#even though it isn't explicitly stated its kinda obvious

[marunalu]

Isn't all of the rabid BKDK shippers similar to that one pairing in Bleach where the loud shippers want one pairing and the Editors suggest that the Bleach's author should do it, but he explicitly stated that he wanted this pairing instead because its his story? At best, the official canon ship for Izuku would be Izuchaco or implied of it or no ships at all.

At least Hori agrees with us that the BKDK relationship is abusive and that the two would be treating each other as acquaintances who just happen to grow up together. And the thing is for that BKDK contest, he acknowledges the skills of the artists but the relationship is not romantic at all. So it's really just people being extremely obsessed with the idea that any and all relationships should be romantic instead of platonic. I wonder if he was expecting a badass action scenes between the two working together instead of causal romantic times?

Do you happen to have a citation for the contest so that we can point towards the fact that BKDK is just for fun, not canon?

I remember I saw horis reply somewhere on twitter between 2 or 3 years ago. But I dont have twitter, well X know, anymore. Honestly, I dont quite remember if it was a bkdk fanart contest or just an exhibition. And I think it was only japanese artists. But basically, while he praised all the fanarts and the talents of the artists, he made clear that the way bakugous and izukus relationship is portaied as in these fanworks is not what their relationship is really or ever was like. There were tons of romantic bkdk and fanart of them as children playing happily with each other. He basically confirmed as unbiased as possible that this kind of interpretation of their relationship is completly fanon. Maybe someone who reads this can give us a link though, I tried to find it with google, but google only showed me reddit and quora posts about "why bkdk is canon" and such stupid stuff. 🙄

And yes you are right, the bkdk shippers are VERY similar to the rapid ichiruki shippers back then. Mind you I WAS THERE when the shipping war between ichirukis and ichihimes was at its highest and believe me it was UGLY and for me who never shipped ichigo with either rukia or orihime it kinda destroyed the manga/anime for me back then and its one of the main reasons why I dont like shipping in generell anymore. But despite never shipping it myself I KNEW ichigo would end up with orihime, because kubo made it obvious. The anime cut a lot of canon ichihime moments and included tons of filler ichiruki moments, so its no wonder why so many people believed at first ichiruki was a thing. And to be fair to kubo, he made clear statements back then about ichigos and rukias relationship being pure platonic YEARS BEFORE the manga ended, but the shippers ignored that and played victim afterwards. Hori on the other hand would never make this kind of bold statement, because he is aware of the backlash that would happen. I like hori and I can understand why he wouldnt want to upset people because he was attacked and got death threads in the past already from stupid shippers, but I have to say tite kubo is clearly the braver one of these two. He simply gives a fuck what people think and just does his thing no matter if people like it or not.

The best part was how not that long ago he completly destroyed an hardcore ichiruki shipper on social media who attacked him and insultet ichihime and kubo was just like: "you know what? FUCK YOU! From now on I will make even more ichihime content just to piss you off even more asshole!" Kubo is amazing and a legend!

[doctortonytchopper]

Is there any strong reason why cavendish/hakuba is definitely not a hint at why blackbeard is the way he is? Like cavendish/hakuba share two commonly talked about blackbeard traits like 1. having sudden extreme personality changes, one kinda silly and selfish and arrogant, and one extremely relentlessly destructive and evil and 2. technically don't sleep. Because when cavendish sleeps, hakuba inhabits the body, and vice versa.

Also?? Cavendish was able to reason with hakuba when he decided to think about what hakuba might want, and find a common goal, which allowed them both to be awake simultaneously. Which like, might be wayyy more subtle of a change if the personalities were less opposed to each other.

Like if, say, blackbeard had an alter ego like hakuba, but one who already had goals that aligned with his own, maybe he could, I dont know. Split his body while awake, like cavendish and hakuba did in dressrosa, but without making a huge obvious deal about it? And use one arm for one ability, and the other for the other? Like one arm being his own and using a darkness fruit, while the other is his alter ego's which is using whitebeard's fruit?

Cause like if hakuba is enough of an entire person, there's technically no proof that if Cavendish had a devil fruit power, then hakuba COULDNT or doesn't have an entirely separate devil fruit of his own. I feel like Oda has never explicitly stated whether DFs are limited to one per soul, or if they're one per body.

Brook's soul definitely has the powers of his devil fruit, which I would argue is simply acting on his body, holding it together and letting it move around, instead of his body being affected in its own right by that devil fruit. Like if the devil fruit acted on both his body and soul, and it would still act on his body when his soul was absent, Brook's body probs wouldn't have decayed while his soul was lost and wandering after his first death. Also stuff like - if DFs worked on the body and not the soul exclusively, Ace would still have been made of fire after he died. Also DFs wouldn't respawn cause they'd stay with the body when someone died. Is my theory.

And if it's one DF per soul, then if hakuba has a soul that's entirely distinct from cavendish, he could in theory hold a devil fruit power exclusively of his own despite inhabiting the same body as cavendish, even if cavendish did have one too.

Then again, that made me wonder if it's possible Brook could inhabit someone else's body, either a living person or a corpse. And also I have always wondered if anyone else has ever had that devil fruit since the only way for it to respawn would be for the original user to die, which I think Brook has proven isn't really possible even when falling into the ocean? I think he was just like "oh yeah I don't have to breathe. Huh. Guess I'm stuck here til someone finds me!" But I don't remember when that was so I'd have to look it up. Maybe the previous darkness fruit user could have killed the previous revive fruit user. Idk Brook's whole origin is a hugely compelling mystery to me.

Anyways I think hakuba's existence in the narrative is like extremely strange to disregard when theorizing about Blackbeard (I have seen quite literally zero theories relating these characters even though I've been searching) when a hugely common theory is that blackbeard doesn't seem to sleep because another personality takes over his body when he does sleep.

Which is literally the stated nature of cavendish and hakuba's existence.

???

Edit: just learned that oda planned cavendish from the beginning??? Literally planned his character being important from the beginning of the whole series??? And he was originally going to be Ace's main rival???? Which ended up being blackbeard ????? Hello???????????

[arininwonderland]

Have I mixed too many aus? probably. However, may I present Language Barrier!Disney Songs!Yuu

So for background and plot context - English is Old Trade (i got that from an ao3 fic that i don't remember but it was so good istg) and the only person at NRC who speaks it is Lilia because old person. Also I'm not that mean, to leave Yuu without communication.

So the Disney Songs aren't impossible to sing, but they're in a forgotten language that even royals barely know (except for Maleficent because she was there) and the tunes are still highly guarded. Now enter a magicless first year, who speaks only Old Trade and can sing the Lost Lyrics. Naturally, people flip the fuck out, and here Yuu is just vibing and having no idea what's going on unless they talk to Lilia.

They also have an iron stomach, as proven when they ate Lilia's food to assert dominance.

[flufffysocks]

let's talk about andi mack's worldbuilding

sorry this took forever to make! i've been pretty busy with school stuff and i kind of lost my inspiration for a bit, but i ultimately really enjoyed writing it! i wish i could've included more pics (tumblr has a max of 10 per post), and it kinda turned from less of a mini analysis to more of an extremely long rant... but i hope it's still a fun read!

i've been rewatching the show over the past few weeks (thanks again to @disneymack for the link!), and i’ve been noticing a lot that i never did the first time around. this is really the first time i’ve watched the show from start to finish since it aired, and it honestly feels so different this time - probably a combination of the fact that i’m not as focused on plot and can appreciate the show as a whole, and also that the fandom is much, much smaller now, so there’s a lot less noise. so the way i’m consuming this show feels super different than it did the first time, but the show itself doesn’t - it’s just as warm and comforting to me as it was the first time around, if not more so.

i think a lot of that can be attributed to andi mack’s “worldbuilding”. i’m not quite sure that this is the right word in this context, to be honest, because i mostly see it used in reference to fantasy and sci-fi universes, but it just sort of feels right to me for andi mack, because you can really tell how much love and care went into constructing this universe. for clarity, worldbuilding is “the process of creating an imaginary world” in its simplest sense. there’s two main types: hard worldbuilding, which involves inventing entire universes, languages, people, cultures, places, foods, etc. from scratch (think “lord of the rings” or “dune”), and soft worldbuilding, in which the creators don’t explicitly state or explain much about the fictional universe, but rather let it’s nature reveal itself as the story progresses (think studio ghibli films). andi mack to me falls in the soft worldbuilding category. even though it takes place in a realistic fiction universe, there’s a lot of aspects to it that are inexplicably novel in really subtle ways.

so watching the show now, i’ve noticed that the worldbuilding comes primarily from two things - setting and props, and oftentimes the both of them in tandem (because a big part of setting in filmmaking does depend on the props placed in it!).

one of the most obvious examples is the spoon. it really is a sort of quintessential, tropic setting in that it's the main gang's "spot", which automatically gives it a warm and homey feel to it. and its set design only amplifies this:

the choice to make it a very traditional 50s-style diner creates a very nostalgic, retro feel to it, which is something that's really consistent throughout the show, as you'll see. from the round stools at the bar, to the booths, to the staff uniforms, this is very obvious. the thing that i found especially interesting about it though is the choice of color. the typical 50s diner is outfitted with metallic surfaces and red accented furnishings, but the spoon is very distinctly not this.

instead, it's dressed in vibrant teal and orange, giving it a very fresh and modern take on a classic look. so it still maintains that feeling of being funky and retro, but that doesn't retract from the fact that the show is set distinctly in modern times.

of course, this could just be a one-off quirky set piece, but this idea of modernizing and novelizing "retro" things is a really common motif throughout the show. take red rooster records. i mean, it's a record shop - need i say more? it's obviously a very prominent store in shadyside, at least for the main characters, but there's no apparent reason why it is (until season 2 when bowie starts working there, and jonah starts performing there). a lot of the time, though, it functions solely as a record shop. vinyl obviously isn't the most practical or convenient way of listening to music, but it's had its resurgence in pop culture even in the real world, mostly due to its aesthetic value, so it's safe to say that it serves the same purpose in the andi mack universe.

the fringe seems to be nostalgic of a different era, specifically the Y2K/early 2000s period (because it's meant to be bex's territory and symbolic of who she used to be, and its later transformation into cloud 10 is representative of her character arc, but that's beside the point). to be honest, exactly what this store was supposed to be always confused me. it was kind of a combination party store/clothing store/makeup store/beauty parlor? i think that's sort of the point of it though, it's supposed to feel very grunge-y and chaotic (within the confines of a relatively mellow-toned show, of course), and it's supposed to act as a sort of treasure chest of little curios that both make the place interesting and allow the characters to interact with it.

and, of course, there's andi shack. this is really the cherry on top of all of andi mack's sets, just because it's so distinctly andi. it serves such amazing narrative purpose for her (ex. the storyline where cece and ham were going to move - i really loved this because it highlights its place in the andi mack universe so well, and i'm a sucker for the paper cranes shot + i'm still salty that sadie's cranes didn't make it into the finale) and it's the perfect reflection of andi's character development because of how dynamic it is (the crafts and art supplies can get moved around or switched out, and there's always new creations visible).

going back to the nostalgia motif though, the "shack" aspect of it always struck me as very treehouse-like. personally, whenever i think of treehouses, there's this very golden sheen of childhood about it, if that makes sense. i've always seen treehouses in media as a sort of shelter for characters' youthful innocence and idealistic memories. for example, the episode "up a tree" from good luck charlie, the episode "treehouse" from modern family, and "to all the boys 2" all use a treehouse setting as a device to explore the character's desire to hold onto their perfect image of their childhood (side note: this exact theme is actually explored in andi mack in the episode "perfect day 2.0"!). andi shack is no exception to this, but it harnesses this childhood idealism in the same way that it captures the nostalgia of the 50s in the spoon, or the early 2000s in the fringe. it's not some image of a distant past being reflected through that setting; it's very present, and very alive, because it reflects andi as she is in the given moment.

some honorable mentions of more one-off settings include the ferris wheel (from "the snorpion"), the alley art gallery (from "a walker to remember"), SAVA, the color factory (from "it's a dilemna"), and my personal favorite, the cake shop (from "that syncing feeling").

[every time i watch this episode i want to eat those cakes so bad]

these settings have less of a distinctly nostalgic feel (especially the color factory, which is a very late 2010s, instagram era setting), but they all definitely have an aura of perfection about them. andi mack is all about bright, colorful visuals, and these settings really play to that, making the andi mack universe seem really fun and inviting, and frankly very instagrammable (literally so, when it comes to the color factory!).

props, on the other hand, are probably a much less obvious tool of worldbuilding. they definitely take up less space in the frame and are generally not as noticeable (i'm sure i'll have missed a bunch that will be great examples, but i'm kind of coming up with all of this off the top of my head), but they really tie everything together.

for example, bex's box, bex's polaroid, and the old tv at the mack apartment (the tv is usually only visible in the periphery of some shots, so you might not catch it at first glance) all complement that very retro aesthetic established through the settings (especially the polaroid and the tv, because there's really no good reason that the characters would otherwise be using these).

besides this, andi's artistic nature provides the perfect excuse for plenty of colorful, crafty props to amplify the visuals and the tone. obviously, as i discussed before, andi shack is the best example of this because it's filled with interesting props. but you also see bits of andi's (and other people's) crafts popping up throughout the show (ex. the tape on the fridge in the mack apartment, andi's and libby's headbands in "the new girls", walker's shoes, andi's phone case, and of course, the bracelet). not only does doing this really solidify this talent as an essential tenet of andi's character, but it also just makes the entirety of shadyside feel like an extension of andi shack. the whole town is a canvas for her crafts (or art, depending on how you want to look at it. i say it's both), and it immensely adds to shadyside's idealism. because who wouldn't want to live in a world made of andi mack's creations?

and, while it's not exactly a prop, the characters' wardrobe is undoubtedly a major influence on the show's worldbuilding. true to it's nature as a disney channel show, all of the characters are always dressed in exceptionally curated outfits of whatever the current trends are, making the show that much more visually appealing. i won't elaborate too much on this, because i could honestly write a whole other analysis on andi mack's fashion (my favorites are andi's and bex's outfits! and kudos to the costume designer(s) for creating such wonderful and in-character wardrobes!). but, i think it's a really really important aspect of how the show's universe is perceived, so it had to be touched upon.

[^ some of my favorite outfits from the show! i am so obsessed with andi's jacket in the finale, and i aspire to be at bex's level of being a leather jacket bisexual]

and lastly, phones. this is a bit of an interesting case (pun intended), because the way they're used fluctuates a bit throughout the show, but i definitely noticed that at least in the first season terri minsky tried to avoid using them altogether. these efforts at distancing from modern tech really grounds the show in it's idealist, nostalgia-heavy roots, so even when the characters start using their phones more later in the show, they don't alter the viewer's impression of the andi mack universe very much.

so, what does all of this have to do with worldbuilding? in andi mack's case, because it's set in a realistic universe and not a fantasy one, a lot of what sets it apart from the real world comes down to tone. because, as much as this world is based on our own, it really does feel separate from it, like an alternate reality that's just slightly more perfect than ours, which makes all the difference. it's the idealism in color and composition in andi mack's settings that makes it so unmistakably andi mack. even the weather is always sunny and perfect (which is incredibly ironic because the town is called shadyside - yes, i am very proud of that observation).

the andi mack universe resides somewhere in this perfect medium that makes it feel like a small town in the middle of nowhere (almost like hill valley in 1955 from "back to the future"), but at the same time like an enclave within a big city (because of its proximity to so many modern, unique, and honestly very classy looking establishments). it is, essentially, an unattainable dream land that tricks you into believing it is attainable because it's just real enough.

all this to say, andi mack does an amazing job of creating of polished, perfect world for its characters. this is pretty common among disney channel and nickelodeon shows, but because most other shows tend to be filmed in a studio with three-wall sets, andi mack is really set apart from them in that it automatically feels more real and tangible. it has its quintessential recurring locations, but it has far more of them (most disney/nick shows usually only have 3-4 recurring settings), and it has a lot more one-off locations. it's also a lot more considerate when it comes to its props, so rather than the show just looking garish and aggressively trendy, it has a distinctive style that's actually appropriate to the characters and the story. overall this creates the effect of expanding the universe, making shadyside feel like it really is a part of a wider world, rather than an artificial bubble. it's idealism is, first and foremost, grounded in reality, and that provides a basis for its brilliant, creative, and relatable storytelling.

tl;dr: andi mack's sets and props give it a very retro and nostalgic tone which makes its whole universe seem super perfect and i want to live there so bad!!