ofc but plz keep these things in mind! If you’re not at least marginally familiar with Bat-Comics, you might find yourself feeling a little lost here!)

So from the Zero Year arc we see a common Trend that plays out pretty consistently with Batfam comics: a Life-Changing Event Occuring while the protag is Young™️.

(Batman (2011) #30)

With how Duke is drawn in these particular issues, and given the trends of the past, I’d place him in the 8-12 range. The historic precedent being ofc that that is the same range that canon usually places both Bruce and Dick at for their Tragedies™; the more benign reason being that he... just very much Looks to be drawn in that Range. He’s very clearly an Older/Prepubescent child here.

Fast Forward to his Next Appearance in the Endgame arc and-

(Batman (2011) #37)

He’s definitely older! He’s wiser! And he’s giving Batman a fistbump lmao. Again, no strict age given here BUT, since they condensed each Robin to a Year or Two tops with Bruce (its n52 and its fucked up is what it is), we can assume it’s been at least 4-5 since Zero Year (which would mean if we go off the age range I proposed for that year, then theoretically he could be anywhere from 12-16 here, and I think that tracks pretty well. Not Perfectly and Certainly Not so well with Pre52 continuity ofc, but I’ll talk about that later!)

In We Are Robin, while its not stated Directly In The Text, it IS given as an Informational Tidbit that Duke is 16 (specifically this can be found at the end of issue #4)! (Sweet sweet canon confirmation FINALLY)

We know that WAR takes place Fairly Soon after Endgame (almost immediately, give or take a month or two given that Duke’s been placed in a few foster homes at this point and has racked up Quite A File) now, again id like to remind y’all that while this is a NICE starting point to have, keep in mind that comics are fluid and this may be retconned slightly/ignored in later stories bc Keeping Duke 16-ish is in DC’s Best Interest at the moment. (Having Relatable Teen Characters afterall is a Good Marketing strategy™️. And the longer they can Keep them Young, the Better)

With that in mind let’s take a moment to Highlight the fact that Duke and Damian have crossed paths at this point AND the storylines that have occurred during this year that were meant to be in conjunction with one another!

Because Prior to Endgame, Damian had Died! And just a year (in real, meat-space time) before We Are Robin, he was resurrected and had begun his “Year of Atonement” in the Robin: Son of Batman maxiseries. Midway through both this series and WAR (and, we can assume, midway thru this “Year” for Damian) the Robin War begins/ends and we see at least one major Moment between these two boys who will soon call one another brothers:

(Robin War #2)

Given that R:SoB is followed up VERY quickly by Teen Titans Rebirth (in which Damian celebrates his 13th birthday), we can conclude that Damian would be 12 during this time (well, 12 and 1/2 to play it safe lmao). That being said, this Confirms about a 4yr gap between Duke and Damian! (One Batkid down at least! but he’s the key to the others so put a pin in him!)

As We Are Robin draws to its conclusion, DC was releasing another arc that would eventually flow into the Rebirth Era, by the end of which, Bruce would approach Duke with an Idea (which involves Bruce becoming Dukes temporary guardian & as he states Many Times “Trying Something New” with Duke).

And thus the Rebirth Era begins, and Duke began his Year of training (most directly encapsulated by the Cursed Wheel arc in the All-Star Batman run:

(All-Star Batman #1 (back-up story))

Bruce introduces Duke to a training regimen that Alfred has named “the Cursed Wheel”. It encompasses all the training Bruce and the other bats have undergone and condenses it down into color-coordinated segments that will take Duke a Year to Complete.

It can be assumed that by the End of this Year Duke will somehow miraculously still be 16, despite, again, an entire ass year passing.

There’s one story that takes place mid-year in All-Star Batman, and the Cursed Wheel is meant to be capped off by Duke’s first Official Day as the Signal (in the titular Batman & the Signal ofc) BUT, near as I can tell after this story, Dukes age is not brought up again. So until they DO bring it up either in Batman & the Outsiders or whatever future run Duke becomes involved in, we can assume DC will be working with the idea that he’s meant to be in that 16-18 range from here on out (ie still a minor).

But, dear anon, you might be saying “okay, that’s cool, but how does that relate to my question abt how he falls in with the other Bats?” You’ll have to be a little patient with me here, but I think I may have cracked the code!

Keep in mind I’m gonna be addressing both the Post-Crisis to Flashpoint Continuity (ie mid-80s to 2010 in comics history) and the N52-slash-Rebirth Era (2010-Today). Its generally agreed by fandom and DC alike that these points of rebooting &/or Major Events constitute the era of “Modern” comics, and that everything from the 80s-on might more or less be canon on some level, even if not All of it is.

(Plus, most of fandom usually likes to borrow elements from both eras and much more rarely from stories before it, SO-)

Lets do a quick rundown of how everyone who’s Closer to Duke’s Age, Relates to each other first, age-wise:

Given that Jason was 15 when he died, in A Lonely Place of Dying its established that Bruce had become increasingly reckless since his death, and by the end of the story, Tim has stepped in to fill Robin’s shoes (he states that he’s 13 during this story btw). Pretty soon after, Stephanie Brown is introduced & established to be about a year older than Tim (wish I could pin-point a specific issue BUT, i unfortunately haven’t read any Tim OR Steph-involved comics that predate No Man’s Land... Besides the aforementioned Lonely Place and Young Justice technically, but im working on remedying that soon!)

NOW, during the No Man’s Land event, Cassandra is introduced, and pretty soon into her Batgirl run, its revealed that she’s around the same age as Jason (or at least how old he Would Have Been, had he not died.) Now, given that Jay has an August bday and Cass has a January one, fandom sometimes likes to play around with the idea of one being older than the other (OR even speculating/placing them in an AU as twins/siblings, given that Lady Shiva (Cass’ mom) was a Possible Candidate to be Jason’s biological mother but that’s a Whole Other Thing i wont get into here.)

The point being, Cass, in this era of comics, IS slightly older than Tim and Steph. At Tim’s start as Robin, their ages could either line up like: Tim-13, Steph-14, Cass-15 (being a few months ‘behind’ Jay), then Jason at 15/16 (depending on how soon Tim filled the role after Jay died in April) OR Jason-15/16, Cass-16/17 (in this case she’d be a few months ‘ahead’ now instead)

So brief detour to talk New 52, however! Because Tim, Steph & Cass all got switched around from where DC originally left them prior to the reboot! Now I haven’t read much of them in this era, other than Batman & Robin: Eternal, so my Understanding of their current ages is Spotty at Best. The general consensus seems to be that while before N52, Stephanie had been attending her first year of College (& doing VERY WELL i might add), with the reboot she was set back a few years alongside Tim to a vague Late-Teen state (so 16-18-ish, instead of a Very Clearly Established 18/19). Cass is probably the worst off for this reboot, given that B&R:E basically constitutes her new origin for the new continuity, and does nothing to confirm her age (all I really know is that she’s a Vague Late-Teen too... Probably? Maybe?), given how much they infantilize her, and subsequently how fandom in turn has taken to infantilizing her too, theres a semi-popular fanon that places her Younger that Tim and Steph. And I, for one, propose that we ignore that bc its Weak Sauce my dudes.

Some fans chose to ignore N52 continuity due to this vagueness, and will stick to the ages established before the N52/Rebirth reboots. But its something to keep in mind regardless bc we’re all obviously going to pull from what’s most familiar to us!

But WHERE could we place Duke with regards to them, then? Because them being “Late Teens” is certainly much too vague to work with!

This is Where Damian is the key!

Because Damian is one of those rare exceptions to the Reboot Rule. His story flowed almost seamlessly over from before to after. While he was made a Robin at the age of 10, he continued to grow and learn even after the universe was being rewritten to suit the whims of DC editorial. 

If we choose to ignore how everyone else’s ages and origins were swapped around, and stick with the growth that was presented before the reboot, then we can draw some interesting conclusions!

Firstly, though Stephanie also had Died and subsequently Returned, she hadn’t lost much, if any time, from the Ordeal. At the start of her Batgirl run, she is enrolled at a Gotham university and making headway with a more firm foot in the Batfamily (even to the point that she and Damian spend a few issues bonding. At this point in time, Damian is definitely 11, and again, Steph can be assumed to be 18/19 during the course of her run. We’ll assume 18 for clarity’s sake.)

So, then when Damian is 11, now our line up is as Follows:

Dami - 11, Steph - 18, Tim - 17, Cass 19-21 (the range depending again, if you subscribe to Cass being either older/younger than Jason).

WHICH MEANS, If during Robin War Damian is 12 (and a half) THEN We’ve got an age line-up that Potentially looks Like This:

Dami -12(and 1/2), Duke - 16, Tim - 18, Steph - 19, Cass - 20-22 (And Obvsly Jason, Babs & Dick at their varying Older Ages than everyone here)

and im just now realizing i Didnt include Harper in this line-up, but thats bc she’d also throw a big wrench in all this.  I’d personally throw her in with being Steph’s age, but I’m pretty sure she was supposed to be either that, or between Steph and Cass (again, since its N52, i believe Cass was/is assumed to be Younger than Steph, but that contradicts the assumed following of pre52 canon that we have for the above line-up, obvsly, and so we ignore that lmao) 

All this to say, however, that canon and fandom is what you make of it, and if you want to wiggle these ages around a little, you’re more than allowed! God Knows i usually like to skew the Tim-Steph-Cass age group to be a tad older than this in my own fic writing, and I like to have Duke start as a Robin at 14/15 instead of 16, but that’s just bc I like the dynamic potential it could bring with them being Definitively Older that him, and thus in a more secure place to be Mentoring him right alongside Bruce & the others.

But you might see these age ranges and want to do something Different (say, making Tim, Steph, Cass, & Duke all the Same Age at 17 instead! And that very well tracks with how current comics kinda looks right now!) and you’re absolutely valid to do so! Because again, comic character’s ages are meant to be fluid, not fixed!

And at the end of the day, its all about wanting to see these teen heroes kick serious ass haha

[akari-hope]

I’m autistic, & I saw a post from another autistic person earlier, talking abt HP, that said, “hyperfixations aren’t fucking random. If you find yourself continually drawn to racist shit, you srsly need to sit & examine why that is. Stop using your disability to justify your being drawn to racist shit.” hyperfixations can definitely be random tho? And acting like we can choose what we hyperfixate on is ableist? also, not defending hp at all, but acting like ppl were drawn to it BECAUSE of its

2/2 racist elements seems both in bad faith and intentionally dismissive of the larger themes. (Still not advocating for supporting it though.) And I’ve never seen anyone use their autism to justify racism, that would be insane.

hyperfixations can often follow a pattern in the sense of "i like x genre so i'm more likely to latch onto things of that genre" but...the idea that we have control over the particular thing we hyperfixate on is just false. something can be seemingly perfect for you but not something you hyperfixate on, and something can come out of nowhere and become a hyperfixation. for example, i love fantasy as a genre, so a lot of my hyperfixations ARE fantasy. but that doesn't mean i latch onto every piece of fantasy media out there. and that doesn't mean i might not latch onto something in a different genre.

not to keep saying the same thing all the time, but the concept of "everything is problematic in some way" is extremely true and important to understand. i struggle to think of an example where said problematic elements were the draw for most people. hp has many problems in its text: racism, transphobia, homophobia, antisemitism, i could go on. but to act like any of these things were the initial draw for most people is dishonest at best. it's not like people looked at how joanne wrote lycanthropy and went "oh fuck yeah, thank god this series has a homophobic analogy". no one looked at cho chang and said "phew, i was worried no one was gonna make a racist stereotype of a character". like that's just not how people think. some people will see these things and go "hm. fucking yikes." and others will simply not notice (which we could unpack, but in short while i can't blame people for being ignorant it is still a responsibility to think critically about the media you consume).

and i'm not saying any of this to defend hp or joanne. i'm saying this to argue in good faith instead of with half-baked "gotchas". something can have issues without said issues consuming the whole of the work. bc ultimately, is hp about racism, do the racist elements take up the entirety of the books, is it in the core themes and plot points? not really. it's dishonest to say that the entire work is racist and that was the draw. we CAN say "if you continually refuse to acknowledge and unpack racist elements when you encounter them, you seriously need to sit down and examine why that is." now we've gone from an all or nothing mentality to a nuanced one.

quick aside, i have seen autistic people say racist things or not understand why something was racist out of a place of pure ignorance, but i haven't personally met any who have used being autistic as an excuse to act racist. most i've ever seen is them using it as an explanation for why they didn't initially understand, alongside a promise to do better. i'm sure the people who use it as an excuse do exist, but i haven't personally known any.

[scripttorture]

Sorry if something similar has been asked before, I'm writing a story where my main character spends a long period of time in (near) complete social isolation. He's locked in one room with a mechanical bird he made that can physically but not verbally respond to him, but no other contact with anyone else. Food and water isnt an issue. Time works a lot differently in that room, but what sort of mental and physical affects could you expect to see in the equivalent of about 10-15 weeks?

same anon w the bird and isolation: If it would change any answer, this character is roughly his early 30s, the room is the weaponry forge where he works and he's spent around 10 years in it. He started locking the door to keep distractions out but essentially the world ended and he was barricaded in from the outside. isolation anon again pt3, I now realise this doesn't sound like an ask abt the effects of torture, my character does believe he was barricaded in on purpose and then forgotten about, as it has been done to him a few times before (for like a few hours), and while afterwards he knows it wasn't torture, during and for a long time after he believes it was absolutely intentional

-

For the record I do take questions like this, which don’t meet the strict legal definition of torture. You’re talking about something that’s commonly used as a torture technique and asking about the effects (and whether the accidental nature makes a difference to those effects). I can help with that.

 In this particular case I don’t think the fact this is an accident will make much difference. Outlook and intent can make a big difference, informed consent also makes a big difference, but in this case you’re talking about deprivation of something humans need.

 I’ve read interviews where people have had a positive take on losing a limb, going blind and a whole host of other really painful things. But in every case these things were done with informed consent and they didn’t involve deprivation of something we need to survive.

 What I’m driving at here is that humans are social animals, a lack of social contact is profoundly bad for us. In the same way that lack of food, water or oxygen is bad for us. And anything that relies on deprivation of a physical need has knock on physical and psychological effects whether we have a positive take on it or not.

 Basically you’re writing solitary confinement and the good news is that there is a lot of free to access research on that and a wealth of survivor accounts online.

 My masterpost is over here. You might also want to take a look at Shalev’s Sourcebook on Solitary Confinement which I link to as one of my sources. It’s free, online, very detailed and contains a lot of short interviews with survivors.

 The time frame you’ve picked is a pretty good one. It would cause lasting mental health problems but (without prior mental health problems) it would be survivable for most people. You’ve also mitigated most of the factors we know make solitary worse, though not knowing when he’ll be able to come out would have a negative effect.

 Some of the physical symptoms listed in the masterpost, such as eye problems, might be down to bad cell conditions. Most of the data set we have for isolation and solitary confinement comes from prisoners held in cells that we know are too small for comfort and may be sub-standard in a lot of other ways.

 The solitary data set is large enough for a meaningful examination of which symptoms are more common. The trouble is that the papers available don’t really agree. Different types of analysis seem to yield very different results.

 Broadly speaking depression and anxiety tend to come at the top of the list. Hallucinations and psychosis tend to be less common, but they become more likely the longer someone is in solitary confinement and some estimates put hallucinations as high as 30%.

 Not everyone will develop every possible symptom (though keep in mind that a sense of helplessness, anxiety/depression and mood swings are experienced by the majority), so there is some scope to choose what you want your character to experience.

 I think the best way to approach the problem is as a writer: which of the possible symptoms fit best with the character and the story you want to tell?

 I’ve got an example of how to think that through in an ask here. It’s focused on torture generally rather then solitary confinement specifically and there are differences in the possible symptoms.

 I’ve only written solitary confinement once, though I am planning to use it again in other stories. The character I was writing had prior mental health problems and the story was from his perspective. I focused on the worsening of those symptoms because that was something the character was extremely aware of.

 He also experienced memory problems, lethargy, insomnia, hallucinations (partly plot and partly because I’d established he had a prior history of them), self harm and feelings of helplessness. Some of those things, like the memory problems, he was unaware of until other people pointed it out later.

 I choose a lot of those symptoms because I was trying to create an unsettling, dream-like feeling in the narrative. I wanted the lines between reality and hallucinations to blur.

 I’ve also written a character who was socially isolated. She was camping in the woods with some (but probably not enough) human contact. She didn’t have prior mental health problems and wasn’t isolated for as long as the character in solitary. She was also younger.

 The symptoms I picked for her were mood swings, irrational impulses, depression and feelings of helplessness. Again these fed into the overall plot, some of which could only go forward if she made spur of the moment decisions without entirely thinking things through.

 Look up Shalev’s sourcebook and read the survivor accounts. I think they’ll give you a good idea of the sorts of things people experience in solitary.

 After that approach the list of symptoms as a writer: think about which symptoms can feed in to what you’ve planned for the story, tone of the narrative or the character. Symptoms aren’t a block on the story. They’re another element we can use to add to it.

 I hope that helps. :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

[smallcrystals]

If Flash and Timber was an element of Harmony, what would they be?

I WAS WONDERING WHEN SOMEONE WOULD ASK ME ABT THIS

i'm actually not sure if you mean which of the CANON elements of harmony they'd be or if i were to make up elements that fit the idea of friendship so i did both!! this post is very long i apologise

FLASH SENTRY

okay so way WAY back in 2016 there was this old official eqg website i used to check all the time just in case there was an update (mainly abt flash) and the one thing i noticed was that his "element" (like the mane 7 & the elements of harmony) was chivalry.

the section isn't on there anymore now that i've checked the current version of the website (damn it's been HOW long)

and honestly, at first glance it makes sense. he's a royal guard in equestria so like. yeah. but if you actually search up the meaning of chivalry, you'd get smth like this

and to be honest, this is probably one of flash's most admirable traits. from the way he's been portrayed in the show, this literally fits him.

of course. not everyone is perfect and personally i don't think he can be like that all the time! the trait i'm specifically talking abt is the enemy one. everything else is literally him through and through. i don't doubt he's been raised really well.

i can elaborate on the enemy one if you want !!! i was gonna start talking abt that but it got rlly long so lmk!!

but yeah, that's the element that's technically canon! but in friendship, i guess it's a little hard to see exactly how it could work?? maybe it's like seeing the good in everyone, probably.

because in THAT sense, you can say that seeing the good in everyone TOO MUCH is actually an issue. just like how too much kindness means becoming a dormat, being too honest is being blunt, too much generosity is too giving, too much laughter is unnecessary, being too loyal could turn into being blindly loyal, too much empathy can lead to being overwhelmed, and we all know what too much magic can cause.

in the sense of the 6 (technically 7) elements, flash would either be loyalty or kindness imo. they both fit closest to chivalry and fit him as a character!!

TIMBER SPRUCE

okay so this lil baby was a hard one. but i remember when i was younger and just starting to like him more, i had his element as trust. i also had him as patience for a bit but in the sense of the elements of harmony, trust fits better. lemme explain

so, i think one thing about timber we can get is that he was pretty much a sheltered kid. so he didn't really have to deal with a lot of mistrust from other kids at school bc he never went to public school (ofc some stuff might've happened at least a few times but not as much as it would happen at an actual school, right?)

timber's personality is pretty upbeat, goofy, cheeky, a little full of himself. and in a way, it may come off as exaggerated. but he does this to make sure the people around him can feel comfortable and not intimidated by him. it's easy to be unintentionally intimidating and i feel like timber knows that, so he tries his best not to be.

i think his personality really helps in cases of anxiety, especially as someone who is around campers who may experience anxiety. there is a little comic i remember of Bevin Brand drawing of timbertwi when twilight had a speech and she was on the edge of anxiety, and honestly it's so so cute.

timber is a kind of person who wants you to know that you can trust him. he won't force you if you don't want to but he will do whatever he can to make you as comfy as possible. this is shown in LoE too when sci twi was obviously dealing with something and timber didn't push her into telling him, he just tried his best to distract her

a key thing is that trust is earned! it's not automatically given. but i think for timber, he brings that aura of trust that makes you feel safe that you aren't going to regret trusting him, you know?

trusting too much is naive. in some way, especially with timber being sheltered like i said, i highly doubt timber doesn't have any sense of naivety in him. so i think if he were to earn this element, he'd have to realise his naive tendencies and try to make a change in other people's lives where it's not naive trust someone. does that make sense 😭

so yeah!! and based on the actual elements of harmony, he's either laughter or honesty!

—

damn okay so i uh hoped that answered your question!! there are some inconsistencies but i wrote this at frickin 12am cut me some slack 😭 i fucking rambled a shit lot but i hope it was enjoyable :D