#geez he was underused

[sgtsteele]

Season 11 Minor Appearances

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part One (Chapters 1-4)

So, at the request of @lacunammmm, I'm going to be... well, rereading MHA. All of it, god help me. Because the chapter division is stupid and based off giving weekly (and often cheap) cliffhangers rather than smooth storytelling, I'm just going to reread arcs instead of individual chapters (the arcs I'm going to be using are the ones off the wiki, for the record), kinda summarize it, and write out my opinions as they happen in a stream of conscious kind of way.... which is going to be a mess, fair warning. If you've read my take on the War Arc as a whole, that is the vibe I'm going to be going for. Thankfully, the first couple of arcs are only a couple of chapters long, so I get to get some easy stuff as a warm up before it gets longer and more complicated. Anyways, I'll be doing this on and off, and if this gets any attention I'll probably move it up my priority list a bit.

Anyways, first impressions as I read: where the hell was this guy with dragon fire head the entire time? Right at the start of chapter one it has examples of Quirks and there's this guy freaking out, and it's like a fire version of all those dragon covenants from Darks Souls, which is fucking awesome. Seriously, talk about an underused idea.

*clears throat*

But. Anyways. There's some crazy nostalgia seeing normal kid!Izuku; I know he's technically the same character, but he's changed so much from then to now, it's almost like he's literally a different person. It's not just that he's more confident and stuff*, like, all his mannerisms are gone, too. I mean, hell, the only thing that really connects Izuku from then to the current version is him going Kaachan, of all things. There's this kind of disconnect because I can't think of Post War Izuku, or even to some extent before that, really acting like Izuku.

More than that, though, he feels... fleshed out, in the way later Izuku doesn't; this Izuku, for all his flaws, and often (but not just) because of them, feels a lot more like a person that late game SUPER-DEKU Izuku does. Man, I miss this version.

*Actually, now that I think about it, he doesn't actually seem to have grown in confidence, after a certain point. Maybe by BvI2, his confidence, as a person, seemed to have stalled a lot. He's more confident later on, true, but that's more in a, 'I have assessed I can take you' kind of way to various villains, where before he was more nervous and determined; he's more confident in his power, sure, and his power level means he can apply that confidence almost all the time, but beyond that? The Dark Deku bit is something I could see this Izuku doing, if with less confidence, and for him to go on for so long without really getting to value himself at all speaks of some serious lacking growth.

Ah, beginning Bakugou. I did not miss you. And geeze, Bakugou cares way too much about Izuku; that ego is as big as a blimp and as fragile as spun glass. God, I forgot how damn sinister he was early on; that smile while he's burning Izuku (which I note doesn't even to have marred his uniform) gives me 'child pulling fly wings' energy. I really could see early Bakugou going way too far on Izuku and seriously hurting him in that, 'I didn't mean to' kind of a way, only maybe regretting it afterwards, and that is a bad vibe to have. In a less serious note, how does the teacher teach anything with him in class? From the way his friends talked afterwords, the lack of reaction the teacher had to his fits, everything he did except the suicide baiting was standard. Yelling, standing on the desk, exploding shit? None of that registered.

I know he's supposed to get away with everything because the staff likes his potential, but how much of the class does the teacher have to yell over him and his explosions? Or does he patiently wait for him to shut up before the lesson can continue, because clearly Bakugou's not getting punished for any of that.

...Sweet flying fuck, it has just got to hit me how much that must have hurt, the slime villain thing. Drowning is supposed to be a horrible way to die, and I doubt drowning in slime is any better, and to add insult to injury? He calls Izuku 'his hero', fuck. All things considered, that's probably the first time Izuku's been told that since his mom played games with him a a kid, since I doubt it's as common a phrase in MHA as it is now...

...

Now that I think about it, I refuse to believe that some sort of All Might related slang doesn't exist in MHA somewhere, and is this super common thing that people say all the time. It makes too much sense to me, considering the semi-literal worship the man has, and makes me want to laugh too much for it not to be real.

Speaking of All Might, popping out of the sewer, while carrying his groceries, as you do: in retrospect, that's like Superman crossed with your favorite idol popping out of the sewer, dressed in a normal outfit, holding groceries. It is both hilarious and without the reader's context brings up so many questions.

God, I miss this All Might. He's posing as he jump/flies away, long past the time Izuku should be able to see him, delightfully extra about it, and he's just so casual about this interaction, as he checks on Izuku, secures the villain, and even gives him an autograph on sheer autopilot.

I... I think this might be peak!All Might? Like, I know we get more of his story later on (but not by much, and generally just to introduce another character), but as a character I feel like his entire personality just started to flatten out after this initial arc, and by the time the next arc hits he's already getting flanderized into the useless character we end up with. Give it a second, let's get to a bit later in the story and I'll expand on that.

That said, the fact Izuku managed to stay on his leg and not get flattened by the jump or something is amazing.

Ah, instant karma on Bakugou. But, as has been noted, not punishment; he's not being punished for being an asshole, something bad just randomly happened to him, in a way that makes readers subconsciously want to think he's been punished for being an asshole, without having to make up for it in anyways, in a kind of half assed version of the dying for redemption trope.

Alright, real talk time: All Might and turning down Izuku. A lot of people hate on All Might for this, and I mean, a lot. They call him hypocritical and cruel, and like, did you pay attention? The man is being consistent; he didn't become a hero (student) until he got a Quirk. More than that, he tried to let him off gently, told him about how else he could help, and he really was just being honest. He may have been wrong, but he was honestly wrong. The fact Izuku took it so bad was because All Might was his last hope, but you can't blame All Might for Izuku's entire life when this is literally the first time they met.

*side eyes Bakugou*

Anyways, and now we come to it: the big moment. Well, a big moment, anyways; a lot of big moments in these chapters.... but yeah, Izuku saving Bakugou. It's... I feel like hindsight is tainting me here, in all honesty. Because that face Bakugou makes, as all those heroes stand around*, it does get you in the gut, it really does, especially when it drives cowardly Izuku to charge forward to save him. Asshole or not, he is just a kid, and he doesn't deserve that...

But. I can't help but look at that and think, 'This is Hori skipping on characterization'. That is, rather than making him better (though, to be fair, these early parts are the part of his biggest growth), or kinder to fix his character, Hori is hitting us with a poor Bakugou moment to smash some sympathy into us to try and undo all the shit that made us hate him not five seconds ago, while still leaving him as is. I don't know, maybe I'm too cynical, but I can't shake the thought.

But yeah, this is like, the defining moment for who Izuku is as a person, and it still is great at making him feel heroic in this really realistic, yet still impressive and admirable way. I really do love these early chapters. As much as I hate to say it, though, if All Might wasn't there all that would have happened was he would have gotten killed, like, two seconds after that so the heroes kinda had a point yelling at him.

Trying to recruit the recently traumatized victim, though? That is pure shit. Less, 'do you want to work for me', and more, 'Do you have lung damage', please; you're apparently professionals so I'd love it if you acted like it.

*Yeah, I feel like Aizawa would have expected all his students to try and rescue someone trapped by the slime guy, Quirk match up or not; there's certainly enough bad match ups they have in literally every school sponsored fight we've seen that it feels off that someone just said, 'I have a disadvantage' and gave up. I can't tell if this is an excellent demonstration of how half assed the heroes are getting, that UA is just better, or all heroes got flanderized as the series progressed into just charging in all the time anyways and this kind of characterization got forgotten. Some of everything, maybe.

Also. You, Fire Hose Man. Backdraft. Look, you stupid fucker, I get you're putting fires out (the second Bakugou is not responsible is the second his Quirk starts being treated seriously, interestingly; can't light a shirt on fire but once the slime gets to him the city starts burning? After this I don't think he'll ever start a fire again, no matter how hard he's going on someone or how flammable various things are) but you know what might be more helpful? Stopping more fires from happening, and saving a literal child! Two-for-one!

The villain is made of slime. You have access to high pressure water.

Do I need to draw you a map?!

*sigh*

...Sweet fuck in any other context than him being hammier than ham, All Might would be terrifying. How much of that persona is All Might going, 'Don't be afraid, I'm here to rescue you', and how much is, 'Don't be afraid of me, I'm so extra! Clearly I can't single handedly cause natural disasters when I'm not carefully monitoring my strength; there's no way you're going to explode if I touch you!'

God Bakugou, your ego, dial it back. Izuku, why are you complimenting how he refuses to get over himself?

Actually, right before All Might shows up, Izuku basiclly moves on from what... All Might said, which is interesting. He clearly still wants to be a hero, but that moment in itself just seemed really grown up to me. I respect that.

And... ah. I think this is my favorite moment.

'You can be a hero'.

God that's so damn powerful, the way you can see Izuku's composure fail, second by second. And... look at the way All Might is standing, look at how confident he is standing there, even when he's Skele-Might. This is the All Might I like, this is the man who helped get me into this story in the first place; even at his weakest, even after burning past his limit, he's still got the aura of a top hero to him, before promptly being shown as a Real Human, and it's so different from how cringing he seems to get later on, and so different from all these other mentors and heroes. All Might is both larger than life and starkly human in these chapters and that contrast is glorious.

And then the training, and I just hate we can't get this for rest of the series; All Might has that retired coach kind of a feel to him, of a guy who has done everything and knows how it works, and is just surprised and delighted by how Izuku is not only keeping up with, but surpassing his expectations.

The training we see is short, but when Izuku ends up screaming his victory, god it feels like he earned that win, and it's viscerally satisfying to see him improve like that.

'Now eat this', lol.

...What the fuck is UA's budget. They have a fucking town, like, an actual town, to train in. More than one? People could live there. And it's nice to see Iida be a character again, and the little arc he goes through here is interesting; he's well meaning, but abrasive, and in Izuku's mind almost bullying him, but you can still see how he means well; he maybe be a bit of a jerk at this moment, but he's not an asshole, which makes him (for what, one chapter?) a far more satisfying rival character than Bakugou ever was. If the story was spun different, you could really see a competing sort of rivalry between them forming where they both ultimately respect each other even as they try to one up each other, the thing everyone seems to think Izuku has with Bakugou for no real reason.

On another retrospective note, I have mixed feelings about how OFA is working here; when I first read this, I got into it, Izuku's struggles really brought me in. And then he kept struggling. And kept struggling. And the way All Might is suddenly unable to see this obvious problem coming, when he was so competent until Izuku got to UA, for literal months, leaves a bad taste. Looking back, it feels like Izuku is getting nerfed so he can suffer and panic all the time, and All Might is getting dumber so he can be a joke, and that.... ugh.

Uraraka coming in clutch on that rescue, though.

And Bakugou, yet again I'm harsher in hindsight, or maybe just less connected to Izuku's view on him, who would of course expect Bakugou to be the best, but the way it's focusing on his 'sheer battle instinct' and that he ends up in first place just feels like Hori hyping him up just because he can.

And to wrap it up... I'm assuming the 'Your Hero Academia' makes more sense in Japanese, because that phrase just feels...awkward, reading that in English. Was it different in the official stuff, or did it just stay as that weird almost title drop...? I can't quite sympathize as much with Izuku here, because of course he was going to get in, but it's nice seeing him win anyways.

In all honesty, this ended up meatier than I expected for just four chapters; in the future, if/when I keep this up, and the arcs get bigger, I might need to break it into multiple chunks to stop them from getting too big. Or, maybe this intro is meatier into such a short span because it's the intro. Guess we'll have to see.

[maxmcyfield]

Junior Roberts as Gazza “Geez” Cahyadi in Netflix’s Geez & Ann Trailer

[drgrlfriend]

For the writer asks:

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

And particularly in regards to Freedom's Reach as it relates to the whole alternate universe deal: 37. when creating characters, what comes first: appearance, backstory, motivation, personality, something else? I absolutely loved the way you translated their canon backstories and personalities into that setting - what came first/how did you get from Point A to Point B?

#2 is interesting especially when you specify Freedom's Reach, because that was probably one of my more planned-out stories, and the characters often *couldn't* do what they wanted because I was constrained by the structure I set up ahead of time (e.g. arranged marriage, 3-month deadline to marry or leave) to a large degree. That said, I do remember my original conceptualization of Bucky was more of an emotionally distant, Mr. Rochester type, and I think he comes across like that for the first few scenes, but to be honest little baby Circus!Clint / Gosh!Clint Barton was just so adorable and kind-hearted and sincere in that fic that you couldn't have Bucky continuing to be distant and kind of cold, it was like watching someone kicking a puppy. So I changed pretty notably to having Bucky at least acknowledge to himself what a mess he was inside and Clint maybe not picking up on all of it. I do think some of the "fights" between characters were spontaneous, though! And I think maybe they were supposed to fool around in that scene where they dance in the kitchen but it went entirely another way? It's all a blur, now! Oh, geez, now that I reread this maybe #2 was not specifically about Freedom's Reach, in which case I'll say that Light the Spark was supposed to have a long period of time in which the Winterhawk boys were enemies and yet they made friends in like five paragraphs, entirely against my will. #37 - So, Freedom's Reach started by me asking some Winterhawk fans on Discord what an underused trope they would like to see in more Winterhawk fic would be, and Arranged Marriage was suggested. I quickly fell in love with idea of the more Western AU / Mail Order Bride trope as the particular variety of arranged marriage; it just seemed like a fun romance novel time period that I hadn't written before. It also allowed me to incorporate some of Bucky's prisoner of war issues from canon into the historical AU without the superhero elements of the story. But, I have a very strong squick for uneven power dynamics in fics if they are not treated sensitively, and yet a very strong affinity for them when they are. So, I had to make sure the implicitly uneven power dynamic of the mail order bride trope was treated in a way I was comfortable with. Jeez, that's a long answer to say I'm not 100% sure how my fics start. At least a few have started with a trope -- for example "fake dating" for Light the Spark and "arranged marriage" for Freedom's Reach. Obviously the Reverse Bangs are inspired by art, and challenge or auction fics were in response to particular challenges (fix remixes or prompts, that kind of thing). The urge to fix-it and deliver the emotional sequelae and recovery from trauma that canon skips out on is probably one of my biggest motivators. I am also a contrary person so sometimes if I've seen one particular trope or reaction in a lot of fics I get stuck in my mind, "But what about if it happened the OTHER way." For example, Quriosity was sparked by reading a lot of fics where James Bond masterfully just grabbed and kissed Q and Q melted, and I was like, "I would smack that man! I want to read about THAT reaction!" and thus a giant fic was born.

[kydrakinetic]

Why hello there, it seems we are both feeling bitter about Voltron today/tonight/whenever. SO. If you were tasked to rewrite Voltron, what would you change?

I would like to preface this by saying that I spent way too much time and far too many words on this. You have been warned

1. The theming holy crud

The more I think about it, the more I realize just how big the difference is between what should be the emotional effects of the canon events and actual canon (this is more egregious imo with events not shown and only told, although I have a bit more stake in off-screen events, see #4). Beyond that, they strayed really far from the original themes of friendship and family. I would instead try to work the show around the idea of Becoming An Effective Team And Family Whilst Being Mostly Minors In A Hellish Space WarTM. Not only would that give enough room to make it still (debatably) family-friendly, it would also provide a good avenue through which to explore darker arcs and more emotional issues.

2. Discussion of trauma and PTSD

I fully agree with you with what you said Shiro's PTSD. First they forget about it, then they put him through more hell, then he gets shoved aside, geez louise give the man a break or therapy. Better yet, both. There's also everything the rest of the cast goes through which uhhh

3. The clone thing

I watched the show relatively late, so to speak, in the summer of 2020. I had heard through the grapevine that it wasn't good, but I also wanted to know why and no one could give me a straight answer so I watched it. Seeing as I hadn't gone farther than that, I had no idea that the Clone Shiro/Kuron theories existed so when it popped up I was crazy confused. Also I don't like it because it destabilizes the structural integrity of the show in the middle seasons and it seemed to be an easy way for the writers to absolve weak writing while incorporating a popular theory. If it was planned from the beginning, more power to them but I still don't like it sorry.

Instead, I would cut down the length it all and have Shiro simply go missing. Cue paladin mix-up. Eventually the Black Lion reveals to Keith that Shiro's consciousness is up there, but she doesn't know where his body is, sending the team on a search find his actual body/whatever body is out there. This is when they find the clone, quintessence bullshit happens, yadda yadda, Shiro is back in his body but not really by the end of s3 to help the paladins out and reclaim his place for the Big Epic Fight. He also keeps his original design because I said so

This also means that the team is fairly operational by the end of season 3, which means there's enough emotional room to get in a good bit of angst for...

4. Matt Holt

It's just like the classic (/j) saying goes; one does not simply watch voltron without gaining a blorbo. Matt Holt happens to be mine. Yes, it's just as terrible as you'd expect.

My qualm with the way he was written is that he's very underused considering he's the primary core of Pidge's character arc. Coincidentally, due to the nature of his experiences in space and Holt family's tendency to fake their deaths (whether accidental or intentional), you can also get a lot of angst mileage out of this guy.

He's in a weird position too in terms of timeline, because we know where he was at the start of the series obviously and in seasons 4, 5, and 8 (not counting 7 because he only had like 3 frames and a dust bunny), but we don't know how he got there or how he's changed. There's a few events scattered in there but other than that there's a collective, what? 5 years' worth of timeline that's fair game?

So I say up the intensity of space war hell in his timeline a little, or leave it be but follow through on the mental consequences of what happened to the Kerberos guys, and then deal with that. A good starting point would be through his connections to the paladins. Maybe throw in something about the way Pidge and Shiro (even Keith if you're feeling fancy) remember the pre-Kerberos days and the comparison to how he and by extension they have changed, which would be a nice tie-in to the theme as stated in point 1.

I've got more to say about this little guy but I'll cut it here for everyone's sanity. God this man gives me brainworms I hate it

5. Season 7

There are definitely better things to talk about than this one but this is my askbox and I make the rules.

See the I think trouble with season 7 is that there's too many characters. They're struggling to make everyone fit and yet contribute their piece to the story. First part of fixing this in a way I like is either A) cutting the MFE pilots and making Veronica the ultimate girlboss as is her right, thereby allowing her more time to develop and actually get fleshed out or B) giving more time to the Earth cast instead. Unpopular opinion maybe, but I like the MFE pilots so I'm going with that one.

I'll admit it's been a bit since I've actually watched the show so sorry if none of this makes sense but I would open s7 with the Earth cast upon Sam Holt's arrival. Instead of doing flashback episodes we start with a 4-6 episode mini-arc from MFE pilots' pov about their training and behind-the-scenes Garrison drama. This gives enough time to focus on the pilots' personalities and ability to work together as an effective team with a different structure and dynamic than the paladins, making them stand out more.

Maybe frame it like a conspiracy theory (because it is actually the aliens), with the pilots trying to figure out what's going on and why a dead guy is training them. Maybe get Adam in on it, because like you said, he lives, obviously. The Garrison's been shown to cover their asses no matter what, so it's not too much of a stretch to say that they would do it again and not tell anyone jack.

Once the mini-arc is complete (at the beginning of the invasion) we cut back to the paladins with their journey home and their side quests. Except now the suspense is up as you wait to find out what happened when the invasion started. They get home, both the audience and the paladins are shocked at what happened, Adam or a Holt gives the team a very fast version of the events of the invasion.

The rest of the season proceeds the same expect for Adam lives and the Atlas doesn't exist anymore. (As a mecha with Thic Thighs. I have no idea what I would do about s8 here because I've blocked it from my memory, but if she was needed, she would be like. A carrier ship with a nice particle barrier. Or she still wouldn't exist if the Castle was around. Dunno) Tbh, I forgot what happens in the rest of s7. Gonna put a nice large question mark there. But I really like the idea of Earth becoming an interplanetary embassy community of sorts. Culture shock could be an interesting subject to tackle, but it wouldn't be an out of place one here. It might be nice to have some time devoted to that and everyone's recovery. Give them a bit of fluff, as a treat.

6. The transformation cutscene

It's now skippable

[squashedbananatk]

Does that still work?

Peter tells Tony about fun times with his Uncle Ben but something slips out... Ticklish!peter

(Also sorry I cannot put on the read more thing... it won’t work.🥺)

SMACK!

THUMP!

POW!

CRACK!

THUD!

“Phew, Good job kid! You’re really getting there.” Tony complemented out of breath.

Peter giggled pulling off his mask.

“I’m getting too old for this...” Tony sighed laying down on the mat in the training room.

Peter chuckled sitting down next to his mentor with a cocky smile.

“Ay don’t let that get to your head kid, you’re a bit slow after the first hit, remember to get back into position.” Tony said pushing the kid’s shoulder a bit before sitting up passing him a water.

“Right... AH!” Peter suddenly yelped as Iron Man jumped and put him into a headlock

“M-Mr Stahark?!” Peter giggled in surprise he knew Tony was just messing around with him now.

“You gotta always be alert kid!” Tony jokingly scolded ruffling his hair.

“Hey!” Peter yelped before wriggling out of Tony’s grip and managing to pin him down. After a moment of silence Peter started laughing.

Oh, whats so funny kid?” Tony asked

“Nothing, you just remind me of Uncle Ben sometimes.” Peter said as he got off his mentor.

“Yeah? You guys used to wrestle?” Tony asked sitting up.

“Yeah he would just randomly grab me out of nowhere and we would start wrestling, May would always get mad at us for it though heh.” Peter smiled at the fond memory.

“Who won the most?” Tony asked.

“Well he would, but that’s mostly because he would pull one of his dirty tricks. Which mostly consisted of him tickling me to death heh, that jerk. Man... I miss those days sometimes..” Peter chuckled fiddling with his mask. Tony laughed.

“Does that still work on you?” Tony asked a glint of mischief in his eye.

“I- um I mean - I don’t- AH!” Peter yelled as Stark jumped on the teen once again. Peter put up a fight though. He wasn’t going down so easy. Eventually though Tony got him pinned. Tony then started to lightly poke at Peter’s sides. Peter bit his lip holding back the giggles that were quickly building up inside of him but a few giggles were slipping out.

“Ack! Mr Stahark!”

“I guess it does!” Tony laughed as he dug his fingers into Peter’s side.

“Nohoho! AHahahaha!” Peter laughed twisting and turning under his mentor’s torturous fingers.

“You made a huge mistake telling me this information kid!” Tony teased before digging his thumb into the teen’s lower ribs.

“ahahahaha! TONY nohohohoho! AHAHA!” Peter laughed turning on his side best he could.

“He he, geez kid, no wonder your Uncle used this on you! You turn into a pile of jelly the moment you’re touched!” Tony laughed out as Peter screeched as his fingers hit a particularly sensitive spot just below his ribs.

“N-No! That’s not- AH! ohohoho God! nohohoho!” Peter giggled and squeaked as Tony’s hands traveled down his sides.

“You said you missed this kid! Better think before you speak next time huh?” Tony teased drilling his thumbs into the teen’s ribs.

“Thahahahahats not whahat I meheheheant! Ahahahaha!”

“Come on kid, you’re not even gonna try to fight back?” Tony teased as he dug into the kid’s hips. Peter threw his head back mouth in a huge smile but nothing came out. He just shook his head eyes glued shut with a dark shade of pink on his cheeks. Peter began batting at Tony’s hands. Tony chuckled at that.

Tony then started skittering his fingers Peter’s tummy allowing the teen to actually laugh again.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHA! j-juhuhuhuhuhust! AHAHA! Nohoho! L-Lehehet meheAHAHAH! T-TOHOHONYHYHYHYHY!” Peter cackled kicking his legs under Tony with his hands latched onto his mentor’s shoulders.

Seeing Peter like this made Stark’s heart just melt, he could definitely understand why Ben did this with the kid.

“Alright alright, I’ll lay off...” Tony said raising his hands up. Peter laid there out of breath.

“Oho man... N-Never do that again!” Peter panted covering his pink face with his arm. Tony chuckled,

“You know this could become a problem for you underuse...” Tony thought aloud.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Peter asked look at Tony.

“What if a bad guy got ahold of this information... That wouldn’t end well would it.” Tony laughed poking Peter’s tummy.

“Noho mohore!” Peter laughed crawling away.

“Ok ok... But seriously Ben sure knew what he was doing” Tony said with a smile.

“Um, yeah I mean it worked so...” Peter said with a blush.

“Does work!” Tony teased poking the kid in the side causing him to jerk. Before he glared at Tony but the smile on his face gave away that he wasn’t actually mad.

“T-Thanks Mr Stark...” Peter mumbled quietly but loud enough for Tony to hear.

“Not a problem kiddo! Come on lets get cleaned up. We got another long day of “Training” tomorrow...” Tony said with a wink.

Fin~

[kkoraki]

@saltedpin​ asked for the ask meme:

ah yes the 6yrs long love of my life, let’s see how much has changed since 2014

Favorite character: Scar!!! this used to be a hard choice for me, in early days because of Riza and then after reading the manga because of Mei and Marcoh, but love can’t be kept out love can’t be denied etc. 

Least Favorite character: probably Sloth, he doesn’t engage me at all 

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): oh, the oldies and the goodies... Scar/Marcoh, Mei/Lan Fan, Winry/Paninya, Riza/women, I don’t know I don’t have a lot of strong fave ships or rather I have too many faves so it’s hard to distinguish, I’ve been SUPER into Olivier/Mrs. Bradley recently (for a certain definition of recent) so that I guess? or possibly Breda/Havoc... or That Other Ship We Don’t Talk About Here But I Did Make A Banging Playlist About Also They Kissed In Extracanonical Material So It’s Real

Character I find most attractive: oh god... like, vanilla “I’m gay” attractive, or “not in the sense that I want to bang them, BUT” attractive? because if it’s the former, probably Maria and Lan Fan based on appearance and Olivier based on Vibes ™, but if it’s the latter, no comment

Character I would marry: Maria Ross or aged-up Paninya; they’re cute, interesting, nice, and stable. oh and geez, maybe Mrs. Bradley, I guess 

Character I would be best friends with: thinking of how they’d be as young adults, Winry and Paninya and I would probably have a great time hanging out. thinking of myself in a few years, maybe Riza and Rebecca? technically Maria, Denny, and Sheska seem closest to me in age and I love them but I can’t imagine myself being super close friends with any of them... maybe Maria but she’s so much my type she would probably make me nervous. 

a random thought: the four military chimeras are sadly underappreciated and their potential for fic (gen or ship) is underused... they’re fascinating guys who are very fun to watch and you could theoretically explore so much with them. this observation is hypocritical in the extreme because I have never so much as mentioned them in any of my fics, nor one single fma piece that is currently in my drafts. and yet. 

An unpopular opinion: I would (or at least used to) describe myself as a Royai shipper but the only way I care to see it happen is that 4-panel fancomic where they are super old and announce to each other that they’re retired and touch each other’s hands and blush while Alex Armstrong goes uwu in the background. More generally I’m really not interested in stories about anyone who I ship in this fandom, het or not, canon or non-canon, getting married (...well... well... okay, possibly with one very embarrassing and ~problematic exception but let’s not go there). 

my canon OTP: Hohenheim/Homunculus jk probably a tie between Wrath/Mrs. Bradley and Sig/Izumi, they’re great 

Non-canon OTP: wow I have no idea you guys 🤔🤔🤔 this is a tough one 

most badass character: that is not an award that can be given to any one character in THIS series! but Lan Fan, Olivier Armstrong, and Maria Ross are all up there. and Mei Chang and Miles. and Wrath and Buccaneer. and shoutout to Falman here too, okay? 

pairing I am not a fan of: fanon!Royai probably takes the prize here specifically for a pairing I am not a fan of, though my full on NOTPs are any Kimblee ships involving women or Scar

character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I was going to say if we’re talking about the manga, nobody, but nothing is perfect so I gave it a little more thought, and look, I love the character and I love Arakawa, but... Garfiel. He is a character I adore but his characterization was weakened by the “gay joke” aspect and I would say that more than qualifies as a screwup. I fleshed him out in my own mind though and love him very much. We stan a GNC gay adult. 

favourite friendship: the Elric brothers and Winry, WHAT a classic

character I want to adopt or be adopted by: Would dearly love to adopt Den if she didn’t have such a nice family already. She seems like a very good girl. (As far as human characters go... it’s just a little too weird for me. All the kids are teens and most of the older adults have serious issues. I’ll pass on adopting or being adopted by any of them lol. Or, idk, I guess Pinako could adopt me. I’d be down. Okay, or Garfiel. I have options after all.)

[darkstarcore]

3, 5, 7, 8, 10, and 13 for the mario asks (i was gonna put 1 as well but i already know the answer to that)

But of course you know what my answer to 1 would be.3. I think I have to go with Dream Team/SSDX’s sprites (aren’t they the same? I know Paper Jam is different), though I hope the next Mario and Luigi game uses actual 3D models. Shiny Robo Bowser and Cackletta’s Soul (in SSDX) already show the potential for models especially the latter (she’s so expressive I love her).5. There’s lots of nice one-timers, but I’ve gotta hand it over to Cackletta. SSDX really made me appreciate her more (even though she doesn’t change at all), and she’s… like… Fawful’s adoptive mom and I’m obligated to love the good bat mom. At the same time though, as much as my headcanons and crap make it absolutely horrible, I kinda like the concept of the Dark Star and wish there was more to its origins besides “oh shit we found an evil star- wait nevermind it’s asleep again.”7. WHERE ARE MY FAWFUL PLUSHIES NINTENDO STEP ON IT8. Mmm I’m sorry everyone, I’m siding with Mario. Luigi is great, but for the supposedly underrated brother, he sure is overrated.10. I can’t answer this honestly because the only game in the series I’ve played is Super Paper Mario (haven’t even bothered finishing it geez). Color Splash has great writing though from what I’ve seen.13. I really like the Red Star from Super Mario Galaxy. I also like the Boo Mushroom. They’re both so underused, poor things.